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Goldwin  Smith 


The  Grange 


THE 

SAXONS   IN   ENGLAND. 

A  HISTORY  OF 

THE  ENGLISH  COMMONWEALTH 

TILL   THE   PEEIOD    OF 

THE   NORMAN    CONQUEST. 

BY 

JOHN  MITCHELL  KEMBLE,  M.A.,  F.C.P.S., 

MEMBER  OF  THE  EOYAL  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES  AT  MUNICH,  AND   OF  THE  ROYAL 

ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES  AT  BERLIN, 

FELLOV/  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF  HISTORY  IN  STOCKHOLM,  AND  OF  THE 

ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF  HISTORY  IN  COPENHAGEN, 

ETC.  ETC.   ETC. 


:  Nobilis  et  strenua,  iuxtaque  dotem  naturae  sagacissima  gens  Saxonum,  ab  antiquis  etiam 
scriptoribus  memorata." 


A  NEW  EDITION,  EEVISED  BY 

WALTER  DE  GEAY  BIRCH,  F.R.S.L., 

Senior  Assistant  of  the  Department  of  Manuscripts  in  the  British   Museum,  Honorary 

Librarian  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the 

British  Archaeological  Association,  efc. 


VOLUME  II. 

LONDON : 
BERNARD  QUARITCH,  15  PICCADILLY. 

1876. 


ALECK    T    FLAMMAM. 


PRINTED  BY  TAYLOR  AND  FKANCIS, 
UED  LION  COOKT,  FLEET  STREET. 


Dft 

151 


CONTENTS. 

VOL.  II. 

BOOK  II. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHANGE 

IN  ENGLAND. 

CHAPTER  Page 

I.     Growth  of  the  Kingly  Power 1 

II.     The  Regalia  or  Rights  of  Royalty  ....  29 

III.  The  King's  Court  and  Household.     ...  104 

IV.  The  Ealdorman  or  Duke 125 

V.     TheGerefa 151 

VI.     The  Witena  Gcmot 182 

VII.     The  Towns 262 

VIII.     The  Bishop 342 

IX.     The  Clergy  and  Monks 414 

X.     The  Income  of  the  Clergy 467 

XL     The  Poor 497 

APPENDIX. 

A.  The  Dooms  of  the  City  of  London 521 

B.  Tithe 545 

C.  Towns 550 

D.  Cyricsceat 559 


THE 

SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


BOOK   II. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  CHANGE  IN 
ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER, 

THE  object  of  the  First  Book  was  generally  to 
give  a  clear  view  of  the  principles  upon  which  the 
original  settlement  of  the  Anglosaxons  was  founded. 
But  as  our  earliest  fortunes  are  involved  in  an  ob- 
scurity caused  by  the  almost  total  absence  of  con- 
temporary records,  and  as  the  principles  themselves 
are  not  historically  developed  in  all  their  integrity, 
at  least  in  this  country,  many  conclusions  could 
only  be,  arrived  at  through  a  system  of  induction, 
by  comparing  the  known  facts  of  Teutonic  history 
in  other  lands,  or  at  earlier  periods,  by  tracing  the 
remnants  of  old  institutions  in  their  influence  upon 
society  in  an  altered,  and  perhaps  somewhat  dete- 
riorated, condition,  and  lastly  by  general  reasoning 
derived  from  the  nature  of  society  itself.  This 

VOL.  II.  B 


2  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  IT. 

Second  Book  is  however  devoted  to  the  historical 
development  of  those  principles,  in  periods  whereof 
we  possess  more  sufficient  record,  and  to  an  inves- 
tigation of  the  form  in  which,  after  a  long  series 
of  compromises,  our  institutions  slowly  and  gra- 
dually unfolded  themselves,  till  the  close  of  the 
Anglosaxon  monarchy.  The  two  points  upon  which 
this  part  of  the  subject  more  particularly  turns, 
are,  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  and  the  pro- 
gressive consolidation  and  extension  of  the  kingly 
power ;  and  round  these  two  points  the  chapters  of 
this  Book  will  naturally  group  themselves.  It  is 
fortunate  for  us  that  the  large  amount  of  historical 
materials  which  we  possess,  enables  us  to  follow  the 
various  social  changes  in  considerable  detail,  and 
renders  it  possible  to  let  the  Anglosaxons  tell  their 
own  story  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  in  the  first 
Book. 

In  the  course  of  years,  continual  wars   had  re- 
moved a  multitude  of  petty  kings  or  chieftains  from 
the  scene ;  a  consolidation  of  countries  had  taken 
place ;  actual  sovereignty,  grounded  on  the  law  of 
force,  on  possession,  or  on  federal  compacts,  had 
raised  a  few  of  the  old  dynasts  above  the  rank  of 
their  fellows ;  the  other  nobles,  and  families  of  royal 
lineage,  had  for  the  most  part  submitted  to  the  law 
of  the  comitatus,  swelling  the  ranks,  adorning  the 
court,  and  increasing  the  power  of  princes  who 
had  risen  upon  their  degradation ;  and  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  seventh  century,  England  pre- 
sented the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  at  least  eight 
independent  kingdoms,  of  greater  or  less  power  and 


CH.  i.]          GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  3 

influence,  and,  as  we  may  reasonably  believe,  very 
various  degrees  of  civil  and  moral  cultivation.  In 
the  extreme  south-eastern  corner  of  the  island  was 
the  Kentish  confederation,  comprising  in  all  proba- 
bility the  present  counties  of  Kent,  Essex,  Middle- 
sex, Surrey,  and  Sussex,  whose  numerous  kings  ac- 
knowledged the  supremacy  of  ^E'Selberht,  the  son 
of  Eorrnanric,  a  prince  of  the  house  of  ^Escings, 
originally  perhaps  a  Sussex  family,  but  who  claimed 
their  royal  descent  from  Woden,  through  Hengist, 
the  first  traditional  king  of  Kent.  Under  this  head 
three  of  the  eight  named  kingdoms  were  thus 
united;  but  successful  warlike  enterprise  or  the 
praise  of  superior  wisdom  had  extended  the  political 
influence  of  the  ^Escing  even  to  the  southern  bank 
of  the  Humber.  Next  to  Sussex,  along  the  south- 
ern coast,  and  as  far  westward  as  the  border  of  the 
Welsh  in  Dorsetshire  or  Devon,  lay  the  kingdom 
of  the  Westsaxons  or  Gewissas,  which  stretched 
n or th ward  to  the  Thames  and  westward  to  the  Se- 
vern, and  probably  extended  along  the  latter  river 
over  at  least  a  part  of  Gloucestershire  :  this  king- 
dom, or  rather  confederation,  comprised  all  or  part 
of  the  following  counties ;  Hampshire  with  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  a  tributary  sovereignty ;  Dorsetshire, 
perhaps  a  part  of  Devonshire,  Wiltshire,  Berkshire, 
a  portion  of  Oxfordshire,  Buckinghamshire,  and 
Middlesex,  up  to  the  Chiltern  Hills.  Eastanglia 
occupied  the  extreme  east  of  the  island,  stretching 
to  the  north  and  west  up  to  the  Wash  and  the 
marshes  of  Lincoln  and  Cambridgeshire,  and  com- 
prehending, together  with  its  marches,  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk,  and  part  at  least  of  Cambridge,  Hunting- 

B  2 


4  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

don,  Bedfordshire  and  Hertfordshire.  Mercia  with 
its  dependent  sovereignties  occupied  nearly  all  the 
remaining  portion  of  England  east  of  the  Severn 
and  south  of  the  Humber,  including  a  portion  of 
Herefordshire,  and  probably  also  of  Salop,  beyond 
the  western  bank  of  the  former  river :  while  two 
small  kingdoms,  often  united  into  one,  but  when 
separate,  called  Deira  and  Bernicia,  filled  the  re- 
maining space  from  the  Humber  to  the  Pictish 
border,  which  may  be  represented  by  a  line  run- 
ning irregularly  north-east  from  Dumbarton  to  In- 
verkeithing 1.  .In  the  extreme  west  the  remains  of 
the  Keltic  populations  who  had  disdained  to  place 


1  There  is  not  much  positive  evidence  on  this  subject :  but  perhaps 
the  following  considerations  may  appear  of  weight.  The  distinctive 
names  of  Water  in  the  two  principal  Keltic  languages  of  these  islands, 
appear  to  be  Aber  and  Inver  :  the  former  occurs  frequently  in  Wales, 
the  latter  never :  on  the  other  hand,  Aber  rarely,  if  ever,  occurs  in 
Ireland,  while  Inver  does.  If  we  now  take  a  good  map  of  England 
and  Wales  and  Scotland,  we  shall  find  the  following  data. 
In  Wales : 

Aber-avon,  lat.  51°  36'  N.,  long.  3°  47'  W. 

Abergavenny,  lat.  51°  49'  N.,  long.  3°  2'. 

Abergwilli,  lat,  51°  52'  N.,  long.  4°  17'  W. 

Aberystwith,  lat.  52°  25'  N.,  long.  4°  4'  W. 

Aberfraw,  lat.  53°  12'  N.,  long.  4°  28'  W. 

Abergele,  lat.  53°  20'  N.,  long.  3°  38'  W. 
In  Scotland : 

Aberlady,  lat.  56°  0'  N.,  long.  2°  52'  W. 

Aberdour,  lat.  56C  3'  N.,  long.  3°  17'  W. 

Aberfoil,  lat.  56°  20'  N.,  long.  4°  21'  W. 

Abernethy,  lat.  56°  19'  N.,  long.  3°  18'  W. 

Aberbrothic  (Arbroath),  lat.  56°  33'  N.,  long.  2°  35'  W. 

Aberfeldy,  lat.  56°  37'  N.,  long.  3°  51'  W. 

Abergeldie,  lat.  57°  3'  N.,  long.  3°  6'  W. 

Aberchalder,  lat.  57°  6'  N.,  long.  4°  46'  W. 

Aberdeen,  lat.  57°  8'  N.,  long.  2°  5'  W. 

Aberchirdir,  lat.  57°  34'  N.,  long.  2°  37'  W. 

Aberdour,  lat.  67°  40'  N.,  long.  2°  11'  W.  [In 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  5 

themselves  under  the  yoke  of  the  Saxons,  still  main- 
tained a  dangerous  and  often  threatening  indepen- 
dence :  and  Cornwall  and  Devon,  North  and  South 
Wales,  Cheshire,  Lancashire,  Cumberland,  perhaps 
even  part  of  Northumberland,  still  formed  impor- 
tant fortresses,  garrisoned  by  this  hardy  and  unsub- 
jugated  race.  Beyond  the  Picts,  throughout  the 
north  of  Scotland,  and  in  the  neighbouring  island 
of  Ireland,  were  the  Scots,  a  Keltic  race,  but  not 
so  nearly  allied  as  the  Cornish,  Cymric  and  Pictish 
tribes. 

It  is  probable  enough  that  the  princes  who  pre- 
sided over  these  several  aggregations  of  communi- 
ties, had  their  traditional  or  family  alliances  and 
friendships,  as  well  as  their  enmities,  political  and 

In  Scotland : 

Inverkeithing,  lat.  56°  2'  N.,  long.  3°  23'  W. 
Inverary,  lat.  56°  15'  N.,  long.  5°  4'  W. 
Inverarity,  lat.  56°  36'  N.,  long.  2°  54'  W. 
Inverbervie,  lat.  56°  52'  N.,  long.  2°  21'  W. 
Invergeldie,  lat.  57°  1'  N.,  long.  3°  12'  W. 
Invernahavon,  lat.  57°  1'  N.,  long.  4°  9'  W. 
Invergelder,  lat.  57°  2'  N.,  long.  3°  15'  W. 
Invermoriston,  lat.  57°  12'  N.,  long.  4°  40'  W. 
Inverness,  lat.  57°  28'  N.,  long,  4°  13'  W. 
Invernetty,  lat.  57°  29'  N.,  long.  1°  48'  W. 
Invercaslie,  lat.  57°  58'  N.,  long.  4°  36'  W. 
Inver,  lat.  58°  9'  N.,  long.  5°  10'  W. 

The  line  of  separation  then  between  the  Welsh  or  Pictish,  and  the 
Scotch  or  Irish  Kelts,  if  measured  by  the  occurrence  of  these  names, 
would  run  obliquely  from  S.W.  to  N.E.,  straight  up  Loch  Fyne,  fol- 
lowing nearly  the  boundary  between  Perthshire  and  Argyle,  trending 
to  the  N.E.  along  the  present  boundary  between  Perth  and  Inverness 
Aberdeen  and  Inverness,  Banff  and  Elgin,  till  about  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Spey.  The  boundary  between  the  Picts  and  English  may  have 
been  much  less  settled,  but  it  probably  ran  from  Dumbarton,  along 
the  upper  edge  of  Renfrewshire,  Lanark  and  Linlithgow  till  about 
Abercorn,  that  is  along  the  line  of  the  Clyde  to  the  Frith  of  Forth. 


6  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

personal,  and  that  some  description  of  public  law 
may  consequently  have  grown  up  among  them,  by 
which  their  national  intercourse  was  regulated.  But 
we  cannot  suppose  this  to  have  been  either  very 
comprehensive  or  well  defined.  Least  of  all  can 
we  find  any  proof  that  there  was  a  community  of 
action  among  them,  of  a  systematic  and  perma- 
nent character.  A  national  priesthood,  and  a  cen- 
tral service  in  which  all  alike  participated,  had 
any  such  existed,  might  have  formed  a  point  of 
union  for  all  the  races;  but  there  is  no  record 
of  this,  and,  I  think,  but  little  probability  of  its 
having  been  found  at  any  time.  If  we  consider  the 
various  sources  from  which  the  separate  popula- 
tions were  derived,  and  the  very  different  periods 
at  which  they  became  masters  of  their  several 
seats  ;  their  constant  hostility  and  the  differences  of 
language1  and  law ;  above  all  the  distance  of  their 
settlements,  severed  by  deep  and  gloomy  forests, 
rude  hills,  unforded  streams,  or  noxious  and  pesti- 
lential morasses,  we  can  hardly  imagine  any  concert 
among  them  for  the  establishment  of  a  common 
worship ;  it  is  even  doubtful — so  meagre  are  our 
notices  of  the  national  heathendom — whether  the 
same  gods  were  revered  all  over  England ;  although 
the  descent  of  all  the  reigning  families  from  Woden 
would  seem  to  speak  for  his  worship  at  least  having 
been  universal.  Again,  there  is  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  priesthood  occupied  here  quite  so  com- 
manding a  position  as  they  may  have  enjoyed  upon 

1  In  the  very  early  periods  the  Saxon  inhabitants  of  different  parts 
of  England  would  probably  have  found  it  difficult  to  understand  one 
another. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  7 

the  continent,  partly  because  the  carelessness  or 
hatred  of  the  British  Christians  refused  to  attempt 
the  conversion  of  their  adversaries1,  and  thus  af- 
forded no  opportunity  for  a  reaction  or  combined 
effort  at  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Pagans ;  and 
partly  because  we  cannot  look  for  any  very  deep 
rooted  religious  convictions  in  the  breast  of  the 
wandering,  military  adventurer,  removed  from  the 
time-hallowed  sites  of  ancient,  local  worship,  and 
strongly  tempted  to  "  trow  upon  himself,"  in  pre- 
ference to  gods  whose  powers  and  attributes  he  had 
little  leisure  to  contemplate.  The  words  of  Coin, 
a  Northumbrian  high-priest,  to  Eadwini,  do  at  any 
rate  imply  a  feeling  on  his  part,  that  his  position 
was  not  so  brilliant  and  advantageous  as  he  thought 
himself  entitled  to  expect;  and  the  very  expres- 
sions he  uses,  implying  a  very  considerable  degree 
of  subordination  to  the  king  of  one  principality2, 
are  hardly  consistent  with  the  hypothesis  of  a  na- 
tional hierarchy,  which  must  have  assumed  a  posi- 
tion scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  sovereigns  them- 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  22.     "  Qui,  inter  alia  inenarrabilium  scelerum 
facta,  quae  historicus  eorum  Gildas  flebili  sermone  describit  et  hoc 
addebant,  ut  nunquam  genti  Saxonum  sive  Anglorum  secum  Brittaniam 
incolenti  verbum  fidei  praedicando  committerent." 

2  "  Tu  vide,  rex,  quale  sit  hoc  quod  nobis  modo  praedicatur :  ego 
autem  tibi  verissime  quod  certum  didici,  profiteer,  quia  nihil  omnino 
virtutis  habet,  nihil  utilitatis,  religio  ilia  quam  hucusque  tenuimus  ; 
nullus  eniin  tuoruni  studiosius  quam  ego  culturae  deorum  nostrorum 
se  subdidit,  et  nihilominus  multi  sunt  qui  ampliora  a  te  beneficia  quam 
ego,  et  maiores  accipiunt  dignitates.  magisque  prosperantur  in  omnibus 
quae  agenda  vel  adquirenda  disponunt.     Si  autem  dii  aliquid  ualerent 
me  potius  iuvare  vellent,  qui  illis  impensius  servire  curavi."     Beda, 
H.  E.  ii.  13.     That  Coifi  is  a  genuine  Northumbrian  name,  and  not  that 
of  a  Keltic  druid,  is  shown  in  a  paper  on  Anglosaxon  surnames,  read 
before  the  Archaeological  Institute  at  Winchester  by  the  author  in  1845 


8  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

selves.  Finally,  I  cannot  believe  that,  had  such  an 
organization  and  such  a  body  existed,  there  would 
be  no  trace  of  the  opposition  it  must  have  offered 
to  the  introduction  of  the  new  creed  :  some  record 
there  must  have  been  of  a  triumph  so  signal  as  that 
of  Christianity  under  such  circumstances ;  and  the 
good  believers  who  lavish  miracles  upon  most  in- 
adequate occasions,  must  have  given  us  some  well- 
authenticated  cases  by  which  the  sanctity  of  the 
monk  was  demonstrated  to  the  confusion  of  the 
pagan.  The  silence  of  the  Christian  historian  is  an 
eloquent  evidence  of  the  insignificant  power  of  the 
heathen  priesthood. 

Much  less  can  we  admit  that  there  was  any  cen- 
tral political  authority,  recognized,  systematic  and 
regulated,  by  which  the  several  kingdoms  were 
combined  into  a  corporate  body.  There  is  indeed 
a  theory,  respectable  for  its  antiquity,  and  repro- 
duced by  modern  ingenuity,  according  to  which 
this  important  fact  is  assumed,  and  we  are  not  only 
taught  that  the  several  kingdoms  formed  a  confe- 
deration, at  whose  head,  by  election  or  otherwise, 
one  of  the  princes  was  placed  with  imperial  power, 
but  that  this  institution  was  derived  by  direct  imi- 
tation from  the  custom  of  the  Roman  empire :  we 
further  learn  that  the  title  of  this  high  functionary 
was  Bretwalda,  or  Emperor  of  Britain,  and  that  he 
possessed  the  imperial  decorations  of  the  Roman 
state 1.  When  this  discovery  was  first  made  I  know 
not,  but  the  most  detailed  account  that  I  have  seen 

1  Palgrave,  Anglos.  Commonw.  i.  562  seq.  The  Roman  part  of 
the  theory  is  very  well  exploded  by  Lappenberg,  who  nevertheless 
gives  far  too  much  credence  to  the  rest. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  9 

may  be  given  from  the,  in  many  respects,  excellent 
and  neglected  work  of  Rapin.     He  tells  us l : — 

"  The  Saxons,  Jutes,  and  Angles,  that  conquered 
the  best  part  of  Britain,  looking  upon  themselves 
as  one  and  the  same  people2,  as  they  had  been  in 
Germany,  established  a  form  of  government,  as  like 
as  possible  to  what  they  had  lived  under  in  their 
own  country.  They  formed  their  Wittena-Gemot, 
or  assembly  of  wise  men,  to  settle  the  common 
aifairs  of  the  seven  kingdoms,  and  conferred  the 
command  of  their  armies  upon  one  chosen  out  of 
the  seven  kings,  to  whom,  for  that  reason  no 
doubt,  some  have  given  the  title  of  Monarch,  on 
pretence  of  his  having  the  precedence  and  some 
superiority  over  the  rest.  But  to  me  that  dignity 
seems  rather  to  have  been  like  that  of  Stadtholder 
of  the  United  Provinces  of  the  Low  Countries. 
There  was  however  some  difference  between  the 
Saxon  government  in  Britain  and  that  in  Germany. 
For  instance,  in  Germany  the  governor  of  each 
province  entirely  depended  on  the  General  Assem 
bly,  where  the  supreme  power  was  lodged  ;  whereas 
in  Britain,  each  king  was  sovereign  in  his  own  do- 
minions. But  notwithstanding  this,  all  the  king- 
doms together  were,  in  some  respects,  considered 
as  the  same  state,  and  every  one  submitted  to  the 
resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Seven 
Kingdoms,  to  which  he  gave  his  consent  by  him- 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  42  of  Tindal's  translation. 

2  This  seems  very  doubtful,  at  least  until  lapse  of  years,  commerce, 
and  familiar  intercourse  had  broken  down  the  barriers  between  differ- 
ent races. 


10  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

self  or  representative  ...  A  free  election,  and  some- 
times force,  gave  the  Heptarchy  a  chief  or  monarch, 
whose  authority  was  more  or  less,  according  to  their 
strength1.  For  though  the  person  invested  with 
this  office  had  no  right  to  an  unlimited  authority, 
there  was  scarce  one  of  these  monarchs  but  what 
aspired  to  an  absolute  power." 

This  description  has  at  least  the  advantage  of 
detail  and  of  consistency,  even  though  it  should  un- 
fortunately lack  that  of  truth ;  but  most  of  those 
who  in  more  modern  times  have  adopted  the  hy- 
pothesis, refrain  from  giving  us  any  explanation  of 
the  fact  it  assumes  :    they  tell  us  indeed  the  title, 
and  profess  to  name  those  who  successively  bore 
it,  but  they  are  totally  silent  as  to  the  powers  of 
this  great  public  officer,  as  to  the  mode  of  his  ap- 
pointment, the  manner  in  which  he  exerted  his  au- 
thority, or  the  object  for  which  such  authority  was 
found  necessary.     I  must  frankly  confess  that  I  am 
unable  to  find  any  evidence  whatever  in  favour  of 
this  view,  which  appears  to  me  totally  inconsistent 
with  everything  which  we  know   of  the  state  and 
principles  of  society  at  the  early  period  with  which 
we  have  to  deal.     In  point  of  fact,  everything  de- 
pends upon  the  way  in  which  we  construe  a  pas- 
sage of   Beda,  together    with  one  in  the   Saxon 
Chronicle,   borrowed  from  him,  and  the  meaning 
which  history  and  philology  justify  us  in  giving  to 


1  In  the  second  edition  of  Tindal's  Rapin  there  is  a  print  represent- 
ing the  Kings  of  the  Heptarchy  in  council.  The  president,  Monarch 
or  Bretwalda,  is  very  amusingly  made  larger  and  more  ferocious  than 
the  rest,  to  express  his  superior  dignity  ! 


CH.  i.J  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  11 

the  words  made  use  of  by  both  authors.  As  the 
question  is  of  some  importance,  it  may  as  well  be 
disposed  of  at  once,  although  only  two  so-callecl 
Bretwaldas  are  recorded  previous  to  the  seventh 
century. 

Modern  ingenuity,  having  hastily  acquiesced  in 
the  existence  of  this  authority,  has  naturally  been 
somewhat  at  a  loss  to  account  for  it ;  yet  this  is 
obviously  the  most  important  part  of  the  problem : 
accordingly  Mr.  Sharon  Turner  looks  upon  the 
Bretwalda  as  a  kind  of  war-king,  a  temporary  mili- 
tary leader:  he  says1, — 

"  The  disaster  of  Ceawlin  gave  safety  to  Kent. 
Ethelbert  preserved  his  authority  in  that  kingdom, 
and  at  length  proceeded  to  that  insulary  predomi- 
nance  among  the  Anglosaxon  kings,  which   they 
called    the    Bretwalda,    or    the   ruler    of    Britain. 
Whether  this  was  a  mere  title  assumed  by  Hengist, 
and  afterwards  by  Ella,  and  continued  by  the  most 
successful  Anglosaxon  prince  of  his  day,  or  con- 
ceded in  any  national  council  of  all  the  Anglo- 
saxons,  or  ambitiously  assumed  by  the  Saxon  king 
that  most  felt  and  pressed  his  temporary  power, — 
whether  it  was  an  imitation  of  the  British  unben- 
naeth,  or  a  continuation  of  the   Saxon   custom  of 
electing  a  war-cyning,  cannot  now  be  ascertained." 

To  this  he  adds  in  a  note  : — 

"  The  proper  force  of  this  word  Bretwalda  cannot 
imply  conquest,  because  Ella  the  First  is  not  said 
to  have  conquered  Hengist  or  Cerdic ;  nor  did  the 

1  Hist.  Angl.  Sax.  bk.  iii.  ch.  5,  vol.  i.  p.  319. 


12  THE  SAXOXS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK.  n. 

other  Bretwaldas  conquer  the  other  Saxon  king- 
doms." 

Again  he  returns  to  the  charge  :  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  the  same  book,  he  says 1 : — 

"Perhaps  the  conjecture  on  this  dignity  which 
would  come  nearest  the  truth,  would  be,  that  it 
was  the  Walda  or  ruler  of  the  Saxon  kingdoms 
against  the  Britons,  while  the  latter  maintained  the 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  country, — a  spe- 
cies of  Agamemnon  against  the  general  enemy,  not 
a  title  of  dignity  or  power  against  each  other.  If 
so,  it  would  be  but  the  war-king  of  the  Saxons  in 
Britain,  against  its  native  chiefs." 

Lappenberg,  adopting  this  last  view,  refines  upon 
it  in  detail:  he  believes  the  Bretwalda  to  have 
been  the  elected  generalissimo  of  the  Saxons  against 
the  Welsh  or  other  Keltic  races,  and  that  as  the 
tide  of  conquest  rolled  onwards,  the  dignity  shifted 
to  the  shoulders  of  that  prince  whose  position  made 
him  the  best  guardian  of  the  frontiers.  But  this 
will  scarcely  account  to  us  for  the  Bretwaldadom 
of  JE\\e  in  Sussex,  ^ESelberht  in  Kent,  or  R^d- 
wald  in  Eastanglia ;  yet  these  are  three  especially 
named.  Besides  we  have  a  right  to  require  some 
evidence  that  there  ever  was  a  common  action  of 
the  Saxons  against  the  Britons,  and  that  they 
really  were  in  the  habit  of  appointing  war-kings  in 
England,  two  points  on  which  there  exists  not  a 
tittle  of  proof.  Indeed  it  seems  clear  to  me  that  a 
piece  of  vicious  philology  lurks  at  the  bottom  of 

•  Hist.  Angl.  Sax.  i.  378. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWEK.  13 

this  whole  theory,  and  that  it  rests  entirely  upon 
the  supposition  that  Bretwalda,  means  Ruler  of  the 
Britons,  which  is  entirely  erroneous.  Yet  one  would 
think  that  on  this  point  there  ought  to  have  been 
no  doubt  for  even  a  moment,  and  that  it  hardly 
required  for  its  refutation  the  philological  demon- 
stration which  will  be  given.  Let  us  ask  by  whom 
was  the  name  used  or  applied  1  By  the  Saxons : 
but  surely  the  Saxons  could  never  mean  to  desig- 
nate themselves  by  the  name  Bret,  Britain ;  nor  on 
the  other  hand  could  a  general  against  the  Britons 
be  properly  called  their  wealda  or  king,  the  relation 
expressed  by  the  word  wealda  being  that  of  sove- 
reignty over  subjects,  not  opposition  to  enemies. 

Moreover,  if  this  British  theory  were  at  all  sound, 
how  could  we  account  for  the  title  being  so  rarely 
given  to  the  kings  of  Wessex,  and  never  to  those 
of  Mercia,  both  of  whom  were  nevertheless  in  con- 
tinual hostile  contact  with  the  Welsh,  and  of  whom 
the  former  at  least  exercised  sovereign  rights  over 
a  numerous  Welsh  population  dispersed  through- 
out their  dominions  I  Again,  why  should  it  have 
been  given  to  successive  kings  of  Northumberland, 
whose  contact  with  the  British  aborigines,  even  as 
Picts,  was  not  of  any  long  continuance  or  great 
moment 1 1  Above  all,  why  should  it  not  have  been 
given  to  JK$elfri:3,  who  as  Beda  tells  us  was  the 
most  severe  scourge  the  Kelts  had  ever  met  with2"? 

1  I  am  not  aware  of  the  Picts,  Peohtas,  having  ever  been  numbered 
among  the  Bretwealhas. 

2  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  34.     ft  Nemo  enim  in  tribunis,  nemo  in  regibus  plures 
eorum  terras,  exterminatis  vel  subiugatis  indigenis,  aut  tributarias 
genti  Anglorum,  aut  habitabiles  fecit." 


14  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

But  there  are  other  serious  difficulties  arising  from 
the  nature  of  the  military  force  which,  on  any  one 
of  the  suppositions  we  are  considering,  must  have 
been  placed  at  this  war-king's  disposal :  is  it,  for 
example,  conceivable,  that  people  whose  military 
duty  did  not  extend  beyond  the  defence  of  their 
own  frontiers,  and  who  even  then  could  only  be 
brought  into  the  field  under  the  conduct  of  their 
own  shire-officers,  would  have  marched  away  from 
home,  under  a  foreign  king,  to  form  part  of  a  mixed 
army]  still  more,  that  the  comites  of  various 
princes,  whose  bond  and  duty  were  of  the  most 
strictly  personal  character,  could  have  been  mus- 
tered under  the  banner  of  a  stranger1]  Yet  all 
this  must  be  assumed  to  have  been  usual  and  easy, 
if  we  admit  the  received  opinions  as  to  the  Bret- 
walda.  We  should  also  be  entitled  to  ask  how  it 
happened  that  Wulfhere,  ^Selbald,  Offa,  Cen- 
wulf,  the  preeminently  military  kings  of  the  Mer- 
cians, should  have  refrained  from  the  use  of  a  title 
so  properly  belonging  to  their  preponderating  power 
in  England,  and  so  useful  in  giving  a  legal  and 
privileged  authority  to  the  measures  of  permanent 
aggrandizement  which  their  resources  enabled  them 
to  take  1 

Another  supposition,  that   this   dignity  was  in 

1  Nearly  the  only  instance  recorded  of  a  mixed  army,  is  that  of 
Penda  at  Winwedfeld ;  hut  it  does  not  appear  that  this  consisted  of 
anything  more  than  the  Comitatus  of  various  chieftains  personally 
dependent  upon,  or  in  alliance  with,  himself.  We  do  not  learn  that 
Oswiu's  victory  gave  him  any  rights  over  the  freemen  in  Eastanglia, 
•which  could  hardly  have  been  wanting  had  the  Eastanglian  hereban  or 
fyrd  served  under  Penda. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  15 

some  way  connected  with  the  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishment, the  foundation  of  new  bishoprics  l  or  the 
presidency  of  the  national  synods,  seems  equally 
untenable  ;  for  in  the  first  place  there  were  Bret- 
waldas  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity;  and 
the  intervention  of  particular  princes  in  the  foun- 
dation of  sees,  without  the  limits  of  their  own  do- 
minions, may  be  explained  without  having  recourse 
to  any  such  hypothesis  ;  again,  the  Church  never 
agreed  to  any  unity  till  the  close  of  the  seventh 
century  under  Theodore  of  Tarsus ;  and  lastly  the 
presidency  of  the  synods,  which  were  generally 
held  in  Mercia2,  was  almost  exclusively  in  the 
hands  of  the  Mercian  princes,  till  the  Danes  put 
an  end  to  their  kingdom,  and  yet  those  princes 
never  bore  the  title  at  all.  In  point  of  fact,  there 
was  no  such  special  title  or  special  office,  and  the 
whole  theory  is  constructed  upon  an  insufficient 
and  untenable  basis. 

It  will  be  readily  admitted  that  the  fancies  of  the 
Norman  chroniclers  may  at  once  be  passed  over 
unnoticed ;  they  are  worth  no  more  than  the  still 
later  doctrines  of  Rapin  and  others,  and  rest  upon 
nothing  but  their  explanation  of  passages  which 
we  are  equally  at  liberty  to  examine  and  test  for 
ourselves :  I  mean  the  passages  already  alluded  to 
from  Beda  and  the  Saxon  Chronicle.  Let  us  see 

1  Lappenberg  seems  to  connect  these  ideas  together. 

2  The  synods  were  mostly  held  at  Cealchyft  or  at  Clofeshoas.     The 
first  of  these  places  is  doubtful :  all  that  can  be  said  with  certainty,  is, 
that  it  was  not  Challock  in  Kent,  as  Ingram  supposes:    the  Saxon 
name  of  that  place  was  Cealfloca.     I  entertain  little  doubt  that  Clofes- 
hoas was  in  the  county  of  Gloucester  and  hundred  of  Westminster. 


16  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

then  what  Beda  says  upon  this  subject.      He  speaks 
thus  of  ^ESelberht1  :— 

"  In  the  year  of  our  Lord's  incarnation  six  hun- 
dred and  sixteen,  which  is  the  twenty-first  from 
that  wherein  Augustine  and  his  comrades  were 
despatched  to  preach  unto  the  race  of  the  Angles, 
^Eftelberht,  the  king  of  the  men  of  Kent,  after  a 
temporal  reign  which  he  had  held  most  gloriously 
for  six  and  fifty  years,  entered  the  eternal  joys  of 
the  heavenly  kingdom :  who  was  indeed  but  the 
third  among  the  kings  of  the  Angle  race  who  ruled 
over  all  the  southern  provinces,  which  are  sepa- 
rated from  those  of  the  north  by  the  river  Humber 
and  its  contiguous  boundaries ;  but  the  first  of  all 
who  ascended  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  For  the 
first  of  all  who  obtained  this  empire  was  JElli.  king 
of  the  South saxons :  the  second  was  Caelin,  king 
of  the  Westsaxons,  who  in  their  tongue  was  called 
Ceaulin :  the  third,  as  I  have  said,  was  ^E'Silberht, 
king  of  the  men  of  Kent :  the  fourth  was  Redwald, 
king  of  the  Eastanglians,  who  even  during  the  life 
of  jJE'Silberht,  obtained  predominance  for  his  na- 
tion :  the  fifth,  Aeduini,  king  of  the  race  of  North- 
umbrians, that  is,  the  race  which  inhabits  the 
northern  district  of  the  river  Humber,  presided 
with  greater  power  over  all  the  populations  which 
dwell  in  Britain,  Britons  and  Angles  alike,  save 
only  the  men  of  Kent ;  he  also  subdued  to  the  em- 
pire of  the  Angles,  the  Mevanian  isles,  which  lie  be- 
tween Ireland  and  Britain :  the  sixth  Oswald,  him- 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  5. 


CH.  i.]          GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  17 

self  that  most  Christian  king  of  the  Northumbrians, 
had  rule  with  the  same  boundaries:  the  seventh 
Osuiu,  his  brother,  having  for  some  time  governed 
his  kingdom  within  nearly  the  same  boundaries,  for 
the  most  part  subdued  or  reduced  to  a  tributary 
condition  the  nations  also  of  the  Picts  and  Scots, 
who  occupy  the  northern  ends  of  Britain." 

Certainly,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Men  of  Kent,  in  the  case  of  Eadwini, 
is  a  serious  blow  to  the  Bretwalda  theory.  I  have 
used  the  word  predominance,  to  express  the  ducatus 
or  leadership,  of  Beda,  and  it  is  clear  that  such  a 
leadership  is  what  he  means  to  convey.  But  in  all 
the  cases  which  he  has  cited,  it  is  equally  clear 
from  every  part  of  his  book,  that  the  fact  was  a 
merely  accidental  one,  fully  explained  by  the  pecu- 
liar circumstances  in  every  instance :  it  is  invari- 
ably connected  with  conquest,  and  preponderant 
military  power :  a  successful  battle  either  against 
Kelt  or  Saxon,  by  removing  a  dangerous  neighbour 
or  dissolving  a  threatening  confederacy,  placed 
greater  means  at  the  disposal  of  any  one  prince 
than  could  be  turned  against  him  by  any  other  or 
combination  of  others ;  and  he  naturally  assumed 
a  right  to  dictate  to  them,  iure  belli,  in  all  transac- 
tions where  he  chose  to  consider  his  own  interests 
concerned.  But  all  the  facts  in  every  case  show 
that  there  was  no  concert,  no  regular  dignity,  and 
no  regular  means  of  obtaining  it ;  that  it  was  a 
mere  fluctuating  superiority,  such  as  we  may  find 
in  Owhyhee,  Tahiti,  or  New  Zealand,  due  to  suc- 
cess in  war,  and  lost  in  turn  by  defeat.  On  the 

VOL.  II.  C 


18  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

rout  of  Ceawlin,  the  second  Bretwalda,  by  the 
Welsh,  we  learn  that  he  was  expelled  from  the 
throne,  and  succeeded  by  Ceolwulf,  who  spent  many 
years  in  struggles  against  Angles,  Welsh,  Scots  and 
Picts1:  according  to  Turner's  and  Lappenberg's 
theory,  he  was  the  very  man  to  have  been  made 
Bretwalda ;  but  we  do  not  find  this  to  have  been 
the  case,  or  that  the  dignity  returned  to  the  inter- 
vening Sussex  ;  but  ^E^elberht  of  Kent,  whose  am- 
bition had  years  before  led  him  to  measure  his 
force  against  Ceawlin's,  stepped  into  the  vacant 
monarchy.  The  truth  is  that  ^E^elberht,  who  had 
husbanded  his  resources,  and  was  of  all  the  Saxon 
kings  the  least  exposed  to  danger  from  the  Keltic 
populations,  was  enabled  to  impose  his  authority 
upon  his  brother  kings,  and  to  make  his  own  terms : 
and  in  a  similar  way,  at  a  later  period,  it  is  clear 
that  Rsedwald  of  Eastanglia  was  enabled  to  deprive 
him  of  it.  I  therefore  again  conclude  that  this  so- 
called  Bretwaldadom  was  a  mere  accidental  pre- 
dominance ;  there  is  no  peculiar  function,  duty  or 
privilege  anywhere  mentioned  as  appertaining  to 
it;  and  when  Beda  describes  Eadwini  of  Northum- 
berland proceeding  with  the  Roman  tufa  or  ban- 
ner before  him,  as  an  ensign  of  dignity,  he  does  so 
in  terms  which  show  that  it  was  not,  as  Palgrave 
seems  to  imagine,  an  ensign  of  imperial  authority 
used  by  all  Bretwaldas,  but  a  peculiar  and  remark- 
able affectation  of  that  particular  prince.  Before 
I  leave  this  word  ducatus,  I  may  call  attention  to 

1  Chrou.  Sax.  an.  69],  697. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  19 

the  fact  that  Ecgberht,  whom  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
adds  to  the  list  given  by  Beda,  has  left  some  char- 
ters in  which  he  also  uses  it1,  and  that  they  are 
the  only  charters  in  which  it  does  occur.  From 
these  it  appears  that  he  dated  his  reign  ten  years 
earlier  than  his  ducatus,  that  is,  that  he  was  rex  in 
802,  but  not  dux  till  812.  Now  it  is  especially  ob- 
servable that  in  812  he  had  not  yet  commenced 
that  career  of  successful  aggression  against  the 
other  Saxon  kingdoms,  which  justified  the  Chroni- 
cler in  numbering  him  among  those  whom  Camden 
and  Rapin  call  the  Monarchs,  and  Palgrave  the  Em- 
perors of  Britain.  He  did  not  attack  Mercia  and 
subdue  Kent  till  825  :  in  the  same  year  he  formed 
his  alliance  with  Eastanglia:  only  in  829  did  he 
ruin  the  power  of  Mercia,  and  receive  the  submis- 
sion of  the  Northumbrians.  But  in  the  year  812 
he  did  move  an  army  against  the  Welsh,  and  re- 
mained for  several  months  engaged  in  military  ope- 
rations within  their  frontier  :  there  is  every  reason 
then  to  think  that  the  ducatus  of  Ecgberht  is  only 
a  record  of  those  conquests  over  his  British  neigh- 
bours, which  enabled  him  to  turn  his  hand  with 
such  complete  success  against  his  Anglosaxon 
rivals ;  and  thus  that  it  has  no  reference  to  the  ex- 
pression used  by  Beda  to  express  the  factitious  pre- 
ponderance of  one  king  over  another.  Let  us  now 
inquire  to  what  the  passage  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
amounts,  which  has  put  so  many  of  our  historians 


Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  1038,  1039,  1041. 

c2 


20  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

upon  a  wrong  track,  by  supplying  them  with  the 
suspicious  name  Bretvvalda.  Speaking  of  Ecgberht 
the  Chronicler  says1,  "And  the  same  year  king 
Ecgberht  overran  the  kingdom  of  the  Mercians, 
and  all  that  was  south  of  the  Humber ;  and  he  was 
the  eighth  king  who  was  Bretwalda."  And  then, 
after  naming  the  seven  mentioned  by  Beda,  and 
totally  omitting  all  notice  of  the  Mercian  kings, 
he  concludes, — "  the  eighth  was  Ecgberht,  king  of 
the  Westsaxons." 

Now  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  of  six  ma- 
nuscripts in  which  this  passage  occurs,  one  only 
reads  Bretwalda :  of  the  remaining  five,  four  have 
Bryten-walda  or  -weald  a,  and  one  Breten-anweald, 
which  is  precisely  synonymous  with  Brytenwealda. 
All  the  rules  of  orderly  criticism  would  therefore 
compel  us  to  look  upon  this  as  the  right  reading, 
and  we  are  confirmed  in  so  doing  by  finding  that 
^E'Selstan  in  one  of  his  charters2  calls  himself  also 
"Brytenwealda  ealles  ^yses  ealondes," — ruler  or 
monarch  of  all  this  island.  Now  the  true  meaning 
of  this  word,  which  is  compounded  of  wealda,  a 
ruler,  and  the  adjective  bryten,  is  totally  uncon- 
nected with  Bret  or  Bretwealh,  the  name  of  the 
British  aborigines,  the  resemblance  to  which  is 
merely  accidental :  bryten  is  derived  from  breotan, 
to  distribute,  to  divide,  to  break  into  small  portions, 

1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  827. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1110.    "Ongolsaxna  cyning  -j  brytsenwalda  ealles 
•Sysesiglandses;"  and,  in  the  corresponding  Latin,  "Kex  et  rector  totius 
huius  Britanniae  insulae."  an.  34.  * 


CH.  i.]          GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  21 

to  disperse  :  it  is  a  common  prefix  to  words  denoting 
wide  or  general  dispersion1,  and  when  coupled  with 
wealda  means  no  more  than  an  extensive,  powerful 
king,  a  king  whose  power  is  widely  extended.  We 
must  therefore  give  up  the  most  attractive  and  se- 
ducing part  of  all  this  theory,  the  name,  which  rests 
upon  nothing  but  the  passage  in  one  manuscript  of 
the  Chronicle, — and  that,  far  from  equal  to  the  rest 
in  antiquity  or  correctness  of  language :  and  as  for 
anything  beyond  the  name,  I  again  repeat  that  we 
are  indebted  for  it  to  nothing  but  the  ingenuity  of 
modern  scholars,  deceived  by  what  they  fancied  the 
name  itself;  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence 
of  a  king  exercising  a  central  authority,  and  very 
little  at  any  time,  of  a  combined  action  among  the 
Saxons ;  and  that  it  is  quite  as  improbable  that  any 
Saxon  king  should  ever  have  had  a  federal  army  to 
command,  as  it  is  certainly  false  that  there  ever 
was  a  general  Witena  gemot  for  him  to  preside  over. 
I  must  therefore  in  conclusion  declare  my  disbelief 
as  well  in  a  college  of  kings,  as  in  an  officer,  elected 
or  otherwise  appointed,  whom  they  considered  as 
their  head.  The  development  of  all  the  Ariglosaxon 
kingdoms  was  of  far  too  independent  and  fortui- 
tous a  character  for  us  to  assume  any  general  con- 
cert among  them,  especially  as  that  independence  is 

1  The  following  words  compounded  with  Bryten  will  explain  my 
meaning  to  the  Saxon  scholar :  Bryten-cyning  (exactly  equivalent  to 
bryten-wealda),  a  powerful  king.  Cod.  Exon.  p.  331.  Bryten-grund, 
the  wide  expense  of  earth.  Ibid.  p.  22.  Bryten-rice,  a  spacious  realm. 
Ibid.  p.  192.  Bryten-ivong,  the  spacious  plain  of  earth.  Ibid.  p.  24. 
The  adjective  is  used  in  the  same  sense,  but  uncompounded,  thus; 
Ireotone  bold,  a  spacious  dwelling.  Ceedin.  p.  308. 


33  THE  SAXONS  IX  ENGLAND.*  [BOOK  n. 

manifested  upon  those  points  particularly,  where  a 
central  and  combined  action  would  have  been  most 
certain  to  show  itself1. 

But  although  I  cannot  admit  the  growth  of  an 
imperial  power  in  any  such  way,  I  still  believe  the 
royal  authority  to  have  been  greatly  consolidated, 

1  I  allude  more  particularly  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  the 
enactment  of  laws,  the  establishment  of  dioceses,  and  military  mea- 
sures against  the  Britons.  In  two  late  publications,  Mr.  Hallani  has 
bestowed  his  attention  upon  the  same  subject,  and  with  much  the  same 
result.  His  acute  and  well-balanced  mind  seems  to  have  been  struck 
by  the  historical  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way  of  the  Bretwalda 
theory,  though  he  does  not  attach  so  much  force  as  I  think  we  ought, 
to  its  total  inconsistency  with  the  general  social  state  of  Anglosaxon 
Englaud  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  or  as  seems  justly  due  to 
the  philological  argument.  He  cites  from  Adamnan  a  passage  in  these 
words :  "(Oswald)  totius  Britanniae  imperator  ordiuatus  a  deo."  But 
these  words  only  prove  at  the  utmost  that  Adamnan  attributed  a  cer- 
tain power  to  Oswald,  connected  in  fact  with  conquest,  and  implying 
anything  but  consent,  election  or  appointment,  by  his  fellow-kings. 
And  Mr.  Hallani  himself  inclines  to  the  belief  that  the  title  may  have 
been  one  given  to  Oswald  by  his  own  subjects,  rather  than  the  asser- 
tion of  a  fact  that  he  truly  ruled  over  all  Britain.  He  conceives  that  the 
three  Northumbrian  kings,  having  been  victorious  in  war  and  paramount 
over  the  minor  kingdoms,  were  really  designated,  at  least  among  their 
own  subjects,  by  the  name  Bretwalda,  or  ruler  of  Britain,  and  "totius 
Britanniae  imperator," — an  assumption  of  pompous  titles  characteristic 
of  the  vaunting  tone  which  continued  to  increase  down  to  the  Conquest. 
(Supplemental  Notes  to  the  View  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  199  seq.)  This 
however  is  hardly  consistent  with  Beda  and  the  Chronicle.  The  only 
passage  in  its  favour  is  that  of  Adamnan,  and  this  is  confined  to  one 
prince.  Adamnan  however  was  a  Kelt,  and  on  this  account  I  should 
be  cautious  respecting  any  language  he  used.  Again,  I  am  not  prepared 
to  admit  the  probability  of  a  territorial  title,  at  a  time  when  kinsrs  were 
kings  of  the  people,  not  of  the  land.  But  most  of  all  do  I  demur  to  the 
reading  Bretwalda  itself,  which  rests  upon  the  authority  neither  of  coins 
nor  inscriptions,  and  is  supported  only  by  one  passage  of  a  very  bad 
manuscript ;  while  it  is  refuted  by  five  much  better  copies  of  the  same 
work,  and  a  charter :  I  therefore  do  not  scruple  to  say  that  there  is  no 
authority  for  the  word.  In  all  but  this  I  concur  with  Mr,  Hallam, 
whose  opinion  is  a  most  welcome  support  to  my  own. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KIXGLY  POWER.  23 

and  thereby  extended,  before  the  close  of  the  sixth 
century.  It  is  impossible,  for  a  very  long  period, 
to  look  upon  the  Anglosaxon  kingdoms  otherwise 
than  as  camps,  planted  upon  an  enemy's  territory, 
and  not  seldom  in  a  state  of  mutual  hostility.  All 
had  either  originated  in,  or  had  at  some  period 
fallen  into,  a  state  of  military  organization,  in  which 
the  leaders  are  permitted  to  assume  powers  very 
inconsistent  with  the  steady  advance  of  popular 
liberty ;  and  in  the  progress  of  their  history,  events 
were  continually  recurring  which  favoured  the  per- 
manent establishment  and  consolidation  of  those 
powers.  Upon  all  their  western  and  northern  fron- 
tiers lay  ever-watchful  and  dangerous  Keltic  po- 
pulations, the  co-operation  of  whose  more  inland 
brethren  was  always  to  be  dreaded,  and  whose  at- 
tacks were  periodically  renewed  till  very  long  after 
the  preponderance  of  one  crown  over  the  rest  was 
secured, — attacks  only  too  often  favoured  by  the 
civil  wars  and  internal  struggles  of  the  Germanic 
conquerors.  Upon  all  the  eastern  coasts  hovered 
swarms  of  daring  adventurers,  ready  to  put  in  prac- 
tice upon  the  Saxons  themselves  the  frightful  lesson 
of  piracy  which  these  had  given  the  Eoman  world 
in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  and  ever  wel- 
comed by  the  Keltic  inhabitants  as  the  ministers 
of  their  own  vengeance.  The  constant  state  of 
military  preparation  which  was  thus  rendered  ne- 
cessary could  have  no  other  result  than  that  of 
giving  a  vast  preponderance  to  the  warlike  over 
the  peaceful  institutions ;  of  raising  the  practised 
and  well-armed  comites  to  a  station  yearly  more 


24  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

and  more  important ;  of  leading  to  the  multiplica- 
tion of  fortresses,  with  their  royal  castellans  and 
stationary  garrisons;  nay — by  constantly  placing 
the  freemen  under  martial  law,  and  inuring  them 
to  the  urgencies  of  military  command — of  finally 
breaking  down  the  innate  feeling  and  guarantees  of 
freedom,  and  even  of  materially  ruining  the  culti- 
vator, all  whose  energy  and  all  whose  time  were  not 
too  much,  if  a  comfortable  subsistence  was  to  be 
wrung  from  the  soil  he  owned.  It  is  also  necessary 
to  bear  in  mind  the  power  derived  from  forcible 
possession  of  lands  from  which  the  public  enemy 
had  been  expelled,  and  which,  we  may  readily  be- 
lieve, turned  to  the  advantage,  mostly  if  not  exclu- 
sively, of  the  king  and  his  nobles.  No  wonder  then 
if  at  a  very  early  period  the  Mark-organization, 
which  contained  within  itself  the  seeds  of  its  own 
decay,  had  begun  to  give  way,  and  that  a  systematic 
commendation,  as  it  was  called,  to  the  adjacent  lords 
was  beginning  to  take  its  place.  To  the  operation 
of  these  natural  causes  we  must  refer  the  indisput- 
able predominance  established  by  a  few  superior 
kings  before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  not  only 
over  the  numerous  dynastic  families  which  still  re- 
mained scattered  over  the  face  of  the  country,  but 
also  over  the  free  holders  in  the  ga  or  scyr. 

To  these  however  was  added  one  of  still  greater 
moment.  The  introduction  of  Christianity  in  a 
settled  form,  which  finally  embraced  the  whole 
Saxon  portion  of  the  island,  dates  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  seventh  century.  Though  not 
unknown  to  the  various  British  tribes,  who  had 


CH.  L]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  25 

long  been  in  communication  with  their  fellow-be- 
lievers of  Gaul  and,  according  to  some  authorities1, 
of  Rome,  it  had  made  but  little  progress  among  the 
German  tribes,  although  a  tendency  to  give  it  at 
least  a  tolerant  hearing  had  for  some  time  been 
making  way  among  them2.  But  in  595  Pope  Gre- 
gory the  Great  determined  upon  giving  effect  to  his 
scheme  of  a  missionary  expedition  to  Britain,  which 
he  had  long  revolved,  had  at  one  time  determined 
to  undertake  in  person,  and  had  relinquished  only 
as  far  as  his  own  journey  was  concerned,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  opposition  manifested  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Rome  to  his  quitting  the  city.  Having 
finally  matured  his  plan,  he  selected  a  competent 
number  of  monks  and  ecclesiastics,  and  despatched 
them  under  the  guidance  of  Augustine,  with  direc- 
tions to  found  an  episcopal  church  among  the 
heathen  Saxons.  The  progress  and  success  of  this 
missionary  effort  must  not  be  treated  of  here ;  suf- 
fice it  to  say  that,  one  by  one,  the  Teutonic  king- 
doms of  the  island  accepted  the  new  faith,  and  that 

1  See  Schrodl,  Erste  Jahrhund.  der  Angl.  Kirche,  1840,  p.  2,  notes. 
If  the  assertion  of  Prosper  Tyro  is  to  be  trusted,  that  Oelestine  sent 
Germanus  into  Britain  as  his  vicar,  vice  sua,  the  relation  must  have 
been  an  intimate  one.    See  also  Nennius,  Hist.  cap.  54.   Neander  how- 
ever declares  against  the  dependence  of  the  British  church  upon  Rome, 
and  derives  it  from  Asia  Minor.     Alg.  Geschichte  der  Christ.  Relig.  u. 
Kirche,  vol.  i.  pt.  1.  p.  121.     The  question  has  been  treated  in  late 
times  as  one  of  bitter  controversy. 

2  This  may  be  inferred  from  Gregory's  letters  to  Theodric  and  Theod- 
bert  and  to  Brimichildis.   "Atque  ideo  pervenit  ad  nos  Anglorum  gen- 
tem  ad  fidem  Christianam,  Deo  miserante,  desideranter  velle  converti, 
sed  sacerdotes  e  vicino  negligere,"  etc. ;  again :  "  Indicamus  ad  nos  per- 
venisse  Anglomm  gentem,  Deo  annuente,  velle  fieri  Christianam  ;  sed 
sacerdotes,  qui  in  vicino  sunt,  pastoralem  erga  eos  sollicitudineni  non 
habere."    Bed.  Op.  Minora,  ii.  234,  235. 


26  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

before  the  close  of  the  first  century  from  the  arrival 
of  Augustine,  the  whole  of  German  England  was 
united  into  one  church,  under  a  Metropolitan,  who 
accidentally  was  also  a  missionary  from  Eome1. 

Strange  would  it  have  been  had  the  maxims  of 
law  or  rules  of  policy  which  these  men  brought 
with  them,  been  different  from  those  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  place  from  which  they  came.  Eoman 
feelings,  Eoman  views  and  modes  of  judging,  the 
traditions  of  the  empire  and  the  city,  the  legislation 
of  the  emperors  and  the  popes, — these  were  their 
sources  both  of  opinion  and  action.  The  predomi- 
nance of  the  kings  must  have  appeared  to  them 
natural  and  salutary ;  the  subordination  of  all  men 
to  their  appointed  rulers  was  even  one  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  itself,  as  taught  by  the  great 
apostle  of  the  gentiles,  and  recommended  by  the 
example  of  the  Saviour.  But  the  consolidation  and 
advancement  of  the  royal  authority,  if  they  could 
only  form  a  secure  alliance  with  it,  could  not  but 
favour  their  great  object  of  spreading  the  Gospel 
among  populations  otherwise  dispersed  and  in- 
accessible :  hence  it  seems  probable  that  all  their 
efforts  would  be  directed  to  the  end  which  circum- 
stances already  favoured,  and  that  the  whole  spi- 
ritual and  temporal  influence  of  the  clergy  would 
be  thrown  into  the  scale  of  monarchy.  Moreover 
the  clergy  supplied  a  new  point  of  approach  be- 
tween our  own  and  foreign  courts  :  to  say  nothino- 
of  Eome,  communication  with  which  soon  became 

1  Theodore  of  Tarsus. 


CH.  i.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGLY  POWER.  27 

close  and  frequent,  very  shortly  after  their  esta- 
blishment here,  we  find  an  increased  and  increasing 
intercourse  between  our  kings  and  those  of  Gaul  ; 
and  this  again  offered  an  opportunity  of  becoming 
familiar  wtth  the  views  and  opinions  which  had 
flowed,  as  it  were,  from  the  imperial  city  into  the 
richest  and  happiest  of  her  provinces.  The  strict 
Teutonic  law  of  wergyld,  they  perhaps  could  not 
prevail  to  change,  and  to  the  last,  the  king,  like 
every  other  man,  continued  to  have  his  price  ;  but 
the  power  of  the  clergy  is  manifest  even  in  the  very 
first  article  of  ./E^Jelberht's  law,  and  to  it  we  in  all 
probability  owe  the  ultimate  affixing  of  the  penalty 
of  death  to  the  crime  of  high-treason,  —  a  marvel- 
lous departure  from  the  ancient  rule.  Taking  all 
the  facts  of  the  case  into  account,  we  cannot  but 
believe  that  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  which 
not  only  taught  the  necessity  of  obedience  to  law- 
ful authority,  but  accustomed  men  to  a  more  cen- 
tral and  combined  exercise  of  authority  through  the 
very  spectacle  of  the  episcopal  system  itself,  tended 
in  no  slight  degree  to  perpetuate  the  new  order 
which  was  gradually  undermining  and  superseding 
the  old  Mark-organization,  and  thus  finally  brought 
England  into  the  royal  circle  of  European  families  1. 
The  chapters  of  the  present  Book  will  be  devoted 
to  an  investigation  of  the  institutions  proper  to 
this  altered  condition,  to  the  officers  by  whom  the 


Kent  married  a  Frankish  princess,  so  did 
of  Wessex.  Ofta  of  Mercia  was  engaged  in  negotiations  for  a  nuptial 
alliance  with  the  house  of  Charlemagne,  and  several  Anglosaxon  ladies 
of  royal  blood  found  husbands  among  the  sovereign  families  of  the 
Continent 


28  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

government  of  the  country  was  conducted,  from  the 
seventh  to  the  eleventh  centuries,  and  to  the  ge- 
neral social  relations  which  thus  arose.  If  in  the 
course  of  our  investigation  it  should  appear  that  a 
gradually  diminishing  share  of  freedom  remained 
to  the  people,  yet  must  we  bear  in  mind  that  the 
old  organization  was  one  which  could  not  keep  pace 
with  the  progress  of  human  society,  and  that  it  was 
becoming  daily  less  suited  to  the  ends  for  which  it 
first  existed ;  that  in  this,  as  in  all  great  changes, 
a  compromise  necessarily  took  place,  and  mutual 
sacrifices  were  required  ;  after  all,  that  we  finally 
retained  a  great  amount  of  rational  and  orderly 
liberty,  full  of  the  seeds  of  future  development,  and 
gained  many  of  the  advantages  of  Eoman  cultiva- 
tion, without  paying  too  high  a  price  for  them,  in 
the  loss  of  our  nationality. 


29 


CHAPTEE  II. 

THE  EEGALIA,  OR  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY. 

IN  the  strict  theory  of  the  Anglosaxon  constitution 
the  King  was  only  one  of  the  people  19  dependent 
upon  their  election  for  his  royalty,  and  upon  their 
support  for  its  maintenance.  But  he  was  never- 
theless the  noblest  of  the  people,  and  at  the  head 

S  of  the  state,  as  long  as  his  reign  was  felt  to  be  for 
the  general  good,  the  keystone  and  completion  of 
the  social  arch.  Accordingly  he  was  invested  with 

S  various  dignities  and  privileges,  enabling  him  to 
exercise  public  functions  necessary  to  the  weal  of 
the  whole  state,  and  to  fill  such  a  position  in  society 
as  belonged  to  its  chief  magistrate.  Although  his 
life,  like  that  of  every  other  man,  was  assessed  at  a 
fixed  price, — the  price  of  an  ee^eling  or  person  of 
royal  blood, — it  was  further  guarded  by  an  equal 
amount,  to  be  levied  under  the  name  of  cynebdt, 
the  price  of  his  royalty ;  and  the  true  character 
of  these  distinctions  is  clear  from  the  fact  of  the 

1  The  names  by  which  the  King  is  commonly  known  among  most  of 
the  Germanic  nations  are  indicative  of  his  position.  From  peod,  the 
people,  he  is  called  Redden  :  from  his  high  birth  (cyne  nobilis,  and  cyn 
genus,  i.e.  generosus  a  genere),  he  is  called  Cyning :  from  Dryht,  the 
troop  of  comites  or  household  retainers,  he  is  Dryhten :  and  as  head 
of  the  first  household  in  the  land,  he  is  emphatically  Hlaford  :  his  con- 
sort is  seo  Hlsefdige,  the  Lady.  His  poetical  and  mythical  names  need 
not  be  investigated  on  this  occasion. 


80  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

first  sum  belonging  to  the  family,  the  second  to  the 
people l. 

His  personal  rights,  or  royalties,  consisted  in  the 
possession  of  large  domains  which  went  with  the 
crown2,  a  sort  of  reVte^oc,  which  were  his  own  pro- 
perty only  while  he  reigned,  and  totally  distinct 
from  such  private  estates  as  he  might  purchase  for 
himself;  in  short  his  Woods  and  Forests,  which  the 
Crown  held  under  the  guarantee  and  supervision 
of  the  Witena  gemot.  Also,  in  the  right  to  receive 
naturalia,  or  voluntary  contributions  in  kind  from 
the  free  men,  which  gradually  became  depraved 
into  compulsory  payments.  Of  these  the  earliest 
mention  is  by  Tacitus3,  who  tells  us  that  it  was  the 
custom,  voluntarily  and  according  to  the 'power  of 
the  people,  to  present  their  princes  with  cattle  and 
corn,  which  was  not  only  a  mark  of  honour  but 
a  substantial  means  of  support ;  and  the  annals  of 


1  Be  Wergyldum,  NorSleoda  laga,  §  1.    Myrcua  laga,  §  1.     Thorpe, 
i.  186,  190  :  "  Se  wer  gebiraft  magum  *j  seo  cynebot  ftam  leodum." 

2  ^EtJelred  about  980,  gives  the  following  reasons  for  a  grant  made 
by  him  to  Abingdon.     During  the  lifetime  of  Eadgar,  this  prince  had 
given  to  the  monastery  certain  estates  belonging  to  the  appanage  of  the 
princas  of  the  blood,  "terras  ad  regios  pertinentes  Jilios:"  these,  on 
Eadgar's  death  and  Eadweard's  accession,  the  Witena  gemot  very  pro- 
perly claimed  and  obtained,  handing  them  over  to  ^ftelred,  then  prince 
royal :  "  quae  statim  terrae  iuxta  decretum  et  praeceptionem  cunctorum 
optimatum  de  praefato  sancto  coeuobio  violenter  abstractae,  meaeque 
ditioni,  hisdem  praccipientibus,  sunt  subactae:  quam  rem  si  iuste  aut 
iniuste  fecerint,  ipsi  sciant."  All  the  crown  lands  thus  fell  to  JEftelred, 
he  having  no  children  at  his  brother  Eadweard's  death  :  "  et  regalium 
simul,  et  ad  regios  filios  pertinentium  terrarmn  suscepi  dominium." 
Having  now  scruples  of  conscience  about  interfering  with  his  father's 
charitable  intentions,  he  gave  the  monastery  an  equivalent  out  of 
his  own  private  property, — "  ex  mea  propria  haereditate"    Cod.  Dipl. 
No.  1312.  3  Germ.  xv. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  31 

the  Prankish  kings  abound  with  instances  of  these 
presentations,  which  generally  took  place  at  the 
great  meetings  of  the  people,  or  Campus  Madius 1. 
His  further  privileges  consisted  in  the  right  to  re- 
ceive a  portion  of  the  fines  payable  for  various 
offences,  and  the  confiscation  of  offenders'  estates 
and  chattels ;  in  various  distinctions  of  dress,  dwell- 
ing, and  the  like ;  above  all,  in  the  maintenance 
of  a  standing  army  of  comrades,  called  at  a  late 
period  Huscarlas  or  household  troops.  It  was  for 
him  to  call  together  the  Witena  gemot  or  great 
council  of  the  realm,  whenever  occasion  demanded, 
and  to  lay  before  them  propositions  touching  the 
general  welfare  of  the  state ;  in  concurrence  also 
with  them,  to  extend  or  amend  the  existing  legis- 
lation. At  the  same  time  I  do  not  find  that  he 
possessed  the  power  of  dismissing  these  counsellors 
when  he  thought  he  had  had  enough  of  their  ad- 
vice, or  of  preventing  them  from  meeting  without 
his  special  summons  :  in  which  two  rights,  when 


1  See  Domesday,  passim.  Cnut  commanded  to  put  an  end  to  these 
compulsory  demands :  no  man  was  to  be  compelled  to  give  his  reeves 
anything  towards  the  king's  feonnfultum,  against  his  will,  under  a 
heavy  penalty,  but  the  king  was  to  be  provided  for  out  of  the  royal 
property.  Cnut,  §  70.  Thorpe,  i.  412.  If  Phillips  is  right  in  sup- 
posing the  Foster  of  Ini's  law  (§  70.  Thorpe,  i.  146)  to  be  this  burthen, 
heavy  charges  lay  upon  the  laud  in  the  eighth  century.  Angels.  Recht. 
p.  87.  But  I  doubt  the  application  in  this  particular  case.  See  also, 
Anon.  Vita  Hludov.  Imp.  §  7 ;  Pertz,  ii.  010,  01 1 ;  Aunal.  Laurish. 
753  ;  Ann.  Bertin.  837  ;  Pertz,  i.  116,  430,  and  Hincmar.  Inst.  Carol, 
ibid.  ii.  214.  Aids  and  benevolences  have  acquired  a  notoriety  in  En- 
glish history  which  will  not  be  forgotten  while  England  survives  :  but 
the  prerogative  lawyers  had  ancient  prescription  to  back  them.  On 
the  whole  subject  see  Grimm,  Rechtsalt.  p.  245.  Eichhorn,  §  171. 
vol.  i.  p.  730  seq. 


32  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

injudiciously  exercised,  the  historian  finds  the  key 
to  the  downfall  of  so  many  monarchies.  As  gene- 
ral conservator  of  the  public  peace,  both  against 
foreign  and  domestic  disturbers,  the  king  could  call 
out  ihefyrd,  an  armed  levy  or  militia  of  the  freemen, 
proclaim  his  peace  upon  the  high-roads,  and  exact 
the  cumulative  fines  by  which  the  breach  of  it  was 
punished.  He  was  also  the  proper  guardian  of  the 
coinage;  and,  in  some  respects,  the  fountain  of 
justice,  seeing  that  he  might  be  resorted  to,  if  jus- 
tice could  not  be  obtained  elsewhere.  We  may  also 
look  upon  him  as,  at  least  to  a  certain  degree,  the 
fountain  of  honour,  since  he  could  promote  his 
comrades,  thanes  or  ministers  to  higher  rank,  or  to 
posts  of  dignity  and  power.  All  these  various  rights 
and  privileges  he  possessed  and  exercised,  by  and 
with  the  advice,  consent  and  licence  of  his  Witena 
gemot  or  Parliament.  It  is  desirable  to  consider 
the  various  details  connected  with  this  subject,  in 
succession,  and  to  illustrate  them  by  examples  from 
Anglosaxon  authorities. 

Although  under  a  Christian  dispensation  the  king 
could  no  longer  be  considered  as  appertaining  to 
a  family  exclusively  divine,  yet  the  old  national 
tradition  still  aided  in  securing  to  him  the  high- 
est personal  position  in  the  commonwealth.  He 
had  a  wergyld  indeed,  but  it  far  exceeded  that  of 
any  other  class :  nor  was  it  in  this  alone  that  his 
paramount  dignity  was  recognized,  but  in  the  com- 
parative amount  of  the  fines  levied  for  offences 
against  himself,  his  dependents  or  his  property. 
And  as  the  principle  of  all  Teutonic  law  is,  that  the 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  33 

amount  of  bot  or  compensation  shall  vary  directly 
with  the  dignity  of  the  party  leased,  the  high  tariff 
appointed  for  royalty  is  evidence  that  the  king 
really  stood  at  the  summit  of  the  social  order,  and 
was  the  first  in  rank  and  honour,  whatever  he  may 
have  been  in  power.  This  is  equally  apparent  in 
the  earliest  law,  that  of  ^E8elberht,  as  in  Eadweard 
the  Confessor's,  the  latest.  Thus,  if  he  called  his 
Leode,  Jideles  or  thanes,  to  him,  and  they  were  in- 
jured on  the  way,  a  compensation  double  the  ordi- 
nary amount  could  be  exacted,  and  in  addition  a 
fine  of  fifty  shillings  to  the  king1.  And  so  likewise, 
if  he  honoured  a  subject  by  drinking  at  his  house, 
all  offences,  then  and  there  committed,  were  pu- 
nishable by  a  double  fine2.  Theft  from  him  bore  a 
ninefold,  from  a  ceorl  or  freeman  only  a  threefold, 
compensation3.  His  mundbyrd  or  protection  was 
valued  at  fifty  shillings  ;  that  of  an  eorl  and  ceorl 
at  twelve  and  six  respectively4:  this  applied  to  the 
cases  where  a  man  slew  another  in  the  king's  tun, 
the  eoii's  tun,  or  the  ceorl's  edor5  ;  and  to  the  dis- 
honour of  his  maiden-serf,  which  involved  a  fine  of 
fifty  shillings,  while  the  eorl's  female  cupbearer  was 
protected  only  to  the  amount  of  twelve,  the  ceorl's 
to  that  of  six  shillings6.  His  messenger  or  armour- 
er, if  by  chance  they  were  guilty  of  manslaughter, 
could  only  be  sued  for  a  mitigated  wergyld,  by 


i.  §  2.  This  enactment  lias  been  supposed  to  be  the  foun- 
dation of  one  of  those  privileges  of  Parliament,  which  we  have  seen  so- 
lemnly discussed  on  a  late  occasion. 

2  ^E^elb.  i.  §  3.  3  Ibid.  §  4,  9. 

4  Ibid.  §  8,  15.  »  Ibid.  §  5,  13. 

6  Ibid.  §  10,  14,  16. 

VOL.  II.  D 


34  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  ,  [BOOKII. 

which  they,  though  probably  uiifree,  were  placed 
upon  a  footing  of  equality  with  the  freeman1.  His 
word,  like  that  of  a  bishop,  was  to  be  incontrover- 
tible, that  is,  no  oath  could  be  tendered  to  rebut 
it2.  He  that  fought  in  the  king's  hall,  if  taken  in 
the  act,  was  liable  to  the  punishment  of  death,  or 
such  doom  as  the  king  should  decree3:  the  king's 
burhbryce,  or  violence  done  to  his  dwelling,  was 
valued  at  120  shillings,  an  archbishop's  at  90,  a 
bishop's  or  ealdorman's  at  60,  a  twelf  hynde  man's 
at  30,  a  syxhynde's  at  15,  but  a  ceoiTs  or  free- 
man's only  at  5  ;  and  these  sums  were  to  be  dou- 
bled if  the  militia  was  on  foot4.  His  borhbryce,  or 
breach  of  surety,  and  his  mundbyrd  or  protection 
were  raised  by  Alfred  to  five  pounds,  while  the 
archbishop's  was  valued  at  three,  the  bishop's  or 
ealdorman's  at  two  pounds5.  He  could  give  sanc- 
tuary to  offenders  for  nine  days  6,  and  peculiar  pri- 
vileges of  the  same  kind  were  extended  to  those 
monasteries  which  were  subject  to  his  farm  or  pas- 
tus  7.  His  geneat  or  comrade,  if  of  the  noble  class, 
could  swear  for  sixty  hides  of  land  8.  His  horse- 
wealh,  the  Briton  employed  in  his  stables,  was 
placed  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  freeman,  at  a 


7,  21. 

2  Wihtr.  §  16.    The  position  and  privileges  of  the  clergy  at  this  very 
early  period,  and  especially  in  Kent,  were'  very  exalted.     ./Eftelberht 
places  the  king-  only  on  the  footing  of  a  priest,  in  respect  to  his  stolen 
property.  .^Eftelb.  §  1.    But  this  grave  error  was  remedied  as  society  be- 
came better  consolidated,  although  to  the  very  last  the  clergy  were  left 
in  possession  of  far  too  much  secular  power. 

3  Ini,  §  6.    JElf.  §  7.  4  Ini,  §  45.    ^Elfr.  §  40. 

6  ^Elfr.  §  3.     Cnut,  ii.  §  59.         6  ^E«elst.  iii.  §  6  ;  iv.  §  4  ;  v.  §  4. 

7  ^Elfr.  §  2.  8  Ini,  §  19. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  35 

wergyld  of  200  shillings1 ;  and  even  his  godson  had 
a  particular  protection2.  Lastly,  high-treason,  by 
compassing  the  king's  death,  harbouring  of  exiles, 
or  of  the  king's  rebellious  dependents,  was  made 
liable  to  the  punishment  of  death3. 

The  political  position  of  the  king,  at  the  head  of 
the  state,  was  secured  by  an  oath  of  allegiance  taken 
to  him,  by  all  subjects  of  the  age  of  twelve  years4, 

1  Ini,  §  33.  2  Ibid.  §  76. 

3  JElf.  §  4.     Cnut;  ii.  §  58. 

4  "  Imprimis  ut  omnes  iurent  in  nomine  Domini,  pro  quo  sanctum 
illud  sanctum  est,  fidelitatem  Eadmundo  regi,  sicut  homo  debet  esse 
fidelis  domino  suo,  sine  omni  controversia  et  seditione,  in  manifesto,  in 
occulto,  in  amando  quod  amabit,  nolendo  quod  nolet."     Eadm.  iii. 
§    1.     Thorpe,  i.  2-52.     "  And  it  is  our  will,  that  every  man  above 
twelve  years  of  age,  make  oath  that  he  will  neither  be  a  thief,  nor 
cognizant  of  theft."     Onut,  ii.  §  21.     Thorpe,  i.  388.     "Omnis  enim 
duodecim  annos  habens  et  ultra,  in  alicuius  frithborgo  esse  debet  et  in 
decenna;  sacramentumque  regi  et  hseredibus  suis  facere  fidelitatis,  et 
quod  nee  latro  erit,  nee  latrocinio  consentiet."  Fleta,  lib.  i.  cap.  27.  §  4. 
This  was  the  basis  upon  which  the  associations  of  freemen  among  the 
Anglosaxons  entered  into  their  alliances,  offensive  and  defensive,  with 
their  kings.     Charlemagne  caused  an  oath  to  be  taken  to  himself  as 
emperor,  by  all  his  subjects  above  twelve  years  old.     Db'nniges,  p.  3. 
The  HyldatS  or  oath  of  fealty  is  given  in  the  Anc.  Laws,  i.  178.     The 
dependent  engages  to  love  all  the  lord  loves,  and  shun  all  that  he  shuns: 
these  are  the  technical  terms  throughout  Europe.     The  king  himself 
took  a  corresponding  oath  to  his  people.     We  still  have  the  words  of 
that  which  was  administered  by  Diinstan  to  ^EtJelred  at  Kingston. 

"  Dis  gewrit  is  gewriten,  stsef  be  "  This  writing  is  copied,  letter 

stsefe,  be  ftam  gewrite  t>e  Diinstan  for  letter,  from  the  writing  which 

arcebisceop  sealde  uium  hlaforde  archbishop  Dunstan  delivered  to 

set  Cingestune  a  on  dseg  $a  hine  our  lord  at  Kingston  on  the  very 

man  halgode  to  cinge,  and  forbead  day  when  he  was  consecrated  king, 

him  aelc  wedd  to  syllaime  biitan  and  he  forbad  him.  to  give  any 

ftysan  wedde,  tie  he  up  on  Cristes  other  pledge  butthis  pledge,  which 

weofod  lede,  swa  se  bisceop  him  he  laid  upon  Christ's  altar,  as  the 

dihte.  ' On  'Ssere  halgan  prynnesse  bishop  instructed  him.     'In  the 

naman,  Ic  )>ieo  J>iLg  behate  criste-  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  three 

num  folce  and  me  underjjedddum :  things  do  I  promise  to  this  Chris- 

D2 


36  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND,  [BOOK  n. 

the  legal  period  of  majority  among  the  Germans, 
for  public  purposes.  In  this  capacity  he  appointed 

an  aerest,  Saet  ic  Godes  cyrice  and  tiau  people,  my  stibjects :  first, 
eall  cristen  folc  minra  gewealda  that  I  will  hold  God's  church  and 
BoSe  sibbe  healde :  ofter  is,  Saet  ic  all  the  Chistian  people  of  my 
reaflac  and  ealle  uurihte  }>mg  eal-  realm  in  true  peace  :  second,  that 
lum  hadum  forbeode  :  }>ridde,  ftaet  I  will  forbid  all  rapine  and  injus- 
ic  behate  and  bebeode  on  eallum  ticetomenof  all  conditions:  third, 
doinuin  riht  and  mildheortnisse,  that  I  promise  and  enjoin  justice 
ftset  us  eallum  serfaest  and  mild-  and  mercy  in  all  judgements, 
heort  God  Jmrh  '5aet  his  ecean  whereby  the  just  and  merciful  God 
mittse  forgife,  se  lifaft  and  rixaft. ' "  may  give  us  all  his  eternal  favour, 
— Reliq.  Ant.  ii.  194.  who  liveth  and  reigneth !' " 

It  is  worth  while  to  compare  with  this  the  coronation  oath  of  king 
Eirek  Magnusson,  of  Norway,  which  we  learn  from  the  following  va- 
luable document  of  July  25th,  1280. 

"  Pateat  universis  tain  clericis  quam  laicis  per  regnum  Norwegie 
constitutis  presens  scriptum  visuris  vel  audituris  quod  anno  domini  m°. 
cc°.  lxxx°.  in  festo  sancti  Suithuni  Bergio  in  ecclesia  cathedrali  rnagni- 
iicus  princeps  et  nobilis  domirius  .  Eiricus  dei  gracia  rex  Norwegie  il- 
lustris  filius  domini  Magni  quondam  regis  coram  reverendo  patre  et 
venerabili  domino  Johanne  secundo  divina  miseracione  .  Nidrosiensi 
archiepiscopo  qui  eum  coronando  in  regem  coronani  capiti  eius  inpo- 
euit .  ipsiusque  sufFraganeis  et  multis  clericis  et  laicis  qui  presentes  fue- 
rant .  tactis  ewangeliis  iuramentum  prestitit  in  hunc  modum  .  Profiteer 
et  promitto  coram  deo  et  sanctis  eius  a  modo  paceni  et  iusticiam  eccle- 
sie  dei .  populoque  mihi  subiecto  observare .  pontificibus  et  clero  .  prout 
teneor  .  condignum  honorem  exhibere  .  secundum  discrecionem  mihi  a 
deo  datam  .  atque  ea  que  a  regibus  ecclesiis  collata  ac  reddita  sunt .  si- 
cut  compositum  est  inter  ecclesiam  et  regnum .  inviolabiliter  conservare . 
malasque  leges  et  consuetudines  perversas  precipue  contra  ecclesiasti- 
cam  libertatem  facientes  abolere  et  bonas  condere  prout  de  concilio 
fidelium  nostrorum  melius  invenire  poterimus  .  pat  jatta  ek  gudi  ok 
hans  helgum  mannum  .  at  ek  skal  vardvseita  frid  ok  rettyndi  haailagre 
kirkiu  ok  Jmi  follri  sem  ek  er  overflugr  ivir  skipaftr  .  Byscopum  ok  Iser- 
dom  mannum  skal  ek  vseita  vidrkvaemelega  soemd  efter  J>ui  sem  ek  er 
skyldugr  .  ok  gud  giaefr  mer  skynsemd  til .  ok  }>a  luti  halda  obrigftilega . 
sem  af  kommggum  ero  kirkiunni  gefner  .  ok  aftr  fegner  sua  sem  sam- 
>ykt  er  millum  kirkiunnar  ok  rikissens  .  Rong  log  ok  illar  siiSueniur 
einkanlega  >83r .  sem  mote  ero  hseilagrar  kirkiu  fraelsi  af  taka  ok  betr 
skipa  eftir  >ui  sem  framazt  faam  ver  raad  til  af  varom  tryggastu  man- 
num .  Cum  igitur  ante  coronacionem  dicti  regis  dubitacio  fuerit .  de 
regis  iuramento .  volens  predictus  pater  ne  huiusmodi  dubitacio  rediviva 


CH.  ii.J  THE  RIGHTS  .OF  ROYALTY.  37 

the  ealdormen   in  the   shires,  the  gerefan  in  the 
various  districts  or  towns,  summoned  his  witan  and 

foret  in  posterum  precavere  .  utile  quippe  etenim  est  earn  rem  coguitam 
esse  que  ignorata  vel  dubia  possit  occasionem  litigii  ministrare .  iura- 
mentum  sen  professionem  factani  a  domino  rege .  ad  perpetuam  memo- 
riam  .  presentibus  literis  duxit  inserendam  .  et  ad  pleuiorem  rei  eviden- 
ciam  sigillum  suum  apposuit  una  cum  sigillis  venerabilinm  patrum  . 
domini  Andree  Osloensis  .  Jorundi  Holensis  .  Erlendi  Ferensis  .  Arnonis 
Skalotensis  .  Arnonis  Stawaugrensis  .  Nerue  Bergensis  .  Thorfinni  Ha- 
marensissuffraganeorum  Nidrosiensis  ecclesie  .  Actum  viii.  Kal.  Angusti 
loco  et  anno  supradictis." — Diplomatarium  Norwegicum,  No.  69.  p.  62. 
It  is  very  uncertain  at  what  time  the  custom  of  coronation,  and 
unction,  by  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  commenced.  The  usurpation  which 
Pipin  ventured  and  Pope  Zachary  lent  himself  to,  which  Charlemagne 
repeated  and  Pope  Leo  confirmed,  may  have  acted  as  a  valuable  pre- 
cedent, especially  as  the  power  of  the  King  was  sufficient  to  justify  the 
claim  of  the  Pope.  Thirty  years  later  (A.I).  787),  the  English  bishops 
put  forward  the  somewhat  bold  claim  to  be,  with  the  seniores  populi, 
electors  of  the  king :  "  Duodecimo  sermone  sanximus ;  Ut  in  ordina- 
tione  regum  nullus  permittat  pravorum  praevalere  assensuni  j  sed  legi- 
time  reges  a  sacerdotibus  et  senioribus  populi  eligantur,  et  non  de 
adulterio  vel  incoestu  procreati  j  quia  sicut  nostris  temporibus  ad  sa- 
cerdotium,  secundum  Canones,  adulter  pervenire  non  potest,  sic  nee 
Christus  domini  esse  valet,  et  rex  totius  regni,  et  haeres  patriae,  qui  ex 
legitimo  non  fuerit  connubio  generatus."  Cone.  Calcuth.  Legat.  Spelm. 
p.  296.  No  doubt  from  their  position  in  the  Witena  gemot,  and  the 
authority  which  they  derived  from  their  birth  as  well  as  station,  they 
always  played  an  important  part  in  the  elections  of  kings,  but  not  quite 
so  leading  a  part  in  the  eighth  century  as  they  here  attempt  to  claim. 
The  Diplomatarium  Norwegicum  supplies  an  interesting  illustration  of 
the  above-cited  canon,  in  a  dispensation  issued  by  Pope  Innocent  IV. 
(A.D.  1246)  to  Haakon  Haakonson,  from  the  disqualification  of  illegi- 
timate birth :  "  Cum  itaque  clare  memorie  Haquinus,  Norwegie  rex 
pater  tuns,  te,  prout  accepimus,  solutus  susceperit  de  soluta,  nos  tuam 
celsitudiuem  speciali  beuevolentia  prosequentes,  ut  huiusmodi  non 
obstante  defectu  ad  regalis  solii  dignitatem  et  omnes  actus  legitimoa 
admittaris,  nee  non  quod  heredes  tui  legitimi  tibi  in  dominio  et  honore 
succedaut,  fratrum  nostrorum  communicate  consilio,  tecum  auctoritate 
apostolica  dispensamus."  No.  38,  p.  30.  This  was  not  however  con- 
sidered a  valid  ground  of  objection  among  the  Anglosaxons,  if  the 
personal  qualities  of  the  prince  were  such  as  to  recommend  him.  From 
the  words  used  by  William  of  Malmesbury  we  might  infer  that  as  late  as 
the  time  of  ^ESelstan,  the  functions  of  the  bishops  at  the  coronation  were 


38  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

named  the  members  of  their  body1.  In  this  capa- 
city he  was  empowered  to  inflict  fines  upon  the 
public  officers,  and  even  private  individuals,  for 
such  neglect  of  duty  as  endangered  the  public  in- 
terests :  these  fines  were  paid  under  the  title  of  the 
king's  oferhyrnes,  literally  his  disobedience:  thus, 
if  a  man  when  summoned  refuse  to  attend  the  ge- 
mot; if  a  gerefa  refuse  to  do  justice,  when  called 
upon,  or  to  put  the  law  in  execution  against  offen- 
ders 2,  and  in  other  similar  cases  where  the  whole 
framework  of  society  requires  the  existence  of  a 
central  support,  having  power  to  hold  its  scattered 
elements  together,  and  in  their  places. 

The  maintenance  of  the  public  peace  is  the  first 
duty  of  the  king,  and  he  is  accordingly  empowered 
to  levy  fines  for  all  illegal  breaches  of  it,  by  of- 
fences against  life,  property  or  honour 3 :  in  very 
grave  cases  of  continued  guilt,  he  is  even  entrusted 

confined  to  anathematizing  those  who  would  not  be  obedient  subjects, 
but  that  the  nobles  performed  the  actual  coronation :  he  cites  the  follow- 
ing lines  from  an  earlier  author,  and  one  apparently  contemporaneous 
with  ^E^elstan  himself : — 

"  Tune  iuvenis  nomen  regni  clamatur  in  omen, 
Ut  fausto  patrias  titulo  moderetur  habenas : 
Conveniunt  proceres  et  componunt  diadema, 
Pontifices  pariter  dant  infidis  anathema." 

De  Gest.  ii.  §  133. 

That  Harold  crowned  himself  is  an  old  story;  but  it  is  very  certain 
that  whatever  he  did,  was  done  with  the  full  consent  of  the  Witena 
gemot. 

1  See  hereafter  the  several  chapters  Ealdorman,  Gerefa  and  Witena 
gemot. 

2  The  principal  cases  will  be  found  in  the  following  passages  of  the 
Laws :  Eadw.  §  1.    /ESelst.  i.  §  20,  22,  26;  iii.  §  7;  iv.  §  1,  7 ;  v.  §  11. 
Eadm.  iii.  §  2,  6,  7.     Eadg.  i.  §  4 ;  ii.  §  7,  etc. 

3  HloSh.  §  9, 11, 12, 13;  14.  ^Elf.  §  37.  ^Etfelst.  i.  §  1 ;  iii.  §  4 ;  v.  §  5 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  39 

with  the  right  of  banishing  and  outlawing  offend- 
ers, whose  wealth  and  family  connexions  seem  to 
place  them  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  jurisdic- 
tions1. Where  the  course  of  private  war  is  to  be 
settled  by  the  legal  compensations,  it  is  the  king's 
peace  which  is  established  between  the  contending 
parties,  the  relatives  and  advocates  of  the  slayer 
and  the  slain2.  And  in  accordance  with  these 
principles,  we  find  the  kings's  peace  peculiarly  pro- 
claimed upon  the  great  roads  which  are  the  high- 
ways of  commerce  and  means  of  internal  commu- 
nication, and  the  navigable  streams  by  which  cities 
and  towns  are  supplied  with  the  necessary  food  for 
their  inhabitants3.  And  hence  also  he  was  allowed 
to  proclaim  his  peace  over  all  the  land  at  certain 
times  and  seasons  ;  as,  for  eight  days  at  his  coro- 
nation, arid  the  same  space  of  time  at  Christmas, 
Easter  and  Whitsuntide.  He  might  also,  either  by 
his  hand  or  writ,  give  the  privileges  of  his  peace  to 
estates  which  would  otherwise  not  have  possessed 
it,  and  thus  place  them  upon  the  same  footing  of 
protection  as  his  own  private  residences4.  The  great 
divisions  of  the  country,  that  is  the  shires,  could  only 


1  JEMst.  iii.  §  3 ;  iv.  §  1. 

2  Ead.  Giift.  §  13.     Eadm.  ii.  §  1,  6,  7. 

3  Ead.  Oonf.  §  12.     Cross  roads  and  small  streams  are  not  in  the 
king's  peace,  but  that  of  the  county. 

4  This  peace  was  called  the  King's  Handsell,  "  cyninges  haudsealde 
grift."     The  extent  to  which  his  peace  extended  around  his  dwelling, 
that  is,  within  the  verge  of  the  court,  has  been  noticed  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  the  First  Book.   The  right  subsisted  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages  and  yet  subsists,  though  differently  motived  and  measured.     The 
king's  handsealde  gri'S  was  by  yESelred's  law  made  botless,  that  is, 
had  no  settled  compensation.  -   yESelr.  iii.  §  1. 


40  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  ir. 

be  determined  by  the  central  power :  it  is  therefore 
provided  that  these  shall  be  in  the  especial  right 
of  the  king:  "Divisiones  sciramm  regis  proprie 
cum  iudicio  quatuor  chiminorum  regalium  sunt1." 
And  to  the  end  of  maintaining  peace,  it  appears 
to  me  that  the  king  must  also  have  been  the  au- 
thority to  whom,  at  least  in  theory,  it  was  left 
to  settle  the  boundaries  even  of  private  estate  ; 
which  on  the  conversion  of  folcland  into  bocland, 
he  did,  generally  by  his  officers,  but  sometimes  in 
person2. 

But  the  great  machinery  for  keeping  peace  be- 
tween man  and  man,  is  the  establishment  of  courts 
of  justice,  and  a  system  by  which  each  man  can 
have  law,  by  the  consent  and  with  the  co-operation 
of  his  neighbours,  without  finding  it  necessary  to 
arm  in  his  own  defence.  It  has  been  shown  in  the 
First  Book,  that  such  means  did  exist  in  the  Mark 
and  Ga  courts ;  and  that  for  nearly  all  the  purposes 
of  society,  it  is  sufficient  and  advisable  that  justice 
should  be  done  within  the  limits  and  by  the  autho- 

1  Eadw.  Conf.  §  13. 

2  "  ^Eftelingawudu,  Colmanora  and  Geatescumbe  belong  to  these 
twenty  hides,  which  I  myself,  now  rode,  now  rowed,  and  widely  divided 
off,  for  myself,  my  predecessors,  and  those  that  shall  come  after  me,  for 
an  eternal  separation,  before  God  and  the  world."  Eadred.  an.  955.  Cod. 
Dipl.  No.  1171.     "Now  I  greet  well  my  relative  Mygod  of  Walling- 
ford,  and  command  thee  in  my  stead  [on  minre  stede]  to  ride  round 
the  land  to  the  saint's  hand."     Eadw.  Conf.,  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  862.    The 
force  of  the  word  beridan  is  very  difficult  to  convey  in  words,  but  still 
perfectly  obvious.   Another  difficulty  arises  from  the  word  stede,  which 
is  properly  masculine,  but  here  given  as  a  feminine.     I  think  it  im- 
possible that  it  should  mean  stede,  a  mare  (i.  e.  on  my  mare),  and  prefer 
the  supposition  either  that  stede  had  changed  its  gender,  or  that  the 
copy  of  the  charter  is  an  incorrect  one.  • 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  41 

rity  of  the  freemen.  A  centralized  system  however 
brings  modifications  with  it,  even  into  the  admi- 
nistration of  justice.  If,  as  I  believe,  the  original 
king  was  a  judge,  who  superinduced  the  warlike 
upon  his  peaceful  functions,  we  can  easily  see  how, 
with  the  growth  of  the  monarchy,  the  judicial  au- 
thority of  the  king  should  become  extended.  I 
cannot  doubt  that,  in  the  historical  times  of  the 
Anglosaxons,  the  king  was  the  fountain  of  justice ; 
by  which  expression  I  certainly  do  not  mean  that 
every  suit  must  be  commenced  in  one  of  the  supe- 
rior courts,  or  by  an  original  writ,  issuing  out  of 
the  royal  chancery  19  but  that  the  king  was  looked 
upon  as  the  authority  by  whom  the  judges  were 
supported  and  upheld,  who  was  to  be  appealed  to, 
if  no  justice  could  be  got  elsewhere,  and  who  had 
the  power  to  punish  malversation  in  its  adminis- 
tration by  his  officers. 

We  may  leave  the  tale  of  Alfred's  hanging  the 
unjust  judges  to  the  same  veracious  chapter  of 
history  as  records  his  invention  of  trial  by  jury  : 
but  it  is  obvious,  from  the  words  of  his  biographer, 
that  he  assumed  some  right  to  direct  them  in  the 
exercise  of  their  functions.  He  there  appears 
not  to  have  waited  until  complaints  were  made  of 
their  maladministration ;  but  to  have  adopted  the 
Frankish  and  Roman  custom  of  dispatching  Missi 
or  royal  commissioners  into  the  provinces  subject 
to  his  rule,  in  order  to  keep  a  proper  check  upon  the 

1  There  are  cases  nevertheless  which  seem  to  favour  the  supposition 
that  a  similar  power  was  ultimately  lodged  in  the  king  and,  at  least 
occasionally,  exercised. 


42  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

proceedings  of  the  public  officers  of  justice.  Asser 
says, — and  I  record  his  words  with  the  highest 
respect  and  admiration  of  Alfred's  real  and  great 
deserts, — that  "he  investigated  with  great  saga- 
city the  judgments  given  throughout  almost  all 
his  region,  which  had  been  delivered  when  he  was 
not  present,  as  to  what  had  been  their  character, 
whether  they  were  just,  or  unjust.  And  if  he  de- 
tected any  injustice  in  such  judgments,  he,  either 
in  person,  or  by  people  in  his  confidence,  mildly 
enquired  why  the  judges  had  given  such  unjust 
decisions,  whether  through  ignorance,  or  through 
malversation  of  another  kind,  as  fear,  or  favour, 
or  hope  of  gain.  And  then,  if  the  judges  admitted 
that  they  had  so  decided,  because  they  knew  no 
better  in  the  premises,  he  would  gently  and  mode- 
rately correct  their  ignorance  and  folly,  and  say : 
'  I  marvel  at  your  insolence,  who,  by  God's  gift  and 
mine,  have  taken  upon  yourselves  the  ministry  and 
rank  of  wise  men,  but  have  neglected  the  study 
and  labour  of  wisdom.  Now  it  is  my  command 
that  ye  either  give  up  at  once  the  administration  of 
those  secular  powers  which  ye  enjoy,  or  pay  a  much 
more  devoted  attention  to  the  studies  of  wisdom.' " 
A  certain  pedantry  is  obvious  enough  in  all  this 
story,  which,  taken  literally,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time,  is  merely  childish.  Still,  as 
Asser,  though  he  may  not  entirely  represent  the 
facts  of  this  period1  in  their  true  Germanic  sense, 

1  I  may  here  say  once  for  all,  that  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  au- 
thenticity of  Asser's  Annals,  or  to  attribute  them  to  any  other  period 
than  the  one  at  which  they  were  professedly  composed. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  43 

does  very  likely  represent  some  of  the  king's  private 
wishes  and  opinions,  this,  among  other  passages, 
may  serve  to  show  why,  in  spite  of  his  great  merits, 
Alfred  once  in  his  life  had  not  a  man  to  trust  to 
in  his  realm.  Let  us  look  at  the  matter  a  little 
more  closely.  In  the  many  kingdoms  and  districts 
which  by  conquest  or  inheritance  came  under  the 
Westsaxon  rule,  various  customary  laws  had  pre- 
vailed1. It  is  very  natural  that  judgments  given 
in  accordance  with  these  customs  should  often  ap- 
pear inconsistent  and  discordant  to  a  body  of  men 
collected  from  different  parts  of  the  realm.  Asser 
is  therefore  very  probably  in  the  right,  when  he 
says :  "  The  nobles  and  non-nobles  alike  were  fre- 
quently at  variance  in  the  meetings  of  the  comites 
and  praepositi,  [that  is,  in  the  Witena  gemots,] 
so  that  scarcely  any  one  would  admit  the  deci- 
sions of  the  comites  and  praepositi  [that  is,  in 
the  shire,  hundred  and  burhmot]  to  be  correct." 
But  it  is  also  probable  that  he  misstates  or  over- 
states the  extent  of  the  royal  power,  when  he  con- 
tinues :  "  But  JElfred,  who  for  his  own  part  knew 
that  some  injustice  arose  thereby,  was  not  very 
willing  to  meddle  with  the  decision  of  this  judge 
or  that ;  although  he  was  compelled  thereunto  both 
by  force  of  law  and  by  stipulation2." 

For  in  fact  the  king  was  the  authority  to  be  re- 
sorted to  in  the  last  instance ;  not  because  he  could 

1  Alfred  himself  mentions  the  Kentish,  Mercian  and  Westsaxon 
laws.     The  Danes  had  another.     Peculiarities  of  the  Northangle  and 
Southangle  laws  are  also  noticed. 

2  By  the  contract  entered  into  with  his  people :  but  when  ?  when 
they  first  elected  him  ?  or  when  they  restored  him  to  his  throne  ? 


44  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

introduce  a  system  of  jurisprudence  founded  upon 
Roman  Decretals  or  Alaric's  Breviary, — which  his 
favourite  advisers  would  probably  have  liked  much 
better  than  his  ealdormen,  prefects  and  people, — 
but  because  he  could  lend  the  aid  of  the  state  to 
enforce  the  judgments  of  the  several  courts,  or 
even  compel  the  courts  to  give  judgment,  by  rea- 
son of  the  central  power  which  he  wielded  as  king. 
As  long  however  as  the  courts  themselves  were 
willing  to  decide  causes  brought  before  them,  which 
the  people  assembled  in  the  gemots  did,  under  the 
presidency  and  direction  of  the  customary  officers, 
the  king  had  no  right  to  interfere  :  and  even  to 
appeal  to  the  king  until  justice  had  been  actually 
denied  in  the  proper  quarter  was  an  offence  under 
the  Saxon  law,  punishable  by  fine1.  In  short,  under 
that  law,  the  people  were  themselves  the  judges, 
and  helped  the  gerefa  to  find  the  judgment,  be  the 
court  what  it  might  be.  The  king's  authority  could 
give  no  more  than  power  to  execute  the  sentence. 
It  is  remarkable  enough  that  while  Asser  speaks 
of  the  instruction  and  correction  which  .ZElfred  ad- 
ministered to  his  judges,  he  does  not  even  insinuate 
that  their  decisions  were  reversed, — a  fact  perfectly 

1  "  And  let  him  that  applies  to  the  king  before  he  has  prayed  for 
justice  as  often  as  it  behoveth  him  [that  is,  made  the  legal  number  of 
formal  applications  to  the  shiremoot,  etc.]  pay  the  same  fine  as  the 
other  should  had  he  denied  him  justice."  ^Ettelst.  i.  1.  §  3.  Thorpe, 
i.  200.  Eadgar,  ii.  §  2.  Thorpe,  i.  266.  "And  let  no  one  apply  to  the 
king,  unless  he  cannot  get  justice  within  his  hundred  :  but  let  the  hun- 
dred-gemot  be  duly  applied  to,  according  to  right,  under  penalty  of  the 
wite,  or  fine."  Gnat,  ii.  §  17.  Thorpe,  i.  384  seq.  Similarly  Will.  Conq. 
i.  §  43.  Thorpe,  i.  485.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  JSlfred  pos- 
sessed a  right  which  later  and  much  more  powerful  kings  did  not. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  45 

intelligible  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  these  deci- 
sions were  not  those  of  judges  in  our  sense  of  the 
word,  and  as  the  Mirror  plainly  understood  them, 
but  of  the  people  in  their  own  courts,  finding  the 
judgment  according  to  customary  law.  It  would 
have  been  a  very  different  case  had  the  courts  been 
the  king's  courts;  and  in  those  where  the  class 
called  king's  thanes  stood  to  right  either  before  the 
king  himself,  or  the  king's  gerefa,  it  is  possible  that 
Alfred  may  have  interfered.  This  he  had  full  right 
to  do,  inasmuch  as  these  thanes  were  exclusively 
his  own  socmen,  and  must  take  such  law  as  he 
chose  to  give  them1.  Indeed  the  words  of  Asser 
seem  reconcileable  with  the  general  state  of  the  law 
in  Alfred's  time  only  on  the  supposition  that  he 
refers  to  these  royal  courts  or  J?eningmanna  gemot; 
for  the  king  could  never  have  been  expected  to  be 
present  at  every  shire-  or  hundred-mot,  and  yet 
Asser  says  he  diligently  investigated  such  judg- 
ments as  were  given  when  he  was  not  present,  al- 
most all  over  his  region.  This  only  becomes  pro- 
bable when  confined  to  the  administration  of  justice 
in  the  several  counties  in  his  own  royal  courts,  and 
by  his  own  royal  reeves,  in  whose  method  of  pro- 
ceeding he  was  at  liberty  to  introduce  much  more 
extensive  alterations  at  pleasure,  than  he  could 
have  done  in  the  customary  law  of  the  shires  or 
other  districts. 

If  however  justice  was  entirely  denied    in   the 
shire  or   hundred,  then,  iure  imperii,  the  king  had 

1  "  And  let  no  one  have  socn  over  a  king's  thane  save  the  king  him- 
self."   ^EiSelr.  iii.  §  11.     Thorpe,  i.  296. 


46  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  power  of  interfering :  and  as  it  seems  clear  that 
such  a  case  could  only  arise  from  the  influence  of 
some  great  officer  being  exerted  to  prevent  the  due 
course  of  law,  it  follows  that  the  only  remedy  would 
lie  in  the  king's  power  to  repress  him ;  either  by 
removing  him  from  his  office,  if  one  derived  from 
the  crown,  or  lure  belli,  putting  him  down  as  a  nui- 
sance to  the  realm1. 

In  the  later  times  of  the  Anglosaxon  monarchy, 
a  more  immediate  interference  of  the  king  in  the 
administration  of  justice  is  discernible.  It  consists 
in  what  might  be  called  the  commendation  of  suits 
to  the  notice  of  the  proper  courts:  and  this,  which 
was  done  by  means  of  a  writ  or  insigel,  probably  at 
first  took  place  only  in  the  case  where  a  socman  of 
the  king  was  impleaded  in  the  shiremoot  touching 
property  subject  to  its  jurisdiction,  in  fact  where 
one  party  was  a  free  landowner,  the  other  in  the 
king's  service  or  socn ;  where  of  course  the  first 
would  not  stand  to  right  in  the  royal  courts,  but 
before  his  peers  in  the  shire  or  hundred2.  There  is 

1  If  the  ealdorman  connive  at  theft,  or  at  the  escape  of  a  thief,  he  is 
to  forfeit  his  office.    Ini,  §  36.    Thorpe,  i.  124.     If  a  gerefa  do  so,  he 
shall  forfeit  all  he  hath.    ^Eftelst.  i.  §  3.     If  he  will  not  put  the  law  in 
execution,  he  shall  lose  his  office.    ^Eftelst.  i.  26;  v.  §  11.    Eadg.  ii.  §  3. 
Thorpe,  i.  200,  212,  240,  266. 

2  There  is  an  instance  where  the  parties  to  a  suit  were  similiarly  cir- 
cumstanced.    The  matter  was  brought  into  the  king's  J>eningmanna 
gemot  in  London,  and  there  decided  in  favour  of  the  plaintiff,  a  bishop. 
But  the  defendant  was  not  satisfied,  and  carried  the  cause  to  the  shire, 
who  at  once  claimed  jurisdiction  and  exercised  it  too,  coming  to  a  de- 
cision diametrically  opposite  to  that  of  the  >eningmen  or  ministri  regii. 
It  seems  to  have  been  a  dirty  business  on  the  part  of  the  bishop  of 
Rochester,  and  the  freemen  of  Kent  so  treated  it,  in  defiance  of  the 
King's  Court.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1258.     The  document  is  so  important, 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  47 

no  mention  in  the  laws  of  the  Insigel  or  Breve  19 
but  the  charters  give  some  evidence  of  what  has 


that  it  appears  desirable  to  give  it  at  full  length.  "  Thus  were  the 
lands  at  Bromley  and  Fawkham  adj  udged  to  king  Eadgar  in  London, 
through  the  charters  of  Snodland,  which  the  priests  stole  from  the 
bishop  of  Rochester  and  secretly  sold  for  money  to  JElfric  the  son  of 
JEscwyn  :  and  the  same  ^Escwyn,  ^Elfric's  mother,  had  previously 
granted  them  thither.  Now  when  the  bishop  found  the  books  were 
stolen  lie  made  earnest  demand  for  them.  Meanwhile  ^Elfric  died,  and 
he  (the  bishop)  afterwards  sued  the  widow  so  long  that  in  the  king's 
thanes-court  the  stolen  books  of  Snodland  were  adjudged  to  him,  and 
damages  for  the  theft,  thereto  ;  that  was  in  London,  and  there  were 
present  Eadgar  the  king,  archbishop  Diinstan,  bishop  yEftelwold,  bi- 
shop JElfstan  and  the  other  /Elfstan,  ^Elf  here  the  ealdorman  and  many 
of  the  king's  witau  :  then  they  adjudged  the  books  to  the  bishop  for 
his  cathedral :  so  all  the  widow's  property  stood  in  the  king's  hand. 
Then  would  Wulfstan  the  gerefa  seize  the  property  to  the  king's  hand, 
both  Bromley  and  Fawkbam  ;  but  the  Avidow  sought  the  holy  place  and 
the  bishop,  and  surrendered  to  the  king  the  charter  of  Bromley  and 
Fawkham  :  and  the  bishop  bought  the  charters  and  the  land  of  the 
king  at  Godshill,  for  fifty  mancuses  of  gold,  and  a  hundred  and  thirty 
pounds,  through  intercession  and  interest :  afterwards  the  bishop  per- 
mitted the  widow  the  usufruct  of  the  land.  During  this  time  the  king 
died ;  and  then  Bryhtric  the  widow's  relative  began,  and  compelled  her, 
so  that  they  took  violent  possession  of  the  land  [brucon  "Sara  landa  on 
reafiace].  And  they  sought  Eadwine  the  ealdorman,  who  was  Gcd's 
adversary,  and  the  folk,  and  compelled  the  bishop  to  restore  the  books 
on  peril  of  all  his  property:  he  was  not  allowed  to  enjoy  his  rights  in 
any  one  of  the  three  things  which  had  been  given  him  in  pledge  by  all 
the  kodscipe,  neither  his  plea,  his  succession,  nor  his  ownership.  This 
is  the  witness  of  the  purchase :  Eadgar  the  king,  Dunstan  the  arch- 
bishop, Oswald  the  archbishop,  bishop  /E'Selwold,  bishop  ^Eftelgar, 
bishop  ^Escwig,  bishop  ^Elfstan,  the  other  bishop  ^Elfstan,  bishop  Si- 
deman,  ^Elfftr}'^  the  king's  mother,  Osgar  the  abbot,  JEM. here  the  eal- 
dorman, Wulfstan  of  Delham,  JElfric  of  Epsom,  and  the  leading  people 
[diiguS  folces]  of  West  Kent,  where  the  land  and  lathe  lie."  Here  I 
take  it  the  beningmeii  or  servientcs  regis  and  the  leodscipe  (leudes)  are 
identical  and  opposed  to  the  Folc  who  under  "  God's  adversary  "  Eadwine 
made  the  bishop  disgorge  his  plunder.  We  see  who  they  were  ;  Dun- 

1   Excepting  a  very  indefinite  expression  in  the  Law  of  Henry  the 
First,  §  13. 


48  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

been  averred.     In  a  very  important  record  of  the 
time  of^Selraed  (990-995)  these  words  occur1:— 

"This  writing  showeth  how  WynflsGd  led  her 
witness  at  Wulfamere  before  King  ^E'Selraed ;  now 
that  was  Sigeric  the  archbishop,  and  Ordbyrht  the 
bishop,  and^Elfric  the  ealdorman,  and  TElf&ryft  the 
king's  mother :  and  they  all  bore  witness  that  JE1- 
fric  gave  Wynflsed  the  land  at  Hacceburnan,  and 
at  Bradan-felda  in  exchange  for  the  land  at  Dec- 
cet.  Then  at  once  the  king  sent  by  the  archbishop 
and  them  that  bore  witness  with  him,  to  Leofwine, 
and  informed  him  of  this.  But  he  would  consent 
to  nothing,  but  that  the  matter  should  be  brought 
before  the  shiremoot.  And  this  was  done.  Then 


stan  and  various  bishops,  ealdorman  ^Elf  here  and  several  of  the  king's 
witan.  This  is  the  only  instance  I  have  been  able  to  discover  of  any- 
thing approaching  to  a  curia  regis  apart  from  the  great  Witena  gemot. 
There  are,  no  doubt,  several  cases  where  the  king  appears  to  have  been 
applied  to  in  the  first  instance,  by  one  of  the  parties ;  but  in  all  of  them 
trial  subsequently  was  had  before  the  shiremoot.  It  is  natural  that 
agreements  should  have  been  made  by  consent,  before  the  king  as  ar- 
bitrator, and  these  were  probably  frequent  among  his  intimate  council- 
lors, friends  and  relatives  :  but  they  were  not  trials,  nor  did  they  settle 
the  litigation  as  a  judgement  of  the  courts  would  have  done.  Suchar- 
bitrements  were  also  made  by  the  ealdorman,  who  like  the  king  received 
presents  for  his  good  offices.  The  advantage  gained  was  this  j  both 
parties  were  satisfied,  without  the  danger  of  trying  the  suit,  which  en- 
tailed very  heavy  penalties  on  the  loser,  amounting  sometimes  to  total 
forfeiture.  The  disadvantage  was  that  there  was  no  ge-endodu  sprcec 
or  finished  plea,  and  consequently  the  award  was  sometimes  violated, 
when  either  party  thought  this  could  be  done  with  impunity. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  693.  Cwichelmeshlaew,  now  Cuckamsley  or  Cuck- 
amslow  Hills,  in  Berkshire  ;  these  run  east  and  west  and  probably  cut 
off  the  north-western  portion  of  the  county,  forming  the  watershed 
from  which  the  Ock  and  Lainbourn  descend  on  opposite  sides.  The 
exact  spot  of  the  gemot  was  probably  near  a  mound  which  is  now 
called  Scutchamfly  Barrow,  and  which  is  very  plainly  marked  in  the 
Ordnance  Map,  nearly  due  north  of  West  Ilsey. 


CH.  IL]  THE  EIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  49 

the  king  sent  by  ^Elfhere  the  abbot,  his  insigel  to 
the  gemot  at  Cwichelmeshleew,  and  greeted  all  the 
Witan  who  were  there  assembled, — that  is,^E$elsige 
the  bishop,  and  JEscwig  the  bishop,  and  ^Elfric  the 
abbot,  and  all  the  shire,  and  bade  them  arbitrate 
between  Leofwine  and  Wynflaed,  as  to  them  should 
seem  most  just1." 

There  can  be  no  mistake  about  the  fact ;  but  it 
does  not  amount  to  a  proof  that  the  cause  could 
not  have  been  settled  without  this  formality :  both 
parties  to  it  were  of  the  highest  rank ;  but  if  the 
king's  arbitration  were  refused,  the  title  to  the  land 
at  Bradfield  could  legally  be  tried  only  in  the  county 
of  Berkshire  in  which  it  lay.  Something  similar 
may  have  been  intended  by  the  notice  which  occurs 
in  the  record  of  another  shiregemot  (held  about 
1038  at  ^Egelno^es  stan  in  Herefordshire)  where  it 
is  said  that  Tofig  Priida  came  thither  on  the  king's 
errand^. 


PAEDON. — When  judgment  was  pronounced, 
it  appears  that  in  certain  cases,  at  least,  the  king 
possessed  the  power  to  stay  execution  and  pardon 
the  offender, — an  exertion  of  the  royal  prerogative 
which  one  feels  pleasure  in  thus  referring  to  so 


1  The  lands  are  Bradfield,  Hagborne  and  Datchet,  in  Berks  and 
Bucks.     Wulfamere  I  am  unable  to  identify.     At  all  events,  had  the 
matter  been  cognizable  in  a  superior   court  of  the  king's,  Leofwine 
could  not  have  carried  his  point  of  having  it  brought  to  trial  before 
the  shiremoot  in  Berkshire,  which  he  clearly  did  against  the  king's 
wish. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  641. 

VOL.  II.  E 


60  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

ancient  a  period.     The  necessary  evidence  is  sup- 
plied in  many  passages  of  the  Laws1. 


ESCHEAT  AND  FOKFEITUKE.  -  -  As  the 
royal  power  became  consolidated,  and  the  great 
struggle  between  centralization  and  local  independ- 
ence assumed  the  new  form  of  offences  against  the 
state,  the  nature  of  punishments  became  somewhat 
changed.  The  old  pecuniary  fines  were  found  in- 
sufficient to  repress  disorder,  and  forfeiture  to  the 
king  was  resorted  to,  as  a  measure  of  increased 
severity.  The  laws  proclaim  this  in  the  case  of 
various  breaches  of  the  public  peace :  in  treason 
Alfred's  witan  decreed  not  only  the  punishment  of 
death,  but  also  confiscation  of  all  the  possessions2: 
in  addition  to  the  capital  penalty  which  was  in- 
curred by  fighting  in  the  king's  house,  forfeiture 
of  all  the  chattels  was  decreed  by  Ini3.  If  a  lord 
maintained  and  abetted  a  notorious  thief,  he  was  to 
forfeit  all  he  had4.  And  if  he  neglected  the  fines 
provided,  and  would  break  the  public  peace  either 
by  thieving  or  supporting  thieves,  it  was  provided 
that  the  public  authorities  should  ride  to  him,  that 
is  make  war  upon  him,  and  despoil  him  of  all  he 


1  "  If  a  man  fight  or  draw  weapon  in  the  king's  hall  and  be  taken  in 
the  act,  he  shall  lie  at  the  king's  mercy,  to  slay  or  pardon  him."  ^Elf. 
§  7.  Ini,  §  6.  Thorpe,  i.  66,  106.  "  The  ealdorman  who  connives  at 
theft  shall  forfeit  his  office,  unless  the  king  pardon  him.  Ini,  §  36. 
Thorpe,  i.  124.  See  also  ^Eftelst.  v.  1.  §  4,  5,  Eadm.  §  6.  Eadg.  ii.  §  7 

.  iii.  §  16  ;  vii.  §  9.  Thorpe,  i.  230,  250,  268,  298,  330. 
^Elf.  §  4.   Thorpe,  i.  62.  3  Ini,  §  6.  Thorpe,  i.  106. 

4  ^E«elst.  i.  §  3.  Thorpe,  i.  200. 


2 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  51 

had,  whereof  half  was  to  go  to  the  king,  half  to  the 
persons  who  took  part  in  the  expedition1.  But  the 
charters  supply  numerous  instances  of  forfeiture  in 
consequence  of  crime,  where  the  boclands  as  well  as 
the  chattels  are  seized  into  the  king's  hand  ;  though 
in  the  case  of  folcland  it  is  possible  that  the  king 
could  not  claim  the  forfeiture  without  a  positive 
grant  of  the  witan.  About  900,  Helmstan  having 
been  guilty  of  theft,  Eanwulf,  the  king's  gerefa  at 
Tisbury  seized  all  his  chattels  to  the  king's  hand  2  :. 
he  held  only  laenland,  and  that  could  not  be  for- 
feited by  him  ;  but  the  words  made  use  of  show, 
that  had  it  been  his  own  bocland,  it  would  not  have 
escaped.  We  have  an  instance  of  a  thane  forfeit- 
ing lands  to  the  king  for  adultery3,  although  he 
only  held  them  on  lease  from  the  bishop  of  Win- 
chester ;  and  in  like  manner,  a  lady  was  deprived  of 
her  estate  for  incontinence4.  In  966  the  bishop  of 
Eochester  having  obtained  judgment  and  damages 
against  a  lady,  for  forcible  entry  upon  his  lands 
(reaflac),  the  sheriff  of  Kent  seized  her  manors  of 


.  i.  §  20.  Thorpe,  i.  210;  see  also  §  26.  Thorpe,  i.  214. 
iii.  §  3.  Thorpe,  i.  218  j  iv.  §  1  ;  v.  §  1,  5.  Eadm.  ii.  §  1,  6. 
Eadg.  Hund.  §  2,  3.  Eadg.  i.  §  4.  ^ESelr.  v.  §  28,  29  ;  vi.  §  35,  37  : 
vii.  §  9  j  ix.  §  42.  Cnut,  ii.  §  13,  58,  67,  78,  84.  Thorpe,  i.  220,  228, 
230,  248,  250,  258,  264,  310,  312,  324,  330,  350,  382,  408,  410,  420, 
422. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  328.   "Eanwulf  the  reeve.  .  .  .took  all  he  owned  at 
Tisbury.  .  .  .and  the  chattels  were  adjudged  to  the  king,  because  he 
was  the  king's  man  :  and  Ordlaf  took  to  his  own  land,  because  it  was 
his  Iseu  that  he  sat  upon  :  that  he  could  not  forfeit. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  601,  1090. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1295.    "  Quae  portio  terrae  cuiusdam  foeminae  for- 
nicaria  praevaricatione  mihimet  vulgar!  subacta  est  traditione." 

red,  an.  1002. 

E2 


62  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOKII. 

Fawkham  and  Bromley ;  all  her  possessions  being 
forfeited  to  the  king l :  lastly  in  various  instances 
of  theft,  treason,  and  maintenance  of  ill-doers,  we 
learn  that  their  lands  were  forfeited  to  the  king2. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1258.     "Dastod  «are  wydewan  are  on  Sses  cynges 
handa :  Sa  wolde  Wulfstan  se  gereTa  niman  $a  are  to  Sees  cynges  handa, 
Bromleah  *j  Fealcnaham." 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  579, 1112.     "Quo  mortuo  praedicta  mulier  ^Elf- 
gyfu  alio  copulata  est  marito,  Wulfgat  vocabulo ;  qui  ambo  crimine 
pessimo  iuste  ab  omni  incusati  sunt  populo,  causa  suae  machinationis 
propriae,  de  qua  modo  non  est  dicendum  per  singula,  propter  quam  vero 
machinationem  quae  iniuste  adquisierunt  iuste  perdiderunt."      Cod. 
Dipl.  No.  1305.    The  exile  of  Wulfgeat  is  mentioned  by  the  Chronicle 
and  Florence,  an.  1006.   Again,  "  Nam  quidam  minister  Wulfget  vul- 
gari  relatu  nomine  praefatam  terrain  aliquando  possederat,  sed  quia 
inimicis  regis  se  in  insidiis  socium  applicavit,  et  in  facinore  inficiendo 
etiam  legis  satisfactio  ei  defecit,ideo  haereditatis  suberam  penitus  amisit, 
et  ex  ea  praedictus  episcopus  praescriptam  villulam,  me  concedente, 
suscepit."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1310.     "  Has  terrarum  portiones  JElfric  co- 
gnomento  Puer  a  quadam  vidua  Eadfled  appellata  violenter  abstraxit,ac 
deinde  cum  in  ducatu  suo  contra  me  et  contra  omnem  gentem  meam  reus 
existeret,  et  hae  quaspraenominavi  portiones  etuniversae  quas  possederat 
terrarum  possessiones  meae  subactae  sunt  ditioni,  quan.do  ad  synodale 
conciliabulum  ad  Cyrneceastre  tiniversi  optimates  mei  simul  in  unum 
convenerunt,    et   eundem    ^Elfricum  maiestatis  reum  de  hac  patria 
profugum  expulerunt,   et  universa  ab  illo  possessa  michi  iure   pos- 
sidenda    omnes   unanimo    consensu    decreverunt."      Cod.   Dipl.   No. 
1312.     "Emit  quoque  praedictus  vir  ^E'Selmarus  a  me,  cum  triginta 
libris,  duodecim  mansiones  de  villulis  quas  matrona  quaedam  nomine 
LeofiYd  suis  perdidit  ineptiis  et  amisit."    Cod.  Dipl.  No.  714.     "Hoc 
denique  rus  cuiusdam  possessoris  Leofricus  onomate  quondam  et  etiam 
nostris  diebus  paternae  haereditatis  iure  fuerat,  sed  ipse  impie  vivendo, 
hoc  est  rebellando  meis  militibus  in  mea  expeditione,  ac  rapinis  insuetis 
et  adulteriis  multisque  aliisnefariissceleribussemetipsum  condempnavit 
eimul  et  possessiones."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1307.  "Erat  autem  eadem  villa 
cuidam  matronae,  nomine  ^Eflelflsede,  derelicta  a  viro  suo,  obeunte  illo, 
quae  etiam  habebat  germanum  quendam,  vocabulo  Leofsinum,  quern  de 
eatrapis  nomine  tuli,  ad  ceMoris  apicem  dignitatis  dignum  duxi  promo- 
vere,  ducem  constituendo,  scilicet,  eum,  unde  humiliari  magis  debuerat, 
sicut  dicitur,  'Principem  te  constituerunt,  noli  extolli,'  et  caetera.   Sed 
ipse  hoc  oblitus,  cernens  se  in  culmine  maioris  status  sub  rogatu  famu- 
lari  sibi  pestilentes  spiritus  promisit,  superbiae  scilicet  et  audaciae. 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  53 

In  a  case  of  intestacy,  where  there  were  no  legal 
heirs,  the  king  was  allowed  to  enter  upon  the  lands 
of  Burghard,  probably  because  he  had  been  a  royal 
gerefa1.  And  in  the  ninth  century,  Wulfhere,  an 
ealdorman,  having  deserted  his  duchy,  his  country 
and  his  lord,  without  license,  his  lands  were  ad- 
judged as  forfeit  to  the  king2.  It  would  seem  how- 
ever that  the  mere  neglect  to  cultivate  or  inha- 
bit the  land  involved  its  confiscation  to  the  king's 
hand3,  which  may  have  been  confined  to  folcland. 

FINES. — It  is  hardly  necessary  to  enter  into  any 

quibus  nichilominus  ipse  se  dedidit  in  tantum,  ut  floccipenderet  quin 
offensione  multimoda  me  multoties  graviter  offenderet ;  nam  praefectum 
meum  JGficum,  quem  primatem  inter  primates  meos  taxavi,  non  cunc- 
tatus  in  propria  do  mo  eius  eo  inscio  perimere,  quod  nefarium  et  pere- 
grinum  opus  est  apud  christianos  et  gentiles.  Peracto  itaque  scelere 
ab  eo,  inii  consilium  cum  sapientibus  regni  mei  petens,  ut  quid  fieri 
placuisset  de  illo  decernerent ;  placuitque  in  commune  nobis  eum  exu- 
lare  et  extorreni  a  nobis  fieri  cum  complicibus  suis :  statuirnus  etiam 
inviolatum  foedus  inter  rios,  quod  qui  praesumpsisset  infringere,  ex- 
haereditari  se  sciret  omnibus  habitis,  hoc  est,  ut  nemo  nostrum  aliquid 
humanitatis  vel  conimoditatis  ei  suniministraret.  Hane  optionis  elec- 
tionem  posthabitam  nicliili  habuit  soror  eius  ^E'Selflced  omnia  quae 
possibilitatis  eius  erant,  et  utilitatis  fratris  omnibus  exercitiis  studuit 
explere,  et  hac  de  causa  aliarumque  quamplurimarum  exhaeredem  se 
fecit  omnibus."  Ood.  Dipl.  No.  719. 

The  murder  of  ^Ef  ic  is  mentioned  in  the  Chronicle,  an.  1002,  where 
he  is  called  heahgerefa. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1035.     But  not  if  he  had  legal  heirs.     See  Onut, 
ii.  §  71.     Thorpe,  i.  412.     In  this  case  the  king  could  claim  only  the 
Heriot,  a  custom  retained  even  by  the  Normans.    "  Item  si  liber  homo 
intestatus  decesserit,  et  subito,  dominus  suus  nihil  se  intromittet  de 
bonis  suis,  nisi  tantum  de  hoc  quod  ad  ipsum  pertinuerit,  scilicet  quod 
habeat  suum  Heriettum."     Fleta,  ii.  cap.  57,  §  10. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1078. 

3  Hist.  Elieus.  i.  1.     "Sicque  postea  per  destitutionem,  regiae  sorti, 
sive  fisco,  idem  locus  additus  est."     See  also  vol.  i.  p.  302,  note  2. 


54  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

great  detail  respecting  the  fines  which  were  im- 
posed for  various  offences  against  the  state,  and 
which  were  levied  by  the  public  officers  to  the  king's 
use.  The  laws  abound  with  examples :  it  may  in 
general  be  concluded  that  the  proceeds  were  nearly 
absorbed  by  the  cost  of  collection,  and  that  little 
remained  to  the  king  when  the  portions  of  the 
ealdorman  and  gerefa  had  been  deducted.  But 
still  these  fines  require  a  particular  notice,  because 
they  are  especially  enumerated  by  Cnut  among 
the  rights  of  his  crown.  He  says : — "These  are 
the  rights  which  the  king  enjoys  over  all  men  in 
Wessex :  that  is,  Mundbryce,  and  Hamsocne,  Fore- 
steal,  Flymena  fyrm'S,  and  Fyrdwite,  unless  he 
will  more  amply  honour  any  one,  and  concede  to 
him  this  worship1."  In  Mercia,  he  declares  him- 
self entitled  to  the  same  rights2,  and  also  by  the 
Danish  law,  that  is  in  Northumberland  and  East- 
anglia, — with  the  addition  of  Fihtwite,  and  the 
fine  for  harbouring  persons  out  of  the  Eri^S  or  pub- 
lic peace3.  These  evidently  belong  to  him  in  his 
character  of  conservator  of  that  peace :  Mundbryce 
is  breach  of  his  own  protection :  Hamsocn  is  an 
aggravated  assault  upon  a  private  dwelling :  Fore- 
steal  here,  the  maintenance  of  criminals  and  inter- 
ference to  prevent  the  course  of  justice:  Flymena 
fyrnrS,  the  comforting  and  supporting  of  outlaws 
or  fugitives :  Fyrdwite,  the  penalty  for  neglecting 
to  attend,  or  for  deserting,  the  armed  levy  when 


1  Cnut,  ii.  §  12.  Thorpe,  i.  382.         2  Cnut,  ii  §  14.  Thorpe,  i.  384. 
3  Cnut,  ii.  §  15.  Thorpe,  i.  384. 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  55 

duly  proclaimed  :  Fihtwite  is  the  penalty  for  ma- 
king private  war.  These  regalia  he  could  grant  to 
a  subject  if  such  were  his  pleasure.  But  they  are 
far  from  exhausting  the  catalogue  of  his  rights  :  he 
possessed  many  others,  which  were  either  honour- 
able or  profitable,  and  were  by  him  alienated  in 
favour  of  his  lay  or  clerical  favourites. 

TREASURE  TROVE.— The  first  of  these  is 
Treasure-trove,  which  was,  in  all  probability,  of  con- 
siderable importance  and  value  :  it  is  designated 
in  Anglosaxon  charters  by  the  words  "ealle  hordas 
biifan  eor^an  and  binnan  eor'San,"  and  frequently 
occurs  in  the  grants  to  monastic  houses,  In  very 
early  and  heathen  periods  various  causes  combined 
to  render  the  burial  of  treasure  common.  It  was 
a  point  of  honour  to  carry  as  much  wealth  with  one 
from  this  world  to  the  next  as  possible ;  and  it  was 
a  recognized  duty  of  the  comites  and  household  of 
a  chief  to  sacrifice  at  his  funeral,  whatever  valua- 
ble chattels  they  might  have  gained  in  his  service. 
We  may  infer  from  Beowulf1  that  a  portion  at  least 
of  the  treasure  he  gained  by  his  fatal  combat  with 
the  firedrake  was  to  accompany  him  in  the  tomb. 
Some  of  it  was  to  be  burnt  with  his  body,  but  some, 
according  to  the  practice  of  the  pagan  North,  to  be 
buried  in  the  mound  raised  over  his  ashes2. 

Hi  on  beorg  dydon  They  put  into  the  mound 

betig  *j  beorht  siglu,  rings  and  bright  gems, 


forleton  eorla  gestreon  they  let  earth  hold 

1  Beow.  1.  6016  seq. :  compare  1.  5583  seq.  z  Ibid.  1.  6320. 


56  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

eorftan  healdan,  the  gains  of  noble  men, 

gold  on  greote,  gold  in  the  dust, 

Saer  hit  nu  gen  lifaS  where  it  doth  yet  remain 

eldum  swa  unn^t  useless  to  men 

swa  hit  seror  wses.  even  as  before  it  was1. 

When  we  consider  the  truly  extraordinary  number 
of  mounds  or  heathen  burial-places  which  are  men- 
tioned in  the  boundaries  of  Saxon  charters,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  large  quantities  of  the  precious 
metals  were  thus  committed  to  the  earth.  To  this 
superstitious  cause  others  of  a  more  practical  na- 
ture were  added.  In  all  countries  where  from  want 
of  commerce  and  convenient  internal  communica- 
tion, or  from  general  insecurity,  there  is  no  pro- 
fitable investment  for  capital,  hoarding  is  largely 
resorted  to  by  those  who  may  chance  to  become 
possessed  of  articles  of  value  :  we  need  go  no  fur- 
ther than  Ireland  or  France  for  an  example,  where 
one  of  the  most  striking  signs  of  the  prevalent 
barbarism,  is  the  concealment  of  specie  and  plate, 
often  underground2.  And  in  cases  of  sudden  in- 
vasion, especially  by  enemies  who  had  not  the 
habit  of  sparing  religious  houses,  the  earth  may  have 
been  resorted  to  as  the  safest  depository  of  treasure 

1  See  the  account  of  the  burial  of  Haraldr  Hilditavn  in  the  Fornald. 
Savg.  i.  387.     ll  Ok  a$r  enn  havgrinn  vseri  aptr  lokinn,  ba  blSr  Hringr 
Koniingr  til  ganga  allt  stormenni  ok  alia  Kappa,  ok  vr$  voru  staddir, 
at  kasta  i  havginn  storum  hrfngum  ok  goftum  vapnum,  til  saBmdr  Ha- 
raldi  Koniingi  Hilditavn  j  ok  eptir  J>at  var  aptr  byrgfti  havgrinn  vand- 
liga."     Brynhildr  caused  the  jewels  which  her  father  BuSli  had  given 
her,  to  be  burnt  with  herself  and  SigurSr.     Sigurd,  evid.  iii.  65. 

2  In  Ireland  this  is  so  common  as  to  have  caused  the  existence  of 
what  we  may  call  a  professional  class  of  treasure-seekers,  whose  idle, 
gambling  pursuit  is  in  admirable  harmony  with  the  Keltic  hatred  for 
honest,  steady  labour. 


CH,  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  57 

which  it  was  impossible  to  transport1.  William  of 
Malmesbury  attributes  to  the  fears  of  the  Britons 
the  accumulations  which  he  says  were  frequently 
discovered  in  his  own  day2,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  this  even  among  the  Saxons  tended  to 
increase  the  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  withdrawn 
from  general  use.  It  may  have  been  partly  the  con- 
viction of  the  mischief  resulting  to  society  from 
this  habit, — by  which  gold  was  made  "eldum  swa 
unnyt  swa  hit  seror  wses," — that  caused  the  very 
frequent  and  strong  expression  of  blame  which  we 
find  in  Anglosaxon  works  applied  to  those  who 
bury  treasure,  and  apparently  also  to  treasure- 
hunters.  It  may  be  that  it  was  thought  impious 
to  violate  even  the  heathen  sanctuary  of  the  dead  ; 
at  all  events,  the  popular  belief  was  encouraged 
that  buried  treasure  was  guarded  by  spells,  watched 
by  dragons3,  and  loaded  with  a  curse  which  would 
cleave  for  ever  to  the  discoverer  :  hidden  gold  is  in 

1  To  this  cause  may  be  attributed  the  hoards  discovered  within  a  few- 
years  at  Cuerdale,  Hexham,  and  other  places  on  the  borders  ;  and  some 
perhaps  of  the  numerous  finds  at  Wisby  and  in  Gothland. 

2  "  Partim  sepultis  thesauris,  quorum  plerique  in  hac  aetate  defodi- 
untur,  Romam  ad  petendas  suppetias  ire  intendunt."  Gest.  Reg.  i.  §  3. 
It  is  well  worth  the  consideration  of  our  antiquarians  who  have  devoted 
pains  and  money  to  the  opening  of  barrows,  how  far  the  notorious 
searches  which  have  been  made  for  treasure  in  these  repositories,  by 
successive  generations  of  Saxons,  Danes  and  Normans,  may  have  inter- 
fered with  the  original  disposition  of  sepulchral  mounds,  cairns  and 
cromlechs.     The  legend  of  Guftltic  supplies  a  Saxon  instance  of  the 
highest  antiquity.     "Wees  ft  Tr  on  'Sam  ealande  sum  hlaw  mycel  ofer 
eorftan  geworht,  ftone  ylcan  men  iiigeara  for  feos  wilnunga  gedulfon 
and  bra^con  :  fta  was  'Seer  on  oftre  sidan  ftses  hlawes  gedolfen  swylic 
mycel  waeterseaft  wdere."  Cap.  4.  Godw.  Ed.  p.  26. 

3  Beow.  1.  6100.   In  the  North  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  hoard  without 
a  dragon,  or  a  dragon  without  a  hoard. 


58  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

fact  always  represented  as  heathen  gold,  which,  we 
may  readily  suppose,  could  only  be  purified  from 
its  mischievous  qualities  by  passing  through  the 
hands  of  the  universal  purifiers  in  such  cases,  the 
clergy.  Strictly  however  the  king  was  the  proper 
owner  of  all  treasure-trove,  and  where  the  lord  of 
a  manor  obtained  the  right  to  appropriate  it  to  him- 
self, it  could  only  be  by  grant  from  the  representa- 
tive of  the  whole  state1.  Probably  the  sovereigns 
were  not  quite  so  superstitious  as  the  bulk  of  their 
subjects,  and  certainly  they  were  much  better  able 
to  defend  their  own  rights  than  the  simple  land- 
owners in  the  rural  districts.  Still  in  a  very  great 
number  of  cases  they  granted  away  their  privilege ; 
probably  finding  it  easier  and  more  profitable  to 
give  it  up  to  those  who  would  have  used  it,  with- 
out a  grant,  than  to  undergo  the  trouble  of  detect- 
ing and  punishing  them  for  taking  it  unpermitted 
into  their  own  hands. 

PASTUS  or  CONVIVIUM,  Cyninges  feorm.— 
One  of  the  royal  duties  was  to  make,  in  person  or 
by  deputy,  periodical  journeys  through  the  country, 
progresses,  in  the  course  of  which  the  king  visited 
different  districts,  proclaimed  his  peace,  confirmed 

1  Concealment  of  treasure-trove  is  a  grave  offence,  inasmuch  as  it 
immediately  touches  the  person  and  dignity  of  the  king:  "De  inven- 
toribus  thesauri  occultati  inventi,  haec  quidem  graviora  sunt  et  maiora, 
eo  quod  personam  regis  tangunt  principaliter.  Sunt  etiam  crimina 

aliquantulum  minora sicut  haec  j  de  homicidiis  causalibus  et  vo- 

luntariis,"  seq.  Fleta,  lib.  1.  cap.  20.  §  1,  2,  3  seq.,  where  this  offence 
is  assimilated  to  high-treason,  and  classed  above  all  offences  against  in- 
dividuals, including  murder,  rape,  arson  and  burglary. 


en.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  59 

the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  freemen  or  free 
communities,  and  heard  complaints  against  the 
officers  of  the  executive,  if  such  had  arisen  during 
the  exercise  of  their  functions.  This,  which  on 
its  first  occurrence  immediately  after  his  election 
was  known  in  Germany  by  the  name  of  the  Einritt 
ins  land,  or  Landbereiswng 1,  was  probably  connected 
with  the  principle  of  the  king's  being  the  proper 
guardian  of  the  boundaries  :  and  in  the  period  when 
the  people  had  lost  the  power  of  electing  their  king 
at  a  general  meeting,  it  may  have  served  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  them  an  opportunity  of  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  person  of  their  ruler.  It  is 
difficult  to  say  when  the  system  of  progresses  en- 
tirely ceased ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it 
subsisted  in  one  form  or  another  till  a  very  late 
period  in  England.  Under  the  Anglosaxon  law  it 
was  by  no  means  a  matter  of  amusement  or  caprice, 
but  of  positive  duty,  on  the  part  of  the  king ;  and 
Eoyalty  in  eyre  was  a  necessary  condition  of  a  state 
of  society  which  would  have  rejected  as  a  ludicrous 
tyranny  the  pretension  of  any  one  city  to  be  the 
central  deposit  of  all  the  powers  and  machinery  of 
government.  The  kings  of  the  Merwingian  race 
in  France,  who  probably  retained  something  of  an 
old  priestly  character,  made  these  circuits  in  the 
celebrated  chariot  drawn  by  oxen,  which  later  and 
ill-informed  writers  have  imagined  was  a  sign  of 
their  degradation,  instead  of  their  dignity2.  Of 
this  particular  part  of  the  ceremony  no  trace  re- 

1  For  a  full  account  of  this  see  Grimm,  Rechtsalt.  p.  237. 

2  See  Grimm,  Rechtsalt.  p.  262. 


60  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  IT. 

mains  in  England,  and  it  is  probable  that  as  occa- 
sion served,  the  king  either  rode  on  horseback, 
circumnavigated,  or  was  towed  or  rowed  along  the 
navigable  rivers1.  On  these  occasions  particularly, 
he  had  a  right  to  claim  harbour  and  refection  for 
himself  and  a  certain  number  of  his  suite  in  various 
places,  principally  religious  houses.  These  claims, 
which  answer  in  many  respects  to  the  procuratio 
of  the  ecclesiastical  law,  were  gradually  extended 
so  as  to  include  the  royal  commissioners  or  Missi, 
and  in  many  cases  became  a  fixed  charge  upon  the 
lands,  whether  the  king  actually  visited  them  or  not2. 

1  I  have  little  doubt  that,  when  Beda  speaks  of  the  pomp  with  which 
Eadwini  of  Northumberland  was  accustomed  to  ride,  he  refers  to  this 
ceremony.  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  16.  The  well-known  tales  of  Eadgar,  rowed 
by  six  kings  on  the  Dee,  and  Cnut  at  Ely,  will  at  once  occur  to  the 
reader :  but  has  it  never  occurred  to  him  to  ask  what  Eadgar  could 
possibly  be  doing  at  the  one  place,  or  Cnut  at  the  other?  See  Will. 
Malm.  (rest.  Reg.  ii.  §  148.  The  same  author  tells  us  of  Eadgar:  "  Omni 
aestate,  emensa  statim  Paschali  festivitate,  naves  per  omnia  littora  co- 
adunari  praecipiebat ;  ad  occidentalem  insulae  partem  cum  oriental! 
classe,  et  ilia  remensa  cum  occidentali  ad  borealem,  inde  cum  boreali  ad 
oriental  em  remigare  consuetus ;  pius  scilicet  explorator,  ne  quid  piratae 
turbarent.  Hyeme  et  vere,  per  omnes  provincias  equitando,  iudicia 
potentiorum  exquirebat,  violati  iuris  severus  ultor  ;  in  hoc  iustitiae,  in 
illo  fortitudini  studens ;  in  utroque  reipublicae  utilitatibus  consulens." 
Gest.  Reg.  ii.  §  150.  Flor.  Wig.  an.  975.  "  Cum  more  assueto  rex 
Cnuto  regni  fines  peragrarat."  Hist.  Rames.  Eccl.  (Gale,  iii.  441.) 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  143.  "  Necnon  et  trium  annorum  ad  se  pertinentes 
pastiones,  id  est  sex  convivia,  libenter  concedendo  largitus  est."  Pro- 
bably they  were  in  arrear,  and  Offa  excused  them  :  but  they  could  not 
have  been  in  arrear  unless  they  were  payable  any  under  circumstances ; 
that  is,  whether  the  king  visited  the  monastery  or  not.  I  take  this  to 
be  a  standing  tax,  known  under  the  name  of  Cyninges  feorm,  the 
king's  farm  :  it  was  probably  commuted  for  money,  and  after  a  time 
rendered  certain  as  to  amount.  In  814  Cenwulf  released  the  Bishop 
of  Worcester  from  a  pastus  of  twelve  men  which  he  was  bound  to  find 
at  his  different  monasteries,  and  the  exemption  was  worth  an  estate  of 
thirteen  hides.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  203. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  61 

Very  many  of  the  charters  granted  to  monaste- 
v  ries  record  the  exemption  from  them,  purchased 
at  a  heavy  price  by  prelates,  from  his  avarice  or 
piety1.  And  as  the  king  himself  gradually  ceased 
to  undertake  these  distant  and  fatiguing  expedi- 
tions, and  entrusted  to  his  special  messengers  the 
task  of  seeing  and  hearing  for  him,  so  they  in  time 
established  a  claim  to  harbourage  and  reception  in 
the  same  places.  This  was  extended  to  all  public 
officers  going  on  the  king's  affairs,  called  Angel- 
cynnes  men,  Fsesting  men,  Rsede  fasting,  and  the 
like :  to  all  messengers  dispatched  on  the  public 
service  from  one  kingdom  to  another,  while  there 
were  several  kingdoms ;  and  very  probably  to 
those  who  carried  communications  from  the  ealdor- 
men  to  the  king,  when  one  rule  comprehended  all 
the  several  districts.  And  not  only  for  those  who 
travelled  on  important  affairs  of  state,  and  who  were 
very  often  persons  of  high  birth  and  distinguished 
station,  but  even  for  certain  servants  of  the  royal 
household  were  these  claims  enforced.  The  hunts- 
men, stable-keepers  and  falconers  of  the  court  could 
demand  bed  and  board  in  the  monasteries,  where 
they  were  often  unwelcome  guests  enough :  and 
this  royal  right,  no  doubt  frequently  used  by  the 
ealdorman  or  sheriff  as  an  engine  of  oppression, 
was  also  bought  off  at  very  high  prices. 

PALFEEYS.— Somewhat  allied  to  this  was  the 


1  See  Vol.  I.  p.  294,  seq.  Examples  may  be  found  in  almost  every 
other  page  of  the  Codex  Diplomaticus.  See  also  Hist.  Rames.  Eccl. 
85. 


62  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [.BOOK  "• 

king's  right  to  claim  the  service  of  horses  or  pal- 
freys, for  the  carriage  of  effects  from  one  royal  vill 
to  another,  or  for  the  furtherance  of  his  messengers 
or  the  public  servants1.  This,  which  in  Hungary 
still  subsists  under  the  name  of  Vorsparm,  was  a 
heavy  burthen,  as  it  tended  to  withdraw  horses  from 
agricultural  labour,  at  the  moment  when  they  were 
most  wanted ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they  were, 
on  this  pretext,  only  too  often  taken  from  the  har- 
vesting of  the  bishop  or  abbot  and  his  tenants,  to 
secure  that  of  the  ealdorman.  This  therefore  is 
frequently  compounded  for,  at  a  dear  rate,  under 
the  expression  of  freedom  a  parafrithis  or  para- 
veredis2. 


1  "Faciebant  servitium  regis  cum  equis  vel  per  aquam  usque  ad  Blid- 
beream,  Reddinges,  Sudtone,  Besentone  :  et  hoc  facientibus  dabat  prae- 
positus  mercedem  non  de  censu  regis,  sed  de  suo."     Domesd.  Berks. 
Many  of  these  burthens  are  summed  up  in  a  charter  of  liberties  granted 
by  Eadweard  of  Wessex  at  Taunton,  to  Winchester :  "  Erat  namque 
antea  in  illo  supradicto  monasterio  pastus  unius  noctis  regi,  et  octo 
canum,  et  unius  caniculari  pastus,  et  pastus  novem  noctium  accipi- 
trariis  regis,  et  quidquid  rex  vellet  inde  ducere  usque  ad  Curig  vel 
Willettun  [Curry  and  Wilton  in  Somerset]  cum  plaustris  et  equis,  et  si 
advenae  de  aliis  regionibus  advenirent,  debebant  ducatum  habere  ad 
aliani  regalem  villam  quae  proxinia  fuisset  in  illorum  via."     Cod.  Dipl. 
No.  1084.     The  Vorspann  in  Hungary,  which  is  a  right  to  a  peasant's 
horses  on  the  production  of  an  order  from  the  county  authorities,  is 
generally  a  convenience  to  himself  as  well  as  the  traveller,  who  does 
not  object  to  pay  for  much  better  accommodation  than  he  could  obtain 
from  the  ordinary  posting  establishment.     But  it  is  nevertheless  a 
remnant  of  barbarism  which  we  may  now  hope  to  see  vanish,  together 
with  every  other  obstacle    o  free  communication,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  that  most  patriotic  and  enlightened  gentleman  Count  Stephen 
Szechenji. 

2  On  the  complaint  of  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Cremona,  the  em- 
peror Lothaire  decided  that  they  were  not  bound  to  supply  waggons 
and  horses  for  his  service.     Bohm.  Reg.  Karol.  No.  544. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  63 

VIGILIA.  —  Another  right  which  the  king 
claimed  was  that  of  having  proper  watch  set  over 
him  when  he  came  into  a  district.  This,  called 
Vigilia  and  Custodia  in  the  Latin  authorities,  is 
the  Heafodweard,  or  Headward  of  the  Saxons.  "  It 
extended  also  to  the  guard  kept  for  him  on  his 
hunting  excursions 1 ;  and  coupled  with  it  was  his 
claim  to  the  assistance  of  a  .certain  number  of  men 
in  the  hunt  itself,  either  as  beaters  or  managers  of 
the  nets  in  which  deer  were  taken  2. 

Sseweard  or  coast-guard  was  also  a  royal  right, 
performed  by  the  tenants  of  those  landowners  whose 
estates  lay  contiguous  to  the  sea.  The  miserable 
condition  to  which  England  was  frequently  reduced, 
by  the  systematic  incursions  of  Scandinavian  in- 
vaders, rendered  this  a  very  important  duty,  even 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  successive  kings  who  early 
comprehended  the  destinies  of  this  nation,  and 
entrusted  her  defence  to  maritime  armaments.  It 
seems  probable  that  various  ports  on  the  coast 
of  Kent  and  Norfolk  may  have  been  particularly 
charged  with  this  burthen,  and  that  the  butsecarlas 
or  shipmasters  were  held  bound  to  supply  craft  on 
emergencies,  or  even  for  a  regular  system  of 


1  "  Homines  de  his  terris  custodiebant  regem  apud  Cantuariam  vel 
apud  Sandwic  per  tres  dies,  si  rex  illuc  venisset."     Domesd.  Kent. 
"  Quando  rex  iacebat  in  hac  civitate,  servabant  eum  vigilantes  duode- 
cim  homines  de  melioribus  civitatis.   Et  cum  ibi  venationem  exerceret, 
similiter  custodiebant  eum  cum  armis  meliores  burgenses  cabalos  ha- 
bentes."     Domesd.  Shropsh.     "Isti  debent  vigilare  in  curia  domini, 
cum  praesens  fuerit."  Chartul.  Evesh.  f.  24. 

2  i(  Qui  monitus  ad  stabilitionem  venationis  non  ibat  quinquaginta 
solidos  regi  emendabat."    Domesd.  Berks. 


64  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

patrolling.  In  this  may  have  lain  the  foundation  of 
the  privileges  enjoyed  by  the  Cinque  Ports,  and 
similar  coast  towns,  even  before  the  Norman  con- 
quest. 

^EDIFICATIO.— It  was  further  a  royal  right  to 
claim  the  aid  even  of  the  freemen  towards  building 
and  fencing  the  residence  or  fortress  of  the  king : 
a  certain  amount  of  personal  labour  was  thus  de- 
manded of  them,  in  analogy  with  the  trinoda  neces- 
sitas  from  which  no  estate  could  possibly  be  Be- 
lieved. This  kind  of  corvee  was  no  doubt  performed 
by  tenants  whom  the  landowners  settled^  on  their 
estates,  but  really  was  due  from  the  landowners 
themselves,  except  where  their  estates  of  bocland 
had  been  expressly  freed  from  the  royal  burthens. 
Where  the  royal  vill  was  also  a  district  fortifica- 
tion, not  even  this  general  exception  relieved  the 
boclands ;  fortifications  being  especially  reserved 
in  every  charter,  as  well  as  building  and  repair  of 
bridges. 

WRECK. — Doubts  have  been  started  upon  the 
subject  of  wreck,  which  do  not  appear  well  founded : 
it  is  true  that  circumstances  of  suspicion  attach  to 
the  documents  upon  which  the  arguments  pro  and 
con  were  based  in  the  time  of  Selden ;  but  we 
are  now  in  possession  of  further  evidence,  of  a 
nature  to  remove  all  difficulty.  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  including  Wreck,  both  jetsam  and  flotsam, 
among  the  Eegalia,  which  were  granted  not  only  to 
ecclesiastical  corporations,  but  even  to  private  land- 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  05 

owners.  The  History  of  Ramsey1  states  that  Ead- 
weard  the  Confessor,  whereby  he  might  show  a  pro- 
fitable love  to  the  place,  bestowed  upon  it  Ring- 
stede  2  with  the  adjacent  liberty,  and  all  that  the 
sea  cast  up,  which  is  called  Wreck.  We  have  yet 
the  charter  by  which  this  grant  is  supposed  to 
have  been  made  3,  and  it  is  very  explicit  upon  the 
subject.  After  conveying  lands  and  other  posses- 
sions in  Huntingdonshire,  he  proceeds  to  give  seve- 
ral places,  tenements  or  rents,  on  the  coast  of  Nor- 
folk and  the  Wash,  at  Wells,  and  Branchester,  etc. 
In  the  last-named  place,  he  adds,  "  cum  omni 
maris  proiectu,  quod  nos  anglice  shipwrec  appella- 
mus."  He  further  adds,  "  de  meo  iure  quod  mihi 
soli  competebat,  absque  ullius  reclamatione  vel  con- 
tradictione  ista  addidi :  inprimis  Ringested,  cum 
omnibus  ad  se  pertinentibus,  et  cum  omni  maris 
eiectu,  quod  shipwrec  appellamus,"  etc.  Now,  al- 
though the  authenticity  of  this  charter,  in  its  pre- 
sent form  may  be  open  to  question,  this  fact  does 
not  of  itself  justify  us  in  at  once  concluding  against 
the  privilege  claimed  under  it.  On  the  other  hand 
the  recognized  right  of  the  king  throughout  the 
Norman  times,  and  the  total  absence  of  any  oppo- 
sition to  its  exercise,  are  prima  facie  evidence  of  its 
having  resided  in  the  crown  before  the  Conquest 4. 

1  Hist.  Rams.  106. 

2  There  are  two  places  of  this  name  on  the  coast  of  the  Wash  near 
Burnham  Market  in   Norfolk.     The  one  intended  is  most  probably 
Ringstead  St.  Andrew's.  3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  809. 

4  See  Bracton,  ii.  5.  §  7.  Westm.  i.  cap.  4.  Stat.  Praerog.  Reg. 
cap.  11.  Also  17.  Edw.  II.  cap.  11.  Rot.  Chart.  20.  Hen.  III.  m.  3. 
and  14.  Edw.  III.  m.  6.  Pat.  42.  Hen.  III.  m.  1.  dorso.  See  also 
Sir  W.  Stamford,  Expos.  King's  Prerog.  fol  37,  b. 

VOL.  II.  F 


66  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOKH, 

Naufragium  and  Algarum  maris  are  distinctly  stated 
to  be  rights  of  the  crown,  in  the  laws  of  Henry  the 
First 1,  and  we  can  give  examples  from  other  Saxon 
charters  whose  genuineness  is  beyond  dispute.  The 
Saxon  Chronicle  under  the  date  1029  records  a 
grant  made  by  Cnut  to  Christchurch,  Canterbury, 
of  the  haven  of  Sandwich.  The  passage  is  defective, 
but  enough  of  it  remains  to  prove  that  it  refers  to 
an  original  document,  of  which  very  early  copies  are 
still  in  our  possession2.  In  this  he  says: — 

"  Concede  eidem  aecclesiae  ad  victum  monacho- 
rum  portum  de  Sanduuic  et  ornnes  exitus  eiusdem 
aquae,  ab  utraque  parte  fluminis  cuiuscumque  terra 
sit,  a  Pipernaesse  usque  ad  Mearcesfleote,  ita  ut 
natante  nave  in  flumine,  cum  plenum  fuerit,  quam 
longius  de  navi  potest  securis  parvula  quam  Angli 
vocant  Tapereax  super  terram  proici,  ministri  aec- 
clesiae Christi  rectitudines  accipiant,  ....  Si  quid 
autem  in  magno  mari  extra  portum,  quantum  mare 
plus  se  retraxerit,  et  adhuc  statura  unius  homi- 
nis  tenentis  lignum  quod  Angli  nominant  spreot, 
et  tendentis  ante  se  quantum  potest,  monachorum 
est.  Quicquid  etiam  ex  hac  parte  medietatis  maris 
inventum  et  delatum  ad  Sanduuic  fuerit,  sive  sit 
vestimentum,  sive  rete,  arma,  ferrum,  aurum,  ar- 
gentum,  medietas  monachorum  erit,  alia  pars  re- 
manebit  inventoribus." 

These  words  are  quite  wide  enough  to  carry 
wreck,  although  this  be  not  distinctly  stated  by 
name.  But  Eadweard  the  Confessor  furnishes  us 

1  Leg.  Hen.  I.  10.  §  1.     Ducange  reads  laganum  for  aJgarum. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  737,  where  it  is  printed  both  in  Latin  and  Saxon. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  67 

with  still  further  evidence.  In  a  writ  addressed  by 
him  to  yElfwold  bishop  of  Sherborne,  earl  Harold, 
and  ^Elfred  the  sheriff  of  Dorsetshire,  he  says1 : 
"  Eadweard  the  king  greets  well  Bishop  ^Elfwold, 
earl  Harold,  Alfred  the  sheriff  and  all  my  thanes 
in  Dorsetshire :  and  I  tell  you  that  Urk  my  hus- 
carl  is  to  have  his  strand,  over  against  his  own  land, 
freely  and  well  throughout,  up  from  sea,  and  out 
on  sea,  and  whatsoever  may  be  driven  to  his  strand, 
by  my  full  command." 

In  this,  as  in  many  other  cases,  the  principle 
seems  to  be,  that  that  which  has  no  ostensible 
owner  is  the  property  of  the  state,  or  of  the  king 
as  its  representative ;  and  hence,  in  the  later  con- 
struction of  the  law  of  wreck,  it  was  necessary  that 
an  absolute  abandonment  should  have  taken  place, 
before  wreck  could  be  claimed.  If  there  were  life 
on  board,  even  a  dog,  cat,  or  lower  animal,  there 
could  legally  be  no  wreck,  and  this  provision  of  the 
law  has  very  often  led  to  the  perpetration  of  the 
most  savage  murders,  as  a  precaution  lest  any  living 
creature,  by  reaching  the  strand,  should  defeat  the 
avarice  of  its  barbarous  owners.  From  the  little 
evidence  we  can  now  recover,  of  the  Saxon  prac- 
tice, this  limitation  does  not  appear  to  have  ex- 
isted. 

MINT. — The  coinage  has  always  in  every  coun- 
try been  numbered  among  the  regalia,  and  this 
land  appears  to  make  no  exception.  Although  the 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  871. 

F2 


68  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

Witena  gemot,  in  conjunction  with  the  king,  exer- 
cise a  general  superintendence  over  this  most  im- 
portant branch  of  the  public  affairs,  still  certain 
details  remain  which  belong  to  the  king  exclusively. 
The  number  of  moneyers  generally  in  the  various  lo- 
calities, the  necessity  of  having  one  standard  over  all 
the  realm,  the  penalties  for  unfaithful  discharge  of 
the  moneyer's  duty,  or  for  fraudulently  imitating  the 
money  of  the  state,  and  similar  enactments,  might 
be  determined  by  the  great  council  of  the  realm  ; 
but  the  coin  bore  the  image  and  superscription  of 
the  king,  he  received  a  description  of  seigneuriage 
upon  delivery  of  the  dies,  and  he  changed  the  coin 
when  it  seemed  to  require  renovation  or  improve- 
ment. Thus  we  learn  that  Eadgar  called  in  the  old, 
and  issued  a  new  coinage,  in  the  year  975,  because 
it  had  become  so  clipped  as  to  fall  far  short  of  the 
standard  weight  l  :  and  in  the  Domesday  record,  the 
dues  payable  to  the  king  on  each  change  of  die  are 
noticed  2.  It  seems  clear  that  this  royal  right  had 
been  assumed  by  private  individuals,  or  granted 
to  them,  like  other  royalties,  previous  to  the  time  of 
:  that  prince  enacted  not  only  that  there 


1  Matt.  Westm.  an.  975. 

2  "Ibi  erant  duo  monetarii  r  quisque    eorum  reddebat  regi  unam 
marcam    argenti,    et   viginti    solidos,    quando    moneta  vertebatur." 
Domesd.  Dorset.     "  Septem  monetarii  erant  ibi  ;   unus  ex   his  erat 
monetarius  episcopi.    Quando  moneta  vertebatur,  dabat  quisque  eorurn 
octodecim  solidos  pro  cuneis  recipiendis,  et  ex  eo  die  quo  redibant  usque 
ad  unum  mensem,  dabat  quisque  eorum  regi  viginti  solidos,  et  similiter 
habebat  episcopus  de  suo  monetario.     In  civitate  Wirecestre  habuit 
rex  Edwardus  nanc  consuetudinem.     Quando  moneta  vertebatur,  quis- 
que monetarius  dabat  xx  solidos  ad  Londoniam,  pro  cuneis  monetae 
accipiendis."    Domesd.  Worcester.     See  also  Domesd.  Hereford. 


OH.  ii.]  THE  EIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  69 

should  be  no  moneyers  beside  the  kings,  but  also  that 
their  number  should  be  altogether  diminished  l  ; 
by  which  we  may  suppose  that  it  was  his  intention 
to  do  away  with  the  mints  which  the  bishops 
had  before  possessed  legally2  in  various  towns,  and 
which  from  the  passages  cited  out  of  Domesday 
book,  evidently  continued  to  subsist,  in  spite  of 
the  provisions  of  the  Council  of  Wantage.  But 
if  the  coins  themselves  are  to  be  trusted,  we  may 
conclude  that  on  some  occasions  this  right  had  been 
granted  by  the  crown  to  others  than  the  clergy. 
One  piece  still  bears  the  name  and  head  of  Cyne- 
ftiyS,  probably  Offa's  queen3;  and  another  with  the 
impress  of  Hereberht,  was  probably  coined  by  a 
Kentish  duke.  Both  these  cases,  which  are  in  them- 
selves doubtful,  are  a  hundred  years  earlier  than 
's  law,  above  quoted. 


