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Taliesin was present at the battle which preceded this desolation.

The account Bede gives of this remarkable event suggests B most striking warning against national and religious prejudices.

Page 82. Sonnet xv.

The person of Paulinus is thus described by Bede, from the memory of an eyewitness:-"Longæ staturæ, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo, facie macilenta, naso adunco, pertenui, venerabilis simul et terribilis aspectu."

Page 82.

"Man's life is like a Sparrow."

See the original of this speech in Bede. - The Conversion of Edwin, as related by him, is highly interesting, - and the breaking up of this Council accompanied with an event so striking and characteristic, that I am tempted to give it at length in a translation. "Who, exclaimed the King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the altars and the temples? I, answered the Chief Priest; for who more fit than myself, through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy, for the good example of others, what in foolishness I worshipped? Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a courser (equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished with a sword and lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing this, thought him mad; - he however halted not, but, approaching, he profaned the temple, casting against it the lance which he had held in his hand, and, exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God, he ordered his companions to pull down the temple, with all its inclosures. The thace is shown where those idols formerly stood, not far from York, at the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day called Gormund Gaham, ubi pontifex ille, inspirante Deo vero, polluit ac destruxit eas, quas ipse sacraverat aras." The last

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expression is a pleasing proof that the venerable monk of Wearmouth was familiar with the poetry of Virgil.

Page 83.

"Such the inviting voice

Heard near fresh streams," &c.

The early propagators of Christianity were accustomed to preach near rivers, for the convenience of baptism.

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-"Unde et

Having spoken of the zeal, disinterestedness, and temperance of the clergy of those times, Bede thus proceeds: in magna erat veneratione tempore illo religionis habitus, ita ut ubicunque clericus aliquis, aut monachus adveniret, gaudenter ab omnibus tanquam Dei famulus exciperetur. Etiam si in itinere pergens inveniretur, accurrebant, et flexa cervice, vel manu signari, vel ore illius se benedici, gaudebant. Verbis quoque horum exhortatoriis diligenter auditum præbebant.” - Lib. III. cap. 26.

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Page 88.

"The people work like congregated bees."

See, in Turner's History, Vol. III. p. 528, the account of the erection of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performance of acts of charity and benevolence.

Page 89.

"Pain narrows not his cares."

Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous

maladies.

Page 91.

"Woe to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey!"

The violent measures carried on under the influence of Dun stan, for strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading .ause of the second series of Danish invasions. — See Turner.

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Page 100.

"Here Man more purely lives,' &c.

"Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purins, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius."- BERNARD. "This sentence," says Dr. Whitaker, "is usually inscribed in some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses."

Page 107.

"Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark."

The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long and curious:—and, as is, alas! too natural, most of the opprobrious appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced by their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one reproachful term, calling them Patarenians, or Paturins, from pati, to suffer.

Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the pine
And green oak are their covert; as the gloom
Of night oft foils their enemy's design,
She calls them Riders on the flying broom,
Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become
One and the same through practices malign.

Page 111.

"And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age."

These two lines are adopted from a MS., written about the year 1770, which accidentally fell into my possession. The close of the preceding Sonnet on monastic voluptuousness is taken from the same source, as is the verse, "Where Venus sits," &c., and the line, "Once ye were holy, ye are holy still," in a subsequent Sonnet.

Page 120.

"One (like those prophets whom God sent of old)
Transfigured," &c.

"M. Latimer suffered his keeper very quietly to pull off his

hose, and his other array, which to looke unto was very sim ple. and being stripped into his shrowd, he seemed as comely a person to them that were present, as one should lightly see. and whereas in his clothes hee appeared a withered and crooked sillie (weak) olde man, he now stood bold upright, as comely a father as one might lightly behold... ... Then they brought a faggotte, kindled with fire, and laid the same downe at Doc tor Ridley's feet. To whome M. Latimer spake in this manmer: "Bee of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man: wee shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never bee put out."— Fox's Acts, &c.

Similar alterations in the outward figure and deportment of persons brought to like trial were not uncommon. See note to the above passage in Dr. Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, for an example in an humble Welsh fisherman.

Page 123.

"The gift exalting, and with playful smile."

"On foot they went, and took Salisbury in their way, pur posely to see the good Bishop, who made Mr. Hooker sit at his own table; which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his mother and friends; and at the Bishop's parting with him, the Bishop gave him good counsel and his benediction, but forgot to give him money; which when the Bishop had considered, he sent a servant in all haste to call Richard back to him, and at Richard's return the Bishop said to him, 'Richard, I sent for you back to lend you a horse which hath carried me many a mile, and I thank God with much ease,' and presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff, with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany; and he said, 'Richard, I do not give, but lend you my horse; be sure you be honest, and bring my horse back to me, at your return this way to Oxford. And I do now give you ten groats to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is ten groats more, which I charge you to deliver to your mother, and tell her I send her a Bishop's benediction with it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And f you bring my horse back to me, I will give you ten groats

more to carry you on foot to the college; and so God bless

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See Walton's Life of Richard Hooker.

Page 125.

"Craftily incites

The overweening, personates the mad."

A common device in religious and political conflicts. - See Strype, in support of this instance.

Page 127.

"Laud."

In this age a word cannot be said in praise of Laud, or even in compassion for his fate, without incurring a charge of bigotry; but fearless of such imputation, I concur with Hume, "that it is sufficient for his vindication to observe that his errors were the most excusable of all those which prevailed during that zealous period." A key to the right understanding of those parts of his conduct that brought the most odium upon him in his own time, may be found in the following passage of his speech before the bar of the House of Peers:-"Ever since I came in place, I have labored nothing more than that the external public worship of God, so much slighted in divers parts of this kingdom, might be preserved, and that with as much decency and uniformity as might be. For I evidently saw that the public neglect of God's service in the outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that service, had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward wor ship of God, which while we live in the body needs external helps, and all little enough to keep it in any vigor."

Page 136.

"The Pilgrim Fathers."

American Episcopacy, in union with the Church in England, strictly belongs to the general subject; and I here make my acknowledgments to my American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr. Henry Reed of Philadelphia, for having suggested to m

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