were multiplied more than a
hundredfold above a sum of the same denomination at present.

In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male
children of the deceased, according to the custom of Gavelkind. The
practice of entails is to be found in those times [i]. Land was
chiefly of two kinds, bockland, or land held by book or charter, which
was regarded as full property, and descended to the heirs of the
possessor; and folkland, or the land held by the ceorles and common
people, who were removable at pleasure, and were indeed only tenants
during the will of their lords.
[FN [i] LL Aelf. Sec. 37, apud Wilkins, p. 43.]

The first attempt which we find in England to separate the
ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction, was that law of Edgar, by
which all disputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried before
the bishop [k]. The penances were then very severe; but as a man
could buy them off with money, or might substitute others to perform
them, they lay easy upon the rich [l].
[FN [k] Wilkins, p. 83. [l] Wilkins, p. 96, 97. Spellm. Conc. p.
473.]

[MN Manners.]
With regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons we can say little, but
that they were in general a rude uncultivated people, ignorant of
letters, unskilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission under
law and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder.
Their best quality was their military courage, which yet was not
supported by discipline or conduct. Their want of fidelity to the
prince, or to any trust reposed in them, appears strongly in the
history of their later period; and their want of humanity in all their
history. Even the Norman historians, notwithstanding the low state of
the arts in their own country, speak of them as barbarians, when they
mention the invasion made upon them by the Duke of Normandy [m]. The
Conquest put the people in a situation of receiving slowly, from
abroad, the rudiments of science and cultivation, and of correcting
their rough and licentious manners.
[FN [m] Gul. Pict. p. 202.]

CHAPTER IV.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.--SUBMISSION OF THE ENGLISH.--
SETTLEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT.--KING'S RETURN TO NORMANDY.--DISCONTENTS
OF THE ENGLISH.--THEIR INSURRECTIONS.--RIGOURS OF THE NORMAN
GOVERNMENT.--NEW INSURRECTIONS.--NEW RIGOURS OF THE GOVERNMENT.--
INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL LAW.--INNOVATION IN ECCLESIASTICAL
GOVERNMENT.--INSURRECTION OF THE NORMAN BARONS.--DIS