66 THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [222 



tionized on his estates; but it is misleading to interpret the 

 changes which took place as measures for the prompt con- 

 version into cash of the episcopal revenues. No radical 

 changes in the system of payment were necessary in order 

 to secure cash, for the system of selling surplus services to 

 the villains had become established decades before the time 

 of this bishop, and no formal commutation of services was 

 necessary in order to convert the labor dues of the villains 

 into payments in money. The bulk of the services were not 

 performed, even before commutation, and the lord received 

 money for the services not used on the demesne. The es- 

 sential feature of the changes which took place was a re- 

 duction in the amount paid — a reduction which the bishop 

 must have resisted so far as he dared, just as other land- 

 owners must have resisted the reductions which their 

 tenants forced them to make at a time when they were in 

 need of money. The commutation of services was inciden- 

 tal, and was only a slight modification of the system form- 

 erly in use, but, whether services were commuted or were in 

 part excused, the result was a lessening of the burden borne 

 by the tenant, and the reduction of the rent received by the 

 lord. 



It is true, as Professor Vinogradoff states, that there were! 

 powerful tendencies in the life of the peasants which made 

 for this result. In fact no initiative in selling services — at 

 these rates — could have come from the side of the land- 

 owners. The change was forced upon them. Unless they 

 compromised with their tenants and reduced their rents 

 they soon found vacant tenements on their hands which no 

 one could be compelled to take. The amount of land which 

 was finally leased at low rents because the former holders 

 had died or rim away and no one could be forced to take it 

 at the old rents is evidence of the reluctance with which 

 landowners accepted the situation and of their inability to 

 resist the change in the end. 



