Chapter VIII (3)

In the face of this evidence it seems impossible to ignore either the continuity of the tribute and services under Roman and German rule on the one hand, or their identity with the _gafol_, the _gafol-yrth_, and the _week-work_ of the English manor on the other hand. There is first the tenth of the chief produce due as of old from these occupants of the 'Agri Decumates' of Tacitus, closely connected with the tribute of ploughing--the Saxon _gafol-yrth_ noticed above in the St. Gall charters. This is to be rendered in _lawful andecenæ_, and this measure of the plough-work is reckoned by the Roman rod of ten feet, and takes the precise form, four rods by forty, which belongs to the English acre of four roods;[491] and this is the [p327] strip to be sown, gathered, and stored, just as in the case of the Saxon '_gafol-yrth_.'

The tending of vines is peculiar to the country. The tenth bundle of flax, the tenth vessel of honey, and the fowls and eggs are also familiar items of the _census_ or _gafol_, both in the charters of St. Gall and in the services of Saxon manors.

«'Sordida munera.'»

Then there are the pack-horse services (_parafreti_) and the carrying services ('_angariæ cum carra_'), the keeping up of buildings, supply of the limekiln, and the carriage of lime to the villa--all which once public services ('_sordida munera_'), due to the Roman Emperor on whose tithe lands the coloni were settled, were now the manorial services of 'coloni' of the Church. They were called in the Codex Theodosianus '_obsequia_,' and are almost identical with the Saxon '_precariæ_' or boon-works.

Lastly, it has been observed that the coloni or _accolæ_ did not give '_week-work_.' This was, as has been seen, the distinctive mark of serfdom here in Rhætia, as for centuries afterwards throughout the manors of mediæval Europe.

In other words, in the seventh century there are two classes of tenants on ecclesiastical manors--(1) the _coloni_ or _accolæ_, to use the Saxon terms of King Ine's laws, _set to gafol_; and (2) the _servi_, _set to gafol and to week-work_.

Throw the two classes together, or let the remaining Roman coloni sink, as the result of conquest or otherwise, down into the condition up to which the slaves have risen in becoming serfs, and the serfdom of the mediæval manorial estate is the natural result. At the same time an explanation is given of the [p328] persistently double character of the later services, which apparently was a survival of their double origin in the union of the public tribute and _sordida munera_ of the Roman _colonus_ with the servile work of the Roman slave.

«Transition from slavery to serfdom.»

On the estates of the Church in the early years of the seventh century the humanising power of Christian feeling had silently raised the status of the slave. It had dignified labour, and given to him a property in his labour, securing to him not only one day in seven for rest to his weary and heavy-laden limbs, but also _three days in the week_ wherein his labour was _his own_. From slavery he had risen into serfdom. And this serfdom of the _quondam_ slave had become, in the eyes of the still more weary and heavy-laden free labourers on their own land, so light a burden compared with their own--such was the lawless oppression of the age--that they went to the Church and took upon them willingly the yoke of her serfdom, in order that they might find rest under her temporal as well as spiritual protection.

Such an impulse did this rush for safety into serfdom on ecclesiastical or monastic estates receive from the unsettlement and lawlessness of the period of the Teutonic invasions, that by the time of Charles the Great a large proportion of the land in these once Roman provinces had become included in the manorial estates of the monasteries.

«Scores of free-tenants on a single manor make surrenders to the Abbey of Lorsch.»

In the thickly peopled Romano-German lands on both sides of the Rhine, including the present Elsass on the one side, and the district between the Rhine and the Maine (the present Baden and Wirtemberg) on the other, so strong was the current in this direction that we find in the _Traditiones_ of the monasteries [p329] of '_Lorsch_' and '_Wizenburg_' scores of surrenders taking place sometimes in a single village. And these cases are of peculiar interest because _G. L. von Maurer_ relies almost solely upon them as the earliest examples available in support of his theory of the original German _mark_ and _free village community_. His _only_ early instances are taken from the Lorsch Cartulary.[492] He cites 107 surrenders to the Abbey of Lorsch in '_Hantscuhesheim_' alone,[493] and concludes that there must have been at least as many free holders resident there in earlier times. In _Loeheim_ there were eight surrenders; in other heims thirty-five, five, twenty-three, ten, forty, five, and so on. These must, he concludes, have formed part of originally free village communities on the German mark system.[494]

Now these surrenders to the abbey go back to the reign of Pepin; and the question is, What were these freemen who made these surrenders? Were they indeed members of _German free village communities_?

In the first place, they lived in a district which for many centuries had been a Roman province. The manners of the people had long been Romanised. Even across the Maine for generations the homesteads had been built in Roman fashion.[495] And it is significant that the fragments surrendered in this district, which since the time of Probus had become devoted to the vine culture, were mostly little _vineyards_; e.g. '_rem meam, hoc est vineam, i. in Hantscuhesheim_,'[496] and so [p330] on. These vineyards were often composed of so many '_scamelli_,' or little _scamni_--ridges or strips marked out by the Roman _Agrimensores_. All this is thoroughly Roman. What looks at first sight so much like a German free village community, was once a little Roman 'vicus' full of people, with their vineyards on the hills around it. They look like German settlers or 'free coloni' on the public domains, who had become appendant to the villa of the fiscal officer of the district, which had in fact by this time become to all intents and purposes a manor.

A little further examination will confirm this view.

«The _villas_ were _manors_.»

Turning to the record of the earliest donation to the abbey, in A.D. 763,[497] we find a description of a whole villa or _heim_--'_Hoc est, villam nostram quæ dicitur Hagenheim, cum omni integritate sua, terris domibus ædificiis campis pratis vineis silvis aquis aquarumve decursibus farinariis litis libertis conlibertis mancipiis mobilibus et immobilibus, &c._'

Here there clearly is a villa or manor, and the tenants of this manor are _liti_, _liberti_, _coliberti_,[498] and _mancipii_ or slaves. There are charters of other estates which are just as clearly manors with servile tenements and slaves upon them.

