longs rather to this world than to the angelic life of the cloister. No common man must he have been who, after one of these sumptuous banquets, could settle down at once to his pallet of straw, or his simple meal of fish and eggs; or who, while the prospect of such excitements was imminent, or their memory fresh, could pursue his meditations with the requisite freedom from disturbance. It is pleasant, however, to turn from these occasional, and, as we may suppose, rare infringements of the usual simplicity of monastic life, to the description of its ordinary routine, as practised in England according to the Benedictine rule. Thus we read, for instance, that "Every monk had his own cell to himself; a place of repose, where he might sleep undisturbed, or give himself freely to prayer and spiritual exercises, without any kind of molestation from any of the rest of the brethren.... They had a mat and a hard pillow to lie down upon, and a blanket or rug to keep them warm. They slept in their clothes, girt with girdles, and thereby were always ready to attend their night devotions at the canonical hours. In the dormitory a perpetual silence was enjoined." However, that, despite these goodly provisions, the spirit of Dunstan, Anselm, and Becket was no longer alive in the monasteries of England, at least in the sixteenth century, is but too apparent from the history of their dissolution. Among the heart-sickening details of that monstrous sacrilege, there is nothing sadder to contemplate than the criminal facility with which, almost without exception, the monastic bodies suffered themselves to be threatened, or bribed, into the surrender of an heritage, compared with which, their lives or their liberties should have seemed but as dust in the balance. Thus, every officer of St. Augustine's, from the abbot

downwards, put his hand to a paper, by which the goods of the house, including all the sacred vessels and ornaments of the church, were made over unreservedly and unconditionally into the king's hands. The reader who desires further satisfaction on this painful subject will find in Dugdale two inventories; one, of the church-plate and ornaments, the other, of the vestments, all of which were forthwith transferred into the king's treasury. The vestments were pronounced "unfit for his Majesty's use;" not so, alas! the church-plate. And thus the " monstrances" and chalices from which the highest Mysteries had been for ages presented to adoring eyes, or dispensed to faithful souls, were snatched from the very altars by profane hands, to promote the purposes of avarice if not even to serve the uses of luxury. Among the valuables which are comprised in these catalogues, were gilt statues of St. Augustine and St. Ethelbert.

St. Augustine's monastery soon fell into ruins, and the ground on which it stood was let out to the highest bidder. Even in days of which reverence for sacred things and places was so characteristic as those of Charles I. the profanation of this hallowed spot seems to have attracted no public notice; much less, of course, in the ages following. In what way the ground and buildings which still remain upon it (all of them, it is believed, of comparatively modern date) are now portioned out, and for what purposes they are employed, the reader is probably aware, or may at least easily inform himself. There is no need to put the melancholy fact on record; more especially since the days seem happily coming round, when the voice of Catholic England will cry out, not merely for the protection of such holy enclosures from abuse, but for their restoration to the objects for which they were anciently set apart. But it is time to resume the thread of our narrative.

CHAPTER XIV.

MISSION OF ST. MELLITUS AND HIS COMPANIONS.

THE chronology of the epoch to which these pages relate is not a little perplexed; but the following arrangement of events according to dates, which is taken from Alford, will perhaps, be found sufficiently exact for the purposes of the present sketch. St. Augustine and his brethren arrived in England in the spring of 596, in the midst of the Paschal Alleluias. King Ethelbert and others were admitted into the Church by baptism at Pentecost of the same year; soon after which St. Augustine repaired to Arles for consecration, which he received on November 17. He returned to England in 598, at the Christmas of which year, or rather early in the January of 599, took place the baptism of the 10,000 converts, mentioned in St. Gregory's letter to Eulogius. In the same year, 599, St. Augustine dispatched messengers to Rome, the very messengers, probably, from whom St. Gregory derived his information on the prosperous state of the English mission. These

1 Vid. p. 111. This letter was written in the summer of 599, and speaks of the baptism of the 10,000 converts, as having taken place at Christmas of the current (first) year of the Indiction, which began in September 598.

2 St. Bede, however, says that the messengers were sent immediately (continuò) on St. Augustine's return from Arles; but this,

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were Laurence, a presbyter, and St, Augustine's successor in the See of Canterbury; and Peter, a monk, afterwards the first abbot of St. Augustine's monastery. The objects of this embassy were, among others, first, to report the progress of the mission, secondly, to ask for additional missionaries, and, thirdly, to obtain the judgment of the Apostolic See upon certain difficult questions to which the anomalous circumstances of the Church in England had given, or were likely to give, occasion. These questions, with their several answers, shall form the subject of the next chapter.

The delegates continued two full years at Rome; and at length, in 601, came back to England with a reinforcement of twelve missionaries, the chief of whom were, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and Ruffinianus. Of these, the three former were afterwards raised to the Episcopate, and attained the glories of sanctity. St. Mellitus was the first Bishop of London, St. Justus the first Bishop of Rochester, and St. Paulinus the first Archbishop of York. Of the fourth, Ruffinianus, we know only that he was one of the earlier among the Abbots of St. Augustine's.

The new missionaries were charged, like their predecessors, with letters commendatory to the prelates and sovereign princes of that portion of France through which they were to pass. To each of the Bishops of Toulon, Marseilles, Châlons, Metz, Paris, Rouen, and Angers, St. Gregory wrote as follows:

perhaps, refers to the intention of sending them, or the preparation for their journey. They certainly did not return to England till 601, and it does not appear why they should have remained at Rome three years, or even more, if we follow those who consider that the baptism of the 10,000 took place in 597, and that St. Augustine had then returned from Arles.

GREGORY TO MENNAS OF TOULON, SERENUS OF MARSEILLES, LUPUS OF CHALONS, AIGULFUS OF METZ, SIMPLICIUS OF PARIS, MELANTIUS OF ROUEN, AND LICINIUS,3 BISHOPS OF A copy to each.

THE FRANKS.

"ALTHOUGH the charge of your office is a warning to your Fraternity that you ought with all your power to give your assistance to religious men, particularly where they are labouring in the cause of souls; yet it is not useless for your anxiety to be urged by the address of our letters; for as a fire is increased by the wind, so the zeal of an honest mind is promoted by exhortation. Since, then, by the grace of our Redeemer, so great a multitude of the English nation is converted to the Christian Faith, that our most reverend common brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, declares that those who are with him cannot sufficiently carry out this work in every different place, we have provided for sending to him some monks with our much beloved and common sons, Laurence, the Presbyter, and Mellitus, Abbot And, therefore, I beg your Fraternity to shew them such love as is becoming, and readily to aid them wherever it may be necessary; that so by your assistance they may have no reason for delay, and may receive joy and refreshment by means of the comfort which you will give them, and that you by shewing them kindness, may render yourselves partners in the cause, for which they are engaged." 4

With this was joined a letter to Clotaire, who reigned over the provinces of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy.

3 The see of Licinius was Angers.

4 St. Greg. Ep. xi. 58.