Falgrave  quotes  a  Saxon  chronicler  as  saying  that
not  even  an  ox  or  a  cow  or  a  swine  escaped  the   omniverous
xaaw  of  that  record. The  work  was  done  by  the  king's  com-
missioners, and  they  necessarily  struck  upon  all  sorts  of
questions. Who  owned  the  land,  with  what  services  it  was
charged,  the  true  relation  of  lord  and  tenant,  came  con-
stantly in  doubt  or  dispute,  and  the  truth  was  reccorded
■U5)0n  the  answers  of  sworn  reconitors. These  men  were   not
SSti,  all  compurgators. They  endorsed  nobody's  oath;  they  were
not  selected  and  produced  by  the  litigating  parties. On
the  contrary  they  were  persons  who  knew  either  from  their
own  knowledge  or  fj^rom  family  tradition  the   general  facts
inquired  about,  and  were   sworn  to  answer  truthfully  the
questions/  pu^-. Professor  Thayer  cites  from  the  Anglo-
Norman  Flacita  special  cases  in  ^ich  the  recognition  was
used  in  the  County  court,  the  recognitors  answering  as  to
the  fact,  and  the  body  of  the  assembly  rendering  judgment
as  Doomsmen. It   is  not,  however,  till  the  reign  of  the
second  Henry  and  throiighthe  work  of  Glaovil  that  we  begin
to  see  the  procedure  clearly  defined  in  its  application
to  judicial  proceedings. In  that  direction  it  spread
naturally  but  not  easily,     nen  who  had  long  held  the  right


556


to  wage  their  law  by  the  purgation  of  witnesses  chosen  by
themselves,  or  to  demand  a  personal  combat  which  relieved
their  temper  and  indulged  their  revenge,  were   not  much
disposed  to  see  their  rights  determined  by  the  verdict  of
jurors  selected  by  the  king. At  hhis  period  royalty  has  been
obliged  to  form  its  own  court  and  man  it  with  justices  and
a  chief  justiciar. They  act  upon  the  king's  xxx  writ,  and
soon  begin  their  journeys  in  eyre,  and  do  their  work  largely
by  the  assize  and  the  recognition. Pause  a  moment  upon
that  word  "assize."     It   is  to  beccme  the  dominant  word  of
the  forming  procedure,  but  has  had  very  different  meanings,
and  has  been  used  so  loosely  as  often  to  blind  investiga-
tion. Soijiewhere  there  geew  up  a  list  of  six  or  seven  inter-
pretations, but  two  of  them  became  common  and  were,  first,
the  assembly  or  co\u:t  of  the  new  jurisdiction,  and,   second,
the  trial  at  that  court  by  means  of  sworn  recognitors. 