De republica Anglorum The maner of gouernement or policie of the realme of England, compiled by the honorable man Thomas Smyth, Doctor of the ciuil lawes, knight, and principall secretarie vnto the two most worthie princes, King Edwarde the sixt, and Queene Elizabeth. Seene and allowed.

Of the Coroner. CHAP. 21.

BVt if anie man, woman, or child, be violently slaine, the murtherer not knowen, no man ought or dare burie the bodie before the Coroner hath séene it. The Coroner is one chosen by the Prince of the meaner sort of gentlemen, and for the most part a man séene in the lawes of the Realme to execute that office. And if the person slaine, (slaine I cal here, whosoeuer he be, man, woman, or childe, that violently commeth to his death, whether it be by knife, poyson, cord, drowning, burning, suffocation, or otherwise, be it by his owne fault or default, or by any other) if (I say) the person slaine be buried before the Coroner doe come (which for the most part men dare not doe) he doeth cause the bodie to be taken vp againe, and to be searched, and

vppon the sight of the bodie so violently come to his death, he doth empanell an enquest of xij men or mo, of those which come next by, be they strangers or in∣habitantes, which vpon their othes, and by the sight or viewe of the bodie, and by such informations as they can take, must search howe the person slaine came to his death, and by whome as the doer or causer thereof. These are not inclosed into a streit place, (as I tolde before of other enquestes) but are suffered to goe at large, and take a day, sometime after xx or xxx daies, more or lesse, as the fact is more euident, or more kept close, to giue their euidence, at which day they must ap∣peare there againe before the saide Coroner to giue their verdict. So sometime the person slaine himselfe, sometime the brother, the husbande, the wife, the si∣ster, some of acquaintance or stranger, such as God wil haue reueiled, be taken. For whosoeuer they doe finde as guiltie of the murder, he is streight committed to prison, and this is against him in the nature of an in∣ditement which is not a full condemnation, as ye shall sée héereafter.

The empanelling of this enquest, and the viewe of the bodie, and the giuing of the verdict, is common∣ly in the stréete in an open place, and in Corona populi: but I take rather that this name commeth because that the death of euerie subiect by violence is accounted to touch the crowne of the Prince, and to be a detri∣ment vnto it, the Prince accounting that his strength, power, and crowne doth stande and consist in the force of his people, and the maintenaunce of them in securi∣tie and peace.