Dr. P. Roth has shown that in Frankish districts many of the wealthy provincials remained, under Frankish rule, in unbroken possession of their former estates—their numerous 'villæ.' Amongst these the bishops and abbots were conspicuous examples. He shows that thousands of 'villæ' thus remained unchanged upon the widely extended ecclesiastical estates.[383]
Gregory of Tours speaks of the restitution by King Hildebert of the 'villas' unjustly seized under the lawless regime of Hilperic.[384] He also relates how bishops and monasteries were endowed by the transfer to them of villas with the slaves and coloni upon them.
Villas given to the Church.
Under the year 582, he mentions the death of a certain Chrodinus, also the subject of a poem by Fortunatus, a great benefactor of the clergy, and describes him as 'founding villas, setting vineyards, building houses [domos], making fields [culturas],' and then, having invited bishops of slender means to [p271] his table, after dinner 'kindly distributing these houses, with the cultivators and the fields, with the furniture, and male and female servants and household slaves [ministris et famulis], saying, "These are given to the Church, and whilst with these the poor will be fed, they will secure to me favour with God."' [385]
Here, then, after the Frankish conquest, we have the word villa still used for the typical estate; and the estate consists of the domus, with the vineyards and the fields, and their cultivators.
Turning to the earliest monastic records we have seen that the 'villas' or 'heims' of the abbeys of Wizenburg and Lorsch were in fact manors.
Villas become villages,
The donations to the Abbot of St. Germain-des-Prés,[386] in the neighbourhood of Paris, commenced in the year 558, and in the survey of the estates of the Abbey made in the year 820, there are described villas still cultivated by coloni, leti, &c.—villas which grew into villages which now bear the names of the villas out of which they sprang:—
- Levaci Villa, now Levaville (p. 90).
- Landulfi Villa, now Landonville (p. 94).
- Aneis Villa, now Anville.
- Gaudeni Villa, now Grinville (p. 99).
- Sonani Villa, now Senainville (p. 100).
- Villa Alleni, now Allainville (p. 102).
- Ledi Villa, now Laideville (p. 102).
- Disboth Villa, now Bouville (p. 104).
- Mornane Villare, now Mainvilliers (p. 112).
- And so on in numbers of instances.
and 'hems' which are manor.