own, the austerities of mercenary penitents. It was in vain that the Council of Cloveshoe thundered its anathemas against their disobedience: the new doctrine was supported by the wishes and the practice of the opulent; and its toleration was at length extorted on the condition that the sinner should undergo in person a part at least of his penance. The thane who submitted to embrace this expedient was commanded to lay aside his arms, to clothe himself in woollen or sackcloth, to walk barefoot, to carry in his hand the staff of a pilgrim, to maintain a certain number of poor, to watch during the night in the church, and when he slept to repose on the ground. At his summons, his friends and dependents assembled at his castle; they also assumed the garb of penitence; their food was confined to bread, herbs, and water; and these austerities were continued till the aggregate amount of their fasts equalled the number specified by the canons. Thus, with the assistance of one hundred and twenty associates, an opulent sinner might, in the short space of three days, discharge the penance of a whole year. But he was admonished that it was a doubtful and dangerous experiment; and that, if he hoped to appease the anger of the Almighty, he must sanctify his repentance by true contrition of heart, by frequent donations to the poor, and by fervent prayer.'

The principal engines of discipline in dealing with the refractory were the excommunication and the interdict. The former was distinguished as the lesser and the greater; the one suspending from participation in the sacraments, the other excluding from the Church under

1 Hist. and Antiq., chap. vii.

anathema. The interdict commonly applied not merely to the person of the offender, but to a greater or less portion of his country. It might be imposed upon a whole county for a noble, or upon an entire realm for a prince. While an interdict was in force, the rites of religion were for the most part suspended. No services were held in the churches, at least none which were not back of closed doors. No marriage could be solemnized, no flesh eaten, no religious burial granted, except to priests, beggars, and children not above the age of two years. In fine, the whole land was regarded as resting under a penal shadow. Interdicts were not often imposed till the next period. Some assign the first instance to the year 1031, when the county of Limoges was placed under interdict on account of the refusal of the nobles in that quarter to keep the peace; but there appear to have been a few minor cases at an earlier date.

The excommunication, as a spiritual penalty, is the common prerogative of religious society, a legitimate weapon against those who profane the Christian bond. In the Middle Ages, however, excommunication was something more than a means of spiritual censure. It had very serious temporal consequences. Intercourse with the excommunicate, except on the part of dependents, was itself made punishable with excommunication. So, for example, the Council of Metz in 888 ordained. In some cases, also, the civil power bound itself to a kind

1 In the ultimate definition of the subject, the interdict was distinguished, (1) as personal, local, or mixed, according as it immediately affects a person, a place, or both together; (2) as general or particular, according as it extends to a whole region, or is restricted to a particular church, to a chapel, or to specified individuals.

of persecution of those who had been thus unchurched, and proclaimed their disabilities before the law. As for the interdict, in the form which it frequently assumed, it was an attempt at high-handed terrorism, which did not scruple to trample on the rights of innocent thousands in order to humble a single object of a righteous or unrighteous indignation.

1 According to English law the excommunicate person could enter into no legal contracts, and could have no place in court. No one was authorized to eat with him, or even to speak to him. If he remained under excommunication forty days, the bishop could apply to the king for his arrest and imprisonment until he should give satisfaction to the Church. In Germany the government was equally pledged to sustain spiritual Sweden had perhaps the severest requisition. Laws in force till the Reformation provided that, if a man remained under excommunication for a year without seeking absolution, the king should put him to death. (Lea, Studies in Church History.)

censures.

The extent to which such laws were executed depended, of course, in no small degree, upon the temper of the sovereign and his existing relations with the spiritual power.

CHAPTER VII.

WORSHIP AND LIFE.

ON this subject, the closing part of the preceding

period drew very distinctly the diagram for the present. As there, so also here, we find high conceptions of divine service and religious living mixed with great crudities in theory and practice. The Christian ideal was obscured by incongruous additions, rather than denied. At one point or another it received recognition from multitudes of devout men and women.

1. Sunday. In the observance of Sunday, the legislation took the standard from the stricter of the views and regulations which had place in the preceding centuries. An English synod near the close of the seventh century ordained that, if a master should set a slave to work on Sunday, the slave should be free, and the master be required to pay a fine. If the slave went to work of his own motion, he was to be scourged, or pay a fine. The freeman who should work on Sunday was to forfeit his freedom, or pay a considerable sum of money. For a priest the sum was to be doubled.1 Other synods, as those of Rheims and Arles in 813, Rome in 826, and Paris in 829, prohibited trade and servile labor on Sunday.

1 Hefele, § 329.

2. Preaching. The importance of preaching, as a factor in the Sunday service, was not overlooked by the more enlightened minds of the age. Chrodegang of Metz, and Alcuin, strongly emphasized the indispensable need of preaching for the religious education of the people. Various synods, as that of Rheims in 813, and of Pavia in 876, instructed the bishops to give heed to the subject. Still, there was wide-spread and persistent neglect. A large proportion of the priests were incompetent to prepare a sermon. If they were to preach, the sermon must of necessity be put into their possession. This was acknowledged; and to meet the case, it was ordained that a collection of homilies from the writings of the fathers, which were to be translated into the vernacular, should be in the hands of bishops and priests.1

3. Baptism. The correspondence of Gregory the Great with the Spanish bishop —to which reference has already been made-indicates that the Latin Church, as well as the Greek, customarily administered baptism by the threefold immersion. Gregory decided, however, that a single immersion was equally valid. In the administration of baptism, various supplementary rites were added to the application of water. Lingard, describing Anglo-Saxon customs, says of the candidate, "He was now anointed on the crown with the chrism in the form of the cross, and a white linen cap called a chrismal was fastened over his head. If the bishop were present, he was first confirmed; if not, he proceeded immediately to the church, and attended at the

1 So Charlemagne, the Synods of Rheims and Tours in 813, and the Synod of Mentz in 847.