No More Learning

When he first sent ambassadors to ask her in marriage of her brother
Eadbald, who then reigned in Kent, he received the answer, “That it was
not lawful to give a Christian maiden in marriage to a pagan husband, lest
the faith and the mysteries of the heavenly King should be profaned by her
union with a king that was altogether a stranger to the worship of the
true God. ” This answer being brought to Edwin by his messengers, he
promised that he would in no manner act in opposition to the Christian
faith, which the maiden professed; but would give leave to her, and all
that went with her, men and women, bishops and clergy, to follow their
faith and worship after the custom of the Christians. Nor did he refuse to
accept that religion himself, if, being examined by wise men, it should be
found more holy and more worthy of God.

So the maiden was promised, and sent to Edwin, and in accordance with the
agreement, Paulinus, a man beloved of God, was ordained bishop, to go with
her, and by daily exhortations, and celebrating the heavenly Mysteries, to
confirm her and her company, lest they should be corrupted by intercourse
with the pagans. Paulinus was ordained bishop by the Archbishop Justus, on
the 21st day of July, in the year of our Lord 625, and so came to King
Edwin with the aforesaid maiden as an attendant on their union in the
flesh. But his mind was wholly bent upon calling the nation to which he
was sent to the knowledge of truth; according to the words of the Apostle,
“To espouse her to the one true Husband, that he might present her as a
chaste virgin to Christ. ”(211) Being come into that province, he laboured
much, not only to retain those that went with him, by the help of God,
that they should not abandon the faith, but, if haply he might, to convert
some of the pagans to the grace of the faith by his preaching. But, as the
Apostle says, though he laboured long in the Word, “The god of this world
blinded the minds of them that believed not, lest the light of the
glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them. ”(212)

The next year there came into the province one called Eumer, sent by the
king of the West-Saxons, whose name was Cuichelm,(213) to lie in wait for
King Edwin, in hopes at once to deprive him of his kingdom and his life.
He had a two-edged dagger, dipped in poison, to the end that, if the wound
inflicted by the weapon did not avail to kill the king, it might be aided
by the deadly venom. He came to the king on the first day of the Easter
festival,(214) at the river Derwent, where there was then a royal
township,(215) and being admitted as if to deliver a message from his
master, whilst unfolding in cunning words his pretended embassy, he
started up on a sudden, and unsheathing the dagger under his garment,
assaulted the king. When Lilla, the king’s most devoted servant, saw this,
having no buckler at hand to protect the king from death, he at once
interposed his own body to receive the blow; but the enemy struck home
with such force, that he wounded the king through the body of the
slaughtered thegn. Being then attacked on all sides with swords, in the
confusion he also slew impiously with his dagger another of the thegns,
whose name was Forthhere.

On that same holy Easter night, the queen had brought forth to the king a
daughter, called Eanfled. The king, in the presence of Bishop Paulinus,
gave thanks to his gods for the birth of his daughter; and the bishop, on
his part, began to give thanks to Christ, and to tell the king, that by
his prayers to Him he had obtained that the queen should bring forth the
child in safety, and without grievous pain. The king, delighted with his
words, promised, that if God would grant him life and victory over the
king by whom the murderer who had wounded him had been sent, he would
renounce his idols, and serve Christ; and as a pledge that he would
perform his promise, he delivered up that same daughter to Bishop
Paulinus, to be consecrated to Christ. She was the first to be baptized of
the nation of the Northumbrians, and she received Baptism on the holy day
of Pentecost, along with eleven others of her house. (216) At that time,
the king, being recovered of the wound which he had received, raised an
army and marched against the nation of the West-Saxons; and engaging in
war, either slew or received in surrender all those of whom he learned
that they had conspired to murder him. So he returned victorious into his
own country, but he would not immediately and unadvisedly embrace the
mysteries of the Christian faith, though he no longer worshipped idols,
ever since he made the promise that he would serve Christ; but first took
heed earnestly to be instructed at leisure by the venerable Paulinus, in
the knowledge of faith, and to confer with such as he knew to be the
wisest of his chief men, inquiring what they thought was fittest to be
done in that case. And being a man of great natural sagacity, he often sat
alone by himself a long time in silence, deliberating in the depths of his
heart how he should proceed, and to which religion he should adhere.




