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 756 R. G. Usher the judges' duty to keep themselves informed of the contents of such documents. This argument won the day and the judges re- manded Fuller to prison for good and all. But they wove into their speeches various statements of political theory which, with Fuller's pamphlet, later published, mark the case as important in the annals of English constitutional history. They declared that " they were one of the Kinges strongest amies ", and dilated upon their own importance and dignity. They hoped, they said, that all men who had spoken disrespectfully of their authority would " learn and understand " that the temporal courts possessed a perfect right to grant prohibitions, and intended to continue issuing them whenever they saw fit. Their intention to grant them in in- stances like Fuller's was expressed in the declaration that all prohi- bitions issued in the past had been properly granted. When the news reached James, who was hunting outside London, he was at once pleased and displeased. So satisfactory was the set- tlement of the case to him that he sent profuse thanks to all who had labored to bring it about, especially to Chief Justice Coke of the Common Pleas, who had been playing the mediator between the Commission and the King's Bench. But he declared and bownd it with an oath that the judges hed don well for themselfes as well as for him for that he was resolued if they had don otherwise and mainteyned their habeas corpus he wold haue committed them. And uppon that point which your lo : mentioneth of their declaration that they wold grant prohibitions he spake angrily that by their leaves they should not use their libertie therein but be prescribed." Fuller returned to the Fleet prison and soon began to try what could be accomplished toward freeing himself by his own submis- siveness and his friends' importunity. After the second hearing he had intimated to Hobart while still in the court room, that " if he had ofifended " he was sorry and begged pardon, but was at once assured that such conditional submissions were of no avail and that a complete retractation of his words without " ifs " and reserva- tions was required. Within a week after his recommitment, he forwarded to the archbishop a submission which seemed at the moment likely to satisfy all parties.- To prepossess the authorities in his favor, his wife journeyed down to Newmarket over the bad roads, to present a petition to James on her husband's behalf. Lake and other officials, getting a sight of it, persuaded her to redraft it into less enigmatical shape. She presented the altered petition 'Hatfield MSS., 123, f. 55 (November 27, 1607, Lake to Salisbury, holo- graph) ; and Hatfield MSS., 123, f. 66 (November 30, 1607, same to same). -Ibid., i. 90 (December 9, 1607, holograph, same to same).