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[001] before, who, having been examined in the manner of witnesses, carefully and separately,
[002] and all agreeing, will prove the summons sufficiently. It will then first be
[003] necessary for the tenant, because of the presumption raised by the testimony of
[004] the summoners, to deny the summons by wager of law,1 since a summons is valueless
[005] unless it has been attested and proved. Nor is the land to be replevied, as aforesaid,2
[006] before the tenant has made his law or failed to make it. Another day will
[007] therefore be given the parties for making the law when the tenant finds pledges for
[008] waging it. Nor may the tenant appoint an attorney for making the law, since the
[009] tenant himself has waged it;3 unless he does so personally he will be in default. On
[010] the day given him for making his law the tenant may essoin himself, if he so wishes,
[011] as may the demandant, on the same day or4 successively if they wish,5 for nothing
[012] is here permitted the tenant which is not permitted the demandant, and conversely.
[013] On the day for making his law, the tenant either makes his law or fails to
[014] do so. If he makes it, as one excused of default he will answer to the principal plea
[015] on the same day,6 for the time between the wager of law and the making of it suffices
[016] for a delay and takes the place of a reasonable summons. If he fails to make his
[017] law, he will then lose seisin and the demandant will recover seisin and the tenant
[018] be in mercy. And let him have such recovery as he will have to have.7 The pledges
[019] for making his law will be quit of amercement, according to some, for it suffices that
[020] they had him in court for making his law, though he failed to make it, as in the case
[021] of pledges for prosecuting. But according to others, and the better view, all are in
[022] mercy unless he does that for the doing of which he has found the pledges, for
[023] pledges are not found only for his coming to court. It might be asked inter alia why,
[024] since the tenant has defended his default by making his law, the demandant does
[025] not suffer the defeat of his cause,8 that is, his writ or action, as the tenant would
[026] lose seisin if he failed to make his law. 9<I answer, the restoration of his own seisin
[027] is sufficient benefit to him [the tenant].> Suppose that the tenant does not appear
[028] on the first day of summons, after the default and the seizure of the land into the
[029] hand of the lord king, but on the second, third or fourth, and the demandant has
[030] come on the first day and presented himself; [if] he claims judgment on both defaults,
[031] the tenant must then deny both, unless after the seizure of the land he
[032] claimed it by replevin in person, for then he cannot easily deny the second summons
[033] and the day given by the justices in the replevin and by him accepted.10 But
[034] if neither has taken place, or it was claimed by someone other than himself,



Notes

1. Supra 65

2. Supra 150

3. Om: ‘quod si fecerit’

4. ‘vel’

5. ‘voluerint’

6. Supra 67

7. Infra 154, 161

8. C. 2.13.1: ‘iactura causae’

9. Supra i, 414

10. Supra 150


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