Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/96

76 and many other things "which, when the exchequer is in session, are necessary to its daily uses.

XV. What use is made of the Royal Seal which is in the Treasury.

What ought to be the use of the royal seal is clear from the foregoing: for with it are sealed the summonses that are made out, and the other mandates which pertain solely to the exchequer of the king; nor is it carried elsewhere; but, as has been said above, is guarded by the chancellor through a representative. It has, moreover, stamped upon it, exactly the same image and inscription as the deambulatory seal of the court, so that both may be known to have the same authority of commanding, and that he who acts counter may be similarly judged guilty according to the one or the other. Then that book about which thou dost ask is the inseparable companion of the royal seal in the treasury. From Henry, formerly bishop of Winchester, I have heard as follows the cause of this institution.

XVI. What is the Doomsday Book, and for what purpose composed.

When that distinguished conqueror of England, a relative by blood of this same prelate, had subdued the utmost limits of the island to his rule, and had tamed the minds of the rebels by examples of terrible things,—he decreed, lest a free opportunity of erring should again be given, that the people subject to him should submit to written custom and laws. The Englsh laws, therefore, being laid before him according to their triple distinction, that is, Mercian law, Dane law, and West Saxon law, — some he rejected; others, moreover, approving, he added to them the transmarine laws of Neustria which seemed most efficacious for protecting the peace of the kingdom. At length, lest anything should seem to be wanting to the sum of all his forethought, having taken counsel, he despatched from his side the most discreet men in circuit throughout the kingdom. By these men, in this way, a