am tempted to give it at length in a translation. 'Who, exclaimed the
King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the altars and
the temples? I, answered the Chief Priest; for who more fit than myself,
through the wisdom which the true God hath given me, to destroy, for
the good example of others, what in foolishness is worshipped?
Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to
grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a courser
(equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished with a sword and
lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing this,
thought him mad--he however halted not, but, approaching the profaned
temple, casting against it the lance which he had held in his hand, and,
exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God, he ordered
his companions to pull down the temple, with all its enclosures. The
place is shown where those idols formerly stood, not far from York, at
the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day called Gormund Gaham
ubi pontifex ille, inspirante Deo vero, polluit ac destruxit eas, _quas
ipse sacraverat aras_.' The last expression is a pleasing proof that the
venerable monk of Wearmouth was familiar with the poetry of Virgil.

342. '_Near fresh Streams_.' [Sonnet XVII. l. 12.]

The early propagators of Christianity were accustomed to preach near
rivers for the convenience of baptism.

343. _The Clergy_. [Sonnet XIX.]

Having spoken of the zeal, disinterestedness, and temperance of the
clergy of those times, Bede thus proceeds:--'Unde et in magna erat
veneratione tempore illo religionis habitus, ita ut ubicunque clericus
aliquis, aut monachus adveniret, gaudeutur ab omnibus tanquam Dei
famulus exciperetur. Etiam si in itinere pergens inveniretur,
accurrebant, et flexa cervice, vel manu signari, vel ore illius se
benedici, gaudebant. Verbis quoque horum exhortatoriis diligenter
auditum praebebant.'--Lib. iii. cap. 26.

343(a). _Bede_. [Sonnet XIII. l. 14.]

He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. John's
Gospel.

344. _Zeal_.

'The people work like congregated bees!' [Sonnet XXIV. l. 2.]

See in Turner's History, vol. iii. p. 528, the account of the erection
of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performance of acts
of charity and benevolence.

345. _Alfred_.

----'pain narrows not his cares.' [Sonnet XXVI. l. 10.]

Through the whole of his life,