COURTNALS, "a zort of _courtnalls_" (R255,_d_), courtiers: in contempt (Halliwell).
COURT SPIRITUAL (JP343,_b_), Abundance was accused of fornication, and so came under ecclesiastical jurisdiction. These courts were made separate to the Secular or Civil Courts in 1085, but until the establishment of the Divorce and Probate Courts in 1857 the Ecclesiastical Courts took cognisance of blasphemy, apostasy, heresy, schism, ordinations, matters pertaining to benefices, matrimony, divorces, bastardy, tithes, incest, fornication, adultery, probate of wills, administrations, and similar matters (Haydn).
CREANCE, "chief of His _creance_" (N45,_d_), ordinarily faith, belief, credit, payment: I subjoin examples of each usage, but neither seem to fit the sense. There is an alternative which is nearer the mark, in the Latin _creans_, pr. p. of _creo_, to create; but I find no authority beyond _creant_, which, as far as I know, is modern: see last example. "This mayden tauzte the _creance_ Unto this wyf so perfitly."--Gower, _MS._ _Soc. Antiq._ 134, f. 66. "And with his precyous bloode he wroote the bills Upon the crosse, as general acquytaunce To every penytent in ful _creaunce_."--_Rom._ _of the Monk_, Sion College MS. "The _creant_ word Which thrilled around us."--Mrs. Browning.
CREASETH, "when she _creaseth_ again" (N44,_a_), short for _increaseth_.
CREATURE (R. _passim_), throughout a trisyllable.
CUCULORUM, "taken with a _cuculorum_" (JE352,_d_), the rhyming exigency no doubt influenced the form of the word, but in any case the use is obscure, probably slang now lost. Whether, however, it originated in _cucullus_, a hood, or _cuculus_, a cuckoo (whence cuckold), or whether the word enshrines a play on both, I cannot say.
CURIA, etc. (M30,_c_), the proceedings of Manorial Courts were generally headed "_Curia_ generalis tenta ibidem," etc. Mischief, with assumed official authority, means that the document was written in an alehouse (or where ale was plenty) with a sham date.
CUSTODITY, "in my _custodity_" (R266,_d_), custody.
CUT, "Call me _cut_" (N54,_b_), properly a gelding or any animal with a short or cut tail, and specifically an intensive reproach. The classical illustration to the present passage is, of course, from Shakespeare, "If I tell thee a lie, spit in my face and call me horse" (_1 Hen. IV._, ii. 1). Compare again, "cutted whore" (N66_d_): see other volumes of this series.