V I L 



V I L 



'uti ifTue followed the condition of tlic father, being free if 

 le was free, and villain if he was villain; but no ballard 

 could be born a villain. The law, however, protefted the 

 perfons of villains, as the kind's iubjefts, againil atrocious 

 injuries of the lord ; for he might not kiU, or maim his vil- 

 lain ; though he might beat him with impunity, fince the 

 \'il'ain had no aftion or remedy at law againil his lord, but 

 in cafe of the murder of his anceftor, or the maiming of 

 his own perfon. Neifes indeed had alfo an appeal of rape, 

 it; cafe the lord violated them by force. 



Villains might be enfranchifed by manumiflion. Hence, 

 .; .d by other means, they gained in procefs of time confi- 

 derable ground on their lords ; and in particular ftrengthened 

 the tenure of their eftates to that degree, that they came to 

 have in them an intereft in many places full as good, in 

 others better than their lords. For the good-nature and 

 benevolence of many lords of manors having, time out of 

 mind, permitted their villains, and their children, to enjoy 

 iheir poifeflions without interruption, iu a regular courfe of 

 defcent, the common law gave them title to prefcribe againft 

 iheir lords ; and, on performance of the fame fervices, to 

 hold their lands, in fpite of any determination of the lord's 

 will. For though, in general, they are faid to hold their 

 eftates at the will of the lord ; yet it is fuch a will as is 

 agreeable to the cudoms of the manor ; which cufloms are 

 preferved and evidenced by the rolls of the feveral courts- 

 baron in which they are entered, or kept on foot by the 

 conftant immemorial ufage of the feveral manors in which 

 the lands lie. And, as fuch tenants had nothing to fhew 

 for their eftates but thcfe cuftoms, and admiffions in pur- 

 fuance of them, entered on thofe rolls, or the copies of fuch 

 entries witncfTed by the fteward, they now began to be called 

 tenants by copy of a court-roll, and their tenure itfelf a copy- 

 hold. Copy-holders arc, therefore, in truth no other but 

 villains, who, by a long feries of immemorial encroachments 

 on the lord, have at laft eftablifhed a cuftomary right to 

 thofe eftates, which were before held abfolutely at the lord's 

 will. ■ Thefe encroachments at length became fo univerfal, 

 that when tenure in villenage was virtually aboliflied (though 

 copy-holds were referved) by the ftatute of Charles II. 

 there was hardly a pure villain left in the nation. To this 

 purpofc fir Thomas Smith teftifies, that in all his time (and 

 he was fecretary to Edward VI.) he never knew any villain 

 in grofs throughout the realm ; and the few villains re- 

 gardant that were then remaining, were fuch only as had be- 

 longed to bifhops, monafterics, and other ecclefiaftical cor- 

 porations, in the preceding times of popery. By feveral 

 means, the generality of villains in the kingdom have long 

 ago fprouted up into copy-holders ; their perfons being en- 

 franchifed by manumiflion, or long acquiefcence ; but their 

 cilates, in ftriftnefs, remaining fubjeA to the fame fervile 

 conditions and forfeitures as before ; though, in general, 

 the villain fervices are ufually commuted for a fmall pecu- 

 niary quit-rent. Blackft. Com. book ii. See ViLLEXAcr. 



Villain EJlale, or Condition, is contradiftinguifhed to 

 free ejlate. Sc • Basf. 7<nur^, and Villenage. 



VILLAINAGE. See Villenage. 



VILLA I NE, in Geography, a town of France, and prin- 

 cipal place of a diftrift, in the department of the Mayenne ; 

 12 miles E.N.E. of Maycnne. N. lat. 48* 21'. W. long. 

 o^ii'. 



VILLAINOUS JcoGMENT, is that which cads tlic re- 

 proach and ftaiu of villainy and flianie on him againlt wliom 

 it is given. As that againll a confpirator, &c. See Con- 

 spiracy. 



