rentius to be his successor in the see of Canter- a wiser and purer spirit. Comparing the present bury. life of man, whose beginning and end is in darkThe faith so lately planted among the Anglo- ness, to a swallow entering a banqueting-hall to I FIX T ALTAR OF DIANA.-Drawn from the original, by J. W. Archer. find refuge from the storm without, flitting for a moment through the warm and cheerful apartment, and then passing out again into the gloom, he proposed that if Christianity should be found to lighten this obscurity, and explain whence we came and whither we departed, it should immediately be adopted. Upon this Coifi, the pagan high-priest, moved that Paulinus the missionary should be called in to explain the Christian doctrine. Paulinus came in immediately, and made use of such cogent arguments, that the impatient Coif declared there was no longer room for hesitation; proposed Saxons soon sustained a violent shock. Sebert, | that the old Saxon idols should be immediately the King of Essex, died; and his three sons overturned; and, as he had been the chief of endeavoured to re-establish the ancient idolatry. their worshippers, he now offered to be the Melitus was banished, and compelled to flee from first to desecrate them. He threw aside his London to Rochester, to seek for shelter with his priestly garments; called for arms, which the friend Justus. But even in Kent the faith was Saxon priests were forbidden to wield, and for a shaken, chiefly through the passion of Eadbald, horse, which they were not permitted to mount, the son and successor of Ethelbert, for his father's and thus accoutred, he galloped forth before the youthful widow. Melitus and Justus fled to amazed multitude. Advancing to a temple in France, and the primate Laurentius was prepar- the neighbourhood, where the chief idol stood, he ing to follow them, in the conviction that the hurled his lance within the sacred inclosure, and cause of Christianity was for the present lost in by that act the temple was profaned. No lightEngland; but Eadbald relented, and became con- ning descended, no earthquake shook the ground; verted anew. and the multitude, encouraged by the impunity of the daring apostate, proceeded to second his efforts. Forthwith the temple and its inclosures were levelled with the ground. This event happened at a village still called Godmundham, which means the home or hamlet of the inclosure of the god. The conversion of the king was instantly followed by that of his subjects, and Paulinus, who was afterwards consecrated Archbishop of York, is said to have baptized 12,000 converts in one day in the river Swale. This Christian king, Edwin, attained to the dignity of Bretwalda, and maintained the faith which he had adopted; but in the year 634, while in the vigour of his days, he was slain in battle against the terrible pagan king, Penda. Upon this sad event there followed such a general apostasy of the people in Northumbria, that Bishop Paulinus was obliged to abandon his see, and retire into Kent. The triumph of the heathen was, however, checked in the north by the accession of King Oswald, who had spent his youth in Iona, to which northern sanctuary he had repaired for After many sufferings and most perilous adventures, Edwin became King of Northumbria, and introduced Christianity into that very powerful and warlike kingdom. Before he was actually baptized, Edwin called an assembly of his nobles, that they might discuss the claims of the new faith and the old. Coifi, the pagan highpriest, declared that the gods whom they had hitherto worshipped were utterly useless. No man, he said, had served them with greater zeal than himself, and yet many men had prospered in the world far more than he had done; therefore was he quite ready to give at least a trial to the new religion. One of the nobles followed in 1 The altar is 21 in. high, 11 in. broad at the base, and 7 in. thick. It was found May 5, 1831, at a depth of 15 ft., in a stra tum of clay, when excavating the foundation for the Goldsmiths' Hall, in which it is now deposited. Under the site of Goldsmiths' Hall, and under that of the General Post-office ad joining, were found vaults and foundations, evidently of Roman masonry. It is probable these were vestiges of the temple of Diana, which were sought for in vain on the site of St. Paul's Cathedral, at the distance of little more than a stone's throw. 2 See vol. i. p. 74. shelter; and having been taught Christianity of his office, and by the barbarous disposition and among that primitive community, he naturally gross intellect of the Northumbrians; but Aidan. sent thither for spiritual instructors to his people, another monk of the order, volunteered to supply as soon as he was established upon the throne. Corman's place. In the year 635 Aidan founded Corman, the first monk that was sent from Iona, a monastery upon the bleak Island of Lindisfarne; quickly returned, disheartened by the difficulties and there his religious community flourished for HOLY ISLAND, coast of Northumberland, and REMAINS OF THE CHURCH OF LINDISFARNE.'