D. I have heard already, being told by many, that the exchequer is called together twice in the year, namely at the Easter term and at the Michaelmas term. Thou hast also said, if I remember aright, that the exchequer was not held unless the summonses had previously been sent out. Since, therefore, summonses are made out for each term, I ask thee please to reveal whether the same rule is observed in both summonses; or, if there is a difference in the tenor of the words, what it is and why it is so.
II. How the Summonses differ according to the term.
M. It is a great proof of thy advancement that thou hast already known enough to doubt of these things. To be sure it is as certain as possible that the exchequer is convoked and held twice in the year; being preceded, nevertheless, as has been said, by summonses. Thou dost remember very well the terms of both sessions. But mark that, in the Easter term, not accounts, but certain views of accounts are made by the sheriff; wherefore almost nothing of the things that are there done at that time is committed to writing; but the whole is reserved for the other term; and then, in the great yearly roll, the separate items are marked in order; some memoranda, however, which frequently occur, are written apart by the clerk of the treasury; so that, when the exchequer of that term is dissolved, the greater barons may decide concerning them; which things, indeed, on account of the number of them, would not easily be recalled unless they were committed to writing. Furthermore there is written what part of his farm the sheriff pays into the treasury; and then, if he fulfil his obligation, in the same line: " and is quit "; if not, his debt is distinctly put down on the lower line, so that he shall know how much of the total of that term is wanting; and straightway he shall render satisfaction according to the judgment of those presiding. For each sheriff is to pay at that term the half of that farm which accrues from his county in a year. Know, moreover, that in these summonses the tenor of words is not changed unless so far as concerns the term or the place; when for instance, the greater barons have decreed that the ex-
