STAR-CHAMBER DECREE AGAINST DUELS. 133 



and sentences declare how much it imported the 

 peace and prosperous estate of his majesty and his 

 kingdom to nip this practice and offence of duels in 

 the head, which now did overspread and grow uni 

 versal, even among mean persons, and was not only 

 entertained in practice and custom, but was framed 

 into a kind of art and precepts : so that, according 

 to the saying of the Scripture, &quot; mischief is imagined 

 t( like a law.&quot; And the court with one consent did 

 declare their opinions : That by the ancient law of 

 the land, all inceptions, preparations and combina 

 tions to execute unlawful acts, though they never 

 be performed, as they be not to be punished capi 

 tally, except it be in case of treason, and some 

 other particular cases of statute law ; so yet they 

 are punishable as misdemeanors and contempts : 

 and that this court was proper for offences of such a 

 nature ; especially in this case, where the bravery 

 and insolency of the times are such as the ordinary 

 magistrates and justices that are trusted with the 

 preservation of the peace, are not able to master 

 and repress those offences, which were by the court 

 at large set forth, to be not only against the law of 

 God, to whom, and his substitutes, all revenge be- 

 longeth, as part of his prerogative, but also against 

 the oath and duty of every subject unto his majesty, 

 for that the subject doth swear unto him by the 

 ancient law allegiance of life and member ; whereby 

 it is plainly inferred, that the subject hath no dis 

 posing power over himself of life and member 

 to be spent or ventured according to his own pas- 



