The Venerable Bede (part 2 of 2)

To these considerations of political and general interest, which throw so much light upon the military and territorial constitution of the Anglo-Saxon countries, Bede adds others which reveal not less pernicious abuses in the spiritual order.

''A still more serious crime," he says, " is committed when laymen, without either experience of or love for monastic life, give money to the kings as the price of certain lands, under pretence of building monasteries there— and then claim to themselves a hereditary right over these lands by royal edicts which are afterwards confirmed by the signatures of bishops, abbots, and the great people of this world. In the estates and villages thus usurped they live according to their own pleasure, exempt from all subjection either to God or man; sometimes, though laymen, ruling over monks, or rather gathering together under the guise of monks men who have been driven out of true monasteries for disobedience, or whom they can seduce out of such, or whom they have found wandering about the country; or even taking some of their vassals, whose heads they shave, and whom they bind to a kind of monastic obedience. What a monstrous spectacle is that of these pretended cells, filled with men having wives and children, who come from the conjugal bed to manage the internal affairs of a monastery I There are even some who have the effrontery to procure similar convents for their wives, where these secular women dare to undertake the government of the servants of Christ.^^^ Is there not room to say in this case, as says our proverb, that when the

^^* " Injusta principum judicia recto meliorum principum examine corrigantur, ae mendax stilus scribarum iniquorum discreta prudentium et sacerdotum sententia deleatur.... Ea quae provinciae nostras sive secundum Deum sive secundum seculum sint utilia, prospicere: ne... rarescente copia militias secularis, absint qui fines nostros a barbarica incursione tueantur.... Omnino deest locus ubi filii nobiliura vel emeritorum militum possessionem accipere possunt... ideoque vacantes ac sine conjugio, exacto tempore pubertatis, vel patriam pro qua militare debuerunt, trans mare abeuntes, relinquunt; vel... luxuria; ac fornicationi deserviant."

2^^ " Usurpatis sibi agellulis sive vicis, liberi exinde a divino simul et humano servitio... laici monachis imperantes... quoscumque ob culpam inobedientiae veris expulsos monasteriis alicubi forte oberrantes invenerint ... vel quos ipsi de suis satellitibus ad suscipiendam tonsuram promissa sibi obedientia raonachica invitare quieverint.... Modo conjugis ac liberorum procurandarum curam gerunt: modo exurgentes de cubilibus quid intra septa monasteriorum geri debeat... pertractant.... QuEe pari stultitia cum sint laicae, famularum se Cbristi permittunt esse rectrices." wasps makes honeycombs it is to put poison inside instead of honey? "

He then proceeds to expose the disastrous consequences of these abuses, which, however, had begun only about thirty years before. Since the death of Aldfrid and the end of Wildfrid's pontificate, he continues, there was scarcely a great noble or ealdorman who had not taken advantage of his position to acquire such a monastery for himself, or even for his wife, and by degrees the officials and domestics of the kings had learned to do the same. They all professed to be abbots, while at the same time governors of provinces, or officers of the royal household, submitting to a kind of tonsure, in order, by their own authority, to raise themselves, though simple laymen, not only into monks but into abbots.^^ " All these scandals," says the venerable historian, " might have been avoided or repressed had not the bishops themselves been the principal offenders or accomplices, confirming by their signatures the concessions and grants of monasteries, and selling their base indulgence for money to the false abbots.^^i ... I entreat you by the Lord, dearest bishop, preserve your flock from the irruption of these dishonest wolves. Remember, that if you are a true and not a mercenary pastor, your duty is to examine carefully into all that is ill or well in every monastery of your diocese, in order that abbots and abbesses instructed in and subject to the holy rules may be found everywhere, worthy of presiding over a family of Christ's servants, and not an insolent and undisciplined crowd, disdainful of all spiritual rule. They must be taught resolutely that kings and great men, unless in cases of crimes against the princes themselves, have nothing to do with the monasteries, which remain under the sole authorit}' of the bishops. It is your duty to prevent the devil from usurping those places consecrated to God, and substituting discord for peace, drunkenness for abstinence, debauchery and murder for chastity and charity. ... I know well that ray exhortations will

230 «' jfuUus pene exinde prasfectorum exstiteret qui non hujusmodi sibi monasterium in diebus suae praefecturae, suamque simul conjugem pari reatu nocivi mercatus astrinxerit.... Se abbates pariter et praefectos sive iniiiistros aut famulos regis appellant... etsi a professione ilia... sunt funditus extorres."

