Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 369

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Volume 2, Page 369

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[001] If he has granted it to farm and for a term of years the term will belong to the king,¹
[002] as a chattel, for a term is regarded as a chattel.² And note that the king ought
[003] not de jure to have year and day of anything which cannot be the escheat of lords,³
[004] nor ought it to remain with them if that can be established. ⁴We must also see what
[005] is to be said of a clerk who has been arrested for felony. If a clerk has been arrested
[006] for a felony and is claimed by court christian, and the bishop or other ordinary
[007] requests the use of the king's prison to keep him in custody and he breaks prison
[008] and flees to a church, let him be taken from the church⁵ and returned to the prison
[009] from which he escaped, nor ought the church to protect him [any more than] a
[010] common thief, who⁶ may be taken out if he refuses to come to the king's peace, as
[011] are common robbers and⁷ the like, as thieves found seised of stolen goods.⁸

[Inlawry]: how outlaws after outlawry are admitted for good reason to the peace.

[013] When one has thus been outlawed, no matter in what way and regardless of the
[014] cause, it will not be safe for him to appear until he has been inlawed by grace of the
[015] prince. For the king may of his grace inlaw an outlaw, admit him to his peace outside
[016] of which he had earlier been placed. [He may] put him back within the law provided
[017] that⁹ [If the outlawry has been properly done according to the law of the land,
[018] whether the cause is true or presumptive, he may pardon him his flight and outlawry;
[019] if contrary to the law of the land, he ought to pronounce it void.]¹⁰ [Some so outlawed
[020] according to the law of the land are more readily admitted to the peace [than
[021] others], [according as there was a true cause, or none, or an insufficient cause,] as
[022] where he alleged to be slain is produced alive and well,¹¹ [or] if the deed was not
[023] criminal,¹² or occurs by misadventure.¹³ ¹⁴If the deed is criminal and amounts to a
[024] felony,¹⁵ they ought not to be taken back into the peace lest easy forgiveness
[025] furnish others with excuse for or temerity in offending.]¹⁶ ¹⁷he answer all who wish
[026] to proceed against him.¹⁸ Let the lord king's letters patent testifying that he has
[027] granted him his peace be drawn in this form:

A writ addressed to all bailiffs to the effect that the lord king pardons a flight and outlawry occurring in his reign.

[029] ‘The king etc. to all his bailiffs and lieges who shall see these presents, greeting.
[030] Know that we have pardoned A. the flight that he made and the outlawry

Notes

1. Supra 101

2. Om: MG, CM, OC. Not the chattel of the lessor but the lessee, cf. supra 100-1

3. Supra 101, 366

4-8. Belongs infra 383. The introductory sentence is a rubric in OC.

5. By the ordinary: infra 383

6. ‘qui’

7. ‘et’

9. ‘Reponere [poterit] eum in legem ita quod’

10. Supra 357, infra 375

11. Supra 357, 358; infra 374, 375, 378

12. Supra 357, 359; infra 375, 378

13. Supra 357, infra 372, 375, 378

14. Om: ‘vix autem ... admittuntur’

15. Supra 356, infra 372-3, 375

16. C. 23, qu. 4, ca. 33: ‘Facilitas enim veniae incentivum tribuat delinquendi’; infra 427

17. Om: ‘Et qualitercumque ... quod,’ a connective

18. Infra 375, 376