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breaking into the sacred inclosure, hewed to pieces the idol he had so long served.*

If the order of the Druids did not subsist among the Saxons, yet the chief objects of their religion appear to have been derived from that fountain. They indeed worshipped several idols under various forms of men and beasts; and those Gods, to whom they dedicat ed the days of the week, bore in their attributes, and in the particular days, that were consecrated to them, though not in their names, a near resemblance to the divinities of antient Rome. But still the great and capital objects of their worship were taken from druidism; trees, stones, the elements, and the heavenly bodies. These were their principal devotions, laid the strongest hold upon their minds, and resisted the progress of the Christian religion with the greatest obstinacy. For we find these superstitions forbidden among the latest Saxon laws. A worship which stands in need of the memorial of images or books to support it, may perish when these are destroyed. But when a superstition is established upon those great objects of nature, which continually solicit the sense, it is extremely difficult to turn the mind from things, that in themselves are striking, and that are always present. Among the objects of this class must be reckoned tho goddess Eostre, who from the etymology of the name, as well as from the season sacred to her, was probably that beautiful planet, which the Greeks and Romans worshipped under the names of Lucifer and Venus. It is from this goddess that in England the Paschal Festival nas been called Easter. To these they joined the reverence of various subordinate genii, or demons, fairies, and goblins; fantastical ideas, which in a state of uninstructed nature grow spontaneously out of the wild fancies or fears of men. Thus they worshipped a sort of goddess, whom they called Mara, formed from those frightful appearances, that oppress men in their sleep; and the name is still retained among us.§

As to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, they were such as might be expected in a rude people; fierce, and of a gross simplicity. Their clothes were short. As all barbarians

*Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 13.

Gentiles Deos: et solem vel lunam; ignem vel fluvium; torrentem vel saxa; vel alicujus generis arborum ligna. L. Cnut. 5. Superstitiosus ille conventus, qui Frithgear dicitur, circa lapidem, arborem, fontem. Leg. Presb. Northumb.

Spelman's Glossary, Tit. eod.
The Night-mare.

are much taken with exteriour form, and the advantages and distinctions which are conferred by nature, the Saxons set an high value on comeliness of person, and studied much to improve it. It is remarkable, that a law of King Ina orders the care and education of foundlings to be regulated by their beauty.* They cherished their hair to a great length, and were extremely proud and jealous of this natural ornament. Some of their great men were distinguished by an appellative taken from the length of their hair. To pull the hair was punishable;‡ and forcibly to cut or injure it was considered in the same criminal light with cutting off the nose or thrusting out the eyes. In the same design of barbarous ornament, their faces were generally painted and scarred. They were so fond of chains and bracelets that they have given a surname to some of their kings from their generosity in bestowing such marks of favour.§

Few things discover the state of the arts among people more certainly than the presents that are made to them by foreigners. The pope, on his first mission into Northumberland, sent to the queen of that country some stuffs, with ornaments of gold; an ivory comb inlaid with the same metal, and a silver mirrour. A queen's want of such female ornaments and utensils shows that the arts were at this time little cultivated among the Saxons. These are the sort of presents commonly sent to a barbarous people.

Thus ignorant in sciences and arts, and unpractised in trade or manufacture, military exercises, war, and the preparation for war, was their employment, hunting their pleasure. They dwelt in cottages of wicker work, plastered with clay, and thatched with rushes, where they sat with their families, their officers and domestics, round a fire made in the middle of the house. In this manner their greatest princes living amidst the ruins of Roman magnificence. But the introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rudo and fierce manners.

It is by no means impossible, that, for an end so worthy, providence, on some occasions, might directly have interposed. The books

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which contain the history of this time and change, are littlo else than a narrative of miracles; frequently, however, with such apparent marks of weakness or design, that they afford little encouragement to insist on them. They were then received with a blind credu lity; they have been since rejected with as undistinguishing a disregard. But as it is not in my design nor inclination, nor indeed in my power, either to establish or refute these stories, it is sufficent to observe, that the reality or opinion of such miracles was the principal cause of the early acceptance and rapid progress of Christianity in this island. Other causes undoubtedly concurred; and it will be more to our purpose to consider some of the human and politic ways, by which religion was advanced in this nation: and those more particularly, by which the monastic institution, then interwoven with Christianity, and making an equal progress with it, attained to so high a pitch of property and power, so as, in a time extremely short, to form a kind of order, and that not the least considerable, in the state.

CHAPTER II.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY-OF MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS-AND OF THEIR EFFECTS.

