Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days Part 6

Too soon a seaman hindered him; that good arm's strength he marred.

The leader drops his gold hilted sword, no longer able to wield the weapon, powerless to hold the keen-edged falchion. No more deeds of valour for him; only to urge on his men, and to commend his soul to G.o.d.

Yet spake the word that warrior h.o.a.r, the young men's hearts he cheered, Bad the good comrades forward go, nor ever be afeard.

No longer could he firmly stand on's feet; to heaven looked he-- "Thanks, Lord of hosts, for these world-joys Thou here didst give to me.

Now, merciful Creator, now, I stand in deepest need That Thou shouldst grant my spirit good, that thus my soul indeed Fare forth to Thee, travel with peace, O King of Angels, so: I pray Thee that the h.e.l.l-spoilers nor work her hurt nor woe."

The heathen varlets smote him down, and those that stood him by, aelfnoth and Wulfmaer, by the side of him in death did lie.

Then, alas! came the shameful flight of some whom he had loved and trusted, and graced with n.o.ble gifts. One G.o.dric, to whom he had given many a goodly steed, leapt upon the horse in his trappings which his lord had owned, and his two brothers fled with him.

And with them more than had behoved if these had thought upon The gifts and goods so free bestowed by him, their mighty one.

But there were but few cowards and mean. Of his own hearth-comrades there went forth men, hasting eagerly,

One of two things their heart's desire, to avenge their lord or die.

Young aelfwine heartened them with n.o.ble words, and gave them the example of n.o.ble deeds. And Offa, and Leofsunu, and Dunnere, the old man, fought stubbornly. And a hostage from among the Northumbrian folk, a man come of gallant kin, helped them; and Edward the Long, and many another.

Then Bryhtwold spake, that comrade old, he raised the s.h.i.+eld on high He shook the ashwood spear, he taught the men unfearingly: "The braver must our spirit be, our hearts the stronger far, The greater must our courage wax, the fewer that we are.

Here lies our prince all pierced and hewn, the good one in the clay; Aye may he mourn who thinketh now to leave this battle-play.

I am old in life; I will not hence; I think to lay me here, The rather by my chieftain's side, a man so lief and dear."

And the men grew bold in heart at his words and fought on. G.o.dric full often sent the spear flying among the vikings, and fought till he too was laid low in the battle.

'Twas not that G.o.dric who had turned his back upon the fight,

says the poet--and the end is lost! It will help us in appreciating this poem to remember that the battle of Maldon took place in the reign of that poor weak king aethelred, known as the "Unready," or the Man of no Counsel. As Freeman the historian says, "No doubt he had to struggle with very hard times, but the times now were no harder than the times which aelfred had to struggle against, and we know how much he could do."

CHAPTER XI

The literature of one people owes a debt to that of others.

Help-bringers. Great work of Benedictine monks. Our debt to Ireland.

The English Chronicle's account of the Martyrdom of St aelfeah.

The literature of a country is not merely what the men and women born in it have written. The thought of one people is fed, or enlarged, or in some way strengthened by the thought of other peoples; and the literature of the times we are speaking of could not have been what it was, had it not had other sources than these purely English to draw from. And, of all kinds of help-bringers, we owe much to the monks, and chiefly the great Benedictine order. King Alfred had to do his work at a time when things were at a low ebb in the English monasteries. You will remember how he bewailed the poor state of learning in England, and the ignorance of the clergy; a state very different indeed from that of the old days of St Bede and Alcuin. After Alfred's time there came a revival--and revival in life means revival in work. So we get much good prose literature, and, through the monks, note well, we have it, fed from whatever old lore was then to be got at.

I have reminded you of England's great debt to Ireland through St Aidan and others. I must tell you of a record of St Bede's, which shows how gladly Ireland in old days, as ever, shared the priceless gift which she of all countries, received with the most pa.s.sionate entireness and held with the most unswerving steadfastness. It was in the year 664 that there was a great pestilence, raging both in England and Ireland. At the time there were many Englishmen in Ireland who had gone there, "either for the sake of divine studies, or of a more continent life"; some of them, he says, became monks, and others devoted themselves to study, "going about from one master's cell to another." "The Scots (that is the Irish) willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, as also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching, gratis."

