ship of images. Now, under the name of this Egwin, we certainly have an instrument, printed in the various editions of the councils, shortly mentioning the dream, and enumerating various estates with which Evesham abbey was endowed, together with privileges claimed by the monks of that house. This paper, however, even if genuine, which it most probably is not, would make nothing for iconolatry: no mention of images occurring in it. As for the alleged council of London, Bede, who lived in the time when it is reported to have sitten, says not one word about it. No such council, therefore, in all probability, ever assembled. The papal legate also, to whom is attributed the direction of this pretended council, was Boniface; the pope who sent him over, Constantine. Now this Boniface was most probably no other than Winfrid, archbishop of Mentz, an 'Englishman, who long acted as legate of the Roman see upon the continent. But it is certain that he was never legate to Constantine. Thus the whole account is palpably nothing more than a legendary tale. Its falsity likewise appears from the facts detailed in notes 10, 11, and 12, upon the last Sermon: these being wholly inconsistent with English iconolatry, at the close of the very century which is reported to have seen its establishment. This usage, therefore, like other innovations, must be supposed to have made its way by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, until it had gained sufficient possession of the public mind to challenge a conspicuous place among the duties of piety. Spelman. Conc. 211. Innett's Orig. Anglic. I. 145. Wharton. Angl. Sacr. I. 470.

29 Oswald, king of Northumberland, upon the

R

eve of an important battle, caused a cross to be erected, in honour, Bede says, of God, and falling upon his knees before it, offered his own private prayers to the Father of mercies for success. He then exhorted all his soldiers to bend their knees, and join him in a common prayer to the living, true, and Almighty God. In all this there is nothing more than a demonstration of Oswald's anxiety to propitiate the favour of Heaven, by going into battle under a solemn profession of the Christian religion. These words of Bede, however, are amplified, perhaps, injudiciously by a homilist of later times. He makes the king say, "Come, let us fall to the cross, and pray Almighty God." Another homilist, finding probably in such language a tendency to mislead, admonishes the people that they should by no means bend to the cross itself, but only to him who hung upon it. Such admonitions, however, at length were forgotten, or explained away, and before the Normans came, the people whom they conquered had learnt to bend to the cross itself, being taught indeed to do this in the Saviour's name: a caution, possibly, not insufficient with the discerning few, but certainly useless as to the uninformed and unreflecting many. Wheloc. in Bed. p. 165.

30 Da appat re ælmihtiza god him tpa rtænene pexbredu mid azenum fingre on þam pæɲon appitene týn pond. rýnd tyn ælice beboda. Ɖæɲa porda pæɲon preo on anɲe tabulan apritene·

reofon on þære ope. Dæt Forme bebod ir. Drihten þin zod is an zod. Ɖæt oder pord is. Ne underfoh ðu þiner drihtener naman on ÿdelnýrre. Dær þridde pord is. Beo þu zemyndig

pu pone perten-dez freolsize. Dar pneo pord stodon on anɲe tabulan. On pæne one tabulan pær þforme bebod· Anpunda þinne fæder 7 þine modor. Dær oder bebod. Ne hæm þu unpihtlice. Dær þridde. Ne ofrleh þu man nan. Ðæt feoɲðe Ne rtala þu. Ɖæt fifte. Ne beo þu leas gepita. Dæet rixte Ne zepilna þu ooper manner pipes. Dæet reorode. Ne zepilna þu oðɲer manner æhta. Đar týn beboda sýnd eallum mannum gerette to zehealdenne. (Bibl. Publ. Cant. MSS. Ii.-4-6. Ex Serm. de Lege Dei, in media Quadragesima, p. 170.) Then wrote the almighty God for him two stone tablets with his own finger; on which were written ten words, which are the ten legal commandments. Of these words, were three on one tabula written, and seven, on the other. The first commandment is: The Lord, thy God, is one God. The other word is: Take not thou thy Lord's name in vain. The third word is: Be thou mindful, that thou keep as a holiday the resting-day. These three words stood on one tabula. On the other tabula, the first commandment was: Honour thy father and thy mother. The other commandment: Copulate not thou unrightly. The third: Slay thou no man. The fourth: Steal not thou. The fifth: Be not thou a false witness. The sixth: Covet thou not another man's wife. The seventh : Covet thou not another man's property. These ten commandments are set for all men to hold.

