rst 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.
Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that
'Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and
Strange. And finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in
Evans's case, in 1767, says, that 'the essential principles of revealed
religion are part of the common law.' Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament,
and all into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we
find this chain of authorities hanging link by link, one upon another,
and all ultimately on one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation
of the words 'ancien scripture,' used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot;
Wingate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate.
Hale cites nobody. The court, in Woolston's case, cite Hale. Wood cites
Woolston's case. Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale. And Lord
Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might
defy the best read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this
judiciary forgery; and I might go on further to show, how some of the
Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred's laws, the
20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 15th