Thus he concocts his accusations of immorality, or drunkenness, or profanity, or uncharity towards neighbors, and writes them busily down in his _quorum nomina_, or formulas of citations to appear before the official's court. "My _corum nomine_ beares such swaye," he boasts, "They'le sell their clothes my fees to pay." But, remarks the devil after listening to all this, surely the innocent pay no court fees, "But answere and discharged bee." "My _corum nomine_ sayth not so," rejoins the apparitor, "For all pay fees before they goe.--The lawier's fees must needs be payd,--And every clarke in his degree--Or els the lawe cannot be stayd--But excommunicate must they bee." The devil, amazed and disgusted at laws which "excell the paines of hell," turns to go, whereupon the apparitor seeks to arrest and fine him for traveling on the Sabbath. Exclaiming "Thou art no constable!" the devil pounces upon the unworthy officer and carries him off to hell.[185] Thirdly, even when at their best and conducted by upright judges and officers, the modes of proof in force in the courts Christian were sometimes utterly inadequate as means for getting at the truth. The inquest, or trial by jury, had never been introduced into these courts, where the archaic system of compurgation[186] still lingered. If a man for want of friends, or for want of good reputation, were unable to procure compurgators to attend him at visitations or courts, held sometimes twenty miles and more away,[187] he might be condemned as guilty of specific acts which he had never committed.[188] He might even fail in his proof because he was poor. When the judge arraigned Lewis Billings of Barking, Essex archdeaconry, for "that he hath failed in his purgacion," Billings pleaded "that he is a very poore man and not able to procure his neighbours to come to the cort, and beare their charges."[189] But, as is well known, contemporaries attacked not only the inferior officers, but the judges themselves. Complaints of great abuses were loud and long,[190] and when the ecclesiastical courts were abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641,[191] the satirical literature of the day celebrated their downfall with a verve, a gusto, and an exultation amazing to one not familiar with the procedure of these courts.[192]