Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER, LORD FOUNTAINHALL.
Braid v. Jo Braid.
Date: 1 January 1662
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One Braid pursuing a declarator of escheat on the crime of adultery committed by his brother, Jo. Braid; Alleged, No declarator because no escheat for adultery unless the party had been convicted of the crime before an assise in a Criminal Court: ita est, there is no doom produced against the defender, bearing him to be convicted; igitur, Reply not relevant, because, by the act of Parliament, any man that is found guilty of adultery, his escheat falls; but the defender has not only taken a remission, but has made his repentance before the kirk, and judicially confessed the same.
The Lords found neither his confession before the kirk, nor his repentance for that crime, was relevant in law to make his escheat fall; yea not his remission: and generally found no ecclesiastic confession of any crime relevant to infer any punishment in their body, far less in their estate; lest men, for fear either of their life or estate, should be hardened in their sin, and scared from confession. Which was well decided.
