Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/65

Ch. 4. B'or this did not extend very far : for in the antient treatie, intitled diverite des courtes, uppoed to be written very early in the ixteenth century, we have a catalogue of the matters of concience then cognizable by ubpoena in chancery, which fall within a very narrow compas. No regular judicial ytem at that time prevailed in the court; but the uitor, when he thought himelf aggrieved, found a deultory and uncertain remedy, according to the private opinion of the chancellor, who was generally an eccleiatic, or ometimes (though rarely) a tateman : no lawyer having ate in the court of chancery from the times of the chief jutices Thorpe and Knyvet, ucceively chancellors to king Edward III in 1372 and 1373, to the promotion of ir Thomas More by king Henry VIII in 1530. After which the great eal was indicriminately committed to the cutody of lawyers, or courtiers, or churchmen , according as the convenience of the times and the dispoition of the prince required, till erjeant Puckering was made lord, keeper in 1592: from which time to the preent the court of chancery has always been filled by a lawyer, excepting the interval from 1621 to 1625, when the eal was intruted to Dr Williams, then dean of Wetminter, but afterwards bihop of Lincoln; who had been chaplain to lord Ellenaere,, when chancellor.

the time of lord Ellemere (A.D. 1616.) aroe that no-table dipute between the courts of law and equity, et on foot by ir Edward Coke, then chief jutice of the court of king's bench; whether a court of equity could give relief after or againt a judgment at the common law. This contet was o warmly carried on, that indictments were preferred againt the uitors," he folicitors, the counel, and even a mater in chancery, for having incurred a praemunire, by quetioning in a court of equity a judgment in the court of king's bench, obtained by; gros