Note 396 — Chapter VIII · THE UNFREE. THE SERF.
Reading edition
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.