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exposition of them, in conjunction with the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, would be in vain: because, in every age, the preaching of Christian fundamentals is accompanied with a divine energy, and the word returns not void to its Divine Author, but prospers in the thing whereto he sends it*. The mixture of superstitious inventions might adulterate, but could not altogether destroy the efficacy of the Word of God. Nor can I doubt but many at this day, who boast of their exemptions from papal ignorance, and who call themselves enlightened, because they have been refined by philosophical and political knowledge, are themselves much inferior, in Christian light and spirit, to many who lived in the dark times of the eleventh century, under the benefit of such advantages of instruction, as the canon before us afforded. For that elementary knowledge, which is the object of the canon, is ever more salutary in its influence, than the most ingenious subtilties of literary refinement in religion. These, like the spider's web, are intricate, and are often found to be flimsy and void of any substantial advantage to mankind. Armed with catechetical knowledge, I conceive that serious minds would in that age find rest and food to their souls; and the love of God being, by this means, shed abroad in the heart, would constrain the missionaries of that period to diffuse the Gospel in the northern regions with ability and success.

The facts, on which these reflections are founded, may show us, that God had not forsaken this island during the disastrous reign of Ethelred, though the political hemisphere was gloomy beyond expression. Ethelred himself, though he returned into his kingdom, was never able to make head against the Danes, who at length, in the year 1017, brought the English into total subjection. Their king Canute, and his two sons in succession, governed England,

* Isaiah lv..

CENT.

XI.

CHAP. which, however, recovered itself from the Danish IV. yoke, and received Edward the Confessor, the son of Ethelred, as its monarch, in the year 1041. But Conquest of the Saxon line, though restored, was unable to England by maintain itself on the throne, and soon sunk under duke of the power of William the Norman, who in the year Normandy, 1066, beheld himself the sovereign of England, A. D. which continues under the government of his posterity to this day.

William,

1066.

Under William*, the papal power, which hitherto had by no means been so absolute in England as in the southern countries, began to be felt more strongly, and soon reached the same height, which it had attained in France and Italy. The tyrant found it a convenient engine for the support of his own despotic authority: and while he took care that every one of his subjects should, in ecclesiastical matters, bow under the yoke of the bishop of Rome, he reserved to himself the supreme dominion in civil affairs, and exercised it with the most unqualified rigour. Lanfranc, whom he appointed archbishop of Canterbury, zealously supported the power of Rome, and confirmed the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation by his influence and authority. His successor, Anselm, was no less devoted to the pope, and maintained several famous contests with his sovereign William Rufus, the son and successor of the Conqueror. This archbishop contributed much, by his influence, to settle the celibacy of the clergy in England; and it must be confessed, that even the virtues of this great man, through the peculiar infelicity of the times, were attended with

* Osmund, a Norman, privy counsellor to William the Conqueror, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, corrected the liturgy used in his diocese. And he was thought to have done the work so judiciously, that the service" In Usum Sarum," was received in other dioceses, and became common throughout England. For, before this time, every diocese had its appropriate Liturgy. Collier's Eccles. History.

great disadvantages to the state of society. For it ought to be observed, that if we set aside his attachment to the authority of the pope, and his passion for the fashionable superstitions, his conduct was pious and exemplary: his zeal against the luxury, simony, and vices of the great was laudable: and, above all, his defence of evangelical truth, adorned by an upright course of life and conversation, preserved under God some genuine remains of godliness in the nation. Nor ought we to follow implicitly the ideas of our protestant historians, who, in every debate between the king and the Church, are sure to decide against the latter. What could be more arbitrary, for instance, than the demand of a thousand pounds which William Rufus made upon Anselm? And what more warrantable than the conduct of the latter*? He offered the king five hundred pounds, which were refused in disgust. Anselm gave the sum to the poor, rather than rack his tenants to double it, and said to the tyrant,"If I am used according to my station, all I have is at your service; if I am treated as a slave, I shall keep my property to myself."

And undoubtedly the rapacity and profaneness of the Norman princes, particularly of William Rufus, in the seizure and alienation of ecclesiastical benefices, were justly opposed by the bishops of those times. It is only to be wished, that they had conducted their opposition on the grounds of Scripture, and the precedents of the primitive Church,. not on the authority of the court of Rome.

Nothing else worthy of a place in these memoirs seems to have occurred, in the general history of our island, during the course of this century, except what relates to the personal character of Margaret queen of Scotland: a woman of the rarest piety, and of a character fitted to throw a lustre on the purest ages.

*Collier.

CENT.

XI.

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IV.

CHAP. She was sister to Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, who was the son and successor of Ethelred. Edgar was a peculiar favourite of the English, because he was the last of the Saxon line of princes. In the reign of William the Norman, he and his sister found a safe* retreat in Scotland, under the protection of Malcolm, who, by the assistance of Edward the Confessor, had recovered the throne of Scotland from the usurper Macbeth. Malcolm married the English princess. Wonderful things are related of her piety, liberality, and humility. Through her influence, the ferocious spirit of her husband received a happy tincture of humanity. She was enabled to reform the kingdom of Scotland in a great degree, and to introduce a more serious regard to the duties of the Lord's day, than had been known in that country. She had by Malcolm six sons and two daughters. Three of her sons reigned successively, and were esteemed excellent monarchs. Her daughter Matilda was wife to Henry I. of England, and was looked on as a pious Christian. Margaret had taken uncommon care of her children's education, and the fruits of her labours appeared in their lives. Theodoric, her confessor, observes, that she was remarkably attentive in public prayer. "And," says he, "she would discourse with me concerning the sweetness of everlasting life, in such a manner, as to draw tears from my eyes." This same Theodoric, a monk of Durham, wrote her life. She was afflicted with sickness at the very time in which her husband Malcolm was slain at Alnwick in Northumberland, in the time of William Rufus, in 1093. The bitter news was brought to her ears: her reflection upon it was truly Christian. "I thank thee, O Lord, that this great affliction is evidently sent to purify 1093. me from my sins. sins. O Lord Jesus Christ, who by

Malcolm

III. surnamed Canmore, Jain,

A. D.

• Alban Butler, Vol. V.

thy death hast given life to the world, deliver me from evil." She survived this event only a few days. A princess of such accomplishments could not have shone in vain in Scotland; but, most probably, must have led many, in a rude and ignorant age, to think that there was something real in godliness.

CENT.

XI.

CHAP. V.

ANSELM.

V.

THAT good men frequently appear to more advan- CHAP. tage in private life than in public, is a remark which was perhaps never better exemplified than in this prelate, of whom all that is known by the generality of readers is, that he was a strenuous supporter of the papal dominion in England. I can easily conceive that he might be influenced by the purest motives in this part of his conduct, when I reflect on the shameless and profane manners of the Norman princes. But his private life was purely his own, originating more directly from the honest and good heart, with which, through grace, he was eminently endowed. As a divine and a Christian, he was the first of characters in this century, and is, therefore, deserving of some attention.

He was born at Aoust in Piedmont. From early life his religious cast of mind was so prevalent, that, at the age of fifteen, he offered himself to a monastery, but was refused, lest his father should have been displeased. He afterwards became entangled in the vanities of the world; and, to his death, he bewailed the sins of his youth. Becoming Anselm a scholar of Lanfranc, his predecessor in the See of becomes a Canterbury, at that time a monk at Bec, in Nor

Butler, Vol. IV.

monk,

A. D.

1060.

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