Where vagabonds be found in the realm, calling themselves Egyptians, it is felony.

Where a purveyor doth take without warrant, or otherwise doth offend against certain special laws, it is felony.

Where a man hunts in any forest, park, or warren, by night or by day, with vizard, or other disguisements, and is examined thereof, and concealeth his fact, it is felony.

Where one stealeth certain kind of hawks, it is felony.

Where a man committeth forgery the second time, having been once before convicted, it is felony.

Where a man transporteth rams, or other sheep, out of the king's dominions the second time, it is felony.

Where a man, being imprisoned for felony, breaks prison, it is felony. Where a man procureth, or consenteth to felony to be done, it is felony, as to make him accessary before the fact.

Where a man receiveth or relieveth a felon, it is felony, as to make him accessary after the fact.

Where a woman, by the constraint of her husband, in his presence, joineth with him in committing of felony, it is not felony in her, neither as principal, nor as accessary.

Homicide, or the killing of a man, is to be considered in four kinds, chance-medley, se defendendo, man-slaughter, and wilful murder.

CHAP. VIII,

The Punishment, Trial, and Proceedings in Cases of Felony,

IN felony, the corporal punishment is hanging, and it is doubtful, whether the king may turn it into beheading in the case of a peer, or other person of dignity, because, in treason, the striking off the head is part of the judgment, and so the king pardoneth the rest; but in felony, it is no part of the judgment, and the king cannot alter the execution of law; yet precedents have been both ways: If it be upon indictment, the king may, but upon an appeal he cannot.

In felony there followeth corruption of blood, except it be in cases made felony by special statutes, with a proviso, that there shall be no corruption of blood.

In felony, lands in fee-simple, and goods and chattels are forfeited, and the profits of estates for life are likewise forfeited, but not lands intailed: And by some customs, lands in fee-simple are not so forfeited:

The father to the bough,
The son to the plough.

as in gavelkind, in Kent, and other places.

In felony, the escheats go to the lord of the fee, and not to the king, except he be lord: But profits for the estates for lives, or in tail, during the life of tenant in tail, go to the king; and the king hath likewise annum, & diem, & vastum.

In felony, lands are not in the king before office, nor in the lord before entry or recovery, in a writ of escheat, or death of the party attainted.

In felony, there can be no proceeding with the accessary, before there be a proceeding with the principal: If he die, or plead his pardon, or have his clergy, before attainder, the accessary can never be dealt with.

In felony, if the party stand mute, and will not put himself upon trial, or challenge peremptorily, above that the law allows, he shall have judgment, not of hanging, but of penance of pressing to death; but there he saves his lands, and forfeits only his goods.

In felony, at the common law, the benefit of clergy, or sanctuary, was allowed; but now by statute, it is taken away in most cases.

In felony, bail may be admitted where the fact is not notorious, and the person not of ill name.

In felony, no counsel is to be allowed to the party, no more than in

treason.

In felony, if the fact be committed beyond the seas, or upon the seas, super altum mare, there is no trial at all in one case, nor by course or jury in the other, but by the jurisdiction of the admiralty.

In felony, no witness shall be received upon oath for the party's justification, no more than in treason.

In felony, if the party be non sana memoria, although it be after the fact, he cannot be tried nor adjudged, except it be in course of outlawry, and that is also erroneous.

In felony, the death of the party, before conviction, dischargeth all proceedings and forfeitures.

In felony, if the party be once acquitted, or in peril of judgment of life lawfully, he shall never be brought in question again, for the same fact.

In felony, the prosecution may be either at the king's suit, or by way of appeal; the defendant shall have his course, and produce witnesses upon oath, as in civil causes.

In felony, the king may grant hault justice to a subject, with the regality of power to pardon it.

In felony, the trial of peers is all one as in case of treason.

In felony, the proceedings are in the King's Bench, or before commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, or of jail delivery, and in some cases before justices of the peace.

CHAP. IX.

Cases of Felony de se, with the Punishment, Trial, and Proceedings,

IN the civil law, and other laws, they make a difference of cases of felony de se; for where a man is called in question upon any capital crime, and killeth himself to prevent the law, there they give the judg ment in all points of forfeiture, as if they had been attainted in their life-time: And, on the other side, where a man killeth himself upon

impatience of sickness, or the like, they do not punish it at all; but the law of England taketh it all in one degree, and punisheth only with loss. of goods, to be forfeited to the king, who generally grants them to his almoner, where they be not formerly granted unto special liberties.

CHAP. X.

Cases of Pramunire.

WHERE a man purchaseth or accepteth any provision, that is, collation of any spiritual benefice or living, from the see of Rome, it is præmunire.

Where a man shall purchase any process to draw any people off the king's allegiance out of the realm, in plea whereof the cognisance pertains to the king's court, and cometh not in person to answer his contempt in that behalf before the king and his council, or in his chancery, it is præmunire.

