Note 29 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

“It was at least theoretically possible down to the middle of the tenth century for a man-slayer to elect to bear the feud of the kindred. His own kindred, however, might avoid any share in the feud by disclaiming him; any of them who maintained him after this, as well as any of the avenging kinsfolk who meddled with any but the actual wrongdoer, was deemed a foe to the king.”—Pollock and Maitland, Hist. ed. of 1898, i. 48.