St. Benedict Biscop, and the Monasteries of Wearmouth and Yarrow

Benedict Biscop represents science and art, as Wilfrid represents public, and Cuthbert spiritual, life. — His birth and conversion. — His four first expeditions to Rome. — He gains the heart of King Egfrid. — Foundation of Wearmouth. — He brings masons and glassmakers from France. — His fifth and sixth visits to Rome, from which he brings back many relics, books, and pictures. — Important works of painting in the new monasteries. — A Roman abbot teaches liturgical music to all the Northumbrian monasteries, and assures himself of the orthodoxy of the English clergy in respect to the heresy of the Monothelites. — Foundation of Yarrow. — Fraternal union of the two monasteries in imitation of their patrons Saints Peter and Paul. — Benedict takes his nephew Easterwine as his coadjutor. — The occupations of a Saxon noble transformed into a monk. — Death of Easterwine. — Severe illness of Benedict. — His last irtjunctions. — His touching death by the side of his dying coadjutor. — After him Ceolfrid, the son of an ealdorman, disciple of Wilfrid and Botulph, governs the two monasteries. — History of Botulph, the founder of Boston and apostle of the Benedictine order. — Ceolfrid, as abbot, takes great pains to increase the libraries. — He makes an exchange of a book for an estate with the King of Northumbria. — His desire to die at Rome. — Grief of the hundred monks who accompanied him to the spot where he embarked. —Their letter to the Pope. — He is able to go only as far as Langres, where lie dies. — How Christianity taught the barbarous Saxons to love each other,

A THIRD saint, whose name has been already mentioned in this record, comes in between Wilfrid and J'epr^fe'nta'^ Cuthbert, Benedict Biscop, the companion of Wil- ^'J^i^gip^gg frid in his first journey to Rome, and during the last half of his life the neighbor of Cuthbert, whom he followed closely to the tomb. In the retirement of ^^Vituaf,"^ the cloister, and, so to speak, in private life, Benedict held the position which Wilfrid held in public life, as the champion of Roman unity and propagation of the Benedictine rule. He represents, besides, in the monastic constellation of the seventh century, intelligence, art, and science, as Cuthbert represents the gift of preaching and ascetic life. His fame was less than that of Wilfrid, and, with still greater reason, less than that of Cuthbert; but he has, notwithstanding, won a noble place in the annals of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

We find various features in his life which do honor to his

soul, and which are not without interest in the history of human intelligence.

Benedict was born, like Wilfrid, but several years before him, of the highest Anglo-Saxon nobility.''" Biscop.*^ While he was still very young, he held an ofBce in ^'^' the household of King Oswy, who, according to the customs of the new-born feudalism, invested him with a fief taken from the national property, and proportioned to the importance of his office.''^ At twenty-five he gave up secular life, marriage, and his family, restored his lands to the king, and dedicated himself to the service of God. Before he settled in any community he went to Rome, where he had been long attracted by that desire of paying his vows at the tombs of the apostles which became so general among the Anglo-Saxons. It has been seen, in the history of Wilfrid,'^ how, after beginning their journe}^ together, the two young Northumbrian nobles separated at Lyons, and ^^^^ Benedict, after his first visit to Rome, returned there a second and third time, having in the raean- ^**™®" time assumed the monastic habit in the island of Lerins, a monastery which had just entered into the family of St. Benedict. It may also be remembered that Pope Vitalinus, struck with the piety and knowledge of so constant and zealous a pilgrim, assigned him as guide and interpreter to the Greek Theodore, who undertook, at the age of sixty-seven, to take the place of St. Augustin, and who retained his Anglo-Saxon guide with him for two years, transforming him from a monk of Lerins into the abbot of the principal monastery in Canterbury .^^

After thus spending two years with the new archbishop, the Abbot Benedict, instead of revisiting his native district, went for the fourth time to Rome, lie was then in the prime of life; but when it is considered what were the difficulties and dangers of such a journey at such a time — when we remember that a journey from London to "' Wilfrid's historian informs us that his true name was Baduging: wo have no information why he took the name of Benedict, under which he is generally known, nor whence came his surname of Biscop, since he was never a bishop.

''^ " Nohili stirpe gentis Anglorum progenitus... cum esset minister Oswii regis, et possessionem terrss suo gradui competentem, illo donante, perciperet." — Bede, VHcb Abhatum in Wiramutha et Girvum, c. 1.

^^ See above, p. 308. **" St. Peter's, since called St. Augustin's.

OF ST. WILFRID. 495

Rome was then twice as long as and a hundred times more dangerous than a journey from London to Australia is now—we are amazed at the resolution and energy which then, as ever since, has induced so many Christians, and especially so many Anglo-Saxon monks, not once only, but many times in their life, to cross the sea and the Alps on their way to Rome. His fourth expedition was undertaken in the interests of literature. He brought back from it a rich cargo of books, partly sold, partly given to him; and in passing by Vienna, the ancient capital of the Gauls, on his return, he brought with him many more, which he had deposited there in the charge of his friends.^i When he returned at length to his native Northumbria he sought King Egfrid, the son of his former master, then the reigning monarch, and told him all he had done during the twenty years which had passed since he left his country and the royal service. Then, endeavoring to communicate to him the religious ardor He gains with which his own heart was filled, he explained o'rKim'* to the king all he had learned, at Rome and else- Kgfrid." where, of ecclesiastical and monastic discipline, showing him the books and relics which he had brought back. Egfrid, who had not yet begun his unfortunate struggle with Wilfrid, allowed himself to be won by the stories of the pilgrim, for whom he conceived a great affection; and in order that he might apply his experience to the government of a new community, he detached from his own possessions, and presented to Benedict, an estate large enough to feed seventy families, and give occupation to seventy ploughs, according to the mode of calculating the value of land among the Anglo-Saxon s.^^

The estate was situated at the mouth of the Wear, Foundation a little stream which flows through Durham, and J^fouThf'^' throws itself into the Northern Sea a little south <5?-«-5' of the Tyne. This gave the name of Wearmouth to the new monastery, which was consecrated to St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, according to the express wish of Egfrid, in

*' " Libros omnis divinae eruditionis non paucos, vel placito protio emptos, vel amicorum dono largitos rctulit.... Emptitios ibi quos apud aniicos commendaverat, reoepit." — Vita Abbat., c. 4.

