The common territory of the clan bore the name of Mark or Allmend , Almennings Maurk (7) among the Scandinavians, Folc-land among the Anglo-Saxons. Sometimes, too, it is denoted by the name of gau , from the same root as , .
The marken were called geraiden in Alsace, or hundechaften or huntari among the Alamanni. They included cultivated land,pasturage, wood and water. Originally they were of vast extent, and embraced whole valleys, as in Switzerland and theTyrol, and elsewhere immense countries, where states such as Austria, Bavaria, Carinthia, Carniola and Brandenburg havesubsequently grown up. Each family was entitled to a temporary enjoyment of a portion in each division of the mark ; but noone could exercise any permanent or hereditary Tight over it. It is what Caesar (8) and Tacitus (9) tell us of the Germans.
Grimm asserts that in the ancient German language he has found no word rendering the idea of property. The word Eigenthum is of recent origin. It springs from the epithet eigen, proprium , that which is peculiar to the individual. Individualdominion only appears in the allod (from od , goods, and all , complete) of the Saxons. Merum proprium odit ; there is nomention of ownership till after the Germans have entered into relation with the Romans. The names Sondergut and Sondereigen , given to private property, indicates that it arises by separation ( sonder ) from common property. The portion ofthe mark occupied by one of the groups of com- mon origin, called by Caesar cognationes , and by Tacitus propinquitates, (10) was designated by the name of geburscip , vicinium , the vicus of the Romans, the voysiné or visnet of the middle ages inFrance, the vinâve at Liège up to the present; day. We possess an edict of Chilperic of 581, which proves that at this datehereditary ownership was but just introducing itself among the Franks. This edict declares that sons and daughters, brothersand sisters, are to inherit the goods of the deceased in preference to the other inhabitants of the village, vicini . (11)At the time of the Salic law private property in land seems scarcely to have been developed. This law nowhere mentions anyaction relating to property in the soil: it does not recognize seizure of lands; execution only applies to moveable goods,which constitute the alodis . (12) If the moveables of the debtor are insufficient, the creditor loses all his remedy; as he cannotseize land. When the payment of the Wehrgeld , which admits of no abatement, is in question, the insolvent debtor may becompelled to alienate, by the formality of Chrenecruda , his rights in the collective domain to his nearest relative, who is thenobliged to pay for him.
Even when arable land had been gradually converted into private property, the forest and pasturage remained commonproperty. In documents of the middle ages there is constant reference to rights of enjoyment in forest or pasturage.
"Manses" are bequeathed or sold cum terris cultis et incultis et silvis communibus . The campus communis , referred to in thelaw of the Burgundians, Tit. 31, is preserved in Germany, England, and France, under the names of allmend , common , and communaux respectively.
The Mark , like the ancient Gens , had its altars and its sacrifices; and, in later days, after the introduction of Christianity, itschurch and common patron-saint. It had a tribunal which took cognizance of moral offences, and even, in the early times, ofcrimes committed within its territory.
The families, forming the community, had only a right of enjoyment, the ownership of the soil resting in the communityitself. (13) In course of time, however, portions of the common land were granted for a term more or less long, eithergratuitously, or in consideration of a rent. Grants of this kind are met with everywhere, of the Folcland in England, of the Hammerka in Frisia, of the Almanniger in Sweden and Norway, and of the Allmend in Germany, just as of the ager publicus and terrae vectigales at Rome. Such is the origin of the portions granted out for enjoyment for life or years, which we stillmeet with in different countries, as in the Allmendgaerten of Uri and Gersau, the Gmeinmerkgüter of Lucerne and Schwyz,the Gemeinfelder ( Campi communes ) of the Trèves district, the Gemeinen Loosgüter of Peitingau in Bavaria, the Markfelder of Westphalia, the Geraidengüter of Alsace and the Palatinate, the Hubbmannschaften of Hundsrück, and the Rollttheile in Eichsfeld. It is these parcels of common which have, by gradual usurpa- tions, given birth to Sondereigen , orprivate property.
