place that the other, which I had before thought most delicious, then seemed to me but very indifferent; even as that extraordinary brightness of the flowery field, compared with this, appeared mean and inconsiderable. When I began to hope we should enter that delightful place, my guide on a sudden stood still; and then retracing his steps, led me back by the way we came.

'When we returned to those joyful mansions of the spirits in white, he said to me: "Do you know what all these things are which you have seen?" I answered, I did not; and then he replied: "That vale you saw, so dreadful for consuming flames and cutting cold, is the place in which the souls of those are tried and punished who, delaying to confess and amend their crimes, at length have recourse to repentance at the point of death, and so depart this life; but nevertheless because they even at their death confessed and repented, they shall all be received into the kingdom of heaven at the day of judgment; but many are relieved, even before the day of judgment, by the prayers,1 alms, and fasting of the living, and more especially by the celebration of masses. That fiery and foul-smelling pit which you saw is the mouth of hell, into which whosoever falls shall never be delivered to all eternity. This flowery place, in which you see these most beautiful young people, so resplendent and joyful, is that into which the souls of those are received who depart the body in good works, but who are not so perfect as to deserve to be immediately admitted into the kingdom of heaven; yet they shall all, at the day of judgment, have the vision of Christ, and enter into the joys of His kingdom. But they who are perfect in thought, word, and deed, as soon as they depart the body immediately

1 Plummer compares Dante, Purg. 3. 140-1.

enter into the kingdom of heaven, in the neighborhood whereof that place is where you heard the sound of sweet singing, with the odor of sweetness and splendor of light. As for you, who are now to return to the body, and live again among men, if you will endeavor strictly to examine your actions, and direct your speech and behavior in righteousness and simplicity, you shall after death have a place of residence among these joyful troops of blessed souls which you behold; for when I left you for a while, it was to know how you were to be disposed of." When he had said this to me, I much abhorred returning to my body, being delighted with the sweetness and beauty of the place I beheld, and with the company of those I saw in it. However, I durst not ask my guide any questions; but in the meantime, on a sudden, I know not how, I find myself alive among men.'

Now these and other things which this man of God saw, he would not relate to slothful persons and such as lived carelessly, but only to those who, being terrified with the dread of torments, or delighted with the hope of everlasting joys, wished to make use of his words to advance in piety. In the neighborhood of his cell lived one Hæmgils, a monk, eminent too in the priesthood, as his good works alone might testify. This man is still living, and leading a solitary life in Ireland, supporting his extreme old age on bread and cold water. He often went to that man, and by asking numerous questions, heard from him all the particulars of what he had seen when separated from his body; by whose recital I also came to the knowledge of the few facts which I have briefly set down. He also related his visions to King Aldfrith,1 a man

1 Whom Bright calls (Early Eng. Church Hist., p. 338) the first of our literary kings,' and Plummer (2. 263) 'the philosopher-king.'

most learned in all respects, and was by him so willingly and attentively heard that at his request he was admitted into the monastery above mentioned, and received the monastic tonsure; and the said king, when he happened to be in those parts, very often went to hear him. At that time the religious and modest abbot and priest, Æthelwald,1 presided over the monastery, and now with worthy conduct occupies the episcopal see of the church of Lindisfarne.

He had a private place of residence assigned him in that monastery, where he might freely apply himself to the service of his Creator in continual prayer. And as that place lay on the bank of the river, he was wont to go frequently into the same for the chastening of his body, and many times to dip quite under the water, and to continue saying Psalms or prayers therein as long as he could endure it, standing still sometimes up to the middle, and sometimes to the neck in water; and when he went out from thence ashore, he never took off his cold and frozen garments till they grew warm and dry on his body. And when in winter the half-broken pieces of ice were swimming about him, which he had sometimes broken in order to make room to stand or dip himself in the river, those who beheld it would say, 'It is wonderful, brother Dryhthelm (for so he was called), that you are able to endure such violent cold'; but he would simply answer, for he was a man of simple wit and moderate nature, I have seen greater cold.' And when they would

1 He became Bishop of Lindisfarne ca. 721, and died in 740, or earlier. As bishop, he provided a cover for the famous Lindisfarne Gospels, or Durham Book (Brit. Mus. Cott. Nero D, IV); on this see Cook, Biblical Quotations in Old English Prose Writers 1 (1898) xliv ff. Plummer says of it (2. 298): 'No facsimile can give any idea of the exquisite beauty of the original. It is the fairest MS. that has ever come under my notice.'

say, 'It is strange that you will endure such austerity'; he would reply, 'I have seen greater austerity.' Thus he continued, through an indefatigable desire of heavenly bliss, to subdue his aged body, with the addition of daily fasting, till the day of his being called away; promoting the salvation of many by his words and manner of life. J. A. GILES, revised

SELECTIONS FROM THE OLD ENGLISH
CHRONICLE

Four versions of the famous series of chronological records known as the Old English Chronicle have been preserved in seven manuscripts. These were kept in various places, such as Canterbury, Winchester, and Peterborough, but the earlier portions of them (to the year 892) are all closely related to one original draft. This, in turn, was probably based on earlier local chronicles, combined and supplemented by order of King Alfred. The entries begin with an account of the invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar, sixty years before the incarnation of Christ,' but this, like the notes immediately following (A.D. 1-448), is a comparatively late interpolation. Nothing of any length or particular value antedates 449, and it is doubtful whether any contemporary entries were made in the original chronicles before 600. The early records depend largely on Bede's History. The last entry is under date of 1154.

A peculiarity of the records of the tenth century is the occasional insertion of poems, chief among which are The Battle of Brunanburh and The Battle of Maldon (Select Translations from Old English Poetry, Boston, 1902, pp. 26, 31). Only occasionally, however, does the Chronicle rise above the plane of bald prose. Plummer says in his masterly edition, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1892–9): In their laconic annals much was implied, and little expressed. . . To posterity they present merely a name or two, as of a battle-field and a victor, but to the men of the day they suggested a thousand particulars, which they, in their comrade-life, were in the habit of recollecting and

6

putting together. . . .' And again : 'A numerical list of years was prepared, with a blank space, generally only a single line, opposite each number. The smallness of the space shows that nothing great was designed, but only a year-mark to know and distinguish the year by' (2. xxi–xxii).

The Chronicle shares with Bede's Ecclesiastical History the distinction of being the chief source for the history of England before the twelfth century. Even so early a writer as Asser translates from the Chronicle (cf. pp. 89 ff.). A modern translation may be found in Thorpe's edition (Rolls Series, London, 1861), or one by Giles, in the Bohn series, from which, with occasional changes, our extracts are taken.

A.D. 1. Octavianus reigned fifty-six years, and in the forty-second year of his reign Christ was born.

A.D. 33. This year Christ was crucified, being from the beginning of the world about five thousand two hundred and twenty-six years.

A.D. 199. In this year the Holy Rood was found.

A.D. 449. This year Martianus and Valentinus 1 succeeded to the empire, and reigned seven years. And in their days Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, landed in Britain on the shore which is called Ebbsfleet2; at first in aid of the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them. King Vortigern gave them land in the southeast of this country, on condition that they should fight against the Picts. Then they fought against the Picts, and had the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles, desired a larger force to be sent, and caused them to be told the worthlessness of the Britons and the excellences of the land.3

1 For Valentinianus.

2 Very possibly the landing-place of Augustine also; see Stanley, Hist. Mem. Canterbury, pp. 14-30.

3 Cf. Bede's account, p. 14, on which the whole passage is obviously based. The entry continues with an account of the various tribes, and of the ancestry of Hengist and Horsa, much as in Bede.