Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 91

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Volume 4, Page 91

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The essoin of bed-sickness.

[002] A person's absence is excused by an illness ‘of residence,’ from which the essoin
[003] called of bed-sickness arises,¹ which always follows immediately on the essoin of
[004] difficulty in coming, no other essoin intervening, neither that of service of the king
[005] nor any other.² It lies when one [essoined] of difficulty in coming is so impeded by
[006] illness³ that he cannot come, and, excusing himself from the journey, returns to his
[007] home, [as where] a passing illness has turned into ‘languor.’ We must then see
[008] whether the infirmity is a passing illness or ‘languor.’ If it is a passing illness, after
[009] the view the essoinee will have another day, fifteen days later at least. If it is ‘languor,’
[010] a year and a day will then be given him, so that the year be an entire one,
[011] according as that is made up of moments, hours and days, that is, of three hundred
[012] and sixty-five days and six hours, whether the year is a leap year or not, nor, because
[013] of the excrescent day, will a leap year be longer by a day than any preceding
[014] year, nor by an hour or a moment, as will be explained more fully below, [of the
[015] year and day.]⁴ Within the year this illness is properly called ‘languor,’ but if it
[016] lasts beyond the year, it may be called ‘dangerous disease,’ that is, incurable disease.⁵
[017] An essoin of bed-sickness does not follow every essoin of difficulty in coming,
[018] for there are certain writs in which only the essoin of difficulty in coming follows,
[019] simply and by itself, never the essoin of bed-sickness, except sometimes by accident,
[020] as by the narratio, when a writ of entry is turned by the count into a writ of right.
[021] There, at the beginning of the suit the essoin of bed-sickness does not immediately
[022] follow the essoin of difficulty in coming, only when the nature of the writ of entry
[023] has been changed into that of a writ of right.⁶ Similarly, the essoin of bed-sickness
[024] only follows immediately on the essoin of difficulty in coming when the nature of
[025] the writ of common of pasture is changed into a writ of right by the count, a specification
[026] of quality and quantity having been made, as in the writ of quo jure and the
[027] like.⁷ The essoin of bed-sickness may follow the essoin of difficulty in coming and
[028] later, by the count, cease to follow it, as where one first sues by a writ of right: he
[029] will have both essoins at the beginning, but when the writ of right is turned into a
[030] writ of entry by the count and the tenant puts himself on a jury, the essoin of bed-sickness
[031] then ceases to follow the essoin of difficulty in coming, since by the count
[032] the plea begins to be of another nature.⁸ And so in a writ of right where the inheritance
[033] descends

Notes

1. Supra 72

2. Infra 96; cf. 103, 142

3. ‘quis essoniatus de malo veniendi ita infirmitate fuerit impeditus’

4. Infra 134; B.N.B., iii, 301; Schulz in Traditio, iii, 280

5. Infra 116, 131; ‘morbus sonticus’: D. 42.1.60; 50.16.113

6. Supra 22, infra 98

7. Infra 98, 105, 108

8. Infra 99, 105