STORY OF THE ENGLISH LAND 15 



stark winter I dare not linger at home for awe 

 of my lord. ... I have a boy driving 

 the oxen with a goad iron, who is hoarse with 

 cold and shouting . . . mighty hard 

 work it is, for I am not free." At the end of 

 the twelfth century the Canons of Osney could 

 procure a serf for 4 and a horse, or, in another 

 case, 20 shillings. 



From several causes, including the Church's 

 disapproval of unqualified slavery, the bonds- 

 men gradually improved their position, and 

 by the middle of the fourteenth century an 

 economic change had come to pass which 

 radically altered the conditions of rural life. 

 The feudal services of the villein, bond or 

 free, had over large areas of England become 

 commuted for cash payment. In other words, 

 agricultural rent had established itself in 

 permanent shape, involving the theoretical 

 freedom of labour and freedom of contract. 

 Nevertheless, the fact that one of the demands 

 in Kett's rebellion (1549) was the abolition 

 of serfdom would seem to indicate that the 

 disappearance of the bondsman was a process 

 more gradual and protracted than is some- 

 times supposed. 



The sudden stimulus towards better con- 

 ditions of life thus afforded to the dependent 

 classes was strongly accentuated by the 



