Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/658

ANGLO-SAXONS. land. Indeed, all the later luleis of England, except the four kings of the Norman house, have been descended from the same line. Alfred the Great (q.v. ) was the most famous king during the Saxon period. The whole ruling race even- tually came to be known among themselves from the most numerous element in it, the English, and their land as Angle-land, or England. The Celtic races in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, however, have always known them as Saxons. \

Christianity was introduced among the newcomers in the latter part of the sixth century by missionaries from the Christian Scotch and Irish, to the northward, and at the same time by St. Augustine, a missionary sent by Pope Gregory I., and b.y his companions and successors. Augustine became the first archbishop of Can- terbury: the Roman missionary movement gi-ad- lially superseded the Celtic, and before the close of the seventh century the wliole of England was a Christian country under one metro])olitan. Ethelbert, King of Kent, was the first sovereign who embraced the Christian religion. Bringing with them the traditions and feelings of the empire, the whole influence of the clergy was thrown into the scale of monarchy, and greatly tended to its consolidation. Their custom of hold- ing councils of prelates from all over England, and of adopting regulations for the English Church at large, also exercised a strong influence on the growth of a feeling of national unity. The English clergy in general were not very sub- missive to the authority of the Popes, and the connection with Rome was a very tenuous one during the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period. St. Dunstan (q.v.) was proliably the most famous churchman of this period. The early English Church was distinguished for the learning and laboriousness of its clergj'. Bcde (q.v.) is the most eminent author whom it produced. Be- tween his time and that of Alfred, a very great degeneracy had taken place both in the learning and ellicieney of the clergy, which that active and enlightened sovereign labored to restore, but with only partial success. St. Boniface (q.v.) and many other English and Scottish mission- aries labored with success in the propagation of Chiistianity in Germany.

The monastic system took strong hold on the Anglo-Saxons, and a number of Benedictine ab- beys Aere founded and endowed with exten- sive landed possessions. Most of the bishoprics which were to remain the pei'manent adminis- trative divisions of the English national Church were organized, and the prim.acy of the two metropolitan sees of Canterbury and York was acknowledged.

The political organization of the Anglo-Saxons before they were united under one government is almost unknown, and must have been e.xceed- ingly crude, being scarcely developed beyond tribal conditions. After the union under the West Saxon monarchy, however, they attained a considerable degree of constitutional develop- ment. The most marked characteristic was the large amount of power possessed by local as- semblies or motx. The township existed as an economic and administi'ativc. but scarcely as a political, body. The political unit of the coun- try was the hundred. It was a certain stretch of country or a certain body of the population whose members met from time to time for vari- ous public functions, principally judicial. The significance of the numerical expression applied to it is quite unknown. There was an official known as the hundred's caldor, who seems to have presided at the hundred-mot and exercised certain police functions. Just as a gioup of townships made up the hundred, so a group of hundreds made up a shire, the later count;/. The inhabitants of the shire also held a meeting, the shire-mot, at which judicial cases were settled as well as at the hundred-mot. but which seems to have existed more normally for fiscal and mili- tary purposes. The aide-bodied men of the shire when called out for fighting purposes were known as the fyrd. The administrative and military head of the shire was the ealdorman, called later, in imitation of the Danish term jarl. the earl. An equally important if not so exalted official of the shire was the .ihirc-recve or sheriff, the rep- resentative of the King's power and interests in the shire, as the ealdorman was the representa- tive of local independence and self-government. At the head of the wliolc system of govern- ment was the King, although ordinarily he took no important political action except in conjunc- tion with the icitan, that is to say, the great men of the country — the prelates, the ealdor- men, members of the rojal family, and various royal officials. The gatherings of these mag- nates to determine, along with the King, on im- portant affairs of the nation, was called the icitenageinot, and was the direct predecessor of the royal council of the Norman period and of the House of Lords of later times. The authority of the kingship was increasing through the whole Anglo-Saxon period, and in the hands of a vigorous king overrode all limitations by the icitan ; although in case of inefficiency or doubt- ful succession, the latter body exercised a real power of deposition and selection. The form of election and popular.. acceptance was always carried out.

In early times a fundamental distinction of clas.ses existed. The ceorl class were the gieat body of the people; the eorl class were the no- bility by blood. The term eorl is not to be con- fused with earl, mentioned above, with which it has no historical connection. Tliis distinction of classes was reflected in the amount of the monej'-fine imposed for murder or other vio- lence, the payment to the injured person or to his relatives being greater in case he were of eorl lank than if he were ceorl. Members of the royal family wei'e knoVTi as wthelings. Below all these classes were the theoirs, or slaves. -Vn- other distinction which seems to have grown up later and superseded the division into eorl and ceorl. was one dependent on military service or personal relationsnip to the king or other gi'cnt man. A gcsith or ther/n was a personal follower of a powerful man, who usually obtained land and privileges as a result of service. Ultimately. thegn seems to have become a general expression for any member of the class of gentry who was not known M' the higher title of earl, ealdorman or a;theling.

BiRLiOGKAPHY. Green. The Makijifj of England (London. 18S3), and The Conquest of England (London, 1SS4) : Ramsay, The Fontidations of England (London, 1898) ; Stubbs, Constitutional Hiitorji of England (Oxford, 1880) : Taylor. History of the Anglo-Haxons. For a full bibliography of the Anglo-Saxons, see Gross, Hotirees and Literature of English Tlis-