Do we wonder that this state of things was condemned? The British Church could no longer keep silent. Decrees respecting intemperance were issued in the Synod held by St. David (A.D. 569), interesting as the only legislative relic of the British Church upon this subject; unless, as Mr. Bridgett remarks in his useful little book, _The Discipline of Drink_, we admit the monastic penance of St. Gildas the Wise (A.D. 570): ‘If any monk through drinking too freely gets thick of speech so that he cannot join in the psalmody, he is to be deprived of his supper.’ The following are among the canons of St. David:-- (1) Priests about to minister in the temple of God and drinking wine or strong drink through negligence, and not ignorance, must do penance three days. If they have been warned, and despise, then forty days. (2) Those who get drunk through ignorance must do penance fifteen days; if through negligence, forty days; if through contempt, three quarantains. (3) He who forces another to get drunk out of hospitality must do penance as if he had got drunk himself. (4) But he who out of hatred or wickedness, in order to disgrace or mock at others, forces them to get drunk, if he has not already sufficiently done penance, must do penance as a murderer of souls. Enough has been adduced to prove that the lovers of debauch among the Anglo-Saxons could have found no uncongenial soil in Britain. But their settlement in our island did not tend to any moral millennium. They found matters bad; they made them ten times worse. At meals, after meals, by day, by night, the brimming tankard foamed. When all were satisfied with their dinner, says the chronicler, they continued drinking till the evening. Drinking was, in short, the occupation of the after part of the day. A cut taken from the Anglo-Saxon calendar[20] represents a drinking party. The lord and the two principal guests are sitting at the high seat, or daïs, drinking after dinner. The excess to which they yielded at banquets may be illustrated from a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon poem, entitled ‘Judith,’ which is thus translated[21]:-- There were deep bowls Carried along the benches often, So likewise cups and pitchers Full to the people who were sitting on couches: The renowned shielded warriors Were fated, while they partook thereof.... Then was Holofernes, The munificent patron of men, In the guest hall; He laughed and rioted, Made tumult and noise, That the children of men Might hear afar, How the stern one Stormed and shouted. Moody and drunk with mead, Thus this wicked man During the whole day His followers Drenched with wine, The haughty dispenser of treasure, Until they lay down intoxicated, He over-drenched all his followers Like as though they were struck with death, Exhausted of every good.