Note 379 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Chaucer, John Saunders’ ed. p. 83. London, 1889.

“Significavit is a Writ which issues out of the Chancery pon a Certificate given by the Ordinary of a man that stands obstinately excommunicate by the space of forty days, for the laying him up in prison without Bail or Mainprice, until he submit himself to the Authority of the Church.” “And it is so called because Significavit is an emphatical word in the Writ.”—T. Blount, Law Dictionary. London, 1717.