of Christ, there were many synods held in all the earth, and cke in Angle-kin, since they took to the Faith of Christ, of holy Bishops and other High Courts of Witan.

§ II. Then set they forth, through the mild-heartedness that Christ taught, for almost every misdeed, that the secular authorities might, with their goodwill, without sin, at the first offence, take their fee-boot that they then awarded. But for treason against a lord they durst proclaim no such mildheartedness, for that Almighty God made none such doom to them that slighted Him, nor Christ, the Son of God, to him that sold Him. And He bade love a lord as Himself.'

§ 12. The last sentence is an entirely original application of Christ's precept as to Cæsar and God (Matt. xxiii.), and illustrates the special severity with which high treason was from the first regarded by English law. The option of condoning almost all other offences for a 'fee-boot,' or pecuniary penalty, was an immemorial principle in all Teutonic legislation, though Alfred apparently attributes its introduction to the milder spirit infused by Christianity. In his code the system is carried out to the most elaborate pitch, a regular scale of fines being drawn up for every conceivable form of theft or of violence; for petty larceny, highway robbery, housebreaking, rioting, slander, false imprisonment, and no fewer than thirty-three distinctly specified kinds of mutilation.

§ 13. An car, for example, is priced at 60 shillings, as is also the tongue, the nose, or an eye, 'but if it yet be in the head, though he may see nought therewith, let the third part of the boot stand.' A front-tooth is 8s., a 'cheek-tooth' 125., and a man's tusk is 15s. worth.' Not only has each finger its value (the thumb 30s.; 'the shooting-finger,' ¿.e., the fore-finger, 15s. ; the middle 12s. ; the third, 'the gold [ring] finger,' 175.; the little finger 9s.), but each nail also, from 5s. for a thumb-nail to Is. for that of the little finger.

§ 14. The value of all these sums must be multiplied from twenty to thirty fold to correspond with their present purchasing power, so that it would seem as if comparatively few could escape by their payment from the imprisonment or corporal chastisement (hide-gild') which the code speaks

of as the alternative. But no scale for this is given, and we have to remember that every Englishman was by Alfred's ordinance a member of a certain district, called a 'Hundred,"1 which was responsible for his good behaviour and for any fines he might incur. The 'Hundred-Court,' which met once a quarter, was empowered to deal with its own offenders according to their tithings,' these last divisions being practically equivalent to our parishes. The code, accordingly, makes careful provision for the formalities to be observed when a man changes his place of residence, and imposes heavy penalties (120 shillings) for their non-observance.

§ 15. The fines for certain transgressions varied according to the rank of the injured party. Thus, to break into a house belonging to the King was 120 shillings. An Archbishop might be burglarized for 90s., a suffragan or an Alderman for 60s., a 'twelve-hind' man for 30s., a 'six-hind' for 20s., while a churl could only claim 5s. The 'churl,' it may be mentioned, was the lowest class of free land-owner, the status of members of the thanehood (or squirearchy) above him being estimated by the number of labourers (' hinds ') employed by each. The traditional proportion of these to his arable land was one for every 10 acres. A 'twelve-hind' man would thus hold 120 acres, a 'hide' of land. Yet even against the churl offences were far from cheap. To 'swinge' him cost 20s., to imprison him or to shave his head 30s., and even his beard might not be meddled with under 10s.

§ 16. In the light of recent judicial decisions, it is interesting to note that, under Alfred, a dog was not, as now, legally entitled to his first bite.

'If a hound slit or bite a man, let the owner pay for the first misdeed 6s. [equivalent to some £10 now], for the next 125., for the third 30s.' And in any further case he had also to pay the full' were '-or compensation according to damage -in addition. To keep' the dog or give him meat was sufficient to prove you his responsible owner.

1 William of Malmesbury, § 122. The name was probably derived from the number of hides' in the area, a 'hide' being about 120 acres. The hundreds, which may still be seen marked on old-fashioned maps, thus contain about twentyfive square miles on an average.

An entry in the Ramsey Cartulary (Rolls Series, vol. i., p. 120) incidentally mentions that 11 hides=44 virgates = 1,320 acres.

§ 17. All offences committed while the army is out' are doubly fined, as is also the case during Lent, or if any sacrilege is involved. Any breach of sanctuary incurs, besides compensation, a fine of 120 shillings, and stealing from a church the loss of the hand that did the deed. 'He that stealeth on Sunday night, or at Yule, or Easter, or on Holy Thursday, or on "gang" days,1 for each be there twofold boot, as in Lent.' Every consecrated church might give sanctuary even to a known criminal for a week. And eke church-frith is that if any man seek a church for any crime not yet known, and there confess it in God's name, be it half forgiven.'

