men: "I wonder at your audacity, that by the gift of God, and by my gift, you have assumed the ministry and the degree of the wise men, and yet have neglected the study and labour of wisdom. Therefore I command, either that you lay aside the ministry of earthly power which you enjoy, or that you study wisdom more attentively." In the laws we find an ealdorman threatened with the loss of his shire, unless the king pardon him, for conniving at the escape of a thief." So a thegn is threatened with the perpetual loss of his thegnship for an unjust judgment, unless he prove by oath that he knew not how to give a better decision. But the king in this case also had the option of restoring him. In the same manner the gerefas are menaced with the deprivation of their post of honour, on committing the offences described in the law.w The exact nature and duties of these dignified officers will be considered more minutely under the head of government.* The rest of the Anglo-Saxon society consisted of three descriptions of men: the free, the freed, and the servile. In talking of the Anglo-Saxon freemen, we must not let our minds expatiate on an ideal character which eloquence and hope have invested with charms almost magical. No utopian state, no paradise of such a pure republic as reason can conceive, but as human nature can neither establish nor support, is about to shine around us when we describe the Anglo-Saxon freeman. A freeman among our ancestors was not that dignified independent being, "lord of the lion heart and eagle eye," which our poets fancy under this appellation; he was rather an Anglo-Saxon not in the servile state; not property attached to the land as the slaves were; he was freed from the oppression of arbitrary bondage; he was often a servant, and had a master, but he had the liberty to quit the service of one lord and choose another. That the Anglo-Saxon freemen were frequently servants, and had their masters, may be proved by a variety of passages in our ancient remains: "If any give flesh to his servants on fast-days, whether they be free or servile, he must compensate for the pillory." So, in the laws of Ina, "If a freeman work on a Sunday t Asser, Vit. Ælf. 71. "Leges Inæ, p. 20. W Leges Edgari, p. 78, et Cnuti, p. 135. A curious privilege allowed to the great may be here noticed. This was, that his friends might do penance for him. The laws of Edgar state that "a mighty man, if rich in friends, may thus with their aid lighten his penance." He was first to make his confession, and begin his penance with much groaning. "Let him then lay aside his arms and his idle apparel, and put on hair-cloth, and take a staff in his hand, and go barefoot, and not enter a bed, but lie in his court-yard." If this penance was imposed for seven years, he might take to his aid twelve men, and fast three days on bread, green herbs, and water. He might then get seven times one hundred and twenty men, whomsoever he could, who should all fast three days, and thus make up as many days of penance as there are days in seven years, p. 97. Thus a penance of seven years might be got through in a week. y Leg. Wihtrædi, 11. without his lord's orders, he shall lose his liberty, or pay sixty shillings." That freemen were in laborious and subordinate conditions, is also strongly implied by a law of Alfred, which says, "These days are forgiven to all freemen, excepting servants and working slaves." The days were, twelve days at Christmas, Passion week, and Easter week, and a few others. An AngloSaxon, in a charter, says, with all my men, both servile and freemen.b Their state of freedom had great benefits and some inconveniences; a slave being the property of another, his master was responsible for his delinquencies; but a freeman, not having a lord to pay for him, was obliged to be under perpetual bail or sureties, who engaged to produce him whenever he should be accused. Being of more personal consideration in society, his mulcts were proportionably greater. If he stole from the king, he was obliged to pay a ninefold compensation;" if a freeman stole from a freeman, he was to compensate threefold, and all his goods and the penalty were to go to the king. The principle of greater compensation from the free than the servile per vades our ancient laws. But the benefits of freedom are at all times incalculable, and have been happily progressive. If they had been no more than the power of changing their master at their own pleasure, as our present domestic servants do, even this was a most valuable privilege; and this they exercised. We have an instance of a certain huntsman mentioned, who left the lordship of his master and his land, and chose himself another lord." They had many other advantages; their persons were frequently respected in their punishments: thus a theow who broke an appointed fast might be whipped, but a freeman was to pay a mulct. It was no small benefit