Chap. X. How Pope Boniface, by letter, exhorted the same king to embrace
the faith. [_Circ. _ 625 A. D. ]


At this time he received a letter from Pope Boniface(217) exhorting him to
embrace the faith, which was as follows:


COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC POPE OF THE
CHURCH OF THE CITY OF ROME, BONIFACE, ADDRESSED TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS
EDWIN, KING OF THE ENGLISH.

“_To the illustrious Edwin, king of the English, Bishop Boniface,
the servant of the servants of God. _ Although the power of the
Supreme Deity cannot be expressed by the function of human speech,
seeing that, by its own greatness, it so consists in invisible and
unsearchable eternity, that no keenness of wit can comprehend or
express how great it is; yet inasmuch as His Humanity, having
opened the doors of the heart to receive Himself, mercifully, by
secret inspiration, puts into the minds of men such things as It
reveals concerning Itself,(218) we have thought fit to extend our
episcopal care so far as to make known to you the fulness of the
Christian faith; to the end that, bringing to your knowledge the
Gospel of Christ, which our Saviour commanded should be preached
to all nations, we might offer to you the cup of the means of
salvation. (219)

“Thus the goodness of the Supreme Majesty, which, by the word
alone of His command, made and created all things, the heaven, the
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, disposing the order by
which they should subsist, hath, ordaining all things, with the
counsel of His co-eternal Word, and the unity of the Holy Spirit,
made man after His own image and likeness, forming him out of the
mire of the earth; and granted him such high privilege of
distinction, as to place him above all else; so that, preserving
the bounds of the law of his being, his substance should be
established to eternity. This God,—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
the undivided Trinity,—from the east unto the west, through faith
by confession to the saving of their souls, men worship and adore
as the Creator of all things, and their own Maker; to Whom also
the heights of empire and the powers of the world are subject,
because the pre-eminence of all kingdoms is granted by His
disposition. It hath pleased Him, therefore, in the mercy of His
loving kindness, and for the greater benefit of all His
creatures,(220) by the fire of His Holy Spirit wonderfully to
kindle the cold hearts even of the nations seated at the
extremities of the earth in the knowledge of Himself.

“For we suppose, since the two countries are near together, that
your Highness has fully understood what the clemency of our
Redeemer has effected in the enlightenment of our illustrious son,
King Eadbald, and the nations under his rule; we therefore trust,
with assured confidence that, through the long-suffering of
Heaven, His wonderful gift will be also conferred on you; since,
indeed, we have learnt that your illustrious consort, who is
discerned to be one flesh with you, has been blessed with the
reward of eternity, through the regeneration of Holy Baptism. We
have, therefore, taken care by this letter, with all the goodwill
of heartfelt love, to exhort your Highness, that, abhorring idols
and their worship, and despising the foolishness of temples, and
the deceitful flatteries of auguries, you believe in God the
Father Almighty, and His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to
the end that, believing and being released from the bonds of
captivity to the Devil, you may, through the co-operating power of
the Holy and undivided Trinity, be partaker of the eternal life.

“How great guilt they lie under, who adhere in their worship to
the pernicious superstition of idolatry, appears by the examples
of the perishing of those whom they worship. Wherefore it is said
of them by the Psalmist, ‘All the gods of the nations are
devils,(221) but the Lord made the heavens. ’ And again, ‘Eyes have
they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses
have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle
not; feet have they, but they walk not. Therefore they are made
like unto those that place the hope of their confidence in
them. ’(222) For how can they have power to help any man, that are
made out of corruptible matter, by the hands of your inferiors and
subjects, and on which, by employing human art, you have bestowed
a lifeless similitude of members? which, moreover, unless they be
moved by you, will not be able to walk; but, like a stone fixed in
one place, being so formed, and having no understanding, sunk in
insensibility, have no power of doing harm or good. We cannot,
therefore, by any manner of discernment conceive how you come to
be so deceived as to follow and worship those gods, to whom you
yourselves have given the likeness of a body.

