Note 474 — Chapter IX · THE MUTUAL GUARANTEE. MÆGBURH. TITHING. HUNDRED.

“And if any one charge a person in holy orders with feud (fǽhðe) and say that he was a perpetrator or adviser of homicide, let him clear himself with his kinsmen, who must bear the feud with him, or make compensation for it. And if he have no kin, let him clear himself with his associates or fast for the ordeal by bread, and so fare as God may ordain.” Æðelr. ix. § 23, 24. Thorpe, i. 344. Cnut, i. § 5. Thorpe, i. 362. The associates or geferan here are probably his fellows in orders. But a monk being released from all family relations could not be implicated in the responsibilities of the mǽgburh (ibid. § 25); “for he forsakes his law of kin (mǽgðlage) when he submits to monastic law.” Cnut, i. § 5. Thorpe, i. 362.