-^' " Si non ipsi pontifices magis hujusmodis sceleribus opera ferre atque adstipulari probarentur: qui... hujusmodi decreta injusta... suis subscriptionibus confirmare satagunt, eadem ipsis pbylargyria dictante, ad confirmanduin male scripta, qua emptores coniparandum hujusmodi monasteria coaeti."

VOL. IL 48 meet many gainsayers, especially among those who are the authors or accomplices of the excesses I complain of. But you must treat with apostolic vigor those miserable successors of Ananias and Sapphira, who were cut off by sudden death from the society of the first monks, not even for usurping the possessions of others, but for having dishonestly retained what was their own.^^s When he describes avarice and cupidity as idolatry, the Apostle Paul manifestly justifies those who refuse their signature, even when exacted by the king, to these shameful bargains, and even those who strike through and erase all such fatal documents.^o-^ Do not then allow yourself to be stopped by those who, to protect the work of their covetousness, present before you charters furnished with the signatures of great men and nobles.^^* Answer them in the words of our Lord, ' All that my Father in heaven has not planted shall be rooted out.' In short, do not permit those who never attempt to struggle, even in the smallest particular, against bodily or spiritual carnality, to lull themselves to sleep by a vain confidence in their salvation; dissipate the senseless illusion of those who believe that others will redeem them after their death by the celebration of holy mysteries of which their lives have made them unworthy, or that they will be absolved from their sins for the sake of some alms thrown to the poor in the midst of their daily indulgences and passions. The hand which gives to God must be, like the conscience, pure from all crime and soil.^^^ This is my judgment against the venom of avarice. I should never come to an end had 1 to speak at equal length of other vices, from which God give you grace, my dearest bishop, to deliver your flock."

The whole of this admirable letter is thus occupied with the indignant protest of a true monk against the false monks, who already began to infect the life of the cloister, and against the greedy and feeble bishops who sanctioned or tolerated these unworthy abuses.' If the example of the Venerable Bede had always and everywhere found imitators; if

2a2 " Ananiara et Saphiram raonachorum coUegio indignos etiam corporis morte mulctavit... et quideru illi non alieua colligere, sed sua incongrue retinere maluerunt."

-'^ "Qui vel subscriptione avari mercatus, rege licet imperante, manum substraxerunt."

•'"* " Qui si chartas protulerunt in defensionem concupiscentiarum suarum ascriptas, ac nobilium personaruin subscriptione confirmatas."

2" " Quum manus ipse et conscientia quee munus offerat Deo, munda a peccatis debeat esse et absoluta." pure and courageous voices like his had risen in the bosom of the Church, especially in recent ages, to warn her against the incoming of corruption, hypocrisy, and secular covetousness, it may well be believed that the homicidal hand of Protestant or revolutionary vandalism would never have succeeded in sweeping away from the entire surface of the Christian world the glorious establishments founded by the munificence and piety of our fathers.

One thing must be gladly admitted, which is, that the bold freedom and noble independence of Bede did him no harm, and lessened in no way the great and just reputation which he enjoyed throughout England, a fame which soon spread into all Europe, and went on increasing after his death to such a point, that the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, held a hundred years afterwards, described him as an " admirable doctor." ²⁵⁶

This pleasant and glorious life was not, however. He is without a cloud. He excited the criticism of vio- he^gy'^ia^ lent and narrow spirits, like all other superior men. popular They even went so fir as to treat him as a heretic, ^""^'^' because he had in his Chronology combated the then general opinion that the world was to last only six thousand years, and because, in his division of the six ages of the world, he had appeared a little uncertain about the date ordinarily fixed as that of the Incarnation. This accusation of heresy made so much noise, that it Avas discussed even among the peasants, who scoffed at it in their drinking songs; a fact which proves that if the great were then, as always, exposed to calumny, the popular masses of the day took a singular interest in their good fame. Bede, who took credit to himself for having always kept with scrupulous care within the limits of the strictest orthodoxy, was at once troubled and rendered indignant by this imputation. He grew pale with surprise and horror, as he says to one of his friends, a monk, in an apologetic letter— a letter full of pride and energy, which he charges his correspondent to read to Wilfrid, Bishop of York, who seems to have given a certain encouragement to the slander by suffering it to be uttered at table in his presence.-^^

256 '<Qyj(j venerabilis et modcrnis tcmporibus doctor admirabilis, Beda presbyter sentiat, videanius." — Concil. Aquisgran., ii. pra;f., 1. iii., ann. 83(1, cd. Coletti, ix. 875.

