Source: Allen J. Frantzen, Anglo-Saxon Penitentials – A Cultural Database (This section addresses customs concerning death and burial.)
Taken from one page of an Internet site no longer available (5 December 2023): Allen J. Frantzen, Anglo-Saxon Penitentials – A Cultural Database. Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20190213194330/http://www.anglo-saxon.net/penance/index.php?p=death
Death and burial
Anyone interested in this topic should consult Victoria Thompson, Death and Dying in Later Anglo-Saxon England. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 2001.
| OE Introduction | Scriftboc | Canons of Theodore | OE Penitential | OE Handbook |
1. OE Introduction
No references
2. Scriftboc
20.01.01 One is allowed to celebrate Mass for a dead monk on the third day [after his burial], and thereafter as the abbot wishes.
20.02.01 For a good layman Mass may be celebrated on the third day or after seven days. For a penitent man Mass may be celebrated after thirty days or after seven, if his kinsmen and relations fast for him and make some offering for his soul at God’s altar.
20.03.01 According to the Romans it is customary to bear the body of defunct men and pious men to church and anoint his breast with holy oil and celebrate Mass for him, and then they take (the body) to the grave with chanting; when it is placed in the grave, it is covered with earth.
20.04.01 On the first day, the third, the ninth and the thirteenth day, Mass may be celebrated for him, and afterward each [year: see Latin] if it is wished.
21.04.01 Three Masses for dead laymen are celebrated each year, on the third day, the ninth day, and the thirtieth (MS reads thirteenth) day, for Christ rose from the dead on the third day and in the ninth hour he gave up his spirit, and the children of Israel mourned Moses for thirty days.
21.05.01 For monks, one may sing Mass every Sunday and recite their names. The Romans do not recite their names at Mass on Sunday.
21.06.01 Dionysius the Areopagite said that he who celebrated Mass for an evil man would commit a blasphemy against God.
21.07.01 Thereupon Augustine said that it (i.e., the saying of Masses) were fitting to do for all Christian men, since either it were good for those who are dead, or it comforted those praying and offering the sacrifice.
21.08.01 Whoever fasts for a dead man, it is profitable for himself; only God knows what is appointed for the dead one.
3. Canons of Theodore
B62.01.01 A bishop must not choose an abbot by himself after the death of another, nor, [if] he [the abbot] be among the living [and] has gone away [because he] has sinned. Nor may he appoint any other to that (position) without the consent of the brothers.
B64.01.01 The animals that are torn by wolves and dogs are not to be eaten by men but by swine and dogs, nor a hart nor a roe if they be found dead.
B64.02.01 The Greeks do not give swine dead flesh, but they allow the skin to be used for shoes and make use of the hide and the horns and the wool, but not for anything of holiness.
B64.03.01 And if it happens that swine eat dead flesh or hens (drink) man’s blood, we do not believe that they are to be thrown away on that account.
B70.01.01 If someone falls in his thoughts or goes out of his mind, and it befalls him that he slay someone, then his kinsmen should pay for the man and hold him liable for the other one (i.e., the kin pay the wergeld but hold the murder liable for the dead man).
B70.01.02 If someone slays another in (a fit of) insanity (or unconsciously), before one knows whether his kinsmen wish to intercede for him, the men (sic; “the man”) who killed him should make compensation to his kinsmen for that man.
B76.05.01 He who often commits many capital sins, that is murder, false oaths, and evil fornication with women and with animals, he must forsake those evid deeds and go into a monastery and repent until his death.
B77.03.01 Penance of the loss of orders is death, but the soul lives.
B78.01.03 Whoever burns corn for the health of the living where dead men are buried must fast for 7 years.
B78.02.01 Swine who drink man’s blood may be eaten.
B78.02.02 But if they tear dead men it is not permitted that they are to be eaten before a year has passed, so that that flesh has gone out from them.
B78.06.02 Whoever fasts for a dead man, that may well help him.
4. OE Penitential
Y41.03.00 Concerning those who yearn for repentance and “food for a journey” (that is, the body of Christ) because of terror of death and concerning those for whom speech fails before his confessor comes to him.
Y41.03.01 Of this it is needful, that the priest console a man so disposed and hear his confession and especially not refuse him the Eucharist; and even though he is so weighed down with sickness that he may not speak as he might have before, (then) if he have witness of the men who are with him, so that he yearns for confession and the Eucharist, then the priest should forgive him and grant him the last offices.
Y41.13.00 Concerning those to whom the Eucharist is forbidden and who die in that condition.
Y41.13.01 Concerning this thing, we do not know how we consider it any other way, except that it should be according to God’s judgment. For it was in God’s power that he departed (died) without the Eucharist.
Y41.15.01 Here St. James prescribes that if any one is in an infirm state, that he summon his priest to him and other servants of God, so that they read over him, and the infirm one tell them his need and they anoint him in God’s name with holy oil. And through the prayers of these faithful men, and through the anointing, he may become protected. The Lord will raise him up and if he is sinful they (his sins) will be forgiven him. 
Y41.15.02 Therefore ought any sinful man, if he is able, receive the anointing and the last offices that pertain thereto. For (concerning) each of those men who has the last rites (offices), it is written that his soul as clean after his death as the soul of a child who dies soon after baptism.
Y42.01.04 If anyone slay his child to death unwillingly (accidentally), he it is to fast for 3 years, 1 on bread and water and 2 as his confessor instructs him.
Y42.01.05 If a bishop or a masspriest slay someone, he is to lose his rank.
Y42.02.01 If a woman destroys her child inside her with drink (a potion?) or with other various things, or murders it after it comes forth, she is to fast 10 years, 3 on bread and water and 7 as her confessor mercifully instructs her.
Y42.03.01 If any man kills his servant, and he has no testimony that he (the servant) did wrong, except that he killed him because of his rage and his neglect, he is to fast for 2 years.
Y42.04.01 If any woman strikes her servant for some vile envy and she dies from that (blow), and she (wifman) is innocent, the woman (hlæfdige) it is to fast seven years. If she has witness that she (the servant) were guilty, she is to fast 3 years.
Y42.05.01 (Concerning) the man who willingly slays himself with a weapon or at some instigation of the devil: it is not permitted for anyone to sing mass for such a man, nor to commit that body to the earth with any psalm-song.
Y42.05.02 The same judgment is to obtain for him who loses his life because of pain of his sins.
Y42.08.01 The man who forsakes his lawful wife and takes another is an adulterer; no priest is to give him the Eucharist or any of the rites that pertain to Christian men, and if he should happen to die, do not bury him with Christians. And if the woman forsakes her lawful husband and chooses another, she is to have the same judgment that it is given above.
Y42.11.01 If any woman takes two brothers as husbands, one after the other, they are to be separated, and they are to repent for as long as they live, as their confessor instructs them. And at their death the priest is to perform the rites for them as one does for Christians if they promise that they will repent for a long time, if they live for a long time.
Y42.11.02 If someone remains in such an evil marriage until the end of his life, we do not know how to instruct him (or her) in repentance, but it is left to God’s judgment.
Y42.20.01 It is not now permitted for any Christian man that he marry more often than twice. For St. Paul forbids it in his teaching and instructs each man how he should act concerning that thing. That it is, if any man’s first wife if dead, that he may lawfully take another, and if he outlasts that one, then he is afterwards to remain wifeless.
Y42.20.02 Likewise the woman, if death should come to her first husband, by law she may take another if she wishes to do that. If she outlives him, she is to remain forever in widowhood as long as her life lasts.
Y44.13.01 If someone drives a stake into another man, he is to fast 3 years, 1 year on bread and water and for 2 years he is to fast 3 days each week on bread and water and if the man is dead because of the stake, then he is to fast 7 years as it is written above.
Y44.23.01 If anyone shoots a deer with an arrow and it nevertheless escapes, and one finds it dead three days later and a dog or a wolf or fox or bear has gnawed it or any other wild animal, no Christian man is to consume it.
Y44.24.01 If a wolf kills any sort of cattle and it is dead because of that, no Christian man is to consume it. And if he does so, he is to fast 4 weeks on bread and water; and if it lives and one kills it afterward, he is to enjoy it lawfully.
Y44.25.01 If any animal is strangled in a net, it is not permitted for anyone to use it. If anyone uses it he is to fast 4 weeks every other day on bread and water.
Y44.26.01 If anyone find a dead fish in a fishpond and he eats it, he is to fast 4 weeks on Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and water and the other days forgo meat. And if one finds a dead fish in a stream, he may eat it lawfully.
Y44.32.02 It is said in another place that if a great deal of that food is altogether (in which a small animal has died), one is to sprinkle it with holy water and eat if he needs it, and that then (only) out of necessity.
Y44.56.01 If any sort of creature fall into a water pit and one finds it dead there, one is to scour the pit clean and sprinkle holy water on it. And if anyone taste it before that well is blessed, he is to fast 1 week on bread and water; if he does not know it, he is to fast 1 day on bread and water.
5. OE Handbook
54.05.01 If a layman slays another without fault, he is to fast 7 years on bread and water and 4 years as his confessor instructs him, and after that repentance of 7 years, he is to repent his misdeeds diligently, to extent that he may; for it is unknown how acceptable his penance were to God.
54.06.01 He who wishes to kill another and is unable to carry out his wish fully is to fast for three years on bread and water and two years as his priest instructs him and ever to repent his misdeeds.
54.07.01 If a layman slays a man out of necessity, he is to fast for three years, one on bread and water, and two as his scrift instructs him. If it is a subdeacon (who slays another), he is to fast for six years; if it is a deacon, he is to fast for seven years; if is a masspriest, he is to fast for ten years and if a bishop, for twelve years and repent ever after.
54.08.01 If anyone smites his child to death unintentionally, he is to fast for 5 years, 3 on bread and water as above.
54.09.01 If a bishop or a masspriest slays someone, he must forfeit his rank and repent earnestly ever after.
54.10.01 If a woman kills her child while it is inside her, or after it comes out, with drink or with diverse other things, she is to fast 10 years, three on bread and water and seven as her priest mercifully teaches her, and repent it ever after.
54.11.01 If someone kill his servant without fault out of anger, he is to fast 3 years.
54.12.01 If a woman strikes her servant because of some vile enmity and she dies from that (blow), and she [the servant] is innocent, the woman [mistress] is to fast 3 years and repent her misdeed ever after.
54.13.01 If a man intentionally slay himself with a weapon or at some kind of demonic instigation, it is not permitted to sing mass for such a man, nor to commit that body to earth with any psalms, nor to bury the body in a consecrated (purified) cemetery.
54.13.02 One must reach the same judgment for him who loses his life in punishment of his sins–that is, for the thief, the murderer, or betrayer of his lord.
54.35.01 If someone destroy another with witchcraft, he is to fast three years on bread and water, and for four years (fast) three days each week on bread and water and repent ever after.
54.36.01 If someone drive a stake into another he is to fast three years, one year on bread and water and two (years) three days each week on bread and water; and if he dies because of the stake, then he is to fast seven years as it is written here and repent his offense ever after.
54.39.01 If anyone suffocates a child in sleep so that it dies, he is to fast three years, one on bread and water and, for two years, three days in the week, and if it came about through drunkenness, he is to repent more deeply, as his priest instructs, and repent that ever after.
54.40.01 If an unhealthy child dies a heathen, responsibility for that belongs to the priest. He is to forfeit his rank and repent it earnestly; and if it came about through the negligence of friends, they are to fast for three years on bread and water and, for two years, three days in the week and repent it ever after.
55.15.02 Let him visit with goods those who are sad in mind and sick, and bury the dead for the Love of God. Let him kneel often in secret places and prostrate himself on the earth and fast and watch and pray often and frequently and fast and watch and pray earnestly day and night and often and frequently.