The early and middle ages of England

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1861 Excerpt: ...supposed to be ordinary events. 2 Bede, Vita S. Cudbercti, caps. 2, 5. That remarkable book, " Some account the Lord's Dealings with George Miiller," abounds in cases of divine intervention to relieve one who, in the nineteenth century, has founded and conducted a large institution on the principle of taking no thought for the morrow. Wendover, vol. i., pp. 387, 388. 234 RESULTS OF AN UNCRITICAL FAITH. transferred to his body, and no chains being able to bind the prisoner, his captor was at last glad to ransom him on his own terms. This story is elucidated by an event in St. Wilfrid's life. He had been thrown into prison and was to be manacled, but no fetters could be made that were not either too small or too loose for him. The imperfect art of the smith became material for faith to feed upon.1 It is clear that this habit of mind, which looked for the perpetual intervention of God in the events of life, could not exist in any society without notable effects. In the cases of a few men, it no doubt raised the moral tone. The monk went out to colonize the wilderness or reclaim the heathen, believing that the powers of darkness were thwarting his efforts, scoffing him, seeking to destroy him, but believing also that he would overcome in the end. It was thus that St. Gall, when he was out fishing, heard spirit crying to spirit, "Come over and help us, for a stranger is spoiling our heritage," and the saint made the sign of the cross, and the fiends fled wailing.2 But the same belief led men of baser mould to accept the results of their own cowardice as the special judgement of God; this it was unnerved the Saxons in their wars with the Danes and Normans; the same thought inspired the system of the ordeal, in which innocence and guilt were determi...