Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/20

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preface.

xv

abbot (of St. Alban's, his brother) and Archbishop Wulstan, were also legatees under the will. (See Hickes's Epistolary Dissertation, p. 62.)

The following lines written at a very early date in a copy of Ælfric's Glossary, prove the belief of the author that the grammarian and the archbishop were the same person.

"Præsulis hic redolent Ælfrici lypsana summi
Qui rector patriæ perstitit Angligenæ.
Inter pontifices rutilans ceu mystica lampas
Defensor regni - necne salus populi -
Heu nostram fera mors extinxit nempe lucernam
Heu nostri cecidit fons quoque consilii.
Hunc sexta decimaque Kalendas nempe Decembris
Assumpsit Michahel seu dedit Emmanuhel -

It is worthy of observation, that although Ælfric was in his day greatly honoured at Rome, (as see Saxon Chronicle,) in his writings, nothing is said of purgatory,^[1] as being either a divine or an apostolical tradition, but on the other hand in the homily giving an exposition of the Catholic faith, the final awards of the last judgment are thus described: "Eac we sceolon gelyfan. ðæt ælc lichama ðe sawle undefeng sceal arisan on domes dæge mid ðam ylcum lichaman. ðe he nu hæfð. and sceal onfon edlean ealra his dæda. ðonne habbað ða godan ece lif mid Gode, and he sylð ða mede ælcum be his geearnungum. Đa synfullan beoð on helle wite à ðrowigende, and heora wite bið eac gemetegod ælcum be his

↑ The visions of the "Scottish priest Furseus" - otherwise Fursey - and of the "Northumbrian thane Drihthelm," (of which Bede gives a narrative,) are recounted by Ælfric; but these tales are evidently allegorical, to be regarded in the same light - Mr. Southey has observed in his "Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicana" - as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. But even in the latter of these visions we read: "Witodlice da de fulfremede beoð on geðohte, on worde, on weorce, swa hraðe swa hi of worulde gewitað, swa becumað hi to heofenan rice, of ðam ðu gesawe ðæt micele leoht mid ðam wynsumum bræde and ðonon ðu gehyrdest ðone fægeran dream." "But those who are perfect in thought, in word, in work, as soon as they depart from the world, they come into the kingdom of heaven, from that thou sawest the great light with the winsome fragrance, and thence thou heardest the sweet melody."

[1] The visions of the "Scottish priest Furseus" - otherwise Fursey - and of the "Northumbrian thane Drihthelm," (of which Bede gives a narrative,) are recounted by Ælfric; but these tales are evidently allegorical, to be regarded in the same light - Mr. Southey has observed in his "Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicana" - as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. But even in the latter of these visions we read: "Witodlice da de fulfremede beoð on geðohte, on worde, on weorce, swa hraðe swa hi of worulde gewitað, swa becumað hi to heofenan rice, of ðam ðu gesawe ðæt micele leoht mid ðam wynsumum bræde and ðonon ðu gehyrdest ðone fægeran dream." "But those who are perfect in thought, in word, in work, as soon as they depart from the world, they come into the kingdom of heaven, from that thou sawest the great light with the winsome fragrance, and thence thou heardest the sweet melody."

[1]