Letters, it is believed, were first introduced among the Anglo-Saxons by the missionaries; at least to them they were indebted for their first written laws. These were promulgated by Ethelbert, the first Christian king of Kent, with the consent of his nobles. On the Continent, the laws of every civilized kingdom were published in Latin, but those of Ethelbert were in the vernacular tongue, on the rational principle that they might be intelligible to the people; though Latin was the language of religion. None of the modern languages was reduced to rules at this period; and from a kind of necessity, the Roman, in which the clergy through Europe read the Scriptures, in which the Fathers of the Western church had composed their works, and the ecclesiastical councils had issued their decrees, was retained as the professional language of the clergy. They were therefore, comparatively, a learned body; and to them we are chiefly indebted for the whole history of the middle ages, and for the preservation of the valuable works of the ancients. They conversed and preached in the common speech of the country: but while the ceremonies and services of the church might impress the people with veneration and awe - Latin being unintelligible to them—their edification must have been but imperfectly promoted, and their minds would be filled with a degrading superstition.

Monasteries, or similar institutions, seem to have been necessary for the improvement of those barbarous ages. They were designed originally for the seats of the bishops and the clergy, who were accustomed to itinerate through the country adjacent, preaching the gospel and administering the ordinances of Christ; and in all places they were seminaries of learning for educating the youth. No vows of celibacy were at first required, though these unnatural customs were soon recommended and enjoined by successive popes and metropolitans. "Nor were the clergy the teachers of letters only: from them the ornamental and the useful arts were derived. Church music was introduced into Canterbury, and thence into the other kingdoms. Churches, which at first, like those at that time existing in Scotland, were constructed of timber, and thatched with reeds, were, in imitation of the continental

temples, built with stone, and covered with lead: glass for their windows was introduced; and church architecture, in the course of a few generations, attained a perfection and magnificence, which in ancient times have never been surpassed, and which modern ages with all their wealth cannot afford to vie with *.”

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These sacred seclusions however, in those ignorant ages, served to nourish superstition. Their revenues prodigiously increased; and in a few ages they became intolerable nuisances in every kingdom. Monasteries were esteemed inviolable. 'Many kings, weary of the cares and dangers of royalty, or struck with remorse for the crimes by which they had acquired or abused their rank, abdicated their thrones, and retired into monasteries, to pass the remainder of their days in tranquillity or in penance. Widowed queens were thankful to find a like asylum. The daughters of royal or noble houses, preferring the hopes of a better world to the precarious enjoyments of this, found in the convents comforts and security, which in those turbulent ages were hardly to be obtained elsewhere; and youths of royal blood, whose enterprising tempers might otherwise have contributed to the misery of their own and of the neighbouring states, embraced a religious life, and went forth as missionaries to convert and civilize the barbarians of Germany and the North ↑.”

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Rapin, in his reflections upon the state of the English church during this period, expresses his astonishment at the progress of superstition and priesteraft, under the influence of the popish clergy. "In England alone," he remarks, we find, in the space of two hundred years, an incredible number of men and women saints, who never knew what persecution meant. But what is more, a considerable number of these same saints were kings, queens, princes, princesses, or persons of the highest birth and station. In the period above mentioned, we have seven kings and seven queens, together with eight princes and sixteen princesses, distinguished with the title of Saints: besides ten kings and eleven queens, who resigned their crowns to turn monks; and who, according to

*Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i, p. 59, 60.

+ Ibid. p. 61.

the notions of those days, might well be ranked in the number of the saints. If it be asked, whence is it that in the seventh and eighth centuries it was so easy for the great to procure a saintship, I can allege no other reason, but that sanctity consisted then in enriching the churches and monasteries *."

Ambition, in most of the English prelates, prevailed to elevate them even above the civil power. This policy concurred with that of the papal court, which encouraged ecclesiastical appeals from every country, pretending that its decisions were supreme, and even divine; and during the following period of eight hundred years, that usurpation in the church of Christ proved itself, as inspired prophecy had denounced it," the mystery of iniquity," by the evils it inflicted upon England in common with the other nations of Europe.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE TIME OF BEDE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE HEPTARCHY,

Bishops in the time of Bede
Archbishop Egbert

A. D. 827.

Religion in England Life of Bede- His Letter to Benedict-Willibrod - Winfred — Other Missionaries Cuthbert Councils-Offa's grant of Tithes - Peter-pence -Alcuinof Calcuith England reduced to one Kingdom by Egbert.

