BOOK

VII.

The Saxons who invaded Thuringia in the sixth century, are described by Wittichind as leaning on small shields, with long lances, and with great knives, or crooked swords, by their sides." Fabricius, an author of the sixteenth century, saw in an ancient picture of a Saxon, a sword bent into a semilunar shape." He adds, that their shields were suspended by chains, that their horsemen used iron sledge hammers," and that their armour was heavy. I have not met with the documents from which he took these circumstances.

21 Wittichind, 5. As Tacitus remarks that the Germans seldom had swords, and more generally javelins, there is some plausibility in the derivation of the Saxon name from their sachs, or peculiar swords. The Cimbri on the contrary had great and long

swords, according to Plutarch, in his life of Marius.

22 Fabric. i. p. 66.

23 The favourite weapon of Thor, according to the Northern Eddas, was a mallet.

CHA P. II.

The Government and Laws of the more ancient Saxons.

II.

T is said by Aristotle, that whoever lives voluntarily out of CHAP. civil society must have a vicious disposition, or be an existence superior to man.' But nature has endeavoured to preserve her noblest offspring from this dismal and flagitious independence. She has given us faculties which can be only used, and wants which can be only provided for in society. She has made the social union inseparable from our safety, our virtue, our pride, and our felicity.

Government and laws must have been coeval with society, for they are essentially necessary to its continuance. A spacious edifice might as well be expected to last without cement or foundation, as a society to subsist without some regulations of individual will, and some acknowledged authority to enforce their observance.

The Athenian philosopher has correctly traced the progress of our species towards political institutions. The connubial union is one of the most imperious and most acceptable laws of our frame. From this arose families and relationships. Families enlarged into villages and towns, and an aggregation of these gave being to a state.1

A family is naturally governed by its parents, and its ramifications by the aged. The father, says Homer, is the legislator to his wife and children. Among most barbarous tribes, the aged ancestors have prescribed to the community the rules of mutual behaviour, and have adjudged disputes. As popula

Aristotle's Politic. lib. i. c. 2. p. 380. ed. 1606. Aristot. lib. i. c. 3. p. 381. This is one

of Aristotle's most valuable works, and will
repay with great profit a careful attention.
3 Cited by Aristot. i. p. 379.

VII.

BOOK tion multiplied, as civilization advanced, and the sphere of human activity has been enlarged, more precise regulations, more decided subordination, and more complicated governments became necessary, and have been established.

66

That the Saxon societies, in their carly stages, were governed by the aged, is very strikingly shewn in the fact, that the words of their language which denote authority, also express age. When it states that Joseph was appointed ruler over Egypt, the words are, "sette into ealdre over Egypta land." For Cæsar, the emperor, we have " Caseras tha beoth cyninga yldest." Here eldest is used as synonimous to greatest. A British general is called an "ealdorman.” The Latin term satrapa, by which Bede expressed the ruling Saxon chief of a district on the continent, is rendered by his royal translator "caldorman." The phrase of " a certain ruler," in St. Luke, is, in the Saxon gospel," sum ealdor." The contest between the disciples of Christ which should be the greatest, is expressed in the Saxon, which should be the yldest. The aged were the primitive chiefs and governors among the Saxons, and therefore the terms expressing age were used to denote dignity so habitually that they were retained in common phrase even after the custom of connecting power with seniority had become obsolete.

7

The most ancient account of the Saxon government on the continent exists in this short but expressive passage of Bede: "The ancient Saxons have no king, but many chiefs set over "their people, who, when war presses, draw lots equally; and "whomsoever the chance points out, they all follow as leader,

Genesis, xlv. v. 8, in Thwaite's Saxon
Heptateuch.

5 So the pontifex is called yldesta bisceop.
Orosius, lib. v. c. 4.

Sax. Chron.

7 Smith's edition of Bede, p. 624.

Luke xviii. v. 18. So the highest seats in the synagogue are called tha yldestan setl, Luke xx. 46. The Saxons had yldest wyrhta

for the chief workman, yldest wicing for the chief of pirates, on scype yldost for a pilot, yeldest on tham yfelan flocce for prince of that evil flock. So Bede's " he who by the "priority of seat seemed to be their chief," lib. v. c. 13, is rendered by Alfred se wes setles yldest et me thuhte tha he heora caldor beon sceolde, p. 633.

Luke xxii. v. 24.

