286 THE ROAD TO FREEDOM
everywhere we find the lord only willing to allow just so much
as suits his purpose. The serf's aspirations mean little or nothing
to him.
While all this was going on the lawyers were far from certain
about their law. Glanvill (c. 1187) lays down his view in some
detail.1 He says that a serf is unable to buy his freedom, since
he has nothing but what belongs eventually to his lord. "Hence,
if the latter liberates him in consideration of a sum of money
then a difficulty arises; this is met by the intermediation of a third
person who purchases the serf nominally with his own, though
really with the serf's money ".2 Glanvill seems to imagine that
a lord can manumit his serf so as to make him free as regards
himself, while he remains still a serf as regards all other men.
The whole conception is puzzling, and neither Vinogradoff nor
Pollock and Maitland have been able to clear up the involved
law as stated by Glanvill.3 By Bracton's time (c. 1250), how-
ever, things had changed, and he reports cases of serfs buying
their freedom with their own money,4 although the older prac-
tice was still known. The law on the subject was still fluid; and,
as Vinogradoff has pointed out, "Everything seems in a state of
vacillation and fermentation during the thirteenth century".5
Besides difficulties arising from these straightforward types of
manumission medieval lawyers wrangled a great deal over certain
actions which, as some held, carried with them a recognition of
free status. Of these the most important was whether by entering
into an agreement with a serf his lord confers freedom on him:
by treating him as a free man does he make him free? Vino-
gradoff points out that "the line between covenant and enfran-
chisement was so easily passed, and an incautious step would
have such unpleasant consequences for landlords, that they kept
as clear as possible of any deeds which might destroy their claims
as to the persons of their villeins".6 Nevertheless, instances can
1 Op. dt. Bk. v, 5.
2 Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. I, 427, 428 n, i. For examples of
manumission through a third person, see Salzman, Charters Sele Priory,
No. 1x8; Hist. MSS. Com. Wells, I, 6a, 138; Derby Arch. Soc. Journ. xvi,
166.
3 Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. I, 437-9; Villainage^ 86-8.
4 J3JV.B. Nos. 31, 343.
5 Op. cit. 128.
• Op. cit. 73.