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Sovereign Britain 5

four bar ons shall re pair to us…and, lay ing the trans gres sion be fore us, pe ti tion to have that
trans gres sion re dressed with out de lay”.

“And if we shall not have cor rected the trans gres sion…within forty days, reck on ing from
the time it has been in ti mated to us…the four bar ons afore said shall re fer that mat ter to rest
of the five and twenty bar ons, and those five and twenty bar ons shall, to gether with the com -
mu nity from the whole realm, dis train and dis tress us in all pos si ble ways, namely, by seiz -
ing our cas tles, lands, pos ses sions, and in any other way they can, un til re dress has been
ob tained as they deem fit…and when re dress has been ob tained, they shall re sume their old
re la tions to wards us. And let who ever in the coun try de sires it, swear to obey the or ders of
the said five and twenty bar ons for the ex e cu tion of all the afore said mat ters, and along with
them, to mo lest us to the ut most of his power; and we pub licly and freely grant leave to ev -
ery one who wishes to swear, and we shall never for bid any one to swear. All those, more -
over, in the land who of them selves and of their own ac cord are un will ing to swear to the
twenty five to help them in con strain ing and mo lest ing us, we shall by our com mand com pel
the same to swear to the ef fect foresaid. And if any one of the five and twenty bar ons shall
have died or de parted from the land, or be in ca pac i tated in any other man ner which would
pre vent the foresaid pro vi sions be ing car ried out, those of the said twenty five bar ons who
are left shall choose an other in his place ac cord ing to their own judg ment, and he shall be
sworn in the same way as the oth ers. Fur ther, in all mat ters, the ex e cu tion of which is en -
trusted to these twenty five bar ons, if per chance these twenty five are pres ent and dis agree
about any thing, or if some of them, af ter be ing sum moned, are un will ing or un able to be
pres ent, that which the ma jor ity of those pres ent or dain or com mand shall be held as fixed
and es tab lished, ex actly as if the whole twenty five had con curred in this; and the said
twenty five shall swear that they will faith fully ob serve all that is afore said, and cause it to
be ob served with all their might. And we shall pro cure noth ing from any one, ei ther di rectly
or in di rectly, whereby any part of these con ces sions and lib er ties might be re voked or di -
min ished; and if any such things has been pro cured, let it be void and null, and we shall
never use it per son ally or by an other”.

Edward I confirmed the Great Charter in 1297:

“And we will that if any judg ment be given hence forth con trary to the points afore said by
the jus tices or by any other (of) our min is ters that hold plea be fore them against the points of
the charters it shall be un done and holden for nought”.

As had Henry III before him:

“…it shall be law ful for ev ery one in our realm to rise against us and use all the ways and
means they can to hin der us…that each and ev ery one shall be bound by our com mand…so
that they shall in no way give at ten tion to us but that they shall do ev ery thing that aims at our
in jury and shall in no way be bound to us un til that in which we have trans gressed and
offenced shall have been by a fit ting sat is fac tion brought again in due state…this hav ing
been done let them be obe di ent to us as they were be fore.”

The Berean Voice