Seventy-Five Years which followed the Capture of Bath, A.D. 577 (Ibid. vol. xvi. 1859). In the paper already referred to (supra, p. 234), On the Early English Settlements, the same writer approaches the much disputed question respecting the permanence of Roman institutions and Roman influences subsequent to the departure of the legions and the arrival of the Saxons. His high authority may be cited in favour of an affirmative conclusion, though his language is carefully qualified. On the same side are to be found Mr. Brewer (Quar. Rev., vol. cxli. 295-301), and MR. C. H. PEARSON (History of England in the Early and Middle Ages, 2nd edit. i. 83-103). While the same theory is carried to the most extreme conclusions by MR. COOTE, in his work entitled The Romans of Britain (1878), where he professes to trace, in the laws and customs of the England of the fifth and sixth centuries, a condition of society 'steeped in Roman institutions and observances.' In the opposed ranks are Lappenberg, professor Stubbs, Freeman, and Wright. The last-named writer in his volume, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon (3rd edit. 1875), which forms an interesting manual of the antiquities of the period B.C. 55 to A.D. 597, holds that there existed a large Saxon element in the population prior to the invasion under Hengist and Horsa.

As regards the evidence for the existence and characteristic institutions of the ancient British Church, the student is referred to Spelman and Wilkins' Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents (ed. Haddan and Stubbs), i. I-200, where all the really trustworthy data are incorporated.

It may be observed that the decision of this controversy turns, to a great extent, upon the acceptance or non-acceptance of the testimony of Gildas, and his genuineness as a writer.

245

CHAPTER II.

A.D. 450 TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHA.
II.

(A.) Contemporary Writers.-The guidance of Gildas is lost to us with the year 560; Nennius goes no further than the year 688. A few meagre notes, by another Authorities hand, afford a kind of continuation of Bede's History described. already down to the year 766. The records of the different Chronicles continue, up to the time of Alfred, to be somewhat meagre; but with the commencement of his reign become much fuller. In the eleventh century, slight differences occur in the different texts, and with the reign of Edward the Confessor these become much. more marked, indicating the divergencies of political feeling in the different parts of the country where they were compiled. The Abingdon Chronicle, for example, shews decided hostility to earl Godwin, while the Peterborough Chronicle is equally favourable to his cause (see Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 442).

ASSER, a monk of Celtic extraction, belonging to the Asser. monastery of St. David's, who became bishop of Sherborne and died in the year 910, was the adviser and coadjutor of king Alfred in the latter's efforts to revive learning throughout the country. He is generally believed to have been the author of an extant Life of ALFRED,1 consisting of two parts: (1) a chronicle of events

1 In Camden, Anglica, &c., and M. H. B. There is also an edition by Wise. Oxford, 1722. A Chronicon Fani S. Neoti, an anonymous

CHAP.

II

Ethelwerd.

extending from 851 to 887; (2) personal events respecting Alfred himself, designed as a kind of Appendix. The fact that the latter part was written while Alfred was still in the prime of life, together with certain inconsistencies and improbabilities in the narrative, has inclined some critics (see article by the late Mr. Thomas Wright, in Biog. Brit. Litteraria) to conclude that Asser was not the author. Dr. Reinhold Pauli, the author of an admirable Life of Alfred, considers however that the work is substantially that of Asser, with interpolations belonging to a much later date. In referring to places by their Latin or Saxon names, the writer often adds the Celtic name, a feature which would seem plainly to prove that he was a Briton by descent. His narrative was probably compiled for the information of a Celtic community, such as we know to have existed at St. David's. Asser is under frequent obligations to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, of which the earlier part of his work is often a mere transcript.

The Latin version of the Chronicle of ETHELWERD,' written in the tenth century, and treating of English history from the earliest times to the year 975, is interesting as the only production of a Latin historian in an interval of two centuries. Ethelwerd was probably an ealdorman, and he is styled by William of Malmesbury 'the noble and magnificent.' His work is devoid of originality, being little more than a meagre compilation from Bede and the Saxon Chronicle; the Latinity is also extremely bad. 'In an historical point of view,' however, Sir T. D. Hardy considers that 'his authority and value as a writer are not to be despised.'

compilation beginning with Caesar's invasion of Britain and ending A.D. 914, has also been attributed to Asser, but is probably a compilation of the latter part of the twelfth century. (See Hardy, D. C. i. 577.) 1 In Savile's Scriptores post Bedam (see supra, p. 216).

