whiche is incomprehensible, and nat to be named of any creature without a wonderfull reuerence and drede, is nat onely the othe of great gentilmen, but also so undiscretely abused, that they make it (as I mought saye) their gonnes," wherwith they thunder out thretenynges and terrible menacis, whan they be in their fury, though it be at the damnable playe of dyse. The masse, in whiche honorable ceremony is lefte unto us the memoriall of Christes glorious passion, with his corporall presence in fourme of breade, the inuocation of the thre diuine persones in one deitie, with all the hole company of blessed spirites and soules elect, is made by custome so simple an othe that it is nowe all moste neglected, and litle crept into the breasts of young children. It is not a rare thing now-a-days to hear boys and mothers tear the most blessed body of Christ with their blasphemous oaths, even from the top to the toe. What marvel is it then though they be abominable swearers when they come to age? But whence learn they this? Verily of their parents and such as bring them up.'—Works, p. 362, ed. 1843. The derivation of this word is uncertain, but it is at least as old as the 14th century, for Camden says, 'The very time of their first invention is uncertaine, but certaine it is that King Edward the third used them at the siege of Calice, 1347, for Gunnari had their pay there, as appeareth by record.'—Remains, p. 203, ed. 1637. While Selden in his Table Talk declares that 'the word gun was in use in England, for an engine to cast a thing from a man, long before there was any gun-powder found out.'-Opera, vol. iii. col. 2040, ed. 1725. The word 'gunna' is frequently used by Thomas of Walsingham. Thus, in his account of the siege of Ypres in 1383, he says, ‘Villani (¿.e. the besieged) occurrunt totis animis, et cum lapidibus, lanceis, et sagittis, igne Græco, et missilibus, quæ "gunna" vocantur, nostros (i.e. the English) ubique repellunt.'—Hist. Angl. vol. ii. p. 99, The Rolls ed. 'The tables, tenys, cardis, or the dyce Ar chefe begynnynge of this unhappynes, For whan the game wyll nat well aryse, And all the players troubled by dronkenes, Than suche Caytyfs as ioy in this exces b At eche worde labour our sauyour to tere With othes abhomynable whiche they ungoodly swere.' Ship of Fools, vol. ii. p. 131, ed. 1874. Becon says, 'Moreover, how is God rent and torn by blasphemous oaths, not only among men in bargaining, buying and selling, chopping and changing, but also in playing and idle matters! How will the dicer swear rather than he will lose one cast! How will the carder tear God on pieces rather than he will lose the profit of one card!'-Works, vol. i. p. 360, ed. 1843. regarded of the nobilitie, and is onely used amonge husbande men and artificers, onelas some taylour or barbour, as well in his othes as in the excesse of his apparayle, will counterfaite and be lyke a gentilman. In iudiciall causes, be they of Hutchinson, in the work before quoted, says, 'When an oath is necessary, we are bound to swear by God only, unto whom all honour is due for we honour that thing whereby we swear. It is naught to swear by the mass, a profanation of Christ's supper and a patched creature of the Bishop of Rome, which was longer in patching than Salomon's great temple in building.'-Works, p. 21, ed. 1842. 'It was onys ordeyned by constytucion, As I haue harde, that both symple men and hye Alas! no honour, laude, nor reuerence Ship of Fools, vol. ii. p. 132. Camden has an amusing illustration of this latter propensity, which has descended to our own time. I will tell you here how Sir Philip Calthrop purged John Drakes, the shoemaker of Norwich, in the time of King Henry VIII., of the proud humour which our people have to be of the Gentlemen's cut. This knight bought on a time as much fine French tawney Cloath as should make him a gowne, and sent it to the Taylours to be made. John Drakes, a shoemaker of that towne, coming to the said Taylours, and seeing the knight's gowne cloath lying there, liking it well, caused the Taylour to buy him as much of the same cloath and price, to the same intent, and further bad him to make it of the same fashion that the knight would have his made of. Not long after the Knight, comming to the Taylours to take measure of his gowne, perceiveth the like gowne cloath lying there, asked of the Taylour whose it was. Quoth the Taylour, It is John Drakes, who will have it made of the selfe same fashion that yours is made of. Well, said the Knight, in good time be it. I will (said he) have mine made as full of cuts as thy