[278] Ib. “Rege, cum suis episcopis et consulibus et vicecomitibus et præpositis et venatoribus aliisque quorumlibet officiorum, in judicio remanente.”
[279] We have met with Osgeat the Reeve in Domesday. See N. C. vol. v. p. 812. Croc the hunter, like others of his craft, appears in 49, 74 b. See Ellis, i. 403. This odd mixture of great and small officials is not unusual. In the “Constitutio Domus Regis” in Hearne’s Liber Niger, i. 341, the descent from the Chancellor to the bakers and cooks—the huntsmen come at the end—is more sudden than one would have looked for, though certain chaplains and seneschals break the fall.
[280] See N. C. vol. v. pp. 423, 878.
[281] Mon. Angl. u. s. “Dominus noster archiepiscopus et regis curia vobis judicat quod rectitudinem regi facere debetis antequam de vestro feodo revestiat.”
[282] Ib. “Nullus mihi hodie vel ego alicui de feodo feci verbum,” says Bishop William. To which Archbishop Thomas answers, “Vobis judicat curia ista, quia de nulla re debet vos rex resaissire antequam sibi rectitudinem faciatis.”
[283] Mon. Ang. u. s. “Episcopi sunt judices, et eos ad consilium tuum habere non debes.”
[284] Ib. “Cum tuis ibi consule, quia de nostris in consilio tuo nullum prorsus habebis.”
[285] Ib. “Parum consilii in his septem hominibus habeo contra virtutem et scientiam totius hujus regni quod hic adversum me video congregatum.”
[286] Mon. Angl. u. s. “In lege nostra prohibitum invenio, ne tale judicium suspiciam.” This strange phrase, twice repeated, most likely refers to the False Decretals, of which he seems to have had a copy with him. See below, [p. 109].
[287] Ib. “Apostolicam sedem Romanam, sanctam ecclesiam et beatum Petrum ejusque vicarium appello, ut ipsius ordinatione negotii mei justam sententiam suscipere merear, cujus dispositioni majores causas ecclesiasticas et episcoporum judicia antiqua apostolorum eorumque successorum atque canonum auctoritas reservavit.” Yet, according to the doctrine held long after by Thomas Stubbs (see N. C. vol. iv. p. 260), the Bishop of Durham need not have gone very far to find a Vicar of Saint Peter.