A like version of the Decalogue, with a commentary, is found in Ælfric's second epistle, Quando Dividitur Crisma; of which a copy is preserved in the Bodleian Library, among the Junian MSS. (121. f. 111.) and in the library of C. C. C. C.

among archbishop Parker's MSS. (CXC.) Among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum (Vespasian, D. 14. f. 10.) is also a Saxon copy of this truncated Decalogue, with a short commentary upon each commandment. Against the place where the second ought to stand, is written, in a hand probably of the sixteenth century, Ubi tamen erit præcept. non facies sculptile?

Of Ælfric's version of the Decalogue, in his Heptateuch, or five books of Moses, with the books of Joshua and Judges, published in 1698, by Edward Thwaites, of Queen's college, Oxford, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, the following is a literal translation. (p. 84.)

1. God spake thus. 2. I am the Lord, thy God*. 4. Work thou not the graven gods. 5. Nor honour (them.) I punish the father's unrighteousness on (his) children. 6. And I do mercy to them who love me, and hold my commandments. 7. Take thou not the Lord's name in vain. He shall not be guiltless who taketh his name in vain. 8. Hallow the resting-day. 9. Work six days all thy work. 10. The seventh is the Lord, thy God's resting-day: work thou no work on that day; nor any of those who are with you. 11. In six days, God wrought heaven, and earth, and sea, and all the things which are in them, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it. 12. Honour father and mother. 13. Slay not thou. 14. Sin not thou. 15. Steal not thou. 16. Be not thou as a false testimony against thy neighbour. 17. Covet thou not thy neighbour's house; nor thou, his wife; nor his male-slave; nor his female-slave; nor his ox ; nor his ass; nor any of those things which are his.

For more modern instances of mutilated Decalogues, see Hist. Ref. II. 529, 530; III. 298; IV. 488.

"Drihten uuæs sprecende dæs uuord to Moyse, and thus cuuæth: Ic eom Drihten thin God, ic the utgelædde of Ægiptalond, and of heora theouudom. -Ne lufa thu othre fremde Godas ofer me.-Ne minne noman ne cig thu on idlenesse; forthon the thu ne bist unscildig uuith me, gif thu on idelnesse cigst minne noman.-Gemyne that thu gehalgie thone restedæg. Uuyrceath eouue syx dagas, and on tha seofothon restath eouue, thu and thin sunu, and thine dohter, and thin theouue, and thine uuilne, and thin uueorcnyten, and se cuma the bith binnan thinum durum. Forthon on syx dagas Crist geuuorhte heofonas and corthan, sæs, and alle gesceafta the on him sint; and he gerest on thone seofothan dæge, and forthon Dryhten hine gehalgode. -Ara thinum fæder, and dinre meder, tha the Drihten sealde the, that thu sy thy leng libbend on corthum.-Ne slea thu.-Ne stala thu.-Ne licge thu dearnunga.-Ne sæge thu lease geuuitnesse uuith thinum nehstan.-Ne uulna thu thines nehstan yrfes mit unriht. (Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 39. Decalogi, Orationis, Symboli, Saxonica Versio vetustissima: Marq. Freheri notis exposita. Typis Gotthardi Voegelini. Anno clɔ lɔ cx. The MS. probably was transcribed by Junius, from some rare printed tract.) The Lord was speaking these words to Moyses, and thus quoth: I am the Lord thy God, I thee out-led of Egipt's land, and of their slavery. Love thou not other strange gods before me.—Take not my name in vain, for thou