MINES.  —  Mines  and  minerals  are  also  among 
the  regalia  of  a  German  king,  and  were  so  in  Eng- 
land. The  cases  which  principally  come  under  our 
observation  in  the  charters  are  salt-works  and  lead- 
mines;  but  in  a  document  of  the  year  689,  which 
however  is  not  totally  free  from  suspicion,  Osuuini 
of  Kent  grants  to  Rochester  a  ploughland  at  Ly- 
minge  in  Kent,  in  which  he  says  there  is  a  mine 


.  iii.  §  8;  iv.  §  9.     Thorpe,  i.  296,  303. 

2  ^E«elst.  i.  §  14.     Thorpe,  i.  206. 

3  Or  perhaps  his  relative,  the  abbess  of  Bedford,  for  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  during  coverture,  the  queen  could  have  coined,  and 
proof  is  wanting  that  she  was  ever  regent  of  his  kingdom. 


70  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

of  iron1.  In  716,  J^elbald  of  Mercia  granted 
certain  salt-works  near  the  river  Salwarpe  at  Loot- 
wic  in  Worcestershire,  in  exchange  however  for 
others  to  the  north  of  the  river2.  In  the  same 
year  he  granted  a  hid  of  land  in  Saltwych,  vico 
emptorio  salis,  to  Evesham3.  In  732,  ^E^elberht  of 
Kent  gave  abbot  Dun  a  quarter  of  a  ploughland 
at  Lyminge,  where  there  were  salt-works,  that  is 
evaporating  pans4,  and  added  to  it  a  grant  of  a  hun- 
dred loads  of  wood  per  annum,  necessary  to  the 
operation.  In  738  Eadberht  of  Kent  includes  salt- 
works in  a  grant  to  Eochester5,  and  similarly  in 
812,  814,  Coenuulf,  in  grants  to  Canterbury6.  In 
833  Ecgberht  gave  salt-works  in  Kent,  and  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  loads  of  .wood  from  the  weald  of 
Andred,  to  support  the  fires 7.  Three  years  later 
Wiglaf  of  Mercia  confirmed  the  liberties  of  Han- 
bury  in  Worcestershire,  with  all  its  possessions,  in- 
cluding salt-wells  and  lead-works8.  In  863, 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  30.     So  likewise  I  imagine  the  isengrafas  (eisen- 
gmben)  of  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1118  to  be  iron-mines. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  67.    "  Aliquam  agelli  partem  in  qua  sal  confici  solet 
....  ad  construendos  tres  casulos  et  sex  caminos.  .  .  .sex  alios.  .  .  .ca- 
minos  in  duobus  casulis,  in  quibus  similiter  sal  conficitur,  vicarios  acci- 
piens." 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  68. 

4  Cod  Dipl.  No.  77.    "  Quarta  pars  aratri ....  sali  coquendo  accom- 
moda .  . .  .  Et  insuper  addidi  huic  donationi ....  in  omni  anno  centum 
plaustra  onusta  de  lignis  ad  coquendum  sal." 

6  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  85.  6  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  199,  201. 

7  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  234.      "Et  in  eodem  loco  sali  coquenda  iuxta 
Limenae,  et  in  silva  ubi  dicitur  Andred,  centum  viginti  plaustra  ad 
coquendum  sal." 

8  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  237.    "  Cum  putheis  salis  et  fornacibus  plumbis." 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  71 

berht  granted  salt-works  in  Kent  to  ^E^elred,  with 
four  waggons  going  for  six  weeks  into  the  royal 
forest l.  In  938,  ^E^elstan  gave  to  Taunton  three 
hids  of  land,  and  salt-pans  2. 

The  king  in  all  these  cases  had  possessed  a  right 
to  levy  certain  dues  at  the  pans  or  the  pit's  mouth, 
upon  the  waggons  as  they  stood,  and  upon  the  load 
being  placed  in  them :  these  dues  were  respectively 
called  the  wsenscilling  and  seampending,  literally 
wainshilling  and  loadpenny,  and  were  entirely  in- 
dependent of  the  rent  which  might  be  reserved  by 
the  landlord  for  the  use  of  the  ground,  whether  he 
were  the  king  or  a  private  person.  And  immunity 
from  these  dues  might  also  be  granted  by  the  crown, 
and  was  so  granted.  In  884,  ^E^elred,  duke  of 
Mercia,  who  acted  as  a  viceroy  in  that  new  portion 
of  Alfred's  kingdom,  and  exercised  therein  all  the 
royal  rights  as  fully  as  any  king  did  in  his  own 
territories,  gave  ^E'&elwulf  five  hids  at  Humble- 
ton,  and  licence  to  have  six  salt-pans,  free  from  all 
the  dues  of  king,  duke  or  public  officer,  but  still 
reserving  the  rights  of  the  landlord3.  But  the 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  288.     "Unamque  salis  coquinariam,  hoc  est  an 
sealternsteall,  and  $er  cota  to,  in  ilia  loco  ubi  nominatur  Herewic,  et 
quatuor  carris  transductionem  in  silba  regis  sex  ebdomades  a  die  Pen- 
tecosten  hubi  alteri  lioniines  silbam  cedunt;  hoc  est  in  regis  commu- 
nione." 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  374.  (cf.  1002).  "Ettres  [mansas]  in  loco  quiC  earn 
nuncupatur  ad  coquendam  salis  copiam."    In  854,  JS'Selwulf  mentions 
salinaria  in  a  grant  to  the  same  place.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1051. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  10G6.      "Ego  Weired,  divina  largiente  gratia 
principatu  et  dominio  gentis  Merciorum  subfultus,    donatione  trado 
^Eftelwulfo    terrain  quinque   manentium    in   loco    qui    dicitur   Hy- 
meltun salisque  coctionibus,  id  est,   sex  vascula  possint  praepa- 


72  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

same  prince,  about  the  same  period,  when  confer- 
ring various  royalties  upon  the  cathedral  of  Wor- 
cester, retained  the  king's  dues  at  the  pans  in  Salt- 
wic 1. 

The  peculiar  qualities  of  salt,  which  make  it  a 
necessary  of  life  to  man,  have  always  given  a  special 
character  to  the  springs  and  soils  which  contain 
it.  The  pagan  Germans  considered  the  salt-springs 
holy,  and  waged  wars  of  extermination  for  their 
possession  2  ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  they  may 
generally  have  belonged  to  the  exclusive  property 
of  the  priesthood.  If  so,  we  can  readily  understand 
how,  upon  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  they 
would  naturally  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  king : 
and  this  seems  to  throw  light  upon  the  origin  of 
this  royalty,  which  Eichhorn  himself  looks  upon 
as  difficult  of  explanation3.  Many  of  the  royal 
rights  were  unquestionably  inherited  from  the  pa- 
gan priesthood. 

rari  salva  libertate,  sine  aliquo  tribute  dominatoris  gentis  praedictae, 
sive  ducum,  iudicumve  et  praesidum,  id  est  statione  sive  inonera- 
tione  plaustrorum,  nisi  solo  illi  qui  huic  praedictae  terrae  Hymeltune 

dominus  existat ut  haec  traditio,  sive  in  terra  praedicta,  sive  in 

vico  salis,  absque  omni  censu  atque  tribute  perpetualiter  libera  perma- 
neat." 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1075.     "  Biitan  ftset  se  wsegnscilling  and  se  seam- 
pending  gonge  to  Sees  cyninges  handa,swa  heealning  dyde  set  Saltwic:" 
except  that  the  wainshilling  and  loadpenny  ("  static  et   inoneratio 
plaustrorum  ")  shall  go  to  the  king's  hand,  as  they  always  did,  at 
Saltwic. 

2  Tacit.  Ann.  xiii.  57.  "Eadem  aestate  inter  Hermunduros  Cattosque 
certatum  magno  praelio,  dum  flumen  gignendo  sale  fecundum  et  con- 
terminum  vi  trahunt,  super  libidinem  cuncta  armis  agendi  religione 
insita,  eos  maxime  locos  propinquare  coelo,  precesque  mortalium  adeis 
nusquam  propius  audiri." 

3  Deut.  Staatsr.  ii.  426.  §  297. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  EIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  73 

MARKET. — The  grant  of  a  market,  with  power 
to  levy  tolls  and  exercise  the  police  therein,  was 
also  a  royalty,  in  the  period  of  the  consolidated 
monarchy ;  and  to  this  head  may  be  added  the 
right  to  keep  a  private  beam  or  steelyard,  trutina 
or  trone,  yard-measure,  and  bushel.  Of  these  the 
charters  supply  examples.  The  last-named  rights 
were  purchased  in  857  by  bishop  Alhhun  of  Wor- 
cester, from  Burgred,  who,  as  king  of  Mercia,  dis- 
posed of  them  to  him,  with  a  small  plot  of  land  in 
London.  The  price  paid  was  sixty  shillings,  or  a 
pound,  to  Ceolmund,  the  owner  of  the  land,  a  like 
sum  to  the  king,  and  an  annual  rent  of  twelve  shil- 
lings to  the  latter1.  Thirty- two  years  later,  ^Elfred 
and  ^E$elred  of  Mercia  gave  another  small  plot  in 
the  same  city  to  WerfrrS,  also  bishop  of  Worcester. 
He  was  to  have  a  steelyard,  and  a  measure,  both 
for  buying  and  selling,  or  for  his  own  private  use. 
And  if  any  of  his  people  dealt  in  the  street  or  on 
the  bank  where  the  sales  took  place,  the  king  was 
to  have  his  toll :  but  if  the  bargain  was  struck  with- 
in the  bishop's  curtis,  he  was  to  have  the  toll 2. 

In  904  Eadweard  gave  a  market  in  Taunton  to 
the  bishop  of  Winchester,  with  the  toll  therefrom 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  280.  "Habeatintus  liberaliter  medium  et  pondera 
et  mensura[m],  sicut  in  porto  mos  est  ad  fruendum." 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  316.  "  Et  intro  urnam  et  trutinam  ad  mensurandum 
in  emendo  sive  vendendo  ad  usum,  sive  ad  necessitatem  propriam  et 
liberam  omnimodis  habeat. . .  .Si  autem  foris  vel  in  strata  publica  sen 
in  ripa  emptorali  quislibet  suorum  mercaverit,  iuxta  quod  rectum  sit, 
thelonium  ad  manum  regis  subeat :  quod  si  intus  in  curte  praedicta 
quislibet  emerit  vel  vendiderit,  thelonium  debitum  ad  manum  episcopi 
supramemorati  reddatur." 


74  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

arising,  by  the  name  of  "  'Sees  tunes  cyping"1:  and 
a  few  years  earlier  ^Eftelred  of  Mercia  granted  half 
the  market-dues  and  fines    at   Worcester  to    the 
bishop  of  that  city  2.     The  Frankish  emperors  pos- 
sessed and  exercised  the  same  right 3.     The  strict 
law  of  the  Anglosaxons,  which  treated  all  strangers 
with  harshness,  was  unfavourable  to  the  chapmen 
or   pedlars,    who  in    thinly-peopled  countries  are 
relied  upon  to  bring  markets  home  to  every  one's 
door :  and  it  must  be  admitted  that,  where  internal 
communication  is  yet  imperfect,  stringent  measures 
are  necessary  to  guard  against  the  disposal  of  goods 
improperly  obtained.   The  details  of  these  measures 
belong  to  another  part  of  this  work,  but  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  call  attention  here  to  the   endeavour  on 
the  part  of  the  authorities,  to  confine  all  bargaining 
as  much  as  possible  to  towns  and  walled  places  4  : 
the  small  tolls  payable   on  these  occasions  to  the 
proper  officers  were  a  reasonable  sacrifice  for  the 
sake  of  a  certificate  of  fair  dealing,  and  the  as- 
sured warranty  of  what  the  Saxon  law  calls  untying 
witnesses.      The  king,  as   general   conservator    of 
the  peace,  had  this  royalty,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
granted  it  in  various  towns  to  those  who  would 


1  Cod.   Dipl.  No.  1084.      ft  Praedictae  etiam  villae  mercinionium, 
quod  anglice  "Sees  tunes  cyping  appellatur,  censusque  omnus    civilis 
sanctae  del  aecclesiae  in  Wintonia  civitate,  sine  retractionis  obstaculo 
cum  omnibus  commodis  aeternaliter  deserviat." 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1075. 

3  See  Bonnier,  Kegest.  Karol.  Nos.  439,  628,  700,  2065,  2078. 

4  Eadw.  §  1.    ^E«elst.  i.  §  10,  12,  13 ;  iii.  §  2  5  v.  §  10.    Eadm.  i. 
§  5.    Eadg.  Sup.  §  6.     ^ESelb.  i.  §  3.     Cnut,  ii.  §  24.     Eadw.  Conf. 
§  38.     Wil.  Conq.  i.  §  45  j  iii.  §  10,  11. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  75 

be  able  and  willing  to  perform  the  duties  which  it 
implied. 

TOLL. — Closely  connected  with  this  are  tolls, 
which,  here  as  well  as  in  Germany,  the  king  claim- 
ed in  harbours,  and  upon  transport  by  roads  and 
by  navigable  streams  *,  and  which  he  either  remitted 
altogether  in  favour  of  certain  favoured  persons  or 
empowered  them  to  take  ;  thus,  in  the  first  instance, 
creating  for  them  a  commercial  monopoly  of  the 
greatest  value,  by  enabling  them  to  enter  the  mar- 
ket on  terms  of  advantage.  As  early  as  the  eighth 
century  we  find  JE^elbald  of  Mercia  granting  to  a 
monastery  in  Thanet,  exemption  from  toll  through- 
out his  kingdom  for  one  ship  of  burthen  2,  remitting 
to  Milrsed,  bishop  of  Worcester,  the  dues  upon  two 
ships,  payable  in  the  port  of  London  3,  and  to  the 
bishop  of  Rochester  the  toll  of  one  ship,  whether 
his  own  or  another's,  in  the  same  port 4.  And  the 

1  See  Bohmer,  Regest.  Karol.  Nos.  7,  14,  28,  31,  67,  71,  83,  89,  97, 
111,  163,  206,  217,  220,  227,  231,  240,  252,  260,  272,  283,  288,  304, 
308,  398,  415,  461,  463,  559,  561,  564,  566,  586,  592,  593,  605,  652, 
693,  739,  787,  837,  885,  1528,  2067,  2073.     These  charters  contain 
full  particulars  relative  to  the  levy,  release  and  grant  of  tolls  in  the 
Frankish  empire. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  84.     "  Navis  onustae  transvectionis  censum  qui  a 
theloneariis  nostris  tributaria  exactione  inipetitur,  perdonans  attribuo ; 
ut  ubique  in  regno  nostro  libera  de  onyri  regali  fiscu  et  tribute  maneat." 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  95.     "  Da  forgeofende  ic  him  alyfde  alle  nedbade 
twegra  sceopa  fta  fle  ftter  ab^edde  beotS  fram  'Sam  nedbaderum  in  Lun- 
dentunes  hyfte  ;  ond  nsefre  ic  ne  mine  lastweardas  ne  $a  nedbaderas 
ge>ristlsecen  ^set  heo  hit  onwenden  o'S'Se  "Sou  wi'Sgsen."     See  similar 
exemptions  in  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  97,  98,  112. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  78.     "Indico  me  dedisse.  . .  .unius  navis,  sive  ilia 
propria  ipsius,  sive  cuiuslibet  alterius  hominis  sit,  incessum,  id  est 
vectigal,  mihi  et  antecessoribus  meis  iure  regio  in  portu  Lundociae 


76  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

grant  to  St.  Mild'Sry'S  in  Thanet  was  confirmed  for 
himself,  and  increased  by  Eadberht  of  Kent  in  761, 
and  extended  to  London,  Fordwic  and  Seorre  l ;  and 
if  the  actual  ship  to  which  this  privilege  was  at- 
tached should  become  unseaworthy  through  age, 
or  perish  by  shipwreck,  a  new  one  was  to  receive 
the  same  favour. 

A  common  privilege  in  charters  of  liberties  is 
Tol,  but  this  probably  refers  rather  to  a  right  of 
taking  it  upon  sales  within  the  jurisdiction,  than 
properly  to  dues  levied  on  transport.  Such  how- 
ever are  occasionally  mentioned  as  matter  of  grant. 
Eadmund  Irensida,  conveying  lands  which  had  be- 
longed to  Sigefer^  (whose  widow  he  had  married), 
includes  toll  upon  water-carriage  among  his  rights  2. 
Cnut  gave  the  harbour  and  tolls  of  Sandwich  to 
Christchurch  Canterbury3,  together  with  a  ferry. 
This  right,  under  Harald  Haranfot,  was  attempted 
to  be  interfered  with  by  the  abbot  of  St.  Augus- 
tine's, who  even  at  last  went  so  far  as  to  dig  a  canal 
in  order  to  divert  the  channel  of  trade;  but  the 
monks  of  Christchurch  nevertheless  succeeded  in 

usque  hactenus  conpetentem."  And  this  was  confirmed  a  century  later 
by  Berhtwulf  of  Mercia. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  106.    After  mentioning  one  ship,  relieved  from  toll 
in  London,  he  continues :  i(  Alterius  vero ....  omne  tributum  atque 
vectigal  concedimus,  quod  etiam  a  thelonariis  nostris  iuste  impetitur 
publicis  in  locis,  qui  appellantur  Forduuic  et  Seorre.'; 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  726.     "  Ita  habeant  sicut  Siuerthus  habuit  in  vita, 
in  longitudine  et  in  latitudine,  in  magnis  et  in  modicis  rebus,  campis, 
pascuis,   pratis,   silvis,   thelonemn  aquarum,   piscationem    in    palu- 
dibus." 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  737.     "  Eorum  est  navicula  et  transfretatio  portus, 
et  theloneum  omnium  navium,  cuiuscunque  sit  et  undecumque  veniat, 
quae  ad  praedictum  portum  et  ad  Sanduuic  venerint." 


CH.  IL]  THE  EIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  77 

retaining  their  property l.  These  examples,  although 
not  very  numerous,  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  758.  The  story  is  altogether  so  good,  and  so  well 
told,  that  it  may  be  given  here  entire. 

"  This  writing  witnesseth  how  Harold  the  king  caused  Sandwich  to 
be  ridden  about  to  his  own  hand  :  and  he  kept  it  for  himself  well  nigh 
a  twelvemonth,  and  at  any  rate  fully  two  herring-seasons,  all  against 
God's  will,  and  against  the  Saints'  who  lie  at  Ohristchurch,  as  it  turned 
out  ill  enough  for  him  afterwards.  And  during  this  time  there  went 
./Elfstan  the  abbot  of  St.  Augustine's,  and  got,  with  his  lying  flatteries 
and  his  gold  and  silver,  all  secretly  from  Steorra  who  was  the  king's 
redesman,  a  right  to  the  third  penny  of  the  toll  at  Sandwich.  Now  when 
archbishop  Eadsige  and  all  the  brotherhood  at  Christchurch  learnt  this, 
they  took  counsel  together,  that  they  should  send  ^Elfgar,  the  monk  of 
Ohristchurch,  to  king  Harold.  Now  the  king  lay  at  Oxford  verv  ill, 
so  that  his  life  was  despaired  of;  and  there  were  with  him  Lyfing,  bi- 
shop of  Devonshire,  and  Tancred  the  monk.  Then  came  the  messenger 
from  Christchurch  to  the  bishop  ;  and  he  forth  at  once  to  the  king, 
and  with  him  ^Elfgar  the  monk,  Osweard  of  Harrietsham,  and  Tan- 
cred ;  and  they  told  the  king  that  he  had  deeply  sinned  against  Christ, 
in  ever  daring  to  take  back  anything  from  Christchurch  which  his  pre- 
decessors had  given  :  and  then  they  told  him  about  Sandwich,  how  it 
had  been  ridden  about  to  his  hand.  There  lay  the  king  and  turned 
quite  black  in  the  face  at  their  tale,  and  swore  by  God  Almighty  and 
all  his  saints  to  boot,  that  it  never  was  either  his  rede  or  his  deed,  that 
Sandwich  should  be  taken  from  Christchurch.  So  it  was  plain  enough 
that  it  was  other  peoples'  and  not  king  Harold's  contrivance :  and  to 
say  the  truth,  JElfstan  the  abbot's  counsel  was  with  the  men  who 
counselled  it  out  of  Christchurch.  Then  king  Harold  sent  ^Elfgar  the 
monk  back  to  archbishop  Eadsige  and  all  the  monks  at  Christchurch, 
and  gave  them  God's  greeting  and  his  own,  and  commanded  that  they 
should  have  Sandwich,  into  Christchurch,  as  fully  and  wholly  as  they 
had  ever  had  it  in  any  king's  day,  both  "in  rent,  in  stream,  on  strand, 
in  fines,  and  in  everything  which  any  king  had  ever  most  fully  pos- 
sessed before  them.  Now  when  abbot  ^Elfstan  heard  of  this,  he  came 
to  archbishop  Eadsige  and  begged  his  support  with  the  brotherhood, 
about  the  third  penny  :  and  away  they  both  went  to  all  the  brother- 
hood and  begged  the  Convent  that  abbot  yElfstan  might  be  allowed  the 
third  penny  of  the  toll,  and  he  to  give  the  Convent  ten  pounds.  But 
they  refused  it  altogether  throughout,  and  said  it  was  no  use  asking : 
and  withal  archbishop  Eadsige  backed  him  much  more  than  he  did 
the  Convent.  And  when  he  could  not  get  on  in  this  way,  he  asked 
leave  to  make  a  wharf  over  against  Mild'Sryfi's  acre,  opposite  the 


78  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  ir. 

Anglosaxon  kings  fully  possessed  the  right  of  levy- 
ing and  granting  toll,  as  well  as  exemption  from 
its  payment ;  and  they  are  sufficiently  confirmed  by 
Domesday  and  the  laws  of  the  kings  themselves l. 

FOREST. — It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  right 
of  Forest  was  at  any  time  carried  among  the  Saxons 
to  the  extent  which  made  it  so  hateful  a  means  of 
oppression  under  the  Norman  kings ;  but  there  can 
be  no  question  that  it  was  one  of  the  royalties.  In 
every  part  of  Germany  the  bannum  Forestae  or  Forst- 

ferry  (?)  to  keep,  "but  all  the  Convent  decidedly  refused  this :  and  arch- 
bishop Eadsige  left  it  all  to  their  own  decision.  Then  abbot  ^Elfstan 
set  to,  with  a  great  help,  and  let  dig  a  great  canal  at  Hyppeles  fLeot, 
hoping  that  craft  would  lie  there,  just  as  they  did  at  Sandwich  :  how- 
ever he  got  no  good  by  it  j  for  he  laboureth  in  vain  who  laboureth  against 
Christ's  will.  So  the  abbot  left  it  in  this  state,  and  the  Convent  took 
to  their  own,  in  God's  witness,  and  Saint  Mary's,  and  all  the  Saints' 
who  rest  at  Christchurch  and  Saint  Augustine's.  This  is  all  true,  be- 
lieve it  who  will :  abbot  JElfstan  never  got  the  third  penny  at  Sand- 
wich in  any  other  way.  God's  blessing  be  with  us  all  now  and  for  ever 
more !  Amen." 

1  The  following  is  the  tariff  of  tolls  levied  at  Billingsgate.  vEftelr.  iv. 
§  2.  "  De  telonio  dando  ad  Bylingesgate.  Ad  Billingesgate,  si  adve- 
nisset  una  navicula,  unus  obolus  telonei  dabatur :  si  maior  et  haberet 
siglas,  unus  denarius.  Si  adveniat  ceol  vel  hulcus,  et  ibi  iaceat,  quatuor 
denarios  ad  teloneum.  De  navi  plena  lignorum,  unurn  lignum  ad  telo- 
neum.  In  ebdomada  panuin  telonium  tribus  diebus,  die  dominica,  et 
die  Martis  et  die  Jovis.  Qui  ad  pontem  venisset  cum  uno  bato,  ubi 
piscis  inesset,  ipse  mango  ununi  obolum  dabat  in  telonium,  et  de  una 
maiori  nave,  unum  denarium.  Homines  de  Rotomago,  qui  veniebant 
cum  vino  vel  craspice,  dabant  rectitudinem  sex  solidorum  de  magna 
navi,  et  vicesimum  frustum  de  ipso  craspice.  Flandrenses  et  Ponteien- 
ses  et  Normannia  et  Francia,  monstrabant  res  suas  et  extolneabant. 
Hogge  et  Leodium  et  Nivella,  qui  per  terras  ibant,  ostensionem  dabant 
et  teloneum.  Et  homines  Imperatoris,  qui  veniebant  in  navibus  suis, 
bonarum  legum  digni  tenebantur,  sicut  et  nos.  Praeter  discarcatam 
lanum  et  dissutum  unctum  et  tres  porcos  vivos  licebat  eis  emere  in 
naves  suas ;  et  non  licebat  eis  aliquod  foreceapum  facere  burhmannis ; 


CH.  IL]  THE  HIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  79 

bann  was  so 1,  and  even  to  this  day  is  as  much  an 
object  of  popular  dislike  in  some  districts  as  it  ever 
was  among  our  forefathers.  In  countries  which  de- 
pend much  upon  the  immediate  produce  of  the  soil 
for  support,  hunting  is  not  a  mere  amusement  to 
be  purchased  or  rented  by  the  rich  as  a  luxury,  but 
a  very  necessary  means  of  increasing  the  supply  of 
food  ;  and  where  coal-mines  have  not  been  worked, 
the  forest  alone  or  the  turf-heap  can  furnish  the 
means  of  securing  warmth,  as  indispensable  a  ne- 
cessary of  life  as  bread  or  flesh  :  we  have  seen  more- 
over that  it  was  essential  to  the  comfort  of  a  Saxon 
family  to  possess  a  right  of  masting  cattle  in  the 
neighbouring  woods. 

In  the  original  division  of  the  lands  large  tracts 
of  forest  may  have  fallen  to  the  king's  share,  which 
he  could  dispose  of  as  his  private  property.  Much 
of  the  folcland  also  may  have  been  covered  with 
wood,  and  here  and  there  may  have  lain  sacred 
groves  not  included  within  the  limits  of  any  com- 
munity 2.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
all  these  were  gradually  brought  under  the  imme- 
diate influence  and  authority  of  the  king ;  and  that 
when  once  the  royal  power  had  so  far  advanced  as 
to  reduce  the  scir-gerefa  to  the  condition  of  a  crown 

et  dare  telonium  suiim,  et  in  sancto  Natali  Domini  duos  grisengos  pan- 
nos,  et  unum  brunum,  et  decem  libras  piperis,  et  cirotecas  quinque  ho- 
minum,  et  duos  caballinos  tonellos  aceto  plenos,  et  totideni  in  Pascba  : 
de  dosseris  cum  gallinis,  una  gallina  telonei,  et  de  uno  dossero  cum 
ovis,  quinque  ova  telonei,  si  veniant  ad  mercatum.  Smeremangestre, 
quae  maugonant  in  caseo  et  butiro,  quatuordecim  diebus  ante  Natale 
Domini,  unum  denarium,  et  septem  diebus  post  Natale,  unum  aliuni." 

1  Eichhorir,  Deut.  Staatsr.  i.  813,  §  199. 

2  "Lucos  et  nemora  consecrant."  Tac.  Germ.  ix. 


80  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  11. 

officer,  the  shire-marks  or  forests  would  also  be- 
come subject  to  the  royal  ban1.  That  very  consi- 
derable forest  rights  still  continued  to  subsist  in 
the  hands  of  the  free  men,  in  their  communities, 
may  be  admitted,  and  is  evidence  of  the  firm  foun- 
dation for  popular  liberty  which  the  old  Mark- 
organization  laid.  But  even  in  these,  the  posses- 
sion was  not  left  totally  undisturbed,  and  the  public 
officers,  the  king,  ealdorman  and  gerefa  appear  to 
have  gradually  made  various  usurpations  valid. 

Over  his  private  forests  the  king  naturally  exer- 
cised all  the  rights  of  absolute  ownership ;  and  as 
his  ban  ultimately  implies  this,  at  least  in  theory, 
it  becomes  difficult  to  distinguish  those  which  he 
dealt  with  as  dominus  fundi,  from  those  in  which  he 
acted  iure  regali.  That  he  reserved  the  vert  and 
venison  in  some  of  them,  and  preserved  with  a 
strictness  worthy  of  more  enlightened  ages,  is  clear 
from  the  severe  provisions  of  Cnut's  Constitu- 
tiones  de  Foresta2.  According  to  this  important 
document,  the  forest  law  was  as  follows.  In  every 
county  there  were  to  be  four  thanes,  whose  busi- 
ness it  was,  under  the  title  of  Head-foresters,  prima- 
riiforestae,  to  hold  plea  of  all  offences  touching  the 
forest,  and  having  the  ban  or  power  of  punishing 
for  such  offences.  Under  them  were  sixteen  lesser 
thanes,  but  gentlemen,  whose  business  it  was  to 

1  As  early  as  825  we  find  questions  of  pasture  contested  by  the 
swangerefa  as  an  officer  of  the  ealdorman.    Cod.  Dipl.  No.  219.     The 
scirholt  mentioned  in  this  document  would  seem  to  have  been  the 
shire-forest  or  public  wood  of  the  county ;  hence  probably  a  royal  ban- 
forest,  subject  to  the  royal  officer,  the  ealdorman. 

2  See  these  in  Thorpe,  i.  426. 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  81 

look  after  the  vert  and  venison ;  and  these  had  .no- 
thing to  do  with  the  process  in  the  forest  court. 
To  each  of  the  sixteen  were  assigned  two  yeomen, 
who  were  to  keep  watch  at  night  over  the  vert  and 
venison,  and  do  the  necessary  menial  services :  but 
they  were  freemen,  and  even  employment  in  the 
forest  gave  freedom.  All  the  expenses  of  these  offi- 
cers were  defrayed  by  the  king,  and  he  further  sup- 
plied the  outfit  of  the  several  classes:  to  the  head- 
foresters,  yearly,  two  horses,  one  saddled,  a  sword, 
five  lances,  a  spear,  a  shield  and  two  hundred  shil- 
lings of  silver :  to  the  second  class,  one  horse,  one 
lance,  one  shield  and  sixty  shillings :  to  the  yeo- 
men, a  lance,  a  cross-bow  and  fifteen  shillings.  All 
these  persons  were  quit  and  free  of  all  summonses, 
county-courts,  and  military  dues  :  but  the  two  secon- 
dary classes  owed  suit  and  surface  to  the  court  of 
the  primarii  (Svvanmot),  which  held  plea  and  gave 
judgment  in  their  suits :  in  those  of  the  primarii 
themselves,  the  king  was  sole  judge.  The  court 
of  the  Forest  was  to  be  held  four  times  a  year,  and 
was  empowered  to  administer  the  triple  ordeal, 
and  generally  to  exercise  such  a  jurisdiction  as  be- 
longed only  to  the  higher  and  royal  courts.  The 
persons  of  the  head-foresters  were  guarded  by 
severe  penalties;  violence  offered  to  them  was  pu- 
nished in  a  free  man  with  loss  of  liberty,  in  a  serf 
with  loss  of  the  hand ;  and  a  second  offence  en- 
tailed the  penalty  of  death. 

The  offences  against  the  forest-law  were  various 
and  ,of  very  different  degrees :  the  ferae  forestae 
were  not  nearly  so  sacred  as  the  ferae  regales,  and 

VOL.  II.  G 


82  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

as  for  the  vert,  it  was  of  so  little  regard  that  the 
law  hardly  contemplated  it,  always  excepting  the 
breaking  the  king's  chace.  To  hunt  a  beast  of  the 
forest  (fera  forest ae),  either  voluntarily  or  inten- 
tionally, till  it  panted,  was  punished  in  a  free  man 
by  a  fine  of  ten  shillings :  ^in  one  of  a  lower  grade x, 
by  a  fine  of  twenty :  in  a  serf,  by  a  flogging.  But 
if  it  were  a  royal  beast  (fera  regalis)  which  the 
English  call  a  stag,  the  punishments  were  to  be 
respectively,  one  and  two  years  servitude,  and  for 
the  serf,  outlawry.  If  they  killed  it,  the  free  man 
was  to  lose  scutum  libertatis2,  the  next  man  his  li- 
berty, and  the  serf  his  life.  Bishops,  abbots  and 
barons  were  not  to  be  vexed  with  prosecutions  for 
hunting,  except  they  killed  stags :  in  that  case  they 
were  liable  to  such  penalty  as  the  king  willed.  Be- 
sides the  beasts  of  the  forest,  the  roebuck,  hare  and 
rabbit  were  protected  by  fines.  Wolves  and  foxes 
were  neither  beasts  of  the  forest  nor  chace,  and 
might  be  killed  with  impunity,  but  not  within  the 
bounds  of  the  forest,  as  that  would  be  a  breaking 
of  the  chace ;  nor  was  the  boar  considered  a  beast 
of  venery.  No  one  was  to  cut  brushwood  without 
permission  of  the  primarius,  under  a  penalty;  and 
he  that  felled  a  tree  which  supplied  food  for  the 
beasts,  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty  shillings  over 
and  above  that  for  breaking  the  chace.  Every 
free  man  might  have  his  own  vert  and  venison  on 
his  own  lands,  but  without  a  chace ;  and  no  man 

1  Illiberalis ;  perhaps  a  freedman,  or  a  free  man  not  a  landowner. 
The  distinctions  here  are  liber,  illiberalis,  servus. 

2  This  must  denote  (/entry,  something  more  than  mere  freedom. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  83 

of  the  middle  class  (mediocris)  was  to  keep  grey- 
hounds. A  gentleman  (liberalis x)  might,  but  he  must 
first  have  the  knee-sinew  cut  in  presence  of  the 
head-forester,  if  he  lived  within  ten  miles  of  the 
forest :  if  his  dogs  came  within  that  distance,  he  was 
to  be  fined  a  shilling  a  mile :  if  the  dog  entered  the 
precincts  of  the  forest,  his  master  was  to  pay  ten 
shillings.  Other  kinds  of  dogs,  not  considered  dan- 
gerous, might  be  kept  without  mutilation;  but  if 
they  became  mad  and  by  the  negligence  of  their 
masters  went  wandering  about,  heavy  fines  were 
incurred.  If  found  within  the  bounds  of  the  forest, 
the  fine  was  two  hundred  shillings :  if  such  a  rabid 
dog  bit  a  beast  of  the  forest,  the  fine  rose  to  twelve 
hundred :  but  if  a  royal  beast  was  bitten,  the  crime 
was  of  the  deepest  dye. 

Such  is  the  forest  legislation  of  Cnut,  and  its  se- 
verity is  of  itself  evidence  how  much  the  power  of 
the  king  had  become  extended  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eleventh  century.  It  is  clear  that  he 
deals  with  all  forests  as  having  certain  paramount 
rights  therein,  and  it  seems  probable  that  this  or- 
ganization was  intended  to  be  established  all  over 
England.  Still  it  is  observable  that  he  gives  cer- 
tain rights  of  hunting  to  all  his  nobles,  reserving 
only  the  stags  to  himself,  and  that  he  allows  every 
freeman  to  hunt  upon  his  own  property,  so  that  he 
does  not  interfere  with  the  royal  chaces  2.  We  may 

1  The  mediocris  is  defined  as  twyhynde,  the  liberalis  as  twelfhynde. 


33,  34. 


This  regulation  was  very  likely  forced  upon  him  by  his  Witan, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  also  recorded  in  his  laws,  §  81.     "  Every  one  shall  be 

G2 


84  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

however  infer  that  at  an  earlier  period  the  matter 
was  not  regarded  so  strictly.  A  passage  has  been 
already  cited 1  where  Alfred  implies  that  a  depend- 
ent living  upon  kenland  could  support  himself  by 
hunting  and  fishing,  till  he  got  bocland  of  his  own. 
The  bishops  possessed  the  right  in  their  forests— 
whether  proprio  iure  or  by  royal  grant,  I  will  not 
venture  to  decide — as  early  as  the  ninth  century2, 
and  still  retained  it  in  the  tenth3.  And  while  the 
communities  were  yet  free  it  is  absurd  to  suppose 
that  they  allowed  any  one  to  interfere  with  this  pur- 
suit, so  attractive  to  every  Teuton,  so  healthy,  so  cal- 
culated to  practise  his  eye  and  limbs  for  the  sterner 
duties  of  warfare,  and  so  useful  to  recruit  a  larder 
not  over  well  stored  with  various  or  delicate  viands. 
However  this  may  have  been  with  the  game,  it 
is  certain  that  the  most  important  privileges  were 
those  of  masting  swine,  and  cutting  timber  or  brush- 
wood in  the  forests4.  Grants  to  this  effect  are 


entitled  to  his  hunting  both  in  wood  and  field,  upon  his  own  property. 
And  let  every  one  forego  my  hunting :  take  notice  where  I  will  have  it 
untrespassed  upon,  on  penalty  of  the  full  wite." 

1  See  Vol.  I.  p.  312, 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1086.     Bishop  Denewulf  gave  Alfred  forty  hides 
at  Alresford,  loaded  with  various  conditions :  among  them,  that  his 
men  should  be  ready  "  ge  to  ripe  ge  to  hunt[n]olSe,"  that  is  at  the  bi- 
shop's harvest  and  hunting. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1287.     Oswald  bishop  of  Worcester,  stating  the 
terms  on  which  he  let  the  lands  of  his  see,  includes  among  them 
the  services  of  his  tenants  at  his  hunting :  "  Sed  et  venationis  sepem 
domini  episcopi  [clearly  a  park]  ultronei  ad  aedificandum  repperiantur, 
suaque,  quandocumque  domino  episcopo  libuerit,  venabula  destinent 
venatum." 

4  The  importance  of  pannage  or  masting  was  such  as  to  cause  the 
introduction  of  a  clause  guarding  it,  in  the  Charta  de  Foresta,  —  a  docu- 
ment considered  by  our  forefathers  as  hardly  less  important  than  Magna 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  85 

common,  and  it  is  plain  that  a  considerable  quantity 
of  woods  were  in  the  hands  of  corporations,  and 
even  of  private  individuals,  as  well  as  of  the  Crown. 
How  they  came  into  private  hands  is  not  clear; 
some  perhaps  by  bargain  and  sale,  some  by  in- 
heritance, some  by  grant,  some  no  doubt  by  usur- 
pation. The  most  powerful  markman  may  at  last 
have  contrived  to  appropriate  to  himself  the  own- 
ership of  what  woodland  remained,  though  he  was 
still  compelled  to  permit  the  hereditary  axe  to  ring 
in  the  forest 1 ;  and  all  experience  shows  that  both 
here  and  in  Germany  monasteries  were  often 
founded  in  the  bosom  of  woods,  granted  for  reli- 
gious purposes,  out  of  what  perhaps  had  once  en- 
dowed an  earlier  religion,  and  which  supplied  at 
once  building  materials,  fuel  and  support  for  cat- 
tle2. But  even  in  these,  it  seems  that  the  king, 
the  duke  and  the  gerefa  interfered,  claiming  a  right 
to  pasture  certain  numbers  of  their  own  swine 
or  cattle  in  them,  and  to  give  this  privilege  to 
others. 

In  845,  ^^elwulf  gave  pasture  to  Badono'S  for 
his  cattle  with  the  king's  beasts,  apparently  in  the 

Charta  itself :  see  §  9.  Domesday  usually  notes  the  amount  of  pan- 
nage in  an  estate,  and  Fleta  (Bk.  ii.  cap.  80)  thinks  it  necessary  to  de- 
vote a  chapter  to  the  subject. 

1  The  Oldsaxons  in  Westphalia  called  a  distinguished  class  of  per- 
sons Erfexe,  or  Hereditary  axes,  from  their  right  to  hew  wood  in  the 
Mark.    Moser  (Osnab.  i.  19)  gives  an  erroneous  derivation  for  this  name, 
but  Grimm  corrects  him  :  Deut.  Rechtsalt.  504. 

2  "  Dunhelmum  veniens,  locum  quidem  natura  munitum,  sed  non 
facile  habitabilem  invenit,  quoniam  densissima  eum  silva  totum  occu- 
pabat,"  etc.     Transl.  Sci.  Cu$b.  Bed.  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  302.     The  ear- 
liest grants  of  land  on  which  these  establishments  were  placed,  usually 
state  the  land  to  be  silva  or  silvatica. 


86  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  11. 

pastures  of  the  town  of  Canterbury1.  In  855,  the 
same  king  gave  his  thane  Dun  a  tenement  in  Ro- 
chester, together  with  two  waggon-loads  of  wood 
from  the  king's  forest,  and  common  in  the  marsh2. 
In  839  he  licensed  for  Dudda  two  waggons  to  the 
common  wood,  probably  Blean3;  in  772,  Offa 
granted  lands  to  Abbot  ^E'Selno'3,  and  added  a  per- 
petual right  of  pasture  and  masting  in  the  royal 
wood,  together  with  licence  for  one  goat  to  go  with 
the  royal  flock  in  the  forest  of  Ssenling4.  Nume- 
rous other  examples  are  supplied  by  the  charters, 
which  may  be  classed  under  the  following  heads : 
first,  royal  forests,  as  Ssenling,  Blean,  Andred  and 
the  like,  called  silvae  regales,  and  in  which  the  king 
granted  timber,  common  of  mast  and  pasture  or 
estovers:  secondly,  forest  appertaining  to  cities 
and  communities  (ceasterwara-weald,  burhwara- 
weald,  silva  communis\  in  which  the  king  granted 
commons:  thirdly,  small  woods,  appurtenant  to 
and  part  of  estates,  but  not  named,  and  the  enjoy- 
ment of  which  is  conveyed  in  the  general  terms  of 
the  grant,  as  terram  cum  communibus  utilitatibus, 
pascuis,  gratis^  silvis,  piscariis,  etc. :  lastly,  private 
forests  or  commons  of  forest  specially  named  as 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  259. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  276.    "Et  decein  carros  cum  silvo  (sic]  honestos  in 
monte  regis,  et  communionem  marisci  quae  ad  illam  villam  antiquitus 
cum  recto  pertinebat." 

' 3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  241.  "Duobusque  carris  dabo  licentiam  silfam  ad  illas 
secundum  antiquam  consuetudinem  et  constituidem  (sic]  in  aestate  per- 
ferendam  in  commune  silfaquod  nos  saxonicae  in  gemennisse  dicimus." 
4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  119.  "Et  ad  pascendum  porcos  et  pecora,  et  iu- 
nienta  in  silva  regali  aeternaliter  perdono  ;  et  unius  caprae  licentiam  in 
silva  quae  vocatur  Saenling,  ubi  meae  vadunt." 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  87 

appurtenant  to  particular  estates,  or  given  by  fa- 
vour of  the  king  to  the  tenant  of  those  estates. 
To  all  these  heads  ample  references  will  be  found 
in  the  note  below1.  His  right  to  deal  at  pleasure 
with  the  silvae  regales  requires  no  particular  notice, 
but  the  grants  of  pasture  and  timber  in  the  forests 
of  cities  and  communities2  can  only  be  explained 
by  the  assumption  of  a  paramount  royalty  in  the 
Crown.  And  that  this  was  exercised  in  the  private 
forests  of  monasteries,  also  appears  from  exemp- 
tions sometimes  purchased  by  them;  In  706, 
^E^elweard  of  the  Hwiccas  consented  to  confine  his 
right  of  pasture  to  one  herd  of  swine,  and  that  only 
in  years  when  mast  was  abundant,  in  the  forests 
belonging  to  Evesham ;  and  he  released  them  from 
all  claims  of  princes  and  officers,  except  this  one 
of  his  own3.  Similarly,  with  regard  to  timber, 
Ecgberht  in  835  gave  an  immunity  to  Abingdon, 
against  the  claim  of  king  or  prince,  to  take  large 
or  small  wood  for  his  buildings  from  the  forests  of 

1  Royal  forests  in  which  common  of  pasture,  or  timber  is  given  by 
the  king.     Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  77, 107, 108, 201,  207,  234,  239,  etc.     Civic 
and  common  forests  in  which  the  king  makes  similar  grants.    Cod.  Dipl. 
Nos.  96,  160,  179,  190,  198,  216,  219,  etc.     Private  forests,  conveyed 
in  general  terms  of  the  grant.     Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  16,  17,  27,  32,  35,  36, 
80,  83,  85,  etc.     Private  forests  particularly  defined  as  appurtenant. 
Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  80,  89,  138,  152,  161,  165,  187,  214,  etc. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  47,  86,  96,  etc. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  56.     t(  Excepto  eo,  ut  si  quando  in  insula  eidem  rud 
pertinente  proventus  copiosior  glandis  acciderit,  uni  soluinmodo  gregi 
porcoruni  sagiuae  pastus  regi  concederetur;  et  praeter  hoc  nulli,  neque 
principi,  neque  praefecto,  neque  tiranno  alicui,  pascua  constituantur." 
This  right  of  the  king's  was  called  Fearnleswe :  "  Et  illam  terrain .... 
liherabo  a  pascua  porcoruni  regis  quod  nominamus  Fearnleswe."    Cod. 
Dipl.  No.  277. 


88  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  monastery1.  This  right  of  the  king  to  timber 
for  public  purposes  was  maintained  and  claimed  till 
the  time  of  the  rebellion,  and  was  a  fertile  source 
of  malversation  and  extortion2. 

STRANGER. — To  the  king  belonged  also  the 
protection  of  all  strangers  within  his  realm,  and  the 
consequent  claim  to  a  portion  of  their  wergyld,  and 
their  property  in  case  of  death,  a  droit  daubaine. 
This  was  a  natural  deduction  from  the  principles 
of  a  period  and  a  state  of  society  in  which  every 
man's  security  was  founded  upon  association  either 
with  relatives  or  guildsmen:  and  as  no  one  could 
have  these  in  a  foreign  mark, — the  associations 
being  themselves  in  intimate  connection  with  the 
territory, — it  is  obvious  that  the  public  authorities 
alone  could  exercise  any  functions  in  behalf  of  the 
solitary  chapman.  As  general  conservator  of  the 
peace,  these  necessarily  fell  to  the  king;  but  the 
duties  and  advantages  which  he  thus  assumed  be- 
came in  turn  matter  of  grant,  and  were  conferred 
by  him  upon  other  public  persons  or  corporations. 
The  laws  declare  the  king,  earl  and  bishop  to  be 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  236.     "  Silva  quoque  omnis  quae  illi  aecclesiae  et 
suburbanis  eius  suppetit,  in  omnibus  causis  sit  libera,  et  non  secetur 
ibi  ad  regis  vel  principis  aedificia  aliqua  pars  materiae  grossi  vel  gra- 
cilis,  sed  ab  omnibus  defensa  et  libera  inaneat."     Compare  Bohm.  Reg. 
Karol.  Nos.  387,  1157,  1598. 

2  From  a  speech  of  Lord  Bacon's  against  the  abuses  of  purveyors,  it 
appears  that  those  who  were  to  purvey  timber  for  the  king,  even  as  late 
as  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  used  to  extort  money  by  the  threat  of 
felling  ornamental  trees  in  the  avenues  or  grounds  of  mansion-houses. 
Barrington,  Anc.  Stat.  p.  7,  note. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  89 

the  relatives  and  guardians  of  the  stranger1;  and 
the  charters  show  that  the  consequent  gains  were 
alienated  by  him  at  his  pleasure.  In  835,  Ecg- 
berht  gave  the  inheritance  of  Gauls  and  Britons, 
and  half  their  wergyld,  to  the  monastery  at  Abing- 
don2.  Among  these  strangers,  the  Jews  were  es- 
pecially mentioned.  Anglosaxon  history  has  not 
indeed  recorded  any  of  those  abominable  outrages 
upon  this  long-suffering  people  which  fill  the  annals 
of  our  own  and  other  countries  during  the  middle 
ages;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  false  and 
fanatical  view  of  religion,  if  not  their  way  of  life 
and  their  accumulations,  must  have  ever  marked 
them  out  for  persecution.  Eichhorn  has  justly 
characterized  the  feeling  which  prevailed  respect- 
ing them  in  all  parts  of  Europe3,  and  has  remarked 
to  the  honour  of  the  Popes  that  they  were  the  first 


1  "  If  any  one  wrong  an  ecclesiastic  or  a  foreigner,  in  anything  touch- 
ing either  his  property  or  his  life,  then  shall  the  king,  or  the  earl  there 
in  the  land  [i.  e.  among  the  Danes]  or  the  bishop  of  the  people  be  unto 
him  as  a  kinsman  and  protector:    and  let  compensation  be  strictly 
made,  according  to  the  deed,  both  to  Christ  and  the  king  j  or  let  the 
king  among  the  people  severely  avenge  the  deed."     Eadw.  Gufl.  §  12. 
Thorpe,  i.  174.     See  also  Ranks.  §  8.     ^Eftelr.  ix.  §  33.     Cnut,  ii.  §  40. 
Hen.  I.  x.  §  3  j  Ixxv.  §  7. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  236.    "  Similiter  de  haereditate  peregrinorum,  id  est 
Gallorum  et  Brittonum  et  horum  similium,  aecclesiae  reddatur.     Prae- 
tium  quoque  sanguinis  peregrinorum,  id  est  wergyld,  dimidiam  partem 
rex  teneat,  dimidiam  aecclesiae  antedictae  reddant.'' 

3  Dent.  Staatsr.  i.  422,  §  297.     He  cites  an  instruction  of  Margrave 
Albrecht  of  Brandenburg  an.  1462,  which  contains  this  Christian-like 
provision : — "  When  a  Roman  emperor  and  king  is  crowned,  he  has  a 
right  to  take  all  they  possess  throughout  his  realm,  yea  and  their  lives 
also,  and  to  slay  them,  until  only  a  little  number  of  them  be  left,  to 
serve  as  a  memorial."     Kings  and  populations,  without  being  heads  of 
the  holy  Roman  empire,  assumed  a  similar  right  only  too  often. 


90  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

to  preach  toleration  and  command  the  attempt  at 
conversion.  But  the  utility  of  the  Jewish  industry 
especially  in  thinly  peopled  countries,  and  their 
importance  as  gatherers  of  capital,  were  ever  en- 
gaged in  a  struggle  against  bigotry ;  hence  the 
Jews  could  generally  obtain  a  qualified  protection 
against  all  but  sudden  outbreaks  of  popular  fury. 
As  these  latter  had  mostly  other  deep-seated  causes, 
the  ruling  classes  may  sometimes  have  seen  with- 
out regret  the  popular  indignation  vent  itself  in 
a  direction  which  did  not  immediately  endanger 
themselves :  but  as  a  general  rule,  the  Jews  enjoyed 
protection,  and  were  made  to  pay  dearly  for  it. 
Both  parties  were  gainers  by  the  arrangement. 
Among  the  Saxons  this  could  not  be  otherwise,  for 
it  was  impossible  for  a  Jew  to  be  in  a  hundred  or 
tithing  as  a  freeman ;  and  he  would  probably  have 
had  but  little  security  in  the  household  and  follow- 
ing of  an  ordinary  noble.  The  readiest  and  most 
effective  plan  was  to  place  him,  wherever  he  might 
be,  especially  under  the  king's  mundbyrd.  Ac- 
cordingly the  law  of  Eadweard  the  Confessor  de- 
clares the  king  to  be  protector  of  all  Jews1,  and 
this  right  descended  to  his  Norman  successors.  Si- 
milarly as  the  clergy  relinquished  their  msegsceaft 
or  bond  of  kin,  on  entering  into  orders,  the  king 
became  their  natural  mundbora2. 

1  Eadw.  Conf.  §  25.     "  Sciendum  est  quod  omnes  Judaei,  ubicunque 
regno  sint,  sub  tutela  et  defensione  regis  ligie  debent  esse.     Neque  ali- 
quis  eorum  potest  subdere  se  alicui  diviti  sine  licentia  regis  j  quia  ipsi 
Judaei  et  omnia  sua  regis  sunt.     Quod  si  aliquis  detinuerit  illos  vel  pe- 
cuniam  eorum,  rex  requirat  tanquain  suum  proprium,  si  vult  et  potest." 

2  Cnut,  ii.  §  40.     Thorpe,  i.  400. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  91 

BRIDGE. — It  is  probable  that  no  one  could 
build  a  bridge  without  the  royal  licence,  though  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  instance  in  the  Saxon  times : 
but  I  infer  this  from  grants  of  the  Frankish  empe- 
rors and  kings  to  that  effect1.  It  is  possible  that 
this  may  have  depended  upon  the  circumstance 
that  toll  would  be  taken  by  the  owner  of  such  a 
bridge ;  but  we  may  believe  that  other  reasons  con- 
curred with  this,  and  that  the  bridge  originally  had 
something  of  a  holy  character,  and  stood  in  near 
relation  to  the  priesthood2. 

CASTLE. — In  like  manner  we  may  doubt  whe- 
ther the  kings  did  not  gradually  draw  into  their 
own  hands  the  right  to  have  fortified  houses  or 
castles,  which  we  find  them  possessing  in  the  Nor- 
man times,  and  which  they  extended  to  their 
adherents  and  favourites  by  special  licence.  In 


1  Bohm.  Reg.  Karol.  Nos.  88,  680,  1931. 

2  It  lias  already  been  noticed  as  remarkable  that  Pontifex,  the  bridge- 
builder,  should  be  the  name  for  the  priestly  class.     There  are  many  su- 
perstitions connected  with  bridges,  and  the  spirit  of  the  bridge  even  to 
this  day,  in  Germany,  demands  his  victims  as  inexorably  as  the  spirit 
of  the  river.    Deut.  Mythol.  p.  563.     The  passage  in  Schol.  ^-Elii  Aristid. 
which  speaks,  according  to  a  modern  emendation,  of  Palladia  in  con- 
nection with  bridges,  is  hopelessly  corrupt.    But  Servius,  vEneid,  ii.  661, 
says  the  Athenian  Pallas  was  called  yefyvpiris  (not  yetptyHW???  as  the 
copies  have),  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  Interp.  Virgil,  published  by 
Mai,  where  from  her  position  on  a  bridge  the  goddess  is  called  ye(f>v- 
pins  'Adrjva.     Pkerecydes  (No.  101)  and  Phylarchus  (No.  79)  both  ap- 
pear to  refer  to  this,  if  indeed  the  proposed  readings  can  be  admitted. 
See  Fragm.  Hist.  Graec.  pp.  95,  356.     There  was  in  very  early  times  a 
gens  of  ye<pvpaioi  at  Athens,  but  I  do  not  know  if  they  had  any  priestly 
functions.     They  had  the  worship  of  AT^TT/P  "K^aia,  and  were  Cad- 
mseans  who  had  immigrated  into  Attica  j  from  among  them  sprung 
Hannodius  and  Aristogeiton. 


92  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

mediaeval  history,  the  fortification  of  their  houses 
by  the  inhabitants  of  a  city  is  the  very  first  result 
of  the  establishment  of  a  Communa,  commune  or 
free  municipality ;  and  the  destruction  of  such  for- 
tifications the  first  care  of  the  victorious  count, 
bishop  or  king  upon  his  triumph  over  the  outre- 
Guidance  of  the  burghers1.  The  clearest  instance  of 

1  Thierry,  Lettres  sur  1'Hist.  de  France,  p.  272.  u  Ainsi  eleves  de  la 
triste  condition  de  sujets  taillables  d'une  abbaye  au  rang  d'allies  poli- 
tiques  d'un  des  plus  puissants  seigneurs,  les  habitans  de  Vezelay  cher- 
cherent  a  s'entourer  des  signes  exterieurs  qui  anno^aient  ce  change- 
ment  d'etat.  Us  eleverent  autour  de  leurs  maisons,  chacun  selon  sa  ri- 
chesse,  des  murailles  crenelees,  ce  qui  etait  alors  la  marque  de  la  ga- 
rantie  du  privilege  de  liberte.  L'un  des  plus  considerables  parmi  eux, 
nomme  Simon,  jeta  les  fondements  d'une  grosse  tour  carree,  comme 
celle  dont  les  restes  se  voient  a  Toulouse,  a  Aries,  et  dans  plusieurs 
villes  d'ltalie.  Ces  tours,  auxquelles  la  tradition  joint  encore  le  nom 
de  leur  premier  possesseur,  donnent  une  grande  idee  de  1'importance 
individuelle  des  riches  bourgeois  du  moyen  age,  importance  bien  autre 
que  la  petite  consideration  dont  ils  jouirent  plus  tard  sous  le  regime 
monarchique.  Get  appareil  seigneurial  n'etait  pas,  dans  les  grandes 
villes  de  commune,  le  privilege  exclusif  d'un  petit  nombre  d'hommes, 
seuls  puissants  au  milieu  d'une  multitude  pauvre :  Avignon,  au  com- 
mencement du  treizieme  siecle,  ne  cornptait  pas  moins  de  trois  cents 
maisons  garnies  de  tours." 

This  last  fact  rests  upon  the  authority  of  Matthew  Paris.  On  the 
defeat  of  the  Commune,  the  order  was  given  to  raze  their  fortifications. 
The  king  himself,  Louis  le  Jeune  (A.D.  1155),  distinctly  decreed  in  the 
sentence  which  he  pronounced  against  them,  that  within  a  given  time 
the  towers,  walls  and  enclosures  with  which  they  had  fortified  their 
houses  should  be  demolished.  But  the  burghers  had  no  such  inten- 
tion ;  "  ces  signes  de  liberte  leur  etaient  plus  chers  que  leur  argent ; " 
and  they  continued  to  resist  even  after  the  Pope  himself  had  written  to 
the  king  of  France  to  demand  the  execution  of  the  decree.  At  length 
however  the  Abbot  of  Vezelay  took  the  matter  into  his  own  hands.  "II 
fit  venir,  des  domaines  de  son  eglise,  une  troupe  nombreuse  de  jeunes 
paysans  serfs,  qu'il  arma  aussi  bien  qu'il  put,  et  auxquels  il  donna  pour 
commandants  les  plus  determines  de  ses  moines.  Cette  troupe  marcha 
droit  a  la  maison  de  Simon,  et  ne  trouvant  aucune  resistance,  se  mit  a 
deinolir  la  tour  et  les  murailles  crenelees,  tandisque  le  maitre  de  la 
maison,  calme  et  fier  comme  un  Romain  du  temps  de  la  republique, 


en.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  93 


the  royal  licence  to  a  subject  is  a  grant  of 
rsed  and  ^E^elfieed    to    the  bishop   of  Worcester, 
about  880,  which  recites  that  they  built  a  burh  or 
fortress  for  him,  in  his  city,  probably  to  defend  his 
cathedral  in  those  stormy  days  of  Danish  ravage1. 
In  very  early  times  there  may  have  been  fortresses 
belonging  to  private  persons  ;   this  may  be  inferred 
from  names   of  places  such    as    Sulmonnes  burh, 
Sulman's  castle;   and  under  the  later  Anglosaxon 
kings,  various  great  nobles  may  have  obtained  the 
privilege  of  fortifying  their  own  residences,  as  for 
example  we   read  of  Pentecost's  castle   and  Kod- 
berht's  castle  under  Eadweard  the  Confessor2,  an 
example  very  likely  to  have  been  followed  by  the 
powerful  chieftains  of  God  wine's,  Sigeweard's  and 
Leofric's  families  ;  but  the  cases  were  probably  few. 
Of  course  fortresses  built  and  garrisoned  by  the 
king  for  the  public  defence  are  quite  another  mat- 
ter :  these  were  imperial,  and  to  their  construction, 
maintenance   and  repair,   every  estate  throughout 
the  land,  whether  of  fol  eland  or  bocland,  was  in- 


etait  assis  au  coin  du  feu  avec  sa  femme  et  ses  enfants.  Ce  succes,  ob- 
tenu  sans  combat,  decida  la  victoire  en  faveur  de  la  puissance  seigneu- 
riale,  et  ceux  d'entre  les  bourgeois  qui  avaient  des  maisons  fortin'ees 
donnerent  a  1'abbe  des  otages,  pour  garantie  de  la  destruction  de  tous 
leur  ouvrages  de  defense.  '  Alois,'  dit  le  narrateur  ecclesiastique, '  toute 
querelle  fut  terminee,  et  1'Abbaye  de  Vezelay  recouvra  le  libre  exercice 
de  son  droit  de  juridiction  sur  ses  vassaux  rebelles*'  "  Ibid.  pp.  291, 
292. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1075. 

2  Chron.  Sax.  1052.     "  Da  geaxode  Rotberd  arcebisceop  -j  fca  Fren- 
cisce  fteet,  genamon  heora  hors  "J  gewendon,  sume  west  to  Pentecostes 
castele,  sume  nortS  to  Rodberhtes  castele."     However  these  were  fo- 
reigners, a  culpable  complaisance  towards  whom  is  a  grievous  stain 
upon  Eadweard's  otherwise  amiable,  though  weak,  character. 


94 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


evitably  bound,  not  even  excepting  the  demesne 
lands  of  the  king  himself  or  of  the  ecclesiastical 
corporations. 

ROADS  and  CANALS. — There  is  no  very  clear 
evidence  respecting  roads  and  canals,  licence  to 
make  which  was  a  subject  of  grant  by  the  Frank- 
ish  emperors1.  But  except  as  regarded  the  great 
roads  which  were  especially  the  king's,  and  the 
cross  roads,  which  were  the  county's,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  there  was  no  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  state.  Every  landowner  must  have  had  the 
privilege  of  making  private  paths,  large  or  small 
at  his  pleasure,  by  which  access  could  be  given  to 
different  parts  of  his  own  property.  We  do  occa- 
sionally find  roads  mentioned  by  the  name  of  the 
owners,  and  a  common  service  of  the  settlers  on  an 
estate  was  the  liability  to  assist  in  making  a  new 
road  to  the  farm  or  mansion2.  In  an  instance 
already  cited  we  have  seen  an  abbot  of  St.  Augus- 
tine's digging  a  canal  with  the  object  of  diverting 
traffic  from  the  haven  of  Sandwich.  It  may  un- 
hesitatingly be  asserted  that  he  claimed  this  right 
under  his  general  power  as  a  landlord,  and  not  by 
any  special  grant  for  the  purpose :  this  is  evident 
from  the  whole  tenour  of  the  narrative. 

POETS.— Torts  and  Havens  were,  however,  es- 
sentially royalties,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  could  be 
granted  to  religious  houses.  They  were  naturally  in 

1  Bohm.  Reg.  Karol.  Nos.  248,  316. 

2  Rect.  Sing.  Pers.    Thorpe,  i.  432. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  95 

the  king's  hand,  for  this  reason :  in  the  early  times 
of  which  we  treat,  the  stranger  is  looked  upon  as  an 
enemy,  and  every  one  who  does  not  belong  to  the 
association  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  is  primd 
facie  out  of  the  peace  altogether.  This  applies  to 
sailors,  as  well  as  travelling  chapmen  who  wander 
from  mark  to  mark  or  county  to  county ;  and  it  ap- 
plied with  peculiar  force  to  England  after  her  coasts 
became  exposed  to  repeated  invasions  from  the 
North.  Still  as  England  could  not  subsist  without 
foreign  commerce,  and  early  became  alive  to  that 
great  principle  of  her  existence,  a  system  of  what 
we  may  call  navigation  laws  was  established.  The 
bottoms  of  friendly  powers  were  of  course  received 
upon  terms  of  reciprocal  favour,  but  even  strange 
ships  had  the  privilege  of  safety  if  they  made  cer- 
tain harbours,  designated  for  that  purpose.  At  the 
treaty  of  Andover,  in  994,  ^E^elrsed  and  his  witan 
agreed,  that  every  merchant-ship  that  voluntarily 
came  into  port  should  be  in  the  peace ;  and  even 
if  it  were  driven  into  port  (whether  by  force  or  by 
stress  of  weather  is  not  specified),  and  there  were  a 
fri^burh,  asylum,  or  building  in  the  peace,  in  which 
the  men  took  refuge,  they  and  their  ship  and  cargo 
should  enjoy  the  peace 1.  It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted 
that  the  king  had  the  power  of  declaring  what  ports 
should  be  gefri^Sod  or  in  the  peace  ;  and  as  this  pri- 
vilege would  necessarily  draw  many  advantages  to 
any  harbour  that  possessed  it,  we  can  reasonably 
conclude  that  it  was  made  a  source  of  profit,  both 

1  M  elr.  ii.  §  2.     Thorpe,  i.  284. 


96 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK.  n. 


by  the  king  and  those  to  whom  he  might  think  fit 
to  grant  it. 

WARDSHIP  and  MAKRIAGK— Wardship  and 
Marriage  appear  to  have  been  royalties;  we  must 
however  believe  them  to  have  been  confined  to  the 
children  and  widows  of  the  thanes  or  comites,  and 
to  be  a  deduction  from  the  principles  of  the  Comi- 
tatus  itself. 

In  the  secular  law  of  Cnut  there  is  a  series  of 
provisions,  extending  from  the  70th  to  the  75th 
clause,  which  can  only  be  looked  upon  in  the  light 
of  alleviations,  and  which  in  the  70th  clause  the 
king  himself  declares  so  to  be.  From  the  nature 
of  the  relief  thus  afforded,  we  may  infer  that  the 
royal  officers  had  exercised  their  powers  in  a  man- 
ner oppressive  to  the  subject.  Accordingly  the 
king  and  his  witan  proceed  to  regulate  the  volun- 
tary nature  of  the  feormfultum,  the  legal  amount 
of  heriot,  the  descent  of  property  in  the  case  of  in- 
testacy, and  the  kings's  guardianship  of  the  same ; 
they  protect  the  widow  and  heirs  against  vexatious 
suits,  by  providing  that  they  shall  not  be  sued,  if 
the  lord  and  father  had  remained  undisturbed,  and 
lastly  they  regulate  what  appear  to  me  to  be  the 
rights  of  wardship  and  marriage. 

"  And  let  every  widow  remain  for  a  twelvemonth 
without  a  husband;  then  let  her  do  her  pleasure. 
But  if  within  the  year  she  choose  a  husband,  let 
her  forfeit  the  morgengyfu  and  all  the  property  she 
had  through  her  first  husband,  and  let  her  near- 
est kin  take  the  land  and  property  she  had  before. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  97 

And  let  the  husband  be  liable  in  his  wer  to  the 
king,  or  to  whomsoever  he  may  have  granted  it. 
And  even  if  she  have  been  taken  by  force,  let  her 
forfeit  her  possessions,  unless  she  be  willing  to  go 
home  again  from  the  man,  and  never  become  his 

again And  let  no  one  compel  either  woman 

or  maiden  to  him  whom  she  herself  mislikes,  nor 
for  money  sell  her,  unless  the  suitor  will  give  some- 
thing of  his  own  good  will1." 

This  of  itself  does  not  imply  the  royal  right  of 
marriage;  but  it  becomes  much  more  significant, 
when  we  learn  that  estates  had  been  given  to  influ- 
ential nobles,  for  their  intercession  with  the  king, 
on  behalf  of  profitable  alliances :  then,  the  circum- 
stances, combined  together,  seem  to  imply  that 
Cnut  desired  to  reform  the  miserable  condition  in 
which  he  found  England,  in  the  hope,  no  doubt, 
by  such  reform  to  consolidate  his  own  power.  The 
evidence  of  what  may  almost  be  called  purchasing 
a  marriage — though  not  in  the  truly  gross  and  vul- 
gar sense  of  such  purchases  among  those  whom 
writers  of  romances  represent  as  the  chivalrous 
Normans, — is  supplied  by  the  monk  of  Ramsey: 
the  instance  dates  from  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century.  In  mentioning  an  estate  of  five  hides  at 
Burwell,  the  chronicler  adds :  "  This  is  the  estate 
which — as  we  find  in  the  very  ancient  English 
charters  referring  to  it — a  certain  man  named  Ead- 
wine,  the  son  of  Othulf,  had  in  old  times  granted 
to  archbishop  Oda,  as  a  reward  for  his  pains  and 
trouble  in  bringing  king  Eadred  to  consent,  that 

1  Cnut,  ii.  §  74,  75. 
VOL.  11.  H 


98 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii 


Eadwine  might  have  leave  to  marry  the  daughter 
of  a  certain  Ulf,whom  he  desired1."  This  Ulf  does 
not,  I  believe,  occur  among  the  signitaries  to  any 
of  the  charters,  unless  the  name  represent  some 
one  of  the  many  Wulfgars  or  Wulflafs  of  the  time: 
but  still  we  must  suppose  him  to  have  been  a  per- 
son of  consideration,  since  a  large  estate  was  given 
for  his  daughter's  marriage.     In  the  absence  of  all 
details  we  cannot  form  any  clear  decision  as  to  the 
royal  right  in  this  respect,  though  the  balance  of 
probability  seems  to  me  to  incline  to  the  view  that 
the  king  had  some  right  of  wardship  and  marriage 
over  the  children  and  widows  of  his  own  thanes  or 
socmen.     This  seems  to  lie  in  the  very  nature  of 
their  relative  position.    With  the  widow  or  child  of 
a  free  man,  it  is  of  course  not  to  be  imagined  that 
the  king  could  interfere ;  but  in  the  time  of  Eadred 
there  were    probably  not   many  free    men  whose 
wealth  rendered  interference  worth  the  trouble. 


HEREGEATWE.  HERTOT.— The  general  na- 
ture of  Heriot  has  been  explained  in  the  First  Book  : 
it  was  there  shown  that  it  arose  from  the  theory  of 
the  comes  having  been  originally  armed  by  the  king, 
to  whom  upon  his  death  the  arms  reverted :  and  in 
imitation  of  this,  Best-head  or  Melius  catallum,  dis- 
tinguished in  our  law  as  Heriot-custom,  was  shown 
to  have  arisen.  But  whatever  may  have  been  its 
origin  or  early  amount, — and  its  earliest  amount 

1  "  Pro  mercede  solicitudinis  et  laboris,  quo  regem  ^Edredum  ad 
consensum  inflexerat,  ut  ei  liceret  filiam  cuiusdam  viri  Ulfi,  quam  con- 
cupiverat,  marital!  sibi  foedere  copulare."  Hist.  Rames.  cap.  23. 


CH.  ii.]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  09 

was  no  doubt  unsettled,  depending  upon  the  will 
of  the  chief  who  might  take  all  or  some  of  his 
thanes'  chattels  at  his  pleasure, — in  process  of  time 
it  became  assessed  at  a  fixed  amount,  according  to 
the  rank  of  the  person  from  whose  estate  it  was 
paid.  The  law  of  Cnut1  which  determined  this 
amount  was  probably  only  a  re-enactment,  or  con- 
firmation of  an  older  custom,  and  appears  to  have 
been  introduced  to  put  an  end  to  disputes  upon  the 
subject ;  it  declares  as  follows  : — 

"  Let  the  heriots  be  as  fits  the  degree.  An  earl's 
as  belongs  to  an  earl's  rank,  viz.  eight  horses,  four 
saddled,  four  unsaddled,  four  helmets,  four  coats- 
of-mail,  eight  spears,  eight  shields,  four  swords 
and  two  hundred  mancuses  of  gold.  From  a  king's 
thane,  of  those  who  are  nearest  to  him,  four  horses, 
two  saddled,  two  unsaddled ;  two  swords,  four 
spears,  four  shields,  a  helmet,  a  coat-of-mail  and 
fifty  mancuses  of  gold.  From  a  medial  thane,  a 
horse  equipped,  and  his  arms ;  or  his  healsfang  in 
Wessex,  and  in  Mercia  and  Eastanglia  two  pounds. 
Among  the  Danes,  the  heriot  of  a  king's  thane  who 
has  his  socn2  is  four  pounds :  if  he  stand  in  nearer 
relation  to  the  king,  two  horses,  one  equipped,  a 
sword,  two  spears,  two  shields  and  fifty  mancuses 
of  gold.  And  from  a  thane  of  the  lower  order,  two 
pounds." 

The  following  are  examples  of  heriots  paid  both 
before  and  after  the  time  of  Cnut. 

The  estate  of  Beodrsed  bishop  of  London  and 


1  Omit,  ii.  §  72.  Thorpe,  i.  414.  2  A  baronial  court. 

H2 


100 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Elmham,  about  940,  paid,  four  horses  the  best  he 
had,  two  swords  the  best  he  had,  four  shields,  four 
spears,  two  hundred  marks  of  red  gold,  two  silver 
cups,  and  his  lands  at  Anceswyr'S,  Illingtun  and 
Earmingtun l. 

In  946-956,  the  estate  of  ^E^elwald  the  ealdor- 
man  paid  four  horses,  four  spears,  four  swords,  four 
shields,  two  rings  each  worth  one  hundred  and 
twenty  mancuses,  two  rings  each  worth  eighty  man- 
cuses  (in  all  four  hundred  mancuses)  and  two  silver 
vessels2. 

About  958,  ^Elfgar  gave  the  king  two  swords 
with  belts,  three  steeds,  three  shields,  three  spears, 
and  two  rings  each  worth  fifty  mancuses  of  gold3. 

The  heriot  of  Beorhtric,  about  962,  was,  four 
horses,  two  equipped,  two  swords  and  belts,  a  ring 
worth  eighty  mancuses  of  gold,  a  sword  of  the 
same  value,  two  falcons,  and  all  his  stag-hounds4. 

The  great  duke  ^Elfheah  of  Hampshire,  965-971, 
gave  to  Eadgar,  who  had  married  his  cousin  ^Elf- 
•SrfS,  duke  Ordgar's  daughter,  the  following  pro- 
perty :  it  is  hard  to  say  how  much  of  it  was  heriot  : 
six  horses  with  their  trappings,  six  swords,  six 
spears,  six  shields,  one  sword  worth  eighty  man- 
cuses of  gold,  one  dish  of  three  pounds,  one  cup  of 
three  pounds,  three  hundred  mancuses  of  gold,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  hides  of  land  at  Wyr$,  and  his 
estates  at  Cocham,  Daecham,  Ceoleswyr'S,  Incge 
nesham,  ^Eglesbyrig  and  Wendofra5. 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  957. 
3  Ibid.  No.  1223. 
5  Ibid.  No.  593. 


2  Ibid.  No.  1173. 
4  Ibid.  No.  492. 


CH.  IL]  THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  101 


ic,  in  997,  paid  two  horses,  one  sword 
and  belt,  two  shields,  two  spears,  and  sixty  marks 
of  gold1. 

Archbishop  jElfric,  996-1006,  devised  to  the 
king,  as  his  heriot,  sixty  helmets,  sixty  coats-of- 
mail,  and  his  best  ship  with  all  her  tackle  and 
stores2. 

^Elfhelm  paid  four  horses,  two  equipped,  four 
shields,  four  spears,  two  swords,  and  one  hundred 
mancuses  of  gold3. 

Wulfsige  paid  two  horses,  one  helmet,  one  coat- 
of-mail,  one  sword,  one  spear  twined  with  gold4. 

The  majority  of  these  cases  belong  to  periods 
previous  to  Cnut's  accession,  but  they  seem  to 
imply  an  assessment  very  similar  to  his  own.  And 
in  this  view  of  the  case,  where  the  payment  had 
become  a  settled  amount  due  from  persons  of  a  par- 
ticular rank,  it  became  possible  for  women  to  be 
charged  with  it,  which  we  accordingly  find.  In  1046 
Wulfgy'S  commences  her  will  by  desiring  that  her 
right  heriot  may  be  paid  to  the  king5:  ^E8el- 
gyfu  in  945  gave  the  king  thirty  mancuses  of  gold, 
two  horses  and  all  her  dogs  6  :  ^Elflsed  left  him  by 
will  her  lands  at  Lamburnan,  Ceolsige  and  Read- 
ingan,  four  rings  worth  two  hundred  mancuses  of 
gold,  four  palls,  four  cups,  four  drinking-horns  and 
four  horses7:  and  lastly  queen  ^Elfgyfu  in  1012 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  699.    This  is  very  nearly  the  exact  heriot. 
who  was  no  friend  to  the  king,  probably  meant  to  give  him  no  doit 
more  than  he  could  legally  claim. 

*  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  716.  3  Ibid.  No.  967. 

4  Ibid.  No.  979.  5  Ibid.  No.  782. 

6  Ibid.  No.  410.  7  Ibid.  No.  685. 


102 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


left  the  king,  six  horses,  six  shields,  six  spears,  one 
cup,  two  rings  worth  one  hundred  and  twenty  man- 
cuses  each,  and  various  lands l.  Taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  case  of  WulfgfS,  these  bequests  ap- 
pear very  like  heriots.  The  heriots  mentioned  in 
Domesday  agree  with  the  details  given  above,  and 
serve  to  show  that  the  right  had  undergone  no 
material  alteration  till  the  time  of  the  Confessor2. 
That  the  Best-head  or  Melius  catallum  was  paid  to 
the  king  by  his  unfree  tenants,  as  well  as  to  other 
lords,  is  probable,  but  we  have  no  instance  of  it3. 
By  the  law  of  Cnut,  the  widow  was  to  have  a  rea- 
sonable time  for  payment  of  the  heriot,  and  it  was 
altogether  remitted  to  the  family  of  him  who  fell 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  721. 

2  Domesd.  Berks.     "  Tanius  vel  miles  regis  dominions  moriens  pro 
relevamento  dimittebat  regi  omnia  arma  sua,  et  equum  imum  cum  sella, 
unurn  sine  sella.     Quod  si  essent  ei  canes  vel  accipitres,  praesen- 
tabantur  regi,  ut  si  vellet,  acciperet." 

3  Fleta,  ii.  cap.  57,  §  1,  2.   "  Imprimis  autein  debet  quilibet  qui  tes- 
taverit  dominum  suum  de  meliori  re  quam  liabuerit  recognoscere,  et 
postea  aecclesiam  de  alia  meliori,  et  in  quibusdam  locis  habet  aeccle- 
sia  melius  animal  de  consuetudine,  in  quibusdam  secundum  vel  tertium 
nielius,  et  in  quibusdam  nihil :  et  ideo  observanda  est  consuetude  loci." 
§  2.  "Item  de  morte  uxoris  alicuius  viri,  dum  vir  superstes  fuerit,  de 
toto  grege  communi  secundum  melius  averium,  quasi  de  parte  sua :  sed 
hoc  non  nisi  de  perniissione  et  gratia  viri."     This  Melius  catallum, 
Bestehaupt  or  Best-head  was  in  fact  a  servile  due :  but  in  this  sense  it 
was  an  alleviation ;  for  strictly  speaking  the  lord  could  take  the  whole 
inheritance  of  his  unfree  tenant.  In  1252  Margaret  Countess  of  Flanders 
gave  this  alleviation  to  the  serfs  of  the  crown :  "Tous  les  serfs  demeu- 
rant  en  Flandre,  sous  la  justice  propre  de  la  comtesse,  furent  affranchis 
de  servitude  en  1252,  a  charge  de  payer  par  homme  trois  deniers,  et 
par  femme  un  denier  annuellement ;  et  le  droit  qu'elle  avait  a  la  moitie 
des  meubles  en  catteux  des  serfs  morts,  fut  reduit  au  meilleur  cattel, 
[melius  catallum]  autre  que  maison  ou  bete  de  somnie."     Warnkouig. 
Hist.  Fland.  i.  259.     On  this  subject  generally  see  Nelson,  Lex  Ma- 
neriorum,  p.  154, 


CH.  ii.]  THE  EIGHTS  OF  ROYALTY.  103 

bravely  fighting  in  the  field  before  the  presence  of 
his  lord. 

It  appears  from  what  has  been  said  in  this  chap- 
ter that  the  kings  were  provided  very  sufficiently 
with  the  means  of  maintaining  their  dignity :  the 
benefactions  which  they  were  enabled  to  make  out 
of  the  folcland  relieved  their  private  estates  from 
the  burthen  of  supporting  the  thanes,  clerical  and 
lay,  who  flocked  to  their  service.  Still  there  must 
have  been  a  constant  drain  upon  their  possessions ; 
and  many  of  the  regalia  became  lost  to  the  crown 
by  successive  alienations.  It  is  true  that  they  were 
generally  purchased  at  a  high  price,  but  in  this 
case  the  king  who  sold  them  was  the  only  gainer: 
he  secured  considerable  sums  for  himself,  but  he 
impoverished  all  his  successors  to  a  much  greater 
amount.  The  loans  for  which  we  occasionally  find 
him  indebted  to  his  prelates,  show  how  completely 
at  times  the  crown  had  been  pillaged,  as  well  as 
who  were  the  principal  sharers  in  the  plunder.  The 
attempt  to  draw  in  lands  and  privileges  which  had 
once  been  alienated,  was  questionable  in  policy  and 
harsh  to  the  innocent  holders;  but  it  does  not 
always  seem  to  have  been  viewed  impartially  even 
by  those  least  concerned ;  we  may  however  now 
express  our  conviction  that  in  many  cases  the  alie- 
nations themselves  had  been  made  improperly  and 
without  sufficient  authority;  and,  that  if  it  was 
hard  upon  an  abbot  or  bishop  to  lose  what  his  pre- 
decessor had  gained,  it  was  very  hard  upon  a  king 
to  be  without  what  his  predecessor  had  unjustly 
and  often  illegally  squandered. 


104 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD. 

THE  Anglosaxon  Court  appears  to  have  been  mo- 
delled upon  the  same  plan  as  that  of  the  Frankish 
Emperors :  our  documents  do  not  however  permit 
us  to  judge  whether  this  was  the  case  before  a 
sufficient  intercourse  had  taken  place  to  render  a 
positive  imitation  probable. 

It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that,  from  the  very  first 
establishment  of  the  Comitatus,  the  possession  of 
those  household  offices  was  coveted,  which  brought 
the  holder  into  closer  personal  connection  with  the 
prince :  and  more  or  less  of  dependence  could  be 
of  little  moment  with  those  who  had  erected  into  a 
system  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  the  holiest  of  all 
possessions,  their  freedom  of  action.  Hence  we  can 
readily  account  for  the  assumption  by  men  nobly 
born  of  offices  about  the  royal  person,  which  were 
at  first  directly  and  immediately  menial 1.  Nor, 
as  the  opportunities  of  personal  aggrandisement 
through  favouritism  or  affection  were  multiplied, 
does  it  seem  strange  to  us  that  these  offices  should 
assume  a  character  of  dignity  and  real  power,  which, 

1  Speaking  of  the  Pincerna  regis  ^E-Selstani,  one  of  the  great  officers 
of  the  Household,  in  the  early  part  of  the  tenth  century,  William  of 
Malmesbury  says,  "Itaque  cum  forte  die  solenni  vinum  propinaret,"  etc. 
Gest.  Reg.  §  ii.  139. 


CH.  m.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  105 

however  little  in  consonance  with  their  original 
intention,  yet  made  them  objects  of  ambition  with 
the  wealthy  and  the  noble.  We  do  not  any  longer 
wonder  at  the  struggles  of  dukes  and  barons  for 
the  offices  of  royal  cupbearer  at  a  coronation,  or 
Steward  or  Chamberlain  of  the  Household,  because 
time  and  the  attribution  of  judicial  or  administra- 
tive functions  have  given  those  offices  a  distinction 
which  at  the  outset  they  did  not  possess :  and  we 
see  without  surprise  the  electors  of  Germany  per- 
sonally serving  at  his  table  the  member  of  their 
body  whom  they  had  invested  with  imperial  rank ; 
and,  when  they  fixed  the  throne  hereditarily  in  him, 
providing  for  the  succession  in  their  own  families 
of  Butlers,  Stewards,  Marshals  or  Chancellors  of 
the  empire. 

As  the  progress  of  society  drew  larger  and  larger 
numbers  of  men  into  the  circle  of  princely  influ- 
ence, and,  by  withdrawing  them  from  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  free  courts,  rendered  a  systematic  esta- 
blishment of  the  Lord's  court  more  necessary,  the 
officers  who  were  charged  with  the  superintendence 
of  the  various  royal  vassals,  rose  immeasurably  in 
the  social  scale.  Thus  the  Major  Domus  or  Mayor 
of  the  palace,  at  first  only  a  steward,  who  had  to 
regulate  the  affairs  of  the  Household,  gradually  as- 
sumed the  management  of  those  of  the  kingdom, 
and  ended  by  placing  on  his  own  head  the  crown 
which  he  had  filched  from  his  master's.  So  was  it 
with  the  rest. 

The  four  great  officers  of  the  Court  and  House- 
hold in  the  oldest  German  kingdoms  are  the 


106 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Chamberlain,  the  Marshal,  the   Steward  and  the 
Butler. 

The  names  by  which  the  Chamberlain  was  desig- 
nated are  Hrsegel  )?egn,  literally  thane  or  servant 
of  the  wardrobe,  Cubicularius,  Camerarius,  Biir- 
J?egn,  perhaps  sometimes  Dispensator,  and  The- 
saurarius  or  Hordere.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  his 
exact  duties  in  the  Anglosaxon  Court,  but  they 
probably  differed  little  from  those  of  the  corre- 
sponding officer  among  other  German  populations, 
and  there  is  reason  to  compare  those  of  the  Frank- 
ish  Cubicularius  with  the  functions  of  the  Comites 
sacrarum  largitionum  and  rerum  privatarum  of  the 
Roman  emperors.  Hence  we  may  presume  that  he 
had  the  general  management  of  the  royal  property, 
as  well  as  the  immediate  regulation  of  the  house- 
hold 1.  In  this  capacity  he  may  have  been  the  re- 
cognized chief  of  the  cyninges  tungerefan  or  king's 
bailiffs,  on  the  several  estates ;  for  we  find  no  traces 
of  any  districtual  or  missatic  authority  to  whom 
these  officers  could  account.  At  the  same  time  it  ap- 
pears that  this  officer  was  not  what  we  now  call  the 
Lord  Great  Chamberlain,  but  rather  the  Lord  Cham- 
berlain of  the  Household,  and  that  more  than  one 
officer  of  the  same  rank  existed  at  the  same  time  2. 

1  Eichhorn,  i.  197.  §  25,  b.      Eicliliorn  argues  the  first  from  a  pas- 
sage in  Greg.  Turon.  vii.  24.     The  latter  portion  of  the  Chamberlain's 
duties  is  denned  by  Hincrnar  of  Rheims,  §  22.      "  De  honestate  yero 
palatii,  seu  specialiter  ornamento  regali,  necnon  et  de  donis  annuis  mi- 
litum,  absque  cibo  et  potu;  vel  equis,  ad  lieginam  praecipue,  et  sub  ipsa 
ad   Camerarium  pertinebat:  et  sollicitudo  erat,  ut  tempore  congruo 
semper  futura  prospicerent,  ne  quid,  dum  opus  esset,  defuisset.     De 
donis  vero  diversarum  legationum  ad  Camerarium  aspiciebat." 

2  "Cubicularios  regis  duos."     Will.  Malm.,  ii.  §  180. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  10 

Hence  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  the  dignity  of  the 
office  was  comparable  to  that  of  the  Lord  Chamber- 
lain  at  present,  with  the  great  and  various  powers 
and  duties  which  are  now  committed  to  that  distin- 
guished member  of  the  Court.  Among  the  nobles 
who  held  this  office  I  find  the  following  named : — 

^Elfric  thesaurarius,       under  JElfred,  892  l. 

^E^elsige  camerarius,        ...  Eadgar,  96 3  2. 

Leofric  hrsegtyegn,  ...  ^E^elred,  1006  3. 

Eadric  dispensator  regis,  ...  Hardacnut,  1040 4. 

Hugelinus  camerarius,      ...  Eadweard,  1044 5. 

cubicularius    ...  Eadweard,  1060  6. 

stiweard,          ...  Eadweard7. 

bur)?egn  ...  Eadweard8. 

The  Marshal  (among  the  Franks  Marescalcus,  and 
Comes  stabuli)  was  properly  speaking  the  Master 
of  the  Horse,  and  had  charge  of  everything  con- 
nected with  the  royal  equipments,  in  that  depart- 
ment. But  as  he  gradually  became  the  head  of 
the  active  and  disposable  military  force  of  the  pa- 
lace, he  must  be  looked  upon  rather  as  the  general 
of  the  Household  troops.  It  was  thus  that  the 
high  military  dignity  of  Constable,  or  Grand  Mar- 
shal, by  degrees  developed  itself.  This  office  was 
held  by  nobles  of  the  highest  rank,  and  frequently 
by  several  at  once, — a  sufficient  explanation  of  a 
fact  which  otherwise  would  appear  strange,  viz. 
that  we  never  find  the  royal  power  endangered  by 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  320.  2  Ibid.  No.  1246. 

3  Ibid.  No.  715.  4  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1040. 

5  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  771, 810.  6  Ibid.  No.  809. 

7  Ibid.  No.  899,  very  doubtful.  8  Ibid.  No.  904. 


108 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


that  of  this  influential  minister.  The  Anglosaxon 
titles  are  Steallere  and  Hors)>egn,  Stabulator  and 
Strator  regis.  We  have  no  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  the  office  before  the  close  of  the  ninth  century, 
and  it  might  therefore  be  imagined  that  it  was 
introduced  into  England  after  the  establishment  of 
the  family  of  Ecgberht  had  familiarized  our  coun- 
trymen with  the  Frankish  court  and  its  customs, 
did  we  not  find  it  as  an  essential  institution  in  all 
German  courts,  of  all  periods.  Among  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Marshals  the  following  names  occur : — 

Ecgwulf  strator  regis :  cyninges  horsfegn,  an.  897 1. 

Dored  steallere,  about  1020  2. 

E'sgar  steallere,  1044-1066  3. 

Eobert  films  Wimarc  steallere  4. 

^Elfstan  steallere  5. 

Eadgar  steallere,  1060-1066  6. 

Raulf  steallere,  1053-1066  7. 

Bondig  steallere,  1060-1066  8. 

stabulator9. 

EadnoS  steallere  10. 

Lyfing  steallere  n. 

Alfred  regis  strator,  1052  12. 

Osgod  Clapa  steallere,  1047  13. 

The  Steward,  usually  called  Dapifer  or  Discifer 
regis,  answered  to  the  Seneschal  of  the  Franks  (the 

1  Flor.  Wig.  an.  897.    Chron.  Saxon,  eod.  an. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1328.  3  Ibid.  Nos.  771,  828,  855,  864. 
4  Ibid.  Nos.  771,  822,  828,  859,  871,  904,  956,  1338. 

6  Ibid.  No.  773.  6  Ibid.  No.  809. 

7  Ibid.  Nos.  822,  956,  1338.  8  Ibid.  No.  822. 
9  Ibid.  No.  945.                              10  Ibid.  No.  845. 

11  Ibid.  Nos.  956, 1338.  12  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1052. 

13  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1047. 


ier,  ]  , 

.f      >  ...     Eadweard,  1060  4. 

iier,  J 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  109 

Truchsess  of  the  German  empire)  ;  his  especial  busi- 
ness was  to  superintend  all  that  appertained  to  the 
service  of  the  royal  table,  under  which  we  must 
probably  include  the  arrangements  for  the  general 
support  of  the  household,  both  at  the  ordinary  and 
temporary  residences  of  the  king.  His  Anglosaxon 
name  was  Disc)?egn,  or  thane  of  the  table  ;  and  I 
find  the  following  nobles  recorded  as  holding  this 
office  :  — 

Eata  dux  et  regis  discifer,  under  Offa,  785  1. 
Wulfgar  discifer,  .  .  .     Eadwig,  959  2. 

JESelmaer  disc^egn,  .  .  .     Weired,  1006  3. 

Eaulf  dapifer, 

,     .f 
Lsgar  dapii 

Atsur  regis  dapifer,  •) 

.,  ...     Eadweard,  1062  5. 

Yfing  regis  dapifer,  j 

In  the  year  946  Florence  tells  us  of  a  dapifer 
regis,  whom  he  does  not  name.  The  queen  and 
princes  of  the  blood  had  also  a  similar  officer  for  the 
management  of  their  households.  In  1060  we  read 
of  Godwine,  reginae  dapifer  6,  and  ^Eftelred's  son 
^E'Selstan  had  a  Disc]?egn  named  ^Elfmger  7.  High 
as  this  office  was,  we  yet  cannot  expect  to  find  in  it 
that  overwhelming  power  wielded  in  later  times  by 
the  Seneschal  or  Dapifer  Angliae,  —  a  power  which 
might  easily  have  converted  the  Grandmesnils 
and  De  Montforts  into  the  Ebroins  or  Pepins  of  a 
newly  established  dynasty,  and  after  their  fall  was 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  149.  2  Ibid.  No.  1224. 

3  Ibid.  No.  715.  4  Ibid.  No.  808. 

5  Ibid.  No.  813.  6  Ibid.  No.  813. 
7  Ibid.  No.  722. 


110 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


wisely  retained  in  the  royal  family  by  our  kings. 
We  have  now,  as  is  well  known,  only  a  Lord  High 
Steward,  or  Major  domus,  on  particular  occasions, 
for  which  he  is  especially  created  :  but  the  Lord 
Steward  of  the  Household  is  an  officer  of  great 
power  and  high  dignity  in  the  Court  of  our  kings. 
A  Major  domus  regiae  occurs,  as  far  as  I  know,  but 
once  in  our  Ante-Norman  history,  and  may  there 
probably  denote  only  the  dapifer  or  seneschal  :  he 
is  mentioned  by  Florence,  an.  1040,  as  "  Stir,  major 
domus  .....  magnae  dignitatis  vir  ";  but  we  hear 
nothing  more  of  him,  or  of  any  such  influence  as  the 
corresponding  high  officer  exercised  in  the  Frankish 
court.  The  title  Regiae  procurator  aulae,  borne  by 
the  great  Esgar,  whom  we  have  also  seen  among 
the  Marshals,  may  very  likely  only  refer  to  his 
office  of  dapifer1,  which,  from  the  list  given  above, 
it  will  be  evident  that  he  held. 

The  last  great  officer  is  the  Pincerna,  in  Germany 
the  Schenk  or  Buticularius,  —  the  Butler.  What  his 
particular  duties  were,  beyond  his  personal  ser- 
vice at  the  royal  board,  and  no  doubt  his  general 
superintendence  of  the  royal  cellars,  we  cannot 
now  discover  ;  but  the  office  was  one  of  the  high- 
est dignity,  and  was  held  by  nobles  of  the  loftiest 
birth  and  greatest  consideration.  O'slac,  a  direct 
descendant  from  the  royal  Jutish  blood  of  Stuff  and 
Wihtgar,  was  the  pincerna  of  king  J^Selwulf  ;  and 
by  this  prince's  daughter,  "  femina  nobilis  ingenio, 
nobilis  et  genere,"  —  his  first  wife  O'sburh,  — 


Cod.  Dipl.  No.  813. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  Ill 

wulf  became  the  father  of  JElfred  1.  The  Anglo- 
saxon  name  of  this  officer  may  have  been  Byrele, 
or  Scenca,  but  I  am  not  aware  of  its  occurrence. 
The  following  are  among  the  Pincerriae  mentioned. 

Dudda  pincernus,  about  780  2. 
Sigewulf  pincerna,  892  3. 
^E^elsige  pincerna,  959  4. 
Wulfgar  pincerna,  1000  5. 
Wigod  regis  pincerna,  1062  6. 

The  queen,  as  she  had  a  dapifer,  had  also  a  pin- 
cerna :  in  1062,  Herdingus  is  reported  to  have  held 
that  office7. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  offices  were 
entirely  Palatine  or  domestic,  that  is  that  they  were 
household  dignities,  and  did  not  appertain  to  the 
general  administration.  Only  when  the  spirit  and 
feeling  of  the  comitatus  had  completely  prevailed 
over  the  older  free  organization,  did  they  rise  into 
an  importance  which,  throughout  the  course  of 
mediaeval  history,  we  find  continually  on  the  in- 
crease. They  were  the  grades  in  the  comitatus  of 
which  Tacitus  himself  speaks,  which  depended 
upon  the  gcod  pleasure  of  the  prince:  and  with 
the  power  of  the  prince  their  power  and  dignity 
varied.  The  functionaries  who  held  them  were  the 
heads  of  different  departments  to  which  belonged 
all  the  vassals,  leudes  orjfideles  of  the  king:  and  as 
by  degrees  the  freemen  perished  away,  and  every 

1  Asser,  an.  849.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  148. 

3  Ibid.  No.  320.  4  Ibid.  No.  1224. 

5  Ibid.  No.  1294.  6  Ibid.  No.  813. 
7  Ibid.  No.  813. 


112  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

one  gladly  rushed  to  throw  himself  into  a  state  of 
thaneship,   the  trusted   and  familiar  friends  of  the 
prince  became  the  most  powerful  agents  of  his  ad- 
ministration :  till  the  feudal  system  having  seized 
on  everything,  converted  these  court-functions  also 
into  hereditary  fiefs,  and  rendered  their    holders 
often  powerful  enough  to  make  head  against  the 
authority  of  the  crown  itself.     As  long  as  a  vestige 
of  the  free  constitution  remained,  we  hear  but  little 
of  the  court  offices:  what  they  became  upon  its 
downfall  is  known  to  every  reader  of  history.     It 
seems  to   me  improbable   that  Godwine,    or  Ha- 
rald,  or  Leofric  or  Sigeward  should  ever  have  filled 
them  :  these  men  were  ealdormen  or  dukes,  gerefan, 
civil  and  military  administrators ;  but  not   officers 
of  the  royal  household,  powerful  and  dignified  as 
these  might  be.     It  is  probable  that  the  first  and 
most  important  of  their  duties  was  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  to  the  king's  socmen  in  their  various 
departments ;  from  which  in  later  times  were  clearly 
derived  the  extensive  powers  and  attributions  of 
the  several  royal  courts :  but  as  the  intimate  friends 
and  cherished  counsellors  of  the  king,  they  must 
have  possessed  an  influence  whose  natural  tendency 
was  to  complete   that   great  change  in  the  social 
state,  which  causes  of  a  more  general  nature, — in- 
creasing population,  commerce  and  the  disturbance 
of  foreign  and  civil  discord, — were  hurrying  relent- 
lessly onward. 

In  various  situations  of  trust  and  authority, 
either  by  the  side  of  these  officers,  or  subordinated 
to  them,  we  find  a  number  of  other  persons  under 


CH.  IIL]      THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  113 

different  titles.  Among  these  are  the  clergymen 
who  acted  as  clerks  or  notaries  in  the  imperial 
chancery.  The  Frankish  court  numbered  among 
its  members  a  functionary  of  the  highest  rank,  and 
always  a  clergyman,  from  the  very  necessity  of  the 
case,  who  went  by  the  name  of  Apocrisiarius,  Ar- 
chicapellanus,  Capellanus  x,  or  at  an  earlier  period, 
of  Referendarius  2  ;  at  a  later  again,  of  Archicancel- 
larius,  because  he  had  a  subordinate  officer  or  de- 
puty commonly  called  the  Cancellarius.  He  was 
the  head  of  those  whose  business  it  was  to  prepare 
writs  and  other  legal  instruments,  and  who  went 
by  the  general  names  of  Notarii  or  Tabelliones  3. 
In  a  state  which  admitted  of  what  are  now  called 
Personal  laws,  that  is,  where  each  man  might  be 
judged,  not  according  to  the  law  of  the  place  in 
which  he  was  settled,  but  that  of  his  parents,  that 
under  which  he  was  born, — where  Frank,  Burgun- 
dian,  Alaman  and  Roman  might  claim  each  to  be 
tried  and  judged  by  Frankish,  Burgundian,  Alama- 
nic  or  Roman  law  respectively,  whatever  might  be 
the  prevalent  character  of  the  territory  in  which  he 
was  domiciled, — such  an  officer  was  indispensable. 
The  administration  of  the  customary,  unwritten 

1  Hincmar.  §  32. 

2  "  Qui  referendarius  ideo  est  dictus,  quod  ad  eum  universae  publicae 
deferentur  conscriptiones,  ipseque  eas  annulo  regis,  sive  sigillo  ab  eo 
sibi  commisso  muniret  seu  primaret."     Aimo.    Gest.   Franc,   iv.  41. 
Eichhorn,  i.  194,  note  f.  §  25,  b. 

3  "  Apocrisiario  sociebatur  suramus  cancellarius,  qui  a  secretis  olim 
appellabatur,  erantque  illi  subiecti  prudentes  et  intelligentes  ac  fideles 
viri,  qui  praecepta  regia  absque  imraoderata  cupiditatis  venalitate  scri- 
berent,  et  secreta  illius  fideliter  custodirent."  Hincmar.  §  16.  Eichliorn, 
loc.  cit. 

VOL.  II.  I 


114  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

law  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  might  have  been  left  to 
Teutonic  officers  ;  but  what  was  to  be  done  when 
a  Provincial  claimed  the  application  to  his  case 
of  the  maxims  and  provisions  of  Roman  jurispru- 
dence I  What  was  to  be  done  when  a  collision  of 
principles  and  a  conflict  of  laws  took  place,  and 
must  be  provided  for  I  A  clergyman,  whose  own 
nation,  whatever  it  might  be,  merged  in  the  Roman 
per  clerimlem  honorem x,  must  necessarily  become  a 
principal  officer  of  a  state  which  numbered  both 
Eomans  and  clergymen  among  its  subjects ;  and 
hence  the  Apocrisiarius  had  a  seat  in  the  Carolin- 
gian  parliament  2,  as  well  as  in  the  Council  of  the 
Household,  and  ultimately  became  the  principal  mi- 
nister for  the  affairs  of  the  clergy  3.  But  no  such 
necessity  existed  in  England,  w^here  there  was  no 
system  of  conflicting  laws,  and  where  the  use  of 
professional  notaries  was  unknown4,  and  I  therefore 
see  no  a  priori  probability  of  there  having  been  any 
such  officer  as  the  Referendarius  or  Apocrisiarius 
in  our  courts.  Nor  till  the  reign  of  Ead\veard  the 
Confessor  is  there  the  slightest  historical  evidence 
in  favour  of  such  an  office 5 :  under  this  prince 
however,  whose  predilection  for  Norman  customs  is 

1  tc  Landulfus  et  Petrus  clericus  germani,  ....  qui  profess!  sumus  ex 
natione  nostra  legem  vivere  Langobardorum,  sed  ego  Petrus  clericus 
per  clericalem  honorem  lege  videor  vivere  Romana."  Lupi.  p.  223,  cited 
by  Savigny,  Rom.  Recht.  i.  120. 
j.    2  Hincmar.  §  16,  19,  21.     Db'ninges,  Deut.  Staatsr.  p.  24  seq. 

3  Eichhorn,  §  25,  b.  i.  195. 

4  "  Quoniam  tabellionum  usus  in  regno  Angliae  non  habetur."  Mat. 
Paris,  Hen.  III. 

6  In  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  3,  4,  an  Angemundus  referendarius  is  men- 
tioned, but  these  two  charters  are  glaring  forgeries. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  115 

notorious,  it  is  not  improbable  that  some  change 
may  have  taken  place  in  this  respect,  and  that  a 
gradual  approximation  to  the  continental  usage 
may  have  been  found.  The  occurrence  therefore 
of  a  Cancellarius,  Sigillarius  and  Notarius  among 
his  household  does  not  appear  matter  of  great  sur- 
prise, and  may  be  admitted  as  genuine,  if  we  are 
only  careful  not  to  confound  the  first  officer  with 
that  great  functionary  whom  we  now  call  the  Lord 
High  Chancellor  of  the  realm.  We  are  told  that, 
among  his  innovations,  Eadvveard  attempted  to  in- 
troduce the  use  of  seals ;  the  uniform  tenor  of  his 
writs  certainly  renders  it  not  improbable  that  he  had 
also  notaries  or  professional  clerks,  and  I  can  there- 
fore admit  the  probability  of  his  having  appointed 
some  faithful  chaplain  to  act  as  his  chancellor,  that 
is,  to  keep  his  seal, — though  not  yet  used  for  public 
instruments, — and  to  manage  the  royal  notarial  esta- 
blishment. There  are  many  persons  named  as  royal 
chaplains  ;  some,  whose  successive  appointments 
to  bishoprics  appeared  to  our  simple  forefathers  to 
encroach  too  much  upon  the  proper  and  canonical 
mode  of  election.  Among  them  are  the  following : — 

Eadsige  capellanus,  1038  1. 

Stigandus  capellanus,          1044  2. 
Heremannus  capellanus,     1045  3. 
Wulfwig  cancellarius,    Eadweard,  1045  4. 
Keginboldus  sigillarius,         ...  ...    5. 

1  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1038,  Abp.  Canterbury. 

2  Ibid.  an.  1044,  Abp.  Canterbury. 

3  Ibid.  an.  1045,  Bp.  Ranisbury.  4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  779. 
5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  810. 

i  2 


116 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  IT. 


Reginboldus  cancellarius,  Eadweard,  10451. 

JElfgeat  notarius,  ...            . . .  2. 

Petrus  capellanus,  ...            ...   3. 

Baldwinus  capellanus,  ...            ...  4. 

Osbernus  capellanus,  ...            ...  5. 

Rodbertus  capellanus,  ...            ...   6. 

Heca  capellanus,  1047  7. 

Ulf  capellanus,  1049  8. 

Cynesige  capellanus,  1051  9. 

Wilhelmus  capellanus,  1051 10. 

Godmannus  capellanus,  1053  n. 

Gisa  capellanus,  1060  12. 

Eadweard's  queen  Eadgyfu  and  her  brother  Ha- 
rald  had  also  their  chaplains ;  Walther,  afterwards 
bishop  of  Hereford13,  and  Leofgar  who  preceded  him 
in  the  same  see  14,  and  who,  being  probably  of  the 
same  mind  as  his  noble  and  warlike  lord,  was  no 
sooner  a  bishop  than  "  he  forsook  his  chrism  and 
rood,  his  spiritual  weapons,  and  took  to  his  spear 
and  sword,"  and  so  going  to  the  field  against  Griffin 
the  Welsh  king,  was  slain,  and  many  of  his  priests 
with  him.  The  establishment  of  chaplains  in  the 
royal  household  is,  of  course,  of  the  highest  anti- 
quity ;  it  is  probable  that  they  were  preceded  there 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  813,  824,  825,  891. 

2  Ibid.  No.  825. 
4  Ibid.  No.  813. 

6  Ibid.  No.  825,  Abp.  Canterbury. 

7  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1047,  Bp.  Selsey. 

8  Ibid.  an.  1049,  Bp.  Leicester. 
10  Ibid.  an.  1051,  Bp.  London. 
12  Ibid.  an.  1060,  Bp.  Wells. 

14  Ibid.  an.  1056,  Chron.  1056. 


3  Ibid.  Nos.  813,  825. 
5  Ibid.  No.  825. 


9  Ibid.  an.  1051,  Abp.  York. 
11  Ibid.  an.  1053. 
13  Ibid.  an.  1060. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  OOUET  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  117 

by  Pagan  priests,  and  formed  a  necessary  part  of  the 
royal  comitatus  in  all  ages  1. 

Among  the  royal  officers  was  also  the  Pedissequus 
or  as  he  is  sometimes  called  Pedessessor,  whose 
functions  I  cannot  nearer  define,  unless  he  were  a 
king's  messenger.  The  following  instances  occur  :  — 
^Eftelheah  pedessessor,  who  appears  to  have  been 
a  duke  2  :  Bola  pedisecus  3  :  ^Elfred  pedisecus  4. 
Eastmund  pedisecus  5.  In  Beowulf,  Hunfer'S  the 
orator  is  said  to  sit  at  the  king's  feet,  "  8e  set 
fotum  saet  frean  scyldinga."  (1.  994.) 

In  the  year  1040,  Hardacnut's  carnifex  or  exe- 
cutioner is  described  as  a  person  of  great  dignity  6. 
Other  titles  are  also  enumerated,  some  of  which  ap- 
pear to  denote  offices  in  the  royal  household  :  thus 
we  find  Radulfus  aulicus  7,  Bundinus  palatinus  8, 
Deormod  cellerarius  9,  Wifer$  claviger  10,  Leofsige 
signifer11,  ^Elfwine  sticcere12,  ^E^Selric  bigenga13.  It 
is  uncertain  whether  the  following  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  regular  members  of  the  court,  or  whether 
their  presence  was  merely  accidental,  on  a  parti- 
cular occasion  :  Brihtric  and  ^Elfgar,  consiliarii  14, 
15  and  Cyneweard  16  praepositi,  Godricus  tri- 


1  "  Desiderante  rege  [AlclifrrS]  ut  vir  tantae  eruditionis  ac  religionis 
sibi  specialiter  indiyiduo  comitatu  sacerdos  esset  et  doctor."  Beda, 
H.  E.  ii.  19.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  196,  199,  207. 

3  Ibid.  No.  220.  4  Ibid.  No.  227.  5  Ibid.  No.  281. 

6  "^Elfricum  Eboracensem  archiepiscopum,  Godwinum  comitem,  Stir 
majorem  domus,  Thrond  suum  carnificem,  et  alios  magnae  dignitatis 
viros,  Lundoniam  misit."  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1040. 

7  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  813.  8  Ibid.  No.  813. 
9  Ibid.  No.  320.                                           10  Ibid.  No.  346. 

n  Ibid.  No.  346.  12  Ibid.  No.  799. 

13  Ibid.  No.  745.  14  Ibid.  No.  811. 

15  Ibid.  Nos.  792,  793,  800.  16  Ibid.  Nos.  792,  800. 


118 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


bunus *,  Aldred  theloniarius  2.  Nor  is  it  absolutely 
demonstrable  that  those  who  claimed  consangui- 
nity with  the  king  formed  part  of  his  household, 
although  they  probably  made  their  connexion  valid 
as  a  recommendation  to  royal  favour.  "  The  king's 
poor  cousin  3  "  seems  at  all  events  to  have  taken  care 
that  his  light  should  shine  before  men,  as  we  learn 
from  the  signatures,  ^Elf here  ex  parentela  regis  4, 
Leofwine  propinquus  regis  5,  Hesburnus  regis  con- 
sanguineus  6,  Rodbertus  regis  consanguineus  7,  and 
similar  entries. 

But  no  such  doubt  applies  to  the  household 
troops,  or  immediate  body-guard  of  the  king.  These 
are  commonly  called  Huscarlas,  by  the  Anglosaxon 
writers,  and  continued  to  exist  under  that  name 
after  the  Norman  conquest.  Lappenberg  has  very 
justly  looked  upon  them  as  a  kind  of  military  gild, 
or  association,  of  which  the  king  was  the  master  8. 
I  doubt  whether  they  were  organized  as  a  separate 
force  before  the  time  of  Cnut ;  but  it  is  certain  that 
under  that  prince  and  his  Danish  successors  they 
attained  a  definite  and  settled  position.  It  is  pro- 
bable that  this  resulted  from  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  obtained  the  crown  of  England,  and 
that  the  institution  was  not  known  to  his  Saxon 
predecessors :  as  an  invader,  not  at  all  secure  of  his 


2  Ibid.  No.  218. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  436. 

6  Ibid.  No.  813. 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  945. 

3  Shaksp.  Hen.  IV.  Pt.  ii.  sc.  2. 

5  Ibid.  No.  436. 

7  Ibid.  No.  813. 

8  Thorpe's  Lappenberg,  ii.  202,  and  his  references  to  Suen  Aggonis, 
Hist.  Legum  Castrens.  Kegis  Canuti  Magni,  c.  iv.  ap.  Langebek,  iii. 
146 ;  ii.  454,  note  d.    Palgrave,  ii.  p.  ccclxxxi.   Ellis,  Introd.  Domesd. 
i.  91  j  ii.  151  seq. 


CH.  in.]      THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  119 

tenure,  and  surrounded  by  nobles  whose  previous 
conduct  offered  but  slight  guarantee  of  their  fide- 
lity, it  became  absolutely  necessary  to  his  safety  to 
organize  his  own  peculiar  force  in  such  a  way  as 
to  secure  the  readiest  service  if  occasion  demanded 
it.     This  was  the  object  of  the  Witherlags  Ret,  by 
which  the  privileges  and  duties  of  the  Huscarlas 
were  settled.     Of  this  law  Lappenberg  observes : 
— "  With   greater   probability   may    be    reckoned 
among  the  earlier  labours  of  Cnut,  the  composition 
of  the  Witherlags  Ret,  a  court-  or  gild-law,  framed 
for  his  standing  army,  as  well  as  for  the  body-guards 
of  his  jarls.     As  the  greater  part  of  his  army  re- 
mained in  England,  the  Witherlags  Ret  was  there 
first  established,  and  as  the  introduction  of  strict 
discipline  among  such  a  military  community  must 
precede  all  other  ameliorations  in  the  condition  of 
the  country,  the  mention  of  this  law  in  its  history 
ought  not  to  be  omitted  1.    The  immediate  military 

1  This  observation  requires  to  be  taken  with  some  caution.  The 
Witherlags  Ret  was  a  private  and  bye-law,  not  a  public  law,  and  had 
little  to  do  with  the  public  law,  except  in  as  far  as  it  connected  the 
conquering  force  by  closer  bonds,  and  secured  their  energetic  action  as 
a  body,  upon  emergency.  It  was  devised  to  keep  the  household  troops 
together,  not  to  apply  in  any  way  to  their  public  relation  towards  the 
Saxons.  Its  influence  was  therefore  only  such  as  derived  mediately 
from  the  fact  of  its  maintaining  the  king  at  the  head  of  a  select  prce- 
torian  cohort, — important  occasionally,  but  always  accidental.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  the  great  men  of  England,  the  God  wines,  or  Led- 
frics,  were  ever  Huscarlas,  or  that  the  leaders  of  this  force  were  ever 
Ealdormen  or  Gerefan.  In  fact  it  was  the  king's  "Army-club,"  and 
had  neither  constitutional  place  nor  recognized  power.  The  Huscarlas 
were  probably  very  like  what  the  Mousquetaires  and  Gardes-de-corps 
were  in  France  before  the  first  Revolution,  and  what  the  Lifeguards, 
Leib-regimente,  Guardia  Real,  and  so  on,  have  been  in  other  states  of 
Europe  j  nor  altogether  unlike  the  Garde  Irnperiale  of  Napoleon. 


120 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


attendants  of  a  conqueror  always  exercise  vast  influ- 
ence, and  these  originally  Danish  soldiers  (thinga- 
menn,  thingamanna  lith,  by  the  English  called 
Hiiscarlas)  have  at  a  later  period,  both  as  body- 
guards of  the  king  and  of  the  great  vassals,  acted 
no  unimportant  part  in  the  country.  They  were 
armed  with  axes,  halberds  and  swords  inlaid  with 
gold,  and  in  purpose,  descent  and  equipment  cor- 
responded to  the  Warangian  guard  (Wseringer),  in 
which  the  throne  of  the  Byzantine  emperors  found 
its  best  security.  In  Cnut's  time  the  number  of 
these  mercenaries  was  not  very  great, —  being  by 
some  reckoned  at  three  thousand,  by  others  at  six 
thousand 1  —  but  they  were  gathered  under  his 
banner  from  various  nations,  and  consequently  re- 
quired the  stricter  discipline.  Even  a  valiant  Wend- 
ish  prince,  Gottschalk,  the  son  of  Udo,  stayed  long 
with  Cnut  in  England,  and  gained  the  hand  of  a 
daughter  of  the  royal  house2.  Cnut  himself  ap- 
pears rather  as  a  sort  of  grand-master  of  this  mili- 
tary gild,  than  as  its  commander,  and  it  is  said  that, 
having  in  his  anger  slain  one  of  the  brotherhood 
in  England,  he  submitted  himself  to  its  judgment 
in  their  assembly  (stefn)  and  paid  a  ninefold  com- 
pensation 3.  The  degrading  epithet  of  '  nithing  ' 

1  Three  thousand  men,  all  disciplined,  all  well-armed,  all  united  by 
the  certainty  that  the  struggle  must  be  for  life  or  death,  formed  a  force 
morally,  if  not  physically  and  numerically,  superior  to  any  that  could 
be  brought  against  them  on  a  sudden.    Such  a  body  were  amply  secure 
in  a  state  which  could  only  set  on  foot  a  clumsy  and  reluctant  militia. 
They  were,  in  fact,  nearly  the  only  professional  soldiers, — and  as  yet 
there  had  been  no  Rocroy,  Sempach  or  Morgarten. 

2  Adam  Bremen,  ii.  48,  59  j  iii.  21. 

3  Suen  Aggon.  i.  cap.  10. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  121 

applied  to  an  expelled  member  of  the  gild,  is  an 
Anglosaxon  word,  which  at  a  later  period  occurs 
in  a  way  to  render  it  extremely  probable  that  the 
gild-law  of  the  royal  house-carls  was  in  existence 
after  the  Norman  conquest1." 

The  details  of  this  law  are  of  the  most  stringent 
description,  regulating  even  the  minutest  points  of 
social  intercourse.  Its  extreme  punishment  was 
expulsion ;  but  expulsion  was  nearly  equivalent  to 
death,  situated  as  the  Hiiscarlas  were  expected  to 
be,  among  a  hostile  population.  And  though  the 
offending  brother  had  his  election,  whether  he 
would  retire  from  the  gild  by  sea  or  land,  yet  the 
circumstances  which  attended  his  ejection  were 
not  those  of  mercy  or  alleviation.  To  the  seashore, 
the  whole  body  of  his  ancient  comrades  were  to 
accompany  him ;  then  launching  him  in  a  boat, 
with  oars  or  sails,  they  were  to  commit  him  to  his 
fortune :  henceforth  he  was  not  only  a  stranger  but 
an  enemy,  an  outlaw  :  if  stress  of  weather  or  other 
accident  brought  him  back  to  the  shore,  he  might 
be  fallen  upon  and  slain  without  remorse  or  retri- 
bution. Or  if  he  chose  to  retire  by  land,  he  was 
to  be  led  to  the  nearest  wood,  and  there  to  be 
watched  till  his  form  was  lost  in  the  darkness  of 
the  thickets :  three  successive  shouts  were  then  to 
be  raised,  to  warn  him  of  the  direction  in  which 

1  Sax.  Chron.  1049.  Will.  Malm.  lib.  iv.  de  Willelmo  Secundo,  an. 
1088  (Hardy's  ed.  ii.  489).  But  Lappenberg's  conclusion  is  not  justi- 
fied by  the  premises,  for  Nifting,  which  Mat.  Paris  declares  to  have  been 
so  especially  an  Anglosaxon  word  as  to  be  untranslatable,  was  probably 
in  use  as  a  term  of  supreme  contempt,  long  before  the  establishment 
of  the  Hiiscarlas  in  England  and  long  after  their  disbanding. 


122 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  u. 


his  gild-brothers  lay  in  wait.  If  then,  through  the 
devious  error  of  the  forest  he  returned  into  their 
presence,  his  life  was  forfeit.  To  insult,  injure  or 
dishonour  a  brother  was  an  offence  punished  with 
the  utmost  severity  ;  and  if  three  of  the  Hiiscarlas 
concurred  in  accusing  one  of  the  body,  there  was 
neither  denial  nor  exculpation  allowed ;  the  penalty 
followed  inevitably.  Such  severe  regulations  as 
these  fully  explain  their  object ;  and  it  seems  to 
have  been  successfully  attained,  for  we  are  told 
that,  at  least  during  the  life  of  Cnut,  the  penalties 
were  never  once  incurred  or  enforced 1. 

From  the  collocation  of  names  among  the  wit- 
nesses to  a  very  important  charter  of  1052-1054, 
we  may  infer  that  the  Stealleras  or  Marshals  were 
the  commanding  officers  of  the  Hiiscarlas2.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  they  did  really  exercise  an  im- 
portant personal  influence  in  England,  although 
they  filled  no  recognized  position  under  the  law  : 
it  is  probable  that  they  were  reckoned  as  thanes  or 
ministers,  as  far  as  their  wergyld  and  heriot  were 
concerned ;  but  we  have  no  evidence  of  this,  and  I 

1  Except  in  his  own  case,  where  they  were  incurred,  but  not  enforced. 
The  story  (found  in  great  detail  in  Saxo-Grammaticus,  book  x.)  seems 
exaggerated  j    but  nevertheless  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  strict  applica- 
tion of  the  law  to  the  king  would  have  caused  the  destruction  of  the 
whole  system.     As  they  could  not  do  without  Cnut,  and  had  no  law 
whereby  to  judge  him,  save  the  one  whose  application  in  his  case  was 
impossible,  they  suffered  him  to  assess  his  own  penalty.    He  paid  nine 
times  the  wergyld  of  the  brother  he  had  slain. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  956.     After  the  testimonies  of  the  king,  queen, 
archbishops,  bishops,  earls,  and  abbots,  we  have,  "And  on  Esgares 
stealres,  and  on  Raulfes  stealres,  and  on  Lifinges  stealres,  and  on  ealra 
"Saes  kynges  huscarlan."     Then  follow  the  subscriptions  of  chaplains 
and  others. 


CH.  in.]     THE  KING'S  COURT  AND  HOUSEHOLD.  123 

should  not  dispute  the  assertion  that  from  first  to 
last  they  had  a  law  of  their  own, — a  personal  right, 
—that  they  were  not  generally  or  originally  land- 
owners, and  that  their  institution  was  a  modified 
revival  of  the  system  of  the  Cornitatus  in  its  strict- 
est form.  But  upon  these  points  we  cannot  decide. 
It  is  very  rarely  that  we  find  the  Huscarlas  acting 
as  witnesses  to  charters,  which  perhaps  may  lead 
to  the  inference  that  they  were  not  members  of  the 
Witena  gemot1 :  but  in  1041  we  are  told  that  Har- 
dacnut  sent  two  of  his  Huscarlas,  Feader  and  Tur- 
stan,  to  collect  an  unpopular  tax,  and  that  a  sedi- 
tion was  raised  against  them  in  Worcester,  which 
was  not  suppressed  till  the  force  of  several  coun- 
ties, under  the  most  celebrated  leaders  of  the  day, 
was  brought  against  the  city2. 

In  a  charter  of  the  Confessor,  we  find  the  word 
Hiiscarl  translated  by  "  praefectus  palatinus3," — a 
title  which  scarcely  seems  applicable  to  all  the 
members  of  a  body  numbering  six,  or  even  three, 
thousand  men :  but,  however  this  may  be,  we  must 
not  confound  these  praefecti palatini  with  the  other, 
earlier  p raefecti  who  occur  in  Anglosaxon  history4 : 
these  are  clearly  only  gerefan  or  reeves,  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  especial  body  of  household 
troops. 

It  remains  only  to  add  that,  in  imitation  of  the 

1  But  Wulfnoft  a  hiiscarl  is  mentioned,  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  845,  and  Urk, 
a  hiiscarl  in  No.  871,  both  as  grantees.     So  again  purstan  huscarl,  a 
holder  of  land  in  Middlesex.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  843. 

2  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1041. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  843. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  746,  751,  762,  767. 


124  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

king,  the  great  nobles  surrounded  themselves  with 
a  body-guard  of  Huscarlas1,  who  probably  stood  in 
the  same  relation  to  their  lord,  as  he  did  to  the 
king :  in  short  the  institution  is  only  a  revival  of 
the  Comitatus,  described  in  the  First  Book,  and 
must  have  gone  through  a  similar  course  of  deve- 
lopment. Nay,  the  details  which  have  reached  us 
of  the  later  establishment  may  possibly  throw  light 
upon  the  earlier,  and  serve  to  explain  some  of  the 
peculiarities  which  strike  us  in  the  account  of  Ta- 
citus. This  difference  indeed  there  is,  that  in  the 
later  form  the  king  and  the  comites  unite  in  a  defi- 
nite bond,  with  respective,  stipulated  rights ;  in  the 
earlier  form,  the  comites  attach  themselves  to  the 
king,  without  stipulation  or  reserve,  although  no 
doubt  under  the  protection  of  a  customary  and  re- 
cognized, although  unwritten,  law. 

1  Florence  of  Worcester,  speaking  of  the  revolt  of  the  Northumbrians 
against  their  duke  Tostig,  in  1065,  says :  "  Eodem  die  primitus  illius 
Danicos  hiiscarlas  Amundum  et  Eavensueartum,  de  fuga  retractos,  extra 
civitatis  muros,  ac  die  sequente  plus  quam  cc.  viros  ex  curialibus  illius  in 
boreali  parte  Humbrae  fluminis  peremerunt."  an.  1065.  One  manuscript 
of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  thus  relates  these  events :  "And  sona  softer  ftison 
gegaderedon  fta  J?egenas  hi  ealle  on  Eoforwicscyre  -j  on  Norfthymbra- 
lande  togeedere,  y  geiitlagedan  heora  eorl  Tosti,  "j  ofslogon  his  hired- 
menn  ealle  fte  hig  mihten  tocumen.  But  another  says  :  "  Tostiges 
eorles  hiiskarlas  iSar  ofslogon,  ealle 'Sa  fte  hig  geaxian  mihton."  Hired- 
men  are  familiares,  those  who  live  in  the  house,  or  foi  m  part  of  the 
house  or  family ;  and  this  seems  the  original  and  strict  deiinition  of  the 
hiiscarl. 


125 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE. 

IT  is  of  much  less  importance  to  a  people,  what  its 
constitution  is,  than  what  is  its  administration; 
nothing  can  be  easier  than  to  make  what  are  called 
charters,  and  it  is  a  rhetorical  commonplace  to  talk 
of  resting  under  a  constitution,  the  growth  of  ages : 
but  no  nation  rests,  or  ever  did  rest,  under  the  one 
or  the  other.  The  source  of  a  nation's  comfort, — 
of  its  success  in  realizing  the  great  principle  of  the 
mutual  guarantee  of  peace,  lies  in  the  administra- 
tion of  what  is  called  its  constitution,  in  the  skill 
with  which  it  has  devised  its  machinery  of  govern- 
ment, in  the  balance  of  power  which  it  represents 
in  the  election  of  its  instruments.  We  shall  there- 
fore pass  now  to  the  members  of  the  Anglosaxon 
administration. 

The  dignity  next  in  importance  to  the  royal,  is 
that  of  the  Ealdorman  or  Duke. 

The  proper  Anglosaxon  name  for  this  officer,  as 
ruler  and  leader  of  an  army,  is  Heretoga,  in  Old- 
german  Herizohho,  and  in  modern  German,  Her- 
zog, — a  word  compounded  of  Here  an  army,  and 
toga  a  leader1.  It  is  in  this  sense  only  that  Tacitus 
appears  to  understand  the  word  Dux,  when  he  tells 

1  In  this  sense  the  Sax.  Chron.  translates  the  word  duces  applied  by 
Beda  to  Hengest  ;  ,nd  Hors,  by  heretogan :  an.  448. 


126  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

us  that  dukes  (i.  e.  generals)  are  chosen  for  their 
valour,  in  contradistinction  to  kings,  who  are  re- 
commended by  their  birth.  But  inasmuch  as  the 
ducal  functions  in  the  Anglosaxon  polity  were  by 
no  means  confined  to  service  in  the  field,  the  pecu- 
liar title  of  Heretoga  is  very  rarely  met  with,  being 
for  the  most  part  replaced  by  Ealdorman  or  Aldor- 
man,  which  denotes  civil  as  well  as  military  preemi- 
nence. The  word  Heretoga  accordingly  is  nowhere 
found  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  or  in  the  Laws,  ex- 
cept in  one  late  passage  interpolated  into  the  collec- 
tion called  the  Laws  of  Eadweard  the  Confessor,  and 
to  the  best  of  my  remembrance  it  is  found  but  once 
in  the  Charters1.  From  a  very  extensive  and  care- 
ful comparison  between  the  titles  used  in  different 
documents,  it  appears  that  Latin  writers  of  various 
periods,  as  Beda,  the  several  compilers  of  Annals, 
and  the  writers  of  charters,  have  used  the  words 
Dux,  Princeps  and  Comes,  in  a  very  arbitrary  man- 
ner to  denote  the  holders  of  one  and  the  same 
office.  It  is  indeed  just  possible  that  the  grant  of 
peculiar  and  additional  privileges  may  have  been 
supposed  to  make  a  distinction  between  the  duke, 
and  the  prince,  as  the  charters  appear  to  show 
something  like  a  system  of  promotion  at  least 
among  the  Mercian  nobility,  the  same  person  being 
found  to  sign  for  some  time  as  dux,  and  afterwards 
as  princeps.  In  consequence  of  this  confusion,  it 
is  necessary  to  proceed  with  very  great  caution 
the  moment  we  leave  contemporaneous  history,  and 

1  It  occurs  however  in  the  document  called  "  Institutes  of  Polity: " 
Thorpe,  ii.  319:  but  these  can  hardly  be  considered  authority  for  a 
strict  legal  use  of  words. 


CH.  IV.] 


THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE. 


127 


become  dependent  upon  the  expressions  of  annalists 
long  subsequent  to  the  events  described  :  for  strictly 
and  legally  speaking,  the  words  count,  duke  and 
prince  express  very  different  ranks  and  functions. 

The  pure  Anglosaxon  authorities  however  are 
incapable  of  making  any  such  blunder  or  falling 
into  any  such  confusion :  where  Simeon  of  Dur- 
ham, Florence  of  Worcester,  JEftelweard,  Henry 
of  Huntingdon,  nay  even  Beda  himself,  use  Con- 
sul, Princeps,  Dux  and  Comes,  the  Saxon  Chroni- 
cle and  the  charters  composed  in  Saxon  have  in- 
variably Ealdorrnan.  A  few  instances,  down  to  the 
time  of  Cnut,  when  a  new  organization,  and  with  it 
a  new  title,  was  adopted,  will  make  this  clear1. 


1  Beorht  ealdorman.  Chron.  an.  684.     Dux.  Beda,  iv.  26.  Flor.  684. 

609. 

^Ebelhun 750.     Dux.   JEftelw.   ii.    Flor.   750. 

Consul.  H.  Hunt.  iv. 

.  BeorLtfrrS     710.     Prsefectus.  Flor.  710. 

Cumbra     755.     Dux.  ^E«elw.  ii.  ]  7.  Flor.  755. 

Consul.  H.  Hunt.  iv. 

O'sric 755.     Dux.  ^ESelw.  ii.  17.  Flor.  784. 

Beorn     780.     Patricius.  Sim.  D.  780.  Consul 

et  justiciarius.  H.  Hunt.  iv. 

^EiSelheard 794. 

Wor 800. 

^ESelmund 800.     Dux.   Flor.    800.    Consul.    H. 

Hunt.  iv. 
Weolistan 800.     Dux.    Flor.    800.    Consul.  H. 

Hunt.  iv. 

Heabyrht 805.     Comes.  Flor.  805. 

Eadbyrht 810. 

Burgtard 822.     Dux.  Flor.  822. 

Muca 822.     Dux.  Flor.  822. 

Wulfheard 823.     Dux.   Flor.   823.    Consul.   H. 

Hunt.  iv. 

Ealdormen 825.     Duces.  Flor.  825. 

Dudda 833. 

O'smod  . ,  833. 


128 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


The  word  ealdor  or  aldor  in  Anglosaxon  denotes 
princely  dignity  without  any  definition  of  function 
whatever.  In  Beowulf  it  is  used  as  a  synonym  for 
cyning,  J?eoden  and  other  words  applied  to  royal 
personages.  Like  many  other  titles  of  rank  in  the 
various  Teutonic  tongues,  it  is  derived  from  an  ad- 
jective implying  age,  though  practically  this  idea 
does  not  by  any  means  survive  in  it,  any  more  than 
it  does  in  the  word  Senior,  the  origin  of  the  feudal 


Wulfheard Chron.  an.  837.     Dux.  Flor.  837. 

^ESellielm 837.     Dux.  Flor.  837. 

Herebyrht    838.     Dux.  Flor.  838. 

Eanwulf 845.     Dux.  Flor.  845. 

O'sric    845.     Dux.  Flor.  845. 

Ceorl    851.     Comes.  Flor.  851. 

Ealhkere 851,  853.     Comes.  Flor.  851,  853. 

vESelheard 852. 

Hunberht 852.     Comes.  Flor.  852. 

Huda    853.     Comes.  Flor.  853. 

O'sric    860.     Comes.  Flor.  860. 

^E«elwulf 860,  871.     Comes.  Flor.  860,  871. 

886.     Comes.  Flor.  886.  Dux.  Flor. 

894. 
886,  894,  898.     Dux.  Flor.  894. 

Beocca 888.     Dux.  Flor.  889. 

^E^elwold 888.     Dux.  Flor.  889. 

^Eftelred 894.     Dux.  Flor.  894. 

^ESelnoft 894.     Dux.  Flor.  894. 

Cenlwulf 897.     Dux.  Flor.  897. 

Beorhtwulf 897.     Dux.  Flor.  897. 

Wulfred 897. 

901. 

903.     Dux.  Flor.  903. 

Sigewulf 905.     Dux.  Flor.  905. 

Sigehelm 905.     Comes.  Flor.  905. 

^Eftelred 912.     Dominus  et  subregulus.  Flor. 

912. 

vElfgar 946. 

Ordgar 965.     Dux.  Flor.  964. 

980,  983.     Dux.  Flor.  979. 
982.     Dux.  Flor.  982. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  129 

term  Seigneur1;  and  similarly  the  words  "^>a 
yldestan  witan,"  literally  the  eldest  councillors,  are 
used  to  express  merely  the  most  dignified2. 

If  we  compare  the  position  and  powers  of  the 
ealdorman  with  those  of  the  duke  on  the  continent, 
we  shall  find  several  points  of  difference  which 
deserve  notice.  In  the  imperial  constitution  of 
the  German  states,  as  it  was  modified  and  settled 
by  Charlemagne,  the  duke  was  a  superior  officer 
to  the  comes,  count  or  graf,  and  a  duchy  for  the 
most  part  comprehended  several  counties,  over 
which  the  duke  exercised  an  immediate  jurisdic- 
tion3. Occasionally  no  doubt  there  were  counties 


Eadwine Chron.  an.  982.     Dux.  Flor.  982. 

JElfric 983,  985,  992,  993.       Dux.  Flor.  983. 

Birhtnotf .  , 991.     Dux.  Flor.  991. 

^ESelwine 992.     Dux.  Flor.  992. 

jESelweard     994.     Dux.  Flor.  994. 

Leofsige 1002.     Dux.  Flor.  1002. 

^Elfhelm     1006.     Dux.  Flor.  1006. 

Eadric 1007,  1009,  1012,  1015,  1016.  Dux. 

Flor.  in  an. 

^ESelmser  ealdorman 1013.     Comes.  Flor.  1013. 

^Elfric 1016.     Dux.  Flor.  1016. 

Godwine 1016.     Dux.  Flor.  1016. 

JESelwine 1016.     Dux.  Flor.  1016. 

The  same  thing  is  observable  in  the  charters  :  thus  O'swulf  Aldor- 
mon,  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  226,  but  "  Dux  et  princeps  Orientalis  Canciae," 
No.  256.  Again  the  nobleman  who  in  the  body  of  the  charter  No.  219 
is  called  Eadwulf  ealdorman,  signs  himself  among  the  witnesses,  Ead- 
wulf  Dux. 

1  The  Roman  Senatus,  the  Greek  yepovo-ia,  the  ecclesiastical  Trpeo-- 
ftvTfpoi  are  all  examples  of  a  like  usage. 

2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  978. 

3  I  refer  generally  here  to  the  doctrines  of  Eichhorn,  Staats-  und 
Rechtsgesch.  i.  460.  etc. ;  and  to  the  works  of  the  great  German  authors 
who  have  treated  this  subject  and  others  connected  with  it,  more  espe- 
cially to  Donniges,  Deutsches  Staatsrecht,  p.  96  seq. 

VOL.  II.  K 


130  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

without  duchies,  and  duchies  without  counties,  that 
is  where  the  duke  and  count  were  the  same  per- 
son :  sometimes  the  dukes  were  hereditary  dynasts, 
representing  sovereign  families  which  had  become 
subject  to  the  empire  of  the  Franks,  and  who  con- 
tinued to  govern  as  imperial  officers  the  popu- 
lations which  either  by  conquest  or  alliance  had 
become  incorporated  with  it ;  such  were  the  dukes 
in  Bavaria  and  Swabia.  In  other  cases  they  were 
generals,  exercising  supreme  military  power  over 
extensive  districts  committed  to  their  charge,  and 
mediately  entrusted  with  the  defence  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Markgraviats  or  border-counties  which 
were  established  for  the  security  of  the  frontiers. 
The  variable,  and  very  frequently  exceptional,  posi- 
tion of  these  nobles  or  ministerials,  while  it  renders 
it  difficult  to  give  an  accurate  description  of  their 
powers  which  shall  be  applicable  to  all  cases,  often 
accounts  for  the  events  by  which  we  are  led  to  re- 
cognize modern  kingdoms  in  the  ancient  duchies, 
and  to  trace  the  derived  and  mediate  authority 
down  to  its  establishment  as  independent  royalty. 

But  this  state  of  things  which  was  possible  in  an 
empire  comprising  a  vast  extent  of  lands  held  by 
tribes  of  different  descent,  language,  and  laws,  and 
often  hostile  to  one  another,  was  not  to  be  expected 
in  a  country  like  England.  Neither  were  the  dis- 
tricts here  sufficiently  large,  nor  in  general  was  the 
national  feeling  in  those  districts  sufficiently  strong, 
to  produce  similar  results.  Strictly  speaking,  du- 
ring what  has  been  loosely  termed  the  Heptarchy, 
the  various  kingdoms  or  rather  principal  kingdoms 


en.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  131 

bore  a  much  greater  resemblance  to  the  Frankish 
duchies,  and  the  small  subordinate  principalities  to 
the  counties ;  and  could  we  admit  the  existence  of 
a  central  authority  or  Bretwaldadom,  we  should 
find  a  considerable  resemblance  between  the  two 
forms :  but  this  is  in  fact  impossible  :  the  kings, 
such  as  they  were,  continued  to  enjoy  all  the  royal 
rights  in  their  limited  districts ;  and  the  dukes  re- 
mained merely  ministerial  officers,  of  great  dignity 
indeed,  but  with  well-defined  and  not  very  extensive 
powers.  The  rebellion  of  a  duke  in  English  seems 
nearly  as  rare  as  it  is  frequent  in  German  history. 
We  may  therefore  conclude  that  the  Anglo saxon 
Ealdorman  in  reality  represented  the  Graf  or  Count 
of  the  Germans,  before  the  powers  of  the  latter  had 
been  seriously  abridged  by  the  imperial  constitu- 
tion of  the  Carlovings,  by  the  growing  authority  of 
the  duke,  the  Missus  or  royal  messenger  and  the 
bishop.  And  this  will  tend  to  explain  the  compa- 
ratively subordinate  position  of  the  gerefa,  who  an- 
swers, in  little  more  than  name,  to  the  Graphio  or 
Graf. 

In  the  Anglosaxon  laws  we  find  many  provisions 
respecting  the  powers  and  dignity  of  the  ealdorman, 
which  it  will  be  necessary  to  examine  in  detail.  It 
is  highly  probable  that  different  races  and  king- 
doms adopted  a  somewhat  different  course  with 
respect  to  them, — a  course  rendered  inevitable  by 
the  connection  of  the  ealdorman  with  territorial 
government.  The  laws  of  the  Kentish  kings  do 
not  make  any  mention  of  such  an  officer:  the 
ceorl ,  eorl  and  king  are  the  only  free  classes  whose 


132 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


proportionable  value  they  notice ;  and  if  there  were 
ealdormen  at  all,  they  were  comprised  in  the  great 
caste  of  eorls  or  nobles  by  birth,  even  as  ^E$elberht's 
law  uses  eorlcund,  that  is  of  earl's  rank,  as  a  syno- 
nym for  betst,  that  is  the  best  or  highest  rank1.  In 
the  law  of  Eadric  and  Hlo'Shere,  though  various 
judicial  proceedings  are  referred  to,  we  hear  no- 
thing of  the  ealdorman  :  suit  is  to  be  prosecuted  at 
the  king's  hall2,  before  the  stermelda3,  or  the  wic- 
gerefa4,  but  no  other  officer  is  mentioned ;  proba- 
bly because  at  this  period,  the  little  kingdoms  into 
which  Kent  itself  was  divided,  supplied  ample  ma- 
chinery for  doing  justice,  without  the  establishment 
of  ealdormen  for  that  or  any  other  purpose.  The 
law  of  Wihtrasd  has  no  provision  of  the  sort,  and 
it  is  remarkable  that  in  the  proem  to  his  dooms, 
which  a  king  always  declares  to  be  made  with  the 
counsel,  consent  and  license  of  his  nobles,  the  word 
eddigan,  the  wealthy  or  powerful,  twice  occurs5, 
but  not  the  word  ealdormen.  I  therefore  think  it 
probable  that  Kent  had  no  such  officers  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighth  century6. 

1  "Mund  ft^ere  betstan  widuwan  eorlcundre,  fiftig  scillinga  gebete." 
For  the  mimd  of  a  widow  of  the  highest  class,  that  is  of  earl's  degree, 
be  the  bdt  fifty  shillings.     ^Ettelb.  §  75.  Thorpe,  i.  20. 

2  Ead.  H16S.  §  5.  Thorpe,  i.  28. 

3  Ead.  H16«.  §  7, 16.  Thorpe,  i.  30,  34. 

4  Ead.  H16S.  §  16.  Thorpe,  i.  34.  5  Leg.  Wiht.  Thorpe,  i.  36. 
6  I  do  not  think  the  expression  of  the  Sax.  Chron.  an.  568  can  be 

considered  to  contradict  this.  The  ealdormen  recorded  there  are 
merely  princes  in  a  general  sense  :  as  are  Cerdic  and  Cyneric  named 
an.  49-5,  just  as  the  same  Chronicle  an.  465  mentions  twelve  Welsh 
ealdormen.  So  also  in  G53,  Peada  the  king  of  the  Southangles  is  called 
aldorman.  The  Kentish  charters  in  which  we  find  Hamgisilus,  dux, 
and  Graphic,  comes,  are  impudent  forgeries.  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  2,  3,  4. 


CH.  iv.J  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  133 

In  general  Beda  uses  the  words  tribunus  or  prae- 
fectus  to  express  the  authority  of  a  royal  officer 
either  in  the  field  or  the  city:  with  him  comes 
represents  the  old  and  proper  sense  of  the  king's 
comrade,  as  we  find  it  in  Tacitus,  and  dux  is  ap- 
plied in  the  Roman  sense  to  the  leader  or  captain 
of  a  corps  cTarmee.  But  it  is  possible  that  in  one 
passage  he  may  have  had  something  more  in  view, 
where  he  states  that  after  the  death  of  Peada,  that 
is  in  661,  the  dukes  of  the  Mercians,  Immin,  Eaba 
and  Eadberht  rebelled  against  Osuuiu  of  Northum- 
berland and  raised  Wulfhere  to  his  father's  throne1 ; 
and  he  goes  on  to  say  that,  having  expelled  the 
princes,  — •  "  principibus  eiectis,"  —  whom  the  fo- 
reign king  had  imposed  upon  them,  they  recovered 
both  their  boundaries  and  their  liberty.  It  is 
every  way  probable  both  that  the  Mercian  dukes 
and  Northumbrian  princes  mentioned  in  this  pas- 
sage were  fiscal  and  administrative,  not  merely 
military  officers2.  Not  much  later  than  this  we 
find  dukes  in  Wessex3  and  Sussex4;  and  from  this 
period  we  can  follow  the  dukes  with  little  inter- 
mission till  the  close  of  the  genuine  Anglosaxon 
rule  with  Eadmund  Irensida. 

From  the  time  of  Ini  of  Wessex  we  have  the 
means  of  tracing  the  institution  with  some  cer- 
tainty ;  and  we  may  thus  commence  our  enquiry 

1  Beda,  H.  E.  iii.  24. 

2  The  forged  foundation   charter   of  Peterborough   mentions   the 
following  ealdormen :  Immin,  Eadberht,  HerefrrS,  Wilberht,  Abou. — 
Chron.  Sax.  Co7.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  986. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  31,  54,  987,  etc. 

4  Ibid.  No.  994.     Beda,  H.  E.  iv.  13. 


134 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


with  the  first  years  of  the  eighth  century,  nearly 
one  hundred  years  before  Charlemagne  modified 
and  recast  the  German  empire.  At  first  the  ealdor- 
men  are  few  in  number,  but  increase  as  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  kingdom  extends ;  we  can  thus  follow 
them  in  connection  with  the  political  advance  of 
the  several  countries,  till  we  find  at  one  time  no 
less  than,  three  dukes  at  once  in  Kent,  and  sixteen 
in  Mercia.  This  number  attended  a  witena  gemot 
held  by  Coenwulf  in  the  year  814. 

The  reason  of  this  was,  that  the  ealdorman  was 
inseparable  from  a  shire  or  ga :  the  territorial  and 
political  divisions  went  together,  and  as  conquest 
increased  or  defeat  diminished  the  number  of  shires 
comprised  in  a  kingdom,  we  find  a  corresponding 
increase  or  diminution  in  the  number  of  dukes 
attendant  upon  the  king.  ^Elfred  decides  that  if 
a  man  wish  to  leave  one  lord  and  seek  another, 
(hlafordsocn,  a  right  possessed  by  all  freemen,) 
he  is  to  do  so  with  the  witness  of  the  ealdorman 
whom  he  before  followed  in  his  shire,  that  is,  whose 
court  and  military  muster  he  had  been  bound  to 
attend l :  and  Irii  declares  that  the  ealdorman  who 
shall  be  privy  to  the  escape  of  a  thief  shall  forfeit 
his  shire,  unless  he  can  obtain  the  king's  pardon2. 
The  proportionably  great  severity  of  this  punish- 
ment arises,  and  most  justly  so,  from  the  circum- 
stance of  the  ealdorman  being  the  principal  judicial 
officer  in  the  county,  as  the  Graf  was  among  the 


1  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  37.     Thorpe,  i.  86. 

2  "  Gif  he  ealdormon  sie,  )>olie  his  scire,  biiton  him  cyning  arian 
wille."  Leg.  Ini,  §  36.  Thorpe,  i.  124. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  135 

Franks.  The  fiftieth  law  of  Ini  provides  for  the 
case  where  a  man  compounds  for  offences  com- 
mitted by  any  of  his  household,  where  suit  has 
been  either  made  before  the  king  himself  or  the 
king's  ealdorman1.  He  was  commanded  to  hold  a 
shiremoot  or  general  county-court  twice  in  the  year, 
where  in  company  of  the  bishop  he  was  to  super- 
intend the  administration  of  civil,  criminal  and  ec- 
clesiastical law :  Eadgar  enacts.2, — "  Twice  in  the 
year  be  a  shiremoot  held  ;  and  let  both  the  bishop 
of  the  shire  and  the  ealdorman  be  present,  and  there 
expound  both  the  law  of  God,  and  of  the  world :  " 
which  enactment  is  repeated  in  nearly  the  same 
words  by  Cnut3.  And  this  is  consistent  with  a 
regulation  of  Alfred,  by  which  a  heavy  fine  is  in- 
flicted upon  him  who  shall  break  the  public  peace 
by  fighting  or  even  drawing  his  wreapon  in  the  Folc- 
moot  before  the  king's  ealdorman4.  In  the  year  780 
we  learn  from  the  Saxon  Chronicle  that  the  high- 
reeves  or  noble  gerefan  of  Northumberland  burned 
Beorn  the  ealdorman  to  death  at  Seletun5 :  but 
Henry  of  Huntingdon  records  the  same  fact  with 
more  detail:  he  says6, — "The  year  after  this  the 
princes  and  chief  officers  of  Northumberland  burned 

1  Thorpe,  i.  134.  2  Eadgar,  ii.  §  5.  Thorpe,  i.  268. 

3  Cnut,  Sec.  §  18.  Thorpe,  i.  386.  And  so  in  the  Frankish  law  the 
graff  or  count  was  to  hold  his  court  together  with  the  bishop.  Donni- 
ges,  p.  29. 

^Elfr.  §  38.  Thorpe,  i.  86.  5  Chron.  Sax.  an.  780. 

6  Hen.  Hunt,  book  iv.  "  Anno  autem  hunc  sequente  principes  et 
praepositi  Nordhumbre  quendam  consulem  et  justiciarium  suum,  quia 
rigidior  aequo  extiterat,  combusserant."  This  seems  like  a  judicial 
execution,  not  a  mere  act  of  popular  vengeance.  Simeon  however  says 
"Osbald  et  ^Eftelheard  duces,  congregate  exercitu,  Beam  patricium 


136  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

to  death  a  certain  consul  and  justiciary  of  theirs, 
because  he  was  more  severe  than  was  right:  "  from 
which  it  would  appear  not  only  that  this  ealdorman 
had  been  guilty  of  cruelty  and  oppression  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  judicial  functions,  but,  from  the  hint  of 
Simeon,  also  that  the  king  acquiesced  in  his  punish- 
ment. We  have  occasional  records  in  the  Saxon 
charters  which  show  that  the  shiremoot  for  judicial 
purposes  was  presided  over  by  the  ealdorman  of 
the  shire.  In  825  there  was  an  interesting  trial 
touching  the  rights  of  pasture  belonging  to  Wor- 
cester cathedral,  which  the  public  officers  had  en- 
croached upon :  it  was  arranged  in  a  synod  held 
at  Clofeshoo,  that  the  bishop  should  give  security 
to  the  ealdorman  and  witan  of  the  county,  to  make 
good  his  claim  on  oath,  which  was  done  within  a 
month  at  Worcester,  in  the  presence  of  Hama  the 
woodreeve,  who  attended  on  behalf  of  Eadwulf  the 
ealdorman1.  Another  very  important  document  re- 
cords a  trial  which  took  place  about  1038  in  Here- 
fordshire :  the  shiremoot  sat  at  -ZEgelno'&es  stan,  and 
was  held  by  ^E^elstan  the  bishop,  and  Eanig  the 
ealdorman  in  the  presence  of  the  county  thanes2. 
Another  but  undated  record  of  a  shiremoot  held  at 
Worcester  again  presents  us  with  the  presidency 
of  an  ealdorman,  Leofwine3. 

It  is  thus  clear  that  the  ealdorman  really  stood 

Elfuualdi  regis  in  Seletune  succenderunt  ix  Kal.  Jan.,"  which  can 
hardly  be  anything  but  what  is  referred  to  in  the  entry  of  the  preceding 
year,  where  Simeon  says  of  ^Elfwald,  "Erat  enim  rex  pius  et  iustus, 
ut  sequens  demonstrabit  articulus."  Sim.  Gest.  Reg.  an.  779;  780. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  ^19.  2  Ibid.  No.  755. 

3  Ibid.  No.  893. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  137 

at  the  head  of  the  justice  of  the  county,  and  for 
this  purpose  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  pos- 
sessed full  power  of  holding  plea,  and  proceeding 
to  execution  both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases.     The 
scirmen,    scirgerefan   or  sheriffs  were  his  officers, 
and   acted  by  his  authority,    a  point  to  which  I 
shall  return  hereafter.     That  the  executive  as  well 
as  the  judicial  authority  resided  in  the  ealdorman 
and  his  officers  seems  to  me  unquestionable :  ^El- 
fred  directs  that  no  private  feud  shall  be  permitted, 
except  in  certain  grave  cases,  but   that  if  a  man 
beleaguers  his  foe  in  his  own  house,  he  shall  sum- 
mon him  to  surrender  his  weapons  and  stand  to 
trial.     If  the  complainant  be  not  powerful  enough 
to  enforce  this,  he  is  to  apply  to  the  ealdorman  (a 
mode  of  expression  which  implies  the  presence  of 
one  in  every  shire),  and  on  his  refusal  to  assist,  re- 
sort may  be  had  to  the  king1.     For  this  there  was 
also  good  reason :  the  ealdorman  in  the  shire,  like 
the  Frankish  graf,   was  the  military  leader  of  the 
hereban,  posse  comitatus  or  levy  en  masse  of  the 
freemen,  and  as  such  could  command  their  services 
to  repel  invasion  or  to  exercise  the  functions  of  the 
higher  police  :  as  a  noble  of  the  first  rank  he  had 
armed  retainers,  thanes  or  comites  of  his  own ;  but 
his  most  important  functions  were  as  leader  of  the 
armed  force  of  the  shire.     Throughout  the  Saxon 
times  we  read  of  ealdormen  at  the  head  of  particu- 
lar counties,  doing  service  in  the  field :  thus  in  800 
we  hear  of  a  battle  between  the  Mercian  ealdorman 

1  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  42.  Thorpe,  i.  90. 


138  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 


with  the  Hwiccas,  and  the  Westsaxon 
Weoxstan  with  the  men  of  Wiltshire1:  in  837, 
^E^elhelm  led  the  men  of  Dorset  against  the  Danes2: 
in  845  Eanwulf  with  the  men  of  Somerset,  and  Os- 
ric  with  the  men  of  Dorset,  obtained  a  bloody  vic- 
tory over  the  same  adversaries3:  in  853  a  similar 
fortune  attended  Ealhhere  with  the  men  of  Kent, 
and  Huda  with  them  of  Surrey,  the  latter  of  whom 
had  marched  from  their  own  county  into  Thanet, 
in  pursuit  of  the  enemy4.  In  860,  Osric  with  his 
men  of  Hampshire,  and  ealdorman  ^ESelwulf  with 
the  power  of  Berkshire,  gave  the  Danes  an  over- 
throw in  the  neighbourhood  of  Winchester5  ;  in 
905  the  men  of  Kent  with  Sigewulf  and  Sigehelm 
their  ealdormen  were  defeated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ouse6:  lastly  in  1016,  we  find  Eadric  the  ealdor- 
man deserting  Eadmund  Irensida  in  battle  with  the 
Magesaetan  or  people  of  Herefordshire  7,  —  a  treason 
which  ultimately  led  to  the  division  of  England 
between  Eadmund  and  Cnut,  and  later  to  the  mo- 
narchy of  the  latter.  Everywhere  the  ealdorman 
is  identified  with  the  military  force  of  his  shire  or 
county,  as  we  have  already  seen  that  he  was  with 
the  administration  of  justice. 

The  internal  regulation  of  the  shire,  as  well  as 
its  political  relation  to  the  whole  kingdom,  were 

1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  800.  2  Ibid.  an.  837. 

3  Ibid.  an.  845.  4  Ibid.  an.  853. 

5  Ibid.  an.  860.  6  Ibid.  an.  905. 

7  Ibid.  an.  1016.  Other  instances  of  ealdormen  as  military  leaders, 
but  without  reference  to  particular  localities,  may  be  found  in  the 
Chron.  Sax.  under  the  years,  684,  699,  710,  823,  825,  838,  851,  871, 
894,  992,  993,  1003,  etc.,  and  in  all  the  annalists. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  139 

under  the  immediate  guidance  and  supervision  of 
the  ealdorman :  the  scirgerefa  or  sheriff  was  little 
more  than  his  deputy  :  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that 
the  cyninges  gerefan,  wicgerefan  and  tiingerefan 
were  under  his  superintendence  and  command,  and 
it  would  almost  appear  as  if  he  possessed  the  right 
to  appoint  as  well  as  control  these  officers :  at  all 
events  we  find  some  of  them  intended  by  the  ex- 
pression "  'Saes  ealdormonnes  gingran,"  literally  the 
ealdorman's  subordinate  officers ;  .ZElfred  having 
affixed  a  severe  punishment  to  the  offence  of  break- 
ing the  peace  of  the  folcmoot,  in  the  ealdorman's 
presence,  continues  :  "  If  anything  of  this  sort  hap- 
pen before  a  king's  ealdorman's  subordinate  officer, 
or  a  king's  priest,  let  the  fine  be  thirty  shillings1." 
In  the  year  995  certain  brothers,  apparently  per- 
sons of  some  consideration,  having  been  involved 
in  an  accusation  of  theft,  a  tumultuary  affray  took 
place,  in  which,  amongst  others,  they  were  slain : 
the  king's  wicgerefan  in  Oxford  and  Buckingham 
permitted  their  bodies  to  be  laid  in  consecrated 
ground :  but  the  ealdorman  of  the  district,  on  being 
apprised  of  the  facts,  attempted  to  reverse  the 
judgment  of  the  wic-reeves2.  It  would  therefore 
appear  that  these  officers  were  subordinated  to  his 
authority.  The  analogy  which  we  everywhere  trace 
between  the  ealdorman  and  the  graf,  induces  the 
conclusion  that  the  former  was  the  head  fiscal 
officer  of  the  shire ;  and  that,  in  this  as  in  all  other 
cases,  the  scirgerefa  was  his  officer  and  accounted 
to  him. 

1  Leg.  ^llfr.  §  38.     Thorpe,  i.  86.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1289. 


140 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


The  means  by  which  his  dignity  was  supported 
were,  strictly  speaking,  supplied  by  the  state :  they 
consisted  in  the  first  place  of  lands  within  his  dis- 
trict1, which  appear  to  have  passed  with  the  office, 
and  consequently  to  have  been  inalienable  by  any 
particular  holder :  but  he  also  derived  a  considerable 
income  from  the  fines  and  other  moneys  levied  to 
the  king's  use,  his  share  of  which  probably  amounted 
to  one-third2.  But  as  it  invariably  happened  that 
the  ealdorman  was  appointed  from  among  the  class 
of  higher  nobles,  it  is  certain  that  he  always  pos- 
sessed large  landed  estates  of  his  own3,  either  by 
inheritance  or  royal  grant :  moreover  it  is  proba- 
ble that  among  a  people  in  that  stage  of  society  in 

1  I  cannot  otherwise  account  for  the  mention  of  "ftaes  ealdormonnes 
lond,  "Sees  ealdormonnes  mearc,  gemeero,"  etc.  which  so  often  occur. 
The  boundaries  of  charters  not  being  accidental  and  fluctuating,  but 
permanent,  it  follows  that  "the  alderman's  mark"  was  so  also. 

2  "Dovere  reddebat  18  libras,  de  quibus  denariis  habebat  rex  Ed- 
wardus  duas  partes  et  comes  Goduinus  tertiam."     Domesd.  Chenth. 
Whether  all  the  estates  of  folcland  were  charged  with  payments  to  the 
duke  is  uncertain>  but  yet  this  is  probable.     The  monastery  lands  ap- 
pear to  have  been  so  j  for  in  848  Hunberht,  ealdorman,  prince  or  duke 
of  the  Tonsetan,  released  the  monastery  of  Bredon  from  all  payments 
heretofore  due  from  that  monastery  to  himself,  or  generally  to  the 
princes  of  that  district.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  261.     Again  in  836,  "Wiglaf 
of  Mercia  granted  to  the  monastery  at  Hanbury  perfect  freedom  and  ex- 
emption from  all  demands,  known  and  unknown,  save  the  three  in- 
evitable burthens  :  the  ealdormen  Sigered  and  Mucel,  whose  rights 
were  thus  diminished,  were  indemnified,  the  first  with  a  purse  of  six 
hundred  shillings  in  gold,  the  second  with  three  hundred  acres  at 
Croglea.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  237. 

