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Merchet, the most debasing incident of personal villainage, appears so widely spread in the Hundred Rolls that there can be no question, at least at the close of the thirteenth century, of treating it as a sure test of personal subjection.

We cannot admit even for one moment that the whole peasant population of entire counties was descended from personal slaves, as the diffusion of merchet would lead us to suppose.

It seems to me that Glanville has in mind liberation de facto from certain duties and customs, such as agricultural work for instance, or the payment of merchet.

Again, the variety of conditions in which we come across the merchet, leads us to suppose that this term was extended through the medium of legal theory to payments which differed from each other in their very essence: the commutation of the 'jus primae noctis,' the compensation paid to the lord for the loss of his bondwoman leaving the156 manor, and the fine for marriage to be levied by the township or the hundred, were all thrown together.

Merchet was the most striking consequence of unfreedom, but manorial documents are wont to connect it with several others.