COMMENDAMS. 331 



but most of all to proceed in the mean time, and to 

 return to him a bare certificate ; whereas they ought 

 to have concluded with the laying down and repre 

 senting of their reasons modestly to his majesty, 

 why they should proceed ; and so to have submitted 

 the same to his princely judgment, expecting to 

 hear from him whether they had given him satis 

 faction. 



After this his majesty s declaration, all the judges 

 fell down upon their knees, and acknowledged their 

 error for matter and form, humbly craving his ma 

 jesty s gracious favour and pardon for the same. 



But for the matter of the letter, the lord chief 

 justice of the king s bench entered into a defence 

 thereof; the effect whereof was, that the stay re 

 quired by his majesty was a delay of justice, and 

 therefore contrary to law and the judges oath ; and 

 that the judges knew well amongst themselves, that 

 the case, as they meant to handle it, did not con 

 cern his majesty s prerogative of granting of Com- 

 mendams : and that if the day had not held by the 

 not coming of the judges, the suit had been discon 

 tinued, which had been a failing of justice, and that 

 they could not adjourn it, because Mr. Attorney s 

 letter mentioned no day certain, and that an ad 

 journment must always be to a day certain. 



Unto which answer of the chief justice his ma 

 jesty did reply; that for the last conceit, it was 

 mere sophistry, for that they might in their discre 

 tions have prefixed a convenient day, such as there 

 might have been time for them to consult with his 



