Foretelling Life and Death; Of Noah's Ark; Of the Languages of
Nations; Lives of the Saints, Cuthbert, Felix, &c.; A Marty rology ;
A Poem on the Martyrdom of Justin; Of the Situation of Jerusalem
and the Holy Places; Of the Hexameron, or Creation in Six Days;
Of the Tabernacle; Of Solomon's Temple; Questions on the Pentateuch,
&c. and Four Books of Kings; Commentaries on Boece upon the
Trinity; Sparks, or Common Places; Memorable Passages and Col-
lections; A Discourse of the Strong Woman (an allegory); Of
Morals, one book; Meditations on the Passion of Christ, for the
Seven Canonical Hours of the Day; The Axioms of Aristotle;
Explained; &c. &c. Besides these, there are an infinite number
of small tracts on arithmetic, grammar, rhetoric, astronomy, chro-
nology, meteors, &c.; and commentaries on almost every book in
Scripture, from Genesis to the Revelations. 9 The hymns of Bede were
published with notes by Cassander, but many of them are of doubtful
authority. His ' Acts of St Cuthbert' is a poem in heroic verse. In the
list of his unpublished works, besides homilies, commentaries, and other
religious tracts, we find among others, Of the Situation and Wonders of
Britain ; the Lives of St Julian ; St Gregory the Great ; St Augustine,
the apostle of the English, &c.: Of the Image of the World ; Of the Day
of Judgment. In his account of the monastery of St Paul and St Peter,
where he was educated, he mentions that masons and artists for erecting
these edifices were brought over from France; and that these people
not only furnished whatever was necessary for the building, but also
instructed the English in the art of glass-making, which was till then
unknown in this island. His letter to Egbert, bishop of York, who
consulted him in all momentous affairs, and between whom there sub-
sisted the strictest friendship, is very far from being the least consider-
able of his works, as it shows us not only the character and temper of
the men, but gives such a picture of the then state of the church as is
no where else to be met with. It is perhaps the last of his writings,
and contains his advice as to the erection of new sees, as well as in
reference to the inconveniences and abuses which sprung from the
prevailing humour of multiplying religious houses, which the nobles
frequently appropriated to themselves, greatly to the prejudice both of
church and state, The most famous, however, of Bede's works, is his
The curious reader will find a very carefully drawn up catalogue of Bede's writings,
as contained in the Cologne folio edition of hia works, in the 1th vol. of Henry's History
of Britain.
136 ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES. [FlRST
'Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, in Five Books,' written
in Latin, in which he gives an account of the early state, of the church
in this island. He treats indeed most largely of the conversion of
Northumberland, and the progress of religion in that kingdom; but he
intermixes it with such other information as he could derive from books,
or the testimony of living witnesses; and for this purpose he kept
correspondence with the other states of the heptarchy. There was a
paraphrase of it made into the Saxon tongue, which some have ascribed
to the pen of King Alfred. It was translated into English by Dr
Thomas Stapleton, of the university of Louvain ; though his partiality
to his own church has led him to deal not always fairly and honestly
with his author. The design of the translator, who dedicates- his book
to Queen Elizabeth, was to support the Popish religion; and this
temptation proved too strong for his fidelity. The oldest edition of
Bede's history was published at Heidelberg, in 1587; but it has often
been republished ; that of Wheloc appeared at Cambridge, in 1644;
and another by Dr Smith, in 1722. All our historians have found it a
mine of useful intelligence, affording a better body of civil as well as
church history, illustrative of the laws, customs, and antiquities of the
Saxons, than is extant in our language.
BORN A. D. 680 DIED A. D. 755.
