“But if any of my reeves will not do this, and care less about it than we have decreed, then let him pay my _oferhyrnes_ [that is the fine for _disobedience_], and I will find another, who will. And let the bishop exact the _oferhyrnes_ of the reeve in whose district it may be.” Leg. Æðelst. i. § 26. Thorpe, i. 212. Again: “And let the judge that giveth wrong judgment to another, pay to the king a _bót_ of one hundred and twenty shillings; unless he will venture to prove on oath that he knew no better. And let him forfeit his thaneship for ever, unless he can redeem it from the king, as he may be willing to permit. And let the bishop of the shire exact the _bót_ into the king’s hand.” Leg. Eádg. ii. § 3. Thorpe, i. 266. ----- The high station occupied by the bishop in the social hierarchy is proved by the amount of his wergyld and of the fines assigned to offences against his honour, his person, and his property. Although the bishop and the presbyter are in fact but of one order in the church, yet the state found it convenient to place the former on much the higher scale. In the “North-people’s law” an archbishop is reckoned upon the same footing as an æðeling or prince of the blood, at fifteen thousand thrymsas, and a bishop upon the same footing as an ealdorman at eight thousand. The breach of a bishop’s surety or protection, like the ealdorman’s, rendered the offender liable to a fine of two pounds, which in the case of an archbishop rose to three[892]. He that drew weapon before a bishop or ealdorman was to be mulcted in one hundred shillings, before an archbishop, in one hundred and fifty[893]. Under Ini the violence done to a bishop’s dwelling, and the seat of his jurisdiction, was to be compensated with one hundred and twenty shillings, while the ealdorman’s was protected by a fine of only eighty: in this the episcopal dignity was placed upon a level with that of the king himself[894]. Similarly Wihtrǽd had declared his mere word, without an oath, to be like the king’s, incontrovertible. ----- Footnote 892: Leg. Ælfr. § 3. Cnut, ii. § 59. Thorpe, i. 62, 408. In this last passage, as in the North-people’s law of wergyld, the archbishop’s and æðeling’s borh and mundbryce are reckoned alike at three pounds. So also Ll. Æðelr. vii. § 11. Thorpe, i. 330. Footnote 893: Leg. Ælf. § 15. Æðelr. vii. § 12. Thorpe i. 70, 332. Footnote 894: Leg. Ini, § 45. Thorpe, i. 130. This overrated estimate is corrected by Ælfred, who settles the sums thus: king, one hundred and twenty scill.; archbishop, ninety scill.; bishop and ealdorman, sixty scill. Leg. Ælf. § 40. Thorpe, i. 88. -----