everything, the lords then seized on the land and converted the freeholders into serfs and villains. His assertions were accepted as gospel, till disputed by Professor Fustel de Coulanges in 1885 and 1889, who showed, by production of the original texts, that Maurer had little or no evidence to sustain his entire fabric. All the evidence goes the other way, to show that land, directly men settled, became private property, but that the landlord allowed his tenants to take wood from forests, turf from moors, and have certain commons for pasturage, not as a right, but as a favour.
Maurer had started from a false premise. The Mark or ager never meant common land, but the boundary of private estates.[1] In a word, as far as evidence goes, his theory was the erection of a Fools' Paradise for social
- ↑ "If a proprietor encroaches on a neighbouring proprietor, he shall pay fifteen solidi . . . The boundary between two estates is formed by distinct landmarks, such as little mounds of stones . . . If a man oversteps this boundary, marca, and enters the property of another, he shall pay the above mentioned fine." Laws of the Ripuarian Franks, Sect. 60. So the ancient Bavarian Laws spoke of a man who took a slave over the borders, extra terminos hoc est extra marcam. (xiii. 9). See The Origin of Property in Land, by F. de Coulanges, London, 1891.
