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depart, after exacting from him an oath that he would either send his ransom or return to captivity. Imma went into Kent, and had interest enough there with King Lodhere to obtain from him the money. After a while he returned into his own country, and upon comparing dates with his brother the Abbot, they ascertained that his chains had generally fallen off precisely at the hours when mass was celebrated for him: and moreover that the other conveniences and good fortune which he had enjoyed while a prisoner, were owing to the same cause, and to the efficacy of his brother's prayers. Very many persons hearing this marvellous relation were induced to make oblations and bespeak masses for their deceased friends, when they were thus assured that the salutary effect of such means availed for the redemption of the body as well as the soul. And Bede, having received the story from several witnesses who heard it from Imma himself, recorded it as a fact which was not to be doubted, and which moreover was of such importance to the general good, that he deemed it his duty to insert it in his history.*.... Would you desire, Sir, a prettier sample of priestcraft and imposture than

* L. iv. c. xxii. p. 103—5.

this scheme for bringing custom to the massmongers at Tunnacester?

I have confined myself to Bede, Sir, in these examples, because you have appealed to his authority for the succession of miracles in the Anglo-Saxon times. It appears that not a single miracle of the many which he has recorded rests upon his own testimony; but that stories of this description reached him from all parts, and were sent him by ecclesiastical persons high in station, of whom, if many were as credulous as himself, some at least were not so scrupulous. There is not one fact in his works upon which you can rely with the slightest show of reason to prove your position; there are many in proof of mine... that the clergy practised upon the easy faith of an ignorant people. This it is which was affirmed in the Book of the Church, neither lightly nor injuriously, nor with any intention of detracting from the virtues of men whose eminent worth was fully acknowledged at the same time, and who were spoken of with the admiration and gratitude to which, all circumstances considered, they are well entitled. If you had not resented this as a calumnious imputation, and called for proofs, as if you were so little conversant with the history of that age as really to

suppose there were none which could be adduced, I should not have undertaken what many readers may deem an unnecessary task. Such inquiries, however, are never uninteresting, and seldom unrewarded. They are digressions from the beaten track of history, and, like deviations from a high road, lead us into retired scenes which are frequently more characteristic and more pleasing than are beheld by the straightforward traveller.

Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways

Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.

Often in the course of such researches have I remembered these lines of my predecessor Warton, to whom, in my youthful days, I have been so deeply indebted for instruction and delight.

213

LETTER V.

CONVERSION OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS.

UPON the conversion of the Danes, Sir, and the other northern nations, your remarks are brief, and my comments upon them will not be longer. There is only one observation of yours which requires notice. After thanking me, where no thanks are due, for acknowledging the good effected in those ages by the clergy, and especially by the Benedictines, (which I had done as faithfully and far more fully than I had noted their errors or their corruptions,) you entreat me to keep in mind that the conversion which I describe to have been attended with so many spiritual and so many temporal blessings, were conversions effected by Roman Catholic missionaries to the Roman Catholic faith. And you add,* "Can such a faith deserve a harsh word ?”

What, Sir, if in reply to this appeal, I should

* Page 56

entreat you to bear in mind that the persecution of the Albigenses in earlier, and of the Vaudois in later times, the autos-da-fe of Queen Mary's accursed reign, and the acts of the Inquisition, were acts of the Roman Catholic clergy, performed for the sake and in the name of the Roman Catholic faith; and then to say, Can such a faith deserve a good word? I propound the question only to show you the inconsequence of yours. We must look at the good as well as the evil, and the evil as well as the good. And were your mind, Sir, but as free to perceive and confess the misdeeds of the Papal Church, as mine is to feel and acknowledge the benefits which humanity during some ages derived from it, there would be little difference between us. The film would then fall from your eyes, and you would see things as they have been, and as they are.

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