4o6 A. D. 1255. 



who had advanced the money, being authorized by the king and the 

 pope, neither of whom had any rehiflance to forward fo honourable a 

 bufinefs, Ihould draw bills upon the Englilh prelates for fums pretend- 

 ed to have been advanced to them by merchants of Sienna or Florence. 

 This righteous plan was accordingly executed, and an agent was fent 

 into England to receive payment of the bills *• In vain the prelates 

 protefted, that they had no dealings or connexion with the perfons pre- 

 tending to be their creditors. They were obliged, under the terrible 

 penalty of excommunication, to pay the bills. [M. Paris, pp.- 892, 910.] 

 The bilhop of Ely, however, found means to fave himfelf from the 

 extorfion. Being fued by fome merchants of Sienna for 300 marks of 

 principal and 1 00 marks of interefl (' interefle') before Alexander de 

 Ferentin, a judge appointed by the pope, and being at the fame time 

 commiflioned to go to Spain as the king's ambaflador, he refufed to fet 

 out upon the journey, unlefs he were relieved from the iniquitous pro- 

 fecution : and the king was obliged to comply with his defire, and to 

 find other funds to pay the debt, which was jurtly due to the merchants. 

 [Rot. clauf. 40 Hen. Ill, in. 8. dorjo, in Frynne's ExaSi chronological vindica- 

 tion, V. n,p. 859.] This is believed to be the earliefl notice, extant in 

 this country, of interefl being fairly and exprefsly mentioned by that 

 name f , unlefs when the lender was a Jew : for it appears to have been 

 hitherto fettled by collufion between the parties, when both were Chrif- 

 tians, in order to avoid the cenfures and penalties of the church. 



1256 — At this time the interefl of the money borrowed by the king 

 amounted to above a hundred pounds a-day, which, the hiflorian fays, 

 threatened the whole people of England, the clergy as well as the laity, 

 with defolation and ruin. [M. Paris, p. 938.] It is a pity he has not 

 alfo told us the amount of the principal, or, which would have been the 

 fame thing, the rate of the interefl:. 



Juflices were fent to every city and burgh throughout England, in 

 order to regulate and corredl the meafures, and to eftablilh an aflife for 

 the weight of bread according to the fiuduations in the price of wheat ; 

 for example, when the quarter of wheat was fold for one fhilling, the 

 farthing loaf of uoajlel bread fhould weigh fix pounds and fixteen twen- 

 tieths, Troye weight. They alfo fixed an allile for ale proportioned to 

 the prices of corn, and for wine \. [Annates Burton, p. 365, ed. Galc.~\ 



The king by a charter to the burgefTes of S'. Omers in Flanders pro- 



* The worthy contriver fubjeiSlcd himfelf to the the year 1249. I fliall afterwards have occafion to 



payment of 4,000 marks, as a decoy to his breth- liint a fiifpicion that that law rather belonged to 



ren. But lie had an order from the king to in- his fon Altxiinder III. 



demiiify himfelf. \_Prynne's Exail chronological J The regulated prices of bread and ale will be 



v'tndicalion, p. 860.3 found in the appendix of prices. Thofe of wine 



f We fuid ' fanima principal!, cum damnis, ex- arc onu'ued by the annalift, nor do they appear 



' penfis, et interelfi',' in c. 24 of the laws afcribcd in the allife iu the ftatute of ji Henry III. 

 to Alexander 11 king of Scotland, who died in 



