r more dreadful
in its operation. It was not lawful to pray, speak, or eat, with the
excommunicate (Canons of Ecgbright). No meat might be given into their
hands even in charity, although it might be laid before them on the
ground. Those who sheltered them incurred a heavy "were gild," and
endangered the loss of their estates; and finally, in case of obstinacy,
outlawry and banishment followed.

--King Canute's Laws Ecclesiastical.

xxxii Disappearance of Elgiva.

The writer has already in the preface stated his reasons for rejecting
the usual sad story about the fate of the hapless Elgiva. The other
story, that she was seized by Archbishop Odo, branded on the face, and
sent to Ireland, as Mr. Freeman observes, rests on no good authority;
all that is certainly known is that she disappeared.

At the time commonly assigued to these events, Dunstan was still in
Flanders; yet he is generally credited with the atrocities by modern
writers, even as if he had been proved guilty after a formal trial. His
return probably took place about the time occupied by the action of the
last chapter, when the partition of the kingdom had already occurred.

xxxiii The last Anointing.

The priest shall also have oil hallowed, separately, for children, and
for sick men; and solemnly anoint the sick in their beds. Some sick men
are full of vain fears, so as not to consent to the being anointed. Now
we will tell you how God's Apostle Jacob hath instructed us in this
point; he thus speaks to the faithful: "If any of you be afflicted, let
him pray for himself with an even mind, and praise his Lord. If any be
sick among you, let him fetch the mass priests of the congregation, and
let them sing over him, and pray for him, and anoint him with oil in the
Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall heal the sick; and the
Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins they shall be forgiven
him. Confess your sins among yourselves, pray for yourselves among
yourselves, that ye be healed." Thus spake Jacob the Apostle concerning
the unction of the sick. But the sick man, before his anointing, shall
with inward heart confess his sins to the priest, if he hath any for
which he hath not made satisfaction, according to what the Apostle
before taught: and he must not be anointed, unless he request it, and
make his confession. If he were before sinful and careless, let him then
confess, and repent, and do alms before his death, that he may not be
adj