H.a.^. COR^^ELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Z2012 .wg™" ""'"*'""* ""'"^ ^'°Sri?iR!?,!3.,.S!!i!!?""'^3 literaria or. Bio olin 3 1924 029 564 022 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029564022 BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA LITERARIA; ^iogropl^l) of U/iUvavv! (£'^AvatUv» GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE COUNCIL ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE. LONDON: J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, PRINTERS, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET. BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA LITERARIA; HioqvavftV! of Hiteratp egn , guma gilp-hlseden, gidda ge-myndig, (se i>e eal-fela eald-ge-segena worn ge-munde, word 6)>er fand s6'Se ge-buuden,) secg eft on-gan sVS Be6-wulfes sometimes the king's thane, a man laden with lofty themes, mindful of songs, (he who a great multitude of old traditions remembered, who invented other words, truly joined together), this man now began Beowulf's expedition skilfully to put in order. snyttrum styrian. (Beowulf, V. 1728.) Thus the minstrel became endowed with another func- tion ; it was by means of his songs that the intelligence of contemporary events was, in the earlier ages, carried from one court to another. In this way Beowulf became acquainted with the suflferings of the Danes, under the visitation of the Grendel : — for ^am [sy^an] wearS ylda-bearnum un-dyrne cfiS, gyddnm geomore. (». 297.) therefore it afterwards became to the sons of men openly known, mournfully in songs. At times the Bard raised his song to higher themes, and laid open the sacred story of the cosmogony, and the beginning of all things. Thus, when the warriors were joyful iu Heorot — J>Ber wses hearpan sw^g, swutol sang sc6pes : ssegde se };e cUpe frum-sceaft flra feorran reccan ; cw8e^ J)8et se iel-mihtiga eor'San w [orhte] , wlite-beorhtne wang swi wseter be-biigetS ; ge-sette slge-lire>ig sunn [an] and monan, there was noise of the harp, the clear song of the poet, one said that knew the origin of men from a remote period to relate ; he said that the Almighty wrought the eartB, the bright-faced plain which water encompasseth j exulting in victory he set up the sun and the moon; 6 THE minstrel's POETRY. [Inirod. leuman to leohte luminaries to light land bu[en]dum ; the inhabitants of the land ; and ge-frcetwade and adorned foldan sceiitas the districts of the earth leomum and leafum : with boughs and leaves : lif eSc ge-sce6p life also he created cy [n] na ge-hwyloum for all kinds Jidra Be cwice hwyrfaj". that go about alive. (Beowulf, V. 178.) 3. These minstrel-poets had, by degrees, composed a large mass of national poetry, which formed collectively one grand mythic cycle. Their education consisted chiefly in committing this poetry to memory, and it was thus preserved from age to age. They rehearsed such por- tions of it as might be asked for by the hearers, or as the circumstances of the moment might require, for it seems certain that they were in the habit of singing detached scenes even of particular poems, just as we are told was done with the works of Homer in the earlier times of Greece. Thus in Beowulf, on one occasion, the subject selected by the Bard as most appropriate, is OfFa's expe- dition against Finn, a romance of which, singularly enough, we have still a fragment left,* — ■Sser woes sang and sw^g There was song and sound samod set-gsedere, all together, fore Healf-denes before Healfdene's hilde-wisan, chieftains ; gomen-wudu grated, the wood of joy was touched, gid oft wrecen : the song often sung : Bonne heal-gamen then joy in the hall Hri)>-gires sc6p Hrothgar's poet after medo-bence along the mead-bench mse'nan scolde, must excite, Finnes eaferum concerning Finn's descendants, «d hie se foe'r be-geat. when the expedition came upon them. (v. 2119.) * The circumstance of our having a part of the very romance which the bard is introduced singing, gives a singular air of verity to the pictures of early manners in this interesting poem. The fragment first printed by Hickes, and reprinted in Kemble's Beowulf under the title of " The Battle Inirod.] the minstrel's poetry. f In their passage from one minstrel to another, these poems underwent successive changes ; and, since, like the religion taught by the priests, the poetry belonged to the whole class, without being known severally as the work of this or that individual, it happens that all the Anglo-Saxon national poetry is anonymous. In like manner, the ques- tion as to the authors of most of the poetry of the early Grecian cycles was among the Greeks themselves a matter of great uncertainty. The practice of singing detached pieces also accounts for the fragments of larger poems which are still found in manuscripts ; the famous Exeter manuscript is chiefly made up of such pieces. Beowulf bears internal evidence of having passed through many hands in its way from the age of paganism in which it was certainly moulded, up to that when among min- strels who held a better religion, it received the various adventitious traits of Christianity which we now find in it. The " Traveller's Song" seems to have been preserved as a kind of nomenclature of geography ; and, as might be expected, it is full of interpolations, by the addition of the names of countries, of which the knowledge was brought in by the Christian writers. 4. The poetry of the Anglo-Saxons was neither modu- lated according to foot-measure, like that of the Greeks and Romans, nor written with rhymes, like that of many modem languages. Its chief and universal characteristic was a very regular alliteration, so arranged that, in every couplet, there should be two principal words in the first / of Finnesburh," was found by the former, as he says, in a MS. of semi-Saxon \ Homilies in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. It has since been \ sought there more than once, but without success. Perhaps it was the Ueaf pasted down in the binding of some MS. whicli belonged to a very different subject ; and, if this be the case, it is certainly very desirable that it should be found, as, by separating it from the cover, more might possibly be discovered than Hickes was aware of. ALLITERATION. \Inirod. line beginning with the same letter, which letter must also be the initial of the first word on which the stress of the voice falls in the second Hne. The only approach to a metrical system yet discovered is that two risings and two fallings of the voice seem necessary to each perfect line. Two distinct measures are met with^ a shorter and a longer, both commonly mixed together in the same poem, the former being used for the ordinary narrative, and the latter adopted when the poet sought after greater dignity. In the manuscripts, the Saxon poetry is always written continuously like prose, perhaps for the sake of convenience, but the division of the lines is generally marked by a point. Some Anglo-Saxon scholars, and the Germans more particularly, have advocated the printing of the alliterative couplet in one line, while others are equally zealous for its separation into two. This is, perhaps, more a matter of taste than of great importance, though the ) mode, now generally adopted, of dividing the alliterations 'into couplets, seems to be countenanced both by the ; pointing of the manuscripts, and by the circumstance that, if the longer metres be arranged according to the other method, the length of the lines becomes rather incon- venient and unseemly. The harmony and alliteration of the lines, as well as the dividing points, are often lost in the manuscripts by the inaccuracy of the scribes. 5. The Anglo-Saxon poetry has come down to us in its own native dress. In unskilful hands it sometimes became little more than aUiterative prose ; but, as far as it is yet known to us, it never admitted any adventitious ornaments. Having been formed in a simple state of society, it admits, by its character, no great variety of style, but generally marches on in one continued strain of pomp and gran- deur, to which the Anglo-Saxon language itself was in its perfect state peculiarly suited. The principal charac- Jfllirod.] ANGLO-SAXON POEl'RV. <) teristic of this poetry is an endless variety of epithet and metaphor, which are in general very expressive, although their beauty sometimes depends so much on the feelings and manners of the people for whom they were made, that they appear to us rather fanciful. As, however, these )poets drew their pictures from nature, the manner in which /they apply their epithets, like the rich colouring of the painter, produces a brilliant and powerful impression on I the mind. They are, moreover, exceedingly valuable to the modern reader, for they make him acquainted with the form, colour, material, and every other attribute of the things which are mentioned. Thus, when the hero shows himself, a long description could not give a more exact idea of his apparel than is here conveyed in a few words — Be6wulf ma^elode ; Beowulf spake ; on him byme scan, on him the coat of mail shone, sea [ro] -net se6wed the war-net sowed smi)>es or-t>ancum. by the skill of the armourer. -{Beowulf, V. 804.) When the poet describes Beowulf's approach, with his attendants, to the Danish capital, we see even the path they are treading, and the clank of their armour seems to ring in our ears — Strse't wffis st^u-fah, The street was variegated with stones, stig wisode the path directed gumum set-gsedere. the men together, gd^-byrne scan, The war-mail shone, heard hond-locen ; hard hand-locked ; hring-iren scir the bright ring-iron song in searwum, sang in their trappings, ]>{i hie t6 sele fur15um when they forward to the hall in hyra gry're-geatwum in their terrible armour gangan cwomon. proceeded on their way. {v. 637.) So, likewise; in Beowulf 's -desperate encounter with the unearthly Grendel, whom no weapons could injure, when 10 ANGLO-SAXON POETRY. [Introd. he tears the monster's arm from the shoulder, the poet dwells on the momentary act of separation till we seem to feel the crash : — him ou eaxle wear* On his shoulder became syn-dolh swe6tol ; a mighty gash evident, seonowe on-sprungon, the sinews sprang asunder, burston ban-locan. the juncture of the bones burst. (Beowulf, V. 1626.) The metaphors also often possess much original beauty. Thus, an enemy is not slain — he is put to sleep with the stvord. So it was with the nicors whom Beowulf had destroyed in the sea; and they were found not on the shore — but near the leavings of the waves : — ac on mergenne But in the morning mecum wunde wounded with blades be y'^-lafe beside the leavings of the waves uppe Ise'gon, they lay aloft, swe[ordum] a-swefede. put to sleep with swords. (v. 1124.) When a hero died in peace, he ivent on his way. So Beowulf's father — ge-bdd wintra worn, he abode for many a year, ffi'r he on weg hwurfe ere he went on his way, gamol of geardum. old, from his dwellings. (v. 525.) Men's passions and feeUngs are sometimes depicted with great beauty. What can be more simple and elegant, and at the same time more natural and pathetic, than Hrothgar's lamentation over his old and faithful coun- seller, whom unexpectedly the GrendeFs mother had slain ? — Hr<)'S.gar ma>elode, Hrothgar spake, helm Scyldinga : the protector of the Soyldings : ne frin Jjii oeftcr see'lum,— " Ask not thou after happiness,— sorh is go -niwod sorrow is renewed Denigea le<5dum ; to the Danish people ; dead is Msc-here dead is ^schere Introd.] ANGLO-SAXON POETRY. 11 Yrmen-Ufes yldra br(5))or, min ruu-wita, and min rse'd-bora, eaxl- ge-stealla ^onne we on or-lege hafelau w^redon, I'Onne huiton fe))an eoferaa cnysedan ; [li] scolde eorl wesan 8e'r-g6d swylc ^BC-here. WearlS him on Herote t6 hand-banan wsel-gffist wtefre. * *: * nd se6 hand lig [e%] , se t>e e(3w wel hwylcra wilna d6hte. (Beowulf, V. 2642.) Yrmenlaf s elder brother, the partaker of my secrets, and my counsellor, who stood at my elbow* when we in battle guarded our hoods of mail, when troops rushed together, and helmets clashed ; ever should an earl be valiant as .iSschere. Of him in Heorot a cunning fatal-guest has become the slaughterer. « « # Now the hand lieth low, which was good to you all for all your desires." The anxiety of Beowulf and his people, after the aged warrior had fought his last battle, and destroyed his last enemy, that his barrow should be raised on an eminence overlooking the sea, that it might be a mark to sailors — ge-worhton ^Sa Wedra le6de hlae'w on Ude, se wses heih and br^d, e'5-ll«endum wide tA-syne. (». 6306.) wrought then the people of the Westerns a mound over the sea, it was high and broad to the seafaring men to be seen afar — reminds us of a similar sentiment, in an early Greek poet, when speaking of the tomb of Themistocles, which he represents as overlooking the Piraeus, and * It is curious to observe the similarity of sentiment and expression which is often found recurring under similar circumstances. In the metrical life of Merlin, attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the hero laments his friend and companion in arms in almost the same words as are here put into the mouth of Hrothgar (Vit. Merl. v. 46)— ' ' O juvenile decus I guis nunc astabit in armis Nunc mihi pone latus, mecumque repellet euntes In mea dampna duces, Incumbentesque catervas." 12 ANGLO-SAXON POETRY. {Introd. which would seem, like Beowulf's, to have been a large tumulus* : — 'O v veau 6edcr€Tai, There shall thy mound, conspicuous on the shore, Salute the mariners who pass the sea, Keep watch on all who enter or depart. And be the umpire in the naval strife. Similes are very rare in Anglo-Saxon poetry. The whole romance of Beowulf contains only five, and those are of the simplest kind ; the vessel gliding swiftly over the waves is compared to a bird ; the Grendel's eyes to fire ; his nails to steel ; the light which Beowulf finds in the Grendel's dwelling, under the waters, resembles the serene light of the sun ; and the sword which has been bathed in the monster's blood melts immediately "like ice." In the religious poetry such comparisons are not more common. 6. The Romances of the Anglo-Saxons hold historically the same place in literature which belongs to the Ihad or the Odyssey .t Their subjects were either exclusively mythological, or historical facts, which, in their passage by tradition from age to age, had taken a mythic form. Beowulf himself is, proba.bly, little more than a fabulous personage — another Hercules destroying monsters of * Plato Comicus, ap. Plutarch, in vita Themist. t To the comparison already made between the earliest poetry of Greece and that of England, it may be added that the names given to a minstrel, scilp on the one hand, from scapan, to make, and, on the other, troiriTris, from TToiflv, are identically the same, and , indicating a consciousness of the creative faculty of the poet, differ entirely from the troiador, and trouvire, of a later period of mediaeval poetry. The Anglo-Scottish poetry of the fifteenth ////,',',',','""" century was merely an imitation of the English of the thirteenth and fourteenth, and their makltar, or maker, can only be conceived to have merited his name by the old rule of lucus a non htcendo, because he borrowed his materials ready-made. Introd,] ANGLO-SAXON ROMANCES. 13 every description, natural or supernatural, nicors, ogres, grendels, dragons. No weak or selfish feelings ever inter- fere with his straight course of heroic probity. Courage, generosity, and fidelity are his virtues. The coward, the niggard, and the traitor, whenever they are mentioned, are spoken of with strong marks of abhorrence. The weaker sex, though it has scarcely any share in the action, is always treated with extreme delicacy and respect. The plot of the poem is at once simple and bold. Among the other romances, that of Finn had for its subject the mutual injury of two hostile tribes, and acts of vengeance repeated until the one was vanquished and became dependent on the other. Sometimes the ladies stand forth as more active and power- ful agents. Thus the romance of OfFa was founded on the marriage of a king with a wood-nymph, and the hatred with which she was regarded by his mother, — a story frequently reproduced in the romances of the thirteenth century. The old German romance of the Niebelungen has for its subject the disastrous consequences which arose out of the vanity and petulance of two royal dames. The subject of that of Waltharius, preserved to us only in a Latin dress, is the escape of a prince and his affianced bride from the court of the Huns, where they had been detained as hostages.* 7- The only perfect monument of Anglo-Saxon romance, which the hand of time has left us, is Beowulf. In it we discover, what was rendered more than probable by other considerations, that, after the Saxons had em- braced Christianity, they carefully weeded out from their national poetry all mention of, or allusion to, those person- ages of the earUer mythology, whom their forefathers had * The curious poem of Waltharius has been lately printed more accu- rately than in the older editions, by Grimm and Schmeller, in their Latein- itche Gedichte des X. and XI. JJt, 14 POPULARITY OF THE ROMANCES. [Itltrod. worshipped as Gods. But they went no further than this ; the subordinate beings of the ancient superstition, the elves, nicors, and all the fantastic creatures of the popular creed, still held their places ; for the Christian missionaries themselves believed in the spiritual and un- seen world as extensively as their converts. The only difference was, that, whilst elsewhere these beings retained very nearly their original form and character, in the minds of the monks they became so many black demons and mischievous hobgobhns.* 8. That the early romances continued to be popular throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, is proved by many circumstances. Indeed their heroes were in most instances the direct ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon princes, and they must therefore always have been listened to with atten- tion. Many of the nobles appear to have had such ro- mances attached to the early history of their own families, as was the case with Waltheof.f That they formed part of the poetry in which King Alfred, from his youth, took so much pleasure, is proved by the manner in which he introduces the name of Weland, one of the most renowned personages of the Teutonic mythology, into his translation of Boethius. The manuscript of Beowulf, and those which contain the fragments that remain of other romances, are all of the tenth century, the age in which chiefly the Anglo-Saxon vernacular literature was committed to writing, which shows that they were then popular. As late as the time of the Norman conquest, we are told of * The history of the influence of Monkish Christianity on the popular Mythology of the Anglo Saxons is developed more at large (by the writer of the present essay) in an article on Priar Rush and the Frolicsome Elves, in the Foreign Quarterly Review for 1837, vol. xviii. p. 180. t The life of Waltheof is printed in the second volume of the Chroniques Anglg-Normandes : Frere, Rouen, 1839. Introd.'] LOCATION of the romances. 15 one of the companions of the Saxon Hereward, who had ) been named Godwin, " because he was as valiant as Godwin the son of Guthlac, who was so highly extolled in the fables of the Ancients,"* a clear proof of their general popularity at that time. And at the same time, as we learn from Hereward's anonymous biographer, there was one Leofric, " his presbyter at Bourne," who seems to have stiU exercised in part the craft of the minstrel, or scop ; for " it was his occupation to collect the deeds of the giants and warriors out of the fables of the Ancients, or from the accurate relation of others, for the edification of his hearers, and to write them in English in order to preserve them.'''t Leofric appears to have acted, in some measure, as the bard of Hereward's family. 9. We not only trace the preservation of these romances down to a comparatively late period, but we can dis- cover marks of their continued influence in various ways. From time to time we detect them interweaving themselves with the graver recitals of the historian. As the Saxons became in course of time more and more firmly settled in, and identified with, Britain, their recollections of their oldi country became continually less vivid, the traditions con- , nected with it less definite, and they began to forget the; meaning of many of the old legends, although they were ' still punctually handed down from father to son. In ages like those of which we are now speaking — indeed more or less in all ages— the popular mind ever connects its tra- ditions with some object which is constantly before the * Godwiaus Gille, qui vocabatur Godwinus, quia non impar Godwinofilio Guthlaci, qui in fabu lis antiquorum valde preedicatur. — De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis, p. 50. t .... editum a Lefrjco diacono ejusdem ad Brun presbitero. Hujus enim memorati presbiteri erat stndium, omnes actus gigantum et bellatorutn ex fabnlis antiquorum, aut ex fideli relatione, ad edificationem audientium congregare, et ob memoriam Anglise Uteris commendare. — lb. p. 3. IG SrODIFICATIONS OF THE ROMANCES. [Introd. eye, and thus the old romances were associated with new places. A particular tribe, who had brought with them some ancient legend, the real scene of which lay upon the shores of the Baltic, after they had been settled for a time in England, began to look upon it as a story connected only with the spot where they now dwelt, and to perpetuate the error by giving the name of its hero to some ob- ject in their vicinity. Thus came such names as Grimesby in Lincolnshire, Wade's-Castle in the North, which took their names, one from Hayelok's supposed foster-father, the other from a Saxon or northern hero, whose legend appears at present to be lost, although it was still pre- served little more than two centuries ago. Thus, too, the legend of Weland was located in Berkshire. It was in this way that the Ongles, or Angles, settled at an earlier period near Sleswic, became by degrees confounded with the East- Angles in England ; and thus the romance of OfFa, one of the ancient Angle princes or ''heroes," was under the hand of the historian Matthew Paris transformed into a life of OfFa, King of the Angles in our island. Some such process seems to have produced the more modern romance of Havelok, that of King Atla still preserved in Anglo-Norman and Latin, though in either form inedited, and perhaps all the other Anglo-Norman romances which form the cycle commonly attributed to the period of the Danish invasions, such as Guy of Warwick, Bevis of Hampton, and King Horn. In more than one instance we find the events of some older family romance mixed up with the life of an historical personage. Such, no doubt, was the origin of the history of Hereward's younger days, which his biographer acknowledges to be taken from what appears to have been a poem, written by Leofric of Bourne; and there are several incidgnts in it which are most remarkably similar to some parts of the romance of Inirod.] introduction of Christianity. 17 Horn, just mentioned. These were not the most humi- liating transformations to which, in the course of ages, the Anglo-Saxon romances were condemned : as they had been originally formed in the childhood of nations, so at a later period they re-appeared in the form of chap-books and ballads for the amusement of children ; and it is more than probable that the great god Thor, the never-ceasing enemy of the Giants of the old Teutonic mythology, has degenerated into that popular but no less remarkable hero of the nursery, the famous Jack-the-Giant-Killer, the all- powerful hammer and the girdle of strength of the god having been replaced by the equally efficient sword of sharpness and the cap of invisibility. § 1 1. The Anglo-Saxon Christian Poetry. 1. The introduction of Christianity laid open to the Saxons a new field of literary labour, and its influence was exerted immediately on the national poetry. On their first arrival, at the end of the sixth century, the mission- aries were treated with respect. They soon made converts rapidly, and the new religion was received even among the princes and nobles with a warmth of zeal which was imparted, more or less, through many generations to their descendants, in whose writings we meet with fre- quent expressions of reverence and gratitude towards those who had first reclaimed them from the errors of paganism.* The minstrels now found that a song of scripture lore was more attentively listened to than the * The inedited Prose Msnology says of St. Gregory, — He is ure altor, and we syndan his alumni; ^ffit is ^set he is ure fester-fseder on Criste, and we syndonhis fester-beam on fall-wihte. (MS. Cotton. Julius, A. x. fol. 71.) He is our altor, and we are his alumni j that is, that he is our foster-father in Christ, and we are his foster-children in baptism. The Metrical Meno- VOL. I. C 18 THE CHRISTIAN POETRY. [Intvod. traditionary exploits of their own national heroes ; and thus a new class of subjects became popular, though dressed in the same style of poetry to which their hearers had been so long accustomed. The zeal of many of the more influential converts led them, probably, to encourage these compositions by all the means in their power. The subjects thus chosen were generally detached stories from the Old Testament, such as the history of the Creation and the fall of the Angels, the story of Judith, or of Nebuchadonosor, or were founded on the doctrines and prophecies of the New Testament, as the Harrowing of HeU, and the Day of Judgment, with all its terrors for the wicked and its glories for the good ; sometimes they were logy, reprinted from Hickes by the Rev. S. Fox (8vo. Pickering, 1830;, says of St. Augustine (I. 200) — Ne hyrde ic guman awyrn I have not heard anywhere senigne ser that any man jefre bringan ever brought ofer sealtne mere over the briny sea selran lare, — better doctrine, — bisceop bremran. a more illustrious bishop. In a MS. of the tenth century (MS. Cotton. Cleop. B. xiii. fol. 89, v°) is preserved the following short hymn on the conversion of the Anglo- Saxons : Sanctus papa Gregorius, Augustini didascalus, Dum per eum multimoda Nosset geri miracula, Et Saxonum cor saxeum Fateri Christum dominum, Proventu euvangelicse Exhilaratus vinese, Psallebat hoc celeumate Divino tactus pnenmate. Ecce lingua Brltannise, Frendens oHm barbaric, In Trinltate unica Jam alleluia personal, Proventu euvangelicce [ExhUarata vinese I] Introd.] c^DMON. 19 taken from later legends, like those of St. Andrew and of the finding of the Cross, or others still more remote from scriptural truth, as that of the Phoenix. These subjects were worked out and embellished by the imagination of the poet, and were not unfrequently tinged with native ideas, and even with native superstitions. Not only the metaphors and epithets of the romances, and much of the old manners and feelings, were reproduced (for Satan and Holofernes possess most of the attributes of Saxon chief- tains), but expressions, and even whole lines, were continu- ally transferred to them, so that we are enabled to correct ! lines in Beowulf by means of the parallel passages which are found in the poetry of the Vercelli and Exeter Manu- scripts, or in that which has been twice published under ; the name of Caedmon. 2. The type of the Anglo-Saxon religious poetry was Ceedmon, who, according to the legend, received miracu- lously in a dream the gift of song. We are far from believing, as some have wished to explain the matter, that this miracle really occurred, and that it may be accounted for naturally, on the presumption of the simple and easy construction of Anglo-Saxon verse. On the contrary, that Csedmon's poems were exceedingly beautiful we have Bede's own testimony, a man well skilled in and much attached to the poetry of his fore- fathers ; and that they were by no means easy to compose, we may be convinced by a comparison of the older reli- gious poetry with that which was certainly written at a later period, (when the minstrel, though he still existed, was no more the same personage he had been,) such as the metrical translations from Boethius attributed to King Alfred. The terms in which Bede speaks of the miracle, show how extraordinary it appeared to those who lived at c 2 20 DATE OF THE RELIGIOUS POETRY. [Introd. the time, that one who had not been taught the profession of poetry, should be able to compose like a regular bard. All, indeed, that we are justified in concluding from this story is, that Ctedmon was considered to be so far superior to his contemporaries in the same art, that it required (as has often been the case under similar circumstances) the for- mation of a particular legend to account for it. It is highly probable that we still have some of his compositions among the mass of religious poetry which has been preserved ; and we are fairly authorised in believing, from their style and particular subjects, that at least some parts of that pubUshed first by Junius, and more recently by Thorpe, under Csedmon's name, belonged, in their earlier form, to that poet. They possess all the characteristics above enu- merated. 3. We find no manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry, unless it be some very insignificant fragments, of an earlier date than the tenth century, nor does there occur any mention of such manuscripts before the time of King , Alfred — the latter half of the ninth century. Yet, from what Bede says of Csedmon and his imitators,* and from some other circumstances, it seems probable that the vernacular religious poetry was composed chiefly during the years which intervened between the age of the poet (about A. D. 680) and that of the historian (A. D. 731). The circumstances which are most in favour of this supposition are, first, its great dissimilarity in style to any- thing that can be ascertained to have been written at a later period, and, secondly, the frequent allusion which is made to it at the earlier period. Aldhelm, who died in 709, is said to have been himself one of the best English poets * Et quidem et alii post ilium in geute Anglorum religiosa poemata facere tentabant; sed nuUus eum tenuiparave potuit. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iy. ^, 24, Fnirod.] date of the religious poetry. 21 of his day.* Bede was also partial to the vernacular Anglo-Saxon poetry, and well acquainted with it (doctis- simus in nostris carminibus) ; and, even on his death-bed, he not unfrequently uttered his thoughts in passages taken from the national poets. One of these passages is preserved by a writer who was with him in his last moments, and is thus printed in Asser's Annals : — f for tham ned-fere before the necessary journey neni wirtheth no one becomes thances snotera more prudent of thought thonne him thearf sy, than is needful to him, to ge-hicgenne to search out er his heonon-gange before his going hence hwet his gaste what to his spirit godes othe yveles of good or of e\U efter deathe heonon after his death hence demed weorthe. will be judged. Boniface, who died in 755, in one of his letters quotes likewise a moral sentiment from an Anglo'-Saxon poet — oft dsedlata oft doth the dilatory man domes for-eldit justly lose by his delay sigisitha gahwem ; in every successful undertaking ; swyltit H ana, J therefore he dieth lonely. 4. During the long period which had thus elapsed before this poetry was committed to writing, as we now find it, it was preserved almost entirely by the memory. When this faculty is exercised and disciplined as it was by the minstrels, and also by the scholars of that day, * See William of Malmsbury, in Vit. Aldhelm. He is said, among other things, to have translated the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon verse, which , may possibly have been the same which Mr. Thorpe has so ably edited from the Paris MS. or the groundwork of it. t Cuthberti Epistola de Morte Bedse, ap. Asser. Annal. (in Gale's Col-- lection) p. 152. This letter is also found in Simeon of Durham, and else- where. t Bonifac. Epist. ap. Pertz. Thes. vol. iii. quoted in Gent. Mag. June 1836, p. 611, where the language of this fragment (which like the one last quoted, has been much disfigured by inaccurate Latin scribes) is arranged more correctly and translated by Mr. Kemble. 22 TRANSMISSION OP THE POETRY. \Introd. its power of containing and preserving is perfectly won- derful. Among many other books which Wilfred had committed to memory in his youth, whilst resident in the monastery of Lindisfarne, was the whole book of Psalms ; and afterwards, when he found that he had learnt them according to the Latin text of Jerome, which was then going out of use among the CathoHcs, he committed them to memory a second time, according to the newly autho- rised text (more Romanorum juxta quintam editionem).* This is mentioned by his biographer, without any expres- sion of surprise at his powerful memory, but simply to show his respect for the Romish ordinances. There is no class of poetry sooner forgotten than that which is intended merely to celebrate events of temporary interest ; and yet it is clear from WiUiam of Malmsbury, that, even in his time, (the twelfth century) when the hterature of the Anglo-Saxons was rapidly falling into neglect, many poli- tical songs and poems of all ages, and even some songs composed by Aldhelm four centuries before, were still , preserved in the memory of the people.f 5. The natural result of this mode of transmission was, that the original works of Ceedmon and his contem- poraries, as weU as the Romances, were considerably dis- figured in their passage from one reciter to another, and the more so, because the persons by whom they were chiefly preserved were often themselves professed minstrels, and therefore more likely to adulterate them. When these * Eddius, Vita Wilfred, in Gale, pp. 53, 53. f Such was the case with the songs made on the marriage of Gunhilda, daughter of Cnut, with the Emperor Henry, full half a century before the Norman conquest, — Celebris ilia pompa nuptialis fuit, et nostro adhuc seculo etiam in triviis cantitata. Wil. Malms, p.77, ed. 1601. The poems of Homer were originally preserved in much the same manner, and they seem to have suffered in their transmission in the same way, though (from circumstances) to a much smaller degree than the Anglo-Saxon poetry. Introd.'] TRANSMISSION OF THE POETRY, 23 minstrels sung them, it was of course in the dialect which they themselves spoke, and hence it happens that we find them all written in the pure West Saxon of the age to which the manuscripts belong ; for at that time the West Saxon had become the language of learning, the Attic dialect of our island. To the philologist this must ever be a subject of regret, for it has deprived us of the means of examining closely the dialects and changes of the Anglo- Saxon language. Sometimes the minstrel forgot a few lines, or a long passage, and the poem became imperfect; sometimes he lost a line, or a word, and was obliged to make one to supply its place, or to borrow one which his memory might supply from some other poem; and at other times he might change particular passages, more especially the introductions to poems, to suit the occasion, or to please his own fancy. Hence the argument raised against the authenticity of the poetry attributed to Caed- mon, because its introductory lines do not agree with certain other lines that have been accidentally preserved as Csedmon's Introduction, loses much of its weight. Again, as everything tends to show that the Minstrels paid httle attention to the claims of any particular author to what they sung, even the name of Csedmon would soon be for- gotten, except as one of the worthies of Bedels history ; and the King of the West Saxons himself might read or listen to his poetry, without being aware that it was the composition of that famous poet of whom he had been reading in the historian. 6. The manuscripts which remain, to whatever page we turn, bear witness to the truth of these remarks. Iff we collate two or three manuscripts of the same prose, Saxon work, we find few variations, and those of a trifling description, such as the omission of an unimportant word, i4 TRANSMISSION OF THE POETRY. \Introd. !or the change of certain letters which were always used as interchangeable. But the manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon poetry abound in every kind of defect, and these faults are mostly of such a nature as to show that their con- tents must have been taken down from recitation. We have seldom the opportunity of comparing two manu- scripts of the same poem ; but in the Exeter Manu- script there are some fragments of what is printed as Ceedmon, and by a comparison of these, we find that words beginning with the same letter are continually inter- changed in the alliteration, that whole lines which had escaped the memory of the reciter had been supplied by others which still made alliteration and sense, that a word, a line, and sometimes a paragraph, had been lost here and there, and these are combined with a host of smaller variations. Sometimes a passage has suffered so much, that it no longer affords either alliteration or sense (or, as we should say of modern verse, either rhyme or reason), and the latter folios of the manuscript of Ctedmon are evidently nothing but the stringing together of such passages of the original as the scribe could at the moment recall to memory. The number and character of these variations also support the argument above stated for the antiquity of the poetry itself. 7. Indeed the principal manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry which are left, can only be regarded as so many miscellaneous collections of poems and fragments, written down probably at different times, and from the recitation of different persons. Of the poem of Judith, one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Saxon song, we have only a fragment preserved in a Cottonian manuscript.* » Vitellius, A. xv. the same MS, whicli has preserved the romance of Seowulf. Introd.] THE RELIGIOUS POETRY. 25 The collection which goes by the name of Ccedmon, and which is preserved in a manuscript in the Bod- leian Library at Oxford, is rather a series of pieces on scriptural subjects, perhaps not all by the same hand, than a continued poem. That known as the Exeter Manuscript, is extremely miscellaneous : we find in it fragments of Ccedmon and other religious poems, pious songs in praise of the Virgin, legends of the day of judgment, of the punishments inflicted on the wicked in the other world, of the Phoenix and the terrestrial para- dise, of St. Guthlac and St, Juliana, along with fragments of all kinds from romances and religious poems, moral sayings, riddles, &c. A manuscript preserved at Vercelli, in Pied- mont, for the publication of which we are indebted to the literary zeal of Mr. Purton Cooper, contains also much fine A.nglo-Saxon religious poetry, as the legend of St. Andrew, and that of the Invention of the Cross, with one or two fragments.* 8. The style of the Anglo-Saxon religious poetry bears a close resemblance to that of the romances. It is dis- tinguished by the same abundance of epithet and metaphor, and by the same richness of colouring. It is even more pompous, and seems to have been marked by a much more frequent use of the longer measure of verse. It excels also in precisely the same class of pictures which strike us most in Beowulf — and particularly in those which belong to war and festivity. Ceedmon, for instance, affords us * The poem of Judith is printed in Thorpe's Analecta. Csedmon, and the poetry of the Vercelli MS. are both edited by Mr. Thorpe, to whose learning and zeal we owe, in addition to the translation of Raske's Gram- mar and the edition of the Paris Psalter, the two most useful and elementary books which any language possesses,— the Analecta Anfflo-Saxonica, and an edition of the Anglo-Saxon translation of Apollonius of Tyre. The Exeter Book is, we are glad to hear, in the press, to be edited by Mr. Thorpe, and published, like Csedmon, at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries. 26 THE RELIGIOUS POETRY. [Introd. the following peculiarly impressive description of the march of an army — Jja him eorla m6d ortrywe wear^, si^an hie ge-sawon of su'S-wegum fy'rd Fara6uis for^ on-gangan, ofer hoit wegan, eored lixau. Garas trymedou, guS hwearfode, blicon bord-hreoiSan, by 'man sungon, Jjufas Jjunian, i^eod-mearc tredan. On hwsel hwreopon here-fugolas, hilde grffi'dige, deawig-fe'Sere, ofer driht-neum, wonn wsel-ceasega ; wulfas sungon atol sefen-leo'S se'tes on wenan, carleasan deor cwyld rof [nm] beodan. {Thorpe's Coedmon, p, Then the mind of his men became despondent, after they saw from the south ways the host of Pharaoh coming forth, moving over the holt, the band glittering. They prepared their arms, the war advanced, bucklers gleamed, trumpets sung, standards rattled, they trod the nation's frontier. Around them screamed the fowls of war, greedy of battle, dewy-feathered, over the bodies of the host, the dark chooser of the slain (the raven) ; the wolves smig their horrid even-song in hopes of food, the reckless beasts threatening death to the valiant. 187.) A similar description is found in the fragment of Judith — \>n wear^ snelra werod snude ge-gearewod, ctora to campe ; stdpon cyne-r(5fe secgas and gesi'Sas, bseron ))ufas, f(5ron to ge-feohte for^ on ge-rihte, hade's under helmum, of ))aere haligran byrig, on J>8et dseg-red sylf ; dynedan scildas, hlude hlummon. Then was the army of the bold ones quickly made ready, of the men eager for the conflict ; marched on nobly the warriors and their companions, they carried the standards, went to the fight straight forwards, the heroes under their helms, from the holy city, at the very dawn ; the shields resounded, loudly they roared, Introd.] THE RELIGIOUS POETRY. 27 jptes se hlanca ge-feab wulf in walde, and se wanna hrefn, wffil-gifre fugel, westan begen, ))set him t5a t>eod-guman bobton tilian fylle on fsegum ; ac bim fleah on laste earn setes geora, urig fetSera, salowig pada sang bilde leo%, hyrned nebba, St6pon bea^o-rincas, beornas to beadowe, bordum be-^eahte, bwealfum lindum, Jia 'Se hwile ser eKeodigra edwlt Jjoledon, htetSenrd bosp. {Thorpe's Analecta, p. 137.) Therefore the lank wolf rejoiced in the forest, and the swarthy raven, the bird greedy of slaughter, both from the west, that there of mankind they thought to get their fill amidst the slain ; and in their track flew the eagle greedy of food, hoary of feathers, the sallow-coated one be sang the war-song, horny-beaked. The warriors marched, the chieftains to the war, protected with bucklers, with arched linden-shields, who a while before had suifered the reproaches of the foreigners, the insult of the heathens. The same poem presents us with a remarkable descrip- tion of a drunken feast, which is also a good specimen of the mixture of long and short metres — t>Eer wseron bollan steape boren sefter bencum gelome, swylce eac bunan and orcas fulle flet-sittendum : hie beet fsege tegon, r6fe rond-wiggende, )>eab t$£es se rica ne weude, egesful eorla dryhten. DaweartS Holofernus, gold-wine gumena, on gyste-salum ; hloh and hlydde, hlynede and dynede, Jjset mibten fira beam feorran ge-h/ran, hu se sti^-m6da styrmde and gylede, in6dig aud medn-gal, There were deep bowls carried along the benches often so likewise cups and pitchers full to the people who were sitting ou the renowned shielded-warriors [couches : were fated, while they partook thereof, although that powerfvd man did not think the dreadful lord of earls. Then was Holofernes, the munificent patron of men, in the guest-hall ; he laughed and rioted, made tumult and noise, that the children of men might bear afar, bow the stern one stormed and shouted, moody and drunk with mead, [it. 28 MISCELLANEOUS POETBY. [Introcl. manode ge-neahlie exhorted abundantly benc-sittende, the sitters on the bench, Wt hi ge-baerdon wel. so that they conducted themselves well. Swa se inwidda Thus this wicked man ofer ealne daeg, during the whole day dryht-guman sine his followers drencte mid wine, drenched with wine, swi'S-mod sinoes hrytta, the haughty dispenser of treasure, olS |>set hie on swiman lagon, until they lay down intoxicated, ofer-drencte his duguSe ealle, he over-drenched all his followers, swylce hie wseron dea'Se ge- like as though they were struck with slegene, death, agotene g6da gehwylces : exhausted of every good : swa het se gumena aldor thus commanded the prince of men fylgan flet-sittendum, to fill to those who were sitting on couches, o'S fjast fira bearnum until to the children of mortals nealaehte niht seo Jjystre. the dark night approached. (^Thorpe's Analecta, p. 131.) 9. The Anglo-Saxon poems of a more miscellaneous character, which are preserved, are neither very numerous, nor, with one or two exceptions, of any great importance. Political excitement soon took the place of pious zeal, and the religious poetry, thrown from its former high posi- tion, was chiefly occupied in hymns and prayers. The clergy introduced regular alliteration sometimes even into their sermons, apparently in order to make them more impressive, and more easy to carry in mind by a people whose memory Avas less accustomed to retain prose than verse. In the Exeter Manuscript we have much poetry that is certainly of no very remote antiquity, compared with the manuscript itself, and among these we may mention the different poems in praise of the Virgin Mary, which show that the worship of " our Lady" was gaining ground rapidly among the Anglo-Saxons at the time when they were written. Tiie poetry of this class of writings is not of a very high ordei-, for the task of composing them had passed out of the hands of the poets into those of the monks. Introd.] POLITICAL poetry. 29 10. We may naturally suppose, indeed, that, amid the continued wars of the ninth and tenth centuries, the peace- ful dictates of Christianity were among the last subjects that would be listened to by the excited warriors. The minstrel who would obtain praise or reward, sang matters of more temporary interest ; and there was produced a great number of political songs, upon which, long treasured up in the memory of the people, later chroniclers built much of the history of these eventful times. William of Malmsbury, and some other writers of his age, make fre- quent allusions to these songs, and one or two are pre- served in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There has also come down to us one large fragment of a fine poem on the battle of Maldon and the death of the " ealderman^' Byrhtnoth, in 993, which furnishes us with an interesting picture of Anglo-Saxon feelings. The speeches which are put into the mouths of Byrhtnoth's noble followers, the ''lofty thanes" (wlance ])egenas), when they devote them- selves to death in the field on which their superior lord had already fallen, are strongly characteristic. Alfwine, the son of Alfric, a young warrior, first addressed his com- panions, — On ellen-sprsec ge-muna Remember the bold speech Jia msele i>e we oft which we oft times Bet meodo sprsecon, spoke at our mead, ]>onne we on bence when we on the bench boot ah6fon, made oar boasts, heeled on healle, we warriors in the hall, ymbe heard ge-winn ; about hard war j nu mffig cunnian now may be tried hwa c^ne sy ; who is valiant ; ic wyUe mine sejielo I my nobility eallum ge-cy)>an, will make known to all, Jiset io wses on Myrcon that I was among the Mercians miccles cynnes, of noble race, wiEs min ealda-fteder my grandfather was Ealhelm haten, called Ealhelra, w)s ealdorman, a wise chieftain, 30 POLITICAL POETRY, [Introd. woruld-ge-sselig. Ne sceolon me on )>xve )jeode Jjegenas setwitan, tset io of >isse fyrde f^ran wille, eard ges^can, nu min ealdor lige^ for-heawen set hilde : me is Jjset hearma msest, — he wses seg'Ser min mseg and min hldford. (Thorpe, Analec. p. 127.) rich in worldly possessions. Me the thanes shall not reproach among the people, that I from this expedition will depart, wiU seek my home, now that my lord lieth low hewn to death in the battle : that is to me the greatest of griefs ,- he was both my kinsman and my lord. The exhortation of Alfwine is answered by several of his companions, and, among the rest, by Leofsunu of Sturmere (in Essex) — Leofsunu ge-mselde, and his linde ahof, bord to ge-beorge, he t>am beorne on-owse'S : Ic tset ge-hdte, J)8et ic heonon nelle fle6n f6tes trym, ac wille fur'Sor gin, wrecan on ge-winne minne wine-drihten. Ne }>urfon me embe Stur-mere st^de-fseste hsele'S wordum setwitan, nu min wine ge-crane, Jjset io hlaford-leas him si'Sie, wende fram wige, ao me sceal wsepen niman, ord and iren. He ful yrre w6d feaht fsestlice, fleam he for-hogode. {lb. p. 128.) Leofsunu spake, and lifted his linden buckler, the shield for his protection, he said to the warrior : " This I promise, that I will not hence fly a foot's space, but that I will advance onward, to avenge in the battle my beloved chieftain. They about Sturmere shall not need, the steadfast warriors, to reproach me with words, now my comrade is fallen, that I lord-less journey home, that I depart from the war, but me shall the weapon take, edge and iron." He full mad with anger fought firmly, flight he despised. As may be seen in the passages here cited, the crowded epithets and metaphors of the romances and earher reh- gious poems are not found in these later productions. Tntrod.] study of latin and greek. 31 § III. The Anglo-Latin Writers. 1. While the introduction of the Christian religion was thus modifying the .old national literature of the Anglo- Saxons, a foreign literature was brought in with it, which was soon to exercise an important influence. Many of the missionaries whom the Anglo-Saxon Church justly regarded as its fathers, were distinguished as scholars, and by their example a general love of learning was soon spread amongst their converts. Schools had been already founded before the middle of the seventh cen- tury. It is, however, to two foreign scholars, Theodore and Adrian, who were sent into England early in the lat- ter half of the same century, that we owe the establish- ment of learning among the Anglo-Saxons. Theodore, a native of Tarsus, was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and even at Rome was famous for his extensive acquaint- ance with profane as well as sacred literature, and that equally in the Latin and Greek languages.* His friend the Abbot Adrian was by birth an African, but, like his companion, he was, to use the words of Bede, " exceed- ingly skilled both in Greek and Latin ;" f and he is termed by William of Malmsbury " a fountain of letters and a river of arts." J These two foreigners first began to teach openly, in conjunction with the Christian faith, the arts and sciences, and the languages of Greece and Rome, and their school was so well attended, that, when Bede wrote his history, there were stiU alive some of their scholars, * Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. c. 1. and his Hist. Abbat. Wiremuth. p. 223, in the Cologne edition of his works. The genuine penitential of Theodore, preserved in the Library of Corp. Chr. Col. Cambridge, will appear for the first time in Mr. Thorpe's new edition of the A.-S. Laws. t Bede, Hist. Eccl. ib. X Qui esset fons litterarum, rivns artium. W. Malms, de Pontif. p. 340. 32 ANGLO-SAXON LEARNING. [Introd. vvhoj as he assures us, were as well versed in Greek and Latin as in their own native tongue.* Amongst those who had profited most by Adrian's teaching was Aldhelm of Sherburn. 2. The Anglo-Saxons approached the intellectual field which was thus laid open to them with extraordinary avidity. They were like the adventurous traveller who has just landed on a newly discovered shore : the very obstacles which at first stood in their way, seemed to have been placed there only to stimulate their zeal. They thus soon gained a march in advance even of their teachers, and the same age in which learning had been introduced amongst them, saw it reflected back with double lustre on those who had sent it. At the beginning of the eighth century, England possessed a number of scholars who would have been the just pride of the most enlightened age ; and not only teachers, but books also, were sent over to the Franks and Germans, The science which they planted there, continued to flourish long after it had faded at home. .3. The cultivation of letters was in that age by no means confined to the robuster sex — the Anglo-Saxon ladies ap- plied themselves to study with equal zeal, and almost equal success. It was for their reading chiefly that Aldhelm wrote his book De Laude Virginitatis. The female corres- pondents of Boniface wrote in Latin with as much ease as the ladies of the present day write in French, and their letters often show much elegant and courtly feeling. They sometimes also sent him specimens of their skill in writing Latin verse. The abbess Eadburga was one of Boniface's most constant friends ; she seems to have frequently sent * Indicio est quod usque hodie supersuut de eorum discipulis, qui Lati- nam GrcEcamque linguam seque ac propriam, in qua nati sunt, norunt. Bede, Eccl. Hist, lib. Iv. c. 2, Introd.} LEARNED WOMEN. 33 him books, written by herself or by her scholars, for the instruction of his German converts ; and on one occa- sion he accompanies his letter to her with a present of a silver pen.* Leobgitha, one of her pupils, con- cludes a letter to Boniface by offering him a specimen of her acquirements in Latin metres. — " These under- written verses," she says, " I have endeavoured to com- pose according to the rules derived from the poets, not in a spirit of presumption, but with the desire of exciting the powers of my slender talents, and in the hope of thine assistance therein. Tliis art I have learnt from Eadburga, who is ever occupied in studying the divine law."t The four hexameters which follow this introduction, though not remarkable for elegance or correctness, are still a favour- able specimen of the attainments of a young Anglo-Saxon dame. They are addressed as a concluding benediction to Boniface himself : — " Arbiter omnipoteus, solus qui cuncta creavit. In regno patris semper qui lumine fulget ; Qua jugiter flagrans sic regnet gloria Christi, Illsesum servet semper te jure pereuni." 4. The zeal for the study of foreign literature, joined with religious prejudices, was followed by another result. As early as the latter end of the seventh century, all ranks of people were seized with a desire of visiting Rome, the source from which had issued this pure stream * Unum grapliium argenteum. Bonifao. Epist. p. 73, ia hia works. It is, perhaps, rather a license thus taken in calling grapMum, a pen : it seems to have been more properly a kind of instrument for scraping and rubbing, which the scribe held in his hand while writing. t Istos autem subterscriptos versiculos componere nitebar secundum poeticse traditionis disciplinam, non audacia confidens, sed gracilis ingenioli rudimenta excitare cupiens, et tuo auxilio indigens. Istam artera ab Ead- burgse magisterio didici, quse indesinenter legem divinam rimari non cessat. III. p. 83. VOL, I. D 34 VISITS TO ROME. llntrod. of doctrine and knowledge. Bishops and priests sought to receive confirmation of their estate and doctrine from the hand and mouth of the Pope; multitudes of the middle classes left their homes and goods to spend their lives in the vicinity of the see of the apostle Peter ; even princes laid down their crowns in order to end their days in the holy city. At first the heads of the church encou- raged this kind of pious exile. The numerous visits to Rome brought with them many advantages ; they increased the general taste for knowledge^ and gave rise to a spirit of intellectual adventure and research; and the travellers often spent their time in that city of science and learning in transcribing old manuscripts, or their money in purchasing them ; so that, in addition to many of the luxuries and ele- gancies of life, they came home laden with books. But it was soon found that this rage for travelling to Italy was attended with great evils and inconveniences ; and it is strongly condemned by Boniface, who laments, in some of his letters, that the pilgrims were continually falling off before the temptations and dangers which befel them among strange people in unknown lands. The women, in particular, who left their homes with the intention of be- coming nuns at Rome, were sometimes drawn into a less respectable way of living in the towns that lay in their way, and their conduct was more likely to throw disgrace than lustre upon the Christianity of the Anglo-Saxons.* 5. In England, during the eighth century, the multipli- cation of books was very great. The monks were emu- lous of attaining skill in writing and illuminating. At a later period, this was enumerated as one of the accomplish- * Quia magna ex parte pereunt, paucis remanentibus integris. Perpaucse eaim sunt civitates in Longobardia, yel in Francia, aut in Gallia, in qua non sit adultei-a vel meretrix generis Anglorum, quod scandalum est, etc. Bonifac. Epist. p. 105. Inirod.] multiplication of books. 35 ments even of so great a man as Dunstan.* Diligence and industry, in the absence of the more speedy process of printing, enabled the Anglo-Saxons not only to form several public libraries in England, as well as private col- lections, but also to send out of the country books in con- siderable numbers. Boniface, while moving about from place to place on the Continent, addresses frequent de- mands of this kind to his brethren at home ; who, on the other hand, are constantly applying for copies of new books, or such as were not yet known in England, which he might chance to meet with, in order to increase their own stores. At one time he asks for some works of Bede, — at another time he prays one of his friends to send him some of those of Aldhelm, "to console him amidst his labours with these memorials of that holy bishop ;" and on one occasion he asks the abbess Eadburga to cause a copy of the Gospels to be written magnificently in letters of gold, and sent to him in Germany, that his converts there might be impressed with a proper reverence for the sacred writings.f A simi- lar volume had, at an earlier period, been given by Wilfrid to the chui'ch of York, where it was an object of great admiration ; it contained the four Gospels written in letters of gold on purple vellum, and its cover, made of solid gold, was studded with gems and precious stones.J Many specimens of the magnificent writings of this age are still preserved, A noble copy of the Gospels, written * Artem scribendi, necne citliarizandi, pariterque pingendi peritiam dili- genter excoluit. Life of Dunstan, in MS. Cotton. Cleopat. B. xiii. fol. 69, r». (by Bridferth.) ■f- Bonifac. Epist. p. 81. t Addens quoque Sanctus Pontifex noster inter alia inauditum ante seculis nostris quoddam miraculum. Nam quatuor Evangeliffi de auro purissimo in membranis depurpuratis, coloratis, pro animse suse remedio scribere ju8sit ; necnon at bibliothecam librorum eorum omnem de auro purissimo et gemmis pretiosissimis fabrefaotam, compaginare inclusores gemmarum prsecepit, etc, Eddii Vita Wilfndi, p. 60, in Gale's Scriptorea. P2 36 MULTIPLICATION OP BOOKS. [Mrod. at Lindisfarne in the latter years of the seventh century, after having escaped many perils both by fire and flood, is now deposited among the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum, where it is known by the title of the Durham Book ;* but the rich cover which once inclosed it has long disappeared. It was, indeed, but a short-sighted devotion to apply these valuable materials to such a pur- pose ; for amidst the troubles which came on a little later — internal dissensions, and the ravages of a foreign enemy who respected not the faith in which they had originated — the books were too often sacrificed to the rapacity which their exterior dress had excited. 6. In the time of Theodore and Adrian, the principal seats of learning were in Kent, and the south of England, where it continued long after to flourish at Malmsbury, and in some other places. But the kingdom of Northumbria seems to have afforded a still more congenial situation ; and the school established at York, by Wilfred and Arch- bishop Egbert, was soon famous throughout Christendom. Egbert taught there Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and the vast collection of books, which had been amassed by him and his predecessors, aff'orded great faciUty to literary pursuits. Alcuin, who was one of his scholars, frequently dwells with pleasure, in his letters, on the memory of his ancient master and early studies, and contrasts the lite- rary stores amongst which he had been bred with the barrenness of France. In 796, when he was engaged in his school at Tours, he writes to Charlemagne — " I here feel severely the want of those invaluable books of scho- lastic erudition which I had in my own country, by the kind and most affectionate industry of my master, and * It was written by Bishop Eadfred, then only a monk. Eadfred died in 721. A yery interesting popular account of this manuscript is given in Brayley's Graphic Illustrator, p. 355, InfrocL] anglo-saxon libraries. 37 also in some measure by my own humble labours. Let me therefore propose to your excellency, that I send over thither some of our youth, who may collect for us all that is necessary, and bring back with them into France the flowers of Britain," * In his metrical history of the church of York,t Alcuin gives a more particular account of this library ; he tells us that it contained, amongst many other books which he thought of less consequence, the works of Jerome, Hilarius, Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, Gregory, Pope Leo, Basil, Ful- gentius, Cassiodorus, John Chrysostom, and Victorinus, with those of the native writers, Bede and Aldhelm. Among the historical writers and philosophers there were Orosius, Boethius, Pompeius (probably Justin), Pliny, Aristotle, and Cicero. The poets who were then chiefly read were all found there, such as Sedulius, Juvencus^ Alcimus, Clemens (i. e. Prudentius), Prosper, Paulinus, Arator, Fortunatus, Lactantius ; and, of the antients, he mentions Virgil, Statins, and Lucan, as being at that time the most esteemed. The grammarians were also numerous, such as Probus, Phocas, Donatus, Priscian, Ser- vius, Eutychius, Pompeius (probably Festus), and Com- mianus. In fact, books of Theology and Grammar were those most studied and sought after at this period, and are the subjects most frequently mentioned by the correspond- ents of Boniface in their inquiries after new works. In a volume preserved in the British Museum, written not much later than the beginning of the ninth century, the original possessor, whose name was Athelstan, a great reader, as it appears, of grammatical and scientific books, has inserted on one of the pages a catalogue of his own library ; it consisted of Isidore's treatise de Natura Rerum, at that period one * Alcuini, Epistolse, p. S3, in Ms works. t Alcuin, de Pontif, etc. Eborac. p. 730, in. Gale's Scriptores. 38 ANGLO-SAXON LIBRARIES. \Introd. of the text-books of general science^ and a book of calcu- lations, or arithmetic, which he had obtained from a priest named Alfwold ; his grammatical treatises were two works on metres, the less and greater Donatus, a gloss on Cato, and another on Donatus, and an anonymous trea- tise on Grammar, with a book of Dialogues, the subject of which is uncertain. The only book falling under the class of theology is a copy of the Apocalypse ; and there are two poets, Persius and Sedulius.* But when we bear in mind that it was the custom in cataloguing books to give the title of the first work in the volume only, and that the volume in -which this list is found, and which is described in it by the title of Isidore de Natiira Rerum, contains, in addition to that treatise, Bede's Poem De Die Judicii, a work of Priscian, a glossary of uncommon Latin words, and some other things ; we may conclude that Athelstan's library was by no means to be despised. AVith these libraries may be compared that of Bishop Leofric, which he gave to the church of Exeter in the earlier part of the eleventh century, after the Anglo-Saxon language had become more popular with the writers of books. In this collection, consisting of near sixty ■\'olumes, there were twenty-eight con- taining English works, mostly theology, hymns, homi- lies, and translations of scripture, but including King Alfred's translation of Boethius, and the great collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry which is still preserved and known by the name of the Exeter Book,t in a fly-leaf of which * t>is syndon Ba bee jpe ^Jiestanes wseran. de Natura Rerum. Persius. De Arte Metrica. Donatum minorem. Excerptiones de Metrica Arte. Apo- calipsin. Donatum majorem. Alchuinum. Glossani super Catonem. Libellum de Grammatica Arte quse incipit, Terra qua pars. SeduUum. and i. ge-rlm woes Alfwoldes preostes. Glossa super Donatum. Dlalogorum. — MS. Cotton. Domit. A. I. fol. 55, v". The last two articles seem, by the writing, to have been added to the librai'y after the list was first written. t The original ]MS. somewhat dilapidated, remains at Exeter. A care- /' Introd.'] FOREIGN books. 39 tlie catalogue is inserted. The Latin ivorks in this collec- tion were, in theology, the Pastorale and Dialogues of Gregory, the books of the Prophets, with various other separate portions of the Bible, a Martyrology, the Lives of the Apostles, various theological works of Bede and Isidore, and some anonymous treatises of the same kind ; in philosophy, there were Boethius de Consolatione, the Isagoge of Porphyry, Isidore's Etymologies ; in history, Orosius, a very popular book among the Anglo-Saxons ; the poets mentioned are the ordinary Christian writers then most in repute, Prosper, several volumes of Prudentius, Sedulius, and Arator, with Persius and Statins, The con- tents of these three libraries, those of a great scholastic establishment, of a private individual, and of a bishop, will give a very fair view of the class of foreign writers most generally read by our Saxon forefathers, and consequently those on which their literary taste was moulded. The numerous manuscripts of the Saxon period which are still preserved contain chiefly the same works, except that there we find many names of less celebrity which do not appear in these lists, and also a greater number of classical authors, such as Virgil, Horace, Terence, Juvenal, and some of the more common prose writers of antiquity. 7. There can, indeed, be no doubt, not only from the manuscripts of them which are still found written in a Saxon hand, but from the manner in which the Anglo- Saxon scholars quote them in their works, that they were in the habit of reading many of the best Latin authors. Bede quotes by name, in his tracts on grammar and metres, along with Arator, Fortunatus, Sedulius, Prosper, Paulinus, Juvencus, Prudentius, and Ambrose, the writ- ings of Virgil very frequently, as well as those of Ovid, fully executed fac-simile copy has been deposited in the British Museum, ) •where it is ranged among the Additional MSS. under the number 0067. i 40 FOREIGN BOOKS. [lid/vd. Lucan, whom lie terms " poeta veteranus," Lucretius, and Homer, and he speaks even of these two latter poets as if he were well acquainted with their works * In his tract de Orthographia, with Virgil and Ovid, he quotes * The way in which Bede speaks of these two writers scarcely leaves room for doubt that the Anglo-Saxon scholars read them in the original languages. In the printed edition of his treatise de Arte Metrica (Opera, torn. i. p. 42), he speaks of the character of " Lucretii Carmina," and in the same tract, on another occasion (p. 38), he quotes a line, when speaking of the quantity which Lucretius gives to the word aqua — Quae calidum faciunt aqua; tactum atque vaporem. This line is found in Lucret. de Rer. Nat. VI. 869, and does not seem to be quoted by any of the grammarians. Moreover, curiously enough, the word aquae itself is a mere gloss for laticis, and is found only in this quotation of Bede, and therefore seems to have been an error of the manuscript which that scholar used. It may be remarked, that many of Bede's observations, in the tract here quoted, are extremely judicious. With regard tu Homer, Bede quotes him for the quantity which he gene- rally gives to a short final syllable that falls at the beginning of a foot, and in a manner that seems to imply that he read the poet in Greek (de Arte Met. ib. p. 27). We might bring many passages together which seem almost to prove that Homer continued to be read in the schools till the end of the thirteenth century, when the older system of school learning was thrown out by Aristotle, and the new philosophy-course. In the curious fabliau (of the thirteenth century), published by M. Jubinal in his valuable edition of the works of Rutebeuf, entitled "The Battle of the Seven Arts," where the old and new system are drawn up in combat against each other, we have the following enumeration of the principal books read in the ancient grammar- course, which are identical with those read by the Anglo-Saxons as above stated, with this exception, that the classical writers are here rather more numerous in proportion to the others. Aristotle meets Grammar in the thick of the battle — Aristote, qui fu il pi^. Si fist cheoir Gramaire enverse. Lors i a point mesire Perse, Dant Juvenal et dant Orasce, Virgile, Lucain, et Etasce, Et Si^dule, Propre, Prudence, Arator, Omer, et Terence : Tuit chaplferent sor Aristote, Qui fu fers com chastel sor mote. (Juiiml's Buteieuf, ii, 426 J Aristotle, who was on foot. Knocked Grammar down flat. Then there rode up master Persius, Dan Juvenal and Dan Horace, Virgil, Lucan, and Statius, And Sedulius, Prosper, Prudentius, Arator, Homer, and Terence : They all fell upon Aristotle, Who was as bold as a castle on a hill. Inirod.] foreign books. 41 Horace, Terence, Laberius, Varro, Cornelius Severus, Macer, Pacuvius, and Lucilias, but he may have taken some of these only at second hand. Aldhelm, in his prose introduction to the ^nigmata, quotes Virgil, Juvenal, whom he calls lyricus, Persius, and Lucan, with Prosper and Arator. Alcuin also, in his grammatical and rhetorical tracts, brings frequent examples from Virgil, Horace, Terence, Juvenal, and Lucan. 