Introduction.  53


Robert  Holburst,  the  mayor,  and  John  Oldeham  and
Henry  Vynepeny,  the  prepositors  of  the  borough,  haply
swelled  the  crowd  of  representatives  of  mediaeval
power.  There  William  Raleigh,  afterwards  Bishop  of
Lincoln  and  the  second  greatest  lawyer  of  the  day,
probably  acted  as  clerk  to  Martin  Pateshull,  for  his
signature  appears  on  a  Warwickshire  roll  belonging
to  this  eyre.1  There  the  Knights  Templars,  with  their
chain  mail,  snowy  vest,  and  red  cross,  adorned  an  already
picturesque  assembly.  There  knights  and  freeholders
of  bailiwicks,  lawful  men  and  reeves  of  townships,
lawful  burgesses  of  the  boroughs  of  Bristol  and  Redcliff,
stewards  of  manors,  parish  priests  and  representatives
of  the  Jewry  came  at  duty's  call.  And  there  were
gathered  together  from  all  parts,  a  motley  crowd  of
suspected  persons,  appellors,  appellees,  finders  of  dead
bodies,  pledges,  grumbling  merchants,  artful  vassals,
and  nondescripts.  It  was  the  holding  of  the  general
eyre  convoked  by  writ  of  the  i6th  of  May,  1221,  issued
to  the  said  seven  justices.2

At  the  head  of  the  commission  was  Simon,  tenth
Abbot  of  Reading,3  a  man  of  strong  determination
and  power;  fearless  in  the  face  of  the  greatest  danger;

M)

1  Assize  Roll          6  }  i.
I6J

3  Rotuli  Litterarum  Ciausarum  (Record  Commission),  i,  476,  476^.
:5  Ibid.,  476.
54  Pleas  of  the  Crown.
