310

ARCHBISHOP ÆLFRIC.

Æthelwold, and Wulstan.' Yet there was one Saxon in the tenth century (A. D. 960-1006), who, though chiefly remembered as a divine, showed a certain esteem for profane learning. Archbishop Elfric was the author of a grammar translated from Priscian and Donatus, of a glossary of Latin colloquial terms, of a hand-book of Latin conversation, and perhaps of a manual of astronomy. Society does not rise beyond the elements of learning, and the primate, under Ethelred, descends lower in the reconstruction of knowledge than even Alfred needed to stoop.

The appliances of learning differed widely in extent at different epochs, but were always insufficient. Still the library at York, which Alcuin has described, would have been thought good many centuries later. It contained the principal fathers, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, and Chrysostom; among poets, Virgil, Statius, and Lucan; and of other writers, Aristotle, Cicero, Pliny, and Boetius. It was strong in grammarians; but the list of historians is scanty, Orosius, Trogus Pompeius, and Bede being the best known. The frequent quotations in Bede, Aldhelm, and Alcuin, prove that other standard authors, Horace, Ovid, Lucretius, and Lucan, were widely read; Bede, at least, possessed a knowledge of Greek literary history; and Greek words are quoted to illustrate rules of grammar, or interspersed in treatises and charters with a frequency

LIBRARIES AND LETTERS.

311

that shows how long a smattering of the language must have been retained. During the eighth century, England was even able to export books. After the Danish invasion, things changed, and instances of private libraries, such as that of one Athelstan, under Egbert, who possessed ten volumes of his own, are not to be looked for under Alfred. Yet, in the early part of the eleventh century, bishop Leofric gave sixty volumes to the church of Exeter. One of these, the "Codex Exoniensis," is the chief source of our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The other volumes are mostly theological, but comprise Persius and Statius, with Porphyry, Isidore, Orosius, and Boetius.' While a single individual was able to accumulate such extensive stores of learning, the wealthy abbey of Croyland possessed, in a. D. 1091, three hundred large, and four hundred small volumes, which it assuredly did not owe to the Norman invaders. It is probable that the monastic revival had already borne fruit in promoting the transcription of manuscripts; the monks were at once more learned and had more leisure for such occupations than the secular clergy. A canon enacted under Edgar, which enjoins that no priest receive another's scholar without permission, and the fact that parish churches were often used as schools, are evidence that some general education was coveted and given. Yet these instances taken alone would give too favourable an idea of the state of learning. A single active abbot might create a library.

2

2

1 Biog. Ang. Sax., pp. 37, 38.

Ingulfus, Gale, vol. i. p. 98.

3 Canons enacted under K. Edgar X; A. S. Laws, ii. p. 247. Wright's Domestic Manners and Sentiments, p. 119. Compare Ingulf's account

3

of his going backwards and forwards to school, (Gale, vol. i. p. 62), and Orderic's statement that he was put under the care of the noble priest Siward, "litteris erudiendus," (vol. ii. p. 301).

312

NEED OF LITERARY RENAISSANCE.

The highest laymen were ignorant of writing, and often, probably, of reading, down to the latest times of the Saxon monarchy; they sign charters with a cross.' Even the knowledge of those who served as notaries to the witan and other gemots must commonly have been mechanical and unintelligent. Above all, such knowledge as there was, was rapidly petrifying; opinions were received and taught with Chinese docility; the country needed to be roused from its insular apathy by the shock of invasion, to bring up questions of law and right, by a larger acquaintance with the continent, with philosophy, and with the Pandects.

"When we consider how improbable it is that any of the witnesses either did or could write his

own name," &c. Kemble's Saxons in England; Cod. Dip., vol. i. p. xcviii.

CHAPTER XX.

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH.

RELATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE. POSITION OF THE CLERGY. CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND INQUISITIONAL POWERS. IDEALIZATIONS OF PEACE AND WAR. INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH ON PURITY OF LIFE. CHRISTIAN CHARITY. KOSMICAL THEORIES OF A FUTURE Life. MYTHOLOGICAL PHASE OF INTELLECT. MIRACLES. RESULTS OF A BELIEF IN THE SUPernatural. COMPULSORY PROFESSION OF CHRISTIANITY.

TH

ment.

HE Anglo-Saxon Church was missionary in its beginnings, monastic in its organization, and aristocratic by its connection with the king and chief nobles. The traces of its foreign origin were preserved in its filial connection with Rome. The monks and canons of the first diocesan cities remained, throughout Anglo-Saxon history, the centres of Church governTithes were paid to the bishop, and he licensed the confessional. In general, bishops and abbots were drawn from the highest families of the kingdom. This connection with the nobility associated the Church, in England beyond any other country, with the duties of civil government. By the practice which gradually prevailed, the Church might be said to exist separate from the State, but the State was interpenetrated by the Church. The synods, from an early time, adjudicated in civil cases where Church property was concerned. Towards the end of the monarchy they ob

314

FUNCTIONS OF THE CHURCH,

tained the right of punishing priests who had offended against the criminal law; and this privilege was of course distinct from the feudal rights of judgment which the higher clergy possessed over their dependants. Moreover, although their lands were compelled to do military service to the State, the appearance of the clergy themselves in armour was repugnant to the better feelings of their countrymen; Odo appeared in the field to pray; Turketul even headed the London militia, himself slaying no man, although in the thick of the fight; but when bishop Leofgar "forsook his chrism and rood," and "took to spear and shield," the Saxon historian recorded it as a scandal." The bishop was named by the king and witan; ranking with an ealdorman, he took part in the great council of the nation, and presided conjointly over the seir-gemot. By a natural feeling, the minister of Christ was esteemed the proper person to see justice done between man and man, to interpose the warnings of the Church against perjury, and to superintend the ordeal; as chief of the educated class, he would speak with authority upon all questions of succession and contract; he guarded the standards of measure and weight; to him the serf

1 Cod. Dip., 184, 186, 256. Canute's Laws, S. 43; Leges Edw. Conf., 21; A. S. Laws, vol. i. pp. 401, 451.

2 Ingulf's remark (Gale, vol. iii. p. 37), that it was allowable for a clergyman to fight for his country, is against the whole spirit of the canons, and betrays Norman influences. The incidental explanation of the presence of churchmen in battles given in the Hist. Ram. is preferable: "Occubuerunt (in the battle of Assington) Ednothus, Episcopus

Dorcastriæ, et Wlfsius Abbas Ramesiæ, qui cum multis aliis religiosis, juxta morem Anglorum veterem ibidem convenerant non armis sed orationum suppetiis, pugnantem exercitum juvaturi." Gale, vol. i. p. 433 Compare p. 497. There is, however, one genuine exception in bishop Ealhstan, of Sherbourne, who went with an army against Kent (A. D. 823), and was in command at the battle of the Parrot (A.D.845). A. S. Chron.