Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 168

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Volume 2, Page 168

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[001] members, and gallows and other things connected with the execution of judgment;
[002] he cannot use such liberty ¹before a thief has been taken upon whom judgment can
[003] and ought to be passed,² but before he uses he always quasi-uses (since it is within
[004] his power to use such liberty) until he loses it by non-use, that is, until another has
[005] once or twice done justice to and judged a captured thief within his liberty, or³
[006] taken him outside his liberty, [by his negligence and acquiescence, he being present,
[007] knowing and permitting.]⁴ When he learns of it, if he promptly and diligently
[008] asserts his right he may reclaim the liberty, but if he is negligent he loses it by his
[009] negligence and acquiescence [and] by lapse of time, and thenceforth cannot be
[010] restored without the king, since by the lapse of time he loses his action.⁵ And so if
[011] one is granted the liberty of being quit of paying toll and customs throughout the
[012] whole realm of England, both on land and sea, and of taking toll and customs within
[013] his liberty from those who buy and sell, he will at once be in quasi-possession; he
[014] will retain possession when he has received toll and customs by reason of such
[015] liberty,⁶ and elsewhere in the realm, outside his liberty, when under colour of such
[016] liberty he has been declared quit, by judgment or in some other way, in fairs and
[017] markets. And what is said here by way of example may be said in all other similar
[018] cases, that is,⁷ in those which belong to the crown, as the plea de vetito namii and
[019] the view of frankpledge. And so of the privileges mentioned above. ⁸A liberty is
[020] the setting aside of a servitude, the two being contraries and therefore repugnant
[021] to each other, as where one is bound by virtue of a servitude to give something, as
[022] toll and customs, by virtue of a liberty he may be saved from giving them. So
[023] if because of a servitude he is bound not to take customs and tolls, by the grant
[024] of a liberty he may take them. If by a servitude imposed upon it through the
[025] negligence or acquiescence of [its] lords one may enter another's estate for hunting
[026] or fowling, by the grant of a liberty he may be prohibited from doing so. And
[027] so if, by virtue of a servitude or quasi-servitude, bailiffs, as sheriffs and the
[028] king's serjeants, may enter the land of another, by a liberty granted by the king
[029] they may be prohibited from entering, that summonses and attachments and the
[030] view of frankpledge and all the other things that belong to the crown be made by
[031] the lord of the liberty. ⁹When the lord king grants liberties, as was said above,¹⁰

Notes

1. Om: ‘si’

2. Infra iii, 177

3. ‘vel’

4. Supra 158

5. Supra 157, infra iii, 168

6. ‘per talem libertatem’

7. ‘scilicet’

8. New paragraph

9. New paragraph

10. Remainder transposed infra 169, nn. 2-3