-From Turner's England and Wales. more than two centuries, until it fell beneath in Cilicia, and eminent for his extensive learning. the fury of the Danes. Aided by King Oswald, Though already sixty-six years old, yet such was Aidan was very successful in reclaiming the apos- the energy of his character, that a life of usefultate Northumbrians, and in converting other ness was still expected from him; and these Saxon states. Having prevailed upon the King hopes were not disappointed, for he governed the of Wessex and his daughter to be baptized, a English Church for twenty-two years. He Christian church was established in that portion brought with him a valuable library of Latin and of the Heptarchy, according to the primitive and Greek authors, among which were the works of simple form of that of Iona. Homer, and established schools of learning, to which the clergy and laity repaired. The corsequence was, according to Bede, that soon after this many English priests were as conversant with the Latin and Greek languages as with their native tongue." The introduction of the gospel into the powerful kingdom of Mercia was the next great event. Peada, the son of the terrible Penda, in whom the Christianity of England had found its deadliest enemy, solicited the hand of the fair daughter of the converted King of Northumbria. The princess refused to marry an unbelieving husband, and the prince in consequence abjured his idols, and was baptized; and on his return to Mercia he took with him four good missionaries, who were very successful in converting the people. Towards the close of this century the kingdom of Sussex was converted; and thus, in less than ninety years from the first arrival of Augustine, Christianity was established over the whole of lent see of Durham, by Aidan, a monk of the monastery of Iona. England. When Christianity thus became the religion of Saxon Britain, its rude inhabitants were prepared for the further blessings of learning and civilization, and these were now introduced in the train of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was consecrated to the primacy by Pope Vitalian, in 668. Like St. Paul, he was a native of Tarsus VOL. I. Scarcely, however, was the national faith thus settled, when controversies arose in the bosom of the infant church on certain points of ceremonial practice, the triviality of which, of course, did not prevent them from being agitated with as much heat and obstinacy as if they had involved the most essential principles of morality or religion. 1 In Holy Island was first established the nucleus of the opu The church was at first built of split oak, and covered with reeds. It was rebuilt by Eadbert, successor to St. Cuthbert, who caused the body of Cuthbert to be removed and placed in a magnificent tomb near the high altar. Here the venerated rethe coast was overrun by the barbarous Danes, and the affrighted monks of Lindisfarne escaped with the remains of their beloved apostle, and commenced the series of peregrinations which mains rested till about the middle of the ninth century, when of the monastic buildings exist, except those of the church, ended in their establishment at Dunholm (Durham). Few traces which is of Anglo-Norman architecture. 20 2 Bede, iv. 2 the four dioceses of Lichfield, Worcester, Here- One of the subjects of dispute was the same differ- | divided by King Ethelred, at his instigation, into ence as to the mode of computing Easter that had already prevented the union of the English and Welsh Churches; it now, in like manner, threatened to divide the two kingdoms of Mercia and Northumberland, which, as already related, had been converted by Scottish missionaries, from the other states of the Heptarchy, that had received their instructors from Rome and France. To this was added the difference between the Romish and Scottish Churches, upon the form of the ecclesiastical tonsure. While the priests of the former wore the hair round the temples, in imitation of a crown of thorns, they were horror-struck at the latter, who, according to the custom of the Eastern Church, shaved it from their foreheads into the form of a crescent, for which they were reproached with bearing the emblem of Simon Magus. A council had been summoned with the view of accommodating these dissensions, by Oswy, King of Northumberland, in the year 664; but the only result of this attempt was to increase the animosity of the two factions, the clergy of the Scottish persuasion, in fact, retiring from the assembly in disgust.2 Their departure was occasioned by the intemperate zeal and arrogance of Wilfrith, afterwards Archbishop of York, whose great aim was to reduce the English Church to a state of uniformity, by the suppression of the Cuidees. At a council called at Hertford, in the year 673, the bishops generally consented to the canons which Theodore had brought with him from Rome, by which a complete agreement in faith and worship was established.* In the meantime, Theodore was enabled to proceed with his division of the larger dioceses. That of Mercia, in particular, which had till now embraced the whole of the state so called, was Theodore, who, when he was called to the primacy, wore the Eastern tonsure, was obliged to wait four months, that his hair might grow so as to be shaven according to the orthodox fashion. --Bede, iv. 1. 2 For the lengthened discussion at this council, see Bede, iii. 25. Wilfrith, by his own power, accomplished what Augustine, animated by the spirit of Gregory the Great, had begun. The Anglo-Saxon states were converted not only to Christianity, but to Catholicism. For secular learning they were chiefly indebted to the Scots and Britons-for their accession to the European system of faith, to these two men; for, however successful Augustine may appear in his first spiritual acquisitions for the Church of Rome, the course of Anglo-Saxon history, nevertheless, shows that, although the Roman ecclesiastical system was acknowledged, the influence of Rome was exceedingly weak, and that the Anglo-Saxons, even after they were no longer antiCatholic, continued always anti-Papist cal. As Wilfrith's history itself proves indeed how little even this zealous partizan of the popes could effect, it is the more desirable to take a view of the internal relations of religion in England. "We notice, in the first place, in every kingdom a bishop, who, travelling about with his coadjutors, propagated both doctrine and discipline. This kind of church regimen was well calculated to succeed that of the pagan priesthood. The bishops, when chosen by the clergy, always required the confirmation of The age of the Christian church in England that immediately succeeded its establishment, was