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revenues of his cathedral to a confiderable degree : and some little time before his death, being much afflicted with the 6 gout, he ordered himself to be carried in a horfe-litter about his diocese, and preached from thence unto the people.'

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Towards the end of the feventh century, the Church began to incorporate with the State; the laws of Princes took Religion under their care and protection; and made provifion for the fupport and honour of the Clergy, and for the reverence due to churches and holy things.' Among other laws made by King Ina, and mentioned by our Author, there is one, by which it appears, " that according to the piety, and understanding of that age, a Bifhop, and a King, were, in fome fort, esteemed equal. Let the law explain itself what I mean. One hundred and twenty fhillings fhall be the pe'nalty of one breaking the peace, in a town of the King, or Bishop; and fourfcore fhillings in the town of a Senator.I fhall make no other obfervation on thefe laws of Ina, than that killing and murder, and much lefs theft, among the ancient English, were never punished with death, but with a fine of money; fo tender they were of blood: whereas, in our days, the life of a man is become of fo little eftimation, that the lofs of it is made a legal fatisfaction for the mereft ⚫ trifle in the world; even for pilfering any thing above a fhilling value. As much light and knowlege as we have to 'boaft of fuperior to thofe ages, I am afraid that this is a • custom neither warranted from Scripture, nor from Reason ; in which, therefore, we fall fhort of the goodness and wif'dom of our Saxon ancestors.

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• Monafteries, at this time, were the only nurseries of difcipline, and the chief fchools of learning; and, therefore, when a Bishopric was erected in this age, a monaftery was • usually founded near the feat of it; as well for the habita'tion and fupport of the Bishop, as of those who were to at⚫tend religious offices in the cathedral, or to preach the Gof'pel in the neighbouring countries. Thefe bodies, properly fpeaking, were colleges of priests; who in after-ages were 6 diftinguished by the name of Secular Canons, and were under no vow of perpetual celebacy. Nor was this the cafe • of those only who were fettled in cathedral monafteries, but ⚫ thofe also known by the name of Monks and Nuns, were allowed to marry when they faw fit.-As for the rule of Be-' nedict, it was not known in England, till towards the latter end of this century.

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In the beginning of the eighth century, Adhelmus, nephew to King Ina, and who was the firft Englishman who

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wrote in Latin, was made Bishop of Sherborn in the coun6 ty of Dorfet.'-Now alfo Wilfrid, of whom we have made mention, died, who,' according to our Author, was a Prelate, who with abilities enough to be a great man, and • with devotion and virtue enough to be a good man, was yet fo carried away by his ruling paffion of pride and arrogance, that he can be fcarcely faid to have been either.'

From an odd and amazing opinion of the merit and holinefs of Pilgrimages to Rome; the English people of all ranks and degrees, of every age and fex, laid fuch a stress on it, as tho' it would attone for the neglect of every Chriftian virtue. To this humour it was owing, that the English < Nuns, about this time, run in great flocks to Rome; but to this it was likewife owing, that there were few cities in Lombardy, France, or Gaul, in the middle of this cen< tury, in which there were not to be found fome lewd women of the English nation, as Boniface writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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• Our parith churches began to be erected' about this time, fome by the fole munificence of particular Lords, for the be⚫nefit and convenience of their tenants; others by the united charities, or feparate donations of feveral perfons.

"The kingdom of Northumberland," fays Bede, " having "had peace established in it, both the Nobility and common "people laying afide the exercise of their arms, betook them"felves to Monafteries; and perfuaded their children to ac

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cept the tonfure, and retire thither too."-Wherefore Bede, truly venerable, in a patriot difpofition, expreffes himself thus, in his epiftle to Egbert, Archbishop of York: "It is your duty, therefore, together with the King, to make fuch re"gulation of thefe focieties, as might be most for the honour "of God, and the good of the country; left, by the increase "of them, the force of the kingdom fhould be fo weakened,

that there fhould not be fufficient ftrength to fecure it from the invafion of enemies."---But what would this venerable Patriot fay, were he alive in these our times, and beheld, not Northumberland only, but the whole island of Great Britain, in a difarmed condition, and flying to foreign aid against invafions, tho' there is neither a Monk, nor a Nun in the land!

• Boniface takes notice, not only of a prevailing debauchery in the English nation in general, but gives a great share of it to the Religious; he not only fays, that the Nuns were commonly debauched, by the Princes and Nobility, but that the Nuns themfelves, by the luxury of their attire, and the wantonnefs of their behaviour, invited their own fhame,

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and made ufe of arts to prepare the way

to their own difhonour.- Here we see how it came to pafs, that the monafte<ries were generally protected by married men, when the ⚫ controverfy arofe about the celebacy of the Clergy: here we fee that the Parochial Clergy were yet unfettled, and the reafon why thofe inftitutions went on fo flowly: and it may be here too we have a key to the retirement of fo many Kings and Princeffes."

Our Author thus fpeaks of Bede, in the encomium with which he fo juftly adorns him, when he comes to take notice of his death. The Pope, it is faid, gave him the name of • venerable, for his uncommon skill in the Greek and Latin languages, and for his piety and modefty. The first entitled him to the higheft dignities and offices in the Church; and the laft kept him all his life in the lowest.'

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We now come to the fourth book of this entertaining and inftructive hiftory, from whence, as in the preceding one, we fhall only extract what appears to us most remarkable; tho' we muft neceffarily omit a thousand other particulars, equally interefting.