“It behoves you, therefore, by taking upon you the sign of the
Holy Cross, by which the human race has been redeemed, to root out
of your hearts all the accursed deceitfulness of the snares of the
Devil, who is ever the jealous foe of the works of the Divine
Goodness, and to put forth your hands and with all your might set
to work to break in pieces and destroy those which you have
hitherto fashioned of wood or stone to be your gods. For the very
destruction and decay of these, which never had the breath of life
in them, nor could in any wise receive feeling from their makers,
may plainly teach you how worthless that was which you hitherto
worshipped. For you yourselves, who have received the breath of
life from the Lord, are certainly better than these which are
wrought with hands, seeing that Almighty God has appointed you to
be descended, after many ages and through many generations, from
the first man whom he formed. Draw near, then, to the knowledge of
Him Who created you, Who breathed the breath of life into you, Who
sent His only-begotten Son for your redemption, to save you from
original sin, that being delivered from the power of the Devil’s
perversity and wickedness, He might bestow on you a heavenly
reward.

“Hearken to the words of the preachers, and the Gospel of God,
which they declare to you, to the end that, believing, as has been
said before more than once, in God the Father Almighty, and in
Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the indivisible
Trinity, having put to flight the thoughts of devils, and driven
from you the temptations of the venomous and deceitful enemy, and
being born again of water and the Holy Ghost, you may, through the
aid of His bounty, dwell in the brightness of eternal glory with
Him in Whom you shall have believed.

“We have, moreover, sent you the blessing of your protector, the
blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, to wit, a shirt of proof
with one gold ornament, and one cloak of Ancyra, which we pray
your Highness to accept with all the goodwill with which it is
sent by us. ”




Chap. XI. How Pope Boniface advised the king’s consort to use her best
endeavours for his salvation. [_Circ. _ 625 A. D. ]


The same pope also wrote to King Edwin’s consort, Ethelberg, to this
effect:


THE COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC BONIFACE,
POPE OF THE CITY OF ROME, TO ETHELBERG, KING EDWIN’S QUEEN.

“_To the illustrious lady his daughter, Queen Ethelberg, Boniface,
bishop, servant of the servants of God. _ The goodness of our
Redeemer has in His abundant Providence offered the means of
salvation to the human race, which He rescued, by the shedding of
His precious Blood, from the bonds of captivity to the Devil; to
the end that, when He had made known His name in divers ways to
the nations, they might acknowledge their Creator by embracing the
mystery of the Christian faith. And this the mystical purification
of your regeneration plainly shows to have been bestowed upon the
mind of your Highness by God’s gift. Our heart, therefore, has
greatly rejoiced in the benefit bestowed by the bounty of the
Lord, for that He has vouchsafed, in your confession, to kindle a
spark of the orthodox religion, by which He might the more easily
inflame with the love of Himself the understanding, not only of
your illustrious consort, but also of all the nation that is
subject to you.

“For we have been informed by those, who came to acquaint us with
the laudable conversion of our illustrious son, King Eadbald, that
your Highness, also, having received the wonderful mystery of the
Christian faith, continually excels in the performance of works
pious and acceptable to God; that you likewise carefully refrain
from the worship of idols, and the deceits of temples and
auguries, and with unimpaired devotion, give yourself so wholly to
the love of your Redeemer, as never to cease from lending your aid
in spreading the Christian faith. But when our fatherly love
earnestly inquired concerning your illustrious consort, we were
given to understand, that he still served abominable idols, and
delayed to yield obedience in giving ear to the voice of the
preachers. This occasioned us no small grief, that he that is one
flesh with you still remained a stranger to the knowledge of the
supreme and undivided Trinity. Whereupon we, in our fatherly care,
have not delayed to admonish and exhort your Christian Highness,
to the end that, filled with the support of the Divine
inspiration, you should not defer to strive, both in season and
out of season, that with the co-operating power of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, your husband also may be added to the number
of Christians; that so you may uphold the rights of marriage in
the bond of a holy and unblemished union. For it is written, ‘They
twain shall be one flesh. ’(223) How then can it be said, that
there is unity in the bond between you, if he continues a stranger
to the brightness of your faith, separated from it by the darkness
of detestable error?

