OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

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Any person without a forest of his own who has a net device with
which to catch deer shall pay 200s. for each month of
possession. Anyone stalking a deer with beasts anywhere not in
his own forest shall forfeit 200s. Anyone taking any heron by
device other than a hawk or long bow shall forfeit 6s.8d. No one
shall take a young heron from its nest or pay 10s. for each such
heron. Two justices may decide such an issue, and one tenth of
the fine shall go to them.

No man shall shoot a cross-bow except in defense of his house,
other than a lord or one having 2,667s. of land because their
use had resulted in too many deer being killed. (The long-bow
was not forbidden.)

No beasts may be slaughtered or cut up by butchers within the
walls of a town, or pay 12d. for every ox and 8d. for every cow
or other beast, so that people will not be annoyed and
distempered by foul air, which may cause them sickness.

No tanner may be a currier [dressed, dyed, and finished tanned
leather] and no currier may be a tanner. No shoemaker
[cordwainer] may be a currier and no currier may be a shoemaker.
No currier shall curry hides which have not been tanned. No
tanner shall sell other than red leather. No tanner may sell a
hide before it is dried. No tanner may tan sheepskins.

No long bow shall be sold over the price of 3s.4d.

Good wood for making bows may be imported without paying customs.

No grained cloth of the finest making shall be sold for more than
16s., nor any other colored cloth for more than 11s. per yard,
or forfeit 40s. for every yard so sold. No hat shall be sold for
more than 20d. and no cap shall be sold for more than 2s.8d., or
forfeit 40s. for each so sold.

Silver may not be sold or used for any use but goldsmithery or
amending of plate to make it good as sterling, so that there
will be enough silver with which to make coinage.

Each feather bed, bolster, or pillow for sale shall be stuffed
with one type of stuffing, that is, dry pulled feathers or with
clean down alone, and with no sealed feathers nor marsh grass,
nor any other corrupt stuffings. Each quilt, mattress, or
cushion for sale shall be stuffed with one type of stuffing, that
is, clean wool, or clean flocks alone, and with no horsehair,
marsh grass, neatshair, deershair, or goatshair, which is
wrought in lime-fats and gives off an abominable and contagious
odor when heated by a man's body, on pain of forfeiture of such.

Salmon shall be sold by standard volume butts and barrels, or
forfeit 6s.8d. Large salmon shall be sold without any small fish
or broken-bellied salmon and the small fish shall be packed by
themselves only, or forfeit 6s.8d. Herring shall be sold at
standard volumes, or forfeit 3s.4d. The herring shall be as good
in the middle and in every part of the package as at the ends of
the package, or forfeit 3s.4d. Eels shall be sold at standard
volumes, and good eels shall not be mixed with lesser quality
eels, or forfeit 10s. The fish shall be packed in the manner
prescribed or forfeit for each vessel 3s.4d.

Fustians shall always be shorn with the long shear, so that it
can be worn for at least two years. If an iron or anything else
used to dress such injures the cloth so that it wears out after
four months, 20s. shall be forfeited for each default, one half
to the King and the other half to the suer.

Pewter and brass ware for sale shall be of the quality of that of
London and marked by its maker, on pain of forfeiture of such,
and may be sold only at open fairs and markets or in the
seller's home, or forfeit 200s. If such false ware is sold, its
maker shall forfeit its value, one half to the King and one half
to the searchers. Anyone using false weights of such wares shall
forfeit 20s., one half to the King and one half to the suer, or
if he cannot pay this fine, to be put in the stocks until market
day and then be put in the pillory all the market time.

No alien nor denizen [foreigner allowed to reside in the nation
with certain rights and privileges] may carry out of the nation
any raw wool or any woolen cloth which has not been barbed,
rowed, and shorn.

Silk ribbons, laces, and girdles of silk may not be imported,
since they can be made in the nation.

No one shall import wine into the nation, but on English ships,
or forfeit the wine, one half to the King and one half to the
seizer of the wine.

No one may take out of the nation any [male] horse or any mare
worth more than 6s.8s. or under the age of three years, upon
pain of forfeiture of such. However, a denizen may take a horse
for his own use and not to sell. This is to stop losing horses
needed for defense of the nation and to stop the price of a
horse from going up.

Freemen of London may go to fairs and markets with wares to sell,
despite the London ordinance to the contrary.

