forms or modes, or arrangement of words, conceded to emperors, kings and the others aforesaid; against which premises aforesaid we will that aid be given by no one, and by no persons in any respect.

Let it then be lawful to none at all to infringe this page of our constitution, prohibition, or order, or to gainsay it by any rash attempt; and if any one presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Rome in Saint Peter's on the twenty-fourth of February in the second year of our pontificate.

(October, 1297.

48. Confirmatio Cartarum

French text and translation, 1 S. R. 123, Stubbs, S. C. 494-496. 2 Stubbs, 146.)

EDWARD, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of

Ireland, and duke of Guyenne, to all those that these present letters shall hear or see, Greeting.

1. Know ye that we to the honor of God, and of holy Church, and to the profit of our realm, have granted for us and our heirs, that the great Charter of Liberties, and the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent of all the realm, in the time of king Henry our father, shall be kept in every point without breach. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our seal, as well to our justices of the forest, as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other officers, and to all our cities throughout the realm, together with our writs, in the which it shall be contained, that they cause the foresaid charters to be published, and to declare to the people that we have confirmed them in all points; and to our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers, which under us and by us have the laws of our land to guide, that they shall allow the same charters in all their points, in pleas before them, and in judgments; that is to wit, the Great Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest according to the Assize of the forest, for the wealth of our realm.

2. And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid by the justices, or by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the points of the charters, it shall be undone and holden for nought.

3. And we will, that the same charters be sent, under our seal, to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall be read before the people two times by the year.

4. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of great excommunication against all those that by deed, aid, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid charters, or that in any point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if the same prelates, bishops, or any of them be remiss in the denunciation of the said sentences, the archbishops of Canterbury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and distrain them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid.

5. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear, that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and good will, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their heirs, because they might be at another time found in the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers in our name; we have granted for us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a custom, for any thing that hath been done heretofore, or that may be found by roll or in any other manner.

6. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs as well to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church, as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that for no business from henceforth we shall take of our realm such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common assent of all the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and accustomed.

And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletote of wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made petition to us to release the same; we at their requests have clearly released it, and have granted that we will not take such thing nor any other without their common assent and good will; saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins, and leather, granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In witness of which things we have caused these our letters to be made patents.

Witness Edward our son at London the tenth day of October, the five and twentieth year of our reign.

And be it remembered that this same charter, in the same terms, word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the king's great seal,

that is to say, at Ghent the fifth day of November in the twentyfifth year of the reign of our aforesaid lord the king, and sent into England.

49. De Tallagio non Concedendo

(1297. Latin text, 1 S. R. 125, Stubbs, S. C. 497. Translation, I S. R. 125. 2 Stubbs, 148, 545.)

1. No tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by us or our heirs in our realm, without the good will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of our realm.

2. No officer of ours, or of our heirs, shall take corn, wool, leather, or any other goods, of any manner of person, without the good will and assent of the party to whom the goods belonged.

3. Nothing from henceforth shall be taken in the name or by occasion of maletote.

4. We will and grant for us and our heirs, that all clerks and laymen of our land shall have all their laws, liberties, and free customs, as largely and wholly as they have used to have the same at any time when they had them best and most fully; and if any. statutes have been made by us or our ancestors, or any customs brought in contrary to them, or any manner of article contained in this present charter, we will and grant, that such manner of statutes and customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore.

5. Moreover, we have pardoned Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, marshal of England, and other earls, barons, knights, esquires, and namely John of Ferrers, with all other being of their fellowship, confederacy, and bond, and also to all other that hold twenty pound land in our realm, whether they hold of us in chief, or of other, that were appointed at a day certain to pass over with us into Flanders, the rancor and ill-will which for the aforesaid causes we conceived against them, and all other offences, if any, that they have done against us or ours unto the making of this present charter.

