THE CERNE CARTULARY. 91 



Michael the King directed his writ to the Treasurers and Barons 

 concerning the pardon which writ was as follows " The King to 

 the Treasurers and Barons of the Exchequer Greeting; Know ye 

 that of our special grace we have pardoned to our beloved in 

 Christ the Abbot of Cerne the service which he ought to have 

 rendered in our army in Wales in the loth year of our reign for 

 one knight's fee which he holds of us and therefore we command 

 you to cause the abbot to be quit of that service for the year afore- 

 said, and that without delay you cause to be released to him any 

 distress which you may have caused to be made in that respect. 

 Witness the King at Fareham on the lyth day of September in 

 the 22nd year of the King's reign." But the Barons on receipt 

 of that writ wrote to the sheriff of Dorset that he should desist 

 from the said demands over and above his own charges and that 

 he should cause any profits which he had taken by notice of the 

 aforesaid ; order to be returned, and it was done. But at the 

 feast of S. John the Baptist in the 23rd year of the reign of King 

 Edward concerning the charges of the sheriff in the allowance 

 of the writs directed to him came the Abbot by his attorney and 

 demanded that the said writ should be allowed. And answer 

 was made to him that the Abbot owed the service of two 

 knights, while his attorney on the contrary maintained that he 

 only owed the service of one knight in the army and of two 

 knights for scuta ge and he produced a certain charter of King 

 Henry which proved this and it was enrolled in the memoranda 

 of the 23rd year of King Edward and a process was written on 

 the roll which is as follows. " The Abbot of Cerne, who holds 

 all his lands of the King in chief by the service of two knights 

 in scutage and one knight on active service, as appears by a 

 charter of King Henry the Second (which the same Abbot and 

 the Monastery of the same place hold from him and which the 

 same Abbot produced at the Exchequer and is now enrolled 

 among the memoranda of the 23rd year of the present king) 

 ought to answer for the service of one knight which he ought to 

 have performed for the king in the army of Wales and which he 

 withheld from the King in the same army to the disinherison of 



