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The Rood then speaks of judgment to come, and that whoso beareth this best of signs in his heart will have no fear on that day. It ceases speech; and that personal part of the poem follows on which I have already written.

This is the last of the important poems of the eighth century. It is good, but not very good. The older part, if my conjecture be right,' is the best, and its reworking by Cynewulf has so broken it up that its dignity is much damaged. The shaping is rude, but the imagination has indeed shaped it. The image of the towering Tree, now shining through a golden light and overwrought like a Rood at Ripon or Hexham with jewelled lines of ornament, now veiled in a crimson mist and streaming with blood, is conceived with power, but it is not to be compared with the image of the mighty Rood in the Christ which illuminates with ruddy light the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of angels and of men summoned from their graves to judgment. The invention of the Tree, bringing its soul from the far-off wood, alive and suffering with every pang of the great Sufferer, shivering through every vein of it when Christ, the young Hero, clasped it round, and mourning when he lay beneath, and longing to fall on and slay his foes, and conscious that on it, as on a field of battle, Death and Hell were conquered, is also well worth praise, but the praise must not be carried too far. The workmanship is not the workmanship of a fine artist. We cannot expect it, and the wonder is that at this time it was so good.

1 I have called it my conjecture, but I have since found that the writers of the Corpus Poeticum Boreale, in their Excursus on Metres have had a somewhat similar opinion. They say "In the Lay of the Rood, attributed to Caedmon, as it seems, on the Ruthwell Cross, we have the purest piece of poetry in this metre. In the Vercelli book in which it is preserved, there is tacked on to it another poem on a somewhat similar subject, but wholly different in style and metre, which may very possibly be Cynewulf's." I think the whole was reworked by Cynewulf.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SCHOOL OF YORK

WHILE Cynewulf and his imitators were making the poems about which we have now written, the Collegiate School at York, founded on a secure basis by Ecgberht while Baeda was still alive, was steadily flourishing. Under its auspices not only Latin but English literature was cared for, if I am right in my guess that it was at York that those collections of English verse were made, which were afterwards brought to Wessex in the days of Ælfred. That school began no doubt with Wilfrid, but it did not become the notable school of England till the days of Archbishop Ecgberht, and it ran a noble and vigorous career of fifty years. After 782 it began to decay, but with a certain stately slowness. When it was dead, and it finally died of the Danes, its learning and its spirit, having emigrated with Alcuin, went forth to animate the wide empire of Charles the Great. It is the history of this school, the last home of literature in the England of the eighth century, which we have now to write, and the tale of it will conclude this book.

After the death of Baeda in 735, the seat of letters was transferred from Jarrow to York. Learning passed from a provincial monastery to the centre of the life of Northumbria. It passed from the guardianship of one man to the watchful care of a number of trained scholars, acting together, and teaching, like professors, their own special subjects, under the rule of one Head. We may, with some justice, call the School of York the first English University. Canterbury, under Theodore, was not more than a brilliant monastic school, and at Theodore's death its literary influence died. But the Heads of York provided for the continuance of the school, and for an organisation of it which we might call corporate. The system of teaching seems to have been subdivided, specialised, and handed down intact for at least two generations. York became

the storehouse and distributor of learning for civilised Europe. Scholars flocked to it from all parts of Germany, Gaul, Italy, and Ireland. The new European schools, desiring a teacher, either sent one of their own men to take, as it were, a degree at York, or fetched to rule over them an Englishman who had the York certificate. If we add to these things the Cathedral, the great library, the collegiate buildings where the teachers and the pupils lived together, something of the image of a University is presented to our eyes.

The town itself was not unworthy of the fame it attained in learning. It had been the capital of Roman Britain, and Britain lay so outside of the Empire that York was called altera Roma. It might have even been called an imperial city. Constantius dwelt in it. When Baeda takes trouble to record that Severus died and that Constantine was made Emperor within its walls, we feel that the historic imagination of the learned English had cast around it, like a toga, the dignity of Rome. Long before Baeda, the Northumbrians made it their chief city. It was the centre of the supremacy of Eadwine, and it finally became the royal seat of the Northumbrian kings. It was the first Christian King of Northumbria baptized, and he and Paullinus set up the little chapel of wood which grew into the Minster. Its spiritual and ecclesiastical history equalled in interest its political history, and now at the time of which we write, it became again the seat of an archbishopric. No doubt, this addition to its ecclesiastical position gave its school a greater vogue in England and in Europe.

Nor was its people or its situation unworthy of its memories. It was thickly populated by a thriving, brave, and comfortable folk. To the crowd of its own citizens were added a number of foreigners who came to dwell in it for the sake of gain or education. The landscape that surrounded it was lovely; its air healthy; the Ouse flowed full beside its walls and was joined by the Foss, then a broad, deep and sluggish stream. In the triangle the streams made lay the town, but it had extended far beyond its walls, and the well-watered plains were covered with houses. The flowery meadows which bordered the river, the wooded hills beyond, earned the praise of Alcuin who loved his Alma Mater well. Learning had here a softer clime and dwelling-place than had nourished its hardy youth among the rocky fields, and near the stormy tides of Jarrow.'

