the pendragon-head-king-united some of these communities, and anxious to confirm his contested authority, called to his aid a band of predatory Saxons who had landed in the south of England, under the two brothers Hengist and Horsa, 449. These leaders, having joined the Britons, were entirely successful in their battles against the Picts and Scots; but to maintain their ascendency, it was necessary to have an armed force always ready to meet these barbarians. Such soldiers were easily found among the countrymen of Hengist, who, at his invitation, came over in great numbers. A disagreement which ensued between them and their employers occasioned a long and sanguinary strife, which terminated in the foundation of the Saxon kingdom of Kent, 455. The strangers, each day reinforced by new adventurers, continued their hostile incursions; but so firmly were they. opposed, that Ella could not establish himself as a ruler in Sussex before 491. The entire conquest of the southern part of the island was not completed until 586. Consult: Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons. THE CHURCH. The history of the Church during this century embraces two important subjects:-the commencement of Monastic Institutions and the Conversion of the Barbarians. I. MONACHISM originated in the East, the land of contemplation and indolence, where an absurd antagonism was raised between the soul and the body; the mortification of the one being supposed to contribute to the purity of the other. The Jews had their Essenes and Therapeuta, who lived apart from other men, and aspired by the most rigorous practices to attain a superhuman perfection. They abstained from wine, flesh, and marriage, and renounced all business. Egypt, "the fruitful parent of superstition," afforded the earliest example of monastic life. Paul of Thebes, about A. D. 250, fleeing from the persecution of Decius, retired to a cavern, in which he passed the greater portion of his life, supporting himself on dates, with palm-leaves for his only garment. Thirty years after him another Egyptian, St Anthony, lived also in the desert; but around his hut were grouped, at a little distance, other cabins, in which a number of ascetics dwelt in obedience to his authority. He thus became the father of the monastic life. This new passion for solitude was disregarded in the Western Churches until Athanasius went to Rome, in the year 340, to solicit the aid of the bishop in his contest with the Arians. The disciples of Anthony soon spread themselves over the Christian world, and before the end of the century a monastery in Flintshire contained above 2000 members. The same discipline was introduced into Syria by his immediate followers, and at a somewhat later period into the solitudes of Pontus, by St Basil, while St Martin was establishing in Gaul the first cenobitical community. The rule of the Egyptian monks was brought into Provence at the beginning of the fifth century, by St Honoratus and St Cassianus, who founded two establishments, one at Lerins, the other at Marseilles, whence issued many learned apostles of the faith and monastic life, among whom was St Patrick, the founder of similar colonies in Ireland. These various communities of the West followed each its own rule until that of the Benedictines was received throughout the whole Latin church. The rapid progress of this system may perhaps be attributed to enthusiasm, sympathy, and ambition. Chrysostom presumed that none but monks could be saved, and to these terrors of the church were added those of the barbarians. The emperors, especially Valens, attempted to support the obligations of public and private duties, but such feeble barriers as they opposed were soon swept away by the torrent of superstition. Freedom of mind was destroyed by credulity and submission; and the monks, contracting the habits of slaves, followed the faith and passions of their ecclesiastical tyrants. Their dress, habitations, and manners were equally filthy and disgusting. Athanasius boasts of Anthony's deep horror at clean water, with which his feet never came in contact, except from dire necessity. Simeon, who died in 451, is immortalized by his penance of thirty years on the summit of a lofty column, whence he gained the name of Stylites. These monastic saints boasted of their miraculous powers; they pretended to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, to tame the beasts of the forest, to suspend the course of nature, and even to raise men from the dead. The discipline of the Greek Church, which consisted of four fundamental articles,-solitude, manual labour, fasting, and prayer, was formed by St Basil. It was long before the follies of the haircloth and flagellation were introduced. II. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS offers a more pleasing picture than that which we have just been contemplating. Ulphilas, the apostle of the Goths, translated the Scriptures into their native tongue, about the year 360.* At the commencement of the fifth century Christianity was embraced by almost all the barbarians in the Roman empire. The Franks obtained Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis, 496; and the Saxons were converted by Roman missionaries, although the gospel had been introduced into Britain in the second century. These proselytes displayed an ardent zeal in the propagation of the true faith, and England had the honour of producing the apostle of Germany. An immediate change was effected in the moral condition of these nations. The horrors of war were alleviated; the insolence of conquest was moderated; and the institutions of Rome, religious and political, were respected. Evangelical truth had been already preached to the Indians, and a bishop governed the Christians of St Thomas on the spice-bearing shores of Malabar. A church was founded in Ceylon, and missionaries followed in the steps of the caravans, even to China and the extremities of Asia. The Abyssinians, an Arabian colony, were drawn from their barbarism by similar means. Rapin observes, that in the fifth century Christianity was debased by a vast number of human inventions: the simplicity of its government and discipline was reduced to a system of clerical power; and its worship was polluted with ceremonies borrowed from the heathen. * Ulphilas had been compelled to embrace Arianism in order to engage the favour of Valens. He is said to have invented the Gothic characters, and his precious MS. in letters of gold and silver is preserved, under the name of Codex Argenteus, in the library of Upsala. APPENDIX TO PART FIRST. History of Literature. THE invasion of the South of Europe by the barbarians of the North, the great event which separates ancient and modern times, interrupted the downward course of Greek and Roman civilisation. In the East, the Byzantine emperors still protected their declining literature; in the West, its few relics were received and fostered in the bosom of the church. It is this decline and ruin of learning which composes the entire literary history of the fifth and three following centuries. I. ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL.-In despite of its numerous aberrations, this school rendered the most valuable services to learning, by preserving and explaining the masterpieces of ancient literature, and by endeavouring to reconcile the various systems of philosophy. Alexandria, situated at a point where Europe, Asia, and Africa unite, became the focus of all doctrines, and its academy the mental emporium of the world. Ammonius Saccas, originally a porter, about 220, founded the Eclectic school of the New Platonists, which united the different systems of the Socratic school, in order to ally them with the fantastic mysteries of the East,-a bold endeavour to terminate the disputes of the Greek philosophers. Plotinus of Lycopolis, d. 270, Jamblichus of Chalcis, and Porphyry of Tyre, about 300, added to the splendour of the reformed school; and as they announced their design of propping up the falling altars of polytheism, they naturally became the antagonists of the Christian fathers. When the Neo-Platonic school in Rome, as well as that of Alexandria, was shut up by order of Constantine in 324, secret societies were formed throughout the provinces, and, until 353, flourished principally in Asia Minor. Here was continued the "golden chain of Platonism," of which Maximus of Ephesus, Chrysanthus of Lydia, and Eusebius of Myndus, were the brightest links. Under the patronage of Julian, 361, the school of Alexandria was re-opened, and a new one founded at Athens. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, filled with honour the chair of Ammonius and Plotinus; but when she had fallen a victim to a furious mob, 415, and the pagan school of Alexandria had perished with her, Athens became the centre of this new philosophy. Proclus, who succeeded Syrianus in 450, was a man of varied learning. In his teaching he united the ideas of Plato with the forms of Aristotle; but the necessity of adapting his opinions to the popular taste compelled him to blend his philosophy with oriental myths, orphic revelations, supposed oracles, and mystic reveries. The school lingered a short time after his decease, until it was closed by an edict of Justinian I. in 529. The Neo-Platonists were tolerated, but their sect became extinct with the pagan religion. They were succeeded by the Peripatetics, whose opinions prevailed in the church until the rise of the scholastic philosophy in the eighth century. II. SACRED LITERATURE. The necessity of defending the Christian religion against its numerous enemies, and the desire of making proselytes among the enlightened spirits of the times, induced the doctors of the church to study the religion they were so eager to propagate, the idolatry which they were sworn to destroy, and the pagan philosophy, whose errors must either be exposed or rendered subservient to the doctrines of the gospel. Hence arose Ecclesiastical Literature. The Christian school of Alexandria did not become celebrated until the Stoic Pantænus, a converted pagan, ascended the professorial chair, at the end of the second century. His successor Clement endeavoured to systematize religion; maintaining, that as God had disseminated the elements of truth among the different philosophic sects, it was a Christian's duty to unite these scattered fragments, and thus strengthen piety by banishing falsehood. The genius and extensive learning of Origen, d. 254, were employed in defence of this system; but he defiled the purity of the faith he meant to defend,. and introduced a dangerous method, whence afterwards arose that philosophical theology, which, under the name of the Scholastic, played so great a part in the middle ages. Justin Martyr, d. 166, and Tertullian, d. 220, rank as the chief defenders of Christianity. They published, the one in Greek and the other in Latin, eloquent and bold Apologies for the new religion. St Irenæus led the church back from the doctrines of literal and occult meanings, contending that the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures should always be conformable to tradition. The Old Testament had been early translated into the vulgar tongue; and from the second century we read of versions in Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Latin, the authors of which are unknown. From the third century we meet with works specially consecrated to the explanation of the Christian doctrines. The earliest of these is by St Gregory Thaumaturges, bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, who lived till 268. St Cyril of Jerusalem followed him in the next century. While they explained and defended the faith against the attacks of heretics, they endeavoured to render it useful by founding on it a system of evangelical morality. Tertullian, and after him the learned Cyprian of Carthage, 250, first wrote on the connexion of morals with the religion of our Saviour. The fourth century-from Constantine to Theodosius-is the golden age of ecclesiastical literature. Athanasius, d 371, Chrysostom, d. 407, Ambrose, d. 398, and Augustin, d. 430, preached the purest morality in the most eloquent language. Their genius alone rose superior to the fall of the empire, and they were the architects of that great religious edifice which was founded upon its ruins. Greek Futhers.-The name of Fathers of the Church has been given to those authors who, from the first ages of Christianity, devoted their talents to the defence and exposition of the faith. The East and the West alike produced men of genius who, uniting extensive learning to piety and courage, added new glory to the literature of Greece and Rome, while they imagined themselves performing the simple duties of Christians and ministers of the divine word. The patronage of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was less efficacious in behalf of his faith than the talents and indefatigable activity of Athanasius, who destroyed the heresy of Arius at the council of Nice. In the bishop's chair, as well as in exile, he was ever a zealous defender of the Trinitarian doctrine and of religious unity. Eusebius, d. 340, the father of ecclesiastical history, although not strictly orthodox, was serviceable to religion by his Preparation and Evangelical Demonstration. His great work, describing the propagation of Christianity, the vicissitudes of the church, the struggles of its teachers, and the miracles of its martyrs, was translated into Latin by Rufinus, the adversary of Jerome. Basil was called from the deserts of the Thebais to fill the episcopal chair at Cæsarea, 350. Theological disputes occupied the greater part of his life; his homilies are moral treatises, in which the tenderest sensibility is conveyed in a style sparkling with images and rich in allegory. His brother, Gregory of Nyssa, by his philosophy and his |