Where should we be but for the work done in the monasteries? How can we be grateful enough for what went on there in the way of thought, research and the collecting of materials, in addition to the work of teaching: all fed by the life of prayer and praise and self-denial? Let us try to think about the quiet, patient work of scholars and students; about their noting of so many facts and detailing of them. Let us think of the beginnings of English history and literature; of the writing of precious ma.n.u.scripts; the careful copying of them; each of them taking so much time to complete and being so costly in production, especially when there was added to care and skill the artistic beauty of decoration and illumination.

From these quiet abodes of the piety that transfused itself through loving toil and discipline, light streamed forth to go on s.h.i.+ning and s.h.i.+ning, on through the long centuries to come.

We must now have a look into the pages of the great English Chronicle which we should not possess had it not been for these good monks, and we will take the account of the martyrdom of Archbishop aelfeah, whom you know best under the Latinized form of his name, Alphege. His heavenly birthday was the 19th of April. The king who is spoken of was aethelred who was called the Unready, which word means without counsel, and then of ill-counsel. You know how we talk of "ill-advised" conduct or speech.

There is a fourteenth century poem which speaks of Richard the Second as "redeless." And, because there is no such thing as being neutral; because, if we are not good, we are bad, the word got the meaning of foolish or worse. Freeman, the great historian says that aethelred "was perhaps the only thoroughly bad king among all the Kings of the English of the West Saxon line; he seems to have been weak, cowardly, cruel, and bad altogether."

As long as St Dunstan lived, aethelred was not so bad as he afterwards became. We must remember what a bad mother aethelred had in aelfthryth, or Elfrida, who was an evil wife to her first husband, and most probably caused the murder of the king her step-son, the son of King Edgar, who was her second husband. This was the Edward known as St Edward the Martyr.

The story of aelfeah comes under the year A.D. 1011. "In this year sent the king and his witan to the (Danish) army, and desired peace, and promised them tribute and food on condition that they ceased from their harrying. They had then overrun East Anglia, and Ess.e.x, and Middles.e.x, and Oxfords.h.i.+re, and Cambridges.h.i.+re, and Hertfords.h.i.+re; and south of Thames, all Kent and Suss.e.x, and Hastings, and Surrey, and Berks.h.i.+re, and Hamps.h.i.+re, and much of Wilts.h.i.+re. All these misfortunes befell us through ill counsel, that they were not in time (either) offered tribute or fought against, but when they had done the greatest ill, then peace and truce were made with them. And nevertheless for all the truce and tribute, they went flockmeal everywhere and harried and robbed and slew our poor folk. And then, in this year, between the nativity of St Mary and St Michael's Ma.s.s, they sat round Canterbury and came into it through treachery, because aelfmaer betrayed it, whose life the Archbishop aelfeah had before saved. And there they took the Archbishop aelfeah, and aelfweard, the king's reeve, and Abbot aelfmaer, and Bishop G.o.dwin. And Abbot aelfmaer they let go away. And they took there within all the clergy, and men and women: it was untellable to any man how much of the folk there was. And they were afterwards in the town as long as they would. And when they had thoroughly surveyed the city then went they to their s.h.i.+ps and led the Archbishop with them. Then was he a captive who erewhile had been the head of the English race and of Christendom.[I] There might then be seen misery there where oft erewhile men had seen bliss, in that wretched city whence had first come to us Christendom and bliss before G.o.d and before the world.

[Footnote I: _i.e._ of English Christianity.]

"And they kept the archbishop with them as long as to the time when they martyred him.