1 Hanc piscosa suis undis interfluit Usa,

Florigeros ripis praetendens undique campos;

This was the city which, as the home of Letters, rose into fame with Ecgberht who, at the date of Baeda's death, became Archbishop of York. He had succeeded Wilfrid II. as Bishop in 732. A year or two afterwards, and perhaps at Ecgberht's own urging,1 Baeda had sent to York his Epistola ad Egbertum, of the form and style of which I have already written. A brief abstract of its contents will now show us the state of Northumbria and the work which lay before Ecgberht. "Be good," it said, "let your language and life be decent and your doctrine sound. Study the Scriptures, ordain more priests, translate the Lord's Prayer and the Creed into English, look after your diocese, there are hamlets in the mountains which have never seen a bishop. The greed of bishops has prevented the subdivision of dioceses. Let there be twelve bishoprics in Northumbria, and do you get the pallium. As to the monasteries, they are in an evil way. There is no proper discipline, and a host of abuses. Lay folk, for thirty years past, have purchased lands for monasteries which, freed from secular jurisdiction, have become their own property. Almost every praefectus has done this; the officers of the King have followed their example; their wives are lodged in their houses; and all of them do what they like. Hence the whole diocese is filled with luxury, corruption, and disorder. Reform, reform." This was the ecclesiastical condition, and it is plain that in monasteries of this type, and in the midst of such abuses, learning was not likely to continue to flourish. Ecgberht took them in hand and did all he could, not all he wished. At least, if they could not be bettered, he bettered his own house. The community at York was lifted into an example for the whole diocese.

The political condition, as well as the ecclesiastical, had some influence on the literary history of the school of York, and at two points. First, a certain renewed glory and peace in Northumbria now accompanied for too brief a period the effort Ecgberht was making at York, and enabled his school to develop itself in a quiet safety. King Eadberht, who succeeded

Collibus et silvis tellus hinc inde decora
Nobilibusque locis habitatio pulchra, salubris,
Fertilitate sui multos habitura colonos,
Quo variis populis et regnis undique lecti
Spe lucri veniunt, quaerentes divite terra

Divitias, sedem sibímet, lucrumque laremque.

Alcuin, De Pont. Ebor. 30.

1 I believe that Ecgberht and Baeda concocted this letter together. The warnings given to Ecgberht about decent language and other matters in which Baeda knew Ecgberht did not sin, appear to be directed to others through Ecgberht, and this seems a pious and courteous way of blame.

Baeda's friend Ceolwulf in 737 or 738, brought Northumbria into better order and recovered some of the dominion it had lost. This peace with honour would help the work at York. It only lasted till 756, when a dreadful disaster at Niwanbyrig was the cause that two years afterwards Eadberht abdicated and settled at York for the rest of his life. Secondly, we must remember that Eadberht was brother of Ecgberht, and that from 737 to 758 the King gave his brother full royal patronage. It is plain they were on good terms, for when the King abdicated he went at once to live with the Archbishop. I cannot but think that his presence, even as a retired monarch, gave support and prestige to the school. He died in the year 768, two years after Ecgberht. Between them, I imagine, they practically ruled the city.

Ecgberht then had external support, and he was worthy of it, both as prince and scholar. He was a splendid and generous man, with fine tastes. Richly carved vessels, richly figured silks, elaborate music were used and cherished in the Minster. Round about the Cathedral and in connection with it rose the schools, filled, as I have said, with students from England, Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and Italy. Ecgberht as the Head, undertook the finishing course of religious and theological instruction. The other branches of learning were put into the hands of his assistants. The education began with grammar and continued through literature and philosophy and such other subjects as Theodore and Hadrian had taught at Canterbury. The pupils gained a fair acquaintance with the Latin poets, some knowledge of the Greek fathers, and as much natural philosophy as could be learned from Pliny. The study of the Scriptures was carried on during the whole course. Ecgberht finished the education of the students, but he kept always in touch with them. We are told that he spent the morning with the young clerks, sitting on his couch, teaching and lecturing. At noon he celebrated mass in his private chapel; his dinner was meagre. During the meal and afterwards he discussed literary questions with the students. At

1 The arts of embroidery and illumination, of working in gold, silver, and precious stones had steadily grown in Northumbria. Monks, even the anchorite in his cell, wrought at vessels and bindings for the sacred offices. The best instance out of many is the famous "Evangeliarium," called also the Durham Book, or the Lindisfarne Gospels, which, after a long and curious history, now rests in the British Museum. Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, had written and illuminated it. It was begun during Cuthbert's life. Ethelwald, who succeeded Eadfrith, and who caused to be made "a lovely cross" of wrought stone as a memorial of Cuthbert, gave also a cover to the Manuscript which Bilfrid, an anchorite and goldsmith, decorated with silver, gold, and gems.

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