Administration of Iustice to the Subject according to the Laws which are every Free-mans Birth-Right so also as they be of the Kings Council they are by such their Oaths oblig'd lawfully to counsel him that is whenever their opinions are demanded they are sworn and bound to deliver them according to the Law Let us see how our Ancestors resented these matters In a Parliament held in the 11th year of Richard the 2. there was Iudgment of High-Treason given against 18 several Persons and all save one of them of Eminent Rank Three Privy Counselors viz. The Archbishop of York The Duke of Ireland and Earl of Suffolk the Bishop of Exeter the Kings Confessour Five Knights of whom some had been Servants to Edw. the 3. and all but one Servants to the then King and some of them of Noble Descent but that which I more particularly observe there were amongst them Six Judges and Locton the Kings Serjeant at Law Blake of the Kings Council at Law and Usk the under Sheriff of Middlesex Of these 18 8 were Executed that is Sir Robert Tresilian the Lord Chief Iustice was drawn from the Tower through the midst of London to Tyburn and there Hanged so likewise were Usk and Blake and Sir Iohn Salisbury but the other 4 Knights had the Favour to be Beheaded Three that is the Archbishop of York the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk died miserable Fugitives in forreign Parts The other seven whereof five were Judges with much ado got a Pardon as to Life but were banished and their Lands and Goods all forfeited and it was made Felony for any to procure their Recalling home and themselves forthwith to be executed as Traytors if at any time they should presume to return And of these eighteen Persons all save three were impeached by the Commons The Offences which procured these Exemplary Punishments were briefly these King Richard the II. being an unthinking dissolute Prince by the ill counsel of some near his Person there had during his minority happened divers miscarriages in the Government To redress which in a Parliament holden in the tenth year of his Reign and the twentieth of his Age a Commission was awarded to Twelve Peers and others of greatest Wisdom and Ability impowering them to inspect the past management of the Houshold the Revenue the Courts of Justice and in a word all things that did concern the Good of the Realm with full power finally to determine and put all things in excution so as might most tend to the Honour of the King Relief of the People and Safety of the Land which Commission was to endure onely one year Now come five of the Persons above-named viz. the Archbishop the Duke the Earl of Suffolk the Chief Justice and Brembre who seeing themselves like to be called to Account for their pernitious Counsels and Irregularities and to be brought to deserved shame and punishment to avoid the same and continue their Villanies for the future they insinuated to the King That this Commission intrenched upon the Royal Power and was derogatory to the Crown that the procurers thereof had extorted His Royal Assent thereunto in Parliament and that this was Treason for so the Chief Justice and Blake the Kings Council who was advised withal in the Writ declared it to be whereupon Blake was commanded to prepare an Indictment of Treason against all the said Commissioners and against such others as had been most active in procuring that Authority Accordingly he draws the Indictment which stands entred in the Roll and is to this effect That they the said Commissioners c. had Traiterously conspired among themselves to make this Commission by Authority of Parliament against the Royalty of the King to his disherison and in derogation of the Crown and that they forced the Kings Consent and confederated themselves to maintain one another in so doing It was designed that they should be tryed upon this Indictment in Middlesex or London and therefore some of the parties to be prosecuted not being Peers Usk the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex was acquainted with the business who was to return a Pack'd-Iury you see that 's a very old Game that might be sure to do the business which he performing accordingly was therefore hang'd But further the five grand Favourites that the King might the more confide in their Counsels for so are the words of the Record and that under colour of Law they might cover their malice from the King and the Kingdom before the Trials were to be brought on advise the King to demand the Opinion of some of the Judges that is of the two Chief Justices and Chief Baron and the Judges of the Common-Pleas six in all in number and of Locton the Kings Serjeant Blake of the Kings Council at Law was commanded to draw up those Questions who did it accordingly and for drawing the same and the before-mentioned Indictment he was himself Drawn and Hanged The Questions being prepared in Writing the Iudges were sent for to Nottingham Castle where in the Kings own Presence they were commanded upon their Allegiance to deliver their Opinions 1. Whether the Commission was derogatory to the Rights of the Crown They answered It was 2. Whether the persuading and urging the King to consent thereunto in Parliament was Treason They answered That it was Here were other Questions ask'd but these were the Main and those for which they were condemned as appears by the Replication of the Commons to the Iudges Answer and by the Words of the Iudgment That they the said Iudges knew that this Commission was awarded in Parliament c. that it was for the Publick Good That they knew of the Traiterous Intent to destroy the Procurers of this Commission That they knew the Law and that it was not Treason and had delivered such Opinions thereby under colour of Law to cover their Treasonable Intent and therefore Iudgment of High-Treason was given against them and against Locton the Kings Serjeant who had Subscribed these False Opinions with the Iudges And though there be other Articles against the Rest yet this alone is adjudged Treason in the several Iudgments against every one of the Eighteen And 't is observable That in all these Iudgments they are adjudged Traitors as well against the Person of the King as against the Common-wealth And it is there declared upon great Advice taken That in Treasons which concern the King and Kingdom they are not bound to proceed according to the Rules of the Common-Law but according to the Course of Parliaments so as may be for the Common-Good Nor were these Iudgments huddled up in haste but given upon long and mature Deliberation the Work of a Whole Parliament And it is declared in the Roll That they spent long time and took great pains in examining the Evidence the better thereby to satisfie their own Consciences and the World Their Proceedings against the five Plotters were begun the 14 of Novemb. and the
Votes being Transmitted by the Commons to the House of Lords Their Lordships did Concur therein And on Fryday the 26. of February 1640. It was Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the High Court of Parliament Assembled That the Lord-Keeper or Master of the Rolls the Two Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief Baron and likewise the Chief Clerk of the Star-Chamber should bring into the Upper House of Parliament the Records of the Judgment against Mr. Hampden concerning Ship-Money in each of those several Courts and that a Vacat thereof should be made And that a Copy of the Judgment of the Parliament concerning the Illegality thereof should be Delivered to the several Judges of Assize and that they should be required to Publish the same in all the Circuits Which on the 27. of the same February was done accordingly the said Records being Vacated and the Rolls Cross'd with a Pen in the House of Lords and Subscribed with the Clerk of the Parliament's Hand And soon after several of the before-named Judges were Impeached for the same in Parliament And not daring to stand the Shock some of them as the Lord Chief Justice Finch Fled beyond the Seas and others Absconded And soon after came on the Unnatural Civil-Wars so Destructive to King and Kingdom which though no way Justifiable yet it cannot be denyed but they were not a little Occasion'd and the Animosities of the People blown into an Untameable Flame by these base Traiterous Proceedings of those Sycophant Judges And Woe unto those say Sacred Oracles by whom Offences come However after so many dismal Experiences and fair Warnings and the Miraculous Restauration of His present Majesty our Gracious Soveraign whom God long Preserve a Prince of Incomparable Lenity and Good-natur'd beyond Example it might be hoped that none Preferr'd to the Publick Seats of Justice durst to have Acted â—o contrary to His Royal Incimations as to violate those Laws which He Himself has Sworn to Maintain and Intrusted them to Administer Yet so Base and Extravagant are some as even to abuse the Favours of the Best of Princes and puff't up with Preferment will take no Admonition from the Falls of their Head-strong Predecessors but still presume to sully those Ermins the Emblems of Innocency and Integrity which they wear and adventure on the same Destructive Precipices You have heard how heinously our Prudent Ancestors resented the Violation of their Liberties though by an Act in Tryals of the Free-born People of