Peasant Communities in France. 5 



There remain two documents considerably later and far less 

 complete in this respect than the two Polypticha, but which com- 

 pletely support the view already taken, that there is not likely to 

 be found any near approach to uniformity in the peasants' hold- 

 ings. In the Cartulary of the Abbey of St. Pere de Chartres 

 there is a complete lack of uniformity. Grants of land are, to be 

 sure, usually stated in mansi; but mansus has not necessarily, like 

 hyde, the meaning of a definite share in a village community, but 

 means a peasant's property of whatever extent. And when we 

 come to the detailed description of estates, there is hardly a ves- 

 tige of uniformity as between the several estates. This descrip- 

 tion is very meagre in amount, and is copied into the Cartulary 

 from some old papers, the copyist himself professing himself unable 

 wholly to understand them. The date of these document is as- 

 signed by the learned editor, Gruerard, to some time before A. D., 

 1000. 



In one or two of the estates there are to be sure some indica- 

 tions of uniformity in the condition of the peasants of the same 

 estate: e. g., in Cavanuis Villa (p. 37), are given the names of 

 twenty-one peasants {agricolce), all of whom paid the same dues 

 to the convent ; nothing is said as to the size of their holdings. 

 In Cipedum there are ten peasants, all paying the same dues. 

 But next follows Comonis Villa, with four peasants, two holding 

 five hunuaria and paying three measures of corn ; two holding six 

 hunuaria and paying four measures. On the next page, Abbonis 

 Villa has thirty-three peasants ; twenty-one of these paid one 

 shilling, and the rest sums var_ying from six pence to three shil- 

 iugs. On page 40 begins the enumeration of seventeen holdings, 

 paying ten different sums, varying from six pence to fifteen shil- 

 lings. Only two of these, to be sure, are called mansi, but these 

 two pay respectively two and five shillings, and one manseUus 

 three shillings. 



There remains the Cartulary of the Monastery of St. Bertin 

 at St. Omer, in the extreme north of France, therefore in a terri- 

 tory largely settled by Grermans. The date of these registers is 

 about the middle of the ninth centurj'-. Here we find, as might 

 be expected, a uniformity almost as great as in England. The 