3  The  highest  rank,  that  is  the  ealdorman' s,  appears  to  have  implied 
the  absolute  possession  of  land  to  the  amount  of  40  hides,  or  1200 
acres.     See  Hist.  Eliens.  ii.  40 :  "Sed  quoniam  ille  40  hidarum  terrae 
dominium  minime  obtineret,  licet  nobilis  esset,  inter  proceres  tune  no- 
minari  non  potuit,"  etc.     The  charters  show  what  large  estates  were 
devised  by  many  of  these  ealdormen. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  141 

which  we  find  the  Saxons,  voluntary  offerings  to 
no  small  amount  would  find  their  way  into  the 
spence  or  treasury  of  so  powerful  an  officer  :   no 
one  ever  approaches   a  Pacha  without  a  present. 
One  form  of  such  gratuities  we  can  trace  in  the 
charters  ;   I  mean  the  grant  of  estates  either  for 
lives  or  perpetuity,  made  by  the  clergy  in  consi- 
deration of  support  and  protection ;  thus  in  855,  we 
find  that  Ealhhun,  bishop  *6f  Worcester,  and  his 
chapter  gave  eleven  hides  of  land  to  duke  ^E^elwulf 
and  WulfSry^,  his  duchess,  for  their  lives,  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  be  a  good  and  true  friend 
to  the  monastery,  and  protector  of  its  liberties  1. 
Fifty  years  later,   in  904,  Werfri'S  and  the  same 
chapter  granted  to  duke  ^E$elred,  his  duchess  and 
their  daughter,  a  vill  in  Worcester  and  about  132 
acres  of  arable  and  meadow  land,  for  three  lives, 
with  reversion  to  the  see,  on  condition  that  they 
would  be  good  friends  and  protectors  to  the  chap- 
ter 2.     It  is  likewise  probable  that  even  if  no  set- 
tled, legal  share  of  the  plunder  were  his  of  right, 
still  his  opportunities  of  enriching  himself  in  his 
capacity  of  general  were  not  inconsiderable  :    he 
must  for  instance  have  had  the  ransom  of  all  pri- 
soners of  any  distinction,  or  the  price  of  their  sale. 
And  lastly  in  his  public  capacity  he  must  always 
have  had    a    sufficient    supply  of  convict   as  well 
as  voluntary  labour  at  command,    to   ensure   the 
profitable   cultivation   of  his    land,    and    the    safe 
keeping  of  his  flocks  and  herds.     There  cannot  be 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  279.  2  Ibid.  No.  339. 


142  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  slightest  doubt  that  he  also  possessed  all  the 
regalia  in  his  own  lands  whether  public  or  private, 
and  that  thus,  wreck,  treasure-trove,  fines  for  har- 
bouring of  outlaws,  and  many  other  bots  or  legal 
amerciaments  passed  into  his  hands.  There  are 
even  slight  indications  that  he,  like  many  of  the 
bishops,  possessed  the  right  to  coin  money ;  and  in 
every  case,  he  must  have  had  the  superintendence 
of  the  royal  mint,  and  therefore  probably  the  for- 
feiture of  all  unlicensed  moneyers.  In  addition  to 
all  this,  we  cannot  doubt  that  his  power  and  influ- 
ence pointed  him  out  as  the  lord  who  could  best  be 
relied  upon  for  protection  and  favour ;  and  we  may 
therefore  conclude  that  commendation  of  estates 
to  him  was  not  unusual,  from  all  which  estates  he 
would  receive  not  only  recognitory  services,  and 
yearly  gafol  or  rent  in  labour  and  produce,  but  in 
all  probability  also  fines  on  demise  or  alienation. 

Thus  the  position  which  his  nobility,  his  power 
and  his  wealth  secured  to  the  ealdorman  was  a 
brilliant  one.  In  fact  the  whole  executive  govern- 
ment may  be  considered  as  a  great  aristocratical 
association,  of  which  the  ealdormen  were  the  con- 
stituent members,  and  the  king  little  more  than  the 
president.  They  were  in  nearly  every  respect  his 
equals,  and  possessed  the  right  of  intermarriage 
with  him l :  it  was  solely  with  their  consent  that 

1  This  would  follow  from  their  original  nobility,  which  made  them 
of  equal  birth  with  the  king  :  but  there  is  a  case  which  seems  to  show 
that  the  rank  itself  of  ealdorman  sufficed  to  give  this  privilege.  Eadric 
ealdorman  of  Mercia,  who  is  said  to  have  been  of  low  extraction,  mar- 
ried a  sister  of  Cnut ;  and  Eadweard  the  Confessor  had  a  daughter 
of  earl  Godwine  to  wife.  The  other  case  was  common  :  "  And 


en.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  143 

he  could  be  elected  or  appointed  to  the  crown,  and 
by  their  support,  co-operation  and  alliance  that  he 
was  maintained  there.  Without  their  concurrence 
and  assent,  their  license  and  permission,  he  could  not 
make,  abrogate  or  alter  laws :  they  were  the  prin- 
cipal witan  or  counsellors,  the  leaders  of  the  great 
gemot  or  national  inquest,  the  guardians,  upholders 
and  regulators  of  that  aristocratical  power  of  which 
he  was  the  ultimate  representative  and  head.  The 
wergyld  and  oath  of  an  ealdorman  were  in  propor- 
tion to  this  lofty  position :  at  first  no  doubt,  he 
ranked  only  with  the  general  class  of  nobles  in  this 
respect,  and  the  Kentish  law  does  not  distinguish 
him  from  them :  but  at  a  later  period,  when  the 
aristocratical  hierarchy  had  somewhat  better  deve- 
loped itself,  we  find  him  rated  on  the  same  level 
with  the  bishop,  and  above  the  ordinary  nobles. 
From  the  chapter  concerning  wergylds  x,  we  find 
that  the  Northumbrian  law  rated  the  ealdorman  at 
something  more  than  thirty  times  the  value  of  the 
ceorl,  while  in  Mercia  we  hear  only  of  thanes  or 
twelve-hynde  men,  worth  six  times  the  ceorl  or  two- 
hynde  man :  and  in  Kent  the  eorl  seems  to  have 
exceeded  the  ceorl  by  three  times  only. 

But  the  value  of  the  wergyld  was  not  the  only 

flaed  set  Domerhamme,  ^Elfgares  debtor  ealdormannes,  wses  fca  his 
cwen,"  i.  e.  Eadmund's.  Chron.  Sax.  an.  946.  "Eadgar  cyning  genam 
./ElfSryfte  him  to  cwene;  heo  waes  Ordgares  dohtor  ealdormannes." 
Chron.  Sax.  965.  The  Anglosaxon  kings  were  in  fact  very  rarely  mar- 
ried to  foreign  princesses,  though  several  of  their  beautiful  daughters 
found  husbands  on  the  continent. 

1  Thorpe,  i.  187.     An  ealdorman  or  bishop =8000  thryms:  a  ceorl 
only  266. 


144 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


measure  of  the  ealdorman's  dignity.  His  oath  bore 
the  same  proportion  to  that  of  the  ceorl,  and  I 
think  we  may  assume  that  this  relative  proportion 
was  maintained  throughout  all  ranks.  The  law  re- 
specting oaths  declares  that  the  oath  of  a  twelve- 
hynde  shall  be  equal  to  those  of  six  ceorlas,  because 
if  one  would  avenge  a  twelve-hynde  it  can  be  fully 
done  upon  six  ceorlas,  and  his  wergyld  is  equal  to 
their  six l.  His  house  was  in  some  sort  a  sanctuary, 
and  any  wrong-doer  who  fled  to  it  had  three  days' 
respite  2 ;  if  any  one  broke  the  peace  therein,  he 
was  liable  to  a  heavy  fine  3 ;  his  burhbryce,  or  the 
mulct  for  violation  of  his  castle,  was  eighty  shil- 
lings 4,  which  however  the  law  of  Alfred  reduces 
to  sixty  5  ;  for  a  breach  of  his  borh  or  surety,  and 
his  mundbyrd  or  protection,  a  fine  of  two  pounds 
was  imposed  6 ;  his  Fih twite,  or  the  penalty  im- 
posed upon  the  man  who  drew  sword  and  fought 
in  his  presence,  was  one  hundred  shillings 7,  which 
was  increased  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  if  the  of- 
fence was  committed  in  the  open  court  of  justice  8. 
The  only  person  who  enjoys  a  higher  state,  beside 
the  king,  is  the  archbishop  ;  and  this  pre-eminence 
may  probably  have  once  been  due  to  the  heathen 
high-priest ;  just  as,  indeed,  the  equality  of  the 
bishop  and  ealdorman  may  have  been  traditionally 
handed  down  from  a  period  when  the  priesthood 


1  Thorpe,  i.  182. 

2  Leg.  yEftelst.  iii.  §  6,  but  seven  days  ./Eftelr.  vii.  §  5 ;  iv.  4. 

3  Leg.  Ini,  §  6.  4  Leg.  Ini,  §  45.  5  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  40. 

6  Ibid.  §  3.     Leg.  Cnut,  Sec.  §  69.     JESelr.  vii.  §  11. 

7  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  15.     ^ESelr.  vii.  §  12.  8  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  38. 


CH.  iv.  ]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  146 

and  the  highest  nobility  formed  one  body.  There 
is  no  very  distinct  intimation  of  any  peculiar  dress 
or  decoration  by  which  the  ealdorman  was  distin- 
guished, but  he  probably  wore  a  beah  or  ring  upon 
his  head,  the  fetel  or  embroidered  belt,  and  the 
golden  hilt  which  seems  to  have  been  peculiar  to 
the  noble  class.  The  staff  and  sword  were  pro- 
bably borne  by  him  as  symbols  of  his  civil  and 
criminal  jurisdiction. 

The  method  then  by  which  this  rank  was  attain- 
ed becomes  of  some  interest.  And  first  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  inquire  whether  it  was  hereditary  or  not ; 
whether  it  was  for  life,  or  only  durante  beneplacito, 
or  benemerito.  That  it  was  not  strictly  hereditary 
appears  in  the  clearest  manner  from  the  general 
fact  that  the  appointments  recorded  in  the  Chro- 
nicle and  elsewhere  are  given  to  nobles  unconnected 
by  blood  with  the  last  ealdorman.  There  are  very 
few  instances  of  an  ealdorman' s  rank  being  held  in 
the  same  county  by  a  father  and  son  in  succession. 
This  occurred  indeed  in  Mercia,  where  in  983  -ZE1- 
fric  succeeded  his  father  ^Elfhere  :  Harald  followed 
God  wine  in  his  duchy,  and  at  the  same  period, 
Leofric  and  Sigeweard  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
sort  of  succession  in  their  families.  But  when  this 
did  take  place,  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  depar- 
ture from  the  old  principle,  and  as  a  thing  which  in 
practice  would  have  been  carefully  avoided,  during 
the  better  period  of  Anglosaxon  history,  for  which 
the  feeble  reign  of  JEftelred  offers  no  fair  pattern. 
Under  his  weak  and  miserable  rule  the  more  power- 
ful nobles  might  venture  upon  usurpations  which 

VOL.  II.  L 


146 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


would  have  been  impossible  under  his  father.  And 
Cnut's  system  of  administration  was  favourable  to 
the  growth  of  an  hereditary  order  of  dukes.  A 
further  examination  of  our  history  shows  that  in 
general  the  dignity  was  held  for  life ;  we  very  rarely, 
if  ever,  hear  of  an  ealdorman  removed  or  promoted 
from  one  shire  to  another,  and  the  entries  in  the 
Chronicle  as  well  as  the  signatures  to  the  charters 
attest  that  many  of  their  number  enjoyed  their  dig- 
nity for  a  very  large  number  of  years,  in  spite  of 
the  chances  of  an  active  military  life.  But  we  do 
find,  and  not  unfrequently,  that  ealdormen  have 
been  expelled  from  their  offices  for  treason  and 
other  grave  offences.  In  the  later  times  of  JE8el- 
red,  when  traitorous  dealings  with  the  Danish  enemy 
offered  the  means  of  serving  private  or  family  hos- 
tility, the  outlawry  of  the  ealdorman  who  led  the 
different  conflicting  parties  in  the  state  was  com- 
mon, and  similar  events  accompanied  the  struggles 
of  Godwine's  party  against  the  family  of  Mercia, 
for  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  in  England1.  But 
at  a  much  earlier  period  we  hear  of  ealdormen 
losing  their  offices  and  lands :  in  901,  Eadweard 
gave  to  Winchester  ten  hides  at  Wiley,  which  duke 
Wulfhere  had  forfeited  by  leaving  his  king  and 
country  without  licence  2. 

1  See  the  Chronicle  passim. 

2  "  Ista  vero  praenominata  tellus  primitus  fuit  praepeditus  a  quodam 
duce,  nomine  Wulfhere,  et  eius  uxore,  quando  ille  utrumque  et  suum 
dominum  regem  ^Elfredum  et  patriam  ultra  iusiurandum  quam  regi  et 
suis   omnibus   optimatibus   iuraverat  sine   licentia   deroliquit.     Tune 
etiam,  cum  omnium  iudicio  sapientium  Gewissorum  et  Mercensium, 
potestatem  et  haereditatem  dereliquit  agrorum."      Cod.   Dipl.  No. 
1078. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  147 

But  if  the  dignity  of  ealdorman  did  not  descend 
by  regular  succession,  are  we  to  conclude  that 
it  was  attained  by  popular  election  I  Such  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  laws  commonly  attributed  to 
Eadweard  the  Confessor.  In  these  we  are  thus 
told  :— 

"  There  were  also  other  authorities  and  dignities 
established  throughout  all  the  provinces  and  coun- 
tries, and  separate  counties  of  the  whole  realm 
aforesaid,  which  among  the  Angles  were  called 
HeretocheSj  being  to  wit,  barons,  noble,  of  distin- 
guished wisdom,  fidelity  and  courage :  but  in  Latin 
these  were  called  ductores  exercitus,  leaders  of  the 
army,  and  among  the  Gauls,  Capital  Constables,  or 
Marshals  of  the  army.  They  had  the  ordering  of 
numerous  armies  in  battle,  and  placed  the  wings 
as  was  most  fitting,  and  to  them  seemed  most  con- 
ducive to  the  honour  of  the  crown  and  the  utility 
of  the  realm.  Now  these  men  were  elected  by 
common  counsel  for  the  general  weal,  throughout 
all  the  provinces  and  countries,  and  the  several 
counties,  in  full  folkmote,  as  the  sheriffs  of  the 
provinces  and  counties  ought  also  to  be  elected :  so 
that  in  every  county  there  was  one  heretoch  elected 
to  lead  the  array  of  his  county,  according  to  the 
precept  of  our  lord  the  king,  to  the  honour  and  ad- 
vantage of  the  crown  of  the  realm  aforesaid,  when- 
ever need  should  be  in  the  realm1." 

To  this  doctrine  I  deeply  regret  that  I  cannot 
subscribe.  Whatever  remembrance  of  the  earliest 
periods  and  their  traditions  may  have  lurked  in 

1  Thorpe,  i.  456. 

L  2 


148 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  u. 


the  mind  of  the  writer,  I  am  compelled  to  say  that 
his  description  is  not  applicable  to  any  period  com- 
prehended in  authoritative  history.  A  real  election 
of  a  duke  or  ealdorman  by  the  folcmot  may  have 
been  known  to  the  Germans  of  Tacitus,  but  I  fear 
not  to  those  who  two  centuries  later  established 
themselves  in  England.  There  cannot,  I  imagine, 
be  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  ealdormen  of  the 
several  districts  were  appointed  by  the  crown,  with 
the  assent  of  the  higher  nobles,  if  not  of  the  whole 
witena  gemot.  But  it  is  also  probable  that  in  the 
strict  theory  of  their  appointment,  the  consent  of 
the  county  was  assumed  to  be  necessary ;  and  it  is 
possible  that,  on  the  return  of  the  newly  appointed 
ealdorman  to  his  shire,  he  was  regularly  received, 
installed  and  inaugurated  by  acclamation  of  the 
shire-thanes,  and  the  oath  of  office  administered  in 
the  shiremoot,  whose  co-operation  and  assent  in  his 
election  was  thus  represented.  Whatever  may  have 
been  his  original  character,  it  seems  certain  that 
at  no  time  later  than  the  fifth  century  could  the 
ealdorman  have  been  the  people's  officer,  but  on 
the  contrary  that  he  was  always  the  officer  of  that 
aristocratical  association  of  which  the  king  was  the 
head1. 

Still  I  do  not  think  that  in  general  the  choice 
of  the  witan  could  be  a  capricious  or  an  uncondi- 
tional one.  There  must  have  been  in  every  shire  cer- 
tain powerful  families  from  whose  members  alone 
the  selection  could  be  made ;  the  instincts  of  all 


1  As  the  king  and  his  witan  could  unquestionably  depose  or  remove 
the  ealdorman,  we  can  scarcely  doubt  their  power  to  appoint  him. 


CH.  iv.]  THE  EALDORMAN  OR  DUKE.  149 

aristocracies,  as  well  as  the  analogy  of  other  great 
Anglosaxon  dignities,  render  it  certain  that  the 
ealdormannic  families,  as  a  general  rule,  retained 
this  office  among  themselves,  although  the  parti- 
cular one  from  which  the  officer  should  at  any  given 
time  be  taken  were  left  undecided,  for  the  deter- 
mination of  the  Witan.  It  was  almost  necessary 
policy  to  place  at  the  head  of  the  county  one  of 
the  most  highly  connected,  trustworthy,  powerful 
and  wealthy  of  its  nobles, — less  necessary,  however 
usual,  now  than  then,  when  the  functions  of  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  and  the  High  Sheriff  were  united 
in  the  same  person.  It  even  appears  probable,  al- 
though the  difficulty  of  tracing  the  Anglosaxon  pe- 
digrees prevents  our  asserting  it  as  a  positive  fact, 
that  the  ducal  families  were  in  direct  descent  from 
the  old  regal  families,  which  became  mediatized,  to 
use  a  modern  term,  upon  the  rise  of  their  more 
fortunate  compeers.  We  know  this  to  have  been 
the  case  with  ^Eftelred,  duke  and  viceroy  of  Mercia 
under  Alfred  and  Eadweard.  In  the  ninth  cen- 
tury we  find  Oswulf,  ealdorman  of  East  Kent,  call- 
ing himself  "  Dei  gratia  dux ;  "  and  Sigewulf  and 
Sigehelm,  who  appear  in  the  tenth  also  among  the 
dukes  of  Kent,  were  very  probably  descendants  of 
Sigersed,  a  king  of  that  province. 

The  new  Constitution  introduced  by  Cnut  re- 
duced the  ealdorman  to  a  subordinate  position: 
over  several  counties  was  now  placed  one  eorl,  or 
earl,  in  the  northern  sense  a  jarl,  with  power  ana- 
logous to  that  of  the  Frankish  dukes.  The  word 
ealdorman  itself  was  used  by  the  Danes  to  denote 


150 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii 


a  class,  gentle  indeed,  but  very  inferior  to  the 
princely  officers  who  had  previously  borne  that 
title :  it  is  under  Cnut,  and  the  following  Danish 
kings  that  we  gradually  lose  sight  of  the  old  ealdor- 
men ;  the  king  rules  by  his  earls  and  his  Huscarlas, 
and  the  ealdormen  vanish  from  the  counties.  From 
this  time  the  king's  writs  are  directed  to  the  earl, 
the  bishop  and  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  but  in 
no  one  of  them  does  the  title  of  the  ealdorman 
any  longer  occur ;  while  those  sent  to  the  towns 
are  directed  to  the  bishop  and  the  portgerefa  or 
prsefect  of  the  city.  Gradually  the  old  title  ceases 
altogether  except  in  the  cities,  where  it  denotes  an 
inferior  judicature,  much  as  it  does  among  our- 
selves at  the  present  day. 


151 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  GERE'FA. 

THE  most  general  name  for  the  fiscal,  administra- 
tive and  executive  officer  among  the  Anglosaxons 
was  Gerefa,  or  as  it  is  written  in  very  early  docu- 
ments geroefa1 :  but  the  peculiar  functions  of  the 
individuals  comprehended  under  it,  were  further 
defined  by  a  prefix  compounded  with  it,  as  scir- 
gerefa,  the  reeve  of  the  shire  or  sheriff:  tiingerefa 
the  reeve  of  the  farm  or  bailiff.  The  exact  mean- 
ing and  etymology  of  this  name  have  hitherto 
eluded  the  researches  of  our  best  scholars,  and  yet 
perhaps  few  words  have  been  more  zealously  in- 
vestigated 2 :  if  I  add  another  to  the  number  of  at- 
tempts to  solve  the  riddle,  it  is  only  because  I  be- 
lieve the  force  of  the  word  will  become  much  more 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  235.     The  Chronicle  even  calls  Csesar's  Tribune, 
Labienus,  gerefa. 

2  The  laws  of  Eadweard  the  Confessor  show  at  how  early  a  period 
the  word  was  unintelligible.      "  Greve  autem  nomen  est  potestatis  j 
apud  nos  autem  nichil  melius  videtur  esse  quam  praefectura,    Est  enim 
multiplex  nomen ;  greve  enim  dicitur  de  scira,  de  wsepentagiis,  de  hun- 
dredo,  de  burgis,  de  villis  :  et  videtur  nobis  compositum  esse  e  grift 
anglice,  quod  est  pax  latine,  et  ve  latine,  videlicet  quod  debefc  facere 
grift,  i.  e.  pacem,  ex  illis  qui  inferunt  in  terrain  ve,  i.  e.  miseriam  vel 

dolorem Frisones  et  Flandrenses  comites  suos  meregrave  vocant, 

quasi  majores  vel  bonos  pacificos;  et  sicut  modo  vocantur  greves,  qui 
habent  praefecturas  super  alios,  ita  tune  temporis  vocabantur  eldere- 
man,  non  propter  senectutem;  sed  propter  sapientiam."     Cap.  xxxii. 


152 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


evident  when  we  have  settled  its  genuine  deriva- 
tion ;  and  that  philology  has  yet  a  part  to  play  in 
history  which  has  not  been  duly  recognized.  One 
of  the  oldest  and  most  popular  opinions  was  that 
which  connected  the  name  with  words  denoting 
seniority;  thus,  with  the  German  adjective  grau, 
Anglosanon  gr&g,  grey.  There  was  however  little 
resemblance  between  gerefa  and  grseg,  the  Anglo- 
saxon  forms,  and  the  whole  of  this  theory  was 
applicable  only  to  the  Latin o-Frankish  form  gra- 
phio,  or  gravio.  The  frequent  use  of  words  deno- 
ting advanced  age,  as  titles  of  honour, — among 
which  ealdor  princeps,  senior  seigneur,  ^a  yldestan 
primates,  and  many  others,  will  readily  occur  to 
the  reader, — favoured  this  opinion,  which  was  long 
maintained:  but  especially  in  Germany,  it  has 
been  entirely  exploded  by  Grimm  in  his  Rechts- 
alterthiimer l,  and  proof  adduced  that  there  can- 
not be  the  slighest  connection  between  graf  and 
grau. 

More  plausibility  lay  in  the  etymology  of  gerefa 
adopted  by  Spelman ;  this  rested  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  gerefa  was  equivalent  to  gereafa,  and  that 
it  was  derived  from  reafan,  to  plunder;  this  view 
was  strengthened  by  the  circumstance  of  the  word 
being  frequently  translated  by  exactor,  the  levying 
of  fines  and  the  like  being  a  characteristic  part  of 
a  reeve's  duties.  But  this  view  is  unquestionably 
erroneous :  in  the  first  place  gerefa  could  not  have 
been  universally  substituted  for  the  more  accurate 


Page  753. 


Gloss,  in  voc.  Grafio. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE 'FA.  153 

gereafa,  which  last  word  never   occurs,  any  more 
than  on  the  other  hand  does  refan  for  reafan.     Se- 
condly, an  Anglosaxon  gerefa,  if  for  gereafa,  would 
necessarily  imply  a  High-dutch   garaupjo,  a  word 
which  we  not  only  do  not  find,  but  which  bears  no 
sort  of  resemblance   to  kravo  and  gravo  which  we 
do  find1.     Lambarde's  derivation  of  gerefa  from  ge- 
reccan,  regere,  may  be  consigned  to  the  same  store- 
house of  blunders  as  Lipsius's  graf  from  ypafyeiv. 
Again,  as  words  compounded  with  ye-  and  ending 
in  -a,  often  denote  a  person  who  participates  with 
others  in  something  expressed  by  the  root,  gerefa 
has  been  explained  to  be  one  who   shares  in  the 
roof,  i.  e.  the  kings  roof:,  and  this  has  been  sup 
ported  by  the  fact  that  graf  is  equivalent  to  comes, 
and  that  at  an  early  period  the  comites  are  found 
occupying  the  places  of  gerefan.     But  a  fatal  ob- 
jection to  this  etymon  lies  in  the  omission  of  the  h 
from  gerefa,  which  would  not  have  been  the  case 
had  hrof  really  been  the  root.    Grimm  says,  "  I  will 
venture  another  supposition.     In   old  High-dutch 
ravo  meant  tignum,  tectum  (Old  Norse  rsefr,  tectum), 
perhaps  also  domus,  aula;  garavjo,  giravjo,  giravo, 
would  thus  mean  comes,  socius,  like  gistallo,  and 
gisaljo,  gisello  (Gram.   ii.   736) 2."     There  is  how- 
ever a  serious  objection   to  this  hypothesis:  were 
it  admitted,  the  Anglosaxon  word  must  have  been 


1  Grimm  seems  to  think  the  word  was  originally  Frankish,  and  only 
borrowed  by  the  Alamanni,  Saxons,  and  Scandinavians.     Rechtsalt. 
p.  753.     I  am  disposed  to  claim  it  for  the  Frisians  and  Saxons  as  well 
as  the  Franks. 

2  Rechtsalt.  p.  753. 


154  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  it. 

gersefa,  not  gerefa  for  geroefa,  that  is,  the  vowel  in 
the  root  must  have  been  a  long  8e,  not  a  long  e, 
springing  out  of  and  representing  a  long  6.  I  am 
naturally  very  diffident  of  my  own  opinion  in  a  case 
of  so  much  obscurity,  and  where  many  profound 
thinkers  have  failed  of  success;  still  it  seems  to  me 
that  gerefa  may  possibly  be  referable  to  the  word 
rof,  clamor,-r6f,  celeber,famosus,  and  a  verb  rofan  or 
refan,  to  call  aloud:  if  this  be  so,  the  name  would 
denote  bannitor,  the  summoning  or  proclaiming  offi- 
cer, him  by  whose  summons  or  proclamation  the 
court  and  the  levy  of  the  freemen  were  called  to- 
gether; and  this  suggestion  answers  more  nearly 
than  any  other  to  the  nature  of  the  original  office  : 
in  this  sense  too,  a  reeve's  district  is  called  his 
manung,  bannum  1.  In  this  comprehensive  genera- 
lity lay  the  possibility  of  so  many  different  degrees 
of  authority  being  designated  by  one  term  ;  so  that 
in  the  revolutions  of  society  we  have  seen  the  Ger- 
man markgraf  and  burggraf  assuming  the  rank  of 
sovereign  princes,  while  the  English  borough-reeve 
has  remained  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  petty  cor- 
poration, or  the  pinder  of  a  village  has  been  desig- 
nated by  the  title  of  a  hogreeve. 

Whatever  were  the  original  signification  of  the 
word,  I  cannot  doubt  that  it  is  of  the  highest  anti- 
quity, as  well  as  the  office  which  it  denotes.  In  all 
probability  it  was  borne  by  those  elected  chiefs 
who  presided  over  the  freemen  of  the  Ga  in  their 
meetings,  and  delivered  the  law  to  them  in  their 


.  v.  8.  §  2,  3,  4. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERETA.  155 

districts  l.  Throughout  the  Germanic  constitutions, 
and  especially  in  this  country,  the  gerefa  always 
appears  in  connexion  with  judical  functions2:  he 
is  always  the  holder  of  a  court  of  justice:  thus: — 
"Eadweard  the  king  commandeth  all  the  reeves; 
that  ye  judge  such  just  dooms,  as  ye  know  to  be 
most  righteous,  and  as  it  in  the  doombook  standeth. 
Fear  not,  on  any  account,  to  pronounce  folkright  ; 
and  let  every  suit  have  a  term,  when  it  may  be 
fullfilled,  that  ye  may  then  pronounce."  Again: — 
"I  will  that  each  reeve  have  a  gemot  once  in  every 
four  weeks;  and  so  act  that  every  man  may  have 
his  right  by  law ;  and  every  suit  have  an  end  and 
a  term  when  it  shall  be  brought  forward." 

Upon  this  point  it  is  unnecessary  to  multiply 
evidence,  and  I  shall  content  myself  with  saying 
that  wherever  there  was  a  court  there  was  a  reeve, 
and  wherever  there  was  a  reeve,  he  held  some  sort 
of  court  for  the  guidance  and  management  of  per- 
sons for  whose  peaceful  demeanour  he  was  respon- 
sible. From  this  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  gere- 
fan  were  of  very  different  qualities,  possessed  very 
different  degrees  of  power,  and  had  very  different 
functions  to  perform,  from  the  gerefa  who  gave 
law  to  the  shire,  down  to  the  gerefa  who  managed 
some  private  landowner's  estate.  It  \vill  be  con- 

1  "Eliguntur  in  iisdem  conciliis  et  principes,   qui   iura  per  pagos 
vicosque  reddunt."    Tac.  Germ.  xii.    Some  tribes  may  have  called  these 
principes  by  one  name,  some  by  another :  ealdorman,  sesaga,  lahmon, 
are  all  legitimate  appellations  for  a  gerefa. 

2  Leg.  Eadw.  i.  §  1.      Thorpe,  i.  158.     Leg.  Eadw.  i.  §  2.     Thorpe,  i. 
160.     Leg.  Eadw.  i.  §.  11.     Thorpe,  i.  164.     See  also  Inst.  Polity,  §  xi. 
Thorpe,  ii.  318. 


156 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


venient  to  take  the  different  classes  of  gerefan  seria- 
tim, and  collect  under  each  head  such  information 
as  we  can  now  obtain  from  our  legal  or  historical 
monuments. 


HEA'HGEKE'FA.— In  general  the  word  coupled 
with  gerefa  enables  us  to  judge  of  the  particular 
functions  of  the  officer;  but  this  is  not  the  case 
with  the  heahgerefa  or  high  reeve ,  a  name  of  very 
indefinite  signification,  though  not  very  rare  occur- 
rence. It  is  obvious  that  it  really  denotes  only  a 
reeve  of  high  rank,  I  believe  always  a  royal  officer  ; 
but  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the  rank  is 
personal  or  official ;  whether  there  existed  an  office 
called  the  heahgerefscipe  (highreevedom)  having 
certain  duties ;  or  whether  the  circumstance  of  the 
shire-  or  other  reeve  being  a  nobleman  in  the  king's 
confidence  gave  to  him  this  exceptional  title.  I 
am  inclined  to  believe 'that  they  are  exceptional, 
and  perhaps  in  some  degree  similar  to  the  Missi  of 
the  Franks, — officers  dispatched  under  occasional 
commissions  to  perform  functions  of  supervision, 
hold  courts  of  appeal,  and  discharge  other  duties, 
as  the  necessity  of  the  case  demanded ;  but  that 
they  are  not  established  officers  found  in  all  the 
districts  of  the  kingdom,  and  forming  a  settled  part 
of  the  machinery  of  government.  In  this  particular 
sense,  our  judges  going  down  upon  their  several 
circuits,  under  a  commission  of  jail  delivery,  are 
the  heahgerefan  of  our  day. 

We  are  told  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle  that  in  the 
year  778,  ^E^elbald  and  Heardberht  of  Northum- 


CH.  v.]  THE  GEKETA.  157 

berland  slew  three  heahgerefan,  namely  Ealhwulf 
the  son  of  Bosa,  Cynewulf  and  Ecga :  and  the  im- 
mediate consequence  of  this  appears  to  have  been 
the  expulsion  of  ^Eftelred,  and  the  succession  of 
JElfwold  to  the  throne  of  Northumberland.  These 
high-reeves  were  therefore  probably  military  officers 
of  ^E^elred,  and  Simeon  of  Durham,  in  recording 
the  events  of  the  same  year  calls  them  dukes,  duces. 

Again,  in  780,  Simeon  mentions  Osbald  and 
^E^elheard  as  dukes,  but  the  Chronicle  calls  them 
heahgerefan1. 

In  a  preceeding  chapter  I  have  shown  that  the 
dux  is  properly  equivalent  to  the  ealdorman,  but 
this  can  hardly  have  been  the  case  with  the  heah- 
gerefa.  Again,  in  1001,  the  Chronicle  mentions 
three  high-reeves,  ^E'Selweard,  Leofwine  and  Kola, 
and  apparently  draws  a  distinction  by  immedi- 
ately naming  Eadsige,  the  king's  reeve,  not  his 
high-reeve.  In  1002  the  Chronicle  again  mentions 
^Efic,  a  high-reeve,  who  though  a  great  favourite 
of  the  king,  certainly  never  attained  the  rank  of 
a  duke  or  ealdorman,  or,  as  far  as  we  know,  ever 
performed  any  public  administrative  functions.  He 
was  a  minion  of  ^Eftelred's,  but  not  an  officer  of 
the  Anglosaxon  state. 

SCI'RGERE'FA  OR  SHERIFF.— The  Scirge- 
refa  is,  as  his  name  denotes,  the  person  who  stands 

1  The  instances  cited  are  Northumbrian,  and  it  is  remarkable  that 
the  chapter  on  Wergylds,  §  4,  reckons  the  heahgerefa  as  a  separate 
rank,  having  a  high  wergyld,  but  inferior  to  that  of  the  ealdorman.  I 
am  much  inclined  to  think  that  these  were  sheriffs. 


158 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


at  the  head  of  the  shire,  pagus  or  county:  he  is 
also  called  Scirman  or  Scirigman1.     He  is  properly 
speaking  the  holder  of  the  county-court,  scirgemot 
or  folcmot,   and   probably  at  first  was  its  elected 
chief.     But  as  this  gerefa  was  at  first  the  people's 
officer,  he  seems  to  have  shared  the  fate  of  the 
people,  and  to  have  sunk  in  the  scale  as  the  royal 
authority  gradually  rose :  during  the  whole  of  our 
historical  period  we  find  him  exercising  only  a  con- 
current jurisdiction,  shared  in  and  controlled  by 
the  ealdorman  on  the  one  hand  and  the  bishop  on 
the  other.      The  latter  interruption  may  very  pro- 
bably have  existed  from  the  very  earliest  periods, 
and  the  heathen  priest  have  enjoyed  the  rights 
which  the  Christian  prelate  maintained:  but  the 
intervention  of  the  ealdorman  appears  to  be  con- 
sistent only  with  the  establishment  of  a  central 
power,    exercised   in   different   districts  by  means 
of  resident  superintendents,  or  occasional  commis- 
sioners especially  charged  with  the  defence  of  the 
royal   interests.      In    the   Anglosaxon    legislation 
even  of  the  eighth  century,  the  ealdorman  is  cer- 
tainly head  of  the  shire  2 ;  but  there  is,  as  far  as  I 
know,  no  evidence  of  his  sitting  in  judgment    in 
the  folcmot  without  the  sheriff,  while  there  is  evi- 
dence that  the  sheriff  sat  without  the  ealdorman. 
Usually  the  court  was  held  under  the  presidency  of 
the  ealdorman  and  bishop,  and  of  the  scirgerefa, 

1  Leg.  Ini,  §  8.   JESelst,  v.  c.  8.  §  2,  3,  4.  vE^elwine  scirman.    Cod. 
Dipl.  No.  761,  but  JEftelwine  scirgerefa.     Ibid.  No.  732.     Wulfsige 
preost  sciriginan  ;  and  Wulfsige  se  scirigman.    Ibid.  No.  1288.   Ufegeat 
scireman.  Ibid.  No.  972.     Leofric  sciresman.  Ibid.  No.  929. 

2  Leg.  Ini,  §  36. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  159 

who  from  his  later  title  of  vicecomes,  vicedominus, 
was  probably  looked  upon  as  the  ealdorman's  de- 
puty,— a  strange  revolution  of  ideas.  The  shire- 
moot  at  ^Egelno'Ses  stan  in  the  days  of  Cnut  was 
attended  by  yEftelstan,  bishop  of  Hereford,  Ranig 
the  ealdorman,  Eadwine  his  son,  Leofwine  and 
Durcytel  the  white,  Tofig  the  king's  missus  or  mes- 
senger, and  Bryning  the  scirgerefa1.  But  in  a  cele- 
brated trial  of  title  to  land  at  Wouldham  in  Kent, 
where  archbishop  Dunstan  himself  was  a  party 
concerned,  the  case  seems  to  have  been  disposed 
of  by  Wulfsige  the  shireman  or  sheriff  alone  2.  The 
bishop  of  Eochester,  being  in  some  sort  a  party  to 
the  suit,  could  probably  not  take  his  place  as  a 
judge,  and  the  ealdorman  is  not  mentioned  at  all. 
Again  in  an  important  trial  of  title  to  land  at  Snod- 
land  in  Kent,  there  is  no  mention  whatever  of  the 
ealdorman :  the  king's  writ  was  sent  to  the  arch- 
bishop ;  and  the  sheriff  Leofric  and  the  thanes  of 
East  and  West  Kent  met  to  try  the  cause  at  Can- 
terbury 3.  It  may  then  be  concluded  that  the  pre- 
sence of  the  sheriff  was  necessary  in  any  case,  while 
that  of  the  ealdorman  might  be  dispensed  with  4. 
By  the  provisions  of  our  later  kings  it  appears  that 
the  scirgemot  or  sheriff's  court  for  the  county  was 
to  be  hold  en  twice  in  the  year,  and  before  this  were 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  755.  2  Ibid.  No.  1288. 

3  Ibid.  No.  729. 

4  The  law  of  JESelstan,  i.  §  12  (Thorpe,  i.  206)  assumes  the  presence 
of  the  reeves  in  the  folcmot  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  but  this  does  not 
particularise  the  shire-reeves,  though  these  are  probably  included  in 
the  general  term.     See  also  ^Eftelst.  iv.  §  1.     Thorpe,  i.  220. 


160 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


brought  all  the  most  important  causes,  and  such  as 
exceeded  the  competence  of  the  hundred  l. 

But  the  judicial  functions  of  the  scirgerefa  were 
by  no  means  all  that  he  had  to  attend  to.  It  is 
clear  that  the  execution  of  the  law  was  also  com- 
mitted to  his  hands.  The  provisions  of  the  council 
of  Greatanleah  conclude  with  these  words : — "  But 
if  any  of  my  reeves  will  not  do  this,  and  care  less 
about  it  than  we  have  commanded,  let  him  pay 
the  fine  for  disobeying  me,  and  I  will  find  another 
reeve  who  will  do  it  2  ;  "  where  reference  is  generally 
made  to  all  the  enactments  of  the  council.  And 
the  same  king  requires  his  bishops,  ealdormen  and 
reeves  (the  principal  shire-officer)  to  maintain  the 
peace  upon  the  basis  laid  down  in  the  Judicia 
civitatis  Londoniae,  that  is  to  put  in  force  the  en- 
actments therein  contained,  on  pain  of  fines  and 
forfeiture  3.  In  pursuance  also  of  this  part  of  their 
duty,  they  were  commanded  to  protect  the  abbots 
on  all  secular  occasions4,  and  to  see  the  church 
dues  regularly  paid ;  viz.  the  tithes,  churchshots, 
soulshots  and  plough  alms  5.  And  Eadgar,  ^E'Sel- 
red  and  Cnut  arm  them  with  the  power  to  levy  for 
tithe  and  inflict  a  heavy  forfeiture  upon  those  who 


1  Leg.  Eadg.  ii.  5.    Cnut,  ii.  18.     Thorpe,  i.  268,  386. 

2  ^E-Selst.  i.  §  26.     So  again  ^ESelst.  iii.  §  7 ;  iv.  §  1.      Thorpe,  i. 
212,  219,  222. 

3  JESelst.  v.  §  11.     Thorpe,  i.  240. 

4  "  And  the  king  enjoins  the  reeves  in  every  place  to  protect  the 
abbots  in  all  their  worldly  needs,  as  best  ye  may."    ^EiSelred,  ix.  §  32. 
Thorpe,  i.  346. 

5  ^Selst.  i.  Introd.     Thorpe,  i.  194,  196. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GEEETA.  161 

withhold  it 1.  It  is  also  very  clear  from  several  pas- 
sages in  the  Laws  that  the  sheriff  might  be  called 
upon  to  witness  bargains  and  sales,  so  as  to  warrant 
them  afterwards  if  necessary.  ^Eftelstan  enacts  2  : 
— "  Let  no  man  exchange  any  property,  without 
the  witness  of  the  reeve,  or  the  mass-priest,  or  the 
landlord,  or  the  treasurer,  or  some  other  credible 
man :  "  and  though  the  scirgerefa  is  not  particularly 
mentioned  here,  it  is  obvious  that  he  is  meant,  for 
a  subsequent  law  of  Eadmund,  following  this  enact- 
ment of  ^E'Selstan,  directs  that  no  one  shall  bar- 
gain or  receive  strange  cattle  without  the  witness  of 
the  highest  reeve  ("  summi  praepositi  "),  the  priest, 
the  treasurer  or  the  port-reeve  3.  He  was  further 
to  exercise  a  supreme  police  in  his  county:  it  is 
declared  by  ^E^elred  4, — "  If  there  be  any  man  who 
is  untrue  to  all  the  people,  let  the  king's  reeve  go 
and  bring  him  under  surety,  that  he  may  be  held 
to  justice,  to  them  that  accused  him.  But  if  he 
have  no  surety,  let  him  be  slain,  and  laid  in  the 
foul," — that  is,  I  presume,  not  buried  in  conse- 
crated ground. 

From  this  also  it  appears  probable  that  the  gerefa 
was  the  officer  to  conduct  the  execution  of  crimi- 
nals in  capital  cases,  as  he  remains  to  this  day ;  but 
as  far  as  I  remember,  there  is  no  instance  of  this 
duty  recorded.  The  regulations  respecting  mints 

1  Eadg.  i.  §  3.  ^Eftelr.  ix.  §  8.  Cnut,  i.  §  8.  Thorpe,  i.262,  342,  366. 

2  JESelst.  i.  §  10.     Thorpe,  i.  204. 

3  Eadm.  iii.  §  5.     Thorpe  i.  253.     This  law  uses  the  word  ordalii, 
which  I  believe  to  be  an  error  for  hordere,  as  in  ^Eftelstan's  law,  and 
have  rendered  it  accordingly. 

4  Leg.  ^E«elr.  i  §  4.     Thorpe,  i.  282. 

VOL.  II.  M 


1G2 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


and  coinage  seem  also  to  show  that  this  part  of  the 
public  service  was  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
scirgerefa 1.  As  the  principal  political  officer,  and 
chief  of  the  freemen  in  the  shire,  it  was  further  his 
duty  to  promulgate  the  laws  enacted  by  the  king 
and  his  witena  gemot,  and  take  a  pledge  from  the 
members  of  the  county,  to  observe  these  :  and  it  is 
to  be  concluded  that  this  was  solemnly  done  in  the 
county-court 2. 

The  scirgerefa  was  also  the  principal  fiscal  officer 
in  the  county.  It  was  undoubtedly  his  duty  to 
levy  all  fines  that  accrued  to  the  king  from  offenders, 
and  to  collect  such  taxes  as  the  land  paid  for  public 
purposes.  We  have  unhappily  no  pipe-rolls  of  the 
Anglosaxon  period,  which  would  have  thrown  the 
greatest  light  upon  the  social  condition  of  England ; 
but  we  have  a  precept  of  Cnut,  addressed  to  ^E^el- 
ric  the  sheriff  of  Kent,  and  the  other  principal  offi- 
cers and  thanes  of  the  county,  commanding  that 
archbishop  .ZEftelnoft  shall  account  only  as  far  as 
he  had  done  before  ^E/Seliic  becaem  sheriff,  and 
ordering  that  in  future  no  sheriff  shall  demand 
more  of  him  3.  From  this  it  appears  that  even  the 
lands  of  the  archbishop  himself  were  not  exempt 
from  the  sheriff's  authority  in  fiscal  matters,  al- 
though there  can  be  little  doubt  that  at  this  period 
the  prelate  had  a  grant  of  sacu  and  socn,  or  com- 


1  Cnut,  ii.  §  8.     Thorpe,  i.  380. 

2  t,  v.  §  10.     Thorpe,  i.  238. 


3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1323.  This  writ  is  directed  in  the  usual  form,  to 
the  archbishop,  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  the  abbot  of  St.  Augustine's, 
the  sheriif  and  the  thanes  of  Kent. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  163 

plete  immunity  from  the  sheriff's  power  in  judicial 
questions.  And  we  shall  have  little  difficulty  in 
admitting  that,  if  he  possessed  this  authority  in  the 
case  of  the  archbishop,  he  exercised  it  in  that  of 
other  less  distinguished  landowners.  It  has  been 
already  shown  that  the  king  possessed  certain  pro- 
fitable rights  in,  and  received  contributions  from, 
the  estates  of  folcland  in  private  hands:  these 
were  exercised  and  collected  by  the  scirgerefa.  It 
is  probable  that  the  zeal  of  this  officer  had  some- 
times overstepped  the  bounds  of  the  law,  and  in- 
duced him  to  burthen  the  free  landowner  for  the 
benefit  of  the  crown;  for  we  find  Cnut  enacting1: 
"  This  is  the  alleviation  which  it  is  my  pleasure 
to  secure  to  all  the  people,  of  that  which  hath  here- 
tofore too  much  oppressed  them.  First,  I  command 
p.  11  my  reeves  that  they  justly  provide  for  me  on 
my  own,  and  maintain  me  therewith ;  and  that  no 
man  need  give  them  anything,  as  farm-aid,  unless 
he  choose.  And  if  after  this  any  one  demand  a 
fine,  let  him  be  liable  in  his  wergyld  to  the  king." 
The  law  then  goes  on  to  regulate  the  king's  rights 
in  case  of  intestacy,  the  amount  of  heriot  payable 
by  different  classes,  the  freedom  of  succession  in 
the  wife  and  children,  and  the  freedom  of  marriage 
both  for  widow  and  maiden.  And  as  all  these  laws, 
numbered  respectively  from  §  70  to  75,  appear 
to  be  dependent  upon  one  another,  and  to  form  a 
chapter  of  alleviations  by  themselves,  I  conclude 

1  Cnut.  ii.  §  70.  Thorpe,  i.  412.  Feorm  is  the  king's  farm  or  sup- 
port :  and  feormfuUum  a  benevolence  in  aid  of  the  same.  It  had  be- 
come compulsory  in  some  cases,  and  this  is  what  Cnut  forbids. 

M2 


164 


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[BOOK  ii. 


that  the  sheriffs  had  been  guilty  of  exaction  in  con- 
fiscating the  estates  of  intestates,  demanding  ex- 
travagant heriots  and  reliefs,  and  imposing  fines 
for  licence  to  marry, — extortions  familiar  enough 
under  the  Norman  rule.  It  was  moreover  the  she- 
riff's duty  to  seize  into  the  king's  hands  all  lands  and 
chattels  belonging  to  felons,  which  would,  in  the 
event  of  a  conviction  become  forfeit  to  the  crown : 
of  this  we  have  instances.  About  A.D.  900,  one 
Helmstan  was  guilty  of  theft ;  Eanwulf  Penheard- 
ing,  who  was  then  sheriff,  immediately  seized  all  the 
property  he  had  at  Tisbury,  except  the  land  which 
Helmstan  could  not  forfeit,  as  it  was  only  Ordlaf's 
lafn  or  beneficium l.  At  the  close  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, .^Escwyn  a  widow  had  become  implicated  in 
the  theft  of  some  title-deeds  by  her  own  son:  judg- 
ment was  given  against  her  in  one  of  the  royal 
courts,  whereby  all  her  property  became  forfeited  to 
the  king :  Wulfstan  the  sheriff  of  Kent  accordingly 
seized  Bromley  and  Fawkham,  her  manors  2.  There 
is  of  course  every  probability  that  the  sheriff  was 
charged  with  certain  disbursements,  required  by 
the  public  service,  and  that  he  rendered  a  periodi- 
cal account  both  of  receipts  and  expenditure,  to  the 
officers  who  then  represented  the  royal  exchequer ; 
but  upon  this  part  of  the  subject  we  are  unhappily 
without  any  evidence.  % 

The  sheriff  was  naturally  the  leader  of  the  militia, 
posse  comitatus,  or  levy  of  the  free  men,  who  served 
under  his  banner,  as  the  different  lords  with  their  de- 


Cod.  Dipl.  No.  828. 


2  Ibid.  No,  1258. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERETA.  165 

pendents  served  under  the  royal  officers,  the  church 
vassals  under  the  bishop's  or  abbot's  officer,  and  all 
together  under  the  chief  command  of  the  ealdor- 
man  or  duke.  It  was  his  business  to  summon  them, 
and  to  command  them  in  the  field,  during  the 
period  of  their  service :  and  he  thus  formed  the 
connecting  link  between  the  military  power  of  the 
king  and  the  military  power  of  the  people,  for  pur- 
poses both  of  offence  and  defence. 

In  the  earliest  periods,  the  office  was  doubtless 
elective,  and  possibly  even  to  the  last  the  people 
may  have  enjoyed  theoretically,  at  least,  a  sort  of 
concurrent  choice.  But  I  cannot  hesitate  for  a 
moment  in  asserting  that  under  the  consolidated 
monarchy,  the  scirgerefa  was  nominated  by  the 
king,  with  or  without  the  acceptance  of  the  county- 
court,  though  this  in  all  probability  was  never  re- 
fused 1.  The  language  of  the  laws  which  continually 
adopt  the  words,  our  reeves,  where  none  but  the 
sheriffs  are  intended,  clearly  shows  in  what  relation 
these  officers  stood  to  the  king :  and  as  the  latter 
indisputably  possessed  the  power  of  removing,  he 
probably  did  riot  want  that  of  appointing  them2. 

1  In  the  Council  of  Baccanceld,  "Wihtred  is  made  to  say: — u  It  is  the 
duty  of  kings  to  appoint  eorls  and  ealdormen,  scirgerefan  and  dooms- 
men."  Chron.  Sax.  an.  694.     "  Illius  autem  est  coinites,  duces,  opti- 
mates,  principes,  praefectos,  iudices  saeculares  statuere."     Cod.  Dipl. 
No.  990.    The  charter  is  an  obvious  forgery,  but  it  shows  the  tendency 
of  opinion  in  the  Anglosaxon  times. 

2  In  some  of  the  writs  addressed  to  the  shires,  the  place  properly 
filled  by  the  scirgerefa  is  given  to  noblemen  of  the  king's  household, 
as  EtidnoiS  steallere  in  Hampshire.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  845.  Esgar  steallere 
in  Hertfordshire,  Kent  and  Middlesex.  Nos.  827,  843,  864.     Rodbeard 
steallere  in  Essex.  No.  859.   I  believe  these  persons  to  have  been  really 
the  sheriffs,  but  to  have  been  named  by  their  familiar,  and  in  their  own. 
view,  higher  designations,  as  officers  of  the  court, 


166 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  IT. 


On  one  occasion  indeed  JE^elstan  distinctly  de- 
clares, that  if  his  sheriffs  neglect  their  duty,  7*0, 
the  king,  will  find  others  to  do  it1.  The  means  by 
which  the  dignity  of  the  sheriff  was  supported  are 
similar  to  those  noticed  in  the  case  of  the  ealdor- 
man.  He  received  a  proportion  of  the  fines  pay- 
able to  the  king :  he  was.  we  may  presume,  always 
a  considerable  landowner  in  the  shire ;  indeed, 
several  of  those  whom  we  know  to  have  held  the 
office,  were  amongst  the  greatest  landowners  in 
their  respective  districts  2.  It  is  even  possible  that 
there  may  have  been  some  provision  in  land,  at- 
tached to  the  office,  for  I  meet  occasionally  with 
such  words  as  geref-land,  geref-meed,  where  the 
form  of  the  composition  denotes,  not  the  land  or 
meadow  of  some  particular  sheriff,  but  of  the  she- 
riff generally.  As  leader  of  the  sliire-fyrd  or  armed 
force,  the  gerefa  would  have  a  share  of  the  booty  ; 
and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  his 
influence  and  good-will  were  secured  at  times  by 
the  voluntary  offerings  of  neighbours  and  depend- 
ents. 

The  writs  of  the  kings,  touching  judicial  pro- 
cesses, and  other  matters  connected  with  the  pub- 
lic service,  were  directed  to  the  ealdorman,  bishop 
and  sheriff  of  the  district,  as  a  general  rule.  From 
these  writs,  which  are  numerous  in  the  eleventh 
century,  we  learn  some  of  the  names  of  the  gen- 
tlemen who  filled  the  office  at  that  period :  and  as 

1  Cone.  Greatanl.  ^ESelst.  1.  §  26. 

2  Tofig  Pruda,  whom  we  recognize  as  scirgerefa  in  Somersetshire, 
is  elsewhere  described  as  "vir  praepotens."    See  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1042. 


en.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  107 

these  names  are  not  without  interest  I  have  col- 
lected from  such  documents  as  we  possess  a  list  of 
sheriffs  for  different  counties. 

Berks Cyneweard l. 

Godric2. 

Devonshire     .     .     .     Hugh  the  Norman 3. 
Dorsetshire     .     .     .     Alfred4. 
Essex Leofcild5. 

Rodbeard  steallere  G. 
Hampshire     .     .     .     Eadsige 7. 

Eadno'S  steallere8. 
Herefordshire      .     .     ^Slfno^ 9. 

Bryning 10. 

Osbearn  11. 

Ulfcytel 12. 
Hertfordshire       .     .     JElfstan 13. 

Esgar  steallere  14. 
Huntingdonshire      .     JElfric15. 

Cyneric  16. 
Kent JEBelric17. 

JESelwine 18. 

Esgar  steallere  19. 

Leofric20. 

Osweard  21. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  948.  12  Ibid.  No.  802. 

2  Ibid.  No.  840.  13  Ibid.  No.  945. 

3  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1008.  14  Ibid.  No.  8G4. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  871.  15  Ibid.  No.  903. 

5  Ibid.  Nos.  783,  869,  870.  1G  Ibid.  No.  906. 

G  Ibid.  No.  859.  ]7  Ibid.  Nos.  1323, 1325. 

7  Ibid.  No.  1337.  18  Ibid.  Nos.  731,  732. 

8  Ibid.  No.  845.  19  Ibid.  No.  827. 

9  Cliron.  Sax.  105G.  20  Ibid.  No.  929. 

10  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  755.  21  Ibid.  Nos.  847,  854. 

11  Ibid.  No.  833. 


1G8 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


Kent 


Lincolnshire  . 
Middlesex 


Norfolk  .  .  .  . 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk 
Northampton  .  . 

Somersetshire 


Suffolk      .     . 

Warwickshire 
Wiltshire.     . 
Worcestershire 


Wulfsige  preost  l. 
Wulfstan2. 
Osgod  3. 


Esgar  steallere  5. 

Ulf6. 

Eadric7. 

Tolig  8. 

Marleswegen  9. 

NorSman  10. 

Godwine  n. 

Tofig  12. 

Tauid  or  Touid  13. 


Tolig  15. 

Uua  16. 

Eanwulf  Penhearding  17. 

Leofric  18. 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1288.  This  is  contrary  to  the  provision  of  archbishop 
Ecgberht's  Poenitential,  iii.  §  8  :  he  says  that  a  priest  or  deacon  ought 
not  to  "be  a  gerefa,  or  a  wicnere,  or  to  have  any  concern  with  secular 
business.  "  Nis  nanurn  msesse-preoste  alyfed  ne  diacone,  set  hi  gere*- 
fan  beon  n6  wicneras,  ne  ymbe  nane  worldbysgunga  abysgode  beon, 
biiton  mid  -&ere  «e  hig  to  getitolode  beo«."  Thorpe,  ii.  198.  Perhaps 
however  Ecgberht's  rule  was  construed  to  mean  private,  not  public, 
gerefan,  when  in  process  of  time  it  might  become  useful  to  have  the 
assistance  of  priests  learned  in  the  law,  as  judges  j  especially  as  in  the 
tenth  century  the  importance  of  missionary  labours  was  less  strongly 
felt  than  in  the  eighth. 

11  Ibid.  Nos.  834,  835,  836,  838. 

12  Ibid.  No.  821. 

13  Ibid.  Nos.  837,  839,  917,  926,  976. 

14  Ibid.  Nos.  832,  842. 

15  Ibid.  Nos.  874,  905. 

16  Ibid.  No.  493. 


Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1258. 
Ibid.  No.  1319. 
Ibid.  No.  858. 
Ibid.  No.  855. 
Ibid.  No.  843. 
Ibid.  No.  785. 


Ibid.  Nos.  853,  875,880,  881,  883,  908,  911. 
Ibid.  Nos.  808,  808.  17  Ibid.  No.  328. 

10  Ibid.  Nos.  863,  904.  18  Ibid.  Nos.  757,  898,  923. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  169 

It  is  possible  that  increased  research  may  extend 
this  list  of  sheriffs,  and  much  to  be  regretted  that 
our  information  is  so  scanty  as  it  is.  We  have  no 
means  of  deciding  whether  the  office  was  an  an- 
nual one,  or  how  its  duration  was  limited.  The 
Kentish  list  shows  that  the  clergy  were  neither  ex- 
empt nor  excluded  from  its  toils  or  advantages:  and 
the  position  of  Wulfsige  the  priest  and  sheriff  recalls 
to  us  the  earlier  times  when  priest  and  judge  may 
have  been  synonymous  terms  among  the  nations  of 
the  north  1.  I  now  proceed  to  a  third  class,  the 

CYNINGES  GEEE'FA,  or  Koyal  Reeve.- 
There  is  some  difficulty  with  regard  to  this  offi- 
cer, because  in  many  cases  where  the  cyninges 
gerefa  is  mentioned,  it  is  plain  that  the  scirgerefa 
is  meant.  For  example,  Alfred  twice  mentions 
the  cyninges  gerefa  as  sitting  in  the  folcmot  and 
administering  justice  there  2,  which  is  hardly  to  be 
understood  of  any  but  the  sheriff.  However  it  is 
consistent  with  the  general  principles  of  Teutonic 
society  that  as  there  was  a  scirgerefa  to  do  justice 
between  freeman  and  freeman,  so  also  there  should 
be  a  cyninges  gerefa,  before  whom  the  king's 
tenants  should  ultimately  stand  to  right,  and  who 
more  particularly  administered  the  king's  sacu  and 

1  "  Si  index  vel  sacerdos  reperti  fuerint  nequiter  iudicasse,"  etc.  Leg. 
Visigoth,  ii.  c.  1.  §  33. 

2  "  Gif  mon  on  folces  gemote  cyninges  gerefan  ge-yppe  eofot,"  etc. 
§  22.     "  And  gebrengen  beforan  cyninges  gerefan  on  folcgemote  .... 
gecySe  in  gemotes  gewitnesse  cyninges  gerefan."     §  34.     See   also 
Weired,  iii.  §  13.     Cnut,  ii.  §  8,  33.    Thorpe,  i.  76,  82,  380,  396. 
In  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  789,  appears  a  king's  reeve  Wulfsige :  but  is  not  this 
the  same  Wulfsige  as  we  find  sheriff  of  Kent  at  the  same  period  ? 


170 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


socn  in  his  own  private  lands.  To  this  officer, 
under  the  ealdorman,  would  belong  the  investiga- 
tion of  those  causes  which  the  king's  manorial 
courts  could  not  decide :  perhaps  he  might  possess 
some  sort  of  appellate  jurisdiction:  and  it  cannot 
be  doubted  that  it  was  his  duty  to  superintend  the 
management  of  the  king's  private  domains,  and  to 
lead  the  array  of  the  king's  private  tenants  in  the 
general  levy.  It  is  therefore  not  unlikely  that  this 
officer  may  be  identical  with  the  heahgerefa  already 
noticed.  But  in  many  cases  where  a  king's  reeve 
is  mentioned,  and  where  we  cannot  understand  the 
term  of  the  scirgerefa,  it  is  clear  that  a  wicgerefa 
or  burh-  or  tungerefa  are  intended,  and  that  they 
are  called  royal  officers  merely  because  the  wic, 
burh  or  tun  happened  to  be  royal  property.  The 
Chronicle  under  the  year  787  mentions  a  gerefa 
who  was  slain  by  the  Northmen  : — "  This  year 
king  Beorhtric  took  to  wife  Eadburh,  king  Offa's 
daughter :  and  in  his  time  first  came  three  ships 
of  Northmen  from  Hseretha  land.  And  then  the 
gerefa  rode  to  the  place,  and  would  have  driven 
them  to  the  king's  tun,  for  he  knew  not  who  they 
were  :  and  there  on  the  spot  they  slew  him.  These 
were  the  first  Danish  ships  that  ever  sought  the 
land  of  the  English." 

Now  Florence  of  Worcester  under  the  same  date 
tells  us  that  this  officer  was  "  regis  praepositus," 
that  is,  a  king's  reeve :  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon 
improves  him  into  a  sheriff1,  "  praepositus  regis 
illius  provinciae : "  ^E^elweard  however,  who  is 

1  Hen.  Hunt.  lib.  iv. 


en.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  171 

obviously  much  better  acquainted  with  the  details 
of  the  story  than  his  Norman  successors,  records 
that  this  officer's  name  was  Beadoheard,  and  that 
he  was  the  royal  burggrave  in  Dorchester  l. 

In  897  again  we  hear  of  the  death  of  Lucemon,  in 
battle  against  the  Danes :  the  Chronicle  calls  him 
"  8a3S  cyninges  gerefa :  "  but  Henry  of  Huntingdon, 
<•  praepositus  regalis  exercitus  2,"  which  may  merely 
mean  the  officer  appointed  to  lead  the  royal  force, 
that  is  a  king's  reeve  in  the  sense  which  I  have  at- 
tempted to  establish  on  a  preceding  page.  Other 
king's  reeves  mentioned,  are  ^Elfweard,  (Chron.  Sax. 
an.  1011),  and  ^Elfgar  (Cod.  Dipl.  No.  693). 

It  may  admit  of  doubt  whether  in  the  parts  of 
England  which  were  subject  to  Danish  rule,  and 
only  re-annexed  to  the  Westsaxon  crown  by  con- 
quest, the  same  institutions  prevailed  as  in  the 
rest  of  the  country.  In  the  laws  of  JE^elred  3  we 
hear  of  a  king's  reeve  in  the  Wapentake  and  in  the 
community  of  the  Five  Burgs.  These  are  not  she- 
riffs; the  former  rather  resembling  the  Hundred- 
man  ;  the  latter  a  Burhgerefa,  but  with  extended 
powers,  perhaps  approaching  those  of  a  sheriff,  or 
the  Northumbrian  heahgerefa  already  alluded  to  in 
this  chapter. 

THE  BURHGERE'FA.— In  a  fortified  town, 
which  I  take  to  be  the  strict  meaning  of  burh,  there 


.  lib.  iii.  t(  Exactor  regis,  iam  morans  in  oppido,  quod  Dor- 
ceastre  nuncupatur."  Gaiinar  calls  him  "  un  senescal  al  rei :  "    1.  2069. 

2  Hen.  Hunt.  lib.  v. 

3  /EMr.  iii.  §  1;  and  iii.  §  3.     Thorpe,  i.  292,  294. 


172 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


was  an  officer  under  this  title.  We  know  but  little 
of  his  peculiar  powers ;  but  there  is  every  reason  to 
conclude  that  they  were  similar  to  those  of  other 
gerefan,  according  to  the  circumstances  in  which 
he  was  placed.  If  the  town  were  free,  it  is  possible 
that  he  may  have  been  the  popular  officer,  a  sort  of 
sheriff  where  the  town  is  itself  a  county.  But  this 
is  improbable,  and  it  is  much  more  likely  that  the 
burhgerefa  was  essentially  a  royal  officer,  charged 
with  the  maintenance  and  defence  of  a  fortress. 
Such  a  one  I  take  Badoheard  to  have  been  in  Dor- 
chester ;  similarly  we  hear  of  Godwine,  praepositus 
civitatis  Oxnafordi 1,  ^EBelwig  praepositus  in  Bu- 
cingaham2,  and  Wynsige  also  praepositus  in  Ox- 
naforda2,  Osulf  and  YlcserSon  both  praepositi  in 
Padstow3;  and  finally  ^Elfred,  the  reeve  of  Bath4. 
It  was  this  officer's  duty  to  preside  in  the  burh- 
gemot,  which  was  appointed  to  be  held  thrice  in 
the  year5,  and  he  was  most  likely  the  representa- 
tive of  the  towns-people,  so  far  as  these  were  un- 
free,  in  the  higher  courts.  It  is  also  probable  that 
he  was  their  military  leader,  and  that  he  was  ex- 
pected to  be  present  at  sales  and  exchanges  in 
order  to  be  able  to  warrant  transactions,  if  im- 
peached. Lastly  he  was  to  see  that  tithes  were 
duly  rendered  from  his  fellow-citizens 6.  From  a 
very  interesting  document  just  now  cited 7,  it  may 
be  inferred  that  he  possessed  considerable  power 


1  Cod.Dipl.No.950. 

2  Ibid.  No.  1289. 

3  Ibid.  No.  981. 

4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  906. 


5  Leg1.  Eadg.  ii.  §  5. 

6  ^EtJelst.  i.  §  1.    Thorpe,  i.  194. 

7  See  Note  2  in  this  page. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GEKE'FA.  178 

in  his  district,  and  that  persons  of  rank  and  wealth 
were  clothed  with  the  office.  We  there  find  the 
reeves  of  Buckingham  and  Oxford  granting  the  rites 
of  Christian  burial  to  some  Saxon  gentlemen  who 
had  perished  in  a  brawl  brought  on  by  an  attempt 
at  theft ;  and  the  intervention  of  the  king  himself 
seems  to  have  been  necessary  to  prevent  the  exe- 
cution of  their  decree.  The  burhgerefa  may  per- 
haps be  said  to  have  had  some  of  the  rights  of  the 
Aedile  and  Praetor  urbanus  under  the  old,  or  those 
of  the  duumvir  under  the  later,  provincial  constitu- 
tion of  Home.  Still  he  seems  to  have  been  in  some 
degree  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  ealdor- 
man.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  he  might  be 
compared  in  part  with  the  Burggraf,  in  part  with 
the  Vogt  of  the  German  towns  under  the  Empire ; 
but  unfortunately  we  know  too  little  of  our  an- 
cient municipal  constitution  to  enable  us  to  carry 
out  this  enquiry.  We  have  no  means  now  of 
ascertaining  the  duration  of  his  office,  the  nature 
of  his  appointment,  or  the  actual  extent  of  his 
powers. 

PORTGEKEVFA.—  The  Portgerefa  is  in  many 
respects  similar  to  the  Burhgerefa :  but  as  it  appears 
that  Port  is  applied  rather  to  a  commercial  than  a 
fortified  town,  there  are  differences  between  the  two 
offices.  In  some  degree  these  will  have  depended 
upon  the  comparative  power,  freedom  and  organi- 
zation of  the  citizens  themselves,  and  I  can  readily 
believe  that  the  portreeves  of  London  were  much 
more  important  personages  than  the  burhreeves  of 


174 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  IT. 


Oxford  or  Bath.  In  the  smaller  towns,  it  is  pro- 
bable that  the  court  of  the  portreeve  was  a  sort  of 
pie-powder  court ;  but  in  the  larger,  it  must  have 
had  cognizance  of  offences  against  the  customs 
laws,  the  laws  affecting  the  mint,  and  the  general 
police  of  the  district.  Asa  general  rule  I  imagine 
the  portgerefa  to  have  been  an  elective  officer : 
perhaps  in  the  large  and  important  towns  he  re- 
quired at  least  the  assent  of  the  king.  In  London 
he  holds  the  place  of  the  sheriff,  and  the  king's 
writs  are  directed  to  the  earl,  the  bishop  and  the 
portreeve  l.  There  are  two  cities  in  which  we  hear 
of  portreeves,  viz.  London  and  Canterbury :  in  the 
former  we  have  Swetman2,  ^Elfsige3,  Ulf4,  Leof- 
stan  5,  and  the  great  officer  of  the  royal  household, 
Esgar  the  steallere6,  which  alone  would  be  sufficient 
evidence  of  the  importance  attached  to  the  post. 
In  Canterbury  we  read  of  ^E$elred7,  Leofstan8,  and 
Godric9,  occupying  the  same  station.  Again  we  have 
^Elfsige  portgerefa  in  Bodmin 10,  and  Leofcild  port- 
gerefa in  Bath  n.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  vol.  iv.  passim.     There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to 
suppose  that  there  ever  was  a  special  ealdorman  of  London,  as  Palgrave 
imagines.     The  city  was  governed  by  Portreeves,  usually  two  at  once, 
until  long  after  the  Conquest,    when  it  obtained  mayors,  like  many 
other  towns. 

2  Cod.Dipl.  Nos.  857,  861.  3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  856. 

4  Ibid.  No.  872.  «  Ibid.  Nos.  857,  861.      • 

6  Ibid.  No.  872.  7  Ibid.  No.  929. 

8  Ibid.  No.  799.  9  Ibid.  No.  789. 

10  Ibid.  No.  981. 

11  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  933.    This  evidence  that  the  officer  in  Bath  was 
a  portreeve  and  not  a  burhreeve  may  suggest  the  possibility  of  those 
persons  whom  I  have  cited  under  the  former  head,  belonging  rather  to 
the  present  one.     The  Latin  praepositus  dmiatis  will  denote  either 
one  or  the  other  office,  and  indeed  it  is  difficult  to  prove  any  difference 
between  them  by  direct  testimony. 


en.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  175 

two,  JElfsige  and  Leofstan,  served  the  office  together 
in  London,  and  that  Ulf  also  occurs  as  sheriff  of 
Middlesex.  In  the  smaller  towns  especially  it  must 
have  been  a  principal  part  of  the  portreeve's  duty 
to  witness  all  transactions  by  bargain  and  sale  l.  A 
portion  of  his  subsistence  at  least  was  probably 
derived  from  the  proceeds  of  tolls,  and  fines  levied 
within  his  district. 

WI'CGERE'FA.—  The  Wicgerefa  was  a  similar 
officer^  in  villages,  or  in  such  towns  as  had  grown 
out  of  villages  without  losing  the  name  of  a  village. 
I  presume  that  he  was  not  concerned  with  the  free- 
men, but  was  a  kind  of  steward  of  the  manor,  and 
that  his  dignity  varied  with  the  rank  of  his  em- 
ployer and  the  extent  of  his  jurisdiction.  How- 
ever there  is  so  much  difficulty  in  making  a  clear 
distinction  between  Port  and  Wic,  that  we  find 
wicgerefa  applied  to  officers  who  ruled  in  large 
and  royal  cities.  Thus  the  Saxon  Chronicle  men- 
tions Beornwulf  under  the  title  of  Wicgerefa  in 
Winchester  2,  whom  Florence  in  the  same  year  calls 
Praepositus  Wintoniensium.  And  in  the  laws  of 
Hlo^here  and  Eadric  3,  the  same  title  is  given  to 
the  king's  officer  in  London,  Cyninges  wicgerefa. 
In  general  I  should  be  disposed  to  construe  the 
word  strictly  as  a  village-reeve,  and  especially  in 
any  case  where  the  village  was  not  royal,  but  ducal 
or  episcopal  property.  Many  places  may  indeed 

1  Leg.  Eadw.  §  1.     Thorpe,  i.  158.     Eadm.  iii.  §  5.     Thorpe,!.  253. 
^ESelst.  i.  §  12.     Thorpe,  i.  206 

2  Ckron.  Sax.  an.  897  '  3  §  10.   Thorpe,  i.  34. 


176 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


have  once  been  called  by  the  name  of  WIG  which 
afterwards  assumed  a  much  more  dignified  appel- 
lation, together  with  a  much  more  important  social 
condition. 


TU'NGERE'FA.— The  Tungerefa  is  literally  the 
reeve  of  a  tun,  enclositre,  farm,  vill  or  manor :  and 
his  authority  also  must  have  fluctuated  with  that 
of  his  lord.  He  is  the  milieus  or  bailiff  of  the 
estate,  and  on  the  royal  farms  was  bound  to  super- 
intend the  cultivation,  and  keep  the  peace  among 
the  cultivators.  In  London  he  appears  to  have  been 
subordinate  to  the  portgerefa,  and  was  probably 
his  officer l ;  it  was  his  business  to  see  that  the  tolls 
were  paid.  ^Elfred  commands,  in  case  a  man  is 
committed  to  prison  in  the  king's  tun,  that  the  reeve 
shall  feed  him,  if  necessary  2.  This  I  suppose  to  be 
the  tungerefa,  the  officer  on  the  spot  who  would 
be  responsible  for  his  security.  So  Eadgar  forbids 
his  reeves  to  do  any  wrong  to  the  other  men  of  the 
tun,  in  respect  to  the  tracking  of  strange  cattle3. 
Here  the  tungerefa  represents  the  king,  among  the 
class  that  would  in  earlier  times  have  formed  a  court 
of  free  markmen.  That  the  tungerefa  was  the 
manager  of  a  royal  estate  appears  plainly  from  an 
ordinance  of  JE^elstan,  respecting  the  doles  or  cha- 
rities which  were  to  issue  from  the  various  farms' 
domain4.  "  I  ^E'Selstan,  with  the  consent  of  Wulf- 
helm  my  archbishop,  and  all  my  other  bishops  and 


.  §  1.  Thorpe,  i.  61. 


.  iv.  §  3. 

3  Eadg.  Supp.  §  13.  Thorpe,  i.  276. 

4  ^ESelst.  i.  §  1.  Thorpe,  i.  196. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  177 

God's  servants,  command  all  you  my  reeves,  within 
my  realm,  for  the  forgiveness  of  my  sins,  that  ye 
entirely  feed  one  poor  Englishman,  if  ye  have  him, 
or  that  ye  find  another.  From  every  two  of  my 
farms,  be  there  given  him  monthly  one  amber  of 
meal,  and  one  shank  of  bacon,  or  a  ram  worth  four 
pence,  and  clothing  for  twelve  months  every  year. 
And  ye  shall  redeem  one  wite]>e6w:  and  let  all 
this  be  done  for  the  Lord's  mercy,  and  for  my 
sake,  under  witness  of  the  bishop  in  whose  diocese 
it  may  be.  And  if  the  reeve  neglect  this,  let  him 
make  compensation  with  thirty  shillings,  and  let 
the  money  be  distributed  to  the  poor  in  the  tun 
where  this  remains  unfulfilled,  by  witness  of  the 
bishop." 

Lastly,  in  the  law  of  ^ESelred1  I  find  the  Tun- 
gravius,  decimales  homines,  and  presbyter  charged 
with  the  care  of  seeing  certain  alms  bestowed  and 
fasts  observed ;  which  seems  to  denote  a  special 
authority  exercised  by  the  Tungerefa  together  with 
the  heads  of  the  tithings.  The  gerefa  in  a  royal  vill 
may  easily  have  been  a  person  of  consideration : 
if  the  ^E'Selno'S  who  in  830  was  reeve  at  Eastry  in 
Kent2,  were  such  a  one,  we  find  from  his  will  that 
he  had  no  mean  amount  of  property  to  dispose  of. 

SWA'NGERE'FA.—  The  Swangerefa,  as  his  name 
denotes,  was  reeve  of  that  forest-court  which  till  a 
late  period  was  known  in  England  as  the  swain- 
moot.  It  was  his  business  to  superintend  the  swanas 

1  ^Eflelr.  viii.  §  2.  Thorpe,  i.  338.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  191. 

VOL.  II.  N 


178 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


or  swains,  the  herdsmen  and  foresters,  to  watch  over 
the  rights  of  pasture,  and  regulate  the  use  which 
might  be  made  of  the  forests.  It  is  probably  one 
of  the  Eldest  constitutional  offices,  and  may  have 
existed  by  the  same  name  at  a  time  when  the  orga- 
nization in  Marks  was  common  all  over  England. 
From  a  trial  which  took  place  in  825,  we  find  that 
he  had  the  supervision  of  the  pastures  in  the  shitfe- 
wood  or  public  forest1,  and  from  this  also  it  appears 
that  he  was  under  the  immediate  superintendence 
and  control  of  the  ealdorman.  The  extended  or- 
ganization which  the  swana  gemot  attained  under 
Cnut,  may  be  seen  in  that  prince's  Constitutions 
de  Foresta2.  It  is  probable  that  there  were  Holt- 
gerefan  and  Wudugerefan,  holtreeves  and  wood- 
reeves  among  the  Saxons,  having  similar  duties  to 
those  of  the  Swangerefa,  but  I  have  not  yet  met 
with  these  names.  They  are,  I  believe,  by  no  means 
extinct  in  many  parts  of  England,  any  more  than 
the  Landreeve,  a  designation  still  current  in  Devon- 
shire, and  probably  elsewhere. 

WEALHGEKE'FA.— The  last  officer  whom  I 
shall  treat  of  particularly  is  the  Wealhgerefa  or 
Welsh-reeve.  This  singular  title  occurs  in  an  en- 
try of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  anno  897.  "The  same 
year  died  Wulfric,  the  king's  horse-thane,  who  was 
also  Wealhgerefa."  There  can  be  no  dispute  as  to 
the  meaning  of  the  word,  but  the  functions  of  the 
officer  designated  by  it  are  far  from  clear.  It  de- 


Cod.  Dipl.  No.  219. 


Thorpe,  i.  426. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERE'FA.  179 

notes  a  reeve  who  had  the  superintendence  of  the 
Welsh;  but  the  question  where  this  superintend- 
ence was  exercised  is  a  very  important  one.  If  in 
the  king's  palace,  Wulfric  was  set  over  a  certain 
number  of  unfree  Britons,  laeti  or  even  serfs,  as 
their  judge  and  regulator :  or  he  may  have  had  the 
superintendence  of  property  belonging  to  Alfred 
in  Wales,  which  is  somewhat  less  probable :  or 
lastly  he  may  have  been  a  margrave,  whose  mis- 
sion it  was  to  watch  the  Welsh  border,  and  defend 
the  Saxon  frontier  against  sudden  incursions.  This 
I  think  the  least  probable  of  all,  inasmuch  as  I  find 
no  traces  of  margraves  (mearcgerefan)  in  Anglo- 
saxon  history.  On  the  contrary  the  marches  in 
this  country  seem  to  have  been  always  committed 
to  the  care  of  a  duke  or  ealdorman,  not  a  gerefa. 
Wulfric's  rank  however,  which  was  that  of  a  maris- 
calcus  or  marshal,  is  not  inconsistent  with  so  great 
and  distant  a  command.  On  the  whole  therefore  I 
am  disposed  to  believe  that  he  was  a  royal  reeve  to 
whose  care  JElfred's  Welsh  serfs  were  committed, 
and  who  exercised  a  superintendence  over  them  in 
some  one  or  in  all  of  the  royal  domains. 

The  gerefa  was  not  necessarily  a  royal  officer: 
on  the  contrary  we  find  bishops,  ealdormen,  nay 
simple  nobles  with  them  upon  their  establishment. 
Of  course  the  moment  an  immunity  of  sacu  and 
socn  existed  upon  any  estate,  the  lord  appointed  a 
gerefa  to  hold  his  court  and  do  right  among  his 
men,  as  the  scirgerefa  held  court  for  the  freemen 
in  the  shire.  And  if  any  proof  of  this  were  neces- 
sary, we  might  find  it  in  the  title  socnereve  (socne 


180 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


gerefa)  which  occurs  at  page  12  of  the  valuable  book 
known  as  *  Liber  de  antiquis  Legibus,'  but  which 
would  have  been  much  more  justly  entitled  Annals 
of  the  Corporation  of  London.    We  may  be  assured 
that  in  every  vill  belonging  to  a  bishop  or  a  lay 
lord,  in  every  city  where  there  was  a  cathedral  or 
a  castle,  there  was  found  a  bisceopes  or  an  ealdor- 
mannes  gerefa,  as  the  case  might  be,   performing 
such  functions  for  the  prelate  or  the  noble,  as  the 
king's  gerefa  exercised  for  him ;  and  if  there  were 
an  immunity,  performing  every  function  that  the 
royal  officer  performed.    Thus  in  some  towns  I  can 
conceive  it  very  possible  that  the  king's,    ealdor- 
man's  and  bishop's  reeves  may  have  met  side  by 
side  and  exercised  a  concurrent  jurisdiction:  and 
as  the    bishop's  gerefa  must  have  led  his  armed 
retainers,  (at  least  whenever  it  pleased  the  prelate 
to  remember  the  canons  of  his  church,)  this  officer 
may  be  compared  to  the  Vogt,  Advocatus,   Vice- 
dominus  or  Vidame,  who  fulfilled  that  duty  on  the 
continent.      The  bishop's  reeve  is  empowered  by 
the  king  to  aid  the  sheriff  in  the  forcible  levy  of 
tithe l ;  he  is  recognised  in  the  law  of  Wihteed  as 
an  intermediary  between  a  dependent  of  the  bishop 
and  the  public  courts  of  justice2;  the  thane's  or 
nobleman's   reeve   was   allowed   on    various   occa- 
sions to  act  as  his  attorney :  the  great  landowner 
was  admonished  to  appoint  reeves  over  his  depend- 
ents, to  preserve  the  peace    and    represent   them 
before  the  law ;  and  lastly  so  necessary  a  part  of  a 


.  i.  §  1.  Cnut,  ii.  §  30. 


Wihtr.  §  22.  Thorpe,  i.  43. 


CH.  v.]  THE  GERETA.  181 

nobleman's  establishment  is  the  gerefa  considered  to 
be,  that  Ini  enacts1,  "whithersoever  a  noble  jour- 
neys, thither  may  his  reeve  accompany  him."  Of 
course  in  many  cases  these  gerefan  would  be  merely 
stewards2,  but  in  nearly  all  we  must  consider  them 
to  have  been  judges  in  various  courts  of  greater  or 
less  importance,  public  or  private  as  it  might  chance 
to  be.  This  one  original  character  distinguishes  all 
alike;  whether  it  be  the  scirgerefa  of  a  county- 
court,  the  burhgerefa  of  a  corporation,  the  swan- 
gerefa  of  a  woodland  moot,  the  motgerefa3  of  any 
court  in  which  plea  could  be  holden,  or  the  tun- 
gerefa  of  a  vill  or  dependent  settlement,  the  ancient 
steward  of  a  manorial  court. 


1  Ini.  §  63.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  931. 

3  "  Swa  "Sset  nan  scirgerefa  oftfte  motgerefa  haebbe  senige  scene  oSSe 
mot,  buton  ftaes  abbudes  agen  hsese  *j  unne."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  841. 
The  law  of  Eadweard  which  commands  the  reeve  to  hold  his  court  once 
a  month,  and  which  can  only  apply  to  the  hundred,  makes  it  probable 
that  as  the  scirgerefa  was  in  some  places  called  scirman,  so  the  hun- 
dred-man may  in  some  places  have  been  called  hundred-gerefa  :  I  have 
already  alluded  to  the  gerefa  in  the  Wapentake ;  and  the  law  of  Ead- 
weard the  Confessor  (§31)  shows  that  in  the  counties  where  there  were 
TriSmgas  or  Ridings,  there  existed  also  a  Trifting-gerefa. 


182 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  WITENA  GEMOT. 

THE  conquest  of  the  Roman  provinces  in  Europe 
was  accomplished  by  successive  bands  of  adven- 
turers, ranged  under  the  banners  of  various  leaders, 
whom  ambition,  restlessness  or  want  of  means  had 
driven  from  their  homes.  But  the  conquest  once 
achieved,  the  strangers  settled  down  upon  the  ter- 
ritory they  had  won,  and  became  the  nucleus  of 
nations :  in  their  new  settlements  they  adopted  the 
rules  and  forms  of  institutions  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  in  their  ancient  home,  subject  in- 
deed to  such  modifications  as  necessarily  resulted 
from  the  mode  of  the  conquest,  and  their  new  posi- 
tion among  vanquished  populations,  generally  su- 
perior to  themselves  in  the  arts  of  civilized  life.  If 
we  carefully  examine  the  nature  of  these  ven- 
tures, we  shall  I  think  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  were  carried  on  upon  what  may  be  familiarly 
termed  the  joint-stock  principle.  The  owner  of  a 
ship,  the  supplier  of  the  weapons  or  food  necessary 
to  set  the  business  on  foot,  is  the  great  capitalist  of 
the  company :  the  man  of  skill  and  judgment  and 
experience  is  listened  to  with  respect  and  cheer- 
fully obeyed :  the  strong  arms  and  unflinching 
courage  of  the  multitude  complete  the  work :  and 


OH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  183 

when  the  prize  is  won,  the  profits  are  justly  divided 
among  the  winners,  according  to  the  value  of  each 
man's  contribution  to  the  general  utility1.     But  in 
such  voluntary  associations  as  these,  it  is  clear  that 
every  man  retains  a  certain  amount  of  free  will, 
that  he  has  a  right  to  consult,  discuss  and  advise, 
to  assent  to  or  dissent  from  the  measures  proposed 
to  be  adopted :  even  the  council  of  war  of  such  a 
band  must  differ  very  much  from  what  in  our  day 
goes  by  that  name;  where  a  few  officers  of  high 
rank  decide,  and  the  mass  of  the  army  blindly  exe- 
cute their  plans.     It  cannot  then  surprise  us  that 
in  such  cases  everything  should  be  done  with  the 
counsel,  consent  and  leave  of  the  associated  adven- 
turers.    The  bands  were  then  not  too  numerous 
for  general  consultation :    there    was  no  fear  lest 
treachery  or  weakness  should  betray  the  plans  to 
an  enemy  :  the  necessities  of  self-preservation  gua- 
ranteed the  faith  of  every  individual ;  for,  camped 
among  hostile  and  exasperated  populations,  igno- 
rant of  their  tongue,  and  remote   from  them  in 
manners,  the  German  straggler,  captive  or  deserter 
could  look  forward  to  nothing  save  a  violent  death 
or  a  life  of  weary  slavery.     Mutual  participation  in 
danger  must  have  given  rise  to  mutual  trust. 

Again  the  principle  upon  which  the  settlement 
of  the  land  was  effected,  was  that  of  associations 
for  common  benefits,  and  a  mutual  guarantee  of 

1  This  is  not  hypothetical  or  imaginary.  The  settlements  in  Iceland 
were  positively  made  upon  this  principle,  and  by  it  the  subsequent  di- 
visions of  the  land  were  regulated. 


184 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


peaceful  possession1.  Each  man  stood  engaged  to 
his  neighbour,  both  as  to  what  he  would  himself 
avoid,  and  as  to  what  he  would  maintain.  The 
public  weal  was  the  immediate  interest  of  every  in- 
dividual member  of  the  state ;  it  came  home  to  him 
at  every  instant  of  his  life,  directly,  pressing  him 
either  in  his  property,  his  freedom  or  his  peace, 
not  through  a  long  and  accidental  chain  of  distant 
causes  and  results.  Moreover  in  an  association 
based  upon  the  individual  freedom  of  the  associates, 
each  man  had  a  right  to  guard  the  integrity  of  the 
compact  to  which  he  was  himself  a  party ;  and  not 
only  a  right,  but  a  strong  interest  in  exercising  it, 
for  in  proportion  to  the  smallness  of  the  state,  is 
the  effect  which  the  conduct  of  any  single  member 
may  produce  upon  its  welfare.  But  wherever  free 
men  meet  on  equal  terms  of  alliance,  the  will  of  the 
majority  is  the  law  of  the  state.  If  the  minority 
be  small  it  must  submit,  or  suffer  for  rebellion  :  if 
large,  and  capable  of  independent  action  and  sub- 
sistence, it  may  peaceably  separate  from  the  ma- 
jority, renounce  its  intimate  alliance,  and  emigrate 
to  new  settlements,  where  it  may  at  its  own  leisure, 
and  in  its  own  way,  develop  its  peculiar  views  of 

1  The  Acts,  if  we  may  so  call  them,  of  an  Anglosaxon  parliament,  are 
a  series  of  treaties  of  peace,  between  all  the  associations  which  make 
up  the  state  j  a  continual  revision  and  renewal  of  the  alliances  offen- 
give  and  defensive,  of  all  the  free  men .  They  are  universally  mutual 
contracts  for  the  maintenance  of  the  frifl  or  peace.  Those  who  chose 
to  do  so,  might  withdraw  from  this  contract,  but  they  must  take  the 
consequence.  The  witan  had  no  money  to  vote,  except  in  very  rare 
and  extreme  cases;  consequently  their  business  was  confined  to  regu- 
lating the  terms  on  which  the  frift  could  be  maintained. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMOT.  185 

polity,  leaving  to  fortune  or  to  the  gods  to  decide 
the  abstract  question  of  right  between  itself  and 
its  opponents.  How  then  is  the  will  of  the  majority 
to  be  ascertained  I  Where  the  number  of  citizens 
is  small,  the  question  is  readily  answered ;  by  the 
decision  of  a  public  meeting  at  which  all  may  be 
present. 

Now  such  public  meetings  or  councils  we  find  in 
existence  among  the  Germans  from  their  very  first 
appearance  in  history.  The  graphic  pen  of  Tacitus 
has  left  us  a  lively  description  of  their  nature  and 
powers,  and  in  some  degree  their  forms  of  business. 
He  says1, — "In  matters  of  minor  import,  the  chiefs 
take  counsel  together ;  in  weightier  affairs,  the 
whole  body  of  the  state  :  but  in  such  wise,  that  the 
chiefs  have  the  power  of  discussing  and  recom- 
mending even  those  measures,  which  the  will  of 
the  people  ultimately  decides.  They  meet,  except 
some  sudden  and  fortuitous  event  occur,  on  fixed 
days,  either  at  new  or  full  moon  ....  This  incon- 
venience arises  from  their  liberty,  that  they  do  not  „ 
assemble  at  once,  or  at  the  time  for  which  they  are 
summoned,  but  a  second  or  even  a  third  day  is  wasted 
by  the  delay  of  those  who  are  to  meet.  They  sit 
down,  in  arms,  just  as  it  suits  the  convenience  of 
the  crowd.  Silence  is  enjoined  by  the  priests,  who, 
on  these  •  occasions,  have  even  the  power  of  coer- 
cion. Then  the  king,  or  the  prince,  or  any  one, 
whom  his  age,  nobility,  his  honours  won  in  war  or 
his  eloquence  may  authorise  to  speak,  is  listened 

1  Germ.  xi.  xii.  xiii. 


186 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


to,  morp  through  the  influence  of  persuasion  than 
the  power  of  command.  If  his  opinion  do  not 
please  them,  they  reject  it  with  murmurs  :  if  it  do, 
they  dash  their  lances  together.  The  most  honour- 
able form  of  assent  is  adoption  by  clashing  of  arms. 
It  is  lawful  also  to  bring  accusations,  and  prosecute 
capitally  before  the  council.  The  punishment  varies 
with  the  crime.  Traitors  and  deserters  they  hang 
on  trees  ;  cowards,  the  unwarlike,  and  infamous  of 
body  they  bury  alive  in  mud  and  marsh,  with  a 
hurdle  cast  over  them  :  the  difference  of  the  penalty 
has  this  intention  as  it  were,  that  crimes  should 
6e  made  public,  but  infamous  vices  hidden,  while 

being  punished In   the  same  councils   also, 

princes  are  elected,  to  give  law  in  the  shires  and  vil- 
lages. Each  has  a  hundred  comrades  from  among 
the  people,  both  to  advise  him  and  add  to  his  au- 
thority. They  transact  no  business  either  of  a  pub- 
lic or  private  nature,  without  their  weapons.  But 
it  is  not  the  custom  for  any  one  to  begin  wearing 
them,  before  the  state  has  approved  of  him  as  likely 
to  be  an  efficient  citizen.  Then,  in  the  public 
meeting  itself,  either  one  of  the  chiefs,  or  his  father 
or  a  kinsman,  decorates  the  youth  with  a  shield 
and  javelin.  This  is  their  Toga ;  this  is  the  first 
dignity  of  their  youth :  before  this  they  appear  part 
of  a  household, — after  it,  of  a  state." 

Such  then  was  the  nature  of  a  Teutonic  parlia- 
ment as  Tacitus  had  learnt  that  it  existed  in  his 
time ;  nor  is  there  the  least  doubt  that  he  has 
described  it  most  truly.  And  such  were  all  the  po- 
pular meetings  of  later  periods,  whether  shiremoots, 


CH.  VL]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  187 

markmoots,  or  the  great  placita  of  kingdoms,  folk- 
moots  in  the  most  extended  sense  of  the  term. 
Such,  at  least  in  theory,  and  to  a  great  extent  in 
practice,  were  the  meetings  of  the  Franks  under  the 
Merwingian  kings,  and  even  under  the  Carolings. 
It  will  not  be  uninteresting  or  without  advan- 
tage to  compare  with  this  account  the  descrip- 
tion which  Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  gives 
of  the  institution  as  recognised  and  organized  by 
Charlemagne,  a  prince  by  nature  not  over  well  dis- 
posed to  popular  freedom,  and  by  circumstances 
placed  in  a  situation  to  be  very  dangerous  to  it1. 

Charlemagne  held  Reichstage  or  Parliaments 
twice  a  year,  in  May  and  again  in  the  autumn, 
for  the  general  arrangement  of  the  public  business. 
The  earlier  of  these  was  attended  by  the  principal 
officers  of  state,  the  ministers  as  we  should  call 
them,  both  lay  and  clerical,  the  administrators  of 
the  public  affairs  in  the  provinces,  and  other  per- 
sons engaged  in  the  business  of  government.  These, 
who  are  comprehended  under  the  titles  of  Maiores, 
Seniores,  Optimates,  may  possibly  have  had  the 
real  conduct  of  the  deliberations ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  freemen  were  also  present,  first 
because  the  general  armed  muster  or  Hereban  took 
place  at  the  same  time, — the  well-known  Campus 
Madius  or  Champ  de  Mai, — and  partly  because  we 
know  that  all  new  capitularies  added  to  the  exist- 
ing law  were  subjected  to  their  approval2.  We  may 

1  What  follows  is  abstracted  from  Hincniar,  Epistqla  de  ordine  Pa- 
latii,  as  cited  and  commented  upon  by  Donniges,  p.  74,  etc. 

2  *'  Ut  populus  interrogetur  de  capitulis  quae  in  lege  noviter  addita 


188 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


therefore  conclude  that  they  were  still  possessed  of 
a  share  in  the  business  of  legislation,  although  it 
may  have  only  amounted  to  a  right  of  accepting  or 
rejecting  the  propositions  of  others.  The  king  had 
his  particular  curia,  court  or  council,  the  members 
of  which  were  chosen  ("eligebantur"),  though  how 
or  by  whom  we  know  not,  from  the  laity  and  the 
clergy  :  probably  both  the  king  and  the  people  had 
their  share  in  the  election.  The  Seniores,  accord- 
ing to  Hincmar,  were  called  "propter  consilium 
ordinandum,"  to  lead  the  business;  the  Minores, 
"  propter  idem  consilium  suscipiendum,"  to  accept 
the  same ;  but  also  "  interdum  pariter  tractandum," 
sometimes  to  take  a  part  also  in  the  discussions, 
"  and  to  confirm  them,  not  indeed  by  any  inherent 
power  of  their  own,  but  by  the  moral  influence  of 
their  judgment  and  opinion." 

The  second  great  meeting  comprised  only  the 
seniores  and  the  king's  immediate  councillors1.  It 
appears  to  have  been  concerned  with  questions  of 
revenue  as  well  as  general  policy.  But  its  main 
object  was  to  prepare  the  business  and  anticipate 
the  necessities  of  the  coming  year.  It  was  a  deli- 
berative assembly2  in  which  questions  afterwards 
to  be  submitted  to  the  general  meeting  were  dis- 
cussed and  agreed  upon.  The  members  of  this 
council  were  bound  to  secrecy.  When  the  public 

sunt.  Et  postquani  omnes  consenserint,  subscriptiones  suas  in  ipsis 
capitulis  faciant."  Pertz,  iii.  115,  §  19. 

1  Hincmar,  c.  30. 

2  These  persons  were  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word  7rpoj3ov\oi, 
and  their  acts  7rpof3ov\evp.aTa.     No  doubt  their  body  comprised  the 
principal  officers  engaged  in  the  administration  of  the  State. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMOT.  189 

business  had  been  concluded,  they  formed  a  court 
of  justice  and  of  appeal,  for  the  settlement  of  liti- 
gation in  cases  which  transcended  the  powers  or 
skill  of  the  ordinary  tribunals 1. 

The  general  councils  were  held,  in  fine  weather, 
in  the  open  air,  01%  if  occasion  required,  in  houses 
devoted  to  the  purpose.  The  ecclesiastics  and  the 
magnates,  for  so  we  may  call  them,  sat  apart  from 
the  multitude ;  but  even  they  had  separate  cham- 
bers, in  which  the  clergy  could  deliberate  upon 
matters  purely  ecclesiastical,  the  magnates  upon 
matters  purely  civil :  but  when  the  object  of  their 
enquiry  was  of  a  mixed  character,  they  were  called 
together2.  Before  these  chambers  the  questions 
were  brought  which  had  been  prepared  at  the 
preceding  meeting,  or  arose  from  altered  circum- 
stances :  the  opinion  of  the  members  was  taken 
upon  them,  and  when  agreed  to  they  were  presented 

1  Hincmar,  c.  33. 

2  "  Sed  nee  illud  praetermittendum,  quomodo,  si  tempus  serenum 
erat,  extra,  sin  autem  intra,  diversa  loca  distincta  erant;    ubi  et  hi 
abundanter  segregati  semotim,  et  caetera  multitude  separatini  residere 
potuissent,  prius  tamen  caeterae  inferiores  personae  interesse  minime 
potuissent.     Quae  utraque  seniorum  susceptacula  sic  in  duobus  divisa 
erant,  ut  primo  omnes  episcopi,  ahbates,  vel  huiusmodi  honorificen- 
tiores  clerici,  absque  ulla  laicorum  commixtione  congregarentur ;  sinri- 
liter  comites  vel  huiusmodi  principes  sibiniet  honorificabiliter  a  caetera 
multitudine  primo  mane  segregarentur,  quousque  tempus,  sive  prae- 
sente  sive  absente  rege,  occurrerent.     Et  tune  praedicti  Seniores  more 
solito,  clerici  ad  suam,  laici  vero  ad  suaiu  constitutam  curium,  subselliis 
similiter  honorificabiliter  praeparatis,  convocarentur.  Qui  cuni  separati 
a  caeteris  essent,  in  eorum  manebat  potestate,  quando  simul,  vel  quando 
separati  residerent,  prout  eOs  tractandae  causae  qualitas  docebat,  sive 
de  spiritalibus,  sive  de  saecularibus,  sen  etiam  commixtis.     Similiter, 
si  propter  aliquam  vescendi  [?  noscendi]  vel  investigandi  causam  quem- 
cunque  vocare  voluissent,  et  [?  an]  re  comperta  discederet,  in  eorum 
voluntate  manebat."    Hincmar,  c.  35. 


190 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK.  IT. 


to  the  king,  who  agreed  or  disagreed  in  turn,  as  the 
case  might  be.     While  the  new  laws  or  adminis- 
trative regulations  were  under  discussion,  the  king, 
unless  especially  invited  to  be  present  at  the  de- 
liberations, occupied  himself  in  mixing  with  the 
remaining    multitude,    receiving    their    presents, 
welcoming  their  leaders,  conversing  with  the  new 
comers,  sympathizing  with  the  old,  congratulating 
the  young,  and  in  similar  employments,  both  in 
spirituals  and  temporals,  says  Hincmar1.     When 
the  prepared  business  had  been  disposed   of,   the 
king  propounded   detailed   interrogatories   to   the 
chambers,  respecting  the  state  of  the  country  in 
the  different  districts,  or  what  was  known  of  the 
intentions  and  actions  of  neighbouring  countries; 
and  these  having  been  answered  or  reserved   for 
consideration,  the  assembly  broke  up.     When  any 
new   chapters,   hence    called    Capitula,    had   been 
added  to  the  ancient  law  or  folkright,  special  mes- 
sengers (missi)  were  dispatched  into  the  provinces 
to  obtain  the  assent  and  signatures  of  the  free  men, 
and  the  chapters  thus  ratified  became  thenceforth 
the  law  of  the  land.     Is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  proposals  of  the  princes  were  also  pre- 
sented to  the  assembled  freemen,  the  reliqua  mul- 
titudo,  in  arms  upon  the  spot,  and  that  in  the  old 
German  fashion  they  carried  them  by  acclamation  1 

1  "  Interim  vero,  quo  haec  in  regis  absentia  agebantur,  ipse  princeps 
reliquae  multitudini  in  suscipiendis  muneribus,  salutandis  proceribus, 
confabulando  rarius  visis,  compatiendo  senioribus,  congaudendo  iunio- 
ribus,  et  caetera  his  similia  tarn  in  spiritalibus,  quamque  et  in  saecula- 
ribus  occupatus  erat.  Ita  tamen,  quotienscunque  segregatorum  yolun- 
tas  esset;  ad  eos  veniret/'  etc.  Hincmar,  c.  35. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  191 

While  the  district  whose  members  attend  the  folk- 
moot  is  still  small,  there  is  no  great  inconvenience 
in  this  method  of  proceeding.  In  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne  attendance  upon  the  Campus  Madius, 
whether  as  soldier  or  councillor  must  have  been  a 
heavy  burthen.  Nor  can  we  conceive  it  to  have 
been  otherwise  here,  as  soon  as  counties  became 
consolidated  into  kingdoms,  and  kingdoms  into  an 
empire.  In  a  country  overrun  with  forests,  inter- 
sected with  deep  streams  or  extensive  marshes,  and 
but  ill  provided  with  the  means  of  internal  commu- 
nication, suit  and  service  even  at  the  county-court 
must  have  been  a  hardship  to  the  cultivator;  a 
duty  performed  not  without  danger,  and  often  vex- 
atiously  interfering  with  agricultural  processes  on 
which  the  hopes  of  the  year  might  depend.  Much 
more  keenly  would  this  have  been  felt  had  every 
freeman  been  called  upon  to  attend  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  own  shire,  in  places  distant  from,  and 
totally  unknown  to  him :  how  for  example  would  a 
cultivator  from  Essex  have  been  likely  to  look  upon 
a  journey  into  Gloucestershire1  at  the  severe  sea- 

1  Easter  and  Christmas  were  usual  times  for  the  meetings  of  the 
Witan,  and  during  the  Mercian  period,  Cloveshoo  was  frequently  the 
place  where  they  assembled.  Doubts  have  been  lavished  upon  the  si- 
tuation of  this  place,  which  I  do  not  share.  In  804  ^E"Selric  the  son 
of  ./ESelmund  was  impleaded  respecting  lands  in  Gloucestershire,  and 
stood  to  right  at  Cloveshoo.  Now  it  is  clear  that  trial  to  those  lands 
could  properly  be  made  only  in  the  hundred  or  shire  where  they  lay  5 
and  as  the  brotherhood  of  Berkeley  were  claimants,  and  the  whole 
business  appertained  to  Westminster,  I  am  disposed  to  seek  Cloveshoo 
somewhere  in  the  hundred  of  that  name  in  the  county  of  Gloucester, 
and  therefore  not  far  from  Deerhurst,  Tewksbury  and  Bishop's  Cleeve ; 
not  at  all  improbably  in  Tewksbury  itself,  which  may  have  been  called 
Clofeshoas,  before  the  erection  of  a  noble  abbey  at  a  later  period  gave 
it  the  name  it  now  bears.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  186. 


192 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


son  of  Christmas1,  or  the,  to  him,  important  farm- 
Ing  period  of  Easter  ]  What  moreover  could  he  care 
for  general  laws  affecting  many  districts  beside  the 
one  in  which  he  lived,  or  for  regulations  applying 
/  to  fractions  of  society  in  which  he  had  no  interest  I 
for  the  Saxon  cultivator  was  not  then  a  politician  ; 
nor  were  general  rules  which  embraced  a  whole 
kingdom  of  the  same  moment  to  him,  as  those 
which  might  concern  the  little  locality  in  which  his 
alod  lay.  Or  what  benefit  could  be  expected  from 

1  These  were  usual  periods  for  holding  the  gemot.  t(  Actum  Win- 
toniae  in  publica  curia  Natalis  Christi,  in  die  festivitatis  sancti  Sylves- 
tri,"  etc.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  815.  The  old  folcmot  probably  met  three  times 
in  the  year  at  the  unbidden  Ding  orplacitum:  so  did  the  followers  of 
the  first  Norman  kings  at  least,  and  it  is  remarkable  enough  that  the 
barons  at  Oxford  should  have  returned  to  this  arrangement,  42  Hen.  III. 
anno  1258.  "  Fait  a  remembrer  qe  lez  xxiiii  ount  ordeignez  qe  trois 
parlementz  seront  par  an,  le  primere  az  octanes  de  seint  Michel,  le 
seconde  lendimayn  de  le  chaundelour,  le  tierce  le  primer  iour  de  Juyn 
ceste  asauoir  trois  semayns  deuant  le  seint  Johan ;  et  a  ces  troiz  parle- 
mentz vendront  lez  conseillours  le  roi  eluz  tut  ne  seyent  il  pas  mandez 
pur  vere  lestat  du  roialme,  et  pur  treter  les  communes  busoignes  du 
reaume  et  del  roi  ensement  et  autrefoitz  ensembleront  quant  mester  sera 
par  maundement  le  roi."  Prov.  Oxon.,  Brit.  Mus.,  Cotton  MS.,  Tiberius  B. 
iv.  folio  213.  According  to  the  later  custom  Parliaments  were  to  be,  at 
least,  annual,  and  were  frequently  admitted  so  to  be  by  law,  until  the  Tu- 
dor times.  See  5  Ed.  II.  an.  1311.  "Nous  ordenoms  qe  le  Eoy  tiegne  Par- 
lement  vne  foiz  par  an  ou  deux  fois  se  mestre  soit,  et  ceo  en  lieu  conve- 
nable,"  etc. :  which  ordinance  of  the  Lords  was  passed  into  an  act  of  Par- 
liament 4  Ed.III.  cap.  14.  Some  years  later  the  Commons  petitioned  the 
same  king,  that  for  redress  of  grievances  and  other  important  causes, 
"  soit  Parlement  tenuz  au  meinz  chescun  an  en  la  seson  que  plerra  au 
Roy."  Rot.  Parl.  36  Ed.  III.  n.  25.  To  which  the  king  answered  that 
the  ancient  statute  thereupon  should  be  held.  This  petition  the  Com- 
mons found  it  necessary  to  repeat  fourteen  years  later,  "  qe  chescun 
an  soit  tenuz  un  Parlement,"  etc. :  to  which  the  answer  was,  "  Endroit 
du  Parlement  chescun  an,  il  y  aent  estatuz  et  ordenances  faitz  les  queux 
soient  duement  gardez  et  tenuz."  Rot.  Parl.  50  Ed.  III.  n.  186:  and 
the  same  thing  took  place  at  the  accession  of  Richard  the  Second. 
Rot.  Parl.  1  Ric.  II.  n.  95.  2  Ric.  II.  n.  2.  Triennial  parliaments  were, 
I  believe,  first  agreed  to  by  Charles  the  First. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  li)3 

his    attendance   at   deliberations    which  concerned 
parts  of  the  country  with  whose  mode  of  life  and 
necessities  he  was  totally   unacquainted  ]     Lastly, 
what  evil  must  not  have  resulted  to  the  republic 
by  the  withdrawal  of  whole  populations  from  their 
usual  places  of  employment,  and  the  congregating 
them  in  a  distant  and  unknown  locality  ]     If  we 
consider  these  facts,  we  shall  find  little  difficulty  in 
imagining  that  any  scheme  which  relieved  him  from 
this  burthen  and  threw  it  upon  stronger  shoulders, 
would  be  a  welcome  one,  and  the  foundation  of  a 
representative  system  seems  laid  a  priori,  and   in 
the  nature  of  things  itself.    To  the  rich  and  power- 
ful neighbour  whose  absence  from  his  farms  was 
immaterial,  while  his  bailiffs  remained  on  the  spot 
to  superintend  their  cultivation;  to  the  scirgerefa, 
the  ealdorman,  the  royal  reeve,  or  royal  thane,  fa- 
miliar with  the  public  business,  and  having  influ- 
ence and  interest  with  the  king ;  to  the  bishop  or 
abbot,  distinguished  for  his  wisdom  as  well  as  his 
station ;  to  any  or  all  of  these  he  would  be  ready 
to  commit  the  defence  of  his  small,  private  inter- 
ests, satisfied  to  be  virtually  represented  if  he  were 
not  compelled  to  leave  the  business  and  the  enjoy- 
ments of  his  daily  life  l. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  whom  could  the  king  look 
with  greater  security,  than  to  the  men  whose  sym- 
pathies were  all  those  of  the  ruling  caste ;  many 

1  The  establishment  of  the  Scabini  or  Schb'ffen  in  the  Frankish  em- 
pire was  intended  to  relieve  the  freemen  from  the  inconvenience  of 
attending  gemots,  which  the  counts  converted  into  an  engine  of  extor- 
tion and  oppression. 

VOL.  II.  0 


194 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


of  whom  were  his  own  kinsmen  by  blood  or  mar- 
riage, more  of  whom  were  his  own  officers  ;  men, 
too,  accustomed  to  business,  and  practically  ac- 
quainted with  the  wants  of  their  several  localities  1 
Or  how,  when  the  customs  and  condition  of  widely 
different  social  aggregations  were  to  be  considered 
and  reconciled,  could  he  do  better  than  advise  with 
those  who  were  most  able  to  point  out  and  meet 
the  difficulties  of  the  task  1  Thus,  it  appears  to 
me,  by  a  natural  process  did  the  folkmot  or  meet- 
ing of  the  nation  become  converted  into  a  witena  ' 
gemot  or  meeting  of  councillors.  Nor  let  it  be 
imagined  by  this  that  I  mean  the  king's  councillors 
only :  by  no  means  ;  they  were  the  witan  or  coun- 
cillors of  the  nation,  members  of  the  great  council 
or  inquest,  who  sought  what  was  for  the  general 
good,  certainly  not  men  who  accidentally  formed 
part  of  what  we  in  later  days  call  the  king's  coun- 
cil, and  who  might  have  been  more  or  less  the 
creatures  of  his  will :  they  were  leodwitan,  ]?e6d- 
witan,  general,  popular,  universal  councillors :  only 
when  they  chanced  to  be  met  for  the  purpose  of 
advising  him  could  they  bear  the  title  of  the 
cyninges  ]?eahteras  or  cyninges  witan.  Then  no 
doubt  the  Leodwitan  became  'Sees  cyninges  witan 
(the  king's,  not  king's,  councillors)  because  with- 
out their  assistance  he  could  not  have  enacted,  nor 
without  their  assistance  executed,  his  laws.  Let  it 
be  borne  in  mind  throughout  that  the  king  was 
only  the  head  of  an  aristocracy  which  acted  with 
him,  and  by  whose  support  he  reigned ;  that  this 
aristocracy  again  was  only  a  higher  order  of  the 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  195 

freemen,  to  whose  class  it  belonged,  and  with  many 
of  whose  interests  it  was  identified ;  that  the  clergy, 
learned,  active  and  powerful,  were  there  to  mediate 
between  the  rulers  and  the  ruled ;  and  I  think  we 
shall  conclude  that  the  system  which  I  have  faintly 
sketched  was  not  incapable  of  securing  to  a  great 
degree  the  well-being  of  a  state  in  such  an  early 
stage  of  development  as  the  Saxon  Commonwealth. 
At  what  exact  period  the  change  I  have  attempted 
to  describe  was  effected,  is  neither  very  easy  to 
determine  nor  very  material.  It  was  probably  very 
gradual,  and  very  partial ;  indeed  it  may  never  have 
been  formally  recognised,  for  here  and  there  we 
find  evident  traces  of  the  people's  being  present 
at,  and  ratifying  the  decisions  of  the  witan.  Much 
more  important  is  it  to  consider  certain  details 
respecting  the  composition,  powers  and  functions  of 
the  witena  gemot  as  we  find  it  in  periods  of  ascer- 
tained history.  The  documents  contained  in  the 
Codex  Diplomaticus  ^Evi  Saxonici  enable  us  to  do 
this  in  some  degree.  In  that  collection  there  are 
several  grants  which  are  distinctly  stated  to  have 
been  made  in  such  meetings  of  the  witan,  by  and 
with  their  consent,  and  the  signatures  to  which 
may  be  assumed  to  be  those  of  members  present 
on  the  occasion.  Among  these  we  find  the  king, 
frequently  the  eeftelings  or  princes  of  the  blood, 
generally  the  archbishops  and  all  or  some  of  the 
bishops  and  abbots;  all  or  some  of  the  dukes  or 
ealdormen ;  sometimes  priests  and  deacons ;  and 
generally  a  large  attendance  of  milites,  ministri  or 
thanes,  many  of  whom  must  unhesitatingly  be  as- 

o2 


196  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  IT. 

serted  to  be  royal  officers,  gerefan  and  the  like,  in 
the  shires l.     From  one  document  it  is  evident  that 

1  It  has  always  been  a  question  of  deep  interest  in  this  country,  what 
persons  were  entitled  to  attend  the  Gemot :  and  in  truth  very  import- 
ant constitutional  doctrines  depend  upon  the  answer  we  give  to  it.  The 
very  first  and  most  essential  condition  of  truth  appears  to  me,  that  we 
firmly  close  our  eyes  to  everything  derived  from  the  custom  of  Parlia- 
ments, under  the  Norman,  the  Angevine  or  the  English  kings :  the 
practice  of  a  nation  governed  by  the  principles  of  Feudal  law,  is  totally 
irreconcileable  with  the  old  system  of  personal  relations  which  existed 
under  the  earlier  Teutonic  law.  The  next  most  important  thing  is,  that 
we  use  no  words  but  such  as  the  Saxons  themselves  used  :  the  moment 
we  begin  to  talk  of  Tenants  in  capite,  Vavassors,  Vassals,  and  so  forth, 
we  introduce  terms  which  may  involve  a  petitio  principii,  and  must 
lead  to  associations  of  ideas  tending  to  an  erroneous  conclusion.  One 
of  these  fallacies  appears  to  me  to  lie  in  the  assertion  that  a  landed 
qualification  was  required  for  a  member  of  the  Witena  gemot.  One  of 
the  most  brilliant,  if  not  the  most  accurate,  commentators  on  our  con- 
stitutional history,  Sir  F.  Palgrave,  has  raised  this  question.  According 
to  his  view  no  one  could  be  a  member  of  that  singular  body  which  he 
supposes  the  Anglosaxon  Parliament  to  have  been,  unless  he  had  forty 
hids  of  land,  four  thousand  acres  at  least  according  to  the  popular  doc- 
trine. But  this  whole  supposition  rests  upon  a  series  of  fine-drawn 
conclusions,  in  my  opinion,  without  sound  foundation,  and  totally  in- 
consistent with  every  feeling  and  habit  of  Saxon  society.  The  monk- 
ish writer  of  the  history  of  Ely — a  very  late  and  generally  ill-informed 
authority — says  that  a  lady  would  not  marry  some  suitor  of  hers,  be- 
cause not  having  forty  hids  he  could  not  be  counted  among  the  Pro- 
ceres  ;  and  this  is  the  whole  basis  of  this  parliamentary  theory, — pro- 
ceres  being  assumed,  without  the  slightest  reason,  to  mean  members  of 
the  witena  gemot, — and  the  witena  gemot  to  be  some  royal  council, 
some  Curia  Regis,  and  not  at  all  the  kind  of  body  described  in  this 
chapter.  I  confess  I  cannot  realize  to  myself  the  notion  of  an  Anglo- 
saxon woman  nourishing  the  ambition  of  seeing  her  husband  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament.  The  passage  no  doubt  implies  that  a  certain  amount 
of  land  was  necessary  to  entitle  a  man  to  be  classed  in  a  certain  high 
rank  in  society  :  and  this  becomes  probable  enough  as  we  find  a  landed 
qualification  partially  insisted  on  with  regard  to  the  ceorl  who  aspired 
to  be  ranked  as  a  thane.  But  this  is  a  negative  condition  altogether : 
it  is  intended  to  repress  the  pretensions  of  those  who,  in  spite  of  their 
ceorlish  birth,  assumed  the  weapons  and  would,  if  possible,  have  as- 
sumed the  rights  of  thanes.  In  the  Saxon  custumal,  called  "  Ranks,'' 
it  is  said  : — "And  if  a  thane  throve  so  that  he  became  an  eorl,  he  was 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  197 

the  sheriffs  of  all  the  counties  were  present1 :  and 
in  a  few  cases  we  meet  with  names  accompanied 
by  no  special  designation.  Now  it  appears  that  a 
body  so  constituted  would  have  been  very  compe- 
tent to  advise  for  the  general  good ;  and  I  do  not 
scruple  to  express  my  opinion  that  under  such  a 
system  the  interests  of  the  country  were  very  fairly 
represented ;  especially  as  there  were  then  no  par- 
liamentary struggles  to  make  the  duration  of  mi- 
nistries dependent  upon  the  counting  up  of  single 
votes ;  and  contests  for  the  representation  of  coun- 
ties or  boroughs  would  have  been  as  much  with- 
out an  object  in  those  days,  as  they  are  import- 
ant in  our  own  ;  above  all,  since  there  was  then 
no  systematic  voting  of  money  for  the  public 
service. 


thenceforth  worthy  of  eorl-right."  Thorpe,  i.  192.  On  this  the  learned 
editor  of  the  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  observes  : — "  It  is  to  this  law 
that  the  historian  of  Ely  seems  to  allude  in  the  following  passage,  and 
not  to  any  qualification  for  a  seat  in  the  witena  gemot,  as  has  been  so 
frequently  asserted.  '  Habuit  (sc.  Wulfricus  abbas)  enim  fratrem  Gud- 
mundum  vocabulo,  cui  tiliani  praepotentis  viri  in  matrimonium  coniungi 
paraverat,  sed  quoiiiam  ille  quadi*aginta  hidarum  terrae  dominium  mi- 
nime  obtineret,  licet  nobilis  esset  [that  is,  a  thane]  inter  pi^ceres  tune 
nominari  non  potuit,  euni  puella  repudiavit.'  Gale,  ii.  c.  40.  If  we 
refer  to  the  Dooms  of  Cnul,  c.  69,  we  shall  see  that  the  heriots  of  an 
eorl  and  of  a  lesser  thane  were  in  the  proportion  of  from  one  to  eight, 
— a  rule  which  may  have  been  supposed  to  have  arisen  from  a  some- 
what similar  relation  between  the  quantities  of  their  respective  estates ; 
and  as  the  possession  of  five  hides  conferred  upon  a  ceorl  the  rights  of 
a  thane,  the  possession  of  forty  (5  X  8)  in  all  probability  raised  a  thane 
to  the  dignity  of  an  eorl.''  This  opinion  is  only  a  confirmation  of  that 
which  I  had  myself  formed  on  similar  grounds  long  before  Mr.  Thorpe's 
work  was  published  :  and  it  was  apparently  so  understood  by  Phillips 
before  either  of  us  wrote.  8ee  Angels.  Recht,  p.  114,  note  317.  Got- 
tingen,  1825. 

1  Leg.  JS'Selst.  v.  §  10. 


198 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Among  the  charters  from  which  we  derive  our 
information  as  to  the  constituent  members  of  the 
gemot,  one  or  two  appear  to  be  signed  by  the  queen 
and  other  ladies,  always  I  believe,  ecclesiastics  of 
rank  and  wealth.  I  do  not  however,  on  this  ac- 
count, argue  that  such  women  formed  parts  of  the 
regular  body.  In  many  cases  it  is  clear  that  when 
a  grant  had  been  made  by  the  king  and  his  witan, 
the  document  was  drawn  up,  and  offered  for  attes- 
tation to  the  principal  persons  present  or  easily 
accessible.  When  the  queen- had  accompanied  her 
consort  to  the  place  where  the  gemot  was  held,  or 
when,  as  was  usual,  the  gemot  attended  the  king 
at  one  of  his  own  residences  to  assist  in  the  hospi- 
talities of  Christmas  and  Easter,  it  was  natural  that 
the  first  lady  of  the  land  should  be  asked  to  witness 
grants  of  land,  and  other  favours  conferred  upon 
individuals :  it  was  a  compliment  to  herself,  not  less 
than  to  him  whom  she  honoured  with  her  signature. 
But  I  know  no  instance  where  the  record  of  any 
solemn  public  business  is  so  corroborated ;  nor 
does  it  follow  that  the  document  which  was  drawn 
up  in  accordance  with  the  resolution  of  a  gemot 
should  necessarily  be  signed  in  the  gemot  itself.  It 
may  have  been  executed  subsequently  at  the  king's 
festal  board,  and  in  presence  of  the  members  of  his 
court  and  household.  The  case  of  abbesses,  if  not 
disposed  of  by  the  arguments  just  advanced,  must 
be  understood  of  gemots  in  which  the  interests  of 
the  monastic  bodies  were  concerned.  .  Here  it  is 
possible  that  ladies  of  high  rank  at  the  head  of  nun- 
neries may  have  attended  to  watch  the  proceedings 


OH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  199 

of  the  synod  and  attest  its  acts.  Again,  where  the 
gemot  acted  as  a  high  court  of  justice,  which  often 
was  the  case,  a  lady  who  had  been  party  to  a 
cause  might  naturally  be  called  upon  to  sign  the 
record  of  the  judgment.  The  instances  however 
in  which  the  signatures  of  women  occur  are  very 
rare. 

Although  the  members  of  the  gemot  are  called 
in  Saxon  generally  by  the  name  of  witan1,  they  are 
decorated  with  very  various  titles  in  the  Latin 
documents.  Among  these  the  most  common  are 
Maiores  natu,  Sapientes,  Principes,  Senatores,  Pri- 
mates, Optimates,  Magnates,  and  in  three  or  four 
charters  they  are  designated  Procuratores  patriae2, 
which  last  title  however  seems  confined  to  the 
thanes,  gerefan  or  other  members  below  the  rank 
of  an  ealdorman.  In  the  prologue  to  the  laws  of 
Wihtreed  they  are  called  $a  eadigan,  for  which  I 
know  no  better  translation  than  the  Spanish  Eicos 
hombres,  where  the  wealth  of  the  parties  is  certainly 
not  the  leading  idea.  But  whatever  be  their  titles 
they  are  unquestionably  looked  upon  as  represent- 
ing the  whole  body  of  the  people,  and  consequently 
the  national  will :  and  indeed  in  one  charter  of 
^E^elstan,  an.  931,  the  act  is  said  to  have  been 
confirmed  "  tota  plebis  general! tate  ovante,"  with 

1  I  write  wita  not  wita.     The  vowel  is  short,  and  the  noun  is  formed 
either  upon  the  plural  participle  of  witan  to  know,  or  upon  a  noun  wit, 
intellectus,  previously  so  formed.     The  quantity  of  the  vowel  is  ascer- 
tained by  the  not  uncommon  spelling  weota,  where  eo  =  I  (see  Cod. 
Dipl.  No.  107.3),  and  the  occurrence  in  composition  of  the  form  uta, 
which  is  consonant  to  the  analogy  of  wudu,  wuduwe,  wuce  for  widu, 
widuwe,  wice,  but  excludes  the  possibility  of  a  long  i. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  361,  1102,  1105,  1107,  1108. 


200 


THE  .SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


the  approbation. .of  all  the  people1 ;  and  the  act  of 
a  similar  meeting  at  Winchester  in  934,  which 
was  attended  by  the  king,  four  Welsh  princes,  two 
archbishops,  seventeen  bishops,  four  abbots,  twelve 
dukes,  and  fifty-two  thanes,  making  a  total  of 
ninety-two  persons,  is  described  to  have  been  exe- 
cuted "tota  populigeneralitate2."  On  one  occasion 
a  gemot  is  mentioned  of  which  the  members  are 
called  the  king's  heahwitan,  or  high  councillors3: 
it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  this  is  intended 
to  mark  a  difference  in  their  rank.  If  it  were,  it 
might  be  referred  to  the  analogy  of  the  autumnal 
meetings  in  Charlemagne's  constitution,  but  nothing 
has  yet  been  met  with  to  confirm  this  hypothesis, 
which,  in  itself,  is  not  very  probable. 

The  largest  amount  of  signatures  which  I  have 
yet  observed  is  106,  but  numbers  varying  from  90 
to  100  are  not  uncommon,  especially  after  the  con- 
solidation of  the  monarchy  4.  In  earlier  times,  and 
smaller  kingdoms,  the  numbers  must  have  been 
much  less:  the  gemot  which  decided  upon  the  re- 
ception of  Christianity  in  Northumberland  was  held 
in  a  room5,  and  Dunstan  met  the  witan  of  England 
in  the  upper  floor  of  a  house  at  Calne 6.  Other 
meetings,  which  were  rather  in  the  nature  of  con- 
ventions, and  were  held  in  the  presence  of  armies, - 
may  have  been  much  more  numerous  and  tumul- 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1103.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  364. 

3  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1009. 

4  See  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  353,  364,   1107.     There  is  one  document 
signed  by  121  persons  (Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  219,  220),  but  I  have  some 
doubt  whether  all  the  signitaries  were  members  of  the  gemot. 

5  Beda,  H.  E.  ii.  13.  6  Chron.  Sax.  an.  978. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  201 

tuary, — much  more  like  the  ancient  armed  folk- 
moot  or  the  famous  day  which  put  an  end  to  the 
Merwingian  dynasty  among  the  Franks1. 

That  the  members  of  the  witena  gemot  were  not 
elected,  in  any  sense  which  we  now  attach  to  the 
word,  I  hold  to  be  indisputable :  elective  witan 
ceased  together  with  elective  scirgerefan  or  ealdor- 
men  2.  But  in  a  system  so  elastic  as  the  Saxon,  it 
is  conceivable  that  an  ealdorman,  bishop  or  other 
great  wita  may  have  occasionally  carried  with  him 
to  the  gemot  some  friend  or  dependent  whose  wis- 
dom he  thought  might  aid  in  the  discussions,  or 
whom  the  opinion  of  the  neighbourhood  designated 
as  a  person  well  calculated  to  advise  for  the  ge- 
neral good, — a  slight  trace,  but  still  a  trace,  of  the 

1  Sucli  perhaps  was  the  gemot  which  after  Eadmund  irensida's  death 
elected  Cnut  sole  king  of  England,  or  that  in  which  Earl  Godwine  and 
his  family  were  outlawed. 

2  This  is  not  altogether  devoid  of  strangeness,  because  we  know  that 
among  the  Oldsaxous  of  the  continent  there  was  a  regulated  system  of 
elective  representatives,  including  even  those  of  the  servile  class.    Hue- 
bald,  in  his  life  of  Lebuuini,  tells  us  :  "In  Saxonum  gente  priscis  tem- 
poribus  neque  summi  coelestisque  regis  inerat  notitia,  ut  digna  cultui 
eius  exhiberetur  reverentia,  neque  terreni  alicuius  regis  dignitas  et 
honorificentia,  cuius  regeretur  providentia,  corrigeretur  censura,  de- 
fenderetur  industria :  sed  erat  gens  ipsa,  sicuti  mine  usque  consistit, 
ordine  tripartite  divisa.     Sunt  denique  ibi,  qui  illorum  lingua  edilingi, 
sunt  (yxifrilingi)  sunt  qui  lassi  dicuntur,  quod  in  latina  sonat  lingua, 
nobiles,  ingenuiles  atque  serviles.    Pro  suo  vero  libitu,  consilio  quoque, 
ut  videbatur,  prudenti,  singulis  pagis  principes  praeerant  singuli.   Sta- 
tuto  quoque  tempore  anni  semel  ex  singulis  pagis,  atque  ab  eisdem 
ordinibus  tripartitis,  singillatim  viri  duodecim  electi,  et  in  unum  col- 
lecti,  in  media  Saxonia  secus  flumen  Wiseram  et  locum  Marklo  nuncu- 
patuna,  exercebant  generale  concilium,  tractantes,  sancientes  et  propa- 
lantes  communis  commoda  utilitatis,  iuxta  placitum  a  se  statutae  legis. 
Sed  etsi  forte  belli  terreret  exitium,  si  pacis  arrideret  gaudium,  con- 
sulebant  ad  haec  quid  sibi  foret  agendum."     Pertz,  Monum.  ii.  361, 
362. 


202 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii, 


ancient  popular  right  to  be  present  at  the  settle- 
ment of  public  business.  To  this  I  attribute  the 
frequent  appearance  of  priests  and  deacons,  who 
probably  attended  in  the  suite  of  prelates,  and 
would  be  useful  assessors  when  clerical  business 
was  brought  before  the  council.  Generally,  I  ima- 
gine, the  witan  after  having  once  been  called  by 
writ  or  summons,  met  like  our  own  peers,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  whenever  a  parliament  was  pro- 
claimed ;  and  that  they  were  summoned  by  the 
king,  either  pro  hac  vice,  or  generally,  can  be  clearly 
shown.  ^E$elstan,  speaking  of  the  gemots  at 
Greatanlea,  Exeter,  Feversham  and  Thunder  sfield, 
says  that  the  consultations  were  made,  before  the 
archbishop,  the  bishops,  and  the  witan  present, 
whom  the  king  himself  had  named:  "  Swa  ^E8elstan 
cyng  hit  gersed  hgefft,  *j  his  witan,  aerest  set  Great- 
anlea, "j  eft  set  Exanceastre,  ^  sy'Sftam  set  Fsefres- 
ham,  *j  feorftan  sifte  set  Dunresfelda,  beforan  ftam 
arcebiscope,  *J  eallum  "Sam  bisceopan,  *j  his  witum, 
fte  se  cyng  silf  namode,  8e  ^seron  wseron  V  How 
these  appointments  took  place  is  not  very  material, 
but  as  the  witan  were  collected  from  various  parts 
of  England,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
it  was  by  the  easy  means  of  a  writ  and  token,  gewrit 
and  insigel.  The  meeting  was  proclaimed  some 
time  in  advance,  at  some  one  of  the  royal  resi- 
dences 2. 


.  v.  §  10.     Thorpe,  i.  240.    ' 

2  "  Donne  bead  mon  ealle  witan  to  cynge,  and  man  sceolde  ftonne 
rsedan,  hii  man  Sisne  eard  werian  sceolde,"  Chron.  an.  1010.  Be6dan 
is  to  proclaim. 

See  also  Chron.  Sax.  1048.  Hist.  Eliens-  1,  10,  etc. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  203 

The  proper  Saxon  name  for  these  assemblies  was 
witena  gemot 1,  literally  the  meeting  of  the  witan ; 
but  we  also  find,  micel  gemot,  the  great  meeting ; 
sino^lic  gemot,  the  synodal  meeting ;  seono^,  the 
synod.  The  Latin  names  are  concilium,  conven- 
tus,  synodus,  synodale  conciliabulum,  and  the  like. 
Although  synodus  and  seono$  might  more  properly 
.be  confined  to  ecclesiastical  conventions,  the  Saxons 
do  not  appear  to  have  made  any  distinction ;  pro- 
bably because  ecclesiastical  and  secular  regulations 
were  made  by  the  same  body,  and  at  the  same  time. 
But  it  is  very  probable  that  the  Frankish  system  of 
separate  houses  for  the  clergy  and  laity  prevailed 
here  also,  and  that  merely  ecclesiastical  affairs  were 
decided  by  the  king  and  clergy  alone.  There  are 
some  acts  in  which  the  signatures  are  those  of 
clergymen  only,  others  in  which  the  clerical  signa- 
tures are  followed  and,  as  it  were,  confirmed  by 
those  of  the  laity ;  and  in  one  remarkable  case  of 
this  kind,  the  king  signs  at  the  head  of  each  list,  as 
if  he  had  in  fact  affixed  his  mark  successively  in 
the  two  houses,  as  president  of  each  2. 

1  "  And  se  cyng  hsefde  Sser  on  morgen  witena  gemot,  -j  cwaeft  hine 
litlage."  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1052.   "  And  wees  «a  witena  gemot."  Ib.  an. 
1052.     "  Da  hsefde  Eadwerd  cyning  witena  gemot  on  Lundene."    Ib. 
an.  1050. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  116.     It  is  probable  that  even  in  strictly  ecclesi- 
astical synods,  the  king  had  a  presidency  at  least,  as  head  of  the  church 
in  his  dominions.   In  Willibald's  life  of  Boniface  we  are  told : — " Keg- 
nan  te  M,  Westsaxonum  rege,   subitanea  quaedam  incubuerat,  nova 
quadam  seditione  exorta,  necesaitas,  et  statim  synodale  a  primatibus 
aecclesiarum  cum  consilio  praedicti  regis  servorum  Dei  factum  est  con- 
cilium ;  moxque  omnibus  in  imum  couvenientibus,  saluberrima  de  hac 
recenti  dissentione  consilii  quaestio  inter  sacerdotales  aecclesiastici  or- 
dinis  gradus  sapienter  exoritur,  et  prudentiori  inito  consultu,  fideles  in 


204 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


A  more  important  question  for  us  is,  what  were 
the  powers  of  the  witena  gemot  I  It  must  be  an- 
swered by  examples  in  detail. 

1.  First,  and  in  general,  they  possessed  a  consul- 
tative voice,  and  right  to  consider  every  public  act, 
which  could  be  authorised  by  the  Jcing.  This  has  been 
attempted  to  be  denied,  but  without  sufficient  rea- 
son. Runde,  who  is  one  of  the  upholders  of  the 
erroneous  doctrine  on  this  subject,  appeals  to  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  Kent,  which  he 
perhaps  justly  declares  to  have  been  made  without 
the  assent  of  the  witan  1.  But  it  does  not  at  all 
follow  that  the  first  reception  of  Augustine  by  ^E'Sel- 
berht  is  to  be  considered  a  public  act,  or  that  it 
had  any  immediate  consequences  for  the  public  law. 
Nor  is  it  certain  that  at  a  later  period,  a  meeting 
of  the  witan  may  not  have  ratified  the  private  pro- 
ceeding of  the  king.  ^E^elberht,  who  had  some 
experience  of  Christianity  from  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  his  Frankish  consort  Beorhte,  may  have 
chosen  to  trust  to  the  silent,  gradual  working  of 
the  missionaries,  without  courting  the  opposition  of 
a  heathen  witena  gemot,  till  assured  of  success :  his 
court  were  already  accustomed  to  the  sight  of  a 
Christian  bishop  and  clergy  in  Beorhte's  suite,  and 

Domino  legates  ad  archiepiscopum  Cantuariae  civitatis,  nomine  Bercht- 
waldum,  destinandos  deputarunt,  ne  eorum  praesumptione  aut  temeri- 
tati  adscriberetur,  si  quid  sine  tanti  pontificis  agerent  consilio.  Cum- 
que  omnis  senatus  et  uiiiversus  clericorum  ordo,  tarn  providenti  peracta 
conlatione,  consentirent,  confestim  rex  cunctbs  Christi  famulos  ad- 
locutus  est,  lit  cui  huius  praefatae  legationis  nuntium  inponerent,  scis- 
citarent,"  etc.  Pertz,  ii.  338. 

1  Runde,  Abhandlung  voui   Ursprung1  der   Reichsstandschaft  der 
Bischofe  und  Aebte.  Gb'tt.  1775,  p;  35,  etc. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  205 

Augustine  with  his  company  might  easily  pass  for 
a  mere  addition  to  that  department  of  the  royal 
household.  Indeed  Augustine  himself  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  at  all  ambitious  of  martyrdom, 
and  probably  preferred  trying  the  chances  of  a  gra- 
dual progress  to  a  stormy  and  perhaps  fatal  colli- 
sion with  a  body  of  barbarians,  led  by  a  pagan  and 
rival  priesthood.  The  words  of  Beda  therefore  can 
prove  nothing  in  the  matter,  except  indeed  what  is 
most  important  for  us,  viz.  that  ^E'Selberht  at  first 
refused  to  interfere  as  king,  that  is,  would  not  make 
a  public  question  of  Augustine's  mission  1.  But 
Kunde  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  ^E$elberht's 
laws,  which  must  be  dated  between  596  and  605, 
do  most  emphatically  recognise  Christianity  and 
the  Christian  priesthood ;  and  as  Beda  declares 
him  to  have  enacted  these  laws  "  cum  consilio 
sapientum 2,"  we  shall  hardly  be  saying  too  much 
if  we  affirm  that  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
was  at  least  ratified  by  a  solemn  act  of  the  witan. 
Runde's  further  remarks  upon  the  conversion  of 
Northumberland  seem  to  prove  that  he  really  never 
read  through  the  passages  he  himself  cites,  so  com- 
pletely do  they  refute  his  own  arguments3. 

2.  The  witan  deliberated  upon  the  making  of  new 
laws  which  were  to  be  added  to  the  existing  folc- 
riht 4,  and  which  were  then  promulgated  by  their  own 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  26.  2  Ibid.  ii.  5. 

3  See  Phillips,  Gesehichte  des  Angelsachsischen  Rechts.  Gott.  1825, 
p.  71. 

4  Hlofthsere  and  Eadric,  kings  of  the  men  of  Kent,  augmented  the 
laws  which  their  forefathers  had  made  before  them,  by  these  dooms. 
Prol.  to  Leg.  IlloS.  et  Ead.  Thorpe,  i.  26.     See  also  the  Prologue  to 
Wihtraed's  laws  in  the  text. 


206 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


and  the  king's  authority l.  Beda,  in  a  passage  just 
cited,  says  of  ^I'Selberht : — "  Amongst  other  bene- 
fits which  consulting,  he  bestowed  upon  his  na- 
tion, he  gave  her  also,  with  the  advice  of  his  witan, 
decrees  of  judgments,  after  the  example  of  the 
Eomans :  which,  written  in  the  English  tongue, 
are  yet  possessed  and  observed  by  her2."  And 
these  laws  were  enacted  by  their  authority,  jointly 
with  the  king's.  The  Prologue  to  the  law  of  Wiht- 
reed  declares : — "These  are  the  dooms  of  Wihtrsed, 
king  of  the  men  of  Kent.  In  the  reign  of  the 
most  clement  king  of  the  men  of  Kent,  Wihtrsed,  in 

1  This  is  the  case  throughout  the  Teutonic  legislation,  where  there 
is  a  king  at  all.    "  Theodoricus  rex  Francorum,  cum  esset  Cathalaunis, 
elegit  viros  sapientes,  qui  in  regno  suo  legibus  antiquis  eruditi  erant : 
ipso  autem  dictante,  iussit  conscribere  legem  Francorum,  Alemannorum 
et  Baiuvariorum,"  etc.     Eichhorn,   i.  273.     "Incipit  Lex  Alaman- 
norum,  quae  temporibus  Hlodharii  regis  ( an.  613-628)  una  cum  prin- 
cipibus  suis,  id  sunt  xxxiii  episcopis,  et  xxxiv  ducibus,  et  Ixii  comitibus, 
vel  caetero  populo  constituta  est."     Eichhorn,  i.  274,  note  a.     "In 
Christi  nomine,  incipit  Lex  Alamannorum,  qui  temporibus  Lanfrido 
filio  Godofrido  renovata  est.     Convenit  enim  maioribus  natu  populo 
allamannorum  una  cum  duci  eorum  lanfrido  vel  citerorum  populo  adu- 
nato  ut  si  quilibet,"  etc.    About  beginning  of  eighth  century.   Eich- 
horn.  i.  274,  note  c.     The  Breviarium  of  Alaric  the  Visigoth  (an.  506) 
was  compiled  by  Roman  jurists,  but  submitted  to  an  assembly  of  pre- 
lates and  noble  laymen.     In  the  authoritative  rescript  which  accom- 
panies this  work,  it  is  said  the  object  was,  "  Ut  omnis  legum  Eomana- 
rum,   et  antiqui  iuris  obscuritas,  adhibitis  sacerdotibus  ac  nobilibus 

viris,  in  lucem  intelligentiae  melioris  deducta  resplendeat 

Quibus  omnibus  enucleatis  atque  in  unum  librurn  prudentiuni  electione 

collectis,  haec  quae  excerpta  sunt,  vel  clariori  interpretatione  composita, 
venerabilium  Episcoporum,  vel  electoruin  provincialium  nostrorum  ro- 
boravit  adsensus."  Eichhorn,  i.  280,  note  bb.  Gundobald  the  Bur- 
gundian,  whose  laws  must  have  been  promulgated  before  515,  says 
that  he  was  aided  by  the  advice  of  his  optimates.  Again  he  says, 
"Primum  habito  consilio  comitum,  procerumque  nostrorum,"  etc. 
Eichhorn,  i.  265,  note  c. 

2  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  5.     He  cites  a  passage  which  identifies  these  dooms 
with  those  which  yet  go  under  ^E^elberht's  name. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  207 

the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  the  ninth  indiction  l,  the 
sixth  day  of  the  month  Rugern,  in  the  place  which 
is  called  Berghamstead2,  where  was  assembled  a 
deliberative  convention  of  the  great  men  3 ;  there 
was  Brihtwald  the  high-bishop4  of  Britain,  and  the 
aforenamed  king ;  also  the  bishop  of  Rochester ; 
the  same  was  called  Gybmund,  he  was  present ;  and 
every  degree  of  the  church  in  that  tribe,  spake 
in  unison  with  the  obedient  people5.  There  the 
great  men  decreed,  with  the  suffrages  of  all,  these 
dooms,  and  added  them  to  the  lawful  customs  of 
the  men  of  Kent,  as  hereafter  is  said  and  de- 
clared 6." 

The  prologue  to  the  laws  of  Ini  establishes  the 
same  fact  for  Wessex ;  he  says, — "Ini,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  king  of  the  Westsaxons,  with  the  advice 
and  by  the  teaching  of  Cenred,  my  father,  and  of 
Hedde  my  bishop,  and  Ercenwold  my  bishop,  with 
all  my  ealdormen,  and  the  most  eminent  witan  of 
my  people,  and  also  with  a  great  assemblage  of 
God's  servants7,  have  been  considering  respecting 
our  soul's  heal,  and  the  stability  of  our  realm ;  so 
that  right  law,  and  right  royal  judgments  might 
be  settled  and  confirmed  among  our  people  ;  so  that 

1  A.D.  696.     The  month  is  unknown,  but  probably  in  autumn. 

2  Now  Berstead,  near  Maidstone,  in  Kent,  certainly  not  Berkhamp- 
stead  in  Hertfordshire,  as  Clutterbuck  affirms  in  his  history  of  that 
county. 

3  "  Eadigra  gej>eahtendlic  ynicyme."     See  Thorpe,  i.  36,  note  c. 

4  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

5  The  people  subject  to  their  charge.    Were  the  people,  that  is,  the 
freemen,  present  at  this  gemot  in  their  divisions  as  parishes  or  eccle- 
siastical districts  ? 

6  Thorpe,  i.  36.  7  The  clergy  especially. 


208 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


none  of  our  ealdormen,  nor  of  those  who  are  sub- 
ject unto  us,  should  ever  hereafter  turn  aside  these 
our  dooms  1." 

And  this  is  confirmed  in  more  detail  by  ^Elfred. 
This  prince,  after  giving  some  extracts  from  the 
Levitical  legislation,  and  deducing  their  authority 
through  the  Apostolical  teaching,  proceeds  to  en- 
graft upon  the  latter  the  peculiar  principle  of 
bot  or  compensation  which  is  the  characteristic 
of  Teutonic  legislation2.  He  says, — "After  this  it 
happened  that  many  nations  received  the  faith 
of  Christ ;  and  then  were  many  synods  assembled 
throughout  all  the  earth,  and  among  the  English 
race  also,  after  they  had  received  the  faith  of  Christ, 
of  holy  bishops,  and  also  of  their  exalted  witan. 
They  then  ordained,  out  of  that  mercy  which  Christ 
had  taught,  that  secular  lords,  with  their  leave , 
might  without  sin  take  for  almost  every  misdeed— 
for  the  first  offence — the  bot  in  money  which  they 
then  ordained  ;  except  in  cases  of  treason  against  a 
lord,  to  which  they  dared  not  to  assign  any  mercy ; 
because  Almighty  God  adjudged  none  to  them  that 


1  Thorpe,  i.  102. 

2  Alfred  makes  a  marked  exception  in  the  case  of  treason,  and  re- 
peats it  in  strong  terms  in  §  4  of  his  laws,  "be  hlaford  syrwe."   These 
despotic  tendencies  of  a  great  prince,  nurtured  probably  by  his  exagge- 
rated love  for  foreign  literature,  may  account  to  us  for  the  state  of  utter 
destitution  in  which  his  people  at  one  time  left  him.     His  strong  per- 
sonality, and  active  character,  coupled  with  the  almost  miraculous,  at 
any  rate  most  improbable,  event,  of  his  ascending  the  throne  of  Wessex, 
may  have  betrayed  him  in  his  youth  into  steps  which  his  countrymen 
looked  upon  as  dangerous  to  their  liberties.    Nothing  can  show  Alfred's 
antinational  and  un-Teutonic  feeling  more  than  his    attributing  the 
system  of  bots  or  compensations  to  the  influence  of  Christianity. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  209 

despised  him,  nor  did  Christ,  the  son  of  God,  ad- 
judge any  to  him  that  sold  him  unto  death:  and 
he  commanded  that  a  lord  should  be  loved  like 
oneself1.  They  then,  in  many  synods,  decreed  a  hot 
for  many  human  misdeeds ;  and  in  many  synod- 
books  they  wrote,  here  one  doom,  there  another. 

"  Then  I,  ^Elfred  the  king,  gathered  these  toge- 
ther, and  commanded  many  of  those  which  our 
forefathers  held,  and  which  seemed  good  to  me,  to 
be  written  down ;  and  many  which  did  not  seem 
good  to  me,  1  rejected  by  the  counsel  of  my  witan, 
and  commanded  them  in  other  wise  to  be  holden ; 
but  much  of  my  own  I  did  not  venture  to  set  down 
in  writing,  for  I  knew  not  how  much  of  it  might 
please  our  successors.  But  what  I  met  with, 
either  of  the  time  of  Ini  my  kinsman,  or  of  Offa, 
king  of  the  Mercians,  or  ^E8elberht  who  first  of 
the  English  race  received  baptism,  the  best  I  have 
here  collected,  and  the  rest  rejected.  I  then,  Alfred 
king  of  the  Westsaxons,  showed  these  to  all  my 
witan,  and  they  then  said,  that  it  liked  them  well 
so  to  hold  them." 

The  laws  of  Eadweard  like  those  of  Hlo^here 
and  Eadric  have  no  proem  :  next  in  order  of  time 
are  those  of  ^E^elstan.  The  council  of  Greatley 
opens  with  an  ordinance  which  the  king  says  was 
framed  by  the  advice  of  Wulfhelm,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  and  his  other  bishops :  no  other  witan 
are  mentioned.  Now  it  is  remarkable  enough  that 
this  ordinance  refers  exclusively  to  tithes,  and  other 

1  This  is  Mr.  Thorpe's  version,  i.  59.     But  the  words  may  be  as 
strictly  construed,  "  should  be  loved  like  himself"  viz.  God. 

VOL.  II.  P 


210 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


ecclesiastical  dues,  and  works  of  charity.  But  the 
secular  ordinances  which  follow  conclude  with  these 
words :  "  All  this  was  established  in  the  great  synod 
at  Greatanlea ;  in  which  was  archbishop  Wulf  helm, 
with  all  the  noblemen  and  witan  whom  JEftelstan 
the  king  [commanded  to]  gather  together1." 

The  witan  at  Exeter,  under  the  same  king,  are 
much  more  explicit  as  to  their  powers :  in  the 
preamble  to  their  laws,  they  say  :  "  These  are  the 
dooms  which  the  witan  at  Exeter  decreed,  with  the 
counsel  of  ^E^elstan  the  king,  and  again  at  Fe- 
ver sham,  and  a  third  time  at  Th  under  sfield,  where 
the  whole  was  settled  and  confirmed  together2." 

The  concurrence  of  these  witan  is  continually 
appealed  to  in  the  Saxon  laws  which  follow3,  and 
which  are  supplementary  to  the  three  gemots  men- 
tioned. But  in  a  chapter  (§7)  concerning  ordeals, 
the  regulation  is  said  to  be  by  command  of  God, 
the  archbishop  and  all  the  bishops,  and  the  other 
witan  are  not  mentioned ;  probably  because  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  ordeal  was  a  special,  ecclesias- 
tical function.  Again  in  the  Judicia  Civitatis  Lon- 
doniae  the  joint  legislative  authority  of  the  king 
and  the  witan  is  repeatedly  alluded  to  4. 

Eadmund  commences  his  laws  by  stating  that  he 
had  assembled  a  great  synod  in  London  at  Easter, 
at  which  the  two  archbishops,  Oda  and  Wulfstan, 
were  present,  together  with  many  bishops  and 
persons  of  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  secular  condi- 

1  Thorpe,  i.  214.  2  Ibid.  i.  207. 

2  ^Eflelst.  iv.    Thorpe,  i.  220,  224. 

4  ^ESelst.  v.  §  10,  11, 12.    Thorpe,  i.  238,  240. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  211 

tion1.  And  having  thus  given  the  authority  by 
which  he  acted,  he  proceeds  to  the  details  of  his 
law,  which  he  again  declares  to  have  been  pro- 
mulgated, after  deliberation  with  the  council  of  his 
witan,  ecclesiastical  and  lay2.  The  council  of  Cu- 
linton,  held  under  the  same  prince,  commences 
thus:  "This  is  the  decree  which  Eadmund  the 
king  and  his  bishops,  with  his  witan,  established 
at  Culinton,  concerning  the  maintenance  of  peace, 
and  taking  the  oaths  of  fidelity." 

Next  comes  Eadgar,  whose  law  commences  in 
these  words  :  "  This  is  the  ordinance  which  Eadgar 
the  king,  with  the  counsel  of  his  witan,  ordained, 
to  the  praise  of  God,  his  own  honour,  and  the  be- 
nefit of  all  his  people3." 

In  like  manner,  ^E'Selred  informs  us  that  his  law 
was  ordained,  "  for  the  better  maintenance  of  the 
public  peace,  by  himself  and  his  witan  at  Wood- 
stock, in  the  land  of  the  Mercians,  according  to 
the  laws  of  the  Angles4."  In  precisely  similar  terms 
he  speaks  of  new  laws  made  by  himself  and  his 
witan  at  Wantage5.  In  a  collection  of  laws  passed 
in  1008,  under  the  same  prince,  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing preamble6:  "This  is  the  ordinance  which 
the  king  of  the  English,  with  his  witan,  both  cleri- 
cal and  lay,  have  chosen7  and  advised;"  and  every 
one  of  the  first  five  paragraphs  commences  with 

1  Thorpe,  i.  244.  2  Ibid.  i.  246. 

3  Ibid.,  i.  262  •  see  also  pp.  270,  272,  276. 

4  Ibid.  i.  280.  5  Ibid.  i.  292.  6  Ibid.  i.  304. 

7  The  word  ced&an,  to  elect  or  choose,  is  the  technical  expression 
in  Teutonic  legislation  for  ordinances  which  have  been  deliberated 
upon. 

P2 


212 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


the  same  solemn  words,  viz.  "  This  is  the  ordinance 
of  our  lord,  and  of  his  witan,"  etc. 

But  far  more  strongly  is  this  marked  in  the  pro- 
visions of  the  council  of  Enham,  under  the  same 
miserable  prince.  These  are  not  only  entitled, 
"ordinances  of  the  witan1,"  but  throughout,  the 
king  is  never  mentioned  at  all,  and  many  of  the 
chapters  commence,  "  It  is  the  ordinance  of  the 
witan,"  etc.  If  it  were  not  for  one  or  two  enact- 
ments referring  to  the  safety  of  the  royal  person, 
and  the  dignity  of  the  crown,  we  might  be  almost 
tempted  to  imagine  that  the  great  councillors  of 
state  had  met,  during  JE^elred's  flight  from  Eng- 
land, and  passed  these  laws  upon  their  own  au- 
thority, without  the  king.  The  laws  of  1014  com- 
mence again  with  the  words  so  often  repeated  in 
this  chapter2,  and  such  also  usher  in  the  very  ela- 
borate collection  which  Cnut  and  his  witan  com. 
piled  at  Winchester3. 

Now  I  think  that  any  impartial  person  will  be 
satisfied  with  these  examples,  and  admit  that  who- 
ever the  witan  may  have  been,  they  possessed  a 
legislative  authority,  at  least  conjointly  with  the 
king.  Indeed  of  two  hypothetical  cases,  I  should 
be  far  more  inclined  to  assert  that  they  possessed 
it  without  him,  than  that  he  possessed  it  without 
them :  at  least,  I  can  find  no  instance  of  the  latter ; 
while  I  have  shown  that  there  was  at  least  a  pro- 
bability of  the  former :  and  even  ^E^elred  him- 
self says,  twice :  "  Wise  in  former  days  were  those 


1  Thorpe,  i.  314,  316,  318. 
3  Ibid.  i.  358,  376. 


2  Ibid.  i.  340,  342,  350. 


CH.  VL]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  213 

secular  witan l  who  first  added  secular  laws  to  the 
just  divine  laws,  for  bishops  and  consecrated  bodies ; 
and  reverenced  for  love  of  God  holiness  and  holy 
orders,  and  God's  houses  and  his  servants  firmly 
protected."  Again2:  "Wise  were  those  secular 
witan  who  to  the  divine  laws  of  justice  added  se- 
cular laws  for  the  government  of  the  people ;  and 
decreed  hot  to  Christ  and  the  king,  that  many 
should  thus,  of  necessity,  be  compelled  to  right." 

Is  it  not  manifest  that  he,  like  ^Elfred,  really 
felt  the  legislative  power  to  reside  in  the  witan, 
rather  than  in  the  king  I 

3.  The  witan  had  the  power  of  making  alliances 
and  treaties  of  peace,  and  of  settling  their  terms. 

The  defeat  of  the  Danes  by  Alfred,  in  878,  was 
followed,  as  is  well  known,  by  the  baptism  of  Gu- 
^orm  ^E^elstan,  and  the  peaceful  establishment 
of  his  forces  in  portions  of  the  ancient  kingdoms 
of  Mercia,  Essex,  Eastanglia  and  Northumberland. 
The  terms  of  this  treaty,  and  the  boundaries  of  the 
new  states  thus  constituted  were  solemnly  ratified, 
perhaps  at  Wedmore3;  the  first  article  of  this  im- 
portant public  act,  by  which  ^Elfred  obtained  a  con- 
siderable accession  of  territory,  runs  thus  4 :  "  This 
is  the  peace  that  Alfred  the  king,  and  Gyftrum 
the  king,  and  the  witan  of  all  the  English  nation, 
and  all  the  people  that  are  in  Eastanglia,  have  all 
ordained  and  confirmed  with  oaths,  for  themselves 
and  for  their  descendants,  born  and  unborn,  who 

1  Woroldwitan.  ^ESelr.  vii.  §  24.     Thorpe,  i.  334. 

2  ^ESelr.  ix.  §  36.     Thorpe,  i.  348. 

3  Chron.  Sax.  an.  878.  Asser,  in  anno.  4  Thorpe,  i.  152. 


214 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


desire  God's  favour  or  ours.  First,  concerning  our 
land-boundaries,"  etc.  In  like  manner  the  treaty 
which  Eadweard  entered  into  with  the  same  Danes, 
is  said  to  have  been  frequently  ("  oft  and  unsel- 
dan")  renewed  and  ratified  by  the  witan1. 

We  still  have  the  terms  of  the  shameful  peace 
which  JE^elred  bought  of  Olafr  Tryggvason  and 
his  comrades  in  994.  The  document,  which  was 
probably  signed  at  Andover  2,  commences  with  the 
following  words :  "  These  are  the  articles  of  peace 
and  the  agreement  which  ^E^elred  the  king  and 
all  his  witan  have  made  with  the  army  which  ac- 
companied Anlaf,  and  Justin  and  Guftmund,  the 
son  of  Stegita3." 

Many  other  instances  might  be  cited,  as  for  ex- 
ample the  entry  in  the  Chronicle,  anno  947,  where 
it  is  stated  that  Eadred  made  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  witan  of  Northumberland  at  Taddenes 
scylf,  which  was  broken  and  renewed  in  the  fol- 
lowing year:  but  further  evidence  upon  this  point 
seems  unnecessary4. 

4.    The  witan  had  the  power  of  electing  the  king. 

The  kingly  dignity  among  the  Anglosaxons  was 
partly  hereditary,  partly  elective  :  that  is  to  say,  the 
kings  were  usually  taken  from  certain  qualified  fa- 
milies, but  the  witan  claimed  the  right  of  choosing 
the  person  whom  they  would  have  to  reign.  Their 
history  is  filled  with  instances  of  occasions  when 

1  Thorpe,  i.  166.         2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  994.         3  Thorpe,  i.  284. 

4  See  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1002,  1004,  1006,  1011, 1012.  The  solemn 
partition  of  the  kingdom  between  Eadnmnd  irensida  and  Cnut  was  ef- 
fected by  the  witan,  at  Olney  in  Gloucestershire.  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1016. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  215 

the   sons    or  direct  descendants  of  the  last  king 
have  been  set  aside  in  favour   of  his  brother  or 
some  other  prince  whom  the  nation  believed  more 
capable  of  ruling :   and  the  very  rare   occurrence 
of  discontent  on  such   occasions  both  proves  the 
authority   which    the    decision    of  the  witan    car- 
ried with  it,  and  the  great  discretion  with  which 
their  power  was  exercised.     Only  here  and  there, 
when  the  witan  were  themselves  not  unanimous, 
do  we  find  any  traces  of  dissensions  arising  out  of 
a  disputed  succession 1.     On  every  fresh  accession, 
the  great  compact  between  the  king  and  the  peo- 
ple was  literally,  as  well  as  symbolically,  renewed, 
and    the    technical    expression   for   ascending   the 
throne  is  being  "  gecoren  and  ahafen  to  cyninge," 
elected  and  raised  to  be  king :   where  the  ahafen 
refers  to  the  old  Teutonic  custom  of  what  we  still 
at  election  times  call  chairing  the  successful  can- 
didate ;  and  the  gecoren  denotes  the  positive  and 
foregone   conclusion  of  a  real  election.     Alfred's 
own  accession  is  a  familiar  instance  of  this  fact: 
he  was  chosen,  to  the  prejudice  of  his  elder  bro- 
ther's children ;  but  the  nation  required  a  prince 
capable  of  coping  with  dangers  and  difficulty,  and 
Asser  tells  us  that  he  was  not   only  received  as 
king  by  the  unanimous  assent  of  the  people,  but 
that,  had  he  so  pleased,  he  might  have  dethroned 

J  I  speak  now  of  periods  subsequent  to  the  consolidation  of  the  mo- 
narchy :  while  England  was  full  of  kinglets,  disputes  were  not  infre- 
quent. Northumberland  and  Wessex  (previous  to  Beorhtric's  alliance 
with  Otf'a)  furnish  examples.  But  here  the  competitors  were  numerous, 
aud  the  witan  themselves  split  into  parties,  generally  maintaining  the 
interests  of  different  royal  families. 


