[452] Rubrics lxiii.-lxv., which, as we have noted, were added by another hand in 1297, to the codex edited by Fineschi, and correspond with rubrics lxxxii.-lxxxiv. of the codex edited by Giudici, there is renewed reference to the tricks employed in order to avoid giving guarantees or nullifying their effect. When a noble committed a crime and refused to pay the prescribed fine, his nearest relation was legally bound to pay it in his stead. But in this case the said relation frequently made declaration, "that the guilty person who had either failed to give guarantees or offered pledges unsuited to the case, possessed one or more legitimate or natural children, aged one year, or more or less; and that for this reason the next of kin, or those supposed to be responsible in virtue of the said enactment, are exempt from the penalty prescribed by the same." (Rubric lxxxii., G., lxv., F.)
[453] Rubric xvii., G. The law quoted here is of October 2, 1286 ("Provvisioni," i. 27).
[454] Rubric xvii., B., F., G. The two later compilations have an addition tacked on at the end, that is not included in Compilation B. In the Italian codex (G.) this addition is undated, but in the Fineschi compilation is dated July 6, 1295. Its purpose is that of attenuating the law by declaring that all omitted from the list of nobles in the statute, or who have changed their name, and are known by another, are not to be considered nobles. This addition was contemporaneous with the extension of the legal number of witnesses from two to three.
[455] Rubrics xviii. and xix., F., G. These and rubric xx. also are not in the Latin draft, as we shall have again to remark farther on.
[456] Compagni, i. 11; Villani, viii. 1.
[457] "Storie," bk. ii. p. 80, Italy, 1813.
[458] viii. 1.
[459] The nobles frequently employed friends or dependents to execute their deeds of vengeance or assault—hence the enactments nearly always refer to authors of crime in the plural as those chiefly charged with the deed. The law of the 6th of July, 1295, was attenuated on this point, as we shall see, by its recognition of a single leader or "captain" of the crime, the others being only punished as accessories.
[460] Rubric vi., F. G. and V. B.
[461] This is derived both from the terms of the enactments and from the chroniclers. According to the latter, criminals occasionally obtained partial compensation because the destruction of their property had been carried too far.