twenty-one, he was entitled to demand livery of the lands by
the king's officers on paying a relief and doing fealty and homage. The
minor heir attaining twenty-one, and proving his age, was entitled to
livery of his lands, on doing fealty and homage, without paying any
relief."

The idea involved is, that the lands Were HELD, and NOT OWNED, and that
the proprietary right lay in the nation, as represented by the king.
If we adopt the poetic idea of the Brehon code, that "land is perpetual
man," then HOMAGE for land was not a degrading institution. But it is
repugnant to our ideas to think that any man can, on any ground, or for
any consideration, part with his manhood, and become by homage the "man"
of another.

The Norman chieftains claimed to be peers of the monarch, and to sit in
the councils of the nation, as barons-by-tenure and not by patent.
This was a decided innovation upon the usages of the Anglo-Saxons, and
ultimately converted the Parliament, the FOLC-GEMOT, into two branches.
Those who accompanied the king stood in the same position as the
companions of Romulus, they were the PATRICIANS; those subsequently
called to the councils of the sovereign by patent corresponded with
the Roman NOBILES. No such patents were issued by any of the Norman
monarchs. But the insolence of the Norman nobles led to the attempt made
by the successors of the Conqueror to revive the Saxon earldoms as a
counterpoise. The weakness of Stephen enabled the greater fudges to
fortify their castles, and they set up claims against the Crown, which
aggravated the discord that arose in subsequent reigns.

The "Saxon Chronicles," p. 238, thus describes the oppressions of the
nobles, and the state of England in the reign of Stephen:

"They grievously oppressed the poor people with building castles, and
when they were built, filled them with wicked men, or rather devils, who
seized both men and women who they imagined had any money, threw them
into prison, and put them to more cruel tortures than the martyrs ever
endured; they suffocated some in mud, and suspended others by the feet,
or the head, or the thumbs, kindling fires below them. They squeezed the
heads of some with knotted cords till they pierced their brains, while
they threw others into dungeons swarming with serpents, snakes, and
toads."

The nation was mapped out, and the owners' names inscribed in the
Doomsday Book. There were no unoccupied lands, and had the possessors
bee