216 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


his  brother  ^E^elred  and  reigned  in  his  place1. 
His  words  are :  "  In  the  same  year  (871)  the  afore- 
said JElfred,  who  hitherto,  during  the  life  of  his 
brother,  had  held  a  secondary  place,  immediately 
upon  ^Eftelred's  death,  by  the  grace  of  God,  as- 
sumed the  government  of  the  whole  realm,  with 
the  greatest  goodwill  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
kingdom ;  which  indeed,  even  during  his  aforesaid 
brother's  life,  he  might,  had  he  chosen,  have  done 
with  the  greatest  ease,  and  by  the  universal  con- 
sent; truly,  because  both  in  wisdom  and  in  all 
good  qualities  he  much  excelled  all  his  brothers ; 
and  moreover  because  he  was  particularly  warlike, 
and  successful  in  nearly  all  his  battles2." 

Not  one  word  have  we  here  about  his  nephews, 
or  any  rights  they  might  possess :  and  Asser  seems 
to  think  royalty  itself  a  matter  entirely  dependent 
upon  the  popular  will,  and  the  good  opinion  enter- 
tained by  the  nation  of  its  king.  I  shall  conclude 
this  head  by  citing  a  few  instances  from  Saxon 
documents  of  the  intervention  of  the  witan  in  a 
king's  election  and  inauguration. 

In  924,  the  Chronicle  says :  "  This  year  died 
Eadweard  the  king  at  Fearndiin,  among  the  Mer- 
cians ....  and  ^Eftelstan  was  chosen  king  by  the 
Mercians,  and  consecrated  at  Kingston." 

Florence  of  Worcester,  an.  959,  distinctly  asserts 

1  Asser,  an.  871. 

2  Simeon  of  Durham  uses  equally  strong  terms  on  the  occasion. 
"^Elfredus  a  ducibus  et  a  praesulibus  totius  gentis  eligitur,  et  non 
solum  ab  ipsis,  verumetiam  ab  omni  populo  adoratur,  ut  eis  praeesset, 
ad  faciendam  vindictam  in  nationibus,  increpationes  in  populis."     An. 
871. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  217 

that  Eadgar  was  elected  by  all  the  people  of  Eng- 
land,— "  ab  omni  Anglorum  populo  electus  .  .  .  reg- 
num  suscepit." 

In  979,  the  Chronicle  again  says :  "  This  year 
^E^elred  took  to  the  kingdom ;  and  he  was  soon 
after  consecrated  king  at  Kingston,  with  great  re- 
joicing of  the  English  witan." 

In  1016,  the  election  of  Eadmund  irensida  is 
thus  related :  "  Then  befel  it  that  king  Weired 
died  ....  and  then  after  his  death,  all  the  witan 
who  were  in  London,  and  the  townsmen,  chose 
Eadmund  to  be  king."  Again  in  1017:  "This 
year  was  Cnut  elected  king." 

In  1036  again  we  have  these  words :  "  This  year 
died  Cnut  the  king  at  Salisbury  ...  and  soon  after 
his  decease  there  was  a  gemot  of  all  the  witan 
('ealra  witena  gemot')  at  Oxford:  and  Leofric 
the  eorl,  and  almost  all  the  thanes  north  of  the 
Thames,  and  the  lithsmen  in  London  chose  Harald 
to  be  chief  of  all  England ;  to  him  and  his  bro- 
ther Hardacnutwho  was  in  Denmark."  This  elec- 
tion was  opposed  unsuccessfully  by  Godwine  and 
the  men  of  Wessex. 

The  Chronicle  contains  a  very  important  entry 
under  the  date  1014.  Upon  the  death  of  Swegen, 
we  are  told  that  his  army  elected  Cnut  king: 
"  But  all  the  witan  who  were  in  England,  both 
clerical  and  lay,  decided  to  send  after  king  ^E^ el- 
red1;  and  they  declared  that  no  lord  could  be 
dearer  to  them  than  their  natural  lord,  if  he  would 

1  He  had  fled  to  Normandy. 


218 


THE  SA.XONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  IT. 


rule  them  more  justly  than  he  had  done  before. 
Then  the  king  sent  his  son  Eadweard  hither,  with 
his  messengers,  and  commanded  them  to  greet  all 
his  people1 ;  and  he  said  that  he  would  be  a  loving 
lord  to  them,  and  amend  all  those  things  which 
they  all  abhorred  ;  and  that  everything  which  had 
been  said  or  done  against  him  should  be  forgiven, 
on  condition  that  they  all,  with  one  consent  and 
without  deceit,  would  be  obedient  to  him.  Then 
they  established  full  friendship,  by  word  and  pledge 
on  either  side,  and  declared  every  Danish  king  an 
outlaw  from  England  for  ever." 

Cnut  nevertheless  succeeded ;  but  after  the  ex- 
tinction of  his  short-lived  dynasty,  we  are  told  that 
all  the  people  elected  Eadweard  the  Confessor  king. 
"1041.    This  year  died  Hardacnut  ....  And  be- 
fore he  was  buried,  all  the  people  elected  Eadweard 
king,  at  London."     Another  manuscript  reads  :— 
"  1042.  This  year  died  Hardacnut,  as  he  stood  at 
his  drink  .  .  And  all  the  people  then  received  Ead- 
weard for  their  king,  as  was  his  true  natural  right." 
One  more  quotation  from  a  manuscript  of  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  shall  conclude  this  head: — "  1066. 
In   this  year  was  hallowed   the   minster  at  West- 
minster on  Childermas-day  (Dec.  28th).     And  king 
Eadweard  died  on  the  eve  of  Twelfth-day,  and  he 
was    buried   on  Twelfth-day  in    the   newly   conse- 
crated church  at  Westminster.    And  Harald  the  earl 

1  Leode  and  leodscipe,  the  words  used  in  the  Chronicle,  may  possibly 
mean  only  the  great  officers  or  ministerials,  the  Franldsh  Leudes.  But 
the  balance  of  probability  is  in  favour  of  its  representing  the  whole 
people:  leodscipe,  which  is  the  reading  of  the  most  manuscripts, 
having  a  more  general  sense  than  leode. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMOT.  219 

succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of  England,  even  as  the 
king  had  granted  it  unto  him,  and  men  also  had 
elected  him  thereto.  And  he  was  consecrated  king 
on  Twelfth-day." 

The  witan  of  England  had  met  to  aid  in  the  con- 
secration of  Westminster  Ahbey,  and,  as  was  their 
full  right,  proceeded  to  elect  a  king,  on  Eadweard's 
decease. 

5.  The  witan  had  the  power  to  depose  the  king,  if 
his  government  was  not  conducted  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  very  existence  of  this 
power  would  render  its  exercise  an  event  of  very 
rare  occurrence.  Anglosaxon  history  does  however 
furnish  one  clear  example.  In  755,  the  witan  of 
Wessex,  exasperated  by  the  illegal  conduct  of  king 
Sigeberht,  deposed  him  from  the  royal  dignity,  and 
elected  his  relative  Cynewulf  in  his  stead.  The 
fact  is  thus  related  by  different  authorities.  The 
Chronicle1  says  very  shortly: — "This  year,  Cyne- 
wulf and  the  witan  of  the  Westsaxons  deprived  his 
kinsman  Sigeberht  of  his  kingdom,  except  Hamp- 
shire2, for  his  unjust  deeds." 

Florence  tells  the  same  story,  but  in  other 
words3  : — "  Cynewulf,  a  scion  of  the  royal  race  of 
Cerdic,  with  the  counsel  of  the  Westsaxon  prima- 
tes, removed  their  king  Sigeberht  from  his  realm, 
on  account  of  the  multitude  of  his  iniquities,  and 

1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  755. 

2  Perhaps  his  own,  ancestral  kingdom.     Does  not  all  this  look  very 
much  as  if  Wessex  was  still  only  a  confederation  of  petty  principalities, 
with  one  elective  and  paramount  head  ? 

3  Flor.  Wig.  an.  755. 


220 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


reigned  in  his  place :  however  he  granted  to  him 
one  province,  which  is  called  Hampshire." 

.ZE'Selweard  19  whose  royal  descent  and  usual  pe- 
dantry conspire  to  make  his  account  of  the  matter 
somewhat  hazy,  says  : — "  So,  after  the  lapse  of  a 
year  from  the  time  when  Sigeberht  began  to  reign, 
Cynewulf  invaded  his  realm  and  took  it  from  him  ; 
and  he  drew  the  sapientes  of  all  the  western  coun- 
try after  him,  apparently,  on  account  of  the  irre- 
gular acts  of  the  said  king,"  etc. 

The  fullest  account  however  of  the  whole  trans- 
action is  given  by  Henry  of  Huntingdon2,  who  very 
frequently  shows  a  remarkable  acquaintance  with 
Saxon  authorities  which  are  now  lost,  but  from 
which  he  translates  and  quotes  at  considerable 
length.  These  are  his  words : — "  Sigeberht,  the 
kinsman  of  the  aforesaid  king,  succeeded  him,  but 
he  held  the  kingdom  for  a  short  time  only :  for 
being  swelled  up  and  insolent  through  the  successes 
of  his  predecessor,  he  became  intolerable  even  unto 
his  own  people.  But  when  he  continued  to  ill-use 
them  in  every  way,  and  either  twisted  the  laws  to 
his  own  advantage,  or  turned  them  aside  for  his 
advantage,  Cumbra,  the  noblest  of  his  ealdormen, 
at  the  petition  of  the  whole  people,  brought  their 
complaints  before  the  savage  king.  Whom,  for  at- 
tempting to  persuade  him  to  rule  his  people  more 
mercifully,  and  setting  his  inhumanity  aside  to 
show  himself  an  object  of  love  to  God  and  man,  he 
shortly  after  commanded  to  be  put  to  an  impious 


1  JESelw.  an.  755,  lib.  ii.  c.  17. 

2  Hen.  Hunt.  Hist.  Ang.  lib.  iv. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  221 

death :  and  becoming  still  more  fierce  and  intole- 
rable to  his  people,  he  aggravated  his  tyranny.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  second  year  of  his  reign,  Sige- 
berht  the  king  continuing  incorrigible  in  his  pride 
and  iniquity,  the  princes  and  people  of  the  whole 
realm  collected  together ;  and  by  provident  deli- 
beration and  unanimous  consent  of  all  he  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  throne.  But  Cynewulf,  an  excellent 
young  prince,  of  the  royal  race,  was  elected  to  be 
king  V 

I  have  little  doubt  that  an  equally  formal,  though 
hardly  equally  justifiable,  proceeding  severed  Mer- 
cia  from  Eadwig's  kingdom,  and  reconstituted  it 
as  a  separate  state  under  Eadgar2;  and  lastly  from 
Simeon  of  Durham  we  learn  that  the  Northumbrian 
Alchred  was  deposed  and  exiled,  with  the  counsel 
and  consent  of  all  his  people  3. 

6.  The  king  and  the  witan  had  power  to  appoint 
prelates  to  vacant  sees. 

As  many  of  the  witan  were  the  most  eminent  of 
the  clergy,  and  the  people  might  be  fairly  considered 


1  "  Sigebertus  rex,  in  principio  secundi  anni  regni  sui,  cum  incorri- 
gibilis  superbiae  et  nequitiae  esset,  congregati  sunt  proceres  et  populus 
totius  regni,  et  provida  deliberatione,  et  unanimi  consensu  omniumex- 
pulsus  est  a  regno.     Kinewulf  vero,  iitvenis  egregius  de  regia  stirpe 
oriundus,  electus  est  in  regem." 

2  Flor.  Wig.  an.  957. 

3  "  Eodem  tempore,  Alcredus  rex,  consilio  et  consensu  omnium  suo- 
rum,   regiae   familiae  principum  destitutus  societate,  exilio   imperil 
mutavit  maiestatem."  Sim.  Dun.  an.  774.     Other  Germanic  tribes  did 
the  same  thing.  "  Sed  cuni  Aldoaldus  eversa  mente  insaniret,  de  regno 
eiectus  est."   Paul.  Diac.  Langob.  iv.  43.     Among  the  Burgundians, 
"generali  nomine  rex  appellatur  Hendinos,  et  ritu  veteri,  potestate 
deposita  removetur,  si  sub  eo  fortuna  titubaverit  belli,  vel  segetum  co- 
piam  negaverit  terra."  Amm.  Marc,  xxxiii.  5. 


222 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


to  be  represented  by  the  secular  members  of  the 
body,  these  elections  were  perhaps  more  canonical 
than  the  Frankish,  and  assuredly  more  so  than  those 
which  take  place  under  our  system  by  conge  d'elire. 
The  necessary  examples  will  be  found  in  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  an.  971,  995,  1050.  '  But  one  may  be 
mentioned  at  length.  In  959  Dunstan  was  elected 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  "  consilio  sapientum  1." 

7.  They  had  also  power  to  regulate  ecclesiastical 
matters,  appoint  fasts  and  festivals,  and  decide  upon 
the  levy  and  expenditure  of  ecclesiastical  revenue. 

The  great  question  of  monachism  which  con- 
vulsed the  church  and  kingdom  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, was  several  times  brought  before  the  consi- 
deration of  the  witan,  who,  both  clerical  and  lay, 
were  very  much  divided  upon  the  subject.  This 
perhaps  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  no  formal  act  of 
the  gemot  was  ever  passed  on  the  subject,  and  the 
solution  of  the  problem  was  left  to  the  bishops  in 
their  several  cathedrals :  but  no  reader  of  Saxon 
history  can  be  ignorant  that  it  was  frequently 
brought  before  the  gemot,  and  that  it  was  the  cause 
of  deep  and  frequent  dissensions  among  the  witan  2. 
The  festival  days  of  St.  Eadweard  and  St.  Dunstan 
were  fixed  by  the  authority  of  the  witan  on  the  15th 
Kal.  April  and  14th  Kal.  June  respectively  3 ;  and  the 

1  "Dehinc  beatus  Dunstanus,  JEthelmi  archiepiscopi  ex  fratre  nepos, 
Crlsestaniae  abbas,  post  Huicciorum  et  Londoniensium  episcopus,  ex  re- 
spectu  divino  et  sapientum  consilio,  primae  metropolis  Angloruin  pri- 
mas  et  patriarcha."  Flor.  Wig.  an.  959. 

2  Flor.  Wig.  an.  975,  says,  "  Et  in  synodo  constituti,  se  nequaquam 
ferre  posse  dixerunt,  ut  monachi  eiicerentur  de  regno." 

3  ^ESelr.  v.  §  16.     Cnut,  i.  §  17.    Thorpe,  i.  310, 370. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  223 

laws  contain  many  provisions  for  the  due  keeping 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  the  strict  celebration  of  fasts  and 
festivals1.  The  levying  of  church-shots,  soul-shots, 
light-alms,  plough-alms,  tithes,  and  a  variety  of 
other  church  imposts,  the  payment  of  which  could 
not  be  otherwise  legally  binding  upon  the  laity,  was 
made  law  by  frequently  repeated  chapters  in  the 
acts  of  the  witan  :  these  are  much  too  numerous  to 
need  specification.  They  direct  the  amount  to  be 
paid,  the  time  of  payment,  and  the  penalties  to  be 
inflicted  on  defaulters :  nay,  they  actually  direct  the 
mode  in  which  such  payments  when  received  should 
be  distributed  and  applied  by  the  receivers'2.  They 
establish,  as  law  of  the  land,  the  prohibitions  to 
marry  within  certain  degrees  of  relationship  :  and 
lastly  they  adopt  and  sanction  many  regulations  of 
the  fathers  and  bishops,  respecting  the  life  and  con- 
versation of  priests  and  deacons,  canons,  monks 
and  religious  women.  On  all  these  points  it  is 
sufficient  to  give  a  general  reference  to  the  laws, 
which  are  full  of  regulations  even  to  the  minutest 
details. 

8.  The  king  and  the  witan  had  power  to  levy  taxes 
for  the  ^ublic  service. 

I  have  observed  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  work 
that  the  estates  of  the  freeman  were  bound  to  make 
certain  settled  payments.  These  may  at  some  time 
or  other  have  been  voluntary,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  they  did  ultimately  become  compulsory 

1  For  example,  Omit,  i.  §  14,  15,  16.     Thorpe,  i.  368,  etc. 

2  For  example,  zEftelr.  ix.  §  C.     Thorpe,  i.  342.     ^E«elr.  vi.  §  51. 
Thorpe,  i.  328,  etc. 


224,  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

payments.  They  are  the  cyninges  gafol,  payable 
on  the  hide,  and  may  possibly  be  the  cyninges 
utware,  and  cyninges  geban  of  the  laws,  the  contri- 
butions directes  by  which  a  man's  station  in  society 
was  often  measured.  Now  in  the  time  of  Ini,  we 
find  the  witan  regulating  the  amount  of  this  tax 
or  gafol,  in  barley,  at  six  pounds  weight  upon  'the 
hide1.  Again,  under  the  extraordinary  circum- 
stances of  the  Danish  war  under  ^E^elred,  when  it 
became  almost  customary  to  buy  off  the  invaders, 
we  find  them  authorising  the  levy  of  large  sums 
for  that  purpose  2,  and  also  for  the  maintenance  of 
fleets 3 :  these  payments,  once  known  by  the  name 
of  Danegeld,  and  which  in  1018  amounted  to  the 
enormous  sum  of  82,500  pounds4,  were  after  thirty- 
nine  years'  continuance  finally  abolished  by  Ead- 
weard5. 

9.  The  Mng  and  his  witan  had  power  to  raise  land 
and  sea  forces  when  occasion  demanded. 

The  king  always  possessed  of  himself  the  right 
to  call  out  the  ban  or  armed  militia  of  the  freemen : 
he  also  possessed  the  right  of  commanding  at  all 
times  the  service  of  his  comites  and  their  vassals: 
but  the  armed  force  of  the  freemen  could  only  be 

1  Ini,  §  59.     Thorpe,  i.  140.     Wyrhta  like  the  factus  (=Mansus) 
of  the  Franks  appears  to  be  the  Mansio  or  Hide.    But  the  amounts  do 
not  concern  us  at  present. 

2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1006.      The  sum  raised  was  thirty-six  thousand 
pounds.  Chron.  an.  1012.  In  this  year  forty-eight  thousand  pounds  were 
paid. 

3  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1008.    A  ship  from  every  three  hundred  hides ;  and 
a  helmet  and  coat-of-mail  from  every  eight  hides, — a  very  heavy  amount 
of  shipmoney. 

4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1018.  5  Ibid.  an.  1052. 


CH.  vi  j  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  225 

kept  on  foot  for  a  definite  period,  and  probably 
within  definite  limits.  It  seems  therefore  that  when 
the  pressure  of  extraordinary  circumstances  called 
for  more  than  common  efforts,  and  the  nation  was 
Lo  be  urged  to  unusual  exertions,  the  authority  of 
the  witan  was  added  to  that  of  the  king ;  and  that 
much  more  extensive  levies  were  made  than  by 
merely  calling  out  the  hereban  or  landsturm.  And 
this  particularly  applies  to  naval  armaments,  which 
were  hardly  a  part  of  the  constitutional  force,  at 
all  events  not  to  any  great  extent 1.  Accordingly 
we  find  in  the  Chronicle  that  the  king  and  the 
witan  commanded  armaments  to  be  made  against 
the  Danes  in  999,  and  at  the  same  time  directed  a 
particular  service  to  be  sung  in  the  churches.  We 
learn  distinctly  from  another  event  that  the  dis- 
posal of  this  force  depended  upon  the  popular  will : 
for  when  Svein,  king  of  the  Danes,  made  applica- 
tion to  Eadweard  the  Confessor  for  a  naval  force 
in  aid  of  his  war  against  Magnus  of  Norway,  and 
Godwine  recommended  compliance,  we  find  that  it 
W7as  refused  because  Earl  Leofric  of  Coventry,  and 
all  the  people,  with  one  voice  opposed  it 2. 

10.  The  witan  possessed  the  power  of  recommend- 
ing,  assenting  to,  and  guaranteeing  grants  of  lands, 
and  of  permitting  the  conversion  of  folcland  into 
bocland,  and  vice  versa. 

With  regard  to  the  first  part  of  this  assertion,  it 
will  be  sufficient  to  refer  to  any  page  of  the  Codex 

1  The  Butsecarls  or  shipmen  of  the  seaports  may  possibly  have  been 
obliged  to  find  shipping  and  serve  on  board. 

2  Flor.  1047, 1048.     Compare  Chron.  Sax.  in  an.  cit. 

VOL.  IT.  Q 


226 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  H. 


Diplomaticus  ^Evi  Saxonici :  it  is  impossible  almost 
to  find  a  single  grant  in  that  collection  which  does 
not  openly  profess  to  have  been  made  by  the  king, 
''  cum  consilio,  consensu  et  licentia  procerum,"  or 
similar  expressions.  And  the  necessity  for  such 
consent  will  appear  intelligible  when  we  consider 
that  these  grants  must  be  understood,  either  to 
be  direct  conversions  of  folcland  (fiscal  or  public 
property)  into  bocland  (private  estates),  benefi- 
ciary into  hereditary  tenure ;  or,  that  they  contain 
licences  to  free  particular  lands  from  the  ancient, 
customary  dues  to  the  state.  In  both  cases  the 
public  revenue,  of  which  king  and  witan  were  fidu- 
ciary administrators,  was  concerned  :  inasmuch  as 
nearly  every  estate,  transferred  from  folcland  to 
bocland,  became  just  so  much  withdrawn  from  the 
general  stock  of  ways  and  means.  Only  in  the 
case  where  lands  were  literally  exchanged  from  one 
category  into  the  other,  did  the  state  sustain  no 
loss.  Of  this  we  have  evidence  in  a  charter  of  the 
year  858 l.  The  king  and  Wulflaf  his  thane  ex- 
changed lands  in  Kent,  ^Eftelberht  receiving  an 
estate  of  five  plough-lands  at  Mersham  and  giving 
five  plough-lands  at  Wassingwell.  The  king  then 
freed  the  land  at  Wassingwell  in  as  ample  degree 
as  that  at  Mersham  had  been  freed ;  that  is,  from 
every  description  of  service,  or  impost,  except  the 
three  inevitable  burthens,  of  military  service,  and 
repair  of  fortifications  and  bridges.  And  having 
done  so,  he  made  the  land  at  Mersham,  folcland, 
i.  e.,  imposed  the  burthens  upon  it. 
1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  281. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  227 

That  this  is  a  just  view  of  the  powers  of  the 
witan  in  respect  to  the  folcland,  further  appears 
from  instances  where  the  king  and  the  witan,  on 
one  part,  as  representatives  of  the  nation  for  that 
purpose,  make  grants  to  the  king  in  his  individual 
capacity.  In  847,  a  case  of  this  kind  occurred  : 
^E'Selwulf  of  Wessex  obtained  twenty  hides  of  land 
at  Ham,  as  an  estate  of  inheritance,  from  his  witan1. 
The  words  used  are  very  explicit :  "I  JE^elwulf, 
by  God's  aid  king  of  the  Westsaxons,  with  the 
consent  and  licence  of  my  bishops  and  my  princes, 
have  caused  a  certain  small  portion  of  land,  consist- 
ing of  twenty  hides,  to  be  described  by  its  bound- 
aries, to  me,  as  an  estate  of  inheritance."  And 
again:  "These  are  the  boundaries  of  those  twenty 
hides  which  ^E^elwulf 's  senators  granted  to  him 
at  Ham."  We  learn  that  Offa,  king  of  the  Mer- 
cians, had  in  a  similar  manner  caused  one  hundred 
and  ten  hides  in  Kent  to  be  given  to  him  and  his 
heirs  as  an  estate  of  bocland  2,  which  he  had  after- 
wards left  to  the  monastery  at  Bedford.  And  this 
is  a  peculiarly  valuable  record,  because  it  was 
only  by  conquest  that  Offa  and  his  witan  could 
have  obtained  a  right  to  dispose  of  lands  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  own  kingdom.  Between  901  and 
909  the  witan  of  the  Westsaxons  booked  a  very 
small  portion  of  land  to  /Elfred's  son  Eadweard, 
for  the  site  of  his  monastery  at  Winchester  3.  In 
963  we  have  another  instance :  Eadgar  caused  five 
hides  to  be  given  him  at  Peatanige  as  an  estate  of 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  260.  2  Ibid.  No.  1019. 

3  Ibid.  No.  1087. 

Q2 


228 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


inheritance.  The  terms  of  the  document  are  un- 
usual:  he  says,  "I  have  a  portion  of  land,"  etc., 
but  he  frees  it  from  all  burthens  but  the  three, 
and  renders  it  heritable.  The  rubric  says :  "  This 
is  the  charter  of  five  hides  at  Peatanige,  which  are 
Eadgar's  the  king's,  during  his  day  and  after  his 
day,  to  have,  or  to  give  to  whom  it  pleaseth  him 
best 1."  Again  in  964,  the  same  prince  gave  to  his 
wife  .^ElfSry'S  ten  hides  at  Aston  in  Berkshire,  as 
an  estate  of  inheritance,  "  consilio  satellitum,  pori- 
tificum,  comitum,  militum2."  It  is  obvious  that  in 
all  these  cases  the  grants  were  made  out  of  public 
land,  and  were  not  the  private  estates  of  the  king. 

11.  The  wit  an  possessed  the  power  of  adjudging 
the  lands  of  offenders  and  intestates  to  be  forfeit  to 
the  king. 

This  power  applied  to  bocland,  as  well  as  folc- 
land,  and  was  exercised  in  cases  which  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  few  enumerated  in  the  laws. 
Indeed  the  latter  may  very  probably  refer  to  no- 
thing but  the  chattels  or  personal  property  of  the 
offender ;  while  the  real  estate  might  be  transferred 
to  the  king,  by  the  solemn  act  of  the  witan.  A 
few  examples  will  make  this  clear. 

^Elfred,  condemned  for  treason  or  rebellion 
against  ^E^elstan,  lost  his  lands  by  the  judgment 
of  the  witan,  who  bestowed  them  upon  the  king  3. 
In  1002  a  lady  forfeited  her  lands  for  her  inconti- 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1246.  "  Aliquam  terrae  particulam  [h]abeo;  id  est 
quinque  mansas.  . .  .eet  Peatanige,  quatinus  bene  perfruar,  ac  perpetu- 
aliter  possideam,  vita  comite,  et  post  me  cuicimque  voluero  perhenniter 
haeredi  derelinquam  in  aeternam  haereditatem/'  etc. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1253.  3  Ibid.  No.  1112. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  229 

nence  ;  the  king  became  seised  of  them,  obviously 
by  the  act  of  the  gemot,  for  he  calls  it  vulgaris  tra- 
ditio  l.  Again,  the  lands  of  certain  people  which 
had  been  forfeited  for  theft,  are  described  as  hav- 
ing been  granted  to  the  king,  "  iusto  valde  iudicio 
totius  populi,  seniorum  et  primatum2." 

The  case  of  intestacy  is  proved  by  a  charter  of 
Ecgberht  in  825.  He  gave  fifteen  hides  at  Aulton 
to  Winchester,  and  made  title  in  these  words. 
"  Now  this  land,  a  very  faithful  reeve  of  mine  called 
Burghard  formerly  possessed  by  my  grant :  but  he 
afterwards  dying  childless,  left  the  land  without  a 
will,  and  he  had  no  survivors :  and  so  the  land 
with  all  its  boundaries  was  restored  to  me,  its  for- 
mer possessor,  by  judicial  decree  of  my  optimates^." 

Other  examples  may  be  found  in  the  quotations 
given  in  page  52  of  this  volume  ;  to  which  I  may 
add  a  case  of  forfeiture  for  suicide  4. 

12.  Lastly.,  the  witan  acted  as  a  supreme  court 
of  justice^  both  in  civil  and  criminal  causes. 

The  fact  of  important  trials  being  decided  by  the 
witena  gemot  is  obvious  from  a  very  numerous  list 
of  charters  recording  the  result  of  such  trials,  and 
printed  in  the  Codex  Diplomaticus.  It  is  perfectly 
unnecessary  to  give  examples ;  they  occur  con- 
tinually in  the  pages  of  that  work.  The  documents 
are  in  great  detail,  giving  the  names  of  the  parties, 
the  heads  of  the  case,  sometimes  the  very  steps  in 
the  trial,  and  always  recording  the  place  and  date 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1295.          2  Ibid.  No.  374.  3  Ibid.  No.  1035. 

4  The  charter  which  furnishes  the  evidence  of  this  fact  will  appear 
in  the  seventh  volume  of  the  Codex  Diplomaticus.  It  is  in  the  archives 
of  Westminster  Abbey,  and  its  date  is  the  time  of  Eadgar.  [The  death 
of  Mr.  Kernble  in  1857  prevented  the  publication  of  this  seventh  volume.] 


230 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


of  the  gemot,  and  the  names  of  those  who  presided 
therein. 

The  proceedings  of  the  witan  as  a  court  of  cri- 
minal jurisprudence,  are  well  exemplified  in  the 
case  of  earl  Godwine  and  his  family  during  their 
patriotic  struggle  for  power  with  the  foreign  minions 
of  Eadweard,  and  the  northern  earls,  the  hereditary 
enemies  of  their  house.  Eustace  the  count  of  Bou- 
logne, then  on  a  visit  to  Eadweard,  having  with 
a  small  armed  retinue  attempted  violence  against 
some  of  the  inhabitants  of  Dover,  was  set  upon 
by  the  townsmen,  and  after  a  severe  loss  hardly 
succeeded  in  making  his  escape.  He  hastened  to 
Gloucester,  where  Eadweard  then  held  his  court, 
and  laid  his  complaint  before  the  king.  Godwine, 
as  earl  of  Kent,  was  commanded  to  set  out  with  his 
forces,  and  inflict  summary  punishment  upon  the 
burghers  who  had  dared  to  maltreat  a  relative  of 
the  king.  But  the  stem  old  statesman  saw  mat- 
ters in  a  very  different  light :  he  probably  found 
no  reason  to  punish  the  inhabitants  of  one  of  his 
best  towns,  for  an  act  of  self  defence,  especially  one 
which  had  read  a  severe  lesson  to  the  foreign  ad- 
venturers, who  abused  the  weakness  of  an  incapable 
prince,  and  domineered  over  the  land.  He  there- 
fore flatly  refused,  and  withdrew  from  Gloucester 
to  join  his  sons  Harald  and  Swegen  who  lay  at 
Beverston  and  Langtree  with  a  considerable  power. 
The  king  being  reinforced  by  a  well-appointed  con- 
tingent from  the  northern  earldoms,  affaixs  threat- 
ened to  be  brought  to  a  bloody  termination.  The 
conduct  of  Godwine  and  his  family  had  been  repre- 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  231 

sented  to  Eadweard  in  the  most  unfavourable  co- 
lours, and  the  demand  they  made  that  the  obnoxious 
strangers  should  be  given  up  to  them,  only  aggra- 
vated his  deep  resentment.  However  for  a  time 
peace  was  maintained,  hostages  were  given  on 
either  side,  and  a  witena  gemot  was  proclaimed, 
to  meet  in  London,  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  Sep- 
tember 21st,  1048.  On  the  arrival  of  the  earls  in 
Southwark,  they  found  that  a  greatly  superior  force 
from  the  commands  of  Leofric,  Sigeward  and 
Raulf  awaited  them :  desertion  thinned  their  num- 
bers, and  when  the  king  demanded  back  his  hos- 
tages, they  were  compelled  to  comply.  Godwine  and 
Harald  were  now  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
gemot  and  make  answer  to  what  should  be  brought 
against  them.  They  demanded,  though  probably 
with  little  expectation  of  obtaining,  a  safe  con- 
duct to  and  from  the  gemot,  which  was  refused; 
and  as  they  very  properly  declined  under  such  cir- 
cumstances to  appear,  five  days  were  allowed  them 
to  leave  England  altogether. 

It  is  probable  that  the  strictly  legal  forms  were 
followed  on  this  occasion,  although  the  composi- 
tion of  the  gemot  was  such  that  justice  could  not 
have  been  done.  The  same  observation  will  apply 
to  another  witena  gemot  holden  in  London,  after 
Godwine's  triumphant  return  to  England,  though 
with  a  very  different  result.  Before  this  assembly 
the  earl  appeared,  easily  cleared  himself  of  all 
offences  laid  to  his  charge,  and  obtained  the  out- 
lawry and  banishment  from  England  of  all  the 
Frenchmen  whose  pernicious  councils  had  put  dis- 


232 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


sension  between  the  king  and  his  people.  Other 
examples  might  be  given  of  outlawry,  and  even 
heavier  sentences,  as  blinding,  if  not  death,  pro- 
nounced by  the  high  court  of  the  witan.  But  as 
these  are  all  the  result  of  internal  dissensions,  they 
resemble  rather  the  violence  of  impeachments  by 
an  irresistible  majority,  than  the  calm,  impassive 
judgments  of  a  judicial  assembly 1. 

Such  were  the  powers  of  the  witena  gemot,  and 
it  must  be  confessed  that  they  were  extensive.  Of 
the  manner  of  the  deliberations  or  the  forms  of 
business  we  know  little,  -but  it  is  not  likely  that 
they  were  very  complicated.  We  may  conclude 
that  the  general  outline  of  the  proceedings  was 
something  of  the  following  order.  On  common 
occasions  the  king  summoned  his  witan  to  attend 
him  at  some  royal  vill,  at  Christmas,  or  at  Easter, 
for  festive  and  ceremonial  as  well  as  business  pur- 
poses. On  extraordinary  occasions  he  issued  sum- 
monses according  to  the  nature  of  the  exigency, 
appointing  the  time  and  place  of  meeting.  When 
assembled,  the  witan  commenced  their  session  by 
attending  divine  service 2,  and  formally  professing 
their  adherence  to  the  catholic  faith  3.  The  king 
then  brought  his  propositions  before  them,  in  the 
Frankish  manner4,  and  after  due  deliberation  they 
were  accepted,  modified,  or  rejected.  The  reeves, 
and  perhaps  on  occasion  officers  specially  desig- 

1  At  a  gemot  in  1055,  earl  ./Elfgar  was  outlawed.     At  a  gernot  in 
1066  at  Oxford,  earl  Tostig  was  outlawed,  etc. 

2  See  vol.  i.  p.  145  note.  3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1019. 
4  I  conclude  this  from  the  Prologue  to  ^Elfred's  Laws. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  233 

nated  for  that  service  x,  carried  the  chapters  down 
into  the  several  counties,  and  there  took  a  wed  or 
pledge  from  the  freemen  that  they  would  abide  by 
what  had  been  enacted.  This  last  fact,  important 
to  us  in  more  respects  than  one,  is  substantiated 
by  the  following  evidence.  Toward  the  close  of 
the  Judicia  Civitatis  Londoniae  (cap.  10),  passed  in 
the  reign  of  JE^elstan,  and  subsidiary  to  the  acts 
of  various  gemots  held  by  him,  we  find : — "  All 
the  witan  gave  their  pledges  together  to  the  arch- 
bishop at  Thundersfield,  when  ^Elfheah  Stybb  and 
Brihtnoft,  Odda's  son,  came  to  meet  the  gemot 
by  the  king's  command,  that  each  reeve  should 
take  the  pledge  in  his  own  shire,  that  they  would 
all  hold  the  fri8,  as  king  ^E$elstan  and  the  witan 
had  counselled  it,  first  at  Greatanlea,  and  again 
at  Exeter,  and  afterwards  at  Feversham,  and  the 
fourth  time  at  Thundersfield,"  etc. 

We  have  also  a  very  remarkable  document  ad- 
dressed to  the  same  king,  apparently  upon  receipt 
of  the  acts  of  the  council  at  Feversham,  by  the 
men  of  Kent,  denoting  their  acceptance  of  the 
same.  They  commence  by  saying: — "Dearest! 
Thy  bishops  of  Kent,  and  all  the  thanes  of  Kent- 
shire,  earls  and  churls  2,  return  thanks  to  thee  their 

1  The  Franks  and  the  church  were  familiar  with  such  officers,  who 
under  the  name  of  Missi  were  dispatched  into  the  provinces  for  spe- 
cial purposes.     Perhaps  the  ^Elfheah  and  Brihtnoft  mentioned  in  the 
Judicia  Civitatis  were  the  Missi  who  were  to  be  employed  on  this 
commission. 

2  Mr.  Hallam,  in  his  Supplemental  Notes,  p.  229,  remarks  upon  this 
important  document:  "  It  is  moreover  an  objection  to  considering  this 
a  formal  enactment  by  the  witan  of  the  shire,  that  it  runs  in  the  names 
of  'thaini,  coniites  et  villani.'     Can  it  be  maintained  that  the  ceorls 
ever  formed  an  integrant  element  of  the  legislature  in  the  kingdom  of 


234 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


dearest  lord,  for  what  thou  hast  been  pleased  to 
ordain  respecting  our  peace,  and  to  enquire  and 

Kent  ?  It  may  be  alleged  that  their  name  was  inserted,  though  they 
had  not  been  formally  consenting  parties,  as  we  find  in  some  parlia- 
mentary grants  of  money  much  later.  But  this  would  be  an  arbitrary 
conjecture,  and  the  terms  Conines  thaini,'  etc.  are  very  large." 

If  the  ceorls  ever  did  form  an  integral  part  of  the  legislature  in  the 
kingdom  of  Kent,  the  whole  question  is  settled.  But  I  do  not  contem- 
plate the  thanes  in  Kent  acting  here  as  a  legislative  body  :  that  is,  I  do 
not  believe  ^E'Selstan's  witan  in  Wessex  to  have  passed  a  law,  and  then 
his  witan  in  Kent  to  have  accepted  or  confirmed  it.  I  believe  his  witan 
from  all  England  to  have  made  certain  enactments,  which  the  proper 
officers  brought  down  to  the  various  shires,  and  in  the  shiremoots  there 
took  pledge  of  the  shire-thanes  that  they  accepted  and  would  abide  by 
the  premises;  just  as  in  the  case  quoted  on  the  preceding  page.  And 
this  is  the  more  striking  because  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  witena  gemot  whose  acts  the  shire-thanes  of  Kent  thus  accepted 
was  actually  holden  at  Feversham  in  that  county.  But  it  is  further  to 
be  observed  that  the  document  we  possess  is  a  late  Latin  translation 
of  the  original  sent  to  ./E'Selstan  :  I  will  venture  to  assert  that  in  that 
original  the  words  used  were,  "ealle  scir]?egnas  on  Cent,  ge  eorl  ge 
ceorl,"  or  perhaps  "  ge  twelf  hynde  ge  twihynde."  Again,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  ceorls  did  not  form  an  integrant  part  of  the 
shiremoot,  the  representative  of  the  ancient,  independent  legislature. 
A  full  century  later  than  the  date  of  the  council  of  Feversham,  they 
continued  to  do  so  in  the  same  kingdom  or,  at  that  period,  earldom : 
and  it  will  be  readily  admitted  that  during  those  hundred  years  the 
tendency  of  society  was  not  to  increase  the  power  or  improve  the  con- 
dition of  the  ceorl.  Between  1013  and  IOL'0  we  thus  find  Onut  ad- 
dressing the  authorities  in  Kent  (Cod.  Dipl.  No.  731)  :— "Onut  the 
king  sends  friendly  greeting  to  archbishop  Lyfing,  bishop  Godwine> 
abbot  ^Elfrnger,  ^Eftelwine  the  sheriff \  JEftelric,  and  all  my  thanes,  both 
twelve-hundred  and  two -hundred  men, — ealle  mine>egnas  twelf  hynde 
and  twihynde  : " — in  other  words,  both  eorl  and  ceorl,  nobilis  and  igno- 
bilis,  or  as  the  witan  of  yE<5elstan  have  it,  in  the  Norman  translation, 
comites  et  villani.  The  nature  of  Gnut's  writ,  which  is  addressed  to 
the  authorities  of  the  county,  the  archbishop  and  sheriff,  shows  clearly 
that  the  thanes  in  question  are  not  those  royal  officers  called  cyninges 
J^egnas — who  could  never  be  two-hundred  men — but  the  scir^egnas. 
These  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  Anglosaxon  documents.  The  scir- 
gemot  at  ./Egelno'Ses  stan  (about  1038)  was  attended  by  ^E'Selstan  the 
bishop,  Ranigthe  ealdorman,  Bryning  the  sheriff  and  all  the  thanes  in 
Herefordshire.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  755.  A  sale  by  Stigand  was  witnessed 
by  all  the  scir>egenas  in  Hampshire  j  that  is,  it  was  a  public  instrument 


CH.  VL]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  235 

consult  concerning  our  advantage,  since  great  was 
the  need  thereof  for  us  all,  both  rich  and  poor. 


completed  in  the  skiremoot.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  949.  Again  a  grant  of 
Stigand  was  witnessed  about  1053  by  various  authorities  in  Hampshire, 
including  Eadsige  the  sheriff  and  all  the  scirj?egnas.  Cod.  Dipl.  No. 
1337 :  and  similarly  a  third  of  the  same  prelate,  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  820. 
About  the  same  period  Wulfwold  abbot  of  Bath  makes  title  to  lands, 
which  he  addresses  to  bishop  Gisa,  Tofig  the  sheriff  and  all  the  thanes 
of  Somersetshire.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  821.  In  the  year  1049,  Durstan 
granted  lands  at  YViinbush  by  witness  of  a  great  number  of  persons, 
among  whom  are  Leofcild  the  sheriff  and  all  the  thanes  of  Essex. 
Cod.  Dipl.  No.  788  :  and  about  the  same  time  Godric  bought  lands  at 
Off  ham,  in  a  shiremoot  at  Wii,  before  all  the  shire.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  789. 
Lastly,  Leofwine  bought  land,  by  witness  of  Ulfcytel  the  sheriff  and  all 
the  thanes  in  Herefordshire.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  802.  The  relation  of  these 
thanes  to  the  godan  men  or  dohtigan  men  (good  men,  doughty  men, 
boni  et  legales  homines,  Scabiui,  Rachinburgii,  etc.)  will  be  examined 
in  a  subsequent  Book,  when  I  come  to  treat  of  the  courts  of  justice  :  but 
I  will  here  add  one  example,  which  is  illustrative  of  the  subject  of  this 
note.  The  marriage-covenants  of  Godwine,  arranged  before  Cuut,  by 
witness  of  archbishop  Lyfing  and  others,  including  ^Eftelwine  the  she- 
riff, and  various  Kentish  landowners,  are  stated  to  be  in  the  knowledge 
(gecnse  we)  of  every  doughty  man  in  Kent  and  Sussex  (where  the  lands 
lay)  both  thane  and  churl.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  732.  There  was  nothing 
whatever  to  prevent  a  man  from  being  a  scirj>egn,  whether  eorlcund  or 
ceorlcund,  as  long  as  he  had  land  in  the  scir  itself :  without  land,  even 
a  cyninges  J>egn  could  certainly  not  be  a  scir>egn.  It  is  true  that  a 
man  might  be  of  sfScund  rank,  that  is  noble,  without  owning  land  (see 
Leg.  Ini,  §  51),  and  there  were  king's  thanes  who  had  no  land  (vEftelst 
v.  §  11) ;  but  such  a  one  could  assuredly  not  represent  himself  in  the  scir- 
gemot.  There  is  a  common  error  which  runs  through  much  of  what 
has  been  admitted  on  this  subject :  the  ceorlis  universally  represented 
in  a  low  condition.  This  is  not  however  necessarily  the  case :  some 
ceorls,  though  well  to  do  in  the  world,  may  have  preferred  their  inde- 
pendence to  the  conventional  dignity  of  thaneship.  We  may  admit,  as 
a  general  rule,  that  the  thanes  were  a  wealthier  class  than  the  ceorls ; 
indeed,  without  becoming  a  thane,  a  ceoii  had  little  chance  of  getting 
a  grant  of  folcland  or  bocland,  but  some  of  them  may  have,  through 
various  circumstances,  inherited  or  purchased  considerable  estates  :  as 
late  as  the  year  984,  I  find  an  estate  of  eight  hides  (that  is  204  acres 
according  to  my  reckoning)  in  the  possession  of  a  rusticus,  obviously  a 
ceoii  : — "  Illud  videlicet  rus  quod  ^Efteric  quidam  rusticus  prius  ha- 
buisse  agnoscitur."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1282. 


233 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


And  this  we  have  taken  in  hand,  with  all  the  dili- 
gence we  could,  by  the  aid  of  those  witan  [sapi- 
entes]  whom  thou  didst  send  unto  us,"  etc l. 

It  is  plain  from  the  preceding  passage  that  the 
witan  gave  their  wed  to  observe,  and  cause  to 
be  observed,  the  laws  they  had  enacted2.  Eadgar 
says,  "  I  command  my  gerefan,  upon  my  friend- 
ship, and  by  all  they  possess,  to  punish  every  one 
that  will  not  perform  this,  and  who  by  any  neglect 
shall  break  the  wed  of  my  witan."  This  seems  to 
imply  that  the  people  were  generally  bound  by  the 
acts  of  the  witan,  and  their  pledge  or  wed ;  and  if 
it  were  so,  it  would  naturally  involve  the  theory  of 
representation.  But  this  deduction  will  not  stand. 

The  whole  principle  of  Teutonic  legislation  is, 
and  always  was,  that  the  law  is  made  by  the  con- 
stitution of  the  king,  and  the  consent  of  the  peo- 
ple 3 :  and  we  have  seen  one  way  in  which  that 
consent  was  obtained,  viz.  by  sending  the  capitula 
down  into  the  provinces  or  shires,  and  taking  the 
wed  in  the  shiremoot.  The  passage  in  the  text 
seems  to  presuppose  an  interchange  of  oaths  and 

1  Thorpe,  i.  216.     ^Eftelstan  complains  on  another  occasion  that  the 
oaths  and  weds  which  had  been  given  to  the  king  and  his  witan  were 
all  broken :  u  quia  iuramenta  et  vadia,  quae  regi  et  sapientibus  data 
fuerunt,  semper  infracta  sunt  et  minus  observata  quam  Deo  et  saeculo 
conveniant."  ^ESelst.  iii.  §  3.  Thorpe,  i.  218.     Again  :  ^Eftelstan  the 
king  makes  known,  that  I  have  learned  that  our  peace  is  worse  kept 
than  is  pleasing  to  me,  or  as  was  ordained  at  Greatley ;  and  my  witan 
say  that  I  have  borne  with  it  too  long ....  Because  the  oaths,  and  weds, 
and  borhs  are  all  disregarded  and  broken  which  on  that  occasion  were 
given,  etc.    ^EiSelst.  iv.  §  1.   Thorpe,  i.  220. 

2  Cone.  Wihtbordes  stan.  Eadg.  Supp.  §  1.     Thorpe,  i.  272. 

3  "  Lex  consensu  populi  fit,  et  constitution  regis."    Edict.  Pistense. 
an.  864.     Pertz,  iii.  490,  §  6. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  237 

pledges  between  the  king  and  witan  themselves; 
and  even  those  who  had  no  standing  of  their  own 
in  the  folcmot  or  scirgemot,  were  required  to  be 
bound  by  personal  consent.  The  lord  was  just  as 
much  commanded  to  take  oath  and  pledge  of  his 
several  dependents  (the  hired  men,  familiares,  or 
people  of  his  household),  as  the  sheriff  was  required 
to  take  them  of  the  free  shire-thanes l.  Of  course 
this  excludes  all  idea  of  representation  in  our  mo- 
dern sense  of  the  word,  because  with  us,  promul- 
gation by  the  Parliament  is  sufficient,  and  the  con- 
stituent is  bound  without  any  further  ceremony  by 
the  act  of  him  whom  he  has  sent  in  his  own  place. 
But  the  Teutons  certainly  did  not  elect  their  repre- 
sentatives as  we  elect  ours,  with  full  power  to  judge, 
decide  for,  and  bind  us,  and  therefore  it  was  right 
and  necessary  that  the  laws  when  made  should  be 
duly  ratified  and  accepted  by  all  the  people. 

Although  the  dignified  clergy,  the  ealdormen 
and  gerefan,  and  the  J>egnas  both  in  counties  and 
boroughs,  appear  to  have  constituted  the  witena 
gemot  properly  so  called,  there  is  still  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  people  themselves,  or  some  of 
them,  were  very  often  present.  In  fact  a  system 
gradually  framed  as  I  suppose  that  of  our  fore- 
fathers to  have  been,  and  indebted  very  greatly  to 
accident  for  its  form,  must  have  possessed  a  very 
considerable  elasticity.  The  people  who  were  in 
the  neighbourhood,  who  happened  to  be  collected 
in  arms  during  a  sitting  of  the  witan,  or  who 
thought  it  worth  while  to  attend  their  meeting, 

1  ^E«elst.  v.  §  11.     Thorpe,  i.  240. 


238 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


were  very  probably  allowed  to  do  so,  and  to  exercise 
at  least  a  right  of  conclamation  x, — a  right  which 
must  daily  become  rarer,  as  the  freemen  gradually 
disappeared,  and  the  number  of  landowners,  de- 
pendent upon  and  represented  by  lords,  as  rapidly 
increased.  In  conclusion  a  few  passages  may  be 
cited,  which  seem  to  render  it  probable  that  the 
people,  when  on  the  spot,  did  take  some  part  in 
the  business,  as  I  have  already  mentioned  with 
respect  to  the  Frankish  levies  in  the  Campus  Ma 
dius  of  Charlemagne.  But  it  must  also  be  borne  in 
mind  that  such  a  case  ought  to  be  looked  upon  as 
accidental,  rather  than  necessary,  and  that  a  meet- 
ing of  the  witan  did  not  require  the  formality  of 
an  acceptance  by  the  people  on  the  spot,  to  render 
its  acts  obligatory.  It  was  enough  that  the  thanes 
of  the  gemot  should  pass,  and  the  thanes  of  the  scir 
accept  the  law.  Indeed  it  could  not  be  otherwise ; 
for  as  the  heads  of  all  the  more  important  social 
aggregations  of  the  free,  and  the  lords  whose  men 
were  represented  by  them  even  in  courts  of  justice, 
were  the  members  of  the  gemot,  their  decisions 
must  have  been,  strictly  considered,  the  real  deci- 
sions of  the  populus,  or  franchise-bearing  people. 
Beda,  relating  the  discussion  which  took  place 

1  There  is  evidence  of  their  doing  this  on  a  somewhat  less  solemn 
occasion,  though  perhaps  it  was  a  shiremoot.  ./Eftelstan,  a  duke, 
booked  land  to  Abingdon,  by  witness  of  bishop  Cynsige,  archbishop 
Wulfhelm,  Hroftweard,  and  other  prelates.  The  boundaries  were 
solemnly  led,  and  then  the  assembled  bishops  and  abbots  excommuni- 
cated any  one  who  should  dispossess  the  monastery  :  and  all  the  peo- 
ple that  stood  round  about  cried  "  So  be  it !  So  be  it !  "  "  And  cwseft 
ealle  ftset  folc  fle  8ger  embstod,  Sy  hit  swa.  Amen.  Amen."  "  Et  dixit 
onmis  populus  qui  ibi  aderat,  Fiat,  Fiat.  Amen."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1129. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  239 

respecting  the  celebration  of  Easter,  and  which  was 
held  in  the  presence  of  Oswiu  and  AlhfrrS  of  North- 
umberland, and  Wilfrid's  successful  defence  of  the 
Eoman  custom,  adds :  "  When  the  king  had  said 
these  words,  all  who  sat  or  stood  around  assented : 
and  abandoning  the  less  perfect  institution,  they 
hastened  to  adopt  what  they  recognized  as  a  better 
one  V  Again  the  deposition  of  Sigeberht  is  stated 
to  have  taken  place  in  an  assembly  of  the  proceres 
and  populus,  the  princes  and  people  of  the  whole 
realm2.  A  doubtful  charter  of  Ini,  A.D.  725,  is 
said  to  be  consented  to  "  cum  praesentia  popula- 
tionis  3,"  by  which  words  are  meant  either  the  witan 
or  the  people  of  Wessex.  In  804  ^EBelric's  title- 
deeds  were  confirmed  before  a  gemot  at  Clofesho : 
the  charter  recites  that  archbishop  ^E'Selheard  gave 
judgment,  with  the  witness  of  king  Coenwulf  and 
his  optimates,  before  all  the  synod  or  meeting : 
whence  it  is  clear  that  others  were  present  -besides 
the  optimates  or  witan  strictly  so  called  4.  On  the 
28th  of  May  924  a  gemot  was  held  at  Winches- 
ter, "  tota  populi  generalitate,"  as  the  charter  wit- 
nesses5, and  in  931  another  at  Wor'Sig,  "tota  ple- 
bis  generalitate  6."  ^E^elstan  in  938  declares  that 
certain  lands  had  been  forfeited  for  theft,  by  the 
just  judgment  of  all  the  people,  and  the  Seniores 
and  Primates;  and  that  the  original  charters  were 
cancelled  by  a  decree  of  all  the  people  7. 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  c.  25.  4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  186. 

2  Hen.  Hunt.  lib.  iv.  5  Ibid.  No.  364. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  73.  6  Ibid.  No.  1103. 

7  "  lusto  valde  iudicio  totius  populi,  et  seniorum  et  primatum,"  etc. 
"  Ideoque  decretum  est  ab  omni  populo,"  etc.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  374. 


240  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK.  n. 

But  whether  expressions  of  this  kind  were  in- 
tended to  denote  the  actual  presence  of  the  people 
on  the  spot ;  or  whether  populus  is  used  in  a  strict 
and  technical  sense — that  sense  which  is  confined 
to  those  who  enjoy  the  full  franchise,  those  who 
form  part  of  the  TroAireujua, — or  finally  whether  the 
assembly  of  the  witan  making  laws  is  considered  to 
represent  in  our  modern  form  an  assembly  of  the 
whole  people, — it  is  clear  that  the  power  of  self- 
government  is  recognized  in  the  latter. 

In  order  to  facilitate  reference  to  the  important 
facts  with  which  this  chapter  deals,  I  have  added  to 
it  a  list  of  witena  gemots,  with  here  and  there  a 
few  remarks  upon  the  business  transacted  in  them. 
They  do  not  nearly  exhaust  the  number  that  must 
have  been  held,  but  still  they  form  a  respectable 
body  of  evidence ;  and  'we  may  perhaps  be  justly 
surprised,  not  that  so  little,  but  that  so  much  has 
survived.  We  need  not  lament  that  the  present 
forms  and  powers  of  our  parliament  are  not  those 
which  existed  a  thousand  years  ago,  as  long  as  we 
recognize  in  them  only  the  matured  development 
of  an  old  and  useful  principle.  We  shall  not  appeal 
to  Anglosaxon  custom  to  justify  the  various  points 
of  the  Charter ;  but  we  may  still  be  proud  to  find 
in  their  practice  the  germ  of  institutions  which 
we  have,  throughout  all  vicissitudes,  been  taught 
to  cherish  as  the  most  valuable  safeguards  of  our 
peace  as  well  as  our  freedom.  Truly  there  are  few 
nations  whose  parliamentary  history  has  so  ample 
a  foundation  as  our  own. 


241 


THE  WITENA  GEMOTS  OF  THE   SAXONS. 


^EDELBERT  OP  KENT,  A.D.  596-605.— The  pro- 
mulgation of  the  laws  of  ^ESelberht  took  place  during 
the  life  of  Augustine.  This  fixes  their  date  between  596, 
when  he  arrived  in  England,  and  605,  when  he  died.  Beda 
tells  us  that  these  laws  were  enacted  by  the  advice  of  the 
witan,  "cum  consilio  sapientium1."  We  may  therefore 
conclude  that  a  gemot  was  held  in  Kent  for  the  purpose  : 
and  from  the  contents  of  the  laws  themselves,  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  the  Roman  clergy  filled  an  important  place 
therein.  They  had  probably  stepped  into  the  position  of 
the  Pagan  priesthood,  and  improved  it. 

EA'DUUINI  OF  NORTHUMBERLAND,  A.D.  627. 
—The  first  witena  gemot  of  which  we  have  any  detailed 
record  was  holden  in  627,  near  the  city  of  York,  wherein 
no  less  important  business  was  discussed  than  the  desertion 
of  Paganism  and  reception  of  Christianity,  by  the  people 
of  Northumberland.     From  Beda2  we  learn  that  this  step 
was  not  ventured  without  the  gravest  deliberation;  and 
that  Eaduuini  had  taken  good  care  to  sound  the  most  in- 
fluential of  his  nobles,  before  he  called  a  public  meeting  to 
decide  upon  the  question.     Indeed  the  parts  in  this  great 
drama  appear  to  have  been  arranged  beforehand.     The  in- 
teresting account  given  by  Beda3  is  to  this  effect.    Eaduuini 
had  determined  to  embrace  Christianity,  but  still  he  was 
not  contented,  or  would  not  venture,  to  do  this  alone. 
He  wished  to  extend  the  blessings  of  the  new  faith  to  his 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  5.  2  Ibid<  ii§  9t  3  Ibid<  ij.  13. 

VOL.  II.  R 


242  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

subjects;  perhaps  also  to  avoid  the  difficulties  which  might 
result  from  his  conversion,  while  the  rest  of  the  people  re- 
mained pagans.  To  the  exhortations  of  the  missionary 
Paulinus  he  rejoined,  "suscipere  quidem  se  fidem  quam 
docebat,  et  velle,  et  debere  ....  verum  adhuc  cum  amicis, 
principibus  et  consiliariis  suis,  sese  de  hoc  collaturum  esse 
dicebat;  ut  si  illi  eadem  cum  illo  sentire  vellent,  omnes 
pariter  in  fonte  vitae  Christo  consecrareritur.  Et  annu- 
ente  Paulino,  fecit  ut  dixerat.  Habito  enim  cum  sapi- 
entibus  consilio,  sciscitabatur  singillatim  ab  omnibus,  qua- 
lis  sibi  doctrina  haec  eatenus  inaudita,  et  novus  divinitatis 
qui  praedicabatur  cultus  videretur."  The  chief  of  his 
priests,  Coefi,  immediately  commenced  an  attack  upon  the 
ancient  religion,  and  was  followed  by  other  nobles,  one  of 
whose  speeches,  the  earliest  specimen  of  English  parlia- 
mentary eloquence,  is  yet  on  record1.  <f  His  similia  et  cae- 
teri  maiores  natu  ac  regis  consiliarii,  divinitus  admoniti, 
prosequebantur."  Paulinus  was  now  invited  to  expound 
at  greater  length  the  doctrines  which  he  recommended. 
At  the  close  of  his  address  Coefi  declared  himself  a  con- 
vert, and  proposed  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  fanes. 
Eaduuini  now  professed  himself  a  Christian,  and  in  turn 
demanded  whose  duty  it  was  to  profane  the  pagan  altars. 
This  Coefi  at  once  assumed  to  himself,  and  taking  the 
most  conspicuous  means  to  demonstrate  to  the  people 
(who,  the  historian  says,  thought  him  mad,)  his  apostasy 
from  the  old  creed,  hurled  his  lance  into  the  sacred  enclo- 
sure, and  commanded  its  immediate  destruction.  The 
scene  of  this  daring  act  was  Godmundingaham,  not  far 
from  the  British  Delgovitia,  and  now  Godmundham  or 
Goodmanham.  The  king  then  as  speedily  as  possible, 
"  citato  opere/'  built  a  wooden  basilica  in  the  city  of  York, 
in  which  he  was  solemnly  baptized  on  the  twelfth  of  April, 
being  Easter-day.  And  thus,  says  the  historian,  Eaduuini 

1  Beda,  Hist,  Eccl.  ii.  13. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  243 

became  a  Christian,  ' ( cum  cunctis  gentis  suae  nobilibus  ac 
plebe  perplurima l." 

WULFHARI  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  657.— In  this  year 
a  witena  gemot  was  probably  held  for  the  endowment  and 
consecration  of  Saxwulf  s  monastery  at  Peterborough. 
This  the  king  is  stated  to  have  done  by  the  advice,  and 
with  the  consent,  of  all  the  witan  of  his  kingdom,  both 
clerical  and  lay2.  The  charter  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
is  a  late  forgery,  but  throws  no  well-grounded  doubt  upon 
the  fact. 

O'SUUIU  OF  NORTHUMBERLAND,  A.D.  662.— 
A  meeting  was  held  this  year  at  Streoneshalh,  to  bring 
about  uniformity  of  Paschal  observance,  tonsure,  and  other 
ecclesiastical  details.  It  was  presided  over  by  Osuuiu  and 
AlhfriS3. 

ECGBERHT  OF  KENT,  A.D.  667.— A  gemot  was 
probably  held  in  Kent,  and  Wighard  was  elected  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury4. 

ARCHBISHOP  THEODORE,  A.D.  673.— In  this 
year  was  held  the  synod  or  gemot  of  Hertford5.  Beda  has 
preserved  its  ecclesiastical  acts.  The  seventh  provision  is 
an  important  one,  viz.  that  similar  meetings  should  beheld 
twice  in  every  year.  But  this  appearing  inconvenient,  it 
was  agreed  that  there  should  be  one,  on  the  first  of  August 
yearly  at  Clofeshoas. 

ARCHBISHOP  THEODORE,  A.D.  680.— In  this 
year  was  held  the  gemot  at  Hseftfeld,  in  the  presence  of 
the  kings  of  Northumberland,  Mercia,  Eastanglia  and 
Kent.  Its  ecclesiastical  acts  are  preserved6:  they  are  par- 
ticularly directed  against  the  heresy  of  Eutyches.  But 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  14. 

2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  657.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  984. 

3  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  25.  4  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  29. 

5  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  iv.  5.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  673. 

6  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  iv.  17.    Ohron.  Sax.  an.  675,  680.     Cod.  Dipl. 
No.  991. 


244 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


there  was  a  witena  gemot  at  the  same  time,  probably  to 
sanction  the  decision  of  the  clergy. 

ECGFRID  OF  NORTHUMBERLAND,  A.D.  684.— 
There  was  a  gemot  at  Twyford,  on  the  river  Alne,  and 
Cuftberht  was  elected  bishop  of  Hexham1. 

^EDELRED  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  685.—  A  gemot  was 
held  on  the  thirtieth  of  July  at  Berhford,  now  Burford  in 
Gloucestershire.  Berhtwald  the  subregulus  and  ^Eftelred 
were  probably  both  present2. 

WIHTRAED  OF  KENT,  A.D.  696.—  Immediately 
upon  Wihtraed's  accession3  he  held  a  great  council,  "  my  eel 
consilium,"  or  gemot  of  his  witan,  to  settle  the  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  difficulties  which  had  arisen  during  the  civil 
wars  of  his  predecessors  and  his  own  struggle  for  the 
throne.  The  gemot  was  held  at  Beorganstede,  now  Ber- 
stead  in  Kent.  Its  acts  are  extant  in  the  laws  which  yet 
go  under  Wihtraed's  name4.  Another  gemot  of  Wiht- 
raed's, said  by  the  Chronicle5  to  have  been  held  in  694  at 
Baccanceld,  now  Bapchild,  in  Kent,  confirmed  the  liber- 
ties of  the  Kentish  clergy. 

INI  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  704.—  A  witena  gemot  was 
held  by  Ini  at  Eburleah,  in  which,  with  the  consent  of 
his  witan,  he  gave  certain  privileges  to  the  monasteries  of 
Wessex6.  Its  acts  were  signed  by  the  principes,  senatores, 
indices  and  patricii  present.  We  learn  also  from  a  charter 
of  Aldhelm7,  that  before  705,  a  council  had  been  held 
upon  the  banks  of  the  river  Woder,  which  is  possibly  the 
"  synodus  suae  gentis  "  mentioned  by  Beda8. 


1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  iv.  28. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  26. 


Cod.  Dipl.  No.  25. 


3  The  Saxon  Chronicle,  which  often  errs  in  its  dates  by  two  years, 
puts  this  in  694.     But  the  year  696  is  ascertained  by  the  indiction, 
which  was  the  ninth. 

4  Thorpe,  i.  36.  5  Chron.  Sax.  an.  694.  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  996. 
6  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  50,  51.  7  Ibid.  No.  54. 

8  Hist.  Eccl.  v.  18. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  245 

O'SRAED  OF  NORTHUMBERLAND,  A.D.  705.— 
Upon  the  death  of  AldfrrS  in  705,  a  gemot  was  held  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Nidd,  and  after  long  debates  bishop  Wil- 
frid was  restored  to  his  see  and  possessions1. 

A.D.  710. — In  this  year  a  gemot  appears  to  have  been 
held,  in  which  Sussex  was  erected  into  a  separate  see,  and 
severed  from  the  diocese  of  Winchester2. 

ARCHBISHOP  NO'DHELM,  A.D.  734-737.— Dif- 
ficulties having  arisen  about  the  possession  and  patronage 
of  certain  monasteries,  the  case  was  referred  to  and  decided 
by  a  synod,  "  sancta  sacerdotalis  concilii  sy nodus/'  which 
must  have  met  between  734-737.  It  seems  to  have  been 
purely  ecclesiastical,  and  its  acts  are  signed  only  by  the 
bishops  who  were  present3.  Yet  as  its  judgment  involved 
a  question  of  property,  and  title  to  lands,  I  presume  that 
the  case  was  laid  before  a  mixed  gemot,  sitting  very  pos- 
sibly in  different  chambers.  If  so,  the  record  we  have  is 
that  of  the  clerical  house  only. 

^EDELBALD  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  742.— In  this  year 
a  great  council,  "magnum  concilium,"  was  held  at  Clofes- 
hoas,  under  ^E^Selbald,  and  Cuftbeorht,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury. It  took  into  consideration  the  state  of  the  church; 
but  it  was  clearly  a  witena  gemot,  and  its  acts  are  signed 
by  clerks  and  laymen  indifferently4. 

^EDELBALD  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  749.— A  witena 
gemot  was  held  at  Godmundes  leah  in  this  year.  Eccle- 
siastical liberties  were  again  provided  for5. 

A.D.  755. — A  witena  gemot  in  Wessex  must  have  been 
held  in  this  year,  for  the  deposing  of  Sigebeorht  and  elec- 
tion of  Cynewulf  to  the  throne6. 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  v.  19.  3  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  v.  18. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  82.  4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  87. 

5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  99. 

6  Chron.  Sax.  an.  755.  Flor.  Wig.  755.  ^ESelw.  ii.  17.  Hen.  Hunt, 
lib.  iv.     See  the  remarks  in  the  text,  p.  219  seq.  of  this  volume. 


246 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  780.  — A  gemot  called 
' '  synodale  conciliabulum  "  was  held  this  year  at  Brentford. 
It  transacted  various  business  of  a  secular  character1. 

A.D.  782. — A  gemot  was  held  at  Acleah,  now  Ockley  in 
Surrey 2. 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  785.— In  this  year  was 
held  the  stormy  synod  of  CealchyS,  in  which  the  province 
of  Canterbury  was  partitioned,  and  the  archbishopric  of 
Lichfield  founded3.  It  was  clearly  a  witena  gemot,  as 
Offa  caused  his  son  EcgferlrS  to  be  elected  king  by  the 
meeting. 

A.D.  787. — In  this  year  there  was  another  gemot,  "syno- 
dalis  conventus,"  at  Ockley4. 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  788.— A  gemot  was  held 
at  Cealchjro5.  And  in  the  same  year,  according  to  the 
Chronicle  and  Florence6,  but  one  year  sooner  according 
to  Simeon  Dunelmensis7,  was  held  the  synod  of  Pincan- 
healh  in  Northumberland. 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  789.— In  this  year  another 
gemot  was  held  at  Cealchyft,  where  a  good  deal  of  secular 
business  was  transacted8.  In  the  second  document  cited 
in  the  note  it  is  called  "  pontificale  conciliabulum/'  and 
this  charter  is  signed  only  by  the  king  and  the  bishops. 

Another  gemot  is  also  said  to  have  been  held  at  Ock- 
ley9; but  the  known  error  of  two  years  in  the  dates  of  the 
Chronicle  may  make  us  suspect  that  this  really  met  in 
791. 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  790.— A  great  gemot  was 
held  this  year  in  London,  on  Whitsunday30. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  139, 140, 143.  2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  782. 

3  Chron.  Sax.  an.  785.    Flor.  Wig.  785. 

*  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  151.  5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  153. 

e  Chron.  Sax.  an.  788.    Flor.  Wig.  788. 

T  Sim.  Dunelm.  787.  8  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  155,  156,  157. 

9  Chron.  Sax.  an.  789.  l°  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  159. 


en.  vi.J  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  247 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  793.—  A  gemot  at  Cealc- 
hy3,  called  '  '  conventus  synodalis  "  1.  Also  about  this  time 
a  gemot  at  Verulam,  "  concilium  episcoporum  et  optima- 
turn2.^ 

OFFA  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  794.—  A  gemot  at  Clofes- 
hoas,  called  "  synodus,"  and  "  concilium  synodale  "  3. 

ECGFERHB  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  796.—  A  gemot  at 
Cealchyft,  called  probably  in  consequence  of  OfiYs  death, 
and  for  reformation  of  affairs  in  the  church4. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  798.—  A  gemot,  called 
"sy  nodus,"  the  place  of  which  is  not  known.  The  business 
recorded  is  merely  secular3.  Before  the  signatures  occur 
the  words  :  '  '  Haec  sunt  nomina  episcoporum  ac  principum 
qui  hoc  meciim  in  synodo  consentientes  subscripserunt." 
The  signatures  comprise  the  names  of  several  laics,  —  a 
plain  proof  that  the  word  synodus  is  not  confined  to  eccle- 
siastical meetings.  Another,  or  perhaps  the  same,  at 
Baccanceld,  Bapchild,  in  Kent,  where  the  clergy  made  a 
declaration  of  liberties6.  Another  and  very  solemn  one  at 
Clofeshoas7. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  799.—  A  gemot  of 
the  witan  was  held  this  year  at  Colleshyl,  probably  Coles- 
hill  in  Berkshire8. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  799-802.—  Between 
these  two  years  .there  was  a  gemot,  called  ((  synodale  con- 
ciliabulum,"  at  Cealchyft,  in  which  secular  business  was 
transacted.  The  signature  of  the  king  to  one  of  its  acts  is 
double  ;  first  at  the  head  of  the  clergy,  and  then  again  at 
the  head  of  the  lay  nobles9. 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  162.  *  Rog<  Wend.  ^  257. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  164,  167. 

4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  796.    Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  172,  173. 

5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  175.  *  Ibid§  No>  1018> 
7  Ibid.  No.  1019.                                           a  ibid>  No§  176> 

9  Ibid.  No.  116.    Another  act,  Ibid.  No.  1023. 


248  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  803.— In  the  year 
803  was  held  a  memorable  synod  at  Clofeshoas,  which 
lasted  from  the  ninth  till  the  twelfth  of  October.  Affairs  of 
great  importance  were  discussed.  The  principal  object  of 
the  meeting  was  to  restore  the  ancient  splendour  of  Canter- 
bury by  the  abrogation  of  the  archiepis copal  see  at  Lich- 
field,  and  further  to  secure  the  liberties  of  the  church.  We 
have  two  solemn  acts,  dated  on  the  twelfth  of  October1 :  the 
signatures  are  exclusively  those  of  clerics.  The  second  of 
those  documents  deserves  the  highest  attention,  as  the  sig- 
natures maybe  taken  to  represent  the  members  of  a  full  con- 
vocation of  the  clergy,  called  for  a  most  important  purpose. 
But  it  is  nevertheless  certain  that  a  general  meeting  of  the 
witan  took  place  at  the  same  time,  for  on  the  sixth  of  Oc- 
tober they  heard  and  determined  causes  relating  to  landed 
property,  and  various  laymen  signed  the  acts2.  Moreover 
an  archbishopric  established  by  a  witena  gemot  could  only 
be  abrogated  by  another, — not  by  a  mere  assemblage  of 
clergymen,  however  dignified  and  influential  they  might 
be. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  804.— There  was  a 
"synodus  "  in  this  year  at  Clofeshoas,  the  nature  of  the  busi- 
ness transacted  in  which  and  before  whom  transacted, 
appears  from  these  words  following3 : — "  Anno  ab  incarna- 
tione  Christi  804,  indictione  duodecima,  ego  ^Eftelric  filius 
.^EiSelmundi  cum  conscientia  synodali  invitatus  ad  syno- 
dum,  et  in  iudicio  stare,  in  loco  qui  dicitur  Clofeshoh,  cum 
libris  et  ruris,  id  est,  set  Westmynster,  quod  prius  propin- 
qui  mei  tradiderunt  mihi  et  donaverunt,  ibi  ^ESelheardus 
archiepiscopus  mihi  regebat  atque  iudicaverat,  cum  testi- 
monio  Coenwulfi  regis,  et  optimatibus  eius,  coram  omni  sy- 
nodo,  quando  scriptures  meas  perscrutarent,  ut  liber  essem 
terram  meam  atque  libellos  dare  quocumque  volui."  He 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  185, 1024.  2  Ibid.  Nos.  183, 184. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  186. 


en.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  249 

had  been  regularly  summoned  to  appear  before  the  syno- 
dus,  as  a  court  of  justice. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  805.— A  witena 
gemot  was  held  at  Ockley,  a  favourite  locality1. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  810.— Another  ge- 
mot,  "sancta  synodus,"  sat  at  Ockley,  and  decided  a  lawsuit 
between  ^E$elhelm,  and  Beornftryft,  the  widow  of  O'swulf, 
duke  of  Kent2. 

CE'N'WULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  811.— A  great  ge- 
mot,  "concilium  pergrande/3  was  held  this  year  in  London3. 
In  the  same  year  a  great  gemot  was  collected  at  Wincel- 
cumbe,  Winchcomb  in  Gloucestershire,  for  the  dedica- 
tion of  Cenwulf 's  new  abbey  there4. 

CE'NWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  815.— In  this  year 
a  gemot  assembled  at  CealchyS5. 

BEORNWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  824.— At  a 
meeting  held  this  year  at  Clofeshoas,  there  attended  a 
considerable  number  of  laymen,  as  well  as  prelates :  the 
gemot  however  is  called  "  pontificale  et  synodale  concilia- 
bulumV  In  824  there  was  also  a  gemot  of  Wessex  at 
Ockley  in  Surrey.  Ecgberht  gave  Meon  to  Wulfward  his 
praefectus  or  gerefa.  The  act  is  signed  by  four  gereTan7. 

BEORNWULF  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  825.— A  gemot 
was  held  also  at  Clofeshoas  in  825  5  this  is  called  "  siono'S- 
lic  gemot "  *,  and  it  is  stated  that  there  were  assembled  the 
bishops,  ealdormen,  and  all  the  weotan  of  the  nation  :  one 
act  of  this  gemot9  declares  it  to  have  consisted  of  the  king, 
bishops,  abbots,  dukes,  "  omniumque  dignitatum  opti- 
mates,  aecclesiasticarum  vel  saecularium  personarum10.''-' 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  190.        2  Ibid.  No.  256.        3  Ibid.  Nos.  196,  220. 

4  Ibid.  No.  197.     Chron.  MS.  Wincelc.  an.  811. 

5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  208.  6  Ibid.  No.  218.  7  Ibid.  No.  1031. 
8  Ibid.  No.  219.                     9  Ibid.  No.  220  :  see  also  No.  1034. 

10  In  some  Saxon  original,  no  doubt,  "  and  eal  diigoft,  ge  cyriclices 
ge  woroldlices  hades.'1 


250  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

The  acts  of  this  council  are  signed  by  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  persons,  of  whom  ninety-five  are 
clerical,  embracing  all  ranks  from  bishops  to  deacons. 
But  one  reason  for  this  large  attendance  is,  that  as  some 
cases  of  disputed  title  were  to  be  decided  by  the  gemot, 
these  monks  and  clerks  attended  in  order  to  make  oath  to 
the  property  in  dispute. 

ECGBERHT  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  826.— In  825  Ecg- 
berht  had  taken  the  field  against  the  Welsh.  IJe  seems 
to  have  made  various  grants  while  in  hoste.  These  were 
afterwards  confirmed  and  reduced  to  writing  by  a  gemot 
held  in  826  at  Southampton1. 

ECGBEEHT  OF  WESSEX  and  ^EBELWULF  OF 
KENT,  A.D.  838. — In  this  year  there  was  a  council  at 
Kingston,  under  these  kings,  Ceolnoft  the  archbishop,  and 
the  prelates  of  his  province.  Secular  affairs  of  great  im- 
portance were  settled  on  this  occasion,  and  a  regular  treaty 
of  peace  and  alliance  agreed  between  the  Kentish  clergy 
and  the  kings2.  At  first  this  was  signed  only  by  Ceolnoft 
and  the  clergy  ;  but  for  further  confirmation  it  was  taken 
to  king  ^E"3elwulf  at  the  royal  vill  of  Wilton,  and  there 
executed  by  the  king,  his  dukes  and  thanes.  Another 
document  exists  in  which  the  clergy  of  Winchester  enter 
into  similar  engagements  with  the  kings3. 

^EDELWULF  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  839.— The  treaty 
mentioned  in  the  last  article  was  read  in  a  council  of  all 
the  southern  bishops,  held  at  Astra4. 

^EBELWULF  OF  WESSEX,  ^DELSTA'N  OF 
KENT,  A.D.  844.— A  gemot  at  Canterbury,  attended  by 
the  kings,  the  archbishop,  the  bishop  elect  of  Rochester, 
"  cum  principibus,  ducibus,  abbatibus,  et  cunctis  generalis 
dignitatis  optimatibusV 

^EDELWULF   OF  WTESSEX,   A.D.   851.— The  very 

i  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  1035, 1036,  1038.  2  Ibid.  No.  240. 

3  Ibid.  No.  1044.  4  Ibid.  No.  240.  5  Ibid.  No.  256. 


en.  vi.]  TPIE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  251 

questionable  authority  of  Ingulph  mentions  a  witena  gemot 
this  year  at  Cyningesbyrig1. 

BURHHRED  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  853.— This  year, 
the  Chronicle  says2,  a  formal  application  was  made  by 
the  Mercian  king  Burhhred  and  his  witan  for  military 
aid,  in  order  to  the  subjugation  of  the  Northern  Britons. 
This  seems  to  imply  a  regular  meeting  in  Mercia. 

^EDELWULF  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  855.— In  this  year 
there  was  a  gemot  at  Winchester3. 

BURHHRED  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  868.^In  this  year 
the  Mercian  witan  applied  to  those  of  Wessex  for  aid 
against  the  Danes.  We  may  conclude  that  gemots  were 
held  both  in  Mercia  and  Wessex4. 

A.D.  866-871.— We  learn  from  king  Alfred  himself  that 
there  was  a  witena  gemot  at  Swlnbeorh  in  some  year  be- 
tween these  limits,  wherein  the  successions  to  lands, 
among  the  members  of  the  royal  family,  were  settled,  and 
placed  under  the  guarantee  of  the  witan5. 

ALFRED  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  878.— In  this  year 
there  was  a  gemot,  very  probably  at  Wedmore6,  where 
the  Dane  Guftorm  made  his  submission  to  Alfred,  and 
where  the  articles  of  peace  between  the  Saxons  and  Danes 
were  settled7. 

ALFRED  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  880-885.— A  gemot 
sat  at  Langandene  between  these  two  years,  and  the  affairs 
of  jiElfred's  family  were  again  considered.  The  validity  of 
king  ^E^elwulPs  will  was  admitted,  and  ^Elfred's  settle- 
ment of  his  lands  guaranteed5. 

^DELRED,  DUKE  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  883.— In 
this  year  the  witan  of  Mercia  met  at  Risborough,  under 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  265.  2  Ohron.  Sax.  an.  853. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  275.  4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  868. 

5  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  314. 

«  Chron.  Sax.  an.  878.  Flor.  Wig.  878.  7  Thorpe,  i,  152  seq. 


252  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

jjEiSelred  their  duke1:  an  interesting  circumstance,  inas- 
much as  it  shows  that  the  union  with  Wessex  did  not  ab- 
rogate the  ancient  rights,  or  interfere  with  the  independent 
action  of  the  Mercian  witan. 

^EDELRED,  DUKE  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  888.— This 
gemot  was  held  at  Saltwic  in  Worcestershire,  to  consult 
upon  affairs  both  ecclesiastical  and  secular.  The  witan 
assembled  from  far  and  near2. 

vEDELRED,  DUKE  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  896.— An- 
other gemot  of  the  Mercians  was  held  this  year  at  Glou- 
cester, whose  interesting  acts  are  yet  preserved3. 

.EDELRED,  DUKE  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  878-899.— 
At  a  gemot  held  between  these  years,  and  very  likely  at 
Worcester,  JEftelred  and  ^Eftelflsed  commanded  a  burh  or 
fortification  to  be  built  for  the  people  of  that  city,  and  the 
cathedral  to  be  enlarged.  The  endowments  and  privileges 
which  are  granted  by  the  instrument  are  extensive  and 
instructive 4. 

EA'DWEARD  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  901.— The  death 
of  ^Elfred,  and  Eadweard's  election  probably  caused  an 
assembly  of  witan  at  Winchester  in  this  year5,  and  it  is 
likely  that  we  still  possess  one  of  its  acts6.  This  is  the 
more  probable  because  -ZEftelwald,  Eadweard's  cousin,  dis- 
puted the  succession,  and  not  only  seized  upon  the  royal 
vill  of  Wimborne,  which  he  is  said  to  have  done  without 
the  consent  of  the  king  and  his  witan,  but  broke  into  open 
rebellion,  and  after  being  acknowledged  king  in  Essex, 
joined  the  Danes  in  Northumberland,  and  perished  in  an 
unsuccessful  battle  against  his  countrymen. 

^EDELRED,  DUKE  OF  MERCIA,  A.D.  904.— In 
this  year  a  Mercian  gemot  was  held,  and  duke  /EiSelfrift 
obtained  permission  to  have  new  charters  written,  his  own 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1066.  4  Ibid.  No.  1075. 

a  Ibid.  Nos.  327, 1068.  5  Chron.  Sax.  an.  901. 

3  Ibid.  No.  1073.  6  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1087. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  253 

having  perished  by  fire1.  And  a  gernot  of  the  Westsaxon 
witan  was  held  at  the  king's  hunting- seat  of  Bicanleah2. 
About  the  same  period  a  gemot  of  Wessex  was  held  at 
Exeter  by  Eadweard3. 

EA'DWEARD  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  909.— A  gemot  of 
Wessex  was  held  in  909  :  its  acts  are  signed  by  fifty  of 
the  witan4. 

EA'DWEARD  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  910.— A  gemot 
was  held  in  Wessex  this  year5.  And  there  appears  to  have 
been  another  at  Aylesford  in  Kent,  in  which  the  witan 
gave  judgment  in  the  suit  between  Goda  and  queen 
Eadgyfu6. 

EA'DWEARD  OF  WESSEX,  A.D.  911.— In  this  year 
a  gemot  was  probably  held,  in  which  terms  of  peace  were 
offered  to  the  Danes  in  Northumberland7.  But  this  may 
possibly  be  only  the  last-named  gemot  in  910,  as  we  know 
that  Eadweard  was  in  Kent  in  911. 

.EDELSTA'N,  A.D.  925  or  926.— About  this  date  a 
gemot  was  held  by  ^Eftelstan  at  Ham  near  Lewes,  and  the 
suit  between  Goda  and  Eadgyfu  was  again  decided  by 
public  authority8. 

^EBELSTA'N,  A.D.  928.— A  solemn  gemot  was  held 
this  year  at  Exeter9. 

JEDELSTA'N,  A.D.  930.— In  this  year  the  gemot  met 
at  Nottingham.  It  was  attended  by  three  Welsh  princes, 
the  archbishops  and  sixteen  bishops,  thirteen  dukes,  twelve 
thanes,  twelve  untitled  persons,  et  et  plures  alii  milites  quo- 
rum nomina  in  eadem  carta  inseruntur."  There  are  fifty- 
eight  signatures 10. 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  338.  «  Ibid.  No.  499. 

2  Ibid.  Nos.  1082,  1084.  7  Chron.  Sax.  an.  911. 

3  Leg.  Eadw.  §  4.  Thorpe,  i.  162.  8  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  499. 

4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1091.  9  Ibid.  No.  1101. 

5  Ibid.  No.  1096.  ™  Ibid.  No.  352. 


254 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


^BELSTA'N,  A.D.  931.— In  this  year  several  gemots 
were  held.  First,  one  at  Luton  in  Bedfordshire,  signed 
by  106  persons1.  One  at  WorSig,  "  cum  tota  plebis  gene- 
ralitateV  One  at  Colchester3,  and  one  at  Wellow  in 
Wilts4. 

^DELSTA'N,  A.D.  932.— There  was  a  gemot  at  Ames- 
bury,  said  to  be  attended  by  the  dukes,  bishops,  abbots  and 
"  patriae  procuratores  " 5.  Also  one  at  Middleton,  in  which 
the  same  words  occur :  the  signatures  amount  to  ninety, 
and  comprise  four  Welsh  princes,  nineteen  archbishops 
and  bishops,  fifteen  dukes,  four  abbots,  and  forty-seven 
ministri  or  thanes6. 

^EDELSTA'N,  A.D.  934.— A  gemot  was  held  in  Lon- 
don on  the  seventh  of  June7;  but  on  the  twenty-eighth  of 
May  there  was  a  great  meeting  at  Winchester,  ei  tota 
populi  generalitate.""  The  total  number  of  names  is  ninety- 
two8.  Again  on  the  twelfth  of  September,  the  king  was  at 
Buckingham,  and  there  held  a  gemot,  "  tota  magnatorum 
generalitate9." 

^EBELSTA'N,  A.D.  935.— On  the  twenty-first  of  Sep- 
tember in  this  year  there  was  a  gemot  at  Dorchester,  f '  tota 
optimatum  generalitate  w." 

.^BELSTA'N,  A.D.  937.— A  gemot  was  held,  «  archiepi- 
scopis,  episcopis,  ducibus  et  principibus  Anglorum  in- 
simul  pro  regni  utilitate  coadunatis ll" 

An  undated  charter  of  ^E^elstan12  records  a  meeting  of 
witan  at  Abingdon  :  a  grant  was  made  to  the  abbey.  The 
archbishop,  bishops  and  abbots  present  solemnly  excom- 
municated any  one  who  should  disturb  the  grant ;  to  which 


1  Cod.Dipl.No.353. 

2  Ibid.  No.  1103. 

3  Ibid.  No.  1102. 

*  Ibid.  No.  1105. 
5  Ibid.  No.  361. 

*  Ibid.  NOB.  1107, 1108. 


7  Ibid.  No.  361. 

8  Ibid.  No.  364. 

9  Ibid.  No.  365. 


10  Ibid.  Nos.  367,  1112. 

11  Ibid.  No.  1113. 

12  Ibid.  No.  1129. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  255 

all  the  people  present  exclaimed,  "  So  be  it !  Amen/5  "  Et 
dixit  omnis  populus  qui  ibi  aderat,  Fiat,  Fiat.  Amen." 
"And  cwseiS  ealle  ftaet  folc  i$e  ftaer  embstod,  Sy  hit  swa. 
Amen.  Amen/-' 

Gemots  of  J3$elstan's,  the  dates  of  which  are  uncer- 
tain, were  held  at  Witlanburh1,  Greatanlea2,  Feversham3, 
Thundersfield4,  and  Exeter5. 

EA'DMUND,  before  A.D.  946.— This  prince  held  at 
least  two  gemots,  one  at  London,  one  at  Culintun,  but 
in  what  years  is  uncertain6. 

EA'DRED,  A.D.  946.— This  year  there  was  a  gemot  at 
Kingston,  and  king  Eadred  was  crowned7. 

EA'DRED,  A.D.  947. — In  this  year  there  was  at  least 
one  witena  gemot,  in  which  the  terms  of  peace  with  the 
Northumbrian  witan  were  arranged8.  There  were  others 
also  in  Mercia,  and  I  have  little  doubt  that  all  the  char- 
ters bearing  that  date  in  the  Codex  Diplomaticus  are 
really  acts  of  such  meetings. 

EA'DRED,  A.D.  948.— In  this  year  the  witan  of 
Northumberland  having  elected  a  king  Eirik,  Eadred 
marched  into  their  country  and  plundered  it ;  upon  which 
they  again  made  a  formal  submission  to  him9. 

Between  960-963. — In  one  of  these  years  a  gemot  was 
held,  but  the  place  is  unknown,  and  Eadgyfu  ultimately 
succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  the  pretensions  of  Goda's 
family10. 

EA'DGA'R,  A.D.  966.— A  gemot  in  London11. 


1  Thorpe,  i.  240.  3  Thorpe,  i.  216. 

2  Ibid.  i.  194.  4  Ibid.  i.  217. 

5  Ibid.  i.  220.     This  however  may  have  been  in  926,  when  ^Eftelstan 
was  in  that  city. 

6  Leg.  Eadm.  Thorpe,  i.  244,  252.  9  Chron.  Sax.  an.  948. 

7  Cod.Dipl.No.411.  10  Ood.Dipl.No.499. 

8  Chron.  Sax. an.  947.  u  Ibid.  No.  528. 


256 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


EA'DGA'R,  A.D.  968. — A  gemot  was  held  at  some  place 
unknown1. 

EA'DGA'R,  A.D.  973.— A  great  gemot  was  held  in  St. 
Paul's  church,  London2. 

EA'DGA'R,  A.D.  977.— After  Easter  (April  8th),  there 
was  held  a  great  gemot,  "  $set  mycele  gemot/'  at  Kirt- 
lington  in  Oxfordshire3. 

EA'DGA'R,  A.D.  978.— In  this  year  was  held  the  cele- 
brated gemot  at  Calne  in  Wiltshire,  when  the  floor  gave 
way  and  precipitated  the  witan  to  the  ground4.  There  was 
another  gemot  at  Ceodre,  now  Cheddar  in  Somersetshire5. 

In  addition  to  these  Eadgar  held  at  least  two  gemots, 
one  at  Andover  in  Hants,  one  at  a  place  called  Wiht- 
bordesstan,  which  we  cannot  now  identify.  In  both  of 
these  meetings  laws  were  passed6. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  979.— A  gemot  was  held  at  King- 
ston for  the  coronation  of  ^ESelred7. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  992.— In  this  year  there  were  pro- 
bably several  witena  gemots  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
Danish  war8. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  993.— In  this  year  there  was  at  least 
one  gemot  at  Winchester9. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  994.— A  witena  gemot  met  this  year 
at  Andover10. 

JEDELRED,  A.D.  995.— A  gemot  at  Ambresbyrig, 
now  Amesbury,  where  ^Elfric  was  elected  archbishop  of 
Canterbury  in  the  place  of  Sigeric11.  There  seems  to  have 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No8. 1265, 1266. 

2  Ibid.  No.  580. 

3  Chron.Sax.an.977. 

4  Ibid.  an.  978. 

s  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  598. 

10  Chron.  Sax.  an.  994.     LI.  ^ESelr.  11.     Thorpe,  i.  284. 

11  Chron.  Sax.  an.  995. 


6  Thorpe,  i.  272. 

7  Chron.  Sax.  an.  979. 

8  Ibid.  an.  992. 

9  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  684. 


CH.  VL]  THE  WITENA  GEMOT.  257 

been  another  meeting  in  the  same  year,  one  of  whose  acts 
we  still  possess l. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  996.— In  this  year  a  gemot  was  held 
at  CealchyS2. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  997.— This  year  a  gemot  was  held 
in  the  palace  at  Calne  :  "  collecta  hand  minima  sapientium 
multitudine,  in  anla  villae  regiae  quae  nuncupative  a  po- 
pulis  Et  Calnse  vocitatur3/'  A  few  days  later  we  find  the 
gemot  assembled  at  Waneting  or  Wantage ;  and  here  they 
promulgated  laws  which  we  yet  possess4.  There  is  a  char- 
ter also,  passed  at  this  gemot5.  A  previous  gemot  of  un- 
certain year  had  been  held  at  Bromdiin6,  and  another  at 
Woodstock7. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  998. — A  gemot  was  held  this  year 
in  London8 ;  and  another  apparently  at  Aiidover9,  where 
conditions  of  peace  were  ratified  with  Anlaf  or  Olaf 
Tryggvason10. 

jEDELRED,  A.D.  999. — At  least  one  gemot  was  held 
this  year,  to  concert  measures  of  defence  against  the 
Danes11. 

A.D  996-1001. — Between  these  years  there  was  a  gemot 
at  Cocham,  now  Cookham  in  Berks,  which  was  attended 
by  a  large  assemblage  of  thanes  from  Wessex  and  Mercia, 
both  of  Saxon  and  Danish  descent12. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1002.— In  this  year  the  witan  met 
and  paid  tribute  to  the  Danes13.  We  have  still  an  evident 
act  of  such  a  gemot  in  this  year14. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1004.— In  this  year  a  meeting  of  the 

Cod.  Dipl.  No.  692.  8  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  702. 

Ibid.  No.  696.  9  Chron.  Sax.  an.  998. 

Ibid.  No.  698.  10  Thorpe,  i.  284. 

Thorpe,  i.  292.  u  Chron.  Sax.  an.  999. 

Cod.  Dipl.  No.  698.  12  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  704. 

Thorpe,  i.  280,  294.  13  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1002. 

Ibid.  i.  280.  »  God.  Dipl.  No.  707. 

VOL.  II.  S 


258 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Eastanglian  witan,  under  earl  Ulfcytel,  took  place.  From 
the  description  I  do  not  think  it  could  have  been  an  ordi- 
nary scirgemot.  It  shows,,  at  any  rate,  that  the  witan 
were  resident  in  the  shires,  and  not  permanently  attached 
to  the  royal  person  or  household1. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1006.— Another  gemot  was  held  this 
year,  somewhere  in  Shropshire,  for  the  melancholy  and 
shameful  purpose  of  buying  peace  from  the  Danes2. 

JEDELRED,  A.D.  1008.— A  gemot  was  held,  one  of 
whose  acts  we  have  still3. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1009. — In  this  year  we  are  told  that 
the  king  and  his  heahwitan  met ;  but  the  place  is  un- 
known4. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1010. — In  this  year  a  gemot  was 
proclaimed,  to  concert  measures  of  defence  against  the 
Danes5.  "Donne  bead  man  eallan  witan  to  cynge,  and 
man  sceolde  v<5onne  rsedan  hu  man  iSisne  card  werian 
sceolde." 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1011.— A  gemot  was  again  held  for 
the  shameful  purpose  of  buying  peace 6. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1012. — At  Easter  (April  13th)  there 
was  a  great  meeting  at  London,  and  tribute  was  paid  to 
the  Danes7. 

.zEDELRED,  A.D.  1014. — In  this  year  was  holden  that 
important  gemot,  perhaps  we  might  say  convention,  which 
has  been  mentioned  in  the  text ;  when  the  witan,  upon  the 
death  of  Swegen,  consented  again  to  receive  J^ftelred  as 
king,  upon  promises  of  amendment8. 

^EDELRED,  A.D.  1015. — In   this   year  was  the   great 


1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1004. 

2  Ibid.  an.  1006. 

3  Cod.  Dipl  No.  1305. 

4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1009. 


5  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1010. 

6  Ibid.  an.  1011. 

7  Ibid.  an.  1012. 

8  Ibid.  an.  1014. 


CH.  vi.]  THE  WITENA  GEMO'T.  259 

gemot  of  Oxford,,  "  ftset  mycel  gemot,"  and  SigeferS  and 
Morcar  the  powerful  earls  of  the  north  were  slain1. 

It  is  uncertain  in  what  years  we  must  place  the  promul- 
gation of  jiESelred's  laws2,  at  Enhanx,  and  Haba3;  and 
others  without  date  or  place. 

EA'DMUND  I'RENSI'DA,  A.D.  1016.— In  this  year 
there  must  have  been  various  meetings  of  the  witan,  if 
tumultuous  and  armed  assemblages  can  claim  the  name  of 
witena  gemots  at  all.  The  witan  in  London  elected  Ead- 
mund  king ;  and  there  was  a  meeting  at  Olney ,  near  Deer- 
hurstj  where  the  kingdom  was  partitioned4. 

A.D.  1016-1020. — Probably  between  these  years  was 
the  great  gemot  at  Winchester,  in  which  Cnut  promul- 
gated his  laws5. 

CNUT,  A.D.  1020. — In  this  year  was  a  great  gemot  at 
Cirencester6. 

HARALD  HARANFOT,  A.D.  1036.— Upon  the  death 
of  Cnut,  there  was  a  gemot  at  Oxford,  and  Harald  was 
elected  king7. 

HAKDACNUT,  A.D.  1042.— In  this  year  there  was 
probably  a  gemot  at  Sutton8.  And  another  on  Harda- 
cnut's  death,  when  all  the  people  chose  Eadweard  the 
Confessor  to  be  king9. 

1   Chron.  Sax.  an.  1015.  2  Thorpe,  i.  314. 

3  Thorpe,  i.  366.  4  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1016. 

5  Thorpe,  i.  358.  6  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1020. 

7  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1036.  8  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  765,  766. 

9  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1042.  At  Gillingham.  Will.  Malm.  i.  332,  §  197. 
u  Nihil  erat  quod  Edwardus  pro  necessitate  temporis  non  polliceretur, 
ita,  utrinque  fide  data,  quicquid  pete"batur  sacramento  firmavit.  Nee 
mora  Gillingchain  congregate  concilio,  rationibus  suis  explicitis,  regem 
efFecit  (Godwinus)  hominio  palam  omnibus  dato :  homo  aft'ectati  leporis, 
et  ingenue  gentilitia  lingua  eloquens,  mirus  dicere,  minis  populo  per- 
suadere  quae  placerent.  Quidam  auctoritatem  eius  secuti,  quidam  mu- 
neribus  flexi,  quidam  etiam  debitum  Edwardi  amplexi." 

s2 


260 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1043.— A  witena  gemot  was  held 
at  Winchester,  April  3rd,  and  Eadweard  was  crowned1. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1044.— There  was  a  gemot,  « ge- 
uerale  concilium/'  in  London ;  the  only  business  recorded 
is  the  election  of  Manni,  abbot  of  Evesham2;  but  there 
is  a  charter3. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1045. — There  seems  to  have  been 
a  gemot  this  year4 . 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1046.— A  gemot,  the  place  of 
which  is  unknown5. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1047.— On  the  10th  of  March 
this  year  there  was  "  mycel  gemot "  in  London6. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1048.— A  gemot  sat  on  the  8th 
of  September  at  Gloucester7;  and  on  the  21st  of  Sep- 
tember, another  met  in  London,  and  outlawed  the  family 
of  earl  Godwine. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1050.— There  was  a  great  gemot 
in  London8. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1052,  1053.— A  gemot,  place  un- 
known9. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1055.— A  gemot  in  London10. 

EA'DWEARD,  A.D.  1065.— There  was  a  great  gemot 
at  Northampton11,  Another  was  held  at  Oxford  on  the 
28th  of  October11,  and  lastly  at  Christmas  in  London  n.  At 
this  Eadweard  dedicated  Westminster  Abbey,  and  dying 
on  the  5th  of  January,  1066,  the  assembled  witan  elected 
Harald  king. 


Chron.  Sax.  an.  1043. 
Flor.  Wig.  an.  1044. 
Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  776,  777. 
Ibid.  Nos.  779,  783. 
Ibid.  No.  786. 
Chron.  Sax.  an.  1047. 


7  Chron.  Sas.  an.  1048. 

8  Ibid.  an.  1050. 

9  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  799. 

10  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1055. 

11  Ibid.  an.  1065. 


CH.  VI.] 


THE  WITENA  GEMO'T. 


261 


Having  now  completed  this  list,  which  must  be  confessed 
to  be  but  an  imperfect  one,  I  do  not  scruple  to  express 
my  belief  that  every  charter  in  the  Codex  Diplomaticus, 
which  is  not  merely  a  private  will  or  private  settlement, 
is  the  genuine  act  of  some  witena  gemot :  and  that  we 
thus  possess  a  long  and  interesting  series  of  records,,  en- 
abling us  to  follow  the  action  of  the  Saxon  Parliaments 
from  the  very  cradle  of  our  monarchy. 


262 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  TOWNS. 

WE  have  now  arrived  at  that  point  of  our  enquiry 
at  which  it  behoves  us  to  bestow  our  attention 
upon  the  origin  and  growth  of  towns  among  the 
Anglosaxons;  and  to  this  end  we  shall  find  it 
expedient  to  carry  our  researches  to  a  still  earlier 
period,  and  investigate,  though  in  a  slight  degree, 
the  condition  of  their  British  and  Roman  predeces- 
sors in  this  respect.  At  first  sight  it  would  seem 
natural  to  suppose  that  where  a  race  had  long  pos- 
sessed the  outward  means  and  form  of  civilization, 
— a  race  among  whom  great  military  and  civil  esta- 
blishments had  been  founded,  who  had  clustered 
round  provincial  cities,  the  seats  of  a  powerful  go- 
vernment, and  whose  ports  and  harbours  had  been 
the  scenes  of  active  commerce, — there  need  be  little 
question  as  to  the  origin  of  towns  and  cities  among 
those  who  conquered  and  dispossessed  them.  It 
might  be  imagined  that  the  later  comers  would  have 
nothing  more  to  do  than  seize  upon  the  seats  from 
which  they  had  expelled  their  predecessors,  and  ap- 
ply to  their  own  uses  the  established  instruments 
of  convenience,  of  wealth  or  safety.  Further  en- 
quiry however  proves  that  this  induction  would 
be  erroneous,  and  that  the  Saxons  did  not  settle  in 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  263 

the  Eoman  towns.  The  reason  of  this  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  assign:  a  city  is  the  result  of  a  system 
of  cultivation,  and  it  is  of  no  use  whatever  to  a 
race  whose  system  differs  entirely  from  that  of  the 
race  by  whom  it  was  founded.  The  Curia  and 
the  temple,  the  theatre  and  thermae,  house  joined 
to  house  and  surrounded  by  a  dense  quadrangular 
wall,  crowding  into  a  defined  and  narrow  space  the 
elements  of  civilization,  are  unintelligible  to  him 
whose  whole  desire  centres  in  the  undisturbed  en- 
joyment of  his  eftel,  and  unlimited  command  of 
the  mark.  The  buildings  of  a  centralized  society  are 
as  little  calculated  for  his  use  as  their  habits  and 
institutions :  as  well  might  it  have  been  proposed 
to  him  to  substitute  the  jurisdiction  of  the  praetor 
urbanus  for  the  national  tribunal  of  the  folcmot. 
The  spirit  of  life  is  totally  different:  as  different 
are  all  the  social  institutions,  and  all  the  details 
which  arise  from  these  and  tend  to  confirm  and 
perpetuate  them. 

Nevertheless  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  existence 
of  the  British  and  Roman  cities  did  materially  influ- 
ence the  mode  and  nature  of  the  German  settle- 
ments; and  without  some  slight  sketch  of  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  former,  we  shall  find  it 
impossible  to  form  a  clear  notion  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  Anglosaxon  polity  was  formed. 

If  we  may  implicitly  trust  the  report  of  Caesar, 
a  British  city  in  his  time  differed  widely  from  what 
we  understand  by  that  term.  A  spot  difficult  of 
access  from  the  trees  which  filled  it,  surrounded 
with  a  rampart  and  a  ditch,  and  which  offered  a 


264  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

refuge  from  the  sudden  incursions  of  an  enemy, 
could  be  dignified  by  the  name  of  an  oppidum,  and 
form  the  metropolis  of  Cassivelaunus1.  Such  also 
among  the  Slavonians  were  the  vici,  encircled  by 
an  abbatis  of  timber,  or  at  most  a  paling,  proper 
to  repel  not  only  an  unexpected  attack,  but  even 
capable  of  resisting  for  a  time  the  onset  of  prac- 
tised forces :  such  in  our  own  time  have  been  found 
the  stockades  of  the  Burmese,  and  the  Pah  of  the 
New  Zealander :  and  if  our  skilful  engineers  have 
experienced  no  contemptible  resistance,  and  the 
lives  of  many  brave  and  disciplined  men  have  been 
sacrificed  in  their  reduction,  we  may  admit  that 
even  the  oppida  of  Cassivelaunus,  or  Caratac  or 
Galgacus,  might,  as  fortresses,  have  serious  claims 
to  the  attention  of  a  Eoman  commander.  But 
such  an  oppidum  is  no  town  or  city  in  the  sense  iri 
which  those  words  are  contemplated  throughout 
this  chapter :  by  a  town  I  certainly  intend  a  place 
enclosed  in  some  manner,  and  even  fortified:  but 
much  more  those  who  dwell  together  in  such  a 
place,  and  the  means  by  which  they  either  rule 
themselves,  or  are  ruled.  I  mean  a  metaphysical 
as  well  as  a  physical  unit, — not  exclusively  what 
was  a  collection  of  dwellings  or  a  fortification,  but 
a  centre  of  trade  and  manufacture  and  civilization. 
If  the  Romans  found  none  such3  at  least  they  left 

1  Bell.  Gall.  v.  21.  Caesar  stormed  it,  and  had  therefore  good  means 
of  knowing  what  it  was.  His  further  information  was  probably  de- 
rived from  his  British  ally  Comius.  Strabo  gives  a  very  similar  ac- 
count :  TrdXets1  6'  avTa>v  flaw  ol  dpvp.oi'  7repi(ppd£avT€s  yap 
KaTa(3€{3\tfp.€Vois  fvpv^coprj  KVK\OV  KaXvfioTroiovvTai,  KOI  TO, 
Karao-Ta6]j.fvov(riv)  ov  Trpos  iroXvv  xpovov.  lib.  iv. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  265 

them,  in  every  part  of  Britain.  The  record  of  their 
gradual  and  successive  advance  shows  that,  partly 
with  a  politic  view  of  securing  their  conquests, 
partly  with  the  necessary  aim  of  conciliating  their 
soldiery,  they  did  establish  numerous  municipia  and 
coloniae  here,  as  well  as  military  stations  which  in 
time  became  the  nuclei  of  towns. 

It  is  however  scarcely  possible  that  Caesar  and 
Strabo  can  be  strictly  accurate  in  their  reports,  or 
that  there  were  from  the  first  only  such  towns  in 
Britain  as  these  authors  have  described.  It  is  not 
consonant  to  experience  that  a  thickly  peopled  and 
peaceful  country  l  should  long  be  without  cities.  A 
commercial  people2  always  have  some  settled  sta- 
tions for  the  collection  and  interchange  of  commo- 
dities, and  fixed  establishments  for  the  regulation 
of  trade.  Caesar  himself  tells  us  that  the  buildings 
of  the.  Britons  were  very  numerous,  and  that  they 
bore  a  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Gauls3,  whose 
cities  were  assuredly  considerable.  Moreover  a 
race  so  conversant  with  the  management  of  horses 
as  to  use  armed  chariots  for  artillery,  are  not  likely 
to  have  been  without  an  extensive  system  of  roads, 
and  where  there  are  roads,  towns  will  not  long 
be  wanting.  Hence  when,  less  than  eighty  years 
after  the  return  of  the  Romans  to  Britain,  and 
scarcely  forty  after  the  complete  subjugation  of  the 

1  "  Ilominum  est  infinita  multitude."  Bell.  Gall.  v.  12.  Eivat  Sex  KCU 
TToXi'dvdpocnrov  TTJV  vrjaov  .  .  .  ./3ao~tXets  Tf  Kai  ^vvdaras  TTO\\OV$ 


Kai  npos  dX\r)\ovs  Kara  TO  irXeicrTOV  tlpr)viK.ws  BcaKfladai.  Diodor,   Sidil. 
v.  21. 

2  Oveveroi.  .  .  .^pd>p.€voi  T(U  c/i7ropt'<p.  Strabo,  lib.  iv. 

3  "  Creberriina  aedilicia,  fere  Gallicis  consimilia."    Bell.  Gall.  v.  12 


236 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


island  by  Agricola,  Ptolemy  tells  us  of  at  least  fifty- 
six  cities  in  existence  here *,  we  may  reasonably  con- 
clude that  they  were  not  all  due  to  the  efforts  of 
Eoman  civilization. 

Caesar  says  indeed  nothing  of  London,  yet  it 
is  difficult  to  believe  that  this  was  an  unimportant 
place,  even  in  his  day.  It  was.  long  the  principal 
town  of  the  Cantii,  whom  the  Roman  general  de- 

1  Ptolemy  at  the  commencement  of  the  second  century  (i.  e.  about 
A.D.  120)  mentions  the  following  noXfis,  which  surely  are  towns: — 


District. 

Novantae 

Towns. 

Loucopibia 

District. 

Parisi  

Towns. 

Petuaria. 

Selgovae    . 

Rhetigonium. 
.  .  .  Oarbantorigum. 
Uxelum. 
Corda. 
Trimontium 

Ordovices  .  .  . 
Cornabii  .  .  . 
Coritavi  

.Mediolanium. 
Brannogeniuni. 
.  Deuana. 
Viroconium. 
.  Lindum. 

Damnii  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Colania. 

Ullage. 

Vanduara. 
Coria. 
Alauna 

Catyeuchlani  . 
Simeni  

.  Salenae. 
Urolanium. 
Venta. 

Otadeni  .  .  . 

Lindum. 
Victoria. 
.  .  .Curia. 
"Rrpmfninm 

Trinoantes.  .  . 
Demetae  .  .  . 

Silures 

.  Camudolanum. 
.  Luentinium. 
Maridunum. 
Bullaeum 

Banatia 

Dobuni 

Corinium 

Tameia. 
The  Winged  Camp. 

Atrebatii  .  .  . 
Cantii 

.  Nalkua. 
Londinium  . 

Venicontes 
Texali 

Tuesis. 
.  .  Orrhea. 
T)evana. 

RheeTii  . 

Darvenum. 
Rhutupiae. 
Naeomao'iis. 

Epeiacum. 

Bel  2rae  . 

Ischalis 

Vinnovium. 
Caturhactonium. 
Calatum. 
Isurium. 
Rhigodunum. 
Olicana. 
Eboracum. 
Camunlodunum. 

Durotriges  .  .  . 
Dumnonii  .  .  . 

The  Hot  Springs. 
Venta. 
.Dunium. 
.Voliba. 
Uxela. 
Tamare. 
Isca. 

CH.  viz.]  THE  TOWNS.  267 

scribes  as  the  most  polished  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Britain ;  and  as  we  know  that  there  was  an  active 
commercial  intercourse  between  the  eastern  coast 
of  England  and  Gaul,  it  is  at  least  probable  that  a 
station,  upon  a  great  river  at  a  safe  yet  easy  dis- 
tance from  the  sea,  was  not  unknown  to  the  foreign 
merchants  who  traded  to  our  shores1.  One  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  years  later  it  could  be  described 
as  a  city  famous  in  a  high  degree  for  the  resort  of 
merchants  and  for  traffic2:  but  of  these  years  one 
hundred  had  been  spent  in  peace  and  in  the  natural 
development  of  their  resources  by  the  Britons,  un- 
disturbed by  Eoman  ambition ;  and  we  have  there- 
fore ample  right  to  infer  that  from  the  very  first 

1  It  is  clear  that  Caesar  was  not  greatly  harassed  in  his  march  to- 
wards the  ford  of  the  Thames  near  Chertsey ;  and  if,  as  is  probable,  his 
advance  disarmed  the  Cantii  generally,  or  compelled  the  more  warlike 
of  their  body  to  retire  upon  the  force  of  Cassivelaunus,  concentrated  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  river,  we  can  understand  what  would  otherwise 
seem  a  very  dangerous  movement, — a  march  into  Surrey,  leaving  Lon- 
don unoccupied  on  the  right  flank.     Thus  it  seems  to  me  that  the  fact 
of  Caesar's  not  noticing  the  city  may  be  more  readily  explained  by  its 
not  lying  within  the  scope  of  his  manoeuvres,  than  by  its  not  exist- 
ing in  his  time.     And  indeed  it  is  probable  that  just  here  some  por- 
tion of  his  memoirs  has  been  lost :  for  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the 
fifth  book,  he  distinctly  says :  "  Cassivelaunus,  ut  supra  demonstravi- 
miiSj  omni  deposita  spe  contentionis,"  etc. ;  but  nothing  now  remains 
in  what  we  possess,  to  which  these  words  can  possibly  be  referred. 
Caesar's  Commentaries  were  the  private  literary  occupation  of  the  great 
soldier  in  peaceful  times,  and  we  cannot  attribute  this  contradiction 
in  his  finished  work  to  carelessness. 

2  "  At   Suetonius  mira  constantia  medios  inter  hostes  Londinium 
perrexit,  cognomento  quidern  coloniae  non  insigne,  sed  copia  negotia- 
torum  et  commeatuum  maxime  celebre."    Tacit.  Ann.  xiv.  33.    "  Not  a 
colonia,"  seems  to  me  equivalent  to  saying,  a  British  city. — Twenty 
years  after  the  return  of  the  Romans  to  Britain,  seventy  thousand  citi- 
zens and  allies  perished  during  Boadicea's  rebellion  in  London,  Veru- 
lain  and  Colchester.     (Ibid.) 


268 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Cair  Lunden  had  been  a  place  of  great  commercial 
importance.  The  Romans  on  their  return  found 
and  kept  it  so,  although  they  did  not  establish  a 
colonia  there.  The  first  place  which  received  this 
title  with  all  its  corresponding  advantages  was 
Camelodunum,  probably  the  British  Cair  Colun, 
now  Colchester  in  Essex1. 

As  the  settlement  of  the  nations,  and  their  re- 
duction under  a  centralizing  system,  followed  the 
victories  of  the  legions,  municipia  and  coloniae 
arose  in  every  province,  the  seats  of  garrisons  and 
the  residences  of  military  and  civil  governors: 
while  as  civilization  extended,  the  Britons  them- 
selves, adopting  the  manners  and  following  the 
example  of  their  masters,  multiplied  the  number  of 
towns  upon  all  the  great  lines  of  internal  commu- 
nication. It  is  difficult  now  to  give  from  Roman 
authorities  only  a  complete  list  of  these  towns ; 
many  names  which  we  find  in  the  itineraria  and 
similar  documents,  being  merely  post-stations  or 
points  where  subordinate  provincial  authorities 
were  located  ;  but  the  names  of  fifty-six  towns  have 
been  already  quoted  from  Ptolemy,  and  even  tradi- 
tion may  be  of  some  service  to  us  on  this  subject2. 

1  This  was  long  supposed  to  be  Maldon,  but  it  seems  difficult  to  re- 
sist Mannert's  reasoning  in  favour  of  Colchester.     See  Geograph.  der 
Griech.  u.  Rom.  p.  157. 

2  In  the   third   century  Marcianus  reckons,  unfortunately  without 
naming  them,  fifty-nine  celebrated  cities  in  Britain :  e^ei  §e  eV  cvrfj 
edvrj  Ay,  TroXety  eiri(rf)p,ovs  v6,  Trordp-ovs  emcrtyfiovf  /z,  aKpcor^pta  eTrio-rjpa 
id,  %epcr6vr]a'ov  e7ricrr)p.ov  eva,  KO\TTOVS  eTrirrrjfjiovs  e,  \ip.€vas  cTncrrj/J-ovs  y. 
Marcian.  Heracleot.  lib.  i.     Nor  will  this  surprise  us  when  we  bear  in 
mind  that  about  this  period  the  Britons  enjoyed  such  a  reputation  for 
building  as  to  find  employment  in  Gaul.     "Civitas  Aeduorum. . . . 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  269 

Nennius  sums  up  with  patriotic  pride  the  names 
of  thirty-four  principal  cities  which  adorned  Britain 
under  his  forefathers,  and  many  of  these  we  can 
yet  identify :  amongst  them  are  London,  Bristol, 
Canterbury,  Colchester,  Cirencester,  Chichester, 
Gloucester,  Worcester,  Wroxeter,  York,  Silches- 
ter,  Lincoln,  Leicester,  Doncaster,  Caermarthen, 
Carnarvon,  Winchester,  Porchester,  Grantchester, 
Norwich,  Carlisle,  Chester,  Caerleon  on  Usk,  Man- 
chester and  Dorchester1.  To  these  from  other  sources 
we  may  add  Sandwich,  Dover,  Rochester,  Notting- 
ham, Exeter,  Bath,  Bedford,  Aylesbury  and  St. 
Alban's. 

Whatever  the  origin  of  these  towns  may  have 
been,  it  is  easy  to  show  that  many  of  them  com- 
prised a  Roman  population :  the  very  walls  by 
which  some  of  them  are  still  surrounded,  offer  con- 
clusive evidence  of  this;  while  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  others,  coins  and  inscriptions,  the  ruins  of 
theatres,  villas,  baths,  and  other  public  or  private 
buildings,  attest  either  the  skill  and  luxury  of  the 
conquerors,  or  the  aptness  to  imitate  of  the  con- 

plurimos,  quibus  illae  provinciae  redundabant,  accepit  artifices,"  etc. 
Eumen.  Const.  Paneg.  c.  21. 

1  Henry  of  Pluntingdon  copies  Nennius  and  aids  in  the  identification. 
Asser  adds  to  the  list  Nottingham,  in  British  Tinguobauc,  and  Cair  Wise 
now  Exeter.  The  Saxon  Chronicle  records  Anderida,  Bath,  Bedford, 
Leighton,  Aylesbury,  Bensington  and  Eynesham.  Among  the  places 
unquestionably  Roman  may  be  named  Londinium,  Verulamium,  Colo- 
ma,  Glevum  (Gloucester),  Venta  Belgarurn  (Winchester),  Venta  Ice- 
norum  (Norwich),  Venta  Silurum  (Cair  Gwint)DurocornoviumorCo- 
rinium  (Cirencester),  Calleva  Atrebatum(Silchester);  Eboracuin  (York); 
Uxella  (Exeter),  Aquse  Solis(Bath),  Durnovaria  (Dorchester),  Regnuni 
(Chichester),  Durocovernum  (Canterbury),  Uriconium  (Wroxeter)  and 
Lindum  (Lincoln). 


270 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


quered1.  But  a  much  more  important  question 
arises;  viz.  how  many  of  them  were  ruled  freely, 
like  the  cities  of  the  old  country,  by  a  municipal 
body  constituted  in  the  ancient  form :  what  provi- 
sion, in  short,  the  Romans  made  or  permitted  for 
the  education  of  their  British  subjects  in  the  manly 
career  of  citizenship  and  the  dignity  of  self-govern- 
ment2. 

The  constitution  of  a  provincial  city  of  the  em- 
pire, in  the  days  when  the  republic  still  possessed 
virtue  and  principle,  was  of  this  description,  at  all 
events  from  the  period  of  the  Social,  Marsic  or 
Italian  war,  when  the  cities  of  Italy  wrested  isopo- 
lity,  or  at  least  isdtely,  from  Eome.  The  state  con- 
sisted of  the  whole  body  of  the  citizens,  without 
distinction,  having  a  general  voice  in  the  manage- 
ment of  their  own  internal  affairs.  The  adminis- 
trative functions  however  resided  in  a  privileged 

1  The  walls  of  Chichester  still  offer  an  admirable  example  in  very 
perfect  condition.  The  remains  at  Lincoln  and  Old  Verulam  enable  us 
to  trace  the  ancient  sites  with  precision,  and  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  latter  town  the  foundations  of  a  large  theatre  are  yet 
preserved.  The  plough  still  brings  to  light  the  remains  of  Eoman 
villas  and  the  details  of  Roman  cultivation  throughout  the  valley  of  the 
Severn.  It  is  impossible  here  to  enumerate  all  the  places  where  the 
discovery  of  coins,  inscriptions,  works  of  art  and  utility  or  ruins  of 
buildings  attest  a  continued  occupation  of  the  site  and  a  peaceful  set- 
tlement. Many  archaeological  works,  the  result  of  modern  industry, 
may  be  beneficially  consulted  j  and  among  these  I  would  call  particular 
attention  to  the  Map  of  Eoman  Yorkshire,  published  by  Mr.  Newton, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland. 

a  The  following  lines  contain  a  very  slight  sketch  of  the  municipal 
institutions  of  a  Roman  city.  It  is  not  necessary  to  burthen  the  reader's 
attention  with  the  deeper  details  of  this  special  subject.  A  general  re- 
ference may  be  given  to  Savigny's  Geschichte  des  Rb'mischen  Rechts 
the  leading  authority  on  all  such  points. 


CH.  viz.]  THE  TOWNS.  271 

class  of  those  citizens,  commonly  called  Curiales, 
Decuriones^  Ordo  Decurionum  (or  sometimes  Ordo 
alone),  and  occasionally  Senatus.  They  were  in 
fact  to  the  whole  body  of  the  citizens  what  the 
Senatus  under  the  Emperors  was  to  the  citizens 
of  Rome 1,  and  their  rights  and  privileges  seem  in 
general  to  have  varied  very  much  as  did  those  of 
the  higher  body.  They  were  hereditary,  but,  when 
occasion  demanded  an  increase  of  their  numbers, 
self-elected.  Out  of  this  college  of  Decuriones  the 
Magistratus  or  supreme  executive  government  pro- 
ceeded. In  the  better  days  I  believe  these  were 
always  freely  chosen  for  one  year,  by  the  whole 
community,  but  exclusively  from  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Ordo :  and  after  Tiberius  at  Eome 
transferred  the  elections  from  the  Comitia  to  the 
Senate,  the  Decuriones  in  the  provinces  may  have 
become  the  sole  electors,  as  they  were  the  only 
persons  capable  of  being  elected.  The  Magistratus 
had  the  supreme  jurisdiction,  and  were  the  com- 
pletion of  the  communal  system :  they  bore  dif- 
ferent names  in  different  cities,  but  usually  those 
of  Duumviri  or  Quatuorviri,  from  their  number. 
Sometimes,  but  very  rarely,  they  were  named  Con- 
sules.  In  fact  the  general  outline  of  this  constitu- 
tion resembled  as  much  as  possible  that  of  Eome 
itself,  which  was  only  the  head  of  a  confederation 
embracing  all  the  cities  of  Italy. 


1  If  we  adopt  an  old  legal  phrase,  the  Decuriones  were  cives  optima 
iure,  or  full  burghers ;  the  rest  of  the  citizens  were  non  optima  iure, 
not  full  burghers,  not  having  a  share  in  the  advantages  possessed  by  the 
members  of  the  corporation. 


272  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

A  somewhat  similar  arrangement  was  introduced 
into  the  cities  of  the  various  countries  which,  under 
the  name  of  provinces,  were  brought  within  the 
influence  of  the  Roman  power :  only  that  in  these 
the  communal  organization  was  throughout  sub- 
ordinated to  the  regulation  and  control  of  the  Con- 
sularis,  the  Legatus,  Procurator,  and  other  officers 
military  and  fiscal,  who  administered  the  affairs  of 
the  province.  A  principal  point  of  distinction  be- 
tween the  free  communities  of  Italy  and  the  de- 
pendent provincial  corporations  lay  in  this  ;  that  in 
the  latter,  the  magistrates  were  indeed  elected  by 
the  Ordo  or  Curia,  but  upon  the  nomination  of  the 
Roman  governor:  their  jurisdiction  in  suits  was 
consequently  very  limited,  while  political  functions 
were  for  the  most  part  confined  to  the  civil  and 
military  officers  of  the  empire. 

As  long  as  the  condition  of  the  imperial  city 
itself  was  tolerably  easy,  and  the  provinces  had 
not  yet  been  flooded  with  the  vice,  corruption  and 
misery  which  called  for  and  rendered  possible  the 
victories  of  the  barbarians,  the  condition  of  the  pro- 
vincial decurions  was  on  the  whole  one  of  honour 
and  advantage.  They  formed  a  kind  of  nobility,  a 
class  distinguished  from  their  fellow-citizens  by  a 
certain  rank  and  privileges,  as  they  were  assuredly 
also  distinguished  from  them  by  superior  wealth: 
they  resembled  in  fact  an  aristocracy  of  county 
families  at  this  day,  with  its  exclusive  possession 
of  the  magistrature  and  other  local  advantages. 
On  the  other  hand  they  were  responsible  for  the 
public  dues,  the  levies,  the  annona  or  victualling 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  273 

of  forces,  the  tributum  or  raising  of  the  assessed 
taxes;  and  thus  they  were  rendered  immediately 
subject  to  the  exactions  of  the  fiscal  authorities, 
and  especially  exposed  to  the  caprice  and  illegal 
demands  of  the  Roman  officials1 — a  class  univer- 

1  Tacitus  gives  us  an  insight  into  some  of  the  gratuitous  insults  and 
vexations  inflicted  upon  the  British  provincials,  while  he  describes  the 
reforms  introduced  by  Agricola  into  these  branches  of  the  public  ser- 
vice. "  Ceterum  anhnorum  provinciae  prudens,  sinmlque  doctus  per 
aliena  experimenta,  parum  profici  armis,  si  iniuriae  sequerentur,  causas 
bellorum  statuit  excidere .  .  .  Frumentiet  tributorum  exactionem  aequa- 
litate  munerum  mollire,  circumcisis,  quae  in  quaestum  reperta,  ipso 
tributo  gravius  tolerabantur :  nanique  per  ludibrium  adsidere  clausis 
horreis,  et  emere  ultro  frumenta,  ac  vendere  pretio  cogebantur :  de- 
vortia  itinerum  et  longinquitas  regionum  indicebatur,  ut  civitates  a 
proximis  hybernis  in  remota  et  avia  deferrent,  donee,  quod  omnibus  in 
promtu  erat,  paucis  lucrosum  fieret."  Tac.  Agric.  xix.  The  same 
grave  historian  attributes  the  fierce  insurrection  under  Boadicea  to  the 
tyrannous  conduct  of  the  Legati  and  Procuratores  of  the  province,  and 
the  insolent  conduct  of  their  subordinates.  "  Britanni  agitare  inter  so 
mala  servitutis,  conferre  iniurias  et  interpretando  accendere:  'nihil  pro- 
fici patientia,  nisi  ut  graviora,  tanquam  ex  facili  tolerantibus,imperentur : 
singulos  sibi  olim  reges  fuisse,  nunc  binos  imponi :  e  quibus  Legatus  in 
sanguinem,  Procurator  in  bona  saeviret.  Aeque  discordiam  Praeposi- 
torum,  aeque  concordiam  subiectis  exitiosam,  alterius  manus,  centuri- 
ones  alterius,  vim  et  contumelias  rniscere.  Nihil  iam  cupiditati, 
nihil  libidini  exceptum."  Tac.  Agric.  xv.  It  is  obviously  with  reference 
to  the  same  facts  that  he  describes  the  Britons  as  peaceable  and  well  dis- 
posed to  discharge  the  duties  laid  upon  then,  if  they  are  only  spared 
insult.  Tac.  Agric.  xiii.  Xiphilinus,  who  though  a  late  writer  is  valuable 
inasmuch  as  he  represents  Dio  Oassius,  describes  some  of  the  intole- 
rable atrocities  which  drove  the  Iceni  into  rebellion,  destroyed  Camelo- 
dunum  and  Verulamium,  and  led  in  those  cities  and  in  London  to  the 
slaughter  of  nearly  seventy  thousand  citizens  and  allies.  Deep  as  was 
the  wrong  done  to  the  family  of  Prasutagus,  he  is  no  doubt  right  in 
attributing  the  general  exasperation  mainly  to  the  confiscation  of  the 
lands  which  Claudius  Caesar  had  granted  to  the  chiefs,  and  which  the 
procurator  Catus  Declaims  attempted  to  call  in.  Tlpofpaais  Se  row 
TroXejLtou  eyeWro  rj  drj/jievcns  rcoz/  xpr)p,a.T(t)v  (publicatio  bonorum),  a  KAav- 
fiios  rot?  Trpwrois  O.VT£>V  e'Se§a>Ket'  Kai  efiet  KCU  eKetra,  &s  ye  AtKiavbs  Kdros 
6  rrjs  vr](Tov  eTrtTpOTrevwv  e'Xeyei/,  dvanop-nifjia  yeveadai,  Boadicea  is  made 
to  declare  that  they  were  charged  with  a  poll-tax,  so  severely  exacted 

VOL.  II.  T 


274 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  11. 


sally  infamous  for  tyrannical  extortion  in  the  pro- 
vinces :  and  in  yet  later  times,  when  the  land  itself 
frequently  became  deserted,  through  the  burthen  of 
taxation  and  exaction  *,  they  were  compelled  to  un- 
dertake the  cultivation  of  the  relinquished  estates, 
that  the  fiscus  might  be  no  loser.  Gradually  as  the 
bond  which  held  the  fragments  of  the  empire  to- 
gether was  loosened,  and  as  limb  after  limb  dropped 
away  from  the  mouldering  colossus,  the  condi- 
tion of  a  Decurion  became  so  oppressive  that  it 
was  found  necessary  to  press  citizens  by  force  into 
the  office :  some  committed  suicide,  others  expa- 
triated themselves,  in  order  to  escape  it.  The  state 


that  an  account  was  required  even  of  the  dead :  ovSe  yap  TO  r 
Trap'  aiiTols  d£r)p.iov  ecrrii>,  dXX'  'icrre  oarov  Kal  virep  TO>V  veKpwv 
Trapd  p.ev  yap  TOIS  aXXots  dvGpwiroiS  Kal  TOVS  bovXevovrds  TKTIV  6  ddvaros 
fXevOepoi,  'Pauaiois  Se  617  p.6vois  Kal  ol  vcKpol  £aicrt  irpbs  TO.  XT/jU/zara. 
These  accusations  put  into  the  mouths  of  the  personages  themselves, 
must  not  be  taken  to  be  exaggerated  statements  without  foundation  : 
they  are  the  confessions  of  the  historians,  which  sometimes  perhaps  they 
lacked  courage  to  make  in  another  form.  The  sudden  and  violent 
calling  in  of  large  sums  which  Seneca  had  forced  upon  the  British 
chiefs  in  expectation  of  enormous  interest,  was  another  cause  of  the  war: 
8id  re  ovv  TOVTO,  Kal  on  6  Sei/c/cas  ^iXtay  crcpto-i  pvpiddas  aKovaiv  enl 
e\7Ti(n  TOKGW  davelo-as,  eVeir'  ddpoas  re  ap,a  avras  Kal  fttaitos 
The  Roman  mortgages  in  Britain  were  enormous,  yet 
easily  explained.  The  procurator  made  an  extravagant  demand  :  the 
native  state  could  not  pay  it ;  but  the  procurator  had  a  Roman  friend 
who  would  advance  it  upon  good  security,  etc.  Similar  things  have 
taken  place  in  Zemindaries  of  later  date  than  the  British.  For  the 
references  above  see  Joan.  Xiphil.  Epitome  Dionis,  Nero  vi. 

1  This  not  only  appears  from  the  digests,  but  from  numerous  merely 
incidental  notices  in  the  authors  of  the  time.  The  population  were 
crowded  into  cities,  and  the  country  was  deserted.  This  was  not  the 
result  of  a  healthy  manufacturing  or  commercial  movement,  but  of  a 
state  of  universal  distraction  and  insecurity.  Had  the  cultivation  of 
the  land  ceased  through  a  prudent  calculation  of  political  econoruv, 
we  should  not  have  heard  of  compulsory  tillage. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  275 

was  obliged  to  forbid  by  law  the  sale  of  property 
for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  it ;  freemen  went  into 
the  ranks,  or  subjected  themselves  to  voluntary 
servitude,  as  a  preferable  alternative ;  nay  at  length 
vagabonds,  people  of  bad  character,  even  malefac- 
tors, were  literally  condemned  to  it1.  This  tends 
perhaps  more  than  any  fact  to  prove  the  gradual 
ruin  of  the  municipal  as  well  as  the  social  fabric, 
and  the  miserable  condition  of  the  provinces  under 
the  later  emperors. 

However,  in  the  better  days  of  Vespasian,  Tra- 
jan and  the  Antonines  we  are  not  to  look  for  such 
a  state  of  society ;  and  in  the  provinces,  the  Ordo, 
though  exposed  to  many  harsh  and  painful  condi 
tions,  yet  held  a  position  of  comparative  dignity 
and  influence.  I  have  compared  them  to  a  county 
aristocracy,  but  there  is  perhaps  a  nearer  parallel, 
for  in  the  Roman  empire  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  county  from  the  town.  The  position  of  the 
Decurions  can  hardly  be  made  clearer  than  by  a 
reference  to  the  Select  (that  is  self-elected)  Vestries 
of  our  great  metropolitan  parishes  before  the  pass- 
ing of  Sir  John  Hobhouse's  Acts ;  or  to  the  town- 
councillors  and  aldermen  of  our  country-towns, 
before  the  enactment  of  the  Municipal  Corpora- 
tions' Bill.  Whoso  remembers  these  bodies  with 
their  churchwardens  on  the  one  hand,  their  mayors, 
borough-reeves  and  aldermen  on  the  other, — their 
exclusive  jurisdiction  as  a  magistracy, — their  ex- 
clusive possession  of  corporation  property,  tolls, 

1  Savigny,  Rom.  Recht.  i.  23  seq. 

T2 


276  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

rents  and  other  sources  of  wealth, — their  private 
rights  in  the  common  land,  held  by  themselves  or 
delegated  to  their  clients, — their  custody  of  the 
public  buildings,  and  sole  management  of  civic  or 
charitable  funds, — their  patronage  as  trustees  of 
public  institutions, — their  franchise  as  electors, — 
their  close  family  alliances,  and  the  methods  by 
which  they  contrived  to  recruit  their  diminished 
numbers,  till  they  became  a  very  aristocracy  among 
a  people  of  commoners1, — whoso,  I  say,  considers 
these  phenomena  of  our  own  day,  need  have  little 
difficulty  not  only  in  understanding  the  condition 
of  a  Decurion  in  the  better  days  of  the  Homan 
empire  :  but,  if  he  will  cast  his  thought  back  into 
earlier  ages,  he  may  find  in  them  no  little  illustra- 
tion of  the  nature,  rights  and  policy  of  the  Patri- 
ciate, under  the  Republic. 

Other  cities  of  a  less  favoured  description  were 
governed  directly  as  prefectures,  by  an  officer  sent 
from  Borne,  who  centred  in  himself  all  the  higher 
branches  of  administration:  in  these  cities  the 
functions  of  the  Ordo  were  greatly  curtailed  ;  little 
was  left  them  but  to  attend  to  the  police  of  the 
town  and  markets,  the  determination  of  trifling 
civil  suits,  the  survey  of  roads  or  buildings ;  and, 
in  conjunction  with  the  heads  of  the  guilds  ("  col- 
legia opificum  ")  the  vain  and  mischievous  attempt 
to  regulate  wages  and  prices.  On  the  other  hand 
a  few  cities  had  what  was  called  the  Jus  Italicum, 
or  right  to  form  a  free  corporation,  in  every  respect 

1  Gives  optimo  iure,  optimates,  seuatus,  patricii,  raclrinburgi,  boni 
homines, — these  are  all  more  or  less  equivalent  terms. 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  277 

identical  with  those  of  the  cities  of  Italy,  that  is  to 
say  identical  in  plan  with  that  of  Home  itself.  The 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  must  have  con- 
tained many  of  these  privileged  states  which  thus 
enjoyed  a  valuable  pre-eminence  over  their  neigh- 
bours, the  reward  of  public  services  :  but  history 
has  been  sparing  of  their  names,  and  in  western 
Europe,  three  only,  Cologne,  Vienne  and  Lyons  are 
particularly  mentioned1.  In  all  the  cities  which 
had  not  this  privilege,  after  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century  we  find  a  particular  officer  called  the  De- 
fensor,  who  was  not  to  be  one  of  the  curiales,  who 
was  to  be  elected  by  the  whole  body  of  the  citizens 
and  not  by  the  curiales  only,  and  who  must  there- 
fore be  looked  upon  in  a  great  degree  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  popular  against  the  aristocratic 
element,  as  the  support  of  the  Gives  against  the 
Seriatus  and  Duumvir.  In  the  cities  of  Gaul,  the 
bishops  for  the  most  part  occupied  this  position, 
which  necessarily  led  to  results  of  the  highest  im- 
portance, from  the  peculiar  relation  in  which  it 
placed  them  to  the  barbarian  invaders2.  From  all 
these  details  it  appears  that  very  different  measures 
of  municipal  freedom  were  granted  under  different 
circumstances. 

We  have  considered  the  general  principles  of 
Roman  provincial  government,  and  we  now  ask, 
how  were  these  applied  in  the  case  of  Britain  ?  The 


1  Savigny,  Rom.  Recht.  i.  53. 

2  The  Bishops  were  the  most  valuable  allies  of  Olovis  in  his  aggres- 
sive wars.  Without  their  co-operation  that  savage  Merwing  would  per- 
haps never  have  established  the  Franldsh  pre-eminence  in  the  Gauls. 


278  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

answer  is  much  more  difficult  to  give  than  might 
be  imagined.  Wealthy  as  this  country  was,  and 
capable  of  conducing  to  the  power  and  well-being 
of  its  masters,  it  seems  never  to  have  received  a 
generous,  or  even  fair  treatment  from  them.  The 
Briton  was  to  the  last,  as  at  the  first,  u  penitus  toto 
divisus  orbe  Britannus,"  and  his  land,  always 
"  ultima  Thule,"  was  made  indeed  to  serve  the  ava- 
rice or  ambition  of  the  ruler,  but  derived  little  bene- 
fit to  itself  from  the  rule.  "  Levies,  Corn,  Tribute, 
Mortgages,  Slaves  " — under  these  heads  was  Bri- 
tain entered  in  the  vast  ledger  of  the  Empire.  The 
Koman  records  do  not  tell  us  much  of  the  details 
of  government  here,  and  we  may  justly  say  that  we 
are  more  familiar  with  the  state  of  an  eastern  or 
an  Iberian  city  than  we  are  with  that  of  a  British 
one.  A  few  technical  words,  perfectly  significant 
to  a  people  who,  above  all  others,  symbolized  a 
long  succession  of  facts  under  one  legal  term,  are 
all  that  remain  to  us;  and  unfortunately  the  jurists 
and  statesmen  and  historians  whose  works  we  pain- 
fully consult  in  hopes  of  rescuing  the  minutest 
detail  of  our  early  condition,  are  satisfied  with  the 
use  of  general  terms  which  were  perfectly  intelli- 
gible to  those  for  whom  they  wrote,  but  teach  us 
little.  "  Ostorius  Scapula  reduced  the  hither  Bri- 
tain to  the  form  of  a  province1," — conveyed  ample 
information  to  those  who  took  the  institutions  of 
the  Empire  for  granted  wherever  its  eagles  flew 

1  "  Consularium  primus  Aulus  Plautius  praepositus,  ac  subinde  Os- 
torius Scapula;  uterque  bello  egregius :  redactaque  paulatim  in  fornaam 
provinciae  proxima  pars  Britanniae."  Tac.  Agric.  xiv. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  279 

abroad :  to  us  they  are  nearly  vain  words,  a  de- 
tailed explanation  of  which  would  be  valuable  be- 
yond all  calculation,  for  it  would  contain  the  se- 
cret of  the  weakness  and  the  sudden  collapse  of 
the  Empire.  But  what  little  we  can  gather  from 
ancient  sources  does  not  induce  us  to  believe  that 
Britain  met  with  a  just  or  enlightened  measure  of 
treatment  at  the  hands  of  her  victors.  Violence 
on  the  one  hand,  seduction  on  the  other,  were  em- 
ployed to  destroy  the  spirit  of  resistance,  but  we 
do  not  learn  that  submission  and  docility  were  re- 
warded by  the  communication  of  a  fair  share  of 
those  advantages  which  spring  from  peace  and  cul- 
tivation. Agricola,  whose  information  his  severe 
and  accomplished  son-in-law  must  be  considered 
to  reproduce,  tells  us  that,  on  the  whole,  the  Bri- 
tons were  not  difficult  subjects  to  rule,  as  long  as 
they  were  not  insulted  by  a  capricious  display  of 
power :  "  The  Britons  themselves  are  not  backward 
in  raising  the  levies  and  taxes,  or  filling  the  offices  \ 
if  they  are  only  not  exposed  to  insult  in  doing  it. 
Insult  they  will  not  submit  to ;  for  we  have  beaten 
them  into  obedience,  but  by  no  means  yet  into 

1  Agric.  xiii.  Offices  under  the  Empire  were  honores  or  munera:  the 
former,  places  of  dignity  and  some  power,  duumvirates  and  the  like : 
the  latter,  places  of  much  labour  and  great  responsibility,  coupled  with 
but  little  distinction.  The  condition  of  a  decurion  already  described 
will  give  some  notion  of  a  munus ;  and  it  is  a  painful  thing  to  find 
Tacitus  implying  that  the  munera  were  troublesome  and  repulsive 
offices  at  so  early  a  period  5  for  this  is  clearly  his  meaning  :  he  evi- 
dently intends  to  compliment  the  Keltic  population  on  a  disposition  to 
behave  well,  if  their  Roman  task-masters  will  only  be  content  not  to 
add  insult  to  injury.  The  case  would  be  nearly  parallel  if  we' made 
Heki  a  petty  constable,  and  then  held  him  responsible  when  a  New- 
Zealand  outlaw  stole  a  sheep  or  burnt  out  a  missionary. 


280.  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

slavery."  In  this  peaceable  disposition  Agricola 
saw  the  readiest  means  of  producing  a  complete  and 
radical  subjection  to  Eome;  and  on  this  basis  he 
formed  his  plan  of  rendering  resistance  powerless. 
He  entirely  relinquished  the  forcible  method  of  his 
predecessors  and  applied  himself  to  break  down  the 
national  spirit  by  the  spreading  of  foreign  arts  and 
luxuries  among  the  people ;  judging  rightly  that 
the  seductive  allurements  of  ease  and  cultivation 
would  ere  long  prove  more  efficient  and  less  costly 
instruments  than  the  constant  and  dangerous  ex- 
ercise of  military  coercion.  "  Those  who  did  not 
deeply  sound  the  purposes  of  men,  called  this  civili- 
zation ;  but  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  slavery  itself1." 
Temples  there  were,  fora,  porticoes,  baths  and 
luxurious  feasts,  Homan  manners  and  Roman  vices, 
and  to  support  them  loans,  usurious  mortgages  and 
ruin.  But  we  seek  in  vain  for  any  evidence  of  the 
Romanized  Britons  having  been  employed  in  any 
offices  of  trust  or  dignity,  or  permitted  to  share  in 
the  really  valuable  results  of  civilization :  there  is 
no  one  Briton  recorded  of  whom  we  can  confidently 

1  "Sequenshyems  saluberrimis  consiliis  absumpta :  namque,ut  homi- 
nes dispersi  ac  rudes,  eoque  in  bella  faciles,  quieti  et  otio  per  voluptates 
adsuescerent,  hortari  privatim,  adiuvare  publice,  uttempla,  fora,  domus 
exstruerent,  laudando  promtos  et  castigando  segnes :  ita  honoris  aemu- 
latio  pro  necessitate  erat.  lam  vero  principum  filios  liberalibus  arti- 
bus  erudire,  et  ingenia  Britannorum  studiis  Gallorum  anteferre,  ut  qui 
modo  linguam  Romanam  abnuebant,  eloquentiam  concupiscerent.  Inde 
etiam  habitus  nostri  honor  et  frequens  toga  :  paullatimque  discessum 
ad  delinimenta  vitioruin,  porticus  et  balnea  et  convivioruni  elegan- 
tiam :  idque  apud  imperitos  humanitas  vocabatur,  cum  pars  servitutis 
esset."  Tac.  Agric.  xxi.  "  Quaedam  ciyitates  Oogidumno  regi  donatae 

vetere  ac  iam  pridem  recepta  populi  Romani  consuetudine,  ut 

haberet  instrumenta  servitutis  et  reges."  Agric.  xiv. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  281 

assert  that  he  held  any  position  of  dignity  and 
power  under  the  imperial  rule :  the  historians,  the 
geographers,  nay  even  the  novelists  (who  so  often 
supply  incidental  notices  of  the  utmost  interest),  are 
here  consulted  in  vain ;  nor  in  the  many  inscrip- 
tions which  we  possess  relating  to  Britain,  can  we 
point  out  one  single  British  name.  The  caution  of 
Augustus  and  Tiberius  had  from  the  first  detected 
the  difficulties  which  would  attend  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  Koman  authority  in  Britain :  the  feel- 
ing at  home  was,  that  it  would  be  much  more  pro- 
fitable to  raise  a  small  revenue  in  Gaul  upon  the 
British  exports  and  imports,  than  to  attempt  to 
draw  tribute  from  the  island,  which  would  require 
a  considerable  military  force  for  its  collection1. 
During  their  administration  therefore  the  island 
was  left  undisturbed ;  and  even  after  Claudius  had 
relinquished  this  wise  moderation,  and  engaged  the 
Roman  arms  in  a  career  of  unceasing  struggles, 
Nero  felt  anxious  to  abandon  a  conquest  which  pro- 
mised little  to  the  state  and  could  only  be  main- 
tained by  the  most  exhausting  efforts.  That  this 

1  Strabo  calculated  it  at  not  less  than  one  legion,  the  cost  of  which 
establishment  could  hardly  fail  to  swallow  up  all  the  profit.  Nwi  pcv- 
Tot  TU>V  dvvacrTtov  rives  TWV  avTodi,  7rp€cr(3evo'€(ri  Kal  6epa7reiais  KaracrKev- 
acrd^€VOL  TTJV  irpbs  Kaicrapa  TOV  Se/Saaroz/  (piXiai/,  dva6r]p.ard  re  avtOrjKav 
ev  r<3  KaTrercoXicp,  KOI  oiKeiav  a^e^ov  TI  Trapeovceuacrai'  Tols'Pa>p.ai.ois  SXrjv  TTJV 
vrjcrov'  reX^  re  ovTrcas  t>7rop,eVoucri  jBapea  rS)i>  re  et(rayo/>ieVa>i>  eis  rrjv 
KeArtKj)i>  fKeWev  Kal  r5)v  e'^ayo/zeVcov  evdevde  (ravra  S'  ecrrlv  eXefpavriva 
x^aXia,  Kal  TTfpiav%evia}  Kal  Xvyyovpta,  KOL  uaXa  crKevr),  Kal  aXXoy  pwTros 
TOIOVTOS}  cotrre  p.r)dei>  8elv  (ppovpds  TTJS  vrjcrov'  TOv\d^i(rTov  fj.€V  yap  evos 
rdynaros  XP11&1  av  Ka-*-  'wn'iKov  TIVOS,  cocrre  K.OL  (foopovs  dndyecrdai  Trap' 
avTfov'  els  'i(Tov  6e  Kadiararo  TTO.V  TO  dvd\(op.a  rfj  crrparta  roij  7rpo(T(pepo/Lie- 
vois  xprjjjiaaiv'  dvdyKrj  yap  fjLeiov(rdai  ra  re'X?;  (popwv  eirif$a\\6p€V&V)  ap.a 
8e  Kal  Kivftvvovs  cnravTav  nvas,  /Stay  e'Trayo^ei/^y.  Geogr.  lib.  iv.  Cap.  5?  §  3. 


282  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

reasonable  object  was  defeated  in  part  by  the  vanity 
of  the  Romans  themselves  is  probable l :  but  a  more 
cogent  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  interests  of  the 
noble  usurers,  of  which  we  have  seen  so  striking 
an  example  in  the  philosophical  Seneca.  Against 
such  motives  even  the  moderation  and  justice  of  an 
Agricola  could  avail  but  little :  and  after  his  recall 
and  disgrace  by  Domitian,  it  is  easy  to  imagine 
that  the  Eoman  officials  here  would  not  be  too 
anxious  by  their  good  government  to  attain  a  dan- 
gerous popularity.  Selfish  and  thoroughly  unprin- 
cipled as  the  Eoman  government  was  in  all  its  de- 
pendencies, it  is  little  to  be  thought  that  it  would 
manifest  any  unusual  tenderness  in  this  distant, 
unprofitable  and  little  known  possession  :  and  I 
think  we  cannot  entertain  the  least  doubt  that  the 
condition  of  the  British  aborigines  was  from  the 
first  one  of  oppression,  and  was  to  the  very  last 
a  mere  downward  progress  from  misery  to  misery. 
But  such  a  system  as  this — ruinous  to  the  con- 
quered, and  beneficial  even  to  the  conquerors  only 
as  long  as  they  could  maintain  the  law  of  force — 
had  no  inherent  vitality.  It  rested  upon  a  crime, — 
a  sin  which  in  no  time  or  region  has  the  providence 
of  the  Almighty  blessed, — the  degradation  of  one 
class  on  pretext  of  benefiting  another.  And  as 
the  sin,  so  was  also  the  retribution.  The  Empire 
itself  might  have  endured  here,  had  the  Eomans 


1  "  Augendi  propagandise  imperil  neque  voluntate  ulla  neque  spe 
motus  unquam,  etiam  ex  Britannia  deducere  exercitum  cogitavit :  nee 
nisi  verecundia,  ne  obtrectare  parentis  gloriae  videretur,  destitit."  Sue- 
ton,  vi.  18. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  283 

taught  the  Britons  to  be  men,  and  reconstituted  a 
vigorous  state  upon  that  basis,  in  the  hour  of  ruin, 
when  province  after  province  was  torn  away  from 
the  city,  and  the  curse  of  an  irresponsible  will  in 
feeble  hands  was  felt  through  every  quarter  of  the 
convulsed  and  distracted  body.  But  the  Britons 
had  been  taught  the  arts  and  luxuries  of  cultivation 
that  they  might  be  enervated.  Disarmed,  except 
when  a  jealous  policy  called  for  levies  to  be  drafted 
into  distant  armies, — congregated  into  cities  on  the 
Roman  plan,  that  they  might  forget  the  dangerous 
freedom  of  their  forests, — attracted  to  share  and 
emulate  the  feasts  of  the  victors,  that  they  might 
learn  to  abhor  the  hard  but  noble  fare  of  a  squalid 
liberty, — supported  and  encouraged  in  internal  war, 
that  union  might  not  bring  strength,  and  that  the 
Roman  slave-dealer  might  not  lack  the  objects  of 
his  detestable  traffic, — how  should  they  develop 
the  manly  qualities  on  which  the  greatness  of  a 
nation  rests  I  How  should  they  be  capable  of  in- 
dependent being,  who  had  only  been  trained  as 
instruments  for  the  ambition,  or  victims  to  the 
avarice,  of  others'?  To  crown  all,  their  beautiful 
daughters  might  serve  to  amuse  the  softer  hours 
of  their  lordly  masters ;  but  there  was  to  be  no 
connubium,  and  thus  a  half-caste  race  inevitably 
arose  among  them,  growing  up  with  all  the  vices 
of  the  victors,  all  the  disqualifications  of  the  van- 
quished. Nor  under'  such  circumstances  can  po- 
pulation follow  a  healthy  course  of  development, 
and  a  hardy  race  be  produced  to  recruit  the  power 
and  increase  the  resources  of  the  state.  No  price 


284 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


is  indeed  too  great  to  pay  for  civilization, — the 
root  of  all  individual  and  national  power;  but 
mere  cultivation  may  easily  be  purchased  far  too 
dearly.  It  is  not  worth  its  cost  if  it  is  obtained 
only  by  the  sacrifice  of  all  that  makes  life  itself  of 
value. 

Such,  upon  the  severest  and  most  impartial  exa- 
mination of  the  facts  which  we  possess,  seems  to 
me  to  have  been  the  condition  of  the  British  popu- 
lation under  the  Eomans.  No  otherwise  can  we 
even  plausibly  account  for  the  instantaneous  col- 
lapse of  the  imperial  authority :  it  fell,  with  one 
vast  and  sudden  ruin,  the  moment  the  artificial 
supports  upon  which  it  relied,  were  removed.  Had 
Britain  not  been  utterly  exhausted  by  mal-admini- 
stration,  had  there  remained  men  to  form  a  reserve, 
and  resources  to  victual  an  army,  the  last  com- 
mander who  received  the  mandate  of  recall,  would 
probably  have  thrown  off  his  allegiance,  and  pro- 
claimed himself  a  competitor  for  empire.  Many 
tried  the  perilous  game  ;  all  lost  it,  because  the 
country  was  incapable  of  furnishing  the  means  to 
maintain  a  contest:  and  in  the  meanwhile,  the 
Saxons  proceeded  to  settle  the  question  in  their 
own  way.  As  such  a  state  of  society  supplied  no 
materials  for  the  support  of  the  Roman  power,  so 
it  furnished  no  elements  of  self-subsistence  when 
that  power  was  removed ;  when  that  hour  at  length 
arrived,  the  possibility  of  which  the  overweening  con- 
fidence in  the  fortune  of  the  city  had  never  conde- 
scended to  contemplate.  Before  the  eyes  of  all  the 
nations,  and  amidst  the  ruins  of  a  world  falling  to 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  285 

pieces  in  confusion,  was  this  awful  lesson  written 
in  gigantic  characters  by  the  hand  of  God — that 
authority  which  rules  ill,  which  rules  for  its  own 
selfish  ends  alone,  is  smitten  with  weakness,  and 
shall  not  endure.     It  was  then  that  a  long-delayed, 
but  not  the  less  awful  retribution  burst  at  last  upon 
the  enfeebled  empire.    Goth  and  Vandal,  Frank  and 
Sueve  and  Saxon  lacerated  its  defenceless  frontiers  ; 
the  terrible  Attila — the  Scourge  of  God — ravaged 
with   impunity  its  fairest  provinces ;    the    eternal 
city  itself  twice  owed  its  safety  to  the  superstition 
or  the  contemptuous  mercy  of  the  barbarians  whose 
forefathers  had  trembled  at  its  name  even  in  the 
depths  of  their  forest  fastnesses ;  the  legions,  un- 
able to  maintain  themselves,  and  called — but  called 
in  vain — to  defend  a  state    perishing  by  its  own 
corruptions,  left  Britain  exposed  to  the  attack  of 
fierce  and  barbarous  enemies  that  thronged  on  every 
side.     Without  arms  and  discipline,   and  what  is 
far    more    valuable  than  these,  the  spirit  of  self- 
reliance  and  faith  in  the  national  existence,  the  Bri- 
tons perished  as  they  stood :   bowing  to  the  ine- 
vitable   fate,    they    passed    only    from    one    class 
of  task-masters    to    another,    and    slowly  mingled 
with    the  masses  of  the   new  conquerors,  or  fell 
in  ill-conducted    and  hopeless  resistance  to  their 
progress. 

The  Keltic  laws  and  monuments  themselves  sup- 
ply conclusive  evidence  of  the  justice  of  these 
general  observations.  Throughout  all  the  ages 
during  which  these  populations  were  in  immediate 
contact  with  Kome,  not  a  single  ray  of  Keltic  na- 


286  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

tionality  is  able  to  penetrate.  It  is  only  among  the 
mountains  of  the  Cymri,  a  savage  race,  as  little 
subjugated  by  the  Eomans,  as  even  to  this  moment 
by  ourselves,  that  a  trace  of  that  nationality  is  to 
be  found.  There  indeed,  guarded  by  fortresses 
which  nature  itself  made  impregnable,  the  heart- 
blood  of  Keltic  society  was  allowed  to  beat ;  and 
the  barbarians  whom  policy  affected  or  luxury  could 
aiford  to  despise,  grew  up  in  an  independence,  fea- 
tures of  which  we  can  still  recognize  in  their  legal 
and  poetical  remains.  The  pride  of  the  invaders 
might  be  soothed  by  the  erection  of  a  few  castra,  or 
praesidia  or  castella  in  the  Welsh  marches ;  the  iti- 
nerary of  an  emperor  might  finish  in  a  commercial 
city  on  the  Atlantic ;  but  in  Wales  the  Romans  had 
hardly  a  foot  of  ground  which  they  did  not  over- 
shadow with  the  lines  of  their  fortresses  ;  and  to 
the  least  instructed  eye,  the  chain  of  fortified 
posts  which  guard  every  foot  of  ground  to  the  east 
of  the  Severn  tells  of  a  contemplated  retreat  and 
defence  upon  the  base  of  that  strong  line  of  en- 
trenchments. 

And  yet  how  insufficient  are  the  laws  and  triads 
of  the  Cymri  in  point  of  mere  antiquity !  Let  us 
do  all  honour  to  the  praiseworthy  burst  of  Keltic 
patriotism  which  has  revived  in  our  day :  let  us 
even  concede  that  some  few  of  the- triads  may  carry 
us  back  to  the  sixth  century :  yet  the  earliest 
Cymric  laws  of  which  the  slightest  trace  can  be 
discovered,  are  those  of  Hywel  in  the  tenth.  And 
even,  if  with  a  courteous  desire  to  do  justice  to 
the  subject,  we  admit  the  historical  existence  of  the 


en.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  287 

fabulous  Dynwall  and  fabulous  Marcia1,  who  has 
even  insinuated  that  a  single  sentence  of  their 
codes  survive ;  or  that,  if  even  if  such  existed,  they 
had  currency  a  single  foot  to  the  eastward  of  the 
Severn]  Who  can  imagine  that  such  laws  ever 
had  authority  beyond  the  boundaries  of  a  solitary 
sept,  more  fortunate  than  the  rest,  inasmuch  as 
its  record  has  not,  like  those  of  others,  perished  I 

More  directly  to  the  purpose  is  the  information 
we  derive  from  Gildas,  whose  patriotism  is  beyond 
suspicion,  and  whose  antiquity  gives  his  assertions 
some  claim  to  our  respect2.  He  tells  us  that  on 
the  final  departure  of  the  Komans,  including  the 
armatus  miles,  militares  copiae,  and  rector es  immanes 
(by  which  last  words  he  may  possibly  intend  the 
civil  officers  called  rectores  provinciarum),  Britain 
was  omnis  belli  usu  penitus  iynara,  utterly  ignorant 
of  the  practice  of  war3 :  the  island  was  consequently 
soon  overrun  by  predatory  bands  of  Picts  and 
Scots  whose  ravages  reduced  the  inhabitants  to  the 
extremest  degree  of  misery :  and  these  incursions 
were  followed  at  no  great  interval  of  time  by  so 
violent  a  pestilence  that  the  living  were  hardly 
numerous  enough  to  bury  the  dead4.  Then  having 

1  We  may  leave  those,  if  any  such  there  be,  who  still  think  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth  an  authority,  to  cite  his  proofs  that  Dynwall  Moelmwd 
flourished  four  centuia.es  before  Christ ;  and  that  the  Mercian  laws  of 
Offa,  quoted  by  Alfred,  were  those  of  the  British  princess  Marcia. 

2  Gildas  probably  wrote  within  two  centuries  of  the  time  when  the 
Romans  left  Britain.     Two  hundred  years  it  is  true  offer  a  large  mar- 
gin for  imagination,  especially  when  it  is  Keltic,  and  employed  about 
national  history  :  but  Gildas's  report,  credible  in  itself,  is  confirmed 

by  other  evidence. 

