CHAP. III. the durable change of their manners intimates, that their country must have been blessed with one of those gracious effusions of the Holy Spirit, the consequences of which are commonly felt for ages after. Toward the close of this century, the northern nations ceased to invade the southern entirely. The last attempt was made by Magnus, king of Norway, on the isle of Anglesea; but he was repulsed by Hugh earl of Shrewsbury*, in the eleventh year of William Rufus. "That restless people seem about this time to have learned the use of tillage, which thenceforth kept them at home, and freed the other nations of Europe from the devastations spread over them by those piratical invaders. This proved one great cause of the subsequent settlement and improvement of the southern nations." I quote the words of Hume, which represent in a very perspicuous manner the advantages resulting from the civilization of the north, not only to the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, but also to the south of Europe. It is in assigning the cause of this happy change, that I am obliged to dissent from that elegant historian. He thinks that the effect is sufficiently accounted for by these northern people having learned the use of tillage. But, besides, that he has no historical evidence of this fact, and supports it by mere conjecture, it is fair to ask, How came they to be so docile and tractable, as to submit to the arts of agriculture? Does a nation, habituated to arins and to idleness, easily give itself up to industry, and the arts of peace? If we can answer this question aright, we shall know to what is to be ascribed the happy transformation of the north. Scanty as my materials have been, drawing their swords, the bishop offered them his neck.. I have yet shown, that the Gospel had now been, for three centuries, preached in Scandinavia. To this, doubtless, as the principal cause, we must attribute the happy alteration of manners in those barbarous regions. Christian godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. While it conducts enslaved souls into liberty, and, turning them from the power of Satan to God, invests them with the garments of salvation, it also meliorates their condition in this life, and diffuses, through the world, the most salutary precepts of peace, order, and tranquillity. Let not men expect the general civilization of the globe by any other methods. When the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, then will the nations learn war no more. We enjoy, at this day, the advantages of society derived to Europe, from the propagation of the Gospel, while we ungratefully depreciate the labours of those Christian missionaries, through which, under God, those advantages were conveyed to us. Our Saviour has directed us, to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest; and every one, who breathes the genuine spirit of the Gospel, will devoutly obey the precept. CENT. XI. CHAP. IV. THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND. IV. As the importance of our own country began to be CHAP. displayed in this century, it will be proper to take some notice of the appearance of religion in an island, which, we have seen, had so distinguished a share in diffusing divine truth through the northern parts of Europe. Even the very little of evangelical religion, which we may discover, may deserve our attention. СНАР. IV. In the reign of Ethelred, a very cruel massacre of the Danes was, by royal order, made throughout his dominions. The rage of the populace, excited by so many injuries, was extreme, and made no distinction between the innocent and the guilty. Swein, king of Denmark, amply revenged these cruelties, by repeated devastations: and the unwarlike Ethelred filed into Normandy to save his life, while his subjects felt all the miseries, which might be expected from incensed and victorious barbarians. Among other instances of their hostilities, they levied a contribution on the county of Kent, and murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenance the exaction *. The author, whose short account I have followed, does not deign to give us the name of this archbishop, nor to relate a single circumstance of his murder. I cannot but think, however, that he would have enlarged on the subject, if it would have gratified his dislike of religion. But thus a conduct, at once the most magnanimous and patriotic, is buried in obscurity, because the hero was an ecclesiastic. Let it, however, receive the justice, which is due to it from these memoirs. The Danes were besieging Canterbury, when Alphage, the archbishop, was entreated by his friends to save his own life. "God forbid," said Alphage, "that I should tarnish my character by so inglorious a conduct; and should be afraid of going to heaven, because a violent death lies across the passage. I have been the instrument of drawing over several considerable persons among these Danes to the Gospel: if this be a fault, I shall be happy in suffering for it. I have ransomed some of my countrymen, and supported others when in captivity. If Danes be angry, because I have reproved their sins, it behoves me to remember him who hath said, "If thou + Collier's Ecc. Ilist. Hume, Vol. I. p. 144. XI. give not the wicked warning, his blood will I require CENT. at thine hand.' It is the character of a hireling to leave the sheep, when he seeth the wolf coming. I mean, therefore, to stand the shock, and submit to the order of Divine Providence*." The archbishop, influenced by these motives, remained in Canterbury, and exhorted the people, as a Christian pastor. But the Danes entered the city by violence, and exercised the most horrid barbarities, particularly on ladies of quality, whom they dragged to the stake and burnt to death, nor did they spare even infants. Alphage, moved at these hideous scenes, had the boldness to expostulate with them. "The cradle," says he, 66 can afford no triumphs for soldiers. It would be better for you to exercise your vengeance on me, whose death may give some celebrity to your names. Remember, some of your troops, have, through my means, been brought over to the faith of Christ, and I have frequently rebuked you for your acts of injustice." The Danes, exasperated at his words, seized, and bound the archbishop, and kept him prisoner for seven months. His liberty, however, was offered to him, on condition of immense payments to be made by himself and by Ethelred the king. He told them, that the sums were too large to be raised by any exactions, and he firmly refused to drain the treasures of the Church, for the sake of saving his life; accounting it wrong to give to Pagans those sums, which had been devoted to the honour of religion, and to the relief of the poor. The merciless Danes, enraged beyond measure, threw him down and stoned him, while he prayed for his enemies and for the Church; and, at length, a certain Dane, lately become a Christian, dispatched him, in order to free him from his pain.-One of his successors, the famous Lanfranc, doubted whether Alphage ought to ⚫ Osbern de Vit, Elphegi. Hoveden's Annals. IV. Alphage, CHAP. be looked on as a martyr, because he had not died explicitly for the Christian faith. But Anselm, a still more famous personage, told Lanfranc, that Alphage was a real martyr, who died rather than commit an archbishop unjust thing. Nor is it easy to conceive that any bury, nur- spirit, less than that of a Christian, could have condered, ducted him through such a scene, and supported him A. D. with so much fortitude and charity.-Alphage was 1013. murdered in the year 1013. of Canter A preceding archbishop, probably his immediate predecessor, Elfric, in the year 1006, had directed in one of the canons published at a council*, in which he presided, that every parish-priest should be obliged on Sundays and on other holidays, to explain the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Gospel for the day, before the people, in the English tongue. While historians enlarge on the quarrels between the papacy and the civil power, and descant, with tedious prolixity, on the superstitions, which were in vogue during the dark ages, they are too apt to pass over in a cursory manner, such facts as this which has been mentioned. Let the reader who has seriously considered the importance and excellency of evangelical truth, reflect on the preciousness of the doctrines, which the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and some of the plainest and most practical passages of the New Testament do either exhibit or imply; and he will be convinced, that, if the canon of Elfric had been obeyed with any tolerable degree of spirit and exactness in a number of parishes in England, the ignorance and darkness could not have been so complete nor so universal, as we are generally taught to believe it was. Such bishops as Elfric and Alphage must have been useful lights in those times. The Gospels read in the Churches, I suppose, were either the same as, or similar to, those which are read at this day; nor is it to be imagined, that a familiar Collier. |