Style of the Venerable Bede.

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some howl, some groan, some burn and desire to have rest, but find it not, because souls can never die.”

Again:

"And after this he saw between heaven and earth the soul of a sinner howling betwixt seven devils that had on that day departed from the body."

Then in another passage :

"And Paul demanded of the angel, How many kinds of punishment there were in hell? And the angel said, There are a hundred and forty-four thousand; and if there were a hundred eloquent men, each having four iron tongues, that spoke from the beginning of the world, they could not reckon up the torments of hell.”

The preacher then draws the practical conclusion :—

"But let us, beloved brethren, hearing of these so great torments, be converted to our Lord, that we may be able to reign with the angels."

This good but credulous man was never canonized; but he obtained the title of "VENERABLE" by the voluntary homage of his contemporaries, and from the utility of his works; a tribute much more honourable to his memory. The monks, however, not satisfied with such respectable cause for the appellation, have favoured us with two accounts of its origin. "When blind," say some of these authors, "he preached to a heap of stones, thinking himself in a church, and the stones were so much affected by his eloquence and piety, that they answered, Amen, venerable Bede, Amen." While others assert that his scholars being desirous of placing upon his tomb an epitaph in rhyme, agreeably to the usage of the times, wrote"Hâc sunt in fossa,

Bedæ presbyteri ossa,"

which not meeting complete approbation, the much-vexed poet determined to fast until he should succeed better. Accordingly, he expunged the word presbyteri, and in vain attempted to substitute one more sonorous and consistent with metre, until falling fast asleep, an angel filled up the blank thus left, and rendered the couplet thus:

"Hâc sunt in fossa,

Bedæ venerabilis ossa.'
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Our good historian is frequently styled ADMIRABLE BEDE, as well as the VENERABLE BEDE, as already mentioned. The chair in which he composed his ecclesiastical history is still preserved at Jarrow. Some few years since this chair was entrusted to the custody of a person who had been accustomed to nautical affairs, and who used, by a whimsical mistake, very excusable in a sailor, to exhibit it as a curiosity which formerly belonged to the great ADMIRAL BEDE, upon whose exploits he ventured several encomiums consistent with the naval character.

ST BONIFACE.

Among the few remarkable preachers of the AngloSaxon era, Saint Boniface stands foremost. He was born in Devonshire, about 680. He was the apostle of Friesland and Central Germany. After labouring with great success for upwards of thirty years among the half-Christian, half-heathen natives of that region, he was slain by the Frisians near Utrecht. He founded four cathedrals in Germany. He first preached to the fishermen of the Isle of Wight, where the village of Bonchurch still recalls his memory. A magnificent basilica is dedicated by his name at Munich. It is the exact model of a court of

Bishops Elfric and Wulfstan.

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justice of the age of Constantine, and is filled with vast frescoes representing the principal events of the martyr's life.

BISHOP ELFRIC

Must not be overlooked in any work which touches upon English sermons. He is said to have been the son of an Earl of Kent. While yet a youth, he assumed the habit of the Benedictines in the monastery of Abingdon. In 988 he was made Abbot of St Albans, and shortly after was promoted to the Bishopric of Wilton. In 994, he was translated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, where he died, Nov. 16, 1005. He was distinguished not only for learning, but for zeal in the spread of knowledge. He was the first in the country that ever issued formally a volume of sermons. They were partly translated from the Latin fathers, and partly compiled from homilies in German and Anglo-Saxon, and they were the more valuable because few men could preach.

BISHOP WULFSTAN

Was an eminent Anglo-Saxon prelate in the tenth and eleventh centuries. During the earlier part of his episcopal career, the city of Bristol was a great slave-mart. Rows of young people, of both sexes, and of conspicuous beauty, were tied together with ropes, and placed for sale in the public market. They were exported to Ireland, the young women having been previously prostituted. Wulfstan sometimes stayed two months amongst the ignorant and half-heathen population of the city, preaching every Lord's day. In process of time, he induced them to abandon their

C

wicked trade, and they became an example to all England.

When Wulfstan was consecrated Bishop of Sherbourne, St Dunstan strongly advised him not to let his tongue cease to preach. There was the greater necessity for this counsel, as so few were experts in the divine art.

CHAPTER III.

THE PREACHERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, DOWN TO THE
PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION.

T

WO able works have been recently published on this subject; one by the late learned Dr Neale of Sackville College, entitled "Mediæval Preachers and Medieval Preaching: A Series of Extracts translated from the Sermons of the Middle Ages, with Notes and an Introduction." The other is, "Post-Mediæval Preachers; Some Account of the most celebrated Preachers of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, with Outlines of their Sermons, and Specimens of their Style. By S. Baring Gould, M.A." Both these volumes will amply repay perusal. They are full of helping and suggestive matter, ready to the mind and pen of the weary priest, who, after a day's toil in the distracting round of minute and inconclusive, but not the less necessary clerical duty, sits down in his study to prepare a sermon. They will strengthen and refresh his soul, like the upper and nether springs. Nor are they less rich in interest to the general reader.

The records which have been handed down to us of sermons delivered during the middle ages, would, upon a slight and superficial survey, conduct us to diame