3  Gild.  Hist.  xiv.  4  Ibid.  xxii. 


288  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

briefly  noticed  the  savage  invasion  of  the  Saxons, 
and  a  defeat  which  he  says  they  sustained  at  Bath, 
and  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  given  them  by 
Arthur  in  the  year  520,  he  thus  continues :  "  But 
not  even  now,  as  before,  are  the  cities  of  my 
country  inhabited ;  deserted  and  destroyed,  they 
lie  neglected  even  unto  this  day  :  for  civil  wars  con- 
tinue, though  foreign  wars  have  ceased1."  We  can 
easily  imagine  that  a  nation  in  anything  like  the 
state  which  Gildas  describes,  might  suffer  severely 
from  the  brigandage  of  banditti  in  the  interior; 
and  on  the  frontier,  from  raids  and  forays  of  the 
Picts  and  Scots.  Attacks  which  even  the  disciplined 
soldiery  of  Rome  found  it  necessary  to  bridle  by 
means  of  such  structures  as  the  walls  of  Hadrian, 
Antonine  and  Severus,  must  have  had  terror  enough 
for  a  disarmed  and  disheartened  population ;  nor 
is  it  in  the  least  degree  improbable  that  the  univer- 
sal disorder,  the  withdrawal  of  the  legions  and  some 
new  immigration  of  Teutonic  adventurers  set  in 
motion  populations,  which  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  had  hitherto  rested  quietly  under  the  no- 
minal control  of  the  Roman  arms.  But  still  it  is 
not  without  surprise  that  we  notice  the  absence 
of  all  evidence  that  the  Britons  even  attempted  to 
maintain  the  cities  the  Romans  had  left  them,  or 
to  make  a  vigorous  defence  behind  their  solid  for- 
tifications, inexpugnable  one  would  think  by  rude 
undisciplined  assailants.  It  is  true,  we  are  told  that 

1  Gild.  Hist.  xxvi.  Foreign  wars,  those  of  the  Britons  and  Saxons  ; 
— Civil  wars,  those  of  the  Britons  among  themselves  j  perhaps  those 
of  the  Saxon  kings. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  289 

in  half  a  century  England  had  gone  entirely  out  of 
cultivation,  and  that  the  land  had  again  become 
covered  with  forests  which  alone  supplied  food  for 
the  inhabitants  l :  but  if  this  were  really  the  case 
—and  it  is  not  entirely  improbable — it  can  only 
have  had  the  effect  of  driving  the  population  into 
the  cities.  That  these  were  to  a  great  extent  still 
standing  in  the  fifth  century  is  certain,  since  Gil- 
das,  in  the  sixth,  represents  them  as  deserted  and 
decaying ;  that  the  Saxons  found  them  yet  entire 
is  obvious  ;  in  the  tenth  and  twelfth  centuries  their 
ancient  grandeur  attracted  the  attention  of  ob- 
servant historians 2  ;  and  even  yet  their  remains 


1  "  Nam  laniant  seipsos  mutuo,  nee  pro  exigui  victus  brevi  sustenta- 
culo  miserrimorum  civium  latrocinaudo  teinperabant :  et  augebantur 
extraneae  clades  domesticis  motibus,  quo  et  huiusmodi  crebris  direp- 
tionibus  vacuaretur  omnis  regio  totius  cibi  baculo,  excepto  venatoriae 
artis  solatio."    Gild.  xix.     Half  a  century  in  an  unexhausted  soil  is 
ample  time  to  convert  the  most  nourishing  district  into  thick  brushwood 
and  impervious  bush.    Beech  and  fir,  which,  though  said  by  Strabo  to 
be  not  indigenous,  must  have  been  plentiful  in  the  fifth  century,  do 
not  require  fifty  years  to  become  large  trees :  the  elm,  alder  and  even 
oak  are  well-sized  growths  at  that  age.    Even  thorn,  maple  and  bramble 
with  such  a  course  before  them  are  very  capable  of  making  an  impo- 
sing wilderness  of  underwood. 

2  ./ESelweard  says  of  the  Romans :    "  Urbes  etiam  atque  castella, 
necnon  pontes  plateasque  mirabili  ingenio  condideruntj  quae  usque  in 
hodiernam  diem  videntur."   Chron.  lib.  i.     And  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  argues  how  greatly  the  Romans  valued  Britain  from  the  vast 
remains  of  their  buildings  extant  when  he  wrote.     "  Romani  Britan- 
niam ....  magna  dignatione  coluere ;  ut  et  in  annalibus  legere,  et  in  ve- 
terum  aedificiorum  vestigiis  est  videre."  Gest.  Reg.  lib.  i.  cap.  1.     The 
following  is  his  account  of  the  state  in  which  the  island  was  left :  "  Ita 
cum  tyranni  nullurn  in  agris  praeter  semibarbaros,  nullum  in  urbibus 
praeter  ventri  deditos  reliquissent,  Britannia  omni  patrocinio  iuvenilis 
vigoris  viduata,  omni  exercitio  artium  exinanita,  conterminarum  gen- 
tium inhiationi  diu  obnoxia  fuit.     Siquidem,  e  vestigio,  Scottorum  et 
Pictorum  incursione  multi  mortales  caesi,  villae  succensae,  urbes  sub 

VOL.  II.  U 


290  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

testify  to  the  astonishing  skill  and  foresight  of 
their  builders.  I  cannot  therefore  but  believe  that 
Britain  really  was,  as  described,  disarmed  and  dis- 
heartened, and  most  probably  so  depopulated  as  to 
be  incapable  of  any  serious  defence :  a  condition 
which  throws  a  hideous  light  upon  the  nature  of 
the  Roman  rule  and  the  practices  of  Roman  civi- 
lized life. 

It  is  highly  improbable  that  any  large  number 
of  the  Roman  towns  perished  during  the  harassing 
period  within  which  the  Pictish  invasions  fall,  at  all 
events  by  violent  means.  The  marauding  forays  of 
such  barbarians  are  not  accompanied  with  battering 
trains  or  supported  by  the  skilful  combinations  of 
an  experienced  commissariat :  wandering  banditti 
have  neither  the  means  to  destroy  such  masonry  as 
the  Romans  erected,  the  time  to  execute,  nor  in 
general  the  motive  to  form  such  plans  of  subver- 
sion. One  or  two  cities  may  possibly  have  fallen 

rutae,  prorsus  omnia  ferro  incendioque  vastata ;  turbati  insulani,  qui 
omnia  tutiora  putarent  quam  praelio  decernere,  partim  pedibus  salutem 
quaerentes  fuga  in  montana  contendunt,  partim  sepultis  thesauris, 
quorum  plerique  in  hac  aetate  defodiuntur,  Romam  ad  petendas  sup- 
petias  intendunt."  Gest.  Reg.  lib.  i.  cap.  2,  3.  But  Rome  had  then 
enough  to  do  to  defend  herself,  for.  those  were  the  days  of  Alaric  and 
Attila.  The  emptying  the  island  of  all  the  fighting  men  by  Maximus 
is  a  very  ancient  fiction.  Archbishop  Usher  makes  him  carry  over  to 
the  continent  thirty  thousand  soldiers,  and  one  hundred  thousand 
plebeii,  which  have  settled  in  Armorica.  Antiq.  Eccles.  Brittan.  pp.  107, 
108.  We  may  admit  the  number  of  the  soldiery  ;  the  Roman  force, 
with  the  levies,  probably  amounted  to  as  many.  But  who  were  the 
plebeii?  Beda  gives  a  similar  account  of  the  condition  of  Britain :  "Exin 
Brittania,  in  parte  Brittonum,  omni  armato  milite,  militaribus  copiis 
universis,  tota  floridae  iuventutis  alacritate,  spoliata,  quae  tyrannorum 
temeritate  abducta  nusquam  ultra  domum  rediit,  praedae  tantum  patuit, 
utpote  omnis  bellici  usus  prorsus  ignara."  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  12.  cf.  Gild.  xiv. 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  291 

under  the  furious  storm  of  the  Saxons,  and  Ande- 
rida  is  recorded  to  have  done  so :  more  than  this 
seems  to  me  unlikely :  Keltic  populations  have  ge- 
nerally been  found  capable  of  making  a  very  good 
defence  behind  walls,  in  spite  of  the  ridiculous 
accounts  which  Gildas  gives  of  their  ineffectual  re- 
sistance to  the  Picts 1.  The  Roman  cities  perished, 
it  is  true,  but  by  a  far  slower  and  surer  process 
than  that  of  violent  disruption ;  they  crumbled 
away  under  the  hand  of  time,  the  ruinous  conse- 
quences of  neglect,  and  the  operation  of  natural 
causes,  which  science  finds  no  difficulty  in  assign- 
ing. We  may  believe  that  the  gradual  impoverish- 
ment of  the  land  had  driven  the  population  to 
crowd  into  cities,  even  before  the  retreat  of  the 
legions  ;  and  that  the  troublous  era  of  the  tyrants2 
completely  emptied  the  country  into  the  towns. 
But  even  if  we  suppose  that  citizens  remained  and, 
what  is  rather  an  extravagant  supposition,  that 
they  remained  undisturbed  in  their  old  seats,  we 


1  According  to  him,  the  Britons  suffered  the  Picts  to  pull  them  off 
the  wall  with  long  hooks.  "  Statuitur  ad  haec  in  edito  arcis  acies,  segnis 
ad  pugnam,  inhabilis  ad  fugam,  trementibus  praecordiis  inepta,  quae 
diebus  ac  noctibus  stupido  sedili  marcebat.     Interea  non  cessant  unci- 
nata  nudoruni  tela,  quibus  misenimi  cives  de  muris  tracti  solo  allide- 
bautur."  Gild.  xix.    Beda  copies  this  statement  almost  verbatim.  Hist. 
Eccl.  i.  12. 

2  Britain  was  at  last,  even  as  at  first,  fertilis  tyrannorum :  and  in  the 
agony  which  preceded  her  dissolution  more  so  than  ever.    Aurelius 
Ambrosius,  if  a  Briton  at  all,  is  said  to  have  been  bom  of  parents  pur- 

pura  induti :  and  this  is  possible  at  a  period  when  it  was  unknown  to 
contemporary  writers  whether  a  partizan  were  imperator  or  only  latrun- 
cuhis.  But  I  suspect  that  there  were  not  many  Britons  of  rank,  or 
importance  in  any  way,  in  the  fifth  century,  in  those  parts  of  the  island 
where  the  Romans  held  sway. 

u2 


292 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


BOOK  II. 


shall  find  that  there  are  obvious  reasons  why  they 
could  not  maintain  themselves  therein.  There  are 
conditions  necessary  to  the  very  existence  of  towns, 
and  without  which  it  is  impossible  that  they  should 
continue  to  endure.  They  must  have  town-lands, 
and  they  must  have  manufactures  and  trade :  in 
other  words  they  must  either  grow  bread  or  buy  it  : 
but  to  this  end  they  must  have  the  means  of  safe 
and  ready  communication  with  country  districts, 
or  with  other  towns  which  have  this.  It  matters 
not  whether  that  communication  be  by  the  sea,  as 
in  the  case  of  Tyre  and  Carthage  l ;  over  the  desert, 
as  at  Bagdad  and  Aleppo ;  down  the  river  or  canal, 
along  the  turnpike  road,  or  yet  more  compendious 
railway :  easy  and  safe  communication  is  the  con- 
dition sine  qua  non,  of  urban  existence. 

Let  us  apply  these  principles  to  the  case  before 
us.  Even  supposing  that  Gildas  and  other  authors 
have  greatly  exaggerated  the  state  of  rudeness  into 
which  the  country  had  fallen,  yet  we  may  be  cer- 
tain that  one  of  the  very  first  results  of  a  general 
panic  would  be  the  obstruction  of  the  ancient  roads 
and  established  modes  of  communication.  It  is 
certain  that  this  would  be  followed  at  first  by  a 
considerable  desertion  of  the  towns;  since  every 
one  would  anxiously  strive  to  secure  that  by  which 
he  could  feed  himself  and  his  family  ;  in  preference 
to  continuing  in  a  place  which  no  longer  offered 

1  Athens,  though  shut  up  within  her  walls,  felt  little  inconvenience 
from  the  loss  of  her  corn-fields  and  vegetable  gardens,  while  her  fleet 
still  swept  the  JEgean.  She  fell  only  when  she  lost  the  dominion  of 
the  sea,  and  with  it  the  means  of  feeding  her  population. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  293 

any  advantages  beyond  those  of  temporary  defence 
and  shelter.  The  retirement  of  the  Romans,  emi- 
gration of  wealthy  aborigines,  general  discomfort 
and  disorganization  of  the  social  condition,  and 
ever  imminent  terror  of  invasion,  must  soon  have 
put  a  stop  to  those  commercial  and  manufacturing 
pursuits  which  are  the  foundation  of  towns  and 
livelihood  of  townspeople.  Internal  wars  and  merci- 
less factions  which  ever  haunt  the  closing  evening 
of  states,  increased  the  misery  of  their  condition ; 
and  a  frightful  pestilence,  by  Gildas  attributed  to 
the  superfluity  of  luxuries,  but  which  may  far  more 
probably  be  accounted  for  by  the  want  of  food, 
completed  the  universal  ruin. 

Still  even  those  who  fled  for  refuge  to  the  land, 
could  find  little  opportunity  of  improving  their 
situation  :  there  was  no  room  for  them  in  an  island 
which  was  thenceforward  to  be  organized  upon 
the  Teutonic  principles  of  association.  The  Saxons 
were  an  agricultural  and  pastoral  people :  they  re- 
quired land  for  their  alods, — forests,  marshes  and 
commons  for  their  cattle :  they  were  not  only  dan- 
gerous rivals  for  the  possession  of  those  estates 
which,  lying  near  the  cities,  were  probably  in  the 
highest  state  of  cultivation,  but  they  had  cut  off 
all  communication  by  extending  themselves  over 
the  tracts  which  lay  between  city  and  city.  But 
they  required  serfs  also,  and  these  might  now  be 
obtained  in  the  greatest  abundance  and  with  the 
greatest  security,  cooped  up  within  walls,  and  caught 
as  it  were  in  traps,  where  the  only  alternative  was 


294 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


the  extermination  of  its  inhabitants,  is  the  only  re- 
slavery  or  starvation l.  Nor  can  we  reasonably  ima- 
gine that  such  spoils  as  could  yet  be  wrested  from 
the  degenerate  inhabitants  were  despised  by  con- 
querors whose  principle  it  was  that  wealth  was  to 
be  won  at  the  spear's  point 2. 

No  doubt  the  final  triumph  of  the  Saxons  was 
not  obtained  entirely  without  a  struggle  :  here  and 
there  attempts  at  resistance  were  made,  but  never 
with  such  success  as  to  place  any  considerable  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  the  invaders.  Spirit-broken, 
and  reduced  both  in  number  and  condition,  the 
islanders  gradually  yielded  to  the  tempest;  and 
with  some  allowance  for  the  rhetorical  exaggeration 
of  the  historian,  Britain  did  present  a  picture  such 
as  Beda  and  Gildas  have  left.  Stronghold  after 
stronghold  fell,  less  no  doubt  by  storm  (which  the 
Saxons  were  in  general  not  prepared  to  effect)  than 
by  blockade,  or  in  consequence  of  victories  in  the 
open  field.  The  sack  of  Anderida  by  Aelli,  and 

1  if  Sic  enim  et  Me  agente  iinpio  victore,  immo  disponente  iusto  iu- 
dice,  proximas  quasque  civitates  agrosque  depopulans,  ab  oriental!  man 
usque  ad  occidentale,  nullo  prohibente,  suum  continuavit  incendium, 
totamque  prope  insulae  pereuntis  superticiem  obtexit.     Ruebant  aedi- 
ficia  publica  simul  et  privata,  passim  sacerdotes  inter  altaria  trucida- 
bantur,  praesules  cum  populis,  sine  ullo  respectu  honoris,  ferro  pariter 
et  flammis  absumebantur  ;  nee  erat  qui  crudeliter  interemptos  sepul- 
turae  traderet.     Itaque  nonnulli  de  miserandis  reliquiis,  in  montibus 
comprehensi  acervatini  iugulabantur ;  alii  fame  confecti  procedentes 
manus  hostibus  dabant,  pro  accipiendis  alimentorum  subsidiis  aeternuin 
subituri  servitium,  si  tamen  non  continue  trucidarentur  :  ali  transma- 
rinas  regiones  dolentes  petebant;  alii  perstantes  in  patria  pauperem 
vitam  in  montibus,  silvis  vel  rupibus  arduis,  suspecta  semper  mente, 
agebant."  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  15.     See  also  Gildas,  xxiv.  xxv. 

2  "  Mit  geru  seal  man  geba  infahan,"  with  the  spear  shall  men  win 
gifts.     Hiltibrants  Lied. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  295 

corded  instance  of  a  fortified  city  falling  by  violent 
breach,  and  in  this  case  so  complete  was  the  de- 
struction that  the  ingenuity  of  modern  enquirers 
has  been  severely  taxed  to  assign  the  ancient  site. 
But  when  we  are  told  1  that  Cu'Swulf,  by  defeating 
the  Britons  in  571  at  Bedford,  gained  possession  of 
Leighton  Buzzard,  Aylesbury,  Bensington  and  En- 
sham,  I  understand  it  only  of  a  wide  tract  of  land  in 
Bedfordshire,  Buckinghamshire,  and  Oxfordshire, 
which  had  previously  been  dependent  upon  towns 
in  those  several  districts2,  and  which  perished  in 
consequence.  Again  when  we  are  told  3  that  six 
years  later  Cu^wine  took  Bath,  and  Cirencester 
and  Gloucester,  the  statement  seems  to  me  only  to 
imply  that  he  cleared  the  land  from  the  confines  of 
Oxfordshire  to  the  Severn  and  southward  to  the 
Avon,  and  so  rendered  it  safely  habitable  by  his 
Teutonic  comrades  and  allies.  Thirty  years  later 
we  find  Northumbria  stretching  westward  till  the 
fall  of  Cair  Legion  became  necessary :  accordingly 
^E'Selfri'S  took  possession  of  Chester.  Its  present 
condition  is  evidence  enough  that  he  did  not  level 
it  with  the  ground,  or  in  any  great  degree  injure 
its  for ti cations. 

The  fact  has  been  already  noticed  that  the  Saxons 

1  Cliron.  Sax. 

2  It  seems  difficult  to  take  these  statements  au  pied  de  la  lettre. 
How  could  Cuftwulf  possibly  have  manoeuvred  such  a  force  as  he  com- 
manded, so  as  to  fight  at  Bedford,  if,  as  we  must  suppose,  he  marched 
from  Hampshire  or  Surrey  ?  How  in  fact  could  he  ever  reach  Bedford, 
leaving  Aylesbury  in  his  rear,  Bensington  and  Ensham  on  his  left  flank, 
if  those  places  were  capable  of  offering  any  kind  of  resistance  ?     If  they 
were  so,  we  must  admit  that  the  Britons  richly  merited  their  overthrow. 

3  Ohron.  Sax.  an.  577. 


293 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


did  not  themselves  adopt  the  Roman  cities,  and 
the  reason  for  the  course  they  pursued  has  been 
given.  They  did  not  want  them,  and  would  have 
been  greatly  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with 
them.  The  inhabitants  they  enslaved,  or  expelled 
as  a  mere  necessary  precaution  and  preliminary  to 
their  own  peaceable  occupation  of  the  land :  but 
they  neither  took  possession  of  the  towns,  nor  did 
they  give  themselves  the  trouble  to  destroy  them  1. 
They  had  not  the  motive,  the  means  or  perhaps  the 
patience  to  unbuild  what  we  know  to  have  been  so 
solidly  constructed.  Where  it  suited  their  purpose 
to  save  the  old  Roman  work,  they  used  it  for  their 
own  advantage:  where  it  did  not  suit  their  views 
of  convenience  or  policy  to  establish  themselves  on 
or  near  the  old  sites,  they  quietly  left  them  to  decay. 
There  is  not  even  a  probability  that  they  in  general 
took  the  trouble  to  dismantle  walls  or  houses  to 
assist  in  the  construction  of  their  own  rude  dwell- 
ings2. Boards  and  rafters,  much  more  easily  ac- 


1  Miiller,  in  his  treatise  on  the  Law  of  the  Salic  Franks,  expresses  the 
opinion  that  the  German  conquerors  always  destroyed  the  cities  which 
they  found.    But  the  arguments  which  he  adduces  appear  to  me  insuf- 
ficient in  themselves,  and  to  be  refuted  by  the  obvious  facts  of  the  case. 
See  his  Der  Lex  Salica  alter  und  Heimath,  p.  160,     The  passages  in 
Tacitus  (Germ,  xvi.)  and  Ammianus  (xvi.  2)  only  prove  that  the  Ger- 
mans did  not  themselves  like  living  in  cities,  which  no  one  disputes. 

2  This  was  left  for  later  and  more  civilized  times ;  witness  St.  Alban's 
massive  abbey,  one  of  the  largest  buildings  in  England,  constructed  al- 
most entirely  of  bond-tiles  from  ancient  Verulam.     Caen  stone  would 
probably  have  been  easier  got  and   cheaper:   but  labour-rents  must 
never  be  suffered  to  fall  in  arrear.     It  is  the  only  rent  which  cannot  be 
fetched  up.     Old  Verulam  was  first  dismantled  because  Ealdred,  a 
Saxon  abbot,  in  the  tenth  century  found  its  cellars  and  ruined  houses 
offered  an  asylum  to  bad  characters  of  either  sex :  so  runs  the  story. 


OH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  297 

cessible,  and  to  them  much  more  serviceable,  much 
more  easy  of  transport  than  stones  and  bond-tiles, 
they  very  likely  removed  :  the  storms,  the  dews, 
the  sunshine,  the  unperceived  and  gentle  action  of 
the  elements  did  the  rest, — for  desolation  marches 
with  giant  strides,  and  neglect  is  a  more  potent  le- 
veller than  military  engines.  Clogged  watercourses 
undermined  the  strong  foundations ;  decomposed 
stucco  or  the  detritus  of  stone  and  brick  mingled 
in  the  deserted  chambers  with  drifted  silt,  and  dust 
and  leaves ;  accumulations  of  soil  formed  in  and 
around  the  crumbling  abodes  of  wealth  and  power; 
winged  seeds,  borne  on  the  autumnal  winds,  sunk 
gently  on  a  new  and  vigorous  bed;  vegetation 
yearly  thickening,  yearly  dying,  prepared  the  genial 
deposit ;  roots  yearly  matting  deepened  the  crust ; 
the  very  sites  of  cities  vanished  from  the  memory 
as  they  had  vanished  from  the  eye ;  till  at  length 
the  plough  went  and  the  corn  waved,  as  it  now 
waves,  over  the  remains  of  palaces  and  temples  in 
which  the  once  proud  masters  of  the  world  had  re- 
velled and  had  worshipped,  Who  shall  say  in  how 
many  unsuspected  quarters  yet,  the  peasant  whistles 
careless  and  unchidden  above  the  pomp  and  luxury 
of  imperial  Eome ! 

Many  circumstances  combined  to  make  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  cities  of  Britain  and  those  of  the 
Gallic  continent.  The  latter  had  always  been  in 
nearer  relation  than  our  own  to  Eome :  they  had 
been  at  all  periods  permitted  to  enjoy  a  much 
greater  measure  of  municipal  freedom,  and  were 
enriched  by  a  more  extensive  commercial  inter- 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


course.  England  had  no  city  to  boast  of  so  free  as 
Lugdunum,  none  so  wealthy  as  Massilia.  Even  in 
the  time  of  the  Gallic  independence  they  had  been 
far  more  advanced  in  cultivation  than  the  cities  of 
the  Britons,  and  in  later  days  their  organization 
was  maintained  by  the  residence  of  Roman  bishops 
and  a  wealthy  body  of  clergy.  Nor  on  the  other 
hand  do  the  Franks  appear  to  have  been  very 
numerous  in  proportion  to  the  land,  a  sufficient 
amount  of  which  they  could  appropriate  without 
very  seriously  confining  the  urban  populations  : 
many  of  these  still  retained  their  communications 
with  the  sea:  and,  lastly,  before  the  conquerors, 
slowly  advancing  from  Belgium  through  Flanders, 
had  spread  themselves  throughout  the  populous 
and  wealthy  parts  of  Gaul,  their  chiefs  had  shown 
a  readiness  to  listen  to  the  exhortation  of  Chris- 
tian teachers,  to  enter  into  the  communion  of  the 
Church,  and  recognize  its  rights  and  laudable  cus- 
toms. So  that  in  general,  whether  among  the 
Lombards  in  Italy,  the  Goths  in  Aquitaine,  or  the 
Franks  in  Neustria,  there  was  but  little  reason  for 
a  violent  subversion,  or  even  gradual  ruin,  of  the 
ancient  cities.  In  these  the  old  subsisting  elements 
of  civilization  were  still  tolerated,  and  continued  to 
prevail  by  the  force  of  uninterrupted  usage.  More 
happy  than  the  demoralized  and  dispossessed  in- 
habitants of  Britain,  the  Roman  provincials  under 
the  Frankish  and  Langobardic  rule  were  still  nu- 
merous and  important  enough  to  retain  their  own 
laws,  and  the  most  of  their  own  customs.  Skilful 
in  the  character  of  counsellors  or  administrators, 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  299 

wealthy  and  enterprising  as  merchant-adventurers, 
dignified  and  influential  as  forming  almost  exclu- 
sively the  class  of  the  clergy,  they  still  retained 
their  old  seats,  under  the  protection  of  the  con- 
querors :  and  thus,  for  the  most  part  their  cities 
survived  the  conquest,  and  continued  under  their 
ancient  character,  till  they  slowly  gave  way  at 
length  in  the  numerous  civil  or  baronial  wars  of 
the  middle  ages,  and  the  frequent  insurrections  of 
the  urban  populations  in  their  struggle  for  com- 
munal liberties. 

It  is  natural  to  imagine  that  when  once  the  Sax- 
ons broke  up  from  their  peaceful  settlements  and 
commenced  a  career  of  aggression,  they  would  di- 
rect their  marches  by  the  great  lines  of  roads  which 
the  Roman  or  British  authorities  had  maintained 
in  every  part  of  the  island.  They  would  thus  un- 
avoidably be  brought  into  the  neighbourhood  of 
earlier  towns,  and  be  compelled  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion whether  they  would  attack  and  occupy  them, 
or  whether  they  would  turn  them  and  proceed  on 
their  march.  If  the  views  already  expressed  in  this 
chapter  be  correct,  it  is  plain  that  no  very  efficient 
resistance  was  to  be  feared  by  the  invaders :  they 
could  afford  to  neglect  what  in  the  hands  of  a  popu- 
lation not  degraded  by  the  grossest  misgovernment 
would  have  offered  an  insuperable  obstacle.  But 
the  locality  of  a  town  is  rarely  the  result  of  acci- 
dent alone :  there  are  generally  some  conveniences 
of  position,  some  circumstances  affecting  the  secu- 
rity, the  comfort  or  the  interests  of  a  people,  that 
determine  the  sites  of  their  seats :  and  these  which 


300  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

must  have  been  nearly  the  same  for  each  succes- 
sive race,  may  have  determined  the  Saxons  to  re- 
main where  they  had  determined  the  Britons  or 
Romans  first  to  settle.  Yet  even  in  this  case,  and 
admitting  Saxon  towns  to  have  gradually  grown  up 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  ancient  sites,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  either  the  kings  or  bishops 
made  their  ordinary  residences  in  them ;  and  thus 
in  England,  a  very  active  element  was  wanting  to 
the  growth  and  importance  of  the  towns,  which  we 
find  in  full  force  in  other  Roman  provinces.  In 
truth  both  king  and  bishop  adopted  for  the  most 
part  the  old  Teutonic  habit  of  wandering  from  vill 
to  vill,  from  manor  to  manor,  and  in  this  country 
the  positions  of  cathedrals  were  as  little  confined 
to  principal  cities  as  were  the  positions  of  palaces. 
This  is  not  entirely  without  strangeness,  especially 
in  the  case  of  the  earliest  bishops,  seeing  that  we 
might  reasonably  expect  Roman  missionaries  to 
choose  by  preference  buildings  ready  for  their  pur- 
pose, and  of  a  nature  to  which  they  had  been  ac- 
customed in  Italy.  Gregory  had  himself  recom- 
mended that  the  heathen  temples  should  if  possible 
be  hallowed  to  Christian  uses ;  and  even  if  Chris- 
tian temples  were  entirely  wanting,  which  we  can 
scarcely  imagine  to  have  been  the  case  x,  there  were 
yet  basilicas  in  Britain,  even  as  there  had  been  in 
Rome,  which  might  be  made  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  churches.  Nevertheless,  whatever  we  do  read 


1  We  know  that  it  was  not  the  case  in  Canterbury.  Queen  Beorhte's 
bishop  and  chaplain,  Liuthart,  had  restored  a  ruined  church,  and  offici- 
ated there  before  the  arrival  of  Augustine. 


en.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  801 

teaches  us  that  in  general,  on  the  conversion  of  a 
people,  structures  of  the  rudest  character  were 
erected  even  upon  the  sites  of  ancient  civilization  : 
thus  in  York,  Eadwine  caused  a  church  of  wood  to 
be  built  in  haste,  "  citato  opere,"  for  the  ceremony 
of  his  own  baptism  :  thus  too  in  London,  upon  the 
establishment  of  the  see,  a  new  church  was  built 
—surely  a  proof  that  Saxon  London  and  Eoman 
London  could  not  be  the  same  place.  It  is  indeed 
probable  that  the  missionaries,  yet  somewhat  un- 
certain of  success,  and  not  secure  of  the  popular 
good-will,  desired  to  fix  their  residences  near  those 
of  the  kings,  for  the  sake  both  of  protection  and 
of  influence ;  and  thus,  as  the  kings  did  not  make 
their  settled  residence  in  cities  whether  of  Saxon  or 
Roman  construction,  the  sees  also  were  not  esta- 
blished therein  l. 

The  town  of  the  Saxons  had  however  a  totally 
independent  origin,  and  one  susceptible  of  an  easy 
explanation.  The  fortress  required  by  a  simple 
agricultural  people  is  not  a  massive  pile  with  towers 
and  curtains,  devised  to  resist  the  attacks  of  reck- 
less soldiers,  the  assault  of  battering-trains,  the  sap 
of  skilful  engineers,  or  the  slow  reduction  of  fa- 
mine. A  gentle  hill  crowned  with  a  slight  earthwork, 
or  even  a  stout  hedge,  and  capacious  enough  to 

1  York  supplies  a  striking  example  of  the  facts  stated  in  this  chapter. 
In  the  ninth  century  a  Danish  army  pressed  by  the  Saxons  took  refuge 
within  its  entrenchments.  The  Saxons  determined  to  attack  them, 
seeing  the  weakness  of  the  wall :  as  Asser  says,  "  Murum  frangere 
instituunt,  quod  et  fecerunt ;  non  enim  tune  adhuc  ilia  civitas  firmos 
et  stabilitos  muros  illis  temporibus  habebat."  An.  867.  It  seems  quite 
impossible  that  this  should  refer  to  the  Roman  city  of  York. 


302 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


BOOK  II. 


receive  all  who  require  protection,  suffices  to  repress 
the  sudden  incursions  of  marauding  enemies,  un- 
furnished with  materials  for  a  siege  or  provisions  to 
carry  on  a  blockade l.  Here  and  there  such  may 
have  been  found  within  the  villages  or  on  the  bor- 
der of  the  Mark,  tenanted  perhaps  by  an  earl  or 
noble  with  his  comites,  and  thus  uniting  the  cha- 
racters of  the  mansion  and  the  fortress  :  around 
such  a  dwelling  were  congregated  the  numerous 
poor  and  unfree  settlers,  who  obtained  a  scanty  and 
precarious  living  on  the  chieftain's  land;  as  well 
as  the  idlers  whom  his  luxury,  his  ambition  or  his 
ostentation  attracted  to  his  vicinity.  Here  too  may 
have  been  found  the  rude  manufacturers  whose 
craft  supplied  the  wants  of  the  castellan  and  his 
comrades;  who  may  gradually  and  by  slow  expe- 
rience have  discovered  that  the  outlying  owners 
also  could  sometimes  offer  a  market  for  their  pro- 
ductions ;  and  who,  as  matter  of  favour,  could  ob- 
tain permission  from  the  lord  to  exercise  their  skill 
on  behalf  of  his  neighbours.  Similarly  round  the 
church  or  the  cathedral  must  bodies  of  men  have 
gathered,  glad  to  claim  its  protection,  share  its 
charities  and  aid  in  ministering  to  its  wants2.  I 

1  Ida  built  Bebbanburh,  Bamborough,  which  was  at  first  enclosed  by 
a  hedge,  and  afterwards  by  a  wall.    Chron.  Sax.  an.  547. 

2  The  growth  of  a  city  round  a  monastery  is  well  instanced  in  the 
case  of  Bury  St.  Edmund's.      The    following  passage  is  cited  from 
Domesday  (371,  b)  in  the  notes  to  Mr.  Rokewode's  edition  of  Jocelyn 
de  Brakelonde.    "In  the  town  where  the  glorious  king  and  martyr  St. 
Edmund  lies  buried,  in  the  time  of  king  Edward,  Baldwin  the  abbot 
held  for  the  sustenance  of  the  monks  one  hundred  and  eighteen  men ; 
and  they  can  sell  and  give  their  land ;  and  under  them  fifty-two  borda- 
rii,  from  whom  the  abbot  can  have  help ;    fifty-four   freemen   poor 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  303 

hold  it  undeniable  that  these  people  could  not  feed 
themselves,  and  equally  so  that  food  would  find  its 
way  to  them ;  that  the  neighbouring  farmer, — 
instead  of  confining  his  cultivation  to  the  mere 
amount  necessary  for  the  support  of  his  household 
or  the  discharge  of  the  royal  dues, — would  on  their 
account  produce  and  accumulate  a  capital,  through 
which  he  could  obtain  from  them  articles  of  con- 
venience and  enjoyment  which  he  had  neither  the 
leisure  nor  the  skill  to  make.  In  this  way  we  may 
trace  the  growth  of  barter,  and  that  most  import- 
ant habit  of  resorting  to  fixed  spots  for  commercial 
and  social  purposes.  In  this  process  the  lord  had 
himself  a  direct  and  paramount  interest.  If  he 
took  upon  himself  to  maintain  freedom  of  buying 
and  selling,  to  guarantee  peace  and  security  to  the 


enough  j  forty-three  living  upon  alms  ;  each  of  them  has  one  bordarms. 
There  are  now  two  mills  and  two  store-ponds  or  fish-ponds.  This  town 
was  then  worth  ten  pounds,  now  twenty.  It  has  in  length  one  leuga 
aud  a  half,  and  in  breadth  as  much.  And  it  pays  to  the  geld,  when 
payable  in  the  hundred,  one  pound.  And  then  the  issues  therefrom 
are  sixty  pence  towards  the  sustenance  of  the  monks  j  but  this  is  to  be 
understood  of  the  town  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  king  Edward,  if  it  so 
remains ;  for  now  it  contains  a  greater  circuit  of  land,  the  which  was 
then  ploughed  and  sown  j  where,  one  with  another,  there  are  thirty 
priests,  deacons  and  clerks,  twenty-eight  nuns  and  poor  brethren  who 
pray  daily  for  the  king  and  all  Christian  people  ;  eighty  less  five  bakers, 
brewers,  seamsters,  fullers,  shoemakers,  tailors,  cooks,  porters,  serving- 
men  ;  and  these  all  daily  minister  to  the  saint,  and  abbot  and  brethren. 
Besides  whom  there  are  thirteen  upon  the  land  of  the  reeve,  who  have 
their  dwellings  in  the  same  town,  and  under  them  five  bordarii.  Now 
there  are  thirty-four  persons  owing  military  service,  taking  French  and 
English  together,  and  under  them  twenty-two  bordarii.  Now  in  the 
whole  there  are  three  hundred  and  forty-two  dwellings  in  the  demesne 
of  the  land  of  St.  Edmund,  which  was  arable  in  the  time  of  king  Ed- 
ward.'' Chron.  Joe.  de  Brakelonde,  pp.  148,  149  (Camden  Society). 
Similarly  Durham  and  other  towns  grew  up  around  cathedrals. 


304 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


chapmen,  going  and  coming,  he  could  claim  in  re- 
turn a  slight  recognition  of  his  services  in  the  shape 
of  toll  or  custom.  If  the  intervention  of  his  officers 
supplied  an  easy  mode  of  attesting  the  bona  fides  of 
a  transaction,  the  parties  to  it  would  have  been 
unreasonable  had  they  resisted  the  jurisdiction 
which  thus  gradually  grew  up.  So  that  on  all  ac- 
counts we  may  be  assured  that  the  lord  encouraged 
as  much  as  possible  the  resort  of  strangers  to  his 
domain.  In  the  growing  prosperity  of  his  depend- 
ents, his  own  condition  was  immediately  and  ex- 
tensively concerned.  Even  their  number  was  of 
importance  to  his  revenue,  for  a  capitation-tax, 
however  light,  was  the  inevitable  condition  of 
their  reception.  Their  industry  as  manufacturers 
or  merchants  attracted  traffic  to  his  channels. 
Lastly  in  a  military,  political  and  social  view,  the 
wealth,  the  density  and  the  cultivation  of  his 
burgher-population  were  the  most  active  elements 
of  his  own  power,  consideration  and  influence. 
What  but  these  rendered  the  Counts  of  Flanders 
so  powerful  as  they  were  throughout  the  middle 
ages'?  Let  it  now  be  only  considered  with  what 
rapidity  all  these  several  circumstances  must  tend 
to  combine  and  to  develop  themselves,  as  the  class 
of  free  landowners  diminishes  in  extent  and  influ- 
ence and  that  of  the  lords  increases.  Concurrent 
with  such  a  change  must  necessarily  be  the  ex- 
tension of  mutual  dependence,  which  is  only  an- 
other name  for  traffic,  and,  as  far  as  this  alone  is 
concerned,  a  great  advance  in  the  material  well- 
being  of  society.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  305 

more  hopeless  state  than  one  in  which  every  house- 
hold should  exactly  suffice  to  its  own  wants,  and 
have  no  wants  but  such  as  itself  could  supply. 
Fortunately  for  human  progress,  it  is  one  which 
all  experience  proves  to  be  impossible.  There  is 
no  principle  of  social  ethics  more  certain  than 
this,  that  in  proportion  as  you  secure  to  a  man  the 
command  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  you  awaken  in 
him  the  desire  for  those  things  which  adorn  and 
refine  it.  And  all  experience  also  teaches  that  the 
attempt  of  any  individual  to  provide  both  classes 
of  things  for  himself  and  within  the  limits  of  his 
own  household,  will  totally  fail ;  that  time  is  want- 
ing to  produce  any  one  thing  in  perfection ;  that 
skill  can  only  be  attained  by  exclusive  attention  to 
one  object;  and  that  a  division  of  labour  is  indis- 
pensable if  society  is  to  be  enabled  to  secure,  at  the 
least  possible  sacrifice,  the  greatest  possible  amount 
of  comforts  and  conveniences.  The  farmer  there- 
fore raises,  stores  and  sells  the  abundance  of  the 
grain  which  he  well  knows  how  to  gain  from  his 
fields ;  and,  relinquishing  the  vain  attempt  to  make 
clothes  or  hardware,  ornamental  furniture  and 
articles  of  household  utility  or  elegance,  nay  even 
ploughs  and  harrows, — the  instruments  of  his  in- 
dustry,— purchases  them  with  his  superfluity.  And 
so  in  turn  with  his  superfluity  does  the  mechanic 
provide  himself  with  bread  which  he  lacks  the  land, 
the  tools  and  the  skill  to  raise.  But  the  cultivator 
and  the  herdsman  require  land  and  space :  the 
mechanic  is  most  advantageously  situated  where 
numbers  concentrate,  where  his  various  materials 

VOL.  II.  X 


306  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

can  be  brought  together  cheaply  and  speedily;  where 
there  is  intercourse  to  sharpen  the  mind;  where 
there  is  population  to  assist  in  processes  which  trans- 
cend the  skill  or  strength  of  the  individual  man. 
The  wealth  of  the  cultivator,  that  is,  his  superabun- 
dant bread,  awakens  the  mechanic  into  existence ; 
and  the  existence  of  the  mechanic,  speedily  leading 
to  the  enterprise  of  the  manufacturer,  and  the  ven- 
ture of  the  distributor,  broker,  merchant,  or  shop- 
man, ultimately  completes  the  growth  of  the  town. 
It  is  unavoidable  that  the  first  mechanics — beyond 
the  heroical  weapon-smith  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  the  poor  professors  of  such  rude  arts  as 
the  homestead  cannot  do  without, — the  wife  that 
spins,  the  husbandman  that  hammers  his  own  share 
and  coulter — should  be  those  who  have  no  land ; 
that  is,  in  the  state  of  society  which  we  are  now 
considering, — the  unfree.  It  is  a  mere  accident 
that  they  should  gather  round  this  lord  or  that,  on 
his  extensive  possessions,  or  that  they  should  seek 
shelter,  food  and  protection  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  castle  or  the  cathedral:  but  where  they  do 
settle,  in  process  of  time  the  town  must  come. 

The  conditions  under  which  this  shall  constitute 
itself  are  many  and  various.  For  a  long  while  they 
will  greatly  depend  upon  the  original  circumstances 
which  accompanied  and  regulated  the  settlement. 
When  a  great  manufacturing  and  commercial 
system  has  been  founded,  embracing  states  and  not 
petty  localities  only,  it  is  clear  that  petty  local  in- 
terests will  cease  to  be  the  guiding  principles :  but 
this  state  of  things  transcends  the  limits  of  a  rude 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  307 

and  early  society.  The  liberties  of  the  first  cities 
must  often  have  been  mere  favours  on  the  part  of 
the  lords  who  owned  the  soil,  and  protected  the 
dwellers  upon  it.  Later  these  liberties  were  the 
result  of  bargains  between  separate  powers,  grown 
capable  of  measuring  one  another.  Lastly,  they 
are  necessities  imposed  by  an  advanced  condition 
of  human  associations,  in  which  the  wishes,  objects 
and  desires  of  the  individual  man  are  hurried  re- 
sistlessly  away  by  a  great  movement  of  civilization, 
in  which  the  vast  attraction  of  the  mass  neutra- 
lizes and  defeats  all  minor  forces.  It  would  indeed 
be  but  slight  philosophy  to  suppose  that  any  one 
set  of  circumstances  could  account  for  the  infinite 
variety  which  the  history  of  towns  presents  :  though 
there  are  features  of  resemblance  common  to  them 
all,  yet  each  has  its  peculiar  story,  its  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  progress  and  decay  ;  even  as  the  children 
of  one  family,  which  bear  a  near  likeness  to  each 
other,  yet  each  has  its  own  tale  of  joy  and  sorrow, 
of  smiles  and  tears,  of  triumph  and  failure.  Yet 
there  is  probably  no  single  element  of  urban  pros- 
perity more  potent  than  situation,  or  which  more 
pervasively  modifies  all  other  and  concurrent  con- 
ditions of  success.  Let  the  most  careless  observer 
only  compare  London,  Liverpool  and  Bristol,  I  will 
not  say  with  Munich  or  Madrid,  but  even  with 
Warwick,  Stafford  or  Winchester.  If  royal  favour 
and  court  gaieties  could  have  made  cities  great,  the 
latter  should  have  flourished;  for  they  were  the 
residences  of  the  rulers  of  Mercia  and  Wessex, 
the  scenes  of  witena  gemots,  of  Christmas  festi- 

x2 


308  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

vals  and  Easters  when  the  king  solemnly  wore  his 
crown ;  while  the  ceorls  or  mangeras  of  Brigstow  and 
Lundenwic  were  only  cheapening  hides  with  the 
Esterlings,  warehousing  the  foreign  wines  which 
were  to  supply  the  royal  table,  or  bargaining  with 
the  adventurer  from  the  East  for  the  incense  which 
was  to  accompany  the  high  mass  in  the  Cathedral. 
But  Commerce,  the  child  of  opportunity,  brought 
wealth ;  wealth,  power ;  and  power  led  indepen- 
dence in  its  train. 

Against  the  manifold  relations  which  arose  du- 
ring the  gradual  development  of  urban  populations, 
the  original  position  of  the  lord  could  not  be  main- 
tained intact.  It  is  indeed  improbable  that  in  any 
very  great  number  of  cases,  the  inhabitants  of  an 
English  town  long  continued  in  the  condition  of 
personal  serfage.  The  lords  were  too  weak,  the 
people  too  strong,  for  a  system  like  that  of  the 
French  nobles  and  their  towns  ever  to  have  be- 
come settled  here  ;  nor  had  our  city  populations, 
like  the  Gallic  provincials,  the  habit  and  use  of 
slavery.  The  first  settlers  on  a  noble's  land  may 
have  been  unfree ;  serfs  and  oppressed  labourers 
from  other  estates  may  have  been  glad  to  take 
refuge  among  them  from  taskmasters  more  than  or- 
dinarily severe  ;  but  in  this  unmixed  state  they  did 
not  long  remain.  There  is  no  doubt  that  freemen 
gradually  united  with  them  under  the  lord's  pro- 
tection or  in  his  alliance;  that  strangers  sojourned 
among  them  in  hope  of  profits  from  traffic;  and 
hence  that  a  race  gradually  grew  up,  in  whom  the 
original  feelings  of  the  several  classes  survived  in  a 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  309 

greatly  modified  form.  To  this,  though  generally 
so  difficult  to  trace  step  by  step  in  history,  we  owe 
the  difference  of  the  urban  government  in  different 
cities, — distinctions  in  detail  more  frequent  than 
is  commonly  supposed,  and  which  can  be  unhesi- 
tatingly referred  to  the  earliest  period  of  urban 
existence,  if  not  in  fact,  at  least  in  principle, — 
institutions  representing  in  a  shadowy  manner  the 
distant  conditions  under  which  they  arose,  and  for 
the  most  part  separated  in  the  sharpest  contrast 
from  the  ordinary  forms  prevalent  upon  the  land. 

The  general  outline  of  an  urban  constitution,  in 
the  earlier  days  of  the  Saxons,  may  have  been 
somewhat  of  the  following  character.  The  free- 
men, either  with  or  without  the  co-operation  of 
the  lord,  but  usually  with  it,  formed  themselves 
into  associations  or  clubs,  called  gylds.  These  must 
not  be  confounded  either  on  the  one  side  with  the 
Hanses  (in  Anglosaxon  Hosa),  i.  e.  trading  guilds, 
or  on  the  other  with  the  guilds  of  crafts  ("  collegia 
opificum  ")  of  later  ages.  Looking  to  the  analogy 
of  the  country-gylds  or  Tithings,  described  in  de- 
tail in  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  First  Book,  we  may 
believe  that  the  whole  free  town  population  was 
distributed  into  such  associations ;  but  that  in  each 
town,  taken  altogether,  they  formed  a  compact  and 
substantive  body  called  in  general  the  llurhwaru, 
and  perhaps  sometimes  more  especially  the  Ingang 
burhware,  or  "burgher's  club1."  It  is  also  certain 

1  The  "  Ingang  burhware  "  may  possibly  be  only  a  selected  portion 
of  the  population ;  as,  for  example,  the  richer  inhabitants,  a  special 
burgher's  club.  The  argument  in  the  text  is  no  way  affected  by  the 
pre-eminence  of  some  particular  association  among  the  rest,  and  an 


310  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  11. 

from  various  expressions  in  the  boundaries  of  char- 
ters, as  "Burhware  meed,"  "burhware  mearc,"  and 
the  like,  that  they  were  in  possession  of  real  pro- 
perty as  a  corporate  body,  whether  they  had  any 
provision  for  the  management  of  corporation  reve- 
nues, we  cannot  tell;  but  we  may  unhesitatingly 
affirm  that  the  gylds  had  each  its  common  purse, 
maintained  at  least  in  part  by  private  contribu- 
tions, or  what  we  may  more  familaiiy  term  rates 
levied  under  their  bye-laws.  These  gylds,  whether 
in  their  original  nature  religious,  political,  or 
merely  social  unions,  rested  upon  another  and 
solemn  principle:  they  were  sworn  brotherhoods 
between  man  and  man,  established  and  fortified 
upon  "  a$  and  wed,"  oath  and  pledge ;  and  in  them 
we  consequently  recognize  the  germ  of  those  sworn 
communes,  communae  or  communiae  \  which  in  the 

"  Ingang  burhware,"  even  if  a  distinct  thing,  only  proves  the  existence 
of  a  "  burhwaru  "  besides.  However  it  is  probable  that  there  was  a 
general  disposition  to  admit  as  many  members  as  possible  into  associa- 
tions whose  security  and  influence  would  greatly  depend  upon  their 
numbers. 

1  The  word  communa  occurs  at  almost  every  page  of  the  '  Liber  de 
antiquis  Legibus/  to  express  the  whole  commonalty  of  the  city  of  Lon- 
don. Glanville  himself  uses  communa  and  gyldae  as  equivalent  terms. 
"  Item  si  quis  nativus  quiete  per  unum  annum  et  unuxn  diem  in  aliqua 
villa  privilegiata  manserit,  ita  quod  in  eorum  communiam,  scilicet 
gyldam,  tanquam  civis  receptus  fuerit,  eo  ipso  a  villenagio  liberabitur." 
Lib.  v.  cap.  5.  The  reader  may  consult  with  advantage  Thierry's 
history  of  the  Communes  in  France,  in  his  l  Lettres  sur  1'histoire  de 
France,'  a  work  which  has  not  received  in  this  country  an  attention 
at  all  commensurate  to  its  merits,  or  comparable  to  that  bestowed  upon 
his  far  less  sound  production  the  '  Conquete  de  1'Angleterre  par  les 
Normands.'  At  the  same  time  it  would  be  an  error  to  apply  the  ex- 
ample of  the  French  Communes  to  our  own  or  those  of  Flanders, 
which  had  frequently  a  very  different  origin.  See  Warnkonig,  Hist, 
de  Flandre,  par  Gheldolf :  Bruxelles,  1835,  particularly  vol.  ii.  with  its 
valuable  appendixes. 


C.T.  VIT.]  THE  TOWNS.  311 

times  of  the  densest  seigneurial  darkness  offered  a 
noble  resistance  to  episcopal  and  baronial  tyranny, 
and  formed  the  nursing-cradles  of  popular  liberty. 
They  were  alliances  offensive  and  defensive  among 
the  free  citizens,  and  in  the  strict  theory  possessed 
all  the  royalties,  privileges  and  rights  of  indepen- 
dent government  and  internal  jurisdiction.     How 
far  they  could  make  these  valid,  depended  entirely 
upon  the  relative  strength  of  the  neighbouring  lord, 
whether  he  were  ealdorman,  king  or  bishop.   Where 
they  had  full  power,  they  probably  placed  them- 
selves under  a  gerefa  of  their  own,   duly  elected 
from  among  the  members  of  their  own  body,  who 
thenceforth  took  the  name  of  Portgerefa  or  Burh- 
gerefa,   and  not   only  administered  justice  in  the 
burhwaremot  or  husting,  on  behalf  of  the  whole 
state,   but  if  necessary  led  the  city  trainbands  to 
the  field.     Such  a  civic  political  constitution  seems 
the  germ  of  those  later  liberties  which  we  under- 
stand by  the  expression  that  a  city  is  a  county  of 
itself, — words  once  more  weighty   than  they  now 
are,  when  privilege  has  become  less  valuable  before 
the  face  of  an  equal  law.     Nevertheless  there  was 
once  a  time  when  it  was  no  slight  advantage  for  a 
population  to  be  under  a  portreeve   or  sheriff  of 
their  own,  and  not  to  be  exposed  to  the  arbitrary 
will  of  a  noble  or  bishop  who  might  claim  to  exer- 
cise the  comitial  authority  within  their  precincts. 
Such  a  free  organization  was  capable  of  placing  a 
city  upon  terms  of  equality  with  other  constituted 
powers ;  and  hence  we   can  easily  understand  the 
position  so  frequently  assumed  by  the  inhabitants 


312  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

of  London.  As  late  as  the  tenth  century,  and 
under  ^E^elstan,  a  prince  who  had  carried  the  in- 
fluence of  the  crown  to  an  extent  unexampled  in 
any  of  his  predecessors,  we  find  the  burghers  treat- 
ing as  power  to  power  with  the  king,  under  their 
portreeves  and  bishop  :  engaging  indeed  to  follow 
his  advice,  if  he  have  any  to  give  which  shall  be 
for  their  advantage ;  but  nevertheless  constituting 
their  own  sworn  gyldships  or  commune,  by  their 
own  authority,  on  a  basis  of  mutual  alliance  and 
guarantee,  as  to  themselves-  seemed  good  x. 

The  rights  of  such  a  corporation  were  in  truth 
royal.  They  had  their  own  alliances  and  feuds ; 
their  own  jurisdiction,  courts  of  justice  and  power 
of  execution  ;  their  own  markets  and  tolls;  their  own 
power  of  internal  taxation  ;  their  personal  freedom 
with  all  its  dignity  and  privileges.  And  to  secure 
these  great  blessings  they  had  their  own  towers 
and  walls  and  fortified  houses,  bell  and  banner, 
watch  and  ward,  and  their  own  armed  militia. 

Such  too  were  the  rights  which,  in  more  than  one 
European  country,  the  brave  and  now  forgotten 
burghers  of  the  twelfth  century  strove  to  wring 
from  the  territorial  aristocracy  that  hemmed  them 
in ;  when  ancient  tradition  had  not  lost  its  vigour, 
though  liberty  had  been  trampled  under  the  armed 
hoof  of  power.  If  we  admire  and  glory  in  these 

1  This  truly  interesting  and  important  document  will  be  found,  in  an 
appendix  to  this  Book.  In  fact  the  principle  of  all  society  during  the 
Saxon  period  is  that  of  free  association  upon  terms  of  mutual  benefit, 
— a  noble  and  a  grand  principle,  to  the  recognition  of  which  our  own 
enlightened  period  is  as  yet  but  slowly  returning. 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  313 

true  fathers  of  popular  freedom,  firm  in  success, 
unbroken  by  defeat, — steadfast  in  council,  steadfast 
in  the  field,  steadfast  even  under  the  seigneurial 
gibbet  and  in  the  seigneurial  dungeon, — let  us  yet 
give  our  meed  of  thanks  to  those  still  older  assertors 
of  the  dignity  of  man,  duly  honouring  the  gylds- 
men  of  the  tenth  century,  who  handed  down  their 
noble  inheritance  to  the  less  fortunate  burgesses  of 
the  twelfth.  Few  pictures  from  the  past  may  the 
eye  rest  upon  with  greater  pleasure  than  that  of 
a  Saxon  portreeve  looking  down  from  his  strong 
gyld-hall  upon  the  well-watched  walls  and  gates 
that  guard  the  populous  market  of  his  city  1.  The 
fortified  castle  of  a  warlike  lord  may  frown  upon 
the  adjacent  hill ;  the  machicolated  and  crenelated 
walls  of  the  cathedral  close,  with  buttress  and  draw- 
bridge, may  tell  of  the  temporal  power  and  turbu- 
lence of  the  episcopate ;  but  in  the  centre  of  the 
square  stands  the  symbolic  statue  which  marks  the 
freedom  of  jurisdiction  and  of  commerce2;  balance 
in  hand,  to  show  the  right  of  unimpeded  traffic ; 
sword  in  hand,  to  intimate  the  ius  gladii,  the  right 

1  "  Ealdredesgate  et  Cripelesgate,  i.  e.  portas  illas,  observabant  cus- 
todes."     Inst.  London.  §  1.     Thorpe,  i.  300. 

2  In  the  cities  of  the  Roman  empire  with  Jus  Italicum  a  statute  of 
Marsyas  or  Silenus  was  erected  in  the  forum.  Servius  ad  yEneid.  iv.  58. 
*(  Patrique  Lyseo. — Urbibus  libertatis  est  dens,  unde  etiam  Marsyas, 
minister  ems,  per  civitates  in  fojo  positus,  libertatis  indicium  est ;  qui 
erecta  manu  testatur  nihil  urbi  deesse."    So  also  JEneid,  iii.  20.    The 
reader  of  Horace  will  remember  the  Marsyas  in  the  Forum  as  symbol- 
izing- the  magistrate's  jurisdiction.  Whether  the  Germanic  populations 
derived  their  pillar,  figure  or  statue  from  the  Roman  custom  seems  un- 
certain :  certain  however  it  is  that  the  Rolandseule,  the  pillar  or  figure 
of  Orlando,  (and,  as  is  sometimes  said,  of  Charlemagne)  denotes  equally 

'  nihil  urbi  deesse." 


314  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

to  judge  and  punish,  the  right  to  guard  with  the 
weapons  of  men  all  that  men  hold  dearest. 

Again,  no  brighter   picture  than  the    present; 
when,  drawing  a  veil  over  the   miserable  convul- 
sions of  a  nearly  millennial  struggle,  we  can  con- 
template the  mayor  of  the  same  town  wandering 
with  a  satisfied  eye  over  the  space  where  those  old 
walls  once  stood,  but  which  now  is  covered  with  the 
workshop,  the  manufactory  or  the  house,  the  reward 
of  patient,  peaceful  industry.     Looking  to  the  hill, 
crowned  with  its  picturesque  ruin,  he  sees  the  man- 
sion of  a  noble  citizen  united  with  himself  in  zeal- 
ous obedience  to  an  equal  law, — the  peer  who  in 
the  higher,  or  the  burgess  who  in  the  lower  house 
of  parliament,   consults  for  the  weal  of  the  com- 
munity, and  derives  his  own  value  and  importance 
most  from  the  trust  reposed  in  him  by  his  fellow- 
townsmen.    We  can  now  contemplate  this  peaceful 
magistrate  (elected  because  his  neighbours  honour 
his  worth  and   the  character  won  in  a  successful 
civic   career, — not  because  he    is  a  stout  man-at- 
arms,  or  tried  in  perilous  adventure,)  when  turning 
again  to  the  ruined  defences  of  the   old  cathedral, 
he  sees  streets  instinct  with  life,  where  the  ditch 
yawned  of  yore,  walls  picturesque  with  the  ivy  of 
uncounted  ages,  now  carved  out  into  quaint,  pre- 
bendal  houses ;  and  while  he  admires  the  beauty 
of  their   architecture,  wonders  why  the  gates  of 
cathedral  closes  should  have  been  so  strongly  built, 
or  bear  so  unnecessary  a  resemblance  to  fortresses. 
Still  in  the  market-place  stands  the  belfry,  once 
dreaded  by  the  neighbouring  tyrant :  but  its  bell 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  315 

calls  no  longer  to  the  defence  of  a  city,  which  now 
fears  no  enemy.  The  tenant  of  its  dungeon  is  no 
more  a  turbulent  man-at-arms,  or  well-born  hos- 
tage :  the  dignity  of  the  prisoner  rises  no  higher 
than  that  of  a  petty  market-pilferer,  and  the  name 
of  the  belfry  itself  is  forgotten  in  that  of  the 
"  cage."  Over  the  flesh-  or  fish-stalls  perhaps  yet 
stands  the  mysterious  statue,  inherited  from  earlier 
times,  but  without  the  meaning  of  the  inheritance. 
The  sword  and  balance  are  still  there,  but  it  is  no 
longer  Marsyas  or  Silenus  or  Orlando :  flowing 
robes  and  bandaged  eyes  have  transformed  it  into  a 
harmless  allegory ;  and  where  the  warlike  citizen, 
whose  privileges  were  maintained  with  sweat  and 
blood,  erewhile  looked  upon  it  as  the  symbol — if 
not  the  talisman — of  freedom,  his  modern  successor, 
as  his  humour  leads  him,  wonders  whether  Justice 
were  ever  wanting  in  that  place,  or  smiles  to  think 
that  her  eyes  are  closed  to  the  petty  tricks  of  tem- 
porary stall-keepers. 

Beyond  all  price  indeed  is  this  privilege  of  quiet 
inherited  from  our  earnest  forefathers,  and  great 
the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe  to  those  whose  wis- 
dom laid,  whose  courage  and  patience  maintained, 
its  deep  foundations. 

Yet  not  in  all  cases  can  we  draw  so  favourable  a 
picture  of  the  condition  of  an  Anglosaxon  town  :  in 
many  of  them,  the  unfree  dwelt  by  the  side  of  the 
freemen  in  their  gylds,  under  the  presidency  of 
their  lord's  gerefa.  And  where  the  number  of  the 
unfree  was  greatly  preponderant,  and  the  power 
of  the  lord  proportionally  increased,  we  cannot  but 


316  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

believe  that  the  freemen  themselves  were  too  often 
deprived  of  their  most  cherished  privileges.  With- 
out going  quite  so  far  as  the  custom  in  some  medi- 
aeval towns,  where  the  air  itself  was  emphatically 
said  to  be  loaded  with  serfage, — where  slavery  was 
epidemic l, — it  is  but  too  evident  that  in  many 
places,  the  free  settlers,  while  they  retained  their 
wergyld  and  perhaps  other  personal  rights,  must 
yet  have  been  subject  like  their  neighbours  to  ser- 
vile dues  and  works,  and  compelled  to  attend  the 
lord's  court.  Let  us  only  imagine  a  case  which 
was  probably  not  uncommon  ;  where  the  lord,  with 
his  own  numerous  unfree  dependents,  occupied 
the  post  of  the  king's  burggerefa,  the  bishop's 
or  abbot's  advocatus,  and  forced  himself  as  their 
gerefa  upon  the  free.  What  refuge  could  there 
be  for  these,  if  he  determined  to  assimilate  his 
various  jurisdictions,  and  subject  all  alike  to  the 
convenient  machinery  of  a  centralized  authority'? 
They  might  in  vain  declare,  as  did  the  Northum- 
brians of  old,  that  "  free  by  birth  and  educated 
as  freemen,  they  scorned  to  submit  to  the  ty 
ranny  of  any  duke,"  or  count  or  gerefa, — but  what 
remedy  had  they,  when  once  the  defence  of  the 
mutual  guarantee  was  removed  ]  Theoretically  of 
course  they  were  cyre-lif,  that  is,  they  could  go 
away  and  choose  a  lord  elsewhere :  but  we  may 
fairly  doubt  whether  they  could  practically  do  this. 
New  connexions  are  not  easily  formed  in  a  state 
which  enjoys  but  little  means  of  intercommunica- 
tion :  what  would  be  sacrificed  now  without  regret, 

1  "  Die  Luft  macht  eigen." 


CH.  vii.j  THE  TOWNS.  317 

assumes  a  very  disproportionate  importance  at  a 
period  when  accumulation  is  slow,  and  acquisition 
difficult :  nor  could  the  expatriated  chapman 
securely  remove  his  valuables  from  one  place  to 
another ;  or  even  legally  withdraw  from  the  district 
where  he  felt  himself  aggrieved,  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  very  officer  from  whose  unjust  exactions 
he  desired  to  escape.  Under  such  circumstances 
of  difficulty,  it  is  to  be  supposed  that,  like  the  pra3- 
dial  freemen  on  the  country  estates,  they  were 
reduced  to  make  the  best  bargain  that  they  could  ; 
in  other  words,  that  they  ultimately  submitted  to 
the  customs  of  the  place. 

Moreover  there  may  have  been  then,  as  there 
frequently  were  in  the  twelfth  century,  a  plurality 
of  lords  each  having  Ian  or  jurisdiction  in  parti- 
cular localities  *,  each  having  different  customs  to 
enforce,  separate  and  conflicting  interests  to  further, 
and  a  separate  armament  to  dispose  of.  Often,  as 
we  pursue  the  history  of  mediaeval  cities,  do  we 
find  king,  count,  and  bishop,  with  perhaps  one  or 
more  barons  or  castellans,  claiming  portions  of  the 
town  as  subject  in  totality  or  shares  to  their  several 
jurisdictions,  imposing  heavy  capitation-taxes  on 
their  own  dependents,  establishing  hostile  tolls 
or  tariffs  to  the  injury  of  internal  traffic,  warring 
with  one  another,  from  motives  of  pride  or  hate, 
ambition  or  avarice,  and  dragging  their  reluctant 
quotas  of  the  city  into  internecine  hostilities,  ruin- 
ous to  the  interests  of  all.  And  then,  if  strong 

1   Banlieu,  banni  leuca,  or  according  to  some   etymologists,  banni 
locus. 


318  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

enough,  among  them  all  subsists  a  corporation  of 
burgesses,  perhaps  a  turbulent  mob  of  handicrafts, 
distributed  in  gylds  or  mysteries,  with  their  dea- 
cons, common-chests,  banners,  and  barricades : — 
freer  than  the  old  serfs  were,  but  unfree  still  as 
regards  the  corporation  :  for  the  full  burgesses  have 
made  alliances  with  the  nobles,  have  enrolled  the 
nobles  as  burgesses  in  their  ffansey  and  have  be- 
come themselves  an  aristocracy  as  compared  with 
the  democracy  of  the  crafts.  Or  the  corporation  of 
freemen  may  have  elected  a  noble  advocatus,  Vogt 
or  Patron,  to  be  the  constable  of  their  castle,  and  to 
lead  their  militia  against  his  brethren  by  birth  and 
rivals  in  estate.  Or  they  may  have  coalesced  with 
the  crafts  in  a  bond  of  union  for  general  liberation: 
— unhappily  too  rare  a  case,  for  even  those  old  bur- 
gesses sometimes  forgot  their  own  origin,  and  blun- 
dered into  the  belief  that  liberty  meant  privilege1. 
The  misery  and  mischief  of  this  state  of  things 
were  not  so  prominent  among  the  Anglosaxons, 
because  the  subdivision  of  powers  was  much  less 
than  where  the  principles  of  feudality  prevailed, 
and  the  lords  and  castellans  were  not  numerous. 
Nor  were  the  guarantees  which  the  tithings  and 
gyldships  offered,  and  which  were  secured  by  the 
popular  election  of  officers,  at  any  time  entirely 
devoid  of  their  original  force.  History  therefore 

1  Slight  as  this  sketch  is,  it  may  serve  to  throw  some  light  upon  the 
fortunes  of  the  Flemish  and  Italian  cities.  Donniges  gives  a  most  in- 
teresting and  instructive  account  of  Regensburg  in  very  early  times, 
with  its  three  fortified  quarters, — the  Count's  (Palatium,  Pfalz  or  Im- 
perial banlieu},  the  Bishop's,  and  the  Burghers'  or  Merchants'  quarter. 
Deut.  Staatsr.  p.  250,  seq. 


en.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  319 

records  no  instances  of  such  painful  struggles  as 
marked  the  progress  of  the  continental  cities,  or 
even  of  our  own  subsequent  to  the  Norman  con- 
quest. But  we  are  nevertheless  not  without  exam- 
ples of  towns  in  which  the  powers  of  government 
were  unequally  divided:  where  the  king,  the  bishop 
and  the  burgesses,  or  the  king  and  bishop  alone, 
shared  in  the  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction.  In 
these  the  burh,  properly  so  called,  or  fortification, 
often  formed  part  of  the  city  walls,  or  commanded 
the  approaches  to  the  market.  In  it  sat  the  royal 
burhgerefa  and  administered  justice  to  the  freemen; 
while  the  unfree  also  appeared  in  his  court,  and 
became  gradually  confounded  with  the  free  in  his 
socn  or  jurisdiction.  On  the  other  hand  the  bishop, 
through  his  socnegerefa,  judged  and  taxed  and  go- 
verned his  own  particular  dependents :  unless  the 
power  of  the  king  had  been  such  as  to  unite  all  the 
inhabitants  in  one  body  under  the  authority  of  the 
royal  thane  who  exercised  the  palatine  functions. 
Even  in  the  burgmot  of  the  freemen  did  the  royal 
and  episcopal  reeves  appear  as  assessors,  to  watch 
over  the  interests  of  their  respective  employers, 
and  add  a  specious,  but  little  suspected,  show  of 
authority  to  the  acts  of  the  corporation. 

We  are  still  fortunately  able  to  give  some  ac- 
count of  the  growth  of  various  English  towns, 
which  seem  to  have  arisen  after  the  close  of  the 
Danish  wars,  and  the  successive  victories  of  Al- 
fred's children,  Eadweard  king  of  Wessex,  and 
^E^Selflsed,  duchess  of  Mercia. 

By  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Alfred  and 


320 


orm. 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  H 


a  very   considerable  tract  of  country  in  the 
north  and  east  of  England  was  surrendered  to  the 
latter  and  his  Scandinavian  allies.     It  is  clear  that 
from  very  early  periods  this  district  had  contained 
important  cities  and  fortresses,  but  many  of  these 
had  probably  perished  during  the  wars  which  ex- 
pelled the  Northumbrian  and  Mercian  kings,  and 
finally  reduced  their  territories  under  the  arms  of 
the  Danish  invaders.     The  efforts  of  JElfred  had 
indeed  succeeded  in  saving  his  ancestral  kingdoms 
of  Wessex  and  Kent,  and  by  the  articles  of  Wed- 
mor  he  had  become  possessed  of  a  valuable  part  of 
Mercia,  between  the  Severn,  the  Ouse,  the  Thames 
and  the  Watling-street.     To  the  east  and  north  of 
these  lines  however,  the  Scandinavians  had  settled, 
dividing  the  lands,  for  the  most  part  denuded  of 
their  Saxon  population,  or  occupied  by  Saxons  who 
had  submitted  to  the  invader  and  made  common 
cause  with  him,  against  a  king  of  Wessex  to  whom 
they  owed  no  allegiance.     The  Eastanglians  and  a 
portion    of  the    Northumbrians   had  adopted   the 
kingly  form  of  government ;  but  there  were  still 
independent  populations  in  those  districts  follow- 
ing their  national  Jarls,  and  in  the  North  was  a 
powerful  confederation    of  five   Burghs   or    cities, 
which  sometimes  included  seven,  comprising  in  one 
political  unity,   York,  Lincoln,   Leicester,    Derby, 
Nottingham,  Stamford  and  Chester1.    The  power  of 


1  The  "  Five  Burghs  "  were  Lincoln,  Nottingham,  Derby,  Leicester 
and  Stamford.  Chester  and  York  could  only  be  joined  in  a  more  di- 
stant alliance,  but  still  when  there  was  a  common  action  among  them, 
they  were  called  the  "  Seven  Burghs." 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  321 

the  Scandinavians  however  was  frittered  away  in 
internal  quarrels,  and  those  two  children  of  Wes- 
sex,  Eadweard  and  his  lion-hearted  sister,  deter- 
mined upon  carrying  into  the  country  of  the  Pagans 
the  sufferings  which  they  had  so  often  inflicted 
upon  others.  A  career  of  conquest  was  commenced 
from  the  west  and  the  south  ;  place  after  place 
was  cleared  of  the  intruding  strangers,  by  men 
themselves  intruders,  but  gifted  with  better  fortune  ; 
the  Scandinavians  were  either  thrown  back  over 
the  Humber,  or  compelled  to  submit  to  Saxon 
arms ;  and  the  country  wrested  from  them  was 
secured  and  bridled  by  a  chain  of  fortresses  erected 
and  garrisoned  by  the  victors. 

In  the  course  of  this  victorious  career  we  learn 
that  ^E^elflced  erected  the  following  fortresses1 : — 
In  910,  the  burh  at  Bremesbyrig  :  in  912,  those  at 
Scargate  and  Bridgnorth  :  in  913,  those  at  Tarn- 
worth  and  Stafford  :  in  914,  those  at  Eddisbury 
and- Warwick:  in  915,  the  fortresses  of  Cherbury, 
Warborough  and  Euncorn.  In  917  she  took  the 
fortified  town  of  Derby;  and  in  918,  Leicester: 
and  thus,  upon  the  submission  of  York,  in  the 
same  year,  broke  up  the  independent  organization 
of  the  "  Seven  Burks." 

The  evidences  of  Eadweard's  activity  are  yet 
more  numerous.  The  following  burhs  or  towns 
are  recorded  to  have  been  built  by  him.  In  913, 

1  These  statements  are  taken  from  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  Florence  of 
Worcester,  Simeon,  and  other  authorities,  under  the  years  quoted.   For 
the  sake  of  illustration  I  have  added  in  the  Appendix  a  list  of  Anglo- 
saxon  towns,  whose  origin  we  have  some  means  of  tracing. 
VOL.  JI.  Y 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


the  northern  burh  at  Hertford,  between  the  rivers 
Mimera,  Benefica  and  Lea :  a  burh  at  Witham, 
and  soon  after  another  on  the  southern  bank  of 
the  Lea.  In  918,  he  constructed  burhs,  or  for- 
tresses, on  both  sides  of  the  river  at  Buckingham. 
In  919  he  raised  the  burh  on  the  southern  bank 
of  the  Ouse  at  Bedford.  In  921  he  fortified  Tow- 
chester  with  a  stone  wall ;  and'  in  the  same  year 
he  rebuilt  the  burhs  at  Huntingdon  and  Colchester, 
and  built  the  burh  at  Cledemouth.  The  following 
year  he  built  the  burh  on  the  southern  bank  of  the 
river  at  Stamford,  and  repaired  the  castle  of  Not- 
tingham. In  923  he  built  a  fortress  at  Thelwall, 
and  repaired  one  at  Manchester.  In  924  he  built 
another  castle  at  Nottingham,  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  Trent,  over  against  that  which  stood  on  the 
northern  bank,  and  threw  a  bridge  between  them. 
Lastly  he  went  to  Bakewell  in  Derbyshire,  where 
he  built  and  garrisoned  a  burh. 

•A  large  number  of  these  were  no  doubt  merely 
castles  or  fortresses,  and  some  of  them,  we  are 
told,  received  stipendiary  garrisons,  that  is  literally, 
king's  troops,  contradistinguished  on  the  one  hand 
from  the  free  landowners  who  might  be  called  upon 
under  the  hereban  to  take  a  turn  of  duty  therein, 
and  on  the  other  from  the  unfree  tenants,  part  of 
whose  rent  may  have  been  paid  in  service  behind 
the  walls.  But  it  is  also  certain  that  the  shelter 
and  protection  of  the  castle  often  produced  the 
town,  and  that  in  many  cases  the  mere  sutler's 
camp,  formed  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  perma- 
nent garrison,  expanded  into  a  flourishing  centre  of 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  323 

commerce,  guarded  by  the  fortress,  and  nourished 
by  the  military  road  or  the  beneficent  river.  It  is 
also  probable  enough  that  on  many  of  their  sites 
towns,  or  at  least  royal  vills,  had  previously  ex- 
isted, and  that  the  population  whom  war  and  its 
concomitant  misery  had  dispossessed,  returned  to 
their  ancient  seats,  when  quiet  seemed  likely  to  be 
permanently  restored. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  those  who  were  already 
congregated,  or  for  the  sake  of  security  or  gain  did 
afterwards  collect  in  such  places,  were  subject  to 
the  authority  of  the  burhgerefa  or  castellan,  and 
that  thus  the  burh  by  degrees  became  a  Palatium 
or  Pfalz  in  the  German  sense  of  the  word.  In  truth 
burh  does  originally  denote  a  castle,  not  a  town ; 
and  the  latter  only  comes  to  be  designated  by  the 
word,  because  a  town  could  hardly  be  conceived 
without  a  castle, — a  circumstance  which  favours 
the  account  here  given  of  their  origin  in  general. 

It  is  certain  that  the  free  institutions  which  have 
been  described  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  chapter, 
could  not  be  found  in  towns,  the  right  to  which 
must  be  considered  to  have  been  based  on  conquest, 
or  which  arose  around  a  settlement  purely  military. 
In  such  places  we  can  expect  to  find  no  mint,  ex- 
cept as  matter  of  grant  or  favour:  if  there  was 
watch  and  ward,  it  was  for  the  fortress,  not  the 
townsmen  :  toll  there  might  be— but  for  the  lord 
to  receive  :  jurisdiction, — but  for  the  lord  to  exer- 
cise :  market, — but  for  the  lord  to  profit  by :  arm- 
ed militia, — but  for  the  lord  to  command.  Yet 
while  the  lord  was  the  king,  and  the  town  was, 

Y2 


324 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


through  its  connexion  with  him,  brought  into  close 
union  with  the  general  state,  its  own  condition  was 
probably  easy,  and  its  civic  relations  not  otherwise 
than  beneficial  to  the  republic.  In  such  circum- 
stances a  town  is  only  one  part  of  a  system ;  nor 
is  a  royal  landlord  compelled  to  rack  the  tenants 
of  a  single  estate  for  a  fitting  subsistence  :  the 
shortcoming  of  one  is  balanced  by  the  super- 
fluity of  other  sources  of  wealth.  The  owner  of 
the  small  flock  is  ever  the  closest  shearer.  But 
even  on  this  account,  when  once  the  towns  became 
seigneurial,  their  own  state  was  not  so  happy,  nor 
was  their  relation  to  the  country  at  large  benefi- 
cial to  the  full  extent.  But  all  general  observa- 
tions of  this  character  do  not  explain  or  account 
for  the  separate  cases.  It  is  clear  that  everything 
which  we  have  to  say  upon  this  subject  will  depend 
entirely  upon  what  we  may  learn  to  have  been  the 
character  of  any  particular  person  or  class  of  per- 
sons at  any  given  time.  The  lord  or  Seigneur  may 
have  ruled  well ;  that  is,  he  may  have  seen  that 
his  own  best  interests  were  inseparably  bound  up 
with  the  prosperity,  the  peace  and  the  rational 
freedom  of  his  dependents;  and  that  both  he  and 
they  would  flourish  most,  when  the  mutual  well- 
being  was  guarded  by  a  harmonious  common  ac- 
tion, founded  upon  the  least  practicable  sacrifice 
of  individual  interests.  Thus  he  may  have  con- 
tented himself  with  the  legal  capitation-tax,  or  even 
relinquished  it  altogether:  he  may  have  exacted 
only  moderate  and  reasonable  tolls,  trusting  wisely 
to  a  consequent  increase  of  traffic,  and  rewarded  by 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  325 

a  rapid  advance  in  wealth  and  power :  he  may  have 
given  a  just  and  generous  protection  in  return  for 
submission  and  alliance ;  have  supported  his  towns- 
men in  their  public  buildings,  roads,  wharves, 
canals,  and  other  laudable  undertakings.  Nay, 
when  the  re-awakened  spirit  of  self-government 
grew  strong,  and  the  whole  mighty  mass  of  me- 
diseval  society  heaved  and  tossed  with  the  working 
of  this  all-pervading  leaven,  we  have  even  seen 
Seigneurs  aiding  their  serf-townsmen  to  swear  and 
maintain  a  "  Communa,"- — that  institution  so  de- 
tested and  savagely  persecuted  by  popes,  barons 
and  bishops,  —  so  hypocritically  blamed,  but  so 
lukewarmly  pursued  by  kings,  who  found  it  their 
gain  to  have  the  people  on  their  side  against  the 
nobles1. 

But  unhappily  there  is  another  side  to  the  pic- 
ture :  the  lord  may  have  ruled  ill,  and  often  did  so 
rule,  for  class-prejudices  and  short-sighted  selfish 
views  of  personal  interest  drove  him  to  courses  fatal 
to  himself  and  his  people.  When  this  was  the  case, 
there  was  but  one  miserable  alternative,  revolt,  and 
ruin  either  for  the  lord,  the  city,  or  both,— in  the 

1  History  furnishes  notable  instances  of  what  has  been  put  here 
merely  hypothetically.  The  earls  of  Flanders  were  honourably  di- 
stinguished among  all  the  European  potentates  by  the  liberal  manner 
in  which  they  treated  their  subjects.  The  appendix  to  this  chapter 
contains  some  of  the  earliest  charters  which  they  granted  to  their  towns, 
and  these  fully  explain  the  wealth,  power  and  happiness  of  Flanders  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  And  notwithstanding  what  I 
have  said  in  the  text,  and  which  is  justified  by  the  conduct  of  the  bishops 
in  some  parts  of  Europe,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  clergy  were 
generally  j  ust  and  merciful  lords,  as  far  as  the  material  well-being  of 
their  dependents  was  concerned.  The  German  proverb  says :  "  'Tis 
good  to  live  under  the  crozier." 


326 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


former  case  possibly,  in  the  latter  always  and  cer- 
tainly a  grievous  loss  to  the  republic.  But  before 
this  final  settlement  of  the  question,  how  much  ir- 
reparable mischief,  how  much  of  credit  and  con- 
fidence shaken,  of  raw  material  wasted  and  de- 
stroyed, of  property  plundered,  of  security  unset- 
tled, of  internecine  hostility  engendered,  class  set 
against  class,  family  against  family,  man  against 
man !  Verily,  when  we  contemplate  the  misery 
which  such  contests  caused  from  the  twelfth  to  the 
fifteenth  centuries,  we  could  almost  join  in  the  cry 
of  the  Jacquerie,  and  wish,  with  the  prsedial  and 
urban  serfs  of  old,  that  the  race  of  Seigneurs  had 
been  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth ;  did  we  not 
know  that  gold  must  be  tried  in  the  fire,  that  liberty 
could  grow  to  a  giant's  stature  only  by  passing 
through  a  giant's  struggles. 

But  from  this  painful  school  of  manhood  it 
pleased  the  providence  of  the  Almighty  to  save  our 
forefathers;  nor  does  Anglosaxon  history  record 
more  than  one  single  instance  of  those  oppressions 
or  of  that  resistance,  which  make  up  so  large  and 
wretched  a  portion  of  the  history  of  other  lands1. 


1  Even  under  the  Norinan  kings,  the  condition  of  this  country  seems 
to  have  been  comparatively  easy.  Its  darkest  moments  were  during  the 
wars  of  Stephen  and  Henry  Plantagenet.  The  position  then  assumed 
by  the  seigneurs  or  castellans  and  its  results  are  thus  well  described  by 
an  old  chronicler : — "  Sane  inter  partes  diu  certatum  est,  alternante  for- 
tuna ;  sed  tune  quodammodo  remissiores  motus  esse  coeperunt :  quod 
tamen  Angliae  non  cessit  in  bonum,  eo  quod  tot  erant  reges  quot  do- 
mini  castellorum,  habentes  singuli  numisma  proprium  et  more  regis 
subditos  iudicantes.  Et  quia  magnates  terrae  sic  invicem  excellere 
satagebant,  eo  quod  nullus  in  alterum  habebat  imperium,  mox  inter  se 
disceptantes  rapinis  et  incendiis  clarissinias  regiones  corruperunt,  in 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  327 

Suffering  enough  they  had  to  bear,  but  it  was  at 
the  hands  of  invading  strangers,  not  of  those  who 
were  born  beneath  the  same  skies  and  spake  with 
the  same  tongue.  The  power  of  the  national  in- 
stitutions was  too  general,  too  deeply  rooted,  to  be 
shaken  by  the  efforts  of  a  class ;  nor  does  it  appear 
that  that  class  itself  attempted  at  any  time  an 
undue  exercise  of  authority.  One  ill-advised  duke 
did  indeed  raise  a  fierce  rebellion  by  his  misgovern- 
ment ;  but  even  here  national  feeling  was  probably 
at  work,  and  the  Northumbrians  rose  less  against 
the  bad  ruler,  than  the  intrusive  Westsaxon :  the 
interests  of  Morcar's  family  were  more  urgent  than 
the  crimes  of  Tostig.  Yet  these  may  have  been 
grave,  for  he  was  repudiated  even  by  those  of  his 
own  class,  and  the  strong  measure  of  his  depriva- 
tion and  outlawry  was  concurred  in  by  his  brother 
Harald. 

In  addition  to  the  natural  mode  by  which  the 
authority  of  a  lord  became  established  in  a  town 
built  on  his  demesne,  the  privileges  of  lordship 


tantum  quod  omne  robur  panis  fere  deperiit."  Walt.  Hemingburh, 
vulgo  Gisseburne,  i.  74.  "  Castella  quippe  studio  partium  per  singulas 
provincias  surrexerant  crebra ;  erantque  in  Anglia  tot  quodamniodo 
reges,  vel  potius  tyranni,  quot  castellorum  domini,  habentes  singuli 
percussuram  proprii  numisniatis,  et  potestateni  dicendi  subditis  regio 
more  iura."  Annal.  Trivet.  1147,  p.  25.  The  contemporary  Saxon 
chronicler  gives  the  most  frightful  account  of  the  tyrannous  exactions 
of  the  castellans,  and  the  tortures  they  inflicted  on  the  defenceless  cul- 
tivators. And  this  miserable  condition  of  the  country  is  only  too  ob- 
vious in  the  words  with  which  the  contemporary  author  of  the  life  of 
Stephen  commences  his  work.  Gest.  Stephani,  p.  1  seq.  Nor  can  this 
surprise  us,  when  we  learn  that  at  this  period  not  less  than  eleven 
hundred  and  fifteen  castles  had  been  built  in  England.  Hog.  Wendov. 
an.  1153,  Coxe's  edit.  ii.  250. 


328 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


were  occasionally  transferred  from  one  person  to 
another.  Like  other  royalties,  the  rights  of  the 
crown  over  taxation,  tolls  or  other  revenues,  might 
be  made  matter  of  grant.  The  following  document 
illustrates  the  manner  in  which  a  portion  of  the 
seigneurial  rights  was  thus  alienated  in  favour  of 
the  bishop  of  Worcester,  It  is  a  grant  made  by 
^E^elntd  and  ^Selfleed  to  their  friend  WerfrrS, 
about  the  end  of  the  ninth  century1, 

"  To  Almighty  God,  true  Unity  and  holy  Tri- 
nity in  heaven,  be  praise  and  glory  and  rendering 
of  thanks,  for  all  his  benefits  bestowed  upon  us ! 
Firstly  for  whose  love,  and  for  St.  Peter's  and  the 
church  at  Worcester,  and  at  the  request  of  Wer- 
fri^  the  bishop,  their  friend,  JEftelr&d  the  ealdor- 
man  and  J^Selflaed  commanded  the  burh  at  Wor- 
cester to  be  built,  and  eke  God's  praise  to  be  there 
upraised.  And  now  they  make  known  by  this 
charter  that  of  all  the  rights  which  appertain  to 
their  lordship,  both  in  market  and  in  street,  within 
the  byrig  and  without,  they  grant  half  to  God  and 
St.  Peter  and  the  lord  of  the  church ;  that  those 
who  are  in  the  place  may  be  the  better  provided, 
that  they  may  thereby  in  some  sort  easier  aid  the 
brotherhood,  and  that  their  remembrance  may  be 
the  firmer  kept  in  mind,  in  the  place,  as  long  as 
God's  service  is  done  within  the  minster.  And 
Werfri^  the  bishop  and  his  flock  have  appointed 
this  service,  before  the  daily  one,  both  during  their 
lives  and  alter,  to  sing  at  matins,  vespers  and  '  un- 


1  Cod,  Dir,!.  No.  1075. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  329 

dernsong,'  the  psalm  De  Profundis,  during  their 
lives ;  and  after  their  death,  Laudate  Dominum  ; 
and  every  Saturday,  in  St.  Peter's  church,  thirty 
psalms,  and  a  mass  for  them  whether  alive  or  dead. 
^E^elreed  and  ^E'Selfited  proclaim,  that  they  have 
thus  granted  with  good-will  to  God  and  St.  Peter, 
under  witness  of  ^Elfred  the  king  and  all  the  ivitan 
in  Mercia ;  excepting  that  the  wain-shilling  and 
load-penny1  are  to  'go  to  the  king's  hand,  as  they 
always  did,  from  Saltwic  :  but  as  for  everything 
else,  as  landfeoh2,  fihtwite,  stalu,  wohcedpung,  and 
all  the  customs  from  which  any  fine  may  arise,  let 
the  lord  of  the  church  have  half  of  it,  for  God's 
sake  and  St.  Peter's.,  as  it  was  arranged  about  the 
market  and  the  streets ;  and  without  the  market- 
place, let  the  bishop  enjoy  his  rights,  as  of  old  our 
predecessors  decreed  and  privileged.  And  ^E^elrsed 
and  ^E^elflakl  did  this  by  witness  of  Alfred  the 
king,  and  by  witness  of  those  witan  of  the  Mer- 
cians whose  names  stand  written  hereafter ;  and  in 
the  name  of  God  Almighty  they  abjure  all  their 
successors  never  to  diminish  these  alms  which  they 
have  granted  to  the  church  for  God's  love  and  St. 
Peter's!" 

A  valuable  instrument  is  this,   and  one  which 
supplies  matter  for  reflection  in  various  ways.    The 

1  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Weenscilling,  written  erroneously  in  the 
MS.  psegnsilling,  is  what  is  meant  by  statio  et  inoneratio  plaustrorum 
in  another  charter.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1066.     It  is  custom  or  toll  upon 
the  standing  and  loading  of  the  salt- waggons.  See  p.  71  of  this  volume. 

2  Landfeoh,  land-fee,  probably  a  recognitory  rent  for  land  held  un- 
der the  burh  or  city.     Fihtwite,  fine  for  brawling  in  the  city.     Stalu, 
fine  or  mulct  for  theft.     Wohcedpuny,  fine  for  buying  or  selling  con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  the  market. 


330 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK:  n. 


royalties  conveyed  are  however  alone  what  must 
occupy  our  attention  here.  These  are,  a  land-tax, 
paid  no  doubt  from  every  hide  which  belonged  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  burhgerefa,  and  which  was 
thus  probably  levied  beyond  the  city  walls,  in  small 
outlying  hamlets  and  villages,  which  were  not  in- 
cluded in  any  territorial  hundred,  but  did  suit  and 
service  to  the  burhmot.  And  next  we  find  the  lord 
in  possession  of  what  we  should  now  call  the  police, 
inflicting  fines  for  breaches  of  the  peace,  theft,  and 
contravention  of  the  regulations  laid  down  for  the 
conduct  of  the  market.  And  this  market  in  Wor- 
cester was  not  the  people's,  but  the  king's,  seeing 
that  not  only  are  the  bishop's  rights,  beyond  its 
limits,  carefully  distinguished,  but  that  ^E^elred 
grants  half  the  customs  within  it,  that  is,  half  the 
tolls  and  taxes,  to  the  bishop.  In  this  way  was 
an  authority  established  concurrent  with  the  king's 
or  duke's,  and  exercised  no  doubt  by  the  biscopes 
gerefa,  as  the  royal  right  was  by  the  cyninges  or 
ealdormannes  burhgerefa.  Nor  were  its  results  un- 
favourable to  the  prosperity  of  the  city:  there  is 
evidence  on  the  contrary  that  in  process  of  time, 
the  people  and  their  bishop  came  to  a  very  good 
understanding,  and  that  the  Metropolis  of  the  West 
grew  to  be  a  wealthy,  powerful  and  flourishing 
place :  so  much  so  that,  when  in  the  year  1041 
Hardacnut  attempted  to  levy  some  illegal  or  unpo- 
pular tax,  the  citizens  resisted,  put  the  royal  com- 
missioners to  death,  and  assumed  so  determined 
an  attitude  of  rebellion,  that  a  large  force  of  Huscar- 
las  and  Hereban,  under  the  principal  military  chiefs 


CH.  VIL]  THE  TOWNS.  331 

of  England,  was  found  necessary  to  reduce  them. 
Florence  of  Worcester,  who  relates  the  occurrence 
in  detail1,  says  that  the  city  was  burnt  and  plun- 
dered. From  his  narrative  it  seems  not  improba- 
ble that  the  whole  outbreak  was  connected  with 
the  removal  of  a  popular  bishop  from  his  see  in  the 
preceding  year. 

There  is  another  important  document  of  nearly 
the  same  period  as  the  grant  to  WerfrrS,  by  which 
Eadweard  the  son  of  Alfred  gave  all  the  royal  rights 
of  jurisdiction  in  Taunton  to  the  see  of  Winches- 
ter2. He  freed  the  land  from  every  burthen,  except 
the  universal  three,  whether  they  were  royal,  fiscal, 
comitial  or  other  secular  taxations:  he  granted 
that  all  the  bishop's  men,  noble  or  ignoble,  resi- 
ant  upon  the  aforesaid  land,  should  have  every 

1  1041.  "  Hoc  anno  rex  Anglorum  Hardecanutus  suos  huscarlas 
misit  per  omnes  regni  sui  provincias  ad  exigenduni  quod  indixerat  tri- 
butum.  Ex  quibus  duos,  Feader  scilicet  et  Turstan,  Wigornenses  pro- 
vinciales  cum  civibus,  seditione  exorta,  in  cuiusdam  turris  Wigornensis 
monasterii  solario,  quo  celandi  causa  confugerant,  quarto  Nonas  Maii, 
feria  secunda  peremerunt.  Unde  rex  ira  commotus,  ob  ultionem  necis 
illorum,  Thurum  Mediterraneorum,  Leofricum  Merciorum,  Godwinum 
Westsaxonum,  Siwardum  Northimbrorum,  Ronum  Magesetensium,  et 
caeteros  totius  Angliae  comites,  omuesque  ferme  suos  huscarlas,  cum 
magno  exercitu.  .  .  .illo  misit ;  mandans  ut  omnes  viros,  si  possint,  oc- 
ciderent,  civitatem  depraedatam  incenderent,  totamque  provinciam  de- 
vastarent.  Qui,  die  veniente  secundo  Iduum  Novembrium,  et  civitatem 
et  provinciam  devastare  coeperunt,  idque  per  quatuor  dies  agere  non 
cessaverun  t :  sed  paucos  vel  e  civibus  vel  provincialibus  ceperunt  aut 
occiderunt,  quia  praecognito  adventu  eorum,  provinciales  quoque  loco- 
rum  fugerant.  Civium  vero  multitude  in  quandam  modicam  insulam, 
in  medio  Sabrinae  fluminis  sitam,  quae  Beverege  nuncupatur,  confuge- 
rant ;  et  munitione  facta,  tarn  din  se  viriliter  ad  versus  suos  inimicos 
defenderunt,  quoad  pace  recuperate,  libere  domum  licuerit  eis  redire. 
Quinta  igitur  die,  civitate  cremata,  unusquisque  magna  cum  praeda 
rediit  in  sua  ;  et  regis  statim  quievit  ira."  Flor.  Wig.  1041. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1084.     Anno  904. 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


privilege  and  right  which  was  enjoyed  by  the  king's 
men,  resiant  in  his  royal  fiscs1,  and  that  all  secular 
jurisdiction  should  be  administered  for  the  bishop's 
benefit,  as  fully  as  it  was  elsewhere  executed  for 
the  king's.  Moreover  he  attached  for  ever  to  Win- 
chester the  market-tolls  ("  villae  mercimonium, 
quod  anglice  $a?s  tunes  cyping  adpellatur "),  to- 
gether with  every  civic  census,  tax  or  payment. 
Whatsoever  had  heretofore  been  the  king's  was 
henceforth  to  belong  to  the  bishop  of  Winchester. 
And  that  these  were  valuable  rights,  producing  a 
considerable  income,  must  be  concluded  from  the 
large  estates  which  bishop  Denevvulf  and  his  chap- 
ter thought  it  advisable  to  give  the  king  in  ex- 
change, and  which  comprised  no  less  than  sixty 
hides  of  land  in  several  parcels.  The  bishops,  it  is 
to  be  presumed,  henceforth  governed  Taunton  by 
their  own  gerefa,  to  whom  the  grant  itself  must  be 
construed  to  have  conveyed  plenary  jurisdiction, 
that  is  the  blut-ban  or  ius  gladii,  the  supreme  crimi- 
nal as  well  as  civil  justice. 

These  examples  will  suffice  to  show  in  what  mari- 
ner seigneurial  rights  grew  up  in  certain  towns,  and 
how  they  were  exercised.  From  the  account  thus 
given  we  may  also  see  the  difference  which  ex- 
isted between  such  a  city  and  one  founded  origi- 
nally upon  a  system  of  free  gylds.  These  associa- 
tions placed  the  men  of  London  in  a  position  to 
maintain  their  own  rights  both  against  king  and 
bishop,  and  indeed  it  is  evident  from  the  '  Judicia 

1  Lands  held  immediately  of  the  king,  and  administered  by  his  own 
officers.     People  resident  about  the  royal  vills. 


CH.  YII.]  THE  TOWNS.  333 

Civitatis  '  itself,  that  the  bishops  united  with  the 
citizens  in  the  establishment  of  their  free  communa 
under  ^/Selstan.  We  are  not  very  clearly  informed 
what  was  the  earliest  mode  of  government  in  Lon- 
don ;  but,  from  a  law  of  Hlo$h8ere,  it  is  probable 
that  it  was  presided  over  by  a  royal  reeve,  in  the 
seventh  century.  The  sixteenth  chapter  of  that 
prince's  law  provides  that,  when  a  man  of  Kent 
makes  any  purchase  in  Lundenwic,  he  is  to  have 
the  testimony  of  two  or  three  credible  men,  or  of 
the  king's  wicgerefa1.  In  the  ninth  century,  when 
Kent  and  its  confederation  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  royal  family  of  the  Gewissas,  London 
may  possibly  have  vindicated  some  portion  of  inde- 
pendence. It  had  previously  lain  within  the  nomi- 
nal limits  at  least  of  the  Mercian  authority2:  but 
the  victories  of  Ecgberht  and  the  subsequent  in- 
vasions of  the  Northmen  destroyed  the  Mercian 
power,  and  in  all  likelihood  left  the  city  to  provide 
for  itself  and  its  own  freedom.  We  know  that  it 
suffered  severely  in  those  invasions,  but  we  have 
slight  record  of  any  attempt  to  relieve  it  from  their 
assaults,  which  might  imply  an  interest  in  its  wel- 
fare, on  the  part  of  any  particular  power.  In  the 
year  886  however,  we  learn,  ^Elfred,  victorious  on 
every  point,  turned  his  attention  to  London,  whose 
fortifications  he  rebuilt,  and  which  he  re-annexed 

1  Leg.  H]o«.  §  16.     Thorpe,  i.  34. 

3  Asser  considers  London  to  belong  locally  to  Essex :  lie  states  that 
the  Danes  plundered  it  in  851.  Vit.  .ZElfr.  in  anno.  Berhtwulf  of  Mer- 
cia  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  relieve  it ;  so  that  it  must  be  con- 
sidered to  have  been  a  Mercian  town  at  that  period.  Later  it  seems 
to  have  been  left  to  itself,  till  yElfred  restored  it  in  886. 


334 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


BOOK 


to  Mercia,  now  constituted  as  a  duchy  under 
red1.  On  the  death  of  this  prince,  Eadweard  seized 
Oxford  and  London  into  his  own  hands,  and  it 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  governed  these 
cities  by  burhgerefan  of  his  own  2.  But  very  shortly 
after  we  find  the  important  document,  which  I 
have  already  mentioned,  the  so-called  '  Judicia  Civi- 
tatis/  or  Dooms  of  London,  which  proves  clearly 
enough  the  elasticity  of  a  great  trading  community, 
the  readiness  with  which  a  city  like  London  could 
recover  its  strength,  and  the  vigour  with  which  its 
mixed  population  could  carry  out  their  plans  of 
self-government  and  independent  existence.  Hence- 
forward we  find  the  citizens  for  the  most  part  under 
portgerefan  or  portreeves  of  their  own3,  to  whom 
the  royal  writs  are  directed,  as  in  counties  they  are 
to  the  sheriffs.  We  must  not  however  suppose  that 
at  this  early  period  constitutional  rights  were  so 
perfectly  settled  as  to  be  beyond  the  possibility  of 
infringement.  Circumstances,  whose  record  now 
escapes  us,  may  sometimes  have  occurred  which 
abridged  the  franchise  of  particular  cities :  we 
cannot  conclude  that  the  Portgerefa  was  always 

1  "  Gesette  ^Elfred  cyning  Lundenburg and  lie  "Sa  befseste  fta 

burg  .^Efterede  aldormen  to  healdanne."  Chron.  Sax.  an.  886.   "Eodem 
anno  vElfred,  Angulsaxonum  rex,  post  incendia  urbium,  stragesque 
populorum,  Londoniam  civitatem  honorifice  restauravit,  et  habitabilem 
fecit :  quam  generi  suo  .^Efferedo,  Merciorum  comiti,  commendavit  ser- 
vandam."  Asser,  Vit.  J31f.  an.  886.     In  880  the  Danes  wintered  at 
Fulham,  and  may  then  have  ruined  London,  if  they  had  not  done  so 
before. 

2  Chron.  Sax.  an.  912. 

3  Swetman,  portgerefa.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  857.     ^Elfsige,  ibid.  Nos. 
858,  861.     Ulf.  ibid.  No.  872.     The  first  mayor  of  London  was  elected 
probably  in  1187.     See  Lib.  de  Ant.  Legib.  p.  1  seq. 


CH.  viz.]  THE  TOWNS.  335 

freely  elected  by  the  citizens ;  for  in  some  places 
we  hear  of  "  royal"  portreeves1,  from  which  it  may 
be  argued  either  that  the  king  had  made  the 
appointment  by  his  own  authority,  or,  what  is 
far  from  improbable,  that  he  had  concurred  with 
the  citizens  in  the  election.  Moreover  the  direc- 
tion of  writs  to  noblemen  of  high  rank,  even  in 
London,  seems  to  imply  that,  on  some  occasions, 
either  the  king  had  succeeded  in  seizing  the  liber- 
ties of  the  city  into  his  own  hand,  or  that  the  elected 
officers  were  sometimes  taken  from  the  class  of 
powerful  ministerials,  having  high  rank  and  sta- 
tion in  the  royal  household2.  Where  there  existed 
clubs  or  gylds  of  the  free  citizens,  we  may  also  be- 
lieve that  similar  associations  were  established  by 
the  lords  and  their  dependents,  either  as  a  means  of 
balancing  the  popular  power,  or  at  least  of  sharing 
in  the  benefits  of  an  association  which  secured  the 
rights  and  position  of  the  free  men ;  and  thus,  the 
same  document  which  reveals  to  us  the  exist- 
ence of  the  "  Ingang  burhware "  or  "  burghers' 
club  "  of  Canterbury,  tells  us  also  of  the  "  Cnihta 
gyld,"  or  "  Sodality  of  young  nobles  "  in  the  same 
city3. 

1  "  Cyninges  gerefa  hitman  port,"  the  king's  reeve  within  the  city. 
Leg.  ^Eftelst.  iii.  §  7 ;  iv.  §  3.    Canterhury  appears  to  have  had  both  a 
cyninges  gerefa  and  a  portgerefa.    The  signatures  of  both  these  officers 
are  appended  to  the  same  instrument.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  789. 

2  The  document  De  Institutis  Londoniae,  which  is  considered  to  date 
from  the  time  of  ^ESelrsed,  that  is  the  commencement  of  the  eleventh 
century,  gives  the  fine  for  burhbryce  to  the  king ;  and  inflicts  a  fur- 
ther hot  of  thirty  shillings,  for  the  benefit  of  the  city,  if  the  king  will 
grant  it,  "si  rex  hoc  concedat  nobis."  Inst.  Lond.  §  4.   Thorpe,!.  301. 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  293. 


336 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


Two  points  necessarily  arrest  our  attention  in 
considering  the  case  of  every  city  ;  the  first  of  these 
is  the  internal  organization,  on  which  the  freedom 
of  the  inhabitants  itself  depends  :  the  second  is  the 
relation  the  city  stands  in  to  the  public  law,  that 
is  to  say,  its  particular  position  toward  the  state. 
The  Anglosaxon  laws  do  contain  a  few  provisions 
destined  to  regulate  the  intercourse  between  the 
townspeople  and  the  country  :  for  example  we  may 
refer  to  the  laws  which  regulate  the  number  of 
mints  allowed  to  each  city.  In  the  tenth  century 
it  was  settled  that  each  burh  might  have  one,  — 
and  from  this  very  fact  it  is  clear  that  "  burh  "  was 
then  a  legal  term  having  a  fixed  and  definite  mean- 
ing, —  while  a  few  cities  were  favoured  with  a  larger 
number.  The  names  of  the  places  so  distinguished 
are  preserved  ,  and  from  the  regulations  affecting 
them  in  this  respect  we  may  form  a  conclusion  as 
to  their  comparative  importance.  Under  ^E^el- 
stan  we  find  the  following  arrangement  :  —  At  Can- 
terbury were  to  be  seven  moneyers  ;  four  for  the 
king,  two  for  the  bishop,  one  for  the  abbot.  At 
Rochester  three  ;  two  for  the  king,  one  for  the 
bishop.  At  London  eight.  At  Winchester  six.  At 
Lewes,  Hampton,  Wareham,  Exeter  and  Shafts- 
bury,  two  moneyers  to  each  town.  At  Hastings, 
Chichester,  and  at  the  other  burhs,  one  to  each 
town1. 

It  is  right  to  observe  that  all  these  places  are  in 
-ZE'Selstan's  peculiar  kingdom,  south  of  the  Thames, 


1  Leg.  ^Eftelst.  i.  §  14.     Thorpe,  i.  206. 


CH.  vii.]  THE  TOWNS.  337 

and  that  his  legislation  takes  no  notice  of  the  Mer- 
cian, Eastanglian  or  Northumbrian  territories.  But 
half  a  century  later,  it  was  ordered  that  no  man 
should  have  a  mint  save  the  king,  and  that  any 
person  who  wrought  money  without  the  precincts 
of  a  burh,  should  be  liable  to  the  penalties  of  for- 
gery. The  inconvenience  of  this  was  however  too 
great,  and  by  the  c  Instituta  Londoniae,'  each  prin- 
cipal city  ("  summus  portus ")  was  permitted  to 
have  three,  and  every  other  burh  one  money er 1. 

Again,  the  difficulty  of  guarding  against  theft, 
especially  in  respect  to  cattle,  the  universal  vice 
of  a  semi-civilized  people, — led  to  more  than  one 
attempt  to  prohibit  all  buying  and  selling  except 
in  towns ;  and  this  of  itself  seems  to  imply  that 
they  were  numerously  distributed  over  the  face  of 
the  country.  But  this  provision,  however  beneficial 
to  the  lords  of  such  towns,  was  too  contrary  to  the 
general  convenience,  and  seems  to  have  been  soon 
relinquished  as  impracticable.  The  enactments  on 
the  subject  appear  to  have  been  abrogated  almost 
as  soon  as  made  2  :  but  the  machinery  by  which  it 
was  proposed  to  carry  their  provisions  into  effect 
are  of  considerable  interest.  In  each  burh,  accord- 
ing to  its  size,  a  certain  number  of  the  townspeople 
were  to  be  elected,  who  might  act  as  witnesses  in 
every  case  of  bargain  and  sale, — whom  both  parties 
on  occasion  would  be  bound  to  call  to  warranty, 
and  whose  decision  or  veredictum  in  the  premises 

1  Leg.  ^Etfelr.  iii.  §  8,  16 ;  iv.  §  5,  9.    Thorpe,  i.  296,  293,  301,  303. 

2  Leg.  Eadw.  §  1.    JSSelst,  i.  §  12,  13  j  iii.  §  2  ;  v.  §  10.    Thorpe,  i. 
158,  206,  218,  240. 

VOL.  II.  Z 


338 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


would  be  final.  It  was  intended  that  in  every  larger 
burh  ("  summus  portus")  there  should  be  thirty- 
three  such  elective  officers,  and  in  every  hundred 
twelve  or  more,  by  whose  witness  every  bargain  was 
to  be  sanctioned,  whether  in  a  burh  or  a  wapen- 
take.  They  were  to  be  bound  by  oath  to  the  faith- 
ful discharge  of  their  duty.  The  law  of  Eadgar 
says  :  "  Let  every  one  of  them,  on  his  first  election 
as  a  witness,  take  an  oath  that,  neither  for  profit, 
nor  fear,  nor  favour,  will  he  ever  deny  that  which 
he  did  witness,  nor  affirm  aught  but  what  he  did 
see  and  hear.  And  let  there  be  two  or  three  such 
sworn  men  as  witnesses  to  every  bargain  V 

The  words  of  this  law  seem  to  imply  that  the 
appointment  was  to  be  a  permanent  one;  and  it 
is  only  natural  to  suppose  that  these  "  geseftedan 
men,"  jurati,  or  jurors,  would  become  by  degrees 
a  settled  urban  magistracy.  We  see  in  them  the 
germ  of  a  municipal  institution,  a  sworn  corpo- 
ration, assessors  in  some  degree  of  the  gerefa  or 
thfe  later  mayor  2.  They  were  evidently  the  "  boni 
et  legales  homines,"  the  "  testes  credibiles,"  "  8  a 
godan  men,"  "  dohtigan  men,"  and  so  forth,  of 
various  documents,  the  "  Scabini,"  "  Schoppen " 
or  "  Echevins,"  so  familiar  to  us  in  the  history 
of  mediaeval  towns,  which  had  any  pretensions  to 
freedom.  They  necessarily  constituted  a  magis- 
tracy, and  gradually  became  the  centre  round 


1  Leg.  Eadgar.  Supp.  §  3,  4,  5.     Thorpe,  i.  274 

2  "Hoc  anno  [A.D.  1200]  fuerunt  xxv  elect!  de  discretioribus  civi- 
tatis,  et  iurati  pro  consulendo  civitatem  una  cum  Maiore."  Lib.   de 
Antiq.  Legib.  in  anno. 


CH.  viz.]  THE  TOWNS.  341 

that   we   now  possess   no  ancient   maps  or  plans 
which  would  have  thrown  a  valuable  light  upon 
this  subject,  yet  the  guidance  here  and  there  sup- 
plied   by   the   names    of    the    streets   themselves, 
and  the  foundations  of  ancient  buildings  yet  to  be 
traced  in  them,  coupled  with  fragmentary  notices 
in  the  chroniclers,  do  sometimes  enable  us  to  catch 
glimpses  as  it  were  of  this  history  of  the  past.  The 
giant  march  of  commercial  prosperity  has  crum- 
bled into  dust  almost  every  trace  of  what  our  brave 
and  good  forefathers  looked  upon  with  pardonable 
pride  :  but   the  principles   which  animated  them, 
still  in  a  great  degree  regulate  the  lives  of  us  their 
descendants  ;  and  if  we  exult  in  the  conviction  that 
our  free  municipal  institutions  are  the  safeguard 
of  some  of  our  most  cherished  liberties,  let  us  re- 
member those  to  whom  we  owe  them,  and  study 
to  transmit  unimpaired  to  our  posterity  an  inhe- 
ritance which  we  have  derived  from  so  remote  an 
^Lcestry. 


342 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  BISHOP. 

WHATEVER  variety  of  form  the  heathendom  of  the 
Anglosaxons  may  have  assumed  in  different  dis- 
tricts, we  are  justified  in  asserting  that  a  sacerdotal 
class  existed,  and  that  there  were  different  grades 
of  rank  within  it.  We  hear  of  priests,  and  of  chief 
priests  ;  and  it  is  not  unnatural  to  conclude  that  to 
the  latter  some  pre-eminence  in  dignity,  if  not  in 
power,  was  conceded  over  their  less-distinguished 
colleagues.  Similarly,  the  necessities  of  internal 
government  and  regulation,  and  the  analogy  of  se- 
cular administration,  had  gradually  supplied  the 
Christian  communities  with  a  well-organized  sf- 
stem  of  hierarchy,  which  commencing  with  the 
lower  ministerial  functions,  passed  upward  through 
the  presbyterate,  the  episcopal  and  metropolitan 
ordinations,  and  found  its  culminating  point  and 
completion  in  the  patriarchates  of  the  eastern  and 
western  churches.  The  paganism  of  the  Old  World, 
which  admitted  the  participation  of  different  classes 
in  the  public  rites  of  religion,  if  it  did  not  cause, 
could  at  least  easily  reconcile  itself  to,  this  syste- 
matic division.  Our  own  heathen  state  is  not  well 
known  enough  to  enable  us  to  affirm  as  much  of 
our  forefathers ;  but  the  immediate  foundation  of 


en.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  343 

an  episcopal  church,  in  all  the  newly-converted  Teu- 
tonic countries,  seems  to  show  that  no  difficulty 
existed  or  was  apprehended  as  to  its  ready  recep- 
tion. In  England,  as  elsewhere,  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  was  immediately  followed  by  the 
establishment  of  bishops.  But  it  is  necessary  to 
draw  a  distinction  between  the  effects  of  this  esta- 
blishment in  England  and  in  various  parts  of  the 
continent.  As  we  pursue  the  inquiries  which  ne- 
cessarily meet  us  in  investigating  the  history  of 
conversion  in  the  West,  we  are  led  to  a  remarkable 
fact,  viz.  that  the  power  of  the  Eoman  see  was, 
generally  speaking,  most  substantially  founded  by 
the  efforts  and  energy  of  Teutonic  prelates;  while 
a  much  more  steady  opposition  to  its  triumph  was 
offered  by  the  provincials  who  usually  filled  the 
episcopal  office  in  the  cities  of  Gaul. 

The  apparent  strangeness  of  this  however  soon 
vanishes,  when  we  consider  the  many  grounds  upon 
which  the  Gallic  churches  contested  the  immediate 
supremacy  of  Eome.  The  archbishop  of  Vienne 
long  claimed  the  patriarchal  authority  in  Gaul,  upon 
the  same  grounds  as  the  bishops  of  Eome  and  Con- 
stantinople claimed  it  in  those  cities 1.  Many  of 
the  provincial  churches  boasted  an  antiquity  hardly 
inferior  to  the  Eoman.  and  a  foundation  not  less 
illustrious;  many  had  shown  in  persecution  and 
suffering  a  spirit  of  Christian  perseverance  and  a 
steadfastness  of  faith,  which  the  City  itself  had  not 
exceeded  in  her  own  hour  of  trial.  Above  all, 
there  continued  to  exist  a  vigorous  nationality  in 

1  Hiillmann, '  Origine  de  1' organisation  de  1'Eglise  au  Moyen  Age,'  p.  30. 


THE  SAX( 


BOOK  II, 


Gaul,  however  oppressed  and  bridled  by  the  energy 
of  the  Frankish  conquerors,  especially  in  Neustria 
or  the  northern  portion  of  modern  France.  To  this 
spirit  of  nationality,  based  upon  ancient  descent 
and  long  familiarity  with  the  civilization  of  the 
Eoman  empire,  and  fed  in  turn  by  a  great  amount 
of  material  prosperity,  we  must  refer  the  complete 
dissolution  of  the  Carolingian  empire  itself,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  counts  of  Paris  as  kings 
in  the  western  districts  of  that  unwieldy  body. 

It  is  true  that  the  Western  Church  did  not  lay 
definite  claim  to  any  such  total  independence  as 
Cyprian  vindicated  for  his  African  communities: 
the  good  offices  and  arbitration  of  St.  Peter's  suc- 
cessor were  sought  in  disputed  and  doubtful  cases, 
even  if  we  cannot  admit  of  positive  appeals  to  the 
Koman  curia :  the  bishops  of  Burgundy,  Provence 
and  Spain,  early  found  that  union  with  the  oldest 
and  most  respected  church  of  the  West  offered  an 
important  defence  of  orthodoxy  threatened  by  the 
Arian  and  semi-Arian  dogma  of  the  barbarians  who 
had  wrested  those  fine  provinces  from  the  empire : 
and  the  popes  were  not  unwilling  to  encourage  a 
tendency  which  helped  to  realize  the  idea  of  a  pre- 
eminence in  their  church  over  all  the  Christian 
communities l.  The  institution  of  Missi,  or  special 
commissioners,  was  familiar :  they  adopted  it,  and 

1  This  was  strongly  asserted  by  Koinanus  against  Cyprian,  and  never 
lost  sight  of  by  the  Eoman  controversialists,  whatever  opposition  it 
encountered  in  other  churches.  But  while  Rome  really  was  the  first 
city  of  the  world,  it  was  consonant  to  the  analogy  of  the  other  episco- 
pal relations  that  her  prelate  should  claim  the  primacy.  The  founding 
it  either  on  St.  Peter's  peculiar  principality,  or  on  pretended  decrees  of 
the  Itornan  emperors,  was  quite  a  different  thing,  and  an  afterthought. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISPIOP.  345 

at  a  very  early  period  we  find  papal  vicars  exer- 
cising some  sort  of  authority  in  Gaul,  and  perhaps 
even  in  Britain. 

The  conversion  of  Clovis  to  the  orthodox  faith, 
instead  of  that  which  he  might  have  learned  from 
his  Arian  neighbours,  was  not  only  a  source  of 
power  and  importance  to  the  Catholic  bishops  of 
Gaul,  but  ultimately  of  the  greatest  moment  to  the 
bishop  of  Rome.  We  must  admit  that  under  the 
Merwingian  kings,  the  popes  enjoyed  some  au- 
thority and  great  consideration  in  Gaul,  though  not 
enough  to  endanger  the  independence  and  free- 
dom of  the  Gallican  church :  but  under  the  family  of 
Pipin  they  necessarily  occupied  a  very  different 
position.  For  during  the  earlier  years  of  the  im- 
perial constitution,  Eome  was  a  city,  and  its  bishop 
to  a  certain  extent  an  officer,  of  the  empire,  and 
the  power  and  influence  of  the  popes  was  advanced 
by  the  Frankish  emperor  as  best  might  suit  his 
own  purposes.  It  is  assuredly  not  true  that  under 
Charlemagne  those  bishops  ventured  upon  any  of 
the  usurpations  which  they  succeeded  in  substan- 
tiating under  later  emperors. 

During  the  reign  of  Hluduuig  indeed,  a  pious 
but  weak  prince,  they  obtained  various  concessions 
which  in  process  of  time  bore  fruit  of  power 1.  It 

1  But,  as  yet,  no  independence.  Pope  Paschal  in  823,  being  accused 
by  the  Romans  of  participation  in  various  homicides,  Hluduuig  sent  his 
Missi, — Adalung  a  presbyter  and  abbot,  and  Hunfrid  duke  of  Rhsetia 
(or  Coire)  to  investigate  the  affair.  Paschal  appeared  before  them,  and 
cleared  himself  by  oath.  "  Qui  supradictus  Pontifex  cum  iuramento 
purificavit  se  in  Lateranensi  patriarchio  coram  supradictis  legatis  et 
populo  Romano,  cum  episcopis  34,  et  presbyteris  et  diaconibus  quin- 
que."  Thegan.  Vit.  Hludov.  Imp.  Pertz,  ii,  597. 


346 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


was  reserved  for  later  days  to  witness  the  triumph 
of  Eoman  independence  through  the  combination 
of  communal  with  priestly  tendencies.  This  com- 
bination first  darkly  arose  when  the  nationality  of 
Eome  itself  burst  forth,  encouraged  by  the  vigour 
with  which  the  bishop  made  head  against  the  in- 
vading Saracens  in  Italy,  supported  the  orthodox 
prelates  of  the  southern  kingdoms,  Aries,  Burgundy 
and  Spain  against  Arian  dukes  and  governors,  and 
regulated  the  internal  affairs  of  the  city,  neglected 
by  its  Frankish  patricians  and  missi.  At  this  time 
too  Eome  had  no  competitor:  Africa  had  fallen, 
Constantinople  had  abdicated  her  imperial  position, 
the  cities  and  the  sees  of  the  East  had  vanished 
together;  Eome — at  least  one  of  the  oldest — was 
now  unquestionably  the  most  powerful  of  the  Chris- 
tian churches.  She  had  all  the  prestige  of  the  old 
empire,  and  all  the  support  of  the  new  one  which 
she  had  helped  to  found  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
But  this  gradual  advance  and  this  commanding 
power  could  not  at  first  have  been  contemplated. 
It  is  a  common  error  to  suppose  that  great  results, 
which  seem  necessarily  produced  by  a  long  series 
of  combined  causes,  have  from  the  first  been  pre- 
pared and  foreseen.  The  spectator  in  his  own 
struggle  after  a  logical  unity  rejects  the  accidental 
and  accessory  facts,  to  fix  his  eyes  upon  the  appa- 
rently essential  development;  and  supposes  every- 
thing to  have  been  grasped  together,  because  his 
intellect  cannot  conceive  the  whole  variety  of  oc- 
currences without  so  grasping  them.  The  relations 
of  Eome  with  the  Franks  were  hardly  the  conse- 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  347 

quence  of  any  deliberate  or  well-considered  plan. 
The  Frankish  kings  had  been  selected  as  patrons 
merely  because  they  could  afford  the  protection 
which  was  looked  for  in  vain  from  Constantinople, 
or  indeed  any  other  quarter;  and  had  Italy  not 
been  overrun  by  Germanic  invaders  of  various  race, 
from  whose  power  there  seemed  no  refuge,  save  in 
other  and  still  more  barbarous  Germanic  defenders, 
the  Western  empire  might  never  have  been  re- 
stored: but  when  once  it  was  so  restored, — from 
the  moment  when  Pope  Leo  and  the  Eoman  muni- 
cipality agreed  to  place  the  command  of  the  city, 
and  the  rights  of  the  ancient  Caesars,  in  the  hands 
of  a  barbarian  king, — but  one  capable  of  apprecia- 
ting and  securing  all  the  advantages  of  his  great 
position, — Rome  itself  became  not  only  identified 
with  the  new  views,  but  necessary  to  their  fulfil- 
ment 1.  Had  the  new  emperor  been  a  Roman,  or 

1  No  sooner  was  Charlemagne  crowned  as  emperor  by  Leo  III. 
(Dec.  25th,  800)  than  he  caused  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  be  administered 
to  all  his  subjects  who  were  above  the  age  of  twelve  years.  See  on 
this  subject  Donniges,  p.  2,  etc.  He  thus  obtained  all  the  rights  of  the 
ancient  emperors  over  the  church  and  the  Eoman  provincials,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  powers  as  a  German  king,  which  in  his  vigorous  hands  as- 
sumed a  consistency  and  compass  unknown  to  his  predecessors.  Charle- 
magne required  all  the  aid  of  the  Pope  against  the  great  Frankish  fami- 
lies, who  might  have  given  him  a  mayor  of  the  palace,  as  they  had  given 
his  own  progenitors  to  the  Merwingian  kings.  The  following  important 
passage  will  show  in  what  spirit  he  considered  the  imperial  authority 
which  he  had  assumed.  "A.D.  802.  Eo  anno  demoravit  domnus  Caesar 
Carolus  apud  Aquis  palatium  quietus  cum  Francis  sine  hoste  j  sed  re- 
cordatus  misericordiae  suae  de  pauperibus,  qui  in  regno  sno  erant  et 
iustitias  suas  pleniter  [hjabere  non  poterant,  noluit  de  infra  palatio 
pauperiores  vassos  suos  transmittere  ad  iustitias  faciendum  propter  mu- 
nera,  sed  elegit  in  regno  suo  archiepiscopos  et  reliquos  episcopos  et 
abbates  cum  ducibus  et  coniitibus,  qui  iam  opus  non  [h]abebant  super 


348 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n, 


had  he  selected  Rome  as  his  residence,  and  thus 
made  it  the  local  as  well  as  real  and  political  centre 
of  his  power,  the  Papacy  would  probably  never 
have  attained  its  territorial  authority.  But  the 
Frankish  king  remained  true  to  the  habits  of  his 
people  and  of  his  predecessors,  resided  in  peaceful 
times  at  Ingleheim  or  Aix  la  Chapelle,  and  spent 
years  in  wandering  from  one  royal  vill  to  another, 
or  in  the  duties  of  active  warfare  upon  the  several 
confines  of  his ,  empire ;  and  thus  the  government 
of  the  eternal  city  practically  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Frankish  officers,  dukes,  missi,  counts  palatine,  and 


innocentes  munera  accipere,  et  ipsos  misit  per  universum  regnum  suum, 
ut  ecclesiis,  viduis  et  orfanis  et  pauperibus,  et  cuncto  populo  iustitiam 
facerent.  Et  mense  Octimbrio  congregavit  universalem  synodum  in 
iam  nominate  loco,  et  ibi  fecit  episcopis  cuni  presbyteris  seu  diaconibus 
relegi  universes  canones  quas  sanctus  synodus  recepit,  et  decreta  ponti- 
ficum,  et  pleniter  iussit  eos  tradi  coram  omnibus  episcopis,  presbyteris 
et  diaconibus.  Similiter  in  ipso  synodo  congregavit  universes  abbates 
et  monachos  qui  ibi  aderant,  et  ipsi  inter  se  conventum  faciebant,  et 
legerunt  regulam  sancti  patris  Benedicti,  et  earn  tradiderunt  sapientes 
in  conspectu  abbaturn  et  monachorum ;  et  tune  iussu  eius  generaliter 
super  omues  episcopos,  abbates,  presbyteros,  diaconos  seu  universe  clero 
facta  est,  ut  unusquisque  in  loco  sue  iuxta  constitutionem  sanctorum 
patrum,  sive  in  episcopatibus  eeu-  jn  monasteriis  aut  per  universas 
sanctas  ecclesias,  ut  canonici,  iuxta  canones  viverent,  et  quicquid  in 
clero  aut  in  populo  de  culpis  aut  de  negligentiis  apparuerit,  iuxta  ca- 
nonum  auctoritate  emendassent ;  et  quicquid  in  monasteriis  seu  in 
monachis  contra  regulam  sancti  Benedict!  factum  fuisset,  hoc  ipsud 
iuxta  ipsam  regulam  sancti  Benedict!  emendare  fecissent.  Sed  et  ipse 
imperator,  interim  quod  ipsum  synodum  factum  est,  congregavit  duces, 
comites  et  reliquo  cliristiano  populo  cum  legislatoribus,  et  fecit  omnes 
leges  in  regno  sue  legi,  et  tradi  unicuique  homini  legem  suarn,  et 
emendare  ubicumque  necesse  fuit,  et  emendatam  legem  scribere,  et  ut 
indices  per  scriptum  iudicassent,  et  munera  non  accepissent  j  sed  omnes 
homines,  pauperes  et  divites,  in  regno  suo^iustitiam  habuissent."  Annal. 
Lauresham,  xxv.  Pertz,  i.  38.  In  the  theory  of  that  great  man,  the 
imperial  title  was  no  empty  name. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  349 

ministerials,  who  gradually  proved  no  match  for  the 
enlightened  skill,  unwearied  diplomacy  and  increa- 
sing power  of  the  pontiffs,  the  Roman  aristocratic 
families,  and  the  resuscitated  municipality :  yet  the 
popes  had  hardly  succeeded  in  attaining  to  a  com- 
plete independence  of  the  German  Caesars,  when 
the  son  of  Hugues,  called  Capet,  expelled  the  last 
Caroling  from  the  soil  of  France;  though  in  the 
course  of  a  policy  long  inexorably  pursued,  they 
had  gone  far  to  prepare  for  a  dismemberment  of 
the  empire  which  was  to  be  of  more  important 
consequence  to  the  world  than  even  that  separa- 
tion l.  In  956 — the  year  in  which  Eadwig,  the  mark 
of  monkish  calumny,  came  to  the  throne  of  Eng- 
land, the  Patrician  Octavian,  son  of  Alberic  of 
Spoleto,  and  through  him  grandson  of  the  scan- 
dalous Marozia,  caused  himself  to  be  elected  Pope ; 
and  thus  united  the  highest  worldly  and  spiritual 
authorities  in  the  city,  concentrating  in  his  own 
person  all  the  rights  both  of  the  empire  and  the 
papacy  2. 

Three  hundred  and  sixty  years  earlier,  Gregory, 
then  bishop  of  Rome,  had  despatched  a  missionary 
adventure  to  this  country. 

1  A.D.  987.  See  Donniges,  p.  197  seq.  Thierry,  Lettres  sur  1'Histoire 
de  France,  let.  xii. 

2  Since  A.D.  924  there  had  been  in  fact  no  Emperor  of  Germany, 
and  the  empire  itself  might  seem  to  have  been  resolved  anew  into  its 
original  and  discordant  elements.     From  the  year  904,  when  the  elder 
Theodora   succeeded  in   placing  Sergius   the  Third   upon   the  papal 
throne,  the  faction  of  that  profligate  woman  and  her  daughters  had 
completely  disposed  of  all  the  dignities  of  the  city,  and  the  bed  of  the 
Theodoras  or  Marozia  was  the  best  introduction  to  the  Chair  of  St. 
Peter. 


350  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

The  zeal  of  modern  polemics  has  dealt  more 
hardly  with  Gregory  than  justice  demands 1.  Who 
shall  dare  to  attribute  to  him,  or  to  any  other  man, 
entire  freedom  from  human  error,  or  total  absence 
of  those  faults  which,  for  the  very  happiness  of 
man,  are  found  to  chequer  the  most  perfect  of 
human  characters  1  But  even  if  we  admit  that  he 
shared,  to  not  less  than  the  usual  degree,  in  the 
weakness  and  selfishness  of  our  nature,  it  is  im- 
possible to  withhold  the  meed  of  our  admiration 
from  the  man  whose  intellect  could  combine,  whose 
prudence  could  direct,  and  whose  courage  could 
cope  with,  all  the  details  of  a  conversion  such  as 
that  of  Saxon  England.  Let  us  only  consider  the 
circumstances  under  which  he  found  himself  placed 
at  home,  and  we  shall  the  better  comprehend  the 
power  of  mind  which  could  devise  and  execute 
the  vast  design  of  a  spiritual  colonization,  a  trans- 
plantation of  religion  as  it  were  from  Eome  the 
centre,  to  Britain  the  extreme,  the  least  known, 
and  most  barbarous  point  of  the  ancient  empire2. 
Temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  ruler  of  the  city, 
abandoned  by  those  miserable  intriguers  who  in- 
herited from  the  emperors  nothing  but  their  title 
and  their  vices,  and  pressed  on  every  side  by  the 
vigorous  advance  of  the  Langobardic  .arms,  it  was 

1  See  Soames,  Anglos.  Church,  p.  40  seq.,  and  Latin  Church  during 
Anglos.  Times,  p.  12  seq.,  19  seq.     On  the  other  side,  Schrodl,  Das 
erste  Jahrhundert  der  Englischen  Kirche,  p.  10  seq. 

2  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Southerns  shuddered  at  the 
Saxons,  as  the  most  savage  and  barbarous  of  all  the  Germanic  tribes. 
However  unjust  the  opinion  might  be,  it  was  the  fashionable  one  at 
Borne. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  351 

Gregory's  fate  or  fortune  to  pass  in  the  midst  of 
political  excitement  a  life  which  he  had  hoped  to 
devote  to  pious  meditation.  But  he  possessed  a 
character  capable  of  moulding  itself  to  all  the  exi- 
gencies of  his  situation ;  whether  reluctantly  or 
not,  he  flung  himself  into  the  gap,  and  compre- 
hended, with  a  perfect  singleness  of  insight,  that  to 
whom  belongs  the  post  of  greatest  honour,  on  him 
lies  also  the  burthen  of  the  greatest  toil  and  great- 
est danger.  By  turns  soldier,  captain,  negotiator, 
and  priest, — now  wielding  the  pen  to  instruct,  now 
the  sword  to  protect  or  to  chastise, — now  pouring 
passionate  exhortations  from  his  pulpit,  now  pro- 
viding for  the  resources  of  his  commissariat,  or  su- 
perintending the  builders  engaged  on  the  material 
defences  of  his  walls. — we  see  in  him  one  of  those 
men  whom  troublous  times  have  often  educated  to 
cope  with  themselves,  and  whose  names  have  thus 
justly  become  the  very  landmarks  and  pivots  of 
history. 

A  great  writer,  who  sometimes  suffers  his  hosti- 
lity against  Christianity  and  its  professors  to  out- 
weigh the  calmer  judgment  of  the  historian,  has 
left  us  this  graphic  account  of  the  condition  of 
Rome  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century 1. 

"  Amidst  the  arms  of  the  Lombards,  and  under 
the  despotism  of  the  Greeks,  we  again  inquire  into 
the  fate  of  Rome2,  which  had  reached,  about  the 


1  Gibbon,  Dec.  and  Fall,  chapter  45. 

2  "  The  passages  of  the  Homilies  of  Gregory,  which  represent  the 
miserable  state  of  the  city  and  country,  are  transcribed  in  the  Annals 
of  Baronius,  A.D.  590,  No.  16 ;  A.D.  595,  No.  2.  etc." 


352 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


close  of  the  sixth  century,  the  lowest  period  of  her 
depression.  By  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire, 
and  the  successive  loss  of  the  provinces,  the  sources 
of  public  and  private  opulence  were  exhausted ;  the 
lofty  tree,  under  whose  shade  the  nations  of  the 
earth  had  reposed,  was  deprived  of  its  leaves  and 
branches,  and  the  sapless  trunk  was  left  to  wither 
on  the  ground.  The  ministers  of  command  and 
the  messengers  of  victory  no  longer  met  on  the 
Appian  or  Flaminian  Way,  and  the  hostile  ap- 
proach of  the  Lombards  was  often  felt  and  conti- 
nually feared.  The  inhabitants  of  a  potent  and 
peaceful  capital,  who  visit  without  an  anxious 
thought  the  garden  of  the  adjoining  country,  will 
faintly  picture  in  their  fancy  the  distress  of  the 
Romans ;  they  shut  or  opened  their  gates  with  a 
trembling  hand,  beheld  from  the  walls  the  flames 
of  their  houses,  and  heard  the  lamentations  of  their 
brethren,  who  were  coupled  together  like  dogs,  and 
dragged  away  into  distant  slavery  beyond  the  sea 
and  the  mountains.  Such  incessant  alarms  must 
annihilate  the  pleasures  and  interrupt  the  labours 
of  a  rural  life ;  and  the  Campagna  of  Rome  was 
speedily  reduced  to  the  state  of  a  dreary  wilderness, 
in  which  the  land  is  barren,  the  waters  are  impure, 
and  the  air  is  infectious.  Curiosity  and  ambition 
no  longer  attracted  the  nations  to  the  capital  of  the 
world :  but  if  chance  or  necessity  directed  the  steps 
of  a  wandering  stranger,  he  contemplated  with  hor- 
ror the  vacancy  and  solitude  of  the  city,  and  might 
be  tempted  to  ask,  Where  is  the  senate,  and  where 
are  the  people  ^  In  a  season  of  excessive  rains, 


OH.  vm.J  THE  BISHOP.  353 

the  Tiber  swelled  above  its  banks,  and  rushed  with 
irresistible  violence  into  the  valleys  of  the  seven 
hills.  A  pestilential  disease  arose  from  the  stag- 
nation of  the  deluge,  and  so  rapid  was  the  conta- 
gion, that  fourscore  persons  expired  in  an  hour  in 
the  midst  of  a  solemn  procession,  which  implored 
the  mercy  of  heaven1.  A  society  in  which  mar- 
riage is  encouraged  and  industry  prevails,  soon  re- 
pairs the  accidental  losses  of  pestilence  and  war; 
but  as  the  far  greater  part  of  the  Komans  was 
condemned  to  hopeless  indigence  and  celibacy,  the 
depopulation  was  constant  and  visible,  and  the 
gloomy  enthusiasts  might  expect  the  approaching 
failure  of  the  human  race2." 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  scenes  such  as  these  that 
Gregory  found  time  to  organize  the  mission  of  Au- 
gustine to  Britain.  In  the  absence  of  definite  in- 
formation, derived  from  his  own  account,  or  the 
relations  of  his  friends  and  contemporaries,  it  is 
impossible  to  penetrate  the  motives  which  led  the 
pontiff  to  this  step.  They  have  been  variously  in- 
terpreted by  the  zeal  of  opposing  historians,  who 
have  construed  them  by  the  light  of  their  own  pre- 
judices, in  favour  of  the  conflicting  interests  of 
their  respective  churches.  Nor,  with  such  insuffi- 

1  "  The  inundation  and  plague  were  reported  by  a  deacon,  whom  his 
bishop,  Gregory  of  Tours,  had  despatched  to  Rome  for  some  relics. 
The  ingenious  messenger  embellished  his  tale  and  the  river  with  a  great 
dragon  and  a  train  of  little  serpents."     Greg.  Turon.  lib.  x.  cap.  1. 

2  "  Gregory  of  Rome  (Dialog.  1.  ii.  c.  15)  relates  a  memorable  predic- 
tion of  St.  Benedict.    '  Roma  a  gentilibus  non  exterminabitur  sed  tem- 
pestatibus,  coruscis  turbiiiibus  et  terrae  motu  in  semetipsa  marcescet.' 
Such  a  prophecy  rnelts  into  true  history,  and  becomes  the  evidence  of 
the  fact  after  which  it  was  invented." 

VOL.  II.  2  A 


354 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  n. 


cient  means,  do  we  attempt  to  reconcile  their  dif- 
ferences :  human  motives  are  rarely  unmixed, 
rarely  all  good  or  all  evil :  it  is  possible  that  there 
may  be  some  truth  in  all  the  conflicting  views 
which  have  been  taken  of  this  great  act ;  that  while 
an  earnest  missionary  spirit,  and  deep  feeling  of 
responsibility,  led  the  Pope  to  carry  the  blessings 
of  an  orthodox  Christianity  to  the  distant  and 
benighted  tribes  of  Britain,  he  may  have  contem- 
plated— not  without  pardonable  complacency — the 
growth  of  a  church  immediately  dependent  upon 
his  see  for  guidance  and  instruction.  It  may  be 
that  some  lingering  whispers  of  vanity  or  ambition 
spoke  of  the  increase  of  wealth  or  dignity  or  power 
which  might  thus  accrue  to  the  patriarchate  of  the 
West.  Nay,  who  shall  say  that,  looking  round  in 
his  despair  upon  Rome  itself  and  the  disject  mem- 
bers of  its  once  mighty  empire,  he  may  not  even 
have  thought  that  England,  inaccessible  from  its 
seas,  and  the  valour  of  its  denizens,  might  one  day 
offer  a  secure  refuge  to  the  last  remains  of  Roman 
faith  and  nationality,  and  their  last,  but  not  least 
noble,  defender  I 

To  the  pontiff  and  the  statesman  it  was  not  un- 
known that  the  Britannic  islands  were  occupied 
by  two  populations  different  alike  in  their  descent 
and  in  their  fortunes ;  the  elder  and  the  weaker, 
of  Keltic  blood;  the  younger  and  the  conquering 
race,  an  offshoot  of  that  great  Teutonic  stock, 
whose  branches  had  overspread  all  the  fairest  pro- 
vinces of  the  empire,  and  had  now  for  the  most 
part  adopted  something  of  the  civilization,  together 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  356 

with  the  profession,  of  Christianity.  He  was  aware 
that  commercial  intercourse,  nay  even  family  al- 
liances, had  already  connected  the  Anglosaxons 
with  those  Franks,  who,  in  opposition  to  the  Arian 
Goths,  Burgundians  and  Langobards,  had  accepted 
the  form  of  faith  considered  orthodox  by  the  Roman 
See  1.  The  British  church,  he  no  doubt  knew,  in 
common  with  others  which  claimed  to  have  been 
founded  by  the  Apostles2,  still  retained  some  rites 
and  practices  which  had  either  never  been  sanc- 
tioned or  were  now  abandoned  at  Rome :  but  still 
the  communion  of  the  churches  had  been  main- 
tained as  well  as  could  be  expected  between  such 
distant  establishments.  British  bishops  had  ap- 
peared in  the  Catholic  synods  3,  and  the  church  of 
the  Keltic  aborigines  reverenced  with  affectionate 
zeal  the  memory  of  the  missionaries  whom  it 
was  the  boast  of  Home  to  have  sent  forth  for  her 


1  "  I  cannot  bear  to  see  the  finest  provinces  of  Gaul  in  the  hands  of 
those  heretics,"  cried  Clovis,  with  all  the  zeal  of  a  new  convert.  The 
clergy  blessed  the  pious  sentiment,  and  the  orthodox  barbarian  was 
rewarded  with  a  series  of  bloody  victories,  which  mainly  tended  to 
establish  the  predominance  of  the  Frank  over  all  the  other  elements  in 
Gaul. 

*  If  traditions  could  be  construed  into  good  history,  Britain  was 
abundantly  provided  with  apostolical  converters :  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
Aristobulus,  one  of  the  seventy,  St.  Paul  himself,  have  all  had  their 
several  supporters.  Nay  even  St.  Peter  has  been  said  to  have  visited 
this  island  :  "Eyreira  [6  IleVpos]  ....  els  ^perraviav  irapay'ivfraC  "~Ev6a 
8  r;  ^ciporpi/3?)o-as  Kai  TroXXa  TWV  aKarovo/y,ar<oi>  eQvwv  els  rrjv  TOV  Xpiarov 
Trio-Tiv  errLanao-dfjLevos ....  eVi/ieiVa?  re  rois  eV  jSperrcm'a  fj/Jiepas  Tivas, 
KCU  iroXXovs  TCO  Xoyw  (putTiaas  TTJS  %dpiTOs,  €KK\ij(Tias  re  <rv(TTr](rdp,€vos, 
fTTiaKOTTOvs  re  Kal  TTpfafivTepovs  Kai  ftidKovovs  ^eipoTovi](rafj  ScoSe/caro) 
erei  TOV  KaiVapo?  avdis  fls  'PWJJLTJV  TrnparytWrat.  Menolog,  Graec.  xvi. 
Mart. 

3  At  Aries  in  314,  Sardica  in  347,  and  Rimini  in  359. 

2A2 


356 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


instruction  or  confirmation  in  the  faith  l.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  had  reached  the  ears  of  the  Pope, 
that  the  Germanic  conquerors  themselves  yearned 
for  the  communication  of  the  glad  tidings  of  sal- 
vation ;  that  tolerance  was  found  in  at  least  one 
court, — and  that,  one  of  preponderating  influence ; 
while  an  unhappy  instinct  of  national  hatred  had 
induced  the  British  Christians  to  withhold  all  at- 
tempts to  spread  the  Gospel  among  their  heathen 
neighbours  2. 

1  Not  to  speak  of  Ninian,  Palladius  and  Patricius,  we  may  refer  to 
Germanus  of  Auxerre,  who  is  stated  to  have  been  sent  as  Papal  Vicar 
to  England,  to  arrest  the  progress  of  Pelagianism,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century.     Schrb'dl  asserts  this  in  the  broadest  terms  :  "  Auf 
Bitten  der  Britischen  Bischofe.  und  gesendet  von  Pabst  Colestin,  be-  , 
suchte  der  Bischof  Germanus  von  Auxerre  in  der  Eigenschaft  eines 
pabstlichen  Vicars,  zweimal  Britannien,"  etc.  Erste  Jahrh.  p.  2.     Lin- 
gard  is  somewhat  less  decided  :  he  says,  "  Pope  Celestine,  at  the  re- 
presentation of  the  deacon  Palladius,  commissioned  Germanus  of  Au- 
xerre to  proceed  in  his  name  to  Britain,"  etc.  Ang.  Church,  i.  8.    Both 
these  authors  refer  to  Prosper,  in  Chron.  anno  429.     "  Papa  Coelesti- 
nus  Germanuni  Autisiodorenseni  episcopum  vice  sua  mittit,  et  detur- 
batis  haereticis  Britannos  ad  Catholicam  fidem  dirigit."    Prosper  was 
not  only  a  contemporary  of  the  facts  he  relates,  but  at  a  later  period 
actually  became  secretary  to  Oelestine  :  his  authority  therefore  is  of 
much  weight.     Still  it  is  observable  that  Beda,  in  his  relation,  does  not 
attribute  the  mission  of  Germanus  to  the  Pope.     He  says,  that  the 
Britons  having  applied  for  aid  to  the  prelates  of  Gaul,  these  held  a 
great  synod,  and  elected  Germanus  and  Lupus  to  proceed  to  England. 
Hist.  Eccl.  i.  17.     Beda's  account  is  taken  from  the  life  of  Germanus 
written  by  Oonstantius  of  Lyons,  about  forty  years  after  the  bishop's 
death.     He  says  as  little  of  the  Vicariate  in  his  account  of  the  second 
mission.     However,  even  supposing  Prosper,  whose  means  of  judgment 
were  certainly  the  best,  to  be  right,  it  only  follows  that  Celestine  dis- 
patched Germanus  as  his  Vicar,  but  not  that  the  British  prelates  for- 
mally received  him  in  that  capacity.     It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the 
passage  contains  any  satisfactory  proof  that  the  -Roman  See  enjoyed  a 
right  of  appointing  Vicars  in  England  at  the  period  in  question,  how- 
ever it  may  have  desired,  or  tried  practically,  to  establish  one. 
2  Beda,  H.  E.  i.  22. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  357 

Under  these  circumstances,  in  the  year  596,  at 
the  very  moment  when  the  ancient  metropolis  of 
the  world  seemed  on  the  point  of  falling  under  the 
yoke  of  the  Langobards,  Augustine  and  his  forty 
companions  set  out  to  carry  the  faith  to  the  ex- 
treme islands  of  the  West, — a  deed  as  heroic  as 
when  Scipio  marched  for  Zama,  and  left  the  terri- 
ble Carthaginian  thundering  at  the  gates  of  the 
city.  Furnished  with  letters  of  introduction  to 
facilitate  their  passage  through  Gaul,  where  they 
were  to  provide  themselves  with  interpreters,  and 
where,  in  the  event  of  success,  Augustine  was  to 
receive  episcopal  consecration,  the  adventurers 
finally  landed  in  Kent,  experienced  a  gentle  recep- 
tion from  ^E^elberht,  and  obtained  permission  to 
preach  the  faith  among  his  subjects.  In  an  incre- 
dibly short  space  of  time — if  we  may  credit  the 
earliest  historian  of  the  Anglosaxon  church — their 
efforts  were  crowned  with  success  in  the  more 
important  districts  of  the  island ;  Canterbury,  Ro- 
chester and  London  received  the  distinction  of 
episcopal  sees ;  swarms  of  energetic  missionaries 
from  Home,  from  Gaul,  from  Burgundy,  followed 
on  their  track,  eager  to  aid  their  labours,  and  share 
their  triumph ;  and  at  length  the  Keltic  Scots 
themselves,  emulous  of  their  successes,  or  awakened, 
though  late,  to  a  sense  of  their  own  culpable 
neglect,  entered  vigorously  upon  the  vacant  field, 
and  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  pagan  tribes  north 
of  the  Humber,  and  in  the  central  provinces  of 
England.  The  progress  of  the  new  creed  was  not, 


358 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


however,  one  uncliequered  triumph :  in  Wales  and 
Scotland  the  embittered  Kelts  refused  not  only 
canonical  submission  to  the  missionary  archbishop, 
but  even  Catholic  communion  with  his  neophytes1. 
In  Eastanglia,  Essex,  nay  Kent  itself,  apostacy  fol- 
lowed upon  the  death  of  the  first  converted  kings ; 
while  Wessex  remained  true  to  its  ancient  pagan- 
ism ;  and  Penda  of  Mercia,  tolerant  of  Christianity 
although  himself  no  Christian,  was  dangerous 
through  his  very  indifference,  his  ambition,  and  the 
triumphs  of  his  arms  over  successive  Northum- 
brian princes.  Still  the  great  aim  of  Gregory  was 
not  to  be  vain,  and  despite  kings  and  peoples,  nay 
even  despite  the  faintheartedness  and  "  little  faith  " 
of  the  missionaries,  the  work  of  conversion  did  go 
on  and  prosper,  until  it  embraced  every  portion  of 
the  island,  and  every  part  of  England  made  at  least 
an  outward  profession  of  Christianity. 

No  sooner  had  the  new  creed  found  a  reception 


1  "  Scottos  vero  per  Daganum  episcopum  in  hanc,  quam  superius 
memoravimus,  insulam  (sc.  Britanniam)  et  Columbanum  abbatem  in 
Gallis  venientem,  nihil  discrepare  a  Brittonibus  in  eorum  conversatione 
didicimus.  Nani  Daganus  episcopus  ad  nos  veniens,  non  solum  cibum 
nobiscum,  sed  nee  in  eodem  hospitio  quo  vescebamur,  sumere  voluit." 
Such  is  the  account  Laurentius,  Mellitus  and  Justus  give  in  their 
epistle  to  the  Scottish  prelates  themselves.  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  4. 
And  the  Keltic  example  is  answered  in  an  equally  intolerant  spirit 
by  Theodore : — "  Qui  ordinati  sunt  Scottorum  vel  Brittonum  episcopi, 
qui  in  Pascha  vel  tonsura  catholicae  non  sunt  adunati  aecclesiae,  iterum 
a  catholico  episcopo  manus  impositione  confirmentur.  Licentiani  quo- 
que  non  habemus  eis  poscentibus  chrisma  vel  eucharistiam  dare,  nisi 
ante  confessi  fuerint  velle  nobiscum  esse  in  imitate  aecclesiae.  Et  qui 
ex  eorum  similiter  gente,  vel  quicumque  de  baptismo  suo  dubitaverit, 
baptizetur."  Cap.  Theod.  Thorpe,  ii.  64.  See  also  Oanones  Sancti 
Gregorii,  cap.  145.  Kunstmann,  Poenit.  p.  141. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  359 

among  the  Saxons  than  the  establishment  of 
bishoprics  followed  in  every  separate  kingdom.  The 
intention  of  Gregory  had  been  to  appoint  two 
metropolitans,  each  with  twelve  suffragan  bishops, 
one  having  his  cathedral  in  London,  the  other  in 
York.  But  political  events  prevented  the  execu- 
tion of  this  plan :  Canterbury  retained  the  primacy 
of  the  greater  part  of  England,  and  (except  during 
a  very  few  years)  the  rule  over  all  the  bishops  on 
this  side  the  Humber ;  while  York,  after  receiving 
an  archbishop  in  the  person  of  Paulinus,  remained 
for  nearly  a  century  after  his  death  under  a  bishop 
only ;  and  never  succeeded  in  establishing  more 
than  four  suffragan  sees,  which  were  finally  reduced 
to  two.  This  state  of  things  naturally  sprang  from 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  conversion  took 
place.  Had  England  been  subject  to  one  central 
power,  or  had  the  relinquishment  of  paganism 
taken  place  simultaneously  in  the  several  districts, 
a  general  system  might  have  been  introduced 
whose  leading  features  might  have  been  in  accord- 
ance with  Gregory's  desire  ;  but  this  was  not  the 
case.  The  work  of  conversion  was  subject  to  many 
difficulties  which  could  not  have  been  appreciated 
at  Rome.  The  pope  had  probably  but  sparing 
knowledge  of  the  relations  which  existed  between 
the  Anglosaxon  kingdoms,  and  how  little  concert 
could  be  expected  from  their  scattered  and  hostile 
rulers.  Nor  could  he  have  anticipated  a  jealous 
and  sullen  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Keltic 
Christians,  which  was  perhaps  not  altogether  un- 
provoked by  the  indiscreet  pretensions  of  Augus- 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


tine  1.  But  the  first  bishops  were  in  fact  strictly 
missionaries, — as  much  so  as  the  bishop  of  New 
Zealand  among  the  Maori, — heads  of  various  bodies 
of  voluntary  adventurers,  who  at  their  own  great 
peril  bore  the  tidings  of  salvation  to  the  pagan 
inhabitants  of  distant  and  separate  localities.  Pru- 
dence indeed  dictated  the  propriety  of  commencing 
with  those  whose  authority  might  tend  to  secure 
their  own  safety,  and  whose  example  would  be  a 
useful  confirmation  of  their  arguments  ;  whose  own 
religious  convictions  also  were  less  likely  to  be  of 
a  settled  arid  bigotted  character  than  those  of  the 
villagers  in  the  Marks.  Christianity,  which  in  its 
outset  commenced  with  the  lowest  and  poorest 
classes  of  society,  and  slowly  widened  its  circuit 
till  it  embraced  the  highest,  thus  reversed  the  pro- 
cess in  England,  and  commenced  with  the  courts 
and  households  of  the  kings. 

Accordingly  the  conversion  of  a  king  was  gene- 
rally followed  by  the  establishment  of  a  see,  the 
princes  being  apparently  desirous  of  attaching  a 
Christian  prelate  to  their  comitatus,  in  place  of  the 
Pagan  high-priest  who  had  probably  occupied  a 
similar  position.  Considerations  of  personal  dignity, 
not  less  than  policy,  may  have  led  to  this  result : 
the  lurking  remains  of  heathen  superstition  may 

1  This  seems  to  follow  from  the  relation  of  what  passed  at  Augus- 
tine's interview  with  the  Welsh  prelates.  At  the  same  time  we  should 
judge  very  unwisely  were  we  to  believe  missionary  jealousies  confined 
to  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  distracted  state  of  the  British  the 
bishops  were  almost  the  only  possessors  of  a  legal  authority ;  and  it  is 
not  at  all  probable  that  they  would  have  looked  with  equanimity  on 
those  who  came  with  an  open  proposal  of  subordination,  even  had  it 
been  unaccompanied  with  circumstances  wounding  to  their  self-love. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  361 

not  have  been  without  their  weight :  whatever  were 
the  cause,  we  find  at  first  a  bishopric  co-extensive 
with  a  kingdom  l.  But  this  was  obviously  an  insuf- 
ficient provision  in  the  larger  districts,  as  Chris- 
tianity continued  its  triumphant  course,  and  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  seventh  century,  Theodore, 
the  first  archbishop  who  succeeded  in  uniting  all 
the  English  church  under  his  authority,  finally  ac- 
complished the  division  of  the  larger  sees.  From 
this  period  till  the  ninth  century,  when  the  inva- 
sions of  the  Northmen  threw  all  the  established 
institutions  into  confusion,  the  English  sees  appear 
to  have  ranked  in  the  following  order  2  : — 

1  Kent  is  probably  only  an    apparent   exception.      Rochester  can 
hardly  have  been  otherwise  than  the  capital  of  a  subordinate  kingdom. 

2  I  neglect  temporary  changes,  such  as  that  of  John  at  Beverley, 
Birinus  at  Dorchester,  etc.,  and  confine  myself  to  the  settled  and  usual 
location  of  the  sees,  and  what  appears  to  have  been  the  established 
order  of  their  precedence.     One  of  the  most  solemn  ecclesiastical  acts 
on  record,  namely  that  of  archbishop  ^E^elheard's  synod  at  Olofeshoo, 
in  803,  by  which  the  integrity  of  the  see  of  Canterbury  was  restored, 
was  signed  by  the  following  prelates  in  the  order  in  which  they  stand, 
and  which  usually  prevails  in  the  rest  of  the  charters  : — 

1.  ./Eftelheard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

2.  Aldwulf,  bishop  of  Lichfield. 

3.  Werenberht,  bishop  of  Leicester. 

4.  Eadwulf,  bishop  of  Sidnacester  (Lincoln). 

5.  Deneberht,  bishop  of  Worcester. 

6.  Wulf  heard,  bishop  of  Hereford. 

7.  Wigberht,  bishop  of  Sherborne. 

8.  Ealhmund,  bishop  of  Winchester. 

9.  Alhheard,  bishop  of  Elmharn. 

10.  TidfriS,  bishop  of  Dunwich. 

11.  Osmund,  bishop  of  London. 

12.  Wermund,  bishop  of  Rochester. 

13.  Wihthun,  bishop  of  Selsey.— Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1024. 

The  archbishop  of  York,  and  his  suffragans,  it  appears,  did  not  care 
to  attend  a  synod  which  restored  his  rival  of  Canterbury  to  a  predo- 
minant authority  in  England. 


362 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK.  ii. 


Province  of  Canterbury. — 1.  Lichfield.  2.  Lei- 
cester. 3.  Lincoln.  4.  Worcester.  5.  Hereford. 
6.  Sherborne.  7.  Winchester.  8.  Elmham.  9. 
Dummoc.  10.  London.  11.  Rochester.  12.  Selsey. 

Province  of  York. — 1.  Hexham.  2.  Lindisfarn. 
3.  Whiterne. 

Thus,  inclusive  of  Canterbury  and  York,  there 
were  seventeen  sees.  At  a  later  period  some  of  these 
perished  altogether,  as  Lindisfarn,  Hexham,  Whit- 
erne  and  Dummoc ;  while  others  were  formed,  as 
Durham  for  Northumberland,  Dorchester  for  Lin- 
coln ;  and  in  Wessex,  Ramsbury  (Hrsefnesbyrig, 
Ecclesia  Corvinensis)  for  Wilts,  Wells  for  Somerset, 
Crediton  for  Devonshire,  and  during  some  time, 
St.  Petroc's  or  Padstow  for  Cornwall. 

The  earliest  bishops  among  the  Saxons  were  ne- 
cessarily strangers.  Romans  occupied  the  cathe- 
dral thrones  of  Canterbury,  Rochester  and  London, 
and  for  a  while  that  of  York  also.  Northumber- 
land next  passed  for  a  short  time  under  the  direction 
of  Keltic  prelates, — Scots  as  they  were  then  called, 
— who  held  no  communion  with  the  Romish  mis- 
sionaries. Felix,  a  Burgundian,  but  not  an  Arian, 
evangelized  Eastanglia;  Birinus,  a  Frank,  carried 
the  faith  to  Wessex.  But  as  these  men  gradually 
left  the  scene  of  their  labours,  which  must  have 
been  much  increased  by  the  difficulty  of  teaching 
populations  who  spoke  a  strange  language,  by 
means  of  interpreters,  their  Saxon  pupils  addressed 
themselves  to  the  work  with  exemplary  zeal  and 
earnestness ;  it  was  very  soon  found  that  the  island 
could  supply  itself  with  prelates  fully  equal  to  all 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  363 

the  duties  of  their  position ;  and  to  a  mere  accident 
was  the  English  church  indebted  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century  for  a  foreign  metropolitan,  in  the 
person  of  Theodore  of  Tarsus.  Although  we  may 
reasonably  suppose  the  traditions  of  the  heathen 
priesthood  not  to  have  been  without  some  weight, 
we  must  not  conclude  that  these  alone  will  account 
for  the  number  of  noble  Anglosaxons  whom,  from 
the  earliest  period,  we  find  devoting  themselves  to 
the  service  of  the  church,  and  clothed  with  its 
highest  dignities.  It  must  be  admitted  that  nowhere 
else  did  Christianity  make  a  deeper  or  more  last- 
ing impression  than  in  England.  Not  only  do  we 
see  the  high  nobles  and  the  near  relatives  of  kings 
among  the  bishops  and  archbishops,  but  kings 
themselves — warlike  and  fortunate  kings — sud- 
denly and  voluntarily  renouncing  their  temporal  ad- 
vantages, retiring  into  monasteries,  and  abdicating 
their  crowns,  that  they  may  wander  as  pilgrims 
to  the  shrines  of  the  Apostles  in  Rome.  We  find 
princesses  and  other  high-born  ladies  devoting  them- 
selves to  a  life  of  celibacy,  or  separating  from  their 
husbands  to  preside  over  congregations  of  nuns :  well 
descended  men  cannot  rest  till  they  have  wandered 
forth  to  carry  the  tidings  of  redemption  into  dis- 
tant and  barbarous  lands ;  a  life  of  abstinence  and 
hardship,  to  be  crowned  by  a  martyr's  death,  seems 
to  have  been  hungered  and  thirsted  after  by  the 
wealthy  and  the  noble, — assuredly  an  extraordi- 
nary and  an  edifying  spectacle  among  a  race  not  at 
all  adverse  to  the  pomps  and  pleasures  of  worldly 
life,  a  spectacle  which  compels  us  to  believe  in 


364  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  deep,  earnest,  conscientious  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  love  of  truth  which  characterized  the 
nation. 

