Introduction of Feudalism 93
and we may be sure that Ms rightlessness had not been the
merely relative rightlessness of later days, free against all
but his lord. Indeed we may say that in the course of the
twelfth century slavery was abolished. That on the other
hand the villani suffered in the process is very likely. Cer-
tainly they suffered in name. A few of them, notably those
on the king's manors may have fallen on the right side of the
Roman dilemma " aut liberi aut servi," and as free men holding
by unfree tenure may have become even more distinctly free
than they were before; but most of them fell on the wrong
side; they got a bad name, and were brought within the range
of maxims which described the English fheow or the Roman
slave. Probably we ought not to impute to the lawyers of
this age any conscious desire to raise the serf or to debase the
villein. The great motive force which directs their doings
in this as in other instances is a desire for the utmost generality
and simplicity. . . . They reck little of the interests of any
classes, high or low; but the interests of the state, of peace
and order and royal justice are ever before them.1
The class, thus formed, had the peculiarity of a dis-
tinctly servile side and a distinctly free side. The former
was shown in their relations to their lords, in which were
present the usual servile disabilities. The villein whose
daughter married outside the manor or who married a
freeholder inside the manor must pay the merchet, or
marrying fine for loss of a worker, to his lord; and the
latter had many petty and vexatious rights over the prop-
erty of his villein, which proves, however, that the villein
did have personal property that was recognised as his.
The villein was bound to the soil and to certain services,
payments in labour and in kind, which were determined
by the custom of the manor and which, varied in their
amount and certainty in individual cases. To his land
and to his services, the villein could be strictly held; if
he fled, his lord had the right to bring him back by force.
On the other hand, to all persons except his lord, the
1 P. and M. i., 430, 431. For the depressing effect of post-Conquest tax-
ation upon the middle classes, see below, p. 120.