distinguished by the decline of true religion, and the rapid increase both of worldly-mindedness among the clergy, and of fanaticism and superstition among the people. From the humble condition of a dependence upon the alms of the faithful, the church now found itself in the possession of revenues which enabled its bishops to vie in the prince; but, in most instances, they were nominated by him. In later times, it is observable that the royal chaplains always obtained the episcopal dignities. Over these bishops, he who resided at Canterbury, the capital of the Bretwalda Ethelbert, was set as archbishop, in like manner as the Bishop of Rome had originally assumed the supremacy over the Roman provinces. The archbishopric of York, established by Gregory the Great, which might act as a check to a primacy of the Kentish archbishop, dangerous to the Papal authority, ceased to exist after the flight of Paulinus, and was not re-established till a century afterwards, when Egbert, the brother of King Eadbert, after many representations to the Papal chair, received the pall. A third archiepiscopal see was established for the country between the Thames and the Humber, by the powerful Offa of Mercia, who held the dignity necessary for the honour of his kingdom, with the consent of Pope Hadrian, to whom this augmentation of his slight influence over the Anglo-Saxon clergy might have been welcome. The old state of things was, however, shortly after restored.-Almost contemporaneously with the bishoprics, some monasteries were founded by the bounty of the kings and their relatives, which served as residences to numerous monks. Many of these cloisters in the north of England were destroyed by the Danes, the very sites of which are not known with certainty."-Loppenberg, vol. i. p. 189. ⚫ Bede, iv. 5. Bede, Epistol, ad Egbert plenty and idleness. These establishments also continued to multiply with a rapidity that was portentous, not only from the tendency of the idle and depraved to embrace such a life of indulgence, but from the doctrine current at the end of the seventh century, that the assumption of the monastic habit absolved from all previous sin. Bede, who saw and lamented this growing evil, raised a warning voice, but in vain, against it; and expressed his fears that, from the increase of the monks, soldiers would at last be wanting to repel the invasion of an enemy. Many nobles, desirous of an uninterrupted life of sensuality, pretended to devote their wealth to the service of Heaven, and obtained the royal sanction for founding a religious house; but in their new character of abbots, they gathered round them a brotherhood of dissolute monks, with whom they lived in the commission of every vice; while their wives, following the example, established nunneries upon a similar principle, and filled them with the most depraved of their sex. To these evils was added the bitterness of religious contention. Men thus pampered could scarcely be expected to live in a state of mutual harmony; and fierce dissensions were constantly raging between the monks, or regulars, as they called themselves, and the seculars or unmonastic clergy, about their respective duties, privileges, and honours. pomp and luxury with the chief nobility, and | juxtaposition of the sexes, living in the midst of even conferred no small consideration upon many of its inferior ministers. It is generally held that tithes were first imposed upon the Mercians in the latter part of the eighth century, by their king, Offa, and that the tax was extended over all England by King Ethelwulf, in 855. But the subject of this assumed donation of Ethelwulf to the church is involved in great obscurity. All that is certain is, that in after ages the clergy were uniformly wont to refer to his charter as the foundation of their claim. The tithes of all England, however, at this early period, if such a general tax then existed, would not have been sufficient of themselves to weigh down the church by too great a burden of wealth. A great portion of the soil was still composed of waste or forest land; and the tithes appear to have been charged with the repair of churches, the expenses of worship, and the relief of the poor, as well as with the maintenance of the clergy. It was from the lavish benevolence of individuals that the church principally derived its large revenues. Kings, under the influence of piety or remorse, were eager to pour their wealth into the ecclesiastical treasury, to bribe the favour of Heaven, or avert its indignation; and wealthy thanes were in like manner wont to expiate their sins, as they were taught they might do, by founding a church or endowing a monastery. Among other consequences of these more ample resources, we find that the walls of the churches became covered with foreign paintings and tapestry; that the altars and sacred vessels were formed of the precious metals, and sparkled with gems; while the vestments of the priests were of the most splendid description. Other much more lamentable effects followed. Indolence and sensuality took the place of religion and learning among all orders of the clergy. The monasteries in particular, founded at first as abodes of piety and letters, and refuges for the desolate and the penitent, soon became the haunts of idleness and superstition. Many of the nunneries were mere receptacles of profligacy, in which the roving debauchee was sure of a welcome. In the year 747 the Council of Cloveshoe found it necessary to order that the monasteries should not be turned into places of amusement for harpers and buffoons; and that laymen should not be admitted within their walls too freely, lest they might be scandalized at the offences they should discover there. Most of the monasteries in England, too, were double houses,' in which resided communities of men and women; and the natural consequences often followed this perilous 1 