Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/69

Rh so long as the king shall be in the kingdom of England, the writs of the exchequer shall be made in the royal name, under the witness of this same president and of some other magnate. What the tenor is, moreover, of those writs which are called summonses, will be more fully told below in the chapter on summonses.

As to the Clerk of the Chancellor.

The clerk of the chancellor, who is next to the latter, although he serves not in his own but in another's name, is, nevertheless, busied about great things, and is called in many directions: so that from the very beginning of the accounts to the end he can not be torn thence; unless perchance he is lenient to himself, a discreet representative being meanwhile substituted for him. He has the first care after the treasurer in all these things which are done there; principally, however, in the matter of writing the rolls and writs; for in these things he is chiefly versed. And he looks out lest the pen of his scribe, while he follows the other with equal steps, should commit an error. Likewise he looks diligently at the roll of the former year placed before him, until satisfaction shall have been given by the sheriff for those debts which are there marked, and for which he is summoned. Likewise when the sheriff sits to render account, the fixed payments from the county having been computed and put in writing, he takes from the sheriff: the writ of summons to which the king's seal is appended, and presses the sheriff for those debts which are there written down, speaking in public, and saying; "render for this, so much; and for that, so much." The debts, moreover, which are paid entirely, and for which satisfaction is given, the same clerk cancels by a line drawn through the middle; so that there may thus be a distinction between what is paid and what is to be paid. He also guards the counter-writs of those drawn up at the exchequer. He also corrects and seals the summonses made, as has been said before; and he has infinite labour and is the greatest after the treasurer.

D. Here Argus would be more useful than Polyphemus.