Penance too was much redeemed by alms; and in the case of the "powerful man and rich in friends," a seven years' infliction is atoned for in three days thus; "Let him [after confession of his sins] lay aside his weapons and his vain ornaments, and take a staff in his hand, and go barefoot zealously, and put on his body woollen or haircloth, and not come unto a bed, but lie on a pallet :-let him take to him 12 men, and let them fast 3 days on bread, and on green herbs, and on water; and get, in addition thereto, in whatsoever manner he can, seven times 120 men, who shall also fast for him 3 days; then will be fasted as many fasts as there are days in 7 years."... "He who has the ability, let him raise a church to the glory of God; and he who has less means, let him do diligently, according to his condition, that which he can do"."

The following passage from Edgar's canons, however, demands quotation to shew what penance uncompounded

for really was; and we know that to this, in all its humiliating details, some at least of the highest and mightiest of the earth have submitted "for their soul's health."

"It is a deep penitence that a layman lay aside his weapons and travel far barefoot, and nowhere pass a second night, and fast and watch much, and pray fervently, and voluntarily suffer fatigue, and be so squalid, that iron come not on hair nor on nail. Nor that he come into a warm bath, nor into a soft bed, nor taste flesh, nor anything from which drunkenness may come, nor that he come within a church; but yet diligently seek holy places, and declare his sins, and implore intercession, and kiss no one, but be ever fervently repenting his sins. Roughly he fares who thus constantly criminates himself, and yet is he happy if he never relax till he make full bote;' because no man in the world is so very criminal that he may not make atonement to God, let him undertake it fervently."

down to the Norman era, and accordingly has been carefully summarized. It seems desirable also to give a few specimens of the work (in the translation of the Editors of the Monumenta) in a literary point of view.

Our first citation relates to ecclesiastical affairs.

"An. D.LXV.

This year Ethelbriht succeeded to the kingdom of the Kentishmen, and held it fifty-three years. In his days the holy pope Gregory sent us baptism, that was in the two-andthirtieth year of his reign: and Columba, a masspriest, came to the Picts, and converted them to the faith of Christ: they are dwellers by the northern mountains. And their king gave him the island which is called Ii [Iona]: therein are five hides of land, as men say. There Columba built a monastery, and he was abbot there thirtytwo years, and there he died when he was seventyseven years old. His successors still have the place. The Southern Picts had been baptized long before: bishop Ninia, who had been instructed at Rome, had preached baptism to them, whose church and his monastery is at Hwiterney, hallowed in the name of St. Martin: there he resteth, with many holy men. Now in Ii there must ever be an abbot, and not a bishop; and all the Scottish bishops ought to be subject to him, because Columba was an abbot, not a bishop."

The Chronicle thus narrates, year by year, the accession or the death of kings, the succession of bishops, the occurrence of battles, pestilence, comets, and severe winters, usually in plain prose, but occasionally it bursts into verse', as in a war ode to celebrate the

"life-long-glory

in battle won

with edges of swords near Brunan-burh;"

it also indulges in poetic elegies on Edward the Martyr, and Edward the Confessor, and Archbishop Elphege, but its highest flights are in praise of Edgar, whose reign and character are thus sketched under the year 958 :

:

"In his days

it prospered well,

and God him granted
that he dwelt in peace
the while that he lived:
and he did as behoved him,
diligently he earned it.

He upreared God's glory wide,
and loved God's law,

and bettered the public peace, most of the kings

who were before him

in man's memory.

And God him eke so helped,

that kings and eorls
gladly to him bowed,
and were submissive

to that, that he willed;

and without war

he ruled all

that himself would.

He was wide

throughout nations

greatly honoured, because he honoured God's name earnestly, and God's law pondered much and oft,

and God's glory reared wide and far,

and wisely counselled, most oft, and ever,

for God and for the world, of all his people.

One misdeed he did,

all too much
that he foreign
vices loved,

and heathen customs
within this land
brought too oft,
and outlandish men
hither enticed,

and harmful people
allured to this land.
But God grant him
that his good deeds
be more availing
than his misdeeds

for his soul's protection on the longsome course."

"Here, ended

the joys of earth,

Eadgar, of Angles king,
chose him another light,
beauteous and winsome,
and left this frail,
this barren life.
Children of men name,
every where, that month,
in this land,

those who erewhile were
in the art of numbers
rightly taught,
July month,

when the youth departed,
on the eighth day,
Eadgar, from life,
bracelet-giver of beorns.

And then his son succeeded
to the kingdom,

a child un-waxen,

ealdor of eorls,

the Victor-lord, heaven's Ruler.

Then men his law broke through; and then was eke driven out, beloved hero,

Oslac, from this land, o'er rolling waters, o'er the gannet's bath; hoary-haired hero, wise and word-skilled, o'er the waters' throng, o'er the whale's domain, of home bereaved. And then was seen, high in the heavens, a star in the firmament, which lofty-souled men, sage-minded, call widely

Cometa by name;

men skilled in arts,

wise truth-bearers.

Throughout mankind was

the Lord's vengeance

widely known,

famine o'er earth.

That again heaven's Guardian

bettered, Lord of angels, gave again bliss

to each isle-dweller, through earth's fruits."

king with the chosen good,
chaste and mild,
Edward the noble :
the realm he guarded,
land and people,
until suddenly came
death the bitter,

and so dear a one seized.
This noble, from earth
angels carried,
sooth-fast soul,
into heaven's light.

And the sage ne'ertheless
the realm committed
to a highly-born man,
Harold's self,

the noble eorl!
He in all time
obeyed faithfully
his rightful lord
by words and deeds,
nor aught neglected
which needful was

to his sovereign-king."

