England many excellent priests for the conversion of their subjects, as Sigefrith, Sigeward, and his brother's son Grimkil, Rodulf, Bernhard, and Wulfrith. . .

§ 6. Cnut's Journey to Rome and Letter to his People

After some ten years' work in making sure his dominion, a period of tranquillity arrived in which Cnut was enabled to execute without apprehension the wish which he had long cherished and often postponed, of making a pilgrimage to Rome. In the latter half of the year 1026 he left Denmark, whence he appears to have proceeded to Flanders, where, at St. Omer's, he was seen, and his penitence admired by the encomiast of Queen Emma. We also meet with him at Namur, where he trusted himself to Count Albert only against hostages, but with whom he afterwards entered on terms of friendship. During his whole progress he gave noble proofs of his munificence. Hence, passing through France and Burgundy, he reached the holy city where, besides other immunities, he obtained from Pope John the Nineteenth the exemption of the Saxon or English school from all taxes and tolls. After having visited all the chapels and churches in Middle Italy, he passed his Easter at Rome, in order to be present at the coronation of his friend and ally the Emperor Conrad the Second. It is probable that the marriage of their respective children was here settled. Of the other benefits acquired for his people by this journey an ample account is given in the following letter, which he sent to England, while on his return to Denmark, by the hands of Living, abbot of Tavistock, and afterwards bishop of Crediton, and which we give entire as a picture of the age, and, perhaps, as a proof of an amended life as well as regal munificence.

"Cnut, king of all England and Denmark, and of part of Sweden, to Æthelnoth the metropolitan, and Ælfric of York, and to all bishops and primates, and to the whole nation of the English, both noble and ignoble, wishes health. I make known to you that I have lately been to Rome, to pray for the redemption of my sins, and for the prosperity of the kingdoms and peoples subject to my rule. This journey I had long ago vowed to God, though, through affairs of state and other impediments, had hitherto been unable to perform it; but I now humbly return thanks to God Almighty for having in my life granted me to yearn after the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and every sacred place within

and without the city of Rome, which I could learn of, and, according to my desire, personally to venerate and adore. And this I have executed chiefly because I had learned from wise men, that the holy apostle Peter had received from the Lord the great power of binding and loosing, and was key-bearer of the celestial kingdom; and I, therefore, deemed it extremely useful to desire his patronage before God.

"Be it now known to you, that there was a great assembly of nobles at the Easter celebration, with the Lord Pope John, and the Emperor Conrad, to wit, all the princes of the nations from Mount Gargano to the nearest sea, who all received me honorably, and honored me with magnificent presents. But I have been chiefly honored by the emperor with divers costly gifts, as well in golden and silver vases as in mantles and vestments exceedingly precious. I have therefore spoken with the emperor and the lord pope, and the princes who were there, concerning the wants of all my people, both English and Danes, that a more equitable law and greater security might be granted to them in their journey to Rome, and that they might not be hindered by so many barriers, nor harassed by unjust tolls; and the emperor and King Rudolf, who has the greater number of those barriers in his dominions, have agreed to my demands; and all the princes have engaged by their edict, that my men, whether merchants, or other travellers for objects of devotion, should go and return in security and peace, without any constraint of barriers or tolls.

"I then complained to the lord pope, and said, that it greatly displeased me, that from my archbishops such immense sums of money were exacted, when, according to usage, they visited the apostolic see to receive the pall; and it was decreed that such exactions should not thenceforth be made. And all that I have demanded for the benefit of my people from the lord pope, from the emperor, from King Rudolf and from the other princes, through whose territories our way lies to Rome, they have freely granted, and also confirmed their cessions by oath, with the witness of four archbishops and twenty bishops, and an innumerable multitude of dukes and nobles, who were present; I therefore render great thanks to God Almighty that I have successfully accomplished all that I desired, as I had proposed in my mind, and satisfied to the utmost the wishes of my people. Now then, be it known to you, that I have vowed, as a suppliant from henceforth to justify in all things my whole life to God, and to rule the kingdoms and peoples subjected to me justly and piously, to

