should be learned in ecclesiastical causes, and well studied. And among the decrees made by some of the Saxon bishops (which were to be seen in the library of Sir Thomas Knevet, in Norfolk, and are still, I suppose, preserved there by his heir) this is laid down for one :

"Such as have received ordination from the bishops of the Scots or Britons, who in the matter of Easter and Tonsure are not united unto the Catholic Church, let them be again, by imposition of hands, confirmed by a Catholic bishop. In like manner also, let the Churches that have been ordered by those bishops, be sprinkled with exorcised water, and confirmed with some service. We have no license also to give unto them Chrism or Eucharist, when they do require it, unless they profess first, that they will remain with us in the unity of the Church. And such likewise as, either of their nation or of any other, shall doubt of their baptism, let them be baptized.' Thus did they.

"On the other side, how averse were the British and Irish from having any communion with the Roman party, the complaint of Laurentius Mellitus, and Justus before specified, doth sufficiently manifest. And the answer is well known, which the seven British bishops and many other of the most learned men of the same nation, did return unto the propositions made unto them by Austin the monk, that they would perform none of them, nor at all admit him for their archbishop. The Welsh Chroniclers do further relate, that Dinot, the Abbot of

Bangor, produced diverse arguments at that time, to show that they did owe him no subjection, and this among others: We are under the government of the Bishop of Kaer-leon upon Uske, who under God is to oversee us, and cause us to keep the way spiritual; and Gotcelinus Betinianus, in the Life of Austin, that for the authority of their ceremonies they did allege, that they were not only delivered unto them by St. Eleutherius the Pope, their first instructor, at the first infancy almost of the Church, but also hitherto observed by their holy Fathers, who were the friends of God and the followers of the Apostles, and therefore they ought not to change them for any new dogmatists; above all measure as Aldhelme, Abbot of Malmesbury, declareth at large in his Epistle sent to Gerantius, King of Cornwall, where, among many other particulars, he showeth, that if any of the Catholics (for so he calleth them of his own side) did go to dwell among them, they would not vouchsafe to admit them unto their company and society, before they first put them to forty days' penance. Yea, even to this day, (saith Bede, who wrote his history in the year 751,) it is the manner of the Britons, to hold the faith and religion of the English in no account at all, nor to communicate with them in anything more than with pagans.

"Whereunto those verses of Taliessyn (honoured by the Britons with the title of Ben Beirdh, that is, the Chief of the Bardes or Wisemen) may be added, which show that he wrote after the coming of

Austin into England, and not fifty or sixty years before, as others have imagined :

"Gwae'r offeiriad byd
Nys engriefftia gwyd
Ac ny phregetha:
Gwae ny cheidw cy gail
Ac ef yn vigail

Ac nys arcilia :

Gwae ny Cheidw cy dhenaid
Rhac bleidhie Rhufeniaid
A'iffon gnwppa.

"Wo be to that priest yborne,
That will not cleanly weed his corne,

And preach his charge among:

Wo be to that Shepheard (I say)
That will not watch his fold alway
As to his office doth belong:
Wo be to him that doth not keepe
From Romish wolves his sheepe,

With staffe and weapon strong."

British Monk's Song.

CHAPTER III.

MEDIEVAL MISSIONS.

"Against the Waldenses, a war of no less weight than what our people had before waged against the Saracens, was decreed."

THUANUS.

THERE are those in the nineteenth century who look upon the middle ages of the Church as its most glorious. It was triumphant over its enemies; its authority was paramount. Few dared to think for themselves, much less openly to dissent from its tenets or practice. The pontiffs of Rome had taken the place of the emperors, and had trodden on the necks of kings. The middle ages were times of extraordinary acts of devotion, costly offerings at the shrines of saints, and toilsome pilgrimages to holy places in Europe and Asia. It was in them, moreover, that the magnificent churches and cathedrals of Christendom rose into wondrous being, surpassing (at least for their purpose) the most perfect models of Athens and Rome. The superfluous wealth of Europe was spent in building or gar

nishing Christian temples, or in similar works of merit. The rivalry of countries and kingdoms, which at other times took the direction of commerce, or philosophy, or literature, then was displayed in the foundation of churches, cathedrals, and monastic establishments.

With all the glorious monuments of the genius and piety of that age before us, however, we must, when we look into the internal history of the Church, come to the conclusion that it was the night of the Church, when men slept, and the enemy sowed the tares in greatest security and abundance.

With respect to its highest glory-architecture and church embellishment-even it may well be questioned whether it does not owe its origin to a refined Paganism introduced into the Church, rather than to the genius of Christianity. Let us hear one competent to speak on the subject:

"Our Gothic ancestors" (says Bishop Warburton, in his "Notes on Pope's Epistles") "had juster and manlier notions of magnificence, on Greek and Roman ideas, than these mimics of taste, who profess to study only classic elegance; and because the thing does honour to the genius of those barbarians, I shall endeavour to explain it. All our ancient churches are called, without distinction, Gothic; but erroneously. They are of two sorts: the one built in the Saxon times; the other in the Norman. Several cathedral and collegiate churches of the first sort are yet remaining, either in whole or in part, of which this was the original. When the