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THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
ffl 4

~
s

* f
 A HISTORY FOR THE PEOPLE

BY THE

VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE-JONES, D.D.

DEAN OK GLOUCESTER

VOL. I.

THE BRITISH AND ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH

SPECIAL EDITION

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND
MELBOURNE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
,4

1091fij
JUN 1 1 net
 CONTENTS.

PAGE
INTRODUCTION . i

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY .11

CHAPTER II.

THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH DURING THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST . . 22

CHAPTER III.

CELTIC-BRITISH MONASTICISM AND ITS WORK 31

CHAPTER IV.

THE WORK OF THE EARLY IRISH (CELTIC) CHURCH 52

CHAPTER V.

THE ROMAN MISSION OF AUGUSTINE 79

CHAPTER VI.

THE STRUGGLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN NORTHERN, MIDLAND, AND EASTERN

ENGLAND . \ . 112

CHAPTER VII.

THE COMING OF AIDAN . . . . . .128

CHAPTER VIII.

,
WORK OF THE CELTIC MISSIONARIES IN ENGLAND .
. . .\;. . . . .
145

CHAPTER IX.

HILDA S HOLY HOUSE AT WHIIT.Y . .

-. . . . . . ... ".
164

CHAPTER X.

THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY. DOWNFALL OF THE CELTIC CHURCH . . . .178

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.
TAC-K
WILFRID AND THEODORE. GROWING POWER OF ROME . . , , .
199

CHAPTER XII.

CUTHBERT, THE LAST GREAT CELTIC SAINT . . .... . . . 233

CHAPTER XIII.

LITERATURE AND ART IN THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH . . . . 246

CHAPTER XIV.
ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES . . .:
280

CHAPTER XV.
THE FRANKISH EMPIRE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH . .. . .
.- . .312

CHAPTER XVI.
THE COMING OF THE DANES . . . ,
332

CHAPTER XVII.

ENGLAND S HERO KING ... 368

CHAPTER XVIII.

ALFRED S WORK FOR THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND ENGLISH LITERATURE . .

383

CHAPTER XIX.
A GREAT ANGLO-SAXON CHURCHMAN AND HIS TIMES . . . . .
407

CHAPTER XX.
THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH AT THE END OF THE TENTH CKNTURY . . .
446

EXCURSUS A.

CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES. FOR THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF

BRITAIN IN THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES. <. . . .
469

EXCURSUS B.

ON THE WORD "MASS" . . ... . -. . . . . 472

 LIST OF PLATES.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY Frontis.

MAP ILLUSTRATING CENTRES OF EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE IN GREAT BRITAIN To face page 10

ST. ALBANS CATHEDRAL 14

ROCHESTER CASTLE 99

WHITBY ABBEY, FROM LARPOOL ........ ,, 167

LION OF ST. MARK, AN ILLUMINATION FROM THE BOOK OF DURROW . 290

LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL . .
329

ABBOT S BRIDGE, BURY ST. EDMUNDS . . . .

363

PAGE FROM THE ETHELWOLD BENEDICTIONAL, SHOWING THE

ANNUNCIATION ,, 423
 INTRODUCTION.
N no country of Christen dustry of the tireless scholar, just enable
dom is the story of the us to gather memories sufficient to give an
Church so closely bound outlined picture of a storied past ;
but the
up with its national hands of ruthless destroyers have effectually
lifeand progress as in prevented us from giving any more than
England in no other
: a faint sketch of the Church as it existed

country has it played while the Romans dwelt in our midst, and
so prominent a part. during the prolonged period of awful con
Among the various influences that have quest and destruction that ensued when
combined to make the England of the the Roman armies had finally left us.

nineteenth century, with its boundless The story then goes on to a period richer
power and its measureless responsibilities, in materials for a writer, during which the

the Church must rank as the first and Church of conquered became the
the
chiefest. Church of the conquerors. It tells us how
Very dim are the memories of the first Rome, with her immemorial traditions and
two or three hundred years of the life of restless energy, first endeavoured to make
the Church in our island, for a great and the victorious Anglo-Saxons Christian, but

crushing calamity passed over the Britain how from various causes her noble efforts
known to the Roman Empire. A long- made but little way among the pagan
drawn-out invasion, a cruel conquest, such North -folk in England. Then it becomes
as perhaps no other Christian land has brighter and more animated, as it unfolds to
been subjected swept away well-nigh
to, us how missionaries of the race of the van

every vestige of its work, almost every quished Britons, from Scotland and Ireland,
trace of its life. The patient zeal of the were completely successful where Rome
lynx-eyed antiquary, and the painful in had failed, and then relates how, after their
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
success, Rome came again upon the scene, the state, as well as in the Church, genera
and showed the Northmen, now become have sung and told.
tion after generation

Christians, how to build up and to organise For King Alfred the Great was not only
a really great church in England. The a mighty warrior and profound statesman ;

tale grows more and more marvellous, as it he was also a great churchman, and
tells us how intensely earnest were many occupies a distinct place in the history
of these pagan conquerors, converted to we are about to tell.
the faith of the people they had conquered, For more than a century and a half from
for the cause of the Christ they had learnt the days of Alfred, the records we possess
to love ;
how Christianity flourished and of the Anglo-Saxon Church are of peculiar

developed among them how a Church ;

interest to Englishmen. These records not
with its wide and blessed influences, with only speak of it as powerful and united, as
its far-reaching civilising power, grew up in a mighty influence for good in the land
this distant and remote island, so learned (with its periods, of course, of special vigour
that from the whole of northern and and of comparative inaction), but they
western Europe, scholars came to be in show us a Church remarkable for its in

structed in all manner of secular lore as dependence, not only in government and
well as in religion, in the schools of Canter in organisation, but also in thought.

bury, Jarrow, and York. Although in communion with Western

Alas that concerning this flourishing
! Christendom and with Latin Christianity ;

Anglo-Saxon Church we should have to tell although admitting in a general way

of yet another storm which overwhelmed the authority of the Roman Pontiff;
it for a time a storm so desolating in its
; although supplying a constant stream of
effects that it well-nigh destroyed the pilgrims to the shrines of the Eternal City,
Church, which before this calamity was so and generous contributions to the support
learned, so powerful, and so beneficent. of these English pilgrims Romewards, and
We must relate how once more England even lavish gifts to the Bishop of the apos
was ravaged by another race of pagan tolic see the Church of Alfred, the Church
;

Northmen kinsmen these new-comers

;
of the Saxon kings of his house, the Church
so well known as Danish Vikings but of primates like Dunstan and Odo, Elfric
none the less bitter and relentless foes of and Stigand, was notwithstanding practically
those Northmen who had first conquered independent. She stood positively alone
Britain, conquering, had
and who, after among Western churches in her proud
received with joy the religion of the men insular freedom. She was free in her con
they had vanquished. independent in her teaching, differ
stitution,
This cloud too, however, after a sad ing gravely from some of the teachings of
interval of misery and woe, gradually Rome ; resting ever upon the traditions of

passed ;
and the chronicle will at this point her own famous school of York, traditions
have as its central figure one of the true handed down by Bede and Bede s famous
heroes of our island story ;
one whose masters, rather than upon the more recent
deeds and words in the battlefield and in developments of Roman doctrine.
 INTRODUCTION.
As the history moves onwards, its task call heroes, some fewer saints ;
but all of
will now be to trace the strange and mar them, saints and heroes, were full of faults,
vellous career of Norman conquest, which and their work was marred with errors
so powerfully influenced the course of and mistakes. Yet in spite of their faults

events in the church, as in the world ;

to the heroes will be seen to have been, after
show how it peculiarly affected our island s all, true heroes, and their work, marred

religious history, by uniting it for a season though it was, good work : the saints also
with the Latin Christianity of Rome and true saints in our own acceptation of the
the continent of Europe, and thus depriving word, and their work, even with its earthly
it of the characteristic features so dear to admixture, to have been, as we believe,
the Englishmen of its age its freedom in acceptable to the Master.
thought and independence in government. Now and then it will be found that our
As the great drama proceeds, it will be seen portraits differ widely from the popular
how this fusion of the Church of Alfred ideal. Dunstan, for instance, will appear
and of Dunstan with the widespread different from and a grander character than

Latin communion of Rome and the con the Dunstan of our child-memories, which
tinent of Europe, was utterly at variance present only the recollection of a pettish
with the spirit of England and her people. workman in his forge engaged in silly
It will appear how soon really began combats with the Evil One, or else picture
that long struggle, culminating in the him as an overbearing, tyrannical priest,
Reformation of the sixteenth century, cruel and remorseless in his selfish ven
which restored the Church of England to geance. Edward the Confessor, the saint
the position of independence and freedom king, will stand out in our pages as a
she loves so well which gave back to her
;
venerable and a noble figure, not as the
the precious treasure of pure and primitive weak and vacillating, relic-loving and
doctrine which was her proud inheritance superstitious monarch of many historians

from the days of Alfred and his house and romancists.

ay, and from long before Alfred from the Not improbably one school of critics

times of the Christian children of the may find fault with our description of the

Vikings, when heroes like Edwin and monastic orders, with our pictures of the
Oswald and Edgar played so well their saintly men who lived and worked in

their fair and prayed in their

part as makers of the Anglo-Saxon Church. cloisters,

In the course of this story of the church glorious abbeys cloisters and abbeys dese

so dear to every lover of England, not a crated and ruined all too soon
perhaps may ;

few pictures must be painted of men who be indignant when they read our description
were chief actors in the eventful drama of ;
of the splendid and successful efforts of the
men who have won, as they deserved, a mendicant true disciples of Francis
friars,

place in the hearts of their fellow country and of Dominic, to sweeten the sad exist
men, a name in the golden book of her most lives of
ence, and to elevate the unhappy
illustrious and most patriotic sons. Some the poorer masses in the great cities of the
few of these were what men are pleased to Middle Ages. Another school will perhaps
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
be moved to anger as they turn over the Boleyn ;
to his
passionate desire for a
pages of our narrative and find in it an divorce from the stately Spanish princess,

apology for the earliest of the Reformers, the wife of his youth or to the vulgar ;

Wyclif ;
find that this truest of English greed of the same irresponsible monarch
men, who gave us the first English Bible, and his powerful satellites, which covered
is painted, in spite of shortcomings and the spoils of the glorious abbeys, and the
mistakes, as one of the noblest and most long-accumulated wealth of the Benedictine
learned of our English churchmen. But and his brother servants of God. These
our present work belongs to no one school vulgar passions were, after all, but very
of thought, to no party either in Church small influences in bringing about the
or State. It simply tells the true story as change which passed over the Church
the writer found it in the ancient chronicles of England the change men call the
and memoirs paints the portraits of
;
it Reformation.
the chief actors in the drama just as they The Reformation was, in truth and
appeared to him, as he read and pondered reality, a Renaissance of English doctrine,
for himself the contemporary records of English thought, English freedom in
their work and days. Church government. Far from having
Slowly and reluctantly we leave at last the effect which some superficial writers
the many-coloured chronicles of the Middle endeavour to ascribe to it viz., the

Ages which tell us of the days of chivalry destruction of the Church in England,
and knightly prowess of holy wars holy, ;
it resulted in the restoration of the Church
alas !
only in the ideal ;
of gorgeous page of England. was a period of stress and
It

and picturesque cities

ants, lordly castles, ; storm, of sorrow, and often of confusion a ;

of churches such as the world had never period in which much happened that every
seen before will perhaps never see again ;
lover of England and of religion must
which tell us of the ages when monastic mourn over. But in the providence of
orders played their great, and on the God, when the clouds of trial and trouble
whole beneficent part in the life of the had passed away, the Church of England
church. As we close our history of church appeared again, more English than ever ;

life in the England of the Middle Ages, we more than ever the church of the primitive
pass at once into another atmosphere of ages, more truly the church of the people
thought, and it with mingled feelings
is the old church which even in its darkest
that we tell of the changes brought about hour was generally loved and honoured
by the Reformation of the sixteenth cen by the nation but strengthened, purified,
tury, with its lights and shadows, so pitiful popularised, so to speak more capable of ;

often in its details, so glorious for England the indefinite expansion and adaptability
in its general results. which has been its lot through the times
It is but a maimed truth indeed, it is of the dynasties of Tudor, Stuart, and
scarcely a truth at all which traces the Guelph ;
but still the Church of the living
Reformation in England to the fancy of God, which, with all its shortcomings and
King Henry VIII. for the beautiful Anne its errors, has made our England free and
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
great and strong. The Reformation was fifteenth century, great and imposing and
the revolt of the Church of the people from wealthy as it seemed, lacked real power.
a foreign yoke, which had oppressed and It was sadly wanting in
spiritual earnest
weakened religion, and marred its holy ness. Lollardism in
its deeper and nobler

influence in our island for several cen aspects had stolen away the people s hearts
turies. More than this, it was an uprising from the Church. Wyclif s teaching, and
of the English people against grave errors especially Wyclif s English Bible, had pene
in doctrine,and strange superstitions which trated deeper into the homes of England
were blotting out not a few of the distinc than the hierarchy chose to think. The
tive truths of the Christian faith ;
errors Church, too, had never recovered the awful
and superstitions absolutely unknown to losses inflicted upon it by the plague of
the primitive church. 1349, and by subsequent visitations of
Much happened, many events took place, the same dread scourge the yawning :

in the fifteenth century in England which gaps made by the Angel of Death in its
contributed to the momentous change of the ranks had never been really filled up.
sixteenth century. Foremost among these Face armed with
to face, then, with a king
events was that sad war of rival dynasties, power never possessed by the proudest and
known as the Wars of the Roses, that long- ablest of Norman, Angevin, or Plantagenet
drawn-out conflict between the kindred monarchs, stood the still magnificent and
royal Houses of York and Lancaster ; stately, but sorely enfeebled mediaeval
that cruel war waged by Englishmen Church. Only these two mighty wielders

against Englishmen, stained by bloody of influence remained in England the

battles, scarred by pitiless State murders. Church and the Crown when the long
When at fury of. the
last the wild and bloody rivalry of the Roses was " "

Roses war had spent itself, the mighty

"
"

hushed in the presence of the House of

baronage of England was gone it had ;
Tudor.
been literally swept away. The next The royal power was rapidly and firmly
class, composed of county squires, town consolidated by the first Tudor sovereign,
traders, and other citizens beneath the and while he reigned, the Church grew
baronage, a class which was gradually gradually weaker. The various causes
growing with the growth of England in which were sapping its vitality, were cease
wealth and importance, was in the fifteenth lessly at work and when his brilliant and
;

century still a comparatively new order, versatile son Henry VIII. became king,
and more or less under the influence of all was ready for the crash of the Reforma
the baronage. As the barons disappeared, tion.
"

The Mediaeval Church of England,"

it, too, for a time was practically effaced as writes Stubbs, stood before the self-willed
"

a in the State.
power dictator, too splendid in wealth, fame, and
Thus the Church was left alone with honour to be allowed to share the dominion
the Sovereign, now enormously enriched that he claimed. It was no longer a

by the confiscation of the estates of the mediator, but a competitor for power. The
fallen barons. And the Church of the royal self-will itself furnished the occasion
 INTRODUCTION.
i for a struggle, and the political claims of the fast fading influence of the Papacy,
\ the Church proved their weakness by the consequent on the scandalous schism
greatness of the fall." It was part of the which followed the long Papal residence
Divine providence that at this supreme at Avignon, prevented any real assistance

moment of the contest between the Crown, from being given to its too faithful monkish
with enormously augmented powers,
its garrisons in our distant island.
and the Church, with its ancient influence But other undreamed-of influences were
so enfeebled, the throne of England was working at this period against the monk
filledwith such conspicuously able occu and the friar. The most brilliant of

pants as the Tudor sovereigns Henry VII., French romancists pictures a scholar-priest
^ Henry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth. in the days of King Louis XL, with a

Strange to say, at this very moment one printed book (then a startling novelty) in
division of the Church s forces the his hand, gazing sorrowfully at the mighty
monastic orders became powerless, or pile of Notre Dame, at Paris one of the
well-nigh powerless. To the Church of noblest examples in Europe of Gothic
which during so many centuries they had architecture and exclaiming, "

The book
been the great strength, they became a will the building
kill !The prophetic
"

source of positive weakness and a faith

;
words of the ecclesiastic, telling of the doom
ful history ofthe Church, in those pages of mediaeval architecture, would have been
which recite the downfall in England of even more directly true of mediaeval mon-
the Benedictine and Cistercian monks, and asticism. In the days when the self-willed
the mendicant friars c f the Franciscan and Tudor king succeeded to the throne, the
Dominican orders, while repelling many of work of the monastic orders was virtually
the and exaggerated reports (which
false done ;
the need for their labour in the con
have been too easily believed) of their life servation and spread of literature, existed
and conduct, must still dwell upon the no longer. The printing press, which
causes which led to their ruin and utter already in the early years of Henry VIII.

collapse. had become a vast power, had effectually

Among these causes, first of all the superseded the monk and the friar as a

waning power of Rome, ever the powerful producer of books or a popular teacher.

patron and devoted friend of the monastic Looking back from the vantage ground of

orders, must be remembered. After the the closing years of the nineteenth century,
removal of the home of the popes from even a true defender of the monastic orders
Rome to Avignon, where for a long period must acknowledge that in the new world
the popes were purely French in policy, of the Tudor dynasty there was no place
the national hatred of England for its old for the monastery of the Middle Ages, no

France, reacted with strange force on

rival,
the position of the monastic orders, who
were bound to Rome by no ordinary ties.
In England they never recovered the popu
larity which they lost in that age while
work for monk and friar. But none the less
must he regret the ways and the method
by which an arbitrary king and an ungrate
fulpeople swept away a vast institution
;
which had done such splendid work for
8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
England and the Church. The recital of has told how the yoke of Rome was shaken
the cruel, ruthless ruin of the monastic off. The Marian reaction in favour of
orders will for ever be a dark page in the mediaeval Christianity and foreign guidance,

chronicles of that Reformation which has which immediately followed, is an interest

contributed so largely toward the making ing and instructive episode, but it is only
of the Church of England. an episode. The reign of Mary s sister and
A brighter page in the momentous successor, Elizabeth, however, a period is

Reformation drama is that which tells how of the highest importance in the making of

Greece arose from the dead with the New

"
the Church of England, scarcely second
Testament in her hand how from the
"

;
in interest to the reign of Henry VIII.,

fallen city of Constantinople and the ruined who commenced the Reformation work.

eastern empire, in 1453, Greek exiles Forced almost against her will, by the cir

brought to Italy (especially to Florence) cumstances of her environment, to be a

the science and literature of the older Protestant queen, the last and noblest of
world ;
how from Florence the "

new the Tudors, with her learned and scholarly

learning" soon reached Oxford,

and the advisers, revised the Anglican formularies
early years of the sixteenth century wit of religion, and somewhat sullenly accepted
nessed the publication of the New Testa the position, since filled by all who followed
ment in its original language. Then arose her on the British throne, as supreme
that honoured school of critics and com governor on earth of the Church of

mentators which unfolded the long-lost England.

meaning of
many and sayings
of the words Another curious and striking study will
of the Divine Founder of Christianity, and be the tracing of the rise of the two great
so helped the patient scholars of the Re parties into which the people of the re
formation the teaching of
to restore to formed Church soon divided themselves
the Church the primitive doctrines of our the Puritans and the High Church Angli
most holy faith. cans. Under the now well-known names
The Reformation necessarily occupies a of Churchmen and Nonconformists, these
considerable space in our history, a space parties exist to this day, with many and
out of proportion to the time occupied by varied developments, somewhat as they
the events specially connected with it. For were when Elizabeth the Tudor and
its importance cannot be over-estimated. James and Charles the Stuarts were
It rudely toreaway the veil which Lanfranc sovereigns. The Puritans, it will be seen,
and the Normans had so carefully thrown taking advantage of the unpopularity of
over the ancient teaching and practices of the Anglican party under leaders of the
the Anglo-Saxon Church teaching and school of Laud, gained for a time the

practices mostly based on an immemorial upper hand, and in the days of the Com
antiquity whose obscuration had been, monwealth, tyrannised with an unloved
on the whole, ever strange to and un tyranny over the religious
life of England ;

loved by the English people. But the but, although some

in respects their
recital is by no means concluded when it peculiar doctrines and teaching answered
P-I

w
7
^.
o>
ft;

5 t

5|S
>

w .
01 ft;

W "N
10 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
to men s
higher aspirations, it is clear of the true and spiritual Nonconformist
that the Puritans never found the key among us is a source of strength, not of
to English hearts. After a brief supre weakness, to the Church whose eventful
macy, they in their turn gave way to historyis to be told in these pages.

the supporters of what is generally known The concluding chapters of our work must
as the Anglican system, restored by the relate the last important revival of Church
great divines of the Tudor Sovereigns life in England up to the end of the nine
after the model of primitive tradition ;
teenth century. The events which have
the complete independence of the Church occurred since that date are too recent to be
from all Roman and foreign- interference, treated in their right perspective or alto

however, ever forming a prominent feature gether impartially. Not once or twice in the
in this Anglican system, which has been long and many-coloured history, the melan
accepted as the national religion of our choly record of decay in spiritual fervour
country. and intellectual activity occurs and recurs ;

The existence, however, of a large a decay, however, always succeeded by a

body of earnest and religious men out period of splendid activities and reawakened
side the pale of the Church of England, zeal and devotion. Such a golden period
but inside the broader pale of the Church of reawakened devotion and energy has
of Christ, must never be ignored by the occurred in this present nineteenth cen
fair historian. While deploring the schism tury, shared in alike by both the great
which separates so many devout souls from parties into which the Anglican Church
the communion of our national Church, is divided. It has been shared in by the
and grieving over the partial blindness earnest men who love and reverence the
which veils from their eyes the beauty and traditions of their saintly fathers with a
the strength of our gteat historic Chui ch of beautiful and
touching devotion, which
England the Church of Aidan and Cuth- perhaps now and again shades into some
bert, of Wilfrid and Dunstan, of Anselm thing like superstition, and even formalism ;

and Langton, of Grosseteste and Wyclif, of shared in also by those who, while fervent
Cranmer and Ridley, of Hooker and Pear lovers of Christ and imitators of His servant
son the faithful and loyal churchman will Paul, are perhaps too ready to despise
never forget to do justice to the successors traditions, however holy, and customs and
of the sturdy and honest, though mistaken rites, however saintly and venerable. The
Puritans, who did good work and true in present golden age of spiritual fervour and
the days of the unhappy Stuarts, and who intellectual activity is the outcome of the
in our day and time are fighting in noble restless work alike of High Churchmen
rivalry with the Church of England in the and Low Churchmen, whose healthy rivalry

never-ending campaign against sin and is not the least among the sources of the

shame, against the abominations and cor lifeand power of the immemorial Church
ruptions of the heathen world, both at of England, and both of whom alike share
home and beyond the seas. The presence her heritage of the past.
 CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY.

Obscurity of Early British Church History St. Alban, the first British Martyr Subsequent Prosperity
of the British Church Early Legends as to its Origin Historical Notices Traces of the Early
Church Reasons for their Scarcity Ruthless Character of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest, and almost
complete Extermination of Christianity in England.

HE Church of Britain, Mercians, in the year of our Lord 793, had

for the first three hun established on the spot a famous monas
dred years of its exist tery which, owing to its sacred tradition,
ence shows like a val possessed peculiar privileges. Offa, no doubt,
in built his monks home round the beauti "

ley wrapt mists,

across which some ful church "

which Bede writes of some

fitful lights irregularly fifty years before Offa s days. The vast

gleam."* One of those and splendid Norman abbey, the monastic

a
rare gleams of light is the beautiful story buildings of Offa, the beautiful church
of St. Alban, which helps us in some of marked in succession the sacred
Bede,"

measure to understand the history of the spot where the first Christian martyr in
last years of the third century. It is Britain of whom we possess a record, in
one of the many striking records of brave pain and suffering passed to his rest.
and patient suffering for the Christian The story as Bede tells it, when stripped
faith which are treasured up in different of its useless marvellous adjuncts, is a simple
lands records which, for the most part, one. A
Christian presbyter in Britain,
lave a foundation of truth underlying the proscribed and hunted down by the stern
superstructure of marvellous and incredible edict emanating from the seat of govern
events often piled by later chroniclers over ment in Rome, asked hospitality and a
he first true, simple story. In this instance temporary refuge from a Roman-British
he legend, no doubt, faithfully repre- provincial named Alban, living in Verulam.
ented an incident in the Decian, or in Dean Milman believes Alban to have been
one of the later persecutions of Christians a Roman officer stationed there. From
n our island. the day, many of these Roman
first

The great Norman abbey of St. Albans, soldiers seem to have been kindly disposed
still in scarred but stately beauty one 01
its to the
"

Faith." Like the centurion who

he glories of England, replaced in the far
sack twelfth century a yet older sanctuary.
History tells us how Offa, king of the
* Prof.
Bright.
guarded the Divine Martyr on the cross,
and bowed in much reverence as he watched
the brave and patient sufferer, so Alban was
touched to the heart by the conduct of the
12 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
proscribed and hunted Christian whom he then charged with the grave offence of
sheltered and concealed. He soon adopted attempting to conceal a proscribed and
with intense earnestness the religion of his sacrilegious rebel against the Emperor.
guest and when the messenger of the
;
Alban not
only refused to betray the
Government discovered the poor pres hiding-place of his guest, but publicly de

byter s hiding
-
place, and peremptorily clared that he, too, was one of the pro
demanded that Alban should give him up, scribed Christians. The Roman judge then

W V V-

Phcto : Chester Vaughan, Acton, W.

ST. ALBANS ABBEY.

Alban refused. The Roman soldier s arrest urged him to purge himself of his crime
naturally followed. against the State, by sprinkling incense on
The scene of the trial was a striking the altar before the images of the Emperor
one. Led into the presence of the Im and the gods adored by Rome. Alban
perial magistrate, who was sitting sur refused, boldly saying,
"

I am a Christian,
rounded by all the stately insignia with and I worship and adore the true and living
which Rome was in the habit of investing God, Who created all things." Persisting
her great officers, the altar of sacrifice before in his refusal, he was scourged. He bore
him, the statue of the Emperor and the the torture of that cruel punishment
images of the gods were solemnly brougru patiently, says the old record, or rather
"

into the magistrate s presence the incense ; ioyfully, for our Lord s sake,"
and was then
and the wine to accompany the supplication led out to death. His head was struck
were placed ready. The soldier Alban was off in a spot called Holmhurst a woody
 MARTYRDOM OF ST. ALBAN.

place, where the "

beautiful church "

when they had

of both sexes suffered, who,
was afterwards built to his memory, and endured sundry torments, and their limbs
where now the grey and massive Abbey of had been torn after an unheard-of manner,
St. Albans stands. yielded their souls up, to enjoy in the

TRIAL OF ST ALBAN (p. 12).

The same old writer,* to whom we owe heavenly city a reward tor the sufferings
so many pages of true history, closes his they had passed through." He further
little recital of the memorable death of relates how "

after a time the storm of

the martyr, by relating how in the same persecution ceased, and the faithful Chris
dread persecution in Britain, many more "

tians of our island rebuilt the churches

Bede. levelled to the ground, celebrating festivals,

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
and performing their sacred rites with clean marshes and sluggish streams. There, the
heart and mouth and how the peace con ; legend goes on to say, Joseph made his
tinued in the churches of Britain until the staff take root in the earth and grow into

day of the Arian madness, which, having the famous Holy Thorn. From Glaston

corrupted the whole world, infected this bury as a centre, the faith of Christ
island also." This peace in the churches spread over the island. Though this
continued for nearly a century after the legend apparently owes its genesis, or at
martyrdom of St. Alban, until about A.D. least its preservation, to Norman sources

394, when thedisputes connected with the in the twelfth century, it is certain that

heresy of Pelagius* on the subject of man s Glastonbury had bee^i a place renowned
free-will began to distract the Church of for sanctitymany generations before the
Britain. Norman Conquest it was
evidently a
;

famous sanctuary as early as the fifth

What now do we know of the laying
century. We
hear of the greatest and
of the early stones of this Christianity, most successful of the Celtic missionaries,
which must have taken so great a hold St. Patrick, for a time his home;
making it

upon the Roman-British provincials long and, as some think, it contains his grave.
before the close of the third century, when But though the preaching of Joseph of
the great persecution we have just been Arimathaea in Britain belongs to legend
speaking of harried so cruelly Christian ary history, there is no doubt but that
Britain, levelling its many churches to the Christianity was introduced into Britain at
ground ?
a very early period. Tertullian s state
The beautiful mediaeval romance which
ment, written as early as A.D. 196-201,
tells us how St. sent his friend
Philip that places in Britain not yet visited
"

of Arimathaea from Gaul into

Joseph by Romans were subjected to Christ,"
Britain, belongs to a Norman school of shows that the great North African scholar
teachers. No Saxon writer alludes to it.
believed that Christianity had already
William of Malmesbury, who tells the penetrated even beyond the limits of
story, relates how Joseph of Arimathaea, Roman conquest in Britain. It must be
with twelve companions, fixed himself at remembered that when Tertullian wrote
Glastonbury, then called Ynis-vitryn, the scarcely one hundred years had elapsed
Glassy Isle. It was encompassed by watery since St. John had passed away. As early
* This Pelagius was a native of our island, is no doubt that three
as A.D. 314 there
probably a monk, but attached to no community attended by an
;
British bishops, equal
he taught and wrote at the end of the fourth and
in the early years of the fifth century. His heresy number of presbyters and deacons, were
consisted in the affirmation of the
"

Freedom of
present at the great Council of Aries, in
the Human in opposition to the Catholic
France, and their signatures
Will,"
the south of
teaching of the Power of Divine Grace." His
"

most famous opponent has been St. Augustine. are appended to the canons enacted at that
The Pelagian tenets were condemned, with more famous assembly. This would indicate
or less severity, in various provincial Councils and
that, two hundred years after the death
Synods, and formally by the voice of the Catholic
Church in the General Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431. of St. John, not only was Christianity
 EARLY MEMORIES OF THE BRITISH CHURCH.
known in Britain, but that a formally- the faith carried on their work in the
organised church, with a regular hier island are, and must remain, unknown.
archy, existed in the island. Only a few One tradition seems never to have been
years later, British bishops probably were absent from the early British church ;
it
*
present at the Church councils of Sardica comes out again and again, and in some
and of Ariminium.t Bede also relates way accounts for the strange obstinacy

how a little earlier in the same cen with which they held to certain peculiar
tury, 304, the persecution of the
A.D. rites and customs, which differed from
Emperor Diocletian reached Britain, and the general rites and customs of western
how many persons there, with the con Christendom. The British Christians
stancy of martyrs, died in the confession traced these peculiar practices of small
of their faith. The same historian, too, interest themselves, but which, as we
in
dwells on the fact that numbers of the shall see, in the seventh and eighth cen

faithful in Britain, in the course of this turies acquired a fictitious importance in

persecution, hid themselves in woods and the unhappy rivalry between the Celtic
caves, and that these, after the time of and Roman churches to the teaching of
trialwas ended, appeared again in public, St. John and his pupils. It is, therefore,
and rebuilt their churches which had been highly probable that the Roman-British
levelled with the ground. provincials received the faith in the first
Such notices as these, by writers in instance from men who came from Jeru
different lands, the records of chroniclers salem or Ephesus from men who had
of church councils, and others, amply listened to the voice of John. The legend
justify the historian s deliberate opinion of Joseph of Arimathaea at Glastonbury,
that "

there can be no doubt that con not improbably was originally part of the
quered and half-civilised Britain, like the same ancient tradition.

rest of the Roman

Empire, gradually re Another curious and interesting fact in
ceived through the second and third cen connection with these few early memories
turies the faith of Christ the depth of ;
of the church in Britain is its cordial
her Christian cultivation appears from her alliance with the native Druidism that

fertility in saints and heretics." J The strange mystic faith with which the first^
rare and somewhat doubtful legends which missionaries must have come into daily
speak of the beginnings of British Chris contact. A kind of alliance seems to have

tianity are, after all, of little importance in existedbetween Christianity and Druidism ;

the face of facts like these, which tell us the Christian teachers evidently took pos

authoritatively that a considerable Chris session of the holy places of the island,
tian church existed in Britain from consecrating them to a new and a better
very early days, though the exact circum worship. Bangor, a name appropriated
stances in which the first preachers of in Britain and in Ireland to several famous

* and ancient monastic foundations, signifies,

Sofia in Bulgaria.
t Rimini. according to many interpretations,
"

the
J Dean Milman Latin Great thus connecting these places
"

:
Christianity." Circle,"
i6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
with Druidical worship and Druidical now divided the vast Empire. Constan-

remains, and showing how Christianity tius share was the West ; and, though he
had occupied and superseded them. The carried out the persecuting edicts of
close connection between the Druid bard Diocletian, he is described even by Christian
and the Christian teacher will appear writers as a man of courtesy and clemency.
when we come to relate the dark story On succeeding to supreme power, however,
of the fifth and sixth centuries, when the he professed himself a Christian, and under
the sunshine of Imperial favour, the
churches ruined during the late perse
cution were rebuilt, and the scattered

congregations were again permitted to

worship publicly. Constantius himself
soon died (A.D. 306), and was buried at
York (Eboracum), but Constantine, his
son, the Christian Emperor, succeeded.
His mother, the famous Helena, was prob
ably of British lineage some suppose her ;

to have been the daughter of a British

prince, but more trustworthy tradition

relates that she sprang from the people.
We still possess no formal record of the
British church, but the presence, already
alluded to, of British bishops at the Council
of Aries (A.D. 314), at that of Sardica in

347, and at that of Ariminium in A.D.

ST. JOSEPH S CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY. 359, tells us that the British church was
reckoned in the first half of the fourth

Anglo-Saxons were doing their hard and century as a power in Christendom.

cruel work in Britain. Hilary of Poitiers indeed congratulates
^
After the great Decian persecution had his British brethren on their freedom from

ceased, the story of the British church all contagion of the heresy of Arius.* St.

emerges into a partial light out of the * The distinctive tenet of this heretic s teaching

obscurity which had hitherto veiled it. was the denial of the Saviour s Arius
"

godhead."
himself taught in the early years of the fourth
In the year 305 the Emperor Diocletian,
century; his doctrines were formally condemned
wearied with absolute power, carried out in the first General Council of Nice, A.D. 325. His
a long cherished design, and, abdicating, views, and a modification of them under the general
titleof Semi-Arianism, have appeared and reap
retired for rest into his beautiful villa-
peared in all the Christian ages, but have ever met
palace of Salona, on the Adriatic. Con- with the sternest condemnation on the part of the
stantius and Galerius, who, as assistant- Catholic Church. The present Unitarians hold " "

the same doctrinal views, but possess only a very

emperors each bearing the title of Cassar limited influence compared with the Arians of the
had been rulers in a subordinate capacity, patristic age.
 EARLY MEMORIES OF THE BRITISH CHURCH.
Athanasius alludes to the inhabitants of Pictish tribes, a missionary establishment
the island as among orthodox sup
his known as the White House (Candida

porters, as among those faithful ones who, Casa). It was this Ninian of whose life

when many fell away, remained steadfastly and labours we possess scarcely any in

loyal to the Catholic faith. St. Chrysostom, formation who in after times, strangely

too, writes of the British Isles as pro enough, was revered as the apostle of

fessing the Christian faith, and especially the southern Picts. He died in 432.

ASSEMBLING FOR DRUIDICAL WORSHIP.

mentions the churches and altars there This well-nigh all the history
is we
erected. St. Jerome also names our island possess of the British church of the first

with approval; for Britain, "he says, "wor

"

days. We have, however, enough of these

ships the same Christ, observes the same scant relics to assure us of its existence.
rule of truth with other Christian countries." It was probably numerous and influential ;

Early in the fifth century we read of it was certainly earnest and devoted. It
Ninian, a native of the Cumbrian district possessed a regular organisation it was ;

in North Britain, afterhaving studied at ruled by bishops who were acknowledged

Rome, erecting in the wild districts of the as the successors of the Apostles by the
south of Scotland, on the churches of Western Christendom
promontory called great ;

Whithorne, the home of the marauding but we possess no details, on which we can
i8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
certainly depend, of its history, or of the it lasted roughly 1
50 to 200 years spared
position which it held among the Roman nothing ;
all was destroyed. The old life

officials or soldiers. of Britain its cities, its people, its faith

The visible traces of Roman-British vanished as though it had never existed.

Christianity in the England with which Only a poor remnant of the people, carrying
we are acquainted are few indeed. A with them their faith, had found a refuge
few stones marked with the Christian in the west of the island (including Devon
monogram in Roman Villas, a few tiles and Cornwall), and in Cumberland (Strath-
marked I.H.S., here and there a tomb clyde). It will be deeply interesting to

stone recording that a Christian slept see what they carried with them of Chris
below, complete the scanty list. Traces tianity, when we come to speak of these

of some ecclesiastical Romano - British dispossessed ones in detail.

work have been discovered at Lyminge Men are coming at length to see now
in Kent, and at Brixworth. In the ex that the awful scenes of the Northmen s

cavations at Silchester, near Reading invasion are fairly studied among us that

destroyed in the sixth century, probably
by Ceawlin, the West-Saxon King the
foundations, fairly perfect, of a British
church of the fourth and fifth century have
been found, with the sanctuary pavement
and similar precious finds
intact (p. 19),
"
the British people who were swept away
by the invaders were not that timorous
easily-conquered folk most men have im
agined them. Their struggle against the
barbarian was no weak and unworthy one.
"
"

Nowhere throughout the whole circuit

may with tolerable certainty be looked for. of the Roman world, was so long, so
But up to the present time very scanty are desperate a resistance offered to the assail
the gleanings of British remains which ants of the Empire as by Britain." A
can with any certainty be identified as popular belief ascribes if not cowardice, at
Christian though, in spite of the scanty
;
least supineness to the British inhabitants

contemporary historical mention and the of our island after the departure of the
fewness of relics of ancient British Chris Roman legionaries ;
and the northern

tianity, we have good reason to believe invaders are generally supposed to have
that the British church before the coming had, on the whole, an easy task before them
of the North-folk was a flourishing and when they proceeded to take possession
community, well instructed in
influential of the country. The contrary, however,
Divine truth, earnest and devout. The was the case. Of all the nations under the
reasons for this belief will be more pro dominion of the Roman Empire, it is the
perly dealt with and discussed as the story Britons whose
long and bitter
alone
of the Church proceeds. struggle with the northern barbarian has
The paucity of relics of our ancient a history ;
and that history lasted well-nigh
church can easily be accounted for. Over two centuries.
our island in the fifth and sixth centuries The chronicles of that dreary period are

swept a desolating flood of barbarian con most meagre, but taken into account
querors, who, in their slow but cruel march with the ruins which we can still trace.
 NATURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST.
clear that every district was hotly desolate towns. Every Roman
"

it is station

fought for. Farm by farm, village by and house in the north shows traces of
village, town by town, was only won after having been destroyed by fire."* Similar
stubborn fighting. The defenders at least, havoc and utter destruction can be traced
as many as survived the bloody work in the south and midlands. The fate of

suddenly withdrew a little space, and then Anderida in Sussex is a good instance of
stoutly endeavoured again to stay the the doom of the southern cities. The

ThEPKIOW. WhlTMORN

WHITHORN PRIORY ON THE SITE OF THE

"CANDIDA CASA."

terrible words of the Saxon Chronicle pre

sently cited tell tersely, but with awful

clearness, the story of its fall. Anderida

remained as a wreck of uninhabited stones :

RUINS OF ANCIENT CHURCH (ON THE ISLAND OF this was its condition in the twelfth cen
WHITHORN LOCALLY KNOWN AS ST. NINIAN S tury; its square of walls remains lonely
CHURCH). and uninhabited still.
(Photos: Messrs. W. Hunter (y Son, Newton-Stewart.)
Nowhere perhaps in the island, though,
conqueror s onward march. The fault do we possess so striking an object-lesson,
in the resistance of the allied British- teaching us the pathetic details of the
Provincials was want of union among true story of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of
themselves, not lack of patriotism or of Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum), the famous
splendid courage. Roman-British near our modern
city
The prolonged and stubborn defence of A vast weird wall of remote
Reading.
the British people left only burned and * Canon Raine.
 20 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
antiquity imposing still in its ruin en cities were utterly destroyed this was espe:

closes a large area of ploughed land, golden cially the case in the east and south. The
in the summer months with waving corn. very memory of the people had perished.
The patient industry of modern antiquaries The British tongue, the language of the
has uncovered parts of the enclosure sur mass of the people even under Roman rule,
rounded by these ancient walls, and with though it lived on as the tongue of the
little difficulty we can trace the founda fugitives in Wales and the remote West,
tions of the streets, the shops, the temples, has left hardly a trace in England proper.

Photo: S. V. White, Reading.

EXCAVATED REMAINS OF AN EARLY BRITISH CHURCH, SILCHESTER.

the forum, the basilica of the once What now of

faith? What of
the

flourishing showing well-nigh

Silchester, that Christianity which had lived and
everywhere the marks of the terrible fire flourished for some four hundred years in
which no doubt closely followed the sack Britain ?
Nothing brings home to us so
"

and plunder of the renowned Roman- vividly the change which had passed over
British city. the conquered country, as the entire dis
The fate of Silchester was the fate of appearance of the older religion." When
every city east of the Severn, in southern, Rome long afterwards sought to renew its
in middle and eastern The contact with
England. Britain, it was as with a
result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion was heathen country. When missionaries at
that well-nigh every Roman and every last made their way into its bounds, there
Briton vanished out of the land. Their is no record of their having found a single
 CHRISTIANITY SWEPT AWAY. 21

Christian ;
in the whole of the conquered latter half of the seventh century, many
land (east of the Severn) Christianity had harsh measures, intended to obliterate
disappeared. The church, and the organi Celtic influence in the church, were de
sation of the church, had vanished as visedby the ever-growing party of Rome.
though it had never been. This will ac Yet this animosity would never account
count for the extreme paucity of relics of for the complete wiping out of all vestiges
the ancient British Church. of the old British Christianity. Nothing
To dwell again for an instant on one but the unexampled character of the Anglo-
detail of the vanished church, it is true Saxon conquest could have accomplished
that Church historians largely attribute the so complete a work of obliteration.
absence of the Celtic saints among the We have, therefore, from the absence of

dedications of the Saxon and Norman visible remains, or the paucity of contem

churches, to the influence or Bishop porary records, no grounds for entertain

Wilfrid, of Archbishop Theodore, and of ing the too common idea that the British
the Roman school in the seventh and Church before the coming of the Saxon
eighth centuries. There is no doubt but and the Angle, was either numerically
that between the Celtic disciples of the great weak, or deficient in organisation, or of
Irish and Scottish missionaries Columba small influence or importance. cannotWe
and Aidan, and those who received their endorse the words of a famous historian
Christianity from Roman teachers, such as our who considers that
"

of Church,
Augustine, Paulinus, and Wilfrid, a bitter Christianity had struck but feeble roots

animosity existed and as the Roman

;
in the land before the coming of the
school gradually became supreme in the Northmen."

ST. AI.BAN S SHRINE, ST. AI.BANS ABBEY.

 CHAPTER II.

THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH DURING THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST.

Invasion of England by the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, A.D. 449-485 Terrible and complete Extermina
tion of the British Inhabitants Sources of Information concerning that Period Sack of a City
described by Gildas The British Bards Their Testimony to Christian Faith and Organisation
And to Corruption of Life and Manners among the Britons.

A the close of the sixth century the

borderland of the Angles, Saxons,
and Jutes
*
ran from Ettrick across
of the Britons had taken refuge, had
to tempt the invader.
The Roman legions were finally with
little

Cheviot, along the Yorkshire moors to drawn by the Emperor Honorius about
the Peak of Derbyshire thence by the ;
A.D. 409. It was about forty years after

Forest of Arden to the mouth of the their departure that the terrible northerners
Severn ;
then across the Severn estuary by began their conquest in real earnest. The
Mendip through the woods of Dorset to Jutes,under Hengist and Horsa, landed
the sea. Britain was virtually conquered in the Isle of Thanet in 449. By the
and parcelled out. The wild land to west year 475 Kent was completely conquered ;

ward and northward, whither the remnant Ella and the south Saxons had overrun
Sussex beforeDuring the same
491.
* The geographical signification of these tribal period the East Saxons had made them
names is given at length on page 112, chapter VI.
selves masters of the country north of the
On the term Angle, we would observe that the
spellings "Angle or
"

Engle are interchangeable.

" "

mouth of the Thames ;

the Angles, in 480,
They are used to designate the same people, who
conquered all the district of the east known
dwelt originally along the Elbe and on the banks
of the Weser, and also on the narrow neck of land subsequently as East Anglia. The latter
which parts the Baltic from the North Sea. These tribe very soon afterwards penetrated
or roughly made up the
"

northward, and founded Angle or Engle

"Angles," Engles,"

conquering tribes who occupied Northumbria and

Deira (Yorkshire), Middle Britain (Mercia), and kingdoms stretching from the Firth of
the eastern counties (East Anglia). It is not pos Forth to the river Humber. Another
sible to adopt always the same term when speak
division of these Angles had subjugated
ing of them, for the terms Engle-land, England,
Englishman, compel us frequently to use the Middle England aftenvards known as
word "

Engle while such widely used and

"

In the mean
;
Mercia, by the year 560.
comprehensive expressions as Anglo-Saxon,
Anglican, etc., seem to call us back to the
time, between A.D. 514 and 552, the West
other name Angle." Again, the settlers in that Saxons, under Cerdic and Cynric, slowly
"

great district of our island known as the Eastern drove the Britons westward. The pitched
Counties, have given to that district the name of
East Anglia, an appellation current among us to battle of Deorham, in 577, followed by
this day. the fall and sack of the cities of Bath,
449-585-] EXTERMINATION OF THE BRITISH.
Gloucester, and Cirencester, threw the A.D. 456. This year, Hengist and JEsc slew
four troops of Britons with the edge of
western part of the island open to the
the sword in the place which is named
invaders, and before A.D. 585 the conquest Creecanford [Crayford].
of the west country was completed. A.D. 457. This year, Hengist and ysc his son

Such a bald chronicle of the successive fought against the Britons, and slew there
[at Crayford] four thousand men, and the
landings of fresh hordes of North-folk, of Britons then forsook Kent, and fled to

bloody battles, of sieges, and the fall and London.

Photo, /. Dugdale Co., Bath.

EXCAVATED REMAINS OF ROMAN BATH AT BATH.
(Before restoration.}

ruin of fair tells the long- A.D. 491. This year Aella and Cissa besieged
cities, curtly
Andredceaster [Anderida in Sussex], and
drawn-out agony of the British in their
slew all that dwelt therein, so that not a
unequal conflict. The Saxon Chronicle, single Briton was there left.
A.D. 577. This year Cuthwine and Ceawlin the
copied probably from contemporary records
West-Saxons fought against the Britons,
in the scriptorium or writing-chamber of
and they slew three kings, Conmail, and
the monastery at Winchester, if referred Candidan and Farinmael, at the place
would add but little further information which is called Deorham, and took three
to,
cities from them, Gloucester, Cirencester.
save perhaps some such harrowing details, and Bath.
couched in the fewest possible words, as
these following :
Reading these short, dreary descriptions,
24 THE CHURCH OF ENGLANU [449585.

the student hurries quickly on, forgetting in from the female slaves who must here
what a scene of utter misery and desola and there have been seized by the invaders.
tion is covered by the curt record of the And as with the names and towns and
fall of Anderida, where all that were within language, so too with the faith of Britain :

that hapless city perished by famine, or it perished utterly.

the sword, or in the flames of their ruined What now is the true story of this vanish
houses. Four lines are sufficient to de ing away of British Christianity ? That it

scribe the stricken field of Deorham, which existed once, a mighty influence, we shall

sealed the fate of the west of Britain, be able to show from the meagre relics
and to paint the sack and destruction of its literature that it was once strong,
;

of the three beautiful cities of Bath, and full of noble purpose and restless

Gloucester, and Cirencester. Bath and striving, we are in a still stronger position
Gloucester from various causes recovered to assert, as we can point to the enduring

century of desolation, the

after a
"

awful work and matchless energy of the poor

morrow of the fight at Deorham.
"

Ciren fugitives who, after a splendid and pro

cester never won back
old position, andits tracted resistance, escaped, few in number
remains a small country town to this day and stripped of everything but their faith,
about a third of its former size. into the desolate fastnesses of the wild and
But what of the Church of Britain barren west. The resurrection and life

during these awful days ? What is its of the Celtic church after the crushing

eventful story during these 150 years of disaster which apparently overwhelmed it

perhaps the most cruel and most desolating with complete and utter ruin, is, indeed,
conquest recorded in history ? It must be a story worth telling a story which no
remembered that the country after the Englishman can surely read unmoved ;

conquest showed no sign of British or without, indeed, a thrill of pride and thank
Roman life that in the history
;
we owe to fulness.

Bede, written shortly after the Northmen We possess four well - known and
had finished their terrible work, we meet authentic documents ;
the first of them
with no British or Roman names at all ;
written during the terrible events which
that amidst the hundreds of men and took place in the course of the 1 50 years
women whom Bede records as living and of the conquest of the Britons, by one

acting in the new England there is not who was evidently an eye-witness of the
one whose name not certainly English
is ;
deeds and disasters of which he writes ;

that as the conquest passed over them, the other three composed shortly after the
the towns of Roman Britain sank into events in question, when information was
ruins ;
that with this desolating conquest procurable from eye-witnesses, or from
the British towns all disappear. The those who had conversed with eye-wit
language of the Britons also vanished. nesses of at least a portion of the tragedy.
The Celtic words
our earlier English
in The first are the works of Gildas. They
are few, and mostly words of domestic use, consist of two pieces the Historia and
such as basket, which may well have crept the Epistnla but they may be viewed as

-
449 5 8 5-] FATE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH.
forming one treatise. The second, third, bards, who lived and wrote in the sixth
and fourth consist of the History of Nennius, century ;
and the poems are, in the
the earlier portion of the Saxon Chronicle, majority of cases, probably the work of
and the important History of Bede. men who seem to have been eye-witnesses
But besides these three often -quoted of the events they sing. If these are
histories and the meagre earlier records of genuine in such a story as we are now

LANDING OF THE JUTES.

the Saxon Chronicle, there exist a few poems tellingthey are, of course, of the highest
of great antiquity in the ancient dialect value and of the deepest interest.
of Wales, whose theme is the war between The foundation stories of the famous
the Britons and their Saxon and Angle mediaeval Arthurian romance appear in
foes. The poems number, and
are few in them, and the real King Arthur, who lived
the more ancient songs might be con and warred in the first quarter of the sixth
tained in the compass of a small volume. century, is found among the British heroes
They are the work professedly of three of our ancient songs but he is a very
;
26 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [550560.

different Arthur from the blameless king who drawbacks, they possess a peculiar beauty
isthe centre figure of the various Arthurian of their own, a passionate and a restless

romances of the Trouveurs of the brilliant force and power like no other known
court of Henry II. in the twelfth century. poetry.They tell the story of the awful
In the old bardic poems here referred to, agony of the Britons in a way no dry
Arthur spoken of as a well-known and
is chronicle, no mere historical memoirs, could
famous warrior-king but he is only one ; hope to do. The reader who patiently
and not even the favourite one of a studies these strange songs feels they are

group of chieftains who warred in those the real outcome of the hearts of patriot

desperate but hopeless campaigns in ;

sharers in the deadly war for the poet, ;

deed, only five of our poems mention him while dwelling in weird, and even at times
at all.But one fact is deserving of special in glowing language, upon the splendid

notice, the Arthur of Nennius and of " "

devotion of his national heroes, never

the pre-eminently a attempts to conceal their weaknesses, never
"

bardic songs
"

is

Christian leader. tries to draw a veil over their mistakes,

The ancient poems to which we are their backsliding, their sins. No language
here referring as contemporary pieces of is too glowing when the ancient British

history,* are mostly descriptive of battle song-men hymn the prowess and the splen
scenes ;
several of them are death-songs of did valour of their heroic fellow-country
famous chiefs. They are deeply coloured men but no words are too severe when
;

with profound melancholy they breathe ; they deplore the vices which these truth-
throughout a hopeless lamentation for the telling lovers of their lost country were
calamities of a ruined people ; scarcely a conscious had much to do with- the fatal

ray of hope lights up these sombre and national disasters. Only British eye-wit
melancholy folk-songs, whose sad burden nesses of the deeds and disasters the theme

throughout is lamentation and mourning of these strange poems could possibly have
and woe. We feel that they are mutilated, drawn such a picture as these bardic folk
here and there altered, often re-edited, songs present to us.
even re-cast ;
at times the old dialect is un But the important witness which these
translatable ; but, notwithstanding these contemporary poets of the long-drawn-out
war which resulted in the conquest of
The Britain, bear to the Christianity of the
question of the critical value of these war
songs of the Bards, is discussed at some length in British people before the conquest of the
Excursus A, The Contemporary Authorities for
"

Anglo -
Saxon, is what we have here
the history of the Church of Britain in the 6th
and 7th centuries," at the end of the volume. especially to dwell on. The patriot bards
While dn the one hand the rare MSS. containing of the sixth and seventh centuries were
them belong to a post-Norman age, the internal
evidence supplied by the poems themselves is of evidently Christians, writing of and to
such a nature as to enable scholars to agree in Christian people.
the main with the conclusions of Sharon Turner, Gildas (circa 550-560) the genuine
Dr. Guest, Villeraarque, Mr. Green, and Pro
fessor Skene, who use some of these poems as
ness of whose history is now absolutely
authentic pieces of contemporary history. undoubted, and who wrote, too, with
550560.] GILDAS THE BRITISH BARDS. 27

the authority of an eye-witness of some with no chance of being buried, save in

of the scenes he chronicles describes, the ruins of the houses or in the ravening
in words somewhat turgid and rhetorical, bellies of wild beasts and birds." The stern,

the sack of a British city by an Anglo- curt language of the Saxon Chronicle,
Saxon army. Here the Christian aspect describing, for instance, the fall of Anderida
of the doomed city appears especially in Sussex, as already cited on p. 19, shows
to have been the thoughtdominant this description was not exaggerated.
in the mind of and Gildas, it
Gildas, It was in the course of this terrible and
should be remembered, was far from protracted agony of the Britons, that the
being an indiscriminate admirer of the bardic poems the folk-songs of the people

religion and morality of his fellow-country who were so slowly, and only after a long
men. He lashed what he looked upon as and determined resistance, either exter
their backslidings with an unsparing pen; minated or a poor remnant driven into
with a pen so merciless, indeed, that his the fastnesses of the west were probably
words of bitter fault-finding have been composed. The historicalpoems of the
even looked upon as not a little exagger British bards were no doubt animated
ated. But in spite of this anger at the rather by a Pagan than a Christian spirit
errors of the church of his countrymen, the spirit of bitter hatred of a merciless
the Christian aspect of the city whose fall foe. But in spite of the Pagan vengeful
he describes, very remarkable, and evi
is spirit which lives along the pages of these
dently points to the fact that in these strange sad poems, Christian allusions crop
British cities, before the Saxon conquest, up in them here and there; comparatively
the "Faith of Christ" had obtained a few in number it is true, but still
amply
recognised position and
widespread a sufficient to show that the bardic writers
influence. His description of a doomed were well instructed in the faith of Christ,

city is as follows : and wrote for people equally well in

All the columns speaks of the structed, otherwise of the allusions
" "

(he many
assaults of the enemy as though they were would be simply meaningless. The bitter,
especially made on the church or temple protracted war of extermination, the
of God)
"

were levelled with the ground relentless cruelties of the Anglo-Saxon

by the frequent strokes of the battering- invaders, persuasion, ever grbwing
the
ram, all the husbandmen routed, together stronger and stronger, that the country
with the bishops, priests, and people, whilst they loved so passionately was lost to
the sword gleamed and the flames crackled them for ever, had, so to speak, dried up
round them on every side ;
lamentable to in our British songmen well-nigh all the
behold, in the midst of the street lay the spirit of Christianity but still Christian
;

tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground ;

ideas and Christian words and terms
stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments lingered in their minds, and even a
of human bodies covered with livid clots of cursory examination of these ancient folk
coagulated blood, looking as if
they had songs brings to light such allusions as
been squeezed together in a press, and the following :
 28 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [550-560.

"

May he find a complete reception There are also allusions to the u Great
With the Trinity in perfect Unity."
Son of Mary," and the Gracious Son of "

Gododin, Poems : Book of Aneurin.

Mary
"

in the Book of Taliesin.

"

No one will be satisfied

With the power of the Trinity."
"

Let him who offends Christ sleep not ;

Gododin, Poems : Book of Taliesin. Let not a man sleep, for the sake of the passion
Of the Son of God, but wake up at early dawn,
"

In the name of the God of Trinity." And he will obtain heaven and forgiveness."
Death Song of Erof: Book of Taliesin.
Attributed to Elaeth. a Royal Bard of the 6th or ^th
"

May the Trinity grant me Black Book of Carmarthen.

Century :

Mercy in the Day of Judgment."

Booh of Taliesin. great Gododin
In the poem (Book of

Aneurin) we read :

References to the invocation of the

Trinity are to be met with frequently "

He gave gold to the altar."

in these poems. Baptism is mentioned

several times in such passages as
The Gododin contains the words

Firmly did he clasp in his hands a blue blade,

"

"

Ercwlf chief of baptism

Ercwlf said . . ."
A shaft ponderous as a chief priest s crozier ;
"

Death Song of Erof : Book of Taliesin.

"

I saw great anxiety

and in the same group of poems we find

the hosts of also the statement

Among baptism."
Urien Reged : Red Book of Hergerst.
"

Since he has received the Communion, he shall

"

With blades full of vigour in defence of baptism." be interred."

Gododin: Book of Aneurin -

"

enrich the praises of baptism,

I will
These quotations are taken from his
At the baptism of the Ruler the worshippers
wondered." Book of Taliesin.
torical songs from war-songs for the most
part attributed to the three great bards,
Joyful, the bards of baptism.
"

Whilst thy life continues." Aneurin, Taliesin, and Llywarch-Hen,

Urien Reged : Book of Taliesin. who were contemporary witnesses of the

There are several mentions of Christ deadly contest between the Britons and
and ofJesus : the Anglo-Saxon invaders, and they by
no means exhaust the Christian allusions
"

I will pray to the Lord, the Great Supreme,

That I be not wretched, Christ be my portion." imbedded in the ancient relics of British
Arthur the Guledig : Book of Taliesin. are
poetry. They especially interesting
"

Erof, the Cruel, caused and important to us are these folk-songs

Treacheries to Jesus." in our inquiry into the existence and
Book of Taliesin.
influence of Christianity during the sad
"

There was a calling on the Creator,

Christ for causes days of the conquest of North-men.
Upon ;

Until the eternal The words, however, ofGildas, written

Should relieve those whomhe had made."
during the same period of deep gloom and
Gododin : Book of Aneurin.
suffering, more important, and
are yet
"

Who was Confessor

To the gracious Son of
throw a strong light upon the question
Mary."

Red Book of Hergerst. of the position which the religion of

Circa 550 600.] THE BRITISH BARDS. 29

Christ held among the British peoples were debased by worldly, and even vicious
before the coming of the North-folk con- habits ;they were neglectful of their holy
querors. functionSj and were guilty of graver sins.

-
t

Unxc scwttnicc-cjwccm
e ccnpe-<feigcopa;

AN EARLY HISTORICAL RECORD : PACK FROM MS. COPY OF BEDE s "ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY," 8TH
CENTURY (British Museum).

Gildas, the
contemporary prose historian Simony was practised among the priests,
of this sad age, in his Epistola, draws a and even with the bishops was this sin not
singularly dark picture of the state of unknown. The best among them were
Britain at the period of the conquest. cowardly, or at least careless, in the matter
According to Gildas, the princes were of rebuking sin. He cites Eli as an in

tyrannical, avaricious, sensual. The clergy stance of this neglect to rebuke open sin.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [Circa 560.

He "

The Warriors went to Cattraeth, they were

begins his scathing diatribe against
famous ;

the church of his people with the bitter Wine and maad from gold had been their liquor.
words Britain has priests, but they are
:
"

Of three heroes, and three score and three

foolish." even this vehement accuser hundred
Still,
Wearing the golden torques,
of his hapless nation owns that Britain yet There escaped only three from the sword."

contained a few good pastors. It is gener Canto XXI.

ally considered by most serious scholars "

Men went to Cattraeth . . .

that Gildas accusations are exaggerated, Pale mead had been their feast, and was their

but they certainly prove the existence of a poison."

Canto V.

considerable and influential church at the "

the light of the rushes drank the

By they
time of the invasion of the North-men. sparkling mead ;
Pleasant was its taste, long was its woe."
The testimony of the above-quoted folk Canto XV.
songs of the national bardic writers "

Idrank wine and mead in Mordai,

Aneurin, Taliesin, and Llywarch-Hen
And because I drank I fell by the side of the
to some extent supports the witness of rampart ;

Gildas the prose writer, in the matter of The fate of allurement." Canto XX.
the falling away of the British nation from
the practice of Christian living in the years There are many similar allusions to this
of the conquest. For these sombre and vice in the poem.
touching poems, which treated of the There seems no question but that the
national disasters in that sad age of ruin fierce relentless war which went on, year
and calamity, while bearing ample testi after year, sapping the life-blood of the
mony to the reckless bravery and splendid British peoples, destroying all their earthly
devotion of the heroic warriors of the hopes and onlooks, weakened at the same
Britons, contain too many a reference to time their religious fervour. Such a bitter
a spirit of vengeance and of cruelty, alas !
"

life-or-death
"

contest would, alas ! too

everywhere present ; contain, too, many a surely stir up all the slumbering, fierce
bitter reproach, many a solemn warning, passions of human nature, by exciting the
connected with the vices which these bitterest feelings of hopeless anger, un
truth-telling patriot song-men felt had satisfied revenge, and intense hatred of
much to do with the fatal national disas their remorseless foes. This hatred was so
ters. They dwell again and again upon indiscriminate and relentless that Bede,
that vice which had grown into a national quoting from Gildas, tells us that the
sin the love of revelling and of drunken Britons,
"

among other most wicked ac

ness. tions expressed, added this,
not to be
Thus in the Gododin poem of the bard that they never preached the faith to the
Aneurin we read : Saxons or English who dwelt among them."
 CHAPTER III.

CELTIC-BRITISH MONASTICISM AND ITS WORK.

Power Wales Its Testimony to the early British Church Ireland evangelised
of Christianity in Ancient
from Wales and England again from Ireland Immense Power and Activity of the Irish Church
St. Patrick His vast Influence and Success Subsequent Decline in religious Fervour, and
revival from Britain St. Bridget Sketch of the Irish Monasteries Abbots and Bishops Life
and Work in the Irish Monasteries.

although many perhaps the ma of the old imperial city, Tadiocus, when
BUT jority of the
British peoples fell he saw the hostile armies pouring in,

away, in this their day of sore trial joined Theonas, bishop of London, and
and utter ruin from Christianity and from all fled for his life to Wales. After this the
that its
holy teaching presses men, home to names "

Welsh "

and "

British
"

are iden
still it is certain that there was a goodly tical.

remnant among the fugitives who had In the story of Christianity in Wales, a
taken shelter in the mountains and valleys few names, and certain interesting particu
of Wales, who were conspicuous as ser lars respecting great monastic foundations
vants of God. Nay more, it is an acknow and eminent men connected with them,
ledged fact that among that poor remnant, still survive. The fact that these vast
in a country destitute of great cities, and of monastic communities sprang up and
allthe appliances of wealth, civilisation, flourished in the latter half of the fifth and
and culture, religion flourished in an extra in the sixth century rests on undoubted
ordinary degree. We
see the strange sight testimony ;
and the knowledge which we
of even great monasteries devoted to re certainly possess that they owed, if not

ligious culture and learning in that poor their foundation, certainly their subse

colony of exiles we find these great

; quent singular prosperity and influence to
religious communities able to aid in no the fugitives from Christian Britain, is an
small degree, even to guide, the singular evidence none can gainsay of the existence
and marvellous springing up and develop of a learned and influential church in
ment of religion and learning in that sad Britain before the Anglo-Saxon conquest.

age, which we shall soon have to study in We find great monasteries, which were
the neighbouring Ireland. at the same time colleges for study and
We
read among the "York" traditions devotion, in this age that is,
in the period
in which are probably the germs of truth between 500 and 600
A.D. flourishing
that when the torrent of Angle invaders in that poor and barren Wales, a country
became so strong as to sweep the British with few cities, a scanty population, cer
out of York for ever, the last British bishop tainly without wealth or culture. Such a
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [500 600

marked activity on the part of these Chris afterwards bishop, the patron saint of
tian fugitives in Wales and Ireland, as is Wales, was trained. This David is said to
shown the foundation and rapid de
in have lived to the age of 100 years, and was
velopment of these great religious and buried in the Monastery of Menevia (St.
educational communities a remarkable Davids), which he had built in the re
development, indeed, when the circum motest extremity of South Wales, where
stances of the founders are taken into
"

the cathedral that bears his name pre

consideration seems to tell us that these sents so unique and pathetic a combi
poor fugitives were reproducing what to nation of indefeasible majesty and irre
a great measure had existed in their own versible decay."
There David, surrounded
country before its subjugation. by the reverence of all, in reality the
We
hear of monasteries such as Bangor chief of the remnant of the British people,
Iscoed, in the south-east corner of Flint died in 544.* A beautiful tradition,
shire, a community said to contain posi perhaps based on fact, says that, when
tively more than 2,000 monks at the time dying, David had a vision in which he
of its sudden and total desolation in the saw Christ, and breathed his last, crying,
eighth century. Another great house was
"

Lord, take me up after Thee."

that Bangor on the Menai Strait, of which St. Cadoc

s great monastery of Llan-

Daniel was the first abbot and bishop, by a carvan, founded apparently soon after the
custom well known and common in these year 522, must not be omitted in this
Celtic foundations. Another holy house bare enumeration of some of the vast
of Bangor, founded by Kentigern, once religious establishments which owe their

bishop of Glasgow, whence he had prob foundation to the Britons who escaped
ably been driven by the Angle invasion, from conquering Saxon or Angle.
the
existed at the junction of the Clwyd and Llancarvan, too, became a famous reli
Elwy. wasItan immense monastery, in gious and literary school ;
it was resorted
habited, we are told, by 965 monks, 300 of to by many who were not training for
cultivated the fields the life of a It became for a
"

whom, being illiterate, ; religious."

300 fulfilled literary work in the interior lengthened period the favourite school for
of the house ;
and the 365 others cele the sons of British chiefs.
brated divine service without intermission. We know that these important and vast
This great foundation was called after St. religious and educational communities came
Asaph, the successor of the first founder, into existence, and gradually developed in
St. Kentigern. Many years earlier than the period when the remnant of British
St. Asaph, Dubricius, who is
placed by Christians, flying before the Angle and
early tradition in the last years of the fifth Saxon, found a home in Wales but we
;

and early part of the sixth century, and know very little in detail of these vast
who traditionally was consecrated by Ger- Welsh monasteries beyond the names of
manus, bishop of Auxerre, founded the the founders and of the more distinguished
famous house of Llandaff in South Wales, * Canon
Bright places his death some fifty
in which the renowned and loved David, years later than the date adopted in the text.
500-600.] REMNANT OF THE BRITISH CHURCH IN WALES. 33

of their inmates. The traditions are too monks, who represented the Christian

vague, and contain too much of the mar church of the ancient people.
vellous for us to rely upon them, when More weighty still is the fact of the

seeking for material for a serious history undoubted influence which this British

CELTIC MONASTIC LIFE.

of a British Church in Wales. More church in Wales exercised upon that great
weighty is the undoubted, simple fact, that and world-renowned Christian community,
when Augustine paid his celebrated and which sprang up in the same period
unfortunate visit to the banks of the (fifth and sixth centuries) in the neigh
Severn, he found the population to the bouring Ireland.
west of the river, Christian ; that he was Montalembert, in his picturesque and
met in conference by several British devotional
"

Monks of the West," speaking

bishops and by a company of learned of the influence of the British church in
c
 34 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [500 6oo.

Wales upon Ireland, relates with his (Britons) the Irish scholars also received
accustomed charm, mixing up legend and their liturgies, about the middle of the
history as is his custom, the curious story sixth century. These facts, that many of
of the monk Modonnoc, a Briton of the the great Irish saints received their ecclesi
house which St. David had founded on the astical education in Wales, and that Wales

wild west coast of the Atlantic, known as also furnished the Irish church with
Menevia, later as St. Davids. Towards liturgies, rest upon no mere tradition,
the end of his days Modonnoc embarked but upon genuine documents, well known
for Ireland, and all the bees of Menevia and quoted by Irish scholars.
followed him. Three times, says the story, It was certainly from the ancient British

he turned back, endeavouring to free him church in Wales that Ireland received that
self from his strange companions, but in fresh impulse, after the death of St. Patrick,
vain ;
the bees loved the old man too well, which led to the development of the re
and persisted accompanying the monk
in nowned monastic schools in Ireland. Nor
across the sea, and thus the culture of is it too much to
say that the preparation
bees was introduced into Ireland, where it of Columba, the great Celtic missionary,

speedily became a source of wealth to for the work of his life namely, the
the country. carrying to lona and North Britain that
Such stories as these probably have some which laid the founda
Irish Christianity,
foundation of truth. There are others of tions of English Christianity was derived
similar import ;
but we rest our assertion measure from Britain, from that
in a large

respecting knowledge of this far-reaching poor remnant of the Church which, having
and undoubted influence which the escaped from the deadly sword of the
British Christians in Wales exercised in Anglo-Saxon, had found shelter in the
Ireland, upon the fact, allowed by all monasteries of Wales.
the leading Irish scholars, that Finnian,
the founder of the school and monas No story of the Church of England
tery of Clonard, in 520, the most can be truly told without dwelling for a
famous of the great Irish monks of the little upon the beginnings of Christianity

sixth century Finnian, who was known as in the sister-isle of Ireland. The debt
the tutor or foster-father of Ireland s world- England owes to Ireland can never be
renowned saints, and others of the so-called exaggerated. There is no fair-minded
"

second order of saints,"

who were the Anglo-Saxon historian but would acknow
real founders of the famous Irish monastic ledge now
that the Christianity of England

schools, received their training from Wales was owing rather to the Irish work of
at the hands of St. David and other Welsh Columba in lona and North Britain, than
saints. Finnian was the associate or to the Roman work of Augustine in Canter

disciple of the three Britons, David, Cadoc, bury. It is equally clear, too, that Ireland

and Gildas, who occupy the first place in the first instance received the faith

among the teachers of the British Church from Britain through Patrick, the North
in Wales. From these famous Welshmen Briton and again, that after the first
;
5 oo-6oo.] REMNANT OF THE BRITISH CHURCH IN WALES. 35

fervour excited by the early preaching of and their northern conquerors. We can
Patrick had died down, Ireland for a only dimly imagine now, the hatred, bitter
second time received from Britain a new and ineradicable, which in the fifth and sixth
religious impulse nay more, that it re centuries existed between the Northern
ceived definite Christian teaching, formal conquerors and the poor remnant of the
Christian liturgies, from the ancient British vanquished and dispossessed inhabitants of

church which had found a refuge from the Britain.

storm of the North-men s conquest in the In the providence of God the intense hate
mountains of Wales. which existed between the races the con
It was after the second period of assist quered and the conqueror, the Celt and
ance from the British church of the the Northman was not allowed to inter

refugees in Wales, that Ireland began the fere in the long run with the blessed work
great evangelising work in our island, in of evangelisation. Celtic Britain told the
what was then the land of the Angles story of the Cross to Celtic Ireland and ;

and Saxons. Nor was the mission work Celtic Ireland soon repeated the same glad

of the Irish church confined to England ; story to the children of the North-folk
it laboured, too, on the continent of conquerors, and thus, as we shall see,
Europe, and its self-denying work there the pagan Britain of the Anglo-Saxons in
was crowned, as we shall see, with extra its turn became Christian.

ordinary success. Of the work and in The annals of Christendom contain

fluence of the ancient British church in many a strange recital, many a marvel
Ireland, during the wonderful develop lous history of the spread of the faith

ment of Christianity there, we have ample of the Crucified, but nowhere is a more
contemporary evidence. marvellous history told than the story of
There were reasons why Anglo-Saxon the reception and sudden growth of the
Britain could never have received the faith in Ireland in the fifth and sixth

directly from the Christian refugees centuries indeed, were it not based upon
"

faith" ;

in Wales. The antipathy between the the amplest and most assured testimonies,
survivors of the British and the North-folk it would be read rather as a romance than
(who, with such awful cruelty and pitiless as a serious history. A student who for

severity, had driven the conquered from the first time came upon the wonderful
their landsand homes) was, alas so bitter ! recital of the rapid rise and the strange
that no impulse to tell the story of the greatness of the power and influence of the
Cross and Redemption to their merciless religion of Jesus during the fifth and sixth
supplanters seems ever to have fired the centuries in the hitherto unknown island
hearts of the Christian refugees in Wales. of the western ocean,would naturally lay
We may deplore, and possibly condemn, the record down, and at once ask whether
this want of human love and divine he had not been reading the feverish
forgiveness ;
but perhaps we shall never dreams of an imaginative enthusiast.
be able fairly to picture to ourselves the But he would find on research that the
relations which existed between the British general statements which had so amazed
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [Circa 400.

it could be effected) by the Danes in the

ninth and following centuries of many such
records. He would find it borne witness
to by the existence also of contemporary
Latin writings. All this mass of evidence
of different kinds, from many lands, in vari
ous languages, would assure the amazed
student that the story of the Christian
church of Ireland in the fifth and sixth
centuries, the mother of the Church of
THE CLONMACNOIS
CROZIER. England, was no mere romance, but serious
(Museum of the Royal history.
Irish Academy.) No Roman legionary ever set his foot
on that great and beautiful island, whose
him referring to blue mountains can be dimly seen from

great Irish monas some of the northern headlands of Britain.

teries containing Alone in the western world save in the
2,000 or 3,000 in regions of the inhospitable north or in the
mates ;
to a vast wild regions which lie to the extreme east
network of religious of modern Europe was Ireland free from
influences ;
to many books claiming Irish
men as their writers ;
to beautiful works
of art created for religious purposes ;

and, above all, to burning and successful

missionary zeal in many lands were

abundantly corroborated in many ways,
and from many unsuspected sources.

They are borne out by monumental

remains and names connected with them
in all parts of Ireland and of Scotland,

by notices in serious and trustworthy

ancient writers in foreign lands, such
as by the Venerable Bede in England,
by men of the type of St. Bernard
on the continent of Europe. He would W. G. Moore, Dublin.
[Photo :

find it
corroborated, too, by the many
THE TARA BROOCH.
remains of Irish literature, some of it, of
(Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.)
course, mixed with incredible legendary
details, but at the same time containing Roman influences, Roman garrisons, Roman
undoubted historic facts and this, too, ; development. Latin was an unknown
after the wholesale destruction (so far as tongue there before the fifth century,
Circa 400.] IRELAND. 37

and the gods of Greece and Rome had of which derived their name from an
never been heard of in the Celtic island. ancestor who was regarded in a certain
The Roman general
famous Agricola, sense as still the head. In Ireland the
who commanded in Britain in the last tribal life which the Celts had originally

MAP OF IRELAND IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

(showing monastic centres).

quarter of the first century, had planned brought with them from the Asian plains,
an invasion of the neighbouring isle, but went on with little change or modification.
he was recalled, and his design was never The clans, though severally independent,
carried outby any of his successors. Ire acknowledged the authority of an over-king,
land remained free, and was ever classed who in early times resided at Tara, but his

by the Romans as a barbarous island. rule was nominal. "

Usages," we are re
It was a country of clans, the members minded,
<l

which elsewhere marked a remote

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [400
- 460.

antiquity, lingered on here into historic sixteen years old, he was carried off by one
time." of the numerous pirate bands who were
A few, but only a very few legends then plaguing the coasts of the wide
all

are preserved which tell us anything of Roman empire, and for some six years he

Christianity in Ireland before the fifth remained in captivity, the slave of a petty
century. We
hear of a Cormac-mac-Art king in the north of Ireland, to whom he
in the third century directing that his had been sold by his captors. Patrick was
grave should not be made among his a Christian, and as he watched his master s

pagan ancestors ;
we read of Druids watch cattle he tells the story himself prayer
ing the progress of Christianity across the gave him strength to endure the hardships
narrow channel, and prophesying the tri of his sad lot. At length he escaped from,
umph of the new faith across the stormy his captors ;
but in his recovered freedom,
sea. Kieran of Saigin, a native of southern and again in the peaceful seclusion of his
Ireland, in the fourth century is termed father s house at Dumbarton, he longed
the first-born ot the Irish saints. It seems once more to return to the country of
probable that in the third and fourth his captivity, was eager to carry the gospel
centuries isolated and accidental visits to the people he had learned to love, whose
made by Christian merchants had raised language he had acquired, and with whose
up here and there, in the south and south ways he was familiar. One night in his
east of Ireland, some few Christian families. father s house he heard a voice speaking to
But it is not until the century that
fifth him in a dream, and the voice said to him:
we reach the solid ground of authentic "We entreat thee, holy youth, to come
history. and walk still among us." He obeyed
About A.D. 373, at Ailclyde, now Dum what he considered a supernatural sum
barton, the great Irish evangelist, Patrick, mons, and the date of his return to
was born. We
have an immense amount Ireland as missionary is
generally given as
of legendary lore bearing upon this remark A.D. 397.
able and well-loved teacher ;
and possess For some thirty-two years he laboured
ing as we do a few contemporary documents among the people he longed so intensely
apparently free from fables and marvels, to win, with passionate earnestness and
and as to the genuineness of which no varying success. Round his long missionary
serious doubt exists, Irish historians have life has gathered as we have remarked
been able to the more legendary ac
sift a cloud of legendary history, mingled
counts, and to present us with a probably with credible statements. In no land has
accurate picture of the life and work of the apostle who first brought the story
this gifted man, whose influence in his of the Cross been regarded with the
own time was so enormous, and to whom, veneration which has been given to the

indirectly, the Church of England owes its great Irish saint and the interest, even in
;

being. His father was a Roman magis our time, shows no symptom of flagging.
trate in north Britain in the last days of Lives of St. Patrick are still being written
the Roman rule. When Patrick was only by scholars and devout men of various
400 460.1 WORK OF ST. PATRICK. 39

communions, nor are his biographers and during his thirty years of labours. He
panegyrists by any means confined to his found an Ireland devoted to strange idola
own grateful countrymen. But nowhere, trous customs and heathen rites, which

perhaps, have the results of his marvellous effectually barred all progress in civilisa
work been more strikingly summed up tion ;
he left an Ireland, if not largely
than by the English scholar* who was converted to Christianity, at least kindly
taken too soon from our midst.
"

The disposed to the religion of Jesus. It was

Church they [St. Patrick and his com not, of course, the Christian Ireland of
panions] founded, grew up purely Irish legendary history, for at the period of his
in spirit as in form. The Celtic passion, death many of the people remained un
like the Celtic anarchy, stamped itself on converted. Not a few it is evident
Irish religion. There was something still continued to regard him and his

strangely picturesque in its asceticism, in preaching with hostility ;

for in his
its terrible penances, its life-long fasts, its
"

Confession," a book which the severest

sudden contrasts of wrath and pity, the critic is compelled to regard as genuine,
sweetness and tenderness of its legends he represents himself as in daily ex
and hymn&, the awful vindictiveness of its pectation of being put to death. But
curses. But in good as in ill, its type his influence with . the petty kings and
of moral conduct was utterly unlike that tribal chieftains seems to have been really
which Christianity elsewhere developed. very great ;
as a rule, it was to them

It was wanting in moral earnestness, in he addressed himself in the first instance.

the sense of human dignity, in self-com The chieftain once secure, the clan as a
mand ;
it recognised spiritual excellence matter of course were disposed to follow
in a rigid abstinence from sensual excess, in his steps.

and the repetition of countless hymns This is the probable explanation of

and countless litanies. But, on the other such legends as tell of the great baptism

hand, Ireland gave to Christianity a force, at Tara of several thousands on one

a passionateness, a restless energy such as occasion. There seems, however, no
it had never before known. It threw reason to doubt that the simultaneous
around it something of the grace, the profession of Christianity by great multi
witchery, the romance of the Irish temper. tudes happened more than once during
It coloured even its tenderness with the the stirring and eventful life of the fervid

peculiar pathos of the Celt."

apostle of the Irish. One of his latest and
There is no doubt but that the preach most thoughtful biographers tells us with
u
ing of St. Patrick had a wonderful, possibly great force that the people may not have
an unprecedented success when the ac :
adopted the outward profession of Chris
counts of his life-work are stripped of the tianity (which was all, perhaps, that in the
marvellous and the incredible, there still firstinstance they adopted) from any clear
remains a historic groundwork of true or intellectual appreciation of its superiority
records of what he really accomplished to their former religion
"

;
but to obtain
* Mr. R. Green. from the people even an otttward profession
J.
40 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [400 460.

of Christianity was an important step dwelling round them, who, watching their
towards its ultimate success, for it secured self-denying, holy lives, then began to

toleration at least for Christian institutions. listen to their teaching, and thus, certainly

It enabled Patrick and the early mission within the century succeeding the death
aries to plant in every tribe, churches, of the great missionary, Ireland became

schools, and religious communities, which generally a Christian country.

\_Pkoto: W. G. Moore, Dublin.

ST. PATRICK S BELL.
{Museum of the Royal Irish Academy?)

in a comparatively short space of time There is no doubt that this fervid and
after he had passed away, grew into those devoted man was much more than the
vast monasteries and schools of which we mere passionate preacher. He was the
shallpresently speak, and which became successful imitator of the wisdom as well
the wonder and admiration of western as of the faith of St. Paul. Patrick, in
Christendom. These colonies of holy men, good truth, became "all
things to all
perhaps at first only tolerated, soon won men." Dwelling as he did in the midst
the hearts of the semi-barbarous people of rude and barbaric tribes, so different
400 460.] WORK OF ST. PATRICK.
from the generality of the people of western but rather in the outer framework and
Europe, he seems to have ever dealt setting of those momentous articles.
very tenderly with their cherished usages The great work done by Patrick and
and long-inherited prejudices he adopted
;
his pupils was enduring ;
the Celtic

THE BAPTISM AT TARA.

rheir language, and Christianised rather Christianity of which Patrick and his first
:han swept away their ancient customs, missionaries were the wise and devoted
[t was Christianity he introduced, but it master builders, possessed a strange power
emained ever an Irish, a national Chris- such a power as the heathen world had
Sanity ;
it differed markedly from the never experienced since the days of the
Christianity of other nations not in any first preachers of the faith, and has rarely

)f the great fundamental articles of belief, seen again. Within a hundred years of the
42 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [400523.

death of the Irish apostle, the barbarous devotion only second to that of Patrick, has
and half-savage land, the scene of his gathered a vast mass of legendary lore, but
self-denying labours, became the home of when disentangled from incredible tradi
famous schools, to which not only the tion, the story of this eminent saint is
inhabitants of Britain that remote found to be based on authentic sources.
island of the wild western seas resorted, She was a pupil of some of the hearers and
but it
positively became the educational disciples of Patrick, whose winding-sheet
home of crowds of eager students of she is said to have made. This last tradi
various ranks from all parts of cultured tion however, baseless, for she hardly
is,

western Europe. For a time "

it seemed could have known Patrick. Her career

as if the course of the world s history must be dated in the years 450-523. What
was to be changed as if the older Celtic ;
is about Bridget is her pure and
certain

race, that Roman and German had driven devoted life, her conspicuous ability, and
before them, had turned to the moral determination to raise and elevate her
conquest of their conquerors ;
for a time sex. The women of Ireland of her day
it seemed as if Celtic and not Latin occupied a low and comparatively de

Christianity was to mould the destinies of graded position but owing to Bridget s
;

the churches of the west." This strange noble labours and saintly example, there
however, was not to come to pass,
result, is no doubt but that from her time her
and the marvellous Celtic church, when sisters began to attain in Ireland and
in God s providence it had once quickened in many other countries the placeand
with new life that Christianity which seemed influence which the divine Founder
to be well-nigh everywhere languishing of our faith had claimed and won for

and even dying, suddenly came to an end, them.

and gave place again to that older and Bridget founded the double monastery
more stately church, which at one time (monks and nuns) of Kildare, a mighty
it appeared likely to sweep away and religious foundation which subsequently
supplant. had affiliated houses of monks and nuns
all over Ireland. The double monastery
Two contemporaries or imme
of the of Kildare was the prototype of Hilda s
diate successors of Patrick claim a special house of Whitby, and of many other double
mention. monasteries of Celtic origin, which at a

Benignus, the early follower and life latertime exercised so great an influence
long companion of Patrick, is spoken of in Anglo-Saxon England, as well as on the
as the Singer of Psalms."
"

He became continent of Europe. With some ingenu

bishop of Armagh, and is accounted the ity and perhaps with a certain amount of
special apostle of Connaught he only ; truth, the French writer Ozanam attri

survived his loved master five years, dying butes the chivalry of the French character
in 468. to this association of the sexes in the great
Around Bridget, whose memory among double monasteries of monks and nuns
the Irish people is venerated with a founded under Irish influence in France.
 46o 666.] SUCCESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 43-

But to return to Ireland and the church The third order of saints the hermits
of Patrick. Patrick died in 463. We consisted of presbyters and a few bishops ;

possess a very ancient document, dating they dwelt in deserts and lived on alms ;

certainly from the eighth century, which their food consisted of herbs and water.
somewhat fancifully divides into three They continued until the great mortality
periods the time between the rise of in 666.

Patrick s influence and the year of our The picture painted in this venerable
Lord 666, the date of the third visitation document is of course fanciful, but it
gives
of the deadly Yellow Plague which was a though rough representation of Irish
fair,

so fatal a scourge, in the British isles religion, during the first two hundred years

especially. The document in question, of Christianity in the "Island of Saints."

"

A Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland ac Taken in conjunction with other records

cording to their different periods," although and remains, we gather from it that there
a genuine writing of the eighth century, is was a decline in religious fervour some
more or a fanciful description of what
less time after the death of Patrick ;
that a

really happened to Ireland in those two new spirit was infused into Irish Chris
eventful centuries. Roughly, it divides tianity by missionaries from the ancient
the Irish saints into three distinct classes British church in Wales ;
that the religious
or orders, which may be described as secular, communities founded by Patrick and the
monastic, and hermits. firstpreachers of the gospel, thus rein-^
The saints of the first order the secular forced from Britain, received an enormous
which continued for about a century development, and became, as time went
after Patrick s death, were all bishops on, the vast monastic houses so celebrated
says our ancient writing 350 in num in the history of western Christendom. It

ber, founders of churches. They had one is with them and their life and work that
head, Christ, and one leader, Patrick ;
one we shall have especially to do, as it was
nass, one celebration, one tonsure from ear from these great "houses" that Celtic

:o ear, one Easter on the fourteenth moon Christianity received so marvellous an im

ifter the vernal equinox. They did not pulse as it was from them that the
;

efuse the service and society of women; religion of the Crucified was re-introduced
into the pagan Britain of the
they feared not temptation, because
"or- Anglo-
bunded on Christ the Rock. Saxons.
The second order the monastic con- While much that is connected with the
few bishops and many presbyters.
isted of Irish church remains uncertain, and to a

They had one head our Lord their ; degree inexplicable, for want of detailed
master and tonsure were as in the first information, the fact of the existence and
rder, but they refused the service of the enormous influence of its great reli

pomen, separating them from their mon- gious communities upon the life, not only

steries. These received their ritual and of Ireland and north Britain, but of western

caching from the ancient British church Europe generally, is indisputable, and rests,
a Wales. upon the solid basis of authentic history.
44 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [460666.

The sixth century, within a hundred central Britain owed the re-introduction

years of the death of Patrick, witnessed of Christianity.

the foundation and extraordinarily rapid The monastic system seems to have

development of these monasteries and arisen about century, when

the third

schools, the special and important feature numbers of Christians were driven from

of Irish Christianity. The number of their city homes into the desert by the

Photo : T. Hoban, Ath one.

DOORWAY, CLONMACNOIS.

such communities, their enormous size, Decian and other persecutions, who sti
their wide-spread influence far beyond retained and elaborated their ascetic an
the comparatively narrow limits of Ire associated mode of when the actu.
life

land claim a somewhat detailed de pressure was removed. The primitiv

scription, especially asthe peculiarity of Irish monasteries with which we are her
these singular world-famous establishments concerned were of the same type as thos
belongs not to fanciful tradition, but to the of Egypt and Syria, and utterly unlik
domain of serious history. It was to these those mediaeval communities, the ruins

great religious houses that northern and whose vast houses, with the depender
460 666.]
IRISH MONASTICISM. 45

buildings, are still to be seen in Ireland, in humble character, surrounded by a rough

England, and on the continent of Europe. stone wall or by an earthen rampart with
In Ireland we must picture to our- a ditch, and on the top of the rampart a

THE CRUCIFIXION, FROM A CELTIC BRONZE, PROBABLY FROM CLONMACNOIS.

(Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.)

selves when we think ot the monasteries palisade, partly to seclude the inmates and
of Clonmacnois and Clonard, of Moville partly for protection against enemies. The
and Bangor (in Ulster) in the sixth cells were mere rough wooden or wattled

century a number of scattered huts or huts, sometimes, though more rarely, of

cells grouped round a church or oratory of stone, and generally of beehive form. The
46 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [460-666.

church or oratory .in the centre was

little of each monastic family, including the
invariably oblong, without a chancel the ; daughter houses. The abbot was some
doorways of the huts were often so low times a bishop, but usually a simple priest,
that a man would have to creep through, with one or even more bishops as members
and the interior of these primitive simple of the community subject to him. These
dwellings only the roughest
contained subject bishops occupied a peculiar position
furniture. Although stone was sometimes in the community ; they alone performed
used, the greater number of these early episcopal functions, and were treated with
monastic foundations the churches, the honour and respect as belonging to a
monks cells, and the other buildings higher order. We find abbesses such as
which must have been often of very con St. Bridget with such episcopal chaplains ;

siderable size, such as kitchens, refectories, these chaplains being always absolutely

writing-rooms, etc., as a rule were con subject to the authority of the abbot or
structed simply of wood, wattles, and clay, abbess of the This strange Irish
"

house."

and so have perished ages ago. Not a system was one of monastic territorial

trace, for instance, Columba s

remains of St. jurisdiction rather than one of diocesan
famous monastery at lona, which was built episcopacy but episcopacy was always
;

before the close of the same sixth century. held to be essential to the very existence
Besides the church, there were a few of the church.

public buildings in these great Irish com The number of these subject bishops,
munities, such as a kitchen and a refectory, to ourmodern view, seems to have been
with a guest-house for strangers there ;
enormous indeed, the degree or order or
;

were also storehouses, mills, and work the episcopacy was frequently conferred in

shops, and almost certainly some large recognition of the pre-eminence in sanctity
rooms solely for writing or study. The or learning of some distinguished ecclesi
art of illuminating, extensively cultivated astic, who nevertheless continued to live
these Cities of the as they either as a hermit or as the head of a
"

in Saints,"

were termed, no doubt grew by degrees ;

school in his monastery, without neces
but manuscripts were copied, and to a sarily taking upon him the charge of any
certain degree ornamented, in the earliest diocese or district, or even of a church. But

years of these foundations, and the scribes the peculiar functions of his episcopal rank
must have had some scriptorium or writing- were never overlooked. The bishops were
chamber, where they had abundance of always applied to for the consecration of
light their own little beehive cells must
; churches, for the ordaining to the eccle
have been too dark for any such work. siastical degrees, or holy orders they ;

Each monastery, with its dependent alone confirmed, and also gave the more
houses, appears to have had a rule of its solemn benedictions, and administered
own, though these rules had a general the Holy Communion with peculiar rites
resemblance in the most important points. of greater pomp and ceremony.
The Abbot, or Co-arb as he was often An interesting example of the peculiar
termed in Ireland, was the supreme head position held by the bishop in one of
460 666.] IRISH MONASTICISM. 47

these great Irish monasteries is afforded have had that number within its enclosure

by the records of St. Bridget s double at one time. Bede, writing of another

monastery of Kildare. Bishop Condlaed, famous Celtic monastery the British

who was appointed by this famous abbess (Welsh) Bangor gives the number of

to assist her in her work, on one occasion inmates as 2,100. These great numbers
had gone to Brittany and had brought were probably not reached till the fame
back with him certain foreign vestments of the monastery as a teaching school
which he used at special functions. But had penetrated far into the continent of
the abbess, always sympathising with dis Europe ;
for we read, for instance, of many
tress, and perhaps, too, not caring for foreigners resorting to such a school as

foreign innovations, cut these up and the monastery of Armagh, and grouping
made clothes -of them for the poor. On their huts in the monastic enclosure
another occasion Bishop Condlaed ex according to nationality.
pressed a desire to visit Rome. Now The food of these great "

families of
Rome was then the home of art, and was extremely simple, and was
saints"

Condlaed was not only her bishop but prepared in large cauldrons, in the same
her chief artist. He was one of those manner as we read in the Old Testa
workers in gold and silver and other ment that food used to be prepared for

metals, who have left beautiful speci the sons of the Prophets. Many of their
mens of ecclesiastical art for the admira disciples were employed in agricultural
tion of the present age. On his applying pursuits they sowed and ground the corn
;

to the abbess for permission for the used in their fished in the
"

house," they

journey, she refused to grant it. He dis river, and had milk in abundance from
obeyed her commands, and on his way their cows in the rich Irish pastures. The
thither, the record tells us, he was de ordinary dress of a monk in these vast
voured by wolves. This death of Bishop communities the like of which the world
Condlaed was interpreted as a judgment for had never seen before was a coarse woollen
disobedience, because he tried to go to wrapper or cowl, with a cord or strap
Rome in violation of an order of Bridget. round the loins, over a tunic or under
An abbot or abbess of a great monastery garment. The monk, as a rule, slept in
ike Clonmacnois, Clonard, or Kildare, his clothes on a straw mat in his cell, with,
ranked among the powers of the land. perhaps, a skin over him. The tonsure
ings quailed before their spiritual threats. peculiar to these Celtic houses was made
Dccasionally they or their officers even led by shaving off all the hair in front of a line
dnsfolk and tribesmen to the field. drawn across from ear to ear. The services
The number of monks and students in in these monastic churches do not seem to
some of these Irish monasteries appears have materially differed from the ordinary
:o have been enormous. In certain cases Western use which we are acquainted
5,000 does not seem to have been an ex- with in the mediaeval monasteries of the
iggerated estimate. The monastic school Benedictine and other Orders, save in
)f St. Finnian at Clonard is reputed to unimportant details.
48 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [460666.

The employments of the inmates of In these wonderful seminaries of a distant

these Irish religious houses of course in and almost unknown island in the midst
cluded all manner of field work vast ; of the stormy Atlantic sea whither, in
farming and grazing grounds, the gifts of these far-back ages, students numbering

kings and chieftains, were attached to these their thousands used to resort from the
monasteries. But the principal work out- continent of Europe Holy Scripture was,

Photo: T. Hoban, Aihlone.

TOWER AND CROSS : CLONMACNOIS.

side the solemn, constantly - recurring duty of course, a principal object of study. Th
of prayer and praise, was literary work of Psalms were often learnt by heart. Latin
various kinds. Indeed, the special raz son which before the days of St. Patrick ir
d^etre of an Irish monastery of the sixth, the fifth century was an unknown tongue

seventh, and eighth centuries was writing never heard save perhaps in the rare cas<

books, copying books, illuminating books; of families of some merchant settlers in th<

the study of Holy Scripture and theology; extreme south of the island, became ir

and above all, teaching and instructing the these monastic cities a living language.

young of many lands. Greek and even Hebrew were studied there.
460666.] IRISH MONASTICISM. 49

Writing formed, however, a large por- holy homes of prayer and study. In spite
tion of the occupation of the monks and of the ravages of the Danes, and the

AN INITIAL FROM THE BOOK OF KELLS.

(Trinity College, Dublin.)

the scholars. We read of waxed tablets, wholesale destruction of the Viking pirates
styles, skins, inkhorns. The art of ilium- in the ninth and tenth centuries, a
ination was evidently extensively practised few magnificent specimens of the patient
in these quiet, remote, but thronged, care and unwearied industry of these monk
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [460-666.

artists still survive. The Book of Kells and navigator, so called from his love of travel,
the Book of Durrow, beautiful and elaborate had a yet greater fame than even Clonard,
pieces of artistic workmanship, have been and was said to have been even more
attributed to the famous Columba himself. frequented by students. St. Brendan died
The of Kells" is a tolerably pure
"Book at the advanced age of ninety-four, in the

copy of the Vulgate, modified with ad year 577.

ditions. "It is impossible to give any The school of Moville, at the head of
idea of the splendour and elaboration of Strangford Lough in Down, acquired at one j

its ornamental pages and letters, or of the period the greatest reputation on the
extreme minuteness of the work, which continent of Europe. The abbots of Mo
often requires a lens to trace it ; yet these ville for about 200 years appear to have

minute lines are as firm as if drawn by a been bishops. After a time, however,

machine, and as free as if they were the the foreign fame of Moville was eclipsed

growth of Nature." The more carefully by the reputation of the Irish Bangor,
and elaborately ornamented manuscripts an enormous and renowned community
were kept in satchels of embossed leather, founded by St. Comgall in Ulster, in 559.
into which they would just fit these had ;
St. Bernard writes of this house as being
long straps to hang them on the wall or the head of
"

many monasteries, a holy

round the neck. place, fruitful of saints; one of whom,
To give anything like a mere catalogue named Luan, alone is
reported to have
of these vast Irish monasteries would be been the founder of 100 monasteries." Its

wearisome ;
three or four of the best- pupils are said to have been scattered over
known, however, may just be named. Ireland and Scotland, and poured over the
The monastic school of Clonard, founded continent like a flood.

by St. Finnian, became one of the most One more of these renowned monas
famous of these great sixth - century Irish teries and schools, which flourished in the
seminaries. Finnian was trained by refugee Ireland of the sixth and two following
monks and bishops of the ancient British centuries with a lustre never equalled be
church in Wales. In this house, as al fore or after, must be mentioned. The
ready mentioned, the monks and students house of St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois was
numbered as many as 3,000 at one time. founded in 544-548. The God s Acre of
Instruction seems to have been usually this monastery remained famous as a sacred

given in the open air, the pupils being burying-place for several centuries after its
seated around on the grassy slopes, so that foundation. As a school it was celebrated
a -vast congregation of scholars could hear far and wide. The scholar Alcuin, whom
the lecturer s words. The famous founder one great writer calls the u intellectual
of this illustrious school died somewhere Prime Minister of Charlemagne," was a
about A.D. 550. pupil of its head teacher, and, after he
But Clonfert, founded by Brendan the had attained the position of the foremost
* Life of Columba.
scholar in Europe, he addressed a letter
Adamnan, Oxford edition,
1894. to his old master at Clonmacnois, couched
46o-666.] IRISH MONASTICISM.

in terms implying the utmost respect and Of never ending lustre. Hear, brothers, great
their deserts,
deference. Alcuin sent an alms to his
Whom the Lord hath gathered to the mansions of
Irish house, and a quantity of olive oil, His heavenly kingdom.
then a rare commodity in Ireland, to be
"

Christ loved Comgill he the Lord

; well, too did ;

distributed among the bishops for sacra He held Beogna dear ;

He
graced the ruler Aedh ;

mental purposes. He chose the holy Sillan, a famous teacher of the

world.
This sketch of the Irish monastic church
Whom the Lord hath gathered to the mansions of
of the fifth and sixth centuries, organised His heavenly kingdom.
by the ancient British church sheltered in
"He made Finten accepted, an heir generous
Wales, will be fittingly closed with the renowned ;

following hymn, translated from the

"

An- Herendered Maclaisre illustrious, the chief of all

abbots
tiphonary of Bangor," the great religious ;

With a sacred torch He enlightened Segene,

house of Ulster, founded in 559 by St.
A great Physician of Scripture,
Comgall the monastery whence proceeded
; Whom the Lord hath gathered to the mansions of
St.Columban and his companions, whose His heavenly kingdom.

work and extraordinary success on the "

Bercenus was a distinguished man ; Cumine also

continent of Europe will be briefly told in had grace ;

the next chapter. The "Antiphonary," Columba a congenial shepherd ; Aidan without
which contains this characteristic and complaint ;

Baithene a worthy ruler Cretan a chief President, ;

striking hymn, is a splendid relic of the Whom the Lord hath gathered to the mansions of
His heavenly kingdom.
last quarter of the seventh century. It

was written in Bangor in Ulster, and has "

To these so excellent succeeded Caman, a man

seen for 1,200 years absent from Ireland; to be beloved by all,

where it was executed ;

it is now one of Singing praises to Christ he now sits on high.
That Cronan
the treasures of the Ambrosian Library at The fifteenth may lay hold on life, the Lord pre
Milan. serve him,
Whom the Lord will gather to the mansions of
HYMN OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY His heavenly kingdom.

(From the Antiphonary of Bangor in Ulster). "

The truest merits of these holy abbots

"

The holy valiant deeds of sacred fathers Meet for Comgill most exalted we invoke,
Based on the matchless Church of Benchor ;
That we may blot out all our offences
The noble deeds of abbots, their number, times, Through Jesus Christ, who reigns for ages ever
and names lasting."
 CHAPTER IV.

THE WORK OF THE EARLY IRISH (CELTIC) CHURCH.

Marked Spiritual Power of the Celtic Church St. Columban, and his Network of Monasteries on the
Continent of Europe Luxeuil Austerity of the Columban Rule Reasons why replaced by the
Benedictine Double Monasteries Their subsequent Decline Pagan England Columba His
Rank and Influence in Ireland Bitter Quarrel with the King, and sanguinary Battle thence result
ing Columba s Remorse Apparent Change in his Character Adamnan s Biography Columba s
Mission to Britain lona Wonderful Success of the Mission Columba s Personality His Ver
satility Holiness of his Character His Death Creed of the Church in Columba s time.

r 1 AHE story of the church in Ireland in first burning love for Christ lit by British
the sixth century, the result of the missionaries, when dying out was ever
preaching and influence of the an kept alive by the constant visits of teachers
cient British Church, reads like a romance. from the west of Britain the doctrines and
;

Itswonderfully rapid progress among the subsequently completed organisation of

native population its vast monastic institu
;
Christian life in Ireland proceeded from
tions ;
the widespread work and influence the same source.
of these communities ;
all this, as we have Christianity in this sixth century was,

said, reads more like the recital of a dream we are well aware, at its lowest ebb in
than a chapter of sober history. But the many of the provinces of the dying Roman
account of the work of some of the Irish empire. The barbarous races who had
monks, trained in the monastic schools on settled in many provinces were still pagan,
which we have been dwelling, and the or, at least,very imperfectly instructed in
results of that work on the continent of Christianity the old provincial inhabi
;

Europe, is an even more marvellous story. tants, impoverished and depressed, made
It must be told very briefly, for it leads but little way in the work of evangelising-
us far away from Ireland or Britain but ;
their conquerors. But a new impulse was-
it cannot be ignored, for it tells us who
given to the religion of the Crucified in
and what were the men trained in the these half Christian, half pagan provinces
ancient monasteries of our Church. It in the heart of the old Roman empire of
throws a strong light upon the spiritual the West, by an Irish monk who had been
power which must have dwelt in the educated in the monastery of Bangor in
Celtic church of our fathers in Ireland Ulster, under the learned and saintly
and in Britain
that Celtic church, the Comgall.
mother of the Church of England and, ;
What decided the young monk Colum
also, must never be forgotten that the
it ban to leave Bangor, his loved home of
impulse which stirred up the Irish people prayer and study on the shores of the
to do these mighty, far-reaching works, no one knows. Some mysterious
Atlantic,
came from the old British Church. The impulse seems to have urged him to seek
59] ST. COLUMBAN. 53

a new habitation and a larger sphere of province which is now known as Alsace,
work in distant lands perhaps the idea
;
in a desolate spot near the of the site

of founding another "Bangor" among the Roman town of Anegratis, then a heap of
half pagan conquerors of the western Em ruins. Many disciples joined the little

pire, decided
him and twelve friends to . Irish band of monks ;
the first settlement
undertake their strange and seemingly wild soon was unable to contain them, and a
mission. They went not as preachers of the second monastery became necessary.

Photo : Pattegay, Luxeuil.

LUXEUIL (1896).

gospel, but only as monks who would show About eight miles from their first home,
by their own austere lives how to climb not from the now known as
"

far city
the rugged path," they understood it,
as Besangon, among the ruins of the once
which leads to the city of God. They slowly fair Roman town of Luxovium (celebrated
wandered south, telling as they went their for its warm springs), a site was chosen for

simple story and as they went, seem to

;
the new house. The forest around was
have been met generally with kindness, strewn with the wrecks of marble statues
and by some of the Prankish chiefs were and other remains of a great and wealthy
even generously welcomed. Eventually health resort amid these relics of the past
;

the Irish monks of Bangor settled at the arose the rough huts and little church
foot of the Vosges Mountains, in. the of the Irish monastery of Luxeuil, soon to
54 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [590600.

be famous throughout the western world. space of time, that mighty network of
A third monastery under Columban was monastic establishments, owning the rule
soon founded in the same district, at a of Columban the monk, of the Irish Ban-

place called Fontaines. gor, which extended from Luxeuil in the

The life lived by the stranger Irish Vosges, southward to the Lake of Geneva
monks in their three houses, their extreme and the Lake of Zurich far to the north ;

austerities, the lofty ideal they presented, and north-west to the shores of what we
had, by the very sharpness of its contrast have named the English Channel and the
with the excesses and self-indulgence of that North Sea, where the chain of his com
barbarous age,* a peculiar attraction for the munities stretched from the Seine to the
Prankish and Burgundian warriors who had Scheldt. Many of the most famous monas
taken possession of the Vosges country. teries of central and northern Europe,
Disciples in great numbers, rich and poor, which played so great a part in mediaeval

collected round the saintly Irish monk. history for several eventful centuries, were
He gradually became a power in the land, founded by Columban and his companions.
and dared publicly to rebuke the more They were dotted over western Germany,
conspicuous vices of the kings and princes ; Switzerland, France, and the Low Coun
no threats affrighted him, and his fame tries not a few of those great religious
;

grew with each succeeding year. He was houses where the lamp of religion and
surrounded by companions as earnest and learning was kept brightly burning during
capable as himself among them were men
;
several hundred stormy years of wars and
like St. Gall and St. Deicola, whose names confusion and trouble, were the after-

have gone down in history among those fruits of the prayers and labours of
who have played a distinguished part in Columban and his noble band of workers.
influencing the course -of events. The student of history, as he reads the
Continued reinforcements from the great many-coloured, saddening chronicles of
Irish monasteries, whose rapid rise we have the Middle Ages, and pauses with admira

already briefly sketched, enabled Columban tion and surprise as he comes upon the
to make fresh, and ever fresh, settlements. noble record of Remiremont and St.
It is, indeed, a wondrous story. From those Vandrille, Fontenelle, Jumieges, and St.

rough groups of huts and poor churches Riquier ;

of Sithiu and St. Omer ;
of
erected by the friendless, homeless, land Kempten, and Bobbio, and, greatest of
less children of the ancient British Church all, St. Gallen, remembers with astonish
in Ireland, sprang, in an incredibly short ment that all these mighty foundations
to which Christianity and culture owe
* This undoubted work
was probably the cause in great measure, so deep a debt, were the
as well as the partial justification, of monasticism.
of St. Columban and his Irish disciples,
Even its false and exaggerated ideal, so long as it
was really lived up to, was a protest against the to whom the foundation of these numerous
impurity and licence around, which outweighed and influential communities is owing.
much evil. The subject will be discussed at more
That ancient British Church, whose poor
length when the suppression of the monasteries in
the sixteenth century comes to be treated. fugitives in Wales had accomplished so
590600.] ST. COLUMBAN AND LUXEUIL 55

vast and so permanent a work in Ire 600 monks. Missionaries, solitary or in

land, and,through Ireland, not only in parties, were constantly issuing forth to
conquered pagan Britain, but on the found new monastic colonies at a distance,

broad continent of Western Europe who were under the stern grave
to live
this ancient British Church before the "

rule
"

devised by Columban.
Saxon conquest, of which we know so This "

rule," extraordinarily ascetic in

little, must verily have been a power character, no doubt gave to the Christian
greater, grander, nobler, than modern ity preached by the monks of Luxeuil a
writers of history have usually chosen to force, a passion, a restless, resistless energy
paint it. such as had not been known before since
To return now for a short space to Colum- the ages of the faith. But its extreme
first

ban the Irishman and the mother house severity made

life too hard, too difficult for

of Luxeuil. In a comparatively short ordinary men and women. When the first
time after its
foundation, Columban s fervour inspired by its founder and his

monastery attained to the climax of its immediate pupils died down with the lives
greatness and prosperity. Under the of these eminent saints, the next generation

government of its
abbot, second St. sought a somewhat easier rule, and sheltered
Eustace, between the years 610-625, it themselves under the great shadow of
became the monastic capital of all the Benedict and the teachers of his famous
countries under Prankish rule. Through Order, who preached also a strict, self-

thisseventh century it was the most cele denying life, but one infinitely easier to
brated school of Christendom, and the aim at than the utter abnegation and
most frequented. The children of the suppression of self insisted on by the Irish
noblestFrank and Burgundian families Columban, and by Gall and Deicola, his
crowded to it the most famous cities of
; life-long friends.
the south provinces of Gaul such as The rule of Luxeuil, devised by the

Lyons, Autun, Strasbourg sent their Irish Columban, among other peculiarly
youth thither. Every year saw the rise of harsh requirements for its monks, in
some religious house, peopled and founded sisted upon an absolute and passive obedi
by the children of Luxeuil, and number ence to the presiding officers of the house.
less sees sought as bishops men trained There was no reservation here as in the
in this world-famous centre. Ecclesiasti case of the Benedictines. Perfect silence
cal writers
proudly enumerated twenty- was also imposed upon the brethren
one of the alumni of Luxeuil, who received except for useful and necessary causes.
after death the honours of canonisation. In the matter of food, the rule prescribed
Under the presidency of Walbert, the the most austere diet conceivable with
third abbot, the house was made exempt the preservation of health. Benedict
from all episcopal
authority, by an act of granted meat to the weak and ailing,
Pope John IV. (A.D. 641). In Walbert s and even a small measure of wine (this
abbacy the permanent garrison of the injunction was afterwards too much re

monastic citadel of Luxeuil amounted to laxed among the Benedictines). Columban

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [590600.

allowed for the sickly as for the healthy, great Irish monk in all the many mo
only pulse meal, moistened with water, nasteries Columban
of. and when the ;

and a small loaf. The monks of Luxeuil Council of Autun sat in 670, only fifty-
and crowd of daughter houses, were
its five years after the death of the mighty

to eat only in the evening fasting was ;

monk of Bangor, throughout the
Irish

to be a daily exercise, like work, prayer, countless houses which looked on Columban
or reading. Fish, however, was not en as their founder, no "rule" save that of

tirely prohibited. Benedict seems to have been recognised.

These excessive severities at first dis No doubt the exaggerated austerity of
couraged no one. His army of disciples Luxeuil was found too hard and too diffi

cult to enforce, and this

in large measure contri
buted to the substitu
tion of the easier
yoke
and lighter burden of
Benedict.
But another and more
potent factor must
be sought for, which
brought about a state
of things that in less
than a century, in his
own "

houses," eclipsed
the rule and dimmed
the name and fame of
Columban, and changed
KILDARE CATHEDRAL. t h at Vast network of
Columban Celtic mo-
increased day by day, the sanctuaries nasteries into Benedictine Roman commu-

they away from Luxeuil

founded far nities. It was the same mighty influence we

became more and more numerous. His shall find at work later in Britain, which for

wondrous influence ceased only with his good or evil gave the sovereign imprima-
"

life. But the strong fascination which tur" to the work of the Italian Benedict
catted out from the world this mighty army rather than to the labours of the Irish
of "

toilers for God,"

all following in good Columban ;
which chose the Roman
earnest the rugged and painful path they rather than the Celtic spirit to guide and
had marked out for themselves towards mould the newly-awakened Christianity,
a heavenly city, was possessed only in a It was the sovereign will of imperious
lesser degree by Columban s successors. Rome that the Italian Benedict, not our
The "

rule
"

Benedict, less ofsevere, own Irish Columban, the disciple of the

gradually superseded the "rule" of the ancient British Church and the inheritor
620] DOUBLE MONASTERY OF REMIREMONT. 57

of hallowed traditions, should be re

its rose the castle of Romaric, a noble of vast
vered and honoured as the great apostle wealth, and occupying a high position at
of the monastic Christianity of the future. the court of Clotaire II., king of the
Franks. The heart of Romaric was touched
Before laying aside the charmed story of by the words and friendship of the well-
the mighty and far-reaching work of the known Luxeuil monk, Amatus. He gave
Irish monks on the continent of
Europe, his vast possessions to the poor and on ;

"

LAUS PERENNIS (/. 58).

a brief notice must be given of the intro the site of his castle on the hillby the
duction of one of the peculiarly Celtic Moselle he built a church, and then
customs that of the double monastery established round his church the greatest
which St. Bridget seems first to have in female monastery that had hitherto been
troduced on a large scale in her holy house known in Gaul, named after himself,
of Kildare in the end of the fifth
century.
"

Romarici Mons," known so well in

A few leagues north of Luxeuil in the mediaeval story as Remiremont; this was
Southern Vdsges, on the slopes of a moun in 620. Enormous gifts were presented to
tain by the Moselle, in the seventh century the new foundation by successive Frankish
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [620.

kings and wealthy nobles Remiremont ;

The case of St. Hilda, as we shall pre

soon became for women what Luxeuil al sently see, was a very notable one. Mon-
ready was for men. The number of nuns talembert pleads for this strange union of
in this holy house was so great that the the sexes in the double monasteries, and
"Laus
perennis
"

(the service of perpetual recalls the comparatively late example

praise) was organised there, and kept up afforded by the solitaries of Port Royal
by means of seven choirs of nuns, who re during their sojourn near the nuns of
lieved each other in succession, so that not that celebrated valley. Michelet curiously
forone moment, day or night, was there defends it thus :
"

The vicinity of the

an intermission in the solemn devotions monasteries, the abuses of which have been
believed in those days to be peculiarly certainly exaggerated, created between
acceptable as service to the Almighty. the brethren and the sisters a happy emu
There were two monasteries at Remire lation of study as well as of piety. The
mont, one for monks and one for nuns, men tempered their seriousness by sharing
connected with each other, but with a in the moral graces of the women. They,
special Superior for each of the communi on their side, took from the austere asceti
ties. This was also the case at Jouarre, cism of the men a noble flight towards

Faremoutiers, and at several other great divine things. Both, according to the
foundations for women. The ranks of noble expression of Bossuet, helped each
these nuns, whose life -long sacrifice is other to climb the narrow path."

praised in the where prayer is

"

Liturgy," The custom appears to come, in the

asked for the people and the clergy, and a first instance, from that great home of
special intercession is added for all conse monasticism, Ireland. St. Bridget (A.D.

crated ora pro populo, interveni 450-523) founded in her native Ireland
"

women,
pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo the first Irish female monastery, known
increased every day.
sexu" as Kildare "

the cell of the oak." Her

It was in these great foundations of early biographer, St. Cogitosus, who
Gaul, which sprang up under the imme wrote in 800-835 (some scholars give
diate influence of the Irish Columban and even an earlier date), tells us
"

how, when
his disciples, that the famous idea of a innumerable people of both sexes flocked
double monastery, for monk and nun, struck to her from all the provinces of Ireland,
root on the Continent of Europe. This she erected on the plain of Life or Liffey,
singular custom, of which in the sixth, on the sure foundation of faith, a monas
seventh, and eighth centuries we have tery which is the head ot nearly all the
many notable instances, was evidently a Irish churches, and the pinnacle tow ering
Celtic one. At Remiremont the abbot had above all monasteries of the Scots, whose
the supreme government ;
but in other jurisdiction (parochid) spread throughout
instances, apparently the majority of in the whole Hibernian land, reaching from
instances of these double houses, the abbess sea to sea." This establishment of St.
as in the case of St. Bridget at Kildare Bridget s at Kildare comprehended both
and St. Hilda at Whitby was supreme. sexes, who were divided from each other
480-563] THE NORTHERN INVASION. 59

in the cathedral of Kildare by a partition. in which year the devoted Irish missionary
This foundation of the great Irish female Columba set his foot for the first time on
saint was no doubt the example followed the barren, sea-washed island of lona (Hy).

by Columban, the Irish missionary, the In A.D. 563 the Englishman was really

great founder of Gallic monasticism. master of the great tract of Britain which
Innumerable convents of women trace lay between the Humber and the Firth of
their origin to Bridget, abbess of Kildare. Forth, and which was soon known as the
Wherever Irish monks have worked, says kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, including
Montalembert, from Cologne to Seville, all the land north of the Humber. From
churches have been raised in her honour. all this part of Britain Christianity had
In England the influence and power of wholly disappeared among the settlers by
;

these abbesses of double houses for a time the banks of the rivers we know as the
was enormous ; but, as we shall have to Humber, the Tees, and the Tyne, by the
they were alien to the spirit of
relate, year 563 the worship of Woden was as
that Roman form of Christianity which, firmly established as was by the Elbe
it

after a short, sharp struggle with the and the Weser, or on the shores of North
Celtic form of Christianity, prevailed ; Germany, washed by the Baltic and the
and gradually these double houses, once Northern seas.

so notable a feature inmonasticism, The supremacy of Woden in the lands

and which exercised upon the Chris north of the Humber endured for some 130
tianity of the sixth and following cen years. After this dreary period of perpetual
turies so vast an influence, disappeared wars first of conquest, then of ceaseless

altogether. strife among the conquerors the religion

of Christ with extraordinary rapidity won
When the events next to be related its way among the Angle settlers in
were taking place, the race of invaders Northumbria. A new era began, and with
who were to stamp their afterwards Christianity a period of comparative tran
famous name on the people that sprang quillity succeeded to the long and weary
from the union of the various Northern age we shall have shortly to describe.

conquerors of Britain, had well-nigh done From Northumberland the faith spread to
their work. The men whose special
"

the Midland and Southern districts of the

work it was to colonise Mid-Britain, as conquered island and before the middle
;

well as to win for their own the vast of the seventh century well-nigh all the

regions between the Firth of Forth and land possessed by Angle, Saxon, and Jute
the Humber, were drawn from a tribe was again Christian.
whose name was destined to absorb that The first great instrument of this strange
of Saxon and Jute. These were the Angles conversion of a whole people was an Irish
or Engles or Englishmen." man named Columba. Once more our
They landed on the East coast of Britain story takes us back to that island in the
about the year 480, and their conquering Atlantic so long unknown to history, so
work was well-nigh completed before 563, long reckoned by the Roman world as
6o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [540-563

barbaric, but which for weal and woe has and teaching is so largely owing. His
exercised so mighty, so enduring an in name Columba (or as his countrymen
fluence over the fortunes of the Anglo- have loved to call him, Columb-kill : the
Saxon race. Once more we must concen dove of the cells) was borrowed from
trate our thoughts upon that marvellous the Latin ;
was a symbolical name, which
it

monastic life which had taken possession signified the dove of the Holy Ghost."
"

of Ireland, that strange monastic form of Cell or Cells was probably added subse
Christianity, as it has been well termed, quently, and recalled to memory the
"

temper and in form, but which

alike in number of religious communities founded
in a hundred different ways leavened the by him. Besides in the school of Moville,
entire Christianity of the West which ;
he studied in the monastery of the other
threw itself with a fiery zeal into battle and yet greater Finnian at Clonard, who
with the mass of heathenism which was sent him to Etchen, bishop of Clonfad, for

rolling in upon the Christian world"; ordination. Etchen was at the plough, the

which attacked heathenism with a zeal probably true story tells us, when Columba
and with a success militant Christianity came to him and this ;
curious little

had never known before since the apostolic memory of the saint s early student life

age. throws light upon the humble position

Few have brought themselves to ac which an Irish bishop of the sixth century
knowledge the mighty debt which England might occupy. Further training the future
and the Christian world owe to Ireland. apostle of Caledonia received from an old
Few have taken the pains to unravel the bard, Gemmain, who taught the young
details of the story, perhaps the most scholar to love the traditions and poetry
marvellous page of Christian history. Men of Ireland.
have forgotten the work of the Celt. As Columba himself seems to have been
we shall see, it is a somewhat sad story ;
no mean bard, and several poems said
for it was the Celtic Christians who played to have been composed by him have
the part of devoted and successful pioneers, come down to us. He wrote in Latin as

while others entered into and reaped the well as in his native Irish. At a com
fruit of their toils. paratively early age he acquired great in
fluence among his countrymen. Many
It was in the sacred enclosure of one ot circumstances helped him to gather round
those monasteries in Ireland we have been his person a band of enthusiastic friends.

describing, that a youth, who sprang His learning, and the bardic gift of song
from an important house whose chief exer which he possessed, was a key that
cised the over-lordship among many Irish opened many hearts of his ever-impression

chieftains, grew up in the first half of able countrymen and passionate

;
his wild
the sixth century, under the tutelage of devotion, too, contributed to win him that
Finnian of Moville, one of those rare souls strange power which he evidently possessed
to whose devotion and fervour the fame over the souls of so many men and women.
of these remarkable communities of prayer His high birth, closely allied as he was to
540-563-] ST. COLUMBA. 01

the royal house which exercised over- petulance and impatience of contradic-
lordship among the native Irish chieftains, tion which seem to have led him in the
gave him a peculiar position of authority earlier portion of his life into the com-
among the crowd of young and devoted mission of high-handed, unchristian acts,.

