stitute. Hilda was allied to the East-Anglian and Northumbrian princes; her advice was respectfully asked and followed by kings and prelates; and to her care Oswiu commended his infant daughter Ælfleda, with a dower of one hundred hides of land (32). Enriched by the donations of her friends, she built at Whitby a double monastery, in one part of which a sisterhood of nuns, in the other a confraternity of monks, obeyed her maternal authority. Among her disciples she established that com munity of goods, which distinguished the first christians. at Jerusalem; and whatever they possessed, was considered as the common property of all. Their virtue has and no less than

been attested by the venerable Bede: five of the monks of Whitby were raised to the episcopal dignity, during the life of their foundress (33). From Northumbria the institute was rapidly diffused over the kingdom of Mercia.

The reader will perhaps have been surprised, that a society of men should be subject to the spiritual government of a woman. Yet this scheme of monastic polity, singular as it may now appear, was once adopted in most christian countries. Its origin may be ascribed to the severity, with which the founders of religious orders have always prohibited every species of unnecessary intercourse, between their female disciples and persons of the other sex. To prevent it entirely was impracticable.

The

(32) Oswiu had vowed to consecrate his daughter to the service of God, if he were successful in his war against Penda. Bed. 1. iii. c. 24. The Terræ centum et viginti familiarum, are translated by Alfred, hund tpelftig hida. (Ælf. vers. p. 556.) The hide contained 120 acres. Hist. Elien. p. 472, 481.

(33) Bed. 1. iii. c. 24. 1. iv. c. 28.

functions of the sacred ministry had always been the exclusive privilege of the men: and they alone were able to support the fatigues of husbandry, and conduct the extensive estates, which many convents had received from the piety of their benefactors. But it was conceived that the difficulty might be diminished, if it could not be removed and with this view, some monastic legislators devised the plan of establishing double monasteries. In the vicinity of the edifice, destined to receive the virgins who had dedicated their chastity to God, was erected a building for the residence of a society of monks or canons, whose duty it was to officiate at the altar, and superintend the external economy of the community. The mortified and religious life, to which they had bound themselves by the most solemn engagements, was supposed to render them superior to temptation: and to remove even the suspicion of evil, they were strictly forbidden to enter the enclosure of the women, except on particular occasions, with the permission of the superior, and in the presence of witnesses. But the abbess retained the supreme controul over the monks, as well as the nuns: their prior depended on her choice, and was bound to regulate his conduct by her instructions (34). To St Columban this institute was indebted for its propagation in France; and from the houses of his order, which were long the favourite resort of the Saxon ladies, it was pro

(34) As I am not acquainted with any writer, who has professedly treated this subject, I have been compelled to glean a few hints from the works of the ancient historians. An establishment, of nearly a similar nature existed at Remiremont, in Lorrain, till it was swept away by the torrent of the French revolution. See

bably introduced into England. During the two first centuries after the conversion of our ancestors, the principal nunneries were established on this plan: nor are we certain that there existed any others of a different description (35). They were held in the highest estimation: the most distinguished of the Saxon female saints, and many of the most eminent prelates, were educated in them and so edifying was the deportment of the greatest part of these communities, that the breath of slander never presumed to tarnish their character. The monastery of Coldingham alone forms an exception. The virtue of some among its inhabitants, was more ambiguous and an accidental fire, which was ascribed to the vengeance of heaven, confirmed the suspicions of their contemporaries, and has transmitted to posterity the knowledge of their dishonour (36). The account was received with the deepest sorrow by St Cuthbert, the pious bishop of Lindisfarne: and in the anguish of his zeal, he commanded his disciples to exclude every female from the threshold of his cathedral. His will was religiously obeyed; and for several centuries no woman en

