On the other hand, people, and especially the clergy, were liable to be sentenced more severely in proportion to their rank.[362] Thus for homicide, where a layman would get four or five years’ penance from the ordinary,[363] a clerk would receive six years, a priest ten, and a bishop as much as twelve years (seven on bread and water).[364] These long-enduring penances sound severe, and doubtless were for devout believers. But the Roman Church, always a marvel of organisation, allowed its bishops very great latitude, both in imposing and removing penances. “I require not the continuance of time,” said Chrysostom, “but the correction of the soul; demonstrate your contrition, demonstrate your reformation, and all is done.” By the authority of the Councils[365] they could increase or mitigate sentences,[366] so that the infirm and the over-sensitive might have their tasks modified.[367] But they dealt gently with the men of might;[368] the wind was tempered to the woolly lamb.[369] In spite of Cuthbert’s Canons at Cloves-Hoo in the eighth century,[370] the rich were generally enabled to perform their pilgrimages vicariously (whereby there had arisen a class of professional pilgrims; Thrupp, p. 239, etc.), and to atone for sins by almsgiving and payment.[371] “Thou hast money, buy off thy sin,” Ambrose had written in the fourth century.[372] “The Lord is not for sale, but thou thyself art for sale. Restore thee by thy works. Buy thyself back by thy money.” This exhortation was followed and given the lowest possible interpretation in the Canons made (by Dunstan, probably) in the reign of King Edgar in the year 963.[373] When a great man had been condemned to fast, say seven years, he was to lay aside his weapons, and take his staff in his hand and walk barefoot, clad in wool or haircloth, and he was not to go to bed or banquet for three days. He was to take to his assistance twelve men, and they were to fast three days on bread, raw herbs, and water: thus thirty-six fasts were kept. He was to get together seven times 120 men and set them to fast three days; thus he secured 7 × 120 × 3 + 36 fasts, or 2556, which meant as many fasts as there were days in seven years, counting a leap year! And thus his penance was done, or rather evaded.[374] But the Church did not usually allow its penalties to be disregarded; against heretics there were, even in England, severe statutes,[375] and they would be seized by the civil forces and burned alive. Any one who had offended against the Canons, and who refused to do penance, could be excommunicated, and then he became liable to arrest.[376] In this country if the offender ignored it for forty days,[377] the King’s Court, on the request of the bishop,[378] issued a Writ of Significavit,[379] or some similar injunction, ordering the sheriff to imprison him until he had satisfied the claims of the Church.[380]