may add, more rational, could have been uttered by St. Augustine himself.-2. But few of our readers will subscribe to the same conformity of his opinions with Scripture, or with reason, when he writes on the Eucharist," Every day does Christ wash us from our sins, when the memory of his blessed passion is renewed at the altar, — when the substance of the bread and the wine, through the ineffable sanctification of the Holy Ghost, is changed into the sacrament of His body and blood; so that, while his body is no longer pierced, and his blood no longer shed by the hands of unbelievers, to their utter destruction, both are received in the mouth of the faithful to their salvation.' In other passages he speaks of that "great and terrible sacrament;" and earnest are the directions which he gives for the purification of the conscience and of the heart before any one should dare to approach "the holy mysteries." Whether this doctrine be or be not conformable with that of the apostolic church, is no concern of ours: as historians, we simply record the fact that it was that of Bede, as we have elsewhere shown that it was universally that of the Anglo-Saxon church.*-3. Of his belief in the efficacy of prayers for the dead, we have seen proof enough in the concluding moments of his life t; and in one of his homilies he expressly declares his opinion that men guilty of venial crimes " post mortem severe castigandi excipiuntur flammis ignis Purgatorii ;" and that they must be punished until the judgment day, unless "amicorum fidelium precibus, eleemosynis, jejuniis, fletibus, hostiæ salutaris oblationibus, absoluti pœnis.”—4. And he permits images to be placed in churches for quickening the devotion of the faithful,- as memorials of the saints, martyrs, and confessors, who through God's grace have triumphed over sin. That relics, too, were used in the monastery where he breathed his last, we have before seen. In fact, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt that Bede * See Vol. III. p. 327, &c., + See p. 97. of the present Volume. held the same doctrines, and observed the same discipline as the Roman catholics of the present day. To deny this fact, betrays either great ignorance or great want of candour. Far wiser would it be to confess the truth, and to prove - nor do we think it would be difficult to prove that those doctrines and this discipline were not received in the ancient ages of Christianity; that some of them are as opposite to ancient authority as they are to reason." But Bede is a poet as well as a divine. In this capacity, however, he is far inferior to St. Aldhelm: in fact, he wants entirely the two requisites of the art, — fancy and pathos. We give an extract in the original; nor need we translate it, as the substance has before been given, in the Life of St. Cuthbert. † "Parvulus interea subiti discrimina morbi 'Obsequiis nunc ipse tuis adsistere promptus Bede in Evangeliam S. Joannis, cap. 6. (Opera, tom. v. p. 508, &c.). Ejusdem Homilia in Joannem (apud Martene, Collectio Anecdotorum, tom. v. p. 323.). Ejusdem, De Tabernaculis, lib. 1. (Opera, tom. iv. p. 840.), necnon Homilia in Epiphan. (Opera, vii. 320.), necnon De Templo Salomanis (Opera, viii. 40.). Ceillier, Histoire des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques, tom. xviii. 28.) + Vol. III. p. 198. Beda, Vita S. Cuthberti, p. 269. edit. Smith. The eighth century had other literary names. Of the chief, St. Boniface, we have already given a biographical sketch.* Epistles, however, are the only works remaining of him. They are written in a respectable style for the period; but as literary productions they have little interest, however useful they may be towards a history of the times. A far greater name is Alcuin, of whom we have also spoken.† This celebrated man was not, as is generally supposed, the pupil of Bede, since he was born in the very year (735), of that writer's death. As we have before alluded to the general character of his works, we shall do no more in the present place, than give a poetical extract. We may, however, observe, that both the prose and poetry of Alcuin are distinguished for an elegance, often for a justness of conception, not to be found in any other writer of the age. The faults, indeed of that age,— rhetorical pomp, puerile conceits, and absence of taste,-adhered to him as well as to the rest. Of his manner, we subjoin by way of example his farewell address to his cell, which is one of the most pleasing of his productions: "O, mea cella, mihi habitatio dulcis, amata Vol. II. p. 195. + Ibid. p. 247. How came this fact to escape Mr. Turner, who, in several places (Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii. p. 410. 414. 416.), asserts that Alcuin was the pupil of Bede? A worse anachronism, for which there is no excuse, is the statement that John Erigena was also a pupil of the Northumbrian luminary, the friend at once of Bede, Charlemagne, and Alfred—that is, the friend of the men who died in 735, 814, and 901 respectively! In te temporibus certis laus sancta Tonantis Nil manet æternum, nil immutabile vere est ; Nos miseri! cur te fugitivum mundus amamus? Which we may thus render: Beloved cell, retirement's sweet abode! And fragrant with the apple-bending bough, The books of holy wisdom were explained. When grateful songs to Heaven's Great King arose. * Duchesne, Opera Alcuini, p. 1731. No more beneath thy classic shade recline Do we, blind mortals, love thee? With Alcuin ends the glory of Latin literature during the Anglo-Saxon period. The invasion of the North men, and other causes, arrested the progress of th national intellect, and, indeed, replunged it into the barbarism from which it had so painfully emerged. In vain did Alfred strive to restore the study of letters: his example, his princely rewards, had but a momentary effect; for in the time of St. Odo ignorance again brooded over the land. "Alfred the Great had attempted to restore the empire of letters after the devastations of the Danes; but his success was temporary, and the Saxons speedily relapsed into their former ignorance. The spirit of Alfred seemed to be revived in Dunstan*, and the labours of the bishop were more fortunate than those of the king. Long before he ascended the metropolitan throne, as soon as he could command the obedience of a small society of monks, he meditated the revival of learning; the knowledge which he had acquired from the Irish ecclesiastics, he liberally imparted to his pupils; and from his monastery of Glastonbury diffused a spirit of improvement throughout the Saxon church. Ethelwald imbibed the sentiments of his master; and the bishop would often descend from his more important functions to the humble employment of instructing youth in the first rudiments of grammar, and of interrogating them respecting their progress in the knowledge of the Latin tongue. From his school at Winchester masters were distributed to the different monasteries; and the reputa * See Dunstan's Life, Vol. III. |