Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/82

68  This remonstrance was accompanied by such proofs of the justice of the complaints, that Harold felt himself compelled to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to Edward, persuaded the king to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm Morocar in the government. He afterwards married the sister of that nobleman.

Tostig, in a rage, quitted England, and took refuge with his father-in-law, the Earl of Flanders.

By this union, William perceived that Harold had broken faith with him, and naturally considered, that if he had done so in espousing another than his daughter, to whom he had previously engaged himself, no reliance could be placed upon his oath; and began to despair of success, for his rival's conduct had gained him the universal approbation of his countrymen.

Harold now openly declared his pretensions to the succession, which the aged Edward was too irresolute either to oppose or arrest. Whilst things were in this state, he was surprised by sickness, and died on the 5th of January, 1066, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the twenty-fifth of his reign.

This prince, to whom the Church has given the title of saint and confessor, was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employed in other enterprises, did not attempt those incursions which Had been so troublesome to all his predecessors, and fatal to some of them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities as well as the power of these noblemen enabled them, while they were entrusted with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the administration of justice; and his compiling, for that purpose, a body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred. This compilation, though now lost (for the laws that pass under Edward's name were composed afterwards), was long the object of affection to the English nation.

Edward the Confessor was the first that touched for the king's evil: the opinion of his sanctity procured belief to this cure among the people; and many of his successors regarded it as a part of their state and grandeur to uphold the same opinion.

Queen Anne, we believe, was the last sovereign who practised it.

 

the canons of the Church generally ascribed to Elfric, the thirty-third obliges the priests to have two sorts of sacred oil or chrism—one for the sick, and another for children—and enjoins that the former should always be anointed in their beds.

In the same canon the first four general councils are declared of equal authority as the Gospels. From the beginning of the reign of Ethelred II. to the Norman conquest, we find in the ecclesiastical history of England but two councils. Most probably, the wars with the Danes prevented the bishops from assembling more frequently, or perhaps were the occasion of the records of these conventions being lost. Both these councils, the one held at Engsham, and the other at Haba, assembled whilst Elphegus was archbishop. They consisted of seculars as well as ecclesiastics, and the constitutions passed there related both to Church and State. The most remarkable canons are as follow:—

In the council of Engsham, the second canon enjoins the celibacy of the clergy.

The ninth forbids all persons to do any wrong to the Church, or eject a clergyman out of his benefice without the consent of the bishop.

By the seventeenth, every Friday was to be a fast, unless it fell upon a holiday.

The nineteenth enjoins widows to stay twelve months after the death of their husbands before they marry again.

The twentieth enjoins frequent confessions, and the people are ordered to receive the sacrament three times, at least, in a year.

The council of Haba has but one canon worth notice—namely, the second, by which every Christian was obliged to fast three days with bread and water before the feast of St. Michael, and to distribute among the poor what he should have eaten in these three days.

These are the only canons worth remarking in these two synods; but to supply the want of councils, we have the ecclesiastical laws of Canute the Great and Edward the Confessor, some of which are inserted, to show the great regard these two monarchs had for the clergy. The following are Canute's:—

The fourth enjoins all Christians to pay great respect to the clergy, because their sacerdotal functions are extremely beneficial to the people.

By the fifth, if a priest was accused of any crime, he had the liberty of purging himself by saying mass, and receiving the eucharist.

The twelfth recommends celibacy to the clergy, and ranks them among the thanes of the second class—that is, among the gentry.

The twentieth ordains that at funerals the dues shall be paid upon the breaking up of the ground; and that the dues shall be paid to the parish the deceased belonged to, though he was buried elsewhere.

The twenty-second enjoins the observance of Sunday from Saturday at three o'clock in the afternoon, till Monday at break of day.

The twenty-third determines the times of fasting, and places the vigils of the festivals of the blessed Virgin and of the apostles among the fasts.

There are several others, relating to the payment of tithes and Peter-pence, the violators of the privileges of the clergy, and the like, in favour of the Church.

It is also decreed by these laws, that every Christian should learn the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed; otherwise, they were allowed neither to stand godfather, nor receive the communion, nor have Christian burial.

The ecclesiastical laws of Edward the Confessor relate chiefly to the protection of the Church and clergy.

The first forbids the molesting a clergyman, contrary to the tenour of the privileges of the Church.

The second appoints certain days, whereon all proceedings in the courts of justice were to cease.

By the third the Church's causes are to be tried first.

