No earlier date for the use of the word than the reign of Henry VIII. has been found by Professor Skeat or Dr. Murray, but surely an earlier reference must be lurking somewhere. In the First Folio of Shakespeare the word is printed 'bankeroute' (pronounced as four syllables), but this was altered in later editions to bankrupt. There can be no doubt that the word is directly derived from _bancarotta_, and that the form bankrupt is an afterthought of the learned to connect it with the Latin language. The point that has to be accounted for is the strange appropriation of an expression meaning broken bench or broken bank to the individual whose credit is broken. This one would naturally expect to be a secondary meaning. In concluding this chapter it is necessary to make an allusion to the Statute merchant (11 Edw. I.) for the recovery of debts. The first two Letter Books of the City of London are chiefly concerned with recognisances of debts, and they are of great value as illustrating the commercial intercourse of the citizens of London in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with Gascony and Spain, more especially in connection with wine and leather. By the Statute of Acton Burnel (11 Edw. I.) it was enacted (_inter alia_) that recognisances of debts should be taken before the Mayor and a clerk appointed by the King. Nevertheless within a very short while after the passing of this Statute and notwithstanding its express provision to the contrary, we find the Mayor, sheriffs and aldermen declaring that such recognisances should be made before the city chamberlain, who might, if he liked, receive, as he frequently did, the recognisances at his own house instead of at the Guildhall.[352] It was ordered that the recognisances should bear 'the debtor's seal and also the King's seal,' to be provided for the purpose. This latter seal appears to be no longer in existence. From impressions of it preserved at King's College, Cambridge, and elsewhere, it is found to have been circular, and nearly three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with the King's bust between two castles, with a lion of England in base. Legend--'S^{+} Edm Reg^{+} Angl^{+} ad recogn Debitor^{+}.'[353] The following entry from Letter Book A forms an interesting illustration of the contents of these books:-- 'Laurence de Gisors acknowledged before H. le Galeis the Mayor that he owed Sir Philip le Taylor a cask of wine to be delivered on a certain love day (_diem amoris_) because the said Laurence killed a dog belonging to him.' [Illustration: SIR WILLIAM MARSHAL, EARL OF PEMBROKE, TEMPLE CHURCH.] CHAPTER XI _The Church and Education_