^^ " Confestim ei terrain LXX. familiarum do suo largitus." — Ibid. Commentators suppose that Bede intended to indicate under the word familia the space of ground otherwise called a hide or camicata — iha.t is to say, the portion of land which could be cultivated by one plough in the space of a year.

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agreement with that of Benedict as an evidence of his leanings towards Rome.^^

This foundation was no sooner assured than the unwearied Benedict took ship again, to seek in FraucG coimeutarii, like those whom Wilfrid brought ^o^ about the same time from Canterbury. As soon as the}^ arrived he set them to work in building a stone church, in the Roman style, for everything that came from Rome was dear to him. It was in honor of St. Peter that he undertook this work, and it was carried on with so much energy that, a year after the first stone was laid, the church was roofed in and mass celebrated under one of those stone arches which excited the surprise and admiration of the English of the seventh century. He brought glassmakers also from France, for there were none in England; and these foreign workmen, after having put glass into the windows of the church and new monastery, taught their art to the Anglo- Saxons.^^ Animated by a zeal which nothing could discourago, and inspired by intelligent patriotism, and a sort of passion for beauty in art, which shrank neither from fatigue nor care,^^ he sent to seek beyond the seas all that he could not find in England — all that seemed ^^ There are two distinct ecclesiastical sites at the mouth of the Wear —on the north, Monk-Wearmouth, where Benedict Biscop's monastery was situated; and Bishop- Wearmouth, on the south, which owes its origin to the bishops of J)urham. Both are swallowed up in the town of Sunderland, situated on the east of Bishop-Wearmouth, ou the sea, which is now one of the principal seaports in England.

Wearmouth has become at the present time one of the chief centres of the collieries, and also of those hideous evils which lately excited, thanks to the zeal of Lord Shaftesbury, the consternation and horror of England. See the Parliamentary discussions of 18-12. There are no more lazy monks to feed the poor population; but there existed up to 1842 a crowd of women and girls, almost naked, who worked among the men, for fourteen hours successively, sixteen hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and at a temperature of about ninety degrees. — Report from the Select Committee, 1841, p. 4. Let us add with pleasure, that a humane legislation has since then applied remedies to the revolting abuses thus brought to a salutary publicity*

^** " Ccementarios qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanorura quem semper amabat morem facerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit.... Misit legatarios Galliam, qui vitri factores, artifices videlicet Britanniis eatenus ignotos, ad cancellandas ecclcsise, porticuumque et csenaculorum ejus fenestras adducerent.... Anglorum ex eo gentem hujusmodi artificium nosse ac discere fecerunt." — VitcB Abbat., c. 5. I believe that this, and the instance before quoted of Wilfrid, are the first known examples of the use of glass windows. There is, however, no evidence that these windows were colored.

^** " Quippe studio advehendi cognatis aliquod insolitum amor patriae, et voluptas elegantiae asperos fallebat labores." — Will. Malmesb., Be Gest. Reg., i. 54. necessary to him for the ornamentation of his church; and not finding even in France all he wanted, he went for the fifth time to Rome. Even this was not his last visit, for some years later he made a sixth pilgrimage.^*^ On both occasions he brought treasures back with him, chiefly books in countless quantities and of every kind. He was a passionate collector, as has been seen, from his youth. He desired each of his monasteries to possess a great library, which he considered indispensable to the instruction, discipline, and good organization of the community; and reckoned upon the books as the best means of retaining his monks in their cloisters; for much as he loved travelling himself, he did not approve of other monks passing their time on the highways and byways, even under pretext of pilgrimages.^'^ Along with the books he brought relics, not alone for his own community, but for other churches in England, and a great number of pictures and colored images. By introducing these images from Eome into Northumberland, Benedict Biscop has written one of the most curious, and, at the same time, forgotten pages in the history of art. It is apparent that Rome was then the grand reservoir not only of tradition, but also of graphic or symbolic representations for the instruction and edification

^^ In speaking of these two last journeys, Bede says quarta and quinta vice, because he counts only the departures from England — De Britannia ad Koniam accurrens." But he himself explains that during the second absence of Benedict Biscop, from 665 to 667, he made two pilgrimages to Rome — the one before, the other after his visit to Lerins, We add a chronological summary of the life of Benedict Biscop: —

628. Birth.

653. He gives up secular life, and goes to Rome for the first time. 665. His second journey to Rome: he becomes a monk at Lerins. 667. Third journey to Rome.

669. He returns with the Archbishop Theodore, and becomes Abbot of St.

Peter's, at Canterbury.
671. Fourth journey to Rome.
672. Return by Vienna, where he recovers his books.
674. Foundation of Wearmouth.
676. Journey to France in search of artists.
678. Fifth journey to Rome.

682. Foundation of Yarrow. He takes Easterwine as his coadjutor. 684. Sixth journey to Rome.

686. Death of Easterwine. Return of Benedict.

690. His death.

®' "Innumerabilem librorum omnis generis copiam.... Bibliothecam quam de Roma nobilissimam et copiosissimam advexerat ad instructionera ecclesiai necessariam.... Bibliothecam utriusque monasterii quam magna instantia cepit." — Vita;, c. 6, 9, 14. Cf. Ilomil, in Natalc Benedicti Ah' batis, t. vii. col. 465, and Lingaed, Antiquities, t. ii. p. 129. of the faithful, the first outlines of which, traced in the Catacombs by the tombs of the martyrs, began to reappear in the great mosaics which still decorate the apses of the primitive churches in Rome. The Venerable Bede, who speaks with enthusiasm of the expeditions of his master and friend, leads us to suppose that these were portable pictures, which could only have been painted on wood; but it may be supposed that the Abbot of Wearraouth brought back with him both painters and mosaic-workers, to work on the spot at the decoration of his churches. How can it be otherwise explained how pictures on wood, brought even by water from Rome to England, should have been large enough to cover the walls and arches of the two or three churches of which Bede speaks?

