Note 11 — Chapter III · THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE.—BEDS AND BED-ROOMS.—INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS.—CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON LADIES.—THEIR CRUELTY TO THEIR SERVANTS.—THEIR AMUSEMENTS.—THE GARDEN; LOVE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS FOR FLOWERS.—ANGLO-SAXON PUNISHMENTS.—ALMSGIVING.
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This, I suppose, is the meaning of the canon of Alfric (No. 9), which allows a layman to marry, with a dispensation, a second time, “if his wife desert him” (gyf his wíf ætfylð) but the priest was not allowed to give his blessing to the marriage, because it was a case in which the church enjoined a penance, the performance of which it would be his duty to require. But the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical laws on this subject is rather obscure.