[428] Will. Malms. iv. 319. “Venationes, quas rex primo indulserat, adeo prohibuit ut capitale esset supplicium prendisse cervum.” Contrast this with his father’s law in N. C. vol. iv. p. 621.
[429] The story is told by Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 48. It is brought in as an illustration of the impiety of Rufus rather than of his cruelty.
[430] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 48. “Quinquaginta circiter viri quibus adhuc illis diebus ex antiqua Anglorum ingenuitate divitiarum quædam vestigia arridere videbantur.”
[431] Ib. “Negant illi; unde statim ad judicium rapti, judicantur injectam calumniam examine igniti ferri a se propulsare debere. Statuto itaque die præfixi pœnæ judicii pariter subacti sunt, remota pietate et misericordia.” Yet, unless there was some special circumstance of hardship which is not recorded, this was only the old law of England kept on by the Conqueror. (See N. C. vol. iv. p. 624; v. pp. 400, 874.) That is, if the accuser was English, and the King’s reeves and huntsmen were largely English. If the accuser was French, the accused were entitled to a choice between the ordeal and the wager of battle. Can Eadmer mean that this choice was not allowed them?
[432] Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 48. “Cum principi esset relatum condemnatos illos tertio judicii die simul omnes inustis manibus apparuisse, stomachatus taliter fertur respondisse, ‘Quid est hoc? Deus est justus judex? Pereat qui deinceps hoc crediderit. Quare per hoc et hoc meo judicio amodo respondebitur. Non Dei quod pro voto cujusque hinc inde plicatur.’”
[433] “Judicium” is the usual Domesday name. See N. C. vol. v. p. 875.
[434] Ord. Vit. 682 C. “Illi modestis vestiebantur indumentis optimeque coaptatis ad sui mensuram corporis. Et erant habiles ad equitandum et currendum et ad omne opus quod ratio suggerebat agendum.”
[435] Ib. “Olim pœnitentes et capti et peregrini usualiter intonsi erant, longasque barbas gestabant, judicioque tali pœnitentiam, seu captionem, vel peregrinationem spectantibus prætendebant.”
[436] Ib. “Post obitum Gregorii papæ et Guillelmi Nothi aliorumque principum religiosorum, in occiduis partibus pene totus abolitus est honestus patrum mos antiquorum.” Yet, unless we go as far north as the sainted Cnut of Denmark, it is not easy to find any specially devout princes who died about the same time as Gregory and William.
[437] See Appendix G.