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The nobility not only possess the influence which always attends riches, but also the power which the laws give them over their slaves and villains. Sec. 14 apud Spellm. The power of a master over his slaves was not unlimited among the Anglo-Saxons, as it was among their ancestors. Gloss. in verb. LL. Edw. Conf. Sec. 26. Spellm. Conc. vol. i. p. 415. Gloss. in verb.
M. Paris, p. 70, 71. Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 63. Gervase, p. 1386, 1387. These articles, to the number of sixteen, were calculated to prevent the chief abuses which had prevailed in ecclesiastical affairs, and to put an effectual stop to the usurpations of the church, which, gradually stealing on, had threatened the total destruction of the civil power.
The policy of the Conqueror was in this particular liable to some exception. He augmented the superstitious veneration for Rome, to which that age was so much inclined; and he broke those bands of connexion, which, in the Saxon times, had preserved an union between the lay and the clerical orders. Will. apud Wilkins, p. 230. Spellm. Gloss. in verb.
When the king went to Normandy, before he had conquered that province, the Bishop of Seez, in a formal harangue, earnestly exhorted him to redress the manifold disorders under which the government laboured, and to oblige the people to poll their hair in a decent form. Spellm.
They inveighed against the arbitrary conduct of the king; his tyranny over the English, whom they affected on this occasion to commiserate; his imperious behaviour to his barons of the noblest birth; and his apparent intention of reducing the victors and the vanquished to a like ignominious servitude. Spellm. Gloss. in verb.
The trouble and expense of defending the state in England lay equally upon all the land; and it was usual for every five hides to equip a man for the service. See Spellm. of Tenures, p. 2. Con. A sheep, by the laws of Athelstan, was estimated at a shilling; that is, fifteen pence of our money. Silk and cotton were quite unknown: linen was not much used.
Jurid. p. 27, 29. Madox, Hist. of Exch. p. 75, 76. Spellm. All the freeholders of the county, even the greatest barons, were obliged to attend the sheriffs in these courts, and to assist them in the administration of justice.
Girald. Cambr. Spellm. Concil. vol. ii. p. 51. Dermot Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, had, by his licentious tyranny, rendered himself odious to his subjects, who seized with alacrity the first occasion that offered of throwing off the yoke, which was become grievous and oppressive to them.
Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species of Christianity, was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and the gradual subjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction. Pilgrimages to Rome were represented as the most meritorious acts of devotion. Spellm.
If it be unreasonable to think that the vassals of a barony, though their tenure was military, and noble, and honourable, were ever summoned to give their opinion in national councils, much less can it be supposed, that the tradesmen or inhabitants of boroughs, whose condition was so much inferior, would be admitted to that privilege. Spellm.
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