quantum of injury done or felt; and therefore, though the court will not absolutely exclude considerations of that sort, where they are stated merely as matter of aggravation, yet they cannot constitute cruelty where it would not otherwise have existed; and of course, the denial of little indulgences and particular accommodations, which the delicacy of the world is apt to number amongst its necessaries, is not cruelty. It may, to be sure, be a harsh thing to refuse the use of a carriage, or the use of a servant; it may in many cases be extremely unhandsome, extremely disgraceful to the character of the husband; but the Ecclesiastical Court does not look to such matters: the great ends of marriage may very well be carried on without them, and if people will quarrel about such matters, and which they certainly may do in many cases with a great deal of acrimony, and sometimes

with

much reason, they yet must decide such matters as well as they can in their own domestic forum.

"These are negative descriptions of cruelty; they shew only what is not cruelty, and are yet, perhaps, the safest definitions which can be given under the infinite variety of possible cases that may come be. fore the court. But if it were at all necessary to lay down an affirmative rule, I take it that the rule cited by Dr. Bever from Clarke, and the other books of practice, is a good general outline of the canon law, the law of this country, upon this subject. In the older cases of this sort, which I have had an opportunity of looking into, I have observed that the danger of life, limb, or health, is usually inserted as the ground upon which the court has proceeded to a separation. This doctrine has been repeatedly applied by the court, in the cases that have been cited. The court has never been driven off this ground. It has been always jealous of the inconvenience of departing from it;

and I have heard no one case cited, in which the court has granted a divorce, without proof given of a reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt. I say an apprehension, be cause, assuredly, the court is not to wait till the hurt is actually done; but the apprehension must be reasonable; it must not be an apprehension arising merely from an exquisite and diseased sensibility of mind. Petty vexations, applied to such a constitution of mind, may certainly in time wear out the animal machine; but still they are not cases of legal relief; people must relieve themselves, as well as they can, by prudent resistance, by calling in the succours of religion and the consolation of friends; but the aid of courts is not to be resorted to in such cases with any effect.-"

"Marriage is the most solemn engagement which one human being can contract with another. It is a contract formed with a view not only to the benefit of the parties themselves, but to the benefit of third parties, to the benefit of their common offspring, and to the moral order of civil society. To this contract is superadded the sanctity of a religious vow. Mr. Evans must be told, that the obligations of this contract are not to be relaxed at the pleasure of one party. I may go farther; they are not to be lightly relaxed at the pleasure of both. For, if two persons have pledged themselves at the Altar of God, to spend their lives together, for purposes that reach much beyond themselves; it is a doctrine to which the morality of the law gives no countenance, that they may, by private contract, dissolve the bands of this solemn tie, and throw themselves upon society, in the undefined and dangerous characters of a wife without a husband, and a husband without a wife.-"

"The truth of the case, according to the impression which the whole of it makes upon my mind, is this: -Two persons marry together;

both of good moral characters, but with something of warmth and sensibility, in each of their tempers; the husband is occasionally inattensive; the wife has a vivacity that sometimes offends, and sometimes is offended; something like unkind, ness is produced, and is then easily inflamed; the lady broods over petty resentments, which are anxiously fed by the busy whispers of humble confidants; her complaints, aggravated by their reports, are carried to her relations, and meet, perhaps, with a facility of reception from their honest but well-intentioned minds. A state of mutual irritation increases; something like incivility is continually practising, and where it is not practised, it is continually suspected; every word, every act, every look has a meaning attached to it; it becomes a contest of spirit, in form between two persons eager to take, and not absolutely backward to give, mutual of fence; at last the husband breaks up the family connection, and breaks it up with circumstances sufficiently expressive of disgust: treaties are attempted, and they miscarry, as they might be expected to do, in the hands of persons strongly disaffected to each other; and then, for the very first time, as Dr. Arnold has observed, a suit of cruelty is thought of; a libel is given in, black with criminating matter; recrimination comes from the other side; accusations rain heavy and thick on all sides, till all is involved in gloom, and the parties lose sight of each other's real character, and of the truth of every one fact which is involved in the

cause.

"Out of this state of darkness and error, it will not be easy for them to find their way. It were much to be wished, that they could find it back again to domestic peace and hap

piness.

Mr. Evans has received a complete vindication of his character. Standing upon that ground, I trust he will act prudently and generously; for generosity is dence in such circumstances. He will do well to remember, that the person he contends with, is one over whom victory is painful; that she is one to whom he is bound by every tie that can fasten the heart of one human being to another; she is the partner of his bed!-the mother of his offspring! And if mistakes have been committed, and grievous mistakes have been committed, most certainly, in this suit, she is still that person whose mistakes he is bound to cover, not only from his own notice, but, as far as he can, from that of every other person in the world.