2^7 u llsnc tristi mox admistione confudit, addendo videlicet, quod me audires a lascivientibus rusticis inter haereticos per pocula decantari.... Ex- Hisiuti- If, however, he had some enemies, he had more th'rmonks f'^'ends. Among these, in the first rank, it is pleasant to find the monks of" Lindisfarne. Their friendship with Bede maintains and proves the link which, notwithstanding certain differences of origin and opinion, attaches the island-cradle of the Christian faith in Northumbria to the last of the great monastic foundations, and the last of the great monks who illustrated that glorious coast. Bede asked that his name should be inscribed on the roll of monks in the monastery founded by St. A'idan. He specially desired this favor in order that his soul after death might have a share in the masses and prayers of that numerous community as if he had been one of themselves.^^^ His This pious anxiety to assure himself of the help gf prayer for his soul after his death is apparent at every step in his letters. It imprints the last seal of humble and true Christianity on the character of the great philosopher, whose life was so full of interest, and whose last days have been revealed to us in minute detail by an eye-witness. Although the narrative has been often republished,259 the reader does not tire of returning to it, and it must find a place here, for no historic document brings more clearly before our eyes the life, at once spiritual and literary, of the Anglo-Saxon cloisters. " You desire and expect of me," writes a monk of Yarrow to one of his absent brethren, " to tell you how Bede, our father and master, the beloved of 17th April, Grod, departed from this world.... Nearly a fortnight before Easter he was seized by an extreme

horrui, fateor, et pallens percunctabar, cujus haereseos arguerer.... Quoniam illo praisente atque audiente insipientius sum prius .appelitus conviciis, ipso etiam nunc audiente et dijudicante,... quam immeritus eadem convicia sum perpessus appareat.... Quod utique in coena ilia in qua poculo debrius culpare studuit." — Epist. ad Plegwinummonachum, t. i. pp. U-l-lSi. This Wilfrid is not the great St. Wilfrid, but Wilfrid II., who was Bishop of York from 717 to 732, after St. John of Beverley, and before Egbert.

258 it^iQ defuncto, pro redemptione aninise meas, quasi familiaris et vernaculi vestri, orare et missas fiicere, et nomen meum inter vestra scribere dignemini... ut in albo vestrse sanctse congregationis meum nunc quoque nomen appareret." Prafatio ad Vit. S. Outhberii.

^"^ In the last place by Ozanam, who has made a perfect picture of the life of Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Church of the eighth century. The name of the author of the narrative is Cuthbert; he was a disciple of Bede, and wrote from Yarrow to one of his fellow-pupils, named Cuthwine, who was established in a distant monastery, probably one belonging to the Celtic ritualists, according to a passage quoted by Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. ii. p. 197.

OF ST. WILFRID. 569

weakness, in consequence of his difficulty of breathing, but without great pain. He continued thus until As- ^ cension, always joyous and happy, giving thanks to ~ God day and night, and even every hour of the night and day. He gave ns our lessons daily, and employed the rest of his time in chanting psalms; and passed every night, after a short sleep, in joy and thanksgiving, but without closing his eyes. From the moment of awaking he resumed his prayers and praises to God, with his arms in the form of a cross. happy man! He sang sometimes texts from St. Paul and other scriptures, sometimes lines in our own language, for he was very able in English poetry." ^ao Here the narrator interrupts himself to quote ten lines in Anglo- Saxon received from the lips of the dying Bede, and expressed in that short, sharp, and striking rhythm which characterizes the verses of the shepherd Ceadmon, with which Bede has made us acquainted. " Before our forced departure," thus runs the song, " no man is more wise than he needs be; no man knows how much he ought to search, before leaving this world, what shall be the judgment of the soul for good or evil, after the day of death." ^^ " Ho also sang," continues the witness, " anthems according to his liturgy and ours — among others, the following: '0 King of Glory, who now hast mounted in triumph above the skies, leave us not like orphans, but send us the spirit of truth promised to our fathers.' At these words, like orphans, he burst into tears. An hour after, he repeated the same anthem, and we mingled our tears with his. Sometimes we wept, and sometimes wo read, but we never read without weeping. Thus passed the forty days from Easter to Ascension. He was always at the height of joy, thanking God for his sickness.-'^^ He said with St. Paul, ^* The Lord scourgeth every one that he receiveth; ' and with St. Ambrose, ' 1 have not lived so

^*" " Laetus ct gaudens... imnio horis omnibus... totara noctem in Isetiti.i ct gratiarum actione pervigil ducebat, nisi quantum modicus somnus impedirct. ... In nostra quoque lingua, quaj est Anglica, ut erat doctus in nostris carminibus, nonnulla dixit."