"A.D. 1012. In this year came Eadric the ealdorman, and all the chief witan, religious and lay, of the English folk of London, before Easter: Easterday was then on the date of the Ides of April (13th April). And they were there then so long as until all the tribute was paid, after Easter; that was eight and forty thousand pounds. Then on the Sat.u.r.day (19th April) was the (Danish) army greatly stirred up against the bishop, because he would not promise them any money; but he forbad that anything should be given for him. They were also very drunken, because wine had been brought there from the south. Then took they the bishop, led him to their husting on the eve of Sunday, the octave of the Pasch; and there they then shamefully killed him: they pelted him with bones and the heads of oxen, and then one of them struck him with an axe-iron on the head, so that with the blow he sank down; and his holy blood fell on the earth, and that his holy soul be sent to G.o.d's kingdom."

A sorrowful story of evil folly and treachery: a splendid story of steadfastness to the end: of glorious martyrdom. The refusal to allow himself to be ransomed at his pillaged people's cost; the greed of the Danes; the death-stroke given him, we are told, in another chronicle, in mercy, to put an end to his sufferings, given him by a newly-made convert of his. And see how the Church has shown us, in her canonisation as a martyr saint, of this man, who died not directly to testify to the truth of the religion of Jesus, but for the sake of justice, that justice is the outcome of Christianity, and that he who dies for justice sake dies for G.o.d.

It was said by Lanfrane that aefeah was not a martyr, because he had not died for the Faith; but St Anselm said he was a true martyr, because he died for justice and charity.

CHAPTER XII

Abbot aelfric, writer of Homilies, Lives of Saints, and other works.

Wulfstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The greatest of English prose-writers before the Conquest was aelfric, who was educated at the school at Winchester which aethelwold, a pupil of St Dunstan, had founded. His works are very numerous. He wrote Homilies, or Sermons, on Scriptural subjects, and Lives of the Saints. I have quoted a pa.s.sage about "Judith," which occurs in the summary of the books of the Old Testament, written for a friend of his, one Sigeweard, who had often asked him for English writings, which he had delayed giving him until after he had, at Sigeweard's earnest request, come to his house, and then Sigeweard had complained to him that he could not get at his writings. This little incident reminds us how differently from now people had to arrange about books and writings, and how much more dependent they were on teaching through the ear and the eye.

I must give you a little specimen of aelfric's writing, a piece taken from his beautiful homily on Holy Innocents' Day. It is in very simple, direct language, and I think you will say it is not without a touch of that lovely thing which it is easy to feel and hard to define--poetry. I should like to have heard the sermon, and I hope you will feel somewhat as I do!

"Christ despised not His young soldiers, although he was not present in body at their slaughter. Blessed were they born that they might for His sake suffer death. Happy is that their (tender) age, which was not yet able to confess Christ, and was allowed to suffer for Christ. They were the Saviour's witnesses, although as yet they knew Him not. They were not ripe for the slaughter, but yet did they blessedly die to live!

Blessed was their birth, for they found eternal life on the threshold of this present life. They were s.n.a.t.c.hed from mother-b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but they were straightway given into the keeping of angel-bosoms. The cruel persecutor (Herod) could with no service benefit those little ones so greatly as he benefited them with the hatred of his cruel persecution. They are called martyrs' blossoms because they were as blossoms upspringing in the cold of earth's unbelief, thus withered with the frost of persecution.

Blessed are the wombs that bare them, and the b.r.e.a.s.t.s which suckled such as these. The mothers indeed suffered in the martyrdom of their children; the sword which pierced the children's limbs pierced to the mothers' hearts: and it must needs be that they be sharers of the eternal reward, when they were companions in the suffering."

I will now tell you about a very different kind of sermon from aelfric's--one of the sermons preached by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, who was not, like aelfric, leading a quiet life in an abbey, but throwing himself into the struggles and needs of a most disastrous time. He saw how the Danish inroads had terribly demoralised the English people, and he spoke out as G.o.d's preacher, who comes face to face with wrong, must speak.