Merchants residing in the nation but outside London shall have
free access to foreign markets without exaction taken of more
than 133s. sterling by the confederacy of London merchants,
which have increased their fee so much, 400s., that merchants
not in the confederacy have been driven to sell their goods in
London for less than they would get at a foreign market. Exacting
more is punishable by a fine of 400s. and damages to the grieved
party of ten times the excess amount taken.

For the privilege of selling merchandise, a duty of scavage shall
be taken of merchant aliens, but not of denizens. Any town
official who allows disturbing of a person trying to sell his
merchandise because he has not paid scavage, shall pay a fine of
400s.

Coin clipped or diminished shall not be current in payment, but
may be converted at the King's mint into plate or bullion.
Anyone refusing to take coins with only normal wear may be
imprisoned by the mayor, sheriff, bailiff, constable or other
chief officer. New coins, which have a circle or inscription
around the outer edge, will be deemed clipped if this circle or
inscription is interfered with.

The penalty for usury is placement in the pillory, imprisonment
for half a year, and a fine of 400s. (The penalty was later
changed to one half thereof.)

Lawbooks in use at the Inns of Court included "The Books of Magna
Carta with diverse Old Statutes", Doctor and Student" by St.
Germain, "Grand Abridgment" by Fitzherbert, and "New Natura
Brevium" by Lombard.

Judicial Procedure

These changes in the judicial process were made by statute:

The Chancellor, Treasurer, keeper of the King's privy seal, or
two of them, with a bishop selected by them, and a temporal lord
of the King's council selected by them, and the two Chief
Justices of the King's Bench shall constitute the court of the
Star Chamber. It shall have the authority to call before it by
writ or by privy seal anyone accused of "unlawful maintenances,
giving of liveries, signs and tokens, and retainers by
indentures, promises, oaths, writings, or otherwise embraceries
of his subjects" and witnesses, and impose punishment as if
convicted under due process of law. These laws shall now be
enforced: If a town does not punish the murderer of a man
murdered in the town, the town shall be punished. A town shall
hold any man who wounds another in peril of death, until there
is perfect knowledge whether the man hurt should live or die.
Upon viewing a dead body, the coroner should inquire of the
killers, their abettors, and anyone present at the killing and
certify these names. In addition, the murderer and accessories
indicted shall be tried at the King's suit within a year of the
murder, which trial will not be delayed until a private suit is
taken. If acquitted at the King's suit, he shall go back to
prison or let out with bail for the remainder of the year, in
which time the slain man's wife or next of kin may sue. For
every inquiry made upon viewing a slain body coroners shall be
paid 13s.4d. out of the goods of the slayer or from a town not
taking a murderer, but letting him escape. If the coroner does
not make inquiry upon viewing a dead body, he shall be fined
100s. to the King. If a party fails to appear for trial after a
justice has taken bail from him, a record of such shall be sent
to the King.

If a Justice of the Peace does not act on any person's complaint,
that person may take that complaint to another Justice of the
Peace, and if there is no remedy then, he may take his
complaint to a Justice of Assize, and if there is not remedy
then, he may take his complaint to the King or the Chancellor.
There shall then be inquiry into why the other justices did not
remedy the situation. If it is found that they were in default
in executing the laws, they shall forfeit their commissions and
be punished according to their demerits.

Justices of the Peace shall make inquiry of all offenses in
unlawful retaining, examine all suspects, and certify them to
the King's Bench for trial there or in the King's council, and
the latter might also proceed against suspects on its own
initiative on information given.

Perjury committed by unlawful maintenance, embracing, or
corruption of officers, or in the Chancery, or before the King's
council, shall be punished in the discretion of the Chancellor,
Treasurer, both the Chief Justices, and the clerk of the rolls.

The Star Chamber, Chancellor, King's Bench and King and council
have the power to examine all defendants, by oath or otherwise,
to adjudge them convicted or attainted. They can also be found
guilty by confession, examination, or otherwise. If a defendant
has denied doing the acts of which he is convicted, he is
subject to an additional fine to the King and imprisonment.

Violations of statutes may be heard by the Justices of Assize or
the Justices of the Peace, except treason, murder, and felony.

Actions on the case shall be treated as expeditiously in the
courts of the King's Bench and his common bench as actions of
trespass or debt.

