Page:Source Problems in English History.djvu/406

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Source Problems in English History

as monk, canon, or brother until his reputation be known, unless he be sick unto death.

21. Moreover the lord king forbids that any one in all England should receive into his land or jurisdiction or any house of his, any of the sect of those apostates who have been excommunicated and branded at Oxford. And if any one receives them he shall be in the mercy of the lord king; and the house in which they were shall be carried outside the vill and burned. And every sheriff shall take oath to maintain this, and he shall cause to take the same oath all his ministers and the baron’s stewards, and all the knights and freeholders of the counties.

22. And the lord king wills that this assize be held in his kingdom as long as it shall please him.


IV

MAGNA CARTA. 1215

(Latin text and translation in McKechnie, Magna Carta, second edition, pp. 185–479, passim.)

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciars, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greeting. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of holy church, and for the reform of our realm, by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter

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