Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 338

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Volume 2, Page 338

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[001] and has no warrantor,¹ he shall suffer judgment at the king's pleasure. If he has a
[002] warrantor and he warrants him, he will be released and his warrantor held. If he has
[003] named his warrantor but the latter has absented himself, he must be exacted and
[004] outlawed, but the person arrested will not on that account be released, nor will he
[005] be set free until he has put himself on the country with respect to his guilt. If the
[006] warrantor appears but fails to warrant him, it may well come to the duel between
[007] them.² ³There is another kind of crime included within that of forgery,⁴ which
[008] touches the crown and leads to the supreme penalty, [the crime] of those who
[009] fabricate counterfeit money, or make bad money out of good, as do⁵ the clippers of
[010] coins, who when they are found⁶ in seisin are not often released by the vouching
[011] of a warrantor. They may have associates and assistants and servants in this work
[012] who will be heard if they wish to make an appeal.

Of the concealment of treasure.

[014] There is, among others, a serious contempt against the king and his crown and
[015] dignity which partakes of the nature of the crime of theft, namely, the fraudulent
[016] concealment of treasure trove,⁷ as where one is accused of finding treasure, that is,
[017] silver or gold or metal of some other kind,⁸ no matter in what place, [When he has
[018] been accused of this by the country, [if the rumor arises] among good and responsible
[019] men,⁹ let him be attached at once to be before the justices at their coming,
[020] where, if he denies that he has found anything, [the truth may be declared by the
[021] country though he was not [found] seised of anything, [for] there may nevertheless
[022] be reasonable presumptions against him which must stand until the country finds
[023] to the contrary, as where he exhibits greater prosperity than usual in clothes and
[024] other apparel, in food and drink and the like,]¹⁰ [and] is found guilty thereof,
[025] let him be committed to prison, afterwards to be heavily ransomed at the king's
[026] pleasure. It does not matter, according to present day opinion, where such treasure
[027] is found, though the rule was otherwise in ancient times.¹¹ ¹²Treasure is any ancient
[028] store of money or other metal which has been forgotten so that it no longer has an
[029] owner; thus it belongs to the finder since it belongs to no one else. It is otherwise
[030] if one hides something in the earth for gain or through fear or for safekeeping; that
[031] is not treasure: of it a theft may be committed.¹³ Treasure is considered a gift of
[032] fortune:¹⁴ no one ought to use the labour of slaves to search out treasure or to
[033] cultivate land for treasure;

Notes

1. Infra iv, 287

2. Infra 426

3. New paragraph

4. Glanvill, xiv, 7; P. and M., ii, 504-5

5. ‘fiunt’ for ‘sunt’

6. ‘inventi sunt,’ as supra 337: ‘inveniatur’

7. Glanvill, xiv, 2: ‘placitum de occultatione inventi thesauri fraudulose’

8. Glanvill xiv, 2: ‘aliquod genus metalli’

9. Tancred, 154: supra 335, infra 404

10. Infra 344, 387

11. Leg. Edw. Conf., 14; Liebermann, i. 640

12-13. D. 41.1.31.1.: ‘Thensaurus est vetus quaedam depositio pecuniae cuius non extat memoria, ut iam dominum non habeat: sic enim fit eius qui invenerit quod non alterius sit. Alioquin si quis aliquid vel lucri causa vel metus vel custodiae condiderit sub terra, non est thensaurus: cuius etiam furtam fit.’

14. D. 41.1.63.1: ‘thensaurus donum fortunae creditur’