“Geald ðone gúðræs Geáta dryhten ... ofer máðmum sealde heora gehwæðrum hund þusenda landes and locenra beága.” Beów. l. 5977. ----- “And since there are both very numerous and very extensive tracts, which, to adopt the common saying, are of use neither to God nor man,—seeing indeed that in them there is neither maintained a regular life according to God’s law, nor are they possessed by the soldiers or comites of secular persons, who might defend our race from the barbarians,—if any one, to meet the want of our time, should establish an episcopal see in those places, he will be proved not to incur the guilt of prevarication, but rather to perform an act of virtue[525].” ----- Footnote 525: Bed. Epist. ad Ecgbirhtum Archiepiscopum, § 11. (Opera Min. ii. 216.) ----- And again, he continues: “By which example it behoves also your Holiness, in conjunction with our religious king, to abrogate the irreligious deeds and writings of our predecessors, and to provide for the general advantage of our kingdom, either in reference to God, or to the world: lest in our days, either through the cessation of religion, the love and fear of an inspector at home should be abandoned; or, on the other hand, the supply of our secular militia decreasing, we should not have those who might defend our boundaries from the incursions of barbarians. For, what is disgraceful to say, persons who have not the least claim to the monastic character, as you yourself best know, have got so many of these spots into their power, under the name of monasteries, that there is really now no place at all where the sons of nobles or veteran soldiers can receive a grant[526]. And thus, idle and unmarried, being grown up to manhood, they live on in no profession of chastity; and on this account, they either cross the sea and desert the country which they ought to serve with their arms; or, what is even more criminal and shameless, having no profession of chastity, they give themselves up to luxury and fornication, and abstain not even from the virgins consecrated to God[527].” ----- Footnote 526: We know that these grants were regulated by the rank and condition of the grantee. Beda, speaking of Benedict Biscop, a young Northumbrian nobleman, says, “Cum esset minister Oswii regis, et possessionem terrae suo gradui competentem, illo donante perciperet,” etc. Vit. Sci. Bened. § 1. (Op. Min. ii. 140.) Footnote 527: Epist. § 11. (Op. Min. ii. 217, 218.) -----