6. And for the more assurance of this thing, we will and grant, for ourselves and our heirs, that all archbishops and bishops for ever in their cathedral churches, this present charter being first read, shall excommunicate, and publicly in the several parish churches of their dioceses, shall cause to be excommunicated, or

to be declared excommunicated twice in the year, all those that willingly do or procure to be done any thing contrary to the tenor, force, and effect of this present charter in any point and article. In witness of which thing we have set our seal to this present charter, together with the seals of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and others which voluntarily have sworn that, as much as in them is, they shall observe the tenor of this present charter in all causes and articles, and shall extend their faithful aid to the keeping thereof forever.

(March, 1307. Latin text and translation, 1 S. R. 150. G. and H. 92. 2 Stubbs, 163.)

Flate it came to the knowledge of our lord the king, by the grievous complaint of the honorable persons, lords, and other noblemen of his realm, that whereas monasteries, priories, and other religious houses were founded to the honor and glory of God, and the advancement of the holy Church, by the king and his progenitors, and by the said noblemen and their ancestors, and a very great portion of lands and tenements have been given by them to the said monasteries, priories, and houses, and the religious men serving God in them, to the intent that clerks and laymen might be admitted in such monasteries, priories, and religious houses, according to their sufficient ability, and that sick and feeble men might be maintained, hospitality, almsgiving, and other charitable deeds might be exercised and done in them for the souls of the said founders and their heirs; the abbots, priors, and governors of the said houses, and certain aliens their superiors, as the abbots and priors of the Cluniacs, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians, and of the orders of Saint Augustine, and Saint Benedict, and many more of other religion and order, have newly appointed to be made, and at their own pleasure ordained divers unwonted, heavy, and intolerable tallages, payments, and impositions upon every of the said monasteries and houses in subjection unto them in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, without the privity of our lord the king and his nobility, contrary to the laws and customs of the said realm; and thereby the number of religious persons, and other servants in the said houses and religious places being oppressed by such tallages, payments, and impositions, the service of God is diminished; alms are withheld from

the poor, the sick, and feeble, the healths of the living and the souls of the dead be miserably defrauded, hospitality, almsgiving, and other godly deeds do cease; and so that which in times past was charitably given to godly uses, and to the increase of the service of God, is now converted to an evil tax; by permission whereof besides those things which are before mentioned, there groweth great scandal to the people, and infinite losses are well known to have ensued, and are still like to ensue, to the disheritance of the founders of the said houses and their heirs, unless speedy and sufficient remedy be provided to redress so many and grievous detriments: wherefore our foresaid lord the king, considering that it would be very prejudicial to him and his people if he should any longer suffer so great losses and injuries to be winked at, and therefore being willing to maintain and defend the monasteries, priories, and other religious houses and places erected in his kingdom, and in all lands subject to his dominion, according to the will and pious wishes of their founders, and from henceforth to provide sufficient remedy to reform such oppressions, as he is bound, by the counsel of his earls, barons, great men, and other nobles and of the commons of his kingdom in his parliament holden at Westminster, on the Sunday next after the feast of Saint Matthias the apostle, in the three and thirtieth year of his reign, did ordain and enact :

2. "That no abbot, prior, master, warden, or other religious person, of whatsoever condition, state or religion he be, being under the king's power or jurisdiction, shall by himself, or by merchants or others, secretly or openly, by any art or device, carry or send, or by any means cause to be sent, any tax imposed by the abbots, priors, masters, or wardens of religious houses or places, their superiors, or in any way assessed among themselves, out of his kingdom and his dominion, under the name of a rent, tallage, tribute, or any kind of imposition, or otherwise in the name of exchange, sale, loan or other contract howsoever it may be termed; neither shall depart into any other country for visitation, or upon any other color, by that means to carry the goods of their monasteries and houses out of the kingdom and dominion aforesaid. And if any will presume to offend this present statute, he shall be grievously punished according to the quality of his offence, and according to his contempt of the king's prohibition.

3. "Moreover our foresaid lord the king doth inhibit all and singular abbots, priors, masters, and governors of religious houses and places, being aliens, to whose authority, subjection, and obedience the houses of the same orders in his kingdom and