THE PROVISIONS OF OXFORD (1258).
Source.—Annals of Burton, pp. 446-453. (Annales Monastici, vol. i.—Rolls Series.)
It is provided that in every county there be elected four discreet and lawful knights who shall meet, on the days when the county court is accustomed to be held, to hear all complaints of transgressions and injuries inflicted on anyone by sheriffs, bailiffs, or other officials, and to make attachments in connection with the said complaints up to the day of the arrival of the Chief Justiciar in the district; they shall always attach sufficient pledges on behalf of the plaintiff about the defendant and on behalf of the defendant about the plaintiff, to come and fulfil the law before the aforesaid Justiciar on his arrival. And the aforesaid four knights shall cause all the said complaints with their attachments to be enrolled, duly and in order, those from each hundred separately and by themselves, so that the aforementioned Justiciar may, on his arrival, hear and determine the above-mentioned complaints singly from every hundred. And they shall order the sheriff to cause all the bailiffs and hundredmen to be present before the Justiciar on his arrival on the day and at the place which he shall make known to them; and every hundredman shall cause to appear all the plaintiffs and defendants of his hundred, in order, according as the Justiciar decides to hear the pleas from that hundred; and with them, as many and such knights and other free and lawful men as may be best fitting in order to ascertain the truth, provided that all the men of a hundred be not disturbed at the same time, but only those come whose cases may be heard and determined on the one day.
It is further ordained that no knight of the aforesaid counties be excused from serving on juries and assizes on account of any royal charter of acquittance, or be released from observance of this provision made for the common good of the whole kingdom.
(Here follow the names of the twenty-four.)
The oath which the commonalty of England swore at Oxford:
We, so and so, make known to all men, that we have sworn on the Holy Gospels and by our oath have bound ourselves together, and we promise in good faith, each one of us and all together, to aid one another, both ourselves and those belonging to us against all men, doing right, and taking nothing that we cannot take without doing hurt, saving our faith to the King and to the crown. And we promise, by the same oath, that no one of us will take anything, either land or movables, by which this oath may be disturbed or in any way impaired. And should any go against this, we will hold him a mortal enemy.
This is the oath of the four-and-twenty:
Each one swore on the Holy Gospels, that, looking to the honour of God, and the faith of the King, and the good of the realm, he would ordain and treat with the aforesaid sworn men regarding the reformation and the amendment of the state of the kingdom; and that neither for gift, nor promise, nor love, nor hate, nor fear of anyone, nor gain, nor loss, would he cease loyally to act according to the tenor of the letter, which the King and his son had granted for this purpose.
The oath which the Chief Justice of England swore: