of priority established against the claims of either Celt or Saxon; they could only have been borrowers. It will be in vain to object that the Welsh applied the term, not to any particular feast, but to feasts in general; the meaning of words naturally widens and extends in the course of time, and nothing is more common than the transition from a special, to a general, application of them.

Lammas Day. This was another name for the first of August, which by some has been supposed to signify a Lamb-Mass, because on that day the tenants, who held lands of the Cathedral Church in York, which is dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula, were bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into the church at high mass. Others give the same derivation, but explain it by saying that "lambs were not then fit to eat, they were grown too big." Others again have imagined that it came from the Anglo-Saxon Hlafmaesse, i.e. Loaf-Mass, " because on that day the English made an offering of bread made with new wheat."*

On this day also became payable the so-called PeterPence, a tax levied to the amount of a penny upon every bearth or chimney throughout England, and which was likewise called Rome-feogh, Heard-Penny, or Rome-scot. The origin of this tax, or alms, is a matter of much doubt, having been attributed to various times and individuals. According to Mathew of Westminster, somewhere about the year 727, Ina, King of Wessex, leaving his kingdom to his relative, Æthelhard, set forth on a pilgrimage to Rome, where, with the consent of Pope Gregory, he established the Schola Anglorum, (the School of the Angles),†

Blount's Law Dictionary-sub voce Lammas.

+ I have rendered Schola Anglorum by School of the Angles, from a doubt whether the word, English, was in use so early as the reign of Ina. At all events the title of England was not applied to any part of the country until the time of Ecgberht, A.D. 800, when the mo

known afterwards under the name of Hospitale di S. Spirito in Vico de Sassia. The object of this institution was to bring up the English kings, priests, and laity, in the true Roman Catholic faith, for the schools in their own country had been so tainted with heresies, that from the time of Saint Augustine they had been interdicted by the Roman pontiffs. To defray the expence of the new establishment, as well as of some other pious freaks in which he indulged himself, Ina laid a penny-tax upon every family throughout the whole territory of the West Saxons, thus reminding one very strongly of Horace's "Quicquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi."

narch with the consent of his people in a parliament held at Winchester, ordered the name of his kingdom to be changed, and called England." A.D. D.C.C.C. Egbertus, rex totius Britanniæ, in parliamento apud Wintoniam, mutavit nomen regni de consensu populi sui, et jussit illud de cætero vocari Angliam."-HISTORIA FUNDATIONIS HOSPIT. S. LEONARDI, in Mon. Angl., vol. vi. p. 608.

At the same time it should be observed that the compound word, Anglo-Saxons, occurs first in Paul Warnefrid (lib. vi. c. 15)—“ Cedoaldus, rex Anglorum-Saxorum," and consequentlyy—as Lappenberg observes, who has also noticed this fact-before the time of Ecgberht.

"Anno gratiæ 727 Ina, rex felix et potens, Æthelhardo, cognato suo, regnum suum relinquens, Romam petiit ut pro regno temporali commutaret æternum. Quò cum pervenisset, fecit in civitate domum, consensu et voluntate Gregorii, papæ, quam scholam Anglorum appellari fecit. Ad quam reges Angliæ, et genus regium, cum episcopis, presbyteris, et clericis, in doctrina et fide catholica erudiendi venirent, ne quid in ecclesia Anglicana sinistrum aut catholicæ unitati contrarium doceretur, et sic in fide stabili roborati ad propria remearent. Erant enim doctrina et scholæ Anglorum, a temporibus sancti Augustini, per Romanos pontifices interdictæ propter assiduas hæreses quæ in adventu Anglorum in Britannia emerserant, dum pagani Christianis permixti sanctæ conversationis gratiam corruperant fidei Christianæ. Fecit propterea, juxta domum præfatam, ecclesiam in honorem beatæ Virginis Mariæ fabricari, in qua Anglis Romam advenientibus divina celebrarentur misteria, et in qua possent, si quem ex Anglis Romæ mori contingeret, sepeliri. Et, hæc omnia ut perpetuæ firmitatis

But a life of Offa, king of Mercia, which has been ascribed to Mathew of Paris, gives another version of this story. This prince, having greatly to his joy got rid of his wife, Queen Quendride, resolved to lead a life of celibacy, and, growing more pious every day, in this blessed state resolved to build a monastery in honour of the protomartyr, Saint Alban. To give the greater eclat to the

robur obtinerent, statutum est generali decreto per totum regnum occidentalium Saxonum, in quo predictus Ina regnabat, ut singulis annis de singulis familiis denarius unus, qui Anglicè Romescot appellatur, beato Petro et ecclesiæ Romanæ mitteretur, ut Angli ibidem commorantes vitale subsidium inde haberent." Flores Historiarum per Matthæum Westmonasteriensem Collecti. Vol. i. p. 265, folio, Londini, 1570.

