Note 472 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Special, and moral, prosecutions were carried out through the Court of Star Chamber (3 Hen. VII. c. 1) (vide Lingard, Hist. vii. p. 377; Carter, Outlines of English Legal History, p. 101; Hudson, Treatise on the Star Chamber) and by the hated Court of High Commission (1 Eliz. c. 1) (see Hale, Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal Cases, p. 1., and Ecc. Courts Comm., 1883, p. xxxviii.), which imposed some enormous fines and inflicted various painful penalties, till they, with the ecclesiastical courts, were overthrown in the year 1640 (16 Car. I. c. 10 and 11).