[124] Read the whole passage. Translatio S. Alexandri, in Pertz, vol. ii. p. 675, “Eo tempore quo Theodoricus rex Francorum, contra Irmenfredum, ducem Thuringorum, dimicans ... conduxit Saxones in adjutorium, promissis pro victoria habitandi sedibus.... Terram juxta pollicitationem suam iis delegavit. Qui eam sorte dividentes, partem illius colonis tradiderunt, singuli pro sorte sua sub tributo exercendam; cetera vero loca ipsi possederunt.” Do not forget that the word sors is the usual term in the language of the period for property. The narrative shows clearly that it is a division made for ever that is here described.
[125] Helmold, chr. Slav. i. c. 91: “Adduxit multitudinem populorum de Westphalia, ut incolerent terram Polaborum, et divisit eis terram in funiculo distributionis.”
[126] Charter of 1247 in the Monumenta Boica, vol. xi. p. 33. The estate in question is the villa Yserhofen. Its owner is the Abbot of Niederalteich: “Cum ad hoc devenisset quod agros et prata, quia diu sine colonis exstiterant, nullus sciret ... rustici ecclesiæ pro quantitate et limitibus contenderent. Ego Hermannus abbas ... compromissum fuit ut maximus campus per funiculos mensuraretur et cuilibet hubæ 12 jugera deputarentur ... in totidem partes secundus campus et tertius divideretur.... Inchoata est ista divisio per Alwinum monachum scribentem et fratrem Bertholdum prepositum et Rudolfum officialem cum funiculis mensurantes.”
[127] [M. Fustel uses the term “les trois catégories;” but the maximus campus, secundus, and tertius, would point rather to the “three-field system.”]
[128] Codex Laureshamensis, No. 106, p. 164.
[129] Wigand, Archiv, i. 2, p. 86.
[130] Codex Lauresh., No. 69, p. 74: “Quidquid de rebus propriis habere videbatur in villa Brunnon et tres partes de illa marca silvatica, portione videlicet sua.” I will explain elsewhere the meaning of portio. All I need say at present is that this word, which occurs more than three hundred times in our authorities, always means a part belonging to an owner. A portio is spoken of as sold, bequeathed, and given.
[131] Lacomblet, No. 7: “Hovam integram et scara in silva juxta formam hovæ plenæ ... jure hereditario.”
[132] To be found in Mone, Zeitschrift für Geschichte des Oberrheins, vol. i. pp. 405-406.
[133] [As late as the 13th century in England “the typical struggle as to common rights was not a struggle between lords and commoners, but a struggle between the men or the lords of two different townships.” Maitland, Bracton’s Note-Book, I., 136.]