YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE ANeLO-SAXON CHURCH ITS HISTORY REVENUES AND GENERAL CHARACTER By henry SOAMES M.A. CHANCELLOE OF ST PAUL'S CATHEDEAL LONDON POUaTH EDITION REVISED AUGMENTED AND COKKECTED LONDON JOHN W. PARKER AND SON WEST STRAND MDCCCLVI |2Sb LONDON: PttlNTED BY ¦WERTHEIMEB AND CO, FINSBUBY CIRCUS. So 15 TO THE REVEREND HUGH CHAMBRES JONES, M.A. OP BBYNSTEDDFOD, DENBI&HSHIHE, AECHDEACON OF ESSEX, AND TREASURER OF 3T. PAXIL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, AS A TESTIMONY OF DEEP RESPECT FOR A HIGHLY EFFICIENT AND ACCEPTABLE DISCHARGE OF IMPORTANT OFFICIAL DUTIES; FOR QUALITIES OE.IIEAD AND HEART, THAT CHRISTIANIZE AND EMBELLISH PRIVATE LIFE; AKD FOR A DISINTERESTED VIEW OF ECCLESIASTICAL PATRONAGE AS A PUBLIC TRUST, BY HIS OBLIGED AND AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. FURNEUX PeLHAM, Uarch 5, 1835. CONTENTS. Advertisement to the Second Edition -¦ TO THE Third Edition . TO THE Fourth Edition Preeaoe ..... INTRODUCTION. Britain converted very early St. Peter probably concerned in the Conversion Presumptions that St. Paul might be so concerned Joseph of Arimathea, and Glastonbury Lucius Episcopacy of Ancient Britain St.Alban . Arianism introduced Pelagius Pelagianism introduced and suppressed . Settlement of the Saxons CHAPTER I. Divisions of Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical History The Continental Colonists of England Obstacles to their Conversion from Paganism Ethelbert's Marriage with a Christian Princess Gregory the Great .... Offended by John the Easter A, D. His alleged Conversation in the Slave-market 596. Augustine sent into Britain his Arrival in Kent his Establishment at Canterbury 601. • his Questions to Gregory his Conferences with the Britons 604. 625. Slaughter of the Monks of Bangor Death of Augustine Foundation of St. Paul's, in London Apparent Failure of the Roman Mission . Marriage of Ethelburga into Northumbria 11 13 17 19 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3940 41 42 4344 454647 4849 50 51 52 63 56 5858596061 su CONTENTS. 627. 630. 636. 654. 664. Dexterity of Paulinus First Conversion of Northumbria Conversion of East Anglia Final Conversion of Northumbria Conversion of Mercia Final Conversion of Essex Conversion of Wessex Conversion of Sussex Roman Triumph at Whitby Doctrines CHAPTER II. 668,673. 678. 680. 690. 693. 694.696. 709. 740.766. 746. 747. Partial Realisation of Augustine's Plans . Early History of Wilfrid . Theodore appointed Archbishop of Canterbury His Literary Services to England Council of Hertford Deposition of Wilfrid Council of Hatfield Benedict Biscop Patronage given to the Founders of Churches Death of Theodore . His Penitential Death of Wilfrid . General View of his Life . Laws of Ina Council of Bapchild Council of Berghamsted Church-shot imposed by Ina Tythes usual among Pagans MonasteriesPilgrimages to Rome Aldhelm Bede Egbert, Archbishop of York Tripartite Division of Tythes Alcuin Willibrord Boniface Council of Cloveshoo CONTENTS. XUl 787. Offa, King of Mercia Archbishopric of Lichfield First Papal Legates in England . Council of Calcuith Peter-pence granted by Ofia Image-worship Indignantly condemned in England The Caroline Books Egbert's Penitential Abstinence from Blood, and the Strangled or Unclean Fasting for the Dead thought of doubtful Use . CHAPTER III. Dark and Stormy Period of Anglo-Saxon History Council of Celychyth Incidental Evidence against Transubstantiation Secular Monasteries Notice of the Ancient British Church Ethelwulf .... StSwithin Ethelwulf's Decimation . Journey to Rome his Death 816. 836. 854. 855. 858. 853. Alfred's Visit to Rome his Neglected Education 871. his Accession 878. his Retirement his Victory over the Danes 901. his Death his Infirmities his Economy of Time his Economy of Money . his Provision for Ecclesiastical- Dues his Truncated Decalogue his Theology Erigena .... 904. Alleged Interference of Pope Formosus 924. Accession of Athelstan . 928. Council of Grateley Qualifications of a Thane . Doctrines .... XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. t^,/. The Monastic System ^28. Birth of Dunstan .... His Education .... His Phrenzy .... He is tonsured, and retires to Glastonbury Introduced at Court Driven from it . Argues against Monachism Adopts the Benedictine Habit Introduces it at Glastonbury 943. Council of London Archbishop Odo .... His Canons .... Ethelwold ..... Foundation of Abingdon Abbey . Dunstan driven into Exile restored - — — advanced to the Episcopate made Archbishop of Canterbury 956. 957. 959. 961. 968. Council of Andover Defined Civil Penalties for the Recovery of Tythes Church-shot reserved for the Ancient Minsters Hardships undergone by the Married Canons Archbishop Oswald The Monastic Triumvirate Relics and Pilgrimages Council of Winchester The Speaking Crucifix ¦^5. The Canons reinstated 978x^ Council of Calne . Fall of the Floor there Edward the Martyr 979. Ethelred the Unready 988. Death of Dunstan His Resistance to Papal Interference Alleged Removal of his Remains to Glastonbury 1008. Council of Eanham .... Church Dues defined but not enforced by Penalties Archiepiscopal Announcement of Legislative Acts CONTENTS. XV Council of Haba . 1014. Church Dues enforced by Penalties Elfrio .... his Education commissioned to regulate Cerne 'Abbey his Homilies his Latin Grammar his Epistles to Wulfsine and Wulfstan his Scriptural Translations and other Works obscurity of his History probable Sketch of it probable Cause of its Obscurity Canute's Ecclesiastical Laws 1043. Edward the Confessor . his Ecclesiastical Laws 1052. Stigand . 1062. Foundation of Waltham Abbey Doctrines CHAPTER V. Salvation offered universally Practice, the only Test of Sound Religion Humility represented as indispensable The Human Soul God's Image . The Bondage of the Will Nature of the Christian Church The Creed and Lord's Prayer to be explained Apocryphal Legends Strict Observance of Sunday Legendary Reasons for it Festivals ..... Fasts ..... Abstinence from Blood and certain Meats Election, Examination and Engagements of Bishops Episcopal Assent to Transubstantiation an Innovation Legislative Rights of the Prelacy Episcopal Jurisdiction in the County Courts Episcopal Sees .... Episcopal Duties and Restrictions Examinations for Orders Regulations for the Clergy XVI CONTENTS. Endeavours to keep them unmarried Ministerial Gradations . The Priesthood and Episcopate distinguished Office ..... Anglo-Saxon Monks Regulations provided for them The Trinoda Necessitas . GuildshipsCoronation Oath . Anglo-Saxon Laws relating to Baptism MarriagesWakes Burial in Churches Consecration of Churches Anglo-Saxon Buildings . Organs Ordeals The Truce of Religion Consecrated Water and Oil used as Charms Commutations of Penance Anglo-Saxon Saints St. Chad's Horse-wain . St. Cuthbert St. Etheldred St. Edmund the King St. Frideswide St. Oswald St. Guthlac Anglo-Saxon Versions of Scripture Apocryphal and Paraphrastic Scriptures Utility of the Anglo-Saxon Scriptures to Students .... Conclusion .... aly by Biblical APPENDIX. I. King Edgar's Proclamation II. Elpric's Second Epistle III. Sermon for the Lord's Supper Day IV. Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Chronology INDEX ... ... 259261282 285287 ADVERTISEMENT THE SECOND EDITION. 'T^HE call for a Second Edition of this work is a gratify- -*- ing testimony to the growing desire for such informa tion as it offers. The importance of its pecuniary state ments is overlooked by no party. Most Englishmen, partial to the religion of their fathers, feel an interest in tracing existing endowments to the very dawn of national legislation. Tythes admit of no question, and church-shots naturally seem the origin and representatives of the modern church-rate. Light-shot carries that character on the very face, and an universal obligation to church-repair must have been established long before, or it would not be distinctly recognised in the very ancient statute of Circumspecte agatis.^ Candid minds are glad of such facts, as answers to any who would ground church-rates upon unproved and improbable charges of clerical artifice. Clergymen still maintain chancels and cathedrals. Those who re member the church-shots, and distinguish minster tythe from parochial, will probably think their ancient liabilities to have been no greater. Subjects of less temporary interest, must also have con tributed to the success of this undertaking. Romanists ' 13Edw. I., A.D. 1285. 12 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. claim a belief descending uninterruptedly from Augustine : to their Church, England is often thought indebted almost exclusively for conversion; to their pontiff, a right of interference is represented as conceded from the first. In other quarters, there is a habit of confounding the seculars, or ordinary clergy, with the regulars, or monks. This latter is, however, the body to which nearly all Henry the Eighth's precedents apply. None of these questions can be rationally discussed, without an acquaint ance with our ancient ecclesiastical history. In reprinting this attempt to spread that branch of knowledge, an Italic letter has been used for the Saxon. In thus consulting economy and expedition, the soft and the hard th are necessarily confounded. Otherwise, the character may very well answer every necessary purpose ; especially at a time when Saxon editing has, perhaps, hardly attained maturity. FORNEUX Pelham, July 28,1838. ADVERTISEMENT THE THIRD EDITION. A S this work has been for a considerable time out of print, -^¦*- it was thought likely that a new Edition would be fa vourably received by the public. Since its first appearance, the edge of opposition to the Church's pecuniary claims has materially worn off. Party-feeling has found new channels, and men are become far better informed, not only as to the amount of ecclesiastical wealth, but also as to the foundations on which it rests. Religious questions have, however, very rarely received more attention than they do at present; and it is impossible to understand them without a competent knowledge of ecclesiastical his tory. Principles, rendered prominent by passing events, must be stripped of that adventitious claim to notice, and traced upwards, by those who would estimate them rightly. Means of thus treating a considerable number of religious questions, highly interesting to Englishinen, are accumu lated in the present volume. It can scarcely, therefore. 14 ADVERTISEMENT fail of extending facilities for the acquisition of useful information. Since this work first appeared, other publications have thrown much important light upon the Anglo-Saxon period in English history. Of them advantage has been taken in preparing the present Edition for the press. One of them, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, edited by Mr. Thorpe under the Record Commission, made it seem de sirable to add an Appendix. The materials from which The Anglo-Saxon Church was compiled being either printed works of no very difficult access, or extracts from MSS., which are given in foot-notes, it appeared at first neces sary to subjoin nothing more than Edgar's declaration respecting ecclesiastical dues. Of this no notice is taken in preceding compilations upon such subjects. But Mr. Thorpe has printed three pieces with Elfric's name — one, the document called sometimes JElfric's Canons, at other times, his Epistle to Wulfsine ; another, a piece called uElfrics Pastoral Epistle, which has a Latin prologue to Archbishop Wulfstan ; and a third, styled Elfric's Epistle, entitled Quando dividis Chrisma. This last he gives from a Cambridge MS., which exhibits the piece very much curtailed of the proportions found in a Bodleian MS., where it is said (but in a hand, seemingly, of Poxe's time, or thereabouts), to be Elfric's Epistle to Wulfstan. Now it is this longer piece which contains the testimony against transubstantiation, extracted and printed by Foxe in his Martyrology, and by L'Isle in his Testimony of Anti- quitie. This is not found either in the Pastoral Epistle, inscribed to Wulfstan, or in the truncated piece, Quando dividis Chrisma, thought to have been written for him. An inquirer, therefore, with only Mr. Thorpe's recent and most excellent work before him, may be at a loss to know TO THE THIRD EDITION. ]5 upon what authority Foxe and L'Isle based their import ant publications. Those who would wish all doubt upon such a subject to be removed, will naturally be glad of seeing the whole piece, Quando dividis Chrisma, in print. It will, accordingly, be now found in the Appendix to this work, from a transcript made, some years ago, in the Bodleian Library. Foxe and L^Isle might have been mis taken in supposing it intended for Wulfstan, but that is immaterial. It has every appearance of Elfric's pen, and must have been much about his age. It is, therefore, quite conclusive as to ancient England's eucharistic belief. It is, however, very much like an episcopal charge, for the delivery of which occasion was taken from the concourse of clergy who came to obtain their annual supplies of con secrated oil. Hence it is quite likely to have been written, either for Wulfstan's delivery upon such an occasion, or for Elfric's own, provided he really became a bishop, as there is reason for believing that he did. This venerable monument of the ancient English Church is also valuable, because it brings to notice many particulars in then exist ing religious usages. Undoubtedly, it exhibits a great attention to superstitions trifles. But the age could not rise above such weaknesses ; and none, who claim for the Anglo-Saxon Church a character substantially Protestant upon the whole, deny her to have received a Romish leaven, especially in rituals. To this episcopal charge, as it seems fairly entitled to be considered, it was thought that a sermon for the day of its delivery, might well be added. Readers may thus see how the English laity, as well as the clergy, were anciently addressed on Thursday, in Passion Week. The sermbn has not, indeed, the recommendation of bring ing many particulars under view; but it illustrates that 16 advertisement to the third edition. remarkable feature in the religious discipline of the times, which drove scandalous offenders from the church on Ash- Wednesday, and did not allow them to enter it again until Maundy-Thursday; yet expected them to spend much of the intervening time, humbled examples of peni tence, around its walls. Stapleford Tawnet, March 11, 184i. ADVERTISEMENT THE FOURTH EDITION. T^HREE impressions of this work having been exhausted, a Fourth Edition might seem not unlikely to make its way. But it was thought advisable to publish it less expen sively than its predecessors. Information spreads more widely every day. Many have hitherto made but little use of certain books, from no other cause than insufficient means to procure them. But a cheaper literature frees the great bulk of cultivated and inquiring minds from this dis advantage. Happily such general access to intellectual occupation is growing fast into a national necessity. With such a demand, sound civilisation is inseparably con nected. It calls, however, for some retrenchments of matter that a scholar would rather have before him with out any further trouble, though it is useless to the general reader. By such retrenchments economy has been con sulted in this edition. Most of the Anglo-Saxon authori ties are entirely in English; references only being given for the use of those who wish to consult the originals. In a few instances of citations from these venerable docu ments the original words are given : chiefly as brief mate rials for making some comparison between ancient and modern English. Of Latin citations, inserted only as proofs, nothing has been left beyond references to the books from which they were taken. Nor have notes, 18 advertisement to the fourth edition. directly controversial, been retained. They gave to former editions a character somewhat polemical, but adverse opi nions have not been so well established as to render the continuance of these notes any longer necessary. From the text nothing has been curtailed : but fresh matter has been introduced in many places, and advantage has been thankfully taken of unfriendly criticism, whenever it seemed to suggest any substantial improvement. Stapleford Tawnet, ^ Nov. 14, 1855. PREFACE. TN preparing the Bampton Lectures of 1830,' it became ¦*• obvious that a satisfactory view of Anglo-Saxon reli gion required various historical details and miscellaneous particulars, which a limited course of doctrinal sermons gave no opportunities of laying before the reader. Con siderable materials for supplying this information were naturally accumulated while the undertaking was in pro gress. Many more have been collected since. The recent agitation of pecuniary questions affecting the Church, ^^ gave encouragement for completing, arranging, publishing, and commenting upon these collections. All over England are places of religious worship, uniform in doctrine and discipline, and supported by endowments that have been immemorially protected by the State. The country has also many places of worship far from uniform as to doctrine or discipline, but supported likewise more 'or less by endowments which are fully protected by the State. The propriety of such protection, in the latter case, has been conceded by all parties. It seems to have occurred to no man that these modem foundations are become public pro perty, because they are no longer private inheritances. Hence we have heard nothing of their just habUity to seizure for any purpose whatever, either religious, or local, or fiscal ; nor have individual holders been tempted by a prospect of appropriating to their own emolument such parts of them as may be in their, hands. Hitherto such suggestions have been reserved for our ancient rehgious ' An Inquiry into the Doc trines of the Anglo-Saxon Church. ^ So said in 1835, when the first edition of this work was published. 20 preface. foundations. These are often treated not only as mere creatures of some legislative act, but also as justly con vertible, by like authority, to any purpose, either public or private, or to both conjointly, as expediency or accident may suggest. The enactment, however, which this view assumes, has not found admittance into collections of the national records; certainly an extraordinary fate for such a statute. Nor is it less unaccountable that no trace of it appears in those monkish chronicles which comprise our ancient history, and which are ordinarily copious, nay, even rhetorical, when they have to mention some advan tage gained by religion. A legislature also that provided churches, would hardly overlook the "size of parishes. This, however, might hastily be thought owing to accident, or caprice. The smallness of many rural parishes raises the wonder of a townsman, and certainly renders plans, drawn from cases widely different, neither very practicable nor important. Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical History throws light upon these questions. It informs us, that England's first ac knowledged metropolitan, an active and able Asiatic, in duced wealthy persons to build and endow churches on their estates, by tempting them, as Justinian had his own countrymen, with the patronage of their several founda tions. It shows this policy to have been approved by Athel stan, one of the wisest, most powerful, and most energetic of Anglo-Saxon princes ; who granted the rank of thane to proprietors, being otherwise qualified, who would not see their tenants unprovided with a place of worship. It records an exhortation of the archbishops, given solemnly at a witenagemot early in the eleventh century, to the building of churches ' in every place.' They would hardly have acted thus at such a time, without sanction from the legislature. Thus we find the national authorities urging and alluring such as were able to build and endow churches upon their lands, during the whole period of preface. 2! nearly four hundred yearS' — from Theodore to the Con quest. It is known, that many of these foundations are of a subsequent date, and, probably, existing parochial sub divisions were not consummated under six hundred years. Our ancient and uniform religious endowments arose then, like the multiform religious foundations of later times, from the spontaneous liberality of successive individuals. Formerly, also, as now, there was every variety in the magnitudes of property. Because, however, an estate was small, its lord often would not be without a church upon it. In many cases too, he showed whose accommodation was first consulted, by placing the new erection close to his own home, although both the chief population, and the house provided for its minister, might be at some distance. Parishes, therefore, owe their actual dimensions to no negligence or caprice, but to the accidental inequalities of private property. This private origin of English parochial religious found ations is obviously the clue to existing rights of patronage. Hence the verse familiar to canonists, in days when church-building was common, or had lately been so, Patronum, faciunt dos, aedijicaiio,fiibnd'm? The church's dowry of glebe had notoriously been settled upon it by some land-owner, who likewise raised the fabric, and provided more effectually for the maintenance of its minister, by resigning in his favour one-tenth of all that his own possessions around should hereafter produce. Such public spirit justly demanded a suitable acknowledg ment. None could be more so, than a freehold right of selecting, under proper control, that functionary who was to realise the liberal donor's pious intentions. This was nothing beyond an equitable return to an individual, who had not only provided his neighbours with a place of religious worship at his own expense, but had also ^ J. De Aton, Const. Legit, totius Regionis Angl. f. 105. 22 preface. rendered this liberality available to them, and to those who should come after them, by building a parsonage, by surrendering inalienably a part of his own property as glebe, and by burdening irredeemably the remainder. Undoubtedly the justice thus done to founders has with drawn a very large number of benefices from professional emulation. But clergymen, without money or powerful friends, are the chief sufferers by this. Laymen draw important pecuniary benefits from their ecclesiastical patronage : which is an additional reason why they should respect the rights that it confers. It creates very often a species of patrimony for their kinsmen or neighbours. A landowner has presented a younger son to a living in the gift of his family, or another person has invested one child's portion in an advowson, or presentation ; advancing like sums to settle his remaining children in secular call ings, or situations. The lay-brother, surely, could not desire, or even endure, to have the clergyman's portion confiscated to swell his own rent-roll, or pay his own taxes. Nor could a richer man bear to see such advan tages come to himself from the confiscated patrimony of a poorer neighbour, although that neighbour might be no sharer of his blood. Our larger ancient churches have, indeed, been founded by the crown, and so have many of the smaller. But no reasonable or safe principle will allow the denial to such foundations of all that inviolability which rio-htfuUy belongs to those that originated in the public-spirited sacrifices of individuals. If even ages of possession are no secure title to a royal grant, many a child of affluence must bid farewell to hereditary splendour, and enter a profession, or sue for a pension. Unquestionably, the great bulk of our ancient religious revenue arises from tythes, and these may be hastily regarded as wholly derivable from legislative liberalitv. But were this undeniable, a new appropriation, advan- PREFACE. 23 tageousj even temporarily, to any other than the landlord, is obviously very difficult while he remains. It would, however, be a monstrous folly to present gratuitously persons of the richest class with a large augmentation of their fortunes, which they have neither inherited nor pur chased, and to which, on any account, they have no more just or equitable claim than they have to some adjoining estate. If, instead of such idle prodigality, a fiscal appro priation were advocated, it would be trifling with the hopes of undiscerning occupiers. The tax-gatherer would disappoint them bitterly. For commissioners, clerks, and surveyors, patronised by the ruling party, some fortunes, it is true, might be provided, and many comfortable situ ations. The pressure of taxation, too, might be somewhat modified, or even lessened. But this advantage, hardly perceptible to individuals, would be fatally counter balanced by a national disregard of all that renders pro perty secure. A sufficient knowledge of our ancient history gives, however, great reason to doubt- the legislative origin of tythes. They seem to have been paid by the Anglo- Saxons before the legislature interfered to enforce them. There are, in fact, traces of them in every age and country. Hence this appropriation has not unreasonably been considered as dictated by that patriarchal creed, which men have nowhere been able wholly to forget. When an early Anglo-Saxon proprietor founded a church, hff solemnly dedicated the tythes of his land for its main tenance, apparently, without any legal compulsion, or any hesitation, or reserve. His foundation was an evidence of his piety; and such a man could feel no disposition to deny a religious claim which even heathens admitted. A similar spirit, however, would inevitably be wanting to some among the representatives or posterity of any man. Individuals are certain to arise eager to forget any de ductions under which their estates were acquired. To 24 PREFACE. restrain this dishonourable rapacity, the Saxon legislature at length interfered, and that repeatedly. At first, it was hoped that solemn injunctions, or ecclesiastical censures, might sufficiently remind selfish men of their duty to religion, and of the terms on which they had become possessed of land. Hence Athelstan's legislature pro nounced tythes demandable both upon crops and stock, requiring them to be strictly rendered. Edmund the Elder again gave legislative weight to this injunction. Mere admonition, however, -will not long strive success fully against the necessities, artifices, and avarice of man kind. Edgar's legislature was, accordingly, driven to compel, by civil penalties, the due discharge of that claim to which every landowner had found his possessions liable. A precedent for this act of justice was, indeed, afforded by Alfred's treaty with Godrun. The great king was con tented to naturalise a colony of his Danish invaders in the eastern counties : but he would not allow these unwelcome settlers to escape from liabilities immemorially fixed upon their several estates. Well, however, did he know the lawless rapacity with which he had to deal. He, there fore, provided pecuniary fines for keeping the new pro prietors to the only terms on which he was -wLlling to place them in possession, or, indeed, considered himself able. From his reign more than nine hundred years have now elapsed ; from Edgar's, not much less. So long, then, has English landed property been inherited, or otherwise acquired, under a system of protecting, by civil penalties, those rights to tythe with which proprietors, greatly anterior to Alfred, had burthened their estates. How importantly this immemorial deduction has affected every sale of land, the very numerous tythe-free properties, now in England, afford evidence alike ample and irresistible. Among such as feel unwillingly the force of this, there are some who would still fain appropriate more than they have purchased or inherited, by making tythes release PREFACE. 25 them, in a great degree, from assessment to the poor. Ordinarily they pour contempt upon antiquity ; now they gladly seek its aid. They maintain that tythes were ori- giaally granted with a reserve of either one-fourth, or one- third, for charitable purposes. Anglo-Saxon history -will shew that -views like theirs are of very ancient standing. Evidently there were thanes anxious to regard the reli gious rent-charge, under which they had acquired their several estates, as an exemption from all further provision for indigence. The papal legates at Calcuith expressly denied this principle : so did Archbishop Odo a hundred and fifty years later. It could, undoubtedly, find some shelter under venerable names. The missionary, Augus tine, is thought favourable to it, as he seems to have bestowed a fourth of the eucharistic oblations upon the poor. Egbert, archbishop of York, claims for them a third of the tythes. This claim could plead subsequently the great authority of Elfric.'* But even he lived while the parochial subdivision of England was in progress. The quadripartite or tripartite division of tythes arose, how ever, from the minster-system, and was intended for it. Now, to supersede it, in a very great degree, by the uni versal diffusion of a parochial clergy, was a leading object of national and individual piety during several ages. The only legislative authority produced for the quadripartite or tripartite division, is a doubtful enactment attributed to Ethelred. The principle really looks for sanction to three celebrated individuals, all guided by foreign canon ists, and chiefly thinking of a clerical body settled round a large church, both to serve it, and to itinerate in the neighbouring country. Scanty as are these authorities, a * ' The holy Fathers have also decreed, that tythes be paid into God's Church, and that the priest go to them, and divide them into three parts ; one for the repara tion of the church, a second to the poor, a third -to God's ser vants who attend the church.' — Johnson's Transl. sub ann. 957. Spelm. i. 578. WiLK. i. 253. 26 PREFACE. wary advocate would, probably, dispense with one of them. It appears from Egbert, that the ' year's tenth sceat was paid at Easter.' ^ If, therefore, his authority be good for a third of the tythes to relieve the poor, it may be equally good for every tenth groat from the dividends, from the gains of aU placemen, trading and professional men, not holding a church benefice, and from all annuities. Nor do Anglo-Saxon monuments refuse to the Church other authority, and that of a more formal character, even for such a claim as this. The laws of Edward the Confessor impose expressly tythes upon trade. Those, however, who would claim for the poor one-fourth, or one-third of the tythes, need complain but little of deficiencies in early canons and enactments. The famous statute of Elizabeth has pretty thoroughly brought their favourite principle into active operation. One-fourth of the tythes, or even more, is commonly insufficient to defray assessments for the poor on that property, the glebe, and the parsonage- house. Private charity makes inroads upon the remainder to an extent of which persons unacquainted with clerical expenditure, are very little aware. At least, another fourth of the tythes, during an incumbency, is often absorbed by the house, buildings, and chancel, together with dilapidar tions. Besides tythes, our ancient religious foundations were endowed, by legislative authority, with rent-charges for other purposes connected with their existence and effi ciency. Church-shot was imposed by Ina; and, in all probability, if his legislature did not follow here a known and approved precedent, its own example quickly acted upon every kingdom of the Heptarchy. Alfred, accord ingly, stipulated with Godrun, that, in addition to tythes, = Page 108. Wilkins (i. 123) renders the Saxon cum decimum obolum annuum solvimus. The sceat, however, which answers to his obolum, was equivalent to ten sticas. Eight of these made a penny, worth a modem three-. pence.— Hickes, Diss. Epist. 111. PREFACE. 27 light-shot and plough-alms should be regularly paid by the new Danish proprietors. As years rolled on, these claims naturally encountered many cases of denial or evasion. Hence the legislature under Athelstan, Edgar, and Ethel red, lent them new force, by providing civil penalties for their recovery. The latest of these enactments has an antiquity of more than eight hundred years : so long, then, at the least, has landed property been inherited, purchased, or otherwise acquired, under a liability to rent- charges, independently of tythes, statutably settled upon our ancient places of worship. Any such rent- charge, settled upon a modern place of worship, though compara tively a mere matter of yesterday, would undoubtedly be claimed as only a debt of justice. Vainly would an occu pant plead religious repugnance to such an application of his money : perhaps he might be reminded of Jewish scruples, upon the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar.^ An acute sympathy between purse and conscience is undoubtedly very open to rebuke. It is true, that parochial collectors have long ceased from application for church-shot, light-shot, and plovgh-alms. For this forbearance it is easy to account, if we view the modern church-rate, raised for some of the purposes, if not for all, answered by these ancient payments, as merely their successor and representative. That rate is thus not strangely rested upon some blind prescription, but intelli gibly derived from legislative acts yet extant, like any other public burthen. Its name and form, indeed, are changed ; but it can scarcely equal the payments which became obsolete after its appearance. In country parishes, church-rates are trifling, unless under the rare occurrence of extensive works required. For such an emergency, there are some who would again make the tythes alone responsible. There were such persons even so long ago as «St,Matt.xxii. 17. 28 PREFACE. Canute's days. That prince, however, declares, that church-repair rightfully concerns the whole community: nor is any other principle reasonable. The rebuilding, or even the repair of a spacious pUe, might absorb the tythes of several years, leaving no remuneration for the duty, if the living were a rectory ; if a -vdcarage, wholly stripping an impropriator. When such hardships are pointed out, an apology for them is often sought in the Reformation. But that mighty movement paid great respect to antiquity and vested rights. It left our churches under the same epis copal superintendence that had been provided for them from the first. It left untouched all the rights, revenues, and privileges of parochial incumbents, and of dignitaries in such cathedrals as had not been converted into monas teries. None of these parties were disturbed, if they would only recognise the principles that had been regularly sanc tioned by their o-wn body, constitutionally consulted. It is true, that all restraint was withdrawn upon their dis cretion as to marriage ; but ancient ecclesiastical history shows no departure here from the intentions of those to whom we owe our churches. It exhibits clergymen ordi narily married, whether employed about a cathedral or in a rural parish. Clerical marriages, in fact, although event ually pronounced uncanonical and rendered penal, were never illegal : nor was free license for them anything else than a return to that principle which had originally pre vailed. It is the same with alterations made in such cathedrals as were served by monks. The Reformation introduced canons or prebendaries, for the future service of these establishments. But in doing this, it merely terminated an usurpation. Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical history shews the Benedictines to have been intruders upon our capitular foundations. Hence their expulsion was nothing more than justice to the founders of those establishments. PREFACE. 29 In our Church's orthodoxy the Reformation made no change. It was one of Theodore's earliest cares to settle a national establishment upon the principle of assent to the first four general councils, with the supplemental fifth ; a similar base was laid by the Reformers. At Calcuith this was somewhat widened ; assent being there given to the first six general councils. But Elfric subsequently shows that this extension was not viewed as interfering ¦with Theodore's original principle:^ it was not, in fact, material; it was little more than a fuller admission of those doctrines which have been pronounced orthodox by the consent of ages.' If the Reformers, therefore, had afforded entrance to any such opinions as pass under the name of Unitarian, obvious injustice would have been done to that liberality which has provided our ancient religious endowments. To this innovation, however, Cranmer and his friends were no more inclined than Theodore himself: they jealously guarded the great landmarks of belief which antiquity has established, and which the founders of our churches- were equally scrupulous in respecting. In one capital article of faith, undoubtedly, the Refor mation effected a signal change: it banished from our churches a belief in the corporal presence; but how this had gained a possession of them had never been thoroughly examined. It was, however, notoriously a doctrine so lemnly affirmed by no earlier leading ecclesiastical assembly than the fourth Lateran council ; a body sadly late^ for adding to the creed, and about which scholars out of Italy were, besides, divided in opinion. Eventually, the Council ' 'These four Synods are to be regarded as the four books of Christ in his Church. Many synods have been holden since ; but yet these are of the greatest authority.' — Johnson's Transl. Spelm. i. 681. Wilk. i. 254. « The fifth general council is the second of Constantinople, assembled in 553 : it condemned the errors of Origan. The sixth general council is the third of Constantinople, assembled in 680 : it condemned the Mono- thelites. » 1215. 30 PREFACE. of Trent stamped a new authority upon transubstantia- tion.i" But there was no reason why England should assent : her voice was not heard in the deliberations. Her authorities, however, were then investigating the question at home, and they came to a different conclusion. An independent body was fuUy justified in acting thus in any case, for which, direction would be vainly sought from ancient councils. In this case, the authorities of England were more than justified. In expelling transubstantiation from our churches, they prevented a leading doctrine from being taught in them, which their founders had expressly repudiated. The disclaimer of ancient England is, perhaps, even stronger here than that of modern. Had transub stantiation, then, when first regularly examined by the national authorities, been imposed upon incumbents, a like violence would have been done to the piety which pro vided our ancient religious endowments — to that which was done under the Commonwealth, when Episcopalians were ejected — and to that which would be done if Uni tarians were admitted. In common -with her continental neighbours, England had adopted other doctrines, and religious usages, found em barrassing on the revival of learning. Scholars vainly sought authority for them in Scripture, or in the earlier monu ments of theology, or in conciliar decisions of acknow ledged weight : hence arose a general anxiety for the solemn and sufficient investigation of these difficulties. On the Continent, this call was answered in some degree at Trent; in England, by an appeal to the national authorities. Again, the two parties disagreed : English divines rejected principles and practices unsupported by Scripture, or primitive antiquity, or universal recognition. Evidently, here, too, an independent body was fully justified : nor was violence done to those intentions which had endowed a w In 1551. The Forty-two Articles were agreed upon in 1552. PREFACE. 31 parochial and cathedral clergy. Image-worship had been indignantly rejected in ancient England. Of other prin ciples abandoned by the Reformers, no one, excepting transubstantiation, had attracted any particular notice. Anglo-Saxon monuments offer dubious traces of them, but no more : undoubtedly they were not received as articles of faith." Appeals against them have accordingly, been often made, and far from rashly, to our ancient Church. They were, in fact, lingering remains of exploded Paganism, which had defied extirpation, and which a spirit of insidious compromise had gradually invested with something of a Christian character. But even when a firm footing had been gained by these excrescences, they had no operation upon discipline, and rarely bore upon any vital question of doctrine ; they merely came before a reflecting mind as unexamined admissions of one age, which were fairly open to revision from another. If that other should decide upon pruning them away, evidently the religious fabric, both spiritual and visible, would retain its full integrity and purity. With such questions as our Lord's divinity, transubstantiation, and episcopacy, the case is widely different. Attention to subjects of so much interest and impor tance, may be invited, it is hoped, neither unusefuUy nor unacceptably. Questions of a religious nature have been, during several years, keenly agitated, and still retain a powerful hold upon the public mind. For understanding them, that kind of information is demanded, which the present work supplies. Much of it, undoubtedly, may be found elsewhere, but in books little known, or likely to be generally read. Hence there is room for such a volume as the present, especially as it offers some particulars previously not in print. It may also complete collections upon Anglo-Saxon affairs ; many of its details, upon points " See the Author's Bampton Lectures. 32 PREFACE. that require consideration, having a fitness which they seldom receive in civil history. Care has been taken to keep it within moderate dimensions. No material fact, it is believed, connected with religion, has been either omitted, or treated insufficiently; but a few persons and incidents, mentioned in older books, do not appear in this; because they seemed no longer possessed of any adequate claims to notice. INTRODUCTION. conversion of ancient Britain — attributed variously to apos tles — JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA'S ALLEGED SETTLEMENT AT GLASTON BURY LUCIUS — CHRISTIAN BRITAIN EPISCOPAL FROM THE FIRST ST. ALBAN, THE BRITISH PROTOMARTYB INTRODUCTION OF ARIANISM — PELAGIANISM ARRIVAL OE THE SAXONS. WITHIN little more than a century from our Sa-viour's passion, Justin Martyr^ places Christians in every country known to the Romans. Britain is not expressly mentioned ; but her partial conversion has hence allowably been inferred. Irenoeus adds probability to this infer ence.'' He declares, in one place, that our holy rehgion was propagated to earth's utmost bounds by the apostles and their disciples. In another, he names the Celts among nations thus enlightened. A Celtic race was then seated in the British isles, and may reasonably be in cluded, especially when Justin's language is recollected, within the enumeration of Irenseus. The testimony of Tertullian is more decisive. He speaks of British districts inaccessible to Roman arms, hut subdued by Christ. Had not the faith of Jesus obtained considerable notice in more poHshed quarters of the island, it would hardly have won a way into its remoter regions. Tertullian's authority, therefore, establishes abundantly, that when the second century closed,^ Christianity was far from novel to the tribes of Britain. Great probability is thus given to that statement in the Demonstratio Evangelica of Eusebius, which attributes British acquaintance with the Gospel to some of the apostles.* GUdas, the earliest of extant British ' A.D. 140 is the age assigned by Cave (Hsit. Lit. Lond. 1688, p. 36) to Justin Martyr. ^ Assigned by Cave (Eist. Lit. 40) to the year 167. ' Tertullian's birth is consi dered by Cave to have taken place before the middle of the second century. * 'Ev&^B.Demonst.JEvang.lih.S. c. 7. Par. 1628, p. 112. 34 INTRODUCTION. writers, appears to confirm this. He writes obscurely, but has been generally understood as intimating that the light of Christianity had shone upon his countrymen before their signal defeat under Boadicea.' A conversion so early affords ample room for supposing that one of the apostles really was Britain's evangehst. As to which of them it was authors are not agreed.' Among them have been named, James, the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, Simon Zelotes, Simon Peter, and St. Paul. The first two cases are not supported by suffi cient authority to render them worthy of more than a passing notice.^ Nor, until recently, was it otherwise with St. Peter. But among the venerable manuscripts brought from Egypt by 'Archdeacon Tattam, and now lodged in the British Museum, is a little Syriac piece, transcribed' about the year 500, which states, that Rome, the whole of Italy, Spain, Britain, Gaul, and the other countries round about, received the hand of priesthood from Simon Cepha, who came from Antioch, and was ruler and governor of the church which he built there. A Latin version of this passage, made from another manuscript of the tract, and published hy Cardinal Mai, in the Script. Vett. Nov. Collect, vol. x., erro neously places Bithynia where the original requires Bri tannia, and the learned editor assigns the work to the thirteenth century. Both these mistakes have been cor rected by him since the truth has been known from England.^ StiU it is not useless to take notice of them, because they may meet eyes which the retractations escape. The statement itself, in a work so very ancient, is an interest ing evidence of early oriental belief, that Britain was christianized by St. Peter's means. But Antioch is the city specially connected with his name, i Italy is men tioned as if it was merely a stage towards ulterior mis sionary operations. • A like view is given in another Syriac manuscript, written apparently in the year 411, and ac quired for England by the same eminent oriental scholar 1 Gild AS de Excidio Britannia. Lond. 1838, p. 16. ^ The evidence upon which these cases rest, and remarks upon it, may be seen in Abp. Usshee's Brit. Eccl. Antiqu. p. 3. " Quarterly Sew. for Dec. 1845, p. 65, and Private Information. INTRODUCTION. 35 that was mentioned before. This is a version of the Theophany, which Jerome places among the works of Eu sebius, but of which a few fragments only have hitherto been known to European scholars. This long lost relic of a distant age maintains, that our Lord's disciples, accord ing to his commands, planted a belief in him over all the world. Some of them, we are told, as in the Demonstratio Evangelica,^" T^stss over to the islands beyond the ocean, and which are called Britain.' As in the little Syriac piece too, some of the disciples are spoken of as sent forth to preach Christ 'to the Roman power, and apportion to themselves this city of the empire'.^ Thus does Eusebius, in two of his works, (Hot only speak of Britain as converted by apostolic men, but also as owing this honour and blessing, in common with Italy, not by her means, to an oriental mission. From these interesting statements it is easy to understand, why the ancient British church adhered so pertinaciously to eastern usages. Of St. Paul's personal services to Britain there are pre sumptions of some weight. Clemens Romanus affirms that great apostle to have preached as far as the utmost bounds of the west.^ St. Jerome says, that he imitated the Sun of Righteousness in going from one ocean to the other,'' and that his evangelical labours extended to the western parts.^ By such expressions Britain was commonly understood.^ Theodoret accordingly asserts, that St. Paul 'brought salva tion to the isles in the ocean.''' Elsewhere he mentions the Britons among converts of the apostles.^ In another place he says, that St. Paul, after his release from imprisonment, went to Spain, and thence carried the light of the Gospel to other nations.^ In the sixth century, Venantius For- » P. 20. ' r^eopAania, translated by Dr. Lee, Camb. 1843, pp. 309, 310. ' S. Clemens ad Cor. inter SS. Patres Apost. Coteler. Lut. Par. 1672, p. 94. * HiERON. in Amos. lib. 2. c. 5. Par. 1602, tom. v. col. 249. ' HiEEON. Catal. Script. Eccl. Opp. tom. i. col. 349. « CATULL.arf Cissar. Carm.xxix. ' B. Theod. Interpr. in Psalm. 116. Opp. Lut. Par. 1642, tom. i. p. 871.' Theodoret. Sermo. 9. de Le- gib. Opp. tom. iv. p. 610. » Theod. in Epist. 2. ad Timoth. Opp. tom. iii. p. 506. 36 INTRODUCTION. tunatus,* and in the seventh, Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem,^ speak expressly of St. Paul's mission to Bri tain. The great apostle of the Gentiles, therefore, has not been placed without some probability, among the earliest and most illustrious British missionaries. By him, according to the Greek Menology, Aristobulus, saluted in the Epistle to the Romans,^ being one of the seventy disciples, was ordained bishop of the Britons; among whom, after much persecution, he established a church.* Pudens and Claudia likewise, greeted in the Second Epistle to Timothy,^ have been identified with a married couple mentioned by Martial, of whom the lady was a Briton.^ It is inferred, of course, that Claudia must have been zealous to spread that holy faith among her pagan countrymen, which she and her husband had happily embraced. Of all scriptural per sonages, however, Joseph of Arimathea has been most ex tensively regarded as the British apostle. Being de- spatched, we are told, from Gaul by St. Philip, he was allbwed to fix himself with twelve companions at Glaston bury, then ordinarily called the isle of Avalon.'^ This re lation was long undisputedly current ; but it is not con firmed by our earliest authorities. Yet confirmation for something like it really can be found. Glastonbury was a place renowned for sanctity many generations before the Norman conquest; indeed, probably from the most re mote antiquity. Encompassed by watery marshes and sluggish streams, its British name was Tnys vitryn, the Glassy Isle. Among pagans, islands commonly bore a sacred character, and Christian teachers were naturally willing to avail themselves of this ; especially where it had provided suitable erections. Avalon seems to have been thus recommended. It is likely that Druidism had left there, on its extinction, a residence desirable for the now triumphant Christian teachers, and had rendered their p. 4 Ussheb, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. 2 Magdeburg. Oentur. et alii. Ibid. ' Eom. x-vi. 10. ¦• 'U%SSESi,BrU.Eccl.Antiq.-p.5. = 2 Tim. iv. 21. « Mart, lib.iv. epig. 13. adRuf. Id. hb. xi. epigr. 63. ' Malmesb. De Antiq. Glaston. Eccl XV. Scriptores. Oxon. 1691 p. 292. INTRODUCTION. 37 labours more generally acceptable by the sanctity with which it had long distinguished the abode thus provided to their hands.,; On the Saxon invasion, Avalon's water- locked recesses were adapted for sheltering a congregation of native Christians. To them, accordingly, may be re ferred a wattled church, which seems to have been found eventually there by the invaders.*; The evident antiquity of this remain must have given countenance to any tra dition that might be current of some very early mission from the East. Fables, no older than the Conquest, may have named Joseph of Arimathea as the head of this. But some mission near his time, and from Asia too, will seem very likely even to those who look no further than to ancient Britain's repugnance to the religious usages of Rome.2 This unquestionable repugnance takes very much from the importance that some have given to the case of Lucius. He was a British king, we are told, so impressed in favour of Christianity, that he sent Eluan and Medwin to Eleu- therius, the Roman bishop, for further instruction. His ambassadors are said to have been courteously entertained in Rome, instructed in the faith of Jesus, baptised, and finally ordained. ) On returning home, Lucius is repre sented to have received baptism by their persuasions, and to have' founded a church in Britain, which flourished until the persecution of Diocletian.' These transactions have been referred to various dates ; but hardly any autho rities -will allow us to consider them as anterior to the latter half of the second century. Lucius, then, must have been contemporary with Justin Martyr and Irenseus, and, at farthest, not more than a single generation re moved from Tertullian. Now, in the time of the former writers, we have every reason to believe that Christianity had already taken root in Britain. Such is known to have been the fact in Tertullian's days. Lucius, there fore, might seem to have sought from a very distant quarter information which lay within his reach at home. > Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. Cleo patra, b. 13. b. 61. Spelm. Cone. i. p. 17. ^ See the Author's Latin Church, p. 36. 3 Bed. i. 4, p. 28. 38 INTRODUCTION. It should, however, be observed, that no notice is taken of any demand for religious instruction in a letter of reply attributed to Eleutherius. From this he seems to have done no more than apply for authentic particulars of Ro man jurisprudence.* Although it may, then, be probable that some petty prince, styled in Latin Lucius, was among the earlier of British converts to Christianity, yet he can hardly have been contemporary with its introduction to the island. If any, therefore, would fain derive his con version from papal intervention, and claim authority for the Roman see over every church which its prelates have planted, they must fail of establishing such a claim over Britain from this alleged transaction. The care, universally marking primitive Christianity, to provide a bishop for every church, necessarily connects the stream of British prelacy with apostolic times. Na tional confusions, by destroying evidence, have, indeed, prevented modern Britain from ascertaining the earliest links in the chain of her episcopal succession. But it is satisfactory to know that her prelates presented themselves upon the first occasion likely to furnish an authentic record of their appearance. Constantine, desirous of ter minating the Donatistic schism, convened a council at Ai-les.^ The signatures of three British bishops are appended to the canons there enacted. The prelacy of Britain also sent representatives to the council of Sardica, summoned by the younger Constantine and his brother Constans.^ It was duly represented, like wise, at the council of Ariminum, holden a few years later in the fourth century.* Nor, it has been thought, were episcopal delegates from Albion wanting in that most illustrious assembly, the first council of Nice.^ At an earlier period, Britain suffered, in common with other parts of the Roman empire, under that insane and atrocious policy by which Diocletian glutted the vengeance 1 See a translation of it in Col lier's Eccl. Hist. i. 14. 2 In 314, Labb. et Coss. i. 1422. 3 UsSHEB, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. p. 105. * SuLPicn Severi Hist. Sacr. hb. ii. inter Mon. S. PP. p. 539. 105 UssHEE, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. p. INTRODUCTION. 39 of baffled Paganism. Then it was that St. Alban gained the crown of martyrdom. Although a heathen when the persecution began, he would not shut his door against a proscribed Christian priest. In him he saw such unaf fected piety, that Alban's prejudices gave way, and he readily received instruction in the faith of Jesus. At length the priest's retreat was discovered ; but Alban, now a zealous Christian, had become bent upon saving him at e-yery hazard. He dressed himself in his clothes, and thus disguised, was dragged before the Roman governor. The deception being discovered, he was bidden to choose be tween sacrifice to the gods, and his fugitive friend's intended punishment. The answer was, an immovable declaration against any insult to his holy faith. Scourging being tried in vain, he suffered decapitation. He resided at Verulam, or Werlamcester, as the Saxons eventually called it. The place of his martyrdom was the hill over looking the spot then occupied by that ancient city. Here, in after-times, the noble abbey of St. Alban's reared its head, a worthy monument of Britain's earliest blood stained testimony against Gentile errors. After Alban's example, many other members of the ancient British church surrendered their lives rather than deny their Saviour.* Thus Diocletian's persecution merely served in Britain, as elsewhere, to render Paganism odious and con temptible, by an exhibition of vindictive rage and impo tent intolerance. It was met by such heroic self-denial, that Christianity shone forth more vigorous and illustrious than ever. Old churches, accordingly, were soon repaired, new ones built, and Christians, who had hidden themselves during the persecution, came forth again, and showed an ardent zeal to spread the faith of Jesus.^ , Constantine's accession followed shortly after ; when Britain became the seat of a flourishing and extensive church. Arianism appears to have been rather slow in distracting it.^ But when the fourth century was verging towards a close,* this heresy. ' Horn, in Pass. S. Alban. ap. Wheloc. in Bed. p. 36. " Gild, de Excid. Brit. p. 18. ' SaiLLmawLB^v, Antiq. Brit.Ch. p. 175.* UsaBMRjBrit.EccLAnt.p. 106. 40 INTRODUCTION. already popular in other divisions of the Christian world,- found followers in the church of Albion.' The public mind, being thus unsettled, was prepared for another enemy to religious peace. Pelagius, probably called Morgan among his countrymen, by birth a Briton,* was tempted, like many others at a distance, into a resi dence at Rome. He became conspicuous there for pietv and mortification; which were set off by considerable abi- lities, though his learning did not ans-wer to them. His principal companion and warmest admirer, was Celestius, an Irishman of great subtlety and readiness of wit. Un fortunately for both these insular ascetics, they became acquainted with Rufinus, who had returned into his native Italy from a residence of thirty years in the East, deeply tinctured vrith Origen's pecrdiar opinions. From this eminent, though injudicious, acquaintance, Pelagius and Celestius learned to doubt the doctrine of original sin. They soon proceeded to reason against the necessity of divine grace for fulfilling the will of God. These princi ples, at first, were cautiously proposed, in conversation chiefly, and rather as questions deserving a fuller examina tion than they had hitherto received, than as positions entitled to implicit confidence.^ By mooting them, how ever, often and shrewdly, Pelagius acquired a new hold upon popular attention. To say nothing of their novelty, his doctrines were welcomed by human pride. To arrest their progress, St. Austin laboriously employed his power ful pen. The controversy naturally drew from him strong assertions of grace and predestination : these have occa sioned, in modern times, many exulting appeals to his authority. Such passages, however, are probably largely indebted for their force to the strong recoil of ardent passions, and a vigorous intellect wound up in the heat of argument. After their iU-famed celebrity was gained, neither Pela gius nor Celestius appears to have revisited the British ^ Gild, de Excid. Brit. p. 19. 2 Bed. Eccl. Hist. i. 10, p. 51. TJssHEE,Snf. Eccl. Antiqu. p. 11 2. ' The Pelagian heresy seems to have arisen about the year 400. - UssHBR, Brit. Eccl. Antiqu. pp. 110, 114. INTRODUCTION. 41 isles. Their opinions, however, were introduced ; chiefly by naeans of Agricola, son of Severianus, a Gallic bishop. Auxiliaries of native origin, it might seem, seconding Agricola's endeavours, Pelagianism soon became exten sively popular in Britain. The leading ecclesiastics re mained firm to their ancient principles ; but their opposi tion to the tide of innovation proving insufficient, they requested assistance from the neighbouring church of Gaul. This request brought over Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes. These able prelates were eloquent in the pulpit, and insinuating out of it. Hence a council, convoked at Verulam, was easily persuaded by them to silence the Pelagian party. They then returned to the Continent. On their departure, Pelagianism revived, and the native clergy implored Germanus to pay Britain a second -visit. He listened readily to their application, and came over with Severus, bishop of Treves, a disciple of his former coadjutor. Again was this continental interference followed by the complete abasement of Pelagianism. The ¦visitors, however, now were not to be satisfied until they had made effectual provision for perpetuating their triumph. They persuaded their insular friends to act upon an edict of Valentinian, and banish the teachers whose innovating doctrines had caused so much dissension.* Soon afterwards, the British Church was grievously despoiled of her ancient splendour. The country, aban doned by its Roman masters, became defenceless from domestic faction. The barbarian tribes that occupied its northern regions, were thus left at Hberty to scour the south in quest of plunder. Their inroads proved so into lerable, that help was rashly sought from some restless and intrepid soldiers of fortune, who seem to have come into the island for the sake of piUage.* They answered promptly to the pusillanimous and impolitic call. They were then found so serviceable, that the native authorities were easily led into the folly of inviting more of their countrymen over. A force was thus formed which quickly ' UssHBE, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. p. I ^ Turnee, Hist. Angl.-Saxons. 176. Stillingfleet, Antiqu. Br. Lond. 1828, i. 254. C%.p.l94. I 42 INTRODUCTION. drove the Picts and Scots back to their mountain fast- nesses. But the victors now cast a longing eye upon the fair fields delivered by their valour. A prize so noble and unprotected, naturally proved a temptation too great for the cupidity of mere pirates.* From auxiliaries, they became invaders. Their hold upon the country was con tinually strengthened by reinforcements from abroad. At length British power was driven by them from all its more cherished seats, into quarters of the island remote, inac cessible, and comparatively worthless. * Abbo. Floeiacensis. Passio Sancti Eadmundi. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Digby. 109, p. 4. ANGLO-SAXON ECCLESIASTICAL HISTOET. Chapter I. FROM AUGUSTINE TO THEODORE. 597-669. THE ANGLO-SAXONS — OBSTACLES TO THBIE CONVERSION — ETHELBERT AND BEETHA — GEOWINQ DISPOSITION TOWAEDS CHRISTIANITY — ¦ GREGORY THE GEEAT — AUGUSTINE — SUCCESS OF HIS MISSION — ' CLAIMS MIEACULOUS POWBES — PEOPOSES QUESTIONS TO 6EEG0EY INEPPECTUALLY ENDEAVOURS TO UNDBEMINB THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHUECH — TBMPORAEY CONVBESION OF ESSEX — LAURBNTIUS — TBMPORAEY CONVERSION OP NOETHUMBEIA CONVEESION OP EAST ANGLIA — PINAL CONVBESION OP NOE THUMBEIA CONVBESION OP MERCIA — PINAL CONVEESION OP ESSEX — FURBEY — CONVERSION OP WBSSEX — CONVEESION OP SUSSEX — TEIUMPH OP THE EOMAN PAETY IN NORTHUMBRIA — DOCTRINES. ANGLO-SAXON Ecclesiastical History may be advan tageously distributed into four several portions. The first exhibits a nation passing from Paganism to Chris tianity, (and a foreign church striving for ascendancy over one of native growth.") The second embraces a period in which ancient England made her most conspicuous intel lectual progress, and in which were laid securely the foundations of an ecclesiastical establishment. The third is redeemed by the splendid services of Alfred, from one mournful picture of national distress and literary declension. Like evils also deeply mark the fourth : but Dunstan gave to this a character of its own. In planting the Benedictine system, he spread dissension over aU the country. Vested interests were seriously affected by his innovating zeal. 44 FROM AUGUSTINE Hence his partizans and plans stirred up an obstinate resistance. The Anglo-Saxon people sprang from three piratical tribes, of Gothic origin. Two of these were seated in the neck of the Cimbric Chersonese, now known as Jutland, and in three islands off its western coast.' 'The Jutes lived, probably, within that peninsula. The emigration of their tribe does not, however, seem to have been extensive, its British settlements being confined to Kent, the Isle of Wight, and the Southern part of Hampshire.^ The Angles, whose continental home, subsequently called Old England, lay in the modern districts of Sleswick and Holstein,' emigrated entirely,* and spreading over the north-eastern, midland, and northern counties of South Britain, eventually gave name to the whole country. The Saxons were nearest neighbours of these, their country lying between the Eyder and the Elbe. Those who left it for Great Britain, termed it Old Saxony.^ They colonised Essex, Middlesex, and all the region west of Kent, which stretched from the Thames to the Channel. That the Angles, no less than the Saxons, were descended from the Teutonic branch of the Gothic family, not the Scandina-vian, is attested sufficiently by the Anglo-Saxon tongue. This could hardly fail of exhibiting a closer affinity with the modern Icelandic, had the tribe most conspicuous in planting it on British ground, owned perfect identity of origin with nations yet inhabiting the north-western extremities of continental Europe. Anglo- Saxon, however, is a language assimilating rather with German than Icelandic.^ All these invading tribes were Pagans. Nor were the earlier years of their settlement in Britain favourable to their adoption of the Christian creed. Under it, undouht- ' History of the Anglo-Saxons, by Shaeon Turner, P. A.S. Lond. 1828, i. 114. '' 'BsDM Historia Ecclesiastica Oentis Anglomm. Ed. Wheloc. Cant. 1643, p. 58. Dr. Ingram's Saxon Chronicle, Lond. 1823, p. 14. ' Chronicum Ethelwerdi, ed. Savile : inter Scriptores post Be- dam. Lond. 1596, f. 474. * Saxon Chronicle, 15. ' Bed. 68. ' Preface to Rask's Anglo- Saxon Grammar, translated by Thorpe. Copenhagen, 1830, p. 12. TO THEODORE. 45 edly, the people, whose fair possessions lured them from their Scandinavian homes, had risen into opulence. But when this people could see no prospect of anything else than either slavery or extermination, it was roused into a long course of sanguinary conffict with its treacherous invaders. Hence, during considerably more than a century from Hengist's arrival. South Britain was unceasingly distracted by the various miseries of intestine war. Such a season obviously denies a field to missionary zeal. It is, therefore, probable that the native clergy made no attempt, while their nation yet struggled for existence, to humanise its unrelenting enemies by communicating to them a knowledge of the Gospel. The Pagan warriors were besides likely to draw new prejudices against Christianity from the very success which usually waited upon their arms. Britain's trust in the Cross had not secured her fortunes from constant declension: reliance upon Woden had been encouraged unceasingly by victory. A people unpractised in sound argumentation, and unacquainted with true religion, would hence infer that its own deities were more kind, and probably more powerful also, than those of its opponents. Vainly would Christianity solicit favourable notice from such minds thus prepossessed. A considerable change must be wrought in the whole frame of a society like this, before it could be gained over to calm reflection upon the religion of a people prostrate under its assaults. No sooner had Providence effected such a change, than England, happily, could take full advantage of it. Her principal monarch then was Ethelbert, king of Kent ; a prince whose authority was respected so far as the Hum- ber.' The Saxon Chronicle, accordingly, speaks of him as a Bretwalda,^ and says that he was the third poten tate so distinguished. Of this term the exact import is unknown, but it obviously conveys the notion of some established influence and precedence among the petty sovereigns of South Britain. This powerful chieftain appears to have ascended his father's throne about the year 560, and probably ten years afterwards, he married ' Bed. ed. Wheloc. hb. i. c. 25, I ^ The Saxon Chronicle, p. 88. p. 75. I See Hist, of Anglo-Saxons, i. 331. 46 FROM AUGUSTINE Bertha, daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris. This princess, coming of a Christian family, was not allowed to pass over into Kent until ample stipulations had been made for the free profession of her holy faith. She came, accordingly, attended by Luidhard, a Prankish bishop, and for her accommodation, a British church, erected ia honour of St. Martin, on the eastern side of Canterbury, but long desecrated, was again rendered suitable for Christian worship. Thus when the sixth century had, perhaps, thirty years to run, a Christian congregation was formed in the principal seat of Anglo-Saxon power, i Nor, as its leading member was the most illustrious female in the island, can we reasonably suppose that it long failed of making converts. Hence it became understood at Rome, that among Englishmen an anxious desire prevailed for admission within the Church of Christ.* How far any such anxiety had affected Ethelbert personally, there are no direct means of ascertaining. But Gregory the Great, from whose Epistles we learn the bias of his people, inti mates to Bertha, that she ought early to have inclined him favourably^ towards her own religion. He says this amidst a mass of compliment, and hence appears to hint vaguely at a fact, sufficiently known, but unfit for public mention. If Ethelbert had not been a skilful politician, he never would have gained so much importance beyond his patri monial territories. IThe prudence to which he owed this, would restrain him from a hasty avowal of an important change in his religious opinions. Nor, after his formal conversion, would he like a secret convicting him of dis simulation, to be needlessly divulged. But had he not long thought favourably of Christianity, his former faith would not so readily have been given up. y It was one of the more eminent of Roman bishops who led. him to this happy step. Gregory, honourably distin guished among popes as the Great, sprang from an illus trious family, and inherited a papal fortune, his great grandfather, Felix, having filled the opulent see of Rome, > Gregokii pp. L Epist. 58, lib. V. Labb. et Coss. tom. v. col. 1244. Ejusd. Epist. 59. Ibid. = Gregorii pp. L Epist. 59, Ub. 9. '^ TO THEODORE. 47 His early instruction was not altogether unworthy of hereditary affluence, and he proved an apt scholar. Yet Gregory lived and died ignorant of Greek, then a Uving language, necessary for understanding the best authors, and spoken vernacularly at his sovereign's court.' This deficiency might seem immaterial to one intended for a mere civilian ; and his education was, probably, conducted with no other view, since he was appointed, at an early age, governor of Rome, his native city. He now was tried by one of those alloys which Providence mercifully uses for chastising the insolence of prosperity, and rebuking the envy of depression. His habitual state of health was miserable. Hence he soon anxiously sought an escape from public life, and an uninterrupted course of religious meditation : the only proper occupation, as it seemed, for a mind encased in a frame like his. He founded, accord ingly, six monasteries in Sicily, and one in his native city. To this he himself retired. Rome resounded with the praise of such mortification and magnanimity. Hence he was not long left in the obscurity of his retreat. Pelagius II. ordained him deacon in 582, and sent him as apocri- siary (that is, envoy from a patriarchal see) to the imperial court. He remained at Constantinople, highly esteemed, until the death of Tiberius, in 586. It being usual that a new papal resident should wait upon a new emperor, Gregory then returned to Rome, bearing with him, in proof of the satisfaction given by his mission, some of those wretched relics from which the Romish hierarchy has gathered so great a load of well-earned infamy, and the Romish laity such deep debasement. But although fully smitten by the prevailing spirit of superstition, he possessed a self- devoted spirit worthy of the apostolic age. A raging pes tilence filled Rome with mourning and consternation. Gregory braved the horrors of this avenging scourge, seek ing to disarm the wrath of Heaven, and to mitigate popu lar distress, by solemn religious exercises. Under his guidance, all the citizens formed themselves into seven choirs, which perambulated their lialf-deserted streets, ' Greg. PP. I. Epist. 29, lib. vi. Labb. et Coss. v. 1274. 48 FROM AUGUSTINE mournfully chanting penitential litanies. This noble dis regard of everything but duty, led grateful Rome to name him unanimously the successor of Pelagius, who had lately perished in the plague. Such elections, however, had no more than a conditional vahdity. Without imperial con- firmation, they were void.* Gregory wrote to Constanti nople, earnestly beseeching the denial of this. He deter mined also upon flight ; and finding guards appointed to frustrate his intention, he was conveyed away, like St. Paul, in a basket, and sought the concealment of a wood. All these incidents naturally cast additional' lustre upon his elevation. His messenger to the imperial court was intercepted ; and in place of his own letter, another was transmitted, earnestly supplicating the emperor to confirm the choice of Rome. This request found a ready acqui escence ; and Gregory's retreat being easily discovered, he was joyously conducted to the pontifical chair. Of this he became a very active occupant. His eqnsr nimity, however, was not proof against lofty pretensions in a rival see. John, the Faster, bishop of Constantinople, a prelate almost adored in that capital, from his extreme rigour in ascetic mortifications, assumed, under imperial sanction, the title of (Ecumenical bishop. Inconceivably offended, Gregory styled himself Servant of the servants of God,^ an ostentation of humility, adopted in those days by other bishops, though seemingly never before by any occu pant of the Roman see. It was not, however, laid aside after the original cause of its assumption passed away. Servant of the servants of God kept its old place among the designations of a pope. In other things the successors of Gregory would gladly forget him. He reminded the Emperor Maurice of St. Peter's high prerogatives, and yet, he added, that pillar of our faith is not called Universal Apostle. The Easter's assumption he brands as a name of blasphemy, which detracts honour from the whole priesthood, in being madly arrogated by an individual.^ He seems never ' Platina in Pelag. ii. ed. 1629, p. 65. 2 Vita S. Creg. M. Auctore Jo anne Diacono. Acta SS. Ord. Benedict. Lut. Par. 1668, i. 386. ' Greg. PP. I. Epist. iv. 32, ap. Labb.etCoss.Y.llSil. TO THEODORE. 49 to have forgiven Maurice for lacerating so severely his pride of station. When that emperor fell under the mur derous hand of Phocas, the infamous usurper not only met with a ready recognition from the Romans, but also with fulsome compliments from their bishop.* As a counterpoise to the encroaching spirit of his East ern rivals, Gregory naturally thought of extending the influence of his own authority in an opposite direction. Britain presented an inviting field. Her ancient Church, which in better days would probably have spurned any Roman attempt at interference, had been miserably cur tailed, by the Saxon conquest, in importance and extent. An auspicious opening was now offered, by means of Ethelbert and his Christian spouse, for raising on its ruins a new ecclesiastical establishment. Gregory, well aware of these advantages, judiciously determined upon improving them. His determination is referred by the earliest of our church historians to an impulse from on high.^ Nor is this unreasonable. Providence, undoubtedly, often acts upon the minds of men, and orders their affairs, to further its own benevolent designs. t Political motives for Gregory's generous enterprise were not likely to be assigned, at any time, by those who deeply venerated the see of Rome. A garrulous and wonder- loving age could not refer it even to heavenly motions, without making them depend upon a strildng incident. In Bede, accordingly, after Gregory's history is finished, and his epitaph recorded, appears the following tale ; and it is told as one.^ While yet a private clergyman, this famous pontiff, passing through the slave-market of his native city, found his eye forcibly arrested by some light- haired, fair-complexioned youths, who stood exposed for sale. 'Whence come these lads?' he asked. 'From Britain:' was the answer. 'Are the people Christians there?' he then inquired. 'No: Pagans:' he was told. ' Alas ! ' he said : ' how grievous is it, that faces fair as these should own subjection to the swarthy devil !' His ' Greg. PP. I. ad Phoc. Imp. Epist. 31, lib. xi. Labb. et Coss. v. 1530. Id ad eund.— iJ. 1533. = Bed. i. 23, p. 73. ' Bed. ii. 1, p. 108, 50 FROM AUGUSTINE \_A.T>. 596. next question was, ' What do you call the tribe from which these young people spring?' 'Angles:' said the dealer. 'Ah! "that is well:' the future pope rejoined. 'Angels they are in coimtenance, and co-heirs of angels they ought to be. Where in Britain do their kindred live?' 'In Deira:'' was the reply. 'Well again,' Gregory said; 'it is our duty to deliver them from God's ire. Pray, who is king of the land so significantly named ? ' ' Ella,' replied the merchant. ' Ah ! ' the pious inquirer added : ' Alle- lujah must be sung in that man's country.' Fired by this occurrence, Gregory resolved upon undertaking personally a mission into Anglia. Nor did the pope discourage his intention ; but the Roman people would not allow their highly-valued fellow-citizen to enter upon a labour so remote and perilous. Thus Gregory is exhibited as bring ing to the pontificate those benevolent intentions towards pagan Anglia, which were eventually realised under his direction. It is at least certain, that after his elevation he directed a priest named Candidus, manager of the papal patrimony in Gaul, to buy some English lads of seventeen or eighteen, for education as missionaries among their countrymen.^ This fact, probably, has brought Gregory himself upon the scene, to contrast his dark Italian hue with the bright complexion of a northern clime, and to point a dialogue with verbal play. The prospect, however, of evangelizing Britain by means of young people to be educated expressly for the purpose, being distant and uncertain, Gregory's honourable zeal impelled him to think of a more expeditious course. He selected Augustine, prior of the monastery of St. Martin, in Rome, to lead a devoted band upon the mission which had fired his zeal. Augustine, having engaged several monks as partners in his toils, left the ancient capital of Europe, and made, it seems, his first considerable halt among the monastic recluses of Lerins. To these devotees the difficulties of his undertaking were necessarily better 1 Dei ira means in Latin, Gods anger. The Saxon district known as Deira in Latin, was that por tion of Northumbria which lay between the Plumber and the Tees. = Geeg. pp. L Epist. Labb. et Coss. Y. 1217. V. 10. A.D. 597.] TO THEODORE. 51 known than they could have been at Rome. At Lerins, accordingly, becoming utterly discouraged, he applied for Gregory's leave to withdraw from an enterprise apparently so hazardous and hopeless. But the pontiff would hear nothing of despondence. He rebuked the missionary's pusillanimity, refused to cancel his obligations, and com manded him to lose no time in reaching Britain, fully relying upon God's protection and support. Augustine now rallied his spirits, proceeded northwards, and provid ing himself with interpreters in Gaul,* set sail for the chalky cliffs of Kent. He landed in the isle of Thanet, and thence despatched a messenger to Ethelbert, inform ing him of his arrival, and declaring that he had journeyed thus far from home in hope of showing him the way to heaven.* By the Kentish prince, however well the message might have pleased him, it was cautiously received. He gave no permission to his Roman guests for a further advance into the country, until he had gone himself to make observations. Augustine's arrangements for this royal visit did honour to his knowledge of human nature. Forming a procession of his monks, one of whom bore a silver cross, another a picture of the Saviour, while the remainder chanted litanies, he came forward into the Bretwaldds presence. Ethelbert might have really felt some fears of magic. None, probably, arourid him were above such apprehensions, and at all events over-haste in approving the Roman mission was very far from politic. Augustine's first reception, accordingly, was in the open air ; magic arts being thus considered less likely to take effect. The prior disclaimed any other object than to guide the king, and all his people, to everlasting joys above. These it was the privilege of his ministry to pro mise, on conversion. ' Fair words and promises,' Ethelbert replied, 'but still new and uncertain. I cannot relinquish for them what my countrymen have long and universally ' UssHBE, Brit. Eccl. Antiq. 222. ^ Augustine appears to have received his commission from Gregory in 596, and to have landed in Kent in 597. — Whar ton de Vera Success. Archiep. Cantuar. Angl. Sacr. i. p. 89. 