370 



* Right, or 

 some word of 

 the like impoi 

 seems to be 

 omitted here. 



The second 

 part of this 

 treatise. 



All fines upon 

 oath. 



AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF 



dearly enough without such a fine, for that the trial may 

 be by battle, to the great hazard of the champion. 



The like exemption hath the writ to inquire of a man s 

 death, which also, by the twenty-sixth chapter of that 

 Magna Charta, must be granted freely, and without giving 

 any thing for it ; which last I do rather note, because it 

 may be well gathered thereby, that even then all those 

 other writs did lawfully answer their due fines ; for other 

 wise the like prohibition would have been published against 

 them, as was in this case of the inquisition itself. 



I see no need to maintain the mediocrity and easiness 

 of this last sort of fine, which in lands exceedeth not the 

 tenth part of one year s value, and in&quot; goods the two hun 

 dredth part of the thing that is demanded by the writ. 



Neither has this office of ours* originally to meddle with 

 the fines of any other original writs, than of such only as 

 whereupon a fine or concord may be had and levied ; which 

 is commonly the writ of covenant, and rarely any other. 

 For we deal not with the fine of the writ of entry of lands 

 holden in chief, as due upon the original writ itself; but 

 only as payable in the nature of a license for the alienation, 

 for which the third part of the yearly rent is answered ; as 

 the statute 32 H. VIII. cap. 1. hath specified, giving the 

 direction for it ; albeit now lately the writs of entry be made 

 parcel of the parcel ferm also; and therefore I will here 

 close up the first part, and unfold the second. 



Before the institution of this ferm and office no writ of 

 covenant for the levying any final concord, no writ of entry 

 for the suffering of any common recovery of lands holden 

 in chief, no doquet for license to alien, nor warrant for par 

 don of alienation made, could be purchased and gotten with 

 out an oath called an affidavit, therein first taken either 

 before some justices of assize, or master of the chancery, for 

 the true discovery of the yearly value of the lands com 

 prised in every of the same ; in which doing, if a man shall 

 consider on the one side the care and severity of the law, 

 that would not be satisfied without an oath ; and, on the 

 other side, the assurance of the truth to be had by so reli 

 gious an affirmation as an oath is, he will easily believe that 

 nothing could be added unto that order, either for the ready 

 dispatch of the subject, or for the uttermost advancement 

 of the king s profit. But quid verba audiam, cum facia 

 videam ? Much peril to the swearer, and little good to our 

 sovereign hath ensued thereof. For, on the one side, the 

 justices of assize were many times abused by their clerks, 



