Capital punishments are necessarily rare in early periods. Tacitus limits those of the Germans to cases of high-treason or effeminacy, two crimes which strike at the root of all society. Hence the highest punishment is payment of the wergyld: a capital thief is wergyld-þeóf. If he cannot or will not pay, he is outlawed, that is excluded from the benefits of the mutual guarantee among free men: he may be slain as a common enemy, _iure belli_, or reduced to slavery, which is the more usual result. ----- CHAPTER XI. FOLCLAND. BÓCLAND. LǼNLAND. It was a wise insight into the accidents of increasing population which limited the amount of the original éðel, or allodial estate. By leaving, as it were, a large fund to be drawn upon, as occasion might serve, the principle, that every freeman must be settled on land, was maintained, without condemning society to a stationary condition, as to numbers. The land thus left, of which the usufruct, under certain conditions, was enjoyed by the freemen, was called Folcland, _terra publica, ager publicus_. It was distinguished from the éðel by not becoming absolute property in the hands of individuals, consequently by not being hereditary. The _dominium utile_ might be granted; the _dominium directum_ remained in the state, which was a perpetual feoffee for certain trusts and uses. And hence folcland was subject to rents of divers kinds, and reversion. The folcland could also be applied to reward great public services, in which case estates of alod, or éðel, were carved out of it, and presented to him whom the community desired to honour[523]. The service which Wulf and Eofer did by slaying Ongenðeów was rewarded with a grant of land and rings[524]. The clearest view of the nature and object of folcland is given us by Beda, who complains that it is diverted from its proper purpose,—which is, to be granted as a support to those whose arms would defend the country,—under pretence of erecting monasteries, which are a disgrace to their profession. The following are his extremely important words: ----- Footnote 523: The τέμενος, or cut-off portion, _entail_, which service might earn among the Greeks, is of the same character. According to tradition, Pittacus was thus rewarded by the people of Mitylene, after overcoming Phrynon, the Athenian champion, in single combat: τῶν δὲ Μιτυληναίων δωρεὰς αὐτῷ μεγάλας διδόντων, ἀκοντίσας τὸ δόρυ, τοῦτο μόνον τὸ χωρίον ἠξιώσεν, ὅσον ἐπέσχεν ἡ αἰχμή· καὶ καλεῖται νῦν Πιττάκιον. Plut. de Malign. Herod. c. xv. The reward allotted to Horatius in the Roman Ager ought now to be familiar to every one: “They gave him of the corn-land That was of public right, As much as two strong oxen Could plough from morn till night!” Footnote 524: