B'or this did not extend very far : for in the antient treatiſe, intitled diverſite des courtes[1], ſuppoſed to be written very early in the ſixteenth century, we have a catalogue of the matters of conſcience then cognizable by ſubpoena in chancery, which fall within a very narrow compaſs. No regular judicial ſyſtem at that time prevailed in the court; but the ſuitor, when he thought himſelf aggrieved, found a deſultory and uncertain remedy, according to the private opinion of the chancellor, who was generally an eccleſiaſtic, or ſometimes (though rarely) a ſtateſman : no lawyer having ſate in the court of chancery from the times of the chief juſtices Thorpe and Knyvet, ſucceſſively chancellors to king Edward III in 1372 and 1373[2], to the promotion of ſir Thomas More by king Henry VIII in 1530. After which the great ſeal was indiſcriminately committed to the cuſtody of lawyers, or courtiers[3], or churchmen[4], according as the convenience of the times and the dispoſition of the prince required, till ſerjeant Puckering was made lord, keeper in 1592: from which time to the preſent the court of chancery has always been filled by a lawyer, excepting the interval from 1621 to 1625, when the ſeal was intruſted to Dr Williams, then dean of Weſtminſter, but afterwards biſhop of Lincoln; who had been chaplain to lord Elleſnaere,, when chancellor[5].
In the time of lord Elleſmere (A.D. 1616.) aroſe that no-table diſpute between the courts of law and equity, ſet on foot by ſir Edward Coke, then chief juſtice of the court of king's bench; whether a court of equity could give relief after or againſt a judgment at the common law. This conteſt was ſo warmly carried on, that indictments were preferred againſt the ſuitors," ſhe folicitors, the counſel, and even a maſter in chancery, for having incurred a praemunire, by queſtioning in a court of equity a judgment in the court of king's bench, obtained by;
