Two Manumissions in 10th Century Bedwyn

Caption: Two manumissions in the district of Bedwyn, Southwest of England, added to the manuscript in the 10th century. The original manuscript is located in the Burgerbibiothek in Bern as Codex 671 (depicted here: f. 76 v.); there are no facsimiles available online.

Early Medieval England knew several different kinds of servants, some of higher status, such as vassals, and some of a status akin to slaves or serfs. The two servants in this manuscript are so-called geburas, who are servants of low status because they are not allowed to leave the small plot of land they have to farm and on which they must perform many acts of service for their lord. Little is known of this class of servants, because there are hardly any textual sources that mention them.

Manumissions go back to the tradition of Ancient Greek law, and the Latin word manumissio literally means “to release from the hand” and figuratively “to release from the power of the master”. In this mostly oral, legal ritual, slaves and later servants could be set free by their masters. Sometimes, the slaves were freed out of their master’s benevolence, but in this case, the two geburas had to buy their relative freedom with ten mancuses of silver, a relatively high price for their time. Their freedom is relative because it meant that they were no longer bound to their original plot of land but were instead free to move and work within a larger but nonetheless circumscribed district.

The manuscript page that attests the servants’ new freedom is in the back of a gospel-book created around the 9th century, which was likely of personal use to the clergy during prayer. It may not be a coincidence that the manumissions were later added to a gospel book, because church services were the ideal place for ceremonies that needed witnesses from the community and because the forgiveness of the past is linked to Christian faith.