cousins was common, but—what is much more surprising—that the marriage with a father’s widow was so likewise. Nor can we doubt this, when we not only find recorded cases of its occurrence, but when we have a Teutonic king distinctly affirming it to be the legal custom of his people: in the sixth century Ermengisl king of the Varni can say, “Let Radiger my son marry his step-mother, even as our national custom permits[898];” and therefore when we find Beda speaking of a similar marriage, and declaring Eádbald to have been “fornicatione pollutus tali qualem nec inter gentes auditam Apostolus testatur, ita ut uxorem patris haberet[899],” or Asser on another such occasion saying that it was “contra Dei interdictum, et Christianorum dignitatem, nec non et contra omnium Paganorum consuetudinem,” we can only suppose that they either did not know, or that they deemed it advisable not to recognise, the ancient heathen practice. ----- Footnote 896: “Nam prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt, exceptis admodum paucis, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur.” Tac. Germ. xviii. Footnote 897: See Felix’s letter, Bed. Op. Min. ii. 239. He not only expresses his own surprise, but adds that other clergymen had been greatly disturbed by Gregory’s departure from the rule of the church: “non modicum murmur super hac re nobiscum versatur.” Gregory replies in some detail, and especially says: “Quod autem scripsi Augustino, Anglorum gentis episcopo, alumno videlicet, ut recordaris, tuo, de consanguinitatis coniunctione, ipsi et Anglorum genti, quae nuper ad fidem venerat, ne a bono quod coeperat metuendo austeriora recederet, specialiter et non generaliter caeteris me scripsisse cognoscas.” Bed. Op. Min. ii. 242. The following are the directions referred to:—“Quinta interrogatio Augustini. Usque ad quotam generationem fideles debeant cum propinquis sibi coniugio copulari? et novercis et cognatis si liceat copulari coniugio? Respondit Gregorius. Quaedam terrena lex in Romana republica permittit ut, sive frater et soror, seu duorum fratrum germanorum, vel duarum sororum filius et filia misceantur; sed experimento didicimus ex tali coniugio sobolem non posse succrescere, et Sacra Lex prohibet cognationis turpitudinem revelare. Unde necesse est ut iam tertia vel quarta generatio fidelium licenter sibi iungi debeat; nam secunda, quam praediximus, a se omni modo debet abstinere. Cum noverca autem miscere grave est facinus, quia et in Lege scriptum est, ‘Turpitudinem patris tui non revelabis’.... Quia vero sunt multi in Anglorum gente qui, dum adhuc in infidelitate essent, huic nefando coniugio dicuntur admixti, ad fidem venientes admonendi sunt ut se abstineant et grave hoc esse peccatum cognoscant.” The correspondence with Felix apparently refers to further regulations on the subject which are no longer found in the copies of Gregory’s answers to Augustine.