In short, the privileges for which Thomas contended transferred a large part of the people, and that the most helpless part, from the bloody grasp of the King's courts to the milder jurisdiction of the bishop."-- FREEMAN, _Historical Essays_.
[10] Walter of Coventry.

(Rolls Series.) [11] Roger of Wendover.

(Rolls Series.) [12] "Clause by clause the rights of the commons are provided for as well as the rights of the nobles; the interest of the freeholder is everywhere coupled with that of the barons and knights; the stock of the merchant and the wainage of the villein are preserved from undue severity of amercement as well as the settled estate of the earldom or barony.

The knight is protected against the compulsory exaction of his services, and the horse and cart of the freeman against the irregular requisition even of the sheriff."-- STUBBS, _Constitutional History_.
[13] "Quod Anglicana Ecclesia libera sit."-- _Magna Charta_, I.
[14] "This most important provision may be regarded as a summing-up of the history of Parliament so far as it can be said yet to exist.

It probably contains nothing which had not been for a long time in theory a part of the Constitution: the kings had long consulted their council on taxation; that council consisted of the elements that are here specified.