8. The authors here enumerated, studied in a right spirit, were quite sufficient to have given the Anglo-Saxon scholars a correct and pure taste in Latin poetry. But unfortunately they imbibed prejudices even at the foun- tain head. At Rome, the classical writers had long ceased to be popular; for the zeal which often led the Christians, in their estimation of the sentiment, into an injudicious depreciation of the language when adorned only by its own beauties, had akeady condemned them to that neglect under which many of them were perishing. Those which are preserved we owe, in a great measure, to the gramma- rians who flourished in the latter days of the empire, such as Priscian and Donatus, who, by their continual quota- tions, gave some of them a certain value in the eyes of men who made those grammarians an important part of their studies. It is almost solely in grammatical treatises, that we find these authors quoted during the age which produced the principal Latin writers among the Anglo- Saxons, although most of the Anglo-Latin poets were con- tinually endeavouring to imitate them. Aldhelm, it is true, quotes Virgil more than once in his prose treatise de Laude Virginitatis, and Alcuin quotes him sometimes in his letters, though he speaks of him in a very disparaging tone. We are told by an anonymous, but ancient, writer of his life, that Alcuin, " having in his youth read the books of the ancient philosophers and the lies of Virgil," as he ad- 42 DEPRECIATION OF OLD WRITERS. [Inirod. vanced in years, came to a more sober judgment, and would neither hear them himself, nor permit his scholars to read them; — "The sacred poets," said he, "are enough for you ; ye have no need to pollute yourselves with the luxurious eloquence of Virgil's language."* — and he severely scolded one of his scholars, named Sigulf, because he had been discovered reading that poet in private. The story cannot be true in detail, because Alcuin quotes Virgil by name in his later letters ; but it shows us clearly, that, in the latter part of the eighth century, and in the ninth, when this life was probably written, the reading of the classic poets was not gene- rally countenanced, although they were still believed to possess beauties which might fascinate the mind, and there were persons who still persisted in seeking them out. This, indeed, continued to be the case throughout the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period, because they were always read in conjunction with the grammarians in the schools. At a later date than the age of which we have been speaking, the historian of the Monastery of Ely declaims against " the fables of the Gentiles," which, " painted and dressed in rhetorical figures," were then read in the schools, and declares that he was moved with the emulation of writing the acts and sayings of the saints for the honour and glory of Christ, in order to supply their place.f * Legerat isdem vir Domini libros juvenis antiquorum Philosophorum, Virgiliique meadacia, quEC nolebat jam ipse nee audire, neque discipulos suos legere, " sufficiunt," inquiens, " divini poetos vobis, nee egctis luxu- riosa sermonis Virgilii vos poUui facuudiii." — Vita Alcuini, in the first vol, of his works, p. kvi. f Cumque gentilium figmenta, sive deliramenta, cum omni studio videa- mus composita, coloribus rhetoricis ornata et quasi quodammodo depicta, categoricis syllogismis et argumentationibus circumfulta et corroborata, in gymnasiis et scholis publics celebrataet cumlaude recitata, diguum duximus ut sanctorum dicta et facta describantur, et descripta ad laudem et bonorem Introd.] ANGLO-LATIN WRITERS. 43 9. The Anglo-Saxon scholars naturally took chiefly for their models in poetry the works of the Christian poets which recur so often in their manuscripts, and it might well be expected that the imitators of writers who were already far removed from classic eloquence and purity of style, would themselves sink still lower in the scale. Several circumstances joined their influence in vitiating the style of the Anglo-Saxon writers. The narrow partiality of Theodore, Adrian, and their scholars, for the study of Greek,* had given a wrong turn to their literary taste ; and this appears in the multitude of Greek words and expressions which they grafted upon the Latin language, so as to render their writings sometimes quite unin- telligible. The imitations of the classical writers which appear in their poetry, are, as is too often the case in later times, little better than the stringing together of so many old phrases, or the use of a certain word, not because it is itself appropriate, but because some one of the old poets had used it in a similar position. They at the same time fell into an error committed more or less by imitators in every age ; they chose, in preference to all others, those expressions, or words, or uses of words, which ought not to be imitated, being exceptions to Christi referantur, etc. Historia Eliensis, in Gale's Scriptores, p. 463. This history was written at an early date. Does the writer allude to the Saxon schools in the neighbouring town of Cambridge ? * The partiality for the study of Greek is exhibited in the following curious enumeration of characteristics of different nations, preserved in an Anglo- Saxon manuscript of the ninth century (Calig. A. xv ; fol. 123, v".) — Sapi- entia Grsecorum, invidia Judseorum, superbia Romanorum, largitas Longo- bardorum, sobrietas Gothorum, elevalio Francorum, gula Gallorum, ira Brittonum, stultitia Saxonum, libido Scottorum, crudelitas Pictorum. — It is very desirable that such lists as this, written at different periods and among different people, should be collected together — they would give us a curious view of the history of national character. A similar list, written in the thirteenth century, will be found in Pelijuice Antiiiuip, No, 1, p. 5, (Pickering, 1839.) 44 THE ANGLO-LATIN POETS. [Introd. rules, and which we consider allowable in the pure Latin writers, simply because we believe that when they wrote, they would not have taken liberties which were not allowable; and these expressions, because they were strange and uncommon, they repeated over and over again with lavish profusion. The character of their native poetry led them also to affect a style, both in verse and prose, which in their Latin is often intolerably pompous and inflated. To all these sins we must add another: the early Anglo-Latin poets delighted in nothing more than ingenious conceits, enigmatical expressions, puns, and alliteration. Thus Alcuin, to quote one example among a thousand, although he certainly knew perfectly well the meaning of the name of his countrymen, yet in his metri- cal history of the See of York, when describing their condition before the introduction of Christianity, he cannot let slip the opportunity of telling us that they then deserved their name of Saxons, because they were as hard as stones — Duritiam propter dicti cognotoine Saxi. Aldhelm, in addition to his love of Greek words, fills his poems with alliterative lines Hke the following — jPallida ^urpui-eo ^ingis qui flore Tireta. and again — "a" Et ^otiora cupit, quam pulset ^ectine chordas Queis psalmista yius ^sallebat cantibus olim. Alcuin, in the following initial lines of a short poem, gives us an extraordinary specimen of cutting up and dividing words, which was also not uncommonly prac- tised by the continental Latin poets, from his time to the beginning of the tenth century — En tuus Albinus, ssevis ereptus ab undis, Venerat altitbrono nunc miserante Deo. Introd.'] aldhelm's poetry, 45 Te cupiens appel- peregrinus -lore camoenis, OCori[d]on! Cori[d]onl dulcis amice satis.* 10. Alcuin and Alclhelm were the chief Anglo-Latin poets of this period. Aldhelm possessed all the defects above enumerated. He was a great imitator of the an- cients ; he was a celebrated Greek scholar, and he fiUed his writings with foreign words and clumsy compounds ; he was also a lover and composer of Anglo-Saxon verse, and he shows a deeply rooted taste for alliteration and pompous diction; and in addition to these defects we see in his writings generally a bad choice of words, with harsh sentences, and a great deficiency in true delicacy and harmony .t In a word, Aldhelm's writings, popular as they once were, exhibit a very general want of good taste. For an example of this, we need only cite one of the embelUshments of his metrical treatise de Laude Vir- ginum, where he tells the story of St. Scholastica, how, when she had failed by her arguments and persuasions in prevailing on her brother to embrace Christianity, she fell on her knees in prayer by his side; how a fearful storm immediately burst over the house, and how the * Alcuinus " Ad Discipulum," Poems, p. 235, in liia works. Abbo, in the beginning of the tenth century, inserts que in the middle of a com- pounded word, for the sake of metre, as ocquecidens and inquesulam, for occklensque and imulamque. f William of Malmsbury, himself a good scholar for his age, has left us a curious estimate of Aldhelm's character, in which he confesses the over- pompous style of the Anglo-Latin writers. " Denique Grseci involute, Ro- mani splendid^, Angli poinp^ice dictare solent. Id in omnibus antiquis chartis est animadvertere, quantum quibusdam verbis abtrusis et ex Grseco petitis delectentur. Moderatius tamen se agit Aldelmus, nee nisi perraro et necessario verba ponit exotica. AUegat Catholicos sensus sermo facundus, et violentissimas assertiones exornat color rhetoricus. Quern si perfecte legeris, et ex acumine Grsecum putabis, et ex nitore Romanum jurabis, et ex pompa Anglum intelliges." Vit. Aldelm. p. 339. If this writer alludes to the monastic charters given under the Saxon Kings, they are certainly written in the strangest "jargon" that it is possible to conceive, and Ald- helm is purity itself in comparison with them. Perhaps chartis only means books. 46 alcuin's poetry. [Introd. unbelieving brother was convinced by the miracle. A better poet would have dwelt upon the terrors of the storm — on its effect upon the house which held Scholastica and her brother — and on the qualms which the roaring of the thunder and the flashing of the forked lightnings struck into Ms breast. But Aldhelm loses sight of his immediate subject in his eagerness to describe a real storm ; it is true he tells us there was wind, and thunder, and lightning, and that they affected both heaven and earth, but he finds out that there was rain also, and that the earth was moistened, and he goes out of his way to calculate its effects in swelling the rivers and flooding the distant vallies, all which circumstances have nothing to do with the virgin saint or her unbelieving kinsman. Aldhelm certainly describes a storm, but it is not a storm made for the occasion. The lines, taken by them- selves, are comparatively a favourable specimen of the poet's talents — Mox igitur coelum nimboso turbine totum Et convexa poli nigrescunt aetbere furvo ; Muvmura vasta sonant flammis commista covuscis, Et tremuit tellus niagno fremebunda fragore ; Humida rorifluis humectant vellera guttis, Irrigat et terram tenebrosis imbribus aer, Complentur valles, et largafluenta redundant. 11. Alcuin has, on the whole, more simplicity and less pretension in his poetry than his predecessor Aldhelm, and so far he is more pleasing ; but, unfortunately, where the latter was turgid and bombastic, the former too often runs into the opposite extreme of being flat and spiritless. His style is seen to best advantage in his calm details of natural scenery. The description of the city of York, at this early period one of the most frequented commercial towns in England, is a fair specimen of the beauties of this poet : it possesses a certain degree of elegance and cor- Introd.] ANGLO-LATIN PROSE. 4f rectness, for which we may look in vain among the writ- ings of Aldhelm. Hanc piscosa suis undis interluit Usa, Floi'igeros ripis preetendens undique campos : Collibus et silvis tellus hinc inde decora, Nobilibnsque locis habitatio pulclira, salubris, Fertilitate sui multos habitura colonos. Quo variis populis et reguis undique lecti, Spe lucri veniunt, quserentes divite terra Divitias, sedem sibimet, lucrumque, laremque. Be Pontif. etc. Eborac. v. 30. Alcuin wrote much poetry, on various subjects, lives, his- tories, elegies, and epigrams. Perhaps the most favour- able specimen of his muse is the elegy on the destruction of the monastery of Lindisfarne by the Danes, some parts of which are very simple and pleasing. His history of the See of York also contains some good passages. 12. The Latin poets among the Anglo-Saxons were not very numerous. During the eighth centuiy, their best period, and the earlier part of the ninth, we find, besides the two above mentioned, Bede (the universal scholar) and Boniface, and a few others, such as Tahtwin, Cuth- bert of Hereford, Acca of Hexham, and Athelwolf of Lin- disfarne. In the tenth century, Fridegode wrote, in verse, the Life of Wilfred, and the Monk Wolstan that of Swithin. Henceforward the history of Anglo-Latin poetry presents almost a blank, until the formation of a school of Latin poets in the twelfth centmy, some of whom ap- proached the purity of the Augustan age. 13. The Latin prose writers of the classic ages were very little read by the Anglo-Saxons, because they had not the same powerful allies in the grammarians to keep them in countenance. This circumstance explains what has frequently been observed by the continental writers, that the Christians from the fourth or fifth century down to the tenth and eleventh, wrote much purer Latin 48 EPISTLES OF BONIFACE AND ALCUIN. [Intvod. in their poetry, with all their faults, than in their prose compositions. The great luminaries of the Anglo-Saxon church employed their pens chiefly on theology, and science as far as it was then studied ; and their writings, not attractive by their language, offer little interest to the general reader. The theological writings of Bede, Boni- face, and Alcuin, which consist chiefly of commentaries on the Scriptures, and of controversial tracts on questions then agitated, exhibit immense power of mind, disciplined by the most profound study, and characterized by much independence of thought. Aldhelm sacrifices too much to rhetorical ornament, and is the least readable of them all. We have, however, two classes of Anglo-Latin prose liter- ature during the Saxon period, which make amends for the apparent deficiency in some of the others. 14. Boniface and Alcuin have left us a large body of familiar letters, which, from the many early transcripts of them that remain, seem to have been the delight of our forefathers during the ninth century, and which deserve to be better known than they are, even at the present day. In these letters, although the same subject of paramount im- portance which gave rise to the severer writings casts a shade of character over the whole, yet at times the theo- logian and scholar throws off the dulness of scholastic erudition, shows himself the attentive correspondent, and the afi'ectionate friend, and amid graver business indulges in playful compHments and sallies of wit. Occasionally the present sent by a friend from a distant land will produce a joke or an epigram ; at one time the follies of contempo- raries will draw a smile, or even a tear ; while, at another, the intelhgence of the loss of a friend or the devastation by barbarous enemies of some beloved spot, is received with the pathetic elegance of heart-felt sorrow. The cor- respondence of Alcuin is peculiarly lively, and his letters Tntrod.] correspondence of boniface, etc. 4.9 are interesting to us in more points of view than one. In them, the fearful struggles in Italy and the south of France, between the iron-armed warriors of the west and the Sara- cens who had conquered Africa and Spain, and the expe- ditions of Charlemagne to curb the Saxons and other tribes who paid but an uncertain obedience to his sway, events on which we are accustomed to look through the misty atmosphere of romance, till they seem little better than fables, are told as the news of yesterday ; and the warrior whom we are in the habit of picturing to our minds, sheathed in iron and stern in look, employed only in bruising the heads of his enemies, or oppressing his friends, not less than the hoary-headed priest whom we imagine in flowing robes, with calm and reverend mien, preaching salvation to herds of wild men but just emerging from the ignorance of pagan superstition, stands himself before us suddenly transformed into the man of taste and the elegant scholar. It is thus that, when we abstract ourselves en- tirely from the outward consideration of dress and posi- tion, from the ever-varying attributes of age and countrj^, these letters teach us the instructive lesson that the mind, when cultivated, is much the same in all ages, that it is capable of the same feelings, the same tastes, and the same intelligence, and that these show themselves naturally under the same forms, — in a word, that the old saying of the poet — Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currant, is true when we apply it to the mind in general, and when we take into consideration diversityof time and person, as well as difference of place. 15. The Anglo-Saxons have left us but few regular his- tories. The Church History of Bede, the less important works of Asser and Athelweard, and two or three monastic chronicles, added to the well-known Anglo-Saxon Chroni- VOL. I. ^ 50 ANGLO-SAXON BIOGRAPHIES. [lutrod. cle, are nearly all we have. But the deficiency in this respect is amply compensated by an abundance of bio- graphy, a class of writing for which our Saxon forefathers seem to have had an especial partiality. Scarcely a scholar or a churchman of any consequence quitted the mortal stage, but instantly some one of his immediate friends, or of his attendants through life, consigned his history to writing, and told his reminiscences, and not unfrequently repeated much that he had heard from the mouth of him whose biography he had undertaken. These lives are peculiarly interesting ; like Bede's history, they frequently exhibit the credulity of their authors ; but the luminaries of the Anglo-Saxon church did not live immured in clois- ters ; they were stirring men in the world, the counsellors of princes, not only attending them in the cabinet, but sometimes at their side even in the field ; and their memoirs are full of contemporary anecdotes of political history as well as of private manners. By these means, in the case of some of the Anglo-Saxon scholars, we have as good mate- rials for their lives, as for that of many a literary character of the last century. 16. It is hardly necessary to ?ay that these lives are more remarkable for their matter than for their language. In the earlier ages the disciples of the great scholars seem to have written much worse Latin than their masters ; thus nothing can be more harsh than the style of Eddius, in his Hfe of Wilfred, written at the begining of the eighth century. With the ninth century the Latin school began to decHne rapidly, and we have few writers of talent at a later period. King Alfred complained that in the time of his youth, soon after the middle of this century, there were no " masters " to teach him, that is, there were no successors to Bede, and Archbishop Egbert, and Alcuin. That the ninth century was iUiterate must be altogether a mistaken no- Introd.] AGE OF glosses. 51 tion, for in it was written the largest portion of the Anglo- Saxon manuscripts which are now left, of the older and con- temporary Latin writers. But the vernacular literature, which had formerly been known only as one that was sung and preserved in the memory, and perhaps seldom written, seems to have been now gaining ground, and to have been making hasty advances towards establishing as strong a claim to the title of " book-learning," as the Latin literature to which that term had been previously given. Such, in fact, was the position which it had gained in the tenth cen- tury, when therefore we may suppose that literature had become much more generally diiFused. The earlier part of the ninth century may be aptly called the Affe of Glosses. It is apparently in manuscripts of that period that we find the greatest number of interlinear translations of the words of the Latin writers into Anglo-Saxon, a sure sign of the decay of Latin scholarship. The book which is most frequently glossed in this manner, is Aldhelm's prose treatise de Laude Virginitatis, which, being full of Grsecisms, and having been written principally for the edification of the ladies, whom we cannot suppose to have been as well skilled in Greek as in Latin, we find accom- panied by glosses, sometimes in Latin and sometimes in Anglo-Saxon. The other books which are found most frequently glossed are the Gospels and the Psalms, with the poems of Prudentius, Prosper, and Sedulius.* The Age of Glosses naturally led, in the latter part of the * Of five MSS. of Aldhelm, in the King's Library in the British Museum , two are attributed, with apparent reason, to the eighth century, and neither of these are glossed in Anglo-Saxon, though one of them is most copiously glossed in Latin. Two are written in a hand not more modern than the middle of the ninth century, and are glossed here and there in Anglo- Saxon. The fifth is of the latter part of the ninth century, or, perhaps, of the beginning of the tenth, and is very full of glosses in Anglo-Saxon. The poets are generally glossed in the earlier part of the ninth century ; the ; Gospel sometimes at a much earlier period; and the Psalms are found ! —'■ B?. 52 KING ALFRED. [Illtrod. ninth century, to the Age of translations, which opened under the reign of the immortal Alfred. § IV. Tlie Anglo-Saxon Prose Writings. 1. Our chief authority for the private character of King Alfred is the historian Asser, his contemporary and friend, a monk of Bangor, in Wales. Asser's testimony is, as might be expected, extremely valuable and interesting; but he indulges too much in trifles, often expressing great astonishment at things which were by no means extraor- dinary, and making discoveries of what was not new; and he frequently judges of the monarch of the West Saxons as though he were speaking of one of his fellow monks. In those days, the first quality of a King was not necessarily the being able to read and write. Alfred appears, from his infancy, to have received a princely education. He was carefully instructed in, and habituated to, hunting and other royal exercises, and from an early age he was made to commit to memory the national poetry, to which he was never tired of listening. It was his love for this class of literature, and the temptation of a handsomely written manuscript offered to him by his mother, that encouraged the royal child to overcome the difficulty of learning to read.* This he did not attempt until his twelfth year ; and Asser, probably with little justice, attributes this siipposed tardiness to his parents' negligence.t glossed as late as the begining of the eleventh, and even in the twelfth cen- tury, as in the instance of a superb manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, R. 17, 1. *" Sed Saxdnica poemata die noctuque solers auditor relatu aliorum siepis- sime audiens docibilis raemoriter retinebat, in omnivenatoria arte industrins venator, incessabiliter laborat non in vanum. . . . Cum ergo cpiodam die mater sua sibi cL fratribus quendam Saxonicum poematicte artis libruni quern in manuhabebat ostenderet, etc. Asser, Vila JElfr. ed. M. Parier, p.~. t Sed, proh dolor! indigna suornm pareutum et nutiitoium incuria usque adxii. setatis annum aut eo amplius illiteratus remansit. /(?. il>. Introd.'] NEGLECT OF THE LATIN TONGUE. 53 2, In Alfred's time the study of the Latin language had fallen so much into neglect, that even the priests could scarcely translate the church service, which they were in the constant habit of reading. The king himself regretted that he had not learnt Latin until a late period of life ; but his sorrow was greater for the general ignorance of his countrymen than for his own backwardness. He then, as he teUs us in his preface to the Pastorale, looked back with regret to the flourishing state of learning in England at an earlier period, " and how they came hither from abroad to seek wisdom and doctrine in this land, whereas we must now get it from without, if we will have it at all.^'* He tells us that when he ascended the throne there were few persons south of the Humber who covld translate from Latin into English, and he did not believe that they were much better provided on the other side of that river. " I also called to mind," says the royal writer, " how I saw, before it was all spoiled and burnt, that the churches throiighout the whole Enghsh nation stood filled with treasures and with books, and also with a great multitude of God's ser- vants, yet they reaped very little of the fruit of those books, because they could understand nothing of them, since they were not written in their own native tongue."t He then proceeds to express his wonder that the great scholars who had formerly lived in this island had not translated the Latin books into English ; but he attributes this to the little expectation which they could ever have * And hu man ut on borde wisdomt and lave hider on land solite, and hu we hi nu sceoldon ute begitan, gif we bi habban sceoldon. Alfred, Pt-cf. to Gregory's Pastorale, ed. M. Parker. f Jjage-raundeic eac huic ge-seah aer bam k hit eal for-heregod wa;re and for-bEerned, hujpa circan gcond eal Angel-cyn stodon ma«ma and boca gc- fylled, and eac micel majniu Codes )>eawa, and l^a swi'Se lytle feorme haia bocawiston, foitam Jie hi hira nan Hng on-gitan ne mihton, forj'am >e hi Dieron on hira agenge j^eodc a-writenei li> 54 Alfred's translations, [Inirod. harboured, that good scholarship would decline so much, that they should no longer be understood in the originals. 3. Alfred was ambitious of remedying both these evils, of supplying his country at the same time with scholars and with translations. With a view to the first of these objects he invited learned men from abroad, and among the rest Grimbald, whom he made abbot of Win- chester, and John of Corvei, whom he in like manner placed over the new monastery of Athelney. Among the scholars patronised by Alfred, we must also reckon the erudite but free-sjjoken John Scotus, famous for his knowledge of Greek, and for his severity and sourness of manners, by which, according to the story which was afterwards prevalent, he at last so provoked his scholars, that they fell upon him with their writing instruments and stabbed him to death. Alfred himself led the way in trans- lating the Latin books into Anglo-Saxon. Among the works which we owe to his pen, the most important are translations of the Pastorale of Gregory, destined more particularly for the use of his clergy, — of the treatise of Boethius de Consolatione Philosophic, one of the most popular Latin books in the middle ages, and which was often translated into almost every language of Europe, — and of the Ancient History of Orosius, and the English Church History of Bede. Other translations were made by his order, as that of the Dialogues of Gregory by Werfred bishop of Worcester;* and no doubt many others were eager to follow so illustrious an example. 4. We must not, however, let ourselves be led by the greatness of his exertions to estimate Alfred's own learn- ing at too high a rate. In " Grammar " his skill was never very profound, because he had not been instructed * W. Malmsb. p. 45. (Ed. 1601), Ingulph, p. 870, ib; Introd.] Alfred's learning. 55 in it in his youth; and the work of Boethius had to un- dergo a singular process before the royal translator com- menced his operations. Bishop Asser, one of Alfred's chosen friends, was employed to turn the original text of Boethius " into plainer words/' — " a necessary labour in those days," says William of Malmsbury, " although af present (in the 12th century) it seems somewhat ridicu- lous."* And in a similar manner, before he undertook the translation of the Pastorale, he had it explained to him — the task was perhaps executed sometimes by one, sometimes by another — by Archbishop Plegmund, by Bishop Asser, and by his "mass-priests" Grimbald and John.f But Alfred's mind was great and comprehensive ; and we need not examine his scholarship in detail in order to justify or to enhance his reputation. His translations are well written ; and whatever may have been the extent of his knowledge of the Latin language, they exhibit a general acquaintance with the subject superior to that of the age in which he lived. Whenever their author added to his original, in order to explain allusions which he thought would not be understood, he exhibits a just idea of ancient history and fable, differing widely from the dis- , torted popular notions which were prevalent then and at a subsequent period in the vernacular literature.! There is one apparent exception to this observation. In trans- * Libros Boethii .... planioribus verbis elucidavit illis diebos labore n^pessario, nostris ridiculo. Sed enim jussu regis factum est, ut levius ab eodem in Anglicum transferretur sermonem. — W. Malms.' f. 248. t Swa swa ic hi ge-leornode set Flegmunde minum sercebiscSpe, and set Assere minnm biscope, and set Grimbolde minum msesse-preoste, and xt Johanne minum msesse-preoste.— T-Pre/oce to the Pastorale. i It is observable throughout the middle ages, that what is stated cor- rectly and judiciously in the Latin writers appears most grossly incorrect and capriciously distorted whenever we meet with it in the vernacular 56 Alfred's learning. \Introd. lating the second metre of the fifth book of Boethius, be- ginning — Puro clarum lumine Phoebum Melliflui canit oris Homerus, — Alfred has added an explanation which shows that Virgil was then much better known than Homer. " Homer," says he, " the good poet, who was best among the Greeks : he was Virgil's teacher : this Virgil was best among the Latins."* Alfred probably means no more than that Virgil imitated Homer : but in the metrical version of the metres of Boethius, also attributed to Alfred, the matter is placed quite in another Ught, and Homer not only be- comes Virgil's teacher, but his friend also. Omerus waes Homer was east mid Crecum in the east among the Greeks on )>8em leod'Scipe in that nation leo)>a crseftgast, the most skilful of poets, Firgilies Virgil's freond and lareow, friend and teacher, J>8em mseran sceope to that great bard magistra betst. the best of masters. {Metres of Boeth. ed. Fox, p. 137.) We will, however, willingly relieve the Anglo-Saxon mon- arch from all responsibility for this error, which seems to have arisen from the misconstruction of Alfred's words by some other person who was the author of the prosaic writings of the same period, a proof of the slow passage of knowledge from one class of society to another. In the metrical French romance of Troy (12th century) which is founded on the pseudo Dares, we are told that Homer wrote mere fables which he knew were not true ; and, accordingly, when he recited his work to his citizens, most of them set their faces against it, and there arose two factions at Athens : but in the end the poet had most influence, and succeeding in obtaining the general sanction of his Tersion of the story, to the disadvantage of that of Dares. • 'Seah Omerus se goda sceop, J)e mid Crecum selest wses ; se wses Fir- gilies lareow, se Firgilius wses mid Lsedenwarum selest. — Mfred' a Boethius, ed. Cardale, p. 357. Introd.] LEARNED FOREIGNERS. 57 verses that have hitherto gone under his name. Several reasons combine in making us believe that these were not written by Alfred : they are little more than a trans- position of the words of his own prose, with here and there a few additions and alterations in order to make alliteration : the compiler has shown his want of skill on many occasions ; he has, on the one hand, turned into metre both Alfred's preface (or at least imitated it), and his introductory chapter, which certainly had no claim to that honour ; whilst, on the other hand, he has over- looked entirely three of the metres, which appear to have escaped his eye as they lay buried among King Alfred's prose.* The only manuscript containing this metrical version which has yet been met with, appears, from the fragments of it preserved from the fire which endangered' the whole Cottonian Library, to have been written in the tenth century. 5. The policy of Alfred in calling into England foreign .scholars, was pursued, if not successively, at least from time to time, during the whole of the century which fol- lowed, and even till the time of the Norman conquest. Athelstan, in the early part of the tenth century, was a patron of learning as well as a great king, and not un- worthy to sit on Alfred's throne. In return, his fame was spread abroad, and handed down to his posterity by the scholars whom he had encouraged; and we learn from William of Mahnsbury and others, that his actions were the subject of more than one Latin poem. Of Dunstan, it has been said that he was second only to AKred himself in his endeavours to raise learning and science in Eng- land.f Oswald, made Archbishop of York in 971, who * The full discussion of this question is reserred for another occasion. f Ipse artium liberalium in tota insula post regem Alfredum excitator mirificus. — W. Malms, p. 56. 58 DECLINE OF LEARNING. [Introd. had himself been educated at Fleury in France, followed closely in the steps of Dunstan, and it is noted of him in the old chronicles " that he invited over into this country lite- rary men."* Among othersjhe brought Abbo of Fleury, who introduced into England " muchfruit of science," and whose efforts were more particularly directed to the regeneration of the schools ; for at that time (the latter part of the tenth century) we are told that learning {i. e. the study of Latin literature) had again fallen into universal decay .f In the eleventh century, under Edward the Confessor, when Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, founded a school at Waltham, we find him also seeking a foreign scholar to direct it. J But the frequent mention in the early historians of such incidents, is a proof that not even the power and wisdom of Alfred could restore a state of things which had, in the natural order of events, passed away, and which had been founded on feelings that no longer existed. Foreign learning was now no novelty to the Anglo-Saxons, and the excitement which alone had pushed into being the profound scholars of the age of Bede and Alcuin, ran in other channels. Alfred's own example aided in spreading the already prevalent taste for Anglo-Saxon writings, which must also have been increased by the tendency of his schools in which the English language and the national poetry are said to have held an equal place with the study of the learned languages. 6. From the numerous manuscripts which stiU remain, * Advocavit iu patriam literatos homines. — PolycAron. p. 267- t Ad scholas regendas .... quoniam omnis fere literaturse studium et scholarum iisus per Angliam in dessuetudinem venerat et soporem. — His- toria Ramesiemis, in Gale, p. 400. Unus fuit Abbo Floriacensis monacbus, qui mtiltam soientm frugem Angliae invexit. — Mdlma. de Pontif. p. 270. X Vita Haroldi, in the Chroniques Anglo-Normandes, p. 161. See the same work, p. 157. Introd.} VERNACULAR WRITERS. 59 and from the known causes of destruction, we have every reason to believe that there did once exist a very large body of Anglo-Saxon vernacular writings. But the name of one man only, after the days of Alfred, who wrote much in his native tongue, has come down to us with any degree of cer- tainty ; and that was the grammarian Alfric. In historians of the twelfth century, we find some indications of Anglo- Saxon writings of a much earlier date, chiefly translations from Scripture, but they rest on somewhat doubtful author- ity, as before that time it had become fashionable to put great names to spurious books. Aldhelm translated the Book of Psalms ; and Bede is said to have made an Anglo- Saxon version of the Gospel of St. John,* To the latter scholar, indeed, the following curious semi-Saxon verses, \ recovered with some other fragments from imminent de- struction by the antiquarian zeal of Sir Thomas Phillipps,t seem to ascribe other Anglo-Saxon writings. Sanctus Beda was i-boren Saiat Bede was born her on Breotone mid us, here in Britain with us, and he wisliche and he wisely .... a-wende, .... translated, ■Saet i>eo Englisc leoden that the English people Jjurh weren i-lerde, were thereby instructed, and he )jeo ci. . . . ten un-wreih, and he the .... solved, be [we] questiuns hoteJ>, that we caU questions, )ja derne digelnesse the secret obscurity * W. Malmsb. p. 23, (ed. 1601). f " Fragment of JElfric's Grammar, iElfric's Glossary, and a poem on the Soul and Body, in the orthography of the 12th century : discovered among the Archives of Worcester Cathedral, by Sir T. PhUlipps, Bart. Edited by Sir T. P. London, 1838," folio.''- These fragments of a valuable MS. of the twelfth century, were found in the cover of a book, for the strengthening of which they had been used. Many words and parts of words have been lost by the mutilation of the edges of the leaves, which renders the fragment here given more obscure than it would otherwise be. It has been attempted to supply the deficiencies in some part by the addi- tions between parentheses. 60 VERNACULAR WRITERS. [Introd, .jif-ki t )ie de[ore-]wiirlhe is. -lElfric abbod, he we Alguin hotejj, he was bocare, and be. . . . bee wende, Genesis, Exodos, : iUtronomius, Namerus, Leveticus. )>\ [urli] J>eos weren i-laerde ure leoden on Englisc ; )'ct weren )>eos biscop[es] [be] bodeden Cristendom : ■Wilfred of Ripum, Johan of Beoferlai, Cut'b[ert] of Dunholme, Oswald of Wireceastre, Egwin of Heoveshame, /jEld[lxelin] of Malmesburi, .Swibbun, .'Ebelwold, [and] Aidan, Biern of Wincsestre, [Cwiche]lm of Rofecsestre, Sanctus Dunston, ,and S. jElfeih of Cantoreburi : beos Ise [reden] . . ure leodan on Englisc : Nses deoro heore Uht, ae hit fseire glod. ' N [u is] beo leore for-leten, and bet folc is for-loren, • nu beob obre leoden ;beo l£e[ren] ure fole, I and feole of ben lor-beines 'losijeb, and ISset folc forb mid. which is very precious. Alfric the a1)bot, whom we call Alquin, he was a scholar, and translated the .... books, Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus. Through these were taught our people in English ; they were these bishops, who preached Christendom : Wilfrid of Ripon, John of Beverley, Cuthbert of Durham, Oswald of Worcester, Egwin of Evesham, Aldhelm of Malmsbury, Swithin, Athelwold, and Aidan, Birin of Winchester, Quichelm of Rochester, Saint Dunstan, and St. Elfege of Canterbury : these taught our people in English : their light was not dark, but it burnt beautifully. Now the doctrine is forsaken , and the people ruined, now it is another people who teach our folk, and many of the teachers [them. perish, and the people along with From the repetition of the assertion that they taught in English, we might be led to suppose that the author of these verses, while lamenting over the fate of the literature of his country, then trampled under foot by the Normans, believed that all the bishops here mentioned had written in Anglo-Saxon. Yet many of them lived in the first age after the estal;lishnient of Christianity in England, and we Introd.'] ALFRic's homiltes. G1 have no other reason whatever for placing them in our list of Anglo-Saxon authors. 7. After the name of Alfred, that of Alfric stands first among the Anglo-Saxon vei'nacular writers, both for the number and the importance of his works. The Heptateuch, which is evidently alluded to in the foregoing verses, is still preserved; and in the introduction which precedes the Book of Genesis, the writer offers some very judicious observa-; tions on the general character of Anglo-Saxon translations from Latin writers. We there also learn that, in the latter part of the tenth century, the Latin language was as gene- ' rally neglected, even by the clergy, as it had been in the days , of King Alfred.* To extend the knowledge of this language was one of the objects of Alfric's exertions, and he wrote a grammar, a glossary, and several other books of a simi- lar kind. But his fame rests chiefly on another class of writings — his Homilies — to which, primarily, we owe the attention that has in modern times been shown to the literature of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. 8. When the Anglo-Saxons embraced the Christian religion, they naturally received along with it some errors which had already gained ground at Rome. The reverence with which a people newly emerged from paganism, and actuated by a zeal like that which was shown by the early Anglo-Saxon converts, must have looked upon their first instructors, is a sufficient excuse even for the deep theolo- gians of those first ages, if they did not sift very carefully the doctrines which had been delivered to them. But, at the same time, the Anglo-Saxons were far removed from * Thorpe's Analecta, p. 25. Alfric adds,—" H ungel^'redan preostas, gif lii hwffit lites understiinda'S of J>am Lyden b6cum, tonne Jjinc'S him sona JjEet lii magon mte're lareowas heun."—Theunlearned priests, if ilmj under- stand a Utile of the Latin, lioo/cs, then they soon conceive the idea that they may be great scholars. 62 ALFBic's HOMILIES. [Introd. that slavish dependence on Rome which the Catholic system at a later period enjoined. They acted and judged with freedom and independence, and they disputed or con- demned unhesitatingly the errors which the Romish church afterwards continued to introduce. In the numerous Anglo-Saxon homilies written, and in part translated, by (Alfric, almost every vital doctrine which distinguishes the ' Romish from the Protestant church, meets with a direct contradiction. After the Anglo-Norman conquest had 1 established in England the Papal power, many copies of these homilies were preserved, because, the language be- dng not very generally understood by the new comers, ithey were suffered to lie mouldering and neglected on the shelves of the monastic libraries, though we still find some manuscripts in which the most obnoxious passages have been mutilated. But in the heat of religious controversy at the period of the Reformation in England, one of Alfric's writings was brought forward, which condemned entirely the doctrine of transubstantiation as a growing error, and this unexpected and powerful ally was embraced exultingly by the Protestant champions. " What now is become of your boasted argument of apostolical tradition?" they said to their opponents — " see here that the novelties with which you charge us are older than the doctrines which you oppose to them." The result was, that men like Matthew Parker began to make diligent researches in old libraries for Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of every descrip- tion. 9. Every branch of literature and science felt more or less the effects of the prevailing taste for Anglo-Saxon, instead of Latin, writings. At the time when Alfred was making his subjects acquainted, by means of his own translations, with the ancient history of Rome and the early ecclesiastical history of their country, the first foun- Introd.] THE CHRONICLE AND LAWS, 63 dation was also laid of the famous Anglo-Saxon chronicle. Down to the year 98 1 , this chronicle is supposed to have been compiled and written by Plegmund archbi>shop of Canterbury, one of Alfred's learned men. From that period the narrative of contemporary events was continued from time to time in the Anglo-Saxon tongue by different/ writers, until the entire breaking up of the language inf| the middle of the twelfth century. Equal in importance to the chronicle, and similarly written in the Anglo-Saxon language, are the laws, with which again the great name of Alfred is intimately connected. It was he who first arranged and reduced into better order the various imperfect collections of legislative regulations, which had been pub- lished and acted upon by the different kings who had lived before him. The king gives the following simple and natu- ral description of the work which he had thus performed. " Thus then," says he, " I, Alfred the king, gathered to- gether and caused to be written down as many of those laws which our forefathers held as pleased me, and as many as did not please me I threw away, with the advice of my witan (the representatives of the nation), and ordered them to be held differently. For I dared not ven- ture to set many of my own in writing, because it was not clear to me how much of them might please those who come after us. But of such as I found either in the time of Ine my kinsman, or of Offa king of Mercia, or of Athel- berht who first among the English people received baptism, those which seemed to me most just I collected them here, and the others I omitted. I, Alfred king of the West- Saxons, showed these to all my witan, and they then said that it pleased them all well to hold them."* The Saxon laws were revised, enlarged, and pubHshed anew in the * Schmid, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p. 40. G4 ANGLO-SAXON SCIENCE. [Introd. Anglo-Saxon language, by many of Alfred's successors, and particularly by Athelstan, Atbelred, and Cnut.* § V. Anglo-Saxon Science — the Schools, and Forms of Education. 1. From the time when Sigebert, before the year 6.35, established a school in his kingdom of East-Anglia, in imitation of those which he had seen on the Continent, at least till the latter part of the tenth century, although knowledge had become more generally diffused, the An- glo-Saxons had made no advance in science itself. This was a natural consequence of the system which they pur- sued. The reverence with which the converts in the ear- lier ages had learned to regard everything that came from Rome, gradually degenerated into implicit confidence in the books of science which were imported from thence, until it became almost an article of faith to decide all diffi- cult questions by their authority. Education was thus less a discipline of the mind, (which, with all its defects, it certainly was at a later period when western Europe had felt the influence of the Arabian school) than a mere adop- tion of just so much science, right or wrong, as had been handed down from previous ages. Even when men like Bede wrote elementarjr treatises, they were but compilers from the foreign writers, enlarging perhaps here and there on themes which had been treated too briefly ; and where they thought they saw anything which was inconsistent * The best edition of the Anglo-Saxon laws yet published is that by Schraid, with a German translation, 8vo. Leipzig, 1832 (vol. I. only). A more perfect edition was, however, entrusted by the Record Commission to the care of Mr. Thorpe, and will shortly be finished. The last edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that by Dr. Ingram, with an English transla- tion. A few only of the Homilies have yet been published, and a complete edition is ranch to be desired. They have been used to great advantage in the invaluable Bampton Lectures by Mr, Soames. Introd.] STATE op science. 65 with their own observations, it was with a diffidence^ sometimes approaching to fear, that they ventured to make the remark. In times nearly approaching to that of the Norman conquest, the popular treatises on science were still nothing more than compilations from Bede, and the greatest philosophers of the day seldom presumed to do more than write commentaries on his works. One of the immediate consequences of this blind submission to autho- rity, was the production of many spurious books, some of them bearing the names of the great philosophers of antiquity, whilst others, not quite so presumptuous, were published under such names as Bede and Alcuin. These spurious writings naturally tended to add to the confused notions of the Anglo-Saxons on matters of science. 2. In the tenth century the Christians began to seek instruction in the schools of the Saracens in Spain, and particularly at Toledo ; and the scientific movement which had already commenced on the Continent was felt in some measure in England, in conjunction chiefly with the mo- nastic reforms introduced by Dunstan and Athelwold. But the popular feeling was strongly opposed to it, and the ill fame attached to science when it was brought from the country of the infidels, where it was sup- posed to be obtained immediately from the arch-fiend, agreed but too closely with the suspicions which attached themselves to the ascetic life of the studious monks, and to the glimpses of strange operations with which from time to time they indulged the world. For several centuries, Toledo was celebrated chiefly as the school of what were characteristically termed the occult sciences ; and to have studied there was synonymous with being a profound magician. The readers of the old chronicles will readily call to mind the fearf\d story of Pope Gerberfc, more historically known as Silvester the Second. He was VOL. I, F 66 POPE GERBERT. [Ilttrod. born in France towards the middle of the tenth century, and became a monk either at Fleury or at Rheims at an early period of his life. The love of science soon be- came his ruling passion, and he repaired to Toledo in order to obtain its full gratification. There he learnt the use of the astrolabe, and gained a profound know- ledge not only of astronomy, but of arithmetic, music, geometry, and almost every other branch of science ; and he is said to have been the first who brought from thence the knowledge of the abacus, that is, he intro- duced into France the use of those seemingly arbitrary characters which, afterwards modified into our modern numerical figures, have exercised so important an influ- ence on mathematical knowledge.* Gerbert is also re- ported to have learnt there " what the singing and flying of birds portended," and to have acquired the power of calling up spirits from the other world. At Toledo he lived in the house of a famous Saracen philosopher, who had a fair daughter, and a most powerful and magical book, with which, although it was the object of his pupil's ardent desires, he could not be prevailed upon to part either for money or love. Gerbert, as the story goes, finding that it was useless to apply for the book, now made love to the lady, and thus discovered that the philosopher was in the habit of concealing it under his pillow while he slept. In an hour of conviviality he made his instructor drunk, and carried off the book in triumph. When however the philosopher awoke, he discovered, by his knowledge of the stars, which way * Abacum certe primus a Saraoenis rapiens, regulas dedit quae a sudan- tibus abacistis vix intelliguntur. Wm. of Malmsb. from whom the story is taken. The characters of the abacus are found in manuscripts of the twelfth century, bearing a strong resemblance to the modern numerals as they are written in manuscripts of the thirteenth century. The book on the aiacus is supposed to have been the magical book (grimoire) of the story. Introd.] ETHELWOLD AND DUNSTA>f. 67 his scholar had fled, and pursued him closely; but the latter baffled his researches by suspending himself under the arch of a bridge in such a manner as neither to be on the earth nor in the water, and while the Saracen returned home disappointed, he pursued his way till he came to the sea shore. Here he opened his book, and summoned the evil one, by whose agency he was conveyed safely over the water, but, according to a report which was current among his contemporaries, they first made an agreement by which, although the philosopher seemed to be a gainer for the time, yet in the end the advantage was to remain with the tempter. Gerbert afterwards taught publicly in the schools in France, and his lectures were so well fre- quented, and his fame for learning so great, that he was made archbishop first of Rheims and next of Ravenna, and finally was elected to the papal chair. His enemies failed not to represent this constant run of prosperity as the result of his compact with the devil : at Rome, as was reported, he occupied his time in seeking, by means of the " art magicall,^' the treasures which had been con- cealed by the pagans in ancient times — perhaps he was an antiquary, and collected Roman monuments ; and in after ages a note appeared in some lists of popes setting forth that pope Sylvester died a bad death, though in what manner is not quite clear. 3. Among the many scholars who had profited by Ger- bert's teaching, was, as it is said, Ethelwold of Winchester, the friend of Dunstan, and his supporter in his monastic reforms. Dunstan himself fell under the same imputation of dealing with unlawful sciences as Gerbert, which perhaps arose as much from the jealousy of his enemies, as from his extraordinary studies.* Among various other reports, * Some of Dunstan's enemies accused him before the king, — dicenteseum ex libris salutaribus et jurisperitis non saluti auimse profutura, sed avitse 68 DUNSTAN. [Introd. there went abroad a story about an inchanted harp that he had made, which performed tunes without the agency of man, whilst it hung against the wall; — a thing by no means impossible. The prejudices against Dunstan at length rose so high, that some of his neighbours, seizing upon him one day by surprise, threw him into a pond ; probably for the purpose of trying whether he were a wizard or not, according to a receipt in such cases which is hardly yet eradicated from the minds of the peasantry. What was in part the nature of Dunstan's studies while at Glastonbury we may surmise from the story of a learned and ingenious monk of Malmsbury, named Ailmer, who not many years afterwards made wings to fly, an extraordinary ad- vance in the march of mechanical invention, if we reflect that little more than a century before Asser the historian thought the invention of lanterns a thing sufiiciently wonderful to confer an honour upon his patron King Alfred. But Ailmer, in the present instance, allowed his zeal to get the better of his judgment. Instead of cauti- ously making his first experiment from a low wall, he took flight from the top of the church- steeple, and, after flutter- ing for a short time helplessly in the air, he fell to the ground and broke his legs. Undismayed by this accident, the crippled monk found comfort and encouragement in the reflection, that his invention would certainlv have succeeded, had he not forgotten to put a tail behind.* gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina et histriarum colere incantationes. Vita S. Dunstani, in MS. Cotton. Cleop. B. xiii. fol. 63, y°. This is the life written by Bridferth of Ramsey, the commentator on Bede, and was printed from a MS. in the Monastery of St. Vedasti at Arras, by the Bol- landists, in the Act. Sanctor. Mail, iv. 346. * Nam pennas manibus et pedibus baud scio qua innexuerat arte, ut Dsedali more volaret, fabulam pro vero amplexus; collectaque e summo turria aura spacio stadii et plus volavit, sed ventiet turbinis violentia simul, et temerarii facti conscientia, tremulus cecidit, perpetuo post hsec debilis, et crura effractus. Ipse ferebat causam ruinse, quod caudam in posteriori parte oblitus fuerit. W. Malms, (inthe Scriptores post Bedam), p. 92. Intl'Od.'] NOMENCLATURE OF STUDIES. 69 4. The course of studies followed in the Anglo-Saxon schools was of considerable extent. Bede classes the sciences taught by Theodore under the three simple heads of poetry, astronomy, and arithmetic* Alcuin informs us that Albert, who succeeded Egbert in the archbishopric of York, taught in the school there, first, grammar, rhetoric, juris- prudence, and poetry, and in addition to these all the higher branches of learning, — Ast alios fecit prsefatus nosse magister Harmoniam coeli, solis lunieque labores, Quinque poli zouas, erraatia sidera septem, Astrorum leges, ortus, simul atque reoessus, Aerios motus pelagi, terrceque tremorem, Naturas hominum, pecudum, volucrumque, ferarum, Diversas numeri species, variasque figuras ; Pasohalique dedit solemnia carta recursu, Maxima scripturse pandens mysteria sacrse. {De Pontif. Eborac.p. 728.) Aldhelm at the latter end of his prose treatise de Laude Virginitatis enumerates what he calls " the disciplines of the philosophers," under six general heads, namely, arith- metic, geometry, music, astronomy, astrology, and mecha- nicsfj of aU which he elsewhere declares that he found arithmetic to be the most difficult and complicated. In another place he speaks of the studies of the gram- marians, and the disciplines of the philosophers, as being divided into seven, alluding evidently to the arrangement which was so universal during the middle ages, in which they stood in this order, grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy.J But it is very singular that in this instance no two manuscripts of Aldhelm agree. * Bede, Hist. Eccl. iv. 2. t Omnes propemodum philosophorum disciplinas, hoc est, arithmeticam, geometricam, musicam, astronomiam, astrologiam, et mechanicam. X These seven arts, known at a later period as the trivium and quadrivium of the schools, are enumerated in the following well-known lines : — Gram, loquitur, Dia. vera docet, Rhet, verba colorat, Miis. canit, Ar. numerat, Geo, ponderat, As, colit astrai 70 NOMENCLATURE OF STUDIES. [Itltrod. The printed text, evidently formed from the nomen- clature above mentioned, which is found at the end of the book, arranges the seven sciences thus, — arithmetic, geome- try, music, astronomy, astrology, mechanics, medicine.* Of five manuscripts in the old Royal Library in the British Museum, one only, apparently of the eighth century, t agrees with this printed text. In all the others the list begins with the grammatical studies, and two of them, one of the eighth century,t the other of the ninth,§ give the hst mentioned above, namely, grammar, rhetoric, dialectics (or logic), arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy. Of the remaining two manuscripts, one, written in the ninth century, 1| combines the two lists together, and the other, probably of the end of this same centur5',1f adds medicine to them all, and makes ten sciences instead of seven. A similar list, entered sepa- rately in a manuscript of the ninth century, agrees with Aldhelm's printed text.** From these variations we are led to conclude, in the first place, that the division into seven branches was not very popular among the Anglo-Saxons,tt * Igitur consummatis grammaticoram studiis et pMlosophonitn discipliids, quffi septem speciebus dirimnntvir, id est, Arithraetica, Geometrica, Musica, Astronomia, Astrologia, Meclianica, Medicina. Aldhelm. de L. V. ed, Delrio, p. 41. t MS. Reg. 5 F. III., fol. 24 v". J MS. Reg. 7 D. XXIV, fol. 126 v°. § MS. Reg. 5 E. XI. fol. 69 v°. II MS. Reg. 6 A. VI. fol. 64 v°. 1[ MS. Reg. 6 B. VIII. fol. 30 v". Grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, arithmetica, musina, geometrica, astronomia, astrologia, meclianica, medicina. ** MS. Cotton. Domitian, A. i. fol. 1 r". To this list is added the term mathematici, steor-wigleras. •j-f- It is easy to see that the foundation of aU these variations lies in the ambi- guity of the sentence, ' ' consummatis grammaticorum studiis et phUosophorum disciplinis, qua: septem speciebus dirimuntur," where quiB and se2)tem might be constiTied as referring to the whole, or only to thaphil. disciplinis, but the persons with whom the numerous variations originated can have had no know- ledge of the septenary division, or they would never have had any doubt on the subject. Inirod,] anglo-saxon schools. 71 and, secondly, that the study of medicine was considered a very important part of a scientific education, in fact, that the clergy were the chief medical practitioners. 5. With the single exception of medicine (leece-dom), we find no term in the Anglo-Saxon language for any of these branches of learning; but in the glosses, which most of these manuscripts contain, the original word is simply translated according to its component parts. We are inclined to look upon this as an additional proof that there were no scientific works written in the vernacular tongue until a late period. Thus rhetoric is translated by >el-creeft, and dialectics or logic by flit-crseft,* the latter of which will be best understood by the readers of old Scottish poetry, if we explain it as the art of flyting. Grammar is not translated in these glosses, but the Anglo- Saxon term generally used was staef-craft, or the art of letters. Arithmetic is rim-creeft, or the art of numbers ; geometry is translated by eorlJ-gemet, or earth-measure- ment ; music by son-crseft, or the art of sound ; astro- nomy by tungel-ae', or the law of the constellations ; astro- logy by tungel-gescead, or the reason of the constellations 5 and mechanics by orlJanc-scipe, or ingenuity. 6. The schools of the Anglo-Saxons appear in system and form of teaching to have been the prototypes of our old grammar-schools. Before the time of Alfred, English was not taught in them. The elementary treatises on Grammar, the first subject in their course of studies, were written in Latin, and it is probable that the teacher, or magister, in the first instance, explained and translated them orally, whilst the chief task of his scholars was to commit them to memory, and to repeat the teacher's comments. At the same time they were continually exer- * These two glosses are found only in MS. Reg. 6 B. VU. 72 POPULAR EDUCATION. [IntVOd- cised in reading and chanting in Latin. As the boys made themselves masters of the first elements of grammar, or the accidence, they were taught Latin dialogues, to make them acquainted with the colloquial forms of the language in which, as scholars, they were expected to converse. In the same manner, up to a very late period, the colloquies of Corderius and the Janua Linguarum of Comenius were the first reading books in our modern schools. The scholars were long practised in these elements of learning, before they were introduced to the higher branches. Grammar, in its more extended sense, included generally the study of the ancient authors ; and since, as was before observed, it was in the study of those authors, that our forefathers in this remote age learnt science, the name of grammar was often popularly applied to the whole course of study, so much so that, in comparatively recent times, even the supposed power of the magician and conjurer M'as frequently designated by the same appella- tion of " grammarye.''* 7. It is singular enough, that most of the ways of giving a popular form to elementary instruction, which have been put in practice in our own days, had been already tried in the latter times of the Anglo-Saxons. We thus find the origin of our modern catechisms amongst the forms of education then in use. Not only were many of the ele- mentary treatises on grammar written in the shape of ques- tion and answer, mth the object of making them easier to * In the old legend of Charlemagne we ai'e told, premi^rement fist Karle- maine paindre dans son palais gramau'e, qui ra^re est de tons les arz. Jubmal, Rutebeuf, vol. ii. p. 417. In the metrical Image du Monde, a work of the thirteenth century, we find one of those mystical reasons, then so common, why grammar held this high rank — it is the science of words, and by the word God created the world ! Par parole fist Dex le monde, £t tons les biens qui ens habtmde, Introd.'] ELEMENTARY BOOKS. 73 learn and to understand, as well as of encouraging the prac- tice of Latin conversation, but also the first books in the other sciences. We find this to be the case in many of the tracts written by Bede and Alcuin, as well as in those which were fabricated in their names. Afterwards, when in England the Latin tongue seems to have ceased to be to the same extent as before a conventional language among the learned, various attempts were made to simphfy the steps by which it was taught. First, the elementary grammars were accompanied with an Anglo-Saxon gloss, in which, separately from the text, each word of the ori- ginal was repeated with its meaning in the vernacular tongue ;* and then, as a still further advance in rendering it popular, the Latin grammar itself was published only in an Anglo-Saxon translation. We have seen the old Latin school-grammar pass through similar gradations in our own time. We owe to Alfric the Anglo-Saxon transla- tion of the Latin Grammar, which, from its frequent recur- rence in the manuscripts, seems to have been the standard elementary book of the day ; and in the preface to that work he repeats the complaint, which had been made more than once since the days of Alfred, of the low state of Latin literature in England.f Much about the same period came into use introductory reading books, with interlinear versions, which differed not in the slightest degree from those of the Hamiltonian system of the present day. A singularly interesting specimen of such books, composed also by Alfric, has been preserved in two manuscripts, and is printed in Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica ; the text, which is a dialogue between persons of different professions, * A metrical Latin grammar, with a glossarial adjunct of this kind, is pre- served in the Harleian MS. No. 3271, written in the tenth century. t The only printed edition of Alfric's Grammar, is that published at the end of Somner's Anglo-Saxon Dictionarjr, 74 ARITHMETICAL PROBLEMS. [Introd. is SO arranged as to give within the smallest possible space the greatest variety of Latin words, and so to con- vey the largest quantity of instruction. This curious tract is valuable to the historian for the light which it throws upon the domestic manners of the age in which it was written. Among many other things, we learn that even the school-boys in the monasteries were sub- jected to a severe course of religious service; and that the rod was used very liberally in the Anglo-Saxon schools. 8. Amongst other Anglo-Saxon forms of instruction which have retained their popularity down to modern times, we must not overlook the collections of Arithmetical problems which are given in aU our old elementary treatises, and are still to be found hi such books as Bonnycastle's Arithmetic. The Anglo-Saxons had a regular series of such questions, many of which are identically the same as those found in modern publications. This ancient collection is printed in the works of Bede, and again in those of Alcuin, but it is probably not the work of either of those writers. It is given anonymously in a manuscript in the British Museum, which is certainly not of a later date than the tenth or eleventh century.* The first problem in the list is this : — " The swallow once invited the snail to dinner : he lived just one league from the spot, and the snail travelled at the rate of only one inch a day : how long would it be before he dined ?" The following question, in various shapes, was very popiilar in our old school-books — " Three men and their three wives came together to the side of a river, where they found but one boat, which was capable of carrying over only two persons at once : all the *■ MS. Bumey, No. 59. See Bede's Works, torn. i. col. 103, and Alcuin's Works, torn. ii.,wlieretluscollectionis printed. In a MS. of the 10th cent, at Vieana, it is attributed to Alouiu. Inirod.] saturn and solomon. 75 men were jealous of each other : how must they contrive so that no one of them should be left alone in company with his companion's wife ?" Again, " An old man met a child, ' Good day, my son !' says he, ' may you live as long as you have lived, and as much more, and thrice as much as all this, and if God give you one year in addition to the others, you will be just a century old :' — what was the lad's age?" It maybe observed that none of the problems in this collection are very complicated. The title, in some copies, tells us that they were made ad aouendos Juvenes, 9. The other sciences, as well as Arithmetic, were often the subject of questions intended at the same time to try the knowledge, and to exercise the ingenuity of the person questioned. Among the most curious tracts of this kind are the dialogues which go under the name of Saturn and Solomon, or,in one case, of Adrian and Ritheeus.* The subjects of these dialogues are sometimes- scriptural notions, and at others fragments of popular science, but in most cases they are of a legendary character. Thus, to the question, " Where does the sun shine at night ?" the answer is that it shines in three places, first in the belly of the whale called Leviathan, next it shines in hell, and afterwards it shines on the island which is called GUth, where the souls of holy men rest till doomsday. Again, to the question, '^' Where is a man's mind?" the answer is, "In his head, and it comes out at his mouth." " TeU me where resteth the soul of man, when his body sleepeth ?" is another question : — '*I tell thee it is in three places, in the brain, or in the heart, or in the blood." Among other things we are in- * The dialogue between Saturn and Solomon is printed in Thorpe's Ana- lecta, p. 95, and that between Adrian and RithseuB in the Altdeutsche Blatter, vol. ii. p. 189. (Leipzig, 1838.) 