THE marriage of Ethelbert to a Christian princess was, we have seen, a means of introducing Christianity into his dominions. The same influence contributed to extend it in the other kingdoms of the heptarchy; the sovereigns of which were generally converted by their wives. Among the antient nations of Germany, the female sex was possessed not only of its natural and common ascendant, but it was believed peculiarly sacred,* and favoured with more frequent revelations of the divine will; women were, therefore, heard with an uncommon attention in all deliberations, and particularly in those that regarded religion. The Pagan superstition of the north furnished in this instance a principle, which contributed to its own destruction.

In the change of religion care was taken to render the transition from falsehood to truth as

* Inesse quinetiam sanctum aliquid et providum putant; nec aut consilia earum aspernantur aut responsa negligunt. Tacit. de Mor. Ger. c. 8.

little violent as possible. Though the first proselytes were kings, it does not appear that there was any persecution. It was a precept of Pope Gregory, under whose auspices this mission was conducted, that the heathen temples should not be destroyed, especially where they were well built; but that, first removing the idols, they should be consecrated anew, by holier rites, and to better purposes, in order that the prejudices of the people might not be too rudely shocked by a declared profanation of what they had so long held sacred; and that every where beholding the same places, to which they had formerly resorted for religious comfort, they might be gradually reconciled to the new doctrines and ceremonies, which were there introduced; and as the sacrifices used in the Pagan worship were always attended with feasting, and consequently were highly grateful to the multitude, the Pope ordered that oxen should as usual be slaughtered near the church, and the people indulged in their antient festivity. Whatever popular customs of heathenism were found to be absolutely not incompati ble with Christianity were retained; and some of them were continued to a very late period. Deer were at a certain season brought into St. Paul's church in London, and laid on the altar and this custom subsisted until the reformation. The names of some of the church festivals were, with a similar design, taken from those of the heathen, which had been celebrated at the same time of the year. Nothing could have been more prudent than these regulations; they were indeed formed from a perfect understanding of human nature.

Whilst the inferiour people were thus insensibly led into a better order, the example and countenance of the great completed the work. For the Saxon kings and ruling men embraced religion with so signal, and in their rank so unusual a zeal, that in many instances they even sacrificed to its advancement the prime objects of their ambition. Wulfere, king of the West Saxons, bestowed the Isle of Wight on the king of Sussex, to persuade him to cmbrace Christianity.§ This zeal operated in the same manner in favour of their instructors. The greatest kings and conquerours frequently resigned their crowns, and shut themselves up in monasteries. When kings became monks, an high lustre was reflected upon the monastic state, and great credit accrued to the powe

*Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. 1. c. 30. + Id. c. eod.

: Dugdale's History of St. Paul's. Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 13.

of their doctrine, which was able to produce such extraordinary effects upon persons, over whom religion has commonly the slightest influence.

The zeal of the missionaries was also much assisted by their superiority in the arts of civil life. At their first preaching in Sussex, that Country was reduced to the greatest distress from a drought, which had continued for three years. The barbarous inhabitants, destitute of any means to alleviate the famine, in an epidemic transport of despair, frequently united forty and fifty in a body, and, joining their hands, precipitated themselves from the cliffs, and were either drowned or dashed to pieces on the rocks. Though a maritime people, they knew not how to fish; and this ignorance probably arose from a remnant of druidical superstition, which had forbidden the use of that sort of diet. In this calamity, Bishop Wilfrid, their first preacher, collecting nets, at the head of his attendants, plunged into the sea, and having opened this great resource of food, he reconciled the desperate people to life, and their minds to the spiritual care of those who had shown themselves so attentive to their temporal preservation.*

The same regard to the welfare of the people appeared in all their actions. The Christian kings sometimes made donations to the church of lands conquered from their heathen enemies. The clergy immediately baptized and manumitted their new vassals. Thus they endeared to all sorts of men, doctrines and teachers which could mitigate the rigorous law of conquest; and they rejoiced to see religion and liberty advancing with an equal progress. Nor were the monks of this time in any thing more worthy of praise, than in their zeal for personal freedom. In the canon, wherein they provided against the alienation of their lands, among other charitable exceptions to this restraint, they particularize the purchase of liberty. In their transactions with the great, the same point was always strenuously laboured. When they imposed penance, they were remarkably indulgent to persons of that rank. But they always made them purchase the remission of corporal aus terity by acts of beneficence. They urged their powerful penitents to the enfranchisement of their own slaves, and to the redemption of those which belonged to others; they directed them to the repair of highways, and to the construction of churches, bridges, and other works

Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 13. † Spelm. Concil. p. 329. VOL. II.-33

of general utility. They extracted the fruits of virtue even from crimes, and whenever a great man expiated his private offences, he provided in the same act for the public happiness. The monasteries were then the only bodies corporate in the kingdom; and if any persons were desirous to perpetuate their charity by a fund for the relief of the sick or indigent, there was no other way than to confide this trust to some monastery. The monks were the sole channel through which the bounty of the rich could pass in any continued stream to the poor: and the people turned their eyes towards them in all their distresses.

