The ultimate penalty of the church was excommunication, a social ostracism in which no one could give the person drink, food, or shelter and he could speak only to his spouse and servants. Excommunication included denial of the sacraments of baptism, penance, mass [lord's supper}, and extreme unction [prayers for spiritual healing] at death; which were necessary for salvation of the soul; and the sacrament of confirmation. A person could also be denied a Christian burial in consecrated ground. However, the person could still marry and make a will. The purpose of excommunication was to restore the person to spiritual health rather than to punish him. Excommunication was usually imposed for failure to obey an order or for showing contempt of the law or of the courts. It required a hearing and a written reason. The king's court could order a recalcitrant excommunicant imprisoned until he satisfied the claims of the church. If this measure failed, it was possible to turn the offender over to the state for punishment, e.g. for blasphemy or heresy. Blasphemy was thought to cause God's wrath expressed in famine, pestilence, and earthquake and was usually punished by a fine or corporal punishment, e.g. perforation or amputation of the tongue. It was tacitly understood that the punishment for heresy was death by burning. There were no heresy cases up to 1400 and few after that. The state usually assured itself the sentence was just before imposing it. The court of the rural dean was the ecclesiastical parallel of the hundred court of secular jurisdiction and usually had the same land boundaries. The archdeacons, who had been ministers of the bishop in all parts of his diocese alike, were now each assigned to one district, which usually had the same boundaries as the county. Each bishop headed a diocese. Over the bishops were the two Archbishops of Canterbury and of York. The ecclesiastical court had one judge and no jury. Most cases dealt with offenses against the church, such as working on Sunday, and sexual mores. The court used teatimony and depositions of witnesses, oaths of the parties, confessions, physical and written evidence, presumptions of common knowledge, and inquests of impartial, sworn men who made unanimous determinations. The accuser had to meet the burden of proof. The accused could be required to answer questions under oath, thus giving evidence against himself. It was not necessary to have an accuser; a judge could open a case based on public rumor. The judge made a written decision that did not incude his reasoning. He read the decision aloud in a public session of the court. If an accused disobeyed a court order to appear or to do penance, he could be excommunicated.