in 782, before the Frankish conqueror'. In that wonder of his day, as in Xenophon, Cæsar, and our own immortal Alfred, the glare of splendid military talents was tempered by the mild lustre of literary taste. Charlemain, accordingly, had no sooner secured the services of Alcuin, than he sought profit from them personally. The potent and victorious chief, not only founded a school in his palace, under Alcuin's direction, but also became himself a pupil in it. Listening also to the learned Anglo-Saxon's judicious counsel, he rendered monastic foundations, under his control, efficient seminaries for spreading useful knowledge. Thus, all his extensive territories felt most beneficially the peaceful influence of a foreign scholar. Charlemain gratefully acknowledged, in grants of conventual dignities, the services thus rendered to his people and himself3. But Alcuin pined for home his humble spirit merely sighed for pious exercises and learned labours, which he would fain have plied amid scenes familiar to his youthful eye. At length he was allowed, in 790, the pleasure of revisiting his native isle, to negotiate a treaty between Charlemain and the Mercian Offa'. The justly-celebrated Frank urged repeatedly his quick return; Alcuin,

1 LORENZ. 14.

to a ready and skilful use of the pen. Neither was he in his youth instructed in the Latin language: he understood it, indeed, as it was then commonly spoken in Gaul, but not according to rule, and the usage of the ancient Latin authors."

2 "He was brought up after the ordinary manner of the French nobility, being taught the use of arms, and the usual athletic exercises of hunting, riding, and swimming. Intellectual cultivation was considered of so little im--Ib. 18. portance for the future sovereign of a warlike people, that he did not even learn to write; and notwithstanding all the pains which he took in after-life to supply the deficiency, he never could attain

He had the abbeys of Ferrieres, and St. Lupus, at Troyes, assigned to him for defraying his necessary expenses.—Ib. 60, 257. • Ib. 65.

however, was no less eager to remain, and nearly three years elapsed before he crossed again the sea, to live in splendour, yet in exile. Never afterwards could he gain permission to behold his beloved country: Charlemain even felt impatiently his absence from the court. At last he was gratified by an unwilling license of retirement to his abbey of St. Martin, at Tours, conferred upon him in 796, where soon assembled, from every quarter, but especially from England, a crowd of students'. On the termination of his religious and industrious career, he had attained the summit of literary fame'. The far more extended information of later times has, it is true, rendered his works valuable only as evidences and monuments. Long after his own day, however, Alcuin's name shone with a lustre that knew no eclipse, and which it could justly challenge. Nor ought it ever to be forgotten, that his powerful talents, directed to every known branch of learning, his unwearied industry, his holy piety, dispelled importantly the intellectual darkness of a barbarous age.

A zealous missionary, born at Crediton, in Devonshire, acknowledged his intellectual obligations to Rome, by an active and unusual assertion of the papal supremacy. This eminent ecclesiastic, originally named Winifrid, received a monastic education in his own country. When more than thirty, a noble impulse of piety led him to emulate his countryman, Willibrord, in

1 Acta SS. Ord. Benedict. iv. but it is commonly and probably 169, 179. placed in or about 735. The most complete and learned account of his life is that by Froben, princeabbot of St. Emeram, at Ratisbon, prefixed to the edition of his works printed there, in 1777, in 2 vols. fol.

* Alcuin died in 804, at Tours. Hence it is hardly possible that he could have been Bede's disciple, which has been sometimes said. Bede died in 735. The date of Alcuin's birth is unknown,

preaching the Gospel among the continental pagans'. Considerable success having waited on his labours in Batavia, he sought allowably the favourite recreation. of a pilgrimage to Rome. He was greeted there with most gratifying applause, and sent back to the scenes of his former usefulness with recommendatory letters from the pope. In a subsequent visit to the pontifical city, he found his vanity further tempted, being consecrated bishop of the Germans, and distinguished by the name of Boniface. Afterwards he was complimented by the pall, and appointed papal legate. In filling this latter office he displayed all his wonted ardour and activity, even going so far as to procure a synodical submission of Germany to the papal see-an unexpected return for their flattering civilities, highly delightful to the Romans3.

1 BED. v. 11. p. 407. Willi- His archiepiscopal see was Mentz. brord, after several enterprising -MOSHEIM, Cent. 8. ch. i. new journeys with his brother mission- ed. ii. 117; note. CAVE, Hist. aries, returned into Friesland, Lit. 481. where his preaching had already been very successful, in 693. He was consecrated afterwards to the see of Utrecht, and he died among the Batavians advanced in age. MOSHEIM, Cent. 7. ch. i. vol. ii. See the note, new ed. p. 65.

