$o HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

II A P.

I.

the adoration of the supreme being: Monastidobservances were esteemed more meritorious thanthe active virtues: The knowledge of naturalcauses was neglected from the universal belief ofmiraculous interpositions and judgments : Bountyto the church atoned for every violence againstsociety: And the remorses for cruelty, murder,treachery, alsastination, and the more robust vices,were appeased, not by amendment of life, butby penances, servility to the monks; and anabject and illiberal devotion The reverencefor the clergy had been carried to such a height,that, wherever a person appeared in a sacerdotalhabit, though on the highway, the people flockedaround him ; and showing him all marks of pro-found respect, received every word he utteredas the most sacred oracle IJ ‘. Even the militaryvirtues , so inherent in all the Saxon tribes, beganto.be neglected; and the nobility, preferring thesecurity and stoth of the cloyster to the tumults

1! 5 These abuses were common to all the European church-es ; but the priests in Italy, Spain , and Gaul made someatonement for them by other advantages, which they renderedsociety. For several ages, they were almost all Romans ,or , in other words , the ancient natives ; and they preservedthe Roman language and laws, with some remains of theformer civility. But the priests in the heptarchy , after thefirst missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as ignorantand barbarous as the laity. They contributed, therefore,little to the improvement of the society in knowledge orthe arts. *

li ‘ Bede, lib. z. cap. 26.

and