58
LITERATURE.
Of all these, a particular description, with fac- similes, will be found in Professor Ingram's translation of the Saxon Annals, where also farther references, upon this particular subject are given.
1 157. Died, Peter de Clupny, who by scholastic writers is called the venerable; he once wrote to a friend, exhorting him to assume the Pen, instead of the plough, and transcribe the Scriptures, instead of tilling the land. Aldheira, who died May 35, 709, wrote a short poem on a writing pen. Writing pens are mentioned by Alcuiu.
1159, Sept. 1. Died, Pope Adrian the Fourth, (Nicholas Braketpere) an Englishman, who by a train of singular adventures, had risen from the lowest condition to the papal dignity; to which he was elected on the third of December, 1 154. He is the first and only Englishman who has worn the triple diadem. In 1 1 55 he sent from Rome for the use of the English people, who were directed to commit them to memory, metri- cal versions of the Creed and Lord's prayer. These curious proofs of the high regara of the Roman pontin for his countrymen, are here copied from Stow's Chronicle.
THE CREED.
1 belene In God Fadir almichty shipper of beaen and earth, And in Jhesas Criit liis onlethi son vre Loaerd, That is iuaTl^e thurch the holy ghost : bore of Mary maiden, Tholede pine vnder Pounce Piiat, picht on rode tree, dead
and yburiid, Licht into helie, the thridde day from death arose, Steich into heauen, sit on his fadir richt honde God almicbty Then is cominde to deme the qniklce and the dcde, - I beleue in the holy ghost, AU holy chirche,
Mone of alle liallwen : forgiuenls of sine, Pleisa vprising, Ufwithutenend, Amen.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Vre fadir in heune riche, Thiname be halieid eaeriliche. Thou bring th to thi michil blisce, Thi will to wirche thu vs wisse, Als hit is in heuene ido, Euer in earth ben hit also, Thatholi bred thet lasteth ay, Tboa sendhit ous this illce day, Forgiue ous all that we iiauith don, Als we forgiaet vch other mon, He let us falle in no founding, Ak scilde us tm ttiefonle thteg, Ameu.
This singular instance of a pope of Romei deeming it necessary to transmit to England, a vernacular version of the Creed and Pater Noster, sufficiently indicates the low state of religious in- formation among the inferior classes of the people. — Townley, vol. 1. p. 406.
1160. Henry II. by the evil council of Roger de Mowbray, desiezed the monks of Kirkstall, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, of their best estate, the Grange of Micklethwaite. Ralph Hogeth, the abbot, in order to conciliate the king's favour, presented him with a gold chalice, and a manu- script of the Gospels. This caused a violent dispute between the abbot and his monks; and may be adduced as an instance of the extreme scarcity of manuscripts in the middle ages. A copy of the Gospels here accompanied a gold chalice, as a propitiatory offering to a king If it was their only copy which is far from bemg im-
probable, then was it indeed, to be deplored. — Whitaker's History of Craven.
1161. Two churches were given to the monks of Ely, for the use of the scriptorium, by Niger. R. de Paston, gave a grant to Bromholm abbey, in Norfolk, of 1*. per annum, a rent charge on his lands, to keep their books in repair.
1164. Henry II. sent a splendid embassy to the Pope in this year, consistingof one archbishop, four bishops, three of his own chaplains, the Earl of Arundel, and other three of the greatest barons of the kingdom. When these ambassadors were admitted to an audience, and four of the prelates had harangued the pope and cardinals in Latin, the Ean of Arundel stood up and made a speech in Ladn, which he began in this manner — ^"We, who are illiterate laymen, do not undeistand one word of what the bishops have said to your holiness!" Could Henry, who was himself a learned prince, have found men of any learning whatever amongst his nobility, we may be sure he would have employed them upon such an occasion. The truth is, that the general ignorance of the laity of all ranks was so well known, that the historians of the period distin- guished them and the clergy by the respective epithets of laici and literati. AU the learned men, in .short, belonged either to the secular or regfular clergy. They were the only lawyers, the only physicians, the only scholars in the kingdom. The great bulk of the nation, rich and poor, were ignorant of every science but that of snedding blood — upon more refined and scientific principles certainly, than formerly, but no way different in the result.
1170. The tithes of a rectory were appro- priated to the cathedral convent of St. Swiuiin, at Winchester, for the use of the scriptorium. The scriptorium at St. Edmund's-Bury, was endowed with two mills.
1171. In the records of the exchequer we find an entry purporting that on the 17th year of the reign of Henry II. the sheriffs of London, paid by the King's order, " xxijs. for gold to gild the Gospel used in the King's chapel." — Madox's History of the Antiquities of the Exchequer.
1174. Walter, prior of St.Swithin's at Win- Chester, afterwards elected abbot of Westminster, purchased of the canons of Dorchester in Oxford- shire, the homilies of St. Bede and St. Augustine's psalter, for twelve measures of barley, and a pall, on which was embroidered in silver, the histoiy of St. Bimus converting a ^axon king. — Wartois,
1179. Died, Peter Waldo, one of the earliest reformers of the church. He was an opulent merchant, and citizen of the city of Lyons; and although, he was not the founder, as has been supposed, of the Waldensian churches, he be- came one of their most considerable friends and benefactors; and, by his writings, his preachings, and his sufferings, defended their cause, and ex- tended their influence. It is certain, that to Waldo, with the assistanceofothere, the Christian world in the West, is indebted for the_/frrt trans- lation of the bible into the popular language, or French.
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