MONASTIC HUSBANDRY.

men who were growing up under the of which he in after

bitterly repented
shadow of the strange monastic schools of years.
that extraordinary age. It is not unlikely, Before Columba had reached the age of
however, that to the accident of his royal twenty-five, the records of his early days
birth, and to the natural reverence and relate how he presided over a crowd of
respect which his fellow-students paid him monasteries. As many as thirty-seven of
as one of their princes, was
owing that these religious houses in Ireland recognised
62 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [540
-
563.

him as their founder ; among these, Durrow, his fellow-countrymen. He was not merely

Derry, and Kells are specially famous. For the fervid preacher, not merely one of the

Derry, a smaller foundation, and its holy skilled, wise organisers of that strange

house, the great missionary ever retained a monastic life which exercised so great an

deep affection. Some of his lines telling of influence on Christianity at an age when
this love are still preserved the true faith seemed everywhere waning,
but also the patient, unwearied student of
"

The reason why I love Derry is.

the Divine Word, the tireless scribe, and
For its quietness, for its purity ;

For tis full of angels white."

even the trained artist.
The circumstances are variously related
For some twenty years after reaching which led to Columba leaving his beloved

manhood, roughly between the years 540
and 563, Columba was evidently one of the
leading spirits in Ireland of the great monas
tic development of Christianity, in which
literary labours including poetry, art, and
the study of languages, as well as theology
and its deep soul-stirring inquiries
so distinguished a part. These literary
labours of the great monastics of Ireland,
country and beginning a new life as the
ardent and devoted missionary apostle in
the neighbouring country of North Britain,
where Christianity was almost unknown,
and where a struggling Irish colony had
been planted among the nation of pagan
played Picts some forty years before. Some of
his biographers are evidently loth to ascribe
any motive to the save the.
"saint"

a few years later made the fame of the
remote island in the Atlantic, so long
despised and looked upon
and hopelessly illiterate, ring through
cultured Europe, and raised Ireland into
the position of a great home of learning,
the resort of students from all parts of the
continent of northern and even
loftiest, and are perhaps unwilling to take
cognisance of what the noble Columba
as barbarian himself recognised his guilt in the matter
of the bloody war with the over-king
Diarmait. But Columba himself very evi
dently looked upon his banishment and new
hard life among the wild Picts of North
central Britain in the light of a life-long expiation for

Europe. a deadly sin. Abbot Adamnan s words have

Tradition even relates
most ancient and beautiful of the
manuscripts remaining to us were the work
of Columba s own hands the Book of
Durrow and the Book of Kells.* Modern
how two of the been quoted as suggesting the only possible
Irish motive for his missionary enterprise u : He
journeyed forth, simply longing to wander
: abroad for Christ s sake." But it is surely
consistent with the theory of a life-long

experts somewhat hesitatingly ascribe these expiation to describe the state of mind
books to a rather later date than the first which drove him into desolate and un
half of the sixth century, when Columba friendly lands to win souls to his Master s

lived but the ancient tradition, very

; side, as an impulse urging him to dare and
possibly a true one, shows us how broad to suffer for Christ s sake.
were Columba s sympathies in the eyes of Columba was aboutforty years old when
* See previous chapter. the bitter quarrel arose between himself
540-563-]
EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBA.
and the over-king of Ireland the quarrel his own. The claim was referred for de
whose fatal consequences induced the grief cision to the over-king, who gave it in

and sorrow which drove him out of his favour of the Abbot of Moville. His judg
beloved Ireland, which made him the ment, awarding the daughter volume to
apostle of the wild Picts, the founder of the possessor of the original from which
the holy house of lona, that mother the copy was made, passed into a famous
house of the Church of England. A young Irish proverb, "To every cow her calf."

scion of the reigning house of Connaught, These grievances, and others doubtless
a kinsman of Columba, had the misfortune, of which no record has been preserved,
accidentally, to kill a playfellow in the laid the foundation of an irreconcilable

sports at the royal city of Tara. He fled feud ;

Columba fled from Tara for his

for protection to Columba ;

but the over- life, and one of remarkable poems in
his

king seized the boy prince and put him the ancient Irish tongue, telling the
to death. Columba was enraged at the story of this flight, has been preserved.
public affront, as well
being sorelyas Some of the thoughts, even in the rough
grieved at the death of his boy-friend translation, are singular and beautiful, and
and relation, and threatened the king are worthy of record. They show how
with prompt vengeance. strongly the monastic life and its symbols
But other causes of mutual irritation coloured all the thoughts and expressions

existed, and a curious story is preserved to of teachers like Columba, even when they

account for this fatal* enmity between the were speaking of the highest mysteries of
over-king and the famous monk. It is the faith.

interesting, for throws light on the pas

it
"Alone am I on the mountain,
sionate literary instincts of this remarkable royal sun ;
prosper my path,
far-back age in Ireland. Columba s love And then I shall have nothing to fear.
Were I guarded by six thousand,
for books and rare MSS. and his taste and
In no fortress would I be safe.
skill in illuminating and transcribing, have # * * * *
been alluded to -already. When visiting But God are safe,
s elect

his old master St. Finnian at the monastic Even in the front of battle,
schools of Moville, he found a precious He in whom we trust,
The King who has made us all,

copy of the Psalms. The more valuable Who will not leave me to-night without refuge.
and interesting of such books seem to 1adore not the voice of birds
Nor chance, nor the love of a son or a wife ;

have been preserved and guarded with

My Druid is Christ, the Son of God,
jealous care. Unknown to St. Finnian, The Son of Mary, the Great Abbot,
Columba made a copy of this Psalter ;
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
whether itsvalue consisted in the beauty My lands are with the King of Kings,
My order at Kells and at Moone."*
of the illumination or the preciousness
we have no knowledge. Finnian
of the text, The hatred between the monk and the
was angry, however, that Columba had king ended in a disastrous war ;
a bloody

dared to copy his precious volume without * references to Christ as a Druid, and as the
The
permission, and claimed the copy as Great Abbot, are singular. The Moone referred
"

his "
64 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [540563.

battle is recorded to have taken place become a perpetual exile from the land
between the friends and clansmen of he loved so passionately, and where he
Columba and the vassals of the over-king had done so many illustrious deeds, and
at a place called Culdreimhne. The vic had so many friends and followers, and
tory remained with the partisans of the live a life in heathen lands, winning to the

monk, who, with awful earnestness, fasted Christian faith as many heathen souls as
and prayed for the success of his party ;
there were Christians slain in the bloody
there was certainly much blood shed, and battle ofwhich he had been the instigator.
the king and his followers fled in confusion Columba, we read, bowed with sad resig
to Tara. nation to this stern sentence. "

What
The vindictive conduct of Columba in you have commanded," he said,
"

shall

this matterwas severely criticised, and a be done."

synod subsequently convoked at Tara ex

communicated him. The sentence was, Columba is the religious hero of the

however, soon revoked through the in Celtic races. No name, not even that
fluence of the famous St. Brendan, surnamed of St. Patrick, has received such veneration
the Navigator, one of his dearest friends, in subsequent ages, and deservedly so for ;

who is said to have pleaded for Columba not only the wild and imperfectly civilised
with intense fervour. But it appears cer Picts, who owned that great country we
tain that from this moment a new spirit know as
Scotland, eventually became
entered into the wayward, impetuous, Christian through his missionary labours;
and passionate monk ;
a bitter remorse but the subsequent evangelisation of con
troubled his soul ; he could not forgive quered Britain our England was in a
himself for the blood he had caused to be great measure the work of Columba s im
shed, in what he saw now was his own pri mediate disciples. Englishmen have good
vate quarrel. We hear of him wandering reason indeed to think on his name with
from solitude to solitude, from monastery reverence and love.-

to monastery, asking one or other of the In the many - coloured story of the
great Christian teachers of Ireland what heroes of our Church, Columba must hold
he should do to obtain God s pardon for the foremost place. His early life has
his awful sin. been sketched. It will ever be a difficult
A saintly confessor, who is spoken of as task to present a vivid picture of the first
his soul-friend, known in Irish story as forty years of the life of this great toiler
St. Molaise, of Innishmurry on the Sligo for God. The historian has to wade
coast, famed for his profound studies in through a maze of curious and partly-
Holy Scripture, indicated to him how he legendary narratives and the figure which
;

could find the peace he sought. He must
to is in the county of Kildare, where the abbatical
Cross of Columba is preserved. The rendering of
this most ancient poem is translated from Monta-
lembert (Monks of the West), from the version of Dr.
Reeves, with some slight modifications."
emerges from the maze seems half saint,
half sinner a brilliant and wayward
personality, evidently burning with zeal to
do a great work for God, but constantly
swayed and influenced by worldly con-
540563.] EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBA.
siderations,by national and tribal jealousies, memory of some real or imaginary affront
by personal ambition and passion, all or wrong, and if not the actual leader in

struggling for the mastery. To-day, for a war of vengeance, certainly the guiding

COLUMBA EMBARKING FOR SCOTLAND. (See p. 67.)

instance, he is the ascetic monk, the spirit among fierce Irish clansmen, only

earnest and devoted scholar, gathering too eager for the fray.
round him a vast company of his faithful But all this came to an end soon after
kinsmen and enthusiastic countrymen in Columba s fortieth year. The two natures
rough and lowly cells of a great Irish of this strange man ceased to come in

monastery to-morrow he is the haughty

;
conflict one with the other. There was
md passionate chieftain, chafing under the evidently a mighty soul-struggle ;
but the
E
66 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [563-

victory remained with the nobler nature, and upon a still earlier narrative, written by
the second half of the life of the famous another abbot of lona Cummian, and
founder of the world - renowned lona reproduced almost word for word by
monastery was wholly given up to the Adamnan. It is, unfortunately, without
high service of his adored master, Jesus. any chronological order but, as Monta- ;

It seems as though of a sudden a bitter, lembert remarks, it is un des monuments "

stinging sorrow for the evil his passionate les les

plus attrayants, et les
plus vivants,
and jealous nature had wrought among authentiques
i>lus de rhistoire Chretienne"

thoughtless and excitable men, had deter Well-known Irish scholars, such as Dr.
mined him to fly the scene of his former Reeves, form a like high opinion of this
power, and to seek a new home and a new most important document. Dr. Reeves

work, where he might spend himself far speaks of it as an inestimable literary relic
away from the old scenes of his temptation of the Irish church, perhaps, with all its
and his fall wholly for God .
defects, the most valuable monument of
We have for the second and more that institution which has escaped the
eventful portion of his life an admir ravages of time. It is one of the most
able witness in the beautiful biography important pieces of hagiology in existence.
of the monk Adamnan. No longer de The Duke of Argyll s estimate of the
pendent upon partly-uncertain and half- almost record the
"
"

contemporary of

legendary sources, our chief guide in greatest figure in the early history of our
forming an accurate estimate of a life church is interesting :
"

We find in
which has exercised so measureless an in Adamnan s Life of Columba not only
fluence on the fortunes of England, is the the firm foot-hold of history, but the vivid
memoir of a calm, thoughtful, pious monk, portraiture of an individual man. Not
who subsequently succeeded to the abbot s one historical character of the time is in
chair in the lona monastery, and who any similar degree known to us. On one
must have talked with men who knew spot, and one spot only, of British soil

Columba. there shines in this dark time a light,

Adamnan was not merely a holy monk, more vivid even than the light of common
given up to ascetic practices, to medita history the light of personal anecdote
tion, and to prayer ;
he was all this, but, and of domestic narrative. When we land
in addition, was a man of varied
learning. upon lona, we feel that we are treading
We knowthat he could write Latin, and in the very footsteps of a man whom
was, besides, a Hebrew and Greek scholar. we have known in voice, in gesture, in
Men of the type of Bede, Alcuin, and habits, and in many peculiarities of charac
others, by no means likely to write very ter and yet of a man who walked on the
;

exaggerated praises of a Celtic scholar same ground before the Heptarchy, when
monk, bear high testimony to his learning Roman cities still stood in Britain, and
and goodness. This Adamnan was born when the ancient Christianised Celts of
in 624, onlytwenty-seven years after the Britain were maintaining a doubtful con
death of Columba. His work is based test with Teutonic heathenism." With
563-] COLUMBA LEAVES IRELAND.
this curious and authentic document of the little band landed upon the desolate
Adamnan before us, we can draw a real island ofOronsay but, climbing a hill in ;

and vivid picture of Columba s life and the island, he caught sight of the Irish
work after he left Ireland, in 563, for mountains beyond the narrow sea they
what we have termed his great mission of had just crossed, and this fact determined
expiation. him to seek another site for his new home.
Columba chose for the scene of his new He would not live in a spot whence he
life and work the neighbouring coasts of could see the Ireland he loved so ardently,
North Britain. Some forty years before and which he thought and hoped he had
an Irish colony, under stress of famine, had left for ever. This passionate attachment

emigrated from Ireland, and had settled to his fatherland he never lost ; again and
along the coast and in the islands of again, we find touching allusions to it in
Scotland (we adopt the well-known com his new life, In some of those fragments
i

paratively modern term), north of the of verse still extant attributed to him, we
mouth ot the Clyde, in the district which have ever and anon references to this love

has since taken the name of Argyll. for his old home in sad lines, as

These settlers called the district which O in the West

"

Arran, my sun, my heart is

they made their new home, Dalriada, after with thee."

the name
"

To live within the sound of thy bells is to

of their old province in the
live in joy."
north-east of Ireland. These Dalriadans
belonged to the clan of Columba, and were It appears, too, often in simple, sad memories
thus kinsmen of the famous missionary like these :
"

In lona once he called one of

monk. Lately they had experienced a his monks and said to him, Go and seat

grave reverse of fortune (A.D. 560), when thyself by the sea on the western shore ;

Brude, the king of the Picts, had driven there thou wilt see arrive from Ireland a
them into the peninsula of Kintyre and travelling stork, long beaten by the winds
other parts most remote from the main and worn out with fatigue. Take up the
land, and, at the same time, had slain their poor bird with pity, feed her and watch
king. Their Christianity, too, seemed her three days. When she is refreshed

dying was among these, his kins

out. It and strengthened she will no longer wish
men, weakened and impoverished in body to prolong her exile among us ;
she will
and soul, that Columba determined to fly to sweet Ireland,
her dear country,
dwell, and to light anew the dying torch where she was born. I bid thee care for
of the faith. her thus because she comes from the land
It was year 563 that, with
in the where I, too, was born. Adamnan goes "

some twelve companions, chosen out of on to say that the stork was sheltered and
fed, and, on the third day after, the monks
the ranks of his dearest friends, Columba
embarked for the shores of North Britain watched her fly back over the sea to her
inone of those great boats of osier covered old home in Ireland.
with hide, common among these Celtic He chose, finally, the desolate island of
peoples. It was only a short voyage, and Hii for the establishment of his new
68 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [563-

monastery. Hii, or Hy, is a small and sandy beach, the little plain covered with

lonely island, three miles long by one mile scanty prickly grass, the low desolate hills,
and a half broad. Only the eastern part washed by the grey waters of a sullen
was fitted for cultivation, while the thin sea, were all Montalembert could discern
pasturage of the western coast was often in the famous island of Columba s choice.
covered with drifting sand. The surface is The old barbarian name was in Irish
uneven, but the low hills never rise over writings la or I. The Latin writers and
300 to 350 feet, and from none of them the Saxon chronicles usually call it Hii ;

is the Irish coast visible. This seems to Adamnan seems to have turned the old
have been the chief point of attraction in name into an adjective, loua insula, which
the home-sick Columba s eyes. lona is gradually was corrupted into the more
separated from the Ross of Mull by a melodious sound of lona, by which name
strait about a mile across. This arm of the holy house founded by Columba is
sea no doubt helped the monk colony known through all the Christian world
considerably ;
Adamnan speaks of it as of the west. Some fancifully connect the
abounding in fish. Hebrew word signifying a dove (Columba)
It is curious to observe the effect which Yona" with the more musical name of
"

this west coast of Scotland has on different lona ;

nor
it improbable that some
is

minds. We are familiar with the glowing very early monk-scholar suggested the
descriptions of its brilliant colouring, its curious and suggestive play on the old
blue and misty mountains, its seas beau adjective used by Adamnan.
tiful alike in storm and calm, though with But beautiful or ugly as different eyes
a different and ever-changing loveliness, or varying tempers view the Isle of Columba,
in the glowing pictures of that famous where he built his first rough group of
word-painter and novelist, who in his own monastic dwellings, lona will ever rank
peculiar winning way is never tired of among those few world-renowned sanc
dilating upon the exquisite landscapes tuaries whence men have issued, whose
and seascapes of what to him is
verily a work has largely influenced the story
charmed land. Yet the eloquent and of the nations. We in England re

ever-fascinating historian of the western cognise somewhat grudgingly our debt

monks, the Frenchman Montalembert, can of gratitude, and perhaps with difficulty

scarcely find words sombre enough to bring ourselves to acknowledge that to the
what was to him a country of
describe work of Columba and his disciples, the
gloom and mists. He paints, too, the monks of lona, is primarily owing all that
same Hebridean archipelago, which he is good and great, strong and enduring, in

us picturesque without charm our Anglo-Saxon peoples.

"

tells is

and grand without grace." He writes of The bay where Columba landed is still

the dull and sullen waters which washed called

"

the bay of the osier bark

"

(Port-na-
Columba s Isle as entirely colourless and Churaich). The site chosen for the little

hopelessly forlorn, and as only lit up on monastery was on the east of the island
rare days by the pale northern sun. The opposite the great island of Mull. From
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [563597-

Adamnan we learn that the first buildings in the immediate neighbourhood of Argyll
erected for the band of strange monks shire, re-lighting the torch of the faith, which,
were made of wood and wattles. No as we have said, was burning very dimly
mention occurs of any stone buildings in among these Irish settlers. After the first

lona for many years, save perhaps the two years began his more important work
"

kiln." A rude church "

oratorium
"

among the Picts. No Christian missionary

was built, but even this sacred oratory before Columba had ever penetrated into

was at first constructed of the same rough the Highlands, and many strange stories
and perishable materials. Somewhat later are told of his preaching among this wild

an oratorium" of oak
"

brought from a people. Near the modern Inverness dwelt

distance was substituted. Some bee-hive the Pictish king Brude, who became, if not
cells and other stone buildings of a a professing Christian, at least Columba s

monastery founded by Columba in the friend and protector. Many converts were
little Isle of Saints, shortly after the first made among these heathen half-barbarian
building of lona, still however remain, but folk the number of churches dedicated to
;

no vestige of the original lona has been St.Columba, in the neighbourhood of king
preserved. The present ruins of the Brude s royal residence, still bears witness
mediaeval monastery no doubt occupy the to the remarkable influence of the mission

original site of the first rude huts

and the ary. It needed more than thirty years of
other equally simple structures. unremitting toil, however, to accomplish
The small community of twelve quickly these ends. The number of churches, each

grew. The name of Columba, already surrounded by its colony of monks, large
famous, his remarkable austerities, and his or small, in many districts of Scotland i

singular power over men, brought over variously estimated.

"

Modern learning,
many from Ireland who wished to share has discovered and
"

says Montalembert,
in his life and work. The great mission registered the existence of ninety of these
ary lived alone in a rough plank hut, monastic churches. Traces of fifty-three of

sleeping on a hard floor with a stone for them still remain in modern Scotland."

his pillow, and this way of living he never The narrow limits of the island and of
changed ;
ceaseless work of various kinds, the original holy house of lona, very soon

only interrupted by prolonged prayer, were too small for the ever multiplying
filled his life. When he was not preaching crowd of disciples who flocked thither,
or sharing in the outdoor labours of his drawn by the name and growing influence
monks, he was studying the meaning of of Columba. Into the neighbouring isles,

holy Scripture or making fresh copies through the hills and valleys inhabited by
of the sacred text. Tradition affirms that the Picts, fresh and ever fresh little com
he made with his own hands three hundred panics were constantly going forth, plantin
copies of the Gospels. new religious communities on the sam
For the first two years after settling at lines as the mother house of lona, all unde
lona, he and his companion laboured with the supremacy of the great missiona
his Dalriadan kinsmen monk, and bearing the name of Familia
"

untiring zeal among

563-597] COLUMBA IN IONA.

Columba-cillae." Some traditions even through St. Aidan, Celtic Christianity and
attribute 300 of such foundations to him Celtic art. The
Lindisfarne gospels and
"

and his disciples. This number is

probably many sculptured crosses, and other works
exaggerated, but that these communities of the Celtic school, remain as abiding monu
were very numerous and scattered all over ments of the source whence we first of all

the country, is indisputable. Although it derive the Christianity of the north of

would be vain to assert that Scotland was England."

Christian before Columba passed away, it And now of Columba himself. Who and
is clear that the existence of so many houses what manner of man was the founder of all
of the
"

family of Columba," dotted over this far-reaching work ? What was the
the land, each with their church, the special power which enabled him in so
monks busied, some in works of agriculture, remarkable a fashion to attach so many
others in preaching, teaching, or study, devoted friends to his person, and to
must have exercised an enormous power mould and shape them after his peculiar

for good in the hitherto barbarous and pattern, for few men appear to have
pagan Scotland. possessed a like power over their fellows ?
All these widespread and ever-growing What, too, were the special gifts which
influences, of course, tended to invest enabled him not only to quicken into new
the mother house of lona, the special life and a purer faith thousands of imper

home of the indefatigable head of this fectly civilised and warlike spirits, brought
vast and scattered family of up under the
"

religious," sinister influences of the wild

with a peculiar sanctity, which it continued paganism of the North ? which enabled him
to preserve long after the death of not only thus to sway the hearts of these
the holy founder. It had reached its heathen Picts, and to dispose them to love
highest point of fame about forty years and aim after nobler ideals than their
when the English king
after his death, of fathers, but also to organise with consum
Northumbria summoned from the cells of mate wisdom this strange powerful Celtic

the lona monastery teachers and mission church ;

it not only the power to
to give
aries who should bring the message of the continue and to grow, but positively to
Cross into the broad lands won by the con become in its turn a missionary pioneer
quering Angle Britain, north of the
in church in other and hostile pagan lands ?
Humber. The mighty work of Aidan the Other fervid and impassioned preachers,
monk, sent forth from lona in the seventh such as St. Francois Xavier, have won their

century (635) into Engle-land a story thousands from heathendom to Christian

hereafter to be told was the splendid ity ;
but too often, when the magic of their
fruit of the lifelong devotion and com presence was removed, and the music of
manding genius of Columba. The Colum- their voices hushed, their heathen converts
ban church first planted in lona, after lost their first love, the fervour of their
wards embraced the whole region north of first cooled, and the net results of
faith

the Firths of Forth and of Clyde, besides such work as Fran$ois Xavier s were very
giving to the Angles of Northumbria, meagre. But with Patrick and Columba,
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [563597-

the Celtic pioneers of true religion, it was possess a life of the Celtic hero and saint
different ;
their work endured, and to one written by a scholar who displayed many
of these, Columba, we Englishmen owe of the true instincts of the faithful bio
in large measure, as we have said, all that grapher, who lived close to his times, who
makes life bright and useful, and even dwelt for long years among scenes made
desirable. sacred by the toils and struggles of Columba.
Round Patrick and his eventful story In the little book of Abbot Adamnan we "

possess materials for a real, life-like picture

of the latter and most interesting period of
Columba s eventful life."

His actual personal appearance a com

paratively rare memory in the case of these

far-back heroes of history is preserved to

us with some details. All testimonies

speak of his tall form, his manly beauty,

the peculiar dignity of his bearing. The
same ancient witnesses dwell, too, on his

sweet and penetrating voice, so sonorous

and winning that his disciples reckoned it
as one of the chief gifts he had received
from the Master he served so faithfully.

Very remarkable was the passionate

devotion to his person of his family of
"

monks," scattered far and wide over Ireland

as well as Scotland ; although a volun
for

tary exile from his loved native country,

he seems never to have given up the
authority over the houses he and his dis
[Photo : Mclsaac &>
Riddle, Oban.
cipleshad originally founded there, certain
MACLEAN S CROSS, IONA.
of which, such as Durrow, were religious

cluster a mass of memories, some true, communities of great importance. This

some purely legendary, but it is impossible devotion was not merely paid to the
out of these to construct any really de illustrioushead and founder of their order,
finite picture of the man himself; every not merely to the winning and eloquent

student, after a careful study of the latest preacher, the famous bard, the unwearied
and most scholarly lives of the great Irish scholar, but to the sympathetic and
saint, must be sensible of this. But in the devoted friend. No trouble or sorrow,
case of Columba, it is different.
Here, too, no care or fear, but he sympathised with
a mass of legendary lore gathers round the and tried to relieve or dispel it. Such
stories as the following were told of him
great and successful servant of God but :
;

besides the legends true and false, we One day at lona, when a dull fog like a
563-597] COLUMBA IN IONA. 73

pall enveloped earth and sea, the brethren monastery after the varied labours con
noticed that of a sudden he burst into nected with the tilling of their barren farm
tears. On being asked the reason, he re and the tending of their scanty flocks and
see my dear monks of Durrow would, as they passed near the
"

plied : I herds, they

at this moment condemned by their abbot master s hut, kneel, hoping to receive his
to exhaust themselves in building the great blessing and perhaps a kind word or two.

Photo : Mclsaac & Riddle, Obatt

IONA CATHEDRAL.

tower of the holy house I see them ;

toil- A beautiful legend arising out of this cus
ng, wet, weary, exhausted !
"

tom of the old man has been preserved.

In his old age we are told how the loved In the last year of his life he was too
abbot now too feeble for those long and feeble to come out and bless his children,
Dainful mission journeys in which in the as his habit had been of late years but the ;

lays of strength his vigour and he monks would pause in the same spot where

lelighted, often undertaken at the great they used to receive the coveted blessing
est possible risk to his life used to sit of their well-loved abbot. One summer
ilone in his little lona hut, which served evening, Baithen, the steward of the
lim as a study-cell, and to write and "

house," who succeeded Columba in the

neditate there and when the younger
;
abbot s chair, asked the brothers if as
nonks returned in the evening-tide to the they lingered on the spot of blessing
74 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [563-597-

they were not sensible of something possessed over men s hearts, the memory
strange and unusual ?
"

Yes," replied of which contributed not a little to the

the oldest of the monks, each day at "

stability of his work and to the perma

this hour, as we pause at the spot we nence of his many religious foundations.
remember so well, floats by us a delicious He owned, it is true, many striking gifts
odour, as though all the flowers of the the stately form, the musical voice, the
wprld were collected here." Baithen, the winning eloquence, the tireless energy,
dearest friend of Columba, ventured to the rare power of organisation and ruling.

explainthe meaning of the odour. It But these things, united though they
was Columba, he told them, who, unable were in Columba s case with a strangely
to move, sent his spirit out from his hut sympathetic and loving nature (a some
to meet and refresh them. what rare combination) would never have
Adamnan specially notices, in that sufficed to win for him that magic key
charming sixth-century picture of the of hearts which was his great source of

life of a great benefactor of the human power and influence, had not his life in

family which he has given us, the won a peculiar and especial way commended
derful variety of his hero powers and s itself to the men
of his age and they were

sympathies. Nothing connected with a not a few, in that stirring age of upheaval

happy, useful life Columba deem out

did and reconstruction who, in good earnest,
side his care and interest and no doubt
;
were "seekers after God."

not a little of his vast influence among We have already mentioned how, in hi;
those wild Pictish tribes, where he laboured dreary cell, he slept on the hard floor
so many weary years, was owing to his help some say on a mat with a stone for his
ful suggestions as to their fishing and farm pillow ;
and
austere arrangement he
this

ing, while his skill in agriculture was doubt never changed, even when old age hac
less instrumental in making their upland lessened his powers of endurance. Bu
fields and poor orchards more fruitful. He his hours of sleep were but few, for he
was, besides this, not only the tender
all would often pass most of the night in pro
and devoted visitor and consoler of the longed prayer,which, we are told,excited not
sick, but in many cases he played success only the wonder and admiration, but even
fully the physician s part. the alarm of his disciples. No morta
Of course Adamnan s story has many frame, they thought, could bear such rest
threads woven into it coloured with the less work as Columba had undertaken
miraculous and supernatural, but these unless refreshed by sleep.
can be gently drawn out without any real "

Let no one follow me," said the abbot

injury to the beautiful and true story of one day in his later life to his disciples
a great self-sacrificing soul, who lived but one, more anxious than the rest,
and worked some thirteen centuries ago. followed his sainted master at a distance
After all, it was the life led by this and watched him standing erect on one of
eminent servant of God which won that those sandy hillocks hard by the se
measureless power he seems to have which wash lona, gazing long at heaven
563-597-] COLUMBA IN IONA. 75

motionless, with hands raised as though threw a little butter into the kettle in
he prayed, and around him the watcher which this miserable food was being
thought he saw a crowd of angels. The cooked.
little hill since then has ever borne the The death of Columba, as told by
name of "

the Angels Hill." Of course we Adamnan, is a noble and touching story

ascribe such visions to over-wrought of the passing of a true saint of God
" "

may
fancy, but they give us some idea of the in the sixth century. He was very feeble,
reverential love, mingled with awe, with and something had told him the hour of
which the founder of our English Chris his release was very close. It was a

tianity inspired his disciples. These de Saturday, and, leaning on Diarmid, the
voted disciples told those who recorded the old man went out to bless the monastery
life of the great saint that, in the closing
granary. The monks last harvest had
years, strange a light celestial seemed been a plentiful one. Looking at two
often to pervade his solitary cell, through great heaps of grain, he said, I see with
"

the little apertures of which this light joy my family, though I must leave them,
was seen shining in the long night hours will not suffer this year from famine."

with extraordinary brilliancy. "

Dear father,"
said his faithful attendant,
Almost incredible instances of self-
"

why do you thus sadden us by speaking

inflicted torture are told, such as remain of your death ?
"

Ah,"
answered the
"

ing plunged in cold water while he recited I will tell you a secret you must
"

abbot, ;

many psalms. A
touching instance of his swear to me to tell no one my words till I
deep and practical sympathy with poverty am gone. To-day is what we call Satur
is related. He was already bent with age, day, the Holy Scriptures call it Sabbath or
when he saw an old woman gathering rest. It will, indeed, be my day of rest
herbs and even nettles. She told him how after my long life of work. Do not weep,
her poverty forbade her all other food. Diarmid, my it is Lord Jesus Christ who
u
"

See,"
he said to his disciples, this poor bids me join Him. This has been revealed
woman, who finds her life still desirable to me by the Lord Himself." But Diarmid
enough to be prolonged upon such terms. wept bitterly. The two went back to the
And we monks, who profess to merit the monastery as they slowly walked, the
;

eternal life of heaven by our severe lives, dying saint grew weary and stopped to
we live in comparative luxury !
"

Going rest. A very ancient cross still marks the

back to his lona he gave orders that cell, scene of the saint s resting-place on this

no other food should be provided for him occasion. As Columba sat and waited for
save the same wild and bitter herbs which a little return of strength, an old white
he had seen the beggar-woman gathering horse, which used day to carry milk every
for her poor meal and the recital goes ;
from the dairy to the monastery, came and
on to say that he reproved his friend and put his head upon his master s breast.
minister, Diarmid, who had been with him The bystanders relate how the poor dumb
long years, when Diarmid, out of pitying animal looked sorrowfully into the dying
love for his master s weakness and old age, master s face. Diarmid wished to drive
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [597-

the creature away, but Columba would Lincoln is a well-known memory of that
not let him. he said, the Creator
"

See,"
"

humble and holy man of God. St. Guthlac

has revealed to the brute who loves me of Crowland possessed, we read, a like strong
what He has hidden from men. He knows fascination for the wild birds of the Fen
of my departure." And then he blessed lands, and there are many other like in

the animal who wished thus to take leave stances.*

of his old master. After the little scene with the old white

DEATH OF COLUMBA.

This strange attachment of brutes and horse, Columba still found strength to
wild creatures to great and devoted saints climb a low hill from whence he over
we come upon not infrequently in old looked the lona monastery. With great
memoirs of their works and days. They solemnity he blessed the sanctuary which
are evidently true records. -These crea he had founded and loved so well, and
tures, whom we often despise, and some at prophesied that the day would come when it
least of us treat with scant consideration, * The secret ofprobably lay in kindness and
it
in their strange instinct, saw in these quietness, for the fact comes out remarkably
same
men their friends. The touch in the lives of Fakir, Buddhist, and Brahman
simple, holy
recluses in India. Almost universally the animals
ing attachment of the great wild swan of the forest treat them with perfect friendship,
(whom no one could tame) to St. Hugo of as testified by many.
597] DEATH OF ST. COLUMBA. 77

would be greatly honoured. He then went Columba made a motion with his hand as-

home, and, weak though he was, quietly though blessing the brethren, who, with
set himself down to his accustomed work their lamps, had gathered quickly round
of transcribing the Scriptures -just then he their father. He recovered for a moment,
was making a copy of the Psalter. He had opened his eyes, and then, as he looked
reached the 33rd Psalm, and when he had round, there came over his countenance an
written down the verse,
"

They that seek expression of gladness and joy, as though,

the Lord shall not want any good says his biographer, he saw a vision of "

thing,"

he stopped suddenly. Baithen (the

"
"

angels, and so died." The beautiful re

steward of lona monastery, and his succes joicing expression remained on his face,,

sor as abbot), said the tired man of God, say the eye-witnesses, even after death.
"

must write what follows

then, sitting
"

;
The Rule of Columba," often quoted,,
"

on his hard couch, he gave a last charge does not seem to have been a formal rule,
to his dear children of lona. The dying corresponding in any respect to the regu
message urgedpeace and charity
that lations left by St. Benedict, but rather a
should ever reign among them. With all simple collection to- of maxims designed
his evident humility, Columba was per guide a solitary who had devoted his life
suaded that he possessed power with God to prayer and meditation apart from his
as His faithful servant, for in his farewell brethren. But, although he left no
charge he promised to intercede formal after his death, for a
"

for them, rule," long

as one who would be near God. period the numerous houses in Scotland
No one. heard Columba speak again. and Ireland founded by him and his im
The voice of the saint was hushed. mediate disciples remained faithful to the
Sanctus conticm t. That same night when rules and customs laid down and pre

the bell called to matins, the dying saint, scribed by him, which do not, however,,
when he heard the first notes ringing out, seem to have differed from the rules and
rose up and managed to reach the monastery customs of the other great monastic com
church before any other of the brothers : munities in Ireland where Columba received
the faithful Diarmid, though, followed him his early training. But the devotion and
closely. The church was dark, or very earnest missionary spirit of their illustrious

dimly lighted in these night services

;
founder gave the "family of Columba" a
the monks brought lights with them.* peculiar force and power, which, as we
Diarmid found Columba prostrate and shall see, eventually accomplished the
speechless before the altar ;
he gently raised entire conversion of the British lands where
the dying abbot, so that his head rested the Angle had conquered and settled,
on his lap. With the help of Diarmid, north of the river Humber. The monks
* This of his many houses for some time bore
is well known to those who have
practice
attended the night services at the Grande Char "
the name of "

The Order of the Fair

treuse," wnere. in the dark church, the gleam of but were
Company" (pulchrce societatis),
the little lamp carried by each of the fathers as
move in one by one to their stalls generally called The family of "

Columb-
they noiselessly
has a weird effect. kill."
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [597-

In all the great articles of belief, Co- the saints, there is no trace in this primitive

lumba, in common with the other famous Celtic Christianity to which England owes
teachers of the great Celtic monastic so much. We find no record of unction
church in Ireland, of the sixth, seventh, of the sick in any form whatever. No
and eighth centuries, followed closely the trace or allusion to the supremacy of the
doctrines of the Catholic church in its see of Rome exists.

best and purest age. As regards minor The remains of Columba were interred

points, we find evidences of confession, in his monastery of lona, which, for two
public rather than private, optional rather hundred years, was looked upon as the

than compulsory, and absolution was usu great Scottish centre of the Celtic church.
penance had been
ally deferred until the Seventy kings and princes were said to

Ion*.

performed. We
find, certainly, traces of have been interred round the sacred grave
the invocation of saints and confidence in of the founder. In 878, to preserve the
their protection. Belief in the real pre hallowed relics from the Danish pirates,
sence existed. Fasting and prayers for the shrine and relics of Columba were
the departed were largely observed in the taken to Ireland. Tradition
says they
churches of the family of Columba," and
"

found a resting-place in the monastery of

what has been related of his terrible Down, where the relics of Patrick and
austerities, and the claim by them (<

to Bridget had found a home. It is,

how
merit the eternal life of heaven," in refer ever, impossible to ascertain what even
ence to the scene with the poor woman, tually became of the sacred remains ; many
show how much the pure doctrine of places, including Durham, claimed to have
the Gospel had been depraved by super a portion of them. The ruins now visible
stitious asceticism even in that early age. in lona are those of a Benedictine abbey,
Of the worship, however, which in later founded on the original site of Columba s
times was paid to the Blessed Virgin and Holy House in 1203.
 CHAPTER V.

THE ROMAN MISSION OF AUGUSTINE.

Gregory and the Angle Boys Pope Gregory the Great sends Augustine and forty companions to Britain
Augustine lands at Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet King Ethelbert of
Kent receives him kindly
is baptised, and settles Augustine at Canterbury The famous Letter of Gregory to Augustine-
meets the British
Gregory sends Mellitus. Justus, and Paulinus to join Augustine Augustine
Mellitus consecrated
Bishops in conference and fails to conciliate them His return to Canterbury
Bishop of London and Justus Bishop of Rochester Laurence consecrated Bishop Coadjutor
Augustine s Death.

the very same year, A.D. 597, when thirteenth unbidden guest appeared among
Columba, the Celtic missionary apostle them, an angel, whom, not knowing, he
IN of North Britain Roman monk fed with the other needy ones.
died, a
named Augustine and forty companions, A
story, undoubtedly relates how true",

landed at a place called Ebbsfleet, in the once he severely punished himself when he
Isle of Thanet, on the south-east coast of heard of the death of a poor man who, in
Britain. Augustine came with the hope a time of famine at Rome, had perished
of evangelising the pagan Jutes, who had through want. His thoughtful care and
taken possession of the south-eastern dis munificence on the occasion of one of the
trict of our island. Columba died in June. terrible pestilences, which in this age of
The memorable landing of the Roman war and confusion not infrequently swept
monk had already taken place in the over Europe, had won him boundless popu
month of April. larity. A memory has been preserved a
The coming of these Roman missionaries strange one, certainly, if true of Gregory s
to south-eastern Britain was on this wise. hero-worship of the great emperor Trajan.
A man very famous in the
afterwards So impressed was the loving Roman
"

world s story, named Gregory, in the year abbot with the thought of the justice
575 had founded a monastery dedicated and goodness of this heathen sovereign,
to St. Andrew, on his own estate upon the that he earnestly prayed in St. Peter s

Ccelian Hill, in Rome, and there lived as church that God would even now give
monk and as abbot. This Gregory, who sub Trajan grace to know the name of Christ
sequently became one of the most famous of
*
and be converted." In children this
the long line of illustrious bishops of Rome, famous monk-statesman seems to have
was already remarkable among his fellow- been specially interested, and for a time he
countrymen for his boundless charity and trained the singing boys of St. Andrew
little

works of love. Men still show in Rome in those famous chants which bear his name.
the long marble table where daily he was In memory of this choir-training, in which
wont to feed twelve beggars. On one Gregory delighted, a children s festival was
*
occasion, so runs the beautiful legend, a Dean Memorials of
"

Stanley, Canterbury."
8o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [577-

held on his day as late as the seventeenth suggested those curious

kindly specu
century. lations respecting the fate of the noble
One day the abbot Gregory chanced to emperor Trajan, that led to his conversa
be passing through the crowded Roman tion with the slave-merchant, in the course

market-place when several newly-arrived of which occurred that curious string of

cargoes of slaves from foreign parts were puns, one following the other, now his
being offered for sale. Among the varied torical, which exhibits the mixture of

"NON ANGLI SED ANGELI."

(From the fainting by Keeley Halsivelfe, ff.f.)

groups of these unhappy ones his eyes fell playfulness, with a deep serious purpose
upon a little knot of boys, distinguished by underlying it, which often relieved in some
their long flaxen hair and fair complexion. sort Gregory s anxieties and his painful

Gregory stopped to look at them ;

his bodily sufferings. What, he asked, was the
well-known fondness for children attracted nationality of those bright, flaxen-haired,
him to the little group. Pity and sorrow fairboys. On being told that they were
u
forthem, so young and helpless, torn away Engles or Angles, Well said," replied th<

from their homes, led him to ask the monk,

"

they are rightly called Angles, for

slave-merchant, probably a Jew, whether they have angels faces. They should be
the children were Christian or Pagan, fellow heirs with the angels in heaven."
and whence they came. It was the same He went on, From what province do they
"

intense feeling of compassion which had come ? He heard they were from Deira,
"
585-J
GREGORY AND THE ANGLE BOYS. 81

the Angle name for the modern Durham and obtained his permission to go as

and Yorkshire. "Well said, "again answered missionary at once to that far country, to

they must be rescued De ird win the inhabitants to the

"
side of Christ.
Gregory ;

Dei (from God s anger)." Once again He started soon with a small band of

he asked, "

Who is the king of Deira ?

"

chosen friends on what seemed a desperate

ST. MARTIN S CHURCH, CANTERBURY.

He was told king ^Ella. "Ah,"

he said, venture ;
but he was so beloved at Rome
stillpunning upon the name, the Alle "

that a furious mob, we read, attacked the

luia must indeed be sung in those far Pope and demanded the instant return of
distant regions." their favourite. Gregory was hastily re
The emotion which the sight of these called before he reached the Alps, and more
captive Angle boys in the slave-market than twelve years passed before the longing
of Rome had waked in the great church desire of his generous heart could be ful
man s heart, was no mere passing feel filled. The abbot of St. Andrews was
ing. He went at once to the Pope, elected Pope in A.D. 590, and after various

F
82 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [597-

schemes had been devised for the con the estuary of the Stour on the one side
version of the great pagan island, as and Pegwell Bay on the other. What
Britain was Gregorythen held to be, are now green hills, were then the waters
despatched from his monastery on the of the sea. The tradition that some im
Coelian forty chosen monks, under the portant landing had taken place there is
of prior Augustine, to the still preserved at the farm, and the field
leadership
distant home of the flaxen-haired boys, which rises immediately on the north side
who, as they stood in the slave-market of is shown as the spot. Here it was that,
Rome, had years before excited his pity according to the story preserved in the
and a determination to convert their Saxon chronicles, Hengist and Horsa had
nation to Christianity. sailed in with their three ships and a band
It was no easy journey in those dis of warriors, who conquered Vortigern ;

turbed, restless times, and the hearts of and here now Augustine came with his
Gregory s missionaries seem to have failed monks, his choristers, and the interpreters
*
them long before they reached the shores they had brought with them from France."

of distant Britain.Augustine even re Interpreters were necessary, for the pagan

turned from Gaul to Rome, begging in Jutes, the masters of Kent, understood no
the name of his company to be released Latin, and their speech what we now
from the perilous mission. But Gregory might Anglo-Saxon Augustine and
call

was firm, and would not hear of any his monks were utterly ignorant of.
drawing back. wrote the Bishop Ethelbert of Kent, to whon
"

Better," King
of Rome in a letter given to Augustine to Augustine at once despatched interpre
be read to the faint-hearted members of ters,was the great-grandson of Eric, soi

the mission, not to begin that good work

"

of Hengist, the first Jute conqueror of th

at all than to give it up after having com south-east of Britain. The Jute king live<

menced it Forward, then, in at Canterbury, a rough-built town erectec

God s name." At last they reached the by the victors on the ruins of an ancien
goal of their long journey, and landed at Roman-British city destroyed by the firs
Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet in the invaders.
month of April, 597 a memorable date Ethelbert was no ordinary man. H
in the making of Christian England ! had obtained a kind of over-lordshi]
The name Ebbe s Fleet or Ebbe s Port among the other Saxon or Engle prince
is
generally derived from a chief in the as far north as the Humber, and undei
following of Hengist, who is said to have the title of Bretwalda exercised a military
landed at the same spot in 449. It is supremacy over a large portion of Britain
still the name of a farmhouse on a strip His wife, queen Bertha, was a Christian
of high ground rising out of Minster She was the daughter of Caribert, king o
Marsh. On
a near approach, you see
"

the Franks at Paris, the grandson of the

at a glance that it must have once been famous Clovis. Bertha became the wife ol
a promontory or headland running out the great Jutish over-king Ethelbert o3

into the sea between the two inlets of * Dean

Stanley.
 597-1 ETHELBERT AND AUGUSTINE.
Kent, on the condition that she should be the approach of Augustine. The Italian

perfectly free to observe the practices

of missionary was a man of great stature.
the religion of her fathers, and had brought Chanting a solemn litany with his forty
from her Paris home as chaplain a Gaul monks, a huge silver cross borne before
ish bishop, Luitbrand of Senlis, who re him, together with
great picture of a
mained by her side to his death, not Christ painted and gilded, he approached

very long after the arrival of St. Augus the king, who bade him sit down, and
tine. Queen Bertha was a devoted Chris the interview commenced. Augustine de
tian, and no doubt the extraordinary and livered his solemn message in his own
rapid success of Augustine s mission, which Latin tongue, and the interpreter trans
we have now to notice, was largely owing to lated it into the Anglo-Saxon speech.
fhe gentle but powerful influence of the The heathen king listened to it atten

queen. Indeed, it is more than probable tively, and replied

Fair are your words
:
"

|
that the old interest of Pope Gregory in and promises, but as all this is to me novel
Jthe matter of the conversion of pagan and uncertain, I cannot at once believe
Britain was stimulated by letters he had what you tell me, and give up everything
ireceived from this queen Bertha, who that I and the whole of my race for

evidently for a long time had been anxious so long a time have held sacred. But
that the pagan folk among whom she had because you, strangers, have come from
made her home should adopt the religion far, just to share with us what I see
.she loved so well. clearly you believe to be true and good,
King Ethelbert received the messengers we will do you no harm on the contrary, ;

f Augustine with
kindness, and agreed to we will treat you as our guests, and will
neet them at Ebbsfleet. Indeed, the see that all that
necessary is
you for

tory Augustine had to tell the king was is provided nor shall we in any way
;

o novelty to him many a time he must

;
hinder you from preaching your faith and
lave heard the beautiful story of Chris- winning over as many as possible to your
ianity and its Divine Founder from the religion."

ps of his queen. But with the old Norse- The generous reply of king Ethelbert
nen s dread of charms and spells and to Augustine given by Bede, who is
is

nagical influences, the king stipulated generally well-informed and accurate. As

hat the first interview between himself Dean Stanley acutely observes This :
"

nd the Italian strangers should be held in simple answer seems to contain all that
he open air. is excellent in the English character
The sceneof the meeting between exactly what, under the influence of
ithelbert and Augustine must have been Christianity, has grown up into all our
t once striking and picturesque. The best institutions. There is the natural
utish king and his thanes, surrounded dislike to change, which Englishmen still

y their redoubtable Norsemen warriors, retain ;

there is the willingness at the

tting on the bare ground under the same time to listen favourably to anything
iiade of a great oak tree, waited^ for which comes recommended by the energy
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [597-

and self-devotion of those who urge it ;

land. Queen Bertha had been allowed by
there is the spirit of moderation and her kindly pagan husband to restore one
toleration, and the desire to see fair play, of these old ruined churches, and there, with
which is one of our best gifts, and which I her chaplain, the bishop Luitbrand, and a
hope we shall never lose." few Prankish attendants, had worshipped
Very soon meeting, under
after the among the heathen surroundings of the
the protection of Ethelbert, the band of Jutish court, hoping for better days. But
Roman monks journeyed to Canterbury, the sight of a church in this strange land
the burg or city of the Jutish king. It must have cheered the heart of Augustine
and his monks, as they looked over the
scene of their future labours.
We can picture to ourselves with fair

accuracy what Augustine saw as, for the

firsttime, he looked down from the slop
of the hill where the little church of Berth
stood.* She had called it St. Martin s, afte

the famous saint of her native France

St. Martin of Tours ;
a cherished memor
in the new country
she had adopted. L
the valley below, the monk would see ,

lofty hall, the palace of Ethelbert, th

Jutish king. The hall was a rectangular
high, wooden building, long sides facinj
its

north and south. Shining metal covere<

the roof and glittered in the sun. In th
roof were openings, through which th
smoke from the fires on the hearth withii
ETHELBERT S AND ETHELFRITH S KINGDOMS.
the great hall escaped. Round the roya
hall lay the burg, or village, consisting of

was a poor place in those days, only a scattered wooden houses, which has since
group of wooden huts built round the grown into Canterbury.
royal hall of Ethelbert. The ancient Here and there, amid the Jutish houses
Roman-British city of Durovernum had and gardens, were piles of shapeless ruins
once occupied the site, and in the recital of the ancient Durovernum, and a weird
of the settlement of Augustine we come and shattered Roman wall, still per
upon the mention of the ruins of three fect in many places ;
so strong and mas
or four British churches, telling us of the sive was ^ it, that fire and time had

days when Durovernum was a Christian * Recent

investigations have revealed in the

But was before Hengist ravaged

this west wall of St. Martin s details of Roman work,
city.
for one hundred and
making it nearly certain that this wall, at least,
the country in 449 ;
formed part of the original church worshipped
fifty years the pagan Jute had been in the in by queen Bertha.
597-] AUGUSTINE AT CANTERBURY.
failed to harm it. It was all new and North-folk,who worshipped Thor and
Woden, and of whom such dreadful tales
had been long whispered with hushed
voices, all through the old Roman world
which Augustine knew but they entered
;

the curious Pagan city with heads erect,

with their tall silver cross, and the gold

"THEY ENTERED THE PAGAN CITY WITH HEADS ERECT .... CHANTING THE LITANY."

Dmewhat fearsome to the Roman monks, and painted picture of the Christ borne
his strange, rough city of the dreaded before them, chanting the Litany their
86 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [598.

Father Gregory had used when the plague a letter to the Patriarch of Alexandria,

ravaged Rome beseech Thee, O

:
"

We mentions with extreme thankfulness that

Lord, in mercy, that Thy wrath
all Thy more than ten thousand Kentish men
and Thine anger may be removed from received baptism on the Christmas Day
this city, and from Thy Holy House. of that same year.
Alleluia !
"

Thus singing, they entered The influence of the Italian monk must
into the heathen burg. have grown among the pagan Northmen
For a short time after their arrival in settled in Kent with extraordinary rapidity,

Canterbury, they themselves contented for we read that very soon after Augus
with the little church of queen Bertha, St. tine s return from his consecration as
Martin s, as Bede tells us in
"

dwelling," archbishop at Aries, the king gave him

his beautiful summary of their manner of his royal hall
palace or
Canterbury, at

after the
example of the early Church, together with the ruins of another old
"

life,

praying continually, watching and fasting, British church, he himself fixing his

preaching to all they could reach, paying residence at Reculvers on the sea coast.
no heed to worldly matters, as things with The old British church was restored anc
which they had nothing to do, only ac rebuilton a large scale we read it had a;

cepting from those whom they taught just nave and aisle and towers on the north
as much as was absolutely necessary for and south. Two apses were constructec
life, living themselves the life they taught, at the eastern and western end, each with
with hearts ready to suffer every adversity, its altar. The present metropolitan church
ready even to die for that truth which they of England, largely built by archbishop
preached. What need to say any more ? Lanfranc in the eleventh and twelfth cen
Some believed, some were baptised, because turies, the mother church of English
they admired the simplicity of their blame Christianity, arose on the foundation of
less lives and the sweetness of their this church of Augustine. It was the
heavenly teaching."
as it is
now, called Christ church.

The public baptism of king Ethelbert Another ancient British church ju

was not long delayed, and the example of outside the old Roman wall was rebui
the chieftain, as was common among pagan and dedicated to St. Pancras, probably at

people, was followed by crowds of his the suggestion of Pope Gregory, to whom

subjects. the memory of the boy-martyr was espe

Acting upon the directions of Pope cially dear, partly because the family o

Gregory, who watched the progress of the Pancras once owned the ground on th<

mission to Britain with the deepest in where stood the monastery o

Coelian Hill

terest,Augustine, before the close of St. Andrew, of which Gregory had beet
597, applied to the Gallic bishops for abbot, and Augustine prior partly be ;

episcopal consecration. At Aries, arch cause of the memory of the British boys in

bishop Vergilius and other Frankish pre the slave-market at Rome, who had yean
lates formally consecrated him as arch before first turned Gregory s attention tt

bishop of the English. Pope Gregory, in Britain. The famous boy-martyr seemed
6oi.] MELLITUS, JUSTUS, AND PAULINUS.
a fitting dedication for one of the first of monks from Rome brought the answers
churches built by the mission, in the of Gregory to the questions of Augustine,
home of those never-to-be-forgotten slave besides a great store of relics, sacred
children with the flaxen hair. vessels, priestly robes, ornaments for the

Around the Canterbury St. Pancras, altar, and other things necessary to give

Augustine planned and laid the foundation effect to the pomp of religious services.

of that famous abbey which was even Above all, the Roman pontiff sent to

tually to bear his name. This abbey, Britain certain very precious and valuable
which became in after-years one of the manuscripts. Some of these venerable
richest and most revered sanctuaries in books the gift of Gregory were still in

Christendom, subsequently possessed a existence at the era of the dissolution ;

Le-
patrimony which at one time was said land, the learned secretary of Henry VIII.,
to have included 11,860 acres of land. It had seen them, and speaks of them with
was to the abbot of this primitive founda admiration.
tion of Augustine, that Pope Leo IX., in The and discrimination shown by
care

1056, some four and a half centuries later, this greatpope in the selection of fitting
gave the proud privilege of sitting in men, and even of books and sacred furni

general councils in the first place after the ture for the work of a distant mission, tells
abbot of Monte Casino, the mother-house us something of the tireless spirit of
of the great Benedictine order. Gregory, to whom nothing was too great
or too small for his thoughts to dwell
It was in 598, as itwould seem, that upon, if his Master s work was concerned.
Augustine wrote his well-known letter to There a touching passage in one of his
is

lis spiritual father in Rome, detailing all his extant letters, which speaks of the personal
successes among the heathen Jutes, and difficulties under which he constantly
requesting advice respecting certain diffi laboured. was not only the ceaseless
It

culties arising in his work. Some three care of many churches, but acute bodily

years, however, passed before the replies suffering which perplexed and harassed
came to him. They were brought by some this generous and devoted bishop of
carefully-chosen monks who were to assist Rome. His words are worth quoting :

.he Archbishop of the English nearly two he have

" "

in his "For
years," says, "I

arduous task, three of whom became sub- had to keep my bed, suffering such pain
equently illustrious names in the story of from gout, that I could hardly get up for
he Church of England. The first two, three hours on festivals, to celebrate the
Vtellitus and Justus, in their turn suc- solemnities of masses. ... I am compelled
:eeded Augustine as archbishops of Can- soul out of prison.
"

to exclaim, Bring my
erbury, and the third was the famous At the same time Gregory sent Augus
aulinus, of whom we shall have much tine a pall (pallium), a symbol of archi-
o say when we come to speak of the episcopal jurisdiction, which he charged him
jundation work of Christianity in the land only to wear in the celebration of mass.
orth of the Humber. This reinforcement This celebrated vestment appears in the
88 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [601.

time of Gregory to have been richly orna to some metropolitans, or to other pre
mented and the wearer was warned to
;
lates of influence or distinction. In the
guard against self-complacency. This pal time of Gregory the Great it was thus
lium, granted by Gregory to Augustine, variously granted : his language shows that
appears in the arms of the arch-see of Can it was splendid and
terbury. The
simplest form of the pallium somewhat cumbrous.
was worn by Alexandrian bishops in the fifth Although in several

century it seems to have been a simple

;
cases it was an ac
white woollen scarf round the neck. A companiment of me
rich form of this garment became part of tropolitan dignity, it

the imperial attire, and was granted by did not become a ne

ARMS OF SEE OF
emperors as a mark of honour to patri cessary badge of that CANTERBURY.
archs then the popes began, originally in
; dignity until a later
the emperor s name, or by his desire, to stage in the development of papalism.*
allow the use of the pall to certain bishops ;
The whole story of the mission of
to those who represented the Roman see; Augustine his complete subserviency to
;

his old master Gregory; the reproofs, warn

ings, encouragements he received from

the great Roman bishop ;
the elaborate
directions for the parcelling out of the still

pagan England into dioceses, sent to him

from Rome the ; authority peculiar
Augustine was to exercise in Britain but
not in Gaul all mark a great step in the
;

development of the subsequent universal

claim to spiritual dominion, made by the

bishop of the Roman see. They help us

to understandsomething of the bitterness
which underlay the long conflict between
the two great branches of the Western
church the Celtic and the Roman
which was to be fought out in many lands,
but nowhere with more violence than in
England.
It is perfectly clear that neither the
ancient Roman-British church, nor its

survivors in the mountains of Wales, nor

the marvellous offshoot in Ireland, nor the

great missionary organisation in Scotland,

EARLY FORM OF PALLIUM.
the Tomb of Pope Cornelius and St. Cyprian,
knew anything of the supremacy of the
(From a Fresco on
Cemetery ofCallixtus, Rome.) * Professor
Bright.
6oi.J LETTERS OF POPE GREGORY. 89

bishop who ruled in the tradi

tional see of Rome. These strange

claims of a world-wide spiritual
NECNON EX VITA
dominion, which we find Pope A IOANNE DIACONO
Gregory the Great putting forth
in the case of Augustine and the
new England of the sixth and
seventh centuries, and which laid
the foundations of the yet wider
and more lordly supremacy
claimed and exercised by his suc
cessors by men like Gregory
VII. and Innocent III. were
never dreamed of by Patrick,
David, Finnian, or Columba.
But to return to the story of
Augustine in those few eventful
years which succeeded the me
morable landing at Ebbsfleet,
and the rapid conversion of the
Jutish king Ethelbert and the
many thousands of his subjects
dwelling round Canterbury and
Reculvers. In that story, nothing
is more interesting than the
POPE GREGORY, HIS FATHER AND MOTHER.
correspondence between Gregory (From an Edition of the Life of Pope Gregory by John the Deacon,
published in 1615.*)
in Rome and Augustine at
Canterbury. The most important of these The Italian monks thus associated with
letters were sent by the hand of the Augustine s successful mission, besides the
monkish reinforcement to which we have important letters and gifts to the new
referred, which arrived from Rome in the archbishop of the English, brought an
year 601, and which included the sub epistle to the king Ethelbert and his
sequently famous Mellitus, Justus, and queen. In the writing addressed to the
Paulinus. Gregory, with his acute and king,Pope Gregory especially commends
penetrating intellect, after receiving an ac Augustine to him as one trained according
count from his former prior Augustine of his to the monastic rule, full of the knowledge
marvellous and undreamed-of success among of the Scripture, and abounding in good
the pagan Jutes of Kent, was quick to per works in the sight of God ;
he urged
ceive the almost measureless future import
* The original portraits were given by Gregory
ance of a mission which had seemed at first
himself to the monastery of St. Andrew, now the
but a forlorn and somewhat hopeless effort. church of San Gregory, Rome.
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [601.

Ethelbert to listen devoutly to Augustine, Gaul, or in any other, he was to adopt it

faithfully to
accomplish all that he told and use it in his new Church of England."
him adding the curious words, the more are not be
" " "

; Things" said Gregory, to

you listen to what he will tell you on the loved for the sake of places, but places for

part of God, the more will God grant his the sake of things"

prayers to Him on your behalf."

"

It often happens that the first turn

Augustine had propounded various given to the spirit of an institution lasts

momentous questions to the Roman long after its first founder has passed away,
pontiff for hisopinion and advice. The and in channels quite different from those
replies of Gregory were very wise, full which he contemplated and when we ;

of thoughtful consideration, and some of think of what the Church of England is

them might be pondered even in our now, I confess there is a satisfaction in
own day withadvantage. Bede devotes thinking that in this respect, at least, it
several chapters of hisundying history to has in some way fulfilled the wishes of
these interesting and important questions Gregory the Great. There is no church
and replies. One especially deserves to be in the world which has combined such

remembered, which had it been more faith various and opposite advantages from other

might have healed many

fully followed, churches more exclusive than itself none ;

subsequent Augustine had spent

feuds. in which various characters and customs
some time in Gaul, and had there noticed from the opposite parts of the Christian
in church discipline and practice many world could have been able to find such
*
customs very different from what he had shelter and refuge.
seen in Rome. He had doubtless heard Much of Gregory s advice and direction
much of the mighty Celtic church in Ire on other points was couched in the same
land ; something, too, of the network of spirit of adaptation and conciliation. He "

Christian communities in Scotland founded had thought much," wrote this wise bishop
by the saintly Columba, whose death had who ruled the Church of Rome some
taken place only a few days after he had thirteen centuries ago,
"

on the subject,
landed on the Kentish shore. Very differ and he had come to the conclusion that
ent, indeed, were many of the uses of heathen temples were not to be destroyed,
these great and flourishing Christian com but turned wherever possible into Christian
munities from the uses of Roman churches churches ;
that the droves of oxen which

among which Augustine had received his used to be killed in sacrifice were still to
training. What was he to do in his new be killed for feasts for the poor" ;
and he
and rapidly-growing church in the south gives as the reason for such counsels, that
of the island ? The answer of Gregory "for hard and rough minds, it is impossible
was a very wise and noble one, and should to cut away abruptly all their old customs,
be for all time. "Whatever custom," because he who wishes to reach the highest
wrote the sagacious and far-seeing pope, place must ascend by steps and not jumps."
be found really good and pleasing to Very urgent were the Roman prelate s
"

God, whether in the church of Italy or * Dean Stanley.

6oi.] LETTERS OF POPE GREGORY.
warnings against undue elation on the part Pope Gregory, in sketching out the plan
of Augustine, induced by his conspicuous for the organisation of a Christian England
success in his mission above all things, ;
for his disciple and friend, the missionary

spiritual pride must be guarded against. Augustine, had before him apparently the
Gregory s warning, tender and true, has records of the old Roman province of
the gospel mark upon it. He reminds his Britain ;
all that had happened since
dearest brother
"

that Christ once bade

"

the total sweeping away of the old land

the seventy rejoice not in their power over marks, the almost total disappearance of
the spirits, but rather that their names the Roman cities was passed over. In
were written in heaven ;
and then, fearful the Britain of the Romans, London in
of having wounded his great and successful the south, and York in the north, were the

disciple, he adds, with an exquisite tender and Pope Gregory arranged

capital cities,
ness worthy of the apostle Paul, of whom that London and York should be the
Gregory was not an unworthy follower, centres of the church of the island.

have a sure hope that your sins are

"I
Augustine was to
bishop of be the

already forgiven, and that you are a chosen London, with twelve suffragan bishops in
instrument for bringing others to the same the south and as the missionary work
;

mercy." Gregory concludes his beautiful advanced in the north, York was to have
letter with these striking words, well calcu another bishop as metropolitan with twelve
lated to pour deep joy into Augustine s
suffragans likewise, and to possess an equal
heart :
"

If there is joy in heaven over one rank with the bishop metropolitan of

penitent, what must there be over a peni London.

tent nation Let us then all say, Gloria! But London, in the days of Augustine,
in excelsis?
"

was a heathen cluster of dwellings and

But the letters ot the Roman pontiff a centre of little influence, and long years
to the missionary archbishop, written in were to elapse before York regained any
601, after careful and protracted consider thing of its old wealth and importance.
ation of the news of the reception of Much was to happen, many pages of

Christianity once more in that far-away eventful history had to be written, before
u
island, contained more than advice, anything like the great plan sketched out
"

lost

warning, and counsel suitable to the by the master hand of Gregory, was even
temporary exigencies of missionary preach in part carried into effect. As the Roman
ing ; they provided a well-matured plan bishop had, with true prophetic insight,
formoulding the new Christianity of the foreseen, the whole island with extraordin
English people of the great island into an but
"

ary rapidity adopted Christianity ;

ordered form ;
a plan, in fact, for the the zeal, life, and energy of the new
ecclesiastical organisation of the whole English Christianity were concentrated
island. aimed evidently at the establish
It not in the south-east of the great island,
ment of a great church of the Roman not in Kent, round the rapidly rising
obedience. churches and the monastic homes of
It contained, however, one curious error. Canterbury, and the scene of Augustine s
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [601.

successful labours, but in the far north of under his authority, giving as
sacer dotes"*
Britain ;
and that north looked for its a reason for this supremacy thus entrusted,

religious centre, not to Rome, but to the that they (the sacerdotes) may learn by
"

Celtic church of Ireland." The great your (Augustine s) word and by your life
work of
inducing the North-folk, the how they must believe, and how they must
masters of England, to adopt Christianity, live in order to fulfil their office and gain
was carried out, not by the Roman an inheritance in heaven."

Augustine and his band of Italian mis Now it seems inconceivable that Gregory
sion-monks of Canterbury, but by the and Augustine were ignorant of the power
Celtic Aidan and Cuthbert, who were and influence at this time of the ancient
trained in centres utterly unknown to British Church in Wales ;
or of the vast
both Gregory and Augustine; in centres authority and flourishing state of the Celtic
possessing names which, indeed, to those church in Ireland or of Columba s mission
;

ears accustomed to the music of the from lona, so widely extended and, so be
immemorial Latin speech, would have loved in Scotland ;
or of the mighty work
sounded strange and barbarous lona and of the strange and fervid Irish disciple of the

Lindisfarne. great monastery of Bangor in Ulster the

imperious, but saintly, Columban in cen
In the course of this interesting and traland western Europe, whose first great
important correspondence between Augus monastery of Luxeuil, the mother house
tine, the new "archbishop of the English,"
of so many world-famed communities, for
and Gregory, the Pope of Rome, we meet some years had been riveting the atten
with short notices or directions from Rome, tion of all earnest and devout souls who
intended to guide Augustine in his future cared for religious things. That Pope
relations with the remains of the ancient Gregory, with his vast experience and
British Church still existing in Wales and unerring sagacity, knowing, as he must
the West of the island. The references in have well known, the power and life of
question in Bede s history are very short, Celtic Christianity, with a stroke of the pen
but, at the same time, very clear they give, ;
should have thus ignored the existence of
as far as the Roman pontiff could give, the mother Celtic church poor, perhaps,
absolute control to Augustine over that an in wealth, but not in numbers ;
banished
cient church and all its ministers. As for "

to the wild and desolate mountains of

all the bishops of wrote Gregory,
Britain," Wales and Cumberland, but still with its
"

we commit them to your care, that the old organisation, with its bishops, with
unlearned may be taught, the weak its vast monasteries, with its immemorial
strengthened, and the perverse corrected traditions seems positively unthinkable.
by authority." And in the letter which *
Montalembert has been followed in translating
accompanied the gift of the pallium to the sacerdotes as bishops. Some prefer to render the
new word here used by Bede as "priests;" but the
archbishop a yet more comprehensive
same conclusion must be arrived at, whatever
mandate was given to Augustine, placing
rendering be adopted namely, that to Augustine
all bishops in Britain omnes Britannia "

the whole clergy of Britain were to be subject.

602.]
AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITISH BISHOPS. 93

It must, surely, have been an intentional British bishops, which we have next
slight,a carefully-thought-out act, when to relate, were the
beginnings of
first

he formally placed his Italian friend and the long religious feud which distracted

disciple Augustine over all the Celtic the new England of the North-men,
bishops Britain, and, by what seems
in and which, as we shall see, for good
to us a strangely arbitrary command, de or for evil, ended in the triumph of
clared that omnes Britannia sacerdotes
"

Rome and in the discomfiture and

AUST CLIFF.
(Bv permission, from a Photo by Charles P. MacCarthy, Esq.)

(whatever sense we may give to sacer eventual disappearance of the old Celtic

dotes, whether as including all the priests church.

of Britain or simply the British bishops) Very soon after the receipt of his pallium,
should be subject to the Italian archbishop and the letters and directions from Rome,
of the English. It seems all but certain Augustine arranged the memorable meeting
that the great and far-seeing Roman pre with the British bishops of the old church,
late was determined, as far as in him lay, the successors of the men who had taken
to crush the Celtic organisation, and to refuge from the Saxon and Engle conquerors
substitute in its place the Roman order ;
in Wales. We
have the story of the meeting
and that the lofty pretensions advanced told in the bright and interesting pages of
by Augustine in the meeting with the Bede ;
but we must remember that Bede
94 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [602.

was the strong partisan of Rome, was the expected, was unsatisfactory. On the one
earnest opponent of the old Celtic uses, side, Augustine required and obedience
and that, as we shall see, one of the few submission, alleging his commission from
sombre and stained "

memories "

of the the apostolic see ;

on the other, the

saintly monk perhaps the soli

of Jarrow British bishops and leading men of the

tary one occurs in the course of this recital. ancient church were evidently astonished
The place of meeting between the repre at the position of superiority which he
sentatives of the two churches which were assumed. There is absolutely no trace in
then dividing Western Christendom is tra the ancient Celtic church of any acknow

ditionally Aust or Aust Cliff the Cliff of ledgment of the supremacy of the Romish
Augustine a low, reddish cliff overlooking see. Indeed, in that "Life of Columba"

the broad estuary of the river Severn, and by the abbot Adamnan, to which we have
the low green hills of Wales between so frequently referred, and which was
the modern Chepstow and Cardiff. The written in A.D. 692-697, there is no hint

prospect from the Cliff of Augustine is whatever any acknowledgment of the

as to

singularly attractive and suggestive. On supremacy of the Roman see on the part
the one side, inland, the rising ground and of the Celtic church, nor even any allusion
woods slope upwards towards the Downs of at all to Rome or her bishop and Adam- ;

Clifton, and in the far distance the loftier nan emphatically was no blind admirer of
hills of Somerset, the scene of so many Celtic uses, which, in fact, he subsequently

desperate encounters between the North abandoned for the sake of Catholic unity
men and the Britons, but which, when of practice.

Augustine met the British bishops, had They agreed, however, to another and
become the undisputed heritage of the more formal conference, in which the more
West Saxon a portion of that fair kingdom
; important differences between the uses
soon to be known beyond the confines
far of the ancient church and the uses of
of the island as Wessex, the territory of the church Augustine had established in
that royal house from which has sprung Kent might be fully discussed. The second
the Sovereigns of England for more than conference appears to have been held
a thousand years. In front lay the broad shortly after the first. The date of these
blue waters of the Severn, that great meetings was A.D. 602-603. Bede is our
and often stormy estuary which had effec what took place
authority for the report of
tually barred the Northmen from entering at these meetings of Augustine and the

Wales by the south. Fringing the Severn bishops and monks of the ancient British
were the low green hills of Gwent and Church ;
and as Bede, trained rigidly in

distant Morganwg ;
while behind these hills the Roman obedience, was naturally an
of Gwent on the blue-grey horizon, rose a earnest and enthusiastic partisan of the

range of yet higher hills, the outspurs of Roman party, we may be quite sure that
those unstormed fortresses of Wales, as his report omits nothing which could be
yet untrodden by any Northman s foot. construed as favourable to Augustine and
The conference, as might have been his cause.
 602.]
AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITISH BISHOPS. 95

The second conference included on the from Pope Gregory to treat the bishops
part of the ancient church seven British and priests as subject to him. With
bishops these were accompanied by many
;
these pretensions there was, of course, no
most learned men, especially from the great chance of any agreement between them.
monastery of Bangor Iscoed. The Monk Augustine proceeded to insist upon three
of Jarrow tells a curious story of an in points being conceded to him :

cident which preceded the meeting, and Easter must be kept by the British
(1)

which probably was founded on fact, for Church at the same time as the Roman
it bears strongly upon the real point of custom had directed. (The difference of

difference between Augustine and the the Celtic use in the reckoning when the
British divines the alleged supremacy Easter feast should be kept, will be dis
of Rome. cussed later.)
The British delegates, sought before (2) The must agree to perform
British
the Conference, as the story relates, the Baptism according to the manner of the
advice of a hermit in much repute for his Roman and Apostolic Church. (What
sanctity and wisdom. They asked the holy this difference consisted in is uncertain.)
man whether he would advise them to (3) They must join with him in preach

change their "uses" for the "uses"

pressed ing the Word of the Lord to their con
upon them by the strange missionary querors the English (Engle and Saxon)
bishop from Rome. The answer was
"

If :
peoples.
he [the stranger] be a man of God, follow The answer they gave to Augustine was
him"
They asked for further information : short and decisive
"

We will do none of
"

How we ascertain if he be a man

shall these things."
Then they added what was
of God ? Our Lord," said the wise man, probably the real reason of their refusal
" "

"

spoke of Himself as meek and lowly in even to consider his points will not
"

We
Augustine, when you have you as archbishop they con
"

heart. If this ;
for

approach him, rises to meet you, then be sidered among themselves, he would "

If

assured that he is a servant of Christ listen not now rise up to receive us courteously,
to him then obediently. If, on the other how much more will he look down on us
hand, he does not rise up to greet you, as not worthy of consideration if we should

but treats you with contempt as inferiors, acknowledge ourselves as subject to his
then show contempt in your turn." The "

authority ? and so the conference ended.

"

meeting followed," continues Bede s nar But the extraordinary bitterness which
rative Augustine received the British
;
"

the long-drawn-out conflict between the

bishops and the learned monks without two churches the Roman and the Celtic
attempting to rise from his seat." created was sadly demonstrated in the
There is no doubt, when we review closing scene of this memorable conference,
this evidently true story, that Augustine in which Augustine is represented by Bede
determined to assert his pre-eminent as threatening the British Church, if they

dignity as archbishop of the English, and would not join in unity with their brethren
carried out the mandate which he received i.e. with him and the members of his
96 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [602.

Italian mission in preaching to the English the prediction of the holy bishop Augus

peoples with the vengeance death, of tine, though he had himself long before

which, he they would receive at the been taken up into the heavenly kingdom "

said,
hands of the English nation. The com [Augustine died in 605, eight years before
ment of the Monk of Jarrow on this the massacre] u that those perfidious men
scene of the conference is
perhaps the should feel the vengeance of temporal death
saddest bit of writing in his invaluable also, because they had despised the offer

history, and is another of the many proofs of eternal salvation."

how sadly the noblest minds are influenced After the massacre Ethelfrith destroyed
for evil by religious dissensions, especially and sacked the great monastery of Bangor
when human motives, as was too clearly Iscoed. All this, however, happened in
the case here, enter into the grounds of 613, and has only been related here to show
the dispute. Alluding to the prophecy of how, according. to Bede, the prophecy or
pronounced against the British
evil Church curse of Augustine, pronounced against the

by Augustine, Bede adds, all which,

"

British Church for declining to submit to

through the dispensation of the Divine his authority and to aid him in his work,

judgment, fell out just as he had pre received its terrible fulfilment.
dicted ;
"

and then proceeds to relate how

afterwards (in 613) Ethelfrith, the fierce After the rejection of Augustine s over

Engle king of Northumbria, warring against tures to the bishops and monks of the

Brocmael, king of Powys, on the occasion remnant of the British Church in Wales,
of a battle between the Engle host and the he returned to Canterbury and his Jutish
British under the walls of the city now followers in Kent. It must have been

known as Chester, seeing a large body of but a sad home-coming for the Roman
British including
priests, a number of missionary archbishop and his
faithful

monks from the neighbouring monastery companions. Augustine, with all his*
of Bangor Iscoed, standing near the en faults, was no ordinary man, was intense!)

gaging armies, and praying for the success earnest, and was devoted to the cause t(
of the British, gave orders for their mas which he had consecrated his life ;
and
sacre (see p. 1 1 6). Bede says 1,200 of the consciousness of utter failure must have
these monks and priests were there slain, pressed hard upon him as he journeyed
and forgetting for a moment the noble back to Canterbury through that strange,
work of Columba, and the lona mission of unfriendly, desolated Britain, with its pagan
Aidan, and how close and intimate was conquerors just beginning to settle ther
the connection of Columba s and Aidan s selves in the ruined cities and empty homt
mother-church of Ireland with the ancient steads of the vanished people they had take
British church does not hesitate to apply so many weary years to drive out.
to these helpless unarmed victims, whose The first years of Augustine s life n
only crime was that they were praying for Kent had been years of success un
their hapless country, the word nefandce dreamed-of success. From the hour of
(execrable).
"

Thus," he adds, "

was fulfilled landing at Ebbsfleet until that sad meeting

602.] AUGUSTINE AT CANTERBURY. 97

with the bishops and abbots of the old Celtic kindly welcome, and the steady friendship
church of Britain, by the blue waters of of the Christian queen of the Kentish Jutes

"

WE WILL DO NONE OF THESE THINGS 1 "

(p. 95).

the Severn sea in the west, all had gone had won them a patient, ever-friendly hear-
well with him and his companions. The ing. King and queen had set the example,
Jutish king Ethelbert had given them a and the thanes and people followed the
G
98 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [602.

royal lead, and Kent, outwardly at least, strange and powerful Christian Ireland,
accepted the teaching Augustine had to which in the days of Augustine was
give them. Churches were built, monastic already making itself with its missionary
buildings arose, the sacred mysteries of zeal and undoubted learning felt as a
the faith were reverently celebrated, and power beyond the confines of its own
far

the Italian missionary monk had been remote, sea-girt island. But of Rome and
able to report to Rome the conversion her pretensions to supreme power, the
of a heathen people. From headquarters refugees in the west and their powerful
every possible recognition had been friends in Ireland knew nothing. They
received by the successful missionary. The even scoffed at these pretensions, when
Jutish city of Canterbury had been made they heard of them from Augustine, and
the seat of an archbishop. The pallium, the abbots and bishops of the British com
the highest honour bestowed by Rome, munities in the west absolutely refused to
had been conferred on the head of the acknowledge the authority, or to recognise
mission. Valuable books, a store of pre in any way the supremacy, of the Rome-
cious relics, and above all a reinforcement appointed archbishop of the Jutish pagan
of trustedmonks, had been dispatched tribes in the far east of Britain.

by Augustine s friend and master, Pope Of Augustine s want of wisdom in press

Gregory, deservedly known in history as

ing his claims of supremacy, evidently
the Great."
"

All seemed to prosper in hitherto unclaimed, there is no doubt.

that new and dangerous mission to the With all the acknowledged nobleness of
famous, far-distant island which had the man, he was evidently utterly wanting
become the prey of fierce Northern pagan in those supreme graces of Christian char

invaders, and which for so many years the acter which ages have so materially
in all

soul of the earnest and devoted bishop of aided the really great missionary founders
Rome had longed to convert and to claim of churches. His master would never have
as part of his flock. hopelessly alienated those successors of
Then came the visit of the Italian arch a noble line of saintly men like David
bishop of the Jutes to the far west, the and Iltud, Kentigern and Asaph, as did
story of which has been related, and the Augustine. The pretensions of Rome to
utter failure to establish friendly relations a supreme authority would have been
with the monks and bishops of the ancient advanced in a very different spirit by a
British church. Augustine was, no doubt, statesman like Gregory the Great. The
very much amazed to find so powerful firstarchbishop of the English was in
a Christian organisation, where he had many respects a true imitator of St. Paul ;

expected only to neet with a weak, dis ever unsparing of himself, loyal and de
organised company of fugitives. He found voted, earnest and true. But in his deal
a church poor, no doubt, and scattered ; ings with the representatives of the ancient
but strong in memories, faithful to the church of Britain, which surely deserved
traditions of a great past, and closely the most tender and loving, even respectful
united in teaching and practices with that treatment at his hands, he forgot utterly
602-605.] WORK OF AUGUSTINE. 99

St. Paul s grand definition of true Chris on the Coelian Hill at Rome, the sacred
u
tianity, which while it
hopeth all things," house where Augustine had lived as monk,
still
"

beareth all things, endureth all and where Gregory had been abbot, the
things." Rochester church was dedicated to St.

Andrew.
Legendary history has been busy with Ethelbert Augustine s friend among
the three or four years which remained to the North-folk who had conquered Britain
the archbishop of Canterbury. No one
first occupied a high and powerful position
who has made any study of the story of among the mightiest chieftains of the con

Augustine doubts his zeal and earnestness. querors, and his influence extended far
his was shown in the strong pressure beyond the confines of his own actual
e put on his convert Ethelbert to use kingdom of Kent. The districts now
lis influence as over-lord of tribes and occupied by the modern counties of
istricts beyond the limits of his own little Middlesex and Essex seem to have
cingdom of Kent, in favour of Christianity. been very closely attached to the Jutish
efforts, which seem to have been
"hese
king. The East Saxon king Sledda had
onfined to the districts immediately south married Ethelbert s sister Ricula, and
nd north of London (which in the first their son
Saeberht, Ethelbert s nephew,
ears of the seventh century was again rapidly at the beginning of the seventh century

ising into importance), were represented was king of the East Saxon peoples.
y later chroniclers, desirous to magnify The chief city of these parts was London
tie influence of the Roman mission, as in the old days before the coming of

missionary enterprises extending over a the North-folk a flourishing and wealthy

arge portion of the island. Augustine is centre. Its unrivalled position on the banks
>ainted
by these Romanists of a later age of a noble river, and
ready access to
its

s the apostle of all England, not of a the ports of Gaul, had marked it out in
mall portion of it. They tell us of his very early days as an emporium of com
>roceeding
to Dorsetshire and Oxfordshire, merce. Although wrecked and utterly
ven as far north as Ely ;
and do not ruined by the invaders, it rapidly recovered
scruple to tell us of many miracles worked something at least of its ancient
import
the indefatigable, tireless apostle. But
>y ance, and Augustine chose it as the site
hese stories for the most part are utterly of a bishopric. Mellitus, one of the little
What is now known as Kent
>aseless.
group of monks dispatched by Gregory to
nd Surrey no doubt -became Christian ;
assist Augustine in the work, was sent as

and a bishopric was certainly established a missionary bishop to the East Saxons.
it Rochester by king Ethelbert, and He had considerable success, and Saeberht

ustus, the faithful friend and companion encouraged him to build the first St. Paul s
)f
Augustine, was appointed its first in London. We must picture to ourselves,

>ishop.
A
church was built at Hrof s however, a very different London from the
astle on the Medway, the modern Roches- mediaeval city which rapidly grew up. The
er ; and, in memory of the loved monastery London of Saeberht lay entirely to the
IOO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [604.

east ;
on the west of St. Paul s lay mostly sacred foundation of Saeberht the king
waste lands ;
for long after that
day
"

the and Mellitus the bishop, has the abbey

precincts of St. Paul embraced a large been pulled down to make room for a.
around it,
district which stretched almost new and more stately fane. Nothing re
from the river to Newgate, and from near mains now of the church of Saeberht and
the wall as far inland as Cheapside." Mellitus of the seventh century little

Perhaps in imitation of Augustine s work of the abbey of Edward the Confessor of

at Canterbury, Mellitus determined to build the eleventh century. But the work of
a home for a monastic colony apart from Henry III. of the thirteenth century is

S^EBERHT S TOMB, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

the mother church. Tradition tells us he still with us, and is rightly accounted one
chose a spot amid the waste lands lying of the architectural glories of England.
to the west of St. Paul s. Some two miles A plain and undistinguished tomb, to the
down the river, on a small marshy island south of the altar of the stately abbey, is
formed by an arm of the Thames, a tract still shown as the traditional resting-place

utterly desolate and uninhabited, a site of Saeberht Saxon, the royal

the East
was selected for the new monastery. On founder of the church and monastery.
first

this island of the Thames, which, from the No spot in Europe is hallowed by such
bushes and thickets with which it was memories, or surrounded by a veneration
covered, received the name of Thorney, like that with which Englishmen regard
was probably erected about A.D. 604 the the grey, time-worn House of God th
first West Minster. successor of the West Minster of Sseberh
Twice in the splendid story of the And with good reason. Within its walls
 04-] LEGEND OF THE WEST MINSTER. 101

long line of sovereigns have received the for that, on the night preceding the day
crown of England. It has ever been the fixed for the first dedication by king and

favourite last resting-place of our monarchs, bishop, bishop Mellitus in his rude tent on
and of the noblest of our land. Within Thorney waiting
Island, for the day to
the precincts the assembly of the nation dawn which should witness the august and
has ever met; and though well-nigh thirteen solemn service, was warned not to repeat a
storied centuries have passed since its first ceremony already performed by St. Peter

BISHOP DAGAN DISCUSSED WITH LAURENCE THE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMAN AND
CELTIC COMMUNIONS" (/. 106).

solemn consecration, the name of West and a choir of angels. A fisherman related
Minster as the great national sanctuary to the bishop how he ferried a stranger
has lost nothing ofits ancient power with over the Thames in the night hour how ;

the hearts of Englishmen. It belongs to he watched the unknown cross the thres
the proudest and most stately of our hold of the empty church, and, as he
churches, as well as to that mighty palace, passed within the doors, a bright light
the home of our great national Parliament, filled the building. Music such as he had
the model and pattern of all the popular never heard before pealed forth, and clouds
assemblies of Europe. of the sweetest incense filled the air. After
A curious tradition says that it was a time the strange visitant returned, and
never consecrated by mortal ceremonies, bade the fisherman go and tell Mellitus
 102 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [605.

what he had seen and heard, and how he great master, the Pope Gregory, who had
whom Christians call St. Peter had himself trained him in the Roman monastery on
consecrated the church which Saeberht the Coelian Hill, and had chosen him to
had built. This strange story has come carry out the mission to the pagan con
down from generation to generation, and querors of Britain the cherished project
is
repeated in different forms in the twelfth- nourished by Gregory during so many
and thirteenth-century Lives of Edward toil-filled years died only two months
the Confessor. before his favourite disciple, the archbishop
In these records, in which the super
all of the English, fell asleep in his Canter
natural is often mingled with plain every bury home. To the last he had watched
day events, it is not difficult to separate over his pupil and follower, advising and

history from legend and the story of the ; encouraging him to the end.
great work of Augustine and his missionary Augustine, aware that he too was dying,
companions Kent and in some districts
in arranged for the anxious matter of his suc
lying north and east of Kent, rests upon cessor, and with his own hands consecratec
evidence clear and undisputed. The cathe Laurence. Laurence had been with him
dral and monastery in Canterbury, the from the day of his landing at Ebbs
first

cathedral of St. Andrew at Rochester, the fleeton the Kentish coast, and had sharec
first church of St. Paul s in London, the with him the joys of his successes, and sym
West Minster of St. Peter on Thorney pathised in the sorrows caused by hi
Dooms or laws of Ethelbert, He, perhaps alone among men
"

Island, the
"

failures.

the Christian king of Kent, the very begin
ning of recorded English legislation, which
contain important enactments of rights
conceded to the Christian church all this
tells us that the work
under Augustine bore not a little solid and
of the Italian mission
was thoroughly acquainted with Augustine
plans for the future, alone perhaps com
prehended the views of the dead Pope
Gregory, in the difficult matter of the
disputes with the abbots and bishops of the
ancient British church. This consecration

enduring fruit. That he evangelised the to a succession was a rare, though not an
whole island, or ever preached throughout unknown practice in the ancient Christian
a large portion of it, is
absolutely mythical ;
church.
but that he laid the strong and permanent It was in the month of May, 605,* that
foundations of Christianity in Kent and Augustine died. The body was laid tem
the surrounding districts, is indisputable, porarily outside the still uncompleted
and much of his work has lasted to our monastery church of St. Peter and St. Paul,
own day and time. afterwards known as St. Augustine s Abbey.
With the successful establishment of the Laurence, as had been arranged, succeeded
outlying stations in London and Rochester to his dignities and responsibilities. Eight
Augustine s labours were finished. Worn years later, in the year of our Lord 613,
out and exhausted by his busy and active the abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul
middle life, the Italian monk felt that was completed, and solemnly consecrated
end was * Some
his near. Curiously enough, his give 604 as the date of the death.
 CHARACTER OF AUGUSTINE. 103

by Laurence, the archbishop, in the pre or of the far-seeing statesman, no fair

sence of Ethelbert and his court. There historian would seek to deny. But his
the remains of Augustine were deposited faults such as they were seem owing, in

in the north transept. In the twelfth cen large measure, to his earlier surroundings.
tury they were again removed, and laid He had lived in the comparative seclusion
under the high altar at the east end. Queen of a monastery until he was past middle
who
Bertha, did so much to assist Augustine age and the life of a religious house was
;

when he first landed, and her Prankish not adapted to teach men the difficult
chaplain, Luitbrand, were laid to rest secret of government, or of gaining the
in the same abbey church. After three affection and confidence of others who had
years, in 616, the body of the Kentish been trained in different schools of thought.

king was also laid by the side of his queen. To win over to the ways and discipline of
"

Somewhere in the field around the ruins Rome a church like that which he found

abbey the remains of the

of the once stately in Western Britain a powerful com
four friends Ethelbert and Bertha, Luit munity, learned and earnest, wedded to
brand and Augustine, probably repose, and their own peculiar rites and customs
may possibly be discovered."* handed down to them from an imme
The term great missionary archbishop
" "

morial antiquity; strengthened, too, by

is a well-deserved Augustine title, for is the fact that they and their fathers had
emphatically to be reckoned among the passed through the bitter experiences of
great ones of England. Modern historians, the Anglo-Saxon conquest needed a very
both in our own country and in foreign differentenvoy from the monk Augustine ;

lands, have often loved to describe him as devoted and intensely in earnest, it is
a man of irresolution, and yet obstinate ; true, but at the same time stern, rigid,
as unreasonably puffed up by his early unbending ;
convinced that his ways, the
successes, and then equally unreasonably ways of Gregory and Rome, alone were
his subsequent failures.
dejected by They right ; persuaded that his views, the views
paint him, in his dealings with the ancient of Rome upon all points, unimportant as
British church, as proud and unyielding ;
well as vital, alone were correct ;
that any
as one utterly incapable of seeing any deviation in ritual or practice was sternly
virtue or beauty of character in men who reprehensible that any church not in
;

ventured to disagree with him as even ;

close communion with Rome was heretical,
malevolent and cruel in his denunciation even scarcely deserving the common name
of a church which declined to pay him of Christian.

homage and to obey his orders. understand Augustine s

It is difficult to

That there are shadows resting on the apparent ignorance of the antiquity of the
fair fame of the first archbishop of the British church, or upon what grounds he

English, is undoubted. That he failed on claimed pre-eminence of rank in such an

some momentous occasions to play the part ancient hierarchy but, with our scanty ;

either of thetender and devoted saint, knowledge, it is unfair to condemn the

* Memorials of Canterbury. great missionary for his conduct in such a
"

Stanley s
104 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [605,

crisis of his life, when that conduct was the And the success was well deserved ; for,

result of his life-long training. His failure in spite of dangers and difficulties, he was
to conciliate the ancient British church a ever the earnest and laborious toiler for
failurewhich, in the eyes of so many writers, God ever loyal and devoted, utterly un
;

has cast a deep shadow over his really suc sparing of himself; ever one who, by the
cessful career was only the first scene in example of his self-denying, self-sacrificing

that eventful drama, the unfolding of which life, commended the beautiful religion
must be related as this history advances; which he preached. This was the secret
the drama in which the two great divisions of his success among the Jutish pagans
of the Church of the West contested for of Kent. These simple German warriors,
the mastery. He was only the loyal and from the king downwards, loved him, and
devoted mighty Italian
agent of that accepted with childlike trust the truths he
Church which had sent him forth as its told them of. Augustine was no doubt a
missionary, and cannot be blamed for his preacher of rare power, and a teacher of
unswerving fidelity ;
his only fault lay in surpassing excellence; but the true secret
his want of skill and tact. But apart from of his wonderful success
among the heathen
this disastrous episode, his was a grand German race, some of whose bravest warriors
and noble career, crowned, too, with a he brought to Christ, lay in the power of
success conspicuous as it was deserved. his beautiful example. He lived the life

The success was indeed great and he came to preach.

marked. "

He had converted a typical

English monarch ;
he had baptised multi From the year 605 until 616, when the
tudes of Kentish proselytes ;
he had secured old king Ethelbert died, some tenor eleven
a formal and public acceptance by a years, Christianity under Laurence, the
national assembly of Christian obligations, new archbishop, quietly held its own,
and of the church as an organised institu without making much way outside Kent.
tion ;
he had planted offshoots of the The picture of Laurence s life is
lovingly
Kentish church in London and Rochester ; painted by Bede, who writes how
he had established in Canterbury a centre "Laurence began his archiepiscopate with

for future church extension ;

he had strenuous efforts to extend the foundations

definitely connected the reviving Chris of the church, and took pains to carry up
in Britain with the theological its fabric to the due height
tianity by the frequent
culture and ecclesiastical discipline of the utterance of holy exhortation and the con
continental Western
had, church."* He tinual example of pious conduct."
in a word, deserved the laudation of the The most notable event in this quiet
ancient English Council, which, when period was another futile attempt at union
appointing a day in his honour, described with the Celtic church in the West, and 1

him as having brought to the English an earnest appeal to the Irish Christians,
the knowledge of their heavenly remonstrating with them for the seemingly
"

people
country." unbrotherly conduct of a certain Bishop
* Prof.
Dagan, a monk of the famous monastery
"

Bright, Early English Church."

BURIAL OF KING ETHELBERT (/. io8X
 io6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [605.

of Bangor, in Ulster, and bishop of Inver- dear brethren the Lords Bishops and
Wexford, who had visited him in Abbots Scotland "

daoile in throughout all (the

Canterbury. This bishop, delegated by term Scotland in those days included

the great Irish church, evidently discussed reads as follows "

Ireland) :
Laurentius,
at length with Laurence the points of Mellitus, and Justus, servants of the ser
difference between the Roman and Celtic vants of Gpd. When the Apostolic See

communions, but no agreement was come according to the universal custom which it
to between them. Bede, briefly recount has followed elsewhere sent us to these

ing the results of the conference, does not western countries to preach the faith to
hesitate to characterise the Celtic usages pagan peoples, we came to this island
as
"

the errors of the Britons." From his Britain without possessing any previous
words it is quite clear that there was a knowledge of its inhabitants. Believing
general and agreement in
harmony of use that they all followed the customs of the

doctrine, government, and ritual, between universal Church,we held in great vener
the British church in the western portions ation the piety of the Britons and the
of the island, the Scotch churches mostly Scots [this term includes, as always, the
the foundations of the Irish Columba the Irish] . When we came to know the error
great church in Ireland, and the many we thought the Scots had
of the Britons,

foreign houses scattered over Europe, the been better now that the Bishop
;
but
splendid fruits of the labours of Columban Dagan has been with us, and now that the
and his companions. But, as we have seen Abbot Columbanus has been in Gaul, we
in the case of the policy exercised by Rome know that the Scots differ in nothing in
with reference to the vast Columban mon their practices from the Britons ;
for the

asteries on the Continent, there was no bishop not only refused to partake of our
disposition on the part of Rome to make but even would not so much as
hospitality,
any concessions. The Celtic church eat in our house."

whether at Luxeuil in Burgundy, at This singular letter to the heads of the

Clonard in Ireland, at Bangor in Wales, Irish church, then rapidly becoming
at lona in Scotland must submit to the famous for its learning and devoted piety
ritual and use of Rome ;
must acknow throughout the western world, sets before
ledge her supreme authority, or else be us with marvellous clearness, in a very few
reckoned as a church wedded to error, and words, the attitude of Rome towards the
unworthy of Catholic communion. Celtic churches in Ireland, Scotland, Britain,
To exact this uncompromising obedience and Gaul, and gives us the key to the long
was, no doubt, the burthen of the orders struggle which followed between the Celtic
which archbishop Laurence received from and Roman churches. It seems that Rome
headquarters at Rome. Such, no doubt, before the time of Gregory the Great had
was the substance of his requirements in no conception of the vitality and power |
his with the Irish bishop,
conference of Christianity in the far West apparently ;

Dagan. formal A
epistle of Laurence s, she had thought of the fellow-worshippers

quoted by Bede, addressed to Our very "

in those distant countries as well-nigh

60S-]
ARCHBISHOP LAURENCE. 107

overwhelmed by the pagan bar

flood of Augustine s successor, in the first
years
barians from the North, and that if any of the seventh century, addressed to the
survived that desolating conquest, it was leading men of the Irish communities,
but a poor remnant, few in number and reveals exactly the feeling of Rome, on
without organisation or influence. The the other hand, at this juncture, towards
marvellous work of Columban in Gaul, the the Celtic churches of the West. It

reception of Augustine by the Christian breathes a spirit of intense surprise,

Britons on the banks of the Severn, the burning indignation, and unalterable pur
fast - growing reputation of the Irish pose of maintaining its lordly claims but ;

monastic schools, all came as a revelation it betrays no idea, gives no hint, of mutual
to the Roman church, which, in the re concession.
construction of society in Europe after the The question to be solved was what
collapse of the old empire, dreamed of a form of Christianity would eventually be
universal sovereignty in religious matters. established in Britain ? Save in the
Rome all of a sudden found herself con south-east corner
of the isles, where
fronted with a whole network of churches, Roman Christianity was now firmly rooted,
numerous and organised, inspired with no and on the hills and valleys of wild Wales,
ordinary missionary zeal, and, above all, and part of equally wild Scotland, where
armed with all the resources of learning. the ancient faith had been revived, the
It was indeed a startling phenomenon island was virtually pagan. To whom
which presented itself, this resurrection would the Holy Spirit entrust the blessed
of an older Christianity a Christianity work of evangelising the Saxon and Engle
which claimed an apostolic origin for its conquerors? to the Celtic missionary from
peculiar rites and customs, and which Ireland and lona, or to the Italian monk

absolutely refused even to consider the trained at Rome ?

claim of the See of Rome to a universal,
or to a partialsupremacy. The vast
religious communities and the learned
schools of Ireland, the pious
disciples of Columba of lona, the remnant
of the ancient British Christians, the
numerous and powerful religious houses
daily increasingin numbers and power
on the continent of Europe offshoots of
The answer to this question was not
given for nigh two centuries. The story
of the conversion of these Engles and
and devoted Saxons is indeed a marvellous one, and
to us, their children, a story of surpassing
interest. As the pages of the history are
one by one slowly turned, we shall mark
how the two churches toiled after the
same high end alas never friends, for
!

Columban s world-renowned monastery of their ways of working lay far, far apart. The
Luxeuil looked upon the claim of Rome Celtic churchmen strove to lead the pagan
and her mighty pontiffs to a universal Northmen to Christ and life with the
religious sovereignty as a novel thing ; weapons of a passionate earnestness and
as ausurpation to be resisted to the of a tender restless energy which, wielded
bitter end. by saintly men of the type of Aidan and
The letter of Laurence the archbishop, Cuthbert, Columban and Gall, were simply
io8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [616.

irresistible. The Roman churchmen,

splen country was fast waning. Eadbald, his
didly represented by Wilfrid and Bede, son and heir, was no Christian, and his
Theodore and Aldhelm, for the same high lifewas irregular and his example evil ;

ends used arms forged in a different work and when he came to the throne, many of
shop. Their weapons were changeless law, the Jutish people of Kent threw off even

perfect order, unswerving obedience, an the profession of Christianity.

iron discipline. These arms in a different In London things were even worse.
way were equally successful. Before the King Sasberht, Ethelbert s nephew, who
two centuries whose story is next to be told had loved the teaching of Mellitus, and
had run their course, the great work was had built, as we have seen, the St. Paul s
finished, and heathen Britain had become and probably the West Minster, was also
Christian England the great barbaric dead ;
and his three sons, who succeeded
island which Western Europe looked on him as chiefs of the East Saxon people,
with mingled wonder and admiration. cared nothing for the new doctrines, and
The two rival communions the Celtic worshipped the old gods of their fathers.
and the Roman may be fairly said to One day they were watching bishop
have contributed equally to bring about Mellitus administering, in one or other
this great result,though the spoils of the of the new churches of St. Paul s or the
blessed victory all remained with Rome. West Minster, the Communion to the
Men soon forget the vanquished and only ;
faithful. The Saxon princes were angry
u
on that day when the Books are opened because he passed them by. Why,"

before the Throne, and all is revealed, will said they to the bishop, "

do you not offer

the true work of the forgotten Celtic us the white bread which you used to give
church in the matter of the conversion to our father, Sasberht, and which you
of Britain be really known. Some of us still give to the people in your church ?
"

even dare to think that, in the summing The fearless servant of God replied to the
up on the day of the great Assize, the princes: "If
you will be washed in that
first as men count first will be found laver in which your father
of salvation
to be last, and the last first ! was washed, you also may partake of the
holy bread of which he partook but if ;

King Ethelbert of Kent died in the year you despise the laver of life, you may not
6 1 6, and was laid by the side of his queen receive the Bread of Life." This they re
in Augustine s monastic church outside the fused to do, but insisted upon partaking of
walls of Canterbury. Before the death of the sacred oblation. Mellitus still resisted.
the old king, however, clouds seemed to be Then the princes, enraged at what they
gathering over the fortunes of Christianity considered his obstinacy, ordered Mellitus
in Kent. The acknowledged supremacy and his companions to quit the East Saxon
of king Ethelbert over the neighbouring country.
pagans was gradually passing away, and Justus and the church of Rochester
his influence ever used in favour of were overwhelmed by the same storm.
the faith in London and the Essex A wave of pagan reaction passed over all
6x6.] DESPAIR OF LAURENCE. 109

the south-east of England. There was Augustine, Ethelbert, and Bertha were
no home for the fugitives of London and laid. As he prayed, sleepcame on him ;

Rochester in Canterbury. There, too, and as he slept, in a dream he saw St.

the new King Eadbald was hostile to Peter standing by him, bitterly reproach

Christianity. His manner of life made ing him for his cowardice in forsaking the
him hate the presence, and dread the flock of God entrusted to his charge ;
in

ST. MARY S, DOVER CASTLE.

sad reproaches and earnest reminders leaving them to the wolves, instead of
of Laurence and the Canterbury monks. braving death Bede, who
for their sake.

Friendless now, and in danger of their tells the story, adds that Peter scourged
St.

Mellitus and Justus fled to the neigh

lives, the faint-hearted archbishop with pitiless

bouring coast of Gaul. Laurence also, severity.

persuaded that all was over for the Chris In the morning Laurence sought the
tian cause in Kent, prepared to follow pagan king Eadbald, telling him of his
them. The night before his flight he strange dream, and pointing to the scars
spent in the now completed church of and wounds inflicted by his ghostly visi
St. Peter and Paul, where the remains of tant the night before. The king s heart
 IIO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [620.

was touched, so runs the legend he listened;

Great. Indeed, the area of its influence
to his father s old instructor, and de had been vastly reduced in this period.

termined to become the friend, not the The Christian settlement in London, which

foe, of the men who had dwelt so long seemed in the first years of the
century
among his people, and who had taught to promise such happy results, had been
them so many and
such beautiful things. swept away ;
to the north of the city the
Eadbald became himself a devoted Chris missionaries of the religion of Jesus had
tian, and, as far as Kent was concerned, made no way. The East Saxon nation
the religion of the Crucified became more was still pagan. Even Rochester, under
firmly rooted than ever. The Canterbury the influence of Christian Kent, scarcely
settlement was never seriously threatened tolerated a Christian church or mission ;

again, and it continued its quiet, blessed and on one occasion, as we have seen, the
work unhindered among the Jutish people. bishop and his companions were forced to
The two fugitive bishops, Mellitus and fly for their lives. In Canterbury, owing
Justus, returned from Gaul the influence
;
to the influence of the king, who, how
of king Eadbald restored Justus to the ever, began his reign as a pagan, bitterly
church of Rochester, which still continued hostile to the Christian church, the foun
to be a centre of earnest work. But his dations of Augustine held their own, but

power was about any

insufficient to bring they seemed to have made but little way
change in London and in the East Saxon in the hearts of the surrounding peoples.

territory. We
must picture St. Paul s and All efforts, too, at union with the rem
the West Minster lying for years un- nant of the ancient British church in the
tenanted by priest or worshipper possibly west had signally failed, and no friendly
even profaned by the wild worship of relations of the Canterbury Roman mission
Woden and the gods of the north. with the flourishing church in Ireland had
There is little to record for many years been established. Indeed, all attempts of
in the story of the church of Canterbury. Rome to convert the Northmen con
Laurence died three years after his dream, querors of Britain, which had been crowned
king Eadbald ever remaining his staunch during the first few years which followed
friend. In succession his faithful friends the landing of Augustine in Kent with
followed him as archbishop Mellitus first, such splendid success, seemed doomed to
then Justus ;
and in the year 627 the last failure. After some thirty years of work,
of the old companions of Augustine, Honor- only a little corner in the south-east of
ius, took his place as the fifth of the arch Britain had received Christianity, and even
bishops of the see, hereafter to become this solitary fortress of the faith was gravely
so famous. menaced by the numerous hostile pagan
Thus nearly a quarter of a century had influences which surrounded it.

passed since Augustine had fallen asleep, The was acknowledged and sor
failure
and during that long period no further rowfully commented on by Pope Boniface
progress had been made by the Italian V., in a formal letter to Justus, bishop of
mission sent to Britain by Gregory the Rochester, on the occasion of his transla-
625-]
CHRISTIANITY IN KENT. in
tion to the arch-see of Canterbury on the daughter Eanswith founded a religious
death of Mellitus. The Roman pontiff society,probably close to the site now
sent the new archbishop the pall, and occupied by the well-known and beautiful
authorised him to consecrate single-handed parish church. The name of the Jutish
a new bishop for Rochester. This letter princess held in grateful
is still
memory at
of Boniface V. to Justus was written in Folkestone as the local saint.
A.D. 624, and specially alludes to the dis But more important far to the records of

appointment the expectations which*

of the royal house of Ethelbert was a marriage
had been based upon the early successes which took place about the year 625, only
of Augustine in Kent. The Pope, while a few months after the receipt by arch

dwelling on these baffled hopes, consoled bishop Justus of Boniface s letter accom
the archbishop by telling him that what panying his pall. Edwin, the English
had been done was a pledge that in due king of Northumbria, asked for the hand
time all would be done ;
that the slow pro in marriage of Ethelburga, king Eadbald s

gress was a trial of patience and endur sister, daughter of Ethelbert and
the
ance ;
the trial, said the wise Pope, should Bertha. Ethelburga was known in her
be borne in faith, and with a humble con family as Tatta the darling." Edwin,
"

fidence that the work in Kent would of whom more presently, -was rapidly
secure in time the extension of Christianity advancing to that position of fame and
among the neighbouring peoples. Such power among the conquerors which he
brave and loving words were indeed sorely subsequently reached but the once pagan ;

needed by the little Christian colony in Eadbald, now devoted to the faith, abso
south-east Britain, for at the period when lutely refused to give his sister to a

Boniface V. wrote to the new archbishop heathen. Edwin repeated his petition,
Justus the outlook was but a sombre one. promising that if Ethelburga married him,
One or two events connected with these she and her attendants should retain full

early days of Kentish Christianity are note liberty to worship according to the tenets

worthy. Among the works carried out of their faith. The Northumbrian s
prayer
when Eadbald was king, we have one still was granted, and the daughter of Ethel
with us that most venerable church of bert left for her northern home accom
St. Mary, in the precincts of the Castle panied by Paulinus, one of the three who
of Dover, attached to the old Roman had been sent from Rome with Justus in
Lighthouse Tower, built of lava and the year 60 1, to strengthen the original
pumice-stone, the ballast of some Italian company of Augustine. Before Paulinus
ship trading to Dover in the second or leftwith Ethelburga, he was consecrated
third century. At Folkestone Eadbald s by Justus to the episcopate.
 CHAPTER VI.

THE STRUGGLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN NORTHERN, MIDLAND, AND EASTERN ENGLAND.

German Origin of the Northern InvadersJutes, Engles, and Saxons Preponderance of the Engles
JElla of Deira Ethelfrid the Ravager banishes ^Ella s Son Edwin Edwin at the Court of Redwald
in East Anglia Paulinus the Bishop Defeat and Death of Ethelfrid and Restoration of Edwin
Extent of his Power Marriage with Ethelburga His Conversion by Paulinus Council of
Edwin s Thanes at Godmundham Recognition of Christianity Its Limited Extension Paulinus
and his Career The Pagan Champion Penda of Mercia His Alliance with Cad wallon Defeat
and Death of Edwin, and Departure of Paulinus and the Widowed Queen.

r 1 \HE central scene of the story of us, without indulging in the fervid and
the rise of Christianity among exaggerated estimate of Newman, the age
the North-folk who had conquered is one of surpassing interest. It is the

Britain, will now be removed from Kent period to which the making of our English
to the northern district of the island. But Christianity belongs.
it will make
the story more vivid and lifelike In the last half of the fifth century, when
if something of an outline be drawn of the the flood of barbarians broke in upon the

general position of the North-folk in Britain various provinces of the Roman empire,
at the beginning of the seventh century. Britain was invaded and overrun and finally
It is curious to mark how differently conquered by successive bands of warriors,
eminent writers view an event or a series mainly drawn from a Low-German branch
of events in history. One dwells upon a of the great Teutonic family who dwelt in

battle, a siege, a royal marriage, as the the north of Germany, and in that penin

turning-point in a nation s history. Another sula we now call Sleswick, which separates
passes these by, as trivial events scarcely the Baltic from the northern seas. Their
deserving the baldest mention. The im country, roughly speaking, was that broad
portance or insignificance of an event de district on the banks of the Elbe, the Ems,

pends upon the stand-point occupied by and the Rhine (eastern bank). These
the chronicler. In the eyes of Milton German tribes, who chose Britain for the
the history of the Saxon princes is nothing scene of their venture, are known as the
more than the scuffling of kites and
"

Jutes, the Engles or Angles, and the Saxons.

crows." Cardinal Newman, on the other They were loosely knit together by the
hand, proudly points to
"

the sixty saints ties of a common blood, common speech,

and the hundred confessors who were common social and political institutions,,
trained in royal palaces of Saxon kings for and a common religion.
the Kalendar of the Blessed." How vast "

The old home of the Jutes, who arrived

a chasm," writes a third and no less dis first on our shores about A.D. 449, was that
tinguished author, "yawns between these peninsula still called after them Jtitland,
two conceptions of the same era !
"

To which runs from the shores of North

449-] JUTES, ENGLES, AND SAXONS.
Germany into the Baltic and North Seas. which lay between the Elbe and the Ems,
They were near kinsmen of the race settled and across theEms as far as the east bank
on the opposite Scandinavian coast and of the Rhine. They were a number of
the Danish Isles. Their settlement and kindred tribesdrawn together into one
their early history in Kent have been briefly great people known under the general
described. Kent, part of Surrey, and sub name of Saxon. In our island they were
sequently the Isle of Wight, represented classed under two great divisions the East

DEPARTURE OF ENGLE INVADERS FOR BRITAIN.

the whole of their conquests in Britain. Saxons and West Saxons. The East Saxons
Their period of supremacy was short, and overran Middlesex, part of Surrey, and
coincided with the reign of that Ethelbert Essex. Their influence in Britain was
who welcomed Augustine. After his death never predominant, and they were before
the Jutes exercised comparatively little long absorbed by, or at least subject to the
influence in the island outside their own over-lordship of, their near kinsmen, the

kingdom of Kent, which was eventually West Saxons, or of the powerful and more
absorbed into the territory acquired by the numerous Engles. The West Saxons, con
larger and more powerful kindred tribe tinually reinforced by fresh bands of their
known as the West Saxons. countrymen, during a long period of years
The Saxons came from the wide district kept slowly advancing and gradually con-
H
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [547-

quering the whole of the south of Britain, home originally was on the middle Elbe,
from the borders of Jutish Kent as far as in the country which lies around the com

Devonshire. Their kingdom eventually paratively modern city of Magdeburg.

was roughly co-extensive with Sussex, Some of these Engles those probably with
Hampshire, Berkshire, Wilts, Dorset, whom Britain had most to do dwelt in
Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, and the lower part of the peninsula between

Shropshire. Later the over-lordship of the Baltic and North Sea immediately to

MAP SHOWING THE ORIGIN OF SAXONS, ENGLES, AND JUTES.

their western and some of their midland the south of Jutland, and in the part of
districts passed into the hands at least for North Germany now known as Lower
a season of the Engles. Their supremacy Hanover and Oldenburg. The whole of
in the island, and indeed the influence to these northern Engles seem to have prac
which they were entitled by their great tically deserted their old home for the;

numbers and the wide extent of their con pleasanter and more fertile plains and
quests, was for a very long time delayed valleys of Britain. In this they differed

by internal disputes and by wranglings from their J\atish and Saxon kinsmen
among their own tribal chieftains. many whom remained
of in their country.

The third of the great divisions of the Some 200 years after their landing in
first

North-folk who conquered and settled in Britain, the district whence the northern
Britain were the Engles or Angles. Their Engles came, was still desolate and bare of
S47-]
THE ENGLES.
inhabitants. This wholesale migration of the harassed Britons by the ominous name
an entire people accounts for the vast of
"

Flame-Bearer." Ida s conquests in

numbers of the Engles,* who in the course
of successive arrivals spread over so large
a portion of our island. They conquered
and eventually settled in Norfolk, Suffolk,
Lincoln, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumber
North Britain were known as Bernicia.
Bernicia stretched over a wide extent of
country, reaching from the Forth to the
Tees. The original British dwellers in
these parts were driven to the fastnesses

land, and the Midland districts of Britain. of Cumberland and Westmorland, where
In the Midlands they were generally known they long maintained themselves. Ida, like
as Mercians, or Men of the Marches, the other kingly Engle and Saxon chief
because they occupied the long line of tains, claimed to descend direct from the god

country bordering on the mountains of the Woden ;

nine generations only were said

west, where the remnant of the conquered to have lived between the Engle Flame-
Britons had found a refuge. Those of Bearer and his divine ancestor.
them who settled in the north and east Eleven years later than Ida the Flame-
were called Bernicians and Deirans, from Bearer, the history of the southern Engles
the sections they inhabited in the vast dis of Deira begins, in the person of ylla,
trict of Northumbria. It is these Engles, another child of the divine Woden race.
who 200 years after the first coming of
for Deira, which was occupied by the men of
the North-folk exercised, as we shall see, a -/Ella, lay immediately to the south of

general supremacy among the conquering Ida s and included well-nigh the
Bernicia,
tribes. It is they who have given to the whole of Yorkshire, and much of Lan
whole island their name now honoured or cashire and Cheshire. It was this ^Ella of

feared by the whole world of ENGLAND. Deira of whom Gregory the Great heard
The story of the conversion of England in the slave market of Rome, when he
is bound up with the fortunes of
closely looked with pity on the fair-haired Engle
the Engles in Northumbria and it will ; boys, and made that curious string of puns
be seen that what the Roman mission of on the words :
yElla, Deira, and Angles
Augustine in Kent had failed to accomplish, (Engles).
was eventually carried out by men who lived South, again, of the Engle kingdom of
under the shadow of that great throne which Deira, more hordes of these Engles, under
was set up in Yorkshire and Northumber other chieftains, overran all the central
land by the ruling Engle dynasty.
parts of Britain. As time went on, these
Midland Engles grouped themselves to
We first hear of these Engles in North gether, and, under the name of Mercians,
Britain in the year 547, when a number of established powerful kingdom, which
a

invading bands belonging to these people stretched over the centre of Britain, reach
agreed together to choose for their king ing from the territories of the Engles in
one of their chieftains, Ida, known among Deira, or Yorkshire, to the settlements of
* It seems convenient henceforth to adopt this the West Saxons in the southern parts
form of the word. of the island. But for the present our
 u6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [593-

interest is mainly centred upon the Ethelfrid, who succeeded to the lord
northern Engles of Bernicia and Deira. ship of this great territory (A.D. 593),
We
know few details of the terrible con married the daughter of -/Ella, and
quest of this part of Britain. Fragments thus was the brother-in-law of the
of burned cities here and there remain to exiled Edwin. He was a typical heathen
tellthe awful story. As in the south of the Engle king. Bede tells us how he
island in the case of the Saxons, so in the
"

wasted the race of the Britons more than

north and Midlands, the Engles spared none. any chieftain of the Engles had done; for
The cities were sacked and destroyed ;
the in none drove out or subdued so many of the
habitants of city and country were well-nigh natives, or won so much of their lands for

all slain, or driven out as homeless exiles. Engle settlement." Merciless in his be

Then followed a period of quarrelling and haviour to his own kith and kin, merciless

SJTUUU
EARLY ENGLISH WRITING ( from a. MS.).

desperate fighting among the conquerors, to the conquered Britons, he nevertheless

the scuffling of
"

kites and crows "

we raised his country to great honour, and

have spoken of. King Ethelfrid of Bernicia may be said to have been the founder of
(A.D. 592), known even among his wild the greatness of Northumbria.
and savage countrymen as the Ravager,"
"

It was this great pagan warrior who, in

stands out with some prominence in that
iron age of ceaseless, cruel warfare. His
father Ethelric had, on the death of yElla,
taken forcible possession of Deira, and had
driven away his son Edwin into exile and
Ethelfrid the Ravager had succeeded to the
the course of his never-ending wars, besieged
the famous city of Deira now Chester.
The dwellers in Chester, armed with the
courage of despair, risked a battle with the
; conquering Engles. Just before the engage
ment began, king Ethelfrid saw standing

lordship of all the broad lands north of the at a distance a great company of monks from
Humber North-humber-land. We shall ths neighbouring monastery of Bangor
hear much of this exiled prince Edwin he ; Iscoed, who, after a three days had
fast,

plays a great part later in the story of the come out of their sacred home to pray^

spread of Christianity among the Engle for the safety of the famous British city.

peoples. Bangor Iscoed was one of those vast Celtic

593-]
KING ETHELFRID OF BERNICIA.
monastic establishments of which we have monks and priests.
"

If, said the stern

already spoken. It contained 2,000 monks ; Engle, "they

are crying to their god
of these one-half came out to pray for against us, then they are fighting with us
the success of their fellow-countrymen. by curses, though not with arms." Then

ETHELFRID WATCHED THE WILD GESTURES OF THE UNARMED MONKS/

Ethelfrid, watching the wild gestures and he bade his warriors fall at once upon
listening to the piteous cries of the un them ;
of the 1,000 monks
Bangor only of

armed, strangely-clad monks, as they fifty escaped the bloody slaughter which
prayed their prayers and sang their hymns followed. The monastery, with all its

with impassioned earnestness, asked who literary and priceless treasures, was burned
and what this curious company were. He and sacked, and the hapless dwellers in it
was told they were only unarmed Christian were hunted down probably few escaped
;
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [617.

to tell the awful story of the fate of their of war and invasion, if his wishes were not
famous prayer -home. Chester, too, the complied with. At length the East Anglian
fair city known as the proud northern king was gained over, probably terrified by
"

City of the before the con

Legions," fell the threats of the powerful and unscrupu

quering Engle, and was sacked and utterly lous Engle king. Redwald s purpose to slay
destroyed. or to give up the exile came to the ears of
The pagan king, in the midst of his career a trusted friend of Edwin s, who one night
of conquest, dreaded his exiled brother-in- called his friend from his chamber, and,
law Edwin alluded to above and de leading him out of the palace, told him of

termined to compass his death. Edwin the plot against his life or his liberty, and
had found a shelter and a home far away offered to guide him to a hiding-place
from East Anglia, at
his native Deira, in where he would be safe. Edwin refused to
the court of Redwald, the friend of Ethel- fly, replying he
was the friend of Redwald,
bert, the Christian king of Kent. Redwald a great king, and if he must needs die, he
was half a Christian, half a pagan : would rather die by his hand than by the
Ethelbert had persuaded him to be bap hands of some unknown person. For,"
"

tised, but his people in the eastern he added, where should I be safe ? I
"

counties still loved their old gods ;

so have been so long now a fugitive. My
Redwald contented himself with placing enemies are everywhere." His friend left
an altar to Christ by the side of the altar him. was night and very dark, and the
It

of Woden. At the court of Redwald at unhappy prince sat down on a stone bench
that time dwelt Paulinus, the Roman outside the palace, and sorrowfully thought

missionary, Augustine s companion ;

it over his hard fate :
utterly friendless and
was for him a hopeless mission though, in forlorn, surrounded by ruthless enemies,
that land so devoted to the gods of the his misfortunes were greater than he could
North. The work there had to be done bear. While musing thus, a stranger came
by another than Paulinus, who seems to to him and courteously asked why he
have been generally unknown and un was sitting there alone in the darkness,
noticed in that heathen county. A strange when all others were sleeping. Edwin
chance happened, however, which gave wonderingly asked him, why he troubled
him an influence over the exiled Edwin, himself about him. The stranger replied,
which afterwards he used with wonderful (<

I am acquainted with you, and your fear

success. and bitter sorrows are all known to me
The sleepless jealousy of Ethelfrid the Now tell me what reward you will giv
Ravager pursued Edwin in his distant the man who will persuade Redwald t
place of exile. Thrice did the powerful be your faithful friend, and not your be
Northumbrian king send to Redwald, trayer."
Edwin replied that he woul
offering great sums of money for the life indeed bestow on such a man all it was i

of his brother-in-law.Each time he in hispower to give. The unknown strange

creased the offers and the bribes went
;
went on, u What if I ventured to tell you
accompanied with threats of vengeance, of a splendid future lying before you, o:
6I7-]
STORY OF KING EDWIN. 119

your enemies being defeated, of yourself the country which now drove them out
restored to a power greater than any ever with ignominy, and the two last named,

possessed by your kingly ancestors ? Will Oswald and Oswiu names now utterly
you promise in days to come, if these things forgotten by most men in their days were
come true, implicitly to follow my counsel reckoned among the noblest and greatest
and advice in the gravest matters which sovereigns of their age.
affectyour life and salvation ?
"

Edwin The history of Edwin s reign is eventful

promised, and the unknown then laid his and picturesque. His high descent and ,

hand upon his head, saying to him, Re

"

his close connection with the house oi

member your solemn undertaking, when Ethelfrid caused him to be accepted with
this sign be shall
given to you," and out any opposition by all the northern
with these words he disappeared in the Engles. The misfortunes of his earlier
darkness. years had given a tinge of sadness and
That night prince Edwin learnt that sympathy to his character, which, while
the queen had induced Redwald to give it diminished nothing of the dash and
up all idea of harming him, persuading her energy possessed by his predecessor,
husband that it was unworthy of a king to Ethelfrid the Ravager, softened the
sell his friend for gold, or to sacrifice him cruelty and vindictiveness of this early
for fear of a neighbour.
powerful The Engle chieftain
though;
continued he
East Anglian sovereign more than kept the war with the remnant of the British,
his word. He did not wait for Ethelfrid driving them from their last stronghold
to accomplish his threat, but marched with in Deira (Yorkshire). His kingdom grew
a strong force to meet him. The two in extentand power ;
it reached from the

Engle kings Redwald and Ethelfrid, and Forth to the Solent and tradition ascribes
;

their hosts metTrent Valley, and

in the to him the building of the great Scottish
the battle was fought on the banks of the capital of Edinburgh (Edwin s Burg). The
Idle. The Northumbrians were taken by city of York became his chief residence,

surprise the East Anglian was completely

;
and something of the ancient glories of a
victorious, and Ethelfrid was slain. A Roman emperor belonged to the great
line of an old Northern song preserves Engle chieftain as he passed through
the memory of that fatal encounter, which his broad dominions. Men say how a
had so marked an influence on the Chris great standard of gold and purple floated
tian story of England
"

Foul ran Idle with before him, while a feather tuft attached
the blood of Englishmen." The imme to a spear was the ensign of his lordship
diate result of the battle of the Idle was over the greater part of Britain. Gradually
the elevation of Edwin to the North under his rule the din and confusion and
umbrian throne. The sons of the slain terror of the ceaseless wars of conquest
Ethelfrid in their turn were driven from seemed to be stilled, and over most of
their country by their uncle Edwin ;
the war- weary, harassed island, with what
but three of them Eanfred, Oswald, and Bede terms "the empire of the English
Oswiu in after days became kings of and the Roman majesty,"
came back for
I2O THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [626.

a season something of the hush of the Paulinus, of whom we have heard already
Roman as sent by Gregory to join Augustine the
long-lost peace.
Then came the beautiful episode of the same Paulinus whom we met with in East

great pagan king s marriage with the Anglia at the court of Redwald should
beloved Christian princess of Kent, the
form part of Ethelburga s suite in her new

daughter of Ethelbert, the dead Augus

home at York.
tine s friend whose pet The marriage of Edwin and Ethelburga
Ethelburga
name of Tatta (the darling) seems to tell was a happy one, but an untoward event
us something of the quiet influence she soon threatened to bring that happiness
to an end. Jealousy on the part of a
West-Saxon king who bore the barbarous-
sounding name of Cwichelm, stirred up
by the sight of the ever-growing power of
the Engle sovereign, prompted an attempt

upon the life of Edwin. A trusty and

determined messenger of Cwichelm brought
a message from his master to Edwin on
the Easter day of the year 626. While

speaking to the king he drew out a

poisoned dagger, and tried to stab the
listening Edwin. A devoted servant

(whose name, Lilla, has been preserved)

threw himself between his master and
the would-be assassin, and received the

deadly thrust in his stead but so violent

;

was the blow that the point of the dagger

reached Edwin through the pierced body

EDWIN S SUPREMACY.
of his faithful follower. The king s wound
was, however, slight, and he soon re

exercised at her brother s Kentish court. covered. That night Ethelburga s daughter
There was the usual demur at the union Eanfleda was born. In grateful memory
of a Christian girl with a pagan warrior ;
of his escape, and for the love of Ethel
the same difficulty presented itself in the burga, theEngle sovereign resolved to
case of the daughter, as it had some years renounce his idols and the worship of the
before in the case of the mother, when the old Northern gods, and gave the new
heathen king Ethelbert wooed Bertha, the born princess Eanfleda to Paulinus that
Christian Prankish princess. The difficulty he might, according to the further custom
was then got over by the permission to bring which had already engrafted itself upon
a Christian priest from Paris to Canter the monastic system, and in later ages not

bury, the queen s new home. So now, unfrequently produced unhappy results,
as we have seen, it was arranged that consecrate her to Christ. This Eanfleda
62 7 .] PAULINUS AND EDWIN. 121

afterwards became a power in Christian pagan worship of the Northern people, he

Northumbria. hesitated long before becoming a Christian.
Paulinus now became an intimate asso- One day, as he was alone and thinking

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PAGE FROM A COPY (vi. OR VII. CENT.) OF AUGUSTINE S WRITINGS, CONTAINING

PORTION OF A LETTER TO PAULINUS (Paris Bibl. Nat.).

date of the king, who talked much with over the story of Christianity, its many
him about Jesus and the Christian faith ;
wondrous promises and blessed teaching,
but though he had renounced the old Paulinus came to him and quietly laid his
122 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [627.

hand upon the king s head, asking him for him who had served them so long and
ifhe remembered the sign, and prayed faithfully. were surely better, if the
It

him to embrace the faith of Jesus. Then new doctrines were found to be of a more
Edwin called to mind the memorable practical nature, to adopt them without
evening when he sat in the chill dark delay. The old faith, as far as Coifi

ness, on the stone bench outside Redwald s had had experience of it, was a useless
royal hall in East Anglia, all alone
and religion.

sorrowful, waiting for death ;

and how Another chieftain used a different and
an unknown stranger had come to him a nobler line of argument. The faith of
as he sat and thought, and foretold his their fathers gave them no information

future greatness ;
and had given him this as to the mysterious past of men, and
solemn sign. He recognised at once by the threw no light on the still more mysterious
ever-remembered sign that the unknown and hidden future. His words were

stranger of that dark night outside Red strangely beautiful and eloquent, and the
wald s hall was the same Paulinus. He striking simile he used has come down
called to mind also the promise made in the long stream of ages to us. This wise
his hour of sorrow and perplexity, and thane* likened the life of man to the
flinging himself at Paulinus feet, said flight of a storm-driven bird through one
he would indeed become a Christian. of those halls where the tired warriors, war
The Engle king at once summoned a worn and hungry, used to meet in -the

great council of his chiefs to his royal home hours of the long winter evenings to rest

at Godmundham, near Market Weighton,

*
In A. S. spelt thegn, but the modern form,
some twenty-three miles from York, consecrated by Shakespeare and Scott, probably
and asked them for their opinion of the
gives the pronunciation. The original meaning of
was a memorable the word Thegn was a warlike man, and testifies
" "

worship of Christ. It
distinctly to the origin of the rank in military ser
meeting, this assembly of the chiefs of the vice. But it was used also of a freeman who had
great Engle race, when the solemn ques acquired a certain considerable estate in law, who
tion was put to them should they re then became Thegn-worthy. The name of Thegn
covers the whole class which after the Conquest
nounce the old gods of the North, the
appears under the name of knights, with the same
gods of their fathers, the gods of war and qualification in law, and nearly the same obliga
tions. It also carried so much of nobility as is
revelry, for the gentle faith professed by
implied in hereditary privilege for instance, men
the people whom they had driven out might be called Thegns even when they held no
of the land ? land but they did not acquire the privilege by
;

descent until they had reached a third generation

Curiously enough, the most eloquent from the founder of the family dignity. Under the
advocate of Christianity was Coin, the name of Thegn were also included various grades
chief priest of the gods of the North ! The of dignity. The highest, the class of king s Thegns,
were his body-guard, his nearest and most constant
priest related his own
experiences. No one
counsellors. A post among them was soon coveted
of the Engle people, he said, had served and won by the greatest and noblest. Thegnhood
these supposed gods more zealously than contained within itself the germ of feudalism as
known among the Normans. Compare Stubbs,
he, Coifi, had done in his past life but to ;
"Constitutional vi. and Green,
History," chap. ;

little purpose, for they had done nothing of

"

Making England," chap. iv.

627-]
WORK OF PAULINUS. 123

and carouse. The speaker depicted the deeper I searched for truth in it the less I
warm, chamber, and contrasted the
fire-lit found in it. Now I see truth shining out
comfort of the hearth-fire round which the clear in the new teaching. Come, let us

guests were gathered, with the cold wind at once destroy these useless temples
and icy rain-storm without. Suddenly he and altars and burn Then, calling
them."

described the coming in of a bird attracted for a horse and arms, which it was not

by the light and warmth within the bird, ;

lawful for a priest to bear, he rode straight

he said, flew through the door, and, tarry to the door of the temple hard by the hall

ing a few pleasant moments in the shelter of assembly at Godmundham, and hurled

of the fire-lit hall, went forth again and his spear right into the idol-house, and
was lost in the darkness of the cold night bade his companions fire it. The result
without. "

Such,"
said the Engle thane, of this scene was the general adoption of
"

appears to me to be the life of man we :

Christianity by the Engle king and his
see it just for a moment, for a moment it counsellors.

enjoys light and warmth ;

but of all that This happened early in the year 627.

goes before that moment, and also of all But this royal recognition of the faith "
"

that follows after, we know absolutely was a very different thing among the
nothing. If the new faith can teach us German Engles, from what we read of
anything which will throw light upon that among the Celtic peoples of Ireland. There,
dread secret of the unknown past and of when the king and his chieftains became
the hidden future, surely we should be Christians, their example was largely, if

wise men to adopt it." not universally, followed by the people.

"

But if this pale Paulinas In Northumbria it was widely different.

