cup, and received the Sacrament himself, afterwards giving it in one
kind to the clergy and laity, while the deacon followed with the
chalice. Before the Communion it was a custom taken from Gaul, which
lasted in England up to the Reformation, that the Bishop, if present,
should bless the people. A hymn was sung during the communion of the
people; the ancient "Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord" remains
still to us from a Celtic source for use at this time. The service
ended with a "Let us pray" and collect after Communion, closely
followed by the second of the alternative post-communion prayers now in
our English office. Immediately after this prayer the deacon said
"Ite, missa est" ("Go: it is the dismissal").

In the English services to-day, while much is changed, and the language
is our own, we can still trace very much that has been used
continuously since the day when S. Augustine first said the whole
office of the Church on British soil.

Much more might be said; but this may suffice to illustrate the
interest and importance which belong to sacraments and liturgical rites
in the ages of which we speak.

[1] Edmund Bishop, "The Genesis of the Roman Rite," in _Essays on
Ceremonial_, 1904.

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CHAPTER XVII

THE END OF THE DARK AGE

[Sidenote: The end of the age.]

As we draw to the close of the long period which, through the
conversion of the barbarian races and the growth of a central power in
the Church at Rome, so profoundly influenced the future of the world,
we are met by some outstanding facts which mark an epoch of crisis and
of reformation. They are--the widening breach in matters religious, as
earlier in matters political, between East and West; the influences
which served to strengthen the theory of the papal monarchy even at the
time of its greatest practical weakness; and the strength of the Empire
under the Saxon Ottos as a power to unite Western Europe and to reform
the Western Church.

[Sidenote: The papacy of Nicolas I., 858-67.]

Nicolas, who was elected in 858, was a great pope. He asserted the
moral force of Christianity in a way in which his predecessors very
frequently followed him, by vindicating the indissolubility of the
marriage tie. Chlothochar, King of Lotharingia, separated from his
wife Theudberga, bringing against her foul charges, which a council of
clergy at Aachen accepted. Nicolas intervened: again and again he
endeavoured to control the Fran