However this may be, the result was that the most ignorant of the Christians of Northumbria found on entering these new monastic churches, under a material form, the attractive image of the instructions which the monastic missionaries lavished on them. Learned and unlearned could contemplate and study with delight, here the sweet and attractive figure of the new-born Saviour, there the twelve apostles surrounding the Blessed Virgin; upon the northern wall all the parables of the Gospels, upon the southern the visions of the Apocalypse; elsewhere a series of pictures which marked the harmony between the Old and New Testaments; Isaac carrying the wood for his sacrifice opposite to Jesus bearing His cross; the brazen serpent opposite Jesus crucified, and so on.s^ When we discover these details in the decoration

®^ This passage, so important for decorative art, is as follows: " Picturas imaginiun sanctarum quas ad ornandam ecclesiani quam construxerat, detulit; niagnam A'idelicet B. M. V., etc.,... quibus medium ejusdem ecclesias testudinem, ducto a pariete ad parietem tabulate praecingeret; imagines evangelicae historiae quibus australem ecclesiae parietem decoraret; imagines... quibus septentrionalom aque parietem ornaret, quatenus intrantes ecclesiam omnes etiam literarum ignari, quaqua versum intenderent, vel semper amabilem Christi sanctorumque ejus... contemplarentur aspectum." — C. G. Further on, when speaking of the fruits of his sixth and last journey to Rome: " Nam et tunc (attulit) dominicfe historiae picturas quibus totam B. Dei Genitricis, quam in monasterio majore fecerat, ecclesiam in gyro coronaret: imagines quoque ad ornandum monasterium ecclesiamque B. Pauli Apostoli de concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti summa ratione compositas exhibuit, etc." These last words apply to the second monastery founded at Yarrow, of which we have yet to speak. Thus it is apparent that the abbot Benedict Biscop had undertaken to decorate these churches —that of St. Peter at Wearmouth, St. Paul at Yarrow, and a third dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, in majore monasterio, which may have been only the choir or apsis of the first.

OF ST. WILFRID. 499

of the Northumbrian monasteries twelve hundred years ago, we cannot but bethink ourselves that our own century, in two memorable instances, has reproduced this sublime thought: at Spires, in the vast cathedral which the munificence of the King of Bavaria has raised out of its ruins; and at Paris in the venerable Basilica of St. Germain des Pres, where our attention was attracted for the last time by the pencil of Flaodrin, and from which a last lustre has been thrown upon talent so pure, so elevated, so serene, so naturally devoted to the service of the eternal truth. His name, though modern, like that of Ozanam, does not seem displaced amid the recollections of the saints and monuments of Christian antiquity!

After Latin and Greek books, after wdiat was then called literature and philosophy, after architecture and art, it was the turn of music — of the art which feadiV^'' above all others is liturgic and monastic. On his J^^^J^I'^q'^^ return from his fifth voyage, Benedict brought back "with him from Rome an eminent monk called John, precentor of St. Peter's, and abbot of St. Martin's at Rome, to establish at Wearmouth the music and Roman ceremonies with entire exactitude, and according to the practice of the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. As soon as ho had arrived at Wearmouth, this learned abbot set out in writing the order of the celebration of feasts for all the year, of which he soon circulated numerous copies. Then he opened classes, at which he taught, viva voce, the liturgy and ecclesiastical chants. The best singers of the Northumbrian monasteries came to listen to him, and invited him to visit their communities.^^

It was thus that Benedict Biscop drew from Rome, and spread throughout the soil of his country, by many different channels, the instructions and traditions of art consecrated by religion. History, it seems to us, offers few pages better adapted to refresh and console the soul than that on which the mother and sovereign Church is thus seen to open her protecting bosom to nations scarcely yet issued from the night of paganism, and to reveal to them, by the hands of her monastic ministers and missionaries, not only the mysteries of faith and the laws of morality, but also the pleasures of the mind and the beauties of art.

89 " Ritura canendi ac legcndi viva voce praefati monasterii cantores cdocendo.... Dc omnibus penc ejusdcm provinciaj monasteriis ad audiendum eum, qui cantandi erant periti, confluebant." — Ilist. Eccles., iv. 18.

The passionate zeal of our abbot for the building and decoration of his monastic houses did not make him forget the more essential interests of his foundations. Before leaving Rome, he took care to constitute his community upon the immovable basis of the rule of St. Benedict.^*^ He obtained from Pope Agathon a charter which guaranteed the liberty and security of the new Monastery of Wearmouth, as Wilfrid did for his favorite Abbey of Hexham, and perhaps at an even earlier date. But far from requiring this guarantee against the King of Northumbria, as his old friend did, Bede takes care to prove that the pontifical grant was asked and obtained with the consent, and even at the desire, of Egfrid, and was confirmed in a public assembly by the king and bishops.^i From the time of their first separation at Lyons, Benedict seems always to have kept at a distance from Wilfrid, and no appearance of sympathy for the trials of the great persecuted bishop apj)ears to him. Notwithstanding, they served the same cause, and inspired the Pope at least with equal confidence. Agathon gave a wonderful mark of this confidence to Benedict Biscop, by making his monastery the centre of the mission with which he had charged the precentor of St. Peter's, the object of which was to establish the orthodoxy of the English bishops and clergy in resj)ect to the heresy of the Monothelites.''^

^^ " Post corapositum juxta regulam monasterium, profectione completa." — C. 6.

^' " Non vile munus attulit... epistolam privilegii... cum licentia, consensu, desiderio et hortatu Egfridi regis... qua monasterium ab omni prorsus extrinseca irruptiono tutum perpetuo redderetur ac liberum... quod Britannias perlatum et coram synodo patefactum." — Vitce Abbat., c. 6, 12, and Hist. Eccles., iv. 18.

^- This mission seems to indicate on the part of the Pontiff a certain distrust of Theodore. As has been already seen, Pope Vitalianus, in conferring on him the dignity of Metropolitan of England, joined to him the Abbot Adrian and Benedict Biscop himself, lest his nationality as a Greek might make him accessible to the errors of the Monothelites who then desolated the Church. At a later period, Agathon charged Abbot John, precentor of St. Peter's, to examine exactly into the faith of the Church of England, and to make his report at Rome. The pontifical envoy was present at the Council of Heathfield, called by the Archbishop Theodore (17th September, 680), where the Church of England made her confession of orthodox faith, and declared her acceptance of the five general councils, and that of St. Martin. Abbot John carried with him a copy of the acts of this council, to submit it to the Pope, and on the other hand gave the acts of the council of the Pope St. Martin to St. Benedict Biscop's monastery to be copied. He died before he could return to Rome, and his body was carried to St.-Martin-de-Tours, which he had visited on his way to England, on account of his great devotion to that saint, of whom his monastery in Rome bore the name.

