Its Cttstoms. I o I 



tlie sake of simplicity, adopted tliis last;d"'stirccionj l-ocaxisvie 

 tliane seems to have been a generic term f6r a military officer, 

 and to be such presupposes both nobility and land proprietor- 

 ship. In the Saxon translation of the well-know^i PS,rable of 

 the Centurion, this officer is made to style himself a thane : 

 " I am a thane, having thanes under me." In a similar 

 strain it is probable that an etheling, earldorman, or eorl could 

 have said, " I am a king's thane, having thanes under me." 



There is the evidence of the wergeld and heriot to enlighten 

 us on the precedence question. A Bretwalda's wergeld was 

 15,000 thrimsas, a thane's 1,200 shillings, a ceorl's 200, and a 

 wealh's 100. The etheling's wergeld was identical with that 

 of a Bretwalda's, and therefore we may conclude the two terms 

 are synonymous. The eorl's heriot was twice that of a thane's, 

 and this decides the question of precedence between these 

 two. The etheling, though socially higher than the earldor- 

 man, was probably officially his inferior. 



The terms heretoch or hold referred simply to military 

 rank, and that of gerefa or reeve to civil rank. 



The ceorl who could attain to five hides of land became 

 raised to the grade of thane, and his great-grandchildren be- 

 came gesithcund. It was even possible for a ceorl to eventually 

 attain eorl's rank. 



Last in the social scale was the wealh.^ 



The landed vassalage of the Continental system of beneficia 

 had been, as we have already pointed out, introduced into 

 England under the system of the comitatus. Those who re- 

 ceived grants of terra regis became the king's vassals, and 

 those who, by the act of commendation, placed themselves 

 under seignorial protection became their patron's vassals. 

 Such were individuals of the gesith and thane class. ^ 



Some of the old agricultural terms date from Saxon times. 

 The word " farm," for example, is possibly derived from the 

 Latin " firma," but more probably (since there were few agri- 



^ The wealh was generally a Briton, whose weregeld was 100 shil- 

 lings. 



2 Compare Sharon Turner, Anglo-Saxons, Bk. VIII. ch. vii. and Stubbs, 

 Constit. Hist., ch. vi. 



