Felons allowed to plead benefit of clergy after the right had been abolished by statute.
Benefit of clergy was taken from felons in 1531-2.[485] At least five years later, when Cromwell was privy seal, three men were arraigned at the gaol delivery at Ipswich, “upon three several indictments of several felonies.” They were convicted regularly, and their guilt does not seem to have been doubted; but “every of them prayed their book.” The see of Norwich being vacant at the time, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was suspended; no “ordinary” was present in court to “hear them read;” the magistrates thereupon “reprieved the said felons, without any judgment upon the said verdict.” The prisoners were remanded to the gaol till the spiritual courts were ready to take charge of them: they were kept carelessly, and escaped.[486]
Description of a sanctuary at Bewley in Hampshire.
The following extract from a letter written in 1539 will show, better than any general description, the nature of a sanctuary, and the spirit in which the protection was enjoyed. The number of sanctuaries had been limited by act of parliament previous to their final abolition; certain favoured spots were permitted for a time to absorb the villany of the country; and felons who had taken refuge elsewhere, were to be removed into some one of these. Bewley in Hampshire had been condemned to lose its privilege. Richard Layton, the monastic visitor, describes and pleads for it to the privy seal.
Interest expressed by the visitor in thirty-two debtors, felons, and murderers.
“There be sanctuary men here,” he says, “for debt, felony, and murder, thirty-two; many of them aged, some very sick. They have all, within four, wives and children, and dwelling-houses, and ground, whereby they live with their families; which, being all assembled before us, and the king’s pleasure opened to them, they have very lamentably declared that, if they be now sent to other sanctuaries, not only they, but their wives and children also, shall be utterly undone; and therefore have desired us to be mean unto your good lordship that they may remain here for term of their lives, so that none others be received. And because we have certain knowledge that the great number of them, with their wives and children, shall be utterly cast away, their age, impotency, and other things considered, if they be sent to any other place, we have sent this bearer unto you, beseeching your lordship to know the king’s pleasure herein.”[487]
The nineteenth century believes, and believes with justice, that in its treatment of criminals it has made advances in humanity on the practice of earlier times; but the warmest of living philanthropists would scarcely consider so tenderly, in a correspondence with the home secretary, the domestic comforts of thirty-two debtors, felons, and murderers.
Rowland Lee, Lord Warden of the Welsh Marches.
Transitional condition of the Welsh people.
False attempts at independence on the Border.