THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. SWITHIN.*
Mn.. EARLE has produced an exhaustive antiquarian edition of two interesting Anglo-Saxon fragments. We rather grudge him the digression to minor matters while his edition of the "Saxon Chro- nicle" is still unfinished, but undoubtedly no more competent editor could have been found for these west-country manuscripts than one who is a sound philologist and a keeii antiquarian. The photographic fac-similes he has annexed are a great advance on the first effort of the Ordnance Survey Office, and though we still regard them as a pretty ornament rather than as essentially useful, they are at least more in their place here than in the republication of "Domesday." Fortunately, Mr. Earle has not confinea himself to reproducing the
manuscript with its o difficulties. He has given the text with a literal translation and criticalnotes ; he reviews the history of St. Swithiu's life in a spirited essay, and he adds illustrative pieces which will go far to make future labour on the saint's life superfluous. In the case of the second fragment from the life of St. Mary of Egypt, there was, of course, no room for historical illustration. Here, therefore, Mr. Earle's original labours are confined to a short account of the legend.
It is disappointine,,, to find that, after all, so little can be said with certainty of one of the few Saxon saints who is still popularly remem- bered, and who grew up when Egbert was founding the royalty of Wessex. Swithin seems to have been born near Winchester, about the year 800. He became Prior of the old Abbey of Winchester, was tutor to King /Ethelwulf, and in 852 was made Bishop of Winchester. All that can be said, certainly, of his episcopal labours is, that he built a stone bridge by the east gate of the city, which excited the ad- miration of his contemporaries; and that he appears, on the evidence of a genuine charter, to have granted King Bthelbald a life tenure of the property of the see at Farnham, on condition that it should be restored after his death. Probably the concession was extorted by violence, for Swithin was not the man to give away church property, and the fact is some reason for supposing that the Bishop had taken part against Athelbald in the previous contest between father and son. There is a tradition that the grant of tithe, with which /Ethel- wulf saddled the kingdom for religious purposes, was due to the counsels of Swithin; but the very fact of the grant is doubtful, and the charters which couple it with Swithin's name were rejected by Mr. Kemble as spurious. Mr. Earle suggests, with high probability, that Swithin may have been among the compilers of the "Saxon Chronicle." His nomination to be Ethelvrulf's tutor shows that he was a man of repute for learning, and the number of such men in Wessex during the ninth century cannot have been great. It is possible, too, that he accompanied Prince Alfred in the first journey to Rome, which fell in 853, the year after his own appointment to Winchester, and when he might naturally wish to apply in person fot the pallium. But /Ethelbald's usurpation or his lands probably shows that he remained in England perhaps with some vice-regal powers, when Ethelnulf went on the pilgrimage of 855, and if tradition is right in ascribing strong church sentiments to him, it is possible that he had some share in provoking the insurrection which mt lthelwulf on his return. It was the misfortune of the times that a gisod man, such as Dunstan afterwards was, might be almost more dae ierous to the king whom he influenced or the Church over Which heguresided, than a warlike or inactive prelate. Swithin seems to haved about 863. It is said that he ordered his grave to be made" vile vile Illace under the eaves-droppings outside the church
on the nor;t" ore than a century later, Athelwold, one of Dun-
Swithin and Sancta Maria ..d3gyptioca. With Photozincogrsphic
FeesZi' e"7"0 John Earle, late Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Longman and CO. stan's firmest supporters, and Bishop of Winchester, removed the body of his great predecessor to a sumptuous grave within the cathedral. A vision had revealed where the saint lay, and miracles attended the transportation of his body, and made his shrine famous. Of those he worked in his lifetime, the most notable seems to have been that lie once blessed some broken eggs, and restored them in whole shells to their owner, a poor woman. One of more serious interest tells how a certain nobleman, walking by the side of a river at noontide, became aware of three women "of more than human stature, who rapidly and furiously bore down upon him. He could not escape— they seized him and maltreated him and left him as dead. He was brought to Swithin and presently restored." Mr.Earle regards these as the "three Fates of Scandinavian mythology." We are inclined rather to compare them with the "wise women," or "sea-wives"of the Nibe- lunge Not, one of whom Hagen surprises as she is bathing, on his journey to Etzel's court, and forces her to foretel his fortunes, al- though seemingly she has no power over them. Classical readers will remember the stories of Proteus and the Sirens, and the super- stition that divine vengeance overtook the man who saw a nymph. Another legend, in which a mutilated criminal is restored at St. Swithin's shrine to the use of his limbs, we notice chiefly. because Mr. Earle founds an argument on it that the narrative must belong to a late date when Norman rulers had introduced barbarous punishments. Without disputing his conclusion, we think his grounds insufficient. It is true that the Saxon laws are comparatively mild for freemen, but under lithelstan death was introduced as the punishment for theft, and slaves guilty of it might be burned alive,while false colliers under Edgar were mutilated. In fact, the theory of punishment fluctuated between death and mutilation, the latter being often regarded as especially useful to deter from crime. The most interesting mention of Swithin's name in a miracle is in the legend of Queen Edith walking between the hot ploughshares, when it seems that her escape was due to the saint's intercession. Our readers will, perhaps, wonder that we have said nothing hitherto of Swithin's influence over the weather. Un- luckily the legend that connects him with it is purely apocryphal. His day falls at a time when there is generally more or less a change of weather, and as this was observed, and a rule hastily built up out of a few instances, a mythical explanation grew up, based, no doubt, upon the fact of the saint's humble burial-place and subsequent translation. It is curious to find that a similar superstition prevails in Germany, France, and Belgium, where, however, it is connected with other names.
The beautiful legend of St. Mary of Egypt is one of a very ancient class, and serves to illustrate the profound corruption of society against which Christianity was the first effectual protest. "After a course of early profligacy in Egypt, she went on board a ship at Alex- andria that was bound for Palestine with pilgrims to the Festival of the holy Cross. Her only impulse was to share the throng and the excite- ment. She continued in her evil courses until the hour when she joined the multitude that was crowding to the solemnfty. She entered the court or outer yard of the church, and was borne along by the cur- rent towards the door of the building,. But here her progress was stayed. Those who were on either side of her moved on and passed the door—she alone continued in her place. She resolved to advance, but some mysterious power restrained her. This miraculous repulse brought on reflection and then compunction, and she vowed to the Blessed Virgin whose effigy looked forth upon her from the wall of the church, that if she might be admitted to approach her holy Cross, she would spend the rest of her life in mortification and pe- nance. The resolve formed and the vow uttered, she entered the church without impediment. Having satisfied her aspiration and con- cluded her devotions, she went from under the till' of the blessed Virgin in the desert." There she stayed till her clothes rotted of
i her, and she was only clad in her hair, n which state she was found blackened and gaunt by her biographer Zosimas. He demanded her blessing and saw her as she prayed lifted into the air to hold nearer converse with heaven. Year V year he visited her to administer the Eucharist to her ; on the third occasion she was found dead at their meetingplace ; when a lion scooped out a grave for her, and Zosimas gave her Christian burial. The fragment of her life edited by Mr. Earle has no biographical interest, but is valuable philologically- as a specimen of twelfth century Anglo-Saxon, while the Life of St. Swithin was written about 985.
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