entertainment of us his commissioners and our company, we have not found, nor belike shall find any such. And lest peradventure there may be labour made to their detriment and other undoing, before knowledge should come to his highness and to you from us, it may therefore please you to signify unto his highness the effect of these our letters, to the intent his grace may stay the grant thereof, till such time we may ascertain you of our full certificate in that behalf."

The

This letter, signed by Edmund Knyghtley 4 and three others, tells us very plainly the scant measure of justice that was dealt to these poor women. commissioners would have inclined the king to mercy if they could; but the cause was judged first and heard afterwards. The lands of the nunnery were granted away to persons who bid high enough for them, before the certificate of the state of religion and discipline was sent up.

No man will now desire to see such a state of things restored, as was providentially ordered for the need of religion in less settled times. But the mischiefs which arose from this sudden injustice were great and multiplied. The nunneries were commonly ladies' schools, where young persons of the richer and middle condition of life went to be educated; here was a little estate left for the maintenance of instructors; and charitable persons sometimes left them laud or fee, expressly on condition that they should keep such schools, and teach needlework and embroidery, and how to work some of that fine old tapestry which may still be seen in seats of English noblemen and country-gentlemen's houses. And together with this they were religiously taught

4 Ancestor of the present Sir Charles Knightley, of Fawsley, Bart., M.P. for the county of Northampton; a family distinguished at that time for their zeal for the Reformation.

and brought up in the fear of God; for true piety was never banished in the worst of times from the

breasts of English women. It is greatly to be desired that there should be still some such religious houses, where, without ensnaring and mistaken vows, persons of slender fortune, respectably brought up, might find an asylum from the disquiet of the world, and meet with society of that kind which would be the best suited to relieve them from the trials to which, in our railroad-making, money-getting age, they are often exposed, without the sympathy of a friend.5

We now conclude. The lesson to be learnt from all Church-history is a lesson of faith in the Author of all truth, the Founder and Preserver of that religion of which the Church is His appointed keeper and witness in the world. However the errors and crimes of men may have dimmed the pure light of the gospel in times past, as they do now; yet we may see in these records that the old Christian bishops and fathers of our native land lived and died in the same faith which we cherish; they founded or maintained a Church in doctrine and discipline the same as ours; they sought, by one Saviour's blood, an inheritance in the same heaven in which we hope to dwell. These pages will not have been written in vain, if they shall remind one Englishman, who reads the record of the trials and deliverances of his Church, to offer more solemnly his prayer of confidence in the almighty Protector, "O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us, the noble works which thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them;" and to entreat, that "his continual pity may still cleanse and defend his Church;"

5 An English lady has of late years founded such a house at Clifton near Bristol. It is to be wished that there were

more.

and "that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by his governance, that his Church may joyfully serve him in all godly quietness, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Fæder ure, thu the eart on heofenum,

Si thin nama gehalgod;

To-becume thin rice;

Gewurthe thin willa on eorthan, swa swa on heofenum.

Urne dæghwamlican hlaf syle us to-dæg.

And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgifath urum gyltendum.

And ne gelædde thu us on costnunge;

Ac alys us of yfele. Sothlice.

The same, in our present way of writing and spelling:

Father our, thou that art in heaven,

Be thy name hallowed;

Come thy kingdom (rice, rule; still added to some
words, as bishop-ric);

Be done thy will in earth, so as in heaven.
Our daily loaf sell (give) us to-day.

And forgive us our guilts so as we forgive our
guiltyings (debtors).

And not lead thou us into cosening (deceit, or temptation);

But loose us from evil. Soothly (truly, or amen).

II. In metre, sent by Nicholas Breakspeare (pope Adrian IV.) into England, in the time of king Henry II. A.D. 1160.

Ure Fadyr in heaven-rich,1
Thy name be hallyed everlich.2
Thou bring us thy michel blisse.
Als hit in heaven y-doe,3
Evar in yearth beene it also.
That holy bread that lasteth ay,
Thou send it ous this ilke day.4
Forgive us all that we have don,
As we forgivet uch other mon.
Ne let ous fall into no founding,
Ac shield ous fro the fowle thing.

6

III. Another, of Henry III.'s time, about A.D. 1250.

Fadir ur, that es in hevene,
Halud be thy name to neven :7
Thou do us thy rich rike:
Thi will on erd9 be wrought alike
As it is wrought in heven ay;
Ur ilk-day brede give us to-day;

1 The kingdom of heaven.

3 As it in heaven is done.
5 Each.

2 Hallowed evermore.

4 This same day.
6 Confounding, confusion.

7 Hallowed be thy name in the naming. Thus the old Eng

lish poet Chaucer, A.D. 1380:

"There saw I syt in other sees (seats)

Playing upon other sundry glees,

Which that I cannot neven

Mo than starres ben in heven."

8 Reach us thy kingdom; put it within our reach.

9 Earth.

L L