CHAP. IV.

State of the English Church, from the Conversion of the Saxons till the Reformation.

NOTHING has a greater tendency to debase the human character, than the indulgence of superstition. When the mind is enslaved, the captivity of the body follows; and civil liberty becomes extinguished with the rights of conscience. Under the dominion of the Saxons, the clergy continued to invent new devices for rivetting the chains of ecclesiastical tyranny, until they rose superior to the civil power. One of the most powerful engines for this purpose was the assembling of national councils. In the eighth century, they began to advance a divine right to a tenth of the possessions of the laity, as also an exemption from the jurisdiction of the civil courts; but it was long before the civil power seconded their claims. The Latin language had been generally introduced into public worship; and as the people could not understand the prayers, they were allowed to attach any meaning to them, and to pray in their hearts for what they pleased. The sale of relics continued a very gainful trade to the clergy, as well as a fruitful source of imposition upon the people; for these, not being able to distinguish between the great toe of a saint and that of a sinner, often suffered for their credulity,

During the long night of ignorance and folly that now prevailed, one bright luminary arose to shed a transient lustre over the nation. The immortal ALFRED ascended the throne of the Saxons in 872. Under the weak government of his predecessors, the barbarous Danes, attracted by the riches concealed in the monasteries, had made frequent inroads upon the kingdom. To expel them was the first object of Alfred's care, and notwithstanding the difficulties he had to encounter from a fierce enemy, and a priest-ridden people, yet such were the resources of his mind, that he was enabled

to overcome them all, and to restore peace, order, and good government to his dominions. That wise prince divided the kingdom into countries, framed a body of laws civil and ecclesiastical, instituted juries, and laid the foundation of parliaments. Himself learned, he was the great patron and restorer of learning. With this view, he invited many learned foreigners into his kingdom, and founded an university at Oxford. So universal was the ignorance which then prevailed, that this excellent prince complained bitterly, that from the Humber to the Thames, there was not a priest who understood the liturgy in his mother tongue; and that from the Thames to the sea, there was not one who knew how to translate the easiest piece of Latin. Alfred's private charities were as useful as they were extensive; being directed to ameliorate the minds as well as bodies of his subjects. By a judicious distribution of his time, he found means to fulfil the minutest duties of his station. Eight hours every day he allotted to acts of devotion; eight hours to public affairs; and as many to sleep, study, and necessary refreshment. Alfred died in the year 900, in the 52nd year of his age, being, without doubt, the greatest prince that ever sat upon the English, or perhaps any other throne.*

The sun of England's glory set with the death of Alfred, and an age of brutish ignorance succeeded. During that dismal period, the clergy had sufficient opportunity to extend their dominion over the people, and they could invent nothing too gross for the other to believe. The constitutions of Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, published in 943, display arrogance enough. "I strictly command and charge, says he, that no man presume to lay tax on the possessions of the clergy, who are the sons of God, and the sons of God ought to be free from all taxes in every kingdom. If any man dares to disobey the discipline of the church in this particular, he is more wicked and impudent than the soldiers who crucified Christ. I command the king, the princes, and

all in authority, to obey with great humility the archbishops and bishops; for they have the keys of the kingdom of heaven!!!"* This pattern of meekness was succeeded after a short interval, by the ever memorable Dunstan, who, in the grace of humility came not at all behind his predecessor. The history of this man affords a lively picture of the dedegraded state to which the English were then reduced; and will afford some amusement to the reader.

DUNSTAN was descended from a noble family in Wessex, and educated in the Abbey of Glastonbury. There he studied so hard that it threw him into a violent fever, which brought him to the very point of death. The monks tell us, that when the whole family was standing around his bed, dissolved in tears, and expecting every moment to see him expire, an angel came from heaven in a dreadful storm, and gave him a medicine, which suddenly restored him to perfect health. Dunstan, starting from his bed, made immediately for the church, to return thanks for his recovery, but, the devil surrounded by a multitude of black dogs, meeting him by the way, endeavoured to obstruct his progress. This would have terrified a less courageous person than Dunstan, who pronouncing a charm, and brandishing a stick, put the devil and his dogs to flight. As the church doors were shut, the saint was conveyed by an angel through the roof, and let down upon the floor, where he performed his devotions. This favourite of heaven is said to have been a good proficient in some arts that seemed rather foreign to his profession: such as music, painting, and engraving; also joiner's work, turning, and smithery. King Athelstan, to whom he was introduced when very young, was so charmed with his person and accomplishments, as to employ him in several affairs of importance. At leisure hours, he would entertain the king and his courtiers with playing on the harp, or some other musical instrument; and now and then he wrought a miracle. But this operated to his disadvantage, for his old enemy the devil,