In the similar records of surrenders to the Abbey of St. Gall, as we have seen, there are also donations of little free properties in '_heims_' and '_villares_,' but by far the greater number of the earliest donations are distinctly of whole manors or parts of manors, with _coloni_ and _mancipii_ upon them. [p331]

The heims of this Romano-German district were therefore distinctly manors. They were also '_marks_.'

«Another instance.»

In 773 Charles the Great gave to the Abbey of Lauresham the 'villa' called 'Hephenheim,' '_in pago Rinense, cum omni merito et soliditate sua cum terris domibus ædificiis accolis mancipiis vineis sylvis campis pratis, &c._'--that is, the _whole manor_--'_cum omnibus terminis et marchis suis_.' And then follow the _marchæ sive terminus silvæ_, which pertained to the same villa of Hephenheim, 'as it had always been held _sub ducibus et regibus ex tempore antiquo_.' It was then a 'villa' or manor belonging to the Royal domain, and it was then held as a benefice by a 'comes,' whose predecessor had also held it, and his father before him, of the king.[499]

This is clearly a grant of a whole manor with the tenants and slaves upon it, and a manor of long standing; and the word _mark_ is simply the base Latin word for boundary, like the Saxon word 'gemære.' Further, the boundaries are given exactly as in the Saxon charters, in the form described in the writings of the Roman _Agrimensores_.

In 774,[500] Charles the Great made a similar grant to the abbey in almost identical terms of the 'villa' called '_Obbenheim_,' in the district of Worms, '_cum omni merito et soliditate sua, &c., accolis, mancipiis, &c._,' just as before. This was another whole royal manor granted with its tenants and slaves to the abbey. Yet in 788[501] the holder of a vineyard ('_j petiam de vinea_') in this same Obbenheim surrenders it to the abbey. In 782[502] [p332] there is another grant. In 793[503] there is a similar grant of five vineyards, and another[504] of three vineyards; and scores of other donations of vineyards occur in the reigns of Charles and of his predecessor Pepin.[505]

«The 'free coloni' were manorial tenants.»

«Surrenders by 'free coloni.'»

It is obvious, then, that these surrenders or donations, which were exactly like those of _Hantscuhesheim_, were made by 'free coloni' of the manor, who in the time of Pepin, while the lordship remained in the king, as well as afterwards when the manor had been transferred to the abbey, surrendered their holdings to the abbey, thus converting them either into tenancies on the demesne land, or into servile holdings under the lordship of the abbey. They were not members of a German free village community, for they were tenants of a manor when they made their surrenders. Nor were they slaves (_mancipii_). The only other class mentioned in the charter was that of the _accolæ_, the word used for 'free coloni' in the Bavarian laws. These _accolæ_, it seems, then, were 'coloni' or free tenants upon a royal manor, part of the old _ager publicus_, now '_terra regis_.' And as such under the Frankish law it seems that they had power to transfer themselves from the lordship of the king to that of the Church. The Alamannic laws were enacted or at least confirmed after the Frankish conquest, and probably were in force over this particular district at the date of these surrenders. These laws, as we have seen, expressly forbade the _comes_ under whom they lived [p333] to prevent free tenants from making such surrenders for the good of their souls.

Indeed, among the St. Gall charters there is one exactly in point.

«Example.»

It is dated A.D. 766,[506] and by it the sons of a person who had surrendered his land to the Abbey under these laws by this charter renewed the arrangement, 'in this wise, that so as we used to do service to the king and the comes, so we shall do service for that land to the monastery, receiving it as a benefice of the same monks _per cartulam precariam_.'

This view of the case may be still further confirmed. In the Lorsch records are contained in some cases descriptions of the services of the two kinds of tenants on the manors surrendered to the Abbey. There are free tenants and servile tenants, and it is a strong confirmation of the continuity of the services from Roman to mediæval times to find some of them so closely identical with the '_sordida munera_' of the Theodosian Code and the services described in the Bavarian laws.

To take an example: In _Nersten_ the services of each _mansus ingenualis_ may be thus classified:[507]--

(1) _As census_, 5 modii of barley, 1 pound of flax, at Easter 4d., 1 fowl, 10 eggs, 2 loads of wood.

(2) _As work_, 4 weeks a year whenever required.

(3) _As_ '_gafolyrth_,' to plough 1 acre in each of the [three] fields (_sationes_), and to gather and store it.

(4) _As_ '_precariæ_,' or _sordida munera_--

3 days' work at reaping

2 days' work at mowing. [p334]

2 days' work at binding and 2 loads of carrying.

The tenant gives a _parafredum_.

Attends in the host.

Carts 5 loads of lime to the kiln.

Carts 5 loads of wood.

Goes messages 'infra regnum' whenever required.

Each _mansus servilis_ rendered, on the other hand--

(1) _As census_, 1 uncia, 1 fowl, 10 eggs, a frisking worth 4d.

(2) _As boon work_, 'facit moaticum et bracem et picturas in sepe et in grania.' In addition the tenant:--

Ploughs 4 days, and all demesne land.

Feeds for the winter 5 pigs and 1 cow.

(3) _As week-work_, 3 days a week whenever required.

For women's work, 1 uncia, 1 load of wood, 1 of grass, 10 eggs.

In total there were eighty-seven '_mansi et sortes_.'

«Their Roman connexion.»

It is evident that these _mansi_ and _sortes_ were not _allodial lots_ in the common mark of a free village community, but the holdings of two grades of _semi-servile_ and _servile_ tenants _on a manor_; and it is evident that some of the services were survivals of the _sordida munera_ exacted under Roman law. Surely the continuity in the mode of surrender and in the services and tribute on these South German manors, traced from the Theodosian Code to the Alamannic and Bavarian laws, and found again in the surrenders (identical with those described by Salvian) made under those laws, and also in the later surveys of the monastic estates, excludes the probability of their having been original settlements of German free village communities on the German mark system, such as G. L. von Maurer assumes that they were.