Canons

BEDE brings down his history of the English church to A.D. 731, at which period it had sixteen bishops. Their stations were Canterbury, Rochester, Dunwich, Helmhan, Winchester, Sherborn, Lichfield, Leicester, Hereford, Worcester, Sydnacester, York, Landisfarne, Hexham, and Withern.

Concerning the prelates of that age, little is recorded except their exertions, in connection with the abbots, to exalt their own orders, and to bring down the nobles and princes under their spiritual domination. Pilgrimages to Rome, where the clergy were seen in all their glory, and retiring into monasteries, were encouraged as the most effectual means of obtaining heaven by the wealthy; and by this policy the church daily increased in riches. Religion was but very imperfectly understood, especially by the common people; as

* History of England, vol. i, p. 80, folio edition.

the public services of divine worship consisted principally in Latin prayers and lessons, with but very little instruction by exposition of the Scriptures in the language of the vulgar. These services were accompanied with various ceremonies, in which holy water, incense, and burning lamps, were used in imitation partly of the Jewish and partly of the heathen rites. The people, therefore, generally continued in their ignorance, equally superstitious with the idolaters, only their minds were directed to pictures of saints instead of the idols of Woden and Thor. Still we may hope there were individuals among the monks, who were sent forth in different directions from their monasteries, to preach to the people, by whom the great doctrines of reconciliation by Christ were made known, to the salvation of many souls.

Bede, called by his contemporaries "The Wise Saxon," and "The Venerable" by posterity, was by far the most eminent ecclesiastic of his time, as a scholar, a theologian, or a man of personal piety. Indeed, in all these respects, he is believed to have been without a superior in all Europe; and, as Dr. Henry remarks, as long as great modesty, uncommon piety, and great learning, united in one character, are the objects of veneration amongst mankind, the memory of Bede must be revered." He was born, A.D. 673, at a village near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His parents dying when he was seven years of age, Benedict, surnamed Bishop, a nobleman of piety and zeal, placed him in his monastery of St. Peter at Weremouth, for the rudiments of learning. After a few years he removed to Jarrow, where he continued observing the strictest discipline of the cloister till the day of his death. Dedicated to God from his infancy, and sheltered within the precincts of the sanctuary, he increased daily in knowledge and piety, and in favour with God and man. At the age of nineteen he was ordained deacon, and priest at the age of thirty, by John de Beverly, bishop of Hexham. With new vigour he prosecuted his studies, generally spending twenty hours every day in tuition, the exercises of devotion, and the composition of literary and religious works. Bede was acquainted with Greek and Hebrew, which were extraordinary acquirements in that age. His love of learning would not

allow him to seek any preferment in the church, and he wrote on all the branches of knowledge at that time cultivated in Europe. His writings were voluminous, having published, as he states in the close of his own life, thirty-six volumes, containing seventy-eight books. Though he lived in monastic seclusion, the fame of his learning spread over Europe; and Pope Sergius addressed a letter to Ceolfrid, his abbot, desiring him to send Bede to Rome, to assist in some important discussion. Sergius dying soon after, Bede never visited that seat of ecclesiastical usurpation, though he was superstitiously attached to the pretended successor of St. Peter, as having claims far superior to any other bishop.

A life so devoted to God might be expected to be closed with holy triumph; and Bede died in "the full assurance of hope." Cuthbert, in a letter to Cuthwin, a fellow-student, gives an account of the last hours of their tutor. From the first attack of sickness, Bede believed it would terminate in death; and being engaged in a translation of the Gospel according to John into the Saxon language, he was anxious to have it completed. On the day preceding his decease, he urged his pupils to write while he was able to dietate; saying, "Go on quickly; I know not how long I shall hold out, and whether my Master will soon take me away." They renewed their labours on the following morning, if possible to finish the great work; when in the afternoon one said, "Dear master, there is still one chapter wanting: will it be troublesome to ask any more questions?" The dying saint replied, "It is no trouble to me: take your pen and write speedily what yet remains unfinished." All the priests in the monastery were summoned to his apartment, when he exhorted them with dying seriousness to a faithful discharge of their ministerial office, directing them to keep in view the tribunal of God and the day of judgment. They were all affected to tears, as he took a final leave of them in this world, repeating a saying of St. Ambrose: "I have not lived so as to be ashamed among you; nor do I fear to die, because we have a good God;" adding, "I have served a kind Master, and now I long to be with Christ, that I may see him face to face in glory." In this strain of heavenly discourse he continued till