-'*' These lines, omitted by Mabillon in bis edition of Cuthbert's story, which is taken from Simoon of Durham, are found in a manuscript of St. Gall, almost a contemporany of Bede, and there is no doubt of their authenticity. Cf. lilNGARU, p. 40'J.

²⁶² u Prorupit in lacrymas... luximus cum illo... altera vice legiluus, altera ploravimus. Immo semper cum fletu legimus, ut tali Isetitia dies usque ad diem deduximus, ct ille multum gaudebat."

48* as to blush at the thought of living with you; but I do not fear to die, because we have a good master.' 2*^^

" During all these days, in addition to the lessons he gave us and the psalms he sang with us, he undertook two pieces of work; a translation of the Gospel according to John into our English tongue for the use of the Church of God, and some extracts from Isidore, Bishop of Seville. ' For,' said he, ' I would not have ray children read lies, nor that after my death they should give themselves up to fruitless work.' On the Tuesday before Ascension he found himself much worse; his breathing became difficult, and his feet Avere swollen. He continued, nevertheless, to dictate in good spirits, and sometimes added, ' Make haste to learn, for I know not how long I may remain with you, or if my Creator may call me shortly.' On the eve of the feast, at the first dawn of morning, he desired that what had been commenced should be quickly finished, and we worked till the hour of tierce. Then we went to the procession with the relics of the saints, as the solemn occasion required. But one of us remained by him and said to him, ' There is still a chapter wanting, beloved father; would it fatigue you to speak any more? ' Bede answered, ' I am still able to speak; take your pen, make it, and write rapidly.' The other obeyed. At the hour of nones he sent for the priests of the monastery, and distributed to them incense, spices, and fine linen, which he had kept as precious things; then bade them farewell, praying each of them to say masses for him. Thus passed his last day till the evening. Then the disciple of whom I have spoken said to him, ' Beloved master, there remains only one verse which is not written.' ' Write it then quickly,' he answered. And the young man having completed it in a few minutes, cried, ' Now it is finished.' ' You say truly, it is finished,' he said. ' Take my head in your arms and turn me, for I have great consolation in turning towards the holy place where I have prayed so much.' Thus, lying on the floor of his cell, he sang for the last time, ' Glory be to the Father, to the Sou, and to the Holy Spirit,' and gave up the ghost as he pronounced the last of these divine names." 2*^^

-^^ S. Paulinus, in Vit. S. Ambrosii.

264 (( Nolo ut discipuli mei mendacium legant.... Totum ilium diem hilariter dictabat.... Diserte cum festinatione.... Adhuc magister diloctissime, eapitulum unum deest; videtur ne tibi difficile plus te interrogari? Facile est, accipe tuum calamum et tempera, et festinanter scribe.... Curre velociter et presbyteros adhuc ad me.... Qusedam pretiosa in mea

The monastic sanctuary towards which the dying look of Bede was turned still remains in part, if we may believe the best archceologists, and his memory has survived the changes of time. An old oaken chair is still shown which he is supposed to have used. It is the only existing relic of this great saint. For he was a saint by the same title and in the same rank as the most illustrious in the Anglo-Saxon calendar. The title of Venerable, which was given to him only in the ninth century by a kind of universal consent, did not then as now imply an inferior position to that of saint or blessed in the celestial hierarchy. Like all the other saints of the period, without exception, he was canonized by popular veneration, tacitly approved by the Church. Various miracles established or confirmed the fame of his sanctity altars were consecrated to his memor}'-; many pilgrims came to Yarrow to visit his tomb; his relics were stolen in the eleventh century, as so often happened, by a priest inspired by too ardent devotion, and carried to Durham, where they were placed with those of St. Cuthbert. They were an object of worship to the faithful up to the general profanation under Henry VIII., who pulled down the shrine and threw the bones on a dungliill along with those of all the other holy apostles and martyrs of Northumberland.^^'^

It must, however, be admitted that his place in the worship of the faithful has not lasted so long as the glory attached to his name and the great fame which, rising in his native country, spread so rapidly over all Christendom.^^s capsella habes, id est piperem, oraria et incensa.... Accipe caput meum in manus tuas, quia multum me delectat sedere ex adverse loco saucto meo, in quo orare solebam. ... In pavimento casulse suie dccantans."

