Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
General
Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500
7. #saca# and the other genitives are, like lande, dependent on wurþa.
Each of these words has a threefold aspect: (1) the simple meaning of
the word itself; (2) the right to adjudicate in connection with that;
(3) the right to profit by fee or fine arising out of such jurisdiction.
#Sacu# and #sōcn# are glossed, _litis, contestatio_ and _quaestio,
inquisitio_ respectively. #Sōcn# is the leading word and #sacu# was
added to round off the phrase; together they express a single idea,
inquisition into a disputed matter (sometimes the area of jurisdiction);
then the right to adjudicate privately within one’s own jurisdiction on
certain cases which arise within it, and the right in consequence to
appropriate the proceeds in fines, &c. #Toll#, tax on merchandise,
sometimes exemption from such, the right to collect it, the profit
arising therefrom. Sometimes merely the right to tallage one’s villeins.
#Tēam#, vouching to warranty, right to adjudicate in cases which
involved the production of a guarantor (#getēama#), right to
forfeitures, &c., arising out of such processes (see B-T. _s.v._).
#Griðbryce#, breach of a special peace, that is, a protection accorded
specially to a person, place, or period of time by the king, the right
to try such cases and fine. #Hāmsōcn#, in Domesday hāmfare (OE.
#hāmfaru#), attack on a man’s house, trial for the offence and fine.
#Fōrsteall#, assault on the king’s highway; in Norman law, ‘assultus
excogitatus de veteri odio’ (PM. ii. 453). #Infangeneþēof#, thief caught
red-handed in a privileged area, the right to judge and hang him. In =
within, _adverb_: fangene = #fangenne#, _s. acc._ of the participle
agreeing with þēof: as the phrase was almost always _acc._ after a verb
of granting, these formed a compound regarded as the _nom._ as well, but
a _nom._ by form is sometimes found as _acc._, ‘infangenðeóf,’ Kemble,
iv. 226. The dat. ‘mid infangenumþeofe’ occurs, id. 227, but usually
‘mid infangeneðéf,’ id. 190; _gen._ ‘infangeneðeófes,’ id. 193. C, E,
H^1, H^2 all have both words inflected _gen._ as here: I have not found
the double inflection elsewhere. #Ūtfangeneþēof# was the right to hang
one’s own thief wherever caught, if he were found in possession of the
stolen property: it appears to have been rarely granted. #Flȳmena
fyrmð#, the harbouring or supporting of a wrongdoer or fugitive from
justice. (Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen; Pollock and
Maitland, History of English Law.)
10. #binnan Burgan#, &c.: a phrase for everywhere. Comp. ‘on ǽlce styde,
be lande and be strande,’ Earle, 344/11; ‘be wætere and be lande,’ id.
344/21; ‘inne tíd and út of tíd, binnen burh and búten burh, on stráte
and of stráte,’ id. 340/21.
11. #swa ful ⁊ swa ford#: ‘in tantum et tam pleniter,’ as fully and
extensively as my own officers are in duty bound to exact: comp. ‘swá
wel and swá freolíce swá ic hit meseolf betst habbe,’ Earle, 343/16.
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