76 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. {^Tntrod. formed that there are in the world fifty-two species of birds, thirty-four kinds of snakes, and thirty-six kinds of fishes, which shows the very hmited knowledge of our forefathers in natural history. At Cambridge there are also preserved some fragments of a metrical Anglo- Saxon dialogue between Solomon and Saturn, in which the questions discussed are much more mystical than those which we find in the prose. There is also printed among the works of Alcuin, a Latin tract entitled Dispu- tatio inter PippinumefAlcuinum,* which bears in some parts a great resemblance to these dialogues. Among a multi- tude of other questions, we find some in this tract that are of a most fantastic character, such for example as, — " How is man placed ? like a candle in the wind. — What is the forehead ? the image of the mind. — What is the sky ? a rolling sphere. — What is man? a painter of the earth. — What is grass ? the garment of the earth. — What are herbs? the friends of the physicians, and the praise of cooks." The following definitions of a ship remind us of the metaphorical language of Anglo-Saxon poetry — " a ship is a wandering house, a hostle wherever you will, a traveller that leaves no footsteps, a neighbour of the sand." After going through a variety of other questions, more or less singular, the dialogue at last becomes a mere collection of enigmas, such as, " What is that, from which if you take the head, it becomes higher ?" Answer : — " Go to your bed, and there you will find it." The joke seems to lie in the ambiguity of the expression : as it is not the bed, but the head, which is raised higher, when removed from the bed. 10. No class of popular literature was so general a favourite among the Anglo-Saxons as enigmas and rid- * Alcuini Opera, torn, ii, p. 363. Inirod.] enigmas and riddles. 77 dies, and they form an important part of the literary remains of our forefathers. Collections of Anglo-Latin jEnigmata, such as those of Aldhelm, were composed at a very early period. They were imitations of a still older Latin tract of this description, which was also popular among the Anglo-Saxons, under the title of Symposii ^nigmata, and which has been frequently printed ; but whether this title implies that it was written by a person named Symposius, or whether it only means that they are symposiaca cenigmata, or, as we might say, ' nuts to crack over our wine,' is a question among the learned* ; though the introductory lines would lead us to conclude that they were written with a view to this latter object. They have sometimes been attributed, but apparently without any good reason, to Lactantius. The riddles in this collection are expressed in triplets ; they are often so contrived as to convey information under the cloak of amusement, and they sometimes present us with an elegant senti- ment or a pretty idea. The subject of the following is a ship : — Longa feror velox formosse filia silvse, Innumera pariter comitum stipante cateiTa ; Curro vias multas vestigia nulla relinquens. The idea contained in the following is not new : — Est nova nostranim ounctis captura ferarum, Ut siqviid capias et tu tibi ferre recuses, Et quod non capias tecum tamen ipse reportas. The subject of the next is a violet. In the second line * The MS. Reg. 13 C. XXIII. contains early copies of the jEnigmata of Aldhelm, Symposius, and Tahtwin, and another collection under the name of Eusebius. Two early but imperfect copies of the ^nigmata Symposii are also preserved in MS. Reg. 15 B. XIX,, and another more modern in MS. Cotton. Vespas. B. xxiii. 78 aldhelm's iENiGMATA. [^Introd. there seems to be a pun in the word spiritus which has not the odour of great antiquity about it. Magna quidem non sum, sed inest mihi maxima virtus ; Spiritus est magnus, quamvis sim corpore parvo ; Nee milii germen habet noxam, nee culpa ruborem. Some of these enigmas are curious as illustrating inci- dents of private life. The subject of the following, which bears a different title in different manuscripts, is certainly some kind of liquor composed of three principal ingre- dients : according to the gloss in the margin of the oldest manuscript, these were honey, wine, and pepper. Tres oUm ftdmus qui nomine jungimur uno, Ex tribus est unus, tres et miscentur in uno ; (Juisque bonus per se, melior qui continet omnes. 11. Aldhelm confesses that he was but an imitator of Symposius ; but his senigmata are deficient in that sim- plicity of sentiment and expression, which he found in his models. There needs no greater proof, how complicated and far-fetched they are, than the immense number of glossarial explanations with which they are accompanied in the MS. preserved in the British Museum. The follow- ing, perhaps, possesses as much simplicity as any we could select, but the last line is a remarkable specimen of that sinking in poetry of which its writer has often cause to plead guilty. Its subject is the Wind. Cemere me nulli possunt nee prendere palmis, Argutum vocis crepitum cito pando per orbem, Viribus horrisonis valeo confringere quercus, Nam superos ego pulso polgs, et rui-a peragro. The next is so pecuUarly literary, that, although it needs some explanation, we can hardly pass it over. Its subject is the alphabet : it will perhaps be enough to say that in the third line ferro is explained in the gloss by stilo graphico, that the terni fratres are the three fingers which Introd.} ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLES. 79 hold the pen, and the incerta mater the pen itself, " it being uncertain whether this were a crow or goose quill, or a reed."* Nos dense et septem genitse sine voce sorores, Sex alias nothas non dicimus adnumerandas, Nasoimur ex ferro rursus ferro moribundee, Necnon et volucris penna volitantis ad Eethram : Terni nos fratres incerta matre creai-unt ; Qui cupit instauter sitiens audire, docemus, Turn cito prompta damns rogitanti verba silenter. 12. But by far the most curious and interesting collec- tion of early enigmas that exists, is the large one in Anglo-Saxon verse, which occupies a considerable portion of the Exeter manuscript. From their intentional obscu- rity, and from the uncommon words with which they abound, many of these riddles are at present altogether unintelligible ; but where they can be translated with any certainty, they are by no means devoid either of beauty or interest. The following, for example, seems to give us the first traces of that doughty hero, John Barleycorn, so famous in the days of ballad-singing.f BiJ> foldan dsel A part of the earth is fsegre ge-gierwed, prepared beautifully, mid )>y heajdestan, with the hardest, and mid J>y scearpestan, and with the sharpest, and mid ^y grymmestan and with the grimmest gumena gestreona, of the productions of men, corfen sworfen, cut and , cyrred )>yrred, turned and dried, bunden wunden, bound and twisted, * i. ignoramus utrum cum penna corvina, vel anseriua, sive calamo, per- scriptae simus. Glossa, in MS. Reg. 13, C. xxiii. t This riddle affords us an example how certain ideas run through the popular literature of different nations at all periods. M. Jubinal, in his Nouveau Recueil de Contes, Dits, Fabliaux, etc. (vol. i. 8vo. Paris, 1839), p. 251, has printed an early French fabliau, " Le Martyre de Sjint Baccus," where the god of the vine takes the place of Sir John Barleycorn, just as the juice of the grape in the country where it was composed occupies the place of the liquor of which the English hero was a personification. 80 ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLES. [Intvod. blaeoed wseced, bleached and awakened, frsetwed geatwed, ornamented and poured out, feorran Iseded carried afar to durum dryhta, to the doors of people, dream h'iS in innan it is joy in the inside cwicra wihta, of living creatures, clenge^ lenge^, it knocks and slights )>ara i>e ser lifgende those, of whom before while alive longe hwile a long while wilna braced, it obeys the wUl, and no wi^-sprice^, and expostulateth not, and Jjonne sefter dea))e and then after death deman on-ginnelS, it takes upon it to judge, meldan mislice. to talk variously. Micel is to hyeganne It is greatly to seek wis-faestum menn by the wisest man, hwset seo wiht ys. what this creature is. (Exet. MS.fol. 107, v°.J* The subject of another seems to be the Aurelia of the butterfly, and its transformations ; by which it would appear that our forefathers were at times diligent observers of nature — Ic seah turf tredan, I saw tread over the turf X. wseron ealra, ten in all, * This riddle is curious as exhibiting a repetition of rhiming words, like those which have been attempted by some of the lighter poets of the pre- sent day. Single lines of this kind are not uncommon scattered over the Anglo-Saxon poetry of the best age, as "wide and side," (wide and iroad) in Beowulf and Csedmon ; "blowan and growan," (to blossom and to grow) in the Ex. MS. fol, 109, r°; &c. We find sometimes three such rhyming words, as "fl6d bl6d ge-w6d" (blood pervaded the flood), Csedm. p. 207. In the Exeter MS. there is one whole poem (which was published by Conybeare), written entirely in rhymes of the most fantastic description, as, for instance, flah-mah flite«, flan-mon hwite^, burg-sorg bite^, bald-aid Jjwite'S, wrsec-fsec wri^e'S, vn-ii>-&S smite's, &c. The whole of these verses are extremely obscure and difficult to understand, a proof that rhime was a great trial of the ingenuity of the writer, and by no means congenial to the language. Introd.] ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLES. 81 vi. ge-broj)or, and hera sweoster mid, hsefdon feorg cwico ; fell hongedon sweotol and ge-syne on sdes wsege, anra gehwylces ne W8es hyra sengnm )jy wyrs, ne side J>y sarra, Jieah hy swa sceoldon, reafe bi-rofene, rodra weardes meahtum a-weahte, mutjum slitan ha£we blede ; hisegl bi^ ge-uiwad, J>am \>e ser for^-cymene frsetwe leton licgan on laste ge-witan lond tredan. (Ex. MS.fol. 104, r'.) six brothers, and their sisters with them, they had a living soul ; they hanged their skins, openly and manifestly on the wall of the hall, to any one of them all it was none the worse, nor his side the sorer, although they should thus, bereaved of covering, [and] awakened by the might of the guardian of the skies, bite with their mouths the rough leaves ; clothing is renewed to those who before coming forth let their ornaments lie in their track, to depart over the earth. The Anglo-Saxons were especially partial to riddles founded on Scripture, thinking, perhaps, that they exhi- bited in solving them their acquaintance with the sacred volume. The subject of the following must be the patri- arch Lot and his two daughters and their two sons. — "Wser saet set wine, mid his wifum twam, and his twegen suno, and his twa dohtor, swase ge-sweostor and hyre suno twegen, freolico frum-beam ; faeder waes Jjser-inne Jiara sejielinga mid earn and nefa : ealra wseron fife eorla and idesa in-sittendra. (Ex. MS.fol. 112, V.J VOL. I. There sat a man at his wine, with his two wives, and his. two sons, and his two daughters, own sisters, and their two sons, comely first-bom children ; the father was there of each one of the noble ones, with the uncle and the nephew : there were five in all men and women sitting there. 82 ANGLO-SAXON SCIENCE. [Introd. Of the next, it is not so easy to give a probable solu- tion — Ic eom wunder-licu wiht, I am a wonderful creature, ne mseg word sprecan, I may not speak a word, mseldan for monnum, nor converse before men, Jieali ic muj> hsebbe, though I have a mouth, wide wombe : with a spacious belly : ic W8es on ceole, I was in a ship, and mines cnosles ma. with more of my race. (Ex. MS. fol. 105, f.) § VI. The Higher Branches of Science. 1 . It has been already observed that science, as cultivated by the Anglo-Saxons, vi^as almost entirely founded upon older foreign authorities. One of the most popular of these authorities vi&s Isidore, a Spanish Christian, vs^ho lived at the beginning of the seventh century, and who published a manual of science under the title of De Naturis Rerum, as well as a larger work entitled Etymologice, or Origines, which is a kind of nomenclature, accompanied with definitions, of nearly every thing that existed, from the highest attributes of the Deity, through all the different regions of science and art, down to the most insignificant of children's games. In the higher branches of science, the Saxons followed princi- pally those writers of the time of the Roman Empire, who were then peculiarly styled " the Philosophers ;" such, for example, as Macrobius and Apuleius. Bede, and the Anglo- Saxon scholars of that and the following age, quote frequently such writers as Dionysius Exiguus, and Victor Aquitanus. The popularity of certain treatises appears, in some cases, to have arisen from their accidental introduction into England at an early period. This, perhaps, was the case with Cicero^s translation of Aratus, and the prose Asiro- nomica of Hyginus which accompanies it ; in the Harleian library,* are preserved a few leaves of what may have * MS. Harl. No. 647. An account of this MS, was contributed to the Introd.] MATHEMATICS. 83 been the very copy of this work that was first brought into our island ; for it seems to have been written in the seventh, or early in the eighth century ; the pictures bear every mark of having been painted by a foreign artist, and there can be little doubt that it was the prototype of the other manuscripts of the same book which were written in England in the ninth and tenth centuries, although neither in the text nor drawings are they absolutely literal copies.* Aratus, in Cicero's Latin version, and Hyginus, were the chief authorities of the Anglo-Saxons, not only for the forms and positions of the Constellations, but also for the details of Grecian and Roman mythology, with which their names were so closely connected. The scientific writings of Boethius do not appear to have been much read tiU the latter end of the Anglo-Saxon period. 2. Geometry is found in the Anglo-Saxon lists of sciences; but to what extent, or in what form it was studied, we have no very certain indications. Tradition, in after-times, gave to the reign of King Athelstan the honour of the first introduction of Euclid's Elements,t although we are not acquainted with any English manu- script of that work which belongs to an earlier date than the twelfth century, when it was translated into Latin by Athelard of Bath. It seems probable, indeed, that the Anglo-Saxons, when they spoke of geometry, under- stood nothing more than simple mensuration ; and we have no reason for believing that they had any acquaintance with mathematics as a pure and abstract science. The 24th vol. of the Archaeologia by Mr. Ottley, who, by a series of inconclusive arguments, endeavoured to show that it is of the second or third century. * MS. Harl. No. 2506, probably of the beginning of the ninth century, and MS. Cotton. Tiber. B. v. of the tenth century. The latter is one of the > most interesting volumes for the illustration of the history of Anglo-Saxon ) science, that exists. f See Rara Mathematica (edited by Mr. Halliwell), p. 56. G 2 84 ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. [Introd. great dissensions about the true time of celebrating Easter, which had been felt so severely by the Anglo- Saxon church, had given a peculiar turn to numerical calculations. The object which many of the early Anglo-Saxon scholars had chiefly in view in their visits to Rome, was not more to obtain a knowledge of the arguments by which the Romish church there defended its doctrine on this subject, than to learn the calcu- lations on which its variations depended ; and on their return, they made a powerful use of both in their con- troversies with the partizans of the contrary system. These calculations were long afterwards the business of the arithmeticians (rym-craeftige),* and those who were skilful in "circle-craft" (on circule-crsefte) ;t and the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of all periods are filled with tracts and tables connected with this all-engrossing subject, under the title of De Computo, or De Computo Ecclesiastico. 3. The Anglo-Saxons rather took notice of, than ob- served, the various phenomena of the heavens. They were interested in them simply so far as they were sup- posed to influence the seasons which were favourable or otherwise to the husbandman or the sailor ; or with an eye to their more mystical connexion with the destinies of individuals or of kingdoms. Anglo-Saxon manuscripts abound in tables of prognostications of the weather, and of the good or bad influence of the lunar and solar changes. Although sea-faring men were the chief ob- servers,X yet even they confided so little in the certainty of such prognostications, that, rather than trust to them, * Metrical Menology, v. 89, ed. Fox. t lb- v. 132. \ The metrical translator of Boethius quotes the authority of sailors even for the names of the planets : — )jone Saturnus Which Satuxn sund-buenda the sea-farers hata^. call. Introd.] ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 85 they preferred choosing the two calmest months of the year, June and July, called, on that account, the earlier and later saihng-months (li^e-mona'S), for their longer voyages. Some of the best scholars not only suspected that there were errors in the authorised astronomical calculations, but were extremely puzzled by accidental observations, which disagreed with the statements of the books they followed. In the year 798, considerable sensa- tion was caused upon the continent by the planet Mars, which, under certain circumstances, had been found to remain beneath the horizon much longer than it should have done-, according to " the books of the philosophers." In answer to a letter from Charlemagne, Alcuin, after entering at some length into the subject, goes on to observe : — " However, what has now happened to the planet Mars alone, the same thing is frequently observed in these parts with respect to all the five planets, namely, that they remain longer under the horizon than is stated in the books of the ancients which are our guides. And per- haps the rising and setting of the stars, as observed by us who dwell in these northern parts, vary from the ob- servations of those who live in the eastern and southern parts of the world, where chiefly flourished the ' Masters ' who set forth for us the laws and courses of the heaven and of the planets. For many things are changed, as your own wisdom knows perfectly well, by diversity of place."* Alcuin's modern editor conjectures, from this passage, that * Quod vero de sola Martis Stella mode evenit, hoc et de omnibus quinque stellis errantibns in his partibus saepius solet evenire, ut diutiua abscondantur quam regularis pagina veterum decantat, Et forte non sequaliter, nobis in his partibus Borealibus conversantibus, ortus et occasus siderum evenit, sicut illis, qui in Orientalibus vel Meridianis partibus mundi raorantur, ubi maxima fuere Magistri qui nobis rationes et cursus coeU et stellaram ediderunt. Nam multa ex locorum diversitate, sicut vestra optime novit sapientia, immutantur. Alcuiu. Epist. ad domnum regem, ?■ 58. Operum torn. I. 86 POPULAR ASTRONOMY. [Itltrod. the Anglo-Saxon scholar had made such great advances in the study of science as already to suspect the true form of the earth. It is certain that observations made syste- matically with moderately good instruments, in pursuance of the train of reasoning which Alcuin here states, would have led to its discovery. The passage shows, at all events, that the wisest of the Anglo-Saxons were conscious of the imperfections of the system they were pursuing. 4. To some scholar of the tenth century, we owe a comprehensive treatise in the Anglo-Saxon language on the principal astronomical phenomena, designedly ex- plained in a simple manner, and calculated for the level of ordinary capacities. From the numerous copies which still remain of this work, we may conclude that it was extremely popular in its day.* Yet it has hitherto been scarcely noticed by modern scholars, and indeed it is not unfrequently found buried among collections on the com- putus, so as very easily to escape attention. This tract gives us a very fair, and on the whole a very favour- able, view of the popular science of the period when, among the Anglo-Saxons, knowledge was in such treatises diffused among the many, instead of being restricted in a learned language to the few. The writer of this book begins by stating that night is the effect of the earth's shadow, when the earth itself is between us and the sun.f * Our extracts are taken from a copy in MS. Cotton. Titus D. xxvn, which seems to have been written for the use of nuns. There are three or four other copies in the British Museum (one in Tiber. B. y, quoted above), besides what are to be found at Oxford and Cambridge. We believe this tract will be printed, a thing certainly much to be desired, in an appendix to a History'\ of the Mathematics in England during the middle ages, by J. O. Halliwell, Esq. / f Ure eor'Slice niht solSlice cym^ I'urh |>8ere eor^an sceade, Jjonne seo sunne gse^ on se'fnunge under Hssere eor^an ; jjonne bi^ Jiaere eorlSan bradnys betwux 6s and bsera sunnan, l^set we byre leoman lihtinge nabba^ o^aet heo eft on o^erne ende up-astlh*. MS. Cott. Titus, D. xxvii. fol. 30, v°. Our earthly night truly comes by the earth's shadow lohen the sun goes in the Introd.] POPULAR astronomy. 87 After explaining the moon's changes, as a matter arising naturally out of the former subject, he goes on to tell us how, from sunset to sunrise, the night is divided into seven parts, namely — 1, twilight, or "evening's gloam- ing ;" 2, evening ; 3, the hour of silence, when every- thing goes to rest {conticinium) ; 4, midnight ; 5, cock crowing ; 6, dawn ; 7, daybreak, or the period which inter- venes between dawn and sunrise.* The account of the year, and its seasons, divisions, and duration, leads to the definition of the lunar, as contradistinguished from the solar year, and this affords us a remarkable specimen of the popular mode of explaining science which was used by our forefathers : " Now," says the writer, " you may under- stand that ..the man who goes round one house makes a lesser course than he who goes round the whole town ; and so the moon has his course to run sooner on the lesser circuit than the sun has on the greater ; this is the moon's year.'-'t evening under this earth; then is the earth's broadness between us and the sun, so that we have not the illumination of her shine until she again rises up at the other end. As in the other Germanic tongues, the sun is femi- nine, and the moon masculine, in Anglo-Saxon and early English. * Seo niht hsef'S seofon dselas, fram )>8ere sunnan setlunge o"S hyre upgang : &n Jjsera dsela is crepuscitfum, Jiset is sefen-gl6ma ; otSer is vesperum, Jiset is sefen, Jjonne se sefen-steorra betwux repsunge set-eowaS ; ))ridde is conti- cinium, }>onne eaUe J>ing suwia^ on heora reste ; feor^a is intempestum, Jjtet is mid-niht; fifta is gallicinium, Jpset is han-cred; syxta is matutinum, o'iKSe aurora, J>8et is dseg-red ; seofo^a is diluculum, J^aet is seme merien, betwux J>am daeg-rede and sunnan up-gange. lb. fol. 32, v". The night has seven parts, from the sun's setting to her upgoing : one of these parts is crepus- culum, that is even's gloaming ; the second is vesperum, that is even, when the even star shows itself in the interval between light and dark ; the third is conticinium, when all things are silent in their rest ; the fourth is intem- pestum, that is midnight ; theffth is gallicinium, that is cod-crowing ; the sixth is matutinum, or aurora, that is dawn; the seventhisdihicvikim, that is early morning, between dawn and the sun's upgoing. f Nu miht Jju understilndan, t>8et Isessan ymbe-gang hsefS se mann Se gee^ onbuton &n hUs, Jiorme se 'Se ealle t>a burh be-gselS ; swa eac se mona hsefS 88 cosMOGRAPHicAL NOTIONS. [Introd. 5. The world, in the larger sense of the word {mundus, KvtTfios), was designated among the Anglo-Saxons by a name borrowed from their old mythological ideas, middan-' geard, or the middle yard or region, which was afterwards gradually corrupted into the old English word "middle- earth." "All that is within the firmament,^' says the tract just mentioned, " is called middan-geard, or the world. The firmament is the ethereal heaven, adorned with many stars; the heaven, and sea, and earth, are called the world. The firmament is perpetually turning round about us, under this earth and above, and there is an incalculable space between it and the earth. Four-and- twenty hours have passed, that is one day and one night, before it is once turned round, and all the stars which are fixed in it turn round with it. The earth stands in the centre, by God^s power so fixed, that it never swerves either higher or lower than the Almighty Creator, who holds all things without labour, established it. Every sea, although it be deep, has its bottom on the earth, and the earth supports all seas, and the ocean, and all fountains and rivers run through it ; as the veins lie in a man's body, so lie the veins of water throughout the earth."* his ryue hratSor afimen on Jiam Isessan ymb-hwyrfte, Jjonne seo aunne hsebbe on >am rairan ; >is is >ses m6nan ge4r. lb. fol. 35, r". * Id. fol; 37, v°. De mundo. Middan-geard is ge-haten eall \>xt binnan ]t^.vti firmamentum is. Firmamenfum is J?eos roderlice heofen, midmanegum steorrum am^t ; seo heofen, and sse', and eor'Se, synd ge-hatene middan- geard. Seo jtrmamentum tyrn'S symle on-butan tis under j'issere eor^an and bufon, ac I?ser is tin-ge-rim faec betwux hire and J>8ere eor'San ; feower and twentig tida beo'S agiine, ))set is i.n daeg and in niht, ser J>am Jie heo beo sene ymb-tyrnd, and ealle J>a steorran Jie hyre on fseste synd, tiimia^ on- butan mid hyre. Seo olSer stent on sele-middan, J>urh Godes mihte swa ge- feestnod, J^set heo ngefre ne by'h^ufor ne neo^or, Jjonne se a^lmihtiga scyppend J>e ealle ting hylt buton ge-swince hi ge-staSelode. jEIc sse' , l^eah Jje heo de6p sy, hsef^ griind on Jjsere eoi'San, and seo eor^e abyrS ealle see', and Jjone garsecg, and ealle wyll-springas and kkxi hurh hyre yrnalS ; swa swa ieddran licga'S on bses mannes lichaman, swa licga^ )ja wseter-seddran geond >ias corlSan ; nsefiS na'Sor ne see' ne ea nsenne stede buton on eor'San. Introd.'] fOPULAR errors. 89 The north and south stars, as we are told in another place, of which the latter is neyer seen by men, are fixed, and are the poles of the axis on which the firmament turns. Falling stars are igneous sparks thrown from the constellations, like sparks that fly from coals in the fire.* The earth itself "resembles a pine-nut, and the sun glides about it, by God's ordinance, and on the end where it shines it is day by means of the sun's light, whilst the end which it leaves is covered with darkness until it return again.'^t The writer of this treatise, in one or two instances, mentions and confutes what appeared then to the learned to be the popular errors of their age, such as that of " some unlearned priests " who said that leap-year had been caused by Joshua when he made the sun stand still.J The priests, it will be observed, are frequently the butt of the sneers of the scholars in the tenth century. 6. Such were the notions inculcated by the popular scientific books among our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, many of them erroneous in themselves, but at the same time con- sonant with the doctrines of the greatest scholars who had preceded, or who were contemporary. The range, however, of these books must have been narrow, in comparison with the mass of the people who were uninstructed. The ideas adopted by the latter were far more erroneous, and were often the mere legends of the popular mythology, as we see by such writings as the dialogues of Saturn and Salomon, and Adrian and Rithseus, which were probably * lb. fol. 45. t Seo eor^e stent on ge-licnesse anre pinn-hnyte, and seo sunne glit on- be heo gem's is daeg ))urh hyre lihtinge, and se ende J>e heo forte't bK mid >eostrum ofer-Jieaht, o'S^set heo eft Jjyder ge-neahlsece. lb. fol. 39, v°. X ii. fol. 41, r°. 90 FORM OF THE EARTH. [Introd. intended for recitation among the common people. In the latter of these dialogues, to the question " how large is the sun ?" the reply is, " larger than the earth,'' and this is deduced from the circumstance that it shines on all parts of the earth. The spherical form of our planet was universally acknowledged, although it was erroneously placed in the centre of the system. An early Latin writer compares the universe to an egg, in which the earth is the yolk, with the sea surrounding it resembling the white of the egg, while the firmament, supposed to be inclosed in fire, is the shell.* It is doubtful, however, if it were not the most common impression that this round mass on which we live swam in the water, that the part we inhabit and know was a small portion of the surface which stood above the waves, and that the sun dived into the ocean each evening, and arose out of it on the following mom. 7. The ideas which the Anglo-Saxons held with regard to that portion of the earth, which was then believed to be alone habitable, were derived indirectly or immediately from the writings of the Ancients ; and they were on the whole more correct than might be expected. Their maps were undoubtedly made after Roman models. A map of the tenth century, in the British Museum, accompanies the Periegesis of Priscian,t which, with the slight sketch given by Orosius, and the work of Solinus, were the chief autho- * Est ergo terra elementum in medio mundi positum, et ideo ioiimum. In omui enim spherico solum medium est infimum. Mundus nempe ad simili- tudinem ovi dispositus est. Namque terra est in medio ut meditullium in ovo ; circa hanc est aqua, ut circa medituUium albumen ; circa aqua[m] est aer, ut pannid'es (sic) continens albumen ; extra vero est ignis csetera con- cludens, admodum testae ovi. MS. Burney, No. 216, fol. 99, r". of the twelfth century. In an English poem of the thirteenth century, in MS. Harl. 2277, fol. 133, we have the following definition of the earth, — " Urthe is amidde the see, a lute (little) bal and round." t MS. Cotton. Tiber. B. v. fol. 58, v°. Introd.] GEOGRAPHY. 9] rities in geography. Books of cosmography were sought eagerly at an early period,* and we need not be surprised if their popularity depended most frequently on the num- ber of wonderful relations which they contained. The stories of this kind given by Pliny the Elder, and repro- duced by Solinus, were the foundation of aU the extrava- gant fables concerning the wonders of distant lands which were so widely prevalent during the Middle Ages ; but the vague manner in which these writers spoke of them was not enough for the curiosity of the multitude, and the outline they furnished was soon filled up in spu- rious works, like the famous letter of Alexander the Great to his preceptor Aristotle, in which the conqueror of the East describes minutely all the monsters of India. This tract must have been written at an early period, for we find an Anglo-Saxon translation of it, with some other pieces of a similar kind, in manuscripts of the tenth century.t 8. We find the Anglo-Saxons at an early period dis- tinguished by the same spirit of adventure, which has been so active and fruitful among their descendants. They were anxious to explore the distant countries, whose existence had been made known to them by the books which the missionaries imported. Even so early as the seventh century they were in the habit of going to Rome by sea, a voyage in which the pilgrims necessarily incurred many * Bonifac. Epist. p. 111. Some person writes to Bishop Lulla, — Csete- rum libri cosmographicorum necdum nobis ad manum venerunt : nee alia apud nos exemplaria, nisi picturis et litteris permolesta. The latter part of the sentence is curious, though at present not quite clear. t The Anglo-Saxon version of Aristotle's letter is found in MS. Cotton. Vitell. A. XV. along with Beowulf and Judith. It is preceded by an Anglo- Saxon tract on the wonders of the East, which occurs again in Anglo-Saxon and Latin in MS. Cott. Tiberius B. v. ; in both places accompanied by drawings of a very extraordinary kind, and, in the latter MS. many of them executed in ' a style much superior to the generality of Anglo-Saxon pictures. 92 GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. [Intvod. perils. At the end of this century, a Frankish bishop named Arculf, who was returning from the Holy Land, and had visited Constantinople, Damascus, and Alex- andria in Egypt, as well as many of the islands of the Mediterranean, was thrown by bad weather on the western coasts of England, where he became acquainted with the abbot Adamnan. The latter carefully stored up the information which the traveller communicated to him, and afterwards committed it to writing in a treatise which is still preserved. It is probable, indeed, from many circum- stances, that the Anglo-Saxons themselves made frequent visits, not only to Italy, but also to the East. King Alfred, who in this, as in other things, merited well the character given him by historians of being "a diligent investigator of unknown things " (ignotarura rerum inves- tigationi solerter se jungebat), sent Sighelm, bishop of Sherburn, in 883, to India to visit the scene of the labours of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew ; and Sighelm not only reached in safety this distant land, but he brought back with him many of its productions, and particularly some gems and relics which were still preserved in his church in the time of William of Malmsbury.* The pre- sent day cannot furnish a more intelligent account of a voyage of discovery, than that taken down by Alfred from the mouths of Ohthere and Wulfstan, one of whom had sailed to the North Cape, and the other along the northern shores of the Baltic, and which that monarch has inserted in his own version of Orosius. The map of the tenth century, mentioned above, is far more correct than the generality of maps which we find in old manuscripts at a later period; its chief inaccuracy hes in the distorted shape given to Africa, which is here a long narrow slip of * See tlie Saxon Chronicle, and W. Malmsb. p. 248. IntrodJ] THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 9.3 land running out from east to west; but the coasts of India and Eastern Asia are not ill defined, there are few of the fabulous indications which appear afterwards in this part of the world, and Paradise does not occupy the place of the isles of Japan, as it did after the voyage of St. Brandan became popular in the twelfth century. § VII. The Natural Sciences — Medicine. 1. The systematical study of natural history, in any of its branches, has never been cultivated among a people who had not reached a high state of civilization. Many of the operations of nature are indeed of that wonderful character, that they cannot fail to attract at aU times the attention of the observer ; and although these insulated observations were often the cause of the wildest errors among the philosophers of a comparatively barbarous age, yet they contained the germs of modern science. The marvellous transformations which accompanied the change of the creeping worm into the elegant butterfly, the singular habits of some animals, and the instincts of others, were the groundwork of many a superstitious fable. Even the fossil remains of a former world did not pass unnoticed ; in old writers, such for example as Wil- liam of Newbury in the twelfth century, we find many tales of animals imbedded in rocks, accidentally released from their imprisonment, which were undoubtedly founded upon discoveries of fossils ; and these remains perhaps also gave rise to the legends of dragons which brooded in caves over hidden treasures, and of other animals no less extraordinary and fearful than the forms which are pre- sented to us by the researches of modern geologists. The foreign books on natural history, which the Anglo-Saxons seem to have possessed, were by no means calculated to give them any very enlightened notions on the subject, for 94 THE NATURAL SCIENCES. \_lntrod. they consisted chiefly of fabulous narratives of the ima- ginary monsters which werfe supposed to hve under the burning skies of India and Africa, or of those morahzations of the ordinary instincts of some animals which a little later became more universally popular under the title of Bestiaries. 2. The learning of the ancients was communicated to the people of the middle ages by two distinct roads. First, it was introduced along with the ancient literature, when those who received it, only just emerging from the depths of ignorance, were least capable of cultivating it with ad- vantage, and when, from their preconceived ideas and various other causes, it was much disfigured, and very partially developed. Secondly, after having found a more favourable soil among the Arabians in the east, whose vast conquests and more enlarged field of scientific observation were naturally attended with a proportionate intellectual developement, it became the ground-work of a school which, at a later period, was carried directly to the West, and gradually took the place of the barbarous half- Romanized school which had there existed — we can hardly say flourished — through several ages. This was more particularly the case with the medical and chemical sciences, which, less than any others, the Anglo-Saxons were cap- able of receiving from their instructors. Before the influ- ence of the Arabian school was felt, even the elixir and the philosopher's stone were not thought of, and the medical knowledge of our early forefathers was confined within very narrow limits. In the last struggles of the Roman power, and during the inroads of the barbarous tribes before whom it fell, all the ancient practical know- ledge of medicine and surgery must have disappeared. The books which remained were almost useless, not only from this want of practical skill, but also from the impos- Introd.] MEDICAL knowledge. 95 sibility of procuring most of the articles which were enu- merated in them, among people who had no certain com- mercial intercourse with distant parts of the world. This was felt strongly among the Anglo-Saxons ; and one of Boniface's correspondents^ while earnestly desiring to be remembered, in case that adventurous missionary should meet with any medical books which were not known in England, complains at the same time of the difficulty of using them on account of the foreign ingredients which those works prescribed.* The consequence of this was, that the Anglo-Saxons either returned to the old supersti- tious practices and receipts which had been used before their conversion to Christianity, or submitted to the autho- rity of certain spurious books which were equally absurd and superstitious, and which appear to have been made with the object of remedying the difficulties above-men- tioned. The book which seems to have exerted the greatest influence on the science of medicine among the Anglo-Saxons, was a Latin herbal published under the name of Apuleius, and containing, as it was pretended, the doctrines taught to AchiUes by Chiron the centaur. This spurious treatise, with a tract attributed to Antonius Musa on the virtues of the herb betony, and another bearing the title of Medicina Animalium, and the name of Sextus Phi- losophus,t formed, in an Anglo-Saxon translation, of which several copies are stiU extant, the popular text-book among the old physicians. J We may cite, as a fair speci- * Nee non at si quos ssecularis scientise libros nobis ignotos adepturi sitis, ut sunt de medicinaJibns, quorum copia est aliqua apud nos, sed tamen seg- meata ultra marina, quse in eis scripta comperimus, ignota nobis sunt et difficilia ad adipisceudum. Bonif. Epist. p. 103. t These three treatises in Latin were edited at Ravensburg, in 1539, by Gabriel Humelberg, who even at this recent period believed most religiously in all the absurdities they contain. t Two MSS. of this Anglo-Saxon herbal, both of the tenth century, are 96 MEDICAL SCIENCE. [lutvod. men of the character of this herbal, the account of the herb betony, which is almost a literal version from Anto- nius Musa. This plant, we are told, should be gathered in the month of August ; no iron was to be used in digging it up ; and, when duly prepared, it was not only a power- ful antidote against many diseases, but also a sure and efficient defence against spectres, fearful sights, and dreams.* 3. In addition to this herbal, we find amongst Anglo- Saxon manuscripts several medical works and collections of receipts, which are interesting to us not only for the light they throw upon the early history of medicine in our island, but also because they make us acquainted with the classes of diseases chiefly prevalent among the Anglo- Saxons, and thus illustrate collaterally the state of society in general. This class of works, indeed, forms rather an important part of the remains of the literature of these found in the British Museum, MS. Cotton. Vitellius, C. iii. and MS. Harl. No. 585. Another of the same age is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The Harleian MS. No. G258, B. contains a copy of the same work, somewhat enlarged, in senai- Saxon, of about the end of ^e twelfth century. The CottonianMS. and the older Harleian MS. are full of drawings of plants, some of them not ill executed. • Deos wyrt Jpe man betonican nemneS, heo bit> cenned on msedum, and on clsenum dun-landum, and on ge-frij>edum stowum. Seo 'Seah gehw8ej>er ge Jiaes mannes sawle ge his lichoman ; hio hyne scyldej> wi'5 unhii-um nihtgen- dum and wi^S egeslicum ge-sihlSum and swefnum. And seo wyrt by); swyjie haligu ; and J>us J)u hi scealt niman, on Agustes mon'Se, butan iserne ; and Jionne Jiu hi ge-numene haebbe, alu-yse \>a. moldan (if, h^set hyre naii-wiht on ne clyfiie, and ))onne drig hi on sceade sw^'he Jjearle, and mid wyrttruman mid ealle ge-wyrt to duste, bruc hyre tonne, and hyre byrig, [jonne J)u bejiurfe. MS. Cotton. Vitell. C. in. fol. 16, r°. This plant, which they call betony, it grows in meadows, and on clean hill-lands, and in inclosed places. It is profitable both to man's soul and to his body : it shields him against nightly monsters, and against fearful visions and dreams. And the plant is very holy : and thus thou shalt take it, in the month of August, without iron ,• and when thou hast taken it, shake the mould off, so that none adhere to it, and then dry it in the shade very much, and with the root and all do it to powder, use it then, and taste it, when thou hast need. Introd.\ DISEASES most prevalent. 97 early ages, and deserves more attention than has been hitherto bestowed upon it. Among the manuscripts in the British Museum which are commonly quoted as the Royal Manuscripts, and which were formerly kept at St, James's Palace, we find a very curious book on medicine, splendidly written in the Anglo-Saxon language, apparently of the earlier part of the tenth century, and probably at tliat time the property of a physician of some eminence.* This book is divided into two parts, the first relating chiefly to the treatment of external diseases, and the second to inward diseases, and those of a more complicated nature. A large proportion of the cases here provided against, are outward wounds, arising sometimes from acci- dent, but more frequently from personal violence, the preva- lence of which we may assume from the minutely detailed penalties imposed upon it by the Anglo-Saxon laws. The numerous receipts against the bites of adders and other venomous reptiles, show that these latter were infinitely more numerous, and probably more various, than they are at present, and aid us in conceiving the picture which our island then presented to the eye, thinly inhabited, ill-culti- vated, and covered with marshes, woods, and wilds. We find also in the work above mentioned many receipts against the eiFects of poison ; and (which appears singular enough) there are more provisions against diseases of the eye than against any other complaint. It is perhaps in some measure to the prevalence of this latter class of dis- eases in former times, that we owe the preservation of the numerous superstitions connected with springs of water ; and the peasantry in many parts of our island still use them, not on account of the purity of the water, but with a belief in some peculiar attributes of the well itself. * MS. Reg. 12 D. xvii. VOL. I. H 98 MEDICAL PRACTICE. \Introd. 4. Although this treatise is not a herbal, stiU the ingre- dients mentioned are chiefly vegetables, though mixed up sometimes with other substances, such as ale and honey, of which latter commodity the consumption was very great among the Anglo-Saxons, and, less frequently, fat, oil, or wine. The powerful medicinal effects produced by vege- table mixtures, and the facility with which they were ob- tained, will easily explain the great reputation they enjoyed in an uncultivated age ; but the real causes of diseases were little known, the connexion between the complaint and the remedy was seldom or very imperfectly understood, and the success of the latter must have been extremely problematical. The object generally aimed at seems to have been to produce a sudden and strong impression on the system, the effect of which must often have proved fatal. One of the receipts against the head-ache, given in this book, directs that a salve composed of rue and mus- tard-seed should be applied to the side of the head which was free from pain, evidently with the expectation of pro- ducing a sudden nervous re-actiou.* So again, for the cure of sore eyes, we are directed to make a paste of strawberry plants and pepper, which is to be diluted for use in sweet wine.f There are few diseases of which the history is so ob- scure as that of the small-pox. This obscurity arises partly * Wijj Jion ilcan : ge-nim fset-ful grenre rudan leafa, and senepes ssedes cucler fulne, ge-gnid to-gsedere, do seges Jjset hwite to cucler fiilne, JjEet sio sealf sie )>icce, smire mid fel>ere on ]/& healfe \>e sar ue sie. MS. Reg. 12 D. xvii. fol. 7, v°. — Against the same (disease) : take a vessel full of the leaves of green rue, and a spoon/ul of mustard seed, pound them together, add a spoonful of the white of an egg, that the salve may he thick, smear it with a feather on that side which is not sore. f ))us m6n sceal eag-sealfe wyrcean : ge-nlm streaw-bevian wisau niojio- wearde, and piper, ge-cnuwa wel, do on clati, be-bind fseste, lege on ge-swet win, Iset ge-dreopan on )>a eagan Eenne dropan. lb. fol. 13, i°. — Thus shall a man make eye-salve i take the lower parts of strawberry plants, and pepper, knead them well together, put them in a cloth, lie them vpfast, lay them in sweet wine, let one drop fall on the eye. InirodJ] medical practice. 99 from the difl&culty of identifying the disease under the names which seem to have been given to it at different times. In our own language it was formerly called simply the pockes, the plural form of a word which signified nothing more than pustules. In the Anglo-Saxon treatise of which we are now speaking, we find two or three receipts against the " pockes" (wij5 poccum), which is perhaps the same disease we now call small-pox, although, by the number and sim- ple character of the prescriptions, it would appear either not to have been very prevalent, or else to have possessed a less dangeroxis character than that which it assumed in later times. On the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease, bleeding is ordered, and a bowl-full of melted butter is recommended to be taken inwardly ; if the pus- tules be broken out, the physician is directed to pick them all out carefully with a thorn, and to pour a drop of wine or alder syrup in the place, which process was to prevent them from leaving any marks.* The terrible effects of hydrophobia seem not to have been much known at this time ; two or three receipts are given against the bite of mad dogs, but they are all very simple, the most remark- able being plasters of boiled onions, ashes, fat, and honey, or of plantain, mulberries, and fat, to be applied to the wound.f * Wi}' poccum : swKe sceal mdnblod tetan, and drmcan amyite buteran bollan fulne ; gif hie ut'Slean, aelcne man sceall aweg adelfan mid Jjorne, and J>oune win o'SSe alor-drenc drype on innan, Jwnne ne beolS hy ge-syne. lb. fol. 40, r". — Against poclces ; very much shall one let bipod, and drink a howl-ful of melted butter ; if they strike out, one shall dig each away with a thorn, and then drop wine or alder-drink in, then they will not be seen. This last observation (the anxiety to hinder marks from being left) seems to identify the disease. t Wit" wede-hundes slite : . . . . twa cipan o^e Jireo, seot", ge-brsed 6a ahsan, meng wi^ rysle and hunige, lege 6n, . . . ^ft, ge-nlm weg-brsedan, moran, ge-cna wi> rysle, do on tset dolh, Jionne ascrypS hio {>set ater aweg. Jb. fol. 54, i". — Ayainst the bite of a mad-dog : taJce two onions or three, boil them, spread them in ashes, miw them with fat and honey, lay it on. . • H 2 100 SURGICAL OPERATIONS. [Introd. 5. Surgical operations, among the Anglo-Saxons, were few and rude. They consisted chiefly in bleeding (the success of which was supposed to depend less on the con- dition of the patient, than on the choice of the proper time for its performance, according to certain calendars of good and evil days) ; the application of poultices to draw out humours and reduce inflammations ; setting broken bones, and staunching wounds. Honey was the sub- stance generally used for cleansing external wounds; be- fore application, it was to be warmed at the fire, and mixed with salt.* Another operation, described in the Anglo- Saxon medical treatise, gives us no very favourable idea of surgical practice : " if a man have a limb cut ofi", be it finger, or foot, or hand, if the marrow be out, take sheep's marrow boiled, lay it to the other marrow, bind it very well at night."t Perhaps the most scientific prescription in the whole volume is a medicated bath, ordered to be used for the cure of a disease which was probably the dropsy ; this bath was to consist of a strong decoction of various herbs, among which are enumerated wild marjoram, broom, ivy, mugwort, and henbane ; while immersed in it, the patient was to drink a decoction of other herbs, among which we find the all-efiicient herb betony, with centaury, agrimony, red-nettles, sage, herb Alexander, &c. ; and the liquor in which these latter were Again, take way-broad (plantain) and mulierries, knead them with fat, put this on the wound, then it drives away the venom. * To wunde clsesnunge : ge-nim clsene hunig, ge-wyrme to fyre, ge-do Jjonne on clsene fset, do sealt to, and hrere o\i J^set hit hsebbe briwes hicnesse, smire l>a wunde mid, Jjonne fuUaU hio. lb. fol. 34, v°. — For cleansing of a wound : take clean honey, warm it at the fire, then put it in a clean vessel, add salt to it, and stir it till it has the thickness of pottage, smear the wound with it, then it cleanses it. \ Gif men si lim 6i aslegen, finger o'SSe f(5t oJ>)>e hand : gif )>8et mearh ute sie, ge-nim sceapes mearh ge-soden, lege on J>8et o^er mearh, awrij) swiiSe wel neahterne. lb. fol. 36, r°. Introd.] MEDICAL superstitions. 101 to be boiled, was one that we should hardly expect to find mentioned at that time, namely, Welsh ale.* 6. The Anglo-Saxon treatise in the Royal Library shows, in a very remarkable manner, that the practice of medicine, amongst our forefathers, as well as among the other branches of the great Teutonic race, was a strange mixture of science and superstition, even in the hands of its most skilful professors. The ingredients which the physician used, frequently owed their virtues to some accidental circumstance with which, in the minds of the people, they were connected ; as in the case of one receipt in which those particular herbs only are declared to be efl5cient " which grow spontaneously, and are not planted by the hand of man."t Much of their efiEciency also de- pended upon the day on which they were administered, or on which the patient fell ill, and this again was regulated by the changes of the moon. The Anglo-Saxon manu- scripts contain many lists of the attributes of each day of the lunar month, as they were supposed to be good or evil for sickness and the various operations of life. For example, they inform us that " The first day of the moon is propitious for all kinds of work ; he who falls ill on that day, will languish long, and suffer much ; the infant * Bsejj wij> t>am miclan lice : eolone, brdra, ifig, muc-wyrt, self-)>ODe, beolone, cottuc, efelastan, wyl 6n wsetere swij>e, ge6t on bydene, and sitte 6n. Drince )>isne drenc wi]>)>on : betonican, curmille, hofe, agrimonia, spring- wyrt, reade netle, elehtre, salvie, singrene, alexandria, sie ge-worht 6f Wiliscdm ealalS, drince on ^am ba)>e, and ne laete 6a J>one e)>m. Id. fol. 29, v°. — Welsh ale is mentioned at a stiU earlier date in the laws of Ine, § 70, and (A.D. 852) in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Wulfred scolde gife twa tunnan fuUe hlutres alotS, and ten mittan Wselsces alotJ — Wulfred should give two tuns full of clear ale, and ten mittan or measures of Welsh ate. f eft wi> >on Ucan : ge-nim tun-cersan sio t>e self weaxeS and mdn ne ssewlS, do in J)a nosu Jiset se stsenc msege on Jiaet heafod and Jjset seaw. MS. Reg. 12 D. xvii. fol. 8, v". — Again, against the same (i. e. a iroien head) : take of gcirden cress that which grows of itself, and man sows not, put it in the nose that the smell and the juice may go into the head. 102 MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS. {^Introd. who is then born will live. The second is also a pros- perous day, good for buying, selling, embarking on ship- board, beginning a journey, sowing, grafting, arranging a garden, ploughing land ; theft committed on this day will be soon and easily detected ; a person who falls sick will soon recover ; the child born will grow fast, but will not live long The fourth day of the moon is good for beginning works, as building mills and opening drains ; the child born on this day wiUbe a great politician The sixth day of the moon is a favourable day for hunt- ing The eighth day is good for changing bees ; but he who falls sick on this day will suffer a long illness, and will not recover A child born on the tenth day of the moon will be a great traveller ; and, if born on the twenty-first, he will become a bold robber."* These superstitious feelings were not always confined to the manner or time of treating diseases, but they also ex- tended to the diseases themselves. The causes of many outward affections of the body were too apparent to be easily overlooked, but inward diseases often assumed a more mysterious character, which baffled the utmost skill of the physician. They were then believed to be caused immediately by evil beings, the elves, according to the creed of the people, or the demons, according to that of the monks ; or else they were produced by the charm of the witch, or by the sinister influence of the evU eye.f * MS. Cotton. Titus, D. .xxvjii. fol. 27, etc. t Mugwort (artemisia) was believed to possess extraordinary virtues against sucli visitations. t>onne hwa si'Sfet onginnan wille, 'Sonne ge-nime he him on hand J)as wyrte artemesiam, and hsebbe mid him, ^onne ne ongyt he na micel to ge-swynce \>xa si'Ses ; and eac heo aflig'S deoful-seocnyssa, and on ham huse i>e he hy inne hsefIS, heo forbyt yfele lacnunga, and eac heo awende'5 yfelra manna eagan. MS. Cotton. Vitel. C. in. fol. 21, v°. and MS. Harl. No. 585, fol. 18, v°. — When any man will tegin a journey, let him take in his hand the herb artemisia, and have it with him, then he wilt net be much fatigued in hisjuuriiey; andalso it drioes away deoil-sicknesses. Introd.] CHARMS. 103 Fevers, more particularly, were attributed to such causes, and this class of diseases, which occupies a considerable portion of the second book of the great Anglo-Saxon medical work, introduces us there to a numerous collection of charms and incantations, and to a list of diseases which received their names from the imaginary beings who were supposed to have sent them. In these cases, the phy- sician trusted no longer to the simple virtues of his herbs ; but he sought to drive away these unwelcome visitors by religious exorcisms ; or to pacify them, and induce them to carry their visitations to some other object, by means of counter-charms, which were derived from a still more su- perstitious age. The latter object was generally effected by charming the disease into a stick, or a piece of wood, which was thrown across a highway, as an effectual separation from the patient, and there it waited to be communicated to the first person who picked up the stick : this process, still familiar to the peasantry in the less enlightened parts of England, was, among the Anglo-Saxons, an approved remedy in the hands of the professors of the heaUng art.* One example from the medical book we have so often quoted, will be sufficient to illustrate the character of the religious charms : it is a " drink " composed of herbs for and in the house where it is Jcept, it hinders evil cures, and also it averts the eyes of evil men. So in the great medical book, Wit miclum gonge ofer land ; t>y Ises he teorige, mucg-wyrt nime him on hand, o]>)>e do on his sco, Jjy Ises he mel>ige, and );onne he niman wille, ser sunnan npgange cwe)je ))as word serest, Tfllamie artemesia, ne lassus siim in via, gesena hie Jionne J)a up teo. MS. Reg. 12 D. xvii. fol. 57, r". — Against a great journey over land : lest he become faint, let him ta/re mugwort in his hand, or put it in his shoe lest he become weary, and when he will gather it, before sunrise, say these words first — Tollam te, artemesia, ne lassus sim in via — loudly, when thou pullest it up. * WiJ) l^on gif hunta ge-bite mannan, Jjset is swilra, sleah Jjry scearpan neah from weardes, Iset yrnan J^tet blod 6n grenne sticcan hseslenne, weorp lionne ofer weg aweg, J>onne ne bil? nan yfel. MS. Reg. 12 D. xvii. fol. 43, v°. 104 ANGLO-SAXON RUNES. [Introd. a person labouring under a disease caused by evil spirits, and is to be administered in a church bell ■• — " Take thrift grass (?), yarrow, elehtre, betony, penny-grass, carruc, fane, fennel, church-wort, christmas-wort, lovage ; make them into a potion with clear ale, sing seven masses over the plants daily, and add holy water, and drip the draught into every drink that he shall drink afterwards, and sing the psalm Beati immaculati, and Exsurgat, and Salvum me fac, Deus, and then let him drink the draught out of the church bell, and after he has drunk it, let the mass priest sing over him Domine sancte pater omnipotens."* 7. The subject of charms is intimately connected with the history of the Anglo-Saxon alphabet. It is well known that what we generally term Anglo-Saxon letters, with the exception of Jj, fth), ^S, (dhJ,s.nA p {w), are nothing more than the common Roman characters, as they were in- troduced by the missionaries, and used in the early ma- nuscripts. Our ancestors, previous to their conversion, possessed an alphabet pecuUar to themselves, the letters of which were in their own language designated by the name of runes, and which, before their literature was committed to writing, served all the purposes to which they were accustomed to apply them ; for these were con- fined to an occasional inscription, or to certain magical * Drenc wij> feond-sceocum men, of ciric-bellan to drincanne : gyjrife glees, gearwe, elehtre, betonice, attorlal^e, carrCic, fane, finul, ciric-ragu, Cristes- miieles ragu, lufestice, ge-wyrc Jjoue drenc 6f hluttrum ealaS, ge-singe seofon msessan ofer K"n wyrtum dogerleac, and [do] halig wseter to, and drype 6n selcne drincan tone drenc Jie he drincan wille ^ft, and singe })one sealm, Jieati inmaculati, and Exurc/At, and Salvum me f/ic Deus, and );onne drlnce \>one drenc 6f ciric-bellan, and se msesse-preost him singe sefter {>am drence Ks ofer, Domine sancte pater omnipotens. lb. fol. SI, v". It is rather uncertain what plants are designated by some of the names in the fore- going receipt. It may be observed here, that, in quoting from inedited Saxon treatises, in the present Essay, the accents are given precisely as they stand in the manuscripts. Introd.] ANGLO-SAXON RUNES. 105 phrases that were engraved on their arms, and on pieces of wood, or other materials, to be carried about their persons. From this practice, and from the rarity of in- scriptions, the letters themselves were an object of super- stition, and their name became equivalent to magic and mystery. Their form rendered them inconvenient for writ- ing extensively ; but long after the conversion of the Anglo- Saxons, the runic alphabet was preserved, and we find it in manuscripts written as late a s the twelfth century. Al- though these letters were still used for various superstitious purposes, yet they were not unfrequently applied to other objects. As each letter had a significant name, we often find it used playfuUy in serious poems, instead of the word which designates it, as, for instance, in one of the poems of the Vercelli Manuscript, and even in the Ro- mance of Beowulf. Among the riddles in the Exeter Manuscript, and in the Metrical Salomon and Saturn, these letters are frequently inserted with the intention of increasing the obscurity of the subject, sometimes with the signification of words, at others merely as letters, while in some cases the two systems seem to be mixed, and we are often obUged to read them backwards, before we can discover the mystery which is concealed under them> The runic alphabet, and the signification of its letters, form also the subject of a very curious Anglo- ' Saxon poem printed from a manuscript, now lost, by Hickes in his Thesaurus, and reprinted by WilUam Grimm in a small treatise in German on the Teutonic Runes. Many of the crosses and other strange marks which are found among the superstitious medical receipts, represent probably the Runic charms of an earlier date. 106 CHANGES OF THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. [Intvod. § VIII. Fate of tfie Anglo-Saxon Lanffuaffe and Literature. 1. During the period of which any written monuments in the Anglo-Saxon language are preserved, extending from the eighth century to the Norman conquest, it seems not to have undergone any great change. But soon after \ the entrance of the Normans, its use as a written language was superseded, first by the Latin tongue, which, in- troduced by the foreign ecclesiastics, again took the station which it had occupied in the eighth century, and continued to flourish until the middle of the thir- teenth ; and secondly, by the Anglo-Norman, a Neo- Latin dialect, which was the vernacular tongue of the invaders, and was not laid aside until the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is probable that the Anglo- Saxon tongue preserved its purity until the beginning of .the twelfth century; but it then began to experience the influence of the great political revolution which had been effected in England. It was by degrees subjected to a general organic change of many of its letters ; syllables were cut short in the pronunciation ; and the final termi- nations and inflections of words began to be softened down, until at a later period they were entirely lost. In the latter years of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, which closes with A.D. 1155, we see that the language had already degenerated much from what it was fifty years before ; and the change is still more apparent in the fragments lately published by Sir Thomas Phillipps. We have scarcely any other documents in the English tongue which can be ascribed with certainty to the twelfth century; but when we come to the age of Layamon, in the earlier I half of the thirteenth, we find the transformation so com- l plete, that it may be doubted whether the uncorrupted ; language of the Anglo-Saxon writings could then be Introd.'] DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS. 107 i understood without much difficulty. During the thir- teenth century, this organic cliange proceeded so rapidly, that there is quite as wide a difference between the language of Layamon and that which was written at the beginning ) of the fourteenth century, as there had been between the former and that written in the tenth, or as there is between the English language as written in the reign of ■ Edward the Second, and the same tongue as we possess kit at the present day. The form of our language during > the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth century is 'generally termed Semi-Saxon; from that period to the f time of the Reformation it has received from modern J philologists the name of Middle-English. 2. The greatest destruction of Anglo-Saxon books hap- pened during the numerous inroads of the Danes, from the ninth to the eleventh century, when so many of the richest libraries were committed to the flames, along with the monasteries in which they were deposited. Under the rule of the Normans, from the Conquest to the beginning of the thirteenth century, our old chroniclers relate many stories illustrative of the contempt with which the Anglo- Norman barons regarded the language of those whose rights they had usurped ; but the more serious disputes re- lated to charters rather than books, the latter (except when from time to time some English monk took them down) were allowed to lie neglected in the dust of monastic hbraries, and the only losses which they sus- tained seem to have been the natural consequence of dirt and damp. But after this period the case was entirely changed, and, as they could no longer be read even by Englishmen, they had to suffer from various causes. A few monastic catalogues are still preserved in manuscripts of that age, and they contain the titles of many Anglo-Saxon books, whicli, however, are generally 108 DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS. [IntVod. described as being " old and useless."* Accordingly, we find that when the monks were in want of vellum, they scrupled not to take one of these ''old and useless" Anglo-Saxon manuscripts ; and, having carefully scraped out the original letters, to make use of it for writing a new work, which they considered more important and necessary. One of these palimpsests is preserved in the Library of Jesus College, Cambridge, in which a splendid ^ copy of the Anglo-Saxon Homilies of Alfric has been ( erased to make room for Latin decretals, although the .destruction of the original was not so complete as to •hinder us from tracing here and there a few words, particularly about the margins of the leaves. Some- times, also, when the monks were at a loss for boards to bind their books, they took a few folios of these use- less old manuscripts, and pasted them together ; as ■ was the case with the leaves discovered by Sir Thomas Phillipps in the covers of a volume preserved in Worces- ter Cathedral. The loss which Anglo-Saxon literature sustained by these means must have been very great. At the time of the Reformation, when, by the dissolution of the monasteries, their libraries of manuscripts were scat- ' tered in all directions, the number which perished cannot now be calculated, though the fragments which are found in the old bindings of books are sufficient to convince us that it was not small.' The Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, however, suiFered much less at this time than the others, ' * See, for example, a catalogue of the books in the Library at Glaston- bury, made in 1248, and printed byWanley, in the Introduction to his Cata- logue of Saxon Manuscripts, from a MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. We find several entries like the following : — Item, duo Anglica, vetusta et inutUia. Item, Sermones Anglici, vetusti, iuutiles. Passionale Sanctorum Anglice scriptnm, vetust. inutile. The second of these items was a volume of Anglo-Saxon homilies. [ntrod.] STUDY of anglo-saxon. 109 owing to the eagerness of the Reformers to collect them ; yet we stiU. find a few fragments in the covers of books printed during the sixteenth century. 3. The two great collectors of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the sixteenth century were Matthew Parker, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and Sir Robert Cotton. At the time of the Reformation, when church property was not always regarded with the same respect as at present, Par-( ker found no difficulty in transferring most of the Anglo- S Saxon manuscripts which were found in the libraries of ; cathedrals and churches into his own collection. Sir Robert Cotton was equally successful in gathering toge- ther those which had passed, by the plunder of the monas- teries, into the stalls of booksellers or the hands of private individuals ; and these two libraries, the former now pre- served in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and the latter in the British Museum, are still the richest in Anglo-Saxon literature. Next in the scale we must place the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with the University Library at Cam- bridge, and one or two of the college libraries. The Royal Library in the British Museum is perhaps the richest of them all in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of Latin books, and this, as well as the Harleian Library, and some other public and private collections, possess also a few scattered volumes written in the vernacular tongue. 4. It has been already observed that pubUc attention was first directed to the remains of our Anglo-Saxon fore- fathers, by the support which they aflforded to the argu- ments of the Reformers.* Soon after the middle of the six- teenth century. Fox the martyrologist, and William L'Isle, * It has been said, that so early as the Afteenth century, the monks of Tavistock applied themselves to the study of the Anglo-Saxon language, and that they even printed a grammar. No traces, however, of such a book can now be found ; and it may have been a mere error arising from the inde- finite manner in which some people formerly applied the terra Anglo-Saxon. 