[51] Among the “Canons of Edgar,” the following occurs:—“A powerful man may satisfy a sentence of seven years’ fasting in three days. Let him lay aside his weapons and ornaments, and go barefoot and live hard, etc., and take to him twelve men to fast three days on bread, water, and green herbs, and get wherever he can 7 times 120 men, who shall fast for him three days, then will be fasted as many fasts as there are days in seven years.”
[52] Thorpe, i. 227.
[53] It is not known by whose authority the ecclesiastical regulations which are entitled the canons of Edgar were drawn up, but they appear to be of this date.
[54] That it might be seen that they were complete and in good order, just as the laity came to the Hundred mote or Wapentake with their weapons. For list of them see Ælfric’s Pastoral, 44.
[55] To keep a copy of the constitutions made at the synod.
[56] The time was subsequently shortened to seven days.
[57] Probably spots of ground accounted sacred.
[58] In the “vulgar tongue.”
[59] The priests had a small consecrated slab of stone which they used on missionary journeys and at other times.
[60] The Legatine Council of Cealchythe (787, 5 c.) explains this by saying he must not celebrate with naked thighs. (See Exodus xxviii. 42.)