[627] Opera, tom. vi. col. 296 (ed. of 1617). The history of these and other dark times shows us, however, occasional bright and isolated glimpses of the existence of true Christianity in general society and in the cloisters. In the personal history of Luther, for example, few circumstances are more interesting than the fact of Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Order of Augustine Monks of Germany, earnestly and tenderly assisting the young and distressed monk of Erfurth to arrive at a knowledge of salvation by faith alone (as laid down in the Scriptures—a copy of which he presented to him), and not by works.
[628] See Sir John Dalyell’s Fragments of Scottish History, p. 11.
[629] Polydor. Vergilii Angl. Histor. (Bull 1570), p. 633.
[630] See his History of Great Britain, vol. vi. p. 434.
[631] See the whole details given more fully and broadly in the Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries, published by the Camden Society, p. 58, etc.
[632] See his Supplication of Beggars, presented to Henry VIII. in 1530.
[633] “Insuper hoc tempore (A.D. 1282) apud Invirchethin in hebdomada paschæ, sacerdos parochialis Johannes, Priapi prophana parans, congregatis ex villa puellulis, cogebat eas, choreis factis, Libero patri circuire; ut ille feminas in exercitu habuit, sic iste, procacitatis causa membra humana virtuti seminariæ servantia super asserem artificiata ante talem choream præferebat, et ipse tripudians cum cantantibus motu mimico omnes inspectantes et verbo impudico ad luxuriam incitabat,” etc. See the Chronicon de Lanercost, p. 109.
[634] George Bannatyne’s Ancient Scottish Poems (1770), p. 42.
[635] King James’s Works, p. 301.
[636] Cardani, Philosophi ac Medici, Opera, tome ix. p. 135.