maintain equal justice among all; and if, through the intemperance of my youth, or through negligence, I have done aught hitherto contrary to what is just, I intend with the aid of God to amend all. I therefore conjure and enjoin my counsellors, to whom I have intrusted the counsels of the kingdom, that from henceforth they in no wise, neither through fear of me nor favor to any powerful person, consent to, or suffer to increase any injustice in my whole kingdom: I enjoin also all sheriffs and 'gerefan' of my entire kingdom, as they would enjoy my friendship or their own security, that they use no unjust violence to any man, either rich or poor, but that every one, both noble and ignoble, enjoy just law, from which let them in no way swerve, neither for equal favor, nor for any powerful person, nor for the sake of collecting money for me, for I have no need that money should be collected for me by iniquitous exactions.

"I therefore wish it to be made known to you, that, returning by the same way that I departed, I am going to Denmark, for the purpose of settling, with the counsel of all the Danes, firm and lasting peace with those nations, which, had it been in their power, would have deprived us of our life and kingdoms; but were unable, God having deprived them of strength, who in his loving kindness preserves us in our kingdoms and honor, and renders naught the power of our enemies. Having made peace with the nations round us, and regulated and tranquillized all our kingdom here in the east, so that on no side we may have to fear war or enmities, I propose this summer, as soon as I can have a number of ships ready, to proceed to England; but I have sent this letter beforehand, that all the people of my kingdom may rejoice at my prosperity; for, as you yourselves know, I have never shrunk from laboring, nor will I shrink therefrom, for the necessary benefit of all my people. I therefore conjure all my bishops and ealdormen, by the fealty which they owe to me and to God, so to order that, before I come to England, the debts of all, which we owe according to the old law, be paid; to wit, plough-alms, and a tithe of animals brought forth during the year, and the pence which ye owe to St. Peter at Rome, both from the cities and villages; and, in the middle of August, a tithe of fruits, and at the feast of St. Martin, the first-fruits of things sown, to the church of the parish in which each one dwells, which is in English called ciric-sceat. If, when I come, these and others are not paid, he who is in fault shall be punished by the royal power severely and without any remission. Farewell."

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Worsaae, An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland (1852), overemphasizes Danish influence. Ramsay, Foundations of England, Vol. I, chaps. xxiii-xxv. Hodgkin, A Political History of England to 1066, chap. xxiii. Green, Conquest of England. Larson, The King's Household in England Before the Norman Conquest, University of Wisconsin Publications, for Cnut's body-guard.

CHAPTER VI

THE ANGLO-SAXON ROYAL COUNCIL

IN Anglo-Saxon times the central government of the realm, in so far as it was organized at all, was vested in the king and his council, or Witan. The treatment of this council by Professor Freeman in his Norman Conquest is one of the best examples imaginable of the way in which the history of ancient institutions may be influenced by the modern theories. Writing at a time when English political philosophy was permeated with liberalism, Professor Freeman discovered a limited monarchy in the AngloSaxon period when the authority of kings depended on force, not law or custom; when no Englishman had ever thought of formal constitutional limitations on the crown; and when the ideas of modern political democracy were wholly impossible in theory or practice. The account given below should be compared with the treatment of the same subject in Mr. Chadwick's Anglo-Saxon Institutions. In conjunction with this, the student should examine the evidence in support of his theory which Professor Freeman has brought together in an Appendix to the first volume of his work.

§ 1. Composition of the Royal Council1

We may be sure that every Teutonic freeman had a voice in the Assembly the Gemôt, the Gemeinde, the Ekklêsia — of his own mark. In fact, he in some sort retains it still, as holding his place in the parish vestry. He had a voice; it might be too much to say that he had a vote, for in an early state of things formal divisions are not likely to be often taken; the temper of the Assembly is found out by easier means. But the man who 1 Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, Vol. I, chap. iii. By permission of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford.