[388]. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 311, 1079.
[389]. Ibid. No. 311. The serfs mentioned in this document were at first attached to the royal vill of Bensington; but were now transferred to the land of the church at Radnor, with their offspring, and their posterity for ever.
[390]. Tac. Germ. xxv.
[391]. Bed. H. E. iv. 13.
[392]. Leg. Wihtr. § 9, 10. Ini, § 3. Edw. Guð. § 7. Æðelr. viii. § 2.
[393]. Leg. Ini, § 3.
[394]. Cnut, Leg. Sec. § 45.
[395]. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 716, 721, 722, 782, 788, 919, 925, 931, 946, 947, 957, 959, 981.
[396]. Leg. Ælf. § 43. Æðelred (viii. § 2) permits the serf to labour on his own account, three days before Michaelmas. Theodore (Poen. xix. § 30) and Ecgberht (Poen. Addit. § 35) forbid the lord to rob his serf of what he may have acquired by his own industry. It was nevertheless held by some that the serf could not purchase his own freedom.
[397]. This is true only of the Saxon, not of the Norman period. Glanville expressly denies that the serf could redeem himself. “Illud tamen notandum est, quod non potest aliquis, in villenagio positus, libertatem suam propriis denariis suis quaerere. Posset enim tunc a domino suo secundum ius et consuetudinem regni ad villenagium revocari; quia omnia catalla cuiuslibet nativi intelliguntur esse in potestate domini sui, [per] quod propriis denariis suis versus dominium suum a villenagio se redimere non poterit.” Glanv. lib. v. cap. 5.