52 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 597. professed. Your distant pilgrimage, however, and chari table purpose of offering us a boon, so highly valued by yourselves, justly claim our hospitality. I shall, therefore, provide you with a residence, and means of living. Nor do I restrain you from endeavours to spread your opinions among my people.' The residence provided was at Can terbury, and the missionaries entered that city to take possession of it, with all those imposing solemnities of the cross, the picture, and the chanted litany, which had dignified their introduction to the Breftualda. Of their speedy success there are abundant assurances. Ethelbert, probably long a concealed Christian, seems to have openly professed himself a convert soon after their arrival. Nor, obviously, could such an example fail of operating exten sively upon the people. When sufficiently established, and attended by a con siderable congregation in the ancient church of St. Martin, Augustine felt his time come for venturing upon a more extensive field. His instructions, and those principles of ecclesiastical polity which had ever guided Christians, forbade arrangements of a more diffusive character, until the formal assumption of episcopal functions. He seems, accordingly, to have crossed over into Gaul, and to have advised with Virgilius, archbishop of Aries, upon a pubhc appearance as metropolitan of the English nation. On his return into Kent, he sent to Rome, Laurence a priest, and Peter a monk, with news of his success. These mes sengers were, it seems, to give account of miracles wrought by him, as Augustine alleged, in confirmation and further ance of his mission. There are no days, however loudly claiming to illumination, not even when such claims are far from unfounded, incapable of affording multitudes eager to believe anything supernatural. Nor are persons ever wanting equally eager to indulge credulous people vrith food suitable to their appetite for wonders. At the close of the sixth century, when the leaden age had long pretty thoroughly set-in, even in the chief seats of intel lectual cultivation, an ignorant country, more than semi- barbarous, like Jutish Kent, must necessarily have presented a most inviting field to any one possessed of the public eye, and disposed to gratify it by an assumption of mira- A.D. 598.] TO THEODORE. 53 culous endowments. Augustine appears to have been sufficiently forward in thus amusing his adopted countiy- men. He might, indeed, have really suspected some degree of truth in his pretensions. For among parties desirous of his wonder-working intervention, some must have laboured under nervous ailments. In such cases, a strong excitement and firm conviction would naturally render any juggling process productive of temporary benefit. In cases positively hopeless, he lulled his conscience, probably, under a little pious fraud (as language poisonously runs,) by the false and execrable maxim, that 'the end justifies the means.' Gregory's disposition for scrutiny was equally dormant. He seems to have heard of Augustine's miracles with all that implicit credulity which then was generally prevalent. His, indeed, apparently was a mind enamoured of the marvellous. At all events, his politic habits readily made him patronise a wonderful tale, whenever it seemed likely to raise the dignity of Rome, or advance a favourite notion. He merely, therefore, contented himself, in no ticing the supernatural attestations claimed for Augustine's mission, with gravely admonishing him against the danger of being puffed up under a consciousness of such extraor dinary privileges.* Gregory provided, besides, the seeds of future debasement to the church so happily founded, by consigning to her new prelate various relics, the false, frivolous, and disgusting incentives to a grovelling super stition. He likewise transmitted vestments proper for celebrating the divine offices; and with still more com mendable care for the rising community of Christians, he added several valuable books. Gregory the Great not only, therefore, claims the honour of having embraced a favour able opportunity for deUvering England from Paganism, but also of having laid the foundations of her literature, by presenting her with the first contributions towards the formation of a library. Augustine likewise received answers to certain questions proposed by him to the pontiff. In the first of these, he requested an opinion as to episcopal dealings with inferior clergymen, especially with reference to oblations laid by ' Greg. PP. I. Epist. ix. 58. Labb. et Coss. v. 1470. 54 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 601. faithful Christians on the altar. As a general guide, Gre gory recommends a habit of consulting Scripture; and, in pecuniary matters, a compliance with Roman usage. This assigned one-fourth of clerical resources to the bishop, for the maintenance of his family and the exercise of hos pitality ; an equal share to the clergy ; a third such to the poor; and the remaining portion to maintain the fabric of the church.* Augustine, however, was admonished upon the propriety of expending his own fourth as much as possible in common with his clergy, keeping steadily to those monastic obligations which he had contracted whilst at home. But any of the inferior ministers, whom inability for continence had induced to marry, were to be * Prom this recommendation, given by an Italian prelate at the outset of a mission which had just obtained a favourable reception among the Kentish Jutes, various interested parties are anxious to infer that church- rates and poor-rates legally fall upon tythe property alone. Such reasoners cannot be expected to inquire whether Gregory's re commendation has ever been adopted by any national council or parliament; or even whether the tythe property is equal to the demands which their inference would make it answer. Upon the usages of Eome, Fa ther Paul supplies the following information : — ' It was, therefore, ordered in the Western Church, about the year 470, that a divi sion should be made into four parts : the first was to go to the bishop ; the second to the rest of the clergy ; the third to the fabric of the church, in which, beside that properly so called, was also comprehended the habitation of the bishop, of the other clergy, of the sick, and of the widows ¦ and the fourth part went to the poor.' — Treatise of Ecclesiastical Benefices, p. 18. Now, even supposing Gregory's recommendation to have been subsequently embodied in the canon or statute law of England (which it never was), and that it was originally intended for a body of parochial clergy, scat tered on separate benefices all over the country (which it cer tainly was not), yet Enghsh in cumbents would have no reason to shrink from it. Assessments for the poor, actually or virtually made upon their tythes, houses, and glebes, together with their own private charities, rarely ab sorb less than a fourth of their tythes ; often more. The repair ing and rebuilding of chancels and glebe-houses, dilapidations paid on vacancies, and other like charges, will generally be found, in the course of an incumbency, to have absorbed little or nothing less than another fourth of the tythes received. As to episcopal claims upon parochial tythes, they were voluntarily rehnquish- ed, for the purpose of planting the country with a body of rural clergy. A.D. 601.J TO THEODORE. 55 indulged in consuming their portions at residences of their own. Augustine, secondly, remarking upon varying religious Usages prevailing in different churches, demands which of them appeared most eligible for his individual adoption ? Gregory leaves these matters to his own discretion, ex pressing a conviction that he would naturalize in England such usages, whether Roman, Gallic, or any other, as might seem best adapted to the feelings and edification of his converts. The third question, relating to robberies in churches, is answered by directions for punishing such offences by fines, or by personal chastisement, as the cases should severally require. To the fourth question. Whether two brothers might marry two sisters? an affirmative reply is returned. The fifth, relating to marriages between different degrees of kindred, is met by various directions suited to particular cases. The sixth, as to episcopal consecration by a single prelate, whom distance might prevent from obtaining others of his order to assist him, elicits a sanction for such a consecration, under Augustine's peculiar circum stances. The seventh, as to the nature of his intercourse with the bishops of Gaul and Britain, induces Gregory to say, that, in case of his correspondent's passage over sea, he ought not to take anything upon himself among the native prelacy, but that in Britain all of his order were committed to him : the ignorant for instruction, the weak for persuasive confirmation, the perverse for authority. The remaining questions relate to the baptism of women during pregnancy, their admission into the chm'ch after child-birth, and to certain scruples arising from the sexual functions.' Augustine received about the same time, from Gregory, the insidious compliment of a pall. He was charged, also, to establish twelve suffragan bishops, and to select an arch bishop for the see of York. Over this prelate, who was likewise to have under his jurisdiction twelve suffragan sees, he had a personal grant of precedence. After his death, the two archbishops were to rank according to ' Bed. i. 27, p. 96. 56 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.V. 601. priority of consecration.* Augustine's views were now directed to the consolidation and extension of his autho rity. Hence he repaired to the confines of Wales, and sought an interview with the native prelacy of Britain, The place rendered memorable by this meeting seems to have been under the shade of some noble tree, afterwards known as Augu^tine^s Oak, situated, probably, within the modern county of Worcester. The influence of Ethelbert was used in bringing the parties together, and Augustine declared his principal object to be no other than to secure British co-operation in the great work of converting the Saxons. But then he qualified his application for native aid by insisting upon a general uniformity in religious usages. The Britons adhered to a very ancient mode in fixing the festival of Easter; letting the paschal Sundays range from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of their proper lunation. Whereas the Roman range was from the sixteenth to the twenty-second. The Britons thus earned for themselves, from the foreign party, the opprobrious title of Quartodecimans, or Fourteeners^ which in their case was not strictly accurate, as they never kept Easter on any other day than Sunday.^ The real Quartodecimans kept it on whatever day of the week the fourteenth of the moon should chance to happen. Their Easter, accord ingly, coincided exactly with the Jewish Passover; and hence they were accused of countenancing the very people who slew the Lord.^ Now, the Roman church, besides restricting the Easter festival to Sunday, had adopted an improved cycle for calculating the time of its occurrence. It was this cycle which Augustine wished the Britons to adopt. Nor did Easter comprise the whole of their differ ences with Rome. Bede says. They did, besides, a great many other things contrary to ecclesiastical unity. '• In doctrine, the two churches appear to have been iden tical. This would not, however, content Augustine. The native Christians were equally intractable ; clinging with fond affection to those peculiarities of their national church ' Bed. i. 29, p. 99. 2 Edd. Vit. S. Wilf. cc. 12, 14 XV. Scnptt.l,T,58. 2 Bbd. Eccl. Hist. iii. 4. * SuiCEE. in voc. Pascha, 624. A.D. 601. J TO THEODORE. 57 which bespoke its high antiquity, and which seem, in fact, to connect it immediately with Asia, the cradle of our holy faith.j Finding ordinary argument evidently hopeless, Augustine proposed a recourse to miracle. The preten sions, he said, favoured by this attestation, were undenia bly those that ought to prevail. This was admitted, but with difficulty ; suspicion probably arising, that in seeking assent to an abstract proposition, nothing else was intended than to cover some stratagem suited for misleading the multitude. At all events, no time was lost in using the admission. A man was introduced, by birth an Angle, exhibiting marks of blindness. The Britons were invited to pray for his release from that calamity. No consider able assemblage can want the vain and indiscreet. British ecclesiastics, accordingly, accepted the treacherous invita tion. Of course, their prayers proved ineffectual. Augus tine then stepped forward, bent his knees, and offered an earnest supplication. This ended, the man was found in full possession of his visual faculties. As usual among people uncivilised, or nearly so, the whole arrangements and execution appear to have been admirable. Hence Augustine's principles were approved by acclamation. The leading Britons, however, professing incompetence to re ceive them without the general consent of their country men,* requested a second conference, in which they might appear more numerously supported. To this repaired seven bishops, and various native divines of distinguished learning. In their way, they consulted a hermit, highly esteemed for prudence and holiness. ' If Augustine,' said the recluse, ' be a man of God, take his advice.' 'They then urged the difficulty of ascertaining whether he might be such a man or no. ' This is not so difficult,' they were told. ' Our Lord enjoined. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart? Now, manage to be at the place of meeting after the foreigner ; and if he shall rise at your approach, then you may think him to have learnt of Christ. If he should receive you sitting, and show any haughtiness, then main tain your ancient usages.' As the ears of Augustine yet ' Bed. ii. 2, p. 1 1 1 . | ^ St. Matt. xi. 29. 58 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 601. tingled with applause extorted by admiration of a miracle, no test could be more unfortunate. When he saw the Britons, though so numerous and respectable, he did not deign to lift himself from his chair. 'I ask only three things of you,' he said : ' one, that you should keep Easter as we do ; another, that you should baptize according to the Roman ritual; a third, that you should join us in preaching to the Angles. With your other peculiarities we shall patiently bear.' But the Britons were disgusted alike by his discourtesy and by his pretensions to eccle siastical jurisdiction over them. They replied, ' We shall agree to no one of your propositions. Much less can we admit as our archbishop him who will not even rise to salute us.' Augustine now seeing himself completely foiled, became enraged, and hastily said, ' If you wiU not have peace with brethren, you shall have war with enemies. If you will not show your neighbours the way of Ufe, their swords shall avenge the wrong in putting you to death.' In these words has been sometimes discerned rather a deliberate threat, than a random prophecy. After no long interval,' about twelve hundred British monks, from the great monastery of Bangor, in modern Flintshire, were savagely slaughtered on the field of battle, by Ethelfrid, an Anglian chief. 'Who are all these unarmed men?' the warrior asked. 'Monks,' was the reply, 'brought hither, after a three days' fast, to pray for success upon their country's arms.' Ethelfrid rejoined, ' These are active enemies, then, no less than the others ; for they come to fight against us with their prayers. Put them to the sword.' Of this cruelty, sometimes attributed to his intrigues, Augustine was probably altogether guiltless. But his unbecoming pride, and unwarrantable claims to jurisdiction, naturally engendered a violent antipathy in the British Christians, who refused communion with the Roman party no less than with the Pagan Saxons.^ Augustine was called away soon after the failure of his ambitious hopes. Death did not, however, surprise him before he had been duly careful to provide for the con- ' Probably in 613.— Steven- I ^ Huntingdon, Script post Be- SON, p. 102. I dam, 189. A.D. 604.] TO THEODORE. 59 tinuance of that Church which his useful and honourable labours had founded. Ricula, sister to his friend and patron Ethelbert, was mother to Sebert, king of the East Saxons. This petty prince he found the means of con verting, and of persuading to receive a bishop. The prelate consecrated for this mission was Mellitus, one of the company sent by Gregory to his aid, after he had become tolerably established. The see to which Mellitus went was London, then the capital of Sebert. Ethelbert ordered a church to be built there in honour of St. Paul, and thus provided a site for two noble cathedrals in suc cession; one, destroyed in the great fire of London, spacious above all contemporary English fanes, and mag nificent above most; its successor, second only to St. Peter's at Rome as a monument of Grecian architecture, and, besides, the glory of Protestant Christianity. Justus, another of the second missionary band sent over by Gregory, was consecrated by Augustine to a see founded at Rochester, within the territory under Ethelbert's imme diate authority. He consecrated also Laurentius as his own successor.' But here his arrangements terminated; a plain proof that he was nothing more than the pioneer in evangelizing the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine, however, justly claims the veneration of Englishmen. An opening through which their ancestors received the greatest of imaginable services, was rendered available by his address and self-devotion. A grateful posterity may well excuse in such a man something of human vanity and indis cretion. After Augustine's death, Laurentius imitated his example in seeking to undermine native partiality for ancient usages. He wrote letters, in conjunction with Mellitus and Justus, to the principal Scottish ecclesiastics, compli menting them at the expense of their brethren in other British regions,^ and exhorting them to a conformity with Rome. A similar letter was addressed to the inferior clergy of South Britain ; their superiors, probably, being considered proof against any such attempt. A complete failure, however, again waited upon Roman ambition; ' Bed. ii. 3, p. 1 1 6. | ^ Bed. ii. 4, p. 1 1 8. 60 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 617. Gregory's mission seemed, indeed, now on the very eve of a final miscarriage. Ethelbert, having lost Bertha, married, in his declining age, a second wife. After his death, his son and successor Eadbald insisted upon espousing this female, aggravating that indecency by an open relapse mto Paganism. His kinsmen, also the sons of Sebert, now deceased, had looked with longing eye upon the whiteness of some bread used in administering the holy communion, and desired a taste of it. ' You must first lie baptized,' was the answer. 'The bread of life is reserved for such as have sought the laver of life.' This refusal was requited by the expulsion of Mellitus, who retired into Kent. He there found both Justus and Laurentius agreed with him in regarding the Roman cause as hopeless. AU three, accordingly, determined upon withdrawing from the isle. This resolve was quickly executed by Justus and Mellitus.' Laurentius was to follow them without unnecessary delay. When his preparations for departure were completed, he desired 'a couch to be spread in the church, as a last farewell to a spot endeared by so many grateful labours. As the sun declined, Eadbald' s spirits would naturally rise. Re proof and importunity from Laurentius were likely to trouble him no more. As morning, however, dawned, his eyes were unwelcomely saluted by the Archbishop's agitated countenance. ' I come,' said he, uncovering his shoulders, ' to show you what I have undergone during the night. St. Peter stood at my side while I slept, reproached me sharply for presuming to fiee from my charge, and scourged me most severely ; as these marks will testify ! ' Eadbald heard the missionary's tale, and gazed upon his livid shoulders with deep uneasiness. He might even dread a renewal of former arguments enforced by some nocturnal flagellation. He consented, accordingly, to dismiss his father's widow, receive baptism, and recall Mellitus and Justus from the Continent.^ The latter he fixed again at Rochester, but he was unable to re-establish the former in London. A sister of his, named Ethelburga or Tate, was asked in marriage by Edwin, a powerful prince who ruled Northum- 1 Bed. ii. 5, p. 122. { « Bed. ii. 6, p. 124. A.D. 635.] TO THEODORE. 61 bria. Eadbald would only hear of the suit under condition that the lady, like her mother. Bertha, should be protected in the free exercise of her religion. Edwin not only stipulated this, but also professed a willingness to embrace Christianity himself, if he should find its pretensions able to stand a sufficient inquiry. Paulinus, one of the second missionary band sent over by Gregory,* having been consecrated to the episcopate by Justus, now archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied Ethelburga into the north. His patience was there sorely tried by the strength of Edwin's pagan prejudices. But his Italian address being keenly on the watch for favourable incidents, proved eventually an overmatch for the semi-barbarian's obstinacy. Quichelm, king of the West Saxons, desiring to seize his country, sent a colourable message to Edwin by one provided with a poisoned weapon. The assassin speciously explained his pretended business until every eye around was fixed upon him ; then he rushed furiously upon his intended victim. Edwin would, undoubtedly, have perished, had not Lilla, a faithfiil thane, suddenly sprung forward and received himself the deadly blow. But it was aimed with so much force, and with so large a weapon, that, passing through the murdered man, it gave a wound even to the king. On the same evening, being that of Easter-day, Edwin's queen was delivered of a daughter, afterwards named Eanfleda, and his own acknowledgments were warmly offered to the imaginary gods of Scandinavia, both for the happy termin ation of Ethelburga's painful anxiety and his own wonderful escape. ' I must give hearty thanks to Christ, my Lord,' said Paulinus, ' for the queen's easy and safe delivery. Nor can I help thinking that this mercy is partly owing to my earnest prayers in her behalf.' Edwin then asked, 'And will you pray for my success in an expedition that I shall undertake against the cowardly traitor, Quichelm ? ' The answer was : ' Yes : but I fear that Jesus wiU not hear me unless you resolve upon becoming his disciple.' Edwin pledged himself to this qualification at an early oppor tunity, and as an earnest of that engagement he desired Paulinus to baptize his infant daughter, with twelve of his > Bed. i. 29, p. 98 63 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 635. household. He then marched against Quichelm, and succeeded in killing or capturing all who had been any way concerned in the late attempt upon his life. When returned, however, victorious to his home, the force of early pre possessions rallied, and he declared himself unable to renounce heathenism until his more eminent subjects had approved.* Paulinus was acquainted with a scene that often power fully struck the mental eye of Edwin. It seems to have been a secret ; for Bede supposes the bishop to have learned it by revelation from above. His real informant most likely was the queen. Edwin having succeeded to the Northumbrian throne when hardly out of his cradle, was quickly set aside, and then stealthily conveyed away. Ethelfrid, who had usurped his crown, sent emissaries after him into every corner of the island where he took tempo rary shelter. At length he found protection at the com't of Redwald, king of East Anglia. This prince, being assiduously plied by Ethelfrid with promises and menaces, began to waver. A friend of Edwin was informed of this, and advised instant flight. The royal youth, just retired to rest, hastily left his chamber and withdrew beyond the dwelling, distracted by anxious apprehension. He had already wandered over most of England in quest of safety, and was growing all but absolutely hopeless. As night wore away he probably sank into an agitated slumber. A majestic personage now roused attention, whose coun tenance and dress were wholly new. Edwin strained his eyes in agony. 'Wherefore,' said his unknown visitor, 'sit you in mourning here while other mortals quietly repose?' He was answered, 'It can be no concern of yours whether I spend the night abroad or on my couch.' The figure said, 'Do not think me unaware of your dis tress. I know it all. What will you give me then to set your heart at ease, and make Redwald spurn every overture of your enemy?' Edwin eagerly promised any thing that ever might be in his power. 'Again: what would you give,' the stranger added, 'if I should enable you, not only to trample on your foes, but also to outstrip 'BED.ii.9, p.l32. A.D. 636.] TO THEODORE. 63 the power of every neighbouring king ? ' Edwin pledged himself, if possible, more largely than before. He was then asked, ' Should he who cheers you thus with unex pected hopes be found quite equal to crown them with success, would you take hereafter his advice if he should recommend a course of life different from any ever followed in your family, yet far more excellent ? ' This also met with a hearty affirmative reply. ' When this signal shall be repeated, remember, then, your pledge.' As these words were spoken the figure pressed his right hand solemnly on Edwin's head, and immediately disappeared. After a short interval, the young Northumbrian saw that kind friend approach whose warning had aroused him from his bed. Now he was, however, told that Redwald, influenced by the queen, had not only given up every thought of betray ing him to Ethelfrid, but was even ready to furnish him with troops for driving that usurper from his throne.' He did aid him thus; and Edwin regained his patrimonial sovereignty. After his triumphant return from taking vengeance upon Quichelm, Paulinus desired an interview. In this he slowly raised his right hand and pressed it earnestly upon the royal head. Edwin started and trembled vio lently. ' You know this signal? ' the Italian said ; ' you know it to have been originally given by one whose words have most exactly been fulfilled. Remember, then, your pledge." Edwin fell at the missionary's feet, and ear nestly inquired his meaning. ' By God's mercy, Pau linus added, 'when even hope had fled, your life was saved. By the same mercy you have wonderfully pre vailed over all your enemies, and regained your paternal throne. A third, and a greater instance of his mercy, yet awaits acceptance. Redeem your pledge: and the God, who has led you through so many dangers to gain and to secure an earthly throne, will remain your friend until you reach the glories of his own eternal kingdom.' Be fore such an appeal Edwin was powerless. He professed himself anxious to redeem the pledge that Paulinus A.D. 617. 64 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 637. claimed ; and only desired baptism to be delayed until he could receive it in company with his leading men.' These duly met, and Paulinus having pleaded in favour of Christianity, Coifi, a Druidic pontiff apparently, thus addressed the royal president : — ' It seems to me, O king, that our paternal gods are worthless, for no man's worship of them has been more devout than mine ; yet my lot has been far less prosperous than that of many others not half so pious.' A chief then said: 'The life of man, O king, reminds me of a winter feast around your blazing fire, while the storm howls or the snow drives abroad. A dis tressed sparrow darts within the doorway : for a moment it is cheered by warmth and shelter from the blast; then, shooting through the other entrance, it is lost again. Such is man. He comes we know not whence, hastily snatches a scanty share of worldly pleasure, then goes we know not whither. If this new doctrine, therefore, wiH give us any clearer insight into things of so much interest, , my feeling is to follow it.' Before such arguments, re sembling strikingly those of Indian warriors in America, Northumbrian paganism fell. Coifi was foremost in making war upon the superstition which had so severely baullced his hopes. His priestly character obliged him to ride a mare, and forbade him to bear a weapon. The people, therefore, thought him mad when he appeared upon Edwin's charger with lance in hand. He rode, how ever, to a famous temple at Godmundham, in Yorkshire, pierced the idol through, and ordered the building to he burnt.2 Soon afterwards, Paulinus kept a most im pressive Easter by holding a public baptism at York, in which Edwin, his principal men, and multitudes of in ferior people, were solemnly admitted into the Christian church.' Paulinus was now established in York as his episcopal see; and this being known at Rome procured for him the customary compliment of a pall.* His mission, how ever, eventually failed. His patron, Edwin, being at tacked by Cadwalla, a British prince, and Penda, king of ' Bed. ii. 12, p. 141. I « Bed. ii. 14, p. 145. ' Bed. ii. 13, p. 143. | ' Bed. ii. 17, p. 150. A.D. 630.] TO THEODORE. 65 the Mercians, fell in battle.' Frightful destruction fol lowed, and Northumbria completely relapsed into pagan ism. Paulinus, with Queen Ethelburga, sought safety on shipboard, and sailed into Kent.^ The see of Ro chester becoming vacant shortly afterwards, Paulinus was chosen to fill it, and he remained bishop there until his death.^ Edwin's faithful friend, Redwald, had made a temporary profession of Christianity, moved by arguments and per suasions which assailed him during a visit into Kent. On returning into East Anglia, his wife, and others whom he valued, easily prevailed upon him to relapse into idolatry ; but his brief adherence to the truth was far from fruitless ; it naturally undermined the prejudices of others. Carp- wald, accordingly, his son and successor, embraced the Gospel on Edwin's recommendation. Shortly afterwards this prince was assassinated, and his brother, Sigebert, was driven an exUe into Gaul. There he was baptized ; and having regained the East Anglian throne, he received Fehx, a Burgundian bishop, for whom he founded an episcopal see at Dunwich, in Suffolk.^ Edwin's conversion proved similarly advantageous for his own dominions. It paved the way for a ready and permanent reception of our holy religion, though not by Roman instrumentality. When Edwin prevailed over his rival Ethelfrid, the sons of that prince took refuge in Scotland, where they became Christians. Oswald, one of them, not only regained all that his father had lost, but also, by uniting Deira with Bernicia, established himself in great power on the Northumbrian throne. Being a religious man, he could not rest without Christianising his people. His exile had shown him how to do this with out Roman intervention; which he might hate from its connection with Edwin. He sent, accordingly, for a bishop to his friends in Scotland, and from them he > Bed. ii. 20, p. 157. ' In 633. — Godwin de Prcesvl. 651, note. ' Bed. ii. 20, p. 169. Paulinus died in 644 — Godwin de Prasul 651. * Bed. ii. 16, p. 148. This see oi Dunwich was founded in 630. — Godwin de Prasul. 423. 66 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 635. received Aidan, a gentle-mannered, pious, well-conducted man. Godly zeal was also his, but Bede considers this to have been not quite according to knowledge ; for he kept Easter like his race generally. As might be expected, in finding a see for him, no regard was paid to papal arrange ments. Aidan fixed himself at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island,' as did also his successors, Finan and Colman, like him, Scots, unconnected with Rome, repudiating her usages and despising her assumptions. It was under these prelates of British origin; under, therefore, a religious system of native growth, that the North of England was evangelised. More completely still was the whole centre of South Britain indebted for this inestimable benefit to the native clergy. There no Roman preacher first took possession of a field which labourers, more happily circumstanced, after- wards cultivated with lasting success. Peada, king of the southern Mercians, offering marriage to a Northumbrian princess, was accepted on condition of embracing Chris tianity. He received, as the bishop of his people, Diuma, a Scot by birth, who was consecrated by, Finan, the pre- late of Bernicia.^ Diuma's three immediate succcessors were also supplied by that venerable church which had flourished immemorially in the British isles : and under these four prelates all our midland counties were con verted. Equal zeal was displayed by the national church, and with equal success, in the kingdom of Essex. That region had been sunk in unheeded heathenism since the failure of Mellitus. One of its princes, however, named Sigebert, had become a frequent guest at the Northumbrian court, and he was there converted. At his desire, Chad, a mem ber of the national church, repaired into Essex. He received, eventually, episcopal consecration from Finan, prelate of Northumbria; and it was chiefly by his exer- * Bed. iii. 3, p. 1 67. Aidan was consecrated to the see of Lindis farne in 635. — Godwin de Prce- sul. 718, note. 2 Bed. iii. 21, p. 219. Diuma appears to have been consecrated bishop of Mercia in 656. Diuma's three immediate successors were named respectively Cellaoh, Trumhere, and Jaruman. — Whaeton in Thom. Chesterfield. Angl. Sacr. i. 424. A.D. 654.] TO THEODORE. 67 tions that the diocese of London, as it remained until re cently, was reclaimed from Gentile superstition.* Nor was East Anglian Christianity without extensive obligations to the ancient church of Britain. The pre lates of East Anglia seem indeed constantly to have been in communion with Rome; but the people's conversion was greatly owing to the labours of Fursey, an Irish monk. Only two counties, therefore, north of the Thames — those of Norfolk and Suffolk — were even under Roman super intendence during their transition from paganism to Christianity, and these two were largely indebted to do mestic zeal for their conversion. Every other county, from London to Edinburgh,^ has the full gratification of pointing to a native church, of unknown antiquity, but seemingly of Asiatic origin, as its nursing mother in Christ's holy faith. In this patriotic gratification the southern counties can not so largely share. The West Saxons were chiefly con verted by means of Birinus, a Roman monk,' whom Pope Honorius sent over into England.* His labours, however, owed probably a large portion of their success to Oswald, king of Northumbria, who had arrived at the West Saxon court as suitor to the king's daughter. At such a time it was found an easy matter to convert both the young prin cess and her father, Kynegils. To the latter Oswald stood sponsor ; nor did he leave the south until he had accom plished arrangements for providing Birinus with an epis copal see at Dorchester, in Oxfordshire.* Thus the West Saxon church was importantly indebted for its establish ment to a powerful professor of the ancient national reli gion. Its second bishop also was Agilbert, a Frenchman, who had long studied in Ireland,* and who undertook the duties of a missionary among the West Saxons by desire ' Bed. iii. 22, p. 221. Chad ap pears to have been consecrated by Finan in 654. — Godwin de Prasul. 172. ' The southern counties of Spotland were included in the ancient kingdom of Northum bria. — Inett. i. 60. ' Rddboene. Hist. Maj. Win- ton. Angl. Sacr. i. 190. * The arrival of Birinus is re ferred to 634 ; the baptism of Kynegils, to the following year. — lb. note. 'Bed. iii. 7, p. 176. «iS.p.l77. 68 FROM AUGUSTINE [a.D. 664. of Oswy, king of Northumberland.* The principles and habits of this prelate must have been, therefore, suffi- ciently conformable to those of the ancient national church. His successor was Wine, an Anglo-Saxon by birth, and a monk of Winchester. In usages this prelate probably followed Rome ; but he does not appear to have conceded her any jurisdiction, for he sought consecration in Gaul, not from the archbishop of Canterbury.^ The Gospel, having thus won its way over other parts of England, at length obtained an establishment in Sussex. The people were prepared for its admission by a small community of native monks settled within their territory. These recluses, however, made no great impression upon the surrounding country ; but iEdilwalch, king of Sussex, returned from the Mercian court a Christian. He had been baptized there at the recommendation of Wulfhere, king of Mercia, who stood sponsor to him,^ and who was a member of Britain's national church. jEdilwalch's people were indeed chiefly converted by means of the famous Wilfrid, then a wanderer, and always a zealous partisan of Rome."* In Sussex, therefore, the cases of Essex and Northumbria were reversed. In these latter countries a Roman introduction prepared the way for British success : among the South Saxons, Britain made an opening through which Rome prevailed. Her complete and final prevalence over the national church flowed from female influence and the dexterity of her agents. Eanfieda, who had been driven from her native Northumbria in infancy, with Paulinus, returned thither, after an education among her maternal relatives in Kent, as the wife of Oswy, then king of the country, and Bretwalda.^ Inheriting all the religious constancy of ' Rudborne, Angl Sacr. i. 192. ' Bed. iii. 7, p. 177. •¦• Wulfhere gave to .Sdilwalch a substantial proof of his spon- sorial affection in the Isle of Wight, which he conquered, and made over to him. — Sax. Chr. 47. " lb. iv. 13, p. 293. Wilfrid ob tained from .^dUwalch the pe ninsula of Selsey, where he fixed an episcopal see about the year 680 (Lb Nbvb, 55). After hia return to the north, the South Saxon diocese was governed for a time by the neighbouring bishops of Winchester. " Sax. Chr. 88. A.D. 664.] TO THEODORE. 69 her mother, Ethelburga, and of her grandmother. Bertha, she retained a chaplain from Kent, named Romanus, and would not abandon the usages of that country for those of Northumbria. Her son's tutor, also, was Wilfrid, whose excellent abilities had been matured in southern Europe, and who could not fail of coming home with abundant reasons for taking the Roman side. Oswy, however, cared nothing for his arguments, but persisted in calculating Easter upon the old insular system. The queen would only endure that of the continent. A striking contrast came up, every spring, from this matrimonial jar. One party kept Easter holidays while the other was growing very tired of Lent. At length Oswy thought it high time to see what could be done in some formal conference. He summoned one in the monastery which he had recently founded at Whitby.' f'There, Colman, bishop of Bernicia, assisted by Chad, bishop of Essex, pleaded for British usages, Wilfrid for those of Rome. The national divines claimed St. John, our Lord's beloved disciple, as the origin of their system ; the others felt sure that St. Peter was the authority for their's.' And whose authority would be so great ? He was the Apostle to whom Christ gave the keys of heaven. Oswy asked immediately, ' And is this true ? ' His former friends replied, 'Undoubtedly.' He next inquired of them, ' Was your Apostle ever honoured by a gift like this ? ' They could not tell him that he was, on which the king said, ' I must leave your party, then. I cannot run the risk of disobliging him who keeps the key of heaven. He might refuse to let me in when I stand before the door.' - Romish writers are natm-ally shy of letting people know all this. Oswy's decision looks too much like a jest. His own rude age, probably, saw nothing in it beyond a happy thought for ending a troublesome contention. Hence, he was generally applauded, and ancient British usages were formally renounced. , Colman, however, was disgusted, and retired with his adherents into ' Bromton. a. Scriptores. Lond. 1652, col. 788. Whitby was then called Streaneshalch. This fa mous conference was holden there in 664. — Wharton de Episc. Dunelm. Angl Sacr. i. 692. 2 Bed. iii. 25, p. 236. 70 FROM AUGUSTINE L-^-^* ""4- Scotiand. Part of Aidan's remains he took with him: the remainder was left at Lindisfarne.* Probably the triumph at Whitby involved little or no change in articles of behef The papal peculiarities of a later age can very seldom be traced up to a period so remote. Even the authority eventually claimed for the Roman see was treated as an antichristian assumption by Gregory the Great.^ Nor did he approve of approaches towards the adoration of images.^ His Sacramentary also shows him to have, indeed, earnestly desired of God that departed saints should pray for the faithful, but to have Hved before Christians had fallen into a habit of invoking them. Of ceremonies he was a zealous patron ; and upon the whole, undoubtedly, he bore no unimportant part in laying the foundations of Romanism both in England and elsewhere. Still the system established under his auspices was widely different from that eventually sanctioned at Trent. Ritually the two were very much alike; doctrinally very far apart. The earliest Anglo-Saxon Christians, there fore, agreed essentially with their descendants since the Reformation in most particulars. As to prayers and offer ings for the dead, they did, undoubtedly differ from them; having adopted, apparently, such services from the first, an uncritical age might find scriptural authority for them in the second book of Maccabees.* But suspicions of its weakness lurk in attempted corroborations of it. Gregory the Great supplies a sample of the means taken to help these funereal rites over the void left by canonical Scrip ture.* Services with no foundation there, but leaning for ' Bed. iii. 26, p. 239. == Greg. PP. Epist lib. iv. 32, 34,38,39. Labb. et Coss. Y. 118% 1189,1192,1195. 3 Ejusd. Epist. 9, lib. ix. * 2 Mace. xii. 44, 45. 5 A priest, Gregory says, had received many attentions from an unknown person at a warm bath. By way of recompense, he brought him one day some bread, which had been among the eucha ristic oblations. 'Why do you give me this, Father ? ' his attend ant said. ' This is holy bread : I cannot eat it. I was once mas ter here, and am still bound to the place for my sins. If you wish to serve me, offer this bread in my behalf; and know that your prayers are heard, when you find me here no longer.' The speaker then vanished. A week was now spent by the priest ia A.D. 664.] TO THEODORE. 71 support on idle tales could not safely be continued because long prescription gave them countenance. \ In sweepingi them away, the renovated Church of England did no morel therefore than exercise a sound discretion. fasting, prayers, and daily offer ings of the euoharist. When it was expired, he went to the bath again, but he saw nothing of his former attendant. — Greg. Mag. P. Opp. tom. iii. p. 304. 73 Chapter II. FROM THEODORE TO ALCUIN. 669—804. Wilfrid's appointment to the prelacy — theodore — council of HBETFOED — WILFEID'S DISGEACE — COUNCIL OF HATFIELD — BENE DICT BISCOP ORIGIN OF A PAEOCHIAL CLERGY — DEATH OF THEO DORE — PINAL TEOUBLES, AND DEATH OP WILFEID — LAWS OF INA — COUNCILS OP BAPCHILD, AND BBEGHAMPSTEAD — CHURCH-SHOT — TYTHES — MONASTERIES— PILGEIMAGES TO EOME — ^ALDHELM— BEDE — EGBBET TEIPAETITE DIVISION OP TYTHES — ALOUm— BONIFACE — COUNCIL OP CLOVESHOO — .OFFA, AND THE ARCH BISHOPRIC OP LICHFIELD — COUNCIL OF CALCUITH — PETEE-PENOE — IMAGE WOESHIP — EECEIVBD WITH EXECRATION IN ENGLAND — THE CAEOLINE BOOKS — EGBERT'S PENITENTIAL. AT Whitby, Augustine's ambitious designs were only realised in part. All England now, indeed, received religious usages from Italy; but no further concession seems to have been intended. When, accordingly, Tuda, another of the revered Scottish divines, was chosen to succeed Colman, he did not seek consecration at Canter bury, but among the Picts, or southern Scots. These were a tribe converted by Ninian, a Briton by birth, who had received his Christian education at Rome,' and who naturally introduced Roman usages among his converts. The other Scots looked up to lona as their centre of unity, and hence followed the religious usages which an Asiatic mission seems to have planted. Thus Tuda appears con nected with something of a compromise. His episcopal character came through a native channel, but one that fixed its centre of unity at Rome. He held, however, the Northumbrian see no more than a few months. Wilfrid, then about thirty,'^ who had pleaded for the Roman usages at Whitby, was chosen to succeed him. This remarkable man sprang from a wealthy family, but early lost his mother. His father married again, and - Bed. iii. 26, p. 239. | ^ Sim. Dunelm. X. ScripL 78. A.D. 665.] FROM THEODORE TO ALCUIN. 73 young Wilfrid quarrelled with the lady. Being thus un comfortable at home, he desired permission to seek his fortune in the world. His father gave it, with his blessing, and a very handsome outfit. He was then in his four teenth year, and he went well ai'med, horsed, clad, and attended, to the court of his native Northumbria. His family connections procured him an immediate introduc tion to Eanfleda, the queen ; who was delighted with his youthful beauty and intelligence. Wilfrid's mind being cast in a religious mould, he gladly retired from court with a paralytic nobleman, bent upon consecrating the remainder of life to piety, in the monastery of Lindisfarne.' His young attendant's active spirit soon began to ferment in that cloistered solitude. He brooded over the Roman prepossessions of his royal patroness, Eanfleda, and became sure that Scotland was not likely to originate any very sound notions upon questions of theology.^ He was now grown a young man, and very naturally thought nothing more desirable than a journey into Italy for better instruc tion. The indulgent queen approved, gave him a passport to the hospitality of her cousin, Erconbfert, king of Kent, and Wilfrid's tour was joyfully begun. At the Kentish court he met Benedict Biscop, another youth older than himself, but of kindred enthusiasm and intelligence. This young man was likewise impatiently bound for Italy. His riper age naturally gave him the lead upon a journey, and he is charged with austerity of temper.^ The two, not withstanding, continued fellow-travellers to Lyons. There they parted. Biscop went on to Italy. Wilfrid was persuaded by the bishop to stop at Lyons. This prelate is called Dalfinus by Bede and Eddy; but his real name seems to have been Aunemund. He had a brother named Dalfinus, and he wanted Wilfrid to marry his niece, pro bably that very person's daughter.* He would, besides, have adopted the comely young Northumbrian, arwJ settled him in Gaul as governor of an extensive province. But Wilfrid was proof against such temptations. Neither lady ' Eddii Stephani Vita S. Wil- Mdi. XV. Scriptores. Oxon. 1691, p. 62. 2 Bed. 439. ' Edd. Steph. p. 53. * Mabillon. Annates Benedie- tini, i. 425. 74 FROM THEODORE [A-D. 665. nor governorship could keep him from Rome; he stayed there several months, learnt the four Gospels perfectly, as also the Easter calculation, unknown to the schismatics of Britain and Ireland, with many other points of ecclesiastical regulation. Thus accomplished, he set out for home, receiving on his way from his episcopal friend at Lyons, the tonsure of St. Peter, a representation of our Lord's thorny crown. Being arrived in Northumberland, he was provided with a monastery at Ripon.' When Tuda's death gave him promo tion to the episcopate, he could not satisfy himself with any domestic opportunities of consecration.^ ' Bishops in Britain,' he said, ' were numerous enough ; and it was no business of his to find fault with any one of them ; hut still it was impossible to overlook that some of them, as the Britons and Scots, were Quartodecimans, while others had received ordination from such persons. Now, the apostolical see neither communicated with schismatics, nor with any who agreed with schismatics. Hence he made interest with Alchfrid, king Oswy's son, once his pupil, to be sent over into Gaul, where there were many Catholic bishops, in order that, in spite of his unworthiness, he might receive the episcopal rank in a manner quite approved by the apostolic see. Rarely has a wish been more fully gratified. Wilfrid soon departed for the conti nent with a large retinue and plenty of money. His re ception abroad was, accordingly, most satisfactory. Twelve Gallic bishops mustered at Compiegne, and from one of them, his friend Agilbert, now removed from the West Saxon bishopric to that of Paris,^ the zealous Anglo-Saxon partizan of Rome received consecration. His object being thus gained under every circumstance that love of show and hatred of schism could desire, Wilfrid's natural levity and ostentation could no longer be kept down. He did not, accordingly, hasten homeward after consecration, but lingered amidst the tempting hos pitalities of Gaul. The Quartodeciman party, quite alive to this opportunity of disparaging him, succeeded in filling his royal patron with disgust, and Chad, abbot of Lasting- ham, was appointed to the see that Wilfrid now seemed to 1 Eddius. XV. Script. 63, 54, 55. I TTTI T" ^'Emim. XV. Script. 57. \ '-'J- 247. Bromton, 789. A.D. 669.] TO ALCUIN. 75 care about so little. The prelate elect, who was brother to the East-Saxon bishop,' would have been consecrated at Canterbury, had not Deusdedit, the archbishop, inoppor tunely died. He repaired, accordingly, to Winchester, and received consecration from Wine, the bishop there, assisted by two British prelates.^ The two kings of Kent and Northumbria now thought of staying the progress of religious dissension, by sending a new primate to Rome for consecration. Their choice fell upon Wighard, a native priest, who was very kindly entertained at the papal court, but who died there before consecration.^ This opportunity was not lost upon Italian subtlety. Vitalian, then pope, determined upon trying whether the Anglo-Saxons would receive an archbishop nominated by himself He chose eventually Theodore, an able and learned monk of sixty-six, born at Tarsus, in Cilicia.'' Bede's history calls him the bishop whom the kings had sought from the Roman prelate.^ But, as these words are not literally true, they must mean the sort of prelate. Wighard's credentials might enable Vitalian to judge of that. In them his qualifications would naturally be de scribed, and himself pronounced exactly such an arch bishop as the country wanted. In the letter, accordingly, which announces his decease to Oswy, king of Northum bria, the pope refers to the tenour of writings received from England.^ He professes himself at a loss to find imme diately another answerable to such tenour, from a difiiculty as to distance. This could scarcely be the case with Italy, or any neighbouring region, though it would be as to Britain : where alone was to be found an exact counter part of Wighard. Of instructions, either sent or desired from that quarter, Bede says not a word. Indeed, his biography of Benedict Biscop, who was then at Rome, makes Vitahan to have acted as he did, lest a religious embassy should fail of serving the faithful effectively, from the 'Stubbs. Act. PP. Ebor. X. Script. 1689. « Bed. iii. 28, p. 247. " Bed. iii. 29, p. 249. * Bed. iv. 1 , p. 254. Theodore was consecrated, at Rome, by Pope Vitahan, in March, 668 ; and he came to Canterbury in May, 669. — Whaeton de Vera Success. Archiep. Cant. Angl Sacr. i. 93. ' Bed. iv. 1, p. 245. » Eccl Hist. iii. 29, p. 238. 76 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 669. deaths of those who brought it.^ A partial observer, there fore, on the spot, seems never to have heard of any discre tionary power sent over to the pope. His life represents the papal act as nothing else than a bold experiment. It proved, however, of great use to England. VitaUan's nominee turned out an admirable archbishop. Still, the manner of his appointment, former nominations to Anglo- Saxon sees having been domestic, might make people unwilling to receive him. Ample time was, however, given for smoothing every difiiculty. After his consecration, Theodore spent several months in Gaul. But he soon found a welcome to await him in England. Her princes, wearied by the animosities of contending parties, were impatient for an umpire likely to command respect.^ Hence they not only saw Theodore with great satisfaction, but also readily allowed him that primacy over the whole Anglo-Saxon church, which Augustine vainly coveted, and after-times must have often thought at an interminable distance. Theodore may be regarded as the parent of Anglo- Saxon literature. His exertions to illumine his adopted country were unwearied, and were crowned by the hap piest success. They were aided by a scholarly and inde fatigable coadjutor, named Adrian, born in Africa. Being advantageously known as member of a Campanian monas tic fraternity, the pope wished him to accept Canterbury. Adrian refused, but recommended Theodore. He would have refused also, unless his African friend had promised to accompany him.^ These two admirable foreigners brought some valuable books into England, instituted schools, and spread sound information on every side. To them the Anglo-Saxons owed that intellectual eminence which soon eclipsed the neighbouring nations. Theirs is the school that> under Alcuin, was eventually transplanted into Gaul; where it gave a new and lasting impulse to European civilization. Learned labours were not allowed, however, to trench unduly on the time of Theodore. He made efficient use of his authority, by taking extensive jom-neys, and urging everywhere an uniformity witi Rome. One of the earliest cases referred to him was thai ^ Opp.Min.Ul. I 'Opp.Min.14% | ^ Bed. iv. 1, p. 254. A.D. 673.] TO ALCUIN. 11 of Wilfrid. The superseded bishop represented Chad as an intruder, and begged for his own restitution to a see of which he had been so unexpectedly deprived. At all events, Theodore decided, Chad had been uncanonically consecrated. Upon this, however, that humble Christian felt no disposition to dispute : ' He had been unwillingly drawn,' he said, ' from his beloved abbey at Lastingham, and thither he should again gladly retire'.* He did not long enjoy there that religious obscurity which his mind so fondly coveted. Jaruman, the Mercian bishop, died soon after; and Chad, having consented to the imposition of Theodore's hands,^ was placed in the deceased prelate's room at the Mercian king's desire. Wilfrid regained pos session of the Northumbrian diocese, then extending be yond the confines of modern England into the country of Oswy's Pictish subjects.' A national synod was now convened* by Theodore, at Hertford, a frequent residence of the East Saxon kings,^ The bishops of East Anglia, Rochester, Wessex, and Mer cia, were personally present, together with many well- known canonists. Wilfrid, the Northumbrian prelate, sent two representatives. ' My object,' said Theodore, ' is a solemn engagement by us aU, to observe uniformly whatever the holy fathers have decreed and defined.' He then asked his hearers individually, whether they were willing; being answered affirmatively, he produced a body of canon law,^ and from it selected ten provisions, as espe cially demanding approbation. These prescribe the Ro man Easter, some regulations for bishops, clergymen, and monks; the holding of synods twice in every year, and the due maintenance of matrimonial ties. The approval sought followed a sufficient examination, and was regularly signed. Refractory clergymen were to be disquahfied from offi ciating, and utterly disowned.^ ¦ Bed. 259. = Bed. 260. » Bed. iv. 3, p. 261. • A.D. 673. ' Chauncy's Hertfordshire. 1826, p. 453. " Probably ' the collection, or book of canons, which is men tioned in the thirteenth session of the -Council of Chaloedon, and was afterwards confirmed in a novel of the Emperor Justinian.' — Inett. i. 77. ' Bed. iv. 5, p. 271. 78 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 678, Theodore, after thus providing a national code of eccle siastical jurisprudence, authorised two episcopal depositions. Winfrid, bishop of Mercia, having given some offence,' was driven from his bishopric, and the metropolitan ap proved. He did the same in Wilfrid's case. Egfrid, the Northumbrian king, had married Etheldred, an East Anglian princess, bred a zealous Christian, and smitten with a superstitious trust in monastic austerities. A subject of high distinction had been her husband in early youth, but she repelled his embraces. As a queen, this pertinacity continued : vain were Egfrid's importunities, vain his pro mises and persuasions to her spiritual adviser, Wilfrid. At length her humour was indulged, and she gladly left courtly profusion for the privations of a cloister." The new queen, probably, found Egfrid prejudiced against Wilfrid, as an abettor of his late wife's mortifying repug nance. The Northumbrian prince, accordingly, became an attentive hearer, when she painted invidiously his extensive acquisitions and ostentatious habits.' Two prelacies, it was urged,^ might be maintained upon his endowments, and the charge was too great for one. His own consent, however, for any division, appears to have been hopeless : hence the case was laid before Theodore, under whose deliberate sanction he was deprived of his bishopric. National authorities being all against him, he determined, under advice of some brother prelates, upon trying the effect of papal interposition. At Rome, he found some sort of council sitting, and before it he laid his case. The body pronounced his treatment uncanonical, and Pope Agatho furnished him with a letter, announcing this decision. Papal jurisdiction, however, being unknown to Wilfrid's countrymen, they spurned Agatho's inter ference, and angrily thrust the disgraced prelate into prison ;5 nor, when liberated, could he regain his bishopric. Driven, under this disappointment, to display the best parts of his character, he passed into Sussex, yet a neglected, > Bed. iv. 6, p. 275. " Bed. iv. 19, p. 304. 3 Malmesbuey. Script, post Be- dam, 149. * Two prelacies were actually founded, on his disgrace ; those of York and Hagulstad, ihe mo dern Hexham. 5 Malmesbuey de Gest. PP. Angl. Script, post Bedam, 150. A.D. 680.] TO alcuin. 79 heathen district ; and his active, able mind, there found honourable employment in evangelizing the country.' That interminable folly of rash and conceited spirits, which broaches a succession of subtle speculations on the Deity, had lately agitated Christendom by broaching Monothelite opinions. These had been approved, amidst the din of a bewildering controversy, by Honorius, then Roman pontiff, — an indiscretion sorely embarrassing to advocates of papal infalhbility.^ Agatho, a successor of his, advised Constantine Pogonatus to enforce religious peace, in a general council. This, known as the sixth, met at Constantinople, in 680, and condemned the Mo- nothelites. For the same purpose, Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, procured a meeting of the Anglo-Saxon church at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire,' then a portion of the royal patrimony.* This assembly solemnly received the first five general councils,* and a synod lately holden at Rome.'' Thus was the foundation laid of that sound discretion in treating questions above human comprehen sion, from which the Church of England never has de parted. Crude novelties respecting 'the deep things of God,''^ have invariably been discountenanced within her communion. . Among the divines at Hatfield was John the Precentor, an illustrious foreigner, brought over by Benedict Biscop.^ The latter, a noble Northumbrian, had been designed for a military Ufe, but Hterature and religion made him their own. He travelled to Rome with Wilfrid, in 654, and brought home a considerable collection of books.^ A modern collector would also have imported antiquities and pt. 2, ' Bed. iv. 13, p. 292. ^ MosHEiM, Cent. VII. oh. vi. » Bed. iv. 17, p. 300. The Coun cil of Hatfield met in Sept. 680. * Chaunoy, ii. 4. ' That of Nice, against the Arians ; that of Constantinople, against Macedonius and Eudox- ius; that of Ephesus, against Nestorius; that of Chalcedon, agamst Eutyches and Nestorius ; and that of Cpnstantinople, against Theodore, Theodoret, and the Epistles of Ibas. — Bed. ut supra. Spelm. i. 168. Wilk. i. 51. = In 649, under Martin I. The particular object of this was to condemn theMonothelites. — See Labb. et Coss. vi. 354. ' 1 Cor. ii. 10. ¦ BED.iv.l8, p. 302. « Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. Nero. E. 1. Vita Venerabilis Bedce, f. 394. 80 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 680. works of art, Benedict, as might be expected, imported relics,' and valued them, probably, intellectual as he was, even more highly than his volumes. For the whole collec tion a resting place was provided in a monastery, founded by Benedict's means, at the mouth of the Wear. To this retreat he also conducted John the Precentor, who was to teach his rising community of monks how to chant the service as was done at Rome, and read Latin.- Before John's departure, he was furnished by the Pope with a copy of the decrees lately passed synodically at Rome against the Monothelites. It was also his charge to make par ticular observations upon the faith of England.' Although Theodore, by uncommon ability, zeal, and firmness, had brought the whole Anglo-Saxon people to a conformity vrith papal usages, yet leading Roman ecclesiastics were jealous and suspicious. He was a Greek, and remarkable for independence of mind. Hence Pope Vitalian was carefid to secure for him his friend Adrian, as a companion. That learned African, to whose instructions ancient Eng land owed so much, came over partly as a spy upon his actions.* This espionage, the successor of Vitalian gladly renewed by means of the Precentor. Besides providing for his adopted country an outUne of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and terms of religious confor mity, Theodore appears to have been guided by an usage of his native Asia in planning the establishment of a parochial clergy. Under royal sanction, he followed Justinian in offering the perpetual patronage of churches as an encouragement for their erection.* Opulent pro prietors were thus tempted to supply the spiritual wants of their tenantry ; and Bede records the instances, but not as anything extraordinary, of two northern counts. Puck and Addi, in which this judicious policy proved effective. Theodore's oriental system had been, however, in operation for ages before every English estate of any magnitude had secured the benefit of a church within its boundary. This very lingering progress has thrown much obscurity around > DuGDALE, Monasticon, i. 96. ' Bed. iv. 18, p. 303. -lb. ' Bed. iii. 1, p. 255. ' Wheloc in Bed. p. 399. « Bed. v. 4, 5, pp. 375, 388. A.D. 690.] TO alcuin. 81 the origin of parishes. The principle of their formation will, however, account sufficiently for their unequal sizes, and for existing rights of patronage. At the great age of eighty-eight, Theodore was released from earthly labours.* With him the Roman series of English primates ended. Canterbury fell afterwards to Anglo-Saxons.^ But few, if any, of its archbishops, have ever done better service than himself Theodore's complete success was a great point gained by Rome. It laid a stepping-stone for ensnaring Englishmen, by doctrines popular, but unrevealed in Scripture, and for disturbing the country, by attempts inconsistent with its inherent sovereignty. Theodore could not, however, foresee these grafts upon the system which his primacy rooted in England. Nor does he seem ever to have relinquished his early habits of looking on the papal see with an oriental feeling of independence. This must have made him no great favourite at Rome. Although, accordingly, he made an opening for her through all the British isles, his name would be vainly sought among the saintly rubrics in her calendar. She could canonise far inferior men, and pass over him. But his reputation stands on groimds that mythic legends cannot raise. By defining principles of doctrine and discipline, he first gave stability to the reli gious establishment of England. Her mental growth was effectually secured by his active and zealous patronage of learning. During the earlier years of his English residence, instruction was given personally, both by himself and his friend, Adrian, in every branch of scholarship then known to students.' As a theologian, Theodore long maintained a high degree of importance. He had adopted a prevailing opinion that every sin must be visited by some corresponding penalty.* For the just apportionment of this, he compiled his famous Penitential: a work that gained a lasting influence all over * Bed. v. 8, p. 398. Theodore died in 690.— Inett. i. 117. Sax. Chr. 67. ^ Flor. Wig. Monumenta His- torica Britannica, 538. » Bed. iv. 2, p. 259. ' See Bampton Lectures. Ser mon V. 83 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 690. Western Europe. It still is oftenloosely thought an authority for the modern Romish confessional ; and an authority so ancient may be of great use in controversy. But it really gives most insufficient help to the penitential system now practised in the Church of Rome. That system maintains its ground by the express absolutions given to people im mediately after confession. Now, such absolutions were unknown until about five hundred years after Theodore was dead. In his time, an absolution was no more than a formal restoration to the privilege of communicating, coupled with a prayer for God's forgiveness. Theodore, besides, pronounces confession to God alone sufficient for spiritual safety.* In several particulars, therefore, his Penitential may be used against practices and principles which have prevailed in the Romish Church during six hundred years or more. These, however, are among the very principles and practices best fitted for captivating mankind. When Theodore felt his end approaching, he thought of Wilfrid,^ conscious, perhaps, of some harshness towards him, or merely anxious to render him a parting service. Though vain and restless, that prelate ever shone under adversity. On his first journey for papal interference, stress of weather drove him into Friesland, where he nobly spent a winter in evangelising the heathen popu lation.' His subsequent exile had rendered a Uke in valuable service to pagan Sussex.* Theodore could no longer disapprove. In the expatriated prelate, he only saw a very meritorious labourer in the Gospel vineyard,' He wrote accordingly, in his favour to the court of Northumberland, and Wilfrid, restored to his bishopric, was again tempted by prosperity. At first his jurisdiction did not reach its original extent : but he shortly regained spiritual authority over the whole Northumbrian domi nions. Unhappily, however, his intractable, haughty ' See the canon, as given in the published Penitential, Bamp ton Lectures, 289. =i Eddius. .X V. Scrip. 73. Mal mesb. Script, post Bed. 151. = Bed. v. 20, p. 443. ' lb. p. 444. 5 Eddius. XV. Scrip. 74. A.D. 690.] TO ALCUIN. 83 spirit, had not even yet been sufficiently disciplined: he could not bend himself to the canons enacted under Theodore, or endure the conversion of his beloved monastic foundation, at Ripon, into an episcopal see* These new displays of turbulence induced the king to call the prelacy together. It was a full meeting,^ headed by Brihtwald, successor to Theodore, and, under its authority, Wilfrid was once more driven into exile. His age was now verging upon seventy, but anger and impatience yet roused him into activity. He hastened again to Rome ; and, regard less of the contempt poured by his countrymen upon papal interference on a former occasion, laid his case before the pontiff, and pleaded strenuously for a favourable judgment. His exertions having prevailed, he made another experi ment upon the authorities of Northumbria. This was firmly, but courteously repelled. After due deliberation, the king expressed his resolution to abide by the decisions of former sovereigns, made, as they were, under sanction of the prelacy, regularly -convened, with two successive metropolitans at its head. Of Wilfrid's cause he desired to hear no more. Dying soon after, while his son was yet a boy, a bold usurper seized the throne. To him Wilfrid immediately applied, but was peremptorily ordered to quit the kingdom within six days, with all his adherents, under pain of death. The youthful heir, however soon suppla'nted him, and Wilfrid now was partially successful. A synod assembled on the banks of the Nidd, which Elfleda, an abbess, paternal aunt to the young king, en lightened by a speech, painting her brother's remorse before death on account of Wilfrid, and his determination, if life had been spared, to restore him.' The fathers were not wholly proof against such testimony from a lady, and a nun. They allowed Wilfrid the see of Hexham and the abbey of Ripon, which he held peaceably during the remaining four years of his agitated life.* His inde- ' Eddius. XV. Scrip. 75. ^ lb. Bed. V. 20, p. 444. ' Eddius. XV. Script. 84, 85, 86. • Bed. p. 447. Wilfrid died in 709, at Oundle, in Northampton shire, and was buried at Eipon, in Yorkshire. — Wharton de Episc. Dunelm. Angl. Sacr. i. 695. Sax. Chr. 61. 84 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 693. fatigable zeal for Italian usages, and repeated calls for papal interference, were naturally thought, in the course of years, an ample title to Romish invocation. St. Wil frid's tutelage was, accordingly, long implored in northern England. The sainted prelate has been industriously paraded as an authority of high antiquity for appeals to Rome. He furnishes, undoubtedly, the first known English example of them. But his history shows them to have been uniformly treated with utter contempt, and this not only by the civil authorities, but also by the ecclesiastical. Wilfrid's case is really, therefore, fatal to the very cause that leans upon it for support. He obviously sought papal interference, as a mere experiment for his own selfish ends. There was a rising deference for the Roman see, and it might serve him. The reasons for his own adoption of the foreign party are obvious. A vain, irritable, clever boy, impatient of a step-mother, finds refuge at court, and is caressed by a princess, who made Roman views a point of conscience, and enlivened her matrimonial life by argu ing them with her husband. The favoured lad, when a littie tired of court, tries the variety of a monastery, as attendant upon a devout paralytic. Having enough of this, he dwells upon the doctrines of his royal patronesS) and plans an Italian tour to learn something more about them. Caressed and flattered all the way, smitten too by refinement such as he never saw at home, he returns enchanted by everything Roman. His foreign principles and accomplishments now recommend him for tutor to the son of the princess, who had so largely befriended him. He next figures as a principal in the triumph so ridiculously given by her husband, to the opinions for which she had contended through life. To these opinions he then looks repeatedly for keeping him master of very great possessions; the cherished means both of indulging in personal ostentation, and a magnificent liberality. It is quite easy to understand aU this course of events, without assuming any established recognition of papal authority, , In Wilfrid's time England legally became a Christian commonwealth. A legislative assembly, holden under A.D. 693.] TO ALCUIN. 85 Ina, king of the West Saxons,* imposed fines upon parents neglecting the timely baptism of their infants,^ and upon labour on Sundays.' It also gave the privilege of sanc tuary to churches, made perjury before a bishop highly penal,* placed episcopal and royal residences upon the same footing as to housebreakers,^ and recognised bap tismal relationship by pecuniary satisfactions.^ About the same time Wihtred, king of Kent, in two meetings of his legislature, one holden at Bapchild,' the other at Berg hamsted,* confirmed churches in all properties and immu nities bestowed upon them ; allowed a veto to the arch bishop, on the election of bishops and abbots ; inflicted penalties on incontinence; lent solemnity to altars, by making them the places for manumitting slaves and taking oaths ; and fined the profanation of Sunday,' ido latrous offerings, and the eating of flesh on fast-days. The laws of Ina record also England's earliest known ' About the year 693. — John son, sub ann. ' Unless a child were baptized within thirty days, the father was to be fined as many shU- Ungs ; if it died before baptism, he was to forfeit all his posses sions. ' A slave, working on Sunday by his lord's order, was to be come free, and the lord was to pay thirty shillings ; by his own will, he was to be whipped, or pay a pecuniary compensation instead. * ' This was one reason for the bishops sitting on the temporal bench with the alderman, viz., to tender necessary oaths in the most solemn manner ; for the English, in this age, were under the greatest awe of falsifying an oath taken on the bishop's hand, or on a cross holden in his hand.' — Johnson. '120 shillings was to be the satisfaction for this offence in either case. The next case men tioned is the breaking into an alderman's house. , For this, 80 shillings was the penalty. * The compensation for killing a godson, or a godfather, was to be made to the survivor, just as if the parties had been related in blood. ' Becanceld, or Bacoanceld, is the Saxon name of this place : 'now called Bapchild, near to Sittingbourn, on the Canterbury side, being about midway be tween the coast of Kent and London, and therefore a very convenient place for a Kentish council.' 8 ' Perhaps, now Bursted, or Barsted,near Maidstone.' — John son, sub ann. 696. " Sunday was reckoned from sunset on Saturday, imtU sunset on Sunday. A remnant of this ancient reckoning is, perhaps, yet to be found in the half-holidays usual in schools on Saturdays. 86 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 696. enactment for supplying the exigencies of public worship, anciently provided-for by oblations upon the altar. When whole communities became Christian, such contributions would not only be precarious, but also often most unfairly levied. Ina's legislature wisely commuted voluntary offer ings for a regular assessment upon houses. Every dwell ing was to be valued at Christmas ; and the rate so im posed, called church-shot, was payable on the followmg Martinmas. Money being scarce, the payment was made in produce ; usually in grain or seed, but sometimes ia poultry. Defaulters were to be fined forty shiUings, and to pay the church-shot twelvefold.* By this pious care of divine ministrations, a foundation was obviously laid for the church-vz.ie% of later times. Thus a legislative provision for the due performance of holy offices is found among England's most ancient records. It is true that Ina's laws were only legally binding within the limits of his own dominions ; but such of them, probably, as bore upon religion, were soon admitted by usage, or express enact ment, in every petty state around. Church-shot was con sidered analogous to the levitical first fruits, and it makes repeated appearances among Anglo-Saxon legislative acts. Of these, the latest even, is far anterior to any muniment producible by a private family. The sacred and inalienable right of God's ministers to maintenance, appears not among the laws of Ina. This omission is understood as evidence, that poverty's most important claim on opulence^ was provided-for already, and not unwillingly, by means of tythes.' These had, in- * LL. iNiE, 4, 10. Spelm. i. 1 84, 185. Wilk. i. 59. Johnson, sub. ann. 693. " Let any observer cast his eye upon a considerable country con gregation, and he must feel that very few present either do, or can pay anything in support of the pubhc worship and instruction by which ah are benefiting. To say nothing, therefore, of relief, local expenditure, and assistance of various kinds, which an en dowed ministry confers upon rural districts, it is plainly the only means of securing to them a supply of sound religious knowledge. ^ 'We cannot doubt but tythes were paid in . England, at this time, and before: Boniface, in the year 693, was twenty years of age (he was bom 670) ; and he testifies that tythes were paid in the Enghsh church, in his let ter to Cuthbert. — Johnson, svb. ann. 693. A.D. 696.] TO ALCUIN. 87 deed, been rendered in every age, and under every reli gion.* Hence their origin, probably, ascends to that pa triarchal faith, which ever shed a glimmering ray over even the most benighted branches of Adam's posterity. Conversion to Christianity strengthened pagan prejudice in favour of this appropriation. It was the very provision, expressly enjoined by God, for that Levitical establishment which an evangelical ministry had superseded. Men were accordingly exhorted to consecrate the tenth of their sub stance as a religious duty; and tender consciences obe diently heard a call so strong in Scriptural authority — so famOiar even to heathen practice. The Anglo-Saxons had been, as usual, prepared for such appeals after conversion, by habit previously formed.'^ They seem also to have found the tenth esteemed God's portion among British Christians;' it is highly probable, therefore, that the 1 Potter's Discourse of Church Government. Lond. 1707, p. 430. Sir Henry Spelman's Larger Treatise concerning Tythes. Lond. 1647, p. 114,e<«e5. Dr. Comber's Historical Vindication of the Di vine Right of Tythes, Lond. 1685, part 1, ch. iii. p. 29. ^ It appears, from Sidonius ApoUinaris, that the Saxon pi rates were in the habit of sacri ficing the tenth captive to their gods (Comber, 190). Their cap tives were, in fact, merchandise. ' This may be inferred from the following tale, related of Augustine, the Kentish apostle. When preaching in Oxfordshire, a village priest addressed him thus : — ' Father, the lord of this place refuses to pay tythes, and my threats of excommunication only increase his obstinacy.' Augustine then tried his powers of persuasion ; but the lord re- phed, 'Did not I plough and sow the land ? The tenth part be longs to him who owns the re maining nine.' It was now time for mass ; and Augustine, turn ing to the altar, said, 'I com mand every excommunicated person to leave the church.' Im mediately a pallid corpse arose from beneath the doorway, stalk ed across the churchyard, and stood motionless beyond its boundary. The congregation, gazing in horror and affright, called Augustine's attention to the spectre. He did not choose, however, to break off the service. Having concluded, he said, 'Be not alarmed. With cross and holy water in hand, we shall know the meaning of this.' He then went forward, and thus accosted the ghastly stranger : ' I enjoin thee, in the name of God, tell me who thou art?' The ghost re plied, 'In British times I was lord here ; but no warnings of the priest could ever bring me to pay my tythes. At length he excommunicated me, and my dis embodied soul was thrust into hell. When the excommunicated were bidden to depart, your at- 88 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 696t sUence of Ina upon clerical maintenance merely resulted fi'om general acquiei^cencc in a system which immemorial usage prescribed, and Scriptiu'e sanctioned. Other facilities for spreading religion, and secular in formation also, were now generally provided by means of monasteries. Rarely was a prince converted, or awakened to a serious concern for eternity, without signalizing his altered state by one or more of these foundations. This munificence was highly beneficial to society. An age of barbarism and insecurity required such cloistered retreats for nurtiu'ing, concentrating, and protecting the peaceful luminaries of learning and religion. From the convent- gate, heralds of salvation went forth to c^¦angelize the country.* Undoubtedly, monasteries found for fanaticism both a nm'sery and an asylum : within their walls were trained and sheltered ascetic monks, perhaps cvcu more abundantly than active teachers. These latter were how ever cheaply purchased at the price of moderate encou ragement for the former. Religious enthusiasm arises, besides, from a mental unhcalthiness, common in every age, and often fai- from unproductive of real good. A place of refiige, therefore, and regular control, for spirits impatient under sober piety, would frequently render im portant public service. In eai'lier portions of the Anglo- Saxon period, such monastic services were unalloyed by any approach towards that extensive system of organiza tion which eventually becfime so mischievous. Benedict of Nursia had indeed, appeared,- and AYilfrid seems to tendant angels drove me from my gi-ave.' Augustine's power was now exerted in raising the excommunicating priest from his narrow resting-place ; and having thus a second spectre before him, he asked, ' Know you this per son 1 ' The unearthly clergyman replied, 'PuD well, and to my cost.' He was then reminded by Augustine of God's mercy, and of the departed lord's long tor ture in hell ; a scourge was put into his hand, the excommuni cated party knelt before him, received absolution, and then quietly returned to the grave. His own rot\ini thither soon fol lowed, although Augustine, de sirous of his assistance in preach ing the Gospel, would fain have prayed for a renewed term of hfe. — Bromton. A'. Script 736. " Bed. iv. 27, pp. 348, 341). ' Benedict was born in 480, and died in 542 or 643. — CavE, Hist Lit. Lond. 1688, p. 402. A.D. 709.] TO ALCUIN. 89 have claimed the merit of introducing his regulations into England.' Such introduction must, however, have been incomplete and partial, for Dunstan was unquestionably the father of British Benedictines.^ Earlier monasteries gave no promise of that powerful confederacy which, in after ages, riveted the chains of papal domination. That intellectual advance by which Theodore had obliged so deeply his adopted country, was undoubtedly promoted by the prevailing passion for pilgrimages to Rome. Man's natural thirst for novelty and variety in trenched itself under cover of Christian zeal. Impa tience of home, and restless curiosity to visit foreign re gions, were treated as a holy anxiety for worshipping on the spots where apostles taught, and their bones repose. Persons of both sexes, and of every rank, found religious excuses for journeying to the ancient seat of empire.' There, however, yet lingered a higher civilization, and more extensive knowledge, than in any other city of west ern Europe. Constant intercourse with a spot so favoured, must have brought considerable improvements in manners, understanding, and information. Still, there were coun tervailing evils : many of the pilgrims proved unequal to their own guidance in common decency, when removed completely away from domestic restraints. Females left their native shores, alleging an uncontrollable impulse of piety. In hardly any city on the way to Rome were not some of these unhappy women living by prostitution: even nuns were among the travelling devotees thus earning the wages of infamy. Serious minds became deeply scanda lized by the frequency of such disgraceful spectacles; hence Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, recommended the prohi bition of English female pilgrimages, by royal and synodi- cal authority.