804
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
The gaining of a hereditary character for lands,
and especially the relief from heavy dues, were ad-
vantages which might speedily arouse the avarice
and stimulate the invention even of barbarians.
Accordingly those who could gain access to the ear
of the king and his witan, bought, or begged or ex-
torted grants of privileged land, which they either
converted entirely into private estates, or upon
which they erected monasteries, nominally such :
and over these, which they filled with irregular and
often profligate monks, they assumed the jurisdic-
tion of abbots; with such little advantage to the
service of religion, that we have seen Beda describe
them as a public scandal, and recommend even the
desperate remedy of cancelling, by royal and epis-
copal authority, the privilégia or charters on which
their immunities reposed.
To .the growing prevalence of this fraud we pro-
bably owe it that, at least in Wessex, the custom
arose of confiscating land on which the conditions
of the grant had not been fulfilled. Thus Ini called
in the lands which Cissa had granted to Hean the
abbot and Cille the abbess, his sister, because no
religious buildings had been erected thereon : “ Sed
Ini rex eandem terram, postea dum regno potire-
tur, diripiens ac Teipublicae restituit, nondum con-
struct monasterio in ea, nec ullo admodum ora-
torio erecto1;” that is, as I understand it, folcland
they had been, and folcland they again became. But
even this did not meet all the exigencies of the case,
1 Cod. Dipl. No. 40.
сн. kɪ.]
Folcland and bo,cland.
ЗОд
.and it therefore probably became necessary, even
in bocland granted to the church, to reserve the
military and other services, which the clergy could
cause.to be performed by their own dependent culti-
vators or tenants, even if they were not compelled
to serve themselves,—a point which is by no means
clear1.
A majority of the documents contained in the
Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici are conversions
of folcland into bocland, or confirmations of such
conversions. They almost universally contain a
clause declaring or proclaiming—such is the tech-
nical word for this important public act, by which
prince and king, ealdorman and sheriff, were at
once made strangers to the land—the estate free
from every burthen save the inevitable three ; a
clause giving the fullest hereditary possession, and
the power to dispose of it by will at the testator’s
pleasure ; and finally a clause stating that this is
done by the authority of the king, with the advice,
consent and license of his Witan or counsellors.
They remain therefore to the last important public
acts, and are, I believe universally, to be considered
acts of the assembled Witena-gemot or great coun-
cil of the nation 2. And as by their authority folc-
land could be converted into bocland, so it appears
could the. reverse take place ; and a change in the
nature of two estates is recorded 3, where the king
' “ Quam videlicet terram Alhmundus abbas, Cxpeditionem subter-
fugiens, mihi reconciliationis gratia dabat.” Cod. Dipl. No. 161.
2 See hereafter’ the chapter which treats of the Witan and their
powers. Book ii. ch. 6.
3 Cod. Dipl. No. 281.
VOL. I. χ