[Sidenote: Alcuin weighs gold bracelets in the scales of the _nova moneta_.] During her illness Alcuin sent a messenger to Paulinus, the Patriarch of Aquileia, with two _armillæ_ of fine gold from Liutgarda,[17] so that he and his priests might pray for her. He stated in his letter to Paulinus that these armillæ weighed ‘xxiv. denarii less than a full pound of the _nova moneta_ of the king.’ Alcuin thus weighed the bracelets in the scales of the _nova moneta_, and they weighed twenty-four pence less than Charlemagne’s pound of 7680 wheat-grains. The interesting point is that 24 pence of the _nova moneta_ (24 × 32 = 768) deducted from the pound of Charlemagne left exactly 6912 wheat-grains. So that when Paulinus weighed the gold bracelets in his Roman scales he would find they weighed exactly a Roman pound.[18] [Sidenote: But in correspondence with Ireland uses Roman weights.] And yet, though writing from Charlemagne’s Court, Alcuin, when addressing his ecclesiastical friends in Ireland, no longer used the terms of the Frankish currency. It was after all a local one. Charlemagne’s Empire had its limits, and Ireland was beyond them. The area of ecclesiastical rule was wider than both Empires put together. Alcuin writes that he and his Imperial master had distributed among the Irish monasteries so many _sicli_ of silver. The _siclus_, according to the authorities collected by Hultsch,[19] was equal to two Roman _argentei_ or drachmas of silver. So that Alcuin used the di-drachma or stater of Roman reckoning as fixed in the time of Nero, when corresponding with churches outside the Empire of his Frankish master. [Sidenote: Archbishop Egbert also uses Roman weights instead of local ones.] As we proceed in our inquiries we shall find another great ecclesiastic (Egbert, archbishop of York and brother of the Northumbrian king) using the same Roman monetary terms in replying to the question of his clergy respecting the wergelds to be claimed in taking their proper position and rank in the Northumbrian kingdom. The answer was given in Roman _argentei_ and _sicli_, and not in Frankish solidi, or Anglo-Saxon scillings, or any other local currency. In conclusion, the various currencies in which wergelds were paid may at first sight be perplexing, but the relevance of the facts stated in this chapter to a right understanding of the wergelds of various tribes under tribal custom, and of the amount of the wergelds to a right understanding of the constitution of tribal society, will become more and more apparent as the inquiry proceeds. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. _SUMMARY OF THE CYMRIC EVIDENCE._ I. THE UNIT OF CYMRIC TRIBAL SOCIETY. The next step in this inquiry will be to give a brief summary of the results of the evidence contained in the volume on the ‘Tribal System in Wales,’ adding at the same time such further details as may be useful in helping us to realise the methods by which tribal custom worked itself out in practice.[20]