142 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



sors the familiar right to penalties imposed on their 

 " men and tenants," even though in the king's courts, 

 had, according to custom, claimed these penalties at the ex- 

 chequer, and had been met with a refusal on the part 

 of the barons to allow him those imposed before the 

 justices of labourers. The archbishop complained to 

 the king and succeeded in obtaining a writ of the great seal 

 directed to the treasurer and barons, dated i8 October. 1356, 

 bidding them either make the allowances or send to the king 

 immediately a certified statement as to their reason for re- 

 fusal. The barons chose the latter alternative and quoted 

 the clause of the statute of labourers to the effect that after 

 the end of the subsidy the penalties including excessus were 

 to be levied ad opus Regis and that this clause precluded 

 the possibility of any other disposition of the penalties. 

 The matter evidently caused considerable discussion in the 

 king's council and was too important to be settled instantly 

 by that body; therefore, on 28 October, another writ is is- 

 sued to the barons bidding them delay proceedings until the 

 meeting of the next parliament, still some months off, in 

 order that the whole question can be there more thoroughly 

 discussed. As a matter of fact, during the interval, the 

 agitation must have continued, for on 8 February, a writ 

 of the privy seal directs that all the special commissions of 

 labourers shall be repealed on the ground that from them 

 tout plein des mals et erreurs sont auenuz, — perhaps a refer- 

 ence to these difficulties in the interpretation of the law.^ 

 The substance of the writ appears in the conclusion of the 

 new form of the commissions and the list of justices of 

 labourers issued during the same month omits private juris- 

 dictions." The rolls for the parliament of 10 April- 16 May 



lApp., 31. 



^App., 25-27; 41. These commissions are dated three days earher 

 than the writ of privy seal, presumably by a clerical error. In a note 