BONIFACE, first archbishop of Mentz, and usually styled the Apostle
of Germany, being the first who preached Christianity in that country,
was a native of Britain, but whether of Scots or English extraction has
not been very clearly ascertained. 1 The most generally received opinion
is, that he was of English descent, and born at Crediton, or Kirton, in
Devonshire, about the year 680 ; and that his original name was Wil-
frid or Winfrid. He received his education in several English monas-
teries, and at the age of thirty was consecrated a priest, and became a
zealous preacher. His acquirements, extensive for the age in which he
lived, had obtained for him the reputation of high scholarship, but his
active mind now turned itself to other employments, and he resolved to
dedicate himself to the propagation of the gospel among the heathen
nations of Europe. Several British missionaries had preceded him in
this beneficent work. Gallus had gone to Allemania in 614 ; Emmeran,
who died in 652, to Bavaria ; Kilian, who died in 689, to Franconia ;
Willibrord and Swidvert, to Friesland ; and Sigfrid to Sweden. Emu-
lous of their example, Wilfrid, accompanied by two other monks, set
out for Friesland in 716 ; but a war which broke out at this period be-
tween Charles Martel of France, and Radbod king of Friesland, rendered
his design impracticable. He therefore returned to England, where
he was soon afterwards offered the dignity of abbot of Nutcell, which he
declined, being still zealously bent on personally undertaking a mission
to some pagan country. Filled with this single idea, he set out for
Rome, and presented himself to Pope Gregory II. with recommendatory
1 Cave Hist. Lit. p. 480. Mackenzie's Scotch Writers, p. 35.
PERIOD.] BONIFACE. 137
letters from the bishop of Winchester. Gregory entered warmly into
his views, and gave him his papal commission to preach the gospel to
all the nations inhabiting the eastern parts of Germany. ,He com-
menced his labours in Thuringia and Bavaria, spent three years in Fries-
land, and journeyed through Hesse, as far as the confines of Saxony,
baptizing everywhere, and converting the pagan temples in every dis-
trict through which he passed into Christian churches.
In 723, he was invited to Rome, and consecrated bishop of the new
German churches by the name of Boniface. On this occasion Pope
Gregory exacted from the new bishop an oath of subjection to the papal
authority, couched in very strong terms. Boniface then returned to
his mission, and, under the patronage of Charles Martel, pursued his
labours with great success. It does not appear to what extent our
missionary availed himself of the assistance of the secular arm in his
work of evangelization. It is to be hoped that he acted in the spirit of
the directions transmitted to him by Daniel, bishop of Winchester, about
the year 723. The document is a curious one, and as affording a
striking example of good sense and liberality, in an age little remarkable
for either, we shall here quote a few sentences from it. " Do not con-
tradict in a direct manner their accounts of the genealogies of their gods ;
allow that they were born from one another in the same way that man-
kind are ; this concession will give you the advantage of proving that
there was a time when they had no existence. Ask them, who governed
the world before the birth of their gods ? and if their gods have ceased
to propagate ? If they have not, show them the consequence, namely,
that the gods must be infinite in number, and that no man can rationally
be at ease in worshipping any of them, for fear lest he should, in doing
so, be provoking the hostility of some more powerful deity. Argue
thus with them, not in the way of insult, but with temper and modera-
tion ; and embrace any favourable opportunity to contrast the absurdities
of their belief with the doctrines of Christ. Let the pagans be ashamed
rather than incensed by your indirect mode of stating these arguments.
Show them the insufficiency of their plea of antiquity. Inform them
that idolatry did anciently prevail throughout the world, but that Jesus
Christ was manifested in order to reconcile men to God by his grace."
If the missionary acted up to the spirit of these instructions and there
is little reason to think otherwise he must have been well worthy of
the high office to which he devoted himself, but his conduct must have
contrasted powerfully with that of some of his brethren in their inter-
course with the heathen. The fame of his success reached his native
land, and induced many of his countrymen to join themselves to his
mission, by which means Christianity was extensively preached in Hesse,
Thuringia, and other parts of Germany.
In the year 732, Boniface received the title of archbishop from
Gregory III. who entered into his views with the same alacrity that
his predecessor had exhibited. He now began to erect churches where
needed, and succeeded in obtaining a fresh accession of fellow-labourers
from England. In 738, he again visited Rome, and afterwards, return-
ing into Bavaria, he established the bishoprics of Freisingen, Ratisbon,
Erfurt, Barabourg afterwards transferred to Paderborn Wurtzburg
and Aichstadt, the only previously existing bishopric having been that of
Passau. In 739, he restored the episcopal see of St Rupert at Salzburg.
