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Rh ANGLO-SAXON 510 ANOLO-SAXON the English sj-nods. all point in the same direction. The fact was even coiniiiented upon by continental contemporaries, and the "Gesta Abbatum Fontanell- ensium-" (Saint Vandrille'), written c. 840, speaks of the "English wIk.i ;n.' always specially devoted to the Apostolic See" (Hauck, Kir- ehengeschichte Deutschlands, I, 457, 3d ed.). We have very good evi- dence of the exist- ence in the Anglo- Saxon Church of the whole of the present sacramen- tal system, including Extreme Unc- tion, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The Mass was the centre of all relig- ious worship, and the Holy Sacrifice was certainly of- fered privately, sometimes as often as three or four times in the same day by the same priest, but always fasting. The at- tempt made, upon the authority of certain expressions of Abbot iElfric 1. ,....:... Cross (SOUTH siDL) (^1- v.). to show that the Anglo- Saxons did not believe in the Real Presence is wholly illusory. (See Bridgett, Hist, of Holy Eucharist, I, 119 sq.). In these matters of faith and ritual England differs in no substantial re- spect from the rest of Western Christendom. The Latin language was used both in the liturgy and in the canonical liours. The books were the Roman service books without any important additions of native or Celtic growth. The principal foreign in- fluence which can be discerned is a likeness to the ritual observances of southern Italy (e. g., Naples), a peculiarity to which attention has been drawn on many occasions by Edmund Bishop and Dom Ger- main Morin. It is probably due to the fact that Adrian, Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, who came to England in the train of Archbishop Theo- dore, had brought with him the traditions of Monte Ca.ssino. Even the coronation service, which began by being pronouncedly Celtic, was remodelled alDout the time of Eadgar (973) in imitation of the usages which obtained in the coronation of the Emperor of the West (Robertson, Historical Essays, 203 sq.; Thurston, Coronation Ceremonial, IS sq.). Hence many interesting details of liturgical custom, e. g. the churchyard procession on Palm Sunday, the dra- matic dialogue beside the Sepulchre on Easter eve, the episcopal benediction after the Pater Noster of the Mass, the multiplication of prefaces, the great O's of Advent, the communion of the laity under both species, etc., were not peculiar to England, even though in some ca-ses the earliest recorded examples are English examples. As regards the veneration of the saints and of their relics, no Church was farther removed than the Anglo-Saxon Church from the principles of the Reformation. The praises of our Ble.s,sed Lady are sung by Aldhclm and Alcuin in Latin, and by the poet Cyiiewulf (c. 77.';) in Anglo- faaxon, in glowing verse. An Anglican writer (Church Quarterly Rev., XIV, 286) has frankly admitted that "Mariolatrj' is no very modern de- velopment of Romanism — the Blessed Virgin was not only Dei Genitrix and Virgo Virginum, but in a tenth-century English litany she is aildressed thus: — • Sancta Regina Mundi, ora pro nobis; Sancta Salvatrix Mundi, ora pro nobis; Sancta Redemptrix Mundi, ora pro nobis. " The bodies of the saints, e. g. that of St. Cuth- bert, were reverently honoured from the beginning and esteemed the most precious of treasures. Be- sides the feasts of Christ and Our Lady, a number of saints' days were observed throughout the year, to which in a synod of 747 the festivals of St. Gregory and St. Augustine, the true apostles of England, were specially abided. Later secular legislation de- termined the number of such feasts and prescribed abstention from servile work. All feasts of the Apostles had vigils on which men fasted. Sts. Peter and Paul's day was celebrated with an octave. The Ordeals, a method of trial by "judgment of God", though accompanied by prayer and conducted un- der the supervision of the clergy, were not ex- actly an ecclesiastical institution, neither were they peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon Church. VI. Missions. — Of the missionary enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons a more, detailed account must be sought under the names of the principal missionaries and of the countries evangelized. It will be sufficient to say here in general that the preaching of the Irish monks, of whom St. Columban was the most cele- brated, in central and western Europe, was followed and eclipsed by the efforts of the Anglo-Saxons, in particular by those of the Northumbrian St. Willi- brord and the West Saxon Winfrith better known as St. Boniface. St. Boniface, to whom a later age gave the name of the Apostle of Germany, was supported by many followers, e. g. Lull, Willibald, Burchard, and others. The work of e'angclization in Germany was almost accomplished in the eighth century, the crowning effort being made by St. Wille- P* l^^*^"i w ^^■■bH.. ,',---— l^^^S^^JM^^SSP^I 1 Cover, Book of the Gospel of St. John had between 772 and 789, in the North, beside the banks of the Elbe and the Weser. These missionary undertakings were much assisteil by the devotion of many holy Englishwomen, e. g. Sts. Walburg, Lioba, Tecla. and others, who founded communities of nuns and in this way did much to educate and Christianize the young people of their own sex. At a somewhat later date another great missionary field was pro-