The Court of Star Chamber.
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called Martin Marprelate to be printed in his house."
Judge by the generall report of all men, and by this report greatly abused."
"One writes to a Justice of the peace to send his warrant with a blanke, to put in one that he would attach upon suspition of Felonie, and so the Justice did, and because hee sent his warrant with a blanke to put in the name of one hee knew not, neither the matter, before the making of his warrant, hee was fined in this Court . . . and it was one Sir J. R."
'.' Divers of the County of Middlesex had taken money to favour Lod. Grcvill prisoner in the Tower for suspicion of being accessary to murther if they should be returned upon his de liverance, and of this they were convicted by good proofe : And they were fined in this Court to great fines, and three of them did weare papers from the Fleet to Westminster Hall, and there also; and backe againe to the Fleet."
He finally tells of how a justice who
had refused to take surety for the peace "One spoke of my Lord Dyer Chiefe Justice because the justice who issued the warrant of the Common Pleas ' that he was a corrupt Judge, for which he was convicted in this Court, i was not his friend, was for this deprived of and adjudged to stand upon the pillorie, vide his commission by the Star Chamber; and Statut. de Scandal magnaturn, in the which the of how in the reign of Elizabeth a number Judges of the Law are mentioned, and surely this of justices were fined for neglecting to appre man was a very grave, reverend and upright hend rioters. Hudson gives several instances in which, 'James Dyer, Ixinl Chief Justice of the Common Pleas without exactly trying people for common in Elizabeth's time, to whom the above has reference, — a offenses such as treason and murder, they man whose admiration of law was, as Foss says, at tended " with such efficiency, firmness and patience as inflicted heavy penalties for acts which not only to secure the confidence and admiration of might have been punished at common law his contemporaries, but also to fix a glory round his name under those denominations. which three ccnturiss have failed to dim," — had himself some experience w ith the Star Chamber. He was a friend The Earl of Rutland, for instance, was of the poor people and their stanch defender against the - fined £30,000 for being concerned in the oppressions of the powerful. This character of his was displayed at the Warwick assizes in 1574 in supporting a ' Earl of Essex's insurrection; — " and," says poor widow against the oppression of a rich knight of that 1 Hudson, " there are above a hundred prece county, whose illegal proceedings were assisted by the dents where persons that gave countenance bench of magistrates there. The angry magistrates ex to felons were here questioned." hibited articles against him to the privy council for his in In cases " pending upon felony " the party terference with their schemes. Dyer's reply to the charges appears in the life of the Judge, prefixed to his reports was not examined upon oath. edited by John Valient, but no mention is made of the dis These, however, were not the cases which position of the complaint, though it is alluded to by Lord commonly employed the Star Chamber. Chief Justice Montague in Wraynham's case in 161 8.
