The ninety clauses of this code specify compensation payments for ‘affronts’, both material harm and insults to a freeman’s honour, such as sleeping with a high-status woman from his household. The laws recognized status, specifying certain privileges for the king and his men, granting various protections to the churchmen, and distinguishing freemen from slaves. Aethelberht added a few clauses on religious misconduct, recognizing his duty to protect the new church as well as his people. But the code was little more than a list of monetary equivalents for different injuries.
