Description:This book is about trials, civil and criminal, ecclesiastical and secular, in England and Europe between the 13th and the 17th centuries. It provides a rounded view of trials conducted according to different procedures within contrasting legal systems, including English common law and Roman canon law. It considers the judges and juries and the amateur and professional advisers involved in legal processes as well as the offenders brought before the courts, with the reasons for prosecuting them and the defenses they put forward.