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THE

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH

BY

EDWARD CHURTON, M.A.

Archdeacon. *f Cleveland &" Recto* of Crayke.

A NEW EDITION

HonTion :
PICKERING & CHATTO, 66, HAYMARKET

1887

Founded in truth ; by blood of martyrdom
Cemented ; by the hands of wisdom reared.

WORDSWORTH.

THE REV. HENRY HANDLEY NORRIS, M.A

FRKBXKOART OF ST. PAl'L's AND LIANDAFF, A N I>
RECTOR OF SOUTH HACKNEY,

THE FRIEND WHO ENCOURAGED HIS FIRST 8TUDIEI
Ui THE PURSUIT OF DIVINE TRUTH ;

THE AUTHOR
GKATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY

INSCRIBES THIS VOLUME,
«ITH THK EAttNEST PRAYER THAT IT BE IOUND

BY A Ci«JiI8TlAN 8INCEUITT NOT UNWORTHY
OT HIS O»^V.

CONTENTS.

UEFACK ......... XI

CHAPTER I.
Ihe ancient British Church ... - , . 1

CHAPTER II.
The Saxons. Mission of Augustine. Conversion of KeOT 22

CHAPTER III.

Conversion of Northumbria . . . . . .44

CHAPTER IV.

From the death of King Edwin to the death of Archbishop

Theodore. Establishment of Christianity . . 59

CHAPTER V.
._ar-" English Monasteries ...... 87

CHAPTER VI.

Effects of tht Monasteries on Society. Benefits and De
fects. Pilgrimages and Hermits . . . .106

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

FAOI

Eminent Teachers of the early English Church : Aldhelm,
oishop of Sher.»oi ae ; Aecu, bishop of Hexham ; and
the Venerable Bede . . . . .132

CHAPTER VIII.

Early English Missionaries. Conversion of Friesland
and Saxony. Wilbrord, first archbishop of Utrecht
Winfrid, first archbishop of May ence ... 154

CHAPTER IX.

Progress of Arts and Learning among the English Saxons,
acnool of \ork. Archbishops Egbert and Albert.
Alcuin and Charlemagne . . . • .166

CHAPTER X.

Short view of the state of the Church at the close of the
Seven Kingdoms. Reign of Egbert, Ethelwolf, and
his sons. Inroads of the Danes. Destruction of the
Cnurches in the North ... , . 183

CHAPTER XI.
Reign of Alfred 203

tJHArii.lt All.

From the reign of Alfred to Archbishop Dunstan. Trou
bles of n,urope and England in the Dark Ages .

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.

FAQI

From the reign of Edmund the Elder to Ethelred. Rise

of the Benedictine Monks, and acts of Dunstah . 236

CHAPTER XIV.

Reign of Ethelred. Religious Noblemen of old England.
Byrthnpt, earl of Essex ; his death. Archbishop
Elfric. Archbishop Elfege ; his martyrdom. Danish
reigns, and Edward tlie Confessor . . 215

CHAPTER XV.

Troubles and changes made in the Church by tLe Merman
Conquest. Last Saxon Bishops ; Aldred, archbishop
of York ; Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester. William
the Conqueror, and Lanfranc .... 27*

CHAPTER XVI.

Reigns of Rufus, Henry I., and Stephen. Archbishop
Anstlm and Queen Matilda. Beginning of Popery
in England. Oppression of Norman Kings and
Barons. Death of Thurstan .... 297

CHAPTER XVII.
Norman Monasteries, and new Religious Orders . . 319

CHAPTER XVIII.

Becket and Henry II. Stephen Langton and King John.
The Clergy forbidden to marry. Married Bishops
»nd Priests afterwards ..... , 344

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIX.

PA OB

Popery at its height. Privileged Monasteries. Begging

Friars. Corruptions. Persecutions . . . 360

CHAPTER XX.

d men in evil times. Bishop Grostete and his Friends,
t'ious Founders of Churches and Colleges. Tyranny
of Heury VIII. Conclusion . . 431*

PREFACE.

HE aim of the
writer of the fol
lowing pages has been,
by searching the earliest
records of English his
tory, to lay before the
English reader a faithful
picture of the life and
manners of his Christian
forefathers. To write the
Church -history of Eng-

land, as it is too often

written, as if the religion of former days had
been nothing but superstition on the one side,
and imposture on the other; as if there had
been nothing pure or holy from the time of Pope
Gregory to the Reformation, — this would have

Xll PREFACE.

been a much easier task. But inasmucli as tru
religion is never lost, though it is sometime
dimly seen, the providence of God being en
gaged to preserve it in all ages, it is surely
rather the duty of the Christian to inquire and
mark how that Providence has from time to time
raised up faithful witnesses, whose lives and doc
trine have shone forth even in dark times, and
whose deeds of mercy have tempered with good
the evil that is in the world. The eye of the
worldling or infidel is quick to mark defects;
but it is a more grateful and profitable exercise
to discern and trace a character guided by the
love of virtue and praise. It has, therefore, been
the aim of the writer, while he has not disguised
the errors or crimes of former ages, to dwell
more gladly on the bright days in the calendar,
on the lives and acts of good and peaceable
men, who founded churches or religious houses ;
established schools, and colleges^ and hospitals;
softened the rudeness of the people's manners,
improved their laws; and who, while they en
larged the bounds of the Church, and taught
the knowledge of the true faith, were also the
teachers of useful arts, and promoters of indus
try and happiness in society.

Many as are the popular Church-histories of
our country, there is yet none which seems to
have been written with this aim, — to shew ho\f

PUKFACK. Xlll

from time to time Christianity gained ground
among our Sax or, Danish, or Norman forefa
thers ; to point out the changes it wrought in
governors and people, and how its own condi
tion was improved or made worse by the changes
in the sovereignty of the realm. For this it is
necessary to look much into the records of old
times, and to dwell not so much on days of
trouble and public conflict, as on times of quiet
ness, when the arts of peace had more room to
shew themselves. And it seems the duty of a
writer of Church-history to relate many things
which belong to private and domestic life, from
which examples of character and manners may
be drawn; leaving to general history the re
cords of more public events, good or bad, and
touching on wars and conquests, victories or de
feats, only so far as the state of the Church or
the character of some eminent Christian is con
cerned in them.

And this plan is recommended to us by the
pattern of Scripture. The historical books of
the Old Testament, which, being the history of
God's ancient Church, should be the pattern
for a Christian historian to follow, are as much
a record of private as of public life. Even of
those more eminent persons, whose office it was
to be rulers, or teachers, or reformers of the
ancient Church, of Moses and David, of Elijah

PREFACE.

and Elisha, we see almost as much in more pri
vate scenes, as in those public acts, by which
they guided the people in the way of truth, or
restored the altars of God. Besides which, some
portions appear to have been more especially
written to furnish a view of the state of society
in peaceful times, when religion had some hold
upon the daily conduct of men. When we read
in different parts of the book of Judges, that the
land had rest forty years, or fourscore years j1 or
what is said of those two judges, who presided
over the tribes of Israel successively for the
space of fifty years,2 without any war or public
disorder recorded ; we are led to suppose that at
such times the fear of God so far prevailed as to
preserve the land in peace, and that no scourge
of war or other judgment was then needed to
alarm the slothful or destroy the guilty. And
the pleasing book of Ruth, which immediately
follows, the time of which is laid during the
government of the judges, seems intended to
represent the peaceful order of society and do
mestic life, which might be found at such a
time.

There is another common fault in writers

who treat of distant times. They seize on some

remarkable instances of great crimes or ferocity

of manners at a particular period, and take these

1 Chap. iii. 30, v. 31. * Chap. x. 1-5.

as proofs of the general character of the age in
which they occurred: whereas, in many cases,
if such things had been common, they would
not have been recorded by the historians of
those times ; for they would not have been no
ticed as being remarkable. It is less flattering
to our own pride, but the more humble view is
more likely to be true, if we believe that human
nature does not differ much at one time from
another; and as we should complain of any one
who should judge of the manners of our time
from the crimes of the greatest miscreants, so
let us believe that robber-knights and squires of
the highway were not the common sort of old
English gentlemen in the middle ages.3 There
can be no doubt that there were in those times
which we call most rude, many good men, whose
manners were refined and hearts softened with
the spirit of Christian love : of these good men
not a few are still remembered in the good
works they have left behind ; of others the me
morial on earth is lost ; but they did not live
in vain. And an Englishman has reason to be
proud of his country, which above all others has

8 Mr. David Hume, when he records any atrocious deed
of these ages, commonly sums it up in his history with the
remark, " Such were the manners of the times." See his
History of England, chap. xii. § 24. If the manners of the
times had sanctioned such atrocities, we should not find tha
punishment of the offenders also recorded.

XVI PREFACE.

abounded in offerings of its wealth to the honour
of God: sometimes it may be that the means
used were not the best, but the end was noble ;
it was a noble triumph over self, which led them,
without sparing for cost, to dedicate their sub
stance at the altars of their Church. The deeds
of such public, benefactors are a pattern for all
times ; they have done more for the good of
mankind than many warriors and conquerors;
they are partakers of the blessedness of those
free givers, who sold their land, and brought
the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.4

One particular institution of the middle ages
it has been the aim of the writer to set forth in
a different light from that in which it is usually
seen, — the institution of monasteries and religi
ous orders. Whatever good or harm there may
have been in this institution, it is impossible not
to lament the common misrepresentations which
have prevailed respecting it. It is impossible
for a serious mind to suppose that a rule of life
so early introduced into the Christian Church,
so approved by the most eminent fathers and
confessors of those early times, and so long kept
up in almost every Christian country, can have
been allowed without some providential purpose.
It is a great mistake to think that the institution
of these religious houses was as faulty in its first

4 Acts ir. 37.

PUhfACU.

siate, as alter it was made, in the Western partr
of Europe, the chief engine for advancing the
usurpation of the popes of Rome. When this
kind of Christian discipline arose in the East,
it was regarded with favour by St. Athanasius,
St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine;
men whose names are mentioned with honour
in the Prayer-Book and Homilies of the English
Church, and who will be honoured as long as
the name of Christianity endures. And it flou
rished most in times of public disorder ard vio
lence in later days ; that in such places of refuge
the oppressed might find shelter, learning and
useful arts might find exercise, and the spark
of religion might be kept alive, when it was in
danger of being put out through the wars and
tumults, the fierceness and ignorance of man
kind. It has, therefore, ocen attempted to give
the English reader a faithful picture of the life
and manners of these houses and societies, not
disguising their faults or corruptions, but setting
forth what is too much forgotten, the many bene
fits, both to the state and to private life, which
proceeded from them.

For authorities on these subjects, the writer
has had recourse to the earliest records, and
authors who lived nearest the times of whici
*.hey treat ; to the Saxon histories and chronicles
rrom the time of Bade and Akuin, and th*

irm PREFACE.

Norman from Ingulf, Eadmer, and Malmsbury.
For access to many stores of English antiquity,
he is indebted to the kindness of the Dean and
Chapter of York, who have liberally granted
him the use of such books as he needed from
the Minster Library.

Much help has been derived from the la
bours of Archbishop Usher, Bishops Tanner,
Stillingfleet, and Collier, the learned Henry
Wharton, and the Rev. Henry Soames ; to
which must be added a work not yet complete,
but of great value to the knowledge of old Eng
lish history, Mr. Kemble's collection of Anglo-
c>axon Charters. The writer has also to express
his best thanks to his friend the Rev. James C.
Stafford, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford,
who furnished him with the use of a manuscript
Church History of his own preparing, for the
advancement of this work ; and to the Rev. H.
B. W. Churton, his brother, for much useful
information from the Oxford Libraries ; to the
Rev. John Williams, of Llan Hirnant, near Bala,
for a letter on the ancient Welch Church ; and
to many other literary friends.

The common popular Church-histories have
been less consulted. Thomas Fuller is a writer
who will always be a favourite with English
readers ; but he is rather a humorous moraliser
ou old history than an historian. He seems

PBBFACB. XIX

to have ranged through ancient records to find
subjects on which he could play off his quaint
fancies, rather than to record facts ; and though
his pen is often punted witli moral truth, he
sometimes sports with historic truth for the
sake of a droll thought, which at the moment
seems to have crossed his brain. For instance,
near the outset, he speaks of the old British
tradition, that in each of the Roman cities of
Britain there dwelt a flamen or Roman priest,
under a superior, called in the tradition an arch-
flamen; in place of whom, when the country
became Christian, were substituted bishops un
der an archbishop. " These flamens and arch-
flamens," says he, "seem to be flams and arch-
flams, notorious falsehoods." Whereas, when
Roman paganism was the established religion,
what can be more likely than that there should
have been a priest of that religion in every
place, and that these priests should have had a
superior, as they had at Rome ?

There are many notices of early English
Church-history in Foxe's Acts and Monuments ,-
but it must be considered as a misfortune that
so much credit has been given to this writer,
and that he has found so many imitators ; for
his style is that of a coarse satire rather than of
history.

The work of Mr. Southey is of a very differ-

XX PREFACE.

ent character; but his plan has led him to no
tice very briefly those facts on which the writer
of this volume has thought it necessary to en
large ; and in some instances it has been deemed
right to pronounce a milder opinion of men and
things, remembering Mr. Southey's own admir
able maxim, " He who is most charitable in his
judgment is generally the least unjust."

Much help in the study of ancient manners
has been afforded by the French work of M.
Guizot, the History of Civilization in France, a
work written in a very different spirit from some
historical speculations of that country. And
still more acknowledgment is due to the author
of some Letters on the Dark Ages, published at
intervals, for several years past, in the British
Magazine. Works of this kind will enable the
world before long to see that these ages have
been called dark, chiefly because the moderns
have chosen to remain in the dark about them.
And the author of these Letters deserves the
thanks of every candid inquirer for the excellent
warnings he has given against the rash censures
pronounced on antiquity. May the spirit which
dictated the following sentence be found to have
guided the pen of the writer of these pages !

" If there is any subject which should make
the historian's hand tremble, while he guides
the pen of truth, it is the Church of Christ,

PREFACB.

which He has purchased with His blood ; which
is, by His dispensation, militant here on earth,
dispersed through this naughty world, and every
page of its history rendered obscure by the
crafts and assaults of the devil, the weakness
and wickedness of the flesh, the friendship and
the enmity of the world, the sins of bad men,
the infirmities of good ones ; and by the divine
ordinance, that it shall ever be a body consisting
of many members, often incapable, not merely
of executing, but of appreciating the office of
each otner.'*

POSTSCRIPT.

THE demand for more than one reprint of this
little work has enabled the writer to avail him
self of the suggestions of friends and critics, to
whom he is much indebted, to make a few addi
tions and corrections, which it is hoped may
render it more complete. The additions will
be found chiefly to relate to the history of the
Saxon period ; as, the Metrical Creed in chap,
vii. ; the mission of Winfrid, chap. viii. ; the
changes in the Church attempted by king Offa,
chap. x. ; the account of St. Olave, chap. xiv. ;
and a few of less importance. The corrections
do not affect any material fact or opinion ex
pressed in the former editions of the work, but
only a few trifling mis-statements ; as, one into
which the writer had been led by T. Warton
expecting the old font at Winchester, which
any reader will now be able to correct, who has
seen the well-executed cast of that font, taken
by order of the Cambridge Camden Society.
The only exception is the account formerly

POSTSCRIPT.

{riven of the doctrine of Berenger in chap, .vx
The writer has lately perused the work of Be
renger, which has been discovered and published
in Germany a few years since ;5 and is now of
opinion, with Bishop Cosin, that he maintained
the true doctrine respecting the Holy Commu
nion. See also Mr. Massingberd's History of
the Reformation, chap. ii. p. 39, 40.

On other points, on which some objections
have been made, particularly the account of Arch
bishop Becket, the writer has re-examined his
statements, and altered a few words and phrases ;
but he has not found reason to change his view
of that portion or period of Church-history. It
is true that the majority of modern English
writers have judged differently ; but their judg
ment has been formed with too exclusive a re
gard to the errors of the religious creed of those
days, forgetting the errors on the other side in
the state of the civil government ; how all free
dom of the subject was subverted, justice was
bought and sold, and the goods of the Church
made over to simoniac priests, or invaded to
support the prince's private prodigality. The
authorities to be consulted are the historians of
the time, and the existing letters of the actors

1 Berlin, 1834.

POSTSCRIPT.

in those troubled scenes ; not Lord Lyttleton's
panegyric on Henry II., or the sceptical philo-
sophy and loose morality of Hume.

THE

CHAPTER I.

THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

Prowess an;l arts did ta me

And tune men's hearts, before the Gospel came ;
Strength levell'd grounds ; art made a garden there;
Then shower'd religion, and made all to bear.

HERBERT.

HE apostle Si. Paul, after his first im
prisonment at Rome, is reported by the
early Church-historians to have fulfilled
his intention of preaching the gospel in
Spain, and to have gone to the utmost
bounds of the West, and the islands
that lie in the ocean. It has therefore been
supposed that he was either himself in Bri
tain, or that he sent some of the companies
of his travels to make known on these shores
the name of Christ. It is certain that a Christian
Church was planted here in the time of the apos
tles, and, as it would appear, at the date of St. Paul's
travels to the West, A.D. 63.
it

* ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

The country was at that time partly held by
colonies of the Romans, partly still under its old in
habitants, the Britons, a tribe of those nations who
were descended from Gomer, son of Japheth, and the
first who went to dwell in the western parts of Europe.
These Gomerians, or Kimmerians, appear to have
oeen settled in Spain, France, and Britain, at least
six hundred years before the birth of Christ; as the
prophet Ezekiel speaks of the merchants of Tyre as
then bringing home from Tarshish, or Portugal, the
tin and lead, which they seem to have procured, as
they did about two centuries later, from the coasts
of Cornwall (Ezek. xxvii. 12). The Britons, like all
other ancient heathens, were idolaters, the know
ledge of the true God being clouded by the prevail
ing superstition of Druidism ; which, taking its rise
from among the inhabitants of this island, had spread
far among the tribes of the neighbouring continent.
The knowledge of letters was only learnt by them
from other nations ; and what other knowledge they
had was preserved chiefly by songs committed to
memory; the learning of such songs, describing the
nature of things in heaven and earth, and recording
the deeds of their forefathers, being the main part of
the education of the young. Like all other idolators,
it was a common practice with them to offer human
victims to their gods : sometimes a man who suffered
from a fit of sickness would devote himself to be
sacrificed by the Druid's hand, or in a time of dan
ger of life or limb, he would vow to offer another
life as a price and ransom for his own. The pri
soners whom they took in battle, and malefactors
whom the Druid had judged, were commonly sen
tenced to be burnt by fire. What seems to have
made them more reckless of shedding blood was,
their belief that the soul, when driven out of rhe
body, only changed to a new lodging, either passing

CU. I.j ROMANS AXD BRITONS. 3

into another man, or going for a time to animate
the form of some brute creature.

The Romans, where they gained dominion, esta
blished a different religion from the Druids' ; but
their own pagan rites and cruel laws were scarcely
less destructive of human life. At this very period,
when by the mercy of God the light of truth began
to enlighten the Gentiles, and the feet of apostolic
men first trod the shores of Britain, a Roman of high
rank was murdered by a domestic slave, to whom he
had promised liberty, but had not kept his promise.
According to the law of their forefathers, when a
slave lifted his hand against, his master, the whole of
the family of slaves were to be put to death with the
offender: and on this occasion, though the people
rose in tumult to resist the law, the senate and the
prince were deaf to the calls of mercy. A body of
soldiers restrained the multitude, while four hundred
innocent persons were led to death, and among them
many aged men, women, and children, that no mas
ter of slaves might in future feel himself exposed to
a like peril.

Such was the state of the world, civil or bar
barous, when the gospel was first preached abroad
among the nations, and St. Paul wrote to commend
the slave Onesimus to the brotherly love of his mas
ter Philemon. It was then, when the earth was full
of violence and cruel habitations, that the Prince of
Peace came to set up his throne.

The wars and persecutions which followed the
first preaching of the gospel in Britain have de
stroyed all certain records of Christianity in these
early times. It is said that persons of rank among
the Roman inhabitants, and kings of different pro
vinces under the Romans, who were left, like Herod
and his sons in Judaea, to rule under the conquering
power, embraced the yoke of Christ. The Romans

4 ANCIENT BRITISH CHUfiCH.

were now spreading their conquests over the greatet
part of the island ; but the doctrine of the cross
spread faster and more far. In the following cen
tury it is recorded, that places to which the armies
of the invaders had never approached, were known
to the heralds of the Redeemer's kingdom. And a
proof of their success is the dying out of the super
stition of the Druids ; Avhich is no longer to be me'
with in the history of the country after the secor u
century of Christianity.

The Romans held twenty- eight cities in England
and Wales, besides many other stations along the
great roads which they made from one end of the
kingdom to the other. Some of these cities, as Lon
don, were settled as places of trade and commerce ;
others were given to old soldiers, as colonies for hus
bandry, as Colchester and Maldon; others, as York,
Chester, and Caer-leon on Usk, were more especially
places of defence, to keep i;« obedient the less
peaceful provinces, or to be ready against attack
from the northern Britons, who were never entirely
subdued. As each of these cities was founded, a
temple was raised to the emperor in whose reign it
was founded, and priests were appointed for the ser
vice of the temple ; the Roman religion in that age
being rather the worship of the living prince, than of
the idol-gods of their fathers. It is most likely that
as Christianity gained ground, and the people came
no longer to burn incense to Csesar, the temple was
shut up or turned to other uses, and a Christian
bishop resided in these cities instead of a heathen
priest. For in the early ages of the Church, wher
ever the Christian religion prevailed, it was the cus
tom to have a bishop placed in almost every well-
inhabited city.

It was not, however, without many sore struggles
that the Christian religion maintained this conflict.

Cn. I.] CONSTANT1X7S. 5

The earlier persecutions, from the time of Nero, had
been short in duration, or confined to other parts o*'
the Roman empire : but at length, in the time o*
Diocletian, it pleased the Almighty to permit the
cause of truth, for the space often years (A.D. 303),
to undergo the most severe trial which the world had
ever known. Gildas, the earliest British historian,
tells us that at this time " the Christian churches
throughout the world were levelled with the ground,
all the copies of the Scriptures which could any
where be found were burnt in the public streets, and
the priests ar:d bishops of the Lord's flock slaughtered,
together with their charge; so that in some provinces
not even a trace of Christianity remained." Ancient
letters, carved on stone, were found many ages after
wards in Spain, which were inscriptions set up by
the persecutors, in memory of what they called "the
destruction of the Christian superstition," and the
" extinction of the Christian name."

In Britain the persecution was less severe than
in other parts of the empire; Constantius, the father
of the Christian emperor CONSTANTINE, having the
government of some of the western provinces, and
residing chiefly in Britain. Constantius was a hea
then, but an enemy to persecution ; his authority,
however, was not independent of the emperor's, and
he was obliged to comply so far as to order that the
Christian churches should be pulled down. When,
after two years, he received a share of the empire
for his own, he commanded a restoration of the
buildings; but in the meantime there were many
Roman officers and magistrates, and many of the
pagan people, who were re tdy to take advantage of
the emperor's edict, to cany the Christians to prison
and to death. Where Constantius himself resided,
at Eboracum or York, w hear of none who suffered,
but at many other pla< :-s the Britis/i Church was

B2

ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

found worthy to supply its martyrs to the cause of
truth ; and many of both sexes died confessing the
faith with great constancy and courage.

Among the foremost of this noble army were
Aaron and Julius, two citizens of Caer-leon, and
ALBAN, an officer in the Roman troops, who resided,
at the Roman town of Verulam, near the site of the
town which has since been called St. Alban's, after
his own name. Alban, before the persecution arose,
was a heathen ; but a Christian priest who had fled
for shelter from his pursuers to Alban's house, be
came the instrument of his conversion. Struck with
the devout behaviour of his guest, who passed great
part of the night as well as his days in watching and
prayer, Alban began to inquire of his religion ; and
the end was, that he was soon persuaded to turn from
idolatry, and to become a hearty Christian. He had
for a few days enjoyed the company and instructions
of this new friend, when the Roman governor of
Verulam, hearing that the priest was hidden at Al
ban's house, sent a party of soldiers to take him.
Alban presented himself at the door in the cassock
usually worn by his guest, and, before the mistake
was discovered, was brought before the magistrates
for the person whose dress he wore. There boldly
declaring himself a Christian, after enduring to be
beaten with rods, he was sentenced to be beheaded.
The place of his death was a rising ground beyond
the little river Ver, to which the passage was by a
bridge, then thronged with a great crowd of people,
flocking to behold the spectacle. Alban, eager to
reach tha place before the close of day, instead of
waiting to cross the bridge, made his way through
the stream; and this act of devoted zeaHs sa, I vo
have had such an effect on the soldier who was dp-
pointed to be his executioner, that he threw down
the sword, ?nd asked to die with him. The requCX

I.] COUNCILS. '

was granted, and the two comrades received toge
ther the palm of martyrdom. The heathens, seeing
the ill success of this example, by which Christianity
was still further advanced, instead of being put down,
gave over their deeds of bloodshed ; and the Chris
tians returning from the woods and wastes, in which
they had lain concealed, came back to the abodes of
men, and began to restore their worship and rebuild
their churches. In after-years, the wonder of a simple
a"-e was shewn in tales of miracles which were said
to have attended Alban's martyrdom. What was bet
ter, and a due honour to the first martyr of Britain,
a church of beautiful structure was built upon the
place. This was standing in the time of Bede, about
four hundred years after Alban's death. Offa, king
of Mcrcia, in the eighth century, founded an abbey
there; and the abbey-church, partly built by the
Saxons with Roman bricks, taken, as it seems, from
a still older sacred building, is one of the most noble
standing monuments of the ancient Christianity of
Britain.1

In the time of the Emperor Constantme, whose
reign shortly followed, the Christians in Britain were
in 'peaceful enjoyment of their churches, and reli-
o-ion flourished. Constantine himself was a native
of this island, the son of St. Helena, a British lady ;
and he seems to have honoured the British bishops,
•who were sent for to attend at councils, held by his
authority at different places, for the settling of order
and promoting the true faith. There were bishops

* It is much to be regretted, as the learned and pious
Joseph Mede used to observe, that St. Alban's has never been
made the seat of a bishopric. The place is well suited for it ;
the pood name of the martyr would be fitly honoured by it ;
and the wrong done to the church by those who spoiled and
sold it, after the abbey was broken up, would thus be amended
as it ought.

8 AfrwrfiNT BRITISH DHURCE.

from Britain, whose names are recorded, at the coun
cil of Aries in France, A.D. 314. They seem a«so
to have been at Nice, or Nicea, in Asia, at the great
council held there, A.D. 325, where the excellent
creed, since called the Nicene creed, was received,
as the historians tell us, " with the unanimous con
sent of the Churches of Italy, Africa, Egypt, Spain,
France, and Britain, and in the Asiatic dioceses."
And among other good laws for the ordering of the
Church, it was determined both at Nice and at Aries,
that no bishop should be constituted without the
consent of all the bishops of his province, and that
three bishops should be present at his consecration ;
a law which is still observed in the Church of Eng
land at this time. From this it would appear, that
the Church of Britain was, like all other Christian
Churches, from the first under the government of
bishops, and that these bishops, in different pro
vinces, were subject to a patriarch or archbishop.
There were at this period three Roman provinces in
Britain : one, which included the southern counties
of England ; a second, which took in most of the
midland, and some of the northern counties ; and a
third, which consisted of Wales, and part of England
bordering on Wales. In each of these provinces
were bishops, who seem to have been under an arch
bishop respectively of London, York, and Caer-leon
on Usk. This was the common order of Church-
government at the first settlement of Christianity
throughout the world. " There was no Church," as
Bishop Stillingfleet well observes, " founded by the
apostles, which had not a succession of bishops from
them too." And these were, in all the provinces,
subject to a primate of their own number, who was
to confirm them in their different sees, to call toge
ther councils of bishops and clergy, and to hear
appeals that might be made to him from the suoor-

CH. I.] ARIAN HERESY. 9

dinate bishops. Thus, the bishop of Rome was, at
this period, patriarch oi'the middle part of Italy ; the
bishop of Milan of the northern part; and the bishops
of Jerusalem, Antioch, and /Vlexandria, had the same
authority in some of the Eastern provinces. There
was no bishop, whether at Rome or elsewhere, who
at this time pretended to any authority beyond his
own province.

Shortly after this, the peace of the Church in the
East being troubled with the doctrines of the Arians,
who denied that the Son of God was from ever
lasting, and so made him to be a creature like angels
or men, the British bishops were summoned by Con«
stantius, son of Constantine, A.D. 34-7, to another
council at Sardica, near the site of the modern city
of Sophia in Bulgaria, now a part of the Turkish
dominions. And again they were sent for to a
council at Ariminum, now Rimini, in Italy, A.D. 360.
At these councils, the artifices of the Arians had
gained them support from men of power in the
state ; but though they thus obtained a short ad
vantage, the firm spirit of St. Athanasius, bishop of
Alexandria, who underwent the severest persecutions
from them, supported many to stand up in defence
of the true faith. And both St. Athanasius, and St.
Hilary, the famous father of the Church, bishop of
Poictiers in the country now called France, have
borne testimony that the Christians of Britain kept
the faith as it is taught in the Nicene creed, and
preserved a good conscience with unshaken sted-
fastness.

The Picts, who then inhabited the North, and
Scots, coming fre>m Ireland in the reign of Constan-
tius, were now first found to be troublesome neigh
bours to the Britons. Their inroads appear to have
left the British Christians in a state of much poverty;
so that the bishops, who went to the council a*

10 AXCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

Ariminum, were obliged to depend on the emperor's
bounty for board and lodging. But this distress
was removed by the Roman generals, who were at
this period sent into Britain, and drove back the
Picts and Scots. It may be that these sufferings
tended to keep the minds of Christians humble and
devout, so that the impiety of the Arians did not at
first gain ground among them.

But towards the close of the fourth century,
there were Arian teachers in Britain; and this error
was soon followed by another, which has commonly
been found to prevail with it, and which was now
first publicly taught by Pelagius, or Morgan, a
native of Wales. Morgan was a man of learning,
who had left Britain in early life, had travelled in
Italy and the East, and passed much of his time in
acquiring knowledge and conversing with the most
eminent teachers of Christian doctrine. He had
become acquainted with St. Chrysostom and St.
Augustine, who both flourished at this time : and
they were the more grieved at his fall into heresy,
as his piety and talents had gained him their affec
tion and respect. The doctrines he taught were
such as to overthrow man's need of God's grace, and
to make human nature sufficient for itself. " God
made me," he said ; " but if -I am made righteous,
it is my own work." He did not himself teach in
Britain, having died abroad ; but his doctrines are
said to have been brought into this country by Agri-
cola, son of Siverian, an eastern bishop, who was
noted for his enmity against St. Chrysostom. The
British Christians, finding that the Pelagian doctrines
were gaining disciples in the country, and wishing
for the help of some skilful champions of the faith,
sent to the bishops of Gaul or France ; who, at a
council held at Troyes, chose ST. GERMAIN, bishop
of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, to visit

CII. I.] ST. GERMAIX. 11

Britain. This Lupus was brother to Vincent of
Lerins, a famous Christian teacher of that time,
whose book, called " A Defence of the Catholic
Faith," was afterwards of the greatest use to Arch
bishop Cranmcr and Bishop Ridley at the time o*"
ie English Reformation.

Germain and Lupus were received by the Bri
tish Christians with the greatest respect ; and so
great was the desire to see and hear them, that they
were obliged on some occasions to preach in the
streets and in the open fields, as there were then no
village churches. They were enabled to speak with
such conviction to the conscience of their hearers,
that the Pelagians soon lost the public favour ; and
when a public council was called at Verulam, A.D.
429, though there were many persons of wealth and
influence who had espoused their cause, and who
made a show of supporting them, the two champions
poured forth such a torrent of eloquence, well en
forced by texts from the gospels and writings of
the apostles, that the vanity and unfaithfulness of
their opponents were completely detected. The
very leaders in the dispute are said to have ac
knowledged their errors ; and the decision of the
council against them was received with shouts of
joy by the assembled* people.

But in the mean time the state of Britain had
begun to be exposed to other troubles. The great
empire of Rome was now falling to pieces, weak
ened bv divisions within itself, and attacked by the
Goths and Vandals, and other warlike nations from
the north of Europe and Asia. The policy of the
Romans was, to govern the subject provinces by
military stations, and to deprive the natives, except
such as were enlisted in their armies, of the use oi'
arms ; so that when their masters were no longer
able to protect them, the Britons were left, like the

12 ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

Israelites under the Philistines ; " there was neither
sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the
people."2 Added to this, they had about this time
leen compelled to send out of the country a great
portion of their young men to fight for several
pretenders to the empire, who were set up by the
soldiers in Britain, and seized upon some of the
provinces beyond sea. Most of these young men
never returned. One large party of them settled in
that part of France which has since received from
them the name of Brittany, or Bretagne, where the
country people still speak a language like the Welch ;
and this settlement, as we shall see, afterwards be
came a place of refuge to the distressed Christians
of Britain.

Rome was taken by Alaric, king of the Goths,
A. i). 409; but as he died shortly after his victory,
and his forces were broken up, the empire was not
utterly ruined. The Romans still sent troops into
Britain till the year 426, and assisted the natives to
build again the wall of the Emperor Severus, which
extended across from the mouth of the Tyne to that
of the Esk, beyond Newcastle and Carlisle, as a
protection .against the Picts and Scots. No sooner,
however, had they departed, than these enemies
from the North broke through the wall, which the
Britons were unable to defend, and continued their
bloody inroads ; and at the same time the sea-coast
being left unguarded, the Saxons from Germany
crossed over, and carried off spoil from the nearest
shores.

So that when Germain with his companions
visited Britain, though the Saxons had as yet made
no fixed conquests in the country, there was much
<Jang2r and alarm ; and it seems that the Britons

2 1 Sam. xiii. 22.

CH. I.J MONASTERIES. 13

began to draw off and strengthen themselves in the
mountainous parrs of Wales, as well as in Cumber
land, Westmoreland, and Cornwall, to which the
rest of them, who preserved their independence,
afterwards retired. It was in Flintshire, near the
town of Mold, where the B.ritons were assembled,
and Germain was sent for to encourage them by his
presence and exhortations. An army of Saxons had
joined with the Picts, and had crossed the river Dee,
when by a stratagem of Germain they were sur
rounded by the Britons, and defeated with great
loss. The battle was fought at Ea^er, when many
of the young soldiers had been newly baptised; and
from the shout which they raised as they hurled
the rocks suddenly down upon the heads of the
invaders, it was called long afterwards the Hallelujah
victory.3

It seems to have been at this period that St. Ger
main, who again visited Britain a few years later,
advised the Britons to found monasteries, as places
to preserve religion and useful learning in troubled
times. While the Roman empire lasted, the em
perors, from the time of Constantine, had taken
pains to establish schools in the principal towns 01'
the provinces ; and they gave an allowance from the
state to the teachers of grammar and other branches
of learning, more especially to the teachers of the
art of speaking ; which, while books were only to be
multiplied by writing, was of much more importance
than it is now. For people were then obliged to
learn, by listening to public readers or reciters, what
they may now learn from books. At these schools
the principal teachers were Christian clergymen. So

3 This battle is supposed by Archbishop I) slier to have
been fought at Maes-Garmon (i.e. "the field of Germain")
in Flintshire.

24 ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

that when Julian the apostate became emperor, who
had renounced Christianity, he took great pains to
drive out the Christian teachers from these schools :
''If they are not content," he said, " with what the
old authors say of the mighty gods, let them go to
the churches of the Galileans" (so he used to call
the Christians), "and expound Matthew and Luke
there." This has always been the practice of un
believing governors, to separate true religion from
education. As Julian died in the third year of his
reign, his attempt had but little success; but the
bishops of the Christian Church sawr the danger,
and began to provide against it.

At this time, St. Ambrose was bishop of Milan,
and St. Martin bishop of Tours in France, whose
name is in our calendar, and to whom many of our
old churches are dedicated. These bishops began
to promote the building of monasteries in Italy and
France, as places of education, where the will of the
reigning prince might not prevent Christian youths
from being taught the principles of their religion.
And as they were both men of rank and fortune
before they were chosen to preside over those bi
shoprics, they employed much of their wealth in this
good work. As the troubles of the Roman empire
increased, the monasteries in the western parts in
creased. They were now wanted, both to supply
the loss of the Roman schools, and as houses of
refuge, which some of the rude nations who had
heard of Christianity might be willing to respect.
For some of the Goths had, before the fall of the
Roman empire, received the knowledge of Christ ;
and their bishop, Ulphilas, had taught them the use
of letters, and translated the Scriptures into their
language, about A.D. 365. in the lifetime, of St.
Martin and St. Ambrose.

CH. I.J FASTIDIUS. 15

It was, therefore, according to their example,
that St. Germain recommended the Britons to found
monasteries. He brought with him at his second
visit two eminent Christian teachers, Dubricius and
Iltutus •' the first was elected bishop of Llandaff:
the second had a college of pupils at a place called
from him Llanyltad, or " St. Iliad's," in Glamorgan
shire. Both were of great service to the distressed
Britons. A more famous place of education was
that which St. Germain seems to have founded in
North Wales, the monastery of Bangor-Iscoed, near
Malpas and Wrexham, on the Dee ; the remains of
which were still visible, after the lapse of a thousand
years, a short time before the Reformation. The
memory of St. Germain, and of the benefits he did
to the British or Welch Church, is preserved in the
name of Llanarmon, " St. Germain's," in Denbigh
shire, and the town named after him in Cornwall,
which was afterwards for a short time under the
Saxons made a bishop's see. He died on a visit to
Italy, A.D. 448, the year before the Saxons first
established themselves in Britain.

At the time of the departure of the Romans lived
FASTIDIUS, bishop, as it is supposed, of London, who
is the only Christian teacher among the ancient Bri
tons of whom any doctrinal work yet remains. He
has left a short treatise on the character of a Chris
tian life, addressed to a pious widow named Fatalis :
in which, after modestly excusing his own want
of knowledge and little skill, and begging her to
" accept his household bread, since he cannot offer
her the finest flour," he shews, with very plain and
good arguments, that Christians are called to imi
tate Him whom they worship ; that without a life
of piety and uprightness, it is vain to presume on
the mercy of God, or to boast of the name of
Christian ; that it was always the rule of God's deal-

16 ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

ings with mankind to love righteousness and hate
iniquity.

" It is the will of God," says he, " that his people
should be holy, and apart from all stain of unrigh
teousness ; so righteous, so merciful, so pure, so
unspotted by the world, so single-hearted, that the
heathen should find no fault in them, but say with
wonder, Blessed is the nation whose God is the
Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his
own inheritance.

" We read in the evangelist that one came to our
Saviour, and asked him what he should do to gain
eternal life. The answer he received was, ' If thou
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.' Our
Lord did not say, Keep faith only. For if faith is
all that is required, it is overmuch to say that the
commandments must be kept. But far be it from
me that I should suppose my Lord to have taught
any thing overmuch. Let this be said only by those
whose sins have numbered them with the children
of perdition.

" Let no man then deceive or mislead his brother:
except a man is righteous, he hath not life ; except
he keep the commandments of Christ, he hath no
part with him. A Christian is one who shews mercy
to all ; who is provoked by no wrong ; who suffers
not the poor in this world to be oppressed ; who re
lieves the wretched, succours the needy; who mourns
with mourners, and feels the pain of another as his
own ; who is moved to tears by the sight of another's
tears; whose house is open to all; whose table is
spread for all the poor ; whose good deeds all men
know ; whose wrongful dealing no man feels ; who
serves God day and night, and ever meditates upon
his precepts ; who is made poor to the world, that
he may be rich towards God ; who is content to ne
inglorious among men, that he may appear glorious

CH. I.] FASTIDIUS. 17

before God and his angels ; who has no deceit, in his
heart; whose soul is simple and undefiled, and his
conscience faithful and pure ; whose whole mind
rests on God; whose whole hope is fixed on Christ,
desiring heavenly things rather than earthly, and
leaving human things to lay hold on things divine."

He concludes this excellent character of a Chris
tian life by applying it to the good widow to whom
it is addressed : " If all those who are called Chris
tians ought to be such as I describe, you need not
be told what kind of widow you ought to be ; for if
you are indeed Christ's widow, you ought to be a pat
tern to all who lead a Christian life. What Christ's
widow ought to be, the apostle tells you : ' She that
is a widow indeed trusteth in God- and continueth
in supplications and prayers night and day.' And
elsewhere the same apostle marks out the deeds and
conversation of a true widow : ' Let a widow be
chosen who is well reported of for good works : it
she have brought up children' (that is, if she have
brought them up to God) ; ' if she have lodged
strangers; if she have washed the saints' feet; it
she have relieved the afflicted ; if she have dili
gently followed every good work.'

" Be then you such as the Lord has taught you
to be ; such as the apostle would have set forth as a
pattern. Be holy, humble, and quiet, and employed
without ceasing in works of mercy and righteousness.
Above all, ever study the commandments of youv
Lord ; earnestly give yourself to prayers and psalms :
that, if it be possible, no one may ever find you em
ployed but in reading or in prayer. And when you
are so employed, remember me."

This doctrine of the ancient British bishop is

suited to all times. And it may be judged by this

only remaining specimen, that there were, in the-

age of the fathers of the Church, in this country

c 2

ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH.

also teachers well deserving of the name of Christian
fathers.

It was at this time also, in the midst of the
troubles of Britain, that the Britons sent a mission
to preach the gospel to the Picts, then inhabiting
the southern parts of Scotland. The leader of thW
mission was ST. NINIAN, whose name is still pre
served in the traditions of that country. He is said
to have converted many of these wild people from
their idolatry, and to have founded a church, which
was long the seat of other bishops after him, at
Whitherne, on the coast of Galloway. The old
British historian, Gildas, speaks of the Picts and
Scots, before they were converted, as a very savage
race, "wearing more hair on their ruffian faces than
they had clothes on their bodies."

Another eminent Christian teacher of this time
was ST. PATRICK, the apostle of Ireland. He seems
to have been a native of North Britain, and a pupil
of St. Germain ; but the history of his life is so
darkened by strange legends of later ages, that it is
very difficult to learn the truth about him. This,
however, is certain, that Celestine, bishop of Rome,
about A.D. 430, ordained a bishop called Pallady, to
go on a mission to the Scots in Ireland ; who, find
ing little success there, crossed over to the Picts in
Galloway, among whom he died not many years after
the mission of St. Ninian. But after his death, St
Patrick was sent by Celestine, or by St. Germain,
and had a much more favourable reception.4 There
is no reason to doubt that he established Christianity
in that country. He appears to have taken with him
several other teachers, by whose help he was enabled
',o found churches, and to set up monasteries with
«',r^ols, as St. Germain had done in Wales. The

4 Malmsbury, Hist. i. §. 22.

CH. I.] ST. PATRICK ST. DAVID. 19

Isic of Man is said also to have received its first
bishop from St. Patrick, about A.D. 447. The rude
people, among whom these Christian missionaries
laboured, have handed down to us only doubtful
legends and stories of strange wonders, instead of
history of their times. But it is plain that after the
mission of Patrick to Ireland, the people, who were
before ignorant of arts and letters, became acquainted
with both; and the light of Christianity, once kindled
there, has never since entirely expired.

It is impossible to find any thing more disastrous
than the state of Britain at this time, when the Chris
tian part of the population made such efforts to pre
serve both their religion and their country, and zeal
ous men went out to spread the gospel among the
neighbouring nations. A famine had followed the
ravages of the Picts and Scots ; then arose a bloody
civil war among the native chiefs, and the Roman
Britons, those who had lived with the Romans in
their cities, and learnt their language, Avere cut off
almost to a man. While they were in this state of
weakness, the Picts and Scots again returned ; and
the sad and suffering people of South Britain, with
Vortigern their prince, resolved to invite the Saxons,
A.D. 449.

From this time Christianity began to disappear
from the most important and fruitful provinces of
Great Britain. As the Saxons founded, one after
another, their petty kingdoms, they destroyed the
churches, and the priests fled before them. Some
found refuge in the colony of Brittany ; others es
caped to the borders of Wales. There, it would seem,
they were still in safety ; and the names of St. David,
St. Asaph, and St. Patern, who founded churches and
bishoprics long after the arrival of the Saxons, at the
places still called by their names, shew that Chris
tianity was still held in honour by the ancient l?ri-

20 ANCIENT BRITISH CHUhLii,

tons.5 There were British bishops still dwelling in
the parts invaded, as long as there were any means
of assembling a flock of Christians round them. But
it is an accusation to which they lie open, that they
made no attempt to convert the. Saxons. St. Samp
son, bishop of York, retreated kito Brittany as soon
as the north of England began to be troubled by in
vaders. He was there the founder of a bishopric
and monastery at Dol, where many other British
Christians afterwards found shelter; particularly SL
Malo, or Machutus, St. Brice, also founders of towns
and bishops' sees in Brittany, and the learned Giltias,
surnamed the Wise, the earliest Christian historian of
Britain.

It was at the same period, about A.D. 565, that
ST. COLUHBA, from one of St. Patrick's monasteries,
Durrogh in Ireland, undertook his mission to the
Picts of the northern parts of Scotland, and founded
his famous monastery and school of learning at lona.
one of the Western Islands. There is scarcely any
other institution which Englishmen have reason to
remember with feelings of equal gratitude ; for from
this retreat of piety came forth those heralds of the
gospel, who taught the greater part of our rude fore
fathers. From this retreat, called from its founder
Icolmkill, or " St. Co.^mba's Isle," the savage clans
of the Highlands received the benefits of knowledge
and the blessings of religion. And no doubt it was
so appointed by God's providence, that Christianity
should be planted in North Britain at the very time
when it was nearly driven out from the South, that
the means of its restoration might be at hand. A
very few years afterwards, the last British bishops,

6 St. David's, instead of the old see of Caer-leon, founded
A.D. 519 ; St. Asaph, about A.D. 580 ; Llan Badarn .Vawr, or
" Great St. Patern's," a fine old church in Cardiganshire, and
for SDme time a bishop's see, A.D. 540.

ST. COLUMBA. 21

Thconas of London, and Thadioc of York, retreated
with the remnant of their flocks into Wales : and
thus, the pagan Saxons having overrun all the low
land portion of the country, the saints whose me
mory is honoured in Wales, and St. Columba in the
North, were the only remaining teachers of
Church of Britain.

CHAPTER II.

THE SAXONS. MISSION OF AUGUSTINE. CONVERSION'
OF KENT.

The heavenly city, in the days of its pilgrimage on earth, enlists
citizens out of all nations, and assembles a company of pilgrims out
of all tongues; not caring for differences of manners, laws, and cus
toms, but rather seeking to preserve them for the sake of earthly
peace, if only they hinder not the religion which teaches the worship-
of the only Most High and True.

ST. AUGUSTINE. City of God, b. xix.

HE Anglo-Saxons, from whom we have
received the language Avhich we speak,
and from whom the far greater portion
of Englishmen .are sprung, were of the
tribes of nations inhabiting ancient Ger
many, who, when the appointed time was come, were
employed by God's providence in breaking up the
great empire of old Rome. It is plain that the laws
and manners of the Romans were too little amended
by the footing which Christianity had gained among
them. The later emperors, after Constantine, had
generally professed themselves Christians, and it was
the public religion of the empire; the service of the
more eminent Christian bishops was also found use
ful in promoting obedience to the laws : but a great
part of the people were still pagans, stubbornly per
sisting in their old enmity to the cross. Even after
Rome had been taken by the Goths, this pagan

CH. II.] THE GOTHS AND GERMAN'S. 23

party made a struggle to revive the persecutions
against the Christians, persuading their countrymen
that their misfortunes were owing to their having
cast off their idol-gods ; as the Jews in Egypt re-
plied to Jeremiah, that their captivity came from
their leaving off to burn incense to the queen of
heaven.1 Among such a people there were many
who lived abandoned to the most shameful vices of
heathenism ; and the laws of Rome were never able
to reach them. So that there can be no doubt that
the confession of one of their own poets spoke the
truth :

The far-off Irish shores

And Orkney isles have seen our conquering fle€t,
Orkney, where summer eve and morning meet ;
But the bold Briton, by our arms o'ercome,
Scorns the foul deeds his victors do in Rome.

On the contrary, the Goths and Germans, whom
they called Barbarians, though their habits were
fierce and warlike, were alive to the shame of these
unmanly morals, and severely punished such of
fenders. They sentenced traitors to die by hang
ing; but the worst transgressors against chastity
they drowned by night in ponds or marshes. " It
was well done," says a Roman who speaks of it;
" for bold crimes ought to be punished openly, but
base and shameful ones to be hidden in darkness.'
When they heard of the Romans giving up their
leisure hours to theatres and public shows, " The
people who have devised such amusements," they
said, " act as if they had neither children nor wives
at home."2 They had therefore a far more strict
regard to the sacred tie of marriage, and to the
honour of woman ; not permitting, what has been

•'• Jer. xliv. IS.

• St. Chrysostom, Homily xxxviii. on St. Matthew.

24 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

common with other heathen nations, that a man
should have more wives than one. No doubt the
finger of God was in those wars, which made them
masters of the Roman empire, that they might, in
due time, promote the advancement of his Church
by means of customs more suited to a union with
Christianity than the corrupt state of society in
Home, now fast tending to its own decay.

The Saxons were idolaters, — as the names of the
days of the week, which we have received from them,
still remain to remind us. They worshipped the sun
and moon ; Thor, the thunderer ; Woden, or Odin ;
Tiow, god of war ; and other deities, whom it is not
necessary to inquire after. As all false religions
began in corruptions of the true, it would seem that
they had still some dim belief of One great Being
more excellent than these : for they had among them
the name of God, which we have received from them ;
it is a name which means the Good. And though in
rude and warlike times the notion of goodness is ap
plied to bravery in war rather than deeds of mercy,
and so their imaginations may have seen in Him a
Being able to destroy, rather than ready to save, yet
it is a proof of a purer tradition which they had from
the beginning. But more than this dim shadow of
the religion of the patriarchs, they do not seem to
have possessed ; and the want of a Mediator between
God and man left their religion without hope or com
fort, and drove them to seek from the spirits of dead
warriors or kings such help as they knew not how to
ask from One higher but unknown.

The first of the Saxons who established them
selves in Britain were Hengist and Horsa with their
followers, who founded the kingdom of Kent about
A.D. 450. Before the end of that century were
founded also the kingdoms of the South and West

CH. II.] THE SAXONS. 25

Saxons ; and thus all the provinces along the south
ern coast of Britain, except Cornwall and part of
Devonshire, were lost to Christianity. In the year
527, another great body, of Angles, invaded the
eastern and midland districts, and by degrees con
quering their way, established the kingdoms of Es
sex, East Anglia, and Mercia. The kingdom of
Northumberland had its rise still earlier, but it was
not firmly settled till about a century after the
landing of Hengist in Kent.

Against these invaders the Britons made no
effectual resistance but in the west of England,
where their king Emrys, called also Aurelius Am-
brosius, one of the last Roman Britons, gained a
great victory over Hengist, and drove him back into
the province he had first occupied. When the West
8axons afterwards, under Cerdic, made an attempt
to gain possession of Somersetshire, they were de
feated with great loss by the famous king Arthur, at
the British town of Cair-Badon, near Bath, to which
they had laid siege, about A.D. 520. These victories
seem to have settled the freedom of the Britons for
that time in the West; and they remained for many
years afterwards in Somerset, part of Devon, and
Cornwall, under their own princes, as well as in
Wales. In the North they defended themselves also
for a long time in the mountains of Cumberland and
Westmoreland.

It was not long after the founding of these seven
kingdoms, that the Saxon princes began to dispute
with each other about the division of the land.
Ceaulin, king of the West Saxons, A.D. 560, being at
war with all his neighbours, the other Saxon kings
made league against him, and appointed ETHEL-
BERT, king of Kent, commander of the joint forces.
Ethelbert was an able and moderate prince, who,
o

26 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

after defeating Ceaulin, was honoured by the allies
with the title of Bret-walda, or " Lord of Britain."
This title was, after his death, enjoyed by other lead
ing princes among the Saxons. It gave him autho
rity to preserve the public peace of the different
kingdoms, and to prevent the encroachments of one
warlike prince on the territory of another. By his
power and prudence the new people were kept from
destroying themselves ; and his long reign of fifty-
six years gave them time to turn their attention to
husbandry and peaceful occupations.

At this period GREGORY, surnamed the Great,
bishop of Rome, was happily inspired with a zeal for
the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. He was of
Greek extraction, but born of honourable parents at
Rome, where his grandfather Felix had been also
bishop ; for at this early period it was common for
the bishops of Rome to be, like their first apostle
St. Peter, married men. Gregory had been a great
benefactor to the people of Rome, as governor of
the city under the emperor of Greece, before he be
came a priest. When he determined to leave his
civil duties and become a minister of the Church,
he gave most of his wealth to build religious houses,
and lived himself as a monk in a monastery of his
own founding at Rome. He was a man of great
piety and learning : but after the inroads of the
Goths, almost all Christian learning was mixed with
something of superstition. Nor ought this to move
our wonder, if we consider how much of lawless
violence was then let loose into the world. It was
natural that at such times the suffering Christians
should have fancied there was something wonderful
and divine in what we should now call accidents,
when they turned to the preservation of their lives
or churches; as when they imagined that angels

CH. II.] GREGORY THE GRBAT. 27

came in the form of beggars to ask their alms and
warn them of danger in their way, or when the
sword or fire suddenly stopped before the threshold
of their homes. Nor should we pity these errors of
rancy, as if all the advantage was on our side. It is
far better for religion, when men live under a con
stant sense of the truth of things unseen, than when
a better knowledge of what are called the powers of
nature makes men forget that the hand of God is in
all these.

Among other evils of this troubled period, it was
a common practice for men to be employed in car
rying off and making a traffic of slaves. St. Bavon,
a holy man, whose memory is honoured in the Fle
mish town of Ghent, lived at the same time with
Gregory. He is said to have been engaged in his
youth in this hateful traffic and when he had be
gun to lead a life of repentance, he saw one day
coming towards him a man whom he had sold.
The pangs of remorse, which seized him at the
sight, may be imagined. He threw himself at his
feet, and cried aloud, "It is I who sold you bound
with thongs; remember not, I beseech you, the
wrong that I did you ; but grant me one prayer.
Beat me with rods, and shave my head, as is done
to thieves, and cast me bound hand and foot into
prison. This is the punishment I deserve; and
perhaps, if you will do this, the mercy of God will
grant my pardon." Nothing would content Bavon,
till the sufferer by his old injustice did as he was
desired. The story shews at once the misery of the
time, and how the moral power of Christianity
struggled in rude breasts for its amendment and
alleviation.

Gregory's first emotion of pity to the Saxons was
called forth by a sight of like affliction, which indeed
no Christian could behold unmoved. A number of

28 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH

merchants had arrived with a large importation of
foreign merchandise ; and a crowd of people flock
ing to the market-place to see what was there for
sale, Gregory came among the rest, and saw some
boys set forth to be sold as slaves. The fairness of
their complexion, handsome form, and flaxen hair,
so different from the dark olive hue and jetty locks
of the Italians, struck him as remarkable. He in
quired from whence they came; and being told from
Britain, where the natives were commonly of that
complexion, he asked further whether those islanders
were Christians or pagans. When he heard that they
were pagans, he sighed deeply: "Alas for grief !"
he said, " that such bright faces should be under the
dominion of the prince of darkness." In answer to
his next question, learning that their nation were
called Angles, " It is well," said Gregory ; " angels
they are in countenance, and ought to be co-heirs of
angels in heaven." Thus he continued to sport
with the names of the province from which they
came, and the king in whose territory they were
born, ./Ella, king of Deorna, or " Deer-land," a
name given by the Saxons to the northern part of
Yorkshire. It was a kind-hearted mood, which
concealed under an innocent jest a more serious
feeling ; for from that day he determined himself
to go on a mission into England. This was some
years before his election to the see of Rome ; but
his character was then so publicly esteemed by his
countrymen, that they would not suffer him to quit
them. When he became pope (a name given in
early times to all bishops, and meaning no more than
the common title now given to bishops, of " father
in God"), his desire to benefit the Saxons was very
soon put into effect. He instructed the agent of
his estates in France to redeem the Saxon youths
whom he might find in slavery in that country, that

CH. II. j MISSION OF AUGUSTINE. 23

they might be placed in monasteries, and trained in
Christian knowledge, to go afterwards as mission
aries into their own country. And he sent AUGUS*-
TINE, a Roman monk, at the head of forty mission
aries, from his own monastery at Rome, to make
his way to Britain. They were on their way de
tained some time in France, and discouraged by
the reports they received of the country. But when
Augustine had returned to Gregory, to intreat that
he would recall them from this dangerous and doubt
ful enterprise, he was sent again with letters of en
couragement to the party, bidding them to remem
ber, that they could not without loss of credit give
up the good work they had begun, and that they
should look to the greater glory and crown which
would follow the greater difficulty and toil. Thus
confirmed, Augustine went forward, and taking with
him interpreters from France, landed in the isle of
Thanet with his company, in the month of August,
A.D. .596.

Ethelbert had received notice of their coming,
and was not unwilling to receive them. Indeed, it
would seem that the reports were spread bv some
malicious persons; for there was no ground for the
supposed danger. The wife of this " Lord of Bri
tain" was BERTHA, daughter of Charibert, king of
the Franks, who were then settled about Paris. She
was herself a Christian ; and on her marriage it
was agreed that she should be allowed to worship
God according to the rites of her own religion, and
should bring with her a bishop, by name Liudhard,
as her instructor in the faith. Queen Bertha ac
cordingly made use of a church, first built by the
Romans while they had possession of Britain. This
she repaired or rebuilt, and had it dedicated to the
honour of St. Martin of Tours, already mentioned,
an eminent saint among the Christians of her native

D2

30

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

country. A church still stands upon the spot, a
piece of elevated ground, a little way out of the city
of Canterbury.

When, therefore, the messenger sent by Augus
tine came to tell the king that these strangers had
come from Rome with tidings which concerned his
everlasting happiness, he gave orders that they should
be entertained in the island of Thanet till he could
determine further. A few days afterwards, Ethel-
bert himself had a meeting with them in the island ;
but the place he chose was in the open air, as it
was a part of the belief of the old Saxons, that if the
strangers were wizards or enchanters, they could not
hurt a person unless under the same roof with them.
Augustine and his company walked in procession to
the meeting, chanting the litany, and bearing be
fore them a silver cross and a sacred banner with a

CH. II.] MISSION OP AUGUSTINE. 31

painting of our Saviour. Seats had been prepared
for them ; and at the command of the king, they
preached to him and his nobles the words of life.
" They told," says an old Saxon author, " how the
mild-hearted Healer of mankind, by his own throes
of suffering, set free this guilty middle-earth, and
opened to believing men the door of heaven.''3
When they had ended, " These," said Ethelbert,
" are fair words, and good promises, that you have
brought ; but forasmuch as they are new and un
known, we may not yet agree to forsake the ways
which we with all the Angles have so long holden.
However, as you have come hither from a foreign
land, and it seems that you wish to make known to
us the things that you believe to be good and true,
we will not distress you. We will give you friendly
entertainment, and supply you with what you want;
and we do not forbid you to convert and bring over
to you by your preaching whomsoever you may."
He then gave them a dwelling in the city of Canter
bury, the chief city of his dominions; and they were
there maintained for some time, and had liberty
to preach and teach the faith of Christ. It is said,
that when they drew near for the first time to the
city, going in procession as before with the cross and
holy banner, they chanted this prayer : " We pray
thee. O Lord, of thy great mercy, let thine anger and
thy fury be turned away from this city, and from thy

3 The longer account of this address, given by Mr. Southey,
p. 18, from the " Acta Sanctorum," seems to be the invention
of a later age. Augustine would not have called Gregory " the
father of all Christendom." These assumptions of the popes
did not begin till much later. Even Pascal IT., A.D. 1 100, only
claimed to be head of the Church within the borders of Europe.
And it is well known that the title of " universal bishop" ia
one which Gregory did not assume himself, and called it blas
phemous for any bishop to assume.

32 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

holy house, though we have sinned against thee.*
Praised be thy name, O Lord !"

The zealous preaching of the monks, with the
plain and frugal life they led, was not long without
success. Many of the people believed and were
baptised, admiring the peaceful manners of the
preachers, and the sweetness of their heavenly doc
trine. The queen gave them the use of the church
of St. Martin's, where they met for prayer and praise,
and preached and administered the sacraments, till
the king himself becoming a convert, they had a
greater liberty, and began to build new churches, or
to restore those which had been standing in the
British times. The behaviour of Ethelbert through
out was such as to prove his conversion to be sincere.
When great numbers, following his example, came
to hear the gospel, and '^'n themselves to the Churcn,
he is said to have rejoiced at it; but to have taken
care that no man should be driven to embrace Chris
tianity against his will : " only shewing more hearty
love to those who believed," says Bede; "as if they
were become his fellow-citizens, not only in an
earthly, but in an heavenly kingdom." He began at
once to provide a certain endowment for the Church,
giving^a piece of ground for a cathedral church and
bishop's residence in Canterbury, and appointing
other possessions for it.

When now more than ten thousand of the Eng
lish had been baptised, within little more than a year
after Augustine's arrival, he went in the latter part
of A.D. 597 to his friends, Virgil archbishop of Aries,
and Etherius, of Lyons in France, to obtain conse
cration as first bishop of the English Church at
Canterbury. In this, and most of the steps he took,
he followed the advice of Gregory, to whom the
Church of England must always look back as one o/
4 Froai Dan. ix. 16.

CH. II.] AUGUSTINE AND THK BRITONS. 33

its greatest benefactors. His name has accordingly
been preserved, as it well deserves, in the calendar
prefixed to our Prayer-book, with that of St. Alban
and the old British saints. To his care in preserving
the more ancient prayers and sacramental services of
the Church, we owe much of the Prayer-book itself,
as it now stands ; which was not taken from the
Mass-book, as the Romanists boast, and Dissenters
ignorantly believe, but is in these portions older than
the beginning of the corrupt doctrine of the mass.
He was, however, so far from obliging Augustine to
observe rigidly the service in the form then used
at Rome, that he charged him to search diligently
if he could find any thing more edifying in other
Churches. He mentions particularly the old Church
of Gaul, or France, which seems to have been in his
mind the same with the old British or Welch Church ;
and we have seen in the mission of St. Germain how
closely these Churches were united. " We are not
to love customs," he said, " on account of the places
from which they come ; but let us love all places
where good customs are observed. Choose, there
fore, from every Church whatever is pious, religious,
and well-ordered ; and when you have made a bun
dle of good rules, leave them for your best legacy to
the English."

It is a pity that Augustine's mind was not equally
alive to the true catholic spirit of this advice. But
man is the creature of habit ; and he had been used
all his life to the Roman service and customs, so that
he gave them a valae in some unimportant things,
which, it is to be feared, prevented the union of the
British and Saxon Christians. All England to the
south of the Humber was now at peace, and the
authority of Ethelbert reached from Canterbury to
Chester and the borders of Wales. Near 'to the
frontiers of the kingdom of Mercia, in this direction,

ENGLISH CHURCH.

«tood the great monastery of Bangor-Iscoed, already
mentioned, the chief nursery of the Church, and
home of the priests of North Wales. To this quar
ter Augustine took a journey, some years after his
arrival, having invited the bishops and some of the
most eminent, teachers of Wales to a conference.
They readily came to a meeting with him, at a
place called for some time -after Augustine's Oak,
near the banks of the Severn. It is very likely that
they assembled in the open air, under some large
tree, as it was long after the custom of the Saxons
to hold their meetings for civil purposes, their shire-
moots or county meetings, where matters of law and
justice were decided, at a wood-side, marked by
some great oak-tree. Here were seven Welch bi
shops, probably from St. David's, Llandaff, Llanba-
darn, Bangor, and St. Asaph, with two from Somer
set and Cornwall ; and their most learned men from
Bangor-Iscoed, with Dunod their abbot. To them
Augustine, after some length of conference, proposed
that, if they would consent to three things, he would
give them the right hand of fellowship. " For," said
he, " you have many practices which are against the
custom of the whole Church, not only that of the
Church of Home. But yet, if you will keep Easter
at the proper time ; if you will celebrate the rite of
baptism as the holy apostolic Church of Rome does ;
and if you will join with us in preaching the word of
God to the Anglo-Saxons, we will bear with all other
things."

In explanation of these words, it must be ob
served, that the British Church at this time kept
their Easter-day on a Sunday, from the fourteenth
to the twentieth day of the paschal moon inclusive ;
whereas the Roman Church kept it on the Sunday
wh^ch fell between the fifteenth and twenty-first.
The rule of the Church laid down at the council of

CH. II. J AUOUSTINfe AND THE BRITONS. 35

Nice, A.r>. 325, mentioned in the preceding chapter,
was, that Easter should be kept on the first Sunday
after the full moon next following the twenty-first
day of March. Some old Churches of the East had
kept it on the fourteenth day of the moon, which
was the day of the Jews' passover, on whatever day
of the week it fell. The Britons seem to have had
this custom, which they supposed to be observed
in the Churches founded by St. John in Asia; but
after the council of Nice, wishing to correct their
practice, they had still begun one day too soon. It
was no doubt desirable that all the Churches should
observe one day. And in the course of time the
Welch Christians, by the advice of Elfod, bishop of
Bangor, A.D. 755, followed the rule M'hich Augustine
now wished to impose on them.

The time which he took, however, to require
their conformity was very ill chosen. It was his
duty rather to have yielded to them in all things not
absolutely necessary to be observed. And his de
mand respecting the way of administering baptism
was still less justifiable. It was indeed a practice
which many of the primitive Christians observed,
that the infant or adult person should be dipped
three times in water, in memory of the Three Per
sons of the blessed Trinity, or of our Saviour's
having been three days in the heart of the earth.
But Gregory, writing to Leander, bishop of Seville
in Spain at this time, approved of his judgment
about this question : " It is true," said he, " we use
three immersions at Rome ; but in such a matter as
this, while the faith of the Church is one, there is no
harm in a little difference of custom." Augustine,
on the contrary, seems to have thought it a'practice
handed down from the apostles, which it was not
lawful in any degree to change.

Another thing the Britons observed in the beha-

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

viour of Augustine, which made them less willing to
listen favourably to any thing he might say. It is
said that, when on their way to the conference, they
had turned aside to the cell of a hermit of high cha
racter for his piety and wisdom, and had asked him
what he would advise them to do. " If Augustine is
a man of God," he said, " follow his counsel." " But
how," they asked, " shall we have proof of this ?"
" Our Lord has said," replied the hermit, " ' Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and
lowly in heart.' If, therefore, Augustine is meek and
lowly, you may believe that he bears the yoke of
Christ, and will offer it to you to bear : but if he is
ungentle and high-minded, it shews that he is not of
God." "And how," they asked again, "shall we
discern the one from the other ?" " See that he
come first with his company to the place of meeting,
and when he is seated, make your approach. If ne
rises before you at your coming, then be sure that
he is Christ's servant, and hear his word. But if he
despises you, and will not rise, you have the greate--
number on your side, despise him again." There
was a little of Welch blood betrayed in the last part
of this advice : and it took effect accordingly. Au
gustine was seated when they came, and did not
rise. They took it as a proof of pride, and said
to each other, " If he treats us thus now, what may
we expect if we submit to put ourselves under him
as our primate?" To his proposals they answered
they would not admit them, nor would they esteem
him as archbishop. Dunod spoke last : " We are
bound to serve the Church of God, and the bishop
of Rome, and every godly Christian, as far as helping
tdem in offices of love and charity : this service we
are ready to pay; but more than this I do not know
to be due to him or any other. We have a primate
of our own, who is to oversee us under God, and

CH. II.] AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITONS. 37

to keep us in the way of spiritual life." Augustine
shewed something of disappointment at this close of
a scheme of union for which he had taken so much
pains. " I foresee," he said, " that if you will not
have peace with brethren, you will have war with
foes ; and if you will not preach the way of life to
the English, you will suffer deadly vengeance at
their hands." Thus they parted ; and shortly after
Augustine and his friend Gregory died, A.D. 604.

His closing words, however, were remembered as
having something prophetic in them, when a few
years later, Ethelfrid, a warlike Saxon king of North
umberland, made war upon the Welch. A number
of priests and monks from the monastery of Bangor
had taken their post on an eminence near the field
of battle to pray for the success of their countrymen.
The pagan chief observed them, and inquired who
they were, and what they were doing. On being
told ; " Then," said he, " if they are praying to their
God against us, though they bear no weapons, they
fight against us, and harm us with their curses.
Let them be assaulted first." A Welch chief, who
had been appointed to defend them, fled at the ap
proach of the Saxons, and the unhappy Christian
flock was left to the wolves of war, without means
of resistance. Twelve hundred of them are said
to have perished, and not more than fifty to have
escaped from this cruel slaughter.

Some modern writers, who have noticed these
events, have accused Augustine of having stirred up
the pagan Saxons against these poor Welch Chris
tians. It is an accusation quite unfounded. Bede
tells us that Augustine was dead long before ; and
if he had been living, he was quite without any
means of communication with Ethelfrid, who lived
too far north to be under any control from the au
thority of Ethelbert. The slaughter of the monks

38 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH

at Bangor, however, did not take place till A.D. 607,
or, as some accounts say, A.D. 613.

Augustine's success seems to have made him
believe there was some miraculous power displayed
in it; as it was the common belief of the Italian*
long afterwards, that miracles would be shewn to
aid the work of missionaries among barbarous na
tions. On this subject he also received a letter of
pious advice from Gregory, not to suffer himself
to be uplifted by vain-glory, but to remember our
Lord's words to his disciples, " Rejoice not in this,
but that your names are written in heaven." He
suffered him to turn the temples of Saxon idols into
churches, and advised only that the idols should
be destroyed, holy water sprinkled about the place,
and relics of saints or martyrs placed there. In this
there was something of superstition. The practice
of the earlier Christians had been, not to make use
of heathen temples, but rather to take their halls of
justice, or other public buildings, which had not
been used for acts of religion. And this was better,
as it marked more distinctly the difference between
the true faith and the pagan errors; for it would
be almost impossible that, while the worship was in
the same place, the people's minds should not mix
up some remembrance of their old worship. As to
the use of relics, it seems to have begun before
Gregory's time. When one of their brethren suf
fered martyrdom, the persecuted Christians used to
gather up the ashes from the flames, or the bones
•\vhich were left by the wild beasts, and to give
them Christian burial in churches or churchyards.
They remembered how Moses had carefully brought
the bones of Joseph out of Egypt to lay them in the
sspulchre of his fathers; and they thought it wrong
to leave the remains of their dear friends in the
eaods of unbelievers. This was a true and right

CH. II.] MISSION OF AUGUSTINE. . 39

feeling. But it became a superstition, when after
wards these remains were sought for to be placed
in other churches, when they were carried in urns
and caskets from one country to another, and no
place was accounted holy enough which had not
some of these relics preserved near the altar. The
use of holy water was also superstitious. In early
times it was common in the East, and in Africa and
other hot countries, to have a large stone basin or
fountain of water in the court before the entrance
to the church, that the people might, if they pleased,
wash off the heat and dust,-and refresh their faces,
before they went in t« worship. Afterwards the
priest sprinkled the congregation within the church,
as used to be done by heathens in their temples ;
and it seems that Gregory thought it a ceremony
to be used in consecrating the building itself. It
may be that he only advised this sprinkling as an
outward sign of purification for Christian worshio.
It was not yet that the holy water was made a kind
of charm against diseases, and to drive away evil
spirits.

In all other points the counsels of Gregory were
praiseworthy. He sent over to Augustine, A.D. 601,
a new company of missionaries, among whom were
Mellitus, Justus, and Paulinus, all men who laboured
zealously in promoting Christianity in England ; and
with them they brought, besides the relics already
mentioned, a number of holy vessels for the sacra
ments, altar-cloths, and vestments for the priests.
What was of still greater value, they brought a
manuscript copy of the Bible in two volumes, two
copies of the Psalms as they were sung in churches,
two copies of the Gospels, a book of Lives of the
Apostles and Martyrs, and a Commentary on the
Gospels and Epistles. These were perhaps the first
written books which made their appearance am

40 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

our Saxon forefathers. They also brought to Au
gustine a pall, a kind of scarf wound round the nedi
with the end hanging down before ; by which Gre.
gory appointed him primate or archbishop of the
English Church.

It was the order taken in the ancient Church,
after Christianity became settled in the old Roman
empire, that the bishops of the capital cities in the
provinces were called patriarchs ; and they had the
right of ordaining archbishops under them, and
some authority over all the Church in that province.
Thus the bishop of Lyons, the oldest Christian
Church in France, the bishop of Milan in the north
of Italy, and the bishop of Rome in the south, were
patriarchs ; as were also the bishops of Constan
tinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, in the eastern
parts of Christendom. It is also supposed that the
bishop of York was patriarch of Britain, while this
island was a Roman province. It was therefore an
act of Gregory's, by which he claimed to be patri
arch of the Anglo-Saxon Church, when he sent
Augustine a pall. It was natural that he should
claim something of respect and consideration from a
Christian community converted by his missionaries;
and it was no more than his due. He had no notion
that any of his successors would make it a pretence
for exacting money from the English, or set their
power above the king's. It was his wish to have
appointed two other archbishops, of London and
of York; and to have sent them palls. His whole
scheme was, to have had twelve bishops ordained
for south Britain, and twelve for the north, under
the archbishop of York ; the kingdom of Northum
berland at this time, under the warlike Ethelfrid,
having been enlarged from the Humber into a great
part of the lowlands of Scotland, where most of the
country people have ever since been of Saxon race.

CH. II.] CONVERSION OF KENT. 41

These designs, however, were far too great to be
carried into effect in the life of Gregory or Augus
tine. What was now done was the building of the
cathedral church of Canterbury, on a site given by
Ethelbert, where an old Roman church had once
stood. This Augustine dedicated in the name of
our blessed Saviour, by the title of Christ's Church.
He also built a house for the bishop near it ; and
a little way out of the city he began to found a
monastery for his monks and clergy, and a church
belonging to it in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul.
This he did not live to finish : it was completed by
Laurence, whom he ordained to succeed him as
archbishop after his death. He was also enabled,
by the bounty of Ethelbert, to found another
bishopric at the city of Rochester, and another at
London, then the chief city of the little kingdom of
Essex, which extended over the county so called
and part of Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Sebert,
king of Essex, was sister's son to Ethelbert, and was
easily persuaded to follow the example of his uncle,
and receive Mellitus to preach the Gospel among
his subjects. He became accordingly first bishop
of the Saxons in London, which was then, as it had
been in the time of the Romans, the chief place of
resort for foreign merchandise. Rochester was also
a Roman town, but had received a new name from
the Saxons. Justus was appointed its first bishop.
In both these cities, churches were built for the
bishops at the expense of king Ethelbert: that in
London was called St. Paul's; and that in Roches
ter, St. Andrew's ; by which names the cathedrals,
standing on the same ground, are still known. At
the same date, king Sebert also founded the ancient
abbey of Westminster. The charter or deed, by
which king Ethelbert gave a portion of land to the
Church of Rochester is preserved to this day. It

42 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

is remarkable as the oldest deed or legal writing
preserved in England; for before the time of Chris
tianity the Saxons had no letters in use, except such
as were carved on stones or wooden staves, such as
Lapland witches use, and which their wizards and
conjurors used as spells and charms.5

The good king Ethelbert in this charter, dated
A.D. 604<, shortly after Augustine's death, addresses
himself to his son Edbald, who was still a pagan,
wishing him a hearty conversion to the catholic
faith ; and at the end of it pronounces a heavy curse
upon those who should hereafter diminish from or
hinder the effect of his gift. This was accompanied
by a good prayer for those who should increase it;
and was probably occasioned by the danger he saw
would hang over this newly-founded grant, if his son
did not become a Christian.

