Of all forms of emancipation I imagine this to have been the most frequent, partly because of its convenience, partly because the motives for emancipation were generally of a religious cast, and the sanctions of religion were solemn and awful. Almost all the records which we possess on this subject are taken from the margins of Gospels or other books belonging to religious houses, and the few references in the laws imply emancipation at the altar. Among the Franks this form, in which the freedman was called Tabularius, conveyed only imperfect freedom: the utmost it could do was to confer the privileges of a Roman provincial, to which class the clergy were reckoned: but the _tabularius_ even so was not fully free; he still remained in the mund of the church. Wihtræd’s law, so often cited, shows clearly that this was not the case in England; nor could it be, seeing that the clergy among us were national, and the Frankish system of _personal_ rights did not prevail. I am therefore disposed to think that gradually emancipation at the altar was taken to convey all the privileges of manumission, and that it was the mode generally, though not exclusively, in use. On this point, the want of documents prevents our attaining certainty. The method was probably this: the man was formally offered up before the high altar, and there declared free in the presence of the officiating clergy and the congregation. A memorandum was then made in some religious book belonging to the church, and the names of the witnesses were recorded. Whether a separate certificate was prepared does not appear. ----- Footnote 427: Cod. Dipl. 981. § 28. ----- The full extent of the rights obtained by the freedman, especially in respect of inheritance, is not to be gathered from any existing Anglosaxon document. It is probable that these were limited, as among the Langobards and Franks: his offspring however were free, and his marriage with a free woman, equal: his other rights, duties and privileges, in short his general condition, were in all probability determined by certain arrangements between himself and his lord previous to the act of manumission. In such a case neither party would find much difficulty in settling the terms of a bargain. ----------------------- NOTE.