Page images
PDF
EPUB

PROSPERITY OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH.

"The war-worn chieftain quits the world to hide
His thin autumnal locks where monks abide
In cloistered privacy.

O Venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed
Of toil stupendous."

-Wordsworth.

1. Effects of Theodore's Work.-Hitherto, owing to the scattered character of the various missionary churches, we have had to deal much more fully with their work in the different kingdoms than will be necessary in the subsequent pages, now that we have seen them all united under a recognised head, and organised upon a uniform plan. We shall only need to direct attention to representative men in succeeding generations, round whose personality the chief events connected with the Church seem to revolve. The Church had been a long time winning its way into the hearts of the Teutons, but after Theodore had established and settled it throughout the land, it held over them an undisputed sway. The clergy became advisers of the people in temporal as well as spiritual affairs, and no important laws were made without consulting them. Besides having their own ecclesiastical courts the prelates sat with the lay nobles in local and national Assemblies to adjudicate upon social, political, and domestic concerns; they took precedence of the gentry at official gatherings; the bishop ranked next to royalty, and, if in tribal strife he were made prisoner, the price of his ransom would be the same as that for a king. The unity of the Church often enabled the clergy to prevent strife and bloodshed between the separate kingdoms, so great was the reverence and respect shown by everyone to them, and thus the welfare of the people became closely bound up with the prosperity of their religion.

2. Illustrative Teaching. - The Church had no greater friends than the common people, for, although its settlement in any district was primarily due to the decisions of the nobles in Witan assembled, its cords were lengthened, and its stakes strengthened, by the sincere affection of the simple peasants for the revelation which the missionaries had brought to them. It was natural that the bishops should generally stay near the princes to advise them how a Christian

State should be administered, but there were never wanting large numbers of self-denying men to go out into the valleys and hills and

teach the people. There were then few books, and still fewer persons, outside the monasteries, who could read; some other way had to be found to arrest and maintain the attention than those which we enjoy by means of the printing press. A language which is still universal was adopted, men's hearts being appealed to through their

[graphic]

and

Pictures eyes. sculptures were freely used, the Christian symbol of the Cross was set up in the gathering place of each tribe to remind them of the motive power which

should actuate them

[blocks in formation]

signs of elaborate work

ANCIENT CROSS.

(MONASTERBOICE, WICKLOW, IRELAND).

manship. They were the text books of the time, various scenes in the story of our Redemption were carved on them by the monks which the missionary preachers would explain, and just as children

now-a-days, who have picture story-books read to them before they are able to read for themselves, remember what has been told them of each picture when they look it over in the absence of the teacher, so the rough untutored minds of the Anglo-Saxon peasantry were able to realise by similar means how great things the Lord had done for them, even when the missionaries had returned to the monasteries where they lived with the bishop who ruled them.

3. Monastic Life. Among the Early Christians, in this as in other countries, a literal interpretation and imitation of the devout lives of Christ's noblest followers was thought to be the truest means of preparing for eternal joys. Solitude, poverty, self-abnegation, the renunciation of family ties, all these were thought to be evidences of an intense degree of spiritual fervour. Those who most excelled in the observance of such rules were accounted as nearest to the kingdom of heaven, and were sought out in their retirement by highest and lowest among the people, who wished for instruction in the way of life and advice in temporal concerns. The advice of the monks was usually that men should do as they did, viz., devote all their worldly substance to the Church, and their time to its service. Hence the rapid growth of the Church's material possessions, which in time became the cause of much unseemly strife, as it is unto this day. The monasteries soon became filled with inmates, for all of whom some occupation had to be found. In the fresh full vigour of a new enterprise it was but natural that many who entered these religious houses should endeavour to excel their fellows; time was not an object of concern, a whole life's work would be cheerfully given to the careful accomplishment of some such simple task as the building of a house or the reclaiming and culture of land. Manuscripts, for example, were engrossed with immense elaborateness of detail on parchment sheets in gold, jewels, and colours. Copies of the Scriptures and Liturgies were multiplied in this way. The great libraries of the world were searched, and their treasures purchased and stored up in the smaller libraries of Anglo-Saxon monasteries; the chiefest of them being reproduced by diligent and studious scribes. In writing of other things the monks wrote also of themselves; hence, from this time, there is no lack of information respecting ecclesiastics of the time. The lives of some of these have become part of the history of their native district, chiefly because they happen to be, each in

E

their locality, the first persons of note of whom there is undoubted record. Their biographies are useful to illustrate the active and prosperous condition of the English Church in the 8th century.

4. St. Cuthbert. - One of these, belonging to the north of England, is written into great prominence by the venerable Bede. Beyond the Tweed, in the house of a widow, lived a dreamy boy Cuthbert by name, who tended sheep on the hills. Once he thought he saw a light streaming from Heaven, and multitudes of angels

[graphic][merged small]

carrying a pure soul to Paradise. When he heard that the saintly Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, had died that very night, he believed that his was the spirit which he had seen in the company of the celestial visitors; and being desirous of like fellowship he resolved to seek admission to a religious house. He found his way to the straw-thatched log-houses which then formed the monastic settlement of Melrose, a branch of the Abbey of Lindisfarne, and was admitted to the brotherhood there A.D. 651. After some years of diligent study, conspicuous devotion, and unusual energy, he became its prior. His work while in that monastery made him famous throughout the north, for not only did he wisely rule the large number of persons who were admitted to its society, but went on preaching expeditions to the lowlanders, in places solitary and afar off as well as difficult of access, where none else cared to penetrate. It was the custom at that time, whenever a preacher came to a village, for the people to assemble at his summons to hear the Word. "Cuthbert's skill in speaking," says his biographer Bede, "was so great, his power of persuasion so vast, and the light of his countenance 30 angelic, that no one in his presence concealed from him the secrets of his soul; all confessed their misdeeds, because they thought that what they had done could not escape his prescience, and atoned for them by such penance as he enjoined." Like the Saviour, he would preach all day and spend many of his nights in lonely meditation, often making journeys to distant places, both by sea and land, not seldom finding himself cut off from opportunities of food and shelter. The little town of Kirkcudbright in Galloway preserves in its nomenclature a memorial of such work. In 664, when a new prior was required for Lindisfarne, Cuthbert's reputation for sanctity, and his experience as a disciplinarian, caused him to be transferred to that more important position. "His life was lightning, and therefore he could make his words thunder. He was wont to blend severity towards sin, with infinite tenderness towards the sinner, and such tenderness he ever believed to be the best mode of dealing with honest confession of shortcoming." After he had been prior of Lindisfarne for twelve years, he felt the need of rest, and resolved to spend the rest of his life as a recluse. For this purpose he built himself a cell on one of the little Farne Islands, surrounding it with an earthwork so high that he could see nothing of the world, but only the sky beyond it. He rarely saw visitors, nor would he under any circumstances permit females, human or animal, to land on the island. This life of almost complete loneliness lasted for eight years during which the fame of his piety spread far and wide; and in 684 Egfrid, king of Northumbria, went to the island with Bishop Trumwine, and entreated him to accept the bishopric of Hexham. After many protestations of inability, he consented to leave his solitude, but delayed the ceremony of consecration for

1 Maclear, "Conversion of the English," page 104. S.P.C.K. 2s.
E2

« PreviousContinue »