496 'ADVENTUS VICECOMITUM 1258-72 October the germs of the reform may be discerned in the previous year. 1 A second and more drastic attempt was made four years later, when it was ordered that desperate debts should be marked ' d ', and that, instead of being entered annually on the Pipe Rolls, . they were to remain on the roll on which they were so marked, but were to be read over at the account for that shire each year. The chief object of these reforms was to free the Pipe Rolls from the overwhelming burden of debt which was their legacy from the Barons' War. It is true that there were arrears before that time, but the volume was small, when compared with the huge mass of debt contracted at this period. The Pipe Roll, in fact, becomes at this date rather a roll of Crown debtors than a roll of accountants. Further attempts at reform were made in 7 Edward I, when a large number of desperate debts were transferred to the Rotulus Pullorum, the first attempt to form a separate roll of desperate debts and a direct ancestor of the Exannual Rolls. 2 Finally, in the twelfth year, these reforms culminated in the Rotulus de Corporibus Comitatuum, on which was entered the old ferm of the different counties and the subsequent gifts of land made by the king, so that in future only the remnant of the ferm, for which the sheriff actually had to account, was entered on the Pipe Rolls. After the Corpus Comitatus were placed a list of desperate debts for each county. The new feature here is that, whereas the Rotulus Pullorum only records two sets of desperate debts at the most, this second roll records them year by year as they occur. When it became too full, the clerks began a new roll, the first Exannual Roll. It must not be con- cluded, however, that the extraction of desperate debts originated as a result of the Barons' War. The germs of this system may be discerned as early as 28 & 33 Henry II, when certain desperate debts were enrolled on separate membranes of the Pipe Rolls under the heading of their respective counties. 3 Exactly what stage had been reached by 1258 has not yet been worked out. The rebellion of the barons, however, led directly to a rapid development of this system, which until that time was merely in embryo. In spite of these attempts at reform, the Pipe Rolls were still burdened with a heavy legacy of debt, at least as late as Edward II's reign. A clear understanding of this point is essential to a study of these rolls in the fourteenth century. Mabel H. Mills. 1 Debts marked ' d ' and ' t ' are found throughout the Pipe Roll 52 Hen. III. They also appear in the previous year under Lincolnshire, Cumberland, and Yorkshire. Desperate debts are marked ' d ' ; if anything is collected on these, ' t ' is added. 2 The Rotulus Pullorum was probably begun at the end of Henry Ill's reign, but a large number of debts were added in 7 Edw. I, being taken apparently from the Pipe Roll of 5 Edw. I. 3 Pipe Rolls 28 <& 33 Hen. II (Pipe Roll Society), p. 1.