* Of Anglo-Saxons importantly benefited by intercourse with Rome, no one obtained more credit in his day than Aldhelm, a near kinsman probably to the sovereigns of • Malmesb. de Gest. PP. Script post Bed. f. 151. 2 OsBERN, de Vit. S. Dunst. Angl Sacr. ii. 91. ' Bed. v. 7, p. 395. * Epist.Bonif.adCuth.Archiep. Cantuar. Spelm. Cone. i. 241. Wilk. i. 93. 90 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 709. Wessex.* His education was conducted chiefiy by Adrian, the learned friend of Archbishop Theodore, and he made a proficiency highly honourable to both parties. Having gained a great literary reputation, he was chosen to write in favour of the Roman Easter, at a conference with the Britons on that much litigated question, and his arguments are said to have made many converts.^ He had already visited Rome by the invitation of Sergius I. ;' and a mind like his must have brought home stores of valuable in formation. After Aldhelm had long been abbot of Malmesbury, he was advanced to the newly-founded see of Sherborne; which he held during the remaining four years of his life. He seems to have been the first Anglo-Saxon who composed in Latin."* A period little dignified by literature was naturally proud of such an author, and his principal theme long enjoyed great popularity. He sang the Praises of Virginity, and set them forth besides in prose. Aldhehn's verse is turgid and obscure, but better than his prose. Far more illustrious is the fame of a contemporary scholar. Bede, universally and justly called the Venerable, was born in the modern bishopric of Durham, in 674, or thereabouts, upon an estate belonging to Benedict Biscop's foundations at Wearmouth and Jarrow. In these two monasteries, learning, teaching, and writing, he passed agreeably the whole of his laborious, distin guished, and blameless life, from the age of seven years. His first instructor was the learned Biscop himself, at once founder and abbot, whose noble library proved a treasure from which he drew incessantly happiness, occu pation, and glory. That excellent superior, so fortunate in furnishing a study for Bede, did not live to complete ' Malmesb. de Vita Aldhelm. Episc. Scireburn. ATigl Sacr. ii. 2. ^ lb. 15. This work of Aid- helm's appears to have been un known to Malmesbury. Mr. Ste venson considers it to be the letter to Geruntius, king of Corn wall, and his clergy, printed among the Epistles of Boniface. Bede, H. E. 378. ' 'Aldhelm's visit to Rome cannot be placed earlier thaa A.D. 688 ; because Sergius had only been raised to the papal chair in the course of the prece ding year.' — Wright's Biog. Brit Literaria. Lond. 1842, p. 216. ' Cave, Hist Lit 466. Ald helm was chosen bishop of Sherborne, in 706. His death occurred May 25, 709. — Wright, 216. A.D. 735.] TO ALCUIN. 91 his admirable pupil's education. The young scholar then passed under the tuition of Ceolfrid, abbot after Biscop.* The times were highly favourable for his proficiency; Theodore and Adrian, the lights of Britain, surviving through his earlier years.*^ At nineteen he was ordained deacon; at thirty, priest. When free from professional calls and monastic observances, his industry as a divine, and general man of letters, was inexhaustible. Scripture was his favourite study : but he seems to have explored most eagerly every branch of knowledge within reach. Sergius, the Roman pontiff, would fain have had personal assistance from so ripe a scholar upon some unknown emergency;' but his death soon after seems to have released Bede from the necessity of leaving home. He remained steadily secluded in his monastery, attesting the diligent employment of his time by a long and rapid succession of literary works. Among these, the theo logical portions are little else than selections from the Fathers, especially St. Austin. Englishmen, however, long considered Bede as their principal divine. The collections, therefore stamped with his venerable name, form a copious repository of national religious tradition. In this view they are highly valuable, for they supply decisive evidence, in many particulars, against Romish claims to the ancient faith of England. Bede's fame has chiefly rested, in later ages, upon his Ecclesiastical History, an invaluable record of interesting events, com piled from ancient monuments, tradition, and personal knowledge.* A monastic author in the eighth century could hardly fail of intermingling his narrative with super stitious tales. The venerable monk of Jarrow presents many such indications of his profession and age. Fasti dious moderns have, accordingly, taxed him with credulity; objections have also been made to his loose and incidental mention of secular affairs ; he professed, however, only to preserve the annals of religion. He had, probably, but ' Bed. de seipso. Eccl. Hist \ Stevenson disputes this ; but, p. 492.' Stubbs. X. Script col. 1695. ' Malmesb. de Gest. RR. Angl. (Script post Bedam, vi. 11). Mr. perhaps, inconclusively. H. E. Introd. xi. * Bed. de seipso, ut supra. 93 FROM THEODORE \_A.T3. 735. little taste for investigating the mazes of selfish policy, and chronicling the outrages of licentious violence; he might even think such details unsuitable to the monastic profession, and to a Christian minister. Still he has preserved a great mass of civil information, and may be justly venerated as the Father of English History. Nor is it among the least recommendations of his interesting annals, that in them appear so many traces of Britain's ancient church. A papal partisan bears witness that paganised England was more than half evangelised by the holy zeal of missionaries, born within the British isles, and prejudiced against Roman usages. To Rome, Bede owed instruction, religious regulations, and a library. She formed all his early prejudices, and filled him through life with grateful partiality. Yet, as a mere historian, it has been his fortune to weaken importantly the pleading of her advocates. On the verge of senility, Bede was attacked with asthma. The disorder became troublesome one year at Easter ; and on the Tuesday in Rogation week, he placidly observed his end approaching. When thus anticipating a speedy call to account for talents improved so nobly, he felt anxious to complete a vernacular version of St. John's Gospel.* As the sun rose on the following day, he begged some young men, who wrote under his dictation, to ply their tasks with more than usual dili gence. They were sad, but eagerly obeyed. Nine o'clock, however, brought a call to join the procession which the service of the day reqiiired. AU the party then got up and went away, except a single youth. He said, ' One chapter only yet remains : but it seems, dearest master, that you would be distressed, if I were to go on with it.' His loved instructor answered, ' I shall feel no distress : take your pen, mend it, and write as fast as you can.' When afternoon had come, the venerable translator said, ' A few things of some value are in my little coffer, as pepper, scarves, and incense ; run, bring them to me, and call our presbyters around. I should like to part among them such marks of my kind regard as God has put within my reach; trifles though they be. This world's wealthy ones ' Malmesb. ut supra, f. 12. A.D. 735.] TO ALCUIN. 93 take a pride in giving gold and silver, or other costly things : but I must give my brethren what God has given me ; and feel great pleasure in shewing thus my affection for them.' When these words were spoken, the young amanuensis trembled, and went away to do as he was bidden. He soon brought Bede's friends before him ; and the dying scholar said, ' You will see my face no more on this side of another world. It is time that my spirit should return to Him who gave it. My life has been long, and a gracious Providence has made it happy. The time of my dissolution is now at hand : I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.^ Such pious and affecting language the youth, whose writing had been broken off, thus abruptly terminated : ' My dear master, one sentence has not even yet been written.' He was answered, ' Make haste and write it, then.' This done, the sinking teacher said, ' It is finished. Take my head, and turn my face to the spot where I have been used to pray. Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' His lips immediately ceased to move, and every saddened eye now saw that the most illustrious of Europe's luminaries was gone to his reward.* Bede's remains were first interred at Jarrow; but each revolving year increasing the splendour of his fame, monkish cupidity was eager to provide him with a more conspicuous tomb. His bones were accordingly transferred by stealth to Durham, and enclosed in the same coffin with those of saintly Cuthbert.'' ' Cuthberth Cuthwino. — Steven son's Introd. to Bede's Hist E. xiv. The third edition of this work and other works, make Bede to have died on a Thursday. Dr. Lingard (Hist, and Antiqu. of the Angl. Sax. Ch. ii. 200) has pointed out the erroneousness of this. It is plain, from Cuthbert's letter to Cuthwin, that Bede died on Wednesday evening. The Anglo- Saxons, however, computed days from sunset to sunset. Hence, after the sun went down on Wed nesday afternoon, they considered Holy Thursday to have begun. It is 'by overlooking this, that authors have placed Bede's death on a Thursday. The year of it was certainly 735. The origin of venerable, affixed to the name of Bede, is not known, but this designation seems ancient; for the second council of Aix-la- Chapelle, holden in 836, citing in its preface his mystical expla nation of Solomon's temple, thus describes him : ' Venerabilis et modemis temporibus doctor ad- mirabihs Beda presbyter.'— Labb. et Coss. vii. 1760. * Stubbs, X. Script col. 1696. 94 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 740. One of Bede's most illustrious friends was Egbert, con secrated to the see of York, in 732.* This admirable prelate's father was Eata, cousin to Ceolwulf, the victo rious king of Northumbria.^ That prince had found military fame no security against religious melancholy. He knew Bede well, and sighed for a peaceful piety hke his. Already seven Anglo-Saxon kings had abdicated for the cloister ; and, under its monotonous austerities, Ceol wulf now gladly buried his unquestionable talents for active life.' His kinsman Eata had two sons, Eadbert and Egbert : of these, the former was probably educated for the royal dignity ; the latter was placed in a monastery during infancy. When a youth, Egbert went to Rome with his brother Egred, who did not live to return, and he was there ordained deacon.* When chosen to the see of York, Ceolwulf, who yet reigned, desired him to accept the complimentary pall,^ which was sent to him, according to Alcuin, from Rome.^ This was a mark of deference to the Roman see that had been paid by no one of his prede cessors since Paulinus. In earlier life, Egbert had spent a considerable time at Rome, and he probably brought away a stock of information and refinement scarcely attainable in his native country. As an archbishop, he became eminent for professional learning, and for a noble patronage of literature. Besides taking an active part in tuition, he compiled some useful manuals of ecclesiastical discipline,^ and prepared for the use of his clergy a verna cular Penitential,^ in which human iniquities are particu larised, often with disgusting minuteness, a corresponding penance being prescribed for every sin. Egbert's judicious ' Upon the year of Egbert's consecration, ancient writers dif fer ; but they unanimously place his death in 766. This consent is decisive as to the year of his promotion to York. Alcuin says of him, Rexit hie ecclesiam tri- ginta et quatuor annis. — De Pon tiff, et SS. Eccl. Ebor. Opp. ii. 254. 2 Sim. Dunelm. X. Script col. 11. ' Huntingdon. Script, post Bedam, f. 195. * Sim. Dunelm. ut supra. 'lb. ' Opp. ii. 254. ' Dialogus Egbert! de Ecclesi astica Institutione (Wilk. Cone. i. 82). Excerptiones D. Egberti, Ebor. Archiep. lb. i. 101. Spelm. Cone. i. 258. » Wilk. Cone. i. 113. A.D. 766.] TO alcuin. 95 munificence led him likewise to shed a lustre on York, by the formation of an ample library,* always an impor tant benefit, but especially so when literary appliances are scarce and costly. This invaluable prelacy, happily pro longed over thirty-four years, proved a lasting monument of superior abilities diligently used, and of ample wealth nobly viewed as an important public trust.^ Among the Excerpts of Egbert, is one prescribing a three-fold division of tythes. From the first article in this collection, it appears that considerable progress had been already made in the settlement of a parochial clergy, but that popular eagerness for so great a benefit had out run a sufficient provision for public worship.' Arrange ments were probably made, in many cases, for appro priating a rural priest before a church was ready for his ministrations. Bishops might seem to have encouraged such arrangement, by surrendering their own portion of tythes. In Egbert's fifth Excerpt, accordingly, no men tion is made of this portion. Clergymen are enjoined to expend one portion upon ornaments for their churches, another upon the poor and upon hospitality:^ the thil-d was to be their own.^ This injunction, however, is ob viously destitute of legal authority : at the most, it can only rank among recommendations in episcopal charges. Egbert's object was to lay before his clergy a code of instructions for their government, chiefly selected from * Epist. Ale. ad Carol. August. ap. Malmesbury de Gest. PP. Angl. Scriptores post Bedam, f. 163. ^ The best edition of Egbert's Remains is that by Mr. Thorpe, published in 1840, under the Re cord Commission, in the Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, vol. ii. p. 87, et sequu. Two of these pieces, the Dialogue and Excerpts, are wholly Latin ; the ConfessionalwAPenilenlialjYihidh may be considered as a single work, are Latin, with Anglo- Saxon versions. "Let every priest build his own church with all diligence, and preserve the relics of the saints, watching over them by night, and performing divine offices.' — Johnson's Transl sub ann. 740. * Clergymen were, in fact, the innkeepers, as one may say, of those ancient times. Hence the 25th Excerpt stands thus in Johnson: — 'That bishops and priests have a house for the entertainment of strangers, not far from the church.' ' Johnson is inchned to ques tion whether this Excerpt may not be more modern than Egbert. 96 FROM THEODORE [aD. 766. foreign canonists, and binding, as he thought, upon their consciences; domestic legislation, therefore, he naturally overlooked. At York,* was born of noble parentage, Alcuin, who called himself in Latin Albinus, and assumed, according to a fashion of contemporary scholars, the surname of Flaccus.^ This eminent genius received personal instruc tion from Egbert, but his education was chiefiy conducted by Elbert, Egbert's coadjutor in conducting the school, and successor in the archbishopric. Alcuin was Elbert's favourite pupil, and chosen by him as a companion on a journey abroad, in quest of books and information. When Elbert took the see of York, he ordained Alcuin deacon, and made him master of the cathedral seminary. On his death he left him in charge of the library.' As a teacher, Alcuin succeeded admii'ably. His fame resounded on every side ; and students, however distant, eagerly sought in York that instruction which no other master could sup ply. His labours, however, were unexpectedly transferred from the ancient city for which they had gained so much celebrity. He went to Rome,* for the pall, now sought by Eanbald, formerly his pupil, who had been placed, on Elbert's death, in the see of York. In his way homeward, passing through Parma, he saw Charlemain, and that en lightened prince immediately became anxious to retain ' Alcuin, Epist. ad Eratres Eboracenses. Acta SS. Ord. Be nedict, iv. 163. 2 Commentatio de Vita Beati Flacci Albini, xiii. Ejusd. Epist. ad Gundradam. i. 247. Opp. Ed. Eroben. 1777. 2 Malmesbury's text gives an extract from one of Alcuin's let ters, reciting his testamentary appointment as librarian, but making the prelate's name Eg bert (De Gest. RR. Angl. Script post Bedam, f. 12, new ed. i. 94). The Ratisbon edition, however, of Alcuin's works, which is far the best, has magister mens dilec- tus Helbrechtus archiepiscopus (i. 64). This is, undoubtedly, the correct reading. But Helbrech tus is Elbert, not Egbert. * In 781. Elbert died in 780. Alcuin's journey for Eanbald's pal], appears to have been his third visit to the continent. His first was the hterary expedition made with Elbert, when he was about twenty. He then visited Rome. His second journey rests upon inference; and he seems, in the course of it, to have been first introduced to Charlemain, — Lorehz, xii. 250. A.D. 790.] TO alcuin. 97 him.' The learned Anglo-Saxon, won by a desire so flat tering, promised to return, if the king of his native land, and his friend, Eanbald, would admit of his departure. Their permissions gained, Alcuin reappeared, in 783, be fore the Prankish conqueror.^ In that wonder of his day, as in Xenophon, Caesar, and our own immortal Alfred, the glare of splendid military talents was tempered by the mild lustre of literary taste. Charlemain, accordingly, had no sooner secured the services of Alcuin, than he sought profit from them personally.' The potent and vic torious chief, not only founded a school in his palace, under Alcuin's direction, but also became himself a pupil in it. Listening also to the learned Anglo-Saxon's judi cious counsel, he rendered monastic foundations, under his control, efficient seminaries for spreading useful know ledge. Thus, all his extensive territories felt most bene ficially the peaceful influence of a foreign scholar. Charle main gratefully acknowledged, in grants of conventual dignities, the services thus rendered to his people and him self.'' But Alcuin pined for home : his humble spirit merely sighed for pious exercises and learned labours, which he would fain have plied amid scenes familiar to his youthful eye. At length he was allowed, in 790, the pleasure of revisiting his native isle, to negotiate a treaty between Charlemain and the Mercian Offa.^ The justly- celebrated Frank urged repeatedly his quick return ; Al cuin, however, was no less eager to remain, and nearly ' Charlemain had wintered in ' Rome, and was returning home ward. — LORENZ, 12. 2 lb. 14. . ^ ' He was brought up after the ordinary manner of the French nobility, being taught the use of arms, and the usual athletic ex ercises of hunting, riding, and swimming. Intellectual cultiva tion was considered of so httle im portance for the future sovereign of a warlike people, that he did not even learn to write ; and notwithstanding all the pains which he took in after-life to supply the deficiency, he never could attain to a ready and skil ful use of the pen. Neither was he in his youth instructed in the Latin language : he understood it, indeed, as it was then com monly spoken in Gaul ; but not according to rule, and the usage of the ancient Latin authors.' — lb. 18. * He had the abbeys of Fer- rieres and St. Lupus, at Troyes, assigned to him for defraying his necessary expenses. — lb. 60' 257. » lb. 65. 98 FROM THEODORE [A.D. 746. three years elapsed before he crossed again the sea, to live in splendour, yet in exile. Never afterwards could he gain permission to behold his beloved country: Charlemain even felt impatientiy his absence from the court. At last he was gratified by an unwilling license of retirement to his abbey of St. Martin, at Tours, conferred upon him in 796, where soon assembled, from every quarter, but espe cially from England, a crowd of students.' On the termi- nation of his religious and industrious career, he had attained the summit of literary fame.^ The far more ex tended information of later times has, it is true, rendered his works valuable only as evidences and monuments. Long after his own day, however, Alcuin's name shone with a lustre that knew no eclipse, and which it could justly challenge. Nor ought it ever to be forgotten, that his powerful talents, directed to every known branch of learning, his unwearied industry, his holy piety, dis pelled importantly the intellectual darkness of a barbarous A zealous missionary, born at Crediton, in Devonshire, acknowledged his intellectual obligations to Rome, by an active and unusual assertion of the Papal supremacy. This eminent ecclesiastic, originally named Winfrid, received a monastic education in his own country. When more than thirty, a noble impulse of piety led him to emulate his countryman, Willibrord, in going as a missionary to the continent.' After labouring in Batavia and Germany with considerable success, he accepted an invitation to Rome, whither he had gone on a sort of pilgrimage before. Nothing could be more gratifying than his recep tion there. He was greeted under the name of Boniface, which seems to have been already given him, and conse- 1 Acta SS. Ord. Benedict iv. 169, 179. ^ Alcuin died in 804, at Tours. Hence it is hardly possible that he could have been Bede's dis ciple, which has been sometimes said. Bede died in 735. The date of Alcuin's birth is un known, but it is commonly and probably placed in or about 735. The most complete and learned account of his life is that by Froben, prince-abbot of St. Emeram, at Ratisbon, prefixed to the edition of his works printed there, in 1777, in 2 vols. fol. =¦ Bed. V. 11, p. 407. A.D. 747.] TO ALCUIN. 99 crated as an itinerant missionary bishop.* But his accept ance of this honour was coupled with an unusual oath of subserviency to the Roman see. Afterwards, archiepiscopal rank was conferred upon him, though again without any particular see. He also received a pall, and was made papal legate. In time, an archbishopric was provided for him at Mentz. But he does not seem to have liked a stationary employment, and his dignity on the Rhine, after some trial, was resigned.^ Boniface was undoubtedly a superior man, but he had a slavish admiration of the papal see. To it he procured a synodical submission from Germany : an unexpected return for their flattering civil ities, highly delightful to the Romans.' The expatriated missionary might have been incapable of seeing that such subserviency to a foreign authority would lower the tone of his own country's independence. This may excuse him for trying to make England forget herself. He was a personal friend of Cuthbert, archbishop of Can terbury, and to that prelate he transmitted a copy of the canons enacted by his own obsequious synod, together with a letter. In this, like too many religious reformers, he lowers the character of those whose opposition he was anxious to overcome. An epistle of like import was also addressed by him to Ethelbald, king of the Mercians. From these communications, it is plain enough that the Anglo-Saxons were abundantly tainted by the gross im purities of a barbarous age; nor do ascetic pretensions among them seem frequently to have been much else than a cloak for lasciviousness. Intercourse between the sexes appears to have been most imperfectly regulated by matri monial ties ; and the chastity of nuns was evidently not - Boniface passed over into Friesland in 715. He was conse crated bishop by Gregory II. in 723, and made archbishop in 738. In his old age he returned to Friesland, being desirous of ending his days amid a people now relapsing, yet endeared to him by early success. He was, however, murdered there by the barbarous inhabitants, in 755. ^ For further particulars, see The Latin Church during Anglo- Saxon Times, p. 230, et sequu. ^ Epist. Bonifacii, Archiep. Mo- gunt. ad Cuthb. Archiep. Can tuar. SpELMAN, Cone. i. 237. Wn-K. i. 91. Labb. et Coss. Cone. vi. col. 1544, 100 FROM THEODORE [A-D- 747. more inviolable than that of their country-women generally.* For the formal condemnation of such offensive and perni cious immorality, solemn synodical authority was probably desirable. Cuthbert accordingly procured the meeting of a numerous council at Cloveshoo,^ in which the Mercian Ethelbald acted as president.' Before this assembly, two admonitory writings of Pope Zachary were read, and then explained in the vernacular tongue : the deliberators ab stained, however, from any submission to the Roman see. In several particulars his countrymen followed Boniface, but not into anything unworthy of them, or open to abuse from artful spirits whether abroad or at home. Instead of thus providing weapons for worldly men, the canons of Cloveshoo chiefiy seek the correction of existing irregularities in morals and discipline. Their general tenor is nevertheless highly favourable to the Roman Church, because they enjoin a strict uniformity with her offices and usages: they establish, however, an indirect, but strong case against it. Priests were to learn how to construe the creed, the Lord's prayer, the offices of baptism, and the mass, for the sake of explaining these forms vernacularly.* At that period, Latin probably was not quite unintelligible even among the populace, in southern Europe; but all of Teutonic origin, unless travelled or highly educated, must have been utterly unable to receive from it any accurate impression. When, therefore, theh indigenous churches were undermined, or a Roman mission took root among them while still pagans, the acceptance of Latin for divine offices, was a fatal mistake. If people ' Epist. Bonif. ad ethelbald. R. Spelm. Cone. i. 233. Wilk. 1.88. 2 'Cliff-at-Hoo, Kent.' — Dr. Ingram's Index to the Sax. Chr. 433. The Saxon Chronicle refers this council to 742, as also do the Evidences of Christ-church, Canterbury. Spelman, however, refers it to 747, which is most probably the correct date, being that standing in the preamble to the acts of the counciL » X. Script 2209. The Saxon Chronicle merely says, that Ethel bald was there, which is also said in the Preamble. He probably acted as a sort of chairman ; but as the business was entirely ec clesiastical, the lead most likely was taken by Cuthbert, the arch bishop. ' Can. Con. Cloves. 1 0. . 248. Wilk. i. 96. Spelm. A.D. 787.] TO alcuin. 101 must hear at Church an unknown tongue, it should surely have been either Greek or Syriac. One was the language of the New Testament, and of many among the earliest missionaries. The other was that of our Saviour himself and of his apostles — the idiom, in fact, of Jerusalem, the real mother of all Churches. But Latin was nothing else than the discarded language of a distant and decaying empire : the speech, growing every day more obsolete, of a deserted and crumbling capital. Its religious use among nations of any other than a Latin race, must have had a tendency to make ignorant persons, even among the clergy, look upon divine offices as powerful charms. Its tendency was also to prepare the public mind for a deference towards Rome, that shrewd politicians would gladly use for any end uppermost in their minds. Such a politician was Offa, king of the Mercians. He had won an arduous way to superiority over every domestic impediment and neigh bouring power,* through a remorseless career of sanguinary wars and crimes. No man was more likely than himself to spurn alien interference, when hostile to his own pride, resentment, or objects of any kind. But he was quite ready for it when an enemy was to be humbled, or crushed, or a selfish end of any kind was in view. Among his victims was the king of Kent, who perished in battle amidst a frightful carnage.^ This decisive victory did not satisfy Offa : his vindictive spirit now fastened upon Lam bert, or Ja^nbert, archbishop of Canterbury. That prelate had sought assistance from abroad, while his unfortunate sovereign was preparing for the fatal confiict,' and must feel the bitterness of a conqueror's resentment. Mercia was to.be torn from his jurisdiction, by the establishment of an archbishopric at Lichfield. But such arrangements often baffle very powerful princes. Hence Offa turned his eyes to Italy, shrewdly calculating that recognition there would prove effective nearer home. Rome gave England * ' Offa, having expelled Beom- raed, succeeded by general con sent of the kingdom, A.D. 757.' — Hardy's note to Malmesbury, i. 118. ' Vita Offa Secundi. Matt. Paris. Ed. Watts. Lond. 1639, p. 16. ' lb. 21. 102 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 787. religious forms ; why should she not likewise give advice, or approval, when asked for it by her most powerful sove reign ? Such a request might surely be made without any of that submission which the Council of Cloveshoo had so recently dechned. Offa made it, accordingly, and in doing so, he furnished a precedent for future papal assumptions over England. No advance of that sort was ever lost upon the Roman see. Advice, or approval, might be sought by a strong prince — authority would be tried upon a weak one. The Mercian king had not, however, the best of cases, and hence the papal court might have its doubts upon the policy of gratifying him. Any such, he prudently determined upon stifiing, by giving to his application sufficient pecuniary weight.* He thus, after setting an example of getting over a difficulty by calling in aid from Rome, taught Englishmen another lesson; to stamp, namely, a mercenary character upon the papacy. This they never forgot, however firmly the Latin Church might have them in her grasp.^ This earliest opening for taunting her with sordid motives was completely successful. Offa's wish to seat a metropolitan at Lichfield was approved, and his new archbishop was honoured by the customary pall.' From the vengeance of this imperious Mercian arose another injurious innovation upon English polity. Since the days of Augustine, no agent bearing a papal commis sion had ever set his foot on British ground;* but under a recent exigency, domestic approbation had been sought through Roman infiuence. Two legates soon appeared to improve the opening thus afforded by a selfish and short-sighted policy. Whether these Italians, Gregory, bishop of Ostia, and Theophylact, bishop of Todi, were invited expressly by Offa, is not known ; but his reception - Malmesb. de Gest. PP. Script post Bedam, f. 113. 2 ' Data pecunia infinite, a sede ApostolicS;, qiice nulli deest pecu- niam largienti, licentiam impetra- vit.' — ^Matt. Par. Hist Angl p. 155. ' Ut quid ad nos se exten- dit Romanorum insatiata cupidi- tas ?'— lb. 278. Matthew Paris affords many similar passages. ' Epist. Leonis III. Papse ad Kenulphum Regem. Angl. Sacr. i.460. * Procemium ad Adrianum Pa- pam I. Cone. Calchuth. Spelm. i. 293. Wilk. i. 146. A.D. 787.] TO ALCUIN. 103 of them was most courteous.* They came ostensibly to renew the faith and peace that had connected England with Rome ever since Augustine's mission.^ Their countenance was, however, publicly given to the Mercian ecclesiastical arrangements. They attended a council holden at Cal cuith,' which mutilated Lambert's archiepiscopal dignity, by placing Lichfield, as a metropolitan see over aU the Mercian suffragans of Canterbury.* The legates also pro duced a body of canons, to which the council gave assent. It thus yielded a solemn affirmation to the faith professed in the first six general councils, condemned various heathen practices, and regulated several points of ecclesiastical discipline. From one of these canons it appears, that although tythes were customarily paid, yet such pay ment was popularly considered a discharge from alms giving. The legates reprobate this view, enjoining men to surrender not only God's tenth, but also to seek his bless ing by charitable gifts out of the nine portions remaining for themselves.^ When Offa felt his agitated and guilty life wearing fast away, he became, as is common with such men, a super stitious devotee. Some remains of mortality were dis covered, as monkish legends tell, by a light glaring over them from heaven, on the hiU that was parted by a water course from Verulam.^ There seems to have been a Roman burial ground upon the spot.'' The particular remains that * Wilk. i. 292. ¦¦= Sax. Chr. Henry of Hunting don evidently wrote from this passage, but he omits 'and peace! Monumm. Hist. Brit. 731. ' ' Challock, or Chalk, in Kent.' — Dr. Ingram's Index to the Sax. Chr. The Saxon Chronicle writes this place Cealchythe, and places the council in 785. There is, however, some difference of opi nion both as to place and date. Spelman's date is 787. ¦* These were Worcester, Lei cester, Sidnacester, Hereford, Elmham, and Dunwich. Mal mesb. de Gest. RR. Script, post Bedam, f. 15. After Offa's death, Canterbury recovered her an cient jurisdiction, Lichfield hav ing been complimented by no more than a single pa!L Her archiepiscopal honours ended about the year 800 (Wharton. Angl. Sacr. i. 430). See also Bampton Lectures for 1830, p. 175. » Cone. Calc. can 17. Spelm. i. 298. Wilk. i. 150. « Matt. Par. Vita Offa II. p. 26. 7 Gent Mag., Sept. 1852, p. 249. 104 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 792; monks would make to have come so surprisingly to light, were pronounced relics of Alban. Gildas mentions him and two others, as martyred in Diocletian's persecution,' Alban being named first, has consequently passed for the British proto-martyr. The powerful Mercian sovereign founded a splendid abbey to receive and honour his pre sumed remains. Not contented with this royal display of penitence, Offa visited Rome, a suitor for papal appro bation upon his extraordinary munificence. Being fully gratified, he settled upon the English college at Rome a penny from every family not absolutely destitute, within his dominions, excepting tenants under his abbey of St. Albans.^ From this donation arose the payment of Rome- scot, or the Home-penny, afterwards called Peter-pence, which continued to be remitted, with occasional interrup tions, to the papal treasury, uiltil the Reformation. But although Offa's days first saw the national dignity impaired by a request from authority of papal recognition for English acts, yet his reign exhibited Italian influence under a most signal and mortifying defeat. A policy deep, indeed, but fatal and infamous, was paganizing the Church of Rome. Oriental heresies had vainly tempted her : but she was easily encouraged by examples from that quarter, in habits of defiling Scriptural truth by Gentile supersti tious. This mixture of paganism with Christianity so delighted ordinary minds, that short-sighted, or artful clergymen treated it as a judicious compromise. The East found it anything rather than that. It led Jews and Mahometans into looking upon Christian Churches as idol-temples, and upon their congregations as mere heathen apostates from the faith which they professed. Such views galled severely, because their seasoning came from un palatable truth. As a remedy for so much obloquy and mischief, the imperial court at Constantinople ordered images to be removed from churches. It was a wise pro- 1 GiLDAS. ed. Stevenson, p. 17. 2 Matt. Par. Vita Offa II. p. 29. Offa has been said to have followed here the hberahty of Ina, who is the reported grantor of the same contribution from Wessex ; but there is no suffi cient authority for Ina's grant. — Inett. i. 220. A.D. 793;] TO ALCUIN. 105 vision against a temptation found an overmatch for unwary Christians ; but it was unworthily requited by the loss of Italy. The Roman bishop, pandering to their inveterate affection for heathen vanities, encouraged his fiock in raising the standard of rebellion. Thus he sowed the seeds that eventually ripened in the sovereignty of his see.* This dexterous patronage of a fascinating worship was confirmed by the second council of Nice, in 787. The throne of Constantinople was then virtually occupied by Irene, an artful, cruel, superstitious female. Its nominal occupant was her son, a child of ten years old. Imperial power in such hands was the very thing that Italian degeneracy wanted. Image-worship was thus helped with a plea of synodical authority. But Adrian I., the Roman bishop, could not rest contented until the unscriptural habits of his own flock had been adopted by nations further west ward. Mabillon, accordingly, says that he sent an account of the Nicene proceedings to Charlemain, and other princes of the Latin communion.^ This is highly probable, because the Frankish conqueror soon acquaiijted Adrian with his entire dissent from all that had been recently done at Nice. Hoveden does not, however, make Charlemain's informa tion to have come from Rome. He mentions no other source of it than a synodical book sent from Constan tinople. This book Charlemain transmitted into England, and it was laid before the clergy there. That body pondered it with strong surprise and rising indignation. It is true that England had long sought pleasure and improvement from intercourse with Rome : looked also upon the papacy with filial deference ; nor was she any stranger to imitative arts in ornamenting churches. No habit or authority was however powerful enough to make her give a sacred character to any of those heathen superstitions that she saw with pain yet clinging tena ciously to her ignorant population. The papal court was how therefore placed under cover of a ceremonious reserve : English ecclesiastics affected to overlook its connection with the second Council of Nice ; and treating this assembly as merely oriental, made no scruple of pronouncing its ¦ Platina de Vit PP. 87. | ^ Annall Bened. ii. 290. 106 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 792. decrees a grievous disgrace to Christianity, the worship of images being that which God's church altogether execrates. This language being sure to sound in Roman ears very much like an ironical attack, and involving really an open defiance of papal authority, the Anglo-Saxon divines anxiously desired some powerful pen to repress the inevit able displeasure of their Italian friends. Alcuin, the most illustrious of contemporary scholars, undertook this delicate task, and his execution of it excited unqualified admiration.' The work produced by him has not been preserved with his venerated name, but it is hardly doubtful that what he wrote supplied matter for the celebrated Caroline Books. These were prepared as an authentic declaration of his illustrious patron Charlemain's opinions and policy upon the worship of images, and lovers of sound religion must rank them among the most valuable monuments that time has spared. AU worship of images is represented in these important books as an insidious relic of paganism,^ identical even ia origin, heathen images at first being merely commemora tive, but eventually adored by popular superstition.' Iconolatry among Christians is accordingly treated as a Satanic * device, by which triumphs gained in open field are likely to be lost within the city walls. ^ It is also di rectly charged with novelty,^ and attempts to shelter it under Mosaical commands, for sculptured cherubim and the brazen serpent, are indignantly exposed :^ nor are various nice distinctions overlooked, by which discerning advocates fain would obviate objections.^ No use indeed whatever is conceded to images, or pictures, in religious worship, beyond mere ornament and commemoration: ' For authorities, see Bampton Lectures, p. 170. The evidence of England's rejection of the deu- tero-Nicene decrees is so deci sive, and confirmed so completely by the Caroline Books, that it is needless to examine some tales, once current, about Egwin, bishop of Worcester, and a council, said to have been holden in London early in the eighth century, for the establishment of image-wor ship. Particulars may be seen in Inett. i. p. 145. 2 Opus.Dlusiriss. Car. Mag. 1549, p. 253. " lb. p. 581. * lb. p. 392. ' lb. p. 583. " lb. p. 277. ' /6. pp. 91,114. « lb. pp. 67, 68. A.D. 792.] TO ALCUIN. 107 hence the lighting of tapers, or the burning of incense before them, honours paid to them by a kiss, or a saluta tion of any kind, are all condemned as unauthorized and superstitious :* their utility, however, as monuments and decorations, is fully admitted. Former imperial orders to remove and destroy them are accordingly pointedly re probated.'' But although the Caroline Books, in their general tenor, are highly favourable to Protestant views of theology, Romanists may gather from them several useful testimo nies. Their author's evident anxiety to spare the feelings of his Roman friends, keeps him studiously from collision with any but Oriental names. Allusion to the papal see is very rare, but always, when occurring, profoundly re spectful. To relics, and apparently to the cross, outward acts of veneration are allowed, under alleged sanction from antiquity;' this concession, however, is inconsistent with principles advanced elsewhere, forbidding all adora tion of senseless things.'' Prayers, masses, and alms giving for the dead, are also maintained; and so is the intercession of saints.' The invocation of them is a different matter, and one to which early times do not ' Opu^ . niustriss. Car. Mag. 1 549, p. 117. ' It has been said, that the execration of England, on receiv ing the deutero-Nioene decrees, arose from the mistranslation of a sentence uttered by Constan tine, bishop of Cyprus, which makes him say that he adored images as he did the Trinity. That he was so understood in the West, is evident from the Caroline Boohi (p. 382) ; and, most probably, this exaggerated view of his meaning tended to increase the execration so embar rassing to weU-informed Roman ists, But it is evident, sufficiently from our ancient chroniclers, and abundantly from the Caroline Books, that no single sentiment aroused Anglo-Saxon abhorrence. The truth is, that in Britain, Gaul, and Germany, pictures and images were then looked upon merely as church -furniture ; hence no more fit for religious notice of any kind, than a bench or a door. — See Colliee, Eccl. Histi.lil. = From the whole of the 27th chapter in the second book, it seems reasonable to infer, that in the author's time some sort of outward veneration was paid to the cross, and that he approved it. He does not, however, ex pressly say so, nor from his rhe toric and mysticism can it be affirmed certainly that he meant so. ¦• Opus.niustriss. Car. Mag. 1549, p. 340. '/&. pp. 278, 279,117. 108 FROM THEODORE [A.D. 7 stand committed. Apparently they doubted whether s of the dead could hear the living. Hence their liturg ask saintly suffrages of God ; not of the saints themseb Thus none of Adam's progeny are treated as if gifted w some degree of omniscience. Still, prayers to God other prayers from disembodied souls are a stran circuitous kind of devotion. Such clumsy piety was nai rally superseded in time by those very addresses to ( parted spirits that earlier ages had wisely shunned. this discretion much evidence remains; and it is one the proofs that medieval religion was the growth of ag not an emanation from some one period unquestional divine. Another interesting monument of contemporary theo gical principles, is the Penitential of Egbert. From t work plainly appears, what is also evident from a can enacted at Cloveshoo, that penances were merely regard as compensatory medicines for sins.* Hence, from ecc siastics was expected an accurate acquaintance with all t niceties of penitential discipline, as an indispensable pi fessional qualification. Egbert's provision for supplyi his illiterate clergy with this information, prescribes pe tential medicine for many cases most grossly obscei Such loathsome pictures reveal a depraved, brutish a§ and they could hardly fall under clerical scrutiny withe communicating or confirming a taint of impurity. T compilation also reminds us of barbarous times, in 1 insecurity of life and liability to personal outrage whi it strikingly displays : it is however plain, that ecclesi tical authorities were anxious to stem this torrent of v lence. The Penitential provides penance even for just ' 'How can he preach sound faith, or give a knowledge of the word, or discreetly enjoin penance to others, who has not earnestly bent his mind to these studies? Here you see for what purpose men in this age confessed their sins to the priest, viz. because he alone knew what penance was to be enjoined for every sort i degree of sin, not in order obtain absolution. Petit's ( lections, published with Tl dore's Penitential, are full of pi as to this point.' — Johnsc Collection. Canons at Clovesl 747. A.D. 792.] TO ALCUIN. 109 able homicide,* and for false oaths ignorantly taken ;2 but the murder of a priest or monk is more severely visited than that of another man.' Such a protection for the clerical order was not perhaps unfair, when its members were the only persons of superior condition likely to be found unarmed. Upon the whole, this system of clerical police is but imperfectly calculated for benefiting public morals, because opportunities are afforded for mitigating the rigour of fasting by psalm-singing and alms-giving.* This latter substitute was naturally very acceptable to wealthy sinners, and such, accordingly, seem even to have given alms in advance, as it were, of some projected iniquity.' Of religious peculiarities incidentally discovered in Egbert's Penitential, no one is more striking than Anglo- Saxon reception of that compromise with Jewish prejudices which apostolical authority established early in the Chris tian era. Our forefathers were enjoined a rigorous absti nence from blood, and from things strangled:^ nor did they ^ ' If a man slay another in a public fight, or from necessity, where he is defending his lord's property, let him fast forty nights' — Johnson's Collection, b. i. can. 24. Wilkins, i. 120, — Authors MS. Transl ^ ' He who is led on to an oath, and knows nothing therein but right, and he so swears with the other men, and afterwards knows that it was false, let him fast three lawful fasts.' — lb. can. 34. Wilk. i. 122. ' ' Whatever man slays a priest or a monk, that is the bishop s de cision, whether he give up weapons and go into a monastery, or he fast seven winters' — lb. can. 23. Wilk. i. 120. * 'A man should do penance for capital sins a year or two on bread and water; and for less sins a week or a month. But this is with some men a very difficult thing and painful; wherefore we will teach with what things he may redeem it who cannot keep this fast : that is, he shall with psalm-singing and with alms-deeds, make satisfaction a very long space' — lb. can. 2. Wilk. i. 115. ^ ' Let not alms be given accord ing to the new-invented conceit of meris own will, grown into a cus tom, dangerous to many, for the making an abatement or commuta tion of the satisfactory fastings and other expiatory works enjoined to a man by a priest of God. Mon sieur Petit observes, that this canon does not condemn the practice of giving ahns by way of penance, with a purpose of leaving sin, but giving them in hopes to purchase hcense to sin.' — Johnson, ut supra. « Acts IV. 29. This text is 110 FROM THEODORE [a.D. 792. disregard Levitical distinctions between the clean and unclean among animals.* They seem to have been taught, however, nothing decisive in Egbert's time, upon the value to departed souls of services intended for their benefit by survivors ; it is expressly said, that fasting for such purposes is of uncertain efficacy :^ a declaration ren dering it probable, that masses and almsgiving for the dead also occasioned hesitating speculation. It is plain. cited in the 38th canon as a rea son for the remarkable prohibi tions occurring in that canon, and in some of those connected with it. In these, fish is allowed to be eaten, though met-with dead, as being different from land animals. Honey might not be eaten if the bees kiUed in it remained a whole night. Fowls, and other animals suffocated in nets, were not to be eaten, even although a hawk should have bitten them. Domestic poultry that had drunk up human blood, were not to be eaten until after an interval of three months. A man knowingly eating blood in his food, was to fast seven days ; any one doing this ignorantly, was to fast three days, or sing the Psalter. Such provisions naturally made scrupulous per sons uneasy whenever they swal lowed blood accidentally. Hence an assurance is given, that swal lowing one's own blood in spittle incurs no danger. — Can. 46. Wilk. i. 124. ' Especially the weasel and the mouse were considered unclean. A layman giving to another even water in which one of these ani mals had been drowned, was to fast three nights ; a minster-man was to sing three hundred psalms. A large quantity of water in which one of these animals had been drowned, was not to he used until sprinkled with holy water. Hare, however, it is ex pressly said, might be eaten (can. 38) ; and so, plainly, might swine's flesh (can. 40) ; yet, it might seem from can. 39, the pig was thought to labour under some sort of uncleanness (Wilk. 123, 124. Levit. xi. 29). These pre judices have an Oriental air, and make one think of Theodore. 'The ancient Russians, like the present Raskolniks, or Dissenters, abstained from veal, hare, doves, crayfish, and also from every animal which had died in the blood. They also accounted those unclean which were killed by females' (Pinkerton's Russia, Lond. 1833, p.71)- In Abyssinia, snipes, geese, ducks, with all other water-fowl, as also hares and swine, are considered impure. Some of them it is thought a sin to handle, especially the hare; and when this happens, the party washes thoroughly, or seeks ah- solution from a priest. — Life of Nathaniel Pearce, Lond. 1831, ii. 26, 27. ^ ' He who fasteth for a dead man, it is a consolation to himself, if it helpeth not the dead. God alone wot if his dead are benefted! —Johnson's Collection, can. 41. Wilk. i. 124. A.D. 792.] TO ALCUIN. Ill likewise, that modern Romish purgatorial doctrines were then only in their infancy at furthest. Men are enjoined to confession and penance, lest they should be consigned hereafter to eternal torments.* A divine would hardly have used such language who believed in the sufficiency of confession alone upon earth, and the safety of deferring satisfaction for purgatory. ' ' It is better to all men that they make amends for (bete) their sins here, than that they should continue in eternal torments.' B. ii. can. 5. Wilk. i. 126. 112 Chapter III. FRO]\I ALCUIN TO DUNSTAN. 804r— 928. DARKNESS OP THE AGE SUCCEEDING ALCUIN COUNCIL OF CELTCHYTH —INCIDENTAL EVIDENCE AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION— SECU LAR MONASTERIES — NOTICE OP THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH— ETHELWULF — mS DECIMATION HIS LIBERALITY TO ROME- ALFRED'S VISITS TO ROME — HIS EARLY IGNORANCE OP LETTERS— HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE — HIS CONCEALMENT IN THE ISLE OP ATHELNET — HIS VICTORY OVER THE DANES — HIS UTERiET WORKS HIS PHYSICAL rNPIRMITIES — mS ECONOMY OF TIME AND OF MONEY — HIS ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS HIS TRUNCATED DECA LOGUE—HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF 3ERIGENA ALLEGED PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION UNDER EDWARD THE ELDER — ATHELSTAN— COUNCIL OF GRATELEY — DOCTRINES. THE era between Theodore and Alcuin was that of Anglo-Saxon intellectual eminence. ^Modern times, drawing invidious comparisons, may charge it with igno rance and barbarism : it justly held a very different esti mation among contemporaries. The successive appear ances of Aldhelm, Bede, Egbert, and Alcuin, bore ample testimony to admiring Europe, that the able monk of Tarsus, and Adrian, his no less gifted friend, had requited nobly their adopted country. The literary fame of ancient England reached its height when Charlemain listened eagerly to Alcuin; and some of the church's brightest luminaries proudly owned him for a master.* He proved, however, the immediate precursor to a dark and stormy night of ignorance. His native countiy soon reached, indeed, a political maturity that he had never witnessed. No longer did unceasing struggles for ascendancy, among several petty princes, find only an occasional respite in the general acknowledgment of a Bretwalda. The eighth ' See Bampton Lectures, 375, 377. A.D. 816.] FROM ALCUIN TO DUNSTAN. 113 and last bearer of that title,* Egbert, king of Wessex, rendered its prerogatives hereditary in his family, thus laying the foundations of a national monarchy. But England had already smarted under a ruinous counter poise to any domestic advantage. The cruelty and injustice which Anglo-Saxons had inflicted on the Britons were frightfully retaliated by hordes of pirates, issuing from their own ancestral home. A succession of Danish marauders, fired with hope of abundant booty, condemned several generations to a constant sense of insecurity, and the fre quent endurance of bitterest suffering. In a country so harassed, every peaceful art necessarily languished, espe cially literature; both fanaticism and cupidity directing the ferocious Northmen to monasteries, where alone books were stored, and scholars found a shelter.^ A period of such absorbing public uneasiness can afford but few materials for ecclesiastical history, though it is obviously favourable to the stealthy progress of religious corruptions. Earlier years of the ninth century are natu rally identified in principles with a happier age. A council holden at Celychyth, in 816, under Wulfred, archbishop of Canterbury, in presence of Kenulf, king of Mercia, and his more distinguished laity, makes, however, a slight advance towards Roman innovation. It enjoins on the consecration of a church, that the saint in whose honour it was built should be commemorated on its walls :^ but ' Sax. Chr. 88. Egbert's pre eminence is there assigned to the year 827, when, by the con quest of Mercia, he became sove reign, or chief of all England, south of the Humber. ' ' The cruelties exercised by Charlemain against the Pagan Saxons in Nordalbingia, had aroused the resentment of their neighbours and fellow-worship pers of Odin, in Jutland, and the isles of the Danish archipelago. Their wild spirit of adventure, and lust of ^plunder, were now wrought up to a pitch of frenzy by religious fanaticism. Hence the ravages of the Northmen were directed with peculiar fury against the monasteries and churches in Erance and England, and against the priests of a reh gion rendered doubly hateful to them in consequence of the at tempts made by the successors of Charlemain in the empire to force it upon them as a badge of national slavery.' — Wheaton's History of the Northmen, Lond. 1831, p. 146. ' Syn. Celych. cap. 2. Spelm. i. 328. Wilk. i. 169. Johnson thus 114 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 816. the canon is worded so obscurely as to render it uncertain whether a picture or an inscription was intended; pro bably the question was designedly left open for individual discretion. Even, however, if a picture were exclusively the object, it is enjoined in a spirit very different from that grovelling superstition and arrogant intolerance which Nice lately saw displayed upon such questions.* Depo sition had been also there awarded against any bishop who should consecrate a church without relics.^ In case, however, these could not readily be gotten, the council of Celychyth expressly sanctioned such a consecration. ITnder this deficiency, prelates were to deposit the sacra mental elements alone in a coffer, ordinarily containing both them and relics.' Attention has been drawn to this permission, as an incidental testimony against transubstantiation, the great distinctive doctrine of modern Romanism:* nor, indeed, can discerning believers in that principle fail of regretting, at the very least, that an assumed incarnation of the Deity should be denied even a level with relics of the saintly dead. In this canon, however, as in many other ancient authorities alleged against the corporal presence, expressions are employed which qualify the dissatisfac tion of Romish minds. The consecrated elements are allowed to be sufficient of themselves, because they are the body and blood of Christ. For speaking thus, the synod of Celychyth undoubtedly could plead antiquity. The reason why such precedents abound in early monuments of theology may readily be conjectured : primitive wor- renders this clause : ' And we charge every bishop, that he have it written on the walls of the oratory, or in a table, or also on the altars, to what saints both of them are dedicated.' ' ' Ei, qui non salutat .lanctas imagines, anathema.' — Cone. Ni- can. II. Actio 8. Labb. et Coss. vii. 591. •^ lb. can. vii. col. 603. 3 Spelm. Wilk. ut supra. * ' Much less would they have spoken of the holy elements aa an inferior sort of rehcs, and have given them place accordingly, if they had believed that the ele ments which they appointed to be deposited in a chest among their rehcs, was the same body that was glorified in heaven.' — Inett. Hist Eng. Church, i. 256. ' Here the eucharistical symbols are set on a level with the rehcs of saints, and scarce that neither.' — Johnson, in toe. A.D. 816.] TO DUNSTAN. 115 shippers received the eueharist constantly, even daily. Scoffing and thoughtless observers must have often repre sented this as a superstitious habit, adopted by a pecu liar society, of taking mere bread and wine together. Now, no considerable number of preachers and writers ever seek to correct a prevailing error, without supplying many rhetorical expressions, obviously favourable to mis interpretation in a subsequent age: such a fate has naturally attended speculations upon the holy supper. Believers in transubstantiation would fain establish its title to implicit faith upon many passages of the Fathers, and of other ancient ecclesiastical remains : those who deny that doctrine entrench themselves behind plain de clarations, the general tenor, and the expressive silence of the very same monuments. The last proof is little needed by Protestant controversialists, when appealing to Anglo-Saxon evidence. The great eucharistic pecu liarity of modern Rome attracted general attention in ante-Norman times; hence the religious luminaries of ancient England were called eventually to speak decisive language upon this interesting question, and their voice has inflicted a vital injury upon belief in the corporal presence. Whenever their testimony, therefore, has an aspect, as at Celychyth, of some ambiguity, it may be fairly cited, notwithstanding, to disprove the eucharistic opinions now maintained by Rome. Another canon' brings under observation a point in theological antiquities, little generally understood. Monachism has been for ages an immense organised association, marshalling and controlling certain orders of ecclesiastics and female recluses : it is natural to regard it under the same aspect from the first. Such a view is, however, inaccurate. Many of the earlier monks and nuns were merely the stricter sort of religious professors, identical, substantially, with similar devotees variously designated in Christian records. For the reception of such ascetics opulent individuals often opened their houses, assuming themselves the character of abbot or abbess. ' Syn. ap. Celych. can. 8. Spmlm. i. 329. Wilk. i. 170. 116 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 816. These lay or secular monasteries' naturally offered con siderable impediments to the exercise of ecclesiastical authority; they were, besides, loudly taxed with immo rality. Another objection to them were the claims of their superiors to the immunities conferred ordinarily upon monastic foundations. Their enemies, accordingly, re presented them as little better than receptacles of hypo critical profiigacy, established by crafty proprietors, to escape from the liabihties of other men. Severe as were these representations, and no doubt often unjust, sufBcient truth was in them to bring discredit on the system: hence public opinion powerfully seconded arguments upon the necessity of suppressing religious establishments in private houses : monks and nuns, it was extensively ad mitted, ought hereafter to reside only in abodes inalien ably devoted to them by fixed endowments, and regularly under ecclesiastical discipline. The synod of Celychyth provided for these objects, and thus laid the foundation of that discord upon monastic questions which long agitated England. Among great numbers of ostentatious professors, charges of sanctimonious licentiousness could always be successfully reto|"ted; advocates for secular monasteries might also plausibly designate objections urged by their opponents as a mere veil for priestly ambi tion. Thus, when Italian monachism sought pubhc favour, at a later period, it was encountered by inve terate habits of commenting invidiously on monastic pretensions.^ It may be collected also from one of these canons,^ that ' These monasteries are thus mentioned (Johnson's Transl.) by the council of Cloveshoo, a.d. 747 : ' It is necessary for bishops to go to the monasteries (if they can be called monasteries, which in these times cannot be in any wise reformed according to the model of Christianity, by reason of the violence of tyrannical co- vetousness), which are, we know not how, possessed by secular men, not by divine law, but by presumptuous human invention.' — Cone. Cloves, can. 5. Spelm. i. 247. Wilk. i. 95. ^ lTS-s.Ti.Hist Engl i. 261. ^ ' 5. That none of Scottish extract (de genere Scottorum) be permitted to usarp to himself the sacred ministry in any one's diocese ; nor let it be allowed to such an one to touch anything which belongs to those of the holy order, nor to receive any thing from them in baptism, or A.D. 836.] TO DUNSTAN. 117 ancient Britain had not yet lost her influence upon the people indebted so largely to her Christian zeal. Europe is often loosely viewed as under papal vassalage, from her conversion to the Reformation. A closer inspection will find very early traces of the faithful, unconnected with Rome, in most western countries : in England, such pro fessors are foremost among the national apostles. Nor, although depressed by a long course of unfavourable events, was the Romish party able to look upon them without jealousy, even after more than two centuries from Augustine's arrival. The synod of Celychyth, accordingly, strictly forbids any of the Scottish race to minister in England : uncertainty as to the ordination of such minis ters is assigned as the reason for this prohibition, their native country being without metropolitans.' This objec tion would wear the semblance of a reasonable precaution, had any opening been left at Celychyth for verifying the ministerial character of divines from Scotland; but the prohibition is absolute, as if intended for crushing a rival party. Posterity may store it among evidences against Romish claims to antiquity and universality. It was fortunate for the progress of papal ascendancy, that England had scarcely taken the form of a single state before her sceptre devolved upon a sovereign, called into active life from a cloister, and fitted only for one. Eg bert's early prosperity was alloyed in his declining age by in the celebration of the mass, or that they administer the eu oharist to the people, because we are not certain how, or by whom, they were ordained. We know how 'tis enjoined in the canons, that no bishop or presbyter in vade the parish (parochiam, i. e. diocese) of another without the bishop's consent. So much the rather should we refuse to re ceive the sacred ministrations from other nations, where there is no such order as that of me tropolitans, nor any regard paid io other (orders).' — Johnson's Transl Spelm. i. 329. Wilk. i. 170. The last clause is obscure, standing thus : Cum quibus nullus ordo metropolitanis, nee honor aliis habeatur. Johnson reads metro- politanus, and supplies orders to explain the last word. ' ' It is well known there was no metropolitan in Scotland till after the middle of the fifteenth century, when St. Andrew's was created into an archbishopric. Nay, their bishops had no dis tinct dioceses before the middle of the eleventh century.' — John son, in he. 118 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 836. domestic disappointment : an elder son preceding him to the tomb,* and his later hopes were consequently centred in Ethelwulf, a young child. One of this prince's instruc tors was Swithin, bishop of Winchester,^ whose name is yet familiar to English tongues, from its proverbial asso ciation with rainy summers.' In Anglo-Saxon times Swithin's memory was profoundly venerated. Hence Ethelwold removed his remains, with great ceremony, from the churchyard to a shrine within the church ; which prevailing confidence in saintly intercession rendered highly attractive. Nevertheless, very little was reaUy known of Swithin. Admirers, even before the Norman conquest, vainly sought authentic particulars of his life.* Still, he was not likely to have been sainted imless pro bable tradition had given him Roman and monastic tastes. Under such a tutor, Ethelwulf, whose habits apparently were peaceful and inactive, while his capacity was but ' Turner, Hist. Angl.-Sax. i. 486, note. On the authority of an ancient fragment preserved by Leland. Upon no other prin ciple, indeed, is it easy to account for Ethelwulf's monastic educa tion and habits. 2 Rudborne, Hist. Maj. Wint. Angl Sacr. i. 199. ' ' According to the tradition, Swithin, bishop of Winchester, who died in 868, desired that he might he buried in the open church-yard, not in the chancel of the minster, as was usual with bishops, and his request was complied with ; but the monk,?, on his being canonised, consider ing it to be disgraceful for the saint to lie in the public ceme tery, resolved to remove his body into the choir, which was to be done with solemn procession on the 15th of July : it rained, how ever, so violently for forty days together, that the design was abandoned.' — Hampson's Medii .Mvi Kalendarium, Lond. 1841, i. 321. * We have not found in books haw the bishop lived in this world ere that he departed to Christ. — Hom.in ^.S,YiitKBrit.Mus.MSS. Cotton. Julius, E. 7, f. 94. This omission of Swithin's contempo raries as to his biography, is thus blamed as a mark of their care lessness : It was their careless ness who knew him in life, that they would not write his works and conversation for future men who knew not his excellence. — lb. Again, Elfric ingenuously con fesses that Swithin's known claims upon the veneration of posterity rested entirely upon his posthumous fame as a worker of miracles. Now, his life is not known to us, even as we ere said, but that he was buried at his bi shop's see, on the west of the church, and overwrought (en shrined) afterwards, when his wonders manifested his happiness with God.— -lb. f. 95. A.D. 854.] TO DUNSTAN. 119 moderate, could hardly fail of growing partial to mona chism and the papacy. He seems, besides, not only to have become a monk, but also to have been ordained sub- deacon :* nay, he has been represented as actually ap pointed to the see of Winchester.*' This, however, wants confirmation, though it is not unlikely that Egbert might have intended him for that bishopric during the lifetime of his elder brother. That young man's premature de cease raised Ethelwulf to higher prospects, though pro bably,, far less congenial to his natural disposition. The cloister or the mitre might have suited him ; but it was his misfortune to be urgently taxed for superior qualities both as a statesman and a soldier. In such endowments he discovered aU the deficiency naturally to be expected from a peaceful spirit with an ecclesiastical education. Unhappily, these disqualifications were more than ordinarily injurious to his native country. Nothing, however, could weaken the force of his religious impressions. An agitated reign, accordingly, made him anxious to secure the favour of heaven by conspicuous piety. The most remarkable instance of this anxiety has been attributed to the advice of St. Swithin, and has been represented as the charter under which England became legally subject to tythes.' This interpretation, however, appearing hardly warranted by the document as now ex tant, has generally lost ground.* Ethelwulf seems, in- ' Rudborne, ut supra. ^ Diceto speaks of Ethelwulf's episcopate as if he did not credit it.— X Script 450. Bromton speaks positively. — lb. 802. = This view is, accordingly, adopted by Hume ; and from the popularity of his history passes, probably, among the generality of readers, as indisputable. Had he found, however, in ecclesiasti cal questions, a call for thought and inquiry, instead of an irre sistible temptation to scoff and sneer, it is likely that he would have entertained a different opi nion of Ethelwulf's donation. Rudborne attributes this act of Ethelwulf to St. Swithin.— Hist. Maj. Winton. Angl Sacr. i. 200. * Ingulf of Croyland, William of Malmesbury, and Matthew of Westminster, have recorded this document ; but their versions of it do not exactly agree. Their discrepancies are stated by Mr. Turner in a note (Hist. Angl.-Sax. i. 494). The document, after re citing the miseries of Danish in vasion, sets forth that the king, with a council of his bishops and chiefs, has granted ' some here ditary portion of land to all de grees before possessing it, whe- 120 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 854, deed, merely to have obtained legislative authority for dedicating to religious uses, free from all secular burdens, ther male or female servants of God, serving him, or poor lay men; always the tenth mansion : where that may be the least, then the tenth of all goods.' — Turn er's Transl. Mr. 'Turner well ob serves, that 'famulis etfamulabus Dei, mean usually monks and nuns.' The recent historian of the Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth has thus treated this memorable grant :¦ — ' It has been considered as the legislative enactment by which the lands were first sub jected to the payment of tythes to the clergy. But the right of the church had already been re cognised in the most unequivo cal manner ; and the grants, many of which are extant, do not. afford any voucher for the opi nion which Selden erroneously entertained. The general sta tute expressly points out a deci mation of the land by metes and bounds, to be held free from aU secular services, exonerated from all tributes to the crown, and from the charges to which, of common right, all lands were subjected, namely, the fyrd, the hryog-bote, and the burh-hote : and this exemption was made to the end that the grantees might sedulously, and without inter mission, offer up their prayers for the soul of Ethelwulf, and of those who had concurred in the donation: the land was, there fore, to be held in frank almoign. Proceeding upon his general enactment, Ethelwulf carried his intentions into effect by the spe cific endowments, which he con ferred upon the various churches and their ministers, of lands, which may be termed ecclesias tical benefices, rendering no ser vice except at the altar. By some historians the grant has been construed into an enfran chisement of all the lands which the church then possessed ; an interpretation not altogether void of probability ; yet, if adopt ed, we must admit that the exo neration only affected the lands which the church possessed when the decree was made.' — Pal- grave, i. 159. 'A JFrankish mansus was the allotment sufBcient to maintain a family.' — lb. ii. 448. The contemporary authority of Asser might lead us to consider, that Ethelwulf's grant was mere ly one of immunities, and was co-extensive with his dominions. ¦ — De Reb. Gest. Alfred. Oxon. 1722, p. 8. Ethelwerd, almost a contemporary, is more obscure. The Saxon Chronicle (Dr. In gram's Transl 94) says, 'King Ethelwulf registered (gebocude, booked) a tenth of his land over all his kingdom, for the honour of God, and for his own everlast ing salvation.' From this it seems reasonable to infer, that he formally surrendered, by means of regular written instru ments, a tenth of all the ciown lands for pious uses. Such an alienation was not valid without the consent of his witenagemot; and, probably, the act giving this consent is the document found, in states more or less complete, by some of our ancient chroni clers, and yet preserved in their works. A.D. 855.] TO DUNSTAN. 121 a tenth of the royal domains.* He was then contem plating, probably, an extensive foundation of monasteries, and other pious establishments. Ecclesiastical rights to tythes of produce had been acknowledged as indefeasible long before his time. , The religious King of Wessex appears to have made his remarkable donation immediately before he undertook a journey to Rome.^ During a year's residence in that celebrated city he displayed abundant liberality. The English school there, founded by Ina, had been destroyed by fire in the preceding year. Ethelwulf rebuilt it, and prorided for its permanent utility, by renewing or con firming the grant of Peter-pence. The pope he gratified by splendid presents, and a pension of a hundred man- cuses. He promised also two annual sums of the same amount, for supplying with lights the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul.' Among his own subjects, he provided ' This is distinctly stated by an anonymous annahst of the church of Winchester, printed in the Monasticon (i. 32). Brom ton also represents Ethelwulf's donation as consisting in land, not in tythes of produce ; but his words might be so taken as to give the grant an appearance strictly eleemosynary. — X. Script 802. ' Bromton (ut supra) places Ethelwulf's Roman journey after his decimation ; as also do Asser, Ethelwerd, and the Saxon Chro nicle. Ingulf, Huntingdon, and others, place the decimation after the journey to Rome. The year 854 is assigned to Ethelwulf's act by the Saxon Chronicle, the following year by Asser, and most probably by Ethelwerd ; but that author's chronology is margmal. 'Whereas our histo rians differ in their accounts, some saying that it was before his journey to Rome, others that it was after, I believe, with Sir Henry Spelman, that this grant was made twice — once before he went to Rome, where it was con firmed by the pope, and again afterwards in a great council.' — Hearne's Mlfred. Oxf 1709, p. 21.' AsSEB, 13. Malmesb. Script. post Bed. 22. Rudborne, Angl. Sacr. i. 202. Both Malmesbury and Rudborne state Ethelwulf's benefactions in marks. Mancus, the term used by Asser, how ever, was the name ordinarily given among the Anglo-Saxons to their gold currency of less value than a pound. Mr. Turner (Hist. Angl.-Sax. ii. 495) coincides in an opinion of older writers, that the mancus, Uke the pound, was the name of no coin, but only of a certain quantity of uncoined metal. If it were otherwise, in deed, some Saxon gold coins could hardly fail of being yet found. The mancus was equal to thirty pennies, each worth a mo dern threepence ; it amounted, 123 FROM ALCUIN [a.d. 856. effectually for lessening admiration of this munificence. On his way through France, he became enamoured of Judith, daughter to Charles the Bald ; and the people were disgusted when they heard that their sovereign, who left them an elderly widower upon a pilgrimage, would soon return home a bridegroom, with a handsome wife not more than thirteen years of age. Popular impatience of this unseemly contrast was heightened by Ethelwulf's impru dence in the celebration of his nuptials. He had Judith crowned, probably at her father's desire, and invested with all the honours of royalty. The Anglo-Saxons had been moved by a former queen's misconduct to deny such pri vileges to the wives of their princes, and they could not bear to see them revived by a sovereign who had so strangely lost himself.' The king's long absence had found temptations for a conspiracy, and his uxorious weak ness rendered it irresistible. He came, however, back to England, and was, on the whole, well received. Nor did his nobles withhold from Judith any of the distinctions that belong to queens. But he was compelled to resign the chief of his dominions to Ethelbald, his eldest son. He survived this humiliating compromise only two years.^ therefore, to seven shillings and sixpence of our present money (Notes to the Will of King Alfred. Lond. 1828, p. 31. De Nummis Sttxonum Dissert, praflx. Alfr. M. Vit a D. JoH. Spelman. Oxon. 1678). In a note to this latter work (p. 6), is a citation from the contemporary authority of Anas- tasius Bibliothecarius, detailing Ethelwulf's splendid presents on his visit to Rome. ' Asser says, that the West- Saxons had been used to deny the wives of their sovereigns a seat on the throne, or any other designation than that of the king's spouse. This usage, which a former queen had earned for her successors, Ethelwulf appears to have been peremptory in breaking through, on his mar riage with Judith, refusing to hear any expostulation to the contrary (De Reb. Gest Alfr. 10). The coronation service used for Judith is still extant. — Spelm. Alfr. M. Vit p. 8, note. 2 Asser. 8, 1 2. Malmesb. Script post Bed. 22. The Saxon Chroni cle says, that Ethelwulf reigned eighteen years and a half. His death, however, cannot have hap pened much before the close of 857, and his father, Egbert, died m 836. His name, meaning noble aid, is variously spelt, and often appears in the contracted form of Athulphus; it is evidently the Adolphus of later times. A.D. 854.] TO DUNSTAN. 123 Ethelwulf took with him to Rome his youngest and favourite son, eventually and permanently known as Alfred the Great. The royal child, now seven years old, had already visited Europe's ancient and illustrious capital: his father's fond partiality having sent him thither, with a large and splendid retinue, two years before. Upon this former visit, the pope gave Alfred a most gratifying recep tion ; but its exact nature has rather puzzled later times. Two compliments were paid him by Leo IV., then in the see of Rome. One of them, there can be little or no doubt, was confirmation by the pope's own hands.* By this Alfred was adopted, in current language, as a spiritual son. But he was besides, in spite of elder brothers, anointed for king. It has been suggested that Leo might have done this from some sort of supernatural impulse, but others think it likely that he knew Alfred's father to have marked him out for a tributary or conquered king dom, such, for instance, as could be found in Wales.* Florence, of Worcester, however, says, that Leo acted at Ethelwulf's desire.* In this very probable case, we may suppose the fond Anglo-Saxon parent to have indulged secret hopes that a loved boy would hereafter fill his own place. Kingly power among the Anglo-Saxons, though strictly confined within a royal caste, was not equally hmited by primogeniture. Ethelwulf might argue, there fore, that papal sanction would afford authority sufficient for naming a child whom he loved so thoroughly, and seemingly with so much reason, as the successor to him self Suspicions, or it may even be indications, of such a galling preference, might have alienated his elder sons, and found a strong party to espouse their cause.* But ' Asser. 7. See also Bampt Lect 246. * Spelman, ^If. Mag. Vita, p. 7. ^Monumm. Hist. Brit. 551. ' 'Ethelwulf's visit to Rome ¦without having resigned his crown, may have begun the dis content. Two of the preceding sovereigns of Wessex, who had taken this step, Cadwalla and Ina, had first abdicated the throne, though Offa retained it during his journey. But Ethel wulf had been in the church, and had not the warlike character of Offa to impress or satisfy his thanes and earls.' — Turner, .Fis^. Angl.-Sax. i. 497. Asser (8) darkly makes the conspiracy against Ethelwulf to originate in 124 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 861. whatever acted upon those who stayed behind, Alfred's future life could never lose a colour from his Italian journeys. It is true that much positive improvement could scarcely come at five or seven years of age. Still, an indelible impression might be made upon dawning faculties of a superior kind. Upon those of Alfred, me mory must have painted an enchanting picture. Soft seductions aided striking sights in giving Rome the con quest of his heart. It proved no barren victory; for, eventually, he spared her in a very tender point. Images of her ancient gods had fallen before other images with Christian names. A weaning so indulgent from the ear lier faith was highly popular, and it made popes into tem poral sovereigns. But great risk was run in rising on such ground as this. The Decalogue allows no sort of image-worship. It was, therefore, in its genuine state kept out of sight. The second commandment was omitted, as a mere amplification of the first, meant only for ancient Israel, but now obsolete and cumbersome. Alfred lent his name to this omission. He thus kept up the credit of his Roman friends, but he cast a blot upon his own. Alfred was born at Wantage in Berkshire, then a royal domain, in the year 849. His mother, Osburgh, a person of excellent abilities and conspicuous piety, daughter to the royal cup-bearer, was descended from a family long pre-eminent among Anglo-Saxon nobles.* This parent Alfred must have lost very early, for his father married again when he was only seven years old. His childhood appears to have been passed in complete illiteracy. No pains were taken to make him anything beyond a sports man and a warrior.^ When twelve years of age he could quadam infamia. The Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of it, nor does Ethelwerd. Under this dearth of direct information, it may, perhaps, allowably be conjectured, that one cause of Ethelwulf's discredit among his people, was his known partiality to the infant Alfred, to the pre judice of his elder sons. It was, most probably, no secret that the pope had already anointed that favourite child ; and it might be represented that hia doting father had now sought the consummation of his injus tice, in taking him personally to the most venerated of spiritual authorities. ' ASSER, 4. 2 lb. 16. A.D. 861.] TO DUNSTAN. 125 not even read.' Yet his was evidently the very mind for using and enjoying books. The lays heard in wealthy homes had no keener listener than he.