«Manorial tendency of the Roman land-system.»

These curious and numerous instances on which this writer relied as evidence of the mark-system, and as remains of a once free German village community, turn out in fact to be further instances of [p335] the progress under Frankish rule, within a once Roman province, of the practice described by Salvian--a practice which continued from century to century, helping on the threefold tendency (1) in the villa to become more and more manorial, _i.e._ more and more an estate of a lord with a village community in serfdom upon it; (2) for all land to fall under some manorial lordship or other, whether royal, ecclesiastical, monastic or private, and so to become part of a manorial estate; (3) for the originally distinct classes of 'free coloni' on the one hand, and _slaves_ or _servi_ on the other hand, to become merged in the one common class of mediæval serfs.

We have yet, however, to examine the German side of this continental economic history as carefully as we have examined the Roman side of it, before we shall be in a position to use continental analogies as the key to the solution of the English economic problem.

It may be that direct and important German elements also entered as factors in the manorial system, both during the period of Roman rule in the German provinces, and also after their final conquest by the German tribes.

FOOTNOTES:

[339] _Liber de Hyda_, p. 63.

[340] _Liber de Hyda_, pp. 67 _et seq._

[341] The per-centage is under-estimated, owing to the repetition of various forms of the same name having been excluded in counting those ending in _ham_, but not in counting the _total_ number of places.

[342] In Essex the _h_ is often dropped, and the suffix becomes '_am_.'

[343] _Chartularium Sithiense_, p. 97.

[344] _Traditiones et Antiquitates Fuldenses._ Dronke, Fulda, 1844.

[345] _Traditiones Corbeienses._ Wigand, 1843.

[346] _Urkundenbuch der Abtei St. Gallen_, A.D. 700–840. Wartmann, Zurich, 1863.

[347] _Historia Frisingensis_, Meichelbeck, 1729.

[348] _Traditiones possessionesqne Wizenburgenses._ Spiræ, 1842.

[349] _Codex Laureshamensis Diplomaticus_, 1768.

[350] The following are examples of the interchange of villa and heim in the names of places mentioned in the charters of the Abbey of Wizenburg in the district of Spires. The numbers refer to the charters in the _Traditiones Wizenburgenses_.

Batanandouilla (9). Batanantesheim (28).

Hariolfesuilla (4). Hariolueshaim (55).

Lorencenheim (141). Lorenzenuillare (275).

Modenesheim (2). Moduinouilare (52).

Moresuuilari (189). Moresheim (181).

Munifridesheim (118). Munifridouilla (52).

Radolfeshamomarca (90). Ratolfesham, p. 241. Radolfouuilari, Radulfo villa (71 and 73).

So also, among the manors of the Abbey of St. Bertin, 'Tattinga Villa' granted to the abbey in A.D. 648 (_Chart. Sithiense_, p. 18), called afterwards 'Tattingaheim' (p. 158). See also _Codex Dip._ ii. p. 227, 'Oswaldingvillare' interchangeable with 'Oswaldingtune,' in England. See also _Codex Laureshamensis_, iii. preface.

[351] See _Traditiones Wizenburgenses_, pp. 269 _et seq._ _Codex Laureshamensis_, iii. pp. 175 _et seq._

[352] See among the Lorsch charters that of _Hephenheim_ (A.D. 773). 'Hanc villam cum sylva habuerunt in beneficio Wegelenzo, pater Warini, et post eum Warinus Comes filius ejus in ministerium habuit ad opus regis et post eum Bougolfus Comes quousque eam Carolus rex Sancto Nazario tradidit' (I. p. 16).

[353] See again the case of _Hephenheim_. 'Limites. Inprimis incipit a loco ubi Gernesheim marcha adjungitur ad Hephenheim marcham,' &c.

[354] 'Villam aliquam nuncupatam Hephenheim sitam in Pago Renense, cum omni merito et soliditate sua, et quicquid ad eandem villam legitime aspicere vel pertinere videtur.' See also the case of the Manor of 'Sitdiu,' with its twelve sub-estates upon it, granted to the Abbot of St. Bertin A.D. 648. _Chartularium Sithiense_, p. 18.

[355] _Lex Salica_, xxxix. (cod. ii.), 4. 'Nomina hominum et _villarum_ semper debeat nominare.'

xlv. (De Migrantibus). When any one wants to move from one '_villa_' to another, he cannot do so without the licence of those 'qui in villa consistunt;' but if he has removed and stayed in another 'villa' twelve months, 'securus sicut et _alii vicini_ maneat.'

xiv. 'Si quis _villa_ aliena adsalierit. . . .'

xlii. v. 'Si quis _villam_ alienam expugnaverit. . . .'

_Capitulare Ludovici Primi_, ix. 'De eo qui villam alterius occupaverit' (Hessels and Kern's edition, p. 419).

_Chlodovechi Regis Capitula_ (id. p. 408), A.D. 500–1. 'De hominem inter duas _villas_ occisum.'

[356] _Lex Salica_, xlv.

[357] _Id._ xiv.

[358] This inference is drawn by Dr. P. Roth, _Geschichte des Beneficialwesens_, p. 74. See also _Waitz_, V. G. ii. 31.

[359] Hessels and Kern's edition, pp. 422–3.

[360] By the authors of the _Lex Emendata_. Note 39, p. 451.

[361] Note 216, p. 528.

[362] Tit. xxvi. (1) 'Si quis lidum alienum extra consilium domini sui ante Regem per denarium ingenuum dimiserit IIIIM. den. qui faciunt sol. c. culp. judicetur, et capitate domino ipsius restituat. (2) Res vero ipsius lidi legitimo domino restituantur. (3) Si quis servum alienum,' &c. &c. (H. and K. 136–144).

There were also Roman tributarii, Tit. xli. 'Si quis Romanum tributarium occiderit,' &c. (s. 7).

[363] See on this point Roth, pp. 83 _et seq._

[364] Varro. i. 13.

