( xii ) 



the purpose in liand.' Amongst these we find the " Terrae datse," the 

 " Liherationes constitutse servientium maneriorum," and the " Elemosynfe 

 constitutae per maneria Episcopatus," the " Eirma anni prseteriti" and the 

 "Nova firma."^ The occurrence of these distinctive terms as early as the 

 year 1172 would, moreover, seem to indicate an antiquity for this fiscal 

 procedure which can scarcely be measured by existing records.* But at 

 least wc have evidence that the series of inrolled manorial accounts with 

 which we are immediately concerned existed for an earlier period than 

 the year 1208,* together with numberless allusions to questions of account 

 going back to the days of Bishops Godfrey and Richard, and even to 

 the time of Henry of Blois himself.* 



An explanation of the use of the formulas of the royal Exchequer by 

 the episcopal Scriptorium followed in turn by the conventual staff has 

 already been suggested from the close proximity of the two establishments 

 at an earlier date ® and the official relations of Peter des Boches and his 

 predecessors with the royal Exchequer. When we add to this fact the 

 personal interest displayed by these great statesmen in the administration 

 of their estates,' it is scarcely to be wondered if they made full use of the 

 administrative model familiar to them. 



Manorial Records. — One other consideration is suggested by the sur- 

 vival of this venerable series of rolls, namely, the antiquity of the system 

 of compiling manorial accounts in the form that is so familiar to us in a 

 later period. That such accounts were compiled in a very similar style 

 on behalf of the temporal and spiritual princes of Western Europe from 

 the beginning of the 9th century at least, we know from surviving 

 examples, but we have here the means of tracing back the actual form 

 in general use in this country in the middle of the 13th century to the 

 closing years of the 12thj and wc have also allusions to the same 

 form at least as early as the middle of the reign of the first 

 Angevin king." Moreover, the form referred to clearly implies the 

 co-existence of another manorial record, the prototype, if not the actual 

 mode] of the Court Roll, surviving specimens of which date as a class 



1 That they were so used in a later period is proved by severSil iuteresting remains preserved 

 amongst the accounts of Bishops' Temporalities. 



/ 2 Pipe Roll, 18 H. 2., Southn. ; cf . also the subsequent accounts during vacancy recorded in the 

 Pipe Rolls, 1 Ric. 1. and 7 John. 



' cf. the account of the bishopric of Lincoln in the Pipe Roll, .31 Hen. 1., which agrees witW 

 the forms of later accounts during vacancy for other churches than Winchester, which latter 

 church alone possesses the distinctive formulse above referred to. 



* In Roll 155278 (1222) arrears of 18 years past (1204) are brought to account ; cf. |)p. 73 

 and 78 infra, which give references to an account of 1205. 



* Pipe Roll, 18 H. 2. 



• The Winchester account rolls preserve several indications of these relations under the heading 

 of the Ministerium of Winchester. 



^ William GifEard's activity and Henry of Blois' ambition herein are well known. The latter, 

 moreover, according to one of his biographers, left his manors well stocked and was an example to 

 all in the administration of his estates (Gerald. Cambr. (Rolls) VII., 49). Whether Richard of 

 Ilchester and Gclfrey de Luci were equally capable (cf. Stubbs' Oxford Lectures, p. 128) is so 

 clear in the face of the evidence of ihe episcopal and royal accounts (cf. pp. 76-77 and Pipe Roll, 

 7 John Southt) ; but Peter des Roches not only continued to take a leading part in the admini- 

 stration of public affairs, but left at his death in 1238 his manors cultivated to the highest point, 

 an example followed by most of his successors Ccf. Registers of Sandale and De Asserio). 



• That such accounts were in use as early as the year 1170 is evident from the allusions in a con- 

 temporary and original inquisition in which default in a bailiff's " compotus," and also in the several 

 items of the inventory of stock and the " exitus grangiae " are duly " appreciated " (Red Book of the 

 Exchequer (Rolls), p. cclxxvii.). 



