that time the same language. He was favourably received ; and a place in the city of Canterbury, the capital of Kent, was allotted for the residence of him and his companions. They entered Canterbury in procession, preceded by two persons who bore a silver cross and the figure of Christ painted on a board; singing as they went litanies to avert the wrath of God from that city and people.

The king was among their first converts. The principal of his nobility, as usual, followed that example; moved, as it is related, by many signal miracles, but undoubtedly by the extraordinary zeal of the missionaries, and the pious austerity of their lives. The new religion, by the protection of so respected a prince, who held under his dominion or influence all the countries to the southward of the Humber, spread itself with great rapidity. Paganism, after a faint resistance, everywhere gave way. And, indeed, the chief difficulties which Christianity had to encounter, did not arise so much from the struggles of opposite religious prejudices, as from the gross and licentious manners of a barbarous people. One of the Saxon princes expelled the Christians from his territory, because the priest refused to give him some of that white bread which he saw distributed to his congregation.

It is probable that the order of Druids either did not at all subsist amongst the Anglo-Saxons, or that at this time it had declined not a little from its ancient authority and reputation; else it is not easy to conceive how they admitted so readily a new system, which at one stroke cut off from their character its whole importance. We even find some chiefs of the pagan priesthood amongst the foremost in submitting to the new doctrine. On the first preaching of the gospel in Northumberland, the heathen pontiff of that territory immediately mounted a horse, which to those of his order was unlawful, and, breaking into the sacred enclosure, hewed to pieces the idol he had so long served.1

If the order of the Druids did not subsist amongst the Saxons, yet the chief objects of their religion appear to have been derived from that fountain. They indeed worshipped several idols under various forms of men and beasts; and those gods to whom they dedicated the days of the week, Bede Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 13.

bore in their attributes, and in the particular days that were consecrated to them, though not in their names, a near resemblance to the divinities of ancient Rome. But still the great and capital objects of their worship were taken from Druidism; trees, stones, the elements, and the heavenly bodies. 1 These were their principal devotions, laid the strongest hold upon their minds, and resisted the progress of the Christian religion with the greatest obstinacy. For we find these superstitions forbidden amongst the latest Saxon laws. A worship which stands in need of the memorial of images or books to support it, may perish when these are destroyed. But when a superstition is established upon those great objects of nature, which continually solicit the senses, it is extremely difficult to turn the mind from things, that in themselves are striking, and that are always present. Amongst the objects of this class must be reckoned the goddess Eostre, who, from the etymology of the name, as well as from the season sacred to her, was probably that beautiful planet which the Greeks and Romans worshipped under the names of Lucifer and Venus. It is from this goddess that in England the Paschal festival has been called Easter.2 To these they joined the reverence of various subordinate genii, or demons, fairies, and goblins; fantastical ideas, which in a state of uninstructed nature grow spontaneously out of the wild fancies or fears of men. Thus they worshipped a sort of goddess whom they called Mara, formed from those frightful appearances that oppress men in their sleep; and the name is still retained among us.3

As to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, they were such as might be expected in a rude people; fierce, and of a gross simplicity. Their clothes were short. As all barbarians are much taken with exterior form, and the advantages and distinctions which are conferred by nature, the Saxons set a high value on comeliness of person, and studied much to improve it. It is remarkable that a law of King Ina orders the care and education of foundlings to be regulated by their

1 Gentiles Deos; et solem vel lunam; ignem vel fluvium; torrentem vel saxa; vel alicujus generis arborum ligna. L. Cnut. 5. Superstitiosus ille conventus, qui Frithgear dicitur, circa lapidem, arborem, fontem. Leg Presb. Northumb. The Nightmare.

Spelman's Glossary, Tit. eod

beauty. They cherished their hair to a great length, and were extremely proud and jealous of this natural ornament. Some of their great men were distinguished by an appellative taken from the length of their hair. To pull the hair was punishable;3 and forcibly to cut or injure it was considered in the same criminal light with cutting off the nose, or thrusting out the eyes. In the same design of barbarous ornament, their faces were generally painted and scarred. They were so fond of chains and bracelets, that they have given a surname to some of their kings from their generosity in bestowing such marks of favour.4

Few things discover the state of the arts amongst people more certainly than the presents that are made to them by foreigners. The pope, on his first mission into Northumberland, sent to the queen of that country some stuffs with or naments of gold, an ivory comb inlaid with the same metal, and a silver mirror. A queen's want of such female ornaments and utensils shows that the arts were at this time

little cultivated amongst the Saxons. These are the sort of presents commonly sent to a barbarous people.