110 STUDY OF ANGLO-SAXON. [IntVOd. under the auspices of ^rchbishop Parker, prosecuted the study of the Anglo-Saxon language, and published the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels and some of the Homi- lies. But their knowledge of the language was very imper- fect, and confined entirely to the prose writings ; for the difficulties they had to encounter, without grammar or dic- tionary, were too formidable to allow of their making much progress. About the middle of the seventeenth century flou- rished Spelman, Gibson, Whelock, and Junius, who gave to the study of the Anglo-Saxon language a new character. The first of these scholars was preparing to establish an Anglo-Saxon professorship in the University of Cam- bridge, when his intentions were thwarted by the turbu- lent times which followed. Sir Henry Spelman published the Ecclesiastical Laws in 1639; and his son edited the Anglo-Saxon Psalter in the following year. In 1643, Whelock printed Alfred's translation of Bede, with part of the Chronicle. Junius gave an edition of the poetry attributed to Csedmon, in 1655. In 1659, Somner pub- lished the first Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. From this period to the end of the century, numerous distinguished scholars were working zealously to bring to light new documents of Anglo-Saxon literature, and to facihtate the study of the language. Among others we may enumerate Bishop Gibson, Thwaites, Rawlinson, Hickes, and his niece Elizabeth Elstob. In 1689, Hickes published the first Anglo-Saxon Grammar, a book containing, aS* might naturally be expected, many errors, which later discoveries, and a more extensive reading, have corrected, but which, nevertheless, was then of great service to the cause of Anglo-Saxon philology. In 1692, Bishop Gib- son printed a more complete edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ; and in 1698, Rawlinson published King Alfred's Translation of Boethius, which was followed in 1 699 by Tntrod.'] study of anglo-saxon. Ill Thwaites's edition of the Heptateuch. In 1701, an An- glo-Saxon vocabulary was published in an octavo volume by Thomas Benson ; and four years afterwards, appeared the celebrated Thesaurus of Dr. Hickes. 5. After the beginning of the eighteenth century, the study of the Anglo-Saxon language soon fell into neglect ; and it was long regarded as a mere toy for the amusement of antiquaries. The only works of any importance which were given to the world during this long period, were the Laws, by Wilkins, in 1721 and 1737 ; Alfred's Bede, by Smith, in 1722; and the Great Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, by Lye and Manning, in 1772, a monument of unwearied industry, but disfigured by a multitude of errors. In 1773, Daines Barrington published an ill executed edition of King Alfred's translation of Orosius. In 1750, the Anglo- Saxon Professorship was founded at Oxford, and brought into effect in 1795. 6. We owe the revival of the study of the Anglo-Saxon language and literature at the present day, in some mea- sure to foreign scholars, whose attention was frequently given to it at the latter end of the last, and the beginning of the present century. In 1815, Thorkelin, a Dane, published the first edition of the Romance of Beowulf, which is, however, a very incorrect book. A few years later, Erasmus Rask at Copenhagen, and Dr. James Grimm in Germany, began to apply a more enlarged system of philology to the language. About the same time, the literature of our forefathers began to attract the attention of scholars in England, and was industriously Cultivated by Conybeare, Ingram, and Bosworth; and, after the space of a century, the place formerly occupied by Eliza- beth Elstob, was supplied by a worthy successor in Miss Gurney. The systems of Rask and Grimm, as applied to Anglo-Saxon philology, have since taken a more substan- 112 STUDY OF ANGLO-SAXON, [Ifltrod. tial form under the hands of two native scholars, Thorpe and Kemble. Thorpe's translation of Rask is the best Grammar which has yet appeared. A portable Dictionary has been published recently by Dr. Bosworth ; so that the impediments which formerly hindered the study of the Anglo-Saxon language are now entirely removed. Yet still, from the deficiency in many classes of documents, and from the recent period at which it has been studied in a true philological spirit, it is a language which is but imper- fectly known. BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA LITERARIA. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. VOL. t. BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA LITERARIA. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. SECTION I. — British Writehs of the Sixth CenturV. GILDAS. The catalogue of Anglo-Saxon writers begins with a name of very doubtful authority, which is supposed to have been borne by one of that people whom the Anglo- Saxons had driven from their homes. The small district of Alcluyd (Dumbarton), where the vanquished Britons long held a limited rule, was once governed by a king named Can, or Ken,* who had no less than four-and-twenty sons. Of this number, one, called Gildas,t having displayed an early attachment to learning, was placed under the care of St. Iltutus, a cousin of the famous King Arthur. One of his feUow scholars, then a child like himself, was Sampson, afterwards Archbishop of York. Gildas soon became celebrated for his rigid piety ; and, when the teaching of Iltutus was no longer sufl&cient to satisfy his thirst for learning, he left the shores of Bri- * Mr. Stevenson's text of the life by Caradoc of Lancarvan, made after the two manuscripts in the British Museum, calls the father of Gildas Nau. There are, however, strong reasons for believing that this is only an error of the manuscripts ; for not only does the biography by the monk of Ruys call him Can ; but also Capgrave, and, still earlier, Giraldus Cambrensis (in Vit. David.), Johannes Glastoniensis (edited by Thomas Heame), and the MS; Life of St. Cadoc (MSS. Cotton. Vespas. A. xiv. fol. 29, v°. and Titus, D. XXII. fol. 95) , agree in giving him the name of Can or Kan ; and all thesd writers seem to have taken what they say of Gildas fi'om the tract by Caradoc* t In Bede and Alcuin, the name is written Gildus, I 2 116 GiLDAs. \_Sixth Cent. tain to pursue his studies in France. Returning thence, after a residence of seven years, he opened a school in his native land, which was crowded with scholars from all parts of the island. Gildas preached every Sunday to a numerous congrega- tion in a church on the coast of Pembrokeshire, near the promontory which was then called Pepidiauc, but which has since received the name of St. David's Head. One day, as the preacher was in the midst of his exhortations, to the equal astonishment of himself and his disciples, he found himself deprived of the power of continuing the ser- mon which he had begun. Suspecting that this impediment might be caused by some one of the persons who were as- sembled to hear him, he ordered them all to go out of the church ; and then, alone, as he believed, he made another attempt to proceed with his discourse. This second attempt was as vain as the former ; but he now discovered that a British damsel, far advanced in pregnancy with the child who was afterwards to be the patron saint of Wales, had taken shelter within the doorway from the crowd which pressed without. Gildas ordered the intruder, whose name is said to have been Nonnita, to leave the church ; and having called in his congregation, he continued his preaching without further interruption, and at the conclu- sion broke out in prophetic exclamations on the sanctity of the infant which was shortly to see the light. The fame of Gildas became every day more widely spread; and St. Brigit, whose sanctity was now giving celebrity to Ireland, invited him to that island, where he was received with open arms by the Irish monarch. He there astonished every one, by the number and greatness of the miracles he performed ; and he not only restored the Irish church, far degenerated from what it had been in the days of St. Patrick, to its original purity, but he Sixth Cent,] gildas. 11 7 founded many monasteries. Whilst Gildas was thus labouring in Ireland, and whilst he was rector of the school at Armagh, his three-and-twenty brothers were engaged in obstinate warfare with King Arthur, whose supremacy they refused to acknowledge; and he there received, M'ith deep sorrow, the news of the death of his eldest brother named Huel, who had been slain by Arthur in the isle of Minau. It was not long after Arthur's triumph over the chief- tains thus opposed to him, that Gildas left Ireland on his return to England, bringing with him a wonderful bell, which he intended to carry as a present to the pope. On his way he made a visit to St. Cadoc, who was then living at Lancarvan, and who made several vain attempts to obtain the bell. In the mean time, the arrival of Gildas having become known, the bishops, abbots, and clergy assembled together ; and, fearing apparently that he was come to revenge his brother's death, they persuaded King Arthur to pacify his anger. The king obeyed their admo- nition, received forgiveness at the hands of Gildas, and repented during the remainder of his life that he had slain his own most inveterate enemy. Gildas continued his journey to Rome, working mira- cles at every station at which he rested. From Rome he went to Ravenna, and then, on his return towards his native land, he came to Ruys in Britany, at the period when Childeric the son of Meroveus was King of the Franks. Gildas, who had now reached his thirtieth year, resolved to spend here the remainder of his life in retirement; and he laid the foundation of the monastery of St. Gildas de Ruys, so well-known in after ages. But, as his biographer quaintly observes, " it is not easy to conceal a lighted candle under a bushel," and the fame of the first abbot of Ruys was soon spread over the neigh- 118 GiLDAS. [Sixth Cent. bouring districts. According to the tradition there cur- rent among the monks, who were jealous of the pos- session of his relics, Gildas ended his days in this monastery. But his own countrymen gave a very different version of the story. According to them, when Gildas arrived at Rome, and delivered his bell into the hands of the pope, the latter ordered him to carry it back and present it to St. Cadoc ; and it long afterwards continued to be one of the wonders of Wales, on account of its efficiency in discovering theft and exposing falsehood. Gildas and Cadoc now be- came united in stricter friendship ; they left Lancarvan to- gether, in order to spend the remainder of their lives in soli- tude. For this purpose they chose two islands in the river Severn, known at present by the names of Steepholm and Flatholm, Gildas settling ontheisland nearest to the English side of the river, and Cadoc preferring that which was more approximate to Wales. Here however they were not allowed to remain long in quiet, for a party of northern pirates entered the river, ravaged the islands, and drove the two hermits from their homes. Gildas escaped to the isle of Avalon, since better known by the name of Glas- tonbury, where, according to most authors, he wrote the historical tract which bears his name. Even here Gildas was not destined to enjoy complete tranquillity. Somersetshire was then governed by a tyran- nical king named Meluas, who had carried away by force Guenever, Arthur's frail queen, and had sought refuge and concealment with his prize at Glastonbury, as being a place strong by its position amid the marshes which surrounded it. Indeed, it was not till after searching a year in vain, that the indignant husband found the place of their retreat; and then he raised an army and laid siege to the island, But now religion inter- Sixth Cent.] gildas. liy fered to soften the rudeness of warlike times, Gildas and the abbot of Glastonbury presented themselves, with a train of raonks, between the hostile armies ; they expos- tulated earnestly with both parties, and finally reconciled them, by persuading Meluas to deliver up the lady, and Arthur to forgive the injury which had been inflicted upon him. After their departure, Gildas built himself an oratory on the river side at a short distance from Glastonbury, and secluded himself entirely from the world. When he died, the monks carried his body to their abbey, and buried it in the middle of the pavement of St. Mary's church. Such are the outlines of the life of Gildas, as given by his two biographers, Caradoc of Lancarvan in the twelfth century, and an anonymous monk of the abbey of St. Gildas de Ruys who is said to have lived in the ele- venth.* These outlines are in the original biographies * The life of Gildas by the monk of Ruys, attributed (on what authority we do not know) to the eleventh century, was first published by Johannes a Bosco, in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis, from an imperfect MS., and reprinted by the BoUandists in their Acta Sanctorum. A complete te.\twas afterwards given by Mabillon in the Acta Sanct. Ord. Benedict, i. 138. The life by Caradoc of Lancarvan lias been recently printed , for the first time, by Mr. Stevenson, introductory to his edition of the work attributed to Gildas. The editor wishes to deprive Caradoc of the honour of having written it, and he attempts to show that it must be a work of earlier date. The arguments brought forward for this purpose seem, however, rather incon- clusive. In the first place, we think he has by no means set in a fair light the di- rect authority for attributing it to Caradoc of Lancarvan, when he states simply that " in tracing backwards this assumption, we cannot advance higher than the time of Henry the Eighth, when the name of Caradoc was prefixed to the manuscript copy now in the Royal Library in the British Museum." For on reference to this manuscript, we find that it is a transcript of some older manuscript, and that the name is not prefixed to it, but is given in the fol- lowing couplet at the end, evidently copied along with the rest from that older MS., and identical with the couplet which is printed in Usher :— Na[n]carbanensis dictamina sunt Caratoci;' Qui legat emendat, placet illi compositori. In all probability this is the same MS. which Usher used j and the first word 120 GiLDAs. [Sixth Cent. filled up with numerous miracles, most of which are too trifling to l^e repeated. It will be observed that, like his early biographers, we have cautiously avoided men- tioning dates, reserving them for a discussion which the chronology of the life of Gildas, and the doubts which may justly be entertained respecting its authenticity now require ; for we are by no means satisfied with the asser- tion that Archbishop Usher " has shown that the details of this legend are consistent with chronology." Before entering into this discussion, it maybe observed, that four of the persons against whom Gildas particularly directed his book, are, according to the old Welsh chronologies, the four kings who succeeded one another during the four- and-twenty years which followed the death of King Arthur, this latter event being by them placed in a.d. 542. is changed to Lancarianensis by a liand of his time. There is, however, a copy of this tract in a MS. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of the thirteenth century, vhich we think ought to have been the foundation of the printed text, as the oldest of the other copies does not seem to be more ancient than the latter part of the fourteenth. To this earliest copy, the above couplet is found affixed, as well as to a more modern copy in the same librai-y. We have, therefore, a positive assertion at an early period that it was written by Caradoc. The internal evidence brought fonvard to support the contrary opinion, is of veiy little force ; the introduction of Arthur and Guenever is sufficient to justify us in saying it could not have been •written before the Romances were in fashion. It is argued that this life of Gildas gives Arthur a more humble character than he possesses in the writers of the twelfth centuiy ; as, for instance, by " not scrupling to call him res rebellis," in speaking of his wars with the brothers of Gildas and with Meluas. But, in mediffival Latin rex rebellis does not mean a rebel king, but a king who is provoked to make var on another, or who does it to repel an aggression, and it is a term that might have been applied to Arthur in all the glory with which romance has clothed him. There is another life of Gildas in French, in a MS. of the beginning of the fourteenth century, lately acquired bythe British Museum (" Ici commence la vie monseigneur S. Gildas," MS. Egerton, No. 745, fol. 77, v°). Itisvery legendary. Gildas is here said to have been a native of Bretagne, and to have been educated under St. Phylebert, " qui done estoit abes de Tournay." Sixth Ceni.1 gildas, 121 We have no information relating to the exact year of the birth of Gildas^ except that given in a passage of his own book, which we will leave out of consideration for the present. According to the narrative of the monk of Ruys, he was placed while a child under the tuition of Iltutus. Now according to his own legend, which is of about the same age and authority as that of Gildas by Caradoc, Iltutus was the cousin of King Arthur, and was himself converted to piety by the preaching of St. Cadoc, who, according to his legend, was contemporary both with King Arthur and with Mailgun, the fourth in succession after him.* This king, according to the Welsh annals, reigned in the latter half of the sixth century, and thei'efore we may very fairly place the conversion of Iltutus about the middle of the first half of the same century, and Gildas must have been a child under his tuition at a somewhat later period. Yet, according to ^Caradoc and the writer of the Life of St. Cadoc, it cannot have been more than a year or two after this same date, that Gildas, already a middle-aged man, (for he had been on the Continent seven years, had taught in Wales and predicted the birth of St. David, and had founded monasteries in Ireland,) made his visit to that saint on his way to Rome. Moreover, Sampson, who, ac- cording to the monk of Ruys, was a child along with Gildas after A.D. 525 (according to this calculation), was in truth, as we know from other sources, driven, when an old man, from his archbishopric of York by the invasion of the Saxons about the year 500. f Again, when, according to the narrative of Caradoc of Lancarvan, Gildas /bretoW the birth of St. David, he could not have been less than twenty-five years of age, and was probably more. Now St. David was the uncle of King » See the legend of Cadoc, MS. Cotton. Vespas. A. xiv. fol. 41, v", f Lappenbsrg, Geschichte vpn England, vol. i. p. 121. 122 GiLDAs. [Sixth Cent Arthur; and he presided, as bishop, over a synod in 519, the object of which was to root out the seeds of Pelagianism. He must, therefore, at that period have been advanced in years. At Arthur's death, Gildas had thus already out- lived three generations; yet we must extend his life through about twenty-four years more, to satisfy the conditions imposed by his own book. The next important incident in the hfe of Gildas, is his visit to Ireland, whither he was invited by St. Brigit, who is said herself to have settled at Glastonbury in A.D. 488 ; and yet while Gildas was with Brigit in Ireland, of course previous to her arrival at Glastonbury, his brothers in England were at war with King Arthur, who at that date could not have been born ! * Gildas went from Ireland to Rome. On his way he visited Cadoc, which coxild scarcely have occurred before A.D. 530. At the time he arrived in Britany, in the reign of Childeric, he was thirty years of age. Now Childeric reigned from 458 to 481 ; and if M-e take the middle point of his reign as the date of Gildas's visit, we shall find him in his thirtieth year about A.D. 470, and we must carry back the date of his birth to the year 440, so that he would be at least ninety years of age when he reached Rome. It has been observed too that the legend of the monk of Ruys places at the date when Gildas settled in Britany a certain transaction between two chiefs, Conomorus and Werochus, of whom the formerj as we learn from Gregory of Tours, died in 561, and the other did not occupy the station, which he is represented as holding, before 577-t * The monk of Ruys calls the king, who at this time governed all Ireland, Ammerieus, perhaps the Ammireach who, according to the Annals of Tigernach, died in 569. t Gregor. Tur. Hist. Franc, lib. iv, c. 20, and lib, v.0. 16, Sixth Cent.'] gildas. 123 Lastly, the historians of Glastonbury, William of Malmsbury and Johannes Glastoniensis, * place the death of Gildas in A.D. 512, too early to allow his having had any transactions with King Arthur, or of his being the author of the book which was directed against Arthur^s successors, and written, according to Ralph Dicetus, f in 581, or according to the list of historians, which is common in manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in 5844 It would certainly not be easy to conceive a greater number of chronological inconsistencies in a much larger compass than we here find crowded together within the life of one man. Archbishop Usher endeavours to over- come the difficulty by following Bale in making two persons of the name of Gildas, one of whom he names Gildas Albanius, because his father is called rex Alba- nia, and the other Gildas Badonicus, because he was born in the year of the siege of Bath ; and Usher has been followed by some other writers. In pursuance of this suj)position, the life by the monk of Ruys is conceived to belong to Gildas Albanius, and that by Caradoc to Gildas Badonicus. It must be avowed, how- ever, that this is a very dangerous mode of solving historical difficulties, for we have no good authority for making such a division; on the contrary, all the early writers who mention the name of Gildas, are unanimous in declaring him to be Gildas historicus, the writer of the * Will. Malmsb. de Antiq. Glaston. (in Hearne's edit, of Adam de Domerham) p. 18, et Johannis Glastoniensis Histor. ed. Hearne, p. 73. The latter writer does little more than copy the former, in what be says about Gildas. t In Twisden's Decern Scriptores. X Gilda, Britonum gesta flebili sermone descripsit, anno incarnationis verbi, d.lxxxiiij. MSS. Cotton, Faustin. A. vni, fol. 101. -v". and Claud, E. viii. fol, 22, r». ] 24 GiLDAS. [Sixth Cent. tract which is still preserved, and they appear to be unacquainted with any other person bearing that name. Indeed, the supposition that there were two men bearing this name, will only partially aid us in solving the difficulty, and therefore other writers have ventured to propose six or seven.* The lives are not only inconsistent with each other, but each is inconsistent with itself; for it is alto- gether as improbable that, according to the narrative of Caradoc, his Gildas had prophesied the birth of St. David and had outlived him by many years, particularly if, as we are told, St. David himself lived a hundred and forty-six years ; f as it is imiDossible that the Gildas of the monk of Ruys should have been a child under Iltutus after A.D. 525, and yet have been thirty years of age in Britany, in 470. If the life of Gildas had contained one or two such errors only, we might have ventured to reject the errors, and consider the rest as tolerably authentic ; but the mass of errors which is here presented to us, compels us to the only rational supposition, that the whole is a fable, created probably during the latter part of the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, the period at which so many other fabulous narratives took their rise. It is not the chronological errors alone which shake our faith in the story; for the whole narrative is inconsistent with all our notions of the character of the age in which Gildas is said to have lived. In proof of this we need only point out such incidents as his mission to carry a bell to the pope, and Cadoc's seven journies to Rome and three to Jerusalem,^ * See Mabillon, in his introductoi-y observations on the life by the monk of Ruys, in the Act. Saoct. Ord. Benedict. ; and Tanner's Bibliotheca. t See Godwin, de PrEesulibus. J The pope says (in Caradoc'slife of Gildas, § 7) NoscoCadocum venera- bilem abbatem qui septies adivit civitatem istara, et ter Hierosolymam post immensa pericula et assjduum laborem. Cadoc himself says, according to Sixth Cent.'] gildas. 125 at a time when a British Christian to arrive at Rome must have forced his way through many and great difficulties, and when, it being not more than half a century before the mission of St. Augustine, it may be doubted whether it were known at Rome with any degree of certainty that the British church continued to exist. Such circumstances as these, and the seven years' study in France, seem to point to the manners of a much later period. If we give up the life of Gildas as told by his biogra- phers, all that is known even of his name, and all that seems to have been known for many centuries, is the infor- mation we gather from his own book, and even this is not free from suspicion. The tract which has been known since the days of Bede as the work of Gildas, consists in the first place of a brief and barren sketch of the vicissi- tudes of British history under the Romans, and during the wars between the Britons and the Picts and Scots, and the Saxon invasions, chiefly compiled from Roman writers; and secondly, of a long epistle to his country- men, and particularly to five kings, Constantine, Aurelius Conan, Vortipore, Cuneglas, and Maglocunus, which is but a series of bitter invecti^'^es against the general and de- grading wickedness of kings and people, of the clergy even more than the laity. The writer closes his sketch of British history with the following passage : — " Et ex eo tempore nunc cives, nunc hostes, vincebant .... usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis, qui prope Sabi- num ostium habetur, novissimEeque ferme de furciferis non minimce stragis, quique quadragesimus quartus, ut novi, orditur annus, mense jam prima emenso, qui jam et mea nativitatis est." The date of this siege is fixed, on the MS. life of this saint, ter Hierusalem septiesque Romam pro Dei amore profectus sum, 126 GiLDAS. [Sixth Cent. very uncertain authority, in A.D. 520, so that, by this mode of reckoning, Gildas would have written his book in 564, when he was in his forty-fourth year. It may also be observed, that no circumstance in this book affords the slightest support to the hiogra-pliies of its author. It is a very remarkable circumstance that Bede, who gives his brief account of the events of this period almost literally from Gildas, and who seems to have known no other authority, has quite misunderstood the foregoing jiassage. It is evident that he thought the expression used in the original rather equivocal, and therefore he changes its form ; but he represents Gildas as saying that the siege of Bath happened in the forty-fourth year, not before he wrote, but after the arrival of the Saxons in Britain, and therefore in A.D. 493, instead of 520. If we take the phrase of Gildas as it now stands, it is difficult to imagine how Bede could have fallen into such an error ; but this difficulty would be entirely taken away, if we might be allowed to suppose that in the copy he used, the phrase closed with the word annus, and that the words which follow were omitted. The error of Bede, more- over, is not the only extraordinary circumstance connected with this passage. The monk of Ruys, in his life of Gildas, quotes directly from this book ; and there can be no doubt that Caradoc of Lancarvan, as well as most of the historians of that time, were well acquainted with it ; yet none of them make the slightest allusion to the testi- mony which Gildas here beftrs to his own age. We have therefore sufficient cause for suspecting that the mention of the date of the author's nativity is an insertion by some later copyist. Unfortunately, the manuscripts which have been preserved, are neither sufficiently numerous, nor of sufficient antiquity, to be of much use in solving this question. Sixth Cent."] gildas. 127 If, however, this suspicion be well founded, then all our evidence of the existence of a person named Gildas would be reduced to the bare circumstance that as early as the age of Bede his name was affixed to this book, the authen- ticity of which we must either take for granted, or it must be deduced from internal evidence. This latter is very unsatisfactory, for it consists simply in the mention of five British chiefs, who are not mentioned elsewhere until the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the Welsh annalists of his age. The style of Gildas is always very confused, and his meaning sometimes not quite clear; but he ajipears to address these five persons as kings of dif- erent small states reigning contemporaneously; while Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Welsh annalists represent four of them as succeeding each other on the same throne, just in the order in which Gildas enumerates them, during a period of twenty-four years.* If, therefore, these autho- rities are good, we must either suppose that the book which bears the name of Gildas is altogether incorrect, or that it was written by a person who lived after the latest of these kings had ceased to reign, and who, reviewing retrospectively the crimes of his countrymen, took the five kings in chronological order to be the subjects of his invectives. We will not however conceal our own im- pression that the account which Geoffrey of Monmouth gives of these kings, and probably that given by all the other authorities, are not only founded entirely on the book attributed to Gildas, but that several of the circumstances which they have given of their history and character are mere misinterpretations of the expressions that occur in * See Geoffrey of Monmouth, lib. viii. c. 1, and his abbrevlator Alfred of Beverley, ed, Hearne, p. 73. Arthurus rex obiit Anno dxlii. Dunand rex inoritur. Conanus. Vortiporius. Mailgo. Hi quatuor xxiv. sequentibus Arthur! mortem annis regnaverunt unus post alium in Britannia. Ex Anna- libus Menevensibus, in Wharton's Anglia Sacra. 128 GiLDAs. \_Sixth Cent. that book, as in the instance of a crime which Geoffrey and his imitators ascribe to Maglocunus, or Mailgun, We shall be thus led to the conclusion, that there is no independent authority now existing which will enable us to test the historical truth of this tract, and that we have no information relating to its writer, which merits the slightest degree of credit. But, although it is not now possible to raise an abso- lute historical proof on either side of this question, there are still some circumstances in the history of the book which are sufficient to raise suspicions of its authenticity. It seems to have come first into notice amid the hostilities between the Anglo-Saxon and the British churches, which exceeded in bitterness even the enmity that naturally existed between the two people : the idea of using the writings of a British priest as an argument against the purity of his own church was not likely to be lost ; but there is more of the tone of a foreign enemy, than of a native churchman, in the over-strained invective which is here directed against the British priesthood.* The presumption which this circumstance appears to counte- nance, that the book was forged by some Anglo-Saxon or foreign priest of the seventh century, in his zeal to uphold the Romish church, as it had been introduced among the Anglo-Saxons, against the church of the Bri- tons which was resisting its ordinances, is in a certain degree countenanced by its subsequent fate. We find it first mentioned by the historian Bede, who gives us so many details of the disputes between the two churches, and who on one occasion cites it in a very remarkable * It may be observetl that the writer of the tract describes the barbarity of the Saxon invaders in no less extravagant terms ; but they are terms which it is probable that a Saxon Christian would not scruple to apply to his forefathers when unconverted. Dr. Lappenberg endeavours to explain tha piiaracter of Gildas, as a true personage, in his History, vol. i. p. 133, Sixth Cent.'] gildas. 129 manner as a testimony against the Britisli clergy;* and it is again quoted by Alcuin in a similar feeling, at a time when the heat of these disputes had not long subsided.! From that time, there is scarcely any allusion to it in English -svriters until the twelfth century, when we find Geoffrey of Monmouth interweaving whole sentences out ' of it into his own history, without acknowledgment : a cir- > cumstance in itself sufficient to make us believe this latter } work is in great measure a fabrication, its groundwork J being romances and popular legends. Two manuscripts only are now known to exist of the tract de Excidio Britannia, ascribed by Bede to Gildas, both preserved in the public library of the University of Cam- bridge. One of these manuscripts seems to have been written early in the thirteenth century ; the other is of the end of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fif- teenth.! But, if the manuscripts are scarce, the case is widely different with the printed editions, of which the first was published at London in 1525, by Polydore Vergil, and dedicated to Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Lon- don. The editor informs us in his preface that he had made use of two manuscripts, that he had corrected the quotations from Scripture according to the text then in use, and that he had altered the construction of the original Latin in some places, to make it run more smoothly. Polydore's edition was reprinted at Paris in 1541, in the same form as the original, and it was in- * Qui, inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quae historicus eorum Gildus flebili sermone describit, et hoc addebant, ut nunquam genii Saxonum give Anglorum, secum Brilanniam incolenti, verlum fidei pcerdicando com- mitterent. Sednon tamen divina pietas plebem siiam, quam praescivit, deseruit, quin midtu digniores genti raemoratse prsecones veritatis, per quos crederet, destinavit. Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. u. 22. t Alcuin. Eplst. ix. et lix. ed. Froben. 1777. X The Bhelf-marks of these two manuscripts are Ff. i. 37, and Dd. i. 17. VOL. I. K 130 GiLDAs. [Sixth Cent. serted in both editions of the ' Orthodoxographi,' in 1555 and 1569. Tanner mentions editions of Gildas printed, in 12mo., at Basil in 1568, and at Paris in 1576, which were probably also reprints of the first edition. In the former of these years, a new text was formed, with the aid of two other manuscripts, by John Josseline, secretary to Archbishop Parker, and printed at London in an 8vo. volume. One of these manuscripts, as we are informed by Josseline, had belonged to the monastery of St. Augus- tine at Canterbury, and the other had passed from that of Glastonbury into the hands of a gentleman of Kent. The former, he says, was then about ' six hundred years old ;' but little confidence can be placed in the judgment of writers of that age on such a question. This tract was again published in the collection of historians printed in folio at Heidelberg in 1587, under the title of ' Rerum Britannicarum Scriptores vetustiores ac prtecipui.' In the following century it was inserted in the different great collections which bore the title of ' Bibliotheca Patrum.' In 1691, Gale included it in the first volume of his ' Historiee Britannicse, &c. Scriptores XV.,' having formed his text chiefly upon one of the Cambridge manu- scripts. Gale's text was reprinted, with a few conjectural emendations, at Copenhagen, by Charles Bertram, along with the historical tract which goes under the name of Nennius, and the previously unknown work of Richard of Cirencester, 8vo. 1757- A new edition of Gildas has been recently published by the Historical Society, edited by Mr. Joseph Stevenson from the two Cambridge manu- scripts, to which we have already alluded on several occa- sions. The contents of the tract de Excidio Britonum have been already sufficiently described. The book contains little information, even if it be authentic. It is written in an Sixth Cent.l gii.das. 131 inflated style not much unlike that of Aldhelm ; and the following account of the second embassy sent by the Britons to Rome, when they were suffering under the in- vasions of the Picts and Scots, may be given as a fair specimen. " Iterumque mittuntur queruli legati, scissis, ut dicitur, vestibus, oper- tisque sablone capitibus, impetrantes a Romanis auxilia, ac velut timidi puUi patrum fidelissimis alis succumbentes, ne penitus misera patria deleretur, nomenque Romanum, quod verbis tantum apad eos auribus resultabat, vel extranearum gentium opprobrio vilesceret. At illi, quantum humanae naturae possibile est, commoti tantse historia tragoedise, volatns ceu aquUarum, equi- tum in terra, nautarum in mari, cursus accelerantes inopinatos primum, tandem terribiles inimioorum ungues cervicibus infigunt mucronum, casi- busque foUorum tempore certo assimulandam istam peragunt stragem ; ao si montanus torrens crebris tempestatum rivulis auctus, sonorosoque meatu alveos exundans, ac sulcato dorso fronteque acra, erectis, ut aiunt, ad nebulas undis (luminum quibus pupilli, perssepe licet palpebrarum convolutibus inno- vati, adjunctis sibi minutissimarum rotarum tautonibus veluti fuscantur) mira- biliter spumans ; ast uno objectas sibi evincit gurgite moles ; — .ita aemulorum agmina auxiliatores egi-egii, si qua tamen evadere potuerant, propere trans maria fugaverunt, quia anniversarias avida preedas, nuUo obsistente, trans maria exaggerabant." We need not wonder if liberties were taken in after ages with a name involved in so much mystery as that of Gildas, or if many spurious works were published under it, and many wrongly ascribed to it in consequence of the errors of others. Bale, who gives two lists under the dif- ferent heads of Gildas Albanius and Gildas Badonicus, has contrived to make several different works out of the common tract de Excidio, by taking the initial words of different paragraphs as the commencement of so many new books. Geoffrey of Monmouth quotes a book of Gildas, " quem de Victoria Aurelii Am- brosii composuit," probably a mere error arising out of the mention of the battle of Bath (bellum Badonicum) in the same tract. Bale mentions also a history (historiam quandam) which went under the name of Gildas, and commenced with the words ' Alboinus Lombardorum rex.' K 2 132 GILD AS. [Sixth Cent. Some old authorities not only attribute to Gildas books which never existed, but theyascribe to himor to someother persons motives for composing and destroying them. Thus we are informed by Giraldus that he wrote his book De Ex- cidio Britannise in a fit of spleen against King Arthur;* and another writer assures us that he composed a much lafgcr book on contemporary British history than that which at present goes under his name, but that in this he condemned with such unrestrained freedom the conduct of the British chieftains and others, that they seized upon his book and committed it to the flames.f It may be added, while speaking ot the historical works attributed to Gildas, that the brief chronicle commonly published under the name of Nennius, was generally attributed to him by the earlier writers. Gildas had to sustain the character of a prophet, as well as that of an historian ; and indeed the man who had predicted the birth of St. David, might very well be sup- posed to have foreseen with equal ease and certainty the events of more distant ages. The prophecies of Gildas, generally in Latin verse, are often found in old manu- scripts. Bale has given the title of three prophetical works attributed to him, all in verse : — * De Gilda vero, qui adeo in gentem suam acriter invehitur, dicunt Bvitones quod propter fratrem suum Albanise principera, quern rex Arthurus occiderat, oftensus litec scripsit. — De Illaud. Wal. lib. ii. u. 2. (Wharton, Angl. Sacr. vol. ii.) The words which follow show us clearly how much we are involved in fable when we approach this question ; — Unde et libros egregios, quos de gestis Arthuri et gentis suse laudibus raultos scripserat, audita fratris sui nece, omnes, ut asserunt, in mare projecit. Cujus rei causa, nihil de tanto principe in scriptis authenticis expressum invenies. f Fecit namque ipse Gilda librum magnum de regibus Britonum et de prseliis eorum, sed quia vituperavit eos multum in eo libro, incenderunt ipsi librum ilium. Note in the margin of the earliest MS. of Gildas, quoted by Stevenson, p. 3.5. All these apocryphal stories shew that, even at an early period, it was felt that there was a certain character about the book whioh could not easily be explained. Sixth Cent.] gildas. 133 Versus vaticinales. De sexto cogaoscendo. Super eodem sexto. In explanation of the last two articles here attributed to Gildas, it may be observed that in the prophecies of Merlin, which first became widely popular in England under Henry II., the sixth of the kings in succession after the Norman conquest was described, not only as one of the greatest monarchs that would reign over the island, but he was to be the conqueror of Ireland ; and this king was generally understood as meaning Henry himself, for whom apparently the character was intended. But the compiler of the prophecies had contrived to involve the subject in some mysteries, which were perhaps in- creased by the circumstance, that the events of the years following their publication did not always agree with what had been foretold, and which therefore gave rise to many tracts, the object of which was to explain the meaning of Merlin's sixth king. The explanations of contemporaries might not, however, always be attended to ; and those who were particularly interested in the sense which should be given to these pretended prophecies, put forth spurious tracts under the name of Gildas and others, who at that time enjoyed the character of prophets, in which these prophets were made to foresee the difficulties, and add further particulars to clear up the sense, of what had already been predicted by the soothsayer Merlin. It was but a short step from the character of prophet to that of poet. Giraldus Cambrensis, as he is quoted by Leland, mentions the epigrams of Gildas, which he praises for their correctness and elegance ; but, as they are not now extant, we can form no judgment of their age or style. A long history of the Britons, in Latin hexameters, preserved in a Cottonian manuscript (Julius 134 GiLDAS. [Sixth Cent. D. XI.) is also attributed to Gildas ; but it is nothing more than a metrical version of " the Brute," made appa- rently in the thirteenth century. Some writers also, de- ceived by the title {liber querulus) which is prefixed to Gildas de Excidio, have attributed to him the Querulus of Vitalis of Blois, a poem founded upon the Aulularia of Plautus, which has been recently published at Darm- stadt by Fried. Osann. Bale, on what authority does not appear, ascribes to Gildas, in his character of theologian, commentaries on the Evangelists in four books, and a Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul. The ' Acta Germani et Lupi,' which the same writer attributes to him, is only a part of Nennius. Lastly, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and after him John Bromton, tell us that he translated from the British tongue into Latin the leges Molmuiinas.* Editions of Gildas. Opus Novum. Gildas Brltannus mouachus, cui Sapientis coguomentum est inditum, de calamitate, excidio, et conquestu Britannise, &c. Edited by Polydore Vergil. 8vo. Tlie preface dated London, 8 id. April. 1525. —Reprinted, Par. 1541, 8vo. Bas. 1568, 12mo. Paris, 1576, 12mo., and in the Ortliodoxograplii. De Excidio et Conquestu Britannae, ac flebili castigatione in Reges, Prin- cipes, et Sacerdotes, Epistola : vetustiss. Exemp. auxilio a mendis plurimis vindicata, &c. Lond. ap. Daye, 1563, 8vo. Lond. 1567, 12mo. De Excid. ex editione J. Josselini, per J. Daium, Lond. 1568, 8vo. Rerum Britannicarum scriptores vetustiores et prsecipui, &c. fol. Heidelb. 1587. Gildas is the third article in the volume, Historise BritannicEe, Saxonicse, Anglo-Danicse, Scriptores XV. Ex vetustis Codd. MSS. editi opera Thomse Gale. Tom. 1. fol. Oxon. 1691. Gildas forms the iirst article of the contents of this volume. * Cave, de Scriptor. Eccl. vol. i. p. 538, gives a short account of Gildas, and expresses his doubts of the authenticity of the book attributed to him, on account of the historical ignorance which it exhibits. Bishop Nicholson, Historical Library, part i. p. 26, ridicules the supposition of a multiplicity of men of the name of Gildas. The account of this reputed writer in the Histoire Lit^raire de la France, vol. iii. is a mere brief abridgment of the uninteresting narrative of the monk of Ruys, but is accompanied by a good detailed account of the books attributed to him. See also Lappenberg, Gescli, von Engl. vol. i. p. xxx^'iii. Sixth Cent.] supposititious writers. 135 Britannicarum Gentium Historise Antiquae Scriptores Tres : Ricardus Cori- nensis, Gildas Badonicus, Nennius Banchorensis. Recensuit, &c. Ca- rolus Bertramus. Havnise, Impensis editoris, 1757, 8vo. Gildas de Excidio Britannise. Ad iidem Codicum Manuscriptorum recensuit Josephus Stevenson. 8vo. Lond. 1838. (published by tlie Historical Society.) English Translations. The Epistle of Gildas, a Briton, entit. de Excidio et Conquestu Britannise. Translated into English, by Thomas Habington. Lond. 1638, 8vo. A Description of the State of Great Brittain, written Eleven Hundred Yeares since. By that ancient and famous Author Gildas, sir-named the Wise, and for the excellency of the work translated into English, &c. London, 1G52, 12mo. SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITERS— NENNIUS. The list of British writers during the period which elapsed from the departure of the Romans to the conver- sion of the Anglo-Saxons, who are mentioned by the Anglo-Saxon authors, or who have left any literary re- mains, is so brief, that, if we reject Gildas, it is not easy to produce with certainty a single name. Yet the Welsh antiquaries have laid claim to many writers in the sixth century, and even our own older authorities, such as Bale and Leland, swell their catalogues with the names of Mangantius, Dubricius, Iltutus, David, Samp- son, Elvodugus, Beulan, Elbodus, Samuel, Nennius, and others. Most of the subjects said to have been treated by these persons were historical. To Elvodugus, supposed to have lived in A.D. 590, was attributed a History of the Britons, in one book (Historia Britonum,lib. 1.) His contemporary, Elbodus, according to the same authorities, wrote a his- tory of his own times. Nennius and Samxiel also wrote histories of their countrymen, Beulan wrote a com- mentary on the history by Nennius, and other works, the titles of which are thus enumerated in Tanner's Bib' liotheca : 136 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITERS. \_Siwth Cent. Annotationes in Nennium, lib. 1 . Historiam itinerariam, lib. 1. Ai-thuri facta apud Scotus, lib. 1 . We know nothing about the men who are said to have borne these several names, and to whom these works are attributed ; but when we consider also what we do know concerning some other supposed writers who are said to have been their contemporaries, we shall have no difficulty in forming an estimate of the authority on which the others rest. Mangantius, or Malgantius, is introduced in the fabulous history of Geoffrey of Monmouth as one of the magicians of King Vortigern, who were present when the child Merlin was first brought before that monarch; and, on hearing the strange relation of the soothsayer's birth, he is made to give an account of the nature of the spirits which in a superstitious age went under the name of incubi, and in so doing to quote the testimony of the Platonic philosopher Apuleius. On this foundation alone two distinct works are attributed to this imaginary per- sojiage, one on Natural Magic, the other a commentary upon Apuleius, besides other writings to which no titles are given.* Dubricius wrote treatises against the Saxon invaders ; and Beulan, thinking, as it seems, that his coimtrymen might wish to know something more about their enemies, wrote the genealogies of the Anglo-Saxons, though we are not told where he obtained his materials. In like manner, to Sami^son, because he was driven from his bishopric by the wars, is attributed a treatise "de patientia in adversis " ! It is certainly remarkable that the period, concerning v/hich we are so entirely deficient in historical infor- * " De Magie Naturali, lib. 1. Apuleiumque exposuit, lib. 1. aliaque composuit ejus generis non pauca.'' Bale, de Script, p. 47. Sixth Cent.'] nennius. I37 mation, should have been comparatively more fertile than any other in writers of contemporary history. For to judge by the list above enumerated, more than one half of the British writers of this age were historians. But it is much more singular, that of so many interesting books which are here attributed to them, not one should have been preserved to after ages ; particularly when, if we look to the history of other nations during the Middle Ages, we are unable to conceive any cause sufficient to account for their destruction. One name in the foregoing list of British writers, that of Nennius, deserves perhaps more notice than the others, because it is found prefixed to a book which is still pre- served. The account which is commonly given of Nen- nius, is taken almost entirely from two spurious prologues to this book, which in all probability are not older than the twelfth century, and from certain not very intelligible verses which are added to it in a manuscript of the begin- ning of the thirteenth century, preserved in the Public Library of the University of Cambridge. In the pro- logues he is made to describe himself as the disciple of Elbodus ; whilst in the verses his master is said to have been Beulan, to whose son Samuel they are ad- dressed.* These indications would fix the age of Nen- nius to the beginning of the seventh century. According to Leland, he was abbot of Bangor, where he is said to have received his education : and, escaping from the massacre of the monks in 603, he spent his latter years in the Scottish islands. The Welsh antiquaries insisted upon a still more remote authority for the contents of the book which goes under his name : they said that it was * " Versus Nennii ad Samuelem filium Magistri sui, Beulani presbyteri, viri religiosi, ad quem Historiam istam scripsei-at." This is the same Samuel whose name is giveu iu the list above-mentioned. 138 NENNius. [Sixth Cent. written by a Nennius Avho defeated Julius Caesar in per- sonal combat, and who compiled it in the British lan- guage from the traditions of the bards and priests ; and that the second Nennius, the abbot of Bangor, translated the work of his predecessor, and continued it to his own time.* The book, however, to which the name of Nennius is prefixed, and which is a short sketch of British history, beginning with the fabulous account of the colonisation of the island, contains dates and allusions which belong to a much later period, and carries with it many marks of having been an intentional forgery. The earliest manuscripts give it as an anonymous treatise. The name of Nennius is not joined with it until the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury ; and both then and afterwards it is as frequently given under the name of Gildas.f The attachment, how- ever, shown to the number three, with some other pecu- liarities, seem to prove that the compiler was, or at least wished to appear to be, a Welshman, J He evidently in- tended that it should pass for a work written soon after the middle of the seventh century, and the narrative closes immediately after the death of Penda king of Mercia, an event which occurred in the year 655. The outlines of the history which it contains are taken from the most common sources, l)ut are disfigured partly l)y the com- " See Tanner's Bibliotlieca and Geoffrey of Monmoutli. Bishop Nichol- son speaks rather jestingly of Nennius and his book : Historical Lib. part I. p. "7. Gildas, also, was said by some Welsh antiquaries to have been educated at Bangor. t It is very singular that, in llie Cambridge M.S. already mentioned, the scribe has paid so little attention to what he was writing, that he copied this tract twice in tlie same volume, first under the name of Nennius, and after- wards under that of Gildas, as two diflerent books. + The frequent " trilogies" in the work ascribed to Nennius have been pointed out by Lappenberg, Gesch. von Engl. vol. i. p. x.\.xix. and by Stc venson, in the introduction to his edition of it. Sixth Cent.] nennius. 139 piler's ignorance, but much more by his prejudices ; and they probably owe something to his imagination. In order, apparently, to fix with more precision the age to which it was to be attributed, a series of genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kings was interwoven into the text, taken from tables which were brought down to a much later time ; for, although it was evidently the intention of the writer to end with the kings who reigned at the period above mentioned, yet in one or two instances he has (pro- bably by a mere oversight) passed the mark, and mentioned persons of a later date.* Thus, the genealogy of the kings of Northumbria ends with Oswin, who died in 670, and mentions his sons ; and that of the kings of Kent is brought down to Ecgbert, who reigned from 664 to 673. In the genealogy of East-Anglia,the compiler has descended too low by one degree, closing the list with the son of Aldulf, who himself died so late as 713. But this mistake arose evidently from his not being aware of the length of Aldulf's reign, which began in 663. In his account of the kings of Mercia, this compiler seems to have had before him an original which he did not clearly under- stand, and his own table is so confused, that it is not * We are inclined to differ with tliose who, because the genealogies are not found in the earliest manuscript, have supposed that they do not properly belong to the book, but that they have been added by some of the scribes, who copied them from another book. If this had been the case, the scribe would probably have copied the whole genealogies, and we do not think it likely he would have found MSS. wherein they were not brought lower than the seventh century. Some of those manuscripts which omit the genealo- gies, insert " reason for doing so: " ,Sed cum inutiles magistro meo, id est Beulano presbytero, visae sunt genealogise Saxonum, et alise genealogise gentium, nolui eas scribere." (See var. lect. in Stevenson's edit. p. 54.) This passage, from the hand of another intentional forger, proves that they were in the text before they were omitted, and reminds us of the old jest of Hierocles, how a scholasticus at Athens, when he received a commission from a friend to buy books, which he did not perform, excused himself by writing back, " Your letter, in which you asked me to buy you hooks, never came to hand" (tijv (irurToXrjV, rju wepl /Jt^Xi'wy OTreVrfiXdy fioi, ovk eKOfiurdiJirjv) , 140 NENNius. [Sixth Cent. easy to say where he mtended to stop, but he has intro- duced the name of Ecgferth, who did not die till a.d. 795; and in a similar manner, in the genealogy of the kings of Deira, he mentions bishop Ecgbert, who died in 766. These two oversights seem clearly to show that the author of the book was writing at a later period than that of the man whom he wished to personate. This was observed by some writer who read his history, and who, to obviate the difficulty, added to it certain chro- nological notes, also pretending to come from the sup- posed author, who here declares that he wrote the book 796 years after Christ's passion, or, as he goes on to state, in a.d. 831. But this new writer seems to have discovered himself exactly in the same manner as his pre- decessor; for, in most of the early manuscripts which contain this chronological addition, it is coupled with a statement of the number of years that had passed since the creation of the world, which, according to the writer's OAvn calculation, would bring us down to a much later period. These discrepaticies puzzled the scribes of the different manuscripts now preserved; and by attempting to set them right these have again introduced numerous vari- ations in the dates. The oldest manuscript states the year in which this history was written to be a.d. 976, the fifth year of the reign of king Edmund.* The tract which goes under the name of Nennius is, as might l)e supposed from what has been said above, of very little historical value ; but it derives a certain degree of imjiortance from those very parts which are least histo- rical. The stories of the first colonization of our islands, * In this MS. tlie work is attributed to Marcus tlie liermit. Mr.Steven- son's supposition is extremely probable that this title originated in the mis- take of some person who found in it the Miracles of St. Germanus, which arc elsewhere told on the authority of a monk of that name. See the mtrod. to the last edition. Sixth Cent.'] nennius, 141 of the exploits of King Arthur, and, above all, of Merlin and his wonderful birth and prophecies, which are not found elsewhere before the twelfth century, exercised great influ- ence upon the literature of succeeding ages, and through it they have presented many mysterious questions to exer- cise the learning and ingenuity of modern historians. If the book could be proved to have l^een written previous to the Norman Conquest, it would support the claim of these legends to a Welsh origin . But the true date of its composi- tion cannot at present be satisfactorily ascertained. The recent editor has, we think, been misled by the catalogue in ascribing the manuscript (MS. Harl. No. .3859), which he follows, to the tenth century : it belongs perhaps to the beginning of the twelfth, but is hardly older than the latter part of the eleventh. The manuscript preserved in the Vatican, is also attributed to the tenth century, but may, to judge by the fac-simile, have been written at a somewhat later period.* All the others, which are nu- merous, date from the thirteenth century downwards. No allusion to it, older than the twelfth century, has yet been discovered. The editions of this tract are few. It did not appear in print until 1691, when Gale inserted it with Gildas in the first volume of his folio Collection of English Historians, Gale's text was reprinted by Bertram, at Copenhagen, in lysS.t In 1819, the Rev. W. Gunn, rector of Irstead, in * This MS. , certainly the oldest known, seems to have been written abroad. The other early copy is also written in rather a foreign hand. This is a curi- ous circumstance, and at least gives room for the question whether the book j' itself were not compiled on the continent — in Britany, for instance. It is a question of the greatest importance to the histoiy of the middle-age romances, 'i The book seems to have been made by one who was well acquainted with the \ legends which formed the groundwork of those romances, and attempted i to mix them with the few historical notes of the history of the period which 1; were to be found in common books as readily abroad as in England. t See before, p. 130 of the present volume. 142 ST. COLUMBANUS. \_Siwth Cent. Norfolk, printed a new edition in an 8vo. volume, in which the text, a literal copy of the Vatican manuscript, was accompanied with an English translation, and with many diffuse and often unnecessary notes. A very use- ful edition has been more recently published by the Historical Society, edited by Mr. Joseph Stevenson, with extensive collations of different manuscripts. Editions of Nennius. In the collections by Gale and Bertram ; see the table of editions of Gildas, p. 134. The " Historia Brittonum," commonly attributed to Nennius ; from a manu- script lately discovered in the Library of the Vatican Palace, at Rome ; edited in the tenth century, by Mark the Hermit ; with an English version, &c. By the Rev. W. Gunn, B.D. 8vo. Loud. 1819. Nennii Historia Britonum. Ad fidem Codicum Manuscriptorum recensuit Josephus Stevenson. 8vo. Lond. 1838. (By the Historical Society.) ST. COLUMBANUS. During the period in which the light of science seems to have been dim in Britain, the sister island sent forth a great man, some of whose writings were afterwards in repute among the Anglo-Saxons, and of whom our information is much more authentic, because the scene of his labours lay principally in France and Italy. The life of Columbanus was written not many years after his death, hj Jonas, a monk of Bobbio, who collected his anecdotes of the Irish saint from the mouths of those who had been his compa- nions.* This narrative carries so much the air of truth in * This life vras printed by MabiUon, in the Acta Sanctorum Ord. Bened. saec. II. It had been previously published under the name of Bede, in the Cologne edition of that writer's works, vol. iii. p. 199. A copy is given anonymously in a fine MS. in the Harleian collection, No. 2802. MabiUon used several MSS. He has also printed a metrical life from a history of the Abbots of Bobbio, by Frodoard, which is a paraphrase of parts of the narra- tive of Jonas ; as well as a collection of miracles performed by the saint after his death, written by a monk also of Bobbio, in the tenth century. The accounts of the persecution of Columbanus, by Brunehaut, given in Fredegarius and Aimoinus, are clearly taken, with a little variation, from Jonas j of whose nar- rative, also, the life in Capgrave is a mere abridgment. Sixth Cent.\ st. columbanus. 143 all its details, that we cannot withhold from it a large share of credit. Columbanus was born in the first half of the sixth century, probably in or before the year 543, in the province of Leinster in Ireland. That island was then thinly peopled ; and it is said to have been free from the savage turbulence which desolated most of the other coun- tries of the west, and by which it has been too frequently visited in later times. Contemporary writers describe the Irish of the sixth and seventh centuries as a simple and harmless people; superstitious and enthusiastic, they rushed in multitudes to embrace the monastic life, and their shores aiForded a frequent refuge to those who sought to pass their days in contemplative solitude. With them originated a mystic school that was soon carried over to the continent, and propagated extensively in Gaul and Italy. The accounts of the peaceful disposition of the native Irish may possibly be exaggerated ; but the hermit or the monk could find in Ireland the uninterrupted solitude which he thirsted after, his sacred character was a suffi- cient protection against the rudeness of the natives, and the land was soon filled with monasteries, so that it be- came known as the island of saints. The famous abbey of Bangor, on the coast of Ulster, is said to have been founded by St. Congal, about the year 555. Columbanus became a member of this fraternity, probably a few years only after its formation ; before his entrance there, we are told that he had been well instructed in grammar and letters ; yet nothing is said of studies or books during his residence in the monastery, but we learn that he spent there many years in pious exercises. At length, as his biographer informs us, the desire came upon him of visit- ing foreign lands, and he obtained the reluctant consent of his superior to leave the place. Twelve monks of Bangor 144 ST. coLUMBANus. \_Sixlh Cent. accompanied him, and they sailed to Britain, M'here they made a temporary stay ; but Gaul was the ultimate object of their mission. Gaul was at this period subjected to the rule of the Franks. They had been long converted to Christianity; but the zeal of the clergy was weakened under the influence of political dissensions, and the people had naturally become as lukewarm as their teachers. The country itself was torn by the jealousies and in- trigues of two women, who have obtained a fearful cele- brity in history under the names of Brunehaut and Frede- gonde. All these circumstances opened a wide and pro- mising field for the exertions of Columbanus, who preached diligently the rigid discipline and mystic doctrines of the Irish church. The fame of his sanctity soon attracted the notice of nobles and princes ; for it was the age in which, except in the case of men who acted under the immediate impulse of violent passions, the mysterious influence of religion awed those who seldom listened to its dictates. From the year 567 to 575, France was divided into three kingdoms, under the three sons of the first Chlo- taire. To the south-east, reaching down to the coast of the Mediterranean, lay Burgundy, governed by Gontran ; to the north, separated from the Germans by the Rhine, was Austrasia, of which Sigebert, the husband of Brune- haut, was king ; and to the west, Neustria, which possessed all the sea-coast from the mouth of the Loire to the borders of Flanders, and which was governed by Chil- peric and his queen Fredegonde. The three brothers were seldom at peace. In the latter of the years above- mentioned, the kings of Austrasia and Neustria, after having agreed to a truce with Gontran, turned their arms against each other, and Sigebert was slain by assas- sins in the pay of Fredegonde, who four years later com- mitted another murder on the person of her own husband. Sixth Cent.'] st. columbanus. 145 The first of these monarchs was succeeded by his son Childebert; and the crown of Neustria descended to a second Chlotaire, the infant son of Chilperic. By the death of Gontran, in 593, the two kingdoms of Burgundy and Austrasia were united under Childebert, to be sepa- rated again after his decease in 596 under his sons Theu- deric and Theudebert. Columbanus was honourably entertained either at the court of Burgundy, or at that of Austrasia, it is not quite certain which, and at his own instance he was allowed to settle with his twelve companions in the wild and unfre- quented woods of the Vosges, between these two king- doms, and bordering upon the country inhabited by the pagan Suevi, since called Switzerland. The date of his arrival in Gaul is uncertain. Jonas says that it was Sigebert who invited him to his kingdom, in which case he must have been there before the year 5/5, a date which agrees very well with MabiUon's supposition * that he left Ireland when about thirty years of age. But in this point the biographer in some degree impairs his own credit by stating that Sigebert was king at the same time of Austrasia and of Burgundy, an united dominion which only belonged to Childebert after 593, which is certainly too late. It also appears afterwards that the residence of the saint was within the limits of Burgundy, and it has therefore been supposed that Gontran was his patron. But it is possible, that in such an unsettled age, the boundary of the two kingdoms was not always the same ; and the circumstance last mentioned might easily lead a monk of Bobbio in the seventh century, who was commit- ting to writing the tradition of the place, into the error of giving Sigebert two kingdoms instead of one. When Columbanus and his fellow missionaries came to * See Acta Sauct. Ord, Bened. Sec. 11. p. 9, note. VOL. I. L 146 ST. COLUMBANUS. ISixth Cent. the Vosges, they sought for a spot which should be agree- able by its situation and at the same time far removed from the haunts of men^ and they found the ruins of an ancient town or station, which tradition named Ana- grates,* and whose site is now occupied by the hamlet of Anegray. In this solitary place they fixed their resi- dence; the ruins, probably, with a little labour, were made to afford them a shelter, and the neighbouring woods and streams furnished their scanty table. When these failed, their wants were supplied by the voluntary offerings which were brought from a distance by those who wished to conciliate their prayers. With Columbanus the love of solitude still increased with its indulgence ; and he quitted even the little society of his monks, to wander through the woods alone, in search of a wilder scene. At a distance of about seven miles from Anegray, he found a cave among the rocks, which possessed all the attractions he was in search of, and in which he took up his abode. From this place he continued to govern the little fraternity he had left behind hira. But the latter soon began to increase; for many of the Franks were emulous of sharing the monastic life in the company of this band of Irish adventurers. The presence of their spiritual ruler thus became necessary. The ruins, too, which had served all the purposes of the first settlers, were no longer sufficient ; and they determined to seek a more convenient spot in the same wild district in order to build a monastery. * Erat euim tunc vasta eremus Vosagus nomine, in qua castrum erat dii'Utum olim, quoil antiquorum tracUtio Anagrates nuncapavit. Jonas, p. 10. We shall tind Columbanus, as well as the other early monks and mis- missionaries, constantly settling among tlic ruins of ancient towns. Thus Donatus, a disciple of Columbanus, afterwards bishop of Besan^on — qui post pro amore B. Columbani ex ipsius regula monasterium virorum cou- Btruxit, quod Palatium nuncupavit ob veterum monimenta murorum. Jonas, p. 14, 15. Sixth Cent.'] st, columbanus. 147 At a distance of eight miles from their first settle- ment, they found the ruins of an extensive and magni- ficent Roman town, furnished with noble baths and other buildings, the neighbourhood of which was strewed thick with marble statues and other remains.* The name of this town had been Luxovium, which, with the gradual change of the language, has been moulded down to the modern name of Luxeuil. Among these ruins the wandering brotherhood built their monastery, which was soon crowded with monks ; for even the nobles of the land voluntarily became its inmates ; and Columbanus was obliged to erect another building at a little distance from the former, in a charming situation, well watered by pleasant streams, which was then known by the significant name of Fontanse. The priory of Fon- taines continued down to a late period to be dependent on the abbey of Luxeuil. Columbanus superintended his monks both at Luxeuil and at Fontaines, and frequently directed and assisted them in their agricultural labours ; Ijut he seems to have spent his time chiefly in wandering alone in the forest, and he often travelled as far as his old cave among the rocks, and there remained several days in perfect solitude. The life which Columbanus passed at Luxeuil was en- tirely agreeable with the contemplative and anchoretic character of the Irish and British churches ; it was inno- cent, but we cannot say that it was equally useful. He left his home and sought distant lands, not to find occa- * Invenitque castrum lirmissimo munimine olim fuisse cultum, a supra- dicto loco distans plus minus octo millibus, quem prisca tempora LuxoTiuin nuncupabant : ibique aquse calidae cultu eximlo constructae habebantur. Ibi imaginum lapidearum densitas vicina saltus densabat, quas cultu miserabill rituque profano vetusta paganornm tempora honorabant. Jonas, pp. 12, 13. L 2 148 ST. coLUMBANUs. [Sixth Cent. sions of converting those who were in darkness, but to Hve in solitude, and hmit the circle of his exertions within stone walls. Although he dwelt many years on the immediate confines of the pagan Germans, they were left in their ignorance for more than a century, till the light of the gospel should be carried to them by the active and enterprizing zeal of the Anglo-Saxons, who, while Columbanus was at Luxeuil, remained unconverted in the very bosom of his own native church. Bede's remark on the want of zeal in the British Christians was not un- merited.