PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES 



95 



portant are the instances for this decade of the removal 

 to a higher court of cases before the justices of labourers ; 

 for, although not numerous, they are significant as to 

 process.' Three out of the four cases involve villeinage 

 as an issue ; two out of these three record picturesque 

 attempts of ambitious villeins to bring actions on the 

 statute of labourers against their masters. The substance 

 of these cases must be dealt with again in a later section 

 in connection with the relation of the labour legislation 

 to villeinage ; ^ at present it is the fact of an appeal to a 

 higher authority that is to be considered. The case re- 

 corded in the chronicle of the abbey of Meaux deserves 

 careful study from the point of view of procedure. ^ Some 

 villeins bring suit before the justices of labourers against 

 their lord the abbot on the plea that he has eloigned 

 their ploughmen contrary to the statute of labourers ; 

 after they had been adjudged in mercy on the ground 

 that the abbot is not bound to answer in an action 

 brought against him by his villeins, they complain to the 

 king that the justices had pronounced an unjust judg- 

 ment against them and claim that they are not villeins of 

 the abbot but of the crown. The king issues a writ 

 summoning into chancery the records of the proceedings 

 before the justices of labourers and also bids the abbot 

 appear in person before him to answer the plea as to 

 ownership ; the chronicler goes on to say that the abbot 



*The issue from chancerj' of writs of certiorari demanding from the 

 justices the records of processes of outlawry that had been carried out 

 by their orders. need not be discussed here; it is the regular course of 

 events before a pardon ot outlawry can be obtained from the king. Cf. 

 Fitzherbert, Nerv Natura Brevium; 554, and app., 239 and F, 2. 



"Pt. ii, ch. ii, s. 6. 



^Chron. de Melsa, Rolls Series, iii, 127-142; quoted by Savine in 

 "Bondmen under the Tudors " in Trans. Royal Hist. Soc, xvii, 254, 

 and by Petit-Dutaillis in introduction to Reville's Soulhvement, xxxvii. 



