228 NAVESTOCK IN OLDEN DAYS;
It is remarkable that on the Continent there appear to be very
few subsisting traces of popular courts being held in the open air,
save and except in a few of the strongholds of Teutonic liberty. On
the contrary, in England, the ancient mode of assembling the suitors
of the Hundred "beneath the sky," continued to be retained with
remarkable steadiness, and "The Tale of the Wardstaffe" appears as a
strange and uncouth fragment of the earliest customs of the Teutons.
Thus we learn that the Free Field Court of the Abbey of Corbey
was in Pagan times under the supremacy of the Priests of the
Eresburg—the temple which contained the Irminsule or Pillar of
Irmin the Olympus of Teutonic belief. This court consisted of
sixteen persons. The Senior member presided as Gerefa or Graff.
The Junior was called Frohner or Summoner. The remaining
fourteen acted as the Echevins or judges.
The seat of judgment, "the King's Seat," was always on the
green sward ; the tribunal, the common fields; and the purpose,
decisions relating to land. The King's seat was a plot sixteen feet
in length and breadth, and when the ground was first consecrated
the Frohner dug a grave in the centre, in which each of the free
Echevins threw a handful of ashes, a coal and a tile.
It was also the very essence of the Court that it should be held
beneath the sky and by the light of the sun. All the ancient
Teutonic judicial assemblies were held in the open air, and some
relic of their solar worship may perhaps be traced in the usage and
in the language of this tribunal.
When a criminal was to be judged or cause to be decided, the
Graff and the Free Echevins assembled round the King's seat, and
the Frohner having proclaimed silence opened the proceedings by
reciting the following rhymes :
" Sir Graff, with permission
I beg you to say
According to law, and without delay
If I, your Knave
Who judgment crave
With your good grace
Upon the King's seat, this seat may place."
To this address the Graff replied :
" While the sun shines with even light
Upon masters and Knaves I shall declare
The law of might, according to right,
Place the King's seat true and square ;