No More Learning

709 Obviously ballads, probably of a warlike character, existed before
Caedmon, but he is regarded as the father of English sacred poetry.
It is a question how far the new impulse arose independently among
the Anglo-Saxons, or is to be connected with Old Saxon religious
poetry of which the “Heliand” is the only extant specimen (cf.
Plummer, _ad loc. _). Of the mass of poetry attributed to Caedmon,
much must be regarded as not his actual work. The fragment
translated here by Bede has been accepted as genuine by most
critics. It exists in the Northumbrian dialect at the end of the
Moore MS. of Bede, and in a West Saxon form in other MSS. , as well
as in the Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede’s History, the
Northumbrian version being the oldest.

710 “Villicus,” A. S. “tun-gerefa” = town-reeve, _i. e. _, headman of the
township. Cædmon was apparently a herdsman on a farm belonging to
the monastery.

711 Cf. Levit. , xi, 3, and Deut. , xiv, 6.

712 Apparently reserved and kept in the Infirmary for the Communion of
the dying.

713 Matins were sung soon after midnight.

714 Coldingham, _v. s. _ c. 19 and note.

715 Not the Abbot of Iona who wrote the the life of St. Columba (V, 15,
21). This Adamnan is found in the Martyrology of Wilson, in Colgan’s
“Lives of the Irish Saints,” and in Bollandus, “Acta Sanctorum. ”

716 From the Vulgate, Ps. xciv, 2. (xcv in our Psalter. )

717 C. 19 and note.

718 The detached dwellings built round the principal buildings of the
community. Irish monasteries were built after this fashion.

719 Wearmouth and Jarrow.

720 For Berct, cf. V, 24 (_sub_ 698), note. The circumstances which led
to the invasion are not known.

721 The Picts north of the Forth, cf. c. 12, _ad fin. _ Their king at
this time was Bruide mac Bili, who was Egfrid’s distant kinsman. In
672 Egfrid had crushed a rising of Picts under the same king.

722 Cf. cc. 27-32. He had a mysterious intimation of the disaster at the
hour of the king’s defeat and death, and warned the queen
(Eormenburg), who was with him at Carlisle (_v. _ Bede’s Life of
Cuthbert, and the Anonymous Life). He is also said to have
prophesied the king’s death a year before to Elfled, Egfrid’s sister
(_v. _ III, 24).

723 At Nechtansmere or Dunnechtan, identified with Dunnichen, near
Forfar. Egfrid was buried in Iona, where Adamnan, the friend of his
successor, was Abbot.

724 Cf. c. 5 _ad init. _, note. If he succeeded in February, 670, this
would be his sixteenth year.

725 III, 4, 27; IV, 3; V, 9, 10, 22, 24. His English birth and long
residence in Ireland fitted him to be a mediator.

726 Vergil, Aen. II, 169.

727 The Dalriadic Scots (Cf. I, 1, note; I, 34) and the Britons of
Strathclyde.

728 Cf. c. 12.

729 Abercorn on the Forth, cf. I, 12; IV, 12, and note.

730 III, 24, 25; IV, 23; V, 24.

731 Cf. III, 24, p. 190.

732 III, 24, and note. Elfled succeeded Hilda as abbess, and apparently
ruled jointly with her mother.

733 Cf. V, _passim_, and Bede’s two lives of Cuthbert. His mother’s name
is said by the Irish authorities to have been Fina. He had lived
among the Irish islands (“in insulis Scottorum,” and “in regionibus
Scottorum”) for the sake of study, according to Bede, but William of
Malmesbury implies that Egfrid may have been responsible for his
exile. He was a man of great learning and of scholarly tastes. In
Bede’s “History of the Abbots,” we are told that he gave eight hides
of land for a MS. which Benedict Biscop had brought from Rome.

734 Cc. 5, 17, 22.

735 Cc. 1, 5.

736 Apparently at one time joint-king with Hlothere. Certain dooms are
ascribed to them both. According to Thomas of Elmham, he was killed
in war against Caedwalla, king of Wessex, and his brother, Mul, who
were at this time encroaching on Kent.

737 Mul seems to have usurped the throne for a time.

738 In 692 we find him reigning as joint-king with Swaebhard (V, 8 _ad
fin. _). He must have succeeded in 690, if Bede’s dates are correct;
cf. V, 23, where it is said that he died on April 23, 725, after a
reign of thirty-four and a half years.

_ 739 I. e. _, 685.

