Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/233

Rh to hand over his estate, his heirs, if they wish, may receive his heritage, and shall pay to the count the 20 pounds within six weeks; but if not, the count shall assign that heritage to the power of the king, shall restore the claims of those who proclaim them, and shall receive the estate from the king under the title of a benefice.

4. If a clerk be charged with violating the peace and be openly known and published as doing so, or if he keep companionship with a violator of the peace, and be convicted of these things in the presence of his bishop and by sufficient testimony: to the count in whose county this same clerk has perpetrated this he shall pay 20 pounds, and for so great an excess he shall make satisfaction to the bishop according to the statutes of the canons. If, moreover, that same clerk shall be disobedient, he shall not only be deprived of his office and ecclesiastical benefice, but also he shall be considered an outlaw.

5. If a judge through clamour of the people shall have followed any violator of the peace to the city of any lord, that same lord whose city it is known to be shall produce him to render justice; but if he shall mistrust his own innocence and shall fear to come before the face of the judge,—if he have a dwelling in the city, his lord shall, under oath, place all his movable goods at the disposition of the judge, and in future, as an outlaw, not receive him in his house; but if he have not a dwelling in his city, his lord shall cause him to be placed in security, and afterwards the judge, with the people, shall not desist from prosecuting him as a violator of the peace.

6. If two men contend for the possession of one benefice, and one of them produces the man who invested him with that benefice, his testimony, if the investor acknowledge having given the investiture, shall be received first by the count; and if the man can prove by suitable witnesses that he obtained this same benefice without plunder, the occasion for controversy being removed, he shall hold it; but if in the presence of the judge he be convicted of plunder, he shall doubly pay the plunder, and shall be deprived of the benefice, unless, justice and judgment dictating, he may in the future seek to obtain it again.

7. If three or more contend for the same benefice, each