The first great public benefit which came to the
Saxons from Christianity, was a collection of written
laws or decrees in their own language, the old Eng
lish or Saxon tongue, put forth by the authority
of Ethelbert, with the advice of his parliament, or
council of wise men. These were the earliest Eng
lish written laws ; and were afterwards in part taken
by the great king Alfred into the collection of laws
which he made for the English people. Ethelbert
died in the fifty-seventh year of his long and pro
sperous reign, A.D. 616. He was buried in St. Mar
tin's porch, where his queen Bertha had been buried,
adjoining the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, after
wards called, in honour of the first English arch-

1 King Alfred, in his version of Bede's History, tells a
story of a Christian Saxon taken prisoner by the pagans ;
whose chains being found loose, the earl whose captive he was
asked him " whether he knew the loosing rhyme, or had with
him the written stones, that he could not be bound." — B. iv.
c. 22.

CH. II.J ARCHBISHOP LAURENCE. 4.3

bishop, St. Augustine's. There also Augustine and
the early Saxon primates were all buried.

Archbishop Laurence, when he hail succeeded
to Augustine, and completed this church, made
another attempt, by sending letters fo the Welch
bishops, to bring them to an agreement. He sent
letters also to the Scottish bishops, the greater part
of which nation then inhabited Ireland, whose cus
toms were the same with those of the ancient Bri
tish Church. But these letters were of no effect;
and Laurence, when he had paid the last duties to
the remains of Ethelbert, soon found other difficul
ties to call his attention nearer home.

CHAPTER III.

CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA.

They listen'd : for unto their ear

The word, which they had long'd to hear,

Had come at last,— the lifeful word.

Which they had often almost heard •

In some deep silence of the breast :

For with a sense of dim unrest

That word unborn had often wrought

And struggled in the womb of thought ;

And lo ! it now was born indeed, —

Here was the answer to their need. R. C. TRENCH.

Y the death of Ethelbert, the newly
founded English Church lost its best
protector. He left for his successor
his son Edbald, a prince who during his
father's lifetime had refused to be in
structed in the Christian faith, and a widow, a second
wife whom he had married after the death of Bertha.
This widow Edbald by an incestuous union took to
himself. His wild temper in other respects was such
as to wear the symptoms of madness. And now all
those, whom respect or hope of reward had led to
embrace the faith, openly renounced it.

About the same time died Sebert, king of Es
sex, and left his dominions to three pagan sons. It
is said that these barbarian princes, entering the
church of St. Paul's while Mellitus was adminis
tering the Lord's supper, desired him to give them
some of that white bread which he was distributing

CH. III.] VISION OF LAURENCE. 45

to the people. As he knew that they had refused
to be baptised, he said, " If you despise the laver of
life, you cannot partake of the bread of life." Upon
this, complaining of his refusal to oblige them in so
small a matter, they told him to quit the country.
He left London with his monks and clergy, and
came with Justus, who had left Rochester, to a
conference with Laurence at Canterbury. It was
determined that it was better to go where they
could serve God without distraction than to dwell
among enemies. Mellitus and Justus crossed over
to France, leaving Laurence, who was preparing to
follow them in a few days afterwards.

His departure was prevented by a remarkable
vision, which appears to have had in it something
of a providential character. On the night before
the day fixed for his journey, he ordered his pallet-
bed to be laid in the church of St. Peter and St.
Paul, that he might take his last rest in that holy
place before he quitted these shores. " He passed,"
says Alfred, " a long night in prayers, and poured
forth many tears, and sent up many a supplication
to God for the continuance of the Church, till he
was spent and weary, and put his limbs in posture
for sleep." In a dream he seemed to see the apostle
St. Peter, who sternly reproved him for thinking
of flight, when he would leave behind the flock of
Christ in the midst of wolves. " Have you for- .
gotten my example," said the vision ; " the chains,
the stripes, the bonds and afflictions, — nay, the
death which I endured for those lambs, whom
Christ committed to my care and bade me to feed,
as the test by which he would prove my love ?"
Laurence awoke, and in the pangs of remorse for
his weakness afflicted his body with the discipline
of the scourge ; and thus, under the zeal inspired
by what he believed to be a divine warning, came

46 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

for the last time to make an appeal to the conscience
of Edbald. The earnestness with which he spoke,
and the sufferings of mind and body displayed in
his appearance, awakened the king's better feelings.
As his refusal of Christianity had been from enmity
to its moral standard rather than want of conviction
of its truth, he was now changed at once ; he gave
up his idolatry, renounced his unlawful union, and
became a baptised Christian. Mellitus and Justus
were recalled ; and from this time Christianity was
fixed in the kingdom of Kent, though some years
were to elapse before it could be replaced in Lon
don. It is not wonderful, if the simple superstition
of the Saxons, or the natural tendency in men " to
magnify the mighty things they hear," led them to
tell the story of this vision as if the spectre himself
had inflicted the scourge on the back of Laurence.
The Bretwalda, or lord of Britain, who suc
ceeded to Ethelbert in the authority conveyed by
that title, was Redwald, king of the East Angles.
His power was established by a battle in which
Ethel frid of Northumbria was defeated and slain,
A.D. 617. Redwald, on a visit which he paid to
Ethelbert in Kent, had been persuaded to receive
baptism ; but on his return home, finding his queen
and other counsellors averse to the new faith, he
attempted to compromise matters, and had a Chris
tian altar for the holy communion set up in a
pagan temple, where other rites of an idolatrous
kind were still continued. At this period EDWIN,
a Northumbrian prince, flying from the malice of
Ethelfrid, his uncle, who had usurped his throne
and sought his life, came for refuge to his court.
He was courteously received ; but it was soon seen
that the same irresolute conduct, which shewed
itself in the religion of Redwald, endangered also
Lis word of promise to his guest. Ethelfrid sent

CH. III.] EDWIN, KING OF NORTHUMBRIA. 47

messengers more than once, offering a price for
Edwin's head, and threatening war if he was still
protected. On the arrival of the last of these mes
sengers, Edwin, who had just withdrawn to his
chamber for the night, was called out by a trusty
friend into the open air, who informed him that the
king had promised either to give him up to Ethel-
frid's messengers, or to put him to death in his own
court. " Now then, if you will be guided by me, I
will lead you to a place where neither Redwald nor
Ethelfrid shall ever find you." Edwin thanked him
for his good will ; but weary of his life of danger,
he declared his resolution to remain where he was,
and rather to abide his death from the king than
from any meaner hand.

His friend having left him, Edwin remained
alone in the gloom of the night; and sitting on a
stone before the palace-door, gave himself up to
the uncheerful musings of his situation. Suddenly
he saw a figure of a man coming towards him,
whose step and stature were unlike any that he
knew. While he gazed towards it in some alarm,
a strange voice asked him why he sat watching
there while others slept. " It matters not," said
the unhappy prince, somewhat impatiently ; " let it
be my choice to watch and pass the night out of
doors rather than within." " Do not think," said
the stranger, " that I am ignorant of the cause of
this lonely watch, or of the evil which you fear.
But tell me, what meed would you bestow on him
who should set you free from this distress, and assure
you that Redwald will neither himself do you any
wrong, nor give you up to the foes that seek your
life?" " For such a kindness the meed that would
be his due would be whatever good I had it in my
power to bestow." " But what if you should find
him to have truly promised not only this, but that.

48 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

after the downfal of your foes, you shall excel in
might and rule all the kings that have been before
vou ; — will you hereafter be ready to follow his
counsel, if he shall shew you a better rule of life
than you or your forefathers have ever known ?"
Edwin, whose hopes of deliverance rose as this
conversation went on, gave a ready promise that he
would in all things obey his counsel. With this the
stranger laid his hand upon the prince's head, and
said, " When this token shall come to you again,
remember this time, and the words that have passed
between us, and delay not to fulfil your promise."
He then disappeared ; and Edwin, wondering at
the appearance and the message, thought he had
seen a spirit. It is most likely that this mysterious
person was a Christian, who had accompanied Red-
wald from Kent ; and having become acquainted
with his change of purpose, took this way of com
municating it to Edwin, in the hope, which was not
disappointed, of making it hereafter serviceable to
the advancement of the faith among the Saxons in
the north.

He had not long departed, when Edwin's friend
made his appearance again, and reported that Red-
wald's queen had turned her husband from his weak
and treacherous counsel, and that he was now pre
pared to defend his cause to the uttermost of his
power. The messengers of Ethelfrid had scarcely
left his territory, when Redwald assembled his forces,
and attacking the fierce pagan before he had time to
prepare for his defence, slew him in battle, and de
livered his kingdom into the hands of Edwin. The
field of this slaughter, in which Regner, son of Red
wald, fell, was on the banks of the river Idel in
Nottinghamshire.

It was about eight years later, A.D. 625, when,
after the death of Redwald, Edwin had sticce?ded to

CH. III.] MISSION OF PAULINUS. 49

his title of lord of Britain, and had by his successes
obtained a more ample dominion than any former
king, having a realm extending from the northern
shore of the Humber far into the lowlands of Scot
land, and having added to it the Welch province of
Cumberland and the two islands of Man and Mona,1
— that a distinguished visitor at his court reminded
him of this memorable interview. Edwin sought
in marriage Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert of
Kent. Her brother Edbald, at this time turned from
his errors, refused to give her to a pagan ; till Edwin
promised that she, with her household, should enjoy
the free exercise of her religion ; that he would re
ceive her bishop or other ministers, and would him
self become a convert to her creed, " if his wise
counsellors found it to be more holy and more pleas
ing to God than his own." On this answer, it was
determined at the Kentish court that PAULINUS
should accompany her as domestic chaplain ; and as
the answer gave the hope that the Northumbrians
might through him receive the word of God, he was
consecrated as a missionary bishop to Northumbria.
Laurence and Mellitus, the second and third arch
bishops of Canterbury, were now dead ; and it was
from Justus, who had succeeded Mellitus, that he
received consecration.

The men whom Gregory had sent over on his
English mission appear to have been men of pru
dence as well as piety ; and this was the character of
Paulinus. He was not at first forward in attacking
the pagan superstitions, but waited for a favourable
time to speak a word for Christianity ; contenting
himself with a careful regard to the Christian mem
bers of the queen's household, and inviting others,

1 Called from this time Angles-ege, " Angles' Island," or
Anglesey.

50 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

who might be willing to hear, to attend his preach
ing. The following year an attempt was made to as
sassinate Edwin. A messenger from Cwichelm, king
of Wessex, arrived at his court with a pretended
embassy; and watching his opportunity, while Edwin
was giving him an audience, drew a poisoned dagger
from his vest and rushed towards the royal seat. The
king's life was saved by the self-devotedness of his
faithful thane, Lilla, who, having no other means for
his defence, presented his own body to receive the
murderer's weapon. Such, however, was the force
with which it was aimed, that the point reached the
king through the body of his slaughtered friend; and
it was not till after a severe struggle, in which another
of the attendants lost his life, that the assassin was
despatched. In the same night, Ethelburga was
safely delivered of a daughter, who was named
Eanfleda, and lived to be a distinguished patroness
of the Northumbrian Christians. When Edwin gave
thanks to his gods for her safety, Paulinus offered
his thanks to the true Saviour, and ventured to tell
the king that it was not to those idols, but to Him
to whom his prayers were addressed, that this benefit
was owing. The king listened without displeasure,
and promised that if he were prospered with life
and victory over the prince who had suborned this
murderer, he would himself openly choose the service
of Christ. In token of the sincerity of his promise,
he gave his infant daughter to be baptised by Pau
linus, who thus was made the first-fruits of the Nor
thumbrian mission ; and with her, eleven members of
the royal household were also baptised. The wound
which Edwin had received being shortly healed, he
inarched against the West Saxons, and gave them a
great defeat, in which five of their princes are said
to have fallen. His power being thus established
over the whole country, he returned and held fre-

Cn. III.] CONVERSION OF NORTHUMERIA. 51

<\uent conferences with Paulinus, giving up the ido
latry of his fathers, but taking some time to meditate
what course he should next pursue. The successors
of Gregory, at Rome, were regularly informed, by
the missionaries, of the state of things in England ;
and at this time, pope Boniface took the pains to
write letters both to Edwin and Ethelburga, exhort
ing the king to receive the word that was preached
to him, and the queen to use her influence with her
husband for his spiritual good. These letters were
accompanied with presents ; for the king, a soldier's
shirt of proof or hauberk ornamented with gold, and
a camp-cloak or gabardine of strong and precious
cloth ; for the queen, an ivory comb set in gold, and
a mirror of polished silver.2 Still Edwin delayed to
declare his conversion ; he often passed his hours in
solitude, and seemed to be in perplexity ; sometimes
he asked the advice of the nobles of his court, who
had the greatest esteem for wisdom ; but without
coming to any conclusion. Paulinus now suspected
that something of kingly pride was struggling in his
breast against his better conviction ; and seeking him
one day as he sat alone, laid his right hand on his
head, and asked him whether he remembered that
token. The king, startled at the question, was ready
to fall at his feet; but Paulinus preventing him,
went on : " Behold," he said, " thou hast by God's
grace escaped from the hands of the foes whom thou
didst dread ; and through his bounty thou hast ob
tained the kingdom thou desiredst : remember now
the third thing, the fulfilment of which depends on
thine own promise ; that he who has raised thee
to a short-lived worldly kingdom, and put down thy

2 An ivory comb of this century, supposed to have been the
property of St. Cuthbert, is still to be seen at Durham. 'I he
mirrors of this period were commonly of polished steel or some
other metal, the art of silvering glass being much more modem.

£2 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

earthly foes, may deliver thee from eternal woe, ami
give thee a part of his eternal kingdom in heaven."

The mysterious message thus recalled to mind,
— a message which had been so exactly fulfilled,.
• — overpowered the soul of Edwin. He called his
friends and counsellers together, that they might
deliver their opinions on the new faith proposed for
their acceptance, and if they were found to agree
with his own, that they might altogether be hallowed
at the font of life in the name of Christ. The first
to speak was Coifi, the chief priest of the Northum
brians. " It is your part," said he to the king, " to
see what is this new doctrine which is preached to us.
This at least I know, that there is neither virtue nor
profit in what we have hitherto held and taught. If
these gods whom we have served were of any power,
they would have helped me to honour and advance
ment from you, rather than others whom you have
advanced ; since I have served them most. But since
they cannot protect their most zealous worshippers,
my advice is, that if what is now preached to us
stands on better and stronger proofs, let us receive
it at once."

Another noble delivered himself in a speech
more befitting a consultation on the highest inte
rest of man : " The present life, O king, weighed
with the time that is unknown, seems to me like
this. When you are sitting at a feast, with your
earls and thanes in winter-time, and the fire is
lighted, and the hall is warmed, and it rains and
snows, and the storm is loud without, — then comes
a sparrow and flies through the house. It comes in
at one door, and goes out at the other. While it is
within, it is not touched by the winter's storm ;
but it is but for the twinkling of an eye ; for from
winter it comes, and to winter it soon again returns.
So also this life of man endureth for a little space ;

CH. III.] CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA. 53

what goes before, or what follows after, we know
not. Wherefore if this new lore bring any thing
more certain or more profitable, it is fit that we
should follow it."

Others having spoken to the same purpose, Coifi
at length proposed that they should hear Paulinus
speak of the God whom he preached to them. His
address was such as to move the aged priest to a
kind of revenge against his old paganism, in which
he had long sought for satisfaction of his doubts in
vain. He besought the king that, as it was now
determined all should renounce their idol-worship
and become Christians, he might be the first to
profane the temples. With the king's permission,
he mounted the king's own war-horse, girded with a
sword, and brandishing a spear; and thus equipped
he rode to the sacred enclosure surrounding the
temple, which was the highest place of heathen wor
ship in Northumbria. This was at Godmundingham,
" the home protected by the gods," now called God-
mundham, near Market Weighton, in the East-
Riding of Yorkshire. It was unlawful for the Saxon
priests to bear arms, or to ride except on a mare ;
so that the strange appearance of Coifi attracted the
notice of the people, who thought that he was seized
with madness. Their surprise was still greater, when
they saw him hurl his spear and fix it fast in the
temple-wall. His followers then quickly set fire to
the wooden structure, broke down the fences round,
and thus publicly abolished the pagan worship of
Northumbria.

King Edwin was baptised at York, on Easter-
day, A.D. 627, in a small church built of timber, and
dedicated by the name of St. Peter's. From such a
humble beginning arose the splendid minster of that
ancient city. Here he fixed the seat of a bishopric

for Paulinus, and wrote to Honorius, then bishop of

v *

54 EARLY ENGLISH G'HtRCM.

Rome, to obtain for him the honour of a pall. After
his baptism he immediately began to erect a church
of stone, which was to enclose the wooden walls al
ready erected, and to be itself of larger dimensions;
but this was not completed till the reign of Oswald,
his successor. The old Saxon kings commonly re
sided at country villages, where they had their halls
or hunting-seats, and changed from one of these
residences to another. Edwin had owe of these, if
not more, in each of the Ridings of Yorkshire, ami
others farther to the north. Paulinus removed from
place to place with the court ; at one time preaching
and baptising at Yeverin in Glendale, near the river
Till in Northumberland, at another at Catterick on
the Swale, near Richmond, and another at Donafeld,
which is supposed to be near Doneaster. In the
first of these places it is said that the number of
people who flocked to him was so great, that for six-
and-thirty days he was engaged from morning till
evening in giving them daily instruction. When
they could answer to the catechism he taught, they
were baptised in the little river Glen, and in the
clear waters of the Swale ; " for as yet there were
no houses of prayer or baptisteries built," says Bede,
" in the first years of the infant Church." However,
at Donafeld the king built a second chnreh near hrs
royal hall ; but this, together with the mansion, was
shortly afterwards destroyed by the pagan Angles of
Mercia.

Edwin's zeal did not rest satisfied with the care
of his own subjects; he persuaded Eorpwald, son of
Redwald, to receive Christianity into East Anglia.
This prince being stain in an insurrection of his
pagan subjects, his brother Sigebert succeeded to
his dominions ; and he is said to have been a very
zealous promoter of the new doctrine. He had
passed some years in France, where he had not only

CH. III.J CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA. 55

been instructed in the Christian faith, but had ac
quired more learning than was common among the
Saxon princes. When he came to take the govern
ment into his hands, he brought with him Felix, a
Burgundian bishop, who was sent, with the consent
of Honoring, then the primate, as missionary into
East Anglia. There is no part of England into
which Christianity was more favourably introduced
than this, or where it flourished more in later Saxon
times. Here too was the first school founded for
the instruction of boys in letters, according to the
model of those which king Sigebert had seen in
France. It has, indeed, been conjectured, by some
who are anxious to prove the antiquity of our uni
versities, that this school was planted at Grantches-
ter, afterwards called Cambridge : but it is more
likely that it was at Dunwich, on the Suffolk coast,
which was for a long time under the Saxons the see
of a bishop, and where Felix resided. The name of
this bishop appears to be still preserved by the village
of Felixstow, " the dwelling of Felix," on the same
coast.

The kingdom of Edwin at this time extended
into Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire : and Pauli-
nus crossed the Humber to preach the Gospel at
Lincoln. Here his first convert was the reeve, or
governor, of the city, a man of wealth named Blecca,
who, after he had received baptism with all his family,
devoted part of his substance to build a handsome
stone church. He also visited the banks of Trent,
and baptised near Southwell, where, in Bede's time,
about one hundred years afterwards, the tradition of
the place preserved some memorial of the personal
appearance of this first bishop and missionary of the
province of York, of the height of his stature above
the middle size, his dark hair, his aquiline nose, and
pale and dignified countenance.

56 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

At these public baptisms the king was usually
present: and from the time of his conversion to the
breaking out of the war in which he lost his life, the
realms over which he ruled are said to have enjoyed
a most prosperous state of peace. And so watchful
was he in maintaining justice, that it became a pro
verb in after-time to describe a good government as
like king Edwin's reign, when a mother with a ten
der infant might have travelled in safety from one
sea to the other. It is also recorded, to the praise
of his beneficence, that wherever a fountain of clear
water welled forth beside the public way, he pro
vided for the refreshment of wayfarers an iron jack
or drin king-vessel, fastened to a post set in the
ground ; and such was the love and fear of his
name, that none of his subjects would remove these
vessels, or touch them for any purpose but that for
which they were designed.

In the rivalry ot so .nany small kingdoms, how
ever, peace was not easily preserved. Penda, a rude
pagan warrior, who had succeeded at an advanced
age to the throne of Mercia made league with Cad-
wal, king of Wales, again? Edwin. In a battle
fought at Hatfield Chase, near Doncaster, the Nor
thumbrian monarch was defeated and slain ; and the
country which he had so well governed was laid
open to the inroads of two fierce chiefs, who made
havoc of all that fell into their hands, sparing neither
women nor children. Cadwal was, indeed, a Chris
tian : but his vengeance against the Saxons, whom
he naturally considered as foreign invaders, aimed at
nothing short of their destruction. In the midst of
this confusion and calamity, Paulinus, taking with
him Ethelburga, Edwin's widow, with her children,
guarded by one of the bravest of the king's thanes,
made his way by sea into Kent, where he and they
were honourably received by Honorius, whom he

CH. III.] DEATH OF EDWIN. 57

had shortly before consecrated at Lincoln to the see
of Canterbury, and by king Edbald. It is a strong
proof of the fidelity of his escort of Christian so.-
diers from Northumberland, that he was enabled
not only to preserve his life and the lives of the
women and children on this dangerous journey, but
even to convey and deposit at Canterbury some
precious vessels and ornaments presented by Edwin
for the service of his church, particularly a large
cross of gold, and a golden chalice for the holy
communion. He left behind him in the north his
deacon James or Jacob, the companion of his mis
sionary labours, who continued to preach and re
ceive converts by the rite of baptism, residing chiefly
at Akeburgh, "Jacob's Town," near Richmond; and
who afterwards, when peace was restored, taught
the Christians at York the use of chanting, as it was
already practised at Canterbury, in the manner
which Augustine had learnt at Rome. Paulinus
did not himself return any more to York ; but the
see of Rochester being then without a bishop, he
was invited by Edbald and Honorius to that charge,
in which he died at a good old age about ten years
afterwards.

The death of Edwin took place on the twelfth
of October. A.D. 633, six years and a half from the
date of his baptism, in the forty-ninth year of his
age, and the eighteenth of his reign. His name,
which has passed, like that of Oswald, Alfred, and
Edward, his successors as Christian princes and de
fenders of the faith, into a common English Christian
name, is a memorial of the veneration paid to his
memory by our forefathers. A faithful retainer car
ried his head from the field of battle to York, where
it was honourably buried in a porch of St. Peter's
Church, called St. Gregory's porch, after the good
pope from whose disciples he had received the word

58

EARLY ENGLISH CHUUCH.

of life. His widow Ethelburga retired from the
world into the monastery of Liming in Kent, found
ed for her by her brother Edbald, where her holy
and exemplary life caused her to be revered as a
eaiiit after her death, in A.D. 64-7.

CHAPTER IV.

mOM THE DEATH OP KING EDWIN TO THE DEATH OP ARCH-
BISHOP THEODORE. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY.

I like a blunt indifference ;
Affections which, if put to proof, are kind ;
And piety tow'rds God. Such men of old
Were England's native growth.

WORDSWORTH.

have thus far seen the work of the
Gospel among our Saxon forefathers
done only by the Italian missionaries,
and a few fellow- labourers from the
shores of France. But we shall now
see how the truth, taught by the ancient Britons to
the wild nations of Ireland and Scotland, came back
to enlighten the country from which it had at first
been spread. The sons of king Ethelfrid, after Ed
win had succeeded to his throne, had taken refuge
among the Picts and Scots, with a large body of
young nobility attached to their party. Here the
disciples of Columba, from lona, had taught them
the Christian faith, and they had been baptised.
After the fall of Edwin, one of whose sons by a
former wife had fallen by his father's side, and the
other was a prisoner in the hands of Penda, — Ethel-
burga having carried his children of the second
marriage into Kent, — there were none of his line
left to dispute the succession with them. Accord
ingly they returned ; and Eanfrid, the eldest, took

60 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

possession of Northumberland and Durham, called
by the Saxons Beorna-ric, or " Bear-land," either
from the fierce creatures which then infested it, or
because it was by the name of " bears" that the old
pagans of the North distinguished their bravest war
riors.1 A nephew of Edwin's, by name Osric, was
at the same time set up by the Saxons of Yorkshire
to be king of " Deer-land."2 The choice was un
happy. Osric, who had received baptism from the
hands of Paulinus, no sooner was declared king,
than he renounced the Christian faith ; and then
marching to York, which had surrendered to Cad-
wal, attempted to besiege him there. The Welch
chieftain, seeing him ill provided for the attack,
sallied out and destroyed him and his forces; and
after long harassing the province, contrived to slay
Eanfrid also, who had likewise become an apostate,
at a conference. Oswald, the second son of Ethel-
frid, was at hand with a small but resolute band of
followers ; and by a victory near Hexham entirely
changed the fortunes of the contending parties.
Cadwal and his large host were left in heaps of
slaughter on the field ; and thus ended a war, in
which the Britons seemed for a short time likely
to regain their old possessions, but which was dis
graced by too much cruelty to be crowned witli
lasting success.

There is no Saxon king whose name has been
more honoured in old traditions than that of OS
WALD, whom this victory raised at once to the
throne of Northumbria, and to the title of "Lord of

1 To be called a bear in these degenerate days is not con
sidered a compliment; but in old times, in the" North, as the
bear was the strongest animal known, it was as high a title to
be called Beorn-mod, or Beorn-red, ' bear-hearted,' as to ha\e
the surname of William the Lion, or Richard Coeur-de-Lion.

3 See above, p. 28.

CH. IV.] OSWALD AIDAN. Qi

Britain," and all tlie power of Edwin. It is said, that
before he led his men to this dangerous onset, he
planted an ensign of the cross in front of their ranks,
and kneeling with them before it, prayed for de
liverance and victory. " This sign of the holy rood,"
he said, " is our token of blessing ; at this rood let
us bow, not to the tree, but to the almighty Lord
that hung upon the rood for us, and pray him to
defend the right." When he was established in the
kingdom, he sent ambassadors to the Scottish princes,
with whom he and his thanes had found refuge, and
prayed them to send him some bishop, from whom
the English people might receive the precepts of
the faith which he had learnt among them. They
sent him without delay a man of great gentleness
and piety, as Alfred describes him, full of zeal and
of the love of God. This was AIDAN, to whom,
at his own choice, Oswai.i gave for his see the
island of Lindisfarne, on the coast of Northumber
land, near to Bambrough, his own royal seat, A.D.
635. This was the first foundation of the bishopric
of Durham.

Aidan was a monk of lona, the monastery of St.
Colurnba before mentioned,3 which in this century
had sent forth many missionaries, who had founded
other monasteries in the north of Scotland, and was
the chief seat of dignity in the Scottish Church.
After he had come to Lindisfarne, many other Scot
tish monks and priests came to associate themselves
with him. They followed the Welch or ancient
British way of calculating Easter, which afterwards
led to some inconvenience with those who had been
taught the Roman calendar; but nothing could be
more exemplary than the life and behaviour of these
northern churchmen. Aidan himself was a pattern

« Ch i. p. 20

62 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

of that frugal and self-denying life, of which his
countrymen in later times have shewn so many
praiseworthy examples. " He was one," says Bede,
" who seemed neither to covet, nor love any of this
world's goods: and all the gifts he received from
princes or rich men, he distributed in alms to the
poor. Wherever ne went, whether to town or vil
lage, he went on foot, never riding on horseback,
unless some urgent need required it, and inquiring
of rich and poor whom he met whether they were
Christians ; if they were not, he invited them to
learn the faith ; if they were, he sought by dis
course to establish them in what they had learnt,
and by words and deeds to encourage them in works
of mercy. His attendants, clergy or laymen, wher
ever he journeyed, were seen employed either in
reading the Scriptures or in learning psalmody,
whenever they were not engaged in holy prayers.
If ever he was invited to the king's table, he went
with one or two of his priests ; and when he was
refreshed, he soon rose and took his leave to return
to read or pray. By his example, the religious men
and women were taught to observe the fasts of Wed
nesday and Friday, abstaining from food till the
ninth hour of the day; and this they did throughout
the year, except from Easter to Whitsunday. To
the rich and powerful he gave his reproofs without
fear or favour ; offering them no fee or present, but
entertaining them when they visited his house with
hospitable cheer. Besides the bounty which he
shewed to the poor out of the worldly goods which
were presented to him, he employed a great portion
)f them in redeeming those who had been unjustly
sold for slaves ; and many of those whom he had
thus redeemed, he afterwards made disciples in the
faith ; and when they were well instructed, pro
moted them to the sacred order of priesthood."

CH. IV.] AIDAN. 63

We may see in this character a pleasing picture
of the life of a good Christian bishop in those simple
times, and the social evils which it was part of his
task to remedy. In those days, the governors seem
to have expected bribes from the people ; in ours,
the people elect their governors and receive bribes
from them. It may be doubted whether this old
Christian bishop would have approved of either
practice ; and surely no reform will be complete till
it provides against both; but this, it must be feared,
is beyond the power of law, and only Gospel can do
it. Of the amendments which Christianity brought
into the world, none is more remarkable than the
relief which it has ever sought to administer to the
unhappy condition of slavery. In this part of his
works of mercy, Aidan had many imitators in the
teachers of the Church in later Saxon times.

It is said, that when Oswald first sent to lona
for a Christian guide, there was sent before Aidan a
man of sterner mood, who, not being well received
by the Northumbrians, returned to his countrymen
with many complaints against the untamed and harsh
nature of the people. " You seem to me," said
Aidan, "to have been too hard with these unlearned
hearer*. Remember the apostle's practice, to feed
them first with the milk of gentler doctrine, till they
are prepared for that which is more perfect." The
remark appeared to the council of Scottish Church
men so discreet, that they unanimously chose Aidan
for the mission which he so meritoriously discharged.
It appears, that when he first came to Lindisfarne,
he was too little acquainted with the Saxon language
to preach to the natives in their own tongue ; and
that Oswald, who in his years of banishment had
become master of the Scottish or Gaelic language,
was often seen acting as his interpreter, while he
preached to his earls and thanes. " It was a fair

64 EARLTT ENGLISH CHURCH.

sight," says Bede, " to see a Christian king so em
ployed ;" and a striking instance of the care of Pro
vidence, turning the misfortunes of his youth to a
means of blessing.

Oswald married the daughter of Cynegil, or
Kingil, king of Wessex; at whose court when he
was received as a suitor, he found there Birinus, a
new Italian missionary, sent from Genoa under a
promise which he had made to Pope Honorius, to
preach to the pagan provinces of England. Kingil
and his people had listened favourably to his mes
sage, and they were now many of them prepared
to receive baptism, when Oswald came and stood
godfather to his future father-in-law. The Italian
bishop, who had received consecration in his own
country, was then placed by the two kings at Dor
chester near Oxford, A.D. 635. From this see, a
few years afterwards, arose the bishopric of Win
chester; and other sees at Leicester and Sidnacester
probably now called Stow, which, after the Norman
conquest, were removed to Lincoln. Thus the king
dom of the West Saxons, one of the most extensive
and well-peopled, became converted to Christianity.

The Scottish bishops of Lindisfarne, however,
seem to have taken the steps that most effectually
led to the establishment of Christianity in the hearts
of the people. The Italian missionaries do not ap
pear to have ordained many of the native Saxons to
the ministry, though they had now been nearly forty
years settled in Kent; and in the reign of Ercon-
bert, son of Edbald, A.D. 640, the old idol-gods were
everywhere destroyed. The first five archbishops
of Canterbury were all Italians ; and Honorius the
last, dying in A.D. 656, left the see vacant, without
having named, as his predecessors had done, the
person who was to succeed him. Then, after a
vacancy of a year and a half, Frithona, a West

Ctt. IV.] THE SCOTTISH MISSION. 65

Saxon priest, was consecrated by Ithamar, bishop of
Rochester; but the name sounding barbarous in
Roman ears, the monks of Canterbury changed it to
Deusdedit, or " God's gift," names of like meaning
being often taken by Christians at their baptism in
the primitive Church. It is true that archbishop
Honorius had in his lifetime consecrated this same
Ithamar, a native of Kent, to succeed Paulinus at
Rochester; and Thomas, a man of the fen-country,
and Boniface of Kent, to succeed Felix at Dunwich:
but the two scriptural names given to the first two,
and the Italian name of the last, whose Saxon appel
lation was Bertgils, proves something of unwilling
ness to turn the Roman plantation into an English
Church. The Scottish Churchmen, on the contrary,
being less anxious to prolong their own mission than
to make Christians of the Saxons, began very soon
to associate natives of the country with them in
their labours; and did not make a point of turning
their converts into Scotchmen. When Peada, son
of Penda, invited them into Mercia, A.D. 653, they
sent for the first bishop one of their own country
men, Dwina or Duma, accompanied by three Saxon
priests. The see of Duma was probably at Repton,
in Derbyshire ; but it was shortly afterwards re
moved to Lichfield, where his successors have con
tinued till this time. One of these Saxon priests,
Cedda, was afterwards consecrated by Finan, second
bishop of Lindisfarne, to restore Christianity in Es
sex. London was at this time in the hands of the
Mercians; so that the king of Essex could not
restore him the see of Mellitus at St. Paul's, but
gave him two other seats in the present county of
Essex ; Tilbury on the Thames, and Ithancester, a
town which stood near Maldon, but has since been
destroyed. Thus the whole of England, with the
exception of Sussex, had received the preachers of

G2

66 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the Gospel within fifty-five years after the landing
of Augustine ; but its rapid progress in the latter
portion of this period was especially owing to the
disciples of Columba, whom the zeal of Oswald had
brought to Lindisfarne.

In the mean time the wars and troubles of the
little Saxon kingdoms were often a hinderance to
the progress of the faith. The fierce old Penda,
ill brooking his subjection to Northumbria, renewed
the war against Oswald, who fell in a battle against
him in the ninth year of his reign, A.D. 64*3. Sige-
bert of East Anglia, and his successor Anna, both
recorded as excellent Christian princes, were also
slain by Penda in two different wars, at some in
terval of time from each other. Another Sigebert,
surnamed the Good, who had called Cedda from
Lastingham to restore Christianity in Essex, met
with his death from two of his own relatives, in a
manner which strongly marks the struggle which
was made between Christianity and the old pagan
ism. The two brothers who had done the murder,
on being brought to trial, and questioned why they
did it, could only say that they were provoked be
cause the king was so ready to spare his foes, and so
mildly granted forgiveness to all that asked it. The
Christian spirit of King Oswald, which had shone
so eminently in his life, did not desert him in the
hour of death. When he saw himself surrounded
by the enemy, and was on the point of receiving hi*
death-wound, he looked upwards ; and those who
were near him, and lived to tell of that disastrous
day, reported that the last words on his lips were,
" Spare, Lord, the souls of my people."

Oswy, brother of Oswald, obtained the Northum
brian throne after the battle in which Oswald fell ;
but he was for some time master of only part of the
province, another competitor keeping a part, and

CH. IV.] THEODORE. 67

was also for his first years subject to the authority
of Penda. That warlike pagan being at length
slain in a bloody conflict near the river Aire, Oswy
became for the remaining years of his reign undis
puted "lord of Britain." At the close of it, the
arrival of THEODORE of Tarsus to be archbishop
of Canterbury, A.D. 669, brought further eminent
benefits to the English Church.

On the death of Frithona, three years before,
Oswy, and Egbert then king of Kent, had sent a
Kentish priest named Wighard to be consecrated
archbishop at Rome by Vitalian, the pope of thai
period. Wighard died at Rome before he could be
consecrated ; upon which news being received, they
sent a second message to Vitalian, desiring that he
would himself find some good religious man, worthy
of the office, and they would receive him for pri
mate. It was some time before the good pope, who
was anxious to do his duty to the Saxons, was able
to meet with such a character as he thought fit for
the station.4 He had no one at Rome, or of Italian

4 Vitalian, in his letter to king Oswy, preserved in Bede's
History (iii. 29), has these words : "A man of good instruc
tion, and in all things well accomplished for archbishop, such
as your letter asks for, I have not yet been able to find ; for
the person to whom I have sent resides at some distance." It
appears from this, that the king had requested this pope to
send the Saxons an archbishop appointed by himself. When
some modern writers therefore say, that this was done with
" Italian subtlety," and that the pope made an experiment on
English patience, they mistake the fact. If the English had
been unwilling to receive a primate from Rome, there was
plenty of time, after they had heard of Wighard's death, to
send another of their native priests to be consecrated by the
pope. When Kalian subtlety filled the vacant preferments in
England, in the time of king John and Henry III., they were
not left open for two or three years before an appointment
was made. Hence Malmsbury (b. i. c. 50) says, that " to
king Oswy belongs the principal honour of having procured the
mission of Theodore, though Egbert shared in the act as prince

68 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

birth, whom he could fix upon ; but at a monastery
near Naples there resided a reverend abbot born of
African parents, named ADRIAN, famous for his
knowledge of the Scriptures, and very learned in
the Greek and Latin languages. Adrian was sent
for, but modestly declined the office ; and a friend
whom he recommended to the pope also declined,
his health being too infirm. In the midst of their
difficulties, Theodore happened to visit Rome, and
as he was well known to Adrian, Vitalian made
choice of him for the see of Canterbury. He was
at this time sixty-six years of age, but a firm and
vigorous old man, having lived the temperate life
of a monk in his native country. And he lived
twenty-two years more as archbishop, devoting all
his powers of mind and body to the good of his
adopted country.

As he was by education a member of the Greek
Church, which after the division of the Roman
empire soon began to vary in some of its practices
from the Western Church, Vitalian thought it right
to guard against the risk of his introducing any of
these practices among the Saxons. For this reason
he required that Adrian should accompany him to
England. In all other respects, nothing could be
more truly catholic than the spirit of this mission.
Here were three churchmen, born in three distant
countries, Africa, Greece, and Italy, all led by one
wish to benefit a fourth, to serve the cause of the
Gospel in England ; and for this sacred purpose two
of them at once renounced the ties of country, kin
dred, and friends, to go among strangers, and one at
that advanced age when nature commonly asks only
for rest and repose. Their journey to England was

of the province of Canterbury." He says not a word of Vita
lian as acting beyond their wishes, not even mentioning his

CH. IV.} COUNCIL OF WHITE Y. *9

not without inconvenience and delay. A powerful
minister at the French court, suspecting that they
came with a message from the Grecian emperor
against his master to the English kings, kept them
prisoners at large for several months at Paris ; and
it was not till the king of Kent had sent his reeve or
ambassador into France, that Theodore was allowed
to proceed, Adrian being still detained a short time
longer.

They found the newly-planted Church labouring
under something of division. Oswy had married
Eanfleda, the daughter of Edwin and Ethelburga,5
who, having been educated in Kent, had learnt to
prefer the Itoman way of calculating Easter. Hence
when she came, with her Kentish chaplain, to Bam-
brough, it happened that one part of the household
were keeping the Lent fast, while the others were
rejoicing in the Easter festival. This led to disputes
between those of the clergy who had been ordained
by the Scots, and the disciples of Augustine and
Paulinus ; and a few years before the arrival of
Theodore, a famous council was held on this ques
tion at the abbey of Whitby, A.D. 664. Agilbert, a
French prelate, who had resided some time in Ire
land, and was now bishop of Dorchester, was the
leader of one party ; and Colman, third bishop of
Lindisfarne, was chief speaker for the other. Agil
bert, however, who was not master of the Saxon
language, and shortly afterwards retired to France,
where he died archbishop of Paris, took little part in
the debate ; but deputed Wilfrid, a young Northum
brian priest, who had passed some years in study at
Rome and Lyons, to plead for the rule of Italy and
France. Oswy, who presided at this council, after
listening in turn to Colman and Wilfrid, one of whom

* See above, p. 50.

70 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

traced \i\s practice to St. John, the other to St. Peter,
on hearing the text, " Thou art Peter, and I will
give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,"
stopped the debate. " Is it true, Colman," he
said, " that our Lord spoke these words to Peter?"
" Most true." " But can you prove that any such
power was given to your saint Columba?" " We
cannot." " Then," said the king, " I dare not with
stand this door-keeper of heaven, but must obey his
rule, lest, when I come to that door, and ask for
entrance, he should refuse to turn the key." This
kingly jest was received as the jests of great men
usually are by their dependants, and the assembly of
earls and commoners decided that it would be expe
dient to leave the erroneous calculation and adopt
the better. It is most likely that the influence of
Queen Eanfleda had before persuaded Oswy to take
the part he did ; for it is impossible to suppose that
he could have been seriously turned to a new opinion
in the debate by such an argument as this. It was
unfortunate in its result, however, as it gave offence
to Colman, a plain sincere Christian, who shortly
after resigned his bishopric, and retired to a monas
tery in Ireland, taking with him several Saxon reli
gious persons, as well as the greater part of his Scot
tish monks and clergy. The Scottish Church after
wards reformed their calendar, A.D. 710.

It is much to be regretted that this difference
could not have been left to time and friendly inter
course on both sides ; in which case it is probable
that the change, which both the Scottish and Welch
Churches afterwards admitted, would have been
made in concert with the English. As it was, the
Northumbrians lost a body of Christian teachers,
whose sojourn had been of the greatest benefit to
thorn, and whose life and manners were above all
praise. Their frugal habits and abstinence from

CH. IV.] THE SCOTTISH MONKS. 71

all worldly indulgences were attested by the condi
tion in which they left the place, to which their
abode had gained the title of the Holy Island Be
sides the humble church of wood, cased with lead,
both walls and roof, there were only a few of the
most simple dwellings in which civilised man can
live. Money they had none : their only riches
were their flocks and herds. All that they had
they gave to the poor ; and if the king came to
visit them, or to pray in their church, he either
departed as he came, with a few attendants, or re
ceived from them no better entertainment than their
daily fare. It is no wonder that the influence of
such men in promoting Christianity was very great:
the people flocked to the churches and monasteries
on Sundays to hear their preaching ; and if one of
them came to a village as he journeyed, they would
crowd round him to ask for an exhortation from
the words of life. Even on the way, the peasants
who met them would run up, and ask them to sign
their foreheads with the cross, and to give them
their blessing. And indeed, says Bede, they had
no other errand wherever they went, than to preach,
to baptise, to visit the sick, and to take care ot
souls.

The first year of Theodore's primacy was em
ployed in visiting all the places in England where
there was any religious foundation standing, whether
bishops' sees or monasteries, and setting in order
what was wanting. Before the time of Theodore
there seem to have been no parish churches or re
sidences of single clergymen ; but whether married
priests or monks, they dwelt together near the bi
shop's see, or where a monastery was founded. Theo
dore was received every where with a hearty wel
come ; and under his instructions the right way of
keeping Easter was soon received in all the English

CJ EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Church. Both he and his companion Adrian were
well instructed in sacred and other learning ; and
finding the Saxons as yet very little acquainted with
letters, it was one of their first labours to found
schools, where the Greek and Latin language could
be taught, together with arithmetic, some knowledge
of astronomy for the calculation of time, and rules
for making verses. From this time also the use of
chanting was taught in all the churches ; and Theo
dore was himself perhaps the first who practised
the art of medicine in England. He seems to have
obtained grants of land from some of the Saxon
princes at Cricklade in Wiltshire, and at Oxford,
where his first schools were established ; but the
monastery of St. Peter's, or St. Augustine's, at Can
terbury, where Adrian presided as abbot, was for
some time after the most distinguished seat of learn
ing in the south of England. There were many of
their disciples, as Bede testifies, in his time, who
knew Latin and Greek as well as they knew their
own tongue. For the advancement of learning,
Theodore had brought a number of manuscripts
with him, and procured others from Rome or from
the East. Among these are said to have been copies
of the poems of Homer, the writings of Chrysostom
and Josephus, besides several portions of the Scrip
tures. Nothing can prove more remarkably the
effect of his diligence in training the minds of the
young Saxons, than the change which it wrought in
the state of society. And it was so ordered by a
good Providence, that the greater part of the Saxon
kingdoms at this time, and for some years later, en
joyed an interval of peace, without the interruptions
of continued war. " The kings were brave and
Christian," says Bede, ready to defend their own
rights, and not invading the provinces of each other.
Their number, moreover, was by this time sonio •

CM. IV. J ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 73

thing lessened. Wulfhere, king of Mercia, had be
come master of Essex, and the kings of East Anglia
were subject to him. Cedvvalla, king of Wessex,
A.D. 685, conquered the little province of Sussex;
9o that there remained only the two kingdoms of
Kent and Wessex south of Thames. And North-
umbria had already obtained something of firmness
and security, which, with little interruption from
the Picts and Scots, it continued to enjoy.

Theodore was received as primate of all Eng
land, to the north as well as to the south of the
Humber. There hud been a pall sent from Rome
to Paulinus, to give him the honour of archbishop
of York ; but the death of Edwin, and his flight
from the province, took place before he had received
it. The see remained vacant for thirty years, while
the Scottish bishops of Lindisfarne governed the
Church of Northumbria; and at the time of Theo
dore's arrival there was some dispute about it. Wil
frid, abbot of Ripon, the Northumbrian priest who
had taken so prominent a part in the council at
Whitby, had been appointed shortly after to the
bishopric of York ; and as there was then no arch
bishop at Canterbury, and Rochester was also vacant,
lie would not receive consecration from the Scottisli
bishops of Lindisfarne or Lichfield, but went over to
France to obtain it from A gilbert at Paris, and from
other French bishops. King Oswy, not altogether
approving the slight which was thus put upon the
Church from which he had himself received his first
Christian instruction, sent for a worthy Saxon abbot
from the monastery of Lastingham in Cleveland, to
have him made bishop. This was ST. CHAD, the
Saxon saint, whose memory is duly honoured by the
beautiful cathedral church at Lichfield, dedicated to
his memory ; honoured also it is by a church called
after him at Shrewsbury, though riot of the propor-

74 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

tions or style of that in which he used to worship/
He went for consecration to Wina, bishop of Wessex,
for whom king Coinwalch, or Kenwal, had just built
the cathedral church of Winchester, founded A.D.
660. On this occasion we find the first act of com
munion between the Welch and English Christians ;
two Welch bishops having come, probably from
Cornwall and Somerset, to assist Wina at the conse
cration of Chad. It is not, however, to be wondered
at, if these old inhabitants of Britain continued still
unwilling to join in Christian fellowship with the
people who had driven them out of the best and
fairest portion of the island, and with whom their
own independent spirit still kept them at frequent
war ; especially when these new converts to the faith,
instead of coming to them for instruction, accused
them of errors in their practice, and wanted them to
conform to ordinances of their own.

Chad, being thus consecrated bishop of York,
shewed himself in all things a pupil of the good
Scottish bishop Aidan, living in the most self-deny
ing manner, and journeying about on foot to preach
at cot or castle, villages or towns. Wilfrid, finding
his see occupied by another, made no complaint; but
staying in Kent, where there was then no bishop,
continued to ordain priests and to exercise the acts
of his function there, till Theodore came. It seems

6 St. Chad's at Shrewsbury was an abbey church founded
by the Mercian princes, soon after the death of this good bi
shop, when they had taken Shrewsbury from the Welch. Hut
the present parish church, in which there is a jumbling mixture
of Doric, Ionic, Rustic, and Corinthian, built about fifty years
ago, with its large round body and small head, has been com
pared to an overgrown spider. Quarterly Review, No. cxxvi.
p. 410. — The beautiful old Saxon church at Lastingham, as
Mr. Stevenson has well observed, if not the original building of
Cedda or his brother Chad, is one of the oldest churches in the
kingdom. Stevenson's Bede, p. 212.

CH. IV. "| ST. CHAD. 75

that Theodore had no intention to interfere with
Chad as an intruder, for he considered that the king
had a right to dispose of the bishopric; but he had
some doubts whether the consecration of the British
bishops was according to order. " If you doubt it,"
said Chad, " I willingly resign my bishopric. I ever
thought myself unworthy of the dignity, but con
sented to take it oufc of obedience to my king."
Theodore replied, thai he by no means wished him
to resign his bishopric; but if he had not been duly
consecrated, he was himself ready to complete his
consecration. This he did ; but Chad, probably see
ing that there was a division of parties in the pro
vince, withdrew to his humble retirement at Lasting-
ham ; and Wilfrid entered upon the duties of the see.
Theodore, struck by the worth of this primitive-
mannered Christian, when the see of Lichfield shortly
after became vacant, recommended Chad to Wulf-
hfcre, king of Mercia. He had now a province not
much less in extent than the Northumbrian kingdom,
having all the counties which compose the midland
circuit, and Staffordshire, with part of Shropshire
and Cheshire, beside. Theodore, therefore, at an
other meeting, having for some time in vain entreat
ed him to use a horse for more expedition on his
journeys, at length ordered one of his own horses to
be brought, and insisted upon mounting him himself.
The archbishop is said also to have made him pro
mise to have with him in case of need a horse-waggon,
or jaunting-car; which was probably the kind of car
riage then used by persons of quality on peaceful
travels.

Thus provided, the good old Saxon journeyed
diligently about the midland counties, and in a few
years gained a high reputation for his Christian vir
tues. Wulfhere gave him a grant of land in Lin
colnshire, on which he founded a monastery, \vhich

76 EAKLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

is supposed to have stood at Barton upon Humbei,
where there is still standing a very ancient Saxon
church. He died in March, A.D. 672, within three
years after he had been appointed to the see of Lich-
field ; at which city he resided with seven or eight of
his clergy in a private house, employing himself \vit\\
them, whenever he was not visiting his diocese, in
study and prayer. It is recorded of him, that he was
deeply moved to adore the power of God in the mys
terious wonders of the wind and storm. If he heard
the sound of it, as he sat reading, he would stop to
utter a prayer that God would be merciful to the
children of men. As it increased, he would shut the
book, and, falling on his knees, remain fixed in in
ward prayer. But if it grew very violent, or thunder
and lightning shook the earth and air, then he would
go to the church, and pass the time in earnest sup
plications and psalms. " Have you not read," he
would say, "how it is written, 'The Lord thundered
out of heaven, and the Highest uttered his voice?'
God moves the clouds, wakens the winds, shoots
forth the lightning, and thunders from heaven, that
He may arouse the dwellers upon earth to dread
Him, and put into their hearts the remembrance of
the doom that is to come, to bend their haughty
boldness, and drive away their pride. Therefore it
is our part to answer his heavenly warning with
due fear and love, to implore his mercy, arid exa
mine the secrets of our hearts ; that we may not be
stricken by his hand when it is stretched forth to
judge the world."7

Wilfrid, his successor at York, was a person of
very different character, much superior to Chad in
learning and accomplishments, and more disposed to

7 This pious custom of St. Chad is dwelt upon at some
length by the excellent Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Life of Christ,
Disc, xviii.

CH. IV.]

77

advance the cause of the Church by outward state
and wealth. He was born of noble parentage, and
in early youth had been sent by his father to try his
fortune at court. " He went," says the friend who
wrote his life, " with arms, and horses, and good ap
parel for himself and his attendants, that he might be
fit to stand before a king." Queen Eanfleda became
his patroness, and from her advice he seems to have
determined to enter upon a religious life. He re
tired from Bambrough to Lindisfarne with one of the
king's thanes, whose infirm health had inspired him
with a wish to pass the end of his days in that mon
astery. There he lived some time under the disci
pline of the Scottish monks ; but his active mind was
not satisfied with their simple rules. He went to ask
the queen's leave to pay a visit to Rome. It was
easily granted ; the more so, as she was herself edu
cated under the discipline of the Roman missionaries
in Kent; to whom, and to the king, she instructed
him to go, with a letter of introduction, on his way.
He was well received at Canterbury, where he made
acquaintance with Benedict Biscop, another youth
of promising talents, who accompanied him abroad.
There, both at Lyons and at Rome, he saw some
thing of the pomp and state of the Church in foreign
lands , and after passing some years in study at both
places, he returned to England, and became abbot of
a monastery at Ripon, till those events occurred in
his life which have been already mentioned.

He was only thirty years of age when he went
over to France to be consecrated bishop of York ;
and it was now five years later when he took posses
sion of the Northumbrian province. He found the
church built by Edwin and Oswald in a state of mi
serable neglect, the old roof dropping with rain-drops,
and the windows open to the weather, and giving
entrance to the birds, which made their nests within.

H2

78 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

He repaired it substantially, " skilfully roofing it
with lead," (it was probably of thatch before), "and
prevented the entrance of birds and rain by putting
glass into the windows, yet such glass as allowed
the light to shine within. At Ripon he built a new
church of polished stone, with columns variously or
namented, and porches."8 It was, perhaps, in bad
imitation of the marble buildings he had seen in Italy,
that he washed the outer walls of this original York
minster, "and made them, as the prophet, says, whiter
than snoiv." And it was a piece of splendour, very
strikingly in contrast with the plain manners of good
St. Chad and his Scottish instructors, when he made
a great feast of three days to king Egfrid and his
brother, his reeves and thanes, and all the abbots
and other persons of dignity, whom he could muster
in the Northern kingdom, at the dedication of this
first minster of Ripon. This custom, however, of
exhausting a good portion of the Church's wealth
at dedication-feasts, which prevailed both in Saxon
and Norman times, was not without a munificent

8 This is the account of Stephen Eddy, the writer of
Wilfrid's life, a writer older than Bede, who tells us that he
was a Kentish man, and precentor, or teacher of chanting,
under Wilfrid, at York or Ripon, A.D. 670. It is extraor
dinary that many modern writers should speak of the Saxons
before the Conquest as having only wooden churches, when
there is in this oldest piece of Saxon history such an account,
as may be found in the text. The glass which the Saxons had
then learnt to fuse was not quite of such fine transparency as
may now be seen in the large plates of every haberdasher's
window ; but probably something more thick and green than is
still to be found ia old country churches, where it has stood for
many centuries. Still it was good enough to keep out wind
and weather, and it was their best. And if it cast " a dim re
ligious light" through the interior, they did not want those
ugly green or red curtains, which are needed in modern temples,
to shut out the violence of the summer sun. — Since this note
was first written, a manufactory of glass adapted for cnurch-
windows has been founded at Newcastle.

CH. IV.] WILFRID.

73

k-nrt of chanty; and it was founded on i,he example
of Solomon at the dedication of his temple.

It must be observed, that in these early times,
before the division of the country into parishes, al
most all the income of the church was paid to the
bishop. The tithes were sent by Christian land
owners to the bishop's see, which were before paid
to the heathen priest; for this religious offering,
which was paid by the patriarchs before the law,9
was never lost in the heathen world before the time*
of Christianity. Besides these, we find before Bede's
time there was established in Northumberland and
Wessex a payment called church-scot, or first-fruits,
to be paid at Martinmas ; which was probably ap
plied to building or repairing of churches, as the
name seems to imply, and has been supposed to be
the origin of modern church-rates. The bishop
therefore travelled about in those times, wherever
he went taking with him not only his chaplains and
clergy, who taught chanting and psalm-singing, but
a company of builders and stone-masons, plumbers
and glaziers, and carpenters, to build churches and
baptisteries about the country, in places where the
noblemen and country gentlemen (earls and thanes)
gave them ground for building. There were many
places where the ancient British clergy had held
churches, which were now deserted. It was the
aim of Wilfrid to recover these for holy uses; and
in many instances his labours were crowned with
success.

As this account of the dedication of Ripon is the
earliest account of the kind which is left to us of the
dedication of an English church, it may be well to
give it a little more at length. On the assembly ot

» Gen. xiv. 20; rxviii. 22.

SO EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

princes and people coming together, Wilfrid, or one
of his priests, appears to have offered a prayer taken
from the prayer of Solomon (1 Kings viii.), to con
secrate the house of God and the prayers of the
people in it. They then dedicated the altar, which
was raised on steps, and laid over it a purple cover
ing embroidered with gold ; the sacred vessels were
then placed on it, and all the congregation partook
of the holy communion. Then the bishop, standing
in front of the altar, delivered a sermon, turning to
wards the people, and enumerated in it all the gifts
of land which the princes of Northumberland had
given to the minster of Ripon ; and exhorting them
to go on in such good works, made mention of the
old British churches, which were still lying waste
about the country where they dwelt. Among the
other precious gifts presented by Wilfrid on this
occasion, was "a wonderful piece of workmanship
unheard of before his time." This was a copy of
the four Gospels, written with gilded letters, on
parchment, adorned with purple and other colours,
the cover of which was inlaid with gold and pre
cious stones, " the work of jewellers." After the
service was concluded, the festivities began ; and the
princes and nobles were as affable and courteous
among the monks of Ripon as the occasion de
manded.

The reign of Egfrid, son of Oswy, was as pro
sperous at the outset as his father's had been ; and
for some time Wilfrid and his sovereign were the
best of friends. But the zeal of the Northumbrians
to enrich the Church, and the many monasteries
which they founded in that wide province, was now
such as to awaken some alarm and jealousy in the
breast of the king. The abbots and abbesses of
these monasteries, who were of the best blood in

CH. IV.] WILFRID. 81

Northumberland, often made presents to Wilfrid of
their wealth, or left him heir of their possessions;
and thus the king's heriots10 and other revenues were
impaired. Many persons seem to have kept their
money back in their life- time, under pretence that it
was consecrated to pious uses. Others, who were of
noble rank, sent their sons to be educated by Wil
frid, that they might choose whether to serve the
Church or the king ; and it is likely that the bishop,
who was young and fond of power> would engage as
many of them in his own way of life as he could.

This was, indeed, his weak side. His influence
was dangerous for a subject to possess ; and he used
many popular arts to promote it. His gifts to clergy
and laymen were so large, that they were beyond all
example. His retinue was princely both in number
and apparel. Egfrid's first queen, Etheldreda, seems
to have been obliged by her relatives, against her
will, to enter upon a married life. When she had
retired into a monastery, the second queen, Irmin-
burga, not being a favourer of monasteries, was often
reminding the king of Wilfrid's splendour, his large
housekeeping, the number of monasteries, like pa
laces, that were rising round them, and his army of
followers. Egfrid, who had reason to complain of
some encroachment on his rights, summoned Theo
dore to hear his accusations against him. Theodore
seems to have proposed that Wilfrid's great bishopric
should be divided into two ; but as Wilfrid refused
any lessening of his power, he was deposed. After
his departure, the province of Northumbria was di
vided between the sees of York and Hexham, and
again a few years afterwards into four, Ripon and

:o The Saxon kings, on the death of an earl or thane, had
a claim to some of his best horses and suits of armour, and a
sum in sold. But if he left his property to the Church, it
passed vithout these heriots.

S2 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Lindisfarne being added ; and a fifth bishop was
appointed for the part of the kingdom which lay
in Scotland, whose see was at Abercorn or Whi-
them, in Galloway. It is said that Wilfrid left
some thousands of monks in North umbria to be
governed by these bishops.

Wilfrid's character was active and enterprising;
and he did not remain quiet under this misfortune.
He determined to go to Rome ; and it is the only in
stance of an English churchman before the Conquest
who tried to use the pope's authority against the sove
reign and the Church of his own country. He found
pope Agatho and a council of bishops assembled to
debate upon some heresy of the time ; and having
given a good account of his own faith, he was sent
back with letters to the king ornamented with a bull"
and waxen seal ; an unusual sight to the Saxons,
who only signed their letters with a rood-token, or
mark of a cross. When Wilfrid displayed this en
sign of victory before king Egfrid, that monarch
was rude enough to say he had bribed the pope;
and treating him as a rebel, sent him to prison at
Brunton in Northumberland, and afterwards at Dun-
bar. After he had remained here nine months, St.
Ebba, a pious woman, to whose honour one of the
churches at Oxford is dedicated, abbess of Colding-
ham, the king's aunt, procured his release ; but he
was not now permitted to remain in the country.
He went to Mercia, and afterwards to Wessex ; but
the influence of Egfrid drove him out from both.

Affliction mends the heart, and often quickens a
zeal for the cause of God, when prosperity had gone

11 The pope's letters have been called bulls, from the bull
or leaden seal, with the image of St. Peter and St. Paul, hang-
ing to them. In former times kings and emperors on the con
tinent used to bang such seals at the bottom of their letters of
authority.

CH. IV.] WILFRID.

near to quench it. The banished man, finding the
Christian kingdoms shut against him, went to try his
fortunes with the poor pagans of Sussex, who were
yet almost excluded from the society of the rest of
England. Their king had, indeed, received baptism,
and had married a Christian princess from another
province; and a Scottish monk had estaolished a
small monastery at Bosham, near Chichester. But
the poor men lived here, and sung their psalms, like
the pilgrim-fathers in New England;

Amidst the woods they sung,

And the stars heard, and the sea :

but not one of the people of the province came to
learn their rule of life or hear their preaching. It
happened, however, shortly before Wilfrid came
among them, there had been long-continued drought
in their country, and a severe famine had followed.
Without resource in this distress, there would go
forty or fifty of them in companies, shrunken and
pined for lack of food, to the heights along their
coast, and desperately joining their hands together,
that if one's resolution or strength should fail, he
might be dragged on by his next fellow, throw them
selves down to be dashed in pieces by the cliffs or
swallowed by the waves below. In the midst of this
wreck of life came \Vilfrid among them ; and finding
the misery greatly enhanced by their ignorance of the
art of fishing (for except the few eels which they
picked out of the miller's dam, their skill was unable
to guide them to any other supply), he collected all
the nets they could muster, and joining them together,
directed an experiment to be made upon the sea ;
and this proving very successful, both the people
whom he had rescued from perishing and the king
received him as a messenger of truth with the great
est willingness. The king gave him a large grant of

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

land at Selscy, which was long afterwards a bishop's
«ee, before it was changed to Chichester; and on the
day that Wilfrid held his first public baptism among
them, a shower of mild abundant rain seemed to
shew that a. God of mercy was restoring the earth,
for the sake of those who had turned to acknowledge
His power.

After ten years of banishment, Egfrid being slain
in a battle with the Picts, Aldfrid his brother and
successor recalled Wilfrid, who had before been re
conciled with Theodore. He was not, however, a
character fitted to remain at rest; and after the death
of the aged archbishop, trying to undo his arrange
ments of the sees in the north, he was again deposed
by a council of bishops ; and refusing the monas
tery of Ripon, which was offered him as a residence,
again appealed to Rome. Pope John wrote to Ald
frid, but with no better success than his predecessor;
but as Bertwald, archbishop of Canterbury at that
time, and Ethelred, king of Mercia, who had become
an abbot, took his part, his restoration was procured
after Aldfrid's death. He died at Oundle, a monas
tery he had 'founded in Mercia, A.D. 709, ending his
remarkable and troubled life forty-five years after
his first consecration to the bishop's office.

It would have been happy for the Church, if a
man of such ability to serve it had been more free
from ambition, and more ruled by the prudent
counsels of Theodore, who, during the first years
of Wilfrid's trials, was pursuing his own designs of
peaceful improvement. A war having broken out
between Ethelred, king of Mercia, and Egfrid, A.D.
679, the Christian mediation of Theodore restored
peace. He first introduced a practice, which was
long continued with great benefit to the Church, of
frequently holding councils or assemblies of bishops
and clergy for the regulation of the Church in dif-

CII. IV.] SERVICES OF THEODORE. 85

ferent provinces, and laying down laws or canons
for faith and practice. Among other good rules
passed at the first council, held at Hertford, A.D.
673, it was resolved that the number of bishops
should be increased as the faith was spread into new
provinces, and that they should take occasion, as
they could, to obtain the consent of the Saxon kings
to this increase. Agreeably to this resolution, beside
the new sees which he had founded in the north, lie
was enabled to found the bishopric of Hereford A.D.
675, that of Worcester A.D. 679, and in A.D. 686 to
appoint a bishop at Selsey, where Wilfrid had so hap
pily prepared the ground. He was also an encou-
rager of the building of country churches apart from
monasteries, having, as it is likely, seen the benefit of
having parish priests, according to the institutions of
Justinian, the Grecian emperor, in his native coun
try; arid for this end he seems to have begun the rule,
which afterwards became a Saxon law, that the thanes
or country gentlemen, who built such churches on
their estates, should pay a portion of the tithes to
the priest of their own church, instead of paying all
to the minster or cathedral. From this beginning,
of which perhaps there were only a few examples in
Theodore's lifetime, arose our excellent arrangement
of parish churches.12 It does not belong to this His
tory to speak of a book which he wrote on the rule
of priests for dealing with penitents; which was for
a long time held in high value at home and abroad.
He is said to have been harsh towards the Welch
Christians, not allowing them to receive the sacra
ment with the English, unless they conformed. But
his merit is proved by the great advancement of
Christianity in his time, the work of his wise and
vigorous old age. He found the people rude and

12 Parishes are mentioned in Theodore's Penitential, c. xliii.
§ 2 ; ant1 Alcuin, Epist. Ix.

86 EAllLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

ignorant, and gave them the means of good instruc
tion; he found the Church divided, and left it. united;
he found it a missionary Church, scarcely fixed in
more than two principal provinces, he left it what it
will ever be, while the country remains in happiness
and freedom, the established Church of England.
He died at the advanced age of eighty-eight, A.D.
690.

Conversion of Kent began . . A.D. 596

Essex, under Mellitus .... 604

, under Cedda, bishop of Tilbury . 6.53

Northumbria, under Paulinus . . . 627

, under the Scots . . . 635

East Anglia, under Felix, a Burgundian . 631

Wessex, under Birinus of Genoa . . 633

Mercia, and the Middle Angles, under the

Scots and their disciples . . . 653

Sussex, under Wilfrid . . . W*

CHAPTER V.

EARLY ENGLISH MONASTERIES.

A life by solemn consecration given

To labour and to prayer, to nature and to heaven.

WORDSWORTH.

E English reader will have an imper
fect view of the state of Christianity
in these early times, if we do not at
tempt to give some account of those
ancient monasteries which we find were
established, together with the faith of the gospel,
among the Saxons, and which were before received
among the Welch, Irish, arid Scottish Christians,
when as yet they did not acknowledge the patriarchal
authority of the bishop of Rome.

We "have been so long used to hear of thp
ignorance and idleness of monks and friars, that it
requires some effort of mind to come to the belief
that the old monks of the primitive Church were
neither ignorant nor idle, but patterns of active
virtue, and zealous promoters of learning and useful
arts. One of the earliest patrons of monasteries was
the excellent St. Basil; archbishop of Csesarea in the
lesser Asia, whose rules have been the foundation of
all such institutions in the Greek Church. St. Basil
died A.D. 378, the same year in which the Roman
emperor Valens was overthrown and slain in a great
battle with the Goths, and left the empire open to

88 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the inroads of those fierce nations which shortly af
terwards gained possession of it. This good bishop,
perceiving that many Christians in his time were in
trouble from the public disorders, and seeki: g for
some way of life in which they could serve God
without distraction, many having chosen to live as
hermits in solitary places, advised them rather to
unite together in colleges or monasteries, where they
might have help from each other in cases of sickness
or infirmity, and provoke each other to love and
to good works. " This solitary life of hermits," he
would say. « is a life of self-pleasing ; it leads us to
forget that « are members one of another; it makes
a man bury his talent in the earth ; it lays him open
to the temptation of idleness, and how dangerous
that temptation is, all who have read the gospel
know. How can a man exercise any spiritual gift,
when he deprives himself of all opportunity for its
exercise? How shall he shew his humility, where
there is no one to whom he can humble himself?
How shall he shew compassion, when hf has cut
himself off from the society of his fellow-men ? How
shall he exercise himself to patience, when there is
no man to resist his will ? True, he may read the
Scriptures, and their doctrine is enough for reforma
tion of life; but if it is not put in practice, it is as if
a man should learn the art of building, yet never
build, the art of working in brass, and make no use
of the materials given him. Behold, Low good and
pleasant a, thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in
unity. This good and pleasant tiling, which the
Holy Spirit compares to the breathing odours of the
precious ointment of the high-priest, how can it be
obtained in solitary living? The place to run our
Christian course, the good way of advancement, the
life of long exercise and practice of the Lord's com
mands, is where brethren dwell together."

CH. V.J RULE OF ST. BASIL. 89

With this view he promoted these religious so
cieties about the East, having himself passed many
years of his early religious life in visiting those which
were then established in Egypt and other provinces,
and afterwards having founded a monastery on an
estate belonging to his own family in the neighbour
hood of his birth-place. It was a high mountain,
clothed with deep woods, from which many waters
cool and clear flowed down, and uniting at the foot
of the steep formed a river, enclosing on one side a
eloping plain, which was fenced in on all other sides
by the rising heights of the mountain behind, or by
precipices which raised it above the level country
below. A natural belt of trees enclosed this space
of ground ; and on it, near the only outlet to the
adjoining lands, Basil built a dwelling large enough
to admit a society of his religious friends, and in
vited them by letters to come and share his retire
ment. Near to his door, the river, falling over a
ridge of rock, rolled down into a deep basin, afford
ing him the sight of one of the greatest natural
beauties, and furnishing the inhabitants of the place
with a plenteous supply offish, which made a prin
cipal portion of their fare. In the neighbouring
woods, where the deer and wild goats browsed with
out disturbance from the brothers of the convent,
and whose quiet was only broken by a wandering
hunter now and then, were trees of every kind,
flowering and fruitful shrubs; and the climate and
soil were such as to give them every kind of pro
duce for cultivation : but, most of all, it was a spot
which gave to Basil, who had passed his first years
in the turmoil of the bar, the fruit of religious rest
and peace of mind.

The eastern monks, whose habits were formed
under his rule, were not for the most part priests,
but laymen ; but they had always one or more

90 EAULY ENGLISH CHURCH.

priests in the community, who guided their worship
and administered the sacraments among them. They
met together seven times a day for a short prayer,
and to sing a hymn or psalm ;l at daybreak, at nine
o'clock, at twelve, at three, and again at six in the
evening, at nine, and at midnight. Their monas
tery was a house of hospitality to travellers, and they
gave the same frugal fare, on which they lived, to
rich and poor, that the one might see a pattern of
Christian poverty and plainness, and the other might
not think of the hardship of his lot, when he saw
that those who were born to more abundance had
cheerfully embraced it. They were constantly em
ployed at other times in such labours as gave them
occupation without anxiety ; for which reason those
arts were preferred which combined cheapness with
simplicity, not requiring costly materials, or minis
tering to vanity. Building and carpentry, working
in brass, weaving and shoemaking, were the most
common. Others tended the flocks (for they com
monly had flocks near the monasteries), or tilled the
ground ; and this kind of occupation Basil particu-

1 One of the earliest hymns of the Christian Church, sung
by St. Basil and his monks as an evening hymn, is preserved,
and has been translated by the Rev. John Keble. It is ad
dressed to the true Light of light, our Saviour : —

Hail, gladdening Light, of His pure glory poured,
Who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest,

Holiest of holies — Jesus Christ our Lord .
Now we are come to the sun's hour of rest,

The lights of evening round us shine,

We hymn the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit divine !
Worthiest art Thou at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue,

Son of our God, Giver of life, alone !

Therefore in all the world thy glories, Lord, we own.

Some notice of St. Basil's hours of prayer may be also found
in Bishop Cosin's Devotions, of which a new edition has been
lately published.

CH. V.] MONASTERIES OF THE KAST.

/arly encouraged. When the artificers had prepared
a stock of clothing or other things for sale, they
i were sent in small companies to places where they
were likely to be well received, and held a kind of
charity-bazaar. There were some convents which
had these sales within their walls ; but this practice
was less approved. Their own clothing was very
.plain, and belonged to a common stock, none being
• allowed to possess any property separate from the
(community ; but Basil discouraged any excess of
iplainness, justly observing that there may be a de-
isire of popular praise, and somewhat of vanity, in
•affecting meanness of dress, as well as in needless
ornament.

In the social evils of the people they often found
employment for benevolence and charity. Some-
itimes a poor slave would fly to the monastery, to
lentreat their intercession vith a hard master; and
they would use their influence to obtain some miti
gation of his lot. If they were unsuccessful, they
prepared him to suffer as a Christian should, and
were ready to suffer for him rather than neglect
whatever they could do for his relief. Their house
was a school for orphans, whom they clothed and
fed and educated, together with the children of
;such parents as chose to commit them to their
charge. For these they had a separate building
and chambers set apart, that they might be em
ployed in their studies and at play, without dis
turbing their elders. But they met together at
prayers ; " for children," said Basil, " are moved
to sad and serious thought by imitating the aged ;
and the help is great which the aged receive from
children in their prayers." In other respects, the
care and tenderness with which he directed their
teachers to watch over them, to correct their child
ish faults, to encourage their studies by rewards,

D'2 EAULY ENGLISH CHUKCH.

were such as none of our later systems of education
have surpassed.

It would naturally happen that the children
thus brought up, and especially the orphans, when
they grew to years of discretion, would wish to
remain in the monastery, and make their profession
of abiding by the rules. This Basil would not allow
them to do, till their reason was come to its full
power, that there might be no doubt of the choice
being deliberately made. At this period those who
did not choose to become monks were allowed to
go where they pleased ; those who entered the so
ciety signed an agreement before the heads of the
monastery, which was kept as a record of it. He
gave direction also, that if any parents brought
their children to be received into his rule, they
should not be received till they were able to judge
freely for themselves. The novice took upon him
no vows ; but the elders offered prayers for him, as
for one that had more immediately consecrated him
self to the service of God. Still further to guard
against any rash engagement, the young person
who offered himself was charged to take some days
to consider and inquire what it was that he engaged
to do, before he was received. But if after this
they chose to renounce their profession, the rest
\vere taught to consider it as a forfeiting of their
Christian integrity and truth. Such were the rules
arid practices of the best monasteries in the East ;
under such discipline had archbishop Theodore lived
for the early part of his life, and something of this
kind we may expect to find introduced by him into
England.

But there were other monasteries before his time,
as we have already seen ; those which St. Germain
introduced into Wales being the earliest that were
known in Britain, and next to them those which St.

CR. V.j BRITISH MONASTERIES. 93

Patrick, the pupil of Germain, established in Ire
land. From Ireland was founded lona; and from
lona the Scottish missionaries had founded Lmdis-
farne, and other religious houses in the south a?
well as the north of England. We have seen that
they had settled in Sussex, before the people of that
province were converted by Wilfrid. And another
monastery, in Wessex, of the greatest name in old
English history, Malmsbury, " Maidulf 's borough."
owes its name and foundation to Maidulf, a Scottish
monk, who fixed himself there and taught a school,
about the same time

A friendly intercourse between the Saxon Chris
tians and the monks of Scotland and Ireland con
tinued to be kept up from the time of Aidan to the
time of Bede, Alcuin, and Alfred. And tnoagh

94 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

these monasteries were situated in the midst of
countries ruled by barbarous chiefs, and never suc
ceeded far in reforming their wild manners, yet it is
certain that they were long in high repute for their
Christian discipline. The learned teachers of Ire
land came not only into Great Britain, but into
France and Italy, to instruct and edify the churches
of Christ in those countries.2 And we have seen
how Agilbert, the French bishop of Dorchester,
had visited Ireland for the sake of study and im
provement, and how many Saxons went with Colman
into that country, to which others continued to go
after his departure. It is necessary, therefore, to
ask what was the character of the discipline of these
native monasteries, as they must have had great in
fluence in forming the early Saxon religious houses.
There is every reason to believe that their rule
was most like St. Basil's. It may be judged of in
some measure by what we have seen of Aidan and
his monks at Linclisf'arne. We have also some means
of learning its character from the writings of Colum-
ban, an Irish missionary, who, while Augustine and
Mellitus were in Kent, was employed in founding
monasteries in France, Switzerland, and Italy ; dying
at Bobbio, in the last-mentioned country, A.D. 615.
His exhortations to his monks speak something of
austerity, but are marked by simplicity and good
sense. " Think not," he says, "that it is enough to
weary these bodies, formed of the dust of the earth,
with watching and fasting, unless we reform our
manners. To make lean the flesh, if the soul bears
no fruit, is like working the ground without being
able to make it bear a crop ; it is like making an
image of gold on the outside, and of clay within. True
piety dwells in humbleness of soul, not of body ; for

* Alcuin, Epist ccxxi.

CH. V.] SAXON MONASTERIES. 95

'of what use is it to set the servant to fight with pas-
,sions, while those passions are good iViends with the
piaster ? It is not enough to hear talk or to read of
jvirtue. Can a man cleanse his house of defilement
Iby words only ? can he without pain and toil ac-
Iconiplish his daily task ? Gird up your loins, there-
jfore, and cease not to maintain a good fight : none
'but he who fights bravely can gain the crown.'

