was, had it not had other sources than these purely English to draw
from. And, of all kinds of help-bringers, we owe much to the monks, and
chiefly the great Benedictine order. King Alfred had to do his work at a
time when things were at a low ebb in the English monasteries. You will
remember how he bewailed the poor state of learning in England, and the
ignorance of the clergy; a state very different indeed from that of the
old days of St Bede and Alcuin. After Alfred's time there came a
revival--and revival in life means revival in work. So we get much good
prose literature, and, through the monks, note well, we have it, fed
from whatever old lore was then to be got at.

I have reminded you of England's great debt to Ireland through St Aidan
and others. I must tell you of a record of St Bede's, which shows how
gladly Ireland in old days, as ever, shared the priceless gift which she
of all countries, received with the most passionate entireness and held
with the most unswerving steadfastness. It was in the year 664 that
there was a great pestilence, raging both in England and Ireland. At the
time there were many Englishmen in Ireland who had gone there, "either
for the sake of divine studies, or of a more continent life"; some of
them, he says, became monks, and others devoted themselves to study,
"going about from one master's cell to another." "The Scots (that is the
Irish) willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with
food, as also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching,
gratis."

Where should we be but for the work done in the monasteries? How can we
be grateful enough for what went on there in the way of thought,
research and the collecting of materials, in addition to the work of
teaching: all fed by the life of prayer and praise and self-denial? Let
us try to think about the quiet, patient work of scholars and students;