as in store for any felon who deviated from the highway
in proceeding to his assigned port. He might not, however, be reserved
for judicial execution, being at the mercy of his captors, who could do
as they pleased with him. "Some robbers indeed, as well as some thieves,
are lawless--outlaws as we usually call them--some not; they become
outlaws, or lawless, moreover, when, being lawfully summoned, they do
not appear, and are awaited and even sought for during the lawful and
fixed terms, and do not present themselves before the law. Of these
therefore the chattels and also the lives are known to be in the hands
of those who seize them, nor can they for any reason pertain to the
King."[11] ("Dialogus de Scaccario," x.).

An outlaw, as such, was incapable of exercising the most ordinary
rights--he could not devise, inherit, own, or sell lands or houses.
Civilly, he was dead. The only question is whether these
disqualifications attached to him as the effects of felony or the
resultant outlawry. The point was tested in a case which came before the
Common Bench in 1293, and decided by an eminent justice of the period in
relation to a certain Geoffrey, who had committed felony, and before
this became known had disposed of tenements to one John de Bray.
"Inasmuch," said Metingham, "as all those who are of his blood are
debarred from demanding through him who committed the felony, in like
manner every assign ought to be barred from defending the right to
tenements which have come from the hands of felons; and it is found by
the Inquest that Geoffrey was seised after the felony was committed. And
inasmuch as felony is such a poisonous thing that it spreads poison on
every side, the Court adjudges that William [the lord, who had brought a
writ of escheat] do recover his seisin, and that John be in mercy for
the tortious detinue."

Sanctuary for treason was abolished in 1534, and for crime in 21 Jac.
I., but debtors enjoyed the time-honoured immunity, at Whitefriars and
elsewhere, till 1697.

URBAN

CHAPTER XIII

BURGHAL INDEPENDENCE

Just as the Universities and the Judiciary were found to have a common
link in the Order of the Coif, so we find that the Judiciary and the
City were bound each to each by the existence of by-laws, or, as they
were termed in a technical sense, "customs." Although, to avoid
misapprehension, these "customs" may be styled by-laws, and many of them
strictly answer to the description, on t