[365] Cato, _R. R._ 2. Columella, _R. R._ i. 6–8. M. Guerard says of the 'villicus,' 'Cet officier est le même que nous retrouvons au moyen âge sous son ancien nom de _villicus_, ou sous le nom nouveau de _major_.' _Polyptique d'Irminon_, i. 442.

[366] Columella, _De Re Rustica_, i. 8.

[367] Plutarch, _Cato_, c. 21. See _Cod. Theod._ IX. xii.

[368] 'Classes etiam non majores quam denum hominum faciundæ, quas _decurias_ appellaverunt antiqui et maxime probaverunt.'--Columella, i. 9.

[369] Fragment Jur. Rom. Vatic. 272. Huschke, p. 774.

[370] _Polyptique d'Irminon_, i. pp. 45 and 456.

[371] Bede, III. c. xxiv. 'Singulæ possessiones decem erant familiarum.'

[372] See also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 777, where mention is made of '10 bonde lands' given to the monks at Medeshampstede.

[373] Varro, i. xvii.

[374] Columella, i. vii.

[375] 'Si quis colonus _originalis vel inquilinus_ ante hos triginta annos de possessione discessit,' &c.--_Cod. Theod._ v. tit. x. 1.

[376] _Cod. Just._ xi. tit. xlvii. 22.

[377] _Cod. Just._ xi. tit. xlix. 1.

[378] Frontini, Lib. ii. _De controversiis Agrorum._ Lachmann, p. 53. 'Frequenter in provinciis . . . . habent autem in saltibus privati non exiguum populum plebeium et vicos circa villam in modum munitionum.'

[379] _Cod. Theod._ v. tit. iv. 3, A.D. 409. By this edict liberty is given for landowners to settle upon their property, as free _coloni_, people of the recently conquered 'Scyras' (a tribe inhabiting the present 'Moravia').

[380] Sid. Apol. _Epist._ ii. xii. He complains that a governor partial to barbarians '_implet villas hospitibus_.'

[381] _Cod. Theod._ lib. vii. tit. viii. 5. Compare as regards the _Burgundian_ settlement the passages in the _Burgundian Laws_, carefully commented upon in Binding's '_Das Burgundisch-Romanische Königreich, von 443 bis 532_ A.D.,' 1, c. i. s. ii. _et seq._

[382] Binding, p. 36. And they called them _villas_. _Leges Burg._ T. 38–9.

[383] Roth's _Geschichte des Beneficialwesens_, p. 81.

[384] _Hist. Francorum_, f. 344.

[385] _Hist. Francorum_, f. 295.

[386] _Polyptique d'Irminon._ Large donations were made to the abbey as early as A.D. 558 by the Frankish King Hildebert. See M. Guerard's Introduction, p. 35.

[387] _Chartularium Sithiense_, pp. 18 and 158.

[388] Mr. Coote has pointed out many remains of this centuriation in Britain; and the inscriptions on many centurial stones are given in _Hübner's_ collection.

[389] Siculus Flaccus, Lachmann and Rudorff, i. pp. 136–8.

[390] _Cod. Theod._ lib. vii. tit. xx. 3. A.D. 320. 'Constantinus ad universos veteranos.' 'Let veterans according to our command receive vacant lands, and hold them "immunes" for ever; and for the needful improvement of the country let them have also 25 thousand _folles_, a pair of oxen (_boum quoque par_), and 100 modii of different kinds of grain, &c. (_frugum_).'

Ib. s. 8. 'Valentinianus et Valens ad universos provinciales,' A.D. 364. 'To all deserving veterans we give what dwelling-place (_patriam_) they wish, and promise perpetual "immunity."

'Let them have vacant or other lands where they chose, free from stipendium and annual "præstatio." Further, we grant them for the cultivation of these lands both animals and seed, so that those who have been protectores (body-guards) should receive two pairs of oxen (_duo boum paria_) and 100 modii, of each of the two kinds of corn (_fruges_)--others after faithful service a single pair of oxen (_singula paria boum_) and 50 modii of each of the two kinds of corn, &c. If they bring male or female slaves on to the land, let them possess them "immunes" for ever.'

[391] _In Verrem_, Actio 2, lib. iii. 27.

[392] Varro, _De Re Rustica_, i. 44. Columella, ii. 9. Guerard, _Irminon_, i. 1.

[393] Siculus Flaccus, _De Condicionibus Agrorum_. Lachmann and Rudorff, i. pp. 154–6.

[394] In the division of the land between the Romans and Visigoths the amount allotted '_per singula aratra_' was to be 50 aripennes (i.e. 25 jugera). _Lex Visigothorum_, x. 1, 14 (A.D. 650 or thereabouts).

The _Liber Coloniarum I._ describes the 'ager _jugarius_' as 'in quinquagenis jugeribus,' the 'ager _meridianus_ in xxv. jugeribus.' Lachmann, i. 247. Here we have the normal divisions of the centuria of 200 jugera into holdings of 25 and 50 jugera. On the other hand, the _Lex Thoria_, B.C. 111, fixed 30 jugera as the largest holding to be recognised on the public lands. Rudorff, p. 213 (_Corp. Jur. Lat._ 200, 1. 14).

[395] P. 142. 'Quam maxime secundum consuetudinem regionum omnia intuenda sunt.'

[396] P. 143. See also Frontinus, p. 43, and Hyginus, p. 115, and p. 128 on the same point.

[397] P. 152.

[398] Siculus Flaccus, Lachmann, p. 152. 'Præterea et in multis regionibus comperimus quosdam possessores non continuas habere terras, sed particulas quasdam in diversis locis, intervenientibus complurium possessionibus: propter quod etiam complures vicinales viæ sint, ut unusquisque possit ad particulas suas jure pervenire. Sed et de viarum conditionibus locuti sumus. Quorundam agri servitutem possessoribus ad particulas suas eundi redeundique præstant. Quorundam etiam vicinorum aliquas silvas quasi publicas, immo proprias quasi vicinorum, esse comperimus, nec quemquam in eis cedendi pascendique jus habere nisi vicinos quorum sint: ad quas itinera sæpe, ut supra diximus, per alienos agros dantur.'

