De laudibus legum Angliæ writen by Sir Iohn Fortescue L. Ch. Iustice, and after L. Chancellor to K. Henry VI. Hereto are ioind the two Summes of Sir Ralph de Hengham L. Ch. Iustice to K. Edward I. commonly calld Hengham magna, and Hengham parua. Neuer before publisht. Notes both on Fortescue and Hengham are added

THerefore the law of France, in offences criminal, wherupon death dependeth, is not content to conuict the party accu∣sed by witnesses least by the testimony of false per∣sons, innocēt bloud should be condemned. But that law choseth rather to tor∣ment such offenders with racking, vntill they them∣selues confesse their own fault, rather then by the deposition of witnesses, which manye times through wicked affecti∣ons, & sometimes by the subornation of euill men, are mooued to periurie. Upon this, and such like cantels & respects, offen∣ders and suspect persons are in that realme with so many kinds of rackings

tormented, that my penne abhorreth to put them in writing. For some are stretched out vpon a horse in such wise, that their sinewes breake and their vaines gushe out with streames of bloud: Again other some haue diuers great weightes hanged at their feete, whereby their lymmes and ioynts are dissolued and vnloo∣sed: Some also haue their mouthes so long gaged open till such a∣boundance of water bee powred in, that their bel∣ly swelleth like a hill or a tonne, to the intent that then the belly being pier∣sed with some boring in∣strument, the water may issue & spout out thereat, and at the mouth stream∣wise, not much vnlike a

Whale, which, when he hath supped vp, and swal∣lowed downe a great quantitie of Sea water, with herrings and other small fishes, gusheth out the same water againe, as high as the toppe of any Pine apple tree. My penne is both wearie and ashamed to rehearse the outragiousnes of tor∣ments deuised in this behalfe: For the num∣ber of them is so great, that it can skant well be noted in a whole skinne of parchement. More∣ouer the Ciuill Lawes, for want of witnesses, doe fetch out the trueth by such rackinges: And so doe diuers other Countries too. But who is so harde har∣ted, which being once

released out of so cruell a Racke, though he bee in∣nocent & faultlesse, would not yet rather accuse him∣selfe of all kindes of of∣fences, then againe to commit himself to the in∣tollerable crueltie of the torment once proued: and had not rather die at once (seeing death is the ende of all miseries) then so often to bee killed, and to sustaine so many hel∣lish furies, painfuller then death it selfe? And did not you, most wor∣thy Prince, know a cer∣taine offender, which in such torments ac∣cused a worshippefull, yea a right good and faithfull Knyght of Treason, wherein, as hee saide, they two had conspired together,

which treason, he himself beeing released from the racke, afterward attemp∣ted & accomplished, there∣by to acquite himselfe from comming to the tor∣ture againe. But at the last, by meane of those torments beeing so may∣med in his bodie, that thereby hee was brought in despaire of his life, and thereupon receiuing his howsell, he then swore by the same body of the Lord and by the death which he beleeued that hee should foorthwith die, that the said knight was innocent and guitlesse in all things whereof hee had accused him, howbeit the paines, wherein hee was at the time of that his accusati∣on, hee said were so ex∣treme, that rather then he

would feele the same a∣gaine, he would not sticke to accuse the said Knight againe, yea and his owne Father to, This he said being then at the verie point of death, which hee beleeued hee could not then escape, no, nor hee escaped not the death which hee then feared. But afterward beeing hanged, at the time of his death hee cleared the saide Knight of all crimes whereof beefore hee had defamed him. Thus (O pittifull case) doe many other wret∣ches, not for the truthes sake, but forced thereun∣to by the extremitie of torments, And what certainetie then can arise of the confessions of mise∣rable tormented persons?

But if some innocent bodie, hauing his minde fixed vpon eternall salua∣tion, would in such a Babylonicall Fornace, with the three Children blesse and magnifie the LORD, and not lye to the damnation of his owne▪ soule, in that the Iudge pronounceth him vnguiltie, doth not that Iudge by the selfe same iudgement iudge him∣selfe guiltie of all the cruelty and paines, wher∣with hee hath tormen∣ted the innocent? O how cruell is such a Lawe, which in that it can not condempne the syely innocent, condemp∣neth the Iudge? Sure∣ly such a custome is not to bee accompted a law, but rather the highe

way to the Deuill. O Iudge, in what Schoole hast thou learned to bee present, while y^e offendor is tormented. For the ex∣ecutiōs of iudgemēts vp∣on offendors ought to be done by men of base de∣grée: the doers wherof do purchase to thēselues pre∣sent infamie by the deede doing, insomuch that euer after they are disabled frō the prefermēt of a iudge: neither doth y^e Lord God execute his iudgements, pronounced against the dampned, by angels, but by deuils. Yea & in Pur∣gatory y^e soules there re∣maining, though they bee predestinate to glorie, yet are they not tormented with good angels, but of euill. Those also are euill & wicked men by whom

the Lord in this world doth minister to wretched sinners deserued punish∣ment. For, when God said in the two and twen∣tith Chapter of the third booke of Kings: Who shall deceiue Achab? It was an euil spirit that an∣swered: I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. For it be∣commeth not a good spirit to take vpon him the exe∣cution of such thinges, though this iudgement proceeded from the Lord, that Achab should bee de∣ceiued by a lye. But the Iudge peraduenture will say: I with mine owne hands did nothing in these torments. But what dif∣fereth it, whether one be a doer with his owne hands, or els bee present

at the dooing, and the thing that is done to ex∣asperate it vy his com∣maundement. It is one∣ly the Master of the ship that bringeth it to the Hauen, though by his commandement an other bee the stirresman, I be∣leeue that the wound wherewith the minde of the Iudge thus tormen∣ting any man is plagued, will neuer bee healed a∣gaine, especially while hee remembreth the ex∣tremitie of the paines sustained by the poore wretch in those miserable torments.