"Mrs. Evans has likewise some. thing to forget; mistakes have been made to her disadvantage too in this business: she, I say, has something to forget. And I hope she has not to learn, that the dignity of a wife, cannot be violated by submission to a husband.

"It would be happy indeed, if, by a mutual sacrifice of resentments, peace could possibly be restored. It requires, indeed, great efforts of generosity, great exertions of prudence on their part, and on the part of those connected with them. If this cannot be done; if the breach is too far widened ever to be closed, Mrs. Evans must find her way to relief; for she must not continue upon her present footing, no, not for a moment; she must call in the intervention of prudent and respectable friends; and if that is ineffectual, she must apply to the court, under the guidance of her counsel, or other persons by whom the matrimonial law of this kingdom is understood."

Sketches of the Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain.

No. XII.

FROM the death of Dunstan to the Norman Conquest, England was the scene of a rapid succession of revolutions which engrossed the attention of all parties, and left little or no leisure for religious improve ment. Accordingly the Church of England was found at the Conquest, in a state closely resembling that which it had attained at the end of the tenth century. And the events upon which we are now to comment must be considered rather as an illustration or an effect of what went before, than as constituting a dis. tinct portion of our Ecclesiastical History.

The Danes renewed their descents upon Britain in the year 981, and the imbecility of King Ethelred together with the feuds of his principal nobility, opened for them an easy access into the heart of the country. The zeal of Protestant writers has induced them to ascribe the miseries which now ensued to the Monastic system, and to St. Dunstau. The only ground for such an accusation is a passage in Ingulphus, who relates that Queen Elfrida and a large body of the Nobility took part with the Secular Clergy and assisted them in dispossessing the Mercian Monks, and especially those of Evesham. After which, with the connivance and consent of the Canons, the property of the Abbey was divided among the nobility. It is curious, that the same cause which so materially promoted the reformation, should have been in action six hundred years before that event took place and it is possible that the dissensions which were fomented by the love of Church property may have materially weakened the state. But there is no sufficient ground for attributing the ruin of the nation to this single

cause. The personal characters of the British and. Danish leaders, the treacheries of a disaffected nobility on one side, and the courage of a hardy and victorious army on the other, are sufficient to account for the second subjection of England to the Danish yoke. And so far were the Monastic Clergy from favouring the invaders, that the resistance, as upon former occasions, was most resolute and protracted, precisely where the Monks were most powerful.

The siege and destruction of Canterbury, and the martyrdom of Archbishop Elphegius, are events which occupy a principal place in the history of the age. The venerable Prelate was obnoxious to the Danish invaders, on account both of the obstinacy of the defence to which his presence gave rise, and of his refusal to levy money upon the Churches in his Diocese, for the purpose of defraying his ransom. Personal safety was twice offered to him and twice refused. At the commencement of the siege his friends intreated him to fly from a scene, to which his years and infirmities were very ill adapted. He answered, "God forbid that I should tarnish my character by so inglorious a practice, and be afraid to go to heaven because a violent death may lay across the passage. Immorta lity is so great a privilege, that a man ought to grasp at it upon any terms. It would ill become me to desert my countrymen in time of danger, and make an ignoble provision for myself. It is the duty of the shepherd, to watch by his flock." Animated by these feelings he persevered in the discharge of his sacred functions until the enemy was in possession of the town. The Cathedral was the last refuge to which the people fled. It was burnt and plundered without remorse or delay, and few of its miserable tenants escaped with their lives. Elphegius had not

hesitated to expose himself to the fury of the conquerors, with the view of prevailing upon them to spare his companions. But the sole fruit of his expostulation, was his own imprisonment, with an offer to spare his life, upon the receipt of three thousand pounds of silver. The ransom might have been easily procured, if Elphegius had exhorted or permitted his clergy to surrender the plate and other ornaments of their churches and monasteries. But he refused to have recourse to such a system; and warning his people against the idolatry and immorality of their conquerors, exhorting them to continue in the faith and practice of Christians, he was stoned to death eight months after the sack of Canterbury, by the generals and soldiers of the Danish army. His life by Osbern is unfortunately disfigured by the usual addition of miracles, visions, and prophecies-but his character is an honour both to the Church and the Monks, and the nation might have escaped the disgrace and ruin into which it fell, if the temporal nobility had followed the example of Elphegius.

The principal churches and towns shared the fate of Canterbury-and during the remainder of Ethelred's life, and the short reign of his son Edmund Ironside, the historians have nothing to relate but rapine, treason and slaughter. Canute gave the kingdom a respite from its calamities. His power although founded on conquest rather than on right, was employed for the good of the people whom he governed.