King Egfrid, who was then at the height of poundatioa his struggle with Wilfrid, seems to have been anxious to make up, to his own conscience and that of his Catholic people, for his violence towards the Bishop of York, by the intimacy of his relations with the two other great monks of his kingdom, the anchorite Cuthbert and the abbot Benedict. In order to give the latter a new mark of sympathy and protection, he assigned to him another estate, not so great as that of Wearmouth, for it could support only forty families, but so near to the first that it seemed possible to unite the two gifts, and make of them one vast patrimony. This was the cradle of the Monastery of Yarrow, the name of which is inseparably linked with that of the Venerable Bede. Yarrow was situated a little to the north of the Monastery of Wearmouth, in a similar position, at the mouth of a river, the Tyne, which there falls into the Northern Sea, after following a course parallel to that of the Wear, and was dedicated to the Apostle St. Paul, as Wearmouth was to the Apostle St. Peter. The thought which inspired Biscop of establishing the spirit and image of Rome upon this Northumbrian shore, already sweet with the perfume of monastic flowers is everywhere apparent.^^ He wanted a reproduction of St. Paul's outside the Walls, at a certain distance from his Saxon copy of St. Peter of the Vatican. Although he had appointed one of his most intimate "wo houlel friends and fellow-pilgrims, Ceolfrid, abbot of the new foundation, Benedict's intention was to make only one community of the two houses, in sign of the fraternal union which he longed to see reigning among them, and which should be suggested to them by the example of the two glorious apostles whom he had given to them as patrons.

In order to be more at liberty to devote his jje takes time to travel, as well as to be more at the dis- his nephew, posal of the king, who continually sought his pre- foThT""^' sence and counsels,^'^ Benedict took a coadjutor in osI-gsc!*"^" the government of his first Monastery of Wear-

93 " Plaga oliin et suave halantibus monasteriorum floribus dulcis, et urbium a Komanis aedificatarum frequcntia renidens." — Guill. Malmesb., De Gest. Reg., i. 9, 54.

"» I borrow this detail from another Life of Benedict and Ceolfrid, which, if not written by Bede, has evidently furnished him with information, which he has repeated literally; it is to be found in the Opera Minora, and has been reprinted by Dr. Giles in the Appendix of his excellent edition of Bede, vol. vi. pp. 416-42. mouth. This new abbot was his nephew, and, like Ceolfrid, one of his most devoted companions.^^ His name was Easterwine. He was younger than Benedict by twenty-two years, and, like him, of high birth; for it was the descendants of the noblest races of Northumbria who filled the monasteries, giving themselves up to occupations the most unlike those of their ancestors— to manual or literary work, to prayer and penitence. He had been, like Benedict, a soldier in the warlike household of King Egfrid. At twenty-one he had given up everything, to enter into the community formed by his uncle at Wearmouth; nor did the one dream of asking, nor the other of offering, any exemption from the charges and observances of religious life, on account of relationship or nobility. The noble youth took pride only in following minutely the rule and occupations of the house, like any other monk. Thanks to his illustrious biographer, we know what the occupations of a Saxon thane turned monk were in the seventh centnr3\ His duties were — to thrash and winnow the corn, to milk the goats and cows, to take his turn in the kitchen, the bakehouse, and the garden, always humble and joj'ous in his obedience. When he became coadjutor, and was invested, in Benedict's absence, with all his authority, the young abbot continued the course of communal life and when his duties as superior led him out of doors to where the monks labored in the fields, he set to work along with them, taking the plough or the fan in his own hands, or forging iron upon the anvil. He was robust as well as young and handsome; but his look was infinitely gentle, and his conversation full of amiability.'^"^ When he was compelled to reprove a fault, it was done with such tender sadness that the culprit felt himself incapable of any new oiFence which should bring a cloud over the benign brightness of that beloved face. His table was served with the same provisions as that of the monks; and he slept in the general dormitory,

*^ " Ut quem solus non poterat laboreni, socia dilectissimi commilitonis virtute levius ferret." — Vita; Abbat., c. 6.

96 << Yjj. nobilis, sed iiisigne nobilitatis non ad jactantiaj materiem, ut quidam, despectumque aliorum, sed ad majorem, ut Dei servura decet, animi nobilitatem convertens.... Minister Egfridi regis... depositis arms... tantum mansit humilis, fratrumque simillinius aliorum, ut ventilare cum eis et triturare, oves vitulasque mulgere, in pistrino, in horto, in cunctis monasterii operibus jocundus ct obediens gauderet exerceri.... Nequi vellet limpidissimam vultus ejus lucem nubile sibi suae inquietudinis abscondere.... Vel aratri gressum stiva regendo, vel ferrum malleo domando, vel ventilabrum manu concutiendo." — Vitce Abbatum, c. 7. which he left only five days before his death, being then hopelessly ill, to prepare himself, in a more solitary Death of place for "the last strugo:le. When he felt his end fuf ^aJch^- approaching, he had still strength enough left to go g«6. down to the garden, and seating himself there, called to him all his brethren, who wept the anticipated loss of such a father. Then, with the tenderness which was natural to him, he gave to each of them a last kiss.^' The following night he died, aged thirty-six, while the monks were singing matins. Such happy deaths, which are common in the history of the time, seem to have been at once the privilege and the seal of all those generous vocations which filled the numerous monasteries of converted England.

When Benedict returned from his last expedition to Rome, he found his benefactor and protector, King Egfrid, and his nephew and coadjutor, Easterwine, both dead, along with a great number of his monks, carried off by one of the epidemics then so frequent. The only survivors at Yarrow were the abbot, and one little scholar whom we shall find again further on, and whose fame was destined to eclipse that of all the Saxon saints and kings, who are scarcely known to posterity except by his pen.^^ Benedict did not lose courage, but promptly collected new subjects under his sway, recommencing and pursuing, with his habitual energy, the decoration of his two Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul.^^ The monks had already chosen as successor to Easterwine a deacon named Sigfried, a learned and virtuous man, but affected by pulmonary disease, and the first of the English, I

*'' " Sub divo residens, accitis ad se fratribus cunctis, more naturte misericordis osculum pads eis flentibus et de abscessu tanti patris et pastoris moerentibus dedit."

^** This pupil is generally thought to be no other than the Venerable Bede, who relates the touching incident in the following words: " Omnes qui legere, vel prajdicare, vel antiphonas ac responsaria dicere possunt ahhiti sunt, excepto ipso abbate et uno puerulo, qui ab ipso nutritus ac eruditus, nunc usque in eo monasterio presbyterii gradum tenens, jure actus ejus laudabilcs cunctis scire volentibus et scripto conimandat et fatis." — Append., p. 421. He describes further on how the abbot and his pupil celebrated, alone and in great sadness, the whole psalms of the monastic service, non parvo cum labore, until new monks arrived.

