Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/160

152 SHORT NOTICES January may not regard ' chaos ' as a perfectly fair description of such a masterpiece of the art of illumination. However that may be, the fact that the repre- sentative manuscript of the one school was orderly and dignified, while that of the other was chaotic, would not disprove the dependence of the former on the latter. H. J. L. Mr. 6. F. B. de Gruchy, in a paper read before the Societe Jersiaise, has examined The Entries relating to Jersey in the Great Rolls of the Exchequer of Normandy of A. D. 1180 {Jersey : Labey, 1919). Stapleton's treatment of the ministeria of Jersey was perfunctory, and Mr. de Gruchy's analysis and identifications are very helpful. Stapleton, for example, identified Groceium with Grosnez or with Grantez ; Mr. de Gruchy shows that the ministerium de Groceium probably took its name from some earlier official, perhaps Hugh de Grouchy or Gruchy. The surname became common in Jersey after the thirteenth century. Most of the writer's comments are concerned with details of local interest, but towards the end of his paper he puts forward the suggestion that the farms of the ministeria into which the Channel Islands were divided in the twelfth century were originally fixed upon the basis of the house, irrespective of any distinction between lands held in demesne and fiefs. He points out that the vingtaines, into which we find Jersey later divided for fiscal purposes, were distributed among the ministeria in almost exact proportion to the farms, and the vingtaines ' were originally groups of twenty households ', and cut across the bounds of fiefs and demesne. Calculated on this basis the farm would be composed of payments of 8s. Qd, from each house, the rent, Mr. de Gruchy informs me, which on the average was paid by each bovate in the ' fief of Bellosanne, in Jersey, when the latter was transferred by King John to the abbey of Bellosanne (Jan. 1200, Quo Warranto, Jersey, 1309, m. 31). If it can be shown that the island was held under the early dukes by a large number of small ducal tenants, and that the amoimt of land in private hands or directly administered by the ducal officials was negligible, there is a good deal to be said for this view. The objections to it are, that in 1180 the farms were not collected in this systematic way, and that the vingtaine was a division of the parish administration, and was apparently not the basis for the collection of Crown dues.^ His detailed study of the items in the accounts for 1180 has also enabled Mr. de Gruchy to draw some interesting conclusions regarding the social and economic condition of Jersey and the other islands at the end of the ducal period. F. M. P. Br. Fritz Vigener's collection of documents relating to Die Maimer Dompropstei im 14. Jahrhundert (Darmstadt : Grossherzoglich Hessischer Staatsverlag, 1913) deals with an institution, the -prepositura, which did not thrive in the secular foundations of England, but attained great dignity in the German and many of the French churches. It was the duty of the provost to pay from the revenues at his disposal the fixed prebends due to the canons. In England the original organization of the canons under a dean or provost did not develop the prepositura as an office distinct ' The writer has had the advantage of discussing these points with Mr. de Gruchy.