OF

KING JOHN. Versus eosdem pleggios.

XII.

Si quis mutuo ceperit aliquid a Judeis, plus vel minus, et moriatur antiquam debitum illud solvatur, debitum non usuret quamdiu heres fuerit infra etatem, de quocumque teneat ; et si debitum illud inciderit in manus nostras, nos non capiemus nisi catallum contentum in charta.

XIII.

Et si quis moriatur, et debitum debeat Judeis, uxor ejus habeat do tem suam, et nichil reddat de debito illo; et si liberi ipsius defuncti, qui fuerint infra etatem, remanserint, provideantur iis necessaria secundum tenementum quod fuerat defuncti; et de residuo solvatur debitum, salvo servitio dominorum. Simili modo fiat de debitis que debentur aliis quam Judeis.

XIV.

Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponatur in regno nostro nisi per Commune Consilium regni nostri, nisi ad corpus nostrum redimendum; et primogenitum filium nostrum militem faciendum; et ad filiam primogenitam nostram semel maritandam; et ad hec non fiat nisi rationabile auxilium.

pal debtor can show himself acquitted thereof, against the said sureties.

XII.

If any one have borrowed any thing of the Jews, more or less, and dies before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for that debt,so long as the heiris under age, of whomsoever he may hold. And if the debt falls into our hands, we will take only the chattel mentioned in the charter or instrument.

XIII.

And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower, and pay nothing of that debt; and if the deceased left children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for them according to the Tenement (or real estate) of the deceased; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid; saving, however, the service of the Lords. In like manner let it be with debts due to other persons than the Jews.

XIV.

No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our Kingdom, unless by the Common Council of our Kingdom, except to redeem our person, and make our eldest son a Knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter; and for this there shall only be paid a reasonable Aid.

XXII.

Common Pleas shall not follow our Court, but shall be holden in some certain place. Tryals upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin, and of Mort d'Ancestor, and of Darreine Presentment, shall be taken but in their proper counties, and after this manner: We, or if we should be out of the Realm, our Chief Justiciary, shall send two Justiciaries through every county four times a year; who with the four Knights chosen out of every Shire, by the People, shall hold the said Assizes in the County, on the day and at the place appointed.

XXIII.

And if any Matters cannot be determined on the day appointed to hold the Assizes in each County, so many of the Knights and Freeholders as have been at the Assizes aforesaid, shall be appointed to decide them, as is necessary, according as there is more or less business.

XXIV.

A freeman shall not be amerced for a small fault, but according to the degree of the fault; and for a great crime in proportion to the heinousness of it: Saving to him his contenement, and after the same manner a merchant, saving to him his merchandize.

XXV.

And a villain shall be amerced after the same manner, saving to him his Wainage, if he falls under our mercy; and none of the aforesaid Amerciaments shall be assessed but by the Oath of honest men of the neighbourhood.

XXVI.

Comites et barones non amercientur, nisi per pares suos, et non nisi secundum modum delicti.

XXVI.

Earls and Barons shall not be amerced but by their Peers, and according to the quality of the offence.

XXVII.

Nullus clericus amercietur de laico tenemento suo,nisi secundum modum aliorum predictorum, et non secundum quantitatem beneficii sui ecclesiastici.

XXVIII.

Nec villa, nec homo, distringatur facere pontes ad riparias, nisi qui ab antiquo et de jure facere debent.

XXIX.

Nullus vice-comes, constabularius, coronatores, vel alii ballivi nostri, teneant placita corone nostre.

XXX.

Omnes comitatus, hundredi, wapentakia, et trethingi,sint ad antiquas firmas, absque ullo incremento, exceptis dominicis maneriis nostris.

XXXI.

Si aliquis tenens de nobis laicum feodum, moriatur, et vice-comes vel ballivus noster ostendat literas patentes nostras de summonitione nostra de debito quod defunctus nobis debuit; liceat vice-comiti vel ballivo nostro attachiare et inbreviare catalla defuncti inventa in laico feodo, ad valentiam illius debiti, per visum legalium hominum, ita tamen quod nichil amoveatur inde, donec persolvatur nobis debitum quod clarum fuerit; et residuum relinquatur executoribus ad faciendum testamentum defuncti; et si nichil nobis debeatur ab ipso, omnia catalla cedant defuncto, salvis uxori ipsius et pueris rationabilibus partibus suis.

XXXII.

Si aliquis liber homo intestatus decesserit, catalla sua per manus propinquorum, parentum, et amicorum suorum, per visum ecclesie

XXVII.

No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced, but according to the proportion aforesaid, and not according to the value of his Ecclesiastical benefice.

XXVIII.

Neither a town, nor any person, shall be distrained to make bridges over rivers, unless that anciently and of right they are bound to do it.

XXIX.

No Sheriff, Constable, Coroners, or other our Bailiffs, shall hold Pleas of the Crown.

XXX.

All Counties, Hundreds, Wapentakes, and Trethings, shall stand at the old Ferm, without any increase, except in our Demesne Lands.

XXXI.

If any one that holds of us a Lay Fee, dies, and the sheriff or our Bailiff show our Letters patents of Summons concerning the debt due to us from the deceased; it shall be lawful for the Sheriff or our Bailiff to attach and register the Chattles of the deceased found upon his Lay Fee, to the value of the debt, by the view of lawful men, so as nothing be removed until our whole debt be paid; and the rest shall be left to the Executors to fulfil the Will of the deceased; and if there be nothing due from him to us, all the Chattles shall remain to the deceased, saving to his Wife and Children their reasonable shares.

XXXII.

If any Freeman dies Intestate, his Chattles shall be distributed by the hands of his nearest Relations and Friends, by the view of the

MAGNA CARTA

OF

KING JOHN.