'I do not recognize the self-serving decrees of that rebel Parliament,' Jeffreys said squeamishly. 'The Court of Star Chamber was ancient – Henry VII convened it, but its procedures were rooted in Roman jurisprudence – consequently, 'twas a model of clarity, of effiency, unlike the time-encrusted monstrosity of Common Law, that staggering, cobwebbed Beast, that senile compendium of folklore and wives' tales, a scabrous Colander seiving all the chunky bits out of the evanescent flux of Society and compacting 'em into legal head-cheese.'