* Twelve years after Columbanus had settled at Luxeuil, his solitude was troubled by the bitterness of religious per- secution. The Irish and British churches held certain opinions derived from the East, relating to the period of celebrating the festival of Easter, which differed materi- ally from those countenanced by the church of Rome. These opinions had been carried by Columbanus into the solitude of the Gallic forests, and he carefully imparted them to his disciples. But the Frankish bishops held strictly the Romish tenets, and as the influence of the Irishman increased, they looked with jealousy on the dif- fusion of opinions which they considered to be heterodox. They tried to convince him that his doctrine was wrong, but they only provoked him to write tracts in its defence. They next called a general council of the Frankish clergy to judge his cause ; but, instead of appearing before them, Columbanus wrote an eloquent letter, which is still pre- served, stating his determination to continue in the doc- trine which had been handed down to him from his fore- fathers, and praying that the advocates of each party might be allowed to act on their own convictions without * See before, p. 128, note. Siwth Cent.] st. columbanus. 149 molesting the other. " I," he says, " am not the author of this diversity of opinion, but have come from afar to this landj for the sake of Christ our common lord and master." And he earnestly prays that " I may be allowed with your good will and charity to continue my silent life in these woods near the bones of our seventeen brethren who are dead, as I have already been suffered to live among you these twelve years." ..." Let Gaul receive us all, for we have one kingdom promised, and one hope of our calling in Christ." We have no in- formation on the steps taken by the council. It appears that the reputation of sanctity which Columbanus then enjoyed, and his influence among the Franks, were suffi- cient to cover his want of orthodoxy in this particular, and we do not find that he was afterwards persecuted for his opinions. The church of Rome admitted him into the calendar, but the manuscripts of his contro- versial vraitings have been lost or destroyed.* Columbanus had thus, it appears, escaped the evils at- tendant upon reUgious persecution ; but the bishops were not reconciled to him, and a few years later the power which had probably been exerted to screen him, was thrown by his own imprudent zeal into the same scale with his enemies. Brunehaut, who had passed through many vicissitudes after the death of her husband, and had narrowly escaped with her hfe from the intrigues of Fredegonde, driven from the court of Theudebert, had taken shelter at that of her other grandson, Theuderic. Fredegonde herself was now dead, " old and full of years," according to the ex- pression of the Chronicle of St. Denis. Theuderic, after having sent away his ■wife in disgrace, lived amid a troop of concubines ; and the old historians tell us that Brune- * See, particularly, on this point, Michelet, Histoire de France, torn, i. p. 2G9, 150 ST. coLUMBANus. [_Sixth Cent. haut supported her own ascendancy by encouraging and administering to his pleasures, fearing that the influence of a legitimate wife might interfere to lessen her own. The monastery of Luxeuil was within the limits of Burgundy. The sanctity of its abbot began to be re- garded as an assurance of the protection of heaven over the kingdom where he resided, and Theuderic showed his satisfaction at possessing him, by frequent visits and other marks of respect. The saint ceased not to reproach him with his behaviour to his unoffending queen, and with his scandalous life, and set before his eyes the im- pending vengeance of heaven. The king at length began to listen to his exhortations, and promised to be guided by his advice. But the report of their conversations reached the ears of Brunehaut ; she saw the danger with which she was threatened, and she prepared to avert it. The Roman clergy were her friends ; and it was but recently that she had received at her court the missionaries who were on their way to convert the Anglo-Saxons, and on that occasion had been presented with important marks of the good will of the pope. One day Columbanus went to the palace of Brunehaut, with the intention, as it is said, of pacifying her anger. The queen came to meet him, lead- ing by the hands two children, Theuderic's sons by one of his concubines, on whom she prayed the saint to bestow his blessing, for, she said, they were of royal lineage. According to the laws and customs of the Franks, indeed, they might without injustice inherit the kingdom. But Columbanus regarded them with disdain, and sternly replied, " These children shall never wield a sceptre, for they are bastards, and the offspring of sin." The offended queen instantly left the place, and Theuderic discontinued his visits to the monastery. On another occasion, when the king was with his court at the village of Epoisses, he fiixth Cent.'] st. columbanus. 151 was informed that the abbot was at the door, and refused to enter the house in which he was lodged. Theuderic sent his servants to oflFer him meat and refreshment, but he rejected their friendly overtures ; " the Scriptures,'^ he said, " bear witness that the offerings of the wicked are not agreeable to God, and therefore his servants ought not to receive the gifts of those whom they know he hates." Theuderic's patience was now at an end ; and, urged on by Brunehautj by his courtiers, and even by his bishops, he ordered Columbanus to be arrested, and conducted to Besan9on. The abbot quitted with regret his favourite woods, and, finding he was not kept very strictly, he escaped from his guards, and returned to Luxeuil, which he refused to quit again unless dragged from it by force. At length, however, the king's agents carried him back to Besan^on, and from thence they conducted him hastily to Nantes (Namnetis), from which place they were ordered to send him back to his native land. The servants of Theu- deric had treated Columbanus with harshness ; he left his monastery amid the tears and lamentations of the whole brotherhood, but none were allowed to accompany him except two or three Irish or British monks ; at Orleans they encamped on the bank of the river, and he was not permitted to enter the church ; at Tours it was with the greatest difficulty that he found an opportunity of paying his devotions at the shrine of St. Martin. At Nantes they had to wait for an outward-bound ship, and then his conductors put Columbanus on board, and returned immediately to Burgundy.* * These events are said to have taken place in 607. Jonas (p. 21) says that he had then resided twenty years at Luxeuil, which would carry back the date of the foundation of the monastery to 587, and that of his dispute with the bishops on the subject of Easter to 599. The author of the 152 ST. coLUMBANUS. \_Sixth Cent. The ship which should have carried Columbanus to Ireland, was driven back by contrary winds, and he was permitted to land. He was now in the kingdom of Neustria, and he repaired immediately to the court of Chlotaire. The king of Neustria, when he heard of his arrival, rejoiced in his own good fortune ; he doubted not but the denunciations which Columbanus had uttered against his persecutors would be fulfilled; he embraced the Irish abbot with exultation, and urged him to seek a spot within the limits of his kingdom, and to found a monas- tery which should erase from his heart the regret he had experienced in being torn from Luxeuil. But the mind of Columbanus was now turned towards Italy, and he con- sented only to accept letters of recommendation to Theudebert, through whose kingdom he intended to pass. The servants of Chlotaire conducted him to Paris, and from thence to Melun (Meldense oppidum), where he was received by one of the nobles of Aus- trasia, and Avas by him conducted to the court of Theu- debert. After his exile from Burgundy, Columbanus seems still to have held a secret correspondence with his monks who were left behind ; from Nantes he wrote Life of St. Salaberga, in the Acta SS. Ord. Bened. ib. p. 423, says it was Cliildebert who gave him permission to found the monastery, which must be an error, as he did not become king of Burgundy tUl A.D. 593. It may be observed, that the dispute about Easter perhaps was the real cause of Brunehaut's enmity towards him, but after her death the Roman party blackened the character of the queen who had supported them, in order to conceal the heterodoxy of their saint. Neither Jonas, Fredegaire, Almoin, or any of the old writers mention his peculiar opinion on this point ; and, had it not been contained in some insulated fragments of his works accidentally preserved, this fact would have been only a matter of surmise. The writer of the Life of St. Agilus (Act. SS. Ord. Ben. ib. p. 318) says that Brunehaut was hostile to Columbanus principally because he would not allow women to come to the monastery, and because he had refused to receive a visit from her ; on which she obtained an order that the monks should not be permitted to quit their house. Sixth Cent.] st. columbanus. 153 them an exhortatory letter which is still preserved;* and when he arrived in Austrasia, he found that many of them had already quitted Luxeuil and fled into the kingdom of Theudebert, who had welcomed them, to use the words of the biographer, as though they had been part of the spoil of his enemies (velut ex hostium preeda). Yielding at last to their wishes and the prayers of the king, he laid aside for the present his design of visiting Italy, and agreed to build a monastery in Austrasia ; but his love of solitude was unchanged, and he resolved to cross the Rhine, and fix his residence amid the wild country on the borders of the unconverted Germans. According to Jonas, Columbanus and his monks went first to Mentz (Maguntiacum),t and there embarked in a boat upon the Rhine. They proceeded up this river, until they came to its junction with the Aar, on the borders of the Suevi, where they quitted it, and continued their voyage up the river Limmat (Lindimacus) into the lake of Zurich. The country on which they now entered pleased them much, and, crossing over land, they halted at Zug (Tucconia). They were here in the midst of the country inhabited by the wild Suevi, a fierce and lawless people, who had scarcely heard of Christians except as enemies, and who were slaves to the darkest and most revolting superstitions.! The monks went about preaching to their new neighbours, in the hope of converting them to a better * Bibl. Max. Patrum, torn. xii. p. 26. t Ad urbem quam Maguntiacum veteres appellarunt. p. 25, Part of our information relating to the adventures of Columbanus among the Suevi, is furnished by Walafrid Strabo's life of St. Gall, written in the eighth century, and printed in the same volume of the Acta Sanctorum Ord. Bened., which contains the Life of Columbanus. t Porro homines ibidem commanentes, crudeles erant et impii, simulacra colentes, idola sacrificiis venerantes, observantes auguria et divinationes, et multa quse contraria sunt oultui divino superstitiosa sectantes. Vita S. GalU, p.231. 154 ST. coLUMBANtTs. [Sixth Cent. creed, but their exertions were not attended with much success ; and their imprudent zeal caused so much irri- tation that they were obliged to seek safety in imme- diate flight. * From Zug, Columbanus went to Arbon (Arbona) on the lake of Constance. Here they found a Christian priest named Willimar, f by whom they were informed that at the further extremity of the lake lay the ruins of a Roman town named Brigantium, or Brigantiee, the site of which is occupied by the modern town of Bregentz.J They went thither, and found, among other ancient build- ings, a ruined chapel dedicated to St. Aurelia, which Colambanus afterwards rebuilt, and about which they immediately began to erect their huts. The Suevi were still troublesome, but they were at last, though with diffi- culty, pacified ; the monks founded their monastery, and remained in it three years. Meanwhile desperate enmity continued between the kings of Burgundy and Austrasia. The kingdom of the latter was invaded, he was defeated and afterwards mur- dered, and his territory overrun by the troops of Theuderic and Brunehaut. Columbanus did not think himself safe from his ancient persecutor even in the wilds of Switzer- land, and he prepared for flight. At times he thought of * Vita Sti. Galli, p. 231. t Vita S. Gal. p. 2:r.'. X Iq hac soUtudine locus quidam est aatiquse structurse servans inter ruinas vestigia, ubi terra pinguis et fruotuariis proventibus apta, montes per gyrum exoelsi, eremus vasta et imminens oppido, planities copiosa victum quserentibus fructum laboris non negat. Vita S. Gal. ibid, where it is called Brigantium. Jonas, who omits much of the detail of Columbanus's wanderings among the Sueri, says that he had been recommended to go to Bregentz when at the court of Theuderic. Inde requisivit locum, quem favor omnium laudabilem reddebat intra Germanise terminos Rheno tamen transmisso, oppidum olim dirutum, quod Brigantias nuncupabatur. Jonas, p. 2,5. Sixth Cent.'] st. columbanus. 155 going to convert the Slavi or the Veneti, but he was now aged, and sought repose rather than new scenes of exertion. He said that in his sleep an angel had appeared to him, and, holding out a map of the world, pointed to Italy as his destination ; thereupon hastily crossing the Alps, he arrived at Milan, and presented himself before the court of Agilulf king of the Lombards. A part of his monks went with him ; but St. Gall objected to the journey, feigned illness, and, with the rest, remained at Bregentz. This place seems now to have been no longer tenable against the attacks of the barbarians ; and St. Gall and his companions returned to Arbon, and founded not far from it the famous monastery, which has ever since borne his name. Columbanus was kindly entertained by the king of the Lombards, and remained some time at Milan, where he wrote a book against the Arians,* which, with his other controversial works, appears long since to have perished. Whilst thus occupied, he was informed that in the solitary wilds of the Apennines, amid the ruins of the Roman town of Bobium, there stood a deserted church which had been dedicated to St. Peter the apostle. The love of retire- ment again came upon the abbot in all its force ; he easily obtained King Agilulf 's authority to take possession of the place ; and finding that it was a pleasant spot, surrounded with woods and fertile lands, and with streams that abounded in fish, in the year 615 he laid there the founda- tions of the monastery of Bobbio. He rebuilt the church of St. Peter, or rather, according to one authority, he built another of wood.f Gaul was at this period the scene of a new revolution. The nobles of Burgundy and Austrasia began to be tired of the oppressive rule of Brunehaut, and conspired against * Contra quos etiam libellum florenti scientia edidit. Jonas, p. 28. f Mirac. S. Columbani, a monao. Bobiens, ssec.x. ap. Mabillon, ib. p. 40. 156 ST. coLUMBANus. [^Sixth Cent. their sovereign. Chlotaire, encouraged^, as it was said, by the former prophecies and counsels of the exiled abbot of Luxeuil, and invited probably by the conspirators, invaded the dominions of Theuderic ^^A\h. the army of Neustria, and utterly extirpated the royal race. The aged Brune- haut, after having been exposed in triumph to the gaze of the soldiery, vi^as tied by the arm and leg to the tail of a wild horse, and at its first start her brains were scattered by a blow of its hoof. The old historians exult over the bloody retribution which visited the persecutors of Colum- banus. Chlotaire, now monarch of the united kingdoms of the Franks, sent to Boljbio to invite its abbot to revisit the scene of his earlier labours. But Columbanus returned the messengers with a congratulatory epistle, wherein he expressed his J03' at the king's successes, gave him many good counsels, and begged him to be a kind patron to his foundation at Luxeuil, but excused himself from coming in person. The weight of years, indeed, began to press heavily upon him. He spent his latter days in endeavouring to reconcile the Irish and Romish churches, and more than one letter to the pope on this subject are preserved among his works. It appears to have been at Bobbio that he composed his Latin poems ; and in one of them, in which he complains much of the evils of " sad old age" (tristis senectse), he informs us that he had com- pleted his seventy-second year, Nunc ad Olympiadis ter senos venimus aunos.+ Under these accumulating evils, in the same year in which he came to Bobbio, on the twenty-first day of November, 615, Columbanus sank into the grave. He was buried in the church which he had so recently built, and his memory long clang to the neighbourhood. In the tenth century, ♦ Columbani ad Fedolium. Sixth Cent.] st. columbanus. 15/ the peasantry showed the marks of his feet which they pretended had been miraculously imprinted in the rock.* The influence of the abbot of Luxeuil and of Bobbie did not end with his life. The monasteries which he had founded sent forth into the world many famous bishops and abbots, and during the seventh century the "rule" of St. Columbanus spread itself almost as rapidly and extensively as that of St. Benet ; but early in the eighth century the Benedictines gained the upper hand, and the rival order not only declined, but was soon forgotten. Mabillon has attempted to show that the two orders were materially the same, although the pas- sages he quotes assert the contrary. It is very sin- gvilar that while the Irish system was thus gaining ground in France, the British church in England was gradually falling before the Romanised Anglo-Saxons. It is difficult, with what remains of his writings, to form any just estimate of the degree of learning possessed by Columbanus. His poems show that he was not igno- rant of ancient history and fable, and that he had read attentively a certain class of authors ; and his letters on the period of observing Easter prove that he was well acquainted with the theological works then in repute. It has been conjectured from a passage at the end of one of his letters, that he could read Greek and Hebrew ; but the inference seems hardly authorised by the observation which gave rise to it. The works of Columbanus which have always found the greatest number of readers, and have been most frequently printed, are his poems. Yet they are few in number, and of no great importance. His style is simple, and not incorrect ; but there is httle spirit or vigour in his versification. He frequently imitates the later poets ; * Mirac. S. Columliani, p. 41. ^^^ ST. coLUMBANus. [Sixth Cent. and, like thenij is too partial to dactylic measures, a fault which strikes us in his hexameters, most of which have a dactyl for their base. He also possesses another fault m common with all the poets of the middle ages, the frequent use of unnecessary particles, inserted only to help the verse. The subject of Columbanus's poetry never varies ; all his pieces are designed to convey to his friends his exhortations to quit the vanities and vexations of the world, which he seems to have thought would be longer retained in their memory, if expressed in metre. The first of these poems is addressed to a person named Hunaldus, and consists of only seventeen lines, the initial letters of which form the acrostic Columbanus Hunaldo, and thus leave no douljt of the author, or of the friend to whom it was directed. The three first lines will perhaps l)e considered a sufficient specimen of the whole ; they are these : — Casibus innumeris decurrunt tempora vit!e, Omnia prsetereimt, menses volvuntm* in annis ; Labitur in senium momentis omnibus Betas. The second poem is addressed to a person named Sethus, and commences with the following avowal of the author's modest pretensions in poetry : — Suscipe, Sethe, libens, et perlege mente Serena Dicta Columbani fida te voce monentis ; Quie licet ornatu careant sermonis honesti, Vota tamen mentisque pite testantur amorem. The object of Columbanus in this piece is chiefly to dis- suade his friend from avarice and the love of lucre. One manuscript gave the reading Hunalde instead of Sethe, and it has been asserted, apparently without much reason, that it is a continuation of the foregoing poem, and ought to be joined to it.* The third poem of Columbanus, * Another MS. reads Suscijie quaso libens. Sixth CeM^] ST. coLUMBANUs. I5y addressed to a bishop named Fedolius (ad Fedolium epis- copum), is another exhortation against the love of money. It is written in jingling adonics, like some of the metres of Boethius, and consists principally of examples taken from ancient mythology, illustrative of the many great evils to which this sin had given rise. Columbanus in- forms us that the kind of verse in which he was now writing was not then very frequently used, and he even thinks it necessary to give in the poem itself directions and rules for its composition. He says that it was in- vented by Sappho : — Sed tamen ilia Trojngeuarura Inclita vates Nomine Sapho Versibus istis Dulce solebat Edere carmen. If Columbanus, as Goldasti imagines, intended by the epithet TrojugencB to allude to the early political connexion between Lesbos and the Troad, he shews considerable acquaintance with ancient history and geography, although a correct writer would not call Sappho a Trojan poetess. This poem ends with some hexameters, in which the author makes known his age in a verse already quoted, and tells us that he was sick and old when he wrote it, which seems to countenance the supposition that it was composed during his last illness, and would therefore settle beyond a doubt the date of his birth. The next article in the printed editions of the poems of Columbanus, is an epigram on the fair sex, possessing no great merit, and conjectured by Goldasti to have been written M'hile he was suffering under the persecutions of Bruuehaut. The fifth in order of the poems of Columbanus, is the one which ^^0 ST. coLUMBANus. [Sixth Cent. occurs most frequently in manuscripts,* and it is some- times given anonymously. In some manuscripts it bears the title Libellus cujusdam sapientis, et, ut fertur, beati Columbani. It is written in hexameters, and is accurately described by the title Monosticha, for it consists of a series of proverbial sentences, each of vi'hich is comprised within a single line. This poem was first printed by Martin Delrio, who, finding it in a manuscript without an author's name, supposed it to be the work of Aldhelm. Others have attributed it to Alcuin, and it has been printed among his works. This poem commences with the following line : Hsec prtecepta legat devotus, et impleat actu. Another poem which goes under the name of Columbanus, is entitled Rythmus cle Fanitate et Miseria Vitce Mortalis ; it is written in a kind of popular rhyming measure which will be best understood by the following lines, forming the first tetrastich or stanza : Mundus iste transit, Et quotidie decrescit : Nemo vivens manebit, Nulhis Yivus remansit. The claims of Columbanus to this piece have been with good reason disputed, for it seems to be the work of a later date, and it accordingly appears only in some editions of his works.i' It belongs to a class of poems which was very popular in different languages at a more recent period, and which is well known in old English under the title of " How the goodman taught his son." * It will be found in the British Museum, iii M.S. Cotton. Julius D. ii. and in MS. Cotton. Clcop. C. viii. fol. 34, v°. (a fragment only), both written in England, and the latter certainly in the ninth century, and perhaps early in it. f This poem will be found in Flemuig, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum. It was also printed by Archbp. Usher in his Veterum Epistolaram Hibernicarura Sylloge, 4to. Paris, 1665. Sixth Cent.'] st. columbanus. 161 The poems of Columbanus were first printed collectively by Goldast| in his Parcenetici veteres, 4to. Insul. 1604. Some of them also appeared in the Antigua Lectiones of Canisius. They were again printed by Patrick Fleming in his Collectanea, 8vo. Ausburgh, 1621, reprinted at Louvain in 1667. They were appended by Daumius to his edition of Catonis Disticha, 8vo. Cygn. 1672 ; and were inserted in the eighth volume of the Bibliotheca Magna Patrum, fol. Par. 1644, and in the twelfth of the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, Lyons, 1677* The prose writings of Columbanus have also been fre- quently printed. They will be found in several of the collections just enumerated, but most complete in the two Bibhothecse Patrum, and in the Collectanea of Fleming, and in this latter book they are accompanied with a very copious commentary. They consist of the Regula Sti. Columbani and the lesser penitential, already quoted, of Instructiones, or short discourses on theological subjects, of a larger penitential, entitled Liber de Mensura Paeniten- tiarum, of a Discourse de Octo Vitiis principalibus, and of five letters. The last are his most interesting works, on account of the information which , they give us on the dispute between the Romish and Irish churches. An extract from the second of these letters, addressed to the council of the Gallic bishops and quoted in a former page, will serve as a specimen of the prose style of Colum- banus (Max. Bibl. Patt. vol. xii. p. 25.) " Unum itaque deposco a vestra sanctitate, ut cum pace et cliaritate meam comportetis insipientiam, ac superbam, ut aiunt quidam, scribendi prsesumptionetn quam necessitas extorsit, non vanitas, ut ipsa probat vilitas ; et quia hujus diversitatis author non sim, ac pro Christo Salvatore * For a further account of the poems of Columbanus, the reader is referred to Polycarp Leyser, Hist. Poet. Medii ^vi, vi. pp. 176—181. See also on the poetry of Columbanus, Bahr, Die christlichen Dichter und Ges- chichtschreiber Roms, 8vo. Carlsruhe, 1836, p. 79. VOL. I. M 16i^ ST. COLUMBANDS. \^Sixth Cent. commuai domino ac Deo in has terras peregrinus processerim, deprecor vos per communem Dominum, et per eum, qui judicaturus est vivos ac mortuos adjure, si mereamini ab eo agnosei, qui multis dicet : Amen dico voiia, quia nunquam novi vos, ut milii lioeat cum vestra pace et charitate in his silvis silere et vivere juxta ossa nostrorum Fratrum decem et septem defunctorum, sicut usque nunc licuit nobis inter vos vixisse duodecim annis, ut pro vobis, sicut usque nunc fecimus, oremus ut debemus. Capiat nos simul, oro, Gallia, quos capiet regnum coelorum, si boni simus meriti. Unum enim regnum habemus promissum, et unam spem vocationis in Christo, cum quo conregnabimus, si tamen prius hie cum eo patiamur ; ut et simul cum eo glorificemur. Ego scio quod multis supei'flua videbitur hsec mea loquacitas ; Bed melius judieavi, ut et vos sciretis quse et nos hie tractamus et cogita- mus inter nos : hi sunt enim nostri canones, Dominica et Apostolica man- data ; hsec iides nostra est : hsec arma, scutum, et gladium, hsec apologia : hsec nos moverunt de patria ; hsec et hie servare contendimus, licet tepide, in his usque ad mortem perseverare, et oramus, et optamus ; sicut et seniores nostros facere conspeximus. Vos vero, patres sancti, videte quid faciatis ad istos veteranos pauperes et peregrines senes : ut ego arbitror, melius vobis erit illos confortare, quam conturbare. Ego autem ad vos ire non ausus sum, ne forte contenderem prsesens contra Apostoli dictum dicentis : Noli verbis contendere, et iterum : si quis conteniiosus est, nos talem consuetudinem non habemus, neqve Ecclesia Dei. Sed confiteor con- scientise mese secreta, quod plus credo traditioni patrise mese juxta do[ctrinam] et calculum 84 anuorum, et Anatolium ab Eusebio Ecclesiasticse historise authore Episcopo, et Sancto Catalog! scriptore Hieronymo lau- datum, Pascha celebrare, quam juxta Victorium nuper dubie scribentem, et ubi necesse erat nihil deiinientem, ut ipse in suo testatus est prologo : qui post tempora D. Martini, et D. Hieronymi, et Papse Damasi, post centum et tres annos sub Hilaro scripsit. Vos vero ehgite ipsi quem sequi malletis, et cui melius credatis juxta illud apostoli : omnia probate, quod honum est tenete. Absit ut ego contra vos contendam congrediendum, ut gaudeant inimici nostri de nostra Christianorum contentione, Judsei scilicet, aut hei'etioi sive pagani gentiles. Absit sane, absit ; alioquin aliter nos potest convenire, ut aut unusquisque in quo vocatus est, in eo permaneat apud Dominum si utraque bona est traditio : aut cum pace et humilitate sine uUa contentione libri legantur utrique ; et quae plus A'eteri et Novo Testamento concordant, sine uUius invidia serventur.'' It is unnecessary to say more on the works of Columbanus which are lost, or on those ^vhich he is sup- posed to have written, than to refer to the article in the Histoire Litteraire de France, torn. iii. p. 505. Collections in which the Remains of Columbanus have been edited. Georgius Fabricius Poetarum Veterum Ecclesiasticorum Opera Christiana. 4to. Basil. 1.564, p. 779.— The Epist. to Hunaldus. SixtJi Cent.] st. coniMBANtrs. 163 Henricus Canisius ; Antiquse Lectiones. 4to. 1601, torn. i. p. 779. — Ed. Basnage, fol. Antwerp, 1725, vol. 1. Appendix, pp. 769 — 780. — The Monostichon and the poem addressed to Hunaldus. Goldasti Parseneticorum Veterum Pars I. 4to. Insul. 1604, pp. 41 — 180. — The poems (except the Rythmus) with numerous notes, and the regula. Vincentius Barralis ; Chronologia sanctorum et aliorum virorum illustrium, ao Abbatum Sacree Insulse Lerinensis. 4to. Lugdun. 1613, p. 113. — The poem addressed to Hunaldus. The life by Jonas is also inserted in this volume, Patricii Fleming! Hiberni Collectanea Sacra, seu S. Columbani Hiberni Abbatis, Magni Monachorum Patriarohse, Monasteriorum Luxoviensis in Gallia, et Bobiensis in Italia, aliorumque, Fundatoris et Patroni, nee non aliorum, &c. Acta et Opuscula. 8vo. Ausb. 1621 — Ed. Tho. Sirinns, fol. Lovan. 1667. pp. 4 — 181. — The two Regulse; Sermones sive Instruotiones ; De Modo Psenitentianim j the Instructio de Octo Vitiis PrincipaUbus ; the letters ; and all the poems ; with very copious notes. The Life by Jonas, and the Miracles, are added. Thomas Messingham ; Florilegium Insulse Sanctorum, seu Vitse et Actae Sanctorum Hibernise. fol. Paris. 1624. pp. 403 — 411. — The Regula — one of his pieces under the tit. Homil. 5. de fallacia vitae humanse. — The Monostichon. — The Epistle to Hunaldus. — The life by Jonas, and the Miracles, are given in this volume. Usher ; Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge. 4to. Dublin, 1632. pp. 7 — 18. — 4to. Paris, 1665, pp. 4 — 1 1 .— Herbornae Nassov., 4to. 1696. pp. 5 — 15. — One of his prose letters, the Rythmus de Vanitate, the poems addressed to Hunaldus and Fedolius. Eugenius Toletanus, ed. Sirmondi, 8vo. Paris, 1619. Re-edited by Rivinus, 8vo. Lips. 1651. — In Jacohi Sirmondi Opera Varia, tom. ii. p. 908, fol. Paris, 1696. — The poem addressed to Hunaldus. Lucas Holstenius ; Codex Regularum Monasticarum et Canonicarum, 4to. Rom. 1661, p. ii. pp. 88, 89.— Fol. Aug. Vindel. 1759, tom. I. pp. 166 — 179. — The Regula and the Penitential of Columbanus. Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus. Ed. a C. Uaumio. 8vo. Cygneee, 1672. p. 223— 236.— All the poems except the Rythmus.— pp. 237—266, notes on Columbanus. Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum. Vol. xii. fol. Lugd. 1677, pp. 1 — 37. — All the printed works, taken from Fleming's edition. The works were also published in the Bibliothecse Patrum of Cologne and Paris. 164 WILFRED. [Born 634. SECTION II. — Anglo-Saxon Writers before Bede. WILFRED. Many years had elapsed after the settlement of our Saxon forefathers in the isle of Britain, and many even after their conversion to Christianity, before the ap- pearance of an Anglo-Saxon writer. The interval was occupied by the great movements of colonization and conversion. The Saxons first landed in the Isle of Thanet about the year 449, and within a short period established a kingdom in Kent. Some years after, in 477j ^Ua, with another body of Saxons, landed at the Roman port of Anderida (called by the Saxon his- torians Andredes-ceaster), and founded the kingdom of the South Saxons, the limits of which were nearly identical with those of the modern county of Sussex. Towards the latter end of the same century, the king- dom of the West Saxons, extending westwards from Sussex towards Devonshire and Cornwall, was founded by a new colony under Cerdic ; and about the same time were formed the smaller and less powerful states of the East and Middle Saxons, the names of which are still preserved in those of Essex and Middlesex. Whilst the Saxon colonies were strengthening themselves in the southern parts of the island, another people of the same family, the Angles, came in great numbers to the north- eastern coasts. The kingdom of East Angha, comprising the modern counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and part of Cambridgeshire, was formed about the middle of the sixth century ; and other colonies had already laid the founda- tions of a powerful state to the north of the Humber, which, under the general name of Northumberland, was subdivided into two kingdoms named, from the British tribes who previously held them, Deira and Bernicia, the Died 709.] wilfrkd. 165 former extendii.V from the Humber to the Tees, the other from this latter' river to the Frith of Forth, and having on its frontier the Scots, Picts, and Britons of Strathcluyd. As the Saxons and Angles occupied the maritime dis- tricts of the island, the Romanized Britons retired from the coasts into the midland districts. Their borders, which were termed mearce, or the March, appear to have been encroached upon continually by different Saxon chieftains, until the March-land was at length extended over the interior of the island as far as the borders of the mountaineers of Wales, where this appellation has been preserved down to the present day. This extensive ter- ritory, in which the Saxons were intermingled with the original population in the same manner as the Franks were mixed with the older inhabitants of Gaul, became a king- dom under the title of Mercia, after the middle of the sixth century. The Saxons had remained a hundred and fifty years unconverted, when, at the end of the sixth century, St. Augustine landed on the same spot which had first re- ceived the followers of Hengist. Kent, the oldest of the Saxon kingdoms, was the first to receive the light of the gospel, and Christianity was soon carried into Essex and Middlesex. Its progress towards the west was slow. When ^Ua landed in Sussex, he was soon acknowledged as the Bretwalda, or chief of the Saxon kings in Britain ; but after his death the kingdom of the South Saxons dwindled into insignificance, and its independence was defended only by the almost impenetrable wealds which separated it from the rest of the island. The kingdom of Northumbria was converted to Christianity by the preach- ing of Paulinus, about A.D. 625, under Edwin King of Dei'ra, who had married Ethelburga, daughter of Ethel- bert king of Kent. Northumbria was at this time the most powerful of all the Anglo-Saxon states ; Bede draws a 166 WILFRED. / [Borti 634. glowing picture of the peace and prosperit/ which followed the introduction of Christianity ; and for several ages the Northumbrians were the most civilized people in Britain. In 628, Paulinus preached the Gospel to the people of Lincolnshire ; but five years afterwards his patron, king Edwin, was defeated and slain in battle at Haethfelth (Hatfield) by the pagan Mercians ; and the missionarj'-, to escape their cruel ravages, returned to Kent. Chris- tianity was restored in Northumberland by the piety of Oswald, king of Bernicia. The communication with Kent was slow and precarious, and even there the influence of the gospel was still feeble ; so that Oswald was obliged to seek teachers among the Scottish and Irish monks. He invited Aidan from the monastery which had been founded in the isle of lona by St. Columba, or, as he was more popularly named, Kolumbkil, and made him bishop of Lindisfarne. The zeal of Oswald was not confined within the bounds of his own kingdom ; for by his agency, and the active preaching of Birinus, the West Saxons were brought into the bosom of the Church. Sussex, as well as Mercia, still remained strangers to Christianity. Oswald, also, was slain in a battle with the Mercians, at Maserfelth, supposed by some to be Oswestry, on the fifth of August, 642, and was succeeded by his brother Oswiu, who had espoused in second marriage Eanfleda, daughter of Edwin King of Deira. Whilst Oswiu held his hereditary kingdom of Bernicia, the subordinate kingdom of Deira was ruled by his kinsman Oswin, who was scarcely inferior to Oswald in piety and zeal. In all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the first converts to Christianity were found among the nobles and influential persons, and even princes frequently dedicated themselves or their children to the service of the church. But the lower order of the people remained long addicted to their Died 709.] wilfred. 167 ancient superstitions. Even in Kent, it was only under Earconbert, who ascended the throne in 640, that the old idolatrous worship was finally proscribed.* Wilfred was the son of a noble of Bernicia, and was born in the year 634, when Oswald governed Northumbria, and Eadbald the son of Ethelbert was King of Kent.f It was said that his birth was attended by prodigies which foretold his future celebrity. He remained thirteen years in the house of his father; and even then he showed an aptness fo* learning, and a modesty and discretion, above his age. He was in his childhood instructed in the use of arms, and was taught to serve the cup gracefully and skilfully in the mead-hall. But his mother died, and her place was ill supplied by a step-mother, who treated Wilfred with harshness, deprived him of his toys, and of the handsome dresses in which he delighted to appear before his father's guests, and before the king, till at the age of thirteen or fourteen he left his home, and presented himself at the court of queen Eanfleda. It appears that his beauty and graceful manners had already * Hie primus regum Anglorum in toto regno suo idola relinqui ac destrui . . . principal! anctoritate prsecepit. Bed. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. u. 8. t Eadmer'sUfe ofWilfred, ap. Mabil. Act. SS. Ord. Benedict, p. 197. The life of Wilfred was written in Latin prose soon after his death by his friend and disciple Eddius : this piece of biography was first printed by Mabillon, in the Acta SS. Ord. Bened., and afterwards more completely by Gale, in his Collection of Historians. It is the latter edition which we quote. Bede, in his History, has given o short sketch of Wilfred's life, which varies a little in some points from the narrative of Eddius. This narrative was paraphrased in Latin verse by Fridegode in the tenth century, whose poem is also printed in the Acta SS. Ord. Bened., as well as another life of Wilfred written by Eadmer of Canterbury at the beginning of the twelfth century. Eadmer professes to have compiled his work partly from Bede and partly from a life of Wilfred by Odo archbishop of Canterbury, in the tenth century, which is perhaps the same as that by Fridegode. Eadmer was fol- lowed by William of Malmsbury, who, in his work de Pon/ificibas, has given a long account of Wilfred, taken almost entirely from Eddius. 168 WILFRED. [Born 634. attracted the notice of the queen, who received him into her household. Wilfred, even at this time, began to show a strong dis- position towards a religious life, and at his own desire, before he had completed his fourteenth year, queen Eanfleda appointed him to attend upon a noble Saxon of Oswiu's court, named Cudda, who, labouring under the infirmities attendant upon old age, had determined to quit the world, and to take upon him the direction of a small monastery on the barren isle of Lindisfarne.* Here Wilfred applied himself diligently to the study of the Scriptures and of the books of the church; but he was instructed in the Scottish doctrines and observances, and when he understood the differences between the two churches, he became anxious to know better the founda- tions on which each party rested its peculiar tenets, and was seized with the desire of visiting Rome. He again repaired to the court of Eanfleda, and acquainted her with his design ; and she gave him letters of recommendation to her brother Earconbert king of Kent, at whose court he was to wait for an opportunity of pursuing his voyage. This occurrence took place about the year 653, when Wilfred had reached the age of nineteen. After having remained some months in Kent, where he already began to show his growing partiality towards the Romish doctrines, he was associated with another youth of noble family, celebrated in Ecclesiastical History by the name of Benedict Biscop, who was desirous of visiting the Eternal City ; and Earconbert gave them companions and a ship * The condition of Lindisfarne is described by Alouin (De Sed. Ebor.) in two lines — Est locus oceano dictus cognomine Fame, Insula fontis inops, frugis et arboris expers. Died 709.] WILFRED. 169 to proceed on their pilgrimage.* They went by sea to Lyons in France, where Wilfred accepted the hospitality of Delfinus, archbishop of that city, while Biscop pro- ceeded on his way without interruption. Delfinus was a rich and powerful prelate ; pleased with the ingenuous manners and the talents of his visitor, he would have retained him at his court, and offered to give him his niece in marriage, to adopt him as his son, and to endow him with authority over " a large part of Gaul."t Wilfred however declined the offers of the archbishop, and, after a short stay, followed his former companion Biscop to Rome. He there met with the archdeacon Boniface, one of the apostolical coun- cillorsj who introduced him to the pope, and devoted several months to his instruction, teaching him the grounds of the Roman mode of calculating Easter, and other points of ecclesiastical discipline, which were either not received or not understood in his native land.J When he left Rome, Wilfred repaired again to Lyons, and remained three years under the hospitable roof of the archbishop ; from whom he received the tonsure, and who again declared his intention of adopting him as the heir to his fortune and influence. But the friendly designs of the prelate were cut short by his mis- fortunes. The rule of the Merovingian dynasty was drawing near to its term ; and the kingdom of the Franks * Bede, H. E. v. 19. Eddius, u. 3. Eadmer, p. 199. t Bonam partem Galliarum, ad regendum in sseculum. Eddius, cap. 4. Partem Galliarum non minimam iUi regendam committeret. Bed. H. E. V. 19. J A quo quatuor Evangelia Christi perfecte didicit, et paschalem ratio- nem, quam schismatici Britannie et Hybernise non cognoverunt, et alias multas ecclesiasticse disciplinse regulas Bonifacius Archidiaconus, quasi pro prio filio suo, diligenter dictitavit. Eddius, c. S. — Cujus magisterio quatuor Evangeliorum libros ex ordine didicit, computum paschse rationabilem, et alia multa, quae in patria nequiverat, ecclesiasticis disciplinis accommodata, eodem magistro tradente, percepit. Bed. ib. 170 WILFRED. IBorn 634. was torn by the ambition of tbe great officers of the household, which prepared the way for the usurpation of Charles Martel.* Delfinus was seized and massacred by order of the queen-mother, Bathilda, and the mayor of the palace, Ebroinus ; and Wilfred only escaped the fate of his patron by his youth and beauty, and the circum- stance of his being a stranger. When Wilfred returned to England, the kingdom of Northumbria was governed by Oswiu, who had associated with himself on the throne his son Alchfrid. Both these princes were distinguished by their piety and love of the church ; both were favourable to the Catholic doc- trines,! and they rejoiced at the arrival of an Anglo- Saxon who had been instructed at Rome. Wilfred ob- tained the friendship and confidence of Alchfrid, the first fruits of whose liberality was a grant of lands at a place called Stanford, or ^t-Stanforda. Soon afterwards the king gave him the monastery which had been founded by some Scottish clergy at the place then called In-Hrypis, or, according to the Saxon form, In-Hrypum, now Ripon ; which they had been obliged to quit, because they would not consent to follow the Roman ordinances.^ This occurred in a.d. 661 ; three years afterwards Wilfred was ordained a priest in his monastery at Ripon,§ by * The Chronicles of St. Denis speak of the condition of the Prankish monarchy at this time in the following strong terms : — D6s lors commen^a le royaume de France a abaissier et i d^cheoir, et le roy a fourlignier du sens et de la puissance de ses ancesseurs. Si estoit le royaume gouvern^ par chambellens et par connestables qui estoient apel^s mestres du palais ; et les rovs n'avoient tant seulement que le nom, et de rieu ne servoient fors de boire et de mangier. f Fuere autem iitrique reges in christiano religione ferventes, ecclesiarum diligentisimi cultores, et catholicarum doctrinarum studiosissimi auditores, amatores, sectatores. Eadmer, Yit. Wilf. (ap. Mabill.) p. 200. t Bed. H. E. r. 19. Eddius, cc. 8, 9. § And Ceadda and Wilfer* vseron gehadode. Chron. Sax. ad a.d. 664. The Saxon Chronicle, under the date 656, states that Wilfred was pre- sent at the consecration of Medeshamsted (Peterborough), which occurred in 66-1 as a priest, and signed its first charter as one of the witnesses. DiedlOi).] WILFRED. 171 Agilberct, a foreigner who was at that time bishop of the West Saxons. During Agilberct's visit to Ripon, was held the cele- brated conference of Streaneshalch (Whitby, in York- shire).* The Scots and Britons, and, at least, a large portion of the Irish, fixed the day for the celebration of Easter, as has already been observed, by a different mode of computation from that which was taught at Rome, and they professed to have received their rule by tradition from the days of the Apostles, and justified it by the prac- tice of St. John the Evangelist. In some years the day fixed by the rival modes of computation coincided, and the difference generally was not great; but in the year which followed Wilfred's ordination (665, a.d.) the two parties would have had to celebrate two distinct Easters. The see of York had at this time been vacant many years, and the kingdom of Northumbria was allowed to remain under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Scottish bishops of Lindisfarne. King Alchfrid was desirous of en- forcing the doctrines respecting Easter, as well as on other subjects, which Wilfred had brought from Rome ; but he found a determined opponent in Colman, then bishop of that island. The two parties met in the monastery of Streaneshalch (Whitby), about the month of March 664; there were present, besides many other persons, Colman, with the abbess Hilda, on the part of the Scots, and on the other side Agilberct and Wilfred; and the two kings, Oswiu and Alchfrid, presided. Colman began, and defended his opinions by the constant tradition and custom of his countrymen, and the example of Anatolius and St. Columba, or, as he was more popu- larly named, Kolumbkil. Wilfred spoke for the Roman party ; he explained the grounds on which his computation * The best account of this conference is given by Bede, H. E. iii. 25. It is related more briefly by Eddius, cap. 10 ; and by Eadmer, p. 201, 202. 172 WILFRED. IBorn 634. was founded ; opposed to the example of Columba, that of St. Peter and his successors; and to the usage of the Scots, that of the whole Catholic world. King Alchfrid put an end to the discussion: " Do you believe," he said to the Scots, " that Christ gave to St. Peter the keys of heaven?^' " We do," was the reply. " Do you then think," said the king, " that your Kolumbkil is greater in heaven than St. Peter?" " Certainly not," Colman answered. "Then," said Alchfrid, as he dissolved the meeting, " I shall follow the precepts of Peter, lest, when I arrive at the gates of heaven, I find them locked against me." Colman, un- convinced, resigned the bishopric of Lindisfarne, and re- tired to his native land; and his see was given to another Scot named Tuda, who had embraced the Roman doc- trines. Cedd, bishop of the East Saxons, who was also present, returned to his diocese a convert to Wilfred's party.* The latter part of the year 664 was distinguished by a grievous pestilence, which carried off Tuda, the new bishop of Lindisfarne, shortly after his consecration; and the king of Northumbria determined to provide more effi- ciently for the spiritual administration of the extensive territory over which he ruled, by filling the vacant see of York. The choice fell upon Wilfred; who with reluctance, as his biographers tell us, accepted the bishopric, but insisted upon being consecrated by Agilberct, who had quitted England and was then bishop of Paris; for after his departure, and the death of the Kentish bishop Deusdedit (June or July, 664), the only bishop in England, who had been canoni- cally ordained, was Wina, bishop of the West Saxons.f Wilfred accordingly repaired to Gaul ; he was attended thither by an honourable retinue, and was consecrated * Bed. H. E. iii. 26. f Eadmer, p. 203. Died 709.] wilfred. 173 with much pomp, at Compeigne (Compendium), in the presence of no less than twelve Catholic bishops.* He remained in Gaul three years; and on his return an inci- dent occurred which presents a remarkable picture of the times in which he lived. The ship on which he was em- barked had scarcely reached the open sea, when a fearful storm arose, which, driving it far out of the destined course, left it a-strand on the coast of the South Saxons. This people, as yet unconverted, exercised with ruthless barbarity the custom which has left its traces up to recent times in the " wreckers " of our southern and western shores; they claimed the ships which were thrown within their boundaries as lawful prizes, and the men found in them as slaves; and they hastened to seize upon both.f Wilfred and his companions, in all but a hundred and twenty men, defended themselves bravely, and beat away the aggressors three successive times. The latter had brought with them one of their priests, who, placed on a mound in the middle of the assailants, expected to strengthen the arms of his countrymen, and to paralize the Christians, by his incantations ; and the biographers of Wilfred relate exultingly how one of the bishop's ser- vants, like another David confronting the pagan Golias, threw a stone from his sling which struck the enchanter on the forehead, and stretched him dead upon the ground. When the pagans, encouraged by the arrival of their king with a powerful force, were preparing for a fourth attack, * Nou minus qnam duodecim episcoponim Catholicorum. Eddlus, u. 12. Convenientibus plurimis episcopis. Bed. H. E. iii. 28. M^ilfred was at this time thirty years of age. f Indigense adhue gentili errore devincti advolant ; navem et omnia quse in ea erant in jus suum vindicare volentes ; et id propositi obstinate corde tenentes, ut aut captivarent, aut morti sibi resistentes involverent. Eadmer, p. 204. Gentiles autem cum ingenti exercitu venientes navem arripere, prcedam sibi pecuniae dividere, captiTos subjugates deducere, resistentesque gladio occidere, incunctauter proposuerunt. Eddius, u. 13. 1 74 WILFRED. [Born 634. the tide fortunately came in sooner than it was expected, and a prosperous wind carried Wilfred to Sandwich, where he landed. At Sandwich Wilfred learnt that, during his absence, the see of York had been given to Ceadda, a disciple of Aidan, a pious and zealous monk, who had recently come from Ireland, and who had been consecrated by the bishop of the West Saxons, Wina, and two British prelates.* Wilfred retired to his monastery at Ripon, from whence he was invited into Mercia by king Wulfhere; and he spent the three years which followed his return to Eng- land in Mercia or in Kent, where he was called by Ecgbert to administer the affairs of the diocese left vacant by the death of Deusdedit. In 669, the arrival of Theodore confirmed the triumph of the Roman party. The new metropolitan annulled the election of Ceadda, because he had been appointed to a see which was not really vacant, and because he had been consecrated uncanonically by British bishops. Ceadda obeyed without a murmur; and, in reward for his piety and zealous labours, was reconse- crated by Theodore to the bishopric of Lichfield, which had been offered him by Wulfhere.t No sooner had Wilfred obtained possession of the see of York, than he distinguished himself by his zeal in introducing into his diocese the elegancies and improve- ments which he had observed on the continent. He may be regarded as the first patron of architecture among the Anglo-Saxons. J The church of York, which was in ruins and open to the inclemencies of the weather, he repaired "^ Adsumptis ergo duobus de gente Brittonum episcopis, qui contra scripta canonum erant ordinati, eumdem Ceaddam pari modo inordinate ordinavit. Eadmer, p. 203. t Bed. H. E. iv. 3 ; v. 19. Eddius, c. 15. Eadmer, pp. 204, 205. X The most detailed accounts of Wilfred's buildings are given in Eddius, cc. 16, 17, 22. Died 709.] WILFRED. 175 and embellished ; and it is particularly observed that he roofed it with lead, and filled the vacant windows with glass, a substance previously unknown to his countrymen. Rebuilt anew church at Ripon, of smoothed stone (polito lapide), adorned with various columns and porticoes (variis columnis et porticibus), which excited the admiration of his contemporaries; and at its dedication, the brother kings Ecgfrid and Aelwin (sons of Oswiu, who, as well as Alchfrid, was now dead), with the principal nobles of the kingdom, held a riotous and continuous feast during three days and three nights, a custom which M'as borrowed from the older observances of pa- ganism.* Not long afterwards, he built a church at Hagus- taldes-ea (Hexham), which in beauty and extehtfar exceeded any other building the Saxons had yet seen in their island; and one of his biographers asserts that there was nothing equal to it " on this side of the Alps."t While Wilfred was occupied in adorning his diocese with the monuments of peace, the young king Ecgfrid was engaged in sangui- nary wars, which ended by establishing his supremacy over the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia. Ecgfrid's war with Mercia was followed by a dispute with his bishop, which, even through the partial accounts of the historians who were the advocates of the latter, reveals to us the remarkable fact that at its first introduction into * Magnum convivium trium dierum et noctium reges cum omni populo Iffitificantes. Eddius, u. 17. See Lappenberg, Gesch. von Engl. i. 170. t Eddius gives a curious description of this early church — Cujus profun- ditatera in terra cum domibus mirifloe politis lapidibus fuudatam, et super terram multiplicem domum, columnis variis et porticibus multis suffnltam, mirabilique longitudine et altitudine murorum ornatam, et variis linearum anfractibus viarum, aliquando sursum, aliquando deorsum, per cochleas cir- cumductam, non est mese parvitatis hoc sermone explicare neque uUam domum aliam citra Alpes monies talem sedificatam audivimus. Vit. Wilf. c. 22. 1 76 WILFRED. [Born 634. our island the papal influence produced the same collisions between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions which were the cause of so many evils in after times. The old writers give various reasons for the sudden enmity between Ecg- frid and Wilfred. They say that the king had been offended by the part which the bishop took, in persuading his first queen Etheldrytha to immure herself in a nunnery. They describe his second wife, Ermenburga, as a proud intriguing woman, who, irritated by the admonitions of Wilfred, did her utmost to prejudice the mind of her husband against him, by dwelling on the bishop's se- cular glory and riches, the multitude of his monasteries, the extent of his buildings, and the numerous retinue which waited upon him, equipped and armed like the attendants on kings.* The conquests of Ecgfrid had, indeed, enlarged the bishop's influence no less than his own, and the victorious monarch might expect to see his own power eclipsed by that of his subject. This he de- termined to anticipate by dividing his bishopric into three ; and he sent for Theodore from Kent, who ac- quiesced in the change. Wilfred resisted ; and we are told by the historians that, in his absence, Ecgfrid and Theo- dore carried their measure into effect, and superseded him entirely by the election of three, or according to others, two new bishops. The bishop of Northumbria hastened to the king's presence, and protested indignantly against the in- justice that had been shown towards him in condemning him unheard; but the king, while he avowed that Wilfred's only crime was resistance to his will, refused to listen to his com- * Enumerans ei eloquenter sancti Wilfridi episcopi omnem gloriam ejus secularem, et di"vitias, nee non ooenobiorum multitudinem, et sedificiorum magnitudinem, innumerumque sodalium exercitum, regalibus vestibus et armis ornatum. lb. c. 24, Died 7G9.] wilfred. 177 plaints, which he threatened to carry to Rome.* The division of the Northumbrian diocese was evidently a part of Theodore's ecclesiastical policy; and under his direc- tions, similar changes were made in the two great bishop- rics of the Mercians and the East Anghans. Winfred, bishop of Mercia, made the same resistance, and was banished from his see.f The biographers dwell at length on the vexations and persecutions to which Wilfred was exposed on his way to Rome, whither he directed his steps the same year (677)- They teU us that his enemies, supposing that he would go through Gaul, had written to king Theuderic and the mayor Ebroinus to arrest him on his way ; and that, de- ceived by the similarity of the name, the latter seized upon Winfred of Mercia, who was also going to make his complaint to the pope, but who, on his escape, appears to have returned to his native land and retired to a monas- tery. { But Wilfred was carried by a westerly wind out of his direct course, and was honourably received by the pagans of Friesland, to whom he first preached the Chris - tian religion, and thus prepared the way for the labours of his disciple Willibrord. He remained in Friesland until the year following, when he ventured into Gaul, where he was received by Dagobert II., and, pursuing slowly his route, reached Rome in safety in the year 673' The pope (Agatho, who was elected in that year) approved his con- duct; § but when, after again escaping many perils on the * The account of this transaction is given at length in Eddius, c. 24, and Eadmer, p. 308. See also Bede, H. E. iv. 12, 13 ; v. 19 ; and Lap- penberg, Gesch. v. Eng. i. p. 172. + Bede, H. E. iv. 6. Eddius, c. 25. Lappenberg, ib. i Bede and Eddius, ib. The Wulfridus episcopus de Liccitfelda of the latter writer must be the Wynfridus of Bede, though Bede does not say that he went to the continent. § Wilfred's negotiations with the pope occupy chapters 29 — 32 of the narrative by Eddius. VOL. I. N 178 WILFRED. [^Born 634, road, Wilfred returned to England, neither Ecgfrid nor Theodore appear to have been willing to receive the apos- tolical injunctions, and the king committed him to prison, first at a town called by Eddius " Broninis," and after- wards at "Dyunbaer," from which latter place he was after a while allowed to escape, and he fled to Mercia. Driven from place to place by the influence of the power- ful monarch of Northumbria, the Bretwalda Ecgfrid, Wil- fred found no safety until he threw himself into the wild country which formed the frontiers of the South Saxons, and sought a refuge among the same pagans, from whom a few years before he had narrowly escaped with his life. Wilfred thus became the means of converting the last pagan tribe which remained in the island. The South Saxons were a barbarous people; and they had been equally defended against the aggressions of their neigh- bours, and cut off from the humanizing influence of an intercourse with more civilized nations, by the natural boundaries of their territory.* Bede informs us that they were ignorant even of the art of fishing, although their rivers and seas abounded in fish. The king of this little state, Adilwalch, and his queen Eabae, had both been baptized, the former in Mercia, the latter in her native land, the district of the Hwiccas (Worcestershire), though they seem to have relapsed into idolatry. At the time when Wilfred came to the court of Adilwalch, the only individuals in this petty kingdom who professed the faith of Christ were a Scottish (or Irish) monk named * Eddius, u. 40. Fridegode, p. 191, gives the following description of the South Saxons at this period — Gens igitur qusedam, seopulosis indita terris, Saltibus incultis et densis consita dumis, Non facilem propriis aditum prsebebat in arvis : Gens ignara Dei, simulacris dedita vanis. Died 709.] wilfred. 179 Dicul, and five or six brethren, who lived secluded in a small and poor monastery at Bosanham (Bosham, near Chichester), surrounded by the forest and the sea, at the western extremity of the South-Saxon territory. Wilfred with a few faithful companions, found protection and friendship at the hands of the king of Sussex, and by his exhortations restored him and his queen to the faith in which they had been baptised ; and in the course of a few months their example was followed by their subjects. Wil- fred taught the latter many of the arts of life with which they had previously been unacquainted ; and Adilwalch gave him the little peninsula of Seles-ee, or the isle of seals, (Selsey), where he founded a monastery.* While the in- fluence of Wilfred was greatest among the South Saxons, his protection was sought and obtained by Caedwalla, a young chieftain of the race of the West-Saxon kings, who had been driven from his heritage and lived an outlaw among the vdlds of Chiltern and Andredes-wald. The conversion of Sussex was commenced in 681 ; a few years afterwards, Caedwalla had not only recovered his kingdom of Wessex, but he had also conquered and joined to it Sussex, and had extended his power over part of Kent. Wilfred, the protector of his earlier years, was now received as his friend; and he added to the number of his converts the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, who had been sub- dued by his patron. The latter gave one fourth of the island to the church.f Archbishop Theodore was now aged and feeble. Wil- fred's active services in the south had given him a claim upon the gratitude of the church, on the fate of which he was destined, as might even then be seen, to exercise a * Eddius, ib. Bede, H. E. iv. 13 j v. 19. Bede gives a legend relating to this event, which was current in his time, but is not found in Eddius. t Bede, H. E. iv. 15, 16. Eddins, c. 41. Lappenberg, Gesch. v. Eng. i. 179. N 2 180 WILFRED. [Born 635, powerful influence ; and Theodore called him to London ; where, in presence of bishop Ercenwald he acknowledged that Wilfred had been driven from the see of York without sufficient reason, and intimated his wish to appoint him his successor in that of Canterbury. Wilfred accepted the archbishop's friendship, and their reconciliation was fol- lowed by his recall to York, and by the restoration of his bishopric to its former integrity. But he referred the question of succession to the see of Canterbury to be de- cided by the bishops, who were not favourable to him, for after Theodore's death the see remained vacant two years, and was then given to a monk of Glastonbury named Berctwald.* Ecgfrid, slain in a battle with the Picts in 685, had been succeeded on the throne of Northumbria by his illegitimate brother Aldfrid, who was celebrated for his piety and learning. But the harmony between him and Wilfred was not rendered more lasting by these qualities ; for in 692, Berctwald was no sooner elected to the see of Canterbury, than he was called to preside at another council to judge between the king and his bishop.f The old cause of dispute had been revived; Wilfred de- fended the temporal privileges and possessions of his see, and Aldfrid wished to erect Ripon into a new bishopric, distinct from that of York. Wilfred sought shelter from his sovereign's anger at the court of Ethelred of Mercia.J It is evident that the cause of Wilfred was not popular. » Bede, H. E. v. 8, 19. Eddius, u. 42. t Eddius, c. 45. Eadmer, p. 219. There is a discrepancy here between Eddius and Bede: the former, who seems to have been present at the council, says Berctwald was there as archbishop ; Bede, on the contrary, says Berctwald had not yet taken possession of the vacant see, and that he was absent from England. Non enim eo tempore habebat episcopum Cautia, defuncto quidem Theodore, sed necdum Berctualdo successore ejus, qui trans mare ordinandus ierat, ad sedem episcopatus sui reverso. Bed. H. E. v. 11. X Eddius, c. 44. Died 709.] Wilfred. 181 The object which he pursued with unceasing perseverance was the reduction of his country to an entire dependence in ecclesiastical matters on the court of Rome; and, to adopt a distinction made by one of the most profound historians of the present age, the Anglo-Saxons at that time, although they had ceased to be anti-catholic, were still anti-papal.* Most of the Anglo-Saxon prelates were assembled on this occasion. They met in a plain called by the old writers Eastrefeld, or on-Estrefelda.f They required Wilfred, who was present, to submit to the con- stitutions of Theodore; he in reply, reproached them sharply with their resistance during twenty- two years to the orders of the pope, and asked them with what face they dared to oppose to those orders the decrees of their archbishop.J The bishop of York was deposed, and excom- municated, on the ground of disobedience and contumacy ; and his biographer, who was with him during his troubles, relates with indignation the contempt to which his friends were exposed by the victorious party.§ Wilfred fled from * Lappenberg, Gesch. von Engl. i. 182. Die Angelsaohsen, nachdem sie nicht langer antikatholisch waren, stets antipapstlich verblieben. f The latter name is given in Eddius, c. 45, tbe former by Eadmer, p. 22, botb of whom give detailed accounts of the proceedings at this council. In tbe title to tbe chapter in Eddius tbe place where tbe council was held is named Swine's-path (aet-Swinapatbe). J Deinde multis et duris sermonibus eorum pertinaciam obstinationis, quia per viginti et duos annos apostolicam potestatem nan timuemnt con- tentiose resistendo exercere, increpavit : et interrogavit eos, qua fronte auderent statutis apostolicis ab Agathone sancto et Benedicto electo et beato Sergio sanctissimis papis ad Britanniam pro salute animarum dlrectis prse- ponere aut eligere decreta Theodori Archiepiscopi, quae in discordia con- stituit. Eddius, u. 45. § Inimici vero qui haereditatem sancti pontiiicis nostri sibi usurpabant, annuntiantes nos esse a sorte fidelium segregatos, et eos qui nobiscum par- ticiparent, in tantum communionem nostram execraverunt, ut si quispiam abbatum vel presbyterorum nostrorum afideli de plebe rogatur, refectionem sunm ante se positam signo crucis Dei benediceret, foras projiciendam et effundendam, quasi idolothytum, judicabant; et vasa Dei quibus nostri 182 WILFRED. [Born 635, the council to his tried friend the king of Mercia ; and thence he hastened to Rome, to invoke again the protection and interference of the pope. Archbishop Berctwald had also sent a mission to Rome, to counteract Wilfred's influence. He accused him of obstinate disobedience to the laws of the Anglo-Saxon church. But Wilfred's exertions were appreciated by the pope; he was supported by his ancient instructor, Boni- face; -he accused the Anglo-Saxon bishops of opposition to the papal government; and he was not only absolved, but was armed with letters from the pope to the kings Ethelred and Aldfrid. Wilfred appears to have remained several years at Rome, and on his return he was detained in France by a dangerous illness ; so that when he reached England (a.d. '705), the king of Mercia had exchanged his throne for a monastery. Wilfred was received in Kent by Berctwald, who was awed by the decision of the pope ; and the friendship of Ethelred was continued by his suc- cessor Coenred ; but Aldfrid remained firm in his resist- ance to the Romanists. The latter survived Wilfred's return but a few months (perhaps only a few weeks, for he died the same year); and the friends of Wilfred repre- sented his death as a judgment of heaven for his opposi- tion to the pope, and were probably the authors of a report that he had repented in his last moments. -The same year, under his successor Osred, a new council was held on the south bank of the river Nidd, at which, by a compromise between the contending parties, peace was restored to the Anglo-Saxon church.* Peace, indeed, was now necessary to WiKred, whose vescebantur, lavari prius, quasi sorde polluta, jubebant, antequam ab aliis contingerentur. Eddius, u. 47- It will be observed that in this part of his narrative Eddius speaks in the first person plural. * The most detailed account of these transactions is given by Eddius, cc. 4B— 58. Died 709.] wilfred. 183 energies were breaking under the eiFects of his incessant labours and the near approach of old age. He was not restored to his bishopric, and he appeared no more in pubHc affairs. In the fourth year after the council of the Nidd (a.d. 709)3 on his return from the performance of his pious duties in the church of Ripon, he was seized with a sudden indisposition. He called together his monks, and made his will, which is preserved by Eddius ; and then he began his last progress through his diocese, intending to visit the king of Mercia. He crept, rather than journeyed, to his monastery at Oundle (in-Undalum), and there with calm resignation yielded up his spirit. His body was carried to Ripon, where it was buried, a^d where it remained till the tenth century, when it was translated to Canterbury by the directions of Archbishop Odo. Bede has preserved his epitaph.* To Wilfred may be justly conceded a distinguished place amongst the most eminent prelates of the Anglo-Saxon church. To him the Anglo-Saxons owed the final estab- lishment of Christianity throughout the island ; it was he who, grasping them all within the circle of his powerful influence, joined so many contending kingdoms into one church, and thus he was instrumental in producing that uni- versal peace and unity which Bede describes at the conclu- sion of his History. His piety was sincere ; in performing the duties of his calling he seems to have been no less humble than zealous, and we are told that he went about on foot preaching the gospel to the ignorant people. But he seems to have kept almost a royal household; and we can hardly acquit him of being often too overbearing to- wards his fellow bishops, and towards the secular princes. His ambition, perhaps, as well as his conviction, made * Eddius, cc. 59—63. Eadmer, pp. 233—325. Bed. H. E. v. 19. Chron. Sax. in anno 709. 184 WILFRED. him the unflinching advocate of the papal supremacy j and he did much towards establishing a closer intercourse than had previously existed between this country and Rome. In his chief object, he was only partially success- ful; the Anglo-Saxon church was only half papal, until after the period when Dunstan continued the work which Wilfred had left unfinished. Of Wilfred's learning we are less able to judge. He had received his education before the arrival of Theodore, but he had completed it at Rome. To his patronage of learning and the arts we must probably attribute in a great measure the flourishing state of literature in Northumber- land during his latter years and after his death, when its schools produced such men as Bede and Alcuin. There are no writings now extant which bear the name of Wil- fred : with the exception of Aldhelm, indeed, there are few remains of any English writers previous to Bede. But diffierent writers have attributed to the Bishop of York, with what reason it is not now easy to say, treatises on Easter and the tonsure, the written acts of the council of Whitby, letters, and a rule for his monks.* * Tanner, Bibl. Angl. scripsit Wilfridus de Paschse Celebratione, lib. i. De Clericorum Tonsura, lib. i. Edicta Pharensis Synodi, lib. i. Epistolas, lib. i. De Regulis Monachorum, lib. i. 185 BENEDICT BISCOP. It has been already observed that Wilfred, in his first visit to Rome, was accompanied by a noble Saxon named Benedict Biscop. Concerning this person, whose in- fluence on Anglo-Saxon civilization, though more peaceful and unostentatious, was not less extensive and important than that exercised by Wilfred, our information is almost entirely derived from his disciple Bede.* This writer tells us that Biscop also was a native of Northumbria, and that he had been a courtier of Oswiu, who had enriched him with extensive gifts of land.f Eddius, almost the only ancient author who mentions him independently of Bede, gives us his patronymic, Baducing.f Bede says that when he went with Wilfred to Rome, (a.d. 654) he was about twenty-five years of age,§ which would fix his birth to about 629. When we say that Biscop's influence was peaceful, we do not mean to say that he was inactive. His life was one of constant wandering. Whilst Wilfred was contend- ing with the Saxon prelates, and moving from synod to synod, his early friend was enriching his country with the literary stores of the continent, and was forming in the silence of his monasteries the scholars who were to be the glory of the succeeding age. * Bede mentions him but cursorily in his Ecclesiastical History ; but he gives the details of his life in his lives of the early abbots of Wearmouth and Yarrow, first published at Dublin by Ware, whose edition we use. Simeon of Durham (Decem Scriptores, col. 94) and William of Malmsbury (Script, post Bed. p. 21) copy Bede. t Bed. Vit. Abbot. Wiremuth, p. 23. J Ducem nobilem et admirabilis ingenii quemdam Biscop Baducing in- veniens. Eddius, V. Wilf. u. 3. § Annos natus circiter viginti et quinque fastidivit possessionem caducam ut adquirere posset seternam. Bed. Vit. Ab. Wir. p. 22. 186 BENEDICT Biscop. [Bom 629, It is probable that Biscop returned from Rome soon after the synod of Whitby (664). On his arrival in Nor- thumbrian he found king Alehfrid making preparations to visit the metropolis of the Catholic world, for the rage for this pilgrimage which soon afterwards manifested itself so strongly among the Anglo-Saxons, was then beginning to be felt. We are not told what was the object of the king's journey; but he seems to have been easily dissuaded from itj and Biscop, whom he had chosen to be his companion, was entrusted with the mission, and reached Rome a second time in the papacy of Vitalian, probably about the year 665.* He spent there some months in the same studious pursuits which had occupied him during his earlier and longer re- sidence ; t and then went to the abbey of Lerins, in Pro- vence (ad insulam Lirinensem), where he became a monk, received the tonsure, and was instructed in the monastic discipline. After residing two years at Lerins, he returned to Rome, where he arrived in 668, to be associated with Theodore and Adrian who were setting out on their mission to England. They arrived safely in Kent ; and no sooner had Theodore taken possession of his bishopric, than Biscop was made abbot of the monastery of St. Peter, better known afterwards as that of St. Augustine, at Can- terbury. Scarcely, however, had he ruled over the Kentish monks two years, when he resigned his charge to the abbot Adrian, and made a third voyage to Rome. It is not improbable that Biscop had been invited by Coinwalch king of the West Saxons, who was his friend, to settle in Wessex, and his object in this journey seems to have been to bring home the literary treasures which he had already in part collected. At Rome he bought or * Bed. ib. p. 23. f Et non pauca scientise salutaris quemadmodum et prius hausta dulce- dine. Id. p. 24. Died 690.1 benedict biscop. 187 received as gifts many books,* and he went thence to Vienne in France to take others which he had left in the care of his friends. But he reached England just as the king of Wessex died ; f and, changing his course, he re- paired to Northumbria, where king Ecgfrid, glad to secure within his kingdom the numerous books and relics which he had brought with him, J gave him land near the mouth of the Wear, on which he founded a monastery. Coin- walch died in 673; and in 674 Biscop laid the foundation of his monastery of Wearmouth.§ Having thus begun the foundation of his monastery, Biscop went early in the following year to Gaul, to seek masons who were skilful in building in stone after the Ro- man manner to construct his church; || and he prosecuted his work with so much vigour that it was completed in the space of another year. He then sent to Gaul for glaziers, and adorned the church and monastery with glass windows, then a novelty among his- countrymen.^ In that country also he obtained the utensils, ornaments, and vestments for the use of the new foundation, because those which were to be bought in England were of an in- * Tertium de Britannia Eomam iter arripiens solita prosperitate comple- vit, librosque omnis divinse eraditionis non paucos vel placito pretio emptos, vel amicorum dono largitos retulit. Bed. ib. p. 26. ■^ Sed ipso eodem tempore immatara morte prserepto. Bed. ib. p. 27. J Quot divina volumina, quantas beatorum apostolorum sive martyrum Christi reliquias attulit. Id. p. 28. § We have Bede's authority for this date. The historian was born at the place, and at the foundation of the monastery, according to this date, was in his second year. The Peterborough Chronicle printed in Sparke (Hist. Angl. Script, p. 3.) places the date of this event three years earlier. Anno 0CLXXI. Benedictus Biscob monasterium ad ostium Wiri fluminis fundat. II Oceano transmisso, Gallias patens, csementarios, qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanorum quem semper amabat morem facerent, postula- vit, accepit, attulit. Bed. ib. p. 27. % -Proximante ad profectura opere, misit legatarios Galliam, qui vitri fac- tores, artifices videlicet Britannia eatenus incognitos, ad cancellandos ec- clesise-porticumque et csenoculorum ejus fenestras, adducerent. Id. p. 28. 188 BENEDICT Biscop. [Bom 629, ferior quality ; and, not content with these, after having established his monks at Wearmouth, he went to Rome about the year 678 to seek what Gaul itself was not capable of furnishing, and to obtain at the same time a papal bull of privileges for his monastery. He returned to England a little before the synod of Heathfield (680).* Bede again points out the vast number of books which the abbot of Wearmouth brought on this occasion from Rome to Eng- landjt as well as many reliques, and numerous paintings, designed at the same time to embellish his church, and to present to the eyes of those who might be too ignorant to read, the principal portions of Scripture lore. In the mid- dle of the vault he placed the picture of the Virgin and the twelve apostles, extending from wall to wall; the southern wall was adorned with pictures taken from the Gospel his- tory; while the northern wall was similarly decorated with re- presentations of the visions of St. John as described in the Apocalypse.J Onthis journey, and perhaps also on former occasions, Biscop was accompanied by Ceolfrid, his friend and his feUow labourer in the building of the monastery ; * Johannes .... qui nuper venerat a Roma, .... duce reverentissimo abbate Biscopo, was present at this synod. Bed. H. E. iv. 18. f Tnnumerahilem librorum omnis generis copiam apportavit. Bed. Vit. Abb. Wir. p. 29. X Imaginem beatse Dei genetricis semperque virginis Marise simul et duo- deeim apostolorum, qnibus mediam et ejusdem ecclesise testudinem, ducto a pariete ad parietem tabulate, prsecingeret ; imagines evangelicse historise, quibus australem ecclesise parietem decoraret ; imagines visionum Apocalypsis beati Johannis, quibus septentrionalem seque parietem ornaret, quatenus intrantes ecclesiam omnes etiam literarum ignari, quaque Tersum intende- rent, vel semper amabilem Christi sanctorumque ejus quamvis in imagine contemplarentur aspeetum ; vel dominicse incarnationis gratiam vigUantiore mente recolerent, vel extremi discrimen examinis quasi coram oculis habentes districtius se ipsi examinare meminissent. Bed. Vit. Abb. Wir., p. 30. The slight indications given by Bede seem to indicate distinctly a church built in what is termed the Byzantine style, and may be illustrated by the early basilicas still existing in Rome. The reader who would understand the arrangements of the pictures in the church of Wearmouth, is referred to the sections of tlie ancient church of Santa Maria Nuova at Monreale, given in Hittorf and Zanth's Architect. Mod. de la Sicile. Died 690.] benedict biscop. 189 on his return, he brought with him to England John, the arch-chanter (archicantor) of St. Peter's, and abbot of St. ' Martin's at Rome.* The object of this man's mission was to examine into the Catholicism of the Anglo-Saxons; but he was also the means of introducing the Roman choral service, which he not only taught orally at Wear- mouth, but left written directions, long preserved there, of which copies were soon spread over the island. King Ecgfrid rejoiced in the zeal of his abbot; and, soon after his return from this his fourth journey to Rome, he gave him more land, on the other side of the river Wear, at a place then called Girwi (Yarrow), and Biscop built there a second monastery, dependent upon that of Wearmouth. In this smaller foundation, which he dedi- cated to St. Paul the apostle, he placed seventeen of his monks, under the management of his friend Ceolfrid. Nine years after the foundation of the larger monastery, in A.D. 685, Biscop entrusted the care of both establish- ments to one of his monks named Eosterwin, and, taking Ceolfrid with him, left England for the fifth and last time.f He again brought from Rome many books and pictures. Among the latter was a series of illustrations of the life of Christ, which he placed in the church of Wearmouth; and another in which circumstances of the Old and New Testament were compared with each other, as in a picture of Isaac carrying the wood on which he was to be sacrificed and Christ bearing the cross; in another Moses raising the brazen serpent in the wilderness placed in juxtaposi- • Bed. ib. and H. E. iv. 18. Bede's mention of Ceolfrid in this latter place has led his recent editor into the error of making Biscop bring John the Arch-chanter on his return from his fifth journey to Rome. (not. in Bed. H. E. p. 288, ed. Stevenson). As Biscop' only returned (in company with Ceolfrid) from his fifth journey after the death of Ecgfrid (May 20, 685), John could not in this case have been at the synod of Heathfield (680). t Bed. Vit. Abb. Wir. pp. 31, 32. 190 BENEDICT Biscop. \_Born 629, tion with the Saviour elevated on the cross.* These he placed in the church of Yarrow. Biscop also brought with him on this occasion two silk palls " of incomparable workman ship ."t On his arrival in England, probably in 686 or early in 687, he found that, during his absence, death had carried off king Ecgfrid, as well as his own sub- abbot Eosterwin, but he could not fail to be well received by the learned king Aldfrid. Biscop was soon aftervrards seized with the palsy, under which he languished three years. During his latter days his thoughts ran much upon his library, and he anxiously exhorted his monks to preserve the books carefully, after his death, from loss or injury.J Amid his bodily sufferings he frequently spoke with pleasure of the journeys he had made to collect them^ and of the foreign sites which he had visited. § Having appointed CeoKrid his successor, he died on the twelfth of January 690, sixteen years after the foundation of the monastery of Wearmouth.|| He was buried at Wear- mouth ; but, in the tenth century, his bones were trans- lated to Thorney by Ethelwold bishop of Winchester. Bede composed an homily upon his master's memory, which is still preserved.^ • Nam et tunc dominicse liistorise picturas quibus totam beatse Dei gene- tricis quam in monasterio majore fecerat ecclesiam in giro coronaret. Ima- gines quoque ad ornandum monasterium ecclesiamque beati Pauli nostri de Concordia veteris et novi testamenti summa ratione exhibuit. Verbi gratia, Isaac ligna quibus immolaretur portantem, et Dominum crucem in qua pateretur seque portantem, proxima super invicem regione pictura con- junxit. Item serpenti in heremo a Moyse exaltato, filium hominis in cruce exaltatum comparavit. Id. ib. p. 35. t Pallia duo oloserica incomparandi operis. Id. ib. X Bibliothecam quam de Roma nobilissimam copiosissimamque advexerat, ad instructionem ecclesiee necessariam, soUicite servari integram, ne per in- curiam foedari, aut sparsim dissipari, prsecepit. Id. ib. p. 38. § Bed. Homil. Hyemal. p. 334 (in the Cologne edition of his works.) II Bede, ib. Simeon of Durham, col. 94. Matthew of Westminster erro- neously places Biscop's death in 703. II This homily is printed in the seventh vol. of Bede's works (Ed. Col. 1688), among the Homil. hyemales de Sanctis, p. 332. Died 690,] benedict biscop. 191 The benefits which Biscop conferred upon Anglo-Saxon civilization, then only in its dawn, were very great. The monastery of Wearmouth, enriched with the treasures he had imported, and adorned by the workmen whom he had invited from the continent, became under his guidance the nursery equally of literature and the arts. Bede tells exultingly how often he had passed the sea, " never " as he says, "returning, like some of his contemporaries, empty or in vain."* At a later period, WiUiam of Malms- bury, looking back to the advantages which had resulted from his exertions, praises no less the active zeal which led him to expend so much of his life in travelling to seek books, and architects, and glass-makers, the first of which had been previously rare, and the others almost unknown, among his countrymen, than the desire of bringing to his friends some novelty, the love of country, and the taste for elegance, which beguiled his hours of pain and labour.f The most useful memorial which Biscop left to his imme- diate successors, was perhaps his library, which afterwards perished amid the depredations of the Danes; hismostdura- ble monument is to be found in the writings of his disciple Bede. The library must have been extensive; but we are not informed of what classes of books it was chiefly composed. * Toties mare transiit, numquam, ut est cousuetudinis quibusdam, vacuus et inutilis rediit, sed nunc librorum copiam sanctorum, nunc reliquiarum beatorum martyrum Cbristi venerabile detulit, nunc architeotos ecclesiae fabricandee, nunc vitrifactores ad fenestras ejus decorandas ac muniendas, nunc cantandi et in ecclesia per totum annum ministrandi secum magistros adduxit, nunc epistolam privilegii . . . apportavit, nunc picturas sanctarnm historiarum . . . adrexit. Bed. Horail. in Natal. Bened. p. 334. f Industriam, quod copiam librorum advexerit, quod artifices lapidearum aedium et vitreamm fenestrarum primus omnium Angliam asciverit, totum pene gevum talia transigendo peregrinatus. Quippe studio advehendi cog- natis aliquid insolitum amor patriae et voluptas elegantise asperos fallebant labores. Neque enim ante Benedictum lapidei tabulatus domus in Britannia nisi perraro videbantur, neque perspicuitate vitri penetrata lucem sedibus Solaris jaciebat radius. W. Walmsb. (in Scriptor. post Bed.) p. 21. ^^^^ BENEDICT Biscop. \_Born 629, Bede mentions incidentally that it contained a treatise on cosmography^* a subject -which seems to have been ex- tremely popular among our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. There appears to be no direct authority for the statement made by Warton, and repeated by others, that Biscop brought to England a valuable collection of the best Greek and Latin authors ;t but we are justified in beheving such to have been the case, by the frequent quotations from their writings that are found in Bede. The works indeed of this author are the best proof of the extent and variety of information to which he had access in the monastery of Wearmouth, In the same manner we can now only judge of Biscop's literary acquirements by his acknowledged love of books and by the proficiency of his scholars. Leland saj's that he wrote very learnedly, and ascribes to him a work en- titled Concordaniia Regularum, the object of which was to show that all rules of monastic life agreed or ought to agree with that of St. Benedict. The titles of three other books said to have been written by Biscop are also given by the old bibliographers, all , relating more or less to the government or observances of his monks ; but it must be confessed that the authority on which they rest is very doubtful.J * Cosmographorum codex mirandi operis, quem RomaeBenedictus emerat. Bed. Hist. Abb. Wirera. p. 47- Books on cosmography are again alluded to in an extract from the letters of Boniface, quoted in the introduction to the present volume, p. 91, note. The Cosmography of the pseudo-jEthicus appears to have been a popular book among the Anglo-Saxons at an early period, and several early Anglo-Saxon MSS. of it are preserved in our libraries. f Warton, Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. — Compare the articles on Benedict Biscop in Chalmers and the Biographic Universelle. X Scripsit Concordiam Regularum, lib. 1. Exhortationes ad Monaehos, lib. 1. De sue Privilegio, Epist. 1. De Celebratione Festorum totius Anni, lib. 1. Tanner. Died about 680.] 193 C^DMON. While men of higher rank and education were labour- ing to introduce among their countrymen the language and literature of Rome, we find a person rising out of the common orders of the people, under remarkable circum- stances, to christianize and refine the vernacular poetry. No name has of late years excited more interest among scholars than that of Ceedmon, yet he is not mentioned by any early writer except Bede.* Caedmon was a native of Northumbria, and lived in the neighbourhood of Streaneshalch (Whitby) ; he seems, from th.e account given by Bede, to have performed, at least occasionally, the duties of a cow-herd. We are told that he was so much less instructed than most of his equals, that he had not even learnt any poetry; so that he was frequently obliged to retire in order to hide his shame, when the harp was moved towards him in the hall, where at supper it was customary for each person to sing in turn.f On one of these occasions, it happened to be Caedmon^s turn to keep guard at the stable during the night,| and, overcome * Csedmon's story is told in Bed. H. E. iv. 24. t Unde nonnunquam in convivio, cum esset Isetitise causa ut omnes per ordinem cautare deberent, ille, ubi appropiiiquare sibi citharam cemebat, surgebat a media coena et egressus ad suam domum repedabat. Bed. ib. This is one of those curious incidents whicti help to throw light on the do- mestic life of our early forefathers. Even in Alfred's time manners seem to have been so far changed that he thought it necessary to paraphrase the Latin cantare by to sing to the harp, in order to explain why the harp was passed round. — And he for-J)on oft in ge-beorscipe, )>onne )>Eer wses blisse intinga ge-demed "^ hi ealle sceoldan )>urh endebyrdnesse be hearpan singan, Sonne he ge-seah Sa hearpan him nealajcan, Sonne aras he for sceome from )>am symle, 1 ham eode to his huse. X Egressus est ad stabula jumentonim , quorum ei custodla nocte ilia erat delegata. Bede. — to neata scypene, tJsr heorde him wses Ssere nihte bebo • den. Alfred's version. vol,. I. Q 194 c^DMON. IJDied about 680. with vexation, he quitted the table and retired to his post of duty, where, laying himself down, he fell into a sound slumber. In the midst of his sleep a stranger appeared to him, and, saluting him by his name, said, " Ceedmon, sing me something." Ceedmon answered, " I know nothing to sing; for my incapacity in this respect was the cause of my leaving the haU to come hither." " Nay,'-* said the stranger, " but thou hast something to sing." " What must I sing ? " said Ceedmon. " Sing the crea- tion," was the reply ; and thereupon Ceedmon began to sing verses " which he had never heard before," and which are said to have been as follows : * — Nu we sceolan herian Now we shall praise heofon-rices weard, the guardian of heaven, metodes mihte, the might of the creator, and his niod-ge-J>onc, and his counsel, wera wuldor-fseder I the glory-father of men ! swa he wundra ge-hwses, how he of all wonders, ece dryhten, the eternal lord, oord onstealde. formed the beginning. He serest ge-sc^op He first created ylda bearnum for the children of men heofon to hr6fe, heaven as a roof, halig scyppend ! the holy creator ! i>a. middan-geard then the world mon-cynnes weard, the guardian of mankind, ece dryhten, the eternal lord, sefter teode, produced afterwards, firum foldan, the earth for men, frea selmihtig 1 the almighty master 1 Ceedmon then awoke ; and he was not only able to repeat * Bede only gives a Latin paraphrase of Csedmon's exordium ; and the Anglo-Saxon lines, found in king Alfred's version, have been supposed by some to be a mere re-translation from Bede's Latin. But as a copy of the Saxon text is found in the margin of a MS. of Bede (now in the Public Library at Cambridge KK. 516), supposed to have been written at Wear- mouth within two or three years after Bede's death, there seems to be little doubt that they are the original lines. Died about 680.'\ CiEDMON. 195 the lines which he had made in his sleep, but he continued them in a strain of admirable versification. In the morn- ing he hastened to the town-reeve or baihff * of Whitby, who carried him before the abbess Hilda, and there in the presence of some of the learned men of the place he told his story, and they were all of opinion that he had received the gift of song from heaven. They then expounded to him in his mother tongue a portion of Scripture, which he was required to repeat in verse. Csedmon went home with his task, and the next morning he produced a poem which excelled in beauty all that they were accustomed to hear. He afterwards yielded to the earnest solicitations of the abbess Hilda, and became a monk of her house ; and she ordered him to transfer into verse the whole of the sacred history. We are told that he was unable to read, but that he was continually occupied in repeating to himself what he heard, and, " like a clean animal, ruminating it, he turned it into most sweet verse."t Bede informs us that Cced- mon's poetry, as it existed in his time, treated successively of the whole history of Genesis, of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, and their entrance into the land of promise, with many other histories taken out of Holy Writ; of the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension ; of the advent of the Holy Ghost and of the doctrine of the Apostles ; " he also made many poems on the terrors of the day of Judgment, the pains of hell, and the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom." The story of Caedmon forms one of those frequent episodes which give so much interest to the narrative, of the venerable father of English historians. The account * Veniensque mane ad villicum, qui sibi prseerat. Bede. To 'Sam tun- gerefan, se ]>e his ealdormon wses. Alfred. t At ipse cuncta quae audiendo discere poterat, rememorando secum et, quasi mundum animal, ruminando, in carmen dulcissimum convertebat. Bede, ib. O 2 196 c^DMON. [Died abaut 680. of the poet's death is singularly beautiful. " When the time of his departure approached," says Bede, " he Mas fourteen days troubled with bodily infirmity ; yet so mode- rately that during all that time he could both speak and walk. There was in the neighbourhood a house in which they used to bring those who were very infirm and near their end. Then bade he his servant, on the eve of the night in which he was to leave the world, to prepare him a place of rest in that house; whereupon the servant wondered why he gave this order, for it seemed to him that his death was not so near, yet he did as he had com- manded him. And when, having taken their place there, they were speaking in joyful mood and joking with those who had previously been in the place, and it was just past midnight, he asked whether they had the eucharist within. They answered, " What need hast thou of the eucharist ? for thou, who art speaking to us thus cheerfully, art not now on the point of death." He said again, " Nevertheless, bring me the eucharist!" When he had taken it in his hand, he asked if they had all a placid mind towards him, without any enmity or ill-will. They all answered that they were most kindly disposed towards him, far removed from any angry feeling ; and they besought him in return that he would be kindly disposed towards them. He im- mediately answered, " My dear brethren, I am kindly dis- posed towards you and towards all God's servants." And thus strengthening himself with the heavenly viaticum, he prepared himself to enter into another life. He asked again, how near was the hour in which the brethren must rise to sing their nocturns. They answered, " It is not far to that." Then he said, " It is well ; let us therefore wait that hour." And signing himself with the sign of the holy cross, he reclined his head on the pillow, and so in silence ended his life. And thus it was that, as he Died about GSO.} c^dmon. 197 with pure and calm mind and tranquil devotion had served God, he in like manner, leaving the world by as calm a death, went to his presence; and, with that tongue which had composed so many salutary words in praise of the Creator, closed his last words also in his praise, as he crossed himself and committed his spirit into his hands." The death of Csedmon is supposed to have happened about the year 680. He was buried in the monastery of Whitby, where, according to William of Malmsbury, his bones were discovered in the earlier part of the twelfth century. In the Anglo- Romish Calendar, the com- memoration of his birth has been fixed by some on the eleventh, by others on the tenth, of February, but appa- rently on no good authority. In the earlier part of the seventeenth century, arch- bishop Usher became possessed of a manuscript of Anglo- Saxon poetry, the subject and character of which coincided in many respects with the description given by Bede of the works of Csedmon. The archbishop presented the manuscript to Junius, who immediately gave an edition of the text under Csedmon's name, printed at Amsterdam in 1655. The original manuscript (which is the only one yet discovered, passed, with the rest of that scholar's collection, to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it is still preserved. Hickes and other writers have con- tended that Junius was wrong in attributing this poetry to Caedmon ; but their principal arguments have been shown by others to rest on weak foundations, and, although much corrupted in passing through three cen- turies (for the MS. was written in the tenth century), there seems to be little reason for doubting that we have here some fragments of Csedmon's compositions. The edition by Junius having become rare, and it being also full of errors, these poems were selected to form the first publication of the Anglo-Saxon committee established by 198 c.EDMON. [Died about 680. the Society of Antiquaries of London ; and in 1 832 appeared the excellent edition by Mr. Thorpe, consisting of a text formed carefully from the original manuscript, and accom- panied by a literal English version. A very large portion of the work thus printed, and which is known generally as " Csedmon's Paraphrase," embraces the history contained in the book of Genesis. The long and graphic account of the fall of man, founded on legends of which it is not now easy to trace the origin, resembles so much the plot of the Paradise Lost, that it has obtained for its author the name of the Saxon Milton. The remainder of what is printed as the first book consists of the history of Daniel. The second book is little more than a collection of fragments, probably taken down (as Mr. Thorpe supposes) from oral recitation; they relate to the de- scent of the Saviour into Hades (a story so popular during the middle age under the name of " the Harrowing of Hell "), the Ascension, and the Temptation in the Wilder- ness. The style of this poetry is unequal; but some parts, and more particularly the narrative of the fall, are very favourable specimens of the poetic skill of our early forefathers. The story just mentioned appears to have been the poem on which Csedmon's great reputation was founded; it was the one which, according to the legend, he had com- menced in the first moments of his inspiration, under the influence of his dream. An extract from it will give the general reader the best idea of his manner of writing. The following passage is the commencement of the speech of Satan, when he first recovers from the consternation into which the entire defeat of his ambition had thrown him, and forms his treacherous designs against the happiness of our first parents ; it bears a remarkable analogy to the similar speech of the fallen angel in the first book of Paradise Lost. Died about 680.] C^DMON. 199 WeoU Mm on Innan hyge ymb Ms he(5rtaii, h&t wses Mm titan wra^Uc wite. He J>a worde cwEe'S : " Is bes tenga stide lin-ge-Uc swi'Se J>am o^rum }>e we ser cuBon, he£n on heofon-rice, i>e me min hearra onlag, t>eah we hine, for J>am alwealdan, igan ne moston, r6migan 6res rices ; nsefS he (jeah riht ge-d6n, ■)> he us hcefS befylled fyre to b6tme helle ]>8ere h^tan, heofon-rice benfimen, hifa'S hit ge-me£rcod mid mon-cynne to ge-settanne. ji me is sorga msest, 'P Adam sceal, be wses of eorSan ge-worht, mimie stronglican st61 behealdan, w^san him on wy'nne, ^ w^ J>is wite J>olien, hearm on bisse helle. Wi 14 ahte ic minra handa ge-weild, •j moste ine tid onne ic mid t>ys werodf — Ac licga^ me ymbe iren-bendas, rideS racentan sal ; ic eom rices leas ! habbatS me swa hearde helle clommas fffiste befangen ! H& is fyr micel ufan ^ neotSone ; ic a ne ge-seah MtSran landscipe ; lig ne aswamaS, hit ofer helle. Boiled within him his thought about his heart, hot was without him his dire punishment. Then spake he words : ■ This narrow place is most unlike that other that we formerly knew, high in heaven's kingdom, wWch my master bestowed on me, though we it, for the All-powerful, may not possess, we must cede our realm ; yet hath he not done rightly, that he hath struck us down to the fiery abyss of the hot hell, bereft us of heaven's kingdom, hath decreed to people it with mankind. That is to me of sorrows the greatest, that Adam, who was wrought of earth , shall possess my strong seat, that it shall be to him in delight, and we endure this torment, misery in this hell. Oh ! had I power of my hands, might one season be without, be one winter's space, then with this host I But around me lie iron bonds, presseth this cord of chain ; I am powerless ! me have so hard the clasps of hell so firmly grasped ! Here is a vast fire above and underneath, never did I see a loathlier landskip ; the flame abateth not, hot over hell. 200 CiEUMON. [Died about 680. Me habba'S hringa ge-sprong, slitS-hearda sdl, sHSes amyrred, afyrred me min fetSe. Fet synt ge-blindene, hinda ge-hse'fte, synt )>i8sa h^l-dora wegas for-w6rhte, swa io mid wihte ne maeg of Hssum U6'So-bendum. LicgatS me ymbutan hCflrdes irenea bite ge-sltegene grindlas greate, mid ]>y me God hafaS ge-hsefted be J)am bealse. Swa ic wlit he minne hige culJej ^ "P wiste eac, weroda drihten, ■Ji sceolde unc Addme yfele ge-wur^an, ymb js heofon-rice, i>ser ic ahte minra handa gc-weald." Thorpe's Ceedmon, pp. 23 — ^25. me hath the clasping of these rings, this bard polished band, impeded in my course, debarred me from my way. My feet are bound, my bands manacled, of these hell-doors are the ways obstructed, so that with aught I cannot ' from these limb bonds escape. About me lie huge gratings of hard iron forged with heat, with which me God hath fastened by the neck. Thus perceive I that he knoweth my mind, and that he knew also, the Lord of hosts, that should us through Adam evil befall, about the realm of heaven, where I had power of my hands." Editions of Ce extensive ; and we find an Irish monk^ who had Iieen his scholar, addressing a letter to him by the title " Aldhelmo archimandrite Saxonum." After he had been made abbot of Malmsbury, he received an invitation from Pope Sergius I. to visit Rome,* and he is supposed to have accompanied Caedwalla king of the West-Saxons, who was baptized by that pope and died at Rome in 689. AVhether this be true, or not, Aldhelm's visit to Rome cannot be jilaced earlier than a.d. 68b, because Sergius had only been raised to the papal chair in the course of the preceding year; and as the chief object of his journey was to obtain the pope's confirmation of the privileges of his abbey, Ave may justly suppose that it had been very recently founded, which confirms us in giving to that event a date subsequent to 680. Aldhelm did not remain long at Rome. In 692, he appears, from his letter on the subject quoted by one of his biographerSjt to have taken part to a certain degree, though not very decidedly, with Wilfred, in his great con- test with the Anglo-Saxon clergy. Soon after this, we find him employed in the still more famous dispute about the celebration of Easter. A synod was called by king Ine, about 693, to attempt a reconciliation on this point between the Britons of Cornwall and the Anglo-Saxons, and Aldhelm was appointed to write a letter on the sub- ject (addressed to Geruntius King of Cornwall, and still Faricius gives the following account of the West-Saxons at this period, — Quo tempore illius provincise populus perversus opere (juamvis subditus fldei nostrse, ecclesiam non frequentabat, nee sacerdotum satis curabat ira- perium. * Faricius, ap. Bolland. Act. Sanct. Mali, torn. vi. p. 86, 87. t W. Malmsb. ap. Wharton, p. S. See pp. 180, 181, of the present volume. Z)ied 709.] ALDHELM. 217 preserved), which was eiFective in converting many of the Britons to the Romish rule.* We hear nothing further of the abbot of Malmsbury till the year 705, when, on the death of Hedda, the bishopric of Wessex was divided into two dioceses, of which one, that of Sherborn (after- wards removed to Salisbury) was given to Aldhelm,t who appears to have been allowed to retain at the same time his abbacy. Four years afterwards he died at DiltonJ near Westbury in Wiltshire, on the twenty-fifth of May, 709. His body was carried to Malmsbury, where it was buried in the presence of Egwin bishop of Wor- cester. Aldhelm was not a voluminous writer. The works which alone have given celebrity to his name, are his two treatises on Virginity and his ^nigmata. The prose treatise de Laude Virginitatis continued to be a favourite book with our Anglo-Saxon forefathers up to the time of the Norman conquest, and numerous early manuscripts of it are still preserved. Many of these manuscripts written after the eighth century, when the nuns for whose use it was designed were less frequently instructed in Latin than at the time when it was composed, are accompanied by a partial interlinear translation in Anglo-Saxon. This book, as well as the one on the same subject written in Latin hexameters, consists chiefly of an enumeration of the martyrs of both sexes who had devoted themselves to a life of strict chastity, with an account of their sufferings and constancy. The iEnig- mata, written in imitation of Symposius, were also popu- lar among the Anglo-Saxons. We have already given an * Bede, H. E. v. 18. conf. W. Malrasb. and Faric. t Bede, H. E, v. 18. J " Dnlting " in William of Malmsbury, and " Dunting " in Faricius. 218 ALDHELM. [Bom ttbout 656. account of this work;* it is accompanied by an in- troduction in prose, which treats some of the pecuharities of Latin versification in a manner that shows that its most common rules were then new to the Anglo-Saxon readers. These works, with a poem on the seven cardinal vices and two or three letters, are all now remaining which can be attributed with any degree of certainty to the pen of Aldhelm, and they have all been printed. The book of .(Enigmata is supposed to be incomplete; because the introductory acrostics have been generally interpreted as meaning that it consisted of a thousand lines, while in the printed editions it contains no more than seven hundred and fifty-five Knes. Different copies appear to vary a little in the number ; the only manuscript which we have had the opportunity of examining, and which is perhaps of the earlier part of the ninth century, contains seven hundred and sixty-four lines. Bale speaks of a treatise on Metres by Aldhelm, beginning with the words " Aonio rediens deducam vertice musas," but, according to his biographer, this was the conclusion of his trea- tise.f A work on metres by Aldhelm is said to exist among the MSS. of Vossius at Leyden. Bale also attri- butes to him a work entitled Dialogus Meretricum, and other poems. According to Leyser, there was in his time in the Library at Leipzig a MS. containing some pieces of Latin verse attributed to Aldhelm. J Aimonius * Introd. p. 78. f Ista enim sunt ejus verba in calce libri quem fecit de schematibus, " Hcec," inquit, " de metrorum generibus et schematibus pro utilitate ingenii mei babes, multum laboriose, nescio si fructuose, collecta, quamvis mihi conscius sum illud me Virgilianum posse jactare, Primus ego in patriam mecura, modo vita supersit, Aonio rediens deducam vertice musas." W. Malmsb. ap. Wharton, p. 4. t Historia Poeti et Poem. Med. ^v. p. 202. Died 709.] aldhelm. 219 Floriacensis has preserved a few fragments of another poem in Latin hexameters, entitled De Laude Sanctorum,* which, according to Bale, commenced with the words " Metrica si libet." There are however many reasons for believing that some of these latter indications are not correct. Bede speaks of his two books De Virginitate and "some other writings."t William of Malmsbury, after mentioning these two treatises, and the ^nigmata, says that, besides " many epistles," he wrote a volume, dedicated to Aldfrid king of Northumbria, which contained, in several chapters or treatises. Collections out of the Scriptures and the philosophers on the dignity of the number seven. Exhortations to fraternal love. On the metaphorical and figurative meanings of insensible things. On metrical feet, metaplasm, synalsepha, and the scanning and eclipsis of verses, and a Dialogue on Metres. J This last is perhaps the foundation on which Bale built the title Dialogum Meretricum (instead of Metricum). Aldhelm's Latin compositions have been frequently cited as an example of the false style of the early Anglo- Latin writers. Even as far back as the twelfth century, William of Malmsbury felt himself obliged to offer an apology for him, grounded on the taste of the age in jWhich he lived. § His writings are on the one hand filled with Latinized Greek words and with awkward expres- sions that render them obscure, while on the other they abound in the alliterations and metaphorical language which characterized his native tongue. Aldhelm's prose is much less pleasing than his verse, because it is far less * Aimon. Flor. Serm. de S. Benedicto, ap. Joh. a Bosco, Biblioth. Floriacens. pp. 292, 3. t Bede, H. E. v, 18. J W. Malmsb. in Wharton, p. 7. § W, Malmsb, as cited in the introduction to the present vol. p. 45. 220 ALDiiELM. IBorn about 656. harmonious. Instead of selecting some of his most ex- travagant passages, as has usually been done, we will give as a fair specimen of the general style of this writer his account of the martydom of Ruffina and Secunda, from the prose treatise on Virginity. Prceterea Imperantibus Augustis Valeriano et Gallieno, cum fervor torrida; persecutionis et aidor crudelitatis acrius incanduisset, et coelestis militiEe mani- pulares, qui pro confessione fidei nequaquam formilodosorum more luctato- rum palestram certaminis liorruerunt, cnientis carnificum mucronibus neca- rentur, duse germanse virgines vocabulo Ruffina et Secunda, generosis oriundae natalibus, persecutovura rabiem paulisper declinantes ad praidiolium suum in Tuscise partlbus Basternse vehiculo properabaut, ilico sponsis earum pro- dentibus nuper ad apostasiee cloacam, velut molossi ad vomitum relapsis, chiliarco cum equestri turma insequente Romam reducuntur, putido sqiia- lentium ergastulorum latibulo mancipandse, et subsannantis gannatiirEe ludi- brium laturse, Posthsc Ruffina cum dirissimis verberum ictibus csesa et ceernlea flagrorum vibice cruentata in conspectu furentis satrapse vapularet. Secunda constanter ait, " AppUca ignes, saxa, gladios, flagella, fustes, et virgas, quot tu poenas intuleris, tot ego glorias numerabo, quot tu violentias irrogabis, tot ego martyrii computo palmas." Mox identidem in latebroso carceris fundo, quoe fumigabundis fcetentis Ami foetoribus horrebat, sanctse virgines includuntur, sed furva caligo ccelesti splendore fugatur, et putidum letamen velut tymiama et nardi pistici fragrantia redolet. Rursus in ardentes therraarum vapores, qute supposita prunarum congerie torrebantur inclemen- ter, jactari imperantur, sed illaesa membrorum venustate sospites e thermis emersisse leguntur; verum cruenta tortorum severitas reciprocis vicibus toties elisa et labefacta, nee mitescere, nee miserescere novit. Siquidem famulas Dei ingentis scopuli mole connexas in medio Tyberis alveo sine miserationis respectu mergere jussit, sed undarum gurgites dantes gloriam Deo ab infidelibus dencgatam sanctas virgines riparum marginibus incolumes restituimt. Unde satrapa tanla rerum prodigia obstupescens scribitnr dixisse, " Istae aut magica arte nos superant, aut virginitatis in eis sanctitas regnat." Postremo capitalem sortits senteutiam angelicis evectse catervjs cum vexillo virginitatis ad coeli sidera scandunt. Of Aldhelm's poems, the ^nigmata are perhaps the most agreeable, as being less inflated than the poem in praise of virgins. In both we observe many attempts to imitate phrases and sentiments of the classic poets, and a frequent recurrence of alliteration. The following is the Acrostic Introduction to the iEnigmata, which we have been enabled by means of the early MS. in the Died 709.] ALDHELM. 221 British Museum, to give more correctly than it appears in the printed editions. It will be observed that the first, or last, letter of each line, taken in order, form the line, — Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas, which is interpreted as giving the number of lines of which the ^nigmata originally consisted, and which leaves no doubt, if there could be any, as to the correct mode of writing the poet's name. Arbiter sethereo jagiter qui regmine sceptra Lucifluumque simul coeli regale tribunal Disponis, moderans seternis legibus illud ; Horrida nam multans torsisti membra Behemoth, Ex alta quondam rueret dum luridus arce, Limpida diutanti metrorum carmina praesul Munera nunc largire, rudis quo pandere rerum Versibus senigmata queam clandestina fatu. Sic Deus indignis tua gratis dona rependis, Castalidas nymphas non clamo cantibus istuc, Examcn neque spargebat mihi ^nectar in ore, Cinthi sic nunquam perlustro cacumiua, sed neo In Parnasso procubui, nee somnia vidi. Nam mihi versificum poterit Dens addere carmen, Inspirans stolidce pia gratis munera menti. Tangit si mentem , mox laudem corda rependunt Metrica ; nam Moysen declarant carmina vatem Jamdudum cecinisse prisci vexilla tropliaei, Late per populos inlustria, qua nitidus sol Lustrat ab oceani jam tollens gurgite cephal, Et psalmista canens metrorum carmina voce Natum divino promit generamine numen, In coelis prius exortum, quam Lucifer orbi Splendida formatis fudisset lumina seeclis. Varum si fuerint bene hiec senigmata versu, Explosis penitus nevis et rusticitate, Rita dactilico recta decursa, nac error Seduxit Tana specie molimina mentis, Incipiam potiora; sui Deus arida verbi, Belligero quondam qui vires tradidit lob. Viscera perpetui si roris repleat haustu. Siccis nam laticum duxisti cautibus amnes Olim, cum cuneus transgresso marmore rubro Desertura penetrat ; cecinit quod carmine David, Arce poli genitor, servas qui ssecula cuncta, Solvere jam scelerum noxas dignare nefandas. 222 ALDHELM. [Bom ttbout 656. Of the Anglo-Saxon poetry attributed to Aldhelm, we have now no remains. He is said to have translated the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon verse, but the translation ' published by Mr. Thorpe, in 1835, has none of the cha- \ racteristics which might be looked for in his compositions. Editions of Aldhelm. Aldhelmus de Virginitate was edited by Jac. Faber, 4to, Davent. 1512. The jEnigmata were printed at Basil in 1557. S. Aldhelmi, Prisci Occidentalium Saxonum Eplscopi, Poetica Nonnulla. E Tetere Manu Scripto Codice per R. P. Martinum Delrio societatis Jesu Presbyterum exscripta. Cum nonnullis ejusdem notulis. 12mo. Mogunt. 1601. It contains in reality only the ^nigmata, as the Mo- nosticha are wrongly attributed to Aldhelm. They are given, as it appears, from a MS. in the abbey of St. Lawrence at Liege. Canisii Antiquse Lectiones, tom. V. 4to. 1608. — Ed. Basnage, fol. Antw. 1725, tom. i. p. 709—762. The Metrical Treatise de Laude Virginum and the poem de Octo Principalibus Vitiis. Epistolse S. Bonifacii Martyris, . . . per Nicolaum Serarium. 4to. Mogunt. 1629. P. 54. Letter from a Scot, or Irishman, to Aldhelm ; 57. Ald- helm to King Geruntius ; 71. Aldhelm to Osigegyth; 76. jEdilwald to Aldhelm. — These epistles were reprinted in the 13th toI. of the Bibliotheca maxima Vetrum Patrum. They are also found in the new edition of Boniface, published in 1789. Usher, Veterum Epistolarum Sylloge. 4to. Dubl. 1632. P. 35. The letter of the anonymous Scot to Aldhelm ; p. 37. Aldhelm to Eahfrid on his return from Ireland, a letter which begins with fifteen consecutive words each commencing with the letter 7). — 4to, Herbornse Nassovicorum, 1 696. The same letters are found at pp. 33, 35 of this edition. A more accu- rate text of the letter to Eahfrid is printed in Wharton's Auctuarium to Archb. Usher's Historia Dogmatica, 4to. Lond. 1690, p. 350. Maxima Bibliotheca Vetrum Patrum, tom. xiii, fol. 1677. p. 1. The two pieces reprinted from Canisius, and the other poems reprinted also from Delrio. They had also been printed in the 8th vol. of the Magna Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, and in the collection of the Hagiographi. BedEe Venerabilis Opera qusedam Theologica et Aldlielmi Epis- copi Scireburnensis Liber de Virginitate, ex Codice antiquissimo emen- datus. (by Henry Wharton) 4to. Londini, 1693. pp. 283—369. The prose treatise de Laudibus Virginitatis, from early MSS. in the libra- ries of Lambeth and Salisbury Cathedral. Died about 718.] egwin. 223 EGWIN. Egwin of Worcester is remarkable as the first English- man who wrote any thing like an autobiography ; but this was only an account of his pretended visions.* The date of his birth is not known ; he was a native of the district of the Hwiccas, which appears to have coincided nearly with the present county of Worcester, and he was closely allied by blood to the regal line of Mercia. We are told by his biographer that he had been distinguished for his piety from the early years of childhood, and that he was a favourite councillor of Ethelred king of Mercia, by whom he was placed over the see of Worcester on the death of Oftfor about a.d. 692. Egwin did not long enjoy his bishopric in tranquillity. Serious charges against him, of what nature we are not informed, but provoked, as it is said, by the rigid severity of his spiritual government, were not only brought before the king, but they reached the ears of the pope, who called the bishop to Rome to clear himself from them. The date of this journey is unknown. Egwin travelled with an outward show of extreme humility ; and this, with a miracle which was said to have been exhibited in his be- half on the way, appears to have prevailed more than the exculpations he had to oiFer, in procuring his acquittal. * The life of Egwin, composed in part from his own work, is preserved in a noble MS. of the tenth century, MS. Cotton. Nero E. i. fol, 22, r°— 32, v°. It has one or two words glossed in Anglo-Saxon. This life has been attributed to Berctwald archbishop of Canterbury. It has never been printed. An abridgment of it, written apparently in the twelfth century, was printed in the Acta Sanctorum, Mens. Januar. vol. 1. p. 707, and had previously been inserted in the Nova Legenda Anglise of Capgrave. Bede has not mentioned Egwin's name ; indeed the general information that his- torian gives relating to the kingdom of Mercia is very incomplete. William of Malmsbury has a brief account of Egwin, de Pontif. p. 284. A life quoted by Godwin (de Prtesul.) appears to have differed from those just mentioned. 224 EGwiN. {pied about *] IB. Before leaving Mcrcia, he ordered a smith to make for him heavy fetters of iron, closed with locks, " such as they fixed about the feet of horses," and having locked them on his bare legs as instruments of penance, he threw the key into the river Avon, in a place then called Hrudding- Pool.* Thus equipped, he travelled to Dover,t and em- Ijarked with his companions in a small vessel which con- veyed them by sea to Italy. Whilst he was on the bank of the Tiber performing his devotions and offering thanks for his safe voyage, his fellow attendants had caught a salmon, and, when it was opened in order to prepare it for cooking, their astonishment was great at finding in its belly the key of Egwin's bonds. It appears that the truth of this story was vouched by Egwin himself; it was soon known throughout Rome, and the pope received the English traveller with marked distinction, and sent him home with commendatory letters to king Ethelred, who restored him with honour to the see of Worcester, and committed to his care the education of his children. Egwin is well known in history as the founder of the celebrated abbey of Evesham, the site of which at the beginning of the eighth century was a wild forest, made dense by shrubs and brambles, and known by the name of Homme (eet- Homme). Among the Anglo-Saxons, a large portion of whose food consisted of bacon, the forests were esteemed a valuable part of landed property, because they afforded suljsistence to numerous droves of swine ; and Egwin placed this estate, which had been given to • In loco qui dicitur Hrudding-pol ... in flumine quod dioitur A'vena. MS. Cotton. Nero E. i., fol. 24, v". In fluvium Abdona vocatum, Anglice Aven. Life in Act. Sauct. p. 708. f Perrexit ad oppidum Dorovernensis castelli. MS. Cotton, fol. 24, v". A similar expression occurs in the rubric on fol. 23, y°. Quomodo vir [Dei] electus [est in] episcopatum et subthronizatus in solio Wygornensis castelli. They are translations of the Anglo-Saxon names Dofra-ceaster and Wigra- ceaster. Died about 'J 18.] egwin. 225 him by king Ethelred, under the keeping of four principal swineherds, the chief of whom, named Eoves, seems to have resided at or near the spot on which the abbey was afterwards founded, for from him it took the name of Eoves-ham, or the home or residence of Eoves.* One day a favourite sow, wandering into the thick and unfre- quented parts of the forest, was lost ; and Eoves, pre- senting himself before his master the bishop, declared that in searching for it, after forcing his way with great labour through almost impervious thickets, he came to an open space where to his astonishment he beheld three maidens clad in heavenly garments and singing divine music. It was probably a popular legend which the bishop adopted to serve his own purposes ; the Anglo-Saxons believed firmly that the wild woods were peopled by nymphs, who according to old legends were frequently seen in triads. Egwin however declared that he visited the spot indicated by his swine-herd, and that he was himself favoured with the same vision ; and he intimated his belief that the three personages were the Virgin Mary and two angels, and his determination to found a monastery in this part of the forest, which he ordered to be cleared for that purpose.t * MS. Cotton, fol. 26, r°. Life in the Act. Sanct. p. 708. The seal of the monastery, engraved in the second vol. of the new edition of the Monasticon, and in the Archseologia, vol. xix. pi. v. appears by the language to have been cut in the thirteenth century, and represents the Swineherd vrith the following inscription, " Eoves her wonede ant was swon, For-{>i men clepet )>is Eovishom." " Eoves here dwelt and was a swain. Therefore men call this Eovesham." f There appears to be some reason for believing that the monastery of Evesham, like many others, was founded among or near the ruins of an ancient town. William of Malmsbury states that Egwin found the remains of an older church — locum ilium, quo nunc coenobium visitur .... incultum antea et spinetis horridum, sed ecclesiolam ab antiquo habentem, ex opere forsitan Britannorum. W. Maljnsb. de Gestis Pontif. p. 284. VOL, I. Q 226 EGWIN. [Died about 718. These events appear to have occurred in the year 703, a few months before the death of king Ethelred, whose suc- cessor Coinred (or Kenred) continued to show the same friendship to Egwin, and granted him lands on the banks of the Avon towards the endowment of his founda- tion. The monastery was finished before 709, for in that year Egwin was with the two kings Coinred and OfFa at Rome, whither he went to obtain from the pope a charter of privileges.* His stay at Rome on this his second visit must have been very short ; for he was in England at the time of Aldhelm's death, said to have taken place on the 25th of May, 709- After his return he read the papal charter at a meeting of the English clergy at Alnecester, or Alcester, over which Berctwald archbishop of Can- terbury presided; and they proceeded thence to Eves- ham to consecrate the church. Egwin tells us in ex- press terms that Wilfred of York was present at this ceremony ;t which therefore we can hardly place later than the summer of 709, because Wilfred died before the end of the year. In his latter years, Egwin resigned his bishopric and retired to his monastery. The date of his death is very uncertain. According to the Life in the Acta Sanctorum it occurred about 720 ; John of Tinmouth (the compiler of the collection published under the name of Capgrave) places it in 718; Bale makes it 716, and Godwin 714. Perhaps the date given by John of Tinmouth is the most probable. The day of his death has been handed down to us with greater precision. The life attri- buted to Berctwald says that he died on the 3 Cal. Jan. (the 30th Dec.) J * The charters of foundation, the authenticity of which have however been doubted, are printed in the second volume of the Monasticon. t Life in the Cotton. MS. fol. 27, v°. t The epitaph, given in the extract printed by Godwin, de Prtesul. indicates the day of his death in the following lines — Vita migravit cum solis per Capricornum Tertius ac decimus medians existeret ortus. Died about 718.] egwin. 22? It would perhaps be impossible, with the partial infor- mation which remains, to form a just estimate of Egwin's character. His miracles rest on his own testimony ; and when we consider his story of a key carried by a salmon from the Avon to the Tiber, his pretended vision at Eves- ham, and his own assertion that the death of Aldhelm was also revealed to him in a vision, we can hardly acquit him of having imposed upon his contemporaries by a series of pious frauds. During the latter years of his life, he ap- pears to have lived at Evesham secluded from the world, and he believed, or pretended, that he was favoured with visions. One of them, given at length in Egwin's own words by the composer of his life, has the character of a moral allegory, in which he, as the representative of hu- manity, is exposed to the various temptations of the world, represented by a pagan city, which he overcomes only by divine interference. The writer of the shorter life has interpreted this allegory literally; and has so entirely misunderstood it, as to turn it into, or confound it with, a singularly wild legend of the destruction of the ancient city which occupied the site of Alcester.* Bale attributes to Egwin three works, a history of the Foundation of Evesham, a Book of Visions, and a Life of Aldhelm. The latter, if it ever existed, is now lost. The other two are without doubt the same as those from which his biographer has given such copious extracts ;t but it is diflfiicult to say whether they still existed in the time of Bale, and it is equally uncertain whether they were separate books, or only parts of one work. From the extracts, we are led to suspect that the account of the foundation of Evesham was merely * See the Life in the Acta Sanctorum, p. 710, and in Capgrave. t Egwin's account of his own actiojis begins at fol. 25, y° of the Cot- tonian MS., and his vision extends from fol. 38, v°. to fol, 31, v°. 228 EGWiN. [Died about 718. introductory to the narrative of Egwin's visions; and that these latter were in truth but allegories to which he attempted to give weight by representing them as revela- tions, Egwin's own account of the vision of his swine- herd Eoves is sufficiently interesting to be given as a specimen of his work : it has a considerable local value, as a curious picture of the times at a very remote period;* and it is inedited. Erat sane his diebus locus qui dicitur Eoveshamm, et alio nomine nun- cupatur set Homme, frondosis silvis et densis vepribus pleuus, quem ego levi petitione a rege JEi>e\ieio Dei amico adquisivi. Accepta potestate super prsedictam silvam, bis biuos subulcos inibi constitui, principatum eis concedentes, dirimens in quatuoi* partibus eandem silvam, sicut quondam Judea erat tetrarcbis dirempta. Nomina subulcorum, Eoves et Ympa, duo fratres fuerunt, Trottuc et Cornuc, duo fratres erant. Primus autem, qui Eoves dictus est, orientalem plagam accepit in dominationem ; alter vero meridianam ad necessitatem sui domini retinuit ; tertius denlque occiden- talem sub sua sagaci tuitione protexit ; quartus igitur borealem nobili cus- todia ab omni hostis incursione servavit. lUe autem subulcus qui super cseteros eminebat Eoves appeUatus est, ex cujus nominis nuncupatione locus nomen suscepit, hoc est Eoveshamm. Cumque regimen a me illi collatum decenter atque sollicite servassent, contuli unicuique partem porconim sicuti habebant partes silvse. Contigit quadam die cum tempus adesset pasturi- endi, ut sus iUius viri qui Eoves dictus est clam se abderet et in densis vepribus illius silvse proiceret praegnans ignorante custode. At ille expec- tabat biduo vel triduo, cogitans et sperans iUam ad se more solito venire, quod nequaquam factum est. Consternatus vero animo ille coepit paUescere, tremere, et hac iliac discurrere, sodales querulosis vocibus petere ut secum qusererent thesaurum sui domini absconditum. Verebat enim me vehemen- ter servus, quasi essem austerus homo toUens quod nou contuli, et metens quod nou seminavi. Deinde post excursum paucorum dierum, dum ille timoratus undique vias perambulabat non bonas, cernit tandem suam pro- cedentem e silva porcellam, non solam, sed quaternos atque ternos secum habens porcellos. Ille autem ab oculis omnem glaucomiam et algemam expulsit, qui vocavit eam sua appellatione, quce audiens vocem agnitam emi- nus sibi venit gaudens ad ipsum, cadens ad pedes, quam mox sui suggere coepe- runt. Subulcus vero Isetus est effectus non modica Isetitia de inventione tanti thesauri, qui jurejurando juravit quod nequaquam eum ampliussic relinquere deberet, Adveniente identidem tempore pasturiendi, sus secreta petivit dulcia, quffi ut superius dixi progressa est, eundem laterculum quem ante habens, qui omnes albi erant exceptis auris et pedibus. Tertio quoque tempore * Cotton. MS, fol. 26, r". Died 720.] EDDius stephanus, 229 similiter delusit virum, qui consteruatus et turbatus spiritu in furorem est conversus, advocans socios consilium qucerit ab eis, qui ei persuaserunt ut qusereretsoUicite. Turn ille iter asperum arripuit, nunc susuranunc iosum(s!c^ progrediens, minime iuvenire potuit quod qusesivit. Cumque perosa via iu- validum lassabundum redderet virum, sumpsit dimicare ille impos contra infortunium sibi proventum, qui abjecta segnitie et recepta valetudine tandem sollicitudine ajuvata invenit quod qusesivit, suem cum suis porcellis viiii=" scilicet jacentem in loco uimis spisso vepribus. Agnoscens ilia ilium mire - que ejus vocem exhauriens, venit ad eum. Ille autem cum hac iliac sollici- tos emitteret visus, vidit quod dici mirura est, quandam virglnem stautem cum aliis duabus psallentem et librum in manu perpulchrum tenentem. Erat autem tarn speciosa quae . in meditullio stabat, ut non solum species excel - leret omnes omnium virginum, verum etiam ut ipsi visum est pulchrior erat quam jubar Solaris globi, splendidior liliis, rubicundior rosis, quam prie pul- chritudine non audebat respicere, sed vocata porcella domi redit, et vilico retulit quee vidit. Ille autem introduxit ad me subulcum, qui cadens ad pedes meos subrigitur ad genua mea, quern percontatus sic ad eum exorsus sum. EDDIUS STEPHANUS. Concerning this person, called by Bade .(Eddi, but known best by his Latinized name Eddius/ very little information has come down to us, further than that he was honoured with the friendship of Wilfred, who invited him from Kent to instruct the churches of Northumbria in the Romish method of chanting.t Bale and Pits, on no other authority than the statement of Bede that he was brought from Kent, call him a monk of Canterbury. From his own narrative, it appears that he was present with his patron at the council of Eastrefeld,t and that he never quitted him during his subsequent troubles. He was with him at Rome from 693 to 705, when they re- turned to England, and Eddius seems to have become an inmate of the monastery of Ripon. After Wilfred's death (709), he continued to enjoy the friendship of Tatbert * Tanner and others call Um Heddius Stephanus. In the orthography of the MSS. the h is omitted or added without any rule, either capriciously or inattentively. Bede gives .iEddi, not Hseddi. t Bede, H. E. iv. 3. X See pp. 180, 161, of the present volume. 230 EDDius STEPHANUS. [Died J 20. abbot of Ripon, and Acca bishop of Durham, and at their joint request, as he tells us in his preface, he wrote his account of Wilfred's life. He is said to have died about the year 720. Bale says that Eddius wrote lives of Eanbert and Tun- bert, but no such books are now known to exist. Few works, independent of Bede's History, throw so much light on the history of the latter part of the seventh century as his life of Wilfred, which is also written in a style superior to that of most of his contemporaries. We have already had occasion to give many short extracts from this work : the following account of the state of the church of York when Wilfred was first made bishop, wiU perhaps help to give an idea of its character. (Vit. Wilf. p. 59.) Igitar supradicto rege regnante, beatee memorise Wilfrido episcopo metro- politano Eboracse civitatis constituto, basilicse oratorii Dei, in ea civitate a sancto Paulino episcopo in diebus olim Eadwini Christianissimi regis primo fundatse et dedioatse Deo, officia semiruta lapidea eminebant. Nam culmina antiquata tecti distillantia, fenestreeque apertee, avibus nidificantibus intro et foras volitantibus, et parietes incultse, omni spurcitia imbrium et avium horribiles manebant. Videns itaque hsec omnia sanctus pontifex noster, se- cundum propbetam Danielem, ' borruit spiritus ejus,' in eo quod domus De^ et orationis quasi speluncam latronum factam agnovit ; et mox juxta volun- tatem Dei emendare excogitavit, primum culmina corrupta tecti reuovans, artificiose plumbo pure tegens, per fenestras introitum avium et imbrium vitro prohibuit, per quod tamen intro lumen radiebat. Parietes quoque lavans, secundum propbetam, ' super nivem dealbavit ; ' cam enim non so- lum domum Dei et altare in varia supellectili vasorum intus ornavit, verum etiam deforis multa territoria pro Deo adeptus, terrenis opibus paupertatem diferens, copiose ditavit. Tunc sententia Dei de Samuele et omnibus Sanctis in eo implebatur, ' qui,' inquit, ' me honorificat, honorificabo eum ; ' erat enim Deo et omni populo carus et honorabilis. Editions of the Life of Wilfrid. Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti. Sseculum iv. pars i. fol. Lut. Paris. 1677. Appendix, p. 673—723. Printed from the Cottonian MS. Vespas. D. VI., of whicba Transcript was sent to Mabillonby Thomas Gale. Historise Britannicse, Saxonicse, Anglo-Danicse, Scriptores XV Opera ThomEE Gale, Th. Pr. Fol. Oxon, 1691. pp. 40— 90. The text improved by a MS, at Salisbury. Died 121.'] 231 JOHN OF BEVERLEY. John, the founder of the celebrated abbey of Beverley, was, like many of the prelates and abbots of his age, descended from a very noble Northumbrian family.* He was born at Harpham in Yorkshire, near Driffield, the burial place of the pious and learned King Aldfrid ; and he is said by some writers to have received his first in- structions under the abbess Hilda.f Immediately after the arrival of Theodore in England, John was sent to Kent, and there pursued his studies with zeal during several years. When he returned to Northumberland, his first care was to visit Whitby ; but Hilda was then dead, and had been succeeded in 680 by Elfleda the daughter of King Oswiu, and after a brief stay there, John wandered about for some time instructing the people by his preaching and encouraging them by his pious example. He next opened a school, and taught with great success, his reputation for learning having brought together many scholars, among whom was the historian Bede, who was ordained to the priesthood by his hand.J * Bede gives an account pf John of Beverley and his miracles in hi$ His- tory, V. 2 — 6. A life of him was written by Folcard, or Folchard, an Anglo- Norman monk of the eleventh century, which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum Mail, torn. ii. p. 168. An abridged copy of this life, with another brief anonymous life, will be found in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. Bened. Leland, in his Collectanea, has given extracts from another anonymous life, which, like that ascribed to Asketyll, appears to be no longer extant. All these lives are based more or less on the account given by Bede. A few notices will also be found in the northern historians Simeon of Durham and Richard of Hexham. f Bede and the biographers now extant do not mention this circumstance, but Leland and Bale may have taken it from some of the authorities now lost. X Litterarum euim afflueuti imbutus copia, in doceudis discipulis suis solerti instabat vigilantia; inter quos Bedam, &c. Foloardug, p. 169, See also Bsde's own dsclaratjon, at the end of his History. 232 JOHN OF BEVERLEY. [Died in 7 ^'i^' In the year 685, or 686, a short time before Wilfred's return from his first exile, John had succeeded Eata as bishop of Hexham ; but he was obliged to retire from his see, when that of York was restored to its ancient integ- rity. When, in 692, Wilfred was again deprived, John returned to Hexham, and continued to preside over that diocese until his elevation to the metropolitan see of York, on the death of Bosa, which appears to have occurred about the time when Wilfred finally returned to Northum- berland to occupy the bishopric of Hexham.