We must observe, that the monks of that time, especially those of Ireland,† who had a considerable share in the conversion of all the northern parts, did not show that rapacious desire of riches, which long disgraced, and finally ruined their successors. Not only did they

not seek, but seemed even to shun such donations. This prevented that alarm, which might have arisen from an early and declared avarice. At this time the most fervent and holy anchorites retired to places the furthest that could be found from human concourse and help, to the most desolate and barren situations, which even from their horrour seemed particularly adapted to men who had renounced the world. Many persons followed them in order to partake of their instructions and prayers, or to form themselves upon their example. An opinion of their miracles after their death drew still greater numbers. Establishments were gradually made. The monastic life was frugal, and the government moderate. These causes drew a constant concourse. Sanctified deserts assumed a new face; the marshes were drained and the lands cultivated. And as this revolution seemed rather the effect of the holiness of the place than of any natural causes, it increased their credit; and every improvement drew with it a new donation. In this manner the great abbies of Croyland and Glastonbury, and many others, from the most obscure beginnings, were advanced to a degree of wealth and splendour little less than royal.

Instauret etiam Dei ecclesiam ; et instauret vias publicas, pontibus super aquas profundas et super canosas vias; et manumittat

servos suos proprios, et redimat ab aliis hominibus servos suos ad libertatem. L. Eccl. Edgari. 14.

Aidanas Finam et Colmannus mira sanctitatis fuerunt et parsimonia. Adeo enim sacerdotes erant illius temporis ab avaritia immunes, ut nec territoria, nisi coacti accipe rent. Hen. Hunting, apud. Decem .. 3. p. 333. Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 26.

In these rude ages government was not yet fixed upon solid principles, and every thing was full of tumult and distraction. As the monasteries were better secured from violence by their character than any other places by laws, several great men, and even sovereign princes, were obliged to take refuge in convents; who, when by a more heavy revolution in their fortunes, they were reinstated in their former dignities, thought they could never make a sufficient return for the safety they had enjoyed under the sacred hospitality of these roofs. Not content to enrich them with am

ple possessions; that others also might partake of the protection they had experienced, they formally erected into an asylum those monasteries, and their adjacent territory. So that all thronged to that refuge who were rendered unquiet by their crimes, their misfortunes, or the severity of their lords; and content to live under a government to which their minds were subject, they raised the importance of their masters by their numbers, their labour, and above all by an inviolable attachment.

The monastery was always the place of sepuiture for the greatest lords and kings. This added to the other causes of reverence a sort of sanctity, which in universal opinion, always attends the repositories of the dead; and they acquired also thereby a more particular protection against the great and powerful-for who would violate the tomb of his ancestors or his own? It was not an unnatural weakness to think that some advantage might be derived from lying in holy places, and among holy persons; and this superstition was fomented with the greatest industry and art. The monks of Glastonbury spread a notion that it was almost impossible any person should be damned whose body lay in their cemetery. This must be considered as coming in aid of the amplest of their resources, prayer for the dead.

But there was no part of their policy, of whatever nature, that procured to them a greater or juster credit, than their cultivation of learning and useful arts. For if the monks contributed to the fall of science in the Roman empire, it is certain that the introduction of learning and civility into this northern world is entirely owing to their labours. It is true, that they cultivated letters only in a secondary way, and as subsidiary to religion. But the scheme of Christianity is such that it almost necessitates an attention to many kinds of learning. For the scripture is by no means an irrelative system of moral and divine truths; but it stands connected with so many histories, and with the laws, opinions and manners of

so many various sorts of people, and in such different times, that it is altogether impossible to arrive to any tolerable knowledge of it without having recourse to much exteriour inquiry. For which reason the progress of this ligion has always been oa: ked by that of letters. There were two oiret circumstances at this time, that contributed no less to the revival of learning. The sacred writings had not been translated into any vernacular language, and even the ordinary service of the church was still continued in the Latin tongue; all, there fore, who formed themselves for the ministry, and hoped to make any figure in it, were in a manner driven to the study of the writers of polite antiquity, in order to qualify themselves for their most ordinary functions. By this means, a practice, liable in itself to great objections, had a considerable share in preserv ing the wrecks of literature, and was one means of conveying, down to our times those incsti mable monuments, which, otherwise, in the tumult of barbarous confusion on one hand, and 、 untaught piety on the other, must inevitably have perished. The second circumstance, the pilgrimages of that age, if considered in itself, was as liable to objection as the former; but it proved of equal advantage to the cause of literature. A principal object of these pious journeys was Rome, which contained all the little, that was left in the western world, of antient learning and taste. The other great object of those pilgrimages was Jerusalem; this led them into the Grecian empire, which still subsisted in the east with great majesty and power. Here the Greeks had not only not discontinued the antient studies, but they added to the stock of arts many inventions of curiosity and convenience, that were unknown to antiquity. When, afterwards, the Saracens prevailed in that part of the world, the pilgrims had also by the same means an opportunity of profiting from the improvements of that laborious people; and however little the majority of these pious travellers might have had such objects in their view, something useful must unavoidably have stuck to them; a few certainly saw with more discernment, and rendered their travels serviceable to their country, by importing other things beside miracles and legends. Thus a commumcution was opened between this remote island and countries of which it otherwise could then scarcely have heard mention inade; and pil grimages thus preserved that intercourse among mankind, which is now formed by politics, commerce, and learned curiosity.