Thus ignorant in sciences and arts, and unpractised in trade or manufacture, military exercises, war, and the preparation for war, was their employment, hunting their pleasure. They dwelt in cottages of wicker-work, plastered with clay, and thatched with rushes, where they sat with their families, their officers and domestics, round a fire made in the middle of the house. In this manner their greatest princes lived amidst the ruins of Roman magnificence. But the introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rude and fierce manners.

It is by no means impossible, that, for an end so worthy, Providence on some occasions might directly have interposed. The books which contain the history of this time and change are little else than a narrative of miracles; frequently, however, with such apparent marks of weakness or design, that they afford little encouragement to insist on 2 Oslacus promissâ cæsarie heros. Chron. Saxon. 123. 3 L. Elfred. 42, L. Cnut. apud Brompt. 21.

' L. Inæ 19.

Edgarus nobilibus torquium largitor. Chron. Sax. 123. Bed. Hist Eccl. 1. iv. c. 29.

them. They were then received with a blind credulity; they have been since rejected with as undistinguishing a disregard. But as it is not in my design, nor inclination, nor indeed in my power, either to establish or refute these stories, it is sufficient to observe that the reality or opinion of such miracles was the principal cause of the early acceptance and rapid progress of Christianity in this island. Other causes undoubtedly concurred: and it will be more to our purpose to consider some of the human and politic ways, by which religion was advanced in this nation; and those more particularly, by which the monastic institution, then interwoven with Christianity, and making an equal progress with it, attained to so high a pitch of property and power; so as, in a time extremely short, to form a kind of order, and that not the least considerable, in the state.

CHAPTER II.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY OF MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS
-AND OF THEIR EFFECTS.

THE marriage of Ethelbert to a Christian princess was, we have seen, a means of introducing Christianity into his dominions. The same influence contributed to extend it in the other kingdoms of the heptarchy, the sovereigns of which were generally converted by their wives. Among the ancient nations of Germany the female sex was possessed not only of its natural and common ascendant, but it was believed peculiarly sacred,1 and favoured with more frequent revelations of the Divine will; women were, therefore, heard with an uncommon attention in all deliberations, and particularly in those that regarded religion. The pagan superstition of the North furnished, in this instance, a principle, which contributed to its own destruction.

In the change of religion, care was taken to render the transaction from falsehood to truth as little violent as possible. Though the first proselytes were kings, it does not ap

1 Inesse quinetiam sanctum aliquid et providum putant; nec aut consilia earum aspernantur aut responsa negligunt. Tacit. de Mor, Ger. c. 8.

pear that there was any persecution. It was a precept of Pope Gregory, under whose auspices this mission was conducted, that the heathen temples should not be destroyed, especially where they were well built; but that, first removing the idols, they should be consecrated anew by holier rites and to better purposes,1 in order that the prejudices of the people might not be too rudely shocked by a declared profanation of what they had so long held sacred; and that everywhere beholding the same places to which they had formerly resorted for religious comfort, they might be gradually reconciled to the new doctrines and ceremonies which were there introduced; and as the sacrifices used in the pagan worship were always attended with feasting, and consequently were highly grateful to the multitude, the pope ordered that oxen should as usual be slaughtered near the church, and the people indulged in their ancient festivity. Whatever popular customs of heathenism were found to be absolutely not incompatible with Christianity were retained; and some of them were continued to a very late period. Deer were at a certain season brought into St. Paul's church in London, and laid on the altar; and this custom subsisted until the Reformation. The names of some of the church festivals were, with a similar design, taken from those of the heathen, which had been celebrated at the same time of the year. Nothing could have been more prudent than these regulations; they were indeed formed from a perfect understanding of human nature.

2

Whilst the inferior people were thus insensibly led into a better order, the example and countenance of the great completed the work. For the Saxon kings and ruling men embraced religion with so signal, and in their rank so unusual, a zeal, that in many instances they even sacrificed to its advancement the prime objects of their ambition. Wulfere, king of the West Saxons, bestowed the Isle of Wight on the king of Sussex, to persuade him to embrace Christianity. This zeal operated in the same manner in favour of their instructors. The greatest kings and conquerors frequently resigned their crowns, and shut themselves up in monasteries. When kings became monks, a high lustre was reflected upon the monastic state, and great credit accrued to the Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. 30. • Dugdale's History of St Paul's.

2 Id. c. eod.

Bed. Hist. Eccl. 1. iv. c. 13.