Part of the character of Alfred, who endeavoured to reftore learning to this country, whence it was almost extirpated by the Danes; and who founded the univerfity of Oxford, and died at the clofe of the ninth century; is thus drawn by our Author. The reputation he had acquired in the field

of battle, was to be equalled by few, but it was to be ex⚫celled by none. He commanded in more engagements than 6 J. Cæfar; diftinguished himself in all of them with very "uncommon intrepidity; and even fought up to the character of a Hero in romance, In fhort, it may be faid of Alfred, that he was a prodigy of goodness, of understanding, and of greatness. To look at him thro' his devotions, one

⚫ would think he had been all his life in a cloifter; to examine the productions of his genius, we fhould be tempted to think, that his whole time had been occupied in learning, ⚫ and the sciences and to view him as a General, and a Monarch, he appears to have ftudied nothing but the art of war, and politics, the conqueft of his enemies, and the ease and profperity of his fubjects.-But, as to church-affairs:

Cardinal Baronius himfelf acknowleges, that,' in the beginning of the tenth century, the Church of Rome was under the government of harlots; who not only created and • advanced Priefts and Bishops, fuitable to the characters of ⚫ those whose creatures they were, but even filled the chair of St. Peter with impoftors.-To recite the mifchief which • the

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WARNER'S Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of England.

the blackeft villainies of thefe men occafioned, from the latter end of the ninth to the beginning of the eleventh century, thro' a fucceffion of above fifty Popes, does not fall within my defign: but-I think' the Reader will ftand amazed. at the confidence with which P. Virgil, and fome other historians, fpeak of England, as a Fee of the Papacy, and a tributary kingdom; in an age, when the wickedness of its • Prelates had rendered the Church of Rome, the pity, or the contempt of all the nations in Europe.'-Such were the claims founded on Feter Pence! a tribute at this time not amounting to above a mark per diem.

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At a Council held at Graetly,' in the reign of Athelstan, the grandchild, and one of the warlike fucceflors, of Alfred, the Bifhops were obliged, by a canon, to be perfonally prefent, according to the ancient ufage of England,' (derived, as we fuppofe, from the Druids) in the Courts of Justice, to overfee, and direct the conduct of the Judges.'

Under King Edgar, and supported by the credit of Dunfan, who was afterwards fainted, began,' about the year 960, the golden reign of Monkery,' or the prevalence of that particular fpecies of it, which, yowing cellebacy, assumed to itfelf the name of Regular, whilft it gave that of Secular to all the reft.

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Edgar, in one of his ecclefiaftical canons, directs the obfervance of Sunday from three o'clock on Saturday in the afternoon, till break of day on Monday morning and in his conflitutions, relating to the cathedral at Winchester,— the King makes himfelf General, as we may call it, of the Monks, and puts the Queen in the fame ftation of government over the Nuns.' In another body of Canons, pub♦ lifhed under this Prince,' there is one which enjoins every priest to learn fome employment, in order to get a livelihood in cafe of indigence and misfortune.'

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In the reign of Ethelred, the frequent invafions which the Danes made on the coaft, and the murders, conflagrations, plundering, and other devaftations which they committed, called off the minds of the people from ecclefiaftical difputes, to their own miferies; and they began to call in question the fanctity of the Monks; thinking it wholly unaccountable, that men who had obtained from Heaven fo many miracles, on their own private account, could not, by their holiness and devotion, fecure the kingdom from thefe calamities.

The miferies which the English nation had for a good while groaned under, had occafioned fo general a decay of • learning,

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learning, that, at the beginning of the eleventh century, it was not thought proper the inferior clergy fhould be trufted altogether with the inftruction of the people. The better therefore to provide against the dangers which might arise. * from their neglect or infufficiency, courfes of homilies, or fermons, containing an account of fuch doctrines and duties < as were moft neceffary to be believed and practifed, were appointed to be publicly read in the church,'

Here we may put a period to the prefent article, referving the reft of this volume for future entertainment.

Conclusion of the Life of John Buncle, Efq; begun in our last.

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FTER a very dangerous voyage, we have the pleasure to meet with the ingenious and entertaining Mr. Buncle again, fafely landed at Whitehaven; where he remains three weeks, love-locked, and faft-bound, by the mental and perfonal charms of Mifs Melmoth, a fellow-paffenger from Ireland; and whom our Author, by a remarkable accident, had faved from perishing en board the fhip, during the horrors of a dreadful tempeft: which tempeft, too, furnishes Mr. Buncle with matter for feveral striking observations, and notable stories, after his bold and eccentric manner.

This fine young lady, a fecond Mifs Noel, being however obliged to repair to her friends in Yorkshire, Mr. Buncle efcorts her as far as Brugh under Stanmore; where they part very tenderly, the Author giving his word and honour to vifit Mifs Melmoth, after the discovery of his friend, Mr. Charles Turner, who had been an intimate univerfity-acquaintance, but now lived fomewhere in the north-eaft extremity of Weftmoreland, or Yorkshire; and whom Mr. Buncle determines to find out, if poffible, (though he had lost his direction) and to pass fome time with him.

Our Adventurer now (June 8, 1725) commences his search after his dear friend Turner; and first he begins to rummage the hills and vallies in that part of the wilds of Stanmore which belongs to Weftmoreland. Having loft his fair philofopher, it seems as if Mr. Buncle thought he had nothing left to do, but to lofe himself alfo. To this end, he firft gets into a vaft valley, enclosed by mountains, whose tops were above the clouds,' and then into a country that is

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* Vid. Review, November laft, p. 504, feq.

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