Such plain speaking shews the active character

of the life which was led in these ancient British

j monasteries. The members of such societies lived

i under a rule enjoining labour, abstinence, and hours

of prayer. The houses governed by the disciples of

i Germain were the nurseries of the Church also, that

| the young who were educated there might do the

; Church service afterwards.3 Nor was there any ma-

: terial difference made in those which were founded

! after the arrival of the disciples of Gregory ; as we

hear of no dispute or variance between the Roman

and Scottish monks, except on the subject of keeping

Easter, and the mode of shaving the head. There

was then no rivalry of different orders, such as arose

subsequently in the history of the Church.

St. Benedict, to whom, at a later period, most
of the monks in western Europe looked back as to
their founder, was born at Nursia in Italy, about
A.D. 480, and his order was first instituted in A.D.
529, more than a century after the time of Germain.
Some of the early Saxon monks had heard of Bene
dict and his rule ; but it was either not at this time
received into England, or it was not of the same
character as it afterwards assumed under subsequent
reforms. The beginning of this order in England
will be noticed as having taken place two or three
hundred years later, in the time of St. Dunstan.

5 Bishop Stillingfleet.

96 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

The character of the earlier Saxon monasteries will
best be seen, if we take an example from one of the
most famous, that in which the Venerable Bede re
ceived his education, the monastery of Jarrow in
Northumberland.

BENEDICT BISCOP, a Northumbrian nobleman,
one of the ministers at the court of king Oswy, at
the age of twenty-five determined to quit his worldly
honours and embrace a religious life. He went to
Rome about A.D. 663, and again a few years later;
and having studied for some time there, went to
reside for two years as a novice in the famous mon
astery of Lerins in the south of France. He then
paid a third visit to Rome, just at the time that The
odore was about to be sent as archbishop to England.
He was glad of the opportunity to make his acquaint
ance, and accompanied him to this country, bringing
with him so many books and manuscripts, and also
relics of apostles and martyrs, as were the wonder of
the Christians in Northumberland.

King Egfrid, who had now succeeded his father
Oswy, received him kindly, and gave him a large
grant of land to build a monastery near the mouth
of the river Wear, at the place now called Monk
Wearmouth. To this place he brought skilful ma
sons and artificers of glass from France ;4 and sparing
nothing in cost or labour, soon completed the work.

4 These were the first artificers of glass, says Bede, who
were known among the Saxons. They glazed the windows of
the church and the lodgings of the monastery ; and from them
the English learnt the art, A.D. 678. " It is an art," says
Bede, " not to be despised for its use in furnishing lamps tor
cloisters, and many other kinds of vessels." It is most likely,
however, that the Romans had taught the ancient Britons this
art before, if they did not themselves know it ; for the Druids
nre said to have used glass rings for amulets or charms. And
the glass used by Wilfrid at York minster was a few years
earlier than this at Jarrow. See p. 78.

I CH. V.] MONASTERY OF JARUOW. 97

The church was dedicated by the king's direction to
I St. Peter, the first pastor of Rome. Scarcely was
I this monastery reared, when this active and liberal
I Saxon again went abroad, paid a fourth visit to
I Rome, and returned with rich gifts and ornaments
I for the church, and another collection of books. He
I also obtained a letter from pope Agatho approving
ft, the regulations of the monastery, as the king had re-
I quested, and brought with him as a visitor a Roman
|; abbot, who was very skilful in the art of chanting
B and church-music. The monks of Wearmouth were
I thus instructed perfectly in the manner of divine
I service as it was used at Rome. The king now
I increased his grant of land; and Biscop determined
I to raise a second monastery near the other. This

was dedicated to St. Paul, and was Bede's monastery

; of Jarrow. The founder of these religious houses

[it passed most of his life in these travels ; and it was

i . not till he had made five journeys to gather stores

; for his great foundation, that he returned to die at

I home.

In a monastery like this, where the advancement
! of learning was so much the aim of its founder,

we might have expected there would have been no

room for such arts and labour as St. Basil enjoined.

But it was not so. When Biscop was abroad on
I some of his later journeys, he entrusted the charge
i! of one of the houses to Ceolfrid, a learned friend;

the other to his own nephew Osterwin, a young
I nobleman who had become a monk at Wearmouth.

• This young noble, who had come from an office of
dignity in the court of king Egfrid, used to thrash

• and winnow the corn with the other monks, with all
| cheerful obedience, to milk the cows and sheep,5 to

s It was common to milk sheep in England when Tusser
wrote his " Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie," A.D.
1537. It is still usual in some parts of Wales.
K.'

98 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

work at the mill, in the garden, in the kitchen, auJ
to share all the labours of the monastery. When he
was made abbot, he was still the same ; ready to take
a part at whatever task he found the brothers en
gaged ; at the iron-forge, or guiding the plough, or
shaking the winnowing-fan. He slept in the com
mon dormitory, — as was usual in these houses, where
the monks had one dress for night and for day, that
they might rise without delay to prayer, — till feeling
the attack of a fatal disease upon him, five days
before his death, he retired to a private chamber.
On the morning of the day on which he died, he had
a seat placed for him in the open air; and, calling all
the brotherhood together, who were moved to tears
at the early death of so kind a friend and pastor,
gave them the kiss of peace, and quietly breathed
his last. He died at the age of thirty-six, at tho
hour of singing the morning psalms.

Such was the kind of life which was led by the
greater part of the members of these communities.
But others, who had the charge of instructing the
young, or those who had taken any of the offices of
the ministry, were less employed in these manual
labours. Bede himself must undoubtedly have
passed his spare time in study, when he was not
employed in teaching his pupils; or rather, he made
the two employments meet in one, as a skilful
teacher will, and was learning himself while he in
structed others. It was a common regulation in
early monasteries, to employ some of the younger
monks in making copies of the Gospels, the Psalter,
and the books used in the services of the Church;
and the want of a supply of these books must have
been so great, that no doubt the practice was begun
soon after the introduction of learning into the coun
try. In all the larger monasteries was kept a chro
nicle nr register of the reiffn and life and death of

CH. V.] LEARNING OF THK MONASTERIES. 99

kings, the election of bishops, and all remarkable
events of war and peace. One of these chronicles,
kept at the old Saxon monastery of Medhamstead,
or Peterborough, has been preserved to this time,
and is one of the most valuable records of ancient
times in this country. There was also another regis
ter-book, in which the monks kept copies of all the
decrees made at councils of the early English Church,
the priests who attended there being ordered to bring
ink and parchment to write them down. And it is
most likely, that the copies of the laws passed by
Ethelbert and other Christian princes after him were
kept at some of the principal monasteries, where the
bishops held their sees ; as the Saxon kings had no
other record-office than those the Church supplied.
It is plain that the Saxons, as soon as they em
braced Christianity, were eager to abound in gifts
of land to the Church, and to favour the building of
monasteries ; arid however we may judge of their way
of proving their zeal, we must admire the spirit with
which they so freely gave to advance the cause of
God. Many of the churches which they founded
with these religious houses have preserved a place
sacred to divine worship from their time until now;
and we owe to them, after twelve hundred years of
chance and change, the best institutions that can
belong to a Christian land. And at the time when
Christianity began among them, there was scarcely
the means of living a religious life, except by be
coming a member of such communities as these.
Persons of the highest rank, weary of the noisy feast
ing which made up most of the state of a Saxon
court, undertook the quiet rule of a monastery, as
a charge more suited to a peaceful and thoughtful
mind. St. Hilda, who founded the abbey of Whitby,
was one of these : she was a niece of king Edwin,
and received baptism from Paulinus ; and chose the

100 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

life of a recluse, under the approval of bishop Aidan,
at the first nunnery which was founded among the
Northumbrians, at Hartlepool. When some way
advanced in life, she bought an estate at Whitby,
where she built the abbey over which she presided,
and where she died A.D. 680. She was a person of
eminent ability and prudence, as well as piety; so
that her counsel in difficulties was sought, not only
by persons in the common class of life, but also by
kings and princes. The discipline of her monks, and
their attainments, were so remarkable, that five of
them were at different times called from their cells '
to take upon them the office of bishops : but the
fame of the place remains still greater from its hav
ing been the abode of C^EDMON, the earliest English
sacred poet, whose songs on the subjects of history-
contained in the Bible contributed to enlighten the
people's minds with divine truth, and to inspire them
with the love of holiness. Etheldreda, the wife of
Egfrid, having left the partnership of a crown to
enter upon the same way of life, enjoyed a high re
putation for her remarkable self-denial and devoted
piety ; making it her practice to pass her whole time
in prayer in the church, from the time of singing the
midnight hymn to the dawn of day. She was the
founder of the abbey of Ely, which became, after the
Norman Conquest, a bishop's see. Of like name for
piety in high station were St. Ethelburga, sister of
Erconwald, bishop of London, first abbess of the
great monastery of Barking ; St. Osith, wife of Sig-
here, a king of Essex; and St. Werburga, of Chester,
daughter of Wulfhere, king of Mercia, the founder
of what is now the cathedral church of that ancienf
city.

It is true that the places which these pious
Saxons chose for the seat of monasteries were not
always so full of natural beauty as St. Basil's moun-

CH. V.] ELY, BOSTON, AND LASTINGHAM. 101

tain-side. Many were built in fens and marshes ; as
Medhamstead, " the home in the meadow," after
wards Peterborough ; and, in later Saxon times,
Crowland and Ramsey. Bede truly describes Ely,
as it must have been before the marshes were
drained : " It is a district of land," he says, " like
an island, compassed all about with fen and water
so that it has its name, Elige, ' Eel-island,' from the
number of eels that are caught in these same fens."
Of much the same description was Boston, " Bo-
tolph's Town," founded about this time by a Saxon
saint, whose name was great in early times, though
little is known of him now, except that he was a
nobleman who, having learnt the monastic life in
France, returned to found this monastery at a place
called Icanhoe, since called after his name. But his
reputation must have extended far in Mercia ; as
not only in London and Lincolnshire, but in all the
midland, many churches are dedicated in towns and
villages to his memory.

It is likely that these situations in tne marshes
and fen-districts were chosen as places of security,
at a time when the more frequented parts of the
country were often the scene of war. For the same
reason, after the Norman Conquest, the last Saxon
who held out against the Conqueror, Hereward,
" the hardy outlaw," retreated to Ely as his place of
defence ; and a party of the barons here made their
last resistance against Prince Edward, afterwards
Edward I., when they had lost the battle of Eves-
ham. The choice of such places seems to have
been taught to the Saxons by the Scots, who had
fixed their monasteries at lona and Lindisfarne, tr
be out of the way of public disturbance. They
chose also places surrounded by deep woods, such
as Bosham in Sussex, before mentioned, and Last-
ingham, which, when Cedda founded it, was a spoi

K2

102 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

among the Cleveland hills, high and far from all
abode, except the dens of wild beasts, and of rob
bers, who led as wild a life as they.

The Britons also had consecrated such retreats to
religious uses. The famous Dubritius retired in his
old age to Bardsey island, near the coast of Caernar
vonshire ; and the island of Holyhead had an ancient
monastery built upon it. The celebrated abbey of
Glastonbury was probably a Welch monastery before
king Ina of Wessex, at the close of the seventh cen
tury, took Somerset from the Welch, and raised his
own great foundation there. There seems 110 reason
to doubt that king Arthur was buried in the island
of Avalon, or Ynis-vitryn, "the glassy island," as it
was called by the Welch, being surrounded at that
time with a wide lake of still waters, before the
streams that encircle it were confined to their banks;
and here there was a church founded by the Saxons,
built, as they sometimes built their churches, of that
kind of stud-building still in use in many parts of the
country, where it has not given way to brick or stone.6
In all likelihood the Britons had a monastery here,
for at such places their princes were buried ; and
whatever may be thought of St. Patrick's coming to
Glastonbury to die, and of the legend about Joseph
of Arimathea, the tomb of Arthur discovered in
Henry II.'s reign is a strong proof of the ancient
religion of the place.

And this practice the Welch again seem to have

6 The notion which some modern accounts would give of
this old Welch church is, that it was a hovel made of wattled
brambles, like a modern cow-shed. Is it likely that the ancient
Britons should have had the Romans four hundred years in the
country, and yet, after all, be something lower than Hottentots
in the scale of civilisation ? No doubt it was a stud-building,
with glazed windows ; for how should the Welch have called
the place " the glassy island," as the Saxons called it " Glass-
town- bury," if they had no notion what glass was ?

CH. V.] GLASTONBURY, MELROSE, ETC. 103

beerj taught by St. Germain and his disciples. Ger
main was a disciple of Honoratus, first abbot of
Lenns, from whose monastery came Hilary bishop
of Aries, and many other famous and learned Chris
tian teachers, in that time of public confusion when
the Goths were breaking up the Roman empire.
Here, in the small island of Lerins, now called the
island of St. Honorat, near Marseilles, the Gallic
Christians found an asylum ; while the Italians fled
to Gorgona near Leghorn, or to the islands in the
Adriatic Sea, from whom the city of Venice took its
rise. The pagan Romans, in the hour of their de
struction, scoffed at these religious retreats. " This
sect of monks," said one of their last poets, " use
worse enchantments than the old witch Circe ; for
she only changed men's bodies, but they change the
spirit and the soul." But thus, while the old hea
thendom perished, it was the providence of God to
preserve a small remnant of Christians, to kindle
again the light of religion, and restore the love of
brotherhood in the Christian world.

Besides the famous monasteries already men
tioned, there arose in almost every part of England
religious houses of the same character ; particularly
in Kent, at Dover, Reculver, and Minster in the
isle of Thanet, built by Egbert, a king of Kent,
A.D. 670, for his daughter St. Mildred ; at Bedrics-
worth, afterwards Bury, in Suffolk ; at Bardney, in
Lincolnshire ; at Beverley, and at Melrose on the
Tweed, then within the borders of Northumbria,
where St. Cuthbert was one of the first abbots ; at
Repton, in Derbyshire ; at Oxford, St. Fridiswide's,
now the cathedral of Christ Church ; atWimborne
Minster, Dorset ; and at Bath. This ancient city,
whose warm springs were known to the Romans,
and made it a favourite residence with them, seems
also to have been used as a resort of sick persons by

104 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the Saxons, who called it Akemanchester, " aching
men's city." The nunnery, which was founded there
by Osric, a petty king of the Wiccas (or men of
Worcester and Gloucestershire), A.D. 676, was pro
bably a house in which the pious maidens might be
employed in ministering to the infirm and aged, who
came thither for relief.

Wherever a bishop's see was established in a
province, the next step taken was to found monas
teries in different places. Theodore had no need to
stir up the Saxons to such works, for he found them
quite ready to undertake them. Kings, nobles, and
bishops, were all vying with each other in their
efforts to promote the best means, as it then seemed,
to spread the faith of Christ into all quarters of the
land. It was Theodore's care, while he forbade any
bishop to disturb the monks, and " maidens serving
God," as they called the nuns, in their property and
dwellings, to order, at the council of Hertford, that
no monks should go wandering about the country,
or leave one monastery for another, without the
abbot's leave. By this rule he prevented those
vagabond habits, of which St. Augustine and St.
Jerome had before complained, and provided for
that obedience to their superior, which is necessary
to the well-being of every community formed among
men.

CH. V.] K A RtY SAXON CHARTER. 105

Specimen of an catlp Saion ©Barter,

CONTAINING A. GRANT TO A MONASTERY.

IN the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Ruler
and Guide ! On the sixth of July, A.D. 680.

We brought nothing into this world, neither may
we carry any thing out ; therefore we must provide
heavenly things with earthly, and eternal with those
that perish and decay. For which cause I, bishop
Eddi,7 freely give to abbot Hemgils three hydes of
land at Lantocal ; and also land in another place for
two dwellings, that is, in an island, which is surrounded
on each side by a marsh, or pool, the name of which
is Ferra-mere. And I pray that no man after my
death presume to undo this gift; but if any one shall
attempt it, let him know that he will be called to give
an account to Christ.

»J< I, Eddi the Bishop, sign it with my name.

7 Eddi, or Hedda, was bishop of Winchester, A.D. 677-704.
A hyde of land was about sixty acres. Hemgils was abbot of
Glastonbury ; and Ferra-mere seems to be the village of Meare
near Glastonbury.

CHAPTER VI.

EFFECTS OF THE MONASTERIES ON SOCIETY. BENEFITS AND
DEFECTS. PILGRIMAGES AND HEBMITS.

Go to the ants or bees, as the Proverbs of Solomon bid you; and
from those little people learn the good order of a kingdom, — or ol

a monastery.

ST. JEROME.

T will now be well to take a view both
of the benefits and of the evils of the
monasteries, and of other practices which
were brought in with them. It has never
been the fault of the English people to
enter coldly on any plans of public reform which
they have once taken up : and this was proved in
the zeal of our Saxon forefathers in rearing these
religious houses. It was a great benefit that there
should be places of education, where the young
might be trained for the service of the Church or
state : it was well that there should be places of
retirement, where the aged might end their days in
penitence and prayer ; and places of refuge, where
the orphan and friendless might find support and
protection. But these places were multiplied be
yond the need of the country ; and the rage for
them led improper persons to enter upon this way
of life, to the neglect of more pressing duties. It
may be, that if those who lived under the rule of
a monastery thought this life more favourable to
"eligion than one burdened with married cares, the

CH. VI.] SAXON MONASTERIES. 107

apostle St. Paul was of the same opinion : but it
was never meant that .husbands and wives should
therefore separate from each other, and go into
different monasteries. It might have been piety in
parents to permit their children, when they were
old enough to make this choice, to take upon them
selves the religious habit ; but it was a superstitious
tyranny when parents determined this without con
sulting their children's inclination, and while they
were of tender years. Thus king Oswy, before his
battle with Penda, is said to have vowed that he
would dedicate his daughter Elfleda, then scarcely
a twelvemonth old, to live in holy maidenhood. She
was placed under the charge of St. Hilda, whom
she afterwards succeeded as abbess of Whitby. In
her case it does not seem to have put a force upon
her own inclination ; but if such an example was
followed by other parents, it must in many cases
have led to great misery ; and no sacrifice, can be
acceptable to God, where the will does not con
sent to the offering. We may, indeed, believe that
such acts were not common ; for the Saxons had
in general a scrupulous regard to the liberty and
proper influence of women ; they were sometimes
governed by queens ; and their -monasteries, which
sometimes consisted of men and women dwelling
under separate roofs, were placed, like St. Hilda's,
under the government of an aged female. And
Bede, who tells us of this vow of Oswy's, informs
us that this king was not a perfect Christian cha
racter; that he was led too much by ambition, and
not very scrupulous about the means he took for
compassing his ends. It is often found that the
religion of such characters is mixed with supersti
tion ; they try to compound for their crimes by
splendid offerings ; and their sense of natural affec
tion teing dulled or lost, they are ready to sacrifice

Uf4 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

any thing rather than their own besetting sins. If
there is any other way of accounting for such an
act as this, it probably arose from a mistaken imita-
ion of the vow of Jephtha, or of Hannah the mo
ther of Samuel.

We are not to suppose, however, that all those
monasteries were of the same character, under the
government of single men or single women. Many
of them were kept by married persons, widowers
or widows ; and the inmates, though they did not
there live with their families, were persons who had
done their duty in their generation, and retired to
serve God in their old age, without always re
nouncing the ties of kindred. Ostrytha, another
daughter of Oswy, was the queen of Ethelred,
king of Mercia, and a great benefactress to the
monastery of Bardney, in Lincolnshire. Here she
often retired to pass her time in acts of devotion
and charity. In the year A.D. 697? she was un
happily slain in a tumult of the Lincolnshire people;
and Ethelred, after a few years, having first taken
his brother Conred for a short time to share his
throne, in his old age retired to die at Bardney
It is most likely that such monasteries as these, into
which aged princes withdrew, were inhabited by
persons who had seen the world, and having tasted
enough of what it has to give, were content to bid
it farewell ; and we may look back with some
respect upon the memory of those, who, raised to
the height of worldly dignity, found out its deceit-
fulness, and instead of turning their brief authority
to a means of oppression, sought a purer satisfac
tion for the soul in tne pursuit of an hereafter.
Such was Bede's friend and patron Ceolwulf, king
of Northumbria, who, A.D. 737, two years after the
death of Bede, resigned his crown, and became a
monk at Lindisfarne. Such was his successor Eg-

CH. VI. SAXON MONASTERIES. 109

hert, who, after a brave and hap^v reign of more
than twenty years, laid down his greatness, and
lived for ten years more under the discipline of
his brother Egbert, archbishop of York, A.D. 768.1
Others there were, who, with the enthusiasm of
youth, devoted themselves at the outset of life to
the same service ; such as Offa, a prince of Essex,
who, with Conred of Mercia, betook himself to a
monk's life at Rome, A.D. 709. He was a youth of
great personal beauty, says Bede, and his pleasing
manners made him most acceptable to the people,
who looked forward with hopes to the time when
he should be called to govern them. He was also
honourably betrothed to a princess of Mercia : but
he left all the wealth, and power, and pleasure that
courted him, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's ;

" He gave his honours to the world again,
His better part to heaven "

We must confess, though a mistaken sense of duty
ruled his choice, that it was «no common power of
religion, which could take him at so early an age
from all the advantages of birth and state, to live
in a foreign land, in unknown society and undistin
guished habits, and to giv-* himself up to a life of
prayer, and fasting, and alms-deeds.

To come, however, to more common life. It
appears that many of the monasteries were private
property,' founded by clergymen or laymen, whc
turned their country houses into colleges for reli
gious persons. Earl Osred, A.D. 743, obtained a
grant of an estate from Ethelbald of Mercia, at
Aston and Turkdean, Gloucestershire, on condition
that he should support "a family of God's servants"
on it. A clergyman, named Hedda, about A.D. 787,
gave a charter of some estates in Worcestershire to

1 See Chap. IX.

110 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

his kinsman, bishop Hathored, as a security that the
land should remain with his own heirs of the male
line, as long as there should be any in holy orders to
take the government of a monastery he had founded ;
but if they should fail, as he did not wish the monas
tery to be governed by laymen, he left it to the ca
thedral at Worcester, that the bishop for that time
might appoint a priest for abbot. This arrange
ment was plainly a step towards turning the monas
tery into a parsonage, and endowing a parish church.
And it is plain that the worthy clergyman who drew
this deed was neither a monk himself, nor wished his
children after him to be so. Another deed of earlier
date, about A.D. 737, drawn up by Nothelrn, a friend
,~>f Bede's, who had been a London clergyman, and
was now archbishop of Canterbury, speaks of a nun
nery at Huddingdon in Worcestershire, which had
been the property of a Saxon lady named Dunna,
granted her by king Ethelred. On her deathbed
she had bequeathed this nunnery and the estate to
her daughter Rothwara, then of tender age ; whose
father having married a second wife, the step-mother
had taken possession of the lands, and also of her
mother's will, which she pretended to have been
stolen from her. The deed, which is signed by all
the bishops of the province of Canterbury, declares
the property to belong to Rothwara, on condition
that the nunnery should be kept up, and pronounces
the displeasure of God upon those who had attempted
to defraud her of it. It is a proof of the same kind,
that these monasteries or religious houses were pri
vate property, that they were often presided over by
married persons, who had the power of leaving them
to their heirs.

It is true that Bede himself did not approve of
some who, with too little inclination for the disci
pline of a monastery, undertook the care of such

CH. vi. 1 BEDE'S ADVICE. Ill

places. The fashion had gone too far. . There were
many sheriffs of counties, and town-reeves, or mayors
of boroughs, who had taken upon themselves to set
up monasteries, and passed their time half in the
business of their magistrate's office, half within the
walls of the religious houses. The king's thanes, or
officers of the court, were doing the same ; so that
they were acting the part of abbots and ministers of
state together. And Bede, who was himself a monk,
did not wish to see persons in the charge of abbeys,
who were, as he say-s, dividing their time between
the observance of a religious rule and the company
of their wives and children. Indeed, there was some
ground for his fear that this rage would lead to pub
lic inconvenience. The privileges which the kings
had granted to these lands were such as to tempt
many, who only desired idleness, to take refuge in
the loosely governed monasteries from their duties
to the state. So that Cuthbert, archbishop of Can
terbury, at one of the councils held at Cliff's-hoe,
near Rochester, A.D. 742, thought it necessary to
decree, that the monasteries should not be made
places of retreat for singers, minstrels, or jesters.
The advice of Bede, which he gave to Egbert,
archbishop of York, a short time before his own
death, was therefore no doubt well timed and ne
cessary. He reminded him that it was his business,
as bishop, to visit the monasteries, and to take care
that the places consecrated to God should not be
pven up to the dominion of the devil. He recom
mended that the number of bishops should rather be
increased, and that some of the larger monasteries
should be turned into bishops' sees. This letter of
his, which he wrote about the year A.D. 735, is sup
posed to have been the last work of his hand ; and
it is a remarkable monument of his love of his coun
try and prudent foresight. If these houses went on

* 12 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

increasing, he said, without a check to their abuses,
liie country would be overstocked with them ; there
would not be estates left for the nobles and country
gentlemen ; and the persons who were wanted to
defend the country against invaders would not be
found at the time of need. " We have had a long
time of peace and calm in Northumbria," he said;
" and now many of our people, themselves and their
bairns, gentle and simple, are more bent upon going
into minsters, and taking the shaven crown, than
upon going to the camp-exercise. What the end of
this will be, another age will shew." It is probable
that archbishop Egbert, and Adelbert or Albert, his
learned successor, acted upon Bede's advice ; for
the misfortunes which afterwards befell the North
umbrians did not arise, as some have supposed, from
their being too devout, but from their civil dissen
sions and wars.

The form of privilege which the monasteries en
joyed is said to have been first granted by Wihtred,
king of Kent, A.D. 694-725 ; and it was continued in
the other Saxon kings' charters before the Norman
Conquest. The monastery-lands were set free from
gable or land-tax ; and the tenants obliged only to
attend the king in war, and to pay burgh-bote and
brig-bote, a kind of county-rates, levied for the repair
of town-walls and bridges, but which were often paid,
like other taxes in those early times, by personal ser
vice and labour. These lands, therefore, were com
monly free from the most burdensome kind of tax,
which all other lands had to pay to the king. This
was confirmed by Ethelbald of Mercia, A.D. 742, at
the council of Cliffs-hoe ; and all the assembly of
earls, bishops, and abbots, declared it to be a statute
most worthy of a noble and prudent prince. Yet if
the church-lands were greatly increased, it must have
made some difference in the income of one of these

CH. VI.] LAWS ABOUT LAND. 113

kings of provinces. The value of the gable or land-
tax was in those days estimated in produce or stock
instead of metal ; and most likely the tax itself was
often paid in live-stock or in grain. Thus in the
laws of king Ina, of Wessex, about A.D. 692, the
value of the tax of ten hydes of cultivated land,
from six hundred to a thousand acres, is set down
at ten pints of honey, three hundred loaves, twelve
barrels of Welch ale, thirty of clear ale (perhaps pale
ale), two old oxen or beeves, ten wethers, ten geese,
twenty hens, ten cheeses, a tun of butter, five trout,
one hundred eels, and a small weight of hay or
fodder for cattle.2 The givers of lands to monas
teries did not always like to grant away this gable.
Ethelwald, prince of the Wiccas, A.D. 706, makes it
a clause in a grant to Egwin, bishop of Worcester,
that if the wood-land at Ombersley, on the Severn,
bear a good crop of acorns in any year, nis swine
herd is to have the right of pasturing one herd
of swine within the borders of the land he grants.
And Offa, king of Mercia, A.D. 791, in renewing a
charter and large grant of his predecessors to the
abbey of Westbury, in Worcestershire, bargains that
the land shall still pay the gable of two tuns of clear
ale, a coomb (or kilderkin) of mild ale, a coomb of
Welch ale, seven beeves, six wethers, forty cheeses,
thirty bushels of rye-corn,3 and four measures of

- Honey was a produce of high value in all ancient bus-
bandry. The Saxons especially used it for their metheglin or
mead, the only royal beverage before the Normans brought
over French wines. Honey still continued to be a tax levied
in kind till the time of the Conquest. Trout there must have
been plenty in the Hampshire and Wiltshire streams, in king
Ina's time ; but the art of fly-fishing not being known till after
Izaak Walton wrote, they were not so easily caught by the old
Saxons, and therefore, it seems, were of greater value.

3 Rye-corn perhaps means that mixture of rye and wheat,
grown together, which in Cheshire is still called monk-corn. We
have in this charter mention made of three kinds of ale ; tho
L2

114 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

meal. It was also a common condition of holding
land under the Saxon kings, that the owner should
once or twice a year entertain the king and his court
for a day and a night. The monasteries were often
set free from t'»is demand ; or, if the king visited
them, they were not required to furnish a great feast,
but only what they would give with good will. And
it would doubtless be some benefit to society, if the
Saxon clergy, who had the care of monasteries, were
anxious to enforce this condition, entertaining their
visitors as bishop Aidan did at Lindisfarne ; for it
would be one way of checking the vice of drunken
ness by example as well as precept, — a vice to which
the Gothic and German nations were much addicted,
which was much indulged at the Saxon courts, more
by the Danes, and which is still the besetting vice of
the English people.

The scarcity of the precious metals among the
Saxons made a very small sum to be considered a
good price for a large allotment of land. Edric,
king of Kent, A.D. 686, sold to Theodore and Adrian
for ten silver pounds, about thirty pounds sterling,
about three hundred acres near the city of Canter
bury, for the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, over
which that learned abbot was then presiding. And
Beonna, abbot of Peterborough, about a century
afterwards, sold to earl Cuthbert a lease of three
lives of the manor of Swineshead, about a thousand
acres, for a shilling an acre, only reserving a yearly
rent of thirty pence, or one night's entertainment.

The form of delivering up possession of an estate

Welch ale would seem to be the strongest. Our Saxon fore
fathers were not unlike their descendants in their opinion of the
rrrerits of this native and wholesome liquor. " Hwset drincst
thu ? — Eala, gif ic hsebbe ; oththe wseter, gif ic ne haebbe
eala." Elf ric' s Colloquy : i. e. " What drinkest thou ? — Ale,
if 1 have it ; or water, if I have not ale."

CH. VI.] USE OF DEEDS BROUGHT IN. 115

among the pagan Saxons was to give a turf cut from
the land to the purchaser or receiver, with a few words
spoken to signify the intention of him who parted
with it. At the shire-moot, or county-court, it was
sufficient evidence about property, if a witness or two
could prove that a person had spoken words declaring
an intention to give or bequeath property to another.
Thus, a son having claimed some lands that were in
the possession of his mother, at a county-court, the
judges, or sheriff, sent a small party of jurymen to
hear what answer she would make. The poor woman
was at that moment very angry with her son ; and
pointing to a kinswoman who was with her in the
house, said, " Here sitteth my kinswoman Leofleda,
to whom I give both gold and land, gown and kirtle,
and all that I have, after my own day." The persons
who heard this, having borne witness that such words
had been spoken, the court gave judgment that Leo-
fleda's husband was entitled to the property.4 Such
a way of making property change hands must cer
tainly have left great temptation to bear false wit
ness ; and we find from the Saxon laws, that this was
an evil which they were much perplexed to remedy.
It was therefore a public benefit when the Christian
counsellors required property to be made over by
written deeds and charters ; not only such as was
given to monasteries, but that which the kings gave
to their thanes, or one private person sold to another.
The Saxons at first thought this a superfluous cau
tion. When king Suefred of Essex, A.D. 7(H, gave
Twickenham meadows, and some of the land which
may be seen from Richmond Hill, to Waldhere bi
shop of London, he said, in the preamble to his deed,
A word spoken is enough for evidence ; but that
ne may hereafter ignorantly incur guilt, and since

Preface to Mr. Kemble's Anglo-Saxon Charters, p. cxi.

116 EARLY KNGLISH CHURCH.

parchment is cheap, it is as well to confirm it by a
record that may last for time to come." "It is a
good pattern that the Greeks have left us," said ab
bot Hedda of Worcestershire, alluding, as it seems,
to archbishop Theodore, " to set down in writing
whatever they would have to be known, that it may
not be washed out of the memory." Still, the form
of giving a piece of the sod was sometimes continued;
and the sod was sometimes laid upon a copy of the
Gospels, to make the form more sacred. There can
be no doubt that all this had the effect of making
property more safe and secure, and improving the
industry and social order of the people.

Another improvement which the monasteries
brought in, with the advance of internal peace, was,
an increase of communication between one part of
the kingdom and the other. It may perhaps be a
surprise to some of those who think that all such
commerce has begun with canals and railroads ; but
there were certainly persons living in the seventh
and eighth centuries in England who saw the benefit
of importations and exchange of produce between
one part of the kingdom and another. And though
they did not dream of turning earth into water, or
hill into plain, yet they saw that the rivers flowing
through the most inhabited parts of the country
were many of them navigable, and that it would be
useful if they could find conveyance for their heavy
goods by water rather than by land. St. Mildred
and her successors, abbesses of Minster in the isle
of Thanet, had a vessel which regularly traded with
the London markets about A.D. 747; and probably
it conveyed wheat, which that island so plentifully
produces ; for which the church in Bread Street is
properly placed to preserve the memory of her sup
plies. But this was an easy voyage, the distance
being so small. It was a much longer trip which

CH. VI.] BEGINNINGS OF COMMERCE. 117

was performed about the same time by two vessels
of bishop Milred's of Worcester, which appear to
have sailed from the Severn down by the Bristol
Channel, and round by Cornwall to London up the
Thames. There were salt-works at this time at
Droitwich and Salwarp, which the bishop's tenants
occupied ; there were also lead-works at Hanbury ;
and the Welch are said to have had the art of mak
ing cider, which the Worcestershire and Hertford
shire men were not slow to learn from them.5 It
is possible that some part of their cargo consisted
of these commodities ; or they might have brought
wool to exchange with foreign merchants, who at
that time scarcely visited any part of England but
London and the ports in Kent. However it might
be, Ethelbald, king of Mercia, thought it well to let
these vessels trade at " London-town-hythe" free of
toll. Where religion has brought peace, the arts
of peace will follow. As in later times the earliest
colonies formed in America were promoted by cler
gymen, as Hackluyt and his friends,6 so it was the
Church which led the way in pointing out to the
English people the beginnings of commerce, in these
first ages after the settlement of Christianity. What
ever intercourse there was between different English
ports, or with foreigners, was owing to the spirit of

5 In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the Worcestershire
people paid salt-tax in kind. Seider, which the Saxons called
" apple-wine," is said to be an ancient British word. The
" strong drink" in our Bibles, St. Luke i. 15, is in Wickliffe's
old English version called " sydyr."

6 Richard Hackluyt. prebendary of Westminster, published
the first English Collection of Voyages, many of them trans
lated from Spanish and Portuguese voyagers, A.D. 1589. Ht
was the promoter of several of our earliest expeditions to North
America, A.D. 1603 and 1605 ; and aided in founding the Vir
ginian Company. " His name," says William Gifibrd, " is
never to be mentioned without praise and veneration."

118 KARLY ENGLISH CHURCH. . .

improvement thus fostered. Copies of the Bible from
the continent were among the first imports; and it
became a customary law, that a merchant who had
traded three times beyond sea, on his own account
and in his own vessel, should be entitled to a thane's
rank.

" Wherever monasteries were founded," says Mr.
Southey, "marshes were drained, woods were cleared,
wastes were brought inu> cultivation, the means of
subsistence were increased, and new comforts were
added to life." "A colony of monks," says M. Gui-
zot, "in small numbers at first, transported themselves
into some uncultivated place; and there, as mission
aries and labourers at once, in the midst of a people
as yet pagan, they accomplished their double task
with as much of danger as of toil." Their diffi
culties, too, were doubtless much increased by the
number of wild beasts, especially wolves, which then
abounded in the country; as is testified by the name
wolf-month, given by the Saxons to distinguish the
month of January. The continual ravages of these
fierce creatures on the flocks and herds must have
caused an amount of destruction, which at this time
and in this country it is not easy to imagine. The
monks who went out first into uncultivated spots,
must no doubt have gone, as St. Owen of Gloucester
went to Lastingham, in a woodman's dress, armed
with an axe and mattock, to clear away the forests,
and with dogs and spears to guard their stock from
the wolf, and their tillage from the wild boar.7

7 Elfric describes the duties of a shepherd in his time, about
three centuries after Bede : " In early morning I drive my sheep
to their lea, and stand over them in heat and cold, with dogs,
lest the wolves swallow them." — Elfric's Colloquy. It is said
that in the Russian province of Livonia, a few years since, the
number of cattle destroyed by wolves was given in a govern
ment-return, — horses and foals, 3084; horned cattle and calves,
2540 ; sheep and lambs, 15,908 ; swine, 4190 ; besides a great

CM. VI. J PILGRIMAGES. I 19

But amidst these hard labours, the useful arts
were not forgotten. The women who followed this
religious plan of life soon became skilful at needle
work and embroidery. The monks taught children
the common arts of life, and also of carving wood
and stone, working in metal, and setting jewels :
and jewels in those days were as much used in orna
menting copies of the word of God, as in embel
lishing the person. And that these arts were not
without their value to those who exercised them,
may be judged from an old deed of bishop Denbert
of Worcester, A.D. 802, in which he grants a lease
for life of a farm of two hundred acres, to Eans-
witha, an embroideress at Hereford, on condition
that she is to renew, and scour, and from time to
time add to, the dresses of the priests and ministers
who served in the cathedral church. It is also clear
that the talents of the best artists were employed
very early in England in making ornaments for the
churches as well as for the ministers ; in adorning
the altars, preparing lamps and candlesticks, and
more particularly in furnishing communion-vessels,
which, even at this early period, were often made of
the most costly metals. Of these works some notice
will occur, as we speak of eminent persons in the
Saxon Church in the following chapters.

But to return, to speak of the faults and defects
in the monasteries and religious practices of this age.
In the first place, notwithstanding the precautions of
Theodore, there was always something too much of
a taste for pilgrimages and hermitages. The ancient
British Christians, as we learn from St. Jerome, often
went to visit the Holy Land ; but he speaks as if he
thought the practice likely to lead to abuse. "It is

number of goats and kids, and the loss of more than 700 dogs.
It is somewhat more than a century since the wolf was finallf
extirpated in Britain.

120 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

as easy," he says, " to find the way to heaven in Bri
tain as at Jerusalem." There were but few of the
Saxons at this time who are said to have gone to
Jerusalem; but Adamnan, abbot of lona, in Bede's
ifetime, wrote an account of the holy places, which
was taken from the description of Palestine given
by Arcvvolf, a French bishop. Arcwolf had visited
.Jerusalem and the neighbouring country, Damascus,
Constantinople, and Alexandria ; and on his return
home, being carried by a storm to the coast of Scot
land, had happily found shelter at lona.8 From him
Adamnan received an exact account of Jerusalem,
the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, and the other holy
places, as they were at this period, before they were
overrun by the Saracens, and while the churches
built by the Christian emperor Constantine and his
mother St. Helena were in their first beauty. This
book Adamnan sent, A.D. 704-, to Aldfrid, king of
Northumbria, who was a man of learning himself,
and did much to encourage learning in his country.
It was a very acceptable present to the Northum
brian Christians. However, it does not seem at this
time to have kindled in them any desire of visiting
Jerusalem, though one or two such pilgrimages are
mentioned in this century. The Saxon Christians
took all their pilgrimages to Rome. The first emi
nent person of whom such an act is recorded was
Cedwalla, king of Wessex, a young and warlike

8 No doubt these monasteries on islands, or near dangerous
coasts, were often places of refuge to shipwrecked men. The
Bell rock, on which a lighthouse is now erected near the Frith
of Forth, is said to owe its name to a bell formerly fixed upon
it by the monks of the abbey of Aberbrothock. or Arbroath :

When the rock was hid by the surge's swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell ;
And then they knew the perilous rock,
And bless'd the abbot of Aberbrothock.

SOUTHEY.

CH. Vt.] PILGRIMAGES. 121

prince, who was brought up in paganism; and after
making great havoc in Sussex and Kent, was seized
with a fit of remorse on hearing something of Chris
tian truth, and determined to go to Rome to be bap
tised. He was well received there by pope Sergius,
A.D. 689 ; and having been partaker of the rite on
Easter Sunday, died within seven days afterwards.
His successor, king Ine, or Jna, after a reign of near
forty years, followed his steps to Rome in his old
age, A.D. 728. And by their example, the fashion
of pilgrimages to the see of St. Peter became very
popular : noble and simple, laymen and clerks, men
and women, all took up this rage, wishing, as Bede
says, to live as pilgrims on earth in the neighbour
hood of saintly places, that they might b« welcomed
by the saints when they were called away from their
earthly sojourn. Bede, however, did not follow their
practice ; and as he was well acquainted with the
works of St. Jerome, perhaps he knew what the
good sense of that plain-spoken father had led him
to say about it. " Jerusalem," said he, " is now
made a place of resort from all parts of the world ;
and there is such a throng of pilgrims of both sexes,
that all the temptation, which you might in some
degree avoid elsewhere, is here collected together."
So it fared with these mistaken old English pil
grims. A few years after the death of Bede, Win-
frid, an English missionary in Germany, wrote to
archbishop Cuthbert to say, that there was then
great need to check the practice of pilgrimages; for
many, both men and women, only went abroad for
the purpose of living licentiously, without the re
straints they would find at home, or had been tempted
by the vices of the cities in France and Lombardy to
fall from the paths of virtue. There were few cities
on the way to Rome, he said, where such persons
were not to be met with, who were lost both to reli-
M

122 . EAttLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

gion and their friends. It must, however, be remem
bered, that these pilgrims were often the persons to
bear peaceful messages between warlike nations; and
that to them were owing some communications of
useful knowledge from Rome and from the East.

With regard to hermitages, the evil which they
caused was of a less destructive kind, but one which
hindered the pure progress of truth. There can be
no doubt that it requires something of devout reso
lution to undertake such a life as this; there can be
no concealed purpose of self-indulgence in it ; and all
we read of the old English hermits in these or the
Norman times, leads us to believe that they were
led by sincere though mistaken piety. There is also
reason to suppose that while the country was thinly
inhabited, and there were few village-churches, the
cell of the hermit in a wild region was often the re
sort of peasants from the neighbouring hamlets, who
listened to his preaching, and learnt from him some
plain rules of faith and life. And in unsettled times,
while the religion of the age gave these retreats a
kind of sacred character, the stranger who came to
lodge for a night beneath the hermit's roof, and to
share his frugal repast, was safer than he could have
been in a more public resting-place :

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,
His few books, or his beads, >r maple dish,
Or do his grey hairs any violence ?

It may be said also, that this was one design for
which hermitages were founded, in an age when
there were no inns except in a few of the principal
towns, and the monasteries were the only places of
public hospitality. Again, many of these hermits
were skilful artificers, who were able to teach the
country people some of the arts that would be most
useful to them, as basket-making, the construction of

CH. VI. J HERMITS. 123

bee-hives, grafting and pruning, and the best ways
of gardening. So far all was well. But the best
way of honouring God is to keep the path of duty
among our fellow-men ; and it is not good to be
alone. St. Jerome had pointed out some of the
dangers of a solitary life, and especially that it is
unfavourable to self-knowledge. " Pride soon steals
on a man in solitude," he says ; " if he has practised
fasting for a short time, and has seen nobody, he
oegins to think that he is a person of consequence,
ind forgets himself, who he is, and whence he comes,
ind whither he is going. I do not condemn a soli
tary life; I have often praised it. But let the soldier
of Christ who attempts it be well trained in a monas
tery first ; let him be one who will not be frightened
when he finds the hardship of it ; who is content to
be esteemed the least of all, that he may become the
first of all ; one who knows how to abound and to
suffer need, to deny himself in plenty, as well as to
endure hunger; whose dress and speech, and his very
look and walk, are a lesson of Christian grace ; and
who is above the folly of some, who invent wonder
ful stories of the conflicts of foul spirits with them,
that they may make themselves the admiration of
the vulgar, and turn it to a gainful trade."

This was the case with some of the first hermits
who dwelt in Egypt, in the time of the fathers ; and
it was too much the case with the early English her
mits. Their cells were the nurseries of superstition.
It is found that the body, when not fed with sufficient
or wholesome food (and the hermits sometimes mixed
their flour or pottage with wood-ashes and burnt
herbs), deludes the senses with strange dreams by
night or day, and the quick vigour of the under
standing is lost in wandering imaginations. We are
not to suppose that all the wonderful stories of the
kind that St. Jerome speaks of were mere imposture;

124 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

fte persons who recounted them may have believed
that they saw and felt the attacks of the great enemy.
And there was often something of method in their
madness ; the strange fancy serving a good moral
purpose. Thus it is said, in the life of St. Benedict,
that he frightened an idle monk who used to desert
the church at the hour of prayer, by saying that he
saw a dark cherub hovering over him, and without
his knowledge dragging him away to indulge his va
grant habit. Thus among the old English stories,
it is told of a vicious man, that being on his way to
commit a crime to which he was addicted, he fell
through a broken bridge into the river below, and
supposed himself to have really gone through the
agonies of death before he was rescued. He declared
to the bystanders, when he was recovered, that his
soul had been separated from his body, and that he
had seen the bad and good angels disputing for it;
that when neither would resign it, they had agreed .
that he should be restored to life again, and his
sentence should depend upon his choice at that mo
ment, whether to go on to the commission of his
crime or to return.

Other stories there are, which shew the progress
of opinion towards those errors which at a later time
were more generally received. Bede tells a story
which had been told to him, of Imma, a Northum
brian, who had been taken prisoner in a battle with
the Mercians. His brother Tunna, abbot of a mon
astery, hearing that he had been slain in that battle,
went to the field to search for his body, and carried
off by mistake the body of another person. This he
had honourably buried; and took care to have many
masses said for the deliverance of his soul. The
prisoner is said to have found the benefit of these
masses in the bodily captivity which he endured;
for whenever the earl who held him prisoner ordered

CH. VI.] SUPERSTITIONS. 125

him to be kept in bonds, the fetters and manacles
were shortly afterwards discovered to have fallen
from his limbs. Many persons, says Bede, were
persuaded by this story to pray and give alms, or
to procure masses to be said, for the rescue of
their friends who had departed this life ; for they
understood from it that the sacrifice of the altar was
able to procure eternal redemption both of soul and
body.

Of the same kind is the vision which the famous
Alcuin of York tells us, of Walter, a hermit who
seems to have lived at Flamborough Head. He
saw, as he dreamed or fancied, the ghost of a priest
followed through the air by a host of foul fiends,
who were endeavouring to seize it, and to drag it to
the place of torments. The sin for which he was
thus harassed was, that he had kept back one of his
offences unconfessed in his prayers. " Thirty days
have I been chased to and fro in the air," said the
ghost to the hermit, " and this is the last day allow
ed ; if I cannot now obtain some good man's prayers,
I am lost for ever." The hermit prayed for him,
and believed he was released.

It might be supposed, from the first of these
stories, that the Saxons at this early period believed,
as the Church of Rome does now, that there was
a place called purgatory, where the souls of those
who have been on earth, as the northern proverb is.
" over bad for blessing, and over good for banning,"
are to be kept till the prayers and masses of the living
set them free. But it would be a mistake to think
that this opinion was at all an article of their faith ;
they had only some uncertain notions about the
cleansing which an imperfect soul was to undergo
after death, before it could be received into para
dise. They founded these notions upon the words
of St. Paul, 1 Cor. iii. 13-15. There were some who

126 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

thought that the fire there spoken of should be at
the clay of judgment. " Then," says an old Saxon
preacher, " our Lord cometh to doom all mankind,
not in heaven, nor yet in earth, but in the midst of
the two, in the welkin. Fire cometh before him, as
the prophet saith (Ps. 1. 3), and shall burn up his
enemies round about him. Fire burneth the earth,
and all that is thereupon ; and cleanseth all faithful
men of all sins that they have fore-let (left off), or
amended, or begun to amend, and maketh them seven
fold brighter than the sun." This was an old inter
pretation of some of the fathers, and has little danger
in 't. But another was, that there was such a cleans
ing fire prepared after death for all little sins which
did not destroy the habit of faith, or make a man
lead a life altogether irreligious. Of this last Bede
speaks tenderly, because pope Gregory, who had
been so great a benefactor 10 this country, had rather
favoured it. " I do not dispute against it," he says ;
" for possibly it may be true." We are not there
fore to suppose, that he, or all the Saxon Christians
of his time, heartily believed in such a purgatory, or
thought the story of Imma and his wonderful masses
as true as the gospel. It is plain, that Bede did not
himself believe that alms or masses could change the
state of the dead ; and indeed the story itself only
goes to prove, that the prayers used at the mass9 or
Lord's supper, for all that were in trouble or adver
sity, as we now pray, might profit the living. " God,"
says Bede, " has made heaven the seat of truth and
happiness; he has given a place for inquiry and re
pentance upon earth ; but misery and despair are
the portions of hell."

So also Alcuin, though he tells the above story
of hermit Walter, did not himself believe that prayer

9 Mass in the old English or Saxon language meant a feast
• — the holy feast of the Lord's supper.

CH. vi.] DBTTHELM'S VISION. 127

couid help one who had died without repentance.
" He that hideth his sins," he says in one of his
sermons, " and is ashamed to make a healthy con
fession, God is now a witness of them, and will here
after punish them. Confession, with true penitence,
is the angels' medicine for our sins. God's mild-
hearted pity helpeth them that now repent ; but in
death there is no repentance." And Egbert, arch
bishop of York, says of the practices which the
story of Imma had led to : " He who fasteth for the
dead, it is a comfort to himself, if it helpeth not the
dead : God only knows whether his dead are helped
by it"

The common belief, however, was, in early Saxon
times, that there were four places for the departed
spirits ; as they had it taught them in the famous
vision of Drythelm, the hermit of Melrose, which
was very popular in old England, and may be read
with some interest still. Drythelm was a religious
man, a thane or gentleman, living with his wife and
family at Cunningham, now within the Scottish bor
der. One night, in a fit of long sickness, he ap
peared to have breathed his last ; but at the dawn of
day, to the great alarm of those who were weeping
rornd his bed, he recovered and sat up. His wife
was the only one who had courage to stay in the
room ; but he comforted her by saying there was
nothing to fear; he had indeed been restored from
death to life, and must for the future live a very
different man from what he had been before. He
arose immediately, went to the village-church, and
remained some time in prayer ; then returning home,
divided his substance into three portions, one of which
he gave to his wife, the second to his sons, and dis
tributed the third in alms to the poor. In a few
days afterwards he went to Melrose Abbey, took the
habit of a monk, and retiring for the rest of his life

128 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

to a hermitage given him by the abbot, kept himself
to such hard discipline of mind and body, that it was
plain, says Bede, even before you had heard his tale,
that he had seen more than other folk.

He told how, in the space of time while he lay
as dead, he seemed to be guided by one of shining
countenance and bright array towards the north
eastern quarter of the sky.10 Here first he saw a
wide and hollow dell, without a bound to its length,
in which the souls of men were tossed from burning
flames on one side to driving snow and hail on the
other. This, his guide afterwards told him, was
a place for trying and cleansing the souls of those
who had put off repentance ; but those, however, if
they had repented in the hour of death, would at
the day of judgment come to heaven's bliss ; and
the prayers, alms, and fasting of their living friends,
and especially the observing of masses, would help
many out of that place before. Beyond this, he saw a
place which, from the more dismal sights and sounds
it offered to his senses, he knew to be the mouth
of the bottomless pit. Here his guide for a time
seemed to desert him ; but just as the dark spirits
from the abyss were about to seize upon him, he
saw at a distance a star advancing through the
gloom, at whose approach they fled. It was soon
seen to be his guide returning, who then led him to
the south-east into a region of pure and lightsome

10 It was the belief of many in the early Church, that the
seat of Christ was in the east, and from thence he should come
to judgment. See St. Matt xxiv. 27. " Let us think that
Christ dyed in the este, and therefore let us pray into the este,
that we may be of the nombre that he died for. Also let us
think that he shall come out of the este to the doom." Old
Kngl. Homily on Wake- days. On the contrary, they held that
the realm of Satan was to the north, from Isa xiv. 13. Purga
tory, therefore, to which Drythelm first approached, lay between
the two.

CH. VI. J DRKTHELM S VISION. 129

air. Here first he saw before him a long high wall,
to which there was neither entrance nor window,
nor any means of ascent; but with his guide he
found himself at the top, in a wide and pleasant
plain, full of spring-flowers, and inhabited by crowds
of spirits bright and fair. This seems to have been
what the Saxons called paradise, or the fields of rest,
which they supposed to be situated between heaven
and earth, and was a place for good men, who were
yet not perfect enough to be admitted into heaven
at once. He was then led on to another abode,
round which a far brighter light was spread, and
from which he heard the sound of the sweetest songs,
and sweeter fragrance breathed from it than he had
perceived in the pleasant fields before ; but just as
he was hoping to enter into the joyful place, his
guide stopped, and turning round led him back by
the way by which he came.

This strange vision, in which wild fancies and
hurtful superstition have mixed with them some
shadows of noble truth, had such an effect on poor
Drythelrn, that he determined to put his aged body
to such mortifications as in all likelihood must soon
have worn out his life. His cell near Melrose was
on the banks of the Tweed, into which river he
would frequently go down, and, standing in the
water up to his waist, or sometimes up to his neck,
repeat his prayers or psalms as long as he could
bear the cold ; and when he came out would never
change his cold and wet garments, leaving them to
be warmed and dried by the action of his body.
Sometimes in winter, when the Tweed came down
with broken particles of ice, he would still pursue
the same rigours ; and if any of his friends were
amazed at his endurance, his answer was, " I have
seen a colder place and harder discipline than this."

It is to be feared, therefore, that though some

130 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

persons of better understanding did not put much
value on such visions and tales as these, they had a
great influence on the mind of the people. There
was a great reverence felt for hermits, and wonderful
things were told of them. Some were certainly men
who joined active labours to their solitary life ; as the
famous St. CUTHBERT, who, after living many years
as abbot of Melrose, where he did not confine his
labours to the walls of his monastery, but often spent
days and weeks in preaching to the people in the
hamlets and mountainous districts round, at length
retired to live in the little solitary island of Fame,
in the midst of the sea, off the coast of Northumber
land. From this retreat he was drawn by king Egfrid,
A.D. 684, to be made bishop of Lindisfarne. This
office he undertook very unwillingly ; but when he
was in it, discharged his duty like a man who was
influenced by love to God and to his neighbour, till,
finding his end was near, he went back to his cell to
die. When he used to celebrate the holy commu
nion, says Bede, he shewed his devotion, not by lift
ing up his voice, but with earnest tears commending
his vows to God. His life in his retirement was not
without labour ; as he had to build first a cell for
himself, then, with the help of other monks, a small
monastery and church, to dig a well, as there was no
fresh water there, and to dig and plough the land.

It was not uncommon for some of those who had,
like Cuthbert, done their part in the charge of mon
asteries, to choose such retirement after labour. But
there were others who seem to have been led only
by a mistaken piety to afflict their souls, and shut
themselves out from the community of their fellows.
Walter of Flamborough Head chose out a cliff which
overhung the sea ; a narrow path led to it, and here
the spirits of the air seemed to come to tempt him,
and gave him matter for such stories as St. Jerome

CH. VI. J HERMITS. 131

complains of. Guthlac of Croyland, living on a her
mitage in the midst of swamps and marshes, often
thought he was summoned to battle with four fiends,
when he saw the wisp-fires in the night. Etha of
Crayke dwelt on a lonely hill surrounded with a deep
forest, so thick, that, according to old tradition, a
squirrel could hop from thence to York from bough
to bough. " Here in the depth of the wilderness,"
says Alcuin, " he led an angelical life:" but an ange
lical life is best described by good archbishop Leigh-
ton, "a life spent between ascending in prayer to
fetch blessings from above, and descending to scatter
them among men." In this last part the life of a
solitary must fail. And as it was well said by one
of old. he who can live in solitude must be either a
wild beast or a god ; it is not a life for man. It is
therefore to be regretted that this life was in so
much honour with our Christian forefathers. These
half madmen, who dreamed dreams, and saw phan
toms of their own imagination,

distracted in their mind,
Forsook by heaven, forsaking human kind,

were accounted by the people as prophets almost
inspired. Though there were some who may have
gone out to the wilds and wastes with better purpose,
to reclaim the rude people who were farthest from
means of grace and unacquainted with useful arts,
the sort of life they led was not good for themselves.
The hermits, much more than the monasteries, were
chargeable with promoting superstitions ; which
among a people newly reclaimed from heathenism,
and having been used to place great faith in charms
aiid spells, and fables of the unseen world, were very
hurtful to the progress, of purer truth.

CHAPTER VII.

EMINENT TEACHERS OF THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH!
ALDHELM, BISHOP OF SHERBORNE ; ACCA, BISHOP OP
HEXHAM; AND THE VENERABLE BEDE.

Such persons, who served God by holy living, industrious preaching,
and religious dying, ought to have their names preserved in honour,
and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated.

BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.

BRIAN, abbot of Canterbury, the fel
low-labourer of Theodore, survived his
friend for many years, dying A.D. 710,
forty-one years" after his first arrival in
England. * All this time he was em
ployed in teaching the young Saxons, who were to
fill high offices in the Church. Among his pupils
were Bertwald, abbot of Reculver, \vho afterwards
succeeded Theodore as archbishop of Canterbury,
where he presided nearly forty years; Tobias, bishop
of Rochester, a man of great learning and piety ;
and Alcuin, afterwards abbot of Canterbury, who
aided Bede in his History of the Church.1 Ano
ther was Aldhelm, one of the royal family of VVes-

' Alcuin of Canterbury is often confounded, by Warton
and others, with Alcuin of York, who flourished about fifty
years later. See Chapter IX.

CII. VII.] ALDHELM. ORGANS. 133

sex, afterwards abbot of Malmsbury and bishop of
Sherborne, a man who conferred great benefits
upon his countrymen the West Saxons, and who&e
memory was honoured in a life of him written by
the great king Alfred.

ALDHELM was indeed a man who deserved this
honour ; and it is a great pity we have not his life
by Alfred now remaining to us, instead of such ao-
counts as the monks of later ages have mixed jup
with too many legendary tales. He was the founder
of the abbey of Malmsbury, and of the town adjoin
ing ; for many of our old English towns arose, like
this, from the neighbourhood of the monastery. His
own wealth and interest enabled him to endow it
with a good estate, so large that it is said it would
take a man a good part of the day, if he set out
early in the morning, to go round the borders. Here
he built two churches, one within the monastery, one
without its walls, for the villagers or townspeople ;
and at different periods of his life he built other
churches in Wessex, particularly at Dorchester, Dor
set. At this period the organ is said to have been
first used in churches by Vitalian, the pope whom
we have seen engaging himself in the mission of
Theodore. And the first organ used in England
seems to have been built under the directions of
Aldhelm, who has left in his writings a description
of it in verse, as " a mighty instrument with innu
merable tones, blown with bellows, and enclosed in a
gilded case." The instrument, however, which was
most in use among the Saxons was the harp, as it was
also the instrument of the ancient Britons and Irish,
and of the Danes and other tribes of the North. The
kings thought it a part of their state to entertain
harpers at their court ; and before the introduction
of Christianity and letters, those who sung to the

N

34

BARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

harp, called scalds or minstrels, were the only histo
rians of the past, singing songs of the warlike deeds
of their forefathers. It was still, after the gospel was
known, considered almost a necessary accomplish
ment of the educated in the middle ranks of society
to be ready to sing a song at an entertainment, when
the harp was passed round. This custom and prac
tice Aldhelm endeavoured to reform, or to adapt to
the service of religion. When he resided as abbot
at Malmsbury, finding that the half-barbarous coun
try-people, who came to hear divine service, were in
a great hurry to return home without paying much
attention to the sermon, he used to go and take his
seat, with harp in hand, on the bridge over the Avon,
and offer to teach the art of singing.
Here a crowd soon gathered round him;
and after he had indulged the common
taste by singing some trifling song, by
degrees he drew them on to more se
rious matter, and succeeded at last in
making them sing David's psalms to
David's strings.
The good service of Aldhelm in this particular is
now placed beyond a doubt by the late discovery of
a Saxon version of the Psalms, which seems to have
been preserved in an old French monastery, founded
by John duke of Berri, at Bourges, A.D. 1405. This
prince, who was brother to Charles V. king of France,
gave the book with many others to his monastery,
where it remained without being of much use to the
French monks, who thought the old English letters
were Hebrew. But somehow or other, it has escaped
all the French revolutions since, and is now in the
French king's library at Paris ; from which a copy
has lately been taken and printed by the University
of Oxford, A.D. 1835.

CH. vii. j ALDHELM'S VERSION OF PSALMS. 135

The writer who made this copy of the Saxon
Psalter was an Englishman, who seems to have lived
about A.D. 1000. The first fifty of the Psalms are
in prose, and the rest in verse. It is likely that the
version is altogether Aldhelm's : at least there is no
reason to doubt that the metrical part is his. In
one or two places he seems to speak as if he aimed
to suit the meaning of the psalm to the way of wor
ship and customs observed in the monasteries. Thus,
in the eighty-fourth psalm his version in modern
English is nearly this :

Lord, to me thy minsters are

Courts of honour, passing fair ;

And my spirit deems it well ,

There to be, and there to dwell :

Heart and flesh would fain be there,

Lord, thy life, thy love to share.

There the sparrow speeds her home,

And in time the turtles come,

Safe their nestling young they rear,

Lord of hosts, thine altars near ;

Dear to them thy peace, — but more

To the souls who there adore. Ver. 1-5.

Again, in the sixty-eighth :

God the word of wisdom gave ;

Preachers, who his voice have heard,
Taught by him, in meekness brave,

Speed the message of that word.

Mighty King, with beauty crown'd !

In his house the world's proud spoil.
Oft in alms-deeds dealt around,

Cheers the poor wayfarer's toil.

If among his clerks you rest,

Silver plumes shall you enfold,
Fairer than the culver's breast.

Brighter than her back of gold. Ver. 11-13.

When Aldhelm wrote, there were no copies of
the Hebrew Psalter in England, and in the last of

136 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

these verses he seems to have mistaken a word in
the Greek or Latin version of the Psalms ; but in
many places, where the meaning is more plain, his
verse is both true and full of good poetry, and it is
every where marked by a spirit of devotion, break
ing forth into words of thankful wonder and praise;
and the mistakes which here and there occur in the
sense, are not such as to have taught any false doc
trine. The version of the Psalms, therefore, into
their own language, and adapted to their own na
tional melody to accompany the harp, was a most
valuable gift to the Saxons. The words in the last
verse seem here to invite the hearer to take up his
abode among God's clerks in a monastery ; and, in
the second to speak of the alms, or doles of food and
clothing, which the charity of Christians in .those
days gave away at the gates of religious houses.
The words were prompted by the state of religious
society at that time.

Again, in some of the Psalms he speaks of the
peace-stool, or stone seat, which was placed near the
altar in some old English churches, as a place of
refuge, to which, by king Alfred's laws, if an ac
cused person fled, he was not to be disturbed for
seven days.2 The intention of the law was, to give
a culprit opportunity to confess his crime to the
bishop or clergyman, in which case the fine, com
monly paid for all offences in Saxon times, was, miti
gated. " God," says this version, Ps. ix. 9, " is the
place of peace to the poor." " The Lord God is
become my peace-stool ; my help is fast fixed and
established in the Lord," Ps. xciv. 22. It can easily
be imagined how this way of speaking was suited
to the understanding and affections of the people
among whom such a custom prevailed.

2 An ancient peace-stool is still preserved in the minster of
Beverley.

CH. VII.] ALDI1KLM. 13?

It is a singular proof of the great eagerness for
learning in these days, that A'.dhelm had two kings
of North Britain for his correspondents, Aldfrid the
Wise, as he was called, king of Northumbria, and
Arcivil, or Archibald, a king of the Scots ; to whom
he sent some of his writings, and who had sufficient
acquirements to value them. He also corresponded
with learned men, not only in his own country, but
abroad; particularly Cellan, an Irish monk, who
lived a hermit's life in France. He was one of
many Saxons who at this time visited Rome ; going
both from a feeling of devotion, and in pursuit of
knowledge. There he became a proficient in the
study of the Roman law, and also gained a good
acquaintance with the poetrj jf the Romans, so as
to write verses with ease and elegance in their lan
guage. This is an art now taught in almost every
grammar-school ; but it is a great credit to Aldhelm,
that he was the first Englishman who mastered it
What is much more to his praise, is, that he em
ployed his talents in works designed to set forth
the glory of God ; and as his mind was enlarged by
study and travel, he spoke with deeper feeling of
the things in heaven and earth. It is impossible to
give the simple force of his verse in modern English
metre ; but the following passages may serve as a
specimen of his turn of thought :

Where the tempest wakes to wrath

Many waters wide and far,
On the ocean's dreadful path,

Loud and high their voices are :

Wondrous ways those waters move,
Where the sea-streams swiftest flow ;

But more wondrous far above,
Holy Lord, thy glories shew.

Ps. xciii. 3, 4.

As the beacon -fire by night,
That the host of Israel led ;
N2

j38 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Such the glory, fair and hright,

Round the good man's dying bed :
'Tis a beacon bright and fair,
Telling that the Lord is there. „ ...

King Ina of Wessex being now at peace with
Gerent, or Grant, the Welch king of Cornwall, a
council of the Saxon Church was held about the year
A.D. 700, in which Aldhelm was appointed to write
a letter to that prince, to exhort him to adopt the
Roman rule for Easter, and to conform to the other
practices of the Saxon Christians. It appears from
his letter, that the Welch of South Wales at this time
would neither pray in the same church, nor eat at
the same table with a Saxon ; they would throw the
food which a Saxon had cooked to the dogs, and
rinse the cups which a Saxon had used with sand
or ashes, before they would drink out of them : if a
Saxon went to sojourn among them, they put him to
a penance or quarantine of forty days, before they
would shew him any kindness or act of good neigh
bourhood. Of this Aldhelm complained, as a man
of peace and charity might complain ; but he seems
to have laid too much stress on some trifling differ
ences, which he pressed the Welch clergy to adopt,
particularly a mode of shaving the head, in imitation
of our Saviour's crown of thorns, which they called
St. Peter's tonsure. He seems also to have thought
that there was something of necessity laid upon
all Christians to follow the statutes of the Church
founded by St. Peter. He acknowledges that the
Welch Christians at this time held all the doctrines
of the catholic faith, but tells them their want of
charity will destroy the benefit they would otherwise
receive from it; " for a true faith and brotherly
love," he says, " always go hand in hand." This is
true ; but the Welch Church might justly have an
swered, It is for you, Saxons, who came last into a

en. vii.] KIXG INA'S LAWS. 129

country where there was an independent Christian
Church, rather, by the rule of charity, to conform
to us ; but if not, at least not to require from us
any thing more than the profession of that catholic
faith, which, as it is sufficient for salvation, should
be enough to secure to all fellow-Christians commu
nion with each other. Aldhelm, however, though his
arguments were not all sound, wrote with a spirit of
kindness; and peace was preserved between Ina and
Grant as long as Aldhelm was alive. He died A.D.
709, in the discharge of his duty, as he was visiting
his diocese. Finding a mortal stroke upon him, he
caused his attendants to remove him into the nearest
village-church — a little wooden church at Doulting,
near Shepton-Mallet in Somersetshire, — where, com
mending his soul to God, he tranquilly breathed his
last.

In the early wars between the Saxons and the
Welch, while the Saxons were yet pagans, it is to
be feared that the prisoners whom they took were
all made slaves ; but now the introduction of Chris
tianity made a difference. In the laws of king Ina,
we find the Welch in Somerset and Devonshire were
allowed to keep possession of their lands, and to live
as the king's subjects like the Saxons. Accordingly,
these districts, as well as Cornwall, continued long
after to be called the Welch districts :8 only, a wise
precaution was now taken to prevent them, under a
heavy fine, from entering into a deadly feud with an
Englishman ; for there would be danger that a pri
vate war, or duel, would lead to a general discord
between the two nations. It was the rude warlike
disposition of the old Saxons, which made this kind
01 private war very common ; and their laws, long

1 King Alfred's Will, about A.D. 880.

140 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

after the introduction of Christianity, did not entirely
put it down, appointing no other punishment, when
a man was slain in a quarrel, than that the slayer
should pay a fine to the king, and another to the
nearest relations of the slain. If the man was unable
to pay this, or any other fine, for an offence, he lost
his freedom. The slaves, however, among the Saxons,
were not, as among the old Greeks and Romans,
made to dwell under one roof, or to work in gangs :
every slave had a cottage to himself on his master's
estate, and tilled a portion of land, for which he paid
rent, commonly in kind, furnishing his master with a
given quantity of wheat or other grain, poultry, but
ter, and eggs; or, if he had charge of pasture, with
oxen or sheep. His slavery consisted in his not
being able to quit his occupation like a free tenant:
he was a slave to the soil where he laboured. Thus,
when landlords gave their slaves liberty, the cere
mony was, to take them to a place where four roads
met, and bid them go where they pleased : but
Bertwald, archbishop of Canterbury, to give more
solemnity to this ceremony, at a synod held at Berk-
hamstead, A.D. 697, directed that the master should
bring his slave to church, and declare his freedom
before the altar.

In these LAWS OF KING INA, which, he says in
the preamble, were drawn up with the ad^ ice and
instruction of Hedda, bishop of Winchester, and
Erconwald, bishop of London, as well as his earls
and wise counsellors, there are several marks — be
sides the good policy shewn towards his Welch sub
jects — of improvements suggested by Christianity.
If a master made a slave to work on Sunday, the
slave was to have his liberty, and the master to be
fined. If he worked by his own choice, he was to
pay a fine himself, or to be whipped. A free labourer

CH. VII. J KING INA's LAWS. 141

was to pay a heavier fine, or to lose his liberty. A
priest who broke this law was to incur a double
penalty. So strictly did these Christian legislators
provide for the observance of the Lord's day. If a
slave had committed some offence, for which he in
curred a whipping, and ran for refuge to a church,
he was to be forgiven. A woman, who took up and
nursed a child which had been exposed, was to re
ceive an increasing allowance of public money from
year to year, till the child grew up. It would seem
from this, that it was not uncommon for a poor pagan
mother to forsake her child ; as is still the case in
countries where paganism prevails. It had been also
the custom of the old Saxons, in their rude law, if a
man was convicted of theft, to condemn his whole
family to slavery with him ; so that, as one of their
early Christian lawgivers speaks of it, " the child
that lay in the cradle, and had never bitten meat,
was made as much answerable as if it had known all
that was done." The laws of Ina forbade that any
child, under ten years of age, should be held account
able ; and enacted, what was afterwards repeated in
the laws of later kings, that the wife should not be
made to share her husband's punishment, unless it
could be proved that she had locked up the stolen
property in some private cupboard or store-place of
her own.4 Another law speaks of one of those prac
tices, embittering the lot of slavery, to which allusion
has already been made in the story of St. Bavon,5 and
which was not entirely abolished in England before
the Norman Conquest : " If any man sell his own
countryman, be he slave or free, although he be guilty
of some crime, and send him beyond sea, he shall pay

4 It appears that every good Saxon housewife, in ordinary
life, had three locks and keys under her charge ; that of hei
store-room or closet, her linen-chest, and her money-box.

* See p. 27.

141 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the value of his life, and make deep amends to God."
There were pirates who visited the coast, and mer
chants, as they were called, at London, Bristol, and
other places, who were ready to give a price for their
fellow-men, to carry them to a slave-market abroad.
In the time of paganism this traffic was allowed; and
it was a common thing for the earls, or thanes, to
carry the prisoners they had taken in their little wars
to London, to sell them to some Frieslander or Ita
lian, and ship them off to foreign climes. It was now
forbidden, under a heavy penalty ; but as long as
slavery continued, there would often be a temptation
to an oppressive master to get rid of a troublesome
slave, or such as overburdened his land, by this kind
of transportation. It is likely also, that, as the law
above speaks of one who had been guilty of some
crime, the mode of turning culprits into land-slaves
was calculated to fill the country with thieves and
depredators, whom it would be inconvenient for a
landlord to keep as tenants. A.S to the last clause
of it, which made it necessary for the offender to do
penance, it was a piece of godly discipline : it was fit
that, for such an offence, he should forfeit his right
to Christian communion; and we may well admire
the spirit of our forefathers, who took such pains to
make Christianity a part and parcel of the law of
the land.

These laws also enact that every child should
be brought to be baptised within thirty days after
its birth, under penalty of forfeiting its inheritance.
And godfathers and godmothers appear to have con
sidered the tie which they contracted for the child
at the font to put them in the place of natural rela
tions. Thus earl Osric, a nobleman of Wessex, in
punishing some traitors who had slain king Cyne-
wolf, A-D. 784s spared the life of one who was his
godson, though he had been wounded by him in

CH. VII.] ACCA, BISHOP OK HEXHAM. 143

battle. A more remarkable instance of this feeling

o

was shewn afterwards by king Alfred, when in his
Danish wars having taken prisoners the two sons of
Hasten the Dane, A.D. 894, he immediately set them
free, to be restored to their father without ransom,
because he had stood godfather to one, and an earl
of his court to the other. These were feelings which
may put to shame an age when this sacred tie is so
near to be forgotten.

While the kingdom of Wessex was thus learning
to put on the yoke of Christ in the south of England,
the labours of other eminent Christians advanced
the knowledge of the truth still more effectually in
the north. Among these were ACCA, bishop of
Hexham, and the Venerable BEDE. Acca was the
builder of a noble church at Hexham, which he or
namented with many precious gifts; and there he
also collected a valuable library of books, particu
larly of lives of saints and martyrs who had served
God by holy living and dying. He was also, like
Aldhelm, an expert rm dcian, and took great pains
in providing for this part of the public service by
securing good teachers for his choir. It must be
observed, that the hymns and prayers commonly
used in the churches of the Saxons were in the
Latin language, as was taught by the first mission
aries from Rome ; but often in the daily service
they chanted the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and
many portions of the Psalms, in their own tongue.
And it seems, from some copies of their daily ser
vice now remaining, that these portions were taken
from Aldhelm's version. Every priest also was en
joined to teach the people the Creed and the Lord's
Prayer in English. It is to be regretted that the
prayers weie not altogether in the language of the
people, who must have listened to them at best in
the state of mind described by St. Paul, li their

144 KARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

spirit might have prayed, but their understanding
was unfruitful." Afterwards this evil increased, as
the old Saxon or English language grew out of use
in the Norman times, and nothing but the Latin re
mained. Another custom, vhich Acca and others
zealously introduced into their churches, was the
adorning of the side-walls with little tabernacles or
shrines, arching over altars in honour of apostles
and martyrs ; at which the people often knelt in
prayer, and on which were placed little caskets con
taining relics of such holy persons, to whom they
either did or were imagined to belong. This prac
tice had been attempted in the time of St. Ambrose,
A.D. 370-390; when the Roman emperor Theodo-
sius made a law to forbid persons to rob graves
under pretence of removing the bones of martyrs ;
advising them rather to build churches over their
burial-places, and to leave the remains undisturbed.
Afterwards, however, this superstition gained ground ;
and the Saxons, who had learnt it from pope Gre
gory's missionaries, soon had many stories prevalent
about miracles shewn at the place wher^ holy men
had died, or where their relics were deposited. It
was also a dangerous practice to allow any altars in
churches beside that which was set apart for the
only Christian sacrifice. This custom was early re
ceived among the Saxons ; and in A.D. 780, when
archbishop Albert consecrated a new and spacious
church at York, it contained no fewer than thirty
altars. In other respects, Acca did good service in
adorning the holy place with candlesticks and holy
vessels, and in the pains he took to promote church-
music, which by his instructions became very general
in the north.

It may perhaps serve to give the English reader a
notion of the psalmody of the Anglo-Saxon Church,
if we here insert a nearly literal rendering of the

01. VII.] METRICAL CREKD. 1 4S

Apostles' Creed from the ancient measure in which
it was sung to the harp in their church-service:

Father of unchanging might,

Set above the welkin's height.

