Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/67

Rh the roll has this in common with charters and other letters patent, that it may not be erased: and for this reason care has been taken to make them of sheep-skins; for they do not easily yield to erasure without the blemish becoming apparent.

D. Does that scribe furnish the rolls at his own expense or at that of the fisc?

M. At the Michaelmas term he receives five shillings from the fisc, and the scribe of the chancery likewise another five; from which they procure the membranes for both rolls and for the summonses and receipts of the lower exchequer.

As to the Scribe of the Chancery.

The care, the labour, the zeal of the remaining scribe sitting at his side consists chiefly in this, namely, that he shall take down from the other roll word for word; as we said before, the same order being observed. Likewise it pertains to him to write the writs of the king concerning outlays of the treasury, but only for those payments which, in the judgment of the barons, while the exchequer is in session, ought to be made by the treasurer and chamberlains: likewise he writes the writs of the king concerning the computing or remitting of those things which the barons have decreed should be computed or remitted at the exchequer. It is his duty also, when the accounts of the sheriff have been gone through, and the dues of the king for which the summonses are made, estimated, to write out the latter, with diligent and at the same time laborious discretion, to be sent throughout the whole kingdom: for by them, and on account of them, the exchequer of the following term is called together.

VI. What the tenor is of Writs of the King made at the Exchequer, whether concerning outlays of the Treasury, or computings or remittings.

D. Under what form of words are writs of the king concerning outlays of the treasury drawn up?