[399] Teams of six and of eight oxen in the plough are mentioned in the Vedas. '_Altindisches Leben_,' H. Zimmer. Berlin, 1879, p. 237.

[400] Hyginus, Lachmann and Rudorff, i. 113.

[401] See _Codex Theodosianus_, vii. tit. xx. s. 9, A.D. 366.

[402] In _Cod. Theod._ vii. xx. s. 10, A.D. 369, 'læti' are mentioned; and in s. 12, A.D. 400, 'lætus Alamannus Sarmata, vagus, vel filius veterani,' are mentioned together.

[403] Compare the Welsh _aillt_, or _alltud_ (Saxon _althud_, foreigner), and the _Aldiones_ of the Lombardic laws, with the _Læti_.

[404] B. iv. c. iii. s. 4.

[405] _Germania_, 28.

[406] The importance of the _Limes_ or _Pfahlgraben_ as marking the extent of Roman rule to the east of the Rhine, has recently been fully realised. See Wilhelm Arnold's _Deutsche Urzeit_, c. iii. '_Der Pfahlgraben und seine Bedeutung._' See also '_Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen_' (Berlin, 1882), Abth. 48, c. viii. And Mr. Hodgkin's interesting paper on 'The _Pfahlgraben_' in _Archæologia Æliana_, pt. 25, vol. ix. new series. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1882.

[407] Gibbon, c. ix., quoting _Dion. Cas._, lxxi. and lxxii.

[408] Zosimus, i. p. 68. Excerpta, _Mon. Brit._ lxxv.

[409] Wietersheim's _Geschichte der Völkerwanderung_ (Dahn), i. 245. Guerard's _Polypt. d'Irminon_, i. p. 252.

[410] 'Tuo, Maximiane Auguste, nutu, Nerviorum et Treverorum arva jacentia Lætus postliminio restitutus et receptus in leges Francus excoluit.' _Eumen. Panegyr. Constantio Cæs._, c. 21. Guerard, i. 250.

[411] _Eumen. Paneg. Constantio_, 9. Guerard, i. 252.

[412] Zeuss, _Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme_, pp. 582–4, quoting the will of _St. Widrad_, Abbot of Flavigny in the eighth century: 'In pago _Commavorum_,' 'in pago '_Ammaviorum_.' In the _Notitia Occidentis_, cxl., there is mention of _Læti_ from this district--_Præfectus Lætorum Lingonensium_. Boeking, p. 120.

[413] _Kaiser Diocletian und seine Zeit_, von Theodor Preuss, Leipzig, 1869 (pp. 54–5).

[414] 'Quo [Constantio] mortuo, cunctis qui aderunt adnitentibus, sed præcipue Eroco Alamannorum rege, auxilii gratia Constantium comitato, imperium capit.' _Mon. Brit._ Excerpta. Ex Sexti Aurelii Victoris _Epitome_ (p. lxxii.).

[415] Ammianus Marcellinus, bk. xvii. c. i. 7.

[416] Am. Marc. bk. xviii. c. ii. s. 3.

[417] _Id._ xxix. c. iv. 7.

[418] _Id._ bk. xx. c. viii. 13.

[419] Among the '_Præfecti Lætorum et Gentilium_' there is mention of the Præfectus Lætorum _Teutonicianorum_, _Batavorum_, _Francorum_, _Lingonensium_, _Nerviorum_, and _Lagensium_. _Notitia Occ._ cxl. Böcking, p. 120. See also the valuable annotation '_De Lætis._' Böcking, 1044 _et seq._

[420] _Cod. Theod._ vii. 6, 3. _Per viginti juga seu capita conferant vestem. . ._

_Id._ xi. 16, 6. _Pro capitibus seu jugis suis. . ._

[421] _Cod. Theol._ xi. 17, 4. 'Universi pro portione suæ possessionis jugationis que ad hæc munia coarctentur.'

[422] _Cod. Theod._ lib. vii. tit. xx. 4.

[423] See _Syrisch-Römisches Rechtsbuch aus dem Fünften Jahrhundert_ (Bruns und Sachan), Leipzig, 1880, p. 37; and Marquardt's _Staatsverwaltung_, ii. 220. See also Hyginus, _De Limitibus Constituendis_, Lachmann, &c., p. 205, where there is mention of '_arvum primum, secundum_,' &c., in _Pannonia_.

[424] Marquardt, ii. 237.

[425] Not that the Roman jugerum was equal in area to the Saxon acre. It was much smaller, and of quite a different shape, at least in Italy. The acreage of the jugum no doubt varied very much, as did also the acreage of the yard-land.

[426] It is even possible and probable that the Gallic coinage in Roman times, mentioned in the _Pauca de Mensuris_ (Lachmann and Rudorff, p. 373), 'Juxta Galios vigesima pars unciæ denarius est . . . duodecies unciæ libram xx. solidos continentem efficiunt, sed veteres _solidum_ qui nunc _aureus_ dicitur nuncupabant,'--the division of the pound of silver into 12 ounces, and these into 20 pennyweights--with which we found the Welsh _tunc pound_ to be connected, may also have had something to do with the contents of the centuria and jugum. At all events, the division of the pound into 240 pence was very conveniently arranged for the division of a tax imposed upon holdings of 240 acres, or 120 acres, or 60 acres, or 30 acres, or the 10 acres in each field. In other words, the coinage and the land divisions were remarkably _parallel_ in their arrangement, as we found was also the case with the _scutage_ of the Hundred Rolls, and the _scatt penny_ of the villani in the Boldon Book.

[427] Eumenius, _Pan. Constantini_, Marquardt, S. V., ii. 222.

[428] _Cod. Theod._ lib. xi. tit. i. 14.

[429] See also Ammianus. xxvii. 8, 7. Coote, 131.

