Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/74

64 the sheriff is blanched; wherefore, in testimony of this, it always remains hanging to the greater tally.

D. A question strikes me here which I remember to have propounded when we were treating of the lower exchequer: why, namely, one pound should fall off more than another, since the condition ought to be the same of all those who have to do with coining money.

M. To this question, as to that former one, it is sufficient to reply that this can be done through forgers and clippers of coin. Some, moreover, have believed—and I do not differ from them—that the money of this kingdom was not lawful if the tested pound decreased more than six pence from the weight to which it corresponds when counted; and also that money of this kind, brought to the exchequer, ought to fall to the fisc,—unless, perhaps, the coins are new and not customary, and the inscription upon them betrays their producer; for then that moneyer shall be strictly called to account for his work, and, according to the established laws, shall be condemned or absolved without loss to the sheriff". But if, the coin being proved and re-proved by testing, the moneyer shall have been condemned and punished, the coins shall be reduced to a mass by the melter of the exchequer—others skilled in this art being present—and its weight shall be computed to the sheriff. But all this is almost abolished now and much relaxed; since, with regard to money, all sin in common; when, however, the money shall come to be of the right measure, and the one fixed by law, it will become necessary to keep the law as originally established. On the other hand, if any sheriff should have brought coins, a pound of which, when burned, kept within five or four or less, and they seemed to have been newly made, not usual or current,— they were likewise called not lawful: exceeding, as it were, the common standard; whence, like the others, they also could be confiscated.

There are likewise at the exchequer fixed payments which are made at stated terms without a writ of the king: such is the salary of the " nauclerus," i.e., the master, of the king's ship which we call " esnecca," who receives twelve pence daily. For this, and for similar payments, tallies are made by the chamberlains, since they do not