Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/98

78 moreover, consists in like manner of hundreds; that is, some of more, some of less, according as the land has been divided by discreet men. The county, then, is called from the count, or the count from the county. It is the count, moreover, "who receives the third portion of what comes from the pleas in each county. For that sum, which, under the name of a farm, is required from the sheriff, does not all arise from the revenues of estates, but in great part from pleas; and of these the count (comes) receives the third part; he is therefore said to be so called because he shares with the fisc, and is a companion (comes), in receiving. Then the sheriff (vice-comes) is so called because he supplies the place of the count in those pleas in which the count shares by reason of his dignity.

D. Do the counts receive those payments from each and all the counties?

M. By no means: those alone receive them whom the munificence of the kings, in view of service rendered, or of. distinguished probity, has made counts, and on whom this same munificence has decided, by reason of this dignity, to confer them; on some as hereditary, on others for their own persons only.

XVIII. What is the Exactory Roll.

The exactory roll is that in which, distinctly and diligently enough, are marked the farms of the king which arise from the separate counties, and the sum of which may not, indeed, be diminished, but is frequently increased by the laborious diligence of the justice. The reason of the remaining rolls, such as the yearly one and the others which we mentioned above, which are in the treasury and do not leave it, is clear enough from the foregoing. It remains, therefore, for us to turn to the greater and more necessary institutions of the exchequer, in which, as has been said, consists the more excellent, the more useful, and from many the more occult knowledge of the exchequer.