Et, Sir, si
poit apperer or a nous que Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en
tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy_,' &c.
See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his
first book, c. 3. is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and
mistakes it thus. 'To such laws of the church as have warrant in holy
scripture, our law giveth credence.' And cites Prisot; mistranslating
'ancien scripture' into 'holy scripture.' Whereas, Prisot palpably says,
'to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writing, it is
proper for us to give credence;' to wit, to their ancient written laws.
This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot.
Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the
common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max.
3. and Sheppard, title, 'Religion,' in 1675, copies the same
mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses
it in these words; 'Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.' 1
Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings
and re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in
1728, that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court
would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity
was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore,
409, ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy
and profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra.
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