PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES 85 



prisonment for a long term was used to any great extent. 

 The estreat rolls show that a delinquent may have to for- 

 feit the excess, or that he may be forced to pay a fine, or 

 that he may incur both penalties.' In the case of actions 

 brought by plaintiffs there are many instances of amerce- 

 ments for false actions and also for failure to continue 

 the suit;* sometimes damages are mentioned, and in one 

 instance it is stated that they are assessed by the jus- 

 tices ;3 they would be the normal penalty in actions 

 brought at the suit of plaintiffs on clauses other than the 

 wages and price clauses. There are also many instances 

 where offenders are in mercy and where it is recorded 

 that they are amerced.'* Fines and "excess" are, how- 

 ever, by far the most usual form, of penalty, and make up 

 the larger part of the issues of the sessions, described 

 technically in the exchequer as " fines, redemptions, ex- 

 cess, issues and amercements," ^ and belonging, accord- 

 ing to mediaeval custom, to him who had the right to the 

 profits of that particular court. Perhaps the best proof 

 of the all-importance of the wages and price clauses is the 

 relative frequency of the penalty known as excess as 

 shown by the fact that in many exchequer documents 

 connected with the subsidies the phrase excesses opera- 

 riorum has become very common as a description of the 

 money penalties imposed under the statutes of labourers.^ 

 A careful study of the records of fines and of the 

 security given for their payment reveals the curious fact 

 that a culprit who is himself assessed to a fine, which he 

 has not yet paid, and for which he has had to find security, 



^Cf. e. g., app., 380; 338; 383. *App., 156 and 157. 



■'•App., 146 and 186. *App,, 150. 



^ App., 273, and similar documents, passim. 

 ^ App., 330, et passim. 