It is not wholly unworthy of observation,

that Providence, which strongly appears to have intended the continual intermixture of mankind, never leaves the human mind destitute of a principle to effect it. This purpose is sometimes carried on by a sort of migratory instinct, sometimes by the spirit of conquest; at one time avarice drives men from their homes, at another they are actuated by a thirst of knowledge; where none of these causes can operate, the sanctity of particular places attracts men from the most distant quarters. It was this motive, which sent thousands in those ages to Jerusalem and Rome; and now, in a full tide, impels half the world annually to Mecca.

By those voyages the seeds of various kinds of knowledge and improvement were at different times imported into England. They were cultivated in the leisure and retirement of monasteries; otherwise, they could not have been cultivated at all: for it was altogether necessary to draw certain men from the general rude and fierce society, and wholly to set a bar between them and the barbarous life of the rest of the world, in order to fit them for study and the cultivation of arts and science. Accordingly, we find every where, in the first institutions for the propagation of knowledge among any people, that those who followed it were set apart and secluded from the mass of the community. The great ecclesiastical chair of his kingdom for near a century was filled by foreigners; they were nominated by the popes; who were in that age just or politic enough to appoint persons of a merit in some degree adequate to that important charge. Through this series of foreign and learned prelates, continual accessions were made to the originally slender stock of English literature. The greatest and most valuable of these accessions was made in the time and by the care of Theodorus, the seventh archbishop of Canterbury. He was a Greek by birth; a man of a high ambitious spirit, and of a mind more liberal, and talents better cultivated, than generally fell to the lot of the western prelates. He first introduced the study of his native language into this island. He brought with him a number of valuable books in many faculties; and among them a magnificent copy of the works of Homer, the most antient and best of poets, and the best chosen, to inspire a people, just initiated into letters, with an ardent love, and with a true taste for the sciences. Under his influence a school was formed at Canterbury; and thus the other great fountain of knowledge, the Greek tongue, was opened in England in the year of our Lord 669.

The southern parts of England received their improvements directly through the channel of Rome. The kingdom of Northumberland, as soon as it was converted, began to contend with the southern provinces in an emulation of piety and learning. The ecclesiastics then also kept up and profited by their intercourse with Rome; but they found their principal resources of knowledge from another and a more extraordinary quarter.* The island of Hii or Columkill is a small and barren rock in the Western Ocean. But in those days it was high in reputation as the scite of a monastery, which had acquired great renown for the rigour of its studies and the severity of its ascetic discipline. Its authority was extended over all the northern parts of Britain and Ireland; and the monks of Hii even exercised episcopal jurisdiction over all those regions. They had a considerable share both in the religious and literate institution of the Northumbrians. Another island of still less importance, in the mouth of the Tees, and called Landisforn, was about this time sanctified by the austerities of an hermit called Cuthbert. It soon became also a very celebrated monastery. It was, from a dread of the ravages of pirates, removed first to the adjacent part of the continent, and on the same account finally to Durham. The heads of this monastery omitted nothing which could contribute to the glory of their founder, and to the dignity of their house; which became in a very short time, by their assiduous endeavours, the most considerable school, perhaps, in Europe. The great and justest boast of this monastery is the venerable Beda, who was educated, and spent his whole life there. An account of his writings is an account of the English learning in that age, taken in its most advantageous view. Many of his works remain; and he wrote both in and verse, prose and upon all sorts of subjects. His theology forms the most considerable part of his writings. He wrote comments upon almost the whole Scripture, and several homilies on the principal festivals of the church. Both the comments and sermons are generally allegorical in the construction of the text, and simply moral in the application. In these discourses several things seem strained and fanciful; but herein he followed entirely the manner of the earlier fathers, from whom the greatest part of his divinity is not so much imitated as extracted. The systematic and logical method, which seems to have been first introduced into theo

St. Columbus, or Icolmkill or Iona.

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