To halwe mennes auteres,
And crepe amonges curatours,
And confessen ageyn the lawe.
Piers Ploughman, Wright’s Edition, l. 10695-702.
[710] Nullusque eorum uxorem ducat: et si antequam sacros ordines suscepit uxorem duxerit, seu postea, si beneficium habeat, ipso privetur, et ab exsecutione sui officii suspendatur, nisi in casu a jure concesso.—Constit. Walteri Episc. Dunelmens. (Wilkins, I. 705).
[711] Sir, il ne doit mie joyer du benefit de celle priviledge, car il ad forfait per vice de Bigamy; comme celui qui ad espousé vefve ou plusors femmes.—Myrror of Justice, cap. III. sect. v.
[712] Concil. Londiniens. ann. 1268 c. 8 (Wilkins, II. 5).
[713] Convocat. Cantuar. ann. 1399 c. 13 (Wilkins, III. 240).
[714] The canon law maintained the extraordinary doctrine that the confession of the guilty woman could not be received as evidence against her accomplice, though it was good as against herself. “Unde nec sacerdotes accusare nec in eos testificari valent.... Quia ergo ista de se confitetur, super alienum crimen ei credi non oportet; sed contra eam sua confessio interpretanda est” (Gratian. P. II. c. xv. q. 3). It would be hard to imagine a rule of practice better fitted to repress investigation and to shield offenders.
[715] Wilkins, II. 40.