The  complete  organization  of  the  ecclesiastical 
power  in  England  appears  to  have  been  effected  by 
Theodore,   who  is  distinctly  affirmed   to  have  been 
the  first  prelate  whose  authority  the  whole  church 
of  the  Angles  consented  to  admit 1.     There  is  rea- 
son to   suppose   that    this  was  not  accomplished 
without  some  difficulty,  for  it  involved  the  division 
of  previously  existing  dioceses,  and  the  consequent 
diminution  of  previously  existing  power  and  influ- 
ence. Theodore,  like  Augustine,  had  been  despatched 
from  Rome   to   England,  under  very  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances.    After  the  death  of  Deusdedit,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  a  difficulty  appears  to  have 
arisen  about  the  election  of  a  successor,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  see  remained  for  some  time 
without  an  occupant 2.     At  length  however  Oswiu 
of  Northumberland  and  Ecgberht  of  Kent  under- 
took to  put  a  period  to  a  state   of  affairs  which 
must  have  caused  grave   inconveniences3,  and  ac- 

1  "  Isque  primus  erat  in  archiepiscopis,  cui  omnis  Anglorum  aeccle- 
sia  maims  dare  consentiret."  Beda,  H.  E.  iv.  2. 

2  Deusdedit  died  Nov.  28th,  664.     The  Saxon  Chronicle  and  Flo- 
rence assign  667  as  the  date  of  Wigheard's  mission,  but  this  is  hardly 
reconcilable  with  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  appears  to  be  an  erroneous 
calculation  founded  on  the  circumstance  that  the  see  was  vacant  three 
years,  and  that  Theodore  arrived  only  in  668.     Some  time  must  have 
elapsed  from  Wigheard's  departure  for  Rome,  until  the  interchange  of 
letters  between  Oswiu  and  Pope  Vitalian,  and  the  completion  of  the 
negotiations  which  resulted  in  Theodore's  appointment. 

3  The  want  of  an  archbishop  to  give  canonical  ordination  to  bishops, 
seems  to  have  forced  itself  upon  their  notice.     "  Hunc  antistitem  ordi- 
nandum  Romam  miserunt ;  quatenus  accepto  ipso  gradu  archiepiscopa- 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  365 

cordingly  they  took,  with  the  election  and  consent 
of  the  church,  a  presbyter  of  the  late  archbishop, 
named  Wigheard,  and  sent  him  to  Home  for  con- 
secration. It  is  most  remarkable  that  we  hear 
nothing  of  any  co-operation  on  the  part  of  Wessex 
in  this  step,  or  of  the  powerful  king  of  Mercia, 
Wulfhere,  who  had  succeeded  in  establishing  the 
independence  of  his  country  against  all  the  ef- 
forts of  Oswiu  himself.  Shortly  after  his  arrival 
in  E-ome  Wigheard  died,  and  after  some  correspon- 
dence with  the  English  kings,  Vitalian  undertook 
to  provide  a  prelate  for  the  vacant  see  1.  Various 
difficulties  being  finally  overcome,  his  choice  fell 

tus,  catholicos  per  omnem  Britanniam  aecclesiis  Anglorum  ordinare 
posset  autistites."  Beda,  H.  E.  iv.  29.  It  was  at  all  events  a  good  ar- 
gument, though,  the  difficulty  was  one  which  Gaul  had  often  arranged. 
1  This  event  has  naturally  been  discussed  with  very  different  views- 
The  Roman  Catholics  construe  it  to  imply  a  recognized  right  in  the 
Roman  See  :  the  Protestants  look  upon  it  as  rather  a  piece  of  skilful 
manoeuvring  on  the  part  of  the  Pope.  Lappenberg  (i.  172)  says :  "  The 
death  of  Wigheard  was  taken  advantage  of  by  the  Pope  to  set  over  the 
Anglosax on  bishops  a  primate  devoted  to  his  views."  "This  oppor- 
tunity was  not  lost  upon  Italian  subtlety.  Vitalian,  then  Pope,  deter- 
mined upon  trying  whether  the  Anglosaxons  would  receive  an  arch- 
bishop nominated  by  himself."  Soames,  Anglos.  Church,  p.  78.  Against 
this,  of  course,  Lingard  has  expatiated  in  his  Hist,  and  Antiq.  i.  75. 
He  attributes  the  selection  of  Theodore  to  a  request  of  the  two  kings, 
and  adds  in  a  note  :  "  That  such  was  their  request  is  certain.  Beda 
calls  Theodore,  who  was  selected  by  Vitalian,  '  the  archbishop  asked 
for  by  the  king' — episcopum  quern  petierant  a  Romano  pontifice  (Bed. 
iv.  c.  1) — and l  the  bishop  whom  the  country  had  anxiously  sought' — 
doctorem  veritatis,  quern  patria  sedula  quaesierat.  Id.  Op.  Min.  p.  142. 
Vitalian,  in  his  answer  to  the  two  kings,  reminds  them  that  their  letter 
requested  him  to  choose  a  bishop  for  them  in  the  case  of  Wigheard's 
death — 'secundum  vestrorum  scriptorum  tenorem.'  Bed.  iii.  29.  Cer- 
tainly these  passages  must  have  escaped  the  eye  of  Mr.  Soames,  who 
boldly,  and  without  an  atom  of  authority  for  his  statement,  ascribes 
the  choice  of  a  bishop  by  Vitalian  to  Italian  subtlety.*'  Mr.  Churton 
in  his  Early  English  Church,  p.  07,  inclines  also  to  this  view,  which  is 


366  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n 

upon  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  who  accordingly  was 
despatched  to  England  with  the  power  of  an  arch- 
bishop, and  solemnly  enthroned  at  Canterbury  in 
668. 

Hitherto  there  had  been  churches  in  England ; 
henceforward  there  was  a  church, — and  a  body  of 
clergy  existing  as  a  central  institution,  in  spite  of 
the  separation  and  frequent  hostility  of  the  states 
to  which  the  clergy  themsel\7es  belonged.  No  doubt 
the  common  rank  and  interests  of  the  bishops,  as 
well  as  the  necessity  for  canonical  consecration  had 
from  the  first  produced  some  sort  of  union  among 
them.  But  from  the  time  of  Theodore  we  find  at 

again  combated  by  Soames  in  his  Latin  Church,  etc.  p.  80  seq. ;  but 
this  author  with  a  happy  skill  which  he  sometimes  manifests  of  not 
seeing  disagreeable  data,  says  nothing  of  the  "quern  petierant  a  Ro- 
mano pontifice/'  Yet  in  these  words  lies  the  matter  of  the  whole  dis- 
pute. It  certainly  does  not  appear  from  Vitalian's  letter,  that  any  such 
contingency  as  Wigheard's  death  was  provided  fo'r  by  the  kings ;  this 
is  in  itself  extremely  improbable,  and  the  assertion  is  an  evidence  of 
Lingard's  rashness  where  the  interests  of  his  party  are  concerned.  But 
is  it  not  on  the  other  hand  very  probable  that  more  letters  passed  be- 
tween the  kings  and  the  pope  than  are  now  recorded  ?  that  "Vitalian 
announced  Wigheard's  death,  and  that  the  kings,  conscious  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  coming  to  any  second  settlement  in  such  a  state  of  society  as 
their  own  (especially  as  they  were  but  two  of  four  very  equally  poised 
authorities),  fairly  asked  him  to  solve  the  problem  for  them  ?  I  greatly 
doubt  the  strict  adherence  to  canonical  forms  of  election  in  the  seventh 
century  ;  and  indeed  throughout  the  history  of  the  English  church  it 
appears  that  the  kings  dealt  very  much  at  their  own  pleasure  in  the 
appointment  of  bishops.  It  could  hardly  be  otherwise  with  a  clergy 
dispersed  through  so  many  heterogeneous  fractions  as  then  made  up 
England  :  and  if  it  is  now  much  to  be  desired  that  the  appointment  by 
the  central  authority  should  spare  the  church  the  scandal  which  might 
ensue  from  the  canonical  election  of  bishops — strictly  construed — (for 
acted  upon  strictly  it  never  has  been  under  any  orderly  and  strong 
government,  since  Christianity  began),  it  was  much  more  necessary 
then,  when  the  clergy  belonged  to  hostile  populations.  That  central 
authority  was  royalty,  recognized  wherever  found. 


CH.  vni.]  THE  BISHOP.  367 

least  the  southern  prelates  assembling  in  provincial 
synods,  under  the  direction  of  the  metropolitan,  to 
declare  the  faith  as  it  was  found  among  them,  esta- 
blish canons  of  discipline  and  rules  of  ecclesiastical 
government,  and  generally  to  make  such  arrange- 
ments as  appeared  likely  to  conduce  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  church,  without  regard  to  the  severance 
of  the  kingdoms.  To  these  synods,  which  though 
not  holden  twice  a  year  in  accordance  with  Theo- 
dore's plan,  and  indeed  with  the  ancient  canons  of 
the  church,  were  yet  of  frequent  occurrence,  the 
bishops  repaired,  accompanied  by  some  of  their 
co-presbyters  and  monks,  and  when  the  business 
before  them  was  completed,  returned  to  promulgate 
in  their  dioceses  the  regulations  of  the  council, 
and  spread  among  their  clergy  the  news  of  what 
was  doing  in  other  lands  for  the  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  respectful  deference  paid  to  the  Roman  See 
was  thus  naturally  converted  into  a  much  closer 
and  more  intimate  relation.  Saxon  England  was 
essentially  the  child  of  Rome  ;  whatever  obligations 
any  of  her  kingdoms  may  have  been  under  to  the 
Keltic  missionaries, — and  I  cannot  persuade  myself 
that  these  were  at  all  considerable, — she  certainly 
had  entirely  lost  sight  of  them  at  the  close  of  the 
seventh  and  the  commencement  of  the  eighth  cen- 
turies. Her  national  bishops,  as  the  Kelts  and  dis- 
ciples of  the  Kelts  have  been  unjustifiably  called, 
had  either  retired  in  disgust,  like  Colman,  or  been 
deposed  like  Winfri'S,  or  apostatized  like  Cedd. 
It  was  to  Rome  that  her  nobles  and  prelates  wan- 


368  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

dered  as  pilgrims;  it  was  the  interests  of  Eome 
that  her  missionaries  preached  in  Germany  1  and 
Friesland  ;  it  was  to  her  that  the  archbishops  elect 
looked  for  their  pall2 — the  sign  of  their  dignity: 

1  Boniface  found  an  ancient  church  even  in  Germany.     Vit.  Bonif. 
Pertz,  ii.  341.     He  rendered  it  a  papal  one.     It  is  no  doubt  difficult 
to  imagine  how  it  could  have  been  originally  anything  else;  but  at 
all  events  his  efforts  brought  it  back  into  subjection  to  the  Vatican. 
"D'abord  les  eglises  de  la  Grand  Bretagne  et  de  1'Allemagne,  fon- 
de"es  par  les   missionaires  du  pape,  furent  toutes  rattachees  et  sub- 
ordonnees  a  1'episcopat  Romain.      C'est  surtout  Saint   Boniface,   le 
fondateur  de  1'eglise  Allernande,  mort  en  755,  qui  reserra  cette  union. 
On  diminua  partout  les  metropolitans,  et  les  simples   eveques   de- 
vinrent   plus  independans  par    leurs  rapports  directs   avec    Rome." 
Warnkonig,  Hist,  du  Droit  Belgique,  p.  163.     The  spirit  in  which 
Boniface  considered  his  mission,  which  he  himself  calls  apostolicae 
sedis  legatio  (Vita,  Pertz,  ii.  342)  is  apparent  from  the  correspond- 
ence with  Pope  Gregory  III.  in  731.     "Denuo  Romam  nuntii  eius 
venerunt,    sauctumque    sedis   Apostolicae  pontificein   adlocuti    sunt, 
eique  prioris  amicitiae  foedera,  quae  misericorditer  ab  antecessore  suo, 
Sancto  Bonifatio  eiusque  familiae  conlata  sunt,  manifestaverunt ;  se^ 
et  devotam  eius  in  futurum  humilitatis  apostolicae  sedi  subiectionem 
narraverunt,  et  ut  familiaritati  ac  communioni  sancti  pontificis  atque 
totius  sedis  apostolicae  ex  hoc  devote  subiectus  cornuiunicaret,  quern- 
admodum  edocti  erant,  praecabantur.     Statim  ergo  sedis  apostolicae 
Papa  pacificum  profert  responsum,  et  suam  sedisque  apostolicae  fanai- 
liaritatis  et  amicitiae  communionem  tarn  eancto  Bonifatio  quam  etiam 
sibi  subiectis  condonavit,  sumptoque  archiepiscopatus  pallio,  cum  mu- 
neribus  diversisque  sanctorum  reliquiis  legates  honorifice  remisit  ad 
patriam."     Pertz,  ii.  345.     With  such  provocation,  the  Popes  would 
indeed  have  acted  an  unwise  part  in  not  availing  themselves  of  the 
ready  service  of  their  Anglosaxon  converts  ! 

2  Mr.  Soames  very  cursorily  says :  ('  Augustine  received  about  the 
same  time  from  Gregory  the  insidious  compliment  of  a  pall.     He  was 
charged  also  to  establish  twelve  suffragan  bishops,  and  to  select  an 
archbishop  for  the  see  of  York.     Over  this  prelate,  who  was  likewise  to 
have  under  his  jurisdiction  twelve  suffragan  sees,  he  had  a  personal 
grant  of  precedence.     After  his  death  the  two  archbishops  were  to 
rank  according  to  priority  of  consecration."    Anglosax.  Church,  p.  55. 
The  language,  thus  most  carefully  selected,  is  intended  to  meet  any 
argument  which  might  be  derived  from  the  despatch  of  the  pallium,  in 
token  of  assumption  of  authority  by  the  Pope.     But  there  can  be  little 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  369 

to  the  Pope  her  prelates  appealed  for  redress,  or 
for  authority :  in  the  eighth  century  we  find  one 

doubt,  whatever  its  original  character  may  have  been,  that  this  distinc- 
tion was  both  intended  and  accepted  as  a  mark  of  the  archiepiscopal 
dignity,  and  as  conveying  powers  which  without  it  could  not  be  exer- 
cised.    This  was  obviously  the  way  Beda  understood  it,  and  Gregory 
meant  it  to  be  understood.     In  his  answers  to  Augustine's  questions, 
one  of  which  referred  to  the  relations  which  were  to  subsist  between 
the  Gallican  and  English  churches,  the  pope  thus  refuses  to  give  his 
missionary  any  authority  over  the  continental  bishops : — "In  Galliarum 
episcopis  nullam  tibi  auctoritatem.  tribuimus ;  quia  ab  antiquis  praede- 
cessorum  nieorurn  temporibus  pallium  Arelatensis  episcopus  accepit, 
quern  nos  privare  auctoritate  percepta  minime  debemus."    Hist.  Eccl. 
i.  27.  And  in  a  subsequent  letter  to  Augustine  the  same  pope  writes: — 
"  Et  quia  nova  Anglorum  aecclesia  ad  omnipotentis  Dei  gratiam,  eodem 
Domino  largiente  et  te  laboraute,  perducta  est,  usum  tibi  pallii  in  ea 
ad  sola  missarum  solemnia  agenda  concedimus :  ita  ut  per  loca  singula 
duodecim  episcopos  ordines,  qui  tuae  subiaceant  ditioni,  quatenus  Lun- 
doniensis  civitatis  episcopus  semper  in   posterum  a  synodo   propria 
debeat  consecrari,  atque  honoris  pallium  ab  hac  sancta  et  apostolica, 
cui  Deo  auctore  deservio,  sede  precipiat.    Ad  Eburacam  vero  civitatem 
te  volumus  episcopum  mittere,  quern  ipse  iudicaveris  ordinare;   ita 
duntaxat,  ut  si  eadem  civitas  cum  finitirnis  locis  verbum  Dei  receperit, 
ipse  quoque  duodecirn  episcopos  ordinet,  et  metropolitani  honore  per- 
fruatur  ;  quia  ei  quoque,  si  vita  comes  fuerit,  pallium  tribuere  Domino 
favente  disponimus."    Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  29.      On  which  Beda  re- 
marks : — "  Misit  etiam  litteras  in  quibus  significat  se  ei  pallium  di- 
rexisse,  simul  et  insinuat  qualiter  episcopos  in  Britannia  constituere 
debuisset."      Thirty  years   later,  Pope   Honorius  sent  palls  both  to 
Paulinus  of  York  and  Honorius  of  Canterbury,  with  letters  to  Ead- 
wini  of  Northumberland  j  in  these  he  says  : — "  Duo  pallia  utrorumque 
metropolitanorum,  id  est  Honorio  et  Paulino  direximus,  ut  dum  quia 
eorum  de  hoc  saeculo  ad  A uctorern  suurn  fuerit  arcessitus,  in  loco  ipsius 
alter  episcopum  ex  hac  nostra  auctoritate  debeat  subrogare."  Hist.  Eccl. 
ii.  17.    The  reason  of  this  Beda  tells  us  was  the  inconvenience  of  going 
to  Rome  for  archiepiscopal  ordination : — "  Ne  sit  necesse  adRomanam 
usque  civitatem  per  tarn  prolixa  terrarum  et  rnaris  spatia  pro  ordinando 
archiepiscopo  semper  fatigari."    Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  18.      We  learn  from 
Honorius's  letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  that  this  alleviation 
was  granted  at  the  petition  of  the  English  kings  and  prelates : — "  Et 
tarn  iuxta  vestram  petitionem,  quam.  filiorum  nostrorum  regum,  vobis 
per  praesentem  nostram  praeceptionem,  vice  beati  Petri  apostolorum 
principis,  auctoritatem  tribuimus,  ut  quando  unum  ex  vobis  Divina  ad 
VOL.  II.  2  B 


370  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n 

pope  sanctioning  the  formation  of  a  third  archi- 
episcopal  see,  in  defiance  of  the  metropolitan  of 
Canterbury ;  and  in  the  first  year  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury we  find  this  new  arrangement  abrogated  by 
the  same  authority.  Lastly  it  was  England  that 
gave  to  Koine  Wilfrid  and  Willibrord  and  Adel- 
berht,  Boniface  and  Willibald,  Anselm  and  Becket 
and  Kobert  of  Winchelsea. 

Although  these  facts  will  not  suffice  to  establish 
that  sort  of  dependence  de  iure,  which  zealous  Pa- 
pal partizans  have  asserted  as  the  normal  condi- 

se  iusserit  gratia  vocari,  is  qui  superstes  fuerit,  alterum  in  loco  defuncti 
debeat  episcopum  ordinare.  Pro  qua  etiam  re  singula  vestrae  dilectioni 
pallia  pro  eadem  ordinatione  celebranda  direximus,  ut  per  nostrae  prae- 
ceptionis  auctoritatem  possitis  Deo  placitam  ordinationeni  efficere :  quia 
ut  haec  vobis  concederemus,  longa  terrarum  marisque  intervalla,  quae 
inter  nos  ac  vos  obsistunt,  ad  haec  nos  condescendere  coegerunt." 
Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  18.  The  archiepiscopate  in  York  ceased  after  Paulimis's 
expulsion  till  735,  when  it  was  restored,  king  Eadberht  having  succeeded 
in  obtaining  a  pall  for  his  brother  Ecgberht.  The  short  chronicle  ap- 
pended to  Beda  says : — "  Ecgberhtus  episcopus,  accepto  ab  apostolica 
sede  pallio,  primus  post  Paulinum  in  archiepiscopatum  confirmatus 
est ;  ordinavitque  Fridubertum  et  Friduwaldum  episcopos."  See  also 
Chron.  Sax.  an.  735 ;  Sim.  Dunelm.  an.  735.  The  following  archbishops 
are  recorded  to  have  received  their  palls  from  Rome  : — 
Canterbury : — Tatwine.  Sim.  Dun.  an.  733. 

N6«helm.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  736.   Flor.  Wig.  an.  736. 
Cuftberht.  Rog.  Wend.  i.  227.  an.  740. 
Eanberht.    Chron.  Sax.  an.  764.   Flor.  Wig.  an.  764. 
Wulfred.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  804.    Flor.  Wig.  an.  804. 

Rog.  Wend.  an.  806. 

Ceolno-S.    Chron.  Sax.  an.  831.    Flor.  Wig.  an.  831. 
York :— Ecgberht.  an.  745.    Rog.  Wend.  i.  228. 
Alberht.    Sim.  Dun.  an.  773. 
Eanbald  I.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  780.     Flor.  Wig.  an.  781. 

Sim.  Dun.  an.  780. 

Eanbald  II.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  797.     Sim.  Dun.  an.  797. 
Oswald.     Flor.  Wig.  an.  973. 
At  some  period  however,  which  our  chroniclers  do  not  note,  the 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  371 

tion  of  the  English  church,  they  do  indisputably 
prove  that  the  example,  advice  and  authority  of 
the  See  of  Eome  were  very  highly  regarded  among 
our  forefathers.  It  was  impossible  that  it  should 
be  otherwise ;  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that — despite  the  Keltic  clergy — the  Anglosaxon 
church  looked  with  affection  and  respect  to  Home 
as  the  source  of  its  own  being.  Eespect  and  high 
regard  were  paid  to  Eome  in  Gaul  long  before 
Theodore ;  but  not  such  submission  as  our  country- 
men, less  acquainted  no  doubt  with  their  danger, 
were  zealous  to  pay.  Indeed,  when  we  consider 


custom  arose  for  the  archbishop  not  to  receive,  but  to  fetch  his  pal- 
lium.    The  following  cases  are  recorded : — 
Canterbury  :— ^Elfsige.     Flor.  Wig.  an.  959. 
Dunstan.     Flor.  Wig.  an.  960. 
Sigeric.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  990. 
^Elfric.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  995. 
^Elfheah.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  1007. 
^Eftelnoft.   Chron.  Sax.  an.  1022.   Flor.  Wig.  an.  1022. 
Rodbyrht.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  1048." 
York  :— JElfric.     Chron.  Sax.  an.  1026.     Flor.  Wig.  an.  1026. 

Aldred.     Rog.  Wend.  i.  502.  an.  1061. 

Wendover  states  that  when  Offa  determined  to  erect  Lichfield  into  an 
archbishopric,  he  sent  to  Pope  Adrian  for  .a  pall ;  and  that  the  pall 
was  accordingly  dispatched.  Rog.  Wend.  i.  138. 

The  avarice  of  the  Roman  See  was  thus  fed  fat :  but  the  inconve- 
niences were  felt  to  be  so  intolerable,  that  in  1031  Cnut  made  them 
the  subject  of  an  especial  remonstrance  to  the  Pope.  In  his  letter  to 
the  Witan  of  England  he  says,  writing  from  Rome  : — "  Conquestus 
sum  iterum  coram  domino  papa  et  mihi  valde  displicere  causabar,  quod 
mei  archiepiscopi  in  tantuni  angariabantur  imniensitate  pecuniarum 
quae  ab  eis  expetebatur,  dum  pro  pallio  accipiendo,  secundum  morem, 
apostolicam  sedem  peterent ;  decretumque  est  ne  ita  deinceps  fieret." 
Epist.  Cnut.  apud  Flor.  Wig.  1031.  The  question  is  not  whether  the 
Roman  See  had  a  right  to  make  a  demand,  but  whether — usurpation  or 
not — it  was  acquiesced  in  and  admitted  by  the  Anglosaxon  church  j 
and  on  that  point  there  can  be  no  dispute. 

2B2 


372  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  position  of  the  Roman  See  towards  the  North 
of  Europe,  during  the  interval  from  the  commence- 
ment of  the  seventh  till  that  of  the  ninth  century, 
we  can  scarcely  escape  from  the  conclusion  that 
England  was  the  great  hasis  of  papal  operations, 
and  the  TTOV  <JT£  from  which  Rome  moved  her  world. 
In  the  ninth  century  a  continental  author  calls  the 
English  "  maxime  familiares  apostolicae  sedis1," 
and  in  the  tenth  century  it  was  unquestionably 
England  that  made  the  greatest  progress,  even  if 
it  did  not  take  the  initiative  with  regard  to  the 
revival  of  monachism  and  the  great  question  of 
clerical  celibacy.  In  short,  throughout,  the  most 
energetic  and  successful  missionaries  of  Rome  were 
Englishmen. 

But  England  nevertheless  retained  in  some  sense 
a  national  church.  Many  circumstances  combined 
to  ensure  a  very  considerable  amount  of  indepen- 
dence in  this  country.  On  the  continent  of  Europe 
the  prelates  and  clergy  whom  the  invasions  of  the 
barbarians  found  established  in  the  cities  were,  in 
fact,  Roman  provincials ;  and  this  character  conti- 
nued for  a  very  long  time  to  modify  their  relations 
toward  the  conquerors :  in  Britain,  either  Christi- 
anity was  never  widely  and  generally  spread,  or  it 
retreated  before  the  steady  advance  of  the  pagan 
Saxons.  It  is  remarkable  that  we  nowhere  hear 
of  the  existence  of  Christian  churches  before  Au- 
gustine, except  in  the  territory  exclusively  British, 

1  "  Unde  remur,  aliquos  venerabiles  viros  aut  de  Britannia,  id  est 
gente  Anglorum,  qui  inaxime  familiares  apostolicae  sedis  semper  ex- 
istunt,"  etc.  Gest.  Abb.  Fontanellens.  Pertz,  ii.  289. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  373 

and    in    the    household    of  JEftelberht's   Prankish 
queen,  the  latter  an  exception  of  little  moment. 

But  no  sooner  do  the  first  missionary  prelates 
vanish  from  the  scene,  than  we  find  them  replaced 
by  Saxons  belonging  to  the  noblest  and  most  power- 
ful families,  and  thus   connecting  the  clergy  with 
the  state  by  that  most  close  and  intimate  tie  which 
forms  the  strongest  and  least  objectionable  secu- 
rity for  both.     Berhtwald,  the  eighth  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  a  very  near  relative  of  the  Mer- 
cian  king   ^E$elred ;    Aldhelm    was   closely   con- 
nected with  the  royal  family  of  Wessex ;  and  even 
down  to  the  Conquest  we  find  the  scions  of  the 
royal   and   noble    houses   occupying  distinguished 
stations  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church.     It  is  obvi- 
ous how  much  this  near  and  intimate  association 
with  the  national  aristocracy  must  have  tended  to 
diminish  the  evils  of  a  separate  institution,  having 
some  kind  of  dependence  upon  a  foreign  centre ; 
and  when  to  this  it  is  added  that  the    principal 
clergy,  as  ministers  of  state  and  members  of  the 
Witena  gemot,  had  a  clear  and  distinct  interest  in 
the  maintenance  of  good  government,  and  a  per- 
sonal share  in    its    administration,  we    can  easily 
understand  why  the  clergy  were,  generally  speak- 
ing, kept  better  within  bounds  in  England  than  in 
other  contemporaneous  states 1.     Guilty  of  extrava- 

1  Every  wise  and  powerful  government  has  treated  with  deserved 
disregard  the  complaint  that  the  u  Spouse  of  Christ "  was  in  bondage. 
In  this  respect  our  own  country  has  generally  "been  honourably  distin- 
guished. Boniface — himself  an  Englishman,  papal  beyond  all  his  con- 
temporaries— laments  that  no  church  is  in  greater  bondage  than  the 
English, — a  noble  testimony  to  the  nationality  of  the  institution,  the 
common  sense  of  the  people,  and  the  vigour  of  the  State. 


374  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

gancies  the  clergy  were  here,  no  doubt,  as  else- 
where ;  but  on  the  whole  their  position  was  not 
unfavourable  to  the  harmonious  working  of  the 
state ;  and  the  history  of  the  Anglosaxons  is  per- 
haps as  little  deformed  as  any  by  the  ambition  and 
power,  and  selfish  class-interests  of  the  clergy1. 
On  the  other  hand  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  .Eng- 
land, as  in  other  countries,  the  laity  are  under  the 
greatest  obligations  to  them,  partly  for  rescuing 
some  branches  of  learning  from  total  neglect,  and 
partly  for  the  counterpoise  which  their  authority 
presented  to  the  rude  and  forcible  government  of 
a  military  aristocracy.  Eidiculous  as  it  would  be 
to  affirm  that  their  influence  was  never  exerted  for 
mischievous  purposes,  or  that  this  institution  was 
always  free  from  the  imperfections  and  evils  which 
belong  to  all  human  institutions,  it  would  be  still 
more  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  history  to  affect 
to  undervalue  the  services  which  they  rendered  to 
society.  If  in  the  pursuit  of  private  and  corporate 
advantages  they  occasionally  seemed  likely  to  pre- 
fer the  separate  to  the  general  good,  they  did  no 
more  than  all  bodies  of  men  have  done, — no  more 
than  is  necessary  to  ensure  the  active  co-operation 
of  all  bodies  of  men  in  any  one  line  of  conduct. 
But,  whatever  their  class-interests  may  from  time 

1  Though  monks  are  not  strictly  speaking  the  clergy,  so  many  pre- 
lates and  presbyters  were  bound  by  monastic  vows  in  this  country, 
that  I  might  be  supposed  to  have  fallen  into  confusion  here,  and  for- 
gotten the  troubles  of  Eadwig's  reign.  But  it  will  be  seen  hereafter 
that  I  attach  little  credit  to  the  exaggerations  of  the  monkish  authors 
respecting  those  events,  and  believe  their  clients  to  have  done  much 
less  mischief  than  they  themselves  have  recorded,  or  than  their  modem 
antagonists  have  credited. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  375 

to  time  have  led  them  to  do,  let  it  be  remembered 
that  they  existed  as  a  permanent  mediating  au- 
thority between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  strong 
and  the  weak,  and  that,  to  their  eternal  honour, 
they  fully  comprehended  and  performed  the  duties 
of  this  most  noble  position.  To  none  but  them- 
selves would  it  have  been  permitted  to  stay  the 
strong  hand  of  power,  to  mitigate  the  just  seve- 
rity of  the  law,  to  hold  out  a  glimmering  of  hope 
to  the  serf,  to  find  a  place  in  this  world  and  a 
provision  for  the  destitute,  whose  existence  the 
state  did  not  even  recognize.  That  the  church  of 
Christ  does  not  necessarily  and  indispensably  im- 
ply that  form  of  ministration  or  constitution  called 
Episcopal,  is  certain ;  but  on  the  other  hand  let 
us  not  listen  too  readily  to  the  doctrine  which  re- 
presents episcopacy  as  inconsistent  with  Christi- 
anity. To  put  it  only  on  the  lowest  grounds,  there 
is  great  convenience  in  it ;  and  though  there  are 
no  peculiar  priests  under  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion, it  is  very  useful  that  there  should  be  persons 
specially  appointed  and  educated  to  perform  func- 
tions necessary  to  the  moral  and  religious  training 
of  the  people,  and  superior  officers  charged  with 
the  inspection  over  those  persons.  It  would  be 
difficult  for  the  State  to  ascertain  the  condition  of 
its  members,  as  regards  the  most  important  of  all 
considerations, — their  moral  capability  of  obedience 
to  the  law, — without  such  a  body  of  recognized 
ministers  and  recognized  inspectors.  Accordingly 
the  Anglosaxon  State  at  once  recognized  the 
Bishops  as  State  officers. 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

The  circumstances  under  which  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  took  place  naturally  threw  a 
great  power  of  superintendence  and  interference 
into  the  hands  of  the  kings :  from  the  beginning 
we  find  them  taking  a  very  active  part  both  in  the 
formation  of  sees,  the  appointment  of  bishops,  and 
other  public  measures  touching  the  government  of 
the  church  and — within  this — the  relation  of  the 
clergy  to    the    state.      The    privileges   and   rights 
conceded  to  the  clerical  body  were  granted  by  the 
king  and  his  witan,  and  enjoyed  under  their  gua- 
rantee ;  and  down  to  the  last  moment  of  the  Anglo- 
saxon   monarchy  we  find   the    episcopal   elections 
or  appointments  to  have  been  controlled  by  them. 
Indeed  as  the  clergy,  the  people  and  the  state  may 
be  said  to  have  been  duly  represented  by  the  Witena 
gemot,  an  episcopal  election  made  by  them  appears 
to  possess  in  all  respects  the  genuine  character  of 
a  canonical  election :  and  in  times  when  there  were 
no  parliamentary  struggles    to  make   single  votes 
valuable,  there  seems  no  reason  whatever  to  ques- 
tion that  this  mode  was  found  satisfactory.     The 
loose  manner  in  which  the  early  writers  mention 
the  appointment  of  the  bishops',  hardly  permits  us 
to  draw  any  very  definite  conclusions ;  yet  it  would 
seem  natural  that,  where  the  whole  missionary  work 
depended  upon  the  goodwill  of  the  king,  the  latter, 
with  or  without  his  council,  would  exercise  a  para- 
mount authority  in  all  matters  of  detail.     Accord- 
ingly, though  we  do  meet  with  instances  in  which 
the  free  election  of  prelates  may  be  assumed,  we 
do  far  more  frequently  find  them  both  appointed 


CH.  vin.]  THE  BISHOP.  377 

and  displaced  by  the  mere  act  of  the  royal  will1. 
The  case  of  Wessex  in  the  seventh  century  is  in- 
structive. ^Egilberht,  a  Frank,  had  succeeded  Bi- 
rinus,  the  first  missionary  bishop ;  but,  from  some 
cause  or  other,  he  lost  the  favour  of  the  king2,  who 

1  See  on  tliis  subject  Lingard,  Anglos.  Church,  i.  89  seq.     His  view 
seems  upon  the  whole  satisfactory,  and  conformable  to  truth. 

2  Lingard  attributes  this  to  the  intrigues  of  Wini,  whose  simoniacal 
bargain  for  the  see  of  London  does  certainly  not  give  a  favourable  im- 
pression of  his  character.     "  The  influence  of  the  stranger  was  secretly 
undermined  by  the  intrigues  of  Wini,  a  Saxon  ecclesiastic,  who  pos- 
sessed the  advantage  of  conversing  with  the  king  in  his  native  tongue." 
Anglos.   Church,  i.  90.     But  Beda  says  nothing  of  this :  he  merely 
bints  that  Coinwalh  was  disgusted  with  the  difficulties  which  arose 
from.  ^Egilberht's  ignorance  of  the  Anglosaxon  language.     The  whole 
transaction  is   thus  related  in  the   Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  7 : — "  Cum  vero 
restitutus  esset  in  regnum  Coinwalch,  venit  in  provinciam  de  Hibernia 
pontifex  quidam  nomine  Agilberctus,  natione  quidem  Gallus,  sed  tune 
legendarum.  gratia  Scripturarum  in  Hibernia  non  parvo  tempore  demo- 
ratus,  coniunxitque  se  regi,  sponte  ministerium  praedicandi  adsumens : 
cuius  eruditionem  atque  industriam  videns  rex  rogavit  eum,  accepta 
ibi  sede  episcopali,  suae  genti  manere  pontificem.     Qui  precibus  eius 
adnuens,  multis  annis  eidem  genti  sacerdotali  iure  praefuit.     Tandem 
rex,  qui  Saxonuni  tantum  linguam  noverat,  pertaesus  barbarae  loquelae, 
subintroduxit  in  provinciam  alium  suae  linguae  episcopum  vocabulo 
Uini,  et  ipsum  in  Gallia  ordinatum :  dividensque  in  duas  parochias 
provinciam,  huic  in  civitate  Venta,  quae  a  gente  Saxonum  Uintancestir 
appellatur,  sedem  episcopalem  tribuit;  unde  offensus  graviter  Agil- 
berctus, quod  hoc  ipso  inconsulto  ageret  rex,  rediit  Galliam,  et  accepto 
episcopatu  Parisiacae  civitatis,  ibidem  senex  et  plenus  dierum  obiit. 
Non  multis  auteni  annis  post  abcessum  eius  a  Britannia  transactis, 
pulsus  est  Uini  ab  eodem  rege  de  episcopatu ;  qui  secedens  ad  regein 
Merciorum,  vocabulo  Uulf  heri,  emit  pretio  ab  eodem  sedem  Lundoniae 
civitatis,   eiusque  episcopus  usque  ad  vitae  suae  terminum  mansit." 
Wessex  then  remained  for  some  time  without  a  bishop,  till  Coinwalh 
sent  to  ^Egilberht  and  invited  him  to  return.     The  Frankish  prelate 
replied  that  he  could  not  desert  his  church  and  see,  but  recommended 
his  nephew  Lothaire,  as  a  proper  person  to  be  ordained  to  Wessex  : 
and  he  was  accordingly  consecrated  by  Theodore :  "  Quo  honorifice  a 
populo  et  a  rege  suscepto,  rogaverunt  Theodorum,  tune  archiepiscopum 
Doruvernensis  ecclesiae,  ipsum  sibi  antistitem  consecrari."   Hist.  Eccl. 
iii.  27.     See  also  Will.  Malm,  de  Gest.  Pontif.  lib.  ii. 


378  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

proposed  to  divide  his  diocese,  which  was  too  large 
in  fact  for  one  prelate,  and  to  appoint  Wini,  a  na- 
tive Westsaxon,  to  the  second  see.     ^Egilberht  then 
withdrew  from  England  in  disgust,  and  the  king 
committed  the  undivided  bishopric  to  Wini :  but 
on  some  subsequent  misunderstanding,  this  bishop 
was   expelled   from  Wessex,  and  afterwards  pur- 
chased the  see  of  London  from  Wulfhari,  king  of 
the  Mercians.     Coinwalh  then  applied  for  and  ob- 
tained another  bishop  from  Gaul  in  the  person  of 
Liuthari  or  Lothaire,  ^Egilberht's  nephew.   Equally 
great  irregularities  seem  to  have  been  admitted  in 
respect  to  the  Northumbrian  sees  in  the  time  of 
Wilfrid ;  and  indeed  throughout  the  Anglosaxon 
history  it  appears  that  the  ruling  powers,  that  is 
the  king  and  the  witan,  did  in  fact  succeed  in  re- 
taining  the   nomination   of  the   bishops  in  their 
own  hands1.    I  have  already  mentioned  instances  of 
episcopal  nominations  by  the  witena  gemot2,  and 
called  attention  to  the  significant  fact  of  so  many 
royal  chaplains  promoted  to  sees3.     It  is  difficult 
no  doubt  to  withstand  a  royal  recommendation,  and 
though  in  the  case  of  the  Anglosaxon  prelates  this 
does  not  always  seem  to  have  ensured  the  canonical 
virtues,  it  perhaps  very  sufficiently  supplied  their 
want.     After  the  appointment  or  election  had  thus 

1  Throughout  every  difficulty  the  English  kings  never  lost  sight  of 
this  part  of  their  prerogative,  often  as  they  were  deceived  in  its  exercise. 
A  writer  of  the  twelfth  century  very  justly  calls  it  "  the  custom  of  the 
realm."     "  Cum  autem  iuxta  regni  consuetudinem,  in  electionibus  fa- 
ciendis  potissimas  et  potentissimas  habeat  partes/'  etc.   Pet.  Blesensis, 
Ep.  de  Henrico  II.     An.  Trivet.  1154.  p.  35. 

2  Page  221  of  this  volume.  "    3  Page  115  of  this  volume. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  379 

been  made,  it  was  usual  for  the  bishop  elect  to  make 
his  profession  of  faith  to  his  metropolitan  ;  then  to 
receive  episcopal  consecration  from  him,  assisted 
by  such  of  his  suffragans  as  he  thought  fit.  He 
then  most  likely  received  seizin  of  the  temporalities 
in  the  usual  way  by  royal  writ.  The  following  is 
the  instrument  issued  in  1060,  for  the  temporalities 
of  the  see  of  Hereford,  on  the  appointment  of  Wal- 
ther,  queen  Eadgyfu's  Lorraine  chaplain.  "  Ead- 
wardus  rex  saluto  Haroldum  comitem  et  Osbear- 
num,  et  omnes  meos  ministros  in  Herefordensi 
comitatu  amicabiliter.  Et  ego  nojifico  vobis  quod 
ego  concessi  Waltero  episcopo  istum  episcopatum 
hie  vobiscum,  et  omnia  universa  ilia  quae  ad  ipsum 
cum  iusticia  pertinent  infra  portum  et  extra,  cum 
saca  et  cum  socna,  tarn  plene  et  tam  plane  sicut 
ipsum  aliquis  episcopus  ante  ipsum  prius  habuit  in 
omnibus  rebus.  Et  si  illic  sit  aliqua  terra  extra 
dimissa  quae  illuc  intus  cum  iustitia  pertinet,  ego 
volo  quod  ipsa  reveniat  in  ipsum  episcopatum,  vel 
ille  homo  ipsam  dimittat  eidem  in  suo  praetio,  si 
quis  ipsam  cum  eo  invenire  possit.  Et  ego  nolo 
ullum  hominem  licentiare  quod  ei  de  manibus  rapiat 
aliquam  suam  rem  quam  ipse  iuste  habere  debet, 
et  ego  ei  sic  concessi  V 

As  this  is  obviously,  indeed  professedly,  a  Latin 
translation,  I  subjoin  copies  of  the  similar  writs 
issued  on  the  occasion  of  Gisa's  appointment  to 
the  see  of  Wells2. 


1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  833. 

2  Gisa  was  a  chaplain  of  the  king,  and  also  of  Lotharingen  or  Lor- 
raine. 


380  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [B< 

"  *  Eadward  king  gret  Harold  erl  and  Aylnoft 
abbot  and  Godwine  schyre  reuen  and  alle  mine 
}>eynes  on  Sumerseten  frendliche  ;  and  ich  ky^e  eow 
^set  ich  habbe  geunnen  Gisan  minan  preste  $es  bis- 
copriche  her  mid  eow  and  alre  ^are  Jnnge  8as  ^e  $8er 
mid  richte  togebyra'S,  on  wode  and  on  felde,  mid 
saca  and  mid  socna,  binnon  'porte  and  biitan,  swo  ful 
and  swo  for'S  swo  Duduc  biscop  o$  any  biscop  hit 
firmest  him  toforen  hauede  on  sellem  J?ingan.  And 
gif  her  ani  land  sy  out  of  'Sam  biscopriche  gedon, 
ich  wille  'Saet  hit  cume  in  ongesen  6$er  ftset  man 
hit  ofgo  on  hire  gemo^  swo  man  wi8  him  bet  finde 
mage.  And  ich  bidde  eou  alien  "Saet  ge  him  fulstan 
to  driuan  Godes  gerichte  lock  huer  hit  neod  sy 
and  he  eowwer  fultumes  bi^urfe.  And  ich  nelle 
nanne  man  ge^efien  ftset  him  uram  honde  teo  anige 
^are  fringe  'Sas  ^e  ich  him  unnen  habben1." 

u*  Eadward  king  gret  Harold  erl,  and  Aylnoft  abbot, 
and  Godwine  and  ealle  mine  J?eines  on  Sumerseten 
frendliche ;  ich  que^e  eou  ^set  ich  wille  ftset  Gyse 
biscop  beo  hisses  biscopriches  wr^e  heerinne  mid 
eou.  And  alch  'Sare  ]?inge  ^e  ^Sas  ^ar  mid  richte  to- 
gebyra^  binnan  porte  and  butan,  mid  saca  and 
mid  socna,  swo  uol  and  swo  uor8  swo  hit  eni  biscop 

1  The  same  in  Latin.  "  %<  Eadwardus  rex  Haroldo  comiti,  Ailnodo  ab- 
bati,  Godwino  vicecomiti,  et  omnibus  ballivis  suis  Somersetae,  salutem ! 
Sciatis  nos  dedisse  Gisoni  presbytero  nostro  episcopatum  hunc  apud 
vos  cum  omnibus  pertinentiis,  in  bosco  et  piano,  et  saca  et  socna,  in 
villis  et  extra,  ita  plene  et  libere  in  omnibus  sicut  episcopus  Dudocus 
aut  aliqui  praedecessorum  suorum  habuerunt  5  et  si  quid  inde  contra 
iustitiam  fuerit  sublatum,  volumus  quod  revocetur,  vel  quod  aliter  ei 
satisfaciat.  Rogamus  etiam  vos  ut  auxiliari  eidem  velitis  ad  Ohristiani- 
tatem  sustinandam  si  necesse  habuerit,  nolumus  autem  ut  ullus  liomi- 
num  ei  auferat  aliquid  eorum  quae  ei  contulimus."  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  835. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  381 

him  touoren  formest  haueft  on  ealle  ]?ing.  And  ich 
bidde  eou  alle  ^eet  ge  him  beon  on  fultome  Cristen- 
dom  to  sprekene,  loc  whar  hit  J>arf  sy  and  eower 
fultumes  befturfe  eal  swo  ich  getrowwen  to  eow 
habben  $at  ge  him  on  fultume  beon  willen.  And 
gif  what  sy  mid  unlage  out  of  'San  biscopriche 
geydon  s¥  hit  londe  6$er  an  o'S'Ser  }?inge  8ar  fulstan 
him  uor  minan  luuen  $set  hit  in  ongeyn  cume  swo 
swo  ge  for  Gode  witen  'Sat  hit  richt  sy.  God  eu 
ealle  gehealde  1." 

The  metropolitans  themselves  were  to  receive 
consecration  from  one  another,  in  order  that  the 
expense  and  trouble  of  going  to  Rome  might  be 
avoided :  but  during  the  abeyance  of  the  archi- 
episcopate  of  York,  the  prelate  elect  of  Canterbury 
appears  to  have  been  sometimes  consecrated  in 
Gaul,  sometimes  by  a  conclave  of  suffragan  bishops 
at  home  :  thus  in  731  Tatwine  was  consecrated  at 
Canterbury  by  Daniel,  Ingwald,  Aldwine  and  Ald- 
wulf,  the  respective  bishops  of  Winchester,  Lon- 
don, Worcester  and  Rochester2;  and  Pope  Gre- 
gory the  Third  either  made  or  acknowledged  this 

1  The  same  in  Latin.     "  >J«  Eadwardus  rex  Haroldo  comiti,  Ailnodo 
abbati,  Godwino,  et  omnibus  ballivis  suis  Sumersetac,  salutem !     Signi- 
ficamus  vobis  nos  velle  quod  episcopus  Giso  episcopatum  apud  vos  pos- 
sideat  cum  omnibus  dictum  episcopatum  in  villis  et  extra  de  iure  con- 
tingentibus,  cum  saca  et  socna,  adeo  plene  et  libere  per  omnia  sicut  ullus 
episcoporum    praedecessorum    suorum   unquam   nabebat.      Rogamus 
etiam  vos  ut  coadiutores  ipsius  esse  velitis  ad  fidem  praedicandam  et 
Christianitatem  sustinendam  pro  loco  et  tempore,  sicut  de  vobis  fideliter 
confidimus  vos  velle  id  ipsum.     Et  si  quid  de  dicto  episcopatu  sive  in 
terris  sive  in  aliis  rebus  contra  iustitiani  fuerit  sublatuni,  adiuvetis  eum 
pro  amore  nostro  ad  restitutionem,  prout  iustum  fuerit  habendam.    Con- 
servet  vos  Dominus."    Cod.  Dipl.  No.  838. 

2  Flor.  Wig.  an.  731. 


382  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  H. 

consecration  to  be  valid  by  the  transmission  of  a 
pall  in  733.  We  have  no  evidence  by  whom  the 
consecrations  were  performed,  in  many  cases,  but 
it  is  probable  that  the  old  rule  was  adhered  to  as 
much  as  possible.  In  1020,  ^E^Selno'S  was  conse- 
crated to  Canterbury  by  archbishop  Wulfstan  :  the 
ceremony  took  place  at  Canterbury  on  the  13th  of 
November1  in  that  year:  and  since  in  many  cases 
the  ordination  of  archbishops  is  mentioned  without 
any  details,  but  yet  as  preliminary  to  their  going 
to  Eome  for  their  palls,  it  is  likely  that  the  chro- 
niclers tacitly  assumed  the  custom  of  reciprocal 
functions  in  Canterbury  and  York  to  be  too  well 
known  to  require  description. 

When  the  nomination  or  election  by  the  king 
and  his  witan  had  taken  place,  it  is  probable  that 
a  royal  mandate  was  sent  to  the  metropolitan,  to 
perform  the  ceremony  of  consecration.  We  have 
yet  the  instrument  by  which  Wulfstan  of  York 
certifies  to  Cnut  the  performance  of  this  duty  in 
the  case  of  archbishop  ^E'Selnoft 2 :  the  archbishop 
says : — "  Wulfstan  the  archbishop  greets  Cnut  his 
lord,  and  ^Elfgyfu  the  lady,  humbly :  and  I  notify 
to  you  both,  dear  ones,  that  we  have  done  as  notice 

1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  1020. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1314.     "  K  Wulfstan  arcebisceop  gret  Cnut  cy- 
ning  his  hlaford,  and  ^Elfgyfe  fta  hltefdian  eadmodlice  ;  and  ic  cyfte  inc 
leof  ftaet  we  habbaft  gedon  swa  swa  us  swutelung  fram  eow  com  set  fram 
biscop  ./EiSelno'Se,  ftset  we  habbaft  hine  nu  gebletsod.     Nu  bidde  ic  for 
Godes  lufon  and  for  eallan  Godes  halgan  fteet  gewitan  on  Gode  flam 
sefte  and  on  '5am  halgan  hade,  %sdt  he  mote  beon  15 cere  £inga  wyrfte  fte 
o'Sre  beforan  weeron,  Dunstan  fte  god  waes,  and  nisenig  6$er ;  "Sset  ftes 
mote  beon  eall  swa  rihta  and  gerysna  wyr^e  ftaet  inc  by$  bam  bearflic 
for  Gode,  and  eac  gerysenlic  for  worolde." 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  383 


came  from  you  to  us  respecting  bishop 
namely  that  we  have  now  consecrated  him."  He 
then  prays  that  the  new  prelate  may  have  all  the 
rights  and  dues  granted  to  him,  which  have  been 
usual,  and  enjoyed  by  his  predecessors  :  which 
perhaps  is  to  be  understood  as  a  formal  demand 
that  the  temporalities  may  be  properly  conferred 
upon  him.  There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  as 
to  the  meaning  of  the  word  swutelung,  which  I  have 
rendered  by  notice,  and  Lingard  by  order1:  it  is  a 
legal  notification,  and  the  technical  word  in  a  writ 
is  swutelian.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  Cnut  was 
any  more  imperative  in  this  matter  than  his  pre- 
decessors had  been.  "An  Anglosaxon  archbishop 
would  never  have  found  it  a  very  safe  thing  to 
neglect  a  royal  command  by  ancient  right2. 

The  bishops  were  in  fact  officers  of  the  admini- 
stration, and  whatever  importance  their  ecclesiasti- 
cal functions  may  have  possessed,  their  civil  cha- 
racter was  not  of  less  moment.  It  is  abundantly 


1  Hist,  and  Antiq.  i.  94.    His  whole  account  is  well  worth  attention. 

2  We  have  but  one  instrument: — granted.     But  what  proportion 
have  we  of  instruments  respecting-  matters  which  are  entirely  beyond 
doubt  ?     Supposing  a  royal  mandate  of  consecration  had  issued  on  the 
election  of  every  bishop,  between  802,  when  Ecgberht  came  to  the 
throne,  and  1066,  there  would  have  been  once  in  existence  36  archi- 
episcopal  and  224  episcopal  writs,  or  a  total  of  260.     But  during  the 
same  period,  in  the  32  counties  south  of  the  Humber  there  would  have 
been  held  25,344  shiremoots  or  county-courts.     I  will  deduct  one  half 
of  this  number  to  meet  all  conceivable  accidents.     Of  the  12,672,  of 
which  beyond  a  doubt  records  once  existed,  we  still  possess  three  or  at 
the  utmost  four  instruments  :  but  do  we  on  that  account  doubt  that 
shiremoots  were  held  ?     When  we  look  at  these  ratios  of  1  : 260  and 
4  : 12,672,  we  find  the  authority  for  the  writ  of  consecration  more  than 
ten  times  as  great  as  that  for  the  existence  of  shiremoots. 


384  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

obvious  that  men  of  such  a  class,  possessing  nearly 
a  monopoly  of  what  learning  existed,  would  be 
necessarily  called  to  assist  in  the  national  coun- 
cils, and  would  be  very  generally  employed  in  the 
diplomatic  intercourse  with  foreign  countries  :  few 
persons  of  equal  rank  would  have  been  competent 
to  conduct  a  negotiation  carried  on  in  writing  : 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  their  high  position  in 
the  universal  institution  of  the  church  rendered 
them  at  that  period  the  fittest  persons  to  manage 
those  affairs  which  concerned  the  general  family  of 
nations.  Moreover  a  close  alliance  always  existed 
in  England  between  the  aristocracy  and  the  clergy  : 
faithful  service  of  the  altar,  like  faithful  service  of 
the  state,  gave  rank  and  dignity  and  privileges ; 
and  the  ecclesiastical  authority  and  influence  of 
the  bishop,  as  well  as  his  habits  of  business,  and 
general  aptitude  to  advance  the  interests  of  the 
crown,  frequently  designated  him  to  discharge  the 
somewhat  indefinite,  but  weighty,  duties  of  what 
we  now  call  a  prime  minister.  Administration  is 
in  truth  of  such  far  greater  importance  than  con- 
stitution, that  we  can  readily  see  how  greatly  the 
social  welfare  of  England  did  in  reality  depend  upon 
this  class,  to  whom  so  much  of  administrative  de- 
tail was  committed :  and  it  was  truly  fortunate  for 
the  country  that  the  clerical  profession  was  one 
that  a  gentleman  could  devote  himself  to  without 
disparagement,  and  therefore  embraced  so  many 
distinguished  members  of  the  ruling  class. 

The  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  were,  it 
is  well  known,  not  separated  in  England  until  after 


CH.  vni.]  THE  BISHOP.  385 

the  Conquest.     William  the  Norman  was  the  first 
to  establish  that  most  questionable  division,  the  con- 
sequences of  which  were  often  so  bitterly  felt  by  his 
successors.  Previous  to  his  reign  the  bishop  had  been 
the  assessor  of  the  ealdorman  in  the  scirgemot  or 
county-court,  and  ecclesiastical  causes,  except  such 
as  were  reserved  for  the  decision  of  the  episcopal 
synods,  were  subjected,  like  those  of  the  laity,  to  the 
judgment  of  the  scirj?egnas  or  shire-thanes :  thus 
even  probate  of  wills  was  given  in  the  county-court. 
This  participation  of  bishops  in  the  administration 
of  justice,  useful  and  necessary  in  the  early  ages  of 
Christianity,  was  very  probably  derived  from  the 
functions  of  their  heathen  predecessors,  the  priests 
of  the  ancient  gods.      The  old  Germanic  placita 
were  held,  as  is  well  known,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  priests,  and  these  were  courts  of  law  as  well 
as  courts  of  parliament.     In  fact  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  to  doubt   that,   long   before    the   intro- 
duction of  Christianity,  the  public  pleadings  were 
opened  with    religious   ceremonies,    and  that  the 
course  of   procedure   was   regulated   by   religious 
ideas1.      The  gods  were    present, — to   secure  the 
peaceful  administration  of  justice,  to  sanction  the 
finding  of  the  freemen,  to  give  a  holy  character  to 
the  act  of  doing  right  between  man  and  man, — to 
terrify  the  perjurer  and  the  criminal, — perhaps  to 
justify  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  in  extreme 
cases ;  for  it  is  probable   that  to  the  gods   alone 

1  "Omnisitaque  concionis  illius  multitude  ex  diversispartibuscoacta, 
primo  suoruni  proavorum  servare  contendit  instituta,  numinibus  vide- 
licet suis  vota  solvens  ac  sacrificia."  Hucbald.  Vit.  Lebwini,  cap.  xii 

VOL.  II.  2  C 


386  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK 

could  the  life  of  a  great  wrongdoer  be  offered,  as  an 
atonement  to  the  Law,  of  which  God  is  the  root  and 
guardian.  The  institution  of  the  ordeal  by  which 
it  was  superstitiously  supposed  that  the  Almighty 
.  would  reveal  the  hidden  truth  or  falsehood  of  men, 
further  tended  to  connect,  first  the  pagan  and  after- 
wards the  Christian  priesthood  with  the  administra- 
tion of  justice.  In  that  most  solemn  appeal  to  the 
omniscience  and  justice  of  God,  the  clergy  neces- 
sarily took  the  prominent  part ;  and  although  we 
cannot  believe  that  they  always  resisted  the  temp- 
tation offered  by  that  most  strange  juggle,  it  may 
charitably  be  asserted  that  their  intervention  not 
rarely  saved  the  innocent  from  the  penal  conse- 
quences of  an  uncertain  and  painful  test". 

I  have  remarked  in  an  earlier  chapter1  upon  the 
union  of  the  sacerdotal  with  the  judicial  power :  at 
a  very  early  stage  of  human  society,  the  functions 
of  the  priest  and  the  judge  seem  in  general  to  have 
been  inseparable ;  nor  were  they  separated  in  fact 
upon  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  In  the  very 
commencement  of  our  sera,  when  the  church  really 
did  exist  as  a  brotherhood  under  the  guidance  of  the 
first  disciples,  it  was  most  natural  that  all  conten- 
tions between  members  of  the  body  should  be  settled 
by  the  arbitration  of  the  whole  church,  or  such 
as  represented  it.  Litigation  before  the  ordinary 
tribunals  of  the  state,  even  could  such  have  been 
resorted  to  by  Christians,  was  little  consonant  with 
the  doctrine  of  charity  which  was  to  prevail  among 

1  Volume  i.  page  146. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  387 

the  members  of  one  mystical  body,  founded  on  al- 
mighty Love.  Accordingly  St.  Paul  himself1  ex- 
pressly forbids  the  disciples  to  carry  their  conten- 
tions before  the  secular  authorities,  implying  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  bring  them  to  the  consideration 
of  their  fellow-believers,  that  they  may  be  amicably 
settled,  in  the  spirit  of  forbearance  and  Christian 
moderation.  And  as  persecution  gradually  threat- 
ened the  terrified  community,  this  course  became 
unavoidable :  it  was  impossible  for  the  Christian  to 
submit  to  the  pagan  forms  of  the  tribunals,  yet  to 
refuse  these  was  to  proclaim  the  adoption  of  a  pro- 
scribed and  illegal  association.  The  establishment 
of  a  hierarchy  among  the  Christians  themselves 
supplied  some  remedy  for  this  difficulty,  and  it  was 
soon  decided  that  the  disputes  of  the  brotherhood 
were  to  be  brought  before  the  presbyter  or  bishop 
as  a  judge, — a  course  which  in  itself  was  natural  in 
countries  where  the  Eomans  had  permitted  the  exist- 
ence of  some  authority  in  the  national  tribunals, 
and  had  not  insisted  upon  dragging  every  cause 
before  their  own  officers.  The  peculiar  situation 
of  the  Christians  themselves  as  citizens  of  a  new 
state — viz.  the  religious  state — tended  to  consoli- 
date this  system.  Christianity  took  cognizance  of 
motives,  of  acts  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  mere 
human  law,  and  the  community  claimed  a  right  to 
judge  of  the  internal  as  well  as  the  external  state  of  its 
members.  Immorality,  not  cognizable  by  any  posi- 
tive law,  was  a  proper  subject  for  the  animadversion 

1  1  Corinthians  vi.  1-7. 

2  c2 


388  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BC 

of  a  body  whose  duty  it  was  to  exclude  from  commu- 
nion all  who  pertinaciously  refused  to  perform  the 
duties  of  their  profession.  It  was  thus  that  a  two- 
fold jurisdiction  became  lodged  in  the  church, — and 
in  the  bishop  or  presbyter,  as  its  representative  in 
each  particular  locality, — long  before  the  reception 
of  Christianity  among  the  religiones  licit ae  trans- 
formed the  customs  of  an  obscure  sect  into  recog- 
nised laws  of  the  empire.  But  no  sooner  had  the 
terms  of  the  great  alliance  been  arranged,  than  the 
state  hastened  to  give  the  imperial  sanction  to  what 
had  hitherto  been  merely  the  bye-laws  of  a  sodality : 
and  the  decisions  of  a  council,  if  confirmed  by  the 
assent  of  the  emperor,  were  at  once  raised  to  the  rank 
of  imperial  laws.  Thus  the  council  of  Garth  age  in  39  7 
had  threatened  with  excommunication  any  clergy- 
man who  should  pursue  another  before  the  secular 
tribunals ;  and  this  decree,  repeated  in  451  by  the 
fourth  general  Council — that  of  Chalcedon — had  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  Marcianus,  and  become  part 
of  the  law  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  jurisdiction  of 
the  bishops  in  the  affairs  of  the  clergy  was  thus  ren- 
dered legal ;  but  it  was  at  a  later  period  extended  so 
as  to  include  a  much  wider  sphere.  Justinian  not 
only  commanded  all  causes  in  which  monks  were 
concerned  to  be  referred  to  the  bishop  of  the  dio- 
cese, but  made  him  the  only  legal  channel  of  pro- 
ceedings even  in  cases  where  laymen  had  claims 
against  the  clergy1. 

Arbitration  by  the  bishop  had  thus  grown  up 

1  Novel.  §  83. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  389 

into  a  custom,  at  first  absolutely  necessary,  and 
afterwards  always  desirable,  in  a  society  like  the 
Christian.  Accordingly  Constantine  permitted  all 
contentions  to  be  so  settled.  But  it  was  a  rule  of 
Eoman  law  that  there  could  lie  no  appeal  what- 
ever from  a  voluntary  arbitration ;  and  in  pur- 
suance of  this  rule,  in  the  year  408,  Arcadius  and 
Honorius  decreed  that  the  sentences  of  bishops 
should  be  without  appeal1.  In  this  manner  was 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  founded  in  the  Greek 
and  Roman  empires. 

Happily  for  ourselves,  this  could  not  be  admitted 
without  modification  in  the  Germanic  states.  Had 
it  indeed  been  so,  every  trace  of  independence 
would  long  since  have  perished,  and  the  whole 
civilized  world  have  found  itself  subject  to  the 
principles  and  regulations  of  an  effete  scheme  of 
jurisprudence.  The  antagonism  of  the  Germanic 
customary  right  it  was  that  saved  us  from  the 
consequences  which  must  have  followed  the  uni- 
versal prevalence  of  maxims  elaborated  by  another 
race,  and  sprung  out  of  a  different  social  condition. 
It  was  the  conflict  of  the  Roman  and  Ecclesiastical 
laws  with  those  of  the  Teutonic  victors  that  pro- 
duced that  modified  system  of  relations,  under 
which,  by  the  blessing  of  Providence,  civilization  has 
been  maintained,  the  general  well-being  of  man- 
kind advanced,  and  human  society  firmly  estab- 
lished throughout  Europe,  on  a  basis  susceptible 
of  progressive,  perhaps  illimitable  improvement. 

1  Donniges,  Deut.  Staatsr.  p.  48  seq. 


390  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

Useful  as  a  counter-check  to  the  somewhat  dis- 
ruptive system  of  the  Germans,  the  Roman  and 
Ecclesiastical  laws  have  yet  never  been  able  to  de- 
stroy the  nationality,  or  abridge  the  freedom,  of  our 
races ;  while  they  have  tended  to  give  consistency 
and  method  to  our  own  customs,  and  to  reduce  into 
form  and  harmony  what,  but  for  them,  might  have 
been  liable  to  fall  asunder  from  its  own  internal 
vigour.  Like  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces, 
they  have  balanced  one  another,  and  held  our 
social  state  together  as  one  majestic  and  consistent 
whole. 

The  method  of  doing  justice  between  man  and 
man,  which  was  the  very  foundation-stone  of  the 
Teutonic  polity,  was  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
doctrines  of  Roman  jurists  and  the  practice  of  the 
church.  Justice  went  out  from  among  the  people 
themselves,  not  from  the  king  or  the  bishop.  The 
people  spoke  both  as  to  fact  and  law,  the  ancient 
customary  law  ;  nor  did  they  at  any  time  allow 
their  relations  as  Christians  to  abrogate  the  older 
rights  they  had  possessed  as  citizens,  where  the 
exercise  of  these  was  clearly  compatible  with  the 
recognition  of  the  former.  In  respect  to  their  re- 
ligion, they  duly  submitted  to  the  ecclesiastical 
authority,  made  confession,  performed  penance,  and 
hearkened  to  advice  tendered  by  qualified  func- 
tionaries ;  but  they  nevertheless  still  met  in  their 
folk-  and  shire-moots  to  hold  plea,  declare  folk- 
right,  and  superintend  its  execution  by  their  national 
officers.  Not  even  to  the  clergy  themselves  did 
they  accord  an  immunity  from  the  universal  duties 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  391 

of  freemen :  and  although  they  may  have  been  dis- 
posed to  acquiesce  in  the  claim  to  be  quit  of  per- 
sonal military  service,  they  never  excused  suit  and 
service  to  the  popular  courts.  Only  when  the  re- 
lation of  a  cleric  to  his  superior  was  that  of  an 
unfree  man  to  his  lord,  did  the  state  release  him 
from  this  duty,  or  rather  did  the  state  hold  him 
unworthy  of  this  privilege. 

The  existence  of  such  a  body  as  the  English 
clergy  could  not  possibly  be  ignored.  As  organized 
agents  of  a  system  which  professed  to  exercise 
a  right  of  rule  over  the  most  secret  desires  and 
motives  of  men, — as  students  distinguished  by  their 
knowledge,  or  remarkable  for  their  piety, — as  land- 
lords, in  the  enjoyment  of  great  wealth,  and  chiefs 
of  numerous  dependents, — lastly  as  advisers  and 
ministers  of  the  ruling  class,  or  intermediaries  in 
the  intercourse  with  foreign  states, — they  formed 
a  power  whose  claims  to  attention  could  not  be 
neglected.  But  their  social  position  itself  was  that 
which  brought  them  continually  in  relation  with 
the  other  aggregates  of  freemen,  and  they  were 
therefore  called  upon  to  take  their  place  with  other 
landowners,  lords,  or  ministerials  in  the  popular 
councils. 

With  all  their  attachment  to  the  customary  law 
and  the  national  franchises,  the  Anglosaxons  never 
lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  Christianity  had  intro- 
duced new  social  relations :  they  were  ready  to 
admit  that  there  was  now  a  godcund  or  divine  as 
well  as  woroldcund  or  secular  right ;  and  in  the  ex- 
position of  the  former  they  were  willing  to  follow  the 


392  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

guidance  of  those  who  professed  to  make  it  their 
especial  study.  Moreover  the  system  of  Anglo- 
saxon  jurisprudence  depended  very  much  upon  the 
trustworthy  character  of  witnesses,  and  the  ordi- 
nation of  the  clergy  was  justly  taken  to  have 
imposed  upon  them  the  obligation  of  a  peculiar 
truthfulness.  The  testimony  of  members  of  their 
class  became  therefore  a  very  important  thing  in 
the  sight  of  the  moot-thanes  who  might  have  dis- 
puted points  to  settle,  or  who,  in  mixed  causes, 
might  shrink  from  doing  wrong  to  the  venerable 
body  by  too  strict  an  application  of  the  principles 
by  which  themselves  were  bound.  Lastly,  as  there 
was  a  merciful  tendency  among  the  people  to  have 
disputes  settled  by  arbitration  and  on  equitable 
grounds,  rather  than  by  the  strict  rules  of  law,  the 
clergy,  whose  jurisdiction  extended  to  the  motives 
of  Christians  rather  than  the  mere  acts  of  citizens, 
were  valuable  intermediaries  between  contending 
parties.  The  dignity  of  the  class — the  honor  cleri- 
calis — was  cheerfully  recognised,  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  the  body  acknowledged,  and  the  pro- 
priety of  being  to  a  great  degree  guided  by  the 
experience  and  enlightenment  of  their  leaders, 
readily  conceded.  Accordingly  the  bishop  became 
an  inseparable  assessor  of  the  Frankish  count  and 
of  the  Anglosaxon  ealdorman  in  their  respective 
courts1. 

The  duties  of  a  bishop  as  the  officer  of  a  state, 
and  contradistinguished  from  his  merely  ecclesias- 

1  See  Leg.  Eadg.  ii.  §  5.     Cnut,  ii.  §  18. 


CH.  viii.]  THE  BISHOP.  393 

tical  functions,  were  to  assist  in  the  administration 
of  justice  between  man  and  man,  to  guard  against 
perjury,  and  to  superintend  the  administration  of 
the  ordeals ;  further  to  take  care  that  no  fraud  was 
committed  by  means  of  unjust  measures,  to  which 
end  he  was  made  the  guardian  of  the  standards, 
and  the  judge  of  what  work  might  be  demanded 
from  the  serf;  above  all,  to  watch  over  the  main- 
tenance of  the  peace,  and  the  upholding  of  divine 
as  well  as  secular  law 1.  The  canons  of  the  church 
did  indeed  prohibit  the  presence  of  bishops  on  trials 
which  might  involve  the  penalties  of  death  or  muti- 
lation; and  even  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon, 

1  The  c  Institutes  of  Ecclesiastical  Polity '  are  very  explicit  upon 
these  points.  They  say : — "  To  a  bishop  belongs  every  direction,  both 
in  divine  and  worldly  things.  He  shall,  in  the  first  place,  inform  men 
in  orders,  so  that  each  of  them  may  know  what  it  properly  behoves 
him  to  do,  and  also  what  they  have  to  enjoin  to  secular  men.  He  shall 
ever  be  [busied]  about  reconciliation  and  peace,  as  he  best  may.  He 
shall  zealously  appease  strifes  and  effect  peace,  with  those  temporal 
judges  who  love  right.  He  shall  in  accusations  direct  the  lad,  so  that 
no  man  may  wrong  another,  either  in  oath  or  ordeal.  He  shall  not 
consent  to  any  injustice,  or  wrong  measure,  or  false  weight  j  but  it  is 
fitting  that  every  legal  right  (both  '  burhriht '  and  '  landriht ')  go  by 
his  counsel  and  with  his  witness :  and  let  every  burgmeasure,  and  every 
balance  for  weighing  be,  by  his  direction  and  furthering,  very  exact ; 
lest  any  man  should  wrong  another,  and  thereby  altogether  too  greatly 

sin It  behoves  all  Christian  men  to  love  righteousness,  and  shun 

unrighteousness ;  and  especially  men  in  orders  should  ever  exalt  right- 
eousness, and  suppress  unrighteousness:  therefore  should  bishops, 
together  with  temporal  judges,  so  direct  judgments,  that,  as  far  as  in 
them  lies,  they  never  permit  any  injustice  to  spring  up  there  ....  By 
the  confessor's  direction,  and  by  his  own  measure,  it  is  justly  fitting 
that  the  thralls  work  for  their  lords  over  all  the  district  in  which  he 
shrives.  And  it  is  right  that  there  be  not  one  measuring-rod  longer 
than  another,  but  all  regulated  by  the  confessor's  measure ;  and  let 
every  measure  in  his  shrift- district,  and  every  weight,  be,  by  his  direc- 
tion, very  rightly  regulated :  and  if  there  be  any  dispute,  let  the  bishop 
arbitrate."  Thorpe,  ii.  312  seq. 


394  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  object  of  which  was  to  place  the  clergy  on  their 
proper  and  ancient  footing  towards  the  other  members 
of  the  church  and  state,  recognised  this  exemption l : 
but  there  is  little  reason  to  suppose  that  it  was 
regarded  by  the  Anglosaxons ;  indeed  the  popular 
courts  had  no  power  to  pass  sentences  of  so  deep 
a  dye,  until  long  after  the  custom  of  the  bishop's 
presence  therein  had  been  established  too  firmly  to 
be  questioned.  It  was  otherwise  among  the  Franks, 
and  we  may  perhaps  attribute  this  to  the  strong 
nationality  of  the  Frankish  clergy,  which  indisposed 
them  to  claim  their  canonical  immunity. 

Another  exemption  which  the  bishops  properly 
possessed,  seems  also  to  have  been  often  neglected 
in  this  country, — that  namely  of  personal  service 
in  the  field.  No  doubt,  all  over  Europe,  as  soon  as 
the  bishops  became  possessed  of  lands  liable  to  the 
hereban^  or  military  muster,  they,  like  other  lords, 
were  compelled  to  place  their  armed  tenants  on 
foot,  for  the  public  service,  when  duly  required : 
but  their  levies  were  mostly  commanded  by  officers 
specially  designated  for  that  purpose  and  known 
under  the  names  of  advocati,  vicedomini,  or  vidames ; 
being  in  general  nobles  of  power  and  dignity  who 
assumed  or  accepted  the  exercise  of  the  bishop's 
royalties,  the  management  of  his  estates,  the  adminis- 
tration and  execution  of  his  justice,  and  a  remu- 

J  "  Archiepiscopi,  episcopi  et  universae  personae  regni,  qui  de  rege 
tenent  in  capite,  habeant  possessiones  suas  de  rege  sicut  baroniani,  et 
inde  respondeant  iusticiariis  et  ininistris  regis;et  sequantur  et  faci  nt 
omnes  consuetudines  regias ;  et  sicut  caeteri  barones,  debent  interesse 
iudiciis  curiae  regis  quousque  perveniatur  ad  diminutionem  menibrorum 
vel  ad  mortem."  Rog.  Wend,  anno  1164.  Coxe,  ii.  301. 


CH.  vm.]  THE  BISHOP.  395 

nerative  share  of  his  revenues  and  patronage.  In 
Saxon  England,  however,  we  do  not  meet  with 
these  officers ;  and  though  it  is  probable  that  the 
bishop's  gerefa  was  bound  to  lead  his  contingent 
under  the  command  of  the  ealdorman,  yet  we  have 
ample  evidence  that  the  prelates  themselves  did  not 
hold  their  station  to  excuse  them  from  taking  part 
in  the  just  and  lawful  defence  of  their  country  and 
religion  against  strange  and  pagan  invaders 1.  Too 
many  fell  in  conflict  to  allow  of  our  attributing 
their  presence  on  the  field  merely  to  their  anxiety 
lest  the  belligerents  should  be  without  the  due 
consolations  of  religion  ;  and  in  other  cases,  upon 
the  alarm  of  hostile  incursions,  we  find  the  levies 
stated  to  have  been  led  against  the  enemy  by  the 
duke  and  bishop  of  the  district. 

Attention  has  been  called  in  another  chapter  to 
the  fact  that  the  bishops  did  not  universally  (or 
indeed  usually),  make  their  residences  in  the  prin- 
cipal cities2.  A  remarkable  distinction  thus  arose 
between  themselves  and  the  prelates  of  Gaul  and 
Germany.  The  latter,  strong  in  the  support  of  the 
burgesses,  and  identified  with  the  urban  interests, 
found  means  to  consolidate  a  power  which  they 
used  without  scruple  against  the  king  when  it  suited 
their  convenience,  or  which  enabled  them  to  ex- 
tort from  him  the  grant  of  offices  that  virtually 
rendered  them  independent  of  his  authority.  This 

1  A.S  late  as  43  Edw.  III.  A.D.  1369,  on  an  alarm  of  invasion,  orders  were 
given  to  arm  and  array  the  clergy,  as  well  as  laity.     Rym.  Foed.  vi.  631. 

2  The  Normans  adopted  a  different  custom.     Many  of  the  cathedrals 
were  transferred  from  obscure  sites  to  the  cities  which  they  now  adorn, 
by  the  first  Norman  bishops. 


396  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

was  generally  effected  through  the  bishop's  obtain- 
ing the  county,  that  is  becoming  the  count,  and 
thus  exercising  the  palatine  power  in  his  city,  as 
well  as  that  which  he  might  already  possess  iure 
episcopii,  and  as  defensor  urMs  or  patron  of  the 
municipality.  This,  rare  indeed  under  Charlemagne, 
but  not  uncommon  in  the  times  which  preceded 
and  followed  him,  can  at  least  not  be  proved  to 
have  taken  place  in  England  before  the  Conquest1. 
There  is  indeed  one  instance  which  might  seem  at 
first  sight  to  contradict  this  assertion,  but  which 
upon  closer  investigation  rather  confirms  it.  We 
learn  that  certain  thieves,  having  attempted  a  sacri- 
legious entry  into  the  church  of  St.  Eadmund, 
and  being  miraculously  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
the  authorities,  were  put  to  death  by  the  orders  of 
Deodred,  then  bishop  of  London  and  of  Eastanglia2. 
This  event  took  place  after  the  conquest  of  the  last- 
named  province  by  ^E$elstan,  who  about  930  drove 
the  Danes  from  it  or  reduced  them  under  his  own 
power.  At  that  time  it  appears  uncertain  whether 
the  conquered  kingdom  had  been  duly  arranged 

1  After  the  Conquest  it  did  take  place  :  Walcher  bishop  of  Durham 
was  made  also  count  of  the  same  in  1075,  upon  the  capture  of  Earl  Wael- 
beof.     Hist.  Dunelm.  Eccl.  Iviii.  (lib.  iii.  cap.  xxiii.  p.  208).     As  late  as 
the  time  of  Richard  the  First,  we  find  a  successor  of  Walcher,  Hugo 
de  Pusac,  purchasing  the  same  county  of  the  king,  anno  1189.     Ric. 
Divisiens.  p.  8.     One  year  later,  Baldwin  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
suspended  Hugo,  bishop  of  Coventry,  because  "  contra  dignitatem 
episcopalis   ordinis,   officium  sibi  vicecomitatus  usurpaverat."     Rog. 
Wend.  an.  1190.     Coxe,  iii.  18. 

2  "  Hie  fecit  suspendi  latrones  volentes  infregisse  aecclesiam  Sancti 
Eadmundi,  qui  tamen  erant  miraculose  impediti."     Chron.  de  Passione 
S.  Edmundi,  cited  by  Wharton.  Ep.  et  Dec.  Lond.  p.  29.     See  also 
Will.  Malm.  Gest.  Pont,  lib.  ii. 


CH.  vni.]  THE  BISHOP.  397 

and  settled,  or  whether  any  ealdorman  had  been 
appointed  to  govern  it.  If  not,  we  must  imagine 
that  Beodred,  the  only  constituted  authority  on  the 
spot,  acted  at  his  own  discretion  in  a  case  of  ur- 
gency, without  absolutely  possessing  the  legal  power 
to  do  so ;  that  the  act  was  in  short  one  of  those 
examples  of  what  in  modern  times  we  understand 
by  the  term  Lynch-law,  that  law  which  men  are 
obliged  to  administer  for  themselves  in  the  absence 
of  the  regular  machinery  of  government.  But  it  is 
further  observable  that,  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  legend  itself,  these  thieves  were  taken  in  the 
manner,  and  consequently  liable  to  capital  punish- 
ment without  any  trial  at  all1 ;  this  justice  we  may 
suppose  Deodred  to  have  executed,  and  to  its  sum- 
mary character  we  may  attribute  the  regrets  he 
expressed  on  the  subject  at  a  later  time.  It  is  also 
possible  to  account  for  the  act  by  supposing  that 
even  at  this  early  period  the  bishop  possessed  his 
sacu  and  socn  in  the  demesne  of  St.  Eadmund,  and 
that  he  proceeded  to  execute  his  thieves  by  his 
right  as  lord  of  the  socn :  but  there  is  no  clear 
proof  that  the  immunity  did  exist  before  the  time 
of  Cnut,  and  I  therefore  incline  to  the  second  ex- 
planation as  the  most  probable.  But  if  Deodred 
did  not  act  in  pursuance  of  possessing  the  comitial 
power,  we  may  safely  say  that  there  is  no  evidence 

1  William  of  Malmesbury  seems  to  allude  to  this  point,  when  he  says 
of  St.  Eadmund:  "  Latrunculos,  noctu  sacram  aedem  expilare  aggressos, 
invisis  loris  in  ipsis  conatibus  irretivit ;  formoso  admodum  spectaculo, 
quod  praeda  praedones  tenuit,  ut  nee  coepto  desistere,  nee  inchoata 
valerent  perficere."  Gest.  Reg.  i.  366,  §  213. 


398  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND  [BOOK  n 

whatever  of  any  Saxon  bishop  having  exercised  it1. 
As  assessor  to  the  ealdorman,  the  bishop  was  espe- 
cially charged  to  attend  to  the  due  levy  of  tithe 
and  other  church  imposts  ;  but  this  was  clearly  be- 
cause he  had  a  direct  interest  in  the  law  that  de- 
creed their  punctual  payment,  and  was  certain  not 
to  connive  at  any  neglect  in  its  execution,  which 
the  ealdorman  out  of  favour  or  carelessness  might 
possibly  have  been  disposed  to  do. 

But  a  still  higher  authority  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  bishop,  derived  in  fact  from  the  as- 
sumed pre-eminence  of  the  ecclesiastical  over  the 
secular  power.  If  the  gerefa  would  not  do  justice, 
and  maintain  the  peace  in  the  land,  then  the  bishop 
was  especially  commanded  to  enforce  the  fines 
which  the  king  and  his  witan  had  apportioned  to 
that  officer's  offence2.  It  was  no  doubt  argued  that 
no  gerefa  would  be  found  bold  enough  to  incur  the 
danger  of  offering  violent  resistance  to  the  sacred 
person  of  the  prelate  ;  and  even  the  ealdorman,  who 

1  By  the  law  of  Eadweard  the  Confessor,  "  cyricbryce  "  belonged  to 
the  bishop.     "  Si  quis  sanctae_aecclesiae  pacem  fregerit,  episcoporum 
turn  est  iusticia."  Leg.  Ead.  Conf.  §  vi.  But  this  seems  a  different  thing 
altogether,  and  to  be  a  violation  of  the  "  grift  "  only. 

2  t(  But  if  any  of  my  reeves  will  not  do  this,  and  care  less  about  it 
than  we  have  decreed,  then  let  him  pay  my  oferhyrnes  [that  is  the  fine 
for  disobedience],  and  I  will  find  another,  who  will.      And  let  the  bishop 
exact  the  oferhyrnes  of  the  reeve  in  whose  district  it  may  be."     Leg. 
^E-Selst.  i.  §  26.     Thorpe,  i.  212.      Again :  "  And  let  the  judge  that 
giveth  wrong  judgment  to  another,  pay  to  the  king  a  bot  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  shillings ;  unless  he  will  venture  to  prove  on  oath  that 
he  knew  no  better.     And  let  him  forfeit  his  thaneship  for  ever,  unless 
he  can  redeem  it  from  the  king,  as  he  may  be  willing  to  permit.     And 
let  the  bishop  of  the  shire  exact  the  bot  into  the  king's  hand."     Leg. 
Eadg.  ii.  §  3.  Thorpe,  i.  266. 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  399 

mi^ht  have  set  the  king  at  defiance,  would  tremble 
to  encounter  the  substantial  terrors  of  excommuni- 
cation and  a  laborious  penance. 

The  high  station  occupied  by  the  bishop  in  the 
social  hierarchy  is  proved  by  the  amount  of  his 
wergyld  and  of  the  fines  assigned  to  offences  against 
his  honour,  his  person,  and  his  property.  Although 
the  bishop  and  the  presbyter  are  in  fact  but  of  one 
order  in  the  church,  yet  the  state  found  it  con- 
venient to  place  the  former  on  much  the  higher 
scale.  In  the  "  North-people's  law  "  an  archbishop 
is  reckoned  upon  the  same  footing  as  an  sefteling 
or  prince  of  the  blood,  at  fifteen  thousand  thrymsas, 
and  a  bishop  upon  the  same  footing  as  an  ealdor- 
man  at  eight  thousand.  The  breach  of  a  bishop's 
surety  or  protection,  like  the  ealdorman's,  rendered 
the  offender  liable  to  a  fine  of  two  pounds,  which 
in  the  case  of  an  archbishop  rose  to  three  1.  He 
that  drew  weapon  before  a  bishop  or  ealdorman 
was  to  be  mulcted  in  one  hundred  shillings,  before 
an  archbishop,  in  one  hundred  and  fifty2.  Under  Ini 
the  violence  done  to  a  bishop's  dwelling,  and  the 
seat  of  his  jurisdiction,  was  to  be  compensated  with 
one  hundred  and  twenty  shillings,  while  the  ealdor- 
man's was  protected  by  a  fine  of  only  eighty :  in 
this  the  episcopal  dignity  was  placed  upon  a  level 
with  that  of  the  king  himself3.  Similarly  Wih treed 

1  Leg.  ^Elfr.  §  3.     Cnut,  ii.  §  59.     Thorpe,  i.  62,  408.     In  this  last 
passage,  as  in  the  North-people's  law  of  wergyld,  the  archbishop's  and 
selling's  borh  and  nmndbryce  are  reckoned  alike  at  three  pounds. 
So  also  LI.  ^E-Selr.  vii.  §  11.     Thorpe,  i.  330. 

2  Leg.  ^Elf.  §  15.     ^ESelr.  vii.  §  12.     Thorpe  i.  70,  332. 

3  Leg.  Ini,  §  45.     Thorpe,  i.  130.     This  overrated  estimate  is  cor- 


400  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

had  declared  his  mere  word,  without  an  oath,  to 
be  like  the  king's,  incontrovertible. 

The  ecclesiastical  functions  of  the  bishops  were 
here  the  same  as  elsewhere.  To  them  belonged  the 
ordination  of  priests  and  deacons,  the  hallowing 
of  chrism,  the  ceremonies  of  confirmation,  the  con- 
secration of  churches  and  churchyards,  nuns  and 
monks ;  they  had  a  right  to  regulate  the  lives  and 
conversation  of  their  clergy,  to  superintend  the 
monastic  foundations,  and  in  general  to  watch  that 
every  detail  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  was 
duly  regarded  and  maintained.  In  their  peculiar 
synods  they  could  frame  canons  of  discipline,  to  be 
enforced  in  the  several  dioceses.  They  were  the 
receivers-general  of  all  ecclesiastical  revenue,  which 
they  distributed  to  the  inferior  clergy  under  their 
government,  according  to  certain  specified  regula- 
tions ;  providing  out  of  the  common  fund  for  the 
due  maintenance  of  the  priests,  the  buildings,  and 
minor  accessories  required  for  decent  celebration  of 
the  rites  of  religion. 

But  the  most  important  of  their  functions  was 
that  which  is  technically  called  iurisdictio  fori  in- 
terni,  their  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  conscience, 
their  dealing  with  the  motives  and  feelings,  rather 
than  the  acts  of  men.  This — which  practically 
they  exercised  through  the  several  presbyters  who 
were,  for  the  general  convenience,  dispersed  over 

rected  by  Alfred,  who  settles  the  sums  thus  :  king,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  scill. j  archbishop,  ninety  scill. ;  bishop  and  ealdorman,  sixty 
scill.     Leg.  ^Elf.  §  40.     Thorpe,  i.  88. 
1  Leg.  Wihtr.  §  16.     Thorpe,  i.  40. 


CH,  viii.J  THE  BISHOP.  401 

the  face  of  the  country, — was  the  true  source  of 
their  power,  and  measure  of  their  social  influence. 
Positive  law  deals  only  with  the  actions  of  men, 
and  then  only  when  they  are  perfected  or  com- 
pleted :  religion  regulates  the  inward  impulses  from 
which  those  actions  spring,  and  its  authority  ex- 
tends both  before  and  beyond  them :  intention,  not 
act,  is  its  proper  province.  But  the  secret  inten- 
tions and  motives  of  men  are  known  perfectly  to 
God  alone ;  the  man  himself  may,  and  often  does 
possess  but  an  indistinct  and  fallacious  notion  of 
his  own  impulses ;  and  as  it  is  in  these,  rather  than 
in  the  acts  which  are  their  results,  that  the  essence 
of  guilt  lies,  the  Christian  was  taught  to  unbosom 
himself  to  one  of  more  experienced  and  disciplined 
feelings ; — one  whose  profession  was  to  console 
the  distracted  sinner,  and  who,  on  genuine  repent- 
ance, was  empowered  to  announce  the  glad  tidings 
of  reconciliation  with  God.  Confession  of  sins  was 
the  mode  pointed  out  by  the  founder  of  the  church, 
to  obtain  the  blessings  of  almighty  mercy ;  but  how 
were  the  ignorant,  the  obstinate,  or  the  despair- 
ing to  know  the  right  manner  of  such  confession  1 
How  could  they  know  in  what  form  confession  was 
effectually  to  be  made  to  God  ?  How  could  they 
plunged  in  sin  and  foulness,  dare  to  approach  the 
source  of  all  purity  and  holiness  I  What  hope 
could  the  grovelling  outcast  have  of  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  throne  of  his  glorious  King,  even  for 
the  purpose  of  renouncing  his  state  of  rebellion 
and  apostasy  I  But  the  glorious  King  was  a  merci- 
ful sovereign,  who  had  commissioned  certain  of  his 

VOL.  II.  2  D 


402  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n, 

servants,  reconciled  sinners  themselves,  to  be  inter- 
mediaries between  his  own  majesty  and  the  terror- 
stricken  offender  :  they  had  been  sent  forth  armed 
with  full  power  to  receive  the  submission  which 
the  guilty  feared  to  offer  to  Himself  in  person,  fur- 
nished with  instructions  as  to  the  exact  mode  in 
which  the  satisfactory  propitiation  was  to  be  made. 
These  commissioners  were  the  especial  body  of  the 
clergy, — the  successors  and  representatives  of  the 
Levitical  Priests  under  the  Law, — the  offerers  of  the 
sacrifices, — to   whom  the  spirit  of  God  had  been 
exclusively  communicated  in  the  ceremony  of  their 
ordination,  and  who  thereby  became  possessors  of 
the  divine  authority,  to  bind  and  loose,  to  forgive 
sins   on  earth  and  in  the  world'  to    come.     The 
clergy  therefore  undertook  to  direct  the  suffering 
and  heart-broken  outlaw  to  the   throne  of  peace. 
Again,  as  the  merely  human  preacher  of  atone- 
ment possessed  of  himself  no  means  of  ascertain- 
ing the   genuineness  of  repentance,  a   system   of 
penances  was  established  which  might  serve  as  a 
test  of  the  penitent's  earnestness :  and  too  soon  a 
miserable  error  grew  up  that,  by  submitting  to  self- 
inflicted   punishments,  the  sinner  might  diminish 
the  weight  of  the  penalties  which  he  had  earned  in 
a  future  state.     But  he  might  exceed  or  fall  short 
of  the  just  measure,  if  not  duly  weighed  and  appor- 
tioned by  those  who  were  in  possession  of  the  di- 
vine will  in  that  respect :  men  had  even  without 
their  own  knowledge  become  holy  and  justified  by 
their  works  of  self-abasement  and  humiliation  and 
chanty:    such   men    might   exceed   the   necessary 


CH.  vm.]  THE  BISHOP.  403 

limit  of  penance  and  mortification: — happily  for 
the  sinner  and  the  saint,  the  priest  had  a  code  of 
instructions  at  hand  by  which  the  difficulties  in  all 
cases  could  be  readily  adjusted. 

These  codes  of  instructions,  known  by  the  names 
of  Confessionalia,  Poenitentialia,  Modus  imponendi 
Poenitentiam,  and  the  like,  were  compiled  by  the 
bishops,  to  whom  the  iurisdictio  fori  interni  was 
exclusively  competent,  as  soon  as  the  episcopal 
system  became  firmly  settled.  The  presbyter  exer- 
cised it  only  as  the  bishop's  vicar,  when  it  became 
inconvenient  for  the  penitent  to  visit  a  distant 
cathedral  or  metropolis.  The  episcopal  right  was 
open  to  every  bishop  :  each  one  might,  if  he  dared, 
embody  his  own  ideas  on  the  subject  in  a  code, 
which  would  derive  its  authority  from  conformity 
to  the  recognised  customs  of  the  church,  the  per- 
sonal reputation  of  its  author,  and  the  general  ac- 
ceptance by  his  episcopal  peers  throughout  the 
world.  The  differing  circumstances  of  differing 
states  of  society  required  skilful  adaptation  of  gene- 
ral rules ;  and  therefore  any  bishop  who  felt  in  his 
conscience  that  he  was  qualified  for  the  task,  might 
bring  the  light  of  his  wisdom  to  the  consideration 
of  this  weighty  matter,  and  make  such  regulations 
as  to  himself  seemed  good,  for  the  management  of 
his  own  diocese, — certain  that,  if  the  blessing  of 
God  rested  upon  his  endeavours,  his  views  would 
be  widely  circulated  and  adopted  by  his  neighbours. 
There  is  perhaps  no  more  melancholy  evidence  in 
existence  of  the  vanity  and  worthlessness  of  human 
endeavours  than  the  celebrated  works  which  thus 


404  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

arose  in  various  parts  of  Europe ;  and  nothing  can 
demonstrate  more  strikingly  the  folly  and  wicked- 
ness of  squaring  and  shaping  the  unlimited  mercy 
of  God  by  the  rule  and  measure  of  mere  human 
intelligence.  With  the  contents  of  these  Poeniten- 
tials  we  have  of  course  not  here  to  deal ;  but  I  am 
bound  to  say  that  I  know  of  no  more  fatal  sources 
of  antichristian  error,  no  more  miserable  records 
of  the  debasement  and  degradation  of  human  intel- 
lect, no  more  frightful  proofs  of  the  absence  of  ge- 
nuine religion.  It  was  the  evil  tendency  of  those 
barbarous  early  ages  not  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
simple  promises  of  divine  mercy,  and  faith  was 
clouded  and  confused  by  the  crowd  of  incongruous 
images  which  were  raised  between  itself  and  its  all- 
glorious  object.  At  one  time  terrified  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  sin,  at  another  deluded  by  the  cheap 
hope  of  ceremonial  justification,  the  human  race 
eagerly  rushed  to  multiply  the  means  of  salvation, 
and  franticly  rejoiced  in  the  establishment  of  a  host 
of  mediators  between  themselves  and  their  cruci- 
fied Redeemer,  between  the  frightened  but  uncon- 
verted sinner,  and  his  offended  Lord  and  Maker. 
The  pure  Word  of  God  was  not  then,  as  it  now  is, 
accessible  to  every  reader ;  and  those  whose  duty 
it  was  to  proclaim  what  the  mass  of  men  could  not 
obtain  access  to  themselves,  had  erred  into  a  de- 
vious labyrinth  of  traditions,  through  which  the 
weary  wayfarer  circled  and  circled  in  endless,  ob- 
jectless gyrations,  at  every  turn  more  distant  only 
from  the  goal  he  pursued.  Pure  and  good  were 
no  doubt  the  objects  sought  by  Cummian,  and 


CH.  vni.]  THE  BISHOP.  405 

Theodore  and  ^Elfric,  and  pious  the  spirit  in  which 
they  wrought ;  but  the  foundation  of  their  house 
was  upon  sand,  and  when  the  rains  fell  and  the 
tempests  roared  around  it  vanished  in  a  moment 
from  before  the  sight  of  God  and  man,  never  to  be 
reconstructed,  even  until  the  closing  of  the  ages. 

The  sources  of  revenue  by  which  the  bishops 
supported  their  temporal  power  will  be  considered 
in  a  subsequent  chapter  :  it  is  enough  that  we  find 
them  to  have  been  amply  endowed  with  fitting 
means,  in  every  part  of  Europe.  During  the  An- 
glosaxon  period,  poverty  and  self-denial  were  not 
the  characteristics  of  the  class,  however  they  may 
have  distinguished  certain  members  of  the  body. 
Nor  will  the  philosophical  enquirer  see  cause  for 
regret  in  this:  far  more  will  he  rejoice  in  the  esta- 
blishment of  any  system  which  tends  to  draw  closer 
the  bonds  of  intercourse  between  the  clerical  and 
lay  members  of  the  church,  which  leads  to  the 
identification  of  their  worldly  as  well  as  their  eter- 
nal interests,  and  unites  them  in  one  harmonious 
work  of  praise  and  thanksgiving,  one  active  service 
of  worship  and  charity  and  love,  before  the  face  of 
Him  in  whom  they  are  united  as  one  holy  priest- 
hood. It  is  the  separation  of  the  clergy  from  the 
laity,  as  a  class,  to  which  the  world  owes  so  many 
ages  of  misery  and  error ;  and  to  the  comparative 
union  of  both  orders  in  the  church,  we  may  per- 
haps attribute  the  general  quiet  which,  in  these 
respects,  characterized  the  Anglosaxon  polity.  On 
these  points  of  separation  I  shall  also  have  some- 
thing to  say  hereafter;  but  for  the  present  one 


408  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

more  subject  alone  remains  to  be  treated  of  in  this 
chapter,  the  last  but  not  least  remarkable  function 
of  the  episcopal  authority  and  power.  By  far  the 
most  important  point  of  the  public  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction, — for  the  iurisdictio  fori  interni  is  quite 
another  thing, — lay  in  the  questions  of  marriage, 
which  were  especially  reserved  for  the  bishop's 
cognizance.  The  prohibitions  which  the  clergy 
enforced  were  obviously  unknown  to  the  strict 
Teutonic  law,  which  permitted  considerable  licence 
in  these  respects.  From  Tacitus  we  learn  that  a 
sort  of  polygamy  was  not  unknown  on  the  part  of 
the  princes  ;  it  was  probably  looked  upon  as  a  use- 
ful mode  of  increasing  the  alliances  of  the  tribe 1,— 
the  only  conceivable  ground  on  which  it  could  have 
been  allowed  by  a  race  so  strict  in  the  observance 
of  marriage.  We  do  not  know  within  what  degrees 
the  Germans  permitted  unions  which  the  Eoman 
clergy  considered  incestuous,  but  we  do  know  that 
Gregory  considered  a  relaxation  of  the  strict  rule 
necessary  to  the  success  of  Augustine  in  Britain; 
that  he  gave  the  missionary  positive  instructions 
upon  the  subject,  and,  when  blamed  by  his  episco- 
pal brother  of  Messina  for  this  concession,  justified 
his  course  by  the  danger  which  he  apprehended  for 
his  plan  of  conversion,  if  the  prejudices  of  the  Sax- 
ons on  so  vital  a  point  were  too  hastily  shocked2. 

7  "Nam  prope  soli  barbarorum  singulis  uxoribus  content!  sunt,  ex- 
ceptis  admodum  paucis,  qui  non  libidine,  sed  ob  nobilitatem  plurimis 
nuptiis  ambiuntur.'  Tac.  Germ,  xviii. 

2  See  Felix's  letter,  Bed.  Op.  Min.  ii.  239.  He  not  only  expresses 
his  own  surprise,  but  adds  that  other  clergymen  had  been  greatly  dis- 
turbed by  Gregory's  departure  from  the  rule  of  the  church :  "  non 
modicum  murmur  super  hac  re  nobiscum  versatur."  Gregory  replies 


CH.  TIII.]  THE  BISHOP.  407 

From  these  directions  of  Gregory  we  learn  not  only 
that  the  marriage  of  first  cousins  was  common,  but 
— what  is  much  more  surprising — that  the  marriage 
with  a  father's  widow  was  so  likewise.  Nor  can 
we  doubt  this,  when  we  not  only  find  recorded 
cases  of  its  occurrence,  but  when  we  have  a  Teu- 
tonic king  distinctly  affirming  it  to  be  the  legal 
custom  of  his  people  :  in  the  sixth  century  Er- 
mengisl  king  of  the  Varni  can  say,  "Let  Radiger 
my  son  marry  his  step-mother,  even  as  our  national 
custom  permits l ; "  and  therefore  when  we  find 
Beda  speaking  of  a  similar  marriage,  and  declaring 
Eadbald  to  have  been  "  fornicatione  pollutus  tali 
qualem  nee  inter  gentes  auditam  Apostolus  testatur, 

in  some  detail,  and  especially  says  :  "  Quod  autem  scripsi  Augustino, 
Anglorum  gentis  episcopo,  alumno  videlicet,  ut  recordaris,  tuo,  de  con- 
sanguiuitatis  coniunctione,  ipsi  et  Anglorum  genti,  quae  nuper  ad  fidem 
venerat,  ne  a  bono  quod  cOeperat  metuendo  austeriora  recederet,  speci- 
aliter  et  non  generaliter  caeteris  me  scripsisse  cognoscas."  Bed.  Op.  Min. 
ii.  242.  The  following  are  the  directions  referred  to  : — "  Quinta  inter- 
rogatio  Augustini.  Usque  ad  quotam  generationem  fideles  debeant 
cum  propinquis  sibi  coniugio  copulari  ?  et  novercis  et  cognatis  si  liceat 
copulari  coniugio  ?  Respondit  Gregorius.  Quaedam  terrena  lex  in 
Romana  republica  permittit  ut,  sive  frater  et  soror,  seu  duorum  fratrum 
germanorum,  vel  duarum  sororum  filius  et  filia  misceantur ;  sed  ex- 
perimento  didicimus  ex  tali  coniugio  sobolem  non  posse  succrescere,  et 
Sacra  Lex  prohibet  cognationis  turpitudinem  revelare.  Unde  necesse 
est  ut  iam  tertia  vel  quarta  generatio  fidelium  licenter  sibi  iungi  debeat ; 
nam  secunda,  quam  praediximus,  a  se  onini  modo  debet  abstinere. 
Cum  noverca  autem  miscere  grave  est  facinus,  quia  et  in  Lege  scrip- 
turn  est,  '  Turpitudinem  patris  tui  non  revelabis  ' Quia  vero  sunt 

multi  in  Anglorum  gente  qui,  dum  adhuc  in  infidelitate  essent,  huic 
nefando  coniugio  dicuntur  admixti,  ad  fidem  venientes  admonendi  sunt 
ut  se  abstineant  et  grave  hoc  esse  peccatum  cognoscant."  The  corre- 
spondence with  Felix  apparently  refers  to  further  regulations  on  the 
subject  which  are  no  longer  found  in  the  copies  of  Gregory's  answers 
to  Augustine. 

1  'PaSi'yep  de  6  rrals  £vvoiKi£f<rda>  TTJ  ^rpvia  TO  \OLTTOV  rfj  avrov,  Ka- 
Qdnep  6  ndrpios  r)p.lv  efpirjcri  i/o/ios.     Pl'OCOp.  Bel.  Got.  IV.  20. 


408  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

ita  ut  uxorem  patris  haberet1,"  or  Asser  on  another 
such  occasion  saying  that  it  was  "  contra  Dei  inter- 
dictum,  et  Christianorum  dignitatem,  nee  non  et 
contra  omnium  Paganorum  consuetudinem,"  we 
can  only  suppose  that  they  either  did  not  know,  or 
that  they  deemed  it  advisable  not  to  recognise,  the 
ancient  heathen  practice. 

In  both  the  cases  referred  to,  the  obvious  scandal 
was  put  a  stop  to  by  the  separation  of  the  parties2,— 
Eadbald  being  evidently  led  to  this  step  by  super- 
stitious fears,  rather  than  submitting  to  an  episco- 
pal authority  exercised  by  Laurentius.  It  is  cer- 
tainly strange  in  the  case  of  ^Eftelbald,  if  there 
really  were  a  separation,  that  we  hear  nothing  of 
the  interference  of  the  Church  to  produce  so  im- 
portant an  event. 

1  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  5.  The  words  of  St.  Paul,  here  referred  to,  are  in 
1  Cor.  v.  1.  Asser,  Vit.  ^Elf.  858.  The  very  words  of  Beda  himself 
seem  to  prove  that  Eadbald's  marriage  was  closely  connected  with 
heathendom, — perhaps  was  intended  to  be  a  public  profession  of  it. 
He  says  that  the  king,  being  terrified  by  Laurentius's  account  of  a  mi- 
raculous vision  he  had  had,  "  anathematizato  omni  idolatriae  cultu, 
abdicate  connubio  non  legitimo,  suscepit  fidem  Christi,  et  baptizatus 
aecclesiae  rebus  quantum  valuit,  in  omnibus  consulere  et  favere  cura- 
vit."  Hist.  Eccl.  ii.  6.  In  fact  the  politics  of  that  day  seem  generally 
to  have  consisted  in  the  apostasy  of  a  converted  king's  successor.  The 
heathen  priests  could  hardly  be  expected  to  yield  quite  without  a 
struggle.  The  cases  are  curious  enough  to  merit  a  detailed  record. 
What  the  age  of  .^tfelberht's  second  wife  may  have  been  is  unknown 
to  us ;  but  there  is  some  probability  that  ^Eftelwulf  s  marriage  was 
never  really  consummated,  that  it  was  never  a  marriage  at  all.  Judith 
can  hardly  have  been  more  than  twelve  when  ^E'Selwulf  married  her, 
and  within  two  years  he  died. 

a  Eadbald's  divorce  is  recorded,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Beda.  ^E'Sel- 
bald's  rests  on  much  less  sure  authority, — that  only  of  Matthew 
"Westminster,  and  Rudborne,  Annal.  Winton.  Judith,  after  her  return 
to  France,  eloped  with  Baldwin  of  Flanders,  to  whom  she  bore  Matilda, 
William  the  Conqueror's  wife.  See  Warnkonig,  Hist.  Fland.  i.  144. 


CH.  VHI.]  THE  BISHOP.  409 

We  learn  that  by  degrees  the  time  arrived  at 
which  the  clergy  thought  themselves  strong  enough 
to  insist  upon  a  stricter  observance  of  the  canonical 
prohibitions,  and  various  instances  are  on  record 
where  their  intervention  is  mentioned,  to  separate 
persons  too  nearly  connected  by  blood.     It  is  pro- 
bable that  many  more  of  these  are  intended  than 
we   actually   know ;    for   unhappily   the   monkish 
writers  are   over-fond  of  using  strong  expressions 
both  of  praise  and  blame,  and  not  rarely  fling  pellex 
scortum  and  concubina  at  the  heads  of  women  who 
were   for  all   that,  legally    speaking,  very  honest 
wives.     One  celebrated  case  has  obtained  a  world- 
wide reputation, — that  of  Eadwig,   the  details  of 
whose  unhappy  fate  will  probably  for  ever  remain 
a  mystery.     Political  calculations,  and  unreconciled 
national  jealousies  were  in  all  probability  the  main- 
springs  of  the    events  of  his  troublous  life ;  but 
that  which  lends  it  all  its  romance — his  separation 
from  ^Elfgyfu — was  the  act  of  a  prelate  determined 
upon  upholding  the  ecclesiastical  law  of  marriage. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  do  not  know  the  exact 
degree  of  relationship  between  the  royal  victims. 
It  may  have  been  too  close,  in   the   eyes    of  the 
stricter  clergy ;  yet  we  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  long  acquiesced  in  by  the  English 
nobles  ;  nor,  had  Eadwig  shown  himself  more  pliant 
to  the  pretensions  of  Dunstan,  might  we  ever  have 
heard    of  it  at  all.     History,  deprived   of  all  its 
materials,  will  here  fail  to  do  even  late  justice  to 
the  sufferers ;  but  it  will  not  fail  to  stamp  with  its 
enduring  brand  the  brutal  conduct  of  their  persecu- 


410 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


tors1.     However  conscientious  may  have  been  the 
intentions  of  archbishop  Oda,  it  is  to  be  lamented 


'  There  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  ^Elfgyfu  was  Eadwig's 
wife,  or  that  she  was  separated  from  him  on  the  ground  of  too  near 
consanguinity.  The  charter,  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1201,  which  is  in  every 
respect  an  authentic  document,  mentions  her  as  "  ^Elfgyfu,  ftsea  cynges 
wif,"  the  king's  wife  ;  and  this,  in  addition  to  herself,  was  witnessed  by 
her  mother  vE'Selgyfu,  by  four  bishops,  and  by  three  principal  noblemen 
of  the  court.  If  that  charter  be  not  genuine,  there  is  not  one  genuine 
in  the  whole  Codex  Diplomaticus,  and  I  cannot  see  the  shadow  of  a  rea- 
son to  question  it,  as  Lingard  has  done.  The  reader  will  probably  be 
glad  to  see  it,  as  it  occurs  in  two  manuscripts,  the  Cotton  MSS.  Claud. 
B.  vi.  fol.  54  and  C.  ix.  fol.  112,  one  copy  being  in  the  original  Saxon, 
the  other  a  statement  in  Latin  drawn  up  from  it. 

"  Dis  is  seo  gersednes  8e  Byrht-  "  This  is  the  agreement  that  bi- 
elm  biscop  and  ^Eftelwold  abbud  shop  Byrhthelm  and  abbot  ^E$el- 

wold  made  about  their  exchange 
of  lands:  that  is  then,  that  the 
bishop  gave  the  hides  at  Kenning- 
ton  to  the  church  at  Abingdon 
for  an  eternal  inheritance;  and 
the  abbot  gave  the  bishop  the 
seventeen  hides  at  Crida's  bridge, 
for  ever  both  during  life  and  after 
life :  and  they  also  exchanged  every 
thing  upon  the  lands,  both  live 
stock  and  other,  as  they  agreed 
between  them.  And  this  was  by 
leave  of  king  Eadwig ;  and  these 
are  the  witnesses:  JElfgyfu  the 
king's  wife,  and  ^Eftelgyfu,  the 
king's  wife's  mother,  bishop  ^Elf- 
sige,  bishop  Oswulf,  bishop  Coen- 
wald,  Byrhtnoft  the  ealdorman, 
^Elf  heah  the  king's  dapifer,  Eadric 
his  brother." 

The  Latin  abstract  of  this  important  document  is  as  follows : — "  Do- 
minus  autem  abbas  ^Eflelwoldus  commutationem  eiusdem  terrae,  id  est 
Cenintun,  concedente  eodem  rege,  egit  apud  Brihtelnmm  episcopum. 
In  cuius  vicissitudine  ipse  episcopus  accepit  illam  villam  quae  appellatur 
Crydanbricge.  Testes  autem  fuerunt  huius  commutationis  ^Elfgifa  regis 
uxor,  et  JEftelgifa  mater  eius,  -^Elfsige  episcopus,  Osulfus  episcopus, 
Kenwald  episcopus,  et  multi  alii."  The  date  of  this  document  is  956, 


hsefdon  ymbe  hira  landgehwerf: 
ftaet  is  ftonne  "Se  se  biscop  gesealde 
fta  hida  set  Cenintune  into  Ssere 
cyricean  set  Abbendune  to  ecan 
yrfe  ;  and  se  abbud  gesealde  t>set 
seofontyne  hyda  set  Crydanbricge 
San  biscope  to  ecnesse,  ge  on  life 
ge  aefter  life;  and  hi  eac  ealra 
binga  gehwyrfdon  ge  on  cwican 
ceape  ge  on  oiSrum,  swa  swa  hi 
betwihs  him  geraaddon.  And  Sis 
waes  Eadwiges  leaf  cyninges  j  and 
ftis  syndon  $a  gewitnessa. 
gifu  ftses  cininges  wif,  and 
gyfu,  ftaes  cyninges  wifes  modur, 
^Elfsige  biscop,  Osulf  biscop, 
Coenwald  biscop,  Byrhtno'S  eal- 
dorman, .ZElf heah  cyninges  disc- 
J>egn,  Eadric  his  brodur." 


CH.  vm.J  THE  BISHOP.  411 

that  a  stain  of  barbarous  cruelty  attaches  to  his 
memory,  for  the  part  he  took  in  this  transaction.  If 

in  which  year  Eadwig  came  to  the  throne,  and  therefore  certainly  sub- 
sequent to  the  coronation,  the  celebrated  scene  of  Diinstan's  insolence. 
The  prelates  and  nobles  present  were  JElfsige  bishop  of  Winchester, 
Oswulf  bishop  of  Ramsbury,  Cenwald  bishop  of  Worcester,  Byrhthelm 
bishop  of  London,  ^Eftelwald  then  abbot  of  Abingdon  and  afterwards 
the  celebrated  bishop  of  Winchester — the  Father  of  the  Monks,  as  he 
was  called  j  Byrhtnoft  the  ealdorman  an  equally  decided  patron  of  the 
monastic  order ;  ./Elf  heah  no  less  a  man  than  the  dapifer  regis,  or  se- 
neschal of  Eadwig's  house.  This  then  was  not  a  thing  done  in  a  corner, 
and  the  testimony  is  conclusive  that  ^Elfgyfu  was  Eadwig's  queen.  It 
is  also  beyond  doubt  that,  in  the  year  958,  Oda  separated  Eadwig  from 
his  wife  on  the  ground  of  their  being  too  nearly  related :  one  of  the 
MSS.  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  Gays  clearly,  "Her  on  ftissum  geare  Oda 
arcebiscop  totwsemde  Eadwi  cyning  and  /Elfgyfe,  for'Sam  fte  hi  weeron  to 
gesybbe."  Chron.  Sax.  an.  958.  And  Florence  of  Worcester,  drawing 
from  an  independent  authority,  but  evidently  confused  by  the  slanderous 
tales  which  had  been  spread  of  Eadwig,  confirms  the  Chronicle,  say- 
ing : — "  Sanctus  Odo  Doruberniae  archiepiscopus  regem  Westsaxonum 
Eadwiuin  et  JElfgivam,  vel  quia,  ut  fertur,  propinqua  illius  extitit,  vel 
quia  illam  sub  propria  uxore  adamavit,  ab  invicem.  separavit."  Flor. 
Wig.  an.  958.  William  of  Malmesbury  speaks  of  her  as  "uxor,  proximo 
cognata  "  (Gest.  Reg.  §  147,  i.  223),  but  soon  after  calls  her  ganea  and 
pellex  in  choice  monkish  style.  Wendover  and  Paris  are  even  more 
insolent  in  their  phraseology,  but  still  there  is  the  unlucky  admission  of 
a  marriage : — "  Huic  [sc.  Eadwig]  quaedam  mulier  inepta,  licet  natione 
praecelsa  [certainly  very  high  birth  indeed  if  ^Elfgyfu  was  too  near  a  rela- 
tive of  the  king]  cum  adulta  filia  per  nefandum  familiaritatis  lenocinium 
adhaerebat,  ut  sese  vel  filiam  suam  sub  coniugali  titulo  sociaret." 
Wendov.  i.  404.  They  go  on  to  insinuate  that  there  was  an  improper 
familiarity  between  the  king  and  both  the  women.  With  this  I  am 
not  at  all  concerned  :  Eadwig  may  have  been  a  disorderly  young  prince, 
as  there  have  been  other  disorderly  young  princes, — as  his  much- 
belauded  brother  Eadgar  was  in  the  highest  degree.  The  ladies  mayb&VQ 
been  more  than  commonly  depraved.  But  it  may  be  observed  that  our 
general  experience  is  not  in  favour  of  a  wife's  permitting  her  husband 
to  be  guilty  of  lascivious  conduct  towards  another  woman  in  her  pre- 
sence, or  of  a  married  daughter's  conniving  at  her  husband's  irregulari- 
ties with  her  own  mother.  Not  a  word  have  we  of  this  disgusting  in- 
sinuation in  the  Chronicle,  or  Florence, — himself  a  monk, — or  ^Ettel- 
weard,  or  Huntingdon  :  and  the  two  latter  speak  of  Eadwig  in  terms 
very  far  removed  from  those  in  which  the  adherents  of  Diinstan's  cause 


412  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

he  found  it  inevitable,  after  two  years  of  wedded  life 
further  to  humiliate  his  already  humbled  sovereign, 
by  insisting  upon  the  removal  of  his  young  con- 
sort, it  was  not  necessary  to  disfigure  her  with  hot 
searing-irons,  or  on  her  return  from  exile  to  put 
her  to  a  cruel  death.  The  asceticism  of  the  savage 
churchman  seems  here  to  have  been  embittered  by 
even  less  worthy  considerations. 

The  history  of  mediaeval  Europe  shows  with  what 
awful  effect  this  tremendous  power  was  wielded  by 
unscrupulous  popes  and  prelates,  whenever  it  suited 
their  purposes  not  to  connive  at  marriages  which, 
according  to  their  teaching,  were  incestuous.  But 
amidst  the  striking  cases  on  record — the  cases  of 
kings  and  nobles — we  look  in  vain  for  a  true  mea- 
sure of  the  misery  which  these  prohibitions  must 
have  entailed  upon  the  humbler  members  of  society, 
who  possessed  neither  the  influence  to  compel  nor 
the  wealth  to  purchase  dispensations  from  an  arbi- 
trary and  oppressive  rule.  The  sense  and  feeling 
of  mankind  at  once  revolt  against  restrictions  for 
which  neither  the  law  of  God,  nor  the  dictates  of 
nature  supply  excuse,  and  which  resting  upon  a 

have  chosen  to  characterize  him : — "  Quin  successor  ems  Eaduuig  in 
regnum,  qui  et,  prae  nimia  etenim  pulchritudine,  Pancali  sortitus  est 
nomen  a  vulgo  secundi.  Tenuit  namque  quadriennio  per  regnum 
amandus."  ^ESelw.  Chronic,  iv.  8.  "  Rex  autem  praedictus  Edwi  non 
illaudabiliter  regni  infulam  tenuit.  Edwi  rex  anno  regni  sui  quinto 
cum  in  principio  regni  eius  decentissime  floruerit,  prospera  et  laetabunda 
exordia  mors  immatura  perrupit."  Hen.  Hunt.  lib.  v.  We  must  be 
excused  for  preferring  this  sort  of  record  to  the  interested  exaggera- 
tions of  such  biographers  as  Bridfer'S,  whom  the  remainder  of  his 
work  proves  to  have  been  either  a  very  weak  and  credulous  person 
or  a  very  great  rogue,  or — as  not  unfrequently  happens — perhaps  both 
at  once.  , 


CH.  VIIL]  THE  BISHOP.  413 

complicated  calculation  of  affinity,  were  often  the 
means  of  betraying  the  innocent  and  ignorant  into 
a  condition  of  endless  wretchedness.  But  they 
were  invaluable  engines  of  extortion,  and  instru- 
ments of  malice  ;  they  led  to  the  intervention  of 
the  priest  with  the  family,  in  the  most  intolerable 
form ;  they  furnished  weapons  which  could  be  used 
with  almost  irresistible  effect  against  those  whom  no- 
thing could  reach  but  the  tears  perhaps  and  broken 
heart  of  a  beloved  companion.  And  therefore  they 
were  steadily  upheld  till  the  great  day  of  retribu- 
tion came,  which  involved  so  many  traditions  of 
superstition  and  error,  so  many  engines  of  oppres- 
sion and  fraud,  in  one  common  and  undistinguish- 
ing  ruin :  ra  irplv  $e  7T€\Mpia  vvv  aiGTol — things 
mighty  indeed  have  perished  away  from  the  world ; 
but  thrice  blessed  was  the  day  which  left  us  free 
and  unshackled  to  pursue  the  noblest  and  purest 
impulses  of  our  human  nature. 


414 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS. 

THE  almost  total  absence  of  documentary  evidence 
leaves  us  in  great  doubt  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
church  in  England  previous  to  the  organization 
brought  about  by  Theodore.  It  is  nevertheless  pro- 
bable that  it  followed  in  all  essential  points  the 
course  which  characterized  other  missionary  esta- 
blishments. The  earliest  missionaries  were  for  the 
most  part  monks  ;  but  Augustine  was  accompanied 
by  clerics  also1,  and  in  every  case  >  the  .„  conversion 
of  a  district  was  rapidly  followed  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  cathedral  or  a  corresponding  ecclesias- 
tical Jfounjiatioji--,  These  were  at  first  central  sta- 


tions, from  which  the  assembled  clergy  sallied  forth 
to  visit  the  neighbouring  villages  and  towns,  and- 
preach  the  tidings  of  salvation  :  the  necessities  of 
daily  provision,  the  attainment  of  greater  security- 

1  "  Clerici  extra  sacros  ordines  constituti."  Beda,  H.  E.  i.  27.  Gre- 
gory contemplated  the  marriage  and  separate  dwelling  of  these  persons. 
But  for  a  long  time  it  is  improbable  that  any  such  arrangement  could 
take  place.  Augustine  separated  his  monks  from  the  canons  who  had 
accompanied  him  (the  presbyters  he  was  to  obtain  in  the  neighbouring 
countries  of  Gaul  :  see  Gregory's  Epistles  to  Theodoric  and  Theodbert, 
and  to  Brunhild  ;  Bed.  Op.  Min.  ii.  234,  235),  placing  the  latter  in 
Ohristchurch,  Canterbury.  See  Lingard,  Ang.  Sax.  Church,  i.  152,  153. 
But  this  sort  of  separation  cannot  have  been  always  practicable.  The 
Scottish  missionaries  were  not  all  monks.  Beda,  H.  E.  iii.  3. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  415 

for  their  persons,  the  mutual  aid  and  consolation 
in  the  perils  and  difficulties  of  their  task,  all  sup- 
plied motives  in  favour  of  a  ccenobitical  mode  of 
life :  monks  and  clerics  were  confounded  together 
through  the  circumstances  of  the  adventure  in 
which  they  shared ;  nay  the  very  administration  of 
those  rites  by  which  the  imagination  of  the  heathen 
Saxons  was  so  strongly  worked  upon,  could  only 
be  conducted  on  a  sufficiently  imposing  scale  by  an 
assemblage  of  ecclesiastics.  To  this  must  be  added 
the  protection  to  be  derived  from  settling  on  one 
spot,  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  a  royal 
vill,  and  under  the  safeguard  of  the  royal  power : 
for  though  the  residences  of  kings  were  rarely  in 
cities,  yet  their  proximity  offered  much  more  se- 
cure guarantees  than  the  outlying  villages  and 
clearings  in  the  mark;  even  as  the  general  ten- 
dencies of  courtly  life  were  likely  to  present  fewer 
points  of  opposition  than  the  characteristic  bigotry 
of  heathen,  i.  e.  rural  populations.  This  combina- 
tion of  circumstances  probably  led  at  an  early  pe- 
riod to  that  approximation  between  the  modes  of 
life  of  monks  and  clerks,  which  at  the  close  of  the 
eighth  century  Chrodogang  succeeded  in  enforcing 
in  his  archbishopric  of  Metz,  but  which  had  been 
attempted  four  centuries  earlier  by  Eusebius  of 
Vercelli1.  Both  the  Roman  and  Scottish  mission- 

1  Neander,  Gesch.  der  Relig.  u.  Kirche,  i.  322  j  ii.  553.  Lingard, 
Aug.  Sax.  Church,  i.  150.  Chrodogang's  institution  is  thus  described 
by  Paulus  in  his  Gest.  Episc.  Mettens.  "  Hie  clerum  adunavit,  et  ad 
instar  coenobii  intra  claustrorum  septa  conversari  fecit,  norniamque  eis 
instituit,  qualiter  in  ecclesia  mill  tare  deberent  j  quibus  annonas  vitae- 
que  subsidia  sufficienter  largitus  eat,  ut  perituris  vacare  negotiis  non 


416  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

aries  followed  the  same  plan,  which  indeed  appears 
to  be  the  natural  one,  and  to  have  been  generally 
adopted  on  all  similar  occasions,  whether  in  ancient 
Germany,  in  Peru  or  in  the  most  modern  mis- 
sions of  Australia  or  New  Zealand.  In  Beda's  Ec- 
clesiastical History,  which  in  these  respects  no 
doubt  was  founded  upon  ancient  and  contemporary 
records,  we  frequently  read  of  prelates  leaving  their 
monasteries  (by  which  general  name  churches  as 
well  as  collections  of  monks  are  designated)  to 
preach  the  Gospel  and  administer  the  rite  of  bap- 
tism in  distant  villages1.  But  this  system  had  also 

indigentes,  divinis  solummodo  officiis  excubarent."  Pertz,  ii.  268. 
Chrodogang's  rule  is  preserved  in  Labbe,  Concil.  vii.  1444.  Harduin, 
Concil.iv.  1181.  See  Eichhorn,  Deut.  Staatsr.  i.  760,  §  179.  It  is  in 
many  respects  similar  to  the  rule  of  Benedict  of  Nursia,  upon  which  it 
appears  to  have  been  modelled. 

1  "  Quadam  autem  die  dum  parochiam  suam  circuiens,  monita  salu- 
tis  omnibus  ruribus,  casis  et  viculis  largiretur,  nee  non  etiam  nuper 
baptizatis  ad  accipiendam  Spiritus  sancti  gratiam  manurn  imponeret," 
etc.  Beda,  Vit.  Cuthb.  c.  29.  This  however  is  perhaps  rather  to  be 
considered  as  an  episcopal  visitation.  But  there  is  abundant  evidence 
that  at  first  the  custom  was  such  as  the  text  describes.  It  is  said  thus 
of  Aidan,  the  Scottish  bishop  in  Northumberland :  "  Erat  in  villa  regia 
non  longe  ab  urbe  de  qua  praefati  sumus  [i.  e.  Bamborough].  In  hac 
enim  habens  aecclesiam  et  cubiculum,  saepius  ibidem  diverti  ac  manere, 
atque  inde  ad  praedicandum  circumquaque  exire  consueverat :  quod 
ipsum  et  in  aliis  villis  regis  facere  solebat,  utpote  nil  propriae  posses- 
sionis,  excepta  aecclesia  sua  et  adiacentibus  agellulis,  habens."  Beda, 
H.  E.  iii.  17.  This  was  a  small  wooden  church,  and  certainly  never  a 
cathedral.  But  the  early  custom  of  the  Scottish  church  in  Northum- 
berland is  further  described  by  Beda  :  and  one  can  only  lament  that  it 
was  not  much  longer  maintained :  for  his  own  words  show  that  he  is 
contrasting  it  with  the  custom  of  his  own  times,  nearly  a  century  later ; 
he  savs :  "  Quantae  autem  parsimoniae,  cuiusque  continentiae  fuerit 
ipse^^^.  Colman]  cum  praedecessoribus  suis,  testabatur  etiam  locus 
ille  quern  regebant,  ubi  abeuntibus  eis,  excepta  aecclesia,  paucissimae 
domus  repertae  sunt ;  hoc  est,  illae  solummodo,  sine  quibus  conversatio 
civilis  esse  nullatenus  poterat.  Nil  pecuniarum  absque  pecoribus  ha- 


OH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  417 

inconveniences  of  no  slight  character ;  the  distance 
of  the  converts  from  the  church,  the  necessity  for 
daily  superintendence  and  continual  exhortation 
on  the  part  of  the  preacher,  the  very  danger  and 
fatigue  of  repeated  journeys  into  rude,  uncultivated 
parts  of  the  country,  must  have  soon  forced  upon 

bebant.  Si  quid  enirn  pecuniae  a  divitibus  accipiebant,  mox  pauperi- 
bus  dabant.  Nani  neque  ad  susceptionem  potentium  saeculi,  vel  pecu- 
nias  colligi  vel  domus  praevideri  necesse  fuit,  qui  nunquam  ad  aeccle- 
siam  nisi  orationis  tantum,  et  audiendi  verbi  Dei  causa  veniebant .... 
Tota  enim  fuit  tune  solicitude  doctoribus  illis  Deo  serviendi,  non  sae- 
culo ;  tota  cura  cordis  excolendi  non  ventris.  Unde  et  in  magna  erat 
veneratione  tempore  illo  religionis  habitus ;  ita  ut  ubicunque  clericus 
aliquis  aut  monachus  adveniret,  gaudentur  ab  omnibus  tanquam  Dei 
famulus  exciperetur  :  etiam  si  in  itinere  pergens  inveniretur,  adcurre- 
bant,  et  flexa  cervice  vel  manu  signari,  vel  ore  illius  se  benedici  gaude- 
bant ;  verbis  quoque  horum  exhortatoriis  diligenter  auditum  praebe- 
bant.  Set  et  diebus  Dominicis  ad  aecclesiam,  sive  ad  monasteria  cer- 
tatim,  non  reficiendi  corporis,  sed  audiendi  sermonis  Dei  gratia  con- 
fluebant :  et  si  quis  sacerdotum  in  vicum  forte  deveniret,  mox  congregati 
in  unum  vicani,  verbum  vitae  ab  illo  expetere  curabant.  Nam  neque  alia 
ipsis  sacerdotibus  aut  clericis  vicos  adeundi,  quam  praedicandi,  bapti- 
zandij  infirmos  visitandi,  et,  ut  breviter  dicam,  animas  curandi  causa 
fuit :  qui  in  tantum  erant  ab  omni  avaritiae  peste  castigati,  ut  nemo 
territoria  ac  possessiones  ad  construenda  monasteria,  nisi  a  potentibus 
saeculi  coactus  acciperet.  Quae  consuetudo  per  omnia  aliquanto  post 
haec  tempora  in  aecclesiis  Nordanhymbrorum  servata  est."  Bed.  H.  E. 
iii.  26.  Of  Ceadda  we  learn  that  after  his  consecration  as  bishop  of 
York,  he  was  accustomed,  "  oppida,  rura,  casas,  vicos,  castella,  propter 
evangelizandum,  non  equitando,  sed  apostolorum  more  pedibus  ince- 
dendo  peragrare."  Ibid.  iii.  21.  About  the  same  period  we  learn  from 
Beda,  that  Cuthbert  used  to  make  circuits  for  the  purpose  of  preach- 
ing :  "  Erat  quippe  mori.s  eo  tempore  populis  Angloruin,  ut  veniente  in 
villain  clerico  vel  presbytero,  cuncti  ad  eius  imperium  verbum  audituri 
confluerent."  Ibid.  iv.  27.  The  words  eo  tempore  also  show  that  in 
Beda's  time  this  custom  was  no  longer  observed,  which  is  naturally  ex- 
plained by  the  existence  of  parish-churches.  The  custom  of  itinerant 
preachers  in  the  west  of  England  is  also  noted  about  the  same  period, 
viz.  680.  "  Cum  vero  aliqui,  sicut  illis  regionibus  moris  est,  praesbyteri 
sive  clerici  populares  vel  laicos  praedicandi  causa  adiissent,  et  ad  villam 
domumque  praefati  patrisfamilias  venissent,"  etc.  Vit.  Bonifac.  Pertz, 
ii.  334. 

VOL.  If.  2  E 


418  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

the  clergy  the  necessity  of  providing  other  ma- 
chinery than  they  as  yet  possessed.  The  multipli 
cation  of  centres  of  instruction  was  the  first  and 
greatest  point  to  be  ensured;  whereby  a  more 
constant  intercourse  between  the  neophyte  and  the 
missionary  might  be  attained,  This  had  long  been 
secured  in  other  countries  by  the  appointment  of 
single  presbyters  to  reside  in  single  districts,  under 
the  general  direction  of  the  bishop  ;  or,  where 
circumstances  required  it,  by  the  settlement  of 
several  presbyters  under  an  archipresbyter  or  arch- 
priest,  who  was  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  his 
companions.  And  as  the  district  of  the  bishop 
himself  commonly  went  by  the  name  of  a  diocese 
or  parish,  both  these  terms  were  applied  to  denote 
the  smaller  circuit  within  which  the  presbyter  was 
expected  to  exert  himself  for  the  propagation  of  the 
faith,  and  the  due  performance  of  the  established 
rites,  and  to  perform  such  functions  as  had  been 
entrusted  to  the  ministers  of  the  faithful,  for  the 
better  management  of  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of 
the  congregation.  The  custom  of  the  neighbour- 
ing countries  of  Gaul  oifered  sufficient  evidence  of 
the  practicability  of  such  an  arrangement,  which 
had  long  been  in  use  in  older  established  churches : 
we  may  therefore  readily  suppose  that  so  beneficial 
a  system  would  be  adopted  with  all  convenient 
speed  in  England.  As  long  as  the  possessions  of 
the  clergy  were  confined  to  a  small  plot  whereon 
their  church  was  built,  and  while  they  depended 
for  support  upon  the  contributions  in  kind  which 
the  rude  piety  of  their  new  converts  bestowed,  the 


CH.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS,         419 

bishops  could  naturally  not  proceed  to  plant  these 
clerical  colonies  of  their  own  authority:  though, 
as  soon  as  they  became  masters  of  vills  and  manors 
and  estates  of  their  own,  they  probably  adopted  the 
plan  of  sending  single  presbyters  into  them,  partly 
to  discharge  the  clerical  duties  of  their  station, 
partly  to  act  as  stewards,  administrators  or  bailiffs 
of  the  property,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  paid 
over  to  the  episcopal  church,  and  laid  out  at  the 
discretion  of  the  bishop l.  But  the  zeal  of  the 
people  could  here  assist  the  benevolent  objects  of 
the  clergy.  The  inconvenience  of  having  a  distance 
to  traverse  in  order  to  attend  the  ministrations  of 
religion,  the  desire  to  aid  in  the  meritorious  work 
of  the  conversion,  the  earnest  hope  to  establish  a 
peculiar  claim  upon  the  favour  of  Heaven,  nay 
perhaps  even  the  less  worthy  motives  of  vanity  and 
ambition,  disposed  the  landowner  to  raise  a  church 
upon  his  own  estate  for  the  use  of  himself  and  his 
surrounding  tenants  or  friends.  From  a  very  early 
period  this  disposition  was  cultivated  and  encou- 

1  If  a  bishop  found  it  convenient  to  build  a  church  out  of  his  own 
diocese,  the  ecclesiastical  authority  remained  to  the  bishop  in  whose 
diocese  it  was  built.  "  Si  quis  episcopus  in  alienae  civitatis  territorio 
aecclesiam  aedificare  disponit,  vel  pro  agri  sui  aut  aecclesiastici  utili- 
tate,  vel  quacunque  sui  opportunitate,  permissa  licentia,  quia  prohiberi 
hoc  voturn  nefas  est,  non  praesumat  dedicationem,  quae  illi  oninimodis 
reservanda  est  in  cu  ins  territorio  aecclesia  assurgit  j  reservata  aedifica- 
tori  episcopo  hac  gratia,  ut  quos  desiderat  clericos  in  re  sua  videre, 
ipsos  ordinet  is  cuius  territorium  est  j  vel  si  iam  ordinati  sunt,  ipsos 
habere  acquiescat :  et  omnis  aecclesiae  ipsius  gubernatio  ad  eum,  in 
cuius  civitatis  territorio  aecclesia  surrexit,  pertinebit.  Et  si  quid  ipsi 
aecclesiae  fuerit  ab  episcopo  conditore  conlatum,  is  in  cuius  territorio 
est,  auferendi  exinde  aliquid  non  habeat  potestatem.  Hoc  solum  aedi- 
ficatori  episcopo  credidimus  reservandum."  Concil.  Arelat.  iii.  cap. 
xxxvi.  A.D.  452. 

2  E2 


420  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

raged ;  and  the  bishops  relinquished  the  patronage 
of  the  church  to  the  founder,  reserving  of  course 
to  themselves  the  canonical  subjection  and  conse- 
cration of  the  presbyter  who  was  ordained  to  the 
title.  During  the  seventh  century  this  had  become 
common  in  the  Frankish  empire,  and  Theodore  fol- 
lowed, or  introduced,  the  same  rule  in  this  coun- 
try 1.  Whether  under  this  influence  or  not,  we  find 
churches  to  have  so  arisen  during  his  government 
of  the  English  sees,  whose  sole  archbishop  he  was. 
Beda  incidentally  mentions  the  dedication  by  John 
of  Beverley  of  churches,  for  Puch  and  Addi,  two 
Northumbrian  noblemen,  and  these  were  no  doubt 

1  Elmham  says  of  Theodore: — "Hie  excitavit  fidelium  voluntatem,  ut 
in  civitatibus  et  villis  aecclesias  fabricarentur,  parochias  distinguerent, 
et  assensus  regios  his  procuravit,  ut  siqui  sufficientes  essent,  super  pro- 
prium  fundum  constrnere  aecclesias,  eorundem  perpetuo  patronatu 
gauderent ;  si  inter  limites  alterius  alicuius  dominii  aecclesias  facerent, 
eiusdem  fundi  domini  notarentur  pro  patronis."  Such  churches  had 
nevertheless  at  first  not  the  full  privileges  of  parish-churches.  The 
twenty-first  canon  of  the  Council  of  Agda  decreed :  "Si  quis  etiam  extra 
parochias,  in  quibus  est  legitimus  ordinariusque  conventus,  oratorium 
in  agro  habere  voluerit,  reliquis  festivitatibus,  ut  ibi  missas  teneat, 
propter  fatigationem  familiae,  iusta  ordinatione  permittimus.  Pascha 
vero,  Natale  Domini,  Epiphania,  Ascensionem  Domini,  Pentecosten,  et 
Natalem  sancti  Johannis  Baptistae,  vel  si  qui  maximi  dies  in  festivita- 
tibus  habentur,  non  nisi  in  civitatibus,  aut  in  parochiis  teneant.  Clerici 
vero,  si  qui  in  festivitatibus  quas  supradiximus,  in  oratoriis,  nisi  iubeute 
aut  permittente  episcopo,  missas  facere  aut  tenere  voluerint,  a  com- 
munione  pellantur." — Concil.  Agathense,  A.D.  506.  cap.  xxi.  That 
there  were  at  this  period  parish-churches  in  Gaul,  served  by  a  single 
presbyter,  appears  from  other  decisions  usually  attributed  to  this  coun- 
cil, but  really  published  by  the  Council  of  Albon,  held  eleven  years 
later.  They  are  in  fact  not  found  in  the  three  oldest  MSS.  of  the  Con- 
cilium Agathense.  "  Diacones  vel  presbyteri  in  parochia  constituti  de 
rebus  aecclesiae  sibi  creditis  nihil  audeant  commutare,  vendere  vel  do- 
nare,  quia  res  sacratae  Deo  esse  noscuntur.  . .  .Quicquid  parochiarum 
presbyter  de  aecclesiastici  iuris  proprietate  distraxerit,  inane  habeatur. 
P  resbyter,  dum  diocesira  tenet,  de  his  quae  emerit  ad  aecclesiae  nomen 


CH.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         421 

private  foundations  l.  We  still  possess  various  re- 
gulations of  Theodore,  and  of  nearly  contemporary 
prelates,  which  refer  to  such  separate  churches, 
proving  how  very  general  they  had  become,  and 
how  strictly  they  required  to  be  guarded  against  the 
avarice  or  other  unworthy  motives  of  the  founders, 
and  the  simoniacal  practices  both  of  priest  and  lay- 
man. In  the  thirty-eighth  chapter  of  his  Capitula2 
we  find  the  following  directions: — "Any  presbyter 
who  shall  have  obtained  a  parish  by  means  of  a 
price,  is  absolutely  to  be  deposed,  seeing  that  he  is 
known  to  hold  it  contrary  to  the  discipline  of 
ecclesiastical  rule.  And  likewise,  he  who  shall  by 
means  of  money  have  expelled  a  presbyter  lawfully 
ordained  to  a  church,  and  so  have  obtained  it 
entirely  for  himself;  which  vice,  so  widely  diffused, 
is  to  be  remedied  with  the  utmost  zeal.  Also  it  is 
to  be  forbidden  both  to  clerks  and  laics,  that  no 
one  shall  presume  to  give  any  church  whatever  to 

scripturam  faciat,  aut  ab  eius  quam  tenuit  aecclesiae  ordinatione  dis- 
cedat."  Concil.  Epaonense.  A.D.  517,  As  late  as  the  time  of  Eadgar  a 
regulation  was  made  in  England  as  to  the  payment  of  tithe  by  a  land- 
owner who  happened  to  have  a  church  with  a  churchyard  upon  his 
estate.  "  If  there  be  any  thane  who  has  a  church  with  a  churchyard 
upon  his  bookland,  let  him  give  the  third  part  of  his  tithe  to  his  church. 
But  if  any  one  have  a  church  that  has  no  churchyard,  let  him  give  his 
priest  what  he  will  out  of  the  nine  parts/' — that  is  out  of  what  remains 
after  the  payment  of  his  tithe  to  the  cathedral  church.  Eadg.  i.  §  2. 
Thorpe,  i.  262.  Probably  there  were  many  such  churches  in  existence, 
which  had  descended  together  with  the  estates  from  the  first  founders, 
and  whose  owners  could  not  agree  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  as 
to  their  liabilities.  The  right  of  patronage  was  abused  unfortunately  at 
a  very  early  period,  both  by  clerics  and  laymen,  as  we  learn  abundantly 
from  the  decrees  of  the  several  provincial  councils. 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.v.  4,  5. 

2  Thorpe,  ii.  73.    Kunstmann,  Poenit.  p.  121. 


422 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


a  presbyter,  without  the  licence  and  consent  of  the 
bishop."  These  churches  frequently  were  granted 
to  abbeys  or  to  the  bishops  themselves  ;  and  in  the 
latter  case  they  were  served  by  priests  especially 
appointed  thereunto  from  the  cathedral 1.  At  this 
early  period  when  tithes  were  not  demandable  as 
matter  of  right,  and  when  the  founders  of  these 
churches  were  already  betraying  a  tendency  to  spe- 
culate in  church-building,  by  claiming  for  them- 
selves the  altare  or  produce  of  the  voluntary  obla- 
tions of  the  faithful,  the  bishops  found  it  necessary 
to  insist  that  every  church  should  be  endowed  with 
a  sufficient  glebe  or  estate  in  land:  the  amount 
fixed  was  one  hide,  equivalent  to  the  estate  of  a 
single  family,  which,  properly  managed,  would 
support  the  presbyter  and  his  attendant  clerks. 
Archbishop  Ecgberht  rules  2 :  "  Ut  unicuique  aec- 
clesiae  vel  una  mansa  Integra  absque  alio  servitio 
attribuatur,  et  presbyteri  in  eis  constituti  non  de 
decimis  neque  de  oblationibus  fideliuin  nee  de  do- 
mibus,  neque  de  atriis  vel  hortis  iuxta  aecclesiam 
positis,  neque  de  praescripta  mansa,  aliquod  servi- 
tium  faciant,  praeter  aecclesiasticum :  et  si  aliquod 
amplius  habuerint,  inde  senioribus  suis,  secundum 
patriae  morem,  debitum  servitium  impendant." 
And  this  regulation,  though  probably  already  esta- 

1  As  early  as  587, 1  find  a  grant  of  a  parish- church  to  the  monastery 
of  St.  Peter  at  Lyons,  by  Gerart  and  his  wife  Gimbergia,  on  the  ground 
of  their  daughter  being  professed  there  :  "  propterea  cedimus  et  dona- 

mus  nos  vobis  aliquid  de  rebus  propriis  iuris  nostri hoc  est  ecclesia 

de  Darnas  cum  decimis  et  parochia."    Brequigny,  Dipl.  Chartar.  i.  83. 
Brequigny,  Mabillon,  and  the  editors  of  the  Gallia  Nova  Christiana, 
all  concur  in  recognising  the  genuineness  of  this  charter. 

2  Excerpt.  Ecgberhti,  §  26.  Thorpe,  ii.  100. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  423 

blished  by  custom,  obtained  the  force  of  law  in  the 
Prankish  empire,  by  a  constitution  of  Hludwich 
in  816  1.  This  glebe-land  the  bishop  seems  not  to 
have  been  able  to  interfere  with,  so  as  to  alienate 
it  from  the  particular  church,  in  favour  of  another, 
even  when  both  churches  were  within  his  own  sub- 
jection2. 

But  although  many  churches  may  have  arisen  in 
this  manner,  a  large  proportion  of  which  gradually 
found  their  way  into  the  hands  of  bishops  and 
abbots,  and  although  these  last  may  have  erected 
churches,  as  the  necessities  of  the  case  demanded, 
in  the  various  districts  over  which  they  exer- 
cised rights  of  property,  the  greater  number  of 
parish-churches  (plebes,  aecclesiae  baptismales,  tituli 
maiores)  had  probably  a  very  different  origin.  It 

1  "  Volens  etiam  unamquamque  aecclesiam  liabere  proprios  sumptus , 
ne  per  huitismodi  inopiam  cultus  negligerentur  divini,  inseruit  praedicto 
edicto,  ut  super  singulas  aecclesias  mansus  tribueretur  unus,  cum  peu- 
satione  legitima  et  servo  et  ancilla.''    Vita  Hludovici  Imp.  Pertz,  ii.  622. 
The  tenth  chapter  of  Hludwich's  capitulary  is  drawn  up  in  the  same 
words  as  Ecgberht  uses,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the  Frankish  mansus 
for  the  English  mama,  and  it  is  therefore  probable  that  both  drew  from 
some  common  and  early  source ;  unless  indeed  we  suppose  that  the 
Frankish  clergy  thought  the  English  custom  worthy  of  imitation.  The 
proper  name  for  this  landed  foundation  is  dos  aecclesiae,  or  as  it  is  called 
in  the  Laugobardic  law  (lib.  iii.  tit.  i.  §  46),  mansus  aecclesiasticus.  The 
result  of  this  dotation  is  very  evident  in  the  next  following  chapter  of 
the  above-quoted  capitulary,  by  which  parish-churches  are  obviously 
intended.  Cap.  xi.  "  Statutum  est  ut,  postquam  hoc  impletum  fuerit, 
unaquaeque  aecclesia  suum  Presbyterum  habeat,  ubi  id  fieri  facultas 
providente  episcopo  periniserit." 

2  <(  Non  licet  abbati,  neque  episcopo,  terram  aecclesiae  convertere  ad 
aliam,  quamvis  ambae  in  potestate  eius  sint.    Si  mutare  vult  aecclesiae 
terram,  cum  consensu  amborum  sit.     Si  quis  vult  monasterium  suum 
in  alio  loco  ponere,  cum  concilio  episcopi  et  fratrum  suorum  faciat,  et 
dimittat  in  prioreni  locum  presbyter um ad  ministeria  aecciesiae."  Oapit. 
Theodori.  Thorpe,  ii.  64. 


424 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


had  been  shown  that  in  all  likelihood  every  Mark 
had  its  religious  establishment,  its  fanum,  delubrum, 
or  sacellum,  as  the  Latin  authors  call  them,  its 
hearh,  as  the  Anglosaxon  no  doubt  designated 
them 1 ;  and  further,  that  the  priest  or  priests 
attached  to  these  heathen  churches  had  lands — 
perhaps  freewill  offerings  too — for  their  support. 
It  has  also  been  shown  that  a  well-grounded  plan 
of  turning  the  religio  loci  to  account  was  acted 
upon  by  all  the  missionaries,  and  that  wherever  a 
substantial  building  was  found  in  existence,  it  was 
taken  possession  of  for  the  behoof  of  the  new  reli- 
gion. Under  such  circumstances  it  would  seem 
that  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  the  esta- 
blishment of  a  baptismal  church  in  every  indepen- 
dent mark  that  adopted  Christianity,  and  that  the 
substitution  of  one  creed  for  the  other  not  only  did 
not  require  the  abolition  of  the  old  machinery,  but 
would  be  much  facilitated  by  retaining  it.  It  is  in 
this  manner  then  that  I  understand  the  assertions 
of  Beda  and  others,  that  certain  missionary  pre- 
lates established  churches  per  loca>  such  churches 
being  certainly  not  cathedrals 2  or  abbey-churches. 

1  Besinga  hearh,  fanum  Besingorum.     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  994. 

2  For  example,  of  the  Scotch  missionaries  about  tiie  year  635,  Beda 
reports  as  follows :  "  Exin  coepere  plures  per  dies  de  Scottorum  regione 
venire  Brittaniam,  atque  illis  Anglorum  provinciis  quibus  regnavit  rex 
Osuuald,  magna  devotione  verbum  fidei  praedicare,  et  credentibus  gra- 
tiam  baptismi,  quicumque  sacerdotali  erant  gradu  praediti,  ministrare. 
Construebantur  ergo  aecclesiae  per  loca,  connuebant  ad  audiendum  ver- 
bum populi  gaudentes,  donabantur  munere  regis  possessiones,  et  terri- 
toria  ad  instituenda  monasteria."  Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  3.     Again  in  Essex, 
between  650  and  660:   "tQui,  [i.  e.  Oed]  accepto  gradu  episcopatus, 
rediit  ad  provinciam,  et  maiori  auctoritate  caeptum  opus  explens, fecit  per 
loca  aecclesias,  presbyteros  et  diaconos  ordinavit,  qui  se  in  verbo  fidei  et 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  425 

There  cannot  be  the  least  reason  to  doubt  that 
parish-churches  were  generally  established  in  the 
time  of  Beda,  less  than  half  a  century  after  the 
period  to  which  most  of  the  instances  in  the  notes 
refer 1 :  and  it  is  not  very  probable  that  they  were 
all  owing  to  private  liberality.  In  a  similar  man- 
ner probably  arose  the  numerous  parish-churches 
which  before  the  close  of  the  eighth  century  were 
founded,  especially  by  the  English  missionaries, 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  2.  Thus  in  the  seventh 

ministerio  baptizandi  adiuvarent,  maxime  in  civitate  quae  lingua  Saxo- 
num  Ythancaestir  appellatur;  sed  et  in  ilia  quae  Tilaburh  cognominatur; 
quorum  prior  locus  est  in  ripa  Pentae  amnis,  secuudus  in  ripa  Tamen- 
sis  j  in  quibus  collecto  examine  famulorum  Christi,  disciplinam  vitae 
regularis,  in  quantum  rudes  adhuc  capere  poterant,  custodire  docuit." 
Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  22.  About  690,  Beda  says  of  CiiSberht,  "  Plures  per 
regiones  illas  aecclesias,  sed  et  monasteria  nonnulla  construxit."  H.  E. 
iv.  28.  And  it  is  difficult  to  understand  the  passage  about  to  be  cited 
of  anything  but  heathen  temples  in  the  marks,  which  the  zeal  of  the 
bishop  of  Mercia,  Gearoman,  converted  into  Christian  churches,  that  is 
separate  parish-churches.  A  pestilence  raged  in  Essex  :  one  of  its  kings, 
Sigheri,  apostatized  together  with  all  his  part  of  the  people,  "  and  set 
about  restoring  their  deserted  temples,  and  adoring  images."  To  cor- 
rect this  error,  Wulf  heri  of  Mercia,  the  superior  king,  sent  his  bishop 

Gearoman  :  "  qui  inulta  agens  solertia longe  lateque  omnia  per- 

vagatus,  et  populum  et  regem  praefatum  ad  viam  iustitiae  reduxit :  adeo 
ut  relictis,  sive  destructis  fanis  arisque  quas  fecerant,  aperirent  aeccle- 
sias,  ac  nomen  Christi,  cui  contradixerant,  connteri  gauderent,  magis 
cum  fide  resurrectionis  in  illo  mori,  quam  in  perfidiae  sordibus  inter 
idola  vivere  cupientes."  Hist.  Eccl.  iii.  30.  This  was  in  665. 

1  In  his  Poenitential  he  gives  a  general  direction  as  to  the  penance 
of  the  parish  priest  who  loses  his  chrism.     He  says  :  uQui  autem  in 
plebe  suo  [var.  suum]  chrisma  perdideret,  et  earn  invenerit,  xl  dies  vel 
iii  quadragesinias  poeniteat."     Bed.  Poenit.  xxiv.     Kunstm.  Poenit. 
p.  165. 

2  "  C  unique  aecclesiarum  esset  non  minima  in  Hassis  et  Thyringea 
multitude  extructa,  et  singulis  singuli  providerentur  custodes,"  etc. 
Vit.  Bonif.  Pertz,  ii.  346.    "  Praefato  itaque  regni  eius  tempore,  servus 
Dei  Willehadus  per  Wigrnodiam  aecclesias  coepit  construere,  ac  pres- 
byteros  super  eas  ordinare,  qui  libere  populis  monita  salutis,  ac  bap- 
tismi  conferrent  gratiam."     Vit.  Willehad.  Pertz,  ii.  381.     "  Aeccle- 


426  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

century  in  England  the  ecclesiastical  machinery 
consisted  of  episcopal  churches  served  by  a  body 
of  clerks  or  monks, — sometimes  united  under  the 
same  rule,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  whom  had 
the  necessary  orders  of  priests,  deacons  and  the 
like ;  probably  also  churches  served  by  a  number 
of  presbyters  under  the  guidance  of  an  archipres- 
byter  or  archpriest 1,  bearing  some  resemblance  to 
our  later  collegiate  foundations ;  and  numerous 
parish-churches  established  on  the  sites  of  the 
ancient  fanes  in  the  marks,  or  erected  by  the  libe- 
rality of  kings,  bishops  and  other  landowners  on 

sias  quoque  destructas  restauravit,  probatasque  personas  qui  populis 
monita  salutis  darent,  singulis  quibusque  locis  praeesse  disposuit." 
Ibid.  ii.  383.  "Testes  quoque  aecclesiae  quas  per  loca  singula  con- 
struxit,  testes  et  famulantiuni  Dei  congregation es  quas  aliquibus  coad- 
unavit  in  locis."  Vit.  Liutgari,  Pertz,  ii.  409.  "  Itaque  more  solito> 
cum  omni  aviditate  et  sollicitudine  rudibus  Saxonum  populis  studebat 
in  doctrina  prodesse,  erutisque  ydolatriae  spinis,  verbum  Dei  diligenter 
per  loca  singula  serere,  aecclesias  construere,  et  per  eas  singulos  ordi- 
nare  presbyteros,  quos  verbi  Dei  cooperatores  sibi  ipsi  nutriverat." 
Ibid.  ii.  411.  He  also  founded  a  church  of  canons,  "  monasterium, 
sub  regula  canonica  dominio  famulantium,"  which  afterwards  became 
a  cathedral.  When  Liutgar  and  his  companions  landed  on  the 
little  island  of  Helgoland,  they  destroyed  the  heathen  temples  and 
built  Christian  churches.  "  Pervenientes  autem  ad  eandem  insulam, 
destruxerunt  oninia  eiusdem  Fosetis  fana  quae  illuc  fuere  constructa, 
et  pro  eis  Christi  fabricaverunt  aecclesias."  Pertz,  ii.  410.  In  like 
manner  Willibrord  in  Frisia  established  Christian  churches  on  the  sites 
of  the  heathen  fanes.  "  Simul  et  reliquias  beatorum  apostolorum  ac 
martyruin  Christi  ab  eo  sperans  accipere,  ut  dum  in  gente  cui  praedi- 
caret,  destructis  idolis  aecclesias  institueret,  haberet  in  promptu  reli- 
quias sanctorum  quas  ibi  introduceret ;  quibusque  ibidem  depositis, 
consequenter  in  eorum  honorem  quorum  essent  illae,  singula  quaeque 
loca  dedicaret."  Beda,  H.  E.  v.  11.  Again,  "Piuresper  regiones  illas 
aecclesias,  sed  et  monasteria  nonnulla  construxit."  Beda,  H.  E.  v.  11. 
This  was  consonant  with  the  wise  advice  of  Pope  Gregory  to  Augustine, 
already  citecl  vol.  i.  p.  332,  note  2. 

1  As  late  as  the  tenth  century  we  read  of  an  archipresbyter  at  the 
head  of  a  church  at  Ely.     Hist.  Eliensis,  Ang.  Sac.  i.  603. 


en.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         427 

their  own  manorial  estates.  The  wealthy  and 
powerful  had  also  their  own  private  chaplains,  who 
performed  the  rites  of  religion  in  their  oratories  19 
and  who  even  at  this  early  period  probably  bore 
the  name  of  handpreostas,  by  which  in  much  later 
times  they  were  distinguished  from  the  tunpreostas, 
village  or  parochial  priests  2. 

As  early  as  the  fifth  century  the  fourth  general 
council  (Chalcedon,  an.  451)  had  laid  down  the 
rule  that  the  ecclesiastical  and  political  establish- 
ments should  be  assimilated  as  much  as  possible  3  ; 
and  as  the  central  power  was  represented  by  the 


queen  Beorhte  had  a  chaplain,  bishop  Liuthart,  pre- 
vious to  the  arrival  of  Augustine.  Beda,  H.  E.  i.  25.  Paulinus  was 
^Eftelb  urge's  chaplain  before  the  conversion  of  Northumberland.  Ibid. 
ii.  9.  Oidilwald  king  of  Deira  maintained  Caelin,  a  brother  of  bishop 
Ced,  in  his  family  ;  "  qui  ipsi  et  familae  ipsius,  verbuin  et  sacramenta 
fidei,  erat  enim  presbyter,  ministrare  solebat."  Ibid.  iii.  23.  Lastly 
we  read  of  Wilfri'S,  that  he  was  chaplain  to  Alchfritf  of  Northumber- 
land, "  desiderante  rege  ut  vir  tantae  eruditionis  et  religionis  sibi  spe- 
cialiter  individuo  comitatu  sacerdos  esset  et  doctor."  Ibid.  v.  19. 

2  The  distinction  is  found  in  the  Ohron.  Saxon,  an.  870.    The  Saxon 
handpreostas  is  translated  in  a  Latin  copy  by  capellani  clerici;    the 
Saxon  tunpreostas  by  de  villis  suis  presbyteri. 

3  "  Si  qua  civitas  potestate  imperial!  novata  est  aut  innovatur,  civiles 
dispositiones  et  publicas  aecclesiasticarum  quoque  parochiarum  ordines 
subaequantur."    Cone.  Chalc.  an.  451.     This  was  an  attempt  to  bring 
the  state  generally  into  that  condition  which  would  have  existed  had 
the  church  and  the  empire  not  been  on  terms  of  hostility  when  the 
church  first  was  founded.    Had  the  heathen  creed  not  stood  in  the  way, 
from  the  very  first  it  is  probable  that  the  praefect  of  the  city  and  the 
mayor  of  the  village  would  have  been  universally  also  the  Episcopus 
aud  Chorepiscopus  of  the  community  :  but  the  ^apicr/ua  Kvftepvr]  areas 
and  ^apio-/Lia  dtdaa-KaXias  would  not  then  have  united  in  the  same  hands. 
The  church  assumed  form  and  shape  under  pressure,  and  passed  from 
a  molluscous  into  a  vertebrated  organization  through  its  struggles  to 
resist  persecution  oh  the  one  hand  and  heresy  on  the  other.     When  it 
entered  into  its  alliance  with  the  state  its  outward  constitution  was 
already  completed.    That  alliance  is  not  a  metaphysical  entity,  but  an 
historical  fact. 


428 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


metropolitans  and  the  bishops,  so  the  subsidiary 
authorities  had  their  corresponding  functionaries 
in  the  parish  priests,  priests  of  collegiate  churches 
and  their  dependents.  We  possess  a  curious 
parallel  drawn  by  Walafrid  Strabo  in  the  earliest 
years  of  the  ninth  century,  on  this  subject.  In  his 
book  De  Exordiis  Rerum  Aecclesiasticarum  (cap. 
31),  he  thus  compares  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
polities :  "  Porro  sicut  comites  quidam  Missos 
suos  praeponunt  popularibus,  qui  minores  causas 
determinent,  ipsis  maiora  reservent,  ita  quidam 
episcopi  chorepiscopos  habent.  Centenarii  qui  et 
centuriones  et  Vicarii,  qui  per  pagos  statuti  sunt, 
Presbyteris  Plebei,  qui  baptismales  aecclesias  te- 
nent,  et  minoribus  praesunt  Presbyteris,  conferri 
queunt.  Decuriones  et  Decani,  qui  sub  ipsis  vica- 
riis  quaedam  minora  exercent,  Presbyteris  titulo- 
rum  possunt  comparari.  Sub  ipsis  ministris  cen- 
tenariorum  sunt  adhuc  minores  qui  Collectarii, 
Quaterniones,  et  Duumviri  possunt  appellari,  qui 
colligunt  populum,  et  ipso  numero  ostendunt  se 
decanis  esse  minores.  Sunt  autem  ista  vocabula 
ab  antiquitate  mutuata,"  etc l. 


1  Let  us  arrange  these  offices  tabularly : — 

Secular. 
1.  Comes. 
et.  Missus. 


Ecclesiastical. 