sheeres can make it. It shall be done, said the Taylour. Whereupon, because the time drew neere, he made haste of both their garments. John Drake, when he had no time to goe to the Taylours till Christmas day, for serving of customers, when hee had hoped to have worne his gowne, perceiving neuer so light importaunce, they that be no parties but straungers, I meane witnesses and iurates," which shall procede in the triall, do make no lasse othe, but openly do renounce the helpe of god and his sayntes and the benefite of his passion, if they say nat true as ferre furthe as they knowe. Howe euill that is obserued where the one partie in degree ferre excedeth the other, or where hope of rewarde or affection taketh place, no man is ignoraunt, sens it is euery yere more commune than haruist. Alas! what hope shall we haue of the same to be full of cuts, began to sweare with the Taylour, for the making of his gowne after that sort. I have done nothing (quoth the Taylour) but that you bad me, for as Sir Philip Calthrops is, even so have I made yours. By my latchet, quoth John Drake, I will never weare Gentleman's fashion againe.'—Remains, p. 198, ed. 1637. The word 'Jurats,' for Jurors, is uncommon, although in a special and limited sense it is still in use, e.g. the Jurats of Romney Marsh, who are in the nature of Aldermen. Again, Jersey has a Bailiff and twelve Jurats, or sworn assistants, to govern the island. Cowel, indeed, in his Interpreter, cites 13 Ed. I. cap. 26, as an instance of the word being employed as equivalent to Juries, but on referring to the Statute itself it is obvious that in the original the contraction stands for Jurata. Now Jurata was undoubtedly the mediæval equivalent for Jury; for Littelton, who wrote in the reigns of Hen. VI. and Ed. IV., says, 'And memorandum that the name assise is nomen equivocum, for sometimes it is taken for a jurie; for the beginning of the record of an assise of novel disseisin beginneth thus, Assisa venit recognitura, &c., which is the same as Jurata venit recognitura, &c.'—Co. Lit. 154 b. Fortescue, in the De Laudibus Legum Anglia, which was written between 1460 and 1470, speaks of Jurati and Juratores (cap. xxvi.) indifferently. These words were represented in the Norman French by juree (see 7 Ric. II. cap. 7) and « jurours (34 Ed. III. cap. 7). Mr. Forsyth, in his History of Trial by Jury, has examined at some length the technical distinction between Assisa and Jurata, a question which need not be discussed here; suffice it to say that, according to Giles Duncomb, the best authority on the subject, As in an Assise the Jurors are called Recognitors from these words in the Writ of Assise, facère recognitionem; so upon a nisi prius, they are called Juratores from these words in the Venire facias, ad faciendam quandam Juratam.'—Trials per Pais, vol. i. p. 240, ed. 1766. Hutchinson alludes to this common practice. "Neither is it lawful,' he says, 'to swear by any saints, as judges and stewards make the simple people do at sessions and courts; for if they be to be sworn by, they are to be prayed unto, and to be honoured.'-Works, p. 21, ed. 1842. • The original has 'othe,' which is obviously a misprint. a There is abundant evidence of this in contemporary writers. Latimer, for instance, said, in 1549, 'I can tell where one man slew another in a township, and any publike weale where such a pestilence reigneth? Dothe nat Salamon saye, A man moche sweringe shall be filled with iniquitie, and the plage shall nat departe from his house? a O mercifull god, howe many men be in this realme which be horrible swerers and commune iurates periured? Than howe moche iniquitie is there, and howe many plages are to be feared, where as be so many houses of swerers? Suerly I am was attached upon the same; twelve men were impanelled: the man had friends: the sheriff laboured the bench: the twelve men stuck at it, and said, "Except he would disburse twelve crowns they would find him guilty." Means were found that the twelve crowns were paid. The quest comes in, and says, "Not guilty." Here was "not guilty" for twelve crowns. This is a bearing, and if some of the bench were hanged, they were well served. This makes men bold to do murder and slaughter.'