it; there has been a gross misrepresentation, and I should express myself concerning it not less indignantly than you have done, if upon due examination I had not perceived that it was evidently unintentional, and in what manner it had arisen. It originated with Mosheim, an author whose erudition it would be superfluous to commend, and to whose fidelity, as far as my researches have lain in the same track, I can bear full testimony. Contrasting in his text the primitive Christians with those of the seventh century, he says, *"the former taught that Christ by his sufferings and death had made atonement for the sins of mortals; the latter seemed by their superstitious doctrine to exclude from the kingdom of heaven such as had not contributed by their offerings to augment the riches of the clergy or the church." And in support of this statement he adduces, in a note, the passages from St. Eligius, wherein that prelate exhorts his hearers to redeem their own souls by offering gifts and tithes to the churches, presenting lights to the sacred places in their neighbourhood, and making oblations to the altar, that at the last day they might appear securely before the tribunal of the Eter

* English Translation, vol. ii. p. 21. 2d edition,

nal Judge, and say, "Give unto us, O Lord, for we have given unto thee!" You, Sir, who know so well the history of the mortmain laws need not be told to what an extent the clergy at one time abused their influence over the minds of men, for the purpose of increasing their own. possessions. The passage from Eligius is strictly in point to the assertion in the text; and Mosheim cannot justly be accused of garbling the original, because he has not shown that these exhortations were accompanied with others to the practice of Christian virtues. To have done this would have been altogether irrelevant; but by not doing it he has misled his translator, who, supposing that St. Eligius had required. nothing more than liberality to the church from a good Christian, observes that he makes no mention of any other virtues. The misrepresentation on his part was plainly unintentional, and it was equally so in Robertson, who followed him; and however censurable both may be for commenting thus hastily upon an extract without examining the context, Mosheim is clearly acquitted of all blame.

*

* So he would be even if his quotations had been made from a connected discourse of St. Eligius, left by that Saint in writing, and his own undoubted work ; as I supposed it to have been when the text was written, not having then perused the

...

When the German historian afterwards asserts that the Christians of that century placed the whole of religion in external rites and bodily exercises, he speaks not of the priesthood exclusively, but of the whole body of the people; and he is not chargeable with error even, still less with calumny, because particular instances might be adduced as exceptions to what is generally true.

Beyond all doubt Christian morality has been

discourse in question. But the fact is that they are fragments taken from a collection of fragments,...from what Eligius's biographer, St. Audoenus, gives as the substance of his sermons,...hujuscemodi ad eos proferebat monita, (Vita S. Eligii. Acta SS. Belgii Selecta. t. iii. p. 243.)—the sum of that biographer's notes or recollections-quem Audoenus e' variis Eligi monitis contexuit. (Ghesquiere. Ibid. 262.) And Eligius himself made up his sermons of shreds and patches from elder writers, especially from St. Cæsarius,.. ea tamen quæ ibi profert Eligius traxit penè omnia ex Cæsarianis sermonibus, quæ per Galliam universam, et per Hispanias procurante Cæsario (scilicet Arelatensi episcopo) in ecclesiis lectitabantur. (Ibid. 262.) Smet also, in his Analecta Eligiana (Ibid. 315) says, neque ægrè feramus quod Rhapsodia vocentur, et farrago consarcinata ex Augustino, Prospero, &c.; cum id Apostolo nostro æternæ laudi vertatur, quod non tantum in Diœcesibus Noviomensi et Tornacensi idololatriam et paganorum superstitiones insectatus fuerit, verum etiam quod in docendis populis constanter antiquiorum Patrum doctrinæ inhæserit, datoque exemplo caverit ne quis è posteris Scripturam sacram spiritu privato interpratetur.

inculcated by all Christian ministers in all ages. It has been preached by all sects. However erroneous their doctrine, however discommendable their practice, however gross their misconception of the most important truths, all who have either believed themselves to be Christians, or who have assumed the cloak of Christianity for worldly purposes, have concurred in preaching the fundamental principles and the morality of the Gospel. And God forbid that I should think so unhappily of his dispensations, and of my fellow creatures, as not to believe that these morals and that fundamental faith have, even in the worst ages, greatly counterbalanced the injurious effects of the false opinions and superstitious usages with which they have been connected. When those corruptions became so gross that their effect must have predominated, if they had been permitted to proceed unchecked, the Reformation in the order of Providence was brought about. And whereas you demand whether purer lessons of morality can be cited than were inculcated in the Anglo-Saxon times, I answer that the same morality is purer when preached, as it now is in all reformed countries, without the alloy that in those ages debased it. Your other question,

"whether the institutions in which it was taught, and without which it might not have been taught, were not, with all the imperfections justly or unjustly imputed to them, eminently useful," requires no answer from me, who have on every occasion acknowledged their utility.

But you have mentioned Bede. The very introduction of that venerable name is like proclaiming a truce. Willingly and reverently, Sir, do I affix to it the appellation which he so eminently deserved; and gladly take occasion. to supply what would have been a culpable omission in the Book of the Church, if the design and scale of that work had admitted of all that it was desirable to insert. In vindicating the book from the unwarrantable aspersions which are cast upon it, it will not be irrelevant for me to enlarge upon certain points which could only be cursorily noticed there; and what may at first appear digressive, will be found in the end to bear upon the question.

Life is not long enough for any one in these days to be conversant with the writings of Bede. Indeed it would be a waste of time for any person to peruse them all, unless it were his intention to compose a full biographical and