— 209 — 



rédigée. Walker y examine et réfute un passage de V Histoire d'An- 

 gleterre par David Hume, sur St. Dunstan l'illustre archevêque de 

 Cantorbéry, et touchant l'origine des bénédictins. Cette missive, datée 

 de Rome le S juin 1762 , est adressée à un ami de l'auteur, nommé 

 André Lumisden. Nous la publions ici : 



Rome , 5 juin 1762. 

 Sir: 



It seems, at the flrst sight , of very little importance to the world to be 

 ascertained of the truth of what M.'' Hume relates in his History of England 

 concerning S. Dunstan (1) and the bénédictin monks ; that is wether S- 

 Dunstan was the (irst that brought over into England that order or not.This 

 point seems, I say, to be of so Utile importance that he cites no authority 

 for it. However 1 cannot but think that Mj Hume bas humanity enough to 

 beUeve every thing of conséquence to an historian , which affects any body 

 of men, or even any individual nowliving. 



When you red over to me the article concerning S. Dunstan , I whas 

 sorry to see an aulhor of his importance fall so easily into an error which 

 brings an injust refleclion on a body of which j bave the honor to be a 

 member ; but still I should bave been silent on the occasion, had I not feared 

 that you would hâve interprète my silence into an approbation of that au- 

 thor's opinion. 



Two motives now engage me to trouble you with thèse few indigest 

 animadversions on that subject : the first is that author's reputed impar- 

 tiality : the errors of such writers are of too rauch conséquence to be over- 

 looked. Partial writers may advance what they please : men of sensé 

 always read them with due circumspection. In the second place your supe- 

 riour judgement , and the many other amiable qualities for which I hâve 

 always esteemed you, make me désirons of convincing you of the truth of 

 whati advanced lately to you on that subject. 



Many are the arguments that j could produce to prove that S. Austin and 

 his companions who came to preach the Gospel to the Saxons in England 

 where of the bénédictin order; and that in his time that order had ite fon- 

 dation in England :, bul I shall content myself with producing only a few, 

 remitting you for more, if yen think the controversy worlhyour notice, to 

 F. Reyner's àpostolatus BenedicUnorum in Anglia (2). 



(1) Saint Dunstan , l'un des patrons de l'Angleterre catholique , vivait au X.* 

 siècle. Fondateur et premier abbé du monastère de Glastonbury, il fut ensuite évêque 

 de Worcester et archevêque de Cantorbéry. Dunstan est mort en 988. 



(2). On s'étonne queReyner n'ait point d'article dans nos biographies dites uni- 

 verselles. U parait d'ailleurs que le véritable auteur de V àpostolatus etc., n'est pas 

 Reyner, mais bien A. Baker. Voyez nos Nouveaux Analectes Hist., p. 170. 



U 



