A. D. 732. 247 



After feeing the deplorable decay of fcience among theGreeksand Rom- 

 ans, as it appears in the work of Cofmas, &c. it is not a little furprifmg, 

 that fuch remote countries as Britain and Ireland fhould produce fome 

 geniufes, who foared above the darknefs of their age, and ventured to 

 alFert, that the earth, which we inhabit, is a globe, and that there are 

 people on the oppofite fide of it. Virgil, bifhop of Sultzburg in Ger- 

 many, for maintaining thefe truths was condemned as a heretic by the 

 philanthropic Pope Zacharia, who was greatly alarmed at fuch dan- 

 gerous dodirine. In the ftrange revolutions, which often took place in 

 the affairs of the clergy, the heretical philofopher was afterwards can- 

 onized as a faint, I know not for what merit, but furely not for his 

 fcience. Ireland has the honour of having produced this enlightened 

 faint *. 



75 3 — The Saxons and their affociates, who make their firff appear- 

 ance in hiftory as the tremendous mafters of the Ocean, and the dread 

 of all the maritime provinces of the weilern Roman empire, feem, after 

 their complete fettlement in Britain, and their converlion to the Chrifl- 

 ian religion, to have entirely changed their national character. The 

 ufe of arms was generally abandoned ; all thoughts of naval affairs were 

 given up ; and their ftiips, the chief inffrument of their conquefts, as 

 no longer of any ufe, were allowed to rot upon the beach. Vaft num- 

 bers of people of all ranks, kings and queens not excepted, perfuaded 

 that a life of retirement from fecular cares and bufmefs was the moft 

 pleafing to the Deity, renounced the world, and fhut themfelves up in 

 monafteries f . The event was fuch as feems to have been almoft pre- 

 dided by Bede. \_H?Ji. cedes. L. v, c. 23 ; Epifi. ad Egberd.'] The mi- 

 feries which the nations had fuffered from their anceftors were now as 

 fully inflided upon them by the ferocious roving warriors defcended of 

 their own remote anceflors, who, under the names of Danes, Norwe- 

 gians, or Normans, fucceeded to the naval dominion of the Northern 

 ocean. The firft outrage of thofe plunderers, which is recorded, was 

 upon the coaft of Thanet. [Chronol. Aiigujlin. ap. T^zvyjden, col. 2,236.] 

 Succeeding incurfions harafled and ruined England, till the invaders 

 effeded ft-ttlements for themfelves in the eaft part of the country ; and 

 at laffc a dynafty of Danifli kings were for a fhort time feated upon the 

 throne of England. 



* We have feen the rotundity of the earth con- ' were in this kingdom more monks than miUtary- 



demned as herely two hundred years before this ' men ; and to this bad policy fome have not . 



time by Cofmas, an Egyptian Greek,. and now by ' fcrupled to attribute the fiiccefs of the Danes in , 



the infalh'ble head of the Roman church. But ' their feveral vifitations.' \Ha'U>k'ini's Hi/}, of mn- 



Photiiis, the patriarch of Conllantinople in the Jic, F. ii, />. 261.] That Scotland was not alfo 



ninth century, was more enlightened, for he repre- conquered by the northern invaders, may with 



hcnds a namelefs author, apparently Cofmas, for great probability be afcribed to the fmaller influ- 



denying that the earth is a globe. \_BlbliDtheca, ence of monaftic fuperftition in that lefs opulent 



cod. 36.] _ country. 



f ' It is faid, that in the ninth century there 



