found anything in the Roman or Gallican, or in any other church, which will be more pleasing to the Almighty, that you carefully select it; and infuse into the English church, which is yet new in the faith, in its leading institution, those things which you may have collected from many churches. Choose then from every church whatever things are pious, religious, and right, and collecting them as into a bundle, place them as a habit in the minds of the English."*

Closely connected with the subject of the celibacy of the clergy, was the introduction of the Benedictine rule among the monks of England. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, at the request of Dunstan, translated the Latin rule of St. Benedict into Anglo-Saxon; for this he was rewarded by Dunstan with a grant of land. Oswald, nephew of Odo, the former archbishop of Canterbury, another favourite of Dunstan, was created bishop of Worcester. Armed with the papal authority, supported and defended by the king, and aided by the willing co-operation of Ethelwold and Oswald, Dunstan proceeded with energy in his plan of reformation. The married clergy who refused to separate from their wives were forcibly driven out. Some, perhaps, were bribed into compliance. As soon as a body of monks was established in any church, large donations of land were bestowed. Folcland, as its name imports, the land of the people, nominally was vested in the king, as the representative of the state. This land he sometimes granted to individuals for life, and their occupancy for so long a period might seem to create in it a right, but which the non-possession of any power to transmit to another, caused it at their death to revert to the king. But if the consent of the king could be obtained to transfer this land to any religious institution, a charter was made, by which it was converted into bocland; it ceased to be the land of the community; it became the right of an individual subject to the decision of his will; and might be disposed of in any way that he saw fit. From the control which the clergy exer

• Bede, lib. i. c. 27. Turner's Anglo-Saxons, iii. 490. Elstob's Homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.

cised over the minds of the people, estates were often thus acquired; and being held by the security of charter, were amassed to such an extent, that, had its progress continued much longer, the monastic institutions would soon have acquired, in England, the best portion of its cultivated lands. Many of the endowments of the monasteries during the Danish invasions, and the consequent insecurity of property thereupon, had been seized upon or unjustly acquired by the nobles and other laymen. Edgar often succeeded in persuading these persons to restore the property thus acquired. In one instance, a thane having refused to give up the land he had seized, and despising the anathemas which the church freely denounced on those who usurped its treasures, the king purchased it with his own money, and restored it to the church. Thus Dunstan, whose zeal for the establishment of monasteries was excessive, and in England has never been equalled, was principally indebted to the control which he exercised over the mind of Edgar, for the establishment of forty-eight opulent Benedictine monasteries of monks and nuns in Anglo-Saxon Britain.*

To the establishment and general spread of monastic institutions, to the schools in them, and to the education therein received, may we, with some justice, attribute the tendency of the Anglo-Saxon mind towards religious literature. Hence it is, doubtless, that we have so many sermons, homilies, penitentiaries, translations of, and comments on, the Scriptures, and lives of saints, compared with the truly valuable, although meagre chronicles, and other lighter works produced in the century which preceded the Norman Conquest. Before closing this portion of our sketch, there is one individual of this period, whose varied talents shone forth with peculiar lustre, that deserves our particular notice. This was Ælfric, generally by himself styled abbot, but better known as Ælfric the grammarian.

We find two Ælfrics in Anglo-Saxon history, both living

• Palgrave's Anglo-Saxons, 249. Allen's Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative, 158, 159.

in the latter portion of the tenth century, and one of them, according to the Saxon Chronicle, died in the year 1051 or 1052 archbishop of York, at a very advanced age. Difficulties will always attend the elucidation of the characters and events of a remote period. Hence we would willingly believe that Ælfric the grammarian, whom we shall presently find so ably defending the Anglo-Saxon church against the heretical doctrines attempted to be imposed from Rome, was not the same Elfric who was the strenuous advocate of that church in the expulsion of the married clergy. It is evident from the Epistle to Sigeferth, by whomsoever written, that its author was an advocate of the celibacy of the clergy. It commences thus: "Elfric, abbot, greeteth Sigeferth friendlily. It is told me that thou sayest of me that I otherwise teach in my English writings than doth our anchoret teach, that is at home with thee. For he plainly saith that it is lawful for mass-priests to take wives, and my writings speak against this." The homilies which Ælfric selected and translated into English at Cerne were written about 990. He submitted the first forty of these to Sigeric, the then archbishop of Canterbury, by whom they were approved; and the epistle sent therewith explains the sources from whence they were drawn, and the circumstances under which, and for what purpose, they were written. Ælfric afterwards sent him forty other homilies. Both sets being authorised, were published as the Sermons of Ælfric, Priest.‡

