His proper measure and value, by which his social position is ascertained and defended, is the wergyld, or price of a man. His life, his limbs, the injuries which may be done to himself, his dependants and his property, are all duly assessed; and though not rated so highly as the noble, yet he stands above the stranger, the serf or the freedman. In like manner his land, though not entirely exempt from charges and payments for public purposes, is far less burthened than the land of the unfree. Moreover he possesses rights in the commons, woods and waters, which the unfree were assuredly not permitted to exercise.
The great and essential distinction, however, which he never entirely loses under any circumstances, is that he aids in governing himself, that is in making, applying and executing the laws by which the free and the unfree are alike governed; that he yields, in short, a voluntary obedience to the law, for the sake of living under a law, in an orderly and peaceful community.
In the state of things which we are now considering, the noble belongs to the class of freemen; out of it he springs, in all its rights and privileges he shares, to all its duties he is liable, but in a different degree. He possesses however certain advantages which the freeman does not. Like the latter he is a holder of real estate; he owns land in the district, but his lot is probably larger, and is moreover free from various burthens which press upon his less fortunate neighbour. He must also take part in the Ðing, placitum, or general meeting, but he and his class have the leading and directing of the public business, and ultimately the execution of the general will[[218]]. The people at large may elect, but he alone can be elected, to the offices of priest, judge or king. Upon his life and dignity a higher price is laid than upon those of the mere freeman. He is the unity in the mass, the representative of the general sovereignty, both at home and abroad. The tendency of his power is continually to increase, while that of the mere freeman is continually to diminish, falling in the scale in exact proportion as that of the noble class rises.
The distinctive name of the noble is >Ëorl[[219]]. Æðele, nobilis, and Ríce, potens, denote his qualities, and he bears other titles according to the accidents of his social position: thus ealdor, ealdorman, princeps; wita, weota, consiliarius; optimas; senior; procer; melior, etc. In addition to his own personal privileges, the noble possesses in the fullest extent every right of the freeman, the highest order of whose body he forms.
[197]. The Cherusci feeling the want of a king sent to Rome for a descendant of Arminius. Tac. An. xi. 17. The Heruli in Illyria having slain their king, sent to their brethren in Thule (Scandinavia) for a descendant of the blood royal. During his journey however they accepted another king from the hands of Justinian. This person and their alliance with the emperor they renounced upon the arrival of the prince from the North. Procop. Bell. Got. ii. 15. “Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute summit.” Tac. Germ. vii. “Magna patrum merita principis dignationem etiam adolescentulis assignant.” Ibid. xiii. Although mere boys might be kings, they could hardly be duces, in the old Teutonic sense.
[198]. Möser, Osnabrückische Geschichte (1780), 1er Abschn. § 8. “Solche einzelne wohner waren Priester und Könige in ihren Häusern und Hofmarken,” etc. See his references to Tac. Germ. x. etc.
[199]. Genesis xiii. 6, seq.
[200]. Osnab. Gesch. i. § 2.
[201]. Ibid. i. §. 7.