i For authorities for his various statements the Author must beg to refer his readers to the notes at the end of the volume. ii Homilies in the Anglo-Saxon Church “The mass priest, on Sundays and mass days, shall speak the sense of the Gospel to the people in English, and of the Paternoster, and of the Creed, as often as he can, for the inciting of the people to know their belief, and to retain their Christianity. Let the teacher take heed of what the prophet says, ‘They are dumb dogs, and cannot bark.’ We ought to bark and preach to laymen, lest they should be lost through ignorance. Christ in His gospel says of unlearned teachers, ‘If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch.’ The teacher is blind that hath no book learning, and he misleads the laity through his ignorance. Thus are you to be aware of this, as your duty requires.”—23d Canon of Elfric, about A.D. 957. Elfric was then only a private monk in the abbey of Ahingdon, and perhaps composed these canons for the use of Wulfstan, Bishop of Dorchester, with the assistance of the abbot, Ethelwold. They commence “Ælfricus, humilis frater, venerabili Episcopo Wulfsino, salutem in Domino.” Others think this “Wulfsinus” was the Bishop of Sherborne of that name. Elfric became eventually Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 995-1005, dying at an advanced age. No other English name before the Conquest is so famous in literature. iii Services of the Church. “It concerns mass priests, and all God’s servants, to keep their churches employed with God’s service. Let them sing therein the seven-tide songs that are appointed them, as the Synod earnestly requires—that is, the uht song (matins); the prime song (seven A.M.); the undern song (terce, nine A.M.); the midday song (sext); the noon song (nones, three P.M.); the even song (six P.M.); the seventh or night song (compline, nine P.M.)”—19th Canon of Elfric. It is not to be supposed that the laity either were expected to attend, or could attend, all these services, which were strictly kept in monastic bodies; but it would appear that mass, and sometimes matins and evensong, or else compline, were generally frequented. And these latter would be, as represented in the text, the ordinary services in private chapels. iv Battle of Brunanburgh. In this famous battle, the English, under their warlike king, defeated a most threatening combination of foes; Anlaf, the Danish prince, having united his forces to those of Constantine, King of the Scots, and the Britons, or Welsh of Strathclyde and Cambria. So proud were the English of the victory, that their writers break into poetry when they come to that portion of their annals. Such is the case with the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from whom the following verses are abridged. They have been already partially quoted in the text.