mentaries[1]; when we conſidered them as private wrongs, or civil injuries, for which a ſatisfaction or remedy is given to the party aggrieved. But, taken in a public light, as a breach of the king's peace, an affront to his government, and a damage done to his ſubjects, they are alſo indictable and puniſhable with fine and impriſonment; or with other ignominious corporal penalties, where they are committed with any very atrocious deſign[2]. As in caſe of an aſſault with an intent to murder, or with an intent to commit either of the crimes laſt ſpoken of; for which intentional aſſaults, in the two laſt caſes, indictments are much more uſual, than for the abſolute perpetration of the facts themſelves, on account of the difficulty of proof: and herein, beſides heavy fine and impriſonment, it is uſual to award judgment of the pillory.
There is alſo one ſpecies of battery, more atrocious and penal than the reſt, which is the beating of a clerk in orders, or clergyman; on account of the reſpect and reverence due to his ſacred character, as the miniſter and embaſſador of peace. Accordingly it is enacted by the ſtatute called articuli cleri, 9 Edw. II. c. 3. that if any perſon lay violent hands upon a clerk, the amends for the peace broken ſhall be before the king; that is by indictment in the king's courts: and the aſſailant may alſo be ſued before the biſhop, that excommunication or bodily penance may be impoſed: which if the offender will redeem by money, to be given to the biſhop, or the party grieved, it may be ſued for before the biſhop; whereas otherwiſe to ſue in any ſpiritual court, for civil damages for the battery, falls within the danger of praemunire[3]. But ſuits are, and always were, allowable in the ſpiritual court, for money agreed to be given as a commutation for penance[4]. So that upon the whole it appears, that a perſon guilty of ſuch brutal behaviour to a clergyman, is ſubject to three kinds of proſecution, all of which may be purſued for one and the ſame offence: an indictment, for the breach