England Without Iuries Next to which is the Ruffing Hectoring and Over-awing of Juries For What real Difference is there betwixt allowing no Juries at all and Menacing them into a Compliance contrary to Law and their own Consciences with the Corrupt Humours and Time serving Interests of ill Judges Of this Crime the Lord Chief Justice Keeling about the Year 1666. a Time when God's General Judgments on this Sinful Land might have awakened them to greater Circumspection and Uprightness was not only Guilty but Question'd for the same even by That very Parliament which was never extraordinarily Celebrated for bringing Publick Vermine to Punishment Yet such a Sense they had of these ill Practises that in their Journal we find the following Votes on this Occasion Die Mecurii 11º Decembris 1667. THE House Resuming the Hearing of the rest of the Report touching the Matter of Restraint upon Juries and upon the Examination of divers Witnesses in several Cases of Restraints put upon Juries by the Lord Chief Justice Keeling Resolved as followeth First That the Proceedings of the said Lord Chief Justice in the Cases now Reported are Innovations in the Tryals of Men for their Lives and Liberties and that he hath used an Arbitrary and Illegal Power which is of dangerous Consequence to the Lives and Liberties of the People of England and tends to the Introducing of an Arbitrary Government Secondly That in the Place of Judicature the Lord Chief Justice hath Undervalued Vilified and Contemned Magna Charta the great Preserver of our Lives Liberties and Property Thirdly That he be brought to Tryal in Order to Condign Punishment in such Manner as the House shall judge most Fit and Requisite And again Die Veneris 13º Decembris 1667. Resolved THat the Precedents and Practice for Fining or Imprisoning of Jurors for Giving their Verdicts is Illegal Here you see the ill Practices of that Chief Justice were Branded in Parliament and he was ordered to be Prosecuted though by reason of the Houses being Prorogued and he himself not long after Dying in Discontent we do not find there were any further Proceedings made therein At the Sessions for London Sept. 1670. William Penn and William Mead Two of the People commonly called Quakers being Indicted For that they the Fourteenth of August before did with others to the Number of Three Hundred in Grace-Church-Street Unlawfully and Tumultuously Assemble c. by reason whereof a great Tumult did there happen in Contempt of the King great Disturbance of the Peace Terror of the People c. And the Jury after having been several times sent back and kept close from the Saturday till the Monday Morning bringing them in Not Guilty Sir John Howel then Recorder of London presumed to Fine the said Jury Forty Marks a Man and to Lye in Prison till paid Being thus in Custody Edward Bushel one of the said Jury-Men brought his Habeas Corpus in the Court of Common-Pleas and upon a long Argument it was Adjudged by the whole Court That the said Fining and Commitment was Illegal Whereupon the said Bushel was Discharged and left to bring his Action for False Imprisonment against the said Recorder Which Case is Reported by Vaughan at that time Chief Justice of the said Court in his Reports Licensed and Approved of by the present Lord Chancellor of England Sir William Scroggs since Lord Chief-Justice of the King 's Bench my Lord North Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas and all the Judges of England But as to the Illegality of any Courts Imposing upon Menacing Fineing or Imprisoning Juries see a small Treatise Entituled The English-Man's Right Printed for R. Janeway 1680. and another called The Grand Iury-Man's Oath and Office Explained Sold by Langley Curtis on Ludgate-Hill both well worthy the Perusal of every True English-Man What Proceedings have been since or rather are at this instant pendent against Judges for Hectoring of Juries and other Illegal Arbitrary Proceedings are too fresh in every Bodies Memory to need a Recital Instead of which I shall rather Insert the Form of the Oath Taken by Judges at their first Admittance to that Office which runs as follows The OATH of a JUDGE In Dorso Claus ' de Anno 20. Edw. 31. Part. Prima YE shall Swear That Well and Truly ye shall Serve our Sovereign Lord the King and His People in the Office of Justice And that ye shall Counsel our Sovereign Lord the King in His Needs And that ye shall not give any
