The books which contain the history of this time and change are little else than a narrative of miracles,--frequently, however, with such apparent marks of weakness or design that they afford little encouragement to insist on them.

They were then received with a blind credulity: they have been since rejected with as undistinguishing a disregard.

But as it is not in my design nor inclination, nor indeed in my power, either to establish or refute these stories, it is sufficient to observe, that the reality or opinion of such miracles was the principal cause of the early acceptance and rapid progress of Christianity in this island.

Other causes undoubtedly concurred; and it will be more to our purpose to consider some of the human and politic ways by which religion was advanced in this nation, and those more particularly by which the monastic institution, then interwoven with Christianity, and making an equal progress with it, attained to so high a pitch, of property and power, so as, in a time extremely short, to form a kind of order, and that not the least considerable, in the state.
FOOTNOTES: [27] Leges Inae, 32, De Cambrico Homine Agrum possidente .-- Id.

54 [28] "Veteri usus augurio," says Henry of Huntingdon, p.