Medieval Village (eBook)

CHAPTER I. THE OPEN ROAD The workman's lot as seen by the workman Necessity of scientific study of medieval society The rural glory and the rural gloomCHAPTER II. VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT Beginnings of serfdom The fully-developed serf Sales of serfs And of their brood Modern and medieval testimony to servile miseryCHAPTER III. A FEW CROSS-LIGHTS Janssen's untrustworthy counterpleas Rough indulgences for the serf Scot-ales Power of money in the Middle Ages The lawyer-class and the serfCHAPTER IV. A GALSTONBURY MANOR Wealth of medieval abbeys Manorial customs The peasant's holding Minute subdivision Consequent confusionCHAPTER V. THE SPORTING CHANCE Uncertainty of measures "Natural measures" Sporting chances Corporal chastisement "Compulsory "gifts"CHAPTER VI. BANS AND MONOPOLIES Manorial monopolies: mill Oven Wine-ban Evasions of justice Tithes Uncertainty of statusCHAPTER VII. THE MANOR COURT The village self-sufficing The lord's court Its proceedings The lord's mill "Beating the bounds"CHAPTER VIII. LIFE ON A MONASTIC MANOR "The "heriot" system" Manorial dovecotes Rabbits "The serf "buys his own blood" Jus primae noctis Breeding in and in "Leywite" Forced marriages The mill again Ale-tolls Rackrenting Village disciplineCHAPTER IX. FATHERLY GOVERNMENT Village discipline (continued) "Villein" as a term of abuse" Games and dance repressed The rough side of football Other affrays A peasant's cottage and effects Clothing Arcadian simplicityCHAPTER X. THE LORD'S POWER Oppressive lords Especially on the Continent Worst on lay estates Bad even in England Wars and plagues Game-preserving Gradual improvement Manorial help for the poorCHAPTER XI. EARLIER REVOLTS Comparative proseperity in England Yet far short of modern "The main factors, economic" Peasant revolts Communistic ideas "Riots at Dunstable, Burton, and Vale Royal" At Meaux Froissart's testimony The Black Death Flights of peasants Gradual emancipationCHAPTER XII. MONKS AND SERFS Attempts to represent the Reformation as the main factor in reaction "The monk scarcely better, as landlord, than the layman" A cardinal and a bishop paint him as even worse Monastic conservatism here counterbalance monastic charity Emptiness and inaccuracy of Montalembert's argumentsCHAPTER XIII. THE CHANCES OF LIBERATION "Gregory the Great as "liberator" No medieval philosopher condemns serfdom except Wyclif Incomparably more serfs were freed by layfolk than by churchmen The serf had nearly always to buy his freedom Especially on monastic estates And it was under monks that serfdom lingered longestCHAPTER XIV. LEGAL BARRIERS TO ENFRANCHISEMENT "For the churchman was forbidden by canon law to free serfs, except under severe restrictions" And the Church actually made fresh slaves "And the popes encouraged slavery, especially in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries" Nor did the Church even fight against servile injustices in detailCHAPTER XV. KINDLY CONCESSIONS Yet we find kindly concessions a little more frequently on monastic estates Especially in cases of pregancy and child-birth CHAPTER XVI. JUSTICE Justice and money in the Middle Ages The monks and gallows-rights And the trial by battle They are always unfriendly to town liberties "They exact heavy "tallages" And resort to rackrenting Do not always allow for holy-days or sickness or weather Evict tenants wholesale Judgements of Leadam and HanotauxCHAPTER XVII. CLEARINGS AND ENCLOSURES "Nor did they, except very rarely, set an example of labour" They were often sportsmen "In their best days, they planned and superintended a great deal of clearing and drainage; but perhaps less, on the whole, than lay lords" Evidence from England From Italy From France From Germany They enclosed land for parks and sheep-runs Balance between lay and monastic landlordismCHAPTER XVIII. CHURCH ESTIMATES OF THE PEASANT "Churchman, here and there, praise the peasant and his lot" But medieval egalitarianism was scarcely even skin-deep The overwhelming majority of churchmen speak of the peasant with dislike and reprobation The extreme rarity of peasant saints Barbarous punishments Wives lent out by law Aucassin and NicoleteCHAPTER XIX. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Aquinas desiderates an ignorant and mutually distrustful peasantry Village ignorance and quarrels Vast gap between theory and practice in medieval education Work and dance on holy-days The peasant ignorant even of the Mass Startling ignorance even among the clergy Rich absentee clergy Poverty of the curates Villon and Jeanne d'Arc on village education The peasant's irreligion Except where he and his clergy agree in superstition Excommunication of caterpillars Pagan survivals Witchcraft Holdy-day scandals The village inn VendettasCHAPTER XX. TITHES AND FRICTION Paganism of the Dark Ages Clergy and capitalism Church pews and privilege Monastic banking Clerical usurers Sale of the sacraments Consequent unpopularity of the clergy Tithe quarrels Scene at tithegatheringCHAPTER XXI. TITHES AND FRICTION (CONTINUED) Poverty and dependence of lower priesthood Parson-squires Parishioners assert financial control The real poor neglected Robbery of parochial tithes by the monasteries Two medieval bishops' criticisms of parochial conditions Jessopp's verdict Lamprecht'sCHAPTER XXII. POVERTY UNADORNED The peasant of Saxon times His descendant in the thirteenth century His food and drink A serf's dinner His dress The rough side of his life His sportsCHAPTER XXIII. LABOUR AND CONSIDERATION Long hours of work Ravage of war Famine Growth of capitalism and plague of usury All men despise the serf And he himself feels the moral grievance of his status Evidence of cold-blooded business documents Sordid conditions of parish life Persecution by tax-collectors and royal officersCHAPTER XXIV. THE REBELLION OF THE POOR "As the peasant improves, his discontent grows" Medieval society inelastic; growth means revolt Preachers and pamphleteers in the later fifteenth century Mystic exaltation of the rebels "Frequency of revolts, especially in Germany" The rebel's claims Lord Acton's verdictCHAPTER XXV. THE REBELLION OF THE POOR (CONTINUED) Monastic no less unpopular than lay landlords Their conservatism The prince-abbot of Kempten The great revolt of 1524-5 (Bauernkrieg) Social and religious d Failure of the revoltCHAPTER XXVI. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES The Lincolnshire Rising and the Pilgrimage of Grace exceptional in their comparative favour to the monasteries Other factors than the Reformation worked against the peasant Elizabeth's selfish policy Not essentially different from that of Catholic rulers Unpopularity of the later monks in Germany Evidence from France and England Cobbett's false assertions about the Poor-Laws Sufferings of the post-Reformation continental peasantryCHAPTER XXVII. CONCLUSION The peasant's progress was fitful and unequal "Difficulty, but necessity, of attempting comparisons" Let us make a point of starting from verifiable facts The peasant was a child compared with the townsman Paradise Lost and Paradise RegainedAPPENDIXES:1. The worker's lot2. The French custom of désaveu3. Complication of services4. Interested misstatements5. Chirstmas at Tynemouth6. Younger sons7. Backward tillage8. Killing of serfs9. Medieval population10. The Durham Halmote Rolls11. Justice and money12. Heriot and mortuary13. "Skelton, "Ware the Hauke"14. Fus primae noctis15. Notes on marriage16. Marriage and kinship17. Leyrwite18. Gleaning19. Games20. Illegal oppressions21. Freemen reduced to bondage22. The customs of Darnell and Over23. Slavery in the Roman Church24. Records of bondage25. Manumission and money26. Lay and ecclesiastical manumissions27. Incomplete manumissions28. Gratian's authority29. Monks and hunting30. Lay and monastic clearings31. Peasant civilisation32. Peasant saints33. Punishments34. Sabbatarianism35. Peasant and priest in Italy36. Priests and people37. Janssen on the Peasants' Revolt38. Natural Law39. Post-Reformation peasantry40. Farther corroborative evidenceINDEX