CHAP.
II.

The Em

mae En

For the years from Swegen's invasion of England (1012) to the accession of Hardicanute (1040), we have the Emmae Encomium,' a narrative in the tone of a panegyrist addressed by an unknown writer, probably a comium. Norman, to Emma of Normandy, the wife of Ethelred II. The writer shows but an imperfect knowledge of contemporary events, and the account is defective in other respects, but it contains many curious particulars, and the style, though inflated, is good for the period.

uuardi.

For the life of Edward the Confessor, there is a com- Vita Aedpilation entitled Vita Aeduuardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium requiescit. It is by an unknown author, but one who was unquestionably a contemporary, and wrote, it is conjectured, between the years 1066 and 1074, when the sufferings inflicted by the Norman conquerors were at their height. The treatise is of considerable value, as it contains facts not found elsewhere; it also frequently differs materially from other accounts.

Lives of

St. Cuth

bert.

The biographical literature of this period compensates, Wilfrid and indeed, to some extent for the scantiness of the historical. Among its most favourable specimens are the Life of St. CUTHBERT, by Bede, and another entitled, Historia de S. Cuthberto, printed in Twysden (Decem Scriptt. pp. 67-76) and also included in the edition of the works of Simeon of Durham, published by the Surtees Society. Bede, however, was indebted for the materials of his Life, to earlier writers, and it is to the Life of WILFRID, bishop of York, by Eddius, that Sir T. D. Hardy accordingly assigns the distinction of being 'the first independent piece of genuine biography in our literature.' 'The style,' 'is somewhat diffuse, and the facts are com

he

says,

1 Emmae Anglorum Reginae, Ricardi I. Ducis Normannorum Filiae, Encomium; incerto Auctore, sed coaetaneo. Migne, P. L. cxli.

2 See Lives of Edward the Confessor. Luard, M.A., R. S. 1858.

Edited by Henry Richards

СНАР.

II.

Aldhelm.

b. 656.

d. 709.

Alcuin.

b. 725. d.,804.

paratively few, yet his narrative furnishes a valuable commentary upon the corresponding passages in Bede's history, and throws considerable light upon what would otherwise have remained in obscurity' (D. C. i. 396-8).

The Life of ALDHELM of Sherborne, by Faricius,' together with the Letters and Poems of Aldhelm himself, are of considerable value. His position, as the earliest English scholar, and his labours in promoting the work of education in Wessex, impart an exceptional interest to his history. The biography by Faricius was compiled about the beginning of the eleventh century. Faricius was a Tuscan by birth, and a monk of the monastery of Malmesbury, from whence he was promoted to be abbat of Abingdon. The reputation that he there acquired by the austerity of his discipline made him unpopular with the secular clergy, and prevented his election to the archbishopric of Canterbury. His account of Aldhelm is to some extent superseded by that given by William of Malmesbury in the fifth book of his Gesta Pontificum. William made the life by Faricius the basis of his own account, but added extracts from Aldhelm's writings, and also availed himself of materials afforded by local tradition.

The Life of ALCUIN, by an anonymous writer,2 is of much inferior merit when compared with the foregoing biographies, but Alcuin's Letters3 are of great importance from the illustration they afford of the relations between England and Frankland in the eighth and ninth centuries. His poetical history of the bishops and archbishops of Church of York is also of considerable value as a record of events.

The

York.

1 Vita Aldhelmi, auctore Faricio Monacho Malmesburiensi. Edited by J. A. Giles. Caxt. S. 1854. Printed also in Migne, P. L. lxxxix., along with Aldhelm's works.

2 Migne, ibid. c. 90-106.

Id., ibid. c. 135-514.

Migne, ibid. ci. 814-46.