Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/24

Rh of our Lord's speech to that Apostle is confirmed.

Again, nothing is said of the reading of the Scripture to be forbidden to the lay people; nothing of the denial of the cup to the laity; nothing of the change of the substance of the bread and wine, by the hands of the priest in the Eucharist; but on the other hand, numerous passages, as before mentioned, are to be found, which are directly opposed to the doctrine of transubstantiation; and not only did Ælfric, like the great preceding herald of civilization and literature, Alfred the Great, translate many parts of Scripture, (if not all the Gospels, at least probably that of St. Matthew,) for the benefit of his countrymen, but he, moreover, in the "Canons" published at the request of Wulfsinus, bishop of Sherborne, has given an especial charge that the people should be rightly taught the Scriptures in their own tongue. "Se mæsse-preost sceal secgan. Sunnan-dagum and mæsse-dagum. ðæs