Note 797 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 4)

The corresponding provision of the Articles of the Barons (29) adds the word “vi” (“nec rex eat vel mittat super eum vi”). The idea of open violence, thus clearly indicated, is expressed in contemporary documents by the fuller phrase, per vim et arma. The accepted translation, as contained in the Statutes at Large, “nor will we pass upon him nor condemn him,” is thus inadequate. The editors of the Statutes of the Realm, I. 117, suggest “deal with him” as an alternative translation. Coke, it will be seen infra, is the original source of the error which connects this “going” and “sending” with legal process.