before the confessor and the town-gerefa, and, if he will not perform this, let him pay, according to law, a bunda, or villager, thirty pence; a throl, or slave, by his hide; a thegn, thirty shillings. For the three days let them be freed from work, and in every minster let all the company sing their Psalter the three days, and let every mass-priest say mass for our Lord, and for all his people; and there, besides, let men say masses every day, in every minster one mass separately for the necessities that surround us, till things become better and at every tide-song let all the assembly, with bended knees, before God's altar, sing the third Psalm; and every year henceforth do this, till the Almighty pity us, and grant us to overcome our enemy. GOD HELP US. AMEN."Z The Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics visited most crimes with appropriate penance, and especially homicides, both voluntary and involuntary, and even the intention to commit them. What they called their deeplike, or severe penance, is thus described: "He must lay aside his weapons, and travel barefoot a long way; nor be sheltered of a night. He must fast and watch and pray both day and night, and willingly weary himself, and be so careless of his dress that the iron should not come to his hair or nails. "He must not enter a warm bath, nor soft bed; nor eat flesh, nor any thing by which he can be intoxicated; nor may he go inside of a church, but seek some holy place, and confess his guilt, and pray for intercession. He must kiss no man, but be always grieving for his sins." It was an invention of deep policy, though of suspicious piety, that they allowed the wealthy to purchase a removal of the penances imposed. This gave the church an interest that crimes should be committed, as well as that the penances should be too severe to be personally performed; yet this dangerous privilege was used for the best purposes. The following is one of their regulations on this subject: "Many men may redeem their penances by alms: "He that hath ability may raise a church to the praise of God; and, if he has wherewithal, let him give land to it, and allow ten young men, so that they may serve in it, and minister the daily service. He may repair churches where he can, and make folk-ways, with bridges over deep waters, and over miry places; and let him assist poor men's widows, and step-children, and foreigners. He may free his own slaves, and redeem the liberty of those of other masters, and especially the poor captives of war; and let him feed the needy, and house them, clothe and warm them, and give them bathing and beds. "b It is impossible to praise too highly the benevolence of these substitutions. The permission to buy off penance by money could not but become a source of the greatest abuses; nor was it less objectionable to commute them, if at all useful, for certain quantities of repetitions, by rote, of some devotional forms; which, thus reite z MS. C. C. Cantab. ap. Wanley, p. 138. b Leges Edgari, Wilk. p. 95. a Leges Edgari, Wilk. p. 94. rated, could have little more meaning or efficacy than the same amount of unintelligible nonsense, or of a parrot's exclamations. The law thus provided for it: "A man may redeem one day's fasting by a penny, or by repeating two hundred Psalms. He may redeem a twelvemonth's fasting by thirty shillings, or may set a man free who is of that worth. And for one day's fast he may sing six times the Beati Immaculati, and six Pater-nosters; or for a day's fast he may kneel and bend sixty times to the earth, with a Pater-noster; or he may bend all his limbs to God, and fifteen times sing Miserere mei Dominus,' and fifteen Pater-nosters."c 6 That the Anglo-Saxons continued the error of the ancient world, in referring the phenomena of nature almost always to supernatural agency, though with the substitution of saints, angels, and demons, for the gods and goddesses, heroes, genii, and dæmons of antiquity, is a true assertion as to the nation at large, and as to their religious instructors, with few exceptions. Their ignorance of natural science led them to this mistake, as its abundance with us has urged our philosophy into the opposite extreme. Our ancestors were inclined to ascribe nothing to natural causes; and we tend to attribute to these every phenomenon. They saw nothing but the Divinity acting around them; and some of us exclude Him wholly from His creation. Both extremes are erroneous. The probability is, that the Supreme does every thing by the natural causes which He has organized to act for the general good, so far as their agency will from time to time produce it; but where their operation becomes at any time insufficient to achieve His purposes, they are assisted by His immediate interference, or by the introduction of new effective agents that are more suited to the new circumstances that arise, and the new improvements that He intends to establish. He, as our Great Alfred suggested, binds himself in no chains as to the future guidance of nature, but keeps Himself free, at all times, to do whatever His wisdom finds to be successively most expedient for the benefit of His whole creation, and therefore for every part of it; for the whole cannot be benefited unless the portions partake of the advantage. But the Anglo-Saxons pursued the custom of the day in venerating those who, after death, were invested by the ecclesiastical authorities with the dignity of saints; they had several of these of native origin, who were held in great estimation, and whose lives were written with zealous enthusiasm. They ascribed to their saints great powers over nature and disease, and human life, as the classical nations had done to their fabulous divinities; and Leg. Edgari, p. 96. As St. Guthlac, St. Edwin, St. Oswald, St. Boniface, St. Swithin, St Neot, St. Edmund, St. Chad, St. Winifreda, St. Dunstan, St. Ethelwald, St. Edward, and many others. thus impeded their own progress in