1.  Episcopus. 

a.  Chorepiscopus.  (The  Arch- 
deacon or  the  Rural 
Dean.) 

2.  Presbyter  Plebei  qui  baptisma- 

lem  aecclesiam  habet. 


2.  Centenarius.     Centurio,  or  Vi- 

carius  :  qui  per  pagos  consti- 
tutus  est. 

3.  Decurio  et  Decanus.  3.  Minor  Presbyter  tituli. 

4.  Collectarius.    Quaternio.     Du- 

umvir. 
The  count  (in  England  Ealdorman)  and  bishop  are  on  one  line,  and, 


CH.  ix  ]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         429 

Both  in  spiritual  and  in  temporal  matters,  the 
clergymen  thus  dispersed  over  the  face  of  the 
country  were  accountable  to  the  bishop,  whose 
vicars  they  were  taken  to  be,  that  is  to  say,  in 
whose  place  ("  quorum  vice  ")  they  performed  their 
functions.  The  "  presbyteri  plebei "  or  parish  priests 
had  the  administration  of  all  the  sacraments  and 
rites,  except  those  reserved  to  the  bishop, — such 
for  instance  as  confirmation,  ordination,  the  conse- 
cration of  churches,  the  chrism,  and  the  like  :  these 
were  denied  them,  but  they  could  baptize,  marry, 
bury,  and  administer  the  communion.  And  gra- 
dually, as  matter  of  convenience,  they  were  invested 
with  the  internal  jurisdiction,  as  it  was  called, 
— the  "iurisdictio  fori  interni," — that  is  to  say 
confession,  penance  and  absolution,  but  solely  as 
representatives  and  vicars  of  the  bishop  x. 

if  we  may  anticipate  a  little  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  we  may  add  the 
Eorl  of  Cnut's  constitution  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Metropolitan  on 
the  other.  The  Missus  of  the  count  and  the  chorepiscopus  (in  Strabo's 
time  yet  existing,  though  less  important  than  his  city  brother)  are  on 
the  second  line  ;  nevertheless  the  Missus  partakes  of  the  comitial  dig- 
nity, and  the  episcopal,  though  grudgingly,  is  still  vouchsafed  to  the 
chorepiscopus.  Next  in  rank  is  the  Centenarius  or  president  of  the 
Hundred,  the  officer  of  the  pagus :  his  equivalent  is  the  priest  in  a 
church  where  baptism  is  performed,  the  peculiar  distinctive  of  a  parish- 
church.  The  Decurio  or  Decanus  is  on  the  same  footing  as  the  German 
Capellanus  or  Kaplan,  who  is  indeed  ordained  to  a  title,  but  not  with 
power  to  administer  the  sacraments.  The  Kaplan  is  in  truth  generally 
attached  to  the  parish-church — a  sort  of  curate, — and  often  succeeds 
to  it.  But  how  is  it  that  the  parallel  can  be  carried  no  further  ?  Is  it 
that  the  Deacon's  ordination  was  not  conclusive  enough  ?  Or  were 
Collectarii  and  Duumviri,  beadles,  tax-gatherers  and  bailiffs  not  dig- 
nified enough  to  compare  with  even  acolytes  and  vergers  ? 

1  "  De  poentitentibus,  ut  a  presbyteris  non  reconcilientur,  nisi  prae- 
cipiente  episcopo. — Ex  concilio  Africano. — Ut  poenitentibus,  secundum 
differentiani  peccatorum,  episcopi  arbitrio  poenitentiae  tempora  decer- 


430  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOKII. 

It  was  this  gradual  extension  of  the  powers  of 
the  presbyter  that  destroyed  the  distinction  between 
the  collegiate  churches  served  by  the  archpriest 
and  his  clergy,  and  the  church  in  which  a  single 
presbyter  administered  the  daily  rites  of  religion. 
The  word  parochia  which  at  first  had  been  properly 
confined  to  the  former  churches,  became  generally 
applied  to  the  latter,  when  the  difference  between 
their  spiritual  privileges  entirely  vanished. 

In  the  theory  of  the  early  church,  the  whole  dis- 
trict subject  to  the  rule  of  the  bishop  formed  but 
one  integral  mass:  the  parochial  clergy  even  in 
spirituals  were  but  the  bishop's  ministers  or  vicars, 
and  in  temporals  they  were  accountable  to  him  for 
every  gain  which  accrued  to  the  church.  This  he 
was  to  distribute  at  his  own  discretion ;  it  is  true 
that  there  were  canons  of  the  church  which  in  some 
degree  regulated  his  conduct,  and  probably  the 
presbyters  of  his  cathedral,  his  witan  or  council,  did 
not  neglect  to  offer  their  advice  on  so  interesting  a 
subject.  To  him  it  belonged  to  assign  the  funds 
for  the  support  of  the  parochial  clergy,  out  of  the 

nantur,  et  ut  presbyter,  inconsulto  episcopo,  non  reconciliet  poeniten- 
tem,  nisi  absentia  episcopi,  necessitate  cogente  ....  Item,  Ex  concilio 
Cartaginensi  de  eadem  re.  Aurelius  episcopus  dixit :  l  Si  quisquam  in 
periculo  fuerit  constitutus,  et  se  reconciliari  divinis  altaribus  petierit, 
si  episcopus  absens  fuerit,  debet  utique  presbyter  consulere  episco- 
pum,  et  sic  periclitantem  eius  praecepto  reconciliare :  quam  rem  de- 
bemus  salubri  concilio  roborare.'  Ab  universis  episcopis  dictum 
est :  '  Placet  quod  sanctitas  vestra  necessaria  nos  instruere  dignata 
est.'  Romani  reconciliant  hominem  intra  absidem :  Graeci  nolunt. 
Reconciliatio  penitentium  in  coena  Domini  tantum  est  ab  episcopo,  et 
consuinmata  penitentia :  si  vero  episcopo  dificile  sit,  presbytero  potest, 
necessitatis  causa,  praebere  potestatem,  ut  impleat."  Poen.  Theodori. 
Thorpe,  ii.  6.  Aurelius  of  Carthage  died  in  430. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  431 

share  which  was  commanded  to  be  set  apart  for  the 
sustenance  of  the  ministers  of  the  altar :  to  him 
also  it  belonged  to  apportion  the  share  which  was 
directed  to  be  applied  to  the  repairs  of  the  fabric  of 
the  churches  in  his  diocese ;  and  he  also  had  the 
immediate  distribution  of  that  portion  which  was 
devoted  to  the  charitable  purposes  of  relieving  the 
poor  and  ransoming  the  enslaved, — a  noble  privi- 
lege, more  valuable  in  rude  days  like  those  than  in 
our  civilized  age  it  could  be,  even  had  the  sacri- 
legious hand  of  time  not  removed  it  from  among 
the  jewels  of  the  mitre. 

Occasionally,  no  doubt,  the  parochial  clergy, 
though  supported  by  their  glebe-lands,  had  reason 
to  complain  that  the  hospitality  or  charity  of  the 
bishop,  exceeding  the  bounds  of  the  canonical  divi- 
sion, left  them  but  an  insufficient  remuneration  for 
their  services  :  and  more  than  one  council  found  it 
useful  to  impress  upon  the  prelate  the  claims  of  his 
less  fortunate  or  deserving  brethren1:  but  on  the 
whole  there  can  be  little  question  that  piety  on  the 
one  hand  and  superstition  on  the  other  combined 
to  supply  an  ample  fund  for  the  support  of  the 
clerical  body;  and  that  what  with  free-will  offer- 
ings, grants  of  lands,  fines,  rents,  tithes,  compulsory 


1  "Et  ideo  quia  Carpentoracte  convenientes  huiusmodi  ad  nos  querela 
pervenit,  quod  ea  quae  a  quibuscumque  fidelibus  parochiis  conferuntur, 
ita  ab  aliquibus  episcopis  praesumantur,  ut  aut  parum,  aut  prope  niliil, 
aecclesiis  quibus  collata  fuerint  relinquatur ;  ut  si  aecclesia  civitatis  eius 
cui  episcopus  praeest,  ita  est  idonea,  ut  Ohristo  propitio  nihil  indigeat, 
quidquid  parocliiis  fuerit  derelictum,  clericis  qui  ipsis  parochiis  deser- 
viunt,  vel  reparationibus  aecclesiarum  rationabiliter  dispensetur,"  etc. 
Concil.  Carpenter,  an.  527. 


432 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


contributions,  and  the  sums  paid  in  commutation 
of  penance,  the  clergy  in  England  were  at  all  times 
provided  not  only  with  the  means  of  comfort,  but 
even  with  wealth  and  splendour.  The  sources  and 
nature  of  ecclesiastical  income  will  form  the  subject 
of  a  separate  chapter. 

As  a  body  the  clergy  in  England  were  placed 
very  high  in  the  social  scale  :  the  valuable  services 
which  they  rendered  to  their  fellow-creatures,  —  their 
dignity  as  ministers  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries 
of  the  faith,  —  lastly  the  ascetical  course  of  life  which 
many  of  them  adopted,  struck  the  imagination  and 
secured  the  admiration  of  their  rude  contempora- 
ries. At  first  too,  they  were  honourably  distin- 
guished by  the  possession  of  arts  arid  learning,  which 
could  b  efoundix,  no  nth  p.r  j^lass  ;  and  although  the 


^ 

most  ceerated  of  their  commentaries  upon  the 
Biblical  books  or  the  works  of  the  Fathers,  do  not 
now  excite  in  us  any  very  great  feelings  of  respect, 
they  must  have  had  a  very  different  effect  upon  our 
simple  progenitors.  Whatever  state  of  ignorance 
the  body  generally  may  have  fallen  into  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries,  the  seventh  and  eighth  had 
produced  men  famous  in  every  part  of  Europe 
for  the  soundness  and  extent  of  their  learning.  To 
them  England  owed  the  more  accurate  calculations 
which  enabled  the  divisions  of  times  and  seasons  to 
be  duly  settled  ;  the  decency,  nay  even  splendour, 
of  the  religious  services  were  maintained  by  their 
skilful  arrangement  ;  painting,  sculpture  and  ar- 
chitecture were  made  familiar  through  their  efforts, 
and  the  best  exfWftptes-T>f  these  civilising  arts  were 


CH.  ix.]  THE  OLEEGY  AND  MONKS.  433 

furnished  by  their  churches  and  monasteries :  it  is 
probable  that  their  lands  in  general  supplied  the 
best  specimens  of  cultivation,  and  that  the  leisure 
of  the  cloister  was  often  bestowed  in  acquiring  the 
art  of  healing,  so  valuable  in  a  rude  state  of  society, 
liable  to  many  ills  which  our  more  fortunate  period 
could,  with  ordinary  care,  escape  1.  Their  manu- 
scripts yet  attract  our  attention  by  the  exquisite 
beauty  of  the  execution  ;  they  were  often  skilled  in 
music,  and  other  pursuits  which  at  once  delight 
and  humanise  us.  To  them  alone  could  resort  be 
had  for  even  the  little  instruction  which  the  noble 
and  wealthy  coveted :  they  were  the  only  school- 
masters 2 ;  and  those  who  yet  preserve  the  affec- 
tionate regard  which  grows  up  between  a  generous 
boy  and  him  to  whom  he  owed  his  earliest  intellec- 

1  The  extraordinary  helplessness  of  early  surgery  is  little  appreciated 
by  us,  nor  are  we  duly  grateful  for  the  advance  in  that  most  noble  study 
which  now  secures  to  the  lowest  and  poorest  sufferer,  alleviations  once 
inaccessible  to  the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful.   An  example  in  point 
occurs  to  me  in  the  case  of  Leopold,  duke  of  Austria,  the  captor  of 
Ooeur  de  Lion,  in  1195.     A  fall  from  his  horse  produced  a  compound 
fracture  of  the  leg,  which  from  the  treatment  it  received  soon  mortified. 
Amputation  was  necessary,  and  it  was  performed  by  the  duke  himself, 
holding  an  axe  to  the  limb,  which  his  chamberlain  struck  with  a  beetle. 
"  Acciti  in  ox  medici  apposuerunt  quae  expedire  credebant  j  in  crastino 
vero  pes  ita  denigratus  apparuit,  ut  a  medicis  incidendus  decerneretur ; 
et  cum  non  inveniretur  qui  hoc  faceret,  accitus  tandem  cubicularius 
eius,  et  ad  hoc  coactus,  dum  ipse  dux  dolabrum  manu  propria  tibiae 
apponeret,  malleo  vibrato,  vix  triiia  percussione  pedem  eius  abscidit." 
Walt.  Heming.  i.  210.     Wendov.  iii.  88.     We  feel  no  surprise  that 
death  followed  such  treatment,  even  without  the  excommunication 
under  which  the  savage  duke  laboured. 

2  We  do  not  sufficiently  prize  our  own  advantages,  and  the  blessings 
which  the  mercy  of  God  has  vouchsafed  to  us  in  this  respect.    But  let 
one  fact  be  mentioned,  which  ought  to  arrest  the  attention  of  even  the 
least  reflecting  man.   In  the  ninth  century  there  was  not  a  single  copy 

VOL.  IT.  2  P 


434 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


tual  training,  can  judge  with  what  force  such  mo- 
tives acted  in  a  state  of  society  so  different  from 
our  own.  Moreover  the  intervention  of  the  clergy 
in  many  most  important  affairs  of  life  was  almost 
incessant.  Marriage — that  most  solemn  of  all  the 
obligations  which  the  man  and  the  citizen  can 
contract — was  celebrated  under  their  superintend- 
ence :  without  the  instruments  which  they  prepared 
no  secure  transfer  of  property  could  be  made ;  and 
as  arbitrators  or  advisers,  they  were  resorted  to  for 
the  settlement  of  disputed  right,  and  the  avoidance 
of  dangerous  litigation.  Lastly,  although  during 
the  Anglosaxon  period  we  nowhere  find  them  put- 
ting forward  that  shocking  claim  to  consideration 
which  afterwards  became  so  common — the  being 
makers  of  their  Creator  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist, — we  cannot  doubt  that  their  calling  was 
supposed  to  confer  a  peculiar  holiness  upon  them ; 
or  that  the  had,  the  orders,  they  received,  were 
taken  to  remove  them  from  the  class  of  common 
Christians  into  a  higher  and  more  sacred  sphere. 

Great  privileges  were  accordingly  given  to  them 
in  a  social  point  of  view.  They  enjoyed  a  high 
wergyld,  an  increased  mundbyrd,  and  a  distin- 
guished secular  rank.  The  weofodf>egn  or  servant 
of  the  altar  who  duly  performed  his  important 

of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be  found  in  the  whole  diocese  of 
Lisieux.  We  learn  this  startling  fact  from  a  letter  sent  by  Freculf, 
its  bishop,  to  Hrabanus  Maurus.  "Ad  haec  vestrae  charitatis  vigi- 
lantia  intendat,  quoniam  nulla  nobis  librorum  copia  suppeditat,  etiamsi 
parvitas  obtusi  sensus  nostri  vigeret :  dum  in  episcopio,  nostrae  parvi- 
tati  commisso,  nee  ipsos  Novi  Veterisque  Testamenti  repperi  libros, 
multo  minus  horum  expositiones."  Opera  Hrabani.  Ed.  Colvener.  ii.  1. 


CH.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         435 

functions,  was  reckoned  on  the  same  footing  as 
the  secular  thane,  woroktyegn,  who  earned  nobility 
and  wealth  in  the  service  of  an  earthly  master. 
The  oaths  of  a  priest  or  deacon  were  of  more  force 
than  those  of  a  free  man ;  and  it  was  rendered 
easier  for  them  to  rebut  accusations  by  the  aid  of 
their  clerical  compurgators,  than  for  the  simple 
ceorl  or  even  J?egn,  and  his  gegyldan. 

It  was  nevertheless  a  wise  provision  that  their 
privileges  should  not  extend  so  far  as  to  remove 
them    entirely    from  participation  in    the   general 
interests  of  their  countrymen,  or  make  them  aliens 
from  the  obligations  which  the  Anglosaxon  state 
imposed  upon    all   its    members.     Personal   privi- 
leges they  enjoyed,  like  other  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  the  body  politic,  as  long  as  their  conduct 
individually  was  such  as  to  merit  them  ;  but  they 
were  not  cut  off  entirely  from  the  common  burthens 
or  the  common  advantages:  and  this  will  not  un- 
satisfactorily explain  the  immunity  which  England 
long  enjoyed,  from  struggles  by   which  other  Eu- 
ropean states — and  in  later  periods  even  our  own 
— were  convulsed  to  their  foundations.     In   their 
cathedrals  and  conventual   churches,    or  scattered 
through  the  parishes  over  all  the  surface  of  the 
land,  but  sharing  in    the  interests  of  all  classes, 
they  acted  as  a  body   of  mediators  between    the 
strong  and  the  weak,  repressing  the  violent,   con- 
soling and  upholding  the  sufferer,  and  offering  even 
to  the  despairing  serf  the  hope  of  a  future  rest 
from  misery  and  subjection. 

On  the  first  establishment  of  conventual  bodies 

2  F2 


436  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND,  [BOOK  n. 

we  have  seen  that  a  complete  immunity  had  been 
granted  from  the  secular  services  to  which  all  other 
lands  were  liable  1 ;  but  that  the  inconvenience  of 
this  course  soon  led  to  its  abandonment.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  say  whether  this  immunity  was  at  any  time 
extended  to  the  hide,  "  mansus  aecclesiasticus,"  or 
"  dos  aecclesiae  "  of  the  parish-church  :  it  is  on  the 
contrary  probable  that  it  never  was  so  extended ; 
for  no  hint  of  the  sort  occurs  in  our  own  annals 
or  charters ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  'church 
lands  among  the  neighbouring  Franks  were  subject, 
like  those  of  the  laity,  to  the  burthens  of  the  state2. 
From  every  hide  which  passed  into  clerical  hands, 
the  king  could  to  the  very  last  demand  the  inevi- 
table dues,  military  service,  repairs  of  roads  and 
fortifications  ;  and  though  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
parish  priest  was  called  upon  to  serve  in  person,  it 
is  also  not  likely  that  he  was  excused  the  payment 
of  his  quota  toward  the  arming  and  support  of  a 
substitute  in  the  field  3. 

Nor  did  the  legislation  of  the .  Teutonic  nations 
contemplate  the  withdrawal  of  the  clergy  from  the 
authority  of  the  secular  tribunals.  The  sin  of  the 

1  Vol.  i.  302.  2  Eichhorn,  §  114  vol.  i.  50G. 

3  Exemption  from  munera  personalia  however  was  early  claimed. 

"  Presbyteros,  diaconos,  etc etiam  personalium  munerum  expertes 

esse  volumus."  L.  6.  C.  de  Episc.  et  Cleric,  i.  3.  Hence  the  king  had 
an  interest  in  forbidding  the  ordination  of  a  free  man  without  his  con- 
sent. See  the  formulary  in  Marculfus,  i.  19.  See  also  the  fourth  and 
eighth  canons  of  the  Council  of  Orleans,  A.D.  511.  and  Eichhorn,  i. 
484,  485.  §§  94,  96.  From  these  we  see  that  through  ordination  the 
king  might  lose  his  rights  over  the  freeman  and  the  master  over  his 
serf.  Of  the  last  case  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  in  England, 
and  1  should  imagine  little  of  the  first. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  437 

clergyman  might  indeed  be  punished  in  the  proper 
manner  by  his  ecclesiastical  superior :  penance  and 
censure  might  be  inflicted  by  the  bishop  upon  his 
delinquent  brother ;  but  the  crime  of  the  citizen 
was  reserved  for  the  cognizance  of  the  state1. 

This  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Franks,  even 
while  they  permitted  the  clergy,  who  belonged  to 
the  class  of  Roman  provincials,  to  be  judged  by 
the  Roman  law 2 :  it  was  for  centuries  the  practice 


1  The  great  argument  of  the  clergy  in  later  times, — in  the  twelfth 
century  particularly,  when  all  over  Europe  the  attempt  was  made  to 
exempt  them  from  secular  jurisdiction, — "that  no  one  ought  to  be 
punished  twice  for  the  same  offence,"  had  apparently  not  yet  been 
thought  of.     The  penances  of  the  church,  by  which  the  sinner  was  to 
be  reconciled  to  God,  were  still  held  quite  distinct  from  the  sufferings 
by  which  he  expiated  his  violation  of  the  law.   Theodore  alleviates,  but 
does  not  remit,  the  penance  of  those  whose  guilt  has  bent  their  heads 
to  human  slavery.     Theod.  Poen.  xvi.  §  3.     See  this  argument  stated 
in  the  quarrel  between  Henry  II.  and  Becket :  "  In  contrarium  sen- 
tiebat  archiepiscopus,  ut  quos  exauctorent  episcopi  a  manu  laicali  post- 
modum  non  punirentur,  quia  bis  in  idipsum  puniri  viderentur."    Hog, 
Wendov.  an.  1164.  vol.  ii.  304.     But  this  was  a  two-edged  argument, 
as  its  upholders  soon  found,  when  the   laity  on   the  same  grounds 
claimed  exemption  from  secular  punishment  for  offences  committed 
upon  the  persons  of  the  clergy ;  justly  urging,  upon  the  premises,  that 
they  were  excommunicated  for  their  acts,  and  ought  not  to  be  subject 
to  a  second  infliction.    Accordingly  in  1176,  we  find  Richard  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  attempting  to  explain  away  what  Becket  had  so 
vigorously  advanced  :  "  Nee  dicatur  quod  aliquis  bis  puniatur  propter 
hoc  in  idipsum,  nee  enim  iteratum  est,  quod  ab  uno  incipitur  et  ab 
altero  consummatur,"  etc.    See  his  letter  to  the  bishops  in  An.  Trivet. 
1176.  p.  82  seq.     We  shall  readily  admit  that  the  laity  ought  not  to 
have  been  let  loose  upon  the  clergy ;  but  upon  the  same  grounds  we 
shall  claim  the  subjection  of  the  clergy  to  the  secular  tribunals  for  all 
secular  offences. 

2  Concil.  Autisiodor.  an.  578.  can.  43.     Concil.  Matiscon.  an.  581. 

can.  7.     "  Quodsi  quicunque  index clericum  absque  causa  crimi- 

nali,  id  est  hoinicidio,  furto  aut  maleficio,  hoc  [scil.  iniuriam]  facere 
fortasse  praesumpserit,  quamdiu  episcopo  loci  illius  visimi  fuerit,  ab 
aecclesiae  liininibus  arceatur." 


438  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

in  England,  and  would  probably  so  have  remained 
had  the  error  of  the  Conqueror  in  separating  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  not  prepared 
the  way  for  the  troublous  times  of  the  Henries 
and  Edwards.  In  the  case  of  manslaughter,  ^Elfred 
commands  that  the  priest  shall  be  secularised  be- 
fore he  is  delivered  for  punishment  to  the  ordinary 
tribunals1:  ^'Seked2  and  Cnut3  decree  that  he  is 
to  be  secularised,  to  become  an  outlaw  and  abjure 
the  realm,  and  do  such  penance  as  the  Pope  shall 
prescribe ;  and  they  extend  this  penalty  to  other 
grievous  offences  besides  homicide.  Eadweard  the 
elder  enacts  that  if  a  man  in  orders  steal,  fight, 
perjure  himself  or  be  unchaste,  he  shall  be  subject  to 
the  same  penalties  as  the  laity  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances would  be,  and  to  his  canonical  penance 
besides4.  But  the  plainest  evidence  that  the  clergy, 
even  including  the  most  dignified  of  their  body, 
were  held  to  answer  before  the  ordinary  courts,  is 
supplied  by  the  many  provisions  in  the  laws  as  to 
the  mode  of  conducting  their  trials5.  It  could  not 
indeed  be  otherwise  in  a  country  where  every  offence 
was  to  be  tried  by  the  people  themselves. 

1  "  If  a  priest  kill  another  man,  let  all  that  he  had  acquired  at  home 
be  given  up,  and  let  the  bishop  deprive  him  of  his  orders  :  then  let 
him  be  given  up  from  the  minster,  unless  the  lord  will  compound  for 
the  wergeld."    ^Elf.  §  21. 

2  Leg.  JESelr.  ix.  §  26.     Thorpe,  i.  346. 

3  Leg.  Cnut,  ii.  §  41.     Thorpe,  i.  400. 

4  Ead.  Gu$.  §  3.  Thorpe,  i.  168.    Yet  immediately  afterwards  Ead- 
weard says :  "  If  a  man  in  orders  fordo  himself  with  capital  crime, 
let  him  be  seized  and  held  to  the  bishop's  doom."     Ibid.  §  4. 

5  See  Leg.  Wihtr.  §  18,  19.    ^ESelr.  ix.  §  19-24,  27.     Cnut,  i.  §  5 ; 
ii.  §  41. 


CH,  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  439 

But  the  most  effectual  mode  of  separating  the 
clergy  from  the  other  members  of  the  church  yet 
remains  to  be  considered.  He  that  is  permitted  to 
contract  marriage,  to  enjoy  the  inestimable  bless- 
ings of  a  home,  to  connect  himself  with  a  family, 
and  give  the  state  dear  pledges  of  his  allegiance, 
can  never  cease  to  be  a  citizen  of  that  polity  in 
which  his  lot  is  cast.  He  can  be  no  alien,  no  ma- 
chine to  be  put  in  motion  by  foreign  force.  Ac- 
cordingly, although  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  is  a 
mere  point  of  discipline  (and  could  therefore  be 
dispensed  with  at  once  were  it  -desired1),  it  has 
always  been  pertinaciously  insisted  upon  by  those 
whose  interest  it  was  to  destroy  the  national  feeling 
of  the  clergy  in  every  country,  and  render  them 
subservient  to  one  centralising  power.  It  is  fitting 
that  we  enquire  how  far  this  was  attempted  in  Eng- 
land, and  how  far  the  attempt  succeeded. 

The  perilous  position  of  the  early  Christians,  and 
especially  of  the  clergy,  rendered  it  at  least  matter 
of  prudence  that  they  should  not  contract  the  obli- 
gation of  family  bonds  which  must  prove  a  serious 

1  Whether  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  surmount  the  difficulties  which 
environ  this  subject,  may  be  doubted  ;  but  it  cannot  escape  any  one 
who  has  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  the  more  enlightened  Roman  Catholics, 
whether  cleric  or  laic,  that  a  strong  feeling  exists  in  favour  of  a  change, 
In  Bohemia  and  other  Slavonic  countries,  yet  in  communion  with  Rome, 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  has  ever  been  a  stumbling-block  and  stone  of 
offence,  and  has  done  more  than  anything  else  to  keep  alive  old  Hussite 
traditions.  A  few  years  ago  so  much  danger  was  felt  to  lurk  in  the 
question,  that  the  Vienna  censorship  thought  fit  to  suppress  portions 
of  Palaczy's  History,  which  favoured  the  national  views.  Nor  has 
Germany,  at  almost  any  period,  lacked  thinkers  who  have  vigorously 
protested  against  a  practice  which  they  assert  to  have  no  foundation  in 
Holy  Writ,  and  look  upon  as  disastrous  to  the  State. 


440  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

hindrance  to  the  performance  of  their  duties.     It 
is  therefore  easily  conceivable  that  marriage  should 
in  the  first  centuries  have  been  discouraged  among 
the  members  of  this  particular  class.     There  was 
also  a  tendency  among  the  eastern  Christians  to  en- 
graft upon  the  doctrines  of  the  faith,  those  peculiar 
metaphysical  notions  which  seem  always  to   have 
characterized  the  oriental  modes  of  thought.     The 
antagonism  of  spirit  and  matter,  the  degraded  — 
nay  even  diabolical1  —  nature  of  the  latter,  and  the 
duty  of  emancipating  the  spiritual  portion  of  our 
being  from  its  trammels,  were  quite  as  prominent 
doctrines  of  some  Christian  communities,  as  of  the 
Brahman  or  Buddhist.     The  holiness  of  the  priest 
would,   it  was   thought,    be  contaminated   by  his 
union  with  a  wife;  and  thus  from  a  combination 
of  circumstances  which  in  themselves  had  no  ne- 
cessary connexion,  an  opinion  came  to  prevail  that 
a  state  of  celibacy  was  the  proper  one  for  the  mi- 
nisters of  the  sacraments.     It  was  at  first  recom- 
mended, and  then  commanded,  that  those  who  wished 
to  devote  themselves  to  the  especial  service  of  the 
church,   should  not  contract  the  bond  of  marriage. 
Even  the  married  citizen  who  accepted  orders  was 
admonished  to  separate  himself  from  the  society  of 
his  wife  :  and  both  were  taught  that  a  life  of  con- 
tinence for  the  future  would  be  an  acceptable  offer- 
ing in  the  sight  of  God.     It  seems  unnecessary  to 


1  Some  sects  believed  the  fypiovpyos  to  have  been  the  devil  himself; 
and  as  the  Saviour  is  declared  to  have  made  the  world,  identified  Jesus 
with  Satan  !  Others  entirely  denied  his  human  nature,  on  the  ground 
that  the  incarnation  was  a  materialising  of  spirit.  The  ascetic  practices 
of  the  Eastern  church  had  a  similar  origin. 


OH.  ix.]  /HIE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  441 

dilate  upon  the  fallacy  of  these  views,  or  to  point 
out  the  gross  and  degrading  materialism  on  which 
they  are  ultimately  based.  The  historian,  while  he 
laments,  must  to  the  best  of  his  power  record  the 
aberrations  of  human  intelligence,  under  his  inevi- 
table conditions  of  place  and  time. 

It  is  uncertain  at  what  period  this  restriction 
was  first  attempted  to  be  enforced  in  the  Western 
Church,  but  there  are  early  councils  which  notice 
the  existence  of  a  strong  feeling  on  the  subject1. 
In  the  year  376  a  Gallic  synod  excommunicated 
those  who  should  refuse  the  ministrations  of  a 
priest  on  the  ground  of  his  marriage2.  But  this 
can  only  prove  that  at  the  time  there  were  married 
priests,  whether  living  in  continence  or  not,  and 
that  certain  persons  were  scandalized  at  them.  I 
cannot  admit,  as  some  authors  have  done,  that  the 
Council  intended  to  make  such  marriages  legal ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  inten- 
tion of  the  canon  is  merely  to  assert  the  vali- 
dity of  the  sacraments,  however  unworthy  might 
be  the  person  by  whom  they  were  administered3. 

1  "  Placuit  etiam  ut  si  diacones  aut  presbyter!  coniugati  ad  toruni 
uxorum  suorum  redire  voluerint,"  etc.     Concil.  Agathense,  an.  506. 
Can.  9. 

2  "  Si  quis  secernat  so  a  presbytero  qui  uxorem  duxit,  tanquam  non 
oporteat,  illo  liturgiam  peragente,  de  oblatione  percipere,  anathema 
sit."  Concil.  Gangrense,  an.  376.  Can.  4.    This  provision  was  retained 
by  Burkhart  of  Worms  in  his  collection  of  canons  made  in  the  eleventh 
century.     See  Donniges,  Deut.  Staatsr.  p.  507.     Schmidt,  Gesch.  der 
Deutschen,  IV  Band,  lib.  4.  cap.  13. 

3  This  was  at  least  the  feeling  in  the  eleventh  century.     Wendover 
speaks  in  the  following  terms  of  the  Council  of  Rome,  celebrated  by 
Gregory  the  Seventh  in  1074 :— "  Iste  papa  in  synodo  generali  simoni- 
acos  excommunicavit,  uxoratos  sacerdotes  a  divino  reinovit  officio,  et 


442 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


But  restrictions  which  wound  the  natural  feelings 
of  men  are  vain:  popes  and  councils  may  decree, 
but  they  cannot  enforce  obedience,  and  it  seems  to 
me  that  on  this  particular  subject  they  never  en- 
tirely succeeded  in  carrying  out  their  views.  All 
they  did  was  to  convert  a  holy  and  a  blessed  con- 
nexion into  one  of  much  lower  character,  and  to 
throw  the  doors  wide  open  to  immorality  and 
scandal.  The  efforts  of  Boniface  in  Germany  were 
particularly  directed  to  this  point 


and  his  biogra- 


laicis  missas  eorum  audire  interdixit,  novo  exemplo  et,  ut  multis  visum 
est,  inconsiderate  iudicio,  contra  sanctorum  patrum  sententiam,  qui 
scripserunt,  quod  sacramenta  quae  in  aecclesia  fi  unt,  baptisma,  chrisma, 
corpus  Ohristi  et  sanguis,  Spiritu  invisibiliter  cooperante,  eorundem 
sacramentorum  effectual  [habeant],  seu  per  bonos,  seu  per  malos  intra 
Dei  aecclesiam  dispensentur ;  tamen  quia  Spiritus  Sanctus  mystice  ilia 
vivificat,  nee  bonorum  meritis  amplificantur,  nee  peccatis  malorurn 
attenuantur.  Ex  qua  re  tarn  grave  oritur  scandalum,  ut  nullius  hae- 
resis  tempore  sancta  aecclesia  graviori  sit  schismate  discissa,  his  pro 
iustitia,  illis  contra  iustitiam  agentibus  ;  porro  paucis  continentiam  ob- 
servantibus,  aliquibus  earn  causa  lucri  ac  iactantiae  simulantibus, 
multis  incontinentiam  periurio  multipliciori  adulterio  cumulantibus : 
ad  haec,  opportunitate  laicis  insurgentibus  contra  sacros  ordines,  et  se 
ab  onini  aecclesiastica  subiectione  excutientibus,  laici  sacra  mysteria 
temerant  et  de  his  disputant,  infantes  baptizant,  sordido  aurium 
humore  pro  sacro  chrismate  utentes  et  oleo,  in  extremo  vitae  viaticum 
Dominicum  et  usitatum  aecclesiae  obsequium  sepulturae  a  presbyteris 
uxoratis  accipere  parvipendunt ;  decimas  etiam  presbyteris  debitas 
igne  cremant,  corpus  Domini  a  presbyteris  uxoratis  consecratum 
pedibus  saepe  conculcant,  sanguinem  Domini  voluntarie  frequenter  in 
terrain  effundunt."  Wend.  ii.  13.  See  the  Acts  of  this  Council  in 
Hardouin,  vi.  col.  1521  seq.  In  the  following  year,  1075,  the  abbot  of 
Pontoise  was  insulted  and  beaten  in  a  council  held  at  Paris,  for 
defending  this  decree  of  Gregory. 

1  Boniface  appears  to  have  been  quite  as  earnest  in  the  eighth  as 
Dunstan  was  in  the  tenth  century.  We  are  told  of  him  in  Thuringia, 
that  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the  Apostolical  Pontiff, 
"  senatores  plebis  totiusque  populi  principes  verbis  spiritalibus  affa- 
tus  est ;  eosque  ad  veram  agnitionis  viam  et  intelligence  lucem  pro- 
vocavit.  quani  olim  ante  maxima  siquidem  ex  parte  pravis  seducti 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  443 

pher  tells  us  on  more  than  one  occasion  of  his  suc- 
cess in  destroying  the  influence  of  married  priests. 
But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  same  result 
attended  the  efforts  of  the  Koman  missionaries  in 
England.  It  seems  to  me,  on  the  contrary,  that  we 
have  an  almost  unbroken  chain  of  evidence  to  show 
that,  in  spite  of  the  exhortations  of  the  bishops, 

doctoribus  perdiderimt ;  sed  et  sacerdotes  ac  presbiteros,  quorum  alii 
religiose  Dei  se  omnipotentis  cultu  incoluerunt,  alii  quideni  fornicaria 
contaminati  pollutione  castimoniae  continentiam,  quain  sacris  servi- 
entes  altaribus  servare  debuerunt,  amiserant,  serDionibus  evangelicis, 
quantum  potuit,  a  malitiae  pravitate  ad  canonicae  constitutionis  recti- 
tudinem  correxit,  ammonuit,  atque  instruxit."  Pertz,  ii.  341.  "  Quo- 
niam  cessante  religiosoruin  ducum  dominatu,  cessavit  etiani  in  eis  Chris- 
tianitatis  et  religionis  intentio,  et  falsi  seducentes  populum  introducti 
Bimt  fratres,  qui  sub  nomine  religionis  maximam  haereticae  pravitatis 
introduxerunt  sectam.  Ex  quibus  est Torhtwine  etBerhthere,Eanberhct 
et  Ilunrced,  fornicatores  et  adulteri,quos  iuxta  apostolum  Dominus  iudi- 
cavit  Deus."  Pertz,  ii.  344.  These  seem  all  to  have  been  Anglosaxons. 

"  Et  recedens,  non  solum  invitatus  Baguariorum  ab  Odilone  duce, 
sed  et  spontaneus,  visitavit  incolas  j  mansitque  apud  eos  diebus  multis, 
praedicans  et  evangelizans  verbum  Dei ;  veraeque  fidei  ac  religionis 
sacramenta  renovavit,  et  destructores  aecclesiarum  populique  perver- 
sores  abigebat.  Quorum  alii  pridem  falso  se  episcopatus  gradu  prae- 
tulerunt,  alii  etiam  presbyteratus  se  officio  deputabant,  alii  haec  atque 
alia  innumerabilia  fingentes,  niagna  ex  parte  populum  seduxerimt.  Sed 
quia  sanctus  vir  iam  Deo  ab  infantia  deditus,  iniuriam  Domini  sui  non 
ferens,  supradictum  ducem  cunctumque  vulgus  ab  iniusta  haereticae 
falsitatis  secta  et  fornicaria  sacerdotum  deceptione  coercuit ;  et  pro- 
vinciam  Baguariorum,  Odilone  duce  consentiente,  in  quattuor  divisit 
parochias,  quattuorque  his  praesidere  fecit  episcopos,  quos  ordina- 
tione  scilicet  facta,  in  episcopatus  gradum  sublevant."  Pertz,  ii.  346. 

u  Domino  Deo  opitulante,  ac  suggerente  sancto  Bonifatio  archiepis- 
copo,  religionis  christianae  confirmatum  est  testamentum,  et  orthodox- 
orum  patrtim  synodalia  sunt  in  Francis  correcta  instituta,  cunctaque 
canonum  auctoritate  emendata  atque  expiata,  et  tarn  laicorum  iniusta 
concubinarum  copula  partim,  exhortante  sancto  viro  separata  est,  quam 
etiam  clericorum  riefanda  cum  uxoribus  coniunctio  seiuncta  ac  segre- 
gata."  Pertz,  ii.  346.  The  anonymous  author  of  the  life  of  Boniface 
tells  of  a  bishop  Gerold,  who  held  the  see  of  Mayence  :  he  had  a  son 
who  succeeded  him  in  the  bishopric.  Pertz,  ii.  354. 


444  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  11. 

and  the  legislation  of  the  witan,  those  at  least  of 
the  clergy  who  were  not  bound  to  coenobitical 
order,  did  contract  marriage,  and  openly  rear  the 
families  which  were  its  issue.  From  Eddius  we 
learn  that  Wilfrid,  bishop  of  York,  one  of  the 
staunchest  supporters  of  Komish  views,  had  a  son  l ; 
he  does  not  indeed  say  that  this  son  was  born  in 
wedlock,  nor  does  any  author  directly  mention 
Wilfrid's  marriage  :  but  we  may  adopt  this  view  of 
the  matter,  as  the  less  scandalous  of  two  alterna- 
tives, and  as  rendered  probable  by  the  absence  of 
all  accusations  which  might  have  been  brought 
against  the  bishop  on  this  score  by  any  one  of  his 
numerous  enemies.  In  a  charter  of  emancipation 
we  find  among  the  witnesses,  ^Elfsige  the  priest 
and  his  son2:  by  another  document  a  lady  grants 
a  church  hereditarily  to  Wulfmeer  the  priest  and 
his  offspring,  as  long  as  he  shall  have  any  in 
orders3,  where  a  succession  of  married  clergymen 
is  obviously  contemplated.  Again  we  read  of  God- 
wine  at  Wor'Sig  bishop  ^Elfsige's  son4,  and  of  the 
son  of  Oswald  a  presbyter5.  Under  Eadweard  the 
Confessor  we  are  told  of  Robert  the  deacon  and  his 

1  "  Sanctus  Pontifex  noster  de  exilio  cum  filio  suo  proprio  rediens/' 
etc.     Vit.  Wilfr.  cap.  57.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1352. 

3  "  Wulfmser  preost  and  his  beamteam."     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  940. 

4  "  Godwine  set  WorSige,  ^Elfsiges  bisceopes  sunu."     Chron.  Sax. 
an.  1001.     This  however  was  not  confined  to  England :  we  hear  of 
more  than  one  Frankish  bishop  having  children :  for  example,  "  An- 
chisus  dux  egregius,  films  Arnulfi,  episcopi  Metteusis."    Ann.  Xantens. 
an.  647.     Pertz,  ii.  219.     See  also  Paul.  Gest.  Ep.  Mettens.  Pertz,  ii. 
264.    [See  also  T.  F.  Klitsche,  "  Geschichte  des  Colibats,"  etc.  Augsb. 
1830 ;  J.  A.  Zaccaria.  Storia  Polemica  del  Sagro  celibato,  Roma,  1774 ; 
and  Suppl.  to  Engl.  Cyclop.,  Arts  and  Sciences,  art.  Celibacy.] 

5  "  Filius  Oswaldi  presbyteri."    Hist.  Rams.,  cap.  xlv. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  445 

son-in-law  Richard  Fitzscrob1,  and  of  Godric  a  son 
of  the  king's  chaplain  Godman2. 

It  may  no  doubt  be  argued  that  in  some  of  these 
instances  the  children  may  have  been  the  issue  of 
marriages  contracted  before  the  father  entered  into 
orders ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  this  was  not  the  case 
with  all  of  them,  nor  is  there  any  proof  that  any 
were  so.  On  the  other  hand  we  have  evidence  of 
married  priests  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  reject. 
Florence  speaks  of  the  newly  born  son  of  a  certain 
presbytera,  or  priest's  wife3 :  I  have  already  cited 
a  passage  from  Simeon  of  Durham  which  distinctly 
mentions  a  married  presbyter4,  about  the  year 
1045  :  and  the  History  of  Ely  records  the  wife  and 
family  of  an  archipresbyter  in  that  town5.  Lastly 
we  are  told  over  and  over  again  that  one  principal 
cause  for  the  removal  of  the  canons  or  prebenda- 
ries from  the  cathedrals  and  collegiate  churches  by 
_/E$elwold  and  Oswald  was  the  contravention  of 
their  rule  by  marriage. 

The  frequent  allusion  to  this  subject  by  the  kings 
in  various  enactments,  serve  to  show  very  clearly 
that  the  clergy  would  not  submit  to  the  restraint 

1  "  Robertum  diaconem  et  generum  eius,  Ricardum  filium  Scrob .... 
quos  plus  caeteris  rex  diligebat."     Flor.  Wig.  an.  1052. 

2  "  Godricum  regis  capellani  Godmanni  filium,  abbatem  constituit." 
Flor.  Wig.  an.  1053. 

3  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1035.  It  is  right  to  add  that  some  MSS.  of  Florence 
read  presbt/tert,  not  presbyterae. 

4  See  vol.  i.  145.  "  At  ille  qui  ipsa  nocte  cum  uxore  dormierat,"  etc. 
Sim.  Dun.  Eccl.  Dun.  cap.  xlv. 

5  "  Mox  ingens  pestis  arripuit  domum  illius  sacerdotis  ;  quae  conju- 
gem  eius  ac  liberos  ems  cita  morte  percussit,  totamque  progeniem  fiin- 
ditus  exth-parit."     Hist.  Ellens.  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  603. 


446  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

attempted  to  be  enforced  upon  them.    But  we  have 
a  still  more  conclusive  evidence  in  the  words  of  an 
episcopal  charge  delivered  by  archbishop  ^Elfric. 
He  says,  "  Beloved,  we  cannot  now  compel  you  by 
force  to  observe  chastity,  but  we  admonish  you  to 
observe  it,  as  the  ministers  of  Christ  ought,  and  as 
did  those  holy  men  whom  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, and  who  spent  all  their  lives  in  chastity  1." 
It  is  thus  very  clear  that  the  clergy  paid  little  re- 
gard to  such  admonishments,  unsupported  by  se- 
cular penalties.     In  this,  as  perhaps  in  some  other 
cases,  the  good  sense  and  sound  feeling  of  the  na- 
tion struggled  successfully  against  the  authority  of 
the  Papal  See.    In  fact,  though  spirituality  were  the 
pretext,  a  most  abominable  slavery  to  materialism 
lies  at  the  root  of  all  the  grounds  on  which  the 
Roman  prelates  founded  the  justification  of  their 
course.     That   they  had  ulterior  objects   in  view 
may  easily  be  surmised,  though  these  may  have 
been  but  dimly  described  and  hesitatingly  confessed, 
until    Gregory    the    Seventh    boldly    and   openly 
avowed  them.     Had  the  Roman  church  ventured 
to  argue  that  the  clergy  ought  to  be  separated  en- 
tirely  from  the  nation   and   the   state,   nay  from 
humanity  itself,  for  certain  definite  purposes  and 
ends,  it  would  at  least  have  deserved  the  praise  of 
candour ;  and  much  might  have  been  alleged  in  fa- 
vour of  this  view  while  the  clergy  were  still  strictly 
missionaries  exposed  to  the  perils  and  uncertainties 
of  a  daily  struggle.     But,  in  an  absurd  idolatry  of 

1  Thorpe,  ii.  376. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  447 

what  was  miscalled  chastity,  to  proscribe  the  no- 
blest condition  and  some  of  the  highest  functions 
of  man,  was  to  set  up  a  rule  essentially  false,  and 
literally  hold  out  a  premium  to  immorality ;  and  so 
the  more  reflecting  even  of  the  clergy  themselves 
admitted1.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  desire  of 
the  prelates,  we  may  be  certain  that  not  only  in 
England,  but  generally  throughout  the  North  of 
Europe,  the  clergy  did  enter  into  quasi-marriages ; 
and  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century,  the  priests  in 
Norway  replied  to  Gregory  the  Ninth  by  setting 
up  the  fact  of  uninterrupted  custom  2. 

1  In  1102  archbishop  Anselm  excommunicated  married  priests,  sa- 
cer dotes  concubinarios ;  Wendover,  who  records  this  act,  expresses  a 
doubt  about  its  prudence.     "  Hoc  autem  bonurn  quibusdam  visum  est, 
et  quibusdam  periculosum,  ne,  dum  munditias  viribus  maiores  expe- 
terent,  in  immunditias  labarentur."  Wend.  ii.  171.   The  results  at  this 
day  in  Ireland  are  well  known,  and  the  case  is  very  similar  in  the 
Koman  Catholic  part  of  Hungary.     See  Paget,  Hungary  and  Tran- 
sylvania, i.  114.     Shortly  before  the  Reformation,  the  inconveniences 
arising  from  this  state  of  things  were  felt  to  be  so  intolerable,  yet  the 
danger  to  society  from  a  strict  enforcement  of  the  rule  so  great,  that 
in  some  parts  of  Europe  the  bishop  licensed  their  priests  so  take  con- 
cubines, at  a  settled  tariff,  and  further  raised  a  sum  upon  each  child 
born.  Erasmus  relates  that  one  bishop  had  admitted  to  him  the  issuing 
of  no  less  than  twelve  thousand  such  licenses  in  one  year.  In  his  diocese 
the  tax  was  probably  light,  the  peasants  sturdy,  and  the  female  popu- 
lation more  than  ordinarily  chaste.    It  was  not  unusual  for  the  English 
kings  to  compel  the  priests  to  redeem  their  focariae  or  concubines, 
which  amounts  to  much  the  same  thing.     This  occurred  in  the  years 
1129  and  1208.     See  Wendover,  ii.  210;  iii.  223. 

2  Gregory  writes  thus  upon  the  subject  to  Sigurdr,  archbishop  of 
Nidaros  :  "  Sicut  ex  parte  tua  fuit  propositum  coram  nobis  tarn  in  dio- 
cesi  quani  in  provincia  Nidrosensi  abusus  detestandae  consuetudinis  in- 
olevit,  quod  videlicet  sacerdotes  inibi  existentes  matrimonia  contrahunt, 
et  utuntur  tanquam  laici  sic  contractis.     Et  licet  tu  iuxta  officii  tui 
debitum  id  curaveris  artius  inhibere,  multi  tamen  praetendentes  excu- 
sationes  frivolas  in  peccatis,  scilicet  quod  felicis  recordationis  Hadrianus 
papa  praedecessor  noster,  tune  episcopus  Albanensis,  dum  in  partibus 


448  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

In  addition  to  the  clergy  who  either  in  their  con- 
ventual or  parochial  churches  administered  the  rites 
of  religion  to  their  flocks,  very  considerable  mo- 
nastic establishments  existed  from  an  early  period 
in  England.  It  is  true  that  not  every  church  which 
our  historians  call  monasterium  was  really  a  mo- 
nastic foundation,  but  many  of  them  undoubtedly 
were  so ;  and  it  is  likely  that  they  supplied  no 
small  number  of  presbyters  and  bishops  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  church.  The  rule  of  St.  Benedict  was 
well  established  throughout  the  West  long  before 
Augustine  set  foot  in  Britain ;  and  although  monks 
are  not  necessarily  clergymen,  it  is  probable  that 
many  of  the  body  in  this  country  took  holy  orders. 
Like  the  clergy  the  monks  were  subject  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  bishop,  and  the  abbots  received  conse- 
cration from  the  diocesan.  Till  a  late  period  in 
fact,  there  is  little  reason  to  suppose  that  any 
English  monastery'  succeeded  in  obtaining  exemp- 
tion from  episcopal  visitation :  though  on  the  other 
hand  it  is  probable  that  monasteries  founded  by 
powerful  and  wealthy  laymen  did  contrive  practi- 
cally to  establish  a  considerable  independence.  This 
is  the  more  conceivable,  because  we  cannot  doubt 
that  a  great  difference  did  from  the  first  exist  be- 

. 

illis  legationis  officio  fungeretur,  hoc  fieri  permisisset,  quanquam  super 
hoc  nullum  ipsius  documentum  ostendant,  perire  potius  eligunt  quani 
parere,  longam  super  hoc  nichilominus  consuetudinem  allegando.  Cum 
igitur  diuturnitas  temporis  peccatum  non  minuat  sed  augmentet,  man- 
damus quatenus,  si  ita  est,  abusum  liuiusmodi  studeas  extirpare,  et  in 
rebelles,  si  qui  fuerint,  censuram  aecclesiasticam  exercere.  Datum 
ViterMi,  xvii  Kal.  Junii,  anno  undecimo."  This  is  A.D.  1237.  Diplom. 
Norweg.  No.  19,  vol.  i.  pag.  15. 


CH.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         449 

tween  the  rules  adopted  by  various  congregations 
of  monks,  or  imposed  upon  them  by  their  patrons 
and  founders,  until  the  time  when  greater  familia- 
rity with  Benedict's  regulations,  and  the  customs 
of  celebrated  houses,  produced  a  more  general 
conformity. 

One  of  the  most  disputed  questions  in  Anglo- 
saxon  history  is  that  touching  the  revival  of 
monkery  by  Dunstan  and  his  partizans.  Its  sup- 
posed connexion  with  the  tragical  story  of  Eadwig, 
and  the  dismemberment  of  England  by  Eadgar, 
have  lent  it  some  of  the  attractions  of  romance ;  and 
by  the  monastic  chroniclers  in  general,  it  has  very 
naturally  been  looked  upon  as  the  greatest  point  in 
the  progressive  record  of  our  institutions.  Con- 
nected as  it  is  with  some  of  the  most  violent  pre- 
judices of  our  nature,  political,  professional  and 
personal,  it  has  not  only  obtained  a  large  share  of 
attention  from  ecclesiastical  historians  of  all  ages, 
but  has  been  discussed  with  great  eagerness,  not  to 
say  acrimony,  by  those  who  differed  in  opinion  as 
to  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  revival  itself.  Yet 
it  does  not  appear  to  me  to  have  been  brought  to 
the  degree  of  clearness  which  we  should  have  ex- 
pected from  the  skill  and  learning  of  those  who 
have  undertaken  its  elucidation.  Neither  the  share 
which  Dunstan  took  in  the  great  revolution,  nor 
the  extent  to  which  JE^elwold  and  Oswald  suc- 
ceeded in  their  plans,  are  yet  satisfactorily  settled  ; 
and  great  obscurity  still  hangs  both  over  the  man- 
lier and  the  effect  of  the  change. 

Few  things  in  history,  when  carefully  investi- 

VOL.  II.  2  G 


450 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


gated,  do  really  prove  to  have  been  done  in  a  hurry. 
Sudden  revolutions  are  much  less  common  than  we 
are  apt  to  suppose,  and  fewer  links  than  we  ima- 
gine are  wanting  in  the  great  chain  of  causes  and 
effects.  Could  we  place  ourselves  above  the  exag- 
gerations of  partizans,  who  hold  it  a  point  of  honour 
to  prove  certain  events  to  be  indiscriminately  right 
or  indiscriminately  wrong,  we  should  probably  find 
that  the  course  of  human  affairs  had  been  one 
steady  and  very  gradual  progression ;  the  reputa- 
tion of  individual  men  would  perhaps  be  shorn  of 
part  of  its  lustre  ;  and  though  we  should  lose  some 
of  the  satisfaction  of  hero-worship,  we  might  more 
readily  admit  the  constant  action  of  a  superintend- 
ing providence,  operating  without  caprice  through 
very  common  and  every-day  channels.  But  it 
would  have  been  too  much  to  expect  an  impartial 
account  of  the  events  which  led  to  the  reformation 
of  the  Benedictine  order  in  England ;  like  Luther 
in  the  fifteenth,  Dunstan  must  be  made  the  prin- 
cipal figure  in  the  picture  of  the  tenth  century  : 
throughout  all  great  social  struggles  the  protagonist 
stalks  before  us  in  gigantic  stature, — glorious  as 
an  archangel,  or  terrible  and  hideous  as  Satan. 

The  writers  who  arose  shortly  after  the  triumph 
of  the  Eeformation  have  revelled  in  this  fruitful 
theme.  The  abuses  of  monachism, — not  entirely 
forgotten  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury,— its  undeniable  faults,  and  the  mischief  it 
entails  upon  society,— judged  with  the  exaggeration 
which  unhappily  seems  inseparable  from  religious 
polemics,  produced  in  every  part  of  Europe  a  sue- 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  451 

cession  of  violent  and  headlong  attacks  upon  the 
institution  and  its  patrons,  which  we  can  now  more 
readily  understand  than  excuse.  But  just  as  little 
can  the  calm,  impartial  judgment  of  the  historian 
ratify  the  indiscriminate  praise  which  was  lavished 
by  the  Roman  Catholics  upon  all  whom  the  zeal  of 
Protestants  condemned,  the  misrepresentations  of 
fact  by  which  they  attempted  to  fortify  their  opi- 
nions, or  the  eager  credulty  which  they  showed 
when  any  tale,  however  preposterous,  appeared  to 
support  their  particular  objects.  In  later  times  the 
controversy  has  been  renewed  with  greater  decency 
of  language,  but  not  less  zeal.  The  champion  of 
protestantism  is  the  Rev.  Mr.  Soames  :  Dr.  Lingard 
takes  up  the  gauntlet  on  behalf  of  his  church.  It 
is  no  intention  of  mine  to  balance  their  conflicting 
views  as  to  the  character  and  intentions  of  Diinstan 
and  his  two  celebrated  coadjutors ;  these  have  been 
too  deeply  tinged  by  the  ground-colour  that  lies 
beneath  the  outlines.  But  I  propose  to  examine 
the  facts  upon  which  both  parties  seem  agreed, 
though  each  may  represent  them  variously  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  favourite  theory. 

It  admits  of  no  doubt  whatever  that  monachism, 
and  monachism  under  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  had 
been  established  at  an  early  period  in  this  country1; 

1  Mr.  Soames  (Anglosax.  Church,  p.  179,  third  edit.)  says  that  Dun- 
stan's  monastery  at  Glastonbury  was  the  first  establishment  of  the  kind 
ever  known  in  England,  and  Diinstan  the  first  of  English  Benedictine 
abbots.  Nothing  can  possibly  be  more  inexact  than  this  assertion. 
Biscop's  foundation  at  Wearniouth  was  a  Benedictine  one.  In  an  ad- 
dress to  his  monks,  he  himself  is  represented  to  say  : — "Ideo  multum 
cavetote,  fratres,  semper,  ne  secunduin  genus  unquaui,  ne  deforis  aliuude 
yobis  Patreru  quaeratis ;  sed  iuxta  quod  Regula  magni  quondam  abbatia 

2G2 


452  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK 

but  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  strict  rule  had 
very  generally  ceased  to  be  maintained  at  the  time 

Benedict!,  iuxta  quod  privilegii  nostri  continent  decreta,  in  conventu 
vestrae  congregationis  communi  consilio  perquiratis,  qui  secundumvitae 
meritum  et  sapientiae  doctrinam  aptior  ad  tale  ministerium  perficien- 
dum  digniorque  probetur ;  et  quemcunque  omnes  unanimae  charitatis 
inquisitione  optimum  cognoscentes  eligeretis,  hunc  vobis,  accito  epis- 
copo,  rogetis  abbatem  consueta  benedictione  formari."  Beda,  Vit. 
Bened.  §  12.  (Opera  Minora,  ii.  151.)  The  same  author  tells  us  of 
abbot  Ceolfri'S  : — "  Multa  diu  secum  mente  versans,  utilius  decrevit, 
dato  Fratribus  praecepto,  ut  iuxta  sui  statuta  privilegii,  iuxtaque  Regu- 
lam  sancti  abbatis  Benedicti,  de  suis  sibi  ipsi  Patrem,  qui  aptior  esset, 
eligerent,  etc."  Vit.  Bened.  §  16.  (Op.  Min.  ii.  156.)  The  author  of  the 
anonymous  life  of  St.  CuSberht,  which  is  earlier  than  that  of  Beda, 
says  of  Ciiftberht  at  Lindisfarne : — "  Vivens  ibi  quoque  secimdum 
sanctam  Scripturam,  contemplativam  vitam  in  actuali  agens,  et  nobis 
regularem  vitam  primus  compouens  constituit,  quam  usque  hodie  cuni 
Regula  Benedicti  observamus."  Anon.  Cii'Sb.  §  25.  (Bed.  Op.  Min. 
ii.  271.)  At  a  still  later  period,  viz.  the  close  of  the  seventh  century, 
we  learn  that  the  monastery  of  Hnutscilling  or  Nursling  in  Hampshire 
was  a  Benedictine  one,  and  St.  Boniface  a  Benedictine  monk.  His 
contemporary  biographer  Willibald  says  : — "  Maxinie  suo  sub  regular! 
videlicet  disciplina  abbati,  monachica  subditus  obedientia  praebebat, 
ut  labore  manuum  cottidiano  et  disciplinali  officiorum  amniinistratione 
incessanter  secimdum  praefinitam  beati  Patris  Benedicti  rectae  consti- 
tutionis  formam  insisteret,"  etc.  Vit.  Bonif.  Pertz,  ii.  336.  One  can 
hardly  imagine  how  Mr.  Soames  should  suffer  himself  to  be  misled  by 
the  exaggerations  of  Diinstan's  monkish  biographers :  they  are  of  a 
piece  with  their  whole  story.  That  the  rule  had  become  very  much  re- 
laxed even  in  the  Benedictine  abbeys  of  this  country  is  not  to  be  doubted : 
the  same  thing  took  place  on  the  continent.  Many  had  perished  in  the 
Danish  invasions ;  many  had  passed  insensibly  into  the  hands  of  secular 
canons  :  and  it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century  there  was  not  a  genuine  Benedictine  society  left  in  England. 
But  this  will  ceriainly  not  justify  the  assertions  of  BridferS  or  Adelard, 
that  Diinstan  was  the  first  of  English  Benedictine  monks  or  abbots. 
"Et  hoc  praedicto  niodo  saluberrimam  sancti  Benedicti  sequens  insti- 
tutionem,  primus  abbas  Anglicae  nationis  enituit,"  (Bridferft.  MS.  Cott. 
Cleop.  B.  xii.  fol.  72.) — "Monachorum  ibi  scholam  primo  primus  in- 
stituere  coepit/' — (Adel.  in  Angl.  Sacra,  ii.  101  note)  are  at  the  least 
grave  mistakes  :  one  desires  to  believe  that  they  are  not  something 
worse  ;  but  they  warn  us  to  be  extremely  cautious  how  we  admit  the 
authority  of  their  writers  as  to  an)r  facts  they  may  please  to  record. 


CH.  ix.]       THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.         453 

when  Dunstan  undertook  its  restoration.  Many 
of  the  conventual  churches  had  never  been  con- 
nected with  monks  at  all ;  while  among  the  various 
abbeys  which  the  piety  or  avarice  of  individuals  had 
founded,  there  were  probably  numerous  instances 
where  no  rule  had  ever  prevailed,  but  the  caprice 
of  the  founders,  who  lure  dominii  imposed  such  re- 
gulations as  their  vanity  suggested,  or  their  industry 
gleaned  from  the  established  orders  of  Columba, 
Benedict,  and  other  credited  authorities 1.  The 

1  On  this  point  Beda  speaks  most  explicitly :  "  Sunt  loca  innumera, 
ut  novimus  omnes,  in  monasterioruni  ascripto  vocabulum,  sed  nihil 
prorsus  monasticae  conversationis  habentia."  Ep.  Ecgb.  §  10.  "  Quod 
enim  turpe  est  dicere,  tot  sub  nomine  monasterioruni  loca  hi,  qui  mona- 
cliicae  vitae  prorsus  sunt  expertes,  in  suam  ditionem  acceperunt,  sicut 
ipse  melius  nosti,"  etc.  Ibid.  §  11.  "At  alii  graviore  adhuc  flagitio, 
quum  sint  ipsi  laici  et  nullius  vitae  regularis  vel  usu  exerciti,  vel 
amore  praediti,  data  regibus  pecunia,  emunt  sibi  sub  praetextu  monas- 
teriorum  construendorum  territoria,  in  quibus  suae  liberius  vacent  libi- 
dini,  et  liaec  insuper  in  ius  sibi  haereditariuni  edictis  regalibus  faciunt 
ascribi,  ipsas  quoque  litteras  privilegiorum  suorum,  quasi  veraciter  Deo 
dignas,  pontificum,  abbatum  et  potestatum  seculi,  obtinent  subscrip- 
tione  confirmari.  Sicque  usurpatis  sibi  agellulis  sive  vicis,  liberi  exinde 
a  divino  simul  et  liumano  servitio,  suis  tantum  inibi  desideriis  laici 
monachis  imperantes  deserviunt ;  immo  non  monachos  ibi  congregant, 
sed  quoscunque  ob  culpam  inobedientiae  veris  expulsos  monasteriis 
alicubi  forte  oberrantes  invenerint,  aut  evocare  monasteriis  ipsi  value- 
rint ;  vel  certe  quos  ipsi  de  suis  satellitibus  ad  suscipiendam  tonsuram, 
promissa  sibi  obedientia  monachica,  invitare  quiverint.  Horum  distor- 
tis  coliortibus  suas,  quas  instruxere,  cellas  implent,  multumque  informi 
atque  inaudito  spectaculo,  idem  ipsi  viri  modo  coniugis  ac  liberorum 
procreandorum  curam  gerunt,  modo  exsurgentes  de  cubilibus,  quid 
intra  septa  onasteriorum  geri  debeat  sedula  intentione  pertractant. 
....  Sic  per  annos  circiter  triginta,  hoc  est  ex  quo  Aldfrid  rex  humanis 
rebus  ablatus  est,  provincia  nostra  vesano  illo  errore  dementata  est,  ut 
nullus  pene  exinde  praefectorum  extiterit,  qui  non  huiusmodi  sibi  mo- 
nasterium  in  diebus  suae  praefecturae  comparaverit,  suamque  simul 
coniugem  pari  reatu  nocivi  mercatus  astrinxerit ;  ac  praevalente  pessi- 
nia  consuetudine,  ministri  quoque  regis  ac  famuli  idem  facere  satege- 
rint.  Atque  ita  ordine  perverso  innuineri  sunt  inventi,  qui  se  abbates 


454 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ii. 


chapters,  whatever  their  origin,  had  in  process  of 
time  slid  into  that  easy  and  serene  state  of  secular 
canons,  which  we  can  still  contemplate  in  the  ve- 
nerable precincts  of  cathedral  closes.  The  celibacy 
of  the  clergy  had  not  been  maintained :  and  even 
in  the  collegiate  churches  the  presbyter  and  pre- 
bendaries had  permitted  themselves  to  take  wives, 
which  could  never  have  been  contemplated  even 
by  those  who  would  have  looked  with  indulgence 
upon  that  connexion  on  the  part  of  parish  priests. 
Moreover  in  many  places,  wealthy  ease,  power,  a 
dignified  and  somewhat  irresponsible  position  had 
produced  their  natural  effect  upon  the  canons, 
some  of  whom  were  connected  with  the  best  fami- 
lies of  the  state ;  so  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  deduc- 
tions which  must  be  made  for  exaggeration  on  the 
part  of  the  monkish  writers,  we  cannot  deny  that 
many  instances  of  profligacy  and  worldly-mind  ed- 


pariter  et  praefectos,  sive  ministros,  aut  famulos  regis  appellant ;  qui, 
etsi  aliquid  vitae  monasterialis  ediscere  laici,  non  experiendo  sed  audi- 
endo,  potuerint,  a  persona  tamen  ilia  ac  professione,  quae  hanc  docere 
debeat,  sunt  funditus  exsortes  ;  et  quidem  tales  repente,  ut  nosti,  ton- 
suram  pro  suo  libitu  accipiimt,  suo  examine  de  laicis  non  monachi  sed 
abbates  efticiuntur."  Ibid.  §  12,  13.  (Bed.  Op.  Min.  ii.  216,  218  seq.) 
On  these  and  other  grounds  Beda  earnestly  impresses  upon  Ecgberht 
the  duty  of  founding  the  twelve  bishoprics  contemplated  by  Gregory  in 
the  province  of  York,  in  order  to  multiply  the  means  of  ecclesiastical 
supervision.  But  if  this  was  the  condition  of  the  Northumbrian  mo- 
nasteries in  the  year  734,  the  period  of  Northumbria's  greatest  literary 
eminence,  what  may  we  conclude  to  have  been  the  condition  of  similar 
establishments  in  less  instructed  parts  of  England,  especially  after  a 
century  of  cruel  wars  had  relaxed  all  the  bonds  of  civilized  society  ? 
We  may  not  greatly  admire  monachism,  or  believe  it  useful  to  a  state  • 
but  we  can  hardly  blame  those,  who,  finding  the  institution  in  exist- 
ence, desire  to  make  the  men  who  are  attached  to  it  worthy  and  not 
unworthy  members  of  their  profession. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  455 

ness  did  very  probably  disgrace  the  clerical  profes- 
sion. It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  what  has  taken 
place  in  every  other  age  and  country  should  have 
been  unexampled  only  among  the  Anglosaxons  of 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  or  that  their  monks 
and  clergy  should  have  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of 
purity,  holiness  and  devotion  to  duty  1. 

As  we  have  seen  already,  it  was  only  towards 
the  end  of  the  eighth  century  that  Chrodogang 
introduced  a  ccenobitical  mode  of  life  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  his  archdiocese.  Long  before  this  time  the 
great  majority  of  our  churches  had  been  founded; 
and  among  them  some  may  possibly  from  the  first 
have  been  served  by  clergymen  resident  in  their 
own  detached  houses,  and  who  merely  met  at, 
stated  hours  to  perform  their  duties  in  the  choir, 
living  at  other  times  apart  upon  their  prsebenda  or 
allowances  from  the  general  fund.  But  some  of  the 
cathedrals  had  been  founded  in  connexion  with 
abbeys ;  and  it  is  probable  that  a  majority  of  these 
great  establishments  were  provided  with  some  Rule 
of  life,  and  demanded  a  ccenobitical  though  not 
strictly  monastic  habit.  This  is  too  frequently  al- 
luded to  by  the  prelates  of  the  seventh  century,  not 
to  be  admitted.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the 

1  In  the  often-cited  letter  to  Ecgberht,  Beda  gives  but  a  bad  cha- 
racter to  some  among  the  prelates  of  his  time.  He  says  :  "  Quod  non 
ita  loquor,  quasi  te  aliter  facere  sciam,  sed  quia  de  quibusdam  episcopis 
fama  vulgatum  est,  quod  ipsi  ita  Christo  serviant,  ut  nullos  secum 
alicuius  religionis  ant  continentiae  viros  habeant ;  sed  potius  illos  qui 
risui,  iocis,  fabulis,  commessationibus,  et  ebrietatibus,  caeterisque  vitae 
remissions  illecebris  subigantur,  et  qui  magis  quotidie  ventrem  dapi- 
bus  quam  mentem  sacrifices  coelestibus  pascant."  §  4  (Op  Min.  ii. 
209,  210). 


456  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

details  in  different  establishments,  we  may  be  cer- 
tain that  residence,  temperance,  soberness,  chas- 
tity, and  a  strict  attendance  upon  the  divine  ser- 
vices were  required  by  the  Rule  of  every  society. 
Unfortunately  these  are  restrictions  and  duties 
which  experience  proves  to  have  been  sometimes 
neglected ;  nor  can  we  find  any  great  improbability 
in  the  assertion  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  that  the 
canons  of  Winchester  would  hold  no  rule  at  all 1 ; 
or  in  the  accusations  brought  against  them  in  the 
Annals  of  Winchester  2,  and  in  Wulfs tan's  Life  of 
jiE'Selwold  3,  of  violating  every  one  of  their  obliga- 
tions. I  do  not  see  any  reason  to  doubt  the  justice 
of  the  charge  made  against  some  of  their  body  by 
the  last-named  author,  of  having  deserted  the  wives 
they  had  taken,  and  living  in  open  and  scandalous 
disregard  of  morality  as  well  as  canonical  restraint. 
Wulfstan  very  likely  made  the  most  of  his  facts, 
but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  he  was  an  eye- 
witness ;  and  it  is  improbable  that  he  should  have 
been  indebted  exclusively  to  his  invention  for 
charges  so  boldly  made,  so  capable  of  being  readily 
brought  to  the  test,  and  containing  in  truth  nothing 

1  "  Draf  ut  fta  clerca  of  $a  biscoprice,  forSan  fteet  hi  noldon  nan 
Regul  healdan."     Chron.  Sax.  an.  963. 

2  "Clerici  illi,  nominetenus  Canonici,  frequentationem  chori,  la- 
bores  vigiliarum,  et  ministerium  altaris  vicariis  suis  utcumque  sustenta- 
tis  relinquentes,  et  ab  aecclesiae  conspectu  plerumque  absentes  septen- 
nio,  quidquid  de  praebendis  percipiebant,  locis  et  modis  sibi  placitis 
absumebant.     Nuda  fu.it  aecclesia  intus  et  extra."  An.  Wint.  p.  289. 

3  "  Erant  Canonici  nefandis  sceleruin  moribus  implicati,  elatione  et 
insolentia,  atque  luxuria  praeventi,  adeo  ut  nonnulli  eorum  dedignaren- 
tur  inissas  suo  ordine  celebrare,  repudiantes  uxores  quas  illicite  dux- 
eraut,  et  alias  accipieutes,  gulae  et  ebrietati  iugiter  dediti."  Vit.  yEt>elw. 
p.  614. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  457 

repugnant  to  our  experience  of  human  nature.  The 
canons  of  Winchester,  many  of  whom  were  highly 
connected,  wealthy  beyond  those  of  most  other 
foundations,  and  established  in  the  immediate  vici- 
nity of  the  royal  court,  may  possibly  have  been 
more  than  ordinarily  neglectful  of  their  duties l ; 
and  they  do  appear  in  fact  to  have  been  treated  in 
a  much  more  summary  way  than  the  prebendaries 
of  other  cathedrals ;  yet  perhaps  not  with  strict 
justice,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  Winchester  was 
ever  a  monastic  establishment,  which,  previous  to 
^Eftelwold,  I  do  not  remember  it  to  have  been. 
Lingard  who  would  have  gratefully  accepted  any 
evidence  against  the  canons  in  the  other  cathedrals, 
confines  himself  to  Winchester ;  yet  it  strikes  one 
as  some  confirmation  of  the  general  charge,  even 
against  their  brethren  at  Worcester,  that*  among 
the  signatures  to  their  charters  so  few  are  those  of 
deacons  and  presbyters,  till  long  after  Oswald's 
appointment  to  the  see.  This,  although  the  silence 
of  their  adversaries  allows  us  to  acquit  them  of  the 
irregularities  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  canons  at 
Winchester,  may  lead  us  to  infer  that  they  were 


1  The  description  of  a  secular  clerk  given  by  the  anonymous  author 
of  the  Gesta  Abbatum  Fontanellensium;  written  in  the  ninth  century, 
was  probably  not  exaggerated.  He  says  of  Wido,  a  relative  of  Charles 
Martelj  "  Erat  do  saecularibus  clericis,  gladioque  quern  semispatium 
vocant  semper  accinctus,  sagoque  pro  cappa  utebatur,  parumque  aeccle- 
siasticae  disciplinae  imperils  parebat.  Nam  copiana  canum  multiplicem 
semper  habebat,  cum  qua  venationi  quotidie  insistebat,  sagittatorque 
praecipuus  in  arcubus  ligneis  ad  aves  feriendas  erat,  bisque  operibus 
magis  quam  aecclesiasticae  disciplinae  studiis  se  exercebat.''  It  does 
not  surprise  us  to  learn  that  this  prelate  was  also  u  ignarus  litterarum." 
Pertz,  i.  284,  285. 


458 


THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND. 


[BOOK  ir. 


not  scrupulously  diligent  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of 
their  calling. 

We  cannot  feel  the  least  surprise  that  Dunstan 
desired  to  reform  the  state  of  the  church.  The 
peculiar  circumstances  of  his  early  years,  even  the 
severe  mental  struggles  which  preceded  and  explain 
his  adoption  of  the  monastic  career,  were  eminently 
calculated  to  train  him  for  a  Reviver ;  and  Eevival 
.was  the  fashion  of  his  day.  Arnold  earl  of  Flan- 
ders l  had  lent  himself  with  the  utmost  zeal  to  the 
reform  of  the  Benedictine  abbeys  in  his  territory, 
and  they  were  the  models  selected  for  imitation,  or 
as  schools  of  instruction,  by  other  lands,  especially 
England  so  closely  connected  with  Flanders  by 
commerce  and  the  alliances  of  the  reigning  houses2. 

1  Arnold  died  in  964,  but  his  reforms  began  twenty  years  earlier. 
However,  between  the  years  912  and  942,  Berno,  and  his  still  more 
celebrated  successor  Odo,  abbots  of  Cluny,  had  introduced  a  reform  of 
the  Benedictine  rule  in  a  great  number  of  monasteries.     Flodoardus 
calls  Odo :  "  Dominus  Odo,  venerabilis  abbas,  multorum  restaurator 
monasteriorum,  sanctaeque  Regulae  reparator."     See  Pagi.  Baron,  ad 
an.  942.     This  example  was  not  lost  upon  Dunstan. 

2  "  Baudouin  le  chauve,  He  comte  de  Flandre,  s'empara,  en  900,  des 
deux  abbayes  de  St.  Vaast  et  St.  Bertin. . .  .Des  1'annee  944,  Arnould- 
le-vieux,  rentre  en  possession  de  St.  Vaast,  entreprit  la  reforme  de  ces 
abbayes,  par  les  soins  de  St.  Gerard  de  Brognes,  qu'il  nomma  abbe  de 
St.  Bertin.     II  le  chargea  ensuite  (probablement  vers  950)  de  celle 
des  abbayes  de  St.  Pierre  et  de  St.  Bavon  a  Gand,  qu'il  avait  egale- 
ment  sous  son  pouvoir  :  Womare  en  fut  nomme'  abbe.     Ces  reformes, 
sans  doute  d'apres  la  regie  de  Cluny,  cre'e  e»  910  [read  912  not  910], 
s'etendirent  d'apres  la  chronique  de  St.  Bertin  (Thes.  Anecd.  iii.  552, 
553),  a  dix-huit  abbayes  de  1'ordre  de  Saint  Benoit  (Chron.  de  Jean  de 
Thielrode,  edit,  de  M.  Vanlokeren,  p.  127).     Les  moines  qui  refuserent 
de  ay  soumettre,  furent  expulses  de  leurs  monasteres  :  quelques-uns 
emigrerent  en  Angleterre  ou  ailleurs."    Warnkonig,  Hist.  Fland.  ii. 
338  seq.     In  956  Dunstan  flying  from  England,  found  hospitality  and 
rest  in  one  of  these  reformed  houses,  that  of  Blandinium  or  St.  Peter, 
at  Ghent. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  459 

Yet  with  it  all,  Dunstan  does  not  appear  to  have 
taken  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  friends  of  monachism, — certainly  not  the  pro- 
minent part  taken   by  Oswald  or  vE$elwold,  the 
last  of  whom  merited  the  title  of  the  "  Father  of 
Monks,"  by  the  attention  he  paid  to  their  interests. 
In  the  archbishop's  own  cathedral  at  Canterbury, 
the  canons  were  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of 
their  property  and  dignity,  nor  were  monks  intro- 
duced there  by  archbishop  ^Elfric  till  some  years 
after   Dunstan' s  death.      And  even  this  measure, 
although  supported  by  papal  authority  x,   was  not 
final :  it  was  only  in  the  time  of  Lanfranc  that  the 
monks  obtained  secure  possession  of  Christchurch. 
Dunstan  very  probably  continued  throughout  his 
life  to  be  a  favourer  of  the  Order,  and  merited  its 
gratitude  by  giving  it  valuable   countenance   and 
substantial  protection  against  violence.    But  he  was 
assuredly  not  himself  a  violent  disturber,  casting 
all  things    divine  and  human    into    confusion    for 
the  sake  of  a  system  of  monkery.     His  recorded 
conduct    shows   nothing    of   the  kind.     I  believe 
his  monkish    and  very  vulgar-minded  panegyrists 
to  have    done    his    character    and    memory  great 
wrong  in  this  respect ;    and  that  they  have  mea- 
sured the  distinguished  statesman  by  the  narrow 
gauge  of  their  own  intelligence  and  desire.     Trou- 
blous no  doubt  were  his  commencements ;  and  in 
the  days  of  his  misery,  while  his  mind  yet  tossed 

1  Chron.  Sax.  an.  995.  Probably  it  never  had  been  monastic  from 
the  very  time  of  Augustine  :  and  the  setting  up  a  claim  on  the  part 
of  the  monks,  derived  from  Augustine  himself,  was  totally  inadmissible, 


460  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

and  struggled  among  the  awful  abysses  of  an  un- 
fathomed  sea  in  the  fierce  conflicts  of  his  ascetic 
retirement,  where  the  broken  heart  sought  rest 
and  found  it  not,  he  may  have  given  credence  him- 
self to  what  he  considered  supernatural  visitations 
vouchsafed,  and  powers  committed,  to  him.  But 
when  time  had  somewhat  healed  his  wounds,  when 
the  first  difficulties  of  his  political  life  were  sur- 
mounted, and  he  ruled  England, — nominally  as  the 
minister  of  Eadgar,  really  as  the  leader  of  a  very 
powerful  party  among  the  aristocracy, — there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  spirit  of  compromise,  which 
always  has  been  the  secret  of  our  public  life,  pro- 
duced its  necessary  effect  upon  himself.  Dunstan 
was  neither  Richelieu  nor  Mazarin,  but  the  servant 
of  a  king  who  wielded  very  limited  powers ;  he  had 
first  attained  his  throne  through  a  revolt,  the  pre- 
text for  which  was  his  brother's  bad  government, 
and  its  justification, — the  consequent  right  of  the 
people  to  depose  him.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  archbishop's  private  leaning,  he  appears  to 
have  conducted  himself  with  great  discretion,  and 
to  have  very  skilfully  maintained  the  peace  be- 
tween the  two  embittered  factions;  he  perhaps 
encouraged  Eadgar  to  manifest  his  partiality  for 
monachism  by  the  construction  or  reform  of  abbeys ; 
he  probably  supported  Oswald  and  ^E^elwold  by 
his  advice,  and  by  preventing  them  from  being 
illegally  interfered  with  in  the  course  of  their  law- 
ful actions ;  but  as  prime  minister  of  England,  he 
maintained  the  peace  as  well  for  one  as  for  the 
other,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  measure 


CH,  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  461 

of  violence  or  spoliation  took  place  by  his  conni- 
vance or  consent.  Neither  the  nation,  nor  the 
noble  families  whose  scions  found  a  comfortable 
provision  and  sufficient  support  in  the  prebends, 
would  have  looked  calmly  upon  the  unprovoked 
destruction  of  rights  sanctioned  by  prescription. 
But  there  is  indeed  no  reason  to  believe  that  vio- 
lent measures  were  resorted  to  in  any  of  the  esta- 
blishments, to  bring  about  the  changes  desired. 
Even  in  Winchester,  where  more  compulsion  seems 
to  have  been  used  than  anywhere  else,  the  evicted 
canons  were  provided  with  pensions.  I  strongly 
suspect  that  in  fact  they  did  retain  during  their 
lives  the  prebends  which  could  not  legally  be  taken 
from  them,  though  they  might  be  expelled  from 
the  cathedral  service  and  the  collegiate  buildings ; 
and  that  this  is  what  the  monkish  writers  veil 
under  the  report  that  pensions  were  assigned 
them. 

Dr.  Lingard  has  very  justly  observed  that  Os- 
wald, with  all  his  zeal,  made  no  change  whatever 
in  his  cathedral  of  York,  which  archdiocese  he  at 
one  time  held  together  with  Worcester ;  and  that, 
generally  speaking,  the  new  monasteries  were  either 
reared  upon  perfectly  new  ground,  or  on  ancient 
foundations  then  entirely  reduced  to  ruins  l.  With 
regard  to  Worcester,  he  says: — "Of  Oswald  we 


1  Hist,  and  Ant.  Ang.  Church,  ii.  290,  294.  This  was  certainly  the 
case  with  several  of  yEftel wold's  monasteries  ;  and  I  regret  to  think  that 
many  of  the  Saxon  charters  which  pretend  to  the  greatest  antiquity 
were  forged  on  occasion  of  this  revival,  to  enlarge  the  basis  of  the 
restored  foundations. 


462  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

are  told  that  he  introduced  monks  in  the  place 
of  clergymen  into  seven  churches  within  his  bi- 
shopric; but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  some 
of  the  seven  were  new  foundations,  and  that  in 
some  of  the  others  the  change  was  effected  with 
the  full  consent  of  the  canons  themselves.     In  his 
cathedral  he  succeeded  by  the  following  artifice. 
Having  erected  in  its  vicinity  a  new  church  to  the 
honour  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  he  entrusted  it  to  the 
care  of  a  community  of  monks,  and  frequented  it 
himself  for  the  solemn  celebration  of  mass.     The 
presence  of  the  bishop  attracted  that  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  the  ancient  clergy  saw  their  church  gradually 
abandoned ;  and  after  some  delay,  Wensine,  their 
dean,  a  man  advanced  in  years  and  of  unblemished 
character,  took  the  monastic  habit,   and  was  ad- 
vanced three  years  later  to  the  office  of  prior.    The 
influence  of  his  example  and  the  honour  of  his 
promotion,  held  out  a  strong  temptation    to    his 
brethren ;  till  at  last  the  number  of  canons  was  so 
diminished  by  repeated  desertions,  that  the  most 
wealthy  of  the  churches  of  Mercia  became  without 
dispute  or  violence,  by  the  very  act  of  its  old  pos- 
sessors,  a  monastery  of  Benedictine  monks  l.     In 
what  manner    Oswald  proceeded  with  the    other 
churches  we  are  ignorant ;  but  in  971  he  became 
archbishop  of  York,  and  though  he  held  that  high 
dignity  during  twenty  years,  we  do  not  read  that 
he  introduced  a  single  colony  of  monks  or  changed 


1  Eadmer,  Vit.  Oswald;  p,  202.    Aug.  Sac.  i,  542,    Hist,  Raines, 
p.  400. 


CH.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  463 

the  constitution  of  a  single  clerical  establishment, 
within  the  diocese.     The  reason  is  unknown." 

It  might  not  unfairly  be  suggested  either  that 
the  rights  of  the  canons  were  too  well  established 
to  be  shaken,  or  that  experience  had  changed  his 
own  mind  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  alteration. 
High  station,  active  engagement  with  the  details 
of  business,  increasing  age,  and  a  natural  mutual 
respect  which  grows  with  better  acquaintance,  may 
have  convinced  Oswald  that  his  youthful  zeal  had 
a  little  outrun  discretion,  and  that  the  canons  in 
his  province  and  diocese  were  not  so  utterly  devoid 
of  claims  to  consideration  as  he  once  had  imagined 
in  his  reforming  fervour.  But  the  reader  of  Anglo- 
saxon  history  will  not  fail  to  have  observed  that 
the  measured  and  in  general  fair  tone  of  Dr.  Lin- 
gard  differs  very  widely  from  that  of  early  monkish 
chroniclers,  and  that  he  himself  attributes  to  Os- 
wald a  much  less  active  interference  than  is  as- 
serted by  many  protestant  historians.  That  he  is 
right  I  do  not  for  a  moment  doubt;  for  not  only 
are  the  accounts  of  Oswald's  biographers  incon- 
sistent with  one  another,  and  improbable,  but  we 
have  very  strong  evidence  that  the  eviction  of  the 
canons  from  Worcester  was  not  completed  in  Os- 
wald's lifetime.  We  possess  no  fewer  than  seventy- 
eight  charters  granted  by  his  chapter,  and  these 
comprise  several  signed  in  990  and  991,  the  years 
immediately  preceding  that  in  which  he  died l : 
these  charters  are  signed  in  part  by  presbyters 

1  Cod,  Dipl.  Nos,  674-678. 


464  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

and  deacons,  in  part  by  clerics,  and  there  is  but 
one  signature  of  a  monk 1,  though  there  are  at 
least  six  clerici  who  subscribe.  Although  from  an 
examination  of  the  charters  I  entertain  no  doubt 
that  several,  if  not  all,  the  presbyters  and  deacons 
were  monks,  still  it  is  clear  that  a  number  of  the 
canons  still  retained  their  influence  over  the  pro- 
perty of  the  chapter  till  within  a  few  months  of 
Oswald's  decease.  This  prelate  came  to  his  see  in 
960,  and  according  to  many  accounts  immediately 
replaced  the  canons  of  Worcester  by  monks  :  all 
agree  that  he  lost  no  time  about  it,  and  Flo- 
rence 2,  himself  a  monk  of  that  place,  fixes  his 
triumph  in  the  year  969.  Consistently  with  this 
we  have  a  grant  of  that  year  3,  in  which  Wynsige 
the  monk,  and  all  the  monks  at  Worcester  are 
named :  we  have  a  similar  statement 4  in  another 
document  of  974 :  and  in  subsequent  charters 
monks  are  named.  A  good  example  occurs  in  a 
grant  of  the  year  977,  to  which  are  appended  the 
names  of  eight  monks  5 :  but  coupled  with  these 
are  also  the  names  of  sixteen  clerics,  exclusive  of 
a  presbyter  and  deacon  of  old  standing,  whom  the 
chapter  had  probably  caused  to  be  ordained  long 

3  In  Nos.  675,  678,  In  the  other  charters  where  this  Leofwine  occurs, 
he  is  even  called  clericus,  unless  it  were  another  person  of  the  same 
name. 

2  An.  969.     "  S.  Oswaldus,  sui  voti  compos  efiectus,  clericos  Wi- 
gorniensis  aecclesiae  monachilem  habitum  suscipere  renuentes  de  mo- 
nasterio  expulit ;  consentientes  vero,  hoc  anno,  ipso  teste  monachizavit, 
eisque  Ramesiensium  coenoTbitam  Wynsinum?  uiagnae  religionis  virum, 
loco  decani  praefecit." 

3  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  553.  *  Ibid.  No.  586. 
5  Ibid.  No.  615. 


en.  ix.]  THE  CLERGY  AND  MONKS.  465 

before,  to  do  the  service  for  them.  All  at  once  the 
addition  monachus  to  seven  of  these  eight  names 
vanishes,  and  is  replaced  by  presbyter  or  diaconus. 
Henceforth  the  number  of  clerici  gradually  dimi- 
nishes, but,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not  entirely  gone 
in  991,  the  year  before  Oswald's  death.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  bishop  had  any  power  to  expel  the 
canons,  and  that  he  was  compelled  to  let  them 
remain  where  they  were  until  they  died  :  but  he 
perhaps  could  prevent  any  but  monks  from  being 
received  in  their  places,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed 
that  he  could  refuse  to  admit  any  but  monks  to 
priests'  and  deacons'  orders.  This,  we  may  gather 
from  the  charters,  was  the  plan  he  pursued ;  and 
when  we  consider  the  dignity  and  power  possessed 
by  the  Anglosaxon  priesthood,  we  shall  confess  that 
it  was  one  which  threw  every  advantage  into  the 
scale  of  monachism. 

Had  we  similar  means  of  enquiry,  it  is  very  pro- 
bable that  we  should  come  to  the  same  conclusion 
with  regard  to  other  establishments  from  which 
the  canons  are  said  to  have  been  forcibly  driven. 
However  enough  seems  to  have  been  said,  to 
prove  that  we  must  be  very  careful  how  we  trust  to 
the  random  assertions  of  partizans  either  on  one 
side  or  the  other.  Let  us  be  ready  to  condemn 
ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  arrogance,  wherever  it  is 
proved  to  have  disgraced  the  clerical  profession; 
but  let  us  not  forget  that  it  is  our  duty  to  judge 
charitably.  In  the  case  which  we  have  now  con- 
sidered, I  think  we  shall  be  disposed  to  acquit 

VOL.  II.  2  H 


466  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

some  men,  whose  names  fill  a  conspicuous  place 
in  Saxon  history,  of  the  violence  and  folly  which 
their  own  over-zealous  partizans  have  laid  to  their 
charge,  and  which  have  been  used  in  modern  times 
to  embitter  the  separation  unfortunately  existing 
between  two  great  bodies  of  Christians. 


467 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY. 

THE  means  provided  for  the  support  of  the  clergy 
were  various  at  various   periods,  consisting  some- 
times merely  of  voluntary  donations  on  the  part  of 
the  people,  sometimes  of  grants  of  lands,  or  settled 
endowments,  and  sometimes  of  fixed  charges  upon 
persons  and  property,  recognized  by  the  state  and 
levied   under  its   authority:    and  after  the  secure 
establishment  of  a  Christian  church  in  Britain,  it  is 
probable  that  all  these  several  sources  of  income 
were  combined  to  supply  its  ministers  with  a  de- 
cent maintenance,  if  not  even  an  easy  competence. 
The  grant  of  lands  whereon  to  erect  a  church  or  a 
monastery  was  generally  calculated  also  to  furnish 
arable  and  pasture  for  the  support  of  its  inmates  : 
for  the  earliest  clergy  were  in  fact  coenobites,  and 
lived  in  common,  even  if  they  were  not  monks,  and 
subject  to  the  Benedictine  or  some  other  Rule.     It 
is  not  at  all  probable  that  the  heathen  priesthood 
should  have  been  without  an  adequate  provision, 
whether  in  land  or  the  free  oblations  of  the  people, 
and  very  likely  that  their  Christian  successors  pro- 
fited by  the  custom.     As  the  piety  or  superstition 
of  the  masses  increased  the  landed  possessions  of 
the  clergy,  these  not  only  could  depend  upon  the 

2  ii  2 


468  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

produce  of  their  estates,  but  upon  the  rents  in  kind, 
in  money  or  in  service,  which  they  received  from 
tenants  or  poor  dependents.  And  from  early  pe- 
riods, either  custom  or  positive  law  had  established 
a  right  to  claim  certain  contributions  at  fixed 
periods  of  the  year,  or  on  particular  occasions ; 
such  were  tithes  of  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  young 
of  cattle ;  cyricsceat  or  first-fruits  of  seed,  light- 
money,  plough-alms,  and  sawlsceat  or  mortuary 
fees.  The  numberless  grants  of  lands  recorded  in 
the  Codex  Diplomaticus  in  favour  of  the  clergy, 
dispense  with  the  necessity  of  entering  at  any  length 
upon  this  head ;  but  some  more  detailed  examina- 
tion of  the  other  church-dues  is  desirable,  inasmuch 
as  they  have  been  in  some  degree  misunderstood  by 
several  writers  who  have  heretofore  treated  of  them. 
In  truth,  it  was  comparatively  difficult  to  deal  with 
these  subjects,  till  the  publication  of  all  the  Anglo- 
saxon  laws  and  a  very  large  body  of  the  charters 
so  greatly  increased  the  number  of  data  upon  which 
alone  sound  conclusions  could  be  formed. 

The  subject  of  tithe  is  surrounded  with  difficulty, 
not  only  from  the  obscurity  which  belongs  to  its 
history,  but  still  more  from  the  nature  of  the  dis- 
cussions to  which  it  has  given  rise.  That  from 
periods  so  early  as  to  transcend  historical  record 
the  clergy  should  have  been  permitted  universally 
to  claim  a  tenth  of  all  increase,  does  indeed  seem 
so  startling  a  proposition,  that  we  are  little  sur- 
prised at  its  having  met  with  angry  opposition.  It 
does  not  seem  consonant  to  the  general  experience 
of  man  that  in  all  nations  precisely  the  same  mode 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  469 

should  be  adopted  of  supporting  any  class  of  men  ; 
nor  is  it  natural  or  easy  to  believe  that  a  missionary 
body,  in  constant  danger  of  finding  all  their  efforts 
vain,  should  prevail  at  once  to  establish  so  serious 
a  claim  against  the  income  of  their  converts. 

Still  there  are  various  circumstances  which  tend 
to  explain  this  process  and  show   how  a  general 
consent  upon    this    subject   did   gradually  prevail. 
From  the  first  moment  when  the  clergy  appear  as 
a  separate  class  from  the  whole  body  of  the  faith- 
ful, they  appear  as  a  body  formed  upon  the  plan 
and  guided  by  the  maxims  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy. 
While  the  church  was  literally  performing  the  com- 
mand of  the  Saviour, — when  those  who  had  any- 
thing, sold  all  they  had  and  gave  it  to  the  poor, 
through  the  hands  of  the  Apostles, — there  was  no 
particular  necessity  to  define  very  closely  the  func- 
tions or  the  remuneration  of  the  ministers;   these 
gave  their  services  as  others  did  their  wealth,  as  an 
acceptable  sacrifice  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  things. 
But  when  the  number   of  the  congregations  in- 
creased, when  compromises  were  made,  and  more 
complicated  duties  were  imposed  upon  the  ministers 
of  the  church,  it  was  only  reasonable  that  some  ar- 
rangement should  be  made  for  their  support,  and 
some  rule  imposed  for  their  direction.     It  was  not 
too  much  to  require  that  they  should  devote  their 
whole  time  and  talents  to  the  service  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  that  these  in  turn  should  relieve 
them  from  the  necessity  of  daily  labour  for  sub- 
sistence.    When  the  duty  of  teaching,  as  well  as 
visiting  the  sick,  distributing  the  alms  of  the  faith- 


470  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

fill,  and  providing  for  the  due  celebration  of  the 
religious  rites,  principally  devolved  upon  them,  it 
would  have  been  as  impolitic  as  unjust  to  have  con- 
demned them  to  uncertainty  or  anxiety  as  to  their 
daily  bread.  At  a  very  early  period  the  voluntary 
oblations  of  the  faithful  were  duly  apportioned,  and 
a  part  devoted  to.  the  support  of  the  clergy.  But 
no  one,  I  imagine,  will  consider  this  to  be  a  per- 
fectly satisfactory  mode  of  providing  for  the  minis- 
ters of  the  church :  its  inconveniences  are  daily 
manifested  in  our  own  time,  and  would  now  pro- 
bably not  be  submitted  to  at  all,  had  opposition 
not  lent  a  dignity  to  the  principle,  and  did  the  case 
present  any  but  the  actual  alternative.  It  never* 
theless  seems  that  for  nearly  four  hundred  years 
this  was  the  only  mode  of  providing  not  only  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  clergy,  but  for  the  acts  of  charity 
which  the  Christian  congregations  considered  their 
especial  duty l ;  although  perhaps  here  and  there 

1  "  Till  toward  the  end  of  the  first  four  hundred  [years]  no  payment  of 
them  [_i.  e.  tithes]  can  be  proved  to  have  been  in  use.  Some  opinion  is  of 
their  being  due,  and  constitutions  also,  but  such  as  are  of  no  credit. 
For  the  first,  'tis  best  declared  by  showing  the  course  of  the  church- 
maintenance  in  that  time.  So  liberal  in  the  beginning. of  Christianity 
was  the  devotion  of  the  believers,  that  their  bounty  to  the  evangelical 
priesthood  far  exceeded  what  the  tenth  could  have  been.  For  if  you 
look  to  the  first  of  the  Apostles'  times,  then  the  unity  of  heart  among 
them  about  Jerusalem,  was  such  that  all  was  in  common  and  none 
wanted,  '  and  as  many  as  were  possessors  of  lands  or  houses,  sold  them 
and  brought  the  price  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid  it  down  at 
the  Apostles'  feet,  and  it  was  distributed  unto  every  man,  according  as 
he  had  needa.'  And  the  whole  church,  both  lay  and  clergy,  then 
lived  in  common  as  the  monks  did  afterward  about  the  end  of  the  first 
four  hundred  years  as  St.  Chrysostome  notes b ;  OVTUS,  says  he,  ol  lv  rols 

a  Acts  iv.  34.  b  Horn.  H.  in  Acta. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  471 

the  wealthier  or  more  pious  communicants  might 
have  charged  their  estates  with  settled  payments  at 

fj.ova.(TTT]piois  £a>cri  vvv  oocrTrep  Tore  ot  Triorot,  that  is,  l  So  they  live  now  in 
monasteries  as  then  the  believers  lived.'     But  this  kind  of  having  all 
things  in  common  scarce  at  all  continued.     For  we  see  not  long  after 
in  the  church  of  Antiochia  (where  Christianity  was  first  of  all  by  that 
name  professed)  every  one  of  the  disciples  had  a  special  ability  or  estate 
of  his  owna.     So  in  Galatia  and  in  Corinth  where  St.  Paul  ordained 
that  weekly  offerings  for  the  Saints  should  be  given  by  every  man  as  he 
had  thrived  in  his  estate  b.   By  example  of  these,  the  course  of  monthly 
offerings  succeeded  in  the  next  ages.     These  monthly  offerings  given 
by  devout  and  able  Christians,  the  bishops  or  officers  appointed  in  the 
church  received6 ;    and   carefully  and    charitably  disposed  them  on 
Christian  worship,  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy,  feeding,  clothing, 
and  burying  their  poor  brethren,  widows,  orphans,  persons  tyrannically 
condemned  to  the  mines,  to  prison,  or  punished  by  deportation  into 
isles.     They  were  called  Stipes  (which  is  a  word  borrowed  from  the 
use  of  the  heathens  in  their  collections  made  for  their  temples  and 
deities),  neither  were  they  exacted  by  canon  or  otherwise,  but  arbi- 
trarily given  ;  as  by  testimony  of  most  learned  Tertullian  d,  that  lived 
about  cc  years   after   Christ,  is  apparent :    '  Neque   pretio  (are   his 
words)  ulla  res  Dei  constat.     Etiam  si  quod  arcae  genus  est,  non  de 
oneraria  summa  quasi  redemptae  religionis  congregatur,  modicam  unus- 
quisque  Stipem,  menstrua  die,  vel  cum  velit,  et  si  inodo  velit,  et  si 
modo  possit,  apponit.     Nam  nemo  compellitur,  sed  sponte   confert. 
Haec  quasi  deposita  pietatis  sunt.'     And  then  he  shewes  the  employ- 
ment of  them  in  those  charitable  uses.     Some  authority  ise;  that  about 
•this  time  lauds  began  also  to  be  given  to  the  church.     If  they  were 
so,  out  of  the  profits  of  them,  and  this  kind  of  offerings,  was  made 
a  treasure  j  and  out  of  that,  which  was  increased  so  monthly,  was 
a  monthly   pay  given   to  the   priests   and  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
(as  a  salarie  for  their  service),  and  that  either  by  the  hand  or  care 
of  the  bishop,  or  of  some  elders  appointed  as  Oeconomi  or  War- 
dens.    These  monthly  pays  they  called  Mensurnae  divisiones,  as  you 
may  see  in  St.  Cyprian f,  who  wrote,  being  bishop  of  Carthage,  about 

a  Acts  xi.  29. 

b  1  Cor.  xvi.  2.     Ockam,  in  Oper.  xc  dierum,  cap.  107. 

c  Synod.  Gangr.  can.  Ixvi.  d  Apologetic,  cap.  39,  42. 

e  Urban,  i.  in  Epist.  c.  12,  q.  1,  c.  16,  i.  Sed  et  vide  Euseb.  Eccles. 
Hist.  lib.  9.  cap.  9.  Edict.  Maximiu.  et  lib.  10.  cap.  5.  Edict.  Con- 
stant, et  in  lib.  2.  de  vita  Constantini,  cap.  39. 

f  Cyprian,  Epist.  27,  34 :  et  vide  Epist.  36,  editione  Pammeliana. 


472  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

fixed  times ;  or  the  liberality  of  individuals  might 
have  presented  estates  to  the  church  of  particular 

the  year  CCL,  and,  speaking  familiarly  of  this  use,  calls  the  brethren 
that   cast   in    their    monthly    offerings,  fratres  sportulantes,   under- 
standing the  offerings  under   the  word   Sportulae,  which  at  first  in 
Rome  denoted  a  kind  of  running  banquets  distributed  at  great  men's 
houses  to  such  as  visited  for  salutation,  which  being  ofttimes  also  given 
in  money,  the  word  came  at  length  to  signify  both  those  salaries,  wages 
or  fees  which  either  j  udges  a  or  ministers  of  courts  of  j  ustice  received 
as  due  to  their  places,  as  also  to  denote  the  oblations  given  to  make  a 
treasure  for  the  salaries  and  maintenance  of  the  ministers  of  the  church 
in  this  primitive  age,  and  to  this  purpose  was  it  also  used  in  later 
times  b.     But  because  that  passage  of  St.  Cyprian,  where  he  uses  this 
phrase,  well  shows  also  the  course  of  the  maintenance  of  the  church  in 
his  time,  take  it  here  transcribed :  but  first  know  the  drift  of  his  Epistle 
to  be  a  reprehension  of  Geminius  Faustinus  a  priest  his  being  troubled 
with  the  care  of  a  wardship,  whereas  such  as  take  that  dignity  upon 
them,  should,  he  says,  be  free  from  all  secular  troubles  like  the  Levites, 
who  were  provided  for  in  tithes.   f  Ut  qui  (as  he  writes0)  operationibus 
divinis  insistebant,  in  nulla  re  avocarentur,  nee  cogitare  aut  agere 
saecularia  cogerentur.'     And  then  he  adds  :  (  Quae  nunc  ratio  et  forma 
in  Clero  tenetur,  ut  qui  in  ecclesia  Domini  ad  ordinationem  clericalem 
promoventur,  nullo  modo  ab  administratione  divina  avocentur,  sed  in 
honore  sportulantium  fratruni,  tanquam  Decimas  ex  fructibus  accipi- 
entes,  ab  Altari  et  Sacrificiis  non  recedant,  et  die  ac  nocte  coelestibus 
rebus  et  spiritualibus  serviant  ;'  which  plainly  agrees  with  that  course 
of  monthly  pay,  made  out  of  the  oblations  brought  into  the  Treasury 
which  kind  of  means  he  compares  to  that  of  the  Levites,  as  being  pro- 
portionable.    But  hence  also  'tis  manifest,  that  no  payment  of  tithes 
was  in  St.  Cyprian's  time  in  use,  although  some,  too  rashly,  from  this 
very  place  would  infer  so  much,  those  words  tanquam  Decimas  accipi- 
entes  (which  continues  the  comparing  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel  with 
the  Levites)  plainly  exclude  them.  And  elsewhere  also  the  same  Father, 
finding  fault  with  a  coldness  of  devotion  that  then  possest  many,  in 
regard  of  what  was  in  use  in  the  Apostles'  times,  and  seeing  that  the 
Oblations  given  were  less  than  usually  before,  expresses d  their  neglect 


a  Papinian.  de  Decurion.  L  6.  §  1.  et  C.  tit.  de  Sportulis.  Et  vid. 
Glossar.  Grsec.  iuris  in  STroprovXa. 

b  Concil.  Chalced.  A.D.  451.  in  libell.  Samuelis  et  al.  contra  Iban.  et 
videsis  torn.  3.  Concil.  fol.  231.  cap.  31.  Edit.  Binii  penultima. 

c  Epist.  266.  ed.  Pammel.  d  De  Unitate  Ecclesiae,  §  23. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  473 

districts ;  or  some  imperfect  system  of  funding 
might  have  been  adopted  by  the  managers  to 
equalise  the  otherwise  irregular  income  of  various 
years. 

The  growing  habit  of  looking  upon  the  clergy  as 
the  successors  and  representatives  of  the  Levites 
under  the  Old  Law,  may  very  likely  have  given  the 
impulse  to  that  claim  which  they  set  up  to  the 
payment  of  tithes  by  the  laity.  But  it  is  also  pro- 
bable that  in  course  of  time  tithes  had  actually 
been  given  to  them  among  other  oblations,  and 
had  so  helped  to  strengthen  the  application  of  the 
Levitical  Law  by  an  apparent  legal  prescription. 
There  is  not  the  least  reason  to  doubt  that  pay- 
ments of  a  tenth  had  been  in  very  common  use 
before  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  and  among 
people  who  have  a  decimal  system  of  notation,  a 
tenth  is  not  an  unlikely  portion  to  be  claimed  as 
a  royalty,  a  recognitory  service,  or  a  rent.  The 
emperors  had  royalties  of  a  tenth  in  mines:  the 
landlords  very  frequently  reserved  a  tenth  in  lands 
which  they  put  out  on  usufructuary  tenure.  These 
rents  and  royalties,  like  other  property,  had  been 
granted  to  the  church.  Again  the  piety  of  the 
laity  had  occasionally  remitted  the  tenths  due  upon 

to  tlie  church  with,  l  ac  nunc  de  patrimonio  nee  Decimas  damus  : ' 
whence,  as  you  may  gather,  that  no  usual  payment  was  of  them,  so 
withall  observe  in  his  expression,  that  the  liberality  formerly  used  had 
been  such,  that,  in  respect  thereof,  Tenths  were  but  a  small  part : 
understand  it  as  if  he  had  said,  '  but  now  we  give  not  so  much  as  any 
part  worth  speaking  of.'  Neither  for  aught  appears  in  old  monuments 
of  credit,  till  near  the  end  of  this  first  four  hundred  years,  was  any 
payment  to  the  Church  of  any  tenth  part,  as  a  Tenth,  at  all  in  use." 
Selden  on  Tithes,  cap.  iv.  p.  35  seq. 


474  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  IT. 

the  lands  in  the  holding  of  the  clergy,  which  was 
in  fact  equivalent  to  a  grant  of  the  tithe1.  And 
lastly  tithe  being  paid  on  some  estates  to  the 
clergy  as  landlords,  there  was  a  useful  analogy, 
and  colourable  claim  of  right :  and  thus  sufficient 
authority  was  found  in  custom  itself  to  corrobo- 
rate pretensions  set  up  on  grounds  which  could  not 
be  very  satisfactorily  or  safely  demurred  to,  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 

But  there  is  not  the  slightest  proof  that  tithe  of 
increase  was  demanded  as  of  right  even  in  the  fifth 
century,  in  all  the  churches ;  although  a  growing 
tendency  in  that  direction  may  be  detected  in  the 
African  and  the  Western  establishments.  Nor  does 
any  general  council  exist  containing  any  regulation 
on  the  subject2,  till  far  later  periods.  But  in  567 
the  clergy  at  the  synod  of  Tours  for  the  first  time 
positively  called  upon  the  faithful  to  pay  tithes3, 
and  eighteen  years  later  at  the  Council  of  Macon, 

1  One  of  the  clearest  examples  that  occur  to  me  at  present  is  from 
a  capitulary  of  the  Merwingian  Ohlotachari  in  560.    l<  Agraria,  pascu- 
aria,  vel  decimas  porcorum,  aecclesiae,  pro  fidei  nostrae  devotione,  con- 
cedimus,  ita  ut  actor  aut  decimator  in  rebus  aecclesiae  nullus  accedat : 
aecclesiae  vel  clericis  nullam  requirant  agentes  publici  functionem  qui 
avi  vel  genitoris  aut  germani  nostri  immunitatem  meruerunt."  Pertz, 
iii.  3.     This  is  clearly  a  remission  of  tithe  due  to  the  king  from  lands 
held  by  the  clergy,  and  bears  some  resemblance  to  ^Effelwulf  's  cele- 
brated release. 

2  The  earliest  is  the  Council  of  Lateran,  held  by  Calixtus  II.  in  1123. 
The  Council  of  Lateran,  A.D.  1179,  commanded  that  those  who  at  the 
peril  of  their  souls  retained  property  in  tithes,  should  not,  under  any 
pretence,  transfer  it  to  lay  hands.     But  no  general  Council  assumes 
the  payment  of  tithes  to  be  due  of  common  right  to  the  parochial 
Rector,  before  the  Council  of  Lateran  held  by  Innocent  III.  in  1215. 

3  Epist.  Episc.  Prov.  Turon.  ad  plebem  Missaj  Labbe.  v.  868.   Eich- 
horn,  §186.  vol.  i.  779  seq. 


CH.X.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  475 

the  command  was  enforced,  as  a  return  to  a  just 
and  goodly  custom  which  had  fallen  into  desue- 
tude, but  which  had  the  sanction  of  "  the  divine 
law,  specially  taking  care  of  the  interests  of  priests 
and  ministers  of  churches."  The  daringly  false 
assertions  by  which  this  usurpation  was  attempted 
to  be  justified  are  recorded  in  the  annexed  note,  if 
indeed  the  acts  of  this  council  are  genuine l :  I  have 
only  to  add  that  they  were  subscribed  by  forty-six 
bishops,  and  the  representatives  of  twenty  more,— 

1  Cone.  Matiscon.  585.  can.  5.  "  Omnes  igitur  reliquas  fidei  causas, 
quas  temporis  longitudine  cognovimus  deterioratas  fuisse,  oportet  nos 
ad  statum  pristinum  revocare,  ne  nobis  simus  adversarii,  dum  ea  quae 
cognoscimus  ad  nostri  ordinis  qualitatem  pertinere,  aut  non  corrigimus, 
aut,  quod  nefas  est,  silentio  praeterimus.  Leges  itaque  divinae,  consu- 
lentes  sacerdotibus  ac  ministris  aecclesiarum,  pro  liaereditatis  portioiie 
omni  populo  praeceperunt  decimas  fructuum  siiorum  locis  sacris  prae- 
stare,  ut  nullo  labore  impediti,  lioris  legitimis  spiritualibus  possent 
vacare  ministeriis.  Quas  leges  Christianormn  congeries  longis  tem- 
poribus  custodivit  intemeratas  ;  nunc  autem  paulatim  praevaricatores 
legum  poene  Christian!  omnes  ostenduntur,  dum  ea  quae  divinitus 
sancita  sunt,  adimplere  negligunt.  Unde  statuimus  et  decernimus, 
ut  mos  antiquus  a  fidelibus  reparetur,  et  decimas  aecclesiasticis  faniu- 
lantibus  caeremoniis  populus  omnis  inferat,  quas  sacerdotes  aut  in 
pauperum  usum,  aut  in  captivorum  redemptionem  praerogantes,  suis 
orationibus  pacem  populo  et  salutem  impetrent.  Si  quis  autem  con- 
tumax  nostris  statutis  saluberrimis  fuerit,  a  membris  aecclesiae  omni 
tempore  separetur."  It  must  be  confessed  that  Selden  has  thrown 
very  great  doubts  upon  the  authenticity  of  this  canon  of  the  Council 
of  Macon,  and  that  it  is  of  very  questionable  authority.  See  his  'His- 
tory of  Tithes,  cap.  5.  p.  65.  It  is  hardly  consistent  with  what  Agobard 
of  Lyons,  who  shortly  after  was  bishop  of  the  see  itself  in  which  Macon 
lies,  declares:  "lam  vero  de  donandis  rebus  et  ordinandis  aecclesiis 
nihil  unquam  in  Synodis  constitution  est,  nihil  a  sanctis  patribus  pub- 
lice  praedicatum.  Nulla  enim  compulit  necessitas,  fervente  ubique 
religiosa  devotione,  etamore  illustrandi  aecclesias  ultro  aestuante,"  etc. 
Agob.  Lugdun.  de  Dispeusatione,  etc.  p.  276.  (Ed.  Masson.  Parisiis.) 
But  as  Eichhorn,  who  has  deeply  investigated  this  subject,  appears  to 
differ  here  from  Selden,  I  have  cited  this  Council  on  his  responsibility, 
and  with  the  more  readiness,  that  it  rather  opposes  than  confirms  my 
own  opinion. 


476  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

making  a  total  of  sixty-six  prelates,  a  number  quite 
sufficient  in  the  year  585  to  gain  currency  for  any 
fabrication  however  impudent.  The  clergy  how- 
ever still  thundered  in  vain;  nor  was  it  till  779 
that  they  succeeded  in  getting  legislative  and  state 
authority  for  their  claim  through  the  political  inter- 
ests of  the  Frankish  princes.  The  Capitulary  of 
that  year  enacts  that  every  one  shall  give  tithes, 
and  that  these  shall  be  distributed  by  the  direction 
of  the  bishop1. 

Ten  years  after  the  council  of  Macon  had  thus 
boldly  announced  its  views  with  regard  to  tithe, 
Augustine  set  out  for  England. 

The  question  as  to  the  origin  of  tithes  in  Eng- 
land, as  to  its  date,  and  the  authority  on  which  the 
impost  rested,  has  been  much  discussed,  but  not 
altogether  satisfactorily.  Nevertheless  when  di- 
vested of  the  extraneous  difficulties  with  which  po- 
lemical zeal,  and  selfish  class-interests  have  over- 
whelmed it,  it  does  not  seem  incapable  of  a  rea- 
sonable solution.  It  is  well  known  that  the  earliest 
legislative  enactment  on  the  subject  in  the  Anglo- 
saxon  laws  is  that  of  JEBelstan,  bearing  date  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  tenth  century ;  and  that  nearly 
every  subsequent  king  recognized  the  right  of  the 
clergy  to  tithe,  and  made  regulations  either  for  the 
levying  or  the  distribution  of  it2.  But  although 
this  is  the  case,  I  entertain  no  doubt  whatever  that 
the  payment  of  tithe  was  become  very  general  in 
England  at  an  earlier  period.  It  is  recognised  in 

1  u  De  decimis,  ut  unusquisque  dccimam  donet,  atque  per  iussionem 
pontificis  dispensentur."  Capit.  779,  cap.  7.     Pertz,  iii. 

2  See  Appendix  to  this  volume. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  477 

the  articles  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Ead- 
weard  the  elder  and  Gu'&orm,  in  A.D.  900  or  901, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  assume  its  being  a  well-known 
and  established  due  to  the  Church1,  even  though 
no  legislative  enactment  on  the  subject  can  be 
shown  in  the  Codes  of  Alfred,  Ini  or  the  Kentish 
kings  2.  The  well-known  tradition  of  ^E^elwulf 's 
granting  tithe,  throughout  at  least  his  kingdom  of 
Wessex,  carries  it  back  still  half  a  century.  But 
even  this  falls  short  of  the  antiquity  which  we  must 
assume  for  the  custom,  if  we  believe  in  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  ancient  Poenitentials  and  Confes- 
sionals. In  the  eighth  century  Theodore  deter- 
mines, in  a  work  especially  intended  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  clergy,  "  Tributum  aecclesiae  sit, 
sicut  est  consuetude  provinciae,  id  est,  ne  tantum 
pauperes  in  decimis,  aut  in  aliquibus  rebus  vim 
patiantur.  Decimas  non  est  legitimum  dare,  nisi 
pauperibus  et  peregrinis3." 

1  "  If  any  one  withhold  tithes,  let  him  pay  lahslit  among  the  Danes, 
wite  among  the  English."  Ead.  Gutf.  §  6.     Thorpe,  i.  170. 

2  Brompton  says  that  Offa  granted  it,  as  far  as  Mercia  was  concerned, 
p.  772.     Certainly,  in  general,  Brompton's  authority  is  not  very  great ; 
but  I  think  that  in  this  case  he  has  probability  on  his  side,  if  we  re- 
strict the  grant  to  Offa's  demesne  lands,  or  to  a  release  of  a  tenth  of 
the  dues  payable  to  the  king  on  Folcland.     A  general  enactment,  com- 
prising the  whole  kingdom,  would  scarcely  have  been  omitted  in  any 
subsequent  collection  of  laws.    The  law  of  Offa  is  indeed  lost,  but  some 
of  its  provisions  probably  survive  in  the  legislation  of  later  kings.    See 
.^Elfr.  Proem.  Thorpe,  i.  58.     The  absence  of  all  mention  of  tithe  by 
^Elfred  is  not  conclusive :  he  takes  just  as  little  notice  of  cyricsceat, 
leohtsceat,  sawlsceat,  and  other  payments  which  were  unquestionably 
claimed  by  the  church.     Eadweard's  treaty  with  Guttorm,  though  it 
does  not  define  the  parties  from  whom  tithe  was  demandable,  treats 
subtraction  of  it  as  an  offence  punishable  at  law. 

3  Capitula  et  Fragin.  Theod.     Thorpe,  ii.  65. 


478  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

The  Excerptions  of  Archbishop  Ecgberht1  con- 
tain a  prohibition  against  subtracting  tithes  from 
churches  of  old  foundation,  on  pretence  of  giving 
them  to  new  oratories.     And  further,  the  following 
exhortation   respecting  this  payment2:    "In  lege 
Domini  scriptum  est :   '  Decimas  et  primitias  non 
tardabis  oiferre.'     Et  in   Levitico :    '  Omnes   deci- 
mae  terrae,  sive  de  frugibus,  sive  de  pomis  arbo- 
rum,  Domini  sunt ;  boves,  et  oves,  et  caprae,  quae 
sub    pastoris  virga   transeunt,    quicquid    decimum 
venerit,  sanctificabitur  Domino.'     Non  eligetur  nee 
bonum   nee   malum,    nee   alterum    commutabitur. 
Augustinus   dicit :    Decimae    igitur   tributae    sunt 
aecclesiarum    et    egentium    animarum.     O    homo, 
inde    Dominus    decimas    expetit,    unde  vivis.     De 
militia,  de  negotio,  de  artificio  redde  decimas;  non 
enim  eget  Dominus  noster,  non  proemia  postulat, 
sed  honorem."     The  same  ancient  authority  thus 
also  impresses  upon  priests  the  duty  of  collecting 
and  distributing  the  tithe3: — "  Ut  unusquisque  sa- 
cerdos  cunctos  sibi  pertinentes   erudiat,  ut  sciant 
qualiter  decimas  totius  facultatis  aecclesiis  divinis 
debite  ofFerant.     Ut  ipsi  sacerdotes  a  populis  susci- 
piant  decimas,  et  nomina  eorum  quicumque  dede- 
rint    scripta   habeant,    et    secundum    auctoritatem 
canonicam  coram  [Deum]  timentibus  dividant;  et 
ad  ornamentum  aecclesiae  primam  eligant  partem ; 
secundam  autem,  ad  usum  pauperum  atque  pere- 
grin orum,   per   eorum  manus   misericorditer   cum 

1  Excerpt.  Ecgberhti,  No.  24.     Thorpe,  ii.  100. 

2  Excerpt.  Ecgberhti,  Nos.  101, 102.     Thorpe,  ii.  Ill,  112. 

3  Excerpt.  Ecgberhti,  Nos.  4, 5.     Thorpe,  ii.  98. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  479 

omni  humilitate  dispensent ;  tertiam  vero  sibimet- 
ipsis  sacerdotes  reservent1." 

When  we  consider  the  growing  tendency  in  the 
clergy  to  make  payment  of  tithe  compulsory,  the 
repeated  exhortations  of  provincial  synods  to  that 

1  The  custom  of  the  Romish  church,  as  is  well  known,  divided  every 
oblation,  or  gain  that  accrued  to  the  church  from  the  contributions  of 
the  faithfnl,  into  four  parts, — one  for  the  bishop,  one  for  the  poor,  one 
for  the  clergy,  and  one  for  the  repairs  of  the  fabric.  Othlon,  who  wrote 
the  Life  of  St.  Boniface  in  the  twelfth  century,  thus  appeals  to  the  uni- 
versal custom  of  the  church  :  "  Quando  quidena  iuxta  sanctorum  cano- 
num  decreta  decimas  in  quatuor  portiones  dividentes,  unam,  sibi  [i.  e. 
the  bishops],  alteram  clericis,  tertiam  pauperibus,  quartani  restaurandis 
aecclesiis  tradiderunt  ?  Numquid  avaritiae  suae  tantummodo  consu- 
lentes,  in  distributione  deciniarum  obliti  sunt  pauperum,  restaurationis- 
que  aecclesiarum,  sicut  modo,  pro  dolor !  cernimus  agi  ?  Canones  enini 
sancti,  ex  quorum  auctoritate  exiguntur  decimae,  non  solum  decimaa 
dari,  sed  etiam  inter  varies  aecclesiae  usus  distribui ;  ut  in  urbibus  qui- 
buslibet  et  vicis  Xenodochia  habeantur,  ubi  pauperes  et  peregrini  alan- 
tur.  Sed  tarn  sanctum  et  tarn  necessarium  praeceptum  in  pluribus 
locis  non  solum  minime  curatur,  sed  etiarn  poene  ignoratur.  Nam  so- 
lummodo  illud  legitur,  quod  epicopis  decimae  sint  tribuendae  j  quid 
vero  exinde  agendum  sit,  vel  si  quidquam  aliud  curandum  sit  circa  mo- 
nasteria,  tam  a  clericis — miserabile  dictu — quam  a  laicis  destructa,  ci- 
traque  iudicia  religionis  Christianae  subversa,  oblivioni  sen  ignorantiae 
commendatur."  Pertz,  ii.  358.  In  the  commencement  of  the  seventh 
century,  Gregory,  in  his  rules  for  the  government  of  the  newly-planted 
English  church,  directed  Augustine  to  make  not  four  but  three  por- 
tions, inasmuch  as  he  being  a  monk  could  have  no  separate  share  of 
his  own.  He  says  :  "  Mos  autem  sedis  apostolicae  est  ordinatis  epi- 
scopis  praecepta  tradere,  ut  in  omni  stipendio,  quod  accedit,  quatuor 
debeant  fieri  portiones  :  una  videlicet  episcopo  et  familiae  propter  hos- 
pitalitatem  atque  susceptionem,  alia  clero,  tertia  pauperibus,  quarta 
aecclesiis  reparandis'.  Sed  quia  tua  fraternitas  monasterii  regulis  eru- 
dita,  seorsum  fieri  non  debet  a  clericis  suis  in  aecclesia  Anglorum  quae, 
auctore  Deo,  nuper  adhuc  ad  fidem  adducta  est,  hanc  debet  conversa- 
tionem  instituere,  quae  iuitio  nascentis  aecclesiae  fuit  patribus  nostris  j 
in  quibus  nullus  eorum  ex  his,  quae  possidebant,  aliquid  suuni  ease  di- 
cebat,  sed  erant  eis  omnia  commimia."  Beda,  H.  E.  i.  27.  The  origi- 
nal canon  is  in  Gratian.  Cans.  12.  q.  ii.  c.  30.  Ed.  Pitheei.  fol.  Paris 
1687,  i.  240.  Hence  the  directions  of  the  Anglosaxon  prelates,  and 
the  regulation  of  JESelred,  as  to  a  threefold  division. 


480  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

effect,  and  the  universal  ignorance  of  the  people, 
we  shall  have  little  difficulty  in  acknowledging  that 
the  English  prelates  laid  a  good  foundation  for  the 
custom  of  tithing,  long  before  they  succeeded  in 
obtaining  any  legal  right  from  the  State.  In  the 
course  of  three  centuries  which  preceded  Ead- 
weard's  reign  they  had  ample  time  and  opportunity 
to  threaten  or  cajole  a  simple-minded  race  into  the 
belief  that  they  had  a  right  to  impose  the  levitical 
obligations  upon  them :  in  the  seventh  century 
Boniface  testifies  to  the  payment  of  tithe  in  Eng- 
land, nearly  a  century  before  the  state  enacted  it 
in  Germany :  about  the  same  period  Csedwealha  of 
Wessex,  though  yet  nominally  a  pagan,  tithed  his 
spoils  taken  in  war ;  and  I  have  little  doubt  that 
at  least  prsedial  tithe  was  almost  universally  levied 
long  before  the  Witena  gemot  made  it  a  legal 
charge,  though  I  cannot  concur  with  Phillips  in 
believing  that  it  was  so  decreed  by  Offa,  or  con- 
firmed by  -ZE'Selwulf  19  for  the  whole  kingdoms  of 
Mercia  and  Wessex. 

We  will  now  return  to  ^Eftelwulf's  so-called 
grant,  in  which  many  of  our  lawyers  and  historians 
have  been  content  to  see  the  legal  origin  of  tithing 
in  this  country 2 ;  but  which  I  must  confess  appears 
to  me  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  tithing  whatever, 
in  the  legal  sense  of  the  word.  The  reports  of  the 
later  chroniclers  need  not  be  taken  into  account ; 


1  Ajigelsach.  Kecht.   p.  251.    He  appeals  only  to  Brompton,  whose 
authority  is  by  no  means  conclusive. 

2  This  is  Selden's  view,  and  Hume's,  and  has  been  generally  fol- 
lowed. 


en.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  481 

we  may  confine  ourselves  to  the  early  and  trust- 
worthy sources,  whose  assertions  we  are  quite  as 
likely  to  make  proper  use  of  as  the  compilers  of 
the  fourteenth  century. 

Under  date  of  the  year  855,  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
says.  "  This  same  year,  ^E^elwulf  booked  the 
tenth  part  of  his  land  throughout  his  realm,  for 
God's  glory  and  his  own  salvation."  Asser,  who 
was  no  question  well  acquainted  with  the  tradi- 
tions of  ^E'Selwulfs  house,  varies  the  statement: 
"  Eodem  anno  JE$helwulfus  praefatus  venerabilis 
rex  decimam  totius  regni  sui  partem  ab  omni  re- 
gali  servitio  et  tribute  liberavit,  in  sempiternoque 
graphic  in  cruce  Christi,  pro  redemptione  animae 
suae  et  antecessorum  suorum,  uni  et  trino  Deo 
immolavit1."  In  this  he  is  followed  verbatim  by 
Florence  of  Worcester.  .ZE'&elweard,  a  direct  de- 
scendant of  jJE^elwulf,  thus  records  the  grant2 : 
"  In  eodem  anno  decumavit  A^ulf  rex  de  omni 
possessione  sua  in  partem  Domini,  et  in  universe 
regimine  principatus  sui  sic  constituit." 

Simeon  has : — "  Quo  tempore  rex  Ethelwulfus 
rex  decimavit  to  turn  regni  sui  imperium,  pro  re- 
demptione animae  suae  et  antecessorum  suorum." 

Huntingdon  : — "  TE'Selwulfus  decimo  nono  anno 
regni  sui  totam  terrain  suam  ad  opus  aecclesiarum 
decumavit,  propter  amorem  Dei  et  redemptionem 


sui." 


Roger  of  Wendover  and  Matthew  Paris,  upon 
the  authority  of  ^E'Selwulf's  charter  of  854,  say: — 

1  Li  anno  855.  2  Chronic,  lib.  iii. 

VOL.  II.  2  I 


482  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

"  Eodem  anno  rex  magnificus  Athelwulfus  decimam 
regni  sui  partem  Deo  et  Beatae  Mariae  et  omnibus 
sanctis  contulit,  liberam  ab  omnibus  servitiis  saecu- 
laribus  exactionibus  et  tributis."  And  again  in 
857,  speaking  of  JEBelwulf  s  will :— "  Pro  utilitate 
animae  suae  et  salute,  per  omne  regnum  suum 
semper  in  decem  hidis  vel  mansionibus  pauperem 
unum  indigenam,  vel  peregrinum  cibo,  potu  et  operi- 
mento,  successoribus  suis  usque  in  finem  saeculi 
post  se  pascere  praecepit,  ita  tarn  en  ut  si  terra  ilia 
pecoribus  abundaret  et  ab  hominibus  coleretur." 

Malmesbury,  who  calls  the  charter  of  854  "  scrip- 
turn  libertatis  aecclesiarum  quod  toti  concessit  An- 

gliae,"  thus  describes  its  effect : — "  Ethelwulfus 

decimam  omnium  hidarum  infra  regnum  suum 
Christi  famulis  concessit,  liberam  ab  omnibus  func- 
tionibus,  absolutam  ab  omnibus  inquietudinibus." 
And  in  857,  with  reference  to  .ZEftelwulfs  will : — 
"  Semperque  ad  finem  saeculi  in  omni  suae  haere- 
ditatis  decima  hida  pauperem  vestiri  et  cibari  prae- 
cepit." 

These  passages  obviously  relate  to  two  several 
transactions,  one  which  took  place  in  the  year  854, 
before  ^E'Selwulf  s  visit  to  Eome,  the  second  in 
the  year  857,  after  his  return  to  England  :  and  the 
Codex  Diplomaticus  contains  a  series  of  documents 
referring  to  them l.  A  portion  of  these  fall  under 
the  description  of  Malmesbury,  viz.  that  of  "  scrip- 
turn  libertatis  aecclesiarum .  "  and  as  he  cites  one 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  NOB.  270,  271,  275,  276;  1048, 1050,  1051,  1052, 1053 
1054, 1057 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  483 

of  them  himself  by  that  title,  it  is  certain  that 
these  are  what  he  intends.  Now  this  document, 
after  the  usual  proem,  recites  that  ^E^elwulf  with 
the  consent  of  his  witan,  not  only  gave  the  tenth 
part  of  the  lands  throughout  his  realm  to  holy 
churches,  but  granted  to  his  ministers,  appointed 
throughout  the  same,  to  have  in  perpetual  freedom, 
so  that  his  donation  might  remain  for  ever  free 
from  all  royal  and  secular  burthens  :  in  considera- 
tion of  which  the  bishops  agreed  to  a  special  service 
weekly  for  the  king  and  his  nobles  \  every  Saturday. 
Another  class,  and  probably  the  most  genuine, 
comprises  the  numbers  275  and  1048 ;  in  these 
documents,  which  are  also  grants  of  immunity  to 
the  clergy  and  to  laics,  the  granting  words  are 
as  follows : — "  Quamobrem  ego  ^Eftelwulfus  rex 
Occidentalium  Saxonum  cum  consilio  episcoporum 
et  principum  meorum,  consilium  salubre  atque  uni- 
forme  remedium  affirmavi;  ut  aliquam  portionem 
terrarum  haereditariam,  antea  possidentibus  gradi- 
bus  omnibus, — sive  famulis  et  famulabus  Dei  Deo 

1  The  actual  words  are  these  : — lt  Ut  decimam  partem  terrarum  per 
regnum  nostrum,  non  solum  sanctis  aecclesiis  darem  verumetiam  et 
ministris  nostris  in  eodem  constitutis,  in  perpetuam  libertatem  habere 
concessimus,  ita  ut  talis  donatio  fixa  incommutabilisque  permaneat  ab 
omni  regali  servitio  et  omnium  saecularium  absoluta  servitute."  These 
are  the  expressions  of  Nos.  270, 271, 1050, 1054  j  which  are  respectively 
dated  at  Wilton  on  the  22nd  of  April,  854,  and  convey  grants  of  sepa- 
rate lands  to  the  thane  WigferS,  to  Malmesbury  church,  to  Glastonbury, 
and  to  the  thane  Hunsige,  as  appears  by  the  statements  in  the  body  of 
the  charters,  as  well  as  by  the  endorsements,  which  are  to  this  effect.: — • 
No.  270.  e(  Ista  est  libertas  quam.  ^E'Selwulf  rex  suo  ministro  WiferSe 
in  perpetuam  haereditatem  habere  concessit,  unum  cassatum  in  loco 
qui  dicitur  Heregearding  hiwisc  :"  Endorsed,  (i  Dis  seondan  ses  landes 
bee  "Se  j-E'Selwulf  cyning  Wiferfte  his  J?egne  salde." 

212 


484  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  ir. 

servientibus,  sive  laicis, — semper  decimam  mansio- 
nem,  ubi  minimum  sit,  turn  decimam  partem, — in 
libertatem  perpetuam  perdonare  diiudicavi ;  ut  sit 
tuta  et  munita  ab  omnibus  saecularibus  servitutibus, 
fiscis  regalibus,  tributis  maioribus  et  minoribus,  sive 
taxationibus  quae  nos  dicimus  Witerseden ;  sitque 
libera  omnium  rerum,  pro  remissione  animarum  et 
peccatoruin   nostrorum,  Deo   soli  ad    serviendum, 
sine    expeditione,    et   pontis   instructione   et  arcis 
munitione,  ut  eo  diligentius  pro  nobis  ad  Deum 
preces  sine  cessatione  fundant,  quo   eorum  servi- 
tutem  saecularem  in  aliqua  parte  levigamus."     In 
consideration  of  this  alleviation  the  grateful  clergy 
were  to  perform  on  the  Wednesday  in  every  week 
the  same   services  as  the  first   class  of  documents 
stipulates  for  the  Saturday.     It  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  two  documents  of  this   particular  class, 
though  the  authority  for  them  is  of  the  lowest  de- 
scription, and  the  dates  are  altogether  suspicious, 
seem  to  be  of  a  much  more  genuine  character  as 
to  the  grant  itself  than  the  first  class :  there  is  a 
certain  satisfactory  accuracy  about  the  definition  of 
Witerseden  which  is  in  so  far  suggestive  of  an  au- 
thentic original ;  and  when  we  translate  the  very 
bad  Latin  "  sine  expeditione,"  etc.  by  the  genuine 
"  butan  fyrdfare,"  etc.,  we  shall  have  the  following 
reasonable   account   to   give   of  the    proceedings. 
^Eftelwulf,  being  humbled  and  terrified  by  the  dis- 
tresses of  wars  and  the  ravages  of  barbarous  and 
pagan  invaders,  devised  as  a  useful  remedy  thus ;  he 
determined  to  liberate  from  all  those  various  exac- 
tions and  services  which  went  by  the  general  name 


CJL  x.J  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  485 

of  witerocden,  the  tenth  part  of  the  estates  which, 
though  hereditary  tenure  had  grown  up  in  them, 
were  still  subject  to  the  ancient  burthens  of  folc- 
land,  whether  they  were  in  the  hands  of  laics  or 
clergy ;  that  where  the  estate  amounted  to  ten 
hides,  one  was  to  be  free ;  where  it  was  a  very 
small  quantity,  at  all  events  a  tenth  was  to  be  so 
enfranchised :  and  as  the  greater  part  of  this  land 
either  was  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  or  was  very 
likely  ultimately  to  come  there,  he  granted  this 
charitable  act  of  enfranchisement  that  on  these 
estates  the  holders  might  be  the  better  able  to  de- 
vote themselves  to  the  service  of  God,  all  other 
service  being  discharged,  except  indeed  the  in- 
evitable three.  This  seems  best  to  accord  with 
Asser's  assertion  that  the  king  sacrificed  to  God 
the  services  which  atose  to  himself  over  a  tenth 
part  of  all  his  realm.  Now  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  this  could  not  apply  to  booklands  which 
already  possessed  an  exemption,  but  only  to  folc- 
land,  whether  become  hereditary  or  not ;  nor  could 
regnum  possibly  mean  territory,  but  royal  rights, 
for  ^E'Selwulf  had  no  territory  except  his  private 
estates ;  nor  could  the  u  trinoda  necessitas "  be 
called  a  "  regale  servitium  et  tributum."  These 
were  the  dues  demandable  by  the  king  from  folc- 
land,  and  could  only  be  discharged  by  consent  of 
the  Witan.  The  expression  of  Simeon  appears 
also  to  be  susceptible  of  no  other  translation : 
when  he  says  the  king  tithed  "  totum  regni  sui 
imperium,"  I  can  see  no  territorial  division  in 
his  words,  but  only  that  the  king  relinquished  a 


486  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

tenth  part  of  those  imperial  rights  which  he  had  as 
king. 

A  third  class  of  documents  however  yet  remains 
to  be  considered.  In  these  a  clear  division  of  lands 
is  intended  and  is  recorded.  The  first  of  these  in 
point  of  time  are  the  Nos.  1051  and  1052,  which 
bear  the  suspicious  dates  of  Easter  in  the  year  854, 
the  first  indiction,  and  the  palace  at  Wilton :  that 
is,  with  the  exception  of  the  indiction,  the  dates  of 
the  first  class  of  documents.  These  two  charters 
declare  that  ^E'Selwulf  being  determined  by  the  ad- 
vice of  St.  Swithin  to  tithe  the  lands  of  all  the 
realm  that  God  had  given  him1,  increased  the  estate 
which  queen  Fri'Sogy'S  had  granted  to  the  church 
at  Winchester,  in  Taunton,  by  a  certain  amount 
of  hides  in  various  places.  These  are  followed  by 
another  of  the  same  year,  but  with  the  proper  in- 
diction, viz.  the  second,  declaring  that  on  the  same 
occasion  he  gave  other  lands  to  Winchester2 ;  and 
in  the  succeeding  year  855,  we  find  him  giving  an 
estate  in  Kent  to  Dun  a  minister  or  thane,  "  pro 
decimatione  agrorum,  quam  Deo  donante,  caeteris 
ministris  meis  facere  decrevi."  I  do  not  very  much 
insist  upon  giving  one  sense  rather  than  another 

1  "  Totius  regni  milii  a  Deo  collati  decimans  rura."    Nos.  1051, 1052. 

2  tl  Quando  decimam  partem  terrarmn  per  omne  regnum  meum 
sanctis  aecclesiis  dare  decrevi,"  etc.    No.  1053.     The  Saxon  version, 
whether  it  were  the  original  or  only  a  translation,  gives  us  the  true 
sense  of  this  assertion  :  it  runs  thns  : — "  fta  $a  he  teoftode  gynd  call 
his  cynerice,  "Sone  teofcan  dtel  ealra  his  landa,  mid  his  witena  ge>eahte, 
into  halgum  stowum," — 'when  throughout  all  his  realm,  he  tithed 
the  tenth  of  all  his  lands  into  holy  places,  by  the  counsel  of  his  witan.' 
There  was  nothing  to  prevent  ^Eftelwulf  from  giving  a  tenth  or  a  half 
of  all  his  own  lands  to  whom  he  pleased. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  487 

to  this  "pro  decimatione,"  and  am  ready  to  admit 
that  it  may  mean,  '  in  respect  of  the  general  tithing 
of  lands  which  I  intend  to  make  to  yourself  as  well 
as  the  rest  of  my  thanes,'  or  that  it  may  be  read, 
6  in  place  of  that  tithing  of  lands  which  I  intend  to 
make  to  the  rest  of  my  thanes,  I  give  you  such 
and  such  a  particular  estate.'  We  must  not  be  very 
fastidious  with  ^E^elwulfs  Latin,  especially  as 
there  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  in  this  case  it 
is  a  mere  translation  of  what  would  have  been  far 
more  intelligible  and  trustworthy  Saxon. 

Trustworthy,  however,  I  can  hardly  term  the  last 
document  I  have  to  notice1,  Saxon  though  it  be  : 
this  appears  to  be  one  of  a  very  suspicious  series 
of  instruments,  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  corrobo- 
rating some  ancient  claim  on  the  part  of  Win- 
chester, to  have  its  hundred  hides  at  Chilcombe 
rated  at  one  hide  only.  It  bears  marks  of  forgery  in 
every  line,  and  seems  to  have  been  made  up  out  of 
some  history  of  ^ftelwulf  s  sojourn  in  Eome,  but 
still  is  worth  citing  as  evidence  of  the  tradition  re- 
specting tithe  : — "  In  the  name  of  him  who  writeth 
in  the  book  of  life  in  heaven  those  who  in  this  life 
please  him  well,  I  A^ulf  the  king  in  this  writ 
notify  concerning  the  franchise  of  Chilcombe,  which 
Kynegils  the  king,  who  first  of  all  the  kings  in 
Wessex  became  a  Christian,  granted  to  his  bap- 
tismal father  Saint  Birinus ;  and  which  since  then 
all  the  kings  who  have  succeeded  one  another  in 
Wessex  have  enfranchised  and  advanced,  although 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1057. 


488  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

it  never  was  reduced  to  writing  until  the  time  of 
myself,  who  am  the  ninth  king.  Also  I  notify  that 
I  established  this  franchise  before  Saint  Peter  in 
Rome,  and  the  holy  Pope  Leo,  even  so  as  it  was 
settled  between  me  and  all  my  people,  ere  I  went 
to  Eome,  that  is,  that  all  the  land  comprised  in 
this  franchise  shall  for  ever  be  acquitted  for  one 
hide;  because  God's  possessions  should  ever  be 
more  free  than  any  worldly  possession:  and  also 
my  son  JElfred,  who  went  with  me  and  was  there 
consecrated  king,  pledged  himself  to  the  Pope,  both 
to  further  this  franchise  himself,  and  to  urge  his 
children  to  the  same,  if  God  should  grant  him  any. 
I  also,  before  the  same  Pope,  tithed  all  the  landed 
possessions  which  I  had  in  England,  to  God,  into 
holy  places  for  myself  and  for  all  my  people :  and 
in  Rome  with  the  assistance  and  by  the  leave  of  the 
Pope,  I  wrought  a  minster  for  the  honour  of  God 
and  to  the  worship  of  Saint  Mary,  his  holy  mother, 
and  placed  therein  a  company  of  English,  who  ever 
both  by  night  and  day  shall  serve  God,  for  our 
people :  and  when  I  returned  home  I  told  all  the 
people  what  I  had  done  in  Rome.  And  they  very 
earnestly  thanked  both  God  and  me  for  this,  and 
all  this  pleased  them  well,  and  they  said  that  with 
their  good  will  it  should  be  so  for  ever.  Now  I 
implore,  through  the  holy  Trinity  and  Saint  Peter, 
and  all  the  halidome  that  I  visited  in  Rome,  both 
for  myself  and  my  people,  that  never  either  king  or 
prince,  bishop  or  ealdorman,  thane  or  reeve  diminish 
what  hath  been  established  with  such  witness : 
doubtless  he  that  doth  so  will  anger  God  and  Saint 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  489 

Peter,  and  all  the  saints  that  repose  in  the  churches 
at  Rome,  and  miserably  earn  for  himself  the  punish- 
ments of  hell.  Moreover,  the  aforesaid  holy  Pope 
Leo  laid  God's  curse  and  Saint  Peter's,  and  all 
the  Saints'  and  his  own,  on  him  that  ever  violates 
this  ;  and  also  all  this  people  both  ordained  and  laic 
did  the  like  when  I  returned  home  and  announced 
this  to  them." 

If  these  data  then  be  correct,  ^E^elwulf  did  three 
distinct  things  at  different  times  :  he  first  released 
from  all  payments,  except  the  inevitable  three,  a 
tenth  part  of  the  folclands  or  unenfranchised  lands, 
whether  in  the  tenancy  of  the  church  or  of  his 
thanes.  In  this  tenth  part  of  the  lands  so  bur- 
thened  in  his  favour  he  annihilated  the  royal  rights, 
regnum  or  imperium;  and  as  the  lands  receiving 
this  privilege  were  secured  by  charter,  the  Chro- 
nicle can  justly  say  that  the  king  looked  them  to 
the  honour  of  God.  A  second  thing  he  did,  inas- 
much as  he  gave  a  tenth  part  of  his  own  private 
estates  of  bookland  to  various  thanes  or  clerical 
establishments.  And  lastly,  upon  every  ten  hides 
of  his  own  land  he  commanded  that  one  poor  man, 
whether  native  born  or  stranger,  that  is,  whether 
of  Wessex  or  some  other  kingdom,  should  be  main- 
tained in  food  and  clothing.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
waste  words  in  showing  how  utterly  different  all 
this  really  is  from  any  grant  of  tithe,  and  how 
entirely  unfounded  is  the  opinion  that  JESelwulf 
made  the  first  legal  enactment  in  behalf  of  tithe  in 
this  country.  All  that  it  proves  is,  that  j35$elwulf 
made  a  handsome  endowment  for  the  clergy,  and 


490  .  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND,  [BOOK  n. 

that  a  tenth  part  or  a  tenth  person  seemed  to  him 
to  mark  the  proper  proportion  between  what  he 
kept  and  what  he  gave  up.  It  renders  it  probable 
that  the  claim  to  tithe  had  already  become  familiar, 
since  ^E^elwulf  divided  his  land  by  ten  ;  but  it  also 
shows  that  even  the  Levitical  tithe  itself  was  mis- 
represented, if  he  believed  this  donation  of  his  to 
bear  any  resemblance  to  it.  We  may  suppose  the 
squire  in  a  country  parish  to  have  let  the  parson 
a  house,  and  subsequently  excused  him  a  tenth  of 
the  rent.  This  might  be  a  very  charitable  act,  and 
might  be  done  from  very  pure  religious  motives; 
but  it  would  scarcely  be  called  tithe  in  the  proper 
ecclesiastical  sense  of  that  word.  This  is  precisely 
what  ^E^elwulf  did  in  Wessex. 

In  addition  to  leohtsceat,  or  money  paid  to  sup- 
ply lights,  sulhoelmysse  or  plough-alms,  and  sawl- 
sceat,  a  present  made  to  the  church  where  a  testator 
desired  to  rest,  in  consideration  of  religious  services 
to  be  performed  for  the  good  of  his  soul,  there  was 
a  due  commonly  known  under  the  name  of  cyric- 
sceat.  It  is  not  clear  what  was  the  nature  of  this 
impost,  and  its  amount  is  uncertain,  as  well  as  the 
persons  who  were  liable  to  its  payment.  But  in  all 
probability  it  was  at  first  a  recognitory  rent  paid 
to  the  particular  churches  from  estates  leased  by 
them  ;  not  so  much  in  the  nature  of  a  fair  equiva- 
lent for  the  use  of  such  lands,  but  as  a  token  of 
beneficiary  tenure,  in  the  spirit  of  the  following 
words: — "  Solventes  inde  censum  per  singulos 
annos  missis  rectorum  praedicti  monasterii,  iv  de- 
narios  in  festivitate  sancti  Remigii  Confessoris,  ne 


CH.  x.]      THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.        491 

videamur  eas  ex  proprio,  seel  iure  beneficiario  pos- 
sidere1."  It  is  therefore  not  unusual  to  find  this 
impost  particularly  mentioned  in  church-leases, 
under  the  names  of  cyricsceat,  census  aecclesias- 
ticus,  cyriclad,  aecclesiae  munus,  and  similar  terms. 
The  true  character  of  the  payment  appears  from 
two  very  clear  examples  which  I  shall  quote  at 
length.  "  That  in  truth  may  say  the  thane  ^Elf- 
sige  Hunlafing  in  respect  to  his  obtaining  this  land 
free  from  every  burthen,  to  himself  and  his  heirs, 
except  burhbot,  bridge-work,  and  military  service, 
remembering  to  his  landlord,  cyricsceat,  sawlsceat 
and  his  tithes2."  This  landlord  was  a  bishop,  in 
all  probability,  but  he  is  not  named. 

In  the  year  902,  Denewulf  bishop  of  Winchester 
leased  fifteen  hides  of  land  to  Beornwulf  and  his 
heirs,  reserving  a  rent  of  forty-five  shillings  yearly. 
u  And  every  year  let  him  assist  in  the  bot  of  the 
church3  which  that  land  belongeth  to,  in  the  same 
proportion  as  the  other  folk  do,  each  by  the  mea- 
sure of  his  land ;  and  let  him  justly  pay  his  cyric- 
sceat, and  perform  his  military  service  and  bridge 

1  Schannat.  Tradit.  Fuldens.  No.  452,     So  also  in  the  Worcester 
Domesday,  Heinni.  500,  501.     "De  eodein  manerio  tenet  Hugo  de 
Grentesmaisnil  diniidiam  hidam  ad  Lapeuuerte,  et  Baldewinus  de  eo ; 
et  fuit  et  est  de  soca  episcopi.     De  liac  terra  per  singulos  annos  red- 
duntur  viii  denarii  ad  ecclesiam  de  Wirecestre,  pro  circette  et  recog- 
nitione  terre." 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  433. 

3  Hardly  the  repairs  of  the  church,  which  were  thus  to  be  attended 
to  yearly ;  although  in  religious  as  in  secular  tenures,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  tenant  was  liable  to  be  called  upon  to  assist  in  the  re- 
pairs of  the  lord's  buildings.     The  distinction  between  "  flget  6$er  folc," 
that  is  the  other  tenants,  and  "eal  folc, "that is  everybody  throughout 
the  realm,  is  clear. 


492  THE  SAX01NS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  i. 

and  fortress  work,  as  they  do  throughout  all  the 
folk1." 

Between  the  years  879  and  909,  the  same  bishop 
gave  forty  hides  to  Alfred,  for  his  life.  Upon  these 
he  reserved  a  rent  of  three  pounds,  cyricsceats, 
cyricsceat-work,  and  the  services  of  Alfred's  men 
when  required  at  the  bishop's  hunting  and  reaping2. 
In  like  manner  Oswald  reserved,  in  all  the  grants 
he  made  out  of  the  church  property  at  Worcester, 
the  church  rights,  that  is  to  say,  cyricsceat,  toll, 
tax  and  pannage,  and  also  the  services  of  the 
tenants  at  his  hunting 3.  Lastly  between  the  years 
871  and  877,  bishop  Ealhfri^  granting  eight  hides 
for  three  lives  to  duke  Cu/Sred,  reserved  bridge- 
work,  military  service,  eight  cyricsceats,  the  mass- 
priest's  rights  and  soulsceats4. 

This  cyricsceat  then  appears  to  have  been  origi- 
nally a  recognitory  service  due  to  the  lord  from 
the  tenant  on  church-lands.  But  it  is  very  clear 
that  in  process  of  time  a  new  character  was  assumed 
for  it,  and  it  was  claimed  of  all  men  alike,  as  a 
due  to  the  clergy.  Here,  again,  the  Levitical 
legislation  was  taken  to  be  applicable  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry.  The  Jews  had  been  commanded  to 
give  first-fruits5,  as  well  as  tithes;  and  if  tithes 
belonged  to  the  clergy  by  virtue  of  God's  com- 
mandment, so  did  first-fruits  also.  These  appear 

1  "  And  eac  Eelce  geare  fultumien  to  ftsere  cyrican  bote  $e  ffet  land 
to  hyr$  be  $em  dsele  fle  'Set  ofier  folc  do  s&lc  be  his  landes  me-Se  and 
fta  cyricsceattes  mid  rihte  agyfe  and  fyrde  and  brycge  and  festergeweorc 
hewe  swa  mon  ofer  eall  folc  do."     Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1079. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1086.  3  See  vol.  i.  p.  518.  App.  E. 
4  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  1062.                      5  Deut.  xviii.  4. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  493 

also  to  have  been  called  cyricsceat,  and  after  a  time 
became  an  established  charge  upon  the  land  of  the 
freeman  as  well  as  the  nnfree.  The  earliest  legis- 
lation which  we  can  discover,  bearing  unquestion- 
ably upon  this  point,  is  that  of  Eadmund  toward 
the  middle  of  the  tenth  century1;  he  strictly  com- 
mands payment  of  tithe,  cyricsceat,  and  almsfee, 
and  declares  that  he  who  will  not  do  it  shall  be  ex- 
communicated. By  the  time  of  Eadgar  however 
the  matter  seems  to  have  been  quite  settled,  and 
cyricsceat  is  directed  to  be  paid  from  the  hearth  of 
every  freeman  to  the  old  minster, — most  likely  to 
prevent  a  course  similar  to  the  arbitrary  consecra- 
tion of  tithes.  And  this  remained  a  fixed  charge 
upon  the  land  till  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  when 
it  ceased  to  be  generally  paid,  as  we  may  judge 
from  the  expressions  of  Fleta  and  other  jurists2;  it 

1  Leg.  Eadm.  i.  §  2.  Thorpe,  i.  244.  The  earlier  notices  are  Leg1.  Ini, 
§  4,  61.  yESelst.  i.  Thorpe,  i.  104,  140,  196.  But  these  are  not  at 
all  conclusive,  and  would  be  equally  applicable  to  the  case  of  the  lia- 
bility to  this  impost  being  confined  to  the  tenants  of  the  church.  Ini's 
law  only  regulates  the  time  at  which  the  impost  is  to  be  paid,  and  the 
particular  estate  from  which  it  is  due.  ^Eftelstan  confines  himself  to 
commanding  that  his  officers  shall  see  the  cyricsceat  paid  at  the  proper 
times  and  to  the  proper  places. 

-  "  Churchesed  certam  mensuram  bladi  tritici  signat,  quam  quilibet 
olim  sanctae  Ecclesiae  die  sancti  Martini,  tempore  tarn  Britonum  quam 
Anglorum,  contribuerunt.  Plures  tamen  magnates  post  Norniannorum 
adventum  in  Angliam,  illam  contributionem  secundum  veterem  legem 
Moysi,  nomine  Priinitiarum  dabant  j  prout  in  brevi  regis  Knuti  ad 
summum  Pontificem  transmisso  continetur,  in  quibus  illam  contribu- 
tionem appellant  Churchsed,  quasi  semen  ecclcsiae"  Fleta,  i.  47,  §  28. 
"  Chichesed,  al.  chircheomer,  al.  chircheambre  : — un  certein  de  ble 
batu  ke  checun  home  devoit  an  tens  de  Bretuns  e  de  engleis  a  le  eglise 
le  iur  seint  Martin  mes  pus  le  venue  de  Normans  si  le  priserent  a  lur 
vs  plusur  seinourages,  e  le  donerunt  solum  la  veile  lei  Moysi,  et  no- 


494  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOKH. 

had  passed  in  some  cases  into  the  hands  of  secular 
lords,  with  lands  alienated  by  the  clergy,  or  taken 
from  them.  But  in  the  time  of  Cnut  it  was  still  paid 
asprimitiae  seminum,  and  it  is  not  prohable  that  his 
successors  altered  his  arrangements  in  this  respect. 
The  liberality  of  the  Anglosaxons  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  grants  of  land  which  they 
conferred  upon  the  several  churches,  although  it 
is  impossible  to  deny  that  these  were  most  ex- 
travagant1. At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  clergy  were  always  certain  to  com- 
mand a  more  than  adequate  supply  of  free  and 
unfree  labour  ;  and  that,  if  their  landed  possessions 
thus  increased  their  wealth  to  an  extraordinary 
degree,  they  also  were  the  greatest  contributors  to 

mine  primiciarum  sicum  lem  troue  en  le  lettres  cuikt  ke  il  envea  a 
rome,  e  est  dit  chirchesed  quasi  semen  ecclesiae."  MS.  Soc.  Ant.  Ix 
fol.  228,  b.  This  writ  of  Cnut  to  the  Pope  is  not  known  to  me,  but 
we  have  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  his  Witan  from  Home,  to  which 
Fleta  probably  alludes.  "  Nunc  igitur  prsecipio  et  obtestor  omnes  meos 
episcopos  et  regni  praepositos,  per  fidem  quam  Deo  et  niihi  debetis, 
quatenus  faciatis,  ut  antequam  ego  Angliam  veniam,  omnia  debita,  quae 
Deo  secundum  legem  antiquam  debemus,  sint  soluta,  scilicet  eleeinosy- 
nae  pro  aratris,  et  decimae  animalium  ipsius  anni  procreatorum,  et  de- 
narii quos  Romae  ad  sanctum  Petrum  debemus,  sive  ex  urbibus  sive  ex 
yillis,  et  mediante  Augusto  decimae  fruguni,  et  in  festivitate  sancti 
Martini  primitiae  seminum  ad  ecclesiam  sub  cuius  parochia  quisque 
est,  quae  Anglice  Circesceat  nomin&ntur."  Flor.  Wigorn.  ad.  an.  1031. 
1  The  estate  of  Chilcombe  alone,  belonging  to  Winchester,  is 
reckoned  at  one  hundred  hides,  or  at  least  three  thousand  acres,  which 
they  succeeded  in  getting  rated  to  the  public  burthens  at  one  hide  only. 
Cod.  Dipl.  No.  642.  But  the  whole  of  their  estates  in  Hampshire 
appear  from  the  same  document  to  have  comprised  no  less  than  five 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  hides,  which  at  my  very  low  estimate  of 
the  hide  amount  to  seventeen  thousand,  three  hundred  and  forty  acres, — 
a  very  pretty  provision  for  one  Chapter.  The  amount  of  lands  and 
chattels  devised  by  various  prelates  almost  exceeds  belief. 


CH.  x.]  THE  INCOME  OF  THE  CLERGY.  495 

the  general  well-being  through  the  superior  excel- 
lence of  their  cultivation.  But  the  piety  or  the 
fears  of  the  laity  did  not  stop  short  at  gifts  of  land 
and  serfs :  jewels,  cups,  rings,  crosses  and  caskets, 
money,  tapestry,  and  vestments,  annual  foundations 
of  bread,  wine,  beer,  honey,  and  flesh,  sometimes 
to  enormous  amounts,  were  devised  by  the  will 
of  wealthy  and  penitent  sinners  :  houses  and  curti- 
lages, tolls  and  markets,  forests,  harbours,  fisheries, 
mines,  commons  of  pasture  and  mast,  flocks  and 
herds  of  swine,  horses  and  oxen,  testified  to  the 
liberality  of  ealdormen  and  kings.  Nor  was  the 
opportunity  of  investing  their  surplus  profitably 
always  wanting :  more  than  one  mortgage  is  re- 
corded, on  terms  sufficiently  favourable  to  the 
mortgagors ;  and  loans  on  excellent  security,  show 
that  if  the  nobles  knew  where  to  find  capitalists 
in  their  need,  the  capitalist  also  knew  very  well 
how  to  turn  his  facilities  to  good  account.  The 
necessity  of  providing  out  of  these  large  funds  for 
the  proper  maintenance  of  the  churches  and  the 
due  celebration  of  religious  rites,  can  hardly  be 
looked  upon  as  a  great  hardship  ;  and  although  the 
demands  of  charity  and  the  duties  of  hospitality, 
may  have  seemed  a  heavy  charge  to  the  avaricious 
or  the  selfish,  we  cannot  but  conclude,  that  no 
class  of  the  community  occupied  so  dignified  or  so 
easy  a  position  as  the  Anglosaxon  clergy.  The 
State,  fully  aware  of  the  value  of  their  services, 
was  not  niggardly  in  rewarding  them.  There  was 
a  ready  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  the  laity  in 
the  claims  of  the  clergy  to  respect  and  trust ;  and, 


496  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  IT. 

while  these  continued  to  maintain  a  decent  confor- 
mity to  the  duties  of  their  calling,  we  find  a  per- 
fectly harmonious  co-operation  of  all  classes  in  the 
church.  Nor,  amongst  all  the  writings  which  the 
clergy — the  only  writers — have  left  us,  do  we  find 
any  of  those  complaints  and  grievances,  which  are 
apt  to  be  made  prominent  enough  when  the  mem- 
bers of  that  powerful  body  believe  their  pretensions 
to  be  treated  with  less  than  due  consideration.  The 
devoted  partizan  of  Rome  might  choose  to  declare 
the  English  church  subject  to  such  bondage  as  no 
other  suffered ;  but,  except  from  quarrels  of  their 
own,  the  clergy  never  were  exposed  here  to  those 
inconveniences  which  are  unavoidable,  upon  any 
attempt  on  their  part  to  separate  themselves  from 
their  fellow-members  in  the  Christian  communion. 