'* A fine engraving by Hollar, republished in Mr. Janiieson's Moyiastic Legends, represents him standing, dressed in pontifical robes; in the background are the two beautiful monasteries of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Tyne flowing between them — an arrangement not geographically exact, bat which answers to the intention of reproducing on the Northumbrian coast the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul on the two opposite banks of the Tiber at Rome.

504 CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS

think, in whom history indicates a malady so general and so fatal to their race.i^o His last Benedict's oAvn turn was, however, soon to come, God preserved his life to purify him, and put his patience to a long and cruel trial, before calling him to his eternal recompense. After having devoted the first thirteen years of his abbatiate to the laborious and wandering life that was so dear to him, and to those distant expeditions that produced so many fruits for his order and his country, he was stricken by a cruel disease, which lasted for three years, and paralyzed all his members one after the other. Though kept to his bed by this infirmity, and unable to follow his brethren to the choir, he notwithstanding continued to celebrate each service, both day and night, with certain of the monks, mingling his feeble voice with theirs. At night his sleepless hours were consoled by the reading of the Gospels, which was kept up without interruption by a succession of priests. Often, too, he collected the monks and novices round his couch, addressing to them urgent and solemn counsels, and among other things begging them to preserve the great library which he had brought from Rome, and not to allow it to be spoiled or dispersed; but above all to keep faithfully the rules which, after a careful study of the seventeen principal monasteries which he had visited during his numerous journeys beyond seas, he had given to He also dwelt much upon the injunction he had already often repeated, that they should pay no regard to high birth in their choice of an abbot, but look simply to his life and doctrine. He prayed them to elect to this office the most worthy among themselves, in conformity to the rules of St. Benedict and the charter he had obtained for them. *' If 100 u Nocivo et irrem-ediabili pulmonum vitro laborantem." — Vitce Abbat., c. 8.

101 «' Evangelium tota nocte pro doloris levaniine, quod et aliis noctibus fieri consueverat. ... Ex decern quippe et septem monasteriis quje inter longos meaj crebrse peregrinationis discursus optima coniperi, hcsc universa didici, et vobis salubriter observanda contradidi." — Bede, VitcB Abbat., c. 8. Lingard (i. 208) believes from this passage that the rule of St. Benedict was only partially followed at Wearmouth; but it evidently refers only to those special regulations and laws which have been always made use of in all abbeys or congregations of abbeys, to develop and complete the fundamental rule. That this rule was known and followed in the Northumbrian monasteries, is plain from the exhortation of Benedict Biscop to his monks regarding their choice of a successor, in which he enjoins them to proceed " juxta quod regula magni quondam abbatis Benedicti, juxta quod privilegii nostri continent decreta." — Cf. Mabillon, Prafatio in Saculum Benedicimam, n. 88, 89.

I had to choose between two evils, I should prefer," he said to them, " to see the spot on which I have established our dear monastery fall back into eternal solitude, rather than to be succeeded here by my own brother; who, we all know, is not in the good way.^02 Thus Benedict shows himself to have been moved by a presentiment of one of the most cruel dangers and fatal weaknesses with which the future of the monastic order could be threatened.

The strength of the holy abbot, and, at the same time, that of his poor coadjutor, was by this time so exhausted by their respective diseases, that they both perceived they were about to die, and desired to see miiTan., each other for the last time before departing from this world. In order that the wish of these two tender friends should be accomplished, it was necessary to bring the dying coadjutor to the bed of the abbot. His head was placed on the same pillow; but they were both so feeble that they could not even embrace each other, and the help of brotherly hands was necessary to aid them.^'^'^ All the monks assembled in chapter round this bed of suffering and love and the two aged saints, having pointed out among them a successor approved by all, breathed together, with a short interval between, their last breath. Thus died, at the age of sixty-two, St. Benedict of England, a worthy rival of the great patriarch of the monks of the West, whose robe and name he bore, being, like him, a victor over sin and master of all virtue.ioi

The monk proposed by the two dying saints to the choice of their brethren, to replace them as abbot of the two monasteries, was the same Ceolfrid monastewho had accompanied Benedict to Rome and to mouth and Canterbury, and who was already Abbot of Yarrow. Ioll°to' Like all the chiefs of the great Northumbrian com- Scoiinci,

loa (( Yere dico vobis quod... tolerabilius mihi multo est totum liunc locum in quo monasterium feci ... in solitudinem sempiternam redigi quam ut frater raeus carnalis ... in eo regendo pro me abbatis nomine succedat."

10a u Egfridus in feretro deportaretur ad cubiculum ubi Benedictus et ipse suo jacebat in grabato... caput utriusque in codem cervicali locaretur... vel tantuni habuere virluni, ut propius posita ora ad osculandum se alterutrum conjungere possent, sed et lioc fraterno compleverunt officio." —VitcB Abbat., c. 10.

¹⁰⁴ u Vitiorum victor Benedictus et virtutum patrator egregius viotus infirmitate carnis ad extrenia pervenit.... Aninia ilia sancta longis flagellorum felicium excocta atque examinata flammis luteam carnis fornacem deserit." Jbid., c. 11. lie died January 12, G90, at the age of sixty-two.

The governraent of the two munities, with the exception of Cuthbert, he proceeded from the highest rank of Anglo-Saxon nobility. His father bore the dignity o^ ealdorman,ihe highest rank after the blood-royal, and was famed for his magnificence. On one occasion, when he expected a visit from the king, the news of the sudden incursion of some enemy obliged the prince to depart before beginning the magnificently prepared repast, upon which the earl assembled all the poor of the quarter, put them in the place of the king and his attendants, and, when they were all seated, served the men with his own hands, while his countess performed the same office for the women.

