The lesser excommunication excluded men from the participation of the
Eucharist and the prayers of the faithful, but did not necessarily expel
them from the Church. The greater excommunication was far more dreadful
in its operation. It was not lawful to pray, speak, or eat, with the
excommunicate (Canons of Ecgbright). No meat might be given into their
hands even in charity, although it might be laid before them on the
ground. Those who sheltered them incurred a heavy "were gild," and
endangered the loss of their estates; and finally, in case of obstinacy,
outlawry and banishment followed.

--King Canute's Laws Ecclesiastical.

xxxii Disappearance of Elgiva.

The writer has already in the preface stated his reasons for rejecting
the usual sad story about the fate of the hapless Elgiva. The other
story, that she was seized by Archbishop Odo, branded on the face, and
sent to Ireland, as Mr. Freeman observes, rests on no good authority;
all that is certainly known is that she disappeared.

At the time commonly assigued to these events, Dunstan was still in
Flanders; yet he is generally credited with the atrocities by modern
writers, even as if he had been proved guilty after a formal trial. His
return probably took place about the time occupied by the action of the
last chapter, when the partition of the kingdom had already occurred.

xxxiii The last Anointing.

The priest shall also have oil hallowed, separately, for children, and