12
cundo anno vigiati solidos ; qui sunt sexaginta
quataor solidi, c. xiy. We here see how nata*
rally, and almost innocently, crept in a system,
whichy in process of time, attained the most
flagitious character.
We are still unfortunately, because not
very honourably, detained in our own country ;
i^nd the next instance is supplied by the Poeni-
tentiale of Ecgbert, Arphbishop of York, in
the eighth century. The work is of some
length, and is extant in Saxon and Latin.
Here, where we are likewise disgusted with the
demoralising particularisation of the vilest
inicjuity, an advance is made in the compound-
ing system. A consideration is had of the
different capabilities of the rich and the poor ;
the penances are more accurately valued ; and
the alms are to be divided into three parts, one
to the altar, the second for redeeming slaves,
the third to be distributed to ecclesiastic neces-
sities — ut ecclesiasticis necessitatibus distribu-
atur. After some other matter of the same
character, there follows an enumeration of what
are called the Twelve Remissions of Sin.*^
In the ecclesiastic laws of Alfred the Great,
i vi.--4x. something of the same kind occurs ;
- Ses WUkiii^ Confix Hag. Brit tom.i. pp.140, 1.
