THE CORONER 197
were hanged.1 The brief entry after such trials in the Court Rolls
runs, " Let him have a priest", and the marginal note suspenses est
tells the rest of the tale. But the power to erect a gallows and to
hang criminals was essentially a royal prerogative, and the Crown
slowly tried to take back into its own hands privileges which had
been usurped or claimed by an over-generous interpretation of
charter rights and the like. For it must be remembered that the
administration of justice was one of the ways of making a profit
out of one's possessions: both the land and its holders were
subject to the law of the lord. Hence the lawyer's proverb:
"Justice is great profit", and hence, to a considerable extent, the
desire of all lords to acquire greater privileges which would en-
able them to exact fines for a \vider range of offences and matters,
or to take for themselves the goods and chattels of condemned
men.2
The manorial jurisdiction was checked to some extent by the
presence of the royal coroner, for all cases involving death
necessitated his presence. Even if the thief were caught in the
act he must not be hanged in the absence of the King's coroner,
as the Prior of Bodmin found in 1313. The transcript of the
proceedings from the Year Book3 is so instructive that it is given
here in some detail. A presentment was made by the tithing-
man that in Bodmin a thief had been taken with the chattels on
him, and that he had been hanged. Whereupon the justices
ordered the suitors of that court to attend and to produce the
record relating to those matters. They came and said that on a
certain day, etc., there came to Bodmin market-place one John
that there found in the possession of Robert a certain horse which
had been stolen from his house the previous night. And John
raised the hue and cry, and in consequence both were attached
(i.e. ordered to appear at the Manor Court). And the Prior of
Bodmin, lord of the franchise, straightway caused a court to be
summoned, and John accused Robert, and Robert confessed.
Whereupon the steward of the court ordered him to be hanged.
When the prior came before Justice Spigurnel after some enquiry
1 P.Q.W. 43a; cf. V.C.H. Rutland, I, 172.
2 Lit. Cant. I, 501.
3 KB. Eyre of Kent, 6-7 Ed. II (Selden Soc.), 104; cf. Y.B. Ed. I (R.S.),
500.