How the Angles and Saxons loved freedom, but made laws to punish
those who did wrong.
I am sure you wish to hear something more about the Angles and
Saxons, now that I have told you that they had become Christians like
the Britons, and had left off fighting with them.
There was one thing that, they loved above all others, and that was
freedom; that is, they liked that every man should do what he pleased
as long as he did not hurt any body else. And they liked that when
a man went into his own house and shut the door he should be safe,
and that nobody should go into his house without his leave. Besides
that, they liked wicked people to be punished; but if a man killed
another, on purpose, they did not always kill him too, as we do, for
fear he should do more mischief; they only made him give money to the
relations of the man he had killed, or perhaps they put him in prison
for a little while, to teach him to be more careful. And the Saxons
and Angles liked that when a thief stole anything, he should be made
to give it back, and that he should be punished.
Rules like these are called laws, and they are needful, to keep men
from doing wrong. All laws are meant to do good; and the Saxons and
Angles would not let anybody be punished without taking time to find
out what was right, as it would not be right to let anybody who saw
a man killed go and kill the man who had done it directly, because
he would not have time to ask whether it was done on purpose; and he
would be very sorry afterwards if he found out that he had punished
another person when he ought not to have done so.
So there were noblemen set over different parts of each
kingdom—called _Aldermen_ (which means the same as _Elder_)—to hold
courts with the bishop and the lesser nobles, who were called the
king’s _Thanes_ (that is, servants). These courts tried to find out
the truth in all disputes, and also before any one was punished for
any crime. When the crime was not made out clearly, the man was let
off, if he could bring his neighbours to bear witness to his good
character. And, in deciding disputes, the judge sometimes took the
opinion of twelve men who knew the facts. This was not quite like our
trial by jury; but you see that the people had a share in judging one
another.
Sometimes the kings wanted to change their old laws, or to make new
ones. But the free people said it was not right or fair to make laws
for them without telling them first what they were to be. So when
the king wanted to make a new law, he called together his Aldermen
and Bishops and Thanes to hear what the new law was to be, and if
they liked it they said so, and it was made into a law, and then the
people obeyed it, and the judges punished those who did not; but if
they did not like what the king wished, they all said so, and then it
was not made into a law. And, besides the Noblemen and Bishops, the
people of the towns were called by the king, to hear what the new law
was to be.
But it would have been very troublesome for all the men to go to the
king every time he wanted to make a new law, or to change an old one,
so the men in one town said, It will be better to send three or four
of the cleverest of our neighbours to the king, and they can let us
know about the new law, and we will tell them what to say for us, and
we will stay at home, and plough the fields, and mind our shops; and
so they did; and the men that were sent by their neighbours went to
the king, but they had no share in making the laws.
And when the king, and the nobles and bishops, and the men who were
sent by their neighbours, met all together in one place to talk about
the laws, they called it a Witena-gemot, which means, in the old
English of those times, a Meeting of Wise Men. It was something like
what we call a Parliament, which means a _talking place_, because
they talk about the best way of making laws before they make them.
By these means you see the Angles and Saxons were ruled by laws that
they helped to make themselves. And when they did wrong, they were
not punished till some of their own wisest men found out that they
really deserved punishment; and this is what I mean when I tell you
that they were a free people, and that they loved freedom.