Who the unsullied tracts of air

Didst in their own space prepare,

And the solid earth more fast

With its deep foundations cast, —

Thee, the Everlasting One,

With believing heart I own.

Life itself from Thee had birth,

Lord of angels, King of earth;

Thou the ocean's mighty deep

in its pathless caves dost keep ;

And the countless stars that glow,

Thou their power and names dost know.

And with faith assur'd I own,
Lord, thy true and only Son,
King of might to heal and save ;
Whom thy pitying mercy gave
Hither for our belp to come
From the blissful angels' home.
Gabriel, on thine errand sent,
Through the crystal firmament
Glancing with the speed of thought.
Thy behest to Mary brought.
She, the virgin pure and blest,
Freely bowed to thy behest,
And the Father's wondrous pow'r
Prais'd in that rejoicing hour.
There no earth-born lust had room :
Spotless was that maiden's womb,
As a casket meet to bear,
Brightest gem, heav'n's first-born heir.
But such bliss as angels know
Thy pure Spirit did bestow ;
And the maid and mother mild
Gave to earth her heaven-born child,
Born as man, our needs to prove,
Maker of the hosts above !
Heavenly comfort at his birth
Dawn'd upon the sons of earth
o

J46 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

And by David's lowly town
Angels brought glad tidings dowo,
That the Healer of all woe
Sojourn'd now with men below.

Then , when under men of Rome
Pilate held the power to doom,
Our dear Lord gave up his breath,
Bore the bitter throes of death
On the rood as sinners die,
King of endless majesty !
Sadly Joseph made his gravf
In his own sepulchral cave :
But his soul was gone to quell
Foes that held the spoil of hell
In the fiery cells that keep
Spirits long imprison'd deep,
Whom his summons call'd away
To their home in upper day.6

Then, when came the third day's
Rose again the Lord of might ;
Freshly from his clay-cold bed,
King of light and life he sped
Forty days his followers true
To his heavenly lore he drew
Holy rune'i1 unfolding, ne'er
Heard before by mortal ear ;
Till his hour to reign was come,
And he sought his glorious home :
But his promise left to man,
From the hour that reign began,
That no more distraught with dread
Faithful men his ways should tread ;

6 It seems to have been the belief of some of the early
Saxon Christians, that the soul of our blessed Saviour descended
into the place of torments ; (Calvin and Bishop Latimer had
this belief;) and that he set free from thence the souls of Adam
and Eve and others, who were held captives by Satan till that
time. This was called in early times, The Harrowing of Hell.
It waa the belief of Csedmon, who describes it in his Para
phrase, ii § 8 ; and it appears to have been the belief of the
author of this version of the Creed.

Runes, mysteries : alluding to Acts i. 3.

'^Zo VII.] METRICAL CREED, I1*'

But with patience standing fast,
Of his free deliverance taste.

I the Spirit of all grace
With unswerving faith embrace,
"Whom the tongues of nations own,
"With the Father and the Son,
Everlasting God. Though three
Named by name, yet one they be ;
One the Godhead, one alone,
Whom in differing names we own.
Faith receives the mystery,
Yielding truth the victory.
Wheresoe'er the world is spread,
Lord, thy glory-gifts are shed,
To thy saints in wonders shewn ;
And eternal is thy throne.

Furthermore, I keep and hold,
Ever-loved of God, the fold
Of his faithful ones, that are
Ever the good Shepherd's care,
That true Church, that to heaven's King
Doth accordant praises sing :
And the fellowship bestow' d
To the saints on earth's abode,
With the souls that dwell with God.

Free forgiveness for each sin
Penitent I hope to win :
And with faith assured, I trust
That this flesh, return'd to dust,
Shall arise, with all the dead,
At the day of doom and dread ;
When our endless state shall be,
Judge of all men, fix'd by Thee,
As on earth our works are still
Measured by our Maker's will.8

Such was probably in substance the creed which
was sung in the choirs at Malmsbury and Hexhani
in the seventh century. But the most eminent
Christian teacher of the time was the VENERABLE

8 Elstob's Anglo-Saxon Hours, p. 21.

148

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

BEDE, to whom bishop Acca owes all the knowledge
we have of his life and labours, and without whom
the English Church would be left with little inform
ation as to its early history.

Bede was born about the year of our Lord 671,
on the domain of the monasteries of Wearmouth and
Jarrow; and at the age of seven, being, as it seems,
an orphan, was entrusted by his nearest relations to
the care of the abbot Biscop to be educated. From
that time he never left the monastery; but as he
grew up, employed all his time in studying the Scrip
tures, observing the rule of discipline of the religious
house, and the daily service of psalmody in the
church: "for," he 'says, "I found it delightful
always either to learn, to teach, or to write." When
he was aged eighteen he was ordained a deacon,
and at thirty a priest, by John, bishop of York, first
founder of the minster at Beverley. At the request
of his friend Acca, he undertook to write a large
commentary on the greater part of the books of
Scripture, selected from the writings of the Chris-
tiau fathers, and with many additions of his own • a

CH. VII.] BEDE. 149

work of great labour. and value. Besides this, he
wrote many treatises, and letters to friends, on reli
gious and moral subjects, on the nature of the world,
on the art of calculating time, and on metre ; a great
number of sermons or homilies ; and a history of
the Church of England from the mission of Gregory
to his own time, from which the greater part of the
information contained in the foregoing pages has
been extracted.

At the age of sixty-three, A.D. 735, this faithful
servant of God received his summons to a better
world. He was seized at the latter end of March,
about a fortnight before Easter, with a shortness of
breath, unaccompanied by other pain, but which he
perceived to have in it the symptoms of mortal dis
ease. He lived on till the eve of Ascension-day,
May 26, in continual piayers and thanksgivings, still
giving daily instructions to his pupils, and discours
ing with them ; and at night, when his disorder al
lowed him but short intervals of rest, watched only
to utter psalms of praise. He had often on his
tongue the words of St. Paul, " It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God ;" and other
texts of Scripture, — by which he admonished his
hearers to awake from the sleep of the soul, by
thinking beforehand of their last hour. To the same
purpose he repeated some solemn verses in the old
Saxon language:

Ere the pilgrim soul go forth

On its journey far and lone,
Who is he, that yet on earth

All his needful part hath done ?

Who foreweighs the joy or scathe
That his parted ghost shall know,

Endless, when the day of death
Seals his doom for weal or woe ?

He also repeated some of the collects used in the?

o i

150 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

service of the Church, particularly that of which
he was reminded by the holy season of the Lord's
ascension : " O King of glory, Lord of might, who
didst this day ascend in triumph above all the hea
vens ; we beseech thee, leave us not orphans, but
send to us the promise of the Father, the Spirit of
truth. Praised be thy name!" When he came to
the words, " leave us not orphans," he burst into
tears, remembering perhaps how the God of the
fatherless had been his protector from his youth,
and continued for some time weeping and silently
pouring out his heart to his heavenly Benefactor;
while all who were with him mingled their tears
with his. Often he said with thankfulness, " God
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ;" and spoke
with gladness of the mercy that was shewn him in
the infirmity which he was now counted worthy to
suffer. Of his approaching departure he said, in
the words of St. Ambrose, " I have not so lived as
that I should be unwilling to live longer among
you ; but neither do I fe»r to die, for we have a
merciful God."

All the time of his sickness he was still employed
upon two works ; one, a stt of extracts from the
writings of Isidore, bishop of Seville, which he
thought valuable, but requiring selection, — and "I
do not wish my boys," he said, meaning his pupils,
" to be employed after my death in reading what is
unprofitable;" the other, a translation of the Gospel
of St. John into the old English or Saxon language.
On Tuesday before Ascension-day his breathing
became more difficult, and his feet began slightly
to swell ; yet he continued all day to teach and dic
tate to his pupils with his usual cheerfulness, saying
sometimes, " Learn your best to-day ; for I know
not how long I may last, or how soon my Maker
may call me away." His pupils perceived that he

CH. VII.] BHDE. 151

foresaw his end approaching. He lay down to rest
iViat night, but passed it without sleep, in prayer and
thanksgiving.

At the dawn of the next day, he called his young
companions, and bade them lose no time in writing
the rest of the task he had begun with them. So
they continued employed till nine o'clock, when, as
the office of the day required, they went in proces
sion with the relics of the saints. One, however,
remained with him ; but fearing it might be too
much for his weakness, he said, " There is still, my
dear master, one chapter wanting to complete the
translation ; but I must not ask you to dictate any
more." " Nay," said Bede, " it is easy to me. Take
your pen and write ; only lose no time." He did so,
and the work was nearly finished ; when, about three
o'clock in the afternoon Bede called to Cuthbert,
afterwards abbot of Jariow, who wrote the account
of his death : " I have," said he, " in my little private
chest some few valuables, some pepper, frankincense,
and a few ecarfs ;9 run speedily, and bring the priests
of our monastery to me, that I may distribute to them
such little gifts as God has put it into m^ power to
give." While he did so, he begged them to offer
masses for him, and to remember him in their
prayers ; which they readily promised. " It is now
time," he said, " that I should return to Him who
created me. I have lived long, and my merciful
Judge has well provided for me the kind of life I
have led. I feel the hour of my freedom is at hand,
and I desire to be released and to be with Christ."
Thus he passed the time in peace and holy joy till
the evening. The youth, who had before attended
him, then wishing to liave the work completed, once

9 Pepper, being then a scarce foreign produce, was a valu
able spice. A silken scarf, or handkerchief, in old English
times was a common gift of affection and friendship.

152 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

more reminded him that the last sentence still re
mained. " Write quickly, then," said Bede, and
gave him the closing words. " It is now finished,"
said the youth, when he had set them down. "You
say well," replied Bede, "it is finished! Support
my head between thy hands, and let me, while I sit,
still look towards the holy place in which I used to
pray, that though I can no longer kneel, I may still
call upon my Father." Shortly afterwards he sunk
from his seat to the floor of his cell, and uttering
his last hymn of praise, "Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," when he
had named the name of the Blessed Spirit he
breathed away his gentle soul.

No man had a purer love of holiness, or lived
in more entire dependence upon divine grace, than
Bede. "Who," said he, "shall dare to boast of
the power of nature, and the freedom of the will to
good? If I had not the words of the apostle to
teach me, my own roving thoughts might warn me,
that the soul's motions are not free. How often,
when I have desired and striven earnestly to fix my
mind in prayer, have I not been able! Yet, if the
soul were free, it would be my choice to keep it
intently fixed in the time of prayer, just as I can
with ease place my body in the place and in the
posture in which prayer is made."

WTith regard to his desire that prayers should be
said for him and masses offered after he was dead,
it is plain, that he did not ask for them in expecta
tion that they would help his soul out of purgatory,
for he died in joyful confidence that his labours had
been accepted, and that he should be soon with
Christ. He believed that in the holy communion it
was fit that a remembrance should be made of the
faithful departed, and that God should be entreated
to keep them, as it is his will, in mercy and peace

TH. VII. ]

153

until the resurrection of the last day. It were well
if such a prayer had never been perverted to danger
ous superstitions, and if it had been thus retained,
as it was in the first communion-service put forth
for the use of the English Church alter the Reform
ation, the first prayer-book in king Edward VI. 's
reign.

The name of Bede ha^ been pmtivtd, with the
honour which he so worthily obtained in his own
days, through many later generations.
His chair, an old massive oaken seat,
is still shewn at Jarrow. His bones
were conveyed long afterwards to
Durham, and a princely Norman bi
shop, Hugh Pudsey, nephew of King
Stephen, enclosed them in a casket of
gold and silver in that part of the
cathedral called the Galilee, which
was erected by him. A plain stone now lies ove?
the place with the following inscription : —

Here rest the bones of Venerable Cede.

CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY ENGLISH MISSIONARIES. CONVERSION OF FRIESLAND
AND SAXONY WILBROliD, FIKST ARCHBISHOP OK UTRECHT.
WINFR1D, FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF MAYENCE.

He, who holds the heaven in ward,
Holy spirits had prepar'd,
Who to rebels wild and stern
Gave the lore of truth to learn.

C/EDMOM, { 50.

after the gospel had been re
ceived by the Anglo-Saxons, the zeal
of many devoted men among them was
shewn in undertaking missions to the
tribes of the same race, and who spoke
c% language like their own, on the continent of Eu
rope. Wilfrid, bishop of York, before mentioned,
was the first who attempted this, when on one of
his voyages towards Rome he was driven by a storm
to the coast of Friesland. It was the character of
Wilfrid's life, that he did the best service to Christi
anity when he was farthest from home; "like the
nightingales," says Thomas Fuller, " that sing the
sweetest when farthest from their nests." Finding
a hospitable welcome with the king of that country,
lie stayed through the winter preaching Christ to
them, and with such success that multitudes came
to him to ask at his hands the sacrament of baptism.
A few years later, Egbert, a Saxon hermit of
great piety, was prepared to take a missionary voy-

CH. VIII.] MISSIONS 10 GKRMANY. 155

age to Friesland ; but being discouraged by a vision,
he recommended the enterprise to another hermit, his
friend Wicbert, who, after passing two years among
the pagan people, finding none willing to hear or in
quire after the truth, returned to his cell. At this
time Pepin, duke of the Franks, great grandfather
of Charlemagne, had just conquered Friesland, when
a party of twelve English missionaries led by WIL-
BRORD, a priest educated at the monastery of Ripon,
presented themselves at his court. Pepin protected
them; and as they were thus enabled to preach with
out annoyance from the enemies of their faith, they
soon turned many from their idolatry. When Pepin
himself had received baptism from the hands of Wil-
brord, he took a journey, by that prince's advice, to
Rome, to consult pope Sergius on the best way of
continuing the work of his mission. By him lie was
consecrated bishop of the Frieslanders ; and Charles
Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, afterwards
fixed his see at Utrecht, tor forty-six years this
zealous Englishman with his companions laboured
unceasingly in the work of the gospel, and planted
churches in most of the provinces bordering on the
lower part of the course of the Rhine. As nrst
bishop of this territory, Wilbrord also compiled a
set of canons or laws" for the government of his
Church, and provided for its good instruction by
founding schools and monasteries, and encouraging
preachers both by precept and example. He seems
never to have returned to England, but continued tc
hold intercourse by letters with his friends in the
country, from which he had voluntarily become an
exile for the sake of Christ particularly with Acca,
bishop of Hexham, who visited him on one occasion,
as he took a voyage from Northumberland to Rome.
His valuable writings have been lost; but his name
was long honoured both in England and abroad.

J56 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

lie died at the advanced age of eighty-one, having
now the title of archbishop of Utrecht, and leaving
Christianity well established round him, about A.D
741.

The example of this eminent man was soon fol
lowed by other English Saxons. Two priests, who
had also " for the love of a heavenly kingdom" gone
to live in banishment in Ireland, went out on a
mission to Saxony, to try what success they might
find with the inhabitants, who were originally of the
same race with the majority of the people of Eng
land. These were both of one name, Hewald or
Ewald, a name still remaining in Germany ; but to
distinguish them from each other, one was called,
from the colour of his hair, the black Ewald, the
other, the white or fair. They went among the
i>agan people without fear or thought of disguising
'heir holy errand; and were heard and seen daily
offering prayers, chanting psalms, and celebrating
the Christian sacrifice on a small communion-table,
which with holy vessels they carried on a sumpter-
horse with them. Thus they sought out the earl or
chief of the province, which was governed without
a king; but the pagans, seeing that their aim was
to bring in a new religion, and not being friendly
to such a change, seized them before they could
accomplish their mission, and put them to a cruel
death, the white Ewald being shortly released by a
sword-stroke, but his comrade mangled limb by limb
and thrown into the Rhine. Their martyrdom took
place near Cologne, where they were afterwards
snterred, their bodies being recovered by some of
their^fompanions, on the third of October, A.D. 695.
\Yhile Wilbrord was absent on one of his two
journeys to Rome, the English missionaries in Fries-
land !ind sent one of their number, Switlihert, to
be consecrated bishop bv archbishop Theodore fo

OH. VIII. 1 WINFRID, ABP. OF MAYENCE. 137

a mission into Prussia ; but on his arrival, finding
Theodore dead, and his successor not yet appointed,
he obtained consecration from Wilfrid, who was then
residing at Leicester among the Mercians. Swith-
bert had good success in preaching among the Prus
sians; but they being shortly afterwards driven out
of their province by the old Saxons, his flock was
scattered, and the bishop retired to close his life in
a small monastery, which Pepin gave him leave to
build upon an island in the Rhine.

A still more eminent missionary followed the
steps of these good men in the next generation.
This was WINFRID, a native of Crediton in De
vonshire, who, after passing his younger days at
the monastery of Exeter, was advised by the abbot
Winbert, who had the charge of his education, to
enter into holy orders. He was ordained priest,
and devoted himself diligently to preaching and the
instruction of his countrymen ; but in the midst of
the esteem and success with which he laboured at
home, he conceived a strong desire to become a
partaker of the labours of the aged Wilbrord, whom
he joined at Utrecht about the year A.D. 716. He
then returned for a short time to England, but
-efused the offer of the abbacy of his own monas
tery, which was then vacant, and again set out for
Hesse and Friesland, with recommendatory letters
from Daniel, bishop of Winchester, A.D. 718. After
enduring many great hardships and dangers with
his English companions, Winfrid went to Rome,
A.D. 723, and was consecrated by pope Gregory II.
as missionary bishop of the Germans eastward of
the Rhine. "This pope gave him the Italian name
of Boniface, as pope Sergius had before given to
Wilbrord the name of Clement, and as we have
seen the Italian missionaries in England give a new
name to the Saxons whom they ordained as bishops.
p

158 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Great numbers of missionaries now came to join him
from England, and numbers of the people of the
provinces of the upper Rhine were converted and
baptised. After a long and honourable course of
missionary labours, having received the dignity of
archbishop of Mayence, he suffered martyrdom with
several of his clergy in a tumult of the pagans near
Dockum, in East Friesland, A.D. 755.1

From several letters of this remarkable man,
which the respect of his disciples has preserved to us,
we are able to form some notion of his Christian
zeal, and the active character of his life. Among
the earliest is one addressed in common to the
bishops and clergy of the English Church, asking
their united prayers for the success of his mission.
It might almost serve as a form and model for a
missionary prayer : " Knowing my own littleness,"
he says, " I am the more earnest to implore you
with the tenderness of brotherly love to remember
me in your prayers ; that I may be delivered from
the snares of the fowler, and from violent and wicked
men ; and ' that the word of God may have free course,
and be glorified.' Pray, with a sense of pity for their
need, for those Saxons who are yet pagans ; that
God and our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who will have all
men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge ot
the truth,' may turn their hearts to the Catholic faith,
that they may recover themselves from the M'iles of
the devil, by which they are held captive, and be
numbered with the children of the Church, our holy
mother. You would compassionate them, if you
heard them say, as they often do to me, We are
all of one blood and one bone : and remember, how
soon man ' goeth the way of all the earth,' and that
' none in the grave confess unto the Lord, death can-

1 An excellent account of his missionary life will be found
in Mr. Palmer's Ecclesiasticai History, chap xiii. pp. 141»4i,

CO. VIII.] LETTERS OF \VI.VFRID. 159

not celebrate him." Know that in tins prayer of mine
I have received the encouragement, consent, and
blessing of two successive bishops of the Roman
Church. Deal therefore so with my request, that
your crowns of reward may grow bright and in
crease in the angels' court above ; and as the com
munion of your love shall flourish and advance in
Christ, may the Almighty Creator keep and pre
serve it evermore." Not less striking is another
letter, written in his old age to his friend Daniel,
asking for a copy of the six first books of the pro
phets, which his master, Winbert, had left him as a
legacy at his death. It was written, as most Eng
lish manuscripts of the Saxon period were, in a clear
and legible character ; and he could find none like
it beyond sea. His eyes were now growing dim,
and he could not well read small contracted letters ;
but, like other aged devout Christians, he took great
delight in the prophetic books of holy Scripture.
"If God shall inspire your heart to do me this kind
ness," he says, " you cannot send me a greater com
fort for my age."

All the time that he was abroad he took a lively
interest in the welfare of his native country and the
good of the English Church, frequently writing to
the Saxon princes and bishops, and giving and re
ceiving advice on the affairs of Christianity in Eng
land and beyond sea. He did not spare to admonish
the great and powerful, whose lives or conduct ne
thought a hindrance to the cause of truth. Thus,
in a letter to Ethelbald, king of Mercia, after com
mending his charity to the poor, his defending the
widow's cause, and the justice of his government, he
sharply reproves him for the luxury and debauchery
of his private life, and bids him to remember how
such vices in king Roderick of Spain had lately
brought down the vengeance of God upon the

1GO EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Christian people of that country,2 whose flourishing
churches were now trodden under foot by the Sara
cens. The letter is written in a strain of earnest
affection, reminding him how even the old pagan
Saxons detested such crimes as he was charged \vith,
often punishing adulterers and unchaste persons by
burning or scourging; "how shameful then in one
whom God has adopted for his son, and the Church
our holy mother borne anew to a spiritual life in
baptism !" Then pointing to the worldly deceits
by which the young and prosperous are too easily
beguiled, he repeats many texts of holy Scripture
against the vanity of life, and ends with the solemn
words, " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul !"

To gain a favourable hearing for this letter Win-
frid sent with it another to announce a present of
some falcons, used in the old English sport of hawk
ing, of a breed not easily procured in England;
and he desires Herefrid, the king's chaplain, to take
a convenient time to read the letter of reproof to
Ethelbald, translating it from Latin into his native
tongue. The king, who knew the worth of his cha
racter, took his admonition patiently, and at length
reformed his dissolute life.

Ethelbert II., king of Kent, was another of Win-
frid's correspondents, who sent him friendly gifts, and
helped him in the expenses of his foreign mission.
This worthy prince seems to have been fond of the
same field sport of hawking, common to most old
English gentlemen ; for he desires Winfrid to send
him some German hawks, which he heard were bet
ter trained, or more powerful than those which he

'* The wrong done by king Roderick to the daughter of
count Julian led that nobleman to invite the Moors or Saracens
i-ito Spain, where they had pained possession of the best pait
of the country a few years before Winfrid wrote, A.D. 711.

CH. VIII.] LKTTEKS OF WINFRID. JG1

Jiad in Kent, to bring down herons to the ground.
But the occasion of a letter, which is still preserved,
was his hearing from a religious lady at Rome that
Winfrid prayed for him. " It is a great comfort to
me," he says, " to know this ; and it would add much
to my satisfaction to receive a letter or a messenger
from vou." He sends him as a remembrance a small
silver" cup inlaid with gold. "The days," he says,
"are evil ; therefore pray for me as long as you hear
that I am in this mortal flesh ; and after my death, if
vou survive me, remember me still in your prayers."
Among the bishops with whom Winfrid kept up
A friendly intercourse by letters, was Cuthbert, arch
bishop of Canterbury, to whom he sent, A.D. 745,
some canons of a synod lately held at Augsburg,
giving more authority to the bishop of Rome over
the Churches in that part of the country than was
allowed him in the English Church. Cuthbert, who
was a wise and prudent prelate, did not imitate his
example in binding himself to obey in all things the
orders of St. Peter, as they called the pope's com
mands ; but at a synod held at Cliff's -hoe, near
Rochester, A.D. 747," he and the other English bi
shops engaged to maintain their own laws against
encroachment, keeping up a free correspondence
with foreign churches and a union of affection, but
not flattering any person because he held a station
of higher dignity"in the Church. In other respects,
the advice of the missionary archbishop to his brother
in Kent was excellent, shewing the deepest sense of
the responsibilities of such a station, on which is
laid the care of all the churches. " Remember,"
he says, " the word of God to those shepherds who
feed themselves and not the flock : (Ezek. xxxiv.)

I WILL REQUIRE MY FLOCK AT THEIR HANDS.

Trust, then, to the protection of the Almighty ; be
bold in the cause of truth ; be prepared to suffer

1G2

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

reproach, or even violence. Let us not be dumb
dogs — watchmen that give no warning ; nor so care
ful of ourselves as to retreat from danger when the
wolf conies to devour. Let us stand upon our watch,
and preach to high and low, rich and poor, and do
our utmost to bring all within that law of life which
makes the obedient happy." Again he says, "The
post of honour which we fill is of more danger than
a lower station : it cannot be held without its trials.
The helmsman must not leave his place when the
seas are smooth ; but to fail to steer the ship in a
storm is unpardonable cowardice. Such is the office
of a prelate in times of persecution : dangerous to
hold, but ruinous to betray." He speaks of Clement
and Cornelius, bishops of Rome, of St. Cyprian and
St. Athanasius, who all underwent trials of this kind,
but guarded well the flock of Christ, choosing rather
to suffer loss of goods and loss of life than fail in
any part of their high trust. By such examples and
encouragement did this devoted Christian cheer his
friend, and prepare his own soul against the dreadful
deatli which for him had no terrors.

Though he had bound himself and the Christians
under him to such a strict subjection to the see of
Rome, this did not lead him blindly to follow opi
nions and practices, which, though in favour with
the Romans, appeared to him unfounded on any
Scriptural warrant. Thus he wrote to Nothelm,
archbishop of Canterbury, to ask him whether it
was forbidden by the old Catholic fathers for a
man to marry the widowed mother of a child to
whom he had stood godfather. The Romans at
this time had begun to multiply prohibitions of mar
riage among kindred, which was afterwards a fruit
ful source of encroachments on the part of the pope;
and this was one of their prohibitions. The good
sense of Winfrid was revolted at it : "I cannot un-

CH. VIII.] LETTERS OF WINFRID.

derstand," he said, " wliy a man, whc has entered
once into this kind of spiritual relation with a pa
rent, commits a deadly sin if afterwards he is joined
together with her in lawful matrimony. By this rule
prohibitions might extend to every member of the
Church ; for Christians are all sons and daughters
of Christ and his Church, and so made in holy bap
tism brothers and sisters to each other." Again,
he complained very freely to pope Zachary of some
heathenish customs and abuses which he heard of
at Rome. " These rude Germans, Bavarians, and
Franks," he says, " if they see any thing done at
Rome which we forbid them to do, think that your
priests permit it, and hold our admonitions in con
tempt. They say that every year, on the first of
January, they have seen at Rome, both by night
and day, near the churches and in the public places,
such dances as the pagans use, the same profane
shouting and heathenish songs; and during this day
and night there is no one who will lend out of his
house to his neighbour either fire or steel, or any
household utensil.3 They say also that there are
women, whom they have seen with charms and
bands bound about their arms and legs, like pagan
witches, who carry on a trade of spells with any
customers they may find. All these things, seen by
carnal and ignorant men, are a great hindrance to
our preaching and the progress of the faith. If you,
my good father, will forbid these pagan customs at
Rome, you will do a good service, and assure us of
great advancement in the doctrine of the Church."

Winfrid had the greatest affection for Bede, often
sending requests to the bishops and clergy in North
umberland for his writings, calling him " the candle
of the Lord, sent for the spiritual enlightenment of

3 A remnant of this pagan custom still prevails about
Christmas in the north of England.

164 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the Church." He corresponded also with many
religious persons in more private life, particularly
a Saxon lady called Buga, the head of a religious
family in Kent, to whom he sent many letters of
beautiful Christian consolation. His most intimate
friends in the English Church were the bishops of
hi* native province of Wesscx, Forthere bishop of
Sherborne, the successor of Aldhelm, and Daniel
bishop of Winchester. Daniel, as was before men
tioned, sent him out as a missionary, with a letter
to recommend all the Christians in the mission to
receive him in the name of Christ, and continued
afterwards to write to him to encourage him in his
excellent labours. " I rejoice," he says, "and thank
God for the strength of faith which has enabled you
to do such good works among rud? heathens, turn
ing the wilderness into a fruitful field by the plough
of gospel preaching." Then he gives him some very
judicious advice how to converse with the pagan
people, to gain their attention and put them upon
inquiry. " Ask them," he says, "such questions as
these: Had your gods and goddesses a beginnin"?
had the world a beginning? what is the good for
which you worship these gods ? is it for the present
enjoyments of this life, or for that happiness which
you expect to come in another world ? which is
most worthy of your thanks and praise? Then
sometimes shew them the superiority of the Chris
tian faith : Are your gods almighty ? why then dc
they suffer Christians to come and pervert theii
worshippers? why are those good countries now
possessed by Christians, which were lately held by
pagans ? Only the cold and barren countries of the
north are left to you. But it is the power of'truth
which has given this increase." The good bishop,
when he wrote this letter, was confined to his house
by a fit of sickness, and he entreats his friend'-

en. vrti.] FRT.UTS OF THE MISSION. 165

prayers for him; but he speaks of such sufferings
with the confidence of a Christian in the faithful
ness of God, and repeats the text, " In the multi
tude of my sorrows in my heart, thy comforts have
given peace to my soul."

Such was the kind of religious correspondence
kept up by our Christian forefathers, and with such
zeal did they labour in the Lord's cause. To them
is owing almost all the light of truth and civilisa
tion which was spread through the Netherlands and
the north of Germany. Wilbrord and Winfrid, and
their companions, were the founders of churches
which have ever since remained in those countries;
and while the Mahometans were making their first
great inroads on the Christian nations in the East,
and overran Africa and Spain, they thus provided
a means to counterpoise the loss, by converting a
large portion of the nations which came to people
and subdue Europe. Wilbrord baptised Pepin d'He-
ristal, the father of Charles Martel, whose great vic
tory over the Saracens at Tours in France, A.D.732,
effectually checked the Mahometan power in Europe,
and drove them back into Spain ; and Winfrid bap
tised Pepin, the son of Charles Martel and father rf
Charlemagne, whose valour and prudence most of all
laid the foundation of social order and fixed govern
ment in the unsettled warlike tribes over whom he
ruled. How much Charlemagne himself owed of his
fame and greatness to one of our Christian country
men will be seen from the following chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

PROGRESS OF ARTS AND LEARNING AMONG THE ENGLISH
SAXO.VS. SCHOOL OF YORK. ARCHBISHOPS EGBERT AND
ALBERT. ALCUIN AND CHARLEMAGNE.

Still in my mind

Is fix'd, and now beats full upon my heart,
Thy mild paternal image, as on earth,
1'recept on precept, line on line, it taught
The way for man to win eternity.

DANTE.

jht of learning and Christian know
ledge, which shone so brightly in the
north of England during the lifetime of
Bede, was not put out with his death.
Besides the monastery of Jarrow, where
liis pupils still promoted the truths they had learned
from him, Lindisfarne and Hexham were schools of
Christianity and nurseries of the Church. St. Alk-
mund, bishop of Hexham, was a man long remem
bered for his piety and charity after his death, A.D.
781. Eadfrid, bishop of Lindisfarne, a contemporary
of Bede's, was the author of a translation of the Gos
pels into Saxon, which is said to be still preserved
in the British Museum. He was followed by other
teachers, whose names are recorded in old history ;
particularly Iglac, an eminent expounder of Scrip
ture, and Ethelwolf, whose historical work on the
church of Lindisfarne still remains to us.

But the most eminent school of Christianity in
the north in the eighth century was at York, under

CH. IX. j ABPS. EGBERT AND ALBERT. 167

the two eminent archbishops EGBERT and ALBERT,
on whom it may be said with truth that some portion
of the spirit of Bede rested. We have already seen
how Bede, a short time before his death, addressed
a letter to archbishop Egbert, giving him his last
thoughts on the state of the English Church. He
delivered his mind to him with the greatest freedom,
as to one of whose sentiments he was well assured.
This prince and prelate, for he was a brother of the
ling of Northumbria, after obtaining from Rome a
renewal of the pall which was held by Paulinus, set
himself in earnest about the good government of the
Church in his province. They were happy times for
Northumbria, says Alcuin, when the king and the
bishop ruled each their province with perfect con
cord in the administration of the laws, the one as
brave as the other was good ; one distinguished for
active enterprise, the other for deeds of mercy. The
king, Edbert, however, at length retired from busy
life, and gave his kingdom to another, dying in his
brother's monastery, about a year after Egbert's
death, A.D. 768. The archbishop, after ably ruling
the Church for more than tliirty years, and compos
ing a book of rules for priests to observe with peni
tents, and also a collection of Church-laws or canons
in the English language, was succeeded by a near
relation, Albert, a man well qualified to pursue the
improvements he had begun, and still further to
promote religious and useful learning.

Albert, says Alcuin, was a pattern of goodness,
justice, piety, and liberality ; a teacher who taught
the catholic faith with a spirit of love ; an excellent
ruler of the Church in which he was brought up :
when he spoke of the law, it was as the call of the
trumpet to awake to judgment; but he was still the
herald of salvation : stern to the stouthearted u ho
refused to bend, but kind and gentle to the good ,

1G8 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the hope of the poor, the solace of the distressed,
the father of orphans ; and the more humble, the
more he was exalted. While Egbert lived, he was
the principal teacher of the college at York, where
the Saxon youth born between the Tees and H um
ber were instructed : it was a college for education,
adjoining the religious house, where the monks and
unmarried priests resided, who were more imme
diately under the orders of the archbishop. Here
Albert shewed the excellence of his talents, and the
extent of his acquirements, by leading his pupils
tli rough such branches of learning and science as
would not be easily exceeded at any modern uni
versity ; for he taught himself, or by the help of
other teachers, the art of grammar, rhetoric or elo
quence, jurisprudence or the science of law, poetry,
particularly Latin metres, astronomy and natural
history, mathematics and chronology, and, above all,
the exposition of holy Scripture. It is not to be
supposed that he imposed this course of reading and
study on all his pupils, but according to their abi
lities and inclination chose out different branches of
instruction for them. If he marked any young men
who shewed signs of talent and good disposition, like
a good master he made them his friends by an affec
tionate regard to their improvement ; and thus he
had many who, out of kindness to their instructor,
after they had gono through some of the arts and
sciences, sought his guidance to help them to un
derstand their Bible.

His love of acquiring knowledge led him to take
more than one journey to the continent of Europe,
to find out any new books or new plans of instruc
tion in other countries. He also visited Rome, rather
from feelings of devotion, than to increase his learned
stores. He was received on his return to England
with great honour; and some of the Saxon kings in

CH. IX.J ALBERT, ARCHBP. OF YORK. 169

the south would gladly have kept him at their courts;
but wishing to profit his native province, he resumed
his post of instructor at York. The people are said
to have made it their petition to the king of North-
umbria, on the death of Egbert, that he might be
his successor.

As he had borne his part with such excellent
diligence before, his care did not relax in this higher
station. He fed his flock with the food of the divine
word, says Alcuin; guarded the lambs of Christ from
the wolf, and bore back on his shoulders the sheep
that had wandered in the wild. He spoke the truth
to all, not sparing kings or earls, if they misbehaved.
Nor did he suffer the weight of his high charge to
prevent his studying the holy Scriptures as much as
ever. His table was not changed, nor his dress more
splendid than before ; but while he avoided all deli
cacy, he took care to shun the other extreme of
meanness.

About two years and two months before his
death, when he had filled the office of archbishop
for thirteen years, he retired into the monastery,
that he might have leisure to serve God alone. He
was now full of days and honour; and calling to
him his two favourite pupils, Eanbald and Alcuin,
he gave up to the first the bishop's office, to which
he had been appointed, and to the other, what he
valued as much, his chair of instruction and his
books. These were placed in a library, which he
had built for their reception ; and a list of them is
given by Alcuin, long enough to shew the character
of the books which were studied in the early English
Church. It is likely that at Lindisfarne, and Jarrow.
and Hexham, and perhaps also at Whitby, there were
libraries of nearly equal value. There can be no
doubt that there was one as large at Canterbury ;
and probably at Rochester, nt Winchester, and at
a

170 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Malmsbury, and Oxford, there were good stores of
books before the Danish invasions. Alcuin does not
give the names of all the volumes, but of those which
he thought most valuable. First, what was of most
esteem in the eyes of an old English bishop, next to
the inspired writings, and what, it is to be hoped,
will always be in high esteem with the ministers of
the English Church, the library contained many of
the works of the primitive fathers ; St. Basil, St.
Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose,
St. Augustine, St. Jerome, popes Leo and Gregory,
Fulgentius, and Lactantius, Boethius, Prosper, and
some of later date. There were also a few of the
Roman historians, orators, and poets ; the Greek
philosopher Aristotle;1 a number of writers on
grammar ; and the works of Alcuin of Canterbury,
Aldhelm, Bede, and Wilbrord, proving that the col
lector of 4hese treasures had a just value for the
writings of his own countrymen.

It is necessary to mention, as shewing the pro
gress of art and improvement, the two churches
which were now erected in York, and the ornaments
given to them by archbishop Albert. The old
church of king Edwin, repaired by Wilfrid, was now
adorned with a great altar, or shrine, over the place
where that king had been baptised. This shrine
was adorned itself with gold, silver, and precious
stones, and was dedicated to the honour of St. Paul,
the teacher of the Gentiles. Over it was hung by
a chain from the roof a large chandelier, with nine
rows of lights, three in each row, to light it up by
night. A large cross was raised at the back of this

1 It has been often said that the learned men of modern
Europe knew nothing of this Greek philosopher till they heard
of him through the Arabians, by means of the crusades. It is
plain that Alcuin had studied his writings ; and what is so
likely as that Theodore brought them into England?

CH. IX.] ALCUIN AND CHARLKMAGNE. 171

altar, of equally precious workmanship. Another
altar, in honour of the martyrs or All Saints,2 was
also set up and adorned with not much less of cost.
These, with a flagon, or sacramental wine cup, of
pure gold, were his gifts to the old minster. But
he found the increase of population and worshippers
in York required a new church to be built ; and of
this his pupils, Eanbald and Alcuin, were the archi
tects. It was several years in building, and was a
very handsome structure; lofty, with an arched roof
supported on strong columns, and several porches,
which, with their different projections, made a pleas
ing variety of light and shade as the sun shone upon
them. This church, with its thirty little shrines,
was finished only ten days before its pious founder
breathed his last. He came out of his monastery to
assist his successor in the dedication of it; and shortly
after a crowd of clergy and people, old and young,
followed his honoured bier to the grave, A.D. 782.

We must now give an account of that famous
man, who next to Bede was the most eminent teacher
of the early English Church, and who, under the
patronage of the emperor Charlemagne, became the
great restorer of learning on the continent of Europe.
This was ALCUIN of York, a man of the most active
spirit and enlarged mind, and only second in his
well-earned reputation to Charlemagne himself.

Alcuin appears to have been born at York about
the year of Bede's death, A.D. 735 : he was educated,
as we have seen, at the school founded by archbishop
Egbert, under the able instruction of Albert; and
when he succeeded to the charge of the see, Alcuin
was appointed to preside over this school. At this
time the state of learning in Great Britain and Ireland

2 Many of the Saxon churches were dedicated to All Saints.
Indeed it is probable that wherever there is a church so dedi
cated, it is of Saioii foundation.

172 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

was far superior to that of any other part of Europe.
There had been no teacher of any eminence in Italy
since the time of pope Gregory the Great ; and
though his successors were commonly men of some
learning, their influence had little effect in advancing
the state of knowledge in Italy or in France. King
Ina of Wessex, among other works of piety and pub
lic benefit, had founded an English school at Rome,
where it seems likely that many of the missionaries
who aided Wilbrord and Winfrid received a portion
of their education. But though some of the English
churchmen studied for a longer or shorter time there,
the most eminent were those who were entirely
trained at Canterbury or York, and other schools
in their native land. And the state of England
was at this time much more favourable to learning
and civilisation than that of France, or Italy, or
Spain. Though there were often short wars be
tween the different kings of the north, the midland,
and the west, yet the boundaries continued much
the same. From the time of Theodore's arrival to
the great invasion of the Danes, A. D. 668-832, there
was a period of more than one hundred and sixty
years, during which the country was for the most
part in a settled state. But in Italy and France all
this time the kingdoms were constantly changing;
the Lombards and Greeks fought many bloody
battles in Italy, and the Visigoths, Franks, and
Burgundians, were bringing trouble and disorder
into France. And Spain and part of France were
thrown into still greater confusion by the Saracens.
It was not till the victories of Pepin and his distin
guished son and successor Charlemagne, that these
countries were free from the inroads of new in
vaders.

It was after the death of Albert, when Alcuin,
according to the custom of the English Church at

CH. IX. J ALCUIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 173

that period, was sent to Rome to obtain a renewal
of the honour of the pall for his successor Eanbald.
His fame was by this time spread far among places
of learning on the continent: when on his return,
at Parma in the north of Italy, he met with Charle
magne, who sought him out to invite him to establish
himself in France. The offer was a tempting one;
but Alcuin did not accept it till he had obtained
the consent of the king and archbishop of his native
province. He then went to present himself at the
emperor's court ; and Charlemagne, who knew his
value, immediately gave him the preferment of three
abbeys, made him the instructor of his children, and
his own confidential counsellor and friend, A.D. 783.
From this time for several years we may regard
Alcuin as the minister of public instruction over
the greater part of Christendom ; for the empire of
Charlemagne extended from the river Ebro in Spain
to the eastern frontiers of Germany, and southward
it included all the Italian provinces as far as to
Rome. In this capacity his care divided itself into
a number of useful labours, which the authority of
his patron enabled him to pursue with great advan
tage to the cause of religion and learning. First,
his attention was given to the restoration of correct
copies of the holy Scriptures, and books of prayer
and other holy offices used in churches ; for, during
the many years of war and disorder in France, these
had not only become very scarce, but such copies as
there were had often been taken by persons whose
knowledge was by no means equal to the task. When
these had been well examined, a number of scribes
were employed in writing out correct copies, and
one was sent to each of the principal abbeys or
cathedral churches, where the more learned and
zealous of the bishops and abbots had the number
still further increased. The art of copving manu-

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

scripts thus became a means of reputation and pro-
ht to the ingenious; and the Roman letters, it)
which all books are now printed, became from this
time, instead of the Saxon or other characters, the
common form of writing adopted by all scholars.
Next to the holy Scriptures, he employed himself in
making extracts, as Bede had done, from the Chris
tian fathers, the best interpreters of the Scriptures.
These were sometimes put into the form of sermons,
or were themselves the sermons or homilies written
by the fathers on different portions of Scripture;
and were recommended to be read on festivals or
the Sundays throughout the year ; on the same
principle as the English Church, at the time of the
Reformation, adopted in putting out the Books of
Homilies. But, knowing that human learning, pro
perly employed, is the faithful handmaid of divine
learning, he did not neglect to promote the pro
curing and copying of manuscripts of such classical
authors, grammarians, orators, and poets, as he had
himself studied and taught at York. " I want," he
said to Charlemagne, " such books as will serve to
educate a good scholar, such as I had in my native
country through the industry and devoted zeal of
my good master archbishop Egbert; let your ex
cellency give me permission, and I will send over
some of my pupils here, who shall copy out and
bring over into France the flowers of the libraries
in Britain ; that there may be not only an enclosed
garden at York, but plants of paradise at Tours
also. In the morning of my life, I sowed the seeds
of learning in my native land ; now, in the evening.
, though my blood is not so quick as it was, I spare
l not to do my best to sow the same seeds in France;
and I trust that, with God's grace, they will prospei
well in both countries."

That this good man, however, did not run an\

CII. IX. 3 ALCUIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 175

risk of forgetting the study of that volume which is
above all human learning, may be judged from the
letter he wrote to Charlemagne from the abbey of
Tours, A.D. 801, with a copy of the whole Bible
carefully corrected by himself throughout.

" I have for a long time been studying," he says,
" what present I could offer you, not unworthy ot
the glory of your imperial power, and one which
might add something to the richness of your royal
treasures. I was unwilling, that while others brought
you all kinds of rich gifts, my poor wit should re
main dull and idle, and that the messenger even of
so humble a person as myself should appear before
you with empty hands. I have at last found out,
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a present
which it befits my character to offer, and which it
will not be unworthy of your wisdom to receive.
Nothing can I offer more worthy of your great
name than the book which I now send, the divine
Scriptures, all bound up in one volume, carefully
corrected by my own hand. It is the best gift
which the devotion of my heart to your service, and
my zeal for the increase of your glory, has enabled
me to find."

When Alcuin wrote this letter, he was residing,
in the retirement of his age, at his monastery of
Tours, to which Charlemagne had unwillingly per
mitted him to withdraw from the court a few years
earlier. His patron, too, was then past the meri
dian of life, and he appears to have been struck with
admiration of such holy diligence; for it is recorded
of him, that the year before he died, he employed
much of his leisure, with the help of some Greek
and Syrian Christians, in correcting a copy of the
four Gospels in Greek.

There were in those days many persons who read
books, but had not much skill in writing. Such pro-

I7(T EARLY ENGLISH CIII/RCH.

bably was Wihtred, king of Kent, one of the earliest
English lawgivers, before mentioned, who yet at
the end of one of his charters says that he puts the
sign of the cross, not knowing how to form a letter.
Such also was Charlemagne, who not having learned
to write when he was young, at an advanced age
attempted to teach himself, and is said to have car
ried abont his tablets and writing materials, and to
have laid them under his pillow when he slept, that
he might practise at any leisure moment in private.
But he never made good progress in the art. Hence
it was the more usuai practice for almost all but the
clergy and monks to employ a secretary or clerk to
write for them ; and it became a separate profession.
It is said of Charlemagne, that having once a skilful
scribe with him, who was accused of holding a cor
respondence with the enemy, he was about to order
him to lose his right hand, but he checked himself
with the words, " If I cut off his hand, where shall
I find so good a writer?" We must not, however,
suppose, that all who eould not write were also un
able to read ; for it is certain that Charlemagne was
well acquainted with Greek and Latin authors, and
his skill in speaking was so great, that he might
have been a master in the art of eloquence. He was
therefore well able to see the great want of learning
and of schools in the empire, and was anxious to
remedy it. He had received addresses from the
heads of monasteries, full of good and pious senti
ments, and assuring him that the writers remembered
him in their prayers ; but the words were often mis
applied, and the spelling false. How should such
men be fit to explain the Scriptures, in which there
are many things hard to understand, figures of speech,
and sentences requiring spiritual explanation? He
saw, therefore, that it was necessary to provide
teachers. With Alcuin's advice, be founded schools

CH. IX. J ALCUIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 177

in all the cities where a bishop resided, and at all the
great monasteries ; and to these he invited the most
learned men that were to be found in other countries.
And the greater part of these places of education
were filled with teachers who were pupils of Alcuin.
As long as Alcuin resided at the court, he was
himself the head master of what was called the
School of the Palace. Here his pupils were Charles,
Pepin, and Louis, the three sons of Charlemagne,
with other young noblemen ; and the interest which
was thrown into his instructions by the skill of the
teacher attracted several of the older persons of the
court, princes, councillors, and bishops, and some
times the ladies also, to listen to his lectures. He
encouraged the pupils to ask questions, and made it
a part of his plan to give such striking short answers
as would impress the memory. Thus we have a
dialogue between Pepin and Alcuin :

" Pepin. What is speech ?

Alcuin. The interpreter of the soul.

Pep. What gives birth to the speech ?

Ale. The tongue.

Pep. How does the tongue give birth to the
speech ?

Ale. By striking the air.

Pep. What is the air ?

Ale. The preserver of life.

Pep. \Vhat is life ?

Ale. An enjoyment for the happy, a grief for the
wretched, a waiting-time for death.

Pep. What is death ?

Ale. An inevitable event, an uncertain voyage,
a subject of tears for the living, the time that con
firms wills, the thief that makes its prey of man.

Pep. What is sleep ?

Ale. The image of death.

Pep. What is liberty for

78 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Ale. Innocence.

Pep. What is that waking sleep, of which I hav*
hrard you speak ?

Ale. Hope, a waking dream, cheering our tuiw
though it lead to nothing.

Pep. What is friendship ?

Ale. The likeness of souls.

Pep. What is faith ?

Ale. The certainty of marvellouc. things aim
tilings unknown."

Sometimes he would try the wits of his young
pupil \vith riddles or puzzling questions in turn.

" Ale. I have seen a dead man walking, — oue
that never was alive.

Pep. How can that be ? explain.

Ale. It was my own leflection in the water.

Pep. Why could not I guess it, having myself
so often seen the like ?

Ale. Well, you have a good wit; I will tell you
some more extraordinary things. One whom I ne
ver knew talked with me, without tongue or voice ;
ne had no life before, nor will he live hereafter; and
I neither knew him, nor understood what he said.

Pep. Master, you must have been troubled with
a dream.

Ale. Right, my child : hear another. I have
seen the dead beget the living, and the dead have
been then consumed by the breath of the living.

Pep. You speak of a fire kindled by rubbing
dry sticks together, and consuming the sticks after
wards."

Such ways of exercising the first efforts of an
inquiring mind are not quite out of date with gentle
teachers in our time. The kind-hearted ingenuity
of Alcuin displayed in them may not be unworthy
of the imitation of a more refined age. But this
was only the lighter play of a mind which was full

CH. IX.] ALCUIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 179

of noble designs, and watchful to extend the reign
of truth and mercy in the world.

In A.D. 796, Charlemagne having gained some
victories over the Huns, Alcuin wrote to congratu
late him on his success, and to advise him how to
proceed with the conversion of these people. " Send
to them gentle missionaries," he said, " and do not
immediately require them to pay for their support ;
it were better to lose the tithes than to lose the
means of extending the faith." For the order used
in their instruction he recommended the plan laid
down by St. Augustine in one of his treatises: —
" First, teach them the immortality of the soul, the
certainty of a life to come, the eternal reward of the
righteous, and the judgment of the wicked, and what
deeds they are by which man shapes his course to
heaven or to hell. Then let them with great care
be taught the faith in the holy Trinity, »nd the com
ing of the Son of God into the world for the salva
tion of mankind." He wrote to this great monarch
more than once, to pray him in the midst of his con
quests to be merciful to his prisoners, and to spare
the vanquished ; and did not lose the occasion, when
the death of the empress had opened a way to milder
thoughts, to address him in words of spiritual con
solation.

When Charlemagne went on his famous visit to
Rome, A.D. 800, on which occasion pope Leo III.
placed on his head the imperial crown, he was very
anxious to take Alcuin with him. " For shame,"
said he, " that you should like better to stay under
the smoky roofs of Tours, than to be entertained in
the gilded palaces of Rome." But Alcuin was now
sensible of the infirmities of advancing age, and
begged that he might be permitted to end his pil
grimage in his retirement. The great abbeys vjiirh
ho had held, with their large estates, had given Him

180 KARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

a princely income ; and he had on the lands which
belonged to them as many as twenty thousand ten
ants or labourers. But he now, with Charlemagne's
consent, divided these monasteries among his prin
cipal pupils ; and though he continued to write to
his patron, as when he sent him his corrected Bible,
he was now engaged till his death, May 19, A.D.
804-, in little else but the care of his soul.

He appears from his writings to have had a great
delight in that part of God's service which consists
in praise. " As often as we are so employed," he
says, " we imitate on earth the life of angels. When
the Psalmist has said, Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house) that we may know in what that blessed
ness consists, he adds the words describing their
employment, They will be for ever praising Thee"

He was zealous to promote preaching, writing
to Charlemagne to complain of some priests who
neglected it, and said it was the bishop's duty and
not theirs. Writing to the English bishops, Uhard
and Tilfrid, of Elmham an 1 Dunwich, he says: "You
have authority to speak as holding the keys of hea
ven, power to open to the penitent, to shut against
those who withstand the truth. Live therefore so
that you may acquit yourselves of so excellent a
trust ; and remember that it is the praise of bishops
to be constant in preaching."

He did not however forget the end of preaching,
saying of compunction, or the devout affection of
the heart : " It is a treasure in the heart better than a
hoard of gold. Three things make up this sweet com
punction : remembrance of sins past, consideration ot
our fleeting pilgrimage through this life of misery,
and desire of our heavenly country. And when
through prayer it finds utterance, sorrow flies away,
and the Holy Ghost keeps watch in the heart."

Charlemagne and others of his court seem some-

CH. IX. ' ALCUIN 4.ND CHARLEMAGNE. 81

times to have asked 'liin questions on Scripture diffi
culties. Some questions of this kind may be found
among his writings. " It is said, No man hath seen
God at any time; and the apostle calls him the
King immortal and invisible. Yet our Lord says,
Blesse<! are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Answ. God may be seen according to the gift of
his grace ; that is, He may be understood in this
either by angels, or by the souls of the saints. But
the full nature of his godhead neither any angel nor
saint can perfectly understand; therefore he is called
invisible."

There was one Felix, bishop of Urgel in Spa:n,
who wrote at this time against the godhead of our
blessed Saviour, calling him only the adopted Si.n
of God. Against him Alcuin wrote more than one
treatise ; and it is to be hoped that he sincerely re
tracted his error, for which a council of the Church
degraded him from his bishopric. At least the con
troversy had a remarkable end ; for Felix after his
deposition lived on terms of friendship with Alcuin,
and passed much of his time with him at his monas
tery of Tours.

A more remarkable dispute arose in Alcuin's
time about the worship of images in churches. In
A.D. 792, Charlemagne sent over into England a
book which had been forwarded to him for that pur
pose from the East, containing the decrees of a coun
cil of the Greek Church in favour of the religious
adoration of images. It seems that Alcuin was at.
this time on a visit to England ; and the bishops of
the English Church being of one mind in condemn
ing this new doctrine, — a doctrine which, they de
clared, " the Church of God holds accursed," — en
gaged him to write to Charlemagne against it. He
did so ; and writing in the name and with the au
thority of the English Church, and using the soundest

182 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

scriptural arguments, notwithstanding that Adrian,
the pope of that time, had approved of the idolatrous
practice, he effectually engaged Charlemagne to use
his influence to check it. In A.D. 794-, that monarch
called together a council at Frankfort-on-the-Maine,
in which three hundred bishops solemnly condemned
the doctrine of the Greek council and the pope ; and
this step prevented for a long time afterwards the
progress of the error in Great Britain.

Such were some of the services of this remark
able man, both to his own country and that which
had adopted him, and to the Church of Christ. His
writings were highly valued in England, and often
made a portion of instruction from the pulpit ; and
to France he was a benefactor, whose good works
left a blessing behind them more durable than the
victories of Charlemagne-

CHAPTER X.

SHORT VIEW OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH AT THE CLOSX
OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS. REIGN OF EGBERT, ETHEL-
WOLF, AND HIS SONS. INROADS OF THE DANES. DE
STRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THE NORTH.

To shake the Saxon's mild domain,
Kush'd in rude swarms the robber Dane,
From frozen wastes and caverns wild
To genial England's scenes beguil'd :

And in his clamorous van exulting came

The demons foul of famine and of flame :

Witness the sheep-clad summits, roughly crown'd
With many a frowning foss and airy mound,

Which yet his desultory march proclaim.

T. WARTON.

must now return to the state of the
Church in England, whose teachers
and chief bishops, both in the north
and south, were often in correspond
ence with their distinguished country
men in France. During the period from the death
of Ina of Wessex to the rise of Egbert, the Mercian
kingdom had taken the lead among the Saxon
states. All the kingdoms south of the Humber,
when Bede wrote his history, had acknowledged the
•supremacy of Ethelbald, who reigned for a term of
forty years, A.D. 716-756. Shortly after his death
arose another powerful king, Offa, whose reign ex
tended over forty years more, to A.D. 796. Offa,

284 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

not content with the submission of the neighbour
ing kings, sought by force or treachery to put an
end to their sovereignties. He is charged with the
murder of a prince of East Anglia, whom he had
invited in friendship to his court; and he made war
upon the little kingdom of Kent, which stubbornly
maintained its independence.

In this dispute the Churches of Canterbury and
Rochester, and other seats of religion in Kent, were
exposed to suffering. Offa thought it concerned the
honour of his crown to diminish the honour of the
see of Canterbury, and persuaded pope Adrian, the
same who wrote in defence of image-worship, to
send an archbishop's pall to Higbert, bishop of Lich-
field, making the six other bishoprics between the
Thames and Humber subject to him instead of
archbishop Eanbert. It i:* no gr^at credit to pope
Adrian, that he consented so easily to this project,
for which there was no reason but the worldly ambi-
t.ion of Offa ; and his honesty is somewhat impeached
by it, inasmuch as Offa began a practice, which was
long afterwards continued, of sending a yearly pre
sent in money, called " Peter-pence," to Rome.
The Saxon laws speak of this present as " the king's
alms ;" it was not a tax paid to the pope, but to the
king's officers : it led, however, afterwards to help
the encroachments of the bishops of Rome.1

The popes about this time were men of very dif
ferent character from the good pope Gregory, who
had given so freely of his own without expecting any
return. The Romans, indeed, say that this Adrian I.
did not degenerate from his predecessors, and that
he is fit to be compared with the best of them. But

1 Peter-pence were paid on St Peter's-day for alms to the
poor at Rome, and for lighting up the church in honour of St.
Peter. The sum was 3(J5 marks, mark for every day in the
year, or about 120/. ; no very great sum even in those days.

CH. X.] OFFA, KING OF MERflA. 185

archbishop Eanbert and the English bishops, who
had opposed him on the question of image-worship,
were probably of a different opinion ; and this opi
nion might have been fostered when he was so easily
persuaded to disturb Gregory's arrangement for the
two archbishoprics, — an arrangement which experi
ence had shewn then, as it has ever since, to be good
and convenient. A council of the English Church,
held at Cliff's -hoe a few years afterwards, A.D. 803,
censured this act of Offa, as an act of the greatest
fraud, and Adrian's consent to it, as " obtained by
surreptitious means and deceitful arguments ;" a plain
proof that, if they thought he might have been ua-
bribed, they did not count him infallible.

At this pei iod also the popes had begun to require
a very inconvenient custom, which they afterwards
renewed with more success, that the archbishops of
England should go to Rome in person for their palls.
Against this Alcuin protested, and wrote a letter to
king Offa to prevent it: "The right order is," he
said, " that when York is vacant, the archbishop of
Canterbury shall consecrate to that see ; when Can
terbury is vacant, the archbishop of York shall con
secrate ; and the pope ought to send the pall." The
English bishops took occasion, in a letter to pope
Leo III., to protest likewise against this custom.
They reminded him that Gregory had never required
it, nor his successors; but that Honorius particu
larly had laid down the rule as " the great scholar
Alcuin" had stated it in his letter; that the new
custom had begun through the disputes of their
kings, meaning, as it would seem, the dispute be
tween Offa and the princes of Kent. They also hint
rather plainly, that they suspect the love of money
to be at the bottom of the business. " In the be
ginning of our Church," they say, "the holy and
apostolic men of Rome fulfilled the excellent precept

R2

186 EAllLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

of our Saviour, — Freely ye have received} freely give.
The heresy of Simon Magus had then no strength
or power; for the gift of God was not then purchased
by money, but freely given. Let those who sell the
grace of God fear what Peter said to Simon, Thy
money perish with thee" With these strong words
the letter concludes. It appears to have been suc
cessful, as, for some time afterwards, the archbishops
received their palls without going to Rome.

OfFa is commended by Alcuin, after his death, as
a prince of engaging manners, and studious to pro
mote good Christian morals among his people. At
the same time, he does not disguise that these better
qualities were tarnished by deeds of avarice au<<
cruelty ; and he mentions it as a probable mark ot
divine vengeance, that his only son Egfrid, whom
he had made the sharer of his throne, died a few
days after his father in the flower of his age. Among
the oppressive acts of OfFa towards the Church, he
seems to have usurped the property of bishops and
abbots in the monasteries ; not suppressing the re
ligious houses, but giving them as preferments to
his friends, particularly one at March in Cambridge
shire, and the abbey of Bath, which he made bishop
Heathored of Worcester surrender to him. To esta
blish his power the more, he enriched the abbeys of
Bredon and Evesham, founded by his grandfather,
with lands taken from the same bishopric or its de
pendent monasteries. But at a late period of his
life he was led, by some remorse of conscience, to
found the famous abbey of St. Alban's, which he
endowed with large estates in Hertfordshire, and
which became one of the most splendid of the old
Benedictine houses in early Norman times.

King Alric of Kent, the antagonist of OfFa, and
the last of the royal line of Ethelbert, in the sam*
Year followed his rival to the grave. Aftei h

OH. X.] ETIIEtHAIlD, ABf 0? CANTKIltJUIlT. 187

the little realm was distracted by new competitors of
uncertain title ; and the archbishop Ethelhard, by
the advice of his clergy, left Canterbury, to find a
home in another province. In his distress he wrote
to Alcuin for his friendly counsel ; from whom he
received a very candid reproof, conveyed, however,
with all the delicacy of true Christian feeling. "What
can so humble a person as myself say but acquiesce
in the advice of so many of Christ's priests ? Yet if
they have authority to persuade you that the shep
herd ought to fly when the wolf comes, in what
value do you hold the gospel, which calls him a
hireling, and not the shepherd, who is afraid of the
fury of the wolf?" He begs him earnestly to re
consider the motives of his flight ; and however he
may justify it by the text, If they persecute you in one
city, flee into another, to remember also, that the good
shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. He ad
vises that, on his restoration, the council of the realm
should institute a public fast, as an act of public
penitence, on the part of the primate for his flight,
and on the part of the people for having occasioned
it. " Return," he says, " and bring back to the
house of God the youths who were studying there,
the choir of singers, and the penmen with their
books ; that the Church may regain its comely order,
and future primates may be trained up under her
care. And for yourself, let your preaching be con
stant in all places; whether in presence of the bishops
in full synod, whom it is your duty to admonish to
be regular in holding ordinations, earnest in preach
ing, careful of their churches, strict in enforcing the
holy rite of baptism, and bountiful in alms; or whe
ther it be for the good of the souls of the poor in
different churches and parishes, especially among the
people of Kent, over whom God has been pleased
to appoint you to preside. Above all, let it be your

188 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

strictest care to restore the reading of the holy Scrip
tures, that the Church may be exalted with honour,
and that the holy see, which was first in the faith,
may be first in all wisdom and holiness ; where the
inquirer after truth may find an answer, the ignorant
learn what he desires to know, and the understand
ing Christian see what may deserve his praise."

May this good prayer for the archbishop and the
church of Canterbury, offered by a Christian patriot
more than a thousand years ago, find an answering
chord in every English Christian's heart 1 Ethel-
hard returned to his see ; but either before or shortly
after his return, Kent became a province of the king
dom of Mercia. Her last independent king, Edbert
Pryn, waging war with Ccenwulf, who now filled the
throne of Offa, was taken captive; and Ccenwulf gave
the government to Cuthred his brother. The begin
ning of this reign was beneficial to the archbishop.
He obtained the consent of the Mercian princes to a
recovery of the rights which OfFa had transferred to
Lichfield ; and was the bearer of a letter of Ccen
wulf to pope Leo III., in which he was requested to
annul the act of his predecessor Adrian. This jour
ney was altogether successful. Ethelhard, with the
Saxon nobles who accompanied him, was honourably
entertained at the court of Charlemagne on his way;
Alcuin sent him his own horse to ride, furnished
with a bishop's saddle of the newest French fashion
of the time, as he came towards Tours; and "the
noble and holy ' pope Leo, as the English called
him for restoring the honours of Augustine's se&,
made no difficulty of acceding to his request.

The archbishopric of Lichfield lasted only four
teen or fifteen years, A.D. 785-800, while Higbert
held that see.2 Since this period there has been no
interference with the rights of York or Canterbury;
3 Saxon Chronicle, and Charters.

CH. X.] EANBALD II. ABP. OF YORK. 189

and Alcuin, who was anxious to see the arrangement
of Gregory restored, prays that the two sees may
long continue, like the two eyes in the body, giving
their light to the whole of Britain. In this prayer
also let the English and Christian patriot heartily
join.

Archbishop Eanbald, who now presided at York,
the second of that name, A.D. 796-812, was one of
Alcuin's pupils ; and with him, as with other north
ern bishops and churchmen, he maintained a frequent
correspondence. In these letters he now and then
exhorts this prelate to check his priests and monks
from the practice of fox-hunting, which it seems was
even then sometimes too strong a temptation for the
Yorkshire clergy. Among other presents which he
sent him from abroad was a cargo of copper, to be
used in roofing the bell-tower at York, which Alcuin
wished to be completed in the handsomest style then
known. In a letter of excellent pastoral advice, sent
to him on his promotion to the see, he exhorts him
to be especially careful of the learning and good dis
cipline of the school at York ; and to found hospi
tals in different places, where a number of poor and
strangers might be daily entertained. " Act not as
the master of this world's wealth, but as the good
steward. Lay not up an inheritance for your many
kinsmen ; at least let them not make you covetous or
uncharitable. You cannot have a better heir than
Christ; none who will more faithfully keep your
treasure committed to his keeping. And the hand
of the poor man is the treasury of Christ." These
good designs, however, were much interrupted by
the civil discords which now arose in the decline of
the Northumbrian kingdom ; and Eanbald was for
a time driven from the province by a band of con
spirators who slew king Ethelred, and was not in
equal favour with the succeeding king.

190 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

After the death of Ethelhard, Wulfred, who held
the see of Canterbury, A.D. 803-832, was not happy
cnough to retain the good will of Ccenwulf. This
prince, following the course taken by OfFa to enrich
his own family, took many of the Church-lands in
Kent to give to his daughter Wendritha. for whom
he had founded a new abbey at Wiuchcombe in
Gloucestershire, threatening the archbishop with
proscription and banishment, if he did not consent to
his own undoing. "Neither pope nor Caesar," said
this imperious prince, " shall make me receive you
back, if I once send you into exile." Poor Wulfred
submitted to the loss of two of his abbeys, and some
of his best manors, to obtain peace : and after Ccen-
wulf's death, when there was a time for more right
eous law to be restored, he with some difficulty-
recovered his rights from the princess-abbess. It
was in this way, and not only by the inroads of the
Danes, that the first -founded monasteries, were
ruined, being turned into estates for young persons
of rank, who only sought to enjoy their privileges,
without much regard to the service of learning or
religion.

Wulfred was a peaceable, charitable man ; but
the state of learning had much fallen off since the
time of Bede and the pupils of Adrian. In the
midst of the troubles of Kent, he was still able to
promote works of charity, and many of the religious
people of that province made him their almoner.
It was a common practice at this time for English
gentlemen to charge their estates with a yearly gift,
or dole of meat and drink, to be given away at the
door of the monasteries to the poor, under the direc
tion of the abbot. At the same time the inmates of
the monastery received a stock of provisions, broad,
mutton and beef, flitches of bacon, poultry, v»i
cheese, sundry casks of Welch ale, honey, or mead-

C I. X.] OLD IJNGLISH CHARITIES. 10!

wine ; or if the day happened to be a fasting daj ,
instead of meat, some store offish, butter, and eggs.
The abbot \vas to give notice of such days before
the anniversary came round, and there was enough
sometimes at Canterbury to feed a thousand of the
poor. In giving his orders for such a charity, which
he had received from a nobleman called Oswulf, and
Beornthryda his wife, the archbishop directs that on
the day, " every priest of Christ Church shall sing
two masses for Oswulf's soul, and two for Beorn-
thryda's ; every deacon shall read two passions, or
lessons from the Passion-book, which contained
stories of martyrs ; two for his soul, and two for
hers ; and every servant of God (meaning the monks
or lay-brothers) shall sing two fifty-first Psalms, for
his soul and for hers ; that they may be blessed
before the world with worldly goods, and their souls
with heavenly goods." It is plain that this injunc
tion was given while the persons who gave the alms
were yet alive ; and there was nothing wrong that
the priests should pray for them, as we do for all
members of the Church militant here on earth in
our communion-service; or that the monks should
use the Psalm which we say for ourselves and our
brethren on Ash-Wednesday ; but it seems rather a
sign of ignorant superstition, when he directs that
the deacons shall read for the good of their souls
a lesson from the Passion-book. It does not, how
ever, shew that the custom of offering masses for the
dead was now generally received ; but where it was,
that it probably began in a mistaken charity, con
tinuing to do for the departed what it was only law
ful to do for the living ;3 for it is seen in many of the

3 Charlemagne sent presents of vestments to all the cathe
dral churches in England, entreating that the bishops would
offer prayers for pope Adrian, who had lately died A D. 795 ;
" nothing doubting," he says, " that his blessed soul is in rest,

192 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

writings of the time, that the devout Christians of
the age of Bede and Alcuin were constant in prayer
for each other and in entreating each others' prayers.
The great truth, that " where the tree falleth, there
it shall lie," was too strong to be set aside at once
by this growing superstition. Thus, in an old Saxon
copy of the Psalms, on the text, " No man shall
redeem his brother" the note follows, " Let a man
therefore loose his own soul, while he is in this life ;
for if he have no will to it himself, and does no good
Wiiile he lives, his brother either will not, or may
not. though he will." And again, in early Norman
'imes an English rhyme says:

Send thy good before thee, man,
The whilst thou may, to heaven :

For better is one alms before,
Than bin after seven.

Accordingly, Wulfred himself in his lifetime charged
his own estates with a provision of daily food to
about twenty-seven different poor persons, who were
also to receive six-and-twenty Saxon pence, about
seven shillings, a year, to provide themselves with
clothing. This is one of the earliest records of old
English charity.

Egbert, king of Wessex, came to his throne A.D.
802. He had passed some of his earlier years at the
court of Charlemagne, and was the ablest prince of
his time. The Welch in Cornwall submitted to him
about twelve years after he had been in possession
of his kingdom ; and after defending his own terri
tories against the Mercians for some years longer,
at length, A.D. 825, by a great overthrow which he
gave to their king Beornwulf at Allingtori in Wilt
shire, he gained himself the name of "lord of Bri
tain," which no other king had enjoyed since (he

out that we may shew our faith and love to a dear friend."
Malrnbb. i. 93.

CH. X.J THE DANES. iy3

time of Oswy of Northumberland. From this time
is commonly dated the conclusion of the Heptarchy,
or seven Saxon kingdoms, as the dignity which Eg
bert gained became hereditary in his family ; and
though there were kings over some of the other
provinces in the following century, they were sub
ject to Wessex, or were themselves princes or nobles
whom the kings of Wessex sent to govern those pro
vinces.4 In a short time, instead of kings, they °.ad
the title of earls of those provinces, and Ensr-.and
became one kingdom.

But before this union was cemented, tne woie
realm was to feel the violence of a new and ternolc1
enemy, the Danes. The people who are so called
in old English history came not only from the
country which is now known by the name of Den
mark, but from Sweden and Norway. They bad
grown too populous for the cold and unfruitful rli-
niate in which they lived; and their resource was,
to live by war and plunder from the neighbouring
coasts. They were wild pagans, and their creed
was full of such superstitions as mark a people that
delight in war. Their gods were fabled giants and
monstrous forms of evil power; their heaven, called
Valhalla, was a place where the spirits of the dead
were feasted with unfailing cups of ale or mead.
And thither all who fell in battle were borne by tho
Fatal Sisters, who hovered round the field, and chose
out the best from among the slain. It was the cus
tom with these people, when one of their kings died,
if he left more sons than one, to prevent disputes
about the succession, to choose one to reign, and to
send the rest with a company of followers to sea in
ships, with the title of sea-kings. These outlaws there
fore had no way left them for living but by the sword.

4 Malmsb. i. § 96.

194 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

As early as the year A.D. 787 parties of Danes
had landed and plundered some places on the Eng
lish coast. In 793 they had made a descent on the
island of Lindisfarne, and slew the monks and burnt
the monastery. A few years later there was another
descent of these pirates at Wearmouth ; where they
plundered the abbey, but were cut off as they at
tempted to regain their ships. The civil wars of
the Northumbrians in the mean time were no less
destructive of their own internal prosperity. They
were so weakened by these dissensions, that when
Egbert, after his conquest over Mercia, marched to
their borders, A.D. 827, they offered no resistance,
but at once submitted themselves to him. That
king, however, had not long established his autho
rity, when a more formidable inroad of Danes ap
peared in the south of England. Thirty-five ships'
crews had landed at Charmouth in Dorsetshire ; and
when Egbert had encountered them in battle, the
enemy remained masters of the field, A.D. 833. And
in this first lost battle, as an omen of the destruc
tion these invaders were to bring upon the Church,
the two West Saxon bishops, having gone to fight
for their country, Wilbert bishop of Sherborne, and
Herefrid bishop of Winchester, with other noblemen,
were slain.

The Danes did not come into the country to take
possession, but to go from place to place and support
themselves by spoil. Theirs were armies of robbers,
quartering themselves wherever there was a space
of cultivated country, feeding as long as the supply
lasted, and then burning and wasting the land, and
removing to a new position. The face of the coun
try, as is observed by the poet who wrote the lines
standing at the head of this chapter, still in many
places bears witness to the kind of warfare they
pursued ; as we may find in all parts of England,

CH. X.J KING KTHELWOLF. 195

and particularly those furthest from the sea, on high
grounds and open downs, the oval or circular mounds
of old Danish camps. The destruction of property,
the famine and misery, caused by these roving bands,
would have been dreadful, even if they had been
guilty of no worse cruelties ; but they were bloody
and remorseless, and their swords spared neither
young nor old.

Egbert had driven out the first invaders by the
better success he had in a second battle in Cornwall,
where the poor Welch had joined them, to make
a last effort against their Saxon foes. And dying
shortly after, he left his kingdom to Ethelwolf his
son, A.D. 838.

During the whole of the reign of Ethelwolf, the
southern part of the island was exposed to continual
ravages. The Danes were often beaten, sometimes
they were successful. They had the great advantage
of possessing ships, which the Saxons had not, and
had no means of guarding their coast. Hence they
could make descents where they pleased, and often
carried off spoil and regained their ships before they
could be followed. But b legrees they came in
larger bodies ; they began to winter in the isle of
Thanet and the isle of Shepey ; and the danger was
every day increasing. Ethelwolf, however, having
obtained a great victory in a battle at Ockley in
Surrey, took a step, at such a time marking more
piety than prudence, — he went on a visit in much
state to the pope at Rome.

This prince, who had come to the throne by the
death of an elder brother, had been educated for the
priesthood under the care of St. Swithin, afterwards
bishop of Winchester. It has sometimes been sup
posed that he was himself a bishop before he was
king ; but the mistake seems to have arisen from
confounding his name with another Ethelwolf, who

i96 EARLY ENGLISH CHUECH.

was bishop of Selsey about this time ; the name being
very common among the Saxons. It is certain that
Ethelwolf was not a priest; he was made by Egbert
king or prince of Kent, and ruled that province
during the lifetime of his father. His journey to
Rome, however, at this time was unfortunate for
himself and his kingdom. He remained there a full
twelvemonth ; and then on his return, in his way
through France, being now past the meridian of life,
he married a second wife, Judith, a daughter of
Charles the Bald, great granddaughter of Charle
magne. In the mean time his subjects were very
ill-contented with his absence ; and Ealstan, bishop
of Sherborne, who was a great warrior against the
Danes, but rather an ambitious soldier than a church
man, had advised his eldest eon Ethelbald to seize
on the government. The return of Ethelwolf was
the more acceptable to the loyal part of his people ;
and, it seems, he might have easily put down this in
surrection ; but to avoid the evil of inward dissension
at so hazardous a time, or out of affection to his son,
he gave up to him a part of his dominions; and that
no dispute might arise after his own deatii, he pro
vided that Ethelbald should then have Wessex, and
Ethelbert, his second son, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.
The other acts of Ethelwolf, which belong more
directly to the history of the Church, were that he
rebuilt the English school at Rome founded by Ina,
which he had found destroyed by fire ; and that he
gave a tenth part of his own lands to the support of
the Church in his kingdom.5 This gift has some
times been supposed to be the beginning of tithes in
England ; but the notion is a mistake, as tithes were
paid long before. They are mentioned in archbishop
Egbert's canons, A.D. 740, and were no new thing

* Ethelwerd Chron. A.D. 855.

CH. X.J THE DANES IN NORTHUMBERLAND. 197

then. It is most likely that Ethehvolf intended to
found several new monasteries in Wessex, where the
number had hitherto been less than in other parts of
England, as the words of his charter say that the
grant is made "to confirm the possession of such as
already held lands, of whatever order or degree in
the Church, and to God's servants and handmaids
(monks and nuns), and to poor laymen." But be
fore Ethelwolf had time to do many acts in execu
tion of this design,, he died, A.D. 856. His three
elder sons in turn succeeded him, and during their
short reigns had to contend with parties of the Danes,
one of which took the capital city of Winchester,
A.D. 860, but was shortly afterwards expelled. Ethe-
red, the last of the three, died in A.D. 871. In his
time, the invaders, who had before been allured to
the milder southern provinces, made their great de
scent upon the north, arid with such fatal force, that
within a few years the whole kingdom of North-
umbria was entirely at their mercy.

