mportant things happened. The high-water mark of
domination by the Roman Church is reached when King John surrendered
England to the pope, and took it back as a fief of the pope for a
tribute of one thousand marks. The same year the other early method
of trial of lawsuits was abolished by the Lateran Council--trial by
ordeal. This was the only remaining Saxon method. The Norman trial by
battle had already been superseded by trial by jury; and from this
time on, in practice, no other method than a jury remains, though
trial by battle was not abolished by statute until the nineteenth
century.

And then we come to Magna Charta. The first time it was granted was in
1215 by John, but the charter always quoted is that promulgated ten
years later under Henry III. They were very nearly identical, but the
important omission in the charter of Henry was in regard to "scutage"
("no aid other than the three customary feudal aids shall be imposed
without the common counsel of the kingdom"); that, of course, is the
principle we have discussed above, first put in writing in the charter
of John. The barons claimed it as part of the unwritten law. But Henry
III in his charter cannily dropped it out--which is a trick still
played by legislatures to-day. This Magna Charta was confirmed and
ratified something like thirty times between the time of its adoption
under John and the time it got established so completely that it
wasn't necessary to ratify it any more. There are four sections of
Magna Charta that are most important. Chapter 7, the establishment of
the widow's dower; of no great importance to us except as showing
how early the English law protected married women in their property
rights. Chapter 13 confirmed the liberties and customs of London and
other cities and seaports--which is interesting as showing how early
the notion of free trade prevailed among our ancestors. It gave
rise to an immense deal of commercial law, which has always existed
independent of any act of Parliament. Chapter 17 provided that the
common pleas court--that is, the ordinary trial court--should not
follow the king about, but be held at a place and time certain. That
was the beginning of our legal liberty; because before that the king
used to travel about his realm with his justiciar, as they called his
chief legal officer, and anybody who wanted to have a lawsuit had
to travel around England and get the king to hear his case. But the
uncertainty of such