^ A volume of them beautifully written shamed him out of ignorance. Judith, his mother-in-law, was then turning her back upon Eng land.' It once had pitied her, for she came over as the childish bride of Alfred's worn-out father. She next earned its condemnation by a marriage with his eldest brother.'' A second widowhood having eased her of this disgrace, it was natural that she should wish to leave the country. She sold, accordingly, her English property, and prepared for a return to the Continent. Happily she staid long enough to awaken Alfred's literary talents. As if to let fall a farewell hint much needed by the Anglo-Saxon ^AssER,16. Asser leaves it even doubtful whether Alfred's ilUte- racy did not extend beyond his twelfth year. ^Ib.' Asser does not name the lady, but caUs her 'mater sua.' Dr. Giles (Life and Times of Alfred the Great, p. 84) supposes her to have been literally Alfred's own mother. Osburgh, he thinks, was then 'living, like the em press Josephine, in retirement.' Dr. R. Pauli (Life of Alfred the Great, p. 53) rejects the notion of Osburgh's 'retirement,' but stm considers her to have been the lady meant. If these mat ters be so, Alfred must have been rather young even for learn ing much by heart from the lips of another. But Asser says, he read the book, and moreover did not learn to read until more than twelve years old. Pauli disposes of these objections, by making the Latin legere, hke the Greek legein, applicable to mere saying, as is the case also, he tells us, in certain parallel northern words. If, however, this anecdote be referred to 861, there is no need for any conjectures. Alfred was then twelve years old, and Judith about leaving England. The Monumenta Historica Britannica (474, note) accordingly refers this anecdote to Judith. This view involves no difficulties of much importance. Judith, or the fair widow, as people called her, had not long left England before she eloped with Baldwin, surnamed Iron- arm, forester of Flanders, a coun try governed by an officer so designated, because it was then very much overgrown with wood. Her father was very angry ; but being reconciled, he gave Bald win an increase of dignity, mak ing him Count of Flanders. His son and successor, Baldwin II., married one of our king Alfred's daughters. From that marriage, after a few generations, sprang Matilda, wife of William the Con queror. So that Judith was an ancestress of the present royal family of Great Britain. * Asser, 13. 126 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 871. princes, she said of a manuscript in her hand, "I will giro this to that one of you who shall first master its con tents." Alfred gazed e.igcrly upon it, being quite en chanted by an illuminated capital. " Now, will you really gi^ e it? " he asked. Judith declai-ed herself in eai'ucst. Nothing more was needed by the resolute and intelligent boy. He applied himself instantly to learn his letters; nor did he rest until able to repeat accurately the poem that had so fortunately fired a noble cupidity within him.' He now found his eager thirst of knowledge met by a mortifying- repulse. Reading to any extent, or to much advantage, required a knowledge of Latin. Upon over coming this new difficulty, he soon determined. But good instruction was not easilj' obtained, even by a prince.' The taste for leai-ning, and the facilities for its cultivation which England once owed to Theodore, had become ex tinct under the protracted horrors of Scandinavian piracy. Alfred, however, feeling ignorance insupportable, was im pelled by a generous energy to set ordinaiy obstacles at defiance, and he diligently sought instructors. ^ How effectually he profited by their aid, his literary labours most nobly testify. These evidences of learned industry are, indeed, sufficient for immortalising any name in a dark and tempestuous age. As the works of an author, unable even to read untU fully twelve years of age, and who grew into manhood before he had mastered Latin, they claim a distinguished place among victories of the human intellect. On reaching maturity, Alfred served gloriously and incessantly in the armies of his brothers. Of these, the two eldest, Ethelbald and Ethelbert, reigned concmTcntly ; the latter holding a subordinate authority over Kent, Sussex, and Essex ; the portion of his paternal dominions left for their father's administration during his last two 1 Asser, 13. > J7-.17. ' Alfred's principal instructors in Latin were, according to his own account, Plegmuud, Asser, Grimbald, and Erigena (Preface to Gregory's Pastoral Spelm. Vit Alf M. Append 3, p. 197). He was, probably, not acquainted with one of these four scholars during his youth. A.D. 871.] TO DUNSTAN. 127 years. Both these princes quickly followed Ethelwulf to the tomb ; and his third son, Ethelred, became head of the royal family.' Alfred appears now to have had an opportunity either of assuming the subordinate eastern sovereignty, or of being recognised as King of Wessex .- He contented himself with a secondary place under Ethered. Rarely has a sceptre been less tempting. But Alfred was unable to decline it long ; Ethered, like former sons of Ethelwulf, being released early from an uneasy throne. An elder brother had left children,' whose prior claim Alfred, probably, would have willingly admitted. Any such forbearance was, however, so manifestly unsuit able to a time of urgent difficulty and danger, that these infant claimants were unhesitatingly set aside. The nation would hear of no reluctance in their uncle, now in the very fiower of manhood, but called him loudly to the royal dignity.* Alfred's reign opened with a serious dis aster, undergone at Wilton, where the Danish arms gained a decided victory.^ Various ill successes followed, which were constantly aggravated by a weak and temporising policy. Thus unfortunate, Alfred naturally became un popular, and he completed the alienation of his people by ' Ethelbald died in 860, three years after his father. Ethelbert then added to the dominion of Wessex his former kingdom over the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Essex. He governed this united kingdom with consider able success, during six years, and died in the year 866. Ethe red succeeded in that year. Mr. Turner caUs him Ethelred, as does Malmesbury ; and there can be no doubt that this is the cor rect form of his name. But King Alfred's Will, Asser, the Saxon Chronicle, and Ethelwerd, write it Ethered, which, proba bly, comes more nearly to its ordinary pronunciation. It seems to be the Edridge or Etherege of later times. — Sax. Chr. 96, 97. Script, post Bed. f. 479. Abser, 14, 24. ' Asser, 24. ^ Alfred left estates to jSithelm and Athelwold, each of them designated 'my brother's son.' Ethelbert appears to have been the father of both.' — King Al freds Will, 16, 17. * Asser (24) says, that Alfred began to reign quasi invitus. His accession is placed in 871 by Asser and the Saxon Chronicle. Mr. Turner adopts this date ; but the editor of King Alfred's Will (6) refers Ethered's death to Apr. 23, 872. This is the year to which it is referred by Ingulf. — Script, post Bed. 494. Malmes bury also places Alfred's acces sion in that year. — lb. 23. » Asser, 25. 128 FROM ALCUIN [a.d. 878. haughtiness and over-severity.' His kinsman, St. Neot, has the credit of rebuking him sharply for these defects : foretelling their sinister operation on his happiness.- But even an Alfred's youth could slight unpalatable warnings. The young king of Wessex proved as little able to master his own impetuous passions as the fierce rovers of Scandi navia. At length he seemed overtaken by hopeless ruin; and his lofty spirit quailed before appearances of general desertion. The foreign foe had baffled every effort ; and Englishmen, dejected and offended, shewed little wish to follow him any longer. Such a storm quite overpowered him for a moment, and, crouching indignantly before it, he wholly disappeared from public observation. He found a miserable shelter with some few faithful followers among the forests and morasses of Somerset shire. In the deepest of these recesses, on a spot known as the Isle of Athelney, which wood and water made aU but inaccessible, he soon managed to intrench a strong position. Before his prospects were thus a little bright ened, he sought a home and hiding-place with one of the royal herdsmen. To him, probably, Alfred was known; but his wife's ignorance of her guest's condition must be presumed from that ancient and fascinating tale which * Asser, 31. From Alfred's conduct, his friend and biogra pher, Asser, honestly admits that adversity came upon him non immeritb. To the stern severity of his rule, striking testimony is borne by the Miroir des Justices, a production of Edward the First's reign, well known among legal antiquaries. Thence we learn that Alfred hanged forty- four judges in one year, for errors and malversations in the exercise of their functions. — Spelm. ^.If M. Vit note, p. 80. Considerable severity was, no doubt, necessary to overawe a barbarous people, -during a season of extraordinary public difEiculty; but severity like this was cruel, and must have been grossly unjust in several instances. 2 Asser, 32. A speech to this effect, attributed to St. Neot, is to be found in a Saxon homily (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. VespOr sian, D. 14, f. 146). This homily is printed in Gorham's History and Antiquities of Eynesbury aiid St Nenfs, Lond. 1824, ii. 257. Part of St. ISTeot's speech is also given by Mr. Turner (Hist Angl.- Sax. i. 549). Mr. Gorham says of St. Neot, 'The precise year of his death is not stated by any ancient authority, and can only be collected from circumstantial evidence : the most probable date is 877' (i. 44). Mr. Turner places Alfred's retirement in 878. A.D. 878.] TO DUNSTAN. 129 represents her as expecting the king to watch some cakes baking by the fire, and venting angry verse, when she found him to have negligently let them burn. So, man I her irritated measures run : What? Slack and blind when the cakes want a turn! You're greedy when they smoke upon the board.^ While Alfred thus remained in safe seclusion, he kept up communication with his confidential friends. They were not long in sending him small but courageous bands of trusty followers, by whom the Danes were severely harassed in a quick succession of incursions mocking every calculation. Thus his people's ardour rapidly revived. Vigour, ability, and success, gave an importance to every sally from his lurking-place, which forbade remembrance of his late reverses and unpopularity. When ready for striking the decisive blow, early tradition paints him dis guised as a wandering minstrel, and unguardedly admitted into the Danish camp. Its hostile inmates rise before the reader, enchanted by his matchless music, and rich pro fusion of legendary lore. What soldiery would not have greeted eagerly such a harper wherever his inquiring eye ' Heus, homo ! Urere quos cernis panes, gy- rare moraris ? Cum nimium gaudes hos man- ducare calentes ? Abser, 31. It has been thought by many, that the paragraph which con tains this distich, and the whole story of Alfred with the neat herd's wife, is an interpolation. It is not found in the Cotton MS. of Asser ; and the printed text of that author would read quite as well without it. The woman's speech, too, being verse, is rather a suspicious circum stance. Mr. Turner, however, agjcars to consider it genuine (Hist Angl-Sax. i. 561), influ enced probably by finding the tale in the Homily on St. Neot (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. Vespa sian, D. 14, f. 146). But this MS. is in a Normanno-Saxon hand. The several pieces in it, of course, were transcribed from older MSS. Mr. Gorham conjectures, with considerable probability, that the Homily on St Neot was written about the middle of the eleventh century, and the tale of Alfred and the cakes interpolated from it into Asser (Hist, of Eynesbury and St. Neofs. Suppl. ii. cii. vol. i. 39). Against this tale the sUence of the Saxon Chronicle is also a presumption. In fact, that vene rable record might lead us to consider Alfred's condition some thing less desperate than it has commonly been represented. Ethelwerd hkewise has nothing of the tale, nor even Ingulf. 130 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 878. directed him?' If Alfred's military genius really was thus favoured, he must have entered on the field which saw the crisis of his fate, with information that a general very rarely can command. It proved an obstinate and sanguinary fight ; but Alfred's military skill, admirably guiding the desperate valour of his troops, at length glad dened him with victory. His brave but baffied foe sought safety within the ramparts of an impregnable fortification. Around its base Alfred maintained a strict blockade, leaving the consummation of his hopes to privation and alarm. In fourteen days these irresistible allies proved him to have decided wisely. The Danes capitulated, on condition of receiving baptism, and settling as a peaceful colony in the eastern counties.^ Henceforth Alfred, although ever harassed by apprehensions of invading Northmen, shone without eclipse the father of his people, the glory of his age. Among proofs of his title to contemporary gratitude and posthumous admiration, few are more conclusive than his literary labours. Of professed scholars once embarked in active life, it is often said that future opportunities for learned industry are hopeless. Alfred, a soldier and a statesman from education, office, and stern importunate necessity, found ample time for proving himself a student also, fie nobly designed a vernacular literature, and his own personal exertions realised very considerably that wise and generous intention. No author had thrown so much light upon the national affairs as Bede : but he wrote in Latin. Unwilling that learned men alone should have access to their country's annals, Alfred rendered into Anglo-Saxon the venerable Northumbrian's Ecclesiastical History.3 To spread information respecting foreign coun- 1 Ingulf. Script post Bed. 494. ^ Asser, 34. Ethandun, sup posed to be Yatton, near Chip penham, was the place of Alfred's decisive victory. The date of it is 878. Alfred himself stood god father to Godrun, or Guthrum, the Danish chieftain. The Danish colony was to possess the coun try north of the Thames, from its mouth to the mouth of the Lea ; thence to the source of that river ; thence it was to be bounded by the Wathng Street to Bedford ; thence the Ouse was to be its boundary to the sea. — Spelm. Vit Mtf M. 36, note. ^ Alfred's Bede was first pub lished by Whelock, at Cambridge, in 1643 ; afterwards by Smith, in A.D. 901.] TO DUNSTAN. 131 tries, he translated large selections from the historical work of Orosius, with geographical matter from other sources.' To diffuse a taste for literary gratification of ,a higher order, he freely rendered Boethius On the Consolation of Philosophy,^ a work then greatly valued by the few who read. He sought even to remedy the gross illiteracy of his clergy ; translating for their use Pope Gregory's Pas toral, a text-book in the apportionment of penance.' Alfred's name has been inserted likewise in lists of scholars who provided ancient England with a Bible in her native tongue.'' But he, probably, did no more than turn into Anglo-Saxon such portions of Scripture as appeared, from time to time, peculiarly suited for his own comfort and in struction.* He seems, however, to have been employed upon a regular translation of the Psalms when overtaken by a summons to eternity.^ He was then only fifty-two,' an age that might be fairly 1722. [t is not a servile trans lation, some things being omit ted in it, and others abridged. ' The Orosius was published by Mr. Daines Barrington, in 1773. Mr. Turner has given a long and interesting account of this work (Hist Angl.-Sax. ii. 79). The Orosius has been recently republished (1853) in Mr. Bohn's Antiquarian Library, with the ad vantages of editing and trans lation by Mr. Thorpe. To this work, that able Anglo-Saxon scholar has prefixed a transla tion, from the German, of Dr. Pauli's Life of Alfred the Great, a very judicious continental view of that illustrious king's career. ° PubUshed by Mr. Rawhnson, in 1698 ; and again by Mr. Car- dale, in 1829. The work con tains much not in the original Mr. Turner has given numerous extracts from it (ii. 25). ' There are MSS. of this work in the British Museum, the Bod leian, the Public Library at Cam bridge, and the Library of C. O. C. there. It is hardly creditable to England, that this work has never been printed. " Spelm. Vit Mlf M. 167. The authority for this is an ancient History of Ely. = Asser, 57. « Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 24. There is reason also to believe that Alfred made translations from the Fables of .^sop, com piled a book of proverbs, and wrote a treatise on falconry (^VBiM.VitJElf.M.lQQ. Turner, Hist. Angl.-Sax. ii. 95, 96) . Some select versions from St. Austin, by King Alfred, are preserved among the Cotton MSS. Full information respecting this ad mirable prince's hterary labours, may be seen in Mr. Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria, p. 393; and in Mr. Thorpe's translation of Dr. Pauli's Life, p. 169.' The Saxon Chronicle (124) 132 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 901. thought quite insufficient for laying solidly the foundations of national security, legislation, and literature. But Alfred never thought of wanting time. He could always find enough for any generous enterprise. Yet incessant and sanguinary struggles against piratical invasion were not all the difficulties that taxed his ingenuity, devoured his hours, and wore away his spirits. His towering intellect and indomitable energy were imprisoned in a most un healthy frame. He seems to have been a sickly and a suffering child. As manhood opened on his view, he dreaded leprosy, or blindness, or some other ill that must keep him altogether from the haunts of men. His virtuous ambition knew not how to face a prospect so disheartening. He earnestly yearned after such a degree of exemption from physical infirmity, as would leave him fit for the pubhc eye, and active duties. Full of such noble aspirations, he once went into Cornwall with a hunting party. He there found himself near the burial-place of a British saint.* His pious mind had ever viewed such spots as hallowed ground, and this was devoutly visited. Long was he prostrate, offering urgently humble suit to Heaven, that an unhappy constitution might not realize his most insupportable apprehensions. Journeying homeward he thought himself relieved ; and some real or imaginary change freed him soon after from the fear of becoming politically dead.'^ If his pains, however, lost any portion of their intensity, he found it nothing more than a temporary respite. The gross and prolonged festivity that celebrated his nuptials, effectually doomed him to a life of misery.' His natural infirmities were hopelessly aggravated by that fatal blow ; henceforth, he was racked habitually by agonizing pain, and often thought himself on the verge of dissolution : nor, Avhen intervals of ease allowed him to recruit his strength, could he shake off a horrid apprehension of impending places Alfred's death in 901, and it is probably a contemporary authority Other ancient autho rities place it a year earlier. ' St. Guerir. The place, which is near Liskeard, was anciently called Ham-Stoke ; afterwards, on St. Neot's burial there, Neot- Stoke. It is the modern St. Neot's. — Cambden. Gorham's Eynesbury and St. Neot's, 29. " Asser, 40. ^ lb. A.D. 901.] TO DUNSTAN. 133 torture.* Vainly did he seek the most approved advice : physicians could not even name his malady.^ Here, pro bably, they would have been surpassed by the abler prac titioners of later times; but it may well be doubted, whether any proficiency in the healing art could have ministered effectual relief to Alfred. His constitution appears to have been radically bad ; and internal cancer, or some other such incurable disease, might seem to have thriven, with malignant luxuriance, in a soil that early sickliness had most effectually prepared. A principal secret for benefiting society and attaining eminence, is economy of time. Deeply sensible of this, Alfred provided a specific employment for every coming hour. The natural day he seems to have divided into three equal portions : one for sleep and refreshment, another for public duties, and a third for God's especial service.' Under this last head were included not only religious exercises, in which no monk was more unsparing and regular than Alfred, but also those literary labours, which he wisely ranked among the most powerful instruments for dispensing heavenly light. His country possessed no other measurement of time than close observation of the sun's progress. This was far too incomplete and unexact for Alfred : hence he caused wax candles to be made of equal weight, and each twelve inches long, every inch being distinctly marked and numbered. Six of these were pro vided for every twenty-four hours, and by their successive combustion Alfred could ascertain how far the day was gone. But he soon found himself unable to rely upon this contrivance, unless the air was perfectly serene. It was often otherwise in the rude unglazed apartments even of an Anglo-Saxon palace : in a tent it could be but rarely ' Asser, 42. ' lb. 40. Alfred appears to have suffered, in early Ufe, under the excrescence called ficus by surgeons. — lb. Mr. Turner sug gests that the sufferings of Al fred's mature hfe arose, proba bly, either from internal cancer, or from some derangement of the biliary functions. — Hist. Angl.-Sax. ii. 155, note. 2 Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 24. Asser (65) states, that Alfred devoted the half of his time to God ; but he gives no particu lars. His account, therefore, if presented in detail, might be found to differ very little from that of Malmesbury. 134 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 901. so: hence arose a new demand on Alfred's ingenuity. He now fitted thin plates of horn into a wooden framework, and thus protected his waxen clocks from every blast, while the semi-transparent ease enabled him to watch their progress. Posterity may smile to learn that stable lanterns are an invention, or an importation, which it owes to the immortal Alfred.' It must admire that industry and per severance which could effect so much, when these humble instruments were the best within a king's command for maintaining strict economy of time. Though liberal, Alfred was exact in economizing money. The rude hospitality of his court was maintained by the royal domains, which were not let to tenants, but merely managed by bailiffs.^ Our ancient kings were thus the largest farmers in their dominions ; and, like other occu piers of land, they drew the necessaries of life directly from the soil : their pecuniary resources must necessarily have been extremely scanty. Of these, however (such was his magnanimous piety), Alfred strictly devoted one-half to religion and learning.' One-fourth of this generous appropriation was regularly distributed in alms, another was remitted to the monasteries of Athelney and Shaftes bury, founded by himself,* a third was disbursed in pro moting education at Oxford,^ and the last was reserved for ' Alfred's clock-cases appear, from Asser (69), to have excited the wonder of his rude subjects and associates. Alfred, however, might not have drawn this won derful invention from the unas sisted resources of his own ge nius, but only have refined somewhat upon a convenience that he had seen in Italy, and have applied it to a more digni fied use. We learn, from the Amphitryon of Plautus (act i. sc. i. 1. 185), that horn-lanterns were known to the ancient Romans. Nor was glass absolutely unat tainable in Alfred's time, Bene dict Biscop having brought some, long before, to his monastery at Wearmouth. It was, however, very rare, probably, and expen sive: hence, as horn would an swer his purpose, Alfred might not think of such costly" mate rials for his lanterns. — Spelm. Vit ^If.M. 1Q2. ^Ib.lQl.8 AssER, 66. * Athelney was for men, Shaftesbury for women. In the latter, Alfred's own daughter be came abbess. Asser says (61), that the monastic profession was then at a very low ebb in Eng land, no particular rule being ordinarily observed with any strictness. ' Asser does not mention Ox- A.D. 901.J TO DUNSTAN. 135 monastic establishments, either abroad or at home. The remaining half of his revenues Alfred divided into three portions only. Of these, the first paid his officers, the second was expended upon buildings and mechanical arts, the third upon learned foreigners, whom his judicious patriotism anxiously sought for his own ignorant and unpolished country.' As an ecclesiastical legislator, Alfred appears to have done little more than confirm the sanctions of his more approved predecessors. Having made a digest from the laws of Ina and Offa, kings of Mercia, and from those of Ethelbert, the first Christian sovereign of Kent, he sub mitted it to his legislature, and obtained a solemn confir mation of it.2 Under him, accordingly, the privilege of sanctuary was again legally recognised, and especial pre- tection extended to churches and ecclesiastics. His treaty with Godrun, which planted a Danish colony in the eastern counties, throws further light upon ecclesiastical affairs. Alfred stipulates in this, for the payment of tythes, Rome- shot, light-shot, and plough-alms, providing by pecuniary fines against disobedience.' The two last named of these dues now appear (at least under those particular designa tions), for the first time among the legislative records of England.'' Another testimony is thus borne to the very ford, but he mentions only one school. Bromton (X. Script 818), evidently writing with Asser be fore him, places the school at Oxford. Oxford's obligations to Alfred are indeed indubitable. The only question is, whether he did not rather restore and aug ment that venerable seat of learn ing, than found it ? If a para graph in Asser be genuine (52), the former service was that ren dered by the great king of Wes sex ; but this paragraph is want ing in some of the MSS. ; and hence Cambridge men, desirous of denying superior antiquity to the sister university, have pro nounced it an interpolation. ' Asser, 66. 'Prffif. Al. M. ad LL. suas. Spelm. Cone. i. 363. Wilk. i. 190. = LL. sub Alf. et Guth. Spelm. Cone. i. 377. ' The light-shot oi MheH's code may answer, perhaps, to the church-shot made payable, under a heavy penalty, by the laws of Ina. The plough-alms are thought to have been an offering made to the church, in proportion to the number of plough-lands holden by the payers. This due is not mentioned by name in Alfred's own treaty with Godrun as now extant : we find specified there only tythes, Rome-fee, light-shot, and 'Dei rectitudines ahquas.' 136 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 901. high antiquity of a payment for the exigencies of public worship, independently of tythes. What private owner of an estate can produce a title for his property so old, by many centuries, as this enlightened monarch's constitu tional recognition of the Church's title to a rent-charge upon it for the due celebration of divine offices? It is observable, too, that Alfred's legislation leaves no room for pleading that ecclesiastical dues were ordinarily ren dered upon grounds merely religious. Civil penalties protected the clergy in their maintenance,* the Church in her dues, and Rome in her claims upon every householder's penny. Alfred's appearance as an ecclesiastical legislator has, however, inflicted a severe wound on his memory. He prefaces his laws by the words which Moses uses in the first verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus. He then goes on to the Decalogue; but he wholly omits that stiingent prohibition of all idolatrous worship, which has been ranked as the second commandment by the ancient Jewish church, by Jerome, with others of the Fathers, and by all the Protestant churches. He does not, how ever, make up the commandments to their proper number, according to ordinary practice, by dividing the prohibition of coveting into two separate commandments. On the contrary, Alfred abridges that prohibition. His ninth commandment is no more than, Covet thou not thy neigh bour's goods unjustly. His tenth is that provision against the making of gold or silver gods, which stands as a sort of corollary to the Decalogue, in the twenty-third verse of the chapter that contains it. This fictitious tenth commandment gives Alfred's Decalogue a slight supe riority over the ordinary Decalogues that cover image- worship. It seems, therefore, like an indication of that ingenuous shame, which could never be stifled in such a man. But still, the supplementary verse, that improperly In the renewal of this treaty, however, under Edward the El der, plough-alms are inserted. — Spelm. i. 392. Wilk. i. 293. • Of civil penalties guarding the right to tythes, probably no earher record is known. Such might, however, have been pro vided by the laws of Offa, to which Alfred appeals, but which are lost. A.D. 901.J TO DUNSTAN. 137 winds up Alfred's Decalogue, affords ample room for subterfuge and evasion.* An image-worshipper might say, that he made no golden or silver gods; neither Mercury or Woden had any of his devotions : he merely used figures of Christ and the saints as helps to worship. Any one who knew the real second commandment, would easily see that all such helps are positively forbidden by God. By keeping such knowledge from his people, Alfred shews that Anglo-Saxon divines reprobated no longer the second council of Nice ; and he has made himself a party to the naturalisation among his countrymen of its insidious decrees. Rome, undoubtedly, might have gained a new hold upon his affections, as the centre of civilisation. Still, it is deplorable, that any motives, however good, should have tempted such a man as Alfred into misrepre sentations of God's recorded word. But a strong moral power yet Kngered in the ancient seat of empire. Alfred's venerated relative, St. Neot, made no less than seven visits to that celebrated city.'^ He himself also enter tained a high regard for relics,' the superstitious merchan dise of Rome. Nor among the compliments that he received, was any one, probably, more acceptable than a fragment of some size, presented by the pope, as a portion of our Saviour's cross.* The whole stream of contemporary theology, and Alfred's own translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral, attest suflSciently his belief in the necessity of a strict personal satisfaction for sin. His friend and biographer, Asser, accordingly represents the unpopularity that so severely tried him in early life, as mercifully sent by Providence, to exact a penalty which he must have paid, but which could never fall so lightly as while the body lasted.^ So, probably, Alfred himself thought; and, reasoning upon this principle, must have often given him comfort under the physical misery that he underwent. Still, his peni- * See Bampton Lectures, 248. 2 Hom. in S. Neot. Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. Vespasian, D. 14, f.l43. 'Asser, 41. < lb. 39. » lb. 32. 138 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 901. tential ^^ews were very different from those of modern Rome. Indicative absolutions had not come into fashion. Schoolmen had not speculated upon safety for the soul, while it was touched with nothing holier than a slavish fear of punishment for sin. An elaborate catechism, to sanction such a notion, had not been put forth by Trent and Rome,* or by any other authority. None, therefore, could be tempted into a belief, that, even if the heart remained unchanged, yet priestly power would make all safe. Alfred could know nothing of this attractive doc trine, and such as hold it must not claim countenance from him. Extravagant assertions of papal supremacy occasioning eventually so many offensive acts and acrimonious debates, were likewise unknown to the days of Alfred. Had such been advanced, it is far from likely that veneration for the papacy would have betrayed him into any concession that tarnishes the honour of a nation, and outrages reason. Roman pretensions, when fully before the world, were never admitted by our ablest sovereigns. But English royalty can boast no abler name than that of Alfred. That illustrious prince, it should also be remembered, must have dissented from transubstantiation, the grfeat distinctive feature of modern Romanism. His age first saw eucharistic worshippers invited formally to deny the evidence of sense; and Alfred seems to have patronised Erigena, a celebrated opponent of that startling novelty .- ' See Bampton Lectures, p. 285. ^ Colher mentions Alfred's re mittances to Rome of Peter- pence, by the hands of bishops and other great men ; and he mentions the return made by the pope, of an alleged fragment from our Saviour's cross, and of an exemption from taxes to the English school at Rome. He then adds: 'But notwithstand ing these civilities, we meet with no letters of compliment or sub mission: we find no learned men sent from Rome to assist the king in his scheme for the revi val of arts and sciences ; there is no intercourse of legates upon record; no interposings in the councils and regulations of the church ; no bulls of privilege for the new abbeys of Winchester and Athelney ; and, which is more. King Alfred, as we have seen, entertained Johannes Soo- tus Erigena, and treated him with great regard, notwithstand ing the discountenance he lay under at Rome. From all which we may conclude, the correspond- A.D. 901.] TO DUNSTAN. 139 Plainly untenable, therefore, are Romish claims to the only English sovereign whom posterity has dignified as the Great. Alfred lived in a superstitious age, and before many theological questions, afterwards debated fully, had called for critical examination. His belief, therefore, cannot be identified strictly and accurately with that of the modern Church of England. But neither is it capable of any such identification with that of the modern Church of Rome. As no ground for disputing this identity can be main tained more effectively than Alfred's alleged patronage of Erigena, Mabillon has elaborately controverted current opinions upon this. His chief arguments, which are every way worthy of him, have passed into other books of the Romish school, and even into some from Protestant pens. But, after all his pains, the learned Benedictine was not able to satisfy himself* The truth is, that Alfred's illustrious friend is named in ancient authors under some of that confusion which has been thrown around most early opponents of a belief in tran substantiation. Hence it is possible, though not likely, that Alfred patronised two eminent scholars named John. One of these must have been Erigena. That illustrious man's ordinary designation, which is no other than John the Irish-born Scot, renders it hardly doubtful that he was born in Ireland, often called anciently the Greater Scot land. His family appears to have been of Saxon origin. Many of his earlier years were spent in France, where he stood foremost among learned men. Charles the Bald esteemed him highly, and admitted him to the most familiar intercourse. By that enlightened prince he was desired, together with Ratramn, to examine critically those eucharistic doctrines by which Paschasius Radbert had recently amazed the world. Erigena, like Ratramn, vindicated the evidence of sense, assigning a figurative cha- ence between England and Rome was not very close ; and that this prince and the Enghsh Church were not sei-vilely gov erned by that see.' — Eccl. Hist. i.l71. ' See The Latin Church, 415. OuDiN. De Script Eccl ii. 241. 140 FROM ALCUIN [a.D. 901. racier to our Lord's words at the last supper.' That nu merous class which is always ready for something new and surprising, was probably very little pleased with scholars, however eminent, thus employed. Erigena seems also to have given offence by some of his writings upon the pre- destinarian controversy.^ A man, thus become obnoxious on the continent, would gladly accept an invitation to pass over into England. Alfred, there is every reason to be lieve, gave him one, and provided for him by a professor ship at Oxford. Erigena seems to have removed subse quently to the abbey of Malmesbury, still undertaking the instruction of youth. If he really was the man, that un dertook this employment there, he rendered himself in it hateful to his pupils, who, provoked by his morose man ners and stern discipline, murdered him with their pen knives.' In happier times, however, Erigena had been famed for a ready playfulness of wit.* But his sportive sallies appear to have been always tinged by satire, and, probably, the most discerning of those who enjoyed his talent for enlivening society, would have named acerbity of temper among the exciting causes to which they were indebted for amusement. The Malmesbury professor's violent death long caused him, rather strangely as it seems, to be venerated as a martyr. Should the victim, however, have once borne the name of Erigena, Berenger effectually obscured his reputation. By appealing to that famous person's work on the Eueharist, he procured its formal condemnation.^ The author, possibly, never was in England, but at all events, a book was condemned written by one whom Alfred valued as a great luminary of his time. Even if the most illustrious of Anglo-Saxon kings patronised two men of genius named John, there is good ' See Bampton Lectures, for 1830, p. 418. 2 Cave, Hist Lit 548. = Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 24. Sim. Dunelm. X. Script 149. * Simeon of Durham has pre served the following specimen of his wit. Sitting one day at table opposite Charles the Bald, and being rather severe upon a noble man present, the king asked him, ' What is there between a Scot and a sot ? ' (Sot, Fr. a fool) ' Only this table!' was Erigena's free and caustic reply. ' At the Council of Vercelli, in 1050. — Labb. et Coss. ix. 1056. A.D. 904.] TO DUNSTAN. 141 reason for identifying one of them with a scholar long condemned by papal Rome to wear the brand of heresy. Under Alfred's son and successor, Edward the Elder, occurred, according to Malmesbury, a very remarkable and successful exercise of papal power. Formosus, the Roman pontiff, we are told, sent an epistle into England, cursing and excommunicating the king with all his peo ple, because the whole of Wessex had been destitute of bishops fully seven years. On receiving this, Edward might seem to have convened a synod, and Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, to have presided over it. In that assembly it was determined to supply the vacancies and erect three new sees. The primate is then repre sented as proceeding to Rome with honourable presents, laying the synod's decree before the pope, obtaining his approbation, and consecrating seven bishops in one day.' This fulminating epistle came from Formosus, we learn, in the year 904.** That pontiff, however, died in the year 896.' Undoubtedly he did not rest quietly in his grave. His successor, Stephen, not contented-^ with rescinding his decrees, had his corpse disinterred, arraigned before a council, stripped of the pontifical robes, and buried igno- miniously among laymen. Nor were the two fingers chiefiy used in consecration deemed worthy even of this interment. They were cut off and thrown into the Tyber.* These contumehes overtook the body of Formosus in the year 897, and it seems afterwards to have lain undisturbed in its unhonoured grave. Baronius, accordingly, is driven to admit some chronological mistake in Malmesbury's relation ; but he is naturally unwilling to forego a case so useful for establishing the ancient exercise of papal autho rity over England. Hence, he suggests an earlier date by ten years as the proper one for this transaction.^ Alfred, however, was then upon the throne, and not Edward the Elder. Two of the vacancies, also, said to have drawn down papal excommunication in 904, did not occur until * Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 26. ^Ib. = Inett. i. 297. * Platina. 114. Boniface VI. is placed by Platina between Formosus I. and Stephen VI. But this intermediate pontiff ap pears not to have hved a month after his elevation. ' Ineit. i. 297. 142 FROM ALCUIN [a.d. 924. five years afterwards.' Although, therefore, it may be true that Plegmund consecrated seven bishops in a single day,^ yet there is no reason for believing the act to have been extorted by any pontiff's malediction. Had such been the truth, allusions to it must have been found in earlier authorities than Malmesbury. It is, however, likely, that a council was really holden for partitioning the western dioceses, as deaths allowed facilities for such a change. Nor is it surprising that subsequent authors, finding a simultaneous effect given to some new arrange ment, should have drawn upon their imaginations to make it square exactly with their own prejudices, and the habits which they saw established. Edward the Elder was succeeded by Athelstan, his eldest son, but illegitimate. He nobly obliterated the stain of discreditable birth. By his vigour and ability, he really became, what no Anglo-Saxon ever was before, the • Viz., the vacancy made by the death of Denewulf, bishop of Winchester, and that made by the death of Asser, bishop of Sherborne, Alfred's biographer. Denewulf is said to have been the identical neatherd, under whose roof Alfred sought con cealment at Athelney. Dene- wulf's promotion to the see of Winchester, however, took place in 879. It was only in the pre ceding year when Alfred lay hid den at Athelney. He is said, of course, to have found his host possessed of extraordinary abili ties ; but still it is anything rather than credible that Alfred should have considered a man, whom he had known as a neat herd one year, qualified for the see of Winchester in the next. — Wharton, Angl Sacr. i. 208, 554. 2 Wharton (id supra) expresses himself unwilling to reject the tradition of Plegmund's seven fold consecration ; and therefore he suggests, as the best mode of obviating difficulties, that a council was probably holden in 904, or in the next year, for par titioning the western dioceses, and that its provisions were not carried into execution tiU 909, when Denewulf and Asser died. The seven consecrations appear to have been for Winchester, Wells, Crediton, Sherborne, St. Petrock's in Bodmin, Dorchester, and Chichester. — Antiqu. Brit 112. Collier, after mentioning Malmesbury's relation, thus pro ceeds : ' The Register of the Pri ory of Canterbury speaks much to the same purpose, but with this remarkable addition — that there was a particular provision made for the Cornishmen to re cover them from their errors; for that country, as the Record speaks, refused to submit to truth, and took no notice of the pope's authority!— Eccl Hist.i. 171. The original words are — imm antea in quantum potuerunt, veritaii resiste- bant, et non decretis apostolicis A.D. 924.] TO dunstan. 143 monarch of all England.* In the decisive battle of Bru- nanburh he crushed the Danish sovereignty, to which Northumbria and the eastern counties had hitherto owned obedience." By taking Exeter from the Welsh, he laid securely the foundations of Anglo-Saxon dominion over the western extremity of England.' A reign of so much military activity, and of no long continuance,* is naturally deficient in materials for ecclesiastical history. Athelstan was, however, a religious prince, and eminently liberal to monasteries.^ Nor was he unmindful of a provision for the ordinary exigences of piety. A legislative assembly holden at Grateley,^ enacts that tythes should be strictly paid, not only upon crops, but also upon live stock. ^ Another account of this assembly's decrees provides also for the payment of church-shot.^ In both records is found an injunction to the royal stewards for charging every crown estate with a certain eleemosynary contribution. Provision is likewise made against violation of churches, and profanation of Sunday, as also for the management of ordeals. Another constitution, probably of this time, attests the continuance of a judicious anxiety, long pre valent, for the foundation of village churches. It shews besides, that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors did not make rank in society a mere matter of caste. The dignity of thane, or gentleman, was open to every one possessed of a certain property, provided with the usual appendages of wealth, and admitted among the royal officers. But then one of such a person's qualifications was a church upon his obediebant. — Spelm. i. 388. Wilk. i. 200. ' Flor. Wig. ad Chron. Append. Monumenta Hist Brit 640. ' The site of this important battle has not been ascertained. —Turner, Hist Angl-Sax. ii. 185. ' 'Urbem Excestriam Corn- wallensibus abstulit, quam turri- bus, et muro munivit, et quadra- tis lapidibus.' — Johan. Tin- mouth, Historia Aurea. Bibl Lameth. MSS. 12, f. 74. 'Athelstan was chosen king in 925, and he died in 941. — Sax. Chr. 139, 145. Malmesbury places Athelstan's accession in y24, as also does Mr. Turner. * Malmesb. Script post Bed. 26. ^ The name of this place does not appear in the body of the record, nor is it stated that any other advice was taken than that of Wulfhelm, the archbishop, and the bishops. ' Spelm. Cone. i. 396. Wilk. i. 205. « Spelm. Cone. i. 402. 144 FROM ALCUIN TO DUNSTAN. [a.D. 928. estate.* A wealthy aspirant of inferior origin would be careful to prevent any deficiency in this particular from crossing his ambitious views. As the whole period from the death of Alcuin to that of Athelstan is remarkably deficient in literary monuments, its doctrinal character is necessarily rather a matter of inference than of direct evidence. From Alfred's muti lated decalogue, however, a triumph must have been gained by image-worship. In the train of this insidious usage could hardly fail of following some disposition for invoking angelic and departed spirits. But that practice was not yet established. Alfred's friendship for Erigena, and the decisive testimony borne by a subsequent age against transubstantiation, prove sufficiently that England still continued completely free from the main distinction of modern Romanism. ' Spelm. Cone. i. 406. ' If a churl thrived so as to have five hides of his own land, a church, and kitchen, a beh-tower, a seat, and an office in the king's court, from that time forward he was esteemed equal in honour to a thane.' — Johnson's Transl. 'It has been observed that a Tri- burg, that is, ten or more fami lies of freemen, eat together. But it will appear that every thane's, or great man's family, was of itself esteemed a Triburg by law, 14 of Edw. Conf. 1065 ; therefore, at that time for a man to have a kitchen for the dress ing of his own meat, might well be esteemed the mark of a thane.' —lb. note. ' The bell-house may denote the hall, which was the place of ordinary diet and enter tainment in the houses of lords. It may well so signify, if the Saxons used the like reason in imposing the name on the lord's hall, as some say, the Italians, Spanish, and French have done in calling it TineUo, Tinelo, and Tinel; which in our laws also is retained in Tinel le Roy, for the King's Hall! — Spelman, Titles of Honour. Lond. 1631, p. 623. 'Tinel Cost le lieu oti les do- mestiques des grands seigneurs mangent.'— tMbnage, in voc. The word seems to have come from the tingling, or sound of the beU used in announcing meals. The seat, or burh-geat-setl as the Sax on has it, Selden considers to mean, a judicial seat, or court for the tenants. 145 Chapter IV. FROM DUNSTAN TO THE CONQUEST. 928—1066. THE MONASTIC SYSTEM — BIRTH OF DUNSTAN — HIS EDUCATION — INTRO DUCTION TO COURT — EXPULSION THENCE— DISINCLINATION TO A MONASTIC LIFE — SUBSEQUENT ADOPTION OF ONE — FOUNDATION OP GLASTONBURY ABBEY — THE BENEDICTINES FIRST ESTABLISHED — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF LONDON— ARCHBISHOP ODO — HIS CANONS — ETHELWOLD — EDWY DUNSTAN's EXILE — HIS RETURN — HIS AD VANCEMENT TO THE SEE OF CANTERBURY — EDGAR — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF ANDOVER — CIVIL PENALTIES AGAINST THE SUBTRACTION OF TYTHES — OTHER LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS UNDER EDGAR — OPPOSITION TO THE MONASTIC SYSTEM — OSWALD — MONKISH MIRA CLES — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF WINCHESTER — OF CALNE — EDWARD THE MARTYR — ETHELRED THE UNREADY — DEATH OP DUNSTAN HIS INDEPENDENT REPLY TO THE POPE — PRETENDED TRANSFER OF HIS REMAINS TO GLASTONBURY — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF EANHAM OF HABA — ECCLESIASTICAL DUEL — ELFRIC, ASCERTAINED PARTI CULARS OF HIS LIFE — HIS WORKS — OBSCURITY OP HIS HISTORY PROBABLE OUTLINE OP IT —MENTION OF HIS NAME BY MALMES BURY AND OSBERN — APPARENT CAUSE OP THE INJUSTICE DONE TO HIS MEMORY — CANUTE — LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OP WINCHESTER UNDER HIM — EDWARD THE CONFESSOR —STIGAND HAROLD'S FOUNDATION FOR SECULAR CANONS— DOCTRINES. ANGLO-SAXON Ecclesiastical History between Athel stan and the Conquest, is distinctly marked by a con troversy that agitated every branch of society. It arose from those ascetic principles, which are always more or less popular in the religious world. Very early, monkish austerities were the admiration of Oriental Christians.' Their western brethren readily took the infection ; and in the sixth century, a monastic patriarch arose among them selves. This was Benedict, born in the year 480, at, or near Nursia, in the modern papal states. He devised a code of conventual regulations which rapidly gained iSeeHistRef.ii.51. K 146 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 928. extensive celebrity. But England gave them no early welcome. Wilfrid's claim as their importer, merely re quires a passing notice ; not a single Benedictine monas tery having arisen seemingly from his efforts. The religious foundations, known in his time, and long after wards, were colleges, rather than regular monasteries. They provided accommodation for ordinary clergymen, education for youth, and a home for some few ascetics bound by solemn vows.* These last could not easily be kept, in such establishments, to the strict discipline of a cloister, and hence they had no great hold upon popular estimation. When Alfred, accordingly, founded his reli gious house at Athelney, he was driven to people it with a motley group of monks, collected from various quarters.' Scandinavian piracy was assigned as a reason why the Anglo-Saxons possessed so little taste for monachism.' But England, probably, had never offered, in societies exclusively and uniformly ascetic, any sufficient facihties for nurturing such a disposition. The munificence which had consecrated so many spots by giving them up to God's especial service, appears to have originated in the palpable deficiences of religious instruction. A minster, the ver nacular form of monasterium, was built and endowed, because a church was wanted for ordinary worship, and a body of clergymen were planted round it, both to serve it, and itinerate in the neighbourhood. Eventually many of these establishments became monasteries, in the sense affixed to that word by after ages. But one part of the generation, witnessing this change, condemned it as an injustice based upon delusion. The other part, probably, assumed without reflection or inquiry, that an ecclesiastical foundation of any magnitude would most completely answer the pious donor's meaning, in the hands of pro fessed ascetics, bound regularly to certain mortifications. Innovations upon established usage and vested interests, require, however, time and perseverance. A complete monastic triumph was accordingly delayed until after the Norman Conquest.* ' Wharton. Angl Sacr. ii. 91. I ' lb. ' Asser. 61. | < w. Thom informs us, that A.D. 928.] TO THE CONQUEST. 147 The struggle that achieved it, originated in the talents, energy, and address of one celebrated individual. Dunstan was born, a contemporary says, in the reign of Athelstan'; but his birth hardly could have been later than the very year of that king's accession. It was probably earlier. Dunstan's father was named Herstan ; his mother, Kyne- drid. They were high among the nobility of Wessex, and lived near Glastonbury, a residence remarkably calculated for making a powerful and permanent impression upon the expanding mind of an intelligent and imaginative child. Glastonbury drew a character of solemn and picturesque seclusion from the fishy waters that guarded its approach on every side. The most venerable tradition marked Avalon as a holy isle. It was now a royal domain '^ ; could show a church erected long before the Saxon conversion'; boasted of a sanctity that attracted pilgrims from Ireland; who doubly valued its facilities for study and religion, because it passed for their ovm Patrick's burying-place^. The ancient Cimbric race, yet lingering, probably, through- the secular canons were not ex pelled from the cathedral church of Canterbury until the year 1005. —(X Script 1780.) Nor did this expulsion, then,meet with a ready acquiescence. On the contrary, the intrusive monks were not firmly established in possession until the primacy of Lanfranc. — Inett, i. 329. ' "Hujus (Atheist.) imperii temporibus oritur puer strenuus in West-Saxonum finibus, cui pater Heorstanus, mater verd Cynethrith vocitatur." — (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Cleopatra, B. 13. t 60.) This hfe appears to have been vrritten by Brid- ferth, a monk of Ramsey, eminent for mathematical knowledge. It has been printed by Mabillon, in the .4cta/Sanctontm, from a foreign MS. containing a preface which the Cotton MS. wants, but not offering so good a text. — Wright's Biog. Brit Lit 443.) Osbern softens the names of Dunstan's parents into Herstan and Kynedrida, and places his birth in the first year of Athel stan. — (Angl. Sacr. h. 90.) This year is not certainly fixed, but it can hardly be earlier than 924. Even this date, however, would only make Dunstan seventeen at Athelstan's death. Hence Whar ton conjectures that he was born towards the close of Edward the Elder's reign. — Angl. Sacr. iii. 116, note. ^ " Erat autem quaedam regalis in oonfinio ejusdem praefati viri (Heorstan) insula, antiquorum vicinorum vocabulo Glestonia nuncupata."— ( Chop. B. 1 3,f 31.) " Glastonia, regahbus stipendiis addicta." — Osbben, 91. ^ See Introduction. * "Maximfe ob beati Patricii senioris honorem, qui faustus ib idem in Domino quievisse narra- tur."— CTeop. .B.13,f 63. 148 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D.928. out the west of England, and sole inhabitants of Cornwall, looked upon the glassy isle with profound respect. It seems to have been honoured as the cradle of their ancient church * ; and Arthur, most glorious of their warriors, was eventually found entombed within its hallowed boundaries'. The fame of Glastonbury depended, however, chiefly on tiadition. Of any British monastery there, few traces had survived. Pious and weU-informed minds, could not recall the ancient sanctity of Avalon, without regretting its altered state. English intercourse with foreigners was highly favourable to this cast of thought. Fleury on the Loire, above Orleans, had become, by Odo's efforts, in 930^, the main seat and seminary of Benedictine disci pline. It was now the boast of Gaul, the talk and envy of religious Europe. The glory of such a place might have been not unknown to Dunstan, when taken by his father to spend a night at Glastonbury, whither Herstan seems to have gone chiefiy because he thought, like many others, that holy ground lent efficacy to prayer. A parent glowing with a piety like this, would everywhere be met with means of riveting an interesting boy's attention, on a spot so highly famed for sanctity as Avalon. Nor was anything more likely than that, the kindling imagination of thoughtful childhood should receive impressions that nothing earthly could afterwards efface. Young Dunstan's • " Quatenus ecclesia Domini nostri, Jesu Christi, et perpetuae Virginis Mariae, sicut in regno Britanniae est prima, et fons et origo totius religionis." — (Carta Ina, R. Monast. i. 13.) To many of these charters, claiming very high antiquity, but httle credit is due. They are, however, hkely to embody some ancient traditions. Probability is given to this tradition from the inter ment of Arthur, and from the veneration for Glastonbury that was so widely and deeply spread. Hence we may reasonably con jecture that the Isle of Avalon contained the earliest British establishment for the accommo dation of Christian ministers. '^ After the burning of the church, in 1184, Henry de Sully, then abbot, was recommended to search for the remains of Arthur between two stone pillars, orna mented with carved work At a great depth was found a cofldn, containing bones and a leaden cross, the latter thus inscribed: — Hie jacet sepultus inclitus Rex Arthurus in insula Avallonia. The cross was afterwards preserved in the treasury. — UsSER. Brit. Eccl Antiq. 62,^72. ' Mabillon, Annall. Bened. iii. 400. A.D. 930.] TO THE CONQUEST. 149 eager and delighted eye might fix upon a church of un known antiquity, upon still solitude around, upon de votees from distant Ireland. A mind, enchanted in the early spring of life by scenes that suit its nature, soon teems with visions awaiting manhood for completion. Of such Dunstan had a rich succession on retiring for the night. His muscular energies were locked in sleep; but a prolific fancy highly stimulated, and a mind teeming with projects for the future, defied bodily fatigue. Before him rose an aged figure, clothed in white, who led him, majestically, about the very spots that had absorbed his interest while awake. They were not, however, now, mere open spaces, with here and there, perhaps, a remnant of hoar antiquity. A splendid monastic pile gave them the dignity for which they had seemed long to call. Partial credulity was fain to represent this bright creation of a poetic brain, as the very prototype of that imposing struc ture which Dunstan's influence eventually raised*. But the dreams, even of adult, informed, and accurate minds, usually want precision. The crude conceptions of a slum bering child must ever be confused, indistinct, and in detail impracticable. Dunstan's early predilections for Glastonbury were confirmed by his education there. The pilgrims who sought Avalon from Ireland, finding no establishment, were wholly thrown upon their own resources, and tuition was their ordinary refuge^. Among this band of learned strangers Herstan selected an instructor for his intellec tual boy. As the youthful student advanced in age, he ' rapidly realized the promise of his infancy, leaving the proficiency of every equal very far behind. But no ta,lent will become thus effective without close application : Dunstan's thirst for knowledge seems, accordingly, to have undermined his health. A violent fever seized him, and dehrious transports, of long continuance, over-clouded the hopes of his doting parents with anguish and despair. As a last resort, they sought assistance from a female, famed for skiU in medicine. Under her treatment Dun- ' " Eo scihcet ordine quo nunc I strantem."— CTeo;). B. 13, f. 61. statuta referuntur fore demon- | ^ Ommw, Atigl Sacr.n.m. 150 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 935. Stan's illness became daily more alarming, and at length he sank upon his couch to all appearance dead. As such, indeed, he seems to have been abandoned. He was, however, only labouring under complete exhaustion. Hence his bodily energies, after a short interval, _ were sufficiently recruited. He then sprang from bed, seized a club, accidentally at hand, and wildly rushed abroad, panic-stricken by the fancied baying of savage hounds, that morbidly tingled in his ears. He long fled in horror before this imaginary chase, alike regardless of hill and dale. But as the sun declined, his frenzy felt again the sedative influence of lassitude. Half unconsciously, perhaps, he then turned his weary steps towards Glaston bury, and reached its venerable fane'. A new terror seems now to have assaulted him, which tasked every faculty once more. He placed his foot in some steps provided for workmen employed on a repair, mounted to the church's roof, and paced madly to and fro along its dangerous height. After a time his eye rested upon an aperture, and through it he pushed his way. It led into the church, though by a dangerous descent. Nothing could, however, stop his heedless frenzy; and he came safely down. He now found two guards fast asleep. Without making any noise he lay down between them, and sank exhausted into a most refreshing slumber. When morning broke, the men were astonished on finding their companion, especially when they thought upon the peril that he must have undergone to reach them'. Dunstan's ' This incident is cautiously introduced by ut ferunt, in the contemporary life of Dunstan. It is, however, far from impro bable ; and its age, accordingly, appeared a sufficient warrant for its insertion. All these very natural particulars of Dunstan's illness are most absurdly exag gerated, and indeed, caricatured, by Osbern, who has made them vehicles for introducing what he, probably, considered a very pious and sublime machinery of angels and devUs. An oppor tunity of thus comparing more modern representations with their ancient originals, is interest ing and important. It tends to show that Romish pecuharities, deemed objectionable by Protes tants, are not the most ancient parts of the system, but that, in fact, antiquity is much more completely on the anti-papal side than superficial observers imagine. * Chop.B.\Z,i.62. A.D. 940.] TO THE CONQUEST. 151 disorder was now spent. Yesterday's excitement and fatigue, having eventually plunged him in a sound and healthy sleep, had purged his morbid powers away. He remained master of himself, and youth soon repaired all the ravages of his late disease. A warning so severe could never be lost upon a mind at once versatile and vigorous. Everything too, undergone, formed a new reason for venerating the Isle of Avalon. A pious disposition and studious habits marking Dun stan for the church, he was tonsured and admitted into inferior orders, with full approbation of his parents. He then retired to his favourite Glastonbury, and lived as a religious recluse'. But his mind was too energetic, and his talents were too diversified, for the dull monotony of ascetic observances. Hence he read eagerly whatever came in his way, and found relief, when tired of books, in music and mechanics^. He very soon became famous for both. Very few could play the harp with such applause as he, and over Vulcan's art his mastery was deemed complete. An echo of his forge's glory lingers even yet. Schoolboys hear of tongs, made by Dunstan, which pinched Satan so severely that he ran bellowing away. A man so well disposed and highly- gifted, although humbly born, often makes his way to greatness. But Dunstan's family was noble, and his paternal uncle was Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury. By this prelate he was introduced to Athelstan^, who soon became extremely fond of him. A new current was thus given to his thoughts. He had always been ambitious : most men are so, especially the young, and such as feel commanding intellect within them. Dunstan's ambition seems to have been first awakened by visions of monastic eminence. Fleury then boasted of a monastery that all religious minds were full of Dunstan longed for opportunities of planting such another on English ground. But success at court fired him with hopes of secular distinction. He now, like ' Chop. B. 13, f. 62. Osbern, Angl. &icr. ii. 93. Malmesb. Script post Bed. 145. \ Chop. B. 13, 63. Osbern, ui supra. Gbrvas,X /Script. 1646. ' Osbern, Angl Sacr. ii. 94. Malmesb. Script post Bed. 114. Gervas, X Script 1646. Bromt, lb. 837. 152 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 942. others of his age, felt female beauty, and could no longer disregard his own personal appearance. The jealousy that often embitters relationship brought all these delightful visions to a violent and sudden termination. Envious courtiers, being backed by kinsmen of his own, succeeded in persuading his royal patron that he had been very much overrated ; much of his time beiing really spent over the pernicious vanities of exploded heathenism, from which he sought a proficiency in magic'. Dunstan's mechanical genius had given, probably, some colour to this ridiculous charge, in the estimation of ignorant minds, and Athel stan was not proof against it. He was induced, accord ingly, though with difficulty, to desire his yotmg friend's retirement. Dunstan's enemies could not rest satisfied with mortifying him by this galling disappointment. As he mournfully bent his course away from the scene of greatness that had lately smiled so bewitchingly, they overtook him in all the wanton insolence of savage triumph, bound him hand and foot^ and kicked him pros trate into a foetid miry marsh. This inexcusable violence may have been provoked by the sufferer's haughty, overbearing temper ; and his assailants, probably, defended their bar barous revenge by representing it as a treatment quite good enough for a confederate with infernal powers. On the departure of his persecutors, Dunstan struggled from the noisome fen, and made for the residence of a neigh bouring friend. Blackened, however, with mud, and drenched with wet, his appearance was hardly human; and the fierce dogs that watched around the gate, showed a strong determination to deny him entrance. A manner, at once kind and firm, having overcome their opposition, Dunstan found his way within the mansion, told his tale, and was hospitably received". Soon afterwards he visited one of his relations, Elphege the Bald, bishop of Winchester ; who earnestly exhorted him to look upon late events as a proof that God meant 1 " Dicentes eum ex libris salu- taribus et viris peritis non saluti animge profutura, sed avitae gentihtatis vanissima didicisse carmina, et histriarum colore incantationes." — Cleop. B. 13, 63. 2 lb. 64. a,d. 943.] TO THE CONQUEST. 153 him for the life which he had so happily begun at Glaston bury. But Dunstan's hope of courtly advancement, though severely checked, was far from extinguished. When Elphege, accordingly, talked, how noble it was to bury worldly ambition under the austerities of a cloister, and what immortal rewards awaited such a sacrifice, the impatient listener answered, " Much greater self-denial is displayed by him who wears life away, professedly a secular, but careful to practise all the virtues of a monk. The habit once taken, a man has renounced his liberty ; and future strictness of deportment, flows not so much from choice as from neces.sity." Arguments against the plain sense of this reply were all throvra away. Nor was the prelate more successful, when he begged his youthful relative to ponder the difficulty of escaping the fatal snares of concupiscence, unless completely removed from temptation '. Dunstan had no ears for any such eloquence. He was violently in love, and his imagination wandered over delightful scenes of connubial bliss. He could not bear the monastic dress" : it was the livery of hateful celibacy, it shewed indifference to those external graces which women seldom overlook. Dunstan's ancient biographer is wholly at a loss to explain this anxiety for marriage, and such aversion for the cloister, wdthout attri buting them to the temporary ascendancy of Satan. He soon has, however, the satisfaction of relating his hero's complete victory over this anti-monastic feeling. The disappointed courtier again fell dangerously sick, and his spirits were completely broken. As the fever left him, he bade farewell to love, and hastily acquainted Elphege with his fixed intention to become a monk^. The prelate was delighted; and, after a short interval, ordained him * Osbern. Angl Sacr. ii. 95. ' ", Primum enim mulierum illi injecit amorem, (diabolus sc.) quo per famihares earum am- plexus mundanis oblectamentis frueretur. Interea propinquus ipsius ^Ifheagus, oognomine Oalvus, praesul quoque fidelis petitionibus multus et spiritali- bus monitis eum rogavit ut fieret monachus. Quad iUe instinCtu prafati fravdatoris re- nuncians, maluit sponsare juven- cutam, cujus cotidie blandiciis fo- veretur, quam more monaehorum bidentinis indui pannis." — Cleop. .5.13,65. 'lb. 154 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 943. priest*. The monkish habit he seems to have taken at Fleury S then so famed among aspirants after monastic sanctity, and even revered as the furiively-j)rovided resting- place for the bones of Benedict himself^. Dunstan's high connexions and qualities of unquestion able value, easily procured him again admittance into the royal palace. Athelstan was, however, dead, and his brother Edmund had ascended his throne. To this young prince the illustrious Benedictine appears to have been appointed chaplain^. The current of his ambition was now completely changed. Henceforth it flowed steadily along the channel that early predilections had provided. Edmund built and endowed a regular monastery at Glas tonbury, with a view to place it under his gifted spiritual adviser. Thus the visions of Dunstan's youth were realized. Monastic piles rose from the very soil on which the teeming imagination of his boyish days had painted them. For filling them, he sought a community of monks, anxious, like himself, to plant another Fleury on English ground. No conventual establishment, so strictly con stituted, had hitherto been known in England. Hence earher Benedictine monachism came to be treated rather as a pretence, than a reality ; and Dunstan passed for the first of English Benedictine abbots^. The institution that looked up to him as its father upon English ground, long maintained a position both commanding and useful. It nobly patronised both arts and literature. But being inherently the nurse of idleness, fanaticism, imposture, and hypocrisy, the close ally, besides, of a hostile foreign power, even thinking and honourable men desired at length its overthrow. In the wealth which ages of popu larity had accumulated, concurrence was effectually se- ' Malmes. Script post Bed. 138. ^ Ingulph. Ih. 496. 3 Eadmer. de Vita, S. Osw. Ar chiep. Ebor. (Angl Sacr. ii. 194.) Of this furtive deed, however, as a pope styled it, Aigilulf, the reputed perpetrator of the su perstitious feat, was eventually found to have been guiltless. In 1066, Benedict's bones were discovered in their original grave. — Propyl. Monasticon. * Ingulph. Script post Bed. 496. 5 Adelard, Vit. Dimst. ap. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 101, note. Cleop. B. IS, 72. A.D. 943.] TO THE CONQUEST. 155 cured from those mercenary spirits who view political support and every other thing within their power, as mere instruments of private gain. Thus, the extraordinary success of the system that Dunstan planted eventually brought about its ruin ; and his zeal, that so many gene rations had admired, came to be represented as a national misfortune and disgrace. There can be no doubt, however, that Glastonbury's great abbot was able and sincere, though fanatical and ambitious. Nor can the Benedictine order be denied respectful consideration. It stands upon far higher ground than that heterogeneous mass of begging friars and unprofitable monks, by which the papal reign was gradually overspread. Under Edmund was holden in London' a legislative assembly, very fully attended. In this appeared the operation of Dunstan's favourite principles, the first enactment passed being to restrain ecclesiastical persons, whether male or female, from unchastity, under pain of forfeiting their whole properties and the privilege of Christian buriaP. Monks and nuns are the parties brought unequivocally under the lash of this regulation ; but it is rather loosely worded, and was most probably meant as " a warning to the whole sacerdotal order. It had long been a popular maxim among the stricter professors of rehgion, that however human laws might allow priests to marry, conscience demanded celibacy. ' The two archbishops, Odo and Wulfstan, and a large assem blage, both clerical and lay, were present : Easter was the time of year. The precise date is un certain ; but, as Edmund reigned from 941 to 946, this witena gemot may be reasonably placed in 943, or thereabouts. The preamble calls it a great synod ; but it cannot hence be neces sarily inferred that the assembly was convened for ecclesiastical purposes only. For, indeed, does it appear certain that the very religious air worn by the preamble, in the printed editions of the councils, is contemporary. Prom these, Johnson thus ren ders the latter sentence of the preamble : " There were Odo and Wulfstan, archbishops, and many other bishops, consulting for the good of their own souls, and of those who were subject to them." JTow, in the Cotton MS., although Saxon is found an swering to the words printed in italics, yet it seems an addition, thehandlookingdifierent, though ancient. — Brit Mus. Nero, A. 1, f.88. ^ LL. Eccl. Edm. R. cap. 1. Spelm. i. 420. Wilk. i. 214. 156 from DUNSTAN [^D- 943. The monastic opinions now gaining ground so fast abroad, and industriously patronised by one of the ablest heads in England, naturally gained additional repute for this ascetic view. Another of Edmund's constitutions enjoins the payment of tythes, church-shot, and alms-fee.^ It is not easy to determine the exact nature of this last payment : hence it has been considered as identical with the plough-alms mentioned in Edward the Elder's treaty with Godrun.^ Practically, the decision of such a question is of no great importance in modern times; not so an acquaintance with legislative assessments for ecclesiastical purposes, independently of tythes. These make it plain that after-ages did not pay church-rates without being prepared for them by legislation. The name of such payments might be changed, but something similar to them had notoriously been imposed by law from very early times. It is remarkable, however, that Edmund has not provided civil penalties against defaulters: his legislature merely sanctions their excommunication. An other of his laws enjoins every bishop to repair God's house at his own see,' and to admonish the king of due 'iX. Eccl Edm. R. cap. 2. Spelm. i. 420. Wilk. i. 214. * LL. Eccl. Edov. Sen. et Guth. ab Alur. et Guth. RR. primum condita, cap. 6. Spelm. i. 392. Wilk. i. 203. ' There is an elhpse here, which occasions a difficulty. The Saxon stands, gebete Oodes hv.s on his agnum; literally, better Gods house on his own. The last word may be plural. Hence Spelman has "suis ipsius .samjDftJtts." Inett does not profess to translate, but he thus paraphrases the canon : " The fifth requires the bishops to repair the churches in their own demeans and lands, and to inform the king of such others as want repairs." This appears a reasonable way of filling up the ellipse. Johnson's word, see, has. however, been used in the text, because the Saxon will not war rant Inett's word, churches, in the former clause. It merely says God's house in the singiilar. The whole canon, or law, is : Eac we cwadon that ale biscop gebete Gddes hus on his agnum., and eac thone cyning myndige that ealle Godes cyricean syn wel behofene, swa us mycel thearf is. Also we said that every bishop better God! I house on his own, and also remind the king that all God's churches be well behoved, as great need is to us. Lye would translate wel behofen by bene ornatus. But it seems to mean a, sufficient provision fur ne cessaries, the verb behofian being rendered egere, indigere. From this law it has been in ferred that every bishop was to A.D. 943.] TO THE CONQUEST. 157 provision for churches generally. This looks Uke another evidence that tythes were not regarded as the sole fund for maintaining public worship. In other constitutions, Edmund legislates against blood-shedding, perjury, ma gical arts, and violation of sanctuary. During his brief reign, the see of Canterbury became vacant, and Odo was translated to it from Sherborne. This prelate was of Danish blood and heathen parentage ; but an early conversion, by which he mortally offended all his original connexions, secured his masculine under standing for the Christian ministry.' On receiving an offer of the metropolitical chafr, he is reported to have demurred, because he was not a monk, alleging that he should want a recommendation which every successor of Augustine had hitherto possessed.^ Upon this allegation doubts have been cast, as there is reason to believe it untrue f it is not certain, therefore, that Odo either took the monastic habit at Fleury,^ or received it in England from the abbot, or a pro-abbot, especially constituted for the purpose, and sent over for his accommodation :^ but such relations discover plainly that the monkish era had now fairly begun. To the religious records of England, Odo contributed ten canons and a synodical epistle, grave and pious compositions, very creditable to liis memory. His canons claim immunity for the Church from secular impositions, urge a sense of duty upon every class, from keep his own church in repair, and besides, if necessary, to give such information to the king as would set him upon making other bishops do the same. " The ob- rious interpretation of these words would be, that the bishop was bound by the law, first to repair God's house, that is, his cathedral, and then, if he found other churches in his diocese in want of repair, to remind the king to use his authority to have them properly repaired. The law says nothing of the parties who were to be compelled by the king to repair." — Hale's Antiquity of the Church-rate Sys tem, 28. ' Osbern, Vita Odonis. Angl Sacr. 78. 2 lb. 81. 3 " Quod tamen a veritate alienum est : nam quosdam pres- byteros fuisse supra retuhmus." (Antiq. Britan. 115.) Mabillon disputes this, and, as usual, with considerable force. — Annall. Be ned. iii. 456. * Brompton. X. Script. 863. * Gervas. X. Script. 1644. Osbern. Angl. Sacr. ii. 82. Ma billon, ut supra. 158 PROM DUNSTAN [A:D. 950. the throne downwards, enjoin fasting, alms-giving, and the observance of religious days, especially of Sunday, and insist upon the due payment of tythes.' These venerable monuments offer no superstitious admonition; nor, although soUcitous of unity for the Church, do they make any mention of a papal centre, but merely recommend Chris tians to become one body, by the common bond of faith, hope, and charity, under one head, Jesus Christ.^ From one canon, it appears that the monkish profession was often little else than a pretence for vagrancy and idleness.' From the last, it is plain that the payment of tythes was not considered as a general release from liberality to the poor. Odo says, that men are not only to live, but also to give alms, out of the nine parts remaining after piety has had her tenth. The synodical epistle appears to be imperfect, but it conveys admonition in a religious, humble, and earnest strain, every way worthy of a Chris tian prelate.* Among the monks living under Dunstan at Glastonbury, was a well-born native of Winchester, named Ethelwold.' He had lived at court, while his abbot was there,^^ took priest's orders with him from Elphege, bishop of Win chester, and cordially shared in his monastic enthusiasm. Anxiety to rival the most perfect of his order, had nearly driven Ethelwold from England, for a residence among foreign Benedictines, when Edgiva, mother of Edred, now upon the throne, conjured her son to retain a personage so 1 Spelm. i. 415. Wilk. i. 212. 2 Can. 8. Spelm. i. 417. Wilk. i. 213. ' Can. 6. Spelm. i. 41 7. Wilk. i. 213. Wigfrith, a visitor to Guthlac, the famous hermit of Croyland, told him that he had met with monkish impostors among the Scots. ' Dicebat enim se inter Scottorum populos habitasse, et illic pseudo-anacho- ritas diversorum rehgionum si- mulatores vidisse.' — (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. Nero. E. 1. f. 191). It might seem fair enough to charge aU these impositions upon a rival party ; but obviously, the monks of earlier, and the friars of later times, must have always had among them a considerable body of idle hypocrites. Odo'a canon shews this to have been the case in his day. * Spelm. i. 41 8. Wilk. i. 214 = Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. Nero, E. 1. f. 416. Ethelwold's parents, we there learn, lived in the reign of Edward the Elder. Wulfstan was the author of this life. '¦lb. A.D, 955.] TO THE CONQUEST. 159 holy.' Overcome by these persuasions, the king estab- hshed, on a considerable scale, a monastery at Abingdon, where there long had been one; but it was now im poverished and neglected. The re-founded house was enriched out of an adjoining royal estate, and Ethelwold was made its abbot. This was the second regular Bene dictine house established in England. No exertion of its new superior was wanting to render it the parent of many others. Aware that continental monasteries excelled in reading and singing, he procured masters from Corbie, in Picardy, to instruct his own society in these attractive arts.^ Doubting also, whether, even under Dunstan, there had been opportunities for a thorough acquaintance with monastic discipline, he sent Osgar, one of his monks, to Fleury for further instruction.'' Thus he secured popu larity for his favourite system, by the attractions of public worship, and well-defined, rigid austerity of discipline. Hence he was termed in after ages, the father of monks.* Dunstan's claims to that title might be better, but his inteUect was too comprehensive, and his ordinary habits were too secular, for maturing the details which monachism required for its complete success. It had scarcely taken root when Edred, its royal patron, prematurely died. His nephew, Edwy, a very handsome youth,* succeeded to the throne. This young prince, wearied by the coarse intemperance of his coronation day, withdrew from the festive hall into a private room. His absence gave offence to the carousing nobles, and they sent Dunstan, with a relation of his, Kinsy, bishop of Lichfield, to bring him back. The messengers found Edwy seated sportively between his wife and mother-in-law, while the crown lay negligently upon the ground. Proving deaf to all that could be said, Dunstan forced him from his seat, replaced the crown upon his head, and dragged ' Malmesb. Scriptpost Bed. 139. Mabillon. Annall. Bened. iii. 483. ^Hist.Caenob.Abendon. Angl Sacr.i. 165. » WoLSTAN. MSS. Cotton. Nero, E. 1. f. 417. * Bromton. X. Scriptt 877. Saxon Ghronich under the year 984. - Ethelwerd. Scriptt post Bed. 483. 