Coke added that it would
be improper to call Cobham because he was a party. Then Coke
surprised Ralegh with a letter from Cobham stating that Ralegh had
asked Cobham to procure him an annual pension of 1500 pounds from
Spain for disclosing intelligence. Ralegh acknowledged that a
pension was offered, but denied that he had ever intended to
accept it. He admitted that it was a fault not to inform
authorities of this offer. The jury deliberated for fifteen
minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty. The Chief Justice
delivered the sentence for treason: drawing, hanging,
disembowelling, beheading, and quartering. The whole trial was not
so much to access guilt, but to show the general public that the
person was guilty.
Church courts were revived after a period of disuse. They could
annul an unconsummated or legally invalid marriage (e.g.
consanguinity, impotence, a witnessed precontract to marry) and
order judicial separations in case of adultery, cruelty, or
apostasy. Annuled marriages made a person's children illegitimate.
An action at common law for "criminal conversation" [adultery]
with the plaintiff's spouse or for assault and battery could
result in an order for separation. But only a private statute of
Parliament could grant a divorce, which allowed remarrige. It was
granted in only a few cases and only to the very wealthy. Church
officials spied upon people's conduct to draw them into their
courts and gain more money from the profits of justice.
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