“We have learnt by your letters that Lomberd, a layman, the bearer of these presents, accompanied his earl on an expedition into Caithness; that there the Earl’s army stormed a castle, killed almost all who were in it, and took prisoner the Bishop of Caithness; and that this Lomberd, as he says, was compelled by some of the earl’s soldiery to cut out the bishop’s tongue. Now because the sin is great and grievous, in absolving him, according to the form of the church, we have prescribed this penance for satisfaction of his offence, and to the terror of others:—That he shall hasten home, and bare-footed, and naked, except breeches, and a short woollen vest without sleeves, having his tongue tied by a string, and drawn out so as to project beyond his lips, and the ends of the string bound round his neck, with rods in his hand, in sight of all men, walk for fifteen days successively through his own native district, the district of the mutilated bishop, and the neighbouring country; he shall go to the door of the church without entering, and there, prostrate on the earth, undergo discipline with the rods he is to carry; he is thus to spend each day in silence and fasting until evening, when he shall support nature with bread and water only; after these fifteen days are passed he shall prepare within a month to set out for Jerusalem, and there labour in the service of the Cross for three years; he shall never more bear arms against Christians; for two years he shall fast every Friday on bread and water, unless by the indulgence of some discreet bishop, or on account of bodily infirmity, this abstinence be mitigated. Do you then receive him returning in this manner, and see that he observe the penance enjoined him.” (Epist. Innoc. III. Lib. iii. No. 77; Diplom. Norvegicum, vii. 3.) Footnote 47: Chron. de Mailros, p. 114; see also p. lxxxi. _infra_. Footnote 48: Magnus, son of the Earl of Angus, appears among those present at the perambulation of the boundaries of the lands of the Abbey of Aberbrothock on 16th January 1222 (Regist. Vet. de Aberbrothock, p. 163); but he seems to have been Earl of Angus as well as of Caithness at the date after mentioned. A charter of King Alexander II. to the chapel of St. Nicholas at Spey, dated 2d October 1232, is witnessed by M. Earl of Angus and Kataness (Regist. Moraviense, p. 123). Footnote 49: