us.

In later times a striving after an ideal perfection, followed, as it almost invariably is, by corruption, rendered the monastic houses the bane as they had once been the blessing of civilization; fruitless imitation of bygone customs prolonged their existence into an uncongenial age; but, long after all their other great qualities had perished, this one, their educational power, alone remained, and flourished among the followers of Benedict with unexampled vigor. Many errors and many abuses may be pardoned to an institution which has given to the world a Mabillon and a Montfaucon.

But great as undoubtedly were the humanizing powers of the Benedictine and other orders in the seats of more ancient civilization, it is on the outskirts of the Christian fold that we must look for their purest and most brilliant triumphs. Important as the labors of the monastic bodies in France, Italy, and Spain, must appear to us, yet a still larger share of our admiration is demanded by the efforts of those unwearied pioneers of the faith who in the northern lands of Europe founded and raised to so surpassing an elevation the great fabric of the Christian Commonwealth.

If we desire to obtain an instance of the origin and advance of Christian principles and practice, fostered by the zeal of monastic missionaries, nowhere shall we find a more striking one than in our own island. Cherished by the piety of Christian princes, the clerical body had attained during the British period a condition of intellectual brilliancy, as well as of political and numerical

strength, to which the Church records of the age present few parallels. The names of Gildas1, Iltutus2, and Columbanus, even reaching us as they do through the mists of fabulous centuries, shed an intellectual radiance over the early inhabitants of the island; and the extraordinary opulence of such monasteries* as that of Bangor on the Dee, said to include within its capacious walls upwards of two thousand monks3, may add some credit to the semi-fabulous accounts of Lucius and Ambrosius Aurelius, the Christian monarchs of pristine Britain. But the inherent weaknesses of a Roman province had extended their fatal influence over the Church as well as the State, and the constant Saxon inroads drove to the

1

"Transfretavit mare Gallicum, in civitatibus Galliæ remansit studens optime spatio septem annorum, et in termino septimi anni cum magna mole diversorum voluminum remeavit ad Majorem Britanniam. Audita fama famosissimi advenæ, confluxerunt ad eum scholares plurimi undique, audierunt ab eo septem disciplinarum scientiam subtilissime, unde ex discipulis magistri effecti sunt sub magistrali honore." Vita S. Gildæ, 2. ed. Stevenson.

2 Stevenson, following Ussher (Ant. Eccl. Brit. c. xiv. Works, t. vi. pp. 49, 66. ed. Elrington), mentions that he was generally known as "egregius Britannorum magister," and identifies him with the preceptor of Maglocunus, “pene totius Britanniæ magistrum elegantem,” mentioned by Gildas (Epist. 36).

* See Ussher, Ant. Eccl. Brit. c. vi. p. 132 [ed. Dublin. 1639; Works, t. v. pp. 160-162].

3 "...monasterio Bancor, in quo tantus fertur fuisse numerus monachorum, ut, cum in septem portiones esset cum præpositis sibi rectoribus monasterium divisum, nulla harum portio minus quam trecentos homines haberet, qui omnes de labore manuum suarum vivere solebant." Bede, H. E. ii. 2.

shelter of the monastic walls multitudes utterly unfit for the performance of the sacred functions, while the sloth, ignorance, and luxury, which had infected the British clergy*, and rendered them so blind not only to the spiritual interests of their Master but to their own temporal advantage as to turn away their thoughts from the