It was in the year A.D. 867 that this dreadful in
vasion was made. A large army had landed the year
before in East Anglia, where the people had made
peace with them, and supplied them with horses.
Thus armed for inroad, they rode towards the Hum-
ber in the following spring, were ferried over, and
took the city of York. The inhabitants of the pro
vince were never worse prepared for resistance. Two
different parties were contending for the possession
of the kingdom. Osbert, the rightful king, had been
disowned by a large party of his subjects, who had
set up Ella, another chief, who had no claim of
kindred to entitle him to that dignity. The Scots
had a few years before subdued the Picts, and taken
from the Northumbrian kingdom all its territory to
the north of Tweed. So that even if they had been
united, it would have been no easy thing to resist au

1.98 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

enemy, whose forces, increased by new floets. soon
amounted to 200,000 strong. But the two unhappy
competitors, instead of immediately coming to terms
with each other, and marching against the common
foe, suffered the greater part of the summer to pass,
while the Danes were entrenching themselves at York,
and making spoil of all the country round. When at
last they had determined to leave their private dif
ferences for the securing of the public safety, their
measures were as ill taken as they were late. There
was nothing done to ascertain the numbers or force
of the enemy ; but the two kings advancing by dif
ferent roads to York, were both slain, and their fol
lowers cut to pieces at the first sally made by the
besieged. It was noted long afterwards, that this
evil overtook them not only as a punishment for their
own dissensions, but as a mark of divine anger for
their impiety ; for Osbert had seized on the Church-
lands in Northumberland, and Ella, besides several
other spoliations in the county of Durham, had turned
the bishop's lands at Crayke, given by king Egfrid
to St. Cuthbert, into a hunting-seat for himself, and
had lodged there the night before he went on his
disastrous expedition.

Wulfhere, who was then archbishop of York, fled
with some of his priests to Addingham near Skipton.
Here he seems to have remained, or in some obscure
place in Mercia, to the close of his life, about thirty
years afterwards. The Danes immediately overran
the whole province as far as the Tyne, and wher
ever they went, their course was tracked with blood ;
churches and monasteries were left in ruinous heaps ;
the priests and monks cruelly slaughtered ; and the
only Saxons whom they spared became the slaves of
the soil, or, as their old chronicle forcibly speaks of
it, "were made harrowers and ploughers" to their
heathen conquerors. In A.D. 875, Halden, one of

CH. X.] FLIGHT FROM LIND1SFABNE. 199

their sea-kings, led his army across tne Tyne, and
completed all that was yet wanting to the work of
destruction. The Yorkshire monasteries, Beverley,
Ripon, Whitby, and Lastingham, with others of
smaller note, had been already laid low ; now, Jar-
row, where Bede had taught and shewn the graces
of a Christian life, Hexham, Lindisfarne, and others,
were levelled, many of them never to rise again.

In the midst of this desolation, however, there was
not wanting a remarkable testimony to the power of
Christian faith. EARDULF, bishop of Lindisfarne,
had now for twenty years done faithful duty in his
charge, not failing, in the midst of the civil wars
which distracted his province, to visit his diocese,
and to preach and send diligent preachers to fill the
office of evangelists in the north. When the pagans
approached Holy Island, he reminded his priests and
monks of the dying charge which St. Cuthbert was
believed to have given to his friends, that if his abode
should be endangered by barbarians, they should ra
ther change their dwelling than bow the neck to do
their impious bidding; and that if they ever removed,
they should carry his bones with them, and not leave
them to rest in what would then be a pagan soil.
The religious society obeyed their bishop's com
mands ; they took up the bones of Cuthbert, and also
of Aidan, and king Oswald, and set out in melan
choly procession from the place where the gospel
had now been planted and had flourished for two
hundred and forty years.

There were in the monastery of Lindisfarne a
number of boys and youths, who had been brought
up from infancy there, and taught by the monkish
teachers. They had been accustomed to wear the
dress of clerks or choristers, and had learnt to chant
the Psalms. They offered themselves with the ardour
of youth to follow the bishop wherever he would

200 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

lead them. Besides these, a number of Christians of
both sexes, husbands with their wives and children,
thronged together, and followed the monks with the
bier, carrying the relics, and the holy vessels and
church-books which they bore with them, thinking
they had preserved all, house, lands, and goods, as
long as they had these sacred companions of their
flight. Seven stout Northumbrians devoted them
selves especially to the charge of the bier, which they
bore on their shoulders over such ground as was not
passable for a horse and wain. They took their way
across to the Cheviot-hills and Cumberland, where
they were joined by Eardulf's friend Edred, abbot of
Carlisle; then, seeing the course of the Danes by the
fires which they kindled, they took a favourable op
portunity to assemble at the mouth of the Cumber
land river Derwent, where a ship had been provided
to convey the bishop and abbot, with a few select
followers, to the Irish shores. The body of St. Cuth-
bert and the other relics and furniture were placed
on board ; and those who were to share their exile
withdrew with their spiritual fathers privately, and
set sail, leaving the remainder of the flock in great
dismay when they found they were deserted. Eard-
ulf, however, appears to have taken this step with a
doubting conscience ; and when a contrary wind and
storm arose, he took it as a mark of the displeasure
of God, and was right glad when he was landed after
some perils at Whitherne, the ancient seat of Chris
tianity in Galloway. A copy of the Gospels, of great
value, beautifully written in Latin and Anglo-Saxon,
and preserved in a case adorned with gold and jewels,
was supposed to have been lost in the sea, but to
their great joy it was shortly afterwards discovered
on the shore. The Christians at Whitherne gave
them a. hearty reception, and they remained here for
some time; but the bishop was anxious to revisit his

CH. X ] FLIGHT FROM LINDISFARNE. 201

suffering and scattered flock in Northumberland. At
length, hearing of Halden's death, he determined to
return. They were joined, as before, by many de
voted friends, and wandering about the hills and
hiding in woods, they continued to assemble round
the bier of St. Cuthbert for many months for their
daily service of psalmody and prayer. There was
at this time still preserved a small monastery at
Crayke, the situation, in the midst of deep woods,
having protected it from the Danes. Here the abbot
Geve offered them a refuge; and they remained four
months till the victories of Alfred having restored
some degree of safety to the Christians in the north,
Eardulf was enabled to fix his see, where it remained
for more than a century, at Chester-le-Street, to the
north of Durham. The other bishoprics of Ripon,
Hexham, and Whitherne, were never afterwards re
stored.

It is no wonder if, in the ages following, this
flight of Eardulf, the preservation of the relics, and
the strange escapes of this Christian flock, became
the subject of many legendary tales. The almost
total destruction of Christian priests and teachers had
left the poor people of these northern counties in a
state of religious destitution ; and the Danish con
verts, who were henceforward mixed with the Saxons,
were more ignorant and more superstitious than their
predecessors, and never were equally enlightened or
softened by the great truths of Christianity. But it
is owing to the zeal and devoted patience of Eardulf,
that the Church of Northumbria was still preserved.
Without the public testimony afforded by his perilous
journeys, it is probable that the labours of Columba's
disciples, and the remembrance of Bede and his ex
cellent associates, must have come in that province
to a perpetual end. It was therefore with better rea
son that the Christians of Northumbria in the next

202

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

generations were proud of tracing their descent to
some of those who had helped to protect the wan-
flerers, and especially to the true-hearted band whc
had guarded St. Cuthbert's bier.

CHAPTER XI.

REIGN OF ALFRED.

Where shall the holy cross find rest
On a crown'd monarch's mailed breast:

Like some bright angel o'er the darkling scene,

Through court and camp he holds his heavenward course serene.

The Christian Year.

AN'S necessity is God's opportunity.
When the Christian realm of ancient
England seemed to be on the brink of
destruction, his providence raised up a
man qualified by many eminent gifts
both to restore the altar and maintain the throne.
ALFRED, the fourth son of Ethelwolf, had been sent
by his father at the age of seven years to Rome, to
receive the rite of confirmation from Leo IV. It
would seem that his father, not then expecting he
would ever be called to wear the crown, had some
thoughts of training him up for the service of the
Church ; but the Saxons afterwards interpreted the
anointing of the pope as a token of his future royalty.
It was a custom in these times for godfathers to be
present at a confirmation, and receive the candidate
from the bishop's hand ; but the pope, in kindness to
the English prince, called him his own godson.1 His

1 Ethelwerd, Chron. A.D. 854.

204 KAKI-Y ENGLISH CHURCH.

education, however, was neglected, or he shewed no
desire for instruction, till he was caught, as other un
willing students have been, by the love of poetry and
song. His mother-in-law Judith shewed him one day
a beautifully written manuscript, with a capital letter
elegantly adorned. This, she told him, contained the
?ong to which he and his brothers had lately listened
in the king's presence : " I will give it," she said,
" to him who first learns to read it." Alfred began
to learn his letters; and though good instructors
were then scarce, from the destruction of learning
in the wars, he from this time laid the foundation of
that knowledge which has raised his name so fai
above the generation in which he was born.

Nothing could be more disastrous than the state
of England when he came to the crown. He was no
more than twenty-three years of age when his bro
ther Ethered died, leaving a large Danish army in
the country, with which he had fought many bloody
battles, arid with which Alfred continued to fight
after his death, till in one year he had met them nine
times in open field. But their ships were still pouring
fresh forces into the country ; and at the close of
the year they were masters of all the province of
Wessex, wherever they directed their march. The
next year they wintered in London, then overran
East Anglia and Mercia, and drove the last Mercian
king Burhred, who had married Alfred's sister, over
sea to take refuge and die at Rome. His wife ended
her days in an Italian nunnery. They were now in
possession of all England north of Thames, the Mer
cians offering no resistance. But while they were
thus engaged in other provinces, Alfred began to
build a fleet, and in A.D. 875 gained his first victory
over a small fleet of these pirates at sea. In the
following years they were again in the west ; and in
fbe seventh year of his reign their successful inroads

CH. XI."] REVERSES OF ALFRED. 205

had so broken the spirit of his people, that many
began to fly across the sea to Ireland or France ;
and the king with difficulty saved himself, with a
small band of followers, by taking refuge in the
woods and fastnesses of the Somersetshire moors.
The first hope of better fortune shone upon the
Saxons in Devonshire, where they slew one of the
sea-kings and eight hundred of his men, and took a
kind of sacred standard, the loss of which broke
somewhat of the spirit of these fierce pagans. It
was woven by the sisters of Inguar and Ubba, the
brothers of the slain chief; and they are said to
have divined by it the fortunes of the day. If the
figure of a raven, which was represented on it, moved
briskly in the wind, it was a sign of victory ; but if
it drooped and hung heavily, their hopes fell with
it. Not long after, Alfred returned from his retreat ;
and by skilful marches cutting off the plundering
parties, and at length with a superior force shutting
them up within their camp at Edingdon in Wilt
shire, drove them by terror and famine to terms of
peace. Their king Godrun received baptism ; and
obtaining from Alfred permission to keep the king
dom of East Anglia, whose last king, Edmund, the
saint of Bury, had been slain by the Danes a few
years earlier, he died and was buried at Hadleigh in
Suffolk, A.D. 890. There was a new and formidable
invasion again towards the close of Alfred's reign ;
but he had now found a way of building ships of
better force than the Danes possessed ; and though
the conn! ry suffered great ravages, he was victorious
by sea and land.

" It pleased God," says his friend who wrote his
life, Asser, bishop of Sherborne, " to give this illus
trious king the experience of both extremes of for
tune ; to suffer him to be hard pressed by enemies,
to be afflicted by adversities, to be humbled by

206 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

losing the respect of his friends, as well as to gain
victories over his foes, and to find prosperity in the
rnidst of reverses ; that he might know that there is
one Lord of all, to whom every knee shall bow, and
in whose hand are the hearts of kings ; who putteth
down the mighty from their seat, and exalteth the
humble ; who willeth that his faithful ones in the
height of success should sometimes feel the rod of
adversity, that they may neither despair of his mercy
when brought low, nor when exalted be proud of
the honour they enjoy, but know to whom they owe
it all. And these reverses came upon Alfred not
without cause ; for in the beginning of his reign he
was led astray by his youthful spirits : he neglected
his graver duties ; and the poor, who came to him
for justice against the mighty, obtained no redress.
And when his kinsman St. Neot2 warned him of his
fault, and prophesied that great calamities would
come upon him for it, he paid no regard to his ad
monition. Since, therefore, the sins which men are
guilty of must meet with punishment either in thi»
world or in that which is to come, it was a mark
both of the truth and mercy of our Judge, that he
suffered not the folly of the king to be unpunished
in this life, designing to spare him in the day of
strict account."

Such is the sound moral lesson which this Chris
tian teacher drew, and which, no doubt, Alfred him
self drew, from his early afflictions. It is very sur
prising that a prince, who during the thirty years of
his reign had scarcely ten which were free from wars
and inroads, and engagements by sea and land, while
he was constantly commanding fleets and armies in

1 Nothing is known further of this saint, whose name has
remained appropriated to a town in Huntingdonshire, but that
he went many times, probably with the charge of Peter-pence,
which Ethelwolf and Alfred sent, to Rome.

CH. XI.] GRIMBALD. 207

person, should yet have been able to accomplish so
many of the most valuable works of peace. He not
only checked the progress of ignorance and barbar
ism in those troubled times, but revived learning
both by encouragement and example ; he invited
learned men into the country from other nations;
he raised up new religious houses; he improved the
whole plan of government and administration of the
laws ; and became himself the best teacher of reli
gion and restorer of Christianity in his realm.

The school at Oxford, which seems to have been
founded in archbishop Theodore's time, or, accord
ing to Asser, had been an older foundation of Bri
tish times, was now fallen into great decay. It was
one of Alfred's first labours to restore it; and it was
never afterwards lost, till the days when the two
Universities became the resort of all the learning of
England. Among the teachers whom he placed there
was a learned clergyman from France, called Grim-
bald, who was also, like Alcuin, a skilful architect.
The ancient church of St. Peter in Oxford remains
in great part as he built it. It is also not imnro-

bable that some portions of the cathedral of Christ
Church in that city are of his work ; and he also
built the cathedral church at Winchester, the capital
.city of Alfred's kingdom, which still shews some re-

208 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

mains of Grimbald's architecture.3 Another famous
learned man whom he invited into the country was
John Scot, commonly called Erigena, one of the
Scots of Ireland, who had passed many years at the
court of Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne,
in France. He was a man of lively wit ; but his wit
sometimes tempted him to make imprudent attacks
upon the great people with whom he associated.
He did not spare the French monarch himself, when
he was in one of these moods; and having been one
day very severe upon a nobleman who was dining
with them, Charles provoked him by asking the
question, " What is the difference between a Scot
and a sot?" " No more than this table's breadth,"
said Erigena, looking the emperor in the face, who
sat opposite to him. When he had come to Eng
land, Alfred gave him a pension and placed him at
Oxford. When he had taught there foi some time,
he removed to the abbey of Malmsbury, and assem
bled a body of pupils in the seat where Aldhelm had
done such good service to learning. Here, however,
the poor teacher came to a miserable death. The
long-continued wars in England had tended to make
men's minds fierce and cruel ; and even the tender
ness of youth is lost, when it is made familiar with
scenes of blood. Whether Erigena had provoked
the youths he taught by his caustic wit or severity
of manner, or whether their own hatred and aver
sion to discipline was the cause, they rushed upon

s It has been supposed that Grimbald was the first archi
tect in this country who raised an arched roof, such as is to be
seen at St. Peter's, Oxford, and at Winchester, in the crypts or
vaults of those churches. But it is plain from Alcuin's account
of the church built by him and Eaubald at York, one hundred
years earlier, that that church had an arched roof. Florence of
Worcester, who lived soon after the Norman conquest, speaks
of the magnificence of Alfred's buildings, of which probably
some were then standing.

CH. XI. J WORKS OF ALFRED. 2^£>

him one day in his chair, with the iron pens which
they then used in schools to write on waxen tablets,
and murdered him with many stabs.

In the lifetime of Erigena, a French monk named
Pascha.se Radbert first taught the doctrine of tran-
substantiation, as it is now taught by the Church of
Rome ; that after the bread and wine have been
consecrated in the holy communion, they become
the same body and blood which our blessed Saviour
took from the Virgin his mother; that their own
substance is changed, and only this new substance
remains. Erigena strongly opposed this novel and
dangerous doctrine ; but it is doubtful, as his own
work is lost, whether he did not run into the oppo
site error of making the sacramental emblems only
a sign or token of remembrance. He was rather a
man of learning than a sound teacher of Christi
anity. By his writings on the hard question of pre
destination he gave great offence to pope Nicholas
the First, who wrote to Charles the Bald to procure
his dismissal from the court of France ; and this
seems to have induced him to take refuge in Eng
land. In other respects, he was a great help to the
cause of knowledge, having travelled into Greece
and other countries; and his name was long in high
rori own at Oxford and abroad.

The Church of England and king Alfred, who
was the most enlightened member of it, did not
receive the doctrine of transubstantiation ; else they
would hardly have sheltered Erigena. Their doc
trine was at this time much the same as was put
forth by Bertram, or Ratram, a monk of Corbey in
Saxony, who addressed a treatise upon the body and
blood of our Lord to the emperor against Radbert's
doctrine. Archbishop Elfric and other English
teachers, about a hundred years afterwards, taught
the same doctrine as Bertram's ; and it was this book

1' 2

210

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

which first opened the eyes of bishop Ridley and
archbishop Cranmer at the time of the Reformation.

There is a curious story of three Scottish monks
from Ireland, who in Alfred's reign landed in Corn
wall, and w^re kindly received. They had put to
sea in a small boat without oars or sail ; and taking
seven days' provision with them, were drifted on
the seventh day to the English coast. It seems they
had made a vow to live as pilgrims in the first
foreign land to which the waves should carry them.
Ireland still continued to send out men of learning
at this time, and Alfred perhaps employed these
monks also in the work of education ; but their
strange venture shews that their learning was not
unmixed with ignorant superstition.

Alfred imitated the practice of Charlemagne and
his successor in having a school at the court. Here
he himself continued his studies with Plegmund, who
became, A.D. 890, archbishop of Canterbury, Wer-
ferth bishop of Worcester, and Asser, a learned
Welchman from St. David's, who was afterwards
bishop of Sherborne. With their help he translated
into the old English language many portions of
Scripture ; the History of the English Church by
the Venerable Bede ; St. Gregory's Pastoral Care,
a manual of useful directions to the clergy ; and the
Consolations of Boethius, a treatise of a Christian
philosopher of the sixth century, full of piety and
beauty. In these and other works Alfred did not
simply translate from the originals, but often added
thoughts of his own. This is more especially true
of his translation of Boethius, which he so altered as
to make it in some degree a new work. Here his
eldest son Edward, who succeeded him in the king
dom, and some of the young noblemen of his court,
were trained up, and taught to learn the Psalms of
David, and to read books of history and poetry in

CH. XI.] LAWS OF ALFRED. 211

their own tongue. His second son, Ethehvard, ne
sent to study at Oxford ; and there he died, with the
reputation of a very erudite man, before the death
of his elder brother.

The intention of these learned labours was, how
ever, more especially to improve the state of know
ledge among the clergy, that by them it might be
spread among the people. He saw, what Bede had
remarked to archbishop Egbert, that it would be
better for them to use their native language in the
public service of God, than to use Latin prayers,
which they could neither explain nor understand.
He found that there were but few of the English, to
the south of the Humber, who could translate an\
Latin writing into English. It must be remembered
that the Danes, wherever they went, had destroyed
the monasteries and slain the monks ; and particu
larly at Winchester they had massacred the whole
number in A.D. 867- With their destruction learn
ing had also perished. The other clergy of those
times, who resided on country estates or in villages,
were generally destitute of learning, and were often
employed in the office of reeves or country magis
trates ; an office which in those days it was not easy
to make suit with the office of a parish-priest. But
at this time the disposition of the people towards
monasteries had undergone a great change. The
piety of Alfred had led him to found a new mon
astery, when peace was restored, at Athelney in
Somerset, the place where he had found refuge from
the Danes. But there were no clergymen in Wessex
who had any inclination to become monks. His first
abbot was a native of Saxony, bred in the Christian
colony of Winfrid. And here, again, an act followed
strongly marking the savage spirit of the time. There
were two monks, one a priest, the other a deacon,
natives of France, who had. come to serve under hi*

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH

rule ; but some quarrel having arisen, these two
Frenchmen murdered the Saxon abbot, as he prayed
before the altar ! The bishops of Winchester, after
the destruction of the monks, for nearly a hundred
years later, chose to have only secular canons, or
clergymen who might be either married or single, to
do the service of the cathedral, without subjecting
them to any monkish rule ; and this was done gene
rally in all the other cathedrals throughout England.
Alfred did not interfere with it; but wishing to have
a monastery and school for the church at his capital,
he built and endowed what was called the New Min
ster, and placed Grimbald at the head of it, in one
of the last years of his reign. This minster was
completed by his son Edward, and became after
wards known by the name of Hyde Abbey, near
Winchester.

The improvements which Alfred made in the
government and laws of England do not belong so
much to the plan of this work, except as they shew
the progress of Christian principles on society. The
division of the realm into counties was probably older
than Alfred's time; as it was the custom for the Saxon
princes to give shires, or shares of their kingdoms, to
be governed by earls or eldermen, according to the
old Gothic or German practice. By degrees these
became of fixed boundaries, and at a very early
period were not much different from what they are
now. But Alfred divided the shires again into hun
dreds and wapentakes, and subjected these to a larger
division called a lath, containing three or more hun
dreds. Thus the magistrates of hundreds were sub
ject to the magistrate of the lath, and those of the
laths, again, to the sheriffs of counties, or shire-reeves.
By this means a great step was made towards the
subordination of the whole country under one plan
of government : and every person who thought him-

CH. XI.] LAWS OF ALFRED. 218

self aggrieved had the means of finding justice near
his own abode, by bringing his cause first before the
hundred-court, from which he might appeal to the
lath or county-court ; and, after all, to the king and
his council, if he could not otherwise be satisfied.
To discourage the constant occurrence of private
war, or quarrels in which nobles and commoners
often met together and fought with weapons, and
lives were continually lost, he obliged every man
to find bail or securities for his conduct; who, if
he transgressed the law and was unable to pay the
fine, were obliged to share it among them. This
was a regulation which made it much more the in
terest of private persons to keep the peace of their
neighbourhood from suffering disturbance. He was
equally watchful in the care which he took of the
administration of the laws, having the decisions of
the county-court? constantly reported to him ; and
if he found an ignorant sentence, he sent for the
magistrate, and threatened him with the loss of his
office, if he would not study to qualify himself
better. So that it was now a common thing for
earls and sheriffs, who had been ill taught in their
youth, to be seen taking to their books, and reading
the records of adjudged cases in Anglo-Saxon law.
Capital punishments were very rarely inflicted
by the laws in Anglo-Saxon times. Even secret
murderers, or poisoners as they were called, were
only ordered to be banished. There was only one
crime which the laws of Alfred excepted from this
general mercy. If a vassal or slave was proved to
have betrayed his master, he was to die the death.
His crime is compared to that of the Jews who
betrayed and crucified their Lord. With the same
feeling the old Italian poet Dante, in his Vision of
the place of torments, places Brutus and Cassius, the
murderers of Julius Caesar, in the lowest depths of

•J14 EAIILY ENGLISH CHURCH.

misery with Judas Iscariot. Still it may, perhaps,
be doubted, strange as such opinions may now
appear, whether they were not founded on some
thing more like Christian principles, than theirs who
in these days follow the old heathen republicans in
exalting these patriots of the dagger to the skies,
and write themselves under the names of Junius
Brutus in the newspapers.

We must not, however, praise even Alfred at
the expense of truth. In the preface to his laws, he
begins by reciting the parts of Scripture which con
tain such moral laws as are the foundation of all
law. Most of these are from the twentieth chapter
of Exodus, and the three following chapters. But
where he should give the second commandment, we
find it left out, and instead of it, after the other
nine, the twenty-third verse of the twentieth chap
ter : " Make not to thyself gods of gold or of silver."
Alcuin would not have done this. It is a sign that
by this time the popes had taught the English some
thing of favour to the practice of image-worship ;
for that verse is not enough to express the law,
without the commandment that goes before it, and,
indeed, speaks of a different kind of idolatry, the
worshipping of false gods ; while the other speaks
of worshipping the true God under a false image.
The omission, indeed, falls far short of the com
mon practice in popish catechisms at the present
day ; where the second commandment is left out,
and the tenth, to make up the number, is divided
into two.3

Another sign of corrupt superstition, which was
brought from Rome not long before Alfred's time,

3 Some have supposed that the Jews anciently divided the
tenth commandment into two ; but the contrary is evident from
Philo's Treatise on the Decalogue. See Bp. Taylor's Rule of
Conscience, b. ii. c. ii. 6.

CH. XI.J LAWS OF ALFRED. 2l5

and is mentioned in his laws, is, that the Christians
were now taught to keep the festival of the assump
tion of the Virgin Mary. This festival seems to have
begun in some legendary tale of the blessed Virgin
having been taken up into heaven, like Enoch and
Elijah.

The laws of Alfred shew a regard to the liberty
and safety of the poorer classes. One of them enacts
a penalty against a kind of grievance, which throws
some light on the state of old English manners. No
man is to shave the head of a churl, or slave bound
to labour on the soil, to make him look like a lord's
fool or like a priest. The penalty is ten shillings
for the one insult, and thirty for the other. It was
a common practice, as is well known, for noblemen
and rich commoners in early times, as well as kings,
to retain a domestic fool, or licensed jester, to divert
his master at an idle hour, or relieve his melancholy
These poor fellows, who, if they had no-t much wit
in themselves, were the cause of wit in others, were
condemned to wear a fantastic dress, and often dis
tinguished by a shaven crown. It would be a coarse
kind of practical jest to shave the head of one who
was not ambitious of wearing the cap and bells, after
the fool's fashion ; but to make him in mockery wear
the look of a priest seems to have been properly
considered a more grave offence. It was an injury
sometimes done in cruel scorn by chiefs to their
captives in war.

The piety of Alfred was deep and sincere. He
divided the twenty-four hours of the day into three
equal parts, giving eight hours to sleep and refresh
ment, eight to the public duties of government, and
eight to the service of religion. In this third por
tion we must reckon not only the hours of praver
and of the holy communion, which he received daily,
but also those that were employed in studies and

216 EARLY ENGLISH CHTJHCH.

writings, all designed to set forth the glory of God.
The way of measuring time then known to the
Saxons, if any of them possessed an instrument for
it, was by the hour-glass , an instrument which
required continual turning, and was unserviceable
unless constantly attended to at the end of the hour.
The first clock of which we have any account was
sent by Abdalla, king of Persia, A.D. 807, by the
hands of two monks of Jerusalem, as a present to
the emperor Charlemagne. It was a very curious
instrument, with a number of little brazen balls,
which at the close of each hour dropped down or
played upon a set of bells underneath, and sounded
the end of the hour: it had also twelve figures of
horsemen, which were made to move out and in
again when the twelve hours were completed. This
invention, however, was not imitated in Europe till
long afterwards, unless by one or two artists, whose
ingenuity was not enough to recommend it. It was
not commonly known till the time of the crusades,
when the Christians of Western Europe seem to have
learnt it, with other mathematical inventions, from
the Saracens. Alfred had found a description of
an instrument for measuring time in Boethius, which
appears to have suggested to him an improvement.
He caused some wax candles to be made, which at
this time were commonly used in churches and at
private houses of the rich, of such size and thick
ness as to burn each exactly for four hours ; and by
marks set upon them he could at any time tell how
far the hours were gone. These were enclosed in a
horn case, that they might be secure from the effect
of drafts of air, and that the light might be less
offensive to the eye by day than if they stood within
glass or unguarded;4 they were always with him

I see no reason for supposing, as Warton and Mr. Soamefc
<to, that this was done for want of glass. Bede tells us that the

CH. XI. 1 ALKlUCU's HULKS OF UOVKHN JIKNT. 217

wherever he went, in his tent in the field, as well as
at home in his palace ; and his domestic chaplains
were instructed to watch them, and at certain times
to give him notice of the hour.

Alfred devoted half his revenues to religion and
works of charity. This portion was divided into four
parts ; one of which he gave in alms to the poor,
the second to his OAVH two monasteries, the third to
the schools which he had founded, and the fourth to
any occasional calls for the aid of Christianity, either
to help the distressed religious houses at home, or
assist suffering Christians abroad. Thus, hearing,
probably by the report of pilgrims who had visited
the Holy Land, that the Christians c-f St. Thomas
in India were in great distress from the Saracens, he
sent Swithelm, bishop of Sherborne, with Athelstan,
one of his thanes, to carry his alms to them. These
Christians seem to have lived in Arabia Felix, where
the gospel is said to have been first planted by St.
Thomas or St. Bartholomew ; and the inhabitants
of this region were called Indians in early Christian
times. From thence they seem to have gone to the
island of Socotora, near the mouth of the Red Sea,
and afterwards sent missionaries to the East Indies
and China. In these days a man who wore a pil
grim's dress could travel safely in lands that were
full of danger. The Christians venerated a pilgrim's
staff'; and even the Mahometans allowed the holy
man, although of a different faith, peacefully to visit

Saxons had learnt to make church-lamps and other vessels on
glasi two hundred years before. Nor do I see any reason for
believing that the palace of Alfred, or of the Saxon kings before
him, when the art was once known, were so much worse than
the monks' dormitories at Jarrow, as to be without glass to the
windows. The notion of Alfred's using a stable lantern to read
by, instead of a wax light without a case, is not a happy one •
the object of this invention was not light, but the measurenwi'
of time.

218 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the holy sepulchre. Swithelm fulfilled his errand,
and returned prosperously home, bringing some
Eastern jewels and spices with him, about A.D. 884.4

It was not only by his laws that Alfred sought
to better the condition of the poor, and not merely
by the uncertain gift of alms. His will, which, ac
cording to the custom of those times, he brought
before his Council of the Wise to be ratified during
his life, about the year A.D. 885, makes mention of
a great number of slaves, particularly on his estates
at Cheddar and Domerham in Somerset, whom he
had raised to the condition of free tenants, only
making his petition to them, that they would after
his death continue to cultivate those lands with his
son Edward for their landlord, rather than take to
a new occupation.

Thus did this good man fulfil the office of a
Christian king. His own high view of his duties
he has left recorded in his Paraphrase of Boethius
already mentioned, and most truly did he act up to
them : " I never well liked," he says, " nor strongly
desired the possession of this earthly kingdom ; but
when I was in possession, I desired materials for the
work I was to do, that I might fitly steer the vessel,
and rule the realm committed to my keeping. There
are materials for every craft, without which a man
cannot work at his craft ; and a king also must have
his materials and tools. And what are these? He
must have his land well peopled ; he musi have
prayer-men, and army-men, and work-men. Wun-
out these tools r.o king can shew his skill.

" His materials are, provision for these three
brotherhoods, — land to dwell in, gifts, and weapons,
and meat, and ale, and clothes, and whatever else
they need. Without these he cannot keep his tools*

* SM- Chron. A.D. 883. Malmsb. ii. § 122.

en. xi.] ALFRED'S RULES OF GOVERNMENT. 219

and without his tools he cannot do any of those
"hings that it is commanded him to do. Therefore
I desired materials, that my craft and power might
not be given up and lost.

" But all craft and power will soon be worn out
and put to silence, if they be without wisdom. What
ever is done through folly, man can never make that
to be a good craft. Therefore I desired wisdom.
This is now what I can most truly say. I have
desired to live worthily while I lived, and after my
death to leave to men that should be after me a
remembrance in good works."

Such a remembrance he did obtain. His own
life, always weak, and often afflicted with bodily
disease, ended A.D. 901, at the age of fifty-two. He
left a son to succeed him, who, though "inferior to
his father in many ways, did much to strengthen the
kingdom by his successes against the Danes, and
laboured to preserve good government. And this
son, king Edward the Elder, is supposed to have
founded a school of learning at Cambridge, like
that of Alfred's at Oxford ; thus giving a begin
ning to the second English university. His eldest
daughter Ethelfleda married Ethelred, earl of Mer-
cia; and, being early left a widow, most bravely
aided her warlike brother, fortifying many towns as
places of strength and refuge in the chances of war,
and yet following her father's works of mercy, set
ting free her vassals, and founding religious houses
at Chester, Shrewsbury, and other towns ; which
from this time began to be more inhabited than
while there was no dancer of invasion.

CHAPTER XII.

FROM THE REIGN OF ALFRED TO ARCHBISHOP DUKSTAN.
TROUBLES OF EUROPE AND ENGLAND IN THE DARK
AGES.

If the rude wasto of human error bear

One flower of hope, oh, pass and leave it there.

WoRnawoRTH.

JIBERTY and religion being thus nobly
maintained in England, nothing mean
while could be more miserable and dis
graceful than the state of the see of
Rome. After the death of pope For-
mosus, A.D. 901, there arose a bitter strife for the
succession, and one wicked and ambitious priest
after another was exalted to a short-lived power,
which they most unworthily administered. Stephen
VI., who held the office for about a twelvemonth,
not long after Formosus, ordered all the consecra
tions made by his predecessor to be annulled ; then
another pope succeeded for three months ; then one
of twenty days ; then came Leo V. and Christopher,
who gained the chair by bribery or violence ; and
in A.D. 907, Sergius III., who threw Christopher
into prison, and taking up the body of Formosus
a second time, as Stephen is said before to have
mutilated it of its fingers, cut off the head of the
mouldering corpse, and threw the remains into the
river Tiber : "An act full of horror," says a Spanish

CH. XII. J ARCHBISHOP PLEGMUND 221

historian, who records it ; " and no wonder if at
such a time abuses and false doctrines crept into
the Church." But indeed such scenes as these were
of no uncommon occurrence at Rome for many
generations after this period. And scarcely one
good or salutary act can be shewn as done by any
pope for more than one hundred and fifty years.

England was, therefore, left to the counsels or
its own bishops, and the intercourse with Rome was
much broken off. Plegmund, archbishop of Canter
bury, the friend and fellow-student of Alfred, now
seeing the kingdom of Edward much increased in
the west, advised, A.D. 910, that three new bishop
rics should be founded in those counties — one at
Wells, which still remains ; one at St. Petroc's, or
Bodrain, afterwards at St. Germain's in Cornwall :
and one at Crediton, Devon ; which two last have
since been united at Exeter. The bishopric of
Sherhorne was also divided, a new see being founded
at Wilton. Three other bishoprics having become
vacant a short time before, he consecrated seven
bishops in one day. It is said by some historians
favourable to the pope, that pope Formosus put him
upon this task; but seeing that unfortunate pon
tiff., by all accounts, died nine or ten years before,
it does riot seem probable. It is much more likely
that Plegmund, who is said to have been a venerable,
wise, and diligent prelate, did not need a pope to
prompt him to do his duty. And as this was done
in the days of that wolfish pope Sergius, of whom
we have just made mention, it is much more likely
that king Edward the Elder followed the counsel o"f
his father's friend, than the admonitions of such a
person as then presided at Rome.

There was great need of good counsel for the
Church at this period. In all the northern and east-
ern provinces of England, Christianity had hardly a

U2

222 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

place to shew its head. The two bishops of Ea&t
Anglia, Humbert of Elmham and Wilred of Dun-
wich, had been slaughtered by the Danes ; and these
heathens had obtained such complete dominion over
Norfolk and Suffolk, that for more than eighty years
no new bishop was appointed. Elhard, bishop of
Dorchester, had also fallen in battle ; for at such a
time many of the Saxon bishops buckled on their
armour, and died doing their best for the defence of
their country. To his see Plegmund now appointed
a successor. At such a time, we may well suppose
that, notwithstanding the labours of Alfred to restore
the learning of the clergy, the troubled state of the
country hindered those labours from taking due ef
fect. Superstition continued to increase. Of Fri-
thestan, appointed by Plegmund to the bishopric of
Winchester, it is recorded that he often Avalked by
night with his clerks round the churchyard of the
minster, singing psalms for the repose of the dead.
" May they rest in peace !" he said, as he concluded
his prayers on one occasion ; and in the solemn
pause that ensued, he thought he heard a sound as
of a full choir from the tombs, answering " Amen."
He most likely heard some echo of his own voice
in the stillness of the night, to which his mistaken
piety gave this unearthly character. Byrnstan, who
succeeded him, is by some accounts stated to have
done this ; but it is probable that this superstition
had many imitators. Together with such mistaken
devotion, however, was often united much sincere
piety, humility, and charity. This bishop was the
founder of an hospital for the poor at Winchester,
and daily ministered to the wants of a number of
unfortunate persons ruined by the disasters of the
war, bringing water for their feet, and waiting on
them himself as they were fed at his table. He died
suddenly, in the act of prayer, before the altar; and

CH. XII.] TRIAL BY ORDEAL. 223

his death was so unforeseen, that for a time his
friends thought he had been poisoned, till one of
them had his suspicions removed by a dream.

A less innocent kind of superstitious practice was
the trial by ordeal. We hear very little of it in early
Saxon times, though it is mentioned in some copies
of king Ina's laws. But it prevailed much after the
coming of the Danes. It was derived from the old
paganism.1 It is plain, in the later Saxon kingdom,
and under the first Norman sovereigns, that this kind
of trial was very popular, and that many had great
faith in it. The laws seem never to have commanded
it in Christian times, but permitted it, if an accused
person chose to resort to it, and gave directions how
it was to be applied. The Church-teachers provided
a form of prayer to be used with it, and so sanctioned
it as an immediate appeal to the judgment of God.
The usual cases were, when either a person, who had
once been convicted of false swearing, tried by this
means to regain his credit ; or when a person, against
whom there was presumptive proof of crime, at
tempted to gain an acquittal. He was to give no
tice to the priest three days before, and on those
three days to taste nothing but bread and salt, and
herbs and water. On each day he was also to hear
mass and make his offering. On the day of his trial
he was to receive the Lord's supper, and swear that
he was innocent in law of the charge made against
him. If the trial was to be made with hot iron, nine
feet were measured on the pavement of the church,
and the plate being laid on a supporter at one end
of the nine feet, he was to carry it to the other. As
soon as he had reached it, he threw down his weight
and hastened to the altar, where his hand was bound

1 A practice of the same kind was known to prevail among
tbe ancient Greeks and Romans ; and several ways of ordeal are
be in use among the Hindoos.

224 EAIILY ENGLISH CHURCH.

and sealed up, and was not to be examined till three
days after. Another ordeal was, to remove a stone
at the depth of a man's wrist, or sometimes at the
depth of his elbow, when the charge was more se
rious, out of boiling water. A third was, to plunge
an accused person by a rope an ell and a half deep
in water; and if he sank immediately, he was drawn
out and declared innocent. This strange super
stition did not come to an end in our native coun
try for many centuries. It was first forbidden by
law in the time of king Henry III. about A.D. 1219 ;
but some remnant of the old paganism remained long
among the rude and ignorant, who are known to
have tried such experiments as the water-ordeal
only a few generations back, on poor women who
were suspected of witchcraft.

This superstition came entirely from our Gothic
or Saxon or Danish forefathers. The popes never
encouraged it. On the contrary, Alexander II., the
godfather of William the Conqueror, absolutely for
bade it ; and when it was put down by law in Eng
land, itAvas a benefit which the pope's lawyers brought
in by the canon-law ; Henry III., in his letter to the
justices who were on the northern circuit, giving as
his reason that it was forbidden at Rome. It was de
clared by the canon-law to be an invention of Satan
against the commandment, " Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God." But this was long afterwards.
The superstitious Saxons compared it to the deliver
ance of Noah in the flood, and of the three children
in the furnace. So hard is it to root out a false opi
nion once popularly received, to keep faith pure from
superstition, and neither to reject nor add to sacred
truth. May God grant that his Church, which no
longer strays in the wilderness of superstition, may
never be delivered over to the bondage of unbelief!

The laws of Edward the Elder and other Saxon

CH. XII.] LAWS AGAINST WITCHCRAFT. 225

kings contain, besides some notice of ordeals, an
order for the punishment of witches and wizards.
Before we condemn this, we must remember that
such arts are still professed in the northern parts of
Europe ; that gipsy fortune-tellers may still be seen
under a hedge, able to impose on the weak and cre
dulous ; and that there is still a slight regard paid
by country people to Moore's Almanac, and a hank
ering after some very simple charms and spells. The
reliance which is now placed on such things is some
thing between jest and earnest; but there is still
enough to shew how this superstition held sway for
merly among the natives of this country. It is most
likely that, in old times, there were many bold de
ceivers, who practised the same arts that are com
monly to be found in all heathen countries, and
made them a cloak for hateful crimes. It was,
therefore, a right act of the Christian lawgivers in
Edward's and his son Edmund's reign to put them
down. And the law which speaks of them very re
markably points out the kind of crimes which were
commonly joined with witchcraft; it passes a penalty
of transportation on all witches, wizards, perjured
persons, poisoners, secret murderers, and brothel-
keepers. Some of these characters may have walked
disguised as witches even in this nineteenth century.2

2 I take the following example from a respectable York
shire weekly journal : —

On the 20th of March, A.D. 1809, Mary Bateman, a mur
deress, was executed at York. She was born at Asenby, near
Thirsk, A.D. 1768, and having married and taken up her abode
at Leeds, at the age of thirty became a witch or dealer in charms
by profession. Her instrument was poison. After practising
her arts upon a number of persons, whom she seems to have
persuaded that they were labouring under an evil wish, by ad
ministering baneful drugs in small quantities, and extorting
money for the spells by which she pretended to deliver them,
she was directed by a young woman, whom she had duped,
to the family of William Perigo, a small clothier at Bramley.

22G EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

This is not the proper place to inquire whether
there may or may not have been more than cheat or
imposture; whether, in other ages of the world, there
may have been persons, like the magicians of Pha
raoh, who were enabled to do wonders beyond the
powers of nature, by the help of evil spirits. The
business of true religion is always to contend against
the rulers of the darkness of this world ; and the law
against witches, as well as that against shaving the
jjead of a poor churl, may now be laid by, for other
statutes more suited to meet the evil of the day. But
it was probably not ill-timed when first enacted; it
marks rather the power of Christianity over one de
ceit of Satan, though others were still mixed up with
forms of worship and administration of the law.

The period from the time of Alfred to the Nor
man Conquest was indeed one of the darkest that the
Christian Church has ever undergone. On the con
tinent of Europe, the empire of Charlemagne was
broken up, and miserable wars of petty kings threw
all back into the old confusion The Danes and
Northmen were making descents upon France and
Germany, and inflicted upon those countries losses
not much less grievous than England had suffered

This man's wife was in ill health, and u was supposed some
evil eye had been turned upon her. The witch attributed it to
an imaginary person, whom she called Miss Blythe ; and keep
ing up the delusion, found means to get from them all their
money, about 70/., their best clothes, and a great part of their
furniture. At length, when they had no more to give, and be
came clamorous for the fulfilment of her promises of health,
wealth, and happiness, she determined to secure herself from
detection by putting an end to their lives. She gave them poi
son, under the pretence of administering a charm. 'The wife
died ; but the man after dreadful sufferings, recovered ; and
now his eyes being opened to the miserable cheats by which he
had so long been deluded to his ruin, he laid his case before the
magistrates, and this led to the committal and following trial
and execution of this remarkable culprit.

CH. XII.] ODO, ABBOT OF CLUGNY. 227

And at this time there was scarcely any power in
the teachers of Christianity to check the progress of
misrule. The monasteries were plundered, or abused
by their own presiding rulers to licentious living
and disorder. One name only, that of Odo, abbot
of Clugny, is mentioned with respect. He was born
in the French province of Anjou, of humble parents,
about A.D. 880; and after obtaining a great reputa
tion for his learning and piety, which gained him
employment as an ambassador among the barbarous
kings and princes of those days, when few but poor
monks like himself would undertake the office, he
became a great reformer of monasteries ; and in A.D.
927 was made abbot of Clugny in Burgundy, where
his rule was in such reputation, that the order of
Cluniac monks became a new religious order in the
Church. It afterwards produced many men of learn
ing ; and some monasteries under this rule were
founded in England. It is told of Odo, (hat his
piety was owing to the care of a good father, who
constantly read the Gospels at his table. He was
once on a journey with a few of his monks on some
public business, when he fell into the hands of a
band of robbers ; but being employed at that mo
ment, according to their custom, in chanting one of
the daily services of psalms and prayers, they walked
on without attending to the danger, though they saw
the robbers waiting for them in advance ; and this
fearless trust in the divine protection had such an
effect on the captain of the lawless band, that he
would not suifer his men to lay a hand upon them.

In England, when Athelstan, son of Edward,
A.D. 938, at the great battle of Brunton in North
umberland,3 had completely broken the power of the

3 The place has been disputed ; but Dr. Bosworth supposes
it to hive been here. It seems to be the same with " Broninis
urbs," mentioned in Eddy's Life of Wilfrid.

228 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

northern Danes, and the Saxon sway and Christianity
were restored, the pagans who were now settled in
the northern and eastern provinces began to receive
the knowledge of the truth, which was always im
posed as a condition of peace by the Saxon lawgivers.
On this occasion, as before among those Danes whom
Edward had reduced to submission, some laws were
passed to enforce their payment of tithes and church-
offerings, which were not at first willingly observed.
By degrees, however, the number of sincere converts
increased ; and thus it was providentially ordered,
that before the second more successful invasion under
Sweyn and Knute towards the end of this century,
many of their own countrymen were ready to aid the
Saxon Christians in the work of the gospel. It is
remarkable also, that at this dark time the Welch
Christians enjoyed an interval of prosperity under
the reign of Howel the Good, who joined together
the three provinces of North and South Wales and
Powysland under his sceptre, A.D. 907-948. From
him these ancient Britons received a code of laws,
which are said to have remained in force till the
principality was at last united to England under the
Norman Edward ; and this prince wisely provided
for the peace of his dominions by sending presents
and doing homage to Edward the Elder and Athel-
stan.4

4 The Howel mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle A.D. 922,
926, is called in one place king of North Wales ; in the other,
king of West Wales, which in other places means Cornwall.
But Cornwall was subdued by Egbert a century before. Burh-
red, king of Mercia, had subdued North Wales, with the assist
ance of Ethelwolf, A.D. 853. All the princes of Wales had sub
mitted to Alfred, who had a viceroy ruling it for him, A.D. 897.
After the reign of Alfred, the native princes seem to have held
it more or less independently.

Mr. Soames stems to suppose that this Howel was a king
of Cornwall, which he considers to have been independent till
Athelstan's time. Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 163. John of

CII. XII J INCREASE OF COUNTRY-CHURCHES. 229

The Church, however, did not immediately re
cover from the blows inflicted in these long wars.
A difference arose within itself, whether the monas
teries should be restored, or whether the Church
should be left entirely to the bishops and the secular
clergy. Many of the bishops and earls were against
the revival ot the monasteries ; and Wulf helm, arch
bishop of Canterbury, who was one of the chief
, ounsellors of Athelstan, seems to have been of this
party. In the laws of this king, which appear to
have been passed after the battle of Brunton, with
the advice of Wulf helm and the other bishops, there
are many enactments for the increase of country-
churches, and the payment of tithes, and the respect
to be paid to priests; but nothing is said of monas
teries. The king direct that his reeves, or bailiffs,
on all his estates, afford food and clothing, each to
one poor person, from the property under their
charge, " as they value God's mercy and the king's
love." If this is neglected, they are to pay a fine of
thirty shillings, to be distributed to the poor in the
nearest town, in the presence of the bishop ; not by

Tinmouth is his authority, a chronicler of the fourteenth cen
tury. But he seems to have mistaken a statement of Malms-
bury, who says that Athelstan expelled the Welch inhabitants
of the town, dwelling as they then did conjointly with the
Saxons. We have seen that Winfrid was educated at a Saxon
monastery in Exeter two centuries before. Edward the Elder
dates his laws at Exeter. And archbishop Plegmund founds
two sees, Crediton in Devon, and St. Petroc's, Cornwall, A.JJ.
910. And Alfred in his will leaves many estates in Devon to
his relatives, and speaks of " Tregony-shire," or Cornwall, as
part of his dominions. That he was also master of South Wales
appears from the further fact, that two Welch bishops of St.
David's, and one of Llandaff, came to archbishop Ethered for
consecration. Edward the Elder, in A D. 918, paid forty pounds
for the ransom of a Welch bishop from the Danes. I conclude,
therefore, there is some error in the second entry in the Saxon
Chronicle, and that the Howel mentioned is the famous Welch
Hywel Dha.

230 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the abbot of the monastery. Priests ordained to the
second order of ministry in the Church are to be
esteemed as holding the rank of thanes or gentle
men. And what is of most importance, a thane's
rank might be obtained by a Saxon churl or franklin,
if he was rich enough to possess about five hundred
acres of land, a seat at the town-gate (in the grand
jury), to be entitled to a place in the Council of the
Wise (to be elected as a member of parliament), and
if he had a church with a bell-tower on his estate.
There can be no doubt that such a law as this had
a great effect in increasing the number of country-
churches. It seems to have been passed in further
ance of the designs of archbishop Theodore ; but it
is almost the earliest certain notice that we have
of the progress of parish -churches under the Saxon
kings. It has sometimes been supposed that there
were but few country-churches in these early times ;
but it may be questioned whether the number was
not better proportioned to the wants of the popula
tion than it is at present. There were many parts of
the country where there were more than two-thirds
of the land left in the old wild forests; and the popu
lation was very small, scattered in a few hamlets here
and there. Some of these were undoubtedly far from
a church, and could scarcely have heard a preacher,
unless when a charitable monk went on his travels,
or a hermit fixed his cell among them. But still
there were many villages in the most woody di-stricts,
where a church had been built and a priest resided.
In Northamptonshire, where three of the old forests
are yet left in part, and which was most thinly in
habited in Saxon times, there were at the Conquest
more than sixty village-churches, while the county-
town contained eight or nine — three or four more
than it has now. In Derbyshire there were not
fewer than fifty, and five at least in the county-town.

CH. XII.] MONASTERIES AGAIN DESIRED. 231

These are exclusive of monasteries and the churches
belonging to them ; of which there were three or
four in Northamptonshire, without reckoning Peter
borough. In the town of Newark and the manor
round it, including twelve or fourteen villages, were
ten churches. In Lincolnshire, which was one of the
most populous and thriving counties before the Con
quest, there were more than two hundred village-
churches, — a third of the present number, without
reckoning those in Lincoln and Stamford, or the
monasteries.5

Yet it seems right to believe, that at this time
the state of society was not such that the business
of religion could be carried on without these houses
of education for the young and friendless, and of
refuge for the oppressed. Besides which, there
would be a natural feeling of nity for those who had
borne their full part in the sufferings from the pagan
foe. By the effect of long-continued distractions the
people had become wild and turbulent ; bands of
robbers infested the country; and "the inhabitants
of the villages ceased in Israel." Edmund, who suc
ceeded Athelstan, in his attempt to put these ma
rauders down, was mortally stabbed by a bold thief
at his own board, A.D. 946. It is probable, there
fore, that many religious and merciful men were at
this time inclined to revive the monasteries, as a
means of restoring peace to the country, and soften
ing the people's manners.

We must already have remarked how often these
religious retreats served in ancient England for places
of refuge to unfortunate or aged princes. The time
was not yet come when this use was to be discon
tinued. Wiglaf, the last independent king of Mercia,
when he fled from Egbert of Wessex, found shelter

* See the map of Lincolnshire at the end of this chapter.

J32 EAIiLY EXGLISH CHURCH.

for some time in the abbey of Croyland ; and in his
warm gratitude to the faithful monks, he gave them
his coronation-robe to turn into church-vestments; a
splendid suit of embroidered hangings, representing
the siege of Troy, for the ornament of the church ;
his silver cup or crucible, embossed with figures of
savage men fighting with serpents ; and also his
drinking-horn, that the elders of the monastery might
drink out of it on the festivals of the saints, and
amidst their benedictions might sometimes remember
the donor.6 There was now an unfortunate king of
the Scots, who had taken the mighty name of Con-
stantine; but being allied with the Danes against
Athelstan, and having partaken of their overthrow at
Brunton, was glad to shave his head and live quietly
as a monk at St. Andrew's for the rest of his days.
An old Scottish chronicle tells his history :

Heddi's son, callit Constantino,
Kyng was thritty years and nine ;
Kyng he cessit for to be,
And in St. Androi's a kyldee ;7
And there he liffit yeres five,
And abbot made endit his lyve.

Athelstan himself, whether feeling something of pity
for such a change, or under a sense of remorse for
the death of a brother, whom he is said to have
caused to be drowned at sea, became a founder of
monasteries. He restored Beverley, before he re
turned from his campaign in the north. He also
restored Bury St. Edmund's, as it now was called in
memory of the martyred king ; and founded several
new religious houses in the west of England.

It was a purer spirit which animated Theodred
the Good, bishop of Elmham and London, who re
built the cathedral of St. Paul's, to found some reli-

6 This drinking-horn is said to be still preserved.

7 A Scottish Dame for a monk.

CH. XII.] DANES AT CROYLANI) ABBEY. 233

gious houses in Suffolk, to revive Christianity in that
paganised province. And a purer spirit, which let!
Turketul, a noble Saxon of the court of king Ed
mund and king Edred, to restore the abbey of Croy-
land.

The Danes had done their worst in the fen-dis
trict with the old abbeys. In A.D. 870, the year of
the great inroad, Bardney with all its monks, said to
amount to three hundred, had fallen into their hands;
Peterborough, with the abbot and eighty-four of his
monks, had shared the same fate; and the stragglers,
running from the desolate country, now brought
news to Croylaml of the enemy's approach. It is
the most particular account which remains of this
dreadful time. No wonder that the early English
Church long afterwards had in their litany a peti
tion, " That it may please thee to quell the cruelty
of our pagan enemies, we beseech thee to hear us,
good Lord !" The aged abbot, Theodore, resolving
to die upon his post, commanded the younger and
strono-er monks to escape, if possible, into the marshes,
and carry with them the relics, a few jewels, and the
deeds of the monastery, which they had now learnt
to value. Most of king Wiglaf's plate they sunk in
the well ; some precious things were buried ; and
now, as the fires came nearer and nearer, the party
who were to attempt a flight, pushed off in the boat,
and gained a hiding-place in a wood not far distant.
The abbot, with a few aged men, and the young
children, dressed themselves for divine service ; which
they had scarcely finished, when the Danes broke in.
Some they slew outright, the old abbot among the
first, who fell at the altar. Some they tortured, to
make them discover where their treasure was, and
then murdered. A little child, called Turgar, often
years old, kept close to the sub-prior, Lethwyn, who
had fled into the dining-hall or refectory; and seeing

•v o

234 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCII.

him slain there, besought them that he might die with
him. The young earl Sidroc, who led the party, was
touched with pity at the beauty and innocence of the
child : he drew off the little cowl which Turgar wore,
and throwing a Danish tunic over him, bade him keep
close to his side. His protection saved the child a
life: he soon afterwards regained his liberty, and
going back to Croyland, found the young monks
returned and attempting to extinguish the fire, which
was still raging in many parts of the monastery.
From this time the survivors continued to dwell
among the ruins in great poverty and affliction, and
with ti>"ir numbers decreasing from year to year,
from tweiity-eight to seven, then to five; and at last
Turgar only, with two who had grown up with him,
remained alive.8

Turketul was travelling on king Edmund's ser
vice towards York, A.D. 942, when he passed by
Croyland. The three aged monks, who had now
weathered eighty winters, invited him and his train
to be their guests. How they contrived to entertain
him is a wonder: it would perhaps be known in
the neighbourhood, and the Lincolnshire freeholders
would send some supplies. They took the minister
of state to prayers in a little chapel, built in a cor
ner of the ruined church, told him their story, and
besought him to intercede with the king for them.
He was struck by this picture of patience and aged
piety ; he gave them a timely supply for their pre
sent need ; and after a few years more obtained
leave from king Edred to rebuild the monastery, to
endow it with some of his own manors, and he be
came the first abbot of the new foundation. He
carried about the old monks in a litter to see his
new works as they were in progress ; set up a new

8 Ingulf. Gale and Fell's Collection, i. p. 22, 3.

CH. XII. J RESTORATION OF CROYLAND. 235

school, which he visited every day, to attend to th<;
advancement of every pupil in it, and, by a practice
not yet quite out of date, was attended by a servant,
who carried dried fruits, or apples and pears, to re
ward those who made the best answer to the pains
of their teachers. Here he passed a tranquil old
age after his public labours, and died about thirty
years from the time of his first visit to the ruins.

The time was, however, now approaching when
a new rage for building monasteries, and under n
different rule, arose in England, through the influ
ence of the celebrated D'U^taix.

CHAPTER XIII.

, KOM THE IlEIGN OF EDMUND THE ELDER TO ETHELRED. ftiSR
OF THE BENEDICTINE MONKS, AND ACTS Or DUNSTAN.

Me lists not of the chafi nor of the straw
To make so long a tr.ie as of the corn.

CHA.IJCKK.

j O man was more honoured by the gene
ration in which he lived, and for many
following generations, than ST. DUN-
STAN. On the other hand, no man has
been more charged with fraud, impos
ture, and cruelty, by the writers of later ages. The
cause of this has been, that the monks, who owed
much to his efforts, and wished to honour his me
mory in their own way, several years after his death
invented many wonderful stories of deeds which he
never did, and embellished some that he really did
in such new colours, that their true character is lost.
It is very necessary, if we wish to judge of such a
•nan, to follow the accounts which were written near
est to the time at which he lived, and not those which
the monks afterwards made to serve their own pur
poses, or to amuse their readers. He was neither
50 good nor so bad as they have made him out.

Dunstan was born of a noble family in the West
of England, not far from Glastonbury, in A.D. 925,
the year in which Athelstan succeeded'to the throne.1

1 This is the year in the Saxon Chronicle. All the stories,
therefore, of his going to the court of Athelstan, and his ad-

CH. X1II.J

DUNSTAN.

237

He went at an early age to be educated at the mon
astery of Fleury, near Rouen, in France, and came
back to England with a great love and zeal for the
monkish life. At his return king Edmund appointed
him one of his chaplains, and, though he was then
not more than about twenty-'Kie years of age, gave
him the ruined abbey of Cxiastonbury to restore, and
to assemble a society of monks under the rule of
discipline which he had learnt abroad. The sudden
and violent death of Edmund, immediately after,
prevented Dunstan from at once proceeding with
this work, to which he might also have thought his
own age unequal. He continued to live for some
years longer at the court of king Edred, with whom
he was in great favour ; and it was not till A.D. 954,
that his foundation of Glastonbury was finished.

Among the first monks who joined his society,
was Ethelwold, who afterwards became bishop of
Winchester, and for his great zeal in the same cause

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

ventures there, being thrown into a pond for a conjuror, and
his strange escape must be pure invention. It is said that

233 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

was called " the father of monks." Another was
Oswald, wl J was made bishop of Worcester and
archbishop of York. Through Dunstan's influence
the king now restored the abbey of Abingdon, which
was put under the charge of Ethelwold, and con
tinued one of the most famous Benedictine abbeys
till the time of Henry VIII.

While, however, these three friends were planning
great things, king Edred died, and the two sons of
Edmund divided the kingdom. It must be observed
that the kings were in Saxon times chosen by the
Witenagemot, or Council of the Wise, after the death
of a former sovereign, unless he had made a will to
dispose of his dominions, as was done by Ethelwolf,
the father of Alfred. It seems that on this occa
sion, both the princes bein^ very young, the Council
thought them unfit to be entrusted with the entire
charge, and therefore divided it. Edwy, the eldest,
succeeded to the government of Kent and Wessex ;
and Edgar was placed or1 the throne of Mercia and
Northumberland.2 Edwy was no friend to monk
hood ; and in the year following his accession, for
some offence which is not certainly known, he ba
nished Dunstan beyond sea. It is said that on his
coining to the throne he p-ave a feast to his nobles;
and here the behaviour of Dunstan gave offence.
The Danes had brought in an ill custom of drinking
to great excess, and pledging one another as long as
the brains could bear ; and this custom the Saxons
unfortunately learnt from them. Thus Alfred is
said to have suffered all his life afterwards from the
excesses he was obliged to submit to at his corona-
Archbishop Athelm introduced him at court. But Athelm died
the same year that Dunstan was born ; and Wulfhelm was arch-
bishop A.D. 925-940.

2 Sax. Chron. A.D. 955. The story of Edgar having been
set up afterwards in rebellion against Edwy seems therefore
unfounded.

CH. XIII.] KING EDWY's MARRIAGE. 239

tion-feast ; and Edred, at the foundation of Abing-
don Abbey, remained all day drinking mead with
his nobles. Edwy withdrew from this heavy-headed
revel ; but his reason is said to have been, that he
might pay a visit to a married woman with whom
he was too intimate. His departure gave great of
fence to his nobles, and they deputed Dunstan to
go and remonstrate with him and bring him back.
He did so ; and finding him in the company of the
woman and her daughter, using something between
force and persuasion, led him back to the banquet-
ing-hall. For this it is said that Edwy took occasion
in the following year to banish Dunstan. It appears
that he also resumed the lands which Edmund and
Edred had given to Glastonbury and Abingdon, and
broke up those establishments.

Edwy was married in the third year of his reign
to Elgiva, who appears to have been his cousin. The
Roman Church, from the time of pope Gregory, had
disapproved of marriages between persons so related;
and in the laws of some of the Saxon kings it was
forbidden. By degrees the following popes carried
it further, and by forbidding marriages among cou
sins in very remote degrees, turned the law to great
abuse. At present, however, the opinion in Eng
land being that the marriage of first cousins at least
was unlawful, this match of king Edwy was a new
offence ; and archbishop Odo, who then presided
at Canterbury, and had the authority of the law
to interfere in such cases, obliged thf new-married
couple to separate from each other.3 There are
some strange stories of cruelty, invented by the wri
ters of legends in later ages ; as, that Odo caused
Elgiva to be branded in the forehead ; and on her
attempting to rejoin the king, to have the tendons of

3 Sax. Chron. A D. y58.

2^0 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

her legs severed; and finally, that he had her put to
death. But as it is certain that the Saxon law gave
no bishop any power to require any thing from a
culprit of any rank but the doing of penance, and as
the earliest accounts contain nothing of the kind,
and there is no authority for it but a lying legend
written one hundred and fifty years afterwards, we
may very well believe it to be a fiction.4 It seems
that Edwy was on bad terms with his people ; some
of them rose in rebellion against him ; and a party
of these are said to have slain Elgiva in a tumult at
Gloucester. The king himself died at an early age,
in October, A.D. 959.

Odo, whom many late writers have described
rather as a monster than a man, was esteemed in
his own age as a strict religious prelate, and was
called " Odo the good." He was by birth a Dane,
being the son of one of the followers of Inguar and
Ubba, who at the beginning of Alfred's reign had
settled in East Anglia. His parents were pagans ;
but he is said to have shewn from childhood a
strong desire to be instructed in Christianity, and,
by the patronage of a Christian nobleman, in his
native province, entered the service of the Church.
He was then recommended to king Athelstan ; and
having been made bishop of Sherborne, was, in the
beginning of Edmund's reign, raised to the primate's
office. It is more fair to judge of him from his own
mouth, than from such witnesses as have been made
to support the evidence against him. He has left
behind him a set of ten canons, or Church-laws,
drawn up by him in the reign of king Edmund,
and a pastoral letter to the bishops of the province
of Canterbury. These writings shew him to have

< " The holy canons forbid both bishops and priests to con
sent to any man's death, if they call themselves God's minis
ters." — Saxon Homily on St. Edmund's day.

CU. XIII.J ARCHBISHOP ODO. 241

been zealous to promote the discipline of penitence,
<nd give excellent rules for the conduct of kings,
magistrates, bishops, priests, and all orders of clergy ;
they are full of Scripture, and betoken a character
of grave and godly simplicity, tempering the strict
ness of duty with a feeling of charity.

" Let the Church," he says, " be one, united in
faith, hope, and charity, having one head, which is
Christ; whose members ought to help each other
and love each other with mutual charity, as he has
said, By this shall all men know that ye are my dis
ciples." He does not add to this acknowledgment of
Christ as the head, that the pope is Christ's vicar,
jbr that was not the doctrine of Odo's time.5 He says
,hat kings and princes ought to pay great regard
to the advice of their bishops, and to obey their
directions in matters of religion ; for to them this
authority is given, and whatsoever they bind or
loose on earth is confirmed in heaven. He says
much of the great responsibility of kings for those
whom they employ in offices under them, if they
are unworthy. He says still more of the duties of
bishops, and the great danger they undergo, if they
do their office lukewarmly or negligently ; if they
are swayed by love of gain more than godliness ; or
if they fear or flatter any man out of regard to his
person. He exhorts them every year to visit their
dioceses, and to preach as they make their visitation.
He tells the parish-priests, they must be a pattern
to their flock, teaching them all needful truth, and
distinguishing themselves by their religious lives as
much as by the habit which they wear. Monks he
exhorts not to ramble about, or remove from one
monastery to another ; but, after the example of the

5 The king of England was the only person at this time
styled vicar or vicegerent of Christ ; and thus king Edgar styles
himself in the acts of his rei^n

242 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

apostles, to work with their own hands, to exercyu*
themselves continually in holy reading and prayer,
and to have their loins girded and lamps burning,
so waiting for the great Householder, that when he
comes he may make them enter into his eternal rest.
He bids all Christians to avoid prohibited marriages,
reminding them of Gregory's rule before mentioned ;
and pronounces excommunication against offenders
who break this rule, or those who marry a nun.
This is the only punishment which he thought it
lawful for the Church to inflict : there is not a word
of branding, which indeed was not a kind of punish
ment used in Saxon times. It may be observed,
also, that in the laws of king Edmund, passed with
the counsel of the two archbishops Odo and Wulf-
stan, the only injunction is, that persons thus wrong
fully joined together in marriage are to be separated.
These laws containing more particular directions
about the way of contracting marriage among our
Christian forefathers, than we find in any other
ancient laws of the Saxon kings, it may be well to
state the substance of them. They direct that a
man, who wished to wed maid or widow, \vas first to
appoint a meeting, at which both parties were to be
attended by their friends. He was then to declare,
and his friends to give their word for him, that he
wished to have her to wife according to God's law
and the rule of Christian truth. The woman and her
friends giving their consent, he was then to shew to
them that he had property enough to maintain his
wife ; and his friends were to assure this also : he
was next to say what part of his goods he would
settle upon her, and let her choose a gift for herself.'
Then, if all was agreed, her friends were to promise
her to him, " to wive and to right live," and take
security from the bridegroom for the completion of
the marriage. If she survived him, the law gave her

CH. XIII.J LAWS ABOUT MARRIAGE. 243

half his property, until she might marry again, or the
care of the whole, if there were children. When
she was to be given away, the law required that the
priest should be present, who should " rightfully with
God's blessing join them together to all fulness of
happiness."

Such was the religious care taken by our fore
fathers for this holy engagement ; which nothing but
the decay of religion among us has brought down of
late to a lower standard, and made laws to regard it
only as a civil contract. God grant that a better
spirit may speedily be restored ! It was Odo's duty,
therefore, having been one of the principal promoters
of this sacred law of marriage, to notice what was
then considered a breach of it, in the union of two
cousins, though of the highest rank, that the law-
might not be despised. He therefore, as it seems,
threatened Edwy and Elgiva with excommunication.
The rest of the story is, as before said, only the gar
nish of an age when legends were written for the
entertainment of the reader. He had certainly an
extreme view of the importance of Church-discipline,
and considered offenders against its laws as " guilty
of as great impiety as the soldiers who pierced the
side of Christ." But with all this he speaks a lan
guage so earnest, that it could only be taught him
by a hearty zeal for godliness. " If it could be," he
•ays to his bishops, "that the wealth of the whole
world were set before my eyes, so as to serve me in
die enjoyment of the highest kingly power, I would
willingly spend it all, and with it "my own life, for
the health of your souls ; by whom I trust to be ad
vanced in the pursuit of holiness, and strengthened
for the work of that harvest, to which the Lord God
has appointed as fellow-labourers both you and me."
Surely it is not easy to believe that a man who could
write thus, still under a humble sense of his own

244 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

sins and infirmities, could have been any thing else
than his words paint him to be.

On the death of Edwy, his brother Edgar became
king of all England. Two years after his accession
Odo died ;6 and Dunstan, who had been before re
called from banishment, and was in great favour, was
made archbishop. It seems that he had been enter
tained by Edgar before his brother's death, and had
been made bishop of Worcester and of London,
which were both in the province of Mercia. Being
now possessed of great power and influence, and
aided by many powerful noblemen, as well as his
two frie"nds Oswald and Ethelwold, who held the
two other most important sees of York and Win
chester, he had for nearly twenty years full scope
for executing his great designs. The king, Edgar,
was scarcely yet more than twenty-one, and in what
regarded the Church suffered Dunstan to rule mat
ters almost as he pleased. In the course of his ad
ministration about forty monasteries were built or
restored, and most of them richly endowed. Among
these were the old foundations of Ely, Peterborough,
Tewksbury, Malmsbury, Glastonbury, Evesham,
Bath, and Abingdon ; the new abbeys of Ramsey,
Hunts; Tavistock and Milton Abbot's, Devon;
Cerne Abbot's, Dorset; and many more. The rage
for these new monasteries was so great, that a
change now took place at many of the cathedral-
churches. Here the bishops had formerly held a.
monastery in some places near the cathedral, where

6 A.D. 961. Sax. Chron. This date disproves the story of

0 his ghost to reproi

journey to Rome, and being frozen to death on the Alps. Why
should he have gone to Rome at all, when neither Odo nor
Duastan went ? The pali was sent by a messenger at this period.

-Kill.] RULES OF THE MONASTERIES 245

<such priests as had taken the habit of monks lived
with the other monks; but the other clergy, who
were not under the rule, resided in private houses
of their own, having an estate for their common
maintenance, such as the deans and cathedral-clergy
have now. Thus at Canterbury there were the secu
lar clergy, who were in one society at the cathedral
of Christ-church, and the monks, who were in an
other at St. Augustine's. Dunstan did not attempt
to change this arrangement in his own see ; but
Oswald turned out all the clergy at Worcester who
did not choose to become monks ; Ethelwold did
the same at Winchester; and their example was
followed by Elfric, after Dunstan's death, at Can
terbury, by Wulfsine bishop of Sherborne, and
other bishops.

These were unjustifiable measures, and they
naturally led to a great enmity between the monks
and secular clergy ; which was kept up, more or less,
as long as monasteries remained in England. The
success, which began with injustice, was too often
afterwards maintained with fraud. Lying wonders
were told of the holiness of these patrons of monkery;
and whatever good qualities they possessed were lost
in the legendary tales which their admirers invented.
False charters were also produced, where the origi
nals had been destroyed by the Danes; and this
soon led to encroachment upon manors and lands
to which their claim was doubtful, and bred awk
ward lawsuits.

Another evil was, that the English people not
being yet altogether so eager to become monks as
the patrons of the new foundations wished, they
brought in many foreigners ; the king particularly,
who lost something of his own popularity by his pa
tronage of outlandish men and foreign fashions.

But the rule of monkhood itself, which was now

Y2

24G EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

established in England, had one or two great faults
in it. It required, as all orders from this time did,
that the novice who entered it should make a vow
— a solemn vow and promise, before God and his
saints, in the chapel of the monastery, that he would
remain for ever in that rule of life, reform his man
ners by it, obey its laws, as one who knew that by
departing from it he should forfeit his eternal salva
tion. This was done in the presence of the abbot
and other witnesses ; a copy of it was made in writing,
which he was to sign, and place it with his own hand
on the altar. From that moment he was to have
nothing which he could call his own ; his estate and
goods were to be given to the poor or to the monas
tery, and he was to receive no private gift, even of a
book, or writing-desk, or pen ; nay, he was no longer
to consider himself master of his own person or his
own will.

Again, St. Basil's rule, as we have seen, dis
couraged any offering of children by their parents,
and any thing which took away the liberty of free
choice from the young, before they came to age.
On the contrary, the rule of Benedict allowed pa
rents to present their children at the altar, and to
take an oath and make a vow, that they would
thenceforth neither give them land or goods, nor
permit any thing to be done for them, which might
give them occasion at any time afterwards to leave
the monastery.

Another bad change was, that the priests who
were monks were not to discharge any priestly office
without the abbot's leave ; a regulation which made
them unserviceable for the duties of the Church be
yond the monastery, and took them out of the way
of obedience to their bishop. It is uncertain how
soon this rule of St. Benedict became general in the
west of Europe : it had no certain footing in Eng-

CH. XIII.J MONASTERIES ATTACKED. 247

land before the Danish invasion ; but from the time
of Dunstan there was no other to be found in the
country till after the Norman Conquest.

The reign of Edgar was peaceful and prosperous.
The kings of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, sought
his friendship, and did him homage ; and by keeping
a good fleet at three different stations on the coast,
which at regular seasons cruised about to watch for
the Danish pirates, he prevented the country from
being exposed to their inroads. Some good laws
were passed for the civil government, and many
very particular regulations for the government of
the Church ; which no doubt were chiefly the work
of Dunstan. Before this remarkable man had com
pleted his career, the death of Edgar, in the prime
of life, left him exposed to new troubles, A.D. 975.

Alfere, earl of Mercia, had been an unwilling
looker-on while the monasteries were rising in his
province during Edgar's life; and when he died,
leaving only a boy of fifteen to succeed him, he
raised an armed faction, and drove out the monks,
and began to raze the abbeys to the ground. Ethel-
win, earl of East Anglia, and Byrthnot, earl of Essex,
and other nobles, who had founded monasteries or
favoured their foundation, raised a force to oppose
him. Ethelwin was founder of Ramsey Abbey;
Byrthnot had given many of his lands to Ely : " We
will never suffer the monks to be expelled," said
they ; " it is the same thing as to expel all religion
from the country." By their resolute conduct these
violent proceedings were checked ; but not before
Alfere had procured the banishment of Oslac, earl
of Northumberland, who was thus prevented from
restoring some of the northern monasteries.

W7hile the dispute was still continued, a eoynr>il
of the kingdom was held at Calne in Wiltshire,
where Dunstan presided. It is said that the senators

248 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

were here about to decide in favour of the expellea
clergy against the monks, when the floor of the town-
hall gave way, and the assembly fell with it into the
space below. Some were severely bruised or had
limbs broken, and some did not escape with life.
Dunstan alone was left standing upon a beam. This
calamity seerns to have broken up the council, so
that no decision was come to.7 The young king
Edward was shortly afterwards barbarously mur
dered by his stepmother Elfrida. The miserable
reign of Ethelred, truly named the Unready, now
began. In A.D. 980, and several following years,
the Danes came again, first in small parties, burning
and plundering; and the poor king, instead of op
posing them, was at war with his own subjects. He
besieged Rochester, having some quarrel with the
men of Kent. Dunstan preserved the town, by
sending him one hundred pounds to keep the peace,
and shortly after died, A.D. 988.

The honour paid to the memory of the unfor
tunate Edward, surnamed the Martyr, has been

7 It is strange that not only Hume, but Mr. Turner and
Mr. Southey, have followed the impossible supposition, that
this was a trick of Dunstan. If it was, as Fuller well observes,
Dunstan was a better contriver than Samson, who could not so
sever himself from his foes, but both must die together. What
is more strange is, that such very respectable writers should
have supposed this, when there is a precisely similar accident
on record as having occurred, in the latter part of the last cen
tury, to the excellent chief-justice Sir Eardley Wilmot, at a
country assize. The floor gave way ; many were bruised and
maimed, some were killed. The judge was left with his seat
" sticking to the wall like a martlet's nest," as one of the eye
witnesses described it. The good man wrote an admirable
letter to his family on the occasion, which may be seen in his
Life by his son, John Wilmot, Esq.

