4. The next rank beneath that of the royal family was held by the thanes or nobility. Of these the supe rior order, comprehending the Eoldermen and the Eorls, were denominated the king's thanes. The lesser thanes gained their nobility in various ways. They might be chosen from the rank of yeomanry, by acquiring learn ing sufficient to enter into priests' orders, or by living with one of the royal nobility in the quality of domestic and military companions, provided their valour had en titled them to some honorary reward from their noble superior, a sword, a helmet, or a breastplate; provided also, that his bounty, or their own industry, had acquired a portion of land sufficient to maintain their new dig nity4 It is much to the honour of one of the Anglo Saxon kings, that he opened a new path to nobility, by entitling every merchant, who had made three foreign voyages on his own account, to claim the rank of a lesser thane. As the rank of the eorl (which comprehended the command, military as well as civil, of a whole coun ty,) did not become hereditary till the close of the Saxon dynasty, we may infer that the lesser dignities were equally limited to a single life. From this respectable body of the greater and lesser thanes, all the principal officers, civil and military, the aldermen, the greeves, the earls, and heretogens were taken; they constituted in times of war the flower of the armies, and in times of peace they swelled the trains of their kings, and added to the splendour of their courts, by the rude magnifi cence which their landed estates enabled them to sup port.
But if these were the flower of the camp and court, the ceorls, or yeomen, probably constituted the strength of the former. They were a free, independent body of men, chiefly addicted to husbandry, corresponding to our class of gentlemen farmers in modern society. They had no masters, and no responsibility but the pay ment of their rent, or the defence of their native soil. 'The temple of honour was open to them. In war they constituted generally thet heavier armed infantry, but often were sufficiently wealthy to come on horseback to the field, and could apply to agriculture, commerce, or literature, with all the ambition and dignity of freemen.
In descending another step in the scale of Anglo Saxon society, we find a numerous class of men whose lot it is less pleasant to contemplate. The lowest order of the people, and probably the most numerous class, were slaves, and bought and sold with the land, with their wives and families, like oxen or horses, or the ne groes of a West Indian plantation. It is maintained, that the introduction of Christianity greatly mitigated the horrors of those unhappy beings; and it is, to the honour of the Saxon priesthood, very evident, that many of the clergy preached with indignation, against the practice of their countrymen selling their own kindred into slavery ; but it does not appear that the priests in veighed against slavery in any other shape. The very
laws promulged for the protection of those miserable beings, give us a dreadful picture of their situation. By one law it was ordained, that if a master gave hig slave a blow, of which he died within 24 hours, he was to pay a small mulct to the king. They were allowed to be put in bonds, and to be whipt by their owner ; they might be branded ; and on one occasion they are spoken of as if actually yoked: " Let. every man (says one of the Saxon laws,) know his teams of men, of horses, and of oxen." Yet though they could not call their lives their own, nor probably in general their property, they were sometimes allowed to accumulate a little, and to purchase their freedom. From the class of freedmen, generally came the artisans, and petty tradesmen in the burghs and villages.
5. The wittenagemot or great council of the nation, seems to have been immediately descended from the yearly assembly of the Germans described by Tacitus. It was composed of the thanes, the judges, and different orders of the clergy, from the bishop downwards even as low as the presbyter.§ The requisite property en titling a lower thane in that meeting, varied according to different regulations, from five to forty hides of land ; but whether this defined portion of land conveyed a right to be elected, or to come without an election, is not clear from our ancient historians. Nor can it be ascertained, whether the ceorls, or untitled freemen, were represented in this assembly. The ceorls, we know, were sufficiently public-spirited to attend as spectators at its meetings, which were frequently held in the open air. At such meetings, in tumultuous de bates, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that the unau thorised presence of such sturdy spectators might not be without it influence. The place and time of meet ing was at the option of the king, but the most ordinary periods were at the three great festivals of Whitsun tide, Easter, and Christmas. The king appeared in his regalia, and the nobles surrounded him, with all the magnificence of attire known to the times, and shared, at the intervals of deliberation, in the plenteous hospi tality of the royal table. The security of members, in their free egress and ingress to these meetings, was protected by special laws, with the exception of a case, which it reflects no great credit on our old legislators that it should have been necessary to particularize,— except the members were known to be robbers or thieves. At that time highway robbery was the exclu sive profession of noblemen.