It is evident, says Johnson, that “holy night” means “lenten night,” as the context shows.
[xi] Incense in the Anglo-Saxon Church.
Dr. Rock, in his “Hierurgia Anglicans,” states that incense was used at the Gospel. In vol. i., quoting from Ven. Bede, he writes —“Conveniunt omnes in ecclesium B. Petri ipse (Ceolfridas Abbas) thure incenso, et dicto oratione, ad altare pacem dat omnibus, stans in gradibus, thuribulum habens in menu.” In Leofric’s Missal is a form for the blessing of incense. Theodore’s Penitential also affixes a penance to its wilful or careless destruction. Ven. Bede on his deathbed gave away incense amongst his little parting presents, as his disciple, Cuthbert, relates. Amongst the furniture of the larger Anglo-Saxon churches was a huge censer hanging from the roof, which emitted fumes throughout the mass.
“Hic quoque thuribulum, capitellis undique cinctum,
Pendet de summo, fumosa foramina pandens:
De quibus ambrosia spirabunt thura Sabæa,
Quando sacerdotes missas offerre jubentur.”
Alcuini Opera, B. ii,, p. 550.
[xii] Psalm xxi. 3.
[xiii] “All were indignant at the shameless deed, and murmured amongst themselves,” —William of Malmesbury.
[xiv] The Welsh were driven from Exeter by King Athelstane; before that time, Englishmen and Welsh had inhabited it with equal rights.
[xv] The earliest inhabitants of Ireland were called Scots.
[xvi] Legends about St. Dunstan.
“It is a great pity,” says Mr. Freeman, in his valuable “Old English History,” “that so many strange stories are told about him [Dunstan], because people are apt to think of those stories and not of his real actions.” This has indeed been the case to such an extent that his talents, as a statesman and as an ecclesiastical legislator, are almost unknown to many who are very familiar with the story of his seizing the devil by the nose with a pair of tongs. Sir Francis Palgrave supposes that St. Dunstan’s seclusion at the time had led him to believe, like so many solitaries, that he was attacked in person by the fiend, and that he related his visions, which were accepted as absolute facts by his credulous hearers. Hence the author has assumed the currency of some of these marvellous legends in his tale, and has introduced a later one into the text of the present chapter. But the whole life of the saint, as related by his monkish biographers, is literally full of such legends, some terrible, some ludicrous. One of the most remarkable deserves mention, bearing, as it does, upon our tale. It is said that he learned that Edwy was dead, and that the devils were about to carry off his soul in triumph, when, falling to fervent prayer, he obtained his release. A most curious colloquy between the abbot and the devils on this subject may be found in Osberne’s “Life of Dunstan.”