It may be granted, however, that if the monks had not
afterwards made a miracle of it, the enemies of Dunstan's
memory would never have been reminded to call it an impos
ture

CH. XIII.] EDWARD THE MARTYR. 249

supposed to prove the triumph of the inonks, to
whom he had shewn signs of favour; that they had
some ends to gain by having him made a saint, and
keeping a day in honour of his memory, which still
stands marked in our calendar as the twentieth of
June. But it is rather a sign of the natural pity
and sorrow felt by our Christian forefathers for the
untimely fate of a promising young prince; just as
they paid the same honour to St. Kenelm, a prince
of Mercia, who was murdered A.D. 819; to St.
Edmund of East Anglia, killed by the treachery
of the Danes ; and to St. Olave, a prince of Nor
way. Thus the honest writer of the Saxon Chro
nicle no doubt expresses the public feeling, when
he says of Edward's murder: "No worse deed
than this was ever done by Englishmen, since the
time when first they sought the Britons' land. He
was murdered by men, but God has magnified him.
He was in life an earthly king ; he is now after
death a heavenly saint. His earthly kinsmen would
not avenge him ; but his heavenly Father has well
avenged him. The earthly murderers would have
blotted out his memory from the earth ; but the
Avenger above has spread abroad his memory in
heaven and in earth. They who would not before
bow to his living body, now bow on their knees
before his dead bones. The wisdom of men, and
their designs, and their counsels, are as nought be
fore the appointment of God." It was this public
feeling which led to his being sainted. There is no
proof that it was especially the act of Dunstan or
his friends, or if it was, that they had any other
ends to serve by it. It is more worthy of belief,
that when Elfrida, the mother of Ethelred, was too
powerful a person to be punished as her crime de
served, Dunstan brought her to a sense of compunc
tion, and persuaded her to do such woiis of repent-

250 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

ance as he thought most serviceable to the cause
of religion ; namely, to found two monasteries, at
Amesbury, Wilts, and Wherwell in Hampshire.

Having now gone through the only public acts
of Dunstan's life which are reported by writers of
good credit, and those who lived nearest his own
time, it may be well to give a short account of his
private character. He was a skilful artist, a musi
cian, and painter, an organ-builder, and, according
to some accounts, also a bell-founder. Many of the
church-vessels at Glastonbury, censers, crosses, and
copes, are said to have been the work of his hands.
Some of his writings and drawings are still preserved
at Oxford. There can be little doubt that he was
also an ingenious architect. He is said to have re
built not only the decayed abbeys and churches, but
some of the king's halls or palaces on a splendid
scale. And he was a great promoter of useful arts,
which might benefit the Church and the public : so
that, as it is said with much appearance of truth, no
man since the days of Alfred was so active a patron
of them.

One contrivance of his is commonly recorded, as
designed to check the prevailing vice of drunken
ness. He was the inventor of a way of ornament
ing the drinking-cups, which were passed round the
table, with little nails or pegs, one above another,
of gold or silver, as the material of the cup might
be ; that every guest, when called to drink his por
tion, might know how much the law of the feast re
quired of him, and might not be obliged to swallow
a. larger draught against his will.8 Hence seems to
have come the old English proverb, which speaks of
a man as being a peg too high or a peg too low,
according to the state of his spirits.

8 Malmsbury, ii. § 149.

•CH. XIII.] CHARACTER OF DUNSTAN. 251

The Church-laws passed in king Edgar's reign,
are still remaining to us; and these most likely were
the work of Dunstan. Many of them are very good,
and such as the Church still acknowledges ; as, that
every clergyman is to do his duty in his own parish,
not to interfere with another ; that lit, must not
appear in the church, or at least not do any minis
terial act, without his surplice ; that he must not
administer the Lord's supper in a private house
except to the sick ; that every parish-priest must
preach every Sunday to his people. Good direc
tions are very particularly laid down about the bap
tism of infants ; which parents are directed to bring
to the font within six weeks from their birth ; and
to teach them, as soon as they can learn, the Apostles'
<;reed and Lord's prayer; and not to keep them too
long unconfirmed by the bishop. " He who will
not do this," says Dunstan, " is not worthy of the
name of Christian, not fit to receive the holy com
munion, nor to stand godfather to another's child,
nor to be laid in hallowed ground when he is dead."
In regard to the education of the young, every priest
who keeps a school is to understand some handicraft
himself, and while he diligently teaches his pupils,
must take care to teach them some craft, which may
hereafter be profitable to the Church. When Dun
stan enjoins works of penance or alms of repentance
to the rich, he bids them build churches and give
lands to them; or repair public ways; or build
bridges over deep waters, or arches over miry
ground ; or give alms thankfully of their goods to
needy persons, widows, orphans, and strangers ; or
set free their own slaves, and redeem those of other
men. But he goes on to say, as had been enjoined
at the synod of Cliff's-hoe, A.D. 74-7, that such alms
were not to stand in place of the discipline of fasting,
and otherwise mortifying the body, or going on

252 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

pilgrimage. " For it is the most right way," he says,
" for every man to wreak his own misdeeds upon
himself." So that it was not yet thought that a
man could make amends by employing others to
offer prayers or masses for him. The works also
which he requires of the rich are not merely for
the benefit of monasteries, but well-chosen works of
mercy and public usefulness.

Dunstan gives many very good directions about
the celebration of the holy communion; that it should
be administered with attention to comely order; that
there should be nothing unclean or of mean appear
ance about the altar ; that the chalice should be of
pure metal, not of wood; that the priest should not
trust his memory, but have his book before him, and
have it " a good book, or at least a right book ;" that
there should be pure oblation-bread, pure wine, and
pure water to mix with it. " Wo to them," he says,
" who neglect these things : they are like the Jews
who mixed gall and vinegar for Christ." This is
rather strong, like the remark of Odo on the offend
ers against Church-discipline. " Also we direct," he
says, " that no mass-priest mass alone, lest he have
no one to answer him." He therefore would not
have approved of the later practice of solitary masses.
Another Saxon bishop, giving the same injunction,
bids the communicating priest to remember the pro
mise of Christ to the two or three gathered together
in his name.

Dunstan was a man of ready wit, as may be
judged from the phrase of many of these laws, which
speak of the vices, or indulgences, against which he
wished to guard his clergy. " Let no priest," he
says, " be a singer at the ale, nor in any wise play
the jester, to please himself or others; but be wise
and grave, as becometh his order. Let him not love
woman's company too much ; but love his right wife,

CH. XIII. J CHARACTER OF DUXSTAN. 253

that is, his church. And let him not be a hawker
or hunter, or a player at the dice ; but play on his
book, as befits his order." Could the cheerful hu
morist, who dre\v up these rules, be the contriver of
such wholesale murder as some have endeavoured
to charge his memory with ?

At the same time that we refuse belief to this
and other impossible stories, we must allow that his
proceedings in forcing the system of Benedictine
monkhood on the Church were very blamable ; that
the friends who acted with him were allowed to
take very unjustifiable measures; and that the rule
itself was not so easily to be approved as the rule
of the more early monasteries. Dunstan was also
a great promoter of penances for crimes; and it
would seem that he was willing to take under his
discipline in this way culprits who were more fit for
the jailor's, if not for the hangman's charge. This
was done to increase the power of the Church in a
way by no means to be approved. His was a com
manding spirit, that enforced this kind of discipline
with great strictness. It is said that an off'endrr,
who had contracted an unlawful marriage, finding
nothing would induce Dunstan to admit him to
communion unless he should put away her whom
he had so married, applied to one of the bad popes
who was then in St. Peter's chair, and, using such
persuasions as were then best received at Rome,
obtained a letter entreating and commanding the
archbishop to dispense with his fault and grant him
absolution. " God forbid," said Dunstan, " that I
should do it. If he shews me that he repents of his
crime, I will obey the pope's instructions ; but while
he lies in his guilt, he shall never insult me by a
triumph over the discipline of the Church. I will
forfeit my life sooner." There can be no doubt
that, with this independent spirit, whatever faults

254 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Dunstttn was guilty of were owing to his own mis
taken conscience, his love of monkhood or love o;
power, and not to his blind devotion to any foreign
authority.

CHAPTER XIV.

REIGN OF ETHELRED. RELIGIOUS NOBLEMEN OF OLD ENG
LAND. BYRTHNOT, EARL OF ESSEX. HIS DEATH. ARCH
BISHOP ELFRIC. ARCHBISHOP ELFEGE. HIS MARTYRDOM.
DANISH REIGNS, AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.

Full many may the sceptre bear;

But lands their native law must own,

And earls that seek a lasting throne
Must make the people's weal their care.

Saxon Song.

"REVIOUS to the death of Dunstan,
the Danes had been for some years
troubling the country with new in
roads. In A.D. 982, their fleet had
sailed up the Thames, and burnt Lon
don. There was now no prince like Alfred on the
throne, nor any good counsel near it, to rouse the
strength of the country, and renew the well-tried
plans of defence, which in Edgar's reign had pre
served its peace. The power of England was fully
able to cope with the invaders ; but it was wasted
in disunited efforts, while the Danes commanded
\he sea, and landing where they pleased, carried off
their spoils. The weak and ill-advised king trusted
his command to unworthy noblemen, whom he had
good reason to suspect of treachery, but had not
resolution to dismiss. At length when a fleet was

256 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

raised, larger than had ever been known before, and
the hopes of the country were roused to certain
victory, it was found that the enemy, by intelligence
sent them from the English side, h?^ withdrawn
their ships out of danger's way. The traitor, whom
Ethelred continued to employ even after this mani
fest treason, was Elfric, who had succeeded Alfcre
as earl of Mercia.

In the years shortly following Dunstan's death,
Sigeric was archbishop of Canterbury. He was a
man of learning; but his counsels were unworthy of
the primate of an independent country ; he was the
first adviser of paying the tax called Dane-gelt, a
sum of money given almost every year to the Danes
to bribe them to keep the peace. The amount first
paid in A.D. 991, is said to have been 10,000/. ; but
this was soon after more than doubled, as the enemy
improved the advantage he had gained. It is most
likely that Sigeric advised this poor expedient from
a distrust of the character of the king, and a despair
of better success by more wrarlike measures.

Even in these disastrous times there were not
wanting men, who, if they had lived under a better
prince, and had guided the counsels of the state,
might have saved the country from ruin. Few of
the old nobility of England deserve a higher praise
as Christian patriots than BYRTHNOT, EARL OF
ESSEX. We have seen him with his friend Ethelwin,
earl of East Anglia, after the death of Edgar, oppos
ing the violent proceedings of Alfere against the
monks of Mercia. He was in his lifetime a great
benefactor to the church of Ely, and had done his
part to restore the monasteries in his province. And
whatever faults were to be found in these founda
tions, for wrhich we may justly blame Dunstan and
his friends, there can be no doubt that the religious
noblemen who protected them were guided by a pure

CH. XIV.] KYRTHNOT. 257

desire to promote the knowledge of the truth, and
advance the peaceful arts, which would, under God,
tend most to the happiness and improvement of their
country. With this aim they freely gave of their
lands and of their wealth. And the cost of rearing
such monasteries as Turketul's at Croyland, Ethel-
win's at Ramsey or Ely, was something more than
the price of digging foundations and raising the
walls. They had first to make the ground on which
the foundation was to stand ; to bring boat-loads of
hard soil from the uplands, or shingles from the coast,
to bury deep, and drive in with rammers, lest the
walls should give way. Sometimes, to bring the
stone from inland, they had need to make a road, or
sometimes to meet it as it came to the nearest place
of water-carriage. Thus Egelric, bishop of Durham,
in the reign of Edward the Confessor, being then re
tired to the abbot's office at Peterborough, made a
road from Deeping to Spalding, where the Welland
becomes navigable for ships of good burthen. It
was made by mixing loads of chalk, from the wolds
of Lincolnshire, and sea-sand, the materials of which
the roads in Lincoln fens are still composed. The
ground being prepared, and the stone brought, the
Avorkmen laboured zealously, believing that it was a
good work, and that where religion was the motive,
they would be well rewarded for their pains. The
Saxons at this period were not ignorant of the use of
cranes and pulleys, to raise the stones for building.
The old Saxon abbey of Ramsey was built in the
shape of a cross : it had two towers, one over the
centre of the cross, and another at the west end;
and as this was perhaps one of the earliest attempts
to raise a tower on four columns (the plan fol
lowed aftenvards in almost all cathedral and abbey-
churches), arches were thrown across from one co
lumn to another to strengthen the support, as has

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

since been done by Sir Christopher Wren in the
cathedral of Salisbury.

Ethelwin, the founder of Ramsey, was now lately
dead; and Byrthnot, in the increasing troubles of
his country, was left alone. Perhaps it will be ex
pected that he retired into his monastery of Ely,
that he might at least die quietly. He had seen the
treachery of Elfric, and seems to have been at Can
terbury when Sigeric gave his miserable counsel.
But Byrthnot resolved that he would neither excuse
the weak nor encourage the wicked by his example.
He left a deed in the hands of Sigeric, by which he
gave three estates at Hadleigh, Monks' Eleigh, and
Lillings, in Suffolk, to the church at Canterbury,
retaining only Hadleigh for his widow's use, if she
survived him, having no son;1 and retiring into his
own province, trained his young men for war, pro
vided arms and horses, and waited for the fleet of
the Danes, which was already at sea. It was led by
Anlaf, or Olave, one of their sea-kings, who, with
ninety-three ships, after plundering Sandwich and
Ipswich, came up the Blackwater to Maldon. The
Danish host encamped on one side of the river, and
Byrthnot on the other ; the invaders having before
his arrival carried off spoil, and waiting for the tide
to re-embark. When they saw the small force of
Byrthnot, the sea-king sent a herald : " Deliver to
us," they said, " thy treasures for thy safety : buy
off the conflict ; and we will ratify a peace with
gold." " Point and edge shall first determine," said
the devoted warrior, " before we pay you tribute.
Nor shall you carry your booty to your ships with
out a battle. Here stands an earl who will defend
the land of his sovereign Ethelred, and you shall
perish before you force him from the field." The

1 Evidences of Christ Church, Canterbury, in Twysden's
Collection, p. 2223.

C.'I. XIV.] BYRTHNOT. 259

first post of conflict was a bridge over the Black-
water. This the men of Essex resolutely defended ;
Byrthnot sent thither the bravest of the band of his
followers, and the Danes vainly attempted to force
it. It was near high water in the estuary or mouth
of the river ; and as they were thus divided, the rest
of the battle was with bows and arrows.

At length, as the tide ebbed, the stream became
fordable ; and Byrthnot, in the pride of his heart,
seeing the courage of his men, sent a message to the
enemy, inviting them to a free passage and a fair
field on his own side. Here, after a stubborn con
flict, the East Saxons fell, overpowered by numbers.
Byrthnot displayed the greatest valour, killing with
his own hands a Danish chief, and, after he had re
ceived his death-wound, laying prostrate with his
battle-axe a soldier who had come to spoil him. An
aged vassal stood over his corpse, and encouraged
the rest not to turn foot. " Our spirit shall be the
hardier, and our soul the greater," he said, " the
more our numbers are diminished. Here lies our
chief, the brave, the good, the much -loved lord,
who has blessed us with many a gift. - Old as I am,
I will not yield ; but avenge his death, or lay me at
his side. Shame befall him that thinks to fly from
such a field as this." The same spirit animated old
and young ; and few returned from that fatal en
counter, when night divided the combatants.

There was one faithful retainer, who had marked
the bearing of Byrthnot in the field, and had the
skill of a minstrel to sing to the harp the fortunes
of the day.2 He praised the duty and loyalty of
many of the earl's gallant followers ; but none gave
so eminent a pattern, as his lord, of a Christian sol
dier's death. " When his large-hilted sword now

• Conybeare's Anglo-Saxon Poetry, p. xciii.

260 EABLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

drooped to the earth, and his hand, unstrung by
death, could no longer wield his blade, still the
hoary warrior strove to speak his commands, and
bade the warlike youths, his brave comrades, to ad
vance. But then he could no longer stand firmly on
his feet. He looked to heaven : ' I thank thee, Lord
of nations, for all the joys that I have known on
earth : now, O mild Creator, have I the utmost need
that thou shouldest grant grace unto my spirit, that
my soul may speed to thee, with peace, O King of
angels, to go into thy keeping. I sue to thee, that
thou suffer not the rebel spirits of hell to vex my
parting soul.' "

Such a record of the dead is never made, except
where the good deeds of a life have left affection
and gratitude behind, and stamped something of
their own goodness on the minds of the survivors.
And surely not Leonidas, or any patriot of old re
nown, devoted himself with purer love for his suffer
ing country. It was the death of a crusader in a
purer cause :

He lay, not grovelling low, but as a knight
That ever did to heavenly things aspire ;

His right hand closed still held las weapon bright,
Ready to strike and execute his ire ;

His left upon his breast was humbly laid,

That men might know that while he died he pray'd.

The Church, too, was not without a few worthy
men to minister at her altars. Of these the most
eminent was ELFRIC, archbishop of Canterbury, a
man who laboured most abundantly to advance the
knowledge of the gospel among his countrymen,
even in the midst of all their difficulties and distress.
He was educated among the monks of Abingdon,
under the famous Ethelwold, "the father of monks,"
already mentioned, whom he afterwards followed to
Winchester. He was then invited bv Ethclmcr, or

CH. XIV.] ELF1UC. 2G1

Aylmer, earl of Cornwall, to take the charge of
Cerne Abbey, Dorset, which he had founded A.n.
987. From thence he removed to St. Alban's,
where he presided as abbot; then he became bishop
of Wilton ; and on the death of Sigeric was made
primate, where he governed from A.D. 994? to 1005.
He was the author of the most ancient English
grammar and dictionary which has remained to our
times. He wrote two volumes of sermons, which
were in part translated from the fathers of the
Church into the old English language. He trans
lated the five books of Moses, and other portions of
the Old Testament, into the tongue then spoken by
the people ; and by corresponding with other bishops
and learned men of his time, did much to keep up
a sound knowledge on other subjects, and also on
the doctrine of the Lord's supper, before the strange
and monstrous notion of transubstantiation was re
ceived in England.

" When the Lord said, He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life, he bade
not his disciples," says Elfric, " to eat the body
wherewith he was enclosed, nor to drink that blood
which he shed for us ; but he meant that holy housel,
which is in a ghostly way his body and blood ; and
he that tasteth it with believing heart hath everlast
ing life.

" The bread is truly his body, and the wine his
blood, as was the heavenly bread which we call
manna, that fed for forty years God's people, and
the clear water which then ran from the stone in the
wilderness : as St. Paul wrote in one of his epistles,
All our fathers in the wilderness ate the same ghostly
meat, and drank the same ghostly drink ; they drank
of the ghostly stone, and that stone was Christ. At
that time Christ was not born, nor his blood poured
out, when the people of Israel ate of that meat, and

262 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

drank of that stone. It was the same sacrament in
'he old law ; and they betokened that ghostly house!
of our Saviour's body which we hallow now."

Elfric turned the book of Judith into English,
thinking, as he says, that the example which he gives
of the valour of the Bethulians might encourage
his countrymen to defend themselves courageously
against the invasions of the Danes. His sermons or
homilies were well received by the English Church ;
copies of them were taken by order of the bishops,
and appointed to be read in churches.

Elfric required that every clergyman, before he
was ordained priest, should have a collection of all
the books used in the service of the Church, — as, his
Psalter, a book containing the Epistles and Gospels,
another of the communion-office, a book of lessons,
a guide for penitence, a calendar, a book of chants
and hymns, and one containing an account of the
saints whose days were kept by the Church. It re
quired some labour of the scribe to prepare copies
of all these, before printing was invented. The
clergy were directed to expound the meaning of the
Gospel every Sunday to the people in English, and
the Creed and the Lord's Prayer as often as they
could contrive to do it. " We must not be dumb
dogs," he said, " that cannot bark : we must bark,
and teach the lay people, lest we lose them for lack
of lore. If the blind man be the blind man's leader,
they will both fall into a blind place. And blind is
the teacher, if he kens no book-lore." He exhorted
them also to be constantly at their churches, and
take care that they were not profaned to any im
proper use. " For God's house is the house of
prayer, hallowed to ghostly words, and for them
that with faith receive the Lord's body."

His monkish education unfortunately led him
into some errors of doctrine and practice. He fol-

CH. XIV.J DURHAM FOUNDED. 2C3

lowed the example of his teacher, bishop Ethelwold,
nnd removed the secular clerks or canons of Christ
Church, Canterbury, to make room for a new society
of monks. When some of the married clergy ex
postulated with him, and told him that St. Peter
was a married man, " True," he said, "but that was
under the old law ; when he became a disciple of
Christ, he forsook the company of his wife." The
wrong step he had taken was not much mended by
such a tradition as this; since it is plain from the
New Testament, that the wife of St. Peter went
with her husband on his travels (1 Cor. ix. 5). The
time, however, was not yet come when such doc
trine as this was generally received. The canons
of Canterbury were restored after Elfric's death ;
and as yet the secular clergy were at full liberty to
marry. Elfsy, bishop of Winchester in Elfric's
time, was a married prelate, whose son, Godwin,
died in battle against the Danes. Aldhun, bishop
of Durham, was also married, having a daughter
who became the wife of one of the earls of North
umberland. This prelate is worthy of mention, as
the founder of the ancient city of Durham. The
Danes were making an inroad in the north, about
A.D. 995, when the bishop, remembering the ex
ample of Eardulf, took his departure from Chester-
;e-Street, and carried the church- vessels, books, and
relics, to Ilipon. After a short stay here, peace
being restored, he took his way back towards the
place where Eardulf had fixed his see ; but when
they had reached the spot where Durham now
stands, either some fancied omen, or the goodness
of the situation as a place of strength, persuaded
them to remain. It was then a place fortified by
its natural position, but not easily to be made fit
for habitation ; a thick wood grew on every part of
the ground, except the small level at the Inches'

264

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

part, on which the cathedral church and its priests'
houses now stand, which one or two peasants cul
tivated. Here Aldum, A.D. 998, first raised a
wooden church or stud building, which was speedily
prepared for divine service, while he proceeded to
lay the foundations of another church of stone, of
some extent and a comely edifice. His son-in-law,
earl Uhtred, and all the people between Coquet and
Tees, came in bodies to aid in building the church
and fortifying the city, which became for ages after
wards the stronghold of the kingdom towards the
north.

DURHAM CATHEDRAL.

In the time of Elfric's primacy we read of the
last mission which was undertaken by the English.
• Church before the Eeformation ; for after the Nor
man conquest, the spirit of missionary enterprise

CH. XIV.] MISSION TO NORWAY. 2(5

was ill exchanged for the crusades. This mission
was led by Sigefrid, archdeacon of York, who was
accompanied by Rudolf, Bernard, and several other
priests ; and the country to which it was sent was
Sweden and Norway ; Olave, a prince of Sweden,
having requested king Ethelred to furnish his coun-
try with teachers of Christianity. This prince had
a few years before commanded the host of invaders
in the battle in which Byrthnot fell ; but having
since become a Christian, and made alliance with
Ethelred, he received confirmation from an English
bishop, and the king took him for his godson.
Sigefrid, after labouring successfully in planting the
gospel in Sweden, died bishop of Wexio, in the
province of East Gothland, in that country. Two
of his nephews had first been martyred, as well as
others of his companions, by the pagans ; which was
also the fate of Godbald, another English mission
ary, who founded a Christian church in Norway
shortly after, of which he was the first bishop.
From this mission was also founded another in the
Orkney and Zetland isles, which were then and for
many centuries afterwards subject to the king of
Norway ; and the bishop of Orkney, whose see was
fixed at Kirkwall, was made a suffragan of the arch
bishops of York,

Elfric was succeeded by Elfeah, or Elphege,
A.D. 1006. In his time the misery of the kingdom
had come to its height. The ravages of the Danes
were followed by a severe famine ; then, after a
short interval, the spoilers returned, and wasted
the whole country as before. The nobles were at
variance with each other, and cruelty and treachery
were in every quarter. In the sixth year of his
primacy Canterbury was taken. Elfmar, abbot of
St. Augustine's, whose life the archbishop had saved,
wh^n he was accused of treason before the king, is

266 EARLY ENGLiSH CHURCH.

charged with the heavy guilt of having betrayed
the city to the Danes. It was felt by the Christian
people as one of the greatest calamities that befell
them in these cruel wars, when their Christian ca
pital, the place from which the gospel had been
spread through all the land, fell into the hands of
pagan enemies. The Danes carried the archbishop
away a prisoner, together with Godwin, bishop of
Rochester, and all the clergy and other persons
whom they thought able to pay a ransom for their
lives. How these fared in their captivity we are
not informed. In the following spring, A.D. 1012,
there was a conference between the English coun
sellors and Danish chiefs at London, where the tri
bute, amounting to 48,OOOA, was paid down. After
receiving it, they caroused largely, according to
their custom, and the chiefs brought forth the arch
bishop, whom they had before urged to pay a large
ransom, 3,000/. for his life, but in vain. The aged
man was weary of the sufferings of his country, and
determined that no man should incur further loss
on account of a life, which in the course of nature
could not continue long. The pagans, maddened
with disappointment, and inflamed with wine, hewed
him down with the bones and remnants of their dis
orderly feast, till one, with a savage kind of pity,
struck him on the skull with a battle-axe. " His
holy blood was poured upon the earth," says the
old chronicler, " and his holy soul mounted upward
to the realm of God." The English honoured him
as a saint and martyr; and his name still stands in
our calendar on the nineteenth day of April, the
day of his cruel death.

It is said that when Lanfranc, the first Norman
archbishop, was newly settled in England, he was
not well satisfied with the calendar of Saxon saints,
and particularly with the honour paid to the me-

CH. XIV. J MARTYRDOM OF ELPHEGE. 267

mory of Elphege ; of which he one. day complained
to his friend Anselm, who succeeded him as arch
bishop. " How unreasonable is it," he said, " to call
this man a martyr, who died not for the Christian
faith, but because he would not ransom his life from
the enemy !" " Nay," replied Anselm, " it is certain
that he who chose rather to die than offend God by
a small offence, would much rather have died than
provoke him by a greater sin. Elphege would not
ransom his life because he would not allow his de
pendents to be distressed by losing their property
for him ; much less, therefore, would he have denied
his Saviour, if the fury of the people had attempted
by fear of death to force him to such a crime. He
who dies for the cause of truth and righteousness is
a martyr, as St. John the Baptist was ; who suffered,
not because he would not deny Christ, but because
he resolved, in maintaining the law of God, not to
shrink from speaking the truth." There was much
wisdom and charity in this answer ; and Elphege has
a better title to the name of saint and martyr than
many whom the pope has canonised.

There was now so little safety for king Ethelred,
that, in the following year the whole country hav
ing submitted to Sweyne, the Danish king, he fled
to Normandy, to Richard the second duke of that
name, whose sister Emma he had married. In the
course of a few months Sweyne died ; and the
Council of the Wise sent a message to entreat Ethel-
red to return, telling him -that " no lord was dearer
to them than their natural lord, if he would govern
them better than he did before." He came ; and
his liegemen fulfilled their promises by raising a
great force to restore him to his capital. To his
aid came also king Olave from Norway with a
powerful fleet, and anchored in the Thames. The
Danes had then possession both of London and of

268 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

South wark, " a mickle cheap," or market-town, as
the old Danish history calls it,3 at that time. This
they had fortified with a strong mound, and posted
a large body of troops within ; with whom they had
a communication from the city by the then London
bridge, a wooden structure supported on piles, but
wide enough for two carriages to pass, and sur
mounted by towers at certain intervals, and a breast
work on the side which looked down the stream.
The object of the English and their allies was to cut
off this communication; an exploit, which, under
the directions of Olave, they achieved. He con
structed, from the materials found in old houses
near the river, some wide platforms or floating bat
teries ; these were stretched over the decks of his
ships, so that while the fighting men could annoy
the enemy from the batteries, the rowers might
work the vessels below. Rowing up to the bridge,
under a heavy shower of stones and javelins from
the Danes behind the breastwork, they succeeded,
however, in tying strong cables round the wooden
piles or piers, fastening the other end to the floating
batteries. It was now only necessary to row off
again with all the force they could apply ; and the
wooden piers, loosened by many tugs and pulls in
all directions, at length gave way. Many of the
Danes were drowned in the river ; the rest fled into
the city, or into Southvvark ; which place being
stormed by the Saxons, those in London surrender
ed. There can be little 'doubt that gratitude for
the remembrance of this service led the English to
preserve the memory of St. Olave in the churches
called by his name at each end of London bridge.
The conversion of this brave warrior to the Chris
tian faith is said to have been owing to an interview

' Snorro, in Johnstone's Collection, p. 89- a 2.

CH. XIV.] ST. OLAVE. 269

with a hermit in the Scilly islands, whom he met
with in one of his naval expeditions, and who in
formed him of some danger that awaited him. This
led to his request for the mission from England,
which planted Christianity among his countrymen ;
and to his subsequent alliance with Ethelred. We
cannot but feel sorrow that it should also have led
to his untimely death. The enmity of Knute, the
son of Sweyne, stirred up factions against him in
his own country ; and he was slain in a tumult of
his own subjects, A.D. 1030.

Ethelred, by the bravery and skill of Olave, was
thus restored to his kingdom ; but his confidence
was as ill-placed as ever. Edric, earl of Mercia, a
worse traitor than his father Elfric, after ruining
his cause, and murdering most of the loyal nobles
that remained, went over to Knute or Canute, who
had succeeded to his father's power. In A.D. 1016
Ethelred died ; and though his warlike son, Ed
mund Ironside, for a short time raised the hopes of
the Saxons, his early death, and the destruction of
their best forces at Assingden, or Essendon, in Hert
fordshire, left them no choice but submission.

Knute did one act of public justice soon after
Edmund's death, in punishing Edric's treasons by a
well-merited bloody end. In the beginning of his
reign he was guilty of an act of cruel homicide to
secure his throne, having slain a brother of Edmund's
who was heir to the kingdom. He then espoused
the widow of Ethelred, who had been the second
wife of that monarch, Emma of Normandy. The
country by degrees became settled, though the dif
ferent races of Saxons in the west, Mercians in the
midland, and Danes in the north, retained some dif
ferences of coinage and other customs. In the first
years of Knute, however, a grievous inroad was made
into Northumberland by the Scots, who destroyed

270 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

great numbers of the inhabitants, earned off greater
numbers whom they reduced to slavery, and left the
country almost drsolate.

The Danes, at this second invasion, do not appear
to have been such relentless enemies of Christianity
as at the first. Knute professed himself a Christian ;
and by the advice of Ethelnoth, a noble Saxon whom
the Church had elected to the see of Canterbury, he
sanctioned some good laws both in Church and state.
He also founded a religious house at Essendon, where
he had obtained his decisive victory, and aided with
benefactions three or four older foundations. He
seems evidently to have considered it necessary to
his safety that he should establish Christianity by
law. " First of all," his code of laws begins, " let
men above all other things ever love one God, and
constantly keep one Christian faith ; and let them
love and with right truth obey king Knute." He
declares that he will administer equal justice to rich
and poor, and distinguish between offenders, young
or old, misleading or misled. He directs his magis
trates to shew mercy, and not to inflict death for
slight offences, remembering the prayer, " Forgive as
we forgive." "God's image in man, and his handi
work, which he so dearly bought, is not to be wasted
or defaced for a small matter." To the same pur
pose Alfred had bidden his judges, when they sat on
the seat of justice, to remember the sentence, " What
ye would that other men do to you, do ye to other
men." He who thinks on this, he said, before he
dooms in a question of right, will need no other
rule. There is the same repeated here.

Among the heathenish practices forbidden, be
sides the worshipping of idols, sun and moon, or
flowing streams, wells or fountains, or stones, or any
kind of tree, is a repetition of the law against witches,
wizards, and poisoners, as in Edward the Elder1*

CH. XIV.] LAWS OF RNUTE. 271

time ; and mention is made of the practice of heathen
witches in drawing lots, or burning sticks, or by other
juggling tricks " framing murder's work" against life
or limb. There can be no doubt from this exact
description, that there were cheats and profligates,
who were still in the habit of practising such mali
cious charms.4

In all these laws of old England religion and law
were joined together; and God forbid that they
should ever be parted asunder. But in these more
simple times the style of the laws is often that of a
sermon, which was the more natural when the clergy
were the principal lawgivers, and the way of publish
ing the laws was for the bishops and the clergy to
read them to an assembly of the people. " We di
rect," says one of the laws of king Knute, " that
each Christian man rightly understand his belief,
and learn by heart the creed and Lord's prayer.
For with the one will he rightly pray to God, and

4 The worthy archbishop Bradwardine, who flourished in
the reigns of the Norman Edwards, and died A.D. 1349, tells a
story of a witch, who was attempting to impose on the simple
people in his time. It was a fine summer's night, and the moon
was suddenly eclipsed. "Make me good amends," said she,
" for old wrongs ; or I will bid the sun also to withdraw his
light from you." Bradwardine, who had studied the Arabian
astronomers, was more than a match for this simple trick,
without calling in the aid of Saxon law. " Tell me," he said,
" at what time you will do this ; and we will believe you. Or
if you will not tell me, I will tell you when the sun or the moon
will next be darkened, in what part of their orb the darkness
will begin, how far it will spread, and how long it will continue."
It is needless to add that the witch was quite dumb-founded.
This was two hundred years before the Reformation. How
miserable to think that one hundred years after it, in the six
teen years of Cromwell and the Long Parliament, more than
300 unhappy persons were tried for witchcraft, and the greater
part were executed ! There had been only fifteen executions for
a century before, and probably not so many suffered by Saxon
ordeals.

272 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

with the other declare a right belief in him. Christ
himself first spake the Lord's prayer, and taught it
to his learning-knights (the Apostles). In that godly
prayer are seven petitions. He that hath his heart
in tune with them, speedeth his errands to God in
every need that man may feel, both for this life and
for that which is to come. But how may ever man
pray it inwardly to God, except he have inwardly
right belief towards God ? Never after death will
he be in Christ's company in holy rest, nor here in,
life is he meet to partake the holy housel (the com
munion), nor is he truly a Christian, who will not
learn the creed."

It is remarkable that these laws contain almost
the earliest mention of the pope as having any legis
lative control over the English clergy. They direct
that if a priest commit a murder, he is to be banished
to a place which the pope shall direct. They ap
point 'St. Dunstan's day to be kept, as well as king
Edward the martyr's ; and in one or two of their
enactments shew that the archbishop, who was the
chief adviser, was a friend of monkhood : as, for
example, whereas it was before ordered that every
priest should be held equal in rank to an inferior
thane or gentleman, they were now told that they
were to be unmarried, if they valued this distinction
In almost all other respects they shew a spirit of
mildness and piety.

Knute had a prosperous reign of nearly twenty
years, being for the greatest part of the time king of
Norway and Denmark as well as of England. He
taxed the English at first heavily, exacting more than
80,0001. for Dane-gelt on his coming to the throne;
but he repressed the Scots in the north, and kept his
army in subjection, so that there was no plundering
or burning in his time ; and this, after the long suf
ferings of the country, was cheaply purchased at any

CH. XIV.j EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 273

price. His two sons, Harold and Harthacnute, suc
ceeded in turn to a short reign ; the younger dying,
as it appears, at a drunken feast, in A.D. 1042. The
Saxons, finding the line of Knute come to an end,
sent for Edward, surnamed the Confessor, the last
surviving son of Ethelred, from Normandy ; and
enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity, disturbed
only by the factions of earl Godwin and his sons,
and the Norman favourites of the king, until the
death of Edward made room for the ambition of a
greater than earl Godwin, William the Conqueror.

During the twenty-four years of Edward the
Confessor, the English Church was quietly governed.
The king, from his Norman education, was biassed
in favour of foreign churchmen, and made many of
his chaplains bishops, who were Lorrainers or Nor
mans by birth. One of these, Herman, having ob
tained the see of Wilton, created in Edward the
Elder's reign, found means to unite it with Sher-
borne ; and not agreeing well with the clergy at
those places, removed his bishopric to Old Sarum,
where it remained for about one hundred and seventy
years. Robert, a monk of Jumieges, having been
made, in A.~L>. 1050, archbishop of Canterbury, and
William, another Norman, bishop of London, and
Ulf of Dorchester, were banished by earl Godwin's
faction ; but William, who was much esteemed, was
soon afterwards restored.5 He was a great bene
factor to the city of London by his influence with
William the Conqueror. Leofric, bishop of Exeter,
though a Burgundian by birth, suited himself so well

5 The story of Robert's accusing the queen-mother of incon
tinence, and how, by St. Swithin's help, she walked over the
burning ploughshares, and that this proof of her innocence led
to Robert's banishment, must be a fiction. The lady was at
this time, if ib^was living, about seventy years of age at least,
for she was jrvarned to Ethelred in A.D. 1002.

274 EARLY ENGLISH CHUHCH.

to his adopted country, and took such pains to pre
serve old English books in his library, that his name
is still remembered as one of the best patrons of
learning in Saxon times. But these were exceptions.
The natural inclination of foreign bishops would be
to bring in foreign clergy. Another effect of Ed
ward's foreign preferences was, that with him began
the mischievous system of founding Alien Priories.
A priory was a religious house in subjection to an
abbey, governed by a monk sent from the abbey,
and obedient to the laws of the society to which it
was subjected. This was a new kind of foundation,
which began in England at this time, and helped to
raise the power of the monasteries. But Edward
made his priories subject not to any English house,
but to the abbeys of Normandy : St. Michael's
Mount in Cornwall, to St. Michael's Mount near
Avranches in France; Steyning in Sussex, to the
abbey of Fescamp near Rouen ; Deerhurst in Glou
cestershire, to St. Denys the famous abbey near
Paris, where the kings of France were all buried.
This way of giving English property to the French
or Norman Church planted little colonies of Nor-
rnans in England, who were ready, when the time
came, to advance the interests of the Conqueror.

Earl Godwin's power stood in opposing these
proceedings ; but as he was a bold unscrupulous man,
and his sons more profligate, his cause was not such
as to command the united support of the country.
Leofric, earl of Mercia, had been in high trust with
Knute, and he continued to exercise a useful in
fluence with Edward. He was also liberal in his
gifts to the Church, founding several famous abbeys,
at Coventry, at Chester, at Wenlock in Shropshire,
and at Derby. The famous Siward, earl of North
umberland, who put down the Scottish usurper Mac
beth, was of Danish extraction, and had something

CH. XIV.] BISHOP ATHELSTAN. 275

of religious Feeling joined to his warlike virtues.
He was the founder of a monastery at York, whici
is supposed to have stood on the spot now occupied
by the ruins of St. Mary's abbey. This is the only
minster which seems to have been built in the north
of England, as a new foundation, since the coming
of the Danes. Here Siward was buried, as he had
desired, having been laid out, as he is said to have
died, with his armour on.

It is pleasing to see, at the close of the Saxon
period, that the enmity between the Welch and Eng
lish Churches had been much softened. The unfor
tunate Ethelred had made a mutual alliance with the
mountaineers against the Danes, which at least put a
stop to their injuries committed on each other. The
Welch bishops after this came sometimes on friendly
visits to the English. There was now, in Knute's
and Edward's reign, A.D. 1012-1056, a good bishop
of Hereford named Athelstan, who had rebuilt his
cathedral church, and for his good deeds was called
" the worthy." During the last thirteen years of his
life he had become totally blind, and was unable to
discharge any of his public duties. All this time
Tremorin, bishop of St. David's, regularly came to
visit and confirm for him ; and his visits were ac
cepted well by the English, who knew him to be
a religious and holy man. And though war was
shortly afterwards renewed, when these pious pre
lates were in their graves, and Leofgar, a warlike
priest, who succeeded Athelstan, was slain in battle
by Griffith ap Llewellyn, this beginning of unity no
doubt led to a more friendly spirit, which at length
joined together Briton and Saxon by a firmer bond
than conquest.

CHAPTER XV.

TROUBLES AND CHANGES MADE IN THE CHURCH BY THR
NORMAN CONQUEST. 1AST SAXON BISHOPS: Al. 1)1(1. 1',
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK; WULFSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCES
TER. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, AND LANFRANC.

Hard steel succeeded then ;
And stubborn as the metal were the men.

DHYDEN.

DWARD the Confessor had just wit
nessed the consecration of Westmin
ster, which he had rebuilt and largely
endowed as a Benedictine abbey, when
he died on Epiphany-eve, A.D. 1066.
His abbey still remains, as the place where the
kings of England from the time of the Conquest
have received their earthly crown ; but of these
none were to be heirs in blood to the pious founder.
William had visited England fifteen years before,
and had made some stay at the court of his cousin.
There seems to have been an expectation among the
Saxons that he would set up a claim to the throne ;
and this, perhaps, made them more readily pass over
Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside,
whose youth and want of ability were unequal to the
public danger, and allow Harold, son of earl God
win, the late king's brother-in-law, to take the go
vernment. But in the following autumn, Tosti,
Harold's brother, who thought his own claim as
good, brought over the king of Norway with a large

CH. XV.] THE CONQUEST. 277

fleet to support his pretensions ; and scarcely had
the party of Harold defeated and slain these in
vaders in the north, when they heard within five
days afterwards that William was landed. The battle
of Hastings followed ; and though the grandsons, of
earl Leofric, Eduin and Morcar, and Waltheof, son
of Siward, and other Saxon nobles, made many
efforts to regain their liberty, the end was only to
bring their country more completely into subjection
to a foreign yoke. By degrees all the great estates
which these earls had held were given to William's
Norman barons ; and the old possessors every where
banished and outlawed, or in the next generation
reduced to occupy as tenants the lands that were
once their own. The worst calamity, however, fell
upon the poorer classes. The opposition that Wil
liam had met with in the west and in the north pro
voked him widely to lay waste the country; and
thousands are said to have died of famine.

The Normans, who now came into possession of
the fairest portion of England, were a people of the
same original stock as the Danes. One of their
chiefs or sea-kings named Rolla or Rollo, had gained
a settlement for his followers in France, in the reign
of king Alfred ; and his descendants had ruled there
with the title of dukes of Normandy for nearly two
hundred years. At first these invaders had burnt
and plundered, much as they did in England; but
finding less resistance, they had by degrees become
settled, and being for the most part at peace with
the French, had adopted their language, loarnt their
manners, and for some length of time before the
Conquest had professed the Christian religion.

William, at his first coming to the crown, had
pleaded as his title the will of his cousin Edward;
but distrust of the Saxons, and the difficulty of se
curing his new kingdom, made him shortly drop this
BU

278 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

plea for the right of conquest. He indeed treated
the Church as a conqueror, no less than the state.
In the course of a few years almost every English
man was removed, or had given room by death, for
Normans to succeed them as bishops and abbots of
the principal monasteries ; and the only way for the
native clergy to obtain even subordinate offices was
to conform their manners to the new possessors, and
learn their language.

Stigand archbishop of Canterbury, and Ethelsy
abbot of St. Augustine's, were among the first who
fell under the Conqueror's displeasure. It is a com
mon tradition that these two churchmen were the
advisers of a bold stratagem practised on the in
vaders by the freeholders of Kent, who are said to
have assembled in groat force at Swanscombe just
after the battle of Hastings, and, disguising their
position by large boughs of trees, took the Con
queror unawares, and forced him to grant them
better terms than he imposed upon the rest of the
nation. The country people in this part of Kent
still make it their boast that their fathers never were
conquered ; and it is a remaining proof of the truth
of the tradition, that the customs respecting pro
perty in the weald of Kent still keep more of the
Saxon character than is to be found in other parts
of England. Stigand appeared after this to be re
ceived into favour with William ; but he soon took
occasion to deprive him of his archbishopric, on the
plea that he had intruded into it while Robert of
Jumieges was still living, and that pope Benedict X.,
who gave him his pall, was never properly elected
pope. The means by which this was done was by
sending to pope Alexander II., and desiring him to
send a legate or ambassador into the country to act
with his authority. He sent Ermenfrid, bishop of
Sion in Switzerland, by whom Stigand was deposed.

CH. XV.] EGELWIN, BISHOP OF DURHAM. 279

And this is the first instance of a pope's legate being
received in England. Ethelsy, finding the Normans
were not likely to spare him, and that they began to
seize on the lands of his abbey, got together such
valuables as he could, and sailed to Denmark, where
many Saxons took refuge, and many others in Scot
land and Ireland, at this crisis. Stigand for the rest
of his life remained imprisoned in a monastery at
Winchester. He is accused of having been a very
avaricious man ; and this charge is supported by the
awkward fact that he held the two sees of Canter
bury and Winchester together. But the accounts
we have of him come chiefly from Norman writers,
who were no friends to his memory.

Egelwin, bishop of Durham, had continued in
possession of his see for about three years after the
Conquest, when William, who had laid waste all the
country between York and Durham in revenge for
an insurrection of the Saxons in the north, sent a
baron called Robert Comyn to govern the province
of Northumberland. Comyn came to Durham with
a body of nine hundred Normans. The bishop,
knowing the temper of the Northumbrians, and see
ing that his force was insufficient, bade him be on
his guard against a surprise; but he neglected the
warning, thinking that the dread of William's ven
geance would secure him from danger. His follow
ers began to commit some excesses on the inhabit
ants ; and the people, seeing him unguarded, rose in
great numbers, took Durham, besieged and burnt
the bishop's house with Comyn in it, and slew his
Normans to a man. This dreadful calamity was the
ruin of Egelwin. He had entertained the unfortu
nate baron with all courteous hospitality and honour;
but after what had happened, he foresaw that there
would be no way of retaining William's confidence
He resolved, after some hesitation, to join Hereward

28V EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

at Ely, the last Saxon who held out against the
foreign yoke. The Norman, on hearing this, seized
his brother Egelric, who had formerly been bishop
of Durham, but had now retired for some years into
the abbey of Peterborough, where we have seen him
expending his wealth in works of public usefulness
and charity. Him he sent prisoner to Westminster,
where he patiently ended his days in mortification and
prayer, and was honoured as a saint after his death.
- Egelwin, with earl Morcar and others, surrendered
in A.D. 1071; and being imprisoned at Abingdon,
is said to have died heart-broken, refusing to take
the sustenance necessary to support life.1

Still a few Saxons were left, who by more happy
circumstances had made their peace with William,
or gained respect from his imperious temper. Egel
ric, bishop of Selsey, after whose death the see was
removed to Chichester, in his infirm old age was
honoured by the Conqueror as an interpreter of the
Saxon laws. He received his crown from the hands
of ALDRED, archbishop of York. Aldred had ad
vised with the citizens of London, after the battle of
Hastings, about proclaiming Edgar Atheling ; but
as there was no help at hand, it was determined to
receive William, who lost no time in securing his
advantage. The see of York had very slowly reco-

1 This is told by a trustworthy chronicler, Simeon of Dur
ham ; and it bears a remarkable likeness to another anecdote
of the time, in the Chronicle of the Cid, the great champion of
Spain, who was the contemporary of William the Conqueror.
Count Raymond of Barcelona, being taken prisoner by the Cid,
in like manner disdaining life, refused the food which was offered
him : " Non combre un bocado," says he, —

" I will not eat one mouthful, not for all the wealth of Spain ;
Not to redeem my body's life, or my soul from mortal pain,
Since by such ragged rascal loons I have been forced to yield."

It was with great difficulty that the Cid broke this stubbornness
by offering him his liberty without ransom. But poor Egelwin
was in less merciful hands.

ARCHBISHOP ALDRED.

281

RtPOK SJ.TB

vereu i^elf from the inroads of the Danes ; and it
was for a long time so impoverished, these invaders
having seized on the Church-lands, which were not
restored, that it was the common practice from the
time of Alfred for the archbishops of York to hold
the bishopric of Worcester with that see, as had
been done by Dunstan's friend OsVald and many
others. Aldred had held both for about three years
in the reign of Edward the Confessor ; and while
he was at Worcester, which he held previously, he
founded the abbey-church at Gloucester, A.D. 1058
a foundation which has «ince the Reformation be
come a bishop's see. After he came to- York, he
secame also the founder or restorer of Ripon Min-

B B2

282 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

ster, which has remained from his time, and now at
length has been made once more, what it was in the
first ages of English Christianity, the church of a
Christian bishop. He was a man whose talents had
recommended him to offices of high trust with Ed
ward the Confessor, having been sent on an embassy
to the German emperor Henry III. After found
ing his church at Gloucester, he went on a journey
to the Holy Land, not as a pilgrim, but worthily
attended ; and there, as the old chronicle speaks of
him, " betook himself to God," solemnly renewing
his vows of obedience, and devoting himself with
prayer and fasting more earnestly to his Saviour's
service. In advising his countrymen to submit to
William, he gave the counsel which eventually proved
to be the best; but his was no mean submission.
When he heard of a Norman baron, who had begun
to build a castle within the precincts of the cathe
dral-close at Worcester, he hastened to the place,
and by his bold denunciations of the wrath of God
against such sacrilege, he alarmed the offender's con
science, and put a stop to his attempt.2 Besides this,
it is said that he did much while Ire lived to soften
the fierce spirit of William ; and bound him by a
religious promise to preserve his people, and defend
the rights of Christianity.3 It was happy for him
that he died just before the fatal attempt of the
Saxon nobles at York, A.D. 1069, when the cathedral
was burnt to the ground, and the dreadful slaughter
and wide-wasting famine that followed laid desolate
the whole county. Yet even then the respect for
Aldred's memory seems to have had some weight

2 His address is said to have begun in very plain Saxon :
" High test thou Urse ? Have thou God's curse:" i.e. Art
thou called Urse ? &c., that being the name of the Norman
baron. Malmsbury, de Pontiff. 1. iii.

3 William of Newborough ; quoted by Hooker, E. P. vii. 1

CH. XV.] WULFSTAN. 283

with the revengeful Conqueror. When, fifteen years
afterwards, the survey of Domesday Book was taken,
almost the only estate that was left populous and
prosperous was the archbishop's at Sherborne, a
little southward of York. This still continued to
pay the land-tax as in Edward's time, while the
manor of Whitby had fallen from 112/. to sixty
shillings, and others in much the same proportion,
being ieft without dwellings or inhabitants !

WULFSTAN, bishop of Worcester, was a man
whose holy simplicity of life gained him al.-o a
peaceful possession of his see both in the reign of
the Conqueror and William Rufus. There was in
deed an attempt made to deprive him of it. WThen
the removal of Stigand had enabled the Norman
churchmen to follow up in the Church the pattern
their master had set them in the state, there was a
council held in Westminster Abbey, under Lanfranc
the new primate, in which many English prelates
and priests were displaced ; and among other pre
texts, it seems that ignorance of the Norman or
French language was then thought a sufficient rea
son for depriving them. Wulfstan was called to
give up his pastoral staff. He arose, and holding it
in his hand, " I confess," he said, " I am not worthy
of this dignity, nor sufficient for its duties. I knew
it when the clergy elected me, when the prelates
forced it upon me, and my master summoned me to
the office. But you require of me the staff which
you did not deliver, and take from me the honour
which you did not confer. I am ready to obey the
decree of this holy council ; but I resign the staff not
to you, but to him by whose authority I received
it." With these words he advanced to the tomb of
king Edward, and, as if addressing himself to the
dead, " Master," he said, " thou knowest how un
willingly I took upon myself this charge, forced

284 EARLY ENGLISiI CHURCH.

upon me more by thy pleasure than the choice of
the brethren, the wishes of the people, or the con
sent of the prelates and favour of the nobles, though
none of these was wanting. Behold, new people
fill the land, a new king is on the throne, a new pri
mate, and new laws. They accuse thee of error in
having commanded, and me of presumption in having
obeyed. To thee, therefore, I resign the charge
which I never sought : thou, who art now with God,
canst best tell whether in committing it to me thou
wast deceived." So saying, he laid his crosier upon
the tomb, and took his seat a*-' a simple monk among
the monks. This solemn appeal from a grave and
venerable man moved the consciences of those who
heard it. Lanfranc was struck by it ; he persuaded
William to allow him to retain his see, and conti
nued the firm friend of Wulfstan ever after.4

Wulfstan was a great admirer of the Venerable
Bede, and had dedicated a church to his name in the
beginning of his ministry as bishop. On the occa
sion of his dedicating a church he used always to
preach ; and great crowds flocked to hear his preach
ing; and no wonder, for he took that way of preach
ing which must always command hearers. He so
managed his text, that he always spoke of Christ,
always set Christ as it were in view of those who lis
tened to his words, nay, he brought in Christ, when
the mention of his name might seem almost cross to
his matter. He was a favourer of monasteries, en
couraging Alwin, a monk or hermit, to build one at
Great Malvern ; the fine church of which founda
tion, though the building is of a later age, still re
mains. This monastery arose at that time on the site
of a hermitage in the wild forest which surrounded

4 Tte miracle, which is commonly appended to this story
must be left out of present consideration.

CH. XV.] WTTLFSTAN. 285

it on every side. He also rebuilt the cathedral
church at Worcester. On the day that he began
this work, he was observed by one of his monks
standing in silent sadness in a corner of the church
yard, groaning inwardly. The monk modestly ex
postulated with him: "Surely," he said, "you ought
rather to rejoice that such things can be" done for
your church in your time ; that buildings are now
erected in a style of beauty and splendour unknown
to our fathers." « I judge differently," said Wulf-
stan ; « we are pulling down the labours of holy
men, that we may gain honour and reputation to
ourselves. The good old time was, when men knew
not how to build magnificent piles, but thought any
roof good enough, if under it they could offer them-
selves a willing sacrifice to God. It is a miserable
change, if we neglect the souls of men, and pile
together stones." These words were only too pro
phetic.

It is said that in Wulfstan's time the practice of
selling men and women for slaves was still secretly
kept up by some traders at Bristol, who carried them
over into Ireland. The laws of the Conqueror for
bade this, as it had before been forbidden by Alfred
and the earliest Christian monarchs; but" neither
the fear of the king nor the love of God was strong
enough to break off the iniquitous traffic. The good
man was bitterly grieved at it; and paying more than
one visit to Bristol, he stayed there two or three
months at a time, preaching every Sunday, and la
bouring to turn their hearts to mercy and brotherly
love. The effect of these pastoral admonitions was
something beyond what he had expected. The prac
tice was not only abolished, but public opinion was
strongly aroused against the slave-dealers. And when,
a few years afterwards, one viler than the rest at
tempted to revive the trade, the people rose in tumult,

286 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

led him out of the city, and inflicted such wounds on
his face and eyes, that he was blind ever after.

Wulfstan was a mild and affectionate counsellor
in cases of conscience, making friends of all who
chose him for their confessor. His charity to the
poor was most abundant ; his purse was their trea
sury. His devotion was much moved by the sight
of beauty in childhood : " What must be the fair
beauty of the Creator," he said, " whose creatures
are made so fair !" He divided his hours carefully,
so that every day he found time for devotional read
ing and prayer, often in company with the younger
clergy who were part of his household, and sometimes
alone. Whether he was walking or sitting, says one
who wrote his life, whether he rose up or lay down,
the psalm was ever on his lips, and Christ always in
his thoughts. He died at the advanced age of eighty-
eight, A.D. 1095.

Among the writings of the early English Church
is a sermon in the Saxon or ancient English lan
guage, which is thought to be bishop Wulfstan's.
It is an excellent plain discourse on the Catholic
faith, explaining Scripture mysteries in an easy fami
liar style ; as may be seen by the following example,
where he speaks of the generation or begetting of the
blessed Son of God :

" The Son is not wrought or shapen, but be
gotten ; and yet he is alike old and alike everlasting
with his Father. His begetting is not as our beget
ting. When a man begetteth a son, and his child is
born, the father is greater and the son is less ; and
while the son waxeth, the father groweth old. Where
fore thou findest not among men father and son to be
equal or alike. But I will give thee an example how
thou mayest understand God's begetting. Fire be
gets of itself brightness ; and the brightness is alike
old with the fire : the fire is not of the brightness,

CH. XV. J INGULF. TURGOT. 287

but the brightness is of the fire : the fire begets the
brightness, and is never without its brightness. As
then thou hearest that the brightness is all as old as
the fire that it cometh of, so grant that God may be
get a Son as old and as everlasting as himself."

Another Saxon who retained the favour of Wil
liam was Ingulf, abbot of Croyland. He had served
the Conqueror as a private secretary at his court in
Normandy during the reign of Edward, and was thus
enabled to provide for his own safety, and to do some
good to his suffering countrymen. He was by birth
a Londoner. His history of his own abbey is one of
the most valuable records of the age of the Conquest.

Turgot, a native of Lincolnshire, another histo
rian of this time, was a Saxon of good family; and in
his youth, after the Normans had gained possession
of England, was kept, with other youths, as a hostage
in Lincoln castle for the peace of that part of the
country. Hence he contrived to escape to Grimsby,
and took ship to the coast of Norway, where he got
an introduction to the king's court, taught sacred
learning and psalmody to the Danes, and made some
stay in that country. Then returning to England,
he became a monk at Durham, prior of the society
there, and at length bishop of the see of St. Andrews,
in Scotland, erected by king Malcolm III. as the
primate's see, A.D. 1108, but for that time and long
after subject to the archbishops of York.

We must now take a short view of the effect of
these changes upon the English Church. In the first
place, they went far to deprive the people of a native
ministry. For nearly one hundred years after the
Conquest, not a single Saxon was promoted to any
bishopric or other eminent place in the Church.
These places were filled by Normans or foreigners,
few of whom could speak a word of English ; so that
Thomas, the first Norman archbishop of York, re-

288 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH,

quested Wulfstan to visit his churches for him, fear
ing the dislike of the people, whose language was
unknown to him ; and it was nearly a full century
Jter the death of Wulfstan before they heard an
other sermon from a bishop which they could under
stand. The only preachers, except where a Saxon
landlord was left here and there, who might pro
mote a countryman to a village-church, were the
poor Saxon monks, who sometimes followed the
good example of St. Cuthbert, and wandered over
the moors to the villages which lay within a short
distance of their monasteries. After the wide-wast
ing war and famine of bread, followed another fa
mine of hearing the word of the Lord. And whereas,
in the time of Aldhelm and Alfred and Elfric, the
people had been accustomed to hear the Apostles'
creed, the Lord's prayer, and the Psalms, in their
own language, all was now locked up in Latin, and
the whole public service became to them only a show
and a sound.

Another evil was, that the greater proportion of
the Normans, whom their kings sought to advance,
had more of the temper of military chiefs or barons
than of bishops. There were many Saxon bishops
and abbots who died in battle during the Danish in
vasions ; but war was not a part of their profession;
it was undertaken in the extremity of their country's
danger against pagan enemies, to give their defence
something of a sacred character. When the old
English chronicler speaks of one who died fighting
against the Welch, he says, as if it were something
very different, " he wore his knapsack in his priest
hood, until he was made a bishop. After his bishop-
hood he abandoned his chrism and his cross, his
ghostly weapons, and took to his spear and to his
sword, and so marched against Griffith the Welch
king. But he was there slain, and his priests with

CH. XV. J »\ja.aiAH uISHOl'S. 289

him." The Normans, on the contrary, were as often
in the field as in council; and not only partook in
the civil business and political parties, but led their
troops to battle, fortified castles, and governed as the
king's lieutenants in provinces, or took the adminis
tration of the whole realm. It was a bad sign when
Robert of Jumieges held the first bishop's castle in
England. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, brother-in-law of
the Conqueror, was a great warrior. Ranulph Flam-
bard, made by William Rufus bishop of Durham,
after having filled the office of treasurer or procura
tor of taxes, went to build castles and plot treasons
in the north. Roger, bishop of Old Sarum in the
reign of Henry I., his nephew Alexander bishop of
Lincoln, and Henry of Blois bishop of Winchester
and brother of king Stephen, built and held an enor
mous number of castles. It is plain that if the Nor
man kings had continued, without a check, to fill the
Church with such bishops, the sees would have been
occupied by cunning lawyers, plotting statesmen, or
bluff swordsmen, instead of ministers of truth and
peace.

The union of offices so ill assorted was in itself
an evil, even where the man was one whose charac
ter did not misbecome his profession. The Conque
ror having fortified the castle of Durham, after the
death of Comyn gave it to the keeping of the new
bishop Walcher, whom he made earl of Northum
berland and his governor in the north. Walcher
was a mild-tempered man, who invited monks from
the southern provinces, and began to restore Bede's
monastery of Jarrow, Whitby, and other places of
ancient name for learning. But he was too gentle
for his office of civil governor. There was a Saxon
thane or noble, who had been stripped of most of his
property, but resided at Durham, and was highlv
esteemed for his virtues and ialents by the people
cc

290 EARLY ENGLISH CHrRCH.

The bishop became acquainted with him, and was
much guided by his counsel in the government of
the province ; and nothing could be better contrived
to appease the spirits of the Northumbrians, smarting
under the cruel oppressions which they had suflered.
But there was a vile priest among the retainers of
Walcher, who saw with a jealous eye the increasing
influence of the Saxon Leolf. The Norman sheriff
was equally provoked by it, as it checked his own
acts of rapine and extortion. These men, the arch
deacon Leobwin and the sheriff Gilbert, caused Leolf
to be assassinated. The bishop, who ought to have
seen justice done upon the murderers, contented him
self by publicly protesting that he was not privy to
their crime ; and in the mean time they continued to
hold their offices, and to pillage, one the property of
churches and churchmen, the other of the English
freeholders. The Northumbrians meditated revenge.
Walcher, accompanied by Gilbert and Leobwin, had
gone to Gateshead, one of the most ancient Saxon
towns, and the seat of an ancient monastery in the
north. Here some of the old inhabitants were to
meet him, and counsel was to be taken for preserv
ing the public peace. But hearing that their two
enemies were in his company, the people rose in tu
mult and demanded that they should be surrendered
to them. The bishop, with his attendants, retreated
into a church, from which he came forth and at
tempted to speak and pacify the angry multitude,
when a voice was heard from the midst of them,
" fhort rede, good rede (the shortest counsel is the
best); slay ye the bishop." The words were scarcely
spoken, when a shower of javelins was hurled against
him, and he fell, pierced with many wounds. The
Northumbrians slew the sheriff by a like death ; and
as Leobwin would not come out from the church,
fired it over his head, and despatched him as he was

CH. XV.] TROUBLES OF THE CIirRCH. 291

discovered half-burnt to death amidst the blazing
ruins.

The monasteries had their full share of the mise
ries of this bitter time. In one of the first years of
his reign, William, hearing that many Saxons had
placed their treasure in these religious houses, as in
i place of safety, ordered them to be generally rifled.
His barons often seized upon their lands, and the
abbot had sometimes yielded them in hope of re
taining peaceably what was left. But nothing was
more felt as a grievance than the attempt which was
made to change their service-books. A fierce old
Norman priest, Thurstan, who had obtained the
abbey of Glastonbury, began to command the Saxon
monks to lay aside the old order of pope Gregory,
which had been in use from the foundation of the
English Church, and to adopt a new form com
posed by William of Fescamp, a monk of Normandy.
When they refused, to terrify them into compliance,
he brought a body of Norman archers to the door
of the abbey-church. The monks attempted to bar
the door, and a fray ensued, in which three of them
were shot to death and eighteen wounded. It is
true that Thurstan was shortly after deprived of his
office; and this evil was remedied, when OSMUND.
a learned and pious bishop of Old Sarum, A.D. 1078-
1099, compiled the Salisbury missal and manual, — a
prayer-book in Latin, containing many which still
have a place in the English Prayer-book, and which
was used in the greatest number of English churches,
and in \Vales, Scotland, and Ireland, to the time of
die Reformation.

Nor was the oppression of the Church by any
means so grievous in the time of William the Con
queror, as it was in the reign of some of his succes
sors, notwithstanding these outrages. LANFRAKC,
who was now placet1 at the head of it, was a man of

292 EARLY ENGLISH CHURC1*.

wisdom and prudence, who had skill enough to re
strain some of the outbreaks of his imperious mas
ter, and to check the encroachments of his barons.
Lanfranc was a native of Pavia in the north of Italy;
and being left an orphan at an early age, took
to the profession of teaching for his support. The
schoolmasters of those times were a wandering race,
who often shifted from one city to another, as the
chances of assembling scholars were more promis
ing. He taught with some reputation in Italy and
in France, and at Avranches in Normandy ; when,
hearing that another countryman of his was found
ing the abbey of Bee near Rouen, he determined
to become a monk under him. He was afterwards
prior of this monastery; from which came several of
the early Norman archbishops of Canterbury. Here
his learning and talents recommended him to the
notice of William, who in a short time made him his
chief counsellor. But this friendship was soon inter
rupted. William was desirous of marrying a daughter
of a count of Flanders, who was too near a cousin to
be approved as a match for him by the churchmen
of that age. Lanfranc opposed it. The fiery duke
banished him his court, and shortly after from his
dominions ; and suiting his action to the word, to
shew that he meant to make Normandy too hot to
hold him, burnt a village belonging to the abbey.
Lanfranc set out on his journey, riding a lame horse,
the best the monks could furnish him with, but which
at every step lowered its head almost to the ground.
Thus ill-equipped for speed, he met his master going
to the chase : " I wish," said he, " to obey your man
date ; but I see I must leave your dominions on foot,
unless you will have compassion and furnish me with
a better horse." William, like other angry men, was
softened by a harmless jest: "Who ever heard,"
said he, "of a culprit asking his judge to make him

LAXFKANC. 293

a present?" In short, he gave him a hearing, and
restored him to a favour and influence which he
never lost. The burnt village was rebuilt, and the
abbey enriched with new grants.

William had discernment enough to perceive the
advantage his government had derived in Normandy
I'rom the counsels of Lanfranc. He had promoted
him to the abbey of Caen, and had offered him the
archbishopric of Rouen. He had gone on several
embassies about the affairs of the Norman Church
to Rome; for the ties between that Church and the
pope were much closer before the Conquest than
those of the Church of England. In these embassies
Lanfranc had conducted himself with strict loyalty
towards his master; and this virtue he eminently
displayed when he was placed at Canterbury. He
was entrusted with the administration of the king
dom while William was absent on a visit to Nor-
mandy ; and his promptitude in sending information
of the conspiracy of the earls of Norwich and Here
ford greatly contributed to the putting down of that
dangerous attempt. He continued after the Con
queror's death to support the cause of Rufus, whom
he considered to have the title of his father's will ;
and this king is said to have owed most of his secu
rity to the firmness of Lanfranc and Wulfstan.

As a churchman, he did not omit to do what
seemed requisite for the good government of his
own province. He procured first a restoration of
the property which the foreign barons had seized,
citing the Conqueror's half-brother Odo, bishop of
Bayeux, whom he had made earl of Kent, to give
back the lands of the church of Canterbury, and
gaining the king's order for a general restitution.
He took some pains to see that the clergy were
every whore furnished with correct copies of the

service-books. He then rebuilt the cathedral- church
ccs

KAHLT EXGII..H JHURCH.

of Canterbury, procuring for that purpose stone from
beyond sea from the quarries near Caen in Nor
mandy, where he had resided. The western tower
of this cathedral, as it was built by Lanfranc, was
standing only a few years since, the rest having been
destroyed by h're about a hundred years after his
time. When the clergy of the cathedral of Canter
bury lately found it necessary to rebuild this also,
they followed Lanfranc's example, and brought over
their stone from Caen. He placed his friend Gun-
dulph, a monk of the abbey of Bee, in the see of
Rochester, who was a man of excellent character
for wisdom and charity ; and he appointed Paul, a
monk of Caen, to the abbey of St. Alban's, which
this abbot rebuilt in a style of magnificence hitherto
unknown in England.

Lanfranc was a man of great liberality, and a
kind patron of the distre»*H. He founded two hos
pitals or almshouses near the city of Canterbury
and endowed them with a yearly income for thei
support. And he made the same provision which
we have seen made by archbishop Wulfred for the
yearly maintenance of a certain number of helpless
poor from his manors. His preference for monk
hood was shewn in a new collection of rules which
he drew up for the Benedictine monasteries, which
we shall have occasion shortly to refer to. What
was worse, he began the attempt, which was after
wards repeated by Anselm, of enforcing single life
upon all the clergy. This was done in compliance
with pope Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., who had
succeeded to the pontificate shortly after the Con
quest, A.D. 1074, and is the great founder of what
is properly called popery ; who had issued his com
mands that all priests should either quit their livings
or their wives. He was also the first teacher in this
country who maintained t.bc doctrine of transub

CH. XV. J LANFRANC. 295

stantiation. He was led into it by a dispute in
Italy with a French clergyman called Berenger, arch
deacon of Angers, and a teacher of eminent learning,
who seems to have held the true primitive doctrine,
" that the holy bread on the altar is the body of
Christ, but that it is still bread after consecration."
On the contrary, Lanfranc says, " I believe that the
earthly substances, which are consecrated on the
Lord's table by the ministry of the priests, are in
an unspeakable, incomprehensible, and wonderful
manner, by power from above, turned into the sub
stance of the Lord's body, though the appearances
of the things themselves, and some other qualities,
remain ; and though the Lord's body itself is in
heaven at the right hand of the Father, remaining
immortal, whole, unbroken, and unhurt : so that it
may be truly said that we receive the same body
which he took from the Virgin, and yet not the
same ; the same as to its substance, and proper
nature, and virtue, but not the same if regarded as
to the appearance of bread and wine." It is a pity
he did not see that a true declaration of Christian
faith does not lie in reconciling contradictions; that
though we find in Scripture much that is above our
reason, we are not required to believe what is con
trary to it. He did not, however, press this belief
as an article of faith upon the Church ; and both he
and his successor Anselm spoke with caution and
reverence on the subject " It is a safe way," says
Lanfranc, " to believe a mystery of faith ; curiously
to question about it is unprofitable."

One remarkable change was brought in, perhaps
in consequence of this new doctrine. The commu
nion-tables in the Saxon churches were almost always
made of wood ; they were now taken down, and stone
tables or altars generally set up.1 It was most likely

1 Malmsbury, Life of Wulfstan. It has been objected to
this statement, that Bede speaks of a stotie altar (ii. §14), and

29? T,ARI.Y EN'GUStt CHURCR.

with a knowledge of this fact, that bishop Ridley at
the Reformation ordered the v/ooden tables to be
restored. The restoration would have been unneces
sary, had not the sacrifice of the mass made so great
an abuse of the stone altars. As it was, it was well
to return to the more general ancient practice of
the early English Church.

that in archbishop Egbert's collection of canons there is one for
bidding any form of consecration to be used over altars not made
of stone. But the passage in Bede seems to prove that stont
was not the common material ; and the canon referred to was
not passed by the Saxon Church, but copied by Egbert, among;
many from different sources, from one enacted at the synod of
Epone in France, A.D. 509. In the primitive Church either
material was used indifferently, as St. Athanasius bears witness.
Nor is there any reason why either may not be used now. Bui
tl,e case was different when the Norman bishops destroyed the
Tt-oden altars, and mcroduced a new doctrine to^^er with the
nse of stone.

CHAPTER XVI.

REIGNS OF RUFUS, HENRY I., AND STEPHEN. ARCHBISHOP
ANSELM AND GlUKEN MATILDA. BEGINNING OF POPERY
IN ENGLAND. OPPRESSION OF NORMAN BARONS. DEATH
OF THURSTAN.

So pass'd we with slow steps through that sad realm
Of storm and spirits foul ; and, as we pass'd,

Still touch'd a little on THE LIFE TO COME.

DANTB.

AD the nations of Europe been governed
by wise and generous sovereigns, who
sought to reign in the love and loyal
affections of their people, or had the
people been in the secure enjoyment
of their liberty and property, such a power as that
of the Roman popes could never have arisen. Still
less would it have found abettors in the friends of
religion and virtue, and those whose desire was to
restore the cause of justice and equal laws. But
when this new dominion arose, the world was out of
joint ; might was exalted against right : warlike lords
established an iron rule by force of arms, and gave
the subject people to be the prey of their military
chiefs, whose castles were turned into prisons and
houses of torture to all who refused to do their
bidding or submit to their exactions. To those who
were groaning under this heavy yoke, the name of

298 KARLY ENGLISH CHUHCH.

the good father of Christendom came as the signal
of deliverance, the watchword of liberty, the refuge
in distress. It was the name of the only power on
earth that was able to check the course of wrong
and robbery, to provide a place of shelter for suffer
ing innocence, to bow down the neck of pride.

This was the secret of the power of the popes,
which never prevailed in England but when the
rulers were tyrannical and licentious, and was suc
cessfully withstood and controlled when laws were
well administered, and when there was prudence
and stedfastness in the counsels of the state. But
when pope Hildebrand began his encroachments on
the power of kings, there was great need that there
should be some one, who like him should proclaim
himself the assertor of justice, the reformer of
morals, and restorer of religion. That which other
proud bishops of Rome had before attempted in
vain, he and his successors easily accomplished ;
for the Church, which early Christian princes had
cherished and protected, was now treated as a cap
tive or a slave, pillaged and spoiled, or turned to
a means of provision for worthless favourites, who
wasted in thriftless luxury the portion given them
for the service of God.

After the death of Lanfranc, the see of Canter
bury was left to the disposal of William Rufus, who
kept it open for four years, while he plundered its
revenues. Other bishoprics, abbeys, and priories,
as they fell vacant, he took in the same way into
his own hands. How long this would have con
tinued rs uncertain, had not a fit of sickness alarmed
his conscience. ANSELM, abbot of Bee, happened
at this time to be in England, on a visit to a Nor
man baron. He was mentioned to Rufus as a fit
man for the primacy, acceptable to the clergy, to
whom he was known from his intimacy with Lan-

CH. XVI. J ANSELM. 299

franc, and one who had been in high esteem with
the king his father. Anselm was sent for; but un
dertook the office with great unwillingness, saying
to those who persuaded him to it, "It is like yoking
a poor old sheep to the same plough with a young
untamed bull." And so it proved. The king re>
covered, and became a sincere penitent in a wrong
sense ; he repented earnestly that he had given up
the archbishopric and other sees, and desired Anselm
to furnish him with a thousand pounds. Anselm
honestly refused ; and lost his favour for ever. He
was made to suffer as many grievances as could well
be inflicted, without direct violence to his person.
He was attacked with groundless lawsuits, his friends
were imprisoned or banished without the pretence
of justice; and at length he retired to France, whence
he proceeded shortly to Rome.

It is nothing surprising if such injustice made
Anselm more earnestly bent upon providing for the
Church that succour and means of defence, which
his Italian education had taught him to consider
as appointed for this end. This excellent man, for
such he was, became the means of gaining to the
popes the right of investiture, the ceremony of de
livering a ring and crosier, or pastoral staff, to a
bishop or mitred abbot, on his succeeding to his
preferment. The kings of the countries in Western
Europe had enjoyed this right, till Gregory VII., in
the first year of his popedom, had claimed it for the
see of St. Peter, and forbade sovereigns to exercise
it under pain of excommunication. But this decree
had no effect in England, till Anselm obtained the
right for pope Pascal II., after a long contest with
Henry I. It seems to us at this day astonishing
how the kings, whose power was in other respects
almost absolute, should have been obliged to yield
to a claim of this kind, which took out of their

3UO EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

hands in a great measure the power of giving awav
the preferment of the Church, or of keeping their
due influence over it. But tyranny is weak : their
own abuse of their power had prepared the way for
the loss of it. The cause of the Church's independ
ence was felt, as it will ever be in the like hazard,
to be the cause of righteousness and truth, and the
i'avour of the people attended it. As Anselm came
out from one of his interviews with Rufus, a com
mon soldier stepped forward from the ranks of the
king's guard : " Be comforted, good father," he said ;
" your children pray for you. Remember, while
you suffer these humiliations, how Job on the dung
hill gave Satan the foil, which Adam could not give
in paradise." When he went down to the coast, to
take his last journey to Rome in the reign of Henry,
he was attended by crowds, not only of clergymen,
but of the citizens of Canterbury and country-people,
who prayed for his success and safe return.

How could it be otherwise ? The whole coun
try, saving the portion of the Church, where that
was left unimpaired, had been portioned out to
no more than about seven hundred foreigners, too
powerful for subjects, and often raising conspiracies
and wars against their king, and who had no way
of securing their own safety from the provoked
commoners, but by going every where armed and
attended, executing military law on a country that
%vas at peace.1 The king, having little help from
them, and often not daring to enforce obedience on
such refractory spirits, sought to supply his extra
vagance or need by the spoil of the unresisting.

