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Indiana University Studies 
mission for the trial of heretics ; but today these courts have 
little but antiquarian interest. 
Legal Procedure. Under Edward I the practice arose of 
putting all indictments in writing, and Edward III required 
the indictment to state specifically the acts which were going 
to be alleged as criminal, from which uncertainty in an in- 
dictment has remained a fatal error to this day. Written 
pleadings were introduced in the common law courts in the 
reign of Henry VIII. There was a gradual differentiation of 
pleading and practice from proof. The jury began to be 
judges of the fact and witnesses were employed in the six- 
teenth century. Rules of evidence began to form. The rules 
in regard to competency and disqualification, privilege and 
privileged communications, rule for attorneys, and com- 
pulsory attendance of witnesses came in during this period. 