His ecclesiastical administration especially, was firm and impartial. The monasteries recovered rapidly from their recent misfortunes, and the division of the country into parishes became general if not universal. The history of Croyland by Ingulphus, or rather by Turketul, Egelric and Ingulphus, is the most authentic source of information respecting this portion of our an

nals, and the accounts which it contains are highly deserving of attention.

Turketul was the restorer or second founder of Croyland Abbey, and considered himself bound to collect the traditions which related to its origin. But this portion of the work is fabulous and incredible in the extreme; and it is not until we arrive at the actions of Turketul himself, which were recorded by his successor Egelric, that we make any near approach to sobriety of truth. With a view of rendering the possessions of the Abbey more secure, Turketul persuaded the Monks to surrender all their old estates, as well as the additional estates with which he had endowed them, to the King; and to receive them back as a new grant. This fact if we could depend upon it, would give us a great insight into the state of property and of law in those unsettled times. But no reliance can be placed upon AngloSaxon charters*. They were produced, as will appear hereafter, in the Norman Courts, with an abundance and a confidence which cannot be sufficiently admired, and what is more they are made to correspond in language, style, and character, with the title deeds of a much later æra.

The monastic regulations of Turketul may be received with less hesitation than his legal subtleties. He was appointed Abbott by King Edgar and Dunstan and the other principal prelates invested him for

There is an affectation in the mode of signing these charters, with which the reader may probably be amused. The assent of each party to the deed is signified by a different word-and when the subscribers are numerous, they appear to have been at a loss for variety. The signatures to a charter of Canute are as follows: The King writes confirmavi, and so also does the Archbishop of Canterbury, the others say, affirmavi, consignavi, collaudavi, constabilivi, communivi, signavi, approbavi, consensi, concessi, affui, interfui, astiti, audivi, aspexi.

mally with spiritual authority. He divided his Monks into three classes, the first consisting of those who had spent less than twenty-four years in the Monastery, took the regular duty of the House, the choir, and the refectory, and obeyed all the commands of their superiors. Those between the twenty-fourth and fortieth year of their profession formed the second or middle class, were exempted from the more servile, offices, and were expected to assist in the most important business of the Monastery, both by prudent counsel and personal labour. The third class or seniors were composed of all between the fortieth and fiftieth years of their profession, who were merely required to assist at mass, and were considered as milites emeriti, who had borne the heat and labour of the day, and were now, especially if they sustained an unblemished reputation, to be held worthy of all honour, and exposed to no privation. The Quinquage. narian, or Monk of fifty years standing was entitled to a comfortable chamber in the Infirmary, and to the constant attendance of a younger monk as his companion, and of a boy for his servant. He had the full and free range of the House. The bad news of the Convent was not to be mentioned in his presence. Every body was bound to treat him with respect; old age was to be assuaged by peace and quiet. The actual government of the Monastery was committed to the Prior; an officer who was appointed for life, except in cases of grave and repeated misconduct. The Precentor had the privilege of regulating the Choir; and not only the Prior and Monks, but even the Abbott was required to comply with his directions. The Sacristan was invested with Archidiaconal power over the whole territory (parochia) of Croyland. And these statutes were added to the rule of St. Benedict, and declared equally binding upon the inhabitants of the Monastery.

The authority by which they were prescribed was that of Turketul himself, a pious and exemplary man

devoted to the service of his God, and the relief of his fellow creatures. He spent the latter years of his life in devotion and charity; confessing that he was still an unprofitable servant; and putting his only trust in the mercy of Christ. He was a vigilant superintendant of the schools connected with his monastery; rewarding and stimulating the diligence of the scholars rather than severely correcting their idleness. To his aged and venerable Monks he paid that respect and attention which his statutes required from others; and to three of them more especially who are said to have attained the ages of 148, 142, and 115 years, he performed all the offices of a son and a servant; when his rank and his infirmities would have been an excuse for different conduct. He died at the age of sixtyeight, and in the twenty-seventh year of his Monastic profession; leaving Croyland Abbey in possession of great riches, reputation, and strength; exhorting its inhabitants to continue in srict obedience to their rule, and warning them against the indolence and sensuality to which they were exposed.

If all Abbots had followed the example of Turketul, monkery might have possessed greater claims upon our gratitude than the judgment of impartial history can admit it to enjoy. But every thing was suffered to depend upon the individual character of the Abbott. The appointment to his office was speedily usurped by the Crown. Courtiers, and men of bad character, obtained a preference which they did not merit. The monastic life degenerated below the usual standard of worldly decency; and respect for the order was only to be preserved by fraud. It was the better sort of Monks that John Fox compared with men of a lower profession, but much purer practice; and even of