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SPECIAL ARTICLE.

MEDIAEVAL ODDMENTS. —♦ [By G. M. h. IvKnEJv] I. ■He period through whi< h wc are now , _ jj for the historical student JjSiguishcd by the translation and jdjttag 0' * n - normous Bumber °* ,£ta»l documents illustrating not so oST the deeds of historical person--g, m the life environment of masses yifß * ho livcJ at ditYerent P erioJ ß \i Wstory. It is in virtue of the ;> tudT of the«e documents that history y * now with some truth be called an

jjgjt science. W« still have historical ?cenc painters ■eel a* liuediilla, StrarlK'.v, I.udwig. a oxe lively, perhaps but hardly as Seetive as the- prototypes Maeaulay jL IVoudc. Ardent propagandists !!eh as Chesterton and Belloc still, to "how who arc out of sympathy _ with their propaganda appear to distort hAtB the facts and the perspective of VL t gone by. Still in our schools is mainly concerned with Kings, tattle's, * >rime Minsters, and Acts of Parliament. But tho historians who ttfjly count are of the school of Van B»ake Professor Bury, and Lord Acton, ineiwho, by patient and impartial reMait'i aeek'in the past the origin and ipring of the problems of the present. The study of tho documents on wAith the science of history is now bued is the work of a lifetime—nay, of many lives —and ia not for the ordinal* man. But while we admire tho jjbonrß of historians we may perhaps

bt permitted to glean from the fields they cultivate certain trifle*, which are 00 t without interest even to those who #B ly wander in the by-ways of history. Tho most fruitful hold will. I think, to found in n largo number of "custoßHUi," which have fur the last few Mtut town made accessible to the pubjj c _ The customals were formal document* in which the traditions governing tho relatiou of tho lord of a manor to his serfs wcro collected in the middle third of the mediteral period. They deej with almost every detail of the life of the serfs who, at that time, formed about fifty jmt cent, of the pojmlation of most of the European enontries, and for «ome hundreds of ve»r» they had the l<>rc«>. and perhaps ■ore than tho forco of law. Some of the items of theso doeunents are so grotesque that they irresistibly call up to one's mind Widow *|V»ak«yand the Christmas pantomime, lid y*t they aro merely statements of load fact. Take, for instance, tho regulations •owning the measurement of land. pJomdays we unconsciously accept tho definite relations of inches, feet, and yardi as the basis of all measurement, ft was not so in tho Middle Ages, nor ttt ft so a few years ago in the village districts of Russia —witness one of Tolltoj% wonderful little peasant partita. This is how they measured in tit Middlo Ages.

If a lady who lived outside the boundary of the mediflavol township kept kens, they would naturally roam over tht common land of the manor. This, of OOVIW. was highly irregular, but was permitted by custom within certain Emits, and this is how those limits ire defined in the customals. Under the Abbess of the FrauenUwter at Zurich the regulation runs thm: "A man shall stand on the ridge 4 his roof, shall pass his right arm under his left and grasp his hair in ka right hand: then shall ho tr.ke a wfcle by tho point in his left hand: gf as far as he can cast so far shall x m hens go." This is. I confess, as iwoluble a problem to me as the ultimate constitution of the atom, neverWess it was the rule of that particular ■Wor for over a hundred years. The Abbot of St. Gall as late as 1515 ayi down a simpler rule; tho henwife •M bidden to mount her roof, and from thence cast a sickle as far as she WWtt with her left hand. In another P"** «» n e«g tied in a veil was the ttvoured projectile, and in vet another M tgg without a veil might be thrown V the woman's husband. Tn other matters than poultry farmif the measures of distance were no IM furious. The monks of Chiemsee Lx. " gn ** ** justice over all their mm "and over the lake as far as a ■*» ean rule in his saddle from the P»». _ On another manor the fol•Wng is quoted as a measure of dis•*m, 'as far as a tame hen can go 9 ni * ht » which is reckoned »30P of a man's paces." ■Jt* . b » ni > <i """es of hunting rights m fUted to be as far as the Lord «r «• Manor can cast a hammer or glWoin the edge of the stream or M * tithe hen du« to the Lord of the JWT and rejected bv him as eicklv fMt he accepted if when frightened "•can clear the garden fence or jump W"» a stool. Peasants must follow the u' y t. in aid of J»stico "so far w» wmte horse can be seen." Jw perhaps the most curious of J"J Mcient customary measurements "Mat which provides that a miller ■Mt not let the water in his dam wS!!L BO^IKh above t,HS £take as to i U™? * ,**• from standing on the top J!® arinkmg without wetting its Mauureraents of time wero no less Z» «?** A matlßla .ver mav claim shel2*wr so long a time as it takes him ,•** » penny loaf.

•JJJtlw Manor of Prttm if a maleiT*W" on his way to prison "can spy •*»* «M> of the lords (i e. monks of the *JW mild be found outside the r"»«: and if the- said malefactor 3" B, lf*„ t, " e aforesaid lord by his cowl ?* ™ajl he have sis weeks and three j™J» Of freedom, and this, as often as J«n achieve the same." This seems "WW infinite possibilities to malej JJJJj? Wn » had friends among the JJ" regulations which governed the Z*"*®*.gleaning and of picking up i?* 00 ". >n the manorial forests are r*» incredibly confusing, and must T> furnished endless occasions of 2SJH betw * en the serfs and the 2t v man or. Many a gleaner s** " ar<j longed for tlie days of •s*»'<>W Boaa. g*>» should a poor man do. for m- *"*" he is instructed to bring 1W« °° fc ' 3 wo °d-house at the New »iui it* c * r *-'oad of wood sour, rotten,

E*J' (i.e. loo«elv) packed so that a j?SP« »'Bht fly straight through it." liH 116 cu st°ni at Sehwanheim in & Jpu> lord of the manor of Born, liked his New Year's «"~ ,l t even more looselv packed "so 57 * kar* might run through it with ***** erect." M * f Birgel the Abbot of St. Peter C*Ll 18 tenant the of fetchJ. 1 * 0 carts of rotten wood for himhjj'j ™* must be "sour, rotten, and tk».- ' BO tnat several hounds can JJ£* » hare through it." Here, howh,* *J * °nit of measurement a little ■Jr. yflaite. On a certain German is laid down that if an outside wished to marry a bond'•Half tn e manor he must give the Ut r?, mils t be of such capaeitv that ,°«<le should be a hie to sit' in it '«•/». uo con »P r 08sion. In Wales, <W £f*fWments were fairly simple The Laws of Howell de«rtain number of oatcakes "so not to bend when held by the <jj!"* ew Pass on to another section Mb J7" 111 *«gulation» we find a group *• •»«**!» la aaajacter, bat bawd

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19290615.2.62

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19646, 15 June 1929, Page 13

Word Count
1,239

SPECIAL ARTICLE. Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19646, 15 June 1929, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE. Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19646, 15 June 1929, Page 13

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