Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/258

242 ” He is aid to have imperial dignity; and in charters before the conquet is frequently tiled baileus and imperator, the titles repectively aumed by the emperors of the eat and wet. His realm is declared to be an empire, and his crown imperial, by many acts of parliament, particularly the tatutes 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12. and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 28 ; which at the ame time declare the king to be the upreme head of the realm in matters both civil and eccleiatical, and of conequence inferior to no man upon earth, dependent on no man, accountable to no man. Formerly there prevailed a ridiculous notion, propagated by the German and Italian civilians, that an emperor could do many things which a king could not, (as the creation of notaries and the like) and that all kings were in ome degree ubordinate and ubject to the emperor of Germany or Rome. The meaning therefore of the legilature, when it ues thee terms of empire and imperial, and applies them to the realm and crown of England, is only to aert that our king is equally overeign and independent within thee his dominions, as any emperor is in his empire ; and owes no kind of ubjection to any other potentate upon earth. Hence it is, that no uit or action can be brought againt the king, even in civil matters, becaue no court can have juridiction over him. For all juridiction implies uperiority of power: authority to try would be vain and idle, without an authority to redres; and the entence of a court would be contemptible, unles that court had power to command the execution of it: but who, ays Finch, hall command the king? Hence it is likewie, that by law the peron of the king is acred, even though the meaures purued in his reign be completely tyrannical and arbitrary: for no juridiction upon earth has power to try him in a criminal way; much les to condemn him to punihment. If any foreign juridiction had this power, as was formerly claimed by the pope, the independence of the kingdom would be no more: and, if uch a power were veted in any dometic tribunal,