DECEMBEK 289 



Physicians, audaciously laying claim to superior powers, 

 easily came to get credit for them, and became known as 

 ' doctors ' more learned than the common folk. Some 

 of them were so bold as to pretend to skill in many things 

 beyond medicine. A curious medley of charms borrowed 

 from the Magi and Christian prayers is associated with 

 vivid scenes of early English pastoral life. Thus when a 

 man had lost his cattle, which must have been a common 

 occurrence in an unfenced country, the natural assump- 

 tion was that some evil-doer had driven them off. He 

 was directed to say his prayers three times to each quarter 

 of the heavens, and then cry ' The Jews hung up Christ ; 

 they did of deeds the worst ; they did that they could not 

 hide. So may this deed be no wise hidden, through the 

 Holy Rood of Christ.' 



In proportion as the Church became all-powerful in 

 human society, prayers became ingredients in prescrip- 

 tions as commonly as any drug ; and it was considered 

 important that, like drugs, they should be ' exhibited ' in 

 proper proportions. Hence a table of equivalents was 

 prepared as follows : 



One mass was reckoned equal to twelve days' fasting. 



Ten masses were reckoned four months' 

 Twenty masses ,, eight months' 



Thirty masses twelve months' 



One psalm was reckoned one day's 



120 psalms were reckoned twelve months' 



Happy the patient or criminal who could afford to pay 

 for having psalms and masses sung ! 



Christianity, by the time it reached the pagan Saxons, 

 had lost its pristine purity, and the light it shed on the 

 physical world had become tinged with earth-born rays. 

 T 



