Note 105 — ERRORS. (continued 2)

The contemporary authoress of the life of St. Willibald, says that (about A.D. 703), it was the custom among the Saxons—i.e. Willibald’s compatriots in Wessex—for some noble or substantial men, not to erect a church upon their estates, but to hold in honour a lofty Holy Cross. This seems a strong confirmation of a recent suggestion of Prof. Earle, that the English word “Church” is a transliteration, and scarcely that, of the word “crux.” It seems to be a more likely word for the churches of Augustine and Birinus, than the usual one more distantly derived. Leland in one place has “curx” for “crux.” In planting these crosses, these old Lords of Manors were sowing the seeds of what are to us parishes.