740 C. 26 and note.

741 Cf. III, 16 and note.

742 As a boy he had been remarkable for his high spirits and love of
athletic exercises. The rebuke of a little boy of three is said to
have turned his thoughts to a more serious life, and a vision which
he saw as he watched his sheep on the Lammermuir Hills on the night
of Aidan’s death, led him to form the resolve of entering a
monastery. (Bede’s Life of Cuthbert. )

743 Melrose; cf. III, 26 and note.

_ 744 Ibid. _ and V, 9.

745 C. 12, p. 243, note 1.

746 C. 28; V, 9. Probably here “sacerdos” = priest, A. S. version:
“masse-preost. ” But Aelfric calls him bishop. The town of St.
Boswells on the Tweed is called after him. For an instance of his
prophetic spirit, _v. infra_, c. 28. It was his fame which drew
Cuthbert to Melrose. When he saw the youth on his arrival, he
exclaimed, “Behold a servant of the Lord! ” He is generally supposed
to have been carried off by the plague of 664. For an account of his
last days spent in reading the Gospel of St. John with Cuthbert, v.
Bede’s Prose Life of Cuthbert. The “codex” which they used was
extant in Durham in Simeon of Durham’s time.

747 Cf. III, 3, p. 139, note 3.

748 Cf. I, 27 _ad init. _

749 Much of the account given here is from the prose life.

750 The synod of Twyford, a mixed assembly of clergy and laity, met in
the autumn of 684. The place is “perhaps where the Aln is crossed by
two fords near Whittingham” (in Northumberland) (Bright). This is
another instance of the preposition prefixed to the name, cf. II,
14, p. 119, note 5.

751 Cc. 12, 26.

752 Cf. c. 27, p. 288.

753 In 685.

754 Cf. c. 12 and note.

_ 755 Ibid. _

756 Soon after Christmas, 686. In February, 687, his last illness began.

757 St. Herbert’s Island in Derwentwater. Strictly speaking, the Derwent
flows through Derwentwater: it rises in Borrowdale. An indulgence of
forty days was granted by Thomas Appleby, Bishop of Carlisle, in
1374 to pilgrims who visited the island.

758 Carlisle, called also Luel by Simeon of Durham.

759 In 687.

760 In St. Peter’s Church. In 875, when the monks fled from Lindisfarne
before the Danes, his relics were removed, first to
Chester-le-Street, then to Ripon, and eventually to Durham. Simeon
of Durham says the body was found to be uncorrupted, when it was
placed in the new Cathedral there in 1104.

761 The year in which he administered the bishopric falls between his
restoration to York, Hexham, and the monastery of Ripon, and his
second expulsion.

762 Cf. III, 25, _ad init. _, and _infra_ c. 30. In the life of Cuthbert
he is described as a man “magnarum virtutum” (miraculous powers? ).
Alcuin tells that he calmed the winds by his prayers.

763 698 A. D.

764 The Dacre, a small stream near Penrith. There are the ruins of a
castle, and Smith says there is a tradition of a monastery on its
banks.

765 Not the missionary in V, 11.

766 “Innumera miracula” are ascribed to him by Florence of Worcester.

767 III, 16, and note; IV, 27-30.

768 Ripon, _v. _ III, 25, p. 194; V, 19.

769 Cuthbert and Eadbert (IV, 29, 30). His relics were removed with
Cuthbert’s and finally interred at Durham.

770 IV, 26, and V, 18. He reigned from 685 to 705.

771 III, 26; IV, 12, 27, 28. He died in 686.

772 John of Beverley, _v. _ IV, 23, p. 273, and note. Wilfrid
administered the bishopric during the vacancy between Eata’s death
and John’s consecration in 687.

773 Cf. _ibid. _

774 Beverley. The present name is said to be derived from a colony of
beavers in the Hull river. In 866 the minster was destroyed by the
Danes, but it was repaired three years later. In 925 Athelstan
restored it and made it collegiate, giving it lands and various
privileges. (For the preposition, _v. _ II, 14, p. 119, note 5.
)

775 Supposed to have been at St. John’s Lee, near Hexham. The old name
is Erneshow or Herneshaw. (Richard of Hexham, Folcard. )

776 The reading of the best MSS. , “Clymeterium” (_v. ll. _ clymiterium,
climiterium, clymitorium) seems inexplicable. Smith reads
“coemeterium,” probably on the authority of a gloss (“id est
cimeterium”) on some of the later MSS. , and it has generally been
translated “cemetery. ” The AS. version has “gebæd hus 7 ciricean” =
oratory and church.

777 Acts, iii, 2-8.

778 This was Wilfrid’s second restoration. He recovered Hexham and the
monastery of Ripon at the Synod on the Nidd in 705.

