KNIGHT-SERVICE

The English monasteries before the Conquest and their heads, though occupying an important position in the social and national life of the times, had none of the duties and obligations associated with the feudal system, based on tenure by military service and on direct control by the king, which was introduced shortly after the Conquest. Speaking very generally, it may be said that before 1066 any part taken by an abbot in the administration or service or support of the nation was either due to his personal choice and influence, or was identical with that taken by all his countrymen of a similar social rank. It is to be presumed that abbots, at least on occasion, took part in the courts of shire and hundred; the career of Aethelwig of Evesham immediately after the Conquest, the assistance of abbots at a number of the great pleas in the Conqueror's reign at which two or three shires met to adjudicate on territorial or jurisdictional rights, and the presence in the monasteries of men distinguished by their knowledge of the laws and customs of the country all suggest that this was so. And, of course, the abbots, as landowners, controlled extensive personal rights over those commended to them, and had the advantages and obligations that came from holding sake and soke. But the abbot, quâ abbot, had no civil jurisdiction and was trustee for no corporate burdens.