ST HUGH AND HERIOT 147
this was so on the manor of Bernehorn, belonging to the monks
of Battle.1 The charity of St Hugh of Lincoln became a matter of
legend, and Girddus Cambrensis tells of how he exercised it in
this very matter on one occasion at least:
Hugh had such bowels of pity, and was so utterly uncovetous of
earthly things, that when his servants had carried off the ox of a
certain dead peasant of his lordship (as the dead man's best possession
which the custom of the land gave to the lord), and the widow had
come forthwith to the bishop, beseeching with tears that he should
order the restoration of that ox, which alone was left to her for the
sustentation of the miserable and orphaned family, then he granted
her request. Hereupon the steward of this manor said unto him:
"My lord, if you remit this and other similar lawful perquisites, you
will never be able to keep your land." But Hugh, hearing this, leapt
straight down from his horse to the ground, which in that spot was
deep in mire; and, grasping both hands full of earth, he said: "Now
I hold my land, and none the less do I remit to this poor woman her
ox." Then, casting away the mire and looking upwards, he added:
"For I seek not to cling to earth beneath but to heaven above. This
woman had but two workfellows; death hath robbed her of the better
and shall we rob her of the other? God forbid that we should be so
covetous; for she doth more deserve our consolation in this moment of
supreme affliction, than that we should vex her further."2
St Hugh's attitude was not generally shared, however. It will
have been noticed that his own steward strongly disapproved of
it, and Giraldus recounts the story as an example of the Saint's
exceptional charity. Few lords were content to forego their
heriots, as any series of accounts or court rolls will show. They
formed an important item in the income year by year flowing
into the lord's hands from his villeins.
Not only the serf's stock and household goods were subjected
to a fine; but his land also, since in theory it belonged to his lord,
was occasion for a payment whenever it changed hands through
death or other cause. As we have seen this payment was not strictly
a heriot, but medieval scribes (and often medieval lawyers) were
not very certain of the exact meaning of the terms they used, and
gradually the payment was called a heriot.
1 Wore. Priory Reg. xlii; Battle Oust. 2,2,.
2 Opera (R.S.), viz, 96. For a layman's remission of heriot in perpetuity,
see Terrier of Fleet, ed. N. Neilson, p. 18.