497 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  POOR. 

THERE  is  hardly  a  question  connected  with  the 
march  of  civilization  more  difficult  to  answer  satis- 
factorily than  this  :  What  is  to  be  done  with  the 
Poor  I 

In  our  own  day,  when  subdivision  of  labour  has 
been  carried  to  an  unheard  of  extent,  when  property 
follows  the  natural  law  of  accumulation  in  masses, 
and  society  numbers  the  proletarian  as  an  inevitable 
unit  among  its  constituents,  the  question  presents 
itself  in  a  threatening  and  dangerous  form,  with 
difficulty  surrounding  it  on  every  side,  and  anarchy 
scowling  in  the  background,  hardly  to  be  appeased 
or  vanquished.  But  such  circumstances  as  those 
we  live  under  are  rare,  and  almost  unexampled 
in  history :  even  the  later  and  depraved  days  of 
Roman  civilization  offer  but  a  very  insufficient 
pattern  of  a  similar  condition  l.  Above  all  it  would 

1  The  Roman  poor-law  was,  consequently  upon  the  Roman  imperial 
institutions,  of  a  strange,  exceptional  and  most  dangerous  character. 
The  rulers  literally  fed  the  people  :  panem  et  circenscs,  food  and  amuse- 
ments ;  these  were  the  relief  which  the  wealthy  and  powerful  supplied, 
and  if  ever  these  were  sparingly  distributed,  convulsions  and  revolution 
were  inevitable.  The  Aetroupytai,  public  dinners,  and  other  doles  of  a 
compulsory  nature  assisted  the  poorer  among  the  Athenians.  (I  have 
not  cancelled  this  note,  which  was  written  long  before  the  events  of 
February  1848  and  their  consequences  had  added  another  pregnant 
example  to  the  store  of  history.) 

VOL.  II.  2  K 


498  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  u. 

be  difficult  to  find  any  parallel  for  them  in  coun- 
tries where  land  is  abundant,  and  the  accumulation 
of  property  slow :  there  may  be  pauperism  in  New 
York,  but  scarcely  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  cultivator  may  live  hardly,  poorly ;  but  he  can 
live,  and  as  increasing  numbers  gather  round  him 
and  form  a  market  for  his  superfluous  produce,  he 
will  gradually  become  easy,  and  at  length  wealthy. 
It  is  however  questionable  whether  population  will 
really  increase  very  fast  in  an  agricultural  commu- 
nity where  a  sufficient  provision  is  made  for  every 
family,  and  where  there  is  an  unlimited  fund,  and 
power  of  almost  indefinite  extension.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  seems  natural  under  these  circumstances 
that  the  proportion  between  the  consumers  and  the 
means  of  living  should  long  continue  to  be  an  ad- 
vantageous one,  and  no  pressure  will  be  felt  as  long 
as  no  effort  is  made  to  give  a  false  direction  to  the 
energies  of  any  portion  of  the  community. 

But  this  cannot  possibly  be  the  case  in  a  system 
which  limits  the  amount  of  the  estate  or  hyd. 
Here  a  period  must  unavoidably  arise  where  popu- 
lation advances  too  rapidly  for  subsistence,  unless 
a  manufacturing  effort  on  an  extensive  scale  is 
made,  and  made  with  perfect  freedom  from  all  re- 
straints, but  those  which  prudence  and  well-regu- 
lated views  of  self-interest  impose.  If  want  of  rapid 
internal  communication  deprive  the  farmer  of  a 
market,  and  compel  him  to  limit  his  produce  to 
the  requirements  of  his  own  family,  there  cannot 
be  a  doubt  not  only  that  he  will  be  compelled  to 
remain  in  a  stationary  and  not  very  easy  position, 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  499 

but  that  a  difficulty  will  arise  as  to  the  disposal  of 
a  redundant  population.  Many  plans  have  been 
devised  to  meet  this  difficulty  ;  a  favourite  one  has 
been  at  all  times,  to  endeavour  to  find  means  of 
limiting  population  itself,  instead  of  destroying 
all  restrictions  upon  occupation.  The  profoundest 
thinkers  of  Greece,  considering  that  a  pauper  po- 
pulation is  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  state,  have 
positively  recommended  violent  means  to  prevent 
its  increase  l  :  infanticide  and  exposition  thus  figure 
among  the  means  by  which  Plato  and  Aristotle  con- 
sider that  full  and  perfect  citizenship  is  to  be  main- 
tained. I  have  already  touched  upon  some  of  the 
means  by  which  our  forefathers  attempted  this 
regulation  :  emigration  was  as  popular  a  nostrum 
with  them  as  with  us:  service  in  the  comitatus, 
even  servitude  on  the  land,  were  looked  to  as  an 
outlet,  and  slavery  probably  served  to  keep  up 
something  of  a  balance  :  moreover  it  is  likely  that 
a  large  proportion  of  the  population  were  entirely 
prevented  from  contracting  marriage  :  of  this  last 


1  Ilepi  §e  diro6ecrfa)S  KCU  rpo(prjs  TWV  yiyvoptvav  eVro>  VO/JLOS 
7re7ir)pa>[ji€vov  rptfpfiv,  8ia  de  7T\rj6os  TeKva>v,  eav  rj  rd£is  TWV  e6 
pr)8ev  anoTi6ea6ai  TWV  yiypOfJifwv'  wpicrrai  yap  brj  TTJS  TfKvoTrouas  TO 
7T\fj6os-  Arist.  Polit.  vii.  c.  14.  See  also  Plato,  Leg.  bk.  5.  Ed.  Bekk. 
p.  739,  740,  etc.  Ed.  Stalbaum,  vol.  vi.  p.  131,  etc.  The  tendency  of 
Aristotle's  ideas  on  the  subject  may  be  gathered  from  his  notion  that 
the  Cretans  encouraged  iraiSfpao-ria,  in  order  to  check  population.  I 
am  informed  upon  good  authority,  that  in  the  Breisgau,  and  especially 
the  See-Kreis  of  Baden,  the  younger  children,  or  any  supposed  surplus, 
are  permitted  to  die,  of  want  of  food,  in  order  that  the  property 
(Bauerngut),  amounting  sometimes  to  100  morgen  or  66  acres  of  land, 
may  remain  undivided.  It  is  also  certain  that  in  other  parts  of  Europe, 
a  woman  who  bears  more  than  a  certain  settled  number  of  children  is 
looked  upon  with  contempt. 

2K2 


500  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

number  the  various  orders  of  the  clergy,  and  the 
monks  must  have  made  an  important  item.  It  is 
even  probable  that  the  somewhat  severe  restric- 
tions imposed  upon  conjugal  intercourse  may  have 
had  their  rise  in  an  erroneous  view  that  population 
might  thus  be  limited  or  regulated  1.  But  still,  all 
these  means  must  have  furnished  a  very  inade- 
quate relief:  even  the  worn-out  labourer,  especially 
if  unfree,  must  have  become  superfluous,  and  if  he 
was  of  little  use  to  his  owner,  there  was  little  chance 
of  his  finding  a  purchaser.  What  provision  was 
made  for  him  1 

The  condition  of  a  serf  or  an  outlaw  from  poverty 
is  an  abnormal  one,  but  only  so  in  a  Christian 
community.  In  fact  it  seems  to  me  that  the  State 
neither  contemplates  the  existence  of  the  poor,  nor 
cares  for  it :  the  poor  man's  right  to  live  is  derived 
from  the  moral  and  Christian,  not  from  the  public 
law :  so  little  true  is  the  general  assertion  that  the 
poor  man  has  a  right  to  be  maintained  upon  the 
land  on  which  he  was  born.  The  State  exists  for 
its  members,  the  full,  free  and  independent  citizens, 
self-supported  on  the  land ;  and  except  as  self- 
supported  on  the  land  it  knows  no  citizens  at  all. 
Any  one  but  the  holder  of  a  free  hyd  must  either 
fly  to  the  forest  or  take  service,  or  steal  and  become 
a  ]?eov.  How  the  pagan  Saxons  contemplated  this 
fact  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  at  the  period  when 

1  The  Pcenitentials  recommend  abstinence  every  Wednesday,  Friday 
and  Sunday  throughout  the  year  :  on  all  great  fasts,  high  feasts  and 
festivals  :  during  all  penances,  general  or  special :  seven  months  before 
and  after  parturition. 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  501 

we  first  meet  with  them  in  history,  two  disturbing 
causes  were  in  operation  ;  first  the  gradual  loosen- 
ing of  the  principle  of  the  mark-settlement,  and  the 
consequent  accumulation  of  landed  estates  in  few 
hands  ;  secondly  the  operation  of  Christianity. 

This  taught  the  equality  of  men  in  the  eye  of 
God,  who  had  made  all  men  brothers  in  the  mystery 
of  Christ's  passion.  And  from  this  also  it  followed 
that  those  who  had  been  bought  with  that  precious 
sacrifice  were  not  to  be  cast  away.  The  sin  of 
suffering  a  child  to  die  unbaptized  was  severely 
animadverted  upon.  The  crime  of  infanticide  could 
only  be  expiated  by  years  of  hard  and  wearisome 
penance ;  but  the  penance  unhappily  bears  witness 
to  the  principle, — a  principle  universally  pagan, 
and  not  given  up,  even  to  this  day,  by  nations  and 
classes  which  would  repudiate  with  indignation  the 
reproach  of  paganism,  though  thoroughly  imbued 
with  pagan  habits.  In  the  seventh  century  we  read 
of  the  existence  of  poor,  and  we  read  also  of  the 
duty  of  assisting  them.  But  as  the  State  had  in 
fact  nothing  to  do  with  them,  and  no  machinery  of 
its  own  to  provide  for  them,  and  as  the  clergy  were 
ex  officio  their  advocates  and  protectors,  the  State 
did  what  under  the  circumstances  was  the  best 
thing  to  do,  it  recognized  the  duty  which  the  clergy 
had  imposed  upon  themselves  of  supporting  the 
poor.  It  went  further, — it  compelled  the  freeman 
to  supply  the  clergy  with  the  means  of  doing  it. 

In  the  last  years  of  the  sixth  century,  Gregory 
the  Great  informed  Augustine  that  it  was  the  cus- 
tom of  the  .Roman  church  to  cause  a  fourth  part  of 


502  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

all  that  accrued  to  the  altar  from  the  oblations  of 
the  faithful  to  be  given  to  the  poor ;  and  this  was 
beyond  a  doubt  the  legitimate  substitute  for  the  old 
mode  of  distribution  which  the  Apostles  and  their 
successors  had  adopted  while  the  church  lurked  in 
corners  and  in  catacombs,  and  its  communicants 
stole  a  fearful  and  mysterious  pleasure  in  its  minis- 
trations under  the  jealous  eyes  of  imperial  pagan- 
ism. As  soon  however  as  the  accidental  oblations 
were  to  a  great  degree  replaced  by  settled  payments 
(whether  arising  out  of  land  or  not1),  and  these 
were  directed  to  be  applied  in  definite  proportions, 
we  may  venture  to  say  that  the  State  had  a  poor- 
law,  and  that  the  clergy  were  the  relieving  officers. 
The  spirit  of  Gregory's  injunction  is  that  a  part  of 
all  that  accrues  shall  be  given  to  the  poor;  and 
this  applies  with  equal  force  to  tithes,  churchshots, 
bots  or  fines,  eleemosynary  grants,  and  casual  ob- 
lations. In  this  spirit,  it  will  be  seen,  the  Anglo- 
saxon  clergy  acted,  and  we  may  believe  that  no 
inconsiderable  fund  was  provided  for  distribution. 
The  liability  of  the  tithe  is  the  first  point  upon 
which  I  shall  produce  evidence.  The  first  secular 
notice  of  this  is  contained  in  the  following  law  of 
^E^elred,  an.  1014: — "And  concerning  tithe,  the 

1  "To  shipmen  it  is  commanded;  like  as  it  also  is  to  husbandmen, 
that  they  should  give  unto  God  the  tenth  part  of  all  the  increase  upon 
their  stock,  and  moreover  give  alms  from  the  nine  parts  that  are  their 
own.  And  so  is  it  commanded  to  every  man  that  from  the  same  craft 
wherewith  he  provides  for  his  body's  need,  he  provide  for  that  of  his 
soul  also,  which  is  better  than  the  body."  Ecc.  Institutes.  Thorpe,  ii. 
432.  "  0  homo,  inde  Dominus  decimas  expetit,  unde  vivis.  De 
militia,  de  negotio,  de  artificio  redde  decimas."  St.  Augustine,  cited 
by  Ecgb.  Excerp.  102.  Thorpe,  ii.  112. 


CH.  xi.]  THE  POOR.  503 

king  and  his  wit  an  have  chosen  and  said,  as  right 
it  is,  that  the  third  part  of  the  tithe  which  belongs 
to  the  church,  shall  go  to  the  reparation  of  the 
church,  and  a  .second  part  to  the  servants  of  God, 
and  the  third  to  God's  poor  and  needy  men  in 
thraldom1." 

But  if  positive  public  enactment  be  rare,  it  is 
not  so  with  ecclesiastical  law,  and  the  recommen- 
dations of  the  rulers  of  the  Anglosaxon  church.   The 
Poenitentials,  Confessionals,  and  other  works  com- 
piled by  these  prelates    for  the  guidance  and  in- 
struction of  the  clergy  abound  in  passages  wherein 
the   obligation  of   providing  for   the  poor    out  of 
the  tithe  is  either  assumed  or  positively  asserted. 
In  the  'Capitula  et  Fragmenta'  of  Theodore,  dating 
in  the  seventh  century,  it  is  written,    "  It  is  not 
lawful  to  give  tithes  save  unto  the  poor  and  pil- 
grims2," which   can  hardly  mean  anything  but  a 
prohibition  to  the  clergy,  to  "make  friends  among 
the  laity  by  giving  them  presents  out  of  the  tithe  ; 
but  which  shows  what  were  the  lawful  or  legitimate 
uses  of  tithe.     Again  he  says3,  —  "  If  any  one  ad- 


,  ix.  §  6.  Thorpe,  i.  342.  This  passage  of  Augustine  is 
referred  to  in  the  collection  commonly  attributed  to  Ed.  Conf.  And  a 
detailed  enumeration  is  given  of  tithe  :  thus,  the  tenth  sheaf  of  corn  ; 
from  a  herd  of  mares,  the  tenth  foal  ;  where  there  are  only  one  or  two 
mares,  a  penny  per  foal.  Similarly  of  cows,  the  tenth  calf  or  an  obolus 
per  calf.  The  tenth  cheese,  or  the  tenth  day's  milk.  The  tenth  lamb, 
fleece,  measure  of  butter,  and  pig.  Of  bees  according  to  the  yearly 
yield  :  from  groves  and  meadows,  mills  and  waters,  parks,  stews, 
fisheries,  brushwood,  orchards  j  the  produce  of  all  business,  and  indeed 
of  everything  the  Lord  has  given,  the  tenth  part  shall  be  rendered. 
Thorpe,  i.  445. 

2  Cap.  et  Fragm.  Theod.     Thorpe,  ii.  65. 

3  Ibid.     Thorpe,  ii.  80.     These  xenodochia  were  hospitals  or  alms- 
houses. 


604  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

ministers  the  xenodochia  of  the  poor,  or  has  re- 
ceived the  tithes  of  the  people,  and  has  converted 
any  portion  thereof  to  his  own  uses,"  etc. 

In  the  Excerptions  of  archbishop  Ecgberht  we 
find  the  following  canon : — "  The  priests  are  to 
take  tithes  of  the  people,  and  to  make  a  written 
list  of  the  names  of  the  givers,  and  according  to 
the  authority  of  the  canons,  they  are  to  divide 
them,  in  the  presence  of  men  that  fear  God.  The 
first  part  they  are  to  take  for  the  adornment  of  the 
church ;  but  the  second  they  are  in  all  humility, 
mercifully  to  distribute  with  their  own  hands,  for 
the  use  of  the  poor  and  strangers ;  the  third  part 
however  the  priests  may  reserve  for  themselves 1." 

In  the  Confessional  of  the  same  prelate  we  find 
the  following  exhortation,  to  be  addressed  by  the 
priest  to  the  penitent : — "  Be  thou  gentle  and  cha- 
ritable to  the  poor,  zealous  in  almsgiving,  in  atten- 
dance at  church,  and  in  the  giving  of  tithe  to  God's 
church  and  the  poor2." 

In  the  canons  exacted  under  Eadgar,  but  which 
are  at  least  founded  upon  an  ancient  work  of  Cum- 
mianus,  there  is  this  entry: — "We  enjoin  that  the 
priests  so  distribute  the  people's  alms,  that  they 
do  both  give  pleasure  to  God,  and  accustom  the 
people  to  alms3;"  to  which  however  there  is  an 
addition  which  can  scarcely  well  be  understood  of 
anything  but  tithe :  "  and  it  is  right  that  one  part 
be  delivered  to  the  priests,  a  second  part  for  the 
need  of  the  church,  and  a  third  part  for  the  poor." 

1  Excerp.  Ecgb.  Thorpe,  ii.  98. 

2  Confes.  Ecgb.  Thorpe,  ii.  132.  3  Thorpe,  ii.  256. 


CH.  xi.]  THE  POOR.  505 

The  Canons  of  ^Elfric  have  the  same  entry,  and 
the  same  mode  of  distribution  as  those  of  Ecgberht : 
"The  holy  fathers  have  also  appointed  that  men 
shall  pay  their  tithes  into  God's  church.  And  let 
the  priest  go  thither,  and  divide  them  into  three  : 
one  part  for  the  repair  of  the  church  ;  the  second 
for  the  poor ;  the  third  for  God's  servants  who 
attend  to  the  church  V 

Thus  according  to  the  view  of  the  Anglosaxon 
church,  ratified  by  the  express  enactment  of  the 
witan,  a  third  of  the  tithe  was  the  absolute  pro 
perty  of  the  poor.  But  other  means  were  found  to 
increase  this  fund :  not  only  was  the  duty  of  alms- 
giving strenuously  enforced,  but  even  the  fasts  and 
penances  recommended  or  imposed  by  the  clergy 
were  made  subservient  to  the  same  charitable  pur- 
pose. The  canons  enacted  under  Eadgar  provide2, 
that  "  when  a  man  fasts,  then  let  the  dishes  that 
would  have  been  eaten  be  all  distributed  to  God's 
poor."  And  again  the  Ecclesiastical  Institutes  de- 
clare3 :  "  It  is  daily  needful  for  every  man  that  he 
give  his  alms  to  poor  men  ;  but  yet  when  we  fast, 
then  ought  we  to  give  greater  alms  than  on  other 
days  ;  because  the  meat  and  the  drink,  which  we 
should  then  use  if  we  did  not  fast,  we  ought  to 
distribute  to  the  poor." 

So  in  certain  cases  where  circumstances  ren- 
dered the  strict  performance  of  penance  difficult 
or  impossible,  a  kind  of  tariff  seems  to  have  been 
devised,  the  application  of  which  was  left  to  the 

1  Thorpe,  ii.  352.  2  Ibid.  ii.  286.  3  Ibid.  ii.  437. 


506  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

discretion  of  the  confessor.  The  proceeds  of  this 
commutation  were  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  Thus 
Theodore  teaches  l : — "  But  let  him  that  through  in- 
firmity cannot  fast,  give  alms  to  the  poor  accord- 
ing to  his  means;  that  is,  for  every  day  a  penny 
or  two  or  three  ....  For  a  year  let  him  give  thirty 
shillings  in  alms;  the  second  year,  twenty;  the 
third,  fifteen." 

Again2 : — "  He  that  knows  not  the  pSLilms  and 
cannot  fast,  must  give  twenty-two  shillings  in  alms 
for  the  poor,  as  commutation  for  a  year's  fasting 
on  bread  and  water ;  and  let  him  fast  every  Friday 
on  bread  and  water,  and  three  forties ;  that  is, 
forty  days  before  Easter,  forty  before  the  festival 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and  forty  before  Christ- 
mas-day. And  in  these  three  forties  let  him  esti- 
mate the  value  or  possible  value  of  whatsoever  is 
prepared  for  his  use,  in  food,  in  drink  or  what- 
ever it  may  be,  and  let  him  distribute  the  half  of 
that  value  in  alms  to  the  poor,"  etc. 

When  we  consider  the  almost  innumerable  cases 
in  which  penance  must  have  been  submitted  to  by 
conscientious  believers,  and  the  frequent  hindrances 
which  public  or  private  business  and  illness  must 
have  thrown  in  the  way  of  strict  performance,  we 
may  conclude  that  no  slight  addition  accrued  from 
this  source  to  the  fund  at  the  disposal  of  the  church 
for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  Even  the  follies  and 
vices  of  men  were  made  to  contribute  their  quota 

1  Poenit.  Thorpe,  ii.  61 :  see  also  ii.  83.  Tit.  de  incestis. 

2  Thorpe,  ii.  68.     See  also  pp.  67,  69,  70,  134,  222. 


CH.  xr.]  THE  POOR,  507 

in  a  more  direct  form.  Ecgberht  requires  that  a 
portion  of  the  spoil  gained  in  war  shall  be  applied 
to  charitable  purposes 1 ;  and  he  estimates  the 
amount  at  no  less  than  a  third  of  the  whole  booty. 
Again,  it  is  positively  enacted  by  JE^elred  and  his 
witan  that  a  portion  of  the  fines  paid  by  offenders 
to  the  church  should  be  applied  in  a  similar  man- 
ner :  they  say2,  that  such  money  "  belongs  law- 
fully, by  the  direction  of  the  bishops,  to  the  buying 
of  prayers,  to  the  behoof  of  the  poor,  to  the  repa- 
ration of  churches,  to  the  instruction,  clothing  and 
feeding  of  those  who  minister  to  God,  for  books, 
bells  and  vestments,  but  never  for  idle  pomp  of 
this  world." 

More  questionable  is  a  command  inculcated  by 
archbishop  Ecgberht,  that  the  over-wealthy  should 
punish  themselves  for  their  folly  by  large  contri- 
butions to  the  poor3:  "Let  him  that  collecteth 
immoderate  wealth,  for  his  want  of  wisdom,  give 
the  third  part  to  the  poor." 

Upon  the  bishops  and  clergy  was  especially  im- 
posed the  duty  of  attending  to  this  branch  of 
Christian  charity,  which  they  were  commanded  to 
exemplify  in  their  own  persons :  thus  the  bishops 
are  admonished  to  feed  and  clothe  the  poor4,  the 
clerk  who  possessed  a  superfluity  was  to  be  excom- 

1  Poenit.  Ecgb.  Thorpe,  ii.  232. 

2  ^E«elr.  vi.  §  61.     Thorpe,  i.  328.  3  Thorpe,  ii.  232. 

4  Archbishop  Ecgberht,  from  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Orleans  : 
(i  Episcopus  pauperibus  et  infirmis,  qui  debilitate  faciente  non  possunt 
suis  manibus  laborare,  victum  et  vestimentum,  in  quantum  possibilitas 
fiierit,  largiatur."  Thorpe,  ii.  105. 


£08  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

municated  if  he  did  not  distribute  it  to  the  poor  19 
nay  the  clergy  were  admonished  to  learn  and  prac- 
tise handicrafts,  not  only  in  order  to  keep  them- 
selves out  of  mischief  and  avoid  the  temptations  of 
idleness,  but  that  they  might  earn  funds  wherewith 
to  relieve  the  necessities  of  their  brethren2.  Those 
who  are  acquainted  with  the  MSS.  and  other  re- 
mains of  Anglosaxon  art  are  well-aware  how  great 
eminence  was  attained  by  some  of  these  clerical 
workmen,  and  how  valuable  their  skill  may  have 
been  in  the  eyes  of  the  wealthy  and  liberal3. 

Another  source  of  relief  remains  to  be  noticed  : 
I  mean  the  eleemosynary  foundations.  It  is  of 
course  well  known  that  every  church  and  monas- 
tery comprised  among  its  necessary  buildings  a 
xenodochium,  hospitium  or  similar  establishment, 
a  kind  of  hospital  for  the  reception  and  refection  of 
the  poor,  the  houseless  and  the  wayfarer.  But  I 
allude  more  particularly  to  the  foundations  which 
the  piety  of  the  clergy  or  laics  established  without 
the  walls  of  the  churches  or  monasteries.  ^t/Sel- 
stan  commanded  the  royal  reeves  throughout  his 
realm  to  feed  and  clothe  one  poor  man  each :  the 
allowance  was  to  be,  from  every  two  farms,  an 
amber  of  meal,  a  shank  of  bacon,  or  a  ram  worth 
fourpence,  monthly,  and  clothing  for  the  whole 
year.  The  reeves  here  intended  must  have  been 
the  bailiffs  (villici,  praepositi,  tungerefan)  of  the 

1  Theod.  Poen.  xxv.  §  6.  2  Ecc.  lust.   Thorpe,  ii.  404. 

3  We  know  that  Benedict  Biscop  received  as  much  as  eight  hides  of 
land  for  one  volume  of  geographical  treatises,  illustrated  and  illumi- 
nated. Bed.  Op.  Min.  155. 


CH.  XT.]  THE  POOR.  509 

royal  vills ;  and,  if  they  could  not  find  a  poor  man 
in  their  vill,  they  were  to  seek  him  in  another1. 
In  the  churches  which  were  especially  favoured 
with  the  patronage  of  the  wealthy  and  powerful,  it 
was  usual  for  the  anniversary  of  the  patron  to  be 
celebrated  with  religious  services,  a  feast  to  the  bro- 
therhood and  a  distribution  of  food  to  the  poor, 
which  was  occasionally  a  very  liberal  one.  In  the 
year  832  We  learn  incidentally  what  were  the  cha- 
ritable foundations  of  archbishop  Wulfred.  He 
commanded  twenty-six  poor  men  to  be  daily  fed  on 
different  manors,  he  gave  each  of  them  yearly 
twenty-six  pence  to  purchase  clothing,  and  further 
ordered  that  on  his  anniversary  twelve  hundred 
poor  men  should  receive  each  a  loaf  of  bread  and  a 
cheese,  or  bacon  and  one  penny2. 

Oswulf,  who  was  duke  of  East  Kent  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  ninth  century,  left  lands  to  Can- 
terbury charging  the  canons  with  doles  upon  his 
anniversary :  twenty  ploughlands  or  about  twelve 
hundred  acres  at  Stanstead  were  to  supply  the 
canons  and  the  poor  on  that  day  with  one  hundred 
and  twenty  wheaten  loaves,  thirty  of  pure  wheat, 
one  fat  ox,  four  sheep,  two  flitches,  five  geese,  ten 
hens,  ten  pounds  of  cheese  (or  if  it  happened  to  be 
a  fastday,  a  weigh  of  cheese,  fish,  butter  and  eggs 
ad  libitum),  thirty  measures  of  good  Welsh  ale,  and 
a  tub  of  honey  or  two  of  wine.  From  the  lands  of 
the  brotherhood  were  to  issue  one  hundred  and 
twenty  sufl  loaves,  apparently  a  kind  of  cake ;  while 

1  Thorpe,  i.  196.  2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  230. 


510  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

his  lands  at  Bourn  were  to  supply  a  thousand  loaves 
of  bread  and  a  thousand  svfls 1.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  tenth  century  Wulfwaru  devised  her  lands 
to  various  relatives,  and  charged  them  with  the  sup- 
port of  twenty  poor  men2.  About  the  same  period 
^E^elstan  the  se'&eling  gave  lands  to  Ely  on  con- 
dition that  they  fed  one  hundred  poor  men  on  his 
anniversary,  at  the  expense  of  his  heirs. 

From  what  has  preceded  it  may  fairly  be  argued 
that  at  all  times  there  was  a  very  sufficient  fund 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  seeing  that  tithe,  penance, 
fine,  voluntary  contribution,  and  compulsory  assess- 
ment all  combined  to  furnish  their  quota.  It  now 
remains  to  enquire  into  the  method  of  its  distri- 
bution. 

The  gains  of  the  altar,  whether  in  tithes,  obla- 
tions, or  other  forms,  were  strictly  payable  over  to 
the  metropolitan  or  cathedral  church  of  the  district. 
The  division  of  the  fund  was  thus  committed  to  the 
consulting  body  of  the  clergy,  and  their  executive 
or  head ;  and  the  several  shares  were  thus  distri- 
buted under  the  supervision  and  by  the  authority 
of  the  bishop  and  his  canons  in  each  diocese.  Pri- 
vate alms  may  have  remained  occasionally  at  the 
disposal  of  the  priest  in  a  small  parish,  but  the  re- 
cognized public  alms  which  were  the  property  of 
the  poor,  and  held  in  trust  for  them  by  the  clergy, 

1  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  226.     I  think  these  siifls  must  be  subf-ata,  raised 
or  leavened  bread.  The  contrast  afforded  by  the  heavy  black  rye  bread 
of  Westphalia — technically  Pumpernickel — will  serve  to  explain  the 
term.    In  the  east  of  England  still  a  kind  of  cakes  are  called  Scwls, 

probably  Sufis. 

2  Cod.  Dipl.  No.  694. 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  511 

were  necessarily  managed  by  the  principal  body, 
the  clergy  of  the  cathedral.  To  the  vicinity  of  the 
cathedral  flocked  the  maimed,  the  halt,  the  blind, 
the  destitute  and  friendless,  to  be  fed  and  clothed 
and  tended  for  the  love  of  God.  In  that  vicinity 
they  enjoyed  shelter,  defence,  private  aid  and  pub- 
lic alms ;  and  as  in  some  few  cases  the  cathedral 
church  was  surrounded  by  a  nourishing  city,  they 
could  hope  for  the  chances  which  always  accom- 
pany a  close  manufacturing  or  retailing  population. 
In  this  way  the  largest  proportion  of  the  poor  must 
have  been  collected  near  the  chief  church  of  the 
diocese,  on  whose  lands  they  found  an  easy  settle- 
ment, in  whose  xenodochia,  hospitals  and  alms- 
houses  they  met  with  a  refuge,  to  whom  they  gave 
their  services,  such  as  they  were,  and  from  whom 
they  received  in  turn  the  support  which  secular 
lords  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  give  :  for  the 
cathedral  church  being  generally  a  very  consider- 
able landowner,  had  the  power  of  employing  much 
more  labour  than  the  majority  of  secular  landlords 
in  any  given  district. 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  poor  could 
obtain  no  relief  save  at  the  cathedral :  every  parish- 
church  had  its  share  of  the  public  fund,  as  well  as 
private  alms,  devoted  to  this  purpose ;  and  to  the 
necessary  buildings  of  every  parish-church,  how- 
ever small,  a  xenodochium  belonged.  When  now 
we  consider  the  great  number  of  churches  that 
existed  all  over  England  in  the  tenth  century,  a 
number  which  most  likely  exceeded  that  now  in 
being,  and  consequently  bore  a  most  dispropor- 


512  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

tionate  ratio  to  the  then  population  of  the  country, 
— when  we  further  consider  that  the  poor  were  com- 
paratively few  (so  that  a  provision  was  absolutely 
made  for  the  case  where  a  pauper  could  not  be 
found  in  a  royal  village),  we  shall  have  no  difficulty 
in  concluding  that  relief  was  supplied  in  a  very 
ample  degree  to  the  needy. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow,  although  in  itself 
very  probable,  that  the  claim  to  relief  was  a  terri- 
torial one,  that  is  that  the  man  was  to  have  relief 
where  he  was  born,  lived  or  had  gained  a  settlement 
by  labour.  As  some  landowners,  particularly  in 
later  times,  especially  honoured  certain  churches 
with  the  grant  of  tithes  consecrated  to  them,  it  is 
possible  that  some  paupers  may  have  followed  the 
convenient  precedent,  and  argued  that  whither  the 
fund  went,  thither  might  the  recipients  go  also. 
And  inasmuch  as  in  many  cases  they  would  appear 
under  the  guise  of  poor  pilgrims,  we  can  readily 
understand  the  immense  resort  to  particular  shrines 
at  particular  periods,  without  overrating  the  devo- 
tion or  the  superstition  of  the  multitude.  But  all 
this  might  have  led  to  very  serious  consequences, 
had  the  facilities  really  been  so  great.  In  point  of 
fact  there  were  no  facilities  at  all  except  for  such 
as  were  from  age  or  infirmity  incapable  of  doing 
any  valuable  service.  For  among  the  Saxons  the 
law  of  settlement  applied  inexorably  to  all  classes : 
no  man  had  a  legal  existence  unless  he  could  be 
shown  to  belong  to  some  association  connected 
with  a  certain  locality,  or  to  be  in  the  hand,  pro- 
tection and  surety  of  a  landed  lord.  Even  a 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  513 

man  of  the  rank  nearest  the  princes  or  ealdorman 
could  not  leave  his  land  without  having  fulfilled 
certain  conditions ;  and  the  illegal  migration  of  a 
dependent  man  from  one  shire  or  one  estate  to 
another  was  punished  in  the  severest  manner,  in 
the  persons  of  all  concerned.  He  was  called  a 
Fly  ma  or  fugitive,  and  the  receiving  or  harbour- 
ing him  was  a  grave  offence,  punishable  with  a 
heavy  fine,  to  be  raised  for  the  benefit  of  the  king's 
officers  in  the  shire  the  fugitive  deserted,  as  well  as 
that  wherein  he  was  received  1.  Even  if  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  sheriffs  and  ealdorman  in  two  shires 
could  be  lulled,  it  was  difficult  to  disarm  the  sel- 
fishness of  a  landlord  or  an  owner  who  thought 
the  runaway's  services  of  any  value,  or  his  price 
worth  securing.  A  year  and  a  day  must  elapse  ere 
the  right  abated  from  the  "  lord  in  pursuit,"  for  so 
was  the  lord  called  over  all  Europe  in  the  idioms 
of  the  several  tongues  2 ;  and  hence  it  cannot  have 
been  a  very  easy  matter  for  any  man  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  poor-law,  while  it  remained  any  one's 
advantage  to  keep  him  from  falling  into  the  state 
of  pauperism  :  in  other  words,  no  man  whose  labour 
still  possessed  any  value  would  be  so  cast  upon  the 
world  as  to  have  no  refuge  but  what  the  church  in 
Christian  charity  provided.  And  this  was  the  real 
and  trustworthy  test  of  destitution.  If  a  man  was 
so  helpless,  friendless  and  useless  that  he  could 
find  no  place  in  one  of  the  mutual  associations,  or 

1  J&lfr.  §  33.     "Be  boldget^le." 

2  In  Germany  the  Nachfolgende,  Nachjagende  Herr.     See  Fleta  i. 
cap.  7.  §  7,  8. 

VOL.  II.  2  L 


514  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

in  a  lord's  family,  it  is  clear  that  he  must  become 
an  outlaw  as  far  as  the  State  is  concerned l :  he 
must  fly  to  the  woods,  turn  serf  or  steal,  or  else 
commend  himself  as  a  pauper  to  the  benefits  of 
clerical  superintendence :  but  it  is  perfectly  obvious 
that  none  but  the  hopelessly  infirm  or  aged  could 
ever  be  placed  under  such  difficulty,  in  a  country 
situated  like  England  at  any  period  of  the  Saxon 
rule,  and  hence  pauper  relief  was  in  practice  strictly 
confined  to  those  for  whom  it  was  justly  intended. 
The  Saxon  poor-law  then  appears  simple  enough, 
and  well  might  it  be  so  :  they  had  not  tried  many 
unsuccessful  and  ridiculous  experiments  in  ceco- 
nomics,  suffered  themselves  to  be  misled  by  very 
many  mischievous  crochets,  nor  on  the  whole  did 
they  find  it  necessary  to  make  so  expensive  a 
protest  against  bad  commercial  legislation  as  our 
poor-law  has  proved  to  us.  But  it  is  not  quite  the 
simple  thing  it  seems,  and  requires  two  elements 
for  its  efficient  working,  which  are  not  to  be  found 
at  every  period,  namely  a  powerful,  conscientious 
clergy,  and  a  system  of  property  founded  exclu- 
sively upon  the  possession  of  land,  and  guarded  by 

1  The  lordless  man,  of  whom  no  right  could  be  got,  i.  e.  who  being 
in  no  sort  of  association,  could  neither  support  himself  nor  offer  any 
guarantee  to  society,  was  to  be  got  into  one  by  his  family.  If  they 
either  could  not  or  would  not  produce  him  at  the  folcmot  and  find  a 
lord  for  him,  he  became  an  outlaw,  and  any  one  might  slay  him.  Leg. 
^Eflelstan.  Thorpe,  i.  200.  The  same  prince  decided  that  if  any  land- 
less man,  who  followed  a  lord  in  some  other  shire,  should  revisit  his 
family,  they  might  receive  him  on  condition  of  being  answerable  for 
his  offences.  Thorpe,  i.  204.  But  this  seems  to  me  to  be  the  case 
merely  of  a  temporary  visit,  made  of  course  with  the  knowledge  and 
permission  of  his  lord. 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  515 

a  compulsory  distribution  of  all  citizens  into  certain 
fixed  and  settled  associations. 

I  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  it 
was  usual,  if  not  necessary,  on  emancipating  a  serf, 
to  provide  for  his  subsistence.  It  is  however  not 
improbable  that,  though  such  emancipated  serfs 
remained  for  the  most  part  upon  the  land,  and  in 
the  protection  of  their  former  lord,  they  found  some 
assistance  from  the  poor  fund,  either  directly  from 
the  church,  or  indirectly  through  the  private  alms 
of  the  lord. 

To  resume  all  the  facts  of  the  case : — the  State 
did  not  contemplate  the  existence  or  provide  for 
the  support  of  any  poor  :  it  demanded  that  every 
man  should  either  be  answerable  for  himself  in  a 
mutual  bond  of  association  with  his  neighbours ;  or 
that  he  should  place  himself  under  the  protection 
of  a  lord,  if  he  had  no  means  of  his  own,  and  thus 
have  some  one  to  answer  for  him.  If  unfree,  the 
State  of  course  held  him  to  be  the  chattel  of  his 
owner,  who  was  only  responsible  to  God  for  his 
treatment  of  him.  He  therefore  who  had  no  means 
and  could  find  no  one  to  take  charge  of  him  was 
an  outlaw,  that  is,  had  no  civil  rights  of  any  kind. 

But  Christianity  taught  that  there  was  something 
even  above  the  State,  which  the  State  itself  was 
bound  to  recognize.  It  accordingly  impressed  upon 
all  communicants  the  moral  and  religious  duty  of 
assisting  those  of  their  brethren  whom  the  strict 
law  condemned  to  misery ;  and  the  clergy  presented 
their  organization  as  a  very  efficient  machinery  for 
the  proper  distribution  of  alms.  The  voluntary 

2  L2 


516  THE  SAXONS  IN  ENGLAND.  [BOOK  n. 

oblations  became  in  time  replaced  by  settled  pay- 
ments; but  the  law  did  not  alter  the  disposition 
which  the  clergy  had  adopted;  it  only  recognized 
and  sanctioned  it;  first  by  making  the  various 
church  payments  compulsory  upon  all  classes ;  and 
secondly  by  enacting  that  the  mode  of  distribution 
long  prevalent  should  be  the  legal  one,  in  a  secular 
as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical  obligation.  And  thus 
by  slow  degrees,  as  the  State  itself  became  Chris- 
tianized, the  moral  duty  became  a  legal  one ;  and 
the  merciful  intervention  of  religion  was  allowed  to 
supply  what  could  not  be  found  in  the  strict  rule 
of  law. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  enquire  how  the  power 
of  the  clergy  to  assist  the  poor  was  gradually  dimi- 
nished, by  the  arbitrary  consecration  or  total  sub- 
traction of  tithe,  and  other  ecclesiastical  payments  ; 
or  how  the  burthen  of  supporting  the  poor,  having 
become  a,  religious  as  well  as  a  civil  duty,  was 
shifted  from  one  fund  to  another.  It  is  enough  to ' 
have  shown  how  the  difficulty  was  attempted  to  be 
met  during  the  continuance  of  the  Anglosaxon  in- 
stitutions. Under  the  present  circumstances  of 
almost  every  European  state,  it  is  admitted  that  no 
man  is  to  perish  for  want  of  means,  while  means 
anywhere  exist  to  feed  him :  and  but  two  ques- 
tions can  be  admitted,  namely: — Who  is  really  in 
want  ?  and, — How  is  he  to  be  fed  at  the  least  possible 
amount  of  loss  to  others'?  This  is  as  far  as  the 
State  will  go.  Religion,  properly  considered,  im- 
poses very  different  duties,  and  very  different  tests : 
but  public  morality  alone  ought  to  teach  that 


CH.  XL]  THE  POOR.  517 

where  the  State  has  interfered  on  one  side,  it  must 
pay  the  penalty  on  the  other ;  and  that  where  it 
has  positively  prescribed  the  directions  in  which 
men  shall  seek  their  subsistence,  it  is  bound  to 
indemnify  those  whom  these  restrictions  have 
tended  to  impoverish.  Every  Poor  Law  is  a  pro- 
test against  some  wrong  done :  and  in  proportion 
to  the  wrong  is  the  energy  of  the  protest  itself. 
Do  not  interfere  with  industry,  and  it  will  be  very 
safe  to  leave  poverty  to  take  care  of  itself.  It  is 
quite  possible  to  conceive  a  state  of  things  in 
which  crime  and  poverty  shall  be  really  converti- 
ble ideas,  but  of  this  the  history  of  the  world  as 
yet  has  given  us  no  example. 


APPENDIX. 


521 


APPENDIX   A, 

THE  DOOMS  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LONDON. 
(./Ettelstan  Y.     Thorpe,  i.  228,  sq.) 

"  THIS  is  the  ordinance  which  the  bishops  and  the  reeves  belong- 
ing to  London  have  ordained,  and  with  weds  confirmed,  among 
our  '  frith  gegildas,'  as  well  eorlish  as  ceorlish,  in  addition  to  the 
dooms  which  were  fixed  at  Greatanlea  and  at  Exeter  and  at  Thun- 

resfeld. 

"  This  then  is  first. 

"  1.  That  no  thief  be  spared  over  xn  pence,  and  no  person 
over  xn  years,  whom  we  learn  according  to  folkright  that  he  is 
guilty,  and  can  make  no  denial ;  that  we  slay  him,  and  take  all 
that  he  has ;  and  first  take  the  '  ceapgild '  from  the  property ;  and 
after  that  let  the  surplus  be  divided  into  n  :  one  part  to  the  wife, 
if  she  be  innocent,  and  were  not  privy  to  the  crime ;  and  the  other 
into  ii ;  let  the  king  take  half,  half  the  fellowship.  If  it  be  boc- 
land  or  bishop's  land,  then  has  the  landlord  the  half  part  in  com- 
mon with  the  fellowship. 

"  2.  And  he  who  secretly  harbours  a  thief,  and  is  privy  to  the 
crime  and  to  the  guilt,  to  him  let  the  like  be  done. 

"  3.  And  he  who  stands  with  a  thief,  and  fights  with  him,  let 
him  be  slain  with  the  thief. 

"  4.  And  he  who  oft  before  has  been  convicted  openly  of  theft, 
and  shall  go  to  the  ordeal,  and  is  there  found  guilty ;  that  he  be 
slain,  unless  the  kindred  or  the  lord  be  willing  to  release  him  by 
his  '  wer,'  and  by  the  full  <  ceap-gild/  and  also  have  him  in  'borh,' 
that  he  thenceforth  desist  from  every  kind  of  evil.  If  after  that 

VOL.  II.  2  M 


622  APPENDIX  A. 

he  again  steal,  then  let  his  kinsmen  give  him  up  to  the  reeve  to 
whom  it  may  appertain,  in  such  custody  as  they  before  took  him 
out  of  from  the  ordeal,  and  let  him  be  slain  in  retribution  of  the 
theft.  But  if  any  one  defend  him,  and  will  take  him,  although 
he  was  convicted  at  the  ordeal,  so  that  he  might  not  be  slain ; 
that  he  should  be  liable  in  his  life,  unless  he  should  flee  to  the 
king,  and  he  should  give  him  his  life  ;  all  as  it  was  before  ordained 
at  Greatanlea,  and  at  Exeter,  and  at  Thunresfeld. 

"  5.  And  whoever  will  avenge  a  thief,  and  commits  an  assault, 
or  makes  an  attack  on  the  highway ;  let  him  be  liable  in  cxx 
shillings  to  the  king.  But  if  he  slay  any  one  in  his  revenge,  let 
him  be  liable  in  his  life,  and  in  all  that  he  has,  unless  the  king  is 
willing  to  be  merciful  to  him. 

"  Second. 

"  That  we  have  ordained :  that  each  of  us  should  contribute  iv 
pence  for  our  common  use  within  xn  months,  and  pay  for  the 
property  which  should  be  taken  after  we  had  contributed  the 
money  ;  and  that  all  should  have  the  search  in  common  ;  and  that 
every  man  should  contribute  his  shilling  who  had  property  to  the 
value  of  xxx  pence,  except  the  poor  widow  who  has  no  '  for- 

wyrhta '  nor  any  land. 

"  Third. 

"  That  we  count  always  ten  men  together,  and  the  chief  should 
direct  the  nine  in  each  of  those  duties  which  we  have  all  ordained  ; 
and  [count]  afterwards  their  '  hyndens '  together,  and  one  '  hyn- 
den-man  '  who  shall  admonish  the  x  for  our  common  benefit ;  and 
let  these  xi  hold  the  money  of  the  *  hynden,'  and  decide  .what 
they  shall  disburse  when  aught  is  to  pay,  and  what  they  shall 
receive,  if  money  should  arise  to  us,  at  our  common  suit ;  and  let 
them  also  know  that  every  contribution  be  forthcoming  which  we 
have  all  ordained  for  our  common  benefit,  after  the  rate  of  xxx 
pence  or  one  ox ;  so  that  all  be  fulfilled  which  we  have  ordained 
in  our  ordinances,  and  which  stands  in  our  agreement. 

"  Fourth. 
"  That  every  man  of  them  wbo  has  heard  the  orders  should  be 


THE  DOOMS  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LONDON.  523 

aidful  to  others,  as  well  in  tracing  as  in  pursuit,  so  long  as  the 
track  is  known  ;  and  after  the  track  has  failed  him,  that  one  man 
be  found  where  there  is  a  large  population,  as  well  as  from  one 
tithing  where  a  less  population  is,  either  to  ride  or  to  go  (unless 
there  be  need  of  more)  thither  where  most  need  is,  and  as  they  all 

have  ordained. 

"  Fifth. 

"  That  no  search  be  abandoned,  either  to  the  north  of  the  march 
or  to  the  south,  before  every  man  who  has  a  horse  has  ridden  one 
riding ;  and  that  he  who  has  not  a  horse,  work  for  the  lord  who 
rides  or  goes  for  him,  until  he  come  home ;  unless  right  shall 
have  been  previously  obtained. 

"  Sixth. 

"  1.  Respecting  our  '  ceapgild ' :  a  horse  at  half  a  pound,  if  it 
be  so  good ;  and  if  it  be  inferior,  let  it  be  paid  for  by  the  worth  of 
its  appearance,  and  by  that  which  the  man  values  it  at  who  owns 
it,  unless  he  have  evidence  that  it  be  as  good  as  he  says,  and  then 
let  [us]  have  the  surplus  which  we  there  require. 

"  2.  An  ox  at  a  mancus,  and  a  cow  at  xx,  and  a  swine  at  x, 
and  a  sheep  at  a  shilling. 

"  3.  And  we  have  ordained  respecting  our  '  theowmen '  whom 
men  might  have ;  if  anyone  should  steal  him,  that  he  should  be 
paid  for  with  half  a  pound ;  but  if  we  should  raise  the  '  gild,'  that 
it  should  be  increased  above  that,  by  the  worth  of  his  appearance, 
and  that  we  should  have  for  ourselves  the  surplus  that  we  then 
should  require.  But  if  he  should  have  stolen  himself  away,  that 
he  should  be  led  to  the  stoning,  as  it  was  formerly  ordained ;  and 
that  every  man  who  had  a  man,  should  contribute  either  a  penny 
or  a  halfpenny,  according  to  the  number  of  the  fellowship,  so  that 
we  might  be  able  to  raise  the  worth.  But  if  he  should  make  his 
escape,  that  he  should  be  paid  for  by  the  worth  of  his  appearance, 
and  we  all  should  make  search  for  him.  If  we  then  should  be 
able  to  come  at  him,  that  the  same  should  be  done  to  him  that 
would  be  done  to  a  Wylisc  thief,  or  that  he  be  hanged. 

"  4.  And  let  the  '  ceapgild  '  always  advance  from  xxx  pence  to 

2  M  2 


524  APPENDIX  A. 

half  a  pound,  after  we  make  search  ;  further,  if  we  raise  the '  ceap- 
gild '  to  the  full  '  angilde' ;  and  let  the  search  still  continue,  as 
was  before  ordained,  though  it  be  less. 

"  Seventh. 

"  That  we  have  ordained  :  let  do  the  deed  whoever  may  that 
shall  avenge  the  injuries  of  us  all,  that  we  should  be  all  so  in  one 
friendship  as  in  one  foeship,  whichever  it  then  may  be ;  and  that 
he  who  should  kill  a  thief  before  other  men,  that  he  be  xn  pence 
the  better  for  the  deed,  and  for  the  enterprize,  from  our  common 
money.  And  he  who  should  own  the  property  for  which  we  pay 
let  him  not  forsake  the  search,  on  peril  of  our  '  oferhyrnes,'  and 
the  notice  therewith,  until  we  come  to  payment ;  and  then  also  we 
would  reward  him  for  his  labour,  out  of  our  common  money,  ac- 
cording to  the  worth  of  the  journey,  lest  the  giving  notice  should 
be  neglected. 

"  Eighth. 

"  1.  That  we  gather  to  us  once  in  every  month,  if  we  can  and 
have  leisure,  the  '  hynden  men '  and  those  who  direct  the  tithings, 
as  well  with  '  bytt-fylling,'  as  else  it  may  concern  us,  and  know 
what  of  our  agreement  has  been  executed ;  and  let  these  xn  men 
have  their  refection  together,  and  feed  themselves  according  as 
they  may  deem  themselves  worthy,  and  deal  the  remains  of  the 
meat  for  the  love  of  God. 

"2.  And  if  it  then  should  happen  that  any  kin  be  so  strong 
and  so  great,  within  land  or  without,  whether  '  xn  hynde '  or 
'  twy  hynde,'  that  they  refuse  us  right,  and  stand  up  in  defence  of 
a  thief ;  that  we  all  of  us  ride  thereto  with  the  reeve  within  whose 
'  manung '  it  may  be. 

"  3.  And  also  send  on  both  sides  to  the  reeves,  and  desire  from 
them  aid  of  so  many  men  as  may  seem  to  us  adequate  for  so  great 
a  suit,  that  there  may  be  the  more  fear  in  those  culpable  men  for 
our  assemblage,  and  that  we  all  ride  thereto,  and  avenge  our 
wrong,  and  slay  the  thief,  and  those  who  fight  and  stand  with 
him,  unless  they  be  willing  to  depart  from  him. 

"  4.  And  if  any  one  trace  a  track  from  one  shire  to  another,  let 


THE  DOOMS  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LONDON.  525 

the  men  who  there  are  next  take  to  it,  and  pursue  the  track  till  it 
be  made  known  to  the  reeve ;  let  him  then  with  his  '  manung ' 
take  to  it,  and  pursue  the  track  out  of  his  shire,  if  he  can ;  but 
if  he  cannot,  let  him  pay  the  '  angylde '  of  the  property,  and  let 
both  reeveships  have  the  full  suit  in  common,  be  it  wherever  it 
may,  as  well  to  the  north  of  the  march  as  to  the  south,  always 
from  one  shire  to  another ;  so  that  every  reeve  may  assist  another, 
for  the  common  '  frith '  of  us  all,  by  the  king's  '  oferhyrnes.' 

"  5.  And  also  that  everyone  shall  help  another,  as  it  is  ordained 
and  by  '  weds '  confirmed ;  and  such  man  as  shall  neglect  this 
beyond  the  march,  let  him  be  liable  in  xxx  pence,  or  an  ox,  if  he 
aught  of  this  neglect  which  stands  in  our  writings,  and  we  with 
our  '  weds '  have  confirmed. 

"  6.  And  we  have  also  ordained  respecting  every  man  who  has 
given  his  '  wed '  in  our  gildships,  if  he  should  die,  that  each  gild- 
brother  shall  give  a  '  gesufel '  loaf  for  his  soul,  and  sing  a  fifty, 
or  get  it  sung  within  xxx  days. 

"  7.  And  we  also  command  our  '  hiremen  '  that  each  man  shall 
know  when  he  has  his  cattle,  or  when  he  has  not,  on  his  neigh- 
bour's witness,  and  that  he  point  out  to  us  the  track,  if  he  cannot 
find  it  within  three  days ;  for  we  believe  that  many  heedless  men 
reck  not  how  their  cattle  go,  for  over-confidence  in  the  '  frith/ 

"  8.  Then  we  command  that  within  in  days  he  make  it  known 
to  his  neighbours,  if  he  will  ask  for  the  '  ceap-gild ' ;  and  let  the 
search  nevertheless  go  on  as  it  was  before  ordained,  for  we  will  not 
pay  for  any  unguarded  property,  unless  it  be  stolen.  Many  men 
speak  fraudulent  speech.  If  he  cannot  point  out  to  us  the  track, 
let  him  show  on  oath  with  m  of  his  neighbours  that  it  has  been 
stolen  within  in  days,  and  after  that  let  him  ask  for  his  '  ceap- 
gild.' 

"  9.  And  let  it  not  be  denied  nor  concealed,  if  our  lord  or  any 
of  our  reeves  should  suggest  to  us  any  addition  to  our  '  frith-gilds' 
that  we  will  joyfully  accept  the  same,  as  it  becomes  us  all,  and 
may  be  advantageous  to  us.  But  let  us  trust  in  God,  and  our 
kingly  lord,  if  we  fulfil  all  things  thus,  that  the  affairs  of  all  folk 
will  be  better  with  respect  to  theft  than  they  before  were.  If, 


526  APPENDIX  A. 

however,  we  slacken  in  the  '  frith  '  and  the  '  wed '  which  we  have 
given,  and  the  king  has  commanded  of  us,  then  may  we  expect, 
or  well  know,  that  these  thieves  will  prevail  yet  more  than  they 
did  before.  Bat  let  us  keep  our  '  weds '  and  the  '  frith '  as  is 
pleasing  to  our  lord ;  it  greatly  behoves  us  that  we  devise  that 
which  he  wills ;  and  if  he  order  and  instruct  us  more,  we  shall  be 
humbly  ready. 

"  Ninth. 

"That  we  have  ordained:  respecting  those  thieves  whom  one 
cannot  immediately  discover  to  be  guilty,  and  one  afterwards  learns 
that  they  are  guilty  and  liable  ;  that  the  lord  or  the  kinsmen 
should  release  him  in  the  same  manner  as  those  men  are  released 
who  are  found  guilty  at  the  ordeal. 

"  Tenth. 

"  That  all  the  '  witan '  gave  their  '  weds '  altogether  to  the  arch- 
bishop at  Thunresfeld,  when  JElfeah  Stybb  and  Brihtnoth  Odda's 
son  came  to  meet  the  '  gemot '  by  the  king'  command ;  that  each 
reeve  should  take  the  '  wed '  in  his  own  shire  :  that  they  would  all 
hold  the  '  frith '  as  king  ^Ethelstan  and  his '  witan '  had  counselled 
it,  first  at  Greatanlea,  and  again  at  Exeter,  and  afterwards  at 
Feversham,  and  a  fourth  time  at  Thunresfeld,  before  the  arch- 
bishop and  all  the  bishops,  and  his  '  witan '  whom  the  king  him- 
self named,  who  were  thereat :  that  those  dooms  should  be  ob- 
served which  were  fixed  at  this  '  gemot,'  except  those  which  were 
there  before  done  away  with ;  which  was,  Sunday  marketing,  and 
that  with  full  and  true  witness  any  one  might  buy  out  of  port. 

"  Eleventh. 

"  That  ^Ethelstan  commands  his  bishops  and  his  *  ealdormen  ' 
and  all  his  reeves  over  all  my  realm,  that  ye  so  hold  the  '  frith ' 
as  I  and  my  '  witan '  have  ordained ;  and  if  any  of  you  neglect  it, 
and  will  not  obey  me,  and  will  not  take  the  '  wed '  of  his  '  hire- 
men,'  and  he  allow  of  secret  compositions,  and  will  not  attend  to 
these  regulations  as  I  have  commanded,  and  it  stands  in  our  writs; 
then  be  the  reeve  without  his  '  folgoth,'  and  without  my  friendship, 


FLEMISH  MUNICIPAL  CHARTERS.  527 

and  pay  me  cxx  shilling ;  and  each  of  my  thanes  who  has  land, 
and  will  not  keep  the  regulations  as  I  have  commanded,  [let  him 
pay]  half  that. 

u  Twelfth. 

"  1.  That  the  king  now  again  has  ordained  to  his  '  witan'  at 
Witlanburh,  and  has  commanded  it  to  be  made  known  to  the 
archbishop  by  bishop  Theodred,  that  it  seemed  to  him  too  cruel 
that  so  young  a  man  should  be  killed,  and  besides  for  so  little,  as 
he  has  learned  has  somewhere  been  done.  He  then  said,  that  it 
seemed  to  him,  and  to  those  who  counselled  with  him,  that  no 
younger  person  should  be  slain  than  xv  years,  except  he  should 
make  resistance  or  flee,  and  would  not  surrender  himself ;  that 
then  he  should  be  slain,  as  well  for  more  as  for  less,  whichever  it 
might  be.  But  if  he  be  willing  to  surrender  himself,  let  him  be 
put  into  prison,  as  it  was  ordained  at  Greatanlea,  and  by  the  same 
let  him  be  redeemed. 

"  2.  Or  if  he  come  not  into  prison,  and  they  have  none,  that 
they  take  him  in  '  borh '  by  his  full '  wer,'  that  he  will  evermore 
desist  from  every  kind  of  evil.  If  the  kindred  will  not  take  him 
out,  nor  enter  into  '  borh '  for  him,  then  let  him  swear  as  the 
bishop  may  instruct  him,  that  he  will  desist  from  every  kind  of 
evil,  and  stand  in  servitude  by  his  '  wer.'  But  if  he  after  that 
again  steal,  let  him  be  slain  or  hanged,  as  was  before  done  to  the 
elder  ones. 

"3.  And  the  king  has  also  ordained,  that  no  one  should  be 
slain  for  less  property  than  xn  pence  worth,  unless  he  will  flee 
or  defend  himself;  and  that  then  no  one  should  hesitate,  though 
it  were  for  less.  If  we  it  thus  hold,  then  trust  I  in  God  that  our 
'  frith '  will  be  better  than  it  has  before  been." 


The  following  Flemish  Charters  of  Liberties  seemed  to  me  fitting 
to  be  recorded  here.  They  are  taken  from  the  <  Pieces  justifi- 
catives '  of  Warnkonig's  History  of  Flanders,  vol.  ii. 


528  APPENDIX  A. 

I.  Premiere  CTiarte  ou  Keure  de  la  ville  de  St.  Omer,  accordee 
par  Guillaume  de  Normandie,  comte  de  Jflandre,  et  confirmee 
par  Louis-le-Gros,  roi  de  France.  14  Avril  1127. 

"  EGO  Guillelmus  Dei  gratia  Flandrensium  Comes  petitioni  Bur- 
gensium  Sancti  Audomari  contraVre  nolens,  pro  eo  maxime  qtiia 
meam  de  Consulatu  FlandriaD  petitionem  libenti  animo  receperunt, 
et  quia  honestius  et  fidelius  caBteris  Flandrensibus  erga  me  sem- 
per se  habuerunt,  lagas  sen.  consuetudines  subscriptas  perpetno 
eis  iure  concedo,  et  ratas  manere  prascipio. 

"  §  1.  Primo  qnidem  nt  erga  unumquemqne  hominem,  pacem  eis 
faciam  et  eos  sicnt  homines  meos  sine  malo  ingenio  mannteneam 
et  defendam ;  rectnmqne  indicium  scabinorum  erga  unumquemqne 
hominem,  et  erga  me  ipsnm  eis  fieri  concedam ;  ipsisqne  scabinis 
libertatem,  qualem  melius  habent  scabini  terra3  meae  constituam. 

"  §  2.  Si  quis  Burgensium  Sancti  Audomari  alicui  pecuniam 
suam  crediderit,  et  ille  cui  credita  est,  coram  legitimis  hominibus 
et  in  villa  su.a  hereditariis  sponte  concesserit,  quod  si  die  constituta 
pecuniam  non  persolverit,  ipse  vel  bona  ems,  donee  omnia  reddat, 
retineantur :  si  persolvere  noluerit,  aut  si  negaverit  hanc  conven- 
tionem,  et  testimonio  duorum  Scabinorum,  vel  duorum  iuratorum 
inde  convictus  fnerit,  donee  debitum  solvat,  retineatur. 

"  §  3.  Si  quis  de  iure  christianitatis  ab  aliquo  interpellate 
fuerit,  de  villa  Sancti  Audomari  alias  pro  iustitia  exequenda,  non 
exeat:  sed  in  eadem  villa  coram  episcopo  vel  eius  Archidiacono, 
vel  suo  presbytero,  quod  iustum  est  clericorum,  scabinorumque 
iudicio  exequatur :  nee  respondeat  alicui,  nisi  tribus  de  causis ; 
videlicet  de  infractura  ecclesise,  vel  atrii,  de  lesione  clerici,  de 
oppressione  et  violatione  feminaB :  quod  si  de  aliis  causis  queri- 
monia  facta  fuerit  coram  iudicibus  et  prasposito  meo  hoc  finiatur. 
Sic  enim  coram  K.  Comite  et  episcopo  Johanne  statutum  fuit. 

"  §  4.  Libertatem  vero,  quam  antecessorum  meorum  temporibus 
habuerunt  eis  concedo.  Scilicet  quod  nunquam  de  terra  sua  in 
expeditionem  proficiscentur,  excepto  si  hostilis  exercitns  terrain 
Flandrise  invaserit ;  tune  me  et  terram  meam  defendere  debebunt. 

"  §  5.  Omnes  qui  Gildam  eorum  habent,  et  ad  illam  pertinent, 


KEURE  OF  SAINT-OMER.     A.D.  1127.  529 

et  infra  cingulam  villas  suae  manent,  liberos  omnes  a  teloneo  facio, 
ad  portum  Dichesmudae  et  Graveningis  ;  et  per  totam  terrain 
Mandriae,  eos  liberos  a  Sewerp  facio.  Apud  Batpalmas  teloneum, 
quale  donant  Atrebatenses,  eis  constituo. 

"  §  6.  Quisquis  eorum  ad  terram  imperatoris  pro  negotiatione 
sua  perexerit,  a  nemine  meorum  hansam  persolvere  cogatur. 

"  §  7.  Si  contigerit  mihi  aliquo  tempore  praeter  terram  Elan- 
driae  aliam  conquirere,  aut  si  concordia  pacis  inter  me  et  avuncu- 
lum  meum  H.  regem  Angliae  facta  fuerit,  in  conquisita  terra 
ilia  aut  in  toto  regno  Anglorum  eos  liberos  ab  omni  teloneo  et  ab 
omni  consuetudine  in  coneordia  ilia  recipi  faciam. 

"  §  8.  In  omni  mercato  Elandriao  si  quis  clamorem  adversus 
eos  suscitaverit  indicium  scabinorum  de  omni  clamore  sine  duello 
subeant ;  ab  duello  vero  ulterius  liberi  sint. 

"  §  9.  Omnes  qui  infra  murum  sancti  Audomari  habitant  et 
deinceps  sunt  habitaturi,  liberos  a  Cavagio  hoc  est  a  capitali  censu, 
et  de  advocationibus  constituo. 

"  §  10.  Pecuniam  eorum  quse  post  mortem  Comitis  K.  eis  ablata 
est,  et  quae  propter  fidelitatem  quam  erga  me  habent  adhuc  eis 
detinetur,  aut  infra  annum  reddi  faciam,  aut  iudicio  scabinorum 
institiam  eis  fieri  concedam. 

"§  11.  Prseterea  rogaverunt  regem  Erancise  et  Eaulphum  de 
Parona,  ut  ubicumque  in  terram  illorum  venerint,  liberi  sint  ab 
omni  teloneo,  et  traverse  et  passagio  ;  quod  et  concedi  volo. 

"  §  12.  Communionem  autem  suam  sicut  earn  iuraverunt  per- 
manere  praecipio,  et  a  nemine  dissolvi  permitto,  et  omne  rectum 
rectamque  iustitiam  sicut  melius  stat  in  terra  mea,  scilicet  in  Elan- 
dria,  eis  concede. 

"  §  13.  Et  sicut  meliores  et  liberiores  Burgenses  Elandriae  ab 
omni  consuetudine  liberos  deinceps  esse  volo  ;  nullum  sooth,  nul- 
lam  taliam,  nullam  pecunise  suae  petitionem  ab  eis  requiro. 

"  §  14.  Monetam  meam  in  Sancto  Audomaro  unde  per  annum 
xxx  libras  habebam  et  quidquid  in  ea  habere  debeo,  ad  restau- 
rationem  damnorum  suorum  et  gildae  suae  sustentamentum  con- 
stituo. Ipsi  vero  Burgenses  monetam  per  totam  vitam  meam  stabi- 
lem  et  bonam,  unde  villa  sua  melioretur,  stabiliant. 


530  APPENDIX  A. 

"  §  15.  Custodes  qui  singulis  noctibus  per  annum  vigilantes 
castellum  Sancti  Audomari  custodiunt,  et  qui  praeter  feodum  suum 
et  pra3bendam  sibi  antiquitus  constitutam  in  avena  et  caseis  et  in 
pellibus  arietum,  iniuste  et  violenter  ab  unaquaque  domo  in  eadem 
villa,  scilicet  ad  Sanctum  Audomarum  sanctumque  Bertinum  in 
natali  domini  panem  unum  et  denarium  unum  aut  duos  denarios 
exigere  solent,  aut  pro  hiis  pauperum  vadimonia  tollebant,  nihil 
omnino  deinceps  praeter  feodum  suum  et  prasbendam  suam  exigere 
audeant. 

"  §  16.  Quisquis  ad  Niuverledam  venerit,  undecumque  venerit, 
licentiam  habeat  veniendi  ad  Sanctum  Audomarum  cum  rebus  suis 
in  quacunque  navi  voluerit. 

"  §  17.  Si  cum  Boloniensium  comite  S.  concordiam  habuero, 
in  ilia  reconciliatione  eos  a  Teloneo  et  Seuwerp  apud  Witsant  et 
per  totam  terram  eius  liberos  esse  faciam. 

"  §  18.  Pasturam  adiacentem  villse  Sancti  Audomari  in  nemori, 
quod  dicitur  Lo,  et  in  paludibus  et  in  pratis  et  in  bruera  et  in 
Hongrecoltra,  usibus  eorum,  excepta  terra  Lazarorum,  concedo, 
sicut  fait  tempore  Roberti  Comitis  Barbati. 

"  §  19.  Mansiones  quoque,  quae  sunt  in  ministerio  Advocati 
Sancti  Bertini,  illas  videlicet  quse  inhabitantur,  ab  omni  consuetu- 
dine  liberas  esse  volo :  dabuntque  singulae  denarios  xn  in  festo 
Sancti  Michaelis,  et  de  brotban  denarios  xn  et  de  byrban  dena- 
rios xn.  Yacuae  autem  nihil  dabunt. 

"  §  20.  Si  quis  extraneus  aliquem  Burgensium  Sancti  Audo- 
mari agressus  fuerit,  et  ei  contumeliam  vel  iniuriam  irrogaverit  vel 
violenter  ei  sua  abstulerit,  et  cum  hac  iniuria  manus  eius  evaserit, 
postmodum  vocatus  a  castellano  vel  uxore  eius  seu  ab  eius  da- 
pifero,  infra  triduum  ad  satisfactionem  venire  contempserit  aut 
neglexerit ;  ipsi  communiter  iniuriam  fratris  sui  in  eo  vindicabunt, 
in  qua  vindicta  si  domus  diruta  vel  combusta  fuerit,  aut  si  quis- 
piam  vulneratus  vel  occisus  fuerit,  nullum  corporis  aut  rerum 
suarum  periculum,  qui  vindictam  perpetravit,  incurrat,  nee  offen- 
sam  meam  super  hoc  sentiat  vel  pertimescat ;  si  vero,  qui  iniu- 
riam intulit  presentialiter  tentus  fuerit,  secundum  leges  et  consue- 
tudines  villae  presentialiter  iudicabitur  et  secundum  quantitatem 


KEURE  OF  SA1NT-OMER.    A.D.  1128.  531 

f acti  punietar ;  scilicet  oculum  pro  oculo,  dentem  pro  dente,  caput 
pro  capito  reddet. 

"  §  21.  De  morte  Eustachii  de  Stenford  quicunque  aliquem 
Burgensium  Sancti  Audomari  perturb  a  verit  et  molestaverit,  reus 
proditionis  et  mortis  K.  Comitis  habeatur ;  quoniam  pro  fidelitate 
mea  factum  est,  quidquid  de  eo  factum  est ;  et  sicut  iuravi  et  fidem 
dedi,  sic  eos  erga  parentes  eius  reconciliare  et  pacificare  volo. 

u  §  25.  Hanc  igitur  Communionem  tenendam,  has  supradictas 
consuetudines  et  con  veil  tiones  esse  obseryandas  fide  promiserunt 
et  Sacramento  confirm averuiit:  Ludovicus  rex  Erancorum,  Guillel- 
mus  comes  Flandrise,  Raulphus  de  Parona,  Hugo  Candavena, 
Hosto  Castellanus,  et  Guillelmus  frater  eius,  Robertus  de  Bethuna, 
et  Guillelmus  filius  eius,  Anselmus  de  Hesdinio,  Stephanus  Comes 
Boloniensis,  Manasses  Comes  Gisnensis,  Galterus  de  Lillers, 
Balduinus  Gandavensis,  Hiuvannus  frater  eius,  Rogerus  Castel- 
lanus Insulensis,  et  Robertus  filius  eius,  Razo  de  Gavera,  Daniel 
de  Tenremot,  Hclias  de  Sensen,  Henricus  de  Brocborc,  Eustachius 
advocatus,  et  Amulphus  filius  eius,  Castellanus  Gandavensis,  Ger- 
vasius  Petrus  dapifer,  Stephanus  de  Seningaham.  Confirmatum 
est  hoc  privilegium  et  a  Coinite  Guillelmo  et  praedictis  Baronibus 
istis  fide  et  sacramento  sancitum,  et  collaudatum  anno  dominicae 
Incarnationis  MCXXYII,  xvin  El.  Maii,  feria  Ya  die  festo  Sancti 
Tiburtii  et  Yaleriani." 

II.  Additions  et  cliangemens  faits  a  la  Keure  precedente  par  le 
Comte  Thierri  d' Alsace.  22  Aout  1128. 

"  §  1.  Monetam  quam  Burgenses  Sancti  Audomari  habuerant, 
Comiti  liber  am  reddiderunt  eo  quod  eos  benignius  tractaret,  et 
lagas  suas  eis  libentius  ratas  teneret :  et  insuper  ut  ceteri  Flan- 
drenses  eidem  sua  incremeiita  celerius  redderent. 

"  §  2.  Teloneum  vero  suum  ab  eodem  in  perpetuo  censu  re- 
ceperunt,  quotannis  C  solidos  dando. 

"  §  3.  Si  quis  etiam  eorum  mortuo  aliquo  consanguineo  suo, 
portionem  aliquam  possessionis  illius  sibi  obvenire  credens  et  in 
comitatu  Flandriee  manens,  cum  eo,  qui  possessionem  illam  tenebit, 
vel  partiri  infra  annum  neglexerit,  vel  eum  super  hoc  per  iudices  et 


532  APPENDIX  A. 

scabinos  minime  convenerit;  qui  per  annum  integrnm  sine  legitima 
calumnia  tenuerit,  quiete  deinceps  teneat,  et  null!  super  hoc  re- 
spondeat.  Si  autem  heres  in  comitatu  Flandriae  lion  fuerit,  infra 
annum,  quo  redierit,  cum  possessore  agat  supradicto  modo  :  alio- 
quin  qui  tenebit  sine  ulla  inquietatione  teneat.  Si  autem  herede 
aliquandiu  peregre  commorante,  et  cum  redierit  portionem  suam 
requirente,  p.ossidens  se  cum  eo  partitum  esse  dixerit,  si  ille  per 
quinque  Scabinos  probare  falsum  esse  poterit,  hereditas  quse  eum 
attingit  ei  reddetur :  alioquin  possidens  per  quatuor  legitimos  viros 
se  ei  portionem  suam  dedisse  probabit ;  et  ita  quietus  erit.  Quod 
si  heres  infra  annos  discretionis  fuerit,  pater  vel  mater,  si  super- 
vixerint,  vel  qui  eum  manutenebit,  portionem  quse  ilium  attinget 
scabinis  et  aliis  legitimis  viris  infra  annum  obitus  illius  ostendat, 
et  si  eis  visum  fuerit  quod  ille  fideliter  servare  debeat,  ei  comitta- 
tur.  Sin  autem  iudicio  et  providentia  illorum  ita  disponatur,  ne 
heres  damnum  alioquod  patiatur ;  et  cum  ad  annos  discretionis 
venerit,  et  opportunum  fuerit,  hereditate  sua  integre  et  sine  aliqua 
diminutione  investiatur. 

"  §  4.  Item  si  quis  alicui  filium  suum,  velfiliam  in  matrimonio 
coniunxerit,  et  filius  ille,  vel  filia  sine  prole  obierint,  ad  patrem  et 
matrem  eorum  si  supervixerint,  si  autem  mortui  fuerint  ad  alios 
filios  eorum,  vel  filios  filiorum  redeat  hereditas  quae  pertinebat  ad 
filium  vel  filiam,  quos  aliis  matrimonio  copulaverant ;  et  viventibus 
patre  vel  matre  eorum  hereditas  ilia  cum  supradictis  personis  tan- 
turn  dividatur:  mortuis  autem  illis  propinquiores  consanguinei 
illam,  prout  iustum  est,  sortiantur. 

"  Hanc  igitur  communionem  tenendam,  et  supradictas  institu- 
tiones  et  conventiones  esse  observandas  fide  promiserunt  et  sacra- 
mento  confirmaverunt  Theodoricus,  Comes  Mandrise,  Willelmus 
Castellanus  Sancti  Audomari,  Willelmus  de  Lo,  Iwannus  de  Gan- 
davo,  Danihel  de  Tenramunda,  Easo  de  Gavera,  Gislebertus  de 
Bergis,  Henricus  de  Broburc,  Castellanus  de  Gandavo,  Gervasius 
de  Brugis. — Praefati  Barones  insuper  iuraverunt,  quod  si  Comes 
Burgenses  Sancti  Audomari  extra  consuetudines  suas  eiicere  et 
sine  iudicio  Scabinorum  tractare  vellet,  se  a  comite  discessuros  et 
cum  eis  remansuros,  donee  comes  eis  suas  consuetudines  integre 


GUILDHALL  AT  SAINT-OMER.     A.D.  1151.  533 

restitueret  et  indicium  Scabinorum  eos  subire  permitteret.  Actum 
anno  dominicae  Incarnationis  MCXXYIII  in  octavis  assnmptionis 
Beatae  Mariae." 

III.   Charte  de  donation  du  fonds  de  la  Gild-halle  de  St.   Omer 
aux  Bourgeois  de  cette  ville.  1151. 

"  EGO  Theodoricns  Dei  patientia  Flandrensinm  Comes,  consensn 
uxoris  meae  Sibillae,  concedente  ita  qnoqne  Philippo  filio  meo, 
terram  in  qna  Ghildhalla  apud  sanctum  Andomarum  in  foro  sita 
est,  cum  scopis  et  adpenditiis  suis  tarn  ligneis  quam  lapideis,  bur- 
gensibus  eiusdem  villae  hereditario  iure  possidendam,  et  ad  om- 
nem  mercaturam  tarn  in  appenditiis,  quam  in  Ghildhalla  exercen- 
dam  tradidi :  hanc  quoque  libertatem  eis  concessi,  ut  si  quis  in 
earn  venerit,  undecunque  reus  fuerit,  in  ipsa  domo  iudici  in  euin 
manum  noil  mittere  licebit ;  ille  autem  sub  cuius  custodia  Ghild- 
halla tenetur,  admonitus  a  iudice  reum  extra  limen  Ghildhallae 
conducens  nisi  fideiussione  se  defenderit,  in  praesentia  duorum  sca- 
binorum  vel  plurium  eum  iudici  trade  t :  iudex  vero  eum  in  pot  estate 
sua  habens  secundum  quantitatem  facti  cum  eo  aget.  Illud  quoque 
addidimus,  quod  alienus  negotiator  nusquam,  nisi  in  praedicta  domo 
aut  in  appendiciis  eius,  vel  in  pleno  foro  merces  suas  vendendas 
exponat  aut  vendat.  Solis  autem  burgensibus  in  foro,  in  Ghild- 
halla, sen  magis  velint,  is  propria  domo  siia,  vendere  liceat. 

"  Quoniam  autem  humana  omnia  ex  rerum  et  temporum  varie- 
tate  senescunt,  sigilli  mei  auctoritate  et  subscript onun  testimonio 
hoc  corroboravi.  Walterus  Castellanus  sancti  Audomari,  Arnoldus 
Comes  de  Gisnes,  Gerardus  Praepositus,  Arnulphus  de  Arde,  Hen- 
ricus  Castellanus  de  Briibborg,  Elenardus  de  Sinningehem,  Hugo 
de  Ravensberghe,  Baldevinus  de  Bailgul,  Michael  luuior,  Christia- 
nus  de  Aria,  Guido  Castellanus  de  Bergis,  Rogerus  de  "Wavrin,  He- 
linus  filius  eius." 

IV.  Keure  de  Bruges.     Yers  1190. 

"  HJEC  est  lex  et  consuetudo  quam  Brugenses  tenere  debent  a  co- 
mite  Philippo  instituta.  Si  quis  alicui  vulnus  fecerit  infra  pontem 
sanctae  Mariae,  infra  Botrebeika,  infra  usque  ad  domum  Galteri 


534  APPENDIX  A. 

Calvi,  infra  usque  ad  domum  Lanikini  carpentarii,  supra  terrain 
Balduini  de  Prat,  infra  fossatum  veteris  molendini,  et  illud  veri- 
tate  scabinorum  cognoscatur  de  quacunque  re  factum  sit,  ad 
domum  in  qua  ille  manet,  qui  vulnus  imposuit,  per  scabinos  et 
per  iustitiam  comitis  submoneatur.  Qui  submonitus,  si  scabinis 
se  praasentet,  veritate  inquisita  de  illo  qui  vulnus  fecerit  per 
sexaginta  libras  forefactum  emendet,  et  si  scabini  sciunt  quod 
vulnus  non  fecerit,  liber  et  in  pace  remanebit.  Si  die  qua  sub- 
monebitur  se  non  praesentaverit,  remanebat  in  forefacto  sexaginta 
librarum,  et  si  scabini  voluerint  domum  eius  prosternere,  poterunt 
et  in  respectum  ponere,  sed  ex  toto  condonare  non  possunt  nisi 
voluntate  Comitis. 

"  2.  Si  vero  quis  aliquem  in  domo  sua  assiluerit,  unde  clamor 
factus  sit,  scabini  et  iustitia  domum  ibunt  inspicere :  et  si  scabini 
poterunt  videre,  assultum  esse  apparentem,  ille  de  quo  clamor 
factus  est  submoneri  debet ;  qui  si  scabinis  se  praesentaverit  et 
ilium  intellexerint  assultum  fecisse,  LX  libras  amittet.  Si  vero 
cognoverint  ilium  assultum  non  fecisse,  liber  et  in  pace  recedat. 
Si  autem  ad  diem  submonitionis  venire  noluerit,  domo  ejus  pro- 
strata  LX  librarum  reus  erit.  Quod  si  alii  assultui  interfuerint,  de 
quibus  clamor  factus  non  sit,  si  comes  super  hoc  veritatem  scabi- 
norum requisierit,  scabini  veritatem  inquirere  debent,  et  quotquot 
veritate  scabinorum  de  -assultu  tenebuntur,  unusquisque  eorum  LX 
librarum  reus  erit,  ac  si  de  eo  clamor  factus  sit.  Si  vero  scabini 
nullum  assultum  agnoscere  potuerunt  ab  ipsis  super  hoc  veritas 
est  inquirenda. 

"3.  Qui  cum  armis  molutis  infra  praBfinitos  terminos  aliquem 
fugaverit,  si  veritate  scabinorum  convincatur  forisf  acto  librarum 
LX  tenebitur :  si  aliquis  assiliatur,  quidquid  ipse  faciat  in  deferi- 
dendo  corpus  suum  nullo  tenebitur  forisfacto. 

"  4.  Qui  aliquem  bannitum  occiderit  in  hoc  nullum  facit  foris- 
factum. 

'  5.  Quicumque  testimonio  scabinorum  convictus  fuerit  de  ra- 
pina,  LX  lib.  de  forisfacto  dabit  et  dampnum  rapinaB  restituet. 

"  6.  Qualemcunque  concordiam  bannitus  faciat  comiti,  rema- 
nebit tamen  bannitus,  donee  viris  Brugensibus  ad  opus  castri 
LX  solidos  dederit. 


KEURE  OF  BRUGES.     A.D.  1190.  535 

"  7.  Qui  bannitum  de  forefacto  LX  libr.  hospitio  susceperit,  ve- 
ritate  scabinorum  convictus  LX  libras  amittet. 

"  8.  Qui  aliquem  fuste  vel  baculo  percusserit,  convictus  a  sca- 
binis  in  forisfacto  x  lib.  incidit  de  quibus  comes  habebit  v  lib. 
Castellanus  xx  sol.  ille  qui  percussus  est  LX  sol.  et  ad  opus  castri 
xx  sol. 

"9.  Qui  pugno  vel  palm  a  aliquem  percusserit  seu  per  capillos 
acceperit  inde  per  scabinos  convictus  LX  sol.  dabit  unde  xxx  so- 
lidi  comitis  erunt,  percussi  xv  sol.  castallani  x  sol.  ad  opus  castri 
v  sol.  Qui  aliquem  per  capillos  ad  terram  traxerit  sive  per  lutum 
trahendo  pedibus  conculcaverit,  x  lib.  comiti  dabit,  maletractato 
xv  solidos,  Castellano  x  sol.  et  ad  castrum  v  solidos. 

"  10.  Qui  vero  alicui  convitia  dixerit,  si  testimonio  duorum 
scabinorum  convincatur,  illi  cui  convicia  dixerit  v  solidos  dabit, 
lusticiae  xn  denarios. 

"11.  Qui  duobus  scabinis  aut  pluribus  inducias  pacis,  quse 
treuise  dicuntur,  de  qualibet  discordia  dare  noluerit,  illud  emenda- 
bit  per  LX  lib. 

"  12.  Si  dissensiones  aut  discordiae  aut  guerree  aut  aliquod 
aliud  malum  inter  probos  viros  oppidi  exoriatur,  unde  ad  aures 
scabinorum  clamor  perveniat,  salvo  iure  comitis,  scabini  illud 
componere  et  pacificare  poterunt.  Qui  vero  compositionem  vel 
pacem  quam  super  hoc  scabini  consolidaverint,  sequi  noluerit, 
forisfactum  LX  lib.  incurret. 

"  13.  Qui  ea  dedixerit  quae  scabini  in  iudicio  vel  testimonio 
affirmaverint,  LX  lib.  amittet,  et  unicuique  scabinorum  qui  ab  eo 
dedictus  erit  x  libras  dabit. 

"  14.  Quicumque  per  vim  fceminam  violaverit,  si  de  eo  veritate 
scabinorum  convincatur,  eadem  pcena  dampnabitur,  quanta  a 
prsedecessoribus  comitibus,  tales  malefactores  dampnari  solent  in 
Plandria. 

"  15.  Quicumque  per  malum  in  scabinos  manum  suam  immise- 
rit,  si  scabini  illud  testificentur,  LX  libras  dabit. 

"  16.  Preeterea  sciant  omnes,  quod  vir  de  oppido  Brugensi,  cu- 
iuscumque  forisfacti  se  reum  fecerit,  non  amplius  quam  LX  libr. 
amittere  poterit,  nisi  legitime  per  scabinos  convictus  fuerit  de  raptu, 


536  APPENDIX  A. 

ut  dictum  est,  vel  de  latrocinio,  vel  de  falsitate,  vel  nisi  hominem 
occiderit.  Qui  vero  occiderit  hominem,  caput  pro  capite  dabit,  et 
omnia  sua  in  potestate  comitis  erunt  absque  omni  contradictione, 
si  de  homicidio  veritate  scabinorum  teneatur. 

"  17.  Nemo  infra  praefmitos  terminos  manens  infra  muros  cas- 
tri  gladium  ferat,  nisi  sit  mercator  vel  alius  qui  gratia  negocii 
sui  per  castrum  transeat.  Si  vero  castrum  intraverit  causa  inibi 
morandi,  gladium  extra  in  suburbio  dimittat.  Quod  si  non  fecerit, 
LX  solidos  et  gladium  amittet.  lusticiis  vero  comitis  et  ministris 
earum,  quia  pacem  castri  observare  debent,  nocte  et  die  infra  cas- 
trum arma  ferre  licebit.  Viris  etiam  Brugensibus  gladium  portare 
et  reportare  licebit,  dummodo  castro  exeant  festinanter.  Si  quis 
autem  eorum  moras  faciendo,  vel  per  castrum  vagando,  gladium 
portaverit,  LX  solid,  et  gladium  amittet. 

"  18.  Si  scabini  gratia  emendationis  villas  assensu  iustitise  co- 
mitis bannum  in  pane  et  vino  et  caeteris  mercibus  constituerint, 
medietas  eorum  quae  ex  banno  provenient,  comitis  erit,  et  altera 
medietas  castellani  et  oppidi. 

"  19.  Si  mercator  sive  alius  homo  extraneus  ante  scabinos  ius- 
titise  causa  veuerit,  si  illi,  de  quibus  conqueritur  presentes  sint  vel 
inveniri  possint  infra  tertium  diem  vel  saltern  infra  octavum,  ple- 
nariam  ei  scabini  iustitiam  faciant  iuxta  legem  castri. 

"  20.  Nemini  in  foro  comitis  stallos  locare  licebit,  quod  si  loca- 
verit  et  veritate  scabinorum  super  hoc  convictus  fuerit,  LX  solidos 
comiti  dabit. 

"  21.  Si  aliquis  de  infracturis  castri  coram  scabinis  falsum  testi- 
monium  portaverit  si  scabini  illud  cognoverint  LX  libras  amittet. 

"22.  Quando  aliquis  scabinus  decedet,  alius  ei  substituetur 
electione  Comitis  non  aliter. 

"23.  Si  scabinus  testimonio  scabinorum  parium  suorum  de 
falsitate  convictus  fuerit,  ipse  et  omnia  sua  in  potestate  Comitis 
erunt. 

"  24.  Si  Scabini  a  Comite  vel  a  ministro  Comitis  submoniti,  fal- 
sum super  aliqua  re  iudicium  fecerint,  veritate  scabinorum  Atreba- 
tensium,  sive  aliorum  qui  eandem  legem  tenent,  comes  eos  con- 
vincere  poterifc  ;  et  si  convicti  fuerint,  ipsi  et  omnia  sua  in  potestate 


KEURE  OF  BRUGES.     A.D.   1190.  537 

comitis  crunt.  Qnoties  vero  super  huiusmodi  falsitate  submoniti 
fuerint,  nullatenus  contradicere  poterunt,  quin  diem  sibi  a  Comito 
praefixum  teneant,  ubicumque  Comes  voluerit  in  Flandria. 

"  25.  De  omnibus  vero  aliis  causis  ad  Comitem  pertinentibus, 
Brugis  in  castello  vel  ante  castellum  placita  tenebunt  in  praesentia 
Comitis  vcl  illius  quern  loco  suo  ad  iustitiam  tenendam  instituerit. 
Institute  autem  ad  eius  submonitionem  de  omnibus  tanquam  Co- 
miti  respondebunt,  quamdiu  in  hoc  servitio  comitis  erit. 

Ad  hoc  nee  scabini  nee  Brugenses  aliquid  addere,  mutare,  vel 
corrigere  poterunt,  nisi  per  consilium  Comitis  vel  illius  quern  loco 
suo  ad  iustitiam  tenendam  instituerit. 

V.    Ordonnance  du  comte  Philippe  d' Alsace,  sur  les  attribute 
des  Baillis  en  Flandre.     Vers  1178. 

"ILEC  sunt  puncta,  quse  per  universam  terrain  suam  Comes 
observari  praecepit. 

"  §  1.  Primo  qui  hominem  occiderit,  caput  pro  capite  dabit. 

"  §  2.  Item  baillivus  Comitis  poterit  arrestare  Wminem  qui 
forefecit  sine  Scabinis  donee  ante  Scabinos  veniat,  et  per  consilium 
eorum  plegium  accipiat  de  forisfacto. 

"§  3.  Item  si  baillivus  volens  hominem  arrestare,  non  potuerit 
et  auxilium  vocaverit,  qui  primus  fuerit,  et  baillivum  non  adiuve- 
rit  in  forisfacto  erit,  si  cut  Scabini  considerabunt ;  nisi  forte  osteD- 
dere  quis  potuerit  per  Scabinos  quod  ille  qui  arrestandus  erat,  ini- 
micus  eius  sit  de  mortali  faida ;  et  tune  sine  forisfacto  erit  licet 
baillivum  non  adiuverit  ad  capiendum  suum  inimicum. 

"  §  4.  Item  baillivus  Comitis  erit  cum  Scabinis,  qui  eligent 
probos  viros  villge  ad  faciendas  tallias  et  Assisas,  sed  cum  tallia- 
bunt  Scabini  vel  ludicia  facient,  vel  inquisitiones  veritatis,  vel  pro- 
tractiones,  non  intererit  baillivus :  aliis  autem  consiliis  quse  ad 
utilitatem  villse  pertinebunt,  baillivus  intererit  cum  Scabinis,  scrip- 
turn  autem  talliao  et  assisae  reddent  Scabini  baillivo,  si  postula- 
verit. 

"  §  5.  Item  baillivus  accipiet  forisfactum  adiudicatum  Comiti 
per  Scabinos,  ubicumque  illud  invenerit  extra  ecclesiam  et  ubicum- 
que accipi  debet  per  Scabinos. 

VOL.  II.  2  N 


638  APPENDIX  A. 

"  §  6.  Item  qui  bannitum  de  pecunia  receptaverit  eadem  lege 
de  pecunia  tenebitur  qua  bannitus ;  et  si  fuerit  capite  bannitus  qui 
receptatus  est,  tune  receptans  tenebitur  de  forisfacto  LX  lib.  Quod 
si  vir  domi  non  fuerit,  et  ejus  uxor  bannitum  receptaverit,  rediens- 
que  vir,  tertia  manu  proborum  virorum  iurare  potuerit:  quod 
bannitum  in  domain  suam  receptum  esse  nescierit ;  sine  forisfacto 
remanebit :  si  autem  absentia  mariti,  uxori  prohibitum  fuerit  per 
Scabinos,  ne  bannitum  receptet,  de  caetero  non  poterit  eum  sine 
forisfacto  receptare. 

"  §  7.  Item  de  quindena  in  quindenam,  habet  comes,  vel  bailli- 
vus  ex  eius  parte,  veritatem  si  voluerit. 

"  §  8.  Item  domus  diruenda  Judicio  Scabinorum,  post  quinde- 
nam a  scabinis  indultam,  quandocunque  Comes  pra3ceperit,  aut 
baillivus  eius,  diruetur  a  Communia  villse,  campana  pulsata  per 
Scabinos :  et  qui  ad  diruendam  domum  illam  non  venerit,  in  foris- 
facto erit,  sicut  Scabini  considerabunt,  nisi  talem  excusationem 
habuerit,  quae  Scabinis  sufficiens  videatur. 

"  §  9.  Item  pater  non  poterit  forisfacere  domum  vel  rem  filio- 
rum,  quee  eis  ex  parte  matris  contingit ;  nee  filii  poterunt  forisfacere 
rem  vel  domum  patris,  quse  ex  parte  patris  venit. 

"  §  10.  Item  si  homo  per  Scabinos  domum  suam  sine  scampo 
invadiaverit,  earn  forisfacere  non  poterit,  nisi  salvo  catallo  eius, 
qui  domum  illam  vadet  in  vadio. 

"  §  11.  Item  fugitivus  de  aliqua  villa  pro  debito,  si  in  alia  villa 
inventus  fuerit,  arrestabitur,  et  ad  villam,  de  qua  fugerat,  redu- 
cetur,  et  iudicium  Scabinorum  illius  villa3  subire  cogetur. 

"  §  12.  Item  si  quis  vulneratus  fuerit,  et  videatur  Scabinis' 
quod  non  sit  vulneratus  ad  mortem,  et  postea  de  illo  vulnere  mor- 
tuus  fuerit,  Scabini  non  erunt  in  forisfacto  contra  Comitem,  qui 
minorem  plegiaturam  acceperunt  de  eo  qui  eum  vulneravit,  quam 
si  mortaliter  fuisset  vulneratus." 

The  following  charters  of  the  French  communes  are  taken  from 
M.  Thierry's  Lettres  sur  1'Histoire  de  France. 

I.  Charte  de  Beauvais. — "Tous  les  hommes  domicilies  dans  1'en- 
ceinte  du  mur  de  ville  et  dans  les  faubourgs,  de  quelque  seigneur 
que  releve  le  terrain  ou  ils  habitent,  preteront  serment  a  la  com- 


THE  COMMUNE  OF  BEAUVAIS.  .  539 

ixmne.  Dans  toute  1'etondue  de  la  ville,  chacun  pretera  secours 
aux  autrcs,  loyalement  et  selon  son  pouvoir. 

"  Treize  pairs  seront  elus  par  la  commune,  entre  lesquels,  d'apres 
Ic  vote  des  autres  pairs  et  de  tous  ceux  qui  auront  jure  la  com- 
mune, un  ou  deux  seront  crees  majeurs. 

"  Le  majeur  et  les  pairs  jureront  de  ne  favoriser  personne  de  la 
commune  pour  cause  d'amitie,  de  ne  leser  personne  pour  cause 
d'inimitie,  et  de  donner  en  toute  chose,  selon  leur  pouvoir,  une 
decision  equitable.  Tous  les  autres  jureront  d'obeir  et  de  preter 
main  forte  aux  decisions  du  majeur  et  des  pairs1. 

"  Quiconque  aura  forfait  envers  un  homme  qui  aura  jure  cette 
commune,  le  majeur  et  les  pairs,  si  plainte  leur  en  est  faite,  feront 
justice  du  corps  et  des  biens  du  coupable. 

"  Si  le  coupable  se  refugie  dans  quelque  chateau  fort,  le  majeur 
et  les  pairs  de  la  commune  parleront  sur  cela  au  seigneur  du  cha- 
teau ou  a  celui  qui  sera  en  son  lieu ;  et  si,  a  leur  avis,  satisfaction 
leur  est  faite  de  1'ennemi  de  la  commune,  ce  sera  assez  ;  mais  si  le 
seigneur  refuse  satisfaction,  ils  se  feront  justice  a  eux-memes  sur 
ses  hommes. 

"  Si  quelque  marchand  etranger  vient  a  Beauvais  pour  le  marche, 
et  que  quelqu'un  lui  fasse  tort  ou  injure  dans  les  limites  de  la  ban- 
lieue;  si  plainte  en  est  faite  au  majeur  et  aux  pairs,  et  que  le  mar- 
chand puisse  trouver  son  malfaiteur  dans  la  ville,  la  majeur  et  les 
pairs  en  feront  justice,  a  moins  que  le  marchand  ne  soit  un  des 
ennemis  de  la  commune. 

"  Nul  homme  de  la  commune  ne  devra  preter  ni  creancer  son 
argent  aux  ennemis  de  la  commune  tant  qu'il  y  aura  guerre  avec 
eux,  car  s'il  le  fait  il  sera  parjure ;  et  si  quelqu'un  est  convaincu 
de  leur  avoir  prete  ou  creance  quoique  ce  soit,  justice  sera  faite 
de  lui,  selon  que  le  majeur  et  les  pairs  en  decideront. 

1  Ann.  de  Noyon,  t.  ii.  p.  805. 

Turbulenta  conjuratio  facta  communionis  (epistolse  Ivonis  Carnotensis 
episcopi,  apud  script,  rer.  franc.,  t.  xv.  p.  105). 

Cum  primum  communia  acquisita  fuit,  ornnes  Viromandias  pares,  et  omnes 
clerici,  salvo  ordine  suo,  omnesque  milites,  salva  fidelitate  comitis,  firmiter 
tenendain  juraverunt.  (Kecueil  des  ordonnances  des  rois  de  France,  t.  xi. 
p.  270.) 

2N2 


540  APPENDIX  A. 

"  S'il  arrive  que  le  corps  des  bourgeois  marche  hors  de  la  ville 
contre  ses  ennemis,  nul  le  parlamenfcera  avec  eux  si  ce  n'est  avec 
licence  du  majeur  et  des  pairs. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  de  la  commune  a  confie  son  argent  a  quelqu'un  de 
la  ville,  et  que  celui  auquel  1'argent  aura  ete  confie  se  refugie  dans 
quelque  chateau  fort,  le  seigneur  du  chateau,  en  ayant  regu  plainte, 
ou  rendra  1'argent  ou  chassera  le  debiteur  de  son  chateau ;  et  s'il 
ne  fait  ni  1'une  ni  1'autre  de  ces  choses,  justice  sera  faite  sur  les 
hommes  de  ce  chateau. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  enleve  de  1'argent  a  un  homme  de  la  commune 
et  se  refugie  dans  quelque  chateau  fort,  justice  sera  faite  sur  lui  si 
on  peut  le  recontrer,  ou  sur  les  hommes  et  les  biens  du  seigneur 
du  chateau,  a  moins  que  1'argent  ne  soit  rendu. 

"  S'il  arrive  que  quelqu'un  de  la  commune  ait  achete  quelque 
heritage  et  Fait  tenu  pendant  Fan  et  jour,  et  si  quelqu'un  vient 
ensuite  reclamer  et  demander  le  rachat,  il  ne  lui  sera  point  fait  de 
reponse,  mais  Facheteur  demeurera  en  paix. 

"  Pour  aucune  cause  la  presente  charte  ne  sera  portee  hors  de 
la  ville." 

II.  Charter  of  the  Commune  of  Laon. — "Nulnepourra  se  saisir 
d'aucun  homme,  soit  libre,  soit  serf,  sans  le  ministere  de  la  justice. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  a,  de  quelque  maniere  que  ce  soit,  fait  tort  a  un 
autre,  soit  clerc,  soit  chevalier,  soit  marchand  indigene  ou  etranger, 
et  que  celui  qui  a  fait  le  tort  soit  de  la  ville.,  il  sera  somme  de  se 
presenter  en  justice  par-devant  le  majeur  et  les  jures,  pour  se 
justifier  ou  faire  amende  ;  mais  s'il  se  refuse  a  faire  reparation,  il 
sera  exclu  de  la  ville  avec  tous  ceux  de  sa  famille.  Si  les  pro- 
prietes  du  delinquant  en  terres  ou  en  vignes  sont  situees  hors  du 
territoire  de  la  ville,  le  majeur  et  les  jures  reclameront  justice 
contre  lui,  de  la  part  du  seigneur  dans  le  ressort  duquel  ses  biens 
seront  situes  ;  mais  si  Fon  n'obtient  pas  justice  de  ce  seigneur,  les 
jures  pourront  faire  devaster  les  proprietes  du  coupable.  Si  le 
coupable  n'est  pas  de  la  ville,  Faffaire  sera  portee  devant  la  cour 
de  Feveque,  et  si,  dans  le  delai  de  cinq  jours,  la  forfaiture  n'est  pas 
reparee,  le  majeur  et  les  jures  en  tireront  selon  leur  pouvoir. 


THE  COMMUNES  OF  LAON  AND  AMIENS.          541 

"  En  matiere  capitale,  la  plainte  doit  d'abord  etre  portee  devant 
le  seigneur  justicier  dans  le  ressort  duquel  aura  ete  pris  le  coupa- 
ble,  ou  devant  son  bailli  s'il  est  absent ;  et  si  le  plaignant  ne  peut 
obtenir  justice  ni  de  1'un  ni  de  1'autre,  il  s'adressera  aux  jures. 

"  Les  censitaires  ne  paieront  a  leur  seigneur  d'autre  cens  que 
celui  qu'ils  le  doivent  par  tete.  S'ils  ne  le  paient  pas  au  temps 
marque,  ils  seront  punis  selon  la  loi  qui  les  regit,  mais  n'accorderont 
rien  en  sus  a  leur  seigneur  que  de  leur  propre  volonte, 

ff  Les  hommcs  de  la  commune  pourront  prendre  pour  femmes 
les  filles  des  vassaux  ou  des  serfs  de  quelque  seigneur  que  ce  soit, 
a  1'exception  des  seigneuries  et  des  eglises  qui  font  partie  de  cet 
commune.  Dans  les  families  de  ces  dernieres  ils  ne  pourront 
prendre  des  epouses  sans  le  consentement  du  seigneur. 

"  Aucuii  etranger  censitaire  des  eglises  ou  des  chevaliers  de  la 
ville  ne  sera  compris  dans  la  commune  que  du  consentement  de 
son  seigneur. 

"  Quiconque  sera  recu  dans  cet  commune,  batira  une  maison 
dans  le  delai  d'un  an,  ou  achetera  des  vignes,  ou  apportera  dans  la 
ville  assez  d'effets  mobiliers  pour  que  justice  puisse  etre  faite,  s'il  y 
a  quelque  plainte  centre  lui.  Les  main-mortes  sont  entitlement 
abolies.  Les  tallies  seront  reparties  de  maniere  que  tout  homme 
devant  taille  paie  seulement  quatre  deniers  a  chaque  terme  et  rien 
de  plus,  a  moins  qu'il  n'ait  une  terre  devant  taille,  a  laquelle  il 
tienne  assez  pour  consentir  a  payer  la  taille." 

III.  Charter  of  the  Commune  of  Amiens. — "  Chacun  gardera 
fidelite  a  son  jure  et  lui  pretera  secours  et  conseil  en  tout  ce  qui 
est  juste. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  viole  sciemment  les  constitutions  de  la  commune 
et  qu'il  en  soit  convaincu,  la  commune,  si  elle  le  peut,  demolira  sa 
maison  et  ne  lui  permettra  point  d'habiter  dans  ses  limites  jusqu'a 
ce  qu'il  ait  donne  satisfaction. 

"  Quiconque  aura  sciemment  regu  dans  sa  maison  un  ennemi  de 
la  commune  et  aura  communique  avec  lui,  soit  en  vendant  et  ache- 
tant,  soit  en  buvant  et  mangeant,  soit  en  lui  pretant  un  secours 
quelconque,  ou  lui  aura  donne  aide  et  conseil  centre  le  commune, 
sera  coupable  de  lese-commune,  et,  a  moins  qu'il  ne  donne  prompte- 


542  APPENDIX  A. 

ment  satisfaction  en  justice,  la  commune,  si  elle  le  peut,  demolira 
sa  maison. 

"  Quiconque  aura  tenu  devant  temoin  des  propos  injurieux  pour 
la  commune,  si  la  commune  en  est  informee,  et  que  1'inculpe  refuse 
de  repondre  en  justice,  la  commune,  si  elle  le  peut,  demolira  sa  maison 
et  ne  lui  permettra  pas  d'habiter  dans  ses  limites  jusqu'a  ce  qu'il 
ait  donne  satisfaction. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  attaque  de  paroles  injurieuses  le  majeur  dans 
1'exercice  de  sa  juridiction,  sa  maison  sera  demolie,  ou  il  paiera 
rangon  pour  sa  maison  en  la  misericorde  des  juges. 

"  Que  nul  n'ait  la  hardiesse  de  vexer  au  passage,  dans  la  ban- 
lieue  de  la  cite,  les  personnes  domiciliees  dans  la  commune,  ou  les 
marchands  qui  viennent  a  la  ville  pour  y  vendre  leurs  denrees. 
Si  quelqu'un  ose  le  faire,  il  sera  repute  violateur  de  la  commune 
et  justice  sera  faite  sur  sa  personne  ou  sur  ses  biens. 

"  Si  un  membre  de  la  commune  enleve  quelque  chose  a  1'un 
de  ses  jures,  il  sera  somme  par  le  maire  et  les  echevins  de  com- 
paraitre  en  presence  de  la  commune,  et  fera  reparation  suivant 
1'arret  des  echevins. 

"  Si  le  vol  a  ete  commis  par  quelqu'un  qui  ne  soit  pas  de  la  com- 
mune, etque  cet  homme  ait  refuse  de  comparaitre  en  justice  dans 
les  limites  de  la  banlieue,  la  commune,  apres  1'avoir  notifie  aux  gens 
du  chateau  ou  le  coupable  a  son  domicile,  le  saisira,  si  elle  le  peut, 
lui  ou  quelque  chose  qui  lui  appartienne,  et  le  retiendra  jusqu'a  ce 
qu'il  ait  fait  reparation. 

"  Quiconque  aura  blesse  avec  armes  un  de  ses  jures,  a  moins 
qu'il  ne  se  Justine  par  temoins  et  par  le  serment,  perdra  le  poing 
ou  paiera  neuf  livres,  six  pour  les  fortifications  de  la  ville  et  de  la 
commune,  et  trois  pour  la  rangon  de  son  poing  ;  mais  s'il  est  in- 
capable de  payer,  il  abandonnera  son  poing  a  la  misericorde  de  la 
commune. 

"  Si  un  homme,  qui  n'est  pas  de  la  commune,  frappe  ou  blesse 
quelqu'un  de  la  commune,  et  refuse  de  comparaitre  en  jugement, 
la  commune,  si  elle  le  peut,  demolira  sa  maison ;  et  si  elle  parvient 
a  le  saisir,  justice  sera  faite  de  lui  par-devant  le  majeur  et  les 
echevins. 


THE  COMMUNE  OF  SOISSONS.  543 

"  Quiconque  aura  donne  a  Tun  de  ses  jures  les  noms  de  serf, 
recreant,  traitre  on  fripon,  paiera  vingt  sous  d'amende. 

"  Si  quelque  membre  de  la  commune  a  sciemment  achete  ou 
vendu  quelquo  article  provenant  de  pillage,  il  le  perdra  et  sera 
tenu  de  le  restituer  aux  depouilles,  a  moms  qu'eux-memes  ou  leurs 
seigneurs  n'aient  forfait  en  quelque  chose  centre  la  commune. 

"  Dans  les  limites  de  la  commune,  on  n'admettra  aucun  cham- 
pion gage  au  combat  contre  1'un  de  ses  membres. 

"  En  toute  espece  de  cause,  1'accusateur,  1' accuse  et  les  temoins 
s'expliqueront,  s'ils  le  veulent,  par  avocat. 

"  Tous  ces  articles,  ainsi  que  les  ordonnances  du  majeur  et  de 
la  commune,  n'ont  force  de  loi  que  de  jure  a  jure  :  il  n'y  a  pas  ega- 
lite  en  justice  entre  le  jure  et  le  non-jure." 

IY.  Charter  of  the  Commune  of  Soissons. — "  Tous  les  homines 
habitant  dans  1'enciente  des  murs  de  la  ville  de  Soissons  et  en  de- 
hors  dans  le  faubourg,  sur  quelque  seigneurie  qu'ils  demeurent, 
jureront  la  commune :  si  quelqu'un  s'y  refuse,  ceux  qui  1'auront 
juree  feront  justice  de  sa  maison  et  de  son  argent. 

"  Dans  les  limites  de  la  commune,  tous  les  hommes  s'aideront 
mutuellement,  selon  leur  pouvoir,  et  ne  souifriront  en  nulle  ma- 
mere  que  qui  que  ce  soit  enleve  quelque  chose  ou  fasse  payer  des 
tailles  a  Fun  d'entre  eux. 

"  Quand  la  cloche  sonnera  pour  assembler  la  commune,  si  quel- 
qu'un ne  se  rend  pas  a  1'assemblee,  il  payera  douze  deniers  d'a- 
mende. 

"  Si  quelqu'un  de  la  commune  a  forfait  en  quelque  chose,  et  re- 
fuse de  donner  satisfaction  devant  les  jures,  les  hommes  de  la  com- 
mune en  feront  justice. 

"  Les  membres  de  cette  commune  prendront  pour  epouses  les 
femmes  qu'ils  voudront,  apres  en  avoir  demande  la  permission 
aux  seigneurs  dont  ils  relevent ;  mais,  si  les  seigneurs  s'y  refu- 
saient,  et  que,  sans  1'aveu  du  sien,  quelqu'un  prit  un  femme  re- 
levant d'une  autre  seigneurie,  1' amende  qu'il  paierait  dans  ce  cas, 
sur  la  plainte  de  son  seigneur,  serait  de  cinq  sols  seulement. 

"  Si  un  etranger  apporte  son  pain  ou  son  vin  dans  la  ville  pour 


544 


APPENDIX  A. 


les  y  mettre  en  surete,  et  qu'ensuite  un  differend  survienne  eritre 
son  seigneur  et  les  homines  de  cette  commune,  il  aura  quinze  jours 
pour  vendre  son  pain  et  son  vin  dans  la  ville  et  emporter  1'argent, 
a  moins  qu'il  n'ait  forfait  ou  ne  soit  complice  de  quelque  for- 
faiture. 

"  Si  1'eveque  de  Soissons  amene  par  megarde  dans  la  ville  un 
homme  qui  ait  forfait  envers  un  membre  de  cette  commune,  apres 
qu'on  lui  aura  remontre  que  c'est  1'un  des  ennemis  de  la  commune, 
il  pourra  1'emmener  cette  fois ;  mais  ne  le  ramenera  en  aucune 
maniere,  si  ce  n'est  avec  1'aveu  de  ceux  qui  ont  charge  de  main- 
tenir  la  commune. 

"  Toute  forfaiture,  hormis  1'infraction  de  commune  et  la  vieille 
haine,  sera  punie  d'une  amende  de  cinq  sous." 

It  would  be  easy  to  add  other  examples  of  these  early  covenants 
between  the  towns  and  their  seigneurs  :  but  enough  seems  to  have 
been  said,  to  illustrate  the  line  of  argument  adopted  in  the  text. 
There  is  no  single  point  in  all  mediaeval  history  of  more  import- 
ance than  the  manner  in  which  the  towns  assumed  their  municipal 
form;  and  none  in  which  the  gradual  progress  of  the  popular 
liberties  can  be  more  securely  traced.  But  all  these  compromises 
imply  a  long  apprenticeship  to  freedom  before  the  "  master's  " 
dignity  was  attained :  and  great  is  the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe 
to  those  whose  sufferings  and  labour  have  enabled  us  to  under- 
stand and  to  record  their  struggles. 


545 


APPENDIX   B. 

TITHE. 

THE  importance  of  this  subject  requires  a  full  statement  of  details  : 
the  following  are  all  the  passages  in  the  Anglosaxon  law  which 
have  reference  to  this  impost. 

"  I  ^ESelstan  the  king,  with  the  counsel  of  Wulfhelm,  arch- 
bishop, and  of  my  other  bishops,  make  known  to  the  reeves  in 
each  town,  and  beseech  you,  in  God's  name,  and  by  all  his  saints, 
and  also  by  my  friendship,  that  ye  first  of  my  own  goods  render  the 
tithes  both  of  live  stock  and  of  the  year's  increase,  even  as  they 
may  most  justly  be  either  measured  or  counted  or  weighed  out ; 
and  let  the  bishops  then  do  the  like  from  their  own  property,  and 
my  ealdormen  and  reevqs  the  same.  And  I  will,  that  the  bishop 
and  the  reeves  command  it  to  all  who  are  bound  to  obey  them,  so 
that  it  be  done  at  the  right  term.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  how  Jacob 
the  Patriarch  spoke  :  '  Decimas  et  hostias  pacificas  offeram  tibi ; ' 
and  how  Moses  spake  in  God's  law  :  '  Decimas  et  primitias  non 
tardabis  offerre  Domino.'  It  is  for  us  to  reflect  how  awfully  it  is 
declared  in  the  books :  if  we  will  not  render  the  tithes  to  God, 
that  he  will  take  from  us  the  nine  parts  when  we  least  expect ; 
and,  moreover,  we  have  the  sin  in  addition  thereto."  ^ESelst.  i. 
Thorpe,  i.  195. 

There  is  a  varying  copy  of  this  circular,  or  whatever  it  is,  coin- 
ciding as  to  the  matter,  but  differing  widely  in  the  words.  Thorpe, 
i.  195.  The  nature  of  the  sanction  is  obvious  :  it  is  the  old,  un- 
justifiable application  of  the  Jewish  practice,  which  fraud  or  igno- 
rance had  made  generally  current  in  Europe.  The  tithe  mentioned 
by  ^E^elstan  is  the  prsedial  tithe,  or  that  of  increase  of  the  fruits 
of  the  earth,  and  increase  of  the  young  of  cattle. 


546  APPENDIX  B. 

The  next  passage  is  in  the  law  of  Eadmund,  abont  940.  He 
says :  "  Tithe  we  enjoin  to  every  Christian  man  on  his  Christen- 
dom, and  church -shot,  and  Rome-fee  and  plough-alms.  And  if 
any  one  will  not  do  it,  be  he  excommunicate."  Thorpe,  i.  244. 

"  Let  every  tithe  be  paid  to  the  old  minster  to  which  the  district 
belongs ;  and  let  it  be  so  paid  both  from  a  thane's  inland  and  from 
genedtland,  as  the  plough  traverses  it.  But  if  there  be  any  thane 
who  on  his  bookland  has  a  church,  at  which  there  is  a  burial- 
place,  let  him  give  the  third  part  of  his  own  tithe  to  his  church. 
If  any  one  have  a  church  at  which  there  is  not  a  burial-place, 

then  of  the  nine  parts  let  him  give  his  priest  what  he  will 

And  let  tithe  of  every  young  be  paid  by  Pentecost,  and  of  the 

fruits  of  the  earth  by  the  equinox and  if  any  one  will  not 

pay  the  tithe,  as  we  have  ordained,  let  the  king's  reeve  go  thereto, 
and  the  bishop's,  and  the  mass-priest  of  the  minster,  and  take  by 
force  a  tenth  part  for  the  minster  whereunto  it  is  due  ;  and  let 
them  assign  to  him  the  ninth  part;  andlet  the  eight  parts  be  divided 
into  two,  and  let  the  landlord  seize  half,  the  bishop  half,  be  it  a 
king's  man  or  a  thane's."  Eadg.  i.  §  1,  2,  3.  Thorpe,  i.  262. 
Cnut,  i.  §  8.  11.  Thorpe,  i.  366. 

"  This  writing  manifests  how  Eadgar  the  king  was  deliberating 
what  might  be  a  remedy  for  the  pestilence  which  greatly  afflicted 
and  decreased  his  people,  far  and  wide  throughout  his  realm. 
And  first  of  all  it  seemed  to  him  and  his  Witan  that  such  a  mis- 
fortune had  been  merited  by  sin,  and  by  contempt  of  God's  com- 
mandments, and  most  of  all  by  the  diminution  of  that  need-gafol 
(necessary  tax  or  rent  or  recognitory  service)  which  men  ought  to 
render  to  God  in  their  tithes.  He  looked  upon  and  considered 
the  divine  usage  in  the  same  light  as  the  human.  If  a  geneat 
neglect  his  lord's  gafol,  and  do  not  pay  it  at  the  appointed  time, 
it  may  be  expected,  if  the  lord  be  merciful,  that  he  will  grant 
forgiveness  of  the  neglect,  and  accept  the  gafol  without  inflicting 
a  further  penalty.  But  if  the  lord,  by  his  messengers,  frequently 
remind  him  of  his  gafol,  and  he  be  obdurate  and  devise  to  resist 
payment,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  lord's  anger  will  so  greatly 
increase,  that  he  will  grant  his  debtor  neither  life  nor  goods.  Thus 


TITHE.  547 

is  it  to  be  expected  that  our  Lord  will  do,  through  the  audacity 
with  which  the  people  have  resisted  the  frequent  admonition  of 
their  teachers,  respecting  the  need-gafol  of  our  Lord,  namely  our 
tithes  and  church-shots.  Now  I  and  the  archbishop  command 
that  ye  anger  not  God,  nor  earn  either  sudden  death  in  this  world, 
nor  a  future  and  eternal  death  in  hell,  by  any  diminution  of  God's 
rights ;  but  that  rich  and  poor  alike,  who  have  any  tilth,  joyfully 
and  ungrudgingly  yield  his  tithes  to  God,  according  to  the  ordi- 
nance of  the  witan  at  Andover,  which  they  have  now  confirmed 
with  their  pledges  at  Wihtbordesstan.  And  I  command  my  reeves, 
on  pain  of  losing  my  friendship  and  all  they  own,  to  punish  all  that 
will  not  make  this  payment,  or  by  any  remissness  break  the  pledge 
of  my  witan,  as  the  aforesaid  ordinance  directs :  and  of  such  pu- 
nishment let  there  be  no  remission,  if  he  be  so  wretched  as  either 
to  diminish  what  is  God's  to  his  own  soul's  perdition,  or  in  the 
insolence  of  his  mood  to  account  them  of  less  importance  than 
what  he  reckoneth  as  his  own  :  for  that  is  much  more  his  own 
which  lasteth  to  all  eternity,  if  he  would  do  it  without  grudging  and 
with  perfect  gladness.  Now  it  is  my  will  that  these  divine  rights 
stand  alike  all  over  my  realm,  and  that  the  servants  of  God  who 
receive  the  moneys  which  we  give  to  God,  live  a  pure  life :  that  so, 
through  their  purity,  they  may  intercede  for  us  with  God ;  and 
that  I  and  my  thanes  direct  our  priests  to  that  which  the  shep- 
herds of  our  soul's  teach  us,  that  is,  our  bishops,  whom  we  ought 
never  to  disobey  in  any  of  those  things  which  they  declare  to  us 
in  God's  behalf ;  so  that  through  the  obedience  with  which  we 
obey  them  for  God's  sake,  we  may  merit  that  eternal  life  for  which 
they  fit  us  by  their  doctrine  and  the  example  of  their  good  works." 
Eadgar,  Suppl.  Thorpe,  i.  270  seq.  Such  are  the  views  of 
Eadgar  under  the  influence  of  Dunstan,  ^ESelwold  and  Oswald. 

"And  let  God's  dues  be  willingly  paid  every  year;  that  is, 
plough- alms  fifteen  days  after  Easter,  the  tithe  of  young  by  Pen- 
tecost, and  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  by  Allhallows'  Mass,  and 
Eome-fee  by  St.  Peter's  mass,  and  lightshot  thrice  a  year." 

.  v.  §  11  ;  vi.  §  17 ;  ix.  §  9.     Cnut,  i.  §  8.         , 
Et  ut  detur  de  omni  caruca  denarius  vel  denarium  valens,  et 


548  APPENDIX  B. 

omnis  qui  familiam  habet,  efSciat  ut  omnis  hirmannus  suus  det 
unum  denarium ;  quod  si  non  habeat,  det  dominus  eius  pro  eo. 
Et  omnino  Thaynus  decimet  totum  quicquid  habet."  ^E6elr.  viii. 
§  1.  Thorpe,  i.  336. 

"Et  praecipimus,  ut  omnis  homo,  super  dilectionem  Dei  et 
omnium  sanctorum,  det  Cyricsceattum  et  rectam  decimam  suam, 
sicut  in  diebus  antecessorum  nostrorum  stetit,  quando  melius  stetit; 
hoc  est,  sicut  aratrum  peragrabit  decimam  acram.  Et  omnis  con- 
suetudo  reddatur  super  amicitiam  Dei  ad  matrem  nostram  aeccle- 
siam  cui  adiaoet.  Et  nemo  auferat  Deo  quod  ad  Deum  pertinet, 
et  praedecessores  nostri  concesserunt."  JEfielr.  viii.  §  4.  Thorpe, 
1.  338. 

"  And  with  respect  to  tithe,  the  king  and  his  witan  have  chosen 
and  decreed,  as  right  it  is,  that  one  third  part  of  the  tithe  which 
belongs  to  the  church,  go  to  the  reparation  of  the  church,  and  a 
second  part  to  God's  servants  there ;  the  third  part  to  God's  poor 
and  needy  men  in  thraldom."  ^E^elr.  ix.  §  6.  Thorpe,  i.  342. 

"  And  be  it  known  to  every  Christian  man  that  he  pay  to  the 
Lord  his  tithe  justly,  ever  as  the  plough  traverses  the  tenth  field, 
on  peril  of  God's  mercy,  and  of  the  full  penalty,  which  king  Eadgar 
decreed ;  that  is  ;  If  any  one  will  not  justly  pay  the  tithe,  then  let 
the  king's  reeve  go,  and  the  mass-priest  of  the  minster  or  the  land- 
lord, and  the  bishop's  reeve,  and  take  by  force  the  tenth  part  for 
the  minster  to  which  it  is  due,  and  assign  to  him  the  ninth  part : 
and  let  the  remaining  eight  parts  be  divided  into  two  ;  and  let  the 
landlord  seize  half,  and  the  bishop  half,  be  it  a  king's  man  or  a 
thane's."  JE&elr.  ix.  §  7, 8.  Thorpe,  i.  342.  Ciiut,  i.  §  8.  Thorpe, 
i.  366.  Leg.  Hen.  I.  xi.  §  2.  Thorpe,  i.  520. 

"  De  omni  annona  decima  garba  sanctae  aecclesiae  reddenda  est. 
Si  quis  gregem  equarum  habuerit,  pullum  decimum  reddat ;  qui 
unam  solam  vel  duas,  de  singulis  pullis  singulos  denarios.  Qui 
vaccas  plures  habuerit,  vitulum  decimum  ;  qui  unam  vel  duas,  de 
singulis  obolos  singulos.  Et  si  de  eis  caseum  fecerit,  caseum  de- 
cimum, vel  lac  decima  die.  Agnum  decimum,  vellus  decimum, 
caseum  decimum,  butirum  decimum,  porcellum  decimum.  De 
apibus,  secundum  quod  sibi  per  annum  inde  profecerit.  Quin- 


TITHE.  549 


etiam  de  boscis  et  pratis,  aquis,  molendinis,  parcis,  vivariis,  pisca- 
riis,  virgultis,  ortis,  negotiationibus,  et  de  omnibus  similiter  rebus 
quas  dederit  Dominus,  decima  reddenda  est ;  et  qui  earn  detinu- 
erit,  per  iusticiam  sanctae  aecclesiae  et  regis,  si  necesse  fuerit,  ad 
redditionem  cogatur.  Haec  praedicavit  sanctus  Augustinus,  et 
haec  concessa  sunt  a  rege,  et  confirmata  a  baronibus  et  populis : 
sed  postea,  instigante  diabolo,  ea  plures  detinuerunt,  et  sacerdo- 
tes  qui  divites  erant  non  multum  curiosi  erant  ad  perquirendas 
eas,  quia  in  multis  locis  sunt  modo  iiii  vel  iii  aecclesiae,  ubi  tune 
temporis  non  erat  nisi  una ;  et  sic  inceperunt  minui."  Eadw. 
Conf.  §  vii.  viii. 

Such  are  all  the  passages  in  the  Anglosaxon  Laws,  directing 
the  levy  and  distribution  of  the  tithe. 


550 


APPENDIX   C. 

TOWNS. 

THE  strict  meaning  of  burh,  appears  to  be  fortified  place  or 
stronghold.  It  can  therefore  be  applied  to  a  single  house  or 
castle,  as  well  as  to  a  town.  There  is  a  softer  form  by  rig,  which 
in  the  sense  of  a  town  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  burh, 
but  which,  as  far  as  I  know,  is  never  used  to  denote  a  single  house 
or  castle.  Rome  and  Florence,  and  in  general  all  large  towns,  are 
called  Burh  or  Byrig.  This  is  the  widest  term. 

Port  strictly  means  an  enclosed  place,  for  sale  and  purchase,  a 
market :  for  "  Portus  est  conclusus  locus,  quo  importantur  merces, 
etinde  exportantur.  Est  et  statio  conclusa  et  munita."  (Thorpe,  i. 
p.  158.) 

Wic  is  originally  vicus,  a  vill  or  village.  It  is  strictly  used  to 
denote  the  country-houses  of  communities,  kings  or  bishops. 

C  easier  seems  universally  derived  from  castrum,  and  denotes  a 
place  where  there  has  been  a  Roman  station.  Now  every  one  of 
these  conditions  may  concur  in  one  single  place,  and  we  accord- 
ingly find  much  looseness  in  the  use  of  the  terms :  thus, 

London  is  called  Lundenwic1,  HhotSh.  §  16.  Chron.  604:  but 
Lundenburh  or  Lundenbyrig,  Chron.  457,  872,  886,  896,  910, 
994,  1009,  1013,  1016,  1052.  And  it  was  also  a  port,  for  we 
find  its  gerefa,  a  port-gerefa.  Again  York,  sometimes  Eoferwic, 
sometimes  Eoferwic-ceaster  (Chron.  971)  is  also  said  to  be  a  burh, 
Chron.  1066.  Dovor  is  called  a  burh,  Chron.  1048  ;  but  a  port, 
Chron.  1052.  So  again  Hereford,  in  Chron.  1055, 1056,  is  called  a 
port,  but  in  Chron.  1055  also  a  burh.  Nor  do  the  Latin  chroni- 

"  Forum  rerum  yenalium  Lundenwic."  Vit.  Bonif.   Pertz,  Mon.  ii.  338. 


THE  ANGLOSAXON  TOWNS.  551 

clers  help  us  out  of  the  difficulty ;  on  the  contrary,  they  continu- 
ally use  the  words  oppidum,  civitas,  urbs  and  even  arx  to  denote 
the  same  place. 

The  Saxon  Chronicle  mentions  the  undernamed  cities  : — 

JEgeles  byrig,  now  Aylesbury  in  Bucks.    Chron.  Sax.  571,  921. 

Acemannes  ceaster  or  Baftan  byrig,  often  called  also  JEt  baSum 
or  JSti  hatum  baSum,  the  Aquae  Solis  of  the  Romans  and  now  Bath 
in  Somerset.  This  town  in  the  year  577  was  taken  from  the  Bri- 
tish. The  Chronicle  calls  it  Baftanceaster :  see  also  Chron.  973. 

Ambresbyrig,  now  Amesbury,  Wilts.     Chron.  995. 

Andredesceaster.  Anderida,  sacked  by  ^Elli.  Chron.  495. 
Most  probably  near  the  site  of  the  present  Pevensey :  see  a  very 
satisfactory  paper  by  Mr.  Hussey,  Archa3ol.  Journal,  No.  15,  Sept. 
1847. 

Baddanbyrig,  now  Badbury,  Dorset.     Chron.  901. 

Badecanwyl,  now  Bakewell,  Derby,  fortified  by  Eadweard. 
Chron.  923.  Florence  says  he  built  and  garrisoned  a  town  there: 
"  urbem  construxit,  et  in  ilia  milites  robustos  posuit."  an.  921. 

Banesingtun,  now  Bensington,  Oxf.     Chron.  571,  777. 

Bebbanburh,  now  Bamborough  in  Northumberland.  This  place, 
we  are  told,  was  first  surrounded  with  a  hedge,  and  afterwards  with 
a  wall.  Chron.  642,  926,  993.  Florence  calls  it  '<  urbs  regia  Beb- 
banbirig."  an.  926. 

Bedanford,  now  Bedford.  There  was  a  burh  here  which  Eead- 
weard  took  in  919  :  he  then  built  a  second  burh  upon  the  other  side 
of  the  Ouse.  Chron.  919.  Florence  calls  it  "  urbem."  an.  916. 

Beranbyrig.     Chron.  556. 

Bremesbyrig.  At  this  place  ^E$elfl£d  built  a  burh.  Chron.  910. 
Florence  says  "  urbem."  an.  911 :  perhaps  Bromsgrove  in  Wor- 
cestershire, the  JEt  Bremesgrafum  of  the  Cod.  Dipl.  Nos.  183, 186. 

Brunanburh,  Brunanbyrig,  and  sometimes  Brunanfeld  :  the  site 
of  this  place  is  unknown,  but  here  JEtSelstan  and  Eadmund  de- 
feated the  Scots.  Chron.  937. 

BrycgnortS,  Bridgenorth,  Salop.  Here  JEtSelfl&d  built  a  burh. 
Chron.  912  :  "  arcem  munitam."  Flor.  an.  913. 


552  APPENDIX  0. 

Bucingaham,  now  Buckingham.  Here  Eadweard  built  two 
burhs,  one  on  each  side  of  the  Ouse.  Chron.  918.  Florence 
calls  them  "  munitiones."  an.  915. 

Cantwarabyrig,  the  city  of  Canterbury.  Dorobernia,  ciuitas 
Doruuernensis,  the  metropolis  of  JESelberht's  kingdom  in  597. 
Beda,  H.  E.  lib.  i.  c.  25.  In  the  year  1011  Canterbury  was  suf- 
ficiently fortified  to  hold  out  for  twenty  days  against  the  Danish 
army  which  had  overrun  all  the  eastern  and  midland  counties, 
and  was  then  only  entered  by  treachery.  Elor.  Wig.  an.  1011.  I 
have  already  noticed  both  king's  reeves  and  port-reeves,  the  ingang 
burhware  and  cnihta  gyld  of  Canterbury.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  king,  archbishop,  abbot  and  corporation  had  all  sepa- 
rate jurisdictions  and  rights  in  Canterbury  :  see  Chron.  633,  655, 
995,  1009,  1011. 

Cirenceaster,  now  Cirencester  in  Gloucestershire,  the  ancient 
Durocornovum.  Chron.  577,  628. 

Cissanceaster,  now  Chichester,  the  Eoman  Eegnum.  Chron. 
895. 

CledemuSa.     Here  Eadweard  built  a  burh.     Chron.  921. 

Colnceaster,  now  Colchester  in  Essex,  the  first  Eoman  Colonia, 
destroyed  by  Boadicea.  In  921  Colchester  was  sacked  by  Ead- 
weard's  forces,  and  taken  from  the  Danes,  some  of  whom  escaped 
over  the  wall.  In  the  same  year  Eadweard  repaired  and  fortified 
it.  Chron.  921.  "  murum  illius  redintegravit,  virosque  in  ea  bel- 
licosos  cum  stipendio  posuit."  Elor.  918. 

Coludesburh,  Coldingham.     Chron.  679. 

Cyppanham,  Chippenham,  Wilts.     Chron.  878. 

Cyricbyrig,  a  city  built  by  ^E3elfl£d.     Elor.  916.     Cherbury. 

Deoraby,  Derby,  one  of  the  Eive  Burgs  taken  by  JESelfl^d  from 
the  Danes.  Chron.  917, 941.  A  city  with  gates.  Plor.  918.  "  civi- 
tas."  Elor.  942. 

Dofera,  Dover  in  Kent.  Chron.  1048,  1052.  There  was  a  for- 
tified castle  on  the  cliff,  which  in  1051  was  seized  by  the  people 
of  Eustace,  count  of  Boulogne,  against  the  town.  Elor.  Wig. 
1051. 


THE  ANGLOSAXON  TOWNS.  553 

Dorceeeaster,  Dorchester,  Oxon.  Chron.  954,  971.  For  some 
time  a  bishop's  see,  first  for  Wessex,  which  was  afterwards  removed 
to  Winchester :  afterwards  for  Leicester. 

Dorceeeaster,  Dornwaraceaster,  Dorchester,  Dorset.  Chron. 
635,  636,  639. 

Eadesbyrig,  a  place  where  JESelfl&d  built  a  burh.  Chron.  914. 
Florence  says  a  town.  an.  915.  Eddisbury,  Cheshire? 

Eligbyrig,  Ely  in  Cambridgeshire.     Chron.  1036. 

Egonesham,  now  Eynesham,  Oxon.     Chron.  571. 

Eoforwic,  Eoforwic  ceaster,  now  York ;  Kair  Ebrauc,  Ebora- 
cum ;  the  seat  of  an  archbishop,  a  bishop,  and  again  an  archbi- 
shop. It  seems  to  have  been  always  a  considerable  and  important 
town.  In  the  tenth  century  it  was  one  of  the  seven  confederated 
burgs,  which  JESelfl^ed  reduced.  The  strength  however  which  we 
should  be  inclined  to  look  for  in  a  city,  which  once  boasted  the 
name  of  altera  Roma,  is  hardly  consistent  with  Asser's  account  of 
it.  Describing  the  place  in  the  year  867,  he  says :  "  Praedictus 
Paganorum  exercitus  ....  ad  Eboracum  ciuitatem  migravit,  quae 
in  aquilonari  ripa  Humbrensis  numinis ]  sita  est."  After  stating 
that  JElla  and  Osberht,  the  pretenders  to  the  Northumbrian  crown, 
became  reconciled  in  presence  of  the  common  danger,  he  continues  : 
"  Osbyrht  et  ^Ella,  adunatis  viribus,  congregatoque  exercitu  Ebo- 
racum oppidum  adeunt,  quibus  advenientibus  Pagani  confestim 
fugam  arripiunt,  et  intra  urbis  moenia  se  defendere  procurant : 
quorum  fugam  et  pavorem  Christiani  cernentes,  etiam  intra  urbis 
moenia  persequi,  et  murum  frangere  instituunt :  quod  et  fecerunt, 
non  enim  tune  adhuc  ilia  civitas  firmos  et  stabilitos  muros  illis 
temporibus  habebat.  Cumque  Christiani  murum,  ut  proposu- 
erant,  fregissent,  etc.2 "  We  may  infer  from  Asser  himself  that 
the  Saxon  mode  of  fortification  was  not  strong :  speaking  of 
a  place  in  Devonshire,  called  Cynuit  (which  he  describes  as  ar#), 
he  says  :  "  Cum  Pagani  arccm  imparatam  atque  omnino  immuni- 
tam,  nisi  quod  moenia  nostro  more  erecta  solummodo  haberet, 

1  He  clearly  considers  the  northern  branch  of  the  Huniber,  which  we  now 
call  the  Ouse,  to  be  the  continuation  of  the  river. 

2  Vit"  yElfr.  an.  867. 

VOL.  II.  2  0 


554  APPENDIX  0. 

cernerent,  non  enim  effringere  moliebantur,  quia  et  ille  locus  situ 
terrarum  tutissimus  est  ab  omni  parte,  nisi  ab  oriental!,  sicut  nos 
ipsi  vidimus,  obsidere  earn  coeperunt  V  York  however  continued 
to  be  an  important  town.  It  was  retaken  by  ^ESelfl^d  who  sub- 
dued the  Danes  there  ;  and  again  by  Eadred  in  950.  At  this 
time  it  appears  to  have  been  principally  ruled  by  its  archbishop 
Wulfstan.  Eor  York,  see  Chron.  971,  1066,  etc. 

Exanceaster,  now  Exeter,  the  Isca  Damnoniorum  or  Uxella,  of 
the  Romans.  Chron.  876,  894,  1003.  As  the  Saxon  arms  ad- 
vanced westward,  Exeter  became  for  a  time  the  frontier  town  and 
market  between  the  British  and  the  men  of  Wessex :  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  tenth  century  there  appears  to  have  been  a  mixed 
population.  But  at  that  period2  ^ESelstan  expelled  the  British 
inhabitants,  and  fortified  the  town :  he  drove  the  Cornwealhas 
over  the  Tamar,  and  made  that  their  boundary,  as  he  had  the  Wye 
for  the  Bretwealas.  William  of  Halmesbury  tells  us  :  "  Illos  (i.  e. 
Cornewalenses)  impigre  adorsus,  ab  Excestra,  quam  ad  id  temporis 
aequo  cum  Anglis  iure  inhabitarunt,  cedere  compulit :  terminum 
provinciae  suae  citra  Tambram  fluvium  constituens,  sicut  aquilo- 
nalibus  Britannis  amnem  Waiam  limitem  posuerat.  Urbem  igitur 
illam,  quam  contaminatae  gentis  repurgio  defaecaverat,  turribus 
munivit,  muro  ex  quadratis  lapidibus  cinxit 3.  Et  licet  solum  illud, 
ieiunum  et  squalidum,  vix  steriles  avenas,  et  plerumque  folliculum 
inanem  sine  grano  producat,tamen  pro  civitatismagnificentia,etin- 
colarum  opulentia,tum  etiam  convenarum  frequentia,  omne  ibiadeo 
abundat  mercimonium,  ut  nihil  frustra  desideres  quod  humano  usui 
conducibile  existimes4."  Thus  situated,  about  ten  miles  from  the 
sea,  Exanceaster  could  not  fail  to  become  an  important  commercial 
station ;  the  Exa  being  navigable  for  ships  of  considerable  burthen, 
till  in  1284,  Hugh  Courten ay  interrupted  the  traffic  by  building  a 

1  Vit.  JElfr.  an.  878.  2  Probably  in  926. 

3  The  author  of  the  Gesta  Stephani,  a  contemporary  of  Malmesbury,  declares 
that  the  city  was  "  yetustissimo  Cassarurn  opere  murata:"  and  that  its  castle 
was  "muro  inexpugnabili  obseptum,  turribus Caesarianis  incisili  calce confectis 
firmatum,"  p.  21. 

4  Will.  Malm.  Gest.  Reg.  lib.  ii.  §  134  (Hardy's  Ed.  vbl.  i.  p.  214) ;  see  also 
Gest.  Pontif.  lib.  ii.  §  95  (Hamilton's  Ed.  p.  201). 


THE  ANGLOSAXON  TOWNS.  555 

weir  and  quay  at  Topsham.  It  is  probable  that  ^ESelstan  placed 
his  own  gerefa  in  the  city.  But  in  the  year  1003,  queen  Emme 
^Elfgyfu  seems  to  have  been  its  lady ;  for  it  is  recorded  that  through 
the  treachery  of  a  Frenchman  Hugo,  whom  she  had  made  her 
reeve  there,  the  Danes  under  Svein  sacked  and  destroyed  the 
city,  taking  great  plunder l.  It  was  afterwards  restored  by  Cnut ; 
but  appears  to  have  been  still  attached  to  the  queens  of  England, 
for  after  the  conquest  we  find  it  holding  out  against  William,  under 
GyS,  the  mother  of  Harald. 

ExanmuSa,  now  Exmouth.     Chron.  1001. 

Genisburuh,  now  Gainsborough.     Chron.  1013,  1014. 

Glaestingaburh  or  Glasstingabyrig,  now Glastonbury,  Som.  Urbs 
Glastoniae,  Chron.  688,  943. 

Gleawanceaster,  now  Gloucester ;  Kair  glou,  and  the  Koman 
Glevum.  Urbs  Gloverniae,  Glocestriae.  A  fortified  city  of  Mercia. 
Chron.  577,  918. 

Haestingas,  now  Hastings  in  Kent.  A  fortification,  and  proba- 
bly at  one  time  the  town  of  a  tribe  so  called.  Chron.  1066.  It 
was  reduced  by  Offa,  and  probably  ruined  in  the  Danish  wars  of 
Alfred  and  ^Efielred. 

Hagustaldes  ham  or  Hagstealdesham,  now  Hexham  in  North- 
umbria :  the  ancient  seat  of  a  bishopric.  Chron.  685. 

Hamtun,  now  Southampton.     Chron.  837. 

Hamtun,  now  Northampton,  quod  vide. 

Heanbyrig,  now  Hanbury  in  Worcest.     Chron.  675. 

Heortford,  now  Hertford.     Chron.  913.  urbs.     Flor.  913. 

Hereford,  now  Hereford.     Chron.  918,  1055,  1066. 

Hrofesceaster,  Durocobrevis,  Hrofesbreta,  now  Eochester;  a 
bishop's  see  for  West  Kent,  probably  once  the  capital  of  the  West 
Kentish  kingdom  :  a  strong  fortress.  Chron.  604,  616,  633,  644. 
Asser.  884. 

Huntena  tun,  now  Huntingdon.  Originally,  as  its  name  implies, 
a  town  or  enclosed  dwelling  of  hunters ;  but  in  process  of  time  a 
city.  Chron.  921.  civitas.  Flor.  918. 

Judanbyrig,  perhaps  Jedburgh.     Chron.  952. 
1   Chron.  Sax.  1003. 

2  0  2 


556  APPENDIX  0. 

Legaceaster,  Kairlegeon,  now  Chester,  a  Roman  city.  Chron. 
607  ;  deserted,  Chron.  894 ;  restored,  Chron.  907.  Plor.  908. 

Legraceaster,  now  Leicester.  Chron.  918,  941,  943.  civitas. 
Plor.  942. 

Lindicoln,  the  ancient  Lindum,  now  Lincoln,  the  capital  city  of 
the  Lindissi ;  a  bishop's  see  :  then  one  of  the  five  or  seven  burns. 
Chron.  941.  civitas.  Flor.  942. 

Lundenbyrig,  Lundenwic,  Londinium,  now  London.  The  prin- 
cipal city  of  the  Cantii ;  then  of  the  Trinobantes ;  Kair  Lunden, 
Troynovant.  Locally  in  Essex,  but  usually  subject  to  Mercian 
sovereignty.  Towards  the  time  of  the  conquest  more  frequently 
the  residence  of  the  Saxon  kings,  and  scene  of  their  witena  gemots. 
A  strongly  fortified  city  with  a  fortified  bridge  over  the  Thames 
connecting  it  with  Southwark,  apparently  its  Tete  de  pont.  Chron. 
457,  604,  872,  886,  896,  910,  994,  1009,  1013,  1016,  1052. 

Lygeanbyrig,  now  Leighton  buzzard.     Chron.  571. 

Maidulfi  urbs,  Meldumesbyrig,  now  Malmesbury  in  Wilts.  Plor. 
940. 

Mameceaster,  now  Manchester :  "  urbem  restaurarent,  et  in  ea 
fortes  milites  collocarent."  Plor.  920. 

Mealdun,  now  Maldon  in  Essex.  Chron.  920,  921.  urbs; 
rebuilt  and  garrisoned  by  Eadweard.  Plor.  917. 

Medeshamstede  :  afterwards  Burh,  and  from  its  wealth  Gylden- 
burh :  now  Peterborough.  Chron.  913. 

Merantiin,  now  Merton  in  Oxfordshire.     Chron.  755. 

Middeltun,  Middleton  in  Essex,  a  fortress  built  by  Haesten  the 
Dane.  Chron.  893. 

NorShamtun,  more  frequently  Ham  tun  only,  now  Northampton : 
a  town  or  "  Port,"  burnt  by  the  Danes  under  Svein.  Chron.  1010. 

NorSwic,  now  Norwich,  a  burh,  burned  by  Svein.    Chron.  1004. 

Oxnaford,  Oxford :  a  burh  in  Mercia,  taken  into  his  own  hands 
by  Eadweard  on  the  death  of  ^ESelfl^d.  The  burh  was  burnt  by 
Svein.  Chron.  1009. 

Possentesbyrig.     Chron.  661.     ?  Pontesbury,  co.  Salop. 

Baedingas,  now  Reading :  a  royal  vill,  but,  as  many  or  all  pro- 
bably were,  fortified.  Asser.  871. 


THE  ANGLOSAXON  TOWNS.  657 

Runcofa,  now  Runcorn,  urbs,  Flor.  Wig.  916. 

Sandwic,  now  Sandwich,  a  royal  vill,  and  harbour,  whose  tolls 
belonged  to  Canterbury.  Chron.  851. 

Searoburh,  now  Salisbury,  the  ancient  Kairkaradek.  Chron. 
552. 

Scsergeat,  now  Scargate,  built  by  ^ESelfked.  Chron.  912;  arx 
munita,  Flor.  Wig.  913. 

Sceaftesbyrig,  Shaftsbury,  the  seat  of  a  nunnery  founded  by 
-Alfred.  Chron.  980,  982. 

Sceobyrig,  now  Shoebury  in  Essex  ;  a  fort  was  built  there  in 
894  by  the  Danes.  Chron.  894. 

Seletun,  perhaps  Silton  in  Yorkshire.     Chron.  780. 

Snotingaham,  now  Nottingham :  the  British  Tinguobauc,  or  urbs 
speluncarum.  Asser.  868;  Chron.  868,  922,  923,  941.  There 
were  two  towns  here,  one  on  each  side  the  river.  Flor.  Wig. 
919,  921 ;  civitas,  Flor.  Wig.  942. 

Soccabyrig,  probably  Sockburn  in  Durham.     Chron.  780. 

Stafford,  now  Stafford,  a  vill  of  the  Mercian  kings,  fortified  by 
J33elfl{£d.  Chron.  913;  arx,  Flor.  Wig.  914. 

Stamford  in  Lincolnshire.  Chron.  922,  941 ;  arx  and  civitas, 
Flor.  Wig.  919,  942. 

Sumertun,  now  Somerton  in  Oxfordshire,  taken  by  JESelbald 
of  Mercia  from  Wessex.  Chron.  733. 

SuSbyrig,  now  Sudbury  in  Suffolk.     Chron.  797. 

Swanawic,  probably  Swanwick,  Hants.     Chron.  877. 

Temesford,  Tempsford  in  Bedfordshire,  a  Danish  fortress  and 
town.  Chron.  921. 

Tofeceaster,  Towchester  in  Northampton.  Chron.  921 ;  civitas, 
Flor.  Wig.  918 ;  walled  with  stone,  Flor.  ibid. 

TomaworSig,  now  Tamworth  in  Staffordshire ;  a  favourite  resi- 
dence of  the  Mercian  kings.  Chron.  913,  922;  fortified  by 
^EtSelflded ;  urbs,  Flor.  Wig.  914. 

Wseringawic,  now  Warwick.    Chron.  914  ;  urbs,  Flor.  Wig.  915. 

Weardbyrig,  now  Warborough,  Oxford;  urbs,  Flor.  Wig.  916. 

Wigingamere,  probably  in  Hertfordshire.  Chron.  951 ;  urbs, 
Flor.  Wig.  918;  civitas,  ibid. 


558  APPENDIX  C. 

Wigornaceaster,  Worcester,  a  fortified  city.     Chron.  922, 1041. 

Wihtgarabyrig,  now  Carisbrook.     Chron.  530,  544. 

Wiltun,  Wilton  in  Wiltshire.     Chron.  1008. 

Wintanceaster,  Winchester,  the  capital  of  Wessex,  a  fortified 
city.  Chron.  643,  648. 

Witham,  now  Witham  in  Essex ;  a  city  and  fortress.  Chron. 
913;  Plor.  Wig.  914. 

Delweal,  Thelwall  in  Cheshire,  a  fortress  and  garrison  town. 
Chron.  923 ;  Flor.  Wig.  920. 

Detford,  now  Thetford  in  Norfolk ;  a  fortress  and  city.  Chron. 
952,  1004. 

It  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  this  list  nearly  exhausts  the  num- 
ber of  fortresses,  towns  and  cities  extant  in  the  Saxon  times.  It 
is  only  given  as  a  specimen,  and  as  an  illustration  of  the  averments 
in  the  text.  The  reader  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject,  will 
find  the  most  abundant  materials  in  the  Index  Locorum  appended 
to  Vol.  VI.  of  the  "  Codex  Diplomaticus  Aevi  Saxonici ;  "  and  to 
this  I  must  refer  him  for  any  ampler  information. 


559 


APPENDIX   D. 

CYRICSCEAT. 

I  DO  not  think  it  necessary  to  repeat  here  the  arguments  which  I 
have  used  elsewhere1,  to  show  that  Cyricsceat  has  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  our  modern  church-rates,  or  that  these  arose  from 
papal  usurpation  very  long  after  the  Norman  Conquest.  I  can 
indeed  only  express  my  surprise  that  any  churchman  should  still 
be  found  willing  to  continue  a  system  which  exposes  the  dignity 
and  peace  of  the  church  to  be  disturbed  by  any  schismatic  who 
may  see  in  agitation  a  cheap  step  to  popularity.  But  as  the 
question  has  been  put  in  that  light,  it  may  be  convenient  for  the 
sake  of  reference  to  collect  the  principal  passages  in  the  laws  and 
charters  which  refer  to  the  impost.  They  are  the  following : — 

"  Be  cyricsceattum.  Cyricsceattas  s£n  agifene  be  Seint  Mar- 
tines  maessan.  Gif  hwa  Saet  ne  gelgeste,  s^  he  scyldig  LX  scill.  and 
be  twelffealdum  agyfe  Sone  cyricsceat."  Ine,  §  4 ;  Thorpe,  i.  104. 

"  Be  cyricsceattum.  Cyricsceat  mon  sceal  agif  an  to  Seem  healme 
and  to  Seem  heorSe  Se  se  man  on  biS  to  middum  wintra."  Ine, 
§  61 ;  Thorpe,  i.  140. 

"  And  ic  wille  eac  'Saet  mine  gerefan  gedon  Sset  man  agyfe  Sa 
cyricsceattas  and  Sa  sawlsceattas  to  Sam  stowum,  Se  hit  mid  rihte 
to  gebyrige."  Atheist,  i. ;  Thorpe,  i.  196. 

"  Be  teoSungum  and  cyricsceattum.  TeoSunge  we  bebeodaS 
£elcum  cristenum  men  be  his  cristendome,  and  cyricsceat,  and 
aelmesfeoh.  Gif  hit  hwa  don  nylle,  sy  he  amansumod."  Eadm.  i. 
§  2 ;  Thorpe,  i.  244. 

"  Be  cyricsceat.  Gif  hwa  Sonne  fegna  s^,  t5e  on  his  boclande 
cyrican  haebbe,  Se  legerstowe  on  s£,  gesylle  he  Sonne  friddan  da&l 
his  agenre  teoSunge  into  his  cyrican,  Gif  hwa  cyrican  haebbe, 

1  A  Few  Historical  Eemarks  upon  the  supposed  Antiquity  of  Church-rates. 
Eidgway,  1836. 


SCO  APPENDIX  D. 

8e  legerstow  on  ne  sj,  Sonne  do  he  of  'Sgem  nygan  daalum  his  preost 
ftaet  Saet  he  wille.  And  ga  ylc  cyricsceat  into  Ssem  ealdan  mynster 
be  aalcum  frigan  (h)eorSe."  Eadgar,  i.  §  1,  2;  Thorpe,  i.  262. 

"Neadgafol  tires  drihtnes,  fleet  syn  ure  teotSunga  and  cyric- 
sceattas."  Eadgar,  Supp.  §  1 ;  Thorpe,  i.  270. 

"  And  cyricsceat  to  Martimis  maessan."  ^ESelr.  vi.  §  18 ; 
Thorpe,  i.  320. 

"  And  cyricsceat  gelasste  man  be  Martinus  maessan,  and  sefte 
Saet  ne  gelaeste,  forgilde  hine  mid  twelffealdan,  and  flam  cyninge 
cxx  scill."  ^Eflelr.  ix.  §  11 ;  Thorpe,  i.  342. 

u  Et  praecipimus,  ut  omnis  homo  super  dilectionem  dei  et  om- 
nium sanctorum  det  cyricsceattum  et  rectam  decimam  suam,  sicut 
in  diebus  antecessorum  nostrorum  stetit,  quando  melius  stetit ; 
hoc  est,  sicut  aratrum  peragrabit  decimam  acram."  ^ESelr.  viii. 
§  4 ;  Thorpe,  i.  338. 

"  De  ciricsceatto  dicit  vicecomitatus  quod  episcopus,  de  omni 
terra  quse  ad  ecclesiam  suam  pertinet,  debet  habere,  in  die  festivi- 
tatis  sancti  Martini,  unam  summam  annonae,  qualis  melior  crescit 
in  ipsa  terra,  de  unaquaque  hida  libera  et  villana ;  et  si  dies  ille 
fractus  fuerit,  ille  qui  retinuerit  reddet  ipsam  summam,  et  unde- 
cies  persolvat ;  et  ipse  episcopus  accipiat  inde  f orisfacturam  qualem 
ipse  debet  habere  de  terra  sua.  De  ciricsceatto  de  Perscora  dicit 
vicecomitatus  quod  ilia  ecclesia  de  Perscora  debet  habere  ipsum 
ciricsceattum  de  omnibus  ccc  hidis,  scilicet  de  unaquaque  hida  ubi 
francus  homo  manet,  unam  summam  annonse,  et  si  plures  habet 
hidas,  sint  liberee ;  et  si  dies  fractus  fuerit,  in  festivitate  sancti 
Martini,  ipse  qui  retinuerit  det  ipsam  summam  et  undecies  per- 
solvat, abbati  de  Perscora ;  et  reddat  forisfacturam  abbati  de 
Westminstre  quia  sua  terra  est."  Cart.  Heming.  i.  49,  50.  "  De 
ciricsceate.  Dicit  vicecomitatus  quod  de  unaquaque  hida  terras, 
libera  vel  villana,  quae  ad  ecclesiam  de  Wirecestre  pertinet,  debet 
episcopus  habere,  in  die  festo  sancti  Martini  unam  summam  aii- 
nonae,  de  meliori  quae^ibidem  crescit ;  quod  si  dies  ille  non  reddita 
annona  transient,  qui  retinuit  annonam  reddat,  undecies  persolvet, 
et  insuper  forisfacturam  episcopus  accipiet,  qualem  et  sua  terra 
habere  debet."  Ibid.  1,  308. 


CYRICSCEAT.  561 

The  only  instance  that  I  can  find  of  this  impost  being  noticed 
in  the  Ecclesiastical  Laws,  or  Recommendations  of  the  Bishops 
and  Clergy,  is  in  the  Canons  attributed  to  Eadgar : — 

"  And  we  enjoin,  that  the  priests  remind  the  people  of  what 
they  ought  to  do  to  God  for  dues,  in  tithes  and  in  other  things ; 
first  plough-alms,  xv  days  after  Easter  ;  and  tithe  of  young,  by 
Pentecost ;  and  of  fruits  of  the  earth,  by  All  Saints  ;  and  Rom- 
feoh  (Peter-pence)  by  St.  Peter's  Mass ;  and  Cyricsceat  by  Martin- 


mass 


"  Nunc  igitur  praecipio  et  obtestor  omnes  meos  episcopos  et 
regni  praepositos,  per  fidem  quam  Deo  et  mihi  debetis,  quatenus 
faciatis,  ut  antequam  ego  Angliam  veniam,  omnia  debita,  quae  Deo 
secundum  legem  antiquam  debemus,  sint  soluta,  scilicet  eleemosynae 
pro  aratris,  et  decimae  animalium  ipsius  anni  procreatorum,  et  de- 
narii quos  Romse  ad  sanctum  Petrum  debemus,  sive  ex  urbibus 
sive  ex  villis,  et  mediante  Augusto  decimae  frugum,  et  in  festivitate 
sancti  Martini  primitiae  seminum  ad  ecclesiam  sub  cuius  parochia 
quisque  est,  quae  Anglice  Circesceat  nominantur2." 

Oswald's  grants  often  contain  this  clause  :  "  Sit  autem  terra  ista 
liber  a  omni  regi  nisi  aecclesiastici  censi."  See  Codex  Dipl.  Nos. 
494,  498,  515,  540,  552,  558,  649,  680,  681,  682.  But  some- 
times the  amount  is  more  closely  defined :  thus  in  No.  498,  two 
bushels  of  wheat.  In  No.  511  we  have  this  strong  expression  : 
"  .Free  from  all  worldly  service  (weoruldcund  peowet),  except  three 
things,  one  is  cyricsceat,  and  that  he  (work)  with  all  his  might, 
twice  in  the  year,  once  at  mowing,  once  at  reaping."  And  in 
No.  625  he  repeats  this,  making  the  land  granted  free,  "  ab  om- 
ni mundialium  servitute  tributorum,exceptis  sanctaeDei  aecclesiae 
necessitatibus  atque  utilitatibus."  Again,  "  Et  semper  possessor 
terrae  illius  reddat  tributum  aecclesiasticum,  quod  ciricsceat  dicitur, 
to  Pirigtune ;  et  omni  anno  unus  ager  inde  aretur  to  Pirigtune, 
et  iterum  metatur." — Cod.  Dipl.  No.  661.  "  Sit  autem  hoc 

praedictum  rus  liberum  ab  omni  mundiali  servitio, excepta 

sanctae  Dei  basilicae  suppeditatione  ac  ministration e." — Ibid. 
No.  666. 

1  Thorpe,  ii.  256.  2  Epist.  Cnut.  Flor.  Wig.  an.  1031. 


562  APPENDIX  I) 

The  customs  of  Dyddanham1  impose  upon  the  gebur  the  duty 
of  finding  the  cyricsceat  to  the  lord's  barn,  but  whether  because 
the  lord  was  an  ecclesiastic  does  not  clearly  appear. 

The  important  provisions  of  Denewulf 's  and  EalhfriS's  charters 
have  been  sufficiently  illustrated  in  the  text. 

After  the  conquest,  Chirset  or  Chircettum,  as  it  is  called,  was 
very  irregularly  levied  :  it  appears  to  have  been  granted  occasion- 
ally by  the  lords  to  the  church,  but  no  longer  to  have  been  a 
general  impost :  and  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  find  it  con- 
sidered as  a  set-off  against  other  forms  of  rent-paying,  on  lay  as 
well  as  ecclesiastical  land.  If  the  tenant  gave  work,  he  usually 
paid  no  chircet :  if  he  paid  chircet,  his  amount  of  labour-rent  was 
diminished  :  a  strong  evidence,  if  any  more  were  wanted,  that 
cyricsceat  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  church-rate. 

1  Now  Tidenham  in  Gloucestershire,  near  the  point  where  the  Wye  falls 
into  the  Severn,  nearly  2°  36'  west  longitude  from  Greenwich. 


THE  EXD. 


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