138 ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES. [FiRst
After the death of Charles Martel of France, he was employed to con-
secrate Pepin the Short at Soissons, who acknowledged his service by
appointing him bishop of Mentz, which has retained the primacy
among the German churches ever since. He also founded a monastery
at Fridislar, another at Hamenburg, and one at Ordofe, in all of which
the monks supported themselves by their own industry. In 746, he
laid the foundation of the great abbey of Fulda, which soon became the
most eminent seminary of learning in Germany. He also, as pope's
legate, held eight ecclesiastical councils during his primacy, besides
maintaining a most extensive correspondence, particularly with his na-
tive country. An intimate friendship had long subsisted between
Cuthbert, bishop of Hereford, and Boniface. On the advancement of
the former to the archbishopric of Canterbury, Boniface addressed to
him a long and affectionate epistle, in which, after warmly exhorting
his friend to the faithful discharge of the duties of his high office, he
points out several things in the state of the English church which ap-
peared to him to demand reformation : particularly the gay dress and
intemperate habits of the clergy, and the loose habits acquired by
English nuns in the performance of pilgrimages to Rome after the
fashion of the day. The suggestions contained in this letter proved the
occasion of calling together the synod of Cloveshoo, whose proceedings
we have noticed elsewhere. 2
Boniface terminated his laborious and useful life at Dockum in West
Friesland, A. D. 755, in the 75th year of his age. Assisted by Eoban,
whom he had lately ordained bishop of Utrecht, he had appointed a
day on which to confirm those whom he had previously baptized; but
on the morning appointed for the ceremony his company was attacked
and massacred to a man by a body of pagans. He met his death with
calm intrepidity, forbidding his servants to offer any resistance to their
assailants, and exhorting them to commit their souls in peace to their
Creator. His body was interred in the abbey of Fulda, where a copy
of the Gospels said to be in his own hand-writing, is still preserved.
His character has been greatly aspersed by Mosheim and his commen-
tators, but as warmly and more successfully defended by Milner. 3 His
works were collected and published by Serarius in 1605 ;* but the most
complete collection of his letters were published at Mentz in 1789, in
folio. Willibald, the nephew, and some time the fellow-labourer of
Boniface, was a man of learning, and wrote the life of his uncle.
BORN CIRC. A. D. 720 DIED A. D. 804.
ALCUIN was bora in Yorkshire, or, as others say, not far from
London. The masters of his education were first, the Venerable Bede,
though the pupil must then have been young and the master old, as
Bede died in 735 and afterwards Egbert, archbishop of York, who made
him keeper of the curious library which he had founded in that city. 1
About the year 780 he was made deacon of the church of York, and at
! J 26 - * Church Hist. vol. iii. p. 89. * Du Pin Eccles. HisU Cant. viii.
Kpist. Alcumi, apud Leitiones Antii. Canisii, torn. ii. p. 409.
I'KRIOI).]
ALCUIN. 139
length abbot of the monastery of Canterbury. In 79JJ he was invited
over to France by Charlemagne to assist him in opposing the heresy of
Felix, bishop of Urgel, in Catalonia, and the canons of the false synod
of Nice. In the controversy that agitated the western church towards
the end of the eighth century, about the mystery of the incarnation,
Felix maintained that Jesus Christ ought only to be called the adoptive
son of God. This opinion he defended in his writings, and propagated
it not only in Spain, but in France and Germany. In 792 he was
condemned by a council of bishops held at Ratisbon, who sent him to
Pope Adrian at Rome. The pope confirmed the judgment of the synod,
and obliged Felix to retract ; but he again lapsed into his former error,
and was again condemned by the council of Frankfort consisting of
three hundred prelates. Other Spanish bishops were tainted with the
heresy, and Charlemagne joined his authority with that of the council
to compel them to renounce their opinions. In 799, he sent for Felix
to Aix la Chapelle, that he might have an opportunity publicly to de-
fend himself in presence of the bishops. Alcuin was appointed to re-
ply to his arguments, and refuted him ; upon which he recanted and
embraced the doctrine of the church, that Jesus Christ as man, ought
to be called the proper and not the adoptive son of God. 2 Charlemagne
had a high esteem for the learning of Alcuin, and not only honoured
him with his friendship and confidence, but became his pupil, and re-
ceived instructions from him in rhetoric, logic, mathematics, and di-
vinity. 3 He gave him the abbeys of Ferrara, St Jodocus, and St Lu-
pus ; and afterwards that of St Martin at Tours, to which he retired,
having obtained permission of the emperor, on account of his age and
infirmities. There he spent the remainder of his life in an honourable
retreat, and employed himself in educating the youth in the school
which he had founded in that city. The emperor endeavoured to re-
call him to court, and wrote him many urgent letters, but in vain. He
died at Tours in the year 804, with the reputation of a pious and
learned man ; and, according to William of Malmesbury, the best Eng-
lish divine after Bede and Aldhelm. He was not only a distinguished
scholar himself, but a great promoter of science. France, says Cave
in his Literary History,* is obliged to Alcuin for all the polite learning
she boasted of in that and the following ages. The universities of Paris,
Tours, Fulden, Soisson, and many others, owe to him their origin
and increase ; those of whom he was not the superior or founder, being
at least enlightened by his instructions and example, and enriched by
the royal grants which he procured for them. His services in the cause
of literature have been recorded in the verses of a German poet cited
by Camden :
" No smaller tokens of esteem from France
Alcuinus claims, who durst himself advance
Single against whole troops of ignorance;
'Twas he transported Britain's richest ware
Language and arts, and kindly taught them there ' "
Alcuin \vas a very voluminous author. Most of his works are extant ;