Have somewhat more to tell, No general conversion followed Edwin s
Some news of whence and whither
baptism no large body of monks and
And where the soul may dwell, ;

If in that outer darkness missionaries ever seems to have gathered

The sun of hope may shine, round Paulinus no building of churches,
;

He makes life worth the living,

* no erection of a group of monastic huts,
I take his God for mine."

sheltering their crowds of devotees, is

then suggested that Paulinus, well
Coifi
related in any of the Northumbrian stories.
known in the court of Edwin as the
At the bidding Edwin a little wooden
of
queen s friend and adviser, should tell
church arose in York and when Paulinus
;

them about his religion and his God.

was formally established as bishop in that
The Roman complied with the monk
city of many august memories, the king
suggestion, and appears to have spoken
began a large church in stone, square in
well and wisely, for Coifi, the pagan high
form, around the little primitive sanctuary
priest, rose after him and boldly spoke his ofwood where the Roman monk baptised
opinion. "For a long time," he said, "I

him. The stone church, the ancient York

have been convinced of the hollowness of
Cathedral, long enclosed as a sacred relic
all that we have been worshipping ;
the
the first little oratory of wood where
* Paulinus ministered.
Palgrave s
"

Vision of England."
124 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [627633.

Save poor oratory of York, how

this who laboured on, long after Paulinus had

ever, no church arose in Edwin s days left the scene of his six years well-nigh
between the Forth and Tees. In spite fruitless toil. Why was he so solitary ?

of later eulogies on the work of Paulinus, Why always alone ? Sent originally to Kent
the historian is compelled to con to be a helper and counsellor of Augustine,
clude that the earnest Italian made but we fail to hear of him as one of the faithful

way among the Engle subjects of

little band who were loved and trusted by the
Edwin and yet he was indefatigable. first archbishop of the English. Laurence
During the six years which followed was ever at Augustine s side in life and
Edwin s baptism we hear of his constant in death. Justus and Mellitus were his
journeyings from north to south, across trusted and loved suffragans, then his suc
desolate moorlands, through inhospitable cessors. Where was Paulinus ?
Evidently
wolds preaching, praying, teaching. Here never one of the familiar inner circle. We
and there we find dim traces of his noble catch sight of him, a dim and misty per
toil and restless labours. We hear of him sonality, at Redwald s court in Ease Anglia,
even as far south as Nottinghamshire. In where Edwin lived then as a hunted exile.

Leicestershire, tradition ascribes to him Then he reappears at Canterbury, and is

and his converts the building on the hill sent away again to the far north as the
of Lincoln, the humble predecessor of that confessor-bishop of the Princess Ethel-
proud Minster, now one of the glories of burga, when she became Edwin s queen
England and in that first little church
;
in Northumbria. Then for two or three
of Lincoln Paulinus is said to have conse years we almost lose sight of him, till

crated Honorius, fourth successor of Augus he reappears as the confidential friend of

tine in the archbishopric of Canterbury. king Edwin in 627, and is the principal
When Pope Honorius sent the pall to his figure in the famous assembly at God-
namesake, the fifth archbishop of Canter mundham, where Edwin and his thanes

bury, he also sent the same vestment, dis and idol-priest accepted Christianity. Then
tinctive of the highest rank in the hier he plays the part of the un
for six years

archy, to Paulinus, thus signifying his wish wearied missionary preacher and teacher
that York should be the seat of a northern in the northern districts. But he rallied

arch-see. But the pall arrived from to his side no friends, no associates ; alone, or
Rome too late for Paulinus ;
he had left well-nigh alone, he preaches, baptises, toils

York and Northumbria for ever before it early and late, organising nothing, arranging
arrived. nothing and when the great catastrophe
;

These years were the great years of

six overwhelms Edwin in Northumbria, he
one of the most striking personages of this hurriedly flees the scene of his restless life,

eventful age. There is much in Paulinus and quietly settles down at Rochester.
to admire, something to deplore, and Verily a strange, inexplicable man yet ;

not a little that puzzles his biographer. he impressed all who came in contact with

Strange to say, we hear of no companions him with a sense of power, earnestness,

of his labour save one, the Deacon James, and even enthusiasm. Bede, who must
627-633] WORK OF PAULINUS. 125

have known many of his contemporaries, bones have now rested for more than
admires him with an ungrudging admira twelve hundred years far away from his

tion, and even gives us a vivid picture of beloved Northumbria, in the precincts of
his personal appearance, which was well the home of his later years the cathedral
remembered in Northumbria long after he church of St. Andrew, Rochester.

DEATH OF EDWIN AT HATFIELD.

passed away. All men who had received The six years of Paulinus work and of
baptism at his hands recalled with reverent his influence with Edwin stirred up, how
and loving tenderness the venerable and ever, another spirit. Edwin, who had
awe-inspiring teacher, with his lofty and hesitated for years before he renounced the

stooping form, his black hair, his aquiline gods of the north, after the Godmundham
nose, his emaciated but winning face. His assembly of 627, adopted the religion of
126 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [633-

Christ with real earnestness ; so, as we utterly defeated and driven out of their
have seen, outwardly at least, did many of original homes, still existed in the western
his thanes and chieftains. But the bulk district of Britain in considerable numbers,
of his Engle subjects remained attached to and were knit together by a burning
the old altars of Woden and Thor. The hatred of theirconquerors. Penda, the
only Christians were those comparatively Engle Mercian, took advantage of this
few in number who were moved by the unextinguishable hate. He allied himself

personal enthusiasm of Paulinus and his with their most powerful and able chief
rare associates. A spirit of enthusiasm the king Cadwallon and with him deter
for the old Norsemen s faith, a determined mined to compass the fate of king Edwin.

opposition to the new religion of the king, The strange and unnatural union between
was excited among the Engle peoples who the British Christian king Cadwallon and
extended over the north and east and" the Mercian heathen Penda was too power
midlands of Britain, and who after all, ful a combination for Edwin successfully to
save in Northumbria, were only knit to cope with. In a bloody battle fought at
the Northumbrian king by comparatively Hatfield, in south-east Yorkshire, in the
slender ties. year 633, the whole army of Edwin was
The Middle Engles, or Mercians, as destroyed or dispersed, and the king him
they were termed, were at this junc self was slain. Northumbria was harried
ture ruled over by a chieftain of rare by the victorious confederates, and suffered
ability and power, who was only too ready terribly from the invasion which followed
to repudiate the over-lordship of Edwin, the rout of Hatfield. The fierce cruelty

the Northumbrian Engle. This mighty of Cadwallon was especially remembered

chieftain, or king as he styled himself, ruled in after years. With him and his Britons

over the various Middle Engle peoples. it was a war of vengeance. "

He spared,"

His name Penda has come down to us said a later chronicler, "

neither women
as the name of the great champion of the nor children, raging for a long time through
old heathen religion of the Northmen. For the country, resolving that he should be the

thirty years this Penda held Christianity in man to exterminate the whole Engle race
check in the island, and his acknowledged within the bounds of Britain."
"

To this

abilities and success a long period

for day,"
writes Bede, "

that year is looked

rendered it doubtful whether Christ or upon as unhappy and hateful to all good
Woden would be eventually acknowledged men."

as the god of the English peoples. Un What now became of the newly planted

scrupulous, cruel, and vindictive, yet withal Christianity in haplessNorthumbria ? The

possessing all the qualities of a born leader results of the work of Paulinus, great and
ofmen, Penda was at once an able general earnest though it was, seem to have been
and a consummate statesman one, too, superficial. With the death of Edwin and so
who possessed the powerful secret of at many of his thanes, Christianity virtually

tracting great masses of men to himself. disappeared. Paulinus saw the head of his
The ancient British race also, although friend and patron brought to York, where
633-] ETHELBURGA. 127

it was buried in the unfinished church of Canterbury road. The antiquary s patient
St. Peterthe headless body of the king
: search in Lyminge has discovered in late

was recovered, and afterwards interred at years considerable remains of Ethelburga s

Whitby. The Roman missionary s courage church and monastery, and a modern tablet
failed. Considering the cause of Chris built in the wall of the ancient church

tianity in Northumbria lost, he escaped to reminds the passing stranger that the re
the sea-coast with the widowed queen mains of Ethelbert s daughter and Edwin s
Ethelburga and her son and daughter, took widowed queen rest beneath his feet.
ship, and arrived safely in Kent. He carried
A neighbouring common is still called
with him a golden cross and chalice.
"

Tatta s Leas," thus preserving, after all

The golden was long shown ig
chalice these many hundred years (twelve centuries),
the church of Canterbury. the memory of the darling," the petted
"

This was the melancholy end of and beloved princess of the court of Ethel-
Paulinus active career. In Kent he ac bert and Bertha the queen of Edwin the
;

cepted from Honorius the archbishop the first Christian Engle, who for many years
bishopric of Rochester, where, as we was supreme ruler of almost all Britain;
have he quietly ended his days.
seen, the widow who fled well-nigh friendless
Ethelburga, the widowed queen, founded from the scene of her power and splen
a convent at Lyminge, on the high ground, dour; the quiet, sad-eyed abbess of the
seven miles from Folkestone, on the holy house in the hills above Folkestone.

Photo : Chester Vaugfian,

Acton, W,
 CHAPTER VII.

THE COMING OF AIDAN.

Oswald the Saint-King of Northumbria His Training at lona Victory over the Britons and Death of
Cadwallon His Power and Influence His Part in the Evangelisation of England Failure
of the Roman Mission Contrasted with Oswald s Success His Application to lona Failure of
Gorman and Mission of Aidan Lindisfarne or Holy Isle Success of the Celtic Missionaries
Anecdotes of Aidan His Teaching Its Enduring Results tested by adversity His Death
Legends connected with it, and Traditional Effect upon St. Cuthbert Missionary Power of the
Celtic Church Its Probable Causes.

the melancholy year A.D. 633-634, cessor of his kinsman Edwin. In after
which followed the catastrophe of was Oswald who was honoured
IN Hatfield and the death of Edwin,
days, it this
the Christian he
throughout England
Eanfrid, the son of Ethelfrid the Ravager, helped to make, as Saint Oswald. He
who was slain at the battle of the river was a Christian in the true sense. He
Idle, and Osric, a nephew of ^Ella, both believed in Christ with all the passionate
near kinsmen of Edwin, were chosen by fervour of one long trained by devoted and
the Engle thanes as joint kings of earnest teachers of the faith. During the
Northumbria. Eanfrid and Osric during years of exile which followed the defeat
their short reign were pagans, and and death of his father Ethelfrid, he had
determined enemies of Christianity, which been sheltered in that truest home of Celtic
apparently had vanished altogether from Christianity, the monastery of lona, off the

the kingdom of the dead Edwin. Cad west Scottish coast. The story of that
wallon, the British king, flushed with strange community of devoted Irish saints
his victory at Hatfield, had made himself has been already told. The spirit of its
master of York, and threatened the great and beloved founder, long after his
very existence of the Engle dominion in death, brooded over the holy house of lona,
the north. Within the year both the and a succession of saintly abbots and

Engle heathen princes perished Eanfrid : devoted monks carried on the work of
fell in battle, and Osric was assassinated Columba. Simple, self-denying scholars,
by Cadwallon s orders. But the ill-fortune they lived their prayer-filled lives in their
which had all along pursued the British rough wattled huts on that dreary, sea-
through the long weary wars with the in washed island, imitating as far as they knew
vaders, soon put an end to the short-lived the austere but beautiful example of their

triumph of Cadwallon. founder. Some played the part of tireless

A younger brother of Eanfrid, Oswald, missionaries ;
some just tilled the poor
another of the sons of Ethelfrid the Scottish soil around them
some fished in ;

Ravager, succeeded to the throne of the stormy Atlantic waters more worked ;

the dismayed and disorganised Engles of as patient scholars but all were men of
;

Northumbria, and proved a worthy suc prayer. In the world though not of the
OSWALD ERECTING THE CROSS (A 130).
130 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [635-

world, in spite of their errors and mistaken dreamed a strange dream he thought he ;

ideal of life, they were, in their utter self- saw the tall form of the beloved founder of
renunciation, amongst the closest followers lona the Columba of whom he had heard
of the Son of Man whom the world has ever so much while he lived with the lona
seen. Here, among these men, tender and monks covering with his mantle well-
true, all ardent and devoted servants of nigh the whole Engle camp and, as he ;

Christ, Oswald, the homeless and landless gazed, he thought he heard Columba s
Engle prince, received his first impressions voice, bidding him "

be strong and play

of Christianity. He, like so many of his the man to-day, for I am with thee." In
noble race, was a patriot in the word s the deep dark dawn of the early morning
highest sense. He loved his Engle people Oswald framed a rough -hewn wooden
may we not for a moment use the word cross, which he and his faithful few fixed
which soon came into common use ? his firmly in the ground ;
and then he prayed,
English people with a deep love, and be the wondering Engles round him kneeling
lieved in their great destiny; but the Engles prayed a fervid, passionate lona prayer
of whose splendid future he loved to dream, to the one true and living God, to help
must be Christian Engles. Their God him and his in this their supreme moment
must be a nobler Being than the Woden of need. With the prayer still
trembling
from whom he sprang the Woden whose on his lips, he charged with his Engles,
armour was dyed with blood. The Engle home. No doubt the Briton s host, fol
of the future must worship the white sin lowing their sad invariable custom, had
less Christ. spent the night in wild carousing. Pale "

From lona the young Oswald was sum mead had been their drink,"
as their own
moned by the pagan thanes, when his patriot bard, with bitter scorn, had often
brother, Eanfrid, fell before Cadwallon and sung,
"

the golden mead had been their

the Briton s
conquering army. It was but a poison."
At
events, the charge of
all

poor and desolate Northumbria that Oswald Oswald was irresistible. Heavy with sleep,
was called to rule over, but he quietly paralysed with the effects of the feasting
gathered round him a small but gallant of the night before, the British ranks of
band of Engles. He was a born leader of Cadwallon gave way. The experience of
men, and he inspired his little army with many a battle was renewed this time, with
his own high courage and splendid daring. even more than the usual result. The
His Engle warriors were all pagans, save a Northmen triumphed. Cadwallon s army,
little knot of Christian friends who had
surprised by the sudden and fierce attack,
followed him from lona. With these he fled in disorder ;
and the British king,
took the field atonce against the British hero of a hundred bloody fights, was slain.

force under the dreaded Cadwallon a Thescene of the battle, Bede, writing
more numerous than his own.
force far scarcely a hundred years after, tells us was
It was near Hexham, in the year 635, called the Heavenfield. Our chronicler
that the Briton and the Engle met. The evidently thought it was so named before
night before the battle king Oswald the battle a presage of what was after-
635-1
OSWALD, SAINT AND KING.
wards to happen ;
more probably,
far lona, the well - known biographer of

the striking circumstances which accom Columba, who wrote in the year 692,
panied the famous victory were the positively styles Oswald Emperor of the
"

occasion of the name. The dream of whole of Britain."

Oswald, the setting up of the huge wooden But his great work consisted in the
cross, the passionate prayer which pre foundation stones, which he laid so well of
ceded the Engle onslaught, suggested the the English Christianity of the future. It
name by which this decisive victory has was not only his mere determination to tell

ever been known ;

decisive in truth, for it his people the story of Christianity, but
cleared Northumbria from the British
invading army, leaving Oswald at liberty
to reorganise the shattered dominions of
the dead Edwin ; decisive, also, in that
this was the last rally of the British.

Their strength was now exhausted, and

henceforth all they attempted was a
stubborn defence of the wild hills and up
lands of the west, their last refuge from
the storm of Saxon and Engle conquest.
The reign of Oswald lasted scarcely eight
years, but the years were eventful years.
He did more toward the making of our
Christian England than, perhaps, any
sovereign who has since sat on the English
throne. He was, as we have seen, a brave and
skilful general. His power was recognised,
and his over-lordship acknowledged, as

completely as was his predecessor

s, Edwin OSWALD S DOMINIONS.
in the northern districts of Britain and the

lowlands of Scotland. Even the Midland his conception of how and by whom that

Engles, including all the broad dominions story should be told, so as to reach the
known as Mercia, yielded to the powerful Engle heart, which is his especial title to

Northumbrian monarch a nominal sub honour. Forty years had now passed
mission. No chieftain of the Northmen since Augustine landed in Kent, but no
who came before him possessed the power real way had been made in the con
and authority of Oswald. Chroniclers version to Christianity of the Northern
of his own day and time, and their words conquerors. The Italian missionaries had
have been repeated since, saw in him, failed, as we have
seen, make any to

indeed, a faint likeness of those Roman permanent impression upon London and
emperors who for a season had made the East Saxons of Essex, or upon the
Britain their abode. Adamnan, abbot of Engles of East Anglia to the north of
132 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [635-

London. There is no record of any fact that before Augustine s arrival the
attempt having been made, nor is there Kentish queen Bertha was a Christian,

any trace of their presence, among the trained in the schools of Italy and Rome ;

South Saxons in Sussex, although these and that during her lifetime her great
districts had been invaded by ^Ella as influence and authority were successfully

early as in 477, and for more than a exerted in favour of Augustine and his
hundred years, when Augustine landed, companions.

Pkoto : M. Auty, Tynemouth.

HOLY ISLAND.

Sussex had been purely a Saxon district. It was from no apparent lack of zeal,
In the north of the island Paulinus inde or perseverance, or ability, that those
fatigable work, and failure, have already devoted men met with such a scant
been related.
Only Kent had the Roman
in measure of success ;
save that their pre
mission been really successful. Kent may tensions to a supreme authority in matters
be said to have been Christian throughout of government and ritual wrecked their
when Oswald became king of Northumbria efforts to bring about a union with the
in the year 634 ;
and
Canterbury several
at fugitives of the ancient British church.
foundations of considerable influence ex They seem to have conducted their work
isted, including a monastery, a library, and among the pagan Engles and Saxons with
schools. This solitary conspicuous success prudence, tact, and earnestness. Some
was probably in large degree owing to the deeper cause for their failure must be
635-] OSWALD, SAINT AND KING. 133

sought for. It may be that a contempt the Roman missionaries, weighed with the
for Italy and the South, which not un- Northmen conquerors in their dislike of,

naturally existed among the Northmen or rather, perhaps, apathetic reception

conquerors, influenced the invaders of of, these missionaries. At all events, the

ST. MATTHEW, FROM THE LINDI^FARNE (OR DURHAM) GOSPEL BOOK : circ. A.D. 7OO.
{British Museum).

Britain these of the conversion of the

against preachers conquerors of Britain
faith of Christ. No doubt these fearless was reserved for another school of teachers
Northmen cherished some respect for the altogether.
Britons who so stoutly and gallantly re The Engle king of Northumbria, after
sisted to the death their conquest; and his decisive victory at the Heavenfield
not improbably the intense dislike of (635), became the dominant power in the
the remnant of the British Christians to island. Oswald was one of those rare souls
 134 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [635-

who on the throne united the qualities of His first desire after restoring peace
a great king with those of a great saint. and quiet kingdom, was to make
in his

Among those kings who were in some the peoples of his broad realms Christians.
sense saints, but who in kingly qualities His thoughts at once turned to the old
were sadly deficient, Henry VI. is a loved home of lona, at that time, in the
notable example while in that rarer class
;
first half of the seventh century, in its

in which the true king and the genuine fullstrength and prosperity, the memory
saint are combined, king Alfred of England of Columba still green, and the enthusiasm
and St. Louis of France are conspicuous for true learning and missionary work as
instances. Oswald the Northumbrian, less yet undimmed in that great home of prayer.
known to the everyday student of history, Oswald sent to the monastery of Columba
ranks with these last true great ones ;
for a missionary bishop, who should or

indeed, in respectssome we owe to him a ganise and direct the Christian campaign
greater debt than even to the kingly Alfred, among his Engle peoples. Seghine, the fifth
loved of men, for Oswald must be regarded abbot in succession, to Columba, was then
as the first maker of Christian England. ruling over the great lona community and
It has been well said, that in Oswald a the many daughter-houses of Columba s
new conception of kingship began to blend famous foundation. The first choice of
itself with that of the warlike glory of lona seems to have been an unfortunate
his ancestors, the reckless and gallant sea- one. The monk Gorman, who was chosen
kings. Bede, whose picture of this hero- as missionary bishop whose name in an
saint possesses a singular charm, tells us uncertain tradition has been preserved to

how,
"

by reason of his constant habit us made but little way among Oswald s
of praying giving or thanks to the pagan subjects, and soon returned to his
Lord, he was wont, when he sat, to hold monastery, throwing up his difficult and
his hands
upturned upon his knees."
responsible charge. Nothing,"
"

he is said

During the long early exile which preceded to have declared in a council of the elders
his summons to the throne of his people, of his house, "could be made of the
his training and education among the Engles ; they were a race of untamable
monks of lona had given him that strong savages ;
their spirit was stubborn, even
love of religion which in after time coloured barbarous."

all works and days. Although a great

his As the fathers of Columba s house at
general and able strategist, and at the same length discussed the thorny question of
time a wise and patient ruler, his life was as the Engle mission, one of the monks,
devout as if he lived in the cloister ;
and Aidan, of whose early life we know
frequently half the night was spent by nothing, rose and spoke thus before his
this ancient Engle king in prayer. It is no brethren to the disheartened missionary :

wonder that such a rare soul possessed the "

It seems, my brother," he said,

"

your
key of hearts, and during his too short reign judgment of these ignorant peoples is too
attracted a general enthusiasm, reverence, hard. Your teaching has been too severe j

and love. you have expected too much at first ; you

635-1 THE COMING OF AIDAN. 135

have not, according to the apostolic York, in the southern part 01 Oswald s

counsel, offered them the milk of gentle

first wide dominion York, with ;
its imme
doctrine, so as by degrees to lead them to morial tradition, with its half-finished
the understanding and practice of more church, well-nigh, with the exception of
advanced and deeper commands." Aidan s James the Deacon s little church at
words strongly impressed his brother monks. Catterick, the only spot in the north
All at once turned to him, as the fittest where a few Christians
kept just still

of their number to undertake the difficult burning a feeble lamp of religious life.
work. He accepted the mission without He chose as his home, as the seat of the
delay ;
and receiving consecration as a bishopric of his vast diocese, where well-
bishop, betook himself to king Oswald in nigh all were pagans, a little barren island
Northumbria in the summer of the year to the north of the Tyne and Wear, some
635, just ten years after Paulinus had ten miles from Berwick on the Tweed.
arrived in the north with Edwin s queen Its utter solitude constituted its charm in
Ethelburga. the eyes of the Celtic monk. It was some
Of Paulinus mission, when Aidan came, two miles /from the mainland, from which
there were no visible traces in Northum at low water it could be reached on foot ;

bria neither churches nor schools, nor a only the sorriest crops
treeless, featureless ;

single Christian community. The whole could ever be raised on its barren soil ;

county was pagan the very footprints of

; constantly swept over by the cold, damp,
Paulinus had been obliterated before the North Sea winds. Perhaps its dreary like
lona teacher took up the work. Indeed ness to his own passionately loved lona,

Bede, whose sympathies were certainly where Columba had founded his famous
ever with Rome and her teachers, tells prayer-centre, influenced Aidan s choice of
us that in Bernicia, the northern part of Lindisfarne, known in after days as the Holy
the Northumbrian kingdom, until the Isle. From
melancholy spot Aidan
this
Cross was planted by Oswald just before and his companions, as they looked towards
the fight with Cadwallon in the Heaven- the south, could see the huge tower of
field, no one had ever seen a church, or Bamborough, built by the founder of Os
an altar, or any emblem of the Christian wald s dynasty, king Ida Bamborough,
faith. In the southern parts of the realm so well known later inmediaeval story as
of Oswald, it is probable,
however, that Joyeuse Garde
"

and in the far distance,

";

the mission of Paulinus was not completely with evening tide the lights of Oswald s
forgotten indeed, James the Deacon, the
;
favourite castle could be discerned, gleam

only companion of Paulinus whose name ing over the North Sea waves.
is
preserved, apparently never ceased from But it was probably only at rare inter
his quiet but noble work in the great missionary rested in
Catterick, a vals that

township in the Deira province. his desolate sea-washed home, for his
Aidan chose a strange home for himself labourson the mainland were incessant.
in that heathen land in which he hoped Something in Aidan s character and spirit
to plant his Master s faith. He passed by seems to have mightily touched the wild
136 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [650.

pagan Engles of the north, and to have when he wrote them down were still fresh

won them to listen reverently to his story and vivid in men s minds. It was far on
of the Cross and Redemption. Eloquence, in Aidan s career.
successor, king Oswald s

of course, in no small degree was his; but it Oswin, pained at seeing the loved old man
was not his eloquence which alone attracted ever performing his ceaseless rounds on
the rough Northumbrian Engle ;
it was foot,persuaded the devoted missionary to
his tender, sympathetic, self-sacrificing self accept from him a horse. The king chose
which touched them. Bede, who had his best steed, and gave it
splendidly
no love for Celtic monks, exhausts his caparisoned to Aidan, and for a time he

vocabulary when he writes of this Aidan ;

used it but being, as
;
Bede picturesquely
when he him, the father and the worshipper
"

tells us of his surpassing gentle calls

ness, piety, and self-restraint. The highest
and the lowest, the man-at-arms and the
poorest peasant, the king and the slave,
went and knelt down with passionate devo
tion at the feet of the Celtic missionary.
Those Celtic evangelists possessed in a
strange degree, never possessed since, the
of the poor," one day when he met a man
in deep poverty who asked for alms, Aidan
dismounted from his horse, and gave it all
harnessed as it was to the poor man. That
day Aidan dined with the king, who had
been told of his guest s reckless gift of his
horse and trappings. As they sat at meat

magic key of hearts. In all lands their together, the king said Lord Bishop, :
"

terrible austerities, their life-long asceticism, why did you give the horse I specially

their deep, intense sympathy with men, chose for your use to that beggar-man ?
and with those very passions and vices Had I not many a horse of less value, and
which they cursed with awful curses, but other goods I could have given you for
at the same time wept over with the alms ? Why
did you give that special
bitterest tears ;
all this won impulsive one away ? " "

O king," replied the saint,

men in that wild and lawless time, is a horse, which is after all
"

only the son

often enough wearied and stricken with of a mare, dearer to you than the man, who
the sore stress and struggle of that iron is the son of God ? "

And the king was

age of tumult and excess. Teachers like silent, and
thought over the words of
Aidan and Columba could see beauty in Aidan, what they signified, and what he
the fiercest and most cruel barbarian, and meant to teach him. After a time Oswin
had the rare power of evoking that spirit took off his sword, and throwing himself
of tenderness and love which ever lurks at the saint s feet, begged his pardon for

even in the darkest and most abandoned his words of remonstrance. "

Never more
hearts. shall I regret anything of mine that you
One of Bede s stories of this strange, give to the children of God." Then,
great man well illustrates the boundless singularly enough, at the kind and loving
character of his charities and his utter dis words of the Northumbrian king, the

regard of himself ;
and Bede, we must re bishop became very sad, and was noticed
member, was born about twenty-two years weeping. A companion of Aidan s in the

afterAidan s death, so that such stories royal hall asked his master the reason of
MAY THIS HAND NEVER PERISH!" (/. 139).
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [635651-
"

his great sadness. Aidan answered in the successor at Lindisfarne, a name of rare
Celtic tongue, which the king and his power in the north, was one of those who
thanes spoke not I know now the king had been with Aidan from the beginning.
"

will not live long never until now have

; Daily recruits came to him from the vast
I seen a monarch so humble. The nation is Irish monasteries. Monasteries and schools
not worthy of such a prince." And, alas ! were built under Aidan s direction in
his prophetic words were soon verified. various parts of Oswald s dominions, and

Though his monk biographer delights to the Engles, as a people, crowded to hear

give us, in his own graphic, picturesque the universally loved and admired Celtic

way, such curious instances as the scene 01 apostle and his followers. A network of
the giving away the king s horse above Christian fortresses by degrees covered the
related, of Aidan
passionate love for the
s land. The south and North
of Scotland

poor and destitute, the sorrowful and un umberland, Durham, Yorkshire, and even
cared-for, these rare scenes by no means farther afield, were becoming under these

fairly represent Aidan s really beautiful powerful influences rapidly Christian. King
life. He was eminently practical in his Oswald and the royal example seems to
usual ways of working, leaving nothing to have been largely followed by the Engle
chance or passing emotion. His charm of thanes endowed these numerous rising
manner, his zeal and devoted piety, his schools and monasteries with profuse gifts

great learning, attracted many scholars and of lands and property of various descrip
earnest and skilful missionaries, teachers, tions.

and preachers from Ireland, which at that We possess many details of the private life
time we know was the great centre of the led by this eminent saint of God. In the
learning and religious enterprise of west midst of his restless, work-filled hours of
ern Europe. His relations with the famous preaching, teaching, organising, he never
house of lona, close to the scenes of his neglected the constant habit of study.
labours, were most intimate. He began This intense love of learning was one of

by gathering round him a small band of the great characteristic features of Celtic

youths of rare and especial promise ;

monasticism. As a rule, Aidan, in his
several of these, by their splendid work in perpetual mission journeys through the
later amply
life, justified his choice of them, length and breadth of king Oswald s realm,
and showed how far-seeing in human travelled on foot. This habit of walk
character was this true apostle of the ing gave him facilities for entering into

north. conversation with all sorts and conditions

Among these loved pupils of his early of men. While they walked it was the
days were Chad and his brother Cedd, habit of Aidan and his companions tc
the unwearied evangelists of East and meditate on texts of Scripture or to recite
Middle England and Wilfrid, the most
;
Psalms ; they never might be idle.

famous, perhaps, of the northern church With two Northumbrian kings

of the

men, to whom Rome and her school in the famous missionary bishop was on ten
after years owed so much. Eata, too, his of affectionate intimacy, and occasionally,
635651-] WORK OF ST. AIDAN. 139

when he was at his Lindisfarne home, he As regards the teaching of Aidan and
would dine with the king, with whom the lona and Irish missionaries, in all real
the neighbouring fortress of Bamborough, was absolutely identical with
essentials this

built by king Ida, was ever a favourite the doctrine taught at Rome when Gregory

royal residence. Aidan had a church and the Great was pope, or at Canterbury
a bed-chamber hard by Bamborough. On when Augustine ruled as archbishop. The
these occasions, after sitting a short time differences between the Celtic and Roman
at table, Aidan would rise and retire in schools which were as time went on so
order to read with his brethren, or to sadly accentuated, and eventually caused,
" "

pray. Once, it was on a certain Easter or at least were used as pretexts for, the

Sunday, Aidan was with the king as he bitter dissensions between Celtic and Roman
dined. Among the German races these Christianity were after all trivial, and
invitations to the royal table were signs principally consisted in the date appointed
of the most marked distinction. silver A for keeping the solemn Easter Feast, and in
dish, filled with delicacies, was placed the curious difference in the tonsure of
before the king ; just then the officer to the monk and priest. Mass, for this was the
whom the charge of the royal alms was usual name by which the great service of
entrusted entered the dining-hall, and the Church was known,* was celebrated
told the king how a crowd of destitute with probably more in accordance
rites

folk were outside beseeching the king s with what is termed the Gallican than the
alms. King Oswald immediately gave Roman use ;
but the essentials of the
orders that the food, and the silver dish sacred service were absolutely the same,
which contained it, the latter broken in and the language used to express the
pieces, should be divided among these mysteries of the Eucharist was as familiar
poor folk. As the king stretched out his to the disciples of lona or Lindisfarne as
hand to give the order, Aidan seized it to the churchmen of Italy and Gaul. We
and cried, May this hand never perish
"

!
"

read in the beautiful biography of Columba,

Like other remarkable sayings of the saint, composed by Adamnan, abbot of lona,
his words were prophetic. One short within years of the death of Aidan, a
fifty

year after this royal feast at Bamborough, description of Columba s standing before "

Oswald was slain in the fatal fight at the altar and consecrating the sacred obla
Maserfield. The hand was severed from tion." At lona, in Columba s time, there
the mutilated body, and picked up on was however, a daily celebration, and
not,
the battle-field. It was subsequently en at Lindisfarne, at the close of the seventh
shrined in a silver casket and placed in century, Mass was only celebrated on
St. Peter s church, Bamborough and ; Sundays. No traces whatever as yet
Bede says, in day, it was still there
his appear in these Celtic churches of any
undecayed. Tradition loves to assert that worship of or special devotion towards the
this hand, preserved as a precious relic of
*
The full signification and derivation of this
the saint-king, remained undecayed for
term "on the word Mass,"
given in Excursus B,
is
centuries. at the end of the volume.
140 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651-

Virgin Mary. This remarkable cannot cult northern provinces between the Humber
be said, either, to have formed part of and the Forth, were divided, as we shall
Roman teaching in these early centuries. see, between Oswald s brother Oswiu and
The conventual rule laid down for his kinsman Oswin. Oswin ruled over the
the professed by the southern portion, Deira, including York
" "

religious great
Irish houses, by Columban at Luxeuil, by shire playing, however, little more than
;

Columba at lona, and Aidan at Lindis- the part of an under-king to Penda. But
farne, was most severe much more so than ; during this sad time the Christianity of
the rule of Benedict, which eventually, Aidan and Oswald remained the dominant
probably by reason of gentler precepts, its religion of Deira, and, watched over by
gradually supplanted it on this island, as Aidan, kept steadily winning its way.
well as on the continent of Europe. Of The Celtic missionary bishop was ten
the dress which Aidan habitually wore derly attached to this Oswin, and the
we some curious details in Bede s
possess friendship between them was ever un
history. While on his missionary journeys broken. Indeed Oswin, though not a
he wore sandals, and a thick woollen cu- "

great statesman or soldier like Oswald, or

or cloak
culla,"
in winter these garments
;
his kinsman who ruled in the north, was
were thicker, and a tunic was added. The evidently a most lovable prince. The
front of his head showed the Irish ample picture of his character has been reckoned
tonsure ; behind, the long hair flowed as one of Bede s best and most lifelike

down. portraits. In person he was tall and hand

The labours of Aidan in the north of some, affable in speech and courteous in
England lasted sixteen years eight years ;
behaviour to all sorts and conditions of
with Oswald at his right hand Oswald men, generally beloved and admired ;
from
his dearest friend, the magnificent king of many a distant province men of the noblest

Northumbria, the Emperor," as he has

"

birth came and asked to be thanes in the

been styled, of Britain, certainly the over hall of Oswin of Deira. His deep and un
lord of the largest and richest portion of ostentatious piety and fervent love for the
the island ;
and eight years after Oswald s doctrines of Christ, made him especially
defeat and death at the hands of the precious in the eyes of the saintly Aidan.
heathen Mercian, Penda, at Maserfield His premature death was a most melan
(Oswestry). The last eight years was, choly one ;
he was assassinated by the
perhaps, the more remarkable period, for orders of his jealous kinsman Oswiu, who
it was a period of stress and storm, of afterwards attained the loftiest position in
sorrow and desolation; and during this sad the island.

period of trial the work of Aidan stood. The foul murder of his beloved friend
The foundations of Christianity had been and monarch broke the saintly Aidan s
laid by him too strongly for persecution, heart. He was an old man, and the terrible

troubles, and the sword to uproot, or even news of the assassination of his king brought
to harm them. The attenuated and en on an illness which the worn-out old
feebled empire of Oswald, reduced to the labourer for God had not strength to fight
 DEATH OF ST. AIDAN. 141

against. Only twelve days after his friend That night so runs the story of Bede,

king Oswin s death the fatal sickness seized who wrote only a little more than fifty years
Aidan, who was staying in a village under after Aidan s death a shepherd boy, whose

the shadow of the royal castle of Barn- name in after years rang through Europe,
borough, hard by his holy house of Lin- was watching his sheep among the pastures
disfarne. The dying Aidan was too weak of Lammermoor ;
on a sudden he saw a
to be moved. His faithful friends, we read, long stream of light flashing through the

BAMROROUGH CASTLE.
(By permission of Charles P. MacCarthy, Esq.)

laid him on the ground, and erected a darkness of the night,* and in that dazzling
rough tent to shield him from the winds. trail of splendour imagined that he beheld a

Close by him was a little wooden church. crowd of heavenly beings descending to the
Men say that as he was dying he leant against earth. As he watched he saw them quickly
its buttress at the west end, and there, with reascend, and with them a spirit of sur
his head resting on the house of prayer passing brightness, whom they apparently
which he had built years ago in Oswald s had fetched from the earth. He roused his
lifetime, gave up his pure soul to God. companion shepherds, and related to them
The date has been preserved ;
it was the what he had seen. While we sleep," he
"

3ist of August, 651. The day of his death said,

"

we never think of the holy angels

is
fitly designated in the Calendar
"

The who never slumber. So to-night while I

rest of Aidan *
Qui es Aidant.
"

Probably a stream of meteors.

 142 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651-

was awake and watching, I saw a great Celtic speech, with which king Oswald was
company of these bright spirits
carrying perfectly acquainted, owing to his long
from earth to heaven the spirit of some residence during the years of his exile

holy man, who now is gazing at the glories at lona.

of the heavenly mansions and of Christ Great and eminent though Oswald of
the King." The next day the news came Northumbria was, he would have been
to Lammermoor that Aidan, the saint forgotten among the many kings and chiefs
of Lindisfarne, had entered into his rest. of that confused age of war and conquest,

Bede adds that it was this strange vision of had it not been for the undying work of
"

the passing of Aidan

"

which induced the his friend and adviser, Aidan. Who now,
shepherd boy, Cuthbert, to enter upon that save a few Anglo-Saxon students, cares to
tireless career of devotion, toil, and prayer remember such names as Penda of Mercia
which in after years so powerfully in or Edwin of Northumbria ? And yet these
fluenced the life of that eventful age which Northmen in their day ruled over a realm
witnessed the building up the Church of as great, and exercised an influence as far-

our fathers. whose name is still

reaching as did Oswald,
Aidan was interred in his own holy treasured and honoured in our national
house of Lindisfarne. Thirteen years later, annals, after some 1,250 years, as one of

when bishop Colman, his successor, after the chief makers of our England.
the Council of Whitby left Lindisfarne To Oswald belongs the supreme merit
for ever, he took with him to lona some of having discerned the strange and mighty
of the bones of Aidan. In 875 the rest power of the Celtic church. There was
of his remains were placed in the coffin of naturally an antipathy on the part of the
St. Cuthbert, when the Danes threatened Engle and Saxon princes, even when they
the safety of Lindisfarne, and they accom were irresistibly drawn to the story of
panied the relics of Cuthbert in their Christianity, to take as their guides and
long wanderings. as the teachers of their peoples men who
In tracing Aidan s later career, we have belonged to the proscribed and hated Celtic
anticipated somewhat. King Oswald s event race, whom they had driven out of the
ful reign lasted scarcely eight years. Until fairest parts of Britain. That Oswald rose
Aidan acquired perfect familiarity with the superior to national antipathy, and
this

Engle dialect, it seems to have been no placed himself and his nation unreservedly

unusual thing for the king to be present in the hands of the hated Celt, will ever be his

at Aidan s impassioned discourses on the title to honour in England. The immediate

Christian faith, and with his own result of this we have seen in the rapid
lips to change
render in "

English
"

to the great officers which, after the

coming of Aidan and his
of his court, his earls and thanes, the companions, passed over Northumbria. It

burning, eloquent words of his friend was all accomplished in eight short years ;

and teacher, the apostle of his people ;

but the work, rapidly though it was carried
Aidan during the earlier part of his through, was an enduring one, and the work
ministry preferring to speak in the soft done by Aidan and his lona friends has
65 -]
SECRET OF THE CELTIC TEACHERS. 143

endured the testing stress of time and it can only be at best a happy guess. The
The Christianity of the Engles sources of their marvellous success must ever
change.
the Englishmen was an accomplished remain hidden, for the Celtic church as

fact before Oswald s death, which happened represented so faithfully by the two great
only eight years after the coming
of Aidan. missionaries, Columba of lona and Colum-
The secret of the marvellous and endur ban of Luxeuil ; by Gall in Switzerland ;

ing success of the lona Celtic teachers of by Aidan in Northumbria by the

;

Christianity among the North-folk, and the abbots and teachers of such mighty com

comparative failure of Rome among the munities as Moville and Bangor in Ireland
self-same peoples, can only be partially has completely disappeared.

guessed. Rome remains among us the ; Celtic man of God, the missionary
The
sources of her enduring strength and appa of the type of Columba and Aidan, exer

rently undying power, also her weaknesses cised evidently a peculiar fascination over
and faults, are all before us to-day. She the child-like minds of the North-folk, fresh
has changed but little, save perhaps that from their wild, uncultured life among the
her policy has accentuated her weaknesses fiords of Scandinavia and the forests of

and faults since the days of Ethelbert of northern Germany. These half-savage
Kent and Edwin of Northumbria. Augus North-folk, though often cruel and vengeful,
tine and Paulinus, under other names, are often swayed hither and thither by fatal

with us still. Pope Gregory the Great s passions, were in many ways generous
successor, strangely little altered, issues and noble they were simple, untaught
;

his wise or foolish decrees from the same children, waiting for someone to lead them
imperial centre. Changeless in the midst and guide them into the better way.
of change, deathless when all around seems On these untutored hearts the cold and

dying, Rome lives on as it did aforetime, calculating, highly cultured Italians, austere
now then a mighty,
as if not the mightiest, and pure, but often self-seeking and proud,
power in our world. To argue, then, on made but little impression. The stateliness

the causes which were at work in the of their worship, their splendid organisa
seventh century and which only allowed tion, their love for order and obedience,
Rome a partial success, is easy : for Rome, failed to touch the Northman s heart.
little changed, is with us now. The beauty of holiness had to be pre
But to speak with anything like absolute sented in another form, before these un
certainty of the causes which led to the taught children of the North for they
strange, the perfect, the enduring success were little more could recognise its power
of the Celt in the person of Aidan and and desirableness.
the lona men, in the evangelisation of the Just what Augustine and Paulinus and
Engles the Englishmen is another their followers lacked, Columba and
matter. It is it must remain one of Aidan and the Celtic school of teachers
the secrets of history. may guess We ; possessed. The ineffable and tireless
and though probably our guess may be a tenderness, the deep and wide human
happy one, may even touch the truth, yet sympathy of the Irish and Scottish
 144 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651-

preachers, at once found the hearts or In addition to the mighty effect produced

Engle and Saxon. That mighty, tender by these rare gifts and graces, the king,
love kindled by the love of the Crucified, the chieftain, the thane, as they grew in
which burned in the hearts of men like knowledge and experience, became con
Aidan,* a love which flowed over the sciousthat these devoted and earnest,
souls of men to all that the Crucified these self-denying and generous men, were
made beasts of the field and birds of the no mere enthusiastic talkers, but possessed
air a love which kinship and
claimed vast stores of learning and knowledge that ;

brotherhood with all things created, a love their homes in Ireland and Scotland were
which understood and chose to share the world-renowned centres of learning, whither
lot of the poor, the weak, the wretched ;
resorted crowds of disciples, even from
this it was which comforted so many those far Southern seats of wealth and
stricken souls with boundless sympathy.
its culture which were the object at once of
Their awful severity towards all wrong the cupidity and wonder of all Northmen.
doing, their terrible sternness, alternated It seems to us sad that this wonderful

with this deep tenderness in its number Celtic Christianity should so soon have
took the impressionable
less forms, literally
disappeared, giving place to another form
hearts of these North-folk by storm; and of our Master s religion in which the old
the conquest of hearts was completed by Celtic fervour and passionate enthusiasm
the contrast which the Celtic preachers was wanting. For so it was to be and
presented in their own lives, coloured with doubtless it was well. Yet while in the
rigid asceticism, prolonged fasting, cruel long roll of
great churchmen many names
penances, countless vigils, long night occur to us names such as Boniface,
watches, ceaseless prayer. The Celtic Alcuin, Dunstan, Anselm, Bernard, Fran
missionaries would have naught to do with cis, Dominic which in different lands
land or gold or honours. They wanted have played a more or less noble part in
nothing, asked for nothing, but the hearts the world s history, and shown themselves
of the men of war, to they told whom in various ways
"

lovers of men,"
none
the story which they accepted themselves since the Celtic men of God seem to have
with a passionate belief the story of the possessed in equal degree that key to
cross and the passion of the Christ, and His human hearts which Columba, Aidan, and
blessed work of redemption among men. their disciples used to such good purpose
* Dean Church. and such wonderful effect.
 DORCHESTER ABBEY. Photo: H. W. Taunt, Oxford.

CHAPTER VIII.

WORK OF THE CELTIC MISSIONARIES IN ENGLAND.

Wessex Influence of Oswald s Marriage upon the King of Wessex Bishop Birinus King Sigebert of
East Anglia Slow Progress of Christianity, and Fresh Impulse again given by Celtic Preachers
Fursey His Poetic Visions, and their Influence upon the Doctrine of Purgatory Gradual Spread
of Christianity in East Anglia In Spite of Defeat by Penda Mercia under Penda The Christian
and Pagan Champions meet Death of Oswald Reverence for his Memory in England Defeat
and Death of Penda The East Saxons Their Evangelisation also due to Celtic Missionaries
after Roman Failure Cedd Summary of the Evangelistic Work of the Roman and Celtic
Missionaries.

historian ever loves to linger information of that great division of the

THE over the

and to put
life of a favourite hero,
off the recital of the
island known as Wessex, and her early

story of conquest and settlement. Wessex,

day when the grave closed over one the country of the West Saxons, ex
whom for a time his pen has clothed tended from the Thames to the Severn,
with flesh and blood. Before telling from the little kingdom of Kent to the
of that dread day which finished all too mountains of Wales, where the Britons
soon the life and reign of Oswald, just a had entrenched themselves and for a ;

few lines must be devoted to his marriage, .

long period after its complete conquest
which, as far as we can see through the by the Northmen exercised comparatively
mists of an age which possesses only scant little influence in Britain, owing to the

records of this portion of his life s story, perpetual dissensions and bloody wars
had far-reaching consequences. Bede, our among its own especial tribal chiefs and
unerring guide for this
period, well-nigh kings. During much of this dark period it

us here. He evidently had no detailed

fails remained pagan ;
no Christian influences
J
146 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [634-

seem to have penetrated into what is now was broken by the dissensions which arose
known as Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, between rival chiefs of the royal line of

Somerset, Wilts, and Gloucestershire, Cerdic. These prevented this powerful

which roughly made up that broad tract and widely extended from exercising
tribe
of England then known as Wessex. the influence in Britain which their num
Montalembert s words on the brighter bers and the vast extent of the country
day which at last dawned on this part appropriated by them, generally known
of England deserve to be quoted. In as Wessex, would naturally have given

tensely Roman, more or less opposed to to the West Saxons. Successively, Kent,
every Christian influence which had not East Anglia, and then, to a still greater
its source in Rome, he yet writes as follows degree, Northumbria, we have seen oc
of Wessex :
"

From the cloister of Lindis- cupying the principal place and exercising
farne, and the heart of those districts in a general supremacy in the island ;
but
which the popularity of ascetic pontiffs Wessex never during this period came to
such as Aidan, and martyr kings such as the front.
Oswald and Oswin, took day by day a In the reign of Oswald (634), a king
deeper root, Northumbrian Christianity of the Odin-descended line of Cerdic,
spread over the southern kingdoms. . . .
Cynegils, was recognised by his fellow
What is distinctly visible is the influence Saxon tribesmen as king over a large
of Celtic priests and missionaries, every portion at least of Wessex. About this
where replacing or seconding the Roman time, Bede tells us how a missionary
missionaries, and reaching districts which named Birinus, about whose nationality
their predecessors had never been able to and previous history nothing is known,
enter. The stream of the divine word under a commission from Pope Honorius
thus extended itself from north to south, I.,landed in Hampshire, with the view of
and its slow but certain course reached in sowing the seed of life in districts of
succession the peoples of the Heptarchy.
all Britain where no Christian preacher had
Life and light infused themselves through as yet penetrated. Birinus found Hamp
all, and everywhere, along with the im shire entirely pagan, and remained in these

maculate sacrifice, the hymns of a people parts. King Cynegils consented to receive
freed from the yoke of idolatry rose to baptism. Oswald, the saint-king of North
wards the living God." * He then describes umbria, appears, however, to have exercised
what he called the progress of the Celtic considerable influence in the matter of this

monks, trained in the school of the great conversion of the king of Wessex. Prob

Columba, into the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ably to extend the Northumbrian power
south of the ffumber. in the south of the island, Oswald asked
For some two centuries after the early for and obtained the hand of the daughter
settlements of the West Saxons in the of Cynegils of Wessex in marriage. The
south of the island, the strength of Wessex great Northumbrian came south, and
before his marriage witnessed the baptism
"Monks of the West." of his future father-in-law, the Wessex
633-1
CHRISTIANITY IN WESSEX 147

king, at a place named Dorchester, near Wessex king. But Christianity, in spite
the modern Abingdon, a few miles from of all the labours of Birinus, made but a
Oxford". Oswald and Cynegils settled feeble lodgment at first in this part of
Birinus as bishop at Dorchester, where the Britain ;
for Kenwald, the son and successor
ancient abbey church of St. Peter and St. of Cynegils, was a pagan, and only after a
Paul occupies the traditional spot which period of exile into which the army of the
witnessed the meeting of Oswald and his heathen Penda of Mercia had driven him,
father-in-law, and the solemn baptism of did he renounce the worship of Woden.
the latter, the king of Wessex, from whom This Kenwald was reinstated as king in
the present Royal House of England is 648, and then Christianity made a fresh
lineally descended. start in Wessex, owing to the fervid
From Dorchester as his centre, Birinus preaching of a Celtic missionary from Ire
went up and down among the West Saxons, land, a Frank named Agilbert, who became
preaching and baptising, "calling many in the year 650 the bishop of the West
people to the Lord," in Bede s quaint lan Saxon peoples.
guage, building and consecrating churches, These few bare facts are all that is

and in the end was laid to rest in this same
Dorchester. But Bede only gives us this
bare summary of ,his work no detailed
;
information was procurable in his day not
a single feature of his successes or failures,
save the baptism of Cynegils under the
influence of Oswald, is known to us. The
known of Christianity in that great portion
<
of our island which lay between Kent and
the Severn, in the first half of the seventh
; century. We
thus gather that only a very
partial conversion of the pagan conquerors
took place, and that what little was done
was mainly owing to Oswald s influence

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle just mentions the in the first place, while subsequently the
fact that in the year 636 king Cwichelm, work was taken up by missionaries from
son of Cynegils, was baptised at Dorches the Celtic church in Ireland.

ter, and how in 639 Birinus baptised king

Cuthred, a son of Cwichelm, at the same Engle or Angle tribes occupied the eastern
place. counties of Britain, who were closely allied
Any direct commission from Pope by Engles of Northum
tribal ties to the

Honorius to Birinus seems a little doubtful, bria on the north, and to the Engles of
for no communication between Birinus and Mercia on the west. The supremacy over
Canterbury, the headquarters of the Roman the extensive tract of the island usually

mission, seems ever to have existed. This spoken of as East Anglia, after the death
would surely have been the case had of the East Engle king, Redwald, who in

Birinus been commissioned by Rome, as his lifetime an acknowledged

exercised
Rome and Canterbury were in constant supremacy over the Mercian Engles, was
communication. It is more probable that constantly a matter of dispute between the
the attempt to Christianise Wessex was Engle kings of Northumbria and Mercia,
the direct work of Oswald of Northumbria, who in turn claimed the over-lordship of

after his alliance with the daughter of the East Anglia.

148 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [633-

Wehave already noticed Redwald s un of the island. This Irish monk, whose name
usual procedure in the question of religion, was Fursey, was assisted by several com
and how he set up an altar to Christ by panions, his kinsmen and pupils. They
the side of the altars of Woden and Thor. came to East Anglia about A.D. 633. The
Edwin s exile and
This was in the days of usual enthusiasm for the new faith was
Paulinus residence at Redwald s court, kindled by this Irishman and his fellow-
about the year 617. Under Edwin and missionaries, and the rapid conversion of
Northumbrian influence, Redwald s son the eastern Engles was largely due to
and successor, Eorpwald, became a Christian their work and example. Their head
convert, but he failed to carry his East quarters were fixed on the site of the

Engle people with him in his adoption or modern Burgh Castle in Suffolk, where
Christianity, and by a domestic conspiracy their community was endowed by king

he was killedin 628. His half-brother Sigebert s bounty with a large estate, sur
Sigebert became king in his room. Sige- rounded with woods and near to the sea.
bert had long been an exile from his Here the Irish monk erected a great
country, and had resided in Gaul. During monastery, which was soon afterwards,
his sojourn the Franks, Sigebert
among according to Bede, adorned with more
had become an earnest Christian convert, stately buildings and further endowed.
and had devoted himself to letters. He is This great religious house became the
known as Sigebert the Learned. On his centre and mother-house of various other
return to East Anglia, in 630-631, he monastic foundations in the eastern
was accompanied by a devoted and earnest counties great houses of prayer and
Burgundian bishop named Felix, who learning which revered Fursey as their
received much assistance from Canterbury founder. They were mostly double com
and its flourishing monastic schools. Bede munities of monks and nuns, according to
writes of this Felix as "

a pious cultivator the Celtic usage. Fursey subsequentl;

of the spiritual field,"
and speaking of his retired from East
Anglia, apparent!
episcopate of seventeen years as a time hopelessly dispirited at the success of the
full of happiness for the Christian cause, heathen Penda of Mercia. hear We
dwells on the good omen of his name, him, however, again in Gaul, where he
"Felix."
Sigebert settled this Felix at founded the monastery of Lagny, a small
Dunwich, a city now swept away by the town on the Marne, a few miles north of
encroachment of the North Sea. Paris. He died in the year 650. In Gaul
The king and the bishop made some his name is venerated as one of that

progress in Christianising the Engles of

"

goodly fellowship
"

which took up and

the eastern counties. But the great im developed the vast, many-sided work of
pulse towards their conversion was given that noblest of the noble band of Irish

by the arrival of one of those devoted missionaries the saintly Columban.

Celtic missionaries from Ireland, whose The close of king Sigebert s career was
enthusiasm was the principal agent in the remarkable. He was the first example
conversion of the North-folk in most parts among the Anglo-Saxons of a king aban-
 633-1
CHRISTIANITY IN EAST ANGLIA. 149

doning his great position as a sovereign chiefs, aware of the old skill in war of their

and entering the cloister. But his end cloistered king, Sigebert, appealed to his

was not that peaceful quiet one of which he patriotism, and induced him to leave his
dreamed. That defender of the old pagan cell and to lead their army against the

"THE KING-MONK FELL IN THE ROUT OF HIS OLD EAST ANGLIAN SUBJECTS."

I religion of theNorthmen, Penda king of dreaded Penda and the Mercian host. He
I
Mercia, whose restless ambition and deter- arm himself with his old sword,
refused to
I mined opposition to Christianity had made but with a wooden staff he guided the
I him so long a terror to Northumbria, was campaign. It was, however, in vain to
I resolved to bring his East Anglian kins- strive with the more numerous and
I men under his rule he invaded and harried
; powerful Mercian forces, and the king-
I the eastern counties. The East Anglian monk, with his staff in his hand, fell
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [633-

in the rout of his old East Anglian angelic guides bade him look back upon
subjects. the world he had left, and there he saw a

Fursey (Fursseus), the Irish

missionary mighty fire. They told him it was the fire

monk, is celebrated, however, among the which would consume the world, the fire

famous early makers of Christian England which would try every man according to
for something more than a successful the merits of his work. In this awful fire

career among a heathen people as a fervid Fursey was allowed to see the tormented
teacher of the better way. The stranger "

souls of men of men who were under

on the dank marshy shores of the oozy chastisement, yet not lost. Being after
Yare, contemplating the lichen-encrusted wards restored to the body, for the rest of
ruins of the Roman his life he bore upon his shoulder and jaw
camp, Burgh Castle or
Gariononum, scarcely supposes that those the mark of the fire which he had felt in

grey walls once enclosed the cell of an

his disembodied the flesh showing
soul,

anchorite destined to exercise a mighty what the soul had suffered. Bede con
influence upon the dogma and genius of cludes his curious recital, of which we have
Roman Christendom. This was the Mile only given a brief summary, with these
sian Scot Fursaeus (Fursey), who, received vivid words An ancient brother of our
"

in East Anglia by king Sigebert, there monastery [he is

speaking of Jarrow] is still

became enwrapped in the trances which living who is wontto declare that a very
disclosed the secrets of the world beyond sincere and religious man told him that he
the grave. . . . Fursasus kindled the had seen Fursey himself in the province of
spark which occasioned the first
. . . the East Angles, and heard these visions
of the metrical compositions, from whose from his mouth, adding that, though it
combinations centuries later the Divina was most sharp winter weather and
in the

Commedia of Dante arose."* a hard frost, and the man was sitting in a
To the account of this vision, or rather thin garment when he related it, yet he
visions, for hewhat took place in
relates sweated as if he had been in the greatest

two of these remarkable trances, Bede heat of summer, either through excessive
devoted one of the longest chapters in the fear or spiritual consolation."

third book of his history. He was thought The visions by Bede of the
related

worthy, said our great Anglo-Saxon chron
icler, to see a vision from God from even
ing the cock crowed he was permitted
till
to see a choir of angels, and to hear the
Irish Fursey, deservedlyhonoured as trie:
; Apostle of East Anglia, have been dwelt
upon at some length here, not because of
their literary interest as being the first of

praises which are sung in heaven ;

he saw similar pieces which suggested the great
not only the joys of the blessed, but the poem of Dante, but because it was the first
conflicts of evil spirits for the souls of men recorded legend of those dreams of the
who had departed this life. In his trance, night dreamed by Celtic and Saxon recluses,
when he had been lifted up on high, his which instigated the members of monastic
communities, founded in this period mainly
* s "Normandy and Celtic (Irish) monks in different parts of
Palgrave England." by
633] THE VISIONS OF FURSEY.
Europe, to agree upon periodical com parts altogether. King Anna was a devout

memorations enabling them to join in Christian, and he is remarkable in the

common prayer for the repose of the dead Christian story of England chiefly for the
under chastisement, but not lost." The
"

splendid zeal for monasticism shown by

earliest community which seems to have the princesses of his house. We shall

work
practised this of faith and charity meet them and their works later on.
were the monks of St. Gall, that great Anna, who was little more than an under-
Swiss religious house founded by the well- king in the supremacy of Penda of Mercia,
known companion of Columba, St. Gall,
the contemporary and probably the friend
BRITAIN.
of Fursey. The Feast of All Souls, formally
A.D. 642-655.
instituted in the eleventh century, and the
mediaeval developments of the doctrine of

Purgatory, which was fraught with such

momentous consequences in the story of
the Reformation, may fairly be referred to
those strange visions of the night,* of which
the dream of the Irishman Fursey was
the earliest and the most remarkable.
After the crushing defeat and the death
of Sigebert, a kinsman of the slain monk-
king was chosen as the East Anglian king ;

he possessed the singular name of Anna.

As an independent Engle power East Anglia
had ceased to But the quiet in
exist.

fluence of Dunwich, and the

Felix at

strange magnetic power of Fursey and his PENDA S DOMINIONS.

companion, had laid the foundations of
Christianity in the eastern counties too perished in one of Penda s ceaseless raids

firmly to be uprooted by a Mercian harry in the year 654.

ing, however cruel and devastating and ;

paganism gradually faded away in these Mercia may be understood generally to

include the Midland counties of England.
* We
have already recorded the terrible austerities
of these devoted Celtic monks, who carried the
Its conquerors belonged to the Engle stock.
practice of fasting to the extent of actual semi-
It embraced roughly all the country that
starvation, which too often left them a helpless lies between the Thames, the Humber, and
prey to the pestilences so common in those days.
the Severn. But under its supremacy were
Modern medical science has established that such
a statebodily inanition frequently causes
of included large districts mainly inhabited
semi-delirious visions of the mind and it is of ;
by West Saxon tribes, notably in the
interest to trace, as we may perhaps legitimately
south-west parts of Mercia. The exact date
do, the rise of an error to the ascetic excesses of
these saints of the early ages. of the earlier conquests of the Engles in
152 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [626-653.

the Midlands is uncertain. It was not champion of the old Northmen s religion
until the accession of the famous Penda, in the island. The prop and sword of
"

in 626, that Mercia became a formidable heathenism, as he has been styled, his name
power in the island, and entered into com was long a terror to the inmates of cell
petition with Northumbria for the over- and minster in every Christianised district.
lordship of the widely extended Engle There is a sort of weird grandeur in the
career of one who in his time slew five

kings, and who seemed as irresistible as

*
destiny."

For the first half of the eventful seventh

century, while Christianity was gradually

making progress with rapidity in York
shire and in the district north of the
Humber, slowly in the southern and
western counties, fitfully in the eastern

portion of the island the whole of the

Midlands remained pagan. No missionary
preacher during period appears to
this
have penetrated into the broad lands ruled
over by the iron hand of the heathen
Penda. Only in the last years of the old

pagan warrior do we discern any signs of

change. His son, Peada, whom he had
associated with himself in the government,
and who, appointed by his father, was
reigning about the middle of the century
over the Middle Engles as under-king,
wished to marry the daughter of the
ST. CUTHBERT, WITH HEAD OF OSWALD. Christian king of Northumbria, and, mainly
(St. Mary s, Oxford.)
for love of the princess Alchfleda, adopted
tribes. Penda was already fifty years of age the faith of the Northumbrian royal house.
when he became His predecessors
king. This marriage eventually led to the intrc
Crida and Wibba, were kings in Mercia duction of Christianity into the Midlam
before him, but acknowledged the over- the great division of Britain known
lordship, first of Ethelred of Kent, and Mercia. Peada brought the Princess Alch
afterwards of Redwald of East Anglia. fleda into Penda s realm in the
year 653.
Penda was evidently a man of no ordinary We now return again to Northumbriz
genius ;
he seems to have welded the the home of real life and energy in
various Engle tribes of the Midlands into one new in and to its
Christianity Britain,
powerful kingdom, and for thirty years noble sovereign, king Oswald. The short
from 626 to to 655 was the representative * Prof.
Bright.
626-653.] OSWALD AND PENDA. 153

digression which has interrupted the had adopted the new religion of Christ as
narrative of the great work of Aidan of preached with fervour and enthusiasm
Lindisfarne, Oswald
s friend, was necessary by Aidan Penda and the Middle and
;

in order that the progress of the religion Western Engles clung with bitter despera
of the Cross in the other great Engle and tion to the gods of their forefathers.
Saxon kingdoms in the island might be Penda preferred Woden to Christ, and

Photo : A. H. Pitcher; Gloucester.

ST. OSWALD S PRIORY, GLOUCESTER.

related, and the influence which North- constituted himself the champion of the
umbria exercised in this work of conver war-god of the pagan Norsemen.
sion understood^ Oswald
beneficent reign
s The immediate cause of dispute which
of eight years was prematurely brought to led to the fatal war seems to have been the
a close owing to the bitter jealousy for supremacy over East Anglia, which was
supremacy between the Northumbrian and coveted alike by Oswald and Penda. The
Mercian divisions of the great Engle two Engle kings, both in their several
family. As far we can see into that remote ways so famous in the annals of this

age, these jealousies were accentuated by age, met in deadly combat at Maserfield
the religious inclinations of the rival in the year 642 ;
the scene of the battle is

houses. Oswald and the Northern Engles a disputed point. It is generally supposed
 154 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [642.

that the modern town of Oswestry the head of St. Oswald in his arms.
marks the scene of Oswald s defeat About thirty years after the fight at Maser-
and death, and the familiar name of field,Osthryd, a queen of the Mercians,
Oswestry Oswald s tree still commemor wife to a son and successor of Penda, king
ates the beloved Christian hero. The Ethelred, removed the bones of her uncle
Northumbrian king was outnumbered, and, presumably the rest of the hero s
hemmed in by armed foes, fell, fighting remains to the great Lincolnshire abbey
valiantly to the last. Bede lovingly dwells of Bardney.
on the beautiful tradition which relates A romantic story is related by Bede
how Oswald died praying for his soldiers in reference to these sainted relics. When
falling round him. His last words were : the waggon containing the venerable bones
"

May God save their souls." of the great king, sent by queen Osthryd,
When
the mutilated body of the dead arrived at Bardney, the monks, still
king was brought to Pen da, the savage actuated by the old Mercian jealousy of

worshipper of Woden decreed its further the Northumbrian sovereign, refused to

dismemberment. The head and hands receive the remains ;
the waggon with its

were struck off and fixed on stakes, and sacred charge was left outside the monastery
thus exposed for a whole year, till his gates. That night the monks saw a pillar
brother Oswiu rescued the sad remains. of light blazing above the waggon, visible
The hero s head was then carried to to all the country-side. In the morning,
Lindisfarne and reverently interred by struck by the heavenly portent, they
Aidan there ;
the hands one of them, the eagerly opened their doors, washed the
right hand, it will be remembered, had bones with all reverence, placed them in a

been blessed by St. Aidan after the per loculus, or chest, and hung over the chest
formance of an extraordinary charitable the gold and purple banner of the
act were enshrined in a silver casket and Northumbrian king, which the days of in

placed in St. Peter s church on the hispower and grandeur had been carried
summit of the rock of Bamborough. The before Oswald.
"

blessed
"

hand, according to a widespread The hallowed body was not, how

tradition, remained for centuries white and ever, allowed to rest in peace, for in 909
uncorrupted. The head of the saint-king St. Oswald s remains, or at least the
was disinterred u
in the year 875, and placed Bardney portion of them, were brought
"

within the coffin of St. Cuthbert. William by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred, lady
of Malmesbury relates how in Durham of the Mercians, to Gloucester, where
Cathedral the tomb of St. Cuthbert was she built a small priory to the memory of
opened, and the head of Oswald, king and Oswald. Traditionally Oswald now sleeps
martyr, was found between the saint-bishop s where Ethelfleda laid him, beneath tht

arms. Hence the common representation shadow of the proud cathedral

of St. Oswald, as, for instance, on the north Gloucester. The
spot at Oswestry where
side of the steeple of St. Mary s, Oxford, the king to whom the introduction of
where St. Cuthbert is represented as holding Celtic Christianity in Britain is mainly
642651-] OSWALD S DEFEAT AND DEATH. 155

owing was reported to have fallen, was East Anglia and the whole of the centre

long the object of many a pious pilgrim ot the island was now directly under the

age and the grass stained with his blood

;
Mercian sway. The power of Kent and
was reputed to be greener and fairer than itsJutish king was insignificant. Wessex

any other grass. was not united and for the time Northum-
;

All this may seem childish all this bria, from the Humber to the Forth, was
reverence exaggerated we may wonder ; apparently at the mercy of the pagan
now at the number of churches and abbeys victor of the Maserfield. It seemed at
named after Oswald ;
the respect and first as though the cause of Christianity in
regard for long years paid to his name in Britain was doomed, now that its great
distant foreign lands may excite our won defender was defeated and slain, now that
der. age was the age of the
But this the formidable champion of the gods of
childhood of the great English people as ;
the old Northmen had triumphed so sig

yet they were untutored, uncultured, in nally. Even the diminished kingdom of
some respects unspoiled. To the Engle in Northumbria split into two parts ;
the
the days of Oswald and Aidan, Christianity northern division, the old realm of
was indeed a revelation with the fresh bloom Bernicia, and much of the Scottish low
of God s heaven on it, before it vanished lands accepting Oswiu, the brother of the
under the touch of men s hands. They slain Oswald, as king ;
the southern
saw miracle and sign and portent in the portion of Deira, which included York
everyday processes of Nature. They felt shire, choosing as its sovereign Oswin, a
the Christ of whom Aidan and Oswald told kinsman of the fallen Oswald, one of the
them, around them, about them, ever near old royal stock of Deira. The new king
them, and they honoured and loved the was great-nephew of ^Ella, the original

king who gave them Aidan and the beauti conqueror of Deira, his father being Osric,
ful faith of Christ with a passionate, perhaps the pagan king who had reigned for one
with an unreasoning, devotion. But can disastrous year after the fall of Edwin at

we find fault with them and their cult of Hatfield. Over this southern portion of
their saintly hero -king ? Such hero- the once - powerful
kingdom of Oswald^
worship surely refines and elevates the Penda exercised for some years the
people who pay it and we, in a different
; supreme authority, Oswin being little
way perhaps from them, shall do well to more than his under-king. The north,,
treasure with a reverent regard the where the Mercian authority was never ac
memory of this man, one of the greatest knowledged, year by year Penda harassed
of the makers of England the memory of by continual and desolating forays. This
the man whom Bede well and truly calls state of things continued for about eight
the loved of But, strange to
"

God."
years (from 642 to 651-2).
The immediate result ot the battle of say, Oswald s distracted realm clung all the

the Maserfield (Oswestry) and the death of while firmly to the teaching of the Cross-
the hero-king Oswald, was the supremacy This was, no doubt, largely owing to the
of Penda, king of Mercia, in Britain. presence and unwearied enthusiasm of
1 56 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651-

Aidan, who was the personal friend and decisive battle went against him. The
loved teacher of Oswin, one of the two words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
in their sharp, stern language tell the
sovereigns.
At the end of these eight years, Oswiu, story of the
great pagan rout tersely
the king of the northern portion of but In the year 655 king
effectively.
"

Oswald s kingdom, who eventually restored Oswy (Oswiu) slew king Penda at Win-
the fallen grandeur and power of North- widfield [Winwaed was a small river near

umbria, treacherously assassinated (651) Leeds] and thirty men of royal race with

Oswin of Deira, Aidan s friend, and again him, and some of them were kings, and
united the northern and southern provinces. the Mercians became Christians and . . .

Already, in the picture of Aidan s life, this Peada (the Christian), the son of Penda,
dark crime has been alluded to, and the succeeded to the kingdom of the Mer
death of the broken-hearted Aidan as the A
verse of an old battle-song of
cians."

immediate consequence has been related. the conquerors has been preserved to us
This murder of the popular and well-loved
"

In the river Winwaed is avenged the slaughter of

Deiran king Oswin, the one dark spot
is
Anna,
in the brilliant and useful career of Oswiu. The slaughter of the Kings Sigberht and
No apologist has been found for the Ecgrice,
*
The slaughter of the Kings Oswald and Edwin."
northern king here, although historians
love to dwell on the splendour and use It was during the
last four or five years of

fulness of the subsequent career of this Penda reign that a permanent Christian
s

Oswiu. settlement was established in Essex and

The union of Northumbria and the great Middlesex among the Northmen conquerors
abilities of itsking gradually restored the known as East Saxons. It is strange that
old influence of the Northern Engles in East the great capital of the world-wide empire
Anglia. was to put an end to this fast-
It afterwards to be won by these Saxon and

growing influence of the Northern Engles, Engle peoples, whose early fortunes and
that king Penda determined to strike a slow conversion to Christianity in our
decisive blow, which should crush the rising island we have been relating London,
power of Oswiu and Northumbria. But fellwithin the limits of the territory of
it was Penda s last effort. The heathen the most undistinguished of the North
warrior was growing very old. His son and men invaders. The East Saxon in his

under-king, Peada, had married Oswiu s narrow territory, well-nigh entirely hem
daughter, the princess Alchfleda, and had med in by Jute and Engle, never in this
embraced Christianity. The pagan influence early story of England played an influenti<
in the heart of the Mercian country was thus part. In the
blush of his early suc
first

undermined. Nevertheless Penda s array cesses, Augustine, with the aid of his faithful
which he led against the Northern Engles *
Anna, Sigberht (Sigebert) and Ecgrice were
was a formidable one Christian Kings of East Anglia Oswald and Edwin
thirty mighty ;

were the two well-known Northumbrian monarchs,

earldomen and thanes rallied round the
who fell before Penda at the battles of Hatfield and
doughty champion of Woden. But the the Maserfield.
CELTIC MISSIONARY PREACHING.
J58 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [653-

friend Ethelbert, the Jutish king of Kent, It has been related how in the last years
established Mellitus as missionary bishop of Penda, the pagan Mercian conqueror,
in Essex and Middlesex, and this early his son Peada loved a Christian princess,

preacher of the faith fixed upon the re Alchfleda, daughter of the great Northum
stored and growing city of London as the brian Oswiu. Partly, no doubt, for her
seat of his bishopric and the centre of his sake, Peada became a Christian, and deter
work. The story of the foundation and mined to introduce his new faith into those

first building of St. Paul s and the West South-Engle districts in which lay Bedford
Minster, has been told. But dark days and the Trent. From his father-in-law s
for Christianity came quickly on in these land, on the advice of Finan, the successor
parts, and the Christian teachers were of Aidan at Lindisfarne, four missionaries

rudely driven away by the people and were chosen to assist Peada s work. One
chiefs, who preferred the old faith of their of these, Cedd, an Engle, a monk of Lindis
Norsemen ancestors to the new teaching. farne, was a man of singular vigour and
Mellitus fled, and the Christian colony tireless enthusiasm, and upon him the
large or small, we possess no records which choice of Oswiu fell when, about a year

throw any light upon its numbers or its later, the East Saxon king Sigebert applied
influence was dispersed. We ask in vain for a missionary teacher to reconvert his

what became of the primitive St. Paul s people. This king Sigebert, known in
u
and the West Minster for some thirty-;
the Chronicles as the good," had con
six years a cloud ofimpenetrable darkness tracted a deep friendship and admiration
restsover the Christian story of Essex and for the great Engle king Oswiu, and used
Middlesex. to visit him in the north. It was Oswiu
Once more we find the Engle north of the who persuaded Sigebert to become a
island busied about this distant province, Christian, and the story relates how this
by a people of a different
colonised, too, East Saxon king and Penda s son Peada
stock by Saxons. It seems strange that were baptised together in the north some
no record is preserved of any attempts where about A.D. 653. The Christian rite
made to re-sow the seeds of the faith in was performed by Finan of Lindisfarne
these eastern districts on the part of the at a royal residence of Oswiu, named At
"

neighbouring, Christian Kent, during all the Wall,"

near the old Roman wall
these years ;
no record exists of any Severus, close to Newcastle.
effort to pick up the dropped threads of Cedd was subsequently consecrated

Augustine s work. There seems to have bishop at Lindisfarne, and set about his
been a lack of missionary zeal in the work with ardour. His labours of evangel
Roman church of Canterbury, after its isation were crowned with the success
first ardour in the days of Augustine had which usually seems to have attends
been spent. these early Celtic teachers for Cedd, ;

The evangelisation of Essex and Middle though an Engle born, was a monk of
sex about the middle of this century Lindisfarne, and had been trained carefully
(the seventh) came about in this \vise. in the spirit of the famous schools of lona
6 5 4-] CEDD S WORK IN ESSEX. 159

and Ireland. ~We hear of him ordaining disease. Thirty of his East Saxon disciples,
numerous priests and deacons to assist monks of one of his Essex foundations,
him in preaching and baptising of his ; hearing of their loved master s death,
founding many churches and monasteries. made all haste to Lastingham ; they
The centres of bishop Cedd s activity were would at least be near his grave. They
Tilaburg, the modern Tilbury on the soon rejoined him ;
for only a few days
Thames, and a place now destroyed by after their arrival at his favourite Yorkshire
the sea, called Ythanceaster, probably the
Roman Othonas. Singularly enough,
London, the old site of Mellitus see, is

never mentioned in Cedd s successful work

in Essex and Middlesex.
Cedd was in the habit of betaking him
self when he could to his old home in the

north, no doubt to gather from Finan

and other fathers of Lindisfarne, who had
known the saintly Aidan, fresh stores of

courage and enthusiasm for his hard and

difficult task. In one of these visits he
received a noble grant of land from Ethel-

wald, a sub-king of Oswiu, upon which

he founded the subsequently famous
monastery of Lastingham, between York
and Whitby (or Streonashalch) under the
Pickering hills.

The close of this suqcessful missionary s

lifegives one some idea of the passionate
love he and men of like spirit with himself
were able to breathe into their disciples
and pupils. It was years after, apparently
when, on one of his visits to his
in 664,
home of Lastingham and the north, the
"
OSWIU AND PEADA.
monastery, the whole thirty were swept
away by the same dire disease.
This same yellow plague of which Cedd
died was especially fatal in the district
round the mouth of the Thames, and a

Yellow Pest,"
so called from the ghastly great pagan reaction passed over the
yellow hue which came over the bodies of country where Cedd had preached with so
its victims one of those fierce and deso much power and success. King, thane,
lating diseases which in that day used to and people rivalled each other to restore

rage at not infrequent intervals over the fallen altar of the offended Woden,
Europe was slaying its thousands in hoping thus to ward off the fatal contagion
Britain and Ireland. The missionary bishop which they regarded as the punishment of
just come to Lastingham, wearied with his the angry gods of the North. But the
never-ending work, fell an easy victim to the pagan reaction seems to have been but
160 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [656.

temporary, for the work of Cedd had been the dwell-

"

monastery of Medeshamstede,
real, and those districts where he had ing-place in the meadows," the monastery
laboured and taught were Christian at heart, afterwards known through
the length and
In Mercia, after the death of Penda, his breadth of Christian England as Peter-

BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW (LINDISFARNE GOSPEL BOOK).

son Peada was continued as under-king borough. A

mysterious crime, however,
to the victorious Oswiu, his father-in-law, perpetrated the same year, cut short
One of Lindisfarne companions of
the the career of Peada, the Christian son
Cedd, Diuma, an Irish Celt, was consecrated of Penda. He was murdered, the sad
as Mercian bishop and Peada, Diuma,
; story said, owing to the intrigues of his

and Oswiu together founded, in 656, the wife Alchfleda, Oswiu s daughter.
6S9-]
WULFHERE OF MERCIA. 161

REMAINS OF A CROSS AT WINWICK.

(Commemorating, according to Tradition, the Buttle of the Maserfield.)

For about three years after the defeat power and influence greater even than
and death of Penda, the supremacy of it had enjoyed under the heathen Penda.

Oswiu and Northumbria was generally Wulfhere, however, was an earnest

acknowledged by the Mercian Engles ;

Christian like Peada, and in his long
as long as Peada, the son of Penda who reign Christianity gradually became the
had embraced Christianity when he mar religion of Mercia.
ried Alchfleda, the daughter of Oswiu The Northumbrian Engles seem to
lived, the rule of Northumbria was un have quietly acquiesced in this assertion
disputed throughout of Mercian inde
the Mercian peoples. pendence ;
and now
But Peada, Oswiu s for a long period it

son-in-law, died three seems to have been

years after the battle generally accepted as a
of Winwaed and in
; permanent settlement
A.D. 659 the Mercian among the conquerors

Engles openly revolted, that Britain should be

drove King Oswiu s divided into three great
thanes from the land, and independent divi
and raised Wulfhere, a sions Northumbria^
younger son of Penda, including Yorkshire, in
who had been kept in the north Mercza, ;

concealment by the including East Anglia,

three principal Mercian in the midland coun

chiefs, to the throne of ties ;

and Wessex, after
his father. Wulfhere a time including Kent,

proved a most able in the southern and

ruler, and under his western counties of
Mercia END OF AN ARM OF THE WINWICK CROSS.
government the conquered island.
(Conjectured to depict the Death oj
rapidly obtained a St. Oswald.) Thus the north and
K
102 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [655-

midlands two independent kingdoms They were all trained in Ireland, in lona,
were permanently appropriated by the or in Lindisfarne. Their names are trea
Engles, the south and west by the Saxons. sured still in that fair list of saintly men
The whole people became known as the the makers of Christian England. The first
Engle or Anglo-Saxons. Eventually the was that monk, Diuma, whom Prince
Irish

conquerors of the north and midlands gave Peada brought from Northumberland at
their name to the great nation on whose the time of his marriage with Aichfleda,
broad empire the sun never sets Engle- King Oswiu s daughter. When Diuma
Land England. died he was followed by another Irishman,
But although Wulfhere, the son of Penda, Cellach, who was reckoned among the
re-established the independence and re disciples of Columba, coming as he did from
stored the power of the Mercian rule over Columba s famous house of lona. After
the centre of the island, the Christian work some time of restless labour in Mercia,
accomplished by Oswiu during the short he resigned his high office and returned
period of his supremacy in Mercia was to the solemn peace of his loved lona. The
never undone. The great Engle chief, third bishop of Mercia was Trumhere, an
like Oswald and others of the Woden- Engle by who was consecrated in
birth,
*
descended race of Northumbrian kings, the year 659. The fourth in succession
was intensely in earnest : his teachers, was Jaruman, who succeeded him in 662,
trained in the schools of lona and Lindis- who was followed by Chad, who for some
farne, did theirwork thoroughly, and their time had ruled the northern church at

royal pupils believed in Jesus Christ with York Chad, whom we shall meet again
an intense earnestness. With splendid as bishop of Northumbria.
devotion did these warrior princes, when Our sketch has been simply a few
once convinced of the truth of the story rough outlines, for generally an impene
of the Cross, assist with hand and brain the trable mist hangs over the early period
efforts of the Celtic preachers of the faith. of the story of the Mercian Engles, and of
Aided by his son-in-law, Peada (Penda s the East and West Saxons Bede, our ;

son), Oswiu, during three years of his guide, giving us but few details of the
Mercian rule, did his part in laying the southern and midland kingdoms. But
foundation of Christianity in the midland through the mist and the confusion we
counties. see enough to assure us ^
that all the
The first five bishops of Mercia succeeded Christianity of the Northmen conquerors
each other in tolerably quick succession. of Mid and Southern Britain came from
* The names of "

Woden and Odin "

are in
Northumbrian missionary preachers that ;

popular speech interchangeable for instance, Mon- ; the centre of Northumbrian religious life
talembert traces the royal Northumbrian genealogy
was Lindisfarne, that little rocky island
to
"

Odin." Green styles Woden the common

" "

of the whole conquering people, the ancestor off the coast between Bamborough and
god
of its kings. Sharon Turner says "

Odin and the modern Berwick that Lindisfarne;

Woden "

are obviously the same character. The

looked to lona and its network of Scottish
Saxon Chronicle gives "

Woden "

as the common
royal ancestor. communities as its guide and religious
655-]
THE FAITH ESTABLISHED IN ENGLAND. 163

centre ;
and that beyond lona it looked gradually made themselves centres whence
to the flourishing Celtic church in Ireland the new faith was taught. Kent, we know,
as its spiritual mother church. had received it at an earlier date and in
After the battle of the
Winwaed, in 655, a different form, but Kentish influence was
had been won by Oswiu, the Northum little felt outside the comparatively narrow
brian king, all real resistance on the part limits of
the Jutish kingdom. Sussex,
of the supporters of the old gods of the from various causes, remained the longest
Northmen was over and done. Between outside the pale of Christian influences.
the Firth of Forth and the Humber, Thus, for sixty years after the island
Christianity was already a power. North had been won, and the pagan Saxon and
umbrian missionaries had made a firm Engle firmly established, the work of

lodgment among the Engle peoples of Christianising the conquerors had been
East Anglia, and the East Saxons of carried on by Augustine and his monks in
Essex and Middlesex. Among the Mer one corner only of the island by Celtic;

cian Engles of the Midland counties missionary monks with far greater success
under Peada, the Christian son of Penda, in the North and East, in the Midlands,

the new preached by Lindisfarne

faith and the West. After these sixty years
teachers had been for some time steadily a new Christian influence
sprang up,
making its way, in spite of the disfavour of which the historian must take account of.
the great heathen Penda and when Penda
;
Before the defeat of Penda at Winwaed,
was whole of
slain in the great battle, the in 655, we hear little or nothing
the Mercian peoples and their king became saving in an indirect way of the influ
rapidly Christian. In Wessex, including ence of women in the spread of the new
all the southern and western counties, faith among the Northmen conquerors of
the progress was slower but it was still
;
Britain. But that influence now became
a progress, and Northumbrian teachers very important.

.. "".;

RUINS OF LINDISFARNE PRIORY, HOLY ISLAND.

 CHAPTER IX.

HILDA S HOLY HOUSE AT WHITBY.

Influence of Christianity upon the Position of Women Marked Devotion of Women to Religion amongst
the Anglo-Saxons Their Influence Hilda and her Ancestry Her House at Streoneshalch or
Whitby A Double Monastery Its Power and Influence in England Other Similar Communities
Hildas Successor, the Princess Elfleda Whitby the Birthplace of English Poetry Csedmon
Legend of the Origin of his Gift of Song His Religious Poems, Life, and Death His Successors
Early Saxon Poems Traces of Female Influence in them Cult of the Virgin traceable to the
same cause.

the first days of Christianity Mercia, Wessex, and Kent, show in the
the believers, women occu case of each dynasty how the first conquer
FROM among
a new in ing chief traced his descent from Woden.
pied position society.
The words and teachings of the Master That princesses of these royal houses, thus
had accomplished this ;
and from the invested in the eyes of their subjects with

morning of the Resurrection we find a peculiar and especial grandeur, should

them the active and intelligent, the devote themselves with a lifelong self-

daring and tireless assistants of the apostles sacrifice to the service of the religion
and leaders of the new faith. In the story of the conquered people, should immure
of Christianity, nowhere has the influence themselves in communities wholly devoted
of women been so marked, perhaps, as in to prayer and study, voluntarily giving up
England, in the century which followed the all that makes life ordinarily attractive and
re-introduction of the faith, when the pleasant, no doubt exercised a most power
northern conquerors gradually accepted ful influence among these Northern settlers
the religion of Jesus, and adopted it in in our island in favour of the new religion,

place of the old worship of the war-loving and materially contributed to the rapid
gods of the north. In Britain more than spread of Christianity in the seventh and
in any other country during this age of eighth centuries of our era.
construction, of building up of the religion Without hesitation these holy women,
of Jesus, we find women of all classes and not a few of whom were selected as abbesses

orders, of the highest and of the humblest, and prioresses of the communities they
devoting themselves and their whole lives elected to join, were accorded a peculiar
to what they believed to be the service of influence and authority in the state. Their
God and His Christ. power rivalled, if it did not exceed,
The royal houses of the several Saxon, power possessed by the most veneratt
Engle, and Jutish tribes were ever regarded and respected abbots and bishops. They
by their followers with peculiar respect ranked with these prelates, and were
and reverence, as the direct descendants of consulted on terms of equality by the
their gods. The genealogies of the ruling kings and thanes of their people. We
families of Northumbria, Deira, East Anglia, find these abbesses even taking part in
6 5 7-68o.] THE ABBESS HILDA OF WHITBY. 165

the deliberations of important national notice of her beneficent career :

Hilda, the

assemblies, and affixing their signatures to abbess of Whitby, known in her long day
the charters granted in such national of work among her grateful countrymen
gatherings. For instance, the 23rd article as "the Mother."

of the
"

dooms "

or laws of Ina, the king She belonged to the old race of Deiran

of Wessex, about A.D. 690, sets in certain kings, being the great-grand-daughter of

Photo. H. Pitcher, Gloucester.

OSRIC S TOMB, GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.

points not only abbots, but abbesses, on ^Ella, and the grand-niece of Edwin,
the same level with kings and the greatest the Northumbrian king ;
and as the

personages of the country. royal lines of Ida and ^Ella, the kings
Among the crowd of saintly women of Northumbria and Deira, were closely
who did so much, and who exercised so connected by marriages, Hilda was the
vast an influence on the religious life of near relative of the reigning Northumbrian
the time in these early days, when Christ sovereign, Oswiu. Her genealogy, and that
ianity was winning way among its the of her sister, Hereswitha, queen of East
Northmen conquerors, one stands especi Anglia, mother of the famous Etheldreda
ally prominent, and deserves a special of Ely, is as follows :.
166 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [656.

A.D. 557588. JElla.. First King of Deira (Yorkshire).

I

Unnamed.

Died A.D. 616. Hereric=Bregeswida (an unknown personage).

I I

A.D. 614 680. Hilda. Hereswitha, sister of Hilda, Queen of East Anglia,
Foundress and first Abbess of afterwards a nun of Chelles (Gaul).
Whitby (Streoneshalch).

Died A.D. 679. Etheldreda, wife of Egfrid, King of North- Sexburga,

umbria, afterwards Foundress and first second Abbess of Ely
Abbess of Ely. (Queen of Kent).

In her early youth Hilda was baptised by In Northumbria an important commu

Paulinus, the companion of Augustine, some-
while bishop of York, with her granduncle
Edwin, the king, at York but Paulinus
does not appear to have exercised any in
fluence over her, for during her whole career
her sympathies were evidently with the
Celtic church. Bede tells us
thirty-three years of her
nity of women had already been founded a
short time previously at Hartlepool. The
;
abbess of this house, Heiu, resigned her
post, and by the desire of Aidan she was
replaced by Hilda, who for some years
ruled over the Hartlepool nunnery, which
that for the first is
generally reckoned as the earliest among
life she lived very the Engles of these religious homes for

noblyamong her family and fellow-citizens. women. King Oswiu, after the victory
Her widowed sister, Hereswitha, Queen of of Winwaed, gave as a thank-offering a
East Anglia, had betaken herself to Chelles rich gift of lands for the establishment of
in Gaul, in the Marne country, one of those another community. This was the occasion
monasteries for women which in the seventh of the foundation of the famous house of j

century were rapidly springing up in dif Whitby, the ancient name of which was
ferent parts of the continent of Europe. Streoneshalch, at the mouth of the river
Hilda longed to join her sister at Chelles.* Esk in Yorkshire. Of this community
But St. Aidan, who was then working with Hilda became the first abbess. The name
intense zeal and great power in the north,
"

Streoneshalch puzzles the scholar.

"

Bede
was determined that such a personality as gives its meaning as sinus far "

i"
("the

the princess Hilda should not be lost to his bay of the lighthouse ").
Modern scholar
beloved Northumbria The great Celtic ship throws doubt on this old explanation,
teacher recognised thus early what a mighty and explains the term as an Anglian expres
influence for good among her countrymen sion signifying the "

cliff or craig of a settler

still
largely Pagan such a woman might named Streon."

be. He was her guide and friend, and On the loftyoverlooking the Esk as
cliff

induced her to give up her purpose of it empties itself into the sea, Hilda erected a

becoming a nun with her sister at Chelles. church, and monastic buildings for her nui
around it. But the stately and romantic
*
Theexact date of Hereswitha becoming a nun
ruins of the abbey of Whitby, which crown
at Chelles is uncertain. Some believe she took
the veil before her husband s death. the lofty hill now covered with the red-tiled
 _J
o
o
D-
cc
<

->

> Z
UJ
QQ 1
03 >

<i
657680.] THE ABBEY OF WHITBY UNDER HILDA. 167

houses, the delight of modern colourists, life had been established there. Among a

belong to an age much later than Hilda s crowd of students, at least five of the more
house five or six centuries later, at least. renowned bishops who occupy a great place
We must picture to ourselves the first in the story of the church in the next
church of the famous Engle monastery of half century, received their education,
A.D. 657 as a rude wooden structure, framed or at all events much of their early
of split trunks of trees adjusted side by instruction, at
Whitby. One important
smooth wall
side so as to give a partially Church Council was held within its walls.
within, with thatch of straw of rushes, and Thither often resorted for counsel from
side-lights only partially secured by a light the wise abbess and the inmates of the
lattice of split wood. Grouped round the religious house, kings and queens, saintly
rude church were dwellings for the abbess bishops, famous teachers from all parts of
and her nuns and the servants of the the island. It became also a favourite

house, including a large hall and kitchen, place of sepulture. Thither the remains
and further away still from the church a of Edwin, the first Christian king of

group of buildings, or rather huts, where Northumbria, were eventually translated.

the monks for Hilda s house was a double There, too, king Oswiu was laid, and prob
monastery who belonged to the same ably his queen Eanfleda.
community, had their habitation. Long before the great abbess died, doubt
The broad lands round the monastery less the first rude church we have pictured

were cultivated by the inmates. Forges, on the hill of Whitby gave place to a
barns, farm buildings of all kinds and various statelier more enduring structure.
and
dimensions, roughly and rudely con
all Northumbrians who had travelled to Rome,
structed, alternated with writing and study and who had seen the beautiful churches
chambers, made up the religious house of Italy, and their elaborate adornments,

presided over by the abbess Hilda. The men like Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop in
was singularly picturesque. The hill of
site the lifetime of Hilda, brought back with

Whitby, on the summit of which was built them new and nobler ideas of architecture
the church and monastery, is some 300 feet and the ornamentation of sacred buildings.
above the sea. On one side is a broad Years before she passed away, the noble
view of the stormy North Sea so familiar church of the monastery of Ripon had
to the Engle on the other, the eye
;
been erected, and in the last years of her
wanders over uplands, valleys, and vast lifethe yet more magnificent pile was
Yorkshire moors. fast rising of Hexham, which was long
Over this rude house of prayer and regarded as the most stately church on
labour and study, overlooking sea and moor- this side the Alps. We hear of stone
and, Hilda, the Engle princess, ruled some masons and other artificers being brought
twenty-three years (657-680). Before she from Gaul to assist in these works of
sassed away her monastery had become a building and adorning. The crafts of
real power in the land ;
a famous school for glass-making and glazing the windows of
the training of both sexes for the monastic the new stone churches, skill in gold
i68 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [65?

embroidery, the art of gold chasing on the In the west, by the waters of the Severn,
sacred rood, on the chalice, and even on the in the beautiful West Saxon country, Osric,

gorgeous bindings of missals, were intro another offshoot of the royal race of Ida,
duced about this time into Northumbria. who in after-days wore the Northumbrian
The rude wattled buildings, the low-pitched crown, a near kinsman of Hilda, established
huts after the pattern of lona and Lindis- a similar double community for his sister

farne, gradually disappeared, and gave place Kyneburga, which grew into the famous
to stately and more enduring piles. So we abbey and monastery of Gloucester.
may well think of the greatest and most Osric, viceroy and afterwards king, sleeps
famous of the northern homes of prayer, still in the place of honour by the high
the foundation of Hilda, presenting indeed altar, unforgotten, though some 1,200 years
a very different appearance during the have passed, in that glorious cathedral of

latter years of her life. Not improbably Gloucester, which time

replaced his
in

within the sacred enclosure on the hill sisterKyneburga abbey church.

s Similar
of Whitby, before the year 680, when double monasteries for monks and nuns,
she died, there were several churches modelled after the pattern of Hilda s
belonging to the vast community beneath house on the hill of Whitby, arose at
her rule. Barking, at Repton, at Wimborne (at

was a scene of extraordinary activity

It Wimborne the nuns numbered 500), and
and diligence, this holy house of Whitby in other places, where the lady abbess was

under Hilda ;
not only a retreat for world- the acknowledged superior of the whole
wearied men and women, and conscience- community of monks as well as of nuns.
stricken sinners anxious to make their In all these cases the two sexes were

peace with God, but a seminary of eccle rigidly kept apart. These singular double
learning and discipline, in which
siastical communities, Celtic in origin, flourished
a succession of able devoted men and with extraordinary success until their active
women were reared, who received the missionary work was completed, and Christ
inspiration which fitted them for their ianity was firmly established in the length
life s work from the great teacher Hilda. and breadth of the land.

Religious houses modelled on Whitby,
double houses of monks and nuns, arose
not only in Northumbria, but in all parts
of the island. In the desolate Fen country,
in the heart of that wilderness of shallow
waters and reedy islets, whose only in
habitants were flocks of screaming wild
fowl, Etheldreda, somewhile queen of the
Northumbrians, founded the monastery for
Bede, who, with his strong feelings in
favour of Roman usages, must have dis
liked intensely the weight which, during
the long and bitter disputes between the
Roman and Celtic forms of Christianity, the
influence and teaching of Hilda naturally
gave to the Celtic party, ungrudgingly bears
testimony to the noble life and work of the
great abbess. He writes how she taught
"

monks and nuns, on that little hill over the spirit of observance of righteousness,
looking the never-ending fens, where in piety, chastity, and other virtues, but, most
after-days arose the proud minster of Ely. of all, of peace and love ;
how she lived
IN THE GUEST-HALL (p. i
7l ).
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [6607.13.

example of the primitive church

after the ;
was her child, her companion, her con
how she obliged those who were under fidant and when Hilda passed to her rest
;

her rule to exercise themselves so dili in the bosom of God, she became her
successor and abbess of the great monastery.
gently in the reading of the Holy Scriptures
and in works of righteousness, that many Very nobly she carried on the Mother s
could be easily found there who were fit work, and the fame of Whitby as a school
for the ministry of the Church, to serve at of all that was good and pure and noble,
the altar." It was at Whitby, under her allthrough the period of her long rule
and her successor, Elfleda, that Tatfrid remained undiminished through the length
and Oftfor, bishops of Mercian Wor and breadth of the land. Elfleda, princess
cester ;
that Bosa, John of Beverley, and and abbess, died in 713.
the younger Wilfrid, bishop of York, and Strange to say, after Elfleda s death we
yEtla, bishop of Dorchester in Oxford possess no records of Hilda s house. If any
shire,were trained, with many another of existed, they were destroyed a hundred
the notable and devoted makers of Christ and fifty years later, in 867 or 870, when
ian England. Hither flocked the richest we know the Danes wrecked the great
and the poorest of the Northumbrians in ; monastery. For some 207 years after its
her house were neither riches nor poverty ;
ruin by the Danes, the once famed reli
all was common, as in the far-back golden gious house lay desolate. In William Rums
days of the first Jerusalem church. But reign, just before the year noo, in that

under the wise though austere rule of great church building age that age of
-

the saintly abbess the sternest discipline expiation for the bitter wrongs done in the
existed from every dweller in that city or
: Norman conquest the abbey of Hilda was
saints the most unswerving obedience was rebuilt and the monastery refounded, this
exacted. time for monks only. The contemporary
After the abbess herself, the most notable record of the time of Rufus relates how,
of the dwellers in the Whitby monastery after the havoc and ruin wrought by the

was the young girl Elfleda, the daughter savage Danish invaders in the ninth cen
of Oswiu, the king of the land. The prin tury, after two centuries of utter neglect,
cess, whenthe victory of Winwaed was aftertwo hundred years of winter storms
won, was just a year old and her father,
;
and frosts, so massive and enduring had
after the custom of which we have already been the early work, that forty shelterless
had an example, as a thank-offering dedi altars and oratories were still remaining,
cated her to the conventual life, entrust to show how vast had been the extent of
ing the baby princess to his kinswoman the monastery in the days of the old Engle
Hilda. Hilda accepted the charge, and kings, when Hilda and her successors had
from that day Elfleda never left her side. lived and prayed and worked on that
She was with her at Hartlepool she ac ; wind-swept hill of Whitby.
companied her to Whitby. During the
long years of Hilda s rule there, Elfleda We have dwelt at some length on the
shared her spiritual mother s cares. She story of the great Engle monastery of the
660-670.] C^DMON THE SONG-MAN OF WHITBY. 171

seventh century : on its work and influence without much difficulty reproduce the
in Christianising the England of the scene in the vast hall : its long hearth, in
Northern invaders. It was a notable in which blazing were piled up the roof fires ;

stance of the influence of these great homes with openings through which the smoke
of prayer but by no means a solitary
; escaped the raised benches at one end for
;

example. The new England of the any royal or noble guest, so frequently, we
northern invader had many another ; know, resident for a long or short period
some of the same and power, others
size in Hilda s house the long line of tables ;

much smaller and of less importance. But running down the hall for the less-distin

this famous house of Hilda possesses guished visitors. For their amusement
in the many-coloured story of England in the long winter evenings, one or other
another title to honour :
Whitby was the would recite some stirring patriotic lay r
undoubted birthplace of English poetry. as had been the immemorial custom
The story of the birth of English song, among the forefathers of the Engle con
told by Bede with accustomed charm,
his querors in their great halls, in Scotland
and with his usual admixture of that super and Denmark or would chaunt to the ;

natural element which the devout mind of harp some deed or achievement worked
this earnest, simple soul saw in every event for the love of Christ.

ful scene in history, is so beautiful and real, As the evening passed on, this one of the
and in itsmain aspects so transparently monastery officers, who was in charge of
true, that as one of our great teachers the stables of the community, where the
has told us it should be the first lesson horses of the many visitors were cared for
u while
taught to every child ;
for em fearing lest in his turn he should be

pires die, poetry lives on, and the story summoned to sing left the guest -hall,
of English song in this land is the fore as we have related, and betook himself to
most of all English stories." his stables. When his duties were dis

was somewhere probably between the

It charged, Caedmon for this was the name
years 660 and 670 when Hilda s monastery of the monastery attendant retired to
was in its glory, and ranked as perhaps the rest and slept and as he slept, one came
:

foremost and most conspicuous of the and stood by him, and called him by his
u
many homes of prayer and study that name. Caedmon, sing me something,"
one night, when numerous guests and said the strange visitant. He answered,
travellers were reposing at Whitby, and
"

I cannot sing, and this is the reason why

spending the evening in the great guest- I left the guest-feast, because I know not
hall of Hilda s house, one of the depend what to sing."
"

Yes ; sing to me," said

ents or subordinate officers of the com the Presence which stood by his couch.
u
who had been supping with, and song wilt thou have from me ?
What "

munity,
perhaps attending to the wants of, the said Csedmon. said the nocturnal
"

Sing,"

- -
stranger guests, left the guest hall to visitor,
"

the beginning of things created."

avoid the necessity of singing or playing At once the sleeper, conscious of a new
in his turn before the strangers. can We power, burst out with a poem never heard
172 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [660680.

before on mortal lips a poem in praise of one of the Whitby monks. He was forth

God the Builder of the world. He sang, with carefully trained in sacred lore, and

says Bede, in the deep watches of that devoted the remainder of his life to turning
memorable night at Whitby, the praise into soul-stirring verse the divine recitals
of the Celestial Architect, the power and of the Scriptures.

design of the Creator, the deeds of the The poet-monk lived yet some years,
Father of Glory, and how He, the Eternal faithful and devoted to Hilda and her

God, built up a home for the sons of men house ;

and
in those years sang the

heaven for their roof, and then the creation of the world and the origin of
earth. man the history of Genesis, and the epic
;

Caedmon awoke, and lo it was a dream.

! of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt,

But waking, he remembered all the words and their settlement in the land of pro

of his wondrous dream-song it was a
poem at once striking and soul-stirring.
To his amazement he found he possessed a
new strange power he was able to go on
with his beautiful night-song. At once he
mise. He sang, too, much concerning our
Lord the story of the Incarnation, the
Gospel recitals of the Passion and Resur
rection, the marvels of the Ascension, and
descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles

went, says our faithful and true chronicler, at Pentecost. Some of these early poems
to the town reeve, one of Hilda s officers, of Caedmon, the monk of Whitby, dwelt,
and told him how in the night he had re too, on the awful horrors of hell, and on
ceived this new and marvellous gift. The the ineffable sweetness and undreamed-of
reeve at once led him to the abbess Hilda, glories of the heavenly kingdom.
and there and then, in the presence of the He was a very devout and lovable
well-loved and stately Mother, surrounded man, was our first great Engle poet, says
by her saints and advisers, the herdman his biographer Bede
faithful humble, ;

told his story, and sang before Hilda and and subject to the regular discipline
her counsellors the verses he had com of Hilda s monastery and when he had ;

posed in his dream the night before. finished his beautiful songs he brought
Then Hilda and her attendants told him his calm and peaceful life to a fair end.
more of holy history, and bade him turn For when the time of his departure drew
he were able, into the melody
this also, if near, his weakness grew very slowly on
of song. Caedmon went his way, and him, yet to the end he was able to speak
the next day brought to them their stories and even to walk. the night of his On
of godly love framed in the beautiful death he went to the infirmary where the
framework of poetry.This was enough. sick monks dwelt, and asked that a place
The wise Hilda at once recognised the might be prepared for him ;
when it was
divine gift in her servant, and began to past midnight, he asked for the holy
make much of him, urging him at once Eucharist. The bystanders, with whom
to give up his work as a herdman and he had been talking cheerfully, asked
him why u
keeper of the stables, and to take the monastic you are not
"

; for," they said,

habit. Caedmon complied, and became likely to die."
"

Yes,"
he replied,
"

bring
66o-68o.] C^DMON S SONGS. 173
^
it to me." Before he took it, they is not far off," they answered.
"

Well,
heard him say :
"

I am in charity, my murmured Caedmon, "

let us wait for that

STORY OF CAIN AND ABEL.

From the Ccedmon MS., circa 1000 A.D., Bodleian Library, Oxford.

children, with all the servants of God." hour." And then seemed to fall asleep,.

Then he strengthened himself with the and so died.

heavenly food, and made ready for the Others tried

" "

after him," says Bede,

other life. A little later he asked when in the English nation to make religious
the brethren would sing "Nocturns." "It
poems, but none could compare with him;
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [680780.

he learnt the art of song not from man Christ and known
"

for Satan," generally as

not of man came it but divinely assisted the Caedmonian Poems, modern scholars
he received that gift. Thus he inspired consider to have been written by disciples
others to write after him but his poetry
;
of Caedmon, and others, who more or less
was ever sweet and reverent no trivial closely adopted his method of writing.
or vain song came from his lips."
these there were various simple
"Amongst
Our
great Engle monk-historian, who paraphrasers of the sacred Books, men
helps us so much in all conceptions ot who sang for the monastery, not for the
thismemorable age, when the Church of mead-hall. But there were others who
England was being slowly but securely conceived their subject in somewhat a
built up, with his glowing admiration for saga fashion, and recited their work to
the first master of English poetry, perhaps please the warrior, the king, and the
a little under-rates the followers of Caedmon thanes as they sat in the hall at their

in the divine art ;

for in good truth they mead. The religious element for that
were not to be despised.But to Caedmon was evidently the characteristic feature

undoubtedly belongs the honour of being of nearly all the songs of this early
the first of his school of poets. His suc seventh and eighth century school of

cessors, as far as we can judge from the writers was, however, largely introduced,
few great poems which, after surviving and the poems half war, half religion
the storm and stress of the awful Danish touching heathendon, not yet by any means
period of invasions and harryings, have extinct among the Engle and Saxon
come down to us through the many peoples, with one hand, and Christianity
centuries, were poets deserving also the with the other, equally excited and in
name, its highest sense
in men who ;
structed the feasters."*

through the mighty gift of song were Of

Caedmonic religious song
these
able to touch men s hearts as only a real writers, the names of only two have come

poet can. Doubtless their religious works down to us that of Caedmon himself, the
:

had much influence on the people of their Whitby monk, Hilda s friend, the father

age, and in no small way contributed of the school, andCynewulf, probably a

to the steady growth of Christianity in Northumbrian Engle, an imitator of Caed
England. mon, and one who had evidently drunk
A
few poems several of them of con deep of the original inspiration of Hilda s
siderable length are all that we now monastery. We have several of his works
possess of this early outburst of song, with us still, well known to scholars, such
which began at Whitby under the influ as the "

Christ"; the "

Elene," the story of

ence of its great abbess Hilda. The lynx- the finding the true Cross the Juliana," ;
"

eyed criticism of our time, as it studies a Christian female confessor in the days
these scanty relics, restricts the absolute of the persecution of Maximian the ;

work of Caedmon to a portion of one poem, "

Andreas," the story of St. Andrew the ;

the "

Genesis." The other works, such

"

Guthlac," the life of the great Fen saint

as the "Exodus," "Judith," "Daniel,"
*
Stopford Brooke :
"

Early English Literature."

680780-] SONGS OF THE CyEDMON SCHOOL. 175

and anchorite of Crowland and, perhaps ; mighty fallen Empire, which the Church
the most notable of all, The Dream of "

of Rome had adopted as the language

the Rood." of the ritual and the teaching for all the
These poems all belong roughly to a churches, far and near, in its obedience.
period covered by a hundred years. Caed- But in that splendid outburst of English
mon died at Whitby before 680 the last ; song in Northumbria that outburst
and some think the most beautiful and of English poetry which acknowledges
striking of these poems,
"

The Dream of the house of Hilda at Whitby as its first

the Rood," was written within a hundred home there was no trace of Italian or

years of the death of the founder

of this Latin elements. It was purely northern
first English school of poetry. They show in spirit, in imagery, and in language. Its

us what a strong and powerful hold the theology for

theology was, after all, its
religion of Jesus obtained in a marvellously groundwork, and almost its solitary theme
short space of time over the hearts of the was Catholic, pure and undefiled but it ;

conquerors of Britain. These Christian was Celtic, not Roman Catholicism. It

songs, recitals, sagas, poems, in the form drew its inspiration from the teaching of
we now possess them, treated of the sub the great Irish and Scottish missionaries,

jects which specially interested these war men who had been trained in the schools
riors of the Saxon and Engle tribes in of lona and Lindisfarne, not of Rome and
their new homes our island, as they
in Canterbury.
sat in the long winter evenings in their In the rare fragments of Caedmon, in the
mead-halls. Some of them, of course, more elaborate songs of Cynewulf, in such
were more especially addressed to the poems as the "Judith" and the "Andreas,"

dwellers in the many monasteries and as the

"

Christ
"

and the "

Dream of the

nunneries, now
plentifully scattered all Rood," the scenery is
evidently drawn by
over a large portion of the conquered men who were specially familiar with the
island but most of them appeal to a
;
wild and stormy Northern seas, with the

very different audience than would com wild heather and wolds of Northern

monly be found even in the guest-hall countries. Quaint

belonging only titles

of a religious house. to Northmen given to Christ, the

are
We shall have very soon to speak of apostles, the patriarchs, and the prophets.
another literature which arose in the island We meet with these strange epithets con
of the conquerors, more especially in the stantly in these striking and beautiful
southern districts ;
that literature was not, Engle poems, belonging to the school of
however, English, but Italian. Its language Caedmon of Whitby. The old passionate
was not the charmed English tongue in love of the Norseman for the sea, appears

which, with comparatively little change again and again ;

but it was the wild and
during many hundred years, the noblest storm-pelted sea which raged against the
books in verse and prose the world has Northumbrian iron-bound coasts, not the
ever seen were written ;
it was that blue and sun lit seas which washed the
immemorial Latin the language of the shores of Italy and Syria. The fish and the
 76 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [680-780.

birds of the seas of the first English poets country of these authors, are the titles-
belong generally to northern latitudes. given to our Lord, and the saints of the
The beasts we meet with in these old New Testament and of Hebrew history.
English songs although the scene is laid in We read, for instance, of the
"

thanes
"

of
Eastern countries are the gaunt wolf which In the Genesis of
" "

Christ. Caedmon,
used to roam unhindered in the Yorkshire the angel who comforts Hagar is "a

wolds, and the black raven of the northern thane in glory."

In the "

Andreas the
"

moors.- A notable passage in the "

Exodus," patriarchs and prophets, the martyrs and

SCENE FROM "THE FALL OF THE REBEL ARCHANGELS."

From the Ccedmon MS., circa. 1000. A D., Bodleian Library, Oxford.

which describes the coming of the Egyptian apostles, are styled the "thanes of God."

army to the Red Sea shore, well illustrates Andrew and his companions are spoken of
"

this ;
for the poet paints, in glowing as the
"

thanes of Christ." In the "

Christ

language, the flags flying, the trumpets of Cynewulf, the "

thanes of Christ,"

sounding, the ravens circling above the highest in heaven, name Mary as the Lad)
hosts, the wolves howling on its skirts, the of the angel hosts. In the "

Genesis we
"

haughty (Egyptian) thanes riding in the hear, too, of "

Satan s thanes." Our

van, the king with his standard in front of blessed Lord is described as the Holy
the thanes ;
close beside him were his One "the stark-souled Earl." In another
veteran comrades, hoary wolves of war, place Andrew is represented as calling his
faithful to their lord. master Christ "the
^Etheling"; and yet
Yet quainter and more suggestive of the again, Christ appears to Andrew in the
68o 780.] SONGS OF THE C^DMON SCHOOL. 177

form of
"

a young ^theling
"

(or Engle Not a little of the later exaggerated cult of

In the u Genesis Caedmon Mary springs from this new and lofty position
"

noble). of

Abraham is termed the "

^Etheling." taken by women in the Christianity of

Abraham, in this strange English word- the new England, largely owing to the
u
painting, is described as a Hebrew noble work done by women like Hilda and
earl." The Exodus
"

poem
"

calls the Etheldreda, and monasteries like Whitby,

elders of Israel round Moses his in this remarkable age.
"

earls."
Indeed, the
u
In one singular passage in the Andreas of the Virgin, so marked a
"

exaltation
we come upon the expression, unknown "

feature later on in mediaeval theology, i%

to me are the earls of elsewhere."
very noticeable in some of these early
In these poems of Caedmon and his English songs. It is, without
doubt,
disciples, the influence of Hilda and the partly traceable to the female influence

great abbesses of that age is most marked. so potent in the conversion of the
The work of the nunneries, and especially Northmen invaders. "The sweet and
of the double houses, in this period of tender grace, the humility and loving
building up the Church of England was kindness of the Virgin, her maidenhood,

very great. In this beautiful poetry, her motherhood, became the most vivid
which took its rise in one of these double and beautiful image that filled the minds
monasteries for nuns and monks under the of men after the image of Christ. More
government of Hilda, woman takes an than half the beginning of Cynewulf s

equal place with man. In the Genesis

"

devoted to her exalting."

"

Christ is

poem, the Eve of Caedmon is a nobler The of Cynewulf, one of these

" "

Juliana
conception than the later one of Milton. early songs, graphically sketches the life
In a poem whose the Saviour of a saintly woman confessor in the days
"

subject is s

Descent into Hell,"

it is curious to find of pagan persecution.
that the important place among the souls The story of the influence of religious
in Hades isgiven to a woman. It is Eve women, and their homes of prayer and
who tells the story of the Fall to Christ work, on the life of England in the seventh
the Deliverer speaking for Adam and and eighth centuries, is not yet complete;
u u
herself. Our guilt,"
she says, was but grave events connected with the de
bitterly recompensed thousands of win ; velopment of Christianity in our island
ters have we wandered in this hot Hell, were taking place in the reign of king
dreadfully burning." Then Eve stretched Oswiu of Northumbria, about the time
out her hands with "

O my beloved Lord, when Caedmon began to sing his English

born into the world of my daughter, songs in Hilda s house at Whitby. To
now it is clear that Thou art God." The these events we milst now turn, as they
strange poem ends with Christ
weird changed the character of that Church whose
taking upwards with him Eve and the history we are relating.
host of the redeemed. *
Stopford Brooke.
 CHAPTER X.

THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY. DOWNFALL OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.

Strength and Weakness of the Celtic and Roman Churches Conflict between them, and its Origin
Queen Eanfleda the head of the Roman Party Wilfrid, his Early History and Training Crisis
concerning the Date of Easter The Council of Whitby Colman Wilfrid Oswiu yields <p.nd

to the supposed authority of St. Peter, and virtually destroys the Celtic Church in England
Wilfrid appointed Bishop of Northumbria Removes the See to York Refuses English Ordination
Ordained in Gaul Returns to find his See filled by Chad Life and Death of Chad Wilfrid s
Work in Mercia and Kent.

of the chief causes of the success The Celtic missionaries, men of the

ONE of
to
the Celtic missionaries ceased
exist after the decisive battle
stamp of Columba and Aidan, of Fursey
and Chad, were eminently fitted for the
of Winwaed A.D. 655. When Penda uphill work of evangelising the pagan
was slain, all the heathen power of Norsemen. The fervour of an Aidan,
Mercia suddenly collapsed. Up to the with his passionate self-devotion, touched
year of that famous victory of the the heart of the rough Saxon and Engle
Northumbrian king Oswiu, the intro warrior in a way the Roman Augustine of
duction of Christianity among the Engle Canterbury, with his love of tradition, his
and Saxon conquerors had been a hard zeal for law and order, failed to do. Com
and painful struggle. In Northumbria, pared with the teacher of lona and Lindis-
East Anglia, and Wessex, the conquerors farne, the Roman missionary was seemingly
clung to the faith of their fathers, being cold and passionless. Hence the succe
naturally indisposed to listen to the of the Celtic teacher and the comparative
claims of a religionprofessed by the failure of the Roman ;
hence the marvel
people whom they had conquered and ex lous progress of lona and Lindisfarne, and"

pelled. The natural human impatience the long, strange of Canterbury.

"halt"

of the restraints imposed by Christianity But after the decisive Mercian defeat,
also pleaded for the retention of paganism,
things were changed in our island a ;

which imposed no such restraints. In the new chapter in the story of Christianity
great central district of the island known in Britain was opened. With the death
as Mercia, these feelings were intensified and defeat of Penda, the cause of the
by the attitude of the man who for so long supporters of the old Scandinavian religion
a periodhad swayed the Mercian peoples was lost. Northumbria, the eastern por
that famous warrior-statesman Penda, tions of the island, and by far the greater
who hated everything that was Christian. part of the south and west, were already
Penda, during his long and successful career, Christian and when Penda, the old cham
;

was the popular hero of the old heathen pion of the altars of Thor and Woden, was
%

religion, the recognised champion of gone, Mercia already, no doubt, permeated

paganism. with Christian ideas accepted at once the
 55-1
THE WORK OF THE CELTIC PREACHERS. 179

religion of the Cross. The worship of the On first thoughts it would seem a hard
idol gods of the north lingered, however, and unfair lot for this earnest and devoted
for a few more years after the bloody church that it should
everywhere give
battle of the Winwaed, in the insignificant place to men trained in another and dif
dominion of the South Saxons, which was ferent school of Christian thought. But
curiously isolated from the other conquests the Celtic missionaries had done their work.

and settlements of the North-folk by the As missionaries, as pioneers of a new faith,

almost trackless district of the Andreds- these Celtic preachers have rarely been
weald, a region of wood and marshland.
Christianity a few years after the death
of Penda, when Oswiu was king, about the BRITAIN.
659, had made a firm lodgment in
A.D. 655-670
year The dotted portion wu loit
Oiwiu in thf Utter part
most of the conquered districts of Britain.
In Kent and in Northumbria, between the
Forth and the Humber, it was very gener
ally the religion of the people. In Wessex
and East Anglia it was more slowly but
still
surely winning its
way. The Christiau
work Kent, and in Kent alone, had been
in

done by Roman monks. Elsewhere Celtic

missionaries of the school of lona, and
later of Lindisfarne, had been the principal

agents in preaching the religion of Jesus.

After this, however, the work of the
church in Britain no longer consisted in
the evangelisation of heathen peoples the ;

victory of Christianity over paganism was OSWIU S SUPREMACY.

virtually won, and the new Church of the
Engle and Saxon land needed to be form equalled in the long story of Christianity.
ally organised. For that totally different But when they had thus laid the founda

work it
perhaps be doubted if the
may tion, iteasy to see, with the light now
is

Celtic missionary, with all his enthusiasm afforded us by the divine providence un
and devotion, was equal to the trained folded in history, that another set of men,
ecclesiastic equipped with the tradition and brought up in quite a different school,
authority and vast experience of an or were needed to build up the edifice of

ganisation which embraced all the rest of Christianity. It may indeed be doubted
Catholic Christendom. At all events, the whether, as some writers maintain, the
decisive struggle between the two schools triumph of the church of Aidan must
of Christianity was not long delayed, and necessarily have resulted in an ecclesiastical
shortly afterwards the Celtic church every v chaos like that of Ireland in later times ;

where gave place to the Roman church. since Saxon England was never a prey to
i8o THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [655-

the clan-system, and never possessed the period than in a later age. She was the
swarm of travelling
bishops ap which heir and representative of all that had been

parently was an important factor in that best in the Roman Empire. She had im
result. Neither can calm historical judg bibed not only Rome s great system of law,
ment altogether endorse the statement but the far greater idea of law and that ;

made by others, that the Celtic form of other genius and faculty of organisation had

Christianity was utterly devoid of the descended upon her, which had made the
power of organisation, which now seemed Roman world. Later on these gifts were
necessary for the needs of the time. We exaggerated and distorted, and in a more

THE CREATION OF EVE.

From the Cccdmon MS., circa 1000 A.U., Bodleian Library, Oxford.

have found already solid proofs to the advanced period became great evils ;
but

contrary, and shall further see that up to in that early age they did invaluable work
the very last, until superseded by the power in controlling the tyranny of chieftains
of the State being thrown into the other who were often both ignorant and savage.

scale, her works and her triumphs were She had, further, gathered to herself the
as striking as ever. Yet the dispassionate culture and learning of the ancient world.
historian can still see weighty reasons why These and the other chief fruits of civilisa

the change which was now to take place tion were at this time mainly preserved by
may well have been ordained by the Eternal the Roman clergy ;
and when we come to
Wisdom. It must never be forgotten that dwell upon the scholarship which very
the Roman Church, though already cor soon after this period became the glory of
rupted by Grecian philosophy, Eastern England, we must never forget that it was
asceticism, and pagan superstition, was far from Rome and Rome s dependencies the
more pure in dogma and practice at this precious materials had to be brought.
655-1
THE WORK OF THE ROMAN TEACHERS. 181

Lastly, Rome represented at that time the said, that the English Church should
"

great body of Christendom and however ;

have a share in any advances which
far ecclesiasticism had already departed were made by Christendom at large." And
from truly apostolic doctrine and practice, the sequel curiously showed that not in

jtJino hUpg&n-ifwqp fwmn- t

.
j?

THE COMPLETION OF THE ARK.

From the Ceedmon MS., circa 1000 A.D., Bodleian Library, Oxford.

she represented it not unworthily as com England, but in Celtic Ireland, the greatest
pared with the smaller independent church, resistance to the ultimate great Reformation
which was now about to enter upon the of the Church was found.
final struggle. The triumph of the Celt The change began Northumbria, in
in

meant isolation from all this ;

the triumph the very citadel of the church of Aidan ;

of Rome meant at least, as has been well and the first and most important agent
 182 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [634-

in the great change was Eanfleda, the of Northumbria. But in the momentous
queen of Oswiu, the Northumbrian king. period which preceded the famous Church
Eanfleda was a Kentish princess, trained Council of Whitby, when decrees were
carefully in the Roman school years before passed which virtually put an end to the
by the famous teacher Paulinus, who had influence of the Celtic church, Alchfrid

accompanied her mother Ethelburga when was still living, and exercising no small
she left the court of her father Ethelbert weight at the Northumbrian court. The
to live in Northumbria, where her husband queen, the sub-king Alchfrid, James the
Edwin was king. Her genealogy will Deacon, and others who formed the Roman
show the stock from which she came :
party, received much help also from a

Ethelbert, King of Kent (Augustine s convert) = Bertha (a Prankish princess from Gaul).
I j

Edwin, King of Northumbria = Ethelburga (afterwards Abbess of Lyminge, near Folkestone, Kent).

Oswiu, King of Northumbria = Eanfleda.

