This passage requires to be read as a whole, for the answer might easily be differently understood, as indeed it has been in the Lords' Reports,[866] where it is taken to apply to the earls as well as to "the third penny." The point is of no small importance, for the conclusion drawn is that "both [the dignity and the third penny] were either hereditary or personal, at the pleasure of the Crown." Careful reading, however, will show, I think, that, like the question, the reply deals with "the third penny" alone. The "hæc conferenda decernit" of the latter refers to the "ista" of the former.

Confirmed as they are by the evidence of the Pipe-Rolls, the words of the Dialogus clearly prove that the view I take is right, and that Professor Freeman is certainly wrong in stating that "earldoms," at this stage, "carry with them the third penny."[867] Mr. Hunt, who, here as elsewhere, seems to follow Dr. Stubbs, writes that:—

"The earl still received the third penny of all profits of jurisdiction in his county. With this exception, however, the policy of the Norman kings stripped the earls of their official character."[868]

This view must now be abandoned, and the total absence of any allusion, in Stephen's creation of the earldom of Essex, to "the third penny of the pleas," must be taken to imply that the charter in question did not convey a right to that sum. Thus the charter of the Empress to Geoffrey in 1141 remains the first record in which that perquisite is granted.

We should also note that the Dialogus passage establishes the fact that the only recognized "third penny" of the earl was "the third penny of the pleas," and that the third penny "redditus burgi," which, we saw, had been taken for it, is not alluded to at all.

Before leaving this subject it may be well to record the sums actually received under this heading:—

[869]£s.d.
Devon1868
Essex401010
Gloucestershire2000
Herts.3316
Norfolk2840
Sussex1368
Wilts.22167

These figures are sufficient to disprove the view that the third penny actually formed an endowment for the dignity of an earl, but their chief interest is found in the light they throw on the farming of the "pleas," illustrating, as they do, the statement in the Dialogus that the sheriff's firma "ex magna parte de placitis provenit." For multiplying these sums by three we obtain the total for which the pleas were farmed in their respective shires. It will be observed that "the third penny" is stereotyped in amount, but an important passage bearing upon this point is quoted by Madox (Baronia Anglica, p. 139) from the Roll of 27 Hen. II.:—

"Idem Vicecomes redd. comp. de £xxviii de tercio denario Comitatus de Legercestria de vii annis præteritis, quos Comes Leg. accipere noluit, nisi haberet similiter de cremento, sicut prædecessores sui recipere consueverunt tempore Regis Henrici" (sic).