[406] “Gif preorst ewenan forlæte and oðre nime, anaþema sit” (Leg. Presbyt. Northumbriens. c. 35). Spelman’s translation of this “Si presbyter concubinam suam dimiserit et aliam acceperit anathema sit” (Concil. I. 498) is perhaps hardly correct. Cwene can be interpreted in either a good or a bad sense, as a wife or a mistress; and the terms of the law show that the connection was a recognized one, the sin consisting in disregarding it. If the priest’s companion were only a concubine, his guilt would not be measurably increased by merely changing his unlawful consort.
[407] Chron. de Abbat. Abbendoniæ (Chron. Abingdon. II. 279).
[408] Osberni Vit. S. Dunstan. c. 36.
[409] Chron. de. Abbat. Abbendon. loc. cit.
[410] Vit. S. Æthelwold. c. 14, 15.
[411] Johannis PP. XIII. Epist. xxii.
[412] Concil. sub Dunstano (Spelman. I. 480).
[413] Ædgari Charta de Oswalde’s Law (Spelman. I. 433).
[414] Anglo-Saxon Chron. ann. 964.
[415] Monach. Hydens. Leg. c. 8, 9 (Spelman. I. 438).