779 Bosa (IV, 12, 23) died _circ. _ 705.

780 Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. (“Hodie Watton, _i. e. _,
humida villa ex aquis et paludibus quibus septa est. ” Smith. ) It is
called Betendune by Folcard, the biographer of Bishop John.

781 For “studium” = medical treatment, _v. _ Plummer, _ad loc. _ Under the
verb, _studere_, Ducange gives instances of this meaning: “Iussitque
rex, ut studeretur a medicis”; Greg. Turon. , vi, 32. “Episcopus,
adhibito mulomedico, jussit ei (equo) studium impendere, quo
scilicet sanari potuisset”; St. Audoënus, lib. 2; Vit. St. Eligii,
44.

782 Bishop John had studied under Theodore. Cf. IV, 23, note.

783 Note the tendency to hereditary succession in monasteries (_v. _
Haddan and Stubbs, III, 337-338). Instances are, however, rare in
England, though common in Ireland, where the clan system affected
ecclesiastical preferments. Eanfled and Elfled at Whitby are not a
case in point, as Eanfled did not precede her daughter, but was only
associated with her in some way in the government of the monastery.

784 This “vill” was at South Burton (Folcard), now called Bishop Burton,
between two and three miles from Beverley.

785 To redeem his fast, as the A. S. version explains.

786 St. Matt. , viii, 14-15; St. Mark, i, 30-31; St. Luke, iv, 38-39.

787 At North Burton (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

788 He lived till 745, according to Simeon of Durham.

789 There were probably two monasteries at Tynemouth, the one mentioned
here, and another (_v. _ Bede’s “Life of Cuthbert”), which had been a
house of monks, but afterwards, when Bede wrote, had become a
nunnery.

790 Breathing on the face and catechizing were practised in order to
exorcise evil spirits from the hearts of catechumens (Bede, Opp.
viii, 106).

791 The Saxon Chronicle is very exact: “Thirty-three years, eight
months, and thirteen days. ” This would date his episcopate from
August, 687, to May, 721, for May 7th was observed as the day of his
festival at Beverley.

792 Cf. c. 2.

793 Wilfrid II: _v. _ IV, 23, p. 273, and note.

_ 794 I. e. _, in 688. For Caedwalla, _v. _ IV, 12 (and note), 15, 16.

795 Sergius I, 687-701.

796 Cf. II, 9, 14 and notes.

797 Cf. II, 14 and note.

798 By Benedictus Crispus, Archbishop of Milan. He died in 725.

_ 799 I. e. _, Sergius was his godfather (cf. III, 7, where Oswald stands
sponsor for Cynegils). The Saxon Chronicle says he also baptized
him.

800 Justinian II. He succeeded in 685 and died in 711.

801 Cf. IV, 15, and note. Thus, according to Bede’s reckoning, he
reigned from 688 to 725, but the date of his abdication is variously
given.

802 Gregory II. , 715-731, _v. _ Preface, p. 2.

803 He was consecrated 26th March, 668, and died, as Bede says here, on
19th September, 690.

804 The church of SS. Peter and Paul. Cf. II, 3, p. 90.

805 They are elegiacs. Cf. I, 10.

806 Cf. II, 3, and _infra_ 19, 23.

807 The old Roman town Reculver, in Kent. A charter of 679 exists (the
oldest original English charter extant) by which King Hlothere of
Kent grants land in Thanet to Bertwald and his monastery.

808 Said to be the Inlade.

809 The see was, therefore, vacant for two years, possibly owing to the
political troubles of the time, cf. IV, 26, _ad fin. _ The further
delay of a year between Bertwald’s election and consecration may
have been caused by his desire to obtain greater weight as
consecrated by the Primate of a neighbouring Church (Haddan and
Stubbs, III, 229).

810 For Wictred, _v. _ IV, 26, and note. Thomas of Elmham tries to
identify Suaebhard with Suefred, son of Sebbi, king of the East
Saxons (_v. _ IV, 11, _ad fin. _), and says that he made himself king
of Kent by violence, but this seems very improbable.

811 He was Archbishop of Lyons. The Church of Lyons did not obtain the
primacy over other metropolitan churches till the eleventh century,
but apparently it held a leading position even before this time.

812 He was trained under Theodore and Hadrian in the School of
Canterbury; cf. V, 23, _ad init. _ The date of Gebmund’s death and
the succession of Tobias cannot be earlier than 696, as Gebmund
(_v. _ IV, 12) appears to have been present at the Kentish
Witenagemot of Bersted in that year. (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 238,
241. ) Tobias died in 726.