* See the Querela of Gildas Badonicus, quoted by Ussher [ibid. pp. 67-75, 100] and Bede, Eccl. Hist. ii. 2, where he relates the ineffectual efforts of Augustine to unite the Celtic clergy with himself in the work of converting the Saxons. [The following are some of the charges brought against the clergy by Gildas (Epist. 66): "Sacerdotes habet Britannia, sed insipientes; quam plurimos ministros, sed impudentes; clericos, sed raptores subdolos; pastores, ut dicuntur, sed occisioni animarum lupos paratos, quippe non commoda plebi providentes, sed proprii plenitudinem ventris quærentes; ecclesiæ domus habentes, sed turpis lucri gratia eas adeuntes; populos docentes, sed præbendo pessima exempla, vitia, malosque mores; raro sacrificantes, et nunquam puro corde inter altaria stantes; plebem ob peccata non corripientes, nimirum eadem agentes; præcepta Christi spernentes, et suas libidines votis omnibus implere curantes; sedem Petri Apostoli immundis pedibus usurpantes, sed merito cupiditatis in Judæ traditoris pestilentem cathedram decidentes; veritatem pro inimico odientes, et mendaciis acsi carissimis fratribus faventes; justos inopes immanes quasi angues torvis vultibus conspicantes, et sceleratos divites absque ullo verecundiæ respectu sicut cœlestes angelos venerantes; egenis eleemosynam esse dandam summis e labiis prædicantes, sed ipsi vel obolum non dantes; nefanda populi scelera tacentes, et suas injurias quasi Christo irrogatas amplificantes ;......ecclesiasticos post hæc gradus propensius quam regna cœlorum ambientes, et tyrannico ritu acceptos defendentes, nec tamen legitimis moribus illustrantes; ad præcepta sanctorum......oscitantes ac stupidos, et ad ludicra et ineptas secularium hominum fabulas, acsi iter vitæ mortisque pandant, strenuos et intentos." The forty-four following sections are to the same effect.]

conversion of their conquerors', recoiled on their own heads in the utter desolation, as well of Church as of State, which followed the first establishment of the Saxons. For those barbarians made war equally on the British nation and on the faith it acknowledged; not a vestige was left of all the old ceremonial pomp: and the descendants of those enthusiastic multitudes who had crowded round the holy Germanus and Lupus, the champions of the orthodox faith, and had applauded their final subversion of Pelagianism2, were either completely exterminated, or reduced to a hopeless serfdom3. Such was the lamentable state of a land whose Christianity was referred to apostles and companions of our Lord, when the close of the sixth century witnessed the arrival at Canterbury of the Benedictine Augustine and his colleagues. The extraordinary success which attended those dauntless missionaries is well known, but what is almost more remarkable still than the rapid resuscitation of Christianity among those who had so lately subverted it, was the vigor with which the monastic system, so long reduced to inanition by the baneful influences of prosperity, sprung once more into renewed existence".

1 See also Bede (H. E. i. 22) for the conduct of the British Church to the Saxons before the arrival of Augustine.

2 Bede, H. E. i. 17—21.

3 Bede writes thus in A.D. 731 (H. E. v. 23): "Brittones...... quamvis ex parte sui sicut juris, nonnulla tamen ex parte Anglorum sunt servitio mancipati."

4 Bede, H. E. i. 23-ii. 3.

5 See Bede, H. E. i. 33; iii. 3, 4, 19, 23, 24; iv. 3, 6, 13, 19, 23.

The intellectual history of the seventh and eighth centuries presents us with two striking instances of the goodness of the seed sown, and the fruitfulness of the harvest reaped, by the intellectual efforts of Anglo-Saxon Benedictines.

The first of these is to be found in the latter part of the 7th century, when, to use the words of the venerable Bede*, "the religious habit was held in great veneration, so that, wherever any clergyman or monk happened to come, he was joyfully received by all persons as God's servant, and if they chanced to meet him upon the way they ran to him, and bowing were glad to be signed with his hand or blessed with his mouth."

Learning, more especially the study of Greek, had been raised to an unwonted pitch of prosperity by the exertions of the monk Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his coadjutor Hadrian1, while the arts and sciences, driven from the continent by barbarian turmoil, seem to have taken refuge in our more favored land2. Let us, then, at this period, direct our glance to

*Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. c. 26.

1 See Bede, H. E. iv. 1, 2; v. 20. Vita Abbat. Wiremuth. 3.

2 "Et quia literis sacris simul et secularibus, ut diximus, abundanter ambo erant instructi, congregata discipulorum caterva, scientiæ salutaris quotidie flumina irrigandis eorum cordibus emanabant; ita ut etiam metricæ artis astronomiæ et arithmeticæ ecclesiasticæ disciplinam inter sacrorum apicum volumina suis auditoribus contraderent. Indicio est quod usque hodie supersunt de eorum discipulis, qui Latinam Græcamque linguam æque ut propriam in qua nati sunt norunt." Bede, H. E. iv. 2. On the