Читать книгу A Source Book for Mediæval History - Oliver J. Thatcher - Страница 19

If anyone refuses to come to court or to do what the rachinburgii have commanded, that is, to give pledge for payment, or for the ordeal, or for anything which the law requires, then the complainant is to summon him to the presence of the king. And twelve witnesses, being sworn in turn by threes, shall say: [the first three] that they were present when the rachinburgius condemned him to undergo ordeal or to give pledge for payment, and that he had not obeyed. The second three are to swear that they were present on the day when the rachinburgii [again] condemned him to clear himself by ordeal or by paying the fine; that is, that, forty nights from the first day, the sun set on him in the mallberg{28} again, and that he would in no way obey the law. Then the complainant is to summon him before the king, in fourteen nights [after the last mallus], and three witnesses are to swear that they were present when he summoned him and the sun set on him. If he will not come, then these nine witnesses, having sworn, are to say what we have said above. Likewise, if he will not come [to the king’s court] on that day, let the sun set on him, and there shall be three witnesses who were present when the sun set.{29} If the complainant has done all these things, and he who was summoned refuses to come to any court, the king shall put him outside of his protection [i.e., outlaw him]. Then the criminal and all his goods are liable. And whoever shall feed him or give him hospitality, even if it be his own wife, shall be held liable for 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi, until he shall have paid all that has been imposed on him.

{28} Mallberg or malloberg is the place where the mallus or public court is held, and is here used as equivalent to the court.

{29} The process described from the end of the first sentence to this point is supposed to have taken place before the summons to the king’s court mentioned in that first sentence; this is shown by the statement that there are to be twelve witnesses at the king’s court, these twelve witnesses appearing in the passage as follows: three each for the two public trials in the mallus, three for the summons to the king’s court fourteen days after the second trial, and three for the first session of the king’s court; these delays having been granted and the delinquent not appearing at the second session of the royal court, he is there finally outlawed.