Peasant Communities in France. 3 



similar cases have now at length brought about a similar irregu- 

 larity and unorganized tenure of the soil in Germanic countries. 

 It confirms this expectation, that the greater part of the village 

 communities, described by Bonnemere and La Cbavanne, as exist- 

 ing in France, are found in the essentially Teutonic portions of 

 France, like Franche Comte ; but it would not militate with this 

 view if such communities were found sporadically in every part 

 of France, because there were, as a matter of fact, extensive set- 

 tlements of Germans scattered all over France. 



The documents which I have been able to examine in this in- 

 vestigation belong entirely to the ninth, tenth and eleventh 

 centuries : to a period, that is, before the full establishment of 

 feudalism, and in which, therefore, we may expect, if anywhere, 

 to find the primitive organization of the community. 



Of these documents, the first is the most important and instruc- 

 tive for my point of view. It is the Polyptichum of the Abbot 

 Irmino ; a register of the estates belonging to the Abbey of St. 

 Germain des Pres in the time of Charlemagne. In the fullness 

 and minutetness of this survey, we are reminded of the greatest 

 medieval work of this character, the Domesday Boole of William 

 the Conqueror; but this Polyptichum is confined to only a small 

 part of France, all within forty leagues of Paris. Moreover, Dom- 

 esday Book is a public document, drawn up for the use of the 

 government, while this is a private register of the estates belong- 

 ing to a religious corporation. 



The first point that strikes one on examining this register is 

 that the estates are not enumerated according to public divisions 

 of the territory, but are grouped into what are called fiscs : in this 

 grouping, there is the greatest irregalarity,* bits of land scattered 

 here and there in different villages, being combined merely for 

 purposes of administration. Now, in English documents of this 

 nature, we find the public divisions uniformely observed, even 

 in reference to private estates. "What is of even more importance, 

 is that tenures of land in England are always given in hydes or 

 aliquot parts of the hyde — the hyde being the part of land fall- 

 ing to a full member of an organized communitj'' ; in the French 

 ^Prolegomena, p. 30. 



