s of the Privilege are often only too obviously imperfect.

The case in which objection was first raised was very naturally the
first which occurred after the English flag had been unfurled above
the city. In great surprise at the confidence shown by the good
canons, the new bailli, Gauthier de Beauchamp, demanded an enquiry
which was promptly held in his presence before the Cardinal Bishop of
Winchester. On learning of the dispute Henry V. at once wrote to
declare his reverence for the privilege established "En l'onneur et
reverence du dict glorieux confesseur monsieur sainct Rommaing"; so
Jehan Anquetil was duly delivered to mercy, after a crime to which
modern civilisation is very rightly and unswervingly severe, and his
accomplice was claimed by the Chapterhouse and delivered also. I
confess it is beyond my powers to suggest the reason for so solemn a
prerogative having been exercised by the highest dignitaries of the
city's Cathedral in favour of a prisoner convicted of rape.[47] If a
privilege that can only have resisted official competition for so long
because it was based on deeply-rooted popular support, could survive a
choice of this kind, it is one of the strongest proofs of the changes
in society and in public opinion which have fortunately appeared in
civilised communities since the fifteenth century.

[Footnote 47: In 1431 another prisoner, Souplis Lemire, of Yvetot, was
pardoned for exactly the same crime. By a lie he induced Jehanne
Corviere to mount behind his horse, rode with her into a country lane,
where in the words of the manuscript, "il la fery et frapa de
plusieurs orbes coups, plus de l'espace de quatre heures, et lui fist
la char toute noire et meudrie en plusieurs parties de son corps, et
tant fist que il oult violemment et oultre le gre d'elle sa compaignie
par grant force et a plusieurs clameurs de haro." In this case it was
evidently the influence of the offender's family which procured him
the Fierte, and his victim raised the "clameur de haro" during the
ceremony itself. For this she was obliged to apologise to the canons,
but Lemire's conduct throughout had been so disgraceful that, though
the Fierte had absolved him definitely of all criminal penalty, after
eight years of discussion he was condemned in the civil courts to pay
damages of 250 livres tournois to Jehanne. In 1540 the same principle
was upheld, and it generally seems to have been the custom that any
prisoner chosen should g