2 Boniface passed over into Friesland in 715. He was consecrated bishop by Gregory II. in 723, and made archbishop in 738. In his old age he returned to Friesland, being desirous of ending his days amid a people now relapsing, yet endeared to him by early success. He was, however, murdered there by the barbarous inhabitants in 755. He has been canonized, and commonly designated as the Apostle of Germany.

3 "Decrevimus autem in nostro synodali conventu, et confessi sumus fidem catholicam, et unitatem et subjectionem Romanæ ecclesiæ fine tenus vitæ nostræ velle servare Sancto Petro, et vicario ejus velle subjici, synodum per omnes annos congregare, metropolitanos pallia ab illâ sede quærere, et per omnia præcepta Petri canonicè sequi desiderare, ut inter oves sibi commendatas numeremur. Et isti confessioni universi consensimus, et subscripsimus, et ad corpus S. Petri, principis apostolorum direximus; quod gratulando clerus et pontifex Romanos suscepit."Epist. Bonifacii, Archiep. Mogunt. ad Cuthb. Archiep. Cantuar. SPELMAN, Conc. i. 237. WILK. i.

upon

Boniface now seems to have become bent lowering the tone of his native country's independence, by winning it over to a similar submission. He was a personal friend of Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury, and to that prelate he transmitted a copy of the canons enacted by his own obsequious synod, together with a letter. In this, like too many religious reformers, he lowers the character of those whose opposition he was anxious to overcome. An epistle of like import was also addressed by him to Ethelbald, king of the Mercians. From these communications, it is plain enough that the Anglo-Saxons were abundantly tainted by the gross impurities of a barbarous age; nor do ascetic pretensions. among them seem frequently to have been much else than a cloak for lasciviousness. Intercourse between the sexes appears to have been most imperfectly regulated by matrimonial ties; and the chastity of nuns was evidently not more inviolable than that of their country-women generally'. For the formal condemnation of such offensive and pernicious immorality, solemn synodical authority was probably desirable. Cuthbert accordingly procured the meeting of a numerous council at Cloveshoo3, in which the Mercian Ethelbald acted as president".

91. LABB. et Coss Conc. vi. col. Evidences of Christ-church, Can1544. terbury. Spelman, however, refers it to 747, which is most probably the correct date, being that standing in the preamble to the acts of the council.

"Et adhuc, quod pejus esset, qui nobis narrant, adjiciunt, quod hoc scelus ignominiæ, maximè cum sanctis monialibus, et sacratis Deo virginibus, per monasterium commissum sit."- Epist. Bonif. ad Æthelbald. R. SPELM. Conc. i. Cuthberto, archiepiscopo Dorober233. WILK. i. 88.

3 "Præsidente eidem concilio Ethelbaldo, rege Merciorum, cum

niæ." (Evidentiæ Ecclesiæ Christi Cant. X. Script. 2209.) The Saxon Chronicle merely says that Ethelbald was there, which is also said in the Preamble. He probably

I

Before this assembly, two admonitory writings of Pope Zachary were read, and then explained in the vernacular tongue': the deliberators abstained, however, from any submission to the Roman see. In several particulars his countrymen consented to follow Boniface; but they patriotically disregarded his example when it would have led them to compromise their dignity as a nation, by professing submission to a foreign ecclesiastical authority".

The canons of Cloveshoo are, in fact, adapted chiefly for the correction of existing irregularities in morals and discipline. Their general tenor is highly favourable to the Roman Church, because they enjoin a strict uniformity with her offices and usages: they establish, however, a strong case against it. Priests were to learn how to construe the creed, the Lord's prayer, the offices of baptism, and the mass, for the sake of explaining these forms vernacularly'. At that period, Latin probably was far from unintelligible, even among the populace, in

acted as a sort of chairman; but as the business was entirely ecclesiastical, the lead most likely was taken by Cuthbert, the archbishop.

1

"The French Benedictine monks ingenuously confess that Boniface was an over-zealous partisan of the Roman pontiff, and attributed more authority to him "Malmesbury saith, that this than was just and fitting. Their council was opened with the letters words, in their Histoire Littéraire of Pope Zachary; but it does not de la France, tom. iv. p. 106, are appear what were the contents, if as follow: 'Il exprime son dévoueany such were; but by the arch- ment pour le S. Siège quelquefois bishop's despatch of the canons of en des termes qui ne sont pas assez this council to Boniface, and not proportionés à la dignité du caracto Zachary, it seems most likely tère épiscopal.""-MOSHEIM, Cent. that these were some epistles of viii. ch. i. note. Other notes Zachary to Boniface; and most in the new edition of Mosheim probably those congratulating the fully discuss Boniface's character. union of the French bishops to ii. 119. the see of Rome."-INETT. Hist. Engl. Ch. 175.

3 Can. Con. Cloves. 10. SPELM. i. 248. WILK. i. 96.