that the king was their legal lord and patron: "If any kill a freeman, the king shall receive fifty shillings for lordship." Upon the same principle, if a freeman were taken with a theft in his hand, the king had a choice of the punishment to be inflicted on him; he might kill him, he might sell him over sea, or receive his were.i That they were valued and protected by our ancient legislation, is evident from the provision made for their personal liberty: whoever put a freeman into bonds, was to forfeit twenty shillings This happy state of freedom might, however, be lost the degradation from liberty to slavery was one of the punishments attached to the free. We have mentioned already, that one offence which incurred it was violating the Sabbath. A freeman reduced to slavery by the penalties of law was called a wite theow, a penal slave. Under this denomination he occurs in the laws, and is frequently mentioned in wills. Thus Wynfleda, directing the emancipation of some slaves, extends the same benevolence to her wite theow, if there be any. So an archbishop directs all such to be freed who in his time had been mulcted of their liberty. A freeman so reduced to slavery became again subject to corporal punishment; for it was ordered, that one who had stolen while free, might receive stripes from his prosecutor. It was also ordered, that if, while a wite theow, he stole, he was to be hanged." It is well known that a large proportion of the Anglo-Saxon population was in a state of slavery. This unfortunate class of men, who were called theow, thræl, men, and esne, are frequently mentioned in our ancient laws and charters, and are exhibited in the servile condition of being another's property, without any political existence or social consideration. They were bought and sold with land, and were conveyed in the grants of it promiscuously with the cattle and other property upon it. Thus, in an enumeration of property on an estate, it is said there were a hundred sheep, fifty-five swine, two men, and five yoked oxen. At another time we find some land given up without injury to any thing belonging to it, whether men, cattle, or food. So one bought land for thirty pounds, and gave seven pounds more for all the things on it, as men, stock, and corn. In the Anglo-Saxon wills these wretched beings are given away precisely as we now dispose of our plate, our furniture, or our money. An archbishop bequeaths some land to an abbey, with ten oxen and two men." Ælfhelm bequeaths his chief mansion at Gyrstingthorpe, with all the property that stood thereon, both provisions and men. Wynfleda, in her will, gives to her daughter the land at Ebbelesburn, and those men, the property, and all that thereon be; afterwards she gives "to Eadmær as much property and as many men as to him had been bequeathed before at Hafene.” In another part of her will she says, "Of those theowan men at Cinnuc, she bequeaths to Eadwold, Ceolstan the son of Elstan, and the son of Effa, and Burwhyn Martin; and she bequeaths to Eadgyfu, Ælfsige the cook, and Tefl the * Ibid. p. 22. Hence the will of archbishop Elfric says, "If any one according to the custom of England shall have incurred the penalty of any slavery," he ordered him to be freed. Cott. MSS. Claud. c. ix. p. 126. 1 Hickes, Pref. Gram. Heming. Chartul. p. 166. m MS. Claud. c. ix. p. 125. 3 Gale, Script. 481. 43 Gale, 478; and see the letter of Lullius, Bib. Mag. Pat. vol. xvi. p. 92. MS. Cott. c. ix. p. 125; and sce 1 Dug. M. 306. 'Test. Elf helmi. App. Sax. Dict. t Test. Wynfl. Hickes, Pref. daughter of Wareburga, and Herestan and his wife, and Ecelm and his wife and their child, and Cynestan, and Wynsige, and the son of Bryhtric, and Edwyn, and the son of Bunel, and the daughter of Ælfwer." Wulfgar in his will says, "I give to Ælfere abbot the lands at Ferscesford, with the provisions, and with the men, and with all the produce as it is cultivated." This will contains several bequests of this sort." Their servile state was attended with all the horrors of slavery, descending on the posterity of the subjected individuals. A duke in Mercia added to a donation "six men, who formerly belonged to the royal villa in Berhtanwellan, with all their offspring and their family, that they may always belong to the land of the aforesaid church in perpetual inheritance." To this gift is added the names of the slaves. "These are the names of those men that are in this writing, with their offspring and their family that come from them in perpetual heritage: Alhmund, Tidulf, Tidheh, Lull, Lull, Eadwulf." That whole families were in a state of slavery appears most satisfactorily from the instruments of manumission which remain to us. In them we find a man, his wife, and their offspring, frequently redeemed together; and in Wynfleda's will, the wives and daughters of some slaves she names are directed to be emancipated. Ethelstan, after stating that he freed Eadelm, because he had become king, adds, " and I give to the children the same benefit as I give to the father." 