These vigils are further distinguished as privileged and unprivileged.
From the earliest period known to us the free population of Rome contains two elements, patricians and plebeians, the former class enjoying all political privileges, the latter unprivileged.
Under the old forest laws of England it was one of the "beasts of the forest," and, as such, under the Norman kings the unprivileged killing of it was punishable by death or the loss of a member.
Thus the privileges of the bishops and of Copenhagen profoundly irritated the lower clergy and the unprivileged towns, and made a cordial understanding impossible, till Hans Svane, bishop of Copenhagen, and Hans Nansen the burgomaster, who now openly came forward as the leader of the reform movement, proposed that the privileges which divided the non-noble Estates should be abolished.
Thus descent from a father would be distinctive enough of the dominant race to form the title of that race (patricii), and when that term had been definitely adopted as the title of a class its persistence in the same sense after the organization of the family and the clan by the unprivileged class would be perfectly natural.