I. With regard to the doctrine of _transubstantiation_, we read in Bede of the “bread of life,” “the holy bread;”[38] of a man dying without the “viaticum salutis;”[39] of another, inquiring, when at the point of death, of his attendant in a monastery, whether they had the “eucharist in the house?”[40] and though, on one occasion, the mass is spoken of as a _sacrifice_ (mysterii _immolatio_)[41], yet it may be contended that the term is Gregory’s own (for it occurs in the answer returned by him to Augustin’s queries), and that it cannot be fairly ascribed to the venerable historian himself. Meanwhile a canon, said to be of the age of archbishop Theodore, (and if so, more ancient than the history, and though written in Latin, accompanied by a Saxon translation, which, at any rate, pleads some antiquity in its favour,) argues the body of Christ to be present in the elements, not substantially, but spiritually; adding, that this mode is recognised by St. Paul, who speaks of the Israelites as “eating all of the same _spiritual_ meat, and drinking of that _spiritual_ rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.”[42] II. On the subject of _image worship_, the Anglo-Saxon church does not seem to have been altogether blameless. In the preface to the Laws of Alfred, though the other commandments are enumerated in their order, the second is omitted, only there is added after the rest.--“Thou shalt not make gods of silver or gold.” There must have been a reason for such a change in the positive terms and relative position of this law; and it is difficult to assign any reason but one.[43]