Amidst such surroundings it is scarcely matter for surprise that we occasionally read of profuseness in the high places of the Church as well as the State. Some of the leading ecclesiastics had been brought up in the lap of plenty. Wilfrid (consecrated Archbishop of York, A.D. 669) is described by his biographer, Eddius, as the most luxurious prelate of his age, but it should be remembered that he was the son of a Bernician noble, taught in his childhood to serve the cup in the mead-hall. His fame, however, for sanctity is abundantly attested. He has been called the first patron of architecture among the Anglo-Saxons. Hexham and Ripon owe to him their sacred piles. At the dedication of the latter was a disgraceful scene of riotous festivity in which the kings Ecgfrid and Aelwin with the principal nobles were engaged. Such a scene upon such an occasion would now happily be impossible. And it is by comparisons of this kind that one is able definitely to estimate the improvement or retrogression of moral tone. It should be added by way of extenuation that such festivities were continuations of the heathen paganalia, were countenanced--indeed, with certain modifications commanded--by order of Gregory the Great (A.D. 601), to Mellitus, the abbot, who accompanied Augustine to England. His words, as given by Bede (_Eccl. Hist._ i. 30), are--‘On the day of dedication, or the birthday of holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, let the people build themselves booths of the boughs of trees, round about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting.... For there is no doubt that it is impossible to efface every thing at once from their obdurate minds.’ FOOTNOTES: [11] A translation of this poem by John Mitchell Kemble was published in 1837; one by Thomas Arnold in 1876; another more recently by Colonel Lumsden; another by Rev. S. Fox, 1864. [12] A chapter is devoted to the question of the genuineness and chronology of Nennius in Wright’s _Biographia Britannica Literaria_. [13] Geoffrey of Monmouth: _British History_, chap. xii. [14] For Robert de Brunne’s metrical version of this story, cf. Warton, _Hist. Poet._, i. 73. For Robert of Gloucester’s account, see Knight, _Old Eng._, p. 70. [15] Golyddan: _Arymes Prydein Vawr_, 2 (as rendered by Turner). [16] Professor Morley’s rendering is here adopted. Part of the _Gododin_ was translated by Gray. A version of the whole is to be found in Davies’s _Mythology of the Druids_. It was translated by Probert in 1820, and by Rev. John Williams ap Ithel in 1858. It should be mentioned that Davies strangely maintains that the poem does not refer to the battle of Cattraeth, but to the massacre of the Welsh chieftains by Hengist’s command at a banquet at Stonehenge. [17] Turner, _Vindication of the Ancient British Poems_. [18] The poems of Taliesin are printed in the _Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_, collected out of ancient MSS.