A Coolfrid, who became a monk at eighteen, had been trained at Ripon, in the school of Wilfrid, who ordained him priest after ten years of study .1*^^ After this, in order to understand better the traditions and obligations of his profession, he visited the monastic metropolis of Canterbury, and on his way back spent some time with an old abbot named Botulph, whose virtues and knowledge were much renowned.io^ Botulph, too, was of a noble the*"ounder ft^mily of East Anglia; '^^'^ his parents were among the oldest Christians of England, and had sent him while quite young across the sea into a monastery in Gaul, to learn, says his biographer, the glories of the faith, and to train himself to apostolical life. When he returned some years after, furnished with recommendations from two young East Anglian princesses whom he had met in his Gaulish monastery, he gained the heart of the kings of his tribe. These princes offered him lands which were already under cultivation, and were even allotted, according to feudal law, '"* The elder brother of Ceolfrid had been Abbot of Gilling, the monastery founded by Queen Eanfleda to expiate her husband's crime in murdering the holy King Oswin; afterwards preferring contemplation to an active life, he exiled himself to Ireland, and there spent the rest of his life in the study of Holy Scripture. He died, together with several other English nobles, of the plague. This is a fresh example of the frequent relations of the Anglo- Saxons with monastic Ireland. Ceolfrid commenced his career at Gilling, from whence he was summoned to Ripou with the whole community, by Wilfrid.

106 4< ut videret instituta Botulfi abbatis quern... fama circumquaque vulgaverat." — Histor. Abbatum in Append. Bedje, p. 417.

"'^ Ad Anglos Orientales, says the Life of Ceolfrid just cited; and this designation does not contradict that of Angli Australes, used by the contemporary author of the Life of St. Botulph, published by Mabillon {Ad. SS.

0. S. B., saec. iii. pars i. p. 3). The Angles of Mercia and East Anglia were in fact southerners in the eyes of the Angles of Northumbria. Besides, two of the kings named in the biography as sovereigns of Botulph's country, Adelher and Adelwold, figure among the East Anglian kings. — Sec Lappen- BEEG, Genealogical Table E at the end of his first volume. to other proprietors; but Botulph refused to have any one impoverished for his advantage, and preferred an uncultivated estate, situated on a little river not far from the Northern Sea,i"^ where he founded the great Monastery of Icanhoe, which has since grown into a town, and has borrowed its modern name, Boston, from that of its founder {BotulpWs town)}^^ Botulph's chief aim was to build and regulate his monastery on the model of the communities where he had lived, or which he had visited on the Continent — that is to say, in strict conformity with the rule of St. Benedict. He lived there for more than half a century, surrounded by the veneration and love of his countrymen, and working steadily to secure the complete observance of Benedictine laws in his community — a procedure which in the district where he had established himself did not fail to appear a grave innovation. The care which his biographer, a contemporary of his own, takes to set forth this distinctive feature, which ran through his whole life, makes it apparent that he had to contend with the resistance of his monks, and that he only succeeded by sometimes sacrificing bis natural humility and his popularity to the austere duties of his abbatial charge. He repeated daily to his disciples the laws and lessons which he had brought from beyond sea; and even on his death-bed, during the attacks of sickness which consumed his old age, he never ceased to recall the recollections of his monastic journeys, and to boast the gentleness and beauty of the true rule.^^^

Imbued with the teaching of this great doctor of monastic life, Ceolfrid returned to Ripon, to redouble his zeal and fervor in the practice of his profession. When he became

'°^ " Ut ubi plenius addisccrent et Sanctse Fidei gloriam, et sanctae conversationis in apostolicis institutionibus disciplinam.... Petit simpliciter, non ut aliquem regia violentia de hereditario jure caussa sui depellat, seil potius ut de incultis terris... sibi tantura concedat." — Vita S. Botulfi, c. 2 and 5.

'°'' Situated on the "Withani, in Lincolnshire: the English town of Boston gave its name to the celebrated capital of Massachusetts, the fame and influence of which, in North America, have been always so considerable.

no u iniperitis vitae regularis attulit normam, ct in monasticis observationibus magnus legislator antea incognitam docuit viani. ... Ad instar monasteriorum ubi conversatus fuerat in partibus Gallife caeptum opus perfecit.... Quod transmarinis partibus didicerat de monachorum districtiori vita et regulari consuetudine, menioriter repetendoquotidianisinculcationibus subditos consuescit.... Appropinquante vitai terraino de observandis regulis monasteriorum quae pcregrinus petierat, loqui et sajpius repcterc duke ac delectabilitor ducebat." — Vita S. Botulfi, c. 4, 7, 9, 10. master of the novices at Ripon, the son of the ealdorman distinguished himself by his energy in all those manual labors, which must have been so repugnant to the pride and habits of the Anglo-Saxon nobles. Without giving up his priestly functions he took charge of the bake-house, and was daily to be found at the furnace occupied in cleaning or heating it, and in baking bread for the use of the house.^^^ His fame reached the ears of Benedict Biscop, who, as soon as he began his enterprise, asked hira from Wilfrid. His request was granted; and this is the sole evidence which exists in history of any link whatever between the celebrated Bishop of York and the great monasteries founded by the friend of his youth. After his transfer to Wearmouth, Ceolfrid was soon made the deputy, as prior, of Abbot Benedict, during his journeys. But he found among the new monks certain sons of nobles like himself, who refused to be controlled by the severe discipline which he enforced upon them both by precept and example, and who pursued him with their murmurs and calumnies.^^^ The effect of this upon him was such that, taking advantage of the absence of Benedict, he gave up his charge and returned to Ripon, to resume his former life there. Benedict hastened after him, and brought him back by dint of entreaties. After this he never relaxed his hold upon Ceolfrid, taking him with him in all his journeys up to the day when, as has been seen, he confided the government of the new Monastery of Yarrow to him whom he wished to make his inseparable companion and fellow-laborer.113

Ceolfrid took with him twenty-two monks from Wearmouth, to fill up the new foundation; but among these there were several who could not yet sing or even read aloud the service in the choir according to the requirements of the monastic ritual. Ceolfrid had to complete their musical and liturgical education, at the same time as he began that of the new-comers who soon thronged to Yarrow. By dint of entering himself into all the studies and exercises of his community, even in their minutest details, until the Benedictine observances took permanent root among them, he succeeded "' ''Pistorii officium tenens, inter cribrandum clibanumque accendendum raundandumque, et panes in eo coquendos, presbyteratus ceremonias sedulus discere siraul et exercere non omisit." — Append., p. 417.

112 It Invidias quorundam nobilium, qui regularem ejus disciplinam ferre nequibant, insecutionesque patiebatur acerrimas." — Append., p. 418.

