Ex officio oath

Outcry against this practice (particularly in the trials of John Lilburne ("Freeborn John") around 1630–1649) led to the establishment of the right to not incriminate oneself in common law. This was the direct precursor of similar rights in modern law, including the right to silence and non-self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The right itself appears as item 16 in the Levellers Agreement of the Free People of England (1649) and first appeared in US law in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties and the Connecticut Code of the same era. The Star Chamber itself, as a judicial body, was abolished by Parliament as part of the Habeas Corpus Act 1640.

Early history

During the Middle Ages the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts was limited by a 14th century statute called Articuli Cleri, while the later Prohibitio formata de statuto Articuli cleri, also during the reign of Edward II, specified the exclusive jurisdiction of the King's Courts.

Leonard Levy wrote in Origins of the Fifth Amendment that self-incriminating oaths were banned by statute, but Henry A. Kelly noted the limited jurisdictional scope of the statute only limited the oath to matrimonial and testamentary cases. According to the Chronica Majora, when the king wrote to his sheriff, after an outcry from the people against the inquisitions of bishop Robert Grosseteste, instructing that no laymen should be compelled to answer under oath except in cases of matrimony or testaments, the bishop accused the king of conspiracy comparing his "audacious" behavior to events in France.

John Wigmore also said the oath was still permitted:

"There is no reason whatever to believe that the statute De Articulis Cleri had among its motives any animus against the church's imposition of an oath as such."

The Church continued to oppose statutory limitations being imposed upon its jurisdiction over heresy. The Suppression of Heresy Act 1400 targeting Lollardy authorized arrests and imprisonment, with cooperation between secular and ecclesiastical courts in the prosecution of heretics continuing for over a century, and including burning at the stake carried out by secular authorities when heretics refused to abjure heretical opinions as required by the laws of the church.

Thomas Fuller wrote about heresy and treason during the Oldcastle Revolt:

...he was not only guilty of heresy, but treason. But, by the way, it appeareth that Lollardism, then counted heresy, was made treason by statute, and on that account heresy and treason signify no more than heresy; and then heresy, according to the abusive language of that age was the best serving of God in those days.

Opposition to the clergy putting suspected heretics to question under oath continued. During the reign of Henry VII papal jurisdiction over heresy was limited by statute by the An Act abolishing diversity in opinions in 1538. Mary Queen of Scots restored the papal jurisdiction over heresy, until an Elizabethan statute placed ecclesiastical offices in Crown jurisdiction. Several cases were reported by Coke regarding persons imprisoned by the ecclesiastical judges of the High Commission for refusal to answer them under oath. According to Coke the Common Bench released them according to habeas corpus.