We ought
to bark and preach to laymen, lest they should be lost through
ignorance. Christ in His gospel says of unlearned teachers, 'If the
blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch.' The teacher is
blind that hath no book learning, and he misleads the laity through his
ignorance. Thus are you to be aware of this, as your duty requires."--
23d Canon of Elfric, about A.D. 957.

Elfric was then only a private monk in the abbey of Ahingdon, and
perhaps composed these canons for the use of Wulfstan, Bishop of
Dorchester, with the assistance of the abbot, Ethelwold. They commence
"Aelfricus, humilis frater, venerabili Episcopo Wulfsino, salutem in
Domino." Others think this "Wulfsinus" was the Bishop of Sherborne of
that name. Elfric became eventually Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D.
995-1005, dying at an advanced age. No other English name before the
Conquest is so famous in literature.

iii Services of the Church.

"It concerns mass priests, and all God's servants, to keep their
churches employed with God's service. Let them sing therein the
seven-tide songs that are appointed them, as the Synod earnestly
requires--that is, the uht song (matins); the prime song (seven A.M.);
the undern song (terce, nine A.M.); the midday song (sext); the noon
song (nones, three P.M.); the even song (six P.M.); the seventh or night
song (compline, nine P.M.)"--19th Canon of Elfric.

It is not to be supposed that the laity either were expected to attend,
or could attend, all these services, which were strictly kept in
monastic bodies; but it would appear that mass, and sometimes matins and
evensong, or else compline, were generally frequented. And these latter
would be, as represented in the text, the ordinary services in private
chapels.

iv Battle of Brunanburgh.

In this famous battle, the English, under their warlike king, defeated a
most threatening combination of foes; Anlaf, the Danish prince, having
united his forces to those of Constantine, King of the Scots, and the
Britons, or Welsh of Strathclyde and Cambria. So proud were the English
of the victory, that their writers break into poetry when they come to
that portion of their annals. Such is the case with the writer of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from whom the following verses are abridged. They
have been already partially quoted in the text.

Here Athelstane king,
Of earls the lord,
To warriors the ring-giver,
Glory world-long
Had won in the strife,
By edge o