See Turner's Anglo-Saxons, i. 479-481. Bede; De Remedio Peccatorum; Wilkins' Concilia, i. 88, 99. Lingard's Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 120. It was natural enough that the grossest superstition should accompany and intermingle with all this profligacy. So many Saxon kings accordingly abandoned their crowns, and retired into monasteries, that the practice became a proverbial distinction of their race; while other persons of rank, nauseated with indulgence, or horror-struck with religious dread, often also forsook the world, of which they were weary, and took refuge in cells or hermitages. The penances by which they endeavoured either to expiate their crimes or attain to the honours of saintship, emblazoned though they are in chronicles, and canonized in calendars, can only excite contempt or disgust, whether they ascend to the extravagance of St. Gurthlake, who endeavoured to fast forty days, after the fashion of Elias," or sink to the low standard of those noble ladies who thought that heaven was to be won by the spiritual purity of unwashed linen. In addition to the feeling of remorse by which such expiations were inspired, a profligate state of society will multiply religious observances, as a cheap substitute for the practice of holiness and virtue; and men will readily fast, and make journeys, and give alms, in preference to the greater sacrifice of amendment of life. We | journey, frequently parted with whatever virtue need not, therefore, wonder to find Saxon pil- they possessed by the way." grims thronging to the Continent and to Rome, ROCK HERMITAGE, AT GUY'S CLIFF, Warwickshire.- From a sketch on the spot, by J. W. Archer. who do not seem to have considered a little contraband traffic, when opportunity offered, as detracting from the merits of their religious tour; while ladies of rank, who undertook the same While such was the state of the English Church, the invasions of the Danes commenced at the end of the eighth century, and were continued in a succession of inundations, each more terrible than the preceding. These spoilers of the North, devoted to their ancient idolatry, naturally abhorred the Christianity of the Saxons, corrupted though it was, as a religion of humanity and order; and as the treasures of the land, at the first alarm, were deposited in the sacred edifices, which were fondly believed to be safe from the intrusion even of the most daring, the tempest of the Danish warfare was chiefly directed against the churches and monasteries. Those miracles lately so plentiful, and so powerful to deceive, were impotent now to break or turn back the sword of the invader. The priest was massacred at the altar; the monk perished in his cell; the nuns were violated; and the course of the Northmen might be traced by the ashes of sacred edifices that had been pillaged and consumed. The effects of these devastations upon both religion and learning may be read in the mournful complaint of Alfred. At his accession, he tells us, in the interesting preface to his translation of Pope Gregory's tract on the Duties of Pastors, that he could find very few priests north of the Humber who were able to translate the Latin service into the vulgar tongue; and south of the Thames, not one.3 After the land had begun to recover from the immediate effects of this visitation, and the church had resumed its wonted position, the celebrated no doubt, in Anglo-Saxon; and its hearty, sound, and simple sterling substance, are preserved in the English ritual to the present day. The numerous versions and paraphrases of the Old and New Testaments made those books known to the laity, and more familiar to the clergy. That these were in general circulation in Bede's time, may perhaps be inferred from his omission of all mention of them, though the learned and cele Dugdale, describing Guy's Cliff, says: "This being a great cliff on the western bank of the Avon, was made choice of by that pious man St. Dubritius (who in the Britons' time had his episcopal seat at Warwick) for a place of devotion, where he built an oratory, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen (Camden says St. Margaret), into which, long after, in the Saxon days, did a devout heremite repair, who, finding the natural rock so proper for his cell, and the pleasant grove wherewith it is backed yield-brated Anglo-Saxon poet, Aldhelm, had already translated the ing entertainment fit for solitude, seated himself here. Which advantages invited also the famous Guy (sometime Earl of Warwick), after his notable achievements, having weaned himself from the deceitful pleasures of this world, to retire hither, where, receiving ghostly comfort from that heremite, he abode till his death." There are several cells in the cliff. That shown in the cut is at the base of the rock, and is popularly listinguished as Guy's Cell. However doubtful that personage and his localities may be, the cell itself bears a token of early occupation, in an inscription cut in the wall in Saxon characters, but not legible. 2 Spelman's Concilia, i. p. 237. 3 "To the distance from Rome, and their slender dependence on the Papal chair, the people of England are apparently indebted for the advantage of having retained their mother tongue as the language of the church, which was never entirely banished by the priests from their most sacred services. Their careless, sensual course of life, and perhaps the prejudice which prevented them from learning even so much Latin as was requisite to enable them to repeat the Paternoster and Creed in that language, have proved more conducive to the highest interests of the country than the dark subtilty of the learned Romanized monk, pondering over authorities. Even the mass itself was not read entirely in the Latin tongue. The wedding form was, Psalms; and Egbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, the four gospels. Church |