Proclamation at four court terms of a levy of a fine shall be a
final end to an issue of land, tenements, or other hereditaments
and the decision shall bind persons and their heirs, whether
they have knowledge or not of the decision, except for women in
covert [under the protection of a husband] who were not parties,
persons under the age of twenty-one, in prison, out of the
nation, or not of whole mind, who are not parties. These may sue
within five years of losing such condition. Also, anyone not a
party may claim a right, title, claim, or interest in the said
lands, tenements, or other hereditaments at the time of such
fine recorded, within five years after proclamations of the fine.

A defendant who appeals a decision for the purpose of delaying
execution of such shall pay costs and damages to the plaintiff
for the delay.

No sheriff, undersheriff, or shire clerk shall enter any
complaints in their books unless the complaining party is
present. And no more complaints than the complaining party knows
about shall be entered. The penalty is 40s. for each such false
complaint, one half to the King and the other half to the suer
after examination by a Justice of the Peace. This is to prevent
extortion of defendants by false complaints. The justice shall
certify this examination to the King, on pain of a fine of 40s.
A bailiff of a hundred who does not do his duty to summon
defendants shall pay a fine of 40s. for each such default, after
examination by a Justice of the Peace. Sheriffs' records of fines
imposed and bailiffs' records of fines collected may be reviewed
by a Justice of the Peace to examine for deceit.

Any sheriff allowing a prisoner to escape, whether from
negligence or for a bribe, shall be fined, if the prisoner was
indicted of high treason, at least 1,333s. for each escape.
However, if the prisoner was in their keeping because of a
suspicion of high treason, the fine shall be at least 800s.; and
if indicted of murder or petite treason, at least 400s.; and if
suspected of murder or petite treason, 200s.; and if suspected
of other felonies, 100s.

Any person not responding to a summons for jury service shall be
fined 12d. for the first default, and 2s. for the second, and
double for each subsequent default.

A pauper may sue in any court and be assigned an attorney at no
cost to him.

A Justice of the Peace to whom has been reported hunting by
persons disguised with painted faces or visors or otherwise, may
make a warrant for the sheriff or other county officer to arrest
such persons and bring them before the justice. Such hunting in
disguise or hunting at night or disobeying such warrant is a
felony. This is to stop large mobs of disguised people from
hunting together and then causing riots, robberies, and murders.

Benefit of clergy may be used only once, since this privilege has
made clerics more bold in committing murder, rape, robbery, and
theft. However, there will be no benefit of clergy in the case
of murder of one's immediate lord, master, or sovereign. (This
begins the gradual restriction of benefit of clergy until it
disappears.)

For an issue of riot or unlawful assembly, the sheriff shall call
24 jurors, each of lands and tenements at least 20s. of charter
land or freehold or 26s.8d. of copyhold or of both. For each
default of the sheriff, he shall pay 400s. And if the jury
acquits, then the justice, sheriff, and under-sheriff shall
certify the names of any jurors maintained or embraced and their
misdemeanors, or forfeit 400s. Any person proved to be a
maintainer or embracer shall forfeit 400s. to the King and be
committed to ward.

The principal leaders of any riot or unlawful assembly shall be
imprisoned and fined and be bound to the peace with sureties at
a sum determined by the Justices of the Peace. If the riot is by
forty people or heinous, the Justices of Peace shall certify
such and send the record of conviction to the King.

The penalty for giving or taking livery is 100s. per month. The
penalty for causing oneself to be retained is 40s. per day.

The King's steward, Treasurer, and comptroller have authority to
question by twelve discreet persons any servant of the King
about making any confederacies, compassings, conspiracies, or
imaginations with any other person to destroy or murder the King
or one of his council or a lord. Trial shall be by twelve men of
the King's household and punishment as by felony in the common
law.

When a land holder enfeoffs his land and tenements to people
unknown to the remainderman in tail, so that he does not know
who to sue, he may sue the receiver of the profits of the land
and tenements for a remedy. And the receivers shall have the
same advantages and defenses as the feoffees or as if they were
tenants. And if any deceased person had the use for himself and
his heirs, then any of his heirs shall have the same advantages
and defenses as if his ancestor had died seised of the land and
tenements. And all recoveries shall be good against all
receivers and their heirs, and the feofees and their heirs, and
the co-feoffees of the receivers and their heirs, as though the
receivers were tenants indeed, or feofees to their use, or their
heirs of the freehold of the land and tenements.

