A Source Book of Mediæval History / Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance

by Unknown

The renewed advance which the Germans made against the Slavs in the later eleventh and earlier twelfth centuries was due primarily to the energy of the able princes of Saxony and to the pressure for colonization, which increased in spite of small encouragement from any except the local authorities. The document given below is a typical charter of the period, authorizing the establishment of a colony of Germans eastward from Hamburg, on the border of Brandenburg. It was granted in 1106 by the bishop of Hamburg, who as lord of the region in which the proposed settlement was to be made exercised the right not merely of giving consent to the undertaking, but also of prescribing the terms and conditions by which the colonists were to be bound. As appears from the charter, the colony was expected to be a source of profit to the bishop; and indeed it was financial considerations on the part of lords, lay and spiritual, who had stretches of unoccupied land at their disposal, almost as much as regard for safety in numbers and the absolute dominance of Germanic peoples, that prompted these local magnates of eastern Germany so ardently to promote the work of colonization.

Source—Text in Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim, Ausgewählte Urkunden zur Erlauterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter ["Select Documents Illustrative of the Constitutional History of Germany in the Middle Ages">[, 3rd ed., Berlin, 1904, pp. 159-160. Translated in Thatcher and McNeal, A Source Book for Mediæval History (New York, 1905), pp. 572-573.

1. In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick, by the grace of God bishop of Hamburg, to all the faithful in Christ, gives a perpetual benediction. We wish to make known to all the agreement which certain people living this side of the Rhine, who are called Hollanders,[487] have made with us.

2. These men came to us and earnestly begged us to grant them certain lands in our bishopric, which are uncultivated, The Hollanders ask land for a colony swampy, and useless to our people. We have consulted our subjects about this and, feeling that this would be profitable to us and to our successors, have granted their request.

3. The agreement was made that they should pay us every year one denarius for every hide of land. We have thought it necessary to determine the dimensions of the hide, in order that no quarrel may thereafter arise about it. The hide shall be 720 royal rods long and thirty royal rods wide. We also grant them the streams which flow through this land.

4. They agreed to give the tithe according to our decree, that is, every eleventh sheaf of grain, every tenth lamb, every tenth pig, every tenth goat, every tenth goose, and a tenth of the honey and of the flax. For every colt they shall pay a denarius on St. Martin's day [Nov. 11], and for every calf an obol [penny].

5. They promised to obey me in all ecclesiastical matters, Obedience promised to the bishop of Hamburg according to the decrees of the holy fathers, the canonical law, and the practice in the diocese of Utrecht.[488]

6. They agreed to pay every year two marks for every 100 hides for the privilege of holding their own courts for the settlement of all their differences about secular matters. They did this because they feared they would suffer from the injustice of Judicial immunity foreign judges.[489] If they cannot settle the more important cases, they shall refer them to the bishop. And if they take the bishop with them for the purpose of deciding one of their trials,[490] they shall provide for his support as long as he remains there by granting him one third of all the fees arising from the trial; and they shall keep the other two thirds.

7. We have given them permission to found churches wherever they may wish on these lands. For the support of the priests who shall serve God in these churches we grant a tithe of our tithes from these parish churches. They promised that the congregation of each of these churches should endow their church with a hide for the support of their priest.[491] The names of the men who made this agreement with us are: Henry, the priest, to whom we have granted the aforesaid churches for life; and the others are laymen, Helikin, Arnold, Hiko, Fordalt, and Referic. To them and to their heirs after them we have granted the aforesaid land according to the secular laws and to the terms of this agreement.