“Wherefore, applying yourself continually to prayer, do not cease
to beg of the long-suffering of the Divine Mercy the benefits of
his illumination; to the end, that those whom the union of carnal
affection has manifestly made in a manner to be one body, may,
after this life continue in perpetual fellowship, by the unity of
faith. Persist, therefore, illustrious daughter, and to the utmost
of your power endeavour to soften the hardness of his heart by
carefully making known to him the Divine precepts; pouring into
his mind a knowledge of the greatness of that mystery which you
have received by faith, and of the marvellous reward which, by the
new birth, you have been made worthy to obtain. Inflame the
coldness of his heart by the message of the Holy Ghost, that he
may put from him the deadness of an evil worship, and the warmth
of the Divine faith may kindle his understanding through your
frequent exhortations; and so the testimony of Holy Scripture may
shine forth clearly, fulfilled by you, ‘The unbelieving husband
shall be saved by the believing wife. ’(224) For to this end you
have obtained the mercy of the Lord’s goodness, that you might
restore with increase to your Redeemer the fruit of faith and of
the benefits entrusted to your hands. That you may be able to
fulfil this task, supported by the help of His loving kindness we
do not cease to implore with frequent prayers.

“Having premised thus much, in pursuance of the duty of our
fatherly affection, we exhort you, that when the opportunity of a
bearer shall offer, you will with all speed comfort us with the
glad tidings of the wonderful work which the heavenly Power shall
vouchsafe to perform by your means in the conversion(225) of your
consort, and of the nation subject to you; to the end, that our
solicitude, which earnestly awaits the fulfilment of its desire in
the soul’s salvation of you and yours, may, by hearing from you,
be set at rest; and that we, discerning more fully the light of
the Divine propitiation shed abroad in you, may with a joyful
confession abundantly return due thanks to God, the Giver of all
good things, and to the blessed Peter, the chief of the Apostles.

“We have, moreover, sent you the blessing of your protector, the
blessed Peter, the chief of the Apostles, to wit, a silver
looking-glass, and a gilded ivory comb, which we pray your
Highness to accept with all the goodwill with which it is sent by
us. ”




Chap. XII. How Edwin was persuaded to believe by a vision which he had
once seen when he was in exile. [_Circ. _ 616 A. D. ]


Thus wrote the aforesaid Pope Boniface for the salvation of King Edwin and
his nation. But a heavenly vision, which the Divine Goodness was pleased
once to reveal to this king, when he was in banishment at the court of
Redwald, king of the Angles,(226) was of no little use in urging him to
receive and understand the doctrines of salvation. For when Paulinus
perceived that it was a difficult task to incline the king’s proud mind to
the humility of the way of salvation and the reception of the mystery of
the life-giving Cross, and at the same time was employing the word of
exhortation with men, and prayer to the Divine Goodness, for the salvation
of Edwin and his subjects; at length, as we may suppose, it was shown him
in spirit what the nature of the vision was that had been formerly
revealed from Heaven to the king. Then he lost no time, but immediately
admonished the king to perform the vow which he had made, when he received
the vision, promising to fulfil it, if he should be delivered from the
troubles of that time, and advanced to the throne.