* This was in the year 705, the same in which Osred ascended the throne. Folcard relates that at a synod of the clergy and nobles of Northumbria, over which king Osred pre- sided, and in which were promulgated many salutary laws for the government of the church, the bishop John feasted that monarch and his court with extraordinary magni- ficence.t Various circumstances mentioned by his biographers, show John's inclination for a life of solitude. Before he was made bishop of Hexham, he is said to have taken possession of a hermitage at Hameshalg in Northumber- land. While he held that bishopric, he frequently retired to an oratory on a solitary hill named Erneshow (or the Eagle's mount), not far from Hexham, amid the forest on the banks of the river Tyne.J After his elevation to the * In Stevenson's edition of Bede, the date 686 is placed in the margin of the chapter which relates this event, probably by a mere oversight. In Ch. 6. Bede, who gives the date of his resignation of York in 718, says, " mansit autem in episcopatu annos triginta tres. This was evidently in- tended to include the period from his first appointment to the see of Hex- ham to his resignation of that of York, and, if we suppose that Bede meant that he had just completed that number of years, would fix the former event in 686. But Folcard states the period just mentioned to have been thirty-three years eight months and thirteen days, which would carry back his first appointment to the see of Hexham to the year 685. + Folcard, p. 171. t Bede, H. E. v. 2. Folcard, p. 169. Richard of Hexham, ap. Twisden, col. 291. Chron. Th. Stnbbs, ib. col. 1692. Died in 721.] john of bevebley. 233 see of York, he chose for the place of his retirement the wild region bordering on the river Hull, which was then known by the name of Dera-wuda, the wood of the Deras- or Deiri (in-Dera-vuda, Bede) ; the extreme solitude of the spot which he selected for the site of his small monas- tery is proved by the name by which it was afterwards known, Beofor-leag, or the lea of beavers, now Beverley.* Over this monastery, which he often visited, John placed his friend and deacon Bercthun; and when he felt the approach of old age, he resigned his archbishopric in 718, and retired thither to pass the remainder of his days in peace. He died there in 721 ; according to the old chro- niclers, on the seventh day of May, In England, during many centuries, the name of John of Beverley was held in the greatest reverence, and the fame of his pretended miracles was very widely spread. The cry of St. John, nearly as frequently as that of St. George, particularly in the Scottish wars, gave courage to the soldier in the hour of battle. Bede has inserted in his history an account of some of John's miracles which he had learnt from the abbot Bercthun, several of which may be explained by natural causes, such as the restoring speech to a dumb man, which he effected by patiently teaching him first to articulate simple sounds, and then gradually practising him in the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet and their combinations in words.f Another of these miracles affords us a curious specimen of the kind of science which was taught in Theodore's school. One day John entered the nunnery of Wetadun (supposed to be Watton in Yorkshire), where the abbess called him to visit a sister in whom the operation of bleeding had been fol- lowed bv dangerous symptoms. When he was informed that she had been bled on the fourth day of the moon, he » Bede, H. E. v. 3, 6, t Bede, H. E. v. 2. 234 CEOLFRiD. [Born 642. blamed the abbess severely for her ignorance ; for, said he, '' I remember that archbishop Theodore of blessed memory said that bleeding was very dangerous at that time, when both the light of the moon and the flood of the ocean are on the increase."* Although there is no work now extant bearing his name, it is by no means improbable that John of Beverley was an author. Of his learning there cannot be a doubt. Bale attributes to him Homilies and Epistles. CEOLFRID. Ceolfbid, or Ceolfrith, the friend and coadjutor of Benedict Biscop, was born about the year 642, and was probably a native of the kingdom of Northumbria.f He is first mentioned in 674, as aiding Benedict in the founda- tion of the abbey of Wearmouth ; and about the year 687 he accompanied him to Rome, A little later (about 681) Benedict made him abbot of his smaller monastery at Yarrow; in 685, he again took him with him to Rome ; and on his death-bed, in 690, he appointed him to succeed as abbot of Wearmouth.J Ceolfrid was an active, learned, and zealous man, and worthy to be the successor of Benedict Biscop. He in- creased the library which had been formed by his prede- cessor ; and enriched the monastery, by obtaining from * Multum insipienter et indocte fecistis in luna quarta phlebotomando. Memini enim beatje memorise Theodorum archiepiscopum dicere, quia peri- culosn sit satis illius temporis plilebotomia, quando et lumen lunffi et rheuma oceani in cremento est. Bede, H. E. v. 3. t The chief and almost only authority for the life of Ceolfrid is his dis- ciple Bede, who has gi¥en an account of him in his History of the Abbots of "Wearmouth, and a few slighter notices in his Ecclesiastical History. The Life in Capgrave, Nova Legenda Anglise, foil. Ix — Ixii, is entirely taken from Bede. t See the account of Benedict Biscop, in the present volume. Died 716.] ceolfbid. 235 King Aldfrid a grant of lands on the river " Fresca," which were afterwards exchanged for an estate nearer the monas- tery, at a place then named Sambuce.* By some monks whom he sent to Rome, Ceolfrid obtained from pope Ser- gius a new charter of privileges for the monastery, or rather a renewal of those which had been given to Benedict by pope Agatho. Ceolfrid continued to preside over the two monasteries of Wearmouth and Yarrow during twenty-six years ;t and he appears to have occupied him- self exclusively with his monks, in study and teaching. The celebrity of his school, in which Bede imbibed his great learning, was very extensive ; and in 701, the pope sent a messenger to invite one of his monks to advise with him in deciding certain ecclesiastical questions of great difi5culty.J A few years afterwards, (about a.d. 710) Ceolfrid's advice was sought by Naitan king of the Picts, who had become a convert to the Romish practice con- cerning Easter and the tonsure ; and, at the earnest soli- citation of that prince, he sent him a letter setting forth the arguments on which this was founded, and, along with it, architects to build a stone church after the Roman style.§ The letter has been preserved by Bede. When age and sickness announced to Ceolfrid the near approach of death, he was suddenly seized with the desire of ending his days in the apostolical city. Bede, who was probably one of the actors in it, describes the scene of parting with pathetic minuteness. The monks urged him to stay, for they saw that he wanted strength for so long a journey, and they feared that he would die on the way. But their eflforts were vain ; and on Thurs- * Bede, Hist. Ab. Wir. p. 47. + Bede, ib. p. 56. J See a more particular account of this letter in the life of Bede. § Sed et arcMtectos sibi mitti petiit, qui juxta morem Romanorum eccle- siaw de lapide in gente ipsinB fac«rent. Bede, H. E, v, 21. 236 CEOLFBiD. [Born 642. day the fourth day of June (716), immediately after the first religious sernce of the day had been performed, Ceolfrid prepared for his departure, amid the lamentations of those with whom he had passed so many tranquil years. The monks, about six hundred in number, were assembled in the church at Wearmouth, and Ceolfrid, after having prayed, stood by the altar, holding in his hand the censer with burning incense, and gave them his peace. They then left the church and moved towards the shore, their chaunts being frequently interrupted by loud sobs. When they came to the dormitory, Ceolfrid entered the oratory of St. Laurence, which stood there, and delivered his last admonition, urging the monks to per- severe in brotherly love, to keep strict discipline, and to be constant in their duties to God ; and he ended by request- ing their prayers for himself. On the bank of the river Tyne he gave them severally the kiss of peace ; and they then fell on their knees and received his blessing. He was accompanied across the river by the deacons of the church, bearing lighted tapers and the cross of gold. When he reached the opposite shore, he reverenced the cross, and then mounted the horse which was to carry him to the place of embarkation. On their return to Wearmouth the first care of the monks was the election of a successor ; and their new abbot, named Hwetbert, was immediately dispatched with a few of the brethren to see Ceolfrid for the last time. They found him on the coast, waiting for a ship ; and when Hwetbert ac- quainted him with what had passed since his departure from amongst them, he approved their choice and con- firmed the election, and then received from the new abbot a commendatory letter to pope Gregory.* The apprehensions of the monks were soon verified ; for, * Bede, Hist. Ab, Wir. pp. 48—52. Died 716.] ceolprid. 237 after journeying slowly through France, as he was ap- proaching the city of Langres (Lingonas) in the diocese of Lyons, on the twenty-fifth of September of the same year, Ceolfrid became suddenly so feeble that his attend- ants were obliged to halt in the midst of the fields, where he died almost immediately. His body was deposited in the monastery of the Twin Martyrs in the southern suburb of that city ; and his companions returned to England to bear the tidings to his friends. Bede, who gives the date of Ceolfrid's death, tells us that he was then seventy-four years of age, and that he had been forty- seven years a presbyter and thirty-five years an abbot, in- cluding of course the period during which he presided only over the monastery of Yarrow.* His bones were afterwards removed from Langres and carried to Wear- mouth ; and at a subsequent period, on the approach of the Danes who reduced that monastery to ruins, they were again taken up by the monks, and, with those of the abbess HUda, finally deposited at Glastonbury.f Ceolfrid would merit a place among the Anglo-Saxon writers, if he had written nothing but the letter, or tract, on the observance of Easter, addressed to the king of thePicts.J It is distinguished by clearness of style, and remarkable vigour and perspicuity, if we consider that the writer was then in his sixty-eighth year. Bale attributes to Ceolfrid, Homilies, Epistles, and other works, amongst which one, he says, treated De sua peregrinatione. Little credit however can be given to this statement, as Bale had evi- dently not seen the books he describes, * Bede, ib. p. 56, and in his book l)e sex setatibus Mundi, p. 117. (Opera, Col. 1688, vol. ii.) t "W. Malmsb. de Gestis Reg. Angl. p. 22. i This tract forms the twenty-first chapter of the fifth book of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. It is printed, from Bede, in Capgrave's life of Ceolfrid, and in other works. 238 EGBERT. [Bom 639. EGBERT. The name of Egbert^ or, in its more ancient form, Ecgberct, was common among the Anglo-Saxons, and was borne by several persons who ranked high in literature and science. The one of whom we have now to speak was born of a noble family,* and is supposed by some to have been a native of the district of the South Saxons,t the inhabitants of which were not converted to Christianity tiU long after the period of his birth, which occurred in the year 639. He was one of the numerous Anglo-Saxons who, in the time of Finan and Colman (651 — 664), went to Ireland to em- brace the monastic life; and Egbert with his friend ^dilhun entered the monastery of Rathmelsigi, said to be the modern Mellifont in the county of Meath. They were in this house in 664, when the great pestilence, which carried off so many distinguished ecclesiastics in England, ravaged the sister island, and drove the monks of Rathmelsigi from their dwelling. Egbert and his friend, both sick of the plague, were left to their fate, and, as death approached, the reflections of the former were turned towards the errors of his youth. Suddenly, perhaps in a fit of delirium, he crept from the infirmary into the open air, and there, seized with compunction for the sins of his past life, he burst into tears, and prayed with fervency that God would spare him long enough to atone for them by penitence * Duo juvenes magnse indolis de nobilibus Anglorum, jEdilhun et Ecg- bert. Bede, H. E. iii, 27. t See Tanner, Bibliothec. Angl. Hib. Died 729.] egbert. 239 and good works, and made a vow that he would remain during the rest of his life an exile from his native land, that he would daily repeat the whole of the Psalter, and that he would entirely abstain from food one day every week. Refreshed in mind and body by this act of devo- tion, Egbert returned to his bed, and again laid himself down to seek repose. A few minutes afterwards, ^dilhun awoke from a quiet slumber, and, turning to his com- panion, said, " O brother Egbert ! what hast thou been doing ? I expected we should enter together the life ever- lasting ; but now know that thy prayer has been granted, and I go alone ! " The night following ^dilhun expired. Such is the story which Bede repeats from the relation of one who had heard it from Egbert's mouth.* The latter recovered, was received into the sacerdotal order, and spent the remainder of a long life in great humility and piety. Egbert remained in Ireland forty-two years after the event above mentioned. Alcuin calls him a bishop ;t but the manner in which Bede speaks of him makes it very improbable that he ever attained that dignity. About the year 689, conscious of the little utility of the solitary life he was then leading among the Irish, Egbert was seized with the desire of visiting Germany to preach the gospel among the unconverted branches of the great Teutonic family. But when he had selected his companions, and every thing was ready for their departure, he was induced to relinquish the project by the earnest persuasions of one of his friends, who asserted that the holy abbot Boisil had twice appeared to him in a dream, and declared to him that it * Bede, H. E. v, 27. Sicut mihl referebat quidam veracissimus et vene- randffi canitiei presbyter, qui se hseo ab ipso audisse perhibebat. ■f Beatissimi patris et episcopi EgbertI, qui cognomento Sanctus vocaba- tur. Alcuin. Vit. WilUbrordi, Ub. i, u. 4. 240 EGBERT. [Born 639. was God's will that Egbert should remain in Ireland, as he was destined to be the instrument of converting the monks of lona to the church of Rome. Egbert, reluc- tantly, as we are told, obeyed the admonition, and Wic- bert, one of his companions, proceeded to Germany, but soon returned without any success ; and Egbert, still un- wilhng to relinquish the hope of converting his German brethren, was shortly afterwards instrumental in procuring the mission of Wilbrord.* A long period transpired before Egbert, perhaps dis- couraged by the failure of Adamnan, effected the object for which he is said to have relinguished the mission to Ger- many. According to Bede, he went to lona in 716, when he was in his seventy-eighth year. Whether he had pre- viously taken steps to persuade the monks of that island to accept the rules which they had so long opposed, we are not informed; but it appears certain from the ac- count given by Bede that a large party among them were prepared to receive him, and we learn from another source,t that in the following year (7 17) those who still remained obstinate were banished from the island by Naiton king of the Picts. Egbert remained thirteen years in lona, and died on Easter-day, the twenty-fourth of April, 729, immediately after he had performed the service allotted to that festival according to the regulations of the church of Rome, which he had been the means of establishing there. He had then reached the great age of ninety years.J * Bede, H. E. v. 9. t The Annals of Ulster, quoted by Usher, Primord. p. 702. t Bede, H. E.v. 22; and De SexjEtat. Mundi, p. 117 (Opera, torn. ii.). In the latter passage, Bede says that Egbert converted many districts of Ireland, by his preaching, to the regulations of the church of Rome on the subject of Easter, plurimas Scoticse gentis provincias ad canonicam paschalis temporis observantiam, a qua diutius aberraverant, pia prsedicatione con- vertit. Died 72I.J EADFRITH. 241 We have no direct evidence tliat Egbert was an author ; but the important part which he acted in the ecclesiastical history of the time is a sufficient reason for admitting his otherwise doubtful claim to a place among the literary Anglo-Saxons. Leland attributes to him a work De Observatione Paschali ; and Bale adds to this a treatise De Ritibm Catholicorum, and " condones varias." EADFRITH, TOBIAS, AND BERCTWALD. Three prelates of the earlier part of the eighth century, whose claims to a literary reputation are somewhat doubt- ful, are generally included in the Usts of Anglo-Saxon writers, Eadfrith, Tobias, and Berctwald. Eadfrith was bishop of the ancient see of Lindisfarne (afterwards removed to Durham), from 698 to 721. Very little is known of this prelate : Bale, Godwin, and others, have confounded him with Egbert archbishop of York, to whom Bede addressed his letter on the episcopal duties, and not, as they suppose, to the bishop of Lindisfarne. By similar misinterpretations, Eadfrith has been placed at the head of the lists of early translators of the Bible. Although he is not mentioned in the Ecclesiastical History, we know that Eadfrith was a friend of Bede, who dedica- ted to him his prose life of St. Cuthbert, which he had writ- ten at his request. He appears to be the same as Eahfrid to whom Aldhelm dedicates one of his letters, and conj 1 sequently he had visited Ireland, perhaps before the period ^ of his election to the bishopric of Lindisfarne. If we have ) no reason for believing that Eadfrith was an author, we have a noble monument of his taste for letters in the mag- nificent manuscript of the Latin text of the Gospels written with his own hand at Lindisfarne, and preserved in the VOL. I. R 242 TOBIAS. [Died 726. Cottonian Library, where it bears the shelf-mark Nero, D. IV. This manuscript, which is commonly known by the name of the Durham Book, wiU be described in the account of Aldred, who was the author of the interlinear translation in Anglo-Saxon which accompanies it. Of Tobias, who was consecrated to the see of Rochester by archbishop Berctwald about the year 693, we know very Uttle. He was instructed by Theodore and Adrian, and was one of the most learned men of his time. Bede speaks on two occasions of his profound knowlege of the Latin, Greek, and Saxon languages, in words which lead us to suppose that he did not despise the study of the literary antiquities of his native land.* In 694, the year after his election to the see of Rochester, he was present at the council or synod of Bacanfeld (Beacon sfield), where Witred king of Kent promised to preserve the liberties and immunities of the monasteries and churches.t He died in 726. It seems not unreasonable to suppose that a man of so much reputation for learning in that age must have been an author ; yet no ancient writer mentions any of his books, and nothing now remains bearing his name. Bale attributes to him, as he does to many supposititious writers, " Homilies and Epistles ; " and he speaks very positively of the existence of works written by Tobias, which, he says, were composed " with the elegance of Demosthenes ! " J Berctwald, or, as he is called by some writers,§ Brith- wald, has already been mentioned in the life of Wilfred as * Tobiam . . . virum Latina, Grseca, et Saxonica lingua atque eruditione multipliciter instrnctum. Bede, H. E. v. 3. Conf. H. E. v. 33. t Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 330. J Perpauca tamen habentur ejus scripta, sad Demosthenico lepore ex- culto. Bale, De Scrip. Maj. Brit. p. 90. § Godwin, de Episc. The latter is simply a more modernised form of the other : both signify bright-wood. Died 731.] berctwald. 243 the successor of Theodore, and is remarkable for having occupied the see of Canterbury during the long period of thirty-eight years and six months, if we count from the time of his election. By a comparison of the different dates connected with his life, we arrive naturally at the conclusion that Berctwald was born about the middle of the seventh century. He is said to have been first a monk at Glastonbury ; but it may be stated with more certainty that he was made abbot of Reculver sometime previous to the year 679, when his name occurs in a grant to that monastery of which the original charter is still pre- served.* He was elected to the see of Canterbury on the first day of July 692, and was ordained on the twenty- ninth of June in the following year, by Godwin the Frankish bishop of Lyons. He died, according to Bede, on the thirtieth day of January, 731, at a very advanced age (longa consumtus setate).t Tlie historian just men- tioned describes Berctwald as a man well versed in the scriptures and in the ecclesiastical and monastic institutes, though far inferior to his predecessor Theodore. He is said to have been the compiler of the Life of Egwin of Worcester described on a former occasion;! but this is rendered more than doubtful by the circumstance that an event is mentioned in the latter part of that tract which occurred in the tenth century. It is however possible that the passage containing this allusion may be an inter- polation, * Bede, H. E. v. 8. and Mr. Stevenson's note. The charter is pre- served among the Cottonian Manuscripts, Aug. II, 3. t Bede, H. E. v. 23. t See p. 223, of the present volume. R ii 244 [Died 734. TATWINE. Berctwald was succeeded by Tatwine,* a native of Mercia, and monk of Briudun (Breodone, in Worcester- shire), where he had distinguished himself by his " re- ligion and prudence " and by his sohd knowledge of the scriptures. He was consecrated archbishop of Canter- bury on the tenth day of June, 731, being then probably an old man, and was in possession of that see when Bede concluded his history .f During his short prelacy, there arose a dispute between the sees of York and Canterbury for the primacy, which was decided by pope Gregory III. in favour of the latter ; and Tatwine, who had gone in person to Rome to support the claim of his see, received the pallium from the pope's hands.J Tatwine died in 734, according to some old authorities on the thirtieth of July.§ Tatwine must be considered as the second in point of date of the Anglo -Latin poets. His small book of iEnig- mata, in Latin hexameters, is still preserved,|| but has not been printed, although it is quite worthy to be placed by * The ignorance of Scribes has produced many corruptions of this name, such as Cadwine, Scadwine, &c. In the MS. which contains his ^nigmata, it is written Tautun (Incipiunt Enigmata Tautuni. MS. Reg. 12 C. XXIII. fol. 121, Y°.) It appears that in Anglo-Saxon the name was Tiltwine, which will easily explain the form Tauttm. f Bede, H. E. v. 23. i Godwin, de Episc. p. 63. § The brief continuation of Bede, Simeon of Durham, and Roger Hove- den, give this date. W. Malmsbury says simply that he died in the same year as Bede. II In MS. Reg. 12 C. XXIII. which contains also the .Enigmata of Aldhelm, Symposius, &c. and is probably the same manuscript which Leland saw at Glastonbury. It appears to be of the ninth century, and is the only copy of the Enigmata of Tatwine known. Died 734.] TATWiNE. 245 the side of the similar work of Aldhelni. His verses, without being remEirkable for their excellence, are superior to those of his contemporary Bede ; his expressions, it is true, are often obscure, but this was perhaps a quality re- quired by the subject. The three specimens which follow, are illustrative of the manners of the age, and two of them are intimately connected with literature : the second shows that the pens of the Anglo-Saxon scribes of the seventh and eighth centuries were most commonly made of quills. De Memirania. Effenis exnvUs populator me spoliavit, Vitalis pariter flatus spiramina dempsit, In planum me iterum campum sed verterat auctor, Frugiferos cultor sulcos moz irrigat undis ; Omnigenam nardi messem mea prata rependunt, Qua sanis victum et Isesis prsestabo medelam. De Penna. Nativa penitus ratione, heu, fraudor ab hoste ! Nam superas quondam peruix auras penetrabam ; Vincta tribus nunc in terris persolvo tributum, Pianos compelloT sulcare per eequora campos, Causa laboris, amoris, turn fontes lacrimarum Semper compellit me aridis infnndere sulcis. De Acu. Torrens me genult fornax de yiscere flammse, Condior invalido et finzit me corpore luscam ; Sed constat nullum jam me sine vivere posse ; Est mirum dictu I cludem ni lumina vultus, Condere non artis penitus molimina possum. Such writings as these seem to have occupied the lighter hours of leisure of the Anglo-Saxon monks, and to have been always considered as literary amusements, or jeux- d'esprit. The -iEnigmata of Tatwine present a similar ingenious device to that which has been observed in the prologue to those of Aldhelm, although it does not here 246 TATWiNE. l^Died 734. conceal the author's name. Tatwine concludes his book with the following lines : — Versibus intextis vatem nunc jure solutat, Litterulas summa capitum hortans jungere primas, Versibus extremas hisdem ex minio coloratos, Conversus gradiens rursum perscaudat ab imo.* Accordingly, if we take in order the first letter of each of the forty enigmas of which the book is composed, and then returning back take the last letter of each first line, we obtain the fallowing lines, the first of which is identical with the first line of the book : — Sub deno quater baec diverse enigmata torquens Stamine metrorum extractor conserta retexit. Bale pretends that Tatwine wrote other poems which are not now extant. FELIX. Felix of Croyland, so called because he is said to have been a monk of that abbey, was probably a native of the district of the Gyrwas, or the fen-lands, now Lincolnshire. We find no record of the dates of his birth or death, but he is generally considered as having flourished about the year 730. He enjoyed the friendship of Alfwald king of the East Angles, who reigned from 713 to 749. At Croyland, Felix had an opportunity of gathering many traditions of St. Guthlac, who first settled in that wild spot, and he tells us that he had the further advantage of conversing with those who had been his personal ac- quaintances, for Guthlac did not die till 714. With the materials thus collected, he compiled a life of the saint, * No attempt has been made to correct the errors of the MS. in these extracts. Flourished in 730.] felix. 24? which is interesting for its historical allusions, and for the light which it throws upon the early superstitions of our forefathers. Felix dedicated the ^book, when finished, to his patron king Alfwald. Mabillon, who first printed this life of Guthlac com- plete in the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, con- cluded from the opening paragraph of the prologue, in which Bede is mentioned with the title of saint,* that it must have been written subsequent to that scholar's death, and therefore that Felix must be considered a later writer than Bede. There can be no doubt however that the words relating to Bede are interpolated, as they are not found in any of the more ancient manuscripts,t and there are no other circumstances to guide us in fixing the date of the book. The general tenor of the prologue conveys the impression that Cave fixed on too early a date, when he stated that Felix wrote about the year 715. In the life of Guthlac, FeUx promises to unite at a future period a narrative of his miracles, but, if he ever put this project in execution, the work is not now in existence. Bale, indeed, speaks as though he had seen it, and says that it commenced with the words quodam tempore jucundm re- cordationis ; but he alludes to the tract on Guthlac's miracles which has since been printed in the Acta Sanc- torum, and which is of a much more modern date. Bale also ascribes to him a History of the abbots of Croyland, but with very little degree of probability, as there could not have been many abbots since the days of Guthlac to give any importance to such a work; and he says that he wrote verse as well as prose, and on this ground Leyser •= Felix catholicse congregationis sancti Beda vernaculus. t In that from which the life was printed in the Acta Sanctorum, and in the fine MS. in the Cottonian Library, Nero E. i. the passage stands thus, Felix catholicse congregationis vernaculus. 248 FELIX. [Flourished in 7^0, has admitted his name among the medieval writers of Latin Poetry.* The description of Croyland, as it appeared at the end of the seventh century, which forms the fourteenth chapter, will afford a good specimen of the style of Felix, and will not be uninteresting to the general reader. We will add the corresponding passage of the Anglo-Saxon translation of this work, made in the tenth century, and attributed to Alfric.t Est in mediterraneorum Anglorum Britannise partibus immensse magnitn- dinis acerrima palus, quse a Grontte fluminis ripis incipiens, haud procnl a castello quod dicunt nomine Gronte, nunc stagnis, nunc flactiris iuterdum nigris fusis vaporibus et latlcibus, necnon crebris insularum nemoribus inter- Tenieutibus, et flexuosis rivigarum ab austro in aquilonem maritenus longis- simo tracta protenditur. Igitur cum supradictus vir beatse memorise Guth- lacus illius vastissimse eremi inculta loca comperisset, coelestibus adjutua auxiliis rectissimo callis tramite perrexit. Contigit ergo proximantibus ac- colis illius solitudinis experientiam sciscitaretur, illisque plurima spatiosse eremi inculta narrantibus, ecce quidam de illio adstantibus nomine Tatwinus se Bcisse aliquam insulam in abditis remotioris eremi partibus adserebat, quam multi inbabitare tentantes propter incognita eremi monstra et diversarum formarum terrores amiserant. Quo audito vir beatas recordationis Guthla- cus ilium locum sibi raonstrari a narrante efflagitat. Ipse autem imperils viri Dei annuens, arrepta piscatoria scapula per invia lustra in tetrse paludis margines Christo viatore ad prsedictam insulam, qu8e lingua Anglorum Cm- land vocatur, pervenit, quse ante propter remotioris eremi solitudinem inculta et ignota manebat. NuUus banc ante famulum Christi Guthlacum solus habitare colonus valebat, propter videlicet illic demorantium dsemonum pbantasias : in qua vir Dei Gutblacus contemto hoste, ccelesti auxilio adjutus, inter umbrosa solitudinis nemora solus habitare coepit. Anglo-Saxon version : — Ys on Bretone lande sum fenn unmsetre mycelnysse, ■}> on-ginnetS fram Graute ^a naht feor fram ^sere cestre ^y ylcan nama ys nemned Grante- ceaster. (jser synd unmsetre moras, hwilon sweart wteter steal ^ hwilon fdle ^a ri)>as yrnende, ^ swylce eac manige ea-land ^ hreod i beorhgas ^ treow ge-wrido, ") hit mid menig-fealdan bignyssum widgille ^ lang >eneS wunaS on norS sse'. Mid J>an se fore-sprecena wer ^ ^sere eadigan ge-mynde Gu^- * Leyser, Hist. Poet, et Poem. Med. JEv. p. 204. f The copy of this translation which Is here quoted, is contained in the Cottouian MS. Vespas. D.xxi. ; the passage here printed occurs at fol. 21 , v°. Flourished in 730.] pelix. 249 laces Jicer widgiUan westenes t>a ungearawan stowe Jjser ge-mette )>a wea he mid godcundre faltume ge-fylst and l>a sona Jian rihtestan wege J>yder to ge- ferde. ]>& wees mid )>am ]>e he i>yder com ')> he fraegn l>a bigendean )>8es landes, hwser he on (lam westene him eardung stowe iindan mihte mid )>y hi him menig-feald Hng ssedon be l^oere wldgilnysse tjses westenes. ]>& wsea T&twine ge-haten sum man sse'de J>a 1* he wiste sum ea-land synderlice digle !> oft menige men eardian ongunnon, ac for menig-fealdum brogumT egsum, ■) for annysse \>!es widgillan westenes Is hit ntenig man adreogan ne mihte. Ac hit selcforJ>au be iiuge, mid l>am J>e sehalga wer Gu^Slac Jia word ge-hyrde, he bsed sona ')> he him )>a stowe ge-tshte, '] he ]>a sona swi, dyde. Eode )>a on scip ■] )>a ferdon begen ))urh J>a rugan fennas o)> 1* hi comon to J'sere stowe J)e man hateS Cruwland. Wees 'f land on middan )>am westene swi ge-rid ge-seted >ies fore-ssedan fennas swytSe digle, •] hit swyl>e feawe men wiston buton )>am anum t>e hyt him teehte, swylc \neii nee'fre menig man se'r eardian ne mihte ser se eadiga wer Guthlac to-com for Jpffira eardunga J>ara awerige- dra gasta. i he Jia se eadiga wer Gu)>lac for-hogode sona ]>a costunge )>sera awerigedra gasta, T mid heofonlicum fultume ge-strangod wear^, be-twyx )>a fenlican ge-wrido ]>x& widgillan westenes, '^ he ana ougan eardian. Editions. Capgrave, Nova Legenda Angliee. fol. Lond. Wynkyn de Worde, 1516. foil. clzix — clzxiii. An abridged edition of the life, in which the words of the original are constantly preserved. Surius, De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, fol. 1570, tom. ii. — Fol. Col. Agrip. 1618, tom. ii. pp. 142 — 145, the same abridged edition; which, in the MS. from which Surius printed it, was stated to be " abbreviata sed vera.'' Mabillon. Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Benedict!, Sbbc. III. part I. Par. 1673, pp. 363 — 384. Life of St. Guthlac, printed from a MS. of the Monas- tery of Lira in Normandy. Acta Sanctorum Aprilis, tom. ii. fol. Antwerp. 1675. pp. 38 — 50. The life of Guthlac from a very early MS. (pervetusto MS.) at St. Bertiu, compared with the text in Mabillon. The History and Antiquities of Croyland-Abbey, in the County of Lincoln. (By R. Gough, esq. Dir. S.A.) 4to. London, 1783. pp. 131—153. The Life of St. Guthlac, from MS. Harl. 3097. 250 [Born 657. WILBRORD. WiLBRORD (whose name was Latinized into Wille- brordus and Willibrordus)* is properly classed among the men who lived before Bede, although his death occurred subsequently to that of the historian. He was, like Bede, a native of the kingdom of Northumbria, and his birth may be placed with sufficient certainty in the year 65 7. t His father's name was Widgils, and both his parents were pious Christians. The future celebrity and sanctity of their child was believed to be prefigured to its mother in a dream the night in which he was conceived ; and Widgils, whose piety was increased by this circumstance, soon afterwards retired to a small cell on the point of the pro- montory which formed the northern shore of the mouth of the Humber, and became celebrated for the holiness of his life. The child at a very early agej was entrusted to the inmates of the monastic house at Ripon, which had been recently (in 661) restored by WiKred, and he re- * In the Grandes Chroniques de St. Denis, the name is spelt Guillebrode; in Ordericus Vitalis, of which the text is formed from French manuscripts, Guillebrordus. The most authentic, though incomplete, account of Willebrord, is that given by Bede. Alcuin wrote the life of Wilbrord in prose and verse, in 796, which may be considered as in general authentic, although a few legends had already been added to the truth, and Alcuin has fallen into some errors which may be corrected by means of Bede. Theofrid, abbot of Epternach, wrote a life of Wilbrord towards the end of the eleventh century. The life in Capgrave is chiefly abridged from Alcuin. We have also some informa- tion, but of very doubtful authenticity, relating to the mission of Wilbrord in the Life of Suidbert which goes under the name of MarcelUnus. t As there appears to be no room for doubting that Wilbrord's visit to Friesland took place in 690, and he is stated to have been then thirty-three years of age, we easily ascertain the date of his birth. X Statim ablactatum infantulum tradidit pater Hripensis ecclesise fratribus religiosis studiis et sacris litteris erudiendum. Alcuin, c. 3. Died 738,] wilbrohd. 251 mained there till he received the tonsure and became a monk. In his twentieth year (a.d. 677)» Wilbrord was induced by the reports of the high state of learning in the Anglo-Irish monasteries,* and by the great fame of the Anglo-Saxon monks who were resident there, to quit Ripon and repair to the sister island, where he entered the congregation of Egbert and WigberLf Wilbrord remained with Egbert thirteen years. We have already mentioned that monk's intended visit to Germany, and the unsuccessful mission of Wigbert to Friesland. It is probable that Wilbrord was one of the company appointed to attend Egbert on his voyage ; and after that design had been relinquished, and Wigbert was returned, Egbert sent, or at least encouraged, Wilbrord to make another attempt to convert Radbod, the king or ruler of the Frieslanders.l Wilbrord took with him ele- ven companions, all moved with the same zeal as himself, and entered the Rhine in 690,§ when he had completed the thirty-third year of his age. || The Anglo-jSaxon missionaries reached Friesland at a favourable moment. The battle of Testri, three years be- fore, had made Pepin of Heristal virtually the ruler of the united kingdoms of the Franks. The internal dissensions which preceded that event, had encouraged the Fries- landers to arm against the Merovingian monarchs ; and Wilbrord found on his arrival, that they had been crushed * Et quia in Hibernia scholasticam eruditionem viguisse audivit. Alcuin, c. 4. t The early part of Wilbrord's history depends entirely on the aathority of Alcuin, capp. 1 — 4. J Bede, H. E. t. 10. § This date is given in a coeval entry in the margin of a Calendar pre- served at Eptemach. See Stevenson's note on Bede, p. 353, and Calmet's Hist, de Lorraine, iii. 99, there referred to. 11 Alcuin, cap, 5. 252 wiLBROBD. [Born 657- by the forces of Pepin, and that the southern parts of the country, which acknowledged the rule of Radbod, had been added to the Prankish dominions.* Wilbrord and his companions proceeded up the Rhine to the ancient but ruined town of Traject (ad castellum Trajectum), now Utrecht, which was known to the Teutonic tribes by the name of Wiltaburg, as having been occupied by the Scla- vonic tribe of the Wiltas ; f but finding Radbod and his subjects still obstinate in their idolatry, they turned to the south, and presented themselves at the court of Pepin.J It was the policy of Pepin, and of the dynasty which sprang from him, to give unity to the extensive and in- creasing empire of the Franks, by labouring diligently to convert the tribes on its border to the Christian faith. Pepin received the Anglo-Saxon missionaries with respect; and, charmed with the zeal and piety of Wilbrord, he sent him with authority to preach among the pagans who had lately been reduced by his arms.§ About this time Wilbrord appears to have separated from his companions, of whose further movements we know little ; but we are told that some of them suffered martyr- dom in their attempts to convert the barbarians from their idolatry, and that others lived to be appointed bishops over them when converted.|| Some of the missionaries crossed the Rhine and penetrated amongst the Frieslanders who were still independent of the Franks. Suidbert, who * Et quia nuper citeriorem Fresiam, expulso inde Rathbedo rege, cepe- rat. Bede, H. E. v. 10. t Bede, H. E. y. 11. Note on Alcuin, cap. 13, in the Acta Sanct. Ord. Bened. J Bede, H. E. v. 10. Alcuin, cap. 6. § Bede, H. E. v. 10. II Alcuin, cap. 5. Died 738.] wilbrord. 253 was elected to be their leader, returned to England to be ordained their bishop by Wilfred, then in Mercia banished from his own see (a.d. 693). When Suidbert had rejoined his companions, they went to preach the gospel among the Boructuari or Bructarii, the people of Eastern Friesland, and they exercised their ministry with some success, until that tribe was attacked and subdued by the Old Saxons, and their spiritual flock being destroyed or dispersed, they also fled to the court of Pepin, who gave to Suidbert a monastery on an island in the Rhine.* The simultaneous attempt to convert the Old Saxons also failed. Two. Anglo-Saxons, both bearing the same name, but distin- guished, on account of the colour of their hair, by the appellations of Black Hewald and White Hewald, had been long resident among the Saxon monks in Ireland, perhaps in the same congregation with Wilbrord, and, in- cited by his example, they also went to the shores of the Rhine and arrived among the Old Saxons, who at that time had just made themselves masters of the country of the Boructuari. The Old Saxons possessed a form of government similar to that of the Germans in the age of Tacitus ; they had no king, but each district or tribe was ruled by an independent chief who acknowledged no superior except the temporary commander elected in time of war. These chiefs are termed in the Anglo- Saxon version of Bede, " ealdermen." The two Hewalds presented themselves before the reeve or prefect (villicus) of the first town to which they came, and asked to be con- ducted to the ealderman of the district, as, they said, they had a mission of importance to deliver him. The reeve ac- ceded to their request, but retained them with him for some days, until an opportunity should occur of accomplishing * Bede, H. E. v. H 254 wiLBRORD, [Born 65'J. their wish. In the mean time the people of the town observed that the two missionaries were constantly em- ployed in prayers and in singing psalms, and they thus learnt that they were Christians; urged on probably by their priests, they rose tumultuously, and, alleging that if the strangers were allowed to visit their ealderman, they would perhaps persuade him to embrace the religion of the Christians and desert the gods of their fathers, they seized upon the two Hewalds, put them immediately to death, and threw their bodies into the Rhine. This event occurred on the third day of October, 695. When the ealderman heard what had happened, in the first outbreak of anger that a mission which was addressed to himself should have been thus stopped by his subjects, he caused all the inhabitants of the town to be put to the sword, and the town itself to be burnt to the ground. The remains of the two Anglo-Saxon martyrs were taken out of the river, and, by the express command of Pepin, deposited with great reverence in the church of Cologne. In the time of Bede, a clear spring of water was pointed out as indicating the spot where they had suffered.* When Wilbrord had been armed for his mission with the authority given to him by Pepin, he determined still further to strengthen his influence by obtaining the authority also of the pope, and he repaired to Rome in 692. On his return, he brought with him relics and other necessaries for the churches which were to be built among the converts. The number of the latter was continually increased by the persuasions of the preacher and the in- fluence of his patron, who showered his benefits on those * Bede, H. E. v. 10. The spring was SEiid to have bubbled forth miracu- lously on the spot where they were slain. Fertur autem quia in loco, in quo occisi sunt, fons ebuUierit, qui ia eodem loco usque hodie copiosa fluenti Bui dona profundat. Died 738.] wilbrobd. 255 who listened to the missionaries, and punished with rigour any of his new subjects who treated them with insult or contempt. At the end of three years, Pepin again sent Wilbrord to Rome ; and pope Sergius I. ordained him bishop of the people whom he had converted, in the church of St. Cecilia according to Bede, on the twenty-second of November, 696, on which occasion the Pope gave him the pallium with his own hand, and bestowed upon him the name of Clemens. He remained at Rome only four- teen days, and then, returning to Friesland, established his episcopal see at Utrecht, the spot where he had first come to land on his arrival from England six years be- fore. He there built a church which was dedicated to St. Saviour, and rebuilt one dedicated to St. Martin.* After Wilbrord had held the episcopal see of Utrecht a few years, during which time he laboured with unceasing activity, destroying the idols which continued to be worshipped by the barbarians subject to the Frankish monarchy, he determined to make another attempt to convert the independent tribes bordering upon his diocese. He went first to the court of Radbod, who received him with unexpected favour. There he is said to have met Wulframn bishop of Sens, who, with the permission of Childebert and Pepin, had entered Friesland with the same object as Wilbrord in the year 700.t But Radbod, although he treated the two missionaries with hospitality, * Bede, H. E. v. 10 and 11. Alcviin, cap. 6. Bonifacii Epist. 105. Alcuin confounds the two visits to Rome, but they are distinctly described in Bede. The author of the book De Vitis Pontificum, ascribed to Athana- sius (quoted in a note on Alcuin by Mabillon), confirms Bede in stating that the consecration of Wilbrord to the pontificate took place on St. Cecilia's day. t This is asserted in some of the MSS. of Alcuin, c. 9, and in the abridged life in Capgrave. Wulframn remained in Friesland from 700 to 705. Jonas, Vita Wulframni, ap. Mabil. Act. Sanct. Ord. Bened. Ssec. III. pars 1, p. 363. 25G wiLBRORD. [Born 657- paid very little attention to their religious exhortations ; and Wilbrordj seeing no hopes of success, separated from his colleague, and proceeding towards the north reached the country of the still more barbarous Danes, who were then ruled by a prince named Ongend, remarkable chiefly for the ferocity of his character.* Ongend received the bishop, as an envoy of Pepin, with respect, but he also despised the doctrines which Wilbrord preached to him. The exertions of the missionary were not, however entirely without effect; he appears to have made some converts, and on his return home he carried with him thirty Danish children to be instructed in the Christian faith. Fearful that his good intentions might be frustrated by the accidents incident to travelling or by the inhospitable manners of the people through whose bounds he would have to pass, he initiated and baptized these children on the road, soon after he had begun his journey.f The travellers appear to have performed part of their journey by sea. They first came to land at an island on the confines of Denmark and Friesland, which was then called Fositesland, because it was sacred to one of the Frisian idols named Fosite.J It is supposed to be the same which has since been known by the name of Hel- goland, or Holy Island, and which was in the age of * Alcnin, u. 9. The name is spelt dififerently Ungendus, Ongendus, An- gaudeonem (? Angandeovem) . See Mabillon's note. Perhaps it is the same name as the Ongentheow of the Romance of Beowulf, and the Angel- theow (a/. Angengeat) , Engeltheov, &c. of the Anglo-Saxon mythic gene- alogies. In all these instances, the name in its simple form was probably Angen, Ongen, or Ongend. It appears that the common tables of the early Danish kings contain no such name as Ongend, or Angandeov. f Sed in eo ipso itinere catechizatos eosdem pueros fonte salubri abluit, ne aliquid propter pericula longioris vise, vel ex insidiis ferocissimorum illius terrse habitatorum damnum pateretur in illis. Alcuin, ib. J Alcuin, c. 10. Concerning Fosite, see Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 54, 78, 144, Died 738.] wilbbord. 257 Tacitus famous among the German tribes as the chief seat of the worship of Hertha. The reverence shown to this spot by the Frieslanders was so great, that they considered it a sacrilege of the worst kind, either to kill and eat the animals which fed there, or even to drink, except in silence, of the water which flowed from its fountain.* Wilbrord and his companions had been driven thither by stress of weather, and they were all suffering from hunger. They were well acquainted with the character of the place at which they had arrived, yet the bishop without scruple ordered food to be sought for his companions, while he baptized three new converts in the stream. A party of Frieslanders, who had been watching their motions (per- haps they exercised the calling of wreckers on the coast), witnessed the slaughter of the holy animals and the dese- cration of the fountain, with horror and astonishment, and expected to see the perpetrators visited with sudden death or struck with madness; but when these results were not realised, they hastened to the king and told him what they had seen. Radbod, in anger, ordered the Chris- tians to be brought before him. During three days he cast lots thrice a day (the mode of judicial proceeding practised among his people) ; but the strangers were saved from his vengeance, for the lot of condemnation (sors dam- natorum) did not fall upon Wilbrord or his companions, with the exception of one, who was instantly sacrificed. The barbarian king was awed by this prodigy ; he called Wilbrord into his presence, and reproached him bitterly with the disrespect which he had shown to his god Fosite. * Qui locus » paganis in tanta veneratione habebatur, ut nil in ea vel animaliuui ibi pascentium vel aliarum quarumlibet rerum gentilium qnisquam tangere audebat, nee etiam a fonte qui ibi ebulUebat aquam haurire nisi tafens prssumebat. Alcuin, c. 10. VOL. I. S 258 wiLBRORD. [Born 63'J. Wilbrord answered that the god he worshipped was a deceiver, and exhorted him to turn from his idolatry. Radbod then observed with an air of surprise, " I see that you do not fear our threats, and that your words are like your works ;^' and so dismissed him with honour, and sent him to the court of the ruler of the Franks.* It was probably after his return from this mission, that Wilbrord founded the monastery of Epternach near Treves.f For some years he continued to occupy the episcopal see at Utrecht, frequently travelling over the different parts of his diocese, converting those who re- mained in error, confirming those who had already been converted, and destroying the temples of the idols to raise churches in their place. He also ordained bishops to assist him, and to act subordinately under him. He continued to enjoy the favour of Pepin, who is supposed by some writers (though apparently without authority) to have been induced by his persuasions to put away his concubine Alpa'ide, and reconcile himself to his more legi- timate wife Plectrude. In 714, Pepin of Heristal died; and Radbod, encouraged by the troubles which imme- diately followed that event, rose in arms and seized upon the districts which had formerly been wrested from him. Wilbrord was thus driven from the scene of his labours ; and the idolatrous rites of the Frieslanders were re-estab- * A d hsec rex miratas respondit, Video te minas nostras non timuisse, et verba tua esse sicut et opera. Et quamvis noluisset veritatis prsedicatori credere, tamen ad Pippinum regem Francorum cum honore remisit eum. Alcuin, c. 11. Alcuin on more than one occasion calls Pepin " rex Fran- corum," although he more frequently gives him the title of " dux." t The Biographic Universelle, art. Willibrod, erroneously places the foundation of the monastery of Epternach in 698. The site was given to him in the twelfth year of Childebert (707), by Pepin and Plectrude, and therefore after Pepin's reconciliation with his wife. [Theoffrid. Vit. Wil.) Died 738.] wilbrord. 259 lished in his diocese.* This occurred about the year 715 or 716. The intrigues of a few months, supported by his mili- tary talents, placed in the hands of Charles Martel the power which had been wielded by his father, and gave him leisure to repress the encroachments of the Fries- landers. In the month of March, 716, Radbod advanced as far as Cologne, laying waste the country over which he passed. In a battle in the neighbourhood of that city he gained an advantage over Charles; but towards the end of the year he was obliged to retreat, and the increasing fortunes of his adversary reduced him to a more humilia- ting position than that which he had held even under the reign of Pepin. Wilbrord was restored by Charles to the bishopric of Utrecht, but he had in a great measure to re- commence the work of conversion. Other missionaries were sent to assist him, and to make a new attempt to in- troduce the Christian religion among the still independent tribes of the north. Wulframn again visited the court of Radbod, and his persuasions brought the Frisian prince to the sacred font. He had already put one foot in the water, when he suddenly hesitated, and turning to his instructor, asked him whether there were a greater num- ber of Frieslanders in heaven or in hell. The missionary told him that all the kings and nobles of Friesland who had preceded him, and who had not been purified by baptism, were in the latter place. Radbod withdrew his foot from the font, and declared that he would rather go to his ancestors with whom were the greater number of his countrymen, than take his place with the smaller * Alcuin, cc 12, 13. — Jam pars ecclesiarum Christi, quse Francorum prius subjecta erat imperio, vastata erat ac destructa, idolorum quoque cul- tura extrnctis delubrorura fanis lugubriter renovata. Vita Bonifacii, ap. Pertz, ii. 339. s 2 260 wiLBBORD. [Born 6'37. number, with only the chance of its being increased by those who might come after him.* This happened in the year ^IS, and in the year following Radbod died, un- baptized, as the old chroniclers carefully note.f The abridged life of Wilbrord, printed in Capgrave, has pre- served a wild legend relating to his death. J Wilbrord employed himself with activity in restoring Christianity along the banks of the Rhine, and his zeal ensured his success. After he had settled the affairs of his own diocese, he returned to preach the gospel among the unconverted tribes. He now made many converts ; but, although protected by the power of Charles Martel, his mission was not without its perils. As he was making a progress along the coast occupied by the Frieslanders, he arrived at an island then called Walacrum, the modern Walcheren, which was the seat of the worship of a famous and ancient idol, whose rites were celebrated on a particu- lar day of the year with great ceremony. While Wilbrord was destroying the idol, its keeper suddenly rushed upon him, and struck him on the head with a sword. The stroke of the pagan's weapon was, however, harmless; and Wilbrord's companions seized the assailant and would have put him to death, had they not been restrained by the preacher, who ordered him to be set at liberty.§ We have no means of ascertaining the date of Wilbrord's return from this mission, but he was then beginning to bend under the weight of years, and spent more of his time than formerly in the monastery of Epternach. He * Annales Xantenses, ap. Pertz, Monum. Hist. Germ. ii. 221. t Annales Xantenses, ib. Other authorities for this date are printed in Pertz. t Capgrave, Legenda Nova Anglise, fol. cccix. § Alcuin, Vita Willibr., u. 14. — Capp. 15 — 22 of Alcuin's life are occupied •with Wilbrord's pretended miracles. His posthumous miracles are detailed in CO. 25—30. Died 738.] wilbroru. 261 continued to enjoy the favour of Charles Martel, and lived to see his triumphs over the Saracen invaders. It was Wilbrord who baptized that prince's son Pepin (afterwards known by the title of Pepin le Bref); and his benediction over the infant was prophetic of the future glories of the father of Charlemagne.* Bede, in 731, speaks of Wilbrord as being " longa jam venerabilis setate ; " f and Boniface, who also was partly his contemporary, assures us that he continued preaching till his strength failed him, when he ordained a coadjutor to administer the affairs of his diocese.f He then retired to Epternach, where he died and was buried, having completed his eighty-first year.§ This, combined with the other dates and events of his life, leads us to fix the year 738 as that of his death.|| It occurred, according to Alcuin, on the sixth of November, although in the Romish calender Wilbrord is commemo- rated on the seventh of that month. His relics are still preserved in the monastery of Epternach ; and in the * Alcuin, c. 23. t Bede, H. E. v. 11. who says that he had then held liis bishopric thirty- six years — ^utpote tricesimum et sextum in episcopatu habens annum. This agrees with Bede's previous statement of the date of his ordination. J Prsedicans usque ad debilem senectutem permansit, et sibi coepiscopum ad ministerium implendum substituit. Bonifac. Epist. 105. § This is stated in Alcuin's metrical life : — Qui postquam vitse meritis perfectus in annis Bis octena plus complevit lustra sacerdos Ter quater et menses, mensis jam jamque Novembris Idibus octenis coeli migravit ad aulam. II The date can only be fixed by conjecture, and has been given very differently by different authors. Yet if Wilbrord's thirty-third year fell in 690, his eighty-first must have been completed in 738. The Annales Xan- tenses, in Pertz, ii. 221. place Wilbrord's death in 736; but the same Annals place his ordination in 694, also two years too early ; and they place the death of Bede in 730, a year before he completed his Ecclesiastical History. Boniface, in the letter quoted above, says that Wilbrord continued to preach to the Frieslanders during fifty years ; but this was probably not intended to be an accurate definition of time. The period from 690 to 738 might very well be called, in speaking loosely, half a century. 262 wiLBBORD. IBorn 637. abbey of N6tre Dame des Martyrs at Treves they show the portable altar which he is said to have carried about with him in his pious wanderings.* Wilbrord holds a prominent place in the early history of the English and Gei-man churches, as the first of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries who laboured with success in the great work which was completed before the end of the century by his countrymen Boniface, Willibald, and Willehad. His biographer Alcuin speaks in terms of admiration of the dignity of mien, the prudence and moderation, the holiness and meekness of heart, and per- suasive eloquence, the activity, perseverance, and patience, which enabled him to overcome the difficidties he en- countered. t Though the older bibhographers attribute to Wilbrord several books,J we have at present no remains to show his learning or literary talents ; but he was the founder of the schools at Utrecht, and he thus contributed in no small degree to the advancement of European civilization. • Biog. Universelle, art. Willibrod. t Alcuin's prose life, u. 24. In the metrical life (p. 625), the same writer describes him thus : — Vir fuit iste Dei, patiens, moderatus, honestus, Moribus egregius, et in omni strenuns actu ; Corde pius, humili mitis, rigidusque superbo, Solator miseris et, inops sibi, dives egenis. t Scripsit WiUebrordns, Ecclesiastioos Canones; De sua Peregrinatione j Homilias; Epistolas. Tanner, from Bale, &c. Born 672.] 263 Section III. — From Bede to the end of the Eighth Century. BEDE. No name is more illustrious in the history of literature and science during the middle ages, than that of the " venerable " Bede ; and we may add that in proportion to his celebrity there are not many writers of whose per- sonal history we possess so few details. His studious and contemplative life probably offered few remarkable incidents to arrest the pen of the biographer or historian ; and to his contemporaries, as well as to after ages (with the exception perhaps of the monastic congregation in which he resided), he lived chiefly by his works.* * The only accarate information relating to Bede's life (with the exception of Cuthbert's account of his last moments) is given by Bede himself, at the end of his Ecclesiastical History. All the other biographies, which are of little or no importance, are founded upon what he there states. Smith has inserted in his edition of Bede's historical works, an anonymous life written apparently in the eleventh century. Mabillon has given another life, written after the beginning of the twelfth century, and other anonymous lives are inserted in the Acta Sanctorum and in Capgrave. Notices more or less detailed are found in Simeon of Durham, William of Malmsbury, and other historians. Baronius and Mabillon have collected together most of the materials relating to the life of this great Anglo-Saxon writer. More recently, memoirs have been published by Mr. Stevenson, in his edition of the Ecclesiastical History, and by Henry Gehle, in a separate work entitled Disputatio Historico-Theologica de Bedse VenerabUis, Presbyteri Anglo- Saxonis, Vita et Scriptis. 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1838. The name in Anglo-Saxon was Beda ; as in all words of this form, and names that have continued through many ages to be in people's mouths, the Anglo-Saxon termination a became softened into the later English dumb e. The form Bede has been continued, because it is not incorrect, and because it is the most popular. 264 BEDE. [Born 672. Bede was born in 672 or 673,* near the place where Benedict Biscop soon afterwards founded the religious house of Wearmouth, perhaps in the parish which is now called Monkton, and which appears to have been one of the earliest endowments of the monastery.f As soon as he had reached his seventh year, Bede was sent to Wear- mouth to profit by the teaching of Biscop, from which period to his death he continued to be an inmate of that monastery. After the death of Benedict Biscop, Bede pursued his studies under his successor Ceolfrid, and at the age of nineteen, about a.d. 692, was admitted to dea- con's orders by John of Beverley, then newly restored to his see of Hexham ; and in his thirtieth year (702 or 703) he was ordained to the priesthood by the same prelate. f The early age at which Bede received holy orders, shows that he was then already distinguishing himself by his learning and piety ; and there can be little doubt that his fame was widely spread before the commencement of the eighth century. At that period, according to the account which has been generally received, Bede was invited to Rome by pope Sergius I., to advise with that pontiff on some difficult points of church discipline. The authority for this cir- cumstance is a letter of the pope to Ceolfrid, expressing his wish to see Bede at Rome, which has been inserted * The Ecclesiastical History was finished in 731, and at the end of it Bede states himself to be at that time fifty-nine years of age. Stevenson, follow- ing Pagi, places his birth in 674. ■|- Natus in territorio ejusdem monasterii. Bede, H. E. v. 24. The Anglo-Saxon version has, Wses ic accenned on sundorlande ]>a£s ylcan mynstres. — I was born on the land set apart for the same monastery. Some writers, and among the rest Dr. Lingard, have so far misunderstood this expression as to state that Bede was born at Sunderland. (Gehle, p. 8, note.) It may here be observed that we think it not necessary to notice the mere fables connected with Bede's life, such as his studying at Cam- bridge, &c. + Bede, H. E. v. 24. Died 735.] BEDE. 265 by William of Malmsbury in his history of England. It seems, however, nearly certain that Bede did not go to Rome on this occasion ; and reasons have been stated for supposing the whole story, as far as Bede was concerned in it, to be a misrepresentation. The recent editor of the ' Ecclesiastical History has printed an earlier copy of the pope's letter from a MS. in the British Museum,* in which the name of Bede does not occur ; and it is argued that this is the true form of the letter, that it is expressed in merely general terms,requestingCeolfridto send some monk of his house capable of giving advice on the subject to be discussed, and that the name of Bede was interpolated by WiUiam of Malmsbury, when he introduced this letter into his history .f These arguments, however, do not appear conclusive ; and it seems more probable that the pope would send to so great a distance for a person who was extensively known for his learning and acquaintance with ecclesiastical affairs, than that he should apply to the abbot of a monastery like Wearmouth to send him one of his monks to advise with him. We are more- over hardly justified in supposing that William of Malms- bury had not an original copy which contained the name of Bede ; and it appears to us from the form of the ex- pression that a name or a word is required after the word famulum in the Cottonian manuscript.J If William of Malmsbury's version of the letter be correct, and Bede * Stevenson, p. xi, with the reference to MS. Cotton. Tiberius, A. xv. fol. 6.b. •(• In William of Malmsbury the sentence stands thus, Sed absque aliqua remoratione religiosum Dei nostri famulum Bedam Tenerabilis tui monasterii presbyterum ad veneranda limina apostolorum .... non moraris dirigere. In the Cottonian MS., as printed by Stevenson, it stands as follows, Sed absque aliqua remoratione religiosum Dei nostri famulum Tenerabilis tui monasterii ad veneranda limina, &c. % On referring lo the original MS., it appears that the MS. stands thus, " Dei nostri famulum N. venerabilis," &c. where N. an abbreviation of nomen, was placed to show that a name of some person stood in the original 266 BEDE. [Born 672. was invited by name, we may suppose that the death of the pope in the same year in which the letter was sent, released him from the labours of the journey. The remainder of Bede's life appears to have passed away in the tranquillity of study and in pious exercises. He never separated himself from the monastery in which he had been educated,* but composed within its walls the numer- ous books which have thrown so much lustre on his name. The larger portion of these works was probably written during the fifteen years preceding 731. His smaller treatise De Temporibus is supposed to have been composed abou* 701 or 702, and the book De Natura Rerum perhaps about the same time. Bede had finished the three books of his Commentary on Samuel just before the death of Ceolfrid, i.e. in 7 16. The treatise De Temporum Ratione was com- posed in 726 ; the fives of the first abbots of Wearmouth and Yarrow were published about 716, or soon after; and in 731, was completed his most important work, the Eccle- siastical History of the Anglo-Saxons. Bede had then reached the age of fifty-nine. The monotony of a mo- nastic life seems to have been relieved from time to time by visits to other religious houses. In 733 or 734 he had spent some days in the monastery of York in company with his friend, archbishop Egbert; but he declined another invitation from the same prelate, towards the close of the year 734, on the plea of ill health, in a letter still preserved, which is an exhortation to Egbert on the duties of the episcopal office, full of sound document, or that it was to be supplied. A nearly contemporary hand has interlined in small letters the word beda over the letter N, and the word presbyterum to be inserted after monasterii. Usher also examined a very ancient manuscript of this letter, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, in the Cottonian library, and he points out the omission of the viorA presby- terum, but says nothing of the absence of the name of Bede. See Wilkins, Concil. Magn. Brit. i. 63. * Bede, H. E. v. 24. Died 735.] BBDE. 267 advice, and interesting for the light it throws on the state of the Anglo-Saxon church and on the corruptions which were then creeping into it. Bede was at this time labour- ing under an asthmatic complaint, which shortly after- wards carried him from the scene of his mortal labours. A narrative of Bede's last hours was written by his dis- ciple Cuthbert, and is still preserved. From this account it appears that the last works on which he employed his pen were a translation of the Gospel of St. John into Anglo-Saxon, and a collection of extracts from one of the works of Isidore. At the commencement of the month of April, 735, he was seized with a shortness of breathing, under which he languished till the twenty-sixth of May, suffering little pain, but pining away under the effects of his disease and the absence of sleep. During this time he occupied himself day and night either in admonishing his disciples, or in prayer, or in repeating passages from the Scriptures and the fathers of the church. In- terspersing his observations from time to time with pieces of religious poetry in his native tongue. One of these fragments has been given in the present volume.* On the twenty-sixth of May the symptoms became more alarming, and it was evident that death was near at hand. During that day he continued to dictate (probably the translation of the gospel of St. John) to one of the younger members of the community, who acted as his scribe; and he resumed the same work early the next morning, which was the Feast of the Ascension, or Holy Thursday, and he told his disciples to write diligently. This they did till nine o'clock, when they retired to perform some of the re- ligious duties peculiar to that day. One of them then said to him, " Dearest master, one chapter still remains, * See the Introduction to the present volume, p. 21. 268 BEDE. [Born 67'2. and thou canst ill bear questioning." But Bede desired him to proceed, telling him to " take his pen and write hastily." At the hour of nones (twelve o'clock), Bede directed Cuthbert to fetch from his closet his spices and other precious articles, which he shared among the presby- ters of the house, and begged that they would say masses and prayers for him after his death. He passed the remain- der of the day in prayer and conversation, amid the tears of his companions, till evening, when his scribe again inter- rupted him, telling him that only one sentence of his work remained unfinished. Bede told him to write, and he dictated a few words, when the youth exclaimed, " It is now done ! " " Thou hast said right/' answered Bede, " it is done ! Support my head with thy hands, for I de- sire to sit in my holy place where I am accustomed to pray, that sitting there I may call upon my Father.'^ And thus on the floor of his closet, chaunting the Gloria Patri, he had just strength to proceed to the end of the phrase, and died with the last words (Spiritui Sancto) on his lips. The date of Bede's death is accurately fixed in the year 735, by the circumstance that in that year the Feast of the Ascension fell upon the twenty-seventh of May.* He was buried at Yarrow, and, according to William of Malms- bury,t the following epitaph was placed on his tomb : Presbyter hie Beda requiescit carne sepultus. Dona, Christe, animam iu ccelis gaudere per sevum ; Daque illi sophise debriari fonte, cm jam Suspiravit OTans iutento semper amore. The bones of Bede were carefully preserved at Yarrow till towards the middle of the eleventh century, when a presbyter of Durham, Alfred the son of Weston, envious * Gehle, Disputat. Hist. Theol. de Bed. Venerab. Scriptis, p. 31. t W. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Ang. p. 24. Died 735.] BEDE. 269 of the profit which was derived from the number of de- votees who came thither to visit them, carried them off by stealth, and deposited them in his own church.* When the relics of St. Cuthbert were removed in 1 104, the bones of Bede were found in the same coffin ; and they were taken thence and placed a few years afterwards by bishop Hugh Pudsey in a casket of gold and silver in the Galilee of the Cathedral, where they remained till the year 1541, when they were removed with other relics by the Refor- mers. The stone on which the casket rested is still pre- served. The following lines were inscribed on the latter by Bishop Pudsey's order : Continet hsec theca Bedee Venerabilis ossa ; Sensum factori Christus dedit, eesque datori. Fetrus opus fecit, prsesul dedit hoc Hugo donum ; Sic in utroque suum veneratus utrumque patronum.f The reputation of Bede increased daily, and we find him spoken of by the title of Saint very soon after his death. Boniface in his epistles describes him as the lamp of the church. Towards the ninth century he received the appellation of The Venerable, which has ever since been attached to his name. As a specimen of the fables by which his biography was gradually obscured, we may cite the legends invented to account for the origin of this latter title. According to one, the Anglo-Saxon scholar was on a visit to Rome, and there saw a gate of iron, on which were inscribed the letters P.P.P.S.S.S. R.R.R.F.F.F., which no one was able to interpret. Whilst Bede was attentively considering the inscription, a Roman who was passing by said to him rudely, " What *• Simeon of Durham, in the Decern Scriptores, col. 32, who gives a detailed account of this theft. f Stevenson, Introd. to Bede's Eccl. Hist. ; Gehle, pp. 23—34. Both these writers hare given the text of Cuthbert's Epistle. 270 BEDE. [Born 672. seest thou there, English ox?" to which Bede replied, " I see your confusion ; " and he immediately explained the characters thus: — Pater Patriae Perditus, Sapientia Secum Sublata, Ruet Regnum Romse, Ferro Flamma Fame. The Romans were astonished at the acuteness of their English visitor, and decreed that the title of Venerable should be thenceforth given to him. According to another story, Bede, having become blind in his old age, was walking abroad with one of his disciples for a guide, when they arrived at an open place where there was a large heap of stones ; and Bede's companion per- suaded his master to preach to the people who, as he pre- tended, were assembled there and waiting in great silence and expectation, Bede delivered a most eloquent and moving discourse, and when he had uttered the conclu- ding phrase. Per omnia saecula sseculorum, to the great admiration of his disciple, the stones, we are told, cried out aloud, " Amen, Venerabilis Beda ! " There is also a third legend on this subject which informs us that, soon after Bede's death, one of his disciples was appointed to compose an epitaph in Latin Leonines, and carve it on his monument, and he began thus, Hac sunt in fossa Bedse ossa, intending to introduce the word sancti or presbyteri ; but as neither of these words would suit the metre, whilst he was puzzling himself to find one more convenient, he fell asleep. On awaking he prepared to resume his work, when to his great astonishment he found that the line had already been completed on the stone (by an angel, as he supposed), and that it stood thus, — Hao sunt in fossa Bedse Venerabilis ossa.* Bede has given us, at the conclusion of his Ecclesiastical * Gehle, Dissertat. pp.36, 37, gives the authorities for the foregoing legends. Died 735.J BEDE. 271 History, the following list of the works which he had composed previously to that time (a.d. 731)- 1. A commentary on Genesis, as far as the twenty- first chapter inclusive. Part of this work will be found in the editions of Bede's collected works; the rest was edited by Henry Wharton, in his collection of Tracts by Bede. 2. A treatise on the tabernacle and its vessels and on the vestments of the priests, in three books, 3. A commentary on the thirty-one first chapters of the first book of Samuel (usque ad mortem Saulis), in three books. 4. The treatise de eedificatione Templi (an allegorical interpretation of the temple of Solomon), in two books. 5. Detached observations on the books of Samuel and Kings. (In Regum librum xxx questiones.)* 6. A commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, in three books. 7. A commentary on the Song of Solomon, in seven books. 8. Glosses on Isaiah, Daniel, the Twelve Prophets, and part of Jeremiah, extracted from St. Jerome. 9. On Ezra and Nehemiah, in three books. 10. On the Song of Habacuc, in one book. 11. On the book of Tobit (In Librum beati patris TobisBj explanationes allegoricee de Christo et ecclesia), in one book. 12. Heads of readings (capitula lectionum) on the Pen- tateuch and on the books of Josuah and Judges. 13. A commentary "inlibros Regum et Verba dierum." * The passages illustrated in this book are, I Sam. ii. 35 ; iii. 19 ; vi. 19; vii. 2; xx. 14, 15; xxv. 29. 2 Sam. i. 18; Tui. 2; xxiii. 8, 20; 1 Kings vi. 2, 8, 9 ; viii. 8, 9, 65 ; xvi. 34 ; xx. 10. 2 Kings, xi. 5, 12; xii. 15; xiv. 7, 25; xvii. 29, 30; xviii. 32; xx. 9; xxii. 14; xxiii. 10, 11, 13 ; xxiv. 14. 272 BEDE. [Born 672. 14. A commentary on the book of Job. 15. On the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 16. On Isaiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah. 17. A commentary on the Gospel of St. Mark, in four books. 18. A commentary on St. Luke, in six books. 19. Homilies on the Gospel, in two books. 20. A compilation from St. Augustine — In Apostolum queecunque in opusculis sancti Augustini exposita inveni, cuncta per ordinem transcribere curavi. 21. A commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, in two books. 22. Commentaries on the seven Catholic Epistles. 23. A commentary on the Apocalypse, in two books. 24. Heads of readings on the whole of the New Testa- ment, with the exception of the Gospels. 25. A book of Epistles addressed to various persons. These Epistles were in fact tracts addressed to his friends on the following subjects : On the six Ages of the World (de sex aetatibus saeculi) ; on the Mansions of the Children of Israel ; on the words of Isaiah, Et claudentur ibi in carcerem, et post dies multos visitabuntur, (Is. xxiv. 22) ; on the Bissextile; on the Equinox, according to Anatolius. The second and third of these tracts are lost. 26. The life of St. Fehx, compiled in prose from the metrical life by Paulinus. 27. A corrected edition of the Life of St. Anastasius, which had been inaccurately translated from the Greek. (Librum vitse et passionis sancti Anastasii, male de Graeco translatum, et pejus a quodam imperito emendatum, prout potui, ad sensum correxi.) 28. The life of St. Cuthbert, written first in verse, and afterwards in prose. Died 735.] BEDE. 273 29. The history of the abbots of Wearmouth and Yarrow. 30. The Ecclesiastical History. 31. A Martyrology. 32. Hymns, in various metres or rhj'thms. 33. A book of Epigrams, in Latin verse. 34. 35. The books De Natura Rerum and De Tempo- ribus. 36. A " larger book " de Temporibus. 37. A book de Orthographia, arranged in alphabetical order. 38. A treatise on Metres (de Metrica Arte), to which was added another, de Schematibus sive Tropis. To the foregoing list may be added a few books, which are of undoubted authenticity, and which with one ex- ception, were written subsequently to the completion of the Ecclesiastical History. 39. The Libellus de Situ Urbis Hierusalem, sive de Locis Sanctis, already mentioned as an abridgment from the older work of Adamnan.* We know that this tract was published before the appearance of the Ecclesiastical History, in which it is mentioned, and it is singular that it should be omitted in Bedels list. 40. In his old age, soon after the completion of the Ecclesiastical History, Bede wrote (in imitation of St. Augustine) a book of Retractaiiones, in which with charac- teristic candour he points out and corrects errors admitted into the writings of his earlier years. 41. The Epistle to Albinus, edited by MabiUon, and written soon after the year 731. , 42. The Epistle to Archbishop Egbert, written at the end of the year 734 or in the beginning of 735. And, 43. 44. The Compilation from Isidore, and the Anglo- * See before, p. 204 'of the present volume. VOL.. I. T 274 BEDE. IBorn 672- Saxon version of St. John, which occupied Bede's last moments. It will be seen by the foregoing list, that the subjects of the writings of Bede are very diversified. They are the works of a man whose life was spent in close and constant study, — industrious compilations rather than original compositions, but exhibiting profound and extensive learning beyond that of any of his contemporaries. He was not unacquainted with the classic authors of ancient Rome ; * and his commentaries on the Scriptures show that he understood the Greek and Hebrew languages. It appears from his book entitled Retractationes, that he had met with a very early Greek manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles, which he collated with the Latin text then in use ; from the variations t which Bede has given in the work just mentioned, Mill was led to conclude that this was either the identical manuscript now preserved in the Bodleian Librarv at Oxford, or at least an exact counterpart of it. Bede's opinions are not free from the errors, which characterized the age in which he lived ; but there are few of his contemporaries whose works ex- hibit so large a proportion of good sense, and he was so far devoid of common prejudices that he did not scruple to adopt the useful parts of the writings of those whom the church then looked upon as heretics. Thus, in his commentary on the Apocalypse, he professes to follow the rules of interpretation published by Tychonius the Donatist, whom he praises as a learned and judicious writer in all cases where he was not necessarily led to defend the doctrines of his sect.J This liberahty of sen- * See the Introduction to the present volume, pp. 39, 40. f In quo etiam qusedam quae in Grseco sive aliter seu plus aut minus posita vidimus, breviter commemorare curavimus. Prsefat. in Retractat. J Prolog, in Apocalyps. torn, v, p. 763. Died 735.] bede. 275 timent exposed him to be blamed by some of his envious contemporaries; and he was especially reprehended for giving a new interpretation to the Apocalypse. Bede's style (as well in verse as in prose) is clear, but plain, and devoid of the rhetorical ornaments which were sought by Aldhelm and others. It is sometimes pleasing by its simplicity. The works of Bede may be divided into four classes, his theological writings, his scientific treatises, his poetry and tracts on grammatical and miscellaneous subjects, and his historical books. 1. A very large portion of Bede's writings consists of commentaries on the different books of the holy Scrip- tures, exhibiting great store of information and acuteness of perception, but too much characterized by the great blemish of the medieeval theology, an extravagant at- tachment to allegorical interpretation. In the treatises De Taberuaculo and De .(Edificio Templi, he gives an allegorical meaning to the tabernacle and its vases, to the different articles of vesture of the priests, and to the temple of Solomon ; the latter, both in the details of its construction and in the events connected with its history, he pretends to have been typical of the form and history of the church of Christ. In his commentary on Samuel, he says that Elkanah, who had two wives, was typical of Christ as being the redeemer and ruler equally of the synagogue and of the church ; the name of Hannah, one of them, signifying in Hebrew grace, and denoting the church, while the other, Peninnah, which signifies conversion, denoted the synagogue. In this book Bede recommends the celibacy of the clergy. Bede also found an allegorical meaning running through the Proverbs of Solomon and the book of Tobit. — " The book of the holy father, Tobias," he says, is " not only healthful to T 2 276 BEDE. [Born 672. the reader in the surface of the letter, inasmuch as it abounds with the greatest examples and maxims of moral life ; but he who knows how to interpret the same alle- gorically, will see that the inner sense excels the simpli- city of the letter as much as fruit excels leaves.*" The same tendency to give typical meanings to plain narra- tives characterizes Bede's commentaries on the books of the New Testament, and is particularly remarkable in his book on the Acts of the Apostles, every word of which, if we believe his statement, contains a hidden meaning as well as a literal sense.f It may be observed that in the comment on the seven Catholic Epistles, the much dis- puted passage on the three witnesses in heaven, 1 John V. 7> is omitted. Of the Homilies which go under the name of Bede, the larger portion appears to consist of the compilations of other writers, and they are little more than fragments of commentaries on the New Testament.} 2. The only scientific treatises of which we can with certainty regard Bede as the author, are those indicated in his own list of his writings. They are still preserved, and, though no better than compilations from other • Liber Sanoti patris Tobise et in superficie literse salubris patet legentibus, utpote qtii maximis vitse moralis et exemplis abundat et monitis, et si quis eundem etiam allegorice novit interpretari, quantum poma foliis, tantum iu- teriorem ejus sensum Tidet simplicitati literae prsestare. Bed. in Libr. Tobise, torn, iv, p. .347. t Actus igitur Apostolorum (ut beatus Hieronymus ait) nudam quidem sonare Tidentur historiam, et nascentis ecclesise infaatiam texere ; sed si noverimus eorum scriptorem Lucam esse medicum, cujus laus est in Evan- gelio, animadvertimus pariter omnia verba illius animse languentis esse me- dicinam. Prolog. In Act. Apost. torn, v, p. 635. J Mabillon (in the Acta Sanct. Ord. S. Bened.) has described two early- manuscripts of the Homilies of Bede (in the library of Colbert, now in the Bibl. du Roi at Paris) which differ very much from the printed collections, and would be of great use in determining which are the authentic homilies of the Anglo-Saxon theologian, and separating them from those which do not belong to him. Died ^35.] bede. 277 writers, and more especially from Pliny the elder, they exhibit to us all the scientific knowledge possessed by our forefathers until a much later period. The tract de Natura Rerum, which was one of Bede's earliest works, and the Anglo-Saxon abridged translation made in the tenth cen- tury, were the text-books of science in England until the twelfth century. The system of Bede was the same which had prevailed in Europe during several centuries. He considered the earth to be the centre of the universe; and he believed that the firmament was spherical, and bounded by, or inclosed in, fire (De Rer. Nat. cc. 4, 5.) ; beyond this was the higher heaven, peopled by angelic beings, who were supposed to be able to take etherial bodies, assimi- late themselves to men, eat, drink, and perform the other functions ofhuman nature, and at will lay asidetheir assumed form and return to their own dwelling place (ib. c. 7)- He taught that the waters above the firmament were placed there for the purpose of moderating the heat of the fire and the igneous stars (c. 8) ; that the stars, with the ex- ception of the wandering stars or planets, are fixed in the firmament and move round with it, and that sparks struck from them, and carried away by the wind, are what we call falling stars (c. 11); that there are seven planets, whose orbits are included in the firmament, and which revolve in the contrary direction to the motion of the sun (c. 12) ; that comets are stars produced suddenly, with crests of flame, and that they forebode political re- volutions, pestilence, war, or great tempests and droughts (c 24) ; that the different colours of the planets are caused by variation of distance and by the different strata of air in which they revolve (c. 15). Many of Bede's notions with regard to the planet which we inhabit were equally unscientific : he considered the earth to be a globe (De Rer. Nat. c. 46), but he did not believe in the existence of the 278 BEDE. [Born 672. antipodes (De Tempor, Rat. c. 32) ; he says tliat the earth internally resembles a sponge, and that earthquakes are produced by the sudden and forcible escape of wind confined in the cavernous parts (De Rer. Nat. c. 49) ; that the sea is not increased by the rivers which run into it, either because it is constantly evaporating into the clouds, or because the water descends continually into the earth by secret passages (ib, c, 40) ; that the sea to the north of Thule is a mass of everlasting ice; that thunder is pro- duced by the sudden bursting forth of wind confined and compressed in the clouds, like the bursting of a bladder (c. 28); and that lightning is produced by the collision of the clouds in the same manner as fire by the striking together of flints (c. 29). He believed that the world was in his time in its sixth age, old, decrepid, and worn out, and that its end was near approaching (De Temp. Rat.) In the treatise last quoted (c. 13) Bede gives an explanation of the Anglo-Saxon names of the months, which shows that he paid attention to the antiquities of the language and customs of his countrymen, and is a valuable illustration of Anglo-Saxon mythology. 3. The grammatical and philological writings of Bede show his judgment and learning in a very favourable point of view. His observations on the structure and characteristics of Latin verse are distinguished by good taste, and are illustrated by examples selected by himself from the best of the classic as weU as from the Christian Latin poets. He sometimes criticises Donatus and the older grammarians. Bede's own metrical compositions are a proof rather of his industry than of his genius; they are constructed according to the rules of art, and possess a certain degree of correctness, but are spiritless. His poetry, of which the hfe of St. Cuthbert is almost -the only authentic specimen, is distinguished by the use Died 735.] bede. 279 of antiquated forms, which show the extent of his reading, and his acquaintance with the older Latin writers. The following passage from the poem just mentioned, (c. viii.) may serve as an example: Interea juvenia solitos noctumus ad hymnos Digreditur, lento quidam quern calle secutus Illius incertos studnit dinoacere gressus. Ad mare deveniunt. CoUo tenus inditus iindis Marmoreo Cudberctua agit sub carmine noctem. Egreditur ponto, genibusque in littore fixis Expandit geminaa aupplex ad sidera palmas. Turn maris ecce duo veniunt animalia fundo, Vatis et ante pedes falva sternuntur arena ; Hinc gelidas villo flatuque foventia plantas, ^quoreum tergunt sancto de corpore frigua : Supplice turn nutu sese benedicier orant. Qui parens Totis, verbo dextraque ministris Impendit grates, patriasque remittit ad undas ; Ac matutino tectia se tempore reddit. Heec comes ut vidit perculaus corda pavore, Semianimem curvo fiatum trediit abditus antro. At revoluta dies noctis cum pelleret umbras, JGger adest vati aupplex, genibusque Tolutns Se poscit Domino prece commendare profusa, Incident moestam subito quod pondere noctem. " Num nostrum e speculis," dixit, " tentando latenter Lustrabas itiner ? Sed nunc donabitur error Jam tibi poscenti, retices si visa quousque Decedam mundo." Summique exempla magistri Exsequitur, misso renovans qui lumine ceecoa Preecipit auctorem reducis celare salutis. Turn prece languorem pellit, culpamque relaxat. Inque dies mentis creacenti eumma Tonantis Gratia teatia adest : pandunt miracula mentem ; Jamque prophetalis stellante e culmine virtus Candida preerutilo inradiat prsecordia flatu, 4. As a historian, the name of Bede will ever stand high in the list of our national writers. One of the earliest books of this class which he wrote, was the history of the abbots of his own monastery, published not long after A. D. 716. He composed the life of St. Cuthbert at the request of bishop Eadfrith and the monks of Lindisfarne, 280 BEDE. IBorn 672. and therefore some time before the year 721. But his most important work composed in his more mature age, was his Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo-Saxons. Upon this work, which was undertaken at the request of two ecclesiastics, Albinus and Nothhelm, he appears to have laboured with great diligence during several years. He derived little assistance from previous writers, for the books he quotes are few and unimportant; but his own reputation at this period of his life, and his acquaintance with the most eminent ecclesiastics of his age, placed within his reach a large mass of valuable original materials. From Nothhelm and Albinus (the latter of whom had been a disciple of Theodore and Adrian) he derived the traditions and the written docu- ments of the history of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia; and Nothhelm, while on a visit to Rome, obtained for him transcripts of the documents preserved there rela- ting to the mission of St. Augustine, and to the transac- tions between the papal see and the Anglo-Saxon church. Daniel bishop of Winchester furnished materials for the history of Wessex and Sussex; to the monks of Laestin- gaeu Bede was indebted for what he knew of the eccle- siastical history of the Mercians; from bishop Cynebert he obtained his information relating to the province of Lindissi, or Lincolnshire; and his own position enabled him to collect abundant materials for the history of Northumbria. Mixed up with these larger contributions we find a number of traditionary anecdotes which he had gathered from the relation of different individuals.* Bede has worked up these materials with remarkable fidelity ; his narrative is clear and easy; and, as a pleasing composi- tion, there is perhaps no production of the middle ages * A very good detailed account of the sources of Bede's history is given by Stevenson, Introduction, pp. xxii. — xxxi. Died 735.] bede. 281 which can be compared with his Ecclesiastical History. It has, on this account, always been a popular book; it was translated into Anglo-Saxon by king Alfred; the manuscripts of the original text which still exist are ex- tremely numerous; it was one of the earliest of Bede's works which issued from the press after the introduction of printing, and has since passed through many editions ; and it has been four times translated into English. Two of the English translations, those of Stapleton (in 1565) and Hurst (1814), were made by Roman Catholic priests, with an avowed hostility to the protestant church. The first translation by a protestant was that of Stevens (1723) ; another has been recently published by Dr. Giles, who professes to give a revised and corrected edition of that of Stevens. It is remarkable that the history of the abbots of Wearmouth has also been translated by a Roman Catholic clergymen. Dr. Peter Wilcock, who at the time of the publication of his book (1818) was priest of the Roman Catholic congregation at Sunderland. The following extract, taken from the second book (c. 13) of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, may be considered a fair specimen of the style of that work, and of the general character of his Latin prose. It describes the conversion of Edwin king of Northumbria. Quibns auditis, rex suscipere quidem se fidem quam docebat et Telle et debere respondebat. Verum adhuc cum amicis principlbus et consiliariis suis sese de hoc collaturum esse dicebat, ut, si et illi eadem cum iUo sentire vellent, omnes pariter in fonte vitse Christo consecrarentur ; et, annuente Paulino, fecit at dixerat. Habito enim cum sapientibus consilio, sciscita- batur Singillatim ab omnibus, quails sibi doctrina hsec eatenus inaudita, et noTus divinitatis qui prsedicabatur cultus, videretur. Cui primus pontificum ipsius Coifi continuo respondit, ' ' Tu vide, rex, quale sit hoc quod nobis mode prsedicatur ; ego autem tibi verissime quod certum didici profiteor, quia nihil omnino virtutis habet, nihil utilitatis, religio ilia qaam hucusque tenui- mus. Nullus enim tuorum studiosius quam ego culturse deorum nostrorum se subdidit, et nihilominus multi sunt qui ampliora a te beneficio quam ego, et majores accipiunt dignitates magisque prosperantur in omnibus, 282 BEDE. [Born 672. quae agenda vel aequirenda disponunt. Si autem dii aliquid valerent, me potius juvare vellent, qui illis impensius servire curavi. Unde restat, ut si ea, quse nunc nobis nova prsedicantur, meliora esse et fortiora, habita ezaminatione, perspexeris, absque uUo cunctamine suscipere ilia festinemus." Cujus suasioui verbisque prudentibus alius optimatum regis tribuens as- sensum continuo subdidit, " Talis," iuquiens, " mihi videtur, rex, vita homiuum prsesens in terris ad comparationem ejus, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum, te residente ad coenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumali, accenso quidem foco in medio et calido effecto ccenaculo, furentibus autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium, adveniensque unus passerum domum citissime pervolaverit j qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio sere- nitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens tuis oculis elabitur. Ita hsec vita hominum ad modicum apparet ; quid autem sequatur, quidve prsecesserit, prorsus ignoramus ; unde si hsec nova doctrina certius aliquid attulit merito esse sequenda videtur." His similia et cseteri majores natu ac regis consiliarii divinitus admoniti prosequebantur. Adjecit autem Coifi, quia veUet ipsum Paulinum diligentius audire de Deo, quem prtedioabat, verbum facientem; quod cum, jubente rege, faceret, exclamavit, auditis ejus sermonibus, diceus, " Jam oUm intellexeram nihil esse quod colebamus, quia videlicet quanto studiosius in eo cultn veritatem quaerebam, tanto minus inveniebam. Nunc autem aperte profiteor quia in hac prsedicatione Veritas claret ilia, quse nobis vitse, salutis, et beatitudinis oeternse dona valet tribuere. Unde suggero, rex, ut templa et altaria, quse sine fructu utilitatis sacravimus, ocius anathemati et igni contradamus." Quid plura ? prsebuit palam assensum evangelizauti beato Paulino rex, et, abrenunciata idolatria, iidem se Christi suscipere confessus est. Cumque a praefato pontifice sacrorum suonim qutereret, quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis quibus erant circumdata, primus profanare deberet ; ille respon- dit, " Ego. Quis enim ea, qu8e per stultitiam colui, nunc ad exemplum om- nium aptius quam ipse per sapientiam mihi a Deo vero donatam destruam?" Statimque, abjecta superstitione vanitatis, rogavit sibi regem arma dare et equum emissarium, quem ascendens ad idola destruenda veniret (non enim licuerat pontificem sacrorum vel arma ferre, vel prseter in equa equi- tare). Accinctus ergo gladio accepit lanceam inmanu, et ascendens emissa- rium regis peigebat ad idola ; quod aspiciens valgus aestimabat eum insanire. Nee distulit iUe, mox ut propiabat ad fanum, profanare illud, injecta in eo lancea quam tenebat ; multumque gavisus de agnitione veri Dei cultus, jussit sociis destruere ac succendere fanum cum omnibus septis suis. Os- tenditur autem locus Ule quondam idolorum non longe ab Eburaco ad orientem, ultra amnen Doruuentionem, et vocatur hodie Godmunddingaham, ubi pontifex ipse, inspirante Deo vero, polluit ac destruxit eas quae ipse sacraverat aras. Bede's works were first published in a collective form Died 735.] BEDE. 283 at Paris in 1544 and 1545, and reprinted in 1554, in six volumes folio. These editions are now of extreme rarity ; the first three volumes of the former, containing the theo- logical writings, are in the British Museum. Another collective edition was printed at Basil in 1563, in eight volumes, folio, which is much more common. A more complete edition was published at Cologne in 1612, and reprinted in 1688, in eight volumes folio. The first Cologne edition is that of most frequent occurrence. In this edition, the first volume contains the treatises on grammar and the smaller scientific tracts attributed to Bede, many of which are evidently supposititious ; in the second volume are given the treatises De Rerum Natura, De Temporum Ratione, De Temporibus, and some other tracts on similar subjects; in the third, the Ecclesiastical History, the Lives of Saints (most of them erroneously attributed to Bede), the Martyrology, and the books De Locis Sanctis, De Interpretatione Nominum Hebraicorum, &c.; in the fourth, the Commentaries on the Old Testament; in the fifth and sixth, the Commentaries on the New Testament ; in the seventh, the Homilies and the writings designed for the religious instruction of the people ; and in the eighth, the treatises de Templo Salamonis and De sex Dierum Creatione, with the Qucestiones on different books of the Old Testament, and some other theological tracts. The History of the abbots of Wearmouth and the other tracts edited separately by Sir James Ware and Henry Wharton are not inserted in any of the foregoing Collections. Gehle, in his Disputatio Historico-Theolo- gica, has given a programme of a suggested new arrange- ment for an edition of the works of Bede. Editions of Bede. The Ecclesiastical History was first printed at Strasburg, about 1473, by Eggesteyn. 284 BEDE. [Born 672. Liber Bedse de Schemate et Tropo ; ejusdem liber de Figuris et Metris ; eom- mentarius Sergii de Litera, &c. Mediolani, per M. Ant. Zarotum, 1473. 4to. A very rare book. Historia Ecclesiastica, without title, but ending, Finiunt libri historie eccle- siastice gentis anglorum. fol. without date or place, but of the fifteenth century. Perhaps this is one of the two editions said to have been printed at Strasburg in 1483, and at Spire in 1493. (Stroth. pref. to Eusebius, p. xxix.) Opera Comment, k Ulrio Gering et Rembolt. Paris, 1499. A very rare book. Bedse Commentarii in omnes Epistolas Pauli. fol. 1499. Edited by Gau- fridus Boussardus. Ecclesiastica Historia divi Eusebii ; et Ecclesiastica Historia gentis Anglo- rum Venerabilis Bede : cum utraruraque historiarum per singulos libros recoUecta capitulorum annotatione. Bede's work begins at the middle of the volume, without any title, and at the end is the imprint, Libri ecclesiastice historie gentis Anglorum impressi in inclyta ciuitate Argen- tiuen. diligenter revisi ac emendati finiunt feliciter. Anno salutis nostre Millesimo quingentesimo xiiij. die Marcii. fol. Hoc in volumine continentur auctores infrascripti. Probi Instituta Artium. &c. fol. Impressum Mediolani. Anno domini MCCCCCIIII. Die .ii. Decembris. Not paged. The last tract in the volume is Bedse Sacer- dotis de Metrica ratione liber unicus. Venerabilis Bedse presbyteri de temporibus sive de sex setatibus huius seculi Liber Incipit. P. Victoris De Regionibus Vrbis Rome Libellus Aureus. Cum privilegio. — Impressum Vene. per Joan, de Tridino alias Tacuino anno domini .M.D.V. die .xxviii. Mai. 4to. Bedse Historise Ecclesiasticse libri quinque. fol. Argent. 1506. Liber de Temporibus, seu de vi. jEtatibus hujus seculi. 4to. Paris, 1507. A reprint of the edition of the Eccl. Hist, of 1500, is said to have appeared at the same place in 1514. (Fabr.) Bedse Repertorium, seu Tabula Authoritatum Aristotelis et Philosophorum, cum Comm. de Tropis S. Scripturse et de Metrica Ratione, fol. Venet. 1522. Hoc in Volumine continentur. M. Val. Probus de Notis Roma., &c Ven. Beda de Computo per gestum digitorum. Idem de Loquela. Idem de Ratione unciarum .... Hsec omnia nunc primum edita. Venetiis, in iEdibus Joannis Tacuini Tridinensis. Mense Februario M.D.xxv. 4to. De Schematibus et Tropis Sacrarum Literarum Liber Bedse Presbyteri Anglosaxonis. Small 8vo. Basil, 1527. From a MS. "ex bibliotheca Laurissana." De Natura Rerum et Temporum Ratione, libri duo. fol. Basil. 1529. De Figuris Sententiarum ac Verborum, P. RutiliiLupi rhetoris antiquissimi, &c Bedae presbyteri Anglosaxonis de Schematibus et tropis sacrarum literarum, Liber I., &c. 8vo. Venet. 1533. The tract of Bede occupies pp. 36 — 47, of this little volume. Died 735.] BEDB. 285 Bedse Presbyteri Anglosaxonia Homilise jEstivales de Tempore et de Sanctis 870. Colonise, 1534. Bedee Presbyteri Commentarii in Epistolas Canonicas. 8vo. Colonise, 1534. Bedee Presbyteri Anglo-Saxonis Homiliee in D. Pauli Epistolas et alias Veteris et Novi Testamenti lectiones tarn de Tempore quam de Sanctis. 8vo. ColoniEe, 1535. Pe Schematibua et de Tropis, edited by Bartholomseus Westheimer. Basil, 1536. Bedse Presbyteri Anglosaxonis, Monachi Benedict!, viri literatissimi opus- cula complara de tempornm ratione dUigenter castigata .... Nunc primnm inventa ac in lucem emissa. fol. Colonise, 1537. The tracts contained in this volume are, the Ephemeris ; Aunales canones de Solaris et lunaris temporis computatione ; the treatise De Natura Rerum ; De Temporum Ratione ; the larger book de Temporum Ratione ; De Pas- chse celebratione ad Uuiohredam presbyterum ; De Ordinatione feria- rum paschalium ; canones ad inveniendum ea quse continentur circulo decennovenali ; circuli decennoyenales. Bedse Presbyteri Homilise Hyemales, Quadragesimales, de Tempore item et Sanctis. 8vo. Colonise, 1541. Venerabilis Bedse presbyteri theologi doctissimi juxta ac sanctissimi, Com- mentationnm in sacras literas, Tomus primus, fol. Parisiis. Apud Joannem Roigny, via ad D. laoobum, sub Basilisco et quatuor Elemen- tis, 1545. The first vol. contains the commentaries on the Old Testa- ment. — Tomus secundus, ib. 1544, containing the commentaries on Mark, Luke, John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, and the Apocalypse. — Tomus tertius, ibid. 1544, contains the commentaries on the Epistles of St. PanJ. These appear to be part of the edition of Bede's Works, published at Paris in 1544 and 1545, and in 1554. De Computo seu Indigitatione, etde Loquela manuali per gestum digitorum. fol. Colon. 1545. fol. 1595. De Ratione Unciarum. fol. Colon. 1548. 1595. fol. Traj. ad Rhen. 1699. EcclesiasticsB historise gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque diligenti stndio a. mendis, quibus hactenus scatebant, vindicati. Beda Anglosaxone Autore. fol. Antverpise, 1550. Cassander published many hymns under the name of Bede, with part of the tract De Arte Metrica, Paris, 1556, reprinted in his works, Paris, 1616. Opera Bedse Venerabilis Presbyteri Anglo-Saxonis, viri in divinis atque humanis Uteris exercitatissimi. 8 vol. fol. Basilise, per Joannem Her- uagium. 1563. Martyrologium. Svo.Antw. 1564. Ratio Computandi per Digitos, ab Elia Veneto. 8vo. Paris. 1565, 4to. Genev. 1622. fol. 1633. The Martyrologium was published at Antwerp in 1565. Venerabilis Bedse Presbyteri Ecclesiasticse Historise gentis Anglorum, Libri V. 13mo. Lovanii, 1566. 286 BEDE. [Born 672. Historia Eoclesiastica, edited by L. de la Barre. fol. Paris. 1583. De Remediis Peccatorum. 4to. Ven. 1584. Rerum Britannicarum, id est, Anglise, Scotise, Vioinarumque Insularum ac Regionum, Scriptores vetustiores ac praecipui. fol. Lugdun. 1587. Edited by Hieronymus Cotumelinus. — pp. 147 — 280. The Ecclesiastical History, from a MS. in the library of Pithoeus. Historia Ecclesiastica, 12mo. Heidelb. 1587. Venerabilis Bedse Axiomata philosophica, studio M. Joannis Kroeselie. Impensis R. Oliif. 8vo. 1593. Editions are also mentioned as being printed in 8vo. Lond. (?) 1592. Ingolstadt, 1593. Paris, 1604. Antiqui Rhetores Latini .... ex bibliotheca Francisci Pithoei, I. C. 4to. Paris, 1599. pp. 342—355. Bedse Presbyteri Liber de Tropis Sacra Scripturae. Venerabilis Bedse Presbyteri Ecclesiasticse Historiae Gentis Anglorum Libri V. 12mo. Coloniae Agrippinse, 1601. Apparently areprint of the edition of 1 556. Canisius, Lectiones Antiquse, torn. v. 4to. 1601. p. 692. — Ed. Basnage, vol. ii. fol. Antverpiae, 1725, pp. 1—24. The metrical life of St. Cuth- bert, from a MS. in the possession of his friend Velser. Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui Opera et studio Heliae Puts- chii. 4to. Hanov. 1605. pp. 2327—2349, Beda Sacerdos de Orthogra- phia. — pp. 2349 — 2382, Bedae Sacerdotis de Metrica Ratione. Venerabilis Bedse Anglo-Saxonis Presbyteri in omni disciplinarum genere sua tetate doctissimi Opera quotquot reperiri potuerunt omnia. 8 vol. fol. Colonise Agrippinse, 1612. De Indigitatione et manuali Loquela liber, ex recens. Fed. Morelli. 8vo. Lutet. Par. 1614. Axiomata Philosophica, ex Aristotele et aliis Philosophis collecta, 8vo. Col. AUobr. 1618. Adamanni Scotohiberni Abbatis celeb, de Situ Terrae Sanctae .... Accessit eorundem librorum Breviarium, sen Compendium, breviatore Venera- bili Beda Presbytero. 4to. Ingolstadt, 1619. Bede's tract de Locis Sanctis. Axiomata Philosophica Venerabilis Bedae, viri in divinis atque humanis Uteris exercitatissimi, ex Aristotele et aliis praestantibus Philosophis diligenter collecta : una cum brevibus quibusdam explicationibus ac limitationibus. 12mo. Genevae, 1631. Acta Sanctorum . . . coUegit, digessit, notis iUustravit Joannes BoUandus. Januarius. Tom. I. fol. Antverpiae, 1643. pp. 943—946. The life of St. Felix. Histories Ecclesiastieae Gentis Anglorum Libri V. a Venerabili Beda Pres- bytero scripti ; ti-ibus praecipue MSS. Latinis, a mendis haud paucis repurgati : ab augustissimo veterum Anglo-Saxonum Rege Aluredo Csive Alfredo) examinati ; ejusque paraphrasi Saxonica eleganter expli- cati ; tribus nunc etiam MSS. collati, &c. Edited by Abraham Whe- loc. Fol. Cantabrigife, 1643. The Latin text is formed from three Died 735.] BEDB. 287 MSS. preserved in the libraries of Trinity College Cambridge, of Dr. Ward, and of Sidney College, Cambridge ; the Anglo-Saxon version from MSS. in the Public Library and that of Corpus Christ! College, Cambridge, and the Library of Sir Robert Cotton. The Saxon Chronicle is added to this edition. Venerabilis Bedae Historia Ecclesiastica, additis insuper Legibus Anglo- Saxonibus, &c. fol. Cantab. 1664. Venerabilis Bedse Epistolse Duee, necnon Vitte Abbatum Wiremutliensium et Girwiensium .... Ex autiquis codicibus MSS. in lucem emisit, et notis ad rem historicam et antiquariam spectantibus, illustravit Jacobus Waraeus Eques Auratus. 8vo, Dublin. 1664. Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti. Sseculum II. fol. Lut. Par. 1669. pp. 877—915. The prose life of St. Cuthbert.— pp. 915—937. The Metrical Life of the same Saint. Epistola ad Albinum Abbatem, cum Annott. Mabillonii. 8vo. Paris, 1675. MabiUon, Vetera Analecta. fol. 1675, torn. i. p. 9- Ed. nova. fol. Paris, 1723, p. 398. The Epistle of Bede to the Abbot Albinus. Bedse Presbyteri et Fredegarii Scholastica concordia ad senioris Dagoberti definiendam monarchiee periodum, atque ad primae totius Regum Fran- corum stirpis Chrouologiam stabiliendam, in duas partes divisa, quarum prior continet Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum, cum notis et Dissertatione de auctore hujus Historise, posterior Dissertatio de annis Dagoberti Ffancorum regis, eo nomine primi. Auctore P. F. Chiffletio, Soc. Jesu Presbyt. fol. Paris, 1681. Opera. 8 vol. Colon. Agrip. 1688. A reprint of the edition of 1612. Opera queedam Theologica, nunc primum edita, necnon Historica, antea semel edita, &c. 4to. London, 1693. (by Henry Wharton). — pp. 1 — 190. Bedse Expositio in Genesin. — pp. 191 — 214. Bedse Expositio in Canti- cumAbacuc. — pp. 221 — 240. The Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth. — pp. 241—251. The Epistle to Plegwin.— pp. 252—267. The Epistle to Egbert. Martene, Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum. Tomus Quintus. fol. Lutetise Paris. 1717. pp. Ill — 294, the Cdmmentary on Genesis, " ex plurimis MSS. Codicibus." — pp. 295 — 314, the Commentary on Abacuc, from three MSS. at Fleury, Oorbei, and the monastery of St. Michael " in periculo maris." — pp. 315 — 382, eleven Homilies, not included in the editions of his works, from a MS. at Tours. — pp. 383 — 398, Prayers attributed to Bede, from a MS. at Corbel. Historise Ecclesiasticse Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque, auctore Sancto et Venerabili Baeda Presbytero Anglo-Saxone, una cum reliquis ejus Operibns Historicis in unum Volumen CoUectis. Cura et Studio Johan- nis Smith , S. T. P. et Ecclesise Dundmensis non ita pridem Canonici. fol. Cantabrigise, Typis Academicis, 1722. pp. I — 34, the Treatise De Sex hujus Seculi .Statibus.-^pp. 37 — 224, the Ecclesiastical History. — pp. 227-264, the Prose Life of St. Cuthbert.— pp. 267—291, the Metrical Life of St. Cuthbert.— pp. 293—302, the history of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Yarrow.— pp. 305—312, the letter to bishop Eg- 288 BEDE. [Born 672. bert. — pp. 315—324, the Treatise de Locis Sanctis.— pp. 327—460, The Martyrologium.— pp. 463 — 468, the life of St. Felix.— pp. 471 — 649, Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the Ecclesiastical History. Bedte et Claudii Taurinensis itemque aliorum Veterum Patrum Opuscula a Canonicis regularibus Sancti Salvatoris Bononise majori ex parte nunc primum edita. 4to. Bonon. 1755. The only work of Bede printed in this volume, is the Prsefatio in Epistolas canonicas, which occupies two pages. Venerabilis Bedse Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. Ad Fidem Codicum Manuscriptorum recensuit Josephus Stevenson. 8vo. London, 1838. Published by the Historical Society. Recueil de Voyages et de M^moires public par la Soci(:t(5 de Geographic. 4to. Paris, 1839. torn, iv, pp. 794 — 815. The Treatise de Locis Sanctis, printed as a continuation of the work of Bernardus Sapiens. Translations. King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the Ecclesiastical History, printed in the editions of the original by Wheloc (1643) and Smith (1722). The History of the Church of Englande. Compiled by Venerable Bede, Englishman. Translated out of Latin in to English by Thomas Staple- ton, Student in Diuinite, 4to. Antwerp, 1565. Historie of the Church of England. 8vo. St. Omers, 1622. This is a re- print of Stapleton's Translation. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation from the coming of Julius Csesar into this Island in the 60th year before the incarnation of Christ till the year of our Lord 731. Written in Latin by Venerable Bede, and now translated into English from Dr. Smith's Edition. To which is added, the Life of the Author, also explanatory Notes. 8vo. Loudon, 1723. The translator was John Stevens. The History of the Primitive Church of England, from its origin to the year 731. Written in Latin by Venerable Bede, Priest of that Church, a few years before his death. In Five Books. Now translated by the Rev. William Hurst, of St. Mary's Chapel, Westminster. 8vo. Lon- don, 1814. The Lives of Benedict, Ceolfrid, Easterwine, Sigfrid, and Hnetbert, the first five abbots of the united monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow. Trans- lated from the Latin of Venerable Bede. To which is prefixed a Life of the Author. By the Rev. Peter Wilcock. 8vo. Sunderland, 1818. The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, translated from the Latin of Venerable Bede, to which is prefixed, a Life of the Author, by J. A. Giles, LL.D. 8vo. London, 1840. Popular Treatises on Science, written during the Middle Ages. Edited by Thomas Wright. 8vo. London, 1841. (Published by the Historical Society of Science), pp. 1 — 19. The Anglo-Saxon abridged version of Bede's Treatise De Natura Rerum. Died 740.] acca. 289 Bede's Literary Friends. — Acca, Albinus, Noth- HELM, Daniel, Ethelwald, Fobthhere, Hwet- BERT, PliEGWIN, WiTHREDj CuTHBERT. In the course of his numerous writings, Bede intro- duces the names of several of his hterary friends, most of whom, as we learn from other sources, were eminently dis- tinguished for their learning and virtues. Many of the most important of his commentaries on the Scriptures were composed at the desire of Acca bishop of Hexham, and dedicated to that prelate.* Acca was a " man of considerable learning and great piety ; he had re- ceived his first instructions among the congregation of scholars assembled around bishop Bosa, and he quitted their society to place himself under Wilfred, who ordained him a presbyter. He continued to be one of Wilfred's most faithful followers until his death, accompanied him on his last journey to Rome (where he finished his studies), and was chosen to succeed him in the see of Hexham.f Bede describes the zeal with which he laboured to adorn and enlarge his church, and to enrich it with " a most ample and noble library." J In 731, when Bede com- pleted his history, Acca is mentioned as still holding the bishopric of Hexham ;§ but soon afterwards, in 732 or 733, he was driven from it for some cause now * These are the Commentaries on Genesis, on the first part of Samuel, on Ezra and Nehemiah, on Mark, on Luke, and on the Acts of the Apostles. t Bede, H. E. v. 20. Rioard. Hagustald. De Stat. &e. Hagust. Eccl. (ap. Twysden) p. 297. The Saxon Chron. says that Acca was made bishop in 710, the year after Wilfred's death. J Amplissimam ibi ac nobilissimam bibliothecam fecit. Bede, loc. cit. See also Eddius, De Vit. Wilf. c. 21, and Ric. Hagust. p. 297. $ Bede, H. E. v. 23. VOL. I. U 290 ALBiNus. [Died 732. unknown.* He seems to have retired to Whitern (Can- dida Casa), where he remained a few years. The date of his death is uncertain ; but the best authorities place it on the twentieth of October, 740,t when his body was carried to Hexham to be buried in the church which owed to him so much of its beauty.J Bale and Pits have so far misunderstood the words of Bede, as to attribute to Acca a collection of lives of the saints whose relics were deposited in the church of Hexham, and a treatise " De ecclesiasticis sui chori officiis." On the same au- thority, also, Leyser places the name of Acca in the list of medieval Latin poets. Leland speaks as having seen a collection of his letters, one of which addressed to Bede is still preserved, in which he urges that scholar to devote his learning to the illustration of the Scriptures. Albinus, who is described by Bede as being "most learned in aU branches of knowledge," was his adviser and principal assistant in composing the Ecclesiastical His- tory.§ He had been the disciple of Theodore and Adrian, and had succeeded the latter (on his death in 708) as abbot of the monastery of St. Peter, or, as it was after- wards named, of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, being mentioned by the old historians as the first abbot of that house who was an Englishman by birth. || The Saxon * A.D 731. Acca episcopus de sua sede fugatus. Continuat. of Bede. A.D. 733. And Acca wees adrifen of biscopdome. Chron. Sax. with which Florence of Worcester agrees. Ric. Hagust. p. 297, says 732, and adds, et ut quibusdam videtur postea .viii. annis vixit. As Richard appears to have used original documents, we may perhaps consider the date given by him as the most authentic. t Ric. Hagust. p. 398. The Saxon Chron. places his death in 737. t Simeon Dunelm. (ap. Twysden) p. 101, who gives an account of his monument. Ric. Hagust. p. 298. § Auctor ante omnes atque adjutor opusculi hujus Albinus, abba reve- rentissimus, vir per omnia doctissimus, extitit. Bede, H. E. prolog. I'l Bede, ii. Chron. W. Thome (ap. Twysden), col. 1771. Died 739.J nothhelm. 291 version of Bede speaks of him as having travelled in foreign countries.* A letter is still preserved in which Bede thanks him for some contributions to the Eccle- siastical History.f Having survived the publication of that work only a few months, he died in 732, and was buried by the side of his preceptor Adrian.J Nothhelm,§ another contributor to Bede's historical undertaking, was at that time a presbyter of London, dis- tinguished for his learning and literary taste. || During his residence at Rome, he copied for Bede from the papal archives the documents relating to the conversion and history of the Anglo-Saxons.^ He lived in personal in- tercourse with Bede, and either forwarded to him, or con- veyed to him in person, many of the communications of Albinus ; it was he who addressed to him the thirty questions on the books of Kings, the discussion of which formed a work which Bede addressed to Nothhelm, and which is still extant.** He was also a friend of Boniface, one of whose letters to Nothhelm is printed in the collections of his Epistles.ft In 735, Nothhelm was chosen to succeed Tatwine in the see of Canterbury ;Jt and in the year fol- lowing he received the pallium from pope Gregory III.§§ * Se wses wide ge-faren and ge-lsered. f This letter was printed at Paris by MaWllon, in 1675. See the list of Editions of Bede, p. 287. { Chron. W. Thome, col. 1772. § In Latin MSS. the name is commonly spelt Nothelmus ; in Anglo- Saxon it is No'Shelm, i.e. the bold helm. II W. Thome, Chron. col. 1772, calls him, (without any apparent reason or authority) cathedralis ecclesiae sancti Pauli Londonice archipresbyter. If Bede, H. E. prolog. ** Printed in the first Cologne edition of his works, vol. iv. p. 333. ft No. 40, in the edition of 1789. %X Continuat. of Bede, in that year. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 98. §§ Chron. Sax. in anno. Steph. Birchington, vit. Arch. Cant, in the Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 3. Chron. W. Thome, in Twysden, col. 1772. Au- thorities in the Anglia Sacra, i. pp. 85 and 98. V 2 292 DANIEL. [Died 745. The Saxon Chronicle and the continuator of Bede place Nothhelm's death in 739: other (but more modern) au- thorities state that it took place in 740,* or 741.t The day of his decease is differently fixed on the 17 or 16 Kal. Nov., that is on the 16th or l7th day of October.J He was buried at Canterbury. Bale and Pits attribute to him several books, which he is stated to have composed chiefly from the materials he brought from Rome. Their genuineness is so problematical, that it is unnecessary to repeat their titles. We know nothing more of the earlier days of bishop Daniel, than that he is said to have studied at Malmsbury, and to have been the intimate friend of Aldhelm.§ When, in 705, the older diocese of Wessex was divided into two, that of Sherborne being entrusted to Aldhelm, the other, that of Winchester (including the Isle of Wight), was given to Daniel.|| In 721, he went to Rorae.^ After his re- turn, he furnished Bede with the materials for the history of the kingdom of the West-Saxons;** and in 731, the year in which Bede completed his work, he consecrated Tatwine archbishop of Canterbury .ft Although he must have been considerably older than Bede at that time, yet he continued to hold the see of Winchester for thirteen years afterwards, and resigned it in 744,JJ to spend the few * Anglia Sacra, i. p. 85. ■f Florence of Worcester, on that year. t The first of these days is given by an authority in the Anglia Sacra, i. p. 52. The second, which appears to be the more correct, rests on the authority of Florence of Worcester and of old writers in the Anglia Sacra, 1. pp. 3, and 85. § Chron. T. Rudborne, in Angl. Sacr. p. 195. Leland, de Script. Brit, and Tanner. II Bede, H. E. v. 18. t A.D. 721. Her Daniel biscop ferde to Rome. Chron. Sax. ** Bede, H. E. prolog. tt Chron. Sax. in Anno. It Chron. Sax. in Anno. Postmodum, ut vivacem senectam sancto con- Died 740.] ETHELWALD. 293 remaining days of his long life in retirement at Malms- bary, where he died in 745.* In the time of William of Malmsbury, it was doubtful whether the monks of Win- chester or those of Malmsbury had the best claim to the honour of possessing his remains.f Daniel had the reputa- tion of being a man of great learning; but there is nothing to justify Bale and others in attributing to him the books whose titles they enumerate. He is said to have been in- strumental in persuading Boniface, who was a monk of his diocese, to attempt the conversion of the Germans ; and he not only gave him letters of recommendation when he departed on his mission^ but, amid the diflSculties and disappointments attending on his arduous task, he wrote him a letter of encouragement, pointing out to him the most judicious method of catechising, and convincing the ignorant people for whose spiritual welfare he was labour- ing. Three letters from Daniel to Boniface, and one from Boniface to Daniel, are printed in the collection of Boni- face's Epistles.f We have reason to suppose that another friend of Bede was Ethelwald,§ who from a monk of Lindisfarne had been made abbot of Mailros, and who, about a.d. 721, succeeded Eadfrith as bishop of Lindisfarne. He was also the friend of Ceolwulf king of Northumbria, to whom Bede dedicated his Ecclesiastical History; and when that summaret otio vivens honorem exuit, Melduni, quantum vixit monachum ezercens, ut fama fert sinoeriter ad nos per successiones manans. W. Malmsb. de Gestis Pontif. p. 241. Conf. T. Rudbome, in theAnglia Sacra, p. 195. * Chron, Sax. in anno. t W. Malmsb. loc. citat. t They are the 1st, 12th, 13th, and 14th Epistles, in the edition of 1789. The last of these, which contains the directions for catechising the uncon- verted Germans, had been printed by Baronius, Annal. ad an. 724. § The name is written ^diluualdus in the brief continuation of Bede, Ediwaldus, in Tanner. 294 FOKTHHERE. [Died after 737- monarch, disgusted with the dissensions which troubled his kingdom, resigned his throne in 737j he became an inmate of Ethelwald's monastery at Lindisfarne. Accord- ing to Simeon of Durham,'Ethelwald attempted to per- petuate his name by inscribing it on a handsome stone cross which he had erected at Lindisfarne, but which was subsequently destroyed by the Danes.* Dempster, without citing his authority, attributes to him a life of St. Cuthbert and a Chronicle of the Abbots of Mailros.f He died in 740.t We may perhaps reckon among the bishops who honoured Bede with their friendship, Forthhere§ bishop of Sherborne, to whose learning the historian bears direct testimony.il In 709 he succeeded Aldhelm in the see just mentioned, and he is mentioned by Bcde, at the con- clusion of his history, as still holding it. In 737j he accompanied Prythogith queen of the West-Saxons to Rome.^ Of his subsequent history we are entirely igno- rant; but he seems to have resigned his bishopric when he went to Rome, and it is not improbable that he died there. All the old bibliographers admit Forthhere among the list of English authors, but they cite none of his works ; and Tanner says, scripta ejus ignorantur. Two letters addressed to this prelate are preserved among the Epistles of Boniface.** Amongst Bede's friends in his own monastery, we must * Simeon Dunelm. p. 7. t Dempster, Hist. Eccles. Gent. Scot. p. 255. J Contin. of Bede. Cliron. of Mailros. § The name is written in Bede, Fortheri. In the Latin writers it is generally, Fortherius. The common Saxon form is, For^here (i.e. the front of the army). II Bede, H. E. v. 18. t A.D. 737. Her ForJ>here biscop and FryJ>ogitS cwen ferdon to Rome. Chron. Sax. ** Nos. 148 and 155, in the last edition of Boniface, 1789. Died after 731.] hwetbert. 295 give the first place to the abbot Hwetbert,* who, after having succeeded Sigfrid as superior of the dependant monastery of Yarrow, was elected to succeed Ceolfrid in 716, as abbot of Wearmouth, and was confirmed in that office by bishop Acca. All that we know of this person is derived from the brief notice given by Bede, who represents him as having from his childhood been an inmate of the monastery of Yarrow, and as being dis- tinguished by his acquirements and his studies. Bede also informs us that Hwetbert had made a long stay at Rome in the time of pope Sergius (and therefore previous to 701), where he had completed his studies ; and that he had been ordained a presbyter twelve years before the resignation of Ceolfrid, i. e. in 704.t Bede dedicated to the abbot Hwetbert his larger treatise De Temporum Ratione. Hwetbert was probably alive in 731, but we have no information respecting the period of his death. Bale and Pits, who represent him as having passed his latter days in Germany, confound him with a German bishop named Hucbertus. Another friend of the historian was Plegwin, of whom nothing further is known than that he was probably a monk of York. It appears that Bede's treatise De sex aetatibus mundi had afforded some of his enemies an opportunity of trying to throw a slur upon his reputation; and one of these persons, when supping at the table of the * Tlie name is differently spelt. Bede has it Huaetberctus, in his history of the abbots of Wearmouth. In different MSS. it is corrupted to Huber- tus, Hnvetbertus, Hunebertus, Hucbertus, Wicbertus, &c. It signifies valorous or quick bright, or, perhaps simply, very bright. -f- Qui a primis pueritiae temporibus eodem in monasterio non solum regula- ris observantia disciplinse institutos, sed et scribendi, cantandi, legendi, ac docendi fuerat non parva exercitatus industria. Romam quoque temporibus beatse memoriEe Sergii papse accurrens, et non parvo ibidem temporis spatio demoratus, quseque sibi necessaria judioabat, didicit, descripsit, retu- lit. Insuper et duodecim ante hsec anuos presbyterii est functus oiScio. Bede, Hist. Abbat. Wir. et Girw. p. 301, in Smith's edition. 296 PLEGWIN. — WITHRED. CUTHBERT. younger Wilfrid bishop of York, had accused him of broaching in that work heretical opinions. Plegwin, who was present, wrote Bede an account of the conversation, who, in return, addressed to Plegwin a letter in defence of his opinions, which is still preserved.* Bede dedicated his treatise " On the Celebration of Easter, or on the Vernal Equinox, according to Anatolius," to his friend the presbyter Withred, or, as the name is printed in the common editions of his works, Wichred. The old bibliographers pretend that he was an eminent mathematician ; but this statement seems destitute of authority. We ought perhaps to reckon as the last in the list of Bede's friends, the monk who wrote the account of his dying hours. Cuthbert was Bede's disciple in the monas- tery of Yarrow; but nothing certain is known of his history, except that he was present at the death of his master, and that he gave a most interesting account of that event in a letter addressed to another of Bede's dis- ciples named Cuthwine, which is still extant. It appears that Cuthbert succeeded Hwetbert as abbot of Yarrow. In several manuscripts the letter is preceded by a short sketch of Bede's life, made up from the notice he gives of * It was printed in the collections of Bede's Opuscula by Sir James Ware and Henry Wharton. The treatise De Sex ^tatibus is generally supposed to have been composed about the year 702, and, as Bede says in this epistle that it was five years since the publication of that work, the date of the letter would thus be fixed at about 707. But the elder Wilfred was not then Bishop of York, and several circumstances seem to combine in proving that the Wilfred mentioned in the letter was the younger Wilfred, bishop of York from 718 to 732. Bede alludes in rather strong terms to the conviviality of Wilfred's table, p. 251 : — *' Quod utique in ccena ilia, in qua me poculo debrius culpare studuit ille, qui semet potius lectioni intentus inculpahilem facere debuerat, perficere nequibat," etc. There is some reason for thinking that the younger Wilfred was blamed for his convivial disposition : see further on, p. 299. If this supposition be correct, the work " De Sex jSEtatibus Sseculi" was published at a much later date than has been supposed, or Bede here refers to a second edition of it. Died about 678.] Egbert of york. 297 himself at the end of the Ecclesiastical History, and the name of Cuthbert being prefixed to the whole, has given rise to the notion that he had written a detailed memoir of his master. Editions of CuthberVs Letter to Cuthteine. It was printed in the editions of Bede's works; in Baronius, Annal. A.D. 731 ; in the preface to Wheloc's Bede ; in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. Bened. Sec. iii. part. i. ; in the Acta Sanctorum, Maii, torn. vi. p. 721 ; in Leland's Collectanea, vol. iii. p. 84. Most of the earlier editions are more or less corrupt or imperfect. HistoriEe Anglicanse ScriptoresX. (by Twysden). fol. Lond. 1653. pp. 8 — 10, Cnthbert's Letter, inserted into the text of Simeon of Durham. This is the best and most complete of the old printed texts. Gehle, Disputatio Historico-Theologica de Bedse Venerabilis. . . . vita et scrip- tis. 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1838. pp. 33 — 30. A text made up from the pre- viously printed editions. Bedse Historia Ecclesiastica, recens. Josephus Stevenson, 8vo. London, 1838. Introduction, pp. xiv — xix. A text made np partly from good manuscripts. The Anglo-Saxon verses quoted in the letter are here given from a nearly contemporary manuscript, evidently written in Northumberland, and now preserved at St, Gallen in Switzerland. EGBERT OF YORK. In the foregoing account of Bede's literary friends, we have omitted the name of Egbert archbishop of York, be- cause he deserves a more particular notice, as one of the last of the stars of literature in the Northumbrian kingdom. This prelate was the cousin of Ceolwulf king of Northum- bria, and the brother of Eadbert, to whom that monarch resigned his crown when he retired to Lindisfarne.* Eg- bert, when a child, had been placed in the monastery at Hexham, under bishop Eata, in or before the year 685, when Eata died. After he had pursued his studies there » Chron. Sax. under A.D. 738. Simeon Dunelm. col. 11. (in Twysden). Alcuin, de Sanctis Eccles. Eborac. 1. 1250, says of Egbert, Hie fuit Ecgbertus regali stirpe creatus ; Nobilium coram seclo radice parentum j Sed Domino coram meritis preeclarior almis. Dives opum terrse, miseris quas spargit egenis, Ditior ut fieret, coelo dum coUigit illas. 298 EGBERT OF YORK. [Bom ttbout 678. with success, and when he had attained the age of man- hood, he went to Rome with his brother Egred, and was there admitted to deacon's orders. If we suppose that he was placed in the monastery at the same age as Bede, and therefore that he was seven years old in 685, Egbert must have been at Rome in 703, when he completed his twenty-fifth year, the age fixed by the Canons of the Church for admission to the rank of deacon. The two brothers appear to have remained some years at Rome, and Egred died there ; after which event Egbert returned to his native land.* The date of his return cannot be ascertained; but he had probably resided some years in Northumbria, when, on the death of the younger Wilfred in 732,t his royal birth, as well as his great learning and knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs, pointed him out as a fit successor to the see of York. At the period when Egbert was made bishop of York, that diocese (as well as the other parts of the island) was in a state which required the appointment of an energetic and powerful prelate. The political troubles of the age had led to a laxity of morals among the laity, and a general neg- lect of ecclesiastical duties. When Egbert had been con- secrated little more than two years, Bede addressed to his friend a letter on the duties of the high ecclesiastical office * Sim. Dunelm. de Hist. Dunelm. Eccl. col. 11. t This is the date of Wilfred's death as given by the continuator of the epitome of Bede. The Saxon Chronicle and Simeon of Durham place that event two years later, in 734. There is no disagreement as to the date of Egbert's death, in 766. Alcuin, who was his pupil, says distinctly that he held the see of York thirty-four years, De Sanct. Eccl. Ebor. 1. 1284, Rexit hie ecclesiam triginta et quatuor annis. Sim. Dunelm. agrees with Alcuin, in his book de Gestis Reg. Angl. col. 106 ; but in his Hist. Dunelm, Eccl. coL 11, and in his Epist. de Arch. Ebor. col. 78, he says thirty-two years, perhaps by an error of the scribes. The Sax. Chron. says, se wses biscop .xxxvi. wintra, but this is perhaps a mere mistake of the copyist for .xxxiv. The date of Egbert's election was perhaps fixed by some writers in 734, because they thought It must have taken place the year before he received the pallium. Died 766.] egbert of york. 299 to which he had been elected, which, in pointing out the necessity of a reformation in his diocese, gives us an in- teresting picture of the state of the Anglo-Saxon church at that period.* In the first place, Bede exhorts the new prelate to shun the society of idle companions ; for he says that he had heard of some bishops who, instead of surrounding themselves with learned and pious men, sought the acquaintance of jovial companions at table, men addicted chiefly to eating and drinking.f He next urges him to ordain numerous priests, and to select for that purpose men who would attend diligently to the spiritual concerns of his extensive diocese ; and, above all, to cause the Apostles' creed and the Lord's prayer to be translated into Anglo-Saxon, for the use not only of the laity, but also of the priesthood, for it appears that at this time there were many even of the clergy who did not un- derstand Latin. J Bede next complains of the increasing negligence of the clergy in general, and more particularly in the kingdom of Northumbria ; for he says that it was reported that there were many towns and villages among the mountains and woods where during many years the voice of a christian bishop was never heard, although none of them were exempt from the contribution which was levied for his support.§ This evil he attributes to the avarice of the bishops, who sought to have large dio- ceses, to which they could not sufficiently attend. He * This letter was printed by Sir James Ware, Henry Wharton, and Smith in his edition of Bede's historical works. See before, p. 273. f It is not improbable that this is a reflection on Egbert's predecessor, Wilfred. See before, p. 296. i Quod non solum de laicis, id est, in populari adhuc vita constitutis, verum etiam de clericis sive monachis qui Latinse sunt linguse expertes fieri oportet. Bedse Epist. in Wharton, p. 255. § Audivimus enim, fama est, quia multse villse atque viculi nostrse gentis in montibus sint inaccessis ac saltibus dumosis positi, ubi nunquam multis transeuntibus annis sit visus antistes, qui ibidem aliquid ministerii aut gratice coelestis exhibnerit; quorum tamen uec unus quidem a tributis antistiti reddendis esse possit immunis. Epist. Bed. p. 256. 300 EGBERT OF YORK. [Bom ubout 678. therefore admonishes Egbert to ordain new bishops, and to seek the pallium for himself as their metropolitan, reciting to him in support of this advice the counsel which pope Gregory had given to Augustine. Bede also suggests a plan for effecting this object by changing some of the larger monasteries into episcopal sees, and allowing the abbots to be elected bishops. The next subject on which Bede's epistle touches, is the laxity of morals then prevalent among the Anglo-Saxons of aU ranks, and par- ticularly the corruptions and abuses which had crept into the monasteries. He says that it had become a custom for princes and nobles to found and endow monas- tic houses, in order to live in them a secular life with their wives and families, and with such of the clergy as were unwilling to conform to the stricter rules of the order. "Thus,^' he adds, "during about thirty years, that is, since the death of king Aldfrid, our province is become mad with that insane error to such a degree, that there has been scarcely an earl (prsefectus) who in the days of his earldom has not obtained for himself a monastery of this description, and introduced his wife there by the same iniquitous transaction ; and this wicked custom becoming prevalent, even the ministers and attendants of the king do the same thing. And thus, perverting the order, there are found very many who call themselves at the same time abbots and earls, or ministers or attendants of the king."* It must be remembered that Bede was a warm advocate for the celibacy of the clergy. * Sic per annos circiter trigiota, hoc est, ex quo Alfrid rex humauis rebus ablatus est, provincia nostra yesano illo errore dementata est, ut nullus pene exiude prsefectorum extiterit, qui non hujusmodi sibi monasterium in diebus suse prsefecturse comparaverat, suamque simul conjugem pari reatu nocivi mercatus adstrinxerat : ac prsevalente pessima consuetudine ministri quoque regis ac famuli idem facere sategerint. Atque ita, ordine perverse, innumeri sint invent!, qui se abbates pariter et prsefectos, sive ministros aut famulos regis appellant. Bedse Epist. p. 261. Died 766.] Egbert op york. 301 Egbert immediately acted according to the counsels given him by Bede. It has been suggested that Bede's epistle was probably written at the bishop's own desire^ to serve as a cover for the reforms which he intended to introduce into his diocese,* and which the pious king Ceolwulf was eager to confirm. In effecting this object, Egbert's first care was to fortify his own authority against the opposi- tion of those who were profiting by the abuses which it was his design to correct. When Paulinus had been obliged to retire from Northumbria in 632, he carried away the pallium which he had received from pope Hono- rius, and the ecclesiastics who subsequently held the see of York during a hundred and three years had been satis- fied with the authority and attributes of simple bishops. Egbert now, in conformity with the advice of his friend Bede, "determined to lay claim to the succession of Pauli- nus; and he so far succeeded, that soon after Bede's death, in the course of the year 735, he received the pallium from pope Gregory Ill.f It appears, however, that Eg- bert had been obliged to visit Rome in person, to obtain this concession.J We have no further information relating to the reforms which Egbert effected in his diocese. We know that he did not create new episcopal sees; and we are justified in * Gehle, Disputatio Hist. Theol. de Bedse Venerab. Vita et Scriptis, p. 95, note. f Continuat. of Bede and the Sax. Chron. in an. 735. Alcuin, de Sanct. Eccl. Ebor. 1. 1279. W. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Angl. p. 24. de Gest. Pontif. p. 269. Sim. Dunelm. de Hist. Dunelm. Eccl. col. 11. Ejusd. Epist. de Arch. Ebor. col. 78. In the latter passage, Simeon gives the date as being, septimo anno regni Ceolvulfi regis, centesimo tertio anno post discessum Paulini, hoc est anno dominicse incarnationis dcc.xxxv. quo anno venerabilis doctor Beda obiit in Gyrvum. t The Saxon Chronicle says he received the pallium at Rome. — An. Dccxxxv. Her onfeng Ecgbriht biscop pallium set Roilie.