-" If we may believe a competent judge, Mr. Jewitt {Gentleman's Magazine, Dec, 18G4), the choir of the little church now standing at Yarrow is as old as the church built by Benedict Biscop, and inhabited, as we may say, l)y Venerable Bede. This is the remnant which was discovered roofless by the three monks who, according to Simeon of Durham, visited the ruins in 1075. The learned archa;ologist thinks that he recognizes, in the ornaments and in the primitive bays of this choir, the characteristics of Saxon architecture. We confess that it is difficult to conceive how this low and petty construction can represent any portion whatever of the edifice built and ornamented with so much magnificence by the founder of Yarrow, and described with such enthusiasm by the most illustrious of his guests. The tower, indeed, which is of fine Norman or Roman architecture, may very well date from the partial restoration in 1075. An inscription, evidently more modern than its date, fixes the dedication of the church on April 24, C81, in the loth year of King Egfrid, and Ceolfridi abbatis ejusdem ecclesicB Deo auctore conditoris, anno IV.

20B u Anglia te celebrat: te totus personat orbis."

— Ancient epitaph quoted by Leland, Collectanea^ vol, iii. book iv. c. 23.

572 CONTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS

His fame did honor to monastic institutions in general. Bede appeared to the Catholic world a model of that virtue and knowledge which the cloister was to make the peculiar property of Christian society. In him the great Roman monachism which he had seen triumph over Celtic influences found its personification. The sword of his words, said his epitaph, was the safeguard of the fortresses occupied by his religious brethren.^*^''

But it was especially the English nation, the last newcomer among Catholic nations, which had occasion to take pride in the great man given by her to Christendom. All the kingdoms of the Heptarchy claimed a share in the glory which could not be allowed to remain the exclusive possession of the Northumbrians — and the Anglo-Saxon missionaries, scattered through Germany, rivalled the monks who remained in their native island in the faithfulness of their devotion to his noble memory .^68

The nations of Catholic Europe envied England the possession of so great a doctor, the first among the offspring of barbarous races who had won a place among the doctors of the Church. His illustrious successors, Boniface and Alcuin, emulated each other in celebrating his merits and services in the interest of souls, and in order to set him up as a permanent model to future gene ration s.^*^^ Alcuin insists specially upon this with a precision of details which gives us one proof the more how entirely the likings and manners of the Anglo-Saxon conquerors of England are reflected in the

²⁶⁷ a Crystallus patriae, gregis astrum, lumen avorura,

Laus juris, bajulus legis, lionorque jacet.
Beda datus sacris, gravitate senex, puer annis,
Devotae mentis aetliera thure replet. . . .

Ense pio verbi confratrum castra tuetur

Ne Christi miles, hoste ruente, ruat."

— Epitaph quoted by Mabillon from a MS. belonging to De Thou.

" Beda, Dei famulus, n)onachorum nobile sidus,

Finibus e terrae profuit Ecclesiae."

— Another epitaph quoted by Arnold AVion.

²⁶⁸ <'Et rectum quidem mihi videtur ut tota gens Anglorum in omnibus provinciis, ubicumque reperti sunt, gratias Deo referant, quia tam mirabilem virum illis in sua natione donavit."— S. Bonifacii et Lulli Epist., ed. Jaffe, number 134. See the letter written by an abbot of Wearmouth to Lul, Archbishop of Mayence, thanking him for having sent from Germany a silken stuff intended to wrap the relics of Bede.

²⁶⁹ " Rogamus ut aliqua de opusculis sagacissimi investigatorius Scripturarum Bedan (^sic) monachi, quem nuper in domo Dei apud vos, vice candelae ecclesiasticae, scientia, scripturarum fulsisse audivimus, conscripta nobis transmittere dignemini." — Bonifacii Episi., 672, ed. Jaffe. tastes of the modern English. " Remember," he writes to the monks of the community of Yarrow which Bede had made famous — " remember the nobility of your fathers, and be not the unworthy sons of such great ancestors: look at your many books, at the beauty of your churches and monastic buildings. Let your young men learn to persevere in the praises of God, and not in driving foxes out of their holes, or wearing out their strength running after hares. What folly to leave the footsteps of Christ, and run after the trail of a fox! Look at the noblest doctor of our country, Bede; see what zeal he showed for knoAvledge from his youth, and the glory which he has received among men, though that is much less important and less dazzling than his reward before God. Stir up, then, the minds of your sleepers, by his example; study his works, and you will be able to draw from them, both for yourselves and others,, the secret of eternal beauty.^'^

The fame of Bede has derived a special and increasing lustre from the fact that he was not only the first and most remarkable of Anglo-Saxons, but that, were he set aside, everything else concerning them would fall into obscurity ;27i thus it is not without reason that he has been compared to Homer, who rose like a resplendent meteor amid the night which precedes and the night which follows his appearance upon the horizon of Greek history.

