as to jurisdiction is discussed, and Collect. Jurid. i. 20, where this treatise is printed more correctly).
The famous case of commendams brought matters to a crisis. An action brought against the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in respect of a living held by him in commendam was being argued in the exchequer chamber before twelve judges (Colt v. Bishop of Coventry, Hob. 140). It affected the king's right of granting commendams, and James had through Bacon directed first Coke and then the other judges to stay the action until his majesty's further pleasure should be known as to consulting with him. They agreed to disregard the injunction, and justified their conduct in a letter to the king, probably written by Coke, in which they declared Bacon's message to be contrary to law, and such as they could not yield to by their oath. They were at once summoned before the council, and after an angry scene, in the course of which the king tore up their letter, and together with Bacon, the attorney-general, lectured them severely, the question was put to them directly whether they would obey a similar order in the future. Eleven of the twelve promised obedience. Coke alone remained firm, saying merely that he would do that which an honest and just judge ought to do (Holkham MS. 726 ; 8. P. D. lxxxvii. 371). 'This simple and sublime answer,' says Campbell (Chief Justices,!. 286), 'abashed the attorney-general ; ' a most improbable statement, which would hardly be credible, even if there were any authority for it. Coke's conduct, on the other hand, has been criticised by Mr. Spedding less favourably than it seems to deserve ; for it showed at least his courage in resisting what he thought then and afterwards to be a threatening danger, the frequent exercise, even within strictly legal limits, of the king's power (Speding, v. 357 et seq. ; Gardiner, iii. 16 et seq. ; S. P. D. lxxxvii. 371 ; Collect. Jurid. i. 1.)
Other causes operated against Coke. In the trials arising out of the mysterious murder of Overbury (2 State Trials, 911 et seq.), though he drew high compliments even from Bacon ' never man's person and his place were better met in a business than my Lord Coke and my lord chief justice in the cause of Overbury' yet he was felt to have been over-zealous in his eagerness to discover the truth. During Sir Thomas Monson's trial he hinted darkly at some important secret affecting persons of high station ; rumour connected his words with the death of Prince Henry ; Weldon, indeed (Court and Character of King James, p. 123), quoting as Coke's actual words, 'God knows what became of that sweet babe, Prince Henry, but I know somewhat ; ' and the staying of the trial by the king's intercession made people believe that the king feared the disclosure of awkward facts. 'Sure,' says Roger Coke, 'the displacing Sir Edward Coke the next year gave reputation to these rumours.' (The words quoted by Weldon do not appear in the report in the State Trials. On the Overbury scandals, see Truth brought to Light by Time ; Somers Tracts, ii. 262 et seq.)
Another subject of offence was Coke's refusal to appoint Villiers's nominee to a post in the green wax office, which, says Roger Coke (Detection, i. 19), who, however, is a very untrustworthy authority, 'I have it from one of Sir Edward's sons,' was the cause of his removal. Doubtless there were many such influences at work, but of course the charges formally brought against him were of a more public nature. They were chiefly his attempts, some successful and others not, to weaken the ecclesiastical commission, the Star-chamber, the chancery and other courts, the list of such grievances being set forth in a paper entitled 'Innovations introduced into the Laws and Government,' written partly in Bacon's hand, and evidently submitted by him to the king (Spedding, vi. 90). Many of the grievances were of comparatively old date ; and only the year before, when Ellesmere was ill, it seemed at least possible that James might make Coke lord chancellor. Bacon, with full knowledge of them, took much pains in his begging letter to the king to state the objections to the appointment of Coke, 'who,' he wrote, though he erased the words Spedding, v. 242 n.), 'I think in my mouth the best choice.'
The storm thus broke upon Coke suddenly. A meeting of the council was held on 6 June 1616 to consider his case ; the letters of the time are full of it ; and in the general opinion his disgrace was imminent. 'If he escape,' writes Chamberlain, 'it will be because the king is told that if he falls he will be honnoured as the martyr of the commonwealth.' He himself was much alarmed, and in a letter to the queen begged that she and the blessed prince would intercede for him. On 26 June he was summoned before the council to answer the charges against him, which were declared to be (1) that he bound over Sir Christopher Hatton not to pay a debt of 12,000l. due to the crown by the late Chancellor Hatton; (2) that he uttered contemptuous speeches in his seat of justice, especially in the case of Glanvile v. Allen, threatening the jury, and declaring the common law of England would be overthrown ; (3) that he behaved disrespectfully to the king, in being the only
