BOOK 66 sumum cniht, whose name is Osulf, for God's love, and for our peace." 16 In the admonitions to different orders of men, printed with the Anglo-Saxon laws, there is a passage which gives cniht and cnihthood in a meaning rather different from those which have been stated: "That will be a rightlike life, that a cniht "continues in his cnihthade till he marries rightly a maiden wife, and haves her then afterwards, and no other while she "lives." 17 nihthade here implies chastity. Perhaps cniht originally signified a boy, afterwards a servant who was not a slave. It may have been then applied to denote a military attendant; and in this sense it gradually superseded the word thegn, which I think was the Saxon term for the dignity implied by the term miles. A knight, even in the full chivalric meaning, was a military servant of somebody, either of the king, the queen, a favourite lady, or some person of dignity. In a state very similar to this are the cnihtas in the Saxon wills. They appear to us, in like manner, in a rank far above a servant in the Saxon gild scipes. Of these fraternities, cnihts constituted a part, and are distinctly mentioned, though with a reference to some lord to whom they were subordinate; a situation which seems best explained, by supposing them free and respectable military dependents. "If a cniht draw a sword, the lord shall pay one pound, and "let the lord get it when he may; and all the gild-scipe "shall help him, that he may get his money. And if a "cniht wounds another, his lord shall avenge it. And if "a cniht sits within the ascent, let him pay one syster of "honey; and if he has any foot-stool, let him pay the same." 18 In another gild-scipe, after each of the gild has been directed to bring two sesters of malt, it is added, "let every cniht bring one, and a sceat of honey." "19 "And See the Gild-scipe in Hickes's Diss. 19 Ibid. p. 22. 16 Heming, Chart. 17 Wilkins, Leg. Sax. p. 150. Ep. p. 21. XIII. It occurs again, as a known and recognised character, in CHAP. an act of a slave's emancipation, "Thereto is witness, Wil"liam of Orchut, and Ruold the cniht, and Osbern fadera, "and Umfreig of Tettaborn, and Alword the portreeve, and "Johan the cniht.' 29 20 It occurs again as the designation of a known and reputable character in society, in a Saxon charta about land; for after many witnesses have been mentioned by name, these words follow: "And many a good cniht besides these." The term and the character of cniht was, therefore, in the Anglo-Saxon period, rising fast to its full station of dignity. There is a character represented in the illuminations and drawing of a Saxon MS. which I think answers to the situation of a cniht, in its more advanced meaning. When a king is sitting on his throne, he is drawn as holding his sceptre. Close by him, and as a part of his public dignity, a person is standing, holding his sword and shield. This figure occurs several times in the drawings of Genesis, in Claud. B. 4. A similar character occurs near a king in the battle. The king is fighting; an armed attendant, apparently a young man, is fighting near him. I consider these to represent what was originally called a king thegn, or miles, and afterwards a cniht; and such a character I consider Lilla to have been, who received the assassin's blow that was intended for Edwin." 22 Tournaments appear to have been used in the age of the Anglo-Saxons, for they are expressly mentioned in the laws of the emperor of Germany, Henry the First. It was in 934 that he published institutions concerning them." By p. 18. See the Gild-scipe in Hickes's Diss. Ep. mentis, which, he says, were latæ GotHickes, Gram. Pref. p. xxi. 22 See the 1st vol. of this work, p. 21 140. 23 Goldastus, in his Constitutiones Imperiales, v. ii. p. 41. has the Henrici I. Aucupis leges hastiludiales sive de tornea tingæ in Saxonia, 938. The author of the VIII. BOOK these he direct, that the equestrian games, to be fought by the usual weapons, should be solemnly exhibited in the empire by those of noble descent. All blasphemers and traitors, they who had deprived widows or virgins of their honour or property; the perjured, the coward, the homicide, and the sacrilegious; they who had robbed the orphan, who had attacked the unsuspecting, who had harassed society, and injured the commercial; the adulterer and the merchant; were prohibited from partaking of the diversions. If they presumed to present themselves, their horses were taken away, and they were to be thrown on the septum.” The city or place appropriated for the exercises was made free to all except heretics, thieves, and traitors, during the time of the games, and for fourteen days preceding and afterwards. The area of the games was to be hedged round: every combatant was to be first confessed and absolved; every count was to bring with him but six companions; a baron four, a knight three, others only two, unless they maintained them at their own expence." destroys the opinion, that tournaments ori- p. 15. Previous to this, Nithard mentions, that some French gentlemen fought in play on horseback. 24 Goldastus ubi supra. 25 Aquila Saxonica, p. 28, 29, where the other provisions, established for the regulation of the tournaments, may be seen. THE CHA P. XIV. Their Superstitions. HE belief, that some human beings could attain the CHAP. power of inflicting evils on their fellow creatures, and of controlling the operations of nature, existed among the Anglo-Saxons, but did not originate with them. It has appeared in all the regions of the globe; and from its extensive prevalence we may perceive that the human mind, in its state of ignorance and barbarism, is a soil well adapted to its reception and cultivation. It is not true that fear first made a deity; but it cannot be doubted that fear and hope are the parents of superstition. Life has so many evils which the uninstructed mind can neither prevent nor avert, and encourages so many hopes which every age and condition burn to realize, that we cannot be astonished to find so large a portion of mankind the willing prey of impostors, practising on their credulity by threats of evil and promises of good, greater than the usual course of nature would dispense. The superstition of magic and witchcraft prevailed even in Greece and Rome, before the Saxons are known to have had an historical existence. The general diffusion of the fond mistake forbids us to derive the later impostures from those which preceded; but as every thing that was popular among the Romans must have scattered some effects on the nations with whom they had intercourse, we will glance at the opinions which the masters of the world admitted on this delusive subject. It is amusing to read of Apuleius, who flourished under the Antonines, and who, though born in Africa, was educated at Athens, that he was accused of magic arts, and of having obtained a rich wife by his incantations. In his Metamor XIV. VIII. BOOK phoseon we have a curious picture of the witchcraft which was believed to exist in the ancient world. One of his characters is described as a saga, or witch,' who could lower the sky, and raise the manes of the dead. She is stated to have transformed one lover into a beaver, another into a frog, and another into a ram; to have condemned a rival wife to perpetual gestation; to have closed up impregnably all the houses of a city, whose inhabitants were going to stone her; and to have transported the family of the authors of the commotion to the top of a distant mountain. Another lady of similar taste is mentioned to have been a maga, mistress of every sepulchral song, who, by twigs, little stones, and such like petty instruments, could submerge all the light of the world in the lowest Tartarus, and into ancient chaos; who could turn her lovers that displeased her into stones or animals, or entirely destroy them." Apuleius afterwards gives us a description of one of her achievements. In the dead of the night, as two friends are sleeping in a room, the doors burst open with great fury; the bed of one is overturned upon him; two witches enter, one carrying a light, the other a sponge and a sword. This stabs her sleeping faithless lover, plunges the weapon up to its hilt in his throat, receives all the blood in a vessel, that not a drop might appear, and then takes out his heart. The other applied her sponge to the wounds, saying, Sponge! sea"born! beware of rivers!" The consequence was, that though he waked, and travelled as well as ever, yet when on his journey he approached a river, and proceeded to drink at it, his wounds opened, the sponge flew out, and the victim fell dead. 66 Apuleius himself was a great student of magic. The chief seat of all these wonders is declared to have been Thessaly; and so popular was the notion of witchcraft among those nations whom in our youth we are taught almost exclusively |