and Imitable Ones Memoria Justi in Aetermun In the Reign of King H. 4. His Son and Heir apparent then a Wild Youth but afterwards as Solid and Renowned a King as most that have sway'd the English Scepter hearing that one of his Companions was Arraigned for Felony before the Lord Chief Justice of England I am sorry my narrow Reading has not brought me acquainted with his Honourable Name came to the Bar and offered to take away the Prisoner by force but being withstood by the said Chief Justice stepped to him and Struck him over the Face whereat the Judge nothing daunted rose up and with a Gravity becoming his Dignity told him That he did not this Affront to Him but to the King his Father in whose Place he sate and therefore forthwith Committed him to Prison The Prince Over-aw'd with the Majesty of the Sage Judge's Expressions calmly Suffered himself to be carried away by an ordinary Tip-Staff which being told the King He not a little Rejoyced both that he had a Judge of such Couragious Integrity and a Son of such Submissive Obedience to his Laws Vide Baker fol. 163. The Famous Queen Elizabeth having required a Charge upon divers of Her Subjects by particular Letters from the Lords of Her Council of several Sums of Money for present Aid towards Her Wars in Ireland hearing that one of Her Judges viz. Mr. Justice Walmesley being conven'd before the said Lords for Non-Payment thereof thereby Discouraging others had Answered That it was Contrary to Law that the same should be Imposed there being an Express Statute against it which He being a Judge was bound by his Oath to signifie to Her Majesty he being as much as in him lay a Conservator of the Queens Oath in that behalf Her Majesty was much Offended that any such Imposition had been pretended to and Commanded that it should be stopped from further Gathering and to such as had paid it their Money by Her express Order was Restored Judge Crooks Argument in Hampden's Case p. 57. In the 29th of the same Queen Her Majesty having Erected a New-Office in the Common-Pleas for making of Supersedeas on Exigents She Grants it to one Cavendish Her Servant sends to have him admitted but the Judges delay the doing thereof On this Reason because the Prothonotaries and Philizers Claimed the making those Writs The Queen sends a Sharp Letter and Commands them forthwith to Admit him Then She sends a more positive Command requiring the Reason of their Contempt and Disobedience The Judges return the beforementioned Reason to the Lord Keeper and Earl of Leicester no mean Man in those Days upon which the Queen sends a Fourth Peremptory Message for their Admitting him with this Reason That if the others were put out they were Rich and Able Men and that Her Courts of Justice were Open where they might Demand their Right for this was not to debar them Therefrom but only to put them to their Action The Honest Judges roturned this Answer That the Queen had taken Her Oath for the due Execution of Justice According to Law and they did not doubt but when Her Majesty was Informed it was against the Law She would Act therein as became her For their own parts they had taken an Oath to God to Her and the Common-Wealth And if they should do it without Process of Law before them and only upon Her Command put the others out of Possession though the Right remained to them it were a Breach of their Oath and therefore if the Fear of God were not Sufficient they told Her the Punishment that was Inflicted upon their Predecessors for Breach of their Oaths citing Thorpe c. might be a sufficient Warning to them Whereupon the Queen hearing these Reasons was Satisfied and the said Judges heard no more of this Business To Descend nearer our own Times we cannot omit that grand Example of Uprightness the ever Famous Sir Matthew Hale late Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench a Miracle for all other parts of Polite and Serious Learning as well as profound Knowledge in the Laws of England Of whom I shall yet not offer any particular Instances since his whole Life was one continued Thred of Sincere and Understanding Justice For as easily you might have justled the Sun out of the Ecliptick as to have warp'd him from his constant Road of Integrity An exact Standard whereby Future Princes may measure the Qualifications of their Judges for though he were a most Loyal and Zealous Servant to the Crown yet he was so far from being ever Impeached by the Representative Body of the Nation that no one Single Person no not of those that were Cast before him were ever heard to complain of his Conduct And if any Latter Judges have been dismiss'd by false Tales of Sycophant Whisperers or for opposing base Illegal Arbitrary Interests as they have the Invaluable Satisfaction of a good Conscience for their Comfort so they may be assured they still appear more Glorious in the Eyes of all good English-Men at present and will be Recorded more Venerable to Posterity than any Robes or Preferment sullied with Bribery Flattery or Treacherous Compliances could renden them However we hope the Various Examples we have here Enumerated from Authentick Records and Histories may be sufficient to Deterr future Judges from Ill Courses and satisfie all the World both in the Justice of the Parliaments late Proceedings in this Case and the Reasonableness of their Vote and intended Bill That Judges henceforth should hold their Places and Salaries not Ad Placitum but Quam Diu se bene gasserint Which was the principal Aim of these Papers Fiat Justitia FINIS
