l62 EARLY BREADSALL CHARTERS. 



" There is one substantial condition of slaves. Whosoever is 

 a slave, is a slave just as any other, neither more nor less." 



Bartholomew Anglicus, an English Franciscan, who wrote his 

 " Encyclopaedia " on the properties of things about the middle 

 of the thirteenth century,* thus describes the condidon of a 

 servant : — 



" Some servants be bond and born in bondage, and such have 

 many pains by law. For they may not sell nor give away their 

 own goods and chattels, nor make contracts, nor take office of 

 dignity, nor bear witness without leave of their lords. Wherefore, 

 though they be not in childhood, they be oft punished with pains 

 of childhood {i.e., chastised as children). Other servants there 

 be, the which being captured with strangers, and aliens, and witli 

 enemies, be bought and sold, and held low under the yoke of 

 thraldom. The third manner of servants be bound freely by their 

 own good will, and serve for reward and for hire. And these 

 commonly be called FainuH." 



The chartulary of Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire, contains 

 a remarkable survey of the parish of Shillington, in Bedfordshire, 

 made in 1255. It gives the status and services of every class 

 of tenant, and the particular work each tenant had to perform. 

 Generally speaking, the gleba; ascripticii had not overmuch 

 leisure to perform their own home work, though these were the 

 more privileged amongst the villains, and if this was so with 

 the monastic tenants, who were always considered more highly 

 favouied than the baronial, what a hard time many of the latter 

 must have had ! 



The duties of the villani seem to have been measured out by 

 stints, as we now term them, one stint forming one day's service. 

 The following are examples : — 



Of Threshing, " twenty-four sheaves of wheat, or 30 of 

 barley, beans, and oats, formed one work or stint. 



Of Ditching, " the length of 2^ perches (reckoning by the old 

 measurement of 18 feet for the perch, that is to say, 15 yards) 



* " Medireval Lore." Elliot Stock, 1893. 