160 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 956. him once more to join the offended revellers.' These Uberties were so highly resented by the youthful sovereign, and his fair connections, that Dunstan could not stay at court. He went off to Glastonbury, but after no long stay there, he was driven to the continent. His monks are said, very Ukely with truth, to have wept as he was leaving them for exUe. But his panegyrical biographer, Osberne, is not contented with chronicling their tears. He finds materials for caricature by telling us that, besides that of weeping monks, another noise was heard, just like some young animal's. This he sets down for the laugh of Satan, who could not contain himself, at seeing Dunstan fairly turned out of Glastonbury.^ Edwy, however, was not satisfied with his ejection. The abbey of Glastonbury was dissolved, and so was that of Abingdon. Thus English monachism seemed like a meteor, that brightly flashes, then immediately disappears. But Edwy miscalculated his power. Dunstan's estab lishments were nurseries of fanaticism, and studiously formed from admired continental models, both powerful holds upqp. popular favour : the nobles, also, whose com mission the exiled abbot had executed, probably regarded him as a victim in thefr cause, and hence justly entitled to their protection. An irresistible conspiracy, accord ingly, soon secured his triumphant return from Flanders, where he had taken refuge. Nor was this humihation all that Edwy had to undergo : his insurgent subjects raised Edgar, a younger brother, to the throne, assigning to him, as a kingdom, all England between the Humber and the Thames :' Elgiva, too, was divorced by Odo, as related to her unfortunate husband, within the prohibited degrees.* ' aeop. B. 13. 76. The queen's name is usually written Elgiva : the contemporary hfe of Dunstan has it Mthelgifu. Mr. Turner (Hist Angl-Sax. ii. 252. note) may be consulted for authorities proving that this lady was Edw/s wife. She is branded as his mis tress by some of the monastic writers, most probably because she was related to him within the prohibited degrees. '^ Osbern. Angl. Sacr. ii. 105. ' Cleop. B. 13. 78. ¦"A.D. 958. This year Arch bishop Odo separated Edwy and Elfgiva, because they were too nearly related.' — Sax. Chr. 150. Dr. Ingram's Transl A.D. 959.] TO THE CONQUEST. 161 With even this the archbishop was not contented: he branded her upon the face, and sent her away to Ireland. A short residence there healed her unsightly wounds, and she ventured upon a return into her native island. Having reached Gloucester, she was arrested ; and, under Odo's authority, the tendons of her legs were barbarously severed.' Of this cruel mutilation she seems never to have recovered, being soon after overtaken by the hand of death. Elgiva's sufferings have effectually blasted, with posterity, the me mory of Odo ; but one age cannot safely measure the men of another by a standard of its own. The archbishop, who has long been regarded as rather a monster than a man, was known among contemporaries as Odo the Good!^ His treatment of Elgiva, now ranked among the most inhuman outrages upon record, was attributed, probably, to the absolute necessity of restraining irregular passions, by occasional examples of just severity. After a short interval, Edwy's untimely death, seem ingly by violence, rendered his more fortunate brother master of all England. Upon the unhappy prince, thus cut off in the bloom of opening manhood, monkish writers have been immeasurably severe. Ethelwerd, however, a contemporary authority of high rank, describes him as endeared by his amiable qualities to aU the country. ' Osbern. Angl Sacr. ii. 84. ^Ode the Good. — (Malmesb. Script post Bed. 115). Osbern (At^I Sacr. iL 86) gives this designation in a Saxon form : 'Odo se gode' (se god). The author of this compliment was Dunstan, who is said to have seen a dove in the cathedral of Canter bury, while he was celebrating mass on Whitsunday, which, after a time, settled on Odo's tomb. This incident, which might easily have happened in a large building with many unglazed windows, was represented as a visible descent of the Holy Ghost, and an undeniable demonstration of Odo's sanctity. Dunstan, accord ingly, never subsequently passed his tomb without a reverence, nor spoke of him but as the good. This designation was readily adopted by others ; and it ,had not worn out in popular discourse, especially at Canter bury, when Osbern wrote. Had Odo been viewed by his own age, as one unmanly outrage has made posterity view him, Dun stan's authority would not have been sufficient for thus em balming his memory. This archbishop's name is va riously written Odo, Oda, and Ode. It seems to be the Oddy of modern English surnames. 162 FROM DUNSTAN [A.D. 959. during the four years that he reigned.* He was, however, evidently quite unequal to the task of curbing a society so fierce and haughty, as that which owned allegiance to his crown : but this is no very serious imputation upon the memory of a sovereign, who scarcely reached maturity, and hastily embroiled himself with such men as Odo and Dunstan. The latter of these two obtained episcopal honours in the beginning of Edgar's reign. Worcester was his first bishopric, and shortly afterwards he added London to it,^ both sees lying in the portion of England wrested from Edwy. During that young prince's life, a more splendid ecclesiastical prize became vacant by the death of Archbishop Odo; but Canterbury was under the authority of Edwy, and by his influence Elsin, bishop of Winchester, became the new metropolitan. This prelate was unfavourable to the prevailing taste for mo nachism, and hence he is charged with insulting Odo's grave, and with obtaining Canterbury by simony. His possession of that see proved rather nominal than real. In crossing the Alps, on his way to Rome for the pall, he ¦ seems to have perished from extreme cold. Party spirit found a judgment upon him in his unexpected fate. Brihthelm, bishop of Wells, was tantalised by being chosen in his room ; but Edwy died before the necessary arrange ments were completed. Hence Canterbury fell within Dunstan's reach, and Brihthelm was unable to retain the prize that he had aU but made his own.^ Having thus ' Script post Bed. 483. Edwy's death occurred in 959 : that it was violent, may be inferred from probability and from the obscure language of ancient authorities. Mr. Turner gives Edwin as the name of this young sovereign, and under a great weight of authority ; but he is called Eadwig by the Saxon Chronicle, Ethelwerd, and the contemporary life of Dunstan. * Dunstan was advanced to the see of. Worcester in 957, and in the following year London was conferred upon him, to hold with it. The next year, being that of Edwy's death, saw his translation to Canterbury. Dunstan's mo nastic biographers represent that he was offered that see on the two former vacancies, but de chned it. Edwy's authority would, however, be hkely to prevent Dunstan from receiving any such comphment within the limits of his kingdom. = Osbern. Angl Sacr. ii. 109. A.D. 959.] TO THE CONQUEST, 163 attained the highest dignity within a subject's reach, Dunstan became virtually the most powerful man in England. Edgar was, indeed, a boy of sixteen when he ascended the throne, and seems ever to have been under the influence of Ucentious, headstrong passions. Very rarely do such men fill important stations with any degree of credit to themselves, or of advantage to society : Edgar is, however, one of these uncommon instances. Monastic history describes him as beloved by God and man ; ' nor can enquirers deny his rule to have been glorious and beneficial. He is not unjustly styled Edgar the Pacific, for he reigned in prosperity and peace, the admitted superior over a larger portion, perhaps, of the island than any one of his ancestors.^ Under so much good fortune, he attested his exultation with pardonable vanity, by titles, borrowed seemingly from the imperial court of Con stantinople.' To Dunstan, probably, Edgar was largely indebted for his enviable position.* The royal councils were directed chiefly by a man of extraordinary talent : whose mind, indeed, might be rather warped upon monas tic questions ; but its ordinary produce was an enviable succession of views, clear, sound, comprehensive, and decided. Brihthelm is represented by Osbern as a good-natured man, who knew very well how to take care of himself, but who was unfit for active life. He seems to have been far from willing to rehnquish Canterbury.— i6. ' Henr. Huntend. Monumentt. Hist Brit 747. * We truly say that the time was happy and joyous in the English wUion when King Eadgar fur thered Christianity, and reared many monks' livings : and his reign continued in peace, so that no fleet was heard of, but of one's own people who hold this land : and all the kings who were in this island, Cumbrians and Scots, came to Eadgar; once in one day eight kings, and these all bowed to Ead- gar's direction. (Hom. in S. Swithun. Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton. Julius, E. 7. f. 101). The eight kings meant, are, Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Cumbria, Macchus of Anglesey, three from Wales, and two others more difficulty of identification. — See Turner's Hist Angl.-Sax. ii. 265. ' 'Ego, Edgarus, totius Albi- onis basilius, nee non maritimo- rum seu insulanorum regum circum habitantium.' — (Malm. Script post Bed. 32). 'Ego, Edgarus, totius Albionis mo- narcha.' — Ingulph. lb. 502. * Malmesb. Script post Bed. 115. 164 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 961. After a reign over all England of about two years, Edgar found his people oppressed by a calamity that no human wisdom could assuage. A dreadful pestilence raged, especially in London.' As usual in such seasons, divine justice and human iniquity were anxiously con trasted in the public mind. Advantage was taken of these wholesome feeUngs to urge a plea in behalf of the Church: the needy and avaricious, disregarding con science and the feeble sanctions of law, had commonly failed in the faithful discharge of tythes and other ecclesi astical dues. Their case was now represented as analogous to that of tenants failing in their payments to landowners. Men were exhorted to consider the little indulgence usually shown to such defaulters, and to ask themselves, whether corresponding failures were likely to be excused by God ; his vengeance rather might be justly feared by those who should fraudulently withhold that share from the provision for his service, which had been imposed upon them alike by law and conscience. Arguments of this kind appear to have prevailed in two legislative assemblies, the former of which was holden at Andover, then a royal domain. The rights of religion were now statutably pro tected by civil penalties; and thus was established a principle of imposing ecclesiastical rent-charges upon land, recoverable by the ordinary processes of law : no specific penalty, however, was provided, a discretionary power merely being given to the royal officers, which they were strictly enjoined to exercise for the punishment of defaulters.^ ' In the year 961.— (Sax. Chr. 153). Bather in 962. Monumentt Hist Brit 391. ^ See the document at the end. This venerable piece is bound up in the midst of an ancient MS. volume in the British Museum, chiefly occupied by the lives of saints. This position may be the chief reason why it seems to have been hitherto overlooked. It is, entitled in a hand, perhaps, of James the First's time, Carta Sax- onica tempore Regis Edgari. The piece itself is probably coeval vrith the latter assembly recorded in it, and may not unreasonably be considered as a sort of procla mation, or authentic declaration,' of certain legislative enactments despatched to some principal ecclesiastical establishment. It is foUowed by a similar exposi tion of enactments relating to affairs merely temporal. In the catalogue these documents are A.D. 967.] TO THE CONQUEST. 165 In a subsequent meeting of the Saxon estates, this loose legislation was abandoned. Subtraction of tythes was now placed under cognizance of the civil and eccle siastical authorities conjointly. The king's reeve, the bishop's, and the mass-priest entitled to recover, were to seize all the property tythable, but on which tythes had not been paid : they were to restore one-tenth of it to the defaulter, to render its tenth to the minster aggrieved, and to divide the remaining eight parts between the lord and the bishop.* This earliest of known statutes, guarding tythe-owners in the possession of their property by a definite measure of coercion, appears chargeable with unjust severity : the times, however, were lawless and rude ; hence the remedies provided for social evi)s were naturally tinged with unsparing harshness : ecclesiastical dues, also, really require a very full measure of protec tion. The dealer and artisan, the practitioner in law and medicine, are only controlled by competition in making terms with such as desfre their commodities or aid ; but thus described : Leges, sive con- stitutiones Eadgari Regis, quas occasione gravissimce pestis, per latum regnum statuit observandas (Saxonice) : folia bina ex libro quodam panitentiali avulsa. The MS. volume is thought to have been chiefly written about the year 1000. ' ' 3. And let all the tythe of young animals be paid by Pente cost, and of the fruits of the earth by the Equinox : and let every church-scot be paid by Martin's mass, under pain of the fuU mulct ; which the Doom- book mentions. And if any will not pay the tythe as we have commanded, let the king's reeve, and the bishop's reeve, and the mass-priest of the min ster, go to him, and take by force the tenth part for the minster to which it belongs, and dehver >o him the ninth part, and let the eight parts be divided into two ; and let the lord take one-half, the bishop the other, whether it be a king's man or a thane's man.' — (Johnson's Transl Spelm. i. 444. Wilk. i. 245). There are no known means of affixing a certain date to these constitutions enacted under Ed gar. Spelman would assign them to the year 967, or thereabouts, as being in the middle of Edgar's reign. There can be no reason able doubt that they are pos terior to the two legislative assembhes, whose acts are recorded in the Cotton MS., and which must have been holden after the pestilence in 961. If they had been anterior to these assemblies, an arbitary penalty, to be inflicted by the king's reeve alone, would not probably have been provided in the latter. The constitutions long printed are evidently an improvement upon such undefined enactments. 166 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 967. the minister of God's word and sacraments enjoys no such advantage. All indeed, but the weak and worthless, freely concede importance to his profession. This acknow ledgment, however, generally flows rather from cool, deliberate conviction, than from such feelings as maintain secular vocations. Minds fixed intently upon eternity, are alive to the value of religious ordinances : habitually, the wants and cravings of mankind incline them to regard expenditure upon piety, as that which can be most agreeably, safely, and completely retrenched. Legisla tion, therefore, against such a short-sighted selfishness, is equally merciful and wise. It has planted a liberal profession, and a well-governed house of God, in every corner of England. Considerable seats of wealth and population might have commanded these advantages, and undoubtedly would, without national aid ; but the country generally must have wanted them, unless a competent portion of all the people's industry had been legally reserved for their maintenance : nor, unless this portion had been jealously protected, could it have permanently stood its ground against that spirit of rapacity which human corruption ever keeps in vigour. Such protection, however, having been provided, every estate inherited or acquired was burdened with a variable rent-charge, re served as the patrimony of rehgion. Hence opulent landlords were more easily induced to found and build churches upon their several properties. Nor usually did an endoVment of glebe satisfy their pious liberality : in many cases, probably in all, they attested solemnly their individual approval of existing laws, by settling the tythes of their lands upon their new estabUshments. Thus Eng lish parochial churches, in themselves private foundations, can allege claims of two several kinds upon the properties around. Not only can they plead, certainly, immemorial usage, and penal statutes of high antiquity, but also, probably, legal surrenders by very distant proprietors, confirmatory of such usage, and formaUy assenting to such statutes. From another of Edgar's ecclesiastical laws, it is plain that the foundation of rural churches was in steady pro gress. The UberaUty of public bodies, however, seems to A.D. 967.] TO THE CONQUEST. 167 have lagged behind that of individuals. A founder was restrained from settling upon his church any more than a third of the tythes paid by its congregation : unless, indeed it possessed a cemetery, every portion of the sacred tenth was denied. In such cases, it was probably considered rather as a private chapel: the proprietor, accordingly, was to maintain his priest out of the nine parts. Under no circumstances, however, does a thane appear to have been encouraged in providing religious instruction for his tenantry, by any transfer of the church-shot. The ancient minsters, immemorially entitled to it, might seem hitherto to have relaxed nothing from their claims upon this pay ment :* such tenacity must have acted injuriously upon the progress of parochial endowments ; probably, to the great regret of pious and discerning minds. Any principle that calls for sacrifices, will gain but slowly a complete victory over individual prejudices and interests : hence the uncertainty as to parochial foundations. These have arisen from no legislative compulsion, but from the libera lity of individuals during many successive generations, encouraged by the gradual surrender of rights vested in anterior establishments. But although Edgar's ecclesiastical legislation, bearing upon the Church's patrimony, is that alone which retains any practical importance, he does not owe his figure in rehgious history to it. Being Dunstan's passive instru ment in rooting the Benedictine system, he is the hero of monastic story, and his rule really exerted a lasting ' '2. If there be any thane who hath, on land which he holds by written deed, a church with a burying-pla'ce belonging to it, let him pay the third part of his tythes into his own church. T£ he hath a church with no bury- ing-place belonging to it, let him give his priest what he will out of the nine parts ; and let every church-scot go into the ancient minster from all the ground of freemen.' — (Johnson's Transl. .Spelm. i. 444. Wilk. i. 245.) Perhaps it is doubtful whether any distinction is intended here between tythes and church-shot. Shot properly means a payment; hence the familiar Enghsh phrase, pay the shot. If such a general interpretation of the term shot be allowable in this place, it might seem not unreasonable to suppose that the private founders were allowed to endow all their churches with a third of all the ecclesiastical dues arising from their estates. 168 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 968. influence upon EngUsh society. During his brief reign, he seems to have established no fewer than forty-eight monasteries.* Had aU these been new foundations, they must have wrought striking changes in the national habits and modes of thinking ; many of them, however, reared their heads amidst a considerable mass of individual suffering, and greatly to the disapprobation of a numerous party. Clergymen were driven, by the hand of power, either to become monks, or to relinquish the homes and livings in which they were legally seated around a minster.^ If married, the former part of this alternative must have been felt as an intolerable hardship, to which submission was almost impossible. Nor could many of those who were single, have regarded it otherwise than inex cusably tyrannical. Under pain of losing their bread, and of being branded as irreligious, they were called upon to renounce their natural Uberty. Some of the abler heads among them, also, might clearly discern that ostentatious observances and substantial holiness are by no means inseparable companions : but such considerations operate extensively upon the higher orders alone. Inferior life is little aUve to the just rights and reasonable expectations of classes above itself : the ruder intellects also are ever liable to be duped by noisy pretension. It was, accordingly, among his more considerable subjects, that Edgar's alleged reformation encountered opposition; the great majority, probably, regarded him as piously and patriotically bent upon advancing sound religion, and reforming undeniable abuses. Dunstan was little more than the adviser of this great ecclesiastical revolution. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester and Oswald, originally bishop of Worcester, eventually archbishop of York, were the principal agents in thus forcing a new character upon existing establishments, and in organising Benedictine societies, in situations where no rehgious house had previously stood. Ethelwold had been ! Eadmer. de Vita, S. Osw. Archiep. Ebor. Angl Sacr. ii. 201. Some of these were nun neries. Bromton is not equally precise, contenting himself with reckoning Edgar's monastic esta,- blishments at more than forty. — X. Script 868. ' Malmesb. Script post Bed. 115. A.D. 970.] TO THE CONQUEST. 169 one of Dunstan's earliest inmates at Glastonbury, and having, from the first, gained his good opinion, was recom mended by him as abbot, when royal munificence made Abingdon into a first-rate monastery. Oswald was nephew to Archbishop Odo, who placed him in a canonry at Canterbury. He there became so deeply smitten by the rising taste for monachism that nothing could content him short of a residence at Fleury. Eetuming thence a finished Benedictine, Dunstan introduced him to Edgar, hy whose means he was made bishop of Worcester. This cathedral he soon determined upon converting into a monastery ; but he could not prevail upon the canons to consent. Nor could he crush their opposition by the weight of authority. They had powerful connexions, who saw nothing but injustice in driving them from their homes and livings unless they chose to turn monks. Oswald now tried stratagem. He planted a rival house, duly supplied with monks, close to his rebellious chapter, in order that fuU opportunity might be given for drawing invidious comparisons between the two systems. No thought could be happier : immense congregations waited upon the monks, while the canons ministered in a church more than half deserted. Their altar, besides, lost its accus tomed offerings ; which were now taken to the Benedictine church. It was not long before these various causes began to operate : Wensine, an elderly canon, much respected among his brethren, first gave way. Oswald immediately sent him to Ramsey for instruction in the Benedictine discipline. The abbey there was founded, at his own insti gation, by Ethelwin, or Ailwin, Duke of the East- Angles. 'It was placed,' Huntingdon says, 'in a most charming island.' * But monastic writers, unlike observers of a later date, are in raptures with all the fens. Wensine was no sooner gone, than his example proved infectious: other canons became monks, and he was quickly summoned back to Worcester as prior of the monastery which Oswald had now succeeded in substituting for his former chapter.^ Thus was consummated the first of these popular innovations ; , T,^ .. T7- . T3 v »A^ 1 ° Eadmer. de. Vita S. Osw. — ' Monumentt Hist Bnt 747. | ^^j_ ^^^_ jj_ 203. 170 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 970. and, accordingly, the conversion of a secular chapter into a monastery seems to have been called at an early period, Oswald's Law.^ The propriety of this language appears, however, doubtful. This mode of reforming cathedrals did not originate with Oswald. Ethelwold had afready made such an attempt at Winchester ; but his canons kept him at bay, until he could find compensation for them.' Of the other bishops we hear nothing, therefore they may fairly be considered as either indifferent, or hostile to the movement. Several cathedrals, accordingly, remained upon their ancient footing, and some of them, known as Churches of the old foundation, still continue so, being the most venerable of EngUsh corporations aggregate. Dunstan had not the satisfaction of seeing the monastic revolution take effect even in his own cathedral of Canterbury. But he, Ethelwold aiid Oswald, formed a triumvirate, which, backed by royal authority, effectually secured a succession of triumphs for the fanatical party which they headed. ' Wharton, in Eadm. Angl Sacr. ii. 202. Florence of Wor cester, there cited, assigns Os wald's innovation to 969. It appears, however, to have occu pied two years from that time, before it was fuUy carried into effect.— (7J. i. 546.) Edgar's charter of Oswald's Law, as it is there styled, was granted in con firmation of Oswald's changes at Worcester with the concurrence of the Saxon estates. It is printed by Spelman (i. 432), and by Wilkins (i. 239). It is re markable, in general history, for a statement in the preamble, that Athelstan was the first of English kings to whom the whole island became subject. The notion that Oswalds Law means properly a law for ejecting mar ried clergymen from cathedral chapters, though ancient, accord ing to Wharton, and certainly common among scholars, appears to be erroneous. ' It must be observed, that in ancient writ ings, it is not Oswald's laga, but law, which signifies a knap, or little hill, and Edgar's charter gives that name to the place where Oswald's Hundred-court was to be kept.' — Gibson's Additions to Cambden, i. 625.) The charter, though approving Oswald's proceedings, is reaUy the grant of a hundred, but it does not name any law or low, upon which the court was to be kept. StiU, there is every reason to derive its name from such a spot. Bishop Gibson remarks further, that Oswald' s-law Hun dred, in Worcestershire, ' is not one continued tract of ground, but consists of townships scat tered in all parts of the county, where the bishop or monastery of Worcester had lands at the time when King Edgar granted that charter to Oswald.' (629). 2 Malmes. de Pontiff. Script post Bed. 139, A.D. 970.] TO THE CONQUEST. 171 Its victorious progress undoubtedly was highly popular. Monks not only set up their system and themselves as perfect models of self-denial, but were also lavish of time, mgenuity, and credit in finding aliment for vulgar credulity. Churches, hitherto known for nothing out of the common way, no sooner passed into monastic hands, than their cemeteries were found mines of wonder-working relics.* Monasteries without a promising interment, became restless under a deficiency so mortifying and pre judicial. If they saw no hope of obtaining elsewhere the whole remains of a departed saint, they were eager to make terms for some part of one. When every chance of this kind appeared hopeless, or additional relics were coveted, neither force nor fraud came amiss, if it secured such a prize.' From whatever source the important acquisition came, the lucky house felt neither difficulty nor scruple in extracting from it both fame and fortune. Sickly pilgrims quickly crowded around their altar, and returned home enraptured by a cure. Nor is it doubtful that, among these invahds, many found a real benefit : change of air and scene, unwonted exercise, powerful excitement, are quite enough to give temporary relief under several human ailments. It would, however, be unfair to charge indis criminately with dishonesty, this monastic provision for ' Ethelwold, as might be ex pected, led the way in making these discoveries. Bromton says, that he had authority from the king to transfer the bodies of saints which lay neglected among ruins, into the monas teries which he had built. — (X. Scriptt. 868). From this it seems likely, that Ethelwold looked out for something to attract lovers of the marvellous, whenever he established a monastery, as an integral portion of its equip ments. It may seem amusing to be gravely told, that so long as the canons retained their ancient possessions in the church of Winchester, no miracles graced St. Swithin's tomb, but that the monks produced imme diately a very different scene. — EuDBORNE. Angl Sax. i. 223. " ' In the reign of Edgar, a shameful description of robbery had obtained among ecclesiastical bodies — the stealing of rehcs, upon a pretended divine revela tion. In those days it was no uncommon practice for powerful abbeys to despoil the weaker monasteries, or to rob defence less villages of their sainted remains, in order to increase the celebrity of their own founda tions.' — Gorham's Hist, and Antiq. of Eynesbury and St Neot's, i. 48. 172 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 968 popular creduUty. Among the monks were, probably, some few who valued relies merely as a productive source of revenue ; but the majority consisted of genuine fanatics. Now, such spirits have at all times, and under every cir cumstance, eagerly clung to miracle. Vainly for this tenacity do they live when knowledge is widely spread, or even when scoffers are abundant. Their vanity and credulity are very seldom proof against any disposition to give themselves, or their party, credit for supernatural endowments. Monastic bodies, therefore, in the tenth century, may reasonably claim indulgence from those who trace to them that particular species of religious imposture and delusion, which descended from their age uninter ruptedly to the Reformation.' It was not, however, within Dunstan's power to transfer a considerable mass of property from one order of men to another without legislative intervention. Upon this ne cessity, the canons, menaced with ejection, anxiously relied. They naturaUy complained of gross injustice, and their cause was espoused by a majority among persons of condition. A convocation of the national estates afforded them, therefore, a reasonable hope of defeating royal policy and popular enthusiasm. Such an assembly was yielded to their importunities,^ apparently in the year 968. Win chester was the place of its meeting, and it opened most ominously for the monastic party. Edgar, with his three episcopal advisers, Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Oswald, brought heavy charges against married clergymen : these were met by assurances, that all reasonable causes of com plaint should be removed. Nor did an overwhelming proportion of the assembled legislators discover any dis position to carry compliance further. Edgar accordingly, began to waver,^ and was upon the point of siding with ' Fuller observes rather quaintly, but with great force and justice, 'Whereas formerly corruptions came into the church at the wicket, now the broad gates were open for their en trance ; monkery making way for ignorance and superstition to overspread the whole world.' —Ch. Hist Cen.X.134:. ^ Fragmenta ex ali& VitS. S. Dunst. autore Osberto Monacho SgecuL 12. Acta SS. Ord. Bene dict Y. 706. ^ Even Dunstan also is repre- A.D. 968.] TO THE CONQUEST. 173 his nobles, when he and Dunstan are said to have heard, repeatedly and distinctly, from a crucifix in the wall, the following words : God forbid it done : God forbid it done.^ Others heard no more than some unintelligible noise : stiU enough to raise curiosity and awe. The mysterious communication was then proclaimed ; and people took it as a call from heaven to drive the unhappy canons from their homes. This relation appears in the monastic writers generaUy; but Florence of Worcester, who men tions the council, has omitted it : hence modern Romish authors are sufficiently justified in representing it as an apocryphal legend, posterior to the Conquest. Florence, however, places the council of Winchester after Edgar's death, and indeed, leaves the whole transaction in considerable obscurity.^ But, independently of ancient authority for placing this council in 968, it is plain that some new legislative powers were, about that time, requfred for giving efficacy to Edgar's intentions, actuaUy brought into operation very shortly afterwards : nor vrithout some sented as shaken. Osbern makes him say, immediately before the crucifix spoke, I confess I would not have you gain your end. His own Church's cause to Christ, the judge, do I commit. Wharton, hke Capgrave, would leave out the latter clause of this aheged speech. — De Vit. S. Dunst. Angl. Sacr. ii. 112. ' The crucifix appears, from Osbern, to have been eloquent no further. The ancient MS. chronicle cited by Spelman, adds to these words the following : You have judged well; you would change not well It also adds, that aU the assembly having fallen to the earth with alarm, the crucifix said, but again so that only Edgar and Dunstan could distinguish the words — Rise, be not afraid; for in the monks to-day, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 2 Spelman (Cone. ii. 490), has collected the various printed au thorities bearing upon the coun cil of Winchester, and has added to them a citation from an an cient MS. Chronicle. From this he is led to place the council in 968; and Wharton (Angl. Sax. ii. 112) considers him to have judged rightly: evidently he has probability with him. It is a point, however, involved in much obscurity, the councils of Win chester and Calne having been commonly confounded together. There is a declamatory speech, extolling the monks and dis paraging the canons, assigned to Edgar by Ethelred. — (X. Script 360). The substance of this was, probably, spoken at the council of Winchester. Tjtie author of the Antiquitates Britannica (p. 127), would refer it to 969. It ia reprinted there, and by Spelman, Cone. i. 476. 174 FROM DUNSTAN. [a.D. 978. ingenious contrivance were the canons Ukely to be deserted by their powerful friends. On Edgar's premature decease,' thefr claims upon hu manity and justice were promptly vindicated. Alfere, alder man, or prince of Mercia, with a great many other persons in authority, expeUed the intrusive monks ; and the clerical victims of an oppressive, calumnious fanaticism, married as they commonly were, again took possession of thefr homes and properties.^ A large proportion of their pro tectors would fain have given them the security of a prince pledged in their favour. Under Edgar's son, by his second wife, they had a reasonable prospect of this advantage : but Edward, born from a former marriage, had not only prior claims, but was also named as heir in his father's wiU, and supported by Dunstan's influence.' These advantages prevailed. Still, the more intelligent classes had no thought of surrendering their clergy to proscription. Hence arose on all sides angry debates, loud complaints, and harassing apprehensions.* For allay ing the national uneasiness, a legislative assembly was convened at Calne,^ a royal villa. There Beomhelm, a Scottish prelate of commanding eloquence, appeared as advocate for the menaced and insulted clergy.^ The monastic party thus felt itself pressed, not only by a preponderating weight of property and intelligence, but also by talents for debate, probably superior to any within its own command. Hence Dunstan was almost over. ' Edgar died in 975, at the age of thirty-two. 2 Angl. Sax. Chron. an. 973. Flor. Wig. 578. Monumentt Hist Brit Johan. Tinmouth. Hist Aurea. Pars. 3. f. 80. Bibl Lameth. MSS. 12. f. 80. ^Eadmer. de Vita, S. Dunst. Angl. Sacr. ii. 220. ¦> 'Multus ind§ tumultus in omni angulo Anghse factus est.' — Ingulbh. Script post Bed. 506. ^ In 978. — (,S'«x. Chr. 163). Spelman doubts whether this council might not have been holden in the preceding year. In that year a council was holden at Kirtlington. A third council was holden at Amesbury. This appears to have been for the pur pose of completing the business broken off by the accident at Calne. But there are no decrees extant passed in any one of these three councils. " Eadmer (ut supra) says, that the northern orator was hired upon very hberal terms. TO THE CONQUEST. 175 A.D. 978.] powered, when the floor suddenly gave way, and most of his auditors feU violently into a chamber underneath. Many were killed upon the spot, and others were ex tricated with such injuries as condemned them to suffering for life. The archbishop, and, according to some authori ties, his friends also, wholly escaped, the beam under him remaining firm.* This extraordinary good fortune, inter preted as a divine manifestation in favour of monachism, seemed its triumph. Among modems, it has commonly fastened upon Dunstan an imputation of cruelty and fraud. It might have been accidental; but accidents very opportune, especially in an age of gross ignorance, are fairly open to suspicion. From immaturity of years, the king was not present,^ and his violent death soon afterwards damped monastic hopes. He fell by the blow of an assassin, hired by his mother-in-law, who thus opened the throne for her own son's accession.' Edward's untimely fate was, therefore, owing merely to the vindictive and restless cupidity of an ambitious woman. His unfledged authority had, however, served as a rallying point for the monastic party; and accordingly he became known as the martyr. Nor were the monks tardy in discerning, that, although dead, he might a.dvance their interest. His remains were invested with a saintly celebrity, and devotees eagerly crowded around them.* This royal youth's assassination thus ' Tha Saxon Chronicle says, that Dunstan stood alone: Malmes bury says the same. On the other hand, Eadmer and John of Tinmouth speak of him as pre served with others in some way connected with him. Obviously the suspicion of contrivance is very much weakened, if Dunstan were the only party saved from faUing: so say, however, the most ancient authorities. A par ticular examination of the case may be seen in Mr. Turner's Hist Angl-Sax. ii. 277. ' Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 34. ' Edward was assassinated at Corfe-Castle, then called Cor- vesgate, the residence of hia inother-in-law Elfrida, in 978. — Sax. Chr. 163. As this unfortunate lad, after his seat, was dragged a considerable distance in the stirrups, it is probable that his corpse was very much disfigured. This might occasion it to be burnt, which we find from Lupus, cited by Hickes, was the case. The ashes were buried at Wareham. The Saxon Chronicle speaks of those who 'bow on their knees before his dead 176 FROM DUNSTAN [a.d. 979. afforded a share of the seed eventually so prolific in super stition. Any extensive immediate benefit, however, does not seem to have gladdened the monastic party from his brief career. Domestic rivafry soon became, indeed, unequal to the full command of popular attention, for Scan dinavia poured again her pirates over England. But materials were provided in the controversy between monks and canons for poisoning every considerable respite, and thus of undermining the Anglo-Saxon state. Hence, this unhappy strife may fairly be considered as a cause of that national decrepitude which allowed a temporary ascendancy to Denmark, and eventuaUy gave the Normans a secm-e establishment. Under Ethefred, ignominiously known as the Unready, opened early a protracted series of harassing and dis graceful scenes.* In the year foUowing his half-brother's assassination, Dunstan crowned the young king, then only eleven years old, at Kingston.^ The archbishop is said to have predicted that the sword having placed a diadem on his brow, would infallibly give him a miserable reign.' He probably saw too plainly the dan gers of domestic dissension, and a fearful storm gathering in the north. Even such an inteUect as his own might prove unequal to disarm the evils provoked by a hasty and unjust attack upon established rights and institu tions. But his age now forced attention steadily upon the grave. Ethefred, also, was a mere child, and probably one in whom his discerning eye could rest upon Utile that was promising. There is no occasion, therefore, to doubt Dunstan's prediction of an unhappy reign, or to believe. bones' (164), but makes no men tion of any miracles wrought. These, however, as might be ex pected, had arrived in full force before Malmesbury's time. — Script, post Bed. 34. ' The pirates of Scandinavia recommenced their descents upon England in 980.— (.Saa;. Chron. 165.) Unready means ill-advised or unprovided with a plan. The Saxon word rad is equivalent to counsel, evidently a Norman importation. Ethelred means noble counsel The Unready seems to have been a derisory pun, very naturally suggested by the glaring contrast between the name and the adminstration of this most incompetent prince. ' In 979.— ^aa:. Chr. 164. Ingulph. Script post Bed. 506. A.D. 988.] TO THE CONQUEST. 177 with his monkish biographers, that he spoke from inspfra- tion. He Uved to see his apprehensions considerably reahsed, but died before the king had attained complete maturity.* In spite of all that monkish eulogists have done to render him ridiculous, his whole history proves him to have possessed uncommon talents. His prominence ui monastic history may rather, perhaps, be regretted by many who feel a jealous interest in English records of departed genius. But although Dunstan originally moulded national fanaticism after Benedict, it should not be forgotten that others chiefly lent activity for the details of his iU-advised innovation. Nor does he seem charge able with making that provision for popular credulity which the complete success of monachism demanded. Ethelwold and Oswald were the ejectors of canons; and the former of these prelates was the indefatigable rifler of tombs with saintly names. Around Dunstan's own cathe dral of Canterbury the canons remained in possession of their homes.^ This personal inactivity wears rather the appearance of selfish policy ; but it affords, undoubtedly, a presumption that Dunstan's strength of mind raised him somewhat above the injustice and illusion which his favourite project naturally produced. A more unequivocal display of his intellectual vigour, and independence like wise, was his excommunication of a very powerful earl who had contracted an incestuous marriage. The offender. ' Dunstan died in 988. — (Sax. Chr. 167.) Ethelred was then about twenty. Osbern makes the archbishop to have died at the age of seventy, or thereabouts. But this is inconsistent with the statement, made by himself and others, that Dunstan was born under Athelstan. In this case he could not have been more than sixty-four. The inaccuracy, however, is probably in the time assigned to his birth, not in the age ascribed to him. ^ They were not disturbed until 1005, seventeen years, namely, after Dunstan's death. —(X. Script 1780.) .-Elfric, then archbishop of Canterbury, ob tained authority from ethelred and his legislature for this inno vation : a c6py of the instrument is preserved among the Cotton MSS. (aaudius, A. 3, f. 3), and this is printed by Spelman (i. 504), and by Wilkins (i. 282). The intrusive monks, how ever, did not long maintain their ground, and it was reserved for Lanfranc, in 1074, to accom- phsh that expulsion of the dean and chapter which continued to the Reformation. — Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 135. M 178 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 988. finding royal interference ineffectual, sent agents weU supplied with money to Rome ; the pope was won over, and wrote a letter, commanding and entreating Dunstan to grant the desired absolution. This was, however, positively refused until the sin had been forsaken, whoever might sue for such indulgence, and whatever danger might hang upon denying it.' A reply so insubordinate may surprise those who loosely consider the Church of England identical in principles from Augustine to the Reformation. But Anglo-Saxon times knew nothing of papal jurisdiction. A close and deferential connexion with Rome was indeed assiduously cultivated. Authority for domestic purposes rested exclusively at home. Edgar, accordingly, though Dunstan's obsequious tool, and the corner-stone of English monachism, asserted expressly the royal supremacy, styling himself the Vicar of Christ.^ Extant literary remains bearing Dunstan's name, are monastic rules, and a body of penitential canons. These latter, which probably were at least compiled under his inspection, condemn a married person, ordained on the dismissal of his wife, and afterwards returning to cohabita tion with her, to the same penance as a murderer.' The archbishop was buried in his cathedral at Canterbury ; but Glastonbury pined under such a loss of honour and emolu ment. A tale was, therefore, set afloat, which made Dunstan's relics, like those, as said another tale, of Bene dict himself, to have been furtively removed. Thefr real resting-place, pilgrims were assured, was within his own loved island of Avalon.* Vainly did the monks of Canter- ' SuRlus. De Probatis SS. Historiis. Colon. Agrip. 1572, tom. 3, p. 323. ^ Monach.Hydens.LL.sub.Edg. datce. cap. 8. Spelm. i. 438. Wilk. i. 242. * 40. ' If a mass-priest, or monk, or deacon, had a lawful wife before he was ordained, and dismisses her and takes orders, and then receives her again by lying with her, let every one of them fast as for murder, and ve hemently lament it.' — Johnson's Transl. Canones ,sub Edg. E. cap. 31. SPELM.i.465. WiLK.i233. ¦* The legend invented for de tailing the alleged abstraction of Dunstan's remains from Canter bury, while that city lay ruined by the Danes, is very circum stantial, and may be seen in D'Aohery and Mabillon's Col lection. Transl. S. Dunst. in Monast. Glaston. Acta SS. Ord. Benedict v. 713. A,D. 988.] TO THE CONQUEST. 179 bury show his tomb, and defy their western rivals to prove its violation. For this a time was found in the darkest period of Danish anarchy, and superstitious devotees were satisfied. At length augmented attractions were an nounced, in a new shrine of unusual splendour, for Dun stan's mortal spoils. The cool, strong sense of Archbishop Warham revolted against such an abuse of popular credulity, and he desired his famed predecessor's coffin to be examined. In it were found a skeleton, with other corresponding fragments, proving incontestably that the first and greatest of English Benedictine abbots had been respected in his grave.* This discovery might mortify the monks of Glastonbury : their cupidity was proof against it. The abbot's reply to Warham expresses an apprehen sion lest, in damping the ardour which drew so many pilgrims to his house, he should incur Gamaliel's imputation oi fighting against God.' In 1008, Ethelred held a legislative assembly at Eanham, probably the modern Ensham in Oxfordshire.' It was very numerously attended,'' and it enacted laws for a • Scrutinium factum circa fere- trum beatissimi patris, Dunstani Archiep. ex mandate reverendis- simi patris ac Domini, WUlelmi Warham, Cant. Archiep. et Do mini Thomae Goldston, sacrse paginse Prof, ejusd. eccl. Prioris oigniss. A.D. 1608. Die 22. Ap. —Angl Sax. u. 227. ' Acts V. 39. Epist. Abbat. Glaston. lb. 231. ' The date of this witena-gemot has been considered as not ex actly ascertainable. Spelman refers it to about 1009, that year being at some distance both from 1006, when Elphege was translated to Canterbury, and 1013, when he was murdered by the Danes. Among the Cottonian MSS., however, in the British Museum (Nero, 4. l.f. 90), the proceedings at Eanham arejthus IN NOMINE DNI— ANO NIC INCARN- M. VIII. Now, we learn from the Saxon Chronicle (p. 181), that Elphege went to Eome for his pall in 1007, and that Ethehed gave orders that all landowners should provide either ships, or armour, according to the magnitudes of their several estates, in 1008. The king could make no such order without legislative au thority : this was, most probably, obtained at Eanham. * ' Universi Anglorum opti- ma.ies!— (Brit Mus. MSS. Cot ton, aaudius, A. 3. f. 30). This MS., which is in large octavo, excellently preserved, appears to be that which Sir Henry Spelman used in preparing his edition of the Councils. In the Cottonian MS., cited in the last note, which seems to have been more gene raUy overlooked, the preamble to 180 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1008. general armament, both naval and military.' Among its ecclesiastical sanctions is a particular statement of dues, claimable by the Church, but without any penal provision to enforce them. They stand thus: plough-alms to be paid within fifteen nights after Easter, tythe of young by Whitsuntide ; of the earth's produce at All-hallows, Rome- fee at St. Peter's mass, and Ught-shot thrice in a year. Soul-shot was to be paid on the opening of a grave ; and in case of interment without the district ni which the deceased had regularly gone to confession, the minister of that district was, nevertheless, to claim soul-shot. This ancient enactment is an obvious authority for the burial fees, often claimed within thefr, own parishes, from the relatives of parties interred without them. The Eanham legislators also forbade strictly, marketing and popular meetings on Sunday ; enjoined festivals in commemoration of the blessed Virgin and the Apostles ; and instituted a solemn anniversary on the day of the late king's assassina tion.'^ This last enactment looks like successful activity the proceedings stands thus : This is seo gercednes the Engla cyng, and agther gehadode, ge- lawede witan gecuran and gerad- dan. This is the enactment which the king of the Angles, and both the ordained, and the lay senators, chose and enacted. At the top of the page is written in a hand of considerable age : ' An act of parhament, as ytt were.' After wards, we find in the same hand : ' This is not in print.' ' 'A man possessed of 310 hides, to provide one galley, or skiff; and a man possessed of 8 hides only, to find a helmet and breastplate.' — Sax. Chr. Dr. Ingram's Translp. 181. Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Claudius, A. 3. f. 32. ' Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Nero, j1. 1 , f. 9 1 . The passage may be thus translated : Lrt God's rights be paid earnestly every year : that is, plough-alms fifteen nights over Easter, and tythe of young by Pentecost, and fruits of the earth by All-hallows' mass, and Rome- jee by Petre's mass, and light-shot thrice in a year, and soul-shot it is rightest that a man ever pay at open grave ; and if a corpse be laid elsewhere out of its right shrift-shire, let soul-shot be paid nevertheless into the minster which had the pastorship of it: and let all God's rights be earnestly re spected, even as it is needful, and let feasts and fasts be rightly hblden. Let Sunday's feast be holden earnestly, even as it thereto belongeth ; and let marketings and folk-motes be earnestly avoided on that holy-day ; and let all St. Mariats festival tides he earnestly observed, erst with fast, and then with feast ; and to each Apostle's high tide let there be a fast and feast; but to Philippus and Jacobus' feast, we bid no fast, on i.D. 1008.] TO THE CONQUEST. 181 in the monastic party. There was obviously an opening for spreading a belief that, among national transgressions, now so severely visited, few had cried more loudly for vengeance than the murder of an innocent, well-disposed king. For such a view men were generally very weU prepared, and it could not prevail without rendering odious aU resistance to a complete monastic triumph. Elphege, archbishop of Canterbury, eventuaUy a victim to Danish violence,' appeared at the head of his own order, m this meeting of the Saxon estates. In it, however, the services rendered by himself and the Archbishop of York were not merely deliberative : besides these, the two prelates communicated, to a crowd of people in attendance, such things as had been enacted, in the shape of an exhor tation to obedience. Probably this was deemed a publi cation of these legislative acts, and was the usual practice." account of the Easter feast. Else let other feasts and fasts be earnest ly holden, even as those hold who hold them best. And St. Eadwerd's mass-day the senators have chosen to be made a feast over all the land of the Angles, on kal. Aprilis. And fast every Friday unless it be a feast. Ordeal and oaths are forbidden on feast-days and right ember days ; and from Adventum Domini until Octabas Epiphanie, and from Septuagesiman until xv. over Easter. In the holy tides, even as it right is, let peace and concord be common to all Christian men, and let every strife be laid aside. Spelman's copy of the Eanham enactments (Cone. i. 517) men tions church-shot besides light- shot, takes no notice of St. Edward's day, and exhibits other variations. Johnson translates from this ; and he observes, from the reservation of tythes until AU-hallows, that corn tythes must have been paid in the grain. ' Elphege being taken prisoner on the capture of Canterbury by the Danes, had the offer of ran soming his life upon extravagant terms. He refused, and being felled with bones, and other hard substances, he received his death blow from a battle-axe. — (Sax. Chr. 189. Osbern. de Vit. S. Elph. Angl Sacr. ii. 140.) Lan franc denied him to be a true martyr, saying that he lost his life, "not for the confession of Christ's name, but because he would not redeem himself for money." — Angl. Sacr. 134, note. ' ' Post hsec igitur arohipon- tifices predicti convocatS, plebis multitudine coUecte, regis edicto supradicti, omniumque consensu cathohconun, omnibus commu- niter predioabant.' — (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Claudius A. 3, f. 31.) The preaching begins vfith an exhortation to a right faith in the Trinity, proceeds to declaim against heathenism, and gra dually unfolds a mass of sanc tions, ecclesiastical as well as 182 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1008. This admonitory communication also urges the duty of building churches, in aU parts of the country.* This charge, it is Ukely, was not given without legislative sanction. It was, indeed, one of those harassing and calamitous times which make most men think no sacrifice too great for propitiating the favour of heaven . In this case the object was discreetly sought ; for that healthy tone of national morality, which has the promise of divine appro bation, will arise from nothing so certainly, as from suffi cient provision for a people's religious wants. In modern times, this archiepiscopal recommendation is chiefly worthy of attention, because it furnishes one, among the multi tude of proofs, that our parochial churches are not national foundations, but the gradual fruits of individual UberaUty. Men's anxiety to secure a Friend above, by strict atten tion to every Chi'istian duty, appeared again when the legislature met at Haba, a place not identified.* It was there enacted, that a penny, either in money or in kind, should be paid for every plough-land, and another by each member of a congregation.' From the latter payment may have arisen Easter offerings. If so, they may claim a statutable origin. The legislators also earnestly enjoin an exact payment of church-shot and tythes. The mode of tything was, it seems, to surrender the produce of every civil. Among the latter appear penalties against neglect of the naval and nuhtary armaments enacted. * ' Ecclesias namque per loca singula edificate, in Dni subsidio cunctipotentis, nee non et regis terieni.'— (5W<. Mus. MSS. Cot ton, Claudius, A. 3. f. 31). ^ Otherwise Bada (Wilk. i. 295). It appears to have been so written in a MS. formerly belonging to the monastery of St. Augustine, at Canterbury. These enactments are undated; but Johnson refers them to 1014, when Ethehed had returned from Normandy, where he and his queen had taken refuge, and when he was promising the cor rection of his errors in adminis tration. = Hirmannus. ' The priest's hirman, or hyreman, was what wo call a parishioner.' — (Johnson). This writer conjectures, that the penny imposed upon plough- lands, in the former part of the clause, is not the old plough-alms, but an extraordinary benevolence granted under the horror of Danish invasion. The Anglo- Saxon penny, it should be re membered, was equivalent to our threepence, to say nothing of alteration in the value of money. A.D. 1014.] TO THE CONQUEST. 183 tenth acre, as the plough went.* All the Church's claims were likewise recognised in general terms ;^ established penalties for default were confirmed;' a solemn fast of three days was instituted before the feast of St. Michael,'' and the people are urgently reminded of their duties, both religious and moral. The reason expressly given for all this earnest exhortation, is the pressing necessity for God's blessing to secure victory and peace. Thus a whole nation was driven, by the force of overwhelming calamity, into that enviable disposition for serious thought, which indi viduals display when anguish weighs their spirits down, or death is before thefr eyes. At such a time, the spiritual profession appears in all its real value. Hitherto, perhaps, little occasion had been felt for any other than worldly callings ; but new wants now crowd upon the mind, and men provide for the service of God, as if they deeply desfred his honour and the welfare of their fellows. Ordi- 'Cap. 4, Spelm. i. 531. Wn,K. i295. '^ These are thus enumerated in a MS. which must be about this age, as it is posterior to Dun stan, who is mentioned in f. 30. —(Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii, 121, f. 56). Erst, plough-alms xv. nights over Easter, tythe of young by Pentecost, Rome-fee by Petre's mass, fruits of the earth by AU- hallows' mass, church-shot at Martinus' mass, and light-shot thrice in a year ; erst, on Easter- eve, and another time on Candle mas-eve, and the third time on All-halhws' mass-eve. Of these dues the clergy were solemnly to remind their congregations, at stated times. Right is that priests remind folk that they do what is right to God, in tythes and in other things. Right is that men be reminded of this at Easter, another time at the gang-days (Eogation days), a third time at Midsummer, when most folk is gathered.— lb. ff. 54,55. ' Cap. 7. Spelm. i. 632. Wilk. i. 295. * ' While Apuha was infested by northern invaders, the Chris tians there obtained a signal vic tory, and were made to believe that this was done by the assist ance of St. Michael, whose help they had invoked by three days' fasting and humiliation. There can be no doubt but that the fast here enjoined was an imita tion of that of Italy. But it is observable, that there were in this age two Michaelmas days in the year ; for a church was erected to this angel in Mount Garganus, where he was behoved to have appeared, and to have obtained a victory for the Christians. The foundation of this church was laid on the 8th of May, and it was consecrated on the 29th of September, by which means both these days became stated festivals.' — John son, in loc. 184 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1014. narily religion pleads in vain for that liberal care which the best interersts of society really demand.' A ray from one illustrious name gleams brightly over the wretched and humiliating reign of Ethelred. While England bled at every pore, an admirable genius laboured indefatigably to lighten her distress, by furnishing a rich supply of sound instruction. It was Elfric who strove thus, by pouring forth a stream of healing knowledge, to mend and comfort evil times. Nor has the age, ennobled by such generous industry, alone had reason to rejoice in his appearance. His was the proUfic pen to which we owe a very large proportion of extant Anglo-Saxon literature. Through him yet resounds a voice from our ancient Church, upon many questions in theology. Upon tran substantiation especially, the witness borne, has an impor- ' The first edition of this work overlooked, because it is omitted in the Councils of Spelman and Wilkins, an alleged law of Ethel red, referred to 1014, and pre scribing the tripartite division of tythes. Upon this much stress has been lately laid as an au thority against church-rates. It appeared originally in the Leges Anglo- SaxoniccB of Wilkins, pub- hshed in 1721. As it was not admitted into his Concilia, pub lished in 1737, he is thought to have considered it spurious. The late Mr. Price (a most competent judge) was of that opinion ; pro nouncing the MS. in which it occurs, ' an unauthorised assem blage of points of canon-law, gathered indifferently from fo reign and home sources, made for private use, and at different periods, since some passages in the MS. are metrical, others again acknowledge that the practices they record are ob served beyond sea, while all chronology is neglected, the provisions of Athelstan being made to follow those of Edgar.' Mr. Hale observes on this canon, ' It very UI agrees with a law of Edmund, enacted some seventy years before it ; and if it ever was a law, it was, as respects the duty of repairing churches, vir tually set aside and repealed within twenty years, by a law of Canute, so that, after all, admit ting the genuineness of the law, the whole amount of evidence in favour of a legal division of tythes, is this, that for twenty years, that division was recog nised by an Anglo-Saxon law.' — Antiquity of the Church-rate Sys tem, 50, 26. Even if this enactment could be proved genuine, and any English legislature could be proved to have sanctioned the collections passing vmder the names of Theodore and Egbert, and that which we owe to Elfric, the relevancy of these authorities would remain for proof. They relate chiefly, if not entirely, to minster tythe : our present con cern is exclusively with ^arocAifl^. TO THE CONQUEST. 185 A.D. 1014.] tance often urged, but never overrated. Elfric retorts, with force irresistible, that odious imputation of a rash and indefensible disregard for antiquity, which has frequently served for casting obloquy upon the Reformation. His writings brand indelibly with innovation, that very view of the eucharistic presence, which Cranmer found possessed of EngUsh pulpits. The venerable Anglo-Saxon thus convicts a party which claims exclusively his country's ancient faith, of asserting such a claim under strong delu sion. What later teachers taught, and on a vital point, has been proved by him, to have been positively condemned by that honoured ancestry which has generously and wisely given almost all the patrimony that religion has in England. Elfric's education was begun under a clergyman of sUght attainments;' but completed at Winchester, in the cele brated school of Ethelwold.^ For that able prelate, whose deUght it was to captivate and improve the young, he ever entertained a filial reverence. Of personal communication with him he had probably enjoyed but little : his age forbidding it.' A deep sense of obligation could not, how- ' Once I knew that a mass- priest, who was my magister at the time, had the book of Genesis, and he could partly understand Latin. — (Prfiefat. jElf. in Genes. Hep tateuch, etc., Angl Sax. Oxon. 1698, p. 1). This ecclesiastic, Elfric proceeds to say, used to talk of Jacob's four wives. Per haps, in addition to hia illiteracy, and his indiscreet conversation, he was not formed by temper for tuition ; and thus Elfric might have imbibed, almost in infancy, a prejudice against clergymen without monastic obligations, or partiahties. ^ Mlf. Gramm. Praef. ad cal- oem Somnbri, Diet Sax. Lat. Angl Oxon. 1659. ' Vita S. Ethelw. Episc. Win- ton. Acta SS. Ord. Benedict v. 617. Wulfstan's name is affixed to this life ; but he has done little else than copy Elfric, as appears from the variations that have been supplied by the editors, at the feet of the several pages. In the passage cited, Elfric evidently speaks from re collection ; and it is a lad's recollection of a kind old man. Ethelwold died in 984. The monastery of Cerne was endowed by jEthehner, or Ailmer, Earl of Cornwall, in 987. Sigeric was Archbishop of Canterbury from 989 to 994, and as Elfric sent his homilies from Cerne to the pri mate, styhng himself monk and mass-priest, it is plain that he must have been ordained to the presbyterate by the year 989, or soon afterwards. He was pro bably, therefore, born about the year 965, and consequently he 186 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1014. ever, fail of overspreading his ingenuous mind towards one who had provided him access to learning. The general current of his thoughts led him also to venerate Ethelwold. Elfric zealously espoused monastic principles. He fully shared in prevailing prejudices against married clergymen. According to him, the canons whom Ethelwold ejected under Edgar's authority, were implicated in prevailing immoralities, proud, insolent, luxurious, irregular in their public ministrations, prone to change the wives whom they illicitly espoused, given up to gluttony and drunken ness, detestable blasphemers of God.' This violent language, which Henry the Eighth's commissioners repaid with interest upon the monks, appears particularly lamentable from such a pen as Elfric's. But few men can whoUy rise above the prevailing prejudices of their age, and Elfric's was one that connected high ministerial qualities with obedience to the rule of Benedict. From that rule, besides, England might reckon upon important services to literature. Whatever may be thought of the system generally established by Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Oswald, it is indisputable, that these distinguished prelates insti tuted most useful seminaries for ecclesiastical education.^ His early years having been employed most advan- might be some nineteen years old when Ethelwold died. It is most likely that he went to Cerne immediately upon the estabhshment of that house, in the year 987. — Monasticon. i. 254. ' Vit. S. Ethelw. Acta SS. Ord. Bened. v. 602. This harsh lan guage, it is fair to believe, might have been substantiated by a few cases of gross misconduct. All large bodies of men will, un happily, supply such, especially in a semi-barbarous age. But remove such cases out of sight, and Elfric's description will be found but little different from those libellous caricatures of clerical life, by which prejudice and malevolence have ever sought to blacken the character of ecclesiastics making no ascetic pretensions. It was a just retri bution upon the monastic body, that its own eventual expulsion was promoted and defended upon hke imputations of moral dehn- quency. ^ Wharton, Dissert, de duobus Elfricis. Angl Sacr. i. 126, 132. The ascetic character earned in these admired seminaries was, no doubt, a powerful recom mendation to the candidate for ecclesiastical promotion. But it must be supposed that this was commonly accompanied by more valuable qualities. In Elfric's case it was eminently so. A.D. 1014,] TO THE CONQUEST. 187 tageously at Winchester, Elfric was caUed away by Elphege, then bishop there, ^thelmar, or AUmer, who styled himself, in Latin, King Ethelred's satrap,^ that is, thane,^ endowed m 987, an abbey at Cerne, in Dorsetshire, then caUed Cernel. He shared in prevaiUng partiaUties for the Benedictine system, and requested Elphege to find him a monk, fit for placing his new establishment on such a footing as would carry it completely out. Elfric was chosen; but found his duties insufficient for a mind so active, and he sought further occupation in an undertaking of great popu lar utility. Usage and authority demanded a sermon from the clergy on every Sunday.' Satisfactorily to answer such a call is far from easy to minds highly cultivated, and sufficiently provided with literary appUances. Among a priesthood, slightly educated, and with a very limited access to books, the weekly sermon must have often proved rather painful than improving to hearers of any informa tion, or of more than ordinary abiUty. Elfric kindly resolved upon providing a remedy for this evil. He selected and freely translated from Austin, Jerome, Bede, Gregory, Smaragdus, and occasionaUy Haymo, forty homilies on subjects chiefly scriptural. This course was deemed sufficient for a year. The volume being completed, he sent it to Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, especially calling his attention to the great care taken for avoiding heresy and error. By this prelate these discourses were highly approved, and their use authorized. The learned monk attested his gratification by transmitting forty more homilies to Sigeric. These are of a more legendary character; but again challenge a rigid inquiry into the soundness of thefr doctrine.* They were greeted with the same success as the former series. Another literary labour of great utility, was an Anglo-Saxon grammar of ' Cod. Dipl uEv. Sax. iii. 224. ^ Preface to .Elfric's Ho milies. Lond, 1843. p. 2. Ailmer was son of Ethelwerd, and has been designated Earl of Cornwall. Mores, De Mlfrico xxi. * Right is that priests preach to the folk every Sunday.. — Sino- daha Decreta. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii, 121. 1 29. * HiCKES, Thes. ii. 153, 157, Preface to the Homilies of JElfric, edited and translated for the .iElfric Society, by Mr. Thorpe. Lond. 1843. 188 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1014. the Latin language, compiled from Priscian.' Before this undertaking, probably, his diocesan, Wulfsine, bishop of Sherborne,' had requested him to prepare a summary of admonition and information most needed by the clergy, and suitable for addressing to them. Obedience to this request produced a celebrated piece, yet extant in Saxon, resembling the episcopal charges of later tihies. It iUus- trates largely existing religious usages, and is particularly valuable, because it establishes incontrovertibly that an cient England and modern Rome are utterly at variance upon the doctrine of transubstantiation. Two similar Saxon pieces, happily extant also, afterwards proceeded from Elfric's pen, and one of them contradicts with equal clearness the capital article of Romish belief. These in teresting documents apparently were prepared for Wulf stan, archbishop of York.' Other distinguished persons ' Subjoined ordinarily to Som- NEr's Dictionarium Saxonico-La- tino-Anglicum. Oxon. 1659. An ancient MS. of this Grammar in the Library of St. John's Col lege, Oxford, appears to be entitled .Mlfrici Prasulis Gram- matica. — (HiCKES, Thes. ii. 104). Hence a recent author concludes that Elfric did not write the Grammar until he had attained a station of eminence. He con siders him to have written it soon after his advancement to the abb'otcy of Peterborough. — Ancient Hist. Engl and Fr. exem plified. Lond. 1830, p. 66. * Great obscurity has attended the name of Wulfsine ; but a charter, pubhshed by Wharton (Angl. Sacr. i. 170), renders it sufficiently plain that he was bishop of Sherborne about the close of the tenth century. This instrument, dated 998, under Ethelred, authorises Wulfsine to settle a community of monks aroimd his cathedral of Sher borne. Elfric resided in Dorset shire about that time, and Wulfsine's reformation at Sher borne was exactly such as might be expected from onewho sought his advice. In addition to these evidences of Wulfsine's identity, Wharton met with a MS. history of Westminster, by John Flete, in which that writer relates, on the authority of Sulcard, a monk living fifty years after the time, that Wulfsine was made bishop of Sherborne in 980, and so con tinued until about 998. — (lb. 132). EKric's epistle to Wulfsine, generally caUed his Canons, is to be foimd,more or less completely, in Lambarde, Spelman, and Wilkins, and has been trans-' lated by Johnson. It contains one of the testimonies against transubstantiation, pubhshed by Foxe and L'Isle. It was again printed under the Eecord Com mission, in 1840. ii. 342. ' There were two Wulfstans, archbishops of York. The for mer died in 956, the latter in 1023, after something more than A.D. 1014.] TO THE CONQUEST. 189 naturaUy became desfrous of benefiting by industry so able, pious, and unwearied. Elfric was, accordingly, led into his various translations from Scripture. He wrote, besides, a life of Ethelwold,' a glossary, a body of mo nastic discipline, and other pieces.' The learned energy of his earlier years has, indeed, rarely been surpassed; and although, like other Anglo-Saxons, he wrote but little quite original, yet, considering the time of his appearance, he twenty years' possession of the see (Angl Sacr. i. 133, J. Stubbs, X. Script 1700.) To this latter, only, could Elfric have written. In his epistle, as extant in the Bodleian library (MSS. Junii, 121, f. Ill), Elfric only speaks of himself aa 'brother to mass- priests.' Hence he might be thought to have written this epistle soon after the year 1002. But in the Latin prologue to the two epistles published by Wil kins (Leges Angl-Sax.) (London, 1721, p. 166), he designates him self 'abbot.' Of these two epistles, the second is the beginning of that in the Bodleian Library, mentioned above. It bears the foUowing title : De Secunda Epistola, Quando Dividis Crisma. Some of it may be seen de scribed as Elfric's Epistle, entitled QUANDO DIVIDIS CHEISMA in Mr. Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ii. 390. But this bri^f portion does not include the famous testimony against transubstantiation. If Elfric really were abbot, when that piece was written, this must be referred, most probably, to some date after 1005. ' His Life of Ethelwold is said, in the preface, to have been written twenty years after that prelate's death : an event occur ring in the middle of 984. It must have been written, there fore, either in the year 1004, or in the earlier part of 1005. It is dedicated to Kenulf, bishop of Winchester, who was advanced to that see in 1005, and who died in July, 1006. Elfric was now 'abbot' ; and he seems to have been made abbot of Peter borough in 1005. 2 In the face of Elfric's volum inous authorship, and of several Anglo-Saxon pieces from other pens, it is amusing to see the Jesuit Hardouin representing even the language that he wrote in, the characters that he used, and the name that he bore, as one mass of heretical deception. Hickes very truly observes, that in this curious paradox there are as many errors as lines ; for neither are Anglo-Saxon monu ments few, nor of dubious faith, nor written in any characters invented for deception ; nor has Elfric the Hebrew origin so learnedly found for it. In fact, it is a Saxon proper name, borne by many individuals of that nation. This whole tissue of error and absurdity shews, how ever, the despairing embarrass ment with which behevers in transubstantiation encounter Elfric. They cannot reconcile his evidence with the alleged antiquity of their creed. 190 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1014. has fuUy earned a foremost rank in the literature of England. The history of this distinguished scholar is, however, involved in thick obscurity. To the scanty particulars afready given from incidental passages in his own works, must be added, from the same source, that he was a priest, monk, and abbot. We have ancient authority also for believing that he became eventually a bishop.* Elfric was not merely, therefore, an industrious man of letters, valued by none but students, and even known to few besides. His transcendant qualities were duly acknowledged in professional elevation. Yet neither the abbey over which he presided, nor the see that he occupied, can be named with absolute certainty. Contemporary bishops and abbots, most of them probably useful and able in their day, but without any particular claim upon posterity, are accu rately commemorated in existing records. Inquiries into Elfric's preferments demand research, and will, at last, be requited by nothing more satisfactory than probabilities. His connection with Cerne Abbey has been already men tioned. He was also called upon to regulate the abbey of Eynsham, in Oxfordshire, which had been established in 1005, by the same friend Ailmer, son of Ethelwerd, that restored or founded Cerne.' For the former house he drew up an abridgment of Ethelwold's rule, yet extant in MS., in which he writes Abbot Elfric to the Eynsham brethren? But such language is no conclusive evidence that he was abbot of this, any more than he had been of Ailmer's Dorsetshire establishment. He was, probably, merely the regulator in both cases. The abbot of Eyn sham seems, in fact, to have been named Adam.* Elfric's ' ' 0, ye mass-priests, my bre thren !' are the opening words in Elfric's epistle prepared, as it is considered, for Archbishop Wulf stan. jaifric, munuc; .Mlfrick, monk. — (Prefat. in Genes!) 2Elfric, abbod; .Elfric, abbot— (De Vet Test edit. 'L'Isle.) 'Elfricum demum episcopaU dignitate auc- tum esse constat ex epistola ejus MS. in CoUegio Corporis Christi Cantab, quse inscribitur ; Elfrid Episcopi ad jam nunc ordinatos! — Artgl Sacr. i. 33. 2 Cod. Dip. JEv. Sax. in. 339. ' Wright's Biog. Brit. Literar. Anglo-Saxon Period, 482. * Stevens's Additions to the Monasticon, i. 402. A.D. 1015.] TO THE CONQUEST. 191 title of abbot is more Ukely to have been gained from Peterborough,* which, together with the other future glories of England's fen districts, Ely and Thorney, had been re-established, under Edgar's authority, by Ethel wold, after thefr destruction by the Danes.' If Elfric's abbey really was Peterborough, he had a very narrow escape from a party of Danish marauders. The abbot succeeded in reaching the royal presence, and Ethelred sent him in charge of Emma, the queen, over to Nor mandy, her native country.' But, whatever part Elfric ' Wharton supposes him to have been abbot of Winchester. He grounds this opinion upon his dedication to Kenulf, in which he calls himself ' an abbot and a Winchester scholar, Win- toniensem alumnum! Hence Whar ton thinks that his education and abbacy must be referred to the same place ; and he is confirmed in this belief by Stubbs, who designates Alfric, archbishop of York, Wintoniensis prapositus. — (Acta PP. Ebor. X. Script 1700). This designation, however, is hardly sufficiently precise for a positive conclusion. The author of Ancient History, English and French, exemplified in a Regular Dissection of the Saxon Chronicle, says of Wharton, ' No man knew better than he, if he had taken time, that the old monastery, or cathedral church of Winches ter, of which he says Elfric v/as, beyond all doubt, abbot, never had an abbot, nomine abbot ; but, as well before Ethelwold's reform as afterwards, was governed by the bishop in place of an abbot.' The principle of this is dis tinctly stated in Ethelred's charter to Wulfsine : ' Et quia mos minime — ut in episcopah sede, abbas constituatur : fiat ipse episcopus eis abbas et pater. —(Angl Sacr. i. 170). In the extract also from the Life of Ethelwold, already used (p. 217) that prelate is said, most pro bably in Elfric's own words, to have been abbas et episcopus of the monks whom he transferred from Abingdon to Winchester. In November 1005, ^Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury, died. Elphege, bishop of Winchester, succeeded him ; and Kenulf, abbot of Peterborough, to whom Elfric dedicated his Life of Ethelwold, was advanced to the see of Winchester. The recent writer cited above, to whom inquirers into Elfric's history are much obliged, has very reason ably concluded (p. 64) that he was immediately preferred to the abbacy of Peterborough. If he had not been abbot there, it seems strange that his corpse should have been carried thither for interment ; and the probabi lity is, that he was the imme diate successor of his friend and patron, Kenulf. 2 Bromton. X. Script 868. » Sax. Chr. 191. He is there called JElfsige, as the text stands ; but the recent au thor cited in note 1, conjectures that the name was designedly substituted for se, the Saxon 192 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1015. may have played in these disastrous times, it is pretty clear that he survived Ethelred, for he speaks of himself as having been sent to Cerne in that king's day.^ Nor is it much less clear that his unquestionable superiority recom mended him eventuaUy to the discerning eye of Canute.' Under that fortunate and able Dane he seems to have been placed in the see of York.' One of his name held that archbishopric from 1023 to 1051, and chronology aUows us to fix upon the great Anglo-Saxon author for the man."* The archbishop died at SouthweU, and was buried at Peterborough ; which is a presumption that he had been abbot there.^ definite article masculine. Flo rence of Worcester, however, calls jElfric, archbishop of Can terbury, JElfsius. For particu lars of Elfric's escape, see In gulph. (Script-post Bed. 507). As the passage appears there, the transactions might seem to have occurred in 1018 ; but then they are mixed up with the name of Sweyne, under whom, in fact, they took place. Sweyne, how ever died in 1014 ; Elfric escaped from Peterborough, and went to Normandy with Queen Emma, in 1013. Ingulf, who relates the particulars of this escape, does not name him ; but, probably, the text may not appear there exactly as Ingulf left it. ' Pref. to the Homilies. ' ' Tu, Sacerdos egregie jElfrice, nostris Eegis C. obtutibus semper assistis, et secreta ejusdem oon- silia a te non sunt abscondita, sed per tuse industriam sapientise discernendo rimantur.' — (Facun- dissimo Sacerd. lElfr. ad calcem SoMNERi Diet p. 53.) Wharton says very truly that King C. could be no other than King Canute. — Angl. Sacr. i. 134. 3 One MS. of the Saxon Chro- niele has, under the year 1023, Her forthferde Wulfstan arceb. and feng .Elfric to. Here de parted Wulfstan archb. and JEl- fric took to.— (203). What did he take to? Undoubtedly to the see of York. But Wulfstan held Worcester also, as had his im mediate predecessors. Worcester cathedral was converted into a Benedictine monastery, which York was not ; and, accordingly, the archbishops being- Bene dictine monks, were allowed to hold in commendam a see which offered them a cathedral where they could reside in their proper character of abbot. It must appear probable that these pre cedents operated in Elfric's case ; and that, if the clause cited from the Saxan Chronicle had been entire, we should find that he took to both sees. Existing catalogues of the Worcester bishops might, however, lead to a different conclusion. But there are difficulties in these which leave room for conjecturing that Elfric really held Worcester until the year 1034. — See Anc. Hist Engl and Fr. 89. * ' Against this supposition there seems no objection on the score of dates.' — Thorpe, Pref. to the Homilies. 