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error . ( Yet the contemptuous light in which the villan was regarded by his master , is perceived in the coarse appellations applied to the tax— -jambage , cuisage , culage , & c . In some parts of Italy it received
the still grosser name oicazzage [ cazzagium ] . ) Those to whom such terms were applied must have been looked upon almost as cattle . The brutal manner in which the tax-gatherers of Richard II . treated the daughters of the peasantry was one of the immediate causes of the subsequent insurrection .
Gratuitous manumission was less frequent with the Anglo-Normans than the Anglo-Saxons , and attempts to reclaim a freed villan appear to have been common . An instance of this tyranny occurs in a satirical Latin poem , probably of the thirteenth century : " A powerful baron in Norfolk cruelly grieved his rustics , frequently robbing them of money and beasts , & c . The villans , unable to support his
oppressions , agreed together to buy their liberty , to which their lord consented , and made them a charter with ' a noble seal of green wax . ' The rustics , overjoyed at having obtained their liberty , hastened to the tavern , and spent the remainder of the day in carousing . On the approach of night , no candles being forthcoming ,
they used as a substitute the seal of green wax . The knight , obtaining information of this , caused the astonished rustics to be brought before him , and rejected their charter , deprived of the seal , as null and void , till they had given all the money and cattle they possessed as a fine for their illegal withdrawal from servitude . "
The ecclesiastics seem to have been no more willing than the laity to restore freedom to their serfs , who appear to have been considered in the same light as other property , for when Leonne , bishop of Chalons , having received letters-patent from the king to manumit a certain number of the serfs of the church at Chalons , for the acquitting of his bishopric ( pro episcopatu suo acquitando ) , proceeded to set free some of his serfs without consulting his chapter , the dean ,
treasurer , archdeacon , and others of the church petitioned against such a step , as being " against justice , and an enormous hurt and very great exheredation " to the church of Chalons . The dispute was of long duration , and was at length decided by the Pope , who sup * ported the church against the unfortunate serfs , and revoked the
manumissions . The villans resisted this decision , and appealed to the king , who now decided against them , alleging that it was a cause which the ecclesiastical court was competent to decide ; and thus the defendants were again reduced to servitude , in spite of the manumissions which they had legally purchased .
From among the fabliaux , or metrical tales , so popular in the thirteenth century , the following , beautiful in itself , is illustrative of the condition of the oppressed peasant : A poor villan , who supported his wife and children by cutting wood in a neighbouring forest , was one day thus employed , and bemoaning his miserable condition , when a voice , issuing from the root of a tree , promised to raise him from poverty , on condition that he would be charitable when rich . The spirit told him his name was Merlin , and instructed him to dig in a
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
error . ( Yet the contemptuous light in which the villan was regarded by his master , is perceived in the coarse appellations applied to the tax— -jambage , cuisage , culage , & c . In some parts of Italy it received
the still grosser name oicazzage [ cazzagium ] . ) Those to whom such terms were applied must have been looked upon almost as cattle . The brutal manner in which the tax-gatherers of Richard II . treated the daughters of the peasantry was one of the immediate causes of the subsequent insurrection .
Gratuitous manumission was less frequent with the Anglo-Normans than the Anglo-Saxons , and attempts to reclaim a freed villan appear to have been common . An instance of this tyranny occurs in a satirical Latin poem , probably of the thirteenth century : " A powerful baron in Norfolk cruelly grieved his rustics , frequently robbing them of money and beasts , & c . The villans , unable to support his
oppressions , agreed together to buy their liberty , to which their lord consented , and made them a charter with ' a noble seal of green wax . ' The rustics , overjoyed at having obtained their liberty , hastened to the tavern , and spent the remainder of the day in carousing . On the approach of night , no candles being forthcoming ,
they used as a substitute the seal of green wax . The knight , obtaining information of this , caused the astonished rustics to be brought before him , and rejected their charter , deprived of the seal , as null and void , till they had given all the money and cattle they possessed as a fine for their illegal withdrawal from servitude . "
The ecclesiastics seem to have been no more willing than the laity to restore freedom to their serfs , who appear to have been considered in the same light as other property , for when Leonne , bishop of Chalons , having received letters-patent from the king to manumit a certain number of the serfs of the church at Chalons , for the acquitting of his bishopric ( pro episcopatu suo acquitando ) , proceeded to set free some of his serfs without consulting his chapter , the dean ,
treasurer , archdeacon , and others of the church petitioned against such a step , as being " against justice , and an enormous hurt and very great exheredation " to the church of Chalons . The dispute was of long duration , and was at length decided by the Pope , who sup * ported the church against the unfortunate serfs , and revoked the
manumissions . The villans resisted this decision , and appealed to the king , who now decided against them , alleging that it was a cause which the ecclesiastical court was competent to decide ; and thus the defendants were again reduced to servitude , in spite of the manumissions which they had legally purchased .
From among the fabliaux , or metrical tales , so popular in the thirteenth century , the following , beautiful in itself , is illustrative of the condition of the oppressed peasant : A poor villan , who supported his wife and children by cutting wood in a neighbouring forest , was one day thus employed , and bemoaning his miserable condition , when a voice , issuing from the root of a tree , promised to raise him from poverty , on condition that he would be charitable when rich . The spirit told him his name was Merlin , and instructed him to dig in a