m. An ecclesiastical due, to be paid for every deceased person to the clergy of the church to which he belonged, in consideration of the services performed by them in his behalf. It was to be paid before the funeral rites were completed, though the regulation would hardly be carried out in cases where grants of land were made. It appears to have been one of the objects of the early gilds, to provide for the payment of this fee:--Sáwlsceat vel syndrig Godes lác dano (dona?), Wrt. Voc. i. 28, 44. The passages dealing with the subject in the Laws are the following:--Ic wille ðæt míne geréfan gedón ðæt man ágife ða ciricsceattas and ða sáwlsceattas tó ðám stówum ðe hit mid riht tó gebirige, L. Ath. i. prm.; Th. i. 196, 9. Gelǽste man sáwlsceat (sául-, MS. A.) æt ǽlcan cristenan men tó ðam mynstre ðe hit tó gebyrige, L. Edg. 1, 5; Th. i. 264, 24. And sáulsceat is rihtast ðæt man symle gelǽste æt openum græfe; and gif man ǽnig líc of rihtscriftscíre elles hwár lecge, gelǽste man sáulsceat swá ðéh intó ðam mynstre ðe hit tó hýrde, L. Eth. sáwelsceat is sometimes determined in amount by the will of the deceased:--Ic gean intó Élig . . . ðér mínes hláfordes líchoma rest, ðara þreó landa ðe wit geheótan Gode . . . and ðes beáhges gemacan, ðe man sæalde mínum hláforde, tó sáwlescæatte, Chart. Th. 524, 14-30. See too Shrn. 159, and Turner's Anglo-Saxons, bk. vii. c. xi