1 Godfrey, bishop of Coutances, one of the Conqueror's
chief counsellors, held more than two hundred and fifty manors,
principally in Somerset and Devon. Ivo Talbois, about one
hundred in Lincolnshire only. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and
the countess Judith his niece, William Peverel, William de
Warenne, and others, had equal or still larger grants.

CII. XVI.] IIEXRY I. AND ANSELM, 301

Even Henry I., though justly reported as one of
the mildest and most accomplished of the early
Norman kings, followed with the Church the plan
pursued by Rufus. His preferments were sold for
money : and the clergy were taxed, as by others of
his successors, to a large proportion of the yearly
amount of their livings. On his first coming to the
crown, he recalled Anselm from the banishment into
which he had been driven by his brother ; but the
proceedings of the archbishop in a council held at
London, A.D. 1103, where he deprived several abbots
rt'ho had bought their offices, gave him an alarm.
OP Anselm's refusing to consecrate a bishop whom
he had appointed, he first agreed that each should
appeal to the pope ; but when the sentence was
given against him, he directed his minister to tell
the archbishop, that he would not receive him again
into the kingdom without submission. Anselm was
then on his return from Rome, and on receiving this
message remained at Lyons ; while for a year and
four months Henry seized on the lands of Canter
bury, and converted all to his own use, in defiance
of his plighted word.

Before the Conquest, the bishops, after being
elected by the clergy, were approved by the Witen-
agemot, where the bishops, some of the abbots, earls,
and king's thanes, sat together. But in reality the
appointment belonged to the Church.2 At first, the
bishops of the province elected; after Dunstan's time,

2 King Wihtred of Kent, A.D. 604, gave this law for the
election of bishops : " When it happens that a bishop dies, let
it be made known to the archbishop, and let such a one as is
worthy be chosen with his advice and consent. And let the
archbishop make inquiry into his character ; and let no man be
chosen or consecrated to so holy an office but with the arch
bishop's advice. Kings ought to appoint earls and sheriffs and
dnornsmen (judges) ; and the archbishop ought to teach and
govern God's Church, and to choose and appoint bishops."

302 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the monks or clergy of the vacant cathedral often
claimed it. There are very few instances, and those
chiefly in the time of Edward the Confessor, when
their election was set aside. At the same time, the
wishes of a wise or powerful sovereign often influ
enced the election, but by no means controlled it;
for it was the common preamble to their laws, thai
the Church should be free.

William the Conqueror, notwithstanding the
wrongs done at the beginning of his reign to the
Saxon bishops, yet respected this liberty ; and after
he had gained the primacy for Lanfranc, was chiefly
guided by his counsel in all that concerned the
Church. On the other hand, Lanfranc was in no
haste to admit pope Hildebrand's claim to the inves
titure; so far from it, that he did not presume, with
out the consent of his master, to acknowledge him
for pope. In A.D. 1080, the German emperor Henry
IV., with a large party of his own bishops, having
set up an archbishop of Ravenna against Hilde-
brand, with the title of Clement III., cardinal Hugo,
one of the emperor's ministers, wrote to Lanfranc in
behalf of this anti-pope. His answer was wise and
cautious, and shews how far he was from wishing to
surrender the liberty of the English Church to Rome
while the rights of the Church were secured by tht
protection of the king :

" I have received your letter," he says, " and
read it ; but some part of it has not satisfied me. I
do not approve of your calling pope Gregory Hilde-
brand, or the abuse you give him, or your speaking
of his legates as little thorns in your side. You
sopak very much in praise of Clement, and in my
opinion too much ; for we are not to praise a man
without reserve till death has sealed his character,
and even then we know little, and cannot tell with
certainty what he is, or how he may appear in the

CH. XVI. J HENRY I. 303

sight of God. I believe, however, that the emperor
has not ventured on so bold a step without reason,
and has not prospered so far without great help
from God. I cannot advise you to come into Eng
land, unless you first receive the king of England's
leave. For our island has not yet refused the first-
elected pope, nor published any resolution whether
we are to obey the last. When the cause has been
heard on both sides, we shall be able to see more
clearly what ought to be done." William continued
to acknowledge Gregory.

Henry I., on coming to the throne, had issued a
charter promising full amendment of the grievances
inflicted by Rufus ; who left at his death the arch
bishopric of Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winches
ter and Salisbury, and eleven abbeys, all let to farm.
" I promise," the words of this charter run, " that
I will neither sell nor let to farm, nor on the death
of any archbishop, bishop, or abbot, take any fee
from the domain of his church, or from his tenants,
till his successor enters upon it. In reverence to
God, and out of the love I have to all my subjects,
I make God's holy Church free." After this pro
mise, besides treating the property of Canterbury
as has just been mentioned, in the following year
having gained possession of Normandy, and his fears
and respect for the English being removed, he gave
up the country almost to the license of military
plunder. " It is not easy to describe," says the old
English chronicler,3 " the misery which the land
was now suffering through various and manifold
unright. Fines and impositions never ceased ; and
wheresoever the king went, there was harrowing
without check allowed to all his servants upon the
wretched people : and with it often was joined burn-

3 Sax. Chron. A.D. 1104.

304 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

ing of houses and manslaughter. All was done Ihht
could provoke the anger of God and vex the miser
able nation." " You might see," says another who
lived at the time,4 " those who had nothing to give
to the exactors, driven out of their little homes ; or
their houses, the doors torn off the hinges and carried
away, offered to public pillage." This was done in
the land where the old Saxon law had made every
man's house his castle. As to the clergy, " every
parish-church was put under a fine, and the parson
was to pay a ransom for his liberty." About two
hundred parish -priests, clothed in surplices and
barefoot, as if they had been doing penance or on a
pilgrimage, went in a body to wait at the king's pa
lace-door in London, and entreat his mercy; but with
no success. . Such was the scene in one year of the
reign of this most gentle of the Norman Conqueror's
sons; who yet is acknowledged to have maintained
much authority for the laws, and left behind him
the character of a king who protected the property
and lives of his subjects, and made misdoers afraid
of his vengeance.

There is one name in his reign deserving mention
in the Christian history of old England, and it is the
name of one to whom probably the king owed the
few redeeming qualities he seems to have possessed.
This was his queen MATILDA, the niece of Edgar
Atheling, and daughter of Malcolm king of Scot
land. His marriage with her at his accession to the
throne went far to reconcile the English to a sove
reign who thus restored what they thought " the
right royal race of England." She had been edu
cated in a nunnery; such religious houses being at
this period the only places of education, as well as
the best places of security, for the modest innocence

* Eadmer.

CH. XVI.]

QUEEN MATILDA,

305

of voung women of the highest rank. Many
wno had taken such refuge in the Conqueror's
reign were afterwards restored to their friends by
tne mediation of Lanfranc. When she became queen,
she did not forget the lessons of piety and mercy she
nad received there ; she was the advocate with her
r.usband for the oppressed, and she had a warm and
affectionate veneration for the character of Anselm.
She was frequently in correspondence with the aged
prelate both before and during this second banish
ment ; and at length she seems to have persuaded
Henry to restore a man whose presence was so ne
cessary to the prosperity of his government.

" I look for your return," she says in one of her

DD2

306 EARLY ENGLISH CHUKCH.

letters to him,6 " as a daughter for the return of her
father, as a handmaiden for her lord and master, as
a sheep for the shepherd's care. And I am encou
raged to expect it by the confidence I have in good
men's prayers, and the good will which, after close
examination, I am persuaded the king my husband
feels towards you. His mind is not so provoked
against you as some men think; and by God's good
will, with my suggestions, which shall not be want
ing, he will become more disposed to concord. He
now allows you to receive a portion of the income
of your estates; hereafter he will allow you a larger
portion, if you will make your request to him sea
sonably. And though in this he acts rather as one
who has the power in his hands than as an equitable
judge, yet I do beseech you, in the abundance of
your compassionate spirit, lay aside all rancour of
human bitterness, which is not natural to you, and
turn not from him the gentleness of love. Nay,
rather be a kind intercessor with God both for him
and me, and our little ones, and the prosperity of
our kingdom."

She had heard on another occasion, while Anselm
was in England, that he was injuring his health by
practising a kind of daily fast, having no regular
table served, and only taking food as his servants
chanced to bring it, when they thought he must be
almost famished : " I know," she says, " that many
examples in Scripture encourage you to practise
tasting; your constant reading of the Bible tells you
frequently, how Elijah was fed by the raven, Elisha
by the widow, and how Daniel was supported. No
doubt you have also read in your Gentile learning
of the frugal fare of Socrates, and Pythagoras, and
Antisthenes, and other philosophers, whom it is un-

* Among Anselm's epistles.

CH. XVI ] QL'KEN MATILDA. 307

necessary, and would take me too long, to mention.
Let me come, then, to the times of grace and the new
law. Christ Jesus, who consecrated the practice of
fasting, consecrated the use of eating also, by going
to the marriage-feast, where he turned water into
wine; by going to the feast at Simon's house, where
he fed with spiritual food the woman whom he had
delivered from seven devils; and not refusing to dine
with Zaccheus, whom he called from the power of
the service of this world to a heavenly service. Re
member the advice of St. Paul to Timothy, ' Drink
no longer water;' he bids him to leave off his fasting
diet; and whereas he had drank nothing but water
before, he now tells his best-beloved disciple, ' Use a
little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy often infir
mities.' Follow the example of good pope Gregory,
who relieved fair.tness and weakness of stomach by
taking comforting food and wine, that he might
manfully quit himself as a preacher of God's word.
Do what he did, as you hope to come to His pre-
oence before whom he now stands, to Christ Jesus,
the fountain of life and rock oi' salvation. Pray for
me, holy father, as for a handmaid of yours, who
Joves you with all the affection of her heart : and as
this letter is not the 3.~pr£jsion of a pretended kind
ness, but is sent in a spMt of faithful and firm cha
rity, vouchsafe to receive it, to read it, to hear my
petition, and comply with my request."

It is impossible to read such a letter, and not to
feel that the spirit of Christian kindness is the same
in all ages. No doubt this excellent woman, whose
education seems to have been something more learned
than one would perhaps expect in the dark ages, was
not without a kindly influence in the court in which
she presided, and her example tended to preserve
religion in honour. She died before her husband;
having been the founder of a bouse for Augustin

30S EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Canons, a new religious order which then was lately
'.ome into England, and a hospital for poor incur
ables, both near London. Anselm was dead many
fears before. The king, who was a man of profli
gate private life, again kept the see of Canterbury
void for five years, and then appointed a poor infirm
monk of Caen to it, who resided chiefly in a sick-
chamber, admitted no Englishman to his presence,
and gave all his preferments to Normans. This old
monk, Ralph of Seez in Normandy, was succeeded
by William of Corboil, a French priest, born near
Paris, who was the instrument by whom the popes
gained a more lasting dominion over the independ
ence of the English Church.

It is right to make a strong distinction between
such men as Anselm, and those less praiseworthy
prelates, who were led by worse motives to exalt the
power of the popes. Anselm desired only the Church's
liberty. He was born in a country where all gave
the bishop of Rome primacy and honour, and he
thought the same was his clue in England. But he
did not mean to grant him more than this. " The
Church is yours," he said to king Rufus, " to defend
and guard it as a patron : it is not yours to invade
its rights and lay it waste. It is the property of God,
that his musters may live of it, not that your armies
and wars should be supported from it." And again,
in a letter to Baldwin, second king of Jerusalem,
which kingdom had been founded by the crusaders
while Anselm was primate: "It is of the greatest
importance," he says to him, " how, in this revival of
the Church of Palestine, you provide for its establish
ment; for such as you make it, it is likely to remain
to future generations. Think not, then, as many
bad princes do, that the Church of God is given to
serve you as a vassal serves his lord ; but that it is
intrusted to you as a patron and defender. There

CH. XVI.] WILLIAM OF CORBOIL. 309

is nothing in this world more dear to God than the
liberty of his Church. They who desire not so much
to advance her cause as to exercise dominion over
her, without doubt are striving against God. Our
Lord would have his bride a free woman, not a
bondmaid. They who pay her the honour due to a
mother are indeed her children and God's children.
They who tyrannise over her, as subdued to them,
make themselves not sons but strangers, and will
therefore be justly disinherited from her promised
inheritance and portion."

William of Corboil had been prior of St. Osith's
in Essex, a new religious house of Augustin Canons,
who being an order of priests, and not monks, his
appointment was unpopular with the monks, thej
having supplied the see of Canterbury and most
other sees with bishops ever since the time of Dun-
stan. To fortify himself against their dislike, the
year after he came to the primate's office he procured
a bull from Rome appointing him pope's legate in
ordinary ; which was as much as to acknowledge
that all the power or authority he was to exercise
must come from the pope's commission. Up to this
time the pope had no jurisdiction in England. An-
M 1m had acknowledged him as the head bishop in
the Christian Church, and in virtue of this eminence
wished him to have the investiture of the archbi
shops, but not to interfere with elections of prelates,
or to give laws to the Church of England. The
Church was under a head of its own, governed by
the king in temporal matters, and by the archbishop
of Canterbury in spiritual. William of Corboil made
the primacy of England consist in acting as the pope's
deputy. This will be seen from a copy of the bull
(which follows) from pope Honorius II. It may serve
as a common specimen of these singular epistles.

" Honorius the bishop, servant of the servants

310 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

of God, to my beloved brethren the bishops, abbots,
barons, and all other clergymen and laymen in Eng
land and Scotland, health and the apostolic benedic
tion. The holy Church, the bride of Christ, rooted
on the foundation of the Apostles' faith, as a devoted
and kind mother, is accustomed to minister to her
mild arid humble children far and near the food of
life. Those that are near are visited by our per
sonal presence ; those who are distant by the ministry
of our legates. Since, therefore, we know that you
will be as the dutiful and loving sons of St. Peter,
we have entrusted to our very dear brother, William
archbishop of Canterbury, the office of our vicar in
England and Scotland ; that, appointed there by us
the legate of the apostolic see, relying on the help of
your charity, he may amend what needs amendment,
and confirm what needs confirmation, to the honour
of God and the holy Roman Church, and the health
of your souls. Wherefore we command and instruct
your whole body, that you, one and all, shew him
humble obedience as our legate, and unanimously
meet at his bidding, and hold councils with him for
the welfare of the Church and advancement of the
Christian religion. Given at our Lateran Palace,
Jan. 25, 1125."

The French archbishop, who thus betrayed the
liberty of the English Church, soon found reason to
repent of his folly. In the same year the same pope
sent his cardinal, John of Crema, an Italian priest,
as legate extraordinary into England. The cardinal
called a council to meet in London ; where, as the
legate extraordinary ranked above the legate in ordi
nary, the Italian priest sat on a higher seat than the
archbishop, that all might see how low the humility
of the poor primate had brought him. A few years
afterwards, A.D. 1131, another pope, Innocent II.,
took away the legate's office from him altogether, to

CH. XVI.] POPERY ESTABLISHED. 3)1

give it to a warlike young bishop of royal blood,
Henry of Blois, a grandson of the Conqueror and
brother of king Stephen, whom Henry I. had just
appointed to the see of Winchester. And though the
next archbishop, Theobald, abbot of Bee, recovered
it for his primacy, it was with much difficulty, and
not without paying an enormous sum of money, that
the following archbishops gained the privilege of
being considered the pope's legates in virtue of their
office. But this did not prevent the Roman pontiffs
from sending their legates extraordinary from time
to time into the country, who when they came super
seded the archbishops, and held councils, passed laws
for the Church, and extorted enormous taxes from
the clergy in later times for the needs of their foreign
master. Thus was the independence of the English
Church lost by the folly of one French priest ; and
it cost a struggle of full four hundred years, till in
the Reformation its freedom was restored.

It may perhaps be thought that at this time the
whole Church and nation were in such haste to esta
blish popery, that they were all ready and glad to
take this leap in the dark. Far from it. The writers
of the time never speak of William of Corboil with
out expressing contempt for his meanness ; and his
name became a standing jest in merry old England.
" He ought not to be called William of Curboil,"
says John Bromton, abbot of Jorval, " but William
of Turmoil." " Truly I would speak his praises, if
I could," says Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon-
" but they are beyond expression, for no man has yet
discovered them."

The popes, however, did not immediately think of
making the archbishops. In the troubles of Stephen's
reign the Norman bishops elected Theobald, a man
of some ability and prudence. He took no part un
becoming a Christian bishop in that time of public

Zi'2 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

confusion; but while Henry of Blois, Roger bishop
of Salisbury, and other of king Henry's bishops, were
holding camps or castles, and busy in state-intrigues,
he endeavoured to be quiet and do his own business,
encouraging the native talent of Englishmen; and at
length, after a long and miserable civil strife, he was
the means of making peace between Stephen and the
young prince Henry, who shortly succeeded as Henry
II. to the crown.

Stephen himself was a singular character among
usurpers ; mild, and good natured, and easy, without
one kingly virtue, it seems to have been a strange
freak of ambition which tempted him to seize upon
the crown. It is among the other bad merits of Wil
liam of Corboil, that he was the person who placed
it on his head, and thus gave him all the authority
which that sacred ceremony could confer. But the
barons, who had sworn to be his subjects, sought only
liberty for their own oppressions. Every noble be
came the tyrant on his own domain, ruled in it as if
he had been the king, and with greater ferocity, as
his needs and danger were the more pressing and
constant. No fewer than twelve hundred castles
were built and fortified during these nineteen years;
" and when the castles were made," says the old
chronicler,6 " they filled them with devils and evil
men. They took those whom they supposed to have
any goods, both by night and by day, labouring men
and women, and threw them into prison for their
gold and silver; and never were any martyrs so tor
tured as they were. Some they hanged up by the
feet, and smoked them with foul smoke ; and some
by the thumbs or by the head, and hung coats of
mail for weights on their feet. They tied knotted
strings about their heads, and twisted them, till the
pain went to the brains. They put them into dun-
6 Sax. Chr.n. A.D. 1137.

CH. XVI.J THURSTAN. 313

geons wherein were adders, snakes, and toads ; and
so destroyed them." These and other horrid cruel
ties he describes ; and the destruction of life which
ensued by war, by torture, and by famine. " Never,"
he says, " did the heathen Danes do worse than they
did ; for after a time they spared neither church nor
churchyard, but took all the goods that were therein,
and then burnt church and all together. They spared
neither bishop's land, nor abbot's, nor priest's, but
plundered both monks and clerks. Every man robbed
his neighbour who could. To till the land was to
plough the sea : the earth bare no corn ; for the land
was all laid waste by such deeds; and men said openly,
that Christ slept, and his saints, or such wickedness
could not go unpunished."

In this reign of confusion and blood, there is yet
one name which cannot be remembered by English
men without respect, — the name of THURSTAN, arch
bishop of York. He had the same notions as Anselm
had held about the right of investiture ; and having
been elected by the clergy, as it appears by the wish
of king Henry, whose chaplain he was, he went abroad
a few years after, to be invested by pope Calixtus,
who in A.D. 1119 was holding a council or synod at
Rheims. This act gave great offence to Henry, who
banished him for a year or more ; but he was after
wards restored, and gained from the pope the privi
lege that his see should be independent of and equal
to that of Canterbury. This was one of many points
of contention in those times, and changes were often
made. The Irish archbishops were made by pope
Eugene III., A.D. 1152; the bishops having before
been sent over toLanfranc and Anselm from Ireland
for consecration. The Welch, whose Church was
now almost united with the English, wanted the pope
i to allow the archbishopric of St. David's to remain :

but Bernard, chaplain to Adelais, the second queen
E £

314 JIARLT ENGLISH CHURCH.

of Henry I., having gained possession of that see,
submitted to the see of Canterbury, and thus its in
dependence came to an end, about A.D. 1115. York
was sometimes subject to Canterbury, and sometimes
independent, the popes favouring either, as they liked
them best: Canterbury, however, at length prevailed.
These contests of Norman pride helped on the pope's
usurpations. Thurstan himself was a compound of
the Norman baron with the Christian bishop ; and his
character may serve as a specimen of many of the
great churchmen of his days ; but there were in him
great and good qualities mixed with the darkness and
the superstition of his time. When he was fixed in
his exalted station, he was remarkable for the strict
ness of his life and the firm uprightness of his con
duct. His mode of living was frugal, and yet as
generous as became a bishop, who ought to be given
to hospitality.7 He was abundant in alms-deeds,
and instant in prayer. In the celebration of the holy
communion he was often moved to tears. He pro
moted men of good life and learning; was gentle to
the obedient, and unbending, though without harsh
ness, to the opponents of good discipline. He was
as severe to himself as to others; and was remarked
for the severity of his penances, going on fast-days
attired in sackcloth, and, what now was a common
practice, afflicting his body with the scourge.

He had attained an advanced age, when, in the
third year of Stephen's reign, A.D. 1 138, David, king
of Scotland, having declared in favour of his niece,
the empress Matilda, collected his forces, and made
a dreadful inroad into the northern counties, turning
his pretext of opposing a usurper into a plea for plun
dering and massacring the inhabitants of the country
at peace with him. There was neither council nor
conduct among the barons of the north : some whc
7 1 Tim. iii. 2.

CH. XVI.] BATTLE OF THE STANDARD. 315

dwelt nearest to the border had joined the invading
army, that they might partake the spoils, when Thur-
stan invited the rest to a conference for the defence
of the country. He represented to them the disgrace
that was brought upon the realm of the Norman con
querors, if they, who had overcome a people often
victorious over the Scots, were now to quail before
such less worthy antagonists ; he shewed them that
the nature of the inroad made it no longer a question
whether the Scots came as allies of the empress or
enemies of England ; and that whoever might be the
rightful sovereign, it was their duty to protect the
soil and the people against such wanton injury and
destruction. The barons, Walter 1'Espec of Cleve
land, Roger Mowbray, William Percy, and other
large landed proprietors in Yorkshire, assembled an
army, with which they encamped at Northallerton.
To impress on the people the conviction that they
•vere to fight, not for a doubtful title, but for the
:ause of religion, their churches and their homes,
there was no royal banner carried to the field ; but
a tall ship-mast, erected on a waggon, bore a sa
cred ensign, such as was used in the processions of
the Church, representing our Saviour on the cross,
pierced with his five wounds. Round this the Nor
man barons, with their retainers, vowed to stand or
fall. Ralph, bishop of Orkney, a suffragan of Thur-
stan, who was too infirm to come in person, mounted
the waggon, and animated the soldiers to fight with
the confidence that it was a holy war. The Scots,
after a stubborn conflict, were completely routed, and
fled in disorder: thus an end was put to the most
successful attempt they ever made on the borders,
and one which, but for Thurstan's devout energy,
would in all probability have given them possession
of the whole country north of the II umber.

Within two years after the battle of the standard,

316 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the aged Thurstan felt his vital vigour decay, and
prepared for a more solemn hour of conflict.8 He set
his house in order ; and assembling the priests of the
cathedral of York in his own chapel, made his last
confession before them ; and lying with bared body
on the ground before the altar of St. Andrew, re
ceived from some of their hands the discipline of
the scourge, with tears bursting from his contrite
heart. And remembering a vow made in his youth
at Clugny, the famous monastery in Burgundy al
ready mentioned, he went to Pontefract, to a newly
founded house of Cluniac monks, followed by an
honourable procession of the priests of the church
of York, and a great number of laymen. There, on
the festival of the conversion of St. Paul, he took
the habit of a monk in the regular way, received
the abbot's blessing, and for the remainder of his
life gave himself entirely to the care of the salva
tion of his soul. On the 6th of February, A.D. 1 140,
twenty-six years and six months after his accession
to the archbishopric, the canons of the church of
York and other religious persons standing round, the
hour of his departure being at hand, he celebrated
the vigils in commemoration of the dead in Christ,
read the lesson himself,9 and with a clear voice, paus
ing and sometimes groaning in spirit, chanted the
solemn verses of the hymn Dies irce:

Day of wrath ! the dreadful day
Shall the banner'd cross display,
Earth in ashes melt away !

Who can paint the agony,
When His coming shall be nigh,
Who shall ill things judge and try ?

8 John of Hexham, — in TwysJen's Collection, p. 267.

9 Probably the tenth chapter of the book of Job. The
hymn which follows is given in the faithful and striking trans
lation of the Rev. Isaac Williams, of Trinity College, Oxford.

CH. XVI.] DEATH OF THURSTAN.

When the trumpet's thrilling tone,
Through the tombs of ages gone,
Summons all before the throne ?

Death and time shall stand aghast,
And creation at the blast
Rise to answer for the past :

Then the volume shall be spread,
And the writing shall be read,
Which shall judge the quick and dead.

Then the Judge shall sit ; oh, then
All that's hid shall be made plain,
Unrequited nought remain.

Woe is me ! what shall I plead ?

Who for me shall intercede,

When the righteous scarce is freed i

King of dreadful majesty,
Saving souls in mercy free,
Fount of pity, save thou me !

Weary, seeking me, wast thou,
And for me in death didst bow,—
Let thy pain avail me now 1

Thou didst set the adultress free. —
Heardst the thief upon the tree, —
Hope vouchsafing e'en to me.

Nought of thee my prayers can claim,
Save in thy free mercy's name ;
Save me from the undying flame !

With thy sheep my place assign,
Separate from the accursed line ;
Set me on thy right with thine !

When the lost, to silence driven,
To devouring flames are given,
Call me with the blrtst to heaven !

Suppliant, lo ! to earth I bend,
My bruised heart to ashes rend ;
Care thou, Lord, for my last end !
E E2

218 EAULV EXGMSH CHURCH.

At the close of this solemn service of humiliation
hfi sank to the earth, and while the monks gathered
round and prayed for him, breathed his last. The
account presents in some respects a painful contrast
to the calm piety of Bede's last moments ; but it is
an affecting picture of the power of a strong faith
triumphing amidst the growing superstition of the
time. The beautiful Cistercian abbey of Fountains
was founded by the charity of this remarkable Chris
tian bishop. He was also founder of the see of Car*
lisle, A.D. 1133.

CHAPTER XVII.

NORMAN MONASTERIES, AND NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Prayer was in a barren land, and without food. Our King, whose
Bature is goodness, moved by Prayer's tears, exclaimed, " Whom shall
we send?" Then said Charity, " Here am I, Lord; send me."

ST. BERNARD, Parable t/ftiie Holy fFar,

ERY great and remarkable alterations
in the monasteries were consequent on
the changes made by the Normans in
the English Church. The reader, who
has seen in the last two chapters how
the frame of societ}r was broken up, and the pro
tection of law taken away from the great bulk of
the nation, will be at 110 loss to conceive why there
should at such a time have arisen a strong and widely
extended desire, in the minds of peaceable and de
vout persons, to increase the number of houses con
secrated to religion, and places where life and pro
perty might still in some measure be secure. But
this was not only the case in England ; the same
causes were at work far and wide among foreign
nations; and as there was no other way by which a
man could in those days serve God without distrac
tion, or a woman live a virtuous single life, it is no
wonder that the number of persons who entered into
religious orders was greatly multiplied. At the same
time, there were also less praiseworthy motives at
work. The kings and nobles thought it a part of

320 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

their dignity to found places where they might have
a stately tomb and a religious remembrance after
death, and where priests might be engaged in a con
tinual service of dirges and prayers, according to the
superstitious practice of the time, for their departed
spirits. Many of the Norman barons, whose lives
were none of the best, found it a cheap way of satis
fying their consciences, even if they gave away a
few of their best manors, out of the enormous num
ber which they possessed, for the support of a family
of monks or nuns. With darker and sterner moods
these superstitions feelings took a deeper hue. When
king Knute founded his monastery at Essendon, or
William the Conqueror his Battle Abbey, was it done,
as now sometimes we hear of Te Deum being sung
after a victory gained in an ill cause, or with some
thought of offering an expiation for the slaughter
they had made ? Was it the pride of conquest, or
remorse ? Remorse seems to have guided other
bleed-stained mm, like Ott'a of Mercia, or the vile
and cruel king John, when he founded ihe stateiv
abbey of Beaulieu in Hampshire. Sometimes, too,
these foundations arose in the mistaken piety and
kindness of a survivor towards a parent or near rela
tive, for whose condition after death his doubtful
life made his heir to be concerned : as Shakspeare
represents to us Henry V. endowing charities for a
memorial of Richard II., whom his father had put
f.o death :

Five hundred poor I have in daily pay,
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood : and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Still sing for Richard's soul.

However much of this there may have been, still the
darkest day is not all dark. There were many bright
of sunshine amidst the prevailing clouds; «tnj

CH. XVII.] RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 321

gentleness, goodness, and faith, even among those
who made up what the scurrilous John.Foxe calls
" the rabblement of religious orders."

Of these orders we must now give a short ac
count; and the more, as it must be remembered
that as they were in the first century after the Nor
man conquest, such they continued, with little other
change than what arose from their decline in public
°steem, to the reign of Henry VIII., their great de
stroyer.

I. THE BENEDICTINES, the first distinct order,
which arose in the western part of Christendon, now
received their last reform from the statutes of arch
bishop Lanfranc, who was, as well as Anselm, a
member of this order. His statutes were given at a
council in London, A.D. 1075 ; and must be here
briefly noticed. It has been before mentioned that
the founder of this sect of monks was Benedict of
Nursia in Italy, who flourished about A.D. 530. His
rule by degrees became so general in the western
Church, that in all the dominions of Charlemagne,
when that monarch made inquiry, there was no
other to be found. In England we know nothing
with certainty of its introduction before the time
of Dunstan; and the account we have of the earlier
Saxon monasteries makes it appear that they were
not so much on the Benedictine as on some more
primitive plan.1 The principal defects in this rule
have been mentioned where we spoke of Dunstau ;
and these defects were never corrected. But it must
be confessed, that no sect which ever arose in the

1 The writer is aware that this is disputed by the learned
French Benedictines of St. Maur : but though it may be proved
that Bede and Aldhelm had heard of Benedict, and knew who
he was, the facts about these monasteries, collected from Saxon
authorities, in former chapters, shew that their regulations weie
different from the Benedictine rule. And this is the opinion
of the best English inquirers into antiquity.

322 EARLY KXGLISH CHURCH.

Church, before the Reformation or since, has done
so much for the promotion of good Christian learn
ing as the sect of the Benedictines. And so it con
tinued to the last, till it was almost destroyed in the
bloody French Revolution.

The fourth of the rules of St. Benedict was
entitled, " The means of doing good works." It
has been said that these rules are full of forms, con
taining little of the spirit of godliness. Yet it may
be questioned, whether it would be easy to find a
better summary of Christian duties in a short com
pass than this rule contains:

" In the first place, to love the Lord God with
the whole heart, whole soul, whole strength. Then
his neighbour as himself. Then not to kill. Then
not to commit adultery. Not to steal. Not to covet.
Not to bear false witness. To honour all men. And
what any one would not have done to him, let him
not do to another. To deny himself, that he may
follow Christ. To chasten the body. To renounce
luxuries. To love fasting. To relieve the poor.
To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury
the dead. To help in tribulation. To console tfie
afflicted. To disengage himself from worldly affairs.
To set the love of Christ before all other things.
Not to give way to anger. Not to bear any grudge.
Not to harbour deceit in the heart. Not to make
false peace. Not to forsake charity. Not to swear,
lest haply he perjure himself. To utter truth from
his heart and mouth. Not to return evil for evil.
Not to do injuries, and to bear them patiently. To
love his enemies. Not to curse again those who
curse him, but rather to bless them. To endure
persecutions for righteousness' sake. Not to be
proud. Not given to wine. Not gluttonous. Not
addicted to sleep. Not sluggish. Not given to
murmur. Not a slanderer. To commit hi

CH. XVII.] BENEDICTINES. 323

to God. When he sees any thing good in himself,
to attribute it to God, and not to himself. But let
him always know that which is evil in his own doing,
and impute it to himself. To fear the day of judg
ment. To dread hell. To desire eternal life with
all spiritual longing. To have the expectation of
death every day before his eyes. To watch over his
actions at all times. To know certainly that in all
places the eye of God is upon him. Those evil
thoughts which come into his heart, immediately to
dash to pieces on Christ, and to make them known
to his spiritual senior. To keep his lips from evil
and wicked discourse. Not to be fond of much
talking. Not to speak vain words, or such as pro
voke laughter. Not to love much or violent laughter.
To give willing attention to the sacred readings. To
pray frequently. Every day to confess his past sins
to God in prayer, with tears and groaning ; from
thenceforward to reform as to those sins. Not to
fulfil the desires of the flesh. To hate self-will. In
all tilings to obey the commands of the abbot, even
though he himself (which God forbid) live not up
to his own rule; remembering our Lord's command,
' What they say, do ; but what they do, do ye not.'
Not to desire to be called a saint before he is one,
but first to be one, that he may be truly called one.
Every day to fulfil the commands of God in action.
To love chastity. To hate nobody. To have no
jealousy ; to endulge no envy. Not to love con
tention. To avoid self-conceit. To reverence se
niors. To love juniors. To pray for enemies in the
love of Christ. After a disagreement, to be recon
ciled before the going down of the sun. And never
to despair of the mercy of God."

He who should examine himself by such a rule
as this, setting aside one or two points which are
peculiar to the inside of a monastery, would surely

EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

/earn something of a Christian temper ; he could not
use it long without becoming a better man, or learn
ing how to become so. Many others of the regu
lations are admirable for the purpose of uniting a
society of old and young : as the third, which directs
that, in important questions, all shall be called to
council, " for God often reveals to the youngest and
simplest minds what is best;" and the thirty-sixth
and thirty-seventh, which direct the treatment of
the old, and sick, and infirm. But instead of copy
ing these for the reader, it may be well to shew by
an example how they were acted upon in some of
the principal monasteries in England.

Ingulf, abbot of Croyland, tells us what his own
practice was. The old monks, who had borne the
burden and heat of the day, when they were past
the ability for active labour, were to have a good
chamber furnished them in that part of the monas
tery called the infirmary, and have a clerk or servant
specially appointed to wait upon them, who was to
receive his allowance of provisions, as was given to
the squire's servant when his master paid them a
visit, in the abbot's hall. The prior was to send to
the old man every day a young monk to be his com
panion, and to breakfast ai d dine with him. As for
the senior himself, he was to sit at home or walk out,
to go or come, according to his own will and pleasure.
He might visit the cloisters, the refectory or dining-
hall, the sleeping-room, and every other part of the
monastery, in his monk's dress or without it, just as
he pleased. Nothing unpleasant about the affairs of
the monastery was to be mentioned in his presence.
Every one was charged to avoid giving him offence :
and every thing was to be done for his comfort of
mind and body, that he might in the utmost peace
and quietness wait for his latter end. It would not
be easy to find a more ^leasing picture of the care

CH. XVII. J INSIDE OF A MONASTERY. ,S?5

that Christian love would direct " to rock the cradle
of declining age."2

The statutes of Lanfranc and Ingulf prescribed
the order of divine service to be observed in the
abbey-churches throughout the year; and we learn
from them what principal officers there were in every
large abbey. Next to the abbot came the prior,
who in the abbot's absence had the chief care of the
house ; and under him were often one or more sub-
priors. These were all removable at the will of the
abbot, as all the other officers were.

Another was the almoner, who had the oversight
of the alms of the house, which were every day dis
tributed at the gate to the poor ; and on the anniver
sary of the founder, or other benefactors to the mon
astery, took charge of the larger gifts or doles which
were then commonly given away in food or clothing.
He was also to make inquiry for and visit the pool
who needed relief at home.

Another was the sacrist, or churchwarden, who
took care of the holy vesseL for the communion,
which was usually celebrated every day ; prepared
the host, or communion-bread, with his own hands,
as it was kept distinct from ordinary bread ; pro
vided the wine, and water to mix with it ; kept the
altar-cloths neat and clean ; and furnished wax can
dles for the evening or early morning-service, when
they were required. It was his business to ring the
bell at service-time, and to see to the order of burial
for the dead ; for all which duties he was allowed the
help of others to assist him.

The chamberlain had the care of the dormitory,
provided beds and bedding for the monks, razors,
scissors, and towels, and the chief part of their
clothing and shoes. Their beds were commonly
stuffed with hay or straw. He was also to provide

2 Letters on the Dark Ages, no. xviii.
FF 8

t>26 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

iron tools for shoeing the horses of the abbot am<
prior, and all strangers who visited the abbey.

The cellarer, or house-steward, had to provide all
the meat and drink used in the monastery, whether
for the monks or strangers ; as flesh, fish, fowl, wine,
bread-corn, malt for their ale and beer, as well as
wood for firing, and all kitchen utensils.

There was also the hospitaler, or hosteler, who had
the special charge of the entertainment of guests,
shewing hospitality to all comers, and particularly
travellers, being a chief part of the duties of a mon
astery. He was to have beds, stools or seats, tables,
towels, napkins, basins, cups, plates, and spoons; and
servants to wait on him, and bring the food for the
guests from the cellarer's department.

There was the master of the infirmary, who with
his servants had the care of the sick and aged. And
for their especial comfort, he had often a separate
cook and kitchen, where the food was prepared most
suitably to their infirm condition.

The head-chanter, or precentor, had the chief
care of the service in the choir, presided over the
singing-men and organist and choristers, provided
books for them, and paid them their salaries. He
had also the charge of the abbey-seal, kept the chap
ter-book, or record of the proceedings of their public
business, and furnished parchment, pens and ink for
the writers, and colours for the painters or draughts
men, who adorned the old missals or prayer-books.

All the order of proceedings was to be under the
most exact discipline. The rules of St. Benedict
directed that six hours every day were to be given
to manual labour ; and for this purpose there were
little offices or shops in different parts of the monas
tery, where the monks employed themselves in their
different occupations. Some were the tailors and
shoemakers of the monastery ; some worked at jewel-

CH. XVII.] ABBEY-SCHOOLS. 327

lery, book-binding, carving or sculpture, or cabinet-
making; some were writing or painting. To see
that all at such times were on their duty, some were
chosen out of the number, persons of tried character
and prudence, who were called cursitors, or round-
goers, whose business it was to go round from time
to time separately to the workshops, and, without
speaking, to notice if any were absent, or standing
idle, or sitting to talk with their neighbours. When
they were in the church or choir at the night-service,
they were to go about in the middle of the psalms
and prayers, carrying a dark lantern ; and if they
found any one asleep, to make some little sound to
awake him, or if he slept too fast to be so awaked,
to open the dark lantern and turn the light full in
his face.

There was commonly a school kept near the great
abbeys, and at the expense of the monasteries. The
loss of these schools was one of the public evils felt
when Henry VIII. so rapaciously broke up these re
ligious houses. In the beginning of queen Elizabeth's
reign, A.D. 1562, the speaker of the house of com
mons, Williams, complained that more than a hun
dred flourishing schools had been destroyed, which
had been maintained by the monasteries, and that
ignorance had greatly increased from it. These
schools, however, do not seem to have done much
to advance the state of learning among the people.
The masters were not paid at such a rate as to invite
the best teachers. John Somerset, who was after
wards tutor and physician to king Henry VI., began
life as master of the grammar-school at Bury St.
Edmund's, A.D. 1418. The abbot of that rich mon
astery gave him a salary of forty shillings a year;
which, even according to the value of money at that
time, would not be more than about the salary of a
village schoolmaster now ; and this was to a man

EARI.Y ENGLISH CHURCH.

who taught arts and languages, and was one of the
most learned of his period. In earlier times the
schools were within the abbey ; and the children who
were admitted to them were taught by the monks,
under the inspection of the prior : but these were
chiefly intended for the little monks, or children
whom their parents, according to the permission of
this rule, which cannot be commended, dedicated in
infancy to monkhood, without any choice of their
own. The neighbours were, however, permitted in
most monasteries to send their children to these
schools, where they might, without expense, be
taught grammar and church-music : and no doubt
they thus served to keep up a certain degree of ne
cessary knowledge.

The churches of the old Benedictine monasteries
were remarkable in many places for their very great
beauty and magnificence. Whatever skill in build
ing the Saxons possessed, — and we have seen that
they had skill enough to erect arched roofs, and
ornamental windows, and pillars supporting towers,
— still it was far outdone by the Norman church
men, who began, very soon after they were possessed
of the English bishoprics and abbeys, every where to
pull down the old churches, and raise up new ones
on a scale of much greater magnificence. And, in
deed, the early Norman architects, whether church
men and monks, or professional builders, soon at
tained to an excellence and skill which now, at the
distance of five or six hundred years, we admire, but
cannot imitate. The best attempts at church-archi
tecture which are made now are but imperfect copies
from the models which they have left. Much ig
norance has prevailed upon this subject; and for a
long time these buildings were treated with a base
contempt, by persons who had no other notion of
architecture than to raise up ugly high brick walls

XVII.] BENEDICTINE CHTJBCHES. 329

w»ui holes through them for windows. But noxv
thAt this excellent art has been revived, Englishmen
Lave begun to feel a proper pride in these noble
monuments of the piety and large charity of their
forefathers. The old abbey-churches which are yet
left have been restored from the mutilation and
shameful disfigurements which they had suffered ;
and though more yet remains to be done, enough
is done already to remove what was a crying na
tional disgrace.3 Among the Benedictine churches
still remaining to this day, are to be reckoned, St.
Alban's, which, except the Saxon portions yet left,
was begun in the time of Lanfranc and William the
Conqueror, but has received some later alterations ;
Westminster Abbey, which, though handsomely built
by Edward the Confessor, was rebuilt in Henry III.'s
time, chiefly at that king's expense ; Selby Abbey,
founded by the Conqueror himself; Tewksbury, in
Gloucestershire ; Rumsey, in the New Forest, Hants,
the beautiful church of an old Benedict :ne nunnery,
founded by bishop Ethelwold, in king Edgar's reign ;
Peterborough, turned, happily, into a cathedral-
church at the Reformation ; Bath, Gloucester, and
Chester, preserved by the same means ; Shrewsbury,
Great Malvern, and Brecon. Among those of equal
magnificence shamefully destroyed, in many cases
to the great injury of religion, (for whatever became

8 Bishop Tanner, who wrote about one hundred years ago,
says of the old abbeys: " they were really noble buildings,
though not actually so grand and neat, yet perhaps as much
admired in their times as Che/sea and Greenwich hospitals art
now!" This amiable man was a lover of antiquity ; yet this
was all he ventured to say against the miserable notions of his
time. The great archbishop Fenelon, who lived in France at
the same period, compares a style of vicious ornament in speak
Ing to the style of one of the cathedrals built by our Norman
forefathers in Normandy ! ^ch was English and French taste
in the beginning of the last century.
F F 2

oSO EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

of the monks, the churches ought to have been
spared,") were Ramsey and Thorney, Hunts; Tavi-
stock, Devon: Colchester; Hyde Abbey, near Win
chester ; St. Augustine's, Canterbury, the abode of
the first English mission, now, all but the beautiful
gateway, utterly levelled to the ground ; Croyland
and Spalding, Lincolnshire ; Reading Abbey, the
foundation and burial-place of Henry I. ; Bury St.
Edmund's ; Glastonbury ; Malmsbury ; Evesham ;
Whitby; and St. Mary's, York; — not to mention
some hundreds of priories and lesser religious houses;
king Alfred's nunnery, founded for his daughter at
Shaftsbury ; king Edward the Elder's, at Wilton,
and many more : of all which, scarcely, in one or
two places, any trace is to be found.

The portion of the buildings next in beauty to
the churches was the chapter-house, or council-
chamber, where all rose at the coming of the abbot,
and received him with every mark of reverence.
The style of homage and respect paid by the mem
bers of these religious houses to their superiors was
in accordance with the homage paid by vassals to
their lord ; but when the power of the abbot seemed
to exceed the rules, it might be checked by the de
cision of the chapter. The practice of obedience is,
doubtless, one of the hardest things for human na
ture to learn ; and no institution provided for it so
well as the monasteries, if it could have been always
duly regulated and limited. But the abbots, like
the bishops, in Norman times often became great
barons, and took more than their share both of
the revenues and government. The style of these
beautiful buildings may be judged of from those
which still remain in the precincts of our cathedrals,
particularly at Salisbury.

Adjoining the church and chapter-house were
the cloisters; where the monks read, or walked and

CH. XVII.] AfiBfcY-LIBRARIES. 331

conversed, and where the children sometimes were
brought to say their lessons in summer-weather to
the prior. The refectory, or dining-hall, was often
a part of the building of great size and beauty ; but
of this few specimens yet remain. The dormitory,
where the monks slept in a common chamber, wa»
a large upper room, sometimes built over the clois
ters ; and in large monasteries there were sometimes
more than one. Old and young were to sleep in
the same apartment — and not the young alone —
that the presence of the aged might serve as a check
to indiscreet mirth. There were to be not fewer
than from ten to twenty in one chamber; and they
had a lamp burning.

In every great abbey there was a large room
called the scriptory, or writing-room ; where several
writers were employed in copying books for the use
of the library, or to supply religious persons who
sought some portion of Scripture or a devotional
treatise. They also frequently copied some parts
of thf writings of the fathers, or the Latin classics,
and made histories and chronicles. The abbots of
St. Alban's did good service in this way. The abbot
Paul built the scriptory in Lanfranc's time, which
had afterwards an estate settled separately upon it;
and John Whethamsted, an abbot, who built a new
library in Henry VI.'s reign, is said to have had
copies of eighty different works made while he was
abbot. The same was done at Glastonbury, at St.
Augustine's, Canterbury, at Bury St. Edmund's, and
other places ; for the larger monasteries were all
careful of their libraries.4

4 " Libraries were formed in all the monasteries, and
schools founded in them, for teaching the literature of the
times." — BP. PORTEUS, vol. ii. Serm. vii. It has been sug
gested to the writer, since the first edition of this work ap
peared, that this assertion wants confirmation. Perhaps it is

332 KARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

The rules of St. Benedict advise his monks to
have their abbeys situated near a running stream,
that they may have a mill on the premises. This
was generally observed. They were also to have a
garden, a bakehouse and brewhouse, that there might
be as little need as possible for sending abroad for
their supplies. And, for the same reason, they were
recommended to have all necessary arts practised
among themselves, that they might supply themselves
with clothing, and whatever else they wanted. As
the abbeys became more rich, these arts, however,
were not exercised so much by the monks as by tJsff
servants of the monastery. And it must be confessed
that learning did not advance among them in the
same proportion as manual labour decreased.

It was common for the early Norman kings to
come and keep Christmas, or other of the chief feasts
of the Church, in some of the principal monasteries,
as Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, Westminster, or
St. Alban's. This was the time when the abbot's
hospitality was most especially exerted, as the num
ber of retainers the kings brought with them was no
trifle. At St. Alban's, in Henry III.'s time, there
was stabling provided for three hundred horses.

The Benedictines, as they were the most ancient
and numerous, so they were much the richest order
of monks in England. The Saxon kings and nobles,
particularly in Dunstan's time, had given them large
manors and estates ; and the native English, as well
as the Normans, seem to have been chiefly attached

too general ; for the lesser monasteries, priories, and cells, were
usually without libraries : but when John Boston, the monk of
Bury St. Edmund's, travelled round to make his catalogue of
all the books in different abbeys, about A.D. 1400, he found more
than two hundred libraries containing books fit to be entered
in his catalogue, being various works of near seven hundred
authors, beside various copies of the Scriptures, and comments.

CH. XVII.] CLUNIACS. 333

to them. A great number of bishops were taken
before and after the Conquest from their monaste
ries : and the three archbishops who presided next
after the Conquest, and others in the following
reigns, were Benedictines. It was to this order,
also, that those who were called mitred abbots or
mitred priors belonged ; of whom twenty-nine had
commonly the dignity of peers in parliament, rank
ing, like bishops, as barons. But this was at a later
period, after the reign of Henry III. The first Nor
man kings did not govern by parliaments.

II. The next order in the rank of time was that
of the CLUNIACS. It was founded by Odo of Clugny
in Burgundy, as has been already mentioned,5 from
whose monastery it took its name. These monks
were, indeed, only a reformed order of Benedictines.
They lived under their rule, and wore the same dress,
a black frock or cassock, with a white tunic or wool
len shirt underneath, and a black hood or cowl to put
over the head. The nuns wore a dress of like colour.
Shortly after the Conquest, William, earl Warenne,
son-in-law to the Conqueror, and one of his richest
barons, brought these monks into England, and
built their first house at Lewes in Sussex, about
A.D. 1077- In the reign of Henry I. it was an order
in some esteem among the Normans ; and an at
tempt was made to turn some of the old Benedictine
abbeys into Ctuniac priories ; but it did not succeed.
The English monks were not favourable to this
order, which was rather a French than an English
one. Its houses were for the most part filled with
Norman or French monks ; and they were all subject
to the abbot of Clugny, who sometimes, when he
had interest enough with the pope, levied contri
butions upon the priories in England. This was not
done at first, however, but when the authority of the
* See p. 227.

334 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

pope was at its height. There was in Henry 1/9
time an eminently good and learned man at the
head of the order, Peter the Venerable, abbot of
Clugny, who in A.D. 1130 paid a visit to England
He had an honourable reception ; and by his advice,
an Englishman, called Robert of Ryton, who had
been on a crusade and taken prisoner by the Sara
cens, attempted to translate Mahomet's Koran, which
he had brought from the East, to give the Christians
in Europe a better knowledge of the religion of
that impostor. This was the first beginning of the
knowledge of the languages of the East. The prin
cipal Cluniac house in England, besides that at
Lewes, was afterwards the abbey of Bermondsey, in
Southwark. There were never more than twenty
of these houses in the country.

III. THE CISTERCIANS, also, like the Cluniacs,
a reformed order of Benedictines, were much more
numerous. They derived their name from Cisteaux
or Citeaux, a village in the same province where
Clugny is situated, between Dijon and Chalons.
Here an Englishman, Stephen Harding, who had
gone to try his religious fortunes abroad about the
beginning of Henry I.'s reign, had become abbot of
a little abbey. He was not the first founder of the
new sect ; but when Robert of Moleme, who had
attempted to keep together a society there, had left
it for want of encouragement, he persevered, and was
enabled at last to succeed. The Cluniacs had abated
something of the rigorous labour enjoined by Bene
dict, and professed to keep more to reading and im
provement of the mind. On the contrary, the Cis
tercians chose rather to increase the bodily labour;
M'hence the abbot Peter charged them with pre
ferring the part of Martha, cumbered witli much
serving, to the part of Mary, who sat at the feet of
Christ, and heard his word. Stephen Harding was

CH. XVII. 1 CISTERCIANS. 3-?A

growing old at the head of his small society, b;it
persevered in his discipline of silence, watching, and
fasting; till in A.D. 1113, he was rewarded by the
arrival of the famous ST. BERNARD, followed by
thirty companions, who came to enlist themselves as
monks of the Cistercian order. From that time it
began rapidly to flourish ; St. Bernard's excellent
talents and remarkable piety made him in his life
time the most influential person in Christendom.
William Giffard, bishop of Winchester, in A.D. 1128,
founded the first Cistercian abbey in England, at
WTaverley, in Surrey. The beautiful ruined abbey
of Tin tern on the Wye was founded three years after.
Then, in A.D. 1132, Walter 1'Espec, a baron in the
north, founded the still more beautiful abbey of Rie-
val ; Roger de Moubray, a few years later, was the
founder of Byland ; and Thurstan encouraged the
prior of the Benedictine0 at St. Mary's, York, to
found Fountains. The order reached its height of
power in A.D. 1145, when Eugene III., a Cistercian
and pupil of St. Bernard's, became pope. King Ste
phen had appointed his nephew William to succeed
Thurstan at York ; but the Yorkshire Cistercians
persuaded the chapter of the cathedral to elect for
archbishop Henry Murdoch, abbot of Fountains;
and by the help of pope Eugene they gained their
point. It continued in favour long afterwards, w hen
king Edward I., though he was jealous of the power
of other monasteries, founded the Cistercian abbey
of Vale Royal.

The Cistercians were called white monks, from
their dress, which was a white frock or cassock, over
which they wore a black cloak when they were
beyond the walls of the monastery. Their abbeys,
which have all been ruined, are still left in their ruins
in the lovely spots where they were first fixed by the
disciples of Bernard, out of the way of the common

336 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

haunts of men, in lonely mountain-valleys, when*
they taught the barren wilderness to smile. Bernard
himself was guided by his peculiar piety to make
choice of such places : " Believe me," he says to
Henry Murdoch, " you will find more lessons in the
woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach
you what you cannot learn from masters.0 Have you
forgotten how it is written, He made him to suck
honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock ?
(Deut. xxxii. 13.) You have need not so much of
reading, as of prayer: and thus may God open your
heart to understand his law and his commandments."
No doubt such was the feeling of many of our coun
trymen who dwelt at Tintern, or at Fountains and
Rieval. But here, as the ea*-ly Benedictines had re
claimed the marsh-lands, so the Cistercians reclaimed
the moors. No man who surveys the places which
they chose for their dwellings, but must wonder at
the patient industry and love of toil, amidst the
glories of nature, but without her wealth, by which
they raised those graceful churches to hymn the
praises of redemption in the desert ; and where the
wrathful Conqueror had left a waste without inha
bitant, covered the hills with sheep, and made the
valleys stand thick with corn; and planted orchards,
dug fishponds, and laid out gardens. They laboured,
and others have entered into their labours : it is well;
but let us confess that Bernard of Clairval had the
spirit of a saint, and the soul of a Christian patriot,
to guide his choice; for what modern sect has con
ferred such benefit upon their country as the labo
rious Bernardines ?

6 One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
the sages can.

WORDSWORTH

CISTERCIANS,

387

RIEVAL ABBEY.

There were about one Hundred houses of Cister
cian monks and nuns when Henry VIII. destroyed
them. Some of the most remarkable, besides those
founded by king John and Edward L, already men
tioned, were Furness in Lancashire, founded by king
Stephen; Lantony, Monmouthshire ; JorvalorJer-
vaux, and Kirkstall, Yorkshire ; Melrose, in Scot
land ; Vale Crusis, Denbighshire, and several others
in Wales ; and Woburn, Combermere and other
choice spots, where English noblemen have turned
the whole abode of monkhood to a scene of more en
lightened, if not more generous, hospitality of their
own. And no doubt a sense of the religion which
once hallowed those abodes has often taught their
new possessors to make them still a house of refuge
for the oppressed, and a seat of more discerning
charity.

Reader, if you are led to visit one of these spots,
revere the religion which chose such places of earthly

G G

338 EARLY ENGLISH CHTJRCH.

sojourn ; and believe that, however blemished by
mistaken vows, and disgraced sometimes by foul de
partures from the promise in which it began, yet
true piety and mercy raised those stones ; and while
you are thankful that such retreats are no longer
needed for those who would live to God apart, se
cured from wrong, grant that, if they were, no fitter
scene of retirement could be found !

IV. THE CARTHUSIANS were a sect who did
not aim to be numerous, but rather prided them
selves on being select and few. Bruno of Cologne, a
priest of the cathedral in that city, was their founder,
about A.D. 1084. Their discipline was strict and
severe ; and their dress coarse, and so contrived
a? almost to disfigure their persons. They had no
abbot, but were under a superior, who was called
the grand prior. Their laws professed to limit very
narrowly the quantity of land and the number of
flocks and herds they should possess. They had
but nine houses in England, the first being founded
at Witham, Somerset, A.D. 1181 ; and the most re
markable, that which is still called the Charterhouse,
London, now the excellent Thomas Sutton's school
and hospital ; and the priory of Shene in Surrey,
founded by king Henry V. This sect produced some
men of very strict and holy life, particularly Hugh,
bishop of Lincoln, whose name is in the calendar for
November the seventeenth. Even the wicked and
dissolute king John shewed respect to his remains;
when happening to be at Lincoln for a meeting with
the Scottish king, hearing that the bishop was about
to be carried to his grave, he took his place with king
Alexander among the pall-bearers

These were the only orders of monks, properly
so called, which were established in England ; if we
except a few houses of the monks of Grandmont,
and other French monks and nuns, which decayed

CH. XVII.J ATJGUSTIN CANONS. 339

before the Reformation. But there were also orders
of priests called REGULAR CANONS, or clergymen
living under a common rule, to which rule also cer
tain communities of females subjected themselves,
like the other orders of nuns.

I. AUGUSTIN CANONS. They took their name
from the great St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in
Africa, A.D. 395 ; but their order was not founded till
the time of pope Alexander II., 1061. They came
into England in the reign of Henry I., were very fa
vourably received, and soon rivalled the Benedictine
monks in public esteem. They had in all about one
hundred and seventy houses, dispersed in almost
every quarter of the kingdom : of which the largest
were at Plympton, Devon ; at Carlisle ; at Chick,
or St. Osith's, Essex ; at Leicester ; at St. Bartho
lomew's, London ; at Walsingham, Norfolk, where
they had a remarkable image and chapel of the
blessed Virgin, which drew the ignorant people to
make superstitious pilgrimages, and present costly
offerings, believing that some miraculous power re
sided there, shortly before the Reformation; atHagh-
mon Abbey, Shropshire; Cirencester ; at Oseney,
near Oxford ; Newstead Abbey, Notts ; at Bristol,
which is now the cathedral-church ; at Kenilworth,
Warwickshire ; and Gisborough, Bridlington, and
the beautiful Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire. They were
not all alike in dress, but were commonly called black
canons; wearing a long black cassock with a white
rochet over it, and over all a black cloak or hood.
The monks always shaved their chins ; but the ca
nons wore their beards, and caps or bonnets on their
heads instead of cowls.

II. PREMONSTRANTS, or white canons, who wore
a white cassock, and the rest of their dress white
instead of black. In other respects their rule was
the same. The chief of their houses, which were

340 EARLY ENGLISH CHTJHCH.

thirty-five in number, was Welbeck Abbey, Notts
Their name was derived from Premonstre, a town of
Picardy, in Prance, where the superior of this order
resided.

III. GILBERTINES. This was an order of canons
of English foundation, having been settled under a
rule of a Lincolnshire priest, called Gilbert of Sein-
pringham, A.D. 1148. The rule was made for both
men and women, out of the two rules'of St. Benedict
and the Augustin canons ; the women living chiefly
like the Cistercian nuns, and the men like the Au-
gustins. The order was acceptable to many poor
females in the miserable reign of Stephen ; and Gil
bert is said to have enlisted fifteen hundred of them
in the course of a few years. The peculiarity of his
plan was, that he built his convents for men and
women adjoining each ether, with separate apart
ments for each. It is said to have been much more
popular with the gentler sex than with the other.
There were twenty-five houses of Gidbertines, chiefly
in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, the principal being
at Sempringham, and Watton, in the East Riding,
which still in part remains. This last house bore no
very high character when it was first instituted ; and
the order itself seems to have been ill-contrived
though the founder, is said to have been an honest
simple-minded man. He died A.D. 1181, at the
extraordinary age of one hundred and six.

Lastly ; we must briefly mention the two MILI-
TAKY ORDERS which arose at this remarkable period
out of the crusades, and were a striking proof in
themselves, how completely the spirit of war had
seized upon the minds of men, since they could thus
turn war into a service of religion.

I. THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN, or Hospitalers,
had their name from a hospital built at Jerusalem
for the use of pilgrims coming to the Holy Land,

CH. XVII.] KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 341

and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Their busi
ness there was to entertain pilgrims at that hospital,
and to defend them from the Saracens as they went
and returned. Godfrey of Bouillon, and Baldwin, the
two first kings of Jerusalem, favoured these knights,
finding them serviceable in their wars with the Ma
hometans. They soon spread into societies about
Europe ; and after a hundred and fifty years from
their first beginning are said to have possessed nine
teen thousand manors in different parts of Christen
dom. It was not long after their first appearance,
when they came over into England, and had a house
built for them in London. This stood near Smith-
field Bar, where the ancient gateway may still be
seen ; and it became one of the richest houses be
longing to any religious order in England. Their
superior was held of such dignity, that he sat as the
first baron of the lay barons in parliament. Their
dress, over their armour, was a black cloak with a
white cross upon the fore-part of it.

II. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS were instituted
A.D. 1118, about thirty years later than the Hospi
talers, and were named from their having apartments
first given them by king Baldwin near the sup
posed site of the Jewish temple, in his own palace
erected there. The rule of both these orders was
like that of the Augustin canons; but the Templars
wore a white cloak, instead of a black one, with a red
cross on their left shoulder. They came into Eng
land early in king Stephen's reign, and first gained
possession of a house in Holborn, but afterwards re
moved to the place now called from them the Tem
ple ; where they have left a beautiful church, and
some of their tombs may yet be seen in it. This was
their chief possession and head-quarters in England;
but they had other houses in towns and in the
country. Their houses were called preceptories, as

G G 2

342 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the Knights Hospitalers' were called commantfr.es
Their superior was called the master of the Temple,
as the chief of the Hospitalers was called the grand
prior of St. John.

The Templars were the only religious order
which was not allowed to remain here till the Re
formation. They lasted only about two hundred
years; when in A.D. 1312, king Edward II. received
a bull from pope Clement V. for their suppression,
and directing him to give their estates to the order
of Hospitalers. He refused to execute the last part
of the pope's instructions for about a twelvemonth;
but this poor prodigal king was not able to keep the
property in his own hands. He was in the midst of
trouble with his own barons, and wanted the pope's
friendship, that he might have his name to use
against them. He was therefore obliged to make
over the estates to the grand prior ; and thus that
order continued to hold them till the time of Henry
VIII., when the whole number'of their commandries
amounted to eight and twenty. The history of these
two orders belongs to the history of the crusades.

There were, besides all these abbeys and religious
houses, a great number of ALIEN PRIORIES, founded
on the plan which Edward the Confessor had begun,
in subjection to foreign abbeys. The Norman kings
or barons, who had a kind of family-interest in some
of the Norman abbeys, gave lands to them in Eng
land ; on which the Norman monks built priories,
or cells, which was the name given to the smallest
kind of religious house. These alien priories were
all broken up before the Reformation. When our
kings lost Normandy, there was no prudence in let
ting abbots, who were become subject to France,
keep hold of English lands or manors. Edward III.
seized on them, before he made war upon France ;
and in the second year of Henry V., an act of par-

CH. XVII.] RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. 343

liament was passed, which put an end to them, A.D.
1414.

Such is a short account of the religious societies
that sprang up as thickly in these warlike and trou
bled times, as ever did the new sects of Protestants
in the civil wars of king Charles I. and the Covenan
ters. Such changes are the fruit of troubled times
and evil days. In part they repair the evil ; but
they bring their own evil with them.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BF.rKET AND HENRY II. STEPHEN LANGTON AND KING
JOHN. THE CLERGY FORBIDDEN TO MARRY. MARR1BU
BISHOPS AND PRIESTS AFTERWARDS.

I pray you,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.

SHAKSPEARE.

HE plan of this little work will not allow
room for any long account of a per
son who is commonly brought in to fill
many pages in the history of the reign
of king Henry II., the eminentTnoM AS
BECKET, archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 1162-70.
This unfortunate prelate has not been treated with
much tenderness by modern historians who have un
dertaken to write accounts of this period of English
history. " His whole conduct," we are told, " was
odious and contemptible, and his industry directed
to the pursuit of objects pernicious to mankind."1
There is, indeed, little satisfaction to be derived
from a view of the conduct of either party in the
dispute ; but something of respect is due to one
who chose rather to sacrifice his life than abandon
the principles for which he had long contended
under a conviction of their truth. And a judg
ment of the cause, for which he was cruelly mur-
1 David Hume.

CH. xviir.] CHURCH'S ANCIENT FRKEDOM. 345

dered, will best be formed from a short statement
of the facts.

It has been seen that the Saxon kings governed
England with the help and advice of their Witen-
agemot, or council of wise men, an assembly which
answered very much to our present houses of par
liament. It was an assembly which met once a year
or oftener, wherever the kings kept their Christ
mas, Easter, or Whitsuntide. Bishops, and earls, and
abbots, and thanes, who had property of a certain
value, were all entitled to a seat in it. It was the
chief court of justice, as well as the public council
of the nation; and the kings could do nothing of im
portance — nay, they could not dispose of their own
estates by will, without the consent of this council.2
When the seven kingdoms were united by Egbert
(for there was no independent kingdom except in
such provinces as were held by the Danes, after his
times), this king, with his son Ethelwolf, gave a
charter, signed by his earls and thanes met in Witen-
agemot at Wilton, A.D. 838, in which he confirmed
to archbishop Ceolnoth the liberty and property
of the churches and monasteries in Kent, with the
right of electing bishops and abbots, on condition
that they should accept him and his successors as
their patrons and protectors, as the kings of Kent
had been before.

When William the Conqueror came to be king
of England, he did not like these frequent parlia
ments ; and, first of all, he took away from them all
their authority as a court of justice, by setting up
the court called the Kings Hall, which consisted of
the great men who attended at his palace, as the lord
high constable, the lord mareschal, the lord high ste
ward, the high chamberlain, the lord chancellor, who

a King Alfred's WilL

346 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

kept the king's seal and examined all his letters and
grants which were to pass under his name, the lord
treasurer, who was his chief adviser about taxes,
and a few of the chief barons, whom the king might
choose to summon. These were assisted by some
persons learned in the laws, who were commonly
Norman clergymen. They were called the king's
justices ; the chief of them, who had great power in
the state, being distinguished by the title of chief
justice. This king's hall, which afterwards was fixed
at Westminster, be<iame the final court of appeal in
all causes; and the old shire-moots, or county-courts,
of the Saxons, had very little power left.

In the next place, William the Conqueror de
stroyed the freedom of the Saxon parliament, by
making it no longer a matter of right for those who
had a seat in it, but summoning only such barons as
he pleased ; and, instead of allowing them to meet
once or oftener every year, he assembled them only
as it suited his own pleasure. Thus, instead of a
free government, the persons who composed the
council of state, and those who had the administer
ing of the laws, were to be appointed, controlled,
and removed, according to the absolute will of the
sovereign.

There was only one of the institutions of the
country which the Conqueror left free from these
encroachments. This was the Church, which was
still to be governed by its own laws, as it had bee;
in Saxon times; but in order to prevent bishops
from interfering at the county-courts, where in
Saxon times they used to sit with the sheriff, they
were now bidden to try all causes, in which they
er their archdeacons were concerned, in courts of
their own, according to the canons and laws by
which bishops were guided. This separation, which
was intended to diminish the power of the Church,

CH. XVIII.] HISE OF BECKET. 34"

in fact increased it. The punishments inflicted in
the Norman courts of justice were not much differ
ent from those sometimes inflicted in the Saxon
times, but they were cruelly multiplied for the most
petty offences. Maiming of hand or foot, putting
out the eyes, branding, and the like, were most
common. In Saxon times, every man might follow
his game, or invite his friend to do it, on his own
estate. But William made it a high privilege, granted
to very few; and turned large tracts of country
into forests, driving out the "inhabitants, that he
might preserve beasts of chase for his own sport.
Under his forest-laws, if a man slew hart or hind,
hare or partridge, he was to lose his eyesight. Loss
of life, which under the Saxon laws was of rare oc
currence, was now so common, that we read of forty
or fifty suffering at one assize. This cruelty alone
led persons to seek admission into some of the lower
orders of the priesthood, that they might be rather
punished by hard penances, than be tried and sen
tenced without a jury ; for this institution, founded
by Alfred, if not earlier, was also taken away for a
full century after the Conquest. And the bishops
and^higher clergy naturally were disposed to extend
the jurisdiction of their own courts; while the kings,
becoming jealous of their power, sought to deprive
them of it.

Thus matters stood, when Henry II. raised
Becket, an Englishman born in London of parents
who were of the higher class of citizens, to the pri
macy. He had been his chancellor, and, as a mem
ber of the king's hall or high court of justice, had
shared his counsels ; he had also been his companion
in more private hours, and was his intimate friend.
There can be no doubt, that, by raising him to the
highest place in the Church, the king expected to
find in him a man altogether fitted to aid his own

348 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

intentions of changing the laws under which f.l:«e
Church was governed. But Becket, immediately on
becoming archbishop, gave up his chancellor's office,
changed his dress and habit from that of a lawyer's
robes to a prelate's mitre and cope ; wore sackcloth
next to his body; and soon made it appear that his
mind was equally changed. He refused to appoint
a friend of the king's to be archdeacon of Canter
bury ; and he declined giving his pastoral blessing
to a bad man, named Clarembald, who had been
made abbot of St. Augustine's.

Other quarrels arose between Becket and some
of the barons of Kent, one of whom he excommu
nicated. This gave the king great offence ; for he
thought his authority dishonoured, when his knights,
who held their lands by his grant, were excommu
nicated without his leave. And the use of excom
munication for slight occasions, private quarrels and
the like, was one of the bad practices of the Church
in these troubled times.

But now came the great contest. Henry called
together a council of the realm,— it is incorrect to
call this a parliament, as many writers do, — con
sisting of the two archbishops, twelve of the bishops,
and forty-three lay barons, at Clarendon near Salis
bury, on the 25th of January, A.D. 1164. Here
he laid before them some laws, which he called the
customs of England, for bringing all the Church-
laws under the control of the king's hall, subjecting
the courts of the archbishop and other bishops to
an appeal to the king's chief justice ; in other words,
to make the whole government of the Church depend
upon what the king, with his council of state, should
appoint for its laws. We must not judge of this
dispute by the state of government and law as it is
now, or as it has been for some time past; but must
ask how things were in Becket's time. On the one

CH. XVIII.] COUNCIL OF CLARENDON. 34.1.

side, the number of persons exempted from the juris
diction of the king's courts had increased in such a
way as to create a public inconvenience : for under
the name of clergy were included not only priests
and deacons, but sub-deacons, acolytes, and others
who filled offices like those of beadles and sextons
in our time ; and not only these, but the officers
and domestic servants of bishops, abbots, and other
dignified ecclesiastics. Many of these had nothing
clerical about them but the name ; and some, to eke
out a maintenance, appear to have exercised need
ful arts, to have kept shops and even taverns. The
king's party complained that these persons presumed
on their immunity from the common law, that many
disorders were committed by them, and even homi
cides were not unfrequent ; which might be true in
an age when almost all went armed, and if a fray
ensued, blood would often follow.

The occasion which was taken for this motion
of the king's was an offence of still deeper dye. A
wicked priest in the diocese of Salisbury, where this
council was held, had committed murder. For this
crime he had been sentenced by a Church-court to
perpetual penance and imprisonment in a monastery;
a kind of punishment not unlike that inflicted on cul-
prib in penitentiaries : it was very lately practised in
Spanish monasteries ; and was often so severe, con
sisting of hard fare, solitude, and silence, that many
have thought it worse than death. But the king
demanded that such offenders, whether clergy or
laymen, should be tried in his courts, and, if guilty,
suffer the highest penalty of the law. The punish
ment he required was according to the law of God ;
out it was not, as he represented it, according to
the customs of England; for the old English laws
imposed this perpetual penance, sometimes adding
HH

350 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

banishment, but they left the culprit in the power
of the Church.4

O._ the other hand, these constitutions of Cla
rendon went to establish the great grievance, under
which the Church had suffered in the time of llufus
and Henry I., that when bishopric, abbey, or priory
should be vacant, it should be placed in the king's
hands, and he should receive the revenues, as if
it had been part of his own domain ; that the per
sons should be elected by him in council, by what
ever councillors he should be pleased to call. To
Cuiisent to such a law was plainly to deliver up tne
Church, her goods, chattels, and estates, to the will
of a despot, who might pillage it and deprive it of its
ministers and pastors without check or control. In
fact, Henry II., — who has been called " the greatest
prince of his time for wisdom, virtue, and abilities ;
whose character, in public as well as in private life,
is almost without a blemish ; who possessed every
accomplishment both of body and mind, which
makes a man either estimable or amiable,"5 — besides
a few instances of shorter duration, held the see of
Lincoln alone in his own hands for seventeen years,
while his base-born son received the income.

Becket signed these acts of the council of Cla
rendon, but revoked his assent to them, and ap
pealed to the pope, who refused to confirm them.
The king, not daring, as it seems, to impeach him
for disobedience to laws so enacted, took another
way to drive him to submission. He accused him
for not appearing in person, but sending a deputy
to appear for him, to a summons he had received ;
and the council at Northampton sentenced all his
goods to be confiscated. This was in October fol-

4 Laws of Alfred, Ethelred, and Henry I.
* Hume, Hist, of Engl. chap. ix.

CH. XVIII. J BECKET BANISHED. 351

lowing. He was also accused of some breach of
trust in his chancellorship three or four years be
fore ; but this charge it is scarcely possible for any
one to suppose to have been more than a pretence.
He behaved at this council with great courage and
firmness, having almost all the bishops and barons,
by fear or favour, or honestly thinking it the best
course, united against him ; and then seeing there
was no safety for his property or personal liberty, he
secretly withdrew to France.

With what fortitude he endured a banishment of
six years in that country, persevering in the strong
resolve of a mind made up to abide the worst, sted-
fast in the midst of the greatest dangers, with the
pope and king of France now favouring him and
now deserting his cause, it would take too long a
space to relate. One or two facts, commonly omitted
by the modern historians, respecting the much-praised
sovereign who drove him to seek that place of refuge,
it may be well to mention.

King Henry II., provoked at the good reception
given to Becket by the king of France, banished and
seized on all the goods of every person who was in
any way related to the exiled archbishop, sparing
neither old nor young, women nor children. They
flocked to him in great numbers at Pontigny in
France, where he was residing, and their destitute
appearance increased his distress. He sent them
about, however, to different friends, with letters of
recommendation, and they were well relieved at
monasteries, or by charitable persons in France. So
that this expedient did not injure Becket so much
as it increased the indignation felt against the king.

Next to this, hearing a report that Gilbert of
Sempringham and his canons had been sending
money abroad to Becket, he obliged him, with all
the superiors and treasurers of his convents, to come

3o2 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

before his high court of justice. The judges, re
specting the age and piety of Gilbert, offered to
dismiss him, if he would take an oath that lie had
not done what was laid to his charge. It does not
appear that any other kipd of trial was thought
of; evidence before a jury was out of the question.
The aged man, who was now beyond his eightieth
year, replied that he would rather go into banish
ment than take such an oath. The Gilbertines were
kept in prison, and on the last day of term were
expecting sentence of exile and confiscation, when
a messenger arrived from the king 'who was then in
Normandy, directing the business to be put off till
he could return and take more ample cognisance of
it. The religious were at this message set free ; and
Gilbert, on regaining his liberty, declared at once
before the judges that the charge was altogether
false ; " but," said he, " I would not clear myself as
from a crime, from the charge of having helped a
prelate suffering for the Church."

The Cistercians had almost as narrow an escape.
Henry threatened to seize on all their monasteries,
because Becket was harboured at a house belonging
to their order at Pontigny ; but the banished man,
when he heard of it, removed to Sens, where he was
protected by the king of France.

On the other hand, Becket himself was not a
pattern of Christian meekness. He did not bear his
banishment with the gentle spirit of Anselm. He
continued to write threatening letters to the bishops
and barons of the king's party, and he excommuni
cated his chief councillors. It is plain, that if the
public feeling had not been in his favour, these sen
tences of excommunication would have done but
l:ttle harm ; they would have had little or no effect,
like those which the popes sent out afterwards against
good bishop Grostete and his friends. But Becket

CH. XVIII. J RETURN OF BECKET. 353

had been grievously wronged ; and the people, who
• groaned under the same tyranny, looked upon him
as the champion of religion and liberty. When he
parted from the meeting of the council of Northamp
ton, they crowded around him in such throngs, that
it was with difficulty he could find his way out of the
multitude, who on their knees besought his blessing.
And when at length he returned, only thirty days
before his murder, Nov. 30, A.D. 1170, on which day
he landed at Sandwich, the poor of the place flocked
to his landing, having seen out at sea the archbishop's
silver cross on board the vessel, and cried aloud,
— "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the
Lord, the father of orphans, the judge of the widow's
cause !"6

King Henry II., who, with his officers, had held
all the property of the see for the last six years,
though he had made peace with Becket in July, had
seized on all his rents due at Martinmas, and had
made such clean work on his estates, that he found
little but empty houses and ruined farms. Oppres
sion has driven many a wise man mad. Can it be a

6 11

' " The impious application of Scripture must have been
suggested by the priests, when these simple people spread their
garments in the way, and sang, Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord." — SOUTHEY, Book of the Church,
chap. viii. The spreading of these garments in the way is
mentioned only in the manuscript Life of Becket by his chap
lain, Herbert of Bosham : the historians of the time do not
mention it ; and it seems to be an exaggeration. As to the
words, they were commonly used in the middle ages as words of
welcome to religious persons. Thus when the French king St.
Louis, in A D. 1249, took Damietta from the Saracens, the poor
Christian slaves and captives flocked from their places of retreat,
and met him with shouts, as he entered the city in procession,'
" Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And
this use of them seems to be approved by an excellent writer of
the reformed Church of England. See Dr. Edward Hyde's
Christ and his Church, 1658, p. 221.
H H 2

354 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

matter of wonder, that a man, whose offence at first
was no more than that he had sought to maintain the
liberties of the Church as they were fixed by the
laws, should have had his spirit embittered by such
manifold oppressions ? He was not, indeed, a man
of gentle temper, but rash and vehement. And now
he fell, not as a martyr should, but refusing to re
lease from excommunication three prelates who were
his brethren in office, though they were the king's
friends ; and one of whom, Gilbert Foliot, bishop of
London, was a wise and moderate man, who acted
in honest prudence, thinking that, in a choice of
evils, the best course for the Church was for a time
to suffer and be silent.

