an, a disciple of Alcuin, whom he attended into France, wrote,
in sixteen verses, an eulogium of St. Ludger, published by Vossius[2]
and Mabillon, as a specimen of good poetry for that age.

* * * * *

Nothing so much scandalizes the very infidels, or shows the decay of
piety, and loss of all sense of religion among Christians, as their
disrespectful {663} behavior in the house of God and at the time of
prayer. An awful, strict silence, the most profound exterior respect,
and penetrating inward devotion of heart, must essentially accompany our
homages when we present them before the throne of God, in whose presence
the highest seraphims annihilate themselves. This silence we must
observe not only with our tongues, but also with our bodies and all our
limbs, both out of respect to the presence of God and his altar, and
also not to give the least occasion of distraction to others. Prayer is
an action so sublime and supernatural, that the church in her canonical
hours teaches us to begin it by a fervent petition of grace to perform
it well. What an insolence and mockery is it to join with this petition
an open disrespect and a neglect of all necessary precautions against
distractions! We ought never to appear before God, to tender him our
homages or supplications, without trembling, and without being deaf to
all creatures, and shutting all our senses to every object that can
distract our minds from God. In the life of F. Simon Gourdan, a regular
canon of St. Victor's at Paris, who died in the odor of sanctity, in the
year 1729, the eighty-fifth of his age, it is related that king Louis
XIV. came to see him, and to recommend himself to his prayers. The
servant of God made him wait till he had finished his thanksgiving after
mass, which edified that great prince, who said, "he does well; for he
is employed in attending on a much greater king." Though St. Francis of
Sales on the like occasions chose rather to forego or defer his own
private devotions, than not to be ready immediately to wait on others,
in order to give them all the spiritual advice they desired; yet at
prayer at least he and all truly religious persons seemed in some degree
to rival the heavenly spirits in their awe and reverence. Silence at
that holy time, or place, has always been esteemed a thing so sacred,
that when the temple of Solomon was building, God commanded that there
should not be heard so much as the sound of a ham