Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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(6) The whole was concluded by the final “judgment,” or decree, which practically took the form of a sentence passed on the vanquished. The judges could scarcely be said to decide the case, since this had already been practically decided by the success or failure of the party on whom the proof had been laid. Those who gave sentence were “judges” merely in the sense of umpires who saw fairplay to both players, according to the acknowledged rules of the desperate game.^[148]

In one sense, the final (as opposed to the medial) “judgment” was determined by the parties themselves, or by one of them; in another and higher sense the facts at issue were left to Providence; a miracle, if necessary, would attest the just claim of the innocent man. Those who delivered the final doom, had a purely formal task to perform, and had little in common with the “judges” of a modern court.^[149]

The essentials of this procedure were the same in the Norman as in the Anglo-Saxon period, and that in all three classes of tribunals—popular courts, manorial courts, and royal courts.