and, in 1617, an edition of them was published by Du Chesne at
Paris, though a number of smaller pieces have since appeared, and may
1 Dupin, Hist. Eccles. cent. viii. * Malm. lib. i. cap. 3. * Sect viii. p. 496.
J40 ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES. [FlRST
be met with in Dupin's Ecclesiastical History. His Latinity is pure
and elegant, and his erudition vast considering the period in which he
lived. To the Greek and Latin he is said to have joined an acquaint-
ance with the Hebrew tongue, which would seem to have fonned a
part of scholastic study sooner than is generally imagined. In his
scientific writings he sometimes ventured to break through the pedantic
formalities of established systems. Two of his treatises he has thrown
into a dialogue between himself and his illustrious pupil Charlemagne.
Sir John Hawkins has remarked, that he was particularly well-versed in
music, as appears by his tract on the use of the Psalms, and by his
preface to Cassiodorus on the ' Seven Disciplines.' 5 He also wrote
an Essay on Music, which is lost. The formidable catalogue of Al-
cuin's numerous works, comprehend homilies, lives of saints, com-
mentaries on various parts of scripture, letters, poems, and books on
the different sciences. His theological writings include a Discourse
on the Words in Genesis, " Let us make man after our own image,"
An Epistle on Solomon's Threescore Queens, Questions concerning
the Trinity, Seven Books on the Incarnation against Bishop Felix, and
Four Books concerning Images, Commentaries on the Proverbs, Can-
ticles, and Epistles of St Paul. The saints whose lives he has written
are, St Martin of Tours, St Vedast of Arras, St Willibrord of Utrecht,
and St Riguier the Priest. His poems consist of Hymns and Epigrams,
Stanzas on a Cuckoo, and a heroic poem on the Bishops and Saints of
the Church of York, containing 1700 verses ; though some are of opi-
nion that this last, from its barbarous style, was not written by Alcuin,
but by a Benedictine monk of the following century. The varied and
prolific talents of those dark ages must not seduce us into too magni-
ficent ideas of the depth or solidity of their attainments. Their merits,
as Wharton has observed, were in a great measure relative. Their
circle of reading was contracted, their systems of philosophy jejune ;
and the lectures of the schools served rather to stop the growth of ig-
norance, than to produce any positive or important improvements in
knowledge. They aspired to no higher acquisitions than the prescribed
curriculum or course of study ; for the art of making excursions from
the narrow path of scientific instruction into the spacious and fertile
regions of liberal and original thinking was then unknown.
DIED A. D. 910.
ASSER, or Aysserius, was a learned monk of St David's, and a writer
of considerable celebrity, though some points in his personal history are
involved in uncertainty. He was of British extraction, probably a na-
tive of Pembrokeshire, and educated in the monastery of St David's,
in Latin called Menevia, and hence his surname of Menevensis. His
tutor or instructor is said to have been Johannes Patricius, one of the
most renowned scholars of his age. 1 Here also he was on terms of in-
timacy with the archbishop of that see, who was his relation. This
* Hist, of Music, vol. i. p. 379. ' Bale.