[430] _Cod. Theod._ lib. xi. tit. vii. 2. Idem A ad _Pacatianum Vicarium Britanniarum_. Unusquisque decurio pro ea portione conveniatur, in qua vel ipse vel colonus vel tributarius ejus convenitur et colligit; neque omnino pro alio decurione vel territorio conveniatur. Id enim prohibitum esse manifestum est et observandum deinceps, quo[d] juxta hanc nostram provisionem nullus pro alio patiatur injuriam. Dat. xii. Kal. Dec. Constantino A. et Licinio C. Coss. (319).

[431] Hyginus. Lachmann, &c., i. 205.

[432] _Cod. Theod._ lib. xi. tit. xvi. _De Extraordinariis sive Sordidis Muneribus_. See also Godefroy's notes.

[433] Lib. xi. t. xvi. 4. 'Ea forma servata, ut primo a potioribus, deinde a mediocribus atque infimis, quæ sunt danda, præstentur.' 'Manu autem sua rectores scribere debebunt, quid opus sit, et in qua necessitate, per singula capita, vel quantæ angariæ vel quantæ operæ, vel quæ aut in quanto modo præbendæ sint, ut recognovisse se scribant; exactionis, prædicto ordine inter ditiores, mediocres, atque infimos observando.'

[434] _Germania_, xli.

[435] _Cod. Theod._ xi. 16, and 18.

[436] From _angarius_ = ἄγγαρος, a messenger or courier. The word is probably of Persian origin.

'Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers. The entire plan is a Persian invention. . . . The Persians give the riding post the name of "_angarum_."'--_Herodotus_, bk. viii. 98.

See also the _Cyropædia_, bk. viii. c. 17, where the origin of the post-horse system is ascribed to Cyrus.

[437] From the Latin _veredus_, a post-horse.

[438] _Cod. Theod._ lib. viii. t. v.

[439] The '_veredus_' or post-horse, from which the _paraveredus_ or extra post-horse, sometimes _parhippus_ (all these words occur in the _Codex Justin._ xii. l. [li.], 2 and 4, _De Cursu Publico_), may have been equivalent to the later 'averius' or 'affrus' by which the _averagium_ was performed. Cf. '_Parhippus_ vel Avertarius' (_Cod. Theod._ VIII. v. xxii.) and see Id. xlvii., '_avertarius_' = a horse carrying 'averta' or saddlebags. Hence, perhaps, the base Latin _avera, averiæ, averii, affri_, beasts of burden, oxen, or farm horses, and the verb '_averiare_' (Saxon of 10th century '_averian_'), and lastly the noun 'averagium' for the service. See also the Gallic _Ep-o-rediæ_ (men of the horse-course) mentioned by Pliny iii. 21 (Dr. Guest's _Origines Celticæ_, i. 381), and compare this word with _paraveredi_. In modern Welsh 'Rhed' = a running, a course.

[440] Compare the careful paragraphs on these words in M. Guerard's Introduction to the _Polyptique de l'Abbé Irminon_, pp. 793 _et seq._ The sense of the word as implying a compulsory service is shown in the Vulgate of Matt. v. 4: 'Et quicunque te _angariaverit_ mille passus: vade cum illo et alia duo.'

The same word is used in Matt. xxvii. 32, and Mark xv., where Simon is _compelled_ to bear the cross.

[441] _Supra_, p. 154.

[442] There were probably _servi_ on the 'ager publicus' as there were on the Frankish public lands, called '_servi fisci_.' See _Decretio Chlotharii regis_, A.D. 511, 55S. _Mon. Germ. Hist. Legum Sectio_, ii. p. 6

[443] Compare Dr. J. N. Madvig's _Die Verfassung und Verwaltung des Römischen Staates_ (Leipzig, 1882), ii. p. 408.

[444] Madvig, ii. p. 573; and _Cod. Just._ xii. 8–14, and _Cod. Theod._ xii. i. 38. See also the _Notitia Dignitatum_, passim.

[445] With regard to the _procuratores_, _ducenarii_, and _centenarii_ see Madvig, ii. p. 411. See also _Cod. Just._, xii. 20 (De agentibus in rebus), where a certain 'magister officiorum' is forbidden to have under him more than 48 _ducenarii_ and 200 _centenarii_. Also _Cod. Just._, xii. 23 (24). Mr. Coote (_Romans in England_, p. 317 et seq.), identifies the 'centenarii' with the 'stationarii,' or police of the later provincial rule. Compare this with the distinctly police duties of the 'centenarii' of the '_Decretio Clotharii_' (A.D. 511–558), _Mon. Germ. Hist._--Capitularia, p. 7.

[446] Madvig, ii. 432, and the authorities there quoted.

[447] _Cod. Theod._, xi. tit. 11. i. 'Si quis eorum qui provinciarum Rectoribus exequuntur, quique in diversis agunt officiis principatus, et qui sub quocumque prætextu muneris publici possunt esse terribiles, rusticano cuipiam necessitatem obsequii, _quasi mancipio sui juris_, imponat, aut servum ejus aut bovem in usus proprios necessitatisque converterit. . . ultimo subjugatur exitio.' Quoting the above Lehuërou observes:--'Les ducs, les comtes, les recteurs des provinces, institués pour résister aux puissants et aux forts, n'usèrent plus de l'autorité de leur charge que pour se rendre redoutables aux petits et aux faibles, et se firent un honteux revenue de la terreur qu'ils répandaient autour d'eux. Ils enlevaient sans scrupule, tantôt le bœuf, tantôt l'esclave du pauvre, et quelquefois le malheureux lui-même avec sa femme et ses enfants, pour les employer tous ensemble à la culture de leurs _villæ_' (p. 140). See also _Cod. Theod._ viii. t. v. 7 and 15.