Round queen Eanfleda gathered gradu young scholar gradually pressing into the

ally what may be termed a Roman party, front rank of ecclesiastical personages, and
all intensely anxious to introduce Roman who afterwards, under the name of bishop
customs, rites, liturgical forms, and, above Wilfrid, became famous throughout the
all, Roman discipline and obedienqe into western world.
the Northumbrian church. The queen This Wilfrid, who was born in the year
had with her her Kentish chaplain, trained 634, belonged to a noble Engle family. A
in the Roman obedience and often, no
;
harsh stepmother rendered his home life

doubt, was visited by an old man known as unhappy, and at a comparatively early age,
James the Deacon, the only survivor who under the patronage of queen Eanfleda,
had shared in the almost forgotten work of who was attached to him when he was still
the once famous Roman missionary Paul a boy, he became a monk in the famous

inus, and whose age and long experience house of Lindisfarne. In the community
doubtless gave him weight in the counsels he soon became master. His zeal for
of the church. monasticism, his ardour and great ability
Eanfleda was also strongly backed up by in his studies, attracted the attention
the influence of Oswiu s eldest son, Alch of his superiors. Strangely enough, in
frid (from his age it seems probable that that great Celtic centre of Lindisfarne,
Alchfrid was Eanfleda s stepson). Alchfrid under the influence of Aidan himself,
had married a daughter of Penda of Mercia, with all the traditions of lona and Ire
and Oswiu had entrusted him with the land around
him, young Wilfrid had
government where he ruled
of a province, been drawn insensibly towards the Roman
as sub-king. Dying before Oswiu, how church, of which in after days he
ever, he never succeeded to the throne became the unwearied and successful
634664-] WILFRID S EARLY LIFE. 183

champion. To Wilfrid there was some astic of the highest promise. Here, at
thing wanting in the rude simplicity of headquarters, he received the utmost kind
Lindisfarne and the mission churches. Not ness and attention he was instructed in
;

improbably his royal friend Eanfleda in all the mysteries of the Roman policy, and
fluenced him here. Under her protection returning again to his friend the arch
the young monk set out for Rome, a centre bishop of Lyons, received the Roman
which he passionately desired to visit. tonsure and, what was most important,
;

The stage of his journey was Canter

first completed his studies in Roman traditions

bury, where the friend of the Kentish and learning.

princess Eanfleda was naturally warmly Wilfrid stayed three years at Lyons,
welcomed by the Roman monk Honorius, until the violent death of his patron, the

then the archbishop. archbishop, put an end to this period of

Wilfrid left Canterbury accompanied by his career. He
narrowly escaped death
another young Northumbrian noble, a himself in the Lyons troubles. He then

very few years his senior, who, like Wilfrid, returned to his native Northumbria, still
had dedicated his life to "religion," and comparatively young, but with a great
who was afterwards known as Benedict reputation for sanctity and learning, and
Biscop, the .unwearied religious-art collector, ardent in his desire to introduce the
the founder of monasteries, the introducer stately ritual of Rome and the elaborate
of Roman architecture, music, and painting discipline of Lyons and Italy into his own
into his native Northumbria ;
a name de church. He soon attracted the notice of

servedly held in the highest honour by all Alchfrid, the sub-king, Oswiu s son. Alchfrid
in every age who love to worship God in and Wilfrid became devoted friends
the beauty of holiness. The friendship their romantic friendship being compared
was thus begun between the two who were to that of David and Jonathan. The
destined in so remarkable a manner to prince and sub-king Alchfrid, the enthusi
influence the Christianity of England. astic and eloquent monk, thoroughly
At Lyons Wilfrid for the first time saw trained in allthe learning and traditions
the Roman ritual displayed in all its pomp of Italy, with the queen, and her court,
and stateliness, and the sight no doubt it may well be conceived formed a power
strengthened him in his determination ful party, determined to bring about a
to reform and change the simplicity and sweeping change in Northumbrian Christ
baldness, as it seemed to him, of Celtic ianity.

worship. The heart of the archbishop The and beloved Aidan had
saintly
of Lyons, Aunemund, was won at once by passed away. But something of his spirit
the young, brilliant, and enthusiastic monk, had descended on the head of his successor
and he invited Wilfrid to stay with him, at Lindisfarne, Finan and under his wise ;

offering him the richest bribes ;

but Wil promptings and earnest support, the
frid s purpose was to study Christianity in splendid evangelising work of the Celtic
its venerable and immemorial seat at Rome. missionaries in Middle and Central Britain
In Rome he was recognised as an ecclesi went on. The years of Oswiu s reign,
1
84 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [66 4 .

which immediately followed Penda s fall The sub-king Alchfrid, Oswiu s son, and
at Winwaed, were years of wonderful Eanfleda, Oswiu squeen, steadily pursued
activity. No one
contemplating that their efforts to bring about a change. The

restless, missionary zeal could

successful mutterings of the storm were heard in
first

have dreamed that the end of that great Ripon, where Alchfrid had founded an im
church, as the dominant church of Britain, portant monastery. There the famous
was nigh at hand, and that another spirit Eata, the pupil of Aidan, a monk of old

WHITBY ABBEY.

would soon inspire English Christianity ;

Melrose (Mail-ros), was the first abbot.
that other customs, other rites, a rule and Among his trusted companions was a
obedience never heard of in Ireland, or young monk named Cuthbert, who after

lona, or Lindisfarne, would soon quietly wards rose to great favour and won enor
and almost imperceptibly, among English mous popularity among the Northumbrians.
Christians take the place of the traditions Alchfrid had built and richly endowed the
of the great Irish home of prayer; would Ripon monastery, and, in consequence,
supplant the teaching so deeply rooted in thought himself justified in requiring its

by far the largest portion of the conquered monks to celebrate Easter at the date fixed ,

island, the teaching of Columba and by Rome, and also to change their other
Aidan, of Ceadda and Fursey. customs, in which the Celtic church
664.]
THE "EASTER" DISPUTE.
differed from the Italian line. Eata and which led to the summoning by king
his companions stoutly refused to alter Oswiu of the famous Council of Whitby,
any of their rites and practices, hallowed was the scandal in his own court of his
by what they deemed immemorial use ; queen and her many followers, including
saying that they would, rather than his son Alchfrid, the sub-king, observing

change, give up their new home. Alch- strictly the fasting and humiliation of the
frid took them at their word, and expelled solemn season preceding the festival of
them, and they returned to Melrose. Easter, while the king and his thanes,
Wilfrid was appointed abbot of Ripon following the use of the Celtic church in
in the room
of Eata, and thus began his the date for the celebration of the great

long connection with Ripon. This high
handed proceeding of Alchfrid took place
about the year 66 1.
Colman, who succeeded Finan as bishop
and abbot of Lindisfarne, was wanting in
festival, at the same time would be keeping
the great Easter feast with all joy and
ceremonial observance. Thus in the same
year two distinct Easters would be kept in
the same royal household * To reconcile !

many which gave to men

of those qualities
of the stamp of Columba and Aidan the
magic key of hearts. He seems to have
been an upright and righteous man, but
was stern and unbending, without tact
and wanting in sympathy. Wilfrid, on
the other hand, though imperious, pos
sessed very many of those winning qualities
which especially belong to leaders of men.
The differences between the two churches
were growing daily more pronounced, and
the jealousy between the Celtic and Roman
schools increased with alarming rapidity.
But it was the difference between
churches as to the date of keeping Easter,
which brought the bitter dispute to a
climax.
It seems to us now but a trivial matter,
this trifling difference in the Easter date,
to have occasioned so serious a schism
* Since the earliest
days of Christianity a di
vision in the Church existed as to the proper date
for the celebration of Easter, (a) The churches of
Asia Minor generally followed the custom of the
Jews, by placing Easter Day on the fourteenth day
of the first lunar month. This use is generally
known as the quarto deciman, and did not tie Easter
Day to Sunday, (b) The churches of the West, Pales
tine, and Egypt fixed Easter Day on the Sunday after
the fourteenth day of the month nearest the vernal
equinox. This date was probably fixed so as to
avoid keeping the feast with the Jews. The
Council of Nice (A.D. 325) adopted this use, erect
ing it into a law of the Church, (c) The ancient
Jewish cycle of eighty-four years had been uni
versally followed to fix this date. But the
Alexandrian (Christian) astronomers discovered in
this cycle errors in calculation, and induced the
the Roman Church to adopt a new paschal cycle (which
is now universally received), and which limits the
celebration of Easter to the interval between the
aand of March and the 24th of April. This amend
ment in the ancient Jewish cycle had not reached
the Celtic churches, isolated in the west by the
northern invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries.
These celebrated Easter always on Sunday, but
;
but this Sunday was not always the one kept by the

it must be borne in mind that the questions Romish Church after the Alexandrian amendment
in A.D. 525. Thus it happened, shortly before the
which lay beneath the surface were far
Council of Whitby, that king Oswiu and the Celtic
graver, and really turned upon the mo church in his court were eight days in advance of
mentous question : were the churches of Eanfleda the queen and the Roman Church, the
king celebrating the Easter feast, while the queen
Britain to acknowledge or not the supreme
was still commemorating the commencement of
authority of Rome ? The immediate cause the Passion in the services for Palm Sunday.
1 86 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [664.

these painful practice was

differences in which time fails to dim, and whose future
the ostensible reason for the calling of the influence, to those living in the last

Council but, as has been remarked, the

;
decade of the nineteenth century, pro
schism between the two Christian schools mises to be more far-reaching than ever.
was aggravated by far deeper grounds of The little group on the dais or raised
difference. It cannot, however, be too platform at one end of the guest-hall of
distinctly reiterated that no divergences the Whitby house of prayer, included the
in fundamental doctrines ever appear to powerful Engle king Oswiu and his son,
have existed between Rome and Canterbury the sub-king Alchfrid the abbess Hilda ;

on the one side, and lona and Lindisfarne and the queen Eanfleda; the Celtic bishop
on the other. No grave charge of heresy of Lindisfarne, Aidan s successor, Colman ;

ever seems to have been urged by Rome the old man James the Deacon, once the

against the Celtic teachers in Britain. companion of the forgotten Paulinus

The Council was summoned
following James the Deacon, who carries our
the example of the great Eastern councils thoughts back to the long-dead Augus
by the sovereign lord king Oswiu. tine of Canterbury Agilbert, the Frank,
;

The meeting-place determined upon was trained in one of the famous Irish schools,
the great double monastery of the abbess somewhile bishop of Dorchester, near
Hilda, of Streoneshalch, on the hill of Oxford, but afterwards bishop of Paris;
Whitby. Probably the meeting-place was Romanus, queen Eanfleda s Kentish chap
the guest-hall of the holy house, already lain ;
and the one who became the
described in the story of Caedmon. It most famous of them all, the young
must have presented a singular scene, that abbot of Ripon Wilfrid, the learned
council of Streoneshalch, or Whitby, held and eloquent, the tireless, impassioned
in the spring of the year 664. The dis advocate of Roman order, and Roman
cussions were carried on evidently in the use, and Roman obedience.
presence of a numerous and notable The strange and marvellous progress
assembly, consisting of the thanes of of Christianity in these pagan lands re
Northumberland and a number of Engles ceived a wonderful testimony in the
of a lower degree, who appear to have general national interest displayed in this
stood during the debate. A crowd of memorable assembly. It was thronged by
monks and clergy were also present. the greatest and noblest, and by many
But there was a little group upon whom of lower degree of the conquering Engle
the eyes of thane and commoner, monk peoples. It was presided over by the
and nun, were bent a group made up of greatest king who had as yet guided their
men and women whose names have come home.
destinies in their newly-conquered
to us down
the long stream of centuries as Only a few years before, the altars of
makers of the Church of England, which Woden and the pagan gods of the North
has exercised for so many eventful years were the acknowledged centres of Engle
so vast an influence over the fortunes of worship and now a great national as
;

the great Anglo-Saxon race ;

an influence sembly, under the presidency of a mighty
 664.]
THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY. 187

Woden-descended hero-king, met quietly repeated by an interpreter, and asked

to discuss points of ritual and order be that Wilfrid, the young abbot of Ripon,
longing to the Christianity of the old might take his place. Wilfrid seems

conquered British peoples. All this to have spoken with great skill and
strange mighty change and had been eloquence, if occasionally with some ex
brought about through the preaching aggeration. He was evidently master
and the devoted lives of a handful of of his subject ;
his long training in

poor Celtic preachers, whose homes were Lyons and Rome had well equipped
the desolate wind-swept islands of lona him for such an argument. "

We keep
and Lindisfarne! our Easter," he said,
"

as we. have
King Oswiu, the Woden - descended seenit
kept at Rome, where the blessed
warrior, formally opened this state as Peter and Paul taught and suffered. We
sembly of his Engle nation by urging have seen it kept in Italy and Gaul ;
the benefits uniformity of custom
of we know that our time of celebrat

among those united in faith, and then ing it is the unvarying use throughout
he shortly stated the question he had Christendom only the Picts and Britons,
;

called them together to discuss and to dwellers in two most remote islands of
decide : When should the solemn Easter the ocean, foolishly persist in their oppo
Feast kept ? The king called on
be sition in this matter to the rest of the

Colman, the bishop of Lindisfarne, the world."

successor of Aidan and Finan, the ac To this bold and somewhat sweeping

knowledged chief of the Northumbrian assertion the bishopof Lindisfarne an-,

church, to speak and to explain his swered surely an error to speak

"

: It is

ritual and practice to the assembled of our traditions as foolish, seeing that

thanes and others. we only example of that

follow the

My great apostle St. John, who was allowed

"

usage,"
said
Bishop Colman, is
"

what I learnt from the fathers. They and to lay his head upon our Saviour s-
the elders who came before them, like breast. Columba, our blessed father, fol
Columba of the Cell, were evidently in lowed this usage of St. John, and taught
spired by the Holy Ghost, and these traced his disciples to do the same. Could
up their usage to John the Apostle."* Columba loved of God have acted and
Agilbert, bishop of Paris, excused him taught contrary to the divine word ?
"

selfon the plea that the Engle tongue Then Wilfrid spoke with great noble
was strange to him, and that, if he ness about the holy Columba. He styled

spoke, his words would have to be him our Columba as well as yours."
"

"

They no doubt Columba and his fol

* the Celtic church claimed to derive
Though lowers in their pious ignorance loved and
their "

uses
"

from St. John, they were not

"quarto decimans," for the Celts celebrated the served God, but no one was with them to
Festival on a Sunday. The differences in the tell them of a more perfect way. Had they
dates no doubt really arose from the Celtic ad
herence to the Jewish cycle, which had been only known what we know and you know
amended by astronomers. now, surely they would have followed this-
1 88 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [664.

more But, great and good as similar authority given to your Columba
"

?
perfect way.
was Columba, can we an instant place for Colman answered in the negative. King
him before the chief of the Apostles, to Oswiu then possibly with a smile speak
whom the Lord was pleased to say, Thou ing to both parties, said, Then you both
"

art Peter, and upon this rock will I build agree that the keys of heaven were given
to Peter by our Lord ? Colman and "

my Church .- ; .- I will give thee the

keys of the kingdom of Heaven ?

"

Wilfrid both answered "

Yes "

at the same
Thus was first definitely advanced, in moment. "Then," replied the king, "my
the history of the English Church, that words will be only the echo of yours. I

very same ground for claiming universal think, like you, he is the gate porter of
obedience which was put forth in the heaven. I will not dare to oppose him. I

Encyclical of Leo XIII. at the close of the will obey him in all things, lest when I

nineteenth century. But the circumstances reach the doors of heaven, those doors
were very different. Ecclesiastics were open not to me if I am the enemy of the
giving their own interpretation of docu one who carries the keys."
ments they alone possessed, and of which This quaint, half-playful decision of their
110 one else was able to question such an king evidently pleased the thanes and the
interpretation. There was no one to ask members of the assembly and, as Bede ;

for some evidence that Peter ever was at tells, both those who were seated in the
Rome in his life, or had ever consecrated places of honour and those standing round,
a Roman bishop. There was none with lifting up their hands as the sign of their
sufficient historical faculty to point out approval, adopted without further discus
not even the Celtic bishop Colman sion Oswiu s half-jesting, half-serious con
that Peter s own practice could not have clusion. In this summary way, with a
been that now advocated, and that the real smile probably stillplaying on his lips, the
point at issue was some proof of Apostolic Engle king in reality put an end for ever
authority, conferred directly upon the to the influence of the Celtic church in

Roman See, to enforce

upon all, changes in England !
For, as we shall see, from this

times and customs, which that See might day forward another reigned in the
spirit
think fitting from time to time to make. Christianity adopted by the Engle and
The king probably have been
himself may Saxon. The day of lona and Lindisfarne
glad of any plausible excuse for ending was past.
that most deplorable diversity of practice Bede gives us a report of this "

Easter
"

in his own household, which had been the discussion at the great Whitby Council at

original cause of the Council. At all events, considerable length. He intimates that
at this juncture king Oswiu interfered, there was, besides, no small debate on the

and, turning to the bishop of Lindisfarne, question of the tonsure, but he gives us
said, Colman, is it then true that our Lord
"

no details. There is no doubt that on this

spake thus to St. Peter ?
" "

It is true, O and other smaller matters the mind of

King," replied the Celtic teacher.
"

Can you the assembly generally was made up

then,"
went on king Oswiu, "show me a the use of Rome must be adopted.
664-]
THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY. 189

No one was more deeply sensible of the her mighty monastic homes, take counsel
as to the dim and clouded future of the
strong current setting now
in England

the Celtic school and its teaching, school of Christianity they loved. But to
against
than Colman, bishop and abbot of Lindis- yield to Rome and the Italian uses one jot

THE COUNCIL OF WHITBY.

fame. At once he seems to have made his
mind up as to his future course. He would
resign his crozier as bishop and abbot,
betake himself to lona and to Ireland, the
mother of Celtic Christianity, and, with the
or tittle, Colman of Lindisfarne, as far as he
was concerned, sternly refused. So Colman
and many of his monks, carrying some of
the bones of their sainted father Aidan,
left for ever the wild home which the great

Irish elders and the abbots and bishops of lona teacher had founded and loved so
190 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
.
[664 .

well.
"

What heart," generously writes an he passed away the field was open for a

eloquent pleader for Roman customs, and new selection. Again Witan or popular the
a writer who disliked intensely the Celtic assembly was convoked by king Oswiu.
school, is so cold as not to understand,
"

The assembling of the Northumbrian

to sympathise, and to journey with him Witan for such a purpose as the election
along the Northumbrian coast and over the of a bishop, even of so important and vast

Scottish mountains, when, bearing home a see as that which the new bishop would

wards the bones of his father Aidan, the be required to preside over, is very note

proud but vanquished spirit returned to worthy from an ecclesiastical point of

his northern mists, and buried in the view, and moreover, shows how vital

sacred isle of lona his defeat and his un a matter Christianity and its working
conquerable fidelity to the traditions of had become in the eyes of the newly
his race ?
"

converted Engle peoples. Such a calling

The government of the famous Lindis- together of the national assembly to elect
farne monastery was, at the suggestion of or to ratify the election of a bishop or

Colman, entrusted to Eata, the pupil of archbishop, although not unknown in the
Aidan the abbot of Melrose that Eata history of the Church, is of comparatively
whom we have seen rudely thrust out from rare occurrence.

Ripon by Alchfrid, the sub-king, for not A general agreement of opinion on the
adopting the Roman uses. The bishopric part of the dominant party in the Church
of Lindisfarne fell to Tuda, a good man at the head of whom was Alchfrid, Oswiu s

and religious, says Bede, who, though he son, the sub-king at once seems to have
had been in Ireland, had already, in the designated as bishop of the great North
matter of the keeping of Easter and the umbrian see, an office which carried with
tonsure, conformed to Roman practice. it the virtual headship of the church ot
But Tuda soon passed from the scene, a the Engles, the winning orator and able
victim of one of those terrible and often- advocate who had done so much at the

recurring pestilences, which swept over recent Council at Whitby to obtain a com
England only a few months after his plete recognition of the supremacy of the
acceptance of the high office. The same Roman see, and of her right to impose
year, A.D. 664, died bishop Cedd, the her "uses"
upon foreign churches. But
successful missionary Essex, of at his although Wilfrid, abbot of Ripon, was thus
loved house of Lastingham, as has been chosen apparently by the unanimous wish
already related. of the king and people to the great office,
Tuda was the last of
the Celtic bishops of it will contribute to the
understanding of
Northumbria. His premature death gave not a few of the events in that great and
a new impulse to the now dominant Roman stormy life if we remember that this

party. Tuda s selection had been almost a election of Wilfrid was viewed by the
matter of course : for many years he had adherents of the Celtic school in the
been acting as coadjutor bishop. But when Northumbrian church hopelessly defeated
* Montalembert *
:
"

Monks of the West.

"

but still numerous with the most intense

 664-]
WILFRID BISHOP OF NORTHUMBRIA. 191

dislike and distrust. It must also be later, Rome itself and her pontiff; when

ever remembered that, with all his great he had drunk deeply of the wonderful
of learning and tradition laid up
powers and splendid earnestness, the dis stores

position of Wilfrid was at once impe

that marvellous house, the
treasure
in -

rious and unyielding. Intensely convinced views and outlooks of his early monastic
of the wisdom of the policy of his life were strengthened possibly enlarged
school thought, he utterly failed to
of and he consecrated his life to the work
see the touching beauty and the winning of bringing his own distant and semi-
fervour of the Celtic school of Christianity. barbarous people into the obedience of
He was not the man ever to win over thismighty church and her ruler. Then,
otherswho differed from him, and even and then only, Wilfrid felt as many a
many of the leaders of the party of Rome really great soul has felt with him would
Rome, which he served with a loyalty the church be enabled to discharge her
that only ended with his life feared duty to the world. There must thought
while they admired him. For the moment, Wilfrid be some great central power to
however, the murmurings of the men who organise and direct, and where necessary
j
were attached to the old teaching were mighty forces of the Chris
to restrain, the

hushed, and Wilfrid became the bishop tian church ;

and the only power on earth
of the whole of the northern Engles. which in his opinion could fulfil this high
His first public act was an index to the and difficult function, was Rome.
had set himself to carry out
life-work he The newly-chosen bishop of Northumbria
i the supremacy of Rome. To the mind of made not the least pretence of any de
Wilfrid the greatness and prosperity of sire to conciliate the church of lona and
the church were intimately bound up with Lindisfarne. On the contrary, he seems
obedience to one supreme head. Even deliberately to have ordered his course
in his early monastic among the dis
life of action so as rather to wound and to

ciples of Columba and Aidan, when he slight the Celtic school of thought, which
lived in therough huts, and prayed in the had done so noble a work in the evangelis

bare and simple church of lona, the young ation of Britain. First of all, Lindisfarne,
student had been powerfully attracted by through Wilfrid s influence, had ceased to
the thought of the majesty of Rome of be the seat of the bishops of Northumbria.
the wisdom and knowledge of the long- Lindisfarne, with all its touching and tender
descended pontiff, daring to trace his memories of the saintly Aidan and the
spiritual ancestry up to the martyr Prince bands of devoted missionaries who had
of the Apostles himself; as well as by the gone forth from the Holy Island of the
stately and imposing ritual of which he northern see, to preach and to teach among
had heard and read so much, but upon the pagan Engles and Saxons Lindisfarne,;

which he had never as yet gazed. When whose poor and lowly church had so often
the desire of his heart was accomplished, echoed with heartfelt thanksgiving for
and he had seen mighty Roman centres ever new and undreamed-of successes won
like Lyons under a great archbishop, and by her monk-preachers in the broad Engle
192 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [665.

countries ay, and far beyond even the addressed to Oswiu and his son Alchfrid :

distant Engle boundaries ; Lindisfarne,

"

My Lord Kings, I must first of all con

with her never-to-be-forgotten story, was sider the best means of reaching the
now to be no more the spiritual capital episcopate without exposing myself to the
of the land she had won for Christ. York reproaches of true Catholics." The king
was take her place York, with her
to ;
thus addressed allowed his plea, and gave
traditions of the vaunted Roman Empire ;
him money and a great train of followers,
with her later memory of the failure 01 to enable him to present himself to the
Paulinus. But all the traditions which Franks with the magnificence ever dear
haunted York, though they belonged to to Wilfrid s heart, and which he deemed

a vanished empire and an unsuccessful suitable, too, for the bishop of so great

work, were Roman; while the splendid a kingdom was Engle Northumbria.
as

records of Lindisfarne, never to be for
gotten by Englishmen, were Celtic.
And this was not enough a yet deeper
and more personal affront was still to be
launched at the ancient church.
declined to be consecrated by any of the
These high-handed actions, with which the
abbot of Ripon began his famous episcopal
; career, show how determined he was to
uproot the old order of things, and to
Wilfrid reduce the whole of Christian England
Rome.
to the obedience of

bishops of his own country, several of At Compiegne, in Gaul, he met his

whom have been since venerated as saints. friend who had supported him at the
The abbot of Ripon classed them all as Council of Whitby, Agilbert, somewhile
schismatics. The arch-see of Canterbury bishop of the East Saxons, but then
at this moment was apparently vacant, the bishop .of Paris. Wilfrid was there con-,
same yellow pest, above alluded to, having secrated with extraordinary pomp. Twelve
carried Deus-dedit (Frithona), arch
off bishops assisted at the august ceremony oi ;

bishop of Canterbury, and Tuda of Lindis such importance was it considered by the
farne in the same year (A.D. 664). Wighard, Romish party, who dreaded the enormous
the Saxon monk, was not appointed to and ever-active power of Celtic Chris
the arch-see before 667 and Wighard ; tianity, then advancing with such rapic
died at Rome before his consecration. strides on the continent of Europe, thanks

The see of Canterbury was thus vacant. to the indefatigable work and energy of
The strange refusal of Wilfrid to accept the pupils of Columban of Luxeuil. The
consecration at the hands of any of the bishop of York was carried through the
English bishops, shows, however, how en church of Compiegne, in the midst of the
tirely the Christianity of England was crowd of worshippers, on a golden throne
Celtic. It shows that this determined which was borne by bishops.
champion of Rome considered that no Wilfrid, however, was mistaken in think

bishop of his native country was in full ing that the victory of Rome was alread}
communion with the Holy See. His completely won England, and he pro
in

biographer and friend Eddius attributes longed imprudently his stay in Gaul for ;

to him such language as the following, on his return to Northumbria he found his
665-3 CONSECRATION OF WILFRID. 193

episcopal seat invadedby another, whom long neglect by Wilfrid of the bishopric.
Oswiu had appointed bishop in his room. Alchfrid, the sub-king, the loyal friend of
This intruding prelate was the saintly Wilfrid, had disappeared from the scene.

FIGURE OF ST. LUKE.

From the Gospel Book of St. Cltad, about A.D. 700, in the Cathedral Library, Lichfield.

Chad, an Engle by birth, and a former We have no record of his end, but he
pupil of Aidan. Such a curious and probably had died during Wilfrid s absence
on the part of
rapid revulsion of feeling in Gaul.
the powerful Northumbrian monarch is Chad, one of the saintly makers of our
attributed by some to the influence of church, who in this curious irregular
the abbess Hilda, by others simply to the way, apparently through the simple
194 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [666.

appointment of the Engle king,* obtained from their hearts they believed their
the great Northumbrian bishopric, was Master s cause would be better advanced
no ordinary man. Utterly devoid of per by His chief servants assuming among men
sonal ambition, his whole longing seems the ensigns of lofty rank and supreme
to have been to win souls to his Master s power. But Chad and the Celtic saints
side. There is no doubt that he disliked chose to do their work in a different way,
Wilfrid, and that his sympathies were and they won their strange empire over
entirely on the side of the old Celtic men s hearts by different instruments.

church, in the midst of which he had Their churches were of the rudest, sim
been trained yet he seems to have made
; plest construction. Their dwellings were
no strong efforts to reverse the decisions huts of the roughest and most primitive
of the Whitby Council. He evidently form. Their favourite homes were caves

acquiesced quietly in the Roman use as re and bee-hive huts, in desolate wind-swept
gards Easter, and adopted without protest islands like lona and Lindisfarne ; rough
the Roman form of tonsure, regarding these groups of wattled dwellings in the forest,
changes, involving no doctrinal points, as like Columban set up in the first instance

inevitable. Chad was one of those rare at Luxeuil, or Guthlac built for himself in

and beautiful characters of whom all men the fen lands round Crowland.
and belonging to varied
of different parties, Bishop Chad, like his great Irish masters,
schools, speak with reverence and love. was an intense student of the Holy Scrip
He appears in an eminent degree to have tures. These Celtic saints read and mused
possessed those high and endearing qualities as they journeyed from place to place
which seem to have been the especial among the people. He was ever mov
heritage of the great Irish and Celtic saints ing about in his vast diocese: travelling
of this age. Some writers believe that always during his restless life on foot,
Chad and his saintly brother of whom we he was equally at home in the hovel of

have already spoken, the East Saxon bishop the serf or in the hall of the thane ;

and abbot of Lastingham, came originally
from Ireland.
While he was bishop of York the
labours of Chad were never-ending. Very
different from Wilfrid, he cared nothing for
and thus he won the love and admiration
of uncounted multitudes of the yet half-
pagan Engles among whom he lived and
moved, and to whom he preached with
that passionate fervour and moving elo

pomp or state. His ideal of a great pastor quence, the peculiar gift of these old Celtic
was a Columba or an Aidan, the latter of saints ;
ever the holy man of God, passing
whom he had known not a stately bishop
; amongst his people continually.
of Romeor of Lyons, living with all the We will anticipating a little the course

magnificence and state of a great earthly of events finish Chad s beautiful life-story,

prince. Not that men of the stamp of which has left so deep an impression upon

Pope Gregory the Great loved pomp or the hearts of his fellow-countrymen. The
state for pomp and state s sake, but because time came when, to secure the peace of the
*See page 196. church, he deemed it wise to resign his
665-672-]
CHAD OF LICHFIELD. 195

great charge
in Northumbria. With per with labours and watchings and fasting,
fect content he retired for a season to rendered them sadly unfit to bear up
his dead brother s Yorkshire monastery of against the when it seized
pestilence
Lastingham ;
this was somewhere before them. Among monks who lived with
the
the year 669. But he was not suffered to Chad was one named Owini, remarkable
dwell for long in a retirement singularly for his pure life. This Owini had held
attractive to the true follower of Columba high office at the court of the Northumbrian
and Aidan. Largely owing to the in king, Egfrid, the son and successor of
fluence of his old rival Wilfrid who, as Oswiu. He had been the master of the
we shall see, again rose to the highest household of his queen, Etheldreda, before

position in the church,

and who with an that princess took the veil and became the

ungrudging revered Chad s

admiration foundress of the monastery of Ely and ;

simple earnest piety Chad was summoned when his royal mistress gave up the world,
from his retreat to the Mid Engle counties, Owini followed her example.
Mercia ;
and there, with the assistance of This Owini was no student. At the
itspowerful monarch, Wulfhere, a son of gates of the
secluded monastery of Las-
the old heathen Penda, he did a grand tingham, in East Yorkshire, the House "
"

work in the evangelisation of the Mid- of the two brothers, Cedd, the bishop of

Engles, still, many of them, pagans in the East Saxons, and the yet more famous

thought and practice. Lichfield, in the Chad of Lichfield, the former courtier and
centre of England, was his new head minister of the queen presented himself
quarters ;
and in middle England he lived clad in a plain garment, and carrying an
the same hard and devoted life as he had axe and hatchet in his hand, and asked
lived in old days in Northumbria. to be admitted into the brotherhood,
One of Bede s charming stories is de as he had determined to renounce the
voted to the last hours of this great and world ;
he said that he would not live an
good man. Its scene was a little church among them, but would labour
idle life

surrounded by a group of monastic build with his own hands. At Lastingham

ings, where now stands the fair cathedral he became the friend and confidant of
of Lichfield. Chad had been bishop of Chad, and in his Mercian work, during
Mercia about two years and a half when his residence at Lichfield, this Owini
the end came to his beautiful life. It was seems ever to have been with the saintly
no wonder, Bede tells us, that Chad re bishop.
joiced to behold the day of his death, or In the course of Chad s third year as
rather the day of the Lord, seeing he had Mercian bishop, came over the commu
so anxiously prepared for it. It came to nity what Bede styles a mortality sent
the great saint through an attack of one of from heaven . this was one of those often-
those desolating pestilences which so often recurring pestilences we have referred to,
swept in these times over England, and known as the yellow or black plague, and
which were so specially fatal to these early which was probably some form of typhus
evangelists, whose toil-worn frames, spent fever. Many of the Lichfield community
196 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [665.

sickened and died. While this pestilence the Holy Communion, died, departing to
was brooding over Lichfield, one day,
still the joys of heaven.
when the brethren were in the church, and The death of St. Chad happened in the

the bishop, probably sick, was alone in the year 672. For more than twelve centuries
oratory of his Owini was engaged in
cell, the memory of this lovable man and un
some garden work, when he heard of a wearied worker in his Master s cause has

sudden a sweet unearthly sound as of been treasured in Lichfield and the Mid
angelic music coming near ;
the sounds lands. He was buried in the little church
then seemed to rest over Chad s cell, and of St. Mary, but his remains were after
then to be issuing from the cell itself. wards removed to St. Peter s great church.
While wondering what this might mean, Bede, who only lived a few years later,,

he saw Chad opening the window of the describes his shrine as a wooden structure,
little cell and beckoning him. The bishop in the form of a small wooden house, and
bade him call at once the brethren who covered with tapestry.
were in the church. They came and
stood by their beloved master. He charged To return now to Wilfrid. The con
them to live at peace among themselves duct of the Northumbrian king in thus
and towards all and to preserve the
others, deposing him, and setting up another
rules of regular discipline which he had bishop in his room, was an act which
taught them. Then Chad added, the day in Wilfrid s eyes and with his Roman
of his death was at hand the brethren ; views, must have appeared reactionary and
went away from their master in sorrow. inexcusable but to the king it probably
;

But Owini immediately went back to his presented itself in a different aspect. In
master s cell, and kneeling before him, the light of that declared intention of

prayed him to tell him the meaning of resistance to Roman authority as such r
that song of joy he had heard coming out avowed later on by his third son Aldfrid,
of the oratory in the earlier part of the it may be that, notwithstanding his first

Chad answered u If recourse to Roman

morning. him, you acquiescence in Wilfrid s

heard this singing, and knew of the coming ordination, further reflection, aided doubt
of the heavenly company, I charge you in less by representations from the Celtic

the Lord s name do not speak of it to any party, suggested to Oswiu state reasons
one before my death. The music came from for a protest which has been found but
angelie spirits who were sent to speak to too necessary by many successive English

me, to tell me of my heavenly reward, sovereigns. It is, moreover, to be remem

which I have for so long earnestly waited, to bered that Celtic ideas of a bishop seem to
assure me that in seven days they would have been more connected with function
return and take me hence away with than with territorial jurisdiction : the great
them."
exactly happened, says our
It number of Irish Celtic bishops, and their

faithful chronicler, as Chad told Owini. frequent subjection to monastic discipline,

He sickened with a languishing distemper, has already been recorded. The diocesan
and on the seventh day, after receiving idea which we now connect with a
665-669.]
WILFRID AT RIPON. 197

seems to have been more or these much looser Celtic ideas. It was an
bishopric,
Roman idea indefinite and transitional period in the
less a distinctively :
amongst
and Saxons, at this time, it rather history of ecclesiasticism, however,
and the
Celts
seems to have been considered that while precise truth is not easy to ascertain. But
there need be no hesitation whatever in
it belonged to the Church alone to confer
spiritual functions,
it belonged to the admiring the conduct of the deposed bishop
on Wilfrid accepted his
State to appoint where they should be this occasion.

OWINI AT THE MONASTERY (p. 195).

exercised. It will be observed that the degradation with all the humility and grace

succeeding Engle sovereigns seem to have of a true saint, and made no resistance.
claimed and exercised the same rights of In silence he retired to his monastery of
appointing to bishoprics, and that three Ripon and quietly pursued his work there,
such saints as Chad, Eata, and Cuthbert, beautifying and enriching that famous
alike appear to have seen nothing improper house of prayer.
in obeying the king s mandate. Indeed He was not, however, allowed long to
and this is still more remarkable the remain in cloistered seclusion, for Wulf-
archbishop Theodore himself, in carrying here, the king of Mercia, and his queen
out his own policy a few years later, seems Ermenilda, a Kentish princess, an earnest
to have been willing to avail himself of and devoted Christian, summoned him to
198 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [669.

their side to assist in the still
velopment of Christianity in those districts,
occupied by the Midland Engles. There
the work prospered greatly, several new
monasteries were founded, and paganism
further de eloquence won for him among the people
was the gradual adoption of the Roman
use universally throughout Mercia. In
Kent, of course, Celtic customs had ever
been unknown there the original work
;

gradually disappeared from central Eng of the Roman Augustine had never been
land. While quietly working with the interfered with. In the great Midland
Mercian king and queen, Wilfrid was asked monasteries, such as Peterborough, several
by Egbert, king of Kent, to assist in the of which were founded in this period, the

government of the Kentish church, which Romish use was universal. The Italian

at this junction was without a head, tonsure, the date of the Easter festival,

Wighard, who had been chosen to sit in and its liturgical uses, became gradually
the chair of Augustine, in succession to general. The rule of St. Benedict, too,
Deus-dedit, having suddenly died at Rome. approved and sanctioned by the bishops
For several years, then, while Chad was of Rome, was universally introduced, and

acting as bishop in Northumbria, Wilfrid gradually seems to have superseded the old
worked in the Midlands and the South Irish and Scottish rule of lona and Lindis-

East, without any settled home save his farne. Indeed, largely owing to the work
own monastery of Ripon. At no period of Wilfrid, the Roman pattern of church
of the great churchman s stormy and government and order with singular rapidity
eventful life did his character show to took the place in England of the Celtic
greater advantage than in these years of practices introduced by the first generatioi
misfortune and exile from his own see; of missionaries of the faith.

when, with silent submission but with un The work of Wilfrid in the Midlands
wearied activity and zeal, he did the work during the period of his exile from his
which lay ready to his hand, refraining from great northern see lasted nearly four
all interference with Chad, who was also years. In the year 669 a great change
one of the little band of true workers for came over his fortunes, and a new and
God, but whom Wilfrid, of course, re powerful influence was introduced into
garded as an intruder. During this period England which, though subsequently
Wilfrid exercised a vast influence over somewhat antagonistic to Wilfrid s per
Wulrhere and Ermenilda, the king and sonality, completely consolidated his life
queen of Mercia (Middle England), and work as regards the great question of Roman
Egbert, king of Kent. The result of this supremacy. This new power, which arose
influence over the sovereign lords aided in England in the fourth year of Wil

by the power which his own blameless frid s work in Mercia and Kent, came

lifeand restless energy and undoubted from the arch-see of Canterbury.

 CHAPTER XI.

WILFRID AND THEODORE. GROWING POWER OF ROME.

Brief History of the Canterbury See Choice of Archbishop left to the Pope Hadrian Consecration
of Theodore to the Archbishopric His vast Influence in the English Church Restores Wilfrid to
the See of Northumbria, and makes Chad Bishop of Lichfield Diligence of Wilfrid His zeal
in Building Churches Lamentable Course with regard to Queen Etheldreda, and consequent
Quarrel with King Egfrid Theodore introduces Parochial Organisation In concert with Egfrid
deposes Wilfrid and divides his Diocese Wilfrid Appeals to Rome Work in Friesland Vindicated
at Rome While at Rome Wilfrid guarantees English Orthodoxy Imprisoned by Egfrid On his
Release works amongst the South Saxons Strange Conduct of Archbishop Theodore Fall of
King Egfrid Reconciliation and Reparation by Theodore Death of the Archbishop Wilfrid
again Deposed and Banished by Aldfrid, retiring to Lichfield Council of Nesterfield deciding
against him, he Appeals for the second time to Rome Triumphant Vindication there Resistance
of Aldfrid to the Papal Decree Reinstated by the Council of the Nidd Wilfrid s last years
His \Vork and Character.

years had passed though divided rule of the West Saxons,

since the Roman monk Augustine which reached from the confines of Kent
SEVENTY-TWO
had landed at Ebbsfleet on the to the Severn lands in the west.
Kentish coast, and had established his The line of the first archbishops of
successful Roman
mission at Canterbury, Canterbury was as follows :

A.D.
under the protection of the Jutish king
Augustine lands at Ebbsfleet 597
Ethelbert and his Prankish queen Bertha. Laurence 605
As we have seen, the successful work of These five Original com-
first arch Mellitus panions ofAu
Augustine s mission had been almost ex gustine - -
619
bishops were -
Justus 624
clusively confined to the narrow limits of
,

all Italians.
Honorius, also a Disciple of
the Jutish kingdom of Kent, in the extreme Pope Gregory, possibly also
south-east corner of the island. In recog companion of Augustine - 627
Deus-dedit, an Anglo-Saxon,
nition of the earlier successes of Augustine,
whose name originally was
the Roman see had conferred upon their Frithona -
655
Wighard. one of the clergy of
first
missionary the dignity of the pall and
Deus-dedit, nominated to
the lofty rank of archbishop of the English.
archbishopric, but died in
The dignity and the rank were continued Rome before consecration -
667
to his successors at Canterbury. But these An interval of some three or
four years, during much of
successors, although possessing lofty sound which time Wilfrid worked
ing titles, were of
weight outside the
little in Kent.

narrow limits of the Kentish kingdom, and Theodore, a Greek of Tarsus 668-9

the power of that Kentish kingdom was With the exception of Augustine, during
completely overshadowed by the great these seventy - two years none of these
Engle supremacy in the North and Mid men were of conspicuous ability. God
lands, and even by the widely extended fearing, quiet men, they did their work
2OO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [668.

soberly and unostentatiously, but their been supreme in the south-east, and king
influence was little felt outside Kent :
Egbert of Kent, agreed to nominate Wig-
another and a stronger spirit was at work hard, a Canterbury monk, to the vacant see.

which changed Pagan into Christian Eng Wilfrid had already demurred as to the
land. The first five archbishops were position of the English bishops. So it was
Italians ;
three of them companions of the agreed that to silence opposition Wighard
first great Roman missionary Augustine. should proceed to Rome and be consecrated

CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE S MONASTERY, CANTERBURY.

(To the left is St. Ethelbcrts Tower.)

The fifth, Honorius, if not a companion of there. But he died almost directly after
Augustine, certainly had been trained in his coming to Rome. The two kings,
the same Roman school of thought. Bede Oswiu and Egbert, therefore agreed to
calls him a disciple of Pope Gregory. leave the appointment of the archbishop
When Honorius died, his successor, the of Canterbury to the Roman bishop
Saxon Frithona, a native of Wessex, was known in history as Pope Vitalian.

chosen. Frithona changed his barbarous The choice fell upon one Hadrian, an
name into the Latin Deus-dedit." His
"

African by birth, a man of vast learn

episcopate was in no
way remarkable, and ing, abbot of a monastery near Naples.
when he passed away king Oswiu of Hadrian, however, declined positively the
Northumbria, whose power seems to have high office; but although he never filled the
668-690.] THEODORE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 201

chair of Augustine, he still exercised the Tarsus in Cilicia. He too, like his friend

highest influence in the development of Hadrian, was a man of profound learn

the English church. It was on the strong ing and of the highest reputation, his
recommendation of Hadrian that Theodore, knowledge being so extensive and various,

TWELVE SCENES IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

(From a Latin Gospel Book of the Seventh Century* Illustrations probably added later)

a very great name indeed in the history of that he was known among his contem
the Church of England, was finally chosen poraries as
"

The Philosopher."

by the bishop of Rome to be archbishop Thanks to the policy of the Northum

of Canterbury. Theodore was an Asiatic brian king Oswiu, whose supremacy over
Greek, being a native of St. Paul s city of a large portion of England during most

*
of his long reign was more or less ac
From the library of Corpus Christ! College,
Cambridge. It belonged to St. Augustine s Monas knowledged, the shadowy pretension of
tery in the ninth or tenth century. the archbishops of Canterbury to spiritual
202 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [669.

authority over all the conquered por Pope Vitalian, who at that time was
tions of the island became a reality ;
the ruler of the Roman see, in accordance
and the tact and splendid abilities of the with Oswiu s and Egbert
s request, ap
new archbishop did much to advance and pointed Theodore, the Greek, to Canter
then to maintain these lofty pretensions. bury, but made it a condition that Theodore
Wilfrid had done great things in Northum- should be accompanied by Hadrian, whom
bria and Mercia; and during the years of he had in the first place nominated to the

his rise to reputation and power, during chair of Augustine, but who had refused
the years of his rule at York, and subse the dignity. The reason of Pope Vitalian

quently during his exile in Mercia, had insisting upon this condition, was to safe

helped to accustom men s minds to the guard English Christianity. The truth
idea of the awful authority of Rome; and evidently was, that while at Rome Theo
the archbishops of Canterbury were the dore s vast practical ability and indomitable
accredited ministers, the official lieutenants will in organising was recognised, some
of the Roman see. But great as was doubt existed headquarters as to his
at

Theodore s success in consolidating the perfect orthodoxy. Bede s cautious words

church in England into the Church of deserve to be quoted. Hadrian was ap

England, and in establishing the principle pointed as his permanent counsellor he

of the Roman obedience from the Forth was, too, his dearest friend "

that he
to the English Channel, it is not too much might take special care that Theodore,
to say that he could never have done this after the custom of the Greeks, should not

had not Wilfrid gone beforehand as Rome s introduce anything contrary to the true

pioneer. Theodore virtually consolidated faith into the Church where he presided."

Wilfrid s successful work. This somewhat mysterious allusion is

The Greek monk, who was so strangely cleared up when we remember that the

promoted to the metropolitan see of this Monothelite controversy,* really a contest

for life and death to the Catholic Church,
country at a comparatively advanced age
(he was sixty-seven years old when he began because it involved the reality of our
his English work), may with truth be con- Lord s willing self-sacrifice, had been
sidered to have been the founder of the troubling Christendom for more than
Church of England. Before Theodore, a thirty years. Many of the Eastern or
few great bishops perfectly independent Greek Christians had been mixed up with
one of another, with a certain number of this really fatal heresy, and Pope Vitalian

important monasteries and nunneries, made and his advisers evidently suspected that

up with the Christian population the Theodore, the archbishop-elect, had some
church in the island after Theodore
; leanings in this direction, and needed
these scattered units were welded into one the constant presence and loving counsels
Church, owing obedience to Canterbury, of a great teacher to keep him in thi
and through Canterbury acknowledging a particular in the paths of orthodoxy.
sort of obedience to Rome, whose rites they Theodore gladly accepted the companio:
* See
adopted and whose usages they followed. page 214.
 668690.] THEODORE AND HADRIAN. 203

ship of his friend Hadrian ;

who proved accepted it, considering it was his duty to
*
himself eventually worthy of the confid obey him." Theodore was moved at the

ence of Rome, and, as the archbishop s exceeding gentleness and piety of the man,
right hand and adviser in theology and and even appeared to waver in his judg
learning, raised the Church of England, ment as to the propriety of Chad s retain
during Theodore s wise rule, to an un ing possession of the see of York buf ;

dreamed-of position as a great Catholic Chad was only too eager to free himself

teaching centre. Theodore and Hadrian from a burden he had never desired, and
were accompanied to England by the retired to the quiet seclusion of his dead

Northumbrian scholar, Benedict Biscop, brother s

monastery at Lastingham, in East
whom we have met with before as Wil Yorkshire. Wilfrid at once returned,
frid s friend and companion in early life, and without opposition took possession
and whose special work in his native of the vacant chair of the great northern-

country will come before us presently. bishopric. The gentle, holy Chad, how
It was not till May, 669, that the ever,was not long allowed to remain in his
grand old man, as he has been well styled loved retreat at Lastingham for, at the ;

by his biographer, took his seat in the instance of Wilfrid who, in spite of all that
basilica of Augustine in Canterbury a had gone before, admired his saintly rival

great and memorable day for the Church with a real admiration, an admiration that
of England, which during his unexpectedly not improbably had induced his silent

long episcopate he was so wisely to organise acquiescence when Chad took his place
and to strengthen. Benedict Biscop was at York Chad was summoned to Wilfrid s
appointed temporarily abbot of the great work in Mercia and Middle England.
Canterbury monastery, a position, however, Chad, for peace sake, and for the sake
which he shortly afterwards vacated in of preserving the unity of the church, sub
favour of Hadrian. mitted at Theodore s request to a fresh
Archbishop Theodore s first important ordination, and subsequently to a renewed
work in England was to investigate the episcopal consecration, and some three
curious position held by Chad, who for years later, in 672, closed his beautiful
some three years had been acting as bishop life as bishop of Lichfield, as we have
of the vast northern see of York, to which related already.
Wilfrid had been lawfully appointed
and canonically consecrated in the august Wilfrid, now reinstated in York, A.D.
ceremony, already related, at Compiegne. 669, occupied at length a proud and un
There seemed no doubt but that Chad was disputed position in the church of his
an intruder, and the archbishop plainly gave native island. For the next nine or ten
to him his opinion as to the transaction. years the main interest in the story of the
Chad at once offered to resign his great church clusters round the two, Theodore
office. With all humility, he told Theodore
Attention has already been drawn (p. 196) to
he never deemed himself worthy of it
"

;
the probable difference between Celtic and Roman
but that at his monarch s bidding he had ideas regarding a bishopric and its functions.
204 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673680.

and Wilfrid Theodore in the South and some laxity in the claims of bishops to
the Midlands, Wilfrid in the North of perform sacerdotal functions in dioceses

England and Lowlands of Scotland. The entrusted to brother bishops. These

two eminent prelates worked generally canons also dealt with certain ill-advised
independently one of the other. Both of claims to superiority of rank now and

them, however, were devoted adherents of then claimed by certain prelates over
Rome her customs, ways of government, their brother bishops. Nos. 4 and 5 forbade
and order. Outwardly, at all events, there monks and roaming about at their
clerics

was no jealousy, or even the appearance of pleasure ;

such were not to be received
rivalry between these two great makers without the commendatory letter of the

of the Church of England. At the Synod, prelate of their own diocese. No. 3 asserted
often called the Council of Hertford, held the independence of monasteries from
by Theodore in 673, Wilfrid did not vexatious episcopal interference. No. 10

appear, but was only represented by maintained the sanctity of marriage among
delegates. laymen. No. 7 ordered that the synod
This Synod memorable not by reason
is should meet at stated intervals. No. 9
of its debates or resolutions, which were treated of the increase of the episcopate ;

curiously uninteresting but because it this canon the most important of all
was the first of all national gatherings, was, however, withdrawn for the time.
and formally united the national churches The second provincial Synod was held
into an ecclesiastical province. Thus under the presidency of archbishop Theo
the Church of England is- older than dore some seven years later, in 680, at

the English monarchy, for there was a Hatfield in Hertfordshire,

"

in order to
united Church of England embracing the certify the Pope as to the
orthodoxy of the
whole population Jute, Angle, Saxon church under his (Theodore s) rule, and so
a century before the general supremacy to add to the testimony of the Western
of king Egbert of Wessex. Churches, now to be brought to bear on
"

Theodore,"
writes Bede, "was the
archbishop first the East."* The names of the bishops
whom the English churches obeyed."
all who attended this early Synod do not
Present at this Hertford Synod of Theo appear, but other teachers, as at Hertford,
dore s, besides Wilfrid s delegates, were besides bishops, appear to have been
four other bishops Bisi, of East Anglia ; present. John, the precentor, is specified as
Putta, of Rochester Leutherius, of the ;
commissary from the Bishop of Rome.
West Saxons and Winfrid, of the Mer
; The decrees of the Hatfield Synod under
cians ;
and probably many church teachers Theodore are important, in that they define
who were not bishops. Nine resolu positively the faith of the English Church,
tions or canons were passed. No. i, from which, in the more important par
a repetition of the agreement as to ticulars therein it has never
defined,
keeping Easter. Nos. 2, 6, 8, contained swerved. The record of the Council,
regulations as to the separate jurisdiction A.D. 680, declares that its members, firmly
of bishops. It would seem that there was *
Professor Bright "

:
Early English Church."
673-68o.] SYNODS OF HERTFORD AND HATFIELD. 205

adhering to the teaching delivered by anything glorifying God the Father with
:

Christ to His original disciples, to the out beginning, and His Only-begotten Son,
creed of the holy (Nicene) fathers .... begotten of the Father before the ages,
confessed the Holy Trinity, that is, the and the Holy Spirit proceeding ineffably

WILFRID IN STATE (p. 2Oj).

One God in Three Consubstantial Subsist [tnenarrabttiter] from the Father and the
ences or Persons of
equal glory and Son [et Ftlio~\"
We have here a plain
honour ;
it
acknowledged the five Councils assertion of the double procession of the
and the Lateran Council held in the time Holy Spirit, which was originally a gloss in
of the blessed Pope Martin.
"

And we troduced into the Constantinople recension

Lord Jesus even as they glorified
glorify our of the creed of Nice, by the great Spanish

Him, neither adding nor taking away Councils of Toledo in the sixth and seventh
 2O6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [670678.

centuries, intended to strike at Visigothic everywhere formed travelling, now on

;

Arianism by emphasising the doctrine of foot, now on horseback, in all weathers and
a co-equal and consubstantial Son. The in all seasons, baptising, preaching, con
theological language of St. Augustine con firming ;
it is related, gather
everywhere,
tains explicit assertions to the same effect.* ing round him eager crowds longing to
hear his eloquent, fervid words, and to
In the year 670 Oswiu s glorious and receive the blessed Sacraments at his hands.

lengthy reign was closed. After an in Monastic communities were multiplied,

terval of some years his remains were and at these schools were established, and
claimed by his daughter, Elfleda, the to them resorted the children of the

pupil of Hilda, and her

successor as noblest rank, entrusted to Wilfrid s care to
abbess and the illustrious Engle king
;
be trained for the secular as well as for
was laid to sleep in the famous Whitby the purely religious life.

abbey which he had founded. There, by In his monasteries Wilfrid was especially
the side of king Edwin, and with many anxious to introduce and to cultivate
other royal and distinguished dead, king music and singing, recognising how power
Oswiu beneath the grass-grown
still rests ful an aid to devotion was sweet and
floor of perhaps the most striking ruined solemn music. Under his wise care

abbey in
England. Northumbria became a great and renowned
His son and successor, Egfrid, for a long centre of sacred song, rivalling here the
season continued the friendship of his father yet more celebrated school of Canterbury
Oswiu with Wilfrid. These nine years under Theodore and Hadrian. Like many
were the most successful and brilliant of other eminent churchmen, Wilfrid was
Wilfrid s eventful career. His biographer also a great builder. From hi,s early days
and dear friend, Eddius, gives us many in the rough, wattle-built huts of Lindis

details of his work -filled, restless career. fame, he had dreamed of stately homes of
He tells us of his severe, austere life ;
of prayer with which he longed to replace
his nights passed in prayer of his days ;
the low wooden churches of the lona and
often spent in studying the Holy Scriptures. Lindisfarne teachersand now in his day
;

Different from some of the mediaeval saints, of power he reproduced as well as he was
Eddius relates how he washed from head able some of those noble churches and
to foot every night in cold but consecrated he had gazed upon with awe and
basilicas

water, and persevered in the custom until admiration in Roman Italy, in Lyons and
far advanced in age, when the Pope, fearing southern Gaul. Masons, glaziers, painters,
for his health, forbade him to continue were ever in the train of the unwearied
the practice. His immense diocese, which bishop of the north. The church of York
stretched from the Humber to the Clyde, was one of his earliest works. The first
he constantly traversed, multiplying priests church of Edwin and Oswald had falle

and deacons for the new parishes which were into sad decay. Under Wilfrid s care a
* new roof of lead covered the minster the
Compare Professor Bright
"
;
:
Early English
Church," chap. xi. windows were for the first time glazed t so
670-678.] WILFRID S WORK AS A CHURCH BUILDER. 207

that the birds could no longer fly in and foundress and first abbess of Ely. The
out ;
the walls were carefully plastered, Hexham abbey was dedicated to St.

and the altar was decorated. Andrew, in memory of that church so dear
On his own Ripon he bestowed the most to Wilfrid and the lovers of the Roman
devoted attention. Eddius speaks with school, whence came Augustine and his first
rapture of the noble basilica erected there. little band of missionaries. Hexham Abbey,

Nothing in England had yet been seen to with its deep -dug foundations, its vast
compare with its lofty porches and its crypt, its porches and pillars, its spiral
columns of pol staircases and
ished stone. On galleries, its lofty
the day of its and imposing
consecration spires, for two
king Egfrid centuries after

and the leading its completion

thanes of North- by Wilfrid and
umbria, with a his architect,
great concourse, was looked up
came together, on as the most
and in their beautiful and
presence, with stately house of
much pomp and God on this

ceremony, the side of the Alps.

bishop of York This wonderful

dedicated the church, with all

church to St. its accumulated

Peter, vesting art treasures,
the altar with such as reliqua
precious cover ST. WILFRID S NEEDLE, RIPON CATHEDRAL. ries, shrines,

ings of purple books, was

and gold. Upon the altar thus vested, sacked and burned by the Danes in 875,
Wilfrid laid the far-famed Book of the some two hundred years later.
Gospels which he had prepared. This Thus Wilfrid s power and influence grew.
magnificent copy Gospels was
of the At times he seemed to throw aside the
written on purple vellum with letters of simplicity and Homeliness with which he
gold the binding was of plates of gold
;
won so many hearts among even the lowest
encrusted with precious gems. of the people, and appeared abroad escorted
Yet more magnificent even than his by a train, dressed and armed with all the
church of Ripon, was the abbey of Hex- splendour of royal guards no doubt ;

ham, where Wilfrid had founded a great thinking that such appearances in public
monastery on lands given to him by the would impress men s minds with a sense
queen of Egfrid, Etheldreda, afterwards of the grandeur of a church whose chiei
208 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [670 678.

minister was thus honoured. Some think, queen to remain with him. Etheldreda,
and perhaps rightly, that such display stirred however, remained steadfast to her resolve,
up envy and evil speaking, and may have and Wilfrid was suspected, probably with
deeply offended the king, who was gradually good cause, of abetting the queen s pur
alienated from the great bishop. But there pose. She fled from the court and took
was a deeper and more direct cause of the the veil at the hands of Wilfrid at the

enmity which, after this long period of great double monastery of Coldingham, of
noble work, separated the Northumbrian which house the princess Ebba, the aunt
monarch from Wilfrid. of Egfrid, was abbess.

Etheldreda, the queen of Egfrid, a The king pursued her thither, and the
daughter ofAnna, the East Saxon king, wanderings of Etheldreda
fled as she
was famed for her great beauty. In her from her husband have formed the sub
youth she loved dress and ornaments, and ject of a
curious legendary romance.

years after, when dying as abbess of Ely, In the end, in her own East Anglian
famed far and wide for her sanctity, al land the queen found a refuge and there, ;

luding to a painful tumour in her neck on the low rising ground above the desolate
from which she was suffering, said to the fens, she founded the famous double house

bystanders,
"

I believe now I am endur of Ely on the spot where the stately cathe
ing this pain that I may be absolved from dral of Ely now stands. But the important
the guilt of my thoughtless levity in the share which Wilfrid took in the transaction,

days of my youth, having now this swell for ever made a hopeless breach betweer

ing and burning on my neck instead of him and king Egfrid and from this da)
;

the gold and precious stones which once may be said to have commenced the
used to adorn it." The passion for a celebrated misfortunes of the bishop.
cloistered life, so common in these days

among the great ones of the earth, espe During the nine years of Wilfrid s

cially among women, took possession of splendid work in Northumbria, in the

the Northumbrian queen
deplorable domestic tragedy, which further
caused an adulterous marriage and a war.*
She desired to leave her brilliant court
and her husband, and dedicate her life to
what, according to the strange ideal sedu
lously promoted by ecclesiastical exhorta
tion, was considered
;
and led to a midlands and southern districts of England
Theodore and Hadrian, the two old men,
the one from the East, the other from North
Africa, the faithful lieutenants of Rome,
had also been working unwearyingly, witl
a large measure of success. The two jour-|
neyed unceasingly together through the
"

religion." Egfrid, vast dioceses of the southern and midland

who loved her tenderly, was bitterly op districts, organising the church, correcting
posed to her wish, and summoned the abuses, preaching and teaching, careful

all-powerful bishop Wilfrid to influence the everywhere to enforce the Roman customs,
* especially the Roman use in the matter of
Green traces the war between Egfrid and
Wulfhere, partly to the shelter given by the latter
the date of Easter. We can even trace
to queen Etheldreda. their presence in Wilfrid s diocese as far
668690.] WORK OF ARCHBISHOP THEODORE. 209

as Lindisfarne ;
for there is no doubt but of the kingdoms or sub-kingdoms into

that Theodore, although interfering but which the conquered island was divided ;

little in this period with the great northern for instance, the vast Engle division of

bishop, regarded himself, and was regarded Northumbria, stretching from the Humber
even by Wilfrid, as metropolitan, and, in a formed one huge bishopric
to the Clyde, ;

sense, the supreme ecclesiastic in England. Mercia, the other great Engle division,
It is to archbishop Theodore and Hadrian, including all the Midlands, formed another

ETHELDREDA TAKING THE VEIL.

especially in the south and midlands, that ecclesiastical province ;

East Anglia, again,
the commencement of parochial organisa constituted another ;
Wessex and Kent
tion is traced. Many churches were built each had their solitary chief pastor. With
in this time ;
and in not a few instances such men as Wilfrid in Northumbria and
resident priests, not attached to any Chad Mercia, prelates of such distin
in

Monastic community, were appointed to guished ability and possessing such varied
:ake charge of them. It is to Theodore gifts, any distribution of their dioceses
ilso that an increase of the episcopate is would have been a difficult if not a

>wing.
Hitherto only a very few bishops hopeless task. But when Chad died
lad been appointed usually one bishop in A.D. 672, and some six years later

:aking the oversight of the church in each Wilfrid incurred the bitter enmity of the
2IO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [678.

Northumbrian king, Egfrid, Theodore was joys which had just been preached to them;
able to split up the large division of North- and whosoever wished to be instructed in
umbria. In other parts of England his sacred learning found the masters that he
task of sub-division was easier, where needed close at hand." In this Canterbury
there were no prelates of the commanding school was trained a young scholar under
talents of Chad and Wilfrid. Theodore and Hadrian, whose work and
We possess an abiding monument of the influence extended throughout England,
zeal and industry of these two aged men, and even far beyond. His name was
in the well-known collection of moral Aldhelm, to whose work we shall presently

and penal institutes known as the Peni- return.

u
tentials of Theodore Liber Pceni- But now Theodore and Wilfrid came
tentialis." This work was drawn up into collision. The breach between king
by some priest from Theodore s oral Egfrid and Wilfrid, which resulted largely
answers to questions concerning discipline. from the unhappy part the bishop playec
It was the first book of the kind published in the matter of Etheldreda s leaving he

by authority in the western church, and husband and adopting the monastic life,
was the foundation of all the other similar was never repaired. The king, on the re
collections "

libelli poenitentiales
"

in grettable and sorrowful dissolution of his fir

England. This work, and Theodore and marriage,wooed and won another prina
Hadrian s renowned school set up at Ermenburga, a sister-in-law of the West
Canterbury in St. Augustine s Monastery Saxon king. The new queen hated Wilfric
there, spread the reputation of the English from the first perhaps on account of his
;

archbishop for ecclesiastical learning and devoted friendship to her predecessor,

canon law all over Europe. Schools were Etheldreda ;
or it
may be for family life

also established in many of the greater and sympathy were strong among tl
monasteries ;
but the great seminary was Saxons and Engles that she simplj
in Canterbury, where classes were estab adopted her husband s domestic wrong.
and
lished not only for ecclesiastical music It was Ermenburga who pointed out tc
for Greek and Hebrew theology, but also king Egfrid still smarting from the
for the more secular subjects, including wound Wilfrid s influence and condu(
arithmetic and astronomy, and the art of had inflicted on his once happy home
illuminating and writing books. England life how the enormous power of a sub
under the influence of this eminent ject like the bishop would in time
over-j
man became an important literary centre. shadow the throne ;
she painted to he
husband
"

Never," says Bede, writing enthusiastic glowing colours, in language

in

ally of this period of Theodore s work, stimulated by hatred, the pomp and luxury,
Anglo-Saxons landed in Britain,
since the
"

the vast, ever-increasing riches of WilfridJ

had more happy days been known. We the number of monasteries all devoted
had Christian kings at whose bravery the to his person, the innumerable array of
barbarous nations trembled ;
all hearts his vassals, and the growing influence of
were inflamed by the hope of those celestial the all-powerful ecclesiastic.
678.] WILFRID IS BANISHED. 211

NowTheodore of Canterbury s wishes passionately attached. In all these trans

to subdivide the enormous Northumbrian actions, Egfrid and Theodore evidently
diocese were well known at the court of made use of the old animosity which still
Egfrid ; already at the Church Council existed between Rome and the school of
which Theodore had summoned at Hert lona and Lindisfarne.
ford in 673, the archbishop of Canterbury In vain did Wilfrid remonstrate ;
in
had mooted his proposition of subdivision, vain did he publicly demand an explana
but finding grave opposition from Wil tion of the strange procedure of Theodore

frid, had adjourned his request. Egfrid and Egfrid. "

It is,"
said he,
"

simple
and Ermenburga now determined to strike plundering." They replied,
"

We charge
an effective blow at Wilfrid, and threw you with no crime, but we will not change
themselves with ardour into Theodore s our determination." Then said the de
designs. The Northumbrian sovereign posed and plundered Wilfrid, I appeal to
"

met Theodore at York while Wilfrid was the judgment of the Bishop of Rome."
absent, and the king and the archbishop This was a memorable act, this first

agreed to depose Wilfrid and to divide his appeal to Rome on the part of a great
vast diocese into four divisions. English subject, and one that, as will
As far as we can judge now, archbishop be seen, in the coming ages led to far-
Theodore s action in the matter ol the reaching consequences.
deposition and banishment of Wilfrid was
contrary to all church order, and will The exiled and fallen bishop was accom
ever remain a blot upon the fair fame panied on journey to Rome by a
his
of the prelate s great and useful career. numerous train of devoted followers, and
Indeed, the old man himself recognised his journey Romewards was an eventful
this, and years after, shortly before he died, one. The ship which bore him from
tried to make what amends were in his the shores of England was
carried by

power to the injured bishop. The diocese tempestuous and contrary winds far out

ofYork and Northumbria was subdivided of its course. At last he landed on

into four dioceses of York, Hexham, the the low and marshy shores of Friesland.
northern portion of Mercia, and Lindis- These districts were then inhabited by

iarne. Over the last named, it was pro a northern tribe to whom Christianity was
posed to
appoint deposed the Wilfrid. unknown. It was one of the peculiar
Curiously enough, the three bishops who features of the character of Wilfrid that
were placed over the new sees were monks he could at once forget his personal
taken from the ancient Celtic monasteries, troubles, perhaps ambitions, and
and
who, while recognising the now universally throw himself with ardour into any new
adopted Roman customs, were naturally work which appeared ready to his hand.
hostile to the great Roman reformer and He resolved to act as missionary to these

supplanter of those Celtic traditions and pagan amongst whom thus

Northmen
uses in which they had been brought up, unexpectedly he found himself and for ;

and to which they, no doubt, were still a whole winter, neglecting himself and
212 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [6 79 .

forgetting his wrongs, with splendid eager deposition. The Engle prelate had sub
ness addressed himself to this new work. mitted himself without reserve to the
His rare power, his singularly winning judgment of Rome, and Rome directed

manner, his intense earnestness, won many that he should be at once restored to his
converts to his Master s faith, and the vast northern see ;
that he should divide
seeds of Christianity were sown far and that see as archbishop Theodore desired ;

wide by him and his companions in that but that the coadjutor bishops should be

comparatively unknown district. chosen by Wilfrid himself. There is no

At the year A.D. 679, he
length, in doubt but that this decision was a fair one;
.appeared in Rome. Before his arrival, for by Theodore at least,
owning fully the
however, envoys from England, charged Roman obedience, Wilfrid had been un
by archbishop Theodore and the great doubtedly harshly and illegally treated ;

and powerful abbess Hilda, had already and his past labour and splendid success
brought the story of Wilfrid s in his work had surely merited a
deposi very
tion to the Roman bishop and his different treatment. At the same time
councillors. Wilfrid and his great work, the wisdom of archbishop Theodore s
his wrongs and his ambitions, were all policy in England was recognised and
well known at Rome.But Rome and its endorsed by the authoritative prescrip
astute bishop, with wisdom which
that tion of a new arrangement of dioceses,

usually characterised its policy, had recog the number of which were at once to
nised in Wilfrid one of its most devoted be largely augmented island. in the
and able servants, and had in large measure But Wilfrid, not Theodore, was to select
grasped the nature of Wilfrid s great work the northern prelates who were to be
in the past in England. It had recognised his suffragans. The bishops who had
the part Wilfrid had played in the substi been appointed by Theodore and king
tution of Roman for Celtic Christianity in Egfrid in their division of Wilfrid s

the new England of the Northmen, and large diocese, were necessarily to be at

determined to give every facility to the once deposed.

famous exiled bishop to plead his cause While Wilfrid was at Rome Etheldreda,
before the Roman judges to whom he had somewhile queen Northumbria and
of

appealed. subsequently foundress and abbess of Ely,

The bishop who claimed to be the died, still young, of one of those contagious
head of the Mother Church of Western disorders which, as we have said, were

Christendom, entrusted the hearing of then so frequent. Etheldreda had been

the important cause to an assembly of one of Wilfrid s dearest friends, and

fifty bishops and presbyters, over which unhappy influence over her in inducing
he presided in person. After a careful her to take the veil and leave her husband
and patient hearing the Cardinal bishops king Egfrid, had no doubt been the
of Ostia and Porto reported to the principal cause of the bitter enmity which
presiding Bishop of Rome, that Wilfrid king Egfrid had lately displayed against
was innocent of any crime meriting him. Among the far-reaching projects for
079-] WILFRID AT ROME. 213

the future work of Christianity in England assisting her to break away from her
which Wilfrid entertained, was the entrust marriage tie
affording
;
a terrible thus
ing great power into the hands of women demonstration of the danger which had
converts, whose enormous influence he arisen even in this early age, that in
foresaw in matters connected with religion. furtherance of the ends of a gigantic
He fully appreciated the work and energy, ecclesiastical system, all other human
and recognised the vast power of a Hilda interests,however sacred, might be
or an Ebba, both scions of the royal house trampled under foot. The great double

of Northumbria. But the weight of these monastery of Ely, which Etheldreda

eminent and devoted women was thrown founded amidst the fens of East Anglia,
on the side of the old Celtic party. Wil and the reputation she rapidly acquired,
frid longed to train up similar influential showed that Wilfrid had rightly esti

women, from whose devotion and energy mated her great powers. Her premature
he hoped much in the future work of death was a great misfortune to him ;

evangelising those districts of the island but her work at Ely was enduring.
where paganism was still dominant. The During Wilfrid s stay at Rome the
disposition and ability of queen Ethel- Council was held which considered and
dreda were well known to Wilfrid, who condemned the Monothelite heresy. For
thought in her he had found a fitting half a century this strange heresy, which
instrument for his plans. Hence, per- affected the Catholic doctrine respecting

ihaps, the deplorable part he took in our Lord, had troubled the Church, and
214 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [68 1.

had been widely spread in the East.* A at which the letters from Rome were
synodical Letter framed by the Council, publicly read. Without questioning, how
written to the Emperor of the East, was ever, the authority of the Mother Churc
signed by 120 bishops, among whom the of Rome, the Council decided that the
name of Wilfrid as the representative judgment in favour of Wilfrid had been
of English bishops appears. Wilfrid at bought. The bishop was imprisoned, am
undertook to guarantee the all access to him was
this juncture rigidly forbidden.
faith of all the Anglo-Saxon bishops, as His captivity was most rigorous ;
he w;

well as the faith of the churches in the shut up in a cell which daylight
into
north of the island, among the Scots, and scarcely penetrated, and was stripped of
also of the churches of Ireland. This everything. More moderate counsels, how
shows that Wilfrid and the Roman party ever, soon prevailed, and king Egfrid
had no doubt as to the orthodoxy in offered to restore part of his old diocese t

fundamental matters of the Celtic church, the imprisoned bishop if he would consen
to which in matters of rites and uses he to acknowledge the falsity of the Rom
was so opposed. decree. Wilfrid, of course, absolutely re
Wilfrid then returned to his native fused to do any such thing, and the im

country, and presented at once to king prisonment again became more rigorous.
Egfrid the instructions of the Bishop of The captive was transferred to a northern
Rome, which ordered his immediate rein fortress near Dunbar. From this irksome
statement in his northern see. The North captivity he was soon, however, released
umbrian monarch convoked an assembly, through the intervention of the princess
Ebba, abbess of Coldingham, who repre
* MONOTHELISM is defined by Theodore, bishop sented to the king and to queen Ermen
Pharan
burga, who was then suffering from illne
of in Arabia, one of the earliest teachers
of this heresy who wrote about A.D. 616 as in
"

the grave scandal which the harsh treat

the incarnation of our Saviour there is but one
operation, whereof the framer and author is God ment of so great and eminent a man
the Word, and of this the Manhood is the instru Wilfrid stirred up.
ment, so that whatsoever may be said of Him,
whether as God or Man, it is all the operation of
Wilfrid was now once more at libe
the Godhead of the Word." In opposition to this, but he was landless and homeless. Hi
the orthodox doctrine teaches that the faculty of
hoped to find an asylum, and perhaps con
willing is inherent in each of our Lord s natures,
although, as His person is one, the two wills act in genial work which his soul longed for, i:

the same direction the human will being exercised Mercia, but there the animosity of tb
in accordance with the divine. The Monothelites Northumbrian king pursued him, an
were condemned as heretical in the 6th General
Council, held at Constantinople, the last which Mercia drove him forth. The sam
the Anglican Church acknowledges as a General him out
strange destiny hunted of
Council. It lasted about ten months, A.D.
680- 1. It was summoned and presided over sex, where the queen was a sister

by the Emperor Constantine the Fourth. The his enemy Ermenburga. Thus driv
Monothelites were pronounced unorthodox, as
away from the more civilised kingdoms
holding a heresy which destroyed the perfection
the Northmen conquerors, Wilfrid tool
of our Lord s humanity by denying it a will and
an operation. refuge among the South Saxons in tb
68r] WILFRID AMONG THE SOUTH SAXONS. 215

country lying to the west of Kent a dis persuasive orator at a great national
trict lying round the later-built city of assembly of Engles, discussing the gravest
Chichester, and including the coasts running questions of churchmanship with king and
far out into the English Channel, a penin thane, bishops and abbesses equally the ;

sula on which the ancient cathedral of trusted friend of the polished and saintly

Selsey was subsequently erected. These royal abbess of Ely or Coldingham, as of

South Saxons were still, for the most the rudest fishermen of Frisia or Selsey.

part, pagans men who, when the He carried with him ever the same
Engles and East and West Saxons were winning tongue, the same real sympathy,
accepting the religion of the conquered the same power as a wise counsellor of
inhabitants of the island, held sternly and the king and abbot, of the fisherman and

resolutely to the faith of their Northmen the hunter wherever his varied fortune
;

forefathers. They were in a measure cut off led him, success attended him. For
from the more civilised districts of Kent ages he was revered as the first devoted
and Wessex by the forest screen of the apostle of the Frisians and of the South
far-reaching Andredsweald. Among these Saxons the one who first, and with
peoples the banished Wilfrid settled. strange success, bore the message of
The brilliant and versatile teacher quickly the Gospel to a whole people, who, till
won their hearts. Among these uncivil they heard the voice and felt the handpress
isedpagans he played the part, now of a of Wilfrid, were devotees of idol gods and
fisherman on their coasts, teaching them worshippers in idol temples.
new and cunning devices in the craft now ;
The king of these wild South Saxon
he became among them the earnest and folk became his devoted friend and admirer.
eloquent preacher now he acted as their
;
He gave him broad lands in his domains,
devoted friend and comforter when dark and there the exile founded a monastery
days of famine and drought came upon which subsequently became the seat of
the country. His popularity among these the bishop of the South Saxons. For five
wild heathen folk seems to have been years Wilfrid lived among these people,
boundless. One of the characteristics of helping, guiding, teaching them. His name
this singular man was his power of adapt was never forgotten, but was treasured
ing himself to all sorts and conditions of for ages as the name of the saintly father

men. He was equally at home in the who brought a whole people to Christ.

council-chamber at Rome, discussing the

most profound and difficult questions of Throughout this long period of Wilfrid s

Christian statecraft, as in the rough wooden career, the conduct of Theodore, arch
hall of a South Saxon king or thane, bishop of Canterbury, is hard to explain.

arguing on the fishing or harvest prospects Indeed, apologists of Theodore are obliged
of the simple fisher-folk or tillers of the soil ;
to confess that his behaviour to Wilfrid for

to-day the ardent and impassioned mission many years appears a blot on a singularly
ary-evangelist, amid the sands and dunes good and useful life. In the first instance,
of Frisia ;
to-morrow the eloquent and the prominent position, almost one of
216 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [685.

complete independence of the see of Canter obedience to Rome, among the great
bury, which Wilfrid occupied in the North objects of their lives. It may be that
of England, may have excited jealousy. But the wise metropolitan deemed it best to
after his rival had fallen, no reason can be keep himself clear of the strong personal
found for the continuance of the persecu hostility which obviously actuated the
tion on the part of Theodore. It could king, and for which Wilfrid had given

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END OF A CHARTER OF C^EDWALLA, KING OF WESSEX, A.D. 680, GRANTING LANDS TO WILFRID.*

not be any difference concerning the too much But there are otht
reason.
Roman question ;
for the strange thing evidences that there was something ir
in the painful relations which for so Wilfrid s character which inspired among

many years existed between these two his contemporaries great dislike as well]
eminent and distinguished ecclesiastics, who as great love.

did so much good work in laying the foun In the year 685, when Wilfrid was ii
dation of ourchurch, was that both of the midst of his noble and most successful .

them were ardent adherents to Rome and work in the south of England, archbishop
* The
her policy ;
that both of them placed the witnessed by Egwald, sub-
charter is

king Ethelred, a king;

; Hseddi, bishop; andl
supremacy of Rome, the adoption of
Aldhelm (then a scholar of archbishop Theodore),
Roman uses and practices, compliant who drew up the charter.
68 5 .] THEODORE AND WILFRID. 217

Theodore up the sees of

again filled the yet more distinguished Cuthbert.
Hexham and Lindisfarne, which had been We hear, again (probably for the reasons
carved out of the vast northern province, already indicated), nothing of any re-

without consultation with Wilfrid, in monstrance on the part of these dis-

WILFRID WITH THE SOUTH SAXONS (/. 215).

whose diocese they originally were as tinguished men of God respecting the
if the bishop of York were either apparent infringement of bishop Wilfrid s
dead or canonically deposed. Two of episcopal rights. Cuthbert was sorely
the most saintly and venerated men of disinclined, it is true, to accept the episco
the age were placed in these sees Eata, pate, but his reluctance was apparently
the pupil of Aidan, generally known based as stated elsewhere, on quite other
as the abbot of Mailros (Melrose), and grounds.
2l8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [685.

A fate, however, awaited king

terrible He was more than eight} years of age
Egfrid Northumberland.
of In the when the fight at Nectansmere broke up

very same year, 685, in which Cuthbert
accepted the bishopric of Lindisfarne, and
Eata the see of Hexham, Egfrid s army
invaded Ireland, and cruelly ravaged a
portion of that country not even sparing
monasteries which had for a long time been
celebrated throughout the western world
as centres of religion and learning. In the
following year the king himself headed an
the power of Northumberland. Theodore,
apparently shocked and appalled at the
awful ruin which had fallen on his friend
king Egfrid, and feeling that the hour
;
of his own death was approaching, deter
mined not to pass away before he had
made some amends to the great bishop
whom he had wronged. He sent for
Wilfrid, still working among the South

expedition against the northern Celts, and Saxons, where he was dearly loved, and
harassed with relentless cruelty a large part in an interview which had London for its
of the Lowlands of Scotland, districts which scene, made him the most ample amends
during the preceding reigns had acknow in his addressing Wilfrid as Most
"

power ;

ledged the supremacy of Northumberland. Holy Bishop," and confessing his deep
But at the army of Egfrid engaged
last sorrow for the evil he had wrought
the Celts in a disadvantageous position, against him ; acknowledging, too, thai
where the Engles were utterly routed ;
there was no fault in Wilfrid. The recon
and the awful news was brought to queen ciliation between the two old enemies w
Egfrid and the flower It is a happy
"

that
" "

Ermenburga complete. memory in

of his nobles lay a ghastly ring of corpses the life of that eminent church organiser,
on the far-off moorland of Nectansmere," Theodore, that he had the courage t

in Fife. Queen Ermenburga, also the acknowledge his error, and the nobility to
relentless enemy of Wilfrid, became a nun, make signal efforts on behalf of his old foe

and subsequently an abbess of a religious in the years that yet remained to him
house. Thus this Jezebel," as the
"

life and work.

biographer of Wilfrid terms her, changed
"

Theodore lived more than five yea

suddenly from a wolf into a lamb." North- after this act of justice. He even tried t
umbria never recovered from the effects bring it about that Wilfrid should succe
of the fatal fight at Nectansmere, and him in his high ofHce as archbishop
from that day ceased to occupy the Canterbury ;
but this wish never cam
first place among the Anglo-Saxon king to pass. however, the old man
Still,

doms. the satisfaction of seeing that through his

Upon the fortunes of Wilfrid the day exertions Wilfrid was admitted into th
of Nectansmere exercised a marked in intimate friendship of Ethelred the
fluence. Two of his deadliest enemies of Mercia, who after the death of Egfri
had disappeared from the great arena of on the field of Nectansmere became tb
life. Egfrid was dead, and his queen was most powerful king in England a friend
a veiled nun and his third foe, Theodore,
; ship which remained unbroken till deal
was now a very old and worn-out man. and which years later, when Wilfrid again
 685-690.] THEODORE S LIFE AND CHARACTER. 219

became a homeless exile, stood him in As a profound scholar and a teacher of

good stead. scholars, England owes him a deep debt.
But the old archbishop was not content .Under his wise and thoughtful rule,
with securing the powerful friendship of powerfully aided by the work of his friend
the Mercian monarch for his former enemy, the monk Hadrian, Canterbury became not
but set himself the far more difficult task only a centre of scholarship a scholarship
of reinstating Wilfrid in his old position by no means confined to theology but
in the north. The influence of Theodore a producer of books."
"

From the days

was very great. He was not only the of Theodore the land had its own scholars,,

acknowledged Primate of the Church of and soon had no need to seek its bishops-
England, but his reputation for vast learn and teachers in foreign lands it soon ;

ing and knowledge extended far beyond taught its teachers.

the confines of Britain. He was recognised But Theodore was something more than
everywhere as a wise statesman, as well a scholar and teacher. When he came
,as a great churchman and profound to England he found the supremacy of
scholar. Backed by him, Wilfrid obtained Canterbury a very shadowy and unreal
from Aldfrid, a younger son of the great thing. Before he passed away, all the
Northumbrian king Oswiu, the brother and many bishops among the Engles and
successor of the dead Egfrid, the restitution Saxons acknowledged the primacy of the
of his vast monastic estates at Hexham and mother church of Canterbury. Church
Ripon ;
and was even reinstated as bishop order had indeed been evolved out of
of York, and was allowed to appoint or chaos. The Church of England, from the

re-appoint the suffragans of that great see. Forth to the Thames, from the Essex
Thus, in theyear 687 Wilfrid again appears marshes to the banks of the Severn sea,
on the stage of public life, as the head of was more or less obedient to the decrees
all the Northumbrian churches. of Canterbury, and Canterbury was the
A little later, full of years and honours, obedient and loyal servant of Rome.
died Archbishop Theodore, after an event The dream of Roman order and disci
ful episcopate of two-and-twenty years. pline was thus largely realised inEngland.
He had successfully consolidated and In the lands of the Engle and Saxon
organised the Church in England, over conquerors, Celtic independence in church
which, when a comparatively old man, matters was now a thing of the past ;
he had been suddenly called to preside. but here, although Theodore did much
With the solitary exception of his strange good by way of organisation and con
conduct to Wilfrid, for which he had solidation, and even of development in
made the amends in his power, no
all the matter of the Roman obedience, which
flaw can be traced in his grand and noble permanently changed the spirit and
life. The Greek monk holds, and ever
old character of the Church of England, it
will hold, among the long and distinguished must be confessed that the first and
line of the archbishops of the mother most important steps in this work were
church of England, a prominent place. taken by Wilfrid. It was on the
22O THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [691.

of September the exact date has been three years before Theodore s death,
preserved 690 A.D., that Theodore, at thanks to the archbishop of Canterbury s
the ripe age of eighty-eight, expired. powerful pleading, Wilfrid had been re
stored to his great position in
Northumbria by the reigning
king Aldfrid, the son of Oswiu,
as arranged in Dioceses
the brother of Egfrid slain at
before Theodore s time.
Circa A.D. 673. Nectansmere. For about five

years Wilfrid s rule continued

in the church of the north, and

the causes which immediately

led to his downfall 691 are! in
not very clear. That he had
many determined enemies among
E R C I
monks and nuns, and powerful.
St. Chad later. Northumbrian thanes still secretly
DIOCESE OF attached to the old Celtic uses,!
L I C H F I E L D...
is clear. These looked upon
Wilfrid and rightly as the de
stroyer of that ancient .school
of Christianity which they loved
best ;
and their influence may
have inaugurated a renewed
formal protest against all au-
1

thority connected with Rome,

EARLY SAXON DIOCESES. which the king, a little later,

openly avowed. He had, too,

Wrapped in his monastic habit as a other foes men who had by his profited
shroud, the remains of the famous Greek former deposition, and who, now he was
archbishop were laid, not in the porch restored, had to put up with the loss of
where so many of his predecessors lay, much, if not of all they had gained by the
but in the church itself. exile of Wilfrid and his friends. Then his

own imperious disposition was ill

adapted
Wilfrid, when his powerful rival died, to conciliation ;
in his long exile and pain
was fifty-six years old. The complete ful sufferings he had forgotten nothing.
reconciliation of the two bishops some The result of intrigues and counter-
four or five years before, will ever gently intrigues against the mighty bishop ended
throw a veil over much that is sad in a fresh decree of banishment being put
and regrettable in the story of the two out by the Northumbrian court, and once
who worked so much noble work in the more Wilfrid found himself an exile.
church they both loved well. About But here the dead hand of his old enemy,
690703.] WILFRID IN MERCIA. 221

who in later years had become his warm men of the great Canterbury school, who
friend the archbishop Theodore was felt certainlyhad no dispute with him on the
to some purpose. One
Theodore s kind
of question of Roman discipline, appear to
actions in behalf of Wilfrid was the firm have been ever hostile to him; notably the
friendship he had established between learned Hadrian, Theodore s friend, who
Wilfrid and the powerful Mercian sovereign for thirty-nine long years was abbot of
Ethelred. In this his hour of need Ethel- St. Augustine and head of its renowned
red welcomed him, and gave him the then school. Even his old companion, Bene
vacant see of Lichfield, the chief position dict Biscop, the architect, musician, and
in the church of the far-reaching Midlands. scholar, the founder of great monasteries,
For eleven long years the deprived North in the later portion of his career seems also
umbrian bishop lived under the shadow of to have been no friend to him.
the Mercian throne, ruling and administer During these eleven years of Wilfrid s
ing the Christian church of the Midlands quiet life and work at Lichfield there was
in peace. They were eleven very

quiet years, and history has little

to say about them.

ENGLAND
The arch-see of Canterbury as arranged in Dioceses
by
was filled after the death of THEODORE.
Circa A. D. 673-8.
Theodore by a priest-monk named
Berchtwald, formerly a monk,
as some suppose, in the famous

and ancient monastery of Glas-

tonbury, and afterwards abbot of
Reculvers, near Canterbury, on
the Kentish coast. Berchtwald
was an offshoot of the royal
house of Mercia. Thus we have
the strange sight of a descendant
ofWoden in the chair of Augus
tine He, like his predecessor,
!

was a man of great learning,

though, as Bede tells, he was far
from equalling Theodore. Bercht
wald was a wise, gentle prelate,
and ruled at Canterbury nearly
forty years. But he too, in the THEODORE S DIOCESAN SYSTEM.

early years of his archiepiscopate,

was no friend to Wilfrid and one of the most
;
peace also in the northern province; but it
remarkable facts about the whole series was accompanied evidently with an uneasy
of transactions is that the more famous Wilfrid was
feeling that still the lawful
222 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [702.

bishop and head of the Northumbrian was made to induce Wilfrid of his own
dioceses, and that the ruling prelates held accord to submit himself and to resign, but
their positions illegally, as Wilfrid had the old man firmly refused. His faithful
never beer tanonically deposed. The men friend and biographer Eddius, among others,
who loved Rome (and they were many) in later days William of Malmesbury,
could not forget the great Council held gives us some of the arguments pressed
there in the years 679-680, and the letter home in the course of the debate by the

(Photo, by Chester Vaughan, Acton, W.)

RECULVERS (AT PRESENT TIME).

of Agathon, the Bishop of Rome, formally eloquent and earnest Wilfrid. Shall I,
"

reinstating Wilfrid in all his great offices. asked the indignant veteran bishop, sign "

A Council was summoned at last to con my own condemnation, I who unworthy

sider the whole question anew. It met though be for forty years have borne
I

probably at Nesterfield, near Ripon, in the the name of bishop? He then enumer
"

Northumbrian realm, in 702. King Ald- ated his chief successes in that long period :
frid,Berchtwald of Canterbury, and most "Was not I the first, after the death of

of the English bishops, were present. The those great ones whom St. Gregory sent
tone of the assembly was bitterly hostile from Rome, to root out the poisonous seeds
to the exile, who was invited to be present sown by Scottish missionaries ? We can "

and to plead his own cause. Every effort hear still the murmurs of bitter disapproval
 703704.] WILFRID AGAIN AT ROME. 223

sounding through the Council at these time, surrounded by an influential train of

imprudent words reflecting on Aidan and devoted followers, he had presented him
Columba and the Irish saints ; but, dis self to the Pope and asked for that simple

regarding prudence, Wilfrid went on

all :
justice at the hands of Rome, which was
Was it not I who brought back the
"

denied him by his king and brother-prelates

whole of Northumbria to the true Easter at home. He was then received with all
and the Roman tonsure ? Did not I first honour, treated during his lengthened stay
teach the church in England the sweet with all distinction, and was pronounced
harmonies of the primitive church in the innocent of every charge which his enemies
responses and chaunts of the two alternate then made against him. Now a third time
choirs ? Did not I introduce among you he visited the Mother Church of Christen
the rule and order of St. Benedict [at dom, of whose vast pretensions and enor
.

that time, in countless houses of prayer mous claims to universal dominion he had
for both sexes, almost the invariable rule been the notorious and successful champion
and practice] ? Am I, after such a life, during a life of restless work and arduous
such a record, to condemn myself ? I toil, again asking for that justice, which
appeal to Rome." he maintained was persistently refused him
Thanks to the safe-conduct promised in his native land.

by the king, the old man returned safely But on the occasion of this third visit

to Lichfield. Notwithstanding the adverse Wilfrid was past seventy years of age, worn
decision of the Council, and the sentence out with labour and disappointment, com
of excommunication pronounced against paratively poor, and only accompanied
the monks of Ripon who were faithful to by a few faithful followers. Most of his
Wilfrid, the Mercian king continued, as he friendshad passed away. At Rome many
had promised Theodore, the exile s stead had heard of, but few had seen Wilfrid.
fast friend. Again, with a few faithful The reigning Bishop of Rome was John VI.,
adherents, the almost worn-out bishop a Greek. Five bishops or popes had sat in
set out on the long and weary journey the chair of St. Peter since Wilfrid had
"
"

to Rome, to conduct his appeal. so successfully pleaded his cause before

This was his third visit to the Eternal Agathon the Benedictine pope. Once
City. In the first visit, as a young and more he prayed for justice. A careful and
ardent scholar, burning to assist the thorough investigation of his case was
cause of Rome and to introduce Roman ordered. The judges appointed to hear
rites and uses, and above all Roman the story held, it is said, as many as seventy

obedience, into the growing church of his sittings so important did the Roman
native land, aided with all the influence statesmen deem the matter. The case
and gifts of his queen Eanfleda, he had lasted four months. Deputies from Bercht-
spent ahappy and a useful time there, and wald of Canterbury, as representing his
had seen much and learned much. Again accusers, severely denouncing the deposed
in middle life he had gone to Rome as a re bishop, were heard at length. The plead
nowned and persecuted bishop. This second ings of Wilfrid seem to have been gentle,
224 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [704-

and the request he made of the Roman See of Rome for a formal trial. Letters,

see generous and moderate as regards his were formally addressed by the Pope to
adversaries. He offered to give up his the kings of Northumbria and Mercia,
claim to his vast diocese, and only begged asking for their help and assistance in
that his two important foundations of these matters, for the love of that peace

Ripon and Hexham, with their daughter which our Lord left to His disciples.

monasteries, should be left to him. Wilfrid, himself, now world-weary, wished

One very striking scene reported must to remain in Rome, and there to end his
have occurred at the close of the long trial. days. But he was commanded to return r

It took place at a crowded meeting, at and to bring the important cause to a con
which were present not only the judges clusion at the same time the Pope
: moved
appointed, but many of the clergy and by pity for the old man forbade him to

nobles of Rome who had been summoned. continue the cold bath which every night the
The acts of the former Council were austere prelate imposed upon himself by

solemnly read, and when the reader came way of mortification. Before, however, he
to a passage which spoke of the triumphant had accomplished the whole of the long
acquittal of Wilfrid years before, and how journey, Wilfrid fell dangerously sick at
he had been positively admitted, as will be Meaux, in Gaul. For four days and nights,
remembered, to bear witness of the faith says his biographer Eddius, he lay un
of the bishops of England, the assembly conscious. On the fifth day, of a sudden
was amazed, and each man asked himself, he raised himself up Eddius tells us and
Who, then, was this other Wilfrid ? Then asked for his friend, the priest Acca. Acca
Boniface, an old counsellor of the Roman was a monk of Lindisfarne, very learned,
bishop, who had lived himself in the days devout, and a famous musician. Seeing his
of the first Council, when Agathon was beloved master had revived,Acca knelt down

pope, rose up and with great emphasis and thanked God. Then together they all
said,
"

This Wilfrid now accused before you talked with holy awe of the last judgment.
is one and the same with the Wilfrid But Wilfrid having desired to be left alone
whom Pope Agathon not only acquitted, with Acca, said to him, "

I have just had a

but placed by his side as a man of stainless vision ;
one clothed in white came to me
faith and life." Then
was unanimously it and said, I am
Michael the Archangel,
agreed upon by the Council, that one who and am sent to tell you how God has heard
for forty years had been a bishop must be the prayers of your brothers, and that your
sent back with all honour to his country. life was to be prolonged yet several years.
"

The Pope further ordered archbishop The bishop recovered, and returning to
Berchtwald, along with bishop Wilfrid, to England was kindly received by archbishop
convoke a council, and to summon the Berchtwald, who at once determined to com
bishops who had intruded into Wilfrid s ply with the orders of Rome, and promised
diocese, and if
possible to end the differ that the decrees of the Council of Nester-
ences. was found to be impossible,
If this field should be revoked. In Mercia Wilfrid
these bishops were to be sent to the Holy found his old friend king Ethelred a
HEARING OF WILFRID S APPEAL AT ROME.
226 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [705-707.

cloistered monk. He welcomed the re revolution placed Osred, the son of Aldfrid,
nowned bishop to his new home with the a boy only eight years old, on the throne.

deepest affection, and sending for his Wilfrid s friends, with the aid of the abbess
nephew, who had followed him on the Elfleda of Whitby, who had become an
throne, commended Wilfrid to him. As earnest supporter of the long-banished
regards Mercia and Canterbury, all seemed bishop, prevailedupon archbishop Bercht-
to promise well. wald to summon the Council insisted upon
But in Northumberland, where, if he by the Pope when he gave judgment on
were received again as bishop, great and the appeal at Rome.

grave changes would be necessary, and The Council met somewhere on the
high offices would have to be vacated banks of the Nidd, not far from Ripon.
where Wilfrid, too, had many relentless Wilfrid and the archbishop of Canterbury,
enemies matters were very different. The who, in deference to the Roman judgment,
king temporised at but soon distinctly first, had espoused the exile s cause, arrived
refused to comply with the directions of together. The boy- king and the prin-
Rome. "

As long as I live,"
he is reported cipal northern thanes, and the bishops
to have said, "I
change nothing out
will men of the highest character and repu
of regard to what you term a mandate of tation who filled the sees claimed by
the Roman an emphatic deliverance
See"
Wilfrid, were all present. But the

which, as we have hinted, may possibly principal and most influential personage
explain much that had gone before. In a there seems to have been the abbess

very short time after this refusal, however, Elfleda of Whitby, who pleaded in

king Aldfrid sickened with a dangerous Wilfrid s behalf the dying words of her
malady. The dying sovereign, as was brother king Aldfrid. The conciliatory
natural to the ideas of that age, thought spirit shown by Wilfrid at Rome was again
it was the hand of God punishing him manifested, and, in spite of much opposi
for his treatment of Wilfrid, and before tion, the aged and sorely-tried bishop
he died, in the presence of his sister obtained all and more than he asked for at

Elfleda, who followed Hilda as abbess Rome. The great monasteries of Ripon
of Whitby, he charged his successor and Hexham and their dependent houses,
whoever he might be in the name of together with the vast possessions attached
the Lord, for the repose of my soul and
"

to them, were given back to Wilfrid as he

his own, to make peace with Wilfrid." had requested, with the rank and position
A dark
and gloomy time truly now lay of bishop of Hexham. This arrangement
before the once great and prosperous satisfactorily closed the long controversy,
Northumbria. The dead king Aldfrid s Wilfrid recognising the other Northum
children were still young. A usurper brian bishops of York and Lindisfarne, and
named Eadwulf seized the crown, and per a solemn Eucharist sealed the compact.

emptorily ordered Wilfrid to leave the Two remarkable incidents of the pad
realm within six days. Eadwulf s reign, Council of the Nidd, A.D. 706, must be
however, lasted but a few weeks. Another especially noticed as bearing on the future
705-709-] LAST YEARS OF WILFRID. 227

fortunes of the Church of England. The evidently contrary to his own judgment.
the powerful influence evidently exer
first,
The king of Mercia, too, submitted to
cised by Elfleda, abbess of Whitby, over Rome, and complied fully with its re
the Council, an influence exerted in favour quirements. All this, happening as it did
of Wilfrid. At the Council held in Rome, in these eventful times, when the founda

in 679, to consider the first appeal of tion stones of the Church of England were

Wilfrid, it remembered that

will be being laid, bore its fruit in after-days,
Hilda, abbess of Whitby, was specially and was the precedent for Rome claiming
represented. The successful interference of a perpetual right of interference in all

Ebba, abbess of Coldingham, when Wilfrid matters connected with the church in
was imprisoned by king Egfrid, has been this our island.

already related. These and other casual

indications of the great position filled by Only three or four years more, and that
these early abbesses in the English church, great figure of Wilfrid will have dis

are powerful side-lights which give us some appeared from the world-stage, on which
conception of the weight and influence for so long a time he had played so dis

exercised by women who devoted them tinguished a part. These were, however,
selves to religion. for the aged bishop years of perfect peace.
The second incident, is the deference No one, prince or churchman, attempted
paid in these
very early days, in the to break the truce ratified in the
"

Nidd "

Church of England, to the decision of the assembly. He lived now in one, now in

Pope or Bishop of Rome. It is true that the other of those stately groups of
this interference was warmly resented by buildings which he had years before

king Aldfrid in the first instance, when erected with so much care and love at
Wilfrid asked to be reinstated in accord Ripon and Hexham. Matchless piles they
ance with the judgment given by Rome ; were, which men say were unequalled in
out Aldfrid, as Elfleda bore witness, is said those days on this side the Alps. Occa
:o have repented on his death-bed of this sionally he would journey as far as Mercia,

esistance, and the decision of the Council and visit some of those centres of religious
)f the Nidd, just related, is mainly based life and teaching he had spent so much
)n the Roman judgment. Some years of his life in establishing and fostering.

Before, the archbishop Theodore, after a He was ever surrounded by a group of

ong disregard of the wishes of Rome in devoted friends, who passionately admired
.he case of Wilfrid, in the end gave way, the generous enthusiasm, the tireless zeal,
md as far as he was able carried out the and the winning character of the great
>riginal
decision ofthe Pope Agathon. prelate, now deservedly famous throughout
Theodore s successor in the archbishopric, western Christendom. It was a beautiful
3erchtwald, after a prolonged resistance, evening tro a long and often storm-clouded

:ompletely gave in to the wishes of the life, and the historian, even if he hesitates
D
ope, and virtually acted as his faithful in- to approve of ,all Wilfrid s aims and methods,
trument in the affair of Wilfrid, although loves to dwell upon it. No fair-minded
 228 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
criticcan help admiring with an ungrudg means of living after my death." He
forgot no one. he added,
"

ing admiration that noble, work-filled life, Remember,"

or rejoicing that such a brave and patient
"

name Tatbert, my cousin th

that I

servant of the church, after much affliction, priest, who has never left me, to be prio

passed away surrounded with love and of Ripon, to succeed me when I die. I d

admiration. all this that the Archangel Michael ma;

At last the end came,
not suddenly, find me ready when my hour arrives

but heralded by unmistakable warnings. and I do not think it is far distant.

In one of his progresses from Hexham to The listening monks fell on their kne
Ripon a deadly faintness prostrated him, weeping ; them, com
Wilfrid blessed
somewhat similar to, but more distressing mending them to God, and then he left
than, the attack to which he well-nigh them and his well-beloved Ripon, starting
succumbed at Meaux, in Gaul, as he on his last journey through Mercia.
journeyed that last time from Rome to They never looked on his face again in
England. He was carried to Ripon. life.

Thither hurried numbers of abbots and His last days were spent, as usual, in
other Churchmen devoted to him, to see work. He visited one after the other
for the last time their beloved master. of the many homes of prayer and missio:
Their prayers for his recovery, however, work he had established in the far-reachin
were again heard, and Wilfrid recovered territory of Mercia, carefully arranging fo
for a but he was sensible that the
time ;
their future. The last memorable act a.

end was not far off, and looked upon this his life was the consecration of the chur
solemn warning that the
last seizure as a at Evesham, the church which gre
time of his departure, indicated by the eventually into that famous Worcester
archangel in his dream at Meaux, was at shire abbey, the scene of one of the mos
hand. Fearlessly and calmly he made notable events in English history, and t
his final arrangements. He had a large grave of one of the noblest of Englishmen
treasure of gold and silver and gems laid Simon de Montfort. As the antiquary
up in his great monastery at Ripon. This and the scholar look wistfully and sor
he divided into portions. One of these rowfully on the fair and graceful Bell
the largest he wished to be devoted Tower, still the chief ornament of the
as an offering to two of the Basilicas of beautiful Vale of Evesham, the solitary
Rome, those dedicated to Santa Maria remains of that once great home of prayer
Maggiore and St. Paul ;
another was to and learning, they should remember that
be divided among the poor of his people, the last act of Wilfrid was to dedicate
"

for the salvation," he phrased it, of

as
"

that famous house to God. Wilfrid s

my soul
"

;
another was to be given to consecrating service is one and not the
the future abbots of his houses of Ripon least of the remarkable memories which
and Hexham the remainder to be divided
;
cluster round the mournful wreck of

among the companions of his last exile, Evesham.

"that
they,"
he said, "might have the From Evesham he journeyed slowly
709- ]
DEATH OF WILFRID. 229

towards Oundle, in what is now known prayers and psalms round their dying
as Northamptonshire. By his side rode master. As they reached the 3Oth verse
his dearest friend and relation, Tatbert. in the iO4th Psalm "Thou sendest
Something whispered to Wilfrid it was forth Spirit, they are
Thy
"

exalted
his last opportunity of telling his early the faint breathing ceased, and the soul

P/ioto. by C. C. Hodges, Hexitant.

THE CRYPT, HEXHAM.

memories as they rode

;
;>ide
by side he ot Wilfrid entered into the open vision
poured over to his companion many details of God.

generally unknown respecting his past He was, when he breathed his last,

eventful life. At Oundle his malady seventy -six years old, and had been a
again seized him. There was no suffering bishop and one of the most conspicuous
during the "passing" of that great soul; personages in western Europe for forty-
he was even able once more to rouse five years. One of his last injunctions
himself so as to bless the group of weeping was singular. He wished the shirt in

monks who with broken voices chanted which his dying body was clothed, still
230 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [709.

moist with his last sweat, to be sent to four centuries after the saintly bishop s

a certain abbess Cyndreda, who had been death. Many churches were dedicated to
once one of his converts, and was always God in his name, and there was scarcely
his devoted friend. This curious relic was a cathedral that did not possess within
at once despatched to her by Tatbert, who its walls an altar and a chantry of St.

heard his words. A

similar thought oc Wilfrid. Canterbury cathedral, how
curred to Cuthbert in his last moments. ever, disputes with Ripon the honour of

We catch sight of something of the the possession of the body of the greatly-
intense veneration with which the renowned honoured saint. Dunstan is credited with
bishop was regarded by his contemporaries, having translated it to the metropolitan
from his biographer s account of a great church. Another record says it was Odo
meeting of abbots and monks at Ripon, who removed it, having found the Ripon
where his venerated remains by were laid shrine grievously neglected. There is no
his own request, by the south side of the doubt but that Lanfranc deposited what
altar, on the first anniversary of his funeral. he supposed were the bones of Wilfrid,
"They
went on,"
said Eddius, "to
sing in a splendid shrine in his cathedral ;

complines in the
open air. Then they saw but the advocates of Ripon maintain that
the whole heaven lighted up by a great the body of another Wilfrid not of th

rainbow, the full radiance of which pro renowned bishop of the seventh century
ceeded from the grave of the saint. We was removed to the southern cathedral. A
allunderstood by this that the intercession "

Indulgence
"

of archbishop Grey in

of the saint was to be, by the goodness thirteenth century positively states that thi
of God, an impregnable rampart round remains
"

of Wilfrid at Ripon were per

"

the vine of the Lord and His family." feet, and were exhibited to worshippinj
Though many had been his friends and beholders. It is certain that one of hi

devoted admirers during his life, this circle arms, encased in silver, was in the York
was enormously enlarged after he had treasury in the sixteenth century, at th
fallen asleep. His tomb became at once epoch of the Dissolution. It has been sug
a favourite object of pilgrimage, and the gested that somewhere in the walls of tha

scene of many reputed, and not improbably ancient crypt beneath Ripon Minster,
of some real miracles. For it is demon undeniably part of Wilfrid s work, an
strable that certain disorders receive which still is popularly called St. Wilfrid
"

alleviation, andsome cases a cure, amid

in Needle," the bones of the saint still rest.
the glowing scenes and exalted faith
peculiar to those spots which men love to While the substitution of Roman for?
invest with an awful sanctity. This, even Celtic Christianity throughout England was
in our day of exact science and lynx-eyed of course the great achievement of Wilfrid s

life, more or
criticism, has taken place not once or twice less connected with this
at Lourdes. And the popular veneration momentous change was the almost uni
with which Wilfrid was regarded was a versal introduction of the Italian Benedic

long-enduring one. We trace its existence tine rule into the many monasteries
709.]
WILFRID S WORK AND CHARACTER. 231

originally founded by Wilfrid, and ungrudging admiration. To men of the

influenced by him, various parts of
in Roman school he is one of the grandest

England. From Hexham in the north, heroes whoalong the many-coloured

live

to Canterbury in the south, before pages of our island story. He is the

Wilfrid death, the land was covered with
s perfect English saint who first fully re
these powerful monastic garrisons of re cognised the true work and office of the
"

ligious"
of both sexes, more or less devoted Pontiff of Rome, and who spent the many
to the Roman see. In the north and years of a splendid and devoted life in
central districts of the island, some of these, bringing home to the hearts of English
such as Hexham and
Ripon, Peterborough men the conviction that the fortunes of
and Ely, obtained a reputation that ex the English Church were closely bound
tended far beyond the limits of England. up with their acknowledgment of and
His stubborn and in the long run suc implicit obedience to Rome and her
cessful resistance to the claims made by Bishop, as the successors and inheritors of

powerful princes, such as Egfrid of North- Peter and his claims. To writers of another
umbria, to nominate, depose, or translate school, his title to honour rests on different

bishops at their pleasure, bore fruit, not grounds. They see that in his eyes dis

only in his own lifetime, but even for ciplineand organisation were essential to a
centuries had a powerful effect for good powerful church and that the Christianity
;

or for evil on the government of the Church of the Roman school possessed all the
of England. While on the one hand it qualifications he deemed lacking in the an
served as a strong precedent when noble- cient Irish and Celtic churches. Rome was,
minded patriotic prelates desired to resist moreover, the possessor of tradition and
the tyranny and greed of the monarch and custom, of a ritual and a practice which
his advisers on the other, such a precedent
;
it professed to trace to apostolic times.
as the general submission on the part of Other considerations, which we have al
monarchs and prelates to the sovereign ready briefly sketched,* were also doubt
judgment of Rome, enormously aided the less, though perhaps more vaguely, present
ever-growing pretensions of the Roman to his mind. Recognising all this, with
see to interfere in the ecclesiastical all his vast powers he worked to replace
affairs of England an interference, as the Celtic preachers with others better
history points out, frequently disastrous in fitted to carryon and to develop and to
its consequences.
"

Thanks to Wilfrid," organise the Christianity which they had

writes a Romanist historian of great so nobly and successfully preached. This,
u
power, until the Norman Conquest, four all schools of thought can recognise as his
centuries later, no English king dared real title to honour. Those who admire
arbitrarily depose a bishop from his see." and revere the great Celtic teachers, may
Different minds have variously estimated and do deplore Wilfrid s way of working.
Wilfrid s work. The Romanist writer It was rough, often cruel and hard, and
naturally speaks of his life and restless frequently unsympathetic but in the main ;

toiling with undisguised enthusiasm and * See

pp. 180-1.
232 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
his instinct was and hence, in spite
true, Wilfrid s will ever occupy a distinguished
of many subsequentchanges, his work has place. He was the precursor of men like
affected permanently the form and order Dunstan and Odo, Lanfranc and Anselm,
and organisation of the Church of England. Thomas A Becket and Stephen Langton.
All, too, must admire the conduct of In certain crises of the lives of these
this great churchman in adversity. Patient distinguished men, Wilfrid was never for
indeed in tribulation, he never lost his high gotten, and perhaps unconsciously imitated.
courage, and when driven out of home and It is true that we see now in a very different

power, whenstripped of all his soul loved light some deplorable acts in the life of
*

and prized, he braced himself up to new this great bishop and statesman. But ir:

and different toil.Never is the character is hard, in England, amid the

complicated
of this great and eminent man seen to better environments of the last years of the nine
advantage than as an exile among the teenth century, fairly to judge a Christian
sand hills of Frisia, or when banished bishop of the seventh century. It is

and proscribed among the poor, rough especially difficult to realise that what now
pagans of Sussex. He laboured with hand would be impossible, may have been both
and brain unweariedly formonths in wise and patriotic in that far-back age of
Friesland, for years in Sussex, to win the half- veiled Paganism and Christian disorder.
souls of the untutored barbarians, among The fair and impartial judge will surely
whom his lot was so strangely cast, to his give to Wilfrid a high place among those
adored Master, Christ. true Englishmen who have, according to
In the gallery of historical portraits of their light, served faithfully and devotedlj
the great prelates of the Church of England, their country and their God.

PORTIONS OF OLD CROSS, FROM HEXHAM (8TH CENTURY}.

 cn pno<;ewTe-

urpLios i>l
qmeTiAKJTt>is
ea phxrusAei cowciLmcn CON c uec;ARe T w uwuo>
f
i

XB iLLo e90 die coqit.ueRUMT

KOCV>0 OTuLlA SUJNA. pACIT UT iwreR pi cep.eKi T jcn
Si<>ienrrna-us eu<r sic iHs enxp
ocn wes cnedewr IN eum

wen etLoctKn deserrnicn iwciuitxrecr*

UMUS Au-tecn exipsis C4.iA.pKw; eon
esser pownpex ANWI Uliy
cucr> ertRitnonABATUp. fucndtsapsias
dlXlTCIS UOS WeSCITl6qUlcquJwr .r^fioxicnum xu-re<r> eRJO"

sieccocjrans quu.cp<?diTMOBis pxscbx

UTUNUS
pnopopuLo deite^vowe Awte
trrso pcanewT se ipsos
boc Au"terr Aseooenpso wowdutix ilxn
CTOOM

CTMJRITURUS epjcr pR

PAGE FROM GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, XI. 46 56 (7TH CENTURY).

(Said to have been found in the Coffin of St. Cuthbert. From the Library, Stoneyhnrst College.)

CHAPTER XII.

CUTHBERT, THE LAST GREAT CELTIC SAINT.

Cuthberts Early History and Vocation His Gifts as a Preacher His Austerities His Teacher Boisil
Cuthbert s Influence for Peace Life as Prior of Lindisfarne Retirement to Fame Island Called
thence to the See of Hexham Last Days and Death at Fame Strange History of his Remains.

the events just related were religious and devotional Christian spirit ot

WHILE
happening ;
while Theodore was the north was receiving a remarkable im
accomplishing such great things pulse through the labours and example of
in the South and Midlands, and was or one of those rare saints, who from time to

ganising the Church of England while ;

time have arisen to influence in an especial
Wilfrid in the north was carrying out, degree men s lives, and to sway their
with different instruments and in a hearts.
somewhat different spirit, a similar
work; It was back as the year 651, the
as far
while both Theodore and Wilfrid were year that Aidan died, in the early days of
working with real but quiet enthusiasm Oswiu s reign in Northumbria, that on the
and general success to replace the old pastures of Lammermoor a shepherd boy
Celticpractices and uses of Christianity named Cuthbert told his shepherd com
with Roman teaching and traditions, the panions how, in the quiet watches of the
234 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651 687.

night, he had seen a vision of angels bear singular eloquence, did he attract and win
ing with them from earth to heaven a these wild Engle dwellers in Lammermoor

spirit of surpassing brightness. On that and the surrounding districts, but by the
night, Aidan, beloved of men, passed away. reputation which his manner of life soon
From that moment the life-work of Cuth- won for him. The extraordinary austeri
bert was decided upon : he would devote ties which he practised, according to the
himself to the task of winning souls to view of sanctity in that age, surrounded his
God, and his story well illustrates the person with a peculiar awe and veneration.
religious life of the time. Men told how he passed whole winter
Giving up his shepherd life, the young nights in the bitter cold of the partly

Cuthbert presented himself to the soli frozen waters, according to a custom not
taries who were dwelling in that cluster of unknown among the more earnest Celtic
straw-thatched huts built round a small saints. He was seen, for instance, now and
rude church or oratory, near the banks of again to plunge into the sea, and, remain
the Tweed on a green sheltered spot called ing a long time in the deep cold wave
Mail-ros ("
the bare promontory "),
after would sing his psalms and hymns. Once,
wards known as Old Melrose, a mission says one of these folk-stories current among
station of the great house of Lindisfarne. the people, a friend and disciple of Cuth

Among these solitaries of Mail-ros dwelt bert watched him during a certain night
two men notable among the famous group vigil issuing from the deathly cold waters,
of Celtic religious teachers of that age of and then as he fell on his knees renewing
devoted missionary work Eata and Boisil. his passionate prayers, the disciple saw two
Eata holds an especially distinguished place otters followinghim from the sea, who
among the leaders of the Celtic church, licked his numbed feet and limbs until
and filled various important positions during life and warmth returned.

many years. He was one of the twelve From Mail-ros the abbot Eata took
Engles first selected as companions by the Cuthbert for a time to the monastery of

holy Aidan. These two from the very first Ripon, founded by the sub -king Alch-
saw in the character of the young shepherd, frid, Oswiu s son. There Cuthbert was
the promise of rare future distinction in the known as the self-sacrificing and devoted
career to which he had consecrated his life. guest-master, receiving poor wearied tra
From the first days of his joining the vellers with peculiar kindness and love. It
little Mail-ros community, Cuthbert sur will be remembered that Eata and his monks
passed all his brother monks not only in were soon driven out of Ripon by Alch-
his devotion to study, prayer, vigils, and frid for their devotion to the ancient Celtic
manual labour, but also in his rare power customs. Cuthbert returned with them tc

of winning the hearts of the pagan dwellers their old home at Mail-ros, and then re
in the neighbourhood. He quickly became sumed his missionary labours in the Scottish

celebrated as a rarely successful missionary Lowlands. In the great pestilence of the

preacher. Not only by his personal gifts, year 664 his first master and teacher, the

by his sweetness of character, by his prior Boisil, fell sick. Cuthbert, too, was
 651-687.] VAST INFLUENCE OF CUTHBERT. 235

attacked by the deadly malady, but re customs of the old Celtic church. Eata,
covered suddenly, and devoted himself to Cuthbert, and many earnest men of the

nursing his loved friend. The story of old church, submitted to what they felt >to

Boisil s last days is

singularly interesting, be inevitable. There is no doubt but that
and us something of the touching
tells they grieved and pained at the passing
felt

friendships and enduring piety of these away of the old spirit of Celtic Christianity,
As dear to them from so many familiar asso
-

early teachers of English Christianity.

Cuthbert watched his dying friend, Boisil ciations, precious through so many hallowed
foretold his disciple s future greatness, and traditionshanded down from Columba and
urged him, as death was waiting, to learn the famous Irish saints before him. But
from his old master all that he could during men like Eata and Cuthbert, when brought
the very few hours still left for them to be into contact with Rome and its immemorial

together there. have but seven days

"

I history, with its power of organisation,

remaining," said the dying Boisil to Cuth with its love for obedience and law and
bert,
"

in which
may speak I
you."
to order, consciously or unconsciously seem
Cuthbert then asked him what they should to have felt that the future of the church
read together in that short precious time. they loved better than belonged rather
life

John the Evangelist," replied Boisil to the Christianity of Rome, than to that
"

"

I have a copy containing seven sheets of strange, passionate, but ill -

disciplined
John, which we can with God s help Christianity of Ireland, which after all was
read, one for each day, and meditate thereon better fitted to win than to maintain the

j
as far as we are able."
They did so, not empire over men s hearts.

troubling themselves with minute and Then the same influences which worked
subtle questions, dwelling only on St. so strongly, as we have seen, with Wilfrid
John s divine lessons of faith and love. and Benedict Biscop in their early life,

On the seventh day^ as he had predicted, were no doubt at work in the hearts of
Boisil fell
asleep. men like Eata. The contrast between
When Boisil ap died Cuthbert was the stately churches of Rome and Lyons,
pointed prior of the house in his room. of Italy, of Southern Gaul, and the
The abbot of Mail-ros, Eata, was also rough, rude, straw-thatched, wattled Celtic
abbot of Lindisfarne, and seems to have churches, was no doubt often vividly and
exercised a general supremacy over the them; and the stately
truthfully put before
many communities in that district. He services of the lordly basilicas of Rome and
subsequently became bishop of one of the Lyons were no doubt, by wandering monk
divided portions of Wilfrid s diocese. It or foreign scholar, put side by side with
was no doubt owing to the quiet influence the plain and simple cult of the Celtic
of Eata, assisted by his favourite pupil oratories,with more or less eloquence, as
Cuthbert, that the Celtic church in North- they talked together by the hearthside in
umbria peaceably accepted the decrees of the long winter evenings. To thoughtful
the Council of Whitby, and the general men like Eata, the powerful abbot of Ripon,
substitution of the Roman uses for the Mail-ros, and Lindisfarne, the bishop of
236 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [651-687

Hexham, trained though he was in all the His was a strange nature. In 676, after
traditions of the loved Columba and the twelve years of marvellous success as
saintly Aidan, these things must have had prior, teacher, missionary, he determined
weight. Perhaps, after all, the Master s to withdraw himself altogether from men,
religion would appeal men s hearts with
to and to give himself wholly to prayer and
greater force through the medium of an study. The place which he chose for his
imposing ritual in a stately church, than solitary cell was a little island called Fame,
it could do through the medium of the several miles to the east of Lindisfarne, in

earnest but plain and simple rites of Lindis- the midst of the stormy North Sea, utterly
farne. It is certain, at all events, that Eata ill-suited for human habitation, sterile and
and Cuthbert and their disciples made no desert, without water, fruits or trees. In
effort to resist the Roman influence after this dreary spot Cuthbert dug out of the

the Whitby Council, but that they adopted living rock with vast labour a little cell or
its uses and quietly followed its teaching. rather two cells one an oratory, the other
The example of such men was of enormous his dwelling-room. From this cell, he
weight. could see nothing but the sky above him,
Cuthbert was transferred from Mail-ros as he wished to be quite undisturbed. The
to Lindisfarne.* There he led the same hide of an ox suspended before the en
life to which the Celtic monastic teachers trance to his strange dwelling, which he
were accustomed a partly spent in
life turned according to the direction of the
the practice of all the austerities of the wind, afforded him a slight defence against
cloister, partly lived outside among the the severity of that wild climate. little A
people, preaching with unwearied assiduity plot of ground sown with barley supplied
and devotion. The cloister life with him so sparingly with food, that the
these teachers was a preparation for the dwellers on the neighbouring coast chose
public work. It is said that Cuthbert to think he was fed by angels with bread

only slept one night in three or four so ;

from Paradise.
ardent was he in his perpetual studies, Round their popular saint the Northum
so fervid in his prolonged and passionate brians have gathered many a legend. One

prayers. Many stories are told of his of them, no doubt based on what really
wonderful power over the souls of men, happened, tells how the wild sea-birds
of his brave patience, of his unruffled would gather fearlessly about the man of

temper, of his angel face. The reputation God whom they loved, and allow him to

of his unheard-of austerities won him a stroke their soft plumage and caress them.
love and devotion
among the Engle peoples A still more beautiful
memory of his eight
of Northumbria similar to that possessed years sojourn on this lonely sea-rock, is the
by Columba of lona greater even than that account of the numberless visits he re
exercised by the saintly and well-loved Aidan. ceived there from all sorts and conditions
of men, who sought from the revered saint
The dates here are doubtful. Bede speaks
" advice or consolation. These u pilgrims of
vaguely of as prior at Melrose
"

many years
and Lindisfarne. sorrow," as they have been beautifully
651 68j.J CUTHBERT S LIFE AT FARNE. 237

called, came from great distances. Through- burden of remorse or care which he had
out all England spread the rumour that on taken with him. These eight years were
a sea-girt rock, off the inhospitable rocky the happiest of Cuthbert s life. The troubles
Northumbrian coast, lived an anchorite which rent the church of Northumbria

EGFRID ENTREATING ST. CUTHBERT (p. 238)

who was the friend of God, and who was the strange vicissitudes of bishop Wilfrid s-

rarely skilled in the beautiful craft of the life seem to have been unnoticed by the
healing of human suffering. It was said solitary in his cell, but who yet in his own
of all the crowds of penitents and world- strange way influenced so powerfully the

weary ones who sought the presence of religious life of his time.
Cuthbert on the rock of Fame, that no The closing scenes in Cuthbert s career
sorrowful soul carried back the same sad commenced in the year 684. In that
238 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. . . ,

year a strange scene took place on the would remind one another how he wept
lonely rock of Fame. The king of when he prayed and taught, and how
Northumbria, Egfrid, Oswiu s son, ac sweet and holy his words had seemed to

companied by his principal thanes, them. The memory of no man, perhaps,

landed at Fame, and kneeling before the has ever taken such deep, enduring root

solitary Cuthbert, besought him in the among a people.

name of the archbishop Theodore that But it came to an end all too soon.
he would consent to be bishop of the Worn out by the ceaseless toils he im
diocese of Hexham, a division of Wilfrid s
posed upon himself, his frail strength,
great Northumbrian province. After a already exhausted by years of austerity and
long resistance Cuthbert consented to be self-denial, gave way, and he returned to
a bishop, only stipulating with his old his little cell and oratory at Fame to die.
friend Eata that the bishopric should be Herefrid, the abbot of Lindisfarne, gives
Lindisfarne, his well-remembered home us some touching details of his last hours.
of many This was agreed to, Eata
years. For some days he chose to be absolutely
taking himself the see of Hexham. For I came
"

alone.
"

Then," says Herefrid,

two short years, therefore, the solitary of to him and found him dying."
The great
Fame played the part of a bishop. He saint was suffering much, was but
was consecrated at York in the presence supremely happy as he lay motionless on
of seven other prelates. His new office his hard stone couch. He asked Herefrid
made no difference in his character. He to bury him in Fame. "

I would sleep
renewed his old as a missionary he very spot, where
"

life monk, here," said, in this

which he had given up when he retired to I have fought my little battle for the
Fame some eight years before. Only in Lord. Bury me in this linen shroud which
his journeyings among the people the abbess Verca, the friend of God [she
influence of his preaching and apostolic was abbess of Tynemouth, and a royal
labours were perhaps augmented by his princess], gave me." Herefrid he tells

new dignity. The two years were filled the little story himself warmed some
up with constant, unremitting toil. He water and bathed a painful ulcer which
would penetrate into the most distant and was occasioning great pain to the bishop,
wildest districts of his diocese, preaching and then begged dying master to the
to crowds, confirming fresh converts, ever drink a little hot wine, for he was quite
the most devoted friend and pastor and worn out with pain and abstinence. Then
teacher of the poorest and saddest of his Herefrid gently reproached him for re

people. For long years after the saintly fusing all

companionship during these

monk-bishop had passed away, his memory last days of suffering. Cuthbert replied,
And u
remained green among his flock. It was the will and providence of God
those who had been privileged to hear that I should suffer a little affliction. I

him, would tell their children of the pale, grew weaker when I was left alone, and
worn bishop with the angel face, who had for five days and nights I have remained

gone in and out amongst them. They without moving." Herefrid asked him,
 687-] DEATH OF CUTHBERT. 239
"

My reverend bishop, how have you during my life some have despised me,
yet after my death you will see plainly
"

supported life during this weary vigil ?

Then lifting up a little cloth, Cuthbert what I was." About the hour of midnight
showed him five onions.
"

This,"
he said, he received the Holy Sacrajnent, and so
has been my only food for five days strengthened himself for his death, which
"

when very parched I tasted these." Here- he knew was close at hand. Then he looked
frid besought him to allow one of the up, and stretching out his hands as though
monks from Lindisfarne to remain with in prayer, so died. The above related
him. Cuthbert consented. Herefrid fur scene took place on the rock of Fame in
ther asked him to give his consent to his the North Sea, near Bamborough, on the
burial in hisown church at Lindisfarne, night of the 2Oth of March, 687.
among who loved him so truly.
his people These are of deep interest
little details ;

This he agreed to. The weakness rapidly for coming from an eye-witness, they tell
increased.
"

Carry me,"
he said,
"

into us something of the earnest, childlike

i;my He was laid close to the

oratory." spirit of these great Celtic teachers, who
altar there. A monk whom he named worked such a mighty change among the
one Wahlstad, whom he specially asked barbarian conquerors of our island. They
for as his attendant never left him again. were simple, God-fearing men, who be
One with him relates how the dying lieved intensely the doctrines they pressed

|
saint spoke little, the severity of his pains home with such passionate earnestness on
!

being very great but being pressed to ;

the pagan warriors among whom they
say a few farewell words which would lived. Caring for
nothing but the souls of
be treasured up, Cuthbert charged the the people to whom they felt they were
brethren to be at peace among themselves, sent, utterly regardless of their own ease
and to practisetrue humility. Have "

and comfort, they devoted themselves

peace and divine charity among your with an entire self-devotion to their noble
selves, and when you are called to and beautiful work. As was Cuthbert, so
be very careful that you are
deliberate, were many others of these early teachers.
unanimous in your plans. Let there be The picture of his life and work is only
mutual concord between yourselves and the picture of many another life and work
all other servants of Christ ;
never despise of which no record has been preserved.
others who
belong to the faith. If you Cuthbert was but a conspicuous and well-
are ever driven from Lindisfarne, carry known example of a Celtic missionary
my bones with you."
This last was a teacher of the seventh century.
strange charge. Was it prophecy ? "

Study None of our island saints has ever

diligently" went on the dying saint,

"

and touched the hearts of the people as did

carefully observe the Catholip decrees of Cuthbert, or has left behind him so vast,
the Fathers, and practise with zeal those so enduring a popularity. In the midst of
institutes of the monastic life which it an age of devoted preachers of the Cross,
has pleased God to deliver to you through Cuthbert stands out pre-eminent. He
my ministry ;
for I know that although possessed without doubt a rare eloquence,
240 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [687.

but it was the eloquence which went church disputings, when pious, devoted
home rather to the heart than to the men like Theodore and Wilfrid sadly
the renowned teachers their noble record with their
head. Among spoiled
wranglings, when saintly
women like Hilda were
known as bitter partisans,

Cuthbert was able tc

stand aloof. He move

in a higher, purer atmo
sphere, in which the vain
jangling of disputes on
the question of Roman
and Celtic uses was
hushed. A Celtic monl
by training, by choice, bj
all his surroundings, he

could yet see the beaut)

of Roman discipline and
order, and was sensible
of the grandeur of Ro
man homes of prayer.
Cuthbert united the wild
and passionate fervour of
the Irish monks of lona,
and the calm and scholarly
devotion of the priests
trained in the obedience
of Rome. The warrior

English king; his haughty

thanes the
; powerful
abbess of a Whitby or a

Coldingham ;
the Celtic

missionary monk of Mel-

rose the
;
Roman bishop
PORTIONS OF THE STOLE FOUND IN ST. CUTHBERT s TOMB, AT DURHAM of Hexham or of York ;

the English shepherd on

of the world, that sacred heart-key has the Yorkshire woids Oi on the fells of
ever been their chiefest power without ;
Cumberland ;
the Norseman sailor they
it no gifts of learning, or even eloquence, all listened, and as they listened to the
are of any real use in the winning of souls winning, pleading voice, one and all
to the Master s side. In an age of angry acknowledged the magic of his utterances
68 7 .] ST. CUTHBERT S REMAINS. 241

body, in the ninth and tenth centuries,

from place to place through the northern
England, read like a romance,
districts of

and have been a favourite subject with

chronicler and poet. Only after nigh two
centuries did the re
mains of Cuthbert find
a permanent resting-
place on the hill of

Durham, where the

proudest of our Eng

lish minsters rises

calm and stately over

the woods by the
rushing Wear a fit

ting monument to the

FRAGMENT OF ST. CUTHBERT S COFFIN. pure and holy English

(From photo by C. P. MacCarthy, saint.