From one of his works, the Anglo-Saxon "Treatise on the

* It is altogether foreign to the subject of this Sketch to enter on the discussion, or to attempt to identify the offices held, or the works written, by the two Elfrics. Those who are desirous of investigating the subject (and it is by no means one devoid of interest to the student of English literature) may consult Joscelin's Preface to Ælfric's Saxon Homily, 1567; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. i. 1691; A Dissection of the Saxon Chronicle, 1830; Preface to Ingram's Saxon Chronicle, 1823; and the authorities by them cited. It may incidentally be stated, that we have mention of Ælfric as Priest; as Abbot of Malmsbury; Abbot of St. Albans; Abbot of Burch, (Peterborough ;) Archbishop of York; and Archbishop of Canterbury; all of which titles it would be absurd to suppose belonged to one individual.

† Preface to Ælfric's Saxon Homily, to be spoken to the people at Easter, before they should receive the Communion. 1567.

Dissection of the Saxon Chronicle, p. 34.

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Old and New Testament," addressed in an epistolary form to Sigwerd at East Heolon," we learn several interesting particulars of his literary labours; a personal detail of the works he had written, which perhaps exists nowhere else. In one place he writes, "Thou hast oft intreated me for English Scriptures, and when I was with thee, great complaint thou madest that thou couldst get none of my writings. Now will I that thou hast at least this little, since knowledge is so acceptable to thee, and thou wilt have it rather than be altogether without my books." And in another, "Sevenfold grace he bestoweth on mankind, whereof I have already written in the English tongue." He elsewhere tells us that he had written largely of the fall of man, and the prophecies which foretold the coming of our Hælend, Christ. Having mentioned the dispersion of mankind over the face of the earth, with as many languages as leaders, he adds, "as we have written heretofore in another treatise, tending to the furtherance of our faith." After enumerating the great events recorded in the Book of Genesis, and detailing the contents of the remaining books of the Pentateuch, he adds of them, "which we have also translated into English." Of the Book of Joshua he says, "this book I also turned into English for Ethelweard, ealdorman." In addition to these he tells us that he translated the Book of Judges; a portion of the Book of Kings; the two Books of the Maccabees; the Book of Esther, "which I briefly, after my manner, translated into English ;" and the Book of Judith, "Englished according to my skill for your example, that ye men may also defend your country, by force of arms, against a foreign host." According to the same work we learn that he had written a homily on Daniel; a homily on the sufferings of Job; and of the Gospels he says, “I have written already of these four books about forty sermons and more in the English tongue." The conclusion of the epistle makes us acquainted with a trait in the manners of the age, which the evidence of history fully confirms. "When I was with thee, thou wentest about to persuade me to drink freely, and beyond my custom, as if for pleasure, but know thou, dear friend, that whoso forces another man to drink more than

he can bear, shall answer for both if any harm come thereof;"* displaying a leniency of reproof which the liberality of modern times would do well to imitate.

From the number and variety of the works of Ælfric, we must consider him, after Alfred, the principal creator of English literature. Those generally attributed to him are, an Epistle to Sigeferth; a Treatise on the Trinity, to Wulfgatus ; a Treatise on the Old and New Testament, to Sigwerd; a Latin Grammar; a Latin-Saxon Glossary; a Translation of the Latin Grammar into Anglo-Saxon; Colloquies for Boys; Rules and Customs for Monks, drawn from Æthelwold's Book of Customs, &c.; Life of Ethelwold; a portion of the Saxon Chronicle; Epistles and Homilies.†

* Elfric's Treatise of the Old and New Testament, pub. by L'Isle, 1623. † For a particular account of Ælfric's works, see Wanley's Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon MSS.