Bracton, when treating of the subject, employs the same expression, and observes, that the land was not to be replevied, before the tenant had waged his law, nor, if he failed in waging it; and he lays it down, that the Tenant could not wage his Law by means of an Attorney constituted for that purpose, but must do it personally. (Bracton 366. a. 410. a.) As to the _origin_ of waging Law, the reader may consult Cowell ad voc. _Law_ and les Termes de la ley _ubi supra_ and Bl. comm. 3. 341. &c. Before we quit this chapter, it may not be amiss to observe, that Sir Edward Coke refers to it to show, that previous to Magna Carta, he that would make his Law in any Court of Record, must bring with him _fideles Testes_. (Co. Litt. 168. b.)] [Footnote 53: Bracton tells us, that it was not necessary that the compurgators should be of the same rank as their Principal: it was sufficient if they were trust-worthy, and of good characters. (Bracton 410. a.)] [Footnote 54: Mr. Reeves observes, that the waging of Law is not mentioned by Glanville, as a mode of proof for the defendant in civil suits. That judicious writer must be understood, as speaking of that proof, which constituted the defence to the Action.] [Footnote 55: Vide Mirror, c. 4. s. 7. Bracton 366. a. b. 368. a. b.] CHAP. X. If the Tenant, being summoned, appear not on the first day, but Essoin himself, such Essoin shall, if reasonable, be received; and he may, in this manner, essoin himself three times successively; and, since the causes, on account of which a person may justly essoin himself, are various, let us consider the different kinds of Essoins. CHAP. XI. Of Essoins, some arise on account of ill health, others from other sources. Of those Essoins which arise from ill health—one kind is that _ex infirmitate veniendi_—another _ex infirmitate de reseantisâ_.[56] [Footnote 56: _Reseantisâ_, from the French _reseant_, or _resiant_, or when anglicised, resiance, a term which Dr. Johnson explains in his dictionary, as meaning a residence, though, as he remarks, it is now only used in Law. In this, its simple sense, our author has used it, in a subsequent part of his work. (L. 12. c. 7.) Yet it assumes a different meaning, as used by the old English and Scotch Lawyers to denote an Essoin, when it indicated, as Skene expresses it, “a long and old sickness, or a resident, heavy infirmity and sore sickness.” (Regiam Majestatem, L. 1. c. 8.) An observation in the margin of our author informs us, that this Essoin was synonymous with that _de malo lecti_; in other words, this Essoin was resorted to on account of such a severe indisposition as necessarily confined a man to his house or bed.] CHAP. XII.