Lamb.ird calls it villainous punijbment ; and fays, it may 

 well be called villainous, in regard the judgment, in fuch 



caff, ffiail be like the ancient judgment in attaint, viz.. that 

 the criminals fhall not be of any credit afterwards : nor (hall 

 it be lawful for them, in perfon, to approach the king's 

 court : that their lands and goods (hall be feized into the 

 king's hands, their trees rooted up, their bodies impri- 

 foned, &c. 



This villainous judgment is now become obfolete ; it not 

 having been pronounced for fome ages : but inftead of it, the 

 delinquents are ufually fentenced to imprifonment, fine, and 

 pillory. 



VILLALAR, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the 

 province of Leon ; i2-milcs N.N.W. of Rio Seco. 



VILLALBA, a town of Spain, in Eftremadura ; 32 

 miles S.E. of Badajoz. — Alfo, a town of Spain, in Galicia; 

 1 8 miles S.W. of Mondonedo. 



VILLALON, a town of Spain, in the province of 

 Leon ; 25 miles W.N.W. of Palencia. 



yiLLALPANDA, John-Baptist, in Biography, a 

 native of Cordova, entered the fociety of Jefus in 157 1, and 

 diftinguifhed himfelf by a learned and diffufe commentary 

 on the book of Ezckiel, in three vols. fol. Rome, 1596. It 

 contains an elaborate defcription of the city and temple of 

 Jerufalem. He alfo pubhlhed, in 1598, " Explanatio Epif- 

 tolarum Sanfti Pauli," under the name of Remi of Rheims, 

 to whom he found it afcribed in a manufcript dated in 1067. 

 This Jefuit died in 1608. Dupin. 



VILLALPANDO, in Geography, a town of Spain, in 

 the- province of Leon ; 33 miles S. of Leon. 



VILLALTA, a town of Italy, in the country of Friuli ; 

 5 miles W. of Udina. 



VILLALVA, a town of Spain, in Galicia; 15 milet 

 S. of Mondonedo. 



VILLAMBEA, a town of Spain, inNewCaftile; 25 

 miles S.S.E. of IMadrid. 



VILLAMEA, a town of Portugal, in the province of 

 Bcira ; 4. miles S. of Lamego. 



VILLAMEDO, a town of Spain, in Eftremadura ; 12 

 miles W.S.W. of Talavera la Vieja. 



VILLAMENA de la Jarra, a town of Spain, in the 

 province of Cordova ; 27 miles N.N.E. of Cordova. 



VILLAMIEL, a town of Spain, in the province of 

 Leon ; 43 miles S. of Ciudad Rodrigo. 



VILLANDRAUT, or Villandrade, a town of 

 France, in the department of tlic Gironde ; 8 miles W.N.W. 

 of Bazas. 



VILLANDRY, a town of France, in the department 

 ot the Indre and Loire ; 9 miles W.S.W. of Tours. 



VILLANELLA, in Italian Mufic, rullic airs that wwe 

 fung about the ftreets of Naples in the i6th century, in 

 three and four parts, as ferenades. They are fometimes 

 called vilktte and villanefchc alia Napolitana. 



VILLANI, GioVAiNNi, m Biography, a native of Flo- 

 rence, was old enough in 1300 to vifit Rome at the jubilee, 

 and is fuppofed to have afterwards travelled into France and 

 Flanders. In 1316 and 1317 he was one of the magiftratcs 

 called priors at Florence, and alfo in the latter year official 

 of the mint, to whom was due an exaft regifter, ftill extant, 

 of all the money coined at Florence iu and before his time. 

 He fervcd in the Florentine army in 1323, and in 1328 con- 

 trived nieana for relieving his poor countrymen at a period 

 of dillrefling fcarcity. On occafion of the f.iilurc of the 

 company of Bonaccorfi, in which he had a fli.iro, in 1345, 

 and to which he was not accelTory, he was committed to the 

 public prifon, and his hfe was terminated by the plague, 

 which feverely vifitcd Florence in 1348. Villain bears the 

 charafter of one of the moll polidicd writers of his .ige, and 

 the moft converfant in the hiftory of his country. His 



Hillory 