§ 18. Statute holidays are commanded on Christmas Day, and twelve days after, on 'the day that Christ overcame the devil' (Ash Wednesday), on St. Gregory's Day (March 12), on Easter Day, with the week before and the week after, on the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul (June 29), and in harvest the full week before St. Mary's Mass' (ie., the Feast of the Assumption, August 15), on All Saints' Day, and on the Wednesday of the four Ember weeks. On these holidays no work could be required of any free men in the performance of the customary services which they rendered in lieu of rent to their landlord, who was thus thrown back at these periods on such labour as he could hire or that of his own theow-men' (or slaves), if he had any. But even these might not be employed on Sunday. If a theow-man work on Sunday at his lord's behest, be he free, and the lord forfeit 30 shillings. If he work without behest let him suffer in his hide. If a freeman work that day let him forfeit his freedom or 60 shillings. And let a priest be held doubly guilty.'

§19. This last enactment is of special interest, as showing that we owe that stricter and more primitive observance of the Lord's Day which it is the boast of Anglo-Saxons to continue, not, as is commonly supposed, to the Puritans of the sixteenth century, but to a much earlier source. Alfred's legislation on this point is taken from that of Ina (A.D. 688), and is repeated and amplified by later Saxon codes. That of

1 Z.e., Rogation days, so called from the old custom of going round the parish bounds in procession, singing the Litany, on those days.

Athelstane (A.D. 925) adds: 'If anyone market on Sunday he shall lose the goods, and eke thirty shillings'; while Ethelred (A.D. 980) bids 'the Sunday feast be rightly kept by all. Let markets and folk-motes, huntings and worldly works, be straitly kept from on that holy day. The MassPriests shall on the Sunday give the people the sense of the Gospel and Epistle in English, and tell out in English the Paternoster and the Credo, to the end that all folk may learn the Christian Faith on that day.' And though a laxer tone was introduced by the ecclesiastical adventurers who swarmed over at the Conquest, yet the old English ideal of Sunday never died out, and is again and again mentioned as one of the features of every religious revival in our land right down to the Reformation.

§ 20. Alfred also enacts that every child must be baptized within a month under a penalty of 30 shillings. If after that it dies unbaptized, the party responsible forfeits all whatsoever he owneth.' The appointed church-rate ('churchscot) had to be paid each year by Martinmas, defaulters being mulcted in 60 shillings, and twelve-fold their 'scot."1 And if anyone who had 'forfeited his hide' sought refuge in a church, be the swingeing forgiven him.'

§ 21. Such was the merciful code of Alfred, in which the death-penalty is conspicuous by its absence. It was reserved, indeed, as we have seen was Alfred's principle, for treason alone. This guilt might be incurred either actively or constructively (by harbouring traitors), and could only be atoned by the forfeiture of life and goods. But the accused had opportunity to clear himself, if he could, before his lord.

This word is the name of the oldest Saxon coin, the scatta, a small silver piece, about the size of a threepenny-bit, bearing some rude imitation of Roman coinage. The phrases scot-free' and 'to pay your shot' are derived from it.

Death of Alfred-Encomiums of chroniclers-His burial-The Proverbs of Alfred '- His work completed by his children.

SI.

"Η

ISTORIANS are divided as to the period of Alfred's life in which this great work of legislation was done. It seems probable, indeed, that he began it early, and did not conclude it till towards the end of his reign. After all, he was only fifty, when, 'shattered by the toil of the Danish wars '1 in 900,2' six days before All-Hallow-mass' (ie., October 26), 'Alfred, the Truthteller, a hero mighty in battle, prudent, religious, and wise beyond all, to the great woe of his people, went the way of all flesh; that steadfast stay of the West Saxons, full of justice, bold in arms, learned in speech, and, beyond all else, filled with divine lore; renowned, warlike, victorious, the devoted champion of widows, orphans, and poor; so skilled in Saxon song-craft; the darling of his people; kind of speech to all, and free of hand; endued with prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance; so patient under his daily infirmity; so fair and so sagacious in executing justice; so watchful and so devout in God's service."5 His unwearied rule,' says Henry of Huntingdon, his never-ending toil, may I not worthily set forth, save in verse:

:

Thine own greatness inborn, O Alfred mighty in battle,

Made thee a teller of truth, and truth-telling made thee a doer,

Book of Hyde.'

I do not propose to enter into the vexed question of the year of Alfred's

death. See Appendix B.

3 Asser.