and conſequently not peers with the nobility[1]. As to peereſſes, no proviſion was made for their trial when accuſed of treaſon or felony, till after Eleanor ducheſs of Glouceſter, wife to the lord protector, had been accuſed of treaſon and found guilty of witchcraft, in an eccleſiaſtical ſynod, through the intrigues of cardinal Beaufort. This very extraordinary trial gave occaſion to a ſpecial ſtatute, 20 Hen. VI. c. 9. which enacts that peereſſes, either in their own right or by marriage, ſhall be tried before the ſame judicature as peers of the realm. If a woman, noble in her own right, marries a commoner, ſhe ſtill remains noble, and ſhall be tried by her peers: but if ſhe be only noble by marriage, then by a ſecond marriage, with a commoner, ſhe loſes her dignity; for as by marriage it is gained, by marriage it is alſo loſt. Yet if a ducheſs dowager marries a baron, ſhe continues a ducheſs ſtill; for all the nobility are pares, and therefore it is no degradation[2]. A peer, or peereſs (either in her own right or by marriage) cannot be arreſted in civil caſes[3]: and they have alſo many peculiar privileges annexed to their peerage in the courſe of judicial proceedings. A peer, ſitting in judgment, gives not his verdict upon oath, like an ordinary juryman, but upon his honour[4]: he anſwers alſo to bills in chancery upon his honour, and not upon his oath[5]; but, when he is examined as a witneſs either in civil or criminal caſes, he muſt be ſworn[6]: for the reſpect, which the law ſhews to the honour of a peer, does not extend ſo far as to overturn a ſettled maxim, that in judicio non creditur niſi juratis[7]. The honour of peers is however ſo highly tendered by the law, that it is much more penal to ſpread falſe reports of them, and certain other great officers of the realm, than of other men: ſcandal againſt them being called by the peculiar name of ſcandalum magnatum, and ſubjected to peculiar puniſhment by divers antient ſtatutes[8].
