It should also be known and kept in memory that, in the case of all things charged against the Barons and the community of the citizens, the answer to be made by the City is this—That although they may be fully instructed and certified how to make answer, still, they will not advisedly make answer thereto; but, after holding counsel and conference together thereupon, they will make answer by the Common Council, saving always the liberties of the City. And for the purpose of preparing such answers, four-and-twenty persons or more must be chosen from the Common Council, who shall forthwith proceed to hold a Common Council of the City for ensuring the safety and protection of the whole body of the citizens. And no stranger shall thrust himself among them, to hear the counsels of the City, so long as they shall be thus holding conference together thereon. After the Justiciars of his lordship the King shall have handed and shown unto the Mayor and Barons of the City the articles pertaining unto the Crown, they shall immediately demand a fitting day, for the purpose of making due preparation and taking counsel thereon, to the end that they may be able safely to make answer to the said articles upon the day so granted unto them by the Justiciars; and that in the meantime they may be enabled discreetly to enrol and brief the same articles and their answers thereto. From the four-and-twenty men or more before mentioned, four persons or more should be selected, of the Common Council of the City, to be associated with the Mayor for the purpose more especially of making answer to the charges and articles aforesaid. Also the Mayor’s Clerk, together with the Common Clerk of the City and the Sheriffs’ Clerks, shall be seated before them for the purpose of noting by way of memorial all such charges that are made; lest the same, through default of being so noted, should be lost in oblivion. And one of such persons must act as prothonotary; from whose notes all the others are to take copy, in setting down as well the King’s charges as the answers made by the community.