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-The transcription of useful works considered by the monks to be a useful and a meritorious em"To transcribe works," says the pious

ployment.

Thomas à Kempis, "which Jesus Christ loves, by "which the knowledge of him is diffused, his precepts 66 taught, and the practice of them inculcated, is a "most useful employment. If he shall not lose his "reward, who gives a cup of cold water to his thirsty "neighbour, what will not be the reward of those, "who, by putting good works into the hands of their "neighbours, open to them the fountains of eternal "life? Blessed be the hand of such transcribers! "Which of the writings of our ancestors would

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now be remembered, if there had been no pious "hand to transcribe them !"-It may be added that Thomas à Kempis was himself an excellent copyist: some of his transcriptions, among them a Latin bible in four large volumes,-still remain, and show his eminence in caligraphy.

To proceed,-For almost all that has been preserved to us of the writers of Greece, or Rome; for all that we know of the languages of those invaluable writers; for all the principal monuments of our holy religion; even for the sacred writings themselves, which contain the word of God; as well as for the traditions of the wise and good, respecting it, for all these benefits and blessings, we are almost wholly indebted, under Providence, to the monks of the middle ages. Their merit was their own all the ignorance, or the bad taste, which is justly imputable to them, was owing to the general ruin and devastation occasioned by the

inroads and conquests, of the barbarians; and to the unceasing wars of the barons. But justice, surely, claims our gratitude to these venerable communities, who strove against the barbarism of the times; and who preserved for us all the precious remains of sacred, or profane antiquity, that have reached us; all that we know of our own history, and almost all the historical records that we possess.

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9. Far be it from the writer to deny due praise to the biblical exertions of modern times:-But it ought not to be forgotten, that these holy men were the principal instruments employed by divine Providence in preserving the sacred volumes which compose the bible. We have the names of seven English monks, who translated the scriptures, or some parts of them, into the English language. The venerable Bede expired while dictating a translation of the gospel of St. John.-It has been invidiously observed, that in these times copies of the bible were few. Perhaps the scarcity has been exaggerated. But, that there should have been a scarcity is not surprising. Copies were then only procured by the slow labour of transcription: they were not, instantaneously multiplied by the simultaneous operations of innumerable presses. The transcription of a whole bible must have employed several months; and would, it is supposed, have cost upwards of fifty pounds. Taking this into account, and considering how few among the laity, even in the higher ranks of life, could then read;-considering also the destruction of all monuments of antiquity at the time of the Reformation, we shall

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rather be surprised at the number, than scandalized at the scarcity, of the ascertained manuscripts of the sacred volume.

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Such, then, were the advantages, derived by the public, and by individuals, from monastic establishments." The world," says a writer in the Quarterly Review, for the month of December, 1811, speaking of the Benedictine monks, "has never "been so deeply indebted to any other body of men as to this illustrious order; but historians, "when relating the evil, of which they were the "occasion, have too frequently forgotten the good, "which they produced. Even the commonest "readers are familiar with the arch-miracle-monger, "St. Dunstan; while the most learned of our coun"trymen scarcely remember the names of those "admirable men, who went forth from England, "and became the apostles of the north. Tinian, "and Juan Fernandez, are not more beautiful spots "on the ocean, than Malmesbury, and Lindisfarne, "and Jarrow, in the ages of our heptarchy. A "community of pious men, devoted to literature, and to the useful arts, as well as to religion,

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seems, in those ages, like a green oasis amid the "desert. Like stars in a moonless night, they shine upon us, with a tranquil ray. If ever there was a

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man, who could truly be called venerable, it is he, "to whom that appellation is constantly affixed"Bede,—whose life was passed in instructing his "own generation, and preparing records for posterity. In those days, the church offered the only asylum from the evils, to which every country was

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exposed; amidst continual wars, the church enjoyed peace: it was regarded as a sacred realm, by men, who, though they hated each other, believed, "and feared, the same God. Abused, as it was, by "the worldly-minded, and ambitious, and disgraced by the artifices of the designing, and the follies of "the fanatic, it afforded a shelter to those who were "better than the world, in their youth; or weary "it in their age; the wise, as well as the timid and "the gentle, fled to this Goshen of God, which en

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joyed its own light, and calm, amid darkness and "storms."-This just and generous tribute of gratitude, and respect, should be inscribed on every ruin, which still exists, of these venerable establishments.

CHAP. X.

THE DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES.

1540.

Two Events, I. The suppression of the order of the Knights Templars: II. And the suppression of the Alien Priories, preceded, and, in some measure, prepared the public mind in England for the general dissolution of all the monasteries in the realm. Succinct historical minutes of each of these events, may, therefore, be acceptable to the reader. An account will follow, III. Of the license granted by the pope to cardinal Wolsey,

to dissolve some of the smaller monasteries: IV. Of the dissolution of the remaining smaller monasteries: V. And of the subsequent dissolution of the greater.

X. 1.

The Suppression of the Order of the Knights Templars.

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It has been mentioned, that the Knights Templars were one of the military orders, established in the church, for the defence of the faith in the east, against the Saracens; and for the protection of the pilgrims, who resorted to the Holy Land. They took their name from a monastery in Jerusalem, given to them by Baldwin, the second king of that city, after its conquest, in the first Crusade. The order was founded in 1118. It was divided into three classes:-To the nobles, was assigned the profession of arms, for the purposes just expressed: the ecclesiastics were appointed to exercise their religious functions, for the benefit of the order: the lay-brothers had the care of the pilgrims and the sick. For several years, the members of the order were distinguished equally for their piety and their valour. St. Bernard composed a panegyric on them; in which language seems to sink under him, while he celebrates their virtues. But insensibly their fervour decayed; and luxury found its way among them. This led to the dissolution of the order. The best view of it is given in the " Monumens historiques relatif à la condemnation des Chevaliers du Temple, et à l'abolition de leur ordre; par M.

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