Law Courts 151
courts and the punishments were still more severe. It
was through these Assizes and the formation of the com-
mon law in the period following, that the idea of felonies,
the specially serious crimes, was taking shape. The list
came to be homicide, arson, burglary, robbery, rape* and
larceny. Later there were other crimes made felony by
statute, and the death penalty, except in the case of
petty larceny, became the rule.1 It should be noted
here that the men who presented suspects were not really
accusers; they did not commit themselves to a belief in
any one's guilt. Nor were they witnesses; they gave
no testimony about crime, They simply constituted a
searching means of getting at popular report and belief;
this they were under oath not to conceal, and if such re-
port reached justice or sheriff through another channel
they were liable to fine for non-fulfilment of their duty.
The representatives from the vills were probably largely
from the villein class; they would know the suspects of
their own class and be posted on all local rumour. They
reported to the twelve men of the hundred, most of whom
would be knights, and the latter made what use they chose
of this information in the final statement to the justices.
In this summary of Henry II.*s judicial changes, two
institutions have been mentioned that need further ex-
planation, the writ and the group of neighbours put under
oath to answer questions at the royal command. A few
words will suffice for the first. The general meaning of
the word writ in the reign of Henry I. has been noticed;
also the fact that it had begun to have a special, legal
use in connection with the written orders sent out by the
king to ensure and hasten justice in cases in which he was
Interested.2 In Henry II.'s reign, the writ was a recog-
nised institution and began to differentiate and become
technical. In each of the possessory assizes, the first
1 On the distinction between'dergyable and non-clergyable felonies, see
below, pp. 251, 252, note 4.
2 See above, pp. 142, 143.