540 AiTNALS OF SOGER BE HOVEDEX. A.n. 1180. for trial, if guilty of any offence ; and if any such person shall run away and escape, then the sureties are to see that they pay the amount claimed, and make proof that they have been privy to no fraud in the person who has escaped. The same summons shall be made of hundreds and counties, as our predecessors have enacted : and those who ought in justice to appear, "and shall be unwilling so to do, shall be once summoned. And if on a second summons they shall not appear, then one ox shall be taken, and on a third summons, another ox, and on the fourth occasion, the amount claimed shall be paid out of the property of the said person, by way of what is called ' scapgeld,' besides a penalty to the king. We do also forbid any person to sell a man out of the country. "We do also forbid that any person shall be put to death or hanged for any crime : but his eyes * may be put out, and he may be deprived of his virility.65 And this command is not to be violated, on pain of plenary penalty to ourselves.' " King William, in the fourth year of his reign, by the advice of his barons, caused the nobles and Avise men among the English, and those who were learned in their laws, to be summoned throughout all the earldoms of England, in order that he might hear from them their laws, ordinances, and customs. Accordingly, twelve men, elected from each county throughout the whole kingdom, first gave assurance by oath, that, so long as they could, proceeding in the right path and swerving neither to the right nor to the left, they would disclose the enactments of their laws and customs, neither omitting nor adding, nor by prevarication changing anything. There-j fore, making a commencement with the laws of Holy Mother Church, inasmuch as through her alone both king and kingdom have a firm and lasting foundation, they set forth her laws, liberties, and rights of protection, to this effect : ω * Of Clerks and their Possessions. " Every clerk, and all scholars66 as well, and all their property and possessions, are everywhere to enjoy the protection of God and of the Holy Church. 6 5 Wilkins adds, " or feet or hands, that in his maimed state he may remain a living sign of his treachery and wickedness." 6S * The following translation is from the text of these laws found in Wilkins, p. 197, et seg., which is far more correct than that found in Hoveden. 6 6 Probably novices in the schools of monasteries.