"No cause of consequence was determined without the king's writ; for even in the county courts, of the debts, which were above forty shillings, there issued a _Justicies_ (commission) to the sheriff, to enable him to hold such plea, _where the suitors are judges of the law and fact_."--_Gilbert's History of the Common Pleas, Introduction_, p. 19. "This position" (that "the matter of law was decided by the King's Justices, but the matter of fact by the pares") "_is wholly incompatible with the common law, for the Jurata (jury) were the sole judges both of the law and the fact_."--_Gilbert's History of the Common Pleas_, p. 70, _note_. We come now to the challenge; and of old _the suitors in court, who were judges_, could not be challenged; nor by the feudal law could the _pares_ be even challenged, _Pares qui ordinariam jurisdictionem habent recusari non possunt_; (the peers who have ordinary jurisdiction cannot be rejected;) "_but those suitors who are judges of the court_, could not be challenged; and the reason is, that there are several qualifications required by the writ, viz., that they be _liberos et legales homines de vincineto_ (free and legal men of the neighborhood) of the place laid in the declaration," &c., &c.--_Ditto_, p. 93. "_Ad questionem juris non respondent Juratores._" (To the question of law the jurors do not answer.) "The Annotist says, that this is indeed a maxim in the Civil-Law Jurisprudence, _but it does not bind an English jury, for by the common law of the land the jury are judges as well of the matter of law, as of the fact_, with this difference only, that the (a Saxon word) or judge on the bench is to give them no assistance in determining the matter of _fact_, but if they have any doubt among themselves relating to matter of _law_, they may then request him to explain it to them, which when he hath done, and they are thus become well informed, they, and they only, become competent judges of the matter of _law_. And this is the province of the judge on the bench, namely, to show, or _teach_ the law, but not to take upon him the trial of the delinquent, either in matter of fact or in matter of law." (Here various Saxon laws are quoted.) "In neither of these fundamental laws is there the least word, hint, or idea, that the earl or alderman (that is to say, the _Prepositus_ (presiding officer) of the court, which is tantamount to _the judge on the bench_) is to take upon him to judge the delinquent in any sense whatever, the sole purport of his office is to _teach_ the secular or worldly law."--_Ditto_, p. 57, _note_. "The administration of justice was carefully provided for; it was not the caprice of their lord, _but the sentence of their peers, that they obeyed. Each was the judge of his equals, and each by his equals was judged._"--_Introd. to Gilbert on Tenures_, p. 12.