"^ "Ipse illi comes individuus, cooperator et doctor regularis et monasticae institutionis aderat." — Vitce, c. 16. in his task. And he had to wield the trowel as well as the crosier, in order to direct and complete in less than two years the construction of the new abbey church, in which King- Egfrid himself fixed the situation of the great Ceolfrid, when placed by the death of his friend at the head of the two Monasteries of Wearmouth and Yarrow, which then formed one community of six hundred monks/^^ displayed for twenty-seven years an unwearying activity and superior intelligence, as well as all the virtues of ascetic life. He was in every respect a worthy successor of Benedict: he took pains to enrich the two libraries, which were so great an object of care to his predecessor; and on occasion made use of his books for other purposes than the instruction of his monks. It is true that he had to deal with a learned king, trained at lona, the enemy of Wilfrid and his Roman predilections, but as much a lover of books as any saint or monk, either Irish like Columba, or Anglo-Saxon like Biscop. The latter had brought from Rome a curious system of cosmography, which King Aldfrid burned to pos- ^'Sffor sess, and which he obtained from the Abbot Ceolfrid in exchange for laud supporting eight families. The abbot afterwards found means of exchanging this estate, with the addition of a sum of money, for another estate twice or three times as large, situated opposite the Monastery of Yarrow, to which belonged the precious book which was the occasion of a traffic so lucrative.^^^ It must not be supposed from this that the great abbot was interested or mercenary; he had, on the contrary, retained in the cloister the generous habits of his noble race; and Bede expressly teUs that he never received a present or donation from neighboring lords without giving them, as soon as possible, an equivalent.^!''

"•* " Sed juvet amor religionis ct studiosi rectoris exemplum atque instantia soUors, qui donee ilium obsei'vanti;e rcgularis radiccni ficrct, lioris omnibus canonicis cum fratribus ecclesiam frequentare, refici et quiesccre solebat." — Appc7id., jt. 420.

'^^ " Utrique monasterio, vel sicut rectius dicere possumus, in duobus locis posito uni monasterio.... Helictis in suis monasteriis fratribus numero ferme sexcentis." — VitcB Abbatum, c. 12, 13.

"^ " Bibliotbccam utriusquc monasterii... non minori germinavit industria.... Dato Cosmographorum codice mirandioperis... terram octo famiiiarum... ab Alfrido regi in Scripturis doctissimo... coniparavit, quern comparandi ordinem ipse dum adliuc viveret, Benedictus... taxavcrat, sod prius quam complere potuisset, obiit.... Verum pro hac terra postmodum, Osredo regnante, addito pretio digno, terram xx. famiiiarum... accei)it." — Vita, c. 12.

¹¹⁷ a ^ yji-js principalibus quibus cunctis erat honorabilis... banc habens

Let us add, while speaking; of books, that he had two complete copies made of the Bible, according to the version of St, Jerome, which he had brought from Rome, and placed them in his two churches, that they might be read and consulted by all who wished to do so ^^^ — a new refutation, among so many others, of the stupid calumny which represents the Church as having in former times interdicted to her children the knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures.

Ceolfrid's anxiety for the intellectual and material interests of his community did nowise diminish his zeal for the regular discipline and spiritual independence of his brethren. He took pains to have the charter of immunity obtained from Agathon renewed by the Pope St. Sergius, and confirmed in full synod by King Aldfrid. He devoted a considerable portion of each day, and his unwearying attention, to the prayers and sacred song of the choir; neither age nor sickness, nor even travel, seemed to him sufficient reasons for dispensing with this. Severe as it was his duty to be against the least irregularity, he lavished on the weak encouragements and consolations, and was hard only to himliving and clothing being of a temperance which seemed at that time surp>rising in the chief of so powerful an institution.^^^

-16 When he had passed his seventieth year, he no

longer found himself strong enough to give to his monks an example of life conformed to the rule; and he was anxious, besides, to return before he died to Rome, where he had in his youth accompanied his friend and master, there to prepare himself for death in silence. In vain the monks, when informed of his design, threw themselves on their knees to keep him back. Nothing could change his purpose. As soon as he had formed his resolution he put it in practice, fearing that if it were known he might be disturbed from without by entreaties, or even

semper consuetudineni, ut si quis ei aliquid muneris offerret, hoc illi vel statira vel post intervallum competens, non minore gratia rependeret."— C. 13. It is evident that tliey were already, even in the most fervent and exemplary communities, far from a state of primitive poverty.

"'* "Todiem per duo sua monasteria posuit in ecclesiis, ut cunctis, qui aliquod capitulum de utrolibet Testamento legere voluissent, in promptu esset invenire quod cuperent." — Vita Ceolfridi, in Append. BEDiE, Op. Mill., a. 325.

"' " Acutus ingenio, actis impiger... per incoraparabilem oraudi psallendique soUertiam, qua ip?,e quotidianus exerceri non desiit... post insolitam rectoribus et escas potusque parcitatem." by the presents ^2*^ of the friends he had among the nobility of the neighborhood, and indeed of all Northumbria. 4thjune, Three days after having declared his decision to the '^'''• afSicted community, he said mass in the morning very early, gave the communion to all present, and, standing on the steps of the altar with the censer in his hand, blessed all his children. They began to sing litanies, which were interrupted by tears and sobs; Ceolfrid then led them to an oratory, which he had dedicated to the martyr St. Lawrence, near the dormitory, and there addressed to them, as Benedict had done on his deathbed, a last exhortation. Its special subject was charity and mutual brotherly correction; and he entreated all those who might have found him too hard to pardon him and pray for him. From thence he descended to the bank of the river which bathes the walls of the monastery, followed by the six hundred monks of the two communities; after having received from their father a last kiss moistened with tears, they all knelt down. The old abbot then entered the ship that was to carry him away; and from the deck, on which the cross had been reared between two torches, he gave them his last benediction and disappeared from their sight.

Ceolfrid himself could not contain his grief at this parting at the distant sound of the chants of his monks, broken by their sobs, his tears flowed. Again and again he was heard to say, " Christ, my Lord and my God, have pity on this worthy and numerous company. Protect these dear children. I am sure that better or more obedient are nowhere to be found." ¹²¹

When they re-entered the monastery, the monks proceeded on the spot to the election of the new abbot. At the end of three days the universal suffrage of the two communities fixed upon a young man, trained at Wearmouth from his in-

!2o it jjg pecunia daretur ei a quibusdara, quibus retribuere pro tempore nequiret."