He begins by telling his "beloved men" how evil will go on increasing till Antichrist's coming; and then will it be awful, and terrible all through the world. "Too greatly has the devil for many years led this folk astray, and little faithfulness has there been among men, albeit they spake well; and wrongs too many have ruled in the land; and not always were there many who thought earnestly about the remedy as they should; but day by day they added one evil upon another and they reared up wrong, and many evil laws all throughout this nation. And therefore have we suffered many losses and shames: and if we shall await any cure then must we deserve it from G.o.d better than heretofore have we done.

For with great earning have we earned the miseries that oppress us, and with great earning must we obtain the remedy from G.o.d if from henceforth it is to grow better." He tells them how in heathen lands they dare not withhold what has been devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of idols: "and here we withhold the rights of G.o.d. And everywhere in heathen lands none dare injure or lessen within or without any of the things offered to idols: and we have robbed G.o.d's houses within and without." And so he goes on pouring out from his very soul the fiery words that tell of the warning of G.o.d's laws, and the worsening of folk-laws; and how the Sanctuaries are unprotected, and G.o.d's houses are robbed and stripped of their property, and holy orders are despised, and widows forced wrongfully to marry, and too many are made poor and humbled, and poor men are sorely betrayed and cruelly plotted against; and far and wide innocent people are given into the power of foreigners, and cradle-children made slaves through cruel evil laws for a little theft: and freeman's right taken away, and thrall's right narrowed, and alms' right diminished. It goes on and on, the terrible list of wrongs that have brought G.o.d's wrath on the land. The sermon is not for the building-up of faithful ones, but for the rousing and stirring up of those whose baptismal vow has been terribly and shamefully broken, His words are clashed out as he brings men face to face with their sin.

And then comes the preaching of the true penance. "Let us do what is needful, bow to the right, and in somewise forsake the wrong, and mend where we have broken." And the preacher's voice now takes the tender tone of entreaty. "Let us creep to Christ and with trembling heart often call upon Him, and deserve His mercy; and let us love G.o.d, and obey His laws, and fulfil what we promised when we received baptism; or what those promised who were our sponsors at baptism. And let us rightly order word and work, and earnestly cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, and carefully keep oath and pledge and have honesty among us without weakness, and let us often understand the great judgement which we all must meet, and earnestly protect ourselves against the burning fire of the punishment of h.e.l.l, and earn for ourselves the glories and the joys which G.o.d has prepared for them that do His will in the world. G.o.d help us. Amen."

CHAPTER XIII

Love of books is love of part of G.o.d's world. In books we commune with the spirit of their writers. The Church the mother of all art and all literature. Catholic literature saturated with Holy Scripture.

A man who made many a man and woman love literature and helped them to study it, the late Professor Henry Morley, has said that one who thinks that a bookroom is not a part of the world; one who thinks that, in leaving his books and going forth to commune with nature he is, as it were, pa.s.sing from death to life, is one who has not yet learned to read. The good Professor saw that books have souls in them, so to speak, and that to love a book really and truly is to hold communion with that which is living and is a part of the great, beautiful scheme of G.o.d's great, beautiful world. To love one part of what Our Father has given us should never lead us to despise, or even undervalue, other parts. And we must remember, too, must we not? how one thing helps us to understand another; how great painters and great poets help us to understand the beauty of nature as we might not have understood it without them, just as they help us also to know men and women, and help us to know better some of the fair things in our great and glorious religion; things which G.o.d can and does teach without their help when He chooses, though He graciously and lovingly often uses their help--the help He has given them the power of giving--to teach others of His children. Our Father, being _Our_ Father, not just _your_ Father and _my_ Father and _his_ Father and _her_ Father, but _Our_ Father, the Father of us all as one big family of His, brothers and sisters in Him, wills that we all help one another with the gifts He has given us; and the more we can realise that all separate gifts are parts of one great harmonious whole, the more fully we shall live and feel and enjoy.

There is, of course, a delight in exquisite typography, and hand-made paper, and binding into which the soul of a true artist has gone. People may be willing to give large sums for these things, independently of the value of what is under them; or people may value books for their age, or because they are rare, or because they are records of facts which it is well to know and good to be able to verify.