BISHOP AYLMER. 167 



&quot; twelve men, indwellers in the country where the trespass CHAP. 

 &quot; is committed, who pronounce Guilty, if they think so, 

 &quot; whether he confesseth it or no : and ofttimes rather upon 

 &quot; their own conscience, than any great witness, or other 

 &quot; evidence. This order, as it was in itself at the first with- 

 &quot; out corruption, was marvellous conscionable and godly, 

 &quot; and in my judgment much better than the civil order. 

 &quot; For they, to wring out the confession of the fault com- 

 &quot; mitted, are driven to use torments, and to punish before 

 &quot; they have tried the fault. Wherein they are ofttimes de- 

 &quot; ceived, by racking those which have not offended, and 

 &quot; driving them for pains of torments to say that they never 

 &quot; did. As I have heard happened at Tubinga in the Wir- 

 &quot; tenbergh land, that a man was broken upon the wheel for 

 &quot; murdering another, which after was found alive. The 

 &quot; smarts of the torments made him to confess it, and lie of 

 &quot; himself: in monument whereof his image standeth yet 

 &quot; in a glass window of the church, even as he was upon 

 &quot; the wheel. Again, there was in England an Italian, not 

 &quot; long ago, who, as they say, passed through all the tor- 

 &quot; ments in Venice, and escaped without confessing the fault 

 &quot; which indeed he had committed. On the other side our 

 &quot; twelve men, the quest, being indwellers in the country, 

 &quot; and men of skill, shall learn by the circumstances, as by 

 &quot; the life of the man, the common fame of the people, or 

 &quot; their own search in the matter, whether he be such an 

 &quot; one or no ; and so without racking, wresting, and tor- 

 &quot; menting, the deed may be found. But indeed at these 

 &quot; days it is grown to great corruption, &c. But, as I said, 

 &quot; this order [of the verdict of twelve men] in itself, me- 

 &quot; thinks, hath much more justice, equity, and indifference, 

 &quot; than the civil (or rather cruel) rack hath. If I should 

 &quot; peruse and compare all points wherein ours differ from 

 &quot; the civil, and shew that for our country it is much meeter, 

 &quot; I should never make an end.&quot; And so at length he con 

 cludes, turning his speech to him whom he is refuting: 

 &quot;Wherefore these shall be sufficient to shew, that you 

 &quot; must bring our own w r eights, to weigh our matters by, 



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