Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	estate_n	land_n	tenant_n	4,546	5	9.9060	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55987	The secret history of the court of the emperor Justinian written by Procopius of Cesarea ; faithfully rendred into English.; Secret history. English	Procopius.	1674 (1674)	Wing P3641; ESTC R21705	83,293	168

more grateful he was in the eyes of the people the more odious he became to Justinian and Theodora who no sooner had notice of the vertue and goodness of their Officers but they turned their thoughts wholly upon ways of removing them not being able to endure persons so opposite to their own natural temper Peter as I said before succeeding John in the management of the Treasury was the cause of a thousand miseries to particular persons having imbezled the Fund which of a long time had been raising by an antient and laudable custom for the relief of several poor families sending part of it to the Emperor and keeping the rest for himself whereby he acquired vast riches whilest they died with hunger who had nothing else to maintain them but those annual Contributions Besides which he coyned Money of Gold much less then the former and made it currant by Proclamation These in the Reign of Justinian were the persons who managed all the Offices and publick imployments I shall now speak of the methods which he used to ruine all people of estates though to exhibite their misery there needs in strictness no more then what I have spoken of the Governors of Provinces and Collectors who had private and peremptory instruction to ruine all people whose estates were in Land The Roman Emperors were formerly accustomed to remit to the people the arrears of such Money as was owing to the Exchequer that such of them as were unable to pay might not be in fear all their life long nor the Treasurers have opportunity to raise Money where many times it was not due But Justinian in Two and thirty years time was not guilty of one of those remissions the poor people were forced from their Houses and Countreys without any hopes of return whilest such as were honest were liable to calumniations and threatned perpetually to be complained of as not having paid what was due to the Emperor for their Taxes upon their Lands insomuch that the unfortunate Creatures were constrained to pass away their Lands to the Emperor or their Persecutors not so much out of apprehension of new Taxes as for the impossibility which they found to support long the unjust exactions which for many years together they had been forced to pay Moreover though the greatest part of Asia had been ruined by the Arms of the Sarazens and Persians and all Europe harassed and infested by the incursions of the Huns and Sclavonians the War of the Goths produced sacking and burning of Towns and devastations of Provinces though the Inhabitants were carried away prisoners with all that they had and those few who escaped the hands of the Barbarians were glad to forsake their Countrey and banish themselves Yet none of these considerations could work upon Justinian or prevail with him to remit one tribute or impost to any one Town in the whole Empire unless it was such as had been taken by the Enemy and in that case their exemption was but for a year whereas it he should have excused them for seven years together as his Predecessor Anastatius had done it would have been no great matter considering the great misery to which they were reduced In short Cabades invaded the Territories of the Emperor and returned every way Victorious but his Son Cosroes produc'd greater Consternation by Burning and Killing all where ever he passed with his Army And yet those of the East who had been exposed so often to the Incursions of the Huns the Persians and Sarazins and ruined by their Armies and the Romans who being setled in several parts of Europe had many times felt the Hostility of the Barbarians those I say who had suffered so much for their affection to the State found more cruelty in Justinian then among all the Barbarians his Edicts and Impositions compleating that Ruine which the Enemy had but begun I shall now recite what was the Contents of those Edicts Those whose Estates were in Land were by them obliged to furnish a certain quantity of Provisions for the Souldiers at their own Charges every Man paying his part nor did they consider what was given according to the Prizes of things but according to a former Assesment made a long time before and if at any time they were so unfortunate not to have so much Cattle or Forrage upon their Lands as would satisfie for their share they were constrained to buy them at any rate and convey them from the Provincial Magazines which were very far off to the place where the Troops were in Garrison and then deliver them in what quantity and at what rate the Officers pleased and not according to what was reasonable and just This Impost was called the Impost of Victuals by which those who had Lands paid ten times greater Tribute then formerly so that really it was taking from them so much Blood out of their Veins being obliged to carry their Corn to Constantinople after they had suffered so much by quartering the Army These disorders and oppressions the State owes to Barzames and John de Cappadocia whom their Successors imitated exactly in the Continuation of their Crime And so much for the Tax called the Impost of Victuals The Impositions were like a Plague which came suddenly upon those whose Estates were in Land and took from them not only the hopes of living tolerably well but the means of continuing their Life as miserable as it was For though the Lands were all thrown up and deserted by the Ruine or Flight of the Owners or their Tenants who were either Killed or Frighted out of their Country or else hid themselves to avoid Persecution Justinian without any reluctance exacted these Impositions which were very frequent in his time I conclude in few words the Taxes call the Descriptions were imposed to repair the Losses which the Cities had brought upon such as were proprietors in the Country But it would be an infinite Trouble to undertake an Account of all the Evil Effects which ensued upon these Taxes or the idle and trivial pretences upon which they were Imposed for the Miseries of the People increased daily and though the Inhabitants in the Country were most of them dead of the Plague which the Roman Empire was no less afflicted at that time then the other parts of the World and though the Contagion was so universal the Fields and the Farms lay uninhabited and untilled Justinian never made the least Abatement in his Duties and Imposts that he had Established on the contrary he constrained with great severity those who were alive to pay the proportions of such of their Neighbors as were Dead of the Infection In short their finest and richest Apartments they gave for Quarters to the Souldiers treating them with all possible liberality and civility whilst they were glad to make shift with any by place or stinking hole to lye in themselves In this manner things passed in the Reign of Justinian and Theodora who though they were but