'-' " Omnibus in lacrymas singultusque genua cum obsecratione crebra flectentibus.... Cantata ergo prime mane missa... conveniunt omnes... paccm dat omnibus, thuribulum habens in manu: tunc fletibus universorum inter Letanias resonantibus, exeunt... veniunt ad littus, rursum osculo pacis inter lacrymas omnibus dato, genua flectunt... ascendit naveni... transit flumen, adorat crucem, ascendit equum et abiit." — G. 13. " Audiensque sonum mixti cum luctu carminis, nullatenus valuit ipse a singultu ct lacrymis temperare. Hoc autem solum crebra voce repetiit: Cliriste Deus, miserere illi coetui... protege illam cohortem... scio certissime quia nuUos unquam meliores illis et promptiores ad obedientiam novi." —Append., p. 425. fancy, and worthy of his illustrious predecessors, in his zeal for study, song, and teaching, as their united chief As soon as he was elected, the new abbot rushed after Ceolfrid, and found him in the port waiting a favorable wind for crossing to the Continent. He gave him a letter to the Pope, from which we quote the following passages :—

" To the blessed Pope Gregory II., our dear lord in the Lord of lords, Huetberct, your humble servant. Abbot of the Monastery of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, among the Saxons, everlasting greeting. — In the name of all my brethren, united in this place with me to find rest for their souls and to bear the sweet yoke of Christ, we recommend to your dear and holy kindness the hoary hairs of our venerable and beloved father, the Abbot Ceolfrid, who has ruled, trained, fed, and defended us in monastic peace and freedom. He has torn himself from us in the midst of our lamentations, tears, and sorrow; but we thank the holy and invisible Trinit}^ that it has been given him to attain to the blessed joy of rest which he has so long desired. He returns in his extreme old age to the tombs of the apostles, his visits to which in youth he has always remembered with enthusiasm. After forty years of work and care in his monastic government, he shows himself as much inspired by the love of virtue as though he were still in the first freshness of his conversion; and on the threshold of death, bent under the weight of age, he again becomes a pilgrim for Christ. "We conjure your Paternity, render to this beloved father those last duties of filial piety which it will not be permitted to us to accomplish. Afterwards you will keep his body; but his soul will remain with us both— with us and with you; and after his death, as during his life, we shall find in him a friend, a protector, and intercessor with God." ^^

The wishes of the double community of Wearmouth and Yarrow, thus expressed with so much filial affection, were not fulfilled. Ceolfrid never reached Rome; the fatigues of 122 t( Eligitur Huaetberctus. •. scribendi, cantandi, legend! ac docendi non parva exercitatus industria.., electus abbas ab omnibus utriusque monasterii fratribus.... Una cum Sanctis fratribus qui mecum in his locis ad inveniendam requiem animabus suis suavissimum Christi jugum portare desiderant.... Commendamus... venerabiles patris nostri dilectissimi canos... nutritoris tutorisque nostrae spiritualis in monastica quiete libertatis et pacis. ... Ad suae tamen diu desideratse quietis gaudia sancta pervenit... dum ea quae juvenem se adiisse atque adorasse semper recordans exultabat... repetiit... prope jam moriturus, rursus incipit peregrinari pro Christo.... Supplicamus ut quod nos facere non meruinius, vos erga ilium ultimo pietatis munus seduli expleatis." — Vitce Abbatum, c. 14.

the journey aggravated the weakness of his old ago. He

took three months to travel from Northumbria to the frontiers of Burgundy. During these three months he did not cease for a single day to celebrate mass and sing the entire monastic service, even when his weakness prevented him from moving except in a litter.^-^ He was able to travel only as far as Langres, where he died at the age of seventy-four — forty-three years of his age having been consecrated to the work of training or governing souls in the cloister. He was buried in a monastery, afterwards known by the name of St. Geosmes, and which took that name from the twins, who, along with their grandmother, St. Leonilla, were martyred there under the C^sars.^^ His austere life did not prevent him from travelling with all the retinue of a great personage, as indeed the abbot of the greatest community of the Anglo-Saxons of the North already was. Of the eighty English who composed his suit some continued their pilgrimage to Rome, others returned to England, and some preferred to pass the rest of their lives in the midst of a people whose language they did not understand, rather than separate themselves from the tomb of a father to whom they clung with an unchangeable love.^-'^

I beg ray readers to make an effort to represent to themselves who these eighty companions of old Ceolfrid were, and who also were, and from whence came, the six hundred Anglo-Saxons whom we have just seen kneeling on the sandy beach, on the shore of the Northern Sea, to receive the blessing of our aged abbot, going forth to brave the danger and fatigues of a laborious journey, with the hope of dying near the tomb of St. Peter and St. Paul. I would fain see the coldest and most bitter of sceptics transported for an instant in thought to that far distant shore. I should accompany

123 <( pgj. jjjgg gxiv., exceptis canonicis horis quotidie bis psalterium ex ordine decantare curavit, etiam cum ad hoc per infirmitatem deveniret, ut equitare non valens feretro caballario veheretur, quotidie missa cantata salutaris liostiaj Deo munus offerret, excepto uno, quo oceanum navigabat, et trihus ante exitum diebus."

'-* Their names were Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus. The mention of tliese martj-rs leads me to point out in passing the singularly instructive and conclusive examination given to this history by M. I'Abbe Bougaud in his learned Etude sur la Mission, les Actes, et le Culte de Saint Benigne, Ap6tre dcla Bourgogne. Dijon, 1859, pp. 171, 172.

i2i " Partim ad tumbam defuncti inter eos quorum nee linguam noverant, pro inextingdibili patris affectus redere." — VitcB Abbatum, c. 15.

514 CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS

him willingly, with no intermediary between him and me except simple good faith.

We should then find ourselves in the eighth century, in all its darkness, in all its barbarism, in an island destined to become again and again the prey of bloody and atrocious invasions. These are the sons of pirates, of incendiaries, of ravagers and murderers, who surround us. Yet see what they have become! Not all, certainly, but the first and most powerful, those in whom the abuse of strength, victory, and wealth would have produced most scandal and excess. See what the Christian religion has made of those wild hearts; look at the flowers which have blossomed by its means in that soil watered with blood and horror. Behold its fruits, its victories, its conquests, its chief spoil. Religion has established herself on that desolated land, amid these pitiless conquerors. She has shown them peace, gentleness, labor, virtue, truth, light, heaven; and after having thus lavished upon them a treasury of new thoug^its, beliefs, and strength, new food for their intelligence, and unknown resources for their social order, she has taught them to love, to love one another, to love souls — and to imprint the recollection of that love upon scenes and words which cannot deceive and will not be forgotten.