813 III, 4, 27; IV, 3, 26, and _infra_ cc. 10, 22, 23, 24.

814 The name does not occur in any Celtic literature which we possess.
All the evidence seems to show that the Celts have always called the
English “Saxons. ” “Ellmyn,” for Allemanni, occurs sometimes in Welsh
poetry (Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”).

815 The Frisians at this time occupied the coastland from the Maas to
the region beyond the Ems. The Rugini are probably the Rugii (_v. _
Tacitus, Germania, Chapter XLIII). They were on the shores of the
Baltic, probably about the mouth of the Oder (the name survives in
Rügen and Rügenwalde). They are found with other North German tribes
in the army of Attila, and afterwards formed a settlement on the
Lower Danube. The Danes were mainly in Jutland, Fünen, and the
extreme south of Scandinavia. The Huns, who appeared in Europe
towards the end of the fourth century and menaced both the Eastern
and Western Empires, were, after Attila’s death, driven eastwards,
and settled near the Pontus, disappearing among the Bulgarians and
other kindred tribes. The Old Saxons, or Saxons of the Continent
(cf. I, 15), occupied both sides of the Elbe. The name Saxon does
not occur in the oldest accounts of the Germans. Probably it was a
new name for a union of nations which comprised the Cherusci,
Chauci, Angrivarii (and perhaps other tribes) of Tacitus. The
Boructuari are the Bructeri in Westphalia (_v. _ Zeuss, “Die
Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme”).

816 Cf. IV, 27 (note) and 28.

817 Melrose; cf. III, 26; IV, 27, and _infra_ c. 12.

818 IV, 27. Cf. III, 26; IV, 12, 28; V, 2.

819 Cf. III, 3, 4, and notes; _i. e. _, the monasteries which owed their
origin to Columba and were included in the “province” of Iona. They
are distinguished from those which are mentioned in c. 15 as “ab
Hiensium dominio liberi. ”

820 His baptismal name was Colum (_columba_ = a dove). He is said to
have acquired the name of Colum-cille, because in his youth he was
so constantly in the “cell” or oratory.

821 Jonah, i, 12.

822 Nothing more is known of him. Alcuin mentions him in his life of
Wilbrord. His name is included in a list of the eleven companions of
Wilbrord given in a life of St. Suidbert (_v. infra_ c. 11), but no
value is to be attached to it (_v. _ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 225).
Bede distinctly says that he retired from missionary efforts after
this unsuccessful attempt.

823 The story is told that at one time Rathbed was about to receive
baptism at the hands of St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, but drew
back on being told that his ancestors were among the lost, refusing
to go to Heaven without them. His perpetual wars with the Franks
ended in his defeat and expulsion, and he died in 719.

824 The authority for Wilbrord’s life is Alcuin, who wrote it both in
prose and verse. Wilbrord was born in 657 or 658 in Northumbria, and
was handed over by his mother to the monks at Ripon in his infancy.
His father, Wilgils, became a hermit on a promontory at the mouth of
the Humber. At the age of twenty he went to Ireland for the sake of
study and a stricter life. In 690 he set out for Frisland with
eleven others, landed at Katwyk and went to Utrecht, which was
afterwards his episcopal see (_v. infra_ c. 11).

825 They turned aside to Pippin on finding Rathbed obdurate. Pippin of
Heristal, Mayor of the Palace of the Austrasian kings, had defeated
the Neustrians at Testry in 687 and was now the actual ruler of the
Franks, though it was his grandson, Pippin the Short, who first
assumed royal power.

826 Cf. c. 9, p. 319, and note.

827 Roger of Wendover places their mission in 695. It must have been
later than Wilbrord’s in 690.

828 “Satrap,” cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History, i, pp. 41-42. From
this passage and similar notices of the Continental Saxons he infers
that they had remained free from Roman influences and from any
foreign intermixture of blood or institutions. “They had preserved
the ancient features of German life in their purest forms. . . . King
Alfred, when he translated Bede had no difficulty in recognizing in
the satrap the ealdorman, in the villicus the _tungerefa_, in the
vicus the _tunscipe_ of his own land. ”

829 The year cannot be fixed.

830 The Church of St. Cunibert, Cologne (Gallican Martyrology, quoted by
Smith).

831 Sergius I: _v. s. _ c. 7.

832 Alcuin tells how he killed some of the sacred cattle of the god
Fosite, a son of Balder, in Heligoland, and baptized three men in
his well.

833 A life of him by Marcellinus (_v. s. _ c. 9, note on Wictbert) is
worthless historically.