Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/180

152 of Savignae, Savignec, Sévigné, Savigneux. Many of these estates, especially in the north and east, changed their names after the invasions, taking the names of their barbarian owners. Thus Theodonis villa, Thionville, Ramberti villare, Rambervillers, Arnulfi curtis, Harcourt, Bodegiseli vallis, Bougival near Paris. In the seventh century some estates took the name of the saint to whom the church was dedicated: Dompiere, Dommartin, St Pierre, St Martin. Some villae again took their names from some particular variety of trees or plantations; Roboretum has become Rouvray, Rouvres; Rosariae and Cannaberiae have given us the names of our modern villages Rosières and Chennevières. It often happened that through sale, exchange, or division among brothers, a villa was divided between several owners, but it none the less retained its unity and organisation.

The lands of the villa were divided into two portions. One, consisting of the lands lying round about the house of the owner, was farmed directly by him. The other portion was divided up into lots or holdings (mansi), of which the owner gave the use to his slaves, his lidi, or to freemen; whence comes the distinction between mansi serviles, lidiles and ingenuiles, of which we have spoken above. Each tenant cultivated his holding for his own profit, but in return for its use was obliged to pay a rent to the owner and to render him certain services. The houses occupied by the tenants were either isolated, in the mountainous districts, or grouped together within a small area. A villa was self-sufficing; besides the cultivators there were the workmen who made or repaired the tools and implements. There was a mill and a wine-press which served the whole population of the villa, and often there was a forge also. It had its own chapel, of which the priest (often born on the estate) was appointed by the master, with the consent of the bishop. The woods surrounding the villa remained in possession of the landowner, but he gave the tenants rights of user. Over all the dwellers on the estate he exercised a seigniorial jurisdiction.

There still existed, no doubt, alongside of the great estates or villae a number of small estates belonging to freemen. But these small estates tended to disappear in the course of the seventh century. The fact was that the small proprietors were unable to defend their estates; they had no inducement to sell them, for money would have been of little value to them; accordingly they "commended themselves" to some great man of the neighbourhood, handing over their property to him. He in turn gave them the use of it for life, and thus they were at lest certain of occupying it in security until the end of their days. Previously they had held their lands ex alode or de alode parentum, by inheritance from their ancestors, with the right of using it as they chose; henceforth they held it per beneficium, in consequence of a grant made by the great seignior. When agreements of this kind became frequent, two varieties of landed property were distinguished, allodial lands which