Note 584 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 3)

Even Coke (Second Institute, p. 27) has to confess that for the purposes of this chapter at least he must abandon the attempt made elsewhere (Ibid., p. 4, and p. 45) to bring the villeins into the class of freemen. Under the plea that the villein was relatively free as against third parties except his lord, he claimed for him all the benefits secured by anticipation in chapter 1 of the Charter, and he made a special application of the same doctrine in connection with the right to judicium parium secured to all freemen by chapter 39 (q.v.). Here, however, he is forced to admit the distinction between freeman and villein, the former term being, for the purpose of amercements, virtually identified with “freeholder.”