m which the older grants did little more than recognize
had proved too weak to hold the Angevins; and the baronage now threw
them aside for the restraints of written law. It is in this way that the
Great Charter marks the transition from the age of traditional rights,
preserved in the nation's memory and officially declared by the Primate,
to the age of written legislation, of Parliaments and Statutes, which
was soon to come. The Church had shown its power of self-defence in the
struggle over the interdict, and the clause which recognized its rights
alone retained the older and general form. But all vagueness ceases when
the Charter passes on to deal with the rights of Englishmen at large,
their right to justice, to _security of person and property, to good
government_. 'No freeman,' ran the memorable article that lies at the
base of our whole judicial system, 'shall be seized or imprisoned, or
dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way brought to ruin; we will not go
against any man nor send against him, save by legal judgment of his
peers or by the law of the land.' 'To no man will we sell,' runs
another, 'or deny, or delay, right or justice.' The great reforms of the
past reigns were now formally recognized; judges of assize were to hold
their circuits four times in the year, and the Court of Common Pleas was
no longer to follow the King in his wanderings over the realm, but to
sit in a fixed place. But the denial of justice under John was a small
danger compared with the lawless exactions both of himself and his
predecessor. Richard had increased the amount of the scutage which Henry
II. had introduced, and applied it to raise funds for his ransom. He had
restored the Danegeld, or land tax, so often abolished, under the new
name of 'carucage,' had seized the wool of the Cistercians and the plate
of the churches, and rated movables as well as land. John had again
raised the rate of scutage, and imposed aids, fines, and ransoms at his
pleasure without counsel of the baronage. The Great Charter met this
abuse by the provision on which our constitutional system rests. With
the exception of the three customary feudal aids which still remained to
the crown, 'no scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm save by the
Common Council of the realm;' and to this Great Council it was provided
that prelates and the greater barons should be summoned by special writ,
and all tenants in chief through the sheriffs and bailiffs, at least