The well-known lines

nd the beauty and power of the religion of Scott, besides their faithful picture
e not only preached but lived. of the spot, strike another chord and
His sorrowing monk-friends laid him to enter upon another romantic history.
eep as he had bade them, in his o\Vn Thev relate how
ouse of prayer at Lin-
isfarne. There the
recious remains of the

nan, holy and humble

f heart, who in his day
ad done so much to
fin men to Christ,
ssted for 188 years.
)riven in the year 875

y the Danish sea-

lunderers from their
uiet home at Lindis-
trne, the monks fled,
earing with them the
icred coffin of their
lint. The wanderings
f the chest which con- IVORY COMB FOUND IN ST. CUTHBERT S COFFIN.
lined the hallowed (from fihoto by C. P. MacCarthy, Esg.)
p
242 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [687-1104.

"... After many wanderings past, closely adhering to the

skin on this, in ;

He chose his lordly seat at last,
Where his cathedral huge and vast
Looks down upon the Wear.
There, deep in Durham s gothic shade,
His relics are in secret laid,
But none may know the place,
Save of his holiest servants three,
Deep sworn to solemn secrecy.
Who share that wondrous grace." *
Of the many thousands who read the
musical lines in Sir Walter Scott
the case of a bishop, the different episcop
habits were successively placed. Anothe
envelope of cere-cloth was folded over, an
the body deposited (usually in a ston
coffin), with a little altar, chalice
and pate
In 698, after eleven years of interment
by permission of Eadbert, bishop of Lindi
fame, the body of Cuthbert was exhumed
s beauti by the monks of Lindisfarne and placed ir

ful poem, comparatively few know the a wooden shrine over the spot where i

eventful story of St. Cuthbert s body, had been originally laid. The anonymous
alluded to in them a story which has monk of Lindisfarne relates what was seen
run uncontradicted through the ages, and apparently with the details of an eye
of which the last chapter has still to witness, and the account in its mail
be written ! features is repeated again by Bede
The body of the beloved saint has on The body was found entire not rigid
several occasions been taken from its but the limbs pliant. The vestments

resting-place and examined in order to and shoes were undecayed, the napkin
ascertain its state it was always, according
;
about the head still retaining its origina
to the statement of eye-witnesses, found whiteness. The precious remains were
incorrupt, even at the last examination, then enclosed in a wooden coffin, aru
which took place in the middle of the placed in the shrine prepared by th<

sixteenth century the eve of the Re monks.

formation. Three distinct exhumations of In 1104, when Henry I. (Beauclerc
the body are formally recorded the first was king, when the new cathedral c
in A.D. 698, eleven years after Cuthbert s Durham was partly completed, the bod
death ;
the second in
1104, 418 after of Cuthbert was translated from its resting

years. Then it seems to have been thrice place in the cloister-garth to the feretor
examined by responsible eye-witnesses. newly prepared for it. Relating to thi
The third time was in 1537 at the period translation of 1104, and the examinatioi
of the dissolution of the great abbey of the body that accompanied it,
th
of Durham by the Royal Commissioners recent careful and scholarly biographer o
of king Henry VIII. St. Cuthbert (archbishop Eyre, of Glasgow
The way that a body of an eminent tells us there exists a mass of information
person was prepared for the grave in those much of which is quoted by him in
far-back days was as follows : The body exhaustive work. Three times the conte
was first
carefully washed, then rubbed of the loculus containing the remains w
with some aromatic preparation, after examined before being finally deposited
which it was swathed in a cere-cloth the shrine thetime on August 2,
first

* Marmion. the second time on the day followi

1
104 ;
687-1537] ST. CUTHBERT S REMAINS. 243

August 25, to satisfy the bishop of Dur of high degree and others (in all, more
ham, the well-known Ralph Flambard, than forty) were present. A very careful
who considered it altogether incredible and minute examination confirmed the
that a human body, however holy, should previous report. The most interesting
remain free from corruption for 418 years ;
detail preserved of the last examination,
the third time four days later to remove relates how a very fine cloth covered the
from the public mind any shadow of doubt. saint s cheeks and face; this cloth adhered
Nine monks, with the prior, were closely, as though it had been glued to
selected to conduct the first examina the hair, skin and temples. The by
tion. They found a chest covered with standers, however, touched parts of the
leather within the chest a coffin of wood
; body not so covered, and saw the bare
enclosed in a coarse linen cloth. In this flesh ;
where they touched, they found the
coffin rested the body. It was lying on flesh soft. The vestments alluded to, in

ts right side wholly entire, flexible in which the saint was wrapped, were very
and resembling a person asleep
ts joints, beautiful, of a reddish purple that was not
ather than dead. By the body were known in those days (A.D. 1104); very fine

many saints relics amongst them the figures of animals and flowers were inter
lead supposed to be that of Oswald, the woven in the stuff. The extremities of
Northumbrian king, slain by Penda at the the dalmatic were embroidered with a
>attle of the Maserfield in the year 642. faded golden tissue ;
his hands were
The reason for the body being laid on its resting on his chest as though in prayer.

ide was evidently to allow room for the The body was reverently replaced in the
lead and the other relics. coffin, and laid in the rich shrine prepared
To bishop Ralph Flambard, the
satisfy for it. The shrine was supported, we
offin was again opened on the following read, by nine stone pillars, and lamps

lay, the body was taken out, and laid were ever kept burning around it.
everently in the choir upon cloths and No further opening of the coffin is
arpets. Its first covering was a costly related until the year 1537, when the

obe, below this a purple dalmatic, then shrine was defaced and plundered by the
linen sheet, all of which were entire and Royal Commissioners of Henry VIII.
lean, retaining their original freshness. The coffin was then rudely broken open,
The body was found to be incorrupt and and in forcing the lid one of the legs of
he flesh firm. By the body was found the body was broken. The commissioners
in ivory comb and scissors, a little silver reported that the body was still whole and
Jtar, a corporal and a paten, together uncorrupt. No further sacrilege seems
nth a small but costly chalice. to have been attempted. The body was
Another examination four days later, of carried into the vestry, where it was
still more
public kind, was made under
"

close and safely

"

kept until the king s

pleasure was known, when the prior

and
le superintendence of Ralph, abbot of
in Normandy, afterwards arch- the monks buried the remains again under
lishop of Canterbury. Many ecclesiastics the spot where the shrine had stood. It
244 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [6871827.

gold wire, and an ivory comb of a

reddish tinge.*
Was this skeleton the remains
of the body of St. Cuthbert ? Arch
bishop Eyre of Glasgow answers
emphatically No. For there ha?
long been a tradition that the body
of St. Cuthbert was removed from
that grave to some other part of the
church. The secret of his present

resting-place is said to be confided

to a select number of the English
Benedictines. The archbishop cate
gorically states, from what was told
PART OF PORTABLE ALTAR FOUND IN ST.CUTHBERT S COFFIN. him by one of the Benedictines in
(From photo by C. P. MacCarthy, Esg.)
possession of the secret, that tl

probably remained in the vestry nearly grave known by several members

is

all the year. their order, who possess a plan of the

In the year 1827 the blue slab which cathedral with the marked spot.
"

Ther
covered the traditional place of reinter is no sums up the learned prelate
doubt,"

ment after the desecration of the shrine from whose exhaustive work we have
by the commissioners of the king
in 1537, was taken up, and the
grave carefully searched. Beneath
the plain blue slab were found the

crumbling remains of three very

ancient coffins one of which had
been elaborately carved a collec
tion of human bones loosely huddled

together, and the skeleton of a man

swathed in fragments of at least five
silk robes in the last stage of decay;
one certainly of these must have
been a very splendid piece of em
broidered silk. A few articles of

deep interest were found among the

remains,, close to the skeleton, in
ANOTHER PART OF THE PORTABLE ALTAR.
cluding a small silver portable altar, (From plioto by C. P. MacCarthy, Esq.)

a gold pectoral cross set with a large

* The photographs of these relics are publishe
garnet, a rich embroidered stole, two brace Dean and Chapter
by special permission of the of
lets of gold tissue, some fragments of fine Durham Cathedral.
6871827.] ST. CUTHBERT S REMAINS. 245

quoted,* that the carved coffin

"

dis chosen members of the Benedictine

covered in 1827 was the identical coffin order."

of St. Cuthbert, but the skeleton found The story of Cuthbert has been told at
was not that of the saint ;
that the body some length, as illustrating quite a dif

of St. Cuthbert was removed by the men ferent phase of Christian life to that

who had, before the suppression of the exhibited by the events in the stirring

abbey of Durham, been Benedictine monks lives of Theodore and Wilfrid. History
of the Durham monastery, and who had too often alone busies itself with public

subsequently received the appointment events, and says but little about the
of secular canons of the cathedral ;
that work which is done in silence and in

this removal of the saint body took place s secret in the scholar s study, or in the
between 1553 and 1558, in the reign homes of the people ;
but the influence
of queen Mary. In the search of 1827 an of Christianity received a great and

>pening
was found in the masonry at the notable impulse, as we have pointed
>nd of the vault, filled up with loose stones, out, during the last half of the seventh
trough this opening the body of the century, from the labours and examples
aint was no doubt removed to
present its of men like Cuthbert and his disciples.

esting-place the great cathedral, the

in That beautiful and quiet life is a fitting
ecret of which is only known to a few prelude to the literary aspects of the
* "

The History of St. Cuthbert," by Archbishop work of the Anglo-Saxon Church in

Evre of Glasgow.
England.

GOLD PECTORAL CROSS FOUND IN ST. CUTHBERT S COFFIN.

(From photo by C. P. MacCarthy, Esq.)
 "^=.. _7*- Photo : Ponlton &* Son, London.
ST. PAUL S CHURCH, JARROW.

CHAPTER Xni.

LITERATURE AND ART IN THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH.

Distinct Schools of Literature in the North and South of England The Southern a Latin School-
Aldhelm of Malmesbury Influence of his School in favour of Roman Christianity Life and Work
of Benedict Biscop His influence upon Ecclesiastical Art and Building Bede Life of a Monk-
Scholar Works of the "Father of English Learning" His Letter on Ecclesiastical Abus
Last Days and Death The English Poems of Northumbria Egbert, Archbishop of York His
famous School His successor, Archbishop Albert Alcuin Influence of English Learning uj
the Continent Decay of the York School and final Ruin by the Danes.

in Northumbria (including of pure native growth. The poets wer

WHILE Yorkshire), an important litera

ture had grown up under the
Engles, the language they wrote in wz
English; the thoughts, the imagery,
protection and encouragement of the were evidently belonging to and drawn
great Christian teachers among the partly from Northumbria, and the seas which
christianised Engle conquerors notably washed its iron-bound
very coast. Its

in monastic centres like the house of theology was, as we have seen when brieflj
Hilda at Whitby (Streoneshalch), where noticing the poems of Csedmon and
the first English poems were composed followers, strangely coloured with northern
a similar movement was taking place in ideas. In this national Engle poetry, for
the south-east of the island, also fostered instance, Noah s Ark is mickle sea- "a

by the Christian monks and priests who The water of the Flood "

chest." is

were at work in the southern and south swart water,"

"

the waves of death.

eastern kingdoms of England. Abraham, the Oriental sheikh, is described

In the north the literature was mainly as a Hebrew earl (eorl) surrounded by
67I-] ECCLESIASTICAL SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH. 247

war comrades. The description of Old to organise the Church in England, in

Testament Eastern cities would pass for a 669. The first important work under
sketch of York in the eighth century. taken by the two friends the archbishop
The angel who talks with Hagar is a and the scholar was to establish a school
thane of glory; Pharaoh of the Exodus, of learning in St.
Augustine s Abbey at
who pursued after the Israelites as they Canterbury. Benedict Biscop took charge
left Egypt, is modelled upon well-known of it at first, but soon gave place to Hadrian.

Engle or Mercia kings. Even in the Rapidly the school grew ; many came from
picture which these first English poets Ireland as well as from different parts of
drew of Christ whom in their way they England. Streams of knowledge," Bede
"

adored with as true an adoration as did tells us,

"

daily flowed from Theodore and

any of the great Catholic teachers in the Hadrian to water the hearts of their
east or west we recognise the northern hearers." There were classes held in this

ideal, and they cannot help, in their por famous school especially for church music
trait of the Redeemer, painting in many of and theology and canon law but secular ;

the features of typical northern heroes like subjects were by no means neglected by
Beowulf. Christ is spoken of as the Holy the teachers appointed by the archbishop
Hero the
./Etheling, bysurrounded and his scholar companion. hear of We
angels and archangels, His thanes. arithmetic and astronomy and medicine
Far different was the literature which being taught there. Greek and even
in this wonderful age of extraordinary pro Hebrew instruction was given in this early

gressand rapid development flourished in Canterbury school. Latin was especially

the south and south-eastern portions of cultivated and if ;
we may judge from
England. The dates of this literary move letters we still possess, written by Aldhelm r
ment are well-nigh identical in the south bishop of Sherborne and abbot of Malmes-
and in the north. The last thirty years of bury, and Boniface, the foreign missionary
the seventh century witnessed the rise and who was trained at Canterbury, to some of

progress of both the schools. But while in their friends in the religious houses, Latin
the north was largely of native growth,
it was a familiar tongue among many of both
in the south of the island it has been well sexes who came under the influence of the
termed an exotic ;
and as might naturally Canterbury teachers. Thus the city of
be expected, lacking as it did well-nigh all Augustine in Kent became in the last
national elements its duration in the south quarter of the seventh century not only a
was much shorter. In the north it lasted, centre of scholarship, but a producer of

roughly speaking, for a hundred years in ;

books and writings and from this time ;

the south, perhaps for only about half a onward there was no need to seek for
century. learned foreigners to fill the bishops seats
It
began in the south when the two old in English dioceses, or for foreign in

!men, Theodore and his friend Hadrian, structors. England now possessed her own
arrived from the East in Canterbury, com scholars.
missioned by Rome to take charge of and But while the literature of Northumbria
248 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [664680.

and the north was mainly English, in the thoughts. Such policy was part of the
southern kingdoms it was almost entirely long struggle between Romish and Celtic
Latin. We have no difficulty in assigning Christianity.
the causes which led to this devotion to In Northumbria it was different. There
Latin letters. The
great school in Can the influence of Aidan and Cuthbert and
terbury, which gave that strange impulse to their disciples, even after the Roman vic

learning, owed its inspiration entirely to tory at the Council Synod or

Whitby of
was won, remained very great, and the
weight of powerful thought-leaders like

Hilda, for years after the Whitby decisions,

was thrown into the Celtic party. Caedmon
wrote his popular religious poetry in Hilda s

house, and the songmen who followed

him were more or less brought up in the
loved traditions of the same school. Not a
few of the princes and nobles of the north
were brought up at lona, or under the
care of the disciples of Aidan and Cuthbert
and the men of Lindisfarne, whose influence
for years was paramount in Northumbria.
They and the people who lived under their

government and influence would care com

paratively little for Rome and Latin learn
ing. Casdmon and his English songs had
stormed their hearts Casdmon s pupils
;

had translated the beautiful and touching

stories of the Old and New Testament

into language and imagery which, as we

have seen, the Engle and the Norseman
Photo : R. Wilkinson, Trowbridge.
DOORWAY AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON. understood and appreciated. Before Bede,
the scholar-teacher of the monastery of
Rome and Italy ;
and it was natural that Jarrow, began to teach, and the pupils of
the influence of Rome should be directed to Bede to influence thought in the north,
making Latin alone the language of learning the Engle dweller in these countries had
and art. Its teachers were men trained come to love with a passionate love the
wholly under the influence of Rome ;
and songs of Caedmon in their own native
it was part of the policy of that great tongue songs intensely English. There
church to make its language the language was no room in their hearts for the
of poetry, of history, and of science, as well comparatively cold and foreign poetry of
as of theology. It rather discouraged the Rome and Italy.

development of English and national Then again, long before Wessex in the
67 1.] ECCLESIASTICAL SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH. 249

south had become a great power, North- was otherwise. There, before Wessex be
umbria and the Engles were already a came a really united power, Latin Christ

mighty and united people already proud

; ianity had become universally dominant,
of their national poetry, which in a way and was able to mould the literature of the

Photo: R. Wilkinson, Trowbridge.

ALDHELM S CHURCH AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON.

was the outcome of their national glory and new kingdom after its own So
liking.

power. In Northumbria s age of greatness in the south of the island Latin became
Celtic Christianity had not been supplanted naturally the language of poetry and ot
by Italian Christianity and Celtic Christ
;
scholars while in the north, where the
;

ianity, so powerful in the north, was influence of Rome was too late, happily,

naturally opposed to everything that came to affect the popular taste, a great school
from Rome. In the south of England it of English poetry the poetry of Ca;dmon
25 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [675

and Cynewulf and of many other songmen the continent of Europe. He

never forgot
whose names have perished flourished for when he had become famous, the de
a long period, and held its own among the he was under to the two ok
obligation
people for more than a hundred years. men who inspired the Canterbury schools.
years after, the world renowned
-
Long
The most eminent scholar of the school scholar thus wrote to his old and venerated
of Canterbury was Aldhelm. It said
is
master, Hadrian It is you, my belovec
"

that he gathered into himself all the who have been the venerated teacher of
learning of the time. A little picture of my rude youth ;
it is
you I embrace wit
his life and work will give reality to our allthe ardour of a pure love, ever longing
account of this really marvellous develop
intensely to return to you." The young
ment of literature in the half -barbarian, scholar became a professed monk, and re
half-pagan England, at the close of the turned to his first master and teacher
seventh century. Mailduf; whose school became another
Aldhelm was born somewhere in the centre of learning. Under this Mailduf
middle of the century, and was a kinsman he taught the Wiltshire community for
of the royal family of Wessex. A wander
many years and when the old Irish master
;

ing monkish scholar from Ireland not an died he was chosen superior of the House
uncommon figure in England or on the of Malmesbury Mailduf s-burg.
continent of Europe in that age named His learning and acquirements seem
Mailduf, built himself a hermitage in the to have been prodigious. Some of his
forest land on the borders of Wessex and writings still remain to us. Latin was
Mercia, in what now known as Wiltshire,
is his special subject : he wrote Latin verse
near an oldroyal home of a British with ease, and composed a long treatise
chieftain. The solitary no mean scholar on Latin prosody. He was acquainted
attracted pupils from the neighbour with all the great classical writers, and
hood ;
the little school grew into a com quoted with familiarity Horace, Lucian,
munity. Among these disciples of the Juvenal, Persius, Terence but his great ;

Irish wanderer was the young Aldhelm, learning was by no means limited to Latin
who became one of his devoted pupils. scholarship. He could speak Greek, anc
Aldhelm certainly owed his early training he read with ease the Hebrew Scriptures,
and his love for study to this Irish scholar. lover of church architecture, he filled Dorset,
From the rude house and primitive Wilts, and Somerset with monastic build
community of Mailduf named after its ings, some of them possessing church*
founder, Mailduf s-burgh, Malmesbury of no mean merit. The little churc
Aldhelm betook himself to the Canterbury (ecclesiola) recently discovered and un

growing rapidly into fame, and

school, then earthed by the patient, tireless work
from Hadrian and Theodore derived that an antiquarian scholar at Bradford-on-
passion for intellectual studies which in Avon, is supposed with good reason to
later years made Aldhelm s name illustrious a bit of Aldhelm s work, and remains un

throughout England, and even far away on harmed after nearly 1,200 years. It is "the
675709] ST. ALDHELM. 251

one perfect surviving old English church in years

-
long association with, the Irish
the land. The ground-plan Aldhelm sof monk Mailduf, he was in the habit of
little church is absolutely untouched, and imposing upon himself some of those
there are no mediaeval insertions at all. extraordinary and terrible penances which
So perfect a specimen of primitive Roman were not uncommon among the more
esque is certainly unique in England we austere of the Celtic monks in Ireland,
should not be surprised if it is unique of at lona, or at Lindisfarne, such as we
its own kind in Europe." frequently hear of in the of
life-story
The literary work of this renowned Columba, Aidan, and Cuthbert. For in
scholar well exemplifies the character of stance,Aldhelm would, in winter as in sum
the school of which he was the distin mer, plunge during the night into a fountain
guished pupil. His verses, scholarly and hard by the monastery, immersed to the
curious, often degenerate into a fantastic neck, till he had said the psalms of the day.
pedantry; pompous and full of rhetorical The fountain long retained his name/and
tricks, they were by no means calculated the memory of his wonderful austerities.
to seize the fancy, or in any way to attract Another and a pleasanter memory of
the Saxon and Engle folk, who after the this great and singular man preserved by

conquest had settled in the lands of the William of Malmesbury, is a story related
Britons. They obtained no permanent by king Alfred. Alfred loved to tell how
influence in the hearts of the English. Aldhelm won men to love sacred things
His prose writings, too, like his verse, are by taking his stand at a public place, such
destitute of any special charm or brilliancy. as on a bridge at fair times and such seasons,

Aldhelm was an admirable instance of the and singing English songs to the people.
scholar and thinker produced by the Nor did these popular songs of the great
Italian school of Canterbury. No wonder minstrel die. William of Malmesbury,
that this strange outburst of literary in writing in the twelfth century, tells us
dustry and power never obtained any real how one of these popular lays was still
hold upon the affections of the North- commonly sung in England. Aldhelm
folk, but quickly died down again and was evidently felt that the classic imitations

forgotten, soon after the famous masters which he loved so well found no echo
first commissioned by Rome had passed in the hearts of the English people ;
hence
away. his efforts originate a more popular
to

But Aldhelm was more than an inde style of song. But of these folk-songs,
fatigable classic scholar. One of his later beyond their pleasant memory, we hear

biographers terms him a great monk one littleor nothing in that cold and polished
who divided his life between study and literature which emanated from the Italian

prayer.
"

When I read," he once said,

"

it teachers of Canterbury.
is God who speaks to me ;
when I pray To the great communities of women
is to God which were springing up
it that I speak." Probably in his day in
owing to his early training under, and different parts of England, he paid much
* Professor Freeman. attention and his influence
; powerful
252 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [675-709.

no doubt promoted a real zeal for study spondence, in which the Latin tongue We
in these important centres of religious evidently generally used. This shows thz
He evidently
life. induced these holy a very considerable culture existed
women in innumerable cases to devote these female communities of the seven ft
a considerable portion of their lives to and eighth centuries in England, a

study. Indeed, a knowledge of the Latin period too often considered illiterate

language was evidently a very common and semi-barbarous. good A example

possession in these famous female com of his graceful, loving, though some
munities. Some of his letters and poems what turgid and exaggerated epistolary
are addressed to abbesses and great per style is the close of his letter to one

sonages ;
others to nuns and sisters whose Osgitha, "his most beloved sister

names are not given. ten times beloved, aye, a hundred,

The famous female monastery of Barking thousand times beloved," Vale decie "

was a house, for instance, in which Aldhelm dilectissima, imo centies et millies." The
took the deepest interest. The abbess of letter to which this affectionate am
this convent was Hildelida, of whom Bede playful conclusion was written was on tl

writes in terms of high praise. A close subject of the Holy Scriptures, in whicl

intimacy evidently existed between this he urges upon Osgitha a deeper study.
saintly woman and the great Wessex For thirty years the eminent pupil
scholar. It was to her and her beloved Theodore and Hadrian was abbot
community that Aldhelm dedicated his Malmesbury and to Aldhelm and
;
hi
well-known work in "

Praise of Virginity," work there may fairly be ascribed all the

written in the first instance in prose, and future greatness of this renowned house
afterwards rewritten in stately Latin verse. It continued to be one of the principz
The last lines of the dedication of this monasteries of England and indeed
treatise, addressed to the nuns of that Europe for several hundred years. The
well-known holy house, are of rare beauty, stately abbey of Malmesbury, still stately,
and breathe of devoted piety. Help me,
"

even in its ruin and decay, occupies the

then,"
he thus wrote, addressing Hildelida site of Aldhelm s great church, which seei
and her nuns, dear scholars of Christ
"

: to have rivalled Wilfrid s pile at Hexhan?

let your prayers be the reward of my work ;
in magnificence, and is a fitting and an
and as you have so often promised me, may enduring memorial of the work of this

your community be my advocates before great disciple of the Roman school ;

the Almighty. Farewell, you who are the though in its famous title of Malmesbury
flowers of the Church, the pearls of Christ, Mailduf s-burg it has strangely borne
the jewels of Paradise, the heirs of the through the many storied centuries of its

celestial country, but who also are my existence the almost forgotten name of
sisters according to monastic rule, and my Aldhelm s first master, the poor wander

pupils by the lessons which I have given ing Irish monk, Mailduf.
you."
With these nuns, named and During the long period of the rule of
nameless, he kept up a constant corre Aldhelm some thirty years an immense
 PlV!RfiiNIBV5OMN*<J\

:!

otn <Jrfttpj>(

ALDHELM PRESENTING "DE VIRGINITATE" TO HILDELIDA, ABBESS OF BARKING, AND HER NUNS.
From the dedication pa-ge preceding and contemporary with ike MS. of the it>ork
(%th or gt/t Century).
(Lambeth Palace Library. By special permission.)
 254 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [675 /c

crowd of monks and students are said to Sherborne followed Aldhelm. Soon after tl
have been attracted to its schools, which Conquest Sherborne ceased to be the seat
well and ably carried on and propagated of a bishopric, Herman, the last prelate
through Wessex the teaching and tra removing the see to Old Sarum. Ir

ditions of Rome as expounded by Hadrian 1139 bishop Roger, of Sarum, founded

at Canterbury. As
a literary school, its Benedictine abbey there, and the cathedra
influence lasted but a short time after the became the church of the monastery. At
death of its great abbot and master, for the one period as many as 300 Benedictine
reasons above dwelt upon ;
but its influence monks dwelled there ;
but its fortunes were
as a school for the propagation of the The present stately
very fluctuating.
Roman tradition, and Roman rites and minster on the site of the ancient cathedral
customs, endured. For the real work of is one of those beautiful piles, rich not
Aldhelm and his house of Malmesbury was only in associations which extend over
the stamping out well-nigh every vestige nigh 1,200 eventful years, but famous for
of Celtic Christianity in the west and south its varied architectural styles Norman,
of England, and the substitution in its Decorated, and Perpendicular so dissimilar

place of what is generally known as Roman in their design and ornamentation, but
Christianity. In the story of the Church which, when grouped together as in the
of England, Aldhelm will ever take rank great Sherborne Minster, produce an effect
with Wilfrid, Theodore, and Hadrian, as at once harmonious and exquisitely beauti
one of the four devoted and able disciples ful. Sherborne and Malmesbury will ever
of Rome who put down what was called be inseparably connected with the memory
with scant fairness
<(

the Celtic schism." of the great Saxon scholar and teacher,

It is as abbot of Malmesbury and master Aldhelm. When Aldhelm accepted this
of famous school, that Aldhelm will
its vast episcopal charge, he wished the monks
ever be best remembered, although in the of Malmesbufy and the daughter houses
late evening of his busy, industrious life he over which he ruled to elect a successor but ;

received the dignity of the episcopate and among the monks of Malmesbury so great
the charge of the vast diocese of Sherborne, was the devotion to his person, that the
which virtually was co-extensive with Corn community insisted on his remaining their
wall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, and abbot and superior, although he had be
Berks. King Ina separated this vast province come the bishop of far-reaching Wessex.
from the original diocese of Winchester, One of the notable acts of Aldhelm, and
which was, in fact, in the first instance one that bore fruit centuries after he had
co-extensive with the entire Wessex passed away, was the peculiar privilege he
supremacy ;
but Christianity in many obtained from Rome for his great abbey of
districts in the south and west had as Malmesbury. It was, with all its de
yet made comparatively but little way, and pendencies, for ever to be independent
much of Aldhelm s work was rather of a of all royal and episcopal control, subject

missionary than of an organising character. alone to the see of Rome, under whose
A long line of twenty-five bishops of special protection it was placed. A some-
 675709-] ST. ALDHELM. 255

what similar charter of exemption from was preparing to preach, the end came.
ordinary jurisdiction is said to have His attendants, as he desired, laid the
been obtained by that disciple of Rome, devoted bishop in the church where he
bishop Wilfrid, for the great Mercian abbey hoped to minister and the stone on which
;

of Peterborough or Medehamstede, in the he laid his dying head was shown to

;

centre of England, about the year 680, reverent pilgrims long after the saint had
from Pope Agathon. These notable in passed to his well-won rest.

stances of charters of exemption from all This was an age of distinguished men ;

ordinary royal and episcopal jurisdiction of greatand powerful warrior kings like
in the cases of the two great monasteries Oswiu and Egfrid of eminent and de
;

of Mercia and Wessex were in later days, voted churchmen like Theodore and Wil
as we shall see, largely repeated ;
with the frid ;
of pious and enthusiastic bishops and
effect of planting throughout England monks, preachers and saints, like Eata and
powerful fortresses of ecclesiastics wholly Cuthbert, Chad and his brother, John of
devoted to Rome, and more or less alienated Beverley, and Acca ;
of saintly and in
from the national life of the land. This fluential women like Hilda and Ebba,
became in time one of the abuses of the Etheldreda and Hildelida ;
of scholars like
monastic orders, and contributed in no Hadrian and Aldhelm, Benedict Biscop
small degree to their eventual downfall in and Adamnan, and, chiefest of all,Bede ;

England and may be reckoned as among

;
of poets like Caedmon,
great and the
the causes which eventually led to the nameless writers of his school of vernacular
great Reformation of the Church in England song. No other age can be cited, no other
in the sixteenth century. country instanced, like the age which
Aldhelm survived promotion to the
his followed the coming and settlement of the

episcopate only about four years. His new North-folk, and the England after this great
duties seem to have put an end to his conquest, in which so many really great
student life, for he spent his time in con men appeared. This was the period of the
tinual journeys through his vast diocese, making of the Church of England it ;

preaching to his people, we are told, con roughly included 100 years A.D. 650 to

tinually,day and night. The year 709 was A.D. 750.

a fatal year to the three famous apostles
of the Roman obedience. Theodore, worn While England Theodore
in the south of
out with years and never-ending toils, had and Hadrian, and their famous disciple
passed to his rest long before. The three Aldhelm, were quietly but effectually re
survivors, Wilfrid, Hadrian, and Aldhelm, placing the old forms and ritual of Celtic
all died in the same year (A.D. 709). Christianity by Roman uses and rites,
Aldhelm died as he would have desired in and endeavouring to introduce the Latin
harness, working to the last. Death came language and a taste for Italian or
upon him suddenly in the course of one of classic literature among the monasteries
his journeyings. In the little wooden and the people under their influence, in
church of Dulting in Somerset, where he Northumbria and the northern portion
256 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [628 f

of England a yet more remarkable de alongside of this native school of song

velopment of church life and of literary grew up also an Italian or Latin literature

vigour must be chronicled. We have of great beauty and power, perhaps

.
more
already spoken at some length of that appreciated long after the great writers

Photo : Sunderland Photographic Co.

MONK-WEARMOUTH CHURCH.

had passed away, than in the age in which

they nourished. In later times the works

of Eddius, Adamnan, and more especially
Bede, were read and deeply valued, while
the poems and songs of Csedmon and his

disciples, which in their own day and

time so deeply moved the hearts of the
DETAIL OF SAXON Engle folk, were comparatively speaking
WORK. neglected, if not entirely forgotten.
Among the little band of.
illustrious

strange riseand rapid progress of a native Northumbrian -scholars who so powerfully

school of poetry, which began with the influenced the growth of Church life during

Engle poet Caedmon ;

we have shown the second half of the seventh century, the
how powerfully his religious poems and name of BenedictBiscop stands pre
songs influenced the Engle settlers of eminent. In after-ages the story of this
Yorkshire and. the northern districts. But indefatigable church worker has been a
628689.] BENEDICT BISCOP. 257

Caedmon, the out the libraries founded by, and largely

good deal lost sight of.
in the south of England, furnished through the unwearied pains and
Engle poet, and,
Aldhelm, whose eventful story we have care of this true lover of books, Benedict

Eddius,the biographer of Wilfrid Biscop. As

a teacher, although manifestly
just told ;
;

Hadrian of Canterbury, Aldhelm

Adamnan, the chronicler of Columba s inferior to

who lived of Malmesbury, and Bede of Jarrow, he

saintly life ; Bede, the historian,
a few years later, the father of English occupies no mean place among the masters
written works of the fast-growing English church. As
history, left behind them
of them with us which have a founder of great monasteries famed for
many still

their discipline, piety, and learning, he ranks

kept alive their memory along the
all

centuries. But Benedict Biscop, also very high. As an unwearied advo

many
cate and a successful teacher of the Romish
though a great scholar, was not a writer,
and leaving nothing behind him, has died traditions and uses, as opposed to the
out of the memory of most men and yet ;
ancient Irish and Celtic customs, he is
in his own time, with the exception 01 second to none in that age of sharp con
flict between the two churches which con
Aldhelm, he exercised probably a greater
influence in the building up of the Church tended so long and bitterly for supremacy
of England than any of these better in our island and the eventual victory
;

known names. of Rome is largely owing to Benedict

He was, perhaps, the greatest traveller of Biscop s ceaseless scholar-work, and to the
his generation the man who may be said
; far-reaching influence he had obtained
in a great measure to have familiarised the over the popular mind as a man of letters

North-folk with the architecture, the paint and profound research.

ing, the church music, the knowledge 01 This very distinguished monk was born
the arts of gold work and embroidery, the about the year 628, a few years before his
varied learning, of Italy and Gaul. It was great contemporary, and companion in his
owing to him largely, that eminent church earlier years, bishop Wilfrid. He belonged

builders like Wilfrid and Aldhelm were to an illustrious family in the Engle nation,
enabled to raise and to adorn their noble and began life occupying a post in the house
and sumptuous churches of Hexham, Ripon, hold of the powerful Northumbrian sove
and York, and the stately pile of Malmes- reign, Oswiu. Like so many noble Engles
bury in the south. In a very few years of his time, he was when quite young con
lafter their having been placed in the vinced of the truth of that Christianity
libraries of his houses of Wearmouth and which at that juncture possessed in
England
Jarrow, Bede, the scholar - monk, drew somany eloquent and impassioned teachers
largely from this precious store of b ooks and preachers, and resolved to give up
collectedby Benedict Biscop in his travels, secular lifeand to dedicate himself to the
materials for his immortal history. The service of God and His Christ. A visit he
literary activity which distinguished paid to Rome determined his views respect
Northumbria for more than a century ing the special form of Christianity to
would, indeed, have been impossible with- which he would consecrate his powers.

Q
258 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [628689.

The sights of Rome its splendid and the superintendence of the monastic school
soul -
stirring ritual, its glorious homes at Canterbury, where for two years he
of prayer, its countless traditions, its presided with the rank of abbot over the
libraries, the use which the church 01 house and school of St. Peter, better

Italy and Rome made of architecture, known as St. Augustine s Abbey. When
music, painting, and sculpture as the Hadrian, one of the greatest scholars of
handmaids of religion had a powerful the time, the intimate friend of archbishop
effect
upon the impressionable and ardent Theodore, arrived in England to take up
young Northumbrian thane. He would the important work of education, Benedict
teach his fellow-countrymen a better way Biscop left
Canterbury and St. Augustine s,
of worshipping their Christ he would ;
and for a fourth time visited Rome and
build them nobler temples than the rude Italy ;
whence he returned to his native
straw-thatched oratories and poor wooden Northumbria with a rich store of books
churches and wattled chapels of lona and and relics and other treasures dear to
Melrose and Lindisfarne. Twice more churchmen. He won the heart of king
at least, when still young, he visited Egfrid, who presented him with a great

Rome, which possessed a peculiar and ever estate Northumbria, upon which the
in

growing attraction for the young and ardent travelled scholar founded his first famous
scholar. In the vast and renowned monas religious community at the mouth of the
tery of Lerins he dwelt some time, observing river Wear. This house, dedicated to
closely and learning the life of a great St. Peter, was known as Wearmouth
Roman monkish community ;
nor could he Monk-Wearmouth.
have chosen a fitter temporary home and Benedict Biscop was now in a position
school than Lerins, which occupied then a to carry out the dream of his life, and
foremost place among the monasteries of determined to erect for his new commu
the west, being distinguished equally for its nity a churchwhich should reproduce in
learning as for its rigid rule and its fervid wild Northumbria on the banks of the

piety. There he assumed finally the Wear, a lordly house of God, such as he
monastic habit. had seen and worshipped in on the shores
By this time
the Engle disciple or of the historic Tiber. To him a long and

Christianity had become well known as dangerous journey was nothing so he ;

a scholar-monk of rare ability, devoted to started for Gaul, and, probably from the
Rome and her traditions ;
and when southern provinces bordering on the
Theodore was chosen as the archbishop Mediterranean, where noble Roman build
of Canterbury, and was entrusted with ings were still in the course of erection,
the great charge of organising the Church he Brought skilled stone-masons (csemen-
in England, Benedict Biscop was selected tarii), cunning artists in marble and stone,
by Pope Vitalian to accompany Theodore men in glass -making, and other
skilled

to England as his trusted adviser and com workers capable of building and adorning
panion. This was in the year 669. Arch such a church as he determined to erect
bishop Theodore entrusted him at first with upon the lands given him by his friend
628689.]
BENEDICT BISCOP. 259

king Egfrid. These crafts were all shrines, whicn were among the treasures
utterly unknown in the England
of the highly prized by the artist-monk, brought
Northmen conquerors. The fact that from southern lands, were imitated by the
architecture and its kindred arts had no Northmen, and eventually England became
place in the early period of the Anglo- positively famous for its rich and curious
Saxon shows how com
rule in England, embroidery.
pletely Roman training
and learning had Nor were the walls of his churches

perished in Britain
and yet before the
;
allowed to remain unadorned. Skilled

Saxon conquest the land had been covered painters are said to have enriched these
with great cities, adorned with many new and beautiful homes of prayer with
noble buildings, rich with every possible colour and with gold, with pictures of

adornment of painting and of sculpture. apostle and saint, with stories from the
u
The poor, sad relics of the time before the gospel history. The constant aim,"

conquest of the North -folk, uncovered writes Bede in the early years of the
now year after year in all parts of our eighth century (Bede died A.D. 735),
u of
island buried cities like Silchester, lordly these pious artists was not only to

villas, huge fortified places, mighty tem decorate the churches, but also to teach

ples are continually reminding us of the illiterate, by placing before their eyes
what Roman Britain once was before the subjects borrowed from sacred history,
coming of the Northmen ;
but when from the Apocalypse or from the lives of
Benedict Biscop was building his splendid saints." Bede s words would imply that
Wearmouth church, the very tradition this painting the walls of monastic churches
of building and adorning buildings had in hisday was no unusual work, and was
perished, and he had to seek workmen by no means confined to the Jarrow and
and from the distant provinces in
artists Wearmouth religious houses. It was a
southern Gaul and Italy. strange awakening of these children of the
Other arts, thanks to the unwearied north, who hitherto had no conception
perseverance of this great restorer of for of these beautiful creations of art. It was
gotten industries, were quickly introduced a curious change, too, for the devoted and
into the new England of the Northmen. saintly men of lona and Melrose, of Lindis-
The sacred vessels some of them made farne and Whitby, accustomed to the rude
of, or encrusted with, gold and silver oratories of the Celtic saints, to assist at
which he brought with him from Rome the worship they loved with so absorbing
and Italy and southern Gaul, introduced a passion, in these new beautiful churches,
into England a new taste, and, as we so richly adorned with sacred symbols, and
have before had occasion to remark, laid to hear the same hymns and psalms they
the foundation of a new art, after had sung and said so often with the rough
wards pursued among the Anglo-Saxon and monotonous chant, accompanied by
people with rare skill. The elaborately a music they had never heard before. No
embroidered priestly vestments and ex doubt all this contributed in no small de
quisitely wrought coverings for altars and gree to the victory of Roman Christianity.
260 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [628-689.

But above all things this Engle monk house afterwards famous under the name
in his houses of Jarrow, as the life-long residence of the
"

desired that the "

religious
should read and study, and for this end he greatest scholar and writer of the early
brought a vast collection of books of every English Church, Bede to be in some sort
kind from the Continent. He thought it a reproduction of the Roman church of
an imperative necessity for every monastery "St. Paul s outside the walls." Over
to have an extensive library. His wish, Jarrow he appointed his dearest friend,

too, was that peculiar attention should be Ceolfrid, another great name in those far-

paid to church music. On his return from back days, as abbot, and associated with
voyage to Rome, he brought with
his fifth himself as joint abbot of Wearmouth
him an eminent musician monk named his nephew Easterwine ;
but Easterwine
John, who had acted as precentor at St. soon died.
Worn out by his ceaseless journeys and
unremitting work, this famous churchman,
atonce artist and scholar, while still appar
ently in the vigour of life, sickened of a
mortal disease, which gradually paralysed
his limbs. He suffered for three years,
during which long period he set the noblest
example of a bravely patient toiler in spite
of suffering. He was unable to leave his
bed but continual services day and night
;

SAXON WINDOW IN JARROW CHURCH.

were celebrated in the sick man s chamber.
(Said to be contemporary with Bede.)
His often sleepless nights were passed in
Peter s Rome. He placed him over
at listening to favourite passages from the
his loved Wearmouth monastery to teach Old and New Testament. This reading
the Roman ceremonies. Classes were was kept up by a succession of readers,
opened, too, at which the liturgy and the who relieved each other at intervals.
ecclesiastic chants were taught, and the During this long and weary illness he
best singers from the Northumbrian reli would often collect a number of monks,
gious houses resorted thither for instruction. and even of novices, round his bed, and
The rule of St. Benedict was adopted in would address to them pressing and solemn
these newly-formed communities. counsels, warning them to keep faithfully
King Egfrid was in entire sympathy the strict and austere rules of their order.
with the great traveller, and proceeded to He especially urged them to preserve the
assign him another large estate. Benedict precious library he had collected with so
Biscop, with this new endowment, founded much care and trouble, and never to allow
another house on the pattern of Wear- it to be spoiled or dispersed. The immense
mouth, a little to the north, at the mouth importance of study for the perfect monastic
of the river Tyne, and dedicated it to St. life, indeed, seems to have been ever before

Paul. He wished the church of this new this really eminent monk. He evidently,
628689.] BENEDICT BISCOP 261

while prizing very highly the monastic community of Wearmouth and Jarrow,
system, to perfect which he had conse so closely joined together, was a large one,
crated so many years, feared the danger and numbered 600 monks. The wise rule
and eventual ruin which idleness and of Ceolfrid lasted altogether twenty-seven

SINGERS RECEIVING INSTRUCTION (/. 2&OJ.

vant of definite occupation would surely years until the year 711. Ceolfrid played

oringupon the order he loved so well. a distinguished part in the development of

He died in 689, and was succeeded by monastic life in Northumbria. A pupil of
Ceolfrid, his intimate friend, the abbot of Wilfrid, and carefully trained in all the

[arrow, who became on Benedict Biscop s policy of that famous prelate, he was not
ieath superior of the two houses of only the wise abbot and worthy successor
Wearmouth and Jarrow. The whole of Benedict Biscop in all his plans for
262 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673-

fostering the literary tastes of the vast of Beverley. Jarrow and its quiet, peace
body of monks beneath his rule, but we ful life was ever sufficient for the studious

find him even consulted by the Pope, and young monk, who was brought up from
by men of the rank of Naiton, king of the boyhood in its walls. I spent my whole
"

Picts. But his best work was, perhaps, in life in the same
monastery," he says, and,
"

his own famous school, in the midst of while attentive to the rules of my order and
which, during a life of unexampled literary the service of the church, my constant
labour, lived the greatest scholar and writer pleasure lay in learning or teaching or
the English Church produced for several writing." I ever found it sweet, this
"

centuries known in subsequent history as. still, yet busy life,"

he tells us, when in

the Venerable Bede. later life he wrote down his early memories
Itwas a career perfectly uneventful as re
About the year 680 a little boy seven gards the great world without he eve ;

years of age was entrusted by his family, refused, later, to accept the dignity of abbo
undistinguished folk, who lived on the of the community he loved so well, becau
lands granted by king Egfrid to Benedict he thought it would interfere with tfo
Biscop, to be educated by the monks of studies which filled so completely eve
the new religious house of Wearmouth. hour of his life.

When, some time after the daughter Although, however, Bede occupied n
monastery of Jarrow at the mouth of the position of special honour or rank in th
Tyne was founded, Ceolfrid, the newly- church he served so nobly although in ;

appointed abbot of Jarrow, removed those stirring times he was little hear
thither with some of the Wearmouth of either in church or state ;
even the
monks, he took the little boy Bede with the report that a monk of extraordina
him. From this time for more than half learning, and that a teacher of rar
a century, Bede never left Jarrow. Very power and marvellously winning gifts, w
soon after Ceolfrid and his little company dwelling in one of the Northumbria:
had taken possession of their new home, monasteries, got abroad. The school o:
an epidemic desolated the community. Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow and Wear
All the monks who were able to sing in mouth, became famous throughout Eng
the choir died, except the abbot Ceolfrid land, and a crowd of pupils flocked t
and the boy Bede, who in after days re receive instruction at his hands. But the
lates this curiously sad experience of his quiet grandeur of the great scholar s lif<

child-days : how the two survivors, the was not really known and appreciate
abbot and the boy, as best they could, sang until long after Bede had passed away ;

the services until new brethren joined not until his works, charming and varied,
them. had been read and re-read by successive
Bede grew up under the care of the generations of scholars then his name at ;

learned Ceolfrid. At the age of nineteen length became indeed famous throughout
he received deacon s orders, and at thirty western Europe. It was a strange destiny
the priesthood from the hands of St. John that many of his books should have so
 673735-] BEDE OF JARROW. 263

endured, such as the Ecclesiastical His interpretation or translation of the divine

"

tory,"
and the "Life of St. Cuthbert." writings, though they were his first, as
They formed part, and no small part, of they were his last study. He was imbued
the literature of Alfred the Great ; they by his learned master in these grave and
are the prized text-books of the early
still holy studies with all that was pure and

English teaching in our own great uni true in the great Celtic traditions of the

versities, at the close of the nineteenth interpreters of lona and the old Irish
century. Edited and re-edited in all the schools ;
and to these he added a deep and
learned centres of Western Europe, each profound knowledge of the patristic tradi
fresh edition even now, after 1,200 years, tions preserved by the long line of the
is eagerly welcomed and studied anew by scholars of Rome, belonging to the Roman
scholars young and old, directly it appears. and Italian schools. With Greek learniflg,
What, will be asked, the peculiar charm
is introduced into England by Hadrian, who
which has won for these ancient works of taught for so many years with archbishop
the quiet monk of Jarrow this seemingly Theodore at Canterbury, he was intimately
undying power ? acquainted ;
while Latin was as his own
We know something of the life led by tongue, and in he wrote the great
it

not a few of the inmates of these great majority of his many works, with an easy
homes of study and of prayer in the grace and power which only long familiarity
seventh and eighth centuries, of which could give. He weaves his charming
Jarrow was a fair example, and we can stories into the dryer narrative of his great

picture with some exactness our great English history with a strange attractive
scholar at his daily work. "

The quiet cell,

ness peculiarly his own.
with desk at the window, a single chair at The writings of this indefatigable scholar
the desk, with cupboard and bed, and a chest are very numerous, and varied in their
full of manuscripts taken from the ample character. They embrace astronomy,
store laid up in the monastic library: there physics, and music, philosophy and geo
the monk lived and worked year after year, graphy, arithmetic and grammar. It must,
looking up now and then to hear the bird however, be remembered that Bede was
sing on the sill, to see the flowers in the something more than a student and scholar;
paved cloister, or the fruit-trees blossom in he was the master of a great and renowned
the garden a simple, happy, silent life." * school, whither resorted, besides a crowd
This quiet, reserved monk little by little of monks and religious," a number of
"

made himself master of the whole range of all sorts and conditions of men eager to
the science of his time Scriptural studies ; receive instruction in the famous Jarrow
were, of course, his chief pursuit. From school of Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid.
Trumbert, a monk who had been trained Thus many of his treatises partake of the
by the saintly Chad, he received his first nature of catechisms, or short manuals,
guidance here ;
but Bede by no means adapted for the education of the crowds of
confined his patient, loving industry to the who thronged to this Northumbrian
pupils
* "

Stopford Brooke, Early English Literature."

teaching centre. It will be sufficient
264 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673735-

to give the names of two or three of respects was Wilfrid s

successor, as he had
these diversified treatises, some of which been his dearest friend and confidant.
we may suppose were written by his dis But the composition of these numerous
ciples, and only received the corrections and various commentaries extended doubt
and final touches of the great master : less over many years.
the "

Ars Metrica," the "

De Rerum Bede may be looked upon not only as

the father of history in England, but also
as the parent of English theology. Before
his day there was little written by men of
the stamp of Augustine or Paulinus, Aidan
or Cuthbert, Wilfrid or Chad. These
men were rather great missionaries than
writers, men whose lives were of necessity
active rather than contemplative, whose
thoughts and efforts were almost wholly

occupied with the practical duties of their

station. Bede s homilies for he wrote

many and his voluminous commentaries,

are largely made up of practical teachings
connected with the Christian life.
They
have been well characterised as calm,
sensible, and unaffected, a mirror of that
steady piety which has made the practical
religion of the English people. But the
commentaries especially are coloured with
a disposition towards allegorical interpre

tation, occasionally extravagant in its

character. To Bede the whole Bible

BRDE S CHAIR (TRADITIONAL) AT JARROW CHURCH. appeared as a great allegory "Even the
New Testament, the Gospels, and the
and the De Temporibus." His
Natura,"
"

Acts have their hidden and mysterious,

commentaries extend over almost all the as well as their historical signification no
books of the Bible. They are in a com word them but enshrines a religious
in

plete form dedicated to Acca, whom we

*
and typical sense." His comments are
have seen riding with Wilfrid on the largely made up of selections from the
occasion of his last ride to Oundle, and more popular fathers especially those
receiving the last intimate confidences of containing subtle and ingenious explana
the renowned statesman and prelate who tions.
fills so
large a place in the story of the But on his "

after all, it is Ecclesiastical

second half of the seventh century Acca, History of the English Nation
"

that the
the bishop of Hexham, who in some * Dean Milman, "

Latin ChristianitY-"
673-735-] BEDE OF JARROW. 265

immortal fame ot Bede rests. In this of Augustine in A.D. 597 to the year

great masterpiece, and in the two less 731, when the work- weary scholar closed
known short "

Lives "

of St. Cuthbert his eventful chronicle. No pains were

nanaii ir:\HK> &ononu< n meonum

omndrjeg; ciadiciirrhoc peC,wan>C)sn

&ona iMrmrnr sms ttmifcirr

clvniccrbmcinrro?
u&i*oamS6tuS ctmpfritttir ncm trHiir- :

,cotio6racutxi eon

mnhrplicarcx-.
tft.ivttrCinni?cc

<ltqa<cfi

*
-- "

Xj^r-r*
Vf&fm^ --prtTn>- -"p
6cJum oun? utctinittnuni
-oest-ct

Scibcft- coni^o t

cJuonnornmiiin iti

rtnclo nom^P >iominti>-.nb!r6:i

>.
OMis-cxxr- nn.vx. stra.-?iun

nrunr- pi n-o-
plj
ft- ,\cJuGrcum ufiio c jjw j a cni
n&ioPCKvppt u ^rr, f vSi
-V:
^r^y-r^-fv

PAGE FROM THE "COMMENTARY OF CASSIODORUS."

(Said to 6e in Bede s own. handwriting. Durham Cathedral.)

and of the abbots of Wearmouth and spared by the writer in the collection of
Jarrow, the peculiar charm of Bede s materials for his history. Of course, the
literary work specially comes out. In the story of the north of England, Northum-
ecclesiastical history, after a short intro bria, is told with more ample details than

duction, the real work stretches over nearly those we find in the rest of his national
a century and a half, from the landing annals. He was a Northumbrian Engle
266 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673-735-

himself, proud of his people and their in the truth of these. He gives none of
land. He ever lived in the midst of the these stories of the supernatural from his

scenery he so graphically describes, and own personal authority as an eye-witness,

with not a few of his heroes he had been but always names the persons from whom
personally acquainted besides which, the
; they came to him, stating whether he has
work of the church whose early fortunes received them at first- or second-hand,
he painted was largely done by North leaving the reader to form his own opinion
umbrians. The conversion of Kent by as to their genuineness.

Augustine is dwelt on certainly at great Cuthbert is evidently his favourite hero,

length. But thisis natural when we take among the many noble and saintly ones he
Bede s interest in everything
into account portrays so admirably as the makers of the
thatcame from Rome, and when we re church he loved so passionately and served
member the familiar intercourse which so faithfully. There is no doubt whatever
naturally existed between the schools of that he looked upon this strange loving man
Canterbury and Jarrow.of But the as one who exercised time only a in his

preaching and influence of Aidan, the few years before Bede wrote his story in
wanderings and marvellous life of Cuth- his Jarrow cell not merely human powers;
bert and Chad, the doings of Hilda and who now and again saw sights which
her mighty house, and her poet Caedmon no mere
mortal eye could see. For
and his works, which Bede loved well, instance, when he relates how Cuthbert
these were the main events which fill his one day quenched a fire, he adds But I :
"

storied pages. and those like me, who are conscious of

Perhaps the special charm which is felt our own weakness, can do nothing in that
in the history, is in the exquisite stories way against material fire ;
"

and again he
plentifully scattered
up and down the suggests the
possession of supernatural
narrative. Bede had a marvellous power influences in such a passage as, Once the
"

in delineating character, and in picking saint [Cuthbert] was vexed with a swelling
out what was good and gracious in the in his knee, and was prescribed for in his

man or woman of whom he was writing. pain by a man of noble mien, clothed in
To the student of that far-back age thanks white ;
Cuthbert followed the stranger s
to Bede men like bishop Aidan and the advice, and got well. At once," says Bede,
saintly Cuthbert, and Caedmon, Hilda s "he
perceived that it was an angel."

poet, live again. We seem to see them, Nothing is more exquisite than his de
we fancy we
hear them speaking, they are scription of wild creatures, birds and
so real and -life-like we cannot believe
; beasts, now obeying, now ministerin
that twelve hundred years have elapsed to Cuthbert. "We for the most part,"

since these great and lovable men passed he says, "have lost our dominion over
away. He relates with intense sincerity these wild creatures, for we neglect to
many strange tales of his beloved heroes, obey the Lord."

and not a few miracles in which they bore His stories have obtained a singular
a prominent part ;
he evidently believes power over men s hearts, and live for
673-735-1 BEDE OF JARROW. 267

ever in our memory. Every child who bishop to establish in every hamlet and
knows aught of the history of his country village,however remote, priests who will
knows well the story of Gregory in the preach the word of God, celebrate the
Roman market-place, looking with loving divine mysteries, and baptize Bede thus ;

pity on the beautiful Angle children, and recognising the need that men should be
the string ot playful puns which came from appointed as Christian priests, even in
Gregory on that occasion are as household remote villages,capable of preaching and
words still among us while the beauti
; teaching. With the great Jarrow teacher,
ful recital of the wild storm-driven bird deeply as he valued the regular and fre
flying through the thane s fire-lit hall on quent administration of the two sacraments
a winter s night, out of darkness and the baptism and the Lord s Supper the
unknown, and again into darkness and the power to preach the word was a necessary
unknown, has been told and retold a giftwhich every priest should possess.
thousand times ;
at once a little piece of He evidently, however, contemplated that
the history of the day, and an allegory a low standard of scholarship must be
which goes home to all hearts. accepted for some at least of the priests,
One singularly interesting relic of Bede s for in speaking of prayerand creed being
writings requires special mention, because said in English, he added, "

I say this not

it throws a strong light upon the abuses only for the laity, but also for the clerks
which, alas !
only too quickly crept into and monks who do not understand Latin."

that powerful and influential church which Again, the advice contained in this letter
had been established among the Engle to Egbert evidently presupposes a wide
and Saxon conquerors. These abuses were adoption of what we should call the
handled and commented on with a very parochial system. It is evident that in

gentle, but still with an unsparing hand the wide-spreading diocese of York the

by Bede, in his celebrated tetter (the date outlying villages and hamlets were by
of the letter is about A.D. 734) to Egbert no means left to the ministration of the
of York, the chief prelate of the North monks of the many religious houses, but
umbrian church, in the latter years of that priests appointed by the bishop were
Bede s life. Egbert was a brother of stationed among the village communities

Eadbert, king of Northumbria in of the Engles. Although the church had

737-758, and had been a pupil of Bede at been established, comparatively speaking,
Jarrow, and was not unfrequently a guest very few years, the same shrinking from
in his old master s monastery, from whom partaking of the Holy Communion was
he often sought advice and counsel. A painfully noticeable among these Engles of

year before the great scholar s death a the firstyears of the eighth century, as,
letterwas sent from Bede to Egbert, con alas ! too often is still among our English

taining counsels" and general remarks on Among writes

"

people. Bede,
us,"

questions generally affecting the church. thanks to the carelessness of the pastors,
"

From it we gather some curious and the most religious laymen dare not com

interesting information. Bede urges the municate except at Christmas, the Epiphany,
268 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673-735-

This
"

and Easter, although there are numberless "

letter to archbishop Egbert of

Christians, young and old, of pure life, York was written in the lastyear of Bede s
who might without scruple approach these useful and beautiful life. No story in the
holy mysteries on the Sundays and feasts English tongue is more winning and at
of the Apostles and martyrs." tractive than the recital given to us by a

He very vehement, too, in his warn

is certain Cuthbert, an unknown monk of
ings to bishops against the love of earthly Jarrow, in a letter written to an absent
lucre. There are many villages in the
"

brother in reply to a request to tell how "

hills and woods of our native land where a Bede, our father and master, the beloved
bishop has never been seen and yet these ;
of God, departed from the world." Its

neglected flocks are taxed to pay the strange attractiveness consists in its perfect
bishops dues."
Very suggestive is such simplicity. Plain and unadorned with
an admonition as this, and shows us only anything miraculous or supernatural, its

too plainly that the Engle church, bishops absolute truth impresses itself upon the
and people, had in a very few years sadly reader. He is
transported to Jarrow, and
fallen away from the lofty ideal of an Aidan thinks he is gazing upon the little pallet in
or a Cuthbert. Against married dwellers Bede s cell, where the child-like scholar
in monasteries the scholar was very stern and saint is dying, just worn out after a
in his denunciation. Indeed, the whole tone life of ceaseless work, serene and
joyful
of the letter to Egbert was the tone or now the end has come.
one who feared for the future of the It was just two weeks before Easter

church ;
who dreaded a general falling tide, in the year 735, when the old

away from the great examples who had man old before his time felt the end
gone before them. It was an earnest was at hand. Very weak and ailing, he
protest, as it has been termed, of "

a true would still

creep into his accustomed
monk against the false monks who had place in the choir of the church when the

already begun to infect the life of the hours of the many services came round.
cloister, and against the greedy and feeble When asked to rest in his cell, and not
bishops who sanctioned and tolerated these to join in these oft-recurring meetings
unworthy abuses." It contained also for prayer and song, he replied : "I

strenuous warnings against allowing any know "

it is Alcuin, the minister of

interference, save in the case of crimes of Charlemagne, who records the beautiful
treason, on the part of the king or the saying
"

that the angels visit the canon

thanes in monastic
affairs, great the ical house and the gatherings of the
nobles being apparently often eager to brethren. What if
they do not find me
seize upon and to appropriate the revenues among the others in God s house ? Will
of monasteries, which in many cases al they not say, Where is Bede ? Why does

ready, through the cultivation of lands he not come with his brothers to the

probably originally waste, and through the prescribed prayers ?

lavish gifts so often bestowed upon religious At last, the writer of the letter tells us,

houses had become exceedingly wealthy. as the days grew on to the time of the
673-735] BEDE OF JARROW. 269

Lord s Ascension, the weakness of the He slept but little, but continually chanted
scholar-monk crept on, and the sickness psalms, and in the intervals still gave us.

from which he suffered became more lessons at times. He would stretch his arms
severe ;
the difficulty of breathing in- out in the form of a cross, and so pray O

DEATH OF BEDE.

creased, but there was no actual pain. "

You happy man !

repeating now verses from
desire and expect me to tell you how Bede, St. Paul, or other Scriptures, now bits of
our father and master, departed from this poetry in the Engle tongue. [Memories,
world ? He continued thus," wrote on Cuth- no doubt, of Caedmon ;
for he was well
bert,
"

Tuesday before Ascension

until the versed in the beautiful English poetry of

always joyous and happy giving thanks Northumbria.] Sometimes we wept and
to God every hour of the night and day. sometimes we read; but we never read.
270 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [673-735-

without weeping. He thanked God with Thus passed away quietly, as he had
his own sweet touching grace for his sick lived, one of the purest saints men had
ness, and repeated St. Ambrose s words, ever known ;
the greatest scholar of his own
I do not fear to die, for I have a good and of many succeeding generations, whom
master. all agree in calling the Father of English
"

On the Tuesday before Ascension the learning. It is a pure and touching story,

breathing became more difficult, still he this often-quoted memory of his end,
would dictate to his pupils. Make haste, given by an eye-witness a story which,
said the dying saint, to learn, for I know as a modern writer beautifully says,
"

like
not how long I may remain with you, or a solemn evening landscape seen from the
if
my Creator may call me shortly. On hill-top of a long life of faithful work,
the Wednesday before the feast his scribe breathes so quietly the gentle and clear
said to him, There is
yet one chapter of air of death."

your translation of the Gospel of St. John

stillwanting does it trouble you to
;
It will be well now to describe more
be asked more questions ? It is no in order the wonderful early outburst of

trouble, said Bede, but take your pen Christian literature produced under the
and write fast. At the ninth hour he shadow of the church in Northumbria, in
stopped dictating, and said to his scribe, which Caedmon in the last quarter of the
I have some little things of value in my seventh century, and Bede in the first part
chest such as pepper, napkins, incense of the eighth century, are the earliest and
run quickly and bring the priests of our most conspicuous leaders.
monastery, that I may distribute among The sudden rise of, and reception given
them the gifts which God has given me. to vernacular poetry, has been spoken of.
So the day wore on in the evening the ;
It was born, as we have seen, in one of
scribe went to him again. Dear master, those great Northumbrian double monas
he yet one
4
said, there is sentence of teries in Streoneshalch or Whitby, in the

the translation unwritten. He

answered, days when the abbess Hilda ruled there.
4
Write quickly. Soon after the monk- Csedmon, the first recorded poet of his
writer laid down his pen. Now the school, was followed by others whose
sentence is finished. You say truly, it names have perished, all but one, Cyne-
is finished, murmured the saint. Take wulf. The poems and songs were written
my head in your arms, and turn me, for by Engles in their own English tongue, and
I have great consolation in turning towards were evidently warmly received by the
the holy place [the little oratory] where people, and, of course, largely influenced
I have prayed so much. Then he sang their life in the latter part of the seventh,
for the last time, Glory be to the Father, and during the whole of the eighth cen
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and breathed turies. The themes of these popular poems
he pronounced the last of these
his last as were mainly religious. The exceptions to
divine names, and so departed to the king the sacred poems, as far as we can judge
dom of heaven." from the remains of this great and influen
670780.] FOLLOWERS OF C^DMON. 271

tial literature which are preserved to us, years of that period the glory of North-
consist in a number of so-called "Riddles," umbria had departed, and a half-sad, half-
full of dramatic interest, and coloured despairing spirit seems to brood over Engle
with descriptions of Nature, and in a few poems like the Christ and the Elene."
" " "

allegorical poems such as the Phcenix,

"

Probably the
"

Dream of the Rood "

is one
the Panther, and the Whale." But the of the latest written ;
but not a word
burthen of the large mass of this very early appears in these writings which gives a
Engle poetry was religion. The remains hint of the impending dreadful blow which
that we have with us now consist of lengthy fell upon the land at the hands of the first

paraphrases of the books of the Bible, and Viking raiders, who stormed Lindisfarne
wild legends of the saints, enlarged and and Jarrow in 793. No Engle poem
woven into stories of considerable length, sad though the spirit is which lives
like the
"

St. Andrew." We have, for in among the beautiful and moving verses
stance, singular and striking poem 01
a of the later writers alludes to events

passionate religious biography founded which horrified not only Northumbria,

on a dream of the Holy Rood." To give
"

but which brought terror and dismay even

another instance, among these remains we to the heart of the great Northumbrian
have a long trilogy bearing the name of scholar, Alcuin, dwelling far away under
Cynewulf, which treats of the mission and the protecting shadow of Charlemagne s
work of Jesus, and passes through the brilliant court on the Continent. may We
Incarnation and Ascension and the Last therefore assume that a "

silence
"

fell on
Judgment. The deep interest generally the national school of Northumbrian poetry

Christianity throughout these North

felt in in the last years of the eighth century.In
Engle lands during the last half of the the ninth century, certainly, there was no
seventh and much of the eighth centuries literaturecomposed in Northumbria.
is evident from the selection by their While the Engle songmen were busy
national poets of such sacred and profound influencing all national life, and popu
subjects as their favourite themes. This larising, so to speak, Christianity among
stirring literature began to be written and the people of all ranks and orders
read in the last quarter of the seventh (for it must be borne in mind that

century, from about the year 670. The "

by far the largest proportion of the

followers of Csedmon were many," writes vernacular poems written between 670
Bede ;
and the phrase tells us there were and 780 which are preserved to us are
a number
of these Engle religious poems religious poems), the teaching and influ
composed and current among the people ence of Bede and the school of Jarrow,
before the date of Bede s death in 735. founded by Benedict Biscop, during some
During the seventy or eighty years
first of thesame period was working among the
of the eighth century roughly, until about same people, and in the same direction ;

780 all the Engle poetry written by only the writings of Bede for the most
the followers of Caedmon by men such as poems of
part were in Latin, while the
Cynewulf was composed. In the later Caedmon and Cynewulf were written in
272 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [735-78i

the Engle tongue the national dialect
of the race. Bede, however, although he
must be classed as a Latin writer and as
a teacher of the Roman school,
and the seat of Northumbrian learning was
transferred from Jarrow to York. Already,
in Bede s lifetime, a flourishing school of
had the learning had been established in the great
Northumbrian capital, and under bishop

Egbert, Bede s pupil and friend, had already

become famous. Very shortly after Bede s
death bishop Egbert received the pall from
Pope Gregory III., and thus became the
second archbishop of York. The only
one of his predecessors to whom this title

properly belongs is Paulinus, who, it will

be remembered, after the death of Edwin,
more than a century before, fled into Kent
carrying his pall with him. None of the

bishops of York, not even the famous

Wilfrid, received this dignity again until
Egbert in A.D. 735, who, probably through
the influence of his family connections,
received the pall from Rome, and was
acknowledged as archbishop of the northern

province. The commanding position of

Egbert was further strengthened in 738,
when his brother Eadbert became king
of Northumbria.
York was a better home for the school
which Bede founded, than Jarrow in the
far north. Bede s loved home was re
mote, and, save for the presence of the
famous scholar, comparatively unknown.
It was a large monastery, nothing more ;

CROSS AT WHALLEY. a group of scattered huts round the

(Said to commemorate a visit of Pautinus.) church and monastic buildings, where the
scholars who resorted to the lectures of
warmest sympathy with and love for the Bede lived, formed the town. Difficult

national poetry, of which he was evidently of access, far away from any populous
an ardent student, and in which we know centre, when the scholar who had created
he was an accomplished scholar. the school passed away, the school natur
When Bede died, in 735, the school ally ceased to exist. York, under arch
of Jarrow, celebrated far and wide through bishop Egbert, was very different. Long
out the island, virtually came to an end, before Bede s day it had been the c
735-78I-]
THE SCHOOL OF YORK. 273

city of the northern Engles, and the celebrated letter from the dying scholar
Northumbrian kings made it their royal already spoken of, was admirably fitted

seat. It had, too, a great history, and to establishand to promote a school of

without exaggeration might be called learning. Although not an original thinker
even an imperial city. There the emperor or a great writer like his master Bede, he
Severus died. There, too, Constantine was was a profound scholar, with an ardent
proclaimed emperor. It had been the love of books and learning and believed
;

most famous city of the Romans during that the Christian religion could be best

STONE OVER THE CHANCEL ARCH IN ST. PAUL S CHURCH, JARROW, RECORDING THE COMPLETION OF
THE BUILDING IN A.D. 685.*
(Probably a copy of the Original Stone)

their period of rule in Britain ; it was a advanced among the Engle people by
known name even on the continent of fostering among them a love for learning.
Europe. In the beginning of the eighth It seems a strange, almost an incredible
century, it had arisen from its ruins and thing that in a remote age, among a
was again a nourishing city, with a large * In The dedi
English the inscription runs
"

and thriving population. cation of the basilica of St. Paul on the gth of
the Kalends of May. in the I5th year of King
Egbert the archbishop, Bede s pupil Egfrith, and in the 4th year of Ceolfrid, Abbot
and friend, to whom was addressed the and under God founder of the said Church."
R
274 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [735-781.

people scarcely civilised, as we should sank deep into his heart. Some of the
term them, many of them still pagans archbishop s rules are severe, it has been
like their rude forefathers, such a school said to excess ;
and the penances which
as Egbert s at York could have existed he prescribed for
erring Christians are
in the first half of the eighth century ;
characterised as even frightful. The ideal
and it is no doubt largely owing to this he set before himself and his clergy and
school, and the vast influence it exercised their flocks was doubtless an impossible
among the North-folk, that Christianity one ;
but was a noble conception, and
it

obtained so rapid a success, and gained his teaching and example did much to
so strong and permanent a hold on the advance the cause of true religion in

affections of the
conquering race. Arch England.
bishop Egbert s long unbroken rule at We know a good deal of the life of this

York, a time lasting some thirty-three servant of Christ, who will ever occupy a
years, of course contributed to the mar distinguished place in the roll of the
vellous prosperity of his educational founders of our Church of England.
system. He had time to mature his Among the crowd of scholars who
plans, and to watch his work grow and thronged his school at York during
develop. his protracted rule, was one who was
Egbert of York was, however, some afterwards celebrated throughout Europe

thing more than a powerful teacher and as the first scholar of his time, and who,

organiser of education. He was also a strangely enough, became in after-days

great archbishop and chief pastor, in the counsellor and adviser in educational
the highest sense of the word. To him matters of the monarch to whom the
the introduction of the parochial system great destinies of the western world were
in the north is no doubt largely due. entrusted the emperor Charlemagne.
As we have seen in the letter Bede wrote Alcuin, Charlemagne s friend, received his
to him in the last year of his life, under early training from Egbert, and became
his care the building up of church life when still comparatively young, one of hi
among the scattered people in the villages principal assistants at York ;
and it i

and hamlets of broad Northumbria, was through Alcuin that we learn much o:
not left to the occasional and somewhat the inner life of Egbert and his schoo
fitful visits of monk-priests from the mon In the life we find a picture
of Alcuin

asteries, but was entrusted to men who the daily work of Egbert in his great Yor
made their permanent homes among the monastery. The cares of his vast dioce
"

people, dwelling among them often in would occupy, of course, the first pla
remote and rarely visited districts. As soon as he was at leisure in th
Egbert was also a stern disciplinarian. morning he would send for some of th
The words spoken and written by that young clerks, and sitting on his couc
loving scholar at Jarrow, who so well taught them successively noon,
till

grasped the dangers to which the disciples which time he retired to his private cha
of the new religion were exposed, evidently and celebrated mass. After dinner,
735-781] THE SCHOOL OF YORK. 275

which he ate sparingly, he amused him minsters like York and Ripon and Hex-
self with hearing his pupils discuss literary ham, the golden rood often gleamed with
questions in his presence. In the evening jewelled lines of ornament while in these ;

jhe recited
with them the service of com- great homes of prayer and study the

jpline,
and then calling them in order, he bindings of the gospels and the books used
gave his blessing to each as they knelt in the sacred offices were often most richly
in succession at his feet."* decorated with gold and silver, and even
The school of Egbert at York was encrusted with precious gems.
famous throughout western Europe ; Towards the end of his busy, useful life,

youths of noble birth from all parts were Egbert was joined by his royal brother,
sent to York for instruction. Egbert Eadbert, the Northumbrian king, who laid
himself acted as its head and principal aside his crown and sceptre, and, taking
teacher, and Albert or Ethelbert as his the tonsure, entered Egbert s
monastery at
vice-master. The archbishop lectured on York as a monk. The king lived nine

divinity, and the scarcely less famous quiet years with his brother the arch
Albert on grammar and on arts. It was bishop, who died, after ruling the great
with these teachers that Alcuin, the see for thirty-three years, in A.D. 766 the ;

world-famous friend of Charlemagne, laid monk-king two years later. The brothers
:he foundation of his vast knowledge. were laid side by side in one of the porches
But great though Egbert was as a or little chapels of the cathedral.
naster, ceaselessly energetic and watchful Egbert was succeeded in the arch
is a prelate, he found time to indulge his bishopric and headship of the famous
:aste splendour and magnificence in
for "

York "

school by his friend and coad

he services of his Minster. He paid the jutor, Albert, who nobly carried on his

greatest attention to the growing love for master s work. For some time he was
:hurch music, and adorned his stately assisted by Alcuin, his old pupil, under the
:athedral with the choicest work of the title of "

magister scholarum." Albert, or

eweller and the goldsmith ;
the figured Ethelbert, was even a greater teacher than
:urtains of silk of foreign manufacture, Egbert, and under his wise rule the school
vhich he procured for its adornment, are of York rose still higher in general Euro
.pecially mentioned among his gifts. In pean estimation. He was an indefatigable
ihat so-called "rude"
age, the arts of em collector of books. The library of York
broidery and of illumination of cherished and its famous school under his rule and
nanuscripts a peculiar talent of the Celtic teaching reached its highest point, and
hurch and the crafts of working in gems positively gave an impulse to learning
|.nd gold and silver, had steadily grown in throughout all western Christendom.
^orthumbria. Monks loved to work at Albert was also a great church builder.
gorgeous bindings for their sacred books ;
The York minster had in 741 been
l.ndsome of them showed rare skill in severely injured by fire. He erected what

vorking in gold and silver. In wealthy was virtually a new cathedral. His first

* "

Fasti care seems to have been the little

Raine, Eboracenses." chapel
276 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [735-

inwhich Paulinus, the Roman missionary, his training in the York school unde
had baptized king Edwin more than a Albert, its famous master subsequentl
hundred years before. This sacred spot, archbishop. Distinguished for his schola
where that Christianity which had grown ship and evident teaching powers, Alcui
into such a lordly tree had been first in the year 767 became the master o

planted, seems to have been regarded with the school. The period of his teaching
great reverence in the Northumbrian 767-780, some twelve or thirteen years
church. The altar in this chapel he was perhaps the age of York s greates
renovated with great care. All the sacred fame and influence at home and abroad
vessels and crucifixes were of silver or gold, Returning from Rome, whither he hac
and were with precious stones.
inlaid A gone on a mission to get the pall fo
huge candelabrum of three branches hung Albert s successor in the arch-see, he me
over it, with a rood embossed with gold at PaviaCharlemagne, and singularly
and silver. Round this sacred shrine attracted the great monarch. At tha
Albert (Ethelbert) built his minster. In period the
young still th( master of
after-days Alcuin describes this church as a famous Northumbrian seat of learning
loftytemple set on pillars over the crypt, ranked as the most illustrious of Europear
bright with ceilings and windows, apsidal scholars. In the following year, 781-2, he

chapels around, and containing thirty joined the suite of Charlemagne finally
altars. Alcuin superintended the work and at once became busied as the adviser o
with Eanbald, who was afterwards arch the all-powerful emperor in all matters con

bishop. This church seems to have re cerning education and literature, in whict
mained uninjured, as some think, until the Charlemagne was specially interested.
Norman Conquest. His story henceforth is no longer ar

The name of one of the illustrious
ofYork has been mentioned several times.
Although in his more famous subsequent
career in the train of the great Prankish
scholars English one, but belongs to the larger his
tory of European progress. His work anc
influenceunder the great emperor w
enormous, as a founder of schools, as
"

emperor Charlemagne, Alcuin belongs restorer of the knowledge of the sacr

rather to the continent of Europe than to languages, of the text of the Bible an

England, still, as to his nationality he was Service Book, and the moral vigour
an Engle born at York, and in his early ecclesiastical discipline."

bringing up and in his career generally In the year 790 Alcuin again visit

during early and middle life, he belongs to England and his old school, where f<

England. It may be well briefly to sketch so many years he had been first a pupi
his distinguished career. then its master. In two years, howeve
Alcuin was born about
year of the he left York for -ever, and devoted him
Bede sdeath, say 734-5, within the walls henceforth to his great foreign work. Hi
of the ancient Northumbrian capital. took with him a number of scholars wh
Entrusted, like other noble Engle
many had been educated Northumbri
in the

boys, to archbishop Egbert, he received school, and constantly sent to York f<
735-804-] ALCUIN. 277

books and tresh helpers. Indeed, it is the huge Prankish dominion became the
saidhe drained York of its best scholars. home of literature the patron of learn
;

None of this work of Alcuin on the ing was no longer a small provincial
continent of Europe is
part of the story king like Eadbert (of Northumbria), with

PAGE FROM ALCUIN S BIBLE (British Museum}.

the Church of England but it belongs

;
his power trembling to its fall, but the
;o the glory of our church, "to say that man who in a few years became the head
t was an English scholar of York who, of the holy Roman Empire and ;
the glory
exactly at the right time, bore off to the of that great title and all that it meant
ontinent the whole of English learning, threw its glamour and its dignity over
md out of English learning built up a letters. They marched with the Empire s
lew world. . . Instead of a little and march, and took of its youth and energy.
lying kingdom in the north of England, Alcuin of York led them, nourished them,
278 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [735-804

established them. The seat of learning in 827 is told with scornful

abruptness ir
was thus no longer in England, but the the pages of the Saxon Chronicle. Anc "

new city was built with stones from Egbert (the West Saxon king) led ar

England."* This is one of the works of army to Dore against the North-Hum
the Church of England, and the church brians, and they offered him their obe
of York with its school the school really dience and allegiance, and with that the)
of Bede may well boast of being its separated."

founder and origin. Nor within the church of the north

Eanbald, Albert s friend and coadjutor, during this period of rapid decay, were
succeeded him in 781-782. But from things more promising. The clergy be
that time the famous school of York came more and more luxurious in theii
began rapidly to decline. Nor are the way of life, the parish priests lost al

reasons for the rapid decay of this brilliant learning. The archbishop himself seems
centre of Christian learning and scholar to have lived more like a temporal thai
ship hard to During the fourteen
find. a spiritual prince. Soldiers and courtier
years of the rule of Eanbald things were attended him as he went about his diocese
going from bad to worse. The school Alcuin writes plaintively from the cour
lived on it is true, but its glory had of Charlemagne to his old loved school
faded ;
no assistance, as heretofore, was "

hoping that sacred studies would not to

given by the kings and thanes to the neglected at York, and that the pains all

teachers and their great church. The life he took in collecting books would not b<

of king and thane was spent in internal labour lost." The mournful words in on
dissensions between rival claimants to the of the decrees of the synod of Pincahaln
throne. King king of Northumbria
after held in A.D. 787, are well styled by
a the
we read of as exiled or murdered. Four modern writer as epitaph
"

of these shadowy monarchs perished in Northumbria of her poetry, her litera

Eanbald s sad fifteen years of rule at ture, and her famous school all is nov :

York. Naturally these fierce political weakness, indifference, and darkness. Th

troubles, these bloody intrigues, these sad words of the decree in question rui
u
murders of the highest in the realm, as There were days when w
follows :

created a state of things in which no quiet had righteous kings and dukes an<

home of learning could hope to flourish. bishops, of whose wisdom Northumbri

After the fifteen years of Eanbald s rule still smells sweetly."

things even grew worse. Pupils shunned So much for the rapid decay in stat
distracted Northumbria. hear during We and church, which so quickly sapped th
this period of anarchy and misrule, less and prosperity of the world-famed school o
less of the once famous school, or of the York, for a time the most popular school
world-famed library of the glorious minster- Christian learning in Europe. So
church. The close of the melancholy story for the state of matters within the Nort
umbrian realm :
without, a dark cloud
*
Stopford Brooke,
"

Early English Literature." slowly gathering, which was shortly

735 804-]
ALCUIN. 279

break over all England. The northern plundered the monastery of Lindisfarne,
sea-pirates were already collecting in vast rich in the glorious memories of Aidan

numbers, and preparing for that awful series and Cuthbert ; they burned the holy
which were to harry the
of plunder-raids houses ot Wearmouth and Jarrow, with
unhappy country of the Engle and Saxon all the priceless treasures collected by
for more than a hundred years. It was a the loving care of Benedict Biscop and
nemesis on these stern and cruel con Bede.

quering races. The lands they had won When the news of the slaying of the
at the cost of so much misery and woe monks and the awful ruin of these great
from the Briton, they were never to enjoy homes of piety and learning, with their
in peace, in spite adoption of
of their splendid traditions, their noble libraries
Christianity, in spite of their noble and and curious treasures, reached Northum
unexampled progress in true learning and brian Alcuin in his home with the em
in the arts of an advanced civilisation. peror Charlemagne Gaul, he wrote
in :

A dreadful blow was now to fall indeed, "He who can hear of this calamity and
a bolt from the blue, so unlooked- not cry to God on behalf of his country,
for, so unexpected it was. In 793 has a heart not of flesh but of stone. The
some long war-ships manned by Vikings most venerable place in Britain, where
sea-pirates from those northern seas, Christianity took root among us after
first

which break on the Norway and Danish Paulinus went away from York, is a prey
coasts suddenly landed on the North to heathen men." "This is the begin

umbrian sea-board. Their bloody and de ning of a greater trouble to come," said
structive raid extended far and wide. the famous scholar in a sermon preached

They ravaged the coasts and burned the by him at this time. Were the words of

smiling prosperous Engle villages ; they Alcuin prophecy ?

SAXON DOORWAY, MONK-WEARMOUTH.

 CHAPTER XIV.

ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.

The English Church a bond of Union Summary of the History of the Saxon and Engle Kingdoms-
Growing Importance and Power of Wessex Egbert His Training under Charlemagne First
King of England Christian Life among the People Attractions of the Monastic Life, shown by
the Number of Royal Recluses Influence of the Monasteries on Daily Life On Art On Study
Love of Dress in Nunneries Promotion of Learning Great Influence of the Church towards
National Unity Change in the Customs and Daily Life of the People Influence upon Agriculture
Prevalence of Pilgrimage Endowments of the Church during this Period.

r ARE Wessex and the

I history of scarcely even recognising that they formed
south of
England during the part of one great nation. But amidst the
period upon which we have been divergence of interests there was one
dwelling, for the Church historian pre church, which in some respects bound
sents but few features of interest outside them all together : one primate ;
one
the influence exercised by the school of organisation one set of rules and laws
; ;

Canterbury founded by Theodore and a common faith a common ritual. The

;

Hadrian, and by their great disciple Aid- church s work and influence in the eventual
helm of
Malmesbury. The
story of Mercia welding together of England into one
during the same period contains even less nation was without doubt very great, and
of moment for the student of church has rarely been appreciated at its real

history. The episodes of Wilfrid and value. This will be seen if we briefly
Chad at Lichfield, their work and influence summarise the history of the chief king
in the Midlands, have been already dwelt doms into which the conquered island
upon ;
but both these distinguished men was divided during the age of the settle
were Northumbrians, and their career was ment of the conquerors of Britain a
closely bound up with the fortunes of period of about a century and three
the North Engle kingdom. quarters.
For more than a century, ever since the The story of Northumbria the land
death of the famous organising archbishop north of the Humber the country of
Theodore of Canterbury, in 690, until, the North Engle, including Scotland as
roughly, the accession of
king Egbert far as the Forth, the northern counties,
in 802, the church for which Theodore and Yorkshire, has been told with some
and his assistants men like Hadrian had detail, as it was the principal centre of
devised a wise organisation, and which interest in Britain during the momentous

they had fairly succeeded in welding into time of the settlement of the conquerors
unity, exercised
a widespread influence a period, roughly comprehended, between
over the whole land. The country, it is 605-782 that is to say, from the year
true, was up into
split several states, more of the death of Augustine to the year
or less wrapped up in their own interests, when archbishop Albert (or Ethelbert]
655-718.]
dedicated the newly built minster church
of York just before his death.
The whole of the centre of the island
was known as Mercia the country
the Middle Engles including generally the
midland counties south of Yorkshire, the
MALMESBURY ABBEY.
western counties of Cheshire and Shrop
shire, and the districts watered by the
Severn ;
as well as the eastern counties,
the land of the East Engles, which for the
greater portion of the time under consider
ation was included in the supremacy of
Mercia. We have seen how, in the middle
of the seventh century, under the heathen
Penda, Mercia rose for a season to be the
chief power in Britain but its power was
; England.
MERCIA. 281
eventually broken at the decisive battle
of the Winwaed, in 655, when Penda was
slain by the Northumbrian king, Oswiu.
of Again, under Penda s son, Wulfhere, in
the year 665, Mercia became for a time
the dominant power in the island but ;
Photo: William Hank, Malmesbury.
Wulfhere was eventually defeated by the
Northumbrians, in 675, and again Mercia
lost her temporary supremacy. Once
more, after many years, in the year 718,
a man of rare power, Ethelbald, a son
of Alweo, a brother of the great heathen
Penda, was raised to the throne of the
Midlands, and under him Mercia became
again for a the leading state in
time
For more than twenty years
282 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [655-718.

its king was

recognised as the over of the great makers ot the Church of
lord at least in the middle and southern England. Wilfrid, in his exile, twice at

parts of the island ;

but in 754 the West least resided for a lengthened time in the
Saxons defeated him at a great battle at Midlands, and for some years occupied the
Burford ;
and from that day we hear no position of bishop of Lichfield, the chief
more of any enduring supremacy of Mercia. Mercian see. Chad also lived and worked
For a time, it is true, under Offa a under theprotection Mercian
of the
kinsman of Ethelbald, and who succeeded sovereign of the day, as bishop of Lichfield
and chief pastor of Mercia. But Wilfrid
and Chad were Northumbrians, and their
presence in Mercia may be almost termed
accidental. During even the Mercian
portion of their lives, they were ever
closely connected with Northumbria.
Under these eminent missionary bishops
and others of less general notoriety, Mercia
gradually became Christian. But Mercia
occupied no place like Northumbria as
an home of missionary enter
influential

prise. Again, as a literary centre we hear

nothing of the Midland kingdom no
schoolwhence issued distinguished scholars
and writers, like Aldhelm and Bede and
Caedmon, who, with their pupils, so power
fully influenced the conquerors in their
movement in the direction of Christianity.

OFFA S DOMINIONS. Among the early scholars and writers of

the Church of England we find no distin

him on the throne of Mercia the Midland guished Mercian names. The schools of

Engles were powerful. Offa was a great Canterbury and Malmesbury, of Whitby,
statesman, and recognising the growing of Jarrow, and of York, whence issued

weight and vast influence of the church, the great Christian teachers of the England
in 787, with the consent of the Roman of the North-folk, lay outside the Mercian

see, he raised the see of Lichfield into realm.

an archbishopric but this was no lasting
;
The third of the leading kingdoms of
arrangement, and we soon find Lichfield these Northmen Wessex
conquerors
a simple bishopric again. In 828 Mercia possesses a very different record. Wessex
passed finally under the supremacy of the land of the West Saxons included
Wessex. what may be termed the fairest and
During all this period no
very dis richest portions of England. Generally
tinguished Mercian appears in the ranks speaking, it was supreme after the year 634
625-827.] WESSEX. 283

in Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, the acknowledged over-lord of that large

Berkshire, Sussex, Wilts, Hampshire, and important division of England which

Gloucestershire ;
and gradually
westward over Dorset and Somerset and
even further west, over lands inhabited by
the remnant of the old British inhabitants
of the island.But for a considerable period
it spread lay between the sea-coast of Essex, and
the west country which looks to Exeter as
its capital. Winchester, London, Bath,
and Exeter were among his cities. It was
in his days and under his strong protection

the strength of Wessex was broken, and that Aldhelm, whose life and influence we
her influence in Britain was hopelessly have already sketched, lived and worked.
maimed, by the long and bloody struggle Ina seems to have been something more
forthe throne between the royal lines of than a valiant and skilful commander, for
the two brothers Ceawlin and Cutha, he welded his widely-extended dominions
who lived in the last quarter of the sixth into one solid realm ;
and the code of laws-

century the descendants of the original which bears his name, and which still
West Saxon conqueror, Cerdic. It was remains to us, shows us that he was a wise
not until after 625 that Wessex really and far-seeing king in the true sense of

emerged from the throes of this fatal the word. Strangely enough, like his-
contest of the rival royal houses. predecessor king Ceadwalla, he too grew
Ceadwalla, a prince of Ceawlin s royal weary of the ceaseless anxieties and rest

line, after crushing the rival princes of less cares of such a royalty, and laying
the West Saxons, ascended the throne, down crown and sceptre, sought peace as
gathering all the West Saxon peoples be a quiet pilgrim to Rome, where he died
neath his sceptre, and thus in 685 estab in 726.
lished a powerful supremacy of West After his abdication, once more Wessex
Saxons throughout the whole of the was distracted with its own internal dis
south of England. But it was really sensions ;
and
for a time its powerful

under Ceadwalla s successor, Ina, that neighbours, Mercia and Mid-Britain, were
Wessex may be said for the first time the dominant power in England south of
to have become an important power Yorkshire. But after the pitched battle of
in the island. The seventh century was Burford between Mercia and Wessex in the
drawing to its close, when the West year 754, in which Mercia was utterly
Saxons assumed the position among the routed, the West Saxons recovered their
conquering peoples of England to which supremacy, and Mercia at once sank into
their great numbers and the unrivalled a subordinate place. During the years

position of their territory would seem fairly which followed the West Saxon victory
to have entitled them. Ina s reign (A.D. over Mercia at Burford, Wessex gradually
688 to 726) over Wessex, although cease pushed forward its frontier over the beauti
lessly filled up with wars both domestic fuland fertile lands westward of Exeter,
and foreign, at home and also with the still dwelt in by the old dispossessed
Mercians, his ambitious neighbours con British people ;
and in 786 we find the
solidated the West Saxon power. He was West Saxon ruling in the west as far
284 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [787-827

as the banks of the Tamar, though the king Beorhtric, Egbert was called to the
power and influence of this West Saxon throne of Wessex. Our work dealing with
people was sadly maimed after Ina s ab the Church of England rather than with
dication, by the renewal of those internal the state, it would be beyond our plan to
dissensions which had been their bane for enter into any detail of Egbert s great
nearly two hundred years. The coveted reign. During his long rule, which ex
succession to the crown of Wessex was tended over thirty-seven years, Wessex
disputed by two lineal descendants of obtained supremacy over the last fragment
Ceawlin, the old West Saxon conqueror of British dominion in the west, and

the princes Beorhtric and Egbert. The Cornwall acknowledged the over-lordship
former got the upper hand, and Egbert of the West Saxon. This was in the year
became a fugitive, and took refuge, first 815. But the arms of Egbert and the
with king Offa in Mercia, and later, when West Saxons were not only victorious

king Offa sided with his rival Beorhtric, over the poor remnant of the conquered
at the
splendid court
mighty of the British people in the extreme west in ;

emperor Charlemagne on the Continent. 828 the whole of Mid-England, the realm
This was in A.D. 787. of Engle Mercia, for the first time ac

Egbert spent some fifteen years abroad, knowledged a foreign over-lord in the person
and a silence broods over this long period of the West Saxon Egbert and even this ;

of the exile of the West Saxon prince ; great submission of the Midlands failed to
but it was, no doubt, in the company of satisfy the far-reaching ambition of the
the great emperor and his ministers that Wessex sovereign. The same year which
Egbert laid the foundations of his future witnessed the acquiescence of Mercia in the
greatness. Such a court as that of Charle supremacy of Wessex, saw the invasion of
magne the master of all the Teutonic Northumbria by the armies of the success
peoples, lord of an empire stretching from ful conqueror.
the North Sea shores to the Mediterranean We have already briefly traced the
in the far south had never been seen decline of the Northumbrian kingdom.
since the days of the greatest of the Years of ceaseless internal troubles, anarchy,
Roman emperors. From the lips of the and misrule ;
a dim terror of what the
great emperor himself, from men like future might hold in store for them if the

Alcuin, Charlemagne s friend and adviser, dreaded sea pirates of the north, already
Egbert the exile learned the deep wisdom harrying their coasts and burning their
and the profound statecraft which in after- most cherished sanctuaries, should follow
days enabled him to become the over-lord up their first successful raids all this

and, in a measure, the king of a

first seems to have quenched the old Engle
united England ;
for in his day Mercia spirit of the days of Edwin and Oswiu ;

and Northumbria both acknowledged the and at the first summons of the conquering
supremacy of Wessex. West Saxon monarch, without a battle or a
His long period of exile came to an struggle, the Northumbrian thanes met
end in 802, for on the death of his rival, Egbert on their frontier in Derbyshire, and
gl
286 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

quietly accepted him as their over-lord. Wessex was, with perhaps brief intervals,
What we should call the national struggle its acknowledged over-lord.
u
for Home Rule "

land counties by the children of the North
and Mid-Engles was by no means ended
but the struggle, though often renewed,
never broke up the chain of union be
tween the Engle and Saxon peoples which
Egbert had forged, first in Mercia, and
then at Dore on the Northumbrian border.
The later legend, which
the West Saxon, king
haps anticipates but,
reminds us, from that eventful year of
in the northern and mid East Anglia, the home and realm of
the once mighty Redwald, the solitary
;
East Anglian kingwho exercised any real
supremacy beyond his own borders, re
mains alone to be spoken of. This im
portant division of the island, extending
roughly from the shores of the Wash to
the frontiers of the East Saxon territory
styles Egbert in the* south, Essex, and from the long
of England, per sea-board on the North Sea to the un
;
as our historian determined boundaries of midland Mercia,
loved again and again to assert its in

grace, 827, one great England was made

"

dependence of the powerful kinsfolk who

in fact, if not as yet in name." dwelt westward and northward, the Middle
In this necessarily brief sketch of the and Northern Engles. But though it

history of the three great kingdoms into claimed, it seems* rarely to have enjoyed
which the England of the Anglo-Saxon the independent position it longed for ;

conquerors was divided in the seventh and and to one or other of the Northumbrian or
eighth centuries Northumbria, Mercia, and Mercian monarchs it had, with brief intervals
Wessex no mention has been made, of of a semi-independence, ever to submit as
the little East Saxon kingdom, and of the over-lord. And when Mercia eventually
yet more important divisions of Kent and bowed beneath the supremacy of Egbert
East Anglia. At a comparatively speak and the West Saxons, East
Anglia, of
ing early date the East Saxons ceased course, passed with Mercia without a struggle
to have a separate existence ;
their under the same domination, and became a
territory was quickly merged in the province of the united Anglo-Saxon realm.
dominion of their powerful neighbours By a strange fate, however, the great
and kinsmen in Wessex. Engle race northern, middle, and eastern
Kent has a more distinct history. Its while consenting to pass under the Saxon

importance naturally was chiefly derived supremacy of Wessex, gave their name to
from the position of Canterbury within its the great nation thus made up Engle-
borders, Canterbury being the seat of the land or England.

primate, and the home of a famous school

of learning the seat of the archbishop of
;
We
have been dwelling on the life and
a church yearly growing in importance influence of a few great ones, round whom
and in far-reaching influence. But Kent all general church history in the seventh
for avery long period could hardly claim and eighth centuries clusters. Of these
even the shadow of independence Wessex ; prominent figures we are able to draw
ever overshadowed it, and the sovereign of fairly accurate pictures : we know much
625-827.] CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ENGLAND. 287

of their views, their hopes and outlooks, Egbert of York in the north. The
their misgivings and fears, their successes decrees of the Council of Cloveshoe, in
and their failures. We possess memoirs and 747, are the earliest authentic documents

chronicles, some of them written by men which speak of the distribution of lay-
who had seen and conversed familiarly as lands under the government of bishops,
friend with friend with the subject of their in distinction from churches situated in

memoir or biography. From these writings lands belonging to monasteries, and under
we gather many details concerning the the control of their abbots. At the close

private life of these leaders of men of of the next century (the ninth), in spite
these founders and builders of our Church of the havoc and confusion which resulted
of England. These are pictures of the from the cruel Danish harryings, we find
life public and private of earnest and at length unmistakable traces of the growth

impassioned missionaries like Cuthbert of a parochial organisation in the English

and Chad ;
of great statesmen-bishops and church. For instance, we find on the con
church organisers like Wilfrid and Theo fines of Mercia, in the diocese of Wor
dore of great and world-famous scholars
; cester, an estate
Woodchester, not far
at

like Hadrian, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, and from Gloucester, with a citizen s priest" "

the saintly Bede of Jarrow ;

of women resident occupying a position well
upon it,

whose vast influence was second to none
of these famous men, such as Hilda of
Whitby, and Etheldreda somewhile queen
the greatly loved abbess and foundress
defined and secure. But during the seventh
and eighth centuries, the monasteries
supplied in England the place of parish
churches and it is to the great monastic
;

of Ely in the Fen country. communities that we must look when we

But what of the Christian life among seek for the real centres of Christianity.
the people in these two centuries ? We These religious houses in those early
have few details here. We know in days must have not only possessed a vast
these early times but little of this life influence, and exercised a far-reaching
outside the monasteries, or of any teaching power, but they must have been centres
other than that given by monk-priests, of real and very earnest religious life, to
who from their monastic houses as centres have attracted within their walls so many
went out to different rural stations to royal and noble persons willing to give up
baptize, to preach, and celebrate all the their earthly rank and power and posses
ceremonies of worship, and to which, when sions, and to throw in their lot for ever
theirwork was temporarily done, they re with the nameless brethren of a monastic
turned as their permanent homes. English community.
Christianity at first, certainly for these Kings and princes from all, or well-
two centuries of which we are speaking, nigh all, the ruling houses of the Engle,
was specially monastic. Rural and town Saxon, and Jutish conquerors of Britain,
parishes were formed but slowly under in their turn assumed the cowl of a monk.
the influence of archbishop Theodore of Comparatively early in the story of English
Canterbury in the south, and archbishop Christianity we have mentioned Sigebert,
288 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625-827.

king of East Anglia, who retired to a tale is told of the immediate cause of hi
cloister, but was afterwards persuaded by becoming a cowled monk. His queen ha
the urgent entreaties of his subjects to long been desirous to lay down her roy
leave his peaceful retreat and to lead them state, and wished to induce king Ina, he

against that determined foe of Christianity, husband, to consent to this, and to giv
Penda of Mercia, falling in the battle up the world with her. A great banque
and rout of his subjects. Sebbi, king of had been given in one of the royal countr
the little kingdom of the East Saxons palaces. On the morning after the festiv
Essex and Middlesex died a monk in the king and queen rode forth on thei
695, and the vast stone coffin of this cowled journey to another of their residences. I
sovereign was looked upon for a thousand was the custom for the courts of thes
years by the citizens of London as it lay in early Saxon kings constantly to trav
St. Paul s, until it was destroyed by the from one estate to another, and thus t
Great Fire in the days of Charles II. consume on the spot the varied produce
Another king of Essex, Offa, accompanied of the royal demesnes. After riding for

by Coenred, sovereign of Mercia, laid aside an hour or two, the queen asked Ina to
the insignia of his high office early in return on reaching the royal house they
;

the eighth century, and the monk-kings, had recently quitted, he was dismayed to
proceeding as pilgrims to Rome, died there find it deserted and desecrated
the very
as simple monks. In Mercia the prede bed on which he had
slept the night before
cessor of this Coenred, Ethelred, Penda s was occupied by a sow with her litter
son, a few years before had exchanged his The queen Ethelburga who had arranged
crown for a cowl, and for ten years ruled this strange sight with great fervour then
the monastery of Bardeney. This Ethelred dilated on the awful change which hac
we have already spoken of as bishop passed over the scene of the feast o
Wilfrid s devoted friend, who received yesterday. Where,"
"

she asked, "

were
the great exile and showed him such warm all the courtiers, the splendid silver dishes

friendship after Wilfrid returned from Rome. the delicate meats, the purple hangin
In Wessex the first Christian king, Cent- of the rooms ? See,"
said the eloquen
a all has vanished like
win, in the year 685, after a war-filled queen, smoke; an
reign, retired into one of the monasteries those who love these perishing things sha
he had been instrumental in founding. in likemanner pass away. Shall not we
Ceadwalla, his successor, also abdicated, who fare more delicately than other men
and died in Rome, whither he had gone shall we not," pointing to the repulsiv
as a pilgrim, in 689.* sight of the sow and her litter,
"

fall int

Of his successor Ina, the friend of still more miserable corruption than othe
Aldhelm of Malmesbury whose long men ?
"

It is a strange legend, but i

reign of thirty-seven years is remem shows how deeply the thought of judg
bered principally from his famous code ment to come had entered into th<

of laws, "The Dooms of Ina" a curious hearts of the Woden-descended kings an

princes of the Saxon and Engle race

* Montalembert s
"

Monks of the West."

Cf.
625827.] CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ENGLAND. 289

Ina, we know, abdicated, as did so many abbesses in Northumbria have already

of these crowned and went,
chieftains, come before us. In Kent, early in the
with his queen, Ethelblirga, on a pil seventh century, Ethelburga, widow of
grimage to Rome, where he died in king Edwin of Northumbria, the daughter
the obscurity he sought. Ethelburga of Ethelbert, the Jutish king, founded the
became subsequently a nun in England. nunnery of Lyminge, near Folkestone.

SCENE UPON INA S RETURN (p. 288).

Nor was this strange passion for making Her tomb is still shown in that most
their homes in the great monasteries con ancient church. Her niece Eanswitha
fined to kings and princes and thanes ;
founded the first house of God at Folke
a similar attraction drew a still greater stone, and her name is still revered in the
number of the queens and princesses and well-known Folkestone church dedicated
noble ladies among the Engle and Saxon to the Jutish princess. This Eanswitha s
peoples to these new homes of prayer and nunnery became not only a home of learn
study. A great number of names of ing, but a school of agriculture. She died
cloistered women drawn from such ranks in 640. Minster, in the Isle of Thanet,
in those times are preserved to us. The owes its foundation to another once
stories of Hilda, Ebba, Elfleda royal famous cloistered lady of the same royal
290 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

house, Domneva, whose daughter again reputation for sanctity. Etheldreda, the
succeeded her as abbess of the same house eldest of the three sisters, became, it will
of Minster, and won among the people be remembered, the queen of Egfrid of
an enduring popularity and admiration Northumbria, whom she following, as it
under the once well-known and venerated is to be feared, the advice of bishop Wilfrid
name of Mildred. This royal house gave left to become a nun. This Etheldreda,
several others of its daughters as nuns to after many strange adventures, founded
the church. the celebrated monastery of Ely, and
In Mercia and the Midlands, strangely subsequently ranked as one of the most
enough, the family of the last notorious popular and revered saints of the Anglo-
heathen king, Penda, the hero of so many Saxon church. Her sister Sexburga,
desperate fights against his Christian queen and subsequently regent of Kent,
countrymen, furnishes, perhaps, more in succeeded her as abbess of the great
stances than any of the other royal houses East Anglian monastery, which she ruled
of the conquerors, of ardent and devoted for twenty years, dying in 699. Her
women who gave up all for the sake of that daughter Ermenilda married a king oi
cloisterlife which so quickly and firmly Mercia, one of Penda s sons. This Er
had taken hold of the minds and hearts of menilda in turn became abbess of Ely ;

the North-folk settlers in Britain. From her daughter, after a long life as a nun,
the year 635 to 654 king Anna reigned ended her days as abbess after her mother
over that important division of the Engle of the same famous house.
race settled in East Anglia, the Eastern This somewhat dry list of leading per
counties ; king Anna was one of the many sonages of both sexes who adopted the
victims of the wars of Penda. He fell in a monastic life in the seventh and eighth
battle with the heathen Mercian sovereign, centuries, will give some idea of the extra
in 654. Three daughters and a son were ordinary fascination which the religious
"

born to him. This son also had three life

"

possessed, in the early years of the

daughters, who all became nuns two ; adoption of Christianity, for the conquerors
were in succession abbesses of Hackness of Britain. The instances in each case
in Yorkshire, a house founded by Hilda have been cho*n out of the reigning
of Whitby, and the third was abbess of families of Kent,
Northumbria, Wessex,
Repton. The three daughters of king Mercia, East Anglia, and Essex, and in
Anna, who also took the veil, occupied a clude in their number not a few sovereign

distinguished position in the monastic princes and queens.

church of the seventh century. All the What, now, was the influence of these
three were reckoned among the early monasteries and nunneries, scattered in
saints of the Church. The youngest, uch numbers all over the conquered
Withburga, founded a small religious house island, upon the every-day life of the
at Dereham, in Norfolk, and attained people generally ? For it must be re
among the people of the county a great membered that these monasteries were the
influence and possessed an extraordinary centres whence came all, or well-nigh all.
LION OF ST MARK, AN ILLUMINATION FROM THE BOOK OF DURROW.
(Original at Trinity College, Dublin.)
625-827.] CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ENGLAND. 291

the authoritative religious teaching at work pains must be taken not to insult or irri

in the seventh and eighth centuries in : tate them, but all care must be adopted to
thisperiod there was scarcely any parochial set before them our doctrines with unfail

organisation apart from the monasteries. ing moderation and gentleness, so as to

First and chiefest must be ranked the make them blush at their foolish super
quiet moral influence which these great com stitions without exasperating them."

munities exercised, by the example of their Nor was the power exercised by the
own lives of self-denial, prayer, and study ;
monasteries only a moral influence.

by their schools for the young by their ;

Thanks to the high favour in which these
constant preaching and exhortation. The Christian communities were held by the
monasteries of that early age were no mere early Engle and Saxon princes, not a few
communities of ascetics occupied in work of whom were devoted adherents of the

ing out their own salvation, separated from new faith, the bishops and abbots of the
the people round them ; they were from more important religious houses, and even
the first, diligent missionaries, perpetually abbesses, had a seat in the great national
going in and out of the homes of the people, councils and through their persuasions
;

holding services in the remotest spots severe penalties were decreed against
praying, teaching, preaching everywhere. apostates, drunkards, transgressors against
The monasteries were their homes, their morality, violators of the Sunday rest, and
head -
quarters, whither they returned the like; while a new feeling of care for the

periodically from their preaching and poor, the slave, and the oppressed, un

teaching circuits ;
their homes for refresh known previously, became general. The
ment, study, and prayer, whence, after a duty of soothing suffering and remedying
season of rest and, apparently, of study, wrong and injustice was recognised in a
they would sally forth and recommence way undreamed of hitherto, as through
afresh their public ministrations. This the work of the monasteries Christian in
was the life evidently led by these great fluences permeated the nation.
athers of the faith. Aidan so used Lindis-
r
work Cuthbert made
arne as his centre of ;
Let us glance for a brief space into the
old Melrose his centre before he went to interior of one or two of these ancient

Lindisfarne, which subsequently became prayer-homes, which exercised so power

tiis monastic home. fulan influence upon the English peoples.
We have a letter written to St. Boniface, We shall at once mark the strange con

then at work on the Continent, written in trast between the life lived in these com
the middle of the eighth century by an munities, and the aims and ends pursued
English abbot, a friend of Aldhelm, and in them, and the life lived by the immediate

trained in the school of Malmesbury, which ancestors of these monks and nuns the
sets before us clearly the aims of these early rude, heathen conquerors of Britain ;
whose
monastic teachers. To overcome the
"

highest ideal was bravery in their robber

obstinacy of the heathen, to fertilise the warfare whose ideas of art were founded
;

stony and barren soil of their hearts, almost entirely in the adornment of their
292 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

weapons of attack and defence, and perhaps
of their warships whose hopes of a future
;
life, as far as they suffered the
influence them here, were
to a reproduction of the scenes of fighting
and carousing in the midst of which they
lived,and in which they delighted. It
seems almost incredible that the immediate
descendants of such a wild, rude, warlike
race could in so brief a time adapt them
though perhaps on a smaller scale, in many
another English monastery. The school
unseen to of Bede and the library of Benedict Biscop,
strictly limited in the two well-known houses of Wear-
mouth and Jarrow, were only striking in
stances ofwhat was being done in numerous
other communities which flourished in the
seventh and eighth centuries. St. Jerome s
precept was precious among the monas
teries Have a book always in your hand^
:
"

selves to so changed a life, to so different or under your eyes." And Bede s wore
an ideal, to such new
hopes. The main were true of many an unknown scholar-|
spring, however, of that changed life must monk when he said, It had always beer "

never be lost sight of. It was the love for delightful to him either to learn, to teacl
that Redeemer, of whose work among men
1
or to write.
these hitherto untutored North-folk had Though Latin seems to have been the
never heard, which alone effected the swift language which both monks and nuns
and mighty change. the days of Aldhelm and Bede aimed]
The large majority of the Engle and at possessing, and using in their service
Saxon monasteries were governed by the in their correspondence, and in theii
rule of St. Benedict, which, as we have writings, yet Latin in the Saxon anc
seen, very soon superseded the stricter and Engle houses was evidently an exotic
more austere rule of the Irish Columban Special provision was made we have see

and the teachers of the Celtic school it

already in Bede s letter to archbishop
of monasticism, in England as on the Egbert : it was the subject also of speciz
continent of Europe. This rule of directions issued in church councils of that
St. Benedict, though less austere than age that the vernacular English shoulc
the Celtic monastic practice, was very be used in their public ministrations, or at
precise in study.
insisting It re
upon least that explanations should be given

quired of every monk four hours daily any Latin ritual the epistle and gospel
;

for reading that is, for study of some the day, for instance, were always to
kind. In many of the more important expounded to the people in English.
houses, schools existed for the training of Translations into English of the Old andj
children entrusted to the charge of the the New Testaments were circulated
monks of the community. These at a freely. Aldhelm and Bede early in the!

comparatively very early period became eighth century are said to have completely
veritable centres of intellectual life.
Really translated the one the Psalter, the other
great libraries were in many instances the Old and New Testament.
collected for the use of the inmates ;
and may seem on first thoughts a curious
It

what we have seen in our picture of Bede s remark to allude to art in speaking of "
"

life at Jarrow was repeated on a similar, these early English monasteries ;

but in
625827.] CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ENGLAND ART. 293
a
truth art," using the word in its full Wilfrid s stately architectural works at

signification, was by no means unknown in Hexham and Ripon, completed before

these almost forgotten homes of prayer the end of the seventh century, have
and study, which had so much to do with been already alluded to ;
as also the work

Otcubntropiroo
-u- r ems. ^ ecoapoaupeResspu
^6,
r n.,^* Y
^
intercom quoinainipsotiumefc
v, VT
, 7*>-^
urn naeLouum
i.c^nf

UCXRI i s
m.><.
,

. OccDTuneuras
*
v$*"
^ >>"*>*

compueheusos
quomamipsi
f):i*>JHrt>
Vi /*

t, Ml

Ctaraaimreos Qtsraautnu fora can

fi. /,!
quouicxmipsi
T
rWJ V-4"
tjt,.>e)

ccxn misauconoes
Um echieuosoliTnis quouicampsi

mem s 1
i OTCD otii eu
ftiAm^r
f*p* ^wctttc*-
loeus autarnxxinfooLT
_
ctsceutJTtniitnourEm quouram ipsi dnV.*>?^*

nuuxrocDetitn
^"i-r
V
tMsaputieius
9 * " " >
"

THE BEATITUDES, FROM THE LINDISFARNE GOSPEL-BOOK (British Museum).

building up our Church of England. of Biscop in adorning the walls of his

Benedict Biscop was, as we have already buildings with paintings of Scriptural
seen, the great encourager of art in the subjects.
latter partof the seventh century and ;
Another kind of art was practised in " "

he and bishop Wilfrid introduced a really these Engle and Saxon prayer-homes, in
noble ecclesiastical architecture among which the monks attained a very high pro-
the monasteries in the north of Britain, ficiency viz., the copying and adorning
294 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

of manuscripts, and the artwas sedulously cultivated in the Engle

binding of the more pre
cious of these volumes
with rich and costly
bindings. The magnifi
cent Book of the Gospels
which bishop Wilfrid
before the last quarter of
the seventh century laid
upon the altar of his
Ripon monastic church,
on the morning of its
solemn consecration, was
written in letters of gold
and Saxon monasteries of the same period.
The many services which the rules of
StJ
Benedict demanded from the monks
the order, suggested, no doubt, that strict
attention should be paid to the careful and
stately rendering of these repeated acts of
divine worship, not only with a view of
offering a perfect service to the Heavenly
King, but also with the purpose of lessen
ing the monotony of these oft-repeated
services a monotony which would neces
sarily mar earnestness and reality.
their
No less than seven of these services; daily

upon purple vellum, and were enjoined upon the Benedictine monks.
its binding was covered Among the many useful educational works]
with plates of gold en of Hadrian and archbishop Theodore in
ORGANISTRUM
OF THE
crusted with precious Canterbury (Theodore died in 690) wasl
9TH CENTURY. gems. The Lindisfarne the foundation of a great school of
musicj
or Durham Gospel-book, and song. This musical training was!
now in the British Museum, was written rapidly taken up in most of the monasteries
in the holy house of Lindisfarne "for of England. Bishop Wilfrid, with the aid of
God and St. Cuthbert" by Eadfrith, his devoted friend and biographer, Eddius,
bishop of that see, in 698-721, and who was an emi
was adorned with paintings by Ethel- nent musician, in
wald, a monk of the house under the troduced this musi
same Eadfrith. These paintings, still cal instruction
before us, consist of elaborate designs in through all the

spiral and interlaced work, and figures of churches of the

the Evangelists. They are specially in north of England.
teresting asshowing the beginnings of a Thanks to Wilfrid s
native English monastic School of Art, untiring energy,
and are marked with a freedom and a the vast diocese
boldness of treatment which give that of Northumbria
school a distinct character of its own. A became rapidly a
beautiful effect is given to the interlaced great centre of

patterns by an exquisite use of colours. music, rivalling

Besides the practice of architecture and even the school of
painting, and the beautiful work in gold Hadrian at Canter- KING DAVID PLAYING
and colour in the manuscript books of UPON THE HARP
bury; perhaps none
(From an Irish Miniature of
these early monasteries, another kind of of the many noble the m Century.)
625827.] MUSIC AND ART. 295

efforts of this celebrated prelate were in the monasteries for monks only. The
crowned with more conspicuous success art ofembroidery was
especially also

than his work and pains in the field of cultivated in these communities, and their
church music and singing. Wearmouth, beautiful work in gold and silver stuffs,

the sister house of Bede s Jarrow, became sometimes enriched with jewels, quickly
at a very early date the central school of became famous even on the Continent.
sacred song in the north. The English schools of cunning needle
In the story of church music, the work of various descriptions endured for

English appear, says the French writer and the term English work
" "

centuries,
Montalembert, was long given to these exquisite specimens
to have been, of patient and enduring industry. The
among the monks many female communities to which we
of the order of have been alluding, which grew up with
St. Benedict, such astonishing rapidity in every part of
"

those who love the conquered island, were veritable hives

music most pas of labour really homes tfhere art and

sionately."
We literature were cultivated.
possess a curious Streoneshalch, on the hill of Whitby.
illustration of this under its royal abbess, Hilda, we have
passion in a letter already spoken of as the cradle of English
written by an poetry. It was there Csedmon lived and

abbot of Jarrow, was trained, there where his undying songs

momom omo\ a disciple and were written as early as 670-680 and ;

successor of Bede, to the watchful care of Hilda and her

to Lullius, arch sisters of Whitby that early school of

bishop of Mainz, on the Rhine, which vernacular poetry owes at once its genesis
runs as follows: "Iam most anxious to and subsequent noble development.
have a harpist who can play upon the Early in the eighth century Latin was a
harp we call a Rotta. I have the instru familiar study, certainly in the greater nun
ment, but have not the artist. Send me neries. All the nuns, or almost all, were

one, and I pray you, do not laugh at my well acquainted with the classical tongue;

request." So great was this love for music some of them were even Greek scholars.
among the Engle and Saxon monks, that Convent corresponded with convent in
it seems very early to have even led to that language. In the same tongue, too,
abuses, for the Council of Cloveshoe, in are written the letters preserved to us
747, ordered the expulsion from monas from Aldhelm in England to the nuns of
teries of harpists, musicians, etc. Barking, Sherborne, and other houses ;

In the nunneries, in the last half of the correspondence of St. Boniface in the
the seventh and in the eighth centuries, same century (the eighth) from the Conti
similar attention was paid to the nent with the abbess Brigga and other
copying and adorning of manuscripts, as sisters, whose strange old-world names
296 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

only live in these interesting and curious doubt, have seen their thoughts flow forth
communications between a great and re more freely, .... bearing the character
vered master and his pupils names such istic mark of a powerful and impassioned
originality like the verses of Csedmon or
the poems of Beowulf. Even under the
artificial constraint imposed upon them
by the use of Latin, the reader feels the

swelling life and force of an original,

sincere, and vehement nature."

The female religious houses, following

the example of the monasteries, contained
TRIANGULAR SAXON HARP OF THE QTH CENTURY, schools in which were trained not only the
future novices girls who intended de

as Leobgitha, Cynegilda, Eadburga, Ean- voting their lives to

"

religion
"

but also

gytha, Lioba, Egburga, Wethburga, An-

numbers of young girls besides, who were
musical and trained for the of the world.
strude, Ansilda, and others
life
;

attractive names, no doubt, in their day, In the eighth century a curious weak
but rude and harsh sounding to us. ness seems to have invaded these female
On this notable effort of these sisters monasteries, and in the eyes of the reli
of the early Anglo-Saxon religious houses gious teachers of that day to have somewhat
to make themselves familiar with Latin marred their beautiful and most useful life.
for it must have been in those days The undoubted skill of these English nuns
a really great effort, and represented in in needlework and cunning embroidery
often of a
many cases years of patient study on the very costly description

part of these daughters of rude Engle and

Saxon fathers Montalembert makes the
following interesting and suggestive com
ment, which well deserves to be quoted
and remembered by students interested in
these Benedictine sisters, who
played so
conspicuous a part in building up the

church of Christ in our island.

"

It is to

be regretted," he says,
"

that these candid

and impassioned souls had recourse to
Latin to express their emotions and con
fidences ;
if
they had employed their
native (English) idiom instead of a
SQUARE PSALTERY OF THE QTH CENTURY.
language which, though not dead (since
itis the language of
spiritual life), must has been noticed ; very early this skill

have cost them many efforts ere they in the production of exquisite and showy
became familiar with it, we should, no work became, in the eyes of great masters
 625-827-] FEMALE ADORNMENT IN NUNNERIES. 297

and austere teachers such as Aldhelm writes with anger and sorrow respecting
and Bede, and the great Boniface who the luxury displayed by the clergy of both
worked on the continent of Europe a sexes in their vestments but dwells ;

real danger to the spiritual life of many especially on the dress

by abbesses
affected
of these sisters in the English nunneries. and nuns, who wore scarlet and violet
The nuns desired themselves to dress in tunics, hoods and cuffs trimmed with furs

fAiiowmwroruLts

PORTION OF PSALM CXLIX., AND AN ILLUSTRATION OF PSALM CL. 3, 4.

Utrecht sfk or dth Century.)
"

(From the Psalter"

the beautiful fabrics, the creations of their and silk ;

who curled their hair with a hot

hands, and busy, inventive brains. Bede iron round their foreheads, and who changed
found nothing more serious than this strange their veil into an ornament, arranging it

passion to note in the transgressions of the in such a way as to make it fall to their

monastery of Coldingham. Boniface, when feet. The Council of Cloveshoe, in 747,

archbishop the Rhineland,

of Mainz, in alludes, though in less glowing language,
mentioned this love of dress among the to this same love of dress, which evidently
"

religious
"

as one of the greatest dangers had taken strong hold in very early days
of monastic life. Aldhelm of Malmesbury of many dwellers in the Engle and Saxon
298 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

nunneries, and, in opinion of the

the profound learning its poetry its love for
; ;

principal ascetic teachers of the day, art have been dwelt upon with surprise
seriously threatened the inner life of these and admiration by most of the writers on
houses by diverting the spiritual aspira Scarcely was Christianity
"

this period.

tions of the professed sisters dwelling in presented to the Anglo-Saxons when the
them. To us with our fuller knowledge, embraced it with singular fidelity anI d
there is something infinitely pathetic in singleness of heart. ... In a single
this breaking out of such a strong female century England became known to Christen
*
instinct among these poor women, now dom as a fountain of light."
The French
held by irrevocable vows, some of them man, Montalembert, the Romist writer, is

perhaps against their will ; and, in any as enthusiastic here as our own Anglican
case, telling a tale of terrible reaction scholars.

against the monotonous life enforced by The fascination which Christianity from
such vows, when the original enthusiasm the first exercised over the hearts o
had begun to wear away. the invaders, we have considered to be
largely owing to the manner in which
In relating the story of the seventh and the great Christian truths were first pre

eighth centuries, and reviewing the work sented to these rude and untutore
which the Church of Christ accomplished pagan warriors and their wives an
in England during those two hundred years, daughters. We have seen how compara
it would seem that the historian was writ tively little impression was made upo
ing romance rather than sober history, so the East Engles by the companions o
marvellous was the change worked through Augustine how royal favour and patronage
;

its agency among the half-savage pagan failed to establish the Roman teachers in
North-folk who had taken forcible possession the homes of the pagan settlers in London
of the island. For the settlement of the and Essex how Paulinus, with all his
;

conquerors was carried out, strange to say, learning and zeal, was utterly unable to
under the influence of the religion of the find the key to the Northumbrian hearts

conquered and dispossessed people. It
was Christianity which had the chief
part in moulding the
Northmen.
The rapidity with which Christianity
struck firm root among the northern con
And yet these true men told the self-same
story which soon afterwards was receivec
new England of the with enthusiasm when told by a differen
school of missionaries, among the ver)
peoples who expelled Mellitus, and perse
cuted Lawrence, and rudely drove ou

querors of Britain the singular vitality

;
Paulinus from the scenes of his self
of the Church of England in these two denying labours. The great work for which
centuries, the seventh and eighth its ;
the seventh century will for ever be a
devoted piety the splendid generosity it
; conspicuous century in English even in
evoked on the part of the kings and chief European history, was the changing a
tains its noble and matchless spirit of
;
uncivilised pagan race of conquerors int

foreign missionary enterprise ;

its deep and Bishop Stubbs.
625827.] DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH CHRISTIANITY. 299

a Christian people, among whom learning termed the first of English Churchmen.
and art with extraordinary rapidity found No man, perhaps, has ever been the object
a home ; among whom a love of literature of greater love and devotion no one, on ;

became so firmly rooted, that its schools the other hand, perhaps, has ever been
early in the following century were re more intensely hated. But he did his work
sorted to even by pupils drawn from all parts well ;
and the fruit of his laborious life

of the continent of Europe. The great was the Church which with many changes,
Celtic missionaries of the seventh century though with an unbroken continuity,
completely changed the character of the stillendures, still guides the thoughts
Northern conquerors, and prepared the and aspirations of the world-wide Anglo-
ground for the monastic life and the Saxon race. Side by side with him we catch
literary work of the next age. Nor was group of other figures of distin
sight of a
the missionary work of this extraordinary guished men, a group generally and on
school of devoted preachers by any the whole unfriendly to Wilfrid person
means confined to England a long and ; ally. But their very opposition and enmity
illustrious line of Celtic evangelists issuing really assisted the cause which he had so
from England powerfully influenced enor deeply at heart ;
for they were enabled to
mous tracts of country on the continent correct some of the faults and errors not
of Europe. In the history of Christianity, a few in number which marred the work

among the records of men who have of the famous champion of the ritual and
relit the torch of a dying religion in practices and discipline adopted on the
countries where faith seemed waning, or continent of Europe, and generally
who have for the first time successfully known as Roman.
preached the story of the Cross to pagan We pass to the next century the eighth.

peoples, no names are more famous than Theodore died in 690 ;

Wilfrid and Ald-
those of the great English missionary helm passed away in the year 709 ;
and a
teachers trained in the Celtic school new race of distinguished men were raised up
names such as Willibrord,
Adalbert, to occupy the stage in this eighth century.

Ledger, and Boniface, not to speak of a The new England of the North-folk was
somewhat earlier generation, when men now Christian in many districts devotedly
of the same school worked and Christian thanks to the successful labours
taught
under the yet greater names of Columban of the great Celtic missionary preachers
and Gall. and teachers but the Christianity was
;

The decisions of the Synod of Whitby now Continental and Roman rather
in 664, however, paved the way for the than Celtic in spirit and character. The
gradual extinction of the Celtic school of leaders of Christian thought now, the

religious thought before the century closed. new group which guided the Church of
In the person of Wilfrid the instrument England of the eighth century, were in
which brought about the new order of no whit inferior in power and devotion
things was found. We have already traced to their ancestors of the seventh century.
his history. He has been not untruly First and foremost was the monk-scholar
300 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827.