5 Stubbs. X. Script 1700. A A.D. 1030.] TO THE CONQUEST. 193 That Elfric's history should so much depend rather upon inference than testimony, is among the more striking of historical problems. It is true that, fifteen years after the date found for his death, Norman WilUam con quered England, and her noble tongue sank down to a vulgar dialect which superior families disdained. Authors, however, arose, diligent in examining the national records, and in forming them into materials for compositions of thefr own; especially such of them as were favourable to the monastic cause. Elfric had this recommendation. He was repeatedly employed in regulating monasteries.' Like his contemporaries generally, he had a great admira tion of relics, and faith in them. There were two writers in early Norman times particularly led by the nature of their pursuits, and the general bent of their minds, to preserve the incidents of such a person's life. Neither of these might seem to have had any certain knowledge of his existence. One of them, the wonder-loving Osbern, mentions incidentally an Elfric Bata, to whose impious actirity he assigns a temporary cessation of the miracles expected by worshippers at Dunstan's tomb. The spirit of that sainted archbishop, we are told, was under the necessity of putting Bata to flight, before it could con tinue its accustomed deeds of mercy.^ The other ancient MS. Consuetudinary of the Mo nastery of Peterborough, in the Lambeth Library, has, accord ingly, the following entry in the calendar. Die IX. Calend. Feb- ruarii Depositio Dompni Elfrici Archiepiscopi. — (Wharton, Angl Sacr. 1. 134.) 'The sacrilegious violence and fanaticism which disgraced the interval between Charles the First's troubles and his son's restoration, brought to light accidentally, in the cathe dral of Peterborough, a chest or shrine, about three feet long, and containing human bones, in scribed Elfricus. This great man's remains, therefore, had been thought at one time worthy of translation, as it was called. — (Ane. Hist Engl and Fr. 456). Their original coffin must have been of larger dimensions. ' ' In cod. Benedictine, quern asservat Col. S. Ben. seu CC. apud Cant, sub finem Evangehi secundum Matthseum, habentur sequentia. Ego ./Elfricus scrips. hunc librum in Monasterio Batho- nio, et dedi Brihtwoldo Preposito! — (Marbschall. Obsero. in Vers. Angl.-Sax. 490). Wharton con jectures, with great probability, that Elfric was sent to Bath by Elphege, bishop of Winchester, who had been the first abbot of that monastery ; and that he might have been sent to other monasteries. — Angl. Sacr. i. 133. == De Mirac. S. Dunst. Auctore 194 FROM DUNSTAN [AD. 1030. author is WiUiam of Malmesbury, the great luminary of Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical antiquity ; and he speaks of an Elfric, who was both an abbot and a prelate, and an able industrious translator. But he writes as if he had never examined his works. Their fame, he does not dis semble, had reached his ears ; but, with exemplary caution, he expresses a doubt whether, from lapse of time, it might not have been greater than the pieces merited.* Yet the Elfric, upon whom, apparently Malmesbury had faUen by mistake, though something anterior to the most illus trious bearer of that name, was only just before him. He was only removed by a very few generations from Malmesbury himself It is, therefore, scarcely credible that a man should have grown up in bookish habits from childhood, as, probably every literary man has ; this, too, at a time when books were few ; and yet should hardly have examined a voluminous national writer, of whose high character he was well aware, — one also whom even his own showing would place at no considerable distance from himself Such cases naturally suggest a suspicion of unfairness. It is not easy to acquit either Osbern or Malmesbury of a deliberate intention to suppress the memory of Elfric, and to bury his very name under a mass of hopeless uncertainty. For this disingenuous policy, a reason may be readily conjectured. Osbern was the humble friend of Lanfranc, who found a passport to professional distinction in the controversy with Berenger. He fails not, accordingly, to introduce, among his histories of Anglo-Saxon times, legendary tales of miracles wrought in proof of tran substantiation.' Malmesbury, too, had taken decidedly Osberno Monacho. Acta SS. Ord. Benedict, v. 692. The fact is, that there was an Elfric Bata, a disci ple of the great Elfric, but a far inferior man ; who made some additions to a colloquy of his illustrious master, for the use of boys. — (HicKBS, Thes. ii. 104, 105). Osbern seems desirous of confounding master and scholar together, in order to connect the name of Elfric with known infe riority, and to brand it in some undefined way vrith religious evil. 1 W. Malmesb. de Vita, Ald helm. (Angl Sacr. ii. 33.) It is unquestionable that Malmes- bury^s language more apphes to the great Elfric, but it is irre concilable with known dates. '' A legend of sacramental wine, A.D. 1030.] TO THE CONQUEST. 195 the infection from that new theology which England received with her Norman conquerors. Hence his indig nant zeal extorted from him an attack equally ludicrous and important upon the venerated character of Raban Maur.' Now Elfric's eucharistic doctrine, and that of Raban, are identical. Both of them wrote after Pas chasius Radbert had astonished studious men by giving a gross, corporeal character to sacramental bread and wine. Both, accordingly, have written upon the question, which then was new in the world, with a force and fulness of language that is not usual until controversy makes it necessary. Elfric's vocation, as homiUst for the people, obliged him upon occasions to furnish lengthened, clear, and forcible expositions of the eueharist. In discharging this duty, he has freely used not only earlier authors who shake a beUef in transubstantiation, but also he has em bodied, for the use of ordinary congregations, the sub stance of that famous attack upon the doctrine, which Ratramn wrote, when desired to examine it by Charles the Bald. It is no wonder that Lanfranc's admirers looked upon such an author with disgust and despair. Their master's fame was hollow, and his fortune unde served, if his own eucharistic belief were not that of aU Christendom in every age. Elfric proved not only that England, whose orthodoxy was unquestioned, had enter tained no such doctrine, but even that she had expressly and intentionally contradicted it;' and Elfric seems to have died only fifteen years before the Conquest. Colour sensibly transubstantiated into blood by Odo, may be seen in Osbern's Life of that Archbishop. —(Angl Sacr. ii. 82). A like story, as to both the bread and wine, is related of Dunstan by this author. — (SuRlus. iii. 330). such tales are not among the least striking evidences that Lanfranc's adherents were sadly embarrassed by the prevalence of a behef very different from their patron's. 'See Ba»ipf.Xec?.for 1830. p.413. ^ ' It seems that no one of his (Elfric's) homilies is, generally speaking, a mere translation from any one given Latin ori ginal, but rather a compilation from several. Be this, however, as it may, his sermons, in either case, equally exhibit what were the doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon church at the period in which they were compiled or trans lated,'— Thorpe. Pref. to the Ho milies of .Sllfric. vi. 196 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1032. for charging him with innovation, there was none what ever. The century before him had produced Erigena, one of Radbert's earliest and most formidable opponents ; yet apparently the friend of Alfred. Erigena's doctrine, too, might be connected satisfactorily with Alcuin and Bede; only controversy had won for it an energy, breadth, and precision, for which earlier scholars had found no occasion. Thus Elfric merely finished, but with a vigour equaUed, probably, by Erigena alone, that unyielding array of testimony against Lanfranc's eucharistic system which echoes from the whole theological school of ancient Eng land. Against an author so recent, and in such fuU possession of the popular ear, discretion forbade a direct assault. But his unpalatable doctrine was conveyed in Saxon, — a language with which Anglo-Normans, of any distinction, were unacquainted. Hence, after a few years, no cultivated mind was ever likely to be awakened by hearing any of his homilies. Books were few ; and such as Elfric left might shortly be rendered useless by refrain ing fi'om translating them into Latin. They were actuaUy classed among old and useless books, by the monks of Glas tonbury, in cataloguing their library, so early as the thfrteenth century.* The despised populace might imper ceptibly be weaned from the opinions of thefr fathers by retrenching such parts of the customary sermon as had grown unfashionable.' Authors would soon see that great men, wishing Elfric to be forgotten, were likely to pationise those who involved his very name in obloquy and con fusion. Such was the policy pursued ; and being favoured by a prevailing disregard for Anglo-Saxon literature, even too by general ignorance of the character in which it was ' Wright. 108, Biog. Brit. Lit. ' For the manner in which the famous Paschal Homily has been treated in the C. C. C. C. MS. 162, see Bampt Lect 428. A like liberty was taken with the Ho mily for St Peter's Day, also printed in that volume (p. 126). Among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum (Vespasian D. 14. f. 122), is found the begin ning of that homily ; the part, namely, that details the privi leges of St. Peter in the words of Scripture. But aU the latter part, beginning with 'Bede, the Expositor,' is omitted. In this latter part, however, are several passages unfavourable to the papal pretensions. A.D. 1032.] TO THE CONQUEST. 197 preserved, Elfric's memory became aU but wholly lost. When, accordingly, monastic libraries were dispersed, and Enghshmen sought again to know the language and religion of thefr distant ancestry, they found themselves indebted chiefly to an author whom no scholar could certainly identify. A presumption in favour of Elfric's influence with Canute arises from many of that prince's acts. The Danish con queror revived a taste for pilgrimages to Rome by under taking one himself He was a liberal patron to the monastic order.' Under him was holden a legislative assembly at Winchester, which confirmed churches in their established inviolabiUty, and re-enacted the penalties im posed under Edgar for withholding ecclesiastical dues.' Another of these laws both displays that anxiety for clerical celibacy which distinguished Elfric, and a liberal estimate of the ecclesiastical profession. An unmarried clergyman was to enjoy the privileges of a thane.* In a different series of Canute's laws, is one proving the reparation of churches to have been a burden imposed by the legislature upon property generaUy, and not exclusively upon the tythes. ' All people,' it is declared, ' are bound of rig;ht to assist in repairing the church.' ^ In the same series appears a strict prohibition of all pagan worship and 1 6 ' In 1031. — (Sax. Chr. 206). Malmesbury's date is the same, as he places it in the fifteenth year of his reign. Ingulf places it a year earlier ; but Mr. Wheaton says, that the Danish chronologists seem to have con clusively proved its occurrence in Vi27.—Hist of the Northmen, 327, note. ' Ingulph. Malmesb. post Bed. 507, 41. ' LL. Canut. E. cann. 8 11, 12, 13. Spelm. i. 544. i302. * lb. can. 6. Spelm. Wilk. i 301. <¦ LL. Canut. can. 63. Lam barde, de Priscis Anglorum Script. , 9, 10, Wilk. i. 543. Legibus. Cantab. 1644, p. 121. Johnson has appended (sub an. 1018) the following note to his translation : ' This law, which is omitted by Sir H. S. (Spelman), shews that the reparation of churches was devolved on the people sooner than is commonly thought.' The preamble states that the body of statutes in which this occurs, was enacted in a Witena-gemot holden at Win chester, at Christmas. It is said that Canute decreed with his senators' advice. — (Lamb. 97). He seems to have holden a legislative council at Winchester in 1021. « LL. Canut. E. can. 5. Spelm. i.553. Wilk. i. 306. 198 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1043. The brief reigns of Canute's two sons, Harold Harefoot and Hardicanute, afford no materials for ecclesiastical history. Nor is it much otherwise with the succeeding reign of Edward the Confessor. England, naturally re joiced in finding herself again under a prince of her ancient dynasty, regarded Edward with fond partiality. His per sonal qualities, indeed, were worthy of the people's love. He was mild and well.intentioned, displaying on the throne those dispositions which are most estimable in private Ufe. Among monastic writers he has high celebrity. They could not fail of extolling that munificence which founded the noble Abbey of Westminster. Thefr eulogies were justly due to a monarch who made religion popular by the strictness of his own example. Thefr prejudices were highly gratified by the spectacle of a distinguished married man avoiding commerce with his wife. They were not likely to reason that even if this abstinence had ever been rigidly maintained, personal aversion or mere constitution might be the real cause of it. Nor did it harmonize with cloistered habits to remark, that if no such impediment intervened, Edward's conduct was anything rather than wise and patriotic. He ought surely to have felt some anxiety for securing his country against the miseries of a disputed succession. In him, however, were merely dis cerned a sainted vfrgin king, fitted for occupying a con spicuous station among monastic heroes, and for stamping credibility upon some of those legendary tales which de lighted a superstitious age. But, although the Confessor stands conspicuously religious among English kings he does not make much figure as an ecclesiastical legislator. There are, indeed, certain laws relating to the Church which pass under his name. These, however, were com piled after William had conquered England : and they seem rather to be authorized statements of laws in force while Edward reigned, than enactments of his legislature. They confirm the Church's immunities* and claims to tythes,' adding those upon profits in trading.' They like- » LL. S. Edw. E. et Conf. cann. 2, 6, 7. Spelm. i. 619, 620. Wilk. i. 310, 311. 2 lb. cann. 8, 9. "Can. 9. Spelm. i. 621. Wilk. i.311. A.D. 1050.] TO THE CONQUEST. 199 wise confirm the papal claim for Peter-pence. But they make no mention of the customary assessments for public worship. One of them is remarkable for kindly declaring that>the Jews are under the king's protection.' Of that most memorable among nations, great numbers had re cently fled into western countries before the fanatic fury of Mahometanism ; and it is pleasing to know that England did not deny them an asylum. Another of the Confessor's laws provides outlawry and confiscation as penalties of usury.' Edward's Norman education had rendered him almost a foreigner,' and indiscreetly partial to the French. The numbers of them whom he patronized gave a powerful influence to their language and manners. Thus even so far back as the Confessor's reign, Enghshmen have been open to the charge, often cast upon them, of aff'ecting continental usages. The king, probably, spoke French more freely than his native tongue. His Norman courtiers, generaUy, must have been unable to master the Anglo- Saxon. Hence, even before the conquest, that noble idiom sank in social estimation; English gentlemen leading humbler people to rank the speaking of French among marks of superior breeding.'' One of Edward's Norman friends was Robert, a monk of Jumieges, to whom he had owed some obligations while in exile. Him he preferred to the see of London, and afterwards to that of Canterbury. Other sees were also filled by foreigners. At _ length, national antipathies and envy being efl'ectively aroused, a powerful combination drove these adventurers back to the continent.* Canterbury was now bestowed upon Stigand, bishop of Winchester ; a see which he continued to hold, thereby committing, as monastic writers represent, a very grave offence. But for such a plurality even Dunstan's example might be pleaded.^ Stigand, however, was one of the many distinguished Anglo-Saxons whom WiUiam found it desfrable to dispossess. Hence, writers who sought ' Can. 22. ¦^ lb. 23. ' Ingulph. 509. *Ib. Scriptpost Bed. » Malmesb. Script post Bed. 116. ^ Dunstan held Worcester with London. 200 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1062. Norman patronage, are naturally anxious to paint him in unfavourable colours. They are, however, driven to admit his wisdom and efficiency.* His primacy deserves notice, because it was exercised under circumstances even then unusual, and eventually represented as fatal to the powers of a metropolitan. Stigand never presented himself at the papal court to sue for a pall. Upon occasions he seems to have used one that his predecessor left behind ¦p' or it may be that he wore one sent to him, during a contest for, the papacy by a party who failed in maintaining his ground.' Certainty upon these points, if attainable, would be of little or no importance. But it is otherwise with Stigand's indisputable reception as a primate. In this, England manifested a feeling of ecclesiastical independence which may surprise those who have hastily assumed her entfre dependance upon Rome from Augustine to the Refor mation. Edward's unfortunate successor, Harold, had previously to his brief possession of the crown, founded the noble monastery of Waltham. To this act of liberality, however, he does not seem to have been tempted by any partiality for the Benedictine order : his establishment being ar ranged for secular canons.* The monks, therefore, had not triumphed over all opposition. The ancient economy of an EngUsh religious house yet found powerful friends ; and > Malmesb. Script, post Bed. 116. ^ MS. profession of Eemigius, bishop of Lincoln, made to Lan franc, cited by Inett. — (Hist of the Engl Ch. ch. i. 387). Ee migius had been consecrated by Stigand ; and Lanfranc insisted upon a new profession, because he maintained that Stigand had been excommunicated by the Pope for his contumacy. This, however, is nothing in favour of the papal cause, for it is clear that whatever Eome might have done against Stigand, England paid no attention to it. = Inett (p. 384) examines this question at considerable length, and shews it to be far from clear as to the particular Pope, or pre tender, who is said to have oom- phmented Stigand with a pall. The matter is, howevfer, of but little importance on any account. The truth, most probably, appears in the profession of Eemigius. ¦* The abbey of Waltham was founded in 1062 ; namely, four years before Harold's obtainment of the throne. — (Monast ii. 13). In 1117 regular canons were sub stituted for the seculars under papal authority. — lb. A.D. 1066.] TO THE CONQUEST. 201 the two rival systems must have been often warmly con trasted with each other, down to the very edge of Norman times. Obviously, facilities were thus afforded for WilUam's enterprise. The monks were not mere ascetics, the canons mere maintainers that worldly business and religious pro gress could go on very well together. Both struggled also for endowments, and in many cases for those which the other party possessed. Hence the public mind was pre pared for political changes : disaffected spirits thinking few things worse than a continuance of existing obstructions. Upon doctrines prevalent during the last period of Anglo-Saxon religious history, Elfric's remains afford much interesting information. They prove forcibly and clearly, that the ancient Church of England never wavered in her invaluable testimony, against transubstantiation.* They ' In the holy housel we receive Christ's body: the loaf is truly his body spiritually, though the un learned know not how to believe it. — (Serm. de Lege Dei. Bibl. Publ Cant MSS. ii 4— 6. p. 175). This passage is evidently the key to testimony from antiquity cited in favour of transubstantia tion. The gross and irreligious identified completely the sacra mental elements with ordinary food. Divines taught that con secration converted them spi ritually into Christ's body and blood. Such conversion, how ever, applies to spiritual receiving alone. This ancient homily, therefore, teaches the same doc trine as the catechism of the reformed Church of England. In this we learn that ' the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.' So Elfrio says in his Sermon on the Lord's Nativity (Mr. Thorpe's Transl.) ' This holy bread (which descended from heaven) we taste when we with faith go to hoMsel! —(Homilies of jElfric. i. 35). Another passage from an ancient piece : De Ecclesiasticis Gradibus. — (Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii, 121. f. 39) distinctly nega^ tives the gross and carnal no tions that have been fixed upon eucharistic ministrations. The mass -priest betokeneth Christ him self, and the altar betokeneth Christ s rood (cross), and the oflet betokeneth Christ's body, and wine and water in the chalice mani- festeth the holiness which from Christ's side outflowed, that was blood and water. In this passage the word oflet comes from the Latin oifata, which is ab offer endo, and denotes a small cake made for the sacrament ; Du Cange cites Bromton to shew that the term was applied to unconse- crated bread. That historian, speaking of Hugh de St. Victor's death, in the time of King Stephen, says, that on his desire of the eueharist, they brought him a simple oflet not consecrated. — (X Script 1035). In the Saxon extract, oflete, to which oblata answers is, however, undoubtedly consecrated bread. The Ian- 202 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1066. show satisfactorily that she did not hold such opinions upon St. Peter's alleged privileges, and upon papal juris diction, as Romanists have ' maintained in later years.* They cannot countenance dfrect, positive absolutions, called 'indicative' by theologians, for such were not in use before the year 1200 : when Elfric wrote, absolutions were those called precatory, that is, prayers for God's forgiveness after penance had been performed.' His own view of absolution is Jerome's as the reformer Tyndale's was?' Thus his homilies expressly deny transubstantiation, circumscribe papal pretensions, and were penned in total ignorance of indicative absolutions. Their divinity, then, differs ma terially from that which gained pretty firm possession of the West in the thfrteenth century, and kept its ground until the Reformation. Confession is, indeed, insisted upon in the Saxon homilies; but only from a notion that every sin requfred a corre sponding penance. The latter could not be apportioned without a knowledge of the former. After-times might say that confession still was only sought for the apportion ment of penance. But, practically, a direct, positive absolution became the only object and certain result of confession. Penance was merely imposed. Earlier usage was very different from this, and far less popular. In some other things Anglo-Saxon divinity really does countenance that of later times. It recommends prayers and eucharistic services for the dead, favours the veneration of relics. Elfric's age foUowed its immediate ancestry in paying those honours to images, which England once had indignantly repudiated. His own Decalogue, indeed, is worse than Alfred's. Although that admirable king has tarnished his fair fame by suppressing the second commandment, he has guage, therefore, would alarm a behever in transubstantiation, who would quickly see the dan ger of saying that the sacra mental bread in any state 'be tokeneth Christ's body.' There noight, however, be room for doubt upon such subjects, were not Elfric's Paschal Homily, and his two epistles, irresistible evidence that neither he nor the Church of England in his day, held the eucharistic behef of modern Eome. * See Bampt. Lect. Serm. iii p. 135, and the preceding homily. ^76. p. 295. ^ ^ '76. p. 300. A.D. 1066.] TO THE CONQUEST. 203 not divided the tenth into two, and he has made up the number ten, by putting in the tenth place, that prohibition of silver and golden gods, which stands in the twenty- thfrd verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus. Elfric's Decalogue has no such extenuating circumstances. It suppresses the prohibition of image-worship, and divides that of coveting into two. About gods of silver or gold it says nothing.* The great homiUst also entertained some obscure speculations upon purgatorial fires. Without such posthumous penances, he saw that none who never repented until the point of death, could give that satisfaction for thefr sins which the prevailing theory required.' He like wise expected a mighty conflagration on the day of judg ment, which every body once human will have to pass through, and will be burnt by it, much or little, or not at all, according to the state in which soul and body parted.' ' Homilies of JElfric. ii. 199. 2 lb. ii. 363. ' Fundamentum aliud, die. (1 Cor.iii.ll.) That is no man can lay another ground-wall (founda tion) in the holy congregation, but that which is laid, that is Jesus Christ. He is the ground- wall of the ghostly church, even as we to you ere said. The apostle quoth: Whoever buildeth over this ground-wall gold, or silver, or precious stones, or tree (wood), straw, or chaff, every man's work shall be manifest. God's day will manifest it, because it shall be revealed in fire, and that fire will prove what each m,an's work is. If any one's building lasteth- through and withstandeth the fire, then receiveth the workman his reward from God for his work. If any one's work bumeth-up, he hath the harm, and is neverthe less holden through the fire. These words we cannot without great fear expound. By the gold we mderstand belief and a good conscience; by the silver, right speech and eloquence, in God's, lore ; by the precious stones, holy powers; and he who buildeth such works in God's congregation the fire on doomsday cannot con sume his building, because the fire hurteth not the good though it torment the unrighteous. Gold, and silver, and precious stones, are proved in the fire, but never theless they are not with the Jire consumed. So, also, he who hath good works suffereth not any tor ture in the broad fire wliich over- goeth all the earth, but they go through that fire to Christ without any hurt, as if they went in the sun's brightness. He who builds over the ground-wall, tree, or straw, or chaff, undoubtedly he may know that his work shall in the great fire bum up, and he will have the harm of his work, and will be, nevertheless, holden through the fire. By the tree, and the straw, and the chaff, are be tokened light sins, which will be purged by Jire, and the workman will have punishment for the 204 FROM DUNSTAN [a.D. 1066. Nor is Elfric free from invocations of the saintly dead. StiU, neither that usage, nor purgatory, makes the sort of figure in his homilies that might be expected from a well- informed, superior mind, entirely satisfied upon such ques tions.* It is plain, rather, that a belief in purgatory, and habits of invoking saints were making a stealthy progress, than that either had found a place among evidences of orthodoxy. Thus Elfric, in favouring some traditions which the Council of Trent erected into articles of faith, renders it a service at best equivocal. His homUies were manifestly written during a state of transition from one work. He will he, nevertheless, purged hy the fire, and then he Cometh through great difficulty to God's kingdom. Truly he who committeth the capital vices, and in them endeth, he must hum up in the everlasting fire, and thus the heavy sins wiU never be purged in any fiery conflag ration. — Hom. in Dedicatione Ecclesias. (Bihl. Bodl. MSS. Bodley 342, f. 177.) — The homilist subsequently says. Many are also the punishing places in which men's souls for their negligence suffer, according to the measure of their faults, ere the common judgment, so that some will be fully cleansed, and have no occasion to suffer any thing i'rt the foresaid fire. Thus, the principal purgatorial fire was not expected until the day of judgment, and even upon that remedy great sinners were not to calculate unless they amended before the end of life. But this view of purgatory is not that of modern Eomanists, nor does the gloomy prospect offered to the more inveterate offenders agree with such repre sentations of absolution as have long forrned a powerful attrac tion within the papal church. * Homiletic exhortations to in voke the Blessed Virgin, may be seen in note 21 to Ser. 4, Bampt. Lect. 233. Such an exhortation to invoke St. Lawrence is found in p. 238. The homilies most hkely are Elfric's ; at all events they were produced about this time, and are evidences, there fore, that the practice of in voking departed spirits was then gaining ground. But the Saxon homilies, as may be seen in notes 4 and 5 (p. 216) to that sermon, are far from favourable, upon the whole, to such invo cation. It is perfectly obvious, from them and from liturgies of their time and of earlier dates, as the proofs to that sermon abundantly testify, that not even Anglo-Saxon usage, much less authority, was ever very favourable to any invocation but that of God. None other, in deed, seems to have entered the head of any man until a period but little removed from the Conquest. Johnson, according ly, observes upon the fifth of the penitential canons, which he would attribute to Dunstan, and which he places under the year 963. ' It is evident the fashion of confessing to angels and saints did not yet prevail.' A.D. 1066.] TO THE CONQUEST. 205 class of doctrines to another : but indications of such a state undermine that claim to an uninterrupted stream of testimony, in which religious principles, incapable of Scrip tural proof, long sought support. Undoubtedly, however, Elfric and other Anglo-Saxons, confirm the recent theory of ascribing religious principles, not discoverable from Scripture, to some development. But no theory can be more dangerous to the Church of Rome. The unauthen- ticated principles, gradually developed, may obviously be relics of unextirpated Paganism; which kept regaining thefr ancient vigour, as the pressure upon them relaxed. But whatever origin may be given to an extra-scriptural belief, it plainly was not England's earliest Christianity. Elfric alone leaves very little room for doubting this, although he countenances, more or less, various things that Scripture does not warrant. As to image-worship, he has even stifled its voice, and it is a foul blot upon his memory. But his country, at an earUer time, took safer and more honourable ground. Nor did it only pour contemptuous indignation upon image-worship. Its creed, in other points, was more cautiously shaped by the Bible than that of a later age. Anglo-Saxon theology, therefore, as a whole, rindicates the Reformation. It speaks in general as EngUsh divines have spoken since that mighty change. It shews thefr country to have then substarttiaUy regained her ancient faith. 206 Chapter V. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. god's offer of salvation to christians represented as uni versal — practice esteemed the only test of religious sin cerity — god's likeness to be found in the human soul — nature of the christian church — POPULAR EXPOSITIONS OF THE lord's PRAYER AND THE CREED ENJOINED — APOCRYPHAL LEGENDS — RESPECT FOR SUNDAY — FESTIVALS AND FASTS — ABSTINENCE FROM STRANGLED FOOD AND BLOOD — EPISCOPAL ELECTIONS — NO PRO FESSION OF OBEDIENCE TO ROME REQUIRED FROM BISHOPS — NOR OF BELIEF IN TRANSUBSTANTIATION' — BISHOPS AND ABBOTS MEM BERS OF THE NATIONAL LEGISLATURE — BISHOPS CONCURRENT JUDGES IN THE COUNTY COURTS ¦ — EPISCOPAL SEES — EPISCOPAL PRECEDENCE AND VISITATIONS ORDINATION AND DUTIES OF PRIESTS — ANXIETY TO KEEP THEM UNMARRIED— SEVEN ORDERS OF ECCLESIASTICS — DIFFERENT KINDS OF MONKS — REGULATIONS RESPECTING THEM— ECCLESIASTICAL IMMUNITIES — GUILDSHIPS OR SODALITIES — CORONATION COMPACT — BAPTISM • — MARRIAGE — SECOND MARRIAGES — WAKES — DEDICATION OF CHURCHES — RELI GIOUS ARCHITECTURE — ORGANS — ORDEALS TRUCE OP THE CHURCH — LUSTRAL WATER AND CHRISM USED AS CHARMS — THE PENITENTIAL SYSTEM — ANGLO-SAXON SAINTS — ANGLO-SAXON VER SIONS OF SCRIPTURE — CONCLUSION. For the convenience of making a distinction, it may be. Englishmen have long spelt and pronounced differently the words God and good. Anglo-Saxon documents have led eminent scholars to consider this difference in both cases, as comparatively modern. They have thought the great Creator to have been knovm emphatically as the Good, a happy designation, at once expressive of his own most endearing attribute, and of his people's thankfulness. With equal felicity of expression, it must be mournfuUy acknowledged, was our Anglo-Norman ancestry contented to signify humanity and wickedness by the same word. Man meant indifferently either.* In strict conformity with a * 'Obiter hie notandum,vocem I Deum significasse et Bonum: God apud Anglo-Saxones, et | uti Man, et Hominem, et Nequi- MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 207 name so appropriately found for the Great First Cause, were Anglo-Saxon views of his moral governance. All Christians were encouraged in believing themselves to have received an offer of salvation. The health of every soul was represented as the desire of God.* Nor were gloomy forebodings awakened in any believing mind, unless an irreligious life denied the conscience peace. When the Author of all goodness is thus attractively displayed, a serious mind inclines irresistibly to love him. Such an inclination might, however, merely generate a transient glow, productive neither of individual ameliora tion, nor of honour to the church. Wisely, therefore, for thtf ripening of heavenly seed, were the Anglo-Saxons taught distrust in any barren impulse, however warm and creditable. Men might please themselves in observing their hearts approach to a healthier, religious tone, and not unreasonably. Would they please God, also, Anglo- Saxon divinity bade them to remetnber that virtuous tiam! (LYE.invoce,if«m.) Junius says in his glossary to the Gothic gospels, 'Unicumacsummum bo num, DEUS OPTIMUS MAXI- MUS, Goth, dicitur.' The Gothic root of Man, wickedness (Angl.- Sax.) does not appear to be extant in the gospels of Ulphi- las. That word, occurs in the Anglo-Saxon (Mar. vii. 22,) an swering to TTovripiat, the wicked ness, of our authorised version, but the corresponding Gothic word is Unseleins, evidently a negative form from Sel, good. Mr. Kemble, however, (Gent. Mag. July, 1835, p. 27,) derives the Saxon, Man, wickedness, from the Gothic, Mains, with the same signification, and considers Goth, or Guth, God, not as the neuter of Gods, good, but as an inde pendent noun. ' The Lord with so great love us loveth, he desireth that we all be hale and sound, and turn to true repentance, and to true under standing of his divinity. The Lord desireth that our life be es tablished in cleanness (purity) and in truth : he wiU not that the sinful man in his sins continue, and after his death in everlasting punishments die. But he desires that we, in this lean (frail or tran sitory) tide, earn that we for ever do not perish. The gracious Lord and the mild-hearted, asketh he not of us gold, nor silver, nor any worldly gain ; hut he desireth that we cleanse our soul andour body; that we may give it up to him, as clean as he committed it ere dean to us. Men, the most beloved, we should with manifold goods oiir souls cleanse; with fastings and with alms-deed, and with clean prayers ; for the man who con stantly calleth to the Lord, then hreaketh he the deviVs main (power), and his temptations from him putteth to flight. — Hom. De LetaniS, Majore. Bihl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 22. 208 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. actions must prove thefr feelings energetic, no less than sound.* Thus were congregations guarded against Ulu- sions from a sanguine temperament and an enthusiastic brain ; holy affections were tried by the sober-minded test of moral lives ; men were warned against reckoning either upon their own love to God or upon the love from him indispensable for their wants, while the habits bore no witness to a change. Until this difficulty was overcome, all claims to the love of God were branded as nothing better than false pretences.' To the soundness of such divinity sensible men will ordinarily yield immediate assent. Nor do they overlook, when sunk in serious thought, the difficulty of thus attest ing trustworthy principles. From this insight into their danger, and into their natural incompetence to overcome it, religious minds draw humiUty and aspirations after heavenly aid. Anglo-Saxon teachers inculcated, accord ingly, the need of both. A proud heart was represented as fatal to the hope of divine assistance, and this latter as indispensable for estabUshing the soul in health.' It was ' Come we now, then, men the most beloved, let us take peace and hve among ourselves; for in them is the greatest of all God's commandments. Come, let us take cleanness and regard for good works ; for without them no man can please God. — (Hom. De LetaniS, Majore. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 22). ^ Then quoth the Healer (Sa viour) to his learning-knights (disciples) : He that loveth me, he holds my bidding, and m,y Father loveth him, for the obedi ence, and we two come to him, and dwell with him. Hear, my bre thren, what the Healer quoth : He that loveth me, he holds m,y hidr- ding. The love's proof is the work's effect. Johannes, the apos tle, also of this quoth: If any one quoth that he loveth the loving God, and his bidding hold not. he is a liar then. Truly we love the belovedLord, if we our ill-rnan- ners adjust hy his commands, and our errors hy his words correct, and through what displeases him, his love do not gainsay. — (Hom. De Dileotione Dei et Proximi. Bihl Bodl. MSS. Junii. 23). ' Valleys betoken the humble, mA>untains the proud. At the Lord's advenjt were valleys filled up and mountains levelled, even as he himself quoth : Every one of those who exalt themselves shall be abased, and he that humhleth himself shall be exalted. Even as water shoots off the mountains, and then stands in the valley, even sofieeth the Holy Ghost proud m,en's hearts, and taketh a dwel ling in the humble. — Hom. in Nativ. Sci. loh. Bapt. Bibl Bodl MSS. Juni. 24. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 209 to that invisible part to which the words of Moses were appUed, when he speaks of man as originaUy created in the image of God.* When human aims, therefore, were dfrected by the divine perfections, men were only striving to regain what they had been taught to consider as in tegral portions of thefr proper nature. Adam's fall, how ever, they were informed had enslaved the will. This had been originaUy free in every sense of that word. It was now warped by a constitutional bias towards iniquity ; hence nothing short of divine interposition offered a hope of such courses as judgment and conscience would ap prove.' Although the Anglo-Saxons ever viewed Rome with fiUal deference, their definitions of the Church do not harmonise with those which controversial necessities even tuaUy extorted from papal divines. Thefr simple and unexceptionable treatment of this question diff'ers, in fact, httle or nothing substantially, from that which appears in the Thirty-nine Articles.' Thus in this, as in many other Now needeth our freedom ever God's aid, for we do no good without God's aid. — (Hom. in Letania, Majore. Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Julius. E. 7. f. 83). None of us hath any light of any goodness hut of Christ's gift, who is called the sun of true righteousness. — (lb. Titus. D. 27. f.54). * Here ye may hear the Holy Trinity and the true Unity in one Divinity. Come, let us make man : there is the holy Trinity : To our likeness: there is the Unity: To one likeness, not to three likenesses. In man's soul is the likeness of God; therefore is Tnan better than the soul-less cattle, which have no understand ing about their own Creator. — (Hom. 15. De Exameron, thcet is, BE GODES SIX DA GA WEOB- CUM. Bihl Bodl MSS. Junii. 24. p. 276). ^ What is free will ? What is freedom to choose good or evil ? The freedom had man in Para dise : but now is the freedom enslaved; for man can do no good, unless God, through his gift, him, teach. Nor, then, can he go on with it, unless God aid him thereto. — (lirit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Vespasian. D. 14. f. 157). 3 ' The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the Sacra ments be duly administered, in all those things that of neces sity are requisite to the same.' — (Art. XIX.) Upon St. Matth. xi. 12, a Saxon homily says, Godes rice is gecweden on thisre stowe, seo halige gelathung, thwt is, call Cristen folc. — (In Nativ. Sci Job. Bapt. Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii. 24. f. 29). Gods kingdom 210 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. instances, the reUgious antiquities of England bear a gratifying testimony to the soundness of the discretion that guided her Reformation. A Latin liturgy naturaUy made the Anglo-Saxons par tial to that language even in thefr offices of domestic piety. The Lord's Prayer, the creeds, and other devo tional pieces were, indeed, rendered into the vernacular tongue. Nor was there any reason why individuals worshipping God at home, should have used them under the disguise of a foreign idiom. But public worship takes a powerful hold upon the imagination, and human weak ness readily connects a mysterious potency with solemn words that are not understood. Lest any such evil should prevail, popular expositions were expected from clergymen, of the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.* People, it was truly said, ought to know the purport of thefr prayers, and the articles of their belief These few words unan swerably rebuke the usage of making religion speak an unknown tongue. In questions that require sound criticism rather than common sense, Anglo-Saxon divines naturally shew the deficiencies of their age. They believed Elijah to be reserved alive for a solemn appearance upon earth ; when Antichrist has gained his destined ascendancy, immediately before the final consummation. Then, he is to bear an unavaUing testimony against ungodliness and suffer mar is called in this place, the holy congregation, that is, all Christian folk. In another homily, we find, Leofan men, we gelyfath thast halig gelathung sy ealra Cristena manna to anum rihtan geleafan.' — (De Fide. Bibl. Bodl MSS. Junii. 99. f. 13). Beloved men, we believe the holy congre gation to he the body of Christian men with one right faith. In the pubhshed Homihes of Elfric may also be read 'the holy Church of God, that is, ah Christian people' (ii. li). 'Ah God's churches are accounted as one church, and that is caUed congregation! (Ih. 581). ' Se lareow sceal secgan tham Icewedum mannum that andgit to tham Pater nre, and tham Credam,, that hi witon hwmt hi hiddath at Gode, and hu hi sceolon on God gelyfan. — (Hom. in Cap. Jejunii. Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Julius. E. 7. f. 65). The teacher should tell to the lay people, the meaning of the Pater nr, and the Creed, that they know what they pray of God, and how they should in God believe. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 211 tyrdom.* They thought our Saviour's descent into hell to have delivered Adam and Eve, with others of the departed good, who were languishing in the infernal regions. All these Jesus brought away, when he broke thefr prison gates. Impenitent spirits he left behind, to brood in gloomy despair over the augmented horrors to which they will be sentenced on the day of judgment.' By Paradise, the Anglo-Saxons understood a delightful abode miraculously suspended between heaven and earth.' A proof of the body's resurrection they rather strangely sought in the legend of the Seven Sleepers. This js told of seven Ephesians, nobly born who would not apostatise from Christianity, and being indulged with time to think upon the danger of refusing, retired into a cave. Orders ' Elias never yet suffered death, but he is yet in the body living in the place where God hath set him ; and he shall there happily abide his martyrdom, until the Lord send him away hereafter hither on earth, at the world's end, that he should then tell and testify to mankind God's lore, and un dergo his martyrdom for Christ's love, in Antichrist's days. — (Bibl. Bodl MSS. BoDLEY, 343. f. 162). 2 Our Healer, Christ, brake heWs gates, and delivered Adam and Eva, and his chosen of their hind, arid freely from, death arose, and they with him, and ascended to heaven. The wicked he left behind, to everlasting punish ments ; and now is hells gate locked against righteous men, and ever open to unrighteous. — (Hom. in die Dom. Pasch. p. 294. Bihl. Publ Cant MSS. 9, i. 4—6). Another of these legendary statements is worthy of notice, because it is at variance with the chronology now commonly received. Thcet was Frigedmg that hi tha blcede thigdon, Adam. and Eua, and hi eft swulton on Frigedag ; andtha eft aefter thon that hi butu waron on helle, Adam and Eua, for thces gyltes myclnesse, ff thusend wintra, and twa hund wintra, or thon heom God gemildsian wolde, and heom thces wraces unhindan. — (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tiberius. A. 3. f. 41). It was Friday that they ate the fruit, Adam and Eva, ana they afterwards died on Friday ; and after that they both were in hell, Adam and Eva, for the guilts greatness, five thousand winters, and two hundred winters, ere that God would have mercy on them, and release them from his ven geance. ^ Scs Johannes saw over the ocean as if it were land. Then the angel took him, and brought him to Paradise. Paradise is neither in heaven, nor in earth. The hook saith, that Noe's flood was forty fathomshigh overthe highest moun^- tains that are on earth, and Para dise is forty fatlwms higher than Noe's flood was ; and it hangeth between heaven and earth woiider- fuUy.— (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Vespasian. C. 14. f. 163). 212 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. were given to close up this, and in it they were found aUve, after a trance of nearly four centuries. Their re appearance was represented as proving the possibility of a general resurrection.* A more philosophical age would have seen the fallacy of reasoning from a case in which the more active bodily functions were merely suspended, to one in which the body itself was wholly decomposed. As inconsistencies of this kind are little observed in a rude state of society, the Anglo-Saxon divines gladly made use of imagery whenever they found any likely to answer their purpose. The national legislature had wisely and honourably provided for the due observance of Sunday, upon several occasions.^ Such provisions, the people were told in a legendary tale, could plead express authority from Heaven. When the Christians at Antioch, had become remiss in hallowing the Lord's day, one Peter, their bishop, learnt from a letter brought by an angel, what was the proper manner of keeping the day, and what were the special reasons for setting it apart.' These com- • Us tell us also hooks, even as it full true is, that the seven sleepers, who slept at a time, from Decie's days, the devilish emperor, to Theodosie's time, who believed in the Lord, three hundred and seventy-two years' space, that they then up-arosefrom the earth alive; because Christ would manifest to the emperor that we all shall rise from death at the last day to meet our Lord, and receive the reward of all our deeds, according to that we ere wrought in this world. — (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Vitel- lius. C. 5. f. 95). ^ Ina's legislation for Sunday has already been particularised. This was repeated at Bergham- stead. The fourteenth canon of the council of Cloveshoo, forbids journeys to ecclesiastics, unless absolutely necessary, on Sundays, —(Spelm. i. 249. Wilk. i. 96). Athelstan imposed heavy penal ties on Sunday-trading. — (Spelm. i. 400. Wilk. i. 207). At Ean ham, hunting on Sundays was forbidden. — (SPELM.i.518. Wilk. i. 288). This, with the other prohibitions, Canute repeated. — ' Spelm. i, 546. Wilk. i. 303. ' Tha ascende se Mknihtiga God an ar&nd-gewrit ufan of heofonan he anum halga/n engle, io anum bisceope, se hatte Petrus, se was biscop on Antiochia thare hurh, thar thoer Scs Petrus, se apostol, arest gesat his biscop- setl : on tham gewrite stod call be thoes dceges halign^sse. — (Bibl. Lameth. MSS. 489. f. 25. SEEMO AD POPVLVM DOMINIOIS DIEBVS). Then sent Almighty God an epistle from heaven above, by a holy angel, to a bishop named Petrus, who was bishop in the city of Antiochia, where Scs Petrus, the apostle, erst set his bishop's see ; m the writing stood all about the day's holiness. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 213 prise the bulk of those incidents that most affect religious minds. Anglo-Saxon usage consecrated to devotion the whole- space of time from three o'clock on Saturday afternoon to day-light on Monday morning.* Within this interval, the heavenly epistle said, God created the soul of man. It claims this, too, as the time when Israel passed through the Red Sea, manna first miraculously feU, and Christ was born. On the very same day, we hkewise learn, did Jesus receive baptism, change water into wine, and feed the five thousand.' His rise from the dead, and the great day of Pentecost swell, of course, this imposing catalogue. But besides these glories past, Sun day's title to human veneration, is placed upon another ground, yet future, but interesting above measure to a sinful world. The general judgment, we are told, will crown the various most remarkable distinctions of that ' This custom of keeping eves appears to have been adopted from the Jewish practice. Among that nation it was ancient, as is erident from Judith, viu. 6. The hoimly thus enjoins it, assuming the person of God : Ic heode thcet men healdan thone Drihtenlican dag from, eallum theowetlicum weorcum: thatis,fram Saternes- dceges none, oth Monan-dages lihtinge. I hid that men keep the Lords day from all servile works : that is, from Saturn's-day noon (ninth hour, reckoned from six in the morning) to Monda^js dawn. Legislative penalties re served all this space of time for rehgion so early as the council of Berghamstead, in 697. — Spelm. il96. WttK.i.60. ' Also on that day he created maris soul; and when Moyses, the leader, led God!s folk from Egypt s Icmd, then on that day he led them over the Red Sea, after he sm,ote with a wand on the sea, and it went in twain, cmd the people went between the two waters on the ground all dryshod, untU they came to the land up : and on that day, came erst the heavenly meat from h«aven above for the same folk's food, and God fed them with it XL. winters in the wilderness that they travelled through, and the meat was called manna : and on that day was Christ, the living GocFs Son, bom of Sea Maria's womb, true man as he is true God, the world to release from the devil's power, who ere possessed the power of it from Adam's guilt: and after he was born, he turned, on that day, water into wine; and on that day he was baptised: and on that day he refreshed at one meal (obhterated) thousand men from five barley loaves (obhterated) fishes, after he had the food with heavenly blessing on the same day blessed, and when they all were full, then were borne up from that which they left twelve baskets full— (Bibl Lameth. MSS. 489. f. 26.) 214 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. holy day.' Well, therefore, might God insist upon a rigid observance of it. His angelic message forbids, accord ingly, all trafficking on Sundays, all exercise of an artisan's trade, all such household cares as are not necessarily of daily recurrence; it even interdicts the barber from attendance. Any transgressor of these restrictions, it was declared, God would treat as an outlaw, denying him his blessing, and reserving for him his wrath.' Besides the Lord's day, conciliar authority enjoined the celebration of all such festivals in honour of saints as were estabUshed in the Roman martyrologies.' In process of time English saints made new calls upon the national devotion. It was, however, impressed upon the minds of men, that such services, although in honour of religion's brightest ornaments, were merely commemora tive. To God himself the service was really addressed.^ Upon the public generally these demands for pious exercises appear to have been far less numerous than they eventually became. It was, probably, monks and eccle siastics only who were expected to vary their year by aU the commemorative offices of the Roman calendar. Upon the week-day time of laymen the claim for festivals appears to have been merely for the holiday-seasons of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas; for two days in honour of the Virgin ; for one day in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul ; and for single days in honour of the arch angel Michael, of the Baptist, of the saints Martin and Andrew, and of the Epiphany ; together with such mar tyrs or confessors as should be interred in that particular ' On that day will the earth he all ended; and on that day Cometh God to judge all mankind, every man according to his own works. Sunday is the first day of all days, and it wUl he the last at this worlds end.— (lb. f. 26, 27). ^ Whoever any dealing on that day exerciseth, or washeth clothes, or any artisan that works at his craft, or u, man who trims the hair' of another, or hakes bread, or plies any unallowed thing on that day, he shall he an outlaw with me, and all who aid him in the wrong, and approve him : for men who ply such things do not get my Messing or my mercy, hut upon them cometh suddenly my wrath for the day's contempt. — (Bihl Lameth. MSS. 489. f. 28). " Cone. Clovesh. can. 13. Spelm. i. 249. Wilk. i. 96. ¦^ Ex codice MS. C.C.C.C. apud Hickes, Thes.'-a.. 148. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 215 diocese which contained the parties' residence.* English authorities also thought themselves bound by the ties of national gratitude to prescribe festivals in honour of Gregory and Augustine.' Besides these calls to blend religion with festivity, the Anglo-Saxon Church prescribed regular pious exercises of a different character. Every Friday, unless it happened to be a festival, was to be solemnized by fasting. It was the same with the eve of every festival, except that of St. PhUip and St. James. This saints'-day was always near the joyous time of Easter. Hence the Church was unwiUing then to insist upon any fast, but left such a mode of celebrating the eve optional with individuals.'' The great fasts were four in number, one in every quarter of the year. These were distinguished as legitimate fasts, and were ordinarily observed with considerable rigour. Every person above twelve years of age was then required to abstain from food until nones, or three in the after noon.* These four seasons of religious abstinence were ' Cone. Eanh. Spelm. i. 518. Wilk. i 288. * 'Primum legitimum ieiuniii erit in prim^, ebdomada quadra- gesim^. Scdm autem in ebdo- mod&. pentecosten. Sive ebdo mada post pentecosten. Ter- tium ante in ebdomadEb plenS, ante equinoctiu autumpnale. Quartu ante in eb^madS, plenS, ante natale dni nri ihu xpi.' — (BihlBodlMSS. Junii. 99). This is from an ancient calendar at the beginning of the MS., writ ten, as it appears, by a monk and priest, named Edric, who died 9 Kal. Dec. ; but the year is not mentioned. 'The calculations, however, are made to the year 1119. Fastath eower lencten fasten rildlice to nones, ale man the beo ofer XII. tcintre, and tha feower ymbrenu on twelf monthu, the for rihtlice asette synd, and thara 1 haligra mcesse-afenas the for ' De Festivitatihus Anni. Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tibe rius, A. 3. f. 165. Wanley pro nounces the MS. from which this extract has been made, anterior to the Conquest. — Hickes. Thes. ii, 192. " Cone. Clovesh. can. 17. Spelm. i. 256. Wilk. i. 97. The 1 8th of Eng Alfred's laws allows twelve days at Christmas, the day of Christ's victory over the devil, St. Gregory's day, St. Peter and St. Paul's day, AU Saints' day. Passion week, the Easter week, and a full week before St. Mary's mass, in harvest. — (Spelm. i. 370. Wilk. i. 194). The St. Mary's mass mentioned, is that for the feast of the assumption, or sup posed bodily assent of the Virgin into heaven, Aug. 15. Johnson considers the day of Christ's victory over the devil to be either Ascension-day, or the first Sunday in Lent. 216 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. also called ember weeks, from the Saxon word signifying a circuit, or course. Of this adaptation the meaning is obvious, — in the course of every year these fasts regularly recurred.' Anglo-Saxon prejudices appear never to have been relaxed upon the subject of such aliments as the most venerable of councils, that of Jerusalem, had forbidden.' Although Jewish prejudices no longer needed concilia tion, yet this was apparently quite overlooked. Eccle siastical authorities implicitly followed Egbert's example in prohibiting the tasting of blood' or of strangled ani- lufon martyrdom throwe- don. — (Ex Hom. intitul. Her is haliuendlic Lar: Here is whole some Lore: in eod. cod. f. 68). Fast your lenten fast rightly to nones, every man that is over xii. winters, and the four embrens in the twelve months, which are rightly set for you, and the mass- evens,of the saints who for Christ's love suffered martyrdom. The Russians, Hke our Anglo- Saxon ancestors, regularly keep four great fasts, viz.. Lent ; St. Peter's fast, from the Monday after Whit-Sunday, to June 29 ; the Virgin Mary's fast, from Aug. 1, to Aug. 15 ; St. Phihp's fast, from Nov. 15, to Dec. 26. — Pin kerton's Russia, 72. ' As Embering and ember still occur in our Prayer-books, and occasionaUy elsewhere, various speculations upon the precise meaning of the term have been entertained among observers of language unacquainted with Saxon. It comes from ymb, the Greek amphi, about, and ryne, a run. Some have hastUy derived it from embers, meaning the ashes, anciently used on Ash- Wednesday ; but Somner (in voc. Ymbren) very well observes, that this usage was confined to one day in the whole four sea sons. Some questions and an swers upon these four fasts, with various fanciful reasons for their observance, fi'om the pen of Egbert, may be seen in Wilkins, Cone. i. 85. ^ Acts XV. 29. ' Riht is that anig Cristen man hlod ne thycge. — (Sinodal. De- cret. 53. Bihl. Bodl. MSS. Ju nii. 121. f. 29). Right is that any Christian man take not blood. We cythath eow that God Ml- mihtig cwath his agenum muthe that nan mom he mot abyrgean nanes cynes hlodes, nefugehs, ne nytenes, the eow alyfed is thcet flasc to nyttienne. .^Ic thara the abyrgth hlodes ofer Godes hebod, sceal forwurthan on ece- nysse. — (Ex Hom. intitul. Her is halwendlic Lar. Bihl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 99. f. 68). We tell you that God Almighty quoth by his own mouth, that no man inay taste any kind of blood, neither fowl's, nor cattle's, whose flesh is allowed you to enjoy. Every one who tastes blood against God!s command, shall perish for ever. It appears, from the 31st canon of Egbert's Penitential (WiLK. i. 121), that women sometimes MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 217 mals.' A legal defilement was attributed even to the water into which such substances had fallen.' In the Penitentials, accordingly, are provided penances appor tioned to all these breaches of the ceremonial law, whether accidental or otherwise. It is this peculiarity which has made many regard certain canonical sanctions, occurring in Anglo-Saxon monuments, as irresistibly ludicrous. Readers have been unable to contain thefr laughter on encountering grave denunciations against water that had come into contact with a dead mouse or weasel. Those who think, however, of Mosaic prohibitions and the coun cil of Jerusalem, wiU recognise in such peculiarities in teresting links connecting modern times with ancient. It might be owing to Theodore of Tarsus' that these Asiatic restrictions were enjoined so rigidly by the Anglo-Saxon Church, and her deference for his authority remained un shaken to the last. It is, indeed, not unlikely that he found traces of them in the country from some early eastern mission. Anciently such abstinences were con- took the blood of their husbands as a medicine. This usage was, probably, founded on some old heathen superstition, and popu lar credulity was hkely to gather strength from ecclesiastical pro hibition. In Egbert's 38th canon (lb. 123) is given an express permis sion for the eating of horse-flesh, and of hares (the Saxon word for which, though almost identical with the modern English, is strangely rendered AaJices by WU- kins). From such permissions, it seems hardly doubtful that some people scrupled about the eating of anything that was LeviticaUy unclean. The same canon, in deed, enjoins, that even water, into which a little pig had faUen, should be sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense before use. It allows, however, expressly the eating of unclean animals in cases of necessity. ' Posn. Ecgb. Anc. LL. and Inst of Engl. ii. 215. ^ Egb. Pan. cann. 39, 40. Wilk. i. 123. 124. Erom the latter of these two canons, it appears that scruples were en tertained about the eating of swine which had eaten carrion, or sucked up human blood. Egbert goes no further than to say, We believe that they neverthe less are not to he cast away ; but he adds, that they cannot be used until they are clean. ' Theodore is cited in the 39th canon, as an authority for dis pensing with some of these scruples. This may, perhaps, appear an additional reason for attributing chiefly to him the naturalisation of this Judaizing Christianity among the Anglo- Saxons. As usual, some of hia admirers had gone further than he intended. 218 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. sidered Christian duties in Russia, as they are stiU by some of the dissenters there.* The Abyssinians, too, en tertain similar opinions.' Thus these peculiarities may be taken as additional presumptions, that Britain first heard Gospel truth from Oriental preachers. To provide for its extension and regulation, an episcopal polity appears to have been established from the begin ning. It was undoubtedly so with Anglo-Saxon religious arrangements; they always depended upon a hierarchy. Opulence was, indeed, exhorted and allured abundantly to the foundation of churches by the offer of patronage. But no trace appears of independent congregations, or of congregations federally connected. Every new church was considered as an additional member of that single religious body which, without episcopacy, must want its full integrity. Whenever a diocese, accordingly, lost that spiritual head, which is alike necessary for securing th apostolical succession of ministers, and for assimilatin religious communities with primitive antiquity, all the more considerable inhabitants were convened. Both laity and clergy solemnly admitted a serious loss, for the speedy reparation of which they were equally concerned. Hence it was by thefr united suffrages that a successor was appointed to the vacant see.' His original nomination might seem to have rested with the crown, and the popular duty to have been that of approval or rejection. Having been chosen, the bishop-elect was presented to the prelates of the province for examination. He was now interrogated as to the soundness of his belief, and re qufred to give a solemn pledge for the due performance of his episcopal duties.* A profession of canonical obedience to his metropoUtan was also exacted from him. Of obe dience to the Roman see, or of a belief in transubstantia tion, there appears no mention in our earliest pontificals.* " Pinkerton's Russia. Lond. 1833. p. 71. ^ Life ofN. Pearce. Lond. 1831. ' For the address of clergy and laity to the bishops of the pro vince, see Bampton Lectures'' 177. ' For some of the interrogato ries, see Bampton Lectures, 94. ' Nasmith in his printed Cata logue of Archbishop Parker's MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 219 It is, indeed, plain from numerous facts, that such obe dience had no place in the Anglo-Saxon polity. As for transubstantiation, an episcopal denial of it is given dis- tinctiy enough in an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical, assigned by Martene to the year 900, but thought by Mr. Gage, who edited a portion of it, to be not so old by a century or more. In this venerable formulary, the bishop says, in consecrating the paten: God, who, after the typical passover, and the lamb's flesh eaten, deignedst to take bread out of a dish, as a representation of thine own body,^ and distribute to the disciples, we pray thee with earnest devotion, that, who ever may partake with his mouth out of this paten of conse crated bread,^ may with heart desire and take thee, the living and true bread. Over the chalice the bishop says : May whoever shall taste out of this chalice with pure heart the mystical commemoration of thy bloody obtain from thee the most merciful pardon of all his sins and eternal joys.* Such language would not be put into the mouths of bishops by behevers in transubstantiation. When, therefore, we find them required,, as they eventually were, to profess a belief in that doctrine, as also to give a pledge of obedience to the Roman see, it is clear that interpolators have been at work. It is not antiquity that speaks, but innovation. The prelacy constituted a standing branch of the Saxon witena-gemot, or parliament. Legislative assemblies merely MSS. in the library of C. C. C. C, has the foUowing remark on an ancient pontifical in that coUec- tion. No. 44: — "Promittit eps ordinandus se plebem ei com- missum ex sacris Scripturis docturum, officium episcopale fldeliter obsecuturum, ecclesise Dorobemensi se fore subjectum, et obedientem, et articuhs fidei assensum praebet. Nihil vero hie invenies de subjectione a sede EomanS, ab electis postea exactSl, nee de transubstantia- tione.' — P. 28. For the interpolations respect ing traditions and papal consti tutions, see Bampt. Lect. 95 : for those respecting transubstantia tion and remission of sins, see p. 420. It might have been re marked, in the Sermon upon Attrition, that the insertion of an interrogation as to the remis sion of sins, in the later ponti ficals, is an incidental proof that the scholastic doctrine of sacra mental absolution is of no high antiquity. ' 'In proprii comparatione corporis.' " 'Panem sacratam.' = 'Mysticam sanguinis hie me- moriam.' * The Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial of the dedication and co?isecra- 220 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. lay were unknown to those who founded England's envied constitution. There would, indeed, have neither been wisdom nor justice in excluding from political deliberation that very class of considerable proprietors, in which alone information and moraUty were indispensable. On every meeting, accordingly, of the great national councU Anglo- Saxon archbishops, bishops, and abbots, were provided with appropriate places. Thus the civil polity of England was judiciously established on a Christian basis. The clerical estate has formed an integral member of it from the first. English prelates, called lords in Anglo-Saxon,* as in after times, occupy the legislative seat from the most venerable of national prescriptions, not from that Norman policy which converted episcopal endowments into ba ronies. In recognising their senatorial rank, the Con queror did no more than respect a privUege rooted amidst the very foundations of the monarchy.^ Episcopal privUeges were, indeed, abridged, according to modern ideas, under WiUiam. He found the bishop and the earl, or alderman, sitting concurrently as judges in the county-court ; having for assessors the thanes or gentry within the shire. By the bishop was placed a copy of the canons, as weU, it is thought, for reference, should any be required, as for a badge of his peculiar function. The alderman, it is inferred, was similarly provided with a tion of churches, illustrated from a pontifical in the Public Library at Rouen. Lond. 1 834, p. 30. ' Cod. Diplom. .Mv. Sax. vi. 125. ^ Our Saxon princes ' had their general councils, first, in which they deliberated of all pubhc mat ters : and these councils consist ed of the archbishops, bishops, and abbots, of the clergy ; and of the wise-men, great-men, alder men, counts' (earls) 'that is to say, of the chief of the laity, in differently called in those times, by any or aU of those names. In these councils they debated, both of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, and made laws with the prince's consent and concurrence, for the ordering of both. And this they did, so far as I can judge, after the like manner that we have seen the French were wont to do. The bishops and clergy advised apart in matters purely spiritual : but the great- men debated together with them in civil and mixed affairs, and in which the interest of the state was concerned, as weU as that of the church.' — Abp. Wake's Au thority of Christian Princes. Lond. 1697, p. 161. See also his State of the Church, p. 135. miscellaneous particulars. 221 doom-book, or volume of the ordinary jurisprudence.' Be fore this tribunal came the usual subjects of litigation, and it also received appeals from the various hundred-courts. Its own decisions were Uable to revision by the king alone. An Anglo-Saxon prelate was therefore continually before the public _ eye, invested with an important civU trust. After a reign of about seventeen years, the Conqueror abrogated this ancienf usage, and following continental precedents, erected separate places of judicature for eccle siastical suits ;^ which were to be conducted solely by canon-law. A principle of clerical exclusion, or more pro perly exemption, from one class of secular duties, was thus estabUshed : probably to please WUliam's foreign ecclesi astics, who must have been indisposed, both from habit and prejudice, to the simple forms and mixed jurisdiction of the old Anglo-Saxon courts.' This alteration, therefore, was rather meant to raise, than depress the Church. But it may supply aii argument, if unexplained, to such as would close against clergymen aU secular distinctions and employments. Soon after the conversion of Kent, an episcopal see was founded at Rochester, in subordination to that of Canter bury. To this, the archbishops are said to have nominated until after the Conquest.* When other kingdoms of the Heptarchy were converted, a single see was established in each. In Wessex, this was the Oxfordshire Dorchester; in Essex, London ; in East- Anglia, Dunwich ; in Mercia, Lichfield; in Northumbria, Lindisfarne; and in Sussex, Selsey. Essex and Sussex remained permanently under one prelate. The diocese of Wessex was firstly dismem- ' Hickes, Dissert. Epistolaris. Thes. i. 60. " lb. 4. = Gent. Mag. Jan. 1844, p. 35, * GoDvnN, De Prasull. 527. This archiepiscopal privilege, we are told, was relinquished in fa vour of the monks of Eochester, by Archbishop Theobald, in 1147. But Godwin's editor shsws the statement to be inaccurate. The ancient usage appears to have been, that the monks of Eochester should choose their own bishop in the chapter-house of Canter bury. Probably Theobald re lieved them from this mark of subjection. It is obvious, that while the old practice continued, the archlpishop would be likely to influence the election. The see of Rochester was founded in 604. 222 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. bered by the foundation of a bishopric at Winchester ;* subsequently still further, by such foundations at Sher borne,^ Wilton,' Wells,* Crediton and Bodmin.* Mercia was gradually divided into the dioceses of Sidnacester, Leicester, Hereford,® Worcester,' and Lichfield. Of these, the two former coalesced, and were placed under a single bishop, seated at Dorchester in Oxfordshfre.' Northum bria became two dioceses, of which a see for the southern was fixed at York;9 for the Northern, eventually, at Durham.'" East-Anglia owned subjection to two prelates, during a considerable mterval, — an additional see having been established at Elmham. In later Saxon times, this arrangement was overthrown ; the bishop of Elmham having under him all East-Anglia. At the Conquest, accordingly, England's ecclesiastical superiors were two archbishops, and thirteen bishops:** Wilton and Sherborne having ' The see of Dorchester was founded about 635 ; that of Win chester, about 663.-76. 202, 203. 2 The see of Sherborne was founded about 705; it was re moved to Salisbury some years after 1046. — Le Neve, Fasti, 255, 256. ^ Founded in 905. Herman was chosen to it in 1046, and, subsequently obtaining Sher borne, he procured the union of the two sees. Before his death he fixed the see at Sahsbury. — lb. 256. * Founded m905.— ii. 31. = Both founded in 905 ; they coalesced about 1040, on the es tablishment of St. Peter's at Exeter, as a see for both Devon shire and Cornwall. The Cornish see had been removed from Bodmin to St. Germain's. — lb. 79. ' Founded in 680. — lb. 107. ' Foimded in 680. — Godwin, De Prasull. 447. ' Sidnacester was founded in 678 ; Leicester, in 737. This was soon transferred to Dorchester. That see was placed over also the diocese of Sidnacester, in the earher part of the tenth century. — Godwin, De Pros.iull. 281. " Pauhnus was nominally the first archbishop of York under the Anglo-Saxons ; but he could not maintain his ground in Nor thumbria. After his flight, York remained without a prelate untU the appointment of Chad in 664. From Chad, accordingly, the series of archbishops of York properly takes its beginning. '» The see of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, was foimded in 635 ; this place having been burned, the bishop removed, in 882, to Chester-le-street. In 995, the episcopal see was transferred to Durham. — (Le Neve, Fasti, 345, 346). During a long period a see was estabUshed at Hexham, which had under its inspection a large portion of the modem diocese of Durham. " The following is Mr. Kem- MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 223 merged in SaUsbury, the two sees of Devonshire and Corn- waU in that of Exeter. For such variations in diocesan arrangements as might meet existing circumstances, provision had been made in the councU of Hertford. It was there enacted, that as the faithful became more numerous, so should episcopal sees.* No prelate was, however, to assume a discretionary power of providing for spiritual wants not placed regularly under his charge. Every one was forbidden to interfere without his own diocese.' Precedence among bishops was regulated by the dates of their several consecrations.' Episcopal visitations were to be annually holden in suitable places throughout every diocese.* But this provision appears to have been made rather on account of the laity than of the clergy. The visiting bishop was to dispense among his people that sound religious instruction which must have been insufficiently supplied in a country but ill provided with rural churches. Especially was he to warn them against pagan rites, usages, and impostures. On the death of a bishop, the tenth part of aU his moveable property was to be distributed in alms among the poor, and every EngUshman, reduced to slavery in his days, was to be manumitted.^ Of these charities, the reason assigned was. ble's account of the Anglo- Saxon episcopate : — ' Province of Canterbury^ — 1. Lichfield; 2. Leicester ; 3. Lincoln ; 4. Wor cester; 5. Hereford; 6. Sher borne ; 7. Winchester ; 8. Elm ham ; 9. Dummoc (Dunwich) ; 10. London ; 11. Eochester; 12. ¦Selsey. 'Prorince of York — 1. Hex ham ; 2. Lindisfarne ; 3. Whi- teme (in Galloway). 'Thus inclusive of Canterbury and York, there were seventeen sees. At a later period some of these perished altogether, as Lindisfarne, Hexham, Whiterne, and Dummoc ; while others were formed, as Durham for Northumberland ; Dorchester for Lincoln ; and in Wessex, Eamsbury (Hrsefenesbyrig, Ec clesia Corvinensis) for WUts ; WeUs for Somerset ; Crediton for Devonshire ; and during some time, St. Petroc's or Padstow, for OornwaU.' — Saxons in Eng land, ii. 362. * Cone. Herudf. can. 9. Spelm. i. 153. Wilk. i. 43. '- lb. can. 2. ' Cone. Herudf. can. 8. Spelm. i. 153. * Cone. Clovesh. can. 3. Spelm. i. 246. Wilk. i. 95. Cone. Calc. can. 3. Spelm. i. 293. Wilk. i. 146. '¦ Johnson understands here every English slave belonging to himself. This hmitation is most 224 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. that he might obtain the fruit of retribution and indul gence of sins.' An additional provision for the welfare of his soul was imposed upon the laity, who were to be sum moned to thefr several churches, and to sing there thirty psalms. Four times that number were expected from prelates and abbots generaUy. They were also to celebrate one hundred and twenty masses, and to manumit three slaves.' Candidates for the sacred profession were required to spend a month, before ordination, with the bishop, who was aUowed this time for examining and instructing them. As to thefr literary proficiency, expectations were, of course, extremely moderate. But pains were to be taken for ascertaining the soundness of thefr belief, and thefr opinions on the divine attributes. They were also to display their acquaintance with the forms of public worship, and with such mystical significations as approved autho rities had imposed upon its various features. Nor were inquiries to be forgotten upon thefr knowledge of the canons, and upon thefr competency to calculate the times for celebrating festivals and fasts.' The former kind of probable, but it does not appear in the text. • ' Ut per illud sui proprii la- boris fructumretributionis mere- atur, et indulgentiam peccato- rum.' — Syn. ap. Celych. can. 10. Spelm. i. 330. Wilk. i. 1 71 . 3 Let him who desires ordina tion come one month before the ordination-time to the o., and he then upon examination under the bishop's teaching; and let him take care that he have for the time the provision in food and fodder which he should have, that he he not troubled about any of these things, while he shall he examined. If he come to the h. with the instruction of a teacher, then he is the nearer ordination, provided he is henceforth willing to follow what the b. directs him. Then is first the beginning of his examination in what belief he may be, and what ability he has to explain a right belief to other men, and what he clearly understands of that which has been done by God, or yet shall he done: then how is his knowledge of divine service ; and how he understands baptism; and how he comprehends the signification of the mass, and also of other church ministrations ; and whether he knows the canons in any degree : then whether he knows enough of arithmetic to divide the year. If he he ac quainted with all these things, then is he worthy of the ordination that he desires. — (Be Gehadedum Mannum. Of Ordained Men, f. 34. Bihl Bodl. MSS. Junii.l2\). MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 225 skill was requisite, both for comprehending the nature of clerical obligations, and for apportioning penances; the latter, for enabling clergymen to act as a sort of animated almanacs. At ordination, the porrection of sacred vessels was used, as it is now in the Church of Rome. Simul taneously with this ceremony, when a priest was ordained, the bishop said, ' Take authority to offer sacrifice and to celebrate mass, as well for the living as for the dead.' ' In the imposition of hands, the ancient Church of England, like the modern, enjoined aU priests present to unite with the bishop.^ After ordination, a priest was to consider himself as wedded to his church, and hence formally precluded from any prospect of changing it for another.' He was also to keep clear of interference within the districts of brother An incidental presumption against the doctrine of transub stantiation appears fairly to arise from this extract. If a doctrine, so mysterious and in credible, had then been received by the English Church, it must appear strange that candidates for ordination should not have Undergone a particular examina tion upon it. Instead of this, however, they were merely to be examined as to their acquaint ance with the significations of the mass, and other divine of&ces. It was the usage to seek mystical, figurative meanings in all Scripture and rehgious for mularies. To this egregious trifling, the examination, most probably, was to be directed. In the thirteenth century, how ever, when transubstantiation, both name and thing, had ob tained a pretty secure establish ment, very particular directions were given from authority for inculcating a belief in it. ' Accipe potestatem offerre saorificium Do, missamque oele- brare, tam pro vivis, quam et pro defunctis, in nomine Dni." — Fragment, libri Pontifical, put- cherrime et magnd ex parte ante Conqu. Angl. scripti. (Hickes, ii. 220). Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tiberius. C. 1. f. 158. 2 ' Presbiter cum ordinatur, epo eum benedicente, et manum super caput ej us imponent e, etiam omspresbiteri quipraesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum epi super caput illius ponant.' — Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Claudius. A. 3. f. 45. ' Cyrice is mid rihte sacerdes awe. — (Be Cyrican. Of the Church. Bibl Bodl. MSS.Junii. 121. f. 58.) The Church is with right a priest's wife. Riht is thcet cenig preost sylf-wUhs ne forlcete tha cyrican the he to gehletsod wees, ac habbe tha him to riht awe. — (Sinodal. Decret. 8. Ibid. f. 26). Right is that no priest of his own accord leave the church to which he was ordained, hut keep to it as a right wife. 226 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. clergymen.' Nor was he to venture upon officiating in a strange diocese, until he had produced commendatory letters from his own bishop.