PARISH PRIEST ADMINISTERING LAST SACRAMENT.
XIV. CENT. MS., 6 E. VII., f. 70.
CHAPTER XVI.
POPULAR RELIGION.
n Saxon times, the Creed, Lord’s Prayer, and Ten Commandments were taught to the people in their own tongue, sometimes in metrical paraphrases, that they might the more easily be remembered, and every parent was required to teach them to his children.
A canon of the Synod of Clovesho, in 747, required the priest to explain everything in the Divine service to the people, and the Gospel for the day was read to them in the vernacular. The poem of Cædmon, which paraphrased large portions of the Old Testament history, was not the only use of the native poetry for the purpose of popularizing the truths of religion; we call to mind how Aldhelm used to sit on the parapet of the bridge over which the country-people must needs pass into Malmesbury, and sing to them religious poems, to the accompaniment of his harp. King Alfred translated the psalms, and there were various other versions of the psalms and other portions of Scripture.