Thread:AngryLance/@comment-39280634-20200312193340/@comment-28358106-20200318235621

Goodnight man. I'll just post the answer.

The system decreed that part of a villager's (or villein's) payment to his lord was three days out of the week he owed his lord some labor. This was highly important as the loss of a single man could throw off a harvest, and that was bad news. A lordless man was in effect worthless, and in feudal society it was considered unthinkable.

As for why they couldn't be sheltered, it had many reasons, but it was mainly because they were assumed to have fled their domains, and thus shirked their duty. It had mild religious connotations as well, as the local lord paid the bishop or prior, and it was seen as taking money directly from the Church.