The vision was this. When Ethelfrid,(227) his predecessor, was persecuting
him, he wandered for many years as an exile, hiding in divers places and
kingdoms, and at last came to Redwald, beseeching him to give him
protection against the snares of his powerful persecutor. Redwald
willingly received him, and promised to perform what was asked of him. But
when Ethelfrid understood that he had appeared in that province, and that
he and his companions were hospitably entertained by Redwald, he sent
messengers to bribe that king with a great sum of money to murder him, but
without effect. He sent a second and a third time, offering a greater
bribe each time, and, moreover, threatening to make war on him if his
offer should be despised. Redwald, whether terrified by his threats, or
won over by his gifts, complied with this request, and promised either to
kill Edwin, or to deliver him up to the envoys. A faithful friend of his,
hearing of this, went into his chamber, where he was going to bed, for it
was the first hour of the night; and calling him out, told him what the
king had promised to do with him, adding, “If, therefore, you are willing,
I will this very hour conduct you out of this province, and lead you to a
place where neither Redwald nor Ethelfrid shall ever find you. ” He
answered, “I thank you for your good will, yet I cannot do what you
propose, and be guilty of being the first to break the compact I have made
with so great a king, when he has done me no harm, nor shown any enmity to
me; but, on the contrary, if I must die, let it rather be by his hand than
by that of any meaner man. For whither shall I now fly, when I have for so
many long years been a vagabond through all the provinces of Britain, to
escape the snares of my enemies? ” His friend went away; Edwin remained
alone without, and sitting with a heavy heart before the palace, began to
be overwhelmed with many thoughts, not knowing what to do, or which way to
turn.

When he had remained a long time in silent anguish of mind, consumed with
inward fire,(228) on a sudden in the stillness of the dead of night he saw
approaching a person, whose face and habit were strange to him, at sight
of whom, seeing that he was unknown and unlooked for, he was not a little
startled. The stranger coming close up, saluted him, and asked why he sat
there in solitude on a stone troubled and wakeful at that time, when all
others were taking their rest, and were fast asleep. Edwin, in his turn,
asked, what it was to him, whether he spent the night within doors or
abroad. The stranger, in reply, said, “Do not think that I am ignorant of
the cause of your grief, your watching, and sitting alone without. For I
know of a surety who you are, and why you grieve, and the evils which you
fear will soon fall upon you. But tell me, what reward you would give the
man who should deliver you out of these troubles, and persuade Redwald
neither to do you any harm himself, nor to deliver you up to be murdered
by your enemies. ” Edwin replied, that he would give such an one all that
he could in return for so great a benefit. The other further added, “What
if he should also assure you, that your enemies should be destroyed, and
you should be a king surpassing in power, not only all your own ancestors,
but even all that have reigned before you in the English nation? ” Edwin,
encouraged by these questions, did not hesitate to promise that he would
make a fitting return to him who should confer such benefits upon him.
Then the other spoke a third time and said, “But if he who should truly
foretell that all these great blessings are about to befall you, could
also give you better and more profitable counsel for your life and
salvation than any of your fathers or kindred ever heard, do you consent
to submit to him, and to follow his wholesome guidance? ” Edwin at once
promised that he would in all things follow the teaching of that man who
should deliver him from so many great calamities, and raise him to a
throne.

Having received this answer, the man who talked to him laid his right hand
on his head saying, “When this sign shall be given you, remember this
present discourse that has passed between us, and do not delay the
performance of what you now promise. ” Having uttered these words, he is
said to have immediately vanished. So the king perceived that it was not a
man, but a spirit, that had appeared to him.

Whilst the royal youth still sat there alone, glad of the comfort he had
received, but still troubled and earnestly pondering who he was, and
whence he came, that had so talked to him, his aforesaid friend came to
him, and greeting him with a glad countenance, “Rise,” said he, “go in;
calm and put away your anxious cares, and compose yourself in body and
mind to sleep; for the king’s resolution is altered, and he designs to do
you no harm, but rather to keep his pledged faith; for when he had
privately made known to the queen his intention of doing what I told you
before, she dissuaded him from it, reminding him that it was altogether
unworthy of so great a king to sell his good friend in such distress for
gold, and to sacrifice his honour, which is more valuable than all other
adornments, for the love of money. ” In short, the king did as has been
said, and not only refused to deliver up the banished man to his enemy’s
messengers, but helped him to recover his kingdom. For as soon as the
messengers had returned home, he raised a mighty army to subdue Ethelfrid;
who, meeting him with much inferior forces, (for Redwald had not given him
time to gather and unite all his power,) was slain on the borders of the
kingdom of Mercia, on the east side of the river that is called Idle. (229)
In this battle, Redwald’s son, called Raegenheri, was killed. Thus Edwin,
in accordance with the prophecy he had received, not only escaped the
danger from his enemy, but, by his death, succeeded the king on the
throne.

