Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth — John Shaqi
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
A community was usually an extended family. It's members lived in
villages in which a stone church was the most prominent
building. They lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made
of wood, mud, and straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the
walls to keep the wind out. Smoke from a fire in the middle of
the room filtered out of cracks in the roof. Grain was ground at
home by rotating by hand one stone disk on another stone disk.
Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of water or by
horses.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community
as a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver,
copper, iron, tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote
lead mines and quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced
the smaller scaetts. Freemen paid "scot and lot" according to
their means.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought
gifts such as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the
form of money became customary, and then expected. They were
called "tithes" and were spent for church repair, the clergy,
and poor and needy laborers. The parish of the priest was
coextensive with the holding of one landlord and was his
chaplain. The priest and other men who helped him, lived in the
church building. Some churches had lead roofs and iron hinges,
latches, and locks on their doors. The land underneath had been
given to the church by former Kings and persons who wanted the
church to say prayers to help their souls go from purgatory to
heaven and who also selected the first priest. The priest
conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in the spring and
Christmas (Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of the
pagan Yuletide festivities. Incense took the place of pagan
burnt offerings, holy water of haunted wells and streams, and
Christian incantations of sorcerer's spells.
The church baptized babies and officiated at marriage ceremonies.
It also said prayers for the dying, gave them funerals, and
buried them. There were burial service fees, candle dues, and
plough alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's name marked
his grave. It was thought that putting the name on the grave
would assist identification of that person for being taken to
heaven. The church heard the last wish or will of the person
dying concerning who he wanted to have his property.
Every man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about
his work so that he could at once send out a warning to his
fellow villagers or call them in chasing a thief or other
offender. The forests were full of outlaws, so strangers who did
not blow a horn to announce themselves were presumed to be
fugitive offenders who could be shot on sight. An eorl could call
upon the ceorl farmers for about forty days to fight off an
invading group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account