248 EVERYDAY LIFE
were brought before the court for fornication. The woman con-
fessed and abjured her sin, and was flogged once through the
market place. The man was obdurate and was excommunicated.
So the tale of offenders runs on.1 The Hereford visitation also
shows how prevalent immorality was in the parishes, and how
the culprits were formally named to the ecclesiastical authorities
at intervals.2 Little, however, that was effective was, or could
be done to prevent such a state of affairs. It was, and has re-
mained, an inseparable part of village life, both in England and
abroad, right down the ages. The Normandy village custom,
whereby a marriage did not take place until it was evident that
children would be born, has a long history behind it.
When the peasant felt his end approaching, what rights had he
in the bestowal of his own personal goods? The right of the un-
free man to make a will was for long disputed. It opened up
difficult} and dangerous questions, and many lords were strongly
opposed to it. Yet, as the serf found his little personal possessions
growing in number and value, the question of what wouldhappen
to them after his death became a matter of interest to him. No
man wished to die intestate "for, unless death was so sudden
that there was no opportunity for confession, to die intestate was
probably to die unconfessed; and of the future state of a person
who had thus died there could be no sure and certain hope. Thus
there arose a feeling that intestacy, except in case of sudden
death, was disgraceful".3 Furthermore, the Church taught that
a man's last hours were of supreme importance, and encouraged
and exhorted him to "make a good end". Among other ways of
accomplishing this was the comparatively simple one of leaving
a gift to the Church, so that prayers and masses might be offered
up on behalf of himself, of his family and of all Christian souls.
From this it was a simple step to make provision also for the
living so far as he was able. The law forbade him to leave his
land to others than his heirs (and indeed, for the serf, there could
be no question of this, for he only held the land from his lord),
1 The Editor points out that other rolls exist dealing with the working of
the ruridecanal courts: one belonging to Lincoln of 1337, and another in the
British Museum, dated 1436 (Add. MSS. 11,821).
* See below, pp. 332**.
* Holdsworth, op. cit. ni, 535; and cf. Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. II,
354-7-