See also:

• MARK
• MARK, CARL (1858– )
• MARK, GOSPEL OF ST
• MARK, ST

MARK See also:

• SYSTEM

SYSTEM  , the name given to a social organization which rests on the See also:

• COMMON

common See also:

• TENURE (Fr. tenure, from Lat. tenere, to hold)

tenure and common cultivation of the See also:

• LAND

land by small See also:

• GROUPS
• GROUPS, THEORY

groups of freemen . Both politically and economically the See also:

• MARK
• MARK, CARL (1858– )
• MARK, GOSPEL OF ST
• MARK, ST

mark was an See also:

• INDEPENDENT

independent community, and its earliest members were doubtless See also:

• BLOOD

blood relatives . In its origin the word is the same as mark or See also:

• MARCH
• MARCH (1) (from Fr. marcher, to walk; the earliest sense in French appears to be " to trample," and the origin has usually been found in the Lat. marcus, hammer; Low Lat. marcare, to hammer; hence to beat the road with the regular tread of a soldier: cf.
• MARCH, AUZIAS (c. "1395-1458)
• MARCH, EARLS OF
• MARCH, FRANCIS ANDREW (1825– )

march (q.v.), a boundary . First used in this sense, it was then applied to the land cleared by the settlers in the See also:

• FOREST

forest areas of See also:

• GERMANY
• GERMANY (Ger. Deutschland)

Germany, and later it was used for the See also:

• SYSTEM

system which prevailed—to what extent or for how See also:

• LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
• LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

long is uncertain—in that See also:

• COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country . It is generally assumed that the lands of the mark were divided into three portions, forest, meadow and arable, and as in the manorial system which was later in See also:

• VOGUE, EUGENE MELCHIOR, COMTE DE (1848- )

vogue elsewhere, a system of rotation of crops in two, three or even six See also:

• FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS (1817-1881)

fields was adopted, each member of the community having rights of pasture in the forest and the meadow, and a certain See also:

• SHARE (O. Eng. scearu, chiefly in compounds, e.g. land-scearu, a share of land, from sceran to cut; cf. " shear" )

share of the arable . The mark was a self-governing community . Its affairs were ordered by the markmen who met together at stated times in the markmoot . Soon, however, their freedom was encroached upon, and in the course of a very See also:

• SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short See also:

• TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
• TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
• TIME, STANDARD

time it disappeared altogether . The extent and nature of the mark system has been, and still is, a subject of controversy among historians . One school holds that it was almost universal in Germany; that it was, in fact, the typical 'See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic method of holding and cultivating the land . From Germany, it is argued, it was introduced by the See also:

• ANGLE (from the Lat. angulus, a corner, a diminutive, of which the primitive form, angus, does not occur in Latin; cognate are the Lat. angere, to compress into a bend or to strangle, and the Gr. ayKOS, a bend; both connected with the Aryan root ank-, to

Angle and Saxon invaders into See also:

• ENGLAND
• ENGLAND, THE CHURCH OF

England, where it wasextensively adopted, being the See also:

• FOUNDATION (Lat. fundatio, from fundare, to found)

foundation upon which the prevailing land system in See also:

• EARLY
• EARLY, JUBAL ANDERSON (1816-1894)

early England was built . An opposing school denies entirely the existence of the mark system, and a See also:

• FRENCH
• FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER (1850– )
• FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

French writer, Fustel de Coulanges, refers to it contemptuously as " a figment of the Teutonic See also:

• IMAGINATION

imagination." This view is based largely upon the supposition that common ownership of the land was practically unknown among the early Germans, and was by no means See also:

• GENERAL
• GENERAL (Lat. generalis, of or relating to a genus, kind or class)

general among the early See also:

• ENGLISH

English .

The truth will doubtless be found to See also:

• LIE, JONAS LAURITZ EDEMIL (1833—1908)
• LIE, MARIUS SOPHUS (1842–1899)

lie somewhere between the two extremes . The See also:

• COMPLETE

complete mark system was certainly not prevalent in Anglo-Saxon England, nor did it exist very widely, or for any very long See also:

• PERIOD
• PERIOD (Gr. irepioSos, a going or way round, circuit, aepi, round, and &Sis, way, road)

period in Germany, but the system which did prevail in these two countries contained elements which are also found in the mark system . The See also:

• CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief authority on the mark system is G . L. von See also:

• MAURER, GEORG LUDWIG VON (1790-1872)

Maurer, who has written Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark- See also:

• HOF

Hof- Dorf- and Stadtverfassung and der offentlichen Gewalt (See also:

• MUNICH (Ger. Munchen)

Munich, 1854; new ed., See also:

• VIENNA (Ger. Wien; Lat. Vindobona)
• VIENNA, CONGRESS OF (1814-1815)

Vienna, 1896), and Geschichte der Markenverfassung in Deutschland (See also:

• ERLANGEN

Erlangen, 1856) . See also N . D . Fustel de Coulanges, Recherches sur quelques problemes de l'histoire (1885); and a See also:

• TRANSLATION

translation from the same writer's See also:

• WORKS

works called The Origin of See also:

• PROPERTY

Property in Land, by M . See also:

• ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (186o- )

Ashley . This contains an See also:

• INTRODUCTORY

introductory See also:

• CHAPTER (a shortened form of chapiter, a word still used in architecture for a capital; derived from O. Fr. chapitre, Lat. capitellum, diminutive of caput, head)

chapter by See also:

• PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

Professor W . J . Ashley . Other authorities are K .

Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben See also:

• IM(K2+a2+h2—2 ah cos 0)

im Mittelalter (See also:

• LEIPZIG

Leipzig, 1886) ; R . See also:

• SCHRODER
• SCHRODER, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG (1744-1816)
• SCHRODER, SOPHIE (1781-1868)

Schroder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1902) ; and W . See also:

• STUBBS [STUBBES], PHILIP (c. 1555-c. 161o)
• STUBBS [STUnnE], JOHN
• STUBBS, WILLIAM (1825-1901)

Stubbs, Constitutional See also:

• HISTORY

History of England, vol. i . (1891) .