natural philosophy, by substi tuting imaginary agents for natural causes. Our ancestors also respected hermits, who lived in woods or cells, retired from the world.e The evil personage called Anti-christ, who, it is supposed, will accompany the last ages of the world, was a frequent subject of contemplation among the Anglo-Saxons. They thought that he was about to come in the tenth and eleventh centuries. One of their discourses upon him begins with "Beloved men! there is great need that we should be aware of the fearful time that is now approaching. Now, very soon will be the times of Anti-christ; therefore we ought to expect him, and carefully think upon him." A long detail then follows on this subject; but the most curious account of him is that of Albinus, which he addresses to Charlemagne.h • That the lives of the Saxon hermits, or anchorites, were not unusefully employed, we have a very splendid proof in the Saxon MS. of the Gospels in the British Museum, Nero, D. 4. Wanley justly calls this, "an incomparable specimen of Anglo-Saxon calligraphy," p. 253. It is beautifully illuminated and decorated: Billfrith, the anchorite, was the person who so adorned it. He is mentioned by his Saxon coadjutor, Aldred, to have ornamented it with gold and gems, and with silver gilt over. Turgot, the Anglo-Saxon, also declares him to have been "in aurificii arte precipuus." Wanl. ib. It seems to have been written about the time of Alfred. Elfric thought, from the calamities of Ethelred's reign, that the end of the world was near: "By this we may understand that this world is passing away, and very nigh its end." MSS. Vesp. D. 14. The Sermon is printed, with a Latin translation, in the Appendix to the Saxon Dictionary. A few particulars of Alcuin's fancy may amuse: "He is to be born of a most flagitious robber and harlot, with the aid of the Devil, at Babylon. He will pervade Palestine convert kings, princes, and people; and send his missionaries all over the world. He will work many miracles; bring fire from heaven; make trees vegetate in a moment; calm and agitate the sea at his will; transform various objects; change the course of rivers; command the winds; and apparently raise the dead. He will bitterly persecute Christianity. He will discover hidden treasures, and lavish them among his followers: a dreadful period of tribulation will follow. He will not come till the Roman empire has entirely ceased, and that cannot be while the kings of the French continue. One of the French kings is, at last, to obtain the whole Roman empire, and will be the greatest and the last of all kings. He is to go to Jerusalem, and lay down his crown and sceptre on Mount Olivet. Then Anti-christ is to appear, and Gog and Magog to emerge. Against them this French king of the Romans is to march; to conquer all nations, destroy all idols, and restore Christianity. The Jews are to be restored," &c. &c. Alc. Op. 1211–1215. CHAPTER IV. The Anglo-Saxon Te Deum; Jubilate; Magnificat; and Specimens of their Prayers. THE TE DEUM. The, Lod, pe heɲiath, the, Dɲihten, pe andettah. The, ealle englar, the, heorenar and ealle anpealdum. The, che pubim and reɲaphim unablınnendlice sterne cly path balig! balig! balig! drihten, Lod pereda! Fulle rýnt heorenar and eoɲthe mægenchɲýmmes puldper thiner. The, puloonful eɲndɲacena peɲed, The, picigena hengendlic gerel, The, cychɲa rcyned heɲach here, The, embhpynft eonthena halig andet geromnung, Fæder, opmæter mægen-chɲýmmer! Anpunchne chinne rochne and anlicne runu; baligne picodlice Fɲerrigendre Lart. Thu, cyng puldɲer cyninger' Christe, Thu, rabeper ece chu eant punu. Tha to alyrenne chu anrenge mann, thu ne arcunedost Fæmnan innath. Thu openrpithedum deather angan; Thu onlýsdest gelyredum nicu heopena. Thu on cha rpichɲan healpe Loder retst on puldɲe Fædener. Dema thu eaɲt gelyred peran topeaɲd, The eonnorclice pe halriach chinum theopum gehelp, tha of deoppýrchum blode thu alysdest. Ece do mid halgum chinum puldoɲ beon ForgÿƑen. And pe heɲiach naman thinne on poɲulde and a poɲuld. Sy mildheopenýr thin open ur гpa гpa pe hýhtath on the. On the Ic hihte; ic ne beo gercynd on ecnýrre." a MS. Cott. Lib. Vespasian, A. 1. THE JUBILATE. Drymath dɲihtne ealle eoɲthan; the opiath dɲihtne on blirre; Ingath on gerihthe hir on blithnerre. Wicach Fortham the dɲihten he ir Lod; he poɲhte us, and na pe rýĺre ur; folc hir and sceap fortoɲnother hir. Ingach gatu hir on anddetnerre, carentunar hir on ýmenum anddettath. beniach namam hir; foɲtham the pynrum is dɲihten, on ecnerre mildheoptner hir, and oth on cynɲene and cynɲene rothrærtnerr hir.b THE MAGNIFICAT. Min rapel menrath Drihten min gart geblirrude on Lode minum bælende. Fortham the he gereah hir thinene ead-modnerre, rochlice heonun-roɲth me eadige reegach ealle cneoperra. Foncham the me mycele thing byde re the mihtig is hiɲ nama iɲ halig. hir mild-heoɲɛner of cneoɲerre on cneoɲerre hine ondrædendum. be poɲhte magne on hir eaɲme. he to-dælde tha ofermodan on mode hýɲa heoɲtan. be apeapp tha pican or recle and tha ead-modan upahof. bingnigende he mid godum gefylde ofeɲ-mode idele fonlet. be areng Irɲahel hir cniht gemunde his mild heoptnerre. Spa he rpɲæc to uɲum fædeɲum Abɲahame and hir ræde on à peoɲuld.c The following addresses to the Deity are selected from the Anglo-Saxon remains, to complete the picture of their minds; and to show that notwithstanding the illiterate age in which they lived, and the superstitions which prevailed, yet that the language of their devotion was not discreditable to their general intellect. These instances will indicate that they studied to connect it both with their feelings and their reason. They are in a poetical form: 1. Oh Lord beloved! Everlasting Ruler! Heal thou it, O Lord of heaven! For thou most easily may, of all that exist far or wide. b MS. Cott. Vitell. E. 18. Another version from Vespas. A. 1, may be seen in Wanley's excellent Catalogue of the Saxon MSS. p. 222. • Saxon Gosp. Luc. c. 1. |