Bede well styled by all the Christian At Canterbury, for instance, there was
churches "

the Venerable
"

the true child the school, renowned throughout Europe,

-of the church of Aidan and Cuthbert, of for learning, presided over by Hadrian.

the church of Wilfrid and Theodore. Malmesbury in the west boasted the
Trained by Roman teachers of the highest presence of Aldhelm, one of the foremost
order, the favourite pupil ot Ceolfrid, scholars in Christendom. may quote We
the dearest friend of Benedict Biscop also such communities Barking in as
whose busy life and vast powers were Wessex, under the charge of Aldhelm s
devoted to the introduction of Roman pupil, Hildelida, whose correspondence, and
art and letters among his
Engle fellow- the Latin letters penned by the sisters of

countrymen in Northumbria Bede of her renowned house, are still read by

Jarrow could yet discern where and when scholars with curious admiration. Bede
and why Rome had failed in the first of Jarrow was the most distinguished by
could and did acknowledge the far of all the learned of both
" "

instance ; religious
almost superhuman success of the Celtic sexes who were so numerous in the first

work of conversion. Indeed, it is to half of the eighth century in the England

him that we owe the inimitable pictures of the North-folk conquerors. Yet Bede
we possess of these Celtic teachers. Vivid was a type a most distinguished type,
and touching as was his portraiture of but a type of many another monk-
still

men Augustine and Paulinus, Theo

like scholar of this great age.
dore and Aldhelm, yet by far ..the most Immediately after the death of the great
attractive and charming of the chapters scholar the seat of letters was transferred
in his undying history are those which from his home at Jarrow to York, where we

dwell on the life-stories of the Celtic have seen that a number of trained teachers,
saints. When he penned his memories under the rule of the archbishop of York,
of Aidan of Lindisfarne, the great of Egbert, the friend and pupil of Bede
love and the burning eloquence, of the made Northumbria and York positively the
boundless influence among the wild Engle distributor of learning for civilised Europe.
flock of that true saint of God ;
when he Thither flocked scholars from all parts ;

wrote down the story of Cuthbert with and this marvellous school of learning of

the angel face, and how the wild creatures all kinds flourished^ for some fifty years.
of the moorland and the northern seas Among innumerable scholars in all branches
loved that minister of the living God, Bede of learning trained at York, Alcuin, the
was at his best for when he wrote of ;
famous adviser and minister in all matters
he felt he was writing of the noblest
these, connected with education and culture o:

and the most lovable of the makers of the emperor Charlemagne, of course stan
the Church of England. pre-eminent. Alcuin for long years a
There were others, like Bede, devoted pupil, then the chief teacher of the famous
to letters, in the many monasteries which school, and the greatest scholar of the cen
with a strange rapidity had sprung up tury bears ample and repeated testimony
in different districts of the new England. to the pre-eminent grandeur of York as
625827.] CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 301

the intellectual centre of Europe. And be the royal exile Egbert at the court of the
it remembered, not a hundred years before, Prankish monarch, on the death of his
Cuthbert and Chad were preaching to the kinsman Beohrtric, returned to his native
yet pagan and uncivilised Engles, in the country and was acknowledged king of

LABOURING MONKS (p. 304).

same districts in which arose this mar Wessex ;

and how as years went on this
vellous centre learning and culture
of ! same Egbert greatly extended the
Chad passed away in 672, and Cuthbert boundaries of Saxon Wessex towards the
died in 687 and York was at its greatest
;
west ;
and how with scarcely a struggle,
before the year 870. first Mercia, and then in 827, finally North-
We have already briefly noticed how umbria, submitted to him as over-lord.
 302 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827

Northumbria, indeed, was weakened by
years of internal strife, and offered no
resistance to Egbert.
ingly strong, but was
Engle peoples, who were only held to
"
without any attempts on the part of Wessex
to preserve the so-called subject countri
Mercia was seem from the repeated and destructive harry
made up of various ings of the Northern sea-pirates.
The one bond which

really unit

gether by the power of the sword." She Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex at th
owed her position in large measure to the beginning of the ninth century, was the
conspicuous abilities of three princes, who, Church of England. Each of the great
with little intervals, for many years sat on divisions was attached with greater or
the Mercian throne Ethelbald, Offa, and less earnestness to Christianity. The
Cenwulf. Kent East Anglia only and whole land was covered with monasteries
obeyed her when Mercia was strong enough and nunneries in these numerous and
;

to keep them in a state of subjection. ever-increasing garrisons of Christianity

The looseness of the political structure
"

the same life was led, the same God was

of Mercia shown by the fact that this
is worshipped, the same prayers were used,
great Anglo-Saxon state had no real the same psalms and hymns sung the ;

centre of government, while York was the same hopes and fears belonged to them
acknowledged capital of Northumbria, and all. Throughout this network of religious
Winchester occupied a similar position in houses, which literally covered the whole
*
In Middle England the Mercian
Wessex." area the three kingdoms,. Wessex,
of

kings possessed no considerable city. The Mercia, and Northumbria, there was con
burial-place of the Mercian kings was stant and friendly inter-communication.

usually Repton. The monks of Melrose and Jarrow, the

But although Egbert was acknowledged students of York, were brothers in deed
before his death as the first over-lord of name to the monks of Peter
as well as in
the whole of England east of the now borough and Lichfield, and the students
narrow zone occupied by the descendants of Canterbury and
Malmesbury. The
of the ancient British people, it was by no nuns of Coldingham and Whitby were
means an England welded into one great sisters to the nuns of Ely and Barking.

and united
race. Mercia and Northumbria, For these numberless communities of
it is true, submitted to the over-lordship monks and nuns the divisions of Northum
of the powerful Wessex king, paid him bria and Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex,
tribute, and agreed to follow the standard had no existence; for the dwellers in these
of Wessex in war ;
but for a long period, many homes of study and of prayer, those
as we shall see, their inner life remained names were merged in the grander and
separate and independent as before and, ;
more comprehensive title of England.
save in rare exceptional instances, the The numerous monasteries and nun
terrible ravages of the Dane were per neries which had arisen in every part of
petrated in Northumbria and Mercia the island ;
in important cities like Canter

* bury, York, and Winchester, and even

Conquest of Eng
"

Compare generally Green,

land," chap. i. amid the wolds and moors of Yorkshire,
625-827.]
CHRISTIANITY IN ENGLISH LIFE. 503

in the heart of the desolate fen lands of the days of king Egbert, the over-lord of
East Anglia, on the banks of rivers, on England in the first quarter of the ninth
lofty cliffs overlooking the ocean,
in the century, it had evidently extended far and
heart of yet uncleared forest lands, were wide. The Church had become the centre
more than houses of prayer and praise : of village life, and the Christian priest was
they were educational citadels of Christ recognised as a person of great influence
ianity, hives of useful industry,
and centres and authority.
of study. In the seventh century, in the In the everyday life of the North-folk

years especially of Christian pioneer work, conquerors and settlers the Christian re
many of these communities, large and ligion which- they had adopted worked a
small, were also mission stations, centres comple alteration. Gluttony and drunken
from which monk-teachers went forth to ness, so common a feature of the old feasts
tellthe story of the Cross to the pagan in the public halls of kings and chieftains,

Engle or Saxon who had settled in the were proclaimed as sins from which a

conquered districts around the monastery. Christian must rigidly abstain. .

Fasts,
Then in the next stage of Christian pro which in the Norse customs were unheard
gress,from the same religious house would of, were enjoined. One day in every seven

monk-priests be sent out, to conduct the was set apart as holy, and was to be marked
worship in the various little churches or by a complete cessation from all labour.
chapels which were gradually rising up Blood feuds and revenge were denounced as
among the people as they became con utterly at variance with the first principles of
verted to Christianity. Christianity, which regarded all war as evil.

These missionary monks after a time We must not omit to notice the Church s

became the parish priests, and thus deeper attitude in regard to one of the great evils
and deeper the Church penetrated into the which ever afflicted all pagan nations the
heart of the English people, and was able curse of slavery. A
considerable portion of
to influence
its life. In the beginning the population of England was in a state
of the ninth century, when Egbert was of bondage this sad class was constantly
;

acknowledged the undisputed king of far- recruited by the family and children of the
extending Wessex, and was recognised as malefactor, who shared his punishment and
the first over-lord of Middle and Northern became hereditary bondsmen. They were
England, this parochial organisation had recruited still more largely by prisoners

made considerable progress in many dis
tricts of the island. Even as early as the
first quarter of the
eighth century we learn
from the well-known letter of Bede of
Jarrow to archbishop Egbert of York, that
this parochial organisation was already re
taken in those wars which were per
petually waged between the conquering
people themselves, and between the con
querors and the remnant of the old British
people. Bristol and Chester, for instance,
were famous slave-markets for a lengthened

cognised to some extent in Northumbria ; period. Now the Church of England, from
and in the seventy years which followed the days of Augustine downwards, never
Bede s death it was rapidly adopted. In ceased to denounce the wicked custom ;
304 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827

and although the shameful evil was not that "

over a third of the shire belonged i

if

eradicated, in a hundred ways the lot of later days to the clergy, it was in the mai
these unhappy ones was ameliorated and because monks and priests had been for
made more tolerable. most in the work of reclaiming the land.
From the cradle to
"

the grave new rites In the time of Egbert the number of th

and ceremonies, each possessing a new and conquerors that settled in England was
awful significance, affected every age of but sparse ridiculously small, according
life. The very babe felt the change; to our modern views of population and
baptism replaced an old Norse rite of as yet not half the soil had been brough
dragging through the earth." As in old under tillage. Forest land, moor and fer

days, marriage continued as a public act covered much of the island, which had bee
done in the presence of the dwellers in the the scene of such long and bloody fight

township but new regulations as regarded

; ing. In the labour of reclaiming the wast
the affinity of the married
"

were in "

land the monks, during the hundred years

troduced, and above all the solemn blessing which preceded the accession of Egbert, had
of a priest of the Christian religion was added been at work. The monks of the eighth
to the ceremony, thus investing marriage century possessed other gifts besides the
with a new and hitherto unknown sanctity. power of preaching and teaching. They
And not only in the solemn rites which were not all at work in the Scriptorium
accompanied birth and marriage was the or writing-chamber, copying and illu

difference startling. The dead were buried nating manuscripts, annotating t or

with a very different ritual from that used Scriptures and the Fathers, or busied
among the worshippers of the Scandi the study of the classics, or even Hebre
navian gods. There was no longer any burial Many of them, even some of the scholars

fire,and over a mighty North-folk chief and students, would, at the bidding of
no lofty mound was piled, but "the warrior the abbot, quit their cell, and, with
sleptwith his neighbours and his kinsfolk pick or axe or spade in hand, help
beneath the blessed protecting shade of the cut down woods, to drain the marsh Ian

lowly village church." A complete and to fertilise the sandy and barren soil.*

marvellous change, under the influence of There is no doubt but that during t

the new teaching, had passed over all period of Egbert s over-lordship in En
classes and ranks of the children of the land (Egbert died in 837) the south and
war-loving North-folk. midlands of the island, from an agricultural
point of view, were fairly prosperous onl ;

Enough has been already said of the in the northern districts the perpetual feu

scholarship and the love of study, and the in the last part of the eighth century

really important results of this devotion to tween rival claimants of the Northumbri
on the part of many of the early
letters throne, of course seriously hindered a
Anglo-Saxon monks. But in agriculture also cultural progress. William of Poitiers
the industrial work of the Church was note- * See Monks of
generally Montalembert,
"

worth} . It has been most justly remarked West," and Green, Conquest of
"

England."
SCRIPTORIUM OF A MONASTERY.
 306 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625-827
*
a later period even speaks of England as Malmesbury of one of these vast Fer
"the storehouse of Ceres." Rye, barley, monasteries, after allowing for some
wheat, and oats were grown there were ;
rhetorical exaggeration, gives us somt
large apple orchards in the cider districts ;
idea of what these monks effected in
even grapes were grown, and a coarse wine districts of our island once covered with
was made bee-culture in various parts of
; stagnant waters and clotted with weed.1
"the
country was common, and much honey and brushwood. He is writing of Thornej
was produced. Dean Hook calls attention Abbey, founded by St. Ethelwald (Thorneu
to a wild pony natural to the island ;
there propter condensitatem dumorum vocata).
were probably a vast number of these. In "It is a counterfeit of
Paradise, where the
the Saxon Chronicle we read how the Danes, gentleness and the purity of heaven appear
in the course of their frequent raids,
"

horsed to be reflected. In the midst of the fens

themselves." It is probable that allusion rise groves of trees, which seem to touch
is here made to this abundance of partly the stars with their tall and slender tops;
wild ponies. the charmed eye wanders over a sea ol
A comparison has been made, with some verdant herbage the foot which treads
;

justice, between an ancient monastery as
conceived by St. Benedict, to whose order
most of the greater English monasteries of
the eighth century belonged and a rich
the wide meadows meets with no obstacle
in its path. Not an inch of land lies un
cultivated. Here the soil is hidden by
fruit-trees there by vines spread on the
;

Roman villa. Gardens, mills, ovens, stables, ground or trained on trellises. Nature and
workshops were grouped round a central art rival each other, the one supplying all

building only,;
instead of the maledictions that the other forgot to produce. What
of the ergastulum with the slaves dwel can we say of the beauty of the buildings ?
ling in it, the music of prayer would be Who would not be astonished to see vast

heard in the religious household. No edifices rise upon firm foundations in the
doubt the lands under the shadow of the midst of the marsh ? O deep and pleasant
great early English monasteries were well solitude !
you have been given by God to
and carefully cultivated. These lands had the monks, so that their mortal life may
cases been reclaimed from forests daily bring them nearer to heaven
"

in many !

and fen Schools for agriculture as

lands.
well as schools for varied kinds of learning No review, however brief, of the spirit

were established under these English and influence of the English Church at the

monks. As early as the last years of the commencement of the ninth century, can
seventh century Aldhelm, abbot of Malmes- omit some definite notice of the curious
buryj and afterwards bishop of Sherborne love of "

pilgrimage," which so powerfully

(Aldhelm died in 709) established centres affected all sorts and conditions of men in
of agriculture as well as of religion and the eighth and ninth centuries. The love

learning at Sherborne and Wareham, and of roaming abroad, of visiting foreign and

probably in other places. distant lands, seems always to have been a

The *
description given us by William of Monks of the
"

Quoted by Montalembert, West."

25-827.]
PILGRIMAGES. 307

characteristic feature among the North- treasures served as models for the English

oik. no doubt, one of the causes

It was, monk-artists to copy or to dream over.
t work which induced the early invasions As early as the year 689 Ceadwalla, king
f Britain on the part of Engle, Jute, and of Wessex, one of the Woden-descended

axon. This love of foreign adventure Saxon chieftains, gave up his crown for the

o doubt helped later to influence the sake of being baptized at the tomb of

)anish viking raids, so fatal to the Eng- St. Peter. bishop of Rome Pope
The
and of the ninth and tenth centuries. It Sergius performed himself the sacred
ssisted in no small degree to popularise rite but the king, we read, died not many
;

ic Crusades in the Middle Ages ever
argely recruited with English crusaders.
In the early days of the settlement and
evelopment of Christianity in
ic passion for adventure and roaming
Droad manifested itself in the many and
days after the solemn baptismal service.
Only a few years before, this West Saxon
monarch had won a widely extended fame
England, as a fierce warrior. Ina, who followed Cead
walla on the Wessex throne, and who owes
his fame specially to the code of laws which

onstant pilgrimages to Rome undertaken bears his name, with his queen Ethelburga,

y kings and queens, by noble and soldier ;

in the year 728, laying aside the royal
x or age, riches or poverty, being alike dignity, went as humble pilgrims to Rome.
isregarded by the crowds of English who The story relates how king Ina when at
n the eighth and following centuries were Rome chose to remain unknown and

ontinually wandering to Italy, Rome and unhonoured ; and, lost among the crowds
s time-honoured shrines being the constant of poor pilgrims, gained his livelihood by
oal which they aimed at reaching. Among the work of his hands. This same royal
ts many shrines the crowd of pilgrims pilgrim in the days of his power had
assed, praying, admiring, learning. Some founded hard by the Vatican a school
ew stayed altogether in the charmed under the name of Schola Saxonum, for
ome of the mother-church of Christen- the training and education of his country
om ;
some returned to their native land, men who desired to study under the

trengthened and enriched by what they shadow of the basilica of St. Peter.
tad seen and heard and learned a few, Attached to the school was a church and
ke Benedict Biscop, not empty-handed, a burying-ground.
ut laden with treasures which Italy and Six other kings in the same age are
Jome could alone supply. Books, manu- reckoned among the crowd of "

Roman "

criptscontaining precious literature, sacred pilgrims. The attraction which drew

nd profane, curious relics of bygone saints the Anglo-Saxons in this early age to the
hose souls had long passed to their rest, art Eternal City seems to have been irre

reasures, pictures, costly bindings of books, sistibleprinces and bishops, monks and
;

unning work of craftsmen in gold and less nuns, men and women of all ranks, crowded
recious metals these were brought to the pilgrims -
The
royal examples
way.
England, were placed in the work-chambers gave especial energy to the movement ;

f the great monasteries, where the art and the dangers and hardships of the long
308 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625827

journey never seem to have occurred to and Willibrord and their companion
these restless seekers after God. The route great and far reaching though it wa
was the one now so well known to the would never have accomplished this

travel-loving Englishman. Crossing to a effectually as did the constant passa

port close by the modern Boulogne, the of these crowds of

pilgrim traveller
pilgrims passed through France by way of through the various countries of wester

Burgundy and Savoy to the Mont Cenis Europe. The barrier between Britain an
pass. The number of these English wan the Continent, which had existed from th
derers was so great that they gave their days when the Roman legions left Britaii
name to a quarter of the Eternal City in the fifth century, was thus broken down
the Vicus Saxonum, situated in the im to the great advantage of English com
mediate neighbourhood of St. Peter.* merce and general progress in the island.
Bede gives this quaint reason for When Egbert was over-lord, there wer
his countrymen s curious passion for as many as seventeen bishops of Englis

this Roman pilgrimage.

"

They came sees. This increase in the episcopate wa

to make acquaintance in their life-time due to the efforts of Theodore, A.D. 668 t

with the saints, by whom they hoped to 690. These seventeen prelates, about a
be well received in Heaven." But the equal number of ealdermen, a few abbot,
curious saying of the scholar-monk seems and some fiftythanes, composed the Witar
to be rather his kindly apology for a or public assembly of the three kingdom!
curious and popular fancy on the part of after they were nominally united unde

his countrymen ;
for Bede never appears to Egbert. But the actual number presen
have thought it
necessary in his own case at the ordinary meetings of the grea

to make this earthly acquaintance with council was far below these numbers.
the saints in Italy and in Rome. Bede The sees in question were as follows : Cat
himself scarcely ever left his student s cell terbury, Rochester, Sidnacester, Dunwicli
of Jarrow, and the extent of his pilgrimage Elmham, Winchester, Sherborne, Lichfieh
was the "

school of York," where the work Hereford, Worcester, Lindsey, Leicestei

he loved so well was being carried on Selsey, York, Lindisfarne, Hexham, Whit
and developed by his pupils. herne.* Of these Dunwich and Elmhan
One effect of these popular pilgrimages in the eastern counties (East Anglia) hav
was the bringing the English peoples of disappeared. The see of Norwich ha
the several northern tribes into contact been substituted for them as the Eas
with the rest of the western world ;
and Anglian bishopric. Sherborne has give)
this intercourse with a richer and more place to Salisbury the see was remove
;

cultured civilisation was one of the fruitful to Old Sarum in the reign of William th
results of the change,wrought mainly by Conqueror. Lindsey in early days wa
Wilfrid, which had taken place in the some time reckoned as part of th
character of the Church of England. The kingdom of Northumbria, some time a

mission work of the Englishmen, Boniface *

See Bishop Stubbs "

Constitutional History o
Conquest of
"

Green, England." England."

 625827.] ENDOWMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 309

belonging to Mercia, when the power of included all the north-east of England,
I the great Middle Engle realm was in from Yorkshire to the Scottish border.

|the ascendant ; it, too, has disappeared, Whitherne, the traditional site of St.
;and constitutes a portion of the see of Ninian s 3ee, is no longer the seat of a
Lincoln. The district of Lindsey lay bishopric, and is now part of Scotland.

CHARTER OF OFFA, KING OF MERCIA, GRANTING LAND TO AETHELMUND,

GIVEN AT CLOVESHOE A.D. 793~796.*

immediately to the south of the Humber. Without attempting here anything of

Leicester has become part of the see of the nature of a detailed account of the pos

Peterborough ;
it has in quite recent sessions of the Church, which at so early
S
days given a a suffragan bishop.
title to a period in the story of .he settlement
:
The bishoprics of Lindisfarne and Hexham of the Northmen in Britain, made so
have entirely vanished. The see of
*
Witnesses, ^thelheard (Ethelhard), archbishop
Durham until quite lately, when the
of Hygebert (Higbert), archbishop of
|

Canterbury ;

see of Newcastle was carved out of it, Lichfield, and other bishops.
3io THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [625-82:

firm a lodgment in the hearts of the estates had come into the possession ot t

hitherto undisciplined worshippers of Church. The greater part of these terr

Woden and Thor, it will be well to give torial acquisitions had passed into the ham
a very brief outline of the Endowments, of churchmen by free gift. The dono
which, through the generosity and goodwill were kings of Kent, Mercia, Wessex
of the conquering tribes, the Church of Northumbria, and East Anglia queen ;
1-

England, from the first days of its exist princes, princesses, nobles, and others
ence under the Engle and Saxon rule, As early as the days of Bede, complain
became possessed of. These Endowments was made that the monasteries engrosset
mainly consisted of: too large a share of the public land. r .

ist. Permanent gifts of land. Of an in his letter to Egbert of York, the monk o
stance of such a gift we have historical Jarrow thus writes Positively there
"

evidence as early as A.D. 658 a yet earlier

;
no place left for estates for sons of noble

well-known example is afforded in the or of distinguished soldiers."

Jutish kingdom of Kent, where lands and Time went on. Before Bede s death, i

royal buildings were given to Augustine 735, the need for clergy to minister in
by king Ethelbert. villages and hamlets more or less remote
2nd. Voluntary offerings on the part of from cities or the monasteries was felt, and
the people, of a temporary and probably as these parochial clergy increased in

of a varying nature. number, the necessity of providing ji

3rd. The revival of a much earlier suitable maintenance for them was felt.

recognised obligation among Christian Voluntary gifts from the people, eked out
peoples in the form of the Tithe. sometimes by the bestowal of a little-

The first endowments of the Church con estate, probably by the thane of the place,
sisted in gifts of land, which at a
very early supplied their need but voluntary gifts
;

stage of this period of the conversion of are at best uncertain and precarious.
the Engles and Saxons to Christianity were Among these voluntary but occasional
bestowed on monastic houses, on bishops, giftsand offerings, during the period of the
and on minster churches such, for in settlement of the North-folk in Britain,
stance, as was the grant of land made by was the tithe, an existing and generally
king Oswiu of Northumberland, Christian
"

suffi recognised obligation among

cient for the maintenance of ten families," peoples. It can be clearly traced back
to the abbess Hilda, for the endowment of more than two hundred years before
her new religious house at Streoneshalch the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon
(Whitby) in the year 658. Church probably to a yet earlier date.
This system of endowment by land be As the ministers of religion rapidly
came very popular among the North-folk increased on the continent under the

conquerors. During the Anglo-Saxon rule of Charlemagne, and in England

times we see, from the entries in Domesday under the government of the Christian
Book compiled by the order of William Engle and Saxon kings in the eighth cen
the Conqueror, that very large landed tury, as a partial provision for this rapidly
625827.] TITHES AND ENDOWMENTS.

multiplying body of clergy, the tithe, means of enforcing it by temporal penalties.

hitherto a voluntary offering the payment This law was repeated by king Canute,
of which, however, had been preached and is also found in the collection of Anglo-
as a duty was now gradually enforced Saxon laws sometimes erroneously ascribed
by legal sanctions from the state. to king Henry I. Among the laws of
The emperor Charlemagne, on the con Edward the Confessor, confirmed by
tinent of Europe, in the year 779, ordained William the Conqueror, the first place is
that everyone should pay tithe, and that given to the laws of "the Holy Mother
the proceeds should be disposed of by the the Church," among which is one relating

bishop. Very shortly after in the year to tithes. This law of the Conqueror pro
787 it was enforced in England by a vides for the recovery of tithes in the
church council held at Chalchyth (some Bishop s Court, with aid, if required, from
identify it with Chelsea). At this council the King s Court.

legates from the bishop of Rome were As regards the determination of the
present. This was, with one other in church to which the tithe was to be paid,
stance, the only occasion where legates amongst other directions, king Edgar in
from Rome sat in an Anglo-Saxon council. his laws directs it to be paid to the "

eald

King Offa of Mercia and his aldermen (old) minster," or mother church, to which
attended this famous meeting, and gave the district belonged. It seems that the
it the authority of a Witanagemot. Cathedral was the nominal recipient, and
From this time (A.D. 787) many of the the bishop the distributor. But in Anglo-
English laws issued after the death of Saxon times the actual determination was
Alfred contain some mention of tithe ; really left very much to the owner of

for instance, king Athelstan (A.D. 925) the land from which the tithe arose.
directed his own reeves (or bailiffs) to pay Monasteries were no doubt often favoured
tithes. By a law of king Edmund (A.D. by those land owners who desired in

944), passed at a national synod of both return the benefit of their intercessions.
the archbishops and many bishops in Nor was it until the Westminster Council,
London, the penalty of excommunication held in 1200, that the principle was laid
was denounced against those who would down that the parochial clergy had the
not pay their tithes. The legislation of first claim on tithe.*

king Edgar (A.D. 970) somewhat minute

is
* See
on the subject. His laws were the first generally the references in Bishop Stubbs
Constitutional History of England," chap. viii.
"

to appoint definite times and seasons for Defence of the Church of

and Lord Selborne, "

the payment of tithes, and to provide the England," chap. vii.

 CHAPTER XV.

THE PRANKISH EMPIRE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Origin of the Franks Family of Pepin Influence of English Missionaries in the Prankish Empire-
Wilfrid, Willibrord,and Boniface Their Allegiance to Rome Influence of Englishmen upoi
Roman Sovereignty Prankish Alliance between Church and State Charlemagne Alcuin the
English Scholar, Charlemagne s Minister of Education Charlemagne and Image-worship
Alcuin on the Duty of a Bishop Death of Charlemagne and Misfortunes of his Dynasty
Charlemagne and Offa of Mercia Plot of Jaenbert, Archbishop of Canterbury Offa establishes
an Arch-see at Lichfield by Arrangement with the Pope Synod of Cealchythe Speedy Resto
ration of the Arch-primacy of Canterbury.

the settlement of the of the abbess Hilda of Whitby; just when

WHILE Northern conquerors in Britain
was gradually shaping itself, and
the "

settlement "

in

ing a definite shape, when the disciple

England was assum

Christianity, through the various influences of Csedmon were writing their Englisl

already dwelt upon, was becoming every poems, when Theodore and Wilfric
year an increasing power in the island, Hadrian and Aldhelm, were mouldinj
great changes, which more or less reacted the Church of England after their wi]

upon Britain, were taking place in the in the Roman obedience, when tht
history of the continent of Europe. student Bede was learning in his Jarrow

Among the Teutonic peoples, who in cell the secrets of the craft he after
the wreck of the Roman domination wards used so well and faithfully. From
came to the front, that great confeder the great day of Testri the Frankisl
ation of tribes known as the Franks nation has ever held a foremost place
was the most prominent. But the among the nations of the world. In arms
numerous known under that subse
tribes in literature, in religion, the historian ha
quently world-famed name were generally to reckon with the part played by tha
but only loosely bound together ;
and it great people, who were born, so to speak
was not until a victory won at Testri by into the family of European nations when
a chieftain of the Eastern Franks named the eastern Frankish chieftain, Pepin o
Pepin, of Herstall, had put an end to the Herstall, after his Testri victory, gradu
internal feudsand dissensions among their ally welded into one powerful nation the
leaders and kings, that they took the im various disunited Frankish tribes.

portant place in the northern European The descendants and heirs of Pepin
countries to which their vast numbers were singularly able and distinguishec
and natural abilities would seem to have men. Charles Martel, his son and sue
entitled them. cessor, will ever be remembered gratefully
The was fought in the
battle of Testri as the western soldier who succeedec

year 687, the year of Cuthbert s death, in rolling back definitively the tide

only seven years after the passing away of eastern invasion, which, under the
687 74I-] EMPIRE OF THE FRANKS. 3T3

seemingly irresistible Mahommedan spirit be roughly, to have extended from

said,
of religious conquest, atone time gravely Friesland, washed by the northern seas,
threatened even central and northern Gaul, to the Pyrenees in the south of Gaul ;

THE
FEANK EEALM
Under
CHARLES THE GRBAT.

THE PRANKISH EMPIRE.

Another Pepin, known as

"

le Bref," be- from the shores of the Atlantic on the

came, in the year 741, the acknowledged west, to the Elbe and the Danube on the
sovereign of the now broad domains of his east. King Pepin le Bref s son, under
father and grandfather, and was crowned the famous name of Charlemagne, ruled

king of the great Frankish monarchy, over the same magnificent inheritance, but
which, in a somewhat irregular line, may enormously increased by conquest. His
314 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [718.

mighty empire included, generally, modern
France, most of the German dominions
ruled by the imperial houses of
over
Hohenzollern and Hapsburg, Italy largely,
and certainly the northern provinces of
in the great Irish monasteries, being
desirous of profiting by the Irish learning,
and wishing to share in the Celtic austerities
practised in those famous prayer-homes.
Willibrord and twelve companions wer

Spain. In other
words, Charlemagne s welcomed by Pepin of Herstall, who ha
dominions stretched from Brittany to the lately annexed Frisia to the Frankish
mountains of Bohemia, and from Saragossa dominions. Some think Willibrord
to the mouth of the Elbe. Charlemagne mission was even undertaken at Pepin

reigned from 768 814to periodthe request certainly he was ever warmly sup
;

included in the literary supremacy of ported in his missionary work by the great
York. It was as minister and friend of Frankish chief, who believed that the
this magnificent monarch that Alcuin, the wild Frisian tribes would, if converted to

pupil first, and afterwards the teacher in Christianity, become his faithful subjects

the schools of York, won his great religious The between the Engle
firm friendship

reputation. missionary and Pepin seems to have been

The connection between England and lifelong. Willibrord, no doubt owing tc
the Franks, in the early days of their his early training under Wilfrid s influenc

power, was more intimate than is popu was a devoted believer in Rome, her tradi

larly supposed. Frisia, a great tract of tions and her vast claims, and from Rom
country on the borders of the Zuyder sought higher sanction for his Frisia
Zee and along the banks of the Scheldt, work. Pope Sergius consecrated hi
covering much of what is now known archbishop of the Frisians, and fixed th
as Holland, had been visited, it will seat of his archbishopric in the old Roma
be remembered, by bishop Wilfrid, who station of Trajectum, afterwards kno
preached to the savage pagan inhabitants as Utrecht. It was a noble career, thi
with some success in the year 678, of Willibrord, and it lasted for man
on the occasion of one of his journeys years, being only closed by his death ii

to Rome. A few years later, in 690-691, extreme old age in 739. For som<

the Frisian mission, which seems, per forty -six years he had laboured wit!

haps from the extreme difficulty of the varying success among the pagans
work there, to have possessed a peculiar these distant Frankish provinces.
attraction for the fervid zeal of the English Willibrord was joined in the year 718 b]
and Saxon preachers, was again taken up another English monk, who subsequently
by an earnest student trained in Wilfrid s under Frankish protection, obtained eve
monastery at Ripon, and who afterwards greater fame than his master as a succe
attained to great fame as the successful ful missionary pioneer. This was Winfrid,
apostle of the Frisians, under the name of young West Saxon, born in the last quart

Willibrord. This Willibrord was entrusted of the seventh century at Crediton, in th

as by his mother to the Ripon
a child Wessex country, and who was the frien

monks, and subsequently spent some time in early life of Ina. the well-known W
743-7531 WILLIBRORD AND BONIFACE (WINFRID). 315

king,who admired the young Winfrid s learn defend the priests, nor prevent pagan and
ing and zeal. Winfrid joined the Frisian idolatrous rites in Germany." He showed
mission of Willibrord like his master, he ;
his gratitude to Pepin le Bref, who had
too was a devoted adherent and believer so loyally supported him and furthered
in the Roman obedience. The Frankish his plans, by procuring his formal corona

chieftain, Charles Martel, recognised his tion as king of the vast Frankish realms in

great powers, and through his long and 751-2.

stirring career warmly assisted him. He Thisextraordinary man, one of the
was consecrated bishop without any definite greatest sons of the Church of England,
see under the name of Boniface. In was wholly devoted to his noble work as
731 Pope Gregory III. made him arch an evangelist and although he had reached
;

bishop and Roman legate. His work the summit of human ambition, he seems
lasted for many years. In the rapid rise to have cared little or nothing for power
of the Frankish power, archbishop Boni and grandeur, save as instruments in
facewas perhaps the most distinguished carrying out his designs for the salvation
instrument in the consolidation of the of souls. At length old and infirm, de
power of the Franks, especially in their crepit inbody and worn out by excessive
Rhine provinces. His labours were inde labours, he resigned to his companion
fatigable, and were, on the whole, crowned Lull his important office as archbishop
with singular success. In 743 we find of Mainz, and went out once more as a
him archbishop of Mainz, on the Rhine, simple missionary among the Frisians,
with a Frankish diocese stretching through where he had laboured years before, and
the Rhine countries from Cologne to who in many wild districts were still

Strasbourg. He founded several important pagans. He ended his glorious career as

sees in Germany at Erfurt, Wiirzburg, a martyr, being slain by the very people

Eichstadt, etc., and established the re he loved so well. This was in the year
nowned religious house of Fulda, which A.D. 755.

became a famous centre of missionary It is, of course, impossible in a history

enterprise. In his later years this Boni devoted to the Church of England to go
face rose unquestionably into the greatest beyond the limits of a brief sketch of the
church figure of his day on the continent life and work of such men as Willibrord
of Europe. and Boniface in Holland and Germany. It

The friendship of Boniface with Charles is one of the many proofs of the won
Martel and his sons remained ever un derful and power of the early
vitality
broken. To this family of Frankish chiefs Anglo-Saxon church, that in the first
he acknowledged his deep obligations, century of her existence as a church, she
and referred his singular success in his could send out into the continent of Europe

missionary labours to their steady and preachers and organisers of such extra
Without your ordinary power and wisdom as Willibrord
"

unvarying support. aid,"

we find him writing Charles Martel,

to and the yet more famous Boniface. The
"I could neither control the people, nor reader of our story, however, must not be
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [743753-

led through the meagreness of this little life- hundred eventful years bear their weighty
sketch to underrate the vast work of some testimony to the enduring nature of the
of these famous Englishmen, nobly sup work.
ported by a numerous and often-recruited It was owing to the religious, far-seeing
band of their fellow-countrymen. What Frankish chieftains, the two Pepins and
they accomplished, measured by ordinary Charles Martel, to the steady, never-fail

standards, seems incredible such mighty ; ing, consistent support of this all-powerful
results, it is not too much to say, could Frankish family, in great measure, that the
only have been carried out by men who two famous Englishmen and their disciples
were the immediate successors and were enabled to accomplish their mighty
sharers of the spirit of those matchless work and Boniface, as we have seen, was
;

Celtic teachers, whose grand work in not slow to acknowledge the great debt.
England we have been relating. But no Frankish king or chieftain, however
It must be remembered that the work wise and far-seeing, would ever have seen
of Willibrord and Boniface stretched from such undreamed-of results without the aid
the desolate dunes of Frisia and the of such divinely taught instruments as
shores of the wild North Sea, through the Willibrord and Boniface and behind
;

lands watered by the Rhine, the Moselle,
and the Elbe far to the south where the
still blue waters of the Lake of Constance
bathe the slopes of the white Alps. These
famous missionaries for the most part had
to do with pagan tribes they not only ;
these Englishmen was the spirit which
nerved Aidan and Chad and Cuthbert
even the very Spirit of God and His Christ
whose work these men were raised up to
carry out. Truly a portion of the spirit of
the Celtic teachers had fallen upon these

gathered round them vast masses of very apostles of Frisia and Germany ;
and it

imperfectly civilised peoples, drawn from was the possession of this divine gift which
many German and many
races, listening to, inspired these Englishmen, and gave them
convinced by, their burning words this strength and power to do the difficult task
was comparatively speaking an easy task towhich their Master had called them.
but what was more wonderful they built up But to the irresistible power, the strange
a great Christian church, organised with and passionate tenderness, and to their
no little care and skill, in those wide- intense conviction of the truth of the
stretching countries which lay between marvellous and gracious story they were
the waters of the Zuyder Zee and
salt telling, which they inherited from the
the Alp-fed Lake of Constance. Two im who converted pagan
great Celtic masters
portant archbishoprics the one in Utrecht, England from the worship and service of
the other at Mainz, ruling over many Woden and Thor to the worship and ser
subordinate bishoprics, centres of Christian vice of Christ, these English missionaries
work and Christian progress which have to Frisia and Germany in the eighth
endured without a break from the days century added another force unknown
of the famous Englishmen, Willibrord and to Aidan or Cuthbert a reverence at
Boniface, down to our own times eleven times even passing into a superstition, for
743-753-] BONIFACE AND ROME. 317

law and order, tradition and obedience, Germany were men carefully trained in
as represented by the great and vener the Roman-taught schools of Wilfrid and
able see of Rome. This reverence for Theodore.
Rome the centre of Christian unity,
as The intense devotion of these men to
and their connection with the vast and Rome throughout their wonderful careers^
powerful Roman organisation, gave to the has been a matter for the deepest regret to

**\ I

Paris, Arch. Nat. K.^t-rt.

A JUDGMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE, A.D. 8 12.

labours of Willibrord and Boniface from some and of the warmest admira
writers,
tion to others. It was from Rome they
the first a permanent and enduring charac
ter. Their successful work in Holland sought again and again, all spiritual
and Germany resulted in no isolated and authority for the work on which their

and strongholds, but hearts were fixed. It was from Rome

solitary Christian forts
that Willibrord sought and received his
in permanent garrisons of the spiritual
to mould
monarchy of Rome over the West. While episcopal commission to form and
the his Frisian church. It was to Rome that
possessing in an extraordinary degree
and of the Boniface journeyed again and again, when
preaching teaching powers
Celtic masters, the apostles of Frisia and he sought for fresh powers^when he wrote
3 i8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [743753-

for direction and support. The union built up. The two eminent English mis
between the successful English missionaries sionaries brought Rome and the Franks
and the Roman see was at once intimate together. Rome saw in the Franks a
and enduring. mighty power which could effectually
We have here brought prominently protect her from the pretensions and
before us a fact which many historians formidable claims of the Eastern Church
have strangely lost sight of, and which to supremacy, claims backed by the still

brings into unexpectedly strong relief far-reaching power of the Eastern Em

the influence of our British island upon peror reigning at Constantinople Rome s
the destinies of the world. For good or most dreaded opponent. And the house
for evil, Englishmen have largely contri of Charles Martel and Pepin le Bref
buted to establish the spiritual sovereignty recognised in Rome a source of religious
of Rome. The action of Wilfrid in the authority which could give, if it pleased,
latter part of the seventh and in the a sacred sanction to their assumption of

early years of the eighth century, in sovereign rule over the whole Frankish
his repeated reference to the Roman nation.
see as the supreme court of appeal in Boniface, the missionary archbishop
matters connected with the Church of of Mainz, was the chief instrument who
England, coupled with the virtual acqui brought about this union between the two

escence in the end of archbishop Theo powers Rome and the Franks; and Pepin
dore in the Roman decisions, gave the le Bref received the guerdon of his steady
sanction of a powerful and independent support of Rome and her pretensions to a
national church to the still shadowy universal supremacy in the Church, when
Roman claims of a universal authority ;
he was anointed king of the great dominion
claims which were in after-years enor of the Franks, with the formal assent of

mously exaggerated, and in time came Boniface, the Legate of the R^oman see.
to exert such a baneful influence upon The supreme title of king, which among
Christendom. Then in the eighth cen the Franks had been hitherto borne,
tury, the strong bias of the English though for some time without sovereign
Willibrord and Boniface in favour of power, by another house, the Merovings,
Rome, had the effect
binding of the was thus formally transferred to Pepin
Frankish reigning house the most power le Bref and his heirs, by the highest
ful dynasty the world had witnessed since religious sanction in the western world.
the days of the great Caesars with the It was the singular fortune of the famous
strongest ties of gratitude and interest House of Charlemagne, which had suc
to the same powerful Italian church. It ceeded in welding into one nation so many
is not too much to say, that the great various tribes and peoples, that for several
ness of the Papacy in the Middle Ages generations its acting chief was a man of
sprang in great measure from the recog conspicuous ability not only a brave and
nition of its authority by the German skilful general, but a born ruler of men.

church, which Willibrord and Boniface Such was Pepin of Herstall, the founder
768814.] CHARLEMAGNE. 319

of the Prankish power, the victor at love of learning of Alfred, the religious
Testri. Such was Charles Martel, who fervour of St. Louis, the gallantry and

effectually stayed the Mohammedan in bravery of Cceur de Lion while the wide
;

vaders their awful progress through

in extent of his vast dominions forbid any

Europe, the conqueror of Abderrahman in comparison with him on the side of bound
the decisive battle of Tours. Such was less power and world-wide influence. He
Pepin le Bref, his son, who, with the aid has been to so generations in all
many
of the English missionary, archbishop parts of the world the great and loved
Boniface, received the church s sanction hero-king, that there is no little danger
to hisassuming the ensigns of kingly of the real Charlemagne shading into a
dignity, and henceforth to his ruling over mythic personage as his form recedes into
the vast Prankish nation as the anointed the mists of the past. The splendour of
of the church. But, great and distin his story grows brighter, and men too
guished as had been the first three chiefs often think of him as the romantic hero of
of the Franks, the fourth of this illustrious Roncesvalles, surrounded by his twelve
the son of Pepin le Bref, eclipsed
line, fabulous peers, and forget that he was a
them all, and in the glory of Charlemagne man of flesh and blood, very great but very
to use by anticipation the name by erring ;
a warrior and a statesman of the
which he is best known in history the highest order, fitted exactly for his own
career of his distinguished ancestors has age, but certainly not that perfect charac
been almost forgotten. ter, that mirror of nobility and chivalry

Charlemagne succeeded his father, Pepin which different writers of different ages
le Bref, in the year 768, when our
English have loved to portray. As a man he was
school of York was at the height of its the inferior of the English Alfred or the
prosperity, and was regarded as the chief French St. Louis, who were examples of

literary centre on this side the Alps. His that purity of life, alas never attained by
!

magnificent reign lasted some forty-six Charlemagne.

years, until 814. The vast dominions With writers of every age the mighty
which Charlemagne inherited from his emperor naturally a favourite, for he was
is

father, Pepin le Bref, were enormously the steady and consistent patron of letters,
increased by successive
conquests, until and as the all-powerful head of the Holy
they included roughly the modern coun Roman Empire, in an age of semi-barbar
tries of France, the north of Spain, ism, was able to do a work for literature

Holland, Belgium, most of the German and learning such as perhaps no other man
territories of the German and Austrian has ever had it in his power to accomplish,
Empires, Switzerland and Italy. and schools in various branches of learn
Charlemagne is perhaps the greatest ing which had been confined to Rome
favourite of history. He unites in himself and a few Italian cities on the Conti
all the varied attributes of the most
popular nent, and to certain religious communities
and loved heroes the chivalry of the
;
in Ireland, and, later, to the monasteries of
semi-fabulous Arthur, the wisdom and Jarrow, York, and Canterbury, from the
320 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [78o.

days of Charlemagne became the heritage magne s greatest power his friend and
of not a few centres in his broad domi favourite, then his adviser. He acted the

nions, where art and literature were from part, to use a modern term, of minister "

But the education and religion to the mighty

"

his time sedulously cultivated. of

man who prompted all this useful and far- king and emperor.

CHARLEMAGNE.
(From the Picture by Albrecht D urer)

reaching work, who directed the great We have traced already the useful and
Prankish chieftain s mind in his love for brilliant career of the English scholar, the
letters and for art, and in his care for re most distinguished of the York teachers.
ligion and
education, was the English Impressed with his learning, the Prankish
Alcuin, the faithful follower and disciple emperor induced him to give up his native
of Hadrian of Canterbury, of Bede of country and his work at York, and to devote
Jarrow, of Egbert and Albert of York. his life s energies to his service. We soon
Alcuin became in the period of Charle- find him permanently attached to Charle-
792-]
ALCUIN. 321

magne s court, and for eight years re he knew so well, and with their assistance
mained under the monarch s all-powerful established numberless schools in Gaul

protection, teaching and establishing fresh and Germany. He constantly sent to

schools, restoring in many centres of the York for more books and fresh helpers.
vast empire the knowledge of the sacred Wherever Alcuin was, English scholars

languages, the perishing text of the Bible, visited him, and often remained per
and the service-book doing not a little, manently with him. Indeed, North-

RECEPTION OF AIGULPH (p. 322).

also, towards bringing back the moral umbria in the last years of the eighth
rigour of ecclesiastical discipline. In century was rapidly decaying, and for its
790 we find him again in his native students and men of letters it was too pre
England, but not to remain ;
and after carious a home ;
hence many were glad
792 he remained constantly attached to to find fresh work under the powerful
the brilliant court of Charlemagne. protection of the Prankish sovereign of
But all this time his connection with Europe.
England and the Church of England was A curious anecdote is quoted by Lingard
most intimate. From York he drew a from Alcuin biographer, illustrative of
s

number of scholars trained in the school the jealousy with which the numbers of
322 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
English who were brought to Charle in England, to English kings, bishop
magne dominions by Alcuin were re
s abbots, monks ;
some are couched in a
garded by some of the Prankish nation. lighter vein to pupils and friends,
When Aigulph, an English priest, was
"
and to the women whose friendship he
entering the monastery of Tours, where valued others of a graver and more
;

Alcuin was residing, four of the French business-like character are addressed to

clergy were standing at the gate, and one the emperor Charlemagne, the bishop oj;

of them exclaimed in his own language, Rome, and the patriarch of Jerusalem. Itj

When will this house be delivered from is not one of the least of the glories of the
the crowds of Britons who swarm to that school of York to have produced so bril

old man (Alcuin) like so many bees ?

!

liant and devoted a scholar. To him wffl

The love of Alcuin for York and England, owe most of our knowledge of Yori
and the high estimation in which this true that noble home of learning and theolog

scholar and theologian held the literary of the eighth century, and from whenc
resources of his native country, appear from issued much, if
par not the greater
such passages in his letters as the following : of the material which produced the n
I feel bitterly the need of those price
"

naissance of letters and education on th

less books of learning which I had in my Continent.
own country, by the loving industry of my In the next century we shall have t

masters, and in some measure by our own relate how all the libraries collected b
humble labours. Let me send some of my Benedict Biscop, Aldhelm, Bede, and
youths over to bring back to France the others with so much care and pains, per
flowers of Britain
"

(Alcuin to Charlemagne, ished ;

how well-nigh all the noble house
in 796, written from Tours). Alcuin of prayer and study were sacked and burne
knew that it was to the Church of in our England how for a considerabl ;

England Charlemagne looked for libraries period a deep dark night of misery an
and for scholars. ignorance settled over the unhappy islanc
We still possess a fair number of the But it is a proud thought for every tru

great Englishman s writings notably a lover of England, that before the awfu
valuable biography of Willibrord, the calamities of the ninth century desolate
Frisian apostle, and many Latin poems, our shores, Alcuin and his band of Yor
some of high merit. There is one on the scholars had won the confidence of th
destruction of Lindisfarne one, if not the all-powerful Frankish ruler of Europe
earliest, of the long and terrible raids oi that, under his strong arm and generous
the sea pirates, on whose eventful story protection, these men had carried Englis
we are presently to enter. The most im learning into a hundred foreign centr
portant and generally interesting of his. where it lived and flourished and th ;

writings is however, after all, the collec thus was handed on to coming gene
tion of his letters, nearly three hundred tions the burning lamp of religion an
of which have been preserved. Some literature. It is no exaggeration t

of these are written to correspondents assert that the church schools of York
794-]
CHARLEMAGNE. 323

were the fount and origin of the this strange and exaggerated teaching, and
literature of mediaeval Europe. in the East a complete reaction took place
under the influence of the empress Irene,
Charlemagne was not only a warrior and who convened another great Council of
a successful conqueror, not only a great 350 prelates at Nice. This council, known
statesman and ruler ;
he was an ardent as the Second Council of Nice, reversed

lover of literature and learning and ; completely the policy which condemned
theology he regarded as the centre of images, and restored them to the churches,
the intellectual system, round which allowing an honourable, though an inferior,
the liberal sciences circled. He himself worship to be offered to them as sacred
was no mean theologian hence no doubt; symbols. The date of this second Council
his admiration of and enduring friendship of Nice was A.D. 787.
for the English Alcuin. Now one of Charlemagne and the Gallican church,
the most important theological questions no doubt largely under the influence of
which affected the Church at that time Alcuin, refused to accept the decrees of
was the position which sacred images this Council, and the Frankish sovereign

and pictures were to occupy in Christian he was not yet proclaimed emperor put
teaching. forth a learned and most able work con
Pope Gregory the Great had enunciated victing the second Council of Nice of giving
the principle, that pictures and images its sanction to simple idolatry. This work,

might be employed for the purpose of known as the Caroline Books

Quatuor
"

exciting devotional feelings, and of in Libri Caroh was sent before promul
ni"

structing the simple and unlearned, but gation to Alcuin, at that time in York, for
that care was to be taken against the wor revision and correction. Some have sus
ship of both, a danger which he foresaw. pected that the writer of the books in
The Byzantine emperor, Leo the Isaurian question was Alcuin himself. There is

(729-730), put forth an edict requiring little doubt, however, that the Frankish
the demolition of images. Constantine sovereign was the real author, although
Copronymus, the son of
the emperor probably Alcuin had a large share in
Leo, convened a council of 338 bishops at their composition.

Constantinople in the year 754, which In the year 794, under Charlemagne, an
carried out the policy of Leo. The fathers important Church Council met at Frank
of Constantinople anathematised all who attended by a vast crowd of bishops
fort,
would represent the Incarnate Word from every part of the Frankish realm,
by
material form or colours, and an order was which then included thelargest portion of
made to remove all images, whether statues continental Europe. Alcuin, at Charle
or pictures, from the churches. Until magne s request, was present at the de
787 the Iconoclasts the destroyers of liberations. Although the exaggerations
images and pictures carried all before which disfigured the Iconoclasts were
them in the Eastern church. avoided, the second Nicene Council was
Rome, however, was bitterly opposed to condemned, and the worship of images,
324 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [796.

"

as being that the days of Charlemagne and his minister

which God s Alcuin, one of the gravest errors combated
church exe and vanquished in the reformed catholic
crates,"
under Church of England was the undue rever
the terms wor ence paid to images a reverence that too

ship, adora often glided into a scarcely veiled idolatry.

tion, and ser The views of the wise Alcuin and of his
vice of any imperial master, Charlemagne, in the all-,
kind, was for important matter of this fatal error o
bidden. image worship, were generally adopted by
The judg the fathers of the Reformation in England
ment of Char

lemagne and Alcuin, as we have seen, was an inde

the Frankfort fatigable scholar, and is
justly regarded as

Council in the one of the chief early mediaeval workers in

matter of the preservation of the true text of the

sacred images sacred writings. As an expositor he is oi

and pictures little value. His work-filled life

especially
in which judg during his later years when he was attachec
ment we see to the court of Charlemagne was not the
the mind of quiet, reposeful existence necessary for the
Alcuin, Char- labours of a true expositor. But as
SWORD OF CHARLEMAGNE.
(Hofburg, Vienna.)
1
emagn e s church reformer and organiser the famous
master and York scholar will ever occupy a distin
teacher in theology, clearly reflected guished place in the annals of Christianity
has ever been the guide of the more His letter to archbishop Ethelhard ol
thoughtful and sober-minded teachers in Canterbury, written in 796, admirably
the western church on this question. summarises Alcuin s mind on the subject
For history repeats itself, and the unhappy of a great prelate s

error sanctioned by the second Council of duties, and shows us

Nice has often appeared and reappeared what must have been
with greater or less prominence in the the general tenour of
story of the Catholic church. The desert his advice to Charle

wanderings of the chosen people, the his magne in the momen

tory of Israel and Judah, again and again tous work of organising
tell us how men s worship is ever attracted and reforming churches
to something visible to the sun, the moon, and schools through
the objects of Nature to the sacred image, out the almost bound
however hideous and repulsive, represent less dominions of the
. , _, PART OF SCABBARD
ing the Unseen. In the Reformation of mighty European em- O F THE SWORD OF
the sixteenth century, seven centuries after peror. CHARLEMAGNE
 79 6.]
ALCUIN AND ETHELHARD. 325

Ethelhard lived in very troublous times, bishops in full synod, whom it is

your
and in the exercise of what he deemed duty to admonish to be regular in holding

his duty had incurred much unpopularity. ordinations, earnest in preaching, careful
Believing that his life was in danger, of their churches, strict in enforcing the
the shepherd forsook his flock and left holy rite of baptism, and bountiful in alms ;

his great charge. Alcuin, Charlemagne s or whether it be for the good of the souls of
minister, who was the poor in differ

archbishop Ethel- ent churches and

hard s friend, took parishes, especially

upon himself among the people

gravely to rebuke of Kent, over whom

the faint-hearted- God has been

ness of the arch pleased to appoint
bishop, and urged you to preside.
him in the course Above all, let it

of a famous epistle be your strictest

to reconsider the care to restore the

motives of his reading of the Holy
flight, remember Scriptures, that
ing that
"

the good the Church may

shepherd layeth be exalted with
down his life for honour, and that
the sheep."
"

Re your holy see,

turn," wrote Al which was first in

cuin to Ethelhard; the faith, may be
and then in words first in all wisdom
which deserve to and holiness ;

be remembered where the inquirer

indeed in our THRONE OF CHARLEMAGNE, AIX-LA-CHAPEI.I.E.
after truth may
Church of England find an answer, the
as the noblest advice ever given by a ignorant know what he desires to know,
great son of that church to her chief and the understanding Christian see what
shepherds, he went on to write,
"

and may deserve his praise."

bring back to the House of God the Alcuin lived some eight years after

youths that were studying there, the choir writing the above wise letter of advice to
of singers, and the penmen with their the chief pastor of the Church of England,
books, that the Church may regain its which lays bare before us the heart of the
beautiful order, and future primates may great English adviser of Charlemagne,
and
be trained up under her care. And for which shows us that the world-famed
yourself, let your preaching be constant scholar of whom our church is so proud
in all places whether in presence of the was a man of God in the word s true sense.
326 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [814.

But it does more than this. It tells us arising from these divisions, the want of
what was the spirit which lived in York all unity and cohesion in the states which
Alcuin s home for so many years in the arose upon the ruins of the Frankish
chief school of theology in England, up to Empire, were the chief causes which aided
the time when that school, together with the progress of the Northern sea-pirates on
all that was noblest and best in the church the continent of Europe those same sea-
of our island, was swept away by the ruth pirates whose work of ruin in England we
less sea-pirates of the north in the days are about to chronicle. Indeed, to under
of the fatal Danish invasions. stand the causes of their strange and fatal
success in our island, it is absolutely neces
It was memorable year 800 that
in the sary to have some knowledge of what in

Charlemagne the Frank reached the sum the ninth century was going on upon the
mit of earthly power when at Rome he ;
Continent.
was saluted emperor by the acclamations Charlemagne s Minister of Education
of the Pope, the clergy, and the people. had died in 804, after an unexampled
The mere title, of course, added nothing career of splendid and successful work.
to the power wielded by the master of The emperor, his master, survived him
Europe, but the imperial authority and ten years; ten years of outward magni
name the formal acknowledgment by ficence and boundless power, though the
the catholic church, in the person of the seeds of decay were already at work in

bishop of Rome, then generally recognised the vast realm. The dramatic environ
as the head of western Christendom, of ments of his entombment were
in keeping
the son of Pepin le Bref as the lawful in with the circumstances of his wonderful
heritor of Caesar s place and rank threw a life and reign.
"

In the gallery of the

glamour round the magnificent court of basilica of his Aachen
loved (Aix-la-
the mighty Frankish sovereign. Chapelle) he had erected his marble
And yet he failed to establish a dynasty. throne, covered with plates of gold,
There was a mortal weakness already studded with Greek cameos and astral

sapping the strength of his enormous gems from Nineveh or Babylon. Before
empire, even at the proud moment when that throne were the stairs descending
he assumed the imperial ensigns at Rome. to the sepulchre, which Charlemagne
It has been well said that Charlemagne s had already dug deep for himself in the
hand grasped more sceptres than even holy ground, even when he raised that
that mighty hand could hold. The marble throne. In 814 the huge broad
decay had already begun in the great flagstone which covers the vault was
emperor s lifetime, though perhaps he him heaved up. There they reverently de
self was unconscious of it. embalmed
It proceeded posited the corpse, surrounded
with fatal rapidity in the days of his with ghastly magnificence, sitting erect
son and grandchildren. The empire was on his curule chair, clad in his silken
divided again and again by his heirs; and robes, ponderous with broidery, pearls,
the divisions, the deadly feuds and enmities and orphreys the imperial diadem on his
;
774-]
OFFA AND CHARLEMAGNE. 327

head, his closed eyelids covered, his lace Northumbrian crown making their way
swathed in the dead-clothes, girt with his and suppliants to the Frankish
as exiles

baldric, the ivory horn slung in his scarf, court. Alcuin, in a letter to Offa, the
his good sword Joyeuse by his side, the powerful Mercian king, who reigned from
Gospel Book open on his lap ;
musk and 758 to 796, after the murder of king
amber and sweet spices poured around, his Ethelred by his Northumbrian thanes,
golden shield and golden sceptre pendant obscurely hints at an armed interference
*
before him." in Northumbrian affairs meditated by
But Charlemagne was no sooner laid in Charlemagne warded offthrough his in
his stately tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle, than Nisi ego intercessor
"

fluential persuasion.

the dismemberment of his weighty realm essem "

were Alcuin s words.

began and the ruin of the Frankish empire The sovereign of Mercia during the
slowly set in. His two elder sons died last half of the eighth century, when
before their father. His third son, known the power of Northumbria was fading,
in history as Louis le Debonnaire, suc and Wessex was still enfeebled with in
ceeded him as emperor. His long and ternal disputes occupied the principal and
disastrous reign lasted from 814 to 840 most prominent position among English

(twenty-eight years). In this period the princes. Two distinguished men, Ethel-
Frankish was divided between bald and Offa, filledthe Mercian throne in
Empire
his four sons Lothair, Pepin, Louis le this period. They both belonged to the

Germanique, and Charles le Chauve family of that Penda, the famous heathen
ten times. king who played so distinguished a part in
the story of the preceding century. Ethel-
In England, cut off from the continent bald was the son of Alweo, a brother of
of Europe by the sea barrier which has Penda, and for a time exercised a supre
so often been its friend, the Frankish em macy over the centre and much of the
peror, supreme in Europe, was only able south of the island. His power was, how
to exercise an indirect influence. We ever, broken by the men of Wessex at the

possess, indeed, but the scantiest of details battle of Burford, in 754, and three years
of any intercourse between the emperor Mercian king was murdered by
later the
and the princes who at the end of the his own chieftains. He was succeeded
eighth and in the early years of the ninth by his kinsman Offa, in 758. Offa was

century were ruling in our island. In descended from another brother of the
Northumbria, as we have seen, during the great Penda.
greater part of the period of Charlemagne s Offa s long reign lasted until 794. He
reign a miserable state of anarchy pre seems to have interfered but little with
vailed, which gradually undermined the eitherNorthumbria or Wessex, but he was
still
flourishing school of York. We supreme in middle England and Kent, and
catch sight of kings and claimants of the towards the end of his reign annexed East
Anglia to Mercia. The event of his reign
*
Palgrave s
"

Normandy and England." by which he is best remembered was the

 328 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [774

huge earthwork he builtup between the one period meditated securing a supre
mouth of the Wye and the Dee, the re macy in England, and hoped that ou
mains of which still bear the name of island would eventually become a provinc
"

Offa s Dyke." This great barrier marked of his vast empire.

the boundary between Mercia and the But to the student of English chuic

Welsh, the remnant of the ancient British history the most curious of the inter
people, whom he drove further west behind ferences of Charlemagne in England wa
the Severn. Another and a different connected with a strange and secre

work, which will ever be connected with application of Jaenbert, archbishop o

the name of Offa, was the foundation of Canterbury (766 to 790), for his assist

the mighty abbey of" St. Albans, near ance and countenance. The transaction
the ruins of the old Roman city of is interesting, and throws considerable

Verulamium, on the spot hallowed by lightupon the position of the church in

the martyrdom of St. Alban. It is a England in the last quarter of the eighth
curious fact that one of the most famous century.
and best known of our English abbeys Archbishop Theodore, the first organiser
owes its foundation to a prince of the of the Church of England, died in 690,
house of Penda, the last Engle defender and between that year and the accession
of the old heathen religion of the of Jaenbert, the prelate who applied to
Northmen. Charlemagne for assistance a period of
This Offa seems to have enjoyed in some seventy-six years five archbishops
some measure the friendship of the great had sat in the seat of Augustine at Canter
Prankish sovereign, who, however, was bury ;
not men of distinguished ability, but

evidently far from looking upon the good, earnest bishops, and two or three of
Mercian king as his equal. As certainly them prominent scholars. The position of
the most powerful of the English princes the early archbishops of Canterbury was a
of the last half of the eighth century, very high one. They were not only the
Charlemagne considered it expedient to acknowledged primates of the church in
enter into correspondence with him, and England, but were possessors of large
even asked for the hand of one of his estates in Kent and Mercia. Owing to the

daughters for his son. Offa, however, in kings or sub-kings of Kent having trans
return demanded the hand of Charle ferred their royal residence to Reculvers,

magne s daughter for his heir. The great the power of the archbishops in Canterbury,
Frank was offended at this request, the chief city in Kent, was virtually un
as it seemed an assertion of equality controlled. They coined money in their

on the part of the Mercian king, and own name, and their effigy was impressed
for a time the relations between Offa upon it.Over malefactors arrested upo
and the Franks were of an unfriendly their own broad estates they had th
character. Through Alcuin s influence power of life and death. Some of them, at

the two sovereigns were again reconciled least, assumed an almost royal state.
There is no doubt that Charlemagne at In the year 774, after the battle of
774-] OFFA AND JAENBERT. 329

Otford, the ancient royal family of Kent himself upon the archbishop, determined
became extinct, and
Offa, the Mercian king, to wreck the power of the metropolitan
assumed the royal authority in Kent. But by the erection of a new archbishopric
Jaenbert, with the example of the Bishop in Mercia, which should have its seat in
ofRome before his eyes the Bishop of Lichfield.
Rome had lately, with the consent of the The bishops and the public assembly of
all-powerful Frankish sovereign, assumed the Witenagemot agreed to carry out king

Tf
J^
/yf-- ^-UvUij.W- *ll4lW.h.
.
tltVj
"
J
cmju. V^l--^

PORTION OF A MS. COPY OF THE CLOVESHOE CANON, A.D. 803, BY WHICH THE SUPREMACY OF
CANTERBURY OVER LICHFIELD WAS ESTABLISHED (p. 331).

the position of a sovereign prince con Offa s wishes, and the Mercian king, deter
sidered that the archbishop of Canterbury, mining that the Mercian archbishop should
the pontiff, as he was called, of England, hold equal rank with the arch-prelates of
was the natural successor to the vacant Canterbury and York, asked the sanction of
Kentish throne. It seems that Jaenbert the bishop of Rome, as the acknowledged
made his wishes known to Charlemagne, head of the western church, to the new
expressing his willingness to exercise arrangement, requesting him to invest the
sovereign authority in Kent as the feudatory newly-elected archbishop of Lichfield with
of Charlemagne. great Frank, how
The the sacred pallium. The reigning bishop
ever, declined the overtures of archbishop or Pope of Rome was Hadrian, a distin
Jaenbert. But Offa of Mercia became guished statesman, prelate, and the intimate
aware of Jaenbert s intrigue, and not wish friend of Charlemagne. Hadrian saw in
ing, for state reasons, openly to revenge Offa s request an opportunity for advancing
330 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [786.

the ever-growing claim of Rome to where these not unnatural feminine tastes

the western church, were thought to be a real danger.

supreme power in becoming
and suggested that if he sent the coveted Rules respecting the Holy Communion,

pallium to Lichfield, king Offa should hold enforcing greater reverence, were also
a council which should make fresh rules made. The faithful were to offer bread,
for the Church England thus re-arranged
of not crusts, for the Holy Feast, and no
into three archbishoprics, and that at the chalice then used was to be made of horn.
council so summoned two legates from Rome
should appear. To this Offa consented. Strangely enough, the important work
It was the price of the Lichfield pallium. of this early and seemingly momentous

King Offa held the promised synod for synod of Cealchythe, held at the close of
that is what the council really was at the eighth century, came to nothing. The
Cealchythe, or Calcuith, which some sup hopes of Rome were disappointed. The
pose to have been in Kent (Lingard presence and overpowering influence of
suggests Chelsea, near London, as the spot). the Italian legates at the synod became
The Roman legates were present. Sub no precedent for future synods or councils

sequent to the synod a formal Gemot was in England. There is no record of any
held, and then the decisions of the synod legate from the Pope taking part in the
were ratified ;
and the ancient province of proceedings of the church during the

Canterbury was divided as Offa desired. subsequent Anglo-Saxon period. Even

Jaenbert of Canterbury was compelled to the archbishopric of Lichfield, with the
release from their oath of canonical obedi bishops of Mercia and East Anglia for
ence to him all his suffragans, save the its suffragans, from which Offa in his

bishops of
Rochester, London, Selsey, dream for the advancement of Mercia

Winchester, and Sherburn. The estates hoped so much, only lasted a very little
and property of the archbishops of Canter while. Founded in 786, it only en
bury in the kingdom of Me rcia had been dured some sixteen years. Offa, the

previously confiscated, and were used as powerful Mercian sovereign, died in 796.
an endowment for the new arch-see of Then followed a period in which the
Lichfield in Mercia. grandeur of Mercia, built up in the long
Among the canons of Cealchythe pro reigns of the great kings Ethelbald and
posed by the Roman legates, was a curious and Cenwulf, who sat
Offa, gradually faded,
one dealing with the diet and apparel of on the Mercian throne from Offa s death
monks and nuns. Evidently Rome dreaded to 821, was glad, on the occasion of
the secular and worldly spirit which was a revolt in Kent against the Mercian
then rapidly invading the monastic citadels supremacy, to recognise the assistance
of the church. The vowed servants of of Ethelhard, who succeeded Jaenbert as
God in their apparel were to avoid "the
archbishop of Canterbury, by the sacrifice
dyed colours of India and precious gar of the Mercian arch-see. As early as 799*
ments." This canon appears to have been * The charter on page 309, witnessed by him, is

specially directed against the nunneries, of date 793-796.

863-] SYNOD OF CLOVESHOE.
Higbert, archbishop ot Lichfield, ceased to which for a yet longer period, from various-

sign documents with the title of arch causes, has held a unique place in the

bishop, and in the year 803, at the synod Catholic church, Canterbury stands alone
of Cloveshoe, the Lichfield archbishopric among the great sees of the Christian
was swept away, and the ancient glory of world. We look in vain through all the
the splendour and power of the prelates countries of the world for anything like it-
at Canterbury were restored. Germany, extending from the shores of the
Nearly eleven centuries have passed North Sea and the Baltic, far to the south,
since the decrees of Cloveshoe in 803, in those lands where the Danube broadens,
and no attempt has been ever made again out into an Eastern river France, from
;

to touch the undoubted primacy of the the sandy flats of Holland to the Medi
see of Augustine in England. The words terranean coasts Spain, from the Pyrenees
;

of the Cloveshoe canon, which confirmed to the Atlantic Ocean in the far west all

the primacy to Canterbury, are remark these possess many arch-sees of high dis
able :
"

We
give this a charge, and sign tinction and power, with a splendid history
itwith the sign of the cross, that the see of their own stretching over centuries ;
but
archiepiscopal from this time forward never in none of these great Christian countries
be in the monastery of Lichfield, nor in is there anything like Canterbury. The

any other place but the city of Canterbury, student would be puzzled to say to which
where Christ s Church is, and where the of the more prominent Teuton sees he
Catholic faith first shone forth in this would assign the pre-eminence :
Cologne,.
island, and where holy baptism was Mainz, Bamberg, Ratisbon, Vienna, and
first celebrated by St. Augustine. . . . other names would pass before him in a
But if
any dare to rend Christ s garment long and stately procession. In France,,
and to divide the unity of the holy Church such sees as Paris, Rouen, Lyons, and Aries
ofGod, contrary to the apostolical precepts would bewilder him if he attempted the
and all ours, let him know that he is task of assigning the position of primacy

eternally damned, unless he make due to any one of them. Toledo and Seville
satisfaction for what he has wickedly done, in Spain have been of equal dignity and
contrary to the canons." power. But in the Church of England
The of the archbishops of
position Canterbury holds now, as it ever has done
Canterbury, the unbroken line of arch- from the days of Theodore, a unique posi
prelates stretching over thirteen centuries tion as the mother church, the metro
the quiet, noiseless but undoubted supre politan church of the Anglo-Saxon peoples ;
macy they have ever exercised (with the not only in Britain, but in the far more
solitary brief exception in the case of extensive Britain beyond the seas a Britain
above related) over the Church
Lichfield, unknown and undreamed of when Augus
of England has been a most important tine first taught the Jutish king, Ethelbert r

factor in thepower and influence of the the story of the Christ, or when Theodore
church of the Anglo-Saxon race. With a century later moulded the great Church
the solitary exception of the see of Rome, of the Anglo-Saxon race.
 CHAPTER XVI.

THE COMING OF THE DANES.

Common Origin of Danes and Engles Vikings and their Ships The Viking Thirst for Blood His
Domestic Virtues The First Viking Raids in England Larger Invasion of Ireland Attacks on
the Prankish Empire Influence of the Church upon the Defence of England The Danes Deliberate
and Inveterate Foes of Christianity Their Growing Power and Invasions, and Terrible Barbarities
Ethelwulf s Visit to Rome and France Largest Continental Cities Sacked and Burnt The
Danish Storm Bursts over England Reasons for England s Previous Immunity The Danes Con
quer Northumbria Destruction of Christianity in the North Further Conquests Ragnar
Lodbrok
and his Sons His Death Song as Illustrative of the Viking Spirit The Danish Revenge Present
Traces of the Danish Conquest Final Attack on Wessex, and Resistance of King Ethelred
Ethelred s Death, and Accession of Alfred.

must now dwell a little upon homesteads considerably to the north of

WE those strange fierce raids, upon

those expeditions of Danish
the districts lying along the North Sea and
the Baltic, whence came most of the first

freebooters, which terrorised and with conquerors of Britain. Our own English
good reason England and northern chroniclesspeak of them generally as
Europe for more than a hundred years. Danes, which term we shall generally use.

For good or for evil, they have left On the continent of Europe they were
their stern mark upon the history of usually called "Northmen." Asser, the
England and France. Without some biographer of Alfred, uses the words in the
knowledge of the Danish invasions and same sense, Northmen or Danes." After
"

of the awful ruin which these invasions the middle of the ninth century the Danes
brought upon both church and people, from Denmark appear, however, to have
it would be utterly impossible to attain been the principal sharers in the sea-raids
to any real understanding of the story which harassed England and the great
of England and of her Church in this river-roads of Germany and France.
period. Who were those sea-robbers, The question has been frequently asked,
who, with their desolating raids and What specially attracted these peoples
ever-recurring invasions, so nearly suc southward at this particular juncture
ceeded in effacing all Christian life, with the close of the eighth century ? Various
its marvellous
civilising results, in England reasons have been suggested, for we possess
and on the continent of Europe ? What no formal history of the north at this
is their story? period. It seems probable, at least, that

also were a Scandinavian race,

They
whose home, whose life, whose language
and customs were really the same as the
home and language and customs of the
the narrow limits in Jutland, Denmark,
and in the countries lying yet further north
ward, of arable land capable of supporting
had gradually become insufficient for
life,

Engles ; although, perhaps, many of their the needs of an ever-growing population.

pirate-ships were manned from farms and Some of the first wanderers from their old
77-] THE DANES OR VIKINGS. 333

home would return, and would bring back people has been well instanced since, from
news of the undreamed-of riches and the memories of the Spain of Charles the

luxury enjoyed by peoples dwelling to the Fifth,, and the England of Elizabeth." * But
south. The hope of plunder would attract we shall see presently, when we come to
more and ever more wanderers. The consider the organised later development

report that these riches could be easily of this terrible northern invasion, that

Photo Foulton, London.

RUINS OF LINDISFARNE PRIORY, HOLY ISLAND. :

won, suggested organised expeditions, and the mere hope of plunder was by no means
so the earlier freebooting expeditions on the whole of the story.
a larger scale were gathered together.
The story of the genesis of the raids
" "

There was found, not long ago, in a

is thus fairly accounted for. In seeking Norway mound one of the old Danish
for the causes of the earlier Danish free- pirate-ships. It was a large, long vessel

booting expeditions, the hope of plunder seventy-eight feet long by sixteen feet
must stand in the forefront. The dis broad, and some five or six feet deep. Such
covery of the wealth of the dwellers in a long-ship drew only four feet of water.
" "

southern countries was a revelation to these She was driven by large red-brown sails,
Northmen. "

The spell which such dis and by oars sixteen oars on either side.
closure of a world s wealth cast on a whole * Green of
:
"Conquest England."
334 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [787.

These pirate-ships sailed in companies. waterways leading to the heart of the

The first expedition of which any record is northern districts of our island. Long
kept appeared in the year 787 on the West voyages were unnecessary save for a few
Saxon shores in the south of England, and rare and distant expeditions.
consisted only of three vessels, while other The popular name given to these dread
pirate fleets somewhat later numbered as northern pirates Vikings Men of the
many as two hundred or more of these Creek or the Bay is derived from the
long-ships. They were built exclusively Danish word or which signi
"vik"
"wik,"

for speed, and, with their light draught of fies a bay or creek. There these "long-

water, were able to penetrate far up each ships"

were often moored, while their
river-road, into the very heart of the fierce crews did their dread work among
country they wished to plunder. Only the inland villages and towns in the

comparatively short
voyages could be neighbourhood of the sea, or at some
undertaken, for there was little accommo monastery built in a lonely spot amidst
dation in the for crew or
"

long-ships
"

moors or fens by monk-builders who never

stores ;
but as far as England was concerned dreamed of these restless robbers, sprung
no long voyage was necessary, for in about as it were from the northern seas of whose ;

forty hours the sea-pirates could sail very existence, till they paid their awful
and row from Norway to the Shetlands visits, burning and sacking their loved
and Orkneys. From these islands Scot abodes, they had no conception.
land was easily reached, and from the These Vikings these Danish sea-robbers
islands of west Scotland the coasts of were always, however, something more
Ireland were visible Ireland, with its than mere plunderers. An absolute thirst
mighty unprotected monasteries and their for blood, a strange delight in inflicting the

undreamed-of treasures. Or from Den cruellest suffering on their fellow-men ;

a
mark an easy brought the sea-pirates
sail
passion for destroying, as it seemed, for the
to the mouth of the Elbe a little voyage ;
mere savage pleasure of destruction, was
along the Frisian shores, and the broad a characteristic feature of these enemies

estuary of the Rhine and the Meuse was of the human

In the war-sagas and
race.

reached ;
and farther along the same coast death-songs of the Vikings which have
the mouth of the Seine. The Elbe, the come down to us, every now and then the
Rhine, and the Seine were noble river- song-man seems positively drunken with
roads which led into the very heart ol blood. Ruin and desolation marked the
Germany and France. The white cliffs of dread track, when the crews of the
"

long-
southern England seemed to beckon these had landed. Villages and
"

ship happy
restless ocean freebooters as
they coasted homesteads were burnt ;
the fairest monas
along from the Rhine estuary to the Seine, teries were sacked
destroyed the and ;

and the broad Thames offered a succession work of patient scholars was ruined in an
of safe harbours for the largest fleet of hour the fields the monks had reclaimed
;

pirate long-ships ; while to the north the and tilled with so much care and pains,

Humber, the Tees, and the Esk were were ravaged and desolated. The most
793-3
LINDISFARNE BURNT. 335

cruel tortures were pitilessly inflicted on The first appearance of a Viking ship on
the unoffending dwellers, alike in the the English coast was long preserved as a
farm and in the monastery. To take but memorable tradition by the people who
one notable instance : at Paris, in one of afterwards suffered such grievous calamities
the raids up the river Seine, these fiends from the crews of these ships with the dark
impaled one hundred and eleven captives, red sails. It was, as we have said, in 787
and crucified many others, recklessly that these terrible strangers landed,
slaying as they marched through the somewhere on the West Saxon shores.
beautiful and richly cultivated Normandy Offa was reigning in Mercia, and Beorthric,
and the Isle of France. who had driven Egbert to his exile with
And yet these fierce foes, Who carried Charlemagne, was king in Wessex. The
fire and sword through our England and king s reeve, or chief magistrate in Dor
the fairest countries of the continent of chester, heard of their landing, and at once
Europe ;
the very men who slew the monk- rode to the coast to inquire what was their
scholar working in his cell or praying business in England. The unfortunate
before his altar, who dragged the women royal official too soon received the answer
into cruel slavery, and tossed little children to his question, for we hear how the fierce
with ruthless fury from spear to spear, in strangers killed the reeve and his officers.
their own northern homes seem to have Nothing more is known of the fate of this
been positively gentle and devoted. No first party of Vikings. They probably,
where did stronger ties bind husband to after the murder of the reeve, laded their

wife, or child to father ;

nowhere was ships with plunder and sailed away.
there a deeper reverence for womanhood Six years later, in 793, England was
and the sanctities of womanhood. Their appalled at the tidings which went through
love for their stern inhospitable northern the land, that Lindisfarne and the holy
home is proverbial ;
a touching scene, for shrines of the sainted Aidan and Cuthbert

instance, occurs in the Njal s saga. Gun- had been sacked, and the monks murdered,
nar, a Viking doomed to exile, goes down and many villages on the Northumbrian
to the ship. Then he turned with his face coast plundered. In the very next

up towards the Lythe and the homestead, year the dread news gradually spread
and said Fair is the Lythe, so fair that
:
"

through England that the long black ships

it has never seemed to me so fair ;
the had up the Wear, and had burned
sailed

corn-fields are white to harvest, and the the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow,
home mead is mown ;
and now I will ride the noble foundation of Benedict Biscop,
back home and not the home of Bede and his famous school.
*
fare to sea at all."

We can hardly believe that such expres But these were mere small detachments
sions of feeling, such home-love, such a code of the mighty plundering fleet of North
of morals, belonged to savage war-chiefs, so men. The pioneers of the Vikings little
long the bitter curse of England and the squadrons of two or three ships like the
neighbouring countries on the continent. one which appeared on the Wessex coast in
*
Quoted by Green :
"

Conquest of England."
the year 787, and which excited the ill-starred
336 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [795^32-

curiosity of the royal reeve of Dorchester were ruthlessly plundered or destroyed.

had already reported at home that Ire Nowhere did the Vikings find so much
land offered the most promising scene for booty ;
and nowhere, perhaps, so little

plundering operations on a great scale. resistance.

In Ireland there were numerous religious In 832 these detached plundering

houses of great extent, inhabited by raids were succeeded by an organised
Christian monks and nuns, absolutely de invasion, and a Viking chief named Thor-
fenceless houses containing vast treasures gil established himself in Armagh, and
of gold and silver and precious things. So exacted tribute from the whole of the
to Ireland the earliest raids were made by north of Ireland. From this time Ireland

the Vikings in any really overpowering became, as it were, a centre whence issued
numbers. bands of these wild depredators, who
The first appearance and landing of ravaged at their will the western coasts
the Northmen in Ireland seems to have of Britain. Egbert, the West Saxon
been in the year 795, when a place called king, the over-lord of England, who died
Reckru was burned, and its shrines de in 836, we read, defeated these Vikings

stroyed and plundered but from that year

;
from Ireland in a pitched battle on the
fonvard Ireland was the scene of numberless boundaries of Cornwall, and for the last
Viking raids. It will never be known what years of his reign won rest for the Wessex
treasures of a wonderful but almost for division of his great kingdom but their ;

gotten age perished in the thirty years fatal invasions soon recommenced.

which followed the first landing of the Ireland, however, was only one of the
Northmen. It must be remembered how many scenes of these fatal Danish raids.
for more than three centuries (Columba Alcuin, the minister and friend of Charle
was born in 521, and the great Irish magne, whose words of bitter sorrow when
monasteries were in existence and in full he heard of the sack of the monasteries of
working order before Columba s days) Wearmont and Jarrow in the year 794
Ireland had been the famous home of have already been quoted, no doubt spoke
learning, and in her countless monasteries often with his great master of this new and
were stored up the treasures which the terrible peril which menaced the north of
learning and the patient industry of several the vast Frankish empire. The North
centuries had gathered. Her shrines were men s depredations on the continent of
enriched with gold and gems. Her Europe in various places had begun as

libraries, filled with precious and costly
manuscripts, curiously wrought chalices
and sacred vessels, mass-books and copies
of the holy books sumptuously bound, the
crozier, the pastoral staff, the mitre en
crusted with gold and gems, vestments
richly and cunningly embroidered, from the
treasure chamber of many a monastery,
early as the year 800. In 803 a formidable
attack along the Elbe was only repelled
by the advance of a Frankish army. In
810, two hundred Viking ships made
a descent on Frisia, and the sea-king in
command Godfrid boasted he would
storm the emperor s favourite city of Aix-
la-Chapelle but internal dissensions among
;
338 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [814.

the Norsemen put an end to Godfrid s most remarkable feature was the position
bold plans. The far-seeing Prankish occupied by the church. Although the
emperor then made great efforts to strong arm and
conspicuous military
protect his northern cities. He built ships genius of Egbert of Wessex, the over-lord
and established garrisons ;
and while he of England, was able successfully to repel
lived, hisstrong arm seems to have the Vikings, and generally to preserve his

effectually kept the Danish plunderers in dominions from the ruin and destruction
check. But in spite of all his forethought, which followed in the track of the dreaded

the long-ships with the dark red sails were pirate bands, like Charlemagne with
no uncommon sign, even in the far south. whom he had spent so many years during
There is a story told of Charlemagne, his long exile he was too far-seeing a
shortly before his death in 814, that statesman to make light of these new foes
when at Narbonne one day, at table, he to Christianity and civilisation. Like the
was told that some of the pirate ships were Prankish emperor, he saw plainly that the
in sight. He rose and gazed at them, and Viking invasions were only beginning ;

as he looked they say the great emperor that they would, as time went on, gather
I have no fear," he said to the fresh force, would become better organised,
"

wept.
bystanders, that these dreaded pirates
"

more united, would probably fall on cultured

will ever injure me or mine but I weep ;
and wealthy countries like England with
that they should dare, even in my lifetime, an irresistible power. Egbert and his
to come near my coasts, and I foresee the advisers knew what had happened to the
misery they will surely bring on those who hapless Northumbrian monasteries of Lin-
come after me." disfarne and Jarrow and Wearmouth in
Charlemagne s forebodings were only too the closing years of the last century.
quickly realised. The story of the reign They had watched with dread and horror
of his son and successor, Louis le Debon- what these Northmen had lately done in
naire, is a story of disaster ;
of dissensions Ireland, and how a large portion of that
within, and of continuous wars without. great island, with its priceless treasures,
The vast realm of the Franks, ruled over was literally at the mercy of these heathen
by the great emperor, was surrounded by sea-robbers. It was this pressing, this
a ring of enemies who pressed it hard on immediate danger which determined the
every side. The varied nationalities of English king to draw the Church of
which was composed, in Italy, Germany,
it
England into a closer and more intimate
Holland, France, had no feeling of deep union with the State than had ever
loyalty to the reigning Prankish emperor. existed before.
The empire, divided and weakened, Egbert, trained by Charlemagne, recog
opposed no effectual barrier to the ever nised the power of an organised and
recurring invasion and raids of the North united church, and
felt that he possessed

men. Church of England a great national

in the

community which rose above the petty

In England, in this disastrous period, the jealousies of Mercia, Northumbria, and
855-1
THE VIKINGS AND CHRISTIANITY. 339

Wessex. So in the year 838 the king and Jarrow, the ruthless plunderers of the great
over-lord promised lasting protection and Celtic monasteries in Ireland the men who ;

peace to the see of Canterbury and arch ;

harried East Anglia, and then, under their

bishop Ceolnoth, on his part, gave Egbert sea-king Ivar, desolated Northumbria with
a pledge of firm friendship and loyalty. fire and sword were ever the constant,
With the bishop of Winchester, the chief the determined, the relentless enemies of

prelate of Wessex, similar undertakings Christianity. It would seem as though,

were entered into and probably other im
;
in the long-drawn-out bitter onslaught of

portant sees joined in these mutual pledges these fierce Northmen, Paganism made its
of a firm and loyal union. This intimate last desperate attack on Christianity and ;

union between church and state was at one time appeared as though the old
it

equally welcome to the prelates, who guided false gods of the north would be the
the fortunes of the church, as to Egbert victors, and in England and in many of
the king. For the church felt its very the fairest countries of the continent of
existence was in the gravest peril from the Europe would succeed in supplanting
determined attacks of the pagan North Christ.

men, the bitter foes of all who bore the A notable instance of the intense hatred
name of Christ. of the Viking to the religion of Christ
This special aspect of the Viking wars has occurred in this century, in the year 855.

perhaps been a little lost sight of. are We Eric the Red, a famous sea-king, was
in the habit of regarding these bitter foes acknowledged as over-lord of Denmark.
mere robbers, whose one
to civilisation as The emperor Charlemagne, among the

great object was plunder whose only ;

chief fortress-defences of the north, had
thought was how they could attack and built Hamburg. It rapidly became a
rifle defenceless monasteries and nunneries, great centre in the north, at once a for
tress and a monastery the city an archi-
prosperous villages and towns, farms and ;

homesteads, wealthy abbeys and famous episcopal see. It was stormed and sacked

churches, and stripping these of all things of by Eric, the Viking chieftain, and An-

apparent value, sail away with their plunder scharius, the archbishop, fled for his life.

to their own northern homes beyond the Anscharius subsequently returned to Ham
sea. In reality, the burning of the house burg. He was a man of rare nobility
of prayer, of the homestead or the village, and devotion, and as his revenge for the
the ruthless harrying and devastation of injuries done him by
the Danes, he spent
the country, were rather incidents in those his revenues in redeeming captive Danish
invasions ; simply careless, thoughtless children,and educating them in Christian
actions of cruel warriors, accustomed to practice and doctrine. He succeeded in
and even finding a savage delight in scenes winning the Viking Eric s heart, and his
of rapine, of blood and suffering. The once persecutor became his protector and
Vikings, Northmen, sea-kings, Danes, friend. King Eric never seems to have
Ostmen, by whatever name they are professed Christianity, but, won over by
known ;
the burners of Lindisfarne and the goodness of the archbishop, he
34 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [855-

became much more kindly disposed to burg fight was noised in the countries
wards the religion so bitterly hated by harried by the Norsemen, men hoped that
his Danish subjects. Simply by this kind the power of the dreaded sea-rovers was
ness to Anscharius and the Christians of broken by the terrible slaughter in that

Hamburg, Eric up the most in

stirred strange fight among themselves ;
but if

veterate hatred of the Northmen. Sea- Flensburg did give the hapless countries
pirates from
all parts gathered together, any respite from the
choosing even to forego their voyages in swift,recurring raids,
pursuit of plunder, rather than not share the respite was but
in the act of vengeance and punishment. of brief duration.
The Norsemen s gods, the laws, the spirit Egbert of Wessex,
of the whole Viking world, had received the over - lord of
at the hands of Eric the Red, king of England, Charle
Denmark, the hated Christian s friend and magne s friend, died
protector, a deadly injury. It was insup in 839, and then
portable that the chief Northman king began the real
GOLD RING OF ETHEL-
should show any kindness to, or friend struggle between the WULF.
ship for, the Christianity which they had Danes and the Eng
sworn to destroy. lishmen. Ethelwulf, the son of Egbert,
Eric assembled his numerous dependents, succeeded to the Wessex throne, and to
and the armies met in deadly combat at the nominal for it was little more over-
Flensburg, in the Jutland country. For lordship of Mercia and Northumberland.
three days the battle raged fiercely. Eric Meanwhile the power of the Vikings in
fell, and the chiefs of the insurgent Viking Ireland Ostmen was the name they were
army, who wished to revenge the insult
mostly called there grew Ulster
rapidly.
offered by Eric s
friendship for the passed well-nigh entirely under their rule,
Christian to the gods of the Viking, Odin and the rest of the island was threatened
and now
Thor, perished by the invaders. Making use of
likewise, with a host Ireland as the basis of their operations,
of minor sea-kings several formidable expeditions were under
and jarls. As the news taken with varying success against Wessex
of that bloody Flens- and the south-west of England. Each
invasion, although generally repelled with
great loss to the Northmen, brought untold
misery and suffering upon the hapless
districts through which the pirates passed.
Wessex, indeed, ever offered a stout
resistance to the foe, and owing to this

persistent and gallant defence, Wessex

BRONZE SEAL OF ETHILWALD, BISHOP OF DUNWICH including the western and southern portion
(circa A.D. 850). of the island never became Danish.
838.] THE VIKINGS IN EAST ANGLIA. 341

The Viking, often though he harried We possess no details of the pirate raids

Wessex, was never able to settle per in the east and south-east of England.
manently any part of what are now the
in We catch sight of passing descents of the
southern and western counties of England. Northmen in East Anglia and in districts
It was in the east of England, the part north of the Wash, in A.D. 838. But these
of the island most exposed to the Viking ruinous expeditions were no doubt of yearly

Photo : O. Vaenng, Christiania.

OLD VIKING SHIP DISINTERRED AT GOKSTAD.

raids, and, owing to its political cir occurrence, though they are mostly un-
cumstances, least able to defend itself, that chronicled. But in the year 851 they seem
the real danger lay. It was, as we shall see, to have landed in force, and to have sacked
from the Danish settlement in East Anglia the cities of Canterbury, with its famous
that the army of Vikings came which monastery and schools, and London, which,
ruined the north of England, and finally owing to its unrivalled situation, was slowly

swept away the splendid civilisation which growing into importance. We read of as
the church, after two centuries of patient many as 350 ships and their armed crews
toil, had slowly built up. taking part in this fatal expedition. After
342 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [854-

these deeds of destruction, however, they counsel with the chief Christian prelate

sustained a severe check at the hands of of the west, invested, as the Church of

king Ethehvulf, who defeated the plunder England held, with a peculiar sanctity, in
ing hosts with great slaughter at Aclea.
this day of danger and awful peril. The
But this check was only temporary, for in visit to king Charles the Bald, on his

854-5 we find a great force of sea-pirates journey home, was to take mutual

positively wintering in the Isle of Sheppey.

counsel how best to avert the deadly peril

The danger now seemed so pressing, with which menaced the very existence of the
the band of the Vikings apparently number realms and the religion alike of the Anglo-

less, and increasing in boldness

and daring Saxon and of the Frankish kings.
every year, that king Ethelwulf determined Ethelwulf spent a year at Rome, and

upon a pilgrimage to Rome and a visit to three months with Charles the Bald.
the grandson of the great Charlemagne, Although advanced in years, before he
Charles the Bald (le Chauve) who was closed his visit he married Judith, the

reigning over that portion of the vast young daughter of Charles. This some
Frankish empire which generally cor what strange marriage gave great umbrage
responds with what we know as France. to many in England, and shortly afterwards

King Ethelvvulf s journey took place in we find king Ethelwuif relegated to the

854. It had a double object. Christian position of under-king of Essex and the
England feared, and with reason, for its eastern portion of the realm, while Ethel-

very existence. A pagan

ring of fierce bald, the king s eldest son, was placed by
warriors was gradually forming round the the Witan on the throne of Wessex.

apparently doomed island. Ireland to the

west was virtually in the hands of the We spoke of the iron ring with which
Vikings. The opposite coasts of Frisia and the pagan Vikings were gradually girdling
Gaul were fast becoming settlements of the England. A
large portion of Ireland
same pagan conquerors fresh, and ever;
served as a permanent garrison of Vikings,
fresh bands of the same enemies of whence at their pleasure they could sail
Christianity and civilisation, seemed to be over to neighbouring England with a large
ever arriving from the north. No sooner or small squadron of the dreaded long-ships,
was one Viking force met and defeated, than according to the nature of the raid or
another fleet and army succeeded them. invasion they had planned. But on the
The sacking and plundering of Canterbury east and south of England the danger
and London were terrible warnings of a from the Northmen pirates was far greater,
fate which too probably awaited the cities when the strong and far-reaching arm of
and monasteries of the northern and Charlemagne was once removed. The
central districts. The visit to Rome was great emperor died in 814. The North
to implore, in the most sacred shrine in men of Norway, Denmark, and Jutland
Christendom, the interposition of the and the Isles, who had been threatening
Most High in defence of the church which the northern coasts of the Frankish em
seemed about to perish was to take ; pire for some years, were soon conscious
8i 4 .] THE VIKINGS AND THE FRANKS. ,343

that the one foeman whom they feared, power, and Louis the Pious was utterly
and who had succeeded in keeping them unable to control his sons, or his subjects

fairly in check, was removed, and that belonging to so many nationalities. He

the imperial sceptre was in different and died in 840, and France, much as we now
weaker hands. understand by that name, fell to the
Louis the Pious generally known in share of his youngest son, Charles the
history as Louis le Debonnaire was fully Bald. Thegreat Prankish empire was
alive to the dangers which threatened his now split up into several kingdoms, if not
empire from the north, and continued and positively hostile, at least jealous with a
even increased the garrison and frontier deadly jealousy one of the other. England,
defences, and for a time prevented the outwardly under one over-lord, in reality
pirates from penetrating up the rivers was divided into three or even more
into the interior. He endeavoured to divisions, with different views, hopes, as
Christianise some of these formidable pirations. Alone the Catholic church in
pagans, and thus to win some of them England, as on the continent of Europe,
to the side of law and order and peace. represented unity of aim and purpose in
With rare exceptions, his efforts to convert the west, and helped to preserve civilised
the Northmen ended in failure. When Europe from its terrible foes.
Christianity was accepted by a Viking-chief, While England was thus divided against
it was usually the result of a bribe, large or
itself, and the varied kingdoms of Europe

small. On one occasion it is related how into which the empire of the Franks had
a Viking, angry at the absence of the usual split up, were hopelessly at variance one

presents made at the baptising ceremony with the other ; jealousies, race divisions,
to the converts, said, This is the twen
"

family feuds keeping them apart, and

tieth time that I have come to be washed ; preventing anything like united action
I have always received the best white against a common foe, a
strange unity
"

robes. If I can have no better robe than seems to have pervaded the achievements
this, I disclaim your Christianity." At all of the pirate-warriors, and to have sus

events, no real impression was made till a tained them in all their enterprises until
much later date on these stubborn pagans. their mission was fulfilled. Whatever may
Towards the end of Louis reign the have been their internal dissensions and
attacks on the northern coast grew more enmities, they conducted their enterprises
and more numerous, and the defence less as one people, one nation actuated by one
successful. The Northmen ravaged the spirit, having one object in which they all
Belgic coast, and sacked the wealthy com concurred." Plunder may account for
mercial city of Doerstadt, in which great much, but not for all ;
and as we have
centre alone fifty- four churches were already pointed out, it seems most prob
destroyed by them. The political cir able that the unifying and central motive
cumstances of the empire, too, favoured was an intense hatred of Christianity, a
their attacks. Internal dissensions and last and supreme rally of Paganism against
family feuds distracted the Prankish the religion of Jesus. At all events,
344 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [8 4 i.

"henceforth (*>.
after 841, death of Louis Jarl Osker, a name which will never be

the Pious) and until their conflagrations forgotten among the bloodstained memories

were extinguished, Gaul and the British of these scourges of Europe, found out that

the Channel, and he could sail into the broad estuary of the
Islands, the North Sea,
the Atlantic coasts nay, even the Mediter Seine and up its deep waterway, reaping
considered as included in a booty hitherto undreamed of, and might
ranean, may be
one vast scheme of predatory yet consistent strike the Christian Franks of Gaul with a

invasion and their systematic assaults,

blow up to now unventured. Absolutely
;

descents, and expeditions, whether con unhindered, the Danish fleet of long-ships,
secutive or simultaneous, accelerated or aided by sail and oar, worked their swift

delayed, almost indicate

a grand design of way up the Seine to the rich and flourish
ing city of Rouen a city which had been
rendering Latin Europe their empire."
famous for ages before the Frank had
settled in the fair land, under the name of
Rothomagus. It was the first of many
which marked the unhappy
similar scenes

years which followed. Three days, undis

turbed by any real resistance, Jarl Osker
and his crews worked their will on the
hapless city the chief city of all that
fertileand wealthy part of Prankish Gaul.
They plundered and burnt and destroyed
at their pleasure. The cathedral and the
churches and the monasteries were, as
POMMEL OF A DANISH SWORD. the special objects of their fury
usual, ;

(Found in the Seine, near Paris. British Museum.)

laden with booty, carrying with them on
The year 841 was memorable among the their ships many captives, before Charles
sad annals of the pirate-raids of this un the Bald could make any tardy effort at
happy century, as being the first of the rescue, they dropped down the broad river,
many inland expeditions of the Vikings. back to their familiar ransacking and
sea,

Hitherto, the skilful disposition of Charle desolating as they went some of the wealthy
magne s
garrison, kept up by his son and and splendid monasteries on the river
successor, the emperor Louis the Pious, banks, such as Jumieges and Fontenelle.
had restrained the Northmen from sailing Fontenelle is well known in ecclesiastical
up the great river-roads into the interior story as St. Wandregisilias. This far-famed
of Europe. Their depredations had been, community seven churches clustered
in Gaul and Germany, mainly confined to together in these sacred walls and the
the coasts and their immediate vicinity. monastery, boasted the noblest library of
But the two emperors, father and. son, the north. The renowned house was saved
were gone, and one of the Viking captains, from utter ruin by the payment of a ransom ;

* but it was only saved for a brief season.

Normandy and
"

Palgrave: England."
8 4 2.] THE VIKINGS AND THE FRANKS. 345

Normandy, the province of the Normans force, plundering Bordeaux and Nantes,
or Northmen, which in after years was wasting the land and massacring the in
destined to play so great a part in the habitants as they went. The Loire and

COLLECTING DANE-GELT.

story of Europe, and especially of England, the Seine, and further south the Garonne,
dates from the three days sack of Rouen. henceforth became river-roads well known
In the following year, A.D. 842, the and often travelled by the long red-sailed
Vikings, emboldened by the easy voyage of pirate-vessels.
Jarl Osker up the Seine, and by the news But the worst was yet to come. Charles
which travelled north of the splendid results the Bald and his Franks seemed paralysed
of the raid, sailed up the river Loire in with fear, seemed utterly unable to offer
346 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [850860.

any real resistance to their terrible foes, visited the scene of their first successful
who swiftly came and went up and down raid in the Seine some ten years before,
these silent river-highways into the heart and for well nigh a year remained in
of his beautiful realm, burning and destroy Rouen and its neighbourhood.

ing as they pleased. The year 845 stands
out among these fatal seasons as the date
of an especially fatal capture. Ragnar
Lodbrok, the semi-fabulous hero of saga
and legend, but who was a very real
person in the annals of unhappy France,
with a great pirate fleet, determined to
strike a blow far in the interior. Sailing up
the Seine past Rouen, he stormed and
sacked Paris, and was only induced to
withdraw from the scenes of his new con
Thus, at the commencement of the second
half of the ninth century, we find the
Northmen pirates virtually the masters of
the fairest portions of France. They had
command of all the great rivers, each of
which served as an open way for their
ships into the heart of the country. On
the extreme north, the Scheldt led them
into what is now termed the Low Coun
tries Belgium, and the northern frontier
of France. Possession of the Seine gave

quest by the payment of an enormous them that great and wealthy district

ransom. This appears to have been the called after them Normandy, allowed them
u with their and
first formal paid by France free access to Paris
"

Dane-gelt ;
fleets

a dreary precedent too often to be repeated the very heart of France on the west, ;

in coming years of disaster, in both England the Atlantic sea-board, the waters of the
and in France. Loire and the Garonne floated up the
The year of the occupation and sack of long-ships and their warrior crews far intc
Paris bythe Viking, Ragnar Lodbrok, the interior of central and southern Gaul.
witnessed another great disaster in the far When we remember, too, what England
north burning and plundering of
the and Ireland were suffering at their hands
Hamburg, the chief commercial centre of at the same period, when king Ethelwold,
northern Germany. As many as 600 the son of Egbert, was reigning from

pirate ships the number seems incredible 839 to 858 and that in North Germany
under king Eric the Red, took part in the Elbe and the Rhine were similarly in
this successful foray. The
curious story fested by the Viking plunderers that far ;

connected with king Eric the Red s suc to the south the same sea-robbers, though
cessful exploit, which resulted in the battle to a less extent, harried Spain, and even
of Flensburg, fought out amongst the sea reached Seville ;
we wonder whence
pirates themselves, has already been related came all these hosts of pirates. The
in connection with the bitter anti-Christian whole male population of barren Norway,
spirit of the Pagan Northmen. We even and even of Sweden, of the narrow limits
hear in these years of Viking raids as of Denmark, Jutland and the islands, would
far south as Spain, where
the, distant
seem scarcely to have sufficed to man these
city of was plundered by these
Seville vast and numerous Viking fleets, who were

wandering Northern warriors. In 850- ravaging and plundering over so large a

851 Jarl Osker and his Viking fleet re portion of northern and western Europe.
850860.] THE VIKINGS AND THE FRANKS. 347

Toaccount for this apparent disparity extended operations. But for the most
between the relative extent of the popula part they swooped down with awful
tion in the home of the Vikings, and the suddenness, and disappeared as suddenly
vast armaments sailing from the barren as they came.
Their long series of French
Norwegian and Danish coast, we must fall raids,which put back all civil and religious
back again on the theory already advanced, progress for at least two generations, have
that the Viking raids as a whole must be been cleverly compared to a stage pro "

considered as
"

one vast scheme of preda cession, winding in and out disappearing

*

tory yet consistent invasion"; that these and returning."

raids under various sea-chiefs, apparently In this awful decade of 850-860, so

each fighting for his own hand, were generally did the fear of the Viking sink
generally part of one great plan, were the into the hearts of the Christian Franks,
deliberate work of one nation, inspired that a new supplication was formally intro
by one spirit. Though plunder and greed duced into the Gallican liturgies and ;

rallied not a few daring and reckless spirits along with the prayer asking to be de
to their banners, and enormously increased livered from pestilence and apostasy and
the numbers of their fighting strength, eternal death, rose up the piteous petition,
the Viking leaders Ragnarmen like From the wild rage of the Northmen r
"

Lodbrok and Jarl Osker, Ivar and Ubbo, good Lord deliver us." In the stately
Halfdene and Hasting, and other distin monastery of Genevieve, so deeply was the
guished chiefs dreamed of a pagan em memory of the destruction and desolation
pire, to be built up
on the ruins of the inflictedby the raids of Ragnar Lodbrok
Christian domination, in England and on and his Vikings imprinted on the hearts of
the continent of Europe. the sufferers and their successors in that

Perhaps, too, we somewhat

exaggerate great home of prayer, that the same peti
to ourselves the numbers of these pagan tion,
"

a furore Normannorum liber a nos"

Northmen, who took part in the long, continued to be intoned in the abbey
deadly strife. Although the area they choir up to the times of Louis XIII., in
infested was very great, their numbers the seventeenth century. It was no ex
were probably greatly magnified by their aggeration, no mere bit of rhetoric, when
marvellous activity, by the rapidity with we referred to the iron band which was
which they carried out most of their slowly closing round hapless England
projects. Three days, for instance, were in the year 854-5, when king Ethelwulf

sufficient for Jarl Osker to burn and -

went on his pilgrimage to Rome to implore

plunder the great city of Rouen ;

a few the mercy of Almighty God for his doomed
more days sufficed to complete his deso realm, and endeavoured to concert some
lating campaign against the principal monas means of mutual defence with his royal
teries on the banks of the Seine. Now brother-sufferer, king Charles the Bald
and then we hear of the Vikings making of France.
a protracted stay, stretching over several *
See Palgrave, Normandy and
"

England,"
for

months, in some scene propitious for a detailed account of their raids

 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [866.

Ethehvulf died in comparative retire These settlements 01 the Northmen had

ment as under-king, to which position the changed the character of many countries.
will of the Witan, and probably the In the year 866 they were masters of the
ambition of his son Ethelbald, had rele Shetlands and Orkneys and the Hebrides.

gated him in the east

of England. His The east coast of Ireland was theirs, and
girl-wife, Judith,
the daughter of Charles much of the northern part of the island.
the Bald, who was but fourteen years old, From Denmark and Jutland to the river
was Garonne and the south of France, the
probably for mere political
reasons far

married to Ethelbald but such an alliance ; long stretch of coast was absolutely in

was, of course, gravely censured by the their power. Far up the broad water
church, and was quickly dissolved, Judith courses of the Scheldt, the Meuse and

returning to her father in France. She Rhine, the Seine, the Loire and the

subsequently married Baldwin (bras defer)
Count of Flanders. Ethelbald only re
tained the throne he coveted for two years
after his father s death. Dying in 860,
he was succeeded by his brother Ethel-
bert whose short reign, lasting but six
years, was uneventful. Only two raids of
the Northmen are
Garonne, reached the supremacy of the
Northmen. In all these lands, wherever
the cloud of the long-ships with the dark
red sails and their fierce crews had cast their
baleful shadows, the religion of the Cruci
fiedhad disappeared, and the old pagan
worship of Woden and Thor reigned in its
specially chronicled place. Ruins of stately desecrated abbeys,

during these brief reigns : the one on wrecked monasteries and nunneries, marked
Winchester, the other on fhe eastern their dreaded passage and rare was the
;

shores of Kent. But Ethelbert was instance of any pagan Northman, either
succeeded by another brother Ethelred as a wandering sea-pirate, or later, as an
and in the first year of Ethelred s intruding settler, during the sixty or

reign, in 866, the storm which his father seventy years of piracy and conquest,
Ethelwulf had foreseen, broke at length adopting the religion of the conquered.
over hapless England. This was the great difference between
In that year the state of the Viking these Northmen, and the races from the
"

world was as follows.

"

This formidable north who had preceded them some two

nation had passed in the last sixty or centuries before as conquerors. The
seventy years from the position of an un Frank, the Saxon, and the Engle were
known and hitherto unheard-of piratical soon won over to the religion of the con
race, whose ships now and again com quered ;
in a very short space of time,
mitted isolated depredations on the coast they became converts to Christianity, even
of Ireland, England, and France, to the devoted adherents of the religion of the
position of virtual masters of a large people whose lands they had appropriated.
portion of northern Europe. They had Not so the Vikings theii aim apparently
;

begun by playing the part of simple sea- was to totally uproot Christianity. The
pirates, but had gradually settled on the Vikings absolutely hated the religion of
coasts and in the regions they had harried. Jesus. The first object of their destructive
 A VIKING CHIEF.
(By permission, front the picture by Carl ffaag , K. W.S.)
35 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [851-854.

fury was ever the house of God and the the Church of England was playing in

home of prayer ;
and this not alone because his dominion, made a solemn pact with
in their sacred enclosures were stored up its leading prelates at Canterbury and
treasures of all kinds, but because they Winchester. In Northumbria also, torn
were the citadels of a religion which they and divided with rival factions, rival com
detested. petitors for the throne, the Church was

Singularly enough, it was in England the one power which preserved any
where they had worked least mischief semblance of unity in the distracted

during these seventy years of rapine and northern kingdom, and which materi

-conquest. It wasEngland where they

in
had met with the stoutest and most deter
mined resistance from the men of Wessex.
Various causes had led to this obstinate
defence. England was colonised, we must
ally helped to preserve and to strengthen
what was left of law and order in that once
powerful division of England. The school
of York, though sadly weakened by the
dissensions which for so many years had

remember, by a brave unconquered race rent Northumbria, had continued to be a

of Northmen ; kinsmen, indeed, of the great home of learning, a centre of religious

Viking pirate clans. These Engles, Saxons, light and training.

and Jutes belonged to a hardy, fighting Then again, Wessex, in which great dis

race, and, as we have seen, there was little England the majority of the earlier
trict of

if any admixture among the Anglo-Saxons Viking descents were made, was a compact
of any other people they had extermin
; territory, well organised for defence, gov
ated or driven away their predecessors in erned from 802 to 839 by a great warrior,
the island. The Franks, on the other king Egbert, and from 839 to 857 by
hand, were largely mingled with the older Ethelwulf, his son, who followed closely
dwellers in the Continental lands they had in his great father s steps. These
occupied. The old Roman provincials were the sixty chief years of Viking
made up a large portion of the inhabitants conquests. But when the "sixty years"
of Gaul even after the Prankish occupa had well-nigh run their course, Ethelwulf
tion. They were by no means the same and Wessex too clearly saw the danger
hard-fighting people as the English of the .
which lay in front of them. Ethelwulf,
neighbouring island. when he went that pilgrimage to Rome,
Another and special source of English felt that the power of resistance was
strength and English unity of action, was almost exhausted. The
was yearly be
foe
the Church. In learning and in organisa coming stronger, and yearly England was
tion, as well as in fervid devotion, the becoming less able to resist the increasing
Church of England, perhaps, held a unique pressure.
position in Christian Europe. Its power Nor must it by
any means be supposed
and influence was borne witness to by that, because the resistance of Wessex was
one of the last acts of that warrior and of a more determined character than had

statesman, king Egbert, who in 838, been generally offered in Ireland and on
conscious how great and beneficial a part the Continent, the sufferings which England
851-854.] THE DANES IN ENGLAND.
had endured at the hands of these pagan their Frankish and German conquests by
pirates were slight. The plundering and England, intensely hostile to their policy
u
burning of Jarrow and Lindisfarne at the and, above all, to their religion. It was

close of the eighth century, the sack of the winning of Britain which was needed

Canterbury and London in the reign of above all to support and widen their
Ethelwulf, must not be forgotten, besides conquests to the eastward and westward
the numberless smaller raids, which too of it. Had the pirates ever become
surely brought in their trail untold
loss masters of this central post, the face of
and suffering before the depredators were the west must have changed. Backed
repulsed with hard fighting. Even Ethel by a Scandinavian Britain, their isolated
wulf s victory at Aclea in 851 was a colonies along the Irish coast must have
stubborn and hardly-contested fight, and widened into a dominion over all Ireland,
the winter of 854 witnessed a host of while their settlement along the Frankish

sea-pirates spending several months in the coast might have grown into a territory
Isle of
Sheppey and dangerous
terrible stretching over much of Gaul. In a word,

neighbours for the dwellers in Kent and Christendom would have seen the rising
Essex. But in spite of all this, up to the of a power upon its border which might
year 866, when Ethelred, the son of Ethel have changed the fortunes of the western
wulf, succeeded his brother Ethelbert on world."* In the theory already advanced
the throne of Wessex, no permanent lodg and discussed, that one of the principal
ment had been as yet made in England. aims of the leaders of the Vikings, was the
The Thames and the Severn, the Humber destruction of Christianity, yet another
and the Tyne, were not water-ways open reason is before us which accounts for the
to the incursions of the Vikings, as were terrible eagerness of the Northmen pirates
the Scheldt and the Elbe, the Seine and to make England England and
their own.
the Loire. her church in the ninth century was the
The astute chieftains of the northern centre and chief inspirer of the religion

pirates were well aware of the comparative they longed to ruin.

failure hitherto on the part of the Vikings, The plans and preparations for the
in making any upon Eng
real impression great invasion which resulted in such
land. They were conscious that their race momentous consequences for our English
had as yet, after some sixty or seventy people, were no doubt the fruit of long
years of constant warfare, acquired no and anxious consideration on the part ol

permanent settlement in the great island, the chiefs who guided

the Viking counsels.

which, situated as it was, so long as it The whole character of the expedition,

remained outside their sphere of influence, the part of the island selected for the
effectually barred them from establishing operations of the invading force, shows
anything like a great Viking pagan empire how well the pirate leaders had been
in the north of Europe. Ireland, it is true, informed of the state England, and
of
was already in great measure theirs ;
but with what skill and forethought they had
their Irish dominion was separated from * Green
Conquest of
"

:
England."
352 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [867.

by their true information. To Viking hand. The prominent part in this

profited
distract the attention of the defenders of fatal invasion of England, was taken by

numbering two warriors who came for the most part from
England, a large fleet,

hundred ships, under a Viking captain the country now known as Denmark.
named Olaf the Fair, sailed up the Firth This is the first appearance of sea-pirates
of Forth, threatening the Northumbrian under their national name. They were of
realm to the north. the same race as the
But the real host Northmen of south

of Northmen who Jutland, distin

were to do the medi guished in the
tated work landed Frankish raids as

on the East- Anglian the Northmen of

coasts. It is prob Norway, and who

able that many under the name of

Viking raids had Ost-men, chose Ire

desolated land as the scene of
already
and utterly dispirited their plundering in

these eastern shores, vasions. From

for the formidable henceforth the name

pirate
-
army were of Dane is invariably
suffered unhindered applied to the in
to pass the winter vaders in England.
of A.D. 866 in their The leader of this

armed East Anglian army of adventure

camp. was Ivar the Bone

Warriors were less, a name not

quickly forthcoming likely to be forgotten

for this memorable BRONZE BUCKET FOUND AT HEXHAM WITH 8,OOO by any student of
invasion. Ireland SMALL COINS, PROBABLY A.D. 867 (British Museum}. our English past. In
and France and the some accounts he is

northern part of Germany had been called Ingwar. He was

of the royal Danish

plundered again and again in the last race of the Skiolding, and according to a
half century. It would not have been very general tradition was the son of the
easy to find a wealthy monastery or an famous Viking leader Ragnar Lodbrok,
abbey church on the river-roads of France who in the year 844 sailed up the Seine
unplundered, or at least unransomed but ;
and sacked Paris. In the spring of 867
in England the Vikings knew well there the armed camp in East Anglia, where
was many a home of prayer, many an Ivar had wintered, was broken up, and, as

abbey church, in which were laid up what the chronicle expresses it, "they horsed
in the eyes of these sea-pirates were themselves," and rapidly advanced on the
fabulous treasures, as yet untouched by north of England.
86 7 .] THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 353

The position of affairs in unhappy North- apparently was not strongly fortified.

umbria was evidently well known to the Victory at first declared for the English,
Danes. They expected, probably, an easy who forced their way into the city ;
but

conquest for, as was usually the case, the

;
a determined rally of the Viking chief
northern kingdom was rent by the claims changed completely the fortunes of the
of two rival competitors for the crown. day. The Northumbrians were completely
The over-lordship of Wessex had, since routed, and the rival Engle kings, who

A VIKING RAID.

the death of Egbert, been but a shadowy had united against the common foe, were
dignity, if it existed at all. The common slain.

danger united the hostile Northumbrian
princes but the Danes under Ivar, with
;
their usual celerity of
movement, arrived
at York before any help arrived. The
Northumbrian forces, hastily gathered to
Thepossession of York, the death of the
kings, and the complete destruction of the
English army, completely terrorised the
whole kingdom. No further attempt at
resistance was made, and Ivar and his

gether, upon the Danes, whom they

fell
pirate Danes found themselves in un
probably outnumbered. The Danes re disputed possession of the entire country
treated behind the walls of York, which between the Humber and the Forth.
w
354 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [867.

Never in the story of the Northmen was of England, the school of York was still
so complete a conquest the result of one a flourishing home of religious and secular

short, sharp campaign never had so vast a

; learning.

plunder, in all the countless raids of the But the Dane lost no time in carrying
Vikings, been at the mercy of the Pagan out his long-formed schemes for the ruin
sea-robbers never in that
;
bloodstained of Christianity. The rank and file among
story which treats of the desolation
and the Viking army of conquerors, in the
ruin of so many countries between the plunder of the northern religious houses,
firstyears of the ninth century and 867, were able to satisfy that lust of plunder
the year of the York rout, do we find such which had rallied them to the standard
a record of destruction and ruin as in the of the pirate leader Ivar while the chiefs ;

dry details which we possess, of the acts of the same host saw the great object
of Ivar and his Danes after the fatal field of the invasion fulfilled, in the sack
of York, in the year 867. and utter destruction of these Christian
The glory of Northumbria had lasted centres. Not a single monastic establish
some two centuries. Seventy-four years ment was left in Deira, the southern
had passed since the country had been portion of Northumbria, when Ivar closed

appalled by the tidings of the burning of his first campaign. He met with no real
sacred Lindisfarne, in 793, and in the year resistance. Afew years later his work
following by the bloody raid on Jarrow was thoroughly completed by Halfdene,
and Wearmouth. Up to those two terrible his brother another son, tradition says, of
years, few in the northern kingdom had the great pirate chieftain Ragnar Lodbrok,
even heard of Northman or Ostman, of the Viking who stormed and plundered
Dane or pirate Viking. But from that fatal Paris. Halfdene burned and ruined every
date the terror grew, and with good reason. abbey and home of prayer and learning in
Every merchant ship, every traveller, the northern province of Bernicia.
as year followed year, brought tidings of In the awful march of Ivar, and the deso
their ravages in the broad realms of the lating progress somewhat later of his
northern Franks and in Ireland. England brother, the Viking Halfdene, passed away
had suffered during this weary age of
less the historic houses of Hilda at Streones-
"the
coming of the Vikings," but even halch (Whitby) ; Melrose, where Cuthbert
England in many parts, particularly in was trained under Eatan ; Lastingham,
East Anglia, was sorely harried. All this loved by the brothers Ceadda and Chad ;

uneasiness, dread of what was coming a Tynemouth, and a host of others. Not
too well-founded dread, as it turned out one was left in all that wide Northum
weakened gradually the vigorous, intellec brian realm. Bishoprics were wiped out ;

tual life of the Northumbrians ;

but it was abbeys, monks, nuns, all disappeared be
farfrom being destroyed, and when Ivar neath this flood of pagan conquerors. Not
and the Danes occupied York and routed only were the great and small religious
the Northumbrian kings beneath the houses destroyed, and the communities
walls of the historic capital of the north of monks and nuns slain or scattered,
8670 THE DANES AT YORK. 355

but the church organisation, devised in stored-up treasures of knowledge were

the instance by archbishop Theodore
first swept away. Teachers and pupils alike
of Canterbury, and subsequently elaborated disappeared. where it
Christianity, save
and perfected by great prelates like lingered amid the remote villages and
Egbert and Albert of York, was com homesteads, had vanished out of a land
pletely broken up, and well-nigh vanished which became henceforth the undisputed
under that desolating avalanche of possession of pagan Danish conquerors,
heathen Danes. In the eighth century determined to uproot the religion of the
the archbishops of York ruled over a vast Crucified, and to substitute in its place the

diocese, stretching from the banks of the altars of Thor and Woden and the deities of
Humber to the distant shores of the Scandinavia and the far north. Whereas
Forth. Six bishops watched
suffragan Northumbria had been the home of letters
over and administered the parochial di and culture, the great religious centre
visions outside the wide area under the whence issued the missionary leaders of the

charge of the greater monasteries, which, centre and south of England, from this
more or less, seem to have been indepen time onward, until long after the Norman
dent themselves of episcopal control. The Conquest in the year 1066, it was the
suffragan bishoprics included the storied rudest and most ignorant part of Britain :

Lindisfarne ; Hexham, where Wilfrid ruled so complete, so thorough, had been the

during the last year of his eventful life ;

work of the Viking brothers, Ivar and
Lindsey, on the south of the Humber; Halfdene.

Ripon, with its ancient minster especially York alone seems to have been partly
loved by Wilfrid, and eventually the resting spared. The ancient Northumbrian capital

place of his honoured remains Galloway ;

became the residence and chief seat of the
and Glasgow, to the north. These bishop Danish government and from henceforth ;

rics entirely disappeared, and some two the north of England must be considered a
hundred years later, when the Norman Danish settlement. The archbishop there
William the Conqueror became the master was still suffered to govern the poor
of England, and once more Christianity remnant of Christian churches, and to rule
had made some way in the Danish dis over the conquered Christian people of
tricts of the north, only two suffragans Northumbria but we never hear again of
;

acknowledged the supremacy of the arch the famous school and its great library.
bishops of York the bishops of Durham It had perished utterly in the fatal Danish
and of Glasgow ;
the see of Durham occu conquest.
pying the area which once, before the
coming of the Dane, included Lindisfarne. A singular but wide-spread tradition
Hexham, and part of Ripon. which closely connects the coming "

exists,
The entire north of England the country of the Danes "

in 866-867, which ended

lying between the Humber and the Forth in the ruin of Northumbria and the
was involved in this utter ruin. All the consequent permanent settlement of the
monastic libraries, all the schools, all the Dane in England, with the story of the
356 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [866-7.

great Viking captain, Ragnar Lodbrok. death of the old Viking captain is placed
The famous pirate is chiefly known from about 862, or perhaps a little later. The
his successful raid up the Seine and the invasion of East Anglia under Ivar and his

capture and plunder of Paris, already re brothers took place in the year 866, and the
lated. The northern traditions no doubt fatal march on York and Northumbria to

founded on fact relate how this popular avenge their father, in the following year.

hero, subsequently to his French exploits, One of the two rival kings of Northumbria
against the advice of his wife, Aslauga, who fell in the stricken fight of York was
built three long-ships, considerably larger ./Ella, the slayer of Ivar s father, Ragnar
than the usual size of these dreaded boats. Lodbrok.
Manned with Viking crews, Ragnar Lod There probably some basis of truth in
is

brok sailed on a plundering venture of his the wide-spread legend

wild, but the ;

own to the north of England; the fifty-first, coming of the Danes in 866, and the
he tells us in the poem bearing his name conquest and settlement in Northumbria,
which he had undertaken in the course of must be attributed to causes wider and
that destructive life of his. The great size more far-reaching than simply to any
of the ships was the occasion of their being passionate revenge for a father s defeat and
wrecked on the jagged iron-bound North cruel death. These causes have already
umbrian coast. After the loss of the long- been discussed. The death-song itself is
ships, Ragnar Lodbrok found himself in a placed by modern criticism many years

country of enemies, his own force com later than the event it commemorates ;

paratively small, and without the usual some would even place its composition two
means of Viking escape seawards. yElla, centuries later. If the theory of its late

the reigning king of southern Northumbria composition be accepted, we must then

Deira fell upon him with far superior assume that, like many other popular poems
numbers. In spite of the usual Viking claiming an antiquity which from various
bravery, Danes were overpowered,
the reasons does not appear demonstrable r
Ragnar Lodbrok was taken prisoner alive, this poem in its present shape was simply
and king ^Ella condemned his formidable based upon older fragments, and that the
captive to perish in a dungeon, stung to form in which we now possess it was a
death by snakes. The well-known death- redaction of some older lilt.

song of Ragnar purports to have been The song is, however, of singular in
written by the dying hero himself ;
and in terest to us. It paints, no doubt fairly

it, after singing his own exploits and ex accurately, some of the phases of that
pressing his perfect willingness to depart Viking society which so gravely affected
for the halls of Woden, he commends to the work,nay, the very existence, of
his sons the sacred duty of avenging his Christianity, and the civilisation which
cruel death. His sons, it is said, made up Christianitybrought in its train in
the most formidable group of sea-pirates of northern and eastern England ;
tells us
that day, including the too famous names something of the spiritwhich lived in
of Ivar and Hubbo and Halfdene. The the hearts of these Northmen pagans.
358 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [866-867.

who worked such irreparable mischief in But he consoles himself with his faith in
the eighth and ninth centuries, and the gods promises of joys and pleasures

effectually destroyed, not only the pro in the future life such joys and pleasures !

gress, but even the very life of the Yet these were the veritable hopes of the
church in a large portion of England. Vikings of old :

The aspirations and the hopes, the life

"

It delights me continually,
to which the Northmen looked forward That the seats of Baldor s father,
I know, are strewn for guests.
after death, and also the joys of their We shall drink ale immediately

present existence, are well and tersely set From the large hollowed skulls.

forth in Death Song

this so-called
" "
Young men, grieve not at death
In the mansions of dread Fiolner.
of Lodbrok, the renowned and admired I come not with the words of fear

Danish hero. The wild delight in battle the ,

Into the hall of Vithris."

chief joy of the Viking, is thus described

As the adders and snakes are stinging
(one of the bloody raids on England is him to death, he comforts himself with the
the subject of this part of the "Song"):
thoughts of his children taking a fierce
We hewed with our swords.
"

Hundreds, I declare, lay round

revenge upon the authors of his cruel
The horses of the island rocks, sufferings. (The "Aslauga"
referred to
At the English promontory. was his wife.)
We
***** sailed to the battle
Six days before the hosts

Destiny was with our

fell.

swords."
"

Here would for

All the sons of Aslauga
me

The bright brands of Hilda awake,

If they knew but the danger
Further on, the songman proceeds in a Of my encounter.
similar when he What a number of snakes
strain speaks of a raid,
Full of venom strike me.
apparently on the coast of Northumberland
at Lindisfarne
1
We
For our sport
:

had the music of swords

at Lindis-eyri ;
in the morning
*****
I gained a true mother for my children,
That they might have brave hearts.

Grim dangers surround me from the adder,

Withthree kingly heroes. Vipers dwell in the home of my heart."

Many fell into the jaws of the wolf ;

The hawk plucked the flesh with the wild Again he recalls the glories and work of
beasts." his past Viking life :

After dwelling on the fierce joys of "

Fifty and one times have I

the dying hero speaks of the Called the people to the appointed battles
battle,
By the warning-spear messenger.
disastrous change in his own fortunes, so Little do I believe that of men
unlooked-for : There be any will
"

It seems to me, from experience, King more famous than myself.

That we follow the decrees of fates :
When going, I grasped and reddened my spear.
Few The Aesir must invite me
escape the decrees of the birth goddesses.
;

Never did I believe that from M\\a. I will die without a groan."

The end of my life would come,

When strewed the bloody slaughter,
I Dying, he sings with a glad strain :

And urged my planks on the lakes. "

We desire this end,

Largely we feasted the beasts of prey The Disir goddesses invite me home ;

Along the bays of Scotland." As if from the hall of him rejoicing in spoils
868870.] THE DANES IN MERCIA. 359

From Odin, sent to me. and anxious condition of England, with

Glad shall I, with the Aesir,
the terrible Viking at their very doors,
Drink ale in my lofty seat.
The hours of my life glide away,
all progress in civilisation was, of course,
But laughing I will die."
stayed. Wehear nothing now of the
school of Canterbury. Study was forgotten
The conquest of the northern part of in the great crisis all learning was fading
;

England and the destruction of the church rapidly out of the land.
in Northumbria was, however, only a part Ivar and his Viking host marched in the
of the Viking scheme in England. They year 868 southward into Mercia, which
had fallen on the north because they were nominally still acknowledged the over-
well aware of its hopelessly disunited lordship of Wessex ;
and in Nottingham, a

condition, and of the bitter feuds which well-known Mercian centre known appar
had for so long distracted the unhappy ently then as Snottrynham they passed
country, which, as the Danes were fully the winter of that year. The Mercians

conscious, would paralyse any real and were thoroughly alarmed. They looked
protracted defence. The result justified forward to sharing the fate of North
their policy never was a rout of an entire
; umbria, and their under-king Burrhed
people so sudden and so complete. But urgently prayed for assistance from his

the Danish chief Ivar knew well that over-lord,king Ethelred of Wessex.
the hardest part of his task in reducing Mercia touched Wessex. If Mercia be
England to the condition of a pagan came a Viking possession and a pagan
Scandinavian land still lay before him. country, the future fate of Wessex and the

Well-nigh the whole of the south of south could be easily foreseen. Ethelred
England was included under the kingdom and a powerful West-Saxon army arrived
of Wessex, and there the union of the "

in the year 869 before the entrenchments

Christian church with the State "

was, as of the Vikings at Nottingham. The

we have seen, peculiarly close
No divided interests in Wessex weakened
their power of resistance there were no
rival claimants to the ancient throne of
Cerdic, the West-Saxon. The halo of the
statesman and soldier which had settled
round the head of the great Egbert, had
not faded, and his grandchild, who was at
the time of the coming of the Danes king
of Wessex, had inherited not alittle of the
ability of his famous
power and influence of the church, too,
was then very great, and worked in perfect
harmony with the king and the forces of
national defence. But in the disturbed
and intimate. Danes, recognising the superiority of
Ethelred s force, declined to give them
;
battle in the open, and remained behind
their fortifications at
Nottingham. Ethel-
red, though he failed to storm the armed
Danish camp, yet inflicted upon Ivar s
force such severe losses that eventually
the Viking chief agreed to a temporary
treaty, in which he promised to evacuate
Mercia.
predecessor. The The
following year, however, witnessed
a more
terrible attack on the part of the
Danes. This year (A.D. 870) will ever be
darkly marked as one of the most disas
trous to the Anglo-Saxon church. The
360 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [870.

