Sentence:  Under this plea, felons of the worst kind might claim, till this time, to be taken out of the hands of the law judges, and to be tried at the bishops' tribunals; and at these tribunals, such a monstrous solecism had Catholicism become, the payment of money was ever welcomed as the ready <WSD>expiation</WSD> of crime. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing.