[518]. Chron. Saxon, an. 694.
[519]. Conf. Leg. Hloðh. § 13. Æðelr. § 7. Ælfred’s Beda, iii. 5. So, án fíftig, one fifty, means fifty psalms to be sung or said. Æðelst. iv. § 3. v. 8. § 6. No one mistakes the meaning of five hundred, five thousand a year.
[520]. 1500 Kentish shillings, which are equivalent to rather more than 7800 Saxon shillings, were a sufficient sum, at a period when an ewe with her lamb was worth only one Saxon shilling. Leg. Ini, § 55.
[521]. “Swá eác we settað be eallum hádum ge ceorle ge eorle.” Ælf. § 4. “Cnut cing grét ... ealle míne þegnast welfhynde and twýhynde freóndlíce.” Cod. Dipl. No. 731.
[522]. Capital punishments are necessarily rare in early periods. Tacitus limits those of the Germans to cases of high-treason or effeminacy, two crimes which strike at the root of all society. Hence the highest punishment is payment of the wergyld: a capital thief is wergyld-þeóf. If he cannot or will not pay, he is outlawed, that is excluded from the benefits of the mutual guarantee among free men: he may be slain as a common enemy, iure belli, or reduced to slavery, which is the more usual result.
CHAPTER XI.
FOLCLAND. BÓCLAND. LǼNLAND.
It was a wise insight into the accidents of increasing population which limited the amount of the original éðel, or allodial estate. By leaving, as it were, a large fund to be drawn upon, as occasion might serve, the principle, that every freeman must be settled on land, was maintained, without condemning society to a stationary condition, as to numbers. The land thus left, of which the usufruct, under certain conditions, was enjoyed by the freemen, was called Folcland, terra publica, ager publicus. It was distinguished from the éðel by not becoming absolute property in the hands of individuals, consequently by not being hereditary. The dominium utile might be granted; the dominium directum remained in the state, which was a perpetual feoffee for certain trusts and uses. And hence folcland was subject to rents of divers kinds, and reversion. The folcland could also be applied to reward great public services, in which case estates of alod, or éðel, were carved out of it, and presented to him whom the community desired to honour[[523]]. The service which Wulf and Eofer did by slaying Ongenðeów was rewarded with a grant of land and rings[[524]]. The clearest view of the nature and object of folcland is given us by Beda, who complains that it is diverted from its proper purpose,—which is, to be granted as a support to those whose arms would defend the country,—under pretence of erecting monasteries, which are a disgrace to their profession. The following are his extremely important words:
“And since there are both very numerous and very extensive tracts, which, to adopt the common saying, are of use neither to God nor man,—seeing indeed that in them there is neither maintained a regular life according to God’s law, nor are they possessed by the soldiers or comites of secular persons, who might defend our race from the barbarians,—if any one, to meet the want of our time, should establish an episcopal see in those places, he will be proved not to incur the guilt of prevarication, but rather to perform an act of virtue[[525]].”
And again, he continues:
“By which example it behoves also your Holiness, in conjunction with our religious king, to abrogate the irreligious deeds and writings of our predecessors, and to provide for the general advantage of our kingdom, either in reference to God, or to the world: lest in our days, either through the cessation of religion, the love and fear of an inspector at home should be abandoned; or, on the other hand, the supply of our secular militia decreasing, we should not have those who might defend our boundaries from the incursions of barbarians. For, what is disgraceful to say, persons who have not the least claim to the monastic character, as you yourself best know, have got so many of these spots into their power, under the name of monasteries, that there is really now no place at all where the sons of nobles or veteran soldiers can receive a grant[[526]]. And thus, idle and unmarried, being grown up to manhood, they live on in no profession of chastity; and on this account, they either cross the sea and desert the country which they ought to serve with their arms; or, what is even more criminal and shameless, having no profession of chastity, they give themselves up to luxury and fornication, and abstain not even from the virgins consecrated to God[[527]].”