Danes had now been in England well-nigh (two of the three ancient divisions of Lin
four years, and had learned where serious colnshire Lindesey being the largest of
;

resistance might be looked for and where the three) and the country south of
the most fatal blows could be directed Kesteven, far into East Anglia, fell into
against the religion they hated with so the Danish hands, and they plundered,
fierce a hatred. Fairly remote from devastated, burned, destroyed at pleasure.
Wessex were those vast fen districts which The years 868-9 and 870 were years, in
then stretched from the south of the deed, of terror to most of the unhappy
Humber to the country round Ely. In counties lying between the Humber and
these districts were located several of the the Thames. In the course of this
most famous and wealthy of the monastic terrible raid of Ivar the noble
abbey of
houses of middle England. The riches, Bardeney was destroyed, and its monks
real and supposed, of the great fen abbeys were murdered. The important fen abbeys
were a powerful attraction to the Viking of Croyland and Peterborough shared the
warriors who fought under Ivar s banner ;
same fate, as didthe great and famous
while the destruction of such mighty and home of prayer founded by Etheldreda
renowned centres of Christianity would on the little hill of Ely, rising above the

largely appeal to those more important fen country which stretched around it far

Northmen chieftains who looked beyond and wide on every side.

mere plunder, and who were persuaded We have but few dependable contem
that with the destruction of Christianity porary notices of the cruelties and atrocities
was closely bound up the eventual success perpetrated in this bitter time of trial,
of their- race. through which the Church of England
Ivar and his brother Hubbo, the tra passed in the darkest hour of her eventful
ditional sons of the renowned Ragnar story, beyond some few dry statements
Lodbrok, were evidently skilled strategists speaking of the sacking and burning of the
as well as valiant soldiers, and among a more famous monasteries and nunneries.
cruel group of pirate invaders, men utterly Most of the details we possess are derived
reckless of human life and careless of from later accounts, founded, no doubt,
human suffering, have attained a sad pre on local tradition preserved by the few
eminence. The Viking raid in the "

religious
"

who escaped from the indis

Lindesey and Kesteven districts, besides criminate slaughter which usually accom
the utter destruction of the religious panied the plundering of all that could
houses, was apparently accompanied with be carried away, and the conflagration of
more than the usual attendant miseries the buildings of a religious house marked
which characterised the Viking marches. for destruction by the Danish Vikings
A later chronicle tells us that the local of Ivar and Hubbo. From these tra
magistrates opposed the march of Ivar. ditions, doubt, upon local
founded, no
If this be the case, these defenders of their memories, we gather that many of the
country were certainly utterly routed, for treasures of Croyland, which a few monks
the whole land of Lindesey and Kesteven endeavoured to carry away to some safe
8 7 o.] THE DANES IN MERCIA. 36i

hiding-place, were lost somewhere in the monastic buildings which surrounded it

deep fen waters. The Abbot of Croyland was said to have lit up the surrounding
and his attendant priests were struck down marshes during fifteen days.

A DESCENT OF THE DANES.

{From the fresco By W. Bell Scott, H.R.S.A., at Wallington Hall, Northumberland, by permission of Sir Georgt Trevelyan,
Bart., M. P., from photo by J. Worsnop, Rothbury.)

at the altar, and were beheaded in the From the burning and sack of the Fen
sanctuary. The famous library of Peter abbeys, the Viking invaders turned their
borough, the glory of that great religious attention to the neighbouring East Anglia,

house, was burned, and the flame of the and entrenched themselves in a fortified

conflagration of the church and the many camp at Thetford. A writer of the next
362 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [870.

century describes East Anglia as almost us. Submit, then, to a master whom even
surrounded by water immense marshes, a ;
the elements serve."

hundred miles in extent, on the north on ; King Edmund s reply was memorable.
the and south, the ocean.
east Abbo The story is repeated by Abbo of Fleury,

of Fleury was apparently referring to who wrote in the next century. He tells

the estuary of the Thames as the southern us he had the recital from the famous

boundary. The soil he speaks of as fertile prelate Dunstan, who had heard it from
and pleasant. It was full of lakes two the lips of an old soldier of Edmund s,
or three miles in extent, and its marshes who simply and faithfully recounted it on
were filled with monks. Allusion has oath to king Athelstan. Dunstan would
already been several times made to the tell the story, he said, with eyes full of "

great progress, even comparatively at a tears."

"

Tell Ivar,"
answered Edmund
early period, made by Christianity in East to the messenger bidding him abjure
Anglia, under the rule of such under- Christianity, "that I am not terrified by
kings as Anna, whose daughters were his threats. You may destroy this frail

conspicuous among the founders of body ;

death is more desirable than ser

monasticism among their sex. The savage Danish chief then took
vility."

The East Anglian realm at the period the king, bound him to a tree, scourged
of the Danish invasion was under the rule him with remorseless severity, then riddled
of Edmund.
This East Engle sub-king the tortured body with arrows, and cut off

appears in an extraordinary way to have his head.

attracted the love and admiration of his The brave patience with which he sub
contemporaries. There seems to have mitted to his cruel sufferings, the remem
been considerable resistance offered in the brance of his gracious and kindly life, his
eastern counties to the Danish invaders ;
exalted rank, in a peculiar way touched
but the superiority of the Vikings as the heart of the English ;
and the memory
trained soldiers, their reckless daring, of Edmund, king and martyr, was venerated
aided by the skilful generalship of their and preserved for centuries. His fame was
leaders, Ivar and Hubbo, enabled them by no means confined to his own East
utterly to defeat the East Anglian forces. Anglian realm. We find traces of the
Their beloved king Edmund was sum love and admiration he excited in the
moned by Ivar to divide with him his north and south of England. He was
treasures, to reign as his lieutenant, and to chosen as the patron saint of many a
abandon Christianity for the gods of the church. His martrydom, especially in the
north. "

Who are you,"

so runs the eastern counties, even long after the
haughty message of Ivar,
traditional Nprman Conquest was a favourite subject
that you should dare to withstand our
"

window and
for stained frescoed wall while ;

power ? The storm of the ocean is no over his honoured remains, which, a
bar to our enterprise, but positively serves favourite and well-known legend tells us>

us instead of oars. The roarings of the for ages saw no corruption, rose one of the

sky, its lightning flashes, have never injured most stately of the mediaeval abbeys, under
Q
2
ZD
^.
a
UJ

H
cn

DC
D
CQ

ui
o
Q
DC
DQ

c/)

H
O
OQ
CQ
8 7 o.] THE DANES IN EAST ANGLIA. 363

the shadow of which grew up the vast and invasions ;

the somewhat later occupation
famous monastery of Bury St. Edmunds. of Normandy in France being the only
Its sacred and pathetic ruins still, after other permanent settlement of importance.
more than a thousand years, serve to keep The presence of the long-ships, with their
green in the minds of Englishmen the fierce crews of armed pirates, was felt

memory of the saintly East Anglian king. along the coasts of the continent of
And Edmund, with his power of winning Europe as an awful and terrible curse.
his subjects with his quiet bravery
love, Save in Normandy, however that great
in preferring a painful death rather than French province watered by the Seine
deny Christ and build up altars to Thor the presence of the Viking only meant a
and Woden, was a typical instance of the piratical raid ; desolating and destructive,
powerful hold which the teaching of the causing untold misery and woe, but
Church of England had obtained upon the generally passing and transitory. But in
hearts of the Anglo-Saxons at the time of northern and eastern England it was an
the coming of the Danes in the last half of invasion, a conquest, deliberately planned
the ninth century. and carefully carried out. It meant a

From that year (870) East Anglia, like permanent settlement. It aimed at the
Lincolnshire and
Northumbria, passed uprooting of Christianity, and the substi
under the permanent Danish rule. The tution of the worship of Scandinavian

unchallenged supremacy of the heathen Woden and Thor and the northern gods in

Vikings now stretched from the broad place of the Christ of the Christian. The
estuary of the Thames in the south to the Viking succeeded in making a permanent
far north of the Engle kingdom of conquest ;
but he failed in the long run in
Northumbria ; and, roughly, included his purpose of uprooting the faith of Christ.

northern and England, watered

middle Although, however, he thus failed in

by the East Anglian Ouse, the Yorkshire his hope of destroying the religion which
Humber and the Trent, by the Tees and he hated, this last great effort of a dying
the Wear of Durham, by the Northumbrian paganism succeeded in arresting the

Tyne and the border-river of the Tweed. splendid march of Christianity, which ,
The actual subjugation of Western Mercia during the seventh and eighth centuries r
only took place some four years later, in had accomplished such vast work in Anglo-
874, when it submitted without a struggle Saxon Britain. For a long period its work
to the Danish occupation. But from the was paralysed well-nigh ruined in the
date of the conquest of East Anglia and south of the great island ;
while in the
the death of Edmund, in 870, it paid north it virtually came to an end, and for two
tribute to the Viking chief and ac centuries, until after the Norman conquest,
knowledged his supremacy. northern England almost entirely dis

This Danish conquest of the largest half appeared from the records of civilisation
of England, so long meditated and pre and Christianity that illustrious north,

pared, was the most important, and by which for so long had been a true centre
far the most thorough, of the many Viking of religion and learning, not only for
364 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [866
-
870.

England, but for much of the continent over, left many traces of his long residence
of Europe. The religion and learning 01 in England still with us, though ten cen
the north of the island (Northumbria) as turiesand more have come and gone since
it has been well said died of the Danes. Ivar and the Vikings occupied the land
More than a thousand years have passed they had desolated. In the north in the
since the dread year 866, which witnessed Ridings of Yorkshire the Dane s presence
coming of the Danes into England. is marked by the names of
" "

this many localities,

Many changes has our country witnessed ;
where the English termination tun or " "

many brilliant pages in the world s event

"

ham "

has been replaced by the Scandi

ful history has the island and her people navian or Danish by,"
or the less common
"

written. Another wave of conquest,

"

dale." Even the heathen faith which

bearing with it more far-reaching conse replaced Christianity is still commemorated
quences, has passed over it. The same in such names as Baldersby and Thornaby,
dynasty, true, which gave to Wessex
it is and in not a few Danish names which still
Egbert and Ethelred and Alfred, still sits linger among the villages and townships of
on the English throne the same church,; Yorkshire, for example, Ellerby, Grimsby,
with its changeless traditions, watches over Aislaby, Whitby, Ormsby, Swainby.
the spiritual work of England to the vast ; Cleveland, or Cliff-land, long continued a
majority of English men and women, the Scandinavian district ;
of its twenty-seven
connection of the Dane with England is lords mentioned
Domesday Book, in the

a story long forgotten. But the Danish twenty-three bore Danish names. The
occupation was a stern reality, and as far capital city of Northumbria, once the uni
"

as Christianity and learning and the arts of England, the resort of scholars
"

versity
of civilisation were concerned, not only from all part of
Europe, became more
paralysed all progress, but succeeded in and more a Danish city, and was largely
wiping out well-nigh all that had been inhabited by Danish traders. In eastern
done in the past. Nor has the north, Mercia in the modern counties of Derby,
where the Viking occupation was most Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester we
complete, ever recovered anything of its find the Danish by clinging to
" "

still

old supremacy in letters and in art. It the villages and towns of the England of
has again, after the lapse of a thousand to-day.* In parts of East Anglia, the same
years, become famous as the chief manu peculiarity can be traced, notably in
facturing centre Western world
of the ; Norfolk, and in Suffolk round the mouth
famous, too, as the iron mart and coal of the Yare. But East Anglia, as we
mart and cotton mart of Europe and the shall see, Danish though it was, quickly
world but when the Dane burned the
;
became Christian again ;
and this ac
monastic libraries of Jarrow and Wear- counts for the comparatively few traces
mouth and killed the church school of of the Viking conquest in the eastern

York, the homes of literature and art counties.

were removed to other centres.
for ever * See Atkinson "

and Green:
:
Whitby," chap, i.,

The forgotten Viking settler has, more "

Conquest," chap. iii.

 THE DANES IN EAST ANGLIA. 365

To More than two-

return to our story. a few years later fell, without an effort to

thirds of England was now in the power avert the storm which soon descended upon
of the Vikings. The design of changing them, sweeping away in its disastrous

Britain, the Christian stronghold of the course, as usual, every abbey and monastery.
Engle and the Saxon, into a pagan Danish When, in the year 870, East Anglia was

Photo: R. IVilkinson,

realm, appeared near its com

plete fulfilment. The charred
ruins of the great northern
monasteries and the mighty fen abbeys,
told of the ruin of the Church of England THE WHITE HORSF, NEAR UFFINGTON, TRADITION
in the north and east of the island. ALLY THE SITE OF THE BATTLE OF ASHDOWN.

Mercia, though not yet conquered, was forced to bow before the Danish Ivar
at the feet of the pagan conqueror and and Hubbo, and its king submitted to his

paid him tribute. The extreme northern and
were only wait
central districts of the island
ing the appearance of the dreaded Vikings,
whose numbers probably were not sufficient
at once to complete their conquest
these great districts were utterly helpless
in the presence of the dreaded Dane, and
martyrdom, England, north of Wessex,
was virtually won, and a new era of tri
umphant paganism seemed to have com
menced. Only Wessex and the south still
;
but resisted;
as yet the Viking had made no-
lodgment in the ancestral dominions of
Ethelred, the grandson of Egbert, of the
366 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [870.

ancient royal race of Cerdic. But Wessex
now stood face to face with the conquering
Dane for the first time there was to use a
; pierced by the cruel arrows of the Vikings
modern term no buffer-state between the
for Christianity that year 870, in which
Edmund of East Anglia, king and martyr,
Ivar and Hubbo, passed to his eternal rest.
There was no delay on the part of
the Danes. The one barrier to their
complete success in England must be
stormed at once. The Viking host which
had conquered the Eastern counties, at
once invaded Wessex. The main body
of their army, under a leader afterwards
famous under the name of Guthrun, with
Baegseg,King of Danish Bernicia (North-
umbria), and Halfdene, and various re
nowned jarls their harsh names are
preserved to us as the two Sidrocs, Fraena,
Harold, and others headed the invading
Danish host. Ivar returned to York :

perhaps he felt the hand of fatal disease

already pressing upon him, for a tradition

speaks of the death of the great freebooter
in the following year.

CARVED OBJECT OF WHALE S BONE OF UNKNOWN The Vikings entered Wessex by way
USE. of the Thames, and sailing past London,
(From a barrow, Namdalen, Norway.) (Brit. Mus.)
seized upon the stronghold of Reading as
West Saxon and the Viking. Everything the centre of their operations. The scene
now turned upon the conquest of Wessex. of the first battles between the Danes and
If this deed of arms could be successfully the men of Wessex was mostly that Berk
carried through, then the work of the shire country lying westward of Reading
Dane, so carefully prepared for, hitherto as far as the Vale of the White Horse.
so triumphantly persevered in, would be The forces of Ethelred fought stoutly for

accomplished, and a great pagan Viking their country. Never yet in the English
kingdom would be erected on the ruins invasion had the Danes met with such a
of the once powerful Christian England ;
a valiant organised resistance. The success

kingdom which would serve as a strong basis was varying, until a pitched battle was
of operations for the Viking race to carry fought at ^Ecesdune (Ashdown) in Berk
on their triumphant warfare on the con shire. In this fierce contest Alfred, king
tinent of Europe, the sea-board of which, Ethelred s young brother, first distin
and its great river-roads leading into the guished himself by his splendid bravery
interior of the continent, was already in and tactical skill. A singular memory is.

their hands. It was indeed an awful crisis preserved of a striking incident of this
870-871.] THE DANES APPEAR IN WESSEX. 367

desperate fight. Early in the day, Alfred kings in the abbey of Sherborne was
being hard-pressed by the foe, urgently probably, in this dark moment of the
prayed the king, his brother, to bring him Danish invasion, in the hands of the
reinforcements without delay. King Ethel- Vikings.
red was hearing mass, and engaged in the Ethelred s career as a sovereign lay
solemn prayer which he deemed the best amidst troublous times, and his well-

preparation for the day of stern battle deserved fame has been obscured in the far
which lay before him. He bade the greater glory which surrounds the memory
messenger of Alfred tell his brother that of his brother and successor Alfred. Ever
the king would come when the mass memorable, though, in the history of Eng
was done God first, man after," were
:
"

land, will_be his march into Mercia, when

Ethelred s traditional words. The reli he compelled the Vikings to retreat his ;

gion the Wessex court

of must have disposition of the West Saxon army
first

been very real to have prompted such of defence ;

and his victory at Ashdown.
a reply at such a moment and it came ;
These were the beginnings of that
first

from no superstitious weakling, but from splendid national defence which eventually,
a right noble and valiant monarch of men. under his more famous brother, succeeded
For the battle of Ashdown was a victory for in rolling back the victorious Danish in
the West Saxons. King Bsegseg was slain vasion, and thus preserving England, and
by the hand of Ethelred himself five of ; perhaps a far wider area on the Continent,
the Viking jarls and a great number of the from becoming a vast pagan empire.
army perished in this
bloody engagement. Ethelred left direct heirs in two infant
But the Danes, who retreated into their sons, but the extreme peril of the
armed camp at Reading, were shortly kingdom, the actual presence in the heart
afterwards strongly reinforced with fresh of Wessex of a powerful Danish army,
companies of Vikings from beyond the naturally placed on one side any claim to
seas. Another battle was fought at Mere- the succession of these infants. In the
tune (Merton, in Oxfordshire). After along- lifetime of Ethelred even, Alfred was
disputed fight, the West Saxons, who had his brother s acknowledged successor. No
lost heavily, retreated, and then king hint has ever been given that Alfred was
Ethelred received his mortal wound. The a usurper, or that he set aside his nephews.

king survived the battle, but died very He was at once unanimously acknowledged
shortly after. His remains were laid in as the sovereign. But when he assumed
royal state in Wimborne Minster. The the crown of Cerdic, in 871, it seemed
regular burying-place of the West Saxon indeed a heritage of sorrow.
 CHAPTER XVII.
ENGLAND S HERO KING.
Alfred-Brave but Unsuccessful Struggles Forced to Conceal
of
Gloomy Accession and Prospects and Influ
mentLegends of Athelney Glorious Victory at Ethandune Its Decisive Character
of England Alfred s Own Account
ence upon Christendom -Peace of Wedmore and Division
Stillness "Alternate Periods of
of the Work before him A Ruined Church-His Prayer
for "

a Industry and Self-SacrificeCreates an Army

War and Rest Alfred as King Indefatigable
Character Momentous
and Navy Introduces a Budget, and its Characteristics His Noble
Importance of his Work to Christianity in Europe.

ALFRED, grandson Egbert, the

of besides many smaller conflicts and skir
f-\ fourth and only surviving son of mishes with varying success, it is true,
;

Ethelwulf, was about twenty-two but generally to the disadvantage of the

years old, when with general consent he Saxons. The Danes, too, were willing to
assumed the crown of Wessex and the accept the ransom offered. The prolonged
chief command of the Saxon forces of and obstinate defence, no doubt, had
defence, A.D. 871. We hear of no seriously weakened their invading forces.
official coronation, of no solemn services, They contented themselves with having
no as generally accom harried and humiliated the southern king
of rejoicings such
pany the accession of a new sovereign. dom ;
and for a season, at least, agreed

Straight from the grave of his brother, to leave Wessex alone, other and more
wounded to the death in the late dis profitable opportunitiesconquests at of
astrous fight at Merton, he hastened to that juncture presenting themselves.
take the supreme command of the sorely Their armies, thus for a time freed from
disheartened Saxon army. Ill-fortune, the stubborn and exhausting campaigns in
however, dogged his footsteps. Defeated Wessex, once more planned the complete
several times in a series of skirmishes subjugation of Mercia ;
and after a year
rather than the young king of
battles, spent in consolidating their power in
Wessex, with the advice of his Witan, for southern Northumbria, in 872-873 they
the first time in the sad story of the burst upon the defenceless midlands. They
Wessex and Danish war, purchased with had little difficulty in the eastern part of
gold a temporary respite for his harassed central England. Burrhed, the last of the
country, and the Danes agreed, in con Mercian kings, gave up the hopeless con
sideration of this humiliating bargain, to test and wandered away as a pilgrim to

evacuate Wessex. Rome, where he died, a sad exile, in the

Indeed, Wessex was completely ex year 874. He was buried
in the Pope s

hausted, land overrun and harried, its

its
city with royal honours, in the church
of
towns pillaged, its armies defeated and the Virgin adjoining the Saxon schools.
dispirited. In one short year we hear of In the next year 875 Halfdene, the
eight pitched battles having been fought, brother of Ivar, the son of Ragnar
876-] THE DANES IN WESSEX. 369

Lodbrok, led a considerable division of the well-known pirate chief, took up its
wandering Viking force from its recent quarters at Cambridge. To his armed
conquest of Mercia northward again, and camp there flocked Viking recruits
completed the subjugation of northern from all quarters, for it was known that
England. The monasteries in the far Guthrun was preparing for another
desperate attack on
Wessex. This was
in 876.
The plan of the
invasion was most

carefully matured.
Suddenly the Cam
bridge camp was
broken up. March
ing swiftly to the
near sea-coast, the

north, which
in his first

invasion had
reached, were
burned and sacked

by Halfdene in this

last terrible raid,

which completed the THE ISLE OF ATHELNEY.
destruction of the
Church of England in Northumbria. The Vikings sailed round the east and south
portion of the Viking host which did of England, and landing on the coast
not accompany Halfdene also left Repton, of Dorset, seized thetown and convent
where, after sacking and burning the great of Wareham, which they made their
abbey, the burial-place of the Mercian head - quarters. Alfred was unable to
kings, they had quietly spent the previous make resistance against the cruel invaders,
winter. This army under Guthrun t the and for a second time purchased a
x
370 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [877-

precarious peace with Wessex gold. It whose numbers, constantly recruited,

was of little avail, however for the
;
in seemed to increase with every battle,
vaders, leaving Dorsetshire, only retreated whether lost or won. Alone the brave
on Devon, where they made themselves and devoted West Saxon king refused to
masters of Exeter. Alfred, rightly con despair. This was the time when Alfred
sidering this a breach of faith, hurried to and his dispirited soldiers, his queen and
besiege Exeter. The siege and reduction her children, and a few devoted Wessex
of Exeter was one of the bright spots of chieftains, retired to the almost inacces
this and devastating war.
terrible The sible marshes in the heart of Somerset.
Danes, who were starved into surrender, The country where, during those weary

again agreed to leave the land in peace ;

months and watching, the great
of waiting
but we find them still in Alfred s harried king devised those measures which resulted
dominions, and wintering in Gloucester, in in the campaign that saved the Christianity
877. Peace seemed further off than ever. of England, is well known. It was little

The battles and skirmishes were endless, more inthose days than a vast morass,
and were fought, as usual, with varying that district lying between the Polden hills
fortunes.In one of these, at a place called and the Quantocks, with the river Parret

Kynwith, in Devon, a noble effort on the running through it. The

names local

part of the Wessex defenders was made, Sedgemoor, and the zoys, or rises crowned
and the famous war-standard of "

The with marsh-villages, such as Chedzoy and

woven, says the story, in one
Raven," Marshzoy, still tell us of the fens in the
morning by the three daughters of Ragnar midst of which Alfred thought out that
Lodbrok for Ivar and Hubbo, was captured. supreme attack which, at a moment when
This banner, the legend tells us, had a allseemed lost, rescued his native land
magic power : the great bird fluttered its from sinking under the flood of the Viking
wings when victory was near, but hung pagans.
motionless and drooping before a defeat. Matthew of Westminster, who wrote in
But no gallantry, no reckless defence the fourteenth century, thus describes the
availed. The Vikings were again and resting-place where Alfred gathered the
again reinforced. Hubbo and a fleet of troops together for his last grand battle.
long-ships sailed up the Severn and joined In the extreme borders of the English
"

the forces of Guthrun, and we suddenly people towards the west, there is a place
hear of the Danes in great force in the called yEthelingeie, or the isle of the
very heart of Wessex, at Chippenham. nobles. It is surrounded by marshes, and
The whole country seemed at their so inaccessible that no one can get to it but
mercy. in a small boat. It has a great wood of
This was the darkest hour of Alfred s alders, and contains stags and goats and
career. seemed
All lost. Wessex was many animals of this kind. Its solid

utterly exhausted and dispirited, its cities earth is

scarcely two acres in breadth."
pillaged, its land harried, its forces utterly Here, in this remote and unknown
unable to cope with the daring invaders, armed camp, the king remained about
878,] ALFRED IN ATHELNEY. 37i

three months, while he made preparations man the king divided his last loaf and a
for the final struggle. little wine still left in an almost empty
It is during his mysterious residence in pitcher. Then the poor guest suddenly
this fen-fortress that there have gathered vanished, and lo the loaf was still un
!

around Alfred those legends which, after a broken, and the pitcher was full of wine
thousand years, still delight English boys in to the brim And that same night the
!

the life of our English hero.* They had great English saint, St. Cuthbert whom
probably been the burden of popular folk he had relieved without knowing who
songs sung by the people, delightedwho was the strange beggar -guest appeared
in these quaint memories of the national to him in with the glad tidings
vision,
deliverer. Of these the most popular was that his sufferings were about to end,
the well-known incident of the adventure and that the hour of deliverance was at
in the cow-herd s hut. when the good wife, hand.
not knowing the king, set him to watch After about three months the winter-
the bread as it was baking on the hearth. tide had given place to spring, and it was
The hexameters which intersperse the the beginning of May, in 878, a memor

prose narrative tell us, that the whole had able year in the story of England and
evidently once been a popular song : her church Alfred s plans were ripe, and
"
once more he raised the Wessex standard,
Holloa, companion !

Dost not see that the bread there is

blazoned with the Golden Dragon of
burning ?

Why lazily sit and not turn it ? the ancient West Saxon dynasty. The
Ready enough wilt thou be to take it from us thanes of Somerset joined him with their
and devour it."

followers, and shortly afterwards the men

Another favourite story is of the king, ofHants and Wilts. The Danes in their
disguised as a minstrel, penetrating into the armed camp near Westbury appear to have
royal tent of Guthrun in the camp of the been taken by surprise. They evidently
Danes, and thus becoming acquainted with looked upon Wessex as utterly dispirited,
the plans and the strength of his enemies. and its conquest assured, while its king
This account is most probably founded had disappeared, or at all events had with
on fact. A beautiful but more mythical drawn from any open hostility. Their
legend is
preserved by William of Malmes- brilliant series of successes inEngland had
bury, who wrote in the beginning of the inspired them with a confidence that they
twelfth century. It relates how to Alfred, were invincible, and they believed that the
sitting with the queen alone in his solitary stubborn and long-protracted resistance
hut of Athelney, came a beggar man, who theirconquering arms had met with in
asked for a piece of bread to assuage his Wessex had at last come to an end, and
hunger. With this poor starving English- that, disheartened and defeated, the south
ern districts of the island were ready to
* For the life of Alfred, see generally the ex
accept the Viking supremacy, already
haustive life by Dr. Pauli. Also Sharon Turner,
books iv.-v., and Green s "

Conquest," chap, iv.,

acknowledged in the north, and east, and
and Dean Hook s
"

Archbishop Plegmund." east-midland portions of England. The

372 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878.
.

widely-extended forests ol Selwood had Vikings took shelter in the lines of their
served as a veil to conceal the assembling armed camp, as they had so often suc
of the men of Wessex, and when Alfred cessfullydone before but the victors,
;

and his army suddenly appeared in front led by one who, besides his many kingly
of the Danish lines near Chippenham, no qualities, evidently possessed the powers
of a great strategist, followed up their

splendid success, and in a few days com

pelled the beaten army of Vikings to

surrender, and as the price of their lives

either to quit England or to become

Christians, giving up Wessex for ever.

Never before had such a victory been
won over the pagan invaders. It was
absolutely decisive and crushing. The
war was virtually over, and Wessex was
finally delivered, thanks to the patient,
indomitable courage, and the splendid
generalship of Alfred. The tide of

Viking victory had at last turned, and

Wessex and western Mercia were for
ever saved from the supremacy of the
Northern invaders, who had so nearly
gained possession of the whole island.

Large numbers of the defeated army

were allowed to leave the land, and
under Hasting sailed in their long-ships
for France, where once more they played

their old terrible part of pirate invaders ;

the remainder, under Guthrun, accepted

DANISH SWORDS FOUND IN THE WITHAM AT
Christianity, and returned to the eastern
LINCOLN AND NEAR THE TEMPLE, LONDON
(British Museum).
counties. A treaty was concluded be
tween Wessex and the Danes, by which
formal preparation had been made by England was divided between Alfred and
Guthrun and the pirate Hasting, who the Vikings. The treaty was concluded at

were chief in command. Wedmore, in Somerset, in the summer

There was but little delay in Alfred s of A.D. 878.
attack. The rival hosts joined battle at The power of the Danes never recovered
Ethandune, near the modern Westbury ;
Their ravages, it is true,
this terrible blow.
and the men of Wessex under their long continued to afflict France and the

brave king completely defeated the European continent. Northumbria and

Danes. The beaten remnant of the East Anglia and part of Mercia still were
878.] THE PEACE OF WEDMORE. 373

theirs. But the spell of their awful name henceforth a part of the Wessex kingdom.
was broken. They had failed in their The old royal Mercian line had become
great enterprise to conquer England, and extinct when Burrhed fled before the
from the day of Alfred s victory
in 878, their vast power gradu
MAP OF ENGLAND
ally declined.
SHOWING THE
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
Roughly, the peace of Wed-
more secured to Alfred and his
West-Saxon dynasty Wessex,
which included the entire
south of England from Kent
and the Medway to the heart
of Devon and the Tamar ;
and
western Mercia, which em
braced the largest portion ot
that great realm of the Middle

English, from the estuary of

the Ribble, in modern Lanca
shire, to the Severn sea. To
Guthrun and the Danes the
peace of Wedmore left the
whole of the eastern counties,
which were already completely
occupied by Danish chieftains,
Cambridgeshire, parts of Hert
ford, Bedford, and Huntingdon.
The boundary - line between
Danish and English Mercia
was the old Roman road of
Watling Street, which during
most of its length may be
said roughly to
correspond
with the line of the London THE PEACE OF WEDMORE.
and North -Western Railway
as far north as Preston. The kingdom of Danish Guthrun, and died at Rome an
Northumbria southern portion, Deira,
in its exile.Alfred and his line became undis
as far north as the Tees, including York puted kings of Mercia, which, however,
shire and most of Derbyshire, was firmly preserved its own Witanagemot and its own
held and permanently settled by the Danes. native Engle ruler, who was styled the
Mercia west of "

Watling Street
"

became ealderman, owning Alfred as over-lord.

374 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878-901.

The Mercian ealderman Ethelred was also the Tyne and Tees to the Thames, was
closely united to the royal house of Wessex, complete.
in the person of the subsequently re In his own Wessex, which, after years of
nowned Ethelfleda Alfred s daughter painful struggles and hard and desperate
who is generally known as "The Lady fighting, he had freed at last from the
of the Mercians." Dane, were somewhat brighter.
things
But though king Alfred had saved Christianity had not utterly perished, but
Wessex, and with Wessex indirectly a it was a feeble and dying church that

large part of central England, it was a sad Alfred had to do with, when at length he
and diminished realm that he entered was left alone in his ancestral dominions.
upon on the morrow of the decisive Schools and monasteries, churches and
peace of Wedmore. A
glance at the map abbeys, for the most part had gone down
showing the division of England by the before the pitiless Viking storm. But the
articles of that famous treaty, will show how king did not despair of a restoration for
large a portion of the island had, after all, the church he loved so well. All might "

passed under the permanent domination be set right,"

he wrote, u if
only we have
of the Danes. All northern, eastern, and stillness."

perhaps half of central Britain for eastern Nothing gives so vivid a picture of the
Mercia was reckoned as part of the Danish awful desolation which rested on the church

territory. And it must be remembered of Wessex (and other portions of Christian

that the Danish rule meant the substitution England were, as we have pointed out, in
of paganism for Christianity. With the a yet worse plight) as Alfred s own words

exception of Guthrun, the East Anglian written at a later period of his stormy, bril

ruler, whose conversion after the Danish liant reign. These striking words appear
rout of Ethandune was but precarious and in a preface he wrote to his translation of

doubtful, the Viking chiefs were pagans ;

his favourite book, Gregory the Great s

relentless foes of Christianity, whose shrines "

Pastoral Care,"
when that
"

stillness
"

they had destroyed.

pitilessly In the forwhich he had prayed so earnestly and
whole of the north of England the church touchingly, had for a blessed season settled
of Cuthbert and Aidan, of Bede and Hilda, over his kingdom. Alfred is addressing
had perished out of the land. A small his friend and adviser, bishop Wulfsig,
Christian remnant remained in the great of Sherborne, and looks back on what the
city of York, in which the pagan conquerors Church of England once was before the
had settled adopting it as
themselves, coming of the Vikings.
"

I wish thee to
their principal royal seat but its noble
;
know comes very often in my mind
that it

school was gone, and its library, once famed what wise men there were in England, both
throughout Europe, was a thing of the laymen and ecclesiastics, and how happy
past. Gone, too, were the mighty fen those times were to England ;
how the

abbeys, once the pride of central and kings who then had the government of the
eastern England. The ruin which had people, obeyed God and His messengers ;

befallen the Church of England, from how they both preserved their peace, their
878-901.] KING ALFRED. 375

customs, and their power at home, and tion immediately preceding the Danish
increased their territory abroad and how had very the
"

; invasion, little fruit of

they prospered both in peace and in war. books, they could understand
because
The sacred profession was diligent both to nothing of them, because they were not
teach and to learn, and in all the offices written in their own language. They say
which they should do to God. Men from our elders no doubt alluding to men
"

abroad sought wisdom and learning hither like Theodore, Hadrian, Aldhelm, and their

though we must now go contemporaries and pupils who held "

in this country,

out of it to obtain knowledge if we wish to these places before them, loved wisdom, and
have it." "So clean was it through it obtained weal, and left it to
fallenout of England, that there were very us When I thought of all this,
few on this side of the Humber who under then wondered greatly that none of the
I

stood their service in English, or were great and wise men who were formerly in
able to translate a Latin epistle into the English nation, and had fully learned

English, and I think there were not many all the

books, had not translated any part
beyond the Humber. So few such there of them into their own native tongue but ;

were that I cannot think of a single I soon answered myself and said, that they
instance south of the Thames when I began did not think men would ever become so
to reign Thanks be to God careless, and that learning would so decay."
that we have now some teachers in our The "Wessex and Mercia" which the

stalls."
great Anglo-Saxon king had with so much
The king same pre
in the course of the preserved from the all-conquering
difficulty
face gently refers to some past neglect and Viking, was, as far as men could see, a
lukewarmness which had come over the ruined land monasteries and schools
;

church, after those golden days of learning burnt, Canterbury sacked, Winchester
and religion which he had been regretting sacked, Sherborne sacked, the country
so bitterly and pathetically. We have "

harried, the commerce destroyed, Christi

only the name of
said Alfred, anity apparently dying, and those ministers
"

loved,"

being Christians, and very few of the duties. of religion who were left, sunk in terrible
When I remembered all this, then I ignorance. And yet Alfred did not
thought also I saw, before it was all spoiled despair. he could only have a season of
If

and burnt, how

the churches throughout peace and quietness, a respite from desolat
the English nation were filled with treasures ing wars and cruel raids, he believed
and books, and also with a great multitude he could bring back security and even
of God s servants." Then he mourns over prosperity to his country and, better ;

the decadence of true learning, which had still, that he would be able to restore

evidently began to creep over the land the influence of the waning and fast dying

before the coming of the Vikings, and the church, and win back for it something at
awful destruction and ruin which subse least of its ancient fame for learning.

quently followed in their footsteps. For Alfred, without doubt the greatest of
!
They," alluding evidently to the genera our English kings, a consummate general,
376 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

almost recklessly brave, a wise and pains A.D.

Peace of Wedmore ... ... ... 878
taking law-giver, a statesman in the highest "

Stillness
"

in England 6 quiet years... 878 884

sense of the far-reaching word, a patient Trouble with the Danes again 885886
"
"

Stillness in England
and devoted scholar and student, was first 5 quiet years... 887 892
War with the Viking Hasting and the
and foremost a man of God one who ;
Danes 893 897
believed with his whole heart and soul that
"

in
"

Stillness
England 4 quiet years... 897 901
the well-being of the people he loved so King Alfred dies, October 28th 901

well was intimately bound up with the

practice, not merely the profession, of a After the peace of Wedmore, Alfred en
pure Christianity. This Christianity, he joyed his longest period of quiet, lasting
felt, in common with those devout
and some six years 878 to 884. The restless
ardent souls who had laid so well its Danes under Guthrun, of East Anglia,
foundations amongst us, must be some who had consented to be baptised, soon
thing learned and cultured as well as sailed away from their East Anglian settle

pious and earnest, else it would utterly ments not, of course, giving them up
fail and saintly mission, and
in its high and commenced again their destructive
in the end would fade and die. on the banks of the Scheldt. Hasting,
raids

We possess no detailed information of the yet more dreaded sea-pirate, who

the successive steps which Alfred took to refused to become a Christian after the
restore the broken and ruined church life fight ofEthandune, also returned to the
in England. We
know he succeeded, Continent, and became virtually master of
however, in gaining for it once more a the country in Frank-land. But
"

"Loire

noble position among the churches of as inEngland, so on the Continent, these

Europe. We have to gather up incidental enemies of the human race now found
detailsand to piece them together, as in sturdy opposition. The first terror of
the next chapter, and thus to form our their fierce plundering bands had passed
story of his great work in building up away. The determined stand by king
again the well-nigh ruined fabric of the Alfred, and the Danish repulse from Wes
Church of England Wessex and in
in sex, had produced its effect and even in ;

"English"
Mercia. Peace, quiet some their favourite haunts along the banks of

period of rest from mere perpetual wars, the Scheldt and the Rhine, the Seine and
was what he longed for. If we only
"

the Loire, they found they had much

may have stillness,"

was the burden of hard fighting before them.
the prayer of the patriot-king then he ;
The year 884 found the pirate fleets,
felt that, with God s help, all might
yet dispirited by the resistance abroad, again
be set right. in England. Alfred, however, met them
The solemn prayer was partly granted, now on sea, as well as on land, and al
as such true prayers ever are.
all The though the sea-robbers were helped by
dates of the great reign of restoration may their East Anglian kinsmen, they were
from this point of view be divided as forced on all sides to retreat, the larger
follows : number again returning to the Continent.
878901.] KING ALFRED. 377

Nay, more : the treachery of Guthrun and included London in his Mercian govern
the East-Anglian Danes was severely ment. This was the year when, as is graphic
punished by a large slice being taken ally stated in the contemporary record of
out of Guthrun s eastern-counties terri the English Chronicle, all the Angel-cyn
"

tory, and annexed to the English king s \t.e. people of the Engles or Angles]
dominions. This gain to the cause of turned to Alfred, save those who were
Christianity included most of Middlesex, in bondage to Danish men." His power

ALFRED IN HIS STUDY.

with Hertford, Essex, and the important and reputation were now firmly established,
city of London, which henceforth became and his authority generally recognised
an English centre, and from this time, as as king of the England rescued from
"

was natural from its unrivalled position, the Danes." The Engle and the Saxon

gradually grew in commercial importance. were really fused for the first time,
The period of fierce fighting, which willingly, into one great people.
ended in the cession of London and the For about five or six
years again
"

still

home counties, came to an end in 886.

" "

ness "

was over the realm of Alfred from

His Mercian ealderman and son-in-law, who 886-7 to 893. During this period Guthrun,
acted as Alfred s sub-king in Mercia, now or East Anglia, who had received the
378 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [878901.

name of Guthrun-Athelstan when he was Chester. The wise military organisation

baptised after the victory of Ethandune, of Alfred, however, everywhere made

died (890). At his death the peace between head against the pirate foes, and in 897 the
Alfred and the East-Anglian Danish East- Anglian Danes retreated to their own
settlers was renewed. eastern-counties district, Hasting, while
In 893 the resistance on the Continent thoroughly again with his
foiled, sailed

to the northern ravagers was so stout, that long-ships, as he had done when defeated
the Vikings there again determined to in former years, to his strongholds in
attack England. In Germany their bands Frankland. Once more Alfred had
won u stillness
had suffered a terrible defeat at the close
"

for his England, and

of 891, and in Frankland the veteran from 897 to 901, when he passed to
pirate Hasting was pressed harder and his well-earned rest, the "

stillness
"

so
harder by the gallant resistance of the hardly won remained unbroken.
people whose country he had so long and
so ruthlessly harried. There was a double There were thus three short periods
invasion of Vikings in that year of fierce of peace between 878 and 901 short

struggle in England. In the south, two periods lasting, roughly, six, five, and four
hundred and fifty Viking crews landed near years each the intervals between each
;

Lymne, in Kent ;
and Hasting, too well being fierce and bloody wars, in
filled with
known already in England, with eighty which, hard and desperate fighting,
after

more long-ships, sailed up the Thames. the patriot English king always remained
Two armed camps one in Wessex, the victor. In these broken fifteen years all
other in Kent threatened the kingdom of Alfred work military work, legislative
s

Alfred in that dread winter of 893. In the work, church work, literary work was
following year Hampshire and Berkshire done done too by a worn and sickly
;

were harried by the invaders. For a year man, weakened by the constant attacks of
Alfred succeeded in preventing any further a mysterious and agonising disease.* Men
advance on the part of the invading hosts ;
have marvelled how the king, seemingly so
when a general rising of the Danes settled frail, and perpetually harassed with grave
in England in the eastern counties, in and painful sickness, found time in these
defiance of all their treaties, seemed once few short years to learn so much, to read
more to threaten Christian England with so much, to write so much. His faithful
ruin. But the work of Alfred was too friends, some of the profoundest scholars

strong to be shaken seriously, even by this of Europe, whom he had attracted to his

dangerous combination. For many months

* The nature
the flames of fierce war were indeed lit up of the malady is unknown ; but it

was manifested in long seasons of internal pain, at

in all parts of England, and we hear of
times almost agonising, and latterly almost inces
desperate fighting in East Anglia, in the sant. Cancer in some internal organ has been
neighbourhood of London, in the Cotswolds, supposed by some a peculiar form of neuralgia
;

by others. That the king was an almost constant

in the heart of the Severn valley as far west
martyr to pain during many years, is the one fact
;

even as Exeter ;
in the north-west round which is beyond doubt.
878901.] KING ALFRED. 379

court, tell us something of the secret of few probably in cities like Winchester or
his life. Gifted, no doubt, with rare Gloucester. These
villas, by his direction r

powers of memory, the king never lost a were adorned with gold and silver, and
moment ; every hour that he could snatch
halls after the manner of his northern
from his ordinary kingly duties he filled ancestors were constructed of wood and
with some well-chosen study. The book stone with rare skill. Goldsmiths and
was usually read aloud to him by one of cunning workers of precious ornaments
his scholar courtiers or chaplain ;
some were welcome at his court. Their beauti
times it was carefully marked for him to ful craft, we are told, was encouraged by
read himself. Not a moment of those the king We read of his delight in

precious years of stillness was ever

" "

arraying his grandson, prince Athelstan^

wasted, save when his weary malady laid when a child, with a purple cloak and
him for a time aside. jewelled belt, and gold-hilted sword. One
A simple device for measuring these fleet remarkable example of the goldsmith s
ing moments, devised by Alfred himself, is craft in the days of Alfred we still possess.
described to us by Asser. Six wax candles Some two hundred years ago, in Somerset,
of equal weight were made to last for near the river Parrett, not very far from th&

twenty-four hours. They were never Isle of Athelney the last refuge of the king
suffered to go out, one being always kept and his family before the supreme effort

burning. Each candle was twelve inches which resulted in the victory of Ethandune
long the inches were accurately marked,
;
was found a beautiful jewel consisting of
every inch thus lasting twenty minutes. a polished oval crystal, two inches long,
As the king on his frequent journeys was inlaidwith green and yellow mosaic repre
often sheltered in a draughty tent, a senting a figure sitting, holding in each
thin white horn case, transparent as glass, hand a lily. The enamelled crystal is set
was admirably (mirabile, says Asser) made in beaten gold, admirably worked and ;

for him, and Alfred was thus enabled with on the setting are engraved the words,
tolerable accuracy to watch the slipping "

Alfred had me wrought."

This price
away of every hour, and carefully to less relic is preserved in the Ashmolean
measure his precious time. Museum at Oxford.
Student though he was, Alfred never We
have dwelt at some length in the
neglected to keep up the necessary pomp next chapter, as belonging especially to
and state which belongs to a great our own story, on Alfred s care and
monarch, knowing well how impressive pains in the matter of building up again
was outward magnificence. He travelled, the ruined walls of the English church.
as was the habit of the Saxon kings, from Outside religious matters, and the things

royal residence to royal residence, so as to which immediately influence them, we can

be constantly present in the various only make brief allusions, but it must not
parts of his wide Mercian and Wessex be supposed that the restoration of the
dominions. Most of these villas or palaces church, her enthusiasms and her solemn
were in the midst of the royal estates ;
a order, her laws, and, above all, her
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

learning, occupied to the exclusion of towns were maintained by

fortifications of

other kingly duties, the mind and heart of payments. Yet in the new arrange
local

Alfred. We
have seen him in that weary ments for the small standing army and
warfare with the Danes, which occupied fleet, much of the expense naturally fell

the early years of the great reign, playing on the king. The royal revenue arising
the part of a brave soldier and a skilled from estates and other sources was very
strategist, never considerable, and

despairing even this sum Alfred

in days when all formally divided

seemed lost. We into two portions.

have traced that The one he ap
troubled life, plied to worldly

filled with cease expenses, the

less fighting up other to spiritual
to the glorious needs. The first,

victory at Ethan- then, went to the

dune, where he maintenance of

won the inde worldly power,

to the
pendence of half defrayal
of England and of war expenses,
the overlordship the new standing
of a still larger army and the
division of his fleet, now kept
native land. And constantly on a
when at length war footing to ;

some years of the cost and main

u
stillness
"

at tenance of his

last were his, court ;

to build

among his many Photo : H. W. Taunt, Oxford. ing work such

works for Eng- ALFRED S JEWEL, ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD. as for his own
land was the royal palaces,
creation of a standing army and of a which he largely rebuilt and richly adorned;

permanent fleet. and to defray the cost of the customary gifts

It is in Alfred s reign, too, that we find to strangers and others who visited and

any mention of the first formal "Budget."

It thronged his court. These often very
gifts,
is true that most of the more costly national lavish, to illustrious strangers visiting a
expenses were defrayed by local and indi friendly court, must have been a serious
vidual contributions. For instance, each charge on the royal treasury they were
;

man-at-arms was bound to serve for a time evidently a prominent feature in the court
without pay, and had to provide his own life of the kings of the north, from whom

armour and weapons and the walls and ;

Alfred was descended, and in his court many
878901.] KING ALFRED.
of their ancestral customs were preserved. picture of much of the court life of the
In the great epic of the Beowulf," a poem
"

Scandinavian kings of the sixth and

well known in the days of Alfred, the gifts following century.

MONASTIC CHARITY IN SAXON TIMES.

to the hero from the king and queen in the The second portion of the royal revenues
hall of Heorot were many and costly, and was allotted to very different uses ex
are carefully described. Whatever be the clusively for ecclesiastical and church
exact date of the "redaction" of this purposes. Onepart was set apart for alms
poem which we now possess, it is
perfectly giving and the poor; one part was given to
clear that it gives a vivid and accurate the new monasteries of Shaftesbury and
 382 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

Athelney ;
a third was devoted to educa well-nigh ruined church in England was
tion and the purchase of books ;
the king no doubt fostered and matured by the cir
was specially anxious by degrees to replace cumstances in which his life was cast. Not
the awful destruction of the monastic a century before the victory of Ethandune,
libraries by the Danes. Books were very which has been fairly called one of the
rare in Wessex when Alfred began to decisive battlesof the world, had made
set his hardly-won kingdom in order. him really king of half England, Alfred
The remaining fourth part of this, the knew that the island had been one of the
spiritual half of his income, was given chief world-centres of culture and learning
to help monasteries at home and abroad. and religion. All this culture and learn

ing and religion, and the beneficial influence

The
great king was scarcely fifty-two which naturally accompanied these things
years old when that noble life came to an had almost entirely disappeared had ;

end. "

Little by little men came to recog vanished as though they had never been.
nise in Alfred a ruler of higher and nobler Learning as well as religion had died of
stamp than the world had seen. I de the Danes. We must never be wearied of

sire, said the king, to leave to the men pressing home this truth, that the Danish
who come after me a remembrance of me Viking was not only a pagan, or not a mere
in good works.
"

His aim has been more indifferent pagan, but one whose life was
than fulfilled, and his memory has come vowed to the extirpation of Christianity.
down to us with a living distinctness The Viking Northman, Ostman, Dane,
through the mists of legend which time by whatever name we call him was
gathered round it. The instinct of the the bitter foe of the religion of Jesus.

people has clung to him with a singular His work and his wars, which colour
affection. The love which he won a with a sombre hue the whole story of the
thousand years ago has lingered round ninth century of our era, was the last and
hisname from that day to this. While bitterest uprisingof heathenism against
every other name of those earlier times Christianity. For a sad season it even
has all but faded from the recollection
"

seemed probable that it would win the

of Englishmen, that of Alfred remains But the Master willed it other
day.
familiar to every English child."* wise ;
and the great instrument of His
Providence, the captain of His host
Of Alfred s earnestness in religion there whom He raised up to roll back for
is no shadow of doubt but his extra ever the advancing tide of
;
paganism,
ordinary zeal in the restoration of the was our English hero-king, Alfred the
* Green "

Conquest," iv. Great.

.
 CHAPTER XVIII.

ALFRED S WORK FOR THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND ENGLISH LITERATURE.

The Ruined Church Its Ignorance as Alfred found it
of England His Fellow- workers Asser his
Biographer Limitations of His Realm Rapid Reorganisation of the Church
Alfred s Laws
therein A Restored Episcopate Scholastic Establishments Elevation of the Religious Ideal
Attempts to Restore Monasticism, and their partial Failure Alfred s Relations with Rome His
Estimate of Education and an Educated Clergy His own Early Training and Education Influence
of theSaxon Poetry upon his Mind Himself Becomes a Scholar And an Author His Works and
Marvellous Industry The Saxon Chronicle Alfred the Initiator of Modern Literature St. Neot.

in 901, Alfred entered into them, for few, if

any, could read them.

WHEN, his rest, at the comparatively The knowledge of Latin, once so familiar

early age of fifty-two, it was a a tongue to priest and monk, and even to

England from the country

very different nun, had vanished from the land in many
he had saved from the conquering Dane places. Pagan rites were gradually super
at the peace of Wedmore in 878. It was seding Christian services.
but a period of some twenty-two years, Bede had died in his lovedcell at Jarrow

and this short period was, as we have seen, in 735, and the peace of Wedmore was
so broken by wars and treachery that only less than a century and a half later but ;

about fifteen years of quiet can be fairly the change which had in that period passed
counted. As
regards the military power, over England was so tremendous, that the
the security, the commercial prosperity and historian, when he attempts to tell the true
wealth of England at the period of Alfred s story, feels that he may be charged with
death, we must content ourselves with the exaggeration. For well-nigh half a century
very briefsummary chap in the preceding afterBede s death, England, both in its
ter ;
own task concerns the Church of
our northern and southern divisions, had been
England, and of it we are now especially one of the chief places of education; per
to speak. haps the chiefest literary centre of Europe.
In the year 878, then, enthusiasm, order, the disciple of York and the "
"

Alcuin,
learning, had all vanished from the church minister of Charlemagne, had sought in
in Alfred s realm. The monasteries had England, and found in great numbers
well-nigh disappeared the abbeys were
all ; there, books and scholars to assist in the
mostly mere heaps of charred and black widespread literary and educational work
ened ruins; the remnants of the clergy of the all-powerful Prankish emperor.
and monks were utterly dispirited with ;
All this splendid development of literature

scarcely an exception, they were devoid of had been the work, we must remem
all learning ;
there was but a scant store ber, well -
nigh entirely of the Church
of books, for the libraries were well-nigh of England ; for, with rare exceptions,
entirely destroyed ;
and no one missed the scholar, the teacher, the writer of
384 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878-901.

poetry or of prose, was an ecclesiastic. once more was studied, and had become a
But when Alfred, in the year 878, looked favourite tongue to many. Hand-in-hand
out over his liberated but desolated realm, with the state, the Church of England
it had all disappeared monk and nun, recommenced its beneficent career of

books and literature, had vanished like a power and influence, the centre of edu
dream. In the north of England, monas cation and of all other works designed for

tery and nunnery and school had been the true welfare of the people.

really annihilated, Religion, as has

while in the mid been well said, was
lands and the south the groundwork of

(Wessex) his own Alfred s character.

kingdom the few Thus, while he la

of them that yet boured as perhaps

remained had quite
ceased to
homes of learning
and education. The
very priests of the
Church ofEngland
a sorry remnant
h a d p o s it iv e ly
no sovereign ever
be laboured before, to
ensure a certain
measure of security
for his people in
those restless war-
loving times, by the
creation of a stand

(Alfred tells us so ing army and the

himself) ceased organisation of a
even to be able to regular fleet of
read their books. armed ships ;
while
This was the he placed the ad
state of things in ministration of jus
the apparently dy tice on a new and
ing church of 878. PORTION OF SAXON WORK IN SHERBORNE ABBEY. nobler footing ;

In 901 the churches (Said to be contemporary with Aldhelm.) while he laboured

had been rebuilt ;
incessantly to se
the monasteries in had been re- cure the priceless advantages of educa
stored ;
had been organised in vari
schools tion for all sorts and conditions of men ;

ous centres libraries had been established a

; ;
his heart was ever fixed upon religion.
great and nourishing vernacular literature His writings which have come down
had sprung into existence a band of real ;
to us tell us this : that what he specially
scholars, able, practical men, as well as pro longed for was to restore the Church
found students, with the English king as of England to its old position of in
their patron and director, had set them fluence among the people. Without a
selves to reform, to rebuild, to reorganise powerful church, at once devoted and
the whole ecclesiastical system. Latin learned, Alfred felt that all efforts to
878901.] KING ALFRED. 385

make his people free and great and Wessex could the king find a man whom
strong would prove utterly abortive. he could trust to carry out his noble
His first care was to provide men who projects for the restoration of the Church
shared his lofty views on the paramount of England to its old position of holy
necessity for a strong church in a strong influence. Ethelred, archbishop at the
state for a church which could guide and
;
date of the peace of Wedmore, and who

influence, which could inspire men with lived until the year 889, was a loyal church -

SHERBORNE ABBEY AT PRESENT TIME.

high aims and a noble purpose. And man and good man, but was no efficient
a
few of such men, alas could be found
! counsellor of the great king no born leader
;

in his native Wessex. In Canterbury, of men such a period of reconstruction

in

for a long period no really great and and reformation, when a new foundation
devoted prelate had sat in the honoured had to be again promptly laid.

seat of Augustine. Its records tell us of Alfred was, however, more than simply
no illustrious church leader like Theodore ; king of Wessex ;
he was king of Mercia
its school, once so deservedly famous, had too, the formally acknowledged sovereign
produced no teacher as a successor to the of the largest portion of central England,
scholar Hadrian, Theodore s friend and since the last Mercian king Burrhed, flying
wise counsellor. Nowhere in his own from the conquering Danes, had died a
Y
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878-901.

pilgrim in Rome. The Danes only occupied from the well-known Westphalian mon
the eastern division of Mercia the central ; astery of Corbey, was brought over to
and west portion had become an integral assist in the organisation of the new West-

part of Alfred s realm from the date of the Saxon and Mercian religious communities,
peace of Wedmore. Mercia, in those and in the reformation of the few which
western districts which fell to Alfred s
yet remained. These brought with them
share, had been less harried by the many companions to aid them in restoring

Vikings than any other part of England ;

the ancient discipline and practices.
and in Worcester, under its energetic The best-known, however, of all the

bishop Werfrith, a remnant of the old king coadjutors was the author of the
s

learning and teaching seems to have been Biography of Alfred," whence most of
"

preserved even in the most gloomy period what we know concerning the inner life,
of the
Viking invasion. It was from the hopes and wishes of the great king, is
Mercia that Alfred chose his principal derived. Asser the learned, the devoted
advisers in his work
the regeneration
for friend of Alfred during the greater part of
of the Church of England. Among these his reign which followed the peace of
advisers the names are preserved of Wer Wedmore, was a Welsh ecclesiastic, a

frith, the bishop of Worcester of Athel- ;

monk of St. David s,
of great repute. He
stan and Werwulf, who were attached tellsthe story himself, how the king sent

closely to his person as his chaplains ;

and for him from his secluded home in the

later, Plegmund, whom he placed in far distant western border of Britain,

Canterbury when Ethelred the arch the monastery of St. David s. After his

bishop died in 890. long journey he came to the king s house

But for scholars for the work he designed called Dene, in Sussex, where Alfred asked
the church to carry on, the king had to go him to leave for his sake all that he had on
beyond the limits of England, so utterly the western side of the Severn, promising
had all learning died out of the realm. to recompense him with yet greater
From the famous monastery of St. Berlin possessions. But Asser could not give up
in St. Omer, he invited the monk Grim- his Welsh home altogether the British
bald to preside over the new religious scholar tells his life-story very vividly
house which he founded in his royal city and simply and he rode back again
of Winchester. Grimbald was a musician to his distant home. After promising
and singer ;
a most valuable acquisition in Alfred soon to return, he sickened of a
the constitution of a monastic establish dangerous fever, and was a sufferer* for

ment, where many services were kept up, twelve months and a week, and had little
and where variety and change were abso hope of life. He describes how Alfred
lutely needful. Grimbald, too, was noted sent to him during his long sickness to
for his knowledge of that perfect form of ask why he had never been again to see
ecclesiastical discipline practised in the him as he had promised. In the end he

greater Benedictine societies. Another agreed to spend half his time in the
monk of high repute, John, apparently Wessex country, and the other half in Wales.
878901.] KING ALFRED. 387

Asser s devotion to the king s service people. By English churchmen the names
never flagged ;
he remained one of the should never be forgotten of Asser,
chief ministers of the reign. His work subsequently bishop of Sherborne ; Pleg-
lay especially in the organisation of monas mund, archbishop of Canterbury ;
Wer-
teries and schools. Late in his career frith, bishop of Worcester Grimbald, the ;

probably only in the first year of Alfred s monk who refused to be archbishop and ;

son and successor, Edward he became John, the king s mass-priest, or chaplain.
bishop of Sherborne, and died in the year
910, nine years after the death of his In the laws of Alfred, the intensely
dear friend and master. But although religious spirit of the famous king ap
Asser was only raised late in his busy life pears in the curious Biblical mould in which
to one of the few Anglo-Saxon bishoprics, these laws were cast. As far as it was
we hear incidentally of his receiving rich possible the old Hebrew code, both in
rewards and high honours at different language and spirit, was introduced by
times from his grateful master. The king Alfred into the laws of the Anglo-Saxon

gave him the charge of Exeter and the people. The vast influence of the church
western parishes belonging to it in Wessex over the minds of great Continental
and Cornwall, an appointment peculiarly princes like Charlemagne is
clearly per
fitting for one of the ancient British stock, ceptible in the codes put forth at different
and trained as a monk in the immemorial times among the Franks. But this re
traditions of the renowned community of ligious influence is nowhere so manifest
St. David s. On one occasion Alfred, he as in the laws of Alfred. Many of these

says, gave him a costly silk pallium, prob had exclusive reference to the church, its
ably the insignia of some high office rights and privileges, its vowed servants.
bestowed upon him at another time the
;
It must be remembered that during

king presented him with a man s load of the long Danish wars, the land in many
"

incense," no doubt a precious gift for the districts had fallen under the influence of

use of the many churches the west,

in paganism the influence of the church
;

especially entrusted to the care of the was everywhere weakened, in not a few
favourite minister and adviser. Asser places it had entirely ceased to exist. The
seems also to have been the abbot of two great monasteries, the centres of Christian
monasteries. life and teaching, were well-nigh all

Round the king stood this little group destroyed. Even in such places as Can
of scholars he had gathered together, who terbury, their power and weight counted
loyally assisted their great master in his but very little. Of the bishops, some had
work of the regeneration of the ruined disappeared altogether those who were ;

land. They, together with him, rescued stillacknowledged in the ruined and deso
the Church of England from what seemed lated dioceses, with rare exceptions, were
a position of hopeless ruin and degrada men of little weight and scanty learning.
tion, and made her once more a command Thus not a few of the ecclesiastical laws

ing and beneficent influence among the of Alfred were directed against disorders.
388 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

which were largely owing to the presence of the treatment of these sheltered persons
and influence of paganism in the land. when in sanctuary was carefully provided

The performance of pagan rites and witch for. This, of course, in a country which
craft were made punishable offences. has narrowly escaped a return to paganism,
Punishments placed the
were decreed -------- ---------------- ,
Christian church

aga n st any in a peculiar

i

profanation of
TTGRBAMEEROIVE position of sanc
the Sunday or tity in the eyes

holy days. It of the people.

would seem as
do^urn
But, alas!
though the ob Alfred s realm
servance of Sun dcnun 1 u 1 m q imi -U>ndC
.-j pepj*um- tptCfi jnuri
"So
was not Eng
tt&dciti0m&nttpdonpGpfe otr ojxtiput mm Ja we under
day had largely land as
linn
(jclnnSon ptfif xvlij>}idej-*v>n jti-p imrppbbcfMd
ceased in what stand the term.
o(<)c- e ?
lrtpicl>| -jrc| |>no{)c>| Tiipolootil>a^
was rapidly be rerccan lyj -
>a Ixttrc demon 1i

efUl ffc uco

The sharp, clear
pofrte
coming pagan
>

mon cut statement of

p.| in^^ ?)i.)i. f nii
rtTily cl<in^^

England. Con vj?kmd.onj>an

ntort cfr fl>uK>ie> oncnaan-nu
pa
tw r the English
siderable and aJnc Chronicle, in its

special privileges reference to the

tn
were napj
given in year 886, eight
nolrt ojiopup ncfyaxida
layr kepc
these laws to the years after the
cj"<

Krohim litrraani mi
persons of eccle
<ft;e.1|><vmderJii

peace of Wed-
siastics. Every more, in a few
offence against a cMi words sums up
f upaliopn--]finnan
their individual the situation.

dignity was The Engles (or

rigorously pun Angles) dwelt in
ished. Those Northumbria
were rough days, and Deira, from
PAGE FROM AN ELEVENTH CENTURY COPY OF KING
yet anyone who ALFRED S TRANSLATION OF OROSIUS COMPEN- "
the lowlands of
presumed to fight DlCUa HISTORY OF THE WORLD." Scotland to the
in the sight of Museum MS. Tiberius B. if. 42.) hills of
(British Colt. Derby
the bishop or they oc shire ;

archbishop was fined a great sum. Robbery cupied Lincolnshire and the broad Fen
of church property was punished by the theirs, too, were the eastern
country ;

infliction of a double fine, and, in addition, counties from the shores of the Wash to

by the terrible penalty of the loss of a the banks of the Thames. Mercia, too,
hand !. The privileges of sanctuary in the was Engle it stretched, did this great ;

case of criminals and fugitives from justice dominion of mid-Britain, from the Fen
were carefully defined, and every detail lands to the Welsh mountain districts. The
878901 .] KING ALFRED. 389

south Yorkshire boundaries may be said already related, and with the burning of
roughly to have been its northern fron abbeys such as Peterborough and Crow-
tier. In the south, the Engles of Mercia land, Bardney and Ely renowned centres
reached to the of Christian
Hwiccian coun teaching and
try now roughly popular homes
Wo r c estershire, of learning the
G oucestershire,
1 fate of Christi
and Warwick anity in this wild,
shire. As the strange country
Chronicle says, of swamp and
"

All the Angel- fen, with diffi

culty won by the

"

cyn (Engles)
"turned to patient industry
Alfred,save those of the monk
who were under settlers, was
bondage to sealed.
Danish men." In Mid - Bri
But this was tain, too, the
no slight excep religion of the
tion. TheAngel- Crucified seemed
cyn inbondage doomed. The
to Danish men sees of Dunwich
were the inhabi- and Lindsey dis

tants of the appeared they;

larger half of were henceforth

England. The unneeded, for

pagan Viking there was no

had done his church to watch
work but too well over and to
and thoroughly. tend. At Lich-
So completely field the regular
was Christianity succession of
PAGE FROM A TENTH CENTURY COPY OB KING ALFRED
1
S
rooted out of
TRANSLATION OF BOETHIUS. bishops became
the north of (British Museum Cott. MS. Otho. A.\\.f. 104.)
broken and ir

England, that regular. The end

the great kingdom of Northumbria is said here, in Mid-England, seemed not far
to have positively remained without a mo distant. In York alone, out of northern,
nastic house to the verge of the Norman middle, and eastern England, was the
conquest. In the Fen lands the utter succession unbroken of the prelates who
destruction of the great abbeys has been sat in the seat of Paulinus. and of the
390 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

great archbishops who helped to make the follows. He placed at the head of ecclesias
school of York famous throughout the tical affairs a learned episcopate but even ;

western world. There, where the Danish here he encountered serious difficulties. To
king had fixed his seat of government, find men capable, according to his ideas
the chief priest of the conquered Engle of governing and organising, he had to
race was permitted to live on so the list ;
seek strangers and his chief advisers in
;

York in these sad times

of archbishops of church matters were drawn, not from his
remains entire. But it is but a list of own Wessex, but from Mercia, Wales, and
shadowy names. There is absolutely no even from the continent of Europe, as we
history, for the church of Northumbria have already related. So difficult was it for

had virtually ceased to exist. him to find learned men for the chief posts

Only in the south of England in in the church, that when he died several
Wessex and the Mercia west of Watling sees were left without bishops, owing to
Street, in Kent, and the district generally his inabilityto find scholars capable of
known as the home counties round Lon filling these high and difficult positions.

don, a later acquisition of Alfred could the
work of the king be carried out. Only in
these districts, rescued from the hands of
the pagan Danes, was the church built up
again. Christianity in East Anglia, ruled
over by the Danish convert Guthrun, for
Many schools were established, some in
connection with monastic establishments,
some independent of these communities.
Dean Hook even considers* that to Alfred s
foundations the English system of public-
school education must be traced. Alfred

many years was but a feeble influence in England who

desired that every youth in
the land, and shared but little in the great had wealth enough should be taught to
church revival of the south and west. read English, and afterwards, if they
Yet although confined to the kingdoms of hoped to be promoted to a higher rank,
Wessex and western Mercia, the Church should be instructed in Latin. This
of England as reconstituted by Alfred last acquirement seems especially to have
grew into power and influence with great referred to those who intended to de

rapidity, and was soon again reckoned vote themselves to the service of the
in learning and in piety a leading church church. He set up a special school
in the west of Europe. It endured, too ;
for the instruction of young nobles, in
and, as we shall see, gradually though slowly imitation of a similar institution of Charle
extended its influence northward and east magne, in his own court. Books were
ward in the island. That Alfred in the unfortunately very rare in England at this
face of such unparalleled difficulties could period. The magnificent libraries which
have re-laid so well the foundations of the had been one of the chief glories of Eng
Church of England is, perhaps, the most land had been well-nigh destroyed but ;

surprising fact and successful effort in her without doubt some of the precious
long and marvellous story. manuscripts from that of York had been
preserved, and when it became known
Briefly, what Alfred accomplished was as * "

Lives of the Archbishops."

 878901.] KING ALFRED.
that Alfred welcomed to his court all who could best understand it, I translated it

could bring him a book to add to the into English."

library of Winchester, the remnants of

The inner life of the church was purified

literature left at York would be carried and invigorated by an elaborate code of

southward. was thus probably that the

It church laws specially framed for its

text of many of the poems of Caedmon and guidance and regulation while the same ;

Cynewulf, unknown before, save as frag code guarded and re-affirmed its dignity

mentary lilts recited by wandering song- and privileges. Above all, the king raised

men, were brought to Wessex and the the whole

conception of the work of
south. These, put into the Wessex dialect, the church and her ministers. His ideal
soon became very popular.* Several other was perhaps too lofty for ordinary men,
famous works recovered by Alfred were and only in a few noble instances was
rendered into English. The great king attained ;
but his idea of the work and
set the example by turning into English office of the church in relation to the state,
himself the story of Bede for the use of his own
labours and high example, com
his people. Lives of saints, such as pletely changed the character of the dis
Adamnan s Columba, were put into an pirited and well-nigh
hopeless church,
English form. Many treatises and works which existed, but scarcely influenced the
on theology were also translated. English life of the harassed English people, in

prose may be said to have dated its rise the disastrous period which preceded the
from this impulse given to it by Alfred, as fight at Ethandune. When Alfred died
is more fully described a little further on. the Church of England had risen from its
The king s own words in his preface to the ruins it had once more won the
; respect
pastoral book of Pope Gregory the Great of foreign nations, and was playing an
vividly and simply set forth what was in important and most influential part in the
his mind when he set the noble example life and hopes of Englishmen.

of giving an English literature to his One weighty department of Alfred s

people. "When I remembered how the church work, in which he was by no

knowledge of Latin had decayed through means so successful, must be specially
out England, I began, among other various alluded In the story of Christianity in
to.

and manifold troubles of this kingdom, to England during the seventh and eighth
translate into English the book which is centuries, the centre of well-nigh all
called in the Latin Pastoralis, and in church and learning must be sought
life

English, Shepherd Book, sometimes words and found in the monasteries and nun
by word, and sometimes according to the neries which were so plentifully scattered
sense, as I had learnt it from Plegmund, over the land, notably in the northern
my archbishop, and Asser, my bishop, and part of the kingdom and in the Fen
Grimbald, my mass-priest, and John, my country ;
but even in Wessex, where mo-
mass-priest and when I had learnt it,
;
as I nasticism was less influential, there were
* not a few great and famous religious and
Compare remarks of Stopford Brooke in
"

Early English Literature." educational houses. The greater number

392 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878-901.

of these had disappeared in the successive more devout had fled to the woods and
storms of the long-drawn-out Danish wars, wilds, there to live as hermits ; the more
~

VIKING COMBS FOUND IN DENMARK (British Museum).

The few which remained, such as, for in active-minded and patriotic had exchanged
stance, Malmesbury, Glastonbury, and Can the convent for the camp, or, as in the

terbury, had sadly fallen away from the case of St. Augustine s (the once famous
ancient discipline. Utterly illiterate, we monastery and
Canterbury), school of
find them living without any definite rule. converted their monastery into a fortress,

Canterbury the mother church of England,

,
determined from behind stone walls to
the home of the school of Hadrian and defend their relics from profanation, and
Theodore, scarcely second in European the aged and infirm of their brethren from
*
repute to that of York, had been "twice violence."

sacked and almost deserted. Those who Alfred, in his far-reaching designs for

could earn a livelihood elsewhere were the rebuilding of the Church of Eng
unwilling to remain in a position so land, was earnestly desirous for the resto
liable to be attacked ;
the canons of the ration and rehabilitation of the religious
cathedral had taken their departure, and houses. For this object we have seen

archbishop Ceolnoth, who died in 870, that his

"

Budget
"

carefully set apart a

had been obliged to employ in the services portion of his yearly revenue. He estab
of his deserted church the secular clergy lished monasteries at Athelney and Win
who were detained in the city to protect chester ;
at Shaftesbury and
nunneries
or provide for their wives and families. the great king as their
Hyde acknowledged
Archbishop Ethelred, who succeeded founder. Of the house at Shaftesbury the
Ceolnoth at Canterbury the year before king s second daughter. Elswitha, became
Alfred accession, desired to expel these
s the abbess, and many noble ladies joined
(the secular clergy), and to supply their the princess there. Ethelfleda, another
places with monks; but monks to under and very famous daughter of Alfred,
take the duty he could not find. The *Dr. Hook :
"

Lives of the Archbishops."

878901.] KING ALFRED. 393

usually known as
"

Lady of the Mercians," into Alfred s designs for rebuilding the

the wife of Alfred Mercian viceroy or
s ruined church. But even there he was
earl of the Mercians, Ethelred, founded sadly disappointed. In and around Wor
the priory of St. Oswald under the walls of cester, where the learned and pious
Gloucester, endowed it with costly gifts, Werfrith was bishop, a few religious
and placed there the relics of the sainted houses seem to have taken firm root. But
martyr, king Oswald. Its picturesque in Wessex, in the days of Alfred, the
ruins are still among the glories of revival of monasticism was unpopular, and

Gloucester, and one ancient baluster, made no real way. In the abbey of Athel-
among the crumbling relics of the fair ney, founded by the king as a thank-
priory belonging to a later age, is still offering for the great deliverance from
shown as undoubtedly a bit of the early the Danes which had begun in the
work of Alfred s daughter, Ethelfleda. Somersetshire marshes, he could persuade
Alfred s queen, Elswitha, also dedicated no noble or even free West-Saxon to
at Winchester a nunnery to the
Blessed Virgin, "

for her soul s

salvation," where after the death

of her husband she might end

her days.
Yet, in spite of all this zeal and
careful work, Alfred s efforts to
restore monasticism were only
partially successful. In Northum-

bria, of course, he had no in

fluence ;
north of the Humber,
England was purely Danish. In
the eastern counties his power
was greater, but he could do little
even there to help the church.
The ruler of East Anglia, Guthrun-
Athelstan, the baptised Dane, to
the day of his death in the year

890, was a typical Viking chief

rather than a Christian prince. We
hear of him rather as the fierce
pirate-chief leading successful raids
PILLOW STONE FOUND IN A GRAVE AT HARTLEPOOL, SUP
in Frank-land, than as a wise and
PORTING THE HEAD OF THE PERSON NAMED ON THE
peace loving Christian ruler of
-
STONE, A.D. 7OO OR LATER.
East Anglia. In Wessex and
western Mercia, as we have seen, the become a monk, and the community was
restoration of monasticism entered largely made up of strangers from the Continent.
394 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

We may perhaps trace here, even at this different roads, Theodore of Canterbury
early period, the general recoil of the and Wilfrid York again accustomed
of

English mind, when the first attraction of our English church to look to Rome as
contrast with paganism had disappeared, the great centre of church life and influ
from the vowed celibate system. At all ence, and as the supreme arbiter in case of

events, although in Mercia and in Wessex disputes ;

as the fountain whence should
old religious houses were restored, and new issue at least the sanction to all appoint

ones built and endowed for communities ments to the chief places in the ecclesi

of both sexes, this part of Alfred s astical hierarchy ;

as the final court in all

church work was, on the whole, the least important questions of doctrine or ritual.

successful of all the noble strivings of this The influence and authority of Rome in
true toiler for God. England, until the Vikings had well-nigh

put an end to Christianity in the island,

As Alfred may be considered to have was, however, an undefined and general
refounded the Church of England, and one, though none the less real. But the
raised it once again from its ruined con period of Rome s undefined claims to the
dition to a position of influence and power obedience of the churches of western
in the land, it will be interesting to Christendom was coming to an end.
inquire what were the relations between Only some twenty years before the fight
this great and devoted churchman and at Ethandune and the subsequent peace
Rome to see whether the pretensions of
;
of Wedmore made Alfred a king indeed,
Rome supreme authority, advanced sub
to had the famous forgery of the False
sequently at a period not long after this Decretals been formally accepted as authen

time, and in a considerable measure then tic by Pope Nicholas I., who died in 867.

acceded to by the Church of England, Before these "

False Decretals
"

were acknowledged by the first real king
of England, to whom that church owes
so vast a debt of gratitude.
Fromthe time of Augustine in the last
took their
authoritative place in Latin Christendom,
the decretals, or letters, or edicts of the
bishops of Rome, to which the popes
could refer as precedents, as collected by

years of the sixth century, Rome, for a Dionysius, only commenced with Pope
considerable period, largely owing to the Siricius, near the end of the fourth century.

peculiar circumstances of Augustine s The records of the Councils were all

mission, claimed the right of interference preserved under the name of Isidore of
in the affairs of the church in the island. Seville. On a sudden appeared a new
We have seen how, owing to the success . collection of documents containing, besides
ful work of the Celtic missionaries, who decrees of certain unauthentic Councils,
had no commission from Rome, the in lettersand decrees of the twenty oldest
fluence of the great and masterful Roman popes and bishops of Rome, reaching from
see for many years counted but little in Clement of Rome, in the first century of
the Celtic churches and daughter-churches the Christian era, or positively from Apos
of Northumbria. Then, though travelling tolic times. These also bore the name of
878901.] KING ALFRED. 395

Isidore as the original collector. In these archbishopric of Lichfield at the Synod of

documents the assertion appears and Cealchythe or Calcuith, held in 785, some
reappears that the Church of Rome was hundred years before the reign of Alfred,
directly constituted head over all other Pope Hadrian I. sent two legates from
churches by our Lord Himself; and it is Rome to be present at the synod, hoping
alleged that the
episcopal chair of St. thus to establish precedent for the
a

Peter, for the sake of convenience, was appearance of legates from the see of
transferred from Antioch to Rome. In these Rome at synods of the Church of England.
marvellous documents, the Popes of Rome But if this was in reality Pope Hadrian s
appear from the first the guardians and design, it failed, for this was the only
legislators of the faith throughout the world. recorded presence of such Roman legates
There is much that is curious and at any council of the Anglo-Saxon church.

interesting in these False Decretals, but Some of the solemn decisions of Rome in

they abound in anachronisms and in con the case of Wilfrid, bishop of York, in the
fusion in the order of events. They are seventh century, were carried out, but not
now generally given up, and are acknow all. The pall, in the case of the arch

ledged to be the work of some mistakenly bishops, was always conferred by Rome ;

zealous canonist in the ninth century. but with this exception, there was little
They were probably completed towards regular interference with England on the
the end of the first half of the ninth cen part of the Italian see. Indeed, the close
tury, at Mainz. Pope Nicholas I., who and intimate connection between England
reigned 858 to 867, was the first pope who and Rome seems rather owing to the deep
formally referred to these Decretals as " "

veneration which the princes who ruled in

authentic and authoritative documents ; England seem ever to have felt for the
but from his days they formed the basis of sacred city and her immemorial traditions,
the enormous and arrogant pretensions of than to any direct claim to obedience
the Roman see to a sovereign and abso advanced by the Popes. The pilgrimages
lute rule over all other churches. From from England to Rome were constant.
the middle of the ninth century, until the Alfred himself in early youth visited Rome,
Reformation in the sixteenth century, the in company with his father, king Ethel-
authority of these strange forgeries was wulf and the impressions which he
;

almost unquestioned. received on the occasion of that visit were

We shall before
long find these pre never effaced. After he had become really
tensions, largely based on the False Decretals king in England we read of costly gifts being
above referred to, advanced in England ; interchanged between Alfred and the
but up to the days of Alfred the authority Pope, whom
evidently the great English
claimed by Rome was, as we have here king looked up to as the centre of Christ
stated, somewhat uncertain and vague. ianity with
;
whom he wished to live in
It will be remembered how, during the close and intimate communion and to ;

supremacy of king Offa of Mercia, when whom he clearly looked as the supreme
that sovereign determined to establish the arbiter in matters of faith, even acknow-
396 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

ledging his over-lordship in the church ;

of all matured plans
his carefully for the

for Alfred seems to have sent money and restoration of church life.

gifts to the Roman prelate every year. This was the secret of Alfred s love,
But here the and supremacy of
influence zeal, and successful work for the Church
Rome over the English church apparently of England. The king felt that the
ceased. Alfred was evidently supreme in combat was not alone between gallant
ecclesiastical matters in his own kingdom. and devoted patriots fighting against
We read, for instance, of his issuing the the Northern pirates for the inde
tamous Pastoral in his own name, refer pendence of their lands and homes,
ring to Plegmund as
"

my archbishop."
but between the religion of Jesus and
He undertook, in right of his royal
also the religion of Woden and Thor, the idol-

power, to admonish his bishops. read We deities of Scandinavia. He was well aware
of no reference to Rome in any ecclesi that the memory of Ethandune, glorious
astical matters connected with England. victory though it was, would soon be wiped
The king appointed his own nominees to out, unless he could set up and establish
the vacant sees, and (apparently because a great Christian England as a bulwark
he could not find sufficient men of learning) against the pagan North. So while he neg
positively allowed several sees to remain lected nothing which could strengthen his
vacant. This was the case at Alfred s country as a great military and naval power,
death. We may therefore conclude that his real work, the work upon which his

the Church of England, as restored by heart was fixed, was to build up a devoted

Alfred, was absolutely independent of the and earnest, a learned and cultured church
Roman although the most intimate
see, in England and ;
in the successful prosecu

relations were ever maintained between tion of this noble and patriotic work
king Alfred and the Pope. must be sought and found his true
title to honour, his best title to the love
Alfred was an indefatigable scholar and and veneration which, halo-like, has
student but his passion for study was
;
encircled Alfred s head for a thousand
enormously stimulated by his persuasion storied years.
that England conld only rise from its pre
sent fallen and ruined condition if closely There was little learning at the court ot
united to the church, and that the church, his father, Ethelwulf. Books were very
to do its duty, must be a community scarce, and men who could read them
learned and highly cultured. He was scarcer still. The great king tells us
intensely convinced
that the church, himself in later days, that in his youth,
before it could carry out its high and bene "when he had the
age and ability to learn,
ficial mission, must he could no
possess all the neces find masters." Asser, his

sary material for educating the people and biographer, relates that
faithful friend
varied learning in its bishops, monks, and he remained illiterate till he was twelve
priests, schools and libraries. This con years old or more. What he learnt in the
viction of the king was the groundwork days of his youth was gathered from the
PREACHER SINGING IN THE HIGHWAY (/. 399).
398 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

lips of the song-men in the royal mead- king Ethelwulf and his thanes to wile
hall, who in the eveningtide would sing away the long winter evenings of their

to his father and his warrior thanes the war- wearied days. He would listen with rapt

grand old English songs. This was the attention while the Widsith, the wander

only literature which seems to have been ing song-man, would open his word-hoard
popular in those days of war and disaster. and sing to king and thane the glorious
But these old lilts were graven on the "

Dream of the Rood of Cynewulf,

"

or the

boy s heart, and were never forgotten ; great poem of The Christ."
"

they begat in him that enduring love for Religion was painted in these strange
poetry which lived in him all the days of weird poems, which resemble nothing else
his stirring work-filled life, and helped not that has ever been written since, with a
a little to shape and mould his singularly winning attractiveness to men engaged
winning character. in a deadly warfare for home and hearth.
No land had such a store of songs as The sacrifice of the Son of God, with its

England. It requires no stretch of fancy undreamed-of self-devotion so brave, so

to picture the boy Alfred listening while the
Widsith, or wandering song-man, chanted to
king and thane the story of Beowulf, the
god-descended hero, who fought and
vanquished monsters, enemies of man, but
who lived in friendship with all heroic
natures. The famous hall of Heorot, the
touching, so tender, so utterly unselfish this
was a god surely worth fighting for, dying
for ! We read now the wild and passionate
poems of Cynewulf and his school with
cold and critical eyes, mostly in the form
of a more or less literal translation, and we
are quite unable to conceive the impression

king and queen and chieftains who were these lilts must have made on the hearts of
delivered from the foul fiend by Beowulf s men engaged in that awful war-game with
valour, resembled closely the royal hall, the seemingly countless hordes of sea-
and those who sat therein with his father, pirates, when the stakes included religion
whom Alfred remembered so well. The and law, home and hearth, wife and child.
friends with whom
Beowulf fought were Songs and chanted recitations, in those sad
well represented by those wicked pirate times,enormously influenced men s hearts.
Vikings who were desolating England. Heroes in the midst of battle sang as
"

The deeds of gallant daring of which, at they advanced, like Harold Hardrada at
so early an age, Alfred was the hero, we Stamford Bridge, or Taillefer, the minstrel

may well suppose were largely inspired of duke William, who sang the song of

by such stirring songs. Nor were the Rollo before the Norman host at Hastings.

splendid and unselfish acts of the great Vikings, as they drove their ships through
Norse hero all that the boy heard in the gale or stormed a town on the
these evening pass-times. Strange and river, shouted their hymn of defiance

moving recitals belonging to the Christian to the sea, or their praises of their ship.
from the inspired poets of the great
story, Warriors chanted their deeds of the day
Northumbrian school, were no doubt often in the hall at night, as Woden s chosen
the themes of the song-men who helped did in Valhalla. The old chiefs sang the
878-901.] KING ALFRED. 399

glory of their youth their very swords where the cross standing with its foot
"

and spears were thought to sing. Then the on Sion s hill, rises till its top strikes the
wanderer who came into the hall to claim sky? All the assembled hosts look upon
hospitality sang his stave of thanks, or it. Nor is it difficult to see, for by its

versed for the chief in the high seat who light all things are seen. The sun is
gone,
he was. The king himself often broke in it shines instead of the sun ;
it is the

with his tale, and seized

harp, the as brightest of all beacons ;
all shade is

Hrothgar did in Heorot, in the old Norse banished by its brilliance. From head to

saga of Beowulf. Even eloquent Christian foot it is red, wet with the blood of the
preachers like Aldhelm sang ancient songs King of Heaven. Christ is seen by all

in the public ways to draw people round the multitude of good and evil crucified
them. In the women s chambers also the upon it. The good see it, and it brings
old lays were sung. Alfred, we are told, brightness to their souls. The evil see it

sang the ballads of his people at his for their torment."

mother sIn the evening recitals,

knee. The image
of the towering tree bearing
the player beat his harp in time with the the Crucified was a favourite one. Often,

thoughts and images of his songs his
voice rang out the alliterated words and
accented syllables of the verses gesture
; probably, had the boy Alfred heard it, in
these rapt assemblies of the royal mead-
;
hall now as the mighty Rood illumin
"

accompanied and exalted the things ating with its ruddy light the heavens and
described the listeners often joined in,
; earth, and all the hosts of angels and of
moved to excitement, and the whole men summoned from their graves to judg
chorus of voices filled the hall and the ment now the same
;
tree shining through
* a golden light, and over-wrought like a
monastery."
Fromsuch impassioned instructors the Rood at Ripon or Hexham with jewelled
young Alfred, who for years had no other lines of ornament, or veiled in a crimson

tutors, drew the inspiration which made mist and streaming with blood the
him the hero-king, the desperate patriot- strange tree, alive and suffering with every
warrior of a hundred deadly fights with pang of the great Sufferer, shivering
the enemies of his country. But they through every vein of it when Christ,

taught him other things than war. It was the young hero, clasped it round, and
from the religious songs of Cynewulf that mourning when He lay beneath, and
the future rebuilder of the Church of longing to fall on and crush His foes, and
England perhaps first learned the story conscious all the while that on it,
on as

of Christianity. Where, for instance, in a field of battle, Death and Hell were con
the prose or poetry of any race is a quered." In one passage of extraordinary

grander, more impressive, or more soul- power and beauty in "The Christ," the Re
inspiring conception to be found than the deemer is painted turning to the great
theme of the Holy Rood in the "Christ of
"

Rood as a Roman Catholic preacher now

Cynewulf or in his "

Dream of the Rood,"

and again turns to the Crucifix and point
*
ing to Himself hanging there, cries to the
"

Early English Literature" (Stopford Brooke).

400 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [878901.

vast host of the lost,

"

See now the deadly had died some six or more years before
wounds which men once made upon my the incident in question showed Alfred, "

palms, and also on my feet, by which I then a boy about fourteen years old, and his

hung fastened most

bitterly. Here, too, brother a manuscript of the Saxon poetry.

mayest thou look on the wound, blood- The boys were especially attracted by the
streaming on my side. O, how uneven beautiful illuminations of the book, no
between us two the reckoning Why ! doubt one of the treasures which Judith
didst thou forsake the glorious life I had brought from her old Frankish home,
bought for thee through love ? Give me where it had probably originally been in

back thy life which I gave thee. Why the costly library of her grandfather,
hast thou crucified me worse upon the Charlemagne. The young queen promised
rood of thine hands than when of old I to give the precious volume to the boy

hung upon that tree ?

"

who would first learn the contents of the

The extraordinary influence which these book." Asser repeats the very words
early recitations had upon the life of of Alfred when Judith made the sug
u Will
Alfred dwelt upon with much insistence
is gestion :
you really give that book
by those who have given us studies t of
all to the first of us who can understand and
that life so all-important to the
"

his life repeat its contents to you ? Judith

history of our English church. Asser, his smiled, and confirmed her first offer. After

contemporary and friend, especially men a time, goes on the story, Alfred came and
tions these Saxon poems, and how he recited to her the poems of the book, and
loved them. Long after the king became so won
the prize.
himself a great scholar, and deeply read in But this national poetry, which exercised
all kinds of
literature, these national" songs, throughout his life so great an influence
kept their hold upon him. He had on the hero-king, although it was the
learned many of them by heart ;
he took foundation of the knowledge which he
care that they should form part of his acquired in his later life, and the most
children s training. probable source of his subsequent devotion
As illustrative of Alfred s early love for to theological studies, was by no means
poetry, Asser tells a well-known story the only study to which, by his example,
of his young step-mother, the he gave an overwhelming impulse in the
Judith, %

daughter of Charles the Bald of France, new England he succeeded in making.

whom his father, Ethelwulf, married as he We have seen how he gathered round
returned home from his Roman pilgrimage. him from foreign countries that group
"

One day," says the old chronicler to of learned and pious men who helped
whom we owe so much of our knowledge him so loyally and devotedly to restore
of the noble Saxon king, "

his mother "

the religion he prized so highly to

Asser, of course, is
alluding to his young his country.
"

As we were one day sitting

step-mother, Judith, for his own mother in the royal chamber," writes Asser, his
* "

Early English Literature." (S. Brooke.) most intimate associate and counsellor, "and
t See especially Green Sharon Turner Pauli.
; ;
conversing as was our wont, it chanced
871901.] ALFRED S LITERARY WORK. 401

that I recited to him a passage out of a
certain book. After he had listened with
fixed attentionand expressed great pleasure,
the king showed me that little book which
he always carried with him, and in which
the daily lessons, Psalms and prayers were
only fragments of the work have come
down to us through William of Malmes-
bury, in whose time it was evidently well
known. Pauli, in his life of Alfred, says it
must have contained, besides a collection
of passages from the Latin authors, many

written, and he asked me to copy the notes in the king s own hand, relating to

JUDITH AND THE SONS OF ETHELWULF (p. 400).

passage he had been listening to into his the early history of his people, and prob
book but we found there was no room for
;
own family. How many of
ably, too, of his
it, Alfred having filled up every corner with his own thoughts also have been lost with
his own The king and his friend
notes." this private book !

then arranged another commonplace-book, We have, however, much of Alfred s own

into which striking passages might at once composition still with us for in the four
;

be copied, for Asser or another royal secre teen or fifteen years of quiet which were
tary were constantly engaged in reading given to the king in answer to his prayer,
aloud to their master. This book was before he passed to that other and pro-
termed by Alfred his Manual or Enchi founder the sure heritage of all true
rest,
ridion. The precious manuscript is lost ;
servants of the Master, the king became, for
4O2 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [871 901.

the church and country s sake, a profound treatise in the Middle Ages bears witness
scholar and even writer. It is from his own to its
importance and value, and helps
writings that we learn what Alfred did for to show us why Alfred selected it as
the church he loved so well, the church the text-book upon which he based the
he found a ruin and left a stately edifice. remarkable epitome of his own thoughts
Of these works, perhaps the most impor and views which accompany his translation.
tant were his translations of Boethius "

In the Middle Ages, wherever," writes

famous "

Consolations ;
"

a rendering of the Pauli, "a

newly-formed language was
"

Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory

"

the applied to literature, a translation of

Great ;
a Saxon version of the Latin Boethius work into the popular dialect

"History"
of Bede of Jarrow and a trans ;
was never omitted. We find one in the

lation of the
"

Chronicle of the World," most ancient form of high-German, in the

by Orosius, the friend of Augustine. Provencal, in Norman, and even Chaucer
We call them translations, and so they made one when he gave her language to
were renderings from the Latin of those England. Alfred seems to have studied
old famous Christian scholars, into the this book above all others."

familiar Wessex Saxon dialect understood His "

Bede "

was a yet more direct

by people over whom Alfred ruled for the ; appeal to the church for which he was so
Latin tongue, alas in the days of Alfred !
anxious, and yet so hopeful. The king
was well-nigh a lost language in England, would have every churchman, lay or
unread alike by layman or ecclesiastic. cleric, master the thrilling story of the
They were, however, far more than mere preaching of Christianity to their North
translations masses of fresh matter con
;
men ancestors. He would have them
taining the king s own thoughts and study well Bede s pictures of monastery
feelings, his views, hopes and ideals, and nunnery then crowded with devout
amplify the original text ;
sometimes and earnest men and women. The stirring

entirely suppress and replace it. Alfred examples of the devoted Engle missionaries
occupies so great a position as the Aidan, Cuthbert, Chad, and others, he
founder and reorganiser of the Church of would set before the ignorant and some
England after its great disaster at the what slothful monk or cleric of his time ;

hands of the Danes, that it will be worth and thus he hoped to stir them up to
while to describe a little in detail these emulate in some faint degree, at least
special works, which occupy the place of the noble, generous life led by so many of
manifestoes of the king to the church, their fathers in the faith. The story of the
" "

as well as being weighty pieces of litera glorious works of Wilfrid and Benedict
ture given in the English tongue for general Biscop, and the stately piles which they
study and use, to a church from which built in their day, should be a lesson to the
order and discipline had well-nigh, and men who, with folded inert hands, were
learning had entirely vanished. content to gaze on the blackened ruins of
As to Boethius Consolations of Phil "

monastery and abbey which disfigured the

osophy,"
the vast popularity of this desolated England of his generation.
871 9 01 -] ALFRED S LITERARY WORK. 403

Yet more
direct, perhaps, in its influence Psalms the latter was interrupted, appar
;

upon the Church of England, was Alfred s ently, by the death of the king. Besides
translation of the Pastoral Care
"

of
"

theological works, Alfred translated and

Gregory the Great, a work in which the enlarged the "Chronicle of the World"

Anglo-Saxon king took peculiar delight. by Orosius, Augustine s friend. This was
It was especially calculated to awaken a a general summary of history and geo
nobler spirit in a church where enthusiasm graphy peculiarly valuable, for it contains
and self-devotion had in a measure faded a sketch of the chief German nations in

away. The emperor Charlemagne and the Anglo-Saxon king s time, and an
his advisers had already made this Pas account of the voyages of Othere to the
"

toral Care the standard of procedure, in

:

and of Wolfstan s Baltic voyages.

far north,

their work of reformation among the Geography was a favourite study of Alfred,
Prankish churches. It was soon after the who eagerly sought after all the geo
selection of Plegmund for the archbishop graphical knowledge available in his day.
ric of Canterbury, in 890, that this We owe also to Alfred the English
book was put out by the king. He was version and the enlargement of the
evidently assisted by Plegmund but much ;
Saxon Chronicle. To the ordinary reader
of the work was done by Alfred, and the the English Chronicle, up to the days
admirable preface, already referred to, was of Alfred, when it broadens out into a
by the king s own hand. In it he tells us vivid and picturesque narrative, presents

why he undertook the task, and sets forth but few features of special interest. It

the high aims which inspired him when he reads generally like a dry series of dates
sent the volume he had prepared with so of the many years which the record
much care to every bishop in England. covers, each year recording some acces
The preface, as already quoted in the sion of West Saxon king or bishop, or just

preceding chapter, eloquently reminds his mentioning some bloody battle, or terrible
readers of the past, when the church siege, or ruthless invasion. Nothing is

occupied a very different position among written, scarcely, to relieve the dreary
the people and presses home to them
; monotony of the entries. It is only when
the truth of which the patriot king was the work is examined, and its history told,
so intensely convinced, that the lost that the enormous value and importance

glory and influence of the church could of the chronicle appears. Its story seems
only be won back when a real love of to be as follows :

learning again animated her rulers and The year 635 witnessed the conversion
Christian teachers. and baptism of king Cynegils, of Wessex,
Other religious works are attributed to by bishop Birinus, in the presence of
the pen of Alfred, besides these we have Oswald, king of Northumbria, in the royal
been referring to as being perhaps the city of Dorchester. Birinus removed the
most important for instance, the Anglo-
;
seat of the West Saxon bishopric from Dor
Saxon Anthology, from a composition chester to Winchester. Like most other
of St. Augustine ;
and a portion of the early Saxon and Engle religious houses,
404 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [871901.

the episcopal monastery founded at Win by Swithun, of Winchester, somewhere

chester seems to have had its chronicle or about the middle of the ninth century,
which was more than a meagre represent the gleanings and reconstruc
"

roll, little

series of entries of the dates of accession tion of the half-lost history of Wessex at
of kings and bishops, with a few notable the time of the first compilation (circa
events interesting to the abbot or monastic 855) by bishop Swithun." This section
scribe. From the days of Birinus onward of the Chronicle, containing annals from
the Winchester roll was continued, until 449 to the end of the Northmen s con
the death of king Ina of Wessex, when quest, is seemingly made up from oral
troublous times distracted Wessex and tradition of events precious to the people,
disturbed the peace of the monastery ;
from rare fragments of bardic poems, some
then the entries in the roll apparently of which, it will be remembered, we have

ceased. already quoted and used for this present

Swithun was the preceptor of Egbert s history, and lastly, from the official roll of

son Ethel wulf. In the year 838 he kings, which even in the most illiterate

became bishop of Winchester, and during period seems to have been carefully pre
Ethelwulfs reign was his principal adviser. served. The peculiar value of these
Quieter and more settled times had com additions of Swithun consists in their
menced with Egbert, and the roll of
" "

being, outside the bardic poems, and the

the episcopal monastery of Winchester, curious work of Gildas, the one solitary

begun by bishop Birinus, was taken up record ot the conquest of Britain by the

by bishop Swithun, who interested him North-folk.

selfmuch in this record. Swithun and King Alfred, aided apparently in this
his scribe seem to have done three things instance by
archbishop Plegmund of
with the old They up the gap
roll. filled Canterbury, about the years 887-890,
in the records which occurred after the stimulated probably by the wide interest
death of king Ina in 726 they continued ;
excited by his translation of and notes
the Chronicle by a series of interesting upon Bede s great ecclesiastical History,
entries, with greater detail, of events took up the Winchester Chronicle, en
which happened in their own age and, ; larged and enriched by bishop Swithun s
what was most important of all, bishop care, and translated it from the Latin, in
Swithun and his scholar-scribe prefixed "

which form it then existed, into English,

to the opening of the Chronicle those or what is
generally known as Anglo-
broken traditions of the coming of our Saxon. Alfred and his scholars prefaced
fathers, which, touched as they are here the Chronicle thus translated with an
and there by mythic intermixture, remain introduction drawn from Bede, adding to
the one priceless record of the conquest of it besides many details, also
copied from
Britain by the North-folk.* These annals,
"

the monk of Jarrow s history.

thus apparently embodied in the Chronicle Thus the English Chronicle, which
* Earle: "Two Parallel Chronicles" (Intro originally consisted of the meagre entries
duction). of bishop Birinus and his successors, was
871901-] ALFRED S LITERARY WORK. 405

continued and enlarged by bishop Swithun, bishop Swithun work, with the Bede
s
" "

to whose loving care and scholarly industry extracts, went on with it, making entries

we owe much of this curious tapestry of of events belonging to their own times.

iw
Tiiy bpgfew-jv

tin:
ffcr^ ^9?ti> yij?.IfiA/ct-<iLt

PAGE FROM THE MS. OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. CONTAINING

THE ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF ASHDOWN.*
(Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.}

early memories made up of almost forgotten But no longer limiting its entries to a
bardic poems, Runic inscriptions, and oral simple record of the accession of kings and
traditions. King Alfred and his scholars,
* This MS.
among whom, in this case, archbishop (end of gth century) is the oldest of
f the An s *> Chronicle.
Plegmund seems to have been specially * ftSRi/SS
The name
of Ashdown f>-
(aecesdune) may be seen in
employed, after translating and enlarging the fourth line.
4o6 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [871901.

the consecration of bishops, to the bare No mention has been made, in the fore
mention of certain battles and sieges and going study of king Alfred, of St. Neot,
invasions, under
English Alfred the who has been in various histories often
Chronicle widens out into a vivid history brought into connection with the works
full of interesting details. and days of the great king, upon evidence
The influence of the work of Alfred that will not bear critical examination.
extended far beyond his own many St. Neot supposed to have aided the
is

and diversified works. The royal ex king in the foundation of the schools of

ample had the effect he intended. The Oxford. Much has been said and written
scholars he gathered round him were the on this
"

Oxford foundation "

of the king.

pioneers of a new and vigorous school It is, however, too precarious an assumption
of English writers. Although from the to deserve grave mention. Sharon Turner
days of our great scholar-king, Latin was a evidently believes in the existence of this
familiar study in the church schools of the St. Neot, who, in a work of Asser, the

land, yet the literature of the country, in genuineness of which has been called in
accordance with Alfred s wish, became question by critics, is called Alfred s kins
almost wholly vernacular. "

Among the man. Pauli, in his well-known "

Life of
literatures modern Europe, that of
of Alfred," does not hesitate to term St. Neot
England the way. Of the German
led a purely mythical personage ; perhaps too
folk across the sea, none were to possess a sweeping an assertion, for he qualifies it

prose literature of their own for centuries subsequently by a suggestion that

"

Alfred
to come. English, therefore, was not only in his earlier years may have been con
saint, who lived in the
the first Teutonic literature it was the nected with this
earliest prose literature of the modern south-west England, and flourished
of
world. And at the outset of English unquestionably about the middle of the
literature (especially in theology) stands ninth century and that the king;
"

the of Alfred." *
figure (when young), holding him in high
* Green :
"

Conquest of England," chap. iv. See estimation, may have taken advice from
generally Pauli s exhaustive "Life of Alfred"; him. This
Neot, however, was already
St.
Sharon Turner History of the Anglo-Saxons,"
:
"

dead in the year 877, when,

especially book v. Earle and Plummer ;
Two :
"
according to
Saxon Chronicles"; Dr. Giles: "Anglo-Saxon a legend, he appeared to the
king in
Chronicles" S. Brooke: History of Early English dream when Alfred was encamped at
"

; a
Literature and Dean Hook
"

; Lives of Arch :
"

bishops Plegmund .
Athelney, before the fight at Ethandune.
 CHAPTER XIX.

A GREAT ANGLO-SAXON CHURCHMAN AND HIS TIMES.

Alfred s successors Edwardsubjugates the Danish part of England, and receives homage from Scotland
Athelstan Edmund Edred Edwy Edgar Decline of religion during this period Birth
and early life of Dunstan Work at Glastonbury Educational and literary revival Continental
revival of monasticism Dunstan s connection with the movement in England Peculiar difficulties
in England Archbishop Odo His pastoral letter Death of Edred Edwy and Elgiva Accession
of Edgar Dunstan Prime Minister His reforming work His own moderation in reform Brief
reign of Edward, ended by his murder Ethelred the Unready Retirement and last years of
the great statesman-ecclesiastic Legends and honours Biographies Different views of
Dunstan s character.

r\ AHE story of the period stretching warrior and a ruler, and was inferior to
from the death of Alfred in A.D. 901 him in nothing except in those literary
to that of archbishop Dunstan in labours which were so peculiarly Alfred s

988, when Ethelred the Unready was king, own."

shows how well and solidly our hero-king During the nine years of Edward
first

had laid the foundations of a great and the Elder s reign, save an attempt on the
powerful England. His work must never part of his cousin Ethelwald, the son of
be measured by the state of his realm Alfred s elder brother Ethelred, to dispute
at the date of his death his ailing, ;
his kingly title an attempt* which was
suffering was brought to a premature
life soon repelled the peace of England was
close, the king being little more than little broken. The English Danes were
fifty years of age when the end came. more or less cowed by their repeated
It can only be fairly measured when repulses in the days of Alfred, and the
we take into account what his successors foreign Vikings were largely occupied in
were enabled to do so rapidly, building northern Frank-land, where Rollo was
upon the sure foundation their great consolidating his power at Rouen and in the
ancestor had laid so well. Seine valley a permanent Viking settle

Alfred s successor, Edward the Elder, ment that brought in its train momentous
reigned twenty-four years over England. consequences. During these nine years
It has been truly said of Edward, that it "

Edward was not idle. In conjunction

isonly the unequalled glory of his father with his famous sister, the able and
which has doomed this prince, one of the patriotic Ethelfleda the Lady of the

greatest rulers that England ever beheld, Mercians fortresses were built on the
to a smaller degree of popular fame than borders of the English territory in all

he deserves." His whole reign bears out directions, notably at Chester, Tamworth,
the high praise given him by that ancient Warwick, Cherbury, Runcorn, Hertford.
chronicler, Florence of Worcester, that
"

When the war, so long and carefully

Edward was fully his father s equal as a prepared for, broke out between the
408 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [901925.

English and the Danes, in spite of fierce boroughs, which extended over a large
fighting on the part of the Northmen, portion of central England, submitted to
victory everywhere declared itself for Edward, and the Danish jarls became hence
Edward. His forces were well-disciplined, forth his vassals. Nor was this all. After
a number of fortresses kept any invading the general submission of the eastern and

army in check, a small but efficient fleet central Danish districts to the English
of war-ships patrolled the seas. Edward king, we find all the other independent
conquered East Anglia and his sister ; princes of the island submitting themselves
Ethelfleda the famous Danish Confedera- to Edward by a voluntary act, no doubt

ANCIENT NORTHUMBRIAN CASKET (KNOWN AS THE "

FRANKS "

CASKET), circa 8TH CENTURY.

(British Museum.)

[The front represents on the right-hand side of the lock the Visit of the Magi, and on the left Herodias and her daughter
receiving the head of John the Baptist. The side in view shows the finding of Romulus and Remus.]

tion of the five boroughs, which included from a general dread of his power. u They
Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, chose him," says the English Chronicle,
and Stamford, and the territory around. "

to father and to lord." The chieftains

The famous Lady of the Mercians died thus submitting themselves included the
in 922, just as the war, so glorious for princes of Wales, Northumberland, Strath-
England, in which she had borne so large clyde, and Scotland independent chief
a part, was drawing to a close. The whole tains of nations made up of Britons, Scots,
of the Danelaw* south of the Humber, Picts, and Danes. Strathclyde was a

including East Anglia, Essex, and the five small Welsh

(British) kingdom which,
roughly comprehending modern Cumber
*
The word Danelaw or Danelaga," which
" "
"

land and the south-west lowlands of Scot

issometimes used as an equivalent for Danish "
"

land, included the districts bordering on

England, signifies the region where the Danish
law was in force. the estuary of the Clyde.
901925.] EDWARD THE ELDER. 409

This submission (922-924) of the Celtic Scotland as one of the undoubted rights

kingdom of Scotland and Strathclyde to of the crown which he had won. And
the son of Alfred, was the most distinctive nothing is clearer than that this homage
feature in his great reign. It was an event was paid, not only for Cumberland and
which had great
historic results in

after years. "From

this time to the

fourteenth cen

tury, the vassal

age of Scotland
was an essential

part of the public

law of Britain.
. . . The succes
sors of the king
of the English,
who had once
been voluntarily
chosen to father
and to lord, never
willingly gave up
the position thus
bestowed upon
them. Whenever
the king of the

English is
strong
enough, he always
appears as the

acknowledged su
perior of the king
of the Scots. Ken
neth acts the
part of a faithful
vassal to
PAGE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE,
Edgar.
CONTAINING THE "SONG OF BRUNANBURGH." (END OF 9 FH CENTURY.)
Edward the Con- MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.)
(From the
fessor transfers
the tributary crown of Scotland from a Lothian, but for the true kingdom of the
*
usurper to the lawful heir. When the Celtic Picts and Scots."

Norman William had subdued England,

he claimed and received the homage of * Freeman "

Norman Conquest."
4io THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [925940.

In 925, Edward the Elder died, and was kings and nations dwelling within the
followed by his son Athelstan, another bounds of Britain."

member of the brilliant In the midst of all this blaze of glory and
very illustrious
royal line of Alfred.Tradition has pre undoubted prosperity, we come suddenly
served to us the memory of the appear upon a great rising of the northern vassals
ance of "

Glorious Athelstan," as Florence of the English king, the men of the

of Worcester calls him, and tells us how northern Danelaw, reinforced by the Irish
the famous king and warrior was of a slight Vikings the Ostmen, as they were called

though vigorous frame, with golden hair. and aided by the kings of Scotland and
During king Athelstan s reign the name of Strathclyde. Athelstan and his brother

England as a powerful state to be reckoned Edmund at once marched northwards to

with in European politics, was heard far meet but formidable group of
this curious

and wide. He was careful in seeking Celtic and Viking enemies, made up of races
alliances among great foreign houses for so long and so bitterly hostile one to the
his sisters, one of whom married Otto, other. The English met the Danes with
afterwards emperor another married Hugh their Celtic allies on the field of Brunan-
the Great, the all-powerful duke of France, burgh, the site of which is still undeter
who refused the crown of France, and mined, and the deadly fight went on from
whose son, Hugh Capet, founded that sunrise to sunset. There on that stricken field
royal house which was destined for so the work of Alfred and his son Edward, of the

many centuries to play one of the leading princess Ethelfleda, and of king Athelstan,
parts in the story of the Western world. was tested. The English men-at-arms,
But the power and influence of England trained and disciplined in a hundred fights,
on the continent was by no means the prevailed, and the "shield wall" of the
only noticeable work of Athelstan. At Viking and his Celtic ally was at last broken
home the wealth of the people enormously through. The victory of Athelstan was
increased during his wise reign. The rapid decisive. Among the heaped-up slain who
growth of prosperity and wealth in the land on that memorable day, lay five crowned
fell

was shown by the prominence given to Viking chiefs, and seven of their more
Athelstan s laws affecting property. We famous jarls. The song of Brunanburgh,*

possess a long list of boroughs in Britain one of the grandest of English war-songs,
where mints for the coinage of money were woven the curious tapestry of the
into
established. Years were passed in peaceful, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, preserves the
beneficent organisation of the now great memory of the deadly fight which secured
and apparently united kingdom. We find the power of the English king, and sur
this grandson of that Alfred whose realm rounded the head of Athelstan with a
was once bounded by the marshes which glory such as no English king had worn
encircled the little Somersetshire island before.
of Athelney, now announcing himself as Three years after the famous fight at
"

King of all Britain," as

"

Basileus of all * Green "

Con
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 937. :

English,"
and even as
"

Emperor of the quest of England," chap. v.

925940-] ATHELSTAN. 411

Brunanburgh, in the year 940,

"

glorious
"

earlsand thanes, British (Celtic) princes,

Athelstan died at Gloucester. The next the archbishops of Canterbury and York.
two reigns, of his two brothers Edmund But this fusion of races, so conspicuous
and Edred, are filled with the same scenes at the national Witan, was more apparent
of monotonous war in the north the ;
than real, and it is manifest that in those
Danes constantly revolting, and being as early days no sufficient national feeling

constantly brought back to submission by existed to do away with the old love of
the valour and skill of the English kings. localindependence in the several kingdoms,
Edmund, whom the chronicler Florence of and to make the various local rulers regard
Worcester surnames the Magnificent, was the king of England as their king.
assassinated while sitting at a feast, by an In this passionate desire for independ
outlaw named Leofa, and thus the reign ence, Athelstan, even after the decisive
of a sovereign wise and beneficent, as victory of Brunanburgh, had to acquiesce,
well as successful in war, was brought to and he judged it
necessary to restore an
a premature conclusion. Edred, another under-kingship in Northumbria with a
brother of Athelstan, succeeded him in sort of independence. The under-king
946, and during a reign of nine years, in was subsequently replaced by an earl, and
spite of much and bodily weak
sickness to the date of Norman William s conquest,

ness, valiantly pursued the same policy of Northumbria remained so distinct from
a steady resistance to the Danish claims to England that no king s writ ran in the

independence an independence invariably great northern earldom. Gradually the

used to harry the English peoples. irresistible desire for a kind of separate

But though the power and influence of existence forced even these powerful and

England at home or abroad, under the able kings of the house of Alfred to

great West Saxon kings of the house of separate England into great earldoms.
Alfred Edward, Athelstan, Edmund, The earl or alderman in most cases was
Edred, and Edgar was very great, a great chosen out of the royal Wessex family v
deal of this power and influence was due to but none the less were these powerful
the personal character and distinguished divisions of the land, destroying as they
talents of these eminent princes. Their necessarily did the sense of national
were ever directed to effecting fusion
efforts unity, source of grave danger to the
a
between the varied and often hostile races unity of England. The earls and the
which occupied the island, comprehend king, although perhaps kinsmen, would
ing the Engle and its several divisions, the naturally often come into conflict. The
Saxon, again subdivided, the Dane, and the king would be thinking of England ;
the
Celt. At some of the more important earl rather of his own special province.
meetings of the great national council The danger of such a conflict of interests
the Witan notably under king Athelstan between these too-powerful subjects and
in the year 931, and again under king the Crown, less apparent when a true
Edred in 946 we see sitting side by side statesman king like Edgar occupied the

jarls of the Danelaw, Saxon and Mercian throne, became, when a weak sovereign^
412 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [946988.

likeEthelred the Unready wore the crown, no Danishrising at home, and of no

pressing and ever-present and in the end

; Viking invasion from abroad. The power
the internal conflicts provoked by jealousies of the great earls remained unbroken in
and conflicting interests between the king their several districts, but we hear of no
and the great earls, paved the way to the serious conflicts between them and the
subjugation of England by Swein and king.
Canute, the Danish kings. In the reigns Under Edgar and his ecclesiastical
of Athelstan and his immediate successors, minister, England held a high place in
England was parcelled out into the follow the estimation of the chief nations on the

ing earldoms Northumbria, East Anglia, continent, while the wealth of the country
Essex (including Middlesex, and part of rapidly increased, owing much to its

Berkshire), the five boroughs, Mercia, in growing commercial prosperity. Litera

cluding Oxfordshire (into two divisions) ;

ture revived under the steady protection
another earldom, including the south and encouragement of the all-powerful
western counties, and one more, compre prelate a stricter and nobler and more
;

hending central Wessex, were added. self-denying life among the clergy and
It was in the reign of Edred (946) that ecclesiastics advanced the best interests of
the influence of Dunstan Dunstan the the church. days of Edgar were em
The
Benedictine monk, abbot, bishop, and phatically the period of the greatest glory
archbishop became supreme in church and prosperity of Saxon England.
and state. King Edred died in 955, after But with the death of Edgar the glory
a long struggle against sickness, the last of the island sank. He passed away after
survivor of the three illustrious sons of a peaceful and vigorous reign of seventeen
Edward the Elder. He left no heirs, but years, in 975, leaving two sons Edward
his brother and predecessor Edmund had the Martyr, and Ethelred, surnamed the
two boys, Edwy and Edgar, the former of Unready. During the short reign of
whom, on the death of Edred, was Edward, archbishop Dunstan continued
acknowledged as sovereign of England. in office ;
but when, three years later,
He reigned less than four years, during Edward was foully murdered, and his
which period Edgar reigned as sub-king brother Ethelred succeeded him on the
in the country north of the Thames. throne in 978, the archbishop fell from
Edwy was succeeded by his brother power, and for the remaining ten years of
Edgar, surnamed the Peaceful, in 958 and ;
his eventful life lived in comparative seclu
for seventeen years, until the year 975, sion at
Canterbury. He died in 988.
the throne was occupied by this prince. In the sad reign of Ethelred the Danish
It was a period of almost unbroken peace, invasion recommenced, and with a more
and the one minister and adviser of the terrible result than ever but we now leave
;

reign was the celebrated Dunstan, who this brief sketch of the history of England
became archbishop of Canterbury the year since the death of her great king Alfred
after Edgar s accession. It was a time of necessary as a background to resume
great prosperity for England. We hear of our story of the Church of England
924.]
DUNSTAN. 413

during that period, covering some eighty had no successor. Nor was the church
or ninety years. more happy in this respect than the state.

No distinguished prelate, no fervid and

During the first half of the tenth cen devoted religious scholar or missionary,
church had been going
tury, things in the
arose in the course of the first forty
backwards. The religious and literary work years of the century. It was only in the
of Alfred had been necessarily suffered to second half of the tenth century that

THE ESCAPE OF KING EDMUND (/. 414).

languish. The princes who sat on his there appeared one of those extraordinary
throne were almost ceaselessly occupied characterswhose strength of will, whose
with war. It was a stern combat for very learning and splendid devotion infused a
existence, and the intervals of peace were new spirit into the church, which in the
perhaps too short for any real united effort days of Athelstan and his brothers was
of church and state towards consolidating scarcely fulfilling its high mission among
and developing Alfred s work. It must the people.
alsobe confessed that, although Edward Dunstan, somewhile abbot of Glaston-
the Elder and Athelstan and his gallant bury, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury,
brothers were great and successful warriors, was born in the first year of king Athel-
in letters and in love for religion Alfred stan s reign, 924-925. His father and
414 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [942.

mother were noble West Saxons, whose from other youths of his own age, stirred up
property lay in the centre of Somerset, hatred and envy. We find him compelled
close by the Tor Hill, so well known as to leave the court for a season, and when,
looking down on sacred Glastonbury. He after the accession of Edmund, he was
is described as a fair-haired little boy, with recalled, he became the victim of a cruel
a passion for music from his childhood, and outrage. One
day, as he was riding through
with an intense love for the old songs and the marshes, some of the more bitter
hymns sung in the evening gatherings
still of his foes among the young thanes,
in the thane s hall. threw the young dreamer from his horse,
Glastonbury, hard by his father s home, and trampled him under foot in the mire.
was famous as a place to which pilgrims A grave illness followed the cowardly
resorted ;
was yet more renowned as a attack, and we next find him a monk.
school. In this home
ap of learning But a monk in those times was under no
parently the only notable seminary then necessity to quit the world, and Dunstan
in England the boy Dunstan laid the again appears at Edmund s court.
foundation great scholarship and
of his Once more he excited the same jealousy

many acquirements there he learned to

;
and hatred ;
but just as he was about to
love and to prize books and study. When quit England for Germany, a strange inci

quite young his ardour for reading and his dent befel king Edmund. In the ardour
knowledge became known at court he ;
of the chase, one day, a red-deer which
was sent for, and became one of the young Edmund was pursuing among the Mendip
king s companions. The dates that we Hills, in itsheadlong course sprang over
possess of the early days of this remarkable the steep cliffs of Cheddar. Only on the
man are few, but from the details preserved very brink of the awful precipice was the
in biographies two of which were
his king able to rein in his horse. The shock
written within a very few years of his determined him to make amends to Dun
death, and one of the two by a personal stan. Instead of allowing him to go into
friend we are enabled to put together a exile, Edmund made him abbot of Glaston
fairly accurate sketch of his early life. bury ;
and from this time really dates the
At the court of Athelstan where he story of the mighty influence and work
seems to have been on terms of friendship of the future statesman and archbishop,
with the young brothers of the king, whose splendid industry and foresight, after
Edmund and Edred, both afterwards years of patient toil, restored the Church of
kings of England his many and varied England to its place as the guide and

gifts soon excited jealousy and dislike teacher of the country. Dunstan became

among the other young thanes of the abbot of Glastonbury in the year 942 or 943.
court. Dunstan was evidently unlike other The foregoing brief account of his early
men. Brilliant, excitable, rarely and ex life probably accurately represents its

ceptionally gifted, he fancied he saw leading features. It is derived from the

visions he was intensely religious. These

;
somewhat prolix story told by his earliest

peculiarities, which made him different biographers, who, however, have adorned
942] DUNSTAN AT GLASTONBURY. 415

it with various seemingly miraculous rule. Not only Edmund the Magnificent,
adjuncts, many of which, based on real ruler of Britain, and Edgar the Peaceful,
incidents, no doubt are due to the excitable and Edmund Ironside, but king Arthur
and feverish imaginings of a precocious himself slept there."

youth whose health was often undermined Although these splendid traditions only
by overmuch study and vigil, and prolonged first appear woven into a complete
fasts. Through all, however, we catch tapestry, in the pages of the Norman
sight of a singularly gifted and impulsive chronicler, William of Malmesbury, in

student, at once poet, musician, artist and the early years of the twelfth century,
scholar one to whom was evidently
;
there is little doubt but that Glastonbury

given the power to attract the devoted love was indeed a famous centre long before
and admiration of some, and the hatred and the days of Aldhelm and the early West
dislike of others. The being early placed Saxon times and had perhaps been a Celtic
;

in a position of dignity and power, where sanctuary, revered and famous, before the
his great gift of attracting men, his coming of the North-folk in the sixth
ardent love for scholarship, his evident century had swept away the once powerful
and real piety, would find an ample sphere, and learned ancient British Christianity.
no doubt developed all that was good When Dunstan became its abbot, Glaston
and great in Dunstan, and constrained bury was a renowned seminary little

him to correct and finally to obtain the more. A few secular priests still ministered

mastery over much in his character that in its church, and it was not a monastery
was hysterical and ill-balanced. in the usual acceptation of the term.
Monastic had
really ceased to exist in
life

Glastonbury and its famous school, at the England in those days. In the north the
head of which, under the title of abbot, Dun Danes had swept away all the once flourish
stan found himself in the years 942-3, had ing religious houses of both sexes. In the
a great history, which stretched far back south of the island, as we have seen, king
into the ages which preceded the Anglo- Alfred had failed to restore monasticism.
Saxon conquest. There was evidently an A few communities had been established
ancient ecclesiastical establishment there by the great king s piety and zeal ; failing,
in the seventh century. "

As the place of however, to captivate the hearts of the

Dunstan s birth, education, and promotion, West Saxons, they had never taken firm
Glastonbury had a later history, much of root. We
hear of no daughter-houses of
which is coloured by its connection with the original foundations springing up and ;

this eminent saint and statesman. It when Dunstan became abbot of Glaston
became a rich abbey, and laid claim to bury the few foundations of Alfred were lan
an early history and remote antiquity it ; guishing and in a state of decay. Glaston
adopted Joseph of Arimathaea as its first bury existed and flourished, it is true, but

founder, and produced evidence of its it flourished rather as a school than as a

existence and sanctity under kings and in religious community of monks.

times long anterior to the West Saxon *

Bishop Stubbs :
"

Memorials of St. Dunstan."

416 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [942956-

And it was as a school that Dunstan was against the accepted ecclesiastical ideal
first devoted himself to its care, and of those days, was common among them,

developed far and wide its useful and and the sacredness of the marriage tie,
beneficent work. For some years Dunstan s alas was not always regarded.*
! The
life was mainly passed in his loved abbey. remarkable impulse which Alfred s great
He was determined to infuse a new life example and powerful influence had given
into the church, to repair the mischief to literature ended with the king s life.

THE LADY CHAPEL. GLASTONBURY ABBEY. (I2TH CENTURY.)

which long and constant wars had effected Not a book or even a translation, save
among the works of Alfred. The various the continuation of the English Chronicle,
educational efforts which the great king had appeared since the scholar-king had
had set on foot had well-nigh died away. been laid to sleep at Winchester.
There were few monks even in the south Dunstan possessed the instincts of a true
of England, and these were subject to no church reformer, and felt that no stern
definite rule. Benedictinism in England
*
was practically extinct. The clergy had
Various documents show that it was far from

uncommon for priests to take advantage of the un-

reverted largely to a state of ignorance,
canonical character of such marriages, to repudiate
and even of worldliness. Marriage, which their wives after a period and marry others.
942-956] DUNSTAN AT GLASTONBURY. 417

laws, no infusion of a more generous and no mere statesman educationalist, who

fervid spirit, would have any lasting results well and wisely arranged and developed

among an ignorant clergy. Like Alfred, schools, and provided generously the
he felt that the cause of education was means of education. Dunstan was all this,
the cause of religion ;
and so, first and but in addition was himself a wise and

!jl lu -

^fmpfjtd- utjiV^l .i^mcTUlc^JUilTl ufrustniln

-
tn.vjU.lf .
r^

leus utfni turui ^ --rr Krt ellrft

9iipp)ipclf p)Wra5
u**um hf^rt-nare ^tr.i..T? pjiK-uTum ji a* t-,nni *imme- *fTvusim? iirv ut-qtumqiit
. ^ **.

