These things show that the nature and effect of the charter were well understood by the king and his friends; that they all agreed that he was effectually stripped of power. Yet the legislative power had not been taken from him; but only the power to enforce his laws, unless juries should freely consent to their enforcement. [10] The laws were, at that time, all written in Latin. [11]"No man shall be condemned at the king"s suit, either before the king in his bench, where pleas are coram rege, (before the king,) (and so are the words nec super eum ibimus, to be understood,) nor before any other commissioner or judge whatsoever, and so are the words nec super eum mittemus, to be understood, but by the judgment of his peers, that is, equals, or according to the law of the land." 2 Coke's Inst., 46. [12] Perhaps the assertion in the text should be made with this qualification that the words "per legem terrae," (according to the law of the land,) and the words "per legale judiciun parium suorum," (according to the legal judgment of his peers,) imply that the king, before proceeding to any executive action, will take notice of "the law of the land," and of the legality of the judgment of the peers, and will execute upon the prisoner nothing except what the law of the land authorizes, and no judgments of the peers, except legal ones. With this qualification, the assertion in the text is strictly correct that there is nothing in the whole chapter that grants to the king, or his judges, any judicial power at all. The chapter only describes and limits his executive power. [13] See Blackstone'a Law Tracts, page 294, Oxford Edition [14] These Articles of the Charter are given in Blackstone's collection of Charters, and are also printed with the statutes of the Realm. Also in Wilkins' Laws of the Anglo- Saxons, p. 350. [15] Lingard says, " The words, ' We will not destroy him nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him,' have been very differently expounded by different legal authorities. Their real meaning may be learned from John himself, who the next year promised by his letters patent,... nec super eos per vim vel per arma ibimus, nisi per legem regni nostri, vel per judicium parium suorum in curia nostra, (nor will we go upon them by force or by arms, unless by the law of our kingdom, or the judgment of their peers in our court.) Pat. 16 Johan, apud Drad. 11, app. no. 124. He had hitherto been in the habit of going with an armed force, or sending an armed force on the lands, and against the castles, of all whom he knew or suspected to be his secret enemies, without observing any form of law." 3 Lingard, 47 note. [16] "Judgment, judicium. * * The sentence of the law, pronounced by the court, upon the matter contained in the record." 8 Blackstone, 895. Jacob's Law Dictionary. . Tomlin's do.