Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/166

 158 SHORT NOTICES January of siligo is 1,336 quarters and that of frumentum only 955 quarters. 1 At the same time a few individuals who can be identified as nativi are found with stocks of wheat and no rye or with larger stocks of wheat than of rye. 2 Again, though the usual preponderance of wheat over rye on demesne has been abundantly confirmed by evidence which has been printed since Rogers's day, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, in 1208-9 the acreage under rye exceeded that under wheat on two of the bishop of Winchester's manors, or on six manors out of thirty-two, if one counts mancorn and rye together. In 1299-1300 mancorn and rye had a larger acreage than wheat on four manors, out of forty-two ; but in 1396-7 an excess of mancorn and rye is only found on two manors out of forty-three. 3 One or two points in Sir William Ashley's article may be criticized. He suggests that rye is mentioned before wheat in the list of grains given in the anonymous Hosebonderie because of its greater practical importance. Surely the order is simply determined by the yield : barley comes first because it should yield eightfold, and the rest come in descending order of expected yield. Secondly, I doubt whether Rogers's omission of ' all notices of inferior grain ' is important : probably he only meant curallum or small corn. In connexion with Sir William Ashley's suggestion that frumentum may not always mean wheat, it may be well to remember that silligo or sigalum possibly means a mixture of barley and rye in the Winchester Pipe Roll of 1208-9. 4 It is a pity that Sir William Ashley has not related his new evidence to the arguments advanced in Stefien's criticism of Rogers's theory. Steffen considers that Rogers's argument is quite unsound, but sees rather more truth in his conclusions than Sir William Ashley allows, though he would largely modify those conclusions and makes important distinctions between different periods. 5 There is no doubt, however, that Sir William Ashley's article is a most important contribu- tion to English economic history ; and it is greatly to be hoped that he will continue his researches into this very interesting question. R. L. The Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society for 1920 (London : Baptist Union Publication Department) are reduced to half their usual size, but contain much that is interesting. The longest article, ' A Con- scientious Objector of 1575 ', gives at full length an unprinted controversy between William White, a puritan of the ordinary type, and an unknown ' S. B.', an English anabaptist, from ' The Second Part of a Register ' in Dr. Williams's library. White was a baker, S. B. a carpenter. Both were well furnished with scriptural and other materials for controversy, and their debate, if tedious, is instructive. The puritan speaks deferentially of that sect '. S. B. is not sparing in his retorts. Unlike the later English Baptists, he regards all warfare as unchristian ; among the forbidden 1 Edgar Powell, A Suffolk Hundred in the Year 1283 (1910), pp. xxx-xxxi. 2 The cases I have noticed were at Elmswell, see ibid. p. 82 and Table 8. 3 N. S. B. Gras, Evolution of the English Corn Market (1915), pp. 261, 263, 267. 5 Gustaf F. Steffen, Studien zur Geschichte der Englischen Lohnarbeiter (1901), Bd. I, pp. 231-48.
 * godly father ', Calvin ; the anabaptists for him are a ' poor deceived
 * Hubert Hall, Pipe Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester (1903), p. xxv.