the obedient, and unbending, though without harshness, to the opponents of good discipline. He was as severe to himself as to others; and was remarked for the severity of his penances, going on fast-days attired in sack-cloth, and, what now was a common practice, afflicting his body with the scourge. He was now at an advanced age, when in the third year of Stephen's reign, A.D. 1138, David, king of Scotland, having declared in favour of his niece, the empress Matilda, collected his forces, and made a dreadful inroad into the northern counties, turning his pretext of opposing a usurper into a plea for plundering and massacring the inhabitants of a country at peace with him. There was neither counsel nor conduct among the barons of the north: some who dwelt nearest to the border had joined the invading army, that they might partake the spoils, when Thurstan invited them to a conference for the defence of the country. He represented to them the disgrace that was brought upon the realm of the Norman conquerors, if they, who had overcome a people often victorious over the Scots, were now to quail before such less worthy antagonists; he shewed them that the nature of the inroad made it no longer a question whether the Scots came as allies of the empress or enemies of England; and that whoever might be the rightful sovereign, it was their duty to protect the soil and the people against such wanton injury and destruction. The barons, Walter l'Espec of Cleveland, Roger Mowbray, William Percy, and other large landed proprietors in Yorkshire, assembled an army, with which they encamped at North Allerton. To impress on the people the conviction that they were to fight, not for a doubtful title, but for the cause of religion, their churches and their homes, there was no royal banner carried to the field; but a tall ship-mast, erected on a waggon, bore a sacred ensign, such as was used in the processions of the Church, representing our Saviour on the cross, pierced with his five wounds. Round this the Norman barons, with their retainers, vowed to stand or fall. Ralph, bishop of Orkney, a suffragan of Thurstan, who was too infirm to come in person, mounted the waggon, and encouraged the soldiers to fight with the confidence that it was a holy war. The Scots, after a stubborn conflict, were completely routed, and fled in disorder; and thus an end was put to the most successful attempt they ever made on the borders, and one which, but for Thurstan's devout energy, would in all probability have given them possession of the whole country north of the Humber. Within two years after the battle of the standard, the aged Thurstan felt his vital vigour to decay, and prepared for a more solemn hour of conflict. He set his house in order; and assembling the priests of the cathedral of York in his own chapel, made his last confession before them; and laid with bared body on the ground before the altar of St. Andrew, received from some of their hands the discipline of the scourge, with tears bursting from his contrite heart. And remembering a vow made in his youth at Clugny, the famous monastery in Burgundy already mentioned, he went to Pontefract, to a newly founded house of Cluniac monks, followed by an honourable procession of the priests of the Church of York, and a great number of laymen. There, on the festival of the conversion of St. Paul, he took the habit of a monk in the regular way, received the abbot's blessing, and for the remainder of his life gave himself entirely to the care of the salvation of his soul. On the 6th of February, A.D. 1140, twenty-six years and six months after his accession to the archbishopric, the canons of the church of York and other religious persons standing round, the hour of his departure being at hand, he celebrated the vigils in commemoration of the dead in Christ, read the lesson himself, and with a clear voice, pausing and sometimes groaning in spirit, chaunted the solemn verses of the hymn Dies ira: Day of wrath! the dreadful day Who can paint the agony, When the trumpet's thrilling tone, Death and time shall stand aghast, Rise to answer for the past: Then the volume shall be spread, Then the Judge shall sit; oh, then Woe is me! what shall I plead ? When the righteous scarce is freed? King of dreadful majesty, Fount of pity, save thou me! Weary, seeking me, wast thou, Let thy pain avail me now! 7 Probably the tenth chapter of the book of Job. The hymn which follows is given in the faithful and striking translation of the Rev. Isaac Williams, of Trinity College, Oxford. Thou didst set the adultress free,- Nought of thee my prayers can claim With thy sheep my place assign, When the lost, to silence driven, Suppliant, lo! to earth I bend, At the end of this solemn service of humiliation he sank to the earth, and while the monks gathered round and prayed for him, breathed his last. The account presents in some respects a painful contrast to the calm piety of Bede's last moments; but it is an affecting picture of the power of a strong faith triumphing amidst the growing superstition of the time. The beautiful Cistercian abbey of Fountains was founded by the charity of this remarkable Christian bishop. He was also founder of the see of Carlisle, A.D. 1133. CHAPTER XVII. NORMAN MONASTERIES, AND NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. Prayer was in a barren land, and without food. Our King, whose nature is goodness, moved by Prayer's tears, exclaimed, "Whom shall we send?" Then said Charity, "Here am I, Lord; send me." ST. BERNARD, Parable of the Holy War. ERY great and remarkable alterations took place in the monasteries owing to the changes made by the Normans in the English Church. The reader, who But has seen in the last two chapters how the frame of society was broken up, and the protection of law taken away from the great bulk of the nation, will be at no loss to perceive why there should at such a time have arisen a strong and widely extended desire, in the minds of peaceable and devout persons, to increase the number of houses consecrated to religion, and places where life and property might still in some measure be secure. this was not only the case in England: the same causes were at work far and wide among foreign nations; and as there was no other way by which a man could in those days serve God without distraction, or a woman live a virtuous single life, it is no wonder that the number of persons who entered into religious orders was greatly multiplied. At the same time, there were also less praiseworthy motives at work. The kings and nobles thought it a part of their dignity to found places, where they might have a stately tomb and a religious remembrance after death, and where priests might be engaged in a con |