from him. This incident happened in the minority of
Richard. As the popes had for a long time resided at Avignon, and
the majority of the sacred college were Frenchmen, this circumstance
naturally increased the aversion of the nation to the papal power; but
the prejudice against the English clergy cannot be accounted for from
that cause.]

[Footnote 18: NOTE R, p. 450. That we may judge how arbitrary a court
that of the constable of England was, we may peruse the patent granted
to the earl of Rivers in this reign, as it is to be found in Spellman's
Glossary in verb. Constabularius: as also more fully in Rymer, vol. xi.
p. 581. Here is a clause of it: "Et ulterius de uberiori gratia nostra
eidem comiti de Rivers plenam potestatem damus ad cognoscendum et
procedendum, in omnibus et singulis causis et negotiis, de et super
crimine lesse majestatis, seu super occasione eseterisque causis
quibuscunque per praefatum comitem de Rivers, ut constabularium
Angliae----quae in curia constabularii Angliae ab antique, viz, tempore
dicti domini Gtilielmi Conquaetoris, sen aliquo tempore citra, tractari,
audiri examinari, aut decidi consueverant, aut jure debuerant aut
clebeni, causasque et negotia praedicta cum omnibus et singulis
emergentibus, incidentibus et connexis, audiendum, examinandum, et fine
debito terminandum, etiam _summarie et de plano, sine strepitu et
figura justitiae, sola facti veritate inspecta,_ ac etiam manu
regia, si opportunum visum fuerit eidem comiti de Rivers, vices nostras,
appellatione remots." The office of constable was perpetual in the
monarchy; its jurisdiction was not limited to times of war, as appears
from this patent, and as we learn from Spellman; yet its authority was
in direct contradiction to Magna Charta; and it is evident, that no
regular liberty could subsist with it. It involved a full dictatorial
power, continually subsisting in the state. The only check on the crown,
besides the want of force to support all its prerogatives, was, that the
office of constable was commonly either hereditary or during life,
and the person invested with it was, for that reason, not so proper an
instrument of arbitrary power in the king. Accordingly the office
was suppressed by Henry VIII., the most arbitrary of all the English
princes. The practice, however, of exercising martial law still
subsisted; and was not abolished till the Petition of Right under
Charles I. This was the epoch of true liberty, confirm