It is well known that he was murdered by four
knights or barons of king Henry's court; who, hear
ing their master, in one of his fits of distempered
passion, — in which his friend Peter of Blois says
he behaved more like a wild beast than a man, —
complain that no one would avenge him against one
turbulent priest, took an oath either to compel Bec-
ket to withdraw his excommunications, or to carry
him out of the kingdom ; or at his refusal to do
either, to kill him. They found him altogether in
tractable, and hewed him down with their swords in
the cathedral. He fell on the altar-steps, having
knelt in the posture of prayer; and his last words
were, " To God, to the holy Virgin, to the saints
the patrons of this church, to the martyr St. Denis,
I commit myself and the Church's cause." 7

There is no need to believe that the king author
ised this murder. On the contrary, he is said to have

" Surely in these solemn words, however mixed with the
superstition of the day, there is something more becoming the
immortal hopes of man, than in the last scene of David Hume,
the most bitter assailant of his memory, who died talking with
the pagan mockery of an old blasphemer of the cross, of his
last voyage in Charon's barge !

CH. XVIII.] DEATH OF SECRET. 355

been anxious to prevent it, and submitted to the most
humbling penance at Becket's tomb, to manifest his
sorrow for the angry speech which had prompted
the four knights to undertake it. These miserable
men retired first to Yorkshire, to the house of a
baron, who was their friend ; but finding themselves
avoided by every one, and that none would eat or
drink under the same roof, they took a voyage to
Rome, whence, by the pope's order, they went on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, spent the remainder of their
lives in a penitential discipline, and were buried near
a door of the Templars' church there, with an in
scription over their tomb : " Here lie the wretched
men who martyred St. Thomas, archbishop of Can
terbury."

It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant

To break within the bloody house of life ;

And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law ; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns

More upon humour than advis'd respect.

Becket was a man whose -mind was cultivated
with ancient and modern learning ; and while he
was allowed a life of peace, he lived much in the
society of scholars. He was above some of the fool
ish superstitions which were now prevailing in many
of the monasteries, and were generally mixed up with
the religion of the time. A Cistercian abbot, dining
at his table, having taken up a good part of the con
versation with stories of the miracles of Robert oi
Moleme, one of the founders of his sect, Becket lis
tened patiently for a while, but then broke off the
subject, by turning to him with some indignation
and contempt, and exclaiming, " So these are yout
miracles !"

What is more remarkable is, that neither Becket,
nor STEPHEN LANGTON, who, in king John's time-

356 EAIILY ENGLISH CHURCH.

played as distinguished a part, did much to inornate
the dominion of the pope in England, however they
were placed in opposition to their sovereigns. It was
one who is generally passed over by our historians
— the French priest, William of Corboil, as before
mentioned — who brought the yoke upon the neck
of the English Church. This is the very essence of
popery, to give the pope the authority of universal
bishop, and to act only as his deputy. Other errors,
and superstitions, and bad practices, may be reme
died ; but if there is only one authority in the Church,
from which all reformation must come, we are with
out resource until the pope is pleased to grant it.
Stephen Langton is a remarkable person in Church-
history, as having made the convenient division of
the Bible into chapters, as we still keep it. He was
a diligent preacher and commentator on Scripture.
It is well known that king John and the monks of
Canterbury being at variance about the election of
an archbishop, pope Innocent III. took the matter
into his own hands, and sent over Stephen Langton,
A.D. 1206. He was, however, one who preferred
the liberty of his Church and country to the interests
of either pope or king ; and he took a leading part
in the efforts made by the bai-ons to procure a better
government in the struggle in which Magna Charta
was obtained. Pope Innocent did himself no honour
in that struggle ; for, after having humbled king
John to his heart's content, he took his part against
the barons, absolved him from fulfilling the terms to
which he had given his promise, and told Langton
to excommunicate the champions of liberty. But he
chose rather to abide the pope's ban with them.

What was much less to his praise, he took a lead
ing part also in the law first attempted to be forced
upon all clergymen by pope Gregory VII., to bind
them to a single life. Anselm had tried to make

CH. XX'tll.] STEPHEN LAiVGTON. 857

the English Church receive this law ; and it is much
to be lamented that so good a man should have been
so misled. William of Corboil made a great stir
about it in A.D. 1129; and wished to make all the
archdeacons and priests put away their wives in the
foggy month of November, when their company to
make a home cheerful was particularly desired. It
all came to nothing, for Henry I. only made the poor
clergy compound and keep their wives. But Stephen
Langton, A.D. 1225, put out a fierce decree, that
married priests should do penance, as if they had
committed adultery ; and as to their wives, they were
to be excommunicated, or worse, if they did not. re
pent and live separate. From this time, for about
three hundred years, till the Reformation began, the
bishops who were themselves married, or who per
mitted the clergy to marry, were obliged by the
abominable popish law to do it secretly ; and as
their wives were not publicly allowed, the pope's
lawyers called them their mistresses, and caused their
children to be reputed bastards. It v/as this vile
law which made the martyr Laurence Saunders, at
the time of the Reformation, say with indignation,
" What man, fearing God, would not lose this pre
sent life, rather than, by prolonging it, not avouch
his children to be legitimate, and his marriage law
ful and holy ?" We are not obliged to believe the
foul stories which are raked together by some writers
on this subject ; for there is no reason to suppose
that it was often worse than this. The poor priests
were married secretly, and kept their wives under
another name. The bishops gave them private license
to do it, and tolerated them in it. And it was no
unusual thing for the bishops of the Norman-English
Church to be married men before Langton's time.
Sampson of Bayon, bishop of Worcester, where he
succeeded Wulfstan, A.D. 1096, was the father of

3.58 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Thomas, archbishop of York, the second of that
name, who was raised to the see A.D. 1 109. Richard
Peckett, bishop of Coventry A.D. 1161, was the son
of Robert Peckett, a married bishop of the same see.
Reginald Fitz-Joceline, archbishop of Canterbury
A.D. 1191, was the son of Joceline bishop of Salis
bury. Geoffrey Rydal, A.D. 1174, who built a ca
thedral at Ely, sent this excuse to the pope for not
going to Rome to be instituted to his bishopric, that
" he had a gospel-dispensation for it ; he had married
a wife, and therefore he could not come." When
pope Innocent III., who took king John's crown from
him, had also, by Langton's means, caused the open
profession of marriage to be prohibited, there were
still bishops privately living with their wives. One
of these was Boniface, a Savoyard, and kinsman to
the queen of Henry III., who was made archbishop
of Canterbury A.D. 1244.

Many of the early popes were married men, or
sons of married bishops and priests. Pope Hor-
misdas was not only married, but left a son, Silve-
rius, who was also pope some time after him. Evea
after the time that pope Gregory VII. had forbidden
priests' marriages, pope Adrian IV., whose proper
name was Nicholas Breakspeare, an Englishman,
and the only Englishman who ever became pope,
was the son of a married priest who lived at Lang-
ley, near St. Alban's. He was raised to St. Peter's
chair A.D. 1154. More than a hundred years later,
A.D. 1265, pope Clement IV., a married priest, who
had a wife and children, after having become a
widower was made bishop, cardinal, and pope. And
no bad pope either. He had two daughters ; one
of whom choosing to be a nun, he gave her thirty
pounds only, that he might not do any thing to help
her to break her vow of poverty. The other he
married to an honest gentleman of a middle rank,

CH. XVIII.] CELIBACY O* THB CLERGY. 3n9

and gave her three hundred pounds, telling her it
was all she was to expect from him. He had also
a nephew, who, when he came to be pope, was hold
ing three pieces of preferment. " Choose which you
please," said the uncle ; " but you must keep one,
and give up two." Some of his friends remonstrated
against this strictness ; but Clement was firm. " It
is my business," he said, " not to seek to gratify my
natural inclination, but to behave as one put in trust
by God." It would have been well, says the honest
writer who tells this, if all the popes had followed his
example.

CHAPTER XIX.

POPERY AT ITS HEIGHT. PRIVILEGED MONASTERIES. BEG
GING FRIARS. CORRUPTIONS. PERSECUTIONS.

Here is my throne: bid kings come bow to it. .

SHAKSPEARE.

EADERS who have followed us thus far
will have seen that the first and great
cause of the success of the pope was
the ill government of the Norman kings,
who destroyed the old free parliament
of the Saxons, and, while they professed to keep the
ancient laws, took away the old courts in which jus
tice was administered, and made the last appeal to be
to judges who would lose their office if they once
resisted the pleasure of the sovereign. The same,
oppressions which drove the barons to make league
against king John, drove the Church, in earlier reigns,
*o form a closer union with the pope, against sove
reigns who broke their oath, and, regardless of human
law or divine right, used their power only to plunder
and destroy. The favour of the people attended
these struggles for liberty : and in these days the
only portion of society which preserved their pro
perty in peace were the members of those religious
iouses which charity had reared and placed under
the protection of the Church.

Still, however, the power of the pope would never
have been established, if the kings themselves had not
at last found it more for their own advantage to make

CH. XIX.] CAUSE OF POPERY. 361

agreement with the Roman pontiff than to continue
at variance with him. The Church of England had
now become, with the vast number of religious houses
founded since the Conquest, very rich; and there was
enough both for pope and king to turn to a means
of spoil. It was naturally the growth of those dis
ordered times. The great men, who had been guilty
of so many deeds of rapine and cruelty in the reign
of Rufus and of Stephen, were sometimes struck by
the remorse of conscience, and stood forth, like the
extortioner Zacchaeus, to give half of their goods to
the poor. A wise government, guided by free coun
cils, would have interfered sooner to put a check to
this, lest it should encourage too many to eat the
bread of idleness, living on the alms of the monas
teries, when they were able to profit the state by
honest industry. As it was, it went on without a
check from the reign of the Conqueror to that of
Edward I. — more than two hundred years ; till about
one-fifth of the land of the kingdom was in the pos
session of the monasteries.1 At this period, king
John having set the first example, the kings began to
make that sort of agreement with the pope, which
lasted about three hundred years longer, exercising
such rights as the pope allowed over the Church,
and dividing with him the taxes which were laid
on the Church's inheritance. The more able kings,
as Edward I. and Henry VII., kept the pope's share
low ; but in the time of weak kings, as Henry III.,
or those who had no good title, as Henry IV., the
abuses of this usurpation were multiplied. The sum

1 H. Wharton, Remarks on Burnet, p. 40. Bp. Burnet
says, " the best part of the soil of the kingdom was in such ill
hands." Pref. pt. ii. p. xii. If he means the best-cultivatea
part, this is true ; for the monks took much better care of their
lands than the Norman barons. If he means that they had
more than half the soil, it is one of the foolish tales which this
credulous writer was much too ready to believe,
i I

362 EARLY ENGLISH CHUBCH.

annually paid for Peter-pence had been restored by
William Rufus ; but nothing more was sent out of
the country till king John had opened the road to
all kinds of exaction.

The lesson to be learnt from this surrender of
the liberties of Church and State, is one which every
Englishman may read in the causes in which it be
gan. HAD THE SOVEREIGNS LEFT THE CHURCH
HER FREEDOM, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO PO
PERY. There can be no revival of popery in Eng
land while the Church is free : but if wicked go
vernors seize on the Church's goods, destroy her
bishoprics, or give them to false teachers and un
worthy men — attempt, as the apostate Julian did, to
deprive her of the power of educating her own child
ren, — and if the people love to have it so, — it can
only end in the exaltation of some power, which will
defile the altar and cast down the throne. Let the
Church be secured by the state in those rights which
the law of Christ has given her — let her be free, as
other institutions are free, enjoying her property
under the protection of equal laws, — and the state
and nation that so protect her, in her freedom will
secure their own.

There were many other causes which helped on
the encroachments of the pope, besides this chief and
greatest one. There were many ways in which his
authority was brought in, secretly at first and unsus-.
pected, till it was too late to apply a remedy. It was
begun and fostered within the Church itself by in
troducing the Dissenting Principle. The different
orders of monks, canons, and friars, were all, in fact,
so many sects, each collecting a body of partisans of
their own, and withdrawing themselves from the con
trol of the bishop. No doubt the bishops appointed
by the Norman kings were often of such a character,
that it was difficult for the monks to live at peace

CH. XIX.] PRIVILEGED MONASTERIES. 363

under them ; so that there were faults on both sides.
But the love of power on the part of the great ab
bots urged them on the more eagerly in that ruin
ous course, which was the occasion of their great
overthrow in Henry VIII.'s time. The first abbey
which was exempted from the jurisdiction of the
bishop was Battle Abbey, founded by the Conqueror,
and privileged in this extraordinary manner by his
charter. From this example others were led either
to purchase the same privilege at Rome, or, what
was in these bad times no uncommon thing, to forge
old charters, pretending to give their abbeys such
privileges at some period before the Conquest. Thus
the popes began to establish an interest for them
selves by a means which they have ever since em
ployed (through the begging friars, when the monks
were not obedient, and when the begging friars were
become unserviceable, by the Jesuits), by setting up
dissenting societies to oppose the rightful authority
of the bishops.

The first order which seems to have attempted to
gain this exemption was the order of Cluniac monks;
but before the time of Gregory VII. it was not so
easy to find bishops willing to allow it. At a coun
cil of French bishops held at Ause, near Lyons, A.D.
1025, it was resolved that the privilege granted to
the Cluniacs, taking them out of the jurisdiction of
their bishops, was not valid; for it was not according
to the old laws of the Church, and particularly it was
contrary to the fourth canon of the council of Chal-
cedon, one of the early councils whose authority is
acknowledged in every Christian Church.2 These
monks, however, did not lose sight of the advantage

* See Mr. Palmer's Ecclesiastical History, chap. vii. p. 70.
The canon runs thus : " It is decreed, that no man shall any
where build or establish a monastery or house of prayer with
out the consent of the bishop of the city or province ; and that

864 EARLY ENGLISH CHUBCH.

to be gained to their sect by it ; and when it was
once established, the abbot of Clugny became a
powerful head of a large body of dissenters in Christ
endom. Though their houses in England were fe\v,
tbrir property was large: they had the great tithes
of many livings settled upon them ; and being chiefly
foreigners, they had no interest in leaving a fair por
tion to the English parish-priest. The pope found
them very useful allies in England and other places.
The old Benedictine abbeys, founded by Dun
stan s friends, were induced often to seek this privi
lege, by the trouble which the Norman bishops gave
tiiem. As long as the bishops were monks of their
own order, the monks and they, in the cathedral
towns, agreed well enough ; but when they came to
be secular priests, or> canons, or of any other order,
they were often at variance : for the bishop in the
cathedral city, according to Dunstan's plan, was to
be abbot of his own monastery ; but when this could
no longer be, there was to be a division of the reve
nues ; and this occasioned disputes. There was sad
work at Canterbury in Richard I.'s time or just be
fore, when Baldwin, an Englishman, born at Exeter,
and of the Cistercian order, was made archbishop of
Canterbury. He tried in every way he could to de
stroy the exemption of the abbot and monks of St.
Augustine's, but the popes Urban III. and Clement
III. effectually prevented him. This prelate was in
great esteem with the clergy who were not monks;
and, as he afterwards accompanied Richard on his
crusade, was the means of doing some good in re
straining the disorders and relieving the wants of the
English soldiery. He is one of the first bishops

the monks in each city or province shall be subject to the
bishop, and love peace and quietness, and apply themselves to
fasting and prayer, in those places in which they have IB-
nounced the world." A.D. 451.

Ctt. XIX.] TESTIMONY OF ST. BERNARD. 365

after the Conquest who is mentioned as having been
a preacher ; the majority of them being still Nor
mans, who could not speak English, as William de
Longchamp, bishop of Ely, whom Richard left to
govern England in his absence.

It appears, indeed, that the Cistercians were an
order of a more English feeling, and more disposed
to respect the authorities of the Church. Their
great teacher, St. Bernard, in his lifetime, was very
Eealous to keep his monks in obedience to their bi
shops, and wrote very indignantly to some abbots
who had applied for exemptions and higher digni
ties. " What new presumption is this," he says, " to
withdraw from the obedience you have promised ?
Are you not still monks, though you are abbots ?
Though you are set over monks, this does not make
you cease to be monks yourselves. But you say,
We do not seek it for ourselves ; we only desire the
liberty of our church. O liberty, more slavish than
any slavery ! God preserve me from such a liberty,
which would make me only the miserable slave of
pride ! For I am well assured, that if ever I pretend
to shake off the yoke of my bishop, I shall put myself
under the yoke of Satan. If I had a hundred spi
ritual pastors, how should I fare the worse? Should 1
not be led the more securely in the green pastures,
and fed by the waters of comfort ? Amazing folly !
that a man should have no fear when he assembles
a great number of souls to guard them, and that
he should be offended at the thought of having one
guardian to watch over his own !" There cannot
be a more touching rebuke to the pride which lurks
at the bottom of the Dissenting Principle.

Meantime the remedy which these abbeys had
sought was soon proved to be worse than the griev
ance which occasioned it. The pope sent his le
gates and proctors into England, and those who

112

266 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

had received the most of his protection were to pay
the most dearly for it. The great abbots were to
go to Rome for investiture, and were not to go
empty-handed. The Benedictines, being the rich
est, were to be visited by persons deputed from
other orders ; and these, armed with their brief
authority, did nothing to favour those whom they
looked upon as rivals. Still, matters went on toler
ably till the begging friars arose ; and these light
artillery of the pope were shortly employed on all
his services.

The BEGGING FRIARS began in the days of
king John and pope Innocent III. Their two prin
cipal sects were the Dominicans, or Preaching Friars,
and the Franciscans, or Minorites. But there were
also two others, which had some favour in England
— the Carmelites and Austin Friars. Their pro
fession was to live on alms, to possess neither houses
nor lands, but to travel, and abide in any house to
which they were bidden, like the seventy disciples.
In fact, they never did possess large landed estates
in England, though they soon abated the rigour of
their rules as to holding houses. They were not
long without splendid houses in London, in Oxford,
Bristol, York, and other places in town and country.
The popes gave them the privilege of going where
they pleased, and preaching or administering the
sacraments to whom they pleased ; to hear con
fessions from any who chose to confess to them ;
and to hold schools and teach wherever they might
be able to assemble scholars. Thus they could come
into the domain of any monastery, or fix themselves
in any parish, without leave of bishop, abbot, or
priest. They were suddenly raised to the greatest
popular esteem ; so that, as a Benedictine monk3 of

8 Matt. Paris.

CH. XIX,] BEGGING FRIARS. 367

the time complains, the monasteries did not in three
or four hundred years obtain such a height of great
ness as the friars — minors and preachers — within
twenty-four years after they began to build their
first house in England. They were soon able to
raise costly edifices, and to spend immense treasures.
They were sent for to attend nobles and rich men
at the point of death, whom fear or an evil con
science prevented from sending for their parish-
priest, or ordinary religious adviser ; and thus, often
influencing the making of their wills, they took
care to recommend their own order to charitable
consideration. They were as well received by the
common people, to whom they preached, like White-
field, in the streets or fields; and in contempt of the
pomp and dignity of the altars in abbey-churches,
they carried about a small stone altar, which they
set up on a wooden table, and so administered the
communion. Such was the beginning of what is
now called the Voluntary Principle.

Francis of Assisi, an Italian, and Dominic Guz
man, a Spaniard, were the founders of the two prin
cipal orders of begging friars. They were both
famous preachers. Francis preached constantly on
Lord's days and festivals, in parish-churches where
they admitted him, or else in conventicles of his
disciples. His sermons are said to have been short
and impressive ; and he himself seems to have been
a man of simple mind and sincere piety. Dominic's
character as a preacher was to introduce pithy
stories, something in the way of Rowland Hill, but
with still less, probably, of gravity or reverence.
His disciples imitated his practice ; and if we may
trust the account of an Italian religious poet, who
lived in the same century with Dominic, their arti
fices by such means to catch the applause of their
hearers were paltry enough.

3G8 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Christ said not to the convent of his twelve,
" Go forth, and preach buffooneries to the world;"
But gave them truth to build on ; and the sound
Was mightier on their lips than shield or spear.
The preacher now provides himself with store
Of jests and gibes ; and if his hearers laugh,
His big cowl swells with pride, and all goes right.
But such a dark lird nestles in his hood,
That, could the vulgar see it where it sits,
They scarce would wait to hear the pardon said,
Which now the dotards hold in such o.teein.

This, which the poet mentions, was one chief
errand of the Preaching Friars, to sell the pope's
pardons, which were first given to those who chose
to pay a price to be quit of their vow to go on a
crusade. And where the friars established schools
or gave lectures, they aimed rather to teach the
canon law, set up by the popes against the common
law of the different countries in Christendom, than
to advance the knowledge of Scripture or any use
ful science. This the same poet justly complains
of:—

The accursed love of coin

Hath driven from the fold both sheep and lambs,
The shepherd turn'd into a wolf. For this,
The Gospel and great teachers laid aside,
The decretals,4 as their stuff'd margins shew,
Are the sole study : pope and cardinals,
All bent on these, think not of Nazareth,
Where Gabriel lighted down on golden wing.

What they did teach, however, in explanation
of the Scriptures was too often a corruption of the
truth, and beguiled men from the simplicity of faith
into disputes of words and strange or impious fancies.
Their chief doctors were called schoolmen. Of these
there were many eminent men ; particularly Thomas
of Aquino, a Dominican, and Bonaventura, a Fran-

4 The name of a portion of the canon law.

CH. XIX. J PREACHING OF THE FRIARS. 369

ciscan, who both lived about A.D. 1250. The first,
however, by his subtle refinements, much injured the
doctrine of grace ; the other was given to a super
stitious veneration, which now very widely prevailed,
of the blessed Virgin Mary.6 They reached their
highest degree of favour in England in the reign of
Edward I., when two Franciscan friars, Robert Kil-
warby and John Peckham, were each in turn arch
bishops of Canterbury, and this king's private con
fessor was Thomas Joyce, a Dominican, who, as
well as Kilwarby, was made a cardinal. The follow
ing may serve as a specimen of what he preached
before the king :

" The philosopher commends the wisdom of a
bird, which knowing itself weak and unable to defend
its young, lays them among the young of another
brood. So ought we to do. Our young are our
works. Since, therefore, we are weak in doing good
works — nay, most weak, for as the apostle says, ice
are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of
ourselves ; we cannot defend our works against our
enemies. Let us then place our good works among
the works of Christ ; that is, let us ascribe to him
whatever good there is in our works, as it is written
in Isaiah, Lord, thou hast wrought all our works
in us."

Such language proves that, though the doctrine

* There is a common story of these two doctors, that, as
they were once both entertained at the king of France's table,
Thomas sat studying some deep argument that was then in his
mind, and at last exclaimed, " I have it ; the Manichseans are
heretics, and clearly in the wrong." Bonaventura gazed reve
rentially at the countenance of the queen, till the king asked
him what his thoughts were. " O sire," he said, " if an
earthly queen is so beautiful, what must be the beauty of the
queen of heaven !'' If this is true, it shews who was the best
politician, and may account, in some degree, for the popularity
of the Franciscans with the ladies.

370 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

of grace was not yet denied, it was endangered and
disgraced by mean comparisons. It ought to be a
warning to us, how we listen to such preaching,
Avhich, professing to explain heavenly mysteries in
familiar language, in fact destroys their heavenly
nature, and puts only an unseemly fancy in their
place.

Yet, as it is the way of a gracious Providence to
bring good out of evil, the unprofitable or mischie
vous learning of these friars led the way to some
thing better. They set up schools at their convents
in Oxford and Cambridge, and, as they were really
zealous in teaching, and took a more popular way
of conveying instruction than had been known be
fore, their schools were the means of drawing many
students to the universities. It is surprising what a
great number of poor scholars there were in those
days, who flocked together from Ireland and Wales,
as well as from all parts of England. The English,
whose language had been almost banished by the
Normans from churches, courts of law, and schools,
now began to acquire more instruction ; and the
different classes of society were brought nearer
together by these teachers, who knew how to make
themselves acceptable to high and low. The Nor
mans began to learn English, and the Saxons to
mix up their old language with Norman-French
words ; and from this union our native speech has
gained something of the polish of old classical
phrase, without losing its German simplicity and
strength. John Peckham, already mentioned, when
raised to the primacy, A.D. 1279, became a very
praiseworthy reformer of church-discipline; and par
ticularly, finding a Norman bishop of Lichfield who
could not speak English, and would not reside on his
see, he obliged him to appoint a coadjutor-bishop,
to whom he was to pay a good salary for doing his

CH. XIX.] POPERT AT ITS HEIGHT. 371

duty. This is the last instance to be found of an
abuse, which was thus put down about two hundred
years after it began with the Conquest.

The Dominicans having touched the pride of the
monks, by expressing contempt for their neglect of
learning, this also led to good. They told the Be
nedictines, they were living the life of fat citizens
proud of their wealth, and too fond of good cheei.
As to the Cistercians, they were poor clowns and
farmers, living like country bumpkins rather than
learned clerks. The monks accused them in turn
of being intriguers, match-makers, proctors of the
pope's exactions, and flatterers of the rich for gain.
In both which charges there was some truth. But
the jealousy of the monks, and indeed the danger
which threatened them, led them also to found hails
or schools at the universities, and to send pupils to
study there from the monastery -schools. By de
grees, from this time, both learning and religion be
gan to flourish at Oxford and Cambridge. ROGER
BACON, a Franciscan friar, A.D. 1284, was the first
adventurer in experimental science; and WYCLIFFE
became the forerunner of the Reformation.

But when the abject wickedness of king John
had destroyed at once the liberty of his crown and
of the Church, misrule and errors of all kinds were,
multiplied. The pope had no need any longer to
observe moderation or discretion in his demands ;
and in the reign of Henry III., the two popes, Gre
gory IX. and Innocent IV., carried on a system of
levying contributions to an extent which seems al
most incredible. They sent over orders to the arch
bishops and bishops (Walter Gray, archbishop of
^Tork, was one of the most complying), to give their
best preferments to persons named by themselves.
Gregory is said in one letter to have demanded no
fewer than three hundred benefices: and the per-

372 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

sons sent to fill them were Italians or Romans. Hig
legate, Otho, had before demanded two prebends in
every cathedral, and two monks' portions in every
monastery, as an acknowledgment in place of all
fees at Rome. Then came a demand of the tenth
of the annual income of all benefices. Then, a few
years afterwards, no less than a fifth, to help this
pope in a war against the German emperor. Inno
cent IV. sent an order, that if any clergyman died
without making a will, the pope should have his pro
perty. And he is said to have occasioned so many
foreigners to be sent over into England, and ob
tained them such good preferment, that their yearly
receipts amounted to seventy thousand marks ; more
than the king then received from his own estates.
The cause that these popes succeeded so wonder
fully well was, that Henry III., a weak prince, cc-r>
sidered himself to be in danger from his barons, and
could see no safety but under the pope's shadow.
Wherefore he was always glad to have a legate re
siding in the country, and did every thing to sup
port him in his taxations ; though it was commonly
said that Otho carried off more bullion than he left
within the realm.

It may be asked, how the barons, bishops, and
clergymen themselves, behaved under all these griev
ances, when the king pillaged them by his minis
ters, and the pope by his legate, both without right
or law. There were many signs of the smothered
fire, before it broke out into the barons' war ; but
the change of an "unpopular minister from -time to
time, and the king's good-natured weakness, dis
armed the stubbornness of opposition. There was,
however, a secret society formed for the expulsion
of the foreign churchmen, A.D. 1231. This club
sent out a number of letters to different bishops,
abbots, and the clergy of the cathedrals, telling them

en. xix. 1 CLERGY'S REMONSTRANCE. 373

not to admit the Italians, and signing themselves,
" the company of those who had rather die than be
confounded by the Romans" The letters were sealed
with a seal bearing the device of two swords ; and
threatened vengeance if what they ordered was not
obeyed. ArmH bodies of men were sent to empty
the granaries c the Roman clergymen; it was done
in form and order; they sold to those who chose to
buy, and gave the rest to the poor. Walter de Can-
tilupe, a baron's son, and bishop of Worcester, ap
pears to have been a member of this society ; to
which also belonged several of the noblemen, gen
tlemen, sheriffs of counties, archdeacons, deans, and
other clergy. Robert Twing, a young military man,
was the chief leader in these disorders, which it
appears were connived at by the magistrates. The
king, finding that he was only the agent of others
whom he was afraid of, did not punish him ; but as
the pope had complained, told him to go to Rome to
clear himself. The barons sent after him a letter
of remonstrance to the pope; and the pope, finding
it best to be civil, wrote a complimentary answer,
and carried it no further.

There were other gentler spirits, who took an
other way to resist these corrupt encroachments.
It appears that the parish-priests in many parts of
the country met together, to protest against the
pope's proceedings; and there is good sense and
intelligence, together with good Christian feeling,
in the following declaration of the clergy of Berk
shire, A.D. 1240: —

" The rectors of churches in Bercshyre, all and
each, say thus : First, that it is not lawful to contri
bute money to support a war against the emperor ;
for though the pope has excommunicated him, he
has not been convicted or condemned as a heretic
by any sentence of the Church. And if he has seized

K K

374 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

or invaded the estates of the Church of Rome, still it
is not lawful for the Church to resist force by force,

" Secondly, that as the Roman Church has its
own estates, the management of which belongs to
the lord pope, so have other Churches theirs, granted
them by gift and allowance of pious kings, princes,
and noblemen ; which are in no respect liable to
pay tax or tribute to the Church of Rome.

" Thirdly, although the law says, All things be
long to the prince, this does not mean that they are
part of his property and domain, but are under his
care and charge : and in like manner the churches
belong to the lord pope as to care and charge, not
as to dominion and property. And when Christ said,
Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my
Church, he committed only the charge, and not the
property, to Peter ; as is plain from the following
words, Whatsoever thou shalt bind and loose upon
earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven: not, What
ever thou shalt exact on earth shall be exacted in
heaven.

" Fourthly, inasmuch as it is plain from the au
thority of the fathers, that the income of churches
is appointed for certain uses, as for the church, the
ministers, and the poor, it ought not to be turned to
other uses but by the authority of the whole Church.
Least of all ought the goods of the Church to be
taken to maintain war against Christians.

" Fifthly, that the king and nobles of England,
by inheritance and good custom, have the right of
patronage over the churches of England ; and the
rectors, holding livings under their patronage, can
not admit a custom hurtful to their property without
their leave.

" Sixthly, that churches were endowed that
rectors might afford hospitality to rich and poor
according to their means; and if the intention of

CH. XIX.] INTERDICTS. 375

patrons is thus frustrated, they will not in future
build or found churches, or be willing to give away
livings.

" Seventhly, that the pope promised when he
first asked for a contribution, never to repeat his
demand : and that as a repeated act makes a custom,
this second contribution will be drawn into an un
usual and slavish precedent."

These reasons and a few more, prove that there
was by no means a general consent on the part of
the Church of England to the tithing and tolling of
the pope ; on the contrary, that there were those
who would with prudence and firmness have sup
ported the liberty of the Church, had not the weak
ness of the king and his ministers, who were many
of them foreigners, betrayed them. Other proofs of
the same determination will be seen in one or two
eminent characters, whom we shall have occasion to
mention in the closing chapter. It is now the place
briefly to mention a few of the evils which were
thus fastened on the Church.

First, the practice of excommunication, or, as
our forefathers called it, in plain English, cursing,
whomsoever it pleased the pope to curse. Becket
was unjustifiable in' carrying this so far as he did;
but the popes now made it a kind of custom to lay
a whole realm under an interdict or curse, putting
a stop to all religious services, except baptising, or
burying the dead. Pope Innocent III. began this,
laying an interdict on the realm of England, A.D.
1208, in order to gain his point with king John.
The legate cardinal Gualo, A.D. 1218, did the same
to all Scotland. It was as bad for the clergy as for
the laymen at the time this curse was laid on ; be
sides that, while it lasted, the people paid them no
tithes or offerings, and they were never set free with
out a sum of money. The poor Scots came clovrn

37G EARLY KKQLISH CHURCH.

from the north, and had very little to give, while
they knelt, with bare head and foot and shanks, be
fore the legate's deputy, or pope's gentleman's gen
tleman, to receive absolution. And this tyrannous
custom became so common, that pope Clement IV.
and other popes, in granting a privilege to any fa
voured monastery, made it an article, that when
ever there should be a general interdict, they might
shut their church-doors, and *aking care to shut out
the excommunicated, and not ringing the ehurch-
bells, might celebrate divine service by themselves.
Some more gentle-spirited monks took advantage
of this permission to set up an inner door of glass,
which they kept shut, and the poor interdicted peo
ple could thus come into the nave of the abbey-
church, and see from without what was going on in
the choir, as well as hear ; but this kindness occa
sioned another prohibition. At length this cursing
naturally lost all effect; and the common people,
dressing up a mock bishop or priest, brought him
into the streets, and giving him a tallow-candle or
lighted wisp of straw in an earthen pipkin, he turned
it over and put it out, pronouncing the same curse
against the excommunicators as they had pronounced
in the pope's name.

The stories of false miracles, all tending to the
undue honour of dead saints, also were multiplied.
And such stories, though the monks had done some
thing in this way, were more especially the inven
tion of the begging friars. There was an old super
stitious belief on this subject, as is shewn by some
very simple stories in Bede ; particularly one of a
sick horse, which was said to have recovered won
derfully by rolling itself over the place where king
Oswald died in battle. The poor animal most likely
had a fit of the staggers ; and his rider, who had
uever seen any thing of the sort, waa surprised, and

CH.XIX.] SUPERSTITION AND IMPOSTURE. 37?

in his piety, knowing nothing of second causes
thought only of the First Great Cause, and inter
preted it, according to the belief of his time, as a
sign that God had taken king Oswald to a state of
bliss.6 Again, about the time of William the Con
queror, a belief of the same kind was still commonly
prevalent, as may be seen in a wild story told in the
Chronicle of the Cid, the Spanish hero; how his
body was wonderfully supported on horseback after
death, and the Moors were put to flight by the view
of it ; arid how he gave a box on the ear to a Jew,
who came to feel his chin when he was laid out on
his bier in the cathedral at Valentia. Perhaps such
things were believed, as a schoolboy now believes a
ghost-story, half incredulous, and half afraid. The
following extract from the Chronicle, or a ballad of
the time, may serve to shew how it was :

Quantos dicen mal del Cid.

Bad tongues that rail against the Cid shall spend their spite in

vain,
For a noble knight he was in fight, and the best good lance of

Spain.

True servant to his king he was, and the champion of his land ;
A foe to traitors, to true men he gave both heart and hand ;
And in his life and in his death did earn immortal praise,
Whate'er ill-temper'd rhymers say in these unfaithful days.
Says one, " The deeds they tell of him are but an idle tale :
Away with old wives' fables ; let simple sooth prevail."
If folks deny your principle, philosophers agree
There is no room for argument ; and this my rule shall be.
For why ? it is but ignorance that makes the man deny
And quarrel with true history, because he loves to lie.
High deeds are not for his poor creed: " Let fools," says he,

" believe,

That the Cid, when dead, great victories in battle did achieve."
A s if it were impossible, or any way too hard,
For him, whom living or in death the blessed saints did guard !

6 This story is mentioned, because it is particularly selected
for the scorn of the unbelieving historian David Hume.
K. K.2

378 EARLST ENGLISH CHURCH.

" How may it stand for truth," he says, " that his sword haif-

dra\vn he rear'd,
When to his corpse the false Jew stole to pluck him by the

beard?"

Dull heretic, as far from wit as thou art far from grace !
What ! shall not Heaven regard its own, to shield them froaa

disgrace ?
The laws of knighthood, in such case, no more might nerve

his arm ;
But the law of faith, for which he fought, would keep him aye

from harm !

This ballad may be taken as a record of the
times of which we write. It would seem that there
were, before the false legends began, some who had
not much faith for such things ; but it was plainly
held more religious to believe them. " The super
stition of the day supposed the glorified saints to
know what was going on in the world," says an ex
cellent writer on this subject,7 " and to feel a deep
interest and possess a considerable power in the
Church on earth. I believe that they who thought
so were altogether mistaken ; and I lament and abhor
and am amazed at the superstitions, blasphemies,
and idolatries, which have grown out of that opinion:
but as to the notion itself, I do not know that it was
wicked ; and I almost envy those, whose credulous
simplicity so realised the communion of saints, and
the period when the whole family in heaven and
earth shall be gathered into one." Such is the
right estimate to be made of the belief of Bede and
the simpler olden time. But the case was altered,
when the poor ignorant people were taught to come
to our Lady of Walsingham, or to Becket's shrine,
for the health of their souls and bodies ; and when
one saint's miracles were set out against another's
to draw gifts to churches and altars, and prayer to
these was taught so as to throw into the shade the

7 Letters on the Dark Ages, no. v.

CH. XIX.] SUPERSTITION AND IMPOSTURE. 379

true One Mediator between God and man. And
when rnen have begun to practise such deceits on
others or on themselves, persecution follows next.;
they punish in others a denial of what they scarcely
themselves believe, and hate a faith which seems
purer or more earnest than their own. Still, amidst
these errors and crimes, the light was not extin
guished ; and it will now be our more grateful task
to point out a few in whose breasts it burnt brightly
to u>e end.

CHAPTER XX.

GOOD MEN IN EVIL TIMES. ROBERT GROSTETE, BP. OF LIN
COLN, AND HIS FRIENDS. PIOUS FOUNDERS OF CHURCH3S
AND COLLEGES. TYRANNY OF HENRY VIII. CONCLUSION.

Yet, in that throng of selfish hearts untrue,
Thy. sad eye rests upon thy faithful few;
Pause where we may upon the desert road,
Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode.

The Christian Year

ROSTETE, or Greathead, bishop of
Lincoln, was born at Stradbrook in
Suffolk. He studied at Oxford, and
also at Paris, which was a famous seat
of learning in the middle ages. He
then returned to Oxford, and was a tutor or master
in the Franciscan school there. He took holy or
ders from the bishop, and became rector of St. Mar
garet's, Leicester, and was soon afterwards made
archdeacon. He was an intimate friend of Simon
de Montfort, the famous earl of Leicester, who af
terwards unfortunately was led by too daring an
ambition to make war against his sovereign. In
A.D. 1235 Grostete was elected bishop of Lincoln.
On his coming to his see, which then took in a wide
extent of nine or ten counties, he found the country-
churches in many places left without a proper main
tenance for the parish-priests, the tithes having been
improperly given to the monasteries, who were to

CH. XX.] BISHOP GROSTETH. 381

provide a vicar to do the duty. He made a diligent
visitation of his diocese, and compelled the monas
teries to give a more fitting allowance to the vicars.
In some places, it seems, they sent over only a monk
to do the duty on Sundays. Finding also that the
privileges given by the popes to the monasteries,
and even to the nunneries, led to many abuses, he
determined, in spite of the exemptions which had
been granted against the proper rights of bishops,
to put them to a strict visitation. In this he met
with great difficulties. In the beginning of his ef
forts for reform he had some support from pope
Innocent IV., whom he had known in his youth ;
but either his love of money, or his necessities (for
he was at war with the Italian states), drove him,
for filthy lucre's sake, to take part with the pri
vileged orders. At last, having summoned all the
abbots, priors, and other religious superiors, to a
synod at Leicester, and finding that many Templars,
Hospitalers, and others, had appealed to the pope,
he went himself to Rome to accuse the pontiff to
his face of not acting up to his own letters and pro
mises. " Be content," said pope Innocent; " you
have delivered your own soul by your protest ; but
if I please to shew grace to these persons, what is
that to you ?" The bishop returned to England ;
and finding how little trust was to be placed in Ro
man honour, began to act on his own authority.

He had before summoned the abbot of the Bene
dictines at Bardney to attend at one of his courts
of law, to answer to a suit for debt, which a clergy
man brought against him. The popedom was then
vacant, and the abbot tried to escape trial at his
court by applying to the prior of Christ-church,
Canterbury, who was, by the constitution of the
former pope, at the head of the exempt houses, or
dissenting interest, of the Benedictine order. The

382 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

bishop knew that this step was not approved by all
the abbots in his diocese ; and sending for those of
Ramsey, Peterborough, Wareham, and other places,
to a synod at Hertford, he laid the case before them.
These honest abbots declared that their brother of
Bardney was guilty of contumacy, and ought to be
deposed. But the prior and monks of Canterbury,
calling together fifty priests, most likely from their
own livings, and putting fifty monks to hold a synod
with them, excommunicated Grostete. There was
at this time for three years no archbishop at Can
terbury ; so that these insolent monks had it all their
own way. When one of them delivered the letter
of excommunication to Grostete, he trod it under
foot, and said with some contempt, " Tell those who
sent you that such curses are the only prayers I beg
from them for ever."

He deposed the abbot of Peterborough after
wards, for having wasted the property of his monas
tery in order to enrich his relations. Such abuses
were likely to be fostered by the pope's exemptions.
He then, in defiance of these irregular privileges,
visited every religious house in his diocese, and
made strict inquiry into every case where either
man or woman was suspected of not living accord
ing to the rule, or of having broken their vows.

He was very much disposed, at first, to favour
the Begging Friars ; but when he saw them riding
about the country in boots and spurs, collecting the
pope's taxes, his eyes were open to their fraudulent
pretences.

His independent spirit, and bold determination
to do his duty, often led him to oppose the king
and his ministers. Henry III. acted as might be
expected from so weak a character in disposing of
his preferment. He had a chaplain, who was a
half-witted sort of jester, with whom Matthew Paris

CH. xx.] BISHOP GHOST£TE. 383

saw him and his brother-in-law amusing themselves
in the monastery -garden at St. Alban's, pelting
each other with turfs and raw fruit. Was such a
man fit to have the cure of souls ? Grostete com
plained of this.. He prevented also another king's
chaplain from holding a second living in his diocese.
On this occasion, as the king yielded to his remon
strances, he took the opportunity, as he preached
before him, to praise his sense of justice. "A king's
righteousness," he said, " when he rules according
to the laws, is like the sun's beams, shining equally
on all." But when, a few years later, the pope
and king had made an iniquitous bargain, that the
pope should give him a tenth of all the Church's pro
perty for three years, under pretence of a crusade,
and the other prelates were in a strait, not knowing
what to do, Grostete said to the king's ministers,
"Marry, what is this? Do you think we shall
submit to this hateful exaction ? God forbid !"
Ethelmar, the king's brother-in-law, who had been
elected to the see of Winchester, but was too young
to be consecrated, said to him, " Father, how can
we resist the pope and king together ? The French
have consented to such a contribution, and they are
stronger than we; they are more used to resist; and
yet they contributed to aid their king, when he was
going, as ours is, on a crusade." " If they have con
tributed," rejoined Grostete, " we have the more
reason to resist. For we see too well what has
been the end of this extortion with the king of the
French.1 The money that he has exacted from his
own kingdom he has had to pay to ransom his
own pevson from the captivity of the Saracens.
That we may not, like him, incur with our king
the heavy wrath of God, I give my voice freely

1 St. Louis, or Louis IX.

384 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

against this injurious tax." Yet he offered, if tlie
king would allow this tax to be disposed of, when
collected, according to tl e advice of his faithful
barons, to give his consent to it ; provided the
liberty of the Church froiu all extraordinary taxes
were also secured under a new charter. But this
being refused, the council was adjourned without
deciding any thing. It is plain that this good pre
late's eyes were opened to the false principles which
had wasted so much blood and treasure on the cru
sades.

He was suspended by Innocent, at length, ftf
refusing to give a rich benefice to an Italian. But
his character was too high for such a sentence, even
from the pope, to take effect. He continued to
preach and rule his diocese ; and sent a letter of
remonstrance to Rome, which is said to have run
in these terms : " Let your wisdom be assured, that
I obey all apostolic commands devoutly and reve
rently, with the love and duty of a son ; but those
which are contrary to apostolic, in zeal for your
honour as for a father's, I withstand and oppose.
For by divine command I am bound to do both.
For apostolic commands are not and cannot be
other than such as are agreeable to the doctrine of
the apostles, and of our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
the Master and Lord of the apostles ; whose cha
racter and person, in the sacred government of the
Church, my lord the pope most especially bears.
For our Lord Jesus Christ himself says, He that
is not with me is against me. But the divine
Holiness of the apostolic see is not and cannot be
against Christ.

" Now the letter which I have received is not
agreeable to apostolic holiness, but most contrary to
it. First, because the clause, which this and other
'etters sent into this realm contain, that I am to do

CH. XX.] BISHOP OROSTETE. 385

what it commands, notwithstanding all law and pri
vilege to the contrary, is against all natural equity ;
and, if this is once allowed, it will let in a flood of
promise-breaking, bold injustice, and wanton insult,
deceit, and mutual distrust ; and after them a train
of innumerable crimes, to the defilement of pure
religion, and disturbance of the peace of society.
Next, because there cannot be a sin more opposed
to the doctrine of the apostles and evangelists, or
more odious to Christ, than to kill and destroy
souls, by depriving them of the pastoral office and
ministry ; a crime which they are plainly guilty of,
who take the milk and fleece of the flock of Christ,
but neglect to lead their charge into the pastures
of life and health. Not to administer the pastoral
duties is, by the testimony of Scripture, to ruin and
destroy the flock.

" As in good things, the cause of good is better
than the good of which it is the cause, so in evils,
the cause is worse than the evil which it brings.
They who bring in these destructive practices be
tray a high and divine power, given them for edifi
cation, not for destruction. It is impossible, there
fore, that the holy apostolic see, put in charge as
it is by Christ Jesus the Lord of saints, can com
mand any thing that tends to a crime so hateful.
For it would be a manifest treason to Christ, and a
foul abuse of the high and holy power which be
longs to that see, — a choice of darkness rather than
light, and a seeking of banishment from the throne
of the- Lord's glory. Nor can any one with pure
and sincere obedience obey such commands or pre
cepts, or instructions of whatever kind, coming from
whom they may, even though they were given by
an archangel ; but he must needs with all his might
oppose and withstand them.

" In short, the holy apostolic see has power to

•L L

88C EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

do only those things which are for edification, not
those which are for destruction. And why should
it desire more ? For this is in truth, and this only,
the fulness of power, to be able to do all things for
edification. But these things, sent over to this
realm under the name of provisions, are not for the
edification, but for the destruction of souls. The
holy apostolic see, therefore, cannot allow them. It
is flesh and blood which hath revealed them, and not
the Father of our Lord who is in heaven.

" For these reasons, most reverend lord," he
says in the conclusion of his letter, " since the com
mands I have received are so contrary to the holi
ness of the apostolic see, destructive to the souls of
men, and against the catholic faith, — the very spirit
of unity, the love of a son, and the obedience of a
subject, command me to rebel."

Not long after he had penned this remarkable
letter, he was seized with his last illness. The suf
ferings of the Church, under what was then a new
tyranny, were the subject of his latest thoughts ; and
he spoke of the extortions and abuses, the cheating
pretences and broken promises of the Italian pontiff,
with such pointed words as shewed how deeply he
felt the evils which he deplored. He spoke also of
the employment of the Begging Friars in the pope's
merchandises with becoming indignation, — as per
sons who, after renouncing the world under a vow
of poverty, had become more entirely busied in
worldly business than before ; and he ended with
the prophetic words, " The Church will never be set
free from this Egyptian bondage, but by the edge of
a blood-stained sword I"

Bishop Grostete was, as might be expected from
his own superior acquirements, a great promoter of
religious learning, preaching diligently himself, and
requiring the same from his clergy. He gave

CH. XX.J SEWELL, ABP. OF TORft. 387

port to many poor scholars at the university, and
wrote himself many treatises on sacred subjects, in
English and Latin, He had many eminent friends
in high stations in the Church, one of whom was
EDMUND, archbishop of Canterbury, who strove for
some time to bring the king to better counsels ; but
at length finding no success, and being unwilling to
witness evils which he could not remedy, retired and
died under a discipline of severe self-denial at Pon-
tigny, the place of Beeket's retirement in France.

Among the friends of Grostete was also SEWELL,
archbishop of York, who had been dean of that
church. On his election, A.D. 1256, pope Alexander
IV. gave the deanery to one Giordano, an Italian
who could not speak a word of English, and sent
him to gain possession as he might. The manner
was curious. Three strangers came into York min
ster at noon, when the citizens and clergy were at
dinner, and inquired of a person praying there alone,
which was the dean's stall. On being shewn it, the
two said to the third, " Brother, we install you by
the authority of the pope." When the proceeding
came to the ear of the archbishop, he pronounced
the appointment invalid ; for which when the Italians
returned to Rome, he was laid under an interdict,
and put to imsneiase expense and trouble. When the
pope afterwards sent some more Italians for prefer
ment, Sewell refused to admit the strangers into his
diocese. Giordano, fisading himself ill at ease, gave
up the deanery for a pension of a hundred marks.
But the pope was so enraged against Sewell, that,
having already suspended him, and ordered the sil
ver cross which was carried before archbishops to
be taken from him, he now excommunicated him;
all which the holy prelate bore with a patience
befitting a disciple and friend of Edmund of Can
terbury aaad of Grosteie. The more he was cursed

388 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

by the pope, the more he was blessed by the peo
ple, but secretly, for fear of the Romans. He
wrote shortly before his death a very humble and
respectful remonstrance to the pope, not yielding
the pokits at issue, but maintaining his own inte
grity in refusing to prefer his nominees. He died
under sentence of excommunication, but the people
crowded to his funeral, and honoured his tomb
There are many who are martyrs, says Matthew
Paris, like St. John the Evangelist, without shed
ding their blood.

A third of the friends of Grostete was RICHARD,
bishop of Chichester, a man of the greatest piety
and charity.2 It is remarkable that the influence
of these good men was so great with the barons of
England, that even after they had been defeated at
Evesham, a party who held out at Ely, A.D. 1267,
still endeavoured to stipulate for the terms which
Grostete had required in the council. They refused
to allow the king a tax of three years' tenths on be
nefices for a crusade : " The war," they said, " was
begun through these unjust exactions. It is time to
cease from them, and consult for the peace of the
realm." When they were now excommunicated by
the pope, and outlawed by the king, and were sum
moned to return to their faith and allegiance, their
answer was, " That they firmly hold the same faith
which they have learned from the holy bishops, St.
Robert, St. Edmund, and St. Richard (Grostete, Ed
mund of Canterbury, and Richard of Chichester,)
and other catholic men ; that they believe and hold
the articles of faith as they are contained in the
creed and in the gospel, and the sacraments of the
Church ; and for this faith they are prepared to live
or die. That they acknowledge obedience to the

2 See an account of him in Palmer's Church History,
p. 201.

CH. XX.] COLLEGES AND CHURCHES. 389

Church of Rome as the head of all Christendom ;
but not to the avarice and exactions of those who
ought to govern it, but do not." These brave men
were soon after defeated and dispersed by prince
Edward. Though they were mistaken in taking up
arms, it is impossible not to respect their high prin
ciples, and the cause for which they stood. And it
is plain that had there been wisdom in Henry III.,
or moderation in his son Edward, the deliverance of
the Church would have been accomplished two cen
turies earlier than the period of the Reformation.

The pope's power was indeed effectually checked
by the wise laws of Edward I. ; but he was content
to secure the dignity of his crown, without regard
to the improvement of the state of doctrine in the
Church, having no knowledge of the need. The
supremacy of the pope was not touched by these
laws; and thus there was no means of reforming the
most important corruptions, unless the reformation
began at Rome. The Church, however, continued
from this time without those shameful invasions of
its property, which had been going on from the reign
of Rufus to Henry III. It was taxed for the king
under his own laws.

From this time the building of monasteries de
clined. The laws rightly restrained persons fron.
giving more lands, or settling further annual fees
upon them. Charitable people still founded friaries;
but, what was better, the more enlightened Christian
statesmen and bishops began to found colleges at
Oxford and Cambridge. WALTER DE MERTON,
bishop of Rochester, and lord chancellor, founded
Merton College in Edward I.'s rei^n. He was a
contemporary of HUGH DE BALSKAM, the founder
of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Thesf are the two oldest
foundations, as they now remain at the two Univer
sities. They were followed bv many other pious

LL2

390 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

founders, particularly WALTER STAPLETON, bishop
of Exeter, and founder of Exeter College ; a good
and upright statesman, who was murdered by the
rebels in Edward II.'s reign ; WILLIAM OF WYKE-
HAM, the founder of New College and Winchester
College and School, in Edward III.'s reign, and the
architect who built Windsor Castle; and WILLIAM
OF WAINFLEET, who was a good and charitable
man in more dangerous times, but, doing his duty
and fearing God, was preserved in safety, and was
able to found Magdalen College, in the midst of the
wars of York and Lancaster. Nor should we omit
to mention one of the latest yet most excellent of
the list, the LADY MARGARET, countess of Rich
mond and Derby, and mother to king Henry VII., a
great benefactress to both Universities, and foundress
of St. John's College, Cambridge. She was a rare
example of devotion and charity in the highest rank,
giving not only her wealth, but her time and personal
attention to the sick and the distressed, often watch
ing by a poor person's dying bed, that by such ex
perience she might learn to die.3 From the colleges
so founded came forth those enlightened Christian
men, who, studying Scripture by the help of the wri
ters of the primitive Church, were at length enabled
to see how the false and corrupt doctrines had from
time to time crept in ; and from their sound learning,
firm faith, and high self-devotion, we have gained all
that was done well in the Reformation. To the his
tory of the Reformation their names belong ; and
also the names of the excellent archbishops BRAD-
WARDINE and FITZRALPH, whose piety and zeal

3 Her Funeral Sermon, by Bishop Fisher, and other memo
rials of this excellent person, have lately been collected and
published by Mr. Hymers, fellow of St. John's, Cambridge.
It is a volume worth the attention of the student of Church-
history.

CII. XX.] POORE, BISHOP OP SALISBURY. 391

for truth raised them far above the spirit of their
times; and that of. JOHN DE THORESBY, archbishop
of York, A.D. 1360, who was a diligent preacher
himself, and commanded his people to come and
hear preachers. He also promoted the reading of
the Scriptures in English : " Hear God's law," he
said, " taught in thy mother-tongue. For that is
better than to hear many masses."

There were many, too, who did excellent service
in building not only the splendid cathedral-churches
which we see in every cathedral-city, and which
were most of them built during this period, but also
in rearing many of those handsome, and often very
elegant, churches in country-villages. The succes
sors of bishop Grostete, following his example in
taking care of the country-parsons, reared several of
those parish-churches which are to be found in
Lincolnshire, a county full of well-built ovnamental
churches. And it would t«<x be easy to find a cha
racter more befitting a Christian bishop than that oi
Richard Poore, the founder not only of the beautiful
cathedral, but of the town of Salisbury.

RICHARD POORE, dean of Salisbury, was con
secrated bishop of Chichester A.D. 1215, and of
Salisbury in 1217- This prelate, by a bold and me
morable effort, transferred his cathedral-church from
Old Sarum, a situation on many accounts inconve
nient, to the place where it is now situated. The
old church was built by Herman, the first bishop
who resided there ; but as he left it scarcely com
plete, Osmund finished it. But the powerful bishop
Roger so enlarged and beautified it, that he may be
almost said to have built it new : and Malmsbury,
who wrote at that period, reckons it among the most
splendid churches in England. But Richard Poore,
annoyed with the insolence of the garrison-soldiers
of the neighbouring castla the want of water, and

392 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the bitterness of the weather on a high, naked, and
stony hill, advised both the townspeople and clergy
to leave the situation, and make a new settlement,
building a new town and church in a meadow-ground
one mile distant, watered by a river, and called for
its pleasantness by the name of Merry-field. To
this place inviting the most celebrated workmen,
who could any where be found, he laid the founda
tions of a church, which is at this day one of the
most beautiful in England. Pandulpho, the legate,
laid the first five stones, one for the pope, one for
the king, the third for the earl of Salisbury, the
fourth for the countess, and the fifth for the bishop.
King Henry III. gave money towards the edifice ;
and the citizens of Old Sarum all shifting their
abodes, there was nothing left in the old spot except
the Norman castle.

Bishop Poore did not remain at Salisbury to finish
the church; for after founding an hospital and a
nunnery, he was translated to Durham. When he
felt his end approaching, having assembled the peo
ple, he preached to them as usual, and told them
that his death was at hand. Again, on the follow,
ing day, his illness increasing, he preached another
sermon, bidding his flock farewell, and asking par
don if he had offended any one. On the third day,
having called together his household, especially the
wards who had been entrusted to his care, he dis
tributed to them what he thought reasonable, to
each according to his services : and having thus de
liberately disposed of every thing, and said a few
words to each of his friends, late at night repeating
the compline, or last evening service, when he came
to the verse — / will lay me down in peace, and take
my rest, the good bishop happily fell asleep in the
Lord. Before his death he had paid a great debt,
which was contracted by his predecessor.

CH. XX.] THE HERMIT OF HAMPOLE. 393

The oublic favour toward the monasteries had
greatly declined long before the time of their de
struction. Some of the smaller ones had been broken
up ; and some few had been turned over with their
lands to the endowment of colleges, the only societies
in this co.untry which now keep up a picture of old
monastic life. Yet in the midst of the bloody wars
of York and Lancaster, they were again the refuge
of many of all ranks, and particularly of the weaker
sex, who had seen their protectors slain or banished,
and houses and lands torn from them. It is sad to
think of the gross injustice and rapacity of the tyrant
Henry VIII., displayed in their last overthrow. The
worthy Latimer raised his honest testimony against
it. He knew the prior of Great Malvern, in his own
diocese of Worcester. "He is an old worthy man,"
he said to Cromwell, Henry's minister, " a good
housekeeper, and one that hath daily fed many poor
people. He only desires that his house may stand,
not in monkery, but so as to be converted to preach
ing, study, and prayer. Alas, my good lord, shall
we not see two or three in every shire changed to
such a remedy ?" He pleaded to a deaf ear. The
destruction was total ; and the following want of
ministers and preachers was so great, that queen
Elizabeth was obliged in some parts of the country
to pay a number of clergymen a salary to do the
duty in places, particularly Lancashire, where they
could obtain no maintenance.

Still more remorseless was the destruction of
nunneries, houses maintained at little expense, and
for poor females, who could not have troubled the
peace of a realm which was once separated from
Rome. The writer has before him a copy taken
from a book of devotion evidently drawn up for the
use of a nunnery, in which are many of the prayers
and meditations of RICHARD OF HAMPOLE, a pious

394 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCfl.

hermitj whose writings were highly prized by reli
gious readers, and who did much to aid devotion,
as a true lover of the cross of Christ, about the be
ginning of Edward lll.'s reign. It contains, among
other pious rules, the following " seven marks to
know when the Spirit of God works in the soul :

" 1. It makes a man or woman to set the world
at nought, and all the worldly worships and vanities
therein.

" 2. It makes God dear to the soul, and all the
delight of the flesh to wax cold.

" 3. It inspires both delectation and joying in
God.

" 4-. It stirs thee to the love of thy neighbour,
and also to compassion of thine enemy.

"5. It inspires to all manner of chastity.
" 6. It makes to trust in God in all tribulations,
and to joy in them.

" 7. It gives desire to will to be departed and to
be with God, more than to have worldly prosperity."4
The poor maidens, serving God, and studying
such a manual as this, were surely not leading such
a life as some of their revilers have represented.
But there are also testimonies from -the very men
who were sent on Henry's hardhearted errand, who
were moved to pity by the sight of piety and suffer
ing innocence, and in more instances than one endea
voured to save a few of these abodes, which were so
doomed to cureless ruin. It is a remarkable letter
which the visitors sent up in behalf of the nunnery
at Catesby, Northamptonshire:

" The house of Catesby we found in very per
fect order ; the prioress a sure wise, discreet, and
very religious woman, with nine nuns under her obe
dience, as religious and devout, and with as good

4 Not a word has been altered in this paper : only the old
spelling has been changed.

CH. XX.] NUNNERIES. 395

obedience as we have time past seen, or belike shall
see. The said house standeth in such a quarter,
much to the relief of the king's people and his grace's
poor subjects, as by the report of divers worshipful
near thereunto adjoining, as of all other, it is to us
openly declared. Wherefore, if it should please the
king's highness to have any remorse, that any reli
gious house shall stand, we think his grace cannot
appoint any house more meet to shew his most gra
cious charity and pity over than the said house of
Catesby. As to their bounden duty towards the
king's highness in these his affairs, also for discreet
entertainment of us his commissioners and our com
pany, we have not found, nor belike shall find any
such. And lest peradventure there may be labour
made to their detriment and other undoing, before
knowledge should come to his highness and to you
from us, it may therefore please you to signify unto
his highness the effect of these our letters, to the in
tent his grace may stay the grant thereof, till such
time we may ascertain you of our full certificate in
that behalf."

This letter, signed by Edmund Knyghtley6 and
three others, tells us very plainly the scant measure
of justice that was dealt to these poor women. The
commissioners would have inclined the king to mercy
if they could ; but the cause was judged first and
heard afterwards. The lands of the nunnery were
granted away to persons who bid high enough for
them, before the certificate of the state of religion
and discipline was sent up.

The mischiefs which arose from this sudden injus
tice were great and multiplied. The nunneries were
commonly ladies' schools, where young persons of

5 Ancestor of the present Sir Charles Knightley, of Faws-
ley, Bart., M P. for the county of Northampton; .a family
distinguished at that time for their zeal for the Reformation.

396 EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

the richer and middle condition of life went to be
educated ; here was a little estate left for the main
tenance of instructors; and charitable persons some
times left them land or fee, expressly on condition
that they should keep such schools, and teach needle
work and embroidery, and how to work some of that
fine old tapestry which may still be seen in seats of
English noblemen and country-gentlemen's houses.
And together with this they were religiously taught
and brought up in the fear of God; for true piety
was never banished in the worst of times from the
breasts of English women. It is greatly to be de
sired that there should be still some such religious
houses, where, without ensnaring and mistaken vows,
persons might find an asylum from the disquiet of
the world, and meet with society of that kind which
would be the best suited to relieve them from the
trials to which, in our railroad-making, money-get
ting age, they are often exposed, without the sym
pathy of a friend.6

We now conclude. The lesson to be learnt from
all Church-history is a lesson of faith in the Author
of all truth, the Founder and Preserver of that re
ligion of which the Church is His appointed keeper
and witness in the world. However the errors and
crimes of men may have dimmed the pure light of
the gospel in times past, as they do now ; yet we
may see in these records that the old Christian bishops
and fathers of our native land lived and died in the
same faith which we cherish ; they founded or main
tained a Church in doctrine and discipline the same
as ours ; they sought, by one Saviour's blood, an
inheritance in the same heaven in which we hope to
dwell. These pages will not have been written in

5 An English lady has of late years founded such a house
at Clifton near Bristol. It is to be wished that there were
more of them.

CH XX. j

CONCLUSION.

397

vain, if they shall remind one Englishman, who reads
the record of the trials and deliverances of his Church,
to offer more solemnly his prayer of confidence in
the almighty Protector : " O God, we have heard with
our ears, and our fathers have told us, the noble
works which thou didst in their days, and in the old
time before them;" and to entreat, that "his con
tinual pity may still cleanse and defend his Church ;"
and " that the course of this world may be so eace-
ably ordered by his governance, that his Church may
joyfully serve him in all godly quietness, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

SALISBURY CATHEDBAI*

M Jf

APPENDIX:

CONTAINING COPIES OP THE LORD'S PRAYER IN THE T.MES
OF THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

I- In the time of king Alfred. A.D. 890.

Fader ure, thu the eart on heofenura,
Si thin nama gehalgod ;
To-becume thin rice ;

And
Ac

Urne dBBghwamlican hlaf syle us to-dsg.

u/ltyltend^.gyItaS' ^ - W
d ne gelaedde thu us on costnunffe •
alysusofyfele. Sothlice.

of

Father our, thou that art in heaven
n thy name hallowed •

so as

But loose m from evil. SootUy (truly, or amen).

100 EARLY KJSGLISH CHURCH.

II. In metre, sent by Nicholas Breakspf.arr
(pope Adrian IV.) into England, in the time of
king Henry II. A.D. 1160.

lire Fadyr in neaven-rich,1
Thy name be hallved everlich.*
Thou bring us thy imchel blisse.
Als hit in heaven y-doe,3
Evar in yearth beene it also.
That holy bread that lasteth ay,
Thou send it ous this ilke day.4
Forgive us all that we have don,
As we forgivet uch5 other mon.
Ne let ous fall into no founding,'
Ac shield ous fro the fowle thing.

III. Another, of Henry III.'s time, about A.D.
1250.

Fadir ur, that es in hevene,

Halud be thy name to neven :7 .

Thou do us thy rich rike :8

Thi will on erd9 be wrought alike

As it is wrought in heven ay ;

Ur ilk-day brede give us to-day ;

Forgive thou all us dettes urs,

As we forgive till ur detturs ;

And ledde us in na fanding,10

But shuld11 us fra ivel thing.

1 the kingdom of heaven. 2 hallowed evermoi 6.
a as it in heaven is done. 4 this same. day.

* each. 6 confounding, confusion.

7 hallowed be thy name in the naming. Thus the old Eng
lish poet Chaucer, A.D. 1380 —

" There saw I syt in other sees (seats)
Placing upon other sundry glees,
Which that I cannot neven
Mo than starres ben in heven."

8 reach us thy kingdom ; put It within our reach. 9 earth,
10 confounding ; as before. n shield, or defend.

ACCA, bishop of Hexham.
143, 4.

Adrian, abbot, 68, 69, 132.

Aidau, bishop, 61-63.

Alban, St. 6, 7.

Alban's (St.) abbey, 186,832.

Albert, archbishop, 167-70.

Alcuin of Canterbury, 132.

ofYork, 125, 171-182.

Aldfrid, king, 84, 120.

Aldhelm, bishop, 133-189.

Aldhun, bishop, 263.

Aldred, archbishop, 280-283.

Alfred, king, 203-219

Alkmund, St. 166.
Alien Priories, 274, 342.
Andrew's (St.), see of, 287.
Anselm, archbishop, 267,298-

308.

Asaph, St. 19.
Asser, bishop, 203-207.
Athelstan, king, 227-232.

, bishop, 275.

Augustine, archbishop. 29-
43.

, St. xvii., 10.

Bacon, Roger, 371.
Baldwin, archbishop, 364.
Bangor monastery, 15. 34-

38.

Barons' war, 388.
Basil (St.), rule of, 87-92.
Bath, ancient city of, 103.
Battle abbey, 320, 363.
Bavon, St. 27.

Becket, archbishop, 344-355.
Bede, venerable, 98.110, 148-
153.

Benedict (St.;, rule of, 246,
321.

Berks, clergy of, 37.1,

Bernard, St. 335-359.

Bertha, queen, 29.

Bertram, 209.

Birinus, bishop, 64.

Biscop, Benedict, 96, 97.

Botolph, St. 101.

Bradwardine, abp. 271,390.

Britons, ancient, 3, 4.

Bury St. Edmund's, 232.

Bulls, popes', 82, 309.

Byrthnot, earl, 256-260.

Canterbury, see of, 41.

Carlisle, see of, 318.

Castles, 289, 297, 312.

Chad, St. 7*3-76.

Charlemagne, emperor, 171 •
182.

Clocks, 216.

Colman, bishop, 69, 70.
Columba, St. 20.
Constantine, emperor, 7.

, king, 232.

Council of Nice, 8, 35.

Verulam, 11.

Augustine's Oak,

34.

Whitby, 69.

Hertford, 85, 104.

Cliff's Hoe, 111,

161, 185.

Crediton, see of, 221.
Creed, metrical, from \\at

Anglo Saxon, 145.
Croyland abbey, 101, 233,
324.

402

INDEX.

Cuthbert, St. 130.
Danes, the, 193, 194.
Daniel, bishop, 164.
David, St. 19.

Deeds, use of brought in, 115.
Dominican friars, 366-371.
Dorchester, see of, 69.
Drythelm, hermit, 127-129.
Dubricius, St. 15.
Dunod, abbot, 36.
Dunstan, archbishop, 236-

254.

Durham founded, 263.
Eadfrid, bishop, 166.
Eardulf, bishop, 199-202.
Ebba, St. 82.
Edbald, king, 42.
Edbert, king, 167.
Edmund the elder, king, 231.

saint, 249.

archbishop, 387.

Edred, king, 233, 238.
Edward the elder, king, 219,
225

martyr, 248, 9.

confessor, 273-

275.

Edwin, king, 46-58.
Egbert, archbishop, 111, 112.

• , hermit, 154.

. , king, 194.

Egelric, bishop, 257, 280.
Egelwin, bishop, 279.
Egfrid, king, 80, 81.
Elfege, archbishop and mar
tyr, 265-267.
Elfod, bishop, 35.
Elfric, archbishop, 209, 260-

265

Elfrida, 249.
Ely monastery, 101.
Erconbert, king, 64.
Etha of Crayke, hermit, 131.
Ethelbald, king, 117, 159.
Ethelbert, king, 25, 29, 41-
43.

Ithelbert II., king, 160.
Ithelhard, archbp., 187, 188.
Ethelred of Mercia, king,
108.

the unready, 248,256,

265.

Ethelwin, earl, 256.
Ethelwold, bishop, 237, 244.
Ethelwolf, king, 195-197.

of Lindisfarne, 166.
Ewalds, martyrs, 156.
Fastidius, bishop, 15.
Felix, bishop, 55.
Fitzralph, archbishop, 390.
Fools, 215.

Fountains abbey, 318.
Friars, orders of, 366.
Germain, St. 10-15, 103.
Gilbert of Sempringham, 340,

351.

Gildas, 5, 18.

Glastonbury abbey, 102, 237.
Gloucester founded, 281.
Godbald, bishop and martyr,

265.

Godwin, earl, 273.
Gregory the Great, 26, 32-40.

VII., 294, 299, 358.

IX., 371.

Grimbald, 212.

Grostete, bishop, 380-387.

Guthlac, hermit, 131.

Hadrian, abbot, 68,72, 1?2.

Hampole, Richard, hermit,
393.

Hereford, see of, 85.

Hexham, see of, 81, 201.

Hilda, St. 99.

Howel the good, 228.

Hyde abbey, 212, 330.

Jarrow monastery, 96, 97.

Jerome, St. 123.

Image -worship, 181.

Ina, king, 121, 140, 172.

Ingulf, abbot, 287, 324._

Innocent III., pope, 356, 375.

INDEX.

403

Innocent IV., pope, 372.
John of Beverley, bishop, 148.
John Scott, or Erigena, 208.
Justus, archbishop, 41.
Kenelm, St 249.
Kenwal, king, 74.
Kingil, king, 64.
Lanfranc, archbishop, 266

291-295, 302.
Langton, Stephen, archbishop.

355.

Lastingham monastery, 101.
Laurence, archbishop, 41.48.
Laws of Saxon kings, 42, 113,
115,140-2,212-15,224-5,
229, 240-3, 271, 301.
Leofric, 273.
Lichfield, see of, 65.
Lindisfarne, see of, 61.
London, see of, 40.
Malmsbury abbey, 133, 147.
Man, Isle of, converted, 19.
Margaret, countess of Rich
mond, 390.
Marriage- laws, 242, 243.

of priests, 263,357,358.

Martin, St. 14, 29.
Matilda, queen, 304-307.
Mellitus, archbishop, 41. 45.
Mildred, St. 116.
Missions to Germany, 154-
165.

India, 217.

Sweden and Nor
way, 265.

Monasteries, Eastern, xvi..
89, 92.

, British, 15, 92.

, Saxon, 95-119.

-, destruction of, 199,

211, 233, 393.

Benedictine,

246,

321-333.

, Cluniac, 333.

; Cistercian, 334.

337.

Monasteries, Carthusian, 338.

, of regular canons,

Augustins, Premonstrants,
Gilbertines, 339, 340.

knights of St. John

and Templars, 340, 341.
Neot, St. 206.
Ninian, St. 18.
Normans, the, 277.
Norman barons, 300, 312.
Nothelm, archbishop, 110,162.
Nunneries, 304, 393-396.
Odo of Clugny, 227.

• , archbishop, 240-244.

• , bishop of Bayeux, 293,

300.
Offa of Essex, 109.

• Mercia, 113,183-186.

Olave, St. 265, 268.

Ordeals, 223.

Organs, 133.

Orkney, see of, founded, 265

Osith, St. 100.

Osmund, bishop, 291.

Oswald, king, 60-66, 376.

•, archbishop, 238, 244.

Oswy, king, 68-70, 107, 8.

Otho, legate, 372.

Palls, 40, 185.

Parish -churches, origin of,

85, 230, 231.
Patrick, St. 18.
Paulinus, archbishop, 49-54.
Peckham, archbishop, 370.
Peterborough abbey, 101,231.
Petroc's (St.) see, 221.
Pilgrimages, 119, 122.
Plegmund, archbishop, 210

221.

Poore, bishop, 391.
Purgatory, 125, 126.
Ramsey abbey, 244, 247.
Richard, bishop of Chichester,

388.

Ridley, bishop, 210, 296.
Rieval abbey, 337.

390113

404 INDEX.

Tlipon, see of, 78-80, 281.
Rochester, see of, 41.
Salisbury, see of, 391.
Sampson, St. 20.
fcaxons, ancient, 22, 23.
Schools at Canterbury, 72.

York, 166-169.

Lindisfarne, 63,

166.

208.

— Malmsbury, 93,

- Oxford, 72, 207.

in monasteries, 327.

Scots at Lindisfarne, 71, 72.
Scriptories, 331.
Selsey, see of, 85.
Sewell, archbishop, 387.
Sidnacester, see of, 64.
Sigebert, king, 66.
Sigeric, archbishop, 258.
Siward, earl, 274.
Slaves, 139-142, 218, 285.
Stigand, archbishop, 278.
Swithbert, bishop, 156.
Swithelm, bishop, 217.
Swithin, St. 195.
Theodore, archbp. 67-85, 104.
Thurstan, archbp. 313-318.

:, abbot. 291.

Tithes, 79, 196.
Tranmb&tantiation, 209, 295.
Turgot bishop, 287.

Turketul, 234.
Vale-Royal abbey, 335.
Vitalian, pope, 67, 68.
Ulphilas, bishop, 14.
Wainfleet, bishop, 390.
Walcher, bishop, 290.
Walsingham, our ladyof, 339.
Walter, hermit, 125, 130.
., Stapleton, bp. 390.

Welch Church, 275, 313.
Wells, see of, 221.
Werburga, St. 100.
Werferth, bishop, 210.
Westminster abbey, 41, 276.
Wihtred, king, 112.
Wilbrord, archbishop, 155.
Wilfrid, bp. 69,76-84, 157.
William, bishop of London,
273.

of Corboil, archbp.

308-312.

Winchester, see of, 74.

Winfrid, archbishop and mar
tyr, 157-165.

Worcester, see of, 85.

Wulfhelm, archbishop, 229.

Wulfred, archbishop, 190.

Wulfstan, bishop, 283-288.

Wycliffe, 371.

Wykeham, William of, 390.

York, see of, 40, 53.

Zachary, pope, 163.

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