Where a man doth sue in any court which is not the king's court, to defeat or impeach any judgment given in the king's court, and doth not appear to answer his contempt, it is præmunire.

Where a man doth purchase or pursue in the court of Rome, or elsewhere, any process, sentence of excommunication, bull, or instrument, or other thing which toucheth the king in his regality, or his realm in prejudice, it is præmunire.

Where a man doth affirm or maintain any foreign kind of jurisdiction spiritual, or doth put in use or execution any thing for the advancement or setting forth thereof; such offence the second time committed is pramunire.

Where a man refuseth to take the oath of supremacy, being tendered by the bishop of the diocese, if he be an ecclesiastical person; or by a commission out of the chancery, if he be a temporal person, it is præmunire.

Where a dean and chapter of any church, upon the conge d'elire of an archbishop or bishop, doth refuse to elect any such archbishop or bishop, as is nominated unto them in the king's letters missive, it is præmunire.

Where a man doth contribute or give relief to any jesuit or seminary priest, or to any person brought up therein, and called home, and not returning, it is case of præmunire.

Where a man is a broker of an usurious contract above ten in the hundred, it is præmunire.

CHAP. XI.

The Punishment, Trial, and Proceedings in Cases of Præmunire.

THE punishment is by imprisonment during life, forfeiture of goods,

forfeiture of lands in fee-simple, and forfeiture of the profits of lands intailed, or for life.

The trial and proceeding is as in cases of misprision of treason, and the trial is by peers, where a peer of the realm is the offender.

Striking any man, in the face of the king's courts, is forfeiture of lands, perpetual imprisonment, and loss of that hand,

CHAP. XII.

Cases of Abjuration and Exile, and the Proceedings therein.:

Where a man committeth any felony, for the which at this day he may have privilege of sanctuary, and confesseth the felony before the coroner, he shall abjure the liberty of the realm, and chuse his sanctuary; and if he commit any new offence, or leave his sanctuary, he shall lose the privilege thereof, and suffer as if he had not taken sanctuary.

Where a man, not coming to the church, and being a popish recusant, doth persuade any the king's subjects to impugn his Majesty's authority in causes ecclesiastical, or shall persuade any subject to come to any unlawful conventicles, and shall not after conform himself within a time, and make his submission, he shall abjure the realm, and forfeit his goods and lands during life; and, if he depart not within the time prefixed, or return, he shall be in the degree of a felon.

Where a man, being a popish recusant, and not having lands to the value of twenty marks per annum, nor goods to the value of forty pounds, shall not repair to his dwelling or place where he was born, and there confine himself within the compass of five miles, he shall abjure the realm; and, if he return, he shall be in the case of a felon. Where a man kills the king's deer in chaces or forests, and can find no sureties after a year's imprisonment, he shall abjure the realm.

Where a man is a trespasser in parks, or in ponds of fish, and after three years imprisonment cannot find sureties, he shall abjure the realm.

Where a man is a ravisher of any child, whose marriage belongs to any person, and marrieth the said child after years of consent, and is not able to satisfy for the marriage, he shall abjure the realm.

CHAP. XIII.

Cases of Heresy, and the Trial and Proceedings therein.

THE declaration of heresy, and likewise the proceedings and judg ment upon hereticks, is by the common laws of this realm referred to the jurisdiction ecclesiastical, and the secular arm is reached to them by the common laws, and not by any statute for the execution of them by the king's writ de heretico comburendo.

CHAP. XIV.

The King's Prerogative in Parliament.

THE king hath an absolute negative voice to all bills that pass the parliament, so as, without his royal assent, they have a mere nullity, and not so much as authoritas præscripta, or senatus consulta had, notwithstanding the intercession of tribunes.

The king may summon parliaments, dissolve them, prorogue them, and adjourn them, at his pleasure.

The king may add voices in the parliament at his pleasure, for he may give privilege to borough towns as many as he will, and may likewise call and create barons, at his pleasure.

No man can sit in parliament, except he take the oath of allegiance.

CHAP. XV.

The King's Prerogative in Matters of War or Peace.

THE king hath power to declare and proclaim war, and to make and conclude peace, and truce, at his pleasure.

The king hath power to make leagues and confederacies with foreign states, more strait and less strait, and to revoke and disannul them at his pleasure.

The king hath power to command the bodies of his subjects for the service of his wars, and to muster, train, and levy men, and to transport them by sea or land, at his pleasure.

The king hath power, in time of war, to execute martial law, and to appoint all officers of war, at his pleasure.

The king hath power to grant his letters of mart and reprisal for remedy to his subjects upon foreign wrongs, at his pleasure.

The king hath power to declare laws by his letters patents for the government of any place conquered by his arms, at his pleasure.

The king may give knighthood, and thereby enable any subject to perform knight's service, at his pleasure.

CHAP. XVI.

The King's Prerogative in Matters of Money.

THE king may alter his standard, in baseness or fineness of his, coin, at his pleasure.

The king may alter his stamp in form, at his pleasure.