Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/35

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.