And if any one has done so, let him be an outlaw before God and excommunicated from all Christendom, and let him forfeit all his possessions to the king, unless he quickly desist from sin and do deep penance before God.[257]
It is evident, however, that Canute believed that the process of education in the church from Sunday to Sunday would eventually solve the problem of heathenism in England; for he closes his Proclamation with an exhortation to all his subjects to attend faithfully the divine services:
And further still we admonish all men to keep the Sunday festival with all their might and observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and let no man be so bold as to buy or sell or to seek any court on that holy day.
And let all men, poor and rich, seek their church and ask forgiveness for their sins and earnestly keep every ordained fast and gladly honour the saints, as the mass priest shall bid us,
that we may all be able and permitted, through the mercy of the everlasting God and the intercession of His saints, to share the joys of the heavenly kingdom and dwell with Him who liveth and reigneth forever without end. Amen.[258]
FOOTNOTES:
[225] Snorre, Saga of Saint Olaf, cc. 130, 131, 139.
[226] Adamus, Gesta, ii., c. 50: schol. 38. It seems to have been customary to add a Christian name in baptism.
There is an allusion to Canute's conversion in the Chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes (ii., c. 55), who seems to believe that Canute became a Christian after the conquest of England. But the authority of the Aquitanian chronicler, though contemporary, cannot be so weighty as that of the records of the church of Bremen which the Scholiast seems to have used in the entry cited above. For Adémar's statement see Waitz, Scriptores (M.G.H.), iv., 140.
[227] Langebek, Scriptores, ii., 454: Osbern's tract concerning the translation of Saint Alphege. Osbern tells us that Ethelnoth was dear to Canute because he had anointed him with the sacred chrism. This cannot refer to his coronation, nor is it likely to have reference to his baptism, as Ethelnoth, would scarcely have given Canute a German name. It seems, therefore, that it must allude to his confirmation.