The dark night of idolatry which covered Northumbria before the holy predecessors and contemporaries of Bede, has been replaced by the dark night of industry. The working of the coal-mines has transformed the face of the country. The light of day is positively darkened by thick volumes and heavy clouds of smoke belched out without intermission by the manufactories and workshops which are fed by the inexhaustible mineral wealth of the country. Newcastle, North and South Shields, Sunderland, Stockton, Darlington, Hull, all the centres of the coal-trade, have replaced in the atten-

"" " Assuescant pueri laudibus astare superni Regis, non vulpium fodere cavernas, non leporum fugaces scqui cursus. Quara impiuni est Christi aniatterc obscquia et vulpium sequi vestigia! Discant pueri Scripturas sacras.... Recogitate nobilissimuin hujus temporis magistrum Bedam presbyterum... qualera nunc habet inter homines laudem." — Alcuini, Epist. 13, cd. Froben, vol. i. p. 22.

''''' Certain contemporary chronicles find nothing to describe in the history of England during the seventh and eighth centuries except the existence of Bede. " Beda presbyter et monachus claret in Anglia." Chron. Holland Vetustiss., ad. an. 69G, quoted by Mackintosh, vol. i. p. 83. tion and regard of men the old monastic cradles of Christian faith and civilization, Lindisfarne and Yarrow, Tynning-hani and Coldingham, Tynemouth and Wearmouth, Hartlepool and Whitby. But what a contrast, even if we go no further than the surface, between the aspect of the country of old and that of to-day! The much-prized coal has covered this fine country with a veil of mourning. The verdure of the woods and fields is discolored by it, the limpid waters soiled, the purity of the air infected, the light of the sun intercepted. Everything disposes us to believe that these are but material tokens of the internal and moral darkness, in the midst of which struggles the vast and formidable population which swarms in those craters of British commerce. The frightful density of these unknown and impenetrable masses conceals abysses of ignorance, vice, wretchedness, and resentment. There Paganism is restored. Notwithstanding many generous efforts, partial remedies, and honorable exceptions — notwithstanding the observance, still compulsory and respected, of the Sunday rest,— the love of lucre has created armies of slaves, tools without souls, but already longing, and with good reason, for a better fate, for a condition less painful than that, the duration and aggravation of which ought to fill with trembling every Christian and patriotic heart.

The light of faith and the moral law is still more wanting to them than daylight. Buried alive in their mines and manufactories, without pontiffs, without spiritual guides, a prey to all the disorders, excesses, and forgetfulnesses which ever accompany the labor of a crowd, strangers to the thought of God, to any hope in a future life, to habits of modesty,'^'2 victims and instruments of the worship of mammon, they stand there like a perpetual menace to the blind egotism and formalism of the materialists of our age.

No man can admire more than I do the marvels of human intelligence and activity realized by the free genius of the English race; no man does more sincere homage to its natural and unconquerable instincts of religion. But who could behold without fear, in that district, once so fruitful in sanctuaries of prayer, virtue, and moral and intellectual life, the religious indifference and fierce thirst for gain which replace almost everywhere the tender and vigilant solicitude of the Church for souls? Who could be other than alarmed at sight

^'* See p. 496, note 83, what has been said of the facts revealed by the Parliamentary Commission in the coal districts. of the deserted condition, the spiritual nullity, in which so many millions of our fellow-creatures are living? How can we cease to regret the days when the obedient fervor of the people answered so well to the zeal, knowledge, and disinterestedness of the clergy? and when, like the lighthouses which we now see everywhere, on the headlands, at the river's mouth, at the edge of rocky reefs, and along all the course of that dangerous and much frequented coast, offering their tutelary light to the sailor, there rose upon those shores, then desert, unknown, and inhabited only by a few savages, the sparkling lights, increasing from year to year, of Lindisfarne, Yarrow, Whitby, Coldingham, Wearmouth, and Tyneraouth — centres of intellectual and moral life, as laborious as it was pure!

Perhaps the day may yet come— and may it not be far distant! — when, as of old, amid the wonders and perils of modern activity, new centres of charity, enlightenment, and peace may light up one after the other, like so many celestial Ijeacons to guide and warn souls in their pilgrimage towards eternal life.