that the lord's land is only one of the shares in the higher group of the village community. ['Ministeriality.'] The management of the estate, the collection of revenue, the supervision of work, the police duties incumbent on the manor, etc., required a considerable number of foremen and workmen of different kinds[688]. Great lords usually confided the general supervision of their estates to a _seneschal_, steward or head manager, who had to represent the lord for all purposes, to preside at the manorial courts, to audit accounts, to conduct sworn inquests and extents, and to decide as to the general husbandry arrangements. In every single manor we find two persons of authority. The bailiff or beadle was an outsider appointed by the lord, and had to look to the interests of his employer, to collect rents and enforce duties, to manage the home farm, to take care of the domanial cattle, of the buildings, agricultural implements, etc. These functions were often conferred by agreement in consideration of a fixed rent, and in this case the steward or beadle took the name of _firmarius_[689]. By his side appears the reeve, or _praepositus_, nominated from among the peasants of a particular township, and mostly chosen by them[690]. Manorial instructions add sometimes that no villain has a right to hold aloof from such an appointment, if it is conferred on him[691]. The reeve acts as the representative of the village community, as well in regard to the lord as on public occasions. He must, of course, render help to the steward in all the various duties of the latter. The reeve has more especially to superintend the performance of labour imposed on the peasantry. Manorial ploughings, reapings, and the other like operations are conducted by him, sometimes with the help of the free tenants in the place. Of the public duties of the reeve we have had occasion to speak. Four men, acting as representatives of the village, accompany him. Next after the reeve comes, on large estates, the _messor_, who takes charge of the harvest, and sometimes acts as collector of fines imposed for the benefit of the lord[692]. The _akermanni_ or _carucarii_ are the leaders of the unwieldy ploughs of the time[693], and they are helped by a set of drivers and boys who have to attend to the oxen or horses[694]. Shepherds for every kind of cattle are also mentioned[695], as well as keepers and warders of the woods and fences[696]. In the Suffolk manors of Bury St. Edmund's we find the curious term _lurard_ to designate a person superintending the hay harvest[697].