In centuries past, before the deceased were laid to rest, the family of the dead would call upon the local sin eater. This man had one task: to take on the sins of the recently departed, so that they may journey to heaven with assurance.
In the custom, the sin eater would arrive during the funeral, and the family of the deceased would place a piece of bread either on the chest of the corpse, or hold it over the corpse, and the sin eater would eat the bread and drink from a cup, usually ale as it was guaranteed to be “clean,” thus absorbing that person’s sins. They would be paid a pittance for their service.
As a result, the sin eater was generally avoided outside of those rituals, because of the mountains of sin which had been placed upon them. When it came time for the dead to be buried, for those who had departed to be given one last chance at redemption, the sin eater would appear.
To encounter a sin eater in any other way was to court danger, because the sin eater was said to engage in dangerous, and unholy, magick rituals. Thus, they often lived alone in the woods, keeping to themselves until it was time to do their duty.
The last of the sin eaters died off, officially, in the 1800s, though I have no doubt there are people who still walk the earth and perform this practice.
If we look at the practice from another point of view, however, it becomes clear that sin eating never died, it just changed form. We still engage in this practice today.
The poor have taken on the sins of the affluent, and for a few pence and a handful of empty promises, have willingly condemned themselves, and their children, to a lifetime of misery in order to give blessed assurance to those at the top that their actions in this life won’t affect them in the life to come.
The affluent should be forewarned, however, that the bellies of the sin eaters are getting full. There will come a time when the outcast will no longer accept the bread of those who artfully dodged the repercussions of their actions, and will lay at their feet the disgorged remnants of those vile ambitions.