The Pipe Roll of Cloyne, compiled by Bishop Swaffham in 1364, is a remarkable record embracing a full account of the feudal tenures of the see, the nature of the impositions, and the duties the purl homines Sancti Colmani were bound to perform at a very early period.
Twelve years later (1205-1206) we learn from another document, preserved in the same volume as the oath, that alii probi homines were associated with the mayor and dchevins to form a body of twenty-four (that is, twelve skivini and an equal number of councillors).
Round holds that the Court of Skivini and alii probi homines, of which at present we know nothing further than what is contained in the terms of the oaths, was the germ of the Common Council.
It is at this Ghibel- time that the people of Florence first began to acquire influence, and while the countess presided at the courts of justice in the name of the Empire, she was assisted by a group of great feudal nobles, judges, lawyers, &c., who formed, as elsewhere in Tuscany, the boni homines or sapientes.
As the countess was frequently absent these boni homines gave judgment without her, thus paving the way for a free commune.