^ Among duties expected of him appears to have been the education of youth.' In the exercise of his ordinary ministry, he was restrained from celebrating mass in private houses, unless in cases of sick ness.* All the great luminaries of his profession most rigorously bound him to celibacy. Sacerdotal marriages were, indeed, commonly branded as execrable breaches of continence, and imaginary revelations threatened them with frightful retribution hereafter.* A rigour so adverse to the general stream of human feeUng, and confessedly sustained by no legal compulsion,^ proved, however, in operative upon a large proportion of the less distinguished ecclesiastics. Moses, they urged, and others among the ' Riht is thcet nan preost othrum ne at do anig thara thinga the him to gebyrige, ne on his minstre, ne on his scrift-scire, ne on his gyld-scipe, ne on mnigum thare thinga the him to gebyrige. — (Sinodal. Decret. 9. in eod. cod. f. 26). Right is that no priest do any of those things that belong to another, either in his minster, or in his shrift-shire (district assigned to him for receiving con fessions, i.e. parish), or in his guild-ship (sodahty, of which he might be a member), or in any of the things that belong to him. 2 Cone. Herudf. can. 5. Spelm. i. 153. Wilk. i 43. ^ Capitvl. incerta editionis, 20. Spelm. i. 595. Wilk. i. 270. The body of canons among which this is found was compiled by Theodulf, bishop of Orleans. Johnson (sub an. 994) thinks them to have been translated into Saxon by Elfric, for the guidance of EngUsh clergymen. * Riht is that anig preost on anigum huse ne massige, hutan on gehalgode cyrican, butan hit sy for hwilces mannes ofer-seoc- nesse. — (Sinodal. Decret. Bibl Bodl MSS. 121. f. 29). Right is that no priest mass in any house but in a hallowed church, unless it he for some man's over-sickness. * Beloved men, in libro visi- onum, it is written how the mass- priests and the deacons who mis- lived here in the world, were in purgatory full cruelly beholden, even as the angel explained at the sight. They stood bounden, so that they could not stoop, to hard stakes at their backs in the hellish fire up to their girdles, and the wretched women who had been im properly connected with them stood before them, fast tied in the hellish fire ever burning upwards, and the devil lashed them very often on their middles, even as the book saith to us, and even as the angel said at the sight. There were mingled mass-priests and deacons in the torture, because they would not cleanly serve Christ in his clean service. — Bihl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 121. f. 34. Be Gehadedum Mannum. Of Ordained Men. « .-Sllfric's Pastoral Epistle. Anc. LL. and Inst, of Engl.ii. 377. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 227 most eminent of God's servants, were married men.' Vainly were apocryphal views of a future state produced for striking terror into themselves and thefr wives. In most particulars their credulity was naturaUy that of their age, but personal considerations sharpen human wits; and many a married Anglo-Saxon priest might see the ludicrous absurdity of tales invented for interfering with his own domestic comfort. The Anglo-Saxon Church, like that of Rome, used a gradation of inferior ministers. Elfric's canons pronounce ecclesiastical orders to be the following seven: — ostiary, reader, exorcist, acolyte, sub-deacon, deacon, and pres byter or mass-priest. The ostiary was to keep the church- doors, and to ring the bell. The reader was to read in church, and to preach God's word. Perhaps the accus tomed homily was often heard from his lips. The exorcist was to adjure malignant spirits. The acolyte was to hold the candle or taper when the Gospel was read, or the eueharist hallowed. The sub-deacon was to carry the vessels to the deacon, and to wait upon him at the altar. The deacon was to wait upon the officiating priest, to place the offerings upon the altar, and to read the Gospel. He might baptize, and administer the eueharist. Priests, however, appear occasionally to have dispensed with his attendance at the altar, probably from motives of economy. Such are stigmatised by Elfric as rather nominal members of the sacerdotal order, than really worthy of its privileges. The whole clerical body, from the lowest to the highest order, appear to have been called priests. But one who had received what is called priestly ordination was termed a mass-priest or presbyter. It was his privilege and office to consecrate the eueharist.' Between the mass-priesthood and the episcopate, Elfric allows no other difference than that of office ; bishops being especially charged with certain duties, which might * See Bampton Lectures, 118. 2 The Canons of Elfric. 17. Thorpe's Anc. LL. and Institutes of England, ii. 348. Dr. Lingard has collected in a note, some authorities for the indiscrimi nate use of the term preost, as the Anglo-Saxons wrote it. — Hist and Antiqu. of the Angl. Sax. Ch.i.U7. 228 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. interfere with the regular engagements of ordinary mass- priests. These duties are stated to be ordination, confir mation, the consecration of churches, and the care of God's rights.* Some authorities were not contented with resting episcopal superiority upon such narrow grounds. Another Anglo-Saxon enumeration of the seven ecclesiastical orders omits that of acolytes, and makes that of bishops the highest in the series.' Thus, evidently, there were those who looked upon the episcopate not only as a distinguished office, but also as a separate order. Both bishops and priests were under an awful expectation of leading thefr several flocks to the heavenly judgment-seat.' In Anglo-Saxon times, monks ordinarily were not mem bers of the priesthood. Every monastery numbered among its inmates one or more of the sacerdotal order, to minister in sacred things : but the community was chiefly composed of ascetic laymen. The whole monastic body was divided into four several branches. The most respectable of these consisted of monks permanently domesticated in some con ventual foundation, under the discipline of an abbot. Another was made up of anchorites, or hermits. These recluses were expected to have resided some time in a regular abbey, and not to have withdrawn from it until they had exhibited a strict conformity to the system there. After such probation, it was deemed allowable to retfre into a solitary ceU, for the purpose of continuing, with augmented rigour, the austerities exacted by monastic obligations.* A thfrd class of monks, passing under the ' Mlf.ad Wulfsin. Spelm. i. 575. Wilk. i. 251. _ ' DE OFFICIIS SEPTE'GEA- DVVM. ('Ex S. Gregorio Papa! Wanley. Hickes, Thes. ii. 220.)— Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tiberius, C. 1, f. 85. 3 After citing, with some laxity. Ezekiel's demmciation against the mercenary and unfaithful pastors of Israel (ch. xxxiv. 2, et sequ.) a Saxon homily proceeds : Eall this is gecweden be biscopum, and be masse-preostum, the Godes folc on Domes-dag, to tham dome ladan sculon; ale thone dal the him her on life betaht woes. — (BE SACEEDtTM. Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii. 22.1200). All this is said of bishops and mass- priestSjWho, God's folk on Doom!s- day, to the judgment shall lead ; every one that portion which was committed to him here in life. * Ivo Carnoten. Epist 192. Paris. 1610, p. 342. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 229 oriental name of Sarabaites,^ comprised such aspfrants after unusual strictness as had adopted the tonsure, but would not embrace any received rule, or remain within a monas tery. These devotees resided, as heretofore, in private houses, sometimes three or four together, probably under such regulations of their own as suited their particular ideas or convenience. Ascetic fervour under such laxity would be very liable to evaporate; and hence abodes adapted for it, but upon this independent principle, could hardly fail to shock admirers of overstrained religious rigour. The Sarabaites, accordingly, are described as a grievous reproach upon thefr profession. But monachism found its principal source of obloquy and mortification in the Gyi-ovagi, or wandering monks. These were noisy claimants of extraordinary holiness, but, in reality, idle vagabonds, who preferred hypocritical mendicity to labour.^ Of such traders in religion generally, the true character is highly sensual. These ostentatious pretenders to a self- denying piety seem, accordingly, to have beennotorious for gross indulgence.' ' Du Cange says that there are various opinions upon the etymo logy of this word. He makes it, however, to have come from Egypt. Other authors have referred the origin of Sarabaite to the Hebrew sarab, refractory. The correctness of this etymo logy appears to admit of no reasonable question. In the Cottonian MS,, from which an extract is given below, Saxon equivalents are placed over several of the words. Over this stands sylf-demera lareowas, self- judging teachers. ' These monks appear from Ivo, in the epistle before cited, to have worn ordinarily the melote. (' PeUis ovina; ex Grseco mslote a melon, ovis. Melotes peUis sor- dida, vel simplex, ex uno latere pendens, qvA monachi utuntur.' — Du Cange, in voc). Elfric thus explains this term in his Glos sary. Melotes, vel Pera: gceten, Y&lbroccen roco : a jacket (rochet), of goatskin, or broken. Both name and dress were probably, adopted from Heb. xi. 37, where it is said, in the original, of holy men wandered about en melotais, translated accurately enough in authorised version ' in sheep skins,' although skins are not separatelj expressed, as is the case wdth goat-skins, next men tioned. Such apparel seems to have been commonly used by the prophets, and religious Jews in times of pubhc difficulty. Of the sanctimonious vagabonds who went about in the middle ages, half-clad in these shaggy garments, Ivo speaks with the utmost contempt, p. 342. ' 'Monaehorum quatuor genera esse manifestum est. Primum, 230 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. Had England adhered rigidly to the discipline provided by Theodore, the credit of monachism would not have been impaired by such impositions. Among the canons enacted at Hertford under that able metropolitan, one provides that monks shaU remain stationary in the several monas teries to which they originally belonged, unless they could obtain the abbot's leave of absence or removal.' No doubt a monastery strictly governed was very much of a peni tentiary prison. Even serious minds would be liable to become weary of such an abode, after the sharp edges of remorse had worn away, or the flame of fanaticism had abated. But monks gloried in their abandonment of ordi nary habits as a conversion, and were deemed models of sanctity by the mass of men. They could scarcely, there fore, complain of regulations indispensable for preserving the respectabiUty of a body so numerous as theirs. It was reasonable also to restrain monastics from all undue li berty, because abuses of their character were crying public evils, and because they were largely indebted to the na tional UberaUty. Many noble foundations provided for Coenohitarum, hoc est, monas- teriale militans sub regula vel ab- bate. Delude, secundum genus est Anachoritarum,, id est, heremi- tarum, qui non conversionis fervore novitio, sed monasterii probatione, diuturn^, didicerunt contra diabolum multorum sola- cio jam docti pugnare, et bene instruct! fraternS, ex aoie ad singularem pugnan heremi se- curijam sine consolatione alte- rius, sol& manu vel brachio, contra vitia carnis vel cogita- tionum, Deo auxiliante, pugnare sufficiunt. Tertium vero mona ehorum teterrimum genus est Sarabaitarum, qui nuU^ regula approbati experientia, magistri, sicut aurum fomacis, sed in plumbi naturS, moUiti, adhuc opibus servantes seculo, fidem mentiri Deo per tonsuram nos- cuntur. Qui bini, aut temi, aut certfe singuli, sine pastore, non dominicis, sed suis inclusi oviU- bus, pro lege est desideriorum voluptas : cum quicquid putave- rint, velelegerint, hoc dicunt scm, et quod noluerint, hoc putant non licere. Quartum vero genus est monaehorum, quod nomina- tur Gyrovagum; qui tota vita sua per diversas provincias ternis aut quaternis diebus, per diver sorum ceUas hospitantur, semper vagi, et nunquam stabiles, et propriis voluptatibus, et gulae illecebris servientes, et per om nia deteriores Sarabaites. De quorum omnium miserim^ con- versatione mehus est silere quam loqui.'— Eegula S. Bened. Brie. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tiberius. A.Z.i.ll8. ' Cone. Herudf. can. 4. Spelm. i. 153. Wilk. i. 43. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 231 their sustenance and security : they likewise had a share in such immunities as the clerical body enjoyed. Among these, however, was ordinarily no exemption from assess ment for the repafrs of bridges and highways, for the maintenance of fortifications, and for providing forces against hostUe incursions.' This threefold Uability, termed in Latin Trinoda Necessitas, was a burden imposed upon landed possessions generally. A few of those owned by the Church were, indeed, specially freed from this triple charge;' and aU her estates had a more than ordinary degree of protection.' The whole frame-work of Anglo-Saxon society was, in fact, reUgious. Voluntary associations, or Sodalities, an swering to modern clubs, were common in the nation. The principal objects of these were mutual protection, assistance under unusual pecuniary calls,* and convi- viaUty. One mass, however, for deceased associates, another for those yet surviving, appears to have impressed a character of piety upon their meetings.^ One of their objects was also to provide soul-shot on the death of every member ; so that his disembodied spirit might enjoy the fuU benefit of such services as were proffered by the Church. EventuaUy, reUgious houses entered into these combinations.^ In this case, the Guild-ship, as every such ' The three members of the Trinoda Necessitas were called, in Saxon, Bricg-hote, Bridge-re pair ; Burh-hote, Town, or Castle- repair ; and Fyrd, the Army. 'Sometimes, instead of leaving the military contingent in uncer tainty, the number of vassals and shields which the abbot was to send forth to the wars is speci fically defined. In such a case, the land was held by military tenure.' — Palgrave's English Commonwealth, i. 157. ' Cone. Becanc. can. i. Spelm. i. 189. Wilk. i. 57. Cone. Bergh. can. i. Spelm. i. 194. Wilk. i. 60. "The second canon, enacted at Berghampstead, imposes a fine of fifty shillings for violating the protection of the Church. This was generaUy done by drawing offenders from sanctuary. But a law, guarding inviolability under a penalty so heavy, could hardly fail of throwing an unusual degree of security around all the Church's rights and possessions. * As undertaking a journey, having a house burnt down, or beingamerced in a fine. — Hickes, Thes. i. 21, 22. 'This appears among the ar ticles of a Sodality formed at Exeter. — Hickes, Thes. i. 22. ° Hickes has printed the ar ticles of a Sodality, formed of 232 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. confederacy was vernacularly called, proposed an inter change of masses for the benefit of each other. But it is not likely that mutual protection for possessions and privileges was overlooked. Convivial or personal views were necessarily precluded. In general terms, the king was bound, at his coro nation, to respect ecclesiastical rights. He solemnly pledged himself to preserve the Church in real peace. But this pledge could not be redeemed, unless properties and privileges, legaUy bestowed upon her, were guarded from spoliation or encroachment. The Anglo-Saxon throne thus rested upon the basis of Christianity, and the king's duties were considered to be religious, no less than civil. Indeed, the former took precedence of the latter. Of the three royal engagements, that which provided for religion stood first.' England has, there fore, inherited a constitution from the most venerable antiquity, which recognises attention to the spiritual wants of men as the first and most important of a sovereign's duties. The coronation compact reminded an Anglo-Saxon monarch that his principal title to alle- seven monasteries (Thes. i. 19), and he mentions a confederacy of this kind yet more numerous. (lb. 20). Both cases are, how ever, posterior to the Conquest. Mr. Turner has an interesting chapter upon the Guildship. — Hist. Angl.-Sax.\\\.'%8. • ' In the nan;e of Christ, I promise three things to the Christian people, my subjects. First, that the church of God and all the Christian people shall always preserve true peace through our arbitration. Second, that 1 will forbid rapacity, and all iniquities to every condition. Third, that I will command equity and mercy in aU judg ments, that to me, and to you, the gracious and merciful God may extend his mercy.' — (Sil ver's Coronation Service of the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Oxf. 1831, p. 20). The original oi this oath is found in the British Mu seum among the Cottonian MSS. —(Claudius, A. 3. f. 7). The service which is in Latin, and has been printed by Dr. Silver, toge ther with his translation of it, is entitled, in a hand of no great an tiquity, Goronatio Athelredi Regis Anglo-Saxonum. Dr. Silver, ac cordingly, entitles it The Cere mony of the Consecration of King Ethelred II. a.d. 978. ' The word consecrated king occurs first in the Saxon Chronicle in the reign of Offa, king of Mercia, the con temporary of Charlemagne, about a thousand years since, and it is very probable that the ceremony of Ethelred was. then used.' Silver, 148. miscellaneous particulars. 233 giance rested on his acting as the Christian head of a Christian people. This character was impressed upon the nation by many statutes, and by severe penalties. The laws of Ina provided that parents should bring their children for baptism, within thirty days after birth, under forfeiture of as many shUUngs. If the infant died unbaptised, aU the parents' property was forfeited.* Subsequently, the great festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide were the ordinary times for administering baptism;' but it was, on no account, to be delayed, under any appearance of danger to the chUd. It was administered by total immersion; and priests were expressly forbidden merely to pour water upon the head.' Although one of Elfric's homilies tells of some such thing done to a fellow-sufferer, whom he had just converted, by St. James the apostle, when going to mar tyrdom.* This was, however, a case of sudden emergency ; but almost anything will do for a precedent. If this legend were made one, it wiU account for the prohibition of any similar practice. When a child was baptised, he undertook, by his sponsors, to renounce the devU with his works and pomps. Of this engagement, these individuals were carefuUy to apprise him, as his faculties opened ; and ' LL. Inae, can. 5. Spelm. i. 183. Wilk. i. 58. * These festivals had long been signaUzed by the administration of baptism in the Eoman church. and Charlemagne rendered this usage general through the west. The fourth canon of the council of Mentz, holden under that famous emperorin 813, designates Easter and Whitsuntide as the legitimate times for baptising, and limits to them the adminis tration of that sacrament, un less in cases of necessity. — (Labb, et Coss. vii. 1242). In England this regulation had been solemnly enacted at Cal cuith, in 787. — (Cone. Calc. can. 2. Spelm. i. 293. Wilk, i. 146). Probably, however, it failed of meeting with universal acquies cence in this island ; for the tenth, among the Laws of the Northumbrian Priests, enjoins baptism within nine days after birth, and imposes penalties for default.— (Spelm. i. 496. Wilk. i. 218). Towards the close of the twelfth century this appro priation of Easter and Whitsun tide fell silently into desuetude, neither pope nor council au thorising the change, or seem ingly observing it. — Dall.eus, De Gultibus Religiosis Latinorum, Genev. 1671, p. 21. ' Syn. Celych. can. 2. Spelm. i. 331. Wilk. i 171. * Homilies of .Elfric. ii. 423. 234 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. they were to teach him, besides, the Creed and the Lord's Prayer.' From the font it was also thefr duty to receive him, when baptism was completed.' Anglo-Saxon ideas of female rights were just and Uberal. Women were permitted to possess and dispose of property : nor was a person of any wealth enabled to marry, at all events, among his equals, until he had made a legal settlement upon his intended wife.' It was, however, the usage of ancient England, as of cognate nations,* to withhold the formal conveyance of this pro vision until the morning after marriage. Hence the dowry of an Anglo-Saxon lady was called her morning's gift.^ Her friends had agreed upon a certain provision for her, in the event of a proposed marriage; and until the contract was completed on her part, the husband was not expected to complete it on his. But although the pre liminaries of marriage were necessarily civil, due care was taken for impressing it, upon the whole, with a very different character. The mass-priest was to pronounce a solemn blessing at nuptial ceremonies, unless one or both of the parties had been married before.^ England has, therefore, ever treated marriage as " a holy estate," — a contract essentially different from any other mutually made among Christians. Of this wise and Scriptural view the natural consequence was, that death alone was ordinarily considered a sufficient release from the nuptial tie.^ Marriage was forbidden within four degrees of con- * Cone' Calcuith. can. 2. Spelm. i. 293. Wilk. i. 146. ^ Johnson, sub an. 785. Hence sponsors were called susceptores. — Du Cange, in voc. suscipere. ' For many interesting parti culars respecting Anglo-Saxon marriages see Turner's Hist, of the Angl.-Sax. iii. 68. * Hickes, Thes. Praef. xlii. 'Every Saxon woman had her mundbora, or guardian, without whose consent she could not be married ; and the remains of this custom maybe traced in the mar riage service, when the clergyman as&. Who giveth this woonan to be married to this man ?' — Silver's Coronation Service of the Anglo- Saxon Kings, 49. ' Morgen-gife, or gifu. " LL. Edm. E. Angh can. 8. Spelm. i. 426. Wilk. i. 21 7. ' The councU of Hertford al lowed a man to dismiss his wife fornicationis causa. But then it bound him, as he valued the name of Christian, to live single after wards, unless he became recon ciled to the offending woman.-- MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 235 sanguinity : men were also prohibited from marrying thefr godmothers, or nuns, or divorced women, and from taking a wife whUe the former one survived.' Second marriages, indeed, under any circumstances, were met by an ascetic principle of discouragement. A layman, who had lost his wife, was aUowed to take another; nor was a widow denied a simUar privilege. But such Uberty was treated as a concession to the infirmity of the flesh, which could expect nothing beyond connivance. The church did not venture to approve : the priest was, accordingly, to with hold his blessing. He was even prohibited from attending the nuptial feast ; and the parties were to learn that they had committed an offence for which a formal penance must atone.' As a belief in some sort of posthumous purgation re served for human souls was general among the Anglo- Saxons, few persons of much opulence departed from Ufe without having made a provision for their soul-shot.^ By this payment, clerical services were secured for the de ceased's funeral, and prayers for the repose of his departed spirit. It was, most probably, with a view to render him the latter service, that mourning friends passed the night around his corpse. The wakes of ancient England led, however, to the same abuses as those of modern Ireland. The assembly was often rather one of gross reveUers, than Cone. Herudf. can. 10. Spelm. i. 153. Wilk. i. 43. ' Cone. JSnh. can. 6. Wilk. i 287. ' .Sllf ad Wulfsin. Spelm. i. 674. Wilk. i. 251. Excerpt Egb. Archiep. Ebor. 89. Spelm. i. 267. ap. Wilk. can. 91. i. 101. The Church of England here, as elsewhere, foUowed foreign churches. MabiUon says, in a note to his Museum Italicum (Lut. Par. 1687, tom. i. p. 389):— ' Antiquissima est in ecclesia, be- nedictio super nubentes, super lecundo nubentes rarior! Both Egbert and Elfric, indeed, adopt the seventh canon of the council of Neo-Csesarea, holden in 314 —(Labb. et Coss. i. 1487). But that canon has been understood as leveUed against a plurality of wives, which construction it wiU bear. Elfric has expressly ap plied it to a second marriage, contracted by a widower or widow. ' Dissertatio Epistolaris, 63. Hickes. TAes. tom. i. 'Nothing can more strongly express the importance and necessity of this custom, than that several of their guilds seem to have been formed chiefly with a view to provide a fundforthis purpose.' — Tdrner's Hist, of the Angl.-Sax. iii. 146. 236 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. of pious mourners.* If the party had notoriously spent a religious life, his body might be interred within the church.' Mere departed opulence had no such privilege : it was reserved for conspicuous piety. Thankfulness for such a blest example had often buUt churches in early times. A martyrdom bade holy feelings rise upon the spot, or there, a martyr's relics treasured up, kept his memory aUve.' Thus began burying in churches, a prac tice to which we owe many most interesting antiquities. The Anglo-Saxon churches were separated regularly from profane uses, by the imposing solemnity of episcopal conse cration. This, again, was a practice of high antiquity,* and when used in cases of importance, the ceremony was performed with such magnificence as the country could command.^ Nor even in ordinary cases was its memory aUowed to fall into oblivion, but annual solemnities taught a surrounding population to hail the happy day which ' Sume menn eac drincath at dead manna lice ofer ealle tha niht swithe unrihtlice, and gremi- ath God mid heora gegaf sprace : thonne nan gebeorsdpe ne gebyrath at lice, ac halige gebedu thar ge byrath swithor. — (Hom. in. St. Swithun. Brit Mus. MSS. Cot ton, Julius. E. 7. i. 99). Some men also drink over a dead man's corpse, all through the night very unrightly, and provoke God with their idle talk : when no drinking- party is proper over a corpse, but holy prayers rather are proper for it " Riht is that man innan cyrican anine man ne byrige, butan man wite that he on life Gode to tham well gecwemde, thcet man thurh thcet late thcet he sy thces lageres wyrthe. — (Sinodal Decret. 29, Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii. 121. f. 27), Right is that no man be buried within a church, unless it be known that in life he was well pleasing to God, that through that he be deemed worthy of his resting-place. ' Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, i, 327. * It is known that churches were regularly consecrated in the fourth century, and it is probable that this usage is of much higher antiquity. — (75.324). All schisms and irregularities were provided against by making episcopal con sent necessary even to the building of a church. This was done by the council of Chalcedon, and by the emperor Justinian. — lb. 325. = In the Life of Ethelwold, attributed to Wulfstan, are some curious Latin verses, describing the consecration of Winchester Cathedral in980.—(itcte SS. Ord. Benedict v. 621). The service used in Anglo-Saxon times, upon such occasions, was edited in 1834, for the Society of An tiquaries, by Mr. Gage, from a MS. Pontifical, now in the public Ubrary at Eouen, but formerly belonging to the abbey of Jumidges. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 237 had opened a house of God within an easy distance. Of this ancient reUgious holiday traces Unger yet in our country viUages. The petty feast or fafr, now merely a yearly provocative to rustic revelry, commonly originated in the day when episcopal benediction hallowed that venerable pile which has trained so many generations for immortality. Anglo-Saxon churches, even of some note, were often built of wood : ' hence timbering was the word in ordinary use for building.' When more durable ma terials were employed, the architects followed existing Eoman models with as much fideUty as their own skUl and that of thefr workmen would aUow. This is proved sufficiently by specimens yet remaining. Their edifices naturally present some peculiarities, for which no hint is found in classical antiquity. But in general character, Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman buddings are little else than rude imitations of Roman architecture. A Norman clerestory window, centraUy placed in the western side of the north transept of St. Frideswide's church at Oxford, even exhibits an Ionic volute. The opposite pilaster seems to have been intended for Corinthian. Both vocal and instrumental music being used in public worship, the Anglo-Saxons were glad of organs for their larger churches. They were no strangers to that noblest of instruments early in the eighth century ; and in the tenth, one of enormous size was erected at Winchester.' ' Finan placed his episcopal seat at Lindisfarne in such a church. —(Bed. iii. 25, p. S33). The vene rable historian, however, speaks of this as done more Scotorum. Hence it seems reasonable to infer that the more considerable Anglo-Saxon churches were ordi- nanly of stone. An ancient church of timber yet exists at Greensted, near Ongar, in Essex. 2 Even where an erection was not of timber, that word was in use. Thus the Saxon Chronich (p. 202) says that Canute had built (timbered in the original) at Assingdon, in Essex, ' a min ster of stone and lime for the souls of the men who were there slain.' 2 A description of the organ discovered by Mr. Turner, in Aldhelm De Laude Virginum, E roves that instrument to have een known in England before the poet's death in 709. Dr. Lingard subsequently cited a passage from the Acta SS. Ord. Ben. in which Wulfstan's muse celebrates the prodigious organ provided for the cathedral of Winchester by Elphege. — Hist of the Angl.-Sax. iii. 457, 458. Antiqu. de VEgl Angl.-Sax. 575. 238 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. Seventy men, forming two companies which worked alternately, supplied it with wind. In the cathedral, probably, were many unglazed apertures ; otherwise, ma chinery so colossal must have emitted sound almost beyond endurance. Among the uses to which Anglo-Saxon churches were applied, was one inherited from Pagan times. The heathen warrior under accusation solemnly protested his innocence, offering to prove it by some hazardous appeal to his pa ternal gods. He would thus enter upon a field highly favourable for the display of stern, impudent daring, abject superstition, and serpentine cunning — the most striking distinctions of savage life. Hence this picturesque experiment was emphatically called ordal, or ordeal a northern word, signifying the judgment;''- as if it were a mode of trying guilt or innocence, satisfactory above aU others. On the Anglo-Saxon conversion, this absurd, collusive, presumptuous, and superstitious test of integrity, was continued under Christian forms. An accused party, desirous of thus vindicating his character, was to give personal notice of such intention to the priest, three days before the time appointed. On these three days, he was to Uve only on bread, salt, water, and herbs. He was regularly to attend mass, and make his offering on each day. On the day of his trial he was to receive the eueharist, and to declare his innocence upon oath. Fire was then to be carried into the church if the intended ordeal requfred it. This being done, the priest and the accused were to go into the sacred edifice together, but no one was to be there besides. If hot iron were the test, a space was to be measured for carrying it exactly nine times the ' • C/rcfeZ, igitur, Saxonicfe,or(fa?, verbale est a veteri a Franco, vel Teutonico, Urdela, judicare! — (Dissertatio Epistolaris, 149. Hickes, Thes. tom.i.) Dr. Hickes quotes, for this opinion, the Cot tonian Harmony of the Gospels, a venerable remain of antiquity then existing only in MS. but since pubhshed at Munich from a MS. formerly belonging to the cathedral of Bamberg. The word urdehs, as Hickes gives it, or ur- delies, as it stands in print, occurs in II 13. 14, p. 43 of the pubhshed Harmony, or Heliand, as it is entitled. In the Saxon laws, it is plain that ordeal means properly not the trial abstractedly, but the heated iron or other substance used. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 239 length of the accused party's foot. Notice was next given to the friends without, that the required heat had been reached, and two of them were to enter, one for the accuser, the other for the accused, to ascertain this. Their report being satisfactory, twelve were to enter on either side, and to range themselves opposite each other along the church : no further heating was allowed. Holy water was then to be sprinkled upon the whole party; they were to kiss the Gospels and the cross, and a service was to be read. At the last coUect, the iron, if this were the test, was to be removed from the fire, and laid upon a supporter at the end of the nine measured feet. From this, the accused was to remove it, his hand being pre- riously sprinkled with holy water. He was only required to carry it along three of the nine feet, on reaching the last of which he was to throw it down, and hasten to the altar : there his hand was to be bound and sealed up. On the thfrd day afterwards this bandage was to be opened, but not before. If the trial consisted in removing a heavy substance out of boiUng water, when the two witnesses entered the church the same formalities were enjoined. Other ordeals requfred an accused person to walk unhurt over red-hot ploughshares, or to sink immediately, when cast, bound by a rope, into water.* Of these presumptuous absurdities, the red-hot iron ordeal appears to have been most in favour. It was, indeed, obviously the safest. The accused had scarcely to take the burning mass into his hand before he was aUowed to throw it down. For this brief interval most men pro bably gave the skin some preparation. It was not, be sides, expected that the hand would remain unburnt. Innocence was established if the priest, after three days, pronounced the injured part to be healthy. Thus a good constitution, or even a priest inclined to be merciful, could hardly fail of acquitting the bulk of men tried in this way. In some instances, there can be no reasonable doubt, a bribe secured mercy from the priest. Most cases * LL. Mthelst can. 5. Spelm. ordeals was pubhshed by Brown i. 399. Ejusd. R. LL. qua in in the Fa-idculus Rerum Expe- Saxonico desiderantur, can. -8. p. tend, et Fugiend. from the Textus 404. The service provided for Roffensis. 240 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. he would be Ukely to consider as calling for no very rigor ous scrutiny. The Roman church very properly refused encouragement to such modes of tempting providence ; and to her hierarchy Europe was eventually indebted for their discontinuance.* Ordeals, being esteemed a branch of civil jurisprudence, were forbidden on days consecrated to religion. The same prohibition lay against judicial oaths.' Connected with such suspensions of ordinary business, was a regulation of the last importance in an age of violence and insecurity. The days that forbade an ordeal and a solemn oath, inter dicted also angry passions from warlike outrage. The Church mercifully proclaimed a general truce, and her ' ' It does not appear that the Church of Eome ever gave coun tenance to it ; and it is a very singular instance of a gross cor ruption that it had not the pope or his creatures for its author. If it ever was directly authorised by any council in a foreign church, it was only by some new converts in Germany in the ninth century. The council of Mentz, 847, c. 24, enj oins the ordeal of ploughshares to suspected servants. But to give the pope, I mean Stephen v., his due, he presently con demned it in an epistle to the bishop of Mentz, in whose diocese it chiefly prevailed. Nay, Alex ander IL, the Conqueror's own ghostly father, absolutely forbade it. The first prohibition of or deal mentioned by Sir H. S. (Spehnan) here in England, is in a letter from King Henry III. to his justices itinerant in the north, in the third year of his reign. Yet this learned knight observes, that eight years after this he granted the religious of Sempringham power to admin ister it. Great lawyers have said that it was suppressed by Act of Parhament in the third year of his reign. But the record men tions only the king's letter ; and the king's letter says it was done by the advice of his coimcil, and gives this only reason, that it was forbidden hy the Church of Rome! — Johnson, sub aw. 1065. can. 2). Ordeals, however, can not be accurately taken as ex tinguished under Henry III. For the trial by wager of battle is a mere ordeal, and could be legally demanded, until after it had been so successfully, by a man tried at Warwick for murder, in 1817. In consequence of this, the obsolete privilege, so unex pectedly discovered for him by his legal adviser, was abolished by Act of Parliament, and thus the last remnant of Enghsh or deals was wholly abolished. This particular ordeal was introduced by the Conqueror. A trace of the water ordeal lingered among the common people until the last century, in their disposition to try barbarous experimraits upon unhappy creatures accused of witchcraft. ' LL. Edov. Sen. et Guth. EE. 0. 9. Spelm. i. 393. Wilk i. 203. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 241 holy voice was wisely seconded by the civil power. Thus, ferocious overbearing violence was eontinuaUy arrested in its pitiless career, and reUgion provided stated respites for the weak, which laws merely human could not safely pro mise. HappUy the days were numerous on which the Church insisted upon peace. In every year, whole seasons were thus kindly consecrated. The truce of reUgion ex tended from the beginning of Advent untU the eighth day after the Epiphany : from Septuagesima until the octaves of Easter ; from Ascension Day untU the same time after Whit-Sunday ; and through all the Ember weeks. Be sides this, the holy truce began at three o'clock on every Saturday afternoon, and lasted untU Monday morning. The same happy privilege secured a joyful welcome for aU the principal saints' days, and within particular districts, for the festivals of those saints to whom their churches were severaUy dedicated. The eve came, and ferocity was hushed. Protection, also, was at all times extended to persons in their way to or from a church, or a synod, or a chapter.' Disregard of these provisions was properly cog nizable before the bishop. If his authority were neglected or defied, it was to be rendered available in the civU courts.^ It was among the evUs of religious usages introduced from Rome, that some of them had a tendency to super stition. They stamped a sacred character upon certain substances; which were, therefore, sure to pass for power ful charms among a ri;ide and ignorant populace. Nor were such notions Ukely to be much disturbed by a semi- barbarous clergy. The Anglo-Saxons, accordingly, viewed water, oU, and other things, hallowed by the Church, as Remedies against bodUy disease.' There is, indeed, always " LL. EccL S. Edw. E. et Conf. c, 3. Spelm. i. 619. Wilk. i. 311. ' lb. c. 7. ' With holy water he healed a woman, the alderman! s wife, from ¦o miserable disease, and she, soon sound, waited upon himself. After wards at the same time, he with oil smeared a maiden lying in long affliction, through a grievous headache, and she was soon better of it. A certain pious man was also very ill, and lay at the point of death given over by his friends. One of these had some holy bread which the pious man formerly blessed, and he dipped it imme diately in water, and moistened his kinsman's mouth with it and 242 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. this danger when material objects are connected with ordinary devotion. To the reflecting few these may be only interesting relics of a distant age; the thoughtless many wUl certainly find something in them akin to magic. StUl graver objections wUl apply to the Anglo-Saxon penitential system. It might seem a very desirable check upon human corruption, especiaUy among a gross and barbarous people, that every offence should rigorously exact a proportionable penalty. Nor, undoubtedly, could the solemn recognition of such a principle fail to render mportant public services. Yet these were far less than might have resulted fr'om the system nakedly considered. Fasts of months, or years, or even of a whole Ufe, were denounced against iniquities according to their several magnitudes. But then aU this rigour was open to commu tation. The same authority that had provided a scale of personal austerity, had also provided an equivalent scale far more agreeable. If a penitent were disquieted by the ¦ prospect of a day's fast, a penny would release him from the obligation.' If he had incurred a more than common liability of this kind he might build a church, and eccle siastical authorities would pronounce him free.' Thus wealthy sinners found no great reason to tax the peniten tials with intolerable severity. Nor was poverty left under the necessity of drawing an opposite conclusion. The repetition of psalms was pronounced highly meritorious.' immediately assuaged the disease. —Hom, m Nat. S. Cuthb. Bihl Bodl MSS. BoDLET, 340, f. 65. ' Man may one day's fast with one penny redeem. — (Wanlet, apud Hickes, Tres. ii. 146). Undoubtedly the Saxon penny answered to three of modern times, and the existing value of money rendered it a sum worth considering. • Amends for deeds are pro- !ec? in various ways. A great man may redeem with alms. Let him who has the power rear a church in God's honour, and if he have an opportunity, let him give land thereto. — lb. 198. ' 'Delet peccata.' — (Bibl. La meth. MSS. 427. f. 1). The second leaf of this MS. contains the following prayer : ' Susci pere dignare Dne ds omps hos psalmos consecrates quos ego indignus et peccator decantare cupio in honorem nominis tui dni nri Ihu Xpi, et beatse Mariae semper virginis, et omnium scorum, pro me misero infehci, et pro cunctis facinoribus meis, sive factis, sive dictis, sive cogi- tationibus concupiscentus ini^ MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 243 Hence, he who shrank from a fast, yet wanted means to commute it for money, might appease an accusing con science by a proportionate number of psalms.' Among the reading and thinking few, doubts appear to have been occasionally felt as to the soundness of this system; for it is recommended that repentance should not cease, although discipline may require nothing further, it being uncertain what value God may put upon such services.^ But an observation of this kind was Ukely to pass unheeded amidst a vast mass of matter far more popular. Hence Anglo-Saxon penitential doctrines were calculated, upon the whole, to serve sound religion and morality very un certainly and equivocally. A party striving for ascendancy is naturally prone to magnify those who raise its credit. If reUgious, it pro claims the superior morality of its more serviceable members. Anglo-Saxon efforts for extirpating paganism and estabUshing monachism were thus facilitated. To many devotees, conspicuous for zeal or self-denial, was attributed a saintly character, and eventually their tombs were eagerly frequented as the seats of mfraculous agency. Nor did their posthumous importance fade until quitatibus, sive omnibus negU- gentiis meis magnis ac minimis ; ut isti psalmi proficiant mihi ad ritam setemam, et remissiondm omnium peccatorum et spatium adjuvando, et vivam penitentiam faoiendo : per.' Wanley refers this MS. vol. generaUy to the time of Edgar, or even to an earlier date ; but he pronounces the prayer above, and many other things in the book, to have been written at a period far more recent. — Hickes, Thes. ii. 268. ' He who owes one week on bread and water, let him sing 300 psalms, kneeling, or 320 without sneeling, as it is said above. And he who must do penance a month's space on bread and water, let him sing a thousand psalms and 200 kneeling, and without 1680.— Pcenitentiale D. Ecgbert. Arch. Ebor. i. 2. Wilk. i. 115. 'If a layman slay another without guilt, let him fast vn. years on bread and water, and then Iiu. as his confessor teaches him: and after the VTI. years' amends, let him ever earnestly repent of his misdeeds, as far as he may, because it is unknown how acceptable his amends may be with Qod. — (Wanlet apud Hickes, Thes. ii. 146). This passage evi dently was not written under a behef in the sacramental penance that scholastic divinity after wards maintained. For further information upon Anglo-Saxon penitential doctrines, see Bampt. Lect Serm. V. with the Proofs and Illustrations. 244 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. the Reformation. Even then long prescription, and ser vices really rendered in some cases to religion, pleaded successfully against a total exclusion of such names from the national calendar. Others' of them have escaped oblivion from local associations. Upon several among these ancient saints sufficient notice has already been bestowed incidentally. Chad, whom Theodore displaced from York and subsequently seated at Lichfield, may be further mentioned because the homily for his day proves wheel- carriages to have been then in use. Theodore found him in the habit of undertaking pedestrian journeys far above his strength to preach the Gospel. He not only mounted him on horseback, but insisted also on his using a horse-wain occasionally.* Another exemplary personage whom Theodore drew from monastic privacy to episcopal cares, was Cuthbert, the saint most popular in northern England. In' the south, Etheldred and Edmund were the great favourites ; but even there, we are told, Cuthbert had been shewn to be the most powerful of the three. A leprous southern noble, being at a loss to choose between them, lighted three candles, dedicating one to each. That which burnt out first was to shew which saint could serve him best. Cuthbert's was the one.' This was exactly what aU Northumbria would expect, for Cuthbert's miracles were there in every mouth. Bede gave them immortality,' and further glory was heaped upon them in the twelfth century by Reginald, a monk of Durham.* Later ad miration would make Cuthbert of princely origin. But Bede says that he tended cattle on the hills when a lad;^ whUe so engaged, his fellow-herdsmen being asleep, but ' Him the archbishop with his own hand mounted on a horse, because he found him a very holy man .- he compelled him also to travel about in a horse-wain, if the case required. Chad had a brother of the same name, who was ¦bishop of London. — Bibl. Bodl MSS. Junii. 24. Hom. 1. ' Eeg. Dunelm. 38. « Vita S. Cudberet. * De Admirandis B. Cuthb. FjVtoft'Jjis, printed by the Surtees Society. » Bed. Vita S. Cudb. c. iv. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 245 he praying ¦ and awake, as Bede affirms, he saw some saintly soul taken up to heaven. It was Aidan's, he afterwards felt sure ; that revered bishop of Lindisfarne dying at that very time. This vision made Cuthbert resolve to become a monk. He took at once his cattle to their owners, and set off for Melrose.' Being there soon found a pattern for the whole fraternity, Eata, the abbot, made him prior, and again did so at Lindisfarne, when he himself took that abbacy instead of Mefrose. Each of these abbeys, Cuthbert often left for weeks together, to preach in the neighbouring country. No recess could be too wild, or population too rude for zeal like his. Wherever he went, people were delighted and improved. StUl, he was not satisfied. An abbey could scarcely be made severe enough for him. But Fame, a desert rock that rose, as if in stern defiance, from the stormy sea, promised solitude and privation to his heart's content. But no seclusion could_ eclipse his fame. He was unanimously elected bishop in the synod of Twiford, at which Theodore presided. Cuthbert was deeply pained when apprised of this appointment, and steadily refused it, until the king went over to Fame, and earnestly pressed it on him.' The see meant for him was Hagul- * Bed. VitaS. Cudb. c. vi. p. 59. ' After this an assembly was holden, and Ecgfridus sate therein, and Theodorus, archbishop of this island, with many other noble councillors, and they all unani mously choose the blessed Cuth- berhtus as bishop. Then they quickly sent a writ with a message to the blessed man ; but they could not bring him from his minster. Then rowed the king himself Ecg fridus io the island (Fame), and bishop Trumwine, with other pious men, and they much besought the saint, bent their knees, and legged with tears, until they drew him weeping from the solitude to the synod together with them. — (Bibl Bodl MSS. Bodlet, 340. Hom. in Nat. S. Cuthb. f. 64). In the same folio we learn, that, after Cuthbert became bishop, Nolde awendan his gewunelican big-leofan, ne his gewada the he on westene hafde. He would not change his accustomed food, nor his weeds that he had in the solitude. ' Notwithstanding the great character of Cuthbert's piety, 'tis plain he sided with King Ecgfrid and Theodore against Wilfrid : and, by consequence, took no notice of the sentence in Wilfrid's favour, decreed by the Eoman synod. Had not the case stood thus, he would never have made use of King Ecgfrid's re commendation, nor have ac cepted the see of Holy Island, 246 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. stad, now Hexham, but his old friend, Eata, accepted it, and gave up Lindisfarne to him, by way of lightening his reluctance. After two years spent in his new duties, Cuthbert felt himself unequal to them, and sought again the rugged, but regretted scene of his voluntary penance ; where death overtook him. It was in the year 687. His remains were first removed to Lindisfarne, and sub sequently to Durham. A search made in the year 1827, leaves little doubt that a portion of them stUl exists in the cathedral there. Etheldred, or Audrey, another of the native saints most valued in Anglo-Saxon times, was Ely's great attraction. Her fame rested upon an ascetic piety that an ignorant age could never sufficiently admire. Princely parentage easUy found her two husbands in succession, but nothing could prevail upon her to gratify either of them. This may still seem to some like a noble devotion of herself to God. Another of her mortifications nobody wUl any longer approve. She seems to have thought imperfect cleanliness one step towards religious improvement.* Her death happened in 689, and, as it seems, rather suddenly, from an operation undertaken by some empiric, as he thought, successfuUy; but his patient died on the third day afterwards.' Her virginity was regarded as indis- which was part of Wilfrid's jurisdiction, and taken out of the diocese of York, against his consent.' — Collier, Eccl Hist. i. 110. ' 'After her entrance therein (the monastery of Ely), she ever wore woollen, and never linen about her ; which whether it made her more holy, or less cleanly, let others decide.'' — (Fuller, Church Hist 91). The homily adds to the account of her dress, that she would rarely bathe her body unless on high days, and then she would first have all them bathe who were in the minster, and would wait upon them with her maids, and then bathe I herself— (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton Julius, E. 7. f. 93). ' There was a certain physician in the believing company, named Cynefryth, and some people told her that this physician would re duce the swelling; which he soon did, and relieved her from, the pain. He thought that she might recover, but she passed out of the world with glory to God, on the third day after the ulcer was opened. — lb. 'The ulcerated tumour which had so fatal a result, was under the chin, and Etheldred appears to have considered it as a sort of judgment for the pleasure she had formerly taken in wearing necklaces. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 247 putable, because her body was found undecomposed, sixteen years after death. Such a deviation from the ordinary course of nature was, indeed, regularly con sidered as a proof of unbroken continence.* The third great favourite among Anglo-Saxon native samts, Edmund of East AngUa,' was anointed and con secrated for the kingly office, when fifteen, m 856, at Bures St. Mary's, in Suffolk, then a royal residence. He was killed, at Hoxne, in 870, by the Danes; who first scourged him unmercifully against a tree, and then transfixed him, like another Sebastian, with spears. The pagan bigotry of these fierce invaders formed a hateful contrast with the Christian resignation of their victim. Hence pious minds embalmed the memory of Edmund, and a splendid abbey rose eventually at Bury, as a fit repository for the remains of one cut off, after a blameless hfe, by a cruel and untimely death. His murderers appear to have stricken off his head, and cast it into a tangled thicket. There, ancient legends teU, and so does the service for St. Edmund's day, it found protection from a hungry beast of prey. Perhaps a modern might sup pose the animal to have been restrained by fear; for the same authorities that commemorate its abstinence, record another circumstance fuUy as remarkable. Dif ferent individuals of a party, scattered in a wood, were in the habit of calling out occasionally, 'Where art thou, comrade?' To those in quest of Edmund's head the usual answer, ' Here, here, here,' was regularly returned from a single spot. To this aU the stragglers naturally repaired, and were amazed on finding every reply to have come from no other than the object of thefr search, respectfully guarded within the talons of a wolf.' • ' Hit is swutol that heo was ungewemmed moeden, thonne hire lichama no mihte formolsnian on eorthan. — (Ib.i. 94). It is mani fest that she was an undefiled maiden, when her body could not decompose in the ground. ¦ ' AssBR, 14, 20. Battelt, An- tiquitt. S. Edm. Burg. p. 15. ' 'Dani vero relinquentes cor pus, caput in silvS, recedentes asportaverunt, atque inter densa veprium fruticeta occultlrunt. Quibus abeuntibus, Christiani corpus invenientes, caput que- sierunt ; atque Ubi es 1 ahis ad alios in silva clamantibus, caput respondit Her, Her, Her, quod 248 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. The memory of Frideswide yet lingers at Christchurch, pre-eminent even in Oxford, among seats and seminaries of learning and religion. She was daughter of Didan, a princely chieftain who ruled in that venerable city with some sort of delegated authority.* Her claim to saintly honors appears to have rested on a determination to live as a nun rather than as a distinguished married lady.' Among the northern saints was Oswald, king of Nor thumbria. He had, indeed, fafrly earned respectful re membrance in that part of England. It was largely indebted to him for conversion. But he rendered this important service by means of a native church. His invitation brought from Scotland Aidan, who eventually mounted up to heaven, if a vision of Cuthbert may be trusted, in spite of his inconformity with Rome. He came into Northum bria with a dialect which the people could not understand, and Oswald acted as his interpreter. Thus his royal friend became an active sharer in the national conversion, and he showed himself to have been quite worthy of such an honour by a noble spirit of Christian liberality. He sur rendered once an Easter dinner, and the silver dish besides containing it, to a crowd of hungry poor waiting for his est. Hie, Hie, Hie' — (Breviar. Sarisb. 20 Novem.). The wolf's connexion with this extraordi nary head is detailed in another lesson. The homUy is amusingly picturesque. ¦ They went then seeking all together, and constantly calling, as is the wont of those who oft go into woods. Where art thou, comrade f And to them answered the head. Here, Here, Here. Thus all were answered as often as any of them called, until they all came through the calling to it. There lay the gray wolf that guarded the head, and with his two feet had the head embraced, greedy and hungry, and for God durst not taste the head, and held it against wild beasts. Then were they astonished at the wolf's guardianship, and carried the holy head home with them, thanking the Almighty for all his wonders. But the wolf fol lowed forth with the head, until they came to town, as if he were tame, and after that turned into the woods again. — (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Julius. E. 7. f. 203. Bibl Bodl MSS. BoDLET, 343). ' In one of the Bodleian MSS. (Laud. 114), containing lives of saints, and St. Austin De Doc- trina Christiana, Frideswide's far ther is called a subregulus. f. 132. ° ' Migravit igitur Fritheswit- cha virgo ad dnm quarto decimo Kalendas Novembris; anno ab incarnatione dm septingentes- simo vicessimo septimo.' — Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Nero. E. 1. f. 363. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 249 alms. This incident made after-times wiUing to overlook Ms alienation from the Roman party. As he pointed to the dish, and so liberaUy dfrected its appropriation, Aidan S3.ii, May that blessed hand defy corruption. In 642, Oswald feU in battle with Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, at Maserfield, now Oswestry, in Shropshire, as it seems. The victor cut off his head and Umbs, to expose them upon stakes. The next year enabled his own people to recover these relics of thefr venerated sovereign, and the right hand, being found possessed of properties decidedly anti septic,' was placed in the church of Bamborough, to which it long attracted superstitious visitors. The fens of Lincolnshfre gloried in an anchoret named Guthlac' Originally, he was a bold marauder; but Mgher principles gained upon him in early manhood, and overwhelmed him with remorse.' This drove him into a monastery, where he was tonsured, and became so strict an ascetic, that other members of the house were disgusted > Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Ju lius. E. 7. S. 152, 153. 'Grant this miracle of Oswald's hand literally true in the latitude thereof ; I desire any ingenuous papist to consider the time wherein it was acted. It was Easter-day, yea, such an Easter- day as was celebrated by the Quartodecimans, Aidan being present thereat, contrary to the time which the canons of Eome appointed. Now, did not a di vine finger in Oswald his mira culous' hand point out this day then to be truly observed ? Let the papists produce such another miracle, to grace and credit their Easter, Eoman style, and then they say something to the pur pose.'— (Fuller, Ch. Hist 82). ' This is, probably, the Good- lake of modern English surnames. Guthlac' a parents were of some distinction, and lived in the time of Ethelred, king of Mercia.— (Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Vespa sian. D. f. 18). Ethelred abdi cated and retired into a monas tery in 704.— (Saxon Chr. 60). The Cotton MS. has been tran scribed, and it was printed, with an English translation, by Mr. C. W. Goodwin, Fel low of Catherine Hall, Cam bridge, in 1848. Guthlac died in 7U.—Sax. Chr. ' We learn from the MS. cited in the last note, that he was/oMr- and-twenty winters old when he forsook the habits of his earlier years. He then retired into the monastery of Eepton, and re mained there two years. Thus his age was twenty-six when he turned hermit, and he is consi dered the first of his nation who adopted that character. There is a hfe of Guthlac, in Latin, very ancient, corresponding with the Saxon (which is probably trans lated from it), among the Cot tonian MSS. in the British Mu seum.— iVero .£". 1. f. 183. 250 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. with him : taking his conduct probably, as a reproach to thefr own. But he quite overcame their dislike by the prudence and propriety with which he met it. Like Cuth bert, however, he could not remain satisfied with a monas tery. Two years' experience of one made him long for a hermitage. He looked out for a spot that might seem unusuaUy repulsive, and found what he wished at Croy land, or Crowland. His choice eventuaUy caused a spacious monastery to rear its majestic head over the watery waste. Improvements immediately began, which have gradually converted barren marshes into fruitful fields. Many simUar services have been rendered by the Church. A long suc cession of owners, always resident, often intelUgent, have taught repeatedly the dreary wilderness to supply no unimportant measure of a nation's wealth. The Anglo-Saxons, it has commonly been supposed, were provided with a complete vernacular translation of Holy Scripture. No such volume has, however, been dis covered. Hence the existence of such, at any time, is very questionable. The Bible, in fact, was evidently considered as a Latin book in ante-Norman England. Texts were generally cited in that language, and then rendered into the native idiom, according to the Roman usage of later times. Doubts even entered reflecting minds as to the expediency of opening Scripture unreservedly to vulgar eyes. But such hesitation arose not from the Church's aUeged possession of an unwritten word, and from a con sequent apprehension lest an analogy should be drawn between this and the simUar Jewish claim so pointedly reprobated by our Saviour. It merely flowed from a fear lest Scripture, indiscriminately published, might be abused by individuals to justify their own obliquities.* All thefr ' Now it thinketh me, love, that that work (the translation of Genesis) is very dangerous for me or any men to undertake : because 1 dread lest some foolish man read this book, or hear it read, who should ween that he may live now under the new law, even as the old fathers lived then in that time, ere that the old law was estab lished ; or even as men lived under Moyses' law. — .Elfric, monk, to .ethelwold, alderman. Prefatio Genesis Anglice. Ed. Thwaites, p. 1). Elfric then proceeds to relate how an iUiterate instructor of his own dwelt upon Jacob's matrimonial connexions with two sisters and their two maids. This passage has been partly MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 251 other feelings made learned Anglo-Saxons anxious to spread a knowledge of the Bible. To such anxiety several interesting versions bear honour able testimony. The eighth century is thought to have produced the four Gospels in a vernacular dress.* A Uke antiquity may possibly be claimed for the Psalter.' Of the translator, in either case, nothing is certainly knovm. The Pentateuch, with most of Joshua and Judges, and some parts of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Esther, and Maccabees, was translated by Elfric. He presented his countrymen, also with a brief homiletic sketch of Job. A poetic piece, now imperfect, founded upon the apocryphal book of Judith, and written, it has been thought, in Dano- Saxon, is, probably, another extant evidence of his industry. In this last undertaking he had an eye to the Danish used aheady in the note respect ing Elfric's early education. His own account of the biblical versions made by him is to be found in a Saxon piece which he addressed to Sigwerd, of East- Heolon, and which was pubhshed by L'Isle in 1623. ' Bp. Marsh's Michaelis, ii. 637. The four Gospels in Anglo- Saxon were printed in London, by Abp. Parker's means, in 1571 : Foxe, the martyrologist, being editor. In 1665, the Gospels were reprinted at Dordrecht, under the care of Dr. Marshall, rector of Lincoln College, Ox ford, with the parallel Mceso- Gothic version. Some title pages of this edition exhibit Amster dam, as the place of impression, and 1684 as the date. In 1842, a new edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels was printed in London by Mr. Thorpe. Foxe's edition is from a late MS. written evi dently after Anglo-Saxon had lost its original purity. Mar- shaU's text is of an earher date, but omissions in the MS. are unskilfully supplied by the editor. Mr. Thorpe's text is formed* from two Cambridge MSS. with occasional reference to a MS. in the Bodleian, and another in the British Museum. From his preface these particu lars are taken. 'From the difierent styles of the Anglo-Saxon ver sions of the Gospels, they must have been translated oftener than once.' — Turner's Hist Angl.-Sax. iii. 499. 2 ' De Authore autem hujus versionis baud quicquam statui- mus. Primus Psalmorum in Linguam Saxonicam translator sub anno 709, laudator Adelmus Episc. Shirburnensis ; sed cum regem Alfredum Magnum, trans- lationem etiam hujusmodi, paulo ante annum 909, adortum esse legimus, priorem illam ex Danica tempestate periisse verisimile est, et posteriorem sanfe ex im- portuna Eegis morte abortivam fuisse novimus.' — Prsef. in Psalt Latino-Saxonic. Vet a JoH. Spel- MANNO, edit. Lond, 1640. 252 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. incursions; thinking that a harassed nation could dwell upon few pictures more advantageously than one of suc cessful resistance to foreign aggression. The Anglo-Saxons likewise possessed in thefr native idiom the pseudo- gospel, passing under the name of Nicodemus.' Probably this was considered a valuable supplement to the inspfred records of our blessed Saviour's life. If any other Scrip tural versions ever existed, authentic particulars of them are imknown. We have, indeed, besides, a paraphrastic view of the leading incidents detailed by Moses. Its author seems to have been that Csedmon, whose extraor dinary poetical talents Bede commemorates, and ascribes to divine inspiration. His gift having been accidentally discovered, HUda, abbess of Whitby, persuaded him to become a monk, and enter her abbey. There he died, it is thought, in the year 680, or something later. The work attributed to him, and upon good grounds, is of course a sacred poem, not a biblical version.^ There is, ' AU these, except the selec tions from Samuel, Kings, Chroni cles, Esther, and Maccabees, which are most probably lost, were published by Thwaites, at Oxford, in 1698, under the fol lowing title : Heptatefichus, Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi: Anglo- Saxonice. Historia Judith Fragmentum : Dano- Saxonice. In that collection, the Jjidith ap pears as prose. Mr. Thorpe has reprinted it with improvements, in his Analecta Anglo-Saxoniea (Lond. 1834), arranged as verse. He says (Pref. vui.) 'the entire poem, of which it probably formed an inconsiderable portion, must have been a noble pro duction.' 2 Bede (iv. 24. p. 327), relates, that Csedmon abruptly retired from a table, where the guests were singing in succession, when the harp came to him, because he had no verse at command. In the course of the foUowing night he dreamed that a stranger desired him to sing. He pleaded inability, but was told that he did not known his own powers. Being further pressed, he began to sing the Creation ; and he subsequently retained the fa culty of clothing in verse any sacred subject read or recited to him. A short specimen of his abilities is preserved by Bede. A considerable mass of poetry, on the subjects which occupied his muse, is extant in the Bod leian library, in a MS. referred to the tenth century, once be longing to Abp. Ussher, and given by him to Junius. That learned Anglo-Saxon scholar published it, in 1665, at Amster dam, but without either trans lation or notes. In 1832, the Society of Antiquaries reprinted it, in London, under the judicious care of Mr. 'Thorpe, who has im proved the text, and added an English translation. Hickes MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 253 likewise, in the British Museum, an ancient Harmony of the Gospels.' This again, is poetical, and obviously was never intended for the Anglo-Saxon people; not being in their tongue, but in a cognate dialect from the Gothic stock. As the scanty remains of Anglo-Saxon biblical literature mount up to a high antiquity, they are not without importance in scriptural research. Use of them has, accordingly, been made in the delicate and difficult task of conjectural emendation.^ But although these venerable monuments of English piety can hardly fail to preserve traces of Latin versions now lost, yet St. Jerome's trans lation was that, in fact, of ancient England.' Existing doubted Csedmon's title to the poem, because he considered the language Dano-Saxon, and there fore of a later age. But Mr. Thorpe denies that any Danisms are to be found in the work. Probably any verbal peculiarities, either in Cadmon or Judith, may be accounted-for by the fact, that both are strictly poems. It is undoubtedly far from obvious why Elfric should have written Dano-Saxon. Yet we have his own authority for attributing to him a translation of Judith. — (De Vet Test 22). This can hardly be any other work than that of which a fragment stiU remains. Of both the Judith and the Cadmon, long and interesting accounts may be seen in Mr. Tmmer's Hist of the Angl-Sax. (ui. 309). Of the latter, stiU fhUer particukrs are supplied in the Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, for which we are indebted to the two Messrs. Conybeare (pp. 3. 183). A strong similarity has been observed in parts, between Cced- mon and Paradise Lost Hence Mr. Turner supposes that Milton might have had some hints from Junius. — (Hist Angl.-Sax. in. 316). Speculations of this kind might be carried further. The pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus per sonifies HeU, and makes her (for the gender is feminine) hold a dialogue with Satan. Such read ing brings to mind Milton's per sonification of Sin and Death. > Published at Munich in 1830, by SchmeUer, under the title of Heliand. Poema Saxonicum Seculi Noni. The MS. from which this work is printed was formerly in the cathedral library at Bamberg, but is now at Munich. It is piiblished with the advantage of collations from the Cotton MS. ' ' Various readings from the Anglo-Saxon version of the Four Gospels were first quoted by MiU, who took them from the papers of MarshaU.' — Bp. Marsh's Michaelis, ut supra. 2 Thes Hieronimus wes halig sacerd, and getogen on Ebreiscum gereorde, and on Greciscum, and on Ledenum, fulfremedelice, and he awende ure Bibliothecan of Ebreiscum bocum to Leden sprece 254 MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. Anglo-Saxon versions, besides, are not sufficiently com plete and critical to throw extensive light upon biblical inquiries. The translators evidently had no thought of anything beyond popular utUity. They reasoned probably, that every reader of more than ordinary reflection and acquirements would consult the Latin text. Its language, indeed, had not yet become completely obsolete among persons of education. Hence many liberties were taken by Elfric, especiaUy, both in paraphrasing and abridging.' No doubt a version was thus produced more level to popular apprehension. But its value to a critic is impaired. There can be little certainty as to the text used by a translator who, obviously, considered himself perfectly justified in departing from it to meet the grossness and iUiteracy of those for whom he wrote. In this respect as in others, the Anglo-Saxon age be trays inherent imperfection. It is, however, eminently an interesting and important period : indeed, the cradle of a social system, admfred and envied by aU Europe. Its monuments, therefore, demand attention from such as would adequately understand England's noble con stitution. Especially is examination due to its ecclesiastical affafrs. English episcopacy is thus traced beyond Augus tine up to a native church, immemorially rooted in the country. This institution, then, has every advantage of prescription, even that of connexion with primitive antiquity. The national endowments of religion, also, meet an enquiring eye under an aspect highly venerable. They chaUenge any rigour of investigation; offering evidence of legal imposition that gives a modem air to the title-deeds of every private famUy. Landed acqui sitions must have been made universaUy under existing liabUities to provide for public worship. It should be Ukevrise generaUy known, that England largely owed —(Bibl Bodl MSS. Junii. 34. p. 93). This Hieronimus was a holy priest, and skilled in the Hebrew language, and in the Greek, and in the Latin, perfectly; and he turned our Bible from Hebrew books to the Latin speech. ' He commonly omits indeh- cate passages, and long succes sions of proper names. In some cases he introduces a gloss, and in others he gives Anglo-Saxon equivalents for proper names. MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS. 255 conversion to British agency, and that her independence was never insulted by papal domination before the Con quest. Nor, again, ought the doctrinal evidence of Anglo-Saxon records to be overlooked. Many of the Marian martyrs faced an agonizing death rather than profess a belief in transubstantiation. Elfric shews con clusively thefr distant ancestry to have been of the same opinion upon this important question. The annals of ancient England also exhibit her indignantly repudiating image-worship. Undoubtedly, they also display the in sidious nature of that practice, by her subsequent adoption of it. Her entfre treatment of the question is, however, a full reply to those claims of uninterrupted tradition, which make up aU the arguments in its favour. Her voice, too, in other points now controverted, but which she never saw particularly noticed, responds most am biguously and insufficiently to calls for traditionary support. Even the last Henry's monastic policy may appeal for extenuation to Anglo-Saxon history. This displays the Benedictine struggle to undermine an older system, and monks, employing an ungenerous detraction, eventually turned with fatal force against themselves. It convicts the cloister, too, of seeking popularity and opulence from the very first, by that debasing subserviency to superstition which dishonoured aU its course. Long, then, as Anglo- Saxon times have passed away, thefr hoary monuments wiU abundantly requite a student's care. This, indeed, is fafrly due to civU institutions in which every EngUsh man exults, to a religious polity which the great majority reveres. Inquiry may surprise a Romanist with opposition, encountered by some peculiarities of his church, convicting them of innovation; with evidence of others, groping a stealthy and vaccillating way through national ignorance and troubles. It wUl greet a Protestant with invaluable testimonies to the substantial antiquity of his distinctive creed. END OF THE HISTORY. APPENDIX. 259 KING EDGAR'S PROCLAMATION. HERE is manifested, in this writ,* how King Eadgar con sidered what might be for a remedy,' in the pestilence that greatly harassed and diminished his people widely through his kingdom. This is then, first, what he and his witan thought, that this unfortunate state of things was earned by sins, and by disobedience to God's commandments; and chiefiy by the subtraction of the bounden tribute which Chris tian men should yield to God in thefr tythe-payments. He bethought and considered the divine course by that of the world. If any agricultural tenant neglect his lord's tribute, and render it not' to him at the right appointed time, one may think, if the lord be merciful, that he wiU forgive the neglect, and take his tribute without punishing him. If he, then, frequently, through his messengers, admonish him of his tribute, and he then hardeneth himself, and thinketh to hold it out, one may ' Brit Mus. MSS. Cotton, Nero. E. l.f. 389. Mr. Thorpe has printed and translated this piece, imder the title of Supplement to Edgar's Laws, in the Anc. LL. and Instt. of Engl.i. 271. To it is appended in his work, the de claration of secular rights, which is found in the MS. This, how ever, was not transcribed for the present volume, on account of its want of connection with the Church. The place at which the second council, or witena-gemot, was holden, has not been identi fied. Mr. "Thorpe seems to have been equaUy unsuccessful, Wiht- bordesstan appearing in his page, without any notice. It was, pro bably, some royal manor in a southern county. ^ In the first two editions of this work, the translation stood 'what might be amended.' This undoubtedly does not clearly give the sense. Itlr. Thorpe's version is, ' what might be for a bot! The retention of this Anglo- Saxon word may, however, make readers think of the bots, or satis factions, eontinuaUy mentioned in penitential language. But a bot, in this sense, was considered as aheady inflicted by Provi dence; and the sovereign only sought a remedy for the evUs thus brought upon his country. Greater strictness in the dis charge of ecclesiastical dues was thought hkely to prove such a remedy; and the word bot appears capable of bearing that construc tion. 260 KING Edgar's proclamation. think that the lord's anger will wax to such a pitch, that he will allow him neither property nor life. So, one niay think, our Lord will do, through the boldness with which common men resist the frequent admonition which our teachers have given about our Lord's bounden tribute, which are our tythes and church-shots. Then bid !> ^**d the archbishop, that ye provoke not God, nor earn a sudden death in this present Ufe, nor, what is worse, a future one in everlasting heU, by any subtraction of God's rights : but let every one, whether poor or rich, who has any cultivated land, render to God his tythes, with all pleasure and liberality, as the act teaches, which my witan enacted at Andover,* and now again at Whitbordestane with a pledge confirmed. Moreover, I bid my reeves by my friendship, and by all that they possess, that they punish every one of those who pay not this, and break the pledge of my witan with any prevarication, even as the aforesaid enactment teaches ; and in the punishment let there be no forgiveness. Whether a man may be so poor as to be tempted into encroachments upon which is God's, to the ruin of his soul, or so hasty-tempered as to think little of that which he does not consider as his own, that surely must be more his own which lasts for ever, if it be done with a truly cheerful mind. Then wUl I that God's rights stand everywhere aUke in my dominions ; and that God's servants, who receive the payments that we make to God, should live clean lives, that they should through thefr purity intercede for us to God. And I and my thanes enjoin our priests what is taught us by the pastors of our souls, that is, our bishops, whom we should never fail of hearing in any of the things that they teach us for God, that we, through the obedience that we yield to them for God, may earn the everlasting life which they persuade us to by teaching, and by the example of good works. ' The legislative importance of Andover, is thus commemo rated by a poet, who celebrates the dedication of the church of the old monastery at Winchester, in 980 ; he was, probably, Elfric : * Post alii plures aderant, proceresque, du- cesque, Gentis et Anglonun maxima pars comitnm , Quos & concilio parlter collegerat illo Quod fuit vice Eegis in Andeveram.*' Vita 8. Ethelw. Episc. Winton. acta. SS. OBD. BENEDICT. SffiC. V. p. 621. 261 II. ELFRIC'S SECOND EPISTLE, Delivered at the Distribution op Chrism.^ 0 YE mass-priests, my brethren, we will say to you now that which ye have not said before ; because to-day we have to distribute our oU, haUowed in three ways, as the book dfrects us : id est, Oleum sanctum, et Oleum chrismatis, et Oleum infirmorum ; That is. Holy oil ; secondly. Chrism ; thfrdly, Sick men's oU : and you should have three phials ready for the three oils, for we dare not put them together in one oil vessel, because each is hallowed separately for a 'separate ministration. With the holy oil, ye should mark the heathen' child on his breast, and midway between his shoulders, with the sign of a cross, ere ye baptise it in the font-water ; and when it comes out of the water, ye should make the sign of a cross on the head with the holy chrism.^ In the holy font, before ye baptise, ye should put chrism in the form of Christ's cross, and people may not be sprinkled with font-water, after chrism has been put therein. ' Bibl Bodl. MSS. Junii, 121, f. 111. Immediately after the title, the following words ai'e written in a hand, apparently of the sixteenth, or the early part of the seventeenth century : ' This epistle Aelfrike sent to Wulf- stanus, archbyshoppe of Yorke, as it appeareth by a bofce of Exeter churche.' * This is, the unbaptised child. This is obvious from Elfric's Epistle to Wulfsine, commonly called his Canons, can. 26, which enacts, ' if an unbaptised child be suddenly brought to the mass- priest, that he must baptise it forthwith with haste, that it die not AeaiAe».— (Spblmam. 579. An cient Laws and Institutes of England, ii. 333). The oU to be used in marking a child before baptism, was called oleum catechu- menorum, as weU as oleum sanc tum. It was mere oil blessed by the bishop for that particular purpose. The practice of thus anointing catechumens is said by Romanists to be at least as old as Tertvdhan's time : but this is not clear, and is conse quently disputed. — ^Durant. De Ritt Eccl. Cath. 112. Durand. Rationale, 1. 6. Bingham, i. 514. ' Chrism is a mixture of oU and balsam. — Durand. 262 elfric S SECOND EPISTLE. With sick men's oUi ye should anoint the sick, as James the Apostle taught in his epistle : Ut allevet eos Dominus et si in peccatis sint dimittentur eis. That the Lord would raise them, and if they be in sins, they shall be forgiven them. The sacrament shoiUd be administered, while the sick can swaUow it, and never to any who are half aUve ; be cause it must be eaten, according to that saying of our Lord's, Qwi manducat carnem meam, et bibit sanguinem meum, in me manet, et ego in eo. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I abide in him.^ Some sick are so foolish, that they have a dread of dying the sooner for the sacrament : but we say in sooth, that a man would not die on that account, although he received the sacrament every day: his sins, however, would be blotted out by the Lord's bread, and he would also be shielded against the devU's snares. The sick man should earnestly repent of his former sins, and promise to leave them, and he ought to confess them until his last breath; and he should forgive all that have ever ofiended him, and pray that they may be forgiven. Ye should give the eueharist to chUdren when they are baptised, and let them be brought to mass, that they may receive it all the seven days that they are unwashed.