It may seem strange that a man of Lord Campbell's learning and research should have been ignorant of an historical fact like this; yet it is plain that he was so, for we find him in his Lives of the Chancellors, (vol. i. p. 30), attributing the origin of Rome-scot to St. Swithin, who was not born till the commencement of the ninth century, or about a hundred years after the time of Ina. His words are these-" He (St. Swithin) was much admired by ecclesiastics of Rome, as well as in his own country, having first established in England for the benefit of the Pope the payment called Peter Pence. In consequence about fifty years after his death he was canonized." Had Lord Campbell known of very contrary statements being on the record, surely he would have noticed them. Even supposing that he chooses, as some others have done, to reject the authority of Mathew of Westminster, still there is the account of Mathew of Paris to be got over, who assigns this Peter-Pence to the invention of Offa, King of Mercia.

In regard, however, to Saint Swithin, that worthy gentleman will lose nothing with his friends by having this borrowed feather plucked from his wing, for quite enough of the same sort of merit will remain to give him a just claim to their unqualified admiration. On all occasions he showed himself a staunch friend to the Church at the expense of the people, and amongst other good deeds procured a law to be passed in the Wittenagemot for the universal and compulsory payment of tythes, as I have already mentioned; and it is probable that it was for this the monks thought proper to canonize him.

intended establishment, he was advised to visit Rome in person, that it might be privileged by the pope himself, a counsel to which he cheerfully acceded. Arrived at the eternal city, he is graciously received by the Roman Pontiff, who compliments him not a little on his celibacy,* and so wins him over by his kindness that he begins to think what he can do in return for it. At length, on en tering the "Schola Anglorum" next day, he is happily inspired with the idea † of laying a yearly tax of a penny upon every family in his kingdom, and the project is so highly approved of by the pontiff, that he consents to exempt every English penitent from undergoing exile in the accomplishment of his penance. ‡ And here again one can not help admiring the dexterity of the Roman See in

*

“Verè cœlebem vitam agentibus meritò mittendus fuit angelus, cùm castitate cognata sit puritas Angelica." MATTHEI PARIS-HISTORIA MAJOR, p. 29. Vita Offæ Secundi, folio, Londini, 1640. I ought perhaps to add, the Pope in this speech refers to the fact of an angel having been sent to King Offa to show him where to find the bones of Alban.

+ "His igitur auditis rex quid dignè tantæ benignitati compenset secum studiosè pertractat. Tandem divina inspirante gratia consilium invenit salubre, et in die crastina Scholam Anglorum, qui (quæ) tunc Romæ floruit, ingressus, dedit ibi ex Regali munificentia ad sustentationem gentis regni sui illuc venientis singulos argenteos de familiis singulis, omnibus in posterum diebus, singulis annis." Idem. p. 29. There is something exceedingly characteristic in this royal munificence, (regalis munificentia) which gives away other people's money, and the jest is heightened when we find the liberal and pious monarch especially exempting his new foundation of St. Albans from the impost-" excepta tota terra Sancti Albani suo monasterio conferenda, prout postea collata privilegia testantur." What between saints, kings, Danes, and Normans, our Saxon ancestors must have had a pleasant time of it.

"Ex hoc tali largitate obtinuit et conditione ut de regno Angliæ nullus publicè pœnitens pro executione sibi injunctæ pœnitentiæ subiret exilium." Id. p. 29.

turning every thing to the advantage of its treasury. Prohibitions were multiplied, and new moral duties imposed upon mankind, simply that the pontiff might make a profit by selling his exemptions from them. At first indeed it would seem that this Rome-scot was rather an alms granted by the Saxons for the benefit of their brethren, and not a tax to enrich the court of Rome, but it was speedily converted, in part at least, from its original intention, and found its way into the papal coffers. According to Thoms,* who quotes from Collet, the whole sum thus collected, amounted only to £200, 6s. 8d.— -a very nice calculation that only wanted the farthings, to be a perfect monument of antiquarian fidelity and learning.

The Transfiguration-August 6-"A feast celebrated by the Papists in memory of our Saviour's transfiguring himself upon Mount Thabor, and showing a glimpse of his glory to his apostles, St. Peter, St. James, and St. John. And his face, saith the text (Matt. xvii. 2,) shone as the sun, and his garment became white as snow."† Durandus says it was established by Pope Calixtus the Second, and not because the Transfiguration took place on that day, but because it was the day on which the event was published and made manifest by the apostles, who were with Christ upon the Mount. Baronius, however, quoting the most ancient Greek menologues and other sufficient authorities, maintains that the festival was of much older date than the time of Calixtus the Second.§

* Anecdotes and Traditions of early English History and Literature, p. 117. Qrto. London, 1839. Camden Society.

FESTA ANGLO-ROMANA, p. 94.

"Sequitur de festo Transfigurationis Domini, quod est in die beati Sexti, non quia tali die trasfiguratio facta sit, sed quia tūc ab Apostolis, qui secu fuernt in monte, fuit manifestata, publicata, et prædicata." DURANDI DIV. OFFIC. RAT., lib. vii., cap. 12, p. 294.

§ Institutio ejus solemnitatis longè ante ejus tempora facta conspicitur." BARONII MARTYROLOGIUM ROMANUM; Augusti 6, p. 497.