times; the consequential destruction of books, and of all public and private memorials of literature and art, “had occasioned," to use your own words, "the total loss of learning in the Anglo-Saxon "church."

But the gospel of the Anglo-Saxons still remained, and was still read. It informed them of the miracles wrought by Christ; and of his promises, that, until the end of time, his disciples should perform similar miracles, and even greater: and they knew that the promises of Christ could not fail. Besides, -as doctor Lingard justly observes, "Man is taught by human nature to attri"bute any event to a particular cause; and when "an occurrence cannot be explained by the known "laws of the universe, it is assigned, by the illite"rate in every age, and in every religion, to the operation of an invisible agent. This principle was not extirpated; it was improved by the knowledge of the gospel. From the doctrine of a super"intendant Providence, the Saxon converts were "led to conclude, that God would often inter"fere in human concerns. To Him they ascribed "" every unforeseen and unnatural event; and either "trusted in His bounty for visible protection from "misfortune, or feared from His justice that vengeance which punishes guilt before the general

66

66

66

day of retribution. Men, impressed with this "notion, would rather expect the appearance of "miraculous events. On many occasions, they "would be the dupes of their own credulity; and," (particularly as they had the Divine promises, men

tioned by us, in full view), "ascribe to the bene"ficence of the Deity, and the intercession of their

patrons, those cures which might have been "effected by nature, or the power of the imagi"nation." Let us add, that, in this temper of mind, it was likely that sometimes, like the Northmen, gifted with second sight, they would see what they did not see; and hear what they did not hear.

Do not these observations solve the whole difficulty? Do they not account for the abundance of miraculous relations, in the time of which we are writing? Do they not render it unnecessary,—we had almost said inexcusable,-to account for them by imputing fraud, imposture or systematical deceit, as is done by you, to the persons concerned in them? "If there was a man," says a writer not unknown to you*, "who could truly be called venerable, it is "he to whom that appellation is constantly paid, "Bede, whose life was past in instructing his own "generation, and in preparing records for posterity." Yet, on the relations of the venerable Bede, does the truth of a great portion of the Anglo-Saxon miracles depend. In the present enlightened age, does not our own country abound with superstitions? Inquire of the village beadles and the village dames. Does a week pass without an advertisement in more than one of our newspapers of a child's caul? Is this surpassed by any Saxon superstition? You yourself have recorded the miraculous incidents in the life of John Wesley.

I beg leave to submit the following remark to * Quarterly Review for the month of December 1811.

66

your consideration. While you so learnedly, and so eloquently, bring forward in "the Book of the Church," so much to the supposed discredit of the Anglo-Saxon church, should you not have assigned a just proportion, to what you yourself allow, to have been eminently praiseworthy and venerable? Should you not have bestowed some pages on the edifying holiness of St. Neot; the monastic sanctity and extensive learning of Bredfirth, the monk of Ramsay; the extensive learning of Bede; and the royal virtues and piety of Alfred?

On themes like these, how much did justice call on you to dwell! But how little do you say upon them!

Permit me, before I close this letter, to notice a great, but I am sure an unintentional misrepresentation contained in your present chapter*. You eulogize the primate Theodore, for prohibiting divorce for any other cause than that which is allowed by the gospel. Here you evidently allude to the council held at Hereford in 673, at which Theodore presided t. It does not prohibit divorce; but enjoins, that "no one should forsake his wife, "unless, as the gospel teaches, for fornication; and that, if any one should have expelled his wife, "joined to him in lawful matrimony, he should marry no other, but remain as he was, or be "reconciled to her."

Page 84.

+ Wilk. Conc. vol. 1, p. 41.

LETTER VII.

CHARGES AGAINST THE MONKS OF WITHHOLDING

KNOWLEDGE, AND OF A

DISPOSITION

INVESTITURES.

ΤΟ

SIR,

IN this letter I shall consider the principal charges which you bring against the roman-catholic church, in the seventh chapter of your work. What respects the claim of the popes to temporal power, I shall make the subject of a future letter.

Charges against the Monks of withholding Knowledge, and of a Disposition to immoderate Severity.

You begin this chapter by intimating, that, "if "St. Dunstan had been succeeded by similar talents ડે and temper, and England had remained undis"turbed by invasions, the priesthood might have "obtained as complete an ascendancy as in antient Egypt, or in Tibet, founded upon deceit, and upheld by uncommunicated knowledge, and im"moderate severity."

I must attribute these expressions to that hurry of composition, which sometimes leads even the ablest writers into inaccuracy. If, for a moment, you had looked into the stores of your own mind,

and ampler stores. few possess,--you would have seen, that, in the middle ages, pope succeeded pope, with talents and temper similar to Dunstan's, yet, that, throughout the whole of this period, the eternal city, so far from being subjected to any Egyptiac or Tibetian ascendancy of priesthood, was the most free, and the most enlightened portion of Christendom.

But, in your account of monkish literature and government, how could the words, "uncommuni"cated knowledge and immoderate severity," have fallen from your pen? Were not monasteries the only schools? Was not knowledge most liberally communicated in them?*

As to your charge against the monks, of "immo"derate severity," I must observe, that the passage which I have just cited from your work, is the first in which I have found this charge, or any thing like it made or insinuated; and that, after seriously revolving all I have read on monastic transactions, I cannot bring to my recollection even a single fact which supports it. To the general mildness of their government, M. Mallêt, a celebrated protestant historiant, bears strong testimony. "The monks," he says, "softened by their instructions the fero"cious manners of the people, and opposed their "credit to the despotism of the nobility, who knew "no other occupation than war, and grievously

*.Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish and Scottish Catholics, c. xvi. s. 2.

+ Histoire des Suisses ou Helvétiens, tome 1, p. 105.