[472]. “And let every lord have his household in his own borh. Then if any of them should be accused, and escape, let the lord pay the man’s wer to the king. And if any accuse the lord that the escape was by his counsel, let him clear himself with five thanes, being himself the sixth. If the purgation fail him, let him forfeit his wer to the king; and let the man be an outlaw.“ Æðelr. i. § 1. Thorpe, i. 282. “And let every lord have his household in his own borh, and if any one accuse his man of any thing, let the lord answer for him within the hundred, wherein he is cited, as just law is. And if he escape,” etc. Cnut, ii. § 31. Thorpe, i. 394, 396. “Archiepiscopi, episcopi, comites, barones et milites suos, et proprios servientes suos, scilicet dapiferos, pincernas, camerarios, cocos, pistores, sub suo friðborgo habebant, et ipsi suos armigeros et alios servientes suos sub suo friðborgo; quod si ipsi forisfacerent, et clamor vicinorum insurgeret de eis, ipsi haberent eos ad rectum in curia sua, si haberent sacham et socam, tol et theam, et infangenethef.” Edw. Conf. xxi. Thorpe, i. 451.
[473]. The freeman is a member of an aristocracy in respect of all the unfree, whether these be temporarily so, as his children and guests, or permanently so, as his serfs. To be in the πολίτευμα, which others are not, to have the franchise which others have not, to have the freedom of a city which others have not, all these are forms of aristocracy,—the aristocracy of Greece, Rome and England. The Peers in England are not themselves exclusively an aristocracy: they are the born leaders of one, which consists now of ten-pound householders, freemen in towns, and county tenants under the Chandos clause.
[474]. “And if any one charge a person in holy orders with feud (fǽhðe) and say that he was a perpetrator or adviser of homicide, let him clear himself with his kinsmen, who must bear the feud with him, or make compensation for it. And if he have no kin, let him clear himself with his associates or fast for the ordeal by bread, and so fare as God may ordain.” Æðelr. ix. § 23, 24. Thorpe, i. 344. Cnut, i. § 5. Thorpe, i. 362. The associates or geferan here are probably his fellows in orders. But a monk being released from all family relations could not be implicated in the responsibilities of the mǽgburh (ibid. § 25); “for he forsakes his law of kin (mǽgðlage) when he submits to monastic law.” Cnut, i. § 5. Thorpe, i. 362.
[475]. “Gif bana of lande gewíteð, ða mǽgas healfne leód forgylden.” Æðelb. § 23. Thorpe, i. 8.
[476]. “Gif heó bearn ne gebyreð, fæderingmǽgas feoh ágen and morgengyfe.” Æðelb. § 81. Thorpe, i. 24.
[477]. “Gif ceorl ácwyle be libbendum wífe and bearne, riht is ðæt hit, ðæt bearn, médder folgige; and him man an his fæderingmǽgum wilsumne berigean geselle, his feoh tó healdenne oððǽt he tynwintre síe.” Hloðh. § 6. Thorpe, i. 30.
[478]. “Gif feorcund man oððe fremde bútan wege geond wudu gonge, and ne hrýme né horn bláwe, for þæóf he bið tó prófianne, oððe tó sleánne oððe tó álýsanne. Gif mon ðæs ofslægenan weres bidde, he mót gecýðan ðæt he hine for þeóf ofslóge, nalles ðæs ofslægenan gegildan né his hláford. Gif he hit ðonne dyrneð, and weorðeð ymb lang yppe, ðonne rýmeð he ðám deádan tó ðám áðe, ðæt hine móton his mǽgas unscyldigne gedón.” Ini, § 20, 21. The collocation of gegyldan and mǽgas in this law seems to show clearly that Ini looked upon them as the same thing: hence that in the original institution the gyld and the family were identical, though afterwards, for convenience' sake, the number and nature of the gyld were otherwise regulated, when the kinsmen had become more dispersed.
[479]. “Gif mon ælþeódigne ofslea, se cyning áh twǽdne dǽl weres, þriddan dǽll sunu oððe mǽgas. Gif he ðonne mǽgleás síe, healf cyninge, healf se gesíð.” Ini, § 23.
[480]. Ini, § 38.
[481]. Ini, § 24, 28, 35, 74. Thorpe, i. 118, 120, 124, 148.