66 Some of the prices of slaves appear in the written contracts of their purchase which have survived. "Here is declared in this book, that Ediwic, the widow of Sawgels, bought Gladu at Colewin for half a pound, for the price and the toll: and Elword, the port gerefa, took the toll; and thereto was witness Leowin, brother of Leoword, and Elwi blaca, and Elwin the king, and Land biriht, and Alca, and Sewerd; and may he have God's curse for ever that this ever undoes. Amen.' So Egelsig bought Wynric of an abbot for an yre of gold; another was bought for three mancus." The tolls mentioned in some of the contracts for slaves may be illustrated out of Doomsday-book. In the burgh of Lewis it says, that at every purchase and sale, money was paid to the gerefa: for an ox, a farthing was collected; for a man, four pennies. That the Anglo-Saxons were sold at Rome we learn from the a Test. Wulf. Hickes, Diss. Ep. 54. ▾ Hemina. Chart. Wig. p. 61, 62; and for the next paragraphs see Hickes, Diss. Ep. p. p. 12, and his preface; and Wanley's Catalogue, p. 181. Hickes, Diss. p. 12; and App. Sax. Dict. In the act of purchase, by which Hunnifloh bought Wulfgytha, it is added, "and the brown beadle took the toll." Cott. MSS. Tib. B. 5. As specimens of prices we may add, that Sydefleda was sold for five shillings and some pence; Sæthrytha for three mancusæ ; Alfgytha and Gunnilda, each for half of a pound. MSS. C. C. C. Cant. Wanley, Cat. p. 116. well known anecdote mentioned by Bede, of Pope Gregory seeing them in the markets there. We also read of one being sold in London to a Frisian; and of a person in France relieving many from slavery, especially Saxons, probably continental Saxons, who then abounded in that country. It was expressly enjoined in one of the later laws, that no Christians, or innocent man should be sold from the land. They appear to have been very numerous. It is mentioned that there were two hundred and fifty slaves, men and women, in the lands given by the king to Wilfrid." But to have a just idea of their number, we must inspect their enumeration in Doomsday-book. No portion of land scarcely is there mentioned without some. When we consider the condition of the servile, as it appears in the Saxon laws, we shall find it to have been very degraded in. deed. They were allowed to be put into bonds, and to be whipped.b They might be branded ; and on one occasion they are spoken of as if actually yoked; "Let every man know his teams of men, of horses, and oxen."d They were allowed to accumulate some property of their own. We infer this from the laws having subjected them to pecuniary punishments, and from their frequently purchasing their own freedom. If an esne did theow-work against his lord's command, on Sunday evening after sunset, and before the moon set, he was to pay eighty shillings to his lord. If a theow gave offerings to idols, or eat flesh willingly on a fast day, he was mulcted six shillings, or had to suffer in his hide. If an esne killed another esne, who was in no act of offence, he forfeited all he was worth; but if he killed a freeman, his geld was to be one hundred shillings; he was to be given up by his owner, who was to add the price of another man."s * Bede, 166. y Bouquet's Recueil des Historiens, tom. iii. p. 553. z Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 107. "Some young men were exported from Northumberland to be sold, according to a custom which seems to be natural to the people of that country, of selling their nearest relations for their own advantage."-Malmsb. lib. i. c. 3. There is a sea-port town, called Bristol, opposite to Ireland, into which its inhabitants make frequent voyages on account of trade. Wulfstan cured the people of this town of a most odious and inveterate custom, which they derived from their ancestors, of buying men and women in all parts of England, and exporting them to Ireland for the sake of gain. The young women they commonly got with child, and carried them to market in their pregnancy, that they might bring a better price. You might have seen, with sorrow, long ranks of young persons of both sexes, and of the greatest beauty, tied together with ropes, and daily exposed to sale: nor were these men ashamed, O horrid wickedness! to give up their nearest relations, nay, their own children, to slavery. Wulfstan, knowing the obstinacy of these people, sometimes stayed two months among them, preaching every Lord's day; by which, in process of time, he had made so great an impression upon their minds, that they abandoned that wicked trade, and set an example to all the rest of England to do the sanie." Henry's Hist. vol. iv. p. 238. Bede, iv. c. 13. • Ibid. p. 103, 139. ! Ibid. p. 11. Wilk. Leg. Sax. 15, 22, 52, 53, 59. d Ibid. p. 47. e Ibid. p. 11. Ibid. p. 8. |