(35) That the monasteries of Faremoutier, Chelles, and Andelò, were double, appears from Bede, (1. iii. c. s,) and is proved by Broughton, (Mem. p. 343.) Among the Saxons, the principal at least were of the same institute: Whitby, (Bed. 1. iv. c. 23, Vit. Cuth. c. 24,) Berking, (Id. c. 7,) Coldingham, (Id. c. 25,) Ely, (Id. c. 19,) Wenlock, (Bonif. ep. 21, p. 29,) Repandun, (Gale, p. 243. Wigor, p. 568,) and Winburn, (Mab. Sæc. 3, Vit. St Liob. p. 246.) See alsó Bed. I. iii. c. xi. and Leland's collectanea, (vol. iii. p. 117.) At Beverley, a monastery of monks, a college of canons, and a convent of nuns, obeyed the same abbot. Mong. Ang. vol. i. p. 170. Lel. Coll. vol. iii. p. 100.

'36) Bed. 1. iv. c. 25.

tered with impunity any of the churches, in which the body of the saint had reposed (37). But notwithstanding the misfortune at Coldingham, and the disapprobation of Cuthbert, the institute continued to flourish, till the ravages of the pagan Danes levelled with the ground the double monasteries, together with every other sacred. edifice, which existed within the range of their devastations (38).

(37) Sim. Dunel. hist. ecc. Dun. p. 102. For the accommodation of the women, a new church was built, and called the green kirk, Ibid. A similar regulation was observed in several of the monasteries of St Columban, in France. See Butler's SS. lives, Sept. 5. Mab. præf. 1, Sæc. 3, cxxxvii.

(38) Another order of religious women, whose existence, it seems, had long been forgotten, was descried by one of our most learned antiquaries. Spelman had observed that the Saxons always made a distinction between Nonna and Monialis in Latin, and Nunna and Mynekin in their own language: whence he inferred, that the latter must have been the wives of married clergymen, by whose enemies they had been branded with the name of mynekin from minne, a Gothic word of no very decent signification, (Spel. con. p. 529. Wilk. con. p. 294.) It were difficult to err more egregiously. From the excerpta of Egbert of York we learn, that the mynekins were women," who had consecrated "themselves to God, who had vowed their virginity to God, and "who were the spouses of Christ." de Gode rÿlfum beop gehalgode. hyna gehat Gode gehatan habbap. Wilk, p. 184, xi. de Lode rylfum bepeddod bip to bryde. Ibid. p. 136. de Godes brýd bip gehaten. Ibid. p. 131, xviii. The truth is, that the mynekins were so called from the Saxon munuc,' because they observed the rule of the monks, while the nuns observed the rule of the canons. This distinction is clearly marked in the Codex constitutionum in the Bodleian library, in which the mynekins are classed with the monks, and ordered to practise the same duties: and the nuns are classed with the priests, and commanded like

Such were the different religious orders which, as far as I can discover, were introduced among the AngloSaxons. In the distribution of time, the arrangement of fasts and prayers, and the subordinate parts of interior discipline, they were distinguished from each other: but all equally adopted the three engagements, which are still considered as essential to the monastic institute: 1, an unlimited submission to the lawful commands of their superiors, 2, a life of perpetual celibacy, and 3, a voluntary renunciation of private property.

1. In the language of monastic discipline, the most important of the virtues, which are not absolutely imposed on every christian, is obedience (39). The natural perversity of the human will is considered as the source of every moral disorder; and to prevent it from seeking forbidden gratifications, it should resign the right of

deciding for itself, and be taught to submit on all oc'casions to the determination of another. He, who aspires to the praise of a true religious, ought, according to the patriarch of the western monks, to place at the disposal of his superior, all the faculties of his mind, and all the powers of his body (40). In the rule which St Dunstan promulgated for the observance of the AngloSaxon monasteries, may be seen the extent to which this

them to observe chastity, and live according to their rule. Rihtir mynecena mynsteɲlice macian. erne spa pe cpædon æror be munecan.-Riht ir p preoptar eren pel nunnan ɲegollice libban clæanýrre healoan. Cod. Jun. 121.

(39) Tota monachorum vita in simplicitate consistit obedientiæ. Alcuin. ep. 59.

(40) Quibus nec corpora sua nec voluntates licet habere in propria potestate. Reg. S. Bened. c. 33.