WE have seen from the Saxon Chronicle that the Northmen frequently extended their destructive inroads to France, and they appear to have had several permanent settlements in that country at least as early as the year 850; but it was not until they were headed by Rolf the Ganger, that they obtained possession of the district around the mouth of the Seine, since called, from them, Normandy. Rolf, who had been banished from Norway about 875, for defiance of the orders of Harold Harfagar, having embraced Christianity, and married Gisele, daughter of Charles the Simple, governed his province with vigour and wisdom, and formed it into a barrier for the rest of France against the incursions of his former associates. He died in 920, and left his state to his son William, the fourth in descent from whom was William the Bastard,whose victory at Hastings commenced the last great change from abroad to which our island has been subjected. Its effects, however, have been greatly overrated in many social and constitutional points. There can be no doubt that Norman influence, although based on conquest and working ruthlessly at first, produced on the English nation, with which in a very few generations the Normans had amalgamated, effects

Also called Rollo. He is said to have been too tall and too heavy for any horse to carry, and so was obliged to journey on foot; whence his name, Rolf the Walker.

From this term occurring in some of William's charters, it has been asserted that it conveyed no reproach; but the following anecdote, while it exhibits the brutality of the man, shews that he regarded it, on one occasion at least, in a different light :

William sent to Count Baldwin of Flanders, and requested his daughter in marriage. The matter pleased the count, and he spoke of it to his daughter, but she answered that she would never have a bastard for her husband. Then the count sent to the duke, and declined the marriage as courteously as he could. Shortly after, the duke learnt how the lady had answered, at which he was very angry. Taking some of his friends with him, he went to Lille, and entering the count's hall, passed through to the chamber of the countess.

which no other discipline could have ensured; it consolidated the people under a strong government and fitted them for organization and defence.

Iron rule and merciless confiscation were the great features of William's policy. The private possessions of Harold and his kindred, and of most of those who had fought at Hastings, were seized, at the very beginning of the new king's reign, and the rest of the people "bought their land" at a heavy price. Unsuccessful attempts to shake off the yoke gave occasion for fresh seizures, and when the Domesday survey was made, the whole landed property of the country (exclusive of that of the Church) appeared vested in the conqueror, and about 600 tenants in chief, among whom a name shewing a Saxon or Danish origin is but rarely to be met with. The churches generally had retained their property, and some had even received additions, while with the spoil some were founded. Many foreign religious houses were also established or augmented from the same source, and, under the name of alien priories, their rights and duties formed frequent subjects of dispute in subsequent times.

To the confiscations and ravages, which Norman writers do not deny, and which the Domesday Book in

He found her with her father, when he seized her by her hair, dragged her about the chamber, and defiled her with his feet.' Then he went out, mounted his palfrey, and returned to his own country. At this thing the count Baldwin was greatly enraged, but by the advice of his councillors he accorded his wish to the duke, and they were good friends."

The abbey of Battle, which William founded to commemorate his victory, was endowed with possessions in Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Berks, Oxford, and Devon. Many important privileges were granted to it, and the duty was imposed of preserving a list of the leaders on the Norman side at the battle of Hastings. Several copies of this list, called the Battle Abbey Roll, exist; but they vary so much, and bear such evident marks of interpolation, that they have little historical value. d Most of these foundations were of the Cistercian order, which was a branch of the Benedictines, and had been devised not long before.

disputably establishes, were added many other grievances, well fitted to "make oppression bitter." "The king and the head men," says the Saxon Chronicler,, "loved much, and overmuch, gold and silver, and recked not how sinfully it was got, provided it came to them. The king let his land at as high a rate as he possibly could; then came some other person and bade more than the former one gave, and the king let it to the man that bade him more. Then came the third and bade yet more, and the king let it to hand to the man who bade him most of all; and he recked not how very sinfully the stewards got it of wretched men, nor how many unlawful deeds they did. They erected unjust tolls, and many other unjust things they did, that are hard to reckon."

Though the Normans founded or endowed monasteries (chiefly, however, abroad), they, perhaps for strategic purposes, destroyed the minster at York, and many other churches, and more than one Saxon bishop died in prison, whilst others were driven from their sees, for attempting to shield their people from the exactions and encroachments of the "mixed multitude" of soldiers of fortune, who, having conquered at Hastings, were prevented neither by mercy nor discretion from pushing their triumph to the uttermost.

was not until the time of William that it received its full development in England, and was applied to the whole property of the country. The division of land now generally recognised was into knights' fees, varying from about 600 to 800 acres, which were obliged to furnish 40 days' service of a fully equipped horseman each year; these fees were popularly regarded as more than 60,000, but there is very great difficulty in ascertaining the exact number. The land was first granted in large districts to the tenants in chief, and by them subdivided; homage, service, and various money payments were the considerations due for each grant, and were as fully owing from the under to the chief tenants, as from the latter to the king. No land could be alienated without a fine; and on the death of a tenant, the successor paid a sum to be put in possession, called a relief. If the heir was under age, the profits of the estates belonged to the lord, as also did the control of the marriage of the ward. Under the name of aids, the lord claimed stipulated sums from his tenants on the occasion of the knighting of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest daughter, or his own capture in war. These were all legal and established burdens, and perhaps did not amount to more than the rent of land and the ordinary taxation of modern times: but the superiors did not confine themselves to them: on the contrary, new exactions were perpetually attempted, and the revenues of both lords and kings were increased by the most various and often discreditable means.

The forests had been in the hands of the kings in Anglo-Saxon times, and the laws of Canute shew that the game was "preserved" in his day, though the pannage, or feeding for swine, was liberally granted to individuals; but the Norman kings carried their passion for the chase to a pitch which perhaps no other monarchs have equalled, and guarded their wild beasts by denouncing death against those who interfered with them. On some occasions, when the turbulence of their barons compelled them to attempt to conciliate their English sub