GLASTONBURY.

ON Tuesday, in a formula of fine simplicity and feeling. the Archbishop of Canterbury accepted on behalf of the Church of England the site and ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. It will now be the duty of the Archbishop and his Advisory Council to decide to what use the Abbey property shall be put. On the same day the millenary of the See of Wells was celebrated, and we cannot fail to compare the inflneuces, dissimilar in all but their potency, of those two famous places, Glastonbury and Wells, in the history of the English Church and people. Glastonbury alone, or nearly alone, among the ancient churches of England has an unbroken record of Christian worship from the days of the early Britons through the Roman and English periods down to almost modern times. It is a pity and a shame that the record should have been spoiled through the Abbey ceasing to be used for worship when the property fell into ruins and passed into private hands after the dissolution of the monasteries. But at this moment we may forget the dis- credit, for the Church of England has come into her own again; and wo remember only with wonder and pride that Glastonbury was preserved when every other early church perished in the storms of conquest. As Freeman (himself A devout son of the Glastonbury country) has said, " it is oft any allowing a tie between the Briton and the Englishman, between the older Christianity of our island and the newer." But Glastonbury chose the monastic) way of life, and Wells di4 not. The usefulness of Glastonbury came to an end, while Wells, in touch with the life of the people at every point, has survived all the vicissitudes of a thousand years. Thus the system of the secular clergy prevailed—justly prevailed—over that of the "regulars" after a dispute which had lasted hundreds of years, and which had continually brought the Benedictine monks of Glastonbury into conflict with the episcopal authority of Wells. Who shall say that Glaston- bury, once again on the better road towards the service of the nation through the recognised apparatus of the Nation0 Church, will • not survive so long that the period of her extinction will seem but as a day ?

Glastonbury stands in country comparable with that round

2IY Cathedral. The fen has been drained and reclaimed ; but one has only to mark bow quickly banks fall away and the land returns to its primitive state to perceive that the agri- culturist is, as it were, holding back the flood with one hand While he digs with the other. In bad winters one may still see the plains occasionally turned into a sea, and picture what the country was like in the days when, as legend supposes, Joseph of Arimathea arrived, planted his staff, which became the sacred thorn, on Wearyull Hill, built the first Christian church in England, and deposited the Holy Grail. Discount the monkish legends as much as we may—with monks the invention of dignified history for their churches was almost its much en act of piety as building the churches—

and there still remains such a wealth of historical and literary association at Glastonbury as graces few other places in the world. The Celtic lays Vitrin became the Avallonia of the Romans and the Avalon of the Arthurian cycle. The early

British church was the reputed burying-place of St. Patrick, and the succeeding Saxon church built by King Inc, who died

as a Benedictine monk at Rome, became the home of Dunstan's

labour. Ruins of the Norman Abbey, despite all the quarrying of the countryside in days even more vandalistic than our OM],

still stand, and there is of course that famous and curious PYramidal building, the Abbot's Kitchen. The first church at Glastonbury is described by Wordsworth as " Joseph of Arimathea's wattled cell," and in an admirably learned series of Papers on Glastonbury which are before us in a small volume "led " Chapters on the Early History of Glastonbury Abbey"

(Taunton : Barnicott and Pearce, the Wessex Press) the Rev. NV, • H. P. Greswell gives a picture of the church as it is presented in Spelman's " Concilia " , "How long the wattled cell' stood in its first place is not known. Down in the Glastonbury Lake Villaeo, remains of fts

eines and of wood work, especially of alder wood, which stands long submersion, have been exhumed from the peat, so remark- able for its preservative qualities, but on the slopes of St. !!lolt!tol Tor the conditions for moorland peat do not exist, Tradition says that when (c. 160) Faminus and Diruvianus came to Britain, they found the old church existing, and that they added one of stone, and dedicated it to SS. Peter and Paul. They also built a chapel to S. Michael on the top of the Tor itself, where, afterwards, a church arose with monastic building's distinct from the Abbey, and the Abbey Church below. The account (which smacks of Rome) goes on to say that Diruvianus and 1aminus returned to Rome, and got a 30 years' Indulgence to all Chnstocolai who visited the old church."

