} cated by each succeeding legislator. St Benedict informed his followers, that "they would then be truly monks, "when, like their fathers, they lived by the work of "their hands:" and St Columban exhorted his disciples "to fix their eyes on the treasure reserved for them in "heaven, and to believe it a crime not only to have, "but even to desire, more than was absolutely necessary "upon earth (49.)" The ancient discipline was long observed in the east: but the western monks gradually departed from its severity, and the departure was justified by the prospect of greater advantage. The numerous irruptions of the bar (49) Tunc vere Monachi sunt, si labore manuum vivunt sicut patres nostri. St Ben. reg. c, 48. Non solum superflua eos habere damnabile est, sed etiam velle. Dum in cœlis multum sint habituri, parvo extrema necessitatis censu in terris debent esse contenti. St Colum. reg. c. 4. He also composed verses in praise of poverty, some of which I shall transcribe, as a specimen of his poetic abilities. O nimium felix parcus, cui sufficit usus, Corporis ut curam moderamine temperet æquo. Ep. Hunaldo discip. apud Massingham, p. 411. barians had in several provinces swept away the principal part of the clergy, and the duty of public instruction devolved on the monks, whose good fortune had preserved them from the general devastation (50). As to perform their new functions with decency and advantage, a certain fund of knowledge was necessary, the pursuit of learning began to be numbered among the duties of the. cloister; and the drudgery of manual labour was exchanged for the more honourable and more useful occupation of study. Monasteries were now endowed with extensive estates, adequate to the support of their inhabitants and their revenues were constantly augmented by the liberality of their admirers. Yet the profession of poverty was not resigned. By the aid of an ingenious though not unfounded distinction, it was discovered, that it might still subsist in the bosom of riches; and that each individual might be destitute of property, though the wealth of the community was equal to that of its most opulent neighbours. Monastic poverty was defined to consist in the abdication of private property: whatever the convent possessed, was common to all its members: (50) The first who admitted the monks to holy orders, was St Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, (Sandini Vit. Pont. p. 118, not. 7). Siricius shortly after decreed that such monks should be aggregated to the clergy, as were fitted by their morals and education for the clerical functions. (Quos tamen morum gravitas, et vitæ ac fidei institutio sancta commendat. Siricii epist. ad Himer. Terrac. c. 13.) The devastations of the barbarians caused them to be more frequently employed in the public ministry: and when the propriety of this innovation was questioned in the commencement of the seventh century, Boniface IV. called a council at Rome, and defended the interests of the monks. See the acts in Smith's appendix to Bede, p. 717. no individual could advance a claim in preference to his brethren and every article both of convenience and necessity, was received from the hands, and surrendered at the command of the abbot (51). These notions the Saxon monks received from their instructors. To refuse the donations of their friends, would have been to injure the prosperity of the brotherhood: and each year conducted new streams of wealth to the more celebrated monasteries. Many indeed were left to languish in want and obscurity, but there were also many, whose superior riches excited the envy of the covetous, and the rapacity of the powerful. The extensive domains which Oswiu gave to the Abbess Hilda, have been already noticed. Egfrid, one of his successors, displayed an equal munificence in favour of the Abbot Bennet Biscop (52). When the property of the rich abbey of Glastenbury was ascertained by order of the king of Mercia, it was found to comprise no less than eight hundred hides (53): and in the enumeration of the different estates belonging to the monks of Ely, are mentioned more than eighty places, (51) It appears, however, from many instances in the Saxon records, that though the private monks were destitute of property, the abbot, if he were the founder, considered the monastery and its dependencies as his own, and disposed of them by his testament. If the heir was a monk, he became the abbot; if a layman, he received the revenue, and was bound to maintain the monks. See Eddius, (Vit. Wilf. c. 60, 61,) Wilkins, (Conc. p. 84, 144, 172, 175,) Leland, (Collect. vol. i. p. 298,) and the charters in the appendix to Smith's edition of Bede, (p. 764.) (52) Bed. l. iii. c. 24. Hist. Abbat. Wirem. p. 294, 295. (53) Malm. Antiq. Glact. p. 314, 315. situated in the neighbouring counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Hereford, and Huntingdon (54). The estates of the monks, like those of the clergy, were liberated from all secular services: and the hope of participating in so valuable a privilege, gave occasion to a singular species of fraud, which cast a temporary but unmerited stain on the reputation of the order. We learn from Bede, that in the reign of Aldfrid, king of Northumbria, certain noblemen had expressed an ardent desire to consecrate their property to the service of religion. By the influence of friends and presents, the consent of the sovereign was obtained; and the ecclesiastical privileges were confirmed to them by ample charters, subscribed with the signatures of the king, the bishops, and the principal thanes (55). But their secret motives were betrayed by the sequel of their conduct: and the advantages, not the virtues of the profession, proved to be the object of their pursuit. They quitted not the habits nor the pleasures of a secular life: but were content to assume the title of abbots, and to collect on some part of their domain a society of profligate and apostate monks. The wife also was proud to copy the example of her husband; and her vanity was flattered with the power of legislating for a sisterhood of females, as ignorant and dissipated as herself. The success of the first adventurers stimulated the industry of others. Each succeeding favourite was careful to procure a similar charter for his family and so universal was the abuse, that the venerable Bede ventured to express a doubt, whether in : (54) Hist. Elien. p. 510. For the motives of these donations see the preceding chapter, p. 117. (55 Anno 704. a few years there would remain a soldier to draw the sword against an invading enemy (56). That respectable priest, in the close of his ecclesiastical history dedicated to king Ceolwulf, hints in respectful terms his opinion of these nominal monks; but in his letter to Archbishop Egbert, he assumes a bolder tone, and in the language of zeal and detestation, insists on the necessity of putting a speedy period to so infamous a practice (57). But the secular abbots were numerous and powerful, and existed in the other kingdoms no less than in that of Northumbria. It was in vain that Bede denounced them to his metropolitan, and that the synod of Cloveshoe attributed their origin to avarice and tyranny (58): they survived the censures of the monk, and the condemnation of the synod; their monasteries were inherited by their descendants; and for their extirpation the Saxon church was indebted to the devastions of the pagan Danes in the succeeding century (59). (56) Decet prospicere ne, rarescente copia militiæ secularis, absint qui fines nostros a barbarica incursione tueantur omnino deest locus, ubi filii nobilium aut emeritorum militum possessionem accipere possint. Bed. ep. ad Egb. p. 309. (57) Bed. hist. 1. v. c. 24. Ep. ad Egb. Ant. p. 309, 312. (58) Wilkins p. 95. (59) Most of the modern writers, who attempt to describe the Saxon monks, are careful to consult the invective of Bede against the secular monasteries. But unfortunately, they are unable to distinguish the real from the pretended monks; and scrupulously ascribe to the former every vice with which be reproaches the latter. (See Inett, Orig. Sax. vol. i. p. 127. Biog. Britan. art. Bede. Henry hist. vol. iii. p. 239.) Inett has even discovered, from Bede's letter to Archbishop Egbert, that on account of the general depravity of the monks, those who |