292
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
of chastity, they give themselves up to luxury and
fornication, and abstain not even from the virgins
consecrated to God1.”
The evils of a course which, by preventing the
possibility of marriage, tends to the general neglect
of morality, are as obvious in this state of society,
as in those where the indefinite partition of estates
reduces all the members of the higher classes to a
state of poverty,—a fact perfectly familiar in coun-
tries where the resources of trade are not permitted
to mitigate the mischief of subdivision.
The folcland then in England was the national
stock. It is probable that the same thing occurred
in OtherTcutonic states, and that the folcland there
also formed a reserve from which endowments of
individuals, Iiomeborn or foreign, and of religious
houses, were made. Thus, “ Princeps de eius re-
Cuperatione simul ct postulatione multum gavisus,
et suuɪn ad hoc Consensum et parentuni adcptus est
favorem ; deditque illi in eisdem partibus, multas
possessiones de publico, quatinus Viciniori potentia
soceris acceptior factus, non minori apud illos, quam
in genitali solo praecelleret dignitate2.”
We cannot now tell the exact terms upon which
the usufruct of the folcland was permitted to indi-
vidual holders. Much of it was probably distri-
buted in severalty, to be enjoyed by the grantee
during his life, and then to revert to the donor the
State. As the holders of such lands were most pro-
bably not included in the Marks, like the owners
ɪ Epist. § 11. (Op. Min. ii. 217, 218.)
2 Vit. S. Idae, Pertz, ii. 571.
CH. XI.]
Folcland and bo,cland.
293
of allodial property, they may have formed the pro-
per basis of the original gyldscipas, and have been
more immediately subject to the jurisdiction of the
Scirgemot ; for it is impossible to believe that their
condition was one of such perfect freedom as that
of the original allodial owners.
A portion also of the folcland may long have sub-
sisted as common land, subject to the general rights
of all1. In this respect it must have resembled the
public land of the Komans. Only that, the true
Boman burghers or Patricians, being comparatively
few, while the other claimants were many, and self-
defence therefore commanded the utmost caution
in admitting them to isotely,—the struggles be-
tween the Patrician and Plebeian orders necessarily
assumed in Bome a character of exasperation and
hostility which was wanting in England. But it
does not appear that in this country, the tribes of
the Gewissas could have made any claim to the
folcland of the Mercians, or that those of the
Welsh would have found favour with any Saxon
community.
In whatever form the usufruct may have been
granted, it was accompanied by various settled
burthens. In the first place were the inevitable
charges from which no land was ever relieved ;
namely military service, alluded to by Beda, and
no doubt in early times performed in person : the
1 This seems the readiest way of accounting for the right of common
enjoyed by the king, ealdorman and geréfa, in nearly every part of
England ; which right they could alienate to others. For the king’s
common of pasture, etc. see Cod. Dipl. Nos. 80, 119, 270, 288, etc.