CHARTER OF EDGAR, A.D. 961, GRANTING LAND AT RIMECUDA (RYE) TO THE MONASTERY OF
ABINGDON, witnessed by Dunstan, Oskytel Archbishop of York, and other bishops, abbots, etc.

foremost, this really great ecclesiastic tireless teacher ;

and it was thus that he
devoted himself and his great powers to so captivated the hearts of the people, that
restore to the church a love of learning. for more than two centuries he was the
No portion of his noble life was more favourite of the English.
saint Simple
fraught with results than the quiet years stories were long told of his kindliness of

passed at Glastonbury, after his appoint heart, which won his pupils affection ;
how
ment as its abbot. He was a born teacher he would sing psalms to them in his sweet
of the highest order no mere organiser, voice as they walked together ;
how he
2 A
4i 8 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [942956-

recounted his sorrow for the loss of a dead No Casdmon or Cynewulf, with
one like

child pupil, and how he was comforted in their strange and stately religious song,
a vision for his little scholar s death, when arose in the south and midlands at this
he saw his loved child borne by angels time. But the great Glastonbury scholar
heavenwards. taught the southern England of his day
From Glastonbury the celebrated Ethel- and time to love the great Northumbrian
wold, once the pupil and afterwards the poets of a vanished age and our own age ;

chief teacher under Dunstan, went to the owes to the poetry-loving schools of Dun
abbey of Abingdon, of which house in 955 stan not a few of the remains it possesses

king Edred, Dunstan s friend, appointed of the striking Northumbrian songs. It

him abbot. Aided by a few Glastonbury is made in the days

in translations largely

teachers trained by Dunstan, Ethelwold of Dunstan, into the West Saxon dialect,
soon made his school celebrated it even ;
that we know the poems of Caedmon and
rivalled Glastonbury as an educational Cynewulf, and the nameless writers of

centre. From these two schools the new their school. In their original Northum

spiritgradually spread through Wessex and brian dialect we scarcely possess a line.
Mercia, and a new and better state of But if in this period no really great
things was soon apparent in the southern originalsong-man sprang up, many popu
and central districts of England. Nor lar poems were written. Such were
was only the Church of England that
it the battle-songs of Brunanburgh woven
benefited by abbot Dunstan s educational into the English Chronicle and Maldon,
work. The church, it was true, was in and the death-songs of Edgar and Edward,
vigorated and renewed by the spirit of some of them poems of no mean power.
learning which Dunstan so wisely infused Other and slighter songs, too, were often
into it. But his great schools of Glaston written inprose this of age, versions

bury and Abingdon gave also to secular which are preserved for us by William of
literature a new
impulse. date from We Malmesbury songs which had for their
;

this period a mass of homilies and scriptural heroes kings like Athelstan and Edgar whose ,

versions, and saints lives, and grammars doughty and patriotic deeds had won the
and lesson books. All this tells us of a people s heart. The titles of some of these
realawakening among the clergy of the are worth recording as indicating the love
Church of England to a desire for know for romantic poetry which had suddenly been
ledge, that they might be better teachers born among the people. In ballad poetry,
of their flocks. songs were written under the titles ol
There was also a love of poetry visible "

The Birth of the Kings,"

"

The Drown
in this new intellectual life which Dunstan ing of Edwin," "The Craft of Anlaf.
awakened in Wessex and Mercia ; though Belonging to Edgar s time we find "

Th
very inferior, it is true, to that noble Slave Queen," "Edgar and Elfthryth,"

school of poetry which flourished in "

Edgar and the Scot-king."*

Northumbria in the great age which went *See Green Conquest of

"

:
England," chap,
before the disastrous coming of the Vikings. and William of Malmesbury :
"

Gesta Regum."
90.3 927-] REVIVAL OF MONASTICISM ABROAD. 419

In the meantime a great change and northern Europe. The more prominent
revival in monastic life was impending. monastic houses, with their precious
Monasticism in England, as a power, had treasures, utterly defenceless, had been
disappeared ;
in Mercia and in Wessex a the first objects of attack by these pirate
few religious houses founded or restored by invaders. In the districts watered by the
Alfred still remained but as an institution
; great rivers, scarcely one monastery had
it had completely ceased to influence the escaped. Other causes, too, had been at
life of the church. Remembering, how work which helped on the general decay
ever, what the monasteries had done in of the institution. The past fervour shown
the matter of evangelising the conquering by the church and monastic reformers men
North-folk in the seventh and eighth like Benedict and Columban and their
centuries ;
what noble centres of piety companions had long waned, and in the
and learning the great religious com lament of the Council of Trosley, in 909,
munities had been before Viking or we get some notion of the state of the
Dane settled in England ; calling to religious communities of northern Europe,
mind the honoured names of Columba at the time when the princes of the house
and of Columban, of the mighty parent of Alfred were reigning in England, and

house of Luxeuil, and the network of gradually bringing into subjection the
monasteries and nunneries with which fierce Danish intruders. Some monasteries
Columban had covered northern Europe ;
had been burnt or destroyed by the pagan
religious kings like Alfred, and far-seeing Vikings, some had been plundered of
but ascetic churchmen like Dunstan, their property, and those which remained
naturally regarded the restoration of observed no form of a regular institute.
monasticism as absolutely necessary to They had no proper heads their manner ;

the renewal of a vigorous and active of life was disorderly some monks had
;

church-life. Alfred in real earnest set deserted their profession, and were even
himself the task of re-introducing religious employing themselves in worldly business.
houses throughout his dominion but his ; Lay abbots with their wives and children,
efforts were only crowned with partial with their soldiers and dogs, occupied the
success, and the -disturbed state of England cloisters, and the inmates of monasteries
after his death effectually prevented any had cast off all regard for rule as to dress

thing like a development of his scheme for and diet.

the restoration of monasticism : the time Louis the Pious, Charlemagne s son
was then not yet come. and heir, in the first half of the ninth
On the continent of Europe also, for a century had attempted a reform, but
considerable period, the monastic life had the ever-increasing troubles of the em
been on the decline. The same causes pire had rendered these efforts abortive.
which had contributed to its ruin in Early in the following century the tenth

England were at work in Germany and monastic reformation was at length un

Frankland. For many years the Viking dertaken in good earnest and with con
raids had desolated the fairest provinces of spicuous success by a private individual.
420 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [927.

Berno, abbot of Beaume, the founder and Even the use of medicine in the case of

abbot of another house Gigni having sickness was forbidden.

succeeded in reforming the way of life of The fame of
Cluny rapidly grew the ;

these two societies in the year 912, when austerities of the house were adopted in

Edward the Elder, Alfred s son, was king other communities. A number of con
in England, was invited by William, duke spicuous saints
belonging to this now
of Upper Aquitaine, or Auvergne, to select famous house spread abroad its growing
a spot in his territory for a new monas reputation. Mayeul, the fourth abbot,
tery of which Berno should be the first in 965 (Edgar being king of England) re
abbot. Berno selected Cluny, near Macon. fused the archbishopric of Besancon, and
This had once been the home of a society in 974 even declined the highest honour

of canons, but when Berno fixed upon it as of the popedom. His successor Odilo,
the home of his new community, Cluny fifth abbot of Cluny, attained through his
was used hunting-box by the duke.
as a reputation for austere sanctity an enor
Twelve monks accompanied the abbot to mous reputation. Popes of Rome treated
the new house. him as their equal, kings and emperors
The rule of St. Benedict in its ancient sought his advice ; bishops went to Cluny
integrity was adopted by the little society, and became monks under his direction as
and thus, with this .humble start, the pupils. His contemporary, Fulbert of

monastery of
Cluny, in
912, began its Chartres, even styles him "

The Archangel
historic In the year 927, shortly
career. of Monks." He was credited with miracu
after the accession of Athelstan in England, lous powers, and his prayers were said to
Berno was succeeded as abbot in Cluny possess strange efficacy.
by the celebrated Odo. The monastic reform inaugurated by the
Odo generally reckoned as the real
is
Burgundian house of Cluny extended itself
founder of the famous Cluniac order for ;
far and wide a new passion for monas-
;

to him are attributed the various ascetic ticism sprang up, innumerable monasteries
additions to the rules of Benedict peculiar adopted the stern Cluniac rules, and were
to the Cluniac order of monks. One of more or less closely affiliated to the
these strange regulations required the great mother monastery, and thus
"

monks, at the close of their scanty repasts, gradually the

"

congregation of Cluny
to gather up and to consume all the was formed.
crumbs of their bread. Some of the The organisation of the now famous order
brothers desiring to evade this seemingly was completed by Hugh, the sixth abbot,
trivial and arbitrary rule, a tradition of the in 1049, who ruled the
"

congregation
"

order relates how monk exclaimed

a dying for some sixty years. The reformed orde
in horror that the Evil One was holding up continued to grow in number and impor
in accusation against him a bag of crumbs tance it spread over France, Germany,
;

which he had been unwilling to swallow. Italy, and England, and by the close of the
Periods of strict silence were also enjoined twelfth century the enormous number of
upon the members of the community. 2,000 daughter-houses had adopted the
927-] REVIVAL OF MONASTICISM CLUNY. 421

ascetic rules, and were obedient to the Before the next century the eleventh
mother-house of Cluny. closed, everywhere on the continent of
While thus in the early years of the Europe the monastery and nunnery

PAGE FROM THE BENEDICTIONAL OF ETHELWOLD (A.D. 963-984), SHOWING

THB VISIT OF THE THREE MARYS TO THE SEPULCHkE.
(/ the possession of the Duke of Devonshire.)

tenth century monasticism seemed to be had more than regained their ancient
dying, and occupied less and less space influence over the hearts of men. In
in the hearts of earnest and religious France, the abbeys of Citeaux (Burgundy)
men, of a sudden it sprang up again. and the Grande Chartreuse (near Grenoble)
422 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 942.

became the mother-abbeys of two great Abingdon. Ethelwold in after days became
orders the Cistercian and Carthusian bishop of Winchester.
whose houses, scattered over Europe, To
expel the clerks and canons from their
became in their day one of the most homes in the existing monasteries, and
powerful influences in the church. The from the buildings attached to the cathe
wave passed over Italy also, and the dral, was no easy task. Not only had the
historian of church life there, among the reformers to encounter opposition and

new influences in the eleventh and twelfth hatred at the hands of the dispossessed,

centuries, had to reckon with the enormous but in some cases from the people, with
influence of the reformed cloister, and to whom these secular clerks and canons
tell at length the story of the rigid and were popular. In the next century, for
ascetic orders of Camaldoli and Vallom- instance, we read of disturbances and an
brosa. armed At Gloucester, where
resistance.

The same wave of reviving attachment the secular canons were defended by a
to the monastic institutionwhich passed wealthy thane, much blood was shed, and
over France, and through France to Italy seven of the new monks placed in the
and Germany, reached the shores of Gloucester religious house were killed in

England. But while on the continent it a popular uproar.*

was a work of reform, in England it was
almost a re-creation; and it belonged to a
somewhat later period to witness the com
plete restoration of the monastic system to
its ancient position of influence.
eventually regained, though not till after
the second great age of revival, in the
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, and
Oswald, bishop of Worcester, and subse
quently archbishop of York, were, with
*
The Early English or Anglo-Saxon people seem
This it
to have had the same strong common-sense prefer
ence for a married clergy which distinguishes the
nation to the present day and their supersession
;

and Anselm, the Norman by celibate priests or monks was not finally com
days of Lanfranc
pleted till after the Norman conquest. This quasi-
archbishops. Among the works of Dun- toleration of marriage preserved England in a
stan for the church, however, even the measure from some of the scandals which prevailed
where a strict rule was enforced and there is evi ;

partial restoration of the monastic system dence that the attempt to enforce the rule, produced
must occupy a prominent position. Three much of the scandal that did exist, such as the
names are inseparably connected with temporary unions already referred to. On the
other hand, it must in fairness be remembered
this movement :
Odo, archbishop of that the celibate idea was itself a reaction against
Canterbury, a friend of Dunstan, and the sensuality and animalism of the age that it ;

whose was the accepted ideal, however mistaken, for a

appointment to the great post Christian minister of that day and that all these;

of primate was evidently owing to the
influence of the powerful abbot of Glaston-
bury Oswald, the nephew of Odo,
;
another of the followers of Dunstan and
% men had taken vows to abide by it. Obligations
so held could hardly be abandoned without a
sense of guilt and spiritual loss in various ways,
which, in its turn, would lead to other sins and
; neglect in many cases. It is a sad picture in many

Ethelwold, the Glastonbury teacher, who aspects, and the evil which in one way or another
must result from the undue burdening of conscience
went from Dunstan s school to organise "
"

by merely ecclesiastical offences, is perhaps

and teach the equally famous seminary at one of the most impressive of its lessons.
PAGE FROM THE ETHELWOLD BENEDICTIONAL, SHOWING THE ANNUNCIATION.
(From the Original in Chatsworth Library, by permission of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire.)

8
circa 942.] REVIVAL OF MONASTICISM IN ENGLAND. 423

Odo of Canterbury, the leaders in this truth probably lies between the two
stern work of reformation. The first two extremes. Many of the English secular
were especially zealous and uncompromis clergy were no doubt living, if not vicious,
ing in their measures. They were, all at least slothful lives some probably
;

three, friends or disciples of Dunstan, and deserved even the bitter words of Elfric ;
were intensely convinced that the Saxon while others,among whom the Canterbury
church could never be brought to a state clergy must be included, were working
of purity and strength, until real monks quietly and peaceably as married men with
were generally introduced into the old and their wives and children. The reformers,
decaying, as well as in the new religious however, proceeded with their work the ;

houses, and also in the cathedral chapters. Benedictine rule and severe discipline
They were also well acquainted with the was introduced at Winchester, Chertsey,
zeal and fervour of the reformed mon Milton, Ely, Peterborough, and Thorney,
asteries of Frank-land, and were determined and in these and various other places it is
to reproduce
"

Cluny
"

and "

Fleury,"
and clear that the monastic revival was success
the stern ascetic discipline practised by the ful, and did a useful and beneficent work.
devoted inmates of these and other famous No doubt many instances of hardship and
religious houses, in their native country. even of cruelty occurred in the cases of
It is difficult to estimate fairly the true the men dispossessed, but in time a
condition of these
English ecclesiastical more learned, nobler, and
purer church
centres. Elfric, the biographer of bishop emerged as the result of the life, work,
Ethelwold, draws a sad picture of the old and labours of the ascetic reformers.
minster at Winchester. It has been sug

gested* that Elfric picture may be ex

s The story of Odo, who preceded Dun
aggerated, it being a kind of apology for stan in the primate s throne at Canterbury,
Ethelwold s drastic proceedings; still it must is
striking and picturesque, and gives us a
be remembered that it the testimony of
is good picture of an eminent churchman in
an eye-witness. He describes these Win those stormy and disturbed times. Indeed,
chester secular clergy as living in luxury, the great part he played in the work of
as devoted to the pleasures of the table, renewing the spiritual life of the Church
as living for a season with wives to whom of England has been largely forgotten and
they were unlawfully married. On the obscured in the blaze of glory which
other hand, Dunstan, who was equally in surrounds the memory of Dunstan. Odo,
earnest in the work of regenerating and subsequently archbishop, was the son of a
purifying the church, certainly never Dane of noble birth, who had been a
removed the secular clerks from his own chieftain among the wild Vikings who
cathedral at Canterbury ;
an incredible followed the fortunes of the dreaded pirate

piece of laxity, if these men were living leaders Ivar and Hubbo in the famous
in the state of indulgence and sin de Danish invasion of the year 870 the raid
scribed so graphically by Elfric. The which, it will be remembered, resulted in
* the capture of York, and the conquest of
Bishop Stubbs Memorials of
"

: Dunstan."
424 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [942.

and permanent Danish settlement in the order. To its cloister repaired not a few
north of England. The young Dane was of the men who took a leading part in the
attracted by the fervid preaching of a revival of church life and energy of that
Christian missionary, and, against the will time. Fleury, the ecclesiastic who
In
of his pagan father, renounced the old believed that only in a restoration of a
faith of the Northmen, and, placing him real monasticism could the church recover
self under the tuition of a Christian thane its vitality and influence over men s hearts,
at the court of Alfred, became a devoted would see what was the secret of Bene-
adherent of Christianity. His early career dictinism,and how men were trained to
was a romantic one. The devotion and become true monks. In the enduring and
persistent zeal of one of the
hated pagan almost passionate attachment to the loved
race soon attracted attention, and in the monastery, of such eminent prelates as
year 926, when Athelstan was king, we hear Oswald, bishop of Worcester and arch
of Odo, the Danish convert, as consecrated bishop of York, we see how strong a hold
to the bishopric of Romsey. Romsey was over ardent and devoted souls the life

a small Wessex diocese, afterwards merged and teaching of a religious community like

into that of Salisbury. It was a strange Fleury was able to exercise.

career, that of Odo. With all his un The cathedral and monastic establish
doubted zeal and earnestness on behalf ment of Canterbury, once famous through
of the religion for which he had sacrificed out northern Europe as a great school,
all his home ties, the old Viking blood was sadly changed. The cathedral itself

showed the Danish bishop. He

itself in Odo found in a state of dilapidation ;
of the
was certainly present at the bloody fight once renowned school we hear little. One
of Brunanburgh in 937, when Athelstan of the first works of the new archbishop
defeated the formidable union of North was a complete restoration of the venerable
umbrians, Vikings, and Irish Ostmen ;
and pile, which had suffered so much at the
a probably true tradition is handed down hands of the Viking pirates and from
that Odo on that occasion saved king subsequent neglect. The old roof was
Athelstan s life. When the chair of the stripped and re-covered with lead ;
the

primacy was vacant, the influence of massive piers were strengthened a new life ;

Dunstan, then abbot of Glastonbury, and was infused into the metropolitan church,
the trusted friend and counsellor of king which once more was filled with worshippers.
Edmund Athelstan s brother and suc We possess a pastoral letter of the Danish
cessor procured Odo s elevation to the archbishop who owed promotion to
his

arch-see. Dunstan s friendship and support. This

Before his enthronement at Canterbury, pastoral of Odo is an interesting document,
in 942, he spent some time in the great for it tells us a good deal of the earnestness
Loire monastery of Fleury, where the rule and reality with which the reformers of
of St. Benedict was rigidly kept. Fleury the school of Dunstan were inspiring the
ranked at that time, perhaps, as the leading Church of England. He began in the
religious house of the great Benedictine name of the Holy Trinity and the one
DUNSTAN AT THE TOMB OF ODO (/. 427).
426 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [942958-

Deity with :
Odo, the lowly and meanest
"I,
instruct their people in holy doctrine, were
that is
promoted to the honour of a pall to be careful to teach by the force of a good
and of being chief prelate, have resolved example ;
in their life and conversation, in

to put together some institutions . . . . matters of goodness and modesty, they

to the consolation of my lord the king, were to excel others, they were to live
that is, Edmund, and of all the people with all honesty and reverence. The monks

subject to his most excellent In

empire."
and all "devoted to God," day and night
the first division of his pastoral he dwelt were to perform their vows,
study, to
on the subject of taxes, which he declared abiding quietly in the churches where they

ought not to be imposed upon the Church first pronounced those vows. Such monks
of God. In his second division he admon were not to be strollers and saunterers
ishes or be more correct to say
it -would through the world, men who desire the
commands the king, princes, and all that name but despise the duties of a monk.
were in authority to be obedient to their They were to inure themselves to habits

archbishops and allother bishops, remind of humility, to labour with their hands, to

ing these
great worldly rulers that to give themselves continually to holy reading
bishops belonged the keys of the Kingdom and to continual prayer. The pastoral
of Heaven, and that they had the power of contained other injunctions, sternly for
binding and loosing. In the third paragraph bidding the marriage of persons of near
Odo turns to the prelates of that church for kindred, or of nuns ;
and enjoining fasting
which he demands exemption from state and almsgiving. It directed a reverent
taxation. observation of Lent and other lawful fasts,
First, to the bishops whose claim to and, above all, pressed upon the people
a universal obedience he has put forward, the duty of keeping the Lord s day and
as above, with no little arrogance ;
but the festivals of saints.
he sharply and gravely admonishes these We gather from this ecclesiastical state
spiritual chiefs, telling them if their paper, that already a great revival of life
privileges are great, their duties are onerous and work had begun in the Church of
in proportion. They must preach, said England, that the church was exercising
Odo, and show a good example to all ;
considerable power and influence in the
they must go about their parishes every land, and that monasticism was evidently
year "vigilantly preaching the word of reviving and again becoming a power ;-
God."The Danish archbishop evidently while the grave remonstrances addressed
set much store by the influence which the to bishops, clergy, and monks showed the

preaching of the bishops would exercise anxiety which men like Odo and of the
upon the people at large. He warned school of Dunstan felt, as to the conduct
them against covetousness, and for a third and life of ecclesiastical persons. The
time bade them "

preach
"

the word of future of the Church of England, they

truth to all, without regard of persons to felt, largely depended upon the example
king and princes, to all dignities alike. of these bishops, clergy, and monks. As
The priests too, while not neglecting to might have been expected from his Viking
942 958.] ARCHBISHOP ODO. 427

ancestry, Odo, while intensely in earnest, unbroken. The

churchman s life
great
indefatigable in his work and efforts to was, during between
this period, divided

bring life and vigour into the church in Glastonbury and its famous school, and the
which he held so distinguished a position, court, where Dunstan acted as treasurer of
was harsh and even cruel in his procedure the Royal Hoard and estates. It was
" "

against married clerks, and even against in one ofhis attendances on the king,
secular clerks occupying positions he during a visit paid by Edred to the north,
looked upon as better filled by Bene that Dunstan saw the remains of St.
dictine monks. Owing to this harsh, Cuthbert, still
incorrupt, and to which
unyielding policy, he acquired the name Abbo of Fleury, in his well-known letter
of "

Severus." to Dunstan, written later between the

To Dunstan, whose influence was evi years 985 and 988, alludes.

dently very great, if not paramount during Edred, who throughout a fairly success
the time of Odo s rule at Canterbury, this fulreign of about nine years had struggled
Danish prelate was always true and a ; against constant ill-health, finally suc

touching story is told of Dunstan s loyalty cumbed to his malady in 955. Dunstan s

to the memory of his friend. After Dun power in church and state during his
stan had become in his turn arch friend s reignhad been very great his ;

bishop, and was officiating one Whit ceaseless labourin promoting education

Sunday in the cathedral, there settled on has been already dwelt upon, and gradu
Odo s tomb shaped like a pyramid, on the ally the church was being strengthened
south side of Christ s altar a dove, which and purified. In political matters his great
had flown through an open window. To influence seems to have been exerted with
the archbishop s fervid and imaginative equal wisdom. Northumbria peacefully
spirit this was a visible descent of the acquiesced in the sovereignty of Edred, and
Holy Spirit on his dead friend s grave, in the last year of his reign we find him
thus publicly proclaiming to men that styling himself king of the Anglo-Saxons,
Odo was counted holy before the throne and Ca3sar of the whole of Britain. Dun
of God. stan was at Glastonbury when the message
from his dying friend reached him, bidding
All through the rule of Odo at Canter him with all haste bring the royal treasure

bury, Dunstan continued his great educa to Frome, where Edred was lying sick
tional work at Glastonbury, in conjunction unto death. Quickly the treasurer
with the daughter school at Abingdon hastened comply with his friend s
to
under his friend and disciple, Ethelwold. command, but as he rode towards Frome,
He was, however, often at Winchester, it is said a heavenly vision warned him

where king Edred, Athelstan s younger that all was over. Dunstan, on arriving,
brother, who followed King Edmund on found the royal corpse already deserted by
the throne, usually held his court. The who had departed
the courtiers, in haste to

friendship dating from their boyish days, pay homage to the new king. With all

between Edred and Dunstan, remained reverence, he brought the dead king to
428 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [955-

Glastonbury abbey, and laid him he loved treasurer, and bishop Kynesige, of Lich-
so well, and served so faithfully, by the field, to fetch the foolish lad back to the
side of king Edmund, his brother. coronation banquet. The Chronicle relates

King Edred, the last surviving brother how the envoys found the boy-king with
of Athelstan, died childless, but his brother Elgiva and her mother, the splendid golden
and predecessor, king Edmund, had left crown of the realm, gleaming with gems,
two children the elder of these, Edwig,
;
tossed heedlessly on the floor. Reproach
generally known as Edwy (by which name ful and no doubt bitter words passed, and
we shall call him), ascended the throne the young king returned with the abbot
without opposition ;
his younger brother, and bishop to the company of the great
Edgar, subsequently became one of the lords of the Witan.
Edwy, however,
most famous sovereigns of the family of never seems to have forgiven Dunstan
Alfred. Edwy reigned from 955 to 959, for the part he bore in this transaction.
about three and a half years a period of He disgraced the treasurer and abbot, and
great confusion, in which little progress drove him into exile, and had not Dun
was made the work of restoring life
in stan succeeded in escaping to Flanders,
and vigour to the church. It is in this would, it is said, have put out his eyes.
short reign of Edwy that the scenes of The story and the chroniclers dates
the well-known stories of the cruelty and now become somewhat confused. The
harshness of Dunstan and archbishop Odo, archbishop of Canterbury persisted in
are Later historical investigations
laid. denouncing the marriage of Edwy and
have, however, gone far to disprove the Elgiva as against the law of the church,
popular legends, so far at least as they being within the prohibited canonical
have darkened the memory of the great degrees.* Partly owing to this quarrel
churchman whose life and work we
* What the
are now describing. relationship actually was, is never
stated. Some writers believe Elgiva to have been
The true story of the tearing away of the a first or second cousin ; the majority of English
seem to lean to the belief of Robertson,
boy-king from the arms of his bride Elgiva, historians
that her mother had been king Edwy s foster-
and forcing him back to the rude and
mother, -which would have been a sort of "spiritual"
boisterous banquet, seems as follows. The affinity very dear to the ecclesiasticism of that age.
It seems incredible that any really direct relation
question was the solemn
"

in
"

banquet
ship should not have been stated by the monk-
coronation feast, at which the chief chroniclers in justification of what followed on ;

thanes and bishops, composing the the other hand, there is no doubt that strong

Witan of England, were present. From popular feeling sided with the church, and against
the king. These are really the two opposing
this important gathering of the chief men
arguments. It cannot even be positively affirmed
of England Edwy had retired, preferring whether or not Edwy and Elgiva were married
the society of with
at the feast of the coronation, or afterwards. The
Ethelgifu (Elgiva),
probability seems to be that the marriage was
whom he was in love, and her mother. subsequent but as the monkish chroniclers per
;

The thanes, archbishop, and bishops sistently write of Elgiva in opprobrious terms, on
the ground that she could not be lawfully "married "

were indignant at this apparent insult, and

at all, it is uncertain whether more than this be
commanded abbot Dunstan, the royal meant where the marriage is denied.
955 959-] EDWY S SHORT REIGN. 429
with the powerful church party, which was of revolt against the young West Saxon
further accentuated by Edwy
espousing king, and chose as their sovereign
Edwy s
the cause of the married clergy was unable
partly ; brother, Edgar. Edwy to
owing, no doubt, to the removal of the resist, and an assembly or Witenagemot

DUNSTAN, EDWY, AND ELGIVA.

strong and capable hand of Dunstan composed of West Saxons and Mercians
from the helm of the state, the Mercians agreed to England into
separate two-

nothing loth to separate themselves kingdoms ;

Wessex and the south re
from Wessex under their earl or alder maining as Edwy s share, and the coun
man and other great districts in the tiesnorth of the Thames acknowledging
east of England, raised the standard Edgar as king. For a brief season the
430 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [959975

unity of England was thus broken. connect Dunstan with the awful crime

Edgar at once recalled Dunstan, and save that men knew he was opposed to her
with the approval of the Witenagemot marriage with king Edwy.* Nothing is
of Mercia and the Engles, appointed him known of his character that would leac

bishop Worcester, and shortly after

of us to regard him as either cruel or relent

bishop of London. less indeed Osbern the chronicler, the

;

In the southern kingdom, Odo the arch Canterbury precentor in the time o
bishop continued his bitter opposition to Lanfranc, who tells the dark story, relates

the marriage of Edwy, and finally with an as an example of the forgiving and kindly
armed band arrested the queen Elgiva nature of Dunstan, a curious anecdote o
and conveyed her to Ireland. It is to be the saint s vision, in which he saw the
feared she was also branded in the face ;
soul of the dead Edwy tormented by
but whether this barbarity was perpetrated fiends. Moved by exceeding pity, the
or not, the transaction certainly presents saint wrestled with God in prayer until
Odo in the light rather of a fierce Viking the dead king, who had driven him from
warrior than of a Christian prelate. It Glastonbury into exile, was delivered from
is also a striking proof of the great power his ghostly enemies. This curious and
which the church had now obtained in striking legend is repeated by Eadmer of
the land, and of the growing disposition Canterbury, the biographer of the saintly
of its more active spirits to meddle ener
* The branding by Odo s orders appears nearly
getically in secular affairs. boy-king, The certain ; no writer has seriously questioned it. In

fearing to lose the crown of his diminished regard to the other horrible mutilation, it is first
related by Osbern. Obviously he wrote from mere
kingdom, at length submitted to the tradition still it is monkish tradition, and a reason
;

archbishop s decree, and consented to a is added which lends too much probability to the

divorce. A horrible story is related by story. The divorced queen had just eluded her
guardians and she was, it is said, now ham
;

the chronicler Osbern, the precentor

strung that she might not be able to escape them
of Canterbury, who wrote a Life of again ! We
cannot forget that if the account is
St. Dunstan about a century and a half falsified, it is so falsified by ecclesiastics them
selves, and subsequent writers repeated and gloried
after Edwy s death, of more terrible cruelty
in the deed as meritorious. This is not only almost
being inflicted on the hapless divorced as revolting, but shows a feeling that makes the
fact itself more probable. In regard, however, to
queen. She attempted, he says, to rejoin
personal responsibility for the tragedy, not only
her husband but was seized by her re
; can Dunstan have hardly had anything to do with
lentless enemies at Gloucester, and the it, but it is doubtful if Odo was even alive when

it was enacted. It is remarkable that in his life

muscles and sinews of her lower limbs
of Odo, Osbern says it was done by men of the
"

cruelly severed, causing her death a few servants of God"; while in that of Dunstan he
later in terrible The real callsthem simply "the people of the north."
days agony.
This rather seems to point to a deed of lynch-law
truth concerning this pitiful story and
by the Mercian church-party, excited no doubt
the previous cruelty said to have been by the church s denunciations, and perhaps by
the example of the previous barbarity under
inflicted upon Elgiva, can perhaps never
Odo himself, and doubtless with the idea that
be now positively known but there is
they were saving the state from an imminent
;

certainly nothing on record which can danger.

 959975-] EDGAR AND DUNSTAN.
Anselm, who has also given us a life of consecrated several bishops, who had been
archbishop Dunstan. his pupils or friends, to vacant sees con ;

The death of the

young king in 959 spicuous among these were Ethelwold, the
some statements seem to imply his head of the Abingdon school, who became
murder put an end to the unhappy state bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, a Dane,
,
of division in England, and Edgar, Edwy s the nephew and favourite of Odo, a
brother, who had
previously been chosen Benedictine monk of the famous monastery

king of Mercia and the Engles, being of Fleury on the Loire, who was made
received as sovereign in Wessex, ruled bishop of Worcester, afterwards becoming
again over a united England. The general archbishop of York.
recognition of Edgar as king of England From the date of Edgar s accession
took place in 959. With his accession Dunstan was the minister of the reign,
Dunstan s influence in church and state the first of the many great ecclesiastical

enormously increased. statesmen who have played such a pro

The question of the succession to the minent part in the history of England,

primacy for a short time was doubtful. Odo and a visible token of the growing power
had died when Edwy was still reigning in and influence of the church, if also some
the south, and Edwy had nominated to what of its greater secularisation in aims
the archbishopric Elfsige, a kinsman of and ideas. Nothing in the church or
his own, a man of great learning, but a state was apparently done without the

violent and injudicious partisan. This great archbishop s sanction. His hand
Elfsige is reported to have treated the appears everything, and the peace
in

memory of Odo with studied disrespect and glory which the land enjoyed during
during his short reign at Canterbury. He the sixteen years of Edgar s rule were

went, as was the general custom, to Rome in a large measure owing to the wis
to receive the pall, but never returned ;
dom and foresight of the statesman arch
u
for ashe crossed the Alps in deep snow bishop. The rule of the realm was in
he caught the cold which put an end to the hands at once of Dunstan and of
his life.
Edwy s short and disastrous Edgar, and king and primate were almost
career was not closed when the news came blended together in the thoughts of
of his nominee
sudden death abroad, and
s Englishmen. So far, indeed, as their work
Byrthelm, bishop of Wells, was appointed could be distinguished, there was a curious
to the arch-see but before the translation
;
inversion of parts. The king was seen
was completed, Edwy expired, and Dun devoting himself to the task of building
stan s friend, Edgar, was on the throne. up again the church, of diffusing monas-
We hear no more of Byrthelm, who ticism, of fashioning his realm in accord
remained in his old diocese ;
and Dunstan ance with a religious ideal." No wonder
was once appointed primate, and received
at that we find king Edgar lauded by mon
the pall without opposition from the hands astic chroniclers. In the English Chronicle
of Pope John XII. at Rome in 960, the we read,
"

He upreared God s glory wide,

In 961 he * Green
year after Edgar s accession. Conquest of
"

: England."
432 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [959975-

and loved God s law ne was wide through

; reign of Edgar as the beginning of its

out nations greatly honoured, because he unbroken life in England. In his early
honoured God s name earnestly."
There youth it was said that Edgar had been
appears, however, no doubt of the king s moved by the sight of the ruined religious

great licentiousness, of which various in houses in different parts of the kingdom

stances are related and the penances by
;
to make a vow of restitution ;
it is also

which they were have been by some

visited not improbable, and would have been
recent writers contrasted with the treat quite according to the ideas of that age,
ment meted out to the ill-fated Edwy. that his zeal may have been actually
On the other
hand, the king s justice quickened by the personal profligacy to
became celebrated even beyond his own which allusion is made above, and which
dominions. may have been sincerely repented of. Able
The characteristic of this remarkable prelates such as Oskytel, archbishop of York,
reign of sixteen years was peace. For the near kinsman of Odo ;
the half-mythical
over a hundred and fifty years, with rare Thurkytel, abbot of Bedford, whom Crow-
intervals, the land had been the scene ot land afterwards claimed as founder Ethel- ;

fierce warfare between Englishman and wold, the disciple of Dunstan, bishop of
Dane but the
; period of Edgar s rule, when Winchester and Oswald, nephew of Odo,
;

Dunstan was the close friend, the minister, bishop of Worcester, and later archbishop
and almost sole adviser of the crown, is of York, were all of one mind, all intensely

remembered as a period of almost un anxious to breathe a fresh life into the

broken quiet. The archbishop seems church, and all convinced that the only
during much of this period to have prin sure road to the real reformation in life

cipally busied himself with state matters, and practice they so longed to see lay
leaving religious administration and legis through the introduction of the grave,
lative and church work largely to the king. ascetic rule of St. Benedict into all the

But indeed, during Edgar s reign, the king great centres of church life in England.
and the primate, his minister, worked hand They met with a considerable measure
in hand in church and state. of success in the southern and midland dis
The strong wave of feeling in favour of tricts. Many monasteries became homes
a re-invigorated monasticism which in the of Benedictines, trained by men who had
tenth century, especially in its second half, lived at Fleury, or Cluny, or in other
swept over Europe, evidently strongly famous reformed religious houses abroad.
affected king Edgar. Tradition ascribes In the vast and Dane-ravaged arch-diocese
to him the foundation of forty monasteries. of York, however, comparatively little was
This number is
probably exaggerated, but really effected, and it is doubtful if the
that Edgar was intensely in earnest in his Benedictine rule was ever firmly estab
desire to promote the interests of monas lished in the north till after the Norman
ticism is absolutely certain and in the ; Conquest. The minster at York was never
coming days of its vast power and in occupied by monks. But from the cathe
fluence, monasticism looked back to the drals and other more prominent centres of
959975-1 ARCHBISHOP DUNSTAN. 433

church life generally, the work of expul of clerks being banished from the monas
sion of clerks, especially of married clerks, teries of Mercia, of sweeping measures

went on rapidly under king Edgar and his adopted in Winchester (Wessex), of new
powerful Benedictine-loving counsellors. Benedictine foundations at Romsey,

mretmitocUamfflmn!

blurmctn fcmiift mmt&wu*

THE MURDER OF KING EDWARD THE MARTYR.

(From a nth-century Psalter, formerly belonging to Queen Mary. British Museum.)*

Curiously enough, Dunstan, who is Exeter, in the great Fen abbeys, and
popularly credited with being the principal in other places in Canterbury, where
;

instrument in this work of expulsion,

* The murder is
which must have brought with it much depicted at the bottom of the
page. The four illustrations at the top repre
suffering and hardship, was the least active sent scenes in the Passion. The text is Psalm
in these severe measures. While we hear cxix. 34, 35.

2 B
434 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [959-975

Dunstan reigned as archbishop for some poetry and prose ;

but the bulk of it con

twenty-seven years, the clerks never seem sisted in popular prose. The school of Glas

to have been expelled to give place to tonbury, which Dunstan guided and inspired
monks, nor do we hear of the establish for so many years, and its daughter-schooi
ment of any Benedictine house in Kent. of Abingdon, under Dunstans pupil Ethel

Clerks, indeed, remained at Canterbury wold, afterwards the bishop of Winchester

tillthe time of archbishop Elfric, and it
seems as if the great ecclesiastic was even
in advance of his age in striving to in
culcate the highest ideal of monastic life,
while recognising that it might be too
who was so active in forcing the clerks to
give place to monks, were the two great
educational centres.
This great impulse given to education
and literature was Dunstan s noblest and

high for some, and desiring to deal gently most enduring work. He left the Church
with individual cases as he found them. of England by monks and
largely officered
Yet there is no doubt but that Dunstan clerks, and quickened with a new desire for
himself was a monk. In the famous intellectual knowledge. The reproach ol
*
drawing the well-known manuscript
in ignorance apparently a self-satisfied ignor
in the Bodleian library, which with some ance was wiped away by his restless life

probability is ascribed to his own hand, he of self-sacrifice and brave, patient industry.
appears at the feet of Christ in the dress of The new monasticism, introduced rather
a monk. That he sympathised with the by Dunstan s favourite disciples than
by
policy which substituted monks for clerks is their master, but with which he sympa
also well-nigh certain, although he did not thised, and the establishment of which
appear by any means to be prominent in he quietly assisted and helped during his
the movement in which his own dearest seventeen years of almost supreme power,
friends and disciples were the leaders. supplied a new* and nobler ideal to the
Dunstan and his school, of whom the church. There is no doubt that the church

bishops of Winchester and Worcester Dunstan found in Wessex and Middle

the latter of whom was also archbishop England was sadly lax in morality, self-
of York were the most conspicuous, indulgent, and quite unfit in those rough,
succeeded in their efforts to infuse a rude times to guide and lead men. The
new and nobler spirit into the Church Benedictine monk of the school of Fleury,
of England. Education was enormously Cluny, and other similar famous houses,
advanced among the clergy, and as a with his rigid rule, his stern asceticism,
consequence of this new desire for know his devoted self-denial, inspired with a
ledge among the teachers and spiritual new spirit that great church to which the
guiders of the people, literature received a England of king Edgar looked for guidance
new and vigorous impulse. From the days and direction.
of Dunstan we date the rise of the second
old-English literature, the first, of course, King Edgar died in 975, and with the
dating from Alfred. It was a literature of death of Edgar the work of the archbishop
*
Reproduced on p. 441. as a statesman was well-nigh done. Once
959975-] ARCHBISHOP DUNSTAN. 435

more we see him at Glastonbury laying murdered Edward, with some colour of
a royal master and friend to rest. He legality, upon the government of
seized
buried Edgar by his father Edmund s side. the realm. Within a year, however, that
As for Dunstan himself, he survived his strong sense of justice and of reverence for
friend and sovereign for thirteen years. the Lord s anointed which in all ages has
But troublous times followed the year more or less influenced the English people,
which witnessed the death of Edgar the awoke, and surrounded the memory of the
Peaceful. Edgar left two sons. In his dead boy, who on the threshold of a life
will he designated the elder boy, Edward, which promised so fairly was so cruelly
as his successor, but the jealousy of the done to death, with the halo which be
relations of the younger Ethelred, who longs to a martyr, by which lofty title to
was the son of marriage with
his later honour curiously misplaced in this case
Elfrida, excited fresh commotions. Dun Edgar s hapless eldest son, Edward, has
stan supported the legal heir, Edward, ever been known in history. The remains
and anointed and crowned him king. of Edward the "

Martyr,"
in obedience to
Two or three strife-filled years followed, a national cry of sorrow and remorse, were
and then the boy Edward was murdered translated from their first humble resting-
(978). William of Malmesbury, the place at Wareham, and re-interred with

chronicler, who wrote shortly after the kingly pomp in Alfred s royal abbey of
Norman Conquest, tells the well-known Shaftesbury.
miserable Edward was returning
story. At one more imposing ceremony the
home alone from the chase, when his well-known and honoured figure of the

step-mother Elfrida, the widowed queen great archbishop was seen. In the solemn
of Edgar, caused him to be stabbed by a coronation of the boy Ethelred he officiated,
servant while he was drinking from the and crowned the child of his old friend

cup which she had handed to him. In Edgar the Peaceful at Kingston, delivering
spite of the deadly wound, the boy-king to him a solemn charge the promissio

spurred his horse forward to join his Regis, a reminder to be read in coming
companions but one foot slipping, he
; years of his duty to his people. It was
was dragged by the other through the laid upon the altar of Christ. This singular
winding paths of the wood, till his death document with us.
is It begins
still :

was made known to his followers by the "This

writing written letter
is
by letter
tracks of blood. after the writing that archbishop Dunstan

There was but little secrecy affected on delivered to our lord at Kingston on the
the part of those who had arranged the day that they hallowed him king." It is

king s Edward was hurried to

murder. short and to the point, and contains in a

his grave atWareham, no stately funeral very few words the duty of a king to his
marking the tragic passing away of a king subjects, closing with a reminder, perhaps
of England. The queen -mother and suggested by the sight of the new men
her powerful kinsmen, in the name of surrounding the child s throne ;
"

The
the child Ethelred, the brother of the duty of a hallowed king is .... that
436 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [975-988.

he have old and wise and sober men for of new churches, and indefatigable in the
counsellors, and set righteous men for work of instruction, gathering young and
stewards, for whatsoever they do un old, men and women, clerk, monk and lay
righteously by his fault, he must render man, to listen to his
"

teaching." Thus"

account of it all in the judgment-day." words of the Saxon monk, who had
in the
The story of Dunstan on the great stage personally known the saint and statesman
of English politics ends with the coronation "

all this English land was filled with his holy

of Ethelred at
Kingston. greatWith doctrine, shining before God and men like
wisdom and dignity, the statesman-prelate the sun and moon. When he was minded
recognised the situation, and seeing that to pay to Christ the Lord the due hours of
other rulers had arisen who knew him not, service, and the celebration of the Mass,
and certainly did not love him, quietly with such entireness of devotion he laboured
stepped aside, and retiring to his own he seemed to be speaking
in singing, that

Canterbury, in
comparative retirement face to face with the Lord, even if just

spent the remaining years of a life which before he had been vexed with the quarrels
had worked England so many and such
for of the people ;
like St. Martin, he kept
beneficent works in church and state. eye and hand intent on heaven, never
letting his spirit rest from prayer."
The picture of Dunstan s daily occu "

The idea of the sketch is that of a good

pations at Canterbury after his retire and faithful servant. There is nothing
ment from the court, is drawn byf the grotesque about the man as he appears in
earliest of his biographers, writing within the pages of the eye-witness, nothing of
a few years of his death. "His chief the tyrannical ascetic, as historians have
employment was on the divine service, generally depicted him. It is the crown
prayer and psalmody, and holy vigils ; ing of a laborious life, of a man who has had
now and then he resumed the employ great power and has used it for his country,
ments of his youth, exercising his old skill and, now that other rulers have arisen who
in handicraft the making of musical
in do not know or love him, falls back on the
instruments, like the organs which were studies of his youth, and spends his last

kept at Malmesbury, or the bells that years in the promotion of pious and learned
were known at Canterbury as his own works." We can then without any great
work the early hours of the morning he
;
stretch of imagination see the white-haired

gave to the very needful task of correcting
the faulty manuscripts of the library. The
great domains of his church afforded him
abundance of public work it was his
old bishop sitting with the children of his
household, his counsellors and guests, by
the fire in winter, and telling the little
;
ones the story of his childhood as he told

delight to make peace between man and the elders the story of St. Edmund, king

man, to receive and assist the widows and and martyr, which had been told him
fatherless, pilgrims and strangers of all when a boy by the king s armour-bearer.
sorts. He was an admirable steward of
the church s wealth, a founder and endower * Introduction to
Bishop Stubbs
"

: Memorials."
 975-988.] DUNSTAN S LATER YEARS. 437

"We must assign to Dunstan himself heard it. The several temptations of the
most of the marvellous tales of his earliest Devil are also probably of Dunstan s telling
biographer (the Saxon priest who had and possibly the various warnings that
known him face to face), such as the child s came to him at different times, of the

DUNSTAN S LAST SERMON.

dream at his first visit to Glastonbury ;

his death of his friends. All these stories bear
vision of the mystic dove at Etheldreda s the impress of the same mind, a mind

(his first patroness and friend) death ;

the slightly morbid and very sensitive, but pure

mysterious music of his harp as it hung and devout, void of grossness and grotesque-
against the wall, and the noble words ness. They seem to be stories for the
which formed themselves in his mind as he children, told by dne who had a strong
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [975-988.

and to be magnified and said the evidently faithful tra

"

belief in dreams, preaching,"

made important in the repetition, chiefly dition,

"

as he had never preached before."

on account of the greatness of the "

Evangelizavit, qualiter numquam ante

narrator." evangelizavit" says Adelard, writing only
The end to the quiet, beautiful life led some twenty years after the event.

during the last years of Dunstan s eventful He never appeared again in public, pre

career, came at last. No special illness serving, however, his full consciousness
seems to have carried him off it was and power of speech to the last. On the
rather gradual decay. He was only sixty- morning of the Sabbath following the
four years of age, but the life had been a Ascension Day, when he celebrated and
restless life of toil, and until the last few preached his last remarkable sermon,
years, of grave anxiety and constant excite after the matin hymns were finished, he
ment. The close was sudden. The arch bade the holy congregation of the brethren
bishop died, as most true men would choose come to him. Again commending his
to die, in harness, working to the last. he received from the heavenly table
spirit,
His biographers with greater or less length the viaticum of the sacrament of Christ
dwell on the story of the end. As was which had been celebrated in his presence,

naturally to be expected in a tenth or and giving thanks to God for it, he began
eleventh century story of such a one as to sing :
"

The merciful and gracious Lord

Dunstan, his chroniclers tell us of some hath so done his marvellous works that
marvels accompanying the saint s death. they ought to be had in remembrance.
But these can easily be separated from He hath given meat unto them that fear
what is evidently a simple and true recital. Him." And with these words in his
was on Ascension Day, 988, that the
It mouth, rendering his spirit into his Maker s
u
signs of the rapidly-approaching end first hands, he rested in peace. Oh, too happy
showed themselves ;
but although evidently whom the Lord found thus watching !
"

weak and suffering, he went through all his On the Sunday he was buried in the
accustomed duties in his great Canterbury church that he loved so well. His grave was
church consecrating and distributing the apparently in the undercroft, beneath the
blessed elements as usual. Thrice on that choir, deep in the ground, at his head
solemn day he ascended the pulpit and the matin altar. In after years the choir
spoke to the people with his old passionate was burnt and rebuilt, and the body of
fervour and eloquence, dwelling on the Dunstan was removed. The coffin con
mystic event the holy festival of the taining the sacred remains was opened,
Ascension commemorated, and pressing and the vestments with which the body
home to the listening people the
power of was clothed were found to be decayed.
the precious blood, and telling them that no He was clothed anew and laid in a wooden
sinner, however terrible, however numerous coffin enclosed in a leaden one and banded
his sins,need despair of forgiveness if he with iron, and was re-interred in a stone
only had the Mediator to plead for him tomb on the south side of the high altar.
* Memorials of
Bishop Stubbs Adelard: Sancti
"

: St. Dunstan." "Vita Dunstani," xi.

975-988-] DUNSTAN S LATER YEARS. 439

In the last year of the reign of king legends quickly gathered. He was soon
Henry VII. (1508), archbishop Warham, credited with having performed many
some five centuries after Dunstan s death, miracles. He was spoken of not merely
wishing to verify the tradition that the as a worker of supernatural acts, but the
sainted remains had been deposited in reputation clave to him of having been,
Canterbury and not at Glastonbury, as too, a seer and a prophet. As remarked
the monks of that famous house loved to by the learned historian we have already
assert, caused the tomb to be opened. In so frequently quoted, he was canonised
a letter of Warham to the abbot of in popular regard almost from the day

Glastonbury, dated in June, 1508, after he died, and was certainly the favourite
describing the small wood chest, upright saint of the Church of England for more
like tomb, and girt with iron,
a situ than a century and a half; and when,
ated on the south side of the high altar, after that long period, he gave place
in which the body of -Dunstan was said to in popular regard to another saint and
be lying, the archbishop writes On its :
"

national hero, the new object of veneration

being opened, we found within it a certain was no less a personage than Thomas a
leaden cist, and underneath, inside, a Becket, who won his unexampled and
single small piece of lead a foot long, on enduring place in the hearts of the people
which was engraved, Hie requiescit Sanc- less from his reputation for sanctity, than

tus Dunstanus, Archiepiscopus. There, because he had been the champion

within the same cist were found pieces of of the church against a king who was
linen, very white, redolent, as it were, with credited with the wish to trample under
the odour of balsam these being unrolled,
;
foot its sacred privileges. A Becket owed
we discovered the skull of the said saint, his enormous popularity to the fact that

entire, and the different bones of his body, he died defending a church which the
with many other similar relics." It was people loved. That the memory of Dun
just 520 years from the date of his death stan maintained its place in the hearts of
that Warham looked on the mouldering the English so long, and then only yielded
relics of Dunstan. In the longer report it to so great a memory as that of the
of the "

Scrutinium "

made by the arch martyr archbishop, is

singularly higha

bishop Warham and the lord, prior of testimony to the surpassing merits of the
Canterbury, the remains of Dunstan are man for, as it has been well said, popular
;
"

termed sanctissimum worship has not been usually wasted on

"

curiously illud

organum Spiritus Sancti indutum ponti- the memory of selfish ascetics."

ficalibus, turn pro magna parte consumptis." Of that strange and mistaken worship
The small piece of lead above referred to of saints which the mediaeval church
with the inscription "

Hie requiescit," etc., fostered with a touching care, the cult of

is
represented as resting on the breast of Dunstan is a memorable instance. It is

the saint s body. undeniable that the greatest thinkers, the

profoundest theologians, the most pious
Round the memory of Dunstan many as well as the most learned, for many ages
440 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [975-988.

assumed that the departed spirits of the anniversary. These became, in fact, a part
blessed possessed a special access to the of the ordinary ritual for that day, not

presence of the Most High, and that their only in his own archiepiscopal seat of Can
prayers were listened to with a peculiar terbury, but in all the great churches of
favour by God and His Christ. long A the land. The mass on St. Dunstan s day,
and remarkable supplication of the holy "

Missa Sancti Dunstani

Episcopi et
Anselm is still extant, in which that true Confessoris," slightly varied in the different
scholar and saint implores St. Dunstan s uses, appears in the missals of Salisbury,
intercession at the throne of grace. He York, and Hereford, and is found in copies
addresses the blessed saint in glory as of different dates until, comparatively
"

Dulcis ad invocandum, benignus ad speaking, quite late times, the breviaries

exaudiendum pius ad subveniendum." which contained them bearing such dates
"

Most
readily," whispers
Anselm in the as Rouen, A.D. 1492 ; Rouen, A.D. 1502 ;

course of this strange sad prayer, will

"

Paris, A.D. 1533.

the Judge Himself bestow whatever a The materials for the picture of the life

loved and cherished friendship like yours and work of this eminent servant of the
shall ask of Him." possess prayers We Church of England are, taking into con
of various dates offered to, and hymns sideration the circumstances, fairly rich. We
sung in honour of, this loved Englishman, possess five distinct Lives of Dunstan. The
as a specimen of this passionate adulation. first was by a nameless Saxon priest, whom
One hymn, written early in the eleventh the learned Mabillon the Benedictine be

century, begins thus : lieveswas Byrhtferth, a pupil of Abbo of

"

Ave Dunstane, praesulum, Fleury, one of the most eminent English

Sidus decusque splendidum scholars of the time. He wrote some
Lux vera
years after the arch
gentis Anglicae, twelve or thirteen
Et ad Deum dux praevie."
bishop s death, and had been an eye
One of the two earliest lives of Dun- witness of some of the events belonging to
stan that by Adelard, written certainly Dunstan s later life. Much of what he
within twenty years of the saint s death relates, was based on what he
he tells us,

is drawn
up in the form of lessons to
" "

heard from Dunstan s own mouth. This

be read in the services of the great monas "

Life
"

is much richer in what may be

tery at Canterbury. This devotional " "

termed events belonging to the private or

work on Dunstan was rapidly multiplied, home life of the saint than to his public
and was the source from which the breviary and official career. On the latter it is not
lessons for St. Dunstan s day were mainly difficult to comprehend the comparative
taken. So general and widespread was reticence of Dunstan, who was living in
the worship of the beloved Anglo-Saxon retirement in an honourable retirement,
saint, that we find in the various missals it is true but none the less in a kind of

used in the services of the mediaeval state disgrace. Those ministers and ad
Church of England, special masses ar visers who surrounded
the young king
ranged to be said or sung on St. Dunstan s were no friends to the old minister who
 ST. DUNSTAN AT THE FEET OF CHRIST. (Bodleian Library, Oxford.)

[The writing,
"

Dunstanum was probably written by Dunstan himself

memet," etc., ; but whether
the picture was drawn by him is more doubtful.]
442 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [975-988.

was once all-powerful. The picture pre Christ Church, Canterbury, in the time
sented by this earliest biographer is thus of archbishop Lanfranc. good deal of A
most valuable as regards his inner life and what is told in the two earlier records is
more personal recollections. repeated, but with a still larger admixture
The second Life of Dunstan is that of of the marvellous. We find in Osbern s

Adelard, and dated only a very few years

is memoir not a few of those legends of the
later than the first biography. In the few saint which from their grotesque character

years which had now elapsed some twenty have caught the attention of later and
since the saint s death, the legends of the more sceptical generations, and have sadly
marvellous had grown luxuriantly round and unjustly disfigured his great memory

the memory of Dunstan. Here we find such legends as how Dunstan seized the
related most of the more startling marvels Devil by the nose, how he saw the soul of
that are commonly associated with his his enemy, King Edwy, carried off by
name. Passing by those grotesque and devils. The story of the dreadful mutila
well-known stories of his conflict with the tion of the hapless queen Elgiva is told
Evil One, be interesting to quote
it will also by this comparatively late biographer.

one of these stories of the marvellous told Among these stories of the popular
by Adelard, to which the monks in after saint, part of which no doubt have some
days listened with attention and pleasure. foundation, there are of course beautiful
It was on the night preceding that last gems such as the dream of the writer
feast of the Ascension, two days before the who once in sore trouble visited Dunstan s

saint s death, that Alfgar, afterwards bishop tomb dead of the night, and after
in the

of Elmham, saw in a vision a number of wards in his chamber saw a vision of a

cherubim and seraphim filling the minster palace of exquisite beauty to reach ;
it he
in which the holy Dunstan was officiating. had to pass through a flood of waters ;
then
The heavenly band drew near the saint. entering the fairhouse he had been gazing
Are you ready, Dunstan," asked one of
"

at from afar, he found it brilliantly lighted

the angel visitors, to join our heavenly
"

with a light brighter than the sun within ;

choir on the festal day of Christ s en- the house were many saints assembled,
thronisation ?
"

To which the archbishop each wearing a strangely joyous expression.

cannot come, I for this is the I kept thinking," said the dreamer of
" "

replied, day
on which Christ ascended to the heavens, the dream, "

about the brilliancy of that

and I must speak to His people and com dazzling light, and at last it occurred to me
municate with them in the sacrament." that the marvellous radiance proceeded
Then said the
heavenly one, Be ready on
"

from the bodies of the assembled saints.

the Sabbath (two days later) to come with On inquiring who these all were, I learned
us, foryou will have to sing with us for they were the company of the great
ever and for ever, Holy, holy, holy Dunstan, who had only a little time before
"

The third Life was not written until

" "

been with them and had celebrated the

after the Norman Conquest. Its author divine sacrament, and had bidden them
was Osbern, precentor of the cathedral or wait till he returned." To the high estima-
975-988.] DUNSTAN S CHARACTER. 443

tion in which Dunstan, the Saxon saint, and most remarkable of the Anglo-Saxon
was held in the Church of England even in churchmen, is conceded even by those whose
Norman days, such recitals as the above, estimate of his character is very different

occurring, as they do, in the work of the from that painted by the present writer.
precentor of the Norman Lanfranc s cathe For centuries the monk-historians were in
dral, bear clear testimony. the habit of painting Dunstan as one of the
The fourth and fifth
"

Lives," composed noblest and purest figures in the story of

respectively by Eadmer, the biographer of the Church of England ;

as one who in a

Anselm, and William of Malmesbury, give singular degree had won the special favour
us but few fresh details of the great church of the Most High as one who on earth ;

man once so loved in England. had been permitted to exercise powers not
Strangely enough, we possess no writ usually granted to the ordinary sons of
ings whatever which can be with any men, and who, after death, was privileged
certainty ascribed to Dunstan himself; to approach the throne of God laden with

nothing has survived not even a letter. the blessed burden of prayers and supplica
It would seem that this great ecclesiastic, tions which had been offered by men still
profound scholar, devoted and able engaged in the battle of life. In the great
teacher, cunning craftsman, trained musi reaction which followed the downfall of the

cian, consummate statesman, able and monastic orders, the motto, incende quod "

"

eloquent preacher, was no writer. The adorastt Burn what thou hast been
1

("

ecclesiastical laws, which will be dwelt adoring"), has been in countless cases

upon presently, are of considerable im only too faithfully followed. The perhaps
portance, and throw a strong, clear rather
"

indiscriminate mediaeval adora

lightupon the state of the church under tion
"

of the great statesman and church

Dunstan s rule ;
but while these bear the reformer, has changed into the been "

evident of and, no most hateful detraction and the student "

impress his mind, ;

doubt, were his exclusive work, they do of English church history has been taught,
not bear his name, but are termed "

Canons alike in the manuals of his child-days, as

made in king Edgar s reign." The well- in the graver and more scientific histories
known hymn, Kyrie Rex Splendens,"
"

of his country, rather to loathe than to

which, according to the Salisbury use,"
"

revere the memory of Dunstan. This

is appointed to be
sung at his festival after popular view, expounded to a former
the "

officium," is traditionally said to have generation great length by at scholars

been dictated by Dunstan. Eadmer in like Sharon Turner, has been stereotyped
his life of the saint, tells how one in quite late times by the bitter and
Sunday at mass the archbishop fell asleep, caustic words even of writers of the first

and as he slept, heard a solemn service in rank, such as Milman, the learned and
heaven ; awaking, he dictated to his eloquent dean of St. Paul s, and Hallarn,
servants the hymn in question, the words the justly esteemed historian of the Middle
of which he had heard in his dream. Ages. The words of the former deserve to
That Dunstan was one of the greatest be quoted as supplying a good summary
444 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [975-

of this popular view Dunstan s life was

:
"

sphere, among a ruder people, a pro

a crusade a cruel, unrelenting, yet but phetic type and harbinger of Hildebrand
partially successful crusade against the (Pope Gregory VII.). Like Hildebrand,
in the spirit not of a rival

sovereign, but of an iron-

hearted monk, he trampled the

royal power under his feet.

The scene at the coronation

of king Edwy, excepting the
horrible cruelties of which it

was prelude, and which

the
belong to a more barbarous

race, might seem to prepare

mankind for the humiliation of

the emperor Henry IV. at

1 1 \ Canossa." Hallam formed

the same low estimate.
rnjurtuiittt Modern research has re
versed the judgment so vehe

mently expressed by English

Mfttmrjjcigumttt m frflmmr uo writers of the post-Reforma
tion period. Dean Hook, in his
Life of Dunstan, though with
some hesitation, declines to en
dorse the
popular view.old

Green, by ignoring the stock

pieces of accusation, shows how
cheaply he estimated them,
and sketches Dunstan as one of
the great "

makers of England."

Freeman, with no uncertain

voice, unhesitatingly adopts the

ancient and monastic estimate
MS. OF THE HYMN, "

XYRIE REX SPLENDENS. of the statesman-archbishop,

(Front a Latin Antiphonary according to the "Salisbury use." Early
\$th century. British Museum.) and remarkable paragraph
in a

thus gives his view

"

Dunstan, :

married clergy, which, in truth, compre a name known to too many readers only
hended the whole secular (non-monastic) as the subject of one of the of mon
silliest
"

clergy of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. astic legends, stands torth (he is

speaking
Dunstan was, as it were, in a narrower of the glorious reign of Edgar) as the
"

* The lines of the stave are in red. * Milman "

Latin
:
Christianity."
975-988.] HISTORICAL ESTIMATES OF DUNSTAN. 445

leading man in church and state. As the on the sweeping charges brought by
u
minister of Edred and Edgar, as the Milman, quoted above For this invec
:

Jehoiada or Seneca who watched over the tive, there is not in the writing of con
still harmless childhood of the second temporaries, or in any authentic remains
Ethelred, Dunstan is entitled to lasting of Dunstan s legislation, the shadow of a
and honourable renown." Dr. Stubbs foundation. What Dunstan did at Edwy s
(Bishop of Oxford), in his edition of the coronation he did by the order of the
ancient lives of Dunstan,* thus comments assembled Witan of the kingdom. The
* this edition of the ancient Lives cruelties which are said to have followed
It is mainly to
of Dunstan, by Bishop Stubbs, of Oxford, and the
are asserted on the authority of Osbern
masterly introduction prefixed to them, that the
student is most indebted for the true estimate of and Eadmer, the earlier of whom wrote
this great churchman. Various direct references
nearly a century and a half after the death
are made above to these "

Memorials," published
in the great series issued under the direction of the
of Edwy, and depend on no other testi

Master of the Rolls ; and the writer of this history mony. If ever they took place at
they all,

gratefully records his thanks for the light thus took place during Dunstan s exile. The
thrown by the eminent Oxford scholar upon a most
known period charge of persecuting the married clergy
important, but little of the history
of our Church. is
equally baseless."

TRADITIONAL SITE OF DUNSTAN S TOMB,

BY THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE HIGH ALTAR. IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.
(The diaper work on the right is supposed to mark the spot. )
 CHAPTER XX.

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH AT THE END OF THE TENTH CENTURY.

The Dunstan concerning Priests Churches Lay People Archbishop Ethelgar Siric
"Canons" of
"Decrees of the Council of Enham Capture ot
ElfricAlphege The "Laws of Ethelred
Alphege by the Danes His Martyrdom
The Homilies of Elfric Their Importance Doctrine
of Radbertus concerning the Real Presence The Controversy Elfric
His Paschal Homily and
its Teaching Probable Indebtedness to it of Hooker Elfric s Epistle still clearer Elfric s
Doctrine traceable to the School of York and its great Teachers Use of Latin in the Church-
Translations Marriage Sunday Observance Ordination of Bishops -of Priests Marriage-
Trial by Ordeal.

r1 "\HE
discipline and practice of the Loyalty to their earthly lords is a part of

Church the times their duty. year they are to meet

England in of Every
of Odo and Dunstan, when Edgar in synod. There they are to make
and the princes of the illustrious line reports as to the conduct of the people
of Alfred were reigning, show that no under their charge, as to their behaviour
little was paid to order and
attention to their spiritual guides, as to their

duty in the church. We get some insight bearing towards the church particularly ;

into the inner life of the clergy, and we to note any man in their peculiar district

gather some knowledge of what was ex who had fallen into any mortal crime. A
pected from them, from the "Canons" of curious direction appears in the matter of
Dunstan. The exact date of this interest their attendance at their yearly synod.
ing and curious document is uncertain. The clergy are to carry with them their

Its title, Canons made in king Edgar s

"

vestments and service books for divine

reign," only
tells us that it must have been ministration, and to bring their ink and
put out during the time of Dunstan s great parchment for writing down any instructions
influence as the minister and principal they might receive there. This last shows
adviser of the crown. The "

canons "

are that at least all clergy were expected to be

mostly concerned with the life and duties able to write freely and with ease. They
of the clergy * but there are certain things
;
were to carry no lawsuits between each
specially enjoined upon the Christian laity. other before secular courts. Their own
The clergy, who are addressed as "God s order must supply judges in such matters.
are charged diligently to per
servants," Particularly were they warned against
form their service and ministry to God, haughtiness towards other men. Let no "

and to intercede for all Christian folk. noble-born priest despise one of less noble
They are enjoined to be faithful and birth, for all men were of one origin."

obedient to their superiors in the church, This direction tells us that a fair pro-,
and this faithfulness and truth is also to portion at least of the clergy belonged to
be shown in their relations to the state. the class of nobles and thanes in these
*
Compare Dean Hook : Lives of the Arch- days, and reminds us that the service of
bishops Dunstan." the church was by no means despised
 circa 959-975-] CANONS OF DUNSTAN. 447

among the higher ranks of the Anglo- no other purpose. Mass was to be cele
Saxons : no slight indication, in such war- brated only in the church. The only
loving days, of the power and influence exception was in the case ot extreme
of the church. sickness, and even then mass was never
The priest in Dunstan s administration to be celebrated without a hallowed altar.
must avoid field sports.
"

He must be no The greatest care, too, was to be taken in

hunter or hawker "

;
he was to avoid games the solemn ritual. No priest was ever to
of chance ;
"he must be no player of celebrate mass without a book being before
dice, but must divert himself with a book, his eyes, he mistake," and to preserve
"

lest

as becometh his
order."
Again and again thisextreme accuracy, every priest was to
we find study and reading enjoined upon take great care to have a good book at
the clergy of the tenth and eleventh least, a true one. Fasting was directed
centuries. Strangely enough, the priest before partaking of the housel, or sacra
in the church presided over by Dunstan ment, except in the event of extreme
is never warned against marriage. Indeed, sickness. The housel, or sacrament, was to
Dunstan himself seems to have behaved be always in readiness it was to be kept ;

with extreme gentleness in this, one of the with diligence and purity, and if it became
burning questions of the time. Only a stale, was to be burnt in a clear fire, and
quiet reminder appears, urging the priest the ashes were to be put under the altar.
not to love too much the company of
"

Vestments were to be worn whenever the

women, but to love his lawful wife that priest celebrated mass. The chalice in

is, his church." The clergy are to guard which the housel, or sacrament, was
themselves against over-drinking, and to hallowed was to be of metal-molten,
teach the same to other men drunken : never of wood. All things near the altar
ness evidently seems to have been a or belonging to the church were to be
besetting among the people. They
sin very cleanly and decently ordered. A
were to be the teachers of the people. light was always to be burning in the

Special directions are given respecting the church when mass was being sung. The
scholars they were to receive. Manual hours of service were to be notified by
arts were not to be neglected in their ringing the bells of the church and lastly, ;

schools. Dunstan himself we know was no mass-priest or minister-priest was ever

no mean artificer in gold and silver, and to come within the church door or into
was also an artist. This working with the his stall without a stole.

hands as well as with the brain

again is Dunstan v.-^re in their variety
s "canons"

dwelt upon, in the exhortation that the of practical detail far-reaching they also ;

priest was diligently to instruct the youth, insisted upon a uniform ritual, and even
and to dispose them to trades. upon a uniform way of reading in church
Very stringent are the injunctions re no doubt to avoid irreverence or care
specting the reverent use of the churches. lessness in these most important particulars.
These were to be rigidly kept for divine All the priests must use the same practice
"

ministration and for pure services, and for in relation to the service of the church,
448 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [988.

and keep an equal pace in the church directed some heathen Danish
against
service through the course of the year." rite, that no Christian was to taste
Alms were to be collected and "

distributed blood. In the direction that no woman

as both to render God propitious and to was to come near the altar when mass
dispose the people to alms-deeds." Baptism was being sung, the influence of the
was to be regularly administered it was ;
monkish training of Dunstan appears.
to be given as soon as it was desired, and Such a bias was rarely seen in Dunstan s
never delayed beyond thirty-seven nights. policy after he had risen to a position
And no one was to remain too long un- of supreme authority. We also find in

bishoped that is, unconfirmed. these "

canons "

directions as to reverent
The
injunctions or advice to lay people burial of the dead.
contained in these canons of Dunstan
" "

The story of Ethelgar, Dunstan s suc

were, as might be expected, less numerous, cessor in the primacy of the Church of
and of a more general nature. Not a few England, well illustrates the policy and

of them evidently belonged to a people in spirit of the great archbishop, who had
whose families, more or less, pagan rites done so much to rekindle life and vigour
were familiarly practised and pagan tradi in the church during the reign of Edgar
tions were honoured. With the Danish and his immediate predecessors. Ethelgar
settlements under Guthrun, and other received his education at Glastonbury,
Vikings in the days of Alfred, and later, where Dunstan had so long presided. He
this strong pagan element in the country became a Benedictine monk in the well-

is
easy to account for. Every Christian known educational house of Abingdon
man, was diligently to win his
for instance, under Ethelwold, the famous and austere
child to Christianity and to teach him the disciple of Dunstan. This Ethelwold, it will
Lord s Prayer and the Creed. Every man be remembered, was subsequently bishop
was to be expert in saying the Lord s of Winchester, and was notorious as the

Prayer and the Creed, as he desired to lie leader in the Church of England of the
in holy ground or to be judged
worthy of violent proceedings which were, later, to
the housel (the sacrament). On holy-days eject the married clerks from the religious
men were to give up heathenish songs and houses and minster churches, and to re
diabolical sports. On Sundays they were place them with Benedictine monks. In
to abstain from markets and the county these severe and often cruel acts Ethel
courts. Onfestival and fast days oaths wold went far beyond the example, and

and the ordeal were to be forborne. Tem perhaps the wishes of Dunstan. Ethelgar
perance was especially urged upon all was a favourite pupil of Ethelwold, who
entering within the walls of a church. No appointed him abbot of Newminster at
man was to expect to be buried in church Winchester. But he also never appears
unless he were known in his lifetime to to have sympathised with the stern
have pleased God. They were to remem measures of his master, Ethelwold, and
ber to be just in tithing and other matters. when in the year 980 he was, through Dun
A curious charge appears, evidently stan s influence, appointed to the bishopric
9 88.] ARCHBISHOP ETHELGAR. 449

of Selsey, during his eight years of rule in advance and foster true monasticism in
the South Wessex diocese, he allowed the her bosom, and with it the cause of educa
secular clergy of the Selsey cathedral tion but his wise and gentle conduct in
;

church to remain undisturbed in their not displacing the Selsey clerks showed

ABBOT PRESENTING A BOOK OF PRAYER TO THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE, SHOWING THE DRESS
OF ABBOT AND ARCHBISHOP, FROM A IOTH CENTURY MS.*
(From Strutt s Dress and Habits of the English People.)

offices. His
appointment to the see of that as primate he had no intention of

Canterbury showed that the wise, con changing the quiet policy of Dunstan in
ciliatory policy of Dunstan was by many the matter of the clerks and secular clergy
desired to be the dominant policy of the
* This
MS., now in the British Museum, was
church. As a Benedictine monk, there
formerly in the possession of the monastery of
would be no question as to his desire to St. Augustine.

2 c
450 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [989-

of Canterbury, and in other places where authoritative pieces of theology. The imme
the authority and influence of the arch diate reason of their public adoption by the
bishop was dominant. But
Ethelgar, archbishop seems to have been as follows.
unfortunately, died within a year of his In the canons of Dunstan, promulgated
" "

translation to the arch-see. some years previously, directions were given

His successor in the primacy was another to the English clergy that a sermon should
pupil of Glastonbury, who through be preached every Sunday. The extreme
Dunstan s influence had been preferred to sermon evidently
difficulty of providing this
the abbot s chair of St. Augustine s, Canter pressed hardly upon many of the Anglo-
bury, and later, through the same influence, Saxon priests. To lighten this burden,
in the year 985 had been chosen bishop of Siric allowed a collection of homilies, to
the small see of Ramsbury, a Wessex which he gave the full weight of his archi-
bishopric founded by archbishop Plegmund, episcopal sanction, to be read instead of the
in the days of Alfred. Siric was a great prescribed sermon in all the churches of
scholar, and collected a precious library, the land. The homilies in question were
which he bequeathed to the metropolitan composed by Elfric, a very learned monk
cathedral. Once more we find the arch of Abingdon, a pupil of the notorious

bishop one of the advisers of the crown :

bishop Ethelwold of Winchester, and
not perhaps a very wise one, for to Siric s who under Ethelwold became a most
advice is credited Ethelred s fatal policy of distinguished teacher and writer at

continually purchasing a temporary peace Winchester. To these homilies and other

from the Viking invaders. The first of the writings of Elfric, and their extreme im
many of these shameful ransoms, through portance in the history of the Church of
Siric s advice was paid after the great England, we shall presently refer more
defeat of the Anglo-Saxon forces at Maldon, particularly.
so graphically painted in the poem we Siric was followed
Canterbury by at
find in the Saxon Chronicle. He seems, Elfric the grammarian, the author of the
from the scant notice of the Worcester Homilies, who at the time of his election
Chronicle, to have been a foe to the secular was bishop of Ramsbury. The policy of
clergy, and to have introduced monks into Siric in replacing the secular clergy was
Canterbury. He died, however, after a steadily continued by Elfric.During his
brief episcopate of some four or five years, episcopate (994 to 1006), some twelve years,
leaving a reputation of being a great the terror of the Danish invasion brooded
scholar and patron of learning but some ;
.over England an ever-darkening cloud.
thing more was needed for one filling his Assuming with the latest scholarly writers*
great office in those troublous days of the identity of Elfric the grammarian with
Ethelred the Unready. Elfric the archbishop of Canterbury, his
In the story of the Church of England, chief title to honour is his profound
Siric the scholar will be ever remembered scholarship.
"

In him we see the type of

owing to his having adopted and sanc *Dean Hook: "Lives of the Archbishops."
tioned the famous Homilies of Elfric, as Freeman The Norman Conquest."
:
"
989-1012.] ARCHBISHOPS SIRIC, ELFRIC, AND ALPHEGE.
the religious and educational populariser. of war and sorrow. Not so the man who
He aids the raw teacher with an English followed him in the chair of St. Augustine.

grammar of Latin. He helps the unlearned
priest by providing for
homilies as a course of teaching for the
year. He assists bishop Wulfsine and arch
bishop Wulfstan by furnishing them with
pastoral letters to their clergy. His homilies
were so greedily read, that his admirers
begged from him some English lives of
the saints and the prayer of a friend,
; (the Benedictine
him eighty English
Alphege was no recluse scholar. It was in
the gloomiest period of Ethelred s unhappy
reign that Elfric died. The vengeance of
Sweyn for the massacre of St. Brice s day
had reduced the whole country to the
extreme of misery. Every shire in Wessex
was scarred with flame and desolation. It
was under such circumstances that Alphege
monk of Deerhurst, the

Ethelweard, drew him into editing and bishop of Winchester) was called to preside

writing an English version of the Bible, over the English church.

which, omitting some parts, as he judged, "His virtues were those which at that
unedifying for the times, he carried on from time were specially admired and esteemed.
*
Genesis to the Book of Judges." The He was inflexible and stern, abundant in
Saxon Chronicle thus quaintly writes of alms-deeds, and a rebuker of the rich ;

him :
"

In this year, 995, archbishop Sigaric severe to others but severer to himself, the

died,and Elfric, bishop of Wiltshire, was reality of his asceticism being testified by
chosen on Easter day at Amesbury by his very appearance. It was told of him
king ALgelred (Ethelred) and by all his that in winter he would rise at midnight,
Witan. This Elfric was a very wise man, and, issuing unseen from his house, would
so that there was no sager man in England, kneel, exposed to the chill night air, while
and when he came thither he was received praying barefoot without his coat. Flesh
by those men in orders, who were most he never touched, except on extraordinary
unacceptable to him, that was, by clerks." occasions his body was so attenuated that
;

He died in 1006, and was buried in his it is said when he held up his hand
loved monastic school of Abingdon. the light was seen through it. The
people, in despair, not knowing where
Elfric s successor, Elfheah, generally to look for human help, and feeling that
known in ecclesiastical history as Alphege, they deserved the Divine malediction,
occupies one of the more prominent places Alphege to the see
hailed the election of
in the roll of great archbishops. Elfric of Canterbury with one burst of applause.
was a scholar and a theologian of the He was translated from Winchester on ;

highest class, and his writings have in his departure from which see, all Hamp

fluenced the teaching of the Church of shire escorted him to the borders of the

England in a way probably quite un county, and his entrance to Canterbury

dreamed of by him or his contemporaries ;
was like the entrance of a victorious
*
but as a statesman or a churchman he was general."

comparatively little heard of in this age During this period of disaster and
* Green * Hook Lives of the Archbishops."
Conquest of
" "

: :
England."
452 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1008 ion.

suffering there is no doubt that the church worship one God, and be true to one royal
exerted a great and beneficent influence lord. It will manfully and with one accord

over the lives of men. The nation was "

defend life and law, and will pray earnestly

*
deeply religious the church was deeply
;
to God Almighty for His help."

national." Side by side, in the great Somewhat later are the decrees which
popular assemblies, sat the bishops and the we possess of the undated Council of
aldermen, and the legislation of king Enham. Many of the above enactments
Ethelred, framed in the intervals of quiet, are repeated ;
and while a spirit of eccle-
shows how deep and far-reaching was the siasticism runs through them, it is that
influence of the church in the early years noble ecclesiasticism which, while endea
of the eleventh century. vouring to enforce a pure and patriotic
After the elevation of Alphege to the rule of life, believes that only under the

archbishopric there were several intervals guidance of the church is such a rule of
of comparative quiet notably during the life likely to be carried out. The earnest
years 1008 and 1009. Some of the im and self-denying archbishop Alphege was
portant legislation, generally known as evidently one, if not the principal, of the
the laws of Ethelred," belongs certainly
"

wise and patriotic men who dictated such

to this period, and throws considerable legislation.

light upon the state of public feeling at The death of Alphege was a fitting close
this time, and reminds us how powerfully to the life of this remarkable man. In the
the church under such a ruler as Alphege year ion, in the month of September, in
influenced men s minds. "

The whole of the course of their destructive raids raids,

one of the statutes or collections of these which, as the years of Ethelred s fatal reign
laws, reads like an act of penitence on the drew towards their close, became more and
part of a repentant nation, awakened by more terrible a Viking army appeared
misfortune to a sense of national sins. before Canterbury. After twenty days of
Heathenism to be cast out, an ordinance
is siege the city was betrayed, and the Danes
which shows what had been the effect of entered the unhappy city as conquerors.
the Danish invasions. . . . Punish We have four accounts of this mournful
ments were to be mild ;
death especially episode, which among many dread events
is to be sparingly inflicted. Christian and of these unhappy days stands out with a
innocent men are not to be sold out of the sad prominence, owing to the exalted rank
land. . . . All church dues are to be and the high character of the principal
regularly paid, and all festivals to be re sufferer. The earlier accounts are silent

gularly kept, especially the festival of the as to any general massacre, or as to the
newest English saint, the martyred king horrible barbarities dwelt on with such
Edward (king Ethelred s brother). The passion by Florence of Worcester and by
whole is wound up with a pious and Osbern, the precentor of Canterbury under
patriotic resolve of real and impressive the Norman Lanfranc. The Chronicles give
solemnity. The nation pledges itself to a picture only of plunder and captivity, and
fidelity to God and the king. It will * Freeman Norman Conquest."
:
"
IOII 1012.] ARCHBISHOP ALPHEGE. 453
tell us how, when the Danes had searched detail by the writers Florence and Os-
the city thoroughly, they went to their bern. Itis
possible that some exaggeration
ships with their booty and their captives, may mar these accounts, written about a

ALPHEGE BROUGHT BEFORE THE DANES.

amongst whom was the archbishop Al- hundred years after the event, but terrible
phege. But harrowing details of the suffering and many deaths were without
slaughter and burning of the citizens, of doubt the result of such a capture by the
children being tossed on spears, and of Viking invaders. A great ransom was
other horrors not, alas ! unknown in those demanded by the Danes as the price of the

terrible Danish wars, are dwelt upon in release of the archbishop. This at first
454 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [1012.

he promised to pay, and the Danes,
expectation of receiving it, kept him
close captivity in their ships.
were willing and anxious to pay the ran
som demanded, offering to sell the church
in conversion to Alphege, was moved with
in pity when he looked on the poor battered
His friends form lying on the ground in the midst of
the savage group of enemies, and seeing
that the archbishop was wounded to death,

plate throughout the province to make up resolved to put him out of his pain ;

the required sum. But Alphege refused lifting up his heavy battle-axe, with one
to allow any such sacrifice to be made for blow he clave in twain the archbishop s
him. "

Nothing," he said,
"

should be skull.

paid for him. He had sinned in promising When the effects of the wild carouse
a ransom. The treasures belonging to the were passed, even the fierce Vikings felt

church should never be given to the
pagans to free him."
Seven months of captivity passed. The
Vikings were encamped at Greenwich, on
the banks of the Thames. The archbishop
was threatened that
stipulated ransom was not forthcoming, his
life would be forfeited. On the vigil of
remorse for their cruel deed. During his
seven months captivity among them,
Alphege had done many a kindly action,
and had won some, like Thrym the Viking,
who had struck the merciful death-blow,
if in eight days the to his Master s side. Without ransom, the
body of the murdered archbishop was
delivered up to his friends. It was brought

Easter, 1012, the Danes held a great feast, with great ceremony, as the body of a
and caused the archbishop to be brought martyr, to London, and with all honour
into the hall where they were feasting. was interred in the minster church of St.

They loudly called on him to pay the Paul. After ten years the remains of the
ransom. Alphege firmly refused. martyred archbishop were taken from
"

They
might deal," he said, "with him as they St. Paul s to the Danish king s royal barge,
pleased." "Silver and gold,"
runs the richly adornedand gilded, and, escorted by
story, repeating the archbishop s brave the chief members of Canute s court, were
words, "have I none; what I have will I conveyed to Canterbury, where with all
freely give you the knowledge of the one solemnity they were laid by the side of his
true God." The table of the revellers was illustrious predecessor, Dunstan. He re
strewn with great bones of oxen, the relics ceived at once from the people of England
of their feast, and the savage Vikings were the title and honours of a martyr, and sub
inflamed with wine. Someone threw at sequent writers have naturally surrounded
the pale, austere man who defied them, his name with a halo of legendary miracles.
one of these ox-bones. The example of The claim of Alphege to the martyr s title
the half-drunk Viking was followed by a was rejected by his Norman successor
shower of bones and other missiles from Lanfranc ;
but posterity generally endorsed
the rest. The old man fell on the floor the decision of the gentler and more

grievously hurt and writhing in great agony, loving Anselm, who supported the claim of
but he was not dead. Dane who stood A the English saint to be ranked among the

by, named Thrym, a Christian owing his "

noble army,"
on the ground that Alphege
circa 980990.] HOMILIES OF ELFRIC. 455

died in the cause of Christian forbearance of the Church of England to set forth
and charity, declining to accept his life at plainly and without comment what a great
the price of the plunder of his church and church like the Anglo-Saxon church of

people. Dunstan, Ethelwolf of Winchester, and

Elfric the grammarian taught as authori
Let us now consider more in detail tative doctrine and to set it
; forth, as far
the teaching of the "Homilies of Elfric." as possible, in the simple words sanctioned
They are specially important because re by men who presided over that church
presenting the doctrine of the Church of and her fortunes.
England the strong Anglo-Saxon church, In the Catholic church, for the first
reformed and revivified by the influence of eight centuries, while the deepest rever-
Dunstan and his powerful and earnest ence for the Body of Christ received in the
t

school. Important also because,

formally Eucharist was general, no special atten
sanctioned by the archbishop of Canter tion was directed to the momentous
bury, Siric, these homilies must be question how far the reception of that
looked upon as authoritative expositions of Body was spiritual and heavenly, or carnal
doctrine. They represented also, with and natural. "

This sacrament the

out doubt, the teaching of the greatest Eucharist from the earliest times had
scholars and theologians of the age of withdrawn into the most profound mystery ;
Charlemagne and his imperial successor ;
it had been guarded with the most solemn

and far on in our momentous story, we reverence, shrouded in the most im

shall see how
powerfully they influenced pressive ceremonial. It had become, as
the opinions of the great English divines, it were, the holy of holies of the religion,
at the time of the Reformation in the in which the presence of the Godhead
sixteenth century. was only the more solemn from the sur
It is not the historian s province to rounding darkness. That presence had as
formulate any opinion on grave doctrinal yet been unapproached by profane and
questions. Thus, it is not his province to searching controversy, had been undefiled
pronounce the views promulgated by by canon, neither agitated before council,
Paschasius Radbertus, monk and abbot of nor determined by pope. During all these
the monastery of old Corbey, in Picardy, centuries no language had been thought
and subsequently endorsed and amplified too strong to express the overpowering

by the Norman Lanfranc and the Roman awe and reverence of the worshippers. . .

school, erroneous and novel nor to set ;

. .Christ s real presence was in some
forth in detail the refutation of these dis indescribable manner in the Eucharist j

puted views by the great Prankish scholars but, under the notion of the real presence,

and divines, endorsed by archbishops might meet conceptions the most dis
Siric and Elfric and the Anglo-Saxon similar, ranging from the most subtle
church as and just, and as repre
right spiritualism the most gross material
to

senting primitive Catholic orthodoxy. But ism . . It was the naked theory
. ."

it is the proper work of any historian of Paschasius Radbertus, put out about
456 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 980 990.

844,
"

which startled some of the more the miracles of the Host bleeding, as
reflective minds."* suming a human form, that of a child, etc.
Somewhere about the year 826 this This treatise of Radbertus on so im
Paschasius Radbertus, a learned monk portant a subject attracted considerable
and teacher, and afterwards abbot of the attention,and was presented to the Frank-
religious house of old Corbey, in Picardy, ish sovereign, Charles le Chauve. Its

was asked by a former pupil who was propositions were soon hotly disputed by
presiding over the daughter-house of new some of the most learned and accurate
Corbey in Westphalia, to compile a theologians of the age. Johannes Scotus
treatise on the Eucharist for the instruc Erigena, prominent among European
tion of the young scholars under his scholars, addressed an attack upon it to
direction. The learned Benedictine, Ma- Charles le Chauve, and Ratramn, another
billon, represents Radbertus chief principles learnedmonk of Corbey, being commanded
to be (i) Christ s true body and blood are
:
by the king to examine the work, wrote
in the Eucharist ; (2) the substance of strongly against it. Among its earliest

bread and wine exist no longer after and most determined opponents was the
consecration ; (3) the Body is no other archbishop of Mainz, Ra-
distinguished
than the one which was born of the banus Maurus, whom Baronius speaks of
Virgin Mary. propositionsFrom these as
"

profoundly learned," as the

"

brilliant

the monk of Corbey deduced the follow star of Germany," and whom Bellarmine
ing consequences : that Christ is
truly in similar laudatory terms does not hesi

immolated in a mystery every day that ;

tate to style a man u equally an example
the Eucharist isboth truth and figure ;
of piety and erudition." This strange
that not liable to digestion and other
it is Eucharistic controversy, which had such
incidents of ordinary food. He does not far-reaching consequences, was first agitat
use the famous word ing the minds of contemporary theologians
"

transubstantiation."

The first inventor of that name was in the days of Ethelwolf, Alfred s father,
a bishop Stephen,! who lived about a and during the times of the great Alfred.
century before the fourth Council of The chronology of the controversy may be
Lateran, which first dogmatically estab stated roughly as follows : Radbertus
lished that doctrine in 1215. presented his treatise to the Frankish
Radbertus
theory certainly differed king about A.D. 844 the archbishop of ;

from much that springs from the later Mainz wrote his famous treatise against it

Romish conception, by not allowing the some time before his 856 death in ;

possibility of eating Christ s body by Johannes Scotus Erigena controverted it

wicked men but he followed that Romish
;
about the middle or latter end of the
doctrine out into its grossest consequences ninth century Ratramn probably during
;

* Milman: "Latin Christianity,"

chap. ii. book vi., the latter half of the same century while ;

t Stephen was Bishop of Augustodunum (Au- Elfric put forth his treatise about 995.
tun). The expression occurs in his book De "

Sacramento Altaris," written about the year noo, Elfric, the famous Anglo-Saxon writer
or a little later. and theologian, was no mythic person ;
and
circa 980990.] HOMILIES OF ELFRIC. 457

although considerable difference of opinion conclusions as to the English school of

exists as to his later position in the church, thought in which he was brought up.
we know sufficient respecting his early and He was a scholar of the celebrated school

| jtomonVa
|^^F ?t n fc ^<<Vvimicf
*oloo] otfn r*rci bp
regain c*tMer>|!*|iaot^rp^n Hi trpo|ian
nV
ptitr

PAGE FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT TRANSLATION OF ELFRIC, CONTAINING GEN. XII. 6 12,
AND ILLUSTRATING THE STORY OF ABRAHAM AND HIS WIFE IN EGYPT.
(Late lotA or early \-ith century. Brititk Museum.)

middle life, in which period of his career of Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, the

most, if not all, of his important writings favourite pupil of Dunstan at Glastonbury.
were composed and put out, to base our Elfric alludes to his veneration for the stern
assertions respecting his careful theo- old man
Ethelwold, who, besides his great
logical training, and to establish our certain learning, was notorious for his abhorrence
458 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 980990.

of marriage among the clergy. After York. Save that the after-life of so dis

Ethelwold s days Alphege the martyr, tinguished a scholar and writer is a subject
archbishop of Canterbury, before he was of interest to the historical student, the
translated to Canterbury, was bishop of question whether Elfric the grammarian
Winchester, and by him was ap Elfric was archbishop of Canterbury, or of York,
pointed abbot of the newly-founded monas or whether he closed his useful life as

tery of Cerne, in Dorsetshire. It was in abbot of a distant and little known monas
this period of his busy life that Elfric com tery, of no importance whatever in a
is

posed those
"

Homilies and those two

"

theological point of view, and does not in

well-known Epistles, which exercised so the least affect the value of his famous
undreamed-of an influence, centuries later, theological pieces, or touch their authority.
over the theology of the English Church. These were written evidently by a simple
Amongst other writings of this great monk and priest, who had perhaps attained
scholar and teacher was a Latin grammar, to the rank of abbot ;
but they were form

compiled in English, from which useful ally sanctioned by the scholarly archbishop
and popular work he obtained the title of Canterbury, Siric, as authoritative

by which he is often called, "

the Gram documents to be used publicly in the

marian." He also wrote a "

Life of Ethel- Church of England. All other questions

wold,"
his old master, and a body of belong to a later period of Elfric s life.

monastic discipline, etc. The "Homilies" and the two "Epistles,"

It is subsequent to his holding the as they are usually termed, are

by far the
abbacy of Cerne that difference of opinion most important of the works of Elfric.
exists as to Elfric s further career. In this There are two volumes of these treatises
history we follow, concerning that career, or sermons, prepared for popular use they ;

the opinions adopted by the two responsible consist of discourses on subjects chiefly
*
writers who hav*e given us the latest Scriptural ;
much of them largely derived
fruits ofthe long-protracted discussions on from writings of well-known fathers of the
the subject. From the abbey of Cerne church, such as Augustine, Jerome, Bede,
he was preferred to the little bishopric of Gregory. Each volume contains forty
Romsey, and from Romsey, on the death homilies. These were transmitted to Siric,
of his friend and patron, archbishop Siric, archbishop of Canterbury, for his considera
was translated to the archbishopric of tion and approval, and an elaborate de

Canterbury. This was in 995. He held dication of the first volume of these
the arch-see for about ten years, dying in homilies to archbishop Siric is prefixed.
1005. Other writers, among whom must It is somewhat long, but we give one or
be reckoned Mr. Soames, the scholarly two interesting extracts.
"

In the name of
historian of the theological writings of the Lord, I, Elfric, a scholar of the bene
thisimportant period, identify Elfric the volent and venerable prelate, Ethelwold

grammarian with Elfric the archbishop of (of Winchester), send greeting to our

* master in the Lord, archbishop Siric. .

Dean Hook :
"

Lives of the Archbishops."

Prof. Freeman :
"

Norman Conquest." . . Wehave in this book given forty

circa 980 990.] HOMILIES OF ELFRIC. 459

discourses [he is speaking of the first The more important passages in the
volume alone], thinking this sufficient for homily are the following :

the faithful throughout the year if they be Certain men have often inquired, and
"

read through to them in the church by yet frequently inquire, how the bread
God s ministers. We
have in hand indeed which prepared from corn, and baked by
is

another book [alluding to the second

"

the heat of fire, can be changed to Christ s

volume], and he advises that one be read the wine which wrung from
"

body ; ojr is

through in one year in God s church, many can by any blessing be

berries,
and the other in the year following, that changed to the Lord s blood ? Now we
it be not tedious to the auditors." He say to such men that some things are said
winds up by saying, I earnestly entreat "

of Christ typically, some literally. . . .

your benignity, most benevolent father He is called bread typically, and lamb and
Siric, to deign to correct by your lion, and whatever else. . . . But yet, ac

industry any blemishes or mischievous cording to true nature, Christ is neither

heresy or misty errors which you may bread, nor a lamb, nor a lion. Why,
discover."
then, is the holy housel [the sacrament}
To these homilies, when collected, Siric called Christs body, or his blood, if it is-

the learned archbishop of Canterbury gave not truly that which it is called ? . . .

the full weight of his sanction, and desired Without, they appear bread and wine, both
them to be read in all the churches of the in aspect and in taste, but they are truly,
land. They would probably have been after the hallowing, Christ s body and his
forgotten now, however, but for the blood, through a ghostly mystery. . . .

memorable one termed the "

Paschal If we behold the holy housel [the sacra

Homily," which has attracted in all times ment] in a bodily sense, then we see that it

great attention, as showing what was the is a corrupt and changeable creature but ;

authoritative doctrine of the Anglo-Saxon if we distinguish the ghostly might therein,

church on the question which has exercised then understand we that there is life in it,

so many earnest and devout minds, respect and that it gives immortality to those who
ing the nature of the Presence in the partake of it with belief.

Eucharist. This Paschal Homily was used

"

Great is the difference between the in

and largely adopted by the great Refor visiblemight of the holy housel (the sacra
mation teachers in the sixteenth century ; ment) and the visible appearance of its own
and from importance in the doctrinal
its nature. By nature it is corruptible bread

history of the Church of England, we have and corruptible wine, and it is, by the
judged well to give here some considerable power of the divine word, truly Christ s
extracts from it. Great use was made, body and his blood not, however, bodily, ;

by the learned composer, of the treatise but spiritually.

on the same subject already written by "

Great is the difference between the

monk of Corbey, at the in which Christ and the
Ratramn, the body suffered,

request of king Charles le Chauve of body which is hallowed for housel [sacra

France, a little more than a century before. ment]. The body, verily, in which Christ
460 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 980990.

sufferedwas born of Mary s flesh, with body and his blood, not bodily, but
blood and with bones, with skin and with spiritually. Ye are not to inquire how it

sinews, with human limbs quickened by a is done, but to hold in your belief that it

rational soul ;
and his ghostly body, which is so done."

we housel
[sacrament], is gathered
call The concluding words of the above
of many corns; without blood and bone, quotation from Elfric s Paschal Homily
" "

limbless and soulless, and there is therefore no doubt suggested the well-known para
nothing therein to be understood bodily, graph which closesHooker s masterly
summary of the Church of England s con
ception of the doctrine of the sacrament
of the Lord s Supper which, although ;

written by him some three centuries ago,

is still prized among us by learned and
sober-minded scholars of our church, as on
the whole the truest view of the great
doctrine which we possess.
"

What these
elements are in themselves it skilleth not ;

it is enough that to me which take them

they are the body and blood of Christ ;
his

promise and witness hereof sufficeth ;

his

word he knoweth which way to accomplish.

Why should any cogitation possess the
mind of the faithful communicant but this,
O my God, thou art true ;
O my soul,
*
thou art happy.
"

"

We may perhaps in all this [work of

TOMBSTONE OF A NUN, IOTH CENTURY. FROM Elfric] see the
remaining influence of the
A NUNNERY AT HARTLEPOOL (DURHAM great Theodore of Tarsus (archbishop of
CATHEDRAL). for in the Eastern
(From photo by C. P. MacCarthy, Esq.)
Canterbury 668-690) ;

church, though a change was unquestion

but all to be understood spiritually.
is .
ably acknowledged after the consecration
j: .
.">

Verily Christ s body, which suffered of the bread and wine, it was held to
death and from death arose, will hence be of a mystical and sacramental nature,
forth never die, but is eternal and im conformably to the teaching of her
passible. [sacrament] The housel is great doctors, Basil, Chrysostom, and
temporary, not eternal corruptible. . . Theodoret." t

. This mystery is a pledge and

.

symbol Christ s body is truth.;

This Of Elfric s extant writings the Paschal
pledge we hold mystically, until we come * "

Ecclesiastical Polity," book v., chap. Ixvii., 13.

to the truth, and then will this pledge be
t Dean Hook: "Lives of the Archbishops"
ended. But it is, as we before said, Christ s Elfric.
circa 980990.] HOMILIES OF ELFRIC. 461

Homily is the most often quoted as ex Another important and most interesting
pressive of the mind of the Anglo-Saxon passage of Elfric deserves to be quoted.
church of Dunstan and his immediate It occurs in what is called Elfric s second

successors, because it is an
authoritative document, for

mally sanctioned by arch

bishop Siric, and desired by
him to be read in all the
churches of the land ;
but
we possess even stronger,
and if
possible clearer ex
positions of his, of the
momentous and anxiously
disputed doctrine. The fol

lowing passage occurs in

his
"

Epistle,"
addressed to

Bishop Wulfsine (of Sher-

borne), composed at that
prelate s desire, and prob
ably used by him as an
episcopal charge to his

clergy. It is known generally

as Epistola de
"

Canonibus,"

and is a general account of

such canonical regulations
as the writer thought most
material for the guidance (WIjlfa5niTii-|\),-jt!itn tmr
of the clergy. In the J phrputer

course of this epistle occur

the following words :

Thathousel [sacrament]
"

is Christ s body, not bodily,

but ghostly. Not the body
which he suffered but I AGE FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT TRANSLATION OF ELFRIC, CON
in,
TAINING GEN. XLIII. 25 XLIV. 2, ILLUSTRATING THE STORY
the body of which he spake OF JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN IN EGYPT.
when he blessed bread and (Late \oth or early \ith century.)
wine to housel a night be
fore his suffering, and said by the blessed
"

epistle,"
which scholars believe was
bread, This is my body, and again by addressed to archbishop Wulfstan of

the holy wine, This is my blood, which is York, and is entitled,

"

De secunda
shed for many in forgiveness of sins.
"

epistola quando dividitur Chrisma."

"

The
462 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 980 990.

Lord which hallowed housel before his of Elfrics authoritative testimony, have
j

suffering, and saith that the bread was suggested that the great homilist, although 1

his own body, and that the wine was truly a witness who cannot be set aside of the
j

his blood ;
he halloweth daily, by the doctrine of the church of Dunstan and his
|

hands of the priest, bread to his body, and school, must not be taken as a faithful I

wine to his blood, in ghostly mystery ; expositor of the faith of the

Anglo-Saxon j

. . . and yet that lively bread is not, church before the times of Dunstan. In \

however, bodily the self-same body that reply to such suggestions, which have been
Christ suffered in. Nor is that holy wine gravely advanced, it must be remembered
the Saviour s blood which was shed for us that the first determined opponents of the I

in corporeal reality. But in ghostly mean views and doctrine of Paschasius Radbertus,
ing both that bread is
truly his body, and so clearly and decisively combated by Elfric j

that wine also his blood, even as the in his homilies and epistles, were great and

heavenly bread which manna, that we call profound Prankish scholars, among whom
fed forty years people, and God
the clear s we find the universally honoured names of
water which did then run from the stone Johannes Scotus Erigena, and the great j

in the wilderness was truly his blood, as archbishop of Mainz, Rabanus Maurus. It
Paul wrote in one of his epistles : All our was their teaching which Elfric, in this
fathers ate in the wilderness the same question of the doctrine of the presence in
ghostly meat, and drank the same ghostly the sacrament of the Lord s Supper, closely
drink they drank of that ghostly stone,
: followed. Johannes Scotus Erigena and
and that stone was Christ. The apostle archbishop Rabanus Maurus were either
hath said, you now have heard, that
as pupils or followers ofAlcuin, Charle
they all did eat the same ghostly meat, magne s friend and adviser in all matters of
and they all did drink the same ghostly education. And Alcuin was trained in the
drink. And he saith, not bodily but school of York, the principal theological

ghostly. And Christ was not yet born, school of the Anglo-Saxon church before
nor his blood shed, when that the people the days of Alfred. Nor was Alcuin only
of Israel ate that meat, and drank of that a pupil of the York school he became;

stone. And the stone was not bodily its master its most famous master.
*
Christ, though he so said. It was the Johannes Scotus Erigena and archbishop
same mystery in the old law, and they Rabanus Maurus, loved pupils or disciples of
did ghostly signify that ghostly housel of Alcuin, followed by Elfric in their teaching,
our Saviour s body which we consecrate therefore represented the cherished tradi
now." tions of York, that most illustrious school
Some writers, acknowledging the weight of Anglo-Saxon theology, renowned not
* The word translated "

from the only England, but throughout the

in
ghostly,"

Anglo-Saxon of the above quoted passages in length and breadth of the whole western
Elfric s epistles, it will be remembered, is ren Catholic Church. The
teaching of Elfric
dered in our version of St. Paul s Epistles
was thus no novelty, devised in the days
"spiritual,"
and the word stone, in our version of
the New Testament is rendered rock. of Dunstan and his school, but was surely
circa 980990.] ELFRIC S OTHER WORKS. 463

inherited from the greatestdays of the great see to a universal, though perhaps
Anglo-Saxon church, from men like arch at first an undefined authority over all the

bishop Egbert of York, who was Bede s churches of the west. And it is true that

disciple, and archbishop Albert, Egbert

s after the vigorous measures taken by king

pupil and illustrious successor. Alfred, and more especially after the widely
extended facilities for education provided

While, however, the Eucharistic doc in the reforms of Dunstan and his school,

trine of that powerful and influential Latin, which, king Alfred tells us, was a
church of Dunstan and his school, based dead and almost unknown language among
as it was on the traditions of Alcuin and the ecclesiastics of his time, was by the
the great school of York, has strongly majority of the clergy fairly well known.
commended itself in later ages to the Still, outside the clergy and the monks,

fathers of the Reformation of the sixteenth the large majority of the people were

century, who revised the formularies which totally ignorant of the tongue.
declare the present teaching of the Church To remedy this, men like Elfric pro
of England, there were some usages and vided Anglo-Saxon versions of the Lord s
doctrines in that Anglo-Saxon church prayer, the creeds, and other important
which have since been condemned as mis theological pieces ; versions, paraphrases,
taken ;
as resting neither upon Scriptural and in some cases abridgments of many
basis, nor even upon the known practice of the books of the Old Testament ;
and
of the primitive church.* even homilies, in the native dialect, to be
The liturgy of the Anglo-Saxon church read in the place of sermons in public
was in Latin. Much has been urged in worship. The teachers should tell the
"

favour of prayer and praise, ascending to lay people the meaning of the prayers and
the throne of God in one language from creeds, that they may know what they are
the of Canterbury and Paris,
minsters praying to God for, and how they should
of Cologne and Rome. That the church believe in God." And thus the danger,
of so many and such varying nation which arose from the fact ofthe liturgy
alities should use in their solemn ser being in a comparatively speaking unknown
vices one tongue, one form of words, tongue, was among the Anglo-Saxons in
has been justly pressed as a triumphant some respects minimised and guarded
and ever-present witness to the Unity against, by certain safeguards, which in
of western Christendom. The universal later ages were too often unfortunately
use of the Latin tongue the tongue of neglected.
Rome was also no doubt an indirect but Elfric s translation of parts of the Old
powerful assistance to the gradually in Testament from the Latin, has already
creasing pretensions of the bishops of that been noticed. It does not appear that

any complete vernacular translation of

*
Notably the strange doctrine alluded to in the Scripture existed in the Anglo-Saxon
Elfric s official writings, which asserted that the
church. The Bible was evidently con
mass was profitable both to the living and the
dead. sidered as a Latin book, and texts were
464 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 1000.

generally cited in that language, and then Michael the Archangel, John the Baptist,
reproduced in the native idiom. The four Saints Martin and Andrew and to these ;

Gospels, however, had been translated were added days to be kept in honour of
into Anglo-Saxon, perhaps as early as the martyrs and confessors peculiarly English,
eighth century. Elfric s work included such as Gregory and Augustine, Edmun
the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and some the Martyr the East Saxon king, Dunstan

parts of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Esther, and Alphege, the archbishops. A day was
and Maccabees. The Latin version of St. even set apart in honour of king Edward the
Jerome was, no doubt, the version current Martyr, Ethelred the Unready s brother,
in the church of Dunstan and his pupils. who would really seem to have possessed
but scanty claim to the veneration of the
A strict observance of Sunday was one English people.
of the notable characteristic features of the Certain great fasts occurring four times
Anglo-Saxon church of the ninth, tenth, each year were observed by Christian
and eleventh centuries. To this rigid ob people with considerable rigour. The
servance of Sunday by our Anglo-Saxon rule was that every person above twelve
forefathers, no doubt, is owing that re years of age was required to abstain from
verent regard for the Christian Sabbath, food until nones, or three o clock in the
which peculiarly distinguishes the England afternoon.
of the century. Against de
twentieth
secration of that holy day we find not a The greatest care was taken in the
few legislative enactments among the laws election and consecration of bishops. On
promulgated at different times by the kings the death of a prelate, the principal
of the line of Alfred. Among the various inhabitants of a diocese, both lay and
actspronounced unlawful for the Sunday clerical, elected a successor. The original
were washing of clothes, the working at nomination might seem, however, to have
any craft, baking bread, even trimming rested with the crown. Having been
the hair. All household cares which are chosen, the bishop-elect was examined
not necessarily of daily occurrence were by the prelates of the province as to the
forbidden. Any transgressor of these re soundness of his belief. To his metro
strictions, was declared, God would treat
it
politan,and to no other, the newly-ap
as an outlaw, denying him His blessing.
pointed bishop swore canonical obedience.
Besides the Lord s Day, certain conciliar No obedience to the Roman see is alluded

authority in the time of the Anglo-Saxon to in the earliest pontificals. The metro
kings of the tenth century enjoined the politans the archbishops however, cer
celebration of certain festivals hallowed in tainly received a pall from Rome and ;

the church from immemorial antiquity. no doubt this acknowledgment of the

These included the holiday seasons of recognised precedence of Rome in the
Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas two ;
case of the reception of the pall by the

days in honour of the Blessed Virgin, one archbishop, eventually led to far more
day in honour of Saints Peter and Paul, important concessions in the. direction of
circa 1000.] THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. 465

acknowledging the supremacy of Rome, that his duty called him to rule the church
after the Norman Conquest. of God.
The Anglo-Saxon kings claimed, and Originally, each of the separate king-
usually exercised, the supreme direction of doms may be roughly said to have con-

religious matters within their dominions, stituted a single see. In Kent we find

... r
_

A WITENAGEMOT (p. 466).

They made use of lofty titles, in later ages Canterbury and Rochester in subordination
appropriated by the popes. The great to Canterbury. In Wessex the seat of the
king Edgar, no doubt with the full appro bishop was Dorchester in Oxfordshire in ;

bation of Dunstan, styled himself the

"

Essex it was London in Mercia it was ;

vicar of Christ and Edward the

;
"

Con Lichfield ;
in Northumbria it was York
fessor wrote himself down as "

vicar of the and Lindisfarne ;

in East Anglia it was
Supreme King,"
and as such maintained Dunwich ;
in Sussex it was Selsey. These
2 D
466 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 1000.

vast bishoprics were, as time went on, ancient than the Conqueror s time, being
as we have already noticed, largely rooted amidst the very foundations of the
and multiplied. Thus, Wessex
*
divided monarchy."
was divided into several sees Win
chester, Sherburne, Romsey, Wilton, Great care and pains were exercised
Wells, etc. Mercia
;
was divided into the only to admit properly prepared persons to
dioceses of Sidnacester, Leicester, Here ordination. We
have before noticed that
ford, Worcester, and Lichfield. In East it is evident among the priests of the
Anglia the see of Elmham was added, and Anglo-Saxon church we are specially
eventually itseems to have superseded speaking of the church after the time of
Dunwich. In Northumbria several sees Alfred there were numbered not a few
were carved out of the vast dioceses of men of the higher ranks in society, and it
York and Lindisfarne among them were
;
is probable that the sacred profession was
Hexham and Ripon. But the Danish much sought Each candidate for
after.

conquest in the ninth century swept away ordination was required to spend a month
these ecclesiastical divisions, and York for under the bishop s examination and instruc
a long period alone remained the seat of a tion. During this time he was evidently
see. In 995 Durham became the seat of not the bishop s guest, for a curious regula
the bishop of the northern part of North tion required the candidate to take care to
umbria. At the time of the Norman provide himself with sufficient provision in
conquest in 1066, there were in England, food and fodder, that he be not troubled"

in all, two archbishops and thirteen bishops, about any of these things while he was
Wilton and Sherburne having merged in under examination."

Salisbury, and the two sees of Devonshire That some real learning was required of
and Cornwall in Exeter.
list only This the candidate, beyond mere technical
roughly sketches out the main divisions knowledge of the fasts and feasts, of
of sees. Temporary arrangements from baptism and the mass, is evident for we ;

time to time seem to have been made. read u that he come to the bishop with
if

Some of them have been already detailed. the instruction of a teacher, then he is the
The archbishops and bishops sat in the nearer ordination." This would seem to

great national council, the Witenagemot, indicate that a training at some recognised
and certain of the abbots were also as school, such as was Glastonbury, Abingdon,
sociated with them. "

An English pre and later, Winchester, was expected, and

late s right to occupy a legislative seat desired. All candidates were required to
in the great council of the nation has give evidence as to the soundness of their

descended to him from long line of

a belief; to show a knowledge of the cere

predecessors, and is thus founded on the monies connected with, as well as the
most venerable of national prescriptions. signification of the various parts of the
It is no privilege derived from that divine service ; they were especially called
Norman policy which converted episcopal on to show what they understood by
endowments into baronies. It is far more * Soames :
"

Anglo-Saxon Church," chap v.

circa 1000.] THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. 467

baptism, and how they comprehended the tells us,

"

But such words

loveth such."

signification of the mass. seem were rather in

to imply that they
After ordination, the priest was dis the minority, and Dunstan s wise policy,
couraged from wandering from church to as we have seen, seems to have aimed at

church. No priest was of his own accord

"

holding up an unmistakable ideal, while yet

to leave the church to which he was recognising that inability to attain it must
ordained." Any interference within the be recognised and tenderly dealt with.
district of brother priests was forbidden. As in the present Roman custom, the
Among the duties expected of him, the church of Dunstan and Elfric used a
education of youth is specially mentioned. gradation of inferior ministers, and pro
All this points to the fact that every effort nounced ecclesiastical orders to be the fol
was made to ensure a strict discipline, and lowing seven: ostiary (doorkeeper), reader,
to provide at events a fairly learned
all exorcist, acolyte, sub-deacon, deacon, priest,

body of men to minister in the churches The deacon, however, with the priest, alone
and minsters. The reproaches of Alfred baptised, and administered the Eucharist.
respecting the deplorable ignorance of the
clergy of his time, had evidently sunk Marriage among the Anglo-Saxons was
deep into the hearts of leading clergymen. a very solemn ceremony, and not lightly

Among the priests of the Anglo-Saxon to be dissolved. The mass-priest was to

church of the tenth and eleventh centuries, pronounce a solemn blessing at the nuptial
celibacy was recommended with great rite, unless one or both the parties had
earnestness ; but, except in the ca,se of stern been married before, in which event
disciplinarians and rigid ascetics like Ethel- although the church did not forbid the
wold of Winchester, was evidently not second marriage the priest s blessing was

sternly enforced. Gentle interpretation of withheld. Marriage was forbidden within

a rule which was evidently felt to be too four degrees of consanguinity. Men were
much human
nature in general, seems
for forbidden to marry a divorced woman.
to have been certainly the policy of Dun- Divorce, by the Council of Hertford, was
There no doubt that the -lead forbidden save fornicationis causa," and
"

stan. is all

ing ecclesiastics pressed the celibate state then the man was bound, "

as he valued

as the true ideal for the priesthood. Their the name of a Christian," to live single

counsels, however, were certainly disre ever afterwards. The ascetic tendency of
garded by a large proportion of the rank the ecclesiasticism of that age is shown by
and file of the clergy. Elfric, for instance, the fact that all second marriages, in any

one of the greatest and most popular of event, were discouraged by the church.
Anglo-Saxon teachers, in one of his writ
ings does not hesitate to speak of clerical by ordeal was not uncommon m
Trial

marriages as proofs of folly," and alludes

"

the tenth and eleventh centuries. It un

to wise mass-priests who lived in clean
"

doubtedly came from the pagan ancestors

ness," by which strong expression he of the Anglo-Saxons. The word ordeal" "

u
means celibacy. The holy church," he is apparently a northern word signifying
468 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. [circa 1000.

judgment. In the Anglo-Saxon laws the from a supporter. He then carried it

ordeal signifies not the trial, but the for about three feet, and threw it down.
heated iron or other instrument used in His hand was at once bound and sealed
the trial. The old pagan custom was con up. On the third day the bandage was
tinued under Christian forms, and the removed. It has been suggested that the

solemn trial was usually conducted in the skin was in most cases prepared for the
church. The red-hot iron taken in the momentary contact with the glowing metal.
hand was the most common form which Other forms of trial by ordeal, such as
was used in this strange, half-pagan, half- walking over
ploughshares, the red-hot
Christian custom. It is generally supposed being cast into water bound with a rope,
to have continued in practice until the were less common. These ordeals were
third year of the reign of king Henry III. forbidden on Sundays and saints days.
The most usual of the forms of ordeal The Roman Church ever discouraged
the carrying of red-hot iron was con the trial by ordeal, and it was no doubt
ducted as follows. On the day of his trial, owing to such discouragement that this
the accused received the Eucharist and strange custom was discontinued.
declared his innocence upon oath. The
*
iron having been heated in the church Compare generally upon this chapter Soames
"

Bampton Lectures," vii. ; also Soames "Latin

in the presence of witnesses
the accused,
Church," chap. xi. ; and
his "Anglo-Saxon Church,"
with his hand, removed the red-hot iron chap. iv. ; and the appendices to these works.

SAXON LADIES OF THE 9TH AND IOTH CENTURIES.

(From a MS. Museum. Strutt Habits and Dress of the People of England")
"

in tht British s
 EXCURSUS A.

CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF

BRITAIN IN THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES.

(i) Gildas isthe earliest prose historian of Britain contemporary entries were also quoted as illus
of whom anything remains. The genuineness of trations of the Northmen s
conquest.
his "Historia" and "Epistola" really a single (5) The Bardic Poems, under the names of
work, for the "Epistola" is but a very short Taliesin, Aneurin, and Llywarch-Hen, are ascribed
may be
"

introduction to the larger "

Historia to the seventh century.

now looked upon as established. He is usually For many years these ancient Bardic poems,
spoken of as Gildas the Wise, and was born, which have been quoted as illustrative of Christian
according to the usually received dates, about A.D. belief in Britain during the period of the invasion

516, some assert in Wales, and have written his

to of the Northmen, have been carefully examined
history A.D. 556-560, and to have died A.D. 570. with a view to testing whether or no they were
Another tradition gives the place of his birth in really the work of writers who lived at the time,
Strathclyde (Cumberland), and relates how he was or in the times immediately succeeding the great
the son of one of the native British princes of conquest of the North-folk of the sixth century.
North Britain, and the brother of the famous More than half a century ago the Anglo-Saxon
bard, Aneurin. He is generally supposed to have historian, Sharon Turner, was firmly convinced
died in Armorica (in Gaul), and to have been that a large proportion of these ancient poems
buried in the cathedral of Vannes. Gildas is belonged to that far-back age when the disasters,
associated with David and Cadoc or Cathmael, as of which they sung, were actually happening. His
the British missionary leaders who" principally dissertation is an important contribution to the
influenced the formation of the ritual and doctrines subject, and to many of the arguments therein
of the church in Ireland, in the period following advanced, those who doubt the genuineness of the
the death of St. Patrick and the first period of the poems and would ascribe them to a later date,
conversion of the Irish people. have never even attempted to reply. Since his
(2^ Nennius. Personally, little is known of this days serious historians like Dr. Guest and Mr.
"

very early writer. Tradition relates that he was a Green have used certain of these songs as "

monk of the Welsh Bangor, and that he escaped authentic documents, important as throwing light
from the great massacre of the monks of that upon an eventful period which possesses very little
famous monastery, A.D. 613. It is clear that his contemporary history. The eminent French
compilation in its earliest form was probably of scholar in Celtic literature, M. Villemarque*. is
the seventh century a century following the date equally convinced of the trustworthiness of
assigned to the work of Gildas. There is an much contained in these curious and interesting
ancient Irish version of his history. remains.
(3) The Venerable Bede was born A.D. 673 in But the most important work on these remains
Northumbria, probably in the village of Jarrow, on of sixth and seventh century folk-lore, is the text
the River Tyne at the age of seven years was
; and translation of these ancient Bardic poems in
placed under the tutelage of the abbot Benedict the "Four Ancient Books of Wales." Dr. Skene,
of Wearmouth. When, in A.D. 682, the House "

the late Historiographer Royal of Scotland, a

of Paul," Jarrow, was founded, Bede accom
at leading Celtic scholar of our day, in an introduction
panied Ceolfrid, its first abbot, and never quitted to this great work, after a searching examination
the holy house he died there A.D. 735. His
;
of these poems, pronounces that through the
remains, until the reign of Henry VIII., in a clearly historical poems there runs a date which
gorgeous shrine of gold and silver incrusted with is indicated in the poem itself, which is nearly the
Durham The same and in the first
gems, were preserved in Cathedral. in all, is comprised sixty
life and work of
this great saint and scholar has years of the seventh or in the later years of the
been given with some detail in the text. immediately preceding century, and decides that
(4) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (of this some they were written by men, contemporaries of the
account is given on p. 403). Some of the early heroes whose deeds were sung in the songs.
470 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
Dr. Skene sums up his estimate by placing these happened all through the sixth, and through part

historic poems in the seventh century. He con- of the seventh century, being finally brought into
siders that they refer mainly to the story of the shape and assuming a consistent form in the same
resistance of the Britons to the invasions of the seventh century.
Engle (or Angle) tribes in the northern districts of The most ancienlt known text of these poems is

PAGE FROM THE BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN.

(By permission of W. K. M. Wynne, Esq., Penarth.)

the island ; and he thinks that through the clash
and jarof contending races a body of popular
poets grew up, and that the events of the never-
ending war were reflected in national lays in which
the deeds of the British warriors were celebrated
these popular lays, treating of events which
found in a well-known MS., viz., in the Black
Book of Carmarthen, written in the reign of
king Henry II., A.D. 1154-1189; in the book oi
Aneurin, written in the latter part of the thirteenth
;
century ;in the book of Taliesin, a MS. of the
beginning ot the lourteenth century; and in the

Red Book of Hergest, written at different times
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The poems generally appear, in so far as the
orthography and verbal forms are concerned, in
the garb of the period when the MS. was tran
scribed. Referring to this, Dr. Skene observes,
"
had not the spirit
that the scribes of those times
of the antiquaries of the present, which leads them
to preserve the exact spelling and form of any
ancient document they may print. When such
documents were handed* down orally, those who
recited them did not do so in the older forms of
an earlier period, but in. the language of their own.
The reciters and the hearers both wished to under
stand the historic and national lays they were
dealing with and the reciter no more thought it
;
necessary, in transcribing them from older MSS.,
to preserve their more ancient form, than he did
in reciting them orally to preserve any. other form
of the language than the one in which he heard
them repeated. In Welsh MSS. there had been at
intervals great and artificial changes in the ortho
graphy, and the scribe was no doubt wedded to
the orthographic system of the day." *
The internal evidence of the genuineness and
great antiquity of these poems is very strong.
We may very briefly instance the
peculiarities.
The position occupied by the hero-king
in these British lays is a peculiar one. Out of
this large body of poems there are only five which
mention him at all and in these the hero-king is
;
not commemorated as environed with that sur
passing glory with which his figure appears to us
in the well-known cycle of poems of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, of which the central idea
is Arthurian romance.
the Arthur is simply
mentioned by our bards with respect, but not with
wonder, as one of the national champions, but by
no means the principal and favourite hero of the
people.
Again, had these poems been put out under the
honoured names of the seventh century bards, in
the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, would the
troubadour, or the trouvere of the brilliant court
of Henry II., and somewhat later of the court of
Henry III., have chosen as the subject of their
poems and lays such a theme as the comparatively
unknown war celebrated in the long Gododin
poems, the scene of which lay in the north of
* "
The Four Ancient Books of Wales,"
EXCURSUS A. 47i
Britain, and the modern Lowlands of Scotland,
or have sung of such forgotten chiefs as Caeawg,
Mynyddawg, Urien, and Cyndylan ?<
Once more, the spirit which lives all along the
pages of these sad poems is a spirit of utter
melancholy and hopeless mourning. Such a tone
would be utterly inconceivable in a poet or song-
man of a later age. It could only belong to the
age which suffered from the woes depicted in the
poem or the lay. The heroic lives and splendid
deeds of daring of gallant chieftains whose names,
with one or two exceptions, were utterly unknown
when the poets, who lived subsequent to, or in a
period shortly preceding, the Norman Conquest,
wrote are commemorated. But it is of the death
of these noble heroes, and of the utter defeat of
their followers that the Bardic poet sings. No
single victory ode -lights up this sombre collection
of minstrelsy. Then, too, the faults and errors of
the vanquished people are freely dealt with, with
an unsparing hand. Their want of discipline and
order, owing largely to the curse of excessive
indulgence in the fatal mead-drink, is again and
again noticed in terms of the sharpest censure,
mingled with the most hopeless regret. All the
softer and more winning features of life are wanting
following in these saddest of songs. No tales of love and
courtship, such as the poets of the twelfth and
Arthur following centuries delight in, are found here.
The poems are, for the most part, battle songs,
but the battles, one and all, are disastrous scenes
of utter ruin and hopeless rout. They seem exactly
to reproduce what evidently took place during the
years of the awful conquest of Britain by the
North-folk.
There is nothing in these ancient British poems
which can fairly leave the critic to suppose that
they are the work of a later age nothing to ;
disturb the deliberate impression of those eminent
scholars and writers above quoted, that many of
the ancient poems contained in the four MSS. in
question,. The Four Ancient Books of
"
Wales,"
are what they profess to be remnants of folk
songs inspired by the crushing national disasters
which followed the invasions of the Northmen in
the sixth and seventh centuries, and which re
sulted in the complete subjugation of Britain by
the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
The poems of a later date contained in these
MSS. are for the most part clearly indicated by the
subject matter, and generally by unmistakable
chapter xi. references to more recent times.
 EXCURSUS B.

ON THE WORD "MASS."

WE are constantly using the word "

mass." So "mass" with new associations not belonging

Elfric, in his epistle delivered at the distribution of originally to the expression. Private masses were
chrism, begins thus: O, ye mass-priests, brethren."
"

of two kinds. The first was for the most part a

Some confusion of thought is connected with the private commemoration by. the priest, and not a
famous expression. Anciently the word "missa," communion. The second arose from the persuasion
English "mass," was often used in a plural form. that the representation of the memorials of the
We not unfrequently in old writers come upon the precious death of Christ is acceptable to God for
expression,
"

Missarum solemnia"; this seems to the sake of that atoning death, and so draws down
have meant no more than Prayer publicly sent forth, His favour upon the whole church, as well as upon
or sent up to God. "Missarum solemnia
"

may be, those who partake in the celebration. This notion

then, fairly translated, The solemn "

offices of of drawing down God s favour upon the whole

religion." As a general name of every part of the church came gradually to include the spirits of
divine service, we find the term "missa" (mass), departed friends, as being still a part of the
even used for the lessons from Scripture. In the communion of saints. Nor was this all. For
rule of St. Benedict, for instance, it is used for the instance, if a soldier went to battle, masses
prayers which are commonly called collects. might be said for his success or his safety. If
An entire service was also termed "

missa
"

for a man were sick, masses might be said for his

instance, "missa nocturna" signifies the morning recovery.
prayers and psalmody before day the same term, ;
At one time, in the Reformation of the sixteenth
"missa,", is also used for evening prayers the , century, Luther and Melancthon and the German
missa catechumenorum states appear to have been willing to retain the
"
"

is the expression for

the service which includes the
of the catechumens, name and the service of the mass," if only they "

sermon and the whole ante-communion service. might have abolished private masses." Private
"

Again, the missa fidelium means the communion

"
"

masses were certainly celebrated in the church of

service peculiar to communicants only. The Dunstan and his school. The Anglo-Saxon race
derivation and primitive signification of the word were an intensely religious people, and the frame
"missa" or missae (mass), is much disputed.
"
"

work of their society was religious. Clubs,

The favourite derivation is from the words, Ite "

associations, guilds, or sodalities, as they were

missa the formula which, from ancient times,
est," termed, were common in the nation. These clubs
was used in the Latin church at the end of the were founded for mutual protection and assistance
service for the dismission of the people. This is the in trouble, but a religious colour was indelibly
opinion of great ritualists like Isidore and Rabanus stamped upon these associations owing to the
Maurus, and is repeated by the learned Benedictine existence among them of the custom to provide
Mabillon. Another and interesting derivation, soul-shot, as it was called, on the death of every
though not supported by like ancient authority, is member of the association or guild, in order that
that "missa" or "missae" simply meant, in the the soul of the departed brother might enjoy the
full benefit of the mass of the church. Masses, too,
"

firstinstance, any public prayer sent up to God."

Except in rare instances, the term "missa" was were constantly said for the souls of the surviving
. not used in the Greek church. It may be said to members of the guild. This guild idea which
belong exclusively to Latin Christianity. As time included "masses" for the living and the dead
went on the term "missa" (mass) came only to was gradually adopted by religious houses, certainly
mean one special service, that of the communion. soon after the Norman conquest, probably at an
Thus this particular service monopolised a name earlier date. Several of such houses would join
which once had been common to other services. together in these prayer unions, and when a
It was the later practice in the church later brother of one of these houses included in such
because it certainly does not seem to have been in a prayer-guild died, masses would be celebrated
vogue for the first six centuries of celebrating for the soul of the departed in each of the
"

private masses," which has invested the word confederated communities.

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5055 The Church of England^
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