"Item, que nul franc homme ne soit mys a respondre de son franc tenement, ne de riens qui touche vie et membre, fyns ou redemptions, par apposailles devant le conseil notre seigneur le roi, ne devant ses ministres queconques, sinoun par proces de ley de ces en arere use."
"Il plest a notre seigneur le roi que les leies de son roialme soient tenuz et gardez en lour force, et que nul homme soit tenu a respondre de son fraunk tenement, sinoun par processe de ley: mes de chose que touche vie ou membre, contemptz ou excesse, soit fait come ad este use ces en arere." Rot. Par. ii. 228.
It is not easy to perceive what was reserved by the words "chose que touche vie ou membre;" for the council never determined these. Possibly it regarded accusations of treason or felony, which they might entertain as an inquest, though they would ultimately be tried by a jury. Contempts are easily understood; and by excesses were meant riots and seditions. These political offences, which could not be always safely tried in a lower court, it was the constant intention of the government to reserve for the council.
[p] See Note in p. 145, for the statute 31 H. VI. c. 2.
[q] See Constitutional History of England, vol. i. p. 49. (1842.)
[r] It has been mentioned in a former note, on Mr. Allen's authority, that the folcland had acquired the appellation terra regis before the Conquest.
[] A presumptive proof of this may be drawn from a chapter in the Laws of Henry I. c. 81, where the penalty payable by a villein for certain petty offences is set at thirty pence; that of a cotset at fifteen; and of a theow at six. The passage is extremely obscure; and this proportion of the three classes of men is almost the only part that appears evident. The cotset, who is often mentioned in Domesday, may thus have been an inferior villein, nearly similar to what Glanvil and later law-books call such.
[t] The following passage in the Chronicle of Brakelond does not mention any manumission of the ceorl on whom abbot Samson conferred a manor:—Unum solum manerium carta sua confirmavit cuidam Anglico natione, glebæ adscripto, de cujus fidelitate plenius confidebat quia bonus agricola erat, et quia nesciebat loqui Gallicè. p. 24.
[] Mr. Wright has given a few specimens in Essays on the Literature and Popular Superstitions of England in the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 257. In fact we may reckon Piers Plowman an instance of popular satire, though far superior to the rest.