Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/196

170 an acre, whilst in Somerset and Norfolk it did not yield more than three halfpence. Meadow land seldom fell below a rental of two shiffings an acre, and in Oxfordshire it reached as much as three shillings. Pasture land was not calculated by the acre, but by the head of cattle; the average receipt from that source may be taken at something like the following figures:—An ox or a home, a shilling; a cow, two shillings; a sheep, a penny; a calf, sixpence; a goat, three farthings.

Messuages, mills, and fisheries stand next on the list, and do not require any special explanation. The profit of stock afforded a very considerable source of revenue. This was the return produced by the cattle bred and fattened on the home farm. In more than one instance it is recorded that through the devastation of enemies, damage by inundations, and other causes, the stock returned no appreciable profit.

A fruitful source of income was that derived from churches and chapels appropriated to the Order, the funds of which were paid into the treasury, vicars and chaplains being provided by it. A glance at the figures given under this head will show that, as is the fact with many parishes in the present day, the lay impropriators swept off the lion’s share of the substance originally dedicated to the support of the church. In the case of sixteen of these, the combined amount paid to the credit of the langue was no less than £241 6s. 8d., whilst the cost of providing chaplains was only £34 10s. Certainly this anomaly, which has so many bitter opponents in the present day, can plead the excuse of long standing, since we find it flourishing even in the beginning of the fourteenth century.

In those days the system of villainage, or compulsory service of bond tenants, was universal throughout Europe. We see it figuring largely on the credit side of our balance-sheet. These services were generally rendered either by payments in kind, such as poultry, eggs, corn, &c., or by the giving of a certain amount of labour for the benefit of the lord of the manor. As these latter have almost invariably been entered in the accounts as money receipts, there can be little doubt that a fixed commutation had been concurred in between landlord and tenant. The former thus secured for himself a certain and settled revenue, whilst the latter was protected from the caprice of his lord,