If a person feoffs his land to other persons while retaining the
use thereof for himself, it shall be treated as if he were still
seised of the land. Thus, relief and heriot will still be paid
for land in socage. And debts and executions of judgments may be
had upon the land and tenements.

The penalty for not paying customs is double the value of the
goods.

The town of London shall have jurisdiction over flooding and
unlawful fishing nets in that part of the Thames River that
flows next to it.

The city of London shall have jurisdiction to enforce free
passage of boats on the Severn River in the city, interruption
of which carries a fine of 400s., two-thirds to the King and one
third to the suer.

Jurors impaneled in London shall be of lands, tenements, or goods
and chattels, to the value of 133s. And if the case concerns
debt or damages at least 133s, the jurors shall have lands,
tenements, goods, or chattels, to the value of 333s. This is to
curtail the perjury that has gone on with jurors of little
substance, discretion, and reputation.

A party grieved by a false verdict of any court in London may
appeal to the Hustings Court of London, which hears common pleas
before the mayor and aldermen. Each of the twelve alderman shall
pick from his ward four jurors of the substance of at least
2,000s. to be impaneled. If twenty-four of them find that the
jurors of the petty jury has given an untrue verdict, each such
juror shall pay a fine of at least 400s. and imprisonment not
more than six months without release on bail or surety. However,
if it is found that the verdict was true, then the grand jury
may inquire if any juror was bribed. If so, such juror bribed
and the defendant who bribed him shall each pay ten times the
amount of the bribe to the plaintiff and be imprisoned not more
than six months without release on bail or surety.

The church may punish priests and clerics for any adultery,
fornication, incest, or any other incontinence of the flesh, by
imprisonment.

Other changes in the judicial process were made by court
decision. For instance, the royal judges decided that only the
King could grant sanctuary for treason and not the church. After
this, the church withdrew the right of sanctuary from second
time offenders.

The King's council has practically limited itself to cases in
which the state has an interest, especially the maintenance of
public order. Chancery became an independent court rather than
the arm of the King and his council. In Chancery and the King's
Bench, the intellectual revival brought by humanism inspires
novel procedures to be devised to meet current problems in
disputed titles to land, inheritance, debt, breach of contract,
promises to perform acts or services, deceit, nuisance,
defamation, and the sale of goods.

A new remedy is specific performance, that is, performance of an
act rather than money damages.

Evidence is now taken from witnesses.

Various courts had overlapping jurisdiction. For instance,
trespass could be brought in the Court of Common Pleas because
it was a civil action between two private persons. It could also
be brought in the Court of the King's Bench because it broke the
King's peace. It was advantageous for a party to sue for
trespass in the King's court because there a defendant could be
made to pay a fine to the King or imprisoned, or declared outlaw
if he did not appear at court. In a couple of centuries,
trespass on the case will extend all over the previous common
law including assumpsit, ejectment, trover, deceit, libel,
slander, battery, and assault. And the rigid writs with specific
forms of action for common law cases will fall into disuse.

Parliament's supremacy over all regular courts of law was firmly
established and it was called "the high court of Parliament",
paradoxically, since it came to rarely function as a law court.

The humanist intellectual revival also caused the church courts
to try to eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance
in debt, restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal
majority.

Chapter 12

The Times: 1509-1547

Renaissance humanism came into being in the nation. In this
development, scholars in London, Oxford, and Cambridge
emphasized the value of classical learning, especially Platonism
and the study of Greek literature as the means of better
understanding and writing. They studied the original Greek texts
and became disillusioned with the filtered interpretations of
the church, for example of the Bible and Aristotle. There had
long been displeasure with the priests of the church. They were
supposed to preach four times yearly, visit the sick, say the
daily liturgies, and hear confessions at least yearly. But there
were many lapses. Many were not celibate, and some openly lived
with a woman and had children. Complaints about them included
not residing within their parish community, doing other work
such as raising crops, and taking too much in probate,
mortuary, and marriage fees. Probate fees had risen from at most
5s. to 60s. in the last hundred years. Mortuary fees ranged from
1/3 to 1/9 of a deceased person's goods. Sanctuary was abused.
People objected to the right of arrest by ecclesiastical
authorities.

