d'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 passionate 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 manuscripts; 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 shining and
shining, 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-ad