Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 74

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 4, Page 74

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] an attorney¹ therefore, if that may conveniently be done, and if the lord does not
[002] come he will swear on the soul of the lord of the suit.]² he will swear that he will
[003] have his lord on another day to warrant his statement and his essoin, and to
[004] prove by oath that he was so detained by illness while on his way to court that
[005] he was unable³ to come etc., as above. If he comes on that day, he will warrant⁴ the
[006] essoin, provided he proves by oath that he was impeded as his essoiner explained in
[007] putting forward his essoin. [But we must see whether the proof ought to be made
[008] to the judge or to the party, because if to the judge he may remit it if he wishes,
[009] because of the delay which would follow and the number of proofs. If it ought to be
[010] made to the party and not the judge, it cannot, without acting contrary to law, be
[011] remitted without the party's consent.]⁵ Therefore if someone is absent for one or
[012] another of the foregoing reasons, let him send his essoiner to excuse him and put
[013] forward his excuse, in accordance with what was said above.⁶ ⁷<Essoins have their
[014] order just like actions. There is the essoin of difficulty in coming within the realm,
[015] if one falls so ill on the journey to court that he cannot appear, neither to gain nor
[016] to lose. An essoin of bed-sickness or⁸ reseantisa sometimes follows this essoin, where⁹
[017] the right itself is in question. When one has been so essoined within the realm by
[018] one of these or by both, the essoinee is not permitted to go outside the realm in
[019] order to gain himself a delay by the essoin of beyond the sea.¹⁰ There are several
[020] kinds of beyond the sea essoins, for instance, of beyond the sea and this side the sea
[021] of the Greeks and of beyond the sea of the Greeks:¹¹ ‘of this side the sea of the
[022] Greeks,’ as on pilgrimage to St. James, or for some other necessary reason, as the
[023] army or the like, in Germany or Spain or the like; [In these essoins the delay of the
[024] simple essoin of beyond the sea will be given the essoinee, at least forty days and
[025] one flood-tide and one ebb.¹² If mention is made of a [more] remote place, for some
[026] necessary purpose, as was said above, a greater delay will be given at the will and
[027] discretion of the justices, according to what seems appropriate according to the distance
[028] between the places. Delays are then arbitrary, provided they are at least forty
[029] days, as above. And the same will be done within the realm in the essoins mentioned
[030] above, [that is], according to the distances between the places, provided the delays
[031] are at least fifteen days.]¹³

Notes

1. ‘attornatum’

2. Infra 92

3. ‘potuit’

4. ‘warantizet’; infra 111

5. Infra 89

6. Supra 73

7. Supra i, 412; belongs infra 76, line 27, after ‘ordinem’

8. ‘vel’

9. ‘ubi’

10. Infra 75, 77

11. ‘Graecorum’

12. Supra iii, 252

13. Supra 63, infra 77, 112