Note 836 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

Mr. Pike, House of Lords, 170–4, shares this view of the reactionary nature of the clause, although he considers that the claim to judicium parium by a Crown tenant might be satisfied by the presence of one or more fellow barons among the judges of the “Benches,” and did not necessarily involve a full meeting of the commune concilium summoned in the accustomed way. Ibid., p. 204. If the “judgment” of the full court was requisite (and, in spite of the high authority of Mr. Pike, there is much to be said for that contention), then the reactionary feudal tendency is even more prominent. This feudal tendency is emphasized by the consideration that private franchises and private castles bulked prominently among the rights of property protected from arbitrary seizure by the king.