reasons, but are counted among the fixed payments. And mark that, although the king is free to confer these liveries on any poor people whatever, they nevertheless, by ancient custom, are usually assigned to those who minister at court, and who, having no income, fall into bodily sickness and become unfit for labour. All of these things having been put down in order, the treasurer asks the sheriff if, in addition to the fixed payments, he have expended anything by writ of the king. Then, one by one, the sheriff hands over to the clerk of the chancellor the writs of the king which have been sent to him. He, having read them in public, delivers them to the treasurer, so that the latter, according to the form in which the writs have been drawn up, may furnish appropriate words for the writing of his. roll: for he, as has been said, prescribes, and the others who write with him take down from his roll. This being done, the sheriff shows if, not through writs but through the fixed rule of the exchequer, he have expended any thing which ought to be computed to him; such are the payments of the king's approvers, and likewise those things which are spent in carrying out sentences and judgments.
VII. What things are to he computed through custom of the Exchequer alone,—that is, without a writ.
Remark, moreover, that sentences are here usually called executions of the law carried out against any men; but judgments, the ordeals of the glowing iron or of boiling water. The liveries of approvers, therefore, are made on this basis. On account of the innumerable riches of this kingdom, and likewise on account of the inclination to drunkenness inborn in the natives—which lust always follows as a companion,—it happens that, in it, thefts, open or secret, and also homicides and crimes of different kinds, are frequently committed; the harlots adding incentives, so that there is nothing which those who subject themselves to their counsels will not dare or attempt. "When, therefore, any one one notoriously guilty of these things is taken by the royal servants who look out for the peace of the kingdom,—on account of the great number of scoundrels and in order that, even in this way, the land may be