Also, most parish priests did not have a theology degree or even
a Bachelor's degree, as did many laymen. In fact, many laymen
were better educated than the parish priests. No one other than
a laborer was illiterate in the towns.

Humanist grammar [secondary] schools were established in London
by merchants and guilds. Classical Latin and Greek were taught
and the literature of the best classical authors was read.
Education was opened up to women. Secondary education teachers
were expected to know Latin and Greek and have studied the
ancient philosophers, history, and geography. The method of
teaching was for the teacher to read text-books to the class
from a prepared curriculum. The students learned how to read and
to write, to develop and amplify a theme by logical analysis,
and to essay on the same subject in the narrative, persuasive,
argumentative, commending, consoling, and inciting styles. They
had horn-books with the alphabet and perhaps a Biblical verse on
them. This was a piece of wood with a paper on it held down by a
sheet of transparent horn. Disobedience incurred flogging by
teacher as well as by parents. Spare the rod and spoil the child
was the philosophy. There were two week vacations at Christmas
and at Easter.

Oxford University was granted a charter which put the greater
part of the town under control of the Chancellor and scholars.
The mayor of Oxford was required to take an oath at his election
to maintain the privileges and customs of the university. Roman
law Regius professorships were founded by the King at Oxford and
Cambridge.

The physicians of London were incorporated to oversee and govern
the practice of medicine. A faculty of physicians was
established at Oxford and Cambridge. Only graduates of the new
College of Physicians or of Oxford or Cambridge may practice
medicine or surgery. Food that was digested was thought to turn
into a vapor which passed along the veins and was concreted as
blood, flesh, and fat.

Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" was a popular book. Through
Chaucer, London English became a national standard and the
notion of "correct pronunciation" came into being.

The discoveries and adventures of Amerigo Vespucci, a Portuguese
explorer, were widely read. The North and South American
continents were named for him.

London merchant guilds started to cease to be trading
organizations and began to be identified mainly with hospitality
and benevolence. Twelve Great Companies dominated city politics:
Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Haberdashers,
Ironmongers, Vintners, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Salters, Company of
Merchant Tailors, and the Clothworkers (composed from leading
fullers and shearmen). The leading men of these guilds were
generally aldermen and the guilds acted like municipal
committees of trade and manufactures. Then they acted like a
state department for the superintendence of the trade and
manufactures of London. They were called Livery Companies and
categorized their memberships in three grades: mere membership,
livery membership, and placement on the governing body. Livery
membership was distinguished by having the clothing of the
brotherhood and were usually those who bought membership and
paid higher fees because they were richer. Most of these
companies had almshouses attached to their halls for the
impoverished, disabled, and elderly members and their widows and
children. For instance, many members of the goldsmiths had been
blinded by the fire and smoke of quick silver and some members
had been rendered crazed and infirm by working in that trade.
The pensions of the liverymen were larger than those of mere
members and they generally had a right to a place at those
banquets which are chartered franchises, and they are invited by
the governing body, as a matter of favor, to other
entertainments. The freedom and rights of citizenship of the
city could only be obtained through membership in a livery
company.

A lesser guild, the Leathersellers, absorbed the Glovers,
Pursers, and Pouchmakers. These craftsmen then became wage
earners of the Leathersellers, but others of these craftsmen
remained independent. Before, the Whittawyers, who treated
horse, deer, and sheep hides with alum and oil, had become
wage-earners for the Skinners.

There are 26 wards of London as of 1550. This is the number for
the next four centuries. Each has an alderman, a clerk, and a
constable.

Though there was much agreement on the faults of the church and
the need to reform it, there were many disagreements on what
philosophy of life should take the place of church teachings.
The humanist Thomas More was a university trained intellectual.
His book "Utopia", idealized an imaginary society of pagans
living according to the principles of natural virtue. In it,
everything is owned in common and there is no need for money.
There is agreement that there is a God who created the world and
all good things and who guides men. But otherwise people choose
their religious beliefs and their priests. From this perspective,
the practices of current Christians, scholastic theologicians,
priests and monks, superstition, and ritual look absurd. He
encouraged a religious revival. Aristotle's position that
virtuous men would rule best is successfully debated against
Plato's position that intellectuals and philosophers would be the
ideal rulers.

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