[117] Reeves, “History of English Law,” ed. Finlason, ii. p. 408.
[118] Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales;” The Monk.
[119] See Appendix VII, p. [432].
[120] “Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield,” ed. J. Webb, 1854, Camden Society, vols. i. p. 125, ii. pp. xxx–xxxvi. The duels of Thomas de Bruges were not those of the cases of felony and crime which resulted in the death of the vanquished; it was merely the duel with staff and shield, cum fuste et scuto, which required, as may be imagined, the replacement of the champion much less frequently. In the twenty-ninth year of Edward III, a duel took place by means of champions between the Bishop of Salisbury and the Earl of Salisbury. When the judges, conformably to the laws, came to examine the dress of the combatants, they found that the bishop’s champion had several sheets of prayers and incantations sown in his garments (“Year Books of Edward I,” Rolls Series, 32–33d year, preface, p. xvi, note). This examination of the clothing was always made with the intention of discovering frauds of this kind, which were considered as the most dangerous and disloyal of all.
[121] See Riley’s “Liber Albus,” p. 303, where the case is entered in full.
[122] One has only to peruse Froissart to notice the extreme frequency of this custom. Jean de Hainaut arrives at Denain: “There he lodged in the abbey that night” (lib. i. part i. ch. 14); the queen disembarks in England with the same Jean de Hainaut, “and then they found a great abbey of black monks which is called St. Aymon, and they were harboured there and refreshed for three days” (ch. 18); “there the king stopped and lodged in an abbey” (ch. 292); “King Philippe came to the good town of Amiens, and there lodged in the abbey of Gard” (ch. 296), etc.
[123] “The Knights Hospitallers in England,” edited by Larking and Kemble, Camden Society, 1857. It is the text of a manuscript found at Malta entitled, “Extenta terrarum et tenementorum Hospitalis Sancti Johannis Jerusalem in Anglia, A.D. 1338.”
[124] “Knights Hospitallers,” pp. 99, 101, 127. The effect of the Scottish wars on the possessions of the Knights is strikingly set forth: “Omnes possessiones hospitalis in Scocia sunt destructa, combusta per fortem guerram ibidem per multos annos continuatam unde nil his diebus potest levari. Solebat tamen, tempore pacis, reddere per annum, cc marcas” (p. 129).
[125] See Appendix VIII, p. [433].
[126] Statute 3 Edward I, cap. 1.