The war concluded, all the chiefs CHAP,

We may,

"and obey during the war.
"become again of equal power.'
That the continental Saxons in the eighth and preceding
centuries were under an aristocracy of chieftains, and had no
kings but in war; and that the war-kings who were then chosen
laid aside their power when peace was re-established, is at-
tested by other ancient authorities." More recent historians
have repeated the assertion." Cæsar gives an account nearly
similar, of the German magistracy in his time."
therefore, safely infer, that when the Anglo-Saxons visited
England, they came under war-kings. The reigns of Hengist,
and the founders of the dynasties of the Octarchy, were so
many periods of continued warfare, and their immediate
posterity were assailed with hostility from the natives almost
perpetual. The Anglo-Saxons were under a necessity of con-
tinuing their war-kings, until at length a permanent, though
a limited monarchy, was established. Their chiefs, or witena,
continued in their influence and power. They elected the
king, though they chose him from the family of the deceased
sovereign; and their consent in their gemot continued to be
necessary to the more important acts of his authority. But
these points will be more fully illustrated in a subsequent
division of this work.

There were four orders of men among the ancient Saxons: the Etheling or noble, the free man, the freed man, and the

10 Bede Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 10. p. 192. "The ancient Saxon poet says, Quæ nec rege fuit saltem sociata sub uno Ut se militiæ pariter defenderet usu: Sed variis divisa modis plebs omnis habebat, Quot pagos, tot pene duces. Du Chesne.

Si autem universale bellum ingrueret, sorte eligitur cui omnes obedire oporteat ad administrandum immineus bellum. Quo peracto æquo jure ac lege propria contentus potestate unusquisque vivebat.-Wittichind, lib. i. p. 7. So the Vetus Theotisce Chronicon on the year $10. Twelff Edelinge der Sassen de reden over dat lant tho Sassen. Und Wannere dat se krich in dat lant tho Sassen hadden so koren se von den twellen

VOL. II.

einen, de was ore Koning de wile de krich
warde. Und wan de krich bericht wart, so
weren de twelffe gelick, so was des einen
koniges state uth, und was den anderon
gelick.-Lindenb. Gloss. 1347.

12 Krantz Metropol. lib. i. c. 1, and Belli
Dithmar. p. 431. Fabricius Hist. Sax. i.
p. 69. Sagittarius Hist. Bard. 60.

13 Quum bellum civitas aut illatum defendit aut infert, magistratus qui eo bello præsint, ut vitæ necisque habeant potestatem deliguntur. In pace nullus est communis magistratus, sed principes regionum atque pagorum inter suos jus dicunt controversiasque minuunt.-De Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 21.

C

II.

BOOK servile. The nobles were jealous of their race and rank, VII. Nobles married nobles only, and the severest penalties prohibited intrusions of one rank into the others."

Of their laws, in their Pagan state, very little can be detailed from authority sufficiently ancient. From the uniformity of their principles of legislation in continental Saxony and in England, in a subsequent age, we may infer, that pecuniary compensation was their general mode of redressing personal injuries, and of punishing criminal offences. This feature certainly announces that the spirit of legislation began to be understood, and that the sword of punishment had been wrested, by the government, out of the hand of the vindictive individual. It also displays a state of society in which property was accumulating. It is, however, a form of punishment which is adapted to the first epochas of civilization only; because as wealth is more generally possessed, pecuniary mulcts become legal impunity.

Their severity against adultery was personal and sanguinary. If a woman became unchaste, she was compelled to hang herself, her body was burnt, and over her ashes the adulterer was executed. Or else a company of females whipped her from district to district, and, dividing her garments to the girdle, they pierced her body with their knives. They drove her, thus bleeding, from their habitations; and wheresoever she went, new collections of women renewed the cruel punishment, till she expired." This dreadful custom shews that the savage character of the nation was not confined to the males. Female chastity is indeed a virtue as indispensable as it is attractive; but its proper guardians are the maternal example and tuition, the constitutional delicacy of the female mind, its native love of honour, and the uncorrupted voice and feeling of society. If it can be only maintained by the horrors

14 Meginhard, 2 Lang. p. 40. Nithardus, lib. iv. Hucbald Vita B. Lebuini, Act. Sanct. vol. vi. p. 282, and Wittichind.

15 Boniface describes this custom in his letter to Ethelbald, the king of Mercia, in Mag. Bibl. Patrum, tom. xvi. p. 55.