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 500 ANGLO-SAXONS governor. "The meeting of the hundred," says Lappenberg, "was held monthly for ob- jects of voluntary and contentious jurisdiction. The presiding officer was the ealdorman, as- sisted by the bishop of the diocese and the principal thanes. The townships were repre- sented by their reeves [sheriffs] and four depu- ties." In northern England a similar division was called a wapentake. A tithing was an as- sociation of freemen, who bound themselves to become surety for one another in case of misbehavior, and to aid in bringing to trial any one of their number who should commit a criminal offence. Every freeman was obliged by law to enroll himself in such an association. Among the most cherished Anglo-Saxon institutions was also ihefolcmote. Authorities disagree somewhat as to the nature and privi- leges of the assemblies thus named, but the term seems to have been freely applied to large gatherings of freemen for counsel on public measures, rather than to any organized conven- tion of the people. The right of meeting in folcmote seems to have corresponded exactly to the modern right of assembling in public gatherings, and of free debate. See Palgrave's "Kise and Progress of England under the Anglo-Saxons " (London, 1832); Lappenberg's "History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings" (English translation by B. Thorpe, Lon- don, 1845); "Six Old English Chronicles," edit- ed by J. A. Giles (London^ 1848) ; J. M. Kemble's " Saxons in England " (London, 1849) ; Sharon Turner's " History of the Anglo-Saxons " (7th ed., London, 1852) ; " The Anglo-Saxon Chroni- cle," edited with a translation by B. Thorpe (London, 1861), Anglo-Saxon Church. The Teu- tonic invaders of Britain, after the fall of the Roman empire of the West, were of course pagans, and, with the pride of a conquering in presence of a conquered race, would not receive Christianity from the Welsh Christians. Pope Gregory the Great sent a solemn embassy of 40 Benedictines to Ethelbert, king of Kent, who had espoused Bertha, a Frankish princess. St. Augustin, known as the apostle of the Eng- lish, was at the head of it. The king consented to be baptized in 597> and Augustin was ap- pointed archbishop of Canterbury. From Kent Christianity rapidly spread among the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In 664 a union of all the churches in Britain was made by the exer- tions of Theodore, afterward archbishop of Can- terbury, and in 668 the services of the church were made uniform over the island. Under Theodore there were an archbishop of York and 15 bishops. During the 8th and 9th centuries the Anglo-Saxon church enjoyed a degree of independence which was not quite canonical. By the aid of Dunstan in the latter part of the 10th century, it was brought into more complete harmony with the Roman see. This church produced the venerable Bede, St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, and many others who contributed to the cause of learning and the spreading of Christianity among the pa- gan nations of the north. Its history has been carefully investigated by Soames, author of " The Anglo-Saxon Church " and "The Latin Church during Anglo-Saxon Times," and by Lingard, "Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church." Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence. The memorials that have come down to us afford but an imper- fect view of Anglo-Saxon laws. Codes are spoken of as having been promulgated by sev- eral of their kings, but these do not appear to have been a collection of all the laws in force, but rather such regulations as were new or little known, and which supplemented the body of laws contained in the unwritten customs with which the people were familiar. The very idea of a complete code would have been far in advance of the time. Ethelbert, king of Kent, is said to have published laws as early as A. D. 561. The first laws of much note were those of Ina, king of the West Saxons,- after which we have the laws of Alfred, Edward his son, Ethelred, and Canute. The general features of all are similar ; they are permeated with the prevailing superstition of the period ; they consist in the main of regulations of police more or less barbarous in character, intermin- gled with moral and religious precepts derived from the ecclesiastics who framed them. The laws of Ina thus commenced : "First, we com- mand that God's servants hold the lawful rule ; after that we command that the law and doom of the whole folk be thus held," &c. ; and among the first of the laws is one that if a slave be put to work on Sunday, he shall be free. The churls and their tenure, which is the origin of the modern copyholds, are re- ferred to. The next important laws are those of Alfred, which became more famous than they deserved through the admirable manner in which they were administered by that mon- arch. The first attempt at settling an orderly course of procedure in administering justice was in the laws of Edward the Elder. While these prescribed the trial by ordeal in cases where compurgators did not come forward, yet they provided that trial should be by sworn witnesses as much as possible. The laws of Canute were more complete than any which preceded them, and better deserving the name of a code. They begin as follows: "Let God's justice be exalted ; and henceforth let every man, both poor and rich, be esteemed worthy of folc-right, and let just doom be doomed to him." They prescribed regular terms of court, regulated weights and measures as well as mon- eys, and punished counterfeiters with the cut- ting off of hands. A freeman who was not infamous, and had never failed in oath or or- deal, could clear himself with a single oath; but others must furnish compurgators or sub- mit to the ordeal. It has been a common sup- position that Edward the Confessor promul- gated a code of written laws, but of this there is no sufficient evidence. The Anglo-Saxons after the conquest exhibited a strong attach- ment to the laws of their last king, and thy