says--"Wherefore to this state and degree hath no
man beene hitherto admitted, except he hath first continued by the space
of sixteene years in the said generall studio of the law, and in token
or signe, that all justices are thus graduat, every one of them alwaies,
while he sitteth in the Kinge's Courts, weareth a white quoyfe of silke;
which is the principal and chiefe insignment of habite, wherewith
serjeants-at-lawe in their creation are decked. And neither the justice,
nor yet the serjeaunt, shall ever put off the quoyfe, no not in the
kinge's presence, though he bee in talke with his majestie's highnesse."
At times it was no easy matter to take the coif from the head; for the
white drapery was fixed to its place with strings, which in the case of
one notorious rascal were not untied without difficulty. In Henry III.'s
reign, when William de Bossy was charged in open court with corruption
and dishonesty, he claimed the benefit of clerical orders, and
endeavored to remove his coif in order that he might display his
tonsure; but before he could effect his purpose, an officer of the court
seized him by the throat and dragged him off to prison. "Voluit," says
Matthew Paris, "ligamenta coifae suae solvere, ut, palam monstraret se
tonsuram habere clericalem; sed non est permissus. Satelles vero eum
arripiens, non per coifae ligamina sed per guttur eum apprehendens,
traxit ad carcerem." From which occurrence Spelman drew the untenable,
and indeed, ridiculous inference, that the coif was introduced as a
veil, beneath which ecclesiastics who wished to practice as judges or
counsel in the secular courts, might conceal the personal mark of their
order.

The coif-cap is still worn in undiminished proportions by judges when
they pass sentence of death, and is generally known as the 'black cap.'
In old time the justice, on making ready to pronounce the awful words
which consigned a fellow-creature to a horrible death, was wont to draw
up the flat, square, dark cap, that sometimes hung at the nape of his
neck or the upper part of his shoulder. Having covered the whiteness of
his coif, and partially concealed his forehead and brows with the sable
cloth, he proceeded to utter the dread sentence with solemn composure
and firmness. At present the black cap is assumed to strike terror into
the hearts of the vulgar; formerly it was pulled over the eyes, to hide
the emotion of the judge.

Shorn of their original size, the coif and the