14'11441 St. Augustine came on his famous mission to England in the time of Gregory the Great Glastonbury was already

;uffinly established church. In the Manchester Gaardian of

'Tuesday we read that quite recently Mr. Bligh Bond has made some discoveries of extraordinary interest at Glastonbury. "A

few feet below the surface he lighted upon some foundations

of massive masonry, evidently of a date far older than any- thing hitherto known at Glastonbury. They are rectangular

in ground-plan, dating from pre-Norman times, and are of unusually large dimensions for a Saxon church. It is thought that they may be all that is left of the fair church which King Ice is Supposed to have built. Of even greater interest from an archaeological point of view is his discovery of a square chapel behind the east end. The existence of such a chapel was suggested by tradition, but somewhat hotly denied by

antiquaries. To set the matter at rest, a few years ago Mr. St. John Hope dug a trench right across the spot where it

was supposed to be, so that if the foundations were there he

would be sure to strike them. And he found nothing. Mr. 1.31igh Bond, however, was not satisfied. He opened up a

much larger area, and laid bare the complete foundations of the chapel, making the further discovery that Mr. St. John Hope had missed them by a matter of inches." Every schoolboy knows the story of the last Abbot of Glaston- I'llrY, the unhappy Whiting, who was hanged, beheaded, and quartered on the Tor above his Abbey for doing no more than defend the property which he believed to be his sacred charge against the demands of Henry VIII. and Thomas Cromwell.

But as Glastonbury is the site of the oldest church in England, the mind naturally occupies itself most with the obscure connexions between what Freeman has called the older and the newer Christianity,—between the Celtic and Anglican Churches. One cannot help regretting that act of self-abnegation by King Inc in becoming a Benedictine monk and going to Rome. When he put off his kingly robe, he put

off, as it were, all the history of the ancient British Church. He consented to its being swallowed up in the monk-made history of Christianity. It is a bad business to trust to the monks for history, for Rome at all costs had to be represented as supreme, and when there was no evidence how an existing Church bad been established, the credit was appropriated for Roman missionaries. Augustine referred apparently to Glastonbury and the Celtic Church in the following words addressed to Gregory :— "In the west part of Britain there is a certain Royal Island called of old Glascon, large in circuit, compassed about with lakes and waters, plentifully abounding in fish and furnished with most things required for man's use, and (which is the special thing) dedicated to holy uses. Hero the first disciples of the Catholic Law found an ancient church, not built, as was reported, by men's hands, but prepared by God Himself for the benefit of mon, and which by miracles was showed to be consecrated to Himself and the blessed Virgin. To which they (i.e. the first disciples of the Catholic. Law) adjoined another oratory made of stone, which they dedicated to Christ and S. Peter."

Who were these first disciples of the Catholic Law P Mr. Greswell supposes that the allusion is to St. David or to St. Patrick. The church which the monkish chroniclers could not admit bad been built by " men's hands" was none the less built by the Celtic Church. It is impossible to examine here the evidence as to the extent and solidity of the Celtic Church, but we must quote this passage from Spelman's " Concilia" :- " When therefore S. Augustine had come to England ho found in Wales an Archbishop and a most noble Abbey- in the district (civitas) of Bangor divided into seven parts in each of which 300 monks were living by their own labour. Their Abbot was called Dynochus (Dinoth) a wise cleric and well instructed in the seven liberal arts. Augustine coining to him demauded that ho should show submission to him as a Legate sent by the Pope and the Roman Curia into this land, also he asked that he should assist him by preaching (priedicando)—but Dynochua refused both things."

Mr, G reswell supposes that Glastonbury was regarded as shrine to which came the pilgrims of the Celtic Church. And he believes that the Celtic Church had its own canons,

constitutions, synods, services, and general discipline, as well ins a distinct body of sound doctrine. Its system was mainly monastical, but it was above all a missionary Church as became the character of its well-known sailor saints. In the "Libor Landaveusis " we see that the Episcopal See of Llandaff was marked out at a very early date. Celtic Bishops were elected who owed no allegiance to Rome.

Mr. Greswell asks if the ancient archbishopric of Caerleon might not be re-established and be set over the Welsh dioceses as (hey stand. He concludes :- " And with Caorleon we associate Glastonbury. Tho old Abbey has a now lease of life before it under the wings of the Auglican church. Might it not become again a source of inspiration P Night it not become in some way is missionary college—a college of S. Martini or of S. David, sending forth enthusiastic workers to Celtic Britain again and crossing the easy barriers of the Severn Sea? Not a college of S. Augustine, the disciple of S. Benedict and the follower of his ' role, for this introduces an idea that socuis after all somewhat alien to the original spirit of Ynys Witrin. The Welshman of to-day might welcome back an archbishoprics of Caorleon or Llandaff, restored after the old model with its roots deep down in the history of the land, and he might Welcome a college at Glastonbury taking him back to his own patron saint, S. David, and the earlier examples of apostolic timos."

At least let us admit that this is a very interesting and romantic solution of the problem of what the Church of England should do at Glastonbury.

Before we leave the subject of Glastonbury and its Abbey we should like to ask whether any of our readers can recall the words of a ballad in the Somersetshire dialect describing the sack of the Abbey by the mob. Professor Freeman was, we believe, fond of reciting it. It is possibly to be found among the ballads in the Percy Collection, which were not published till some thirty years ago. The first line of the refrain ran "I tell thee what, good feller, before the friars went hence."