THE TRIUMPHS OF JUSTICE OVER Vnjust Iudges EXHIBITING I. The Names and Crimes of Four and Forty Iudges Hang'd in one Year in England as Murderers for their corrupt Judgments II. The Case of the Lord Chief Justice Tresilian Hang'd at Tyburn and all the rest of the Judges of England save one banisht in K. Rich. the 2ds Time III. The Crimes of Empson and Dudley Executed in K. Henry the 8th's Days IV. The Proceedings of the Ship-money-Judges in the Reign of K. Charles the First V. Diverse other Presidents both Antient and Modern To which is added VI. The Judges OATH and some Observations thereupon Humbly Dedicated to the Lord Chief Iustice Scroggs Discite Justitiam moniti non temnere Leges LONDON Printed for Benjamin Harris at the Stationers Arms in the Piazza under the Royal Exchange 1681. TO Sir William Scroggs Kt. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Of His Majesties Court of KINGS-BENCH AT WESTMINTER I Know not to whom I could more properly Dedicate a Treatise of this Nature than to Your Lordship who is at Present Lord Chief Justice of England and have set such remarkable Copies to inferior Magistrates What is here offered is neither Prophecy nor Plaister Lampoon nor Romance but a clear Mirrour retreiv'd out of the Closet of wise Antiquity In which future Administrators of publick Justice would do well to Look For you know My Lord Common-Law runs much upon Presidents And if a Man happen to have none of the best Physiognomies there is no reason why he should straight grow angry and fling stones to break all the Looking-Glasses he meets with only because they represent the true Figure of the Object 'T is a Priviledge we Scribblers that write for Bread hold by Prescription to put any great Bodies name in the front of our Book Princes have not been able to exempt themselves or their Favourites from the Persecution of Dedications nor is there I humbly conceive any Rule made in Your Lordships Court to forbid them Suffer then I beseech Your Lordship this Address to remain a Monument to Posterity of the Sentiments this Age has of Your Lordships Conduct and Merits and witness to all the world how much its Author is Westminster-Hall this 23 of Dec. 1680. Your Lordships most humble Servant Philo-Dicaios THE TRIUMPHS OF JUSTICE OVER Vnjust Iudges c. UNdoubtedly there may be because there has been too often in the World such a thing such a sin such a mischief as Corruption of Iudges that is when by means of Pecuniary or other Bribes or which is all out as bad Threatnings Promises of Reward Malice Revenge hopes of greater or fears of being turned out of present Preferments or any other ill motive They that are appointed and Sworn to Administer equal and impartial Right and Justice are wrap'd aside or Bias'd to serve a Turn or Wreck a private Grudge or to free the Guilty or condemn the Innocent or to lean rather to the one side than to the other or wilfully to declare that to be Law which they cannot but know is not so or to adjudge punishments disproportionate to the Crimes that appear before them or any the like base illegal practises How odious this Vice is to God and Man as being equally destructive to Religion and Humane Society and how severely it has been heretofore punished by both may appear by The Ensuing Examples 1. As to God who is Capitalis Justitiarius Caeli Terrae the Grand never-erring Justitiary of all the World His Sacred Word prohibits nothing more positively nor omplain of any thing lowder or with more repeated importunities Thou shalt not rest the judgment of the poor in his cause Thou shalt take no gift for a gift blindeth the eye of the wise and perverteth the words of the Righteous Ex. 23.6 and 8 ver Thou shalt not rest juegment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift c. Deut. 16.19 Woe unto them that justifie the wicked for reward and taketh away the righteousness of the righteous from him Isa 5.23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosome 't is done you see slyly and in the dark to pervert the ways of judgment Prov. 17 23. Woe unto yee who