d
only to major crimes.

Treason was tried by the lords in Parliament, by bill of
"attainder". It was often used for political purposes. Most
attainders were reversed as a term of peace made between competing
factions.

The King's coroner and a murderer who had taken sanctuary in a
church often agreed to the penalty of confession and perpetual
banishment from the nation as follows: "Memorandum that on July 6,
[1347], Henry de Roseye abjured the realm of England before John
Bernard, the King's coroner, at the church of Tendale in the
County of Kent in form following: 'Hear this, O lord the coroner,
that I, Henry de Roseye, have stolen an ox and a cow of the widow
of John Welsshe of Retherfeld; and I have stolen eighteen beasts
from divers men in the said county. And I acknowledge that I have
feloniously killed Roger le Swan in the town of Strete in the
hundred of Strete in the rape [a division of a county] of Lewes
and that I am a felon of the lord King of England. And because I
have committed many ill deeds and thefts in his land, I abjure the
land of the Lord Edward King of England, and [I acknowledge] that
I ought to hasten to the port of Hastings, which thou hast given
me, and that I ought not to depart from the way, and if I do so I
am willing to be taken as a thief and felon of the lord King, and
that at Hastings I will diligently seek passage, and that I will
not wait there save for the flood and one ebb if I can have
passage; and if I cannot have passage within that period, I will
go up to the knees into the sea every day, endeavoring to cross;
and unless I can do so within forty days, I will return at once to
the church, as a thief and a felon of the lord King, so help me
God."

Property damage by a tenant of a London building was assessed in a
1374 case: "John Parker, butcher, was summoned to answer Clement
Spray in a plea of trespass, wherein the latter complained that
the said John, who had hired a tavern at the corner of St. Martin-
le-Grand from him for fifteen months, had committed waste and
damage therein, although by the custom of the city no tenant for a
term of years was entitled to destroy any portion of the buildings
or fixtures let to him. He alleged that the defendant had taken
down the door post of the tavern and also of the shop, the boarded
door of a partition of the tavern, a seat in the tavern, a
plastered partition wall, the stone flooring in the chamber, the
hearth of the kitchen, and