King Edwin, therefore, delaying to receive the Word of God at the
preaching of Paulinus, and being wont for some time, as has been said, to
sit many hours alone, and seriously to ponder with himself what he was to
do, and what religion he was to follow, the man of God came to him one
day, laid his right hand on his head, and asked, whether he knew that
sign? The king, trembling, was ready to fall down at his feet, but he
raised him up, and speaking to him with the voice of a friend, said,
“Behold, by the gift of God you have escaped the hands of the enemies whom
you feared. Behold, you have obtained of His bounty the kingdom which you
desired. Take heed not to delay to perform your third promise; accept the
faith, and keep the precepts of Him Who, delivering you from temporal
adversity, has raised you to the honour of a temporal kingdom; and if,
from this time forward, you shall be obedient to His will, which through
me He signifies to you, He will also deliver you from the everlasting
torments of the wicked, and make you partaker with Him of His eternal
kingdom in heaven. ”




Chap. XIII. Of the Council he held with his chief men concerning their
reception of the faith of Christ, and how the high priest profaned his own
altars. [627 A. D. ]


The king, hearing these words, answered, that he was both willing and
bound to receive the faith which Paulinus taught; but that he would confer
about it with his chief friends and counsellors, to the end that if they
also were of his opinion, they might all together be consecrated to Christ
in the font of life. Paulinus consenting, the king did as he said; for,
holding a council with the wise men,(230) he asked of every one in
particular what he thought of this doctrine hitherto unknown to them, and
the new worship of God that was preached? The chief of his own priests,
Coifi, immediately answered him, “O king, consider what this is which is
now preached to us; for I verily declare to you what I have learnt beyond
doubt, that the religion which we have hitherto professed has no virtue in
it and no profit. For none of your people has applied himself more
diligently to the worship of our gods than I; and yet there are many who
receive greater favours from you, and are more preferred than I, and are
more prosperous in all that they undertake to do or to get. Now if the
gods were good for any thing, they would rather forward me, who have been
careful to serve them with greater zeal. It remains, therefore, that if
upon examination you find those new doctrines, which are now preached to
us, better and more efficacious, we hasten to receive them without any
delay. ”

Another of the king’s chief men, approving of his wise words and
exhortations, added thereafter: “The present life of man upon earth, O
king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us,
like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the house wherein you sit at
supper in winter, with your ealdormen and thegns, while the fire blazes in
the midst, and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow
are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out
at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest; but
after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your
sight, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears
for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know
nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us something more
certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed. ” The other elders and
king’s counsellors, by Divine prompting, spoke to the same effect.

But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus
discourse concerning the God Whom he preached. When he did so, at the
king’s command, Coifi, hearing his words, cried out, “This long time I
have perceived that what we worshipped was naught; because the more
diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But
now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this preaching
as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal
happiness. For which reason my counsel is, O king, that we instantly give
up to ban and fire those temples and altars which we have consecrated
without reaping any benefit from them. ” In brief, the king openly assented
to the preaching of the Gospel by Paulinus, and renouncing idolatry,
declared that he received the faith of Christ: and when he inquired of the
aforesaid high priest of his religion, who should first desecrate the
altars and temples of their idols, with the precincts that were about
them, he answered, “I; for who can more fittingly than myself destroy
those things which I worshipped in my folly, for an example to all others,
through the wisdom which has been given me by the true God? ” Then
immediately, in contempt of his vain superstitions, he desired the king to
furnish him with arms and a stallion, that he might mount and go forth to
destroy the idols; for it was not lawful before for the high priest either
to carry arms, or to ride on anything but a mare. Having, therefore, girt
a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king’s
stallion, and went his way to the idols. The multitude, beholding it,
thought that he was mad; but as soon as he drew near the temple he did not
delay to desecrate it by casting into it the spear which he held; and
rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded
his companions to tear down and set on fire the temple, with all its
precincts. This place where the idols once stood is still shown, not far
from York, to the eastward, beyond the river Derwent, and is now called
Godmunddingaham,(231) where the high priest, by the inspiration of the
true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself
consecrated. (232)