turn judgment into wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth Amos 5.7 The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upwright amongst men They all lye in wait for bloud they hunt every man his brother as with a net that they may do evil with both hands earnestly The Prince asketh and the Judg gapeth for a reward and the great man uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up the best of them is as a briar the most upright is sharper than a thorn-hedg c. Mic. 7.2 3 4 ver with many of the like Texts 2 As corrupt Judges are thus obnoxious to the Curse of God so hath his Divine Providence not seldome Executed it upon them even in this world by the hands of men Nor indeed is there any thing that can render Kings Gods Vicegerents more Glorious or better establish any state than to keep the Current of Justice clear and unsullied and exemplarily to punish their Subordinate Ministers and especially Judges that shall presume to impoison that Sacred Fountain Several Heathen Princes are Renowned for this wholesom severity 'T is said of Alexander Severus the Roman Emperour that he had such an aversion and abhorrence of unjust Judges that at the very sight of them he would vomit Choler was ready with his fingers to pluck out their eyes-Theatrum Historicum f. 546. The Mighty Monarch Cambyses King of Persia finding that one Sisamnes his Chief Justice Proeses our Author calls him in Latin had receiv'd a Bribe and for the same pronounced an unjust Sentence forthwith caused him to be Executed and curiously flead and with his skin cover'd the Common Seat of Justice and Constituted Otanes the said Sisamnes's own Son Judg in his Room That so beholding daily those Reliques of his justly-punisht Father It might serve as a Memento to him to act more uprightly Chronicon Carionis l. 2. p. 19. But not to search so far off our own Nation affords us perhaps the most notable and numerous Examples of Royal Justice in this kind of any in the world For we find it Recorded in that Antient Law-Book Entituled The Mirrour of Justices most of which is said to be Compiled before the Conquest and Augmented by the Learned Andrew Horn in the Reign of K. Edw. the Ist and which is often Cited by the Famous Lord Coke and to this day continues in good Repute amongst Lawyers That King Alfred a Renowned Saxon-Prince who Governed this Realm about the Year of our Lord 900. did in one years space bring to Condign punishment no fewer than four and forty of his Justices so the Law Terms those we call Judges and this was long before either Justices of the Peace Establisht or the Courts fixed at Westminster But
they held Pleas forbidden by the Customs of the Realm to Ordinary Judges and Suitors to hold In this time Colgrin lost his Franchise of Enfangthief because he would not send a Thief to the common Gaole of the County who was taken within his Liberty and not Bailable In this time Buttolph lost his view of Frank-pledges because he charged the Jurours with other Articles than those which belonged to the View and Amerced people in personal Actions where one was not to be amerced by a pecuniary Punishment And accordingly he caused punishments of Death to Criminal Judges for wrongful mortal Judgements and so he did proportionably for wrongful Judgements of a lesser nature As Imprisonment for wrongful Imprisonments and and like for like with the other Punishments for he delivered Thelweld to Prison because he Judged men to Prison for Offences where they ought not to be Imprisoned He Judged Lithing to Prison because he imprisoned Herbote for the Offence of his Wife He Judged Rutwood to Prison because he Imprisoned Old for the Kings Debt Note In those days people were not to be Imprisoned for Debt but only their Goods distrain'd On the other side he Cut off the Hand of Haulf because he saved Armorks Hand who was Attainted before him that he had Feloniously wounded Richbold He Judged Edulfe to be wounded because he Judged not Arnold to be wounded who had Feloniously wounded Aldens In lesser Judgments he did not meddle with the Judgments but Disinherited the Justices and Removed them according to the Points of those Statutes where he could understand that they had Transgressed their Jurisdiction or the Bounds of their Delegacy or Commission or had concealed Fines or Amerciaments or ought that belonged to the King or had Released or Increased any Punishment contrary to Law or procured Pleadings without Warrant c. Thus far Horns Mirrour Now that this Alfred was one of the Wisest and most Renowned Kings that ever this Land was happily Governed by appears as well by the Eulogies given him by the Ancients as those Encomiastick Verses Dedicated to his Memory by a present Ingenious Courtier Sir Winston Churchill Kt. in his Diri Britannici Fol. 140. Who would not follow him into the Field Who cannot choose but Conquer tho' he yield Whose Sword cut deep yet was his Wit more keen Some Fence ' gainst that But this did wound unseen To thee is due Great Elfrid double praise To thee we bring the Laurel and the Bayes Master of Arts and Arms Apollo so Sometimes did use his Harp sometimes his Bow And from the other Gods got this Renown To Reconcile the Gauntlet to the Gown But who did e're with the same Sword like Thee Execute Justice and the Enemy Keep up at once the Law of Arms and Peace And from the Camp Issue out Writs of Ease The next English Prince of Renown before the Norman Conquest was King Edgar about the year 960. Amongst whose Noble Acts 't is recorded as none of the least memorable that in his Circuits and Progresses through the Countrey he would take Account of the Demeanour of his Lords and especially of his Judges whom he severely Punished if he found them Delinquents Bakers Chron. Fol. 11. Nor have the best and wisest of our Princes since the Conquest been less ready to give up Ill Judges to just Punishment nor our English Parliaments wanting to bring them to it In the pear 1290. being saith Walsingham p. 54. the 17th year of Edw. 1. Justitiarios ferè omnes de falsitate deprehensos a suo Officio deposuit ipsos juxta merita puniens gravi Mulctâ He finding almost all his Judges guilty of Corruption put them out of their places and Punisht them according to their Demerits with heavy Fines Which the Lord Cook in the Second part of his Institutes Fol. 508. likewise takes notice of and tells us That this was done by a Parliament held after the Feast of St. Hillary and only two Judges scap'd scot-free But how severe the Fines of the other Delinquents were appears in Bakers Chronicle fol. 100. Sir Ralph de Hengham says he Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench for Corruption was Fined 7000 Marks Sir John Lovetot one of the Justices of the Common Pleas 3000 Marks Sir William Brompton 6000 Marks Sir Solomon Rochester 4000 Marks Sir Richard Boyland 4000 Marks Sir Walter Hopton 2000 Marks Sir William Saham in 3000 Marks Robert Lithbury Master of the Rolls in 1000 Marks Roger Leicester in 1000 Marks Hugh Bray Escheator and Judge for the Jews 1000 Marks But Sir Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer who it seems had been a notable Bribe-fingerer four and thirty Thousand Marks A prodigious Summe allmost 400 years ago And Sir Thomas Wayland Chiefe Justice of the Common-Pleas being found the greatest Offender of all was Attainted of Felony for taking of Bribes and his Lands and Goods Forfeited as appears in the Pleas of Parliament 18 Edw. 1. And he was also Banisht the Kingdom as unworthy to live in that State against which he had so much Offended Sir William Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench in K. Edw. the Thirds time having of five several persons received five several Bribes which in all amounted to 100 l. was for this alone adjudged to be Hang'd and all his Goods and Lands Forfeited The reason of the Judgment is entred in the Roll in these words Quia praedictus Willielmus Thorpe qui Sacramentum Domini Regis erga populum suum habuit ad Custodiendum fregit malitiosè falsè Rebelliter quantum in ipso fuit Because that as much as in him lay he had broken the Kings Oath made to the People which the King had Intrusted him withall And so much did the then Collective Wisdom of the Nation respect Judges herein that 't is expresly entred that this Judgment should not be drawn into example against any other Officers who should break their Oaths but only against those Qui predictum Sacramentum fecerunt et fregerunt et habent Leges Angliae ad Custodiendum That is only to the Judges that violate their Oaths having the Laws of England Entrusted unto them This Iudgment was given 24 Edw. 3 d. The next year in the Parliament 25 Edw. 3. Numero 10. it was debated in Parliament Whether this Iudgment was Legal and Nullo Contradicente unanimously it was declared to be just and according to the Law and that the same Iudgment may be given in time to come upon the like occasion Which Case I humbly conceive resolves the Case in Law Point Blank thus That it is death for any Judge wittingly to break his Oath in any part of it This Oath of Thorp is entred in the Roll and is the same verbatim with the Iudges Oath in 18 Edw. 3 The same too as I humbly conceive which our Iudges now a days take and is herein afterwards punctually recited The Oaths of our Iudges of England as they bind them to the due