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

143 страница из 194

Two innovations the Norman Kings did make; they introduced trial by combat (already sufficiently discussed), and likewise the continental method of obtaining information on sworn testimony. Among the prerogatives of the Norman Dukes one of the most valuable was the right to compel the sworn evidence of reliable men of any district—men specially picked for the purpose, and put on oath before answering the questions asked of them, thus endangering their eternal welfare in the event of falsehood, and laying themselves open to temporal penalties for perjury.

This procedure was known as inquisitio (or the seeking of information) when regarded from the point of view of the government making the inquiry, and as recognitio (or the giving of information) from the point of view of those supplying it. This extremely simple and practical device was flexible and capable of extension to endless new uses in the deft hands of the Norman Kings in England. William the Conqueror employed it in collecting the laws and customs of the conquered people, and, later on, in compiling Domesday Book; while his successors made it the instrument of various experiments in the science of taxation. It has a double claim to the interest of the constitutional historian, because it was one of the influences which helped to mould our Parliamentary institutions; and because several of the new uses to which it came to be put had a close connection with the origin of trial by jury. The recognitors, indeed, were simply local jurors in a rude or elementary form.^[150]