Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/564

 556 CHANNEL ISLANDS PETITIONS OF 1305 October shows no traces of needle -marks. It seems clear that the Paris manuscript is either a fragment of the Parliament Roll or a tran- script by the same scribe of a part now lost. It remains to be considered how it came to its present resting-place. Little seems to be known of the history of the documents among which it is now to be found : but they all relate to Mont St. Michel. The proceedings against the abbot of Mont St. Michel form the subject of the longest of the petitions included in this document. It may ibe assumed, therefore, that before the roll was sewn up, the Guernsey membrane was detached and sent to Mont St. Michel as evidence in connexion with this dispute. It may of course be a transcript : but that does not explain how this particular membrane comes to be missing, nor why so much irrelevant matter was copied, nor why it corresponds so exactly with the other membranes in such essential matters as the spacing of the lines. The coincidence of the filing holes on this document and the membrane which should immediately precede it on the roll is also remarkable. The evidence in favour of identifying the Paris manuscript with a missing part of our Exchequer Parliament Roll cannot be regarded as conclusive, but the balance of probability seems to be very much on this side, especially as this view is supported by the authority of M. Bemont. 1 R. L. Atkinson. A List of Original Papal Bulls and Briefs in the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum Part II Innocent VIII (1484-92) 237. Eome, St. Peter's, 6 August 1487. Permission for malefactors taking refuge in sanctuaries and issuing thence to commit thefts, homi- cides, &c, to be taken out of sanctuary at the bidding of the king of England or his officers. First line. Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. Silk threads of bulla. ' Romanum decet Pontificem '. [Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 621-2.] Cleop. E. iii, fos. 135 b-6. 238. Rome, St. Peter's, 20 September 1491. Confirmation of sale, by reason of its inconvenient distance from the hospital, of certain property of hospital called ' del Rey ', administered by abbess of Las Huelgas without the walls of Burgos ; the said property being in diocese of Toledo. First line. Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. Bulla ; silk. ' Licet ea que '. Add. Ch. 24815. 1 I am greatly indebted to my colleagues in the Public Record Office, especially Messrs. Hubert Hall and Charles Johnson, for advice and assistance in this matter : and I am particularly grateful to M. Bemont for the very great personal trouble he has taken to answer my inquiries