first swears because the mother's oath is not legal except in the above affiliation.
[1]Three ways whereby a son is disowned by a kindred : the man, whose son he is said to be, takes the son and places him between himself and the altar, and places his left hand on the head of the son and the right hand on the altar and the relics ; and let him swear that he has not begotten him, and that there is no drop of his blood in him. The second is, if the father is not alive ; the chief of kindred is to deny him, and with him the hands of seven of the kindred. The third is, if he has no chief of kindred ; the oaths of fifty men of the kindred denies him, and the eldest son of the man, to whom the son was affined, is to swear first. [2]Three places where a person is not to give the oath of an absolver : one is on a bridge of a single timber without a hand-rail. The second is at the gateway of a churchyard, because the ' Pater ' is to be sung there for the souls of the Christians of the world. The third is at the church door, because the ' Pater ' is to be sung there before the rood. [3]These persons are exempt from the oath of an absolver : a lord, and a bishop, and a mute, and one who is deaf, and one of foreign language, and a pregnant
