610
APPENDIX С.
These examples, so numerous and varied, supply a very clear
view of the mode of emancipation, and its objects, in the Anglo-
saxon time. It is to be regretted that we have not more of them,
and from other places : but still, as it is probable that the system
adopted by the clergy prevailed throughout England, these may
serve as a very satisfactory specimen of the usual course on these
occasions,—both as to the form of manumission and the method
of providing for the emancipated serf.
511
APPENDIX D.
ORGY’S GUILD AT ABBOTSBURY.
(From the Cod. Dipl. No. 942.)
“ This writing witnesseth that Orcy hath granted the guildhall
at Abbotsbury and the site thereof, to the honour of God and St.
Peter, and for a property to the guild, both during his life and
after his life, for a long lasting commemoration of himself and his
consort. Let him that would set it aside, answer it to God in the
great day of judgment !
“ Now these arc the covenants which Orcy and the guildsmen of
Abbotsbury have ordained, to the honour of God, the worship of
St. Peter, and the hole of their own souls. Firstly; three days
before St. Peter’s mass, from each guildbτother one penny, or one
pennyworth of wax,—look which the minster most needcth ; and
on the mass eve, from every two guildbrothers one broad loaf,
well sifted and well raised, towards our common alms ; and five
weeks before Peter’s mass, let each guildbrother contribute one
guildsestcr full of clean wheat, and let this be paid within two
days, on forfeiture of the entrance, which is three sesters of wheat.
And let the wood be paid within three days after the corn-con-
tribution, from every full guildbrother one load of wood, and
from those who are not full brothers, two ; or let him pay one
guildsestcr of corn. And let him that Undertaketh a charge
and perfoιmcth it not accordingly, be mulcted in the amount of
his entrance ; and be there no remission. And if one brother mis-
greet another within the guild, in hostile temper, let him atone
for it to all the fellowship with the amount of his entrance, and
after that to him whom he misgreeted, as they two maj arrange :
and if he will not bend to compensation, let him lose our fellow-