Chap. XIV. How King Edwin and his nation became Christians; and where
Paulinus baptized them. [627 A. D. ]


King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, and a large
number of the common sort, received the faith, and the washing of holy
regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year of our
Lord 627, and about one hundred and eighty after the coming of the English
into Britain. He was baptized at York, on the holy day of Easter,(233)
being the 12th of April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he
himself had built of timber there in haste, whilst he was a catechumen
receiving instruction in order to be admitted to baptism. In that city
also he bestowed upon his instructor and bishop, Paulinus, his episcopal
see. But as soon as he was baptized, he set about building, by the
direction of Paulinus, in the same place a larger and nobler church of
stone, in the midst whereof the oratory which he had first erected should
be enclosed. (234) Having, therefore, laid the foundation, he began to
build the church square, encompassing the former oratory. But before the
walls were raised to their full height, the cruel death(235) of the king
left that work to be finished by Oswald his successor. Paulinus, for the
space of six years from this time, that is, till the end of the king’s
reign, with his consent and favour, preached the Word of God in that
country, and as many as were foreordained to eternal life believed and
were baptized. Among them were Osfrid and Eadfrid, King Edwin’s sons who
were both born to him, whilst he was in banishment, of Quenburga, the
daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians.

Afterwards other children of his, by Queen Ethelberg, were baptized,
Ethelhun and his daughter Ethelthryth, and another, Wuscfrea, a son; the
first two were snatched out of this life whilst they were still in the
white garments of the newly-baptized,(236) and buried in the church at
York. Yffi,(237) the son of Osfrid, was also baptized, and many other
noble and royal persons. So great was then the fervour of the faith, as is
reported, and the desire for the laver of salvation among the nation of
the Northumbrians, that Paulinus at a certain time coming with the king
and queen to the royal township, which is called Adgefrin,(238) stayed
there with them thirty-six days, fully occupied in catechizing and
baptizing; during which days, from morning till night, he did nothing else
but instruct the people resorting from all villages and places, in
Christ’s saving Word; and when they were instructed, he washed them with
the water of absolution in the river Glen,(239) which is close by. This
township, under the following kings, was abandoned, and another was built
instead of it, at the place called Maelmin. (240)

These things happened in the province of the Bernicians; but in that of
the Deiri also, where he was wont often to be with the king, he baptized
in the river Swale, which runs by the village of Cataract;(241) for as yet
oratories, or baptisteries, could not be built in the early infancy of the
Church in those parts. But in Campodonum,(242) where there was then a
royal township, he built a church which the pagans, by whom King Edwin was
slain, afterwards burnt, together with all the place. Instead of this
royal seat the later kings built themselves a township in the country
called Loidis. (243) But the altar, being of stone, escaped the fire and is
still preserved in the monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest,
Thrydwulf, which is in the forest of Elmet. (244)




Chap. XV. How the province of the East Angles received the faith of
Christ. [627-628 A. D. ]


Edwin was so zealous for the true worship, that he likewise persuaded
Earpwald, king of the East Angles, and son of Redwald, to abandon his
idolatrous superstitions, and with his whole province to receive the faith
and mysteries of Christ. And indeed his father Redwald had long before
been initiated into the mysteries of the Christian faith in Kent, but in
vain; for on his return home, he was seduced by his wife and certain
perverse teachers, and