PIEIOD.] ASSER. 141
has given rise to a mistake which has converted Asser into two other
individuals of the same name, an archbishop of St David's, and a reader
in the university of Oxford. Bale, Godwin, Cave, and Hearne,
affirm that our monk was secretary or chancellor to this archbishop,
but erroneously, as there is every probability that the different per-
sons alluded to were one and the same. 2 Besides, he tells us himself
that the name of his relation was an Archbishop Novis, though it
does not appear that he was either his secretary or chancellor. Novis
held that honour from 841 to 873, when he died.
From St David's Asser was invited to the court of Alfred the Great,
merely from the great reputation of his learning. On his journey he
met with that prince at the town of Dean, in Wiltshire, who received
him with great civility, and even evinced for him the strongest marks of
favour and affection, insomuch that he recommended him not to think
of returning or residing at St David's, but rather continue with him as
domestic chaplain, and assist him in his studies. 3 Asser hesitated to ac-
cept this flattering proposal, and seemed to prefer the place where he
had been educated and received the order of priesthood, to the honour-
able promotion offered him by the king. Alfred then expressed his desire
that he would at least divide his time equally between the court and
the monastery, and devote six months of the year to his society. To
this request Asser replied by soliciting permission to consult his bre-
thren, which was readily granted; but unfortunately in his journey to St
David's he fell sick at Winchester of a fever, which confined him upwards
of twelve months, much to the regret and disappointment of Alfred.
On his recovery he repaired to St David's, and having taken the advice of
his brethren on the king's offer, they unanimously agreed that he should
accept it, only requesting that his change of residence should be quarter-
ly instead of half-yearly. In this resolution private interest had some
weight, for the monastery and parish of St David's had often been
plundered, and their archbishops sometimes expelled by Hemeid, a petty
prince of South Wales. From the favour and friendship of one of their
members with Alfred, the pious monks hoped to derive great advan-
tages in the repression of those violent inroads to which they were ex-
posed. When Asser returned he found the king at Leoneforde, who
received him with great kindness and civility. His first visit continued
for eight months, during which time he read and explained to the prince
whatever books were in his library. Their mutual esteem increased
with their acquaintance ; and on the Christmas-eve following, Asser re-
ceived a gift of the monasteries of Ambrosbury in Wiltshire, and Ban-
well in Somerset, with a silk pall of great value. The royal bounty was
accompanied with the generous compliment that " these were but small
things, and by way of earnest of better that should follow them." 4 The
promise was soon fulfilled, for the bishopric of Exeter, and, not long
after, that of Sherborne was bestowed on him. The latter of these pre-
ferments he seems to have relinquished in 883, a circumstance which
has misled Matthew of Westminster, and other writers, to place his death
in that year. He was succeeded in the see of Sherborne by Sighelm,
who was employed by Alfred to carry his alms to the Christians of St
Thomas in India; but the Saxon Chronicle clearly proves that Asser
Biog. Brit. I. 408. Asser. Menev. Ed. Oxon. 1722. P. 17.
* Asser. Menev. Ed. Oxon. 1722. p. 50.
142 ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES. [FlRST
survived his quitting that bishopric for seven and twenty years, though
he always retained the title, a fact which will account for the supposi-
tion of his decease at the time when his successor was appointed.
From this period he was a constant attendant at court, and is named
by Alfred in his testament which must have been written some time
before the year 885 as a person in whom he had particular confidence.
He is also mentioned by the king in the prefatory epistle prefixed to
his translation of Gregory's ' Pastoral,' addressed to Wulfig bishop of
London, wherein he acknowledged the assistance he had received from
him and others in that undertaking. The method used by Alfred in
translating, we learn both from himself and his instructor, was to give
the sense and substance of his author rather than the exact words.
It seems to have been the near resemblance of their genius which gained
Asser so great a share in the royal confidence, and which very probably
was the occasion of his drawing up those memoirs of the life of Alfred,
dedicated and presented by him to the king, and which are still extant.
In this work there is a very curious and minute account of the manner
in which that prince and our author spent their time together. Asser
tells an anecdote, that being at the feast of St Martin, and having quot-
ed accidentally in conversation a passage from some famous writer, the
king was so highly pleased with it, that he wished him to note it down
on the margin of a book which he usually carried in his breast. Find-
ing there was no room in the book to record the favourite passage, he
asked the king, whether he should not provide a few leaves in which to
set down such remarkable things as occurred either in reading or con-
versation. Alfred, who was indefatigable in the acquirement of know-
ledge, was extremely delighted with the idea, and directed Asser to put