TO MEDIAEVAL CIVILIZATION use the measures and weights of their seignior, and they had to pay for this usage. IV, They were under the jurisdiction of the lord of the land If they committed an offense he made them pay a fine for his benefit, and if they committed a crime he condemned them to death1 and confiscated their possessions. The judgment, that is, the right of levying these fines, afforded an income for the benefit of the lord of the land. It figures in the enumeration of his possessions. The lord said, "my jurisdiction" of such a domain. lie sold it, gave it in fief, divided it among his children; it was not unusual for a lord to possess one-half or one-fourth of the jurisdiction of a village or of several household establishments. As a sign of authority the lord erected on his land a gibbet; it was called the forked gibbet, or gallows; the robbers who were hung upon it were an expressive testimo- nial of this authority. When two lords disputed over the jurisdiction of a village (as often happened) the domestics of the disputing seignior came, took down the man who was hung and put him on the gallows of their master. If the case was decided in favor of the lord who had condemned the man, then the body of the victim was returned, or in default of that a shirt stuffed with straw to represent the criminal, and the body or its effigy was hung once more upon the gibbet. The villeins were entirely subject to their lord; they had not the right of assembling, even for the purpose of regulating their own affairs; if they did so, the lord levied upon them a heavy tax. He was their sole 1 Except in Normandy, where the right of co&derunixig to death belonged only to the duke.