[448] _Cod. Theod._, xi. tit. 24, _De Patrociniis vicorum_. 'Quicumque ex tuo officio, vel ex quocumque hominum ordine, _vicos_ in suum detecti fuerint patrocinium suscepisse, constitutas luent pœnas. . . . Quoscumque autem vicos aut defensionis potentia, aut multitudine sua fretos, publicis muneribus constiterit obviari, ultioni quam ratio ipsa dictabit, conveniet subjugari.'

'Censemus ut qui rusticis patrocinia præbere temptaverit, cujuslibet ille fuerit dignitatis, sive MAGISTRI UTRIUSQUE MILITIÆ, sive COMITIS, sive ex _pro-consulibus_, vel _vicariis_, vel _augustalibus_, vel _tribunis_ (_C. J._ xii. 17, 2), sive ex ordine _curiali_, vel _cujuslibet alterius dignitatis_, quadraginta librarum auri se sciat dispendium pro singulorum fundorum præbito patrocinio subiturum, nisi ab hac postea temeritate discesserit. Omnes ergo sciant, non modo eos memorata multa ferendos, qui clientelam susceperint rusticorum, sed eos quoque qui fraudandorum tributorum causa ad patrocinia solita fraude confugerint, duplum definitæ multæ dispendium subituros.' (Dat. vi. Id. Mart. Constantinop., Theodoro v. c. Coss. 399). See also _Lehuërou_, p. 136 139, and _Cod. Just._, xi. 54.

[449] Madvig, ii. 432. 'Wie lange die Ackersleute auf den Kaiserlichen Grundstücken (_Coloni Cæsaris Dig._ vi. 6, s. 11, i. 19, 3) eine grössere persönliche Freiheit bewahrten, und seit welcher Zeit das spätere Kolonatsverhältniss galt, lässt sich nicht bestimmen, da der Uebergang schrittweise vor sich ging.'

[450] In the _Ripuarium Laws_, tit. li. (53) 'Grafio' = '_comes_' = '_judex fiscalis_,' and the _mallus_ was sometimes held 'ante centenarium vel comitem, sen ante Ducem Patricium vel Regem,' tit. 1. (52). So in the _Salic Laws_, tit. lxxv. 'debet _judex_, hoc est, _comes aut grafio_,' &c., but this occurs in one of the additions to the '_Lex Antiqua_.' Compare the 'centenarius' in his relation to his superior, the 'comes,' and in his position of 'judex' in the mallus with the 'centenarius' under _Cod. Just._, vii. 20, 4.

[451] M. Lehuërou observes, 'Il y a déjà des _seigneurs_, cachés encore sous l'ancienne et familière dénomination de _patrons_. Cela est si vrai que, non seulement la chose, mais le mot se trouve dans Libanius:--Περὶ τῶν προστασιῶν εἴσι κῶμαι μεγάλαι, πολλῶν ἑκαστη δεσποτὢν.

[452] _De Bello Gallico_, vi. c. xiii.–xv. 'In omni Galliâ eorum hominum qui aliquo sunt numero atque honore genera sunt duo. Nam plebes pœne servorum habetur loco, quæ per se nihil audet et nulli adhibetur consilio. Plerique, quum aut ære alieno aut magnitudine tributorum aut injuriâ potentiorum premuntur, sese in servitutem dicant nobilibus. In hos eadem omnia sunt jura quæ dominis in servos. . . . Alterum genus est _Equitum_. Hi, quum est usus, atque aliquod bellum incidit (quod ante Cæsaris adventum fere quotannis accidere solebat, uti aut ipsi injurias inferrent aut illatas propulsarent), omnes in bello versantur: atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet. Hanc unam gratiam potentiamque noverunt.'

[453] Tacitus, _Annals_, iv. 72. 'In the course of the year the Frisians, a people dwelling beyond the Rhine, broke out into open acts of hostility. The cause of the insurrection was not the restless spirit of a nation impatient of the yoke; they were driven to despair by Roman avarice. A moderate tribute, such as suited the poverty of the people, consisting of raw hides for the use of the legions, had been formerly imposed by Drusus. To specify the exact size and quality of the hide was an idea that never entered into the head of any man till Olennius, the first centurion of a legion, being appointed governor over the Frisians, collected a quantity of the hides of forest bulls, and made them the standard both of weight and dimensions. To any other nation this would have been a grievous burden, but was altogether impracticable in Germany, where the cattle running wild in large tracts of forest are of prodigious size, while the breed for domestic uses is remarkably small. The Frisians groaned under this oppressive demand. They gave up first their cattle, next their lands; and finally were obliged to see their wives and children carried into slavery by way of commutation. Discontent arose, and they rebelled,' &c.

[454] _Hist._, f. 369.

[455] Salvian, _De Gubernatione Dei_, ib. v. s. vi.–viii.

[456] 'Hoc enim pacto aliquid parentibus temporarie attribuitur, ut in futuro totum filiis auferatur'--Salvian, s. viii.

[457] The above is only an abridged summary of the lengthy declamation of Salvian. See Gregory of Tours, '_De Miraculis S. Martini_,' iv. xi. (1122), where a surrender is mentioned. 'Tradidit ei omnem possessionem suam, dicens: "Sint hæc omnia penes S^{ti.} Martini ditionem quæ habere videor, et hoc tantum exinde utar, ut de his dum vixero alar."'

[458] Lib. ii. Tit. i. 36. 'Is ad quem ususfructus fundi pertinet, non aliter fructuum dominus efficitur, quam si ipse eos perceperit; et ideo, licet maturis fructibus nondum tamen perceptis decesserit, ad heredem ejus non pertinent, sed domino proprietatis adquiruntur. _Eadem fere et de colono_ dicuntur.

[459] Rudorff, ii. 317.

[460] _Syrisch-Römisches Rechtsbuch._ Aus dem fünften Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1880.

[461] _Early Law and Customs_, p. 260.

[462] S. 1, s. 9, and s. 27.

[463] _Inst. Just._ ii. xviii. 53, and compare Sandars' note on this passage.

[464] _Syrian Code_, s. 3.