* Spelman Concil. tom. i. p. 416.

having persuaded the king, through some envious persons, that his favourite was a magician, he lost the royal favour; and retiring from court, became a monk at Glastonbury. There, he alternately amused himself with his devotions and his forge. It was on a certain evening, while busily engaged at the latter, that the devil, in the likeness of a man, thrust his head in at the window of his cell; but the saint taking no notice of him, the arch fiend presented himself in the more bewitching form of a beautiful woman, and began to converse with him in a manner that roused the indignation of the holy blacksmith, who, putting up a secret ejaculation, snatched from the fire his red hot tongs, and seizing the devil with them by the nose, squeezed it with all his strength. This made his infernal majesty roar at such a rate, that he awoke and terrified all the people for many miles around. After this adventure, Dunstan was recalled to court by king Edmund, who bestowed upon him the rich abbey of Glastonbury, and honoured it with many peculiar privileges. He stood high in the favour of that prince, but much higher in that of his successor, king Edred, to whom he was confessor, chief confident, and prime minister. His court influence he employed in favour of the Benedictine monks, and having the royal treasury at his command, lavished it upon churches and monasteries, till the crown was left in a state of indigence. This raised the resentment of the next king, who stripped him of his preferments, and drove him into exile. The throne being afterwards usurped by Edgar, Dunstan was restored to all his honours, and raised to the see of Canterbury. He now exercised sovereign power both in church and state. Much of this he exerted in promoting the celibacy of the clergy, and had recourse to the most unheard of lies and detestable cruelties. Edgar, who was a very profligate prince, and would make any sacrifice to gratify his passions, was as violent a persecutor of the married clergy as his reverence. In a flaming speech to the commissioners, who were charged with this holy warfare, he painted the married clergy in the most odious colours, and enjoined them to make every exertion

for exterminating those abominable wretches who kept wives. This furious champion for chastity, had sometime before ravished a beautiful nun of noble birth, which so offended his father confessor, Dunstan, that he enjoined him by way of penance, not to wear his crown for seven years, to build a monastery, and to persecute the married clergy with all his might: "A strange way, says Henry, of making atonement for his own libertinism, by depriving others of their most natural rights and liberties.”* As for Dunstan, he departed this life, in the 64th year of his age, A. D. 988. The following short story of this favourite of heaven, which is related with great exultation by his biographer Osborn, will give the English reader some idea of the astonishing impiety and impudence of the monks, and of the no less astonishing credulity of the people. "The most admirable, the most inestimable father Dunstan, says that author, whose perfec tions exceeded all human imagination, was admitted to be hold the mother of God, and his own mother in eternal glory for, before his death, he was carried up into heaven, to be present at the nuptials of his own mother with the eternal king, which were celebrated by the angels with the most sweet and joyous songs. When the angels reproached him for his silence on this great occasion, so honourable to his mother, he excused himself on account of his being unacquainted with those sweet and heavenly strains; but being a little instructed by the angels, he broke out into this melodious song, O King and Ruler of Nations, &c." This, reader, is a specimen of the monkish manners of writing the lives of saints. The nauseous lies may be tolerated but the shocking blasphemy is not to be exceeded, even by Moham med's visions, and night journies to heaven.

The violent and two successful zeal of Dunstan and his associates in promoting the building and endowment of so many religious houses, was very fatal to the nation; for, by this means, a spirit of irrational, unmanly superstition was

Hist. Gr. Brit. B. 2. C. 2. § 5.