If one could point anywhere to an annual or periodical division of the soil this would be a proof of agrarian communism. Maurer accordingly maintains (page 8) that this annual division was, as a matter of fact, for a long time practised. In support of so grave an assertion, to prove an historical fact of such magnitude, we might hope that he would furnish us with numerous and precise references. He gives but one, a document of the year 815, printed in Neugart’s _Codex diplomaticus_, No. 182.[97] Now look at this deed; it is a gift made to a convent by a certain Wolfin. Read it through; you will not find a single mention of community, a single mention of a yearly division. Wolfin is a landowner; the lands he grants are his property; even more than that, they are his by inheritance; they have descended to him from his father. Here then we have a deed which from its first word to the last proves the existence of private property, and shows the very opposite of common ownership. How has Maurer managed to find in this a confirmation of his theory? We have here a striking example of the light-hearted way in which he works. The donor, in making a list according to custom of the lands he is giving, writes _terræ anales_, _prata_, _vineæ_, _pascua_. Maurer lays hold of this word _anales_. Of course, it is not Latin; so he begins by supposing that the copyist made a mistake, and corrects it to _annales_. But even the word _annalis_ does not belong to the language of legal documents; there is not a single other instance of its use. Maurer supposes that it means “lands that are held for only one year.” But that is impossible; since, according to this very deed, they are Wolfin’s property by inheritance. The whole list, _terræ anales_, _prata_, _vineæ_, _pascua_ relates beyond doubt to inherited property. The word _anales_ is puzzling; but any one who is familiar with charters of this kind must have often observed in those of this period the expression _terræ areales_ taking the place of _terræ arabiles_,[98] but with the same meaning, _i.e._, arable lands. It occurs frequently in deeds of gift. When in a number of documents exactly alike in phraseology you find in eighty _terræ arabiles_, _prata_, _vineæ_, _silvæ_, _pascua_, and in twenty more _terræ ariales_, _prata_, _vineæ_, _silvæ_, _pascua_; then, supposing in a single example you meet with _terræ anales_, _prata_, _vineæ_, _silvæ_, _pascua_, common sense tells you that this word _anales_, which, however we take it, is incorrect, was written for _ariales_, and that either the editor or the copyist made a mistake. There is no doubt whatever that the donor makes a gift of “lands he possesses by inheritance,” which include “arable lands, meadows, vineyards and pasture.” Such is the deed of 815; and it is an illustration of the method Maurer follows. He cites a deed, which, taken as a whole, proves the existence of private and heritable property; he does not tell