Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/79

 people of all conditions and from all the coasts of Gwent waiting to hear sentence given. And all the while Sir Jenkin never moved, and would not answer a single question; but perhaps he knew it would be no good, and so held his tongue to save trouble. But if he held his tongue other people did not, for they felt that such a chance as this was too good to be lost, since it might never occur again and all sorts of interruptions to the real business took place, some of which were quite indecent. I believe that close upon Midnight a young Canonist put in an objection to the effect that a device of metal work, not having any soul nor principle of life, was incapable of being judged by the Ecclesiastical Law; whereupon there was first of all a terrible wrangle about the nature of the soul which gave the young Canonist his opportunity to read out Aristotle, Averroes, St. Denys the Areopagite, Erigena, St. Thomas d'Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Peter Lombard, &c., &c., till he had to be stopped by force, for he never would have stopped of his own accord. But my Lord Abbot made short work with this objection, proving syllogistically and illatively that nothing in the whole world was outside the Laws Ecclesiastical which go over everything like a blanket, and keep the earth warm. Indeed this remark of the young Canonist's was a very foolish one, and showed that he was fresh to his work. Finally, some time on the next morning, the judges held a short conference apart, and then they proceeded to the judgment which was delivered on these four Articles of the Bill of Accusation; namely:—