* ' Oleum infirmorum is mere oil, but not blessed at the same time with the oleum catechumenorum, though on the same day. Maundy Thursday, and as a part of the same ceremony. The Anglo- Saxons were rather afraid of this unction, and sometimes would not admit it in sickness. — (Anc. LL. and Instt of Engl. ii. 355). The Pontifical directs that three several vessels of liquor shall be provided for the ceremonies of that day, of which that, contain ing chrism, shall be the largest. ^ A like adherence to the mere letter of Scripture produced the communion of infants. — (See the Author's Bampton Lectures. 82). If Eomanists would only can didly consider Christian antiqui ties, they might learn from these departures of their church from a servile adherence to words, to doubt the wisdom of continuing such servility in the case of transubstantiation. ' The superstition of remaining unwashed during the week fol lowing baptism, though long out of use among Romanists, is at least as old as TertuUian's time. DALL.ffius. De Cultt. 78. Bishop Kate's Tertullian. 431. ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 263 Ye must not mass In laymen's houses, Nor must one drink. Or play the fool, Or eat in churches. Or talk absurdly. But therein pray ; On the Lord's Supper-Day,^ the Preparation {or Paras- cenf^), and the holy Sabbath.* On these three nights of sUence,^ ye should sing together Because the Saviour Drove from his temple, AU the fooUsh, With their folUes, And quoth. My house Is call'd a prayer-house.^ ' This has beJn arranged as verse, which is evidently its cha racter. Some similar matter, which Mr. Thorpe has arranged metrically, is to be found in Elfric's Epistle to Wulfsine, gene raUy called his Canons. — (Anc. LL. and Instt. ii. 356) Probably both cases present a citation from some weU-known metrical piece. At the conclusion of these hues, Mr. Thorp's edition of this Epistle concludes, aa does that published by Wilkins in his Leges Angl.-Sax. Mr. Thorpe, indeed, does not think that Elfric's composition goes fur ther than the end of the third paragraph, which prescribes the use of sick man's oil. 'What foUows,' he says, ' has been appa rently added by the copyist to the tract about chrism by mis take, having no connexion with it.' But neither in the Bodleian MS. (Junius, 121), from which the transcript now pubUshed, was made, nor in another in that library (Bodley, 343), is there any break, even after the metri cal lines. The whole epistle, in deed, as it is caUed, is perfectly suited to one single occasion, that of giving useful advice and information to a body of clergy men brought together for receiv ing the annual supplies of conse crated oil and chrism. It begins with topics suggested by the particular business in hand, and goes on to other matters of pro fessional interest. ^ Thursday in Passion week, so called because Jesus then took his last paschal meal, and grafted upon it the Christian Eucharist. ' Good Friday ; the day which it commemorates is called para- sceue tou pascha, in St. John's original Greek, xix. 14. * Saturday in Passion week ; it was called holy on several ac counts, particularly because it was a great day for the adminis tration of baptism. — (Du Cange). Saturday was ordinarily called Sahbatum in ecclesiastical lan guage. 5 Besides the general injunc tion of silence in the ordinary business of life, and in various ritual matters, even th-i bells were to remain silent, from the Thursday evening, which com memorated our Lord's betrayal, to the foUowing Sunday morn ing. Nothing more, probably, was at first meant by this, than to impress a character of unusual solemnity upon the season, but it was eventuaUy said, that men were thus to be reminded of the 264 elfric's SECOND EPISTLE. in full your midnight service,^ as the anthem-book teaches, and extinguish four-and-twenty candles at the Psalms, and at every reading, untU the last antiphon,' and end the service, so that each sing his Lord's Prayer apart, and the prayers thereto, without any Ught, kneeling on your knees. On the Thursday, ye shall sing together all your canonical hours.' Sing, nevertheless, the Lord's Prayer and its prayers apart. On Friday and on Saturday, sing your services for the hours, each priest apart, except the mid night service. On Thursday, ye should wash your altars, before ye mass, which else ye must not do. And after evensong, ye shbuld uncover the altars, and let them stand naked until Saturday,* and in the mean time the altar- time when the preaching of the Gospel whoUy ceased ; Jesus himself being actuaUy dead during most of it, and his dis ciples aU along, being dispersed panic-stricken. — Durand. ^ Uht-sang was the first service in the twenty-four hours, and was performed some time between midnight and day-break. ^ In this ceremony, according to the work De Divinis Officiis, which once passed under the name of Alcuin, there were to be three extinctions of the twenty- four candles, making seventy- two in all. "The writer considers the lighting of them up, and the chanting at the same time, as significant of joy and gladness, the putting of them out so many times, as significant either of the falling away of the seventy-two disciples, or of the grief under gone by the apostles during the seventy-two hours of Christ's interment. — Alcuin. Opp. ii. 476. 3 The canonical hours, though sometimes reckoned eight, are generally reckoned only seven. They stand thus in Elfric's epistles, styled by Mr. Thorpe his Pastoral Epistle, which has a Latin prologue to Archbishop Wulfstan. Uht-sang (Matins and Lauds), Prim-sang (Prime), U71- dern-sang (Tierce), Middag-sang (Sext), Non-sang (Nones), .Mfen- sang (Vespers), and Niht-sang (Complin). Hickes, in the ap pendix to his Letters to a Popish Priest, has printed the Saxon services for the canonical hours ; but in these Uht-sang stands last. Prim-sang was sometimes caUed Dag-red (Day-red) sang : a tei-m expressive of the time (day-break), when it was ordi narily chanted. — A71C. LL. and /nsW.ii. 376. Fosbrooke. British Monachism. Lond. 1817, p. 53. * The real reason of this was probably to make them present a handsome appearance when the church should fiU for the great baptism on Holy Saturday, but reasons for it were found in the circumstances of our Lord, who was, as at that time, stripped of his disciples, or on the next day, of his own clothes, for cru cifixion, or of his glory on the cross, as appeared by his crying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me f ELFBIC'S SECOND EPISTLE. 265 sheets are to be washed : and keep on that day your fast until noon. Imple mandatum^ Domini, in ccena ipsius. Do on the Thursday even as our Lord bade. Wash the feet of the poor, and give them food, clothing, if you have opportu nity, and wash one another's feet with humUity, even as Christ himself did, and commanded us to do so. On that day ye must not say at mass Dns vobiscum, but the bishop only who hallows the oil, nor should ye go to pacem,^ but where the oil is haUowed the vessels should be kissed. Ye should keep some of the eueharist ye haUow this day for receiving in Friday's service, because no eueharist must be haUowed on the day in which Christ suffered for our redemption.^ On Friday, before nones. ' This passage might seem conclusive, especiaUy as much corroborative matter is to be found, of the etymology of Maundy, apphed to this parti cular Thursday. It seems to be from mandatum, the new com- mandmetit giYen by ourLord at his last supper (St. Job. xiii. 34), and which was interpreted not merely as a general commandment to mutual love, but also as a special direction to wash one another's feet, after our Lord's example a short time before. Undoubtedly Elfric enjoins that rehef should be given to the poor in addition to the washing of their feet, and a niand, or basket, might be pro vided for carrying it away, but mandatum, the divine command for all this humihation and liberality, affords the best clue to the name, among other reasons, because it accounts for both syUables of it. The day is more likely to have been caUed mandate, corrupted into mandy Thursday, than basket Thursday. . 2 The osculum pads, as it was caUed, or holy kiss, enjoined in Rom. xvi. 16, and elsewhere in the New Testament. Anciently, at the communion service, or mass, in the Roman church, the oflfi-ciating priest kissed one of his assistants, he another, and that other a third, which form went on through the whole con gregation. But as simplicity declined, the ceremony was found productive of obvious inconve niences. To remedy these, a figure of Christ, or the cross, or a case of rehcs, called an oscu- latory, or pax, was eventually handed round to be kissed. Neither anciently the substance, nor subsequently the shadow of the holy kiss was used on Good Friday ; Bona says, as a token of sorrow, Durand, and the pseudo- Alouin, as a memorial of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ with a kiss. * Durand, citing Pope Inno cent, makes this typical of the withdrawal of the Apostles from notice in grief and consternation, in the interval between our Lord's apprehension, and his resurrection.. Raban Maur also 266 EEFRIC'S SECOND EPISTLE. should be first read a lesson from the prophet. In tribula- tione sua mane, and then should be sung the tract, Dne audivi: after the tract, Flectamus genua, and the collect, Ds a quo et Judas: then another lesson. Dixit Dns ad Moysen et Aaron, and the tract,^ Eripe me, Deus. Then should be read Christ's passion according to John's rela tion; at which should not be said Dns vobiscum or Gloria Deo. After this let the priest say the coUect according as the mass, book teaches him. Afterwards let two brothers bear the cross forth covered with a veil, and sing the verse, Populem s, and let two brothers answer them in Greek, Agios 0 Theos, to the end, and then let them aU sing the same in Latin, Scs, Ds, Scs fortis : then that other verse, Quia eduxi vos, then again. Agios o Theos, and Scs Ds, then a thfrd verse. Quid ultra debui, and Agios, and Scs. Then let them uncover the cross, and sing, Ecce lignum cruets, and the other antiphons, whUe the brothers pray by the cross,' and the lay folk also. Let the deacon then lay a corporaP upon the altar with the eueharist that was hal lowed on the day before, and let him place the chalice thereon with uneonsecrated wine, and let the mass-priest say quickly, Oremus preceptis salutaribus moniti, and Pater nr to the end. Let him then say slowly, Libera nos, quesu- mus, Dne ab omnib. malis, then again quickly. Per omnia secula seculorum. Let the mass-priest then put some of makes it typical of their total abstinence from food, during that interval. — De Inst Clerr. Col. 1532. p. 103. ' ' Tracts are certain sentences to be sung after the Epistle.' — Johnson. " Some MSS. have here to thare rode, which Johnson trans lates 'to the rood,' and accord ingly remarks in a note, 'The Good Friday service seems to me the very worst that is in the whole year, save that there is on this day no elevation of the host, nor by consequence, any divine honour required to be paid to it. But the honours paid to the cross are a full compensa tion for that defect.' uEt, how ever, has no meaning that will warrant this construction, nor probably has to. Nothing seems to be meant farther than that prayers should be said by the cross, a usage undoubtedly, that led to idolatry, but it is not • in itself idolatrous. " A Unen cloth for the altar, answering, says Raban Maur and the pseudo-Alcuin, to the linen cloth, in which our Lord's body wrapped. Hence it must not be sUk, or coloured cloth. ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 267 the eueharist with silence into the chaUce, and let him go to communion with aU the brethren. Let them then sing their even-song, each apart, and go to thefr supper, and let no one of them be shod on that day, unless he be weakly, until aU is over. On Easter-eve shaU first be a taper_hallowed, and then the lesson read. In principio creavit Ds celum et terram} Let the service afterwards be performed as your books teach you, but you must not sing the offertory on that day, nor the Agnus Di, nor the Communia, nor go to the kiss of peace. Sing, however, Gloria in excelsis Do. After going to the sacrament immediately sing Alleluia ; and the short psalm therewith, Laudate Dnm oms gentes. Let then be begun the antiphon, Vespere autem Sabbati, and let the Magnificat be fully sung. After the antiphon, let the mass ' As a prehminary to this hal lowing, Durand says (Rationale, 1.6), that aU the hghts in the church should be extinguished, and a fresh light struck for com municating to the paschal taper, ' and thence to other candles. Durant (De Ritt. 56), suggests a reason for this in a tale once current in Jerusalem, respecting Narcissus, bishop there at the close of the second century. Oil being deficient for the services of Easter-eve, to the people's great concern. Narcissus desired the lamps to be replenished by water, which his prayers quickly converted into oil. The story ia found in Eusebius (Hist Eccl vi. 9), but the historian's behef in it may be doubted, as he places it among wonderful things tradi tionally connected with the name of Narcissus among the people of his city. The real origin of the taper ceremonies on Easter-eve may be much more conclusively traced to Pagan times. A notion was then com mon that fire was the first prin-i ciple of all things, and the super stitious care with which the sacred fire was kept by the vestal virgins of ancient Rome is well known. This fire was, however, always lighted afresh on the 1st of March, a day, when open ing spring reminded one of creation, and which is commonly at that sort of distance from Easter that might readily tempt Christian teachers into the spe cious impoUcy of transferring its popular ceremonial to their own Church's festival. For assigning this origin to the taper ceremo nies, the lesson then to be read from the first of Genesis is a strong confirmation. The an cient Pagans, in fact, sometimes identified fire with the earth. Hence Ovid says (Fasti, vi. 460), . . . . et Tellus Vestaque numen idem est. The generation of fire from flint and steel did not inaptly, there fore, upon this principle, repre sent the creation of the earth. ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. priest say the post-communion collect, and thus end the mass, and the even-song with a collect. The mass-priest , shall haUow salt and water on every Sunday, before he masses., and sprinkle it aU over the church, and over the people, and keep that water, if he would have it so, until he hallows more on another Sunday.^ Wine and water, well and cleanly mingled together, must be used at mass, because the wine betokeneth our redemption through the Saviour's blood, which he shed for us, and the water is an expressive token of the people whom Christ redeemed with his vivifying blood. If any one has not wine for all the year, let him take a Unen cloth that has never been in use, and dip it in wine tUl it is wet through, then dry it in the sun, and dip it another time, dry it again, and dip it a third time, then dry it in the hot sun, keep it'cleanly, and in clean water let him wet the cloth, and wring it into his chalice: let this be done by little and little until the cloth is squeezed out. The priest should be careful to make his offerings' very • From this passage it might seem that holy water, as Roman ists call this mixture, was not placed at the entrance of churches in Elfric's t^me. Du rant cites various accounts of its power in driving away demons, changing a mare into a woman that had been a woman before, and curing diseases. — (De Ritt. 146). But he omits Raban Maur's good opinion of it as a cattle medicine. — De Inst Clerr. 132. ^ The offerings of a priest ap pear from the Ordo Romanus, cited by Daill6, to have been only bread. In England, he was to bake the oflets himself, or have them baked under his own eyes. — (Anc. LL. and Instt. ii. 405). Every communicant was bound to offer, hence the parents of infant communicants were to offer for them. Nothing was in very early times accepted at the ofi'ertory except bread and wine. of which a sufficiency was used at the sacrament, and the re mainder distributed among the officiating clergy, or poor, or both. Oblations offered by non- communicants were refused, and for the purpose of avoiding mistakes, the offerings were first brought into the vestry, and such of them as were accepted, were taken by the chief deacon to the altar. As communions gradually glided into the exhibi tions, now called masses among Romanists, oblations of sacra mental elements wore out, and other things were taken : hence the fifth Council of Rome, holden under Gregory VII. in 1078, en joined that something should be oflfered by every Christian at mass. This is evidently a re lease from the necessity of offer ing the sacramental elements. Probably, many wealthy per sons had long offered some ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 269 cleanly through a soaked cloth, and let not his oflets' be too old-baken, and let him wash his chaUce always about once a se'enight; for the prophet saith that he is accursed who doth God's service with carelessness. Therefore no bUnd priest must ever mass, because he sees not what he himself is offering. A great reward he earns with Almighty God, who serves him purely at his pure altar, and does for the people on God's behalf those services which belong to the church at the set times, being sufiiciently hallowed in keeping himself pure, and serving God in his ghostly service, free from serious vices. Now say, I ween, some of you to me. We have not the help to accomplish all this, when we stand alone at our altar. And I say to you that ye should teach lads and young men to help you, that they after you may perform the same ministrations : not your own children whom ye improperly beget, but strangers who may be your children through spiritual instruction : then you really would be teachers, and might so gain the greatest credit, as you may thus learn from the prophecy of Daniel the prophet. Quia autem docti fuerunt, fulgebunt quasi splendor firmamenti, et qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos quasi stelle in perpetuas ceternitates. That is in English speech. Because they were learned, they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who instruct many thing more generally useful, for .Walafrid Strabo, in the ninth century, finds fault with such as offer inordinately, but sometimes wiU not stay to communicate : a plain proof, by the way, that the ninth century knew nothing of the modem Romish fashion, of remaining in communion- time, merely to look on. In Gregory the Great's time, non- communicants were sent out of church before the sacrament was administered, or, in modem Romish language, before mass was begun, by the following notice from the deacon, Si quis non communicat, det locum. — (Greg. M. Diall. lib. ii cap. 23. Opp. Paris, 1 571, p. 970). Perhaps it may be thought that some especial communion day may be meant. But the pope says, this notice was ex more, cum missa- rum solemnia celehrarentur. What would be said now of such an order before the ceremony caUed mass ? — Daxl^us. De Cultt. 289. Bona. De Rerr. Liturg. 201, 395. Labb. et Coss. Concc. i. 374. Bampt Lect 1830,p.ll0. 1 See p. 237. The ojlet was of a round figure, and baked ex pressly for the purpose. Some of these sacramental cakes were often placed in the coffins of deceased priests. — Mabilion, Annall. Bened. ii. 219. 370 elfric's SECOND EPISTLE. in this life to justice, shaU shine verUy as the stars for ever and ever. Thou must not mass alone without one to make the responses to thee, however unwiUing thou mayest be from parsimony to have a clerk, or for the love of God to teach others, holding God's pound in thy napkin, to thy eternal punishment, as the Gospel teUs us. Some priests fiU thefr eucharist-box at Easter, and keep it over twelve months for sick men, as if that eueharist were holier than other : but they do unwisely, for it loses its colour, or becomes rotten aU over, in so long a space, and the individual is then to blame, even as the book teUs us. He who overkeeps the eueharist, or loses it, or mice eat it, or other animals, consider the Penitential what it says of these things. Just as holy is the eueharist that is haUowed to-day, as that which is hallowed on the holy Easter-day. Keep, therefore, I pray, the holy body of Christ with more wisdom for sick men, from Sunday to Sunday, in a very clean box, or at the most, for a fortnight, and then receive it, and lay some more there.^ We have an example in the books of Moses, even among the legal commands given there by God himself, that the priest should, on every Saturday, set twelve, loaves in the taber- naculo, aU new-baken, which were called panes propositionis (shew bread), and which should stand there in God's tabernacle untU another Saturday, when the priests them selves should eat them, and set others there. Some priests wUl not receive the eueharist which they haUow. Now wUl we tell you how the book saith about them, Presbiter missam celebrans, et non audens sumere sacrificium,^ accusante ' AU the preceding paragraph occurs with scarcely a variation in Elfiic's Episth to Wulfsine, commonly called his Canons. ^ Raban Maur, evidently using the words of Isidore, thus deals with the term sacrificium euchar- istically taken. ' Sacrificium dictum, quasi sacrum factum, quod prece mystica consecratur in memoriam dnicBe passionis, imde hoc, eo jubente, in corpus Christi et sanguinem Dni, quod dum sit ex fructibus terrae sanc- tificatur, et fit sacramentum, operante invisibiliter Spiritu Dei.'— (Z)« Inst Clerr. 57). Cy prian also, blaming a wealthy female who came to communicate without an offering of her own, says to her in a weU-known pas sage, sine sacrificio venis. — (Dall^us, De Cultt 290). By the sacrifice, therefore, was often understood anciently the ante- oblation, or material offering ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 271 conscientia sua, anathema est: The mass-priest who masseth, and dares not receive the eueharist, knows himself guilty : he is excommunicated. Less danger is it to receive the eueharist than to hallow it. He who tastes any thing, soUd or liquid, oyster or fruit, wine or water, let him not read the epistle or gospel at mass. If any one do so then, he affronts God, and by this presumption he undoes him self^ He who haUows twice one oflet for the eueharist,^ is like the heretics, who twice baptise one child. Christ himself haUowed the eueharist before his passion : which communicants brought, and the priest consecrated, if necessary, if not, set aside for the purpose of rehgion, or charity. The word is so used in the Anglo-Saxon service for the con secration of churches (p. 30). On the benediction of the paten, it is there prayed, that whatever may be offered or consecrated upon it, may become a worthy holocaust to God, and that the sacrifices of all so offering may be mercifully received. , The post- oblation foUows consecration, and is eucharistic and commemora tive. ' For this practice of receiving the Eucharist fasting, the second councU of Ma.con, holden in 585, gives the foUowing reason : ' In- justum enim est, ut spiritah alimento coiporale prseponatur.' —(Labb. et Coss. v. 982). The ¦usage, therefore, seems to have turned upon a superstitious notion, that food of a sacred character shordd take precedence of any merely, natural. It is, however, observable, that neither the fathers at Ma,con, nor a pre vious canon of the African church cited by them, enjoin fasting upon ordinary communi cants, but only upon the offici ating clergy. But men are so easily caught by strictness in trifles, that the fasting system extended until Anglo-Saxon mo thers were prohibited from suckling their infants, or giving them food of any kind, if it could possibly be helped, on the days when they were brought to communicate, until the commu nion was over. — (Bampt. Lect. 1830, p. 110). From this prohi bition it is observable, that the infants were not brought to mass, in the modern Romish acceptation of that term, that is, to gaze at a dramatised commu nion without communicants, or more properly to hang in the arms of mothers thus ga2dng. They came to receive, and that for a whole week together, after baptism. Romanists, in forsak ing the rehgious usages of their forefathers at a communion, being lookers-on instead of com municants, were told at Trent, that they came to be present at a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice, beneficial to non-recipi ents, but antiquity would lead them to suspect that the sacri fice, which Fathers talk of, may mean their own offerings conse crated for their own receiving. ' Foxe and L'Isle say 'one host to housel.' But this does not 272 ELFRIC'S SECOND EPISTLE. he blessed the bread and broke it, thus saying to his holy apostles, Eat this bread ; it is my body. And he afterwards blessed a cup with wine, and saith thus to them. Drink all of this ; it is my own blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. The Lord, who hallowed the eueharist before his passion, and saith, that the bread was his own body, and the wine was truly his blood, he halloweth daily through his priest's hands, bread for his body, and wine for his blood, in spfritual Siystery, even as we read in books. The lively bread is not, however, bodily, the same body that Christ suffered in, nor is the holy wine the Saviour's blood that for us was shed in corporeal reality. But in spiritual meaning, both the bread is truly his body, and the wine also is his blood ; even as the heavenly bread which we eall manna, which forty years fed God's folk, and the clear water that ran from the rock in the wilder ness was truly his blood. Paulus, accordingly, wrote in one of his epistles, Oms patres nostri eandem escam spiritua- lem manducavevunt, et oms eundem potum spiritualem biberunt : et cetera : AU our fathers ate, in the wilderness, the same spiritual meat, and drank the spfritual drink. They appear very inteUigible. The term housel, indeed, commonly used in translating Saxon, is so completely obsolete, that it would be, perhaps, better discarded from books. Hence eueharist has latterly been substituted for it in this work. Its origin is evidently the Gothic hunsl, a word which occurs three times in the extant portions of IH- philas's version of the New Testament. In St. Matt. ix. 13, it stands for sacrifice, in the au thorised English version; on- sagdnes, in the Anglo-Saxon ; sacrificium, in the Vrdgate ; and thusian, in the original Greek. In St. Mark, ix. 49, it stands for offering in the Anglo-Saxon, and victima in the Vulgate : the original and English terms are the same as in the former case. In St. John, xvi. 2, it stands for service in the English, obsequium, in the Vulgate, and latreian, in the original. The Anglo-Saxon renders the two words doeth ser vice, by thenige. In all these cases, therefore, except the last, huhsl denotes the surrender of a material object for religious uses, and it is plain that such a principle generaUy entered into Anglo-Saxon ideas of sacrifice. Hence even infants could not be admitted to that eucharistic and commemorative repast, which was deemed indispensable for their spiritual nurture, until their parents had offered for them. elfric's SECOND EPISTLE. 273 drank of the spiritual rock, and that rock was Christ. The apostle said, even as ye now heard, that they all ate the same spiritual meat, and they all drank the spiritual drink. He does not, however, say bodily, but spiritually. Then Christ was not as yet born, nor was his blood shed, when the people of Israel ate the meat, and drank of the rock : and the rock was not Christ bodUy, though he said so : these were merely the sacraments under the old law, and they spiritually betokened the spiritual eueharist of our Saviour's body which we hallow now.' Some priests will not give the eueharist to the people unless they buy it, nor baptise their children ; but they should understand, how the Saviour drove with a scourge that he had made, the dealers out of the temple : he would not have them trade in the great house : and how also, he bade in his holy Gospel, Gratis accepistis, gratis ' At this point ends the ex tract printed by Foxe and L'Isle. It begins with the censure upon the superstition of those priests who fill their housel or eueharist box at Easter for a whole year's use among the sick. Much of it is to be found in the epistle to Wulfsine, or Elfrid s Canons; many things also are in the famous Paschal homily (styled in two MSS. in the Public Library at Cambridge, Sermo de Sacrificio in Die Pascha), but upon the whole, the doctrine is brought out more forcibly in this epistle to Wulfetan, than in either of the other pieces. This may appear an additional reason for behoving that the epistle to Wulfstan has been rightly considered as pos terior to the other two pieces. That it ia by the same author, and not by Elfric Bata, or some other writer, may fairly be pre sumed from the identity of doc trine, and even of language, running through aU the three. The important passage from 1 Cor. X., which explains the Christian sacraments by God's dealings with the Israelites in the wilderness, is eridently taken from Bertram, or more properly Ratramn, but Elfric has pushed it more completely home. He has used it in the eucharistic Paschal homily, but not in. the epistle to Wulfsine. This is, indeed, by far the least consider able of the three famous Anglo- Saxon testimonies against tran substantiation. The whole three, with their precursor, Ratramn's tract, seem like a mass of circum stantial evidence as to a progress in the belief in the corporal pre sence. The continental piece, though clear enough to the point, is the most guarded of the four, and the epistle to Wulfstan, the least so. This would be the natural course of events, if, in spite of scholarly efforts to stop it, superstition was continually at work upon the ancient eu charistic faith. 274 elfric's SECOND EPISTLE. date : You received it without compensation, bestow it m like manner upon others without compensation. If ye give for money the holy ministrations which we do to the Saviour, shall" we not forfeit our right to those presents, which, by God's leave, we might enjoy, being voluntarily given, and fafrly earned ? People must not lodge goods in a church, or com, or any thing, in Christ's house, except the things alone that appertain to his ministrations. Some priests mingle wine with the font-water, very improperly, contrary to the institution : thus one saith to God in the font-blessing, Tu has simplices aquas tuo ore benedicito : That is, in English language. Bless thou. Lord, these simple waters with thy holy mouth. But the water is not simple if there be wine added to it, and Christ did not command to baptise his people with wine, but with simple water, even as the gospel informs us. Ye should know by heart, and also explain to the people the ten commandments of the law, which God taught Moses, and wrote with his finger on two tables of stone, on the mount Sinai, for the dfreetion of aU men, as well for the old people then, as for us who are now. Hoc Decalogum Moysi : These are the ten commandments, which even God himself proclaimed from the same mount with a great voice to all the people who were then with Moses in the wUdemess. Ego sum Dns Ds tuus, qui eduxi te de tra .Mgypti : non habebis deos alienos coram me. That is, in English, I am the Lord, thy God, I led thee from the land of Egypt; have thou not strange gods before me on any account. This is the first commandment, that we constantly honour Almighty God, who alone is God, the holy Trinity, that created aU things, ever reigning' in one di-rinity : and we should not any way honour the false gods, which are not gods, but raging devUs. The second commandment is thus, Non adsumes nom Dni Dei tui in vanum: Take thou not in vain thy Lord's name.' 1 A reader happily brought up among Enghsh Protestants may feel surprised at such a second commandment, and look through the series to see if he can find the prohibition of graven images any where else. His eye would be more hkely thus to wander if ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 275 He takes in vain his Lord's name, who so beUeves in Christ as if he were created, and wiU not believe that he was ever God with his Almighty Father in one divinity, and with the Holy Ghost in one majesty. He is not a crea ture, but is the true Creator, and every creature is indeed subject now to vanity, that is, mutabUity, for the crea tures will be changed to better things. _The third commandment is. Memento ut diem sabbati scifices. That is, in our language, Be thou mindful that thou haUow the holy resting-day. Under the law of Moses, men then haUowed the Saturn's day with especial honour from servile works ; and we should keep ourselves from servile works, which are motions of sin, which bring into servitude those who much give way to them, even as the Saviour saith in his holy Gospel, Oms quifacitpeccatum servus peccati : Every one of those who commit sin is the servant of sin. We should spiritually keep God's resting- day, so that we ourselves be free from sins, and the day thus be haUowed in ourselves. Many things mark the aforesaid resting-day, but we keep now, since the Saviour's resurrection, the Sunday as a festival; because he arose from death on Easter Sunday, and the Sunday is foremost in creation, and we should ever honour it, in honour of God, in spiritual ser-vitude. These three commandments were -written on one table, and the other seven on another table. The fourth commandment is, Honora patrem tuum, et matrem tuam. That is, in English speech. Honour thy father and also thy mother. He who curses father or mother is one guUty of death. After spfritual meaning. he had ever heard Romanists say that they no more take Uberties with the Decalogue than Pro testants, only foUow some an cient authorities in arranging it differently. Here is, however, not arrangement, but exclusion, and more cases of the same kind may be seen in the Author's Bampton Lectures, p. 242. The practice is not extinct, and is not likely to be until the second Council of Nice is utterly re jected every where. Those who adhere to it must always be embarrassed by the command ment against the rehgious use of images ; and such adherents are numerous enough to make that commandment, as it were forgotten, even among some Christians who disapprove of the ever-memorable CoimcU. 276 elfric's SECOND EPISTLE. God is our father, and his holy congregation, that is, be lieving people, is our spiritual mother, in whom we are born by holy baptism as God's children ; and we therefore should ever honour God, our father, and his spiritual bride, the holy church. The fifth commandment is, Non occides: Slay thou not any man. It is a very great sin when one man slays another who is innocent, or slays his soul by enticing it into sin ; and evil will it be to those people who can help the needy, but deny them any of thefr goods, and let them perish from thefr own covetousness. The sixth commandment is, Non mechaberis: Make thou no unrighteous connection. Every one of those men who has intercourse with any other than a lawful wife, makes an unrighteous connection. The seventh commandment is, Non furtum fades; that is. Steal not thou; for he that steals has the ways of a wolf, and not of a wise man; the rich man too who plunders, and reduces the unoffending people to distress, he is really worse than the secret thief, for he does openly what the other never does without concealment. The eighth commandment is, Non loqueris contra proxi- mum tuum falsum testimonium: Be thou not a false -witness. It is truly written. The false -witness shall by no means be unpunished, and he who speaks leasing' shaU destroy him self Woe to them who for money sell themselves, turn ing truth to Ues, and lies to truth. The ninth commandment is, Non concupisces uxorem proximi tui : Covet thou not another man's wife. The tenth commandment is, Non concupisces ullam rem proximi tui: Covet thou not another man's property. It is right that every man have whatever he himself got, unless he bestows it on other people of his own wiU ; and let every one keep off, according to God's law, from that which belongs to another untU. he forgoes it. Now ye have heard about the ten chief commandments; we wiU, therefore, teU you in the same short way about • Alluding probably to Ps. v. 6, where speak leasing, that is, false hood, is stUl the version of our Prayer Book. Sprecath leaaunga is the Anglo-Saxon version there. ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 277 the eight' capital vices which undo unwary people, and indeed sink them in everlasting punishments. The first capital vice is in Latin, Superbia, and in English, Pride. This made into devUs the beautiful angels who lived in the heavens ; and the proud man cannot get to heaven, but wUl be a companion of the devUs, mdess he leaves his folly off, for pride is a very great folly, and a wise man does not know what he has to be proud of. Pride is the beginning and end of every evU, but is overcome by means of true humility. From humUity it comes to pass that the lowly-minded wiU be hke angels in the everlasting life. The second capital vice is Gastrimargia, vel Gula', that is, in English, Greediness. This cast out at the beginning the first-created beings from Paradise, when they ate of the forbidden tree; and the man is greedy whose impa tience knows not how to wait for a meal, as one ought to do ; he, too, who, like a fool, is given up to drunkenness, and lets excess dfrect his life. This vice is overcome by that rational temperance which sets one a bound in meats and in drinks. The thfrd capital vice is Forriicatio, that is, Lacivious- ness, which purity overcomes. The fourth capital -vice is Avaritia, in Latin, and in English, Covetousness. This constantly kindles in men the desire of more property, and it is never satisfied. It is overcome by means of liberality notwithstanding. The fifth is Ira, that is. Waywardness, which makes a man unable to govern his own mind, and madly to grow angry without any realson ; from this come manslaughters and many violent acts. It may be overcome by that mastery over the mind which enables a man to guide himself with discretion. The sixth is Accidia,^ that is, Listiessness, or a depres- ' Aquinas makes the capital rices to be seven, namely, Inanis Gloria, Invidia, Ira, Avaritia, Tristitia, Gula, Luxuria. Prima Secundas. Col. Agr. 1622, p. 147. . , , ' More properly, and not un usually, written Acedia, its etymology being the Greek word so spelt. The French sometimes weU translate the word by ennui. It was the great infirmity, or vice, as ascetic spirits considered it, of a monk's or hermit's life. 278 ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. sion of spirits and immoderate sluggishness, which make man never ready for any good. This vice causes much evil to men, since indolence may take such hold upon them as to keep them from doing any good while they live, and from having any reward but eternal punishment. The vice is overcome by that steadiness of mind which makes man always ready for good works. The seventh capital vice is Tristitia, in Latin, that is, in English, Sadness, for various accidents that come to men, in sickness, and in losses, or in the death of friends, when a man grieves in his mind to excess, and unwisely mur murs against God. There are two sadnesses, as books tell us, one is the bad kind that we are speaking about, the other is salutary, which we have now to mention, making a man sorry for his former sins, and bent upon repenting of them. The bad sadness is overcome by that happy frame of mind which goodness is certain to bestow on man. The eighth capital -vice is Cenodoxia, id est, Jactantia, vel Vana Gloria, that is. Vanity, in English, or Pomposity; which makes a man vain-glorious, and filled -with conceit, though there may be nothing in him to praise; he is therefore a pretender, whom a capital vice urges upon offensive boasts, and unsteady deeds. This -vdce is over come by the true love of God shed in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. Now ye have heard the Eight Capital Vices, and also the Eight Mights that can overcome them. Be upon your guard against the Vices, and learn the Mights, that ye may be able to overcome the beasts that lie in wait, and escape their teeth ; since nothing is so bad in this life as to have no cure pro-vided for it by the Saviour, who will take care Men urged upon such a course by some temporary impulse, often broke completely down under its wearisome monotony, and utter hopelessness of any earthly change. They lost all relish for the endless calls of a formal piety, and even loathed every return of them, yet neither pubhc opinion, nor their own sense of duty allowed any escape. Before the civil power, however, lent stringency to monastic vows, an intolerable feeling of irksome- ness did really sometimes make men retract a hasty fareweU to social habits. This appears from a passage in Alcuin De Virtutihus et Vitiis. Opp. u. 143. ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. 279 of all things, if we ourselves know how to make use of his medicines. Debetis Purificatione See Marie Candelas benedicere.^ Ye should, both clerical and lay, on the mass-day, which is caUed Purificatio See Marie, bless candles, and bear them to procession with hymns, and offer them thus burnmg, after the Gospel, to the mass-priest, whUe the offertory is being sung.^ Ye should bless ashes, in Caput Jejunii,^ and with holy water sprinkle them, when the mass-priest raises his head with the holy sign of the cross, and scatter them on all the people that shaU be at the mass, before he masses and goes to procession. ' Durand says, no doubt truly enough, that these candle cere monies arose from an adapta tion of similar Pagan formalities which ushered in February. He attributes the credit, if it be any, of thus continuing a heathen superstition under a new name, to Pope Sergius, ut ritum Genti- lium in melius commutet religio Xpiana. Tapers might be offered upon this occasion, because they were used in celebrating the Lord's Supper, or at mass, as the phrase ran, even in the day-time eventually. Upon the same principle, oil and incense were allowed among eucharistic obla tions, so early as the time when the canons that go under the name of the Apostles were com piled.— (Canon 3). They do not, however, appear to have been considered as real offerings, that is, sacrifices. The permission to receive them is given by prosa- gesthai, now commonly trans lated by offerre, but formerly, it seems from Suicer, by admovere, which he thinks the less correct of the two. Perhaps he is wrong, prosenegke is used in the canon, for speaking of the bread and wine, and probably, because the real offerings, and things merelysubsidiary to their admin istration, were designedly placed upon different footings. The use of hghts when the sun was up, a practice learnt from Pagans, is forbidden by the 37th canon of the Council of Elvira, a diffi culty which Durant (De Ritt. 58), meets by observing that the council was provinciaL This reason also serves to invalidate its testimony in the 36th canon against images. — Labb. et Coss. i. 26, 974. " The offering-song, as this portion of the old service was called in Anglo-Saxon times, is of great, but unknown antiquity. Undoubtedly, however, it has not the stamp of the primitive ages. Walafrid Strabo, accordingly, ex presses a belief that the holy fathers offered in silence, and remarks the existing trace -of this in the silent offerings made on Saturday in Passion-week, or the Holy Sabbath. — DAiLains. De Cultt. 1208. ' Ash- Wednesday. 280 ELFRIC S SECOND EPISTLE. Ye should, on Palm- Sunday, bless palm twigs, and bear them with hymns to procession, and have them in your hands, clergy and laity, and offer them afterwards at the end of the Gospel, to the mass-priest, while the offertory is being sung.' Now if any one know not what this betokens, let him learn of other men in Latin, or in English. Stick to the truth, I beseech, and be faithful among yourselves, be also prudent, and strictly just. Let no one deceive another, or forswear himself; love not careless ness, and be not gleemen ; speak -without an oath with single-minded sincerity, even as the Saviour taught in his holy Gospel. Love one another ; and if any one know not learning, let him learn of some one else, who may be better instructed, and let that other with humility give him information. This we are also wiUing to do, if any ' It appears from the pseudo- Alcuin (Opp. ii. 475), that the priest's assistants (ministri) held palms in their hands until the end of the service. These twigs might be, therefore, considered as needed for the communion- service, or mass, of the day, and hence received upon that occa sion, as offerings. This principle may serve to explain the recep tion of milk and honey as offer ings, on the Saturday in Passion- week, a practice sanctioned by the African Church so early as 397. This was the time for baptising, and an ancient custom prescribed the giving of milk and honey, as the first food to be tasted after baptism, being em blems of the simple and sweet innocenoy of childhood. The African Church did not, however, allow these offerings to be con founded with such as were pro perly eucharistic, but com manded them to have a benedic tion of their own. Their admission at all among the sacramental oblations of the day may be accounted for by the usage of administering the com munion immediately afterwards to the ne-«dy-baptised infants, so that the two sacraments, and often confirmation besides, really were different members of one continuous ceremony. Upon the same principle may be explained the offering of oil for episcopal consecration, on Maundy Thurs day. Some of it was to form the oil of catechumens, used before baptism, some again, chrism, used after baptism. Even that for the sick was hkely to be used at the same time with do mestic administrations of the eueharist. The African Church also aUowed offerings of first fruits, but only of com and grapes, the raw materials of the eucharistic feast, so strictly was everything made to harmonise with it, when the Lord's Supper was administered. — Labb. e/ Coss. ii. 1068. Bona. 389. Dallsids. 290. elfric's second epistle. 281 one ask us, agreeably to the admonition given by Moses, Interroga patrem tuum, et annuntiabit tibi ; et cetera. Ask thy father, and he wUl inform thee about God : ask thy elders, and they wUl answer and tell thee. Come, let us be mindful how the kind-hearted Christ saith. Love thy Lord God -with all thine heart, and love thy neighbour even as thyself. These two commandments comprise all the holy lore ; for he that loves God believes also in him, and wiU do nothing that God dislikes, but to the very utmost that he can fulfils his commandments. And he who loves his neighbour, will not do him any harm, or deprive him of his property secretly or openly. May the Saviour aid us for his holy commandments. He that liveth with his beloved Father, and the Holy Ghost, in one Di-vinity, the Three One God ever reigning. Amen. 282 III. SERMON FOR THE LORD'S SUPPER.' Beloved men, I will teU you all, and those especially who knew it not before, whence the example first was taken, that bishops exclude from church, at the beginning of Lent, the people who with open capital vices, render themselves guilty ; and again, after earnest penance, lead them into it, on the day which is Cena Dni, which is the present day. Our Lord created and made Adam, the first man, holy, and pure, and sinless, in his own likeness, and the same Ukeness our Lord also taught and firmly bade, that we should earnestly have and hold in ourselves. He saith, Estote sci, quia et ego scs sum. We read in books, that for Adam's goodness, and for his holiness, God lodged him at first in paradiso, in aU joy, and in all glory. There he saw and spoke with God's angels, and with God himself he spoke, and never could he perish, or suffer death, or expect sore or sorrow, until he sinned. But no sooner did he sin, and through the devil's teaching, break the prohibitions, than God himself (he is Bishop of all bishops), drove Adam out of the joy in which he was before, and he lived afterwards here in the world sore and sorrowful so long as he Uved, and after that went to hell, and there long dwelt in misery, untU Christ, through his mercy, brought him thence from miseries, and afterwards led him into the heavenly church, in which he has dwelt ever since, with God's angels, and with his saints in ever lasting glory. ' The various formalities used in the Anglo-Saxon church, on this day, are advantageously brought under view in a Ponti fical, beautifully -written, but un fortunately imperfect, preserved among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum (Tiberius, C. 1). An extract from it, detailing the Cana Domini ceremomes, may be seen in the Author's Bampton Lectures for 1830, p. 110. The MS. is thought to have been chiefly written before the Nor man Conquest. The particular piece in it from which the ex tract was made, is entitled Sermo Genercdis de Confectione Cris- matis in Cana Domini habitus. SERMON FOR THE LORD's SUPPER-DAY. 283 Bishops are for this appointed in the world, that they should earnestly, by Christ's example, and by his lore, train God's foUi to that which may be needful for them, and after the example which God himself set in Adam, whom he for his hoUness, and for his goodness, at first lodged in paradiso. After this example, we invite Christian men into God's house, and lodge them there, and we consider that every baptised man is, after his baptism, holy, and through the hoUness of holy baptism, to be weU worthy that he oft afterwards frequent the church, and God's lore and law regularly hear. And we teach besides that every one should hold these very firmly and rightly, and should constantly meditate upon them with great earnestness. But if any one God's laws so excessively break that he completely ruins himself with God by the higher misdeeds, then by the example which God set in Adam, when he drove him out of paradiso, by that example, we also drive out sinners against him from God's church, untU they with humble penance themselves aUow us to presume upon leading them in thither again. Even so we are wilUng to do to-day with such as have earnestly done penance in this holy season for that which they broke before. Let every Christian man also understand that the for bidding of admission to the eueharist, and of entrance into church, is quite necessary for bringing people to a right understanding of penance, leading them to cast withui thefr ovm minds severe blame upon themselves for thefr misdeeds, and making them know themselves to be so undone, that they are not worthy of those things which men are who have kept themselves with propriety. And accordingly by how much the worse a man has sinned, ' by so much the more earnestly and frequently let him seek God's house, day and night, and kneel thereout with httle intermission, and call to Christ with mournful mind, and account himself so undone with God, that he is not worthy to go into God's house. And by how much the more severely he humbles himself in his penance, by so much the more acceptable is his penance to God, and God's mercy is much more at hand with him. Now every one of us knows fuU weU in worldly things, that if a 284 SERMON FOR THE LORD'S SUPPER-DAY. person has sorely offended his lord, it is not to be endured that he should go before him uiitU he has given satisfac tion. In the same way, it is not to be endured that a man who has completely undone himself -with God by shame less deeds, should after them rush too hastily into God's house: but let him stand on the outside of it, and do penance very earnestly as he is taught, untU with repent ance and real satisfaction, according to the bishop's teaching, he has gained an entrance for himself into God's house. The bishop too, with God's permission, may deal more mUdly with the offences of a man who is thus wUling earnestly, and with an humble heart, to help himself. Come then, beloved men, let us do whatever our cases may require: come, let us help ourselves, and with one consent altogether turn our minds to Christ, and gain his mercy by every means within our power. He is very mild, and to him ever be praise and honour, world without end. Amen. IV. ANGLO-SAXON ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY. CONVERSIONS. Kent' 597 Essex, temporarily 604 finally 653 Northumbria, temporarily .. .. 627 finally 635 Lincolnshire* 628 East Anglia 631 ' Idols were not, however, destroyed in Kent, nntil 640, when Erconbert, then king, issued orders for that purpose, being the first of EngUsh sovereigns who did so. — Bed. 1.3.e.8. * Paillinus was the missionary. — (Bed. 1. 2. c. 16). His success was, probably, not more last ing, than on the northern side of the Humber. "Wessex^ 635 Mercia* 653 Sussex' 681 "The date is uncertain, being ascribed to A.D. 833, by the Annals of Winchester; to 634, by the Saxon Chronicle, and Florence of Wor cester, with whom agree Wharton and Smith ; and to 635, by Rudborne.'— Stevenson's jBede. Lond. 1838, p. 169. * Peada's visit to the Northumbrian court is referred to 663. He is thought to have been baptised at Walbottle, near Newcastle. He re turned into his own dominions, accompanied by four missionaries, of whom Diuma was one. Mr. Stevenson considers that clergyman to have been consecrated bishop of Mercia, in 65S. — £ede,206. '' Mr, Stevenson, with great probability, refers Wilfrid'sSussexinission.to681.— i{.275. , ANGLO-SAXON ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY. 285 COUNCILS. Augustine's Oak' 603 Second, under Augustine .. .. 603 Whitby 664 Hertford .. 673 Hatfield 680 Anonymous, under Ina 693 Bapchild 694 Berghamsted 696 Nidd . .' .. .. 705 CloTeshoo 747 Calcuith 787 Celychyth 816 Grateley 928 London 943 Andover 961 Wihtbordestane 962 Anonymous, under Edgar .. .. 967 Winchester 968 Kirtlington 977 Calne 978 Amesbury 978 Danham Haba 1014 Anonymous, under Ethelred* .. 1014 Winchester, under Canute .. .. 1021 PRELATES. Cauiekbtjkt. Augustine commissioned .. .. 596 arrives in Kent .. .. 597 visits Gatd 597 receives the pall . . .. 601 . founds Canterbury Ca thedral 602 ' Mr. Stevenson adopts 603, as the most pro bable date of this conference. Other writers have taken 699, 601, 602, and 604. Cambden thought the place, Anst, or Aust-clive, the usual spot for passing the Severn into Wales.— n. 99 „ „ 2 This }^ the council, omitted in the Conmta of Spelman and WUkins, but now represented as real, and a legislative authority for the tri partite division of tythes. Mr. Goode thus renders the decree relating to this matter : 'And respecting tythes, the king and the wise men have resolved and enacted, as is right, that a third part of those tythes which belong to a church must be given to (implying no more than towards) the repair of the church, and the second part to God's ministers, the third to God's poor and needy slaves.'— (Br«. Jfo?. Ap. 1838 p. 368). Mr. Goode considers this no in junction for an equal division, but merely for a a due consideration of both chanty and church- repair. Augustine meets the British clergy 603 — — consecrates Mellitus and Justus 604 dies^ 605 Laurence, Archbishop 605 converts Eadbald .. 616 Mellitus 619 Justus.. 624 Honorius 631 Deusdedit .. .. 655 Wighard 665 Theodore 668 arrives. May 27 .. .. 669 • re-consecrates Chad, Sept. 669 consecrates Winfrid to Mercia 672 ¦ convenes the council of Hertford 673 deprives Winfrid .. ..' 674 concurs in displacing Wilfrid 678 presides at the couHcil OfHatfield 680 renders a parting service to Wilfrid 689 Brihtwald 692 Tatwin 732 Nothelm 736 Cuthbert 740 Bregwin 759 Lambert 762 Athelard 790 Wulfred 806 Feologeld 830 Ceolnoth 831 Etbered 870 Plegmund 890 Athelm 915 Wulfhelm 924 Odo 938 Elsin 958 Dunstan, born 920 at court 940 abbot of Glastonbury . . 933 an exUe in Flanders .. 955 recalled 956 bishop of Worcester .. 957 bishop of London .. 958 archbishop of Canterbury 959 escapes at Calne .. .. 978 ' This date is adopted by Smith, the learned editor of Bede, * in which he is supported by Thom, a writer wliose local information entitles him to some credit.'— Siivehsoh's Bede. 105. 286 ANGLO-SAXON ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY. Dunstan, crowns Ethelred .. .. 978 dies 988 Ethelgar 988 Sigeric 989 Elfric 994 Elphege 1006 Living , .. .. 1013 Ethelnoth 1020 Eadsin 1038 Robert of Jumieges 1050 Stigand 1052 YOEK. Paulinus, consecrated by Justus 625 baptises Eanfleda .. 626 baptises Edwin .. .. 627 preaches in Lincolnshire 628 receives the pall . . . . 634 returns into Kent .. 634 ¦ dies bishop of Eochester 644 Chad 666 Wilfrid, born 634 introduced to Eanfleda . . 647 retires to Lindisfarne . . 648 sets out for Italy .. .. 653 reaches Rome 654 halts at Lyons on his return 655 leaves Lyons 658 tutor to Alchfrid, sou of Oswy 659 made by Alchfrid, abbot of Ripon 661 ordained priest at Ripon by Agilbert 664 pleads for Rome, at Whitby 664 consecrated bishop by Agilbert 665 • superseded by Chad . . . . 666 Wilfrid, retires to Ripon.. .. .. 667 put into possession of his diocese 670 ejected by Egfrid ,. .. 677 preaches in Friesland .. 678 favourably heard at Rome 679 imprisoned in England .. 680 converts Sussex 681 restored to his diocese . . 687 again expelled 692 again appeals to Rome . . 679 partially restored .. .. 705 dies 709 Wilfrid, junior 718 Egbert 732 Elbert 766 Eanbald 780 Eanbald, junior 797 Wulsius 812 Wimund 831 Wulfhere 854 Ethelbald 895 Redeward 921 Wulfstan 941 Oskitel 956 Ethelwold 971 Oswald, bishop of Worcester .. 960 supersedes the canons there 975 archbishop of York . . .. 972 Adulf 992 Wulfstan, junior 1003 Elfric 1023 Kinsius 1051 Aldred' 1061 ' Compiled from Godwin, Wharton, Le Neve, and Stevenson. THE END. INDEX. Abdication for a monastery, in stances of, among Anglo-Saxon kings, 94. Abingdon Abbey founded, 159; dis solved, 160. Absolution, ancient form of, 82; techinically called precatory, 202. Acedia, 277. Adrian, coadjutor of Theodore, 76 ; partly meant as a spy upon him, 80. Adrian I., Pope, communicates an account of the deutero-Niceue decrees to Charlemain and other princes, 105. MthelmsLT, or Ailmer, foundations of, 187, 190. Agilbert, bishop of Wessex, conse crates Wilfrid, 74. Aidan, 66. Aidan, soul of, said to have been seen by Cuthbert mounting up to heaven, 245. Aigilulf, 154. Ailwin, or Ethelwin, duke of East- Anglia, 169. Alban, St., martyrdom of, 39 ; sup posed relics of, discovered, 103; abbey in honour of, founded, 104. Alcuin, accountof, 96; death of, 98; employed in controverting the deutero-Nicene decrees, 106. Aldhelm, account of, 90. Alfred, twice visits Rome, 123; anointed by the Pope, lb.; his 'birth, 124; his neglected educa tion, lb. ; aroused to a sense of his ignorance, 125; exerts himself to remove it, 126; serves under his brother, lb.; called to the throne, 127; worsted by the Danes, lb.; unpopular, 76.; re tires to Athelney, 128; tale about him and the neatherd's wife, 129; tradition of his visit to the Danish camp disguised as a minstrel, lb. ; conquers the Danes, 130; his literary works, lb.; death, 131; bodily disease, 132 ; his expedient for measuring time, 133; his economy of money, 134; his monastic foundations, lb.; his ecclesiastical laws, 135; his deca logue, 136 ; his religious opinions, 137; his patronage of Erigena, 139; unable to find a regu lar body of monks for Athelney, 146. Alms-fee, 156. Andover, council of, 164. Andover, ancient importance of, 260. Anglo-Saxons, arrival of, 41; origin of, 44. Antichrist, expected appearance of, 210. Apocrisiary, 47. Architecture, Anglo-Saxon, chiefly a rude copy of Roman, 237. Arianism, introduction of, into Bri tain, 39. Arimathea, Joseph of, named as the missionary of Britain, 36. Ariminum, synod of, British bishops at, 38. Aries, synod of, British bishops at, 38. Arthur, king, grave of, discovered at Glastonbury, 148. Ashes to be blessed, sprinkled, and scattered, on Ash Wednesday, 279. Athelm, 151. Athelney, 128. Athelney monastery, foundation of, 134; originally furnished with a motley body of monks, 146. Athelstan, reign and laws of, 143; fond of Dunstan, 151; first king of all England, 170. 288 INDEX. Augustine sent on a mission to Britain, 50; established at Can terbury, 52; lays claim to mira culous powers, 53, 57 ; receives a pall, 55; has conferences with the British clergy, 56; threatens them, 58 ; his death, lb. ; said to have raised the dead, 87. Augustine's oak, 56. Aust-clive, 285. Austerities, uncertain efiicacy of, 243. Avalon, ancient veneration for, 147. B. Bapchild, council of, 85. Baptism, penalties for the early administration of, 233; principal times, appointed for, lb. ; Affusion forbidden, lb.; renunciations in, lb. Baptism within thirty days, fine to enforce, 85. Baptismal water to be unmixed, 274. Bede, account of, 90; his remains transferred to Dunstan, 93 ; early known as the Venerable, lb. Bell-house, 144. Benedict Biscop, 79. Benedictine order, services of, 154, 186. Benedict, the monastic patriarch, birth of, 145; his remains falsely said to rest at Fleury, 154. Beomhelm, 174. Berghamsted, council of, 85. Birinus, mission of, 67. Bishops, choice, examination, and profession of, 218; legislative duties of, 220; called lords in Anglo-Saxon times, lb.; had seats in the county court, lb.; deprived of them after the Con quest, 221; their sees, 76. ; their duties and restrictions, 223. Boniface, account of, 98; a strong papal partizan, 99; endeavours to influence England in favour of the papal see, 99 ; fails, 100. Bretwalda, 45, 112 Brihthelm, chosen archbishop of Canterbury, but disappointed, 162. Brihtwald, archbishop, agrees to the expulsion of Wilfrid, 83. Britain, early conversion of, 33; differed from Rome in various ways, 56. Brunanburh, battle of, 143. Burial fee, claim for, by the minister of his parish when one of the congregation is buried out of it, probable origin of, 180. Calcuith, council of, 103. Calne, council of, 174. Candlemas day, procession on, 279. Candles, use ot, in daylight, a Pagan practice, and forbidden by the council of Elvira, 279. Candles, ritual extinction of, 264, 267; blessing of, 269. 'Canons, secular, late expulsion of, from Canterbury, 147, 170; hard ships of, 1 6 8 ; stratagem to establish them at Worcester, 169; restored on Edgar's death, 174; final ex pulsion from Canterbury, 177; very unfavourably described by Elfric, 186; originally settled at Waltham, 200. Canute, pilgrimage of, 197; liberal to monasteries, lb. ; his ecclesias tical laws, lb. Caput Jejunii, 279. Celibacy, clerical, legend to enforce, 226. Celychyth, council of, 113. Chad converts Essex, 66 ; assists at the conference of Whitby, 69 ; his brother, also named Chad, con secrated to the Northumbrian see, 75; displaced, 77; made bishop of Mercia, lb. Chad, St., horse-wain of, 244. Charlemain, Alcuin's pupil, 97; transmits a synodical book sent from the East to England, 105; has the Caroline Books prepared in answer to the second council of Nice, 106; Church building, ad monition to, 182; Caroline Books, account of, 106. Chrism, nature of, 261. Church repairs, general obligation to, 197. Church, Anglo-Saxon definition of, 209. INDEX. 289 Churches not to be used as ware houses, 274. Churches, consecration of, 236. Church-shot, imposition of, 86. Church-shot, reserved for the an cient minsters, 167. Cloveshoo, council of, 100. Csedmon, metrical version of early Scripture history by, 252; parti- ticulars of him, lb. ; his poem not unlike Paradise Lost in some things, 253. Cana Domini, absolution of peni tents upon, 282. Coifi forsakes Paganism, 64. Colman, 66; assists at the confer ence of Whitby, 69; retires into Scotland, 70. Commandment, the second, Romish suppression of, 274. Confession to God alone pronounced sufficient by Theodore, 82 ; auri cular used by the Anglo-Saxons, 202. Consecrated king, early use of the term, 232. Coronation service, 232. Cross, the, veneration of, apparently allowed by the Caroline Books, 107. Cuthbert, St., particulars of, 244; experiment to test his superiority, lb.; elected bishop, 245; evi dently sided with Wilfrid's oppo nents, lb. ; death of, 246 ; dis covery of his remains, 74. D. Danes, conquest of, by Alfred, 130; settlement of, in the eastern counties, lb. Decalogue, Alfred's, 136; Elfric's, 274. Denewulf, promotion of, to the see of Winchester, 142; said to have been the neat-herd with whom Alfred lodged at Athelney, lb. Development, theory of, exemplified, by the Anglo-Saxons, 205. Diuma, 66. Divinity, the later Anglo-Saxon, approaches to Romanism, made by. 202. Dunstan, birth, 147; taken by his father to Glastonbury, 148; his dream there, 149; education, lb. ; phrensy, 150; enters into minor orders, 151; famous for music and mechanics, lb.; introduced to Athelstan, 76. ; falls in love, 152; driven from court, lb. ; argues against monachism, 153; falls sick, and becomes a monk, lb. ; made abbot of Glastonbury, 154; forces Edwy to return to his com pany, 159; driven abroad, 160; recalled, lb.; venerates Odo's memory, 161; raised to the epis copate, 162; made archbishop of Canterbury, 163; a principal adviser in the monastic move ment, 168; held two bi shoprics ' together, 169; escapes when the floor fell at Calne, 175; crowns Ethelred the Unready, 176; dies, 177; refuses an appli cation from the pope, 178; his remains said to have been re moved to Glastonbury, lb. ; un able to establish monks in his own cathedral, 170; his connection with the speaking crucifix, 173. Dunwich, see of, founded, 65. E. Eanbald, archbishop of York, 96. Eanfleda, marriage of, into Northum bria, 68 ; patronises Wilfrid, 69, 73. Eanham, council of, 179. Easter offerings, probable origin of, 182. Eata, father of Abp. Egbert, 94. Edgar, proclamation of, 259. Edgar, the pacific, happy reign of, 162; ecclesiastical legislation of, 164, 165, 166; monastic founda tions of, 168; said to have heard the speaking crucifix, 173; death of, 174; styles himself vicar of Christ, 178. Edgiva, 158. Edmund, couneU holden under, 155. Edmund, the king, St., particulars of, 247. Edred, 158. Edward the Elder, alleged papal interferences under, 141. 290 INDEX. Edward the Martyr, 175; festival in honour of, 180. Edward the Confessor, conduct of, 198; alleged laws of, lb.; enact ing tythes upon profits in trade, lb.; takes the Jews under his protection, 199; almost a French man, lb.; prefers foreigners to episcopal sees, 76. Edwin, marriage of, 61; escape of, from assassination, 76.; early his tory of, 62; overcome by the address of Pauhnus, 63; con verted, 64. Edwy, quarrel of, with Dunstan, 159; forced to resign great part of his dominions to Edgar, 160; death and character of, 161. Egbert, king of Wessex, 113; do mestic disappointments of, 118. Egbert, abp., account of, 94; his Excerpts, 95; penitential, 108. Egred, brother of abp. Egbert, 94. Elbert, archbishop of York, 96. Elfric's homihes, 187; time of his primacy, 185. Elfleda, abbess, testimony of, in favour of Wilfrid, 83. Elfric Bata, 193. Elfric, birth and education of, 185; monastic and ascetic views of, 186; sent to regulate Cerne Abbey, 187; prepares his homilies, 76.; his grammar, 188; his epistles to Wulfsine and Wulfstan, 76.; his life of Ethelwold, 189 ; his trans lations of Scripture and other works, 189; Hardouin's absurd language about him, 76. ; his pre ferments, 190; regulates Eynsham Abbey, 76.; probably abbot of Peterborough, 191; his probable escape from that place, 76. ; seem ingly patronised by Canute, 192 ; probable preferment to the see of York, and time of his death, 76. ; probable discovery of his remains, 193; probably sent to regulate Bath Abbey and other abbeys, 76.; fond of relics, 76.; his me mory involved in confusion by Osbern and Malmesbury, 194; thought with Raban Maur upon trsnsubstantiation, 195; uses Ra tramn, 76.; his doctrine that of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 76.; his works classed among useless books, at Glastonbury, 196; his works clear evidence against Anglo-Saxon belief in transub stantiation, 201; also against modern Romish opinions upon papal powers, 202; his view of absolution the same as Tyndalo adopted from Jerome, 76.; his decalogue very faulty, 76.; be lieved in some sort of purgatorial fire, 203; gives some encourage ment to the invocation of saints, 204; his homilies written when theology was in a state of transi tion, 205 ; such a state favourable to the modern theory of develop ment, 76. ; his homilies not mere translations, but compilations, 195; his fears lest ignorant people should make an ill use of certain Scriptural relations. 250; his translations of Scripture, 251; not exact representations of the ori ginals, 254; his testimony against transubstantiation, 255, 272; his decalogue, 274. Elgiva, branded as Edwy's mistress, but seemingly unjustly, 160; di vorced, 76.; banished, and dies, 161. Elijah, expected appearance of, 210. Elphege, abp., 181. Elphege the Bald, 152, 193. Elsin, made archbishop of Canter bury, but dies on his way to Rome, 162. Emma, queen, escapes from England, attended probably by Elfric, 191. Ember- weeks, 216. Episcopate, special duties of, 228; sometimes viewed as a separate order, 76. Erconbert, the first Anglo-Saxon king who destroyed idols, 284. Erigena, Alfred's patronage of, 139; particulars of, 76.; Mabillon's attempt to disconnect him with Alfred, 139; probable murder of, 140. Ethandun, battle of, 130. Ethelbert, king of Kent, accession of, 45 ; probable bias of, towards INDEX. 291 Christianity, 46; receives Augus tine, 51. Ethelburga, marriage of, 61. Etheldred, St., particulars of 246 ; her body long undecomposed, 247. Ethelred the Unready, 176, 191. Ethelwold, early history, 158; made abbot of Abingdon, 159; called the father of monks, lb.; active in providing relics, 171; opposed in his endeavours to eject the canons from Winchester, 170; notices Elfric, 185; who writes his life, 189. Ethelwulf, early history of, 118; decimation of, 119; apparently often misunderstood, 120; jour neys to Rome, 121; his liberality there, 121; marries Judith, 122; death of, lb. Ethered, 127. Eucharist, not to be hallowed on Good Friday, 265. Exeter, capture of, by Athelstan, 143. F. Fame, desert situation of, 245. Father of monks, 159. Fasts, Anglo-Saxon, 215. Fasting required for the Eucharist, 271. Festivals, Anglo-Saxon, 214. Finan, 66. Fire, ancient superstition about, 267. First-fruits, offerings of, 280. Fleury, fame of, 148; falsely said to be the depository of Benedict's remains, 154; the monastic habit taken there by Dunstan, lb. Formosus, pope, alleged epistle of, to England, 141. Friday, legendary views of, 211. Frideswide, St., notice of, 248. Fursey, largely concerned in con verting Bast Anglia, 67. G. Germanus and Lupus, mission of, 41. Glastonbury, ancient fame of, 36, 147; abbey of, founded, 154; dis solved, 160; said to possess the remains of Dunstan, 179. Gleemen, advice against being, 280. God, origin of the word, 206. Godrun, baptism of, 130. Goodlake, probable origin of the name, 249. Good Friday, service for, 266. Gospels, Anglo-Saxon version of, 251. Grateley, council of, 143. Greensted, timber church' at, 237. Gregory the Great, early history of, 46; disgusted with John the Faster, 48; tale of him in the slave market, 49 ; despatches Au gustine to Britain, 50; sends books to England, 53; answers Augustine's questions, 53; some of his opinions unsatisfactory, 70. Guerir. St., 132. Guildship, 231. Guthlac, St., particulars of, 249. Guthrum, 130. Gyrovagi, 229. H. Haba, council of, 182. Hardouin, ridiculous representations of, respecting Anglo-Saxon lite rature, 189. Heathen, Anglo-Saxon use of the tei-m, 261. Heliand, publication of, 238,253. Heptateuch, Anglo-Saxon, 252. Herstan, 147, 148. Hirman, or Hyreman, 182. Holy water, superstitious use of, 241, 268; not apparently placed at the entrance of churches, 76. Homilies, Elfric's 187; treated with neglect by the Normans, 196; ge neral character of, 201. Honorius, pope, indiscretion of, 79. Hours, canonical, 264. Housel, meaning of the word, 272. Idols, destruction of, in Kent, 284. Image of God, how explained in man, 209. Image-worship, early particulars of, 104; rejection of, by England, 106. 292 INDEX. Imposition of hands not confined to bishops at Anglo-Saxon ordina tions, 225. Ina, ecclesiastical laws of, 85. Infants, communion of, 262, 268, 271. Interment in churches allowed in some cases, 236. Invocation of saints not found in early liturgies, 108; favoured by Elfric, 204. Irene, the empress who procured a synodical sanction for image- worship, 105. J. Jaenbert, 101. Jerome, St., the Biblical translator for the Anglo-Saxons, 253. John the Precentor, 79. Judith marries Ethelwulf, 122; ad mitted to the usual honours of royalty, 76.; her history, 125. Judith, poetic version of the book, 251. Justus, 59, 60. K. Kinsy, 159. Kynedrid, 147. L. Lambert, abp., deprived of his Mer cian suffragans, 103. Lanfranc, fame of, earned by advo cating transubstantiation, 195; declared Stigand to have been excommunicated, 200. Lanfranc ejects the secular canons from Canterbury, 177. Laurentius, 59 ; stratagem of, 60. Leasing, to speak, 276. Legates, papal, introduction of, 102. Levitical uncleanness, Anglo-Saxon adoption of, 110. Lichfield, establishment of an arch bishopric at, 102. Lincolnshire, first conversion of, 285. London, council of, 155. Lucius, case of, 37. M. Malmesbury, William of, speaks confusedly of Elfric, 194; makes a ludicrous attack upon Raban Maur, 195. Man, origin of the word, 206. Mancus, meaning of the term, 121. Mansus, meaning of the term, 120. Marriage, regulations for, 234; se cond, discouraged, 235. Mass-priest, 227. Maundy Thursday, 265; offerings of oil on, 280. Mellitus, 59, 60. Melote, 229. Metropolitans, late introduction of, into Scotland, 117. Michael, St., fast before the feast of, 183. Michaelmas days, anciently two, 183. Milk and honey, offerings of, 280; used in baptism, 76. Minster etymology and early use of, 146. Monachism, original nature of, 115; regulations of. by the council of Celychyth, 11 6. Monasteries, ancient use of, 88; secular or lay, 116. Monks, Anglo-Saxon, orders of, 228 ; regulations for, 230. Morning' s-gift, 234. Moses, example of, as a married man, urged in favour of clerical maniages, 226. Mundbora, 234. N. Narcissus, tale respecting, 267. Neot, St., rebukes Alfred, 128; pro bable date of his death, 76.; homily on him thought to have been inter polated with the tale of Alfred and the cakes, 129. Neot's St., the Comish, ancient name of, 132. Nice, second council of, 105. Nicodemus, pseudo-gospel of, 252. Nidd, synod of, 83. Ninian, 72. O. Oaths, judicial, not administered on days consecrated to religion, 240; common, advice against, 280. Odo, abp., account of, 157; canons of, 158; posthumous character of, 161. INDEX. 293 Offa, receives Alcuin as a negotiator from Charlemain, 97; wages war with Kent, 101 ; appeals to Rome for sanction to the foundation of an archbishopric at Lichfield, 76. ; succeeds, 102; becomes a devotee, 103; founds St. Alban's abbey and grants Peter-pence, 104. Offerings, Eucharistic, 283. Offertory, or offering song, early use of, though it is not of the highest antiquity, 279. Oflet,20\, 268, 269. Oil on Maundy Thursday, 280. Oil and incense, early admission of, as Eucharistic offerings, but not exactly considered sacrifices. 279. Old England, 44. Old Foundation, cathedrals of the 170. Old Saxony, 44. Ordeals and oaths, prohibition of, at certain times, 181. Ordeals, Anglo-Saxon, 238; late aboUtion of, in England, 240. Orders, gradation of, 227. Ordination, rales for, 224. Organs, Anglo-Saxon use of, 237. Osbern, story of, to disparage Elfric Bata, 193; Lanfranc's humble friend, 194; his legendary tale about sacramental wine, 195. Osburgh, controversy respecting,125. Osgar, 159. Oswald regains his dominions, 65; sends to Scotland for missionaries, 66; marries into the royal family of Wessex, 67. Oswabts Law, 170. Oswald, archbishop, account of, 169; one of the monastic trium- vu-'ate, 170. Oswald, St., particulars of, 248; alleged miracle of his hand adverse to the Roman Easter, 249. Oswestry, ancient name of, 249. Oswy, adheres to the insular party, 69; terminates ridiculously the conference of Whitby, 76. Oxford, Alfred's liberality to, 134. P. PaU, the, sent to Egbert, but con ferred upon no one of his prede cessors after Pauhnus, 94. Palm-Sunday, ceremonies for, 280. Paradise, Anglo-Saxon view of, 211. Paul, St., possible share of, in the conversion of Britain, 35. Paulinus, 61; address of, 76.; re markable conversation of, with Edwin, 63; established in the see of York, 64 ; expelled, 76. ; made bishop of Rochester, 65. Parasceve, 263. Patrick, said to be buried at Glas tonbury, 147. Pax, or osculatory, 265, Peada, 66; baptism of, 284. Pelagianism, introduction into Bri tain, and suppression of, 41. Pelagius and Celestius, 40. Penance, to be done before abso lution, 283; original view of, 108; commutations of, 242; sacramental, evidence against, 243. Penny, Anglo-Saxon value of, _42. Perjury, law against, 85. Peter-pence, origin of, 104. Peter, St., probable services of, in, the conversion of Britain, 34. Picts, conversion of, 72. Pilgrimages to Rome, prevalence of, 89 ; abuses of, lb. ; prohibition of, by females, recommended by Boniface, 74. Plegmund, alleged consecration of seven bishops in one day by, 142. Plough-alms, 135, 180. Plough-land, a penny to be paid for each, 182. Porrection of vessels at Anglo- Saxon ordinations, 225. Preparation, the, 263. Presbyter, 227. Priests, confined to their original titles, 225; prevented from inter ference out of their parishes, 76. expected to educate youth, 226; represented as bound to ccUbacy, 76. Psalter, Anglo-Saxon version of, 251. Psalms, repetition of, deemed meri torious, 242. Priest, general use of the term, 227. 294 INDEX. Purgatory, legend in support of, related by Gregory the Great, 70; doubtful treatment of, by Egbert 111; Anglo-Saxon views of, 203. Purification, ceremonies for the fes tival of, 279. Q Quartodecimans, 56. Queens, Anglo-Saxon, denial of dignity to, 122. K. Ramsey abbey, foundation of, 169. Redwald, 65. Relationship, baptismal, recognition of, 85. Relics, made necessary to the con secration of a church by the second council of Nice, 114; this canon disregarded at Celychyth, 76. Relics, veneration of, allowed by the Caroline Books, 107 ; favoured by Elfric, 202. Remigius, profession and consecra tion of, 200. Robert of Jumifiges preferred to Canterbury, 199. Rochester, see of, ancient condition of, 221. Royal supremacy, Edgar's assertion of, 178. S. Sabbath, the holy, 263; baptism upon, 264. Sacraments, not to be bought, 273. Sacrifice, authority for, given at Anglo-Saxon ordinations, 225. Sacrificium, use of the term, 270. Saints, Anglo-Saxon, the most fa vourite of, 244. Sanctuary, enaction of, 85. Sarabaites, 229. Satrap, or thane, 187. Scgts forbidden to minister in Eng land, 117. Sebert, 59. Seven sleepers, legend of, 211. Shaftesbury monastery, foundation of, 134. Sigeric, archbishop, authorises El fric's homilies, 187. Silence, the nights of, 263. Sodalities, 231. Soul-shot, provision for, 231, 235. Sponsors, baptismal, duties of, 233. Stigand, archbishop, promotion of, 199; his efficiency, 200; never went to Rome for a pall, yet received as primate, 74.. Sunday, Anglo-Saxon, howreckoned, 85. Sunday, legendary recommendations of, 212; Anglo-Saxon computa tion of, 213; business forbidden on, 214. Sundays, work on, penalties against, 85; markets and popular assem blies upon, forbidden, 180; ser mons to be preached on, 187. Supper, the Lord's, sermon for, 282. Supper-day, the Lord's, 263. Sussex, date of the conversion of, 284. Swithin, St., death and burial of, 118; Translation of his remains, 76.; probable reason why his name is associated with rainy summers, lb.; very little known of his history, 76. T. Taper-hallowing, 267. Thane, qualification for the dignity of, 143; allowed to founders of churches, 143; to unmarried clergymen, 197. Theodore, chosen archbishop of Canterbury, 75; well received in England, 76 ; his literary services there, 74.; displaces Chad, V7; deprives Wilfrid of the Northum brian bishopric, 78, encourages church-building by patronage, 80; dies, 81; his Penitential, lb.; In terferes for Wilfrid, 82; con nected with prohibitions of meats, 217. Timbering, 237. Tinel 144. Transubstantiation, incidental evi dence against, at Celychyth, 113; Alfred's belief of, evidence against, 138; Elfric's evidence against, 148, 188, 201; episcopal forms against, 2 19. INDEX. 295 Transubstantiation, legendary tales in support of, 195 ; incidental evi dence against, at Anglo-Saxon ordinations, 225. Triburg, meaning of, 144. Trinoda Necessitas, 231. Tythes, ancient prevalence of, 87; Egbert's direction respecting, 95 ; considered by some a discharge from alms, 103. Tythes, probably not granted by Ethelwulf, 120; first guarded by penalties, 165; alleged law for the tripartite division of, 184. Tythes, first coercive measure for the recovery of, 165. Truce of God, 240. U. Uhtsang, 264. Unclean meats, 216. Unwashed, superstitious habit of, remaining, 262. Vices, the capital, 277. Vitalian, pope, nominates Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, 75. W. Wakes, Anglo-Saxon, 235. Waltham abbey, foundation of, 200. Warham, abp., orders a search to be made at Canterbury for the re mains of Dunstan, 179. Wensine, 169. Wighard sent to Rome for consecra tion to Canterbury, 75; dies at Rome, 74. Wilfrid preaches successfully in Sussex, 68; patronised by Ean fieda, 69; pleads for Rome at Whitby, 69; chosen bishop, 72; early history of, 73; consecrated bishop, 74; not allowed to take possession of his see, 76.; ad mitted, 77; deprived by Theodore, 78; appeals unsuccessfully to Rome, 76. ; evangelises Friesland, 82 ; befriended by Theodore, 82 ; restored to his see, but again de prived, 83, partially restored, 76.; dies, 76. ; said to have introduced the Benedictines, 88. Will, bondage of, 209. Willibrord, 98. Winchester, council of, 172, 197. Wine, bishop, consecrated in Gaul, 68. Worcester, difficulties in undermin ing the secular canons there, 169. Wulfsine, 188. Wulfstan, 188. Wulfstan, epistle to, the most de cided Anglo-Saxon testimony against transubstantiation, 273. Y. Yatton, 130. 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