512 



Of the Bénédictins being in England in the year 709, which ,g slill ear- 

 iier , au undeniablc proof is found in the bull of pope Constantin in 709 for 

 the foundingthe said abby ofEvisliani, the original slgn'd by the pope with 

 the approbations of the two liings Kenred and Offa , and of Egwin , bishop 

 of Worcesier, is in tiie above Arundel library : «Constantinus, servus ser- 

 » vorum Dei, Birthwaldo, Britanniarum ecclesiae primati, salntem et apos- 



« tolicam benedictionem quatenus ibidem congregatio monachorum 



» secundum regulani memorandi patris Benedicti , etc. « 



Many other monuments of the same purport might be brought ; but it 

 would talie a volume to transcribe them ail. 



Alcuin , who lived 2 centuries before Dunstan , writing to his brethren 

 the monks of Jarrow, a monastery on the banks of the Tine, says in one of 

 his epistles ! « Vos vero qui estis patres et pastores S. Congregationis , do- 

 n cete regulam S- Benedicti in conventu fratrum , ad cujus institutionem 

 « unusquisque corrigat vitam suam , ut quod Deo vovistis, ante altare in- 

 » violabiliter custodiatur a vobis , dicente propheta : vovete et reddite 

 » D. Deo vestro; displicet enim Deo infîdelis promissio , etc. » By the 

 above passage we learn that the monks of Jarrow, in the time of Alcuin 

 vowed to foUow the rule of S. Bennet ; and of conséquence we may see the 

 falshood of what M.' Hume advances, when he says that monasteries, 

 before the time of Dunstan, where only an union of secular priests, who lived 

 without wows ; and thèse pries! , he says , were a kind of regular can- 

 nons ; weras the title of regular cannons was never given, as 1 could learn. 

 to priests who did not live under wows. Regularcannons were those who . 

 professing obédience to some luie , were so called to distinguish them 

 from who professed none , which last were called secular cannons. The 

 bénédictins who officiated in Canterbury and other cathedral churches in 

 England were always stiled regular cannons, till liie time of their expul- 

 sion in the reign of Henry the VIII. This title of regular cannons , given 

 to the Bénédictins in England , has sometime.s forreign historians into mis- 

 takes ; from their not havingseen the Bénédictins in tne cathedra! churches 

 of other countries , lliey imagined thèse regular cannons to hâve been of 

 the rule of S. Austin , not considering tliat the title of cannons regular be- 

 longs equally as well to any religions order, whatever which enjoys cano- 

 nicates in cathedrals , as to those of S. Austin. 



It wouid be useless to go about to seek furtbcr arguments on a subject , 

 where our adversaries never could bring the value of one single positive 

 citation in their faveur older than Baronius : who is said to hâve taken a 

 dislike to the bénédictin monks , because those of Mount Cassin refused to 

 trust their mssto him out oftheirownhands. From hencehe issaid to hâve 

 conceived a dislike to the order, and to hâve endeavoured to rob them of the 

 honour of having produced so great a pope asGregory and of having con verted 

 Ihe Saxons in England by Ausliu.But whatever induced him to tha t treatment 

 of the monks , the ennemies ef monachism , since his time , hâve always 

 adhered to his assertion, not corroboratingitby positive arguments, but 