[465] See also _Lex Burgundiorum_, i. 2, 'Si cum filiis deviserit et portionem suam tulerit, . . .' and id. xxiv. 5 and li. 1 and 2. Also 'Urkunden' of St. Gall, No. 360. 'Quicquid contra filios meos in portionem et in meam swascaram accepi.' See also Sir H. Maine's _Ancient Law_, pp. 198, 224, 228.

[466] _Reports on Tenure of Land_, 1869–70, p. 226. Just. Nov. 18.

[467] See _Syrian Code_, s. 50.

[468] See the parable of 'The unjust steward,' and _supra_, p. 145.

[469] _Journal of the Palestine Exploration Society_, January 1883. 'Life, Habits, and Customs of the Fellahin of Palestine,' by the Rev. F. A. Klein. From the _Zeitschrift_ of the German Palestine Exploration Society.

[470] Shortened form of _ard emiri_--land of the Emir.

[471] The standard measure of land throughout the Turkish Empire is called a _deunum_, and is the area which one pair of oxen can plough in a single day; it is equal to a quarter of an acre, or a square of forty _arshuns_ (nearly 100 feet). There seems to be but one allusion to this fact in the Scriptures; it is found in 1 Sam. xiv. 14, where the exploit of Jonathan and his armour-bearer is described: twenty of the enemy are stated to have fallen within a space of '_a half-acre of land_' of '_a yoke of oxen_,' an expression better rendered 'within the space of half a _deunum_ of land.' This measure is referred to in ancient profane writers, so that no change has occurred in this respect. Van Lenner's _Bible Customs in Bible Lands_, i. 75.

[472] _Early Law and Custom_, p. 332.

[473] _Lex Alamannorum_ Chlotharii. 1. 'Ut si quis liber res suas vel semetipsum ad ecclesiam tradere voluerit, nullus habeat licentiam contradicere ei, non dux, non comes, nec ulla persona, sed spontanea voluntate liceat christiano homine Deo servire et de proprias res suas semetipsum redemere. . . .

2. Si quis liber, qui res suas ad ecclesiam dederit et per cartam firmitatem fecerit, sicut superius dictum est, et post hæc ad pastorem ecclesiæ ad beneficium susceperit ad victualem necessitatem conquirendam diebus vitæ suæ: et quod spondit persolvat ad ecclesiam censum de illa terra, et hoc per epistulam firmitatis fiat, ut post ejus discessum nullus de heredibus non contradicat.'--Pertz, _Legum_, t. iii. pp. 45–6.

[474] _Lex Baiuwariorum._ Textus Legis primus.

1. 'Ut si quis liber persona voluerit et dederit res suas ad ecclesiam pro redemptione animæ suæ, licentiam habeat de portione sua, postquam cum filiis suis partivit. Nullus eum prohibeat, non rex, non dux, nec ulla persona habeat potestatem prohibendi ei. Et quicquid donaverit, villas, terras, mancipia, vel aliqua pecunia, omnia quæcumque donaverit pro redemptione animæ suæ, hoc per epistolam confirmet propria manu sua ipse. . . .

'Et post hæc nullam habeat potestatem nec ipse nec posteri ejus, nisi defensor ecclesiæ ipsius _beneficium_ præstare voluerit ei.'--Pertz, _Legum_, t. iii. pp. 269–70.

[475] _Urkundenbuch der Abtei St. Gallen_, i. p. 22.

[476] Compare with the Kentish 'yokes' and 'ioclets.' The yoke here is, however, evidently the _juger_, not the _jugum_.

[477] _Urkundenbuch_, pp. 27–8.

[478] _Id._ p. 33.

[479] See also _id._ pp. 76 and 90.

[480] Hence '_jurnal_' for _acre_.

[481] _Id._ p. 41.

[482] _Urkundenbuch_, p. 59.

[483] _Id._ p. 60.

[484] _Urkundenbuch_, p. 106.

[485] "Et ad proximam curtem vestram in unaquaque zelga ebdomedarii jurnalem arare debeamus" (p. 107).

[486] Waitz speaks of the three great fields under the '_Dreifelderwirthschaft_' as 'Zelgen.'--_Verfassung der Deutschen Völker_, i. 120. And see _infra_, chap. x. s. iii.

[487] Pertz, _Legum_, iii. pp. 51, 52.

[488] Pertz, _Legum_, t. iii. pp. 278–280.

[489] Compare _Chlotharii II. Præceptio_ (584–628) s. 11. 'Agraria, pascuaria vel decimas porcorum ecclesiæ pro fidei nostræ devotione concedimus, ita ut actor aut decimator in rebus ecclesiæ nullus accedat.'--_Mon. Germ. Hist. Capitularia_, I. i. p. 19.

[490] This word '_accola_' is often used in charters for '_free coloni_.'

[491] In the Glosses this andecena is called a '_sharwork_.'

[492] _Geschichte der Dorfverfassung in Deutschland_, i. pp. 6 _et seq._

[493] _Traditiones in Pago Rhinensi. Codex Lauresham._ pp. 357 _et seq._

[494] _Dorfverfassung_, pp. 15 _et seq._

[495] Ammianus Marcellinus, bk. xvii. c. i., A.D. 357.

[496] _Codex Lauresham._ pp. 326, 362, 369, 375 and _passim_.

[497] _Codex Lauresham._ p. 3.

[498] It is curious to notice that 'coliberti' appear also in the _western_ counties of England in the Domesday Survey.

[499] _Codex Lauresham._ i. pp. 15–16.

[500] _Id._ i. pp. 18 and 19.

[501] _Id._ i. p. 297.

[502] _Id._ i. p. 303.

[503] _Codex Lauresham._ i. p. 347.

[504] _Id._ i. pp. 349–350.

[505] _Id._ ii. pp. 232 _et seq._

[506] _Urkundenbuch_ of St. Gall, i. p. 50.

[507] _Codex Laureshamensis_, iii. 212. See also the services at _Winenheim_ (iii. 205), a manor near Heppenheim.

[p336]