—Sermons, vol. i. p. 190, ed. 1814. To such an extent was the corruption of juries carried that the persons who served upon them were called 'Questmongers.' The sheriffs, no doubt, were primarily to blame by allowing the panel to be tampered with. Thus the preamble of 3 Hen. VIII. cap. 12, recites that 'grete extorcions and oppressions be and have been within the more partie of all the Counties and Shires within this realme of England by the subtiltie and untrue demanor of Sherevis and their Ministers committyd and doon unto many persons in grete nombre of the Kyngs subjects, by meane and makyng and retornyng at every Sessions holden within the said Counties and Shires for the body of the Shire in takyng and puttyng in and retornyng of names of suche persons as for the singuler advantage, benefit, and gayn of the seid Shrevys and their mynysters will be wilfully forsworn and perjurid by the sinistre labour of the seid Shrevys &c., by reason wherof many and dyverse substantiall persons, the Kyngs true subjects, contrary to good equite and Right wisnes, hath dyvers times and many wrongfully ben indyted of dyvers moorders, felonys, and other mysbehavours, by their covyn and falshed, to the utter undoyng of their lyves, losse of their goods and their lands, by reason wherof they and every of them, in advoydyng the untrue troble and vexacion which to them myght cume and ensue by reason and occasion of the same false Inditments, be and have bene compelled to make Fynes and gyve rewardys to the seid Shrevys &c.,' an evil which it was proposed to remedy by causing the panels to be reformed by the Justices of Gaol Delivery and mulcting the delinquent Sheriffs in the sum of £40. Fortescue, comparing the relative merits of trial by Jury and trial per testes alone, which was allowed in actions upon deeds, and in cases coming within the lex mercatoria, and in some others, expresses a very strong opinion upon the miscarriages caused by the latter method of procedure, and says, ‘O quàm horrendum et detestabile discrimen sæpe accidit ex formâ per depositionem testium procedendi.'-De Laudibus, cap. 32. • In the edition of the Bible published by John Day in 1551, the verse referred to stands thus: A man that useth muche swerynge shall be fylled wyth wyckednes, and the plage shall neuer go from his house.'-Ecclesiasticus xxiii. II. in more drede of the terrible vengeaunce of god, than in hope of amendement of the publike weale. And so in myne opinion aught al other to be, whiche beleue that god knoweth all thynge that is done here in erth, and as he him selfe is all goodness, so loueth he al thing that is good, which is vertue; and hateth the contrarie, which is vice. Also all thing that pleaseth him, he preserueth; and that thing that he hateth, he at the last destroieth. But what vertue may be without verite called trouthe, the declaration whereof is faithe or fidelitie? For as Tulli saieth, faith is a constaunce and trouth of things. spoken or couenaunted. And in another place he saieth, nothing kepeth so to gether a publike weale as doth faith." Than foloweth it well, that without faith a publike weale may nat continue, and Aristotle saieth, that by the same craft or meanes that a publike weale is first constituted, by the same craft or meanes is it preserued. Than sens faithe is the fundation of Justyce, whiche is the chiefe constitutour and maker of a publike weale, and by the afore mencioned autoritie, faithe is conseruatour of the same, I may therfore conclude that faithe is bothe the originall and (as it were) principall constitutour and conseruatour of the publike weale.d 'Fides, id est, dictorum conventorumque constantia et veritas.'—De Off. lib. i. cap. 7. b Nec enim ulla res vehementius rempublicam continet, quàm fides.'—De Off. lib. ii. cap. 24. • Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν δῆλον ὅτι, εἴπερ ἔχομεν δι' ὧν φθείρονται αἱ πολιτεῖαι ἔχομεν καὶ di' av σúCovтal.-Arist. Polit. lib. v. cap. 7. (8.) This has been very well explained by a modern writer. By the imposition of oaths,' says Dr. Whewell, 'the citizen's obligations are identified with his religious duties and the State relies upon this identity, as necessary to give it a real hold upon men, and to make them do its business in a sincere, serious, and solemn spirit. If the State cannot obtain this result, it will necessarily tend to dissolution. But religious duties can have no force for men who have no religion. The State therefore, in order to provide for its own preservation, must maintain the religion of the citizens in such modes as it can ; for instance, by the religious education of the young, and by arrangements for keeping up the religious convictions and religious sympathies of all. If the State do not by such means, or by some means, keep alive the religious convictions to which it appeals in the Oaths which it imposes, the Oaths, will be rejected, or regarded as unmeaning. In such a case |