When we consider that the only justification of ordeal by battle was the theory that the Lord Himself would protect the right, we ask whether the Age of Faith had already passed away. It had not, but here and there were glimmerings of change. According to G. Norton, no man was ever compelled to fight in order to prove his innocence.
“If any man charged another with treason, murder, felony, or other capital offence, he was said to appeal him, and was termed an appellant; and the defendant, or party charged, was at liberty either to put himself upon his country for trial, or to defend himself by his body. If he chose the latter, the appellant was bound to meet him on an appointed day in marshalled lists, and the parties fought armed with sticks shod with horn. The party vanquished was adjudged to death, either as a false accuser or as guilty of the charge. If the defendant could maintain his ground until the stars appeared, the appellant was deemed vanquished; if the defendant called for quarter, or was slain, judgment of death was equally passed upon him.”—Historical Account of London, p. 360.
(6) A man might be allowed to “purge himself by oath.”
By this ancient method the accused appeared in Court accompanied by his friends, compurgators. He swore that he was innocent. His compurgators swore that they believed in his innocence. The number of compurgators was generally twelve.
(7) The citizens were allowed to refuse lodging to the King’s household.
This permission removed a fruitful cause of quarrel. It was intolerable that any man-at-arms might enter any house and demand lodging and entertainment in the King’s name. With the Tower in the east of London, and Baynard’s Castle in the west, and the King’s house a mile or so outside the City, there seems no reason why the King should have claimed this right.
(8) The citizens were to be free of toll, passage, and lestage.
Many people can remember the turnpike toll, the nuisance it was, and the trouble it gave; how, near great cities, roads were found out by which the toll could be evaded. Let them suppose a time when the turnpike toll was multiplied a hundredfold. There were tolls for markets, tolls of passage—fords and ferries, of lestage, a toll of so much for every last of leather exported, tolls of stallage, tolls of murage, tolls of wharfage, tolls of cranage, tolls through and tolls traverse (i.e. tolls for repair of road or street). Then imagine the relief of the London merchant travelling with his wares and his long train of loaded pack-horses from one market-town to another, and from fair to fair, when he was told that henceforth he should travel free and pay no toll. Why did the King grant this privilege, one of the largest and most beneficent in this Charter? Surely in wise recognition of the fact that the more free and unfettered trade was made, the more it would develop and increase, and make his kingdom rich and strong.
(9) No man was to be assessed beyond his means.
The penalty of a fine by way of punishment is at once deterrent and inconvenient. It does not degrade, like flogging; it does not make a man useless and costly, like imprisonment; it does not inflict public disgrace, like the pillory. At the same time, in the hands of a harsh magistrate, it may ruin a man to be fined above his power to pay. The strong feeling on the subject shown in this clause was also illustrated later on, when in Magna Charta it was enacted that a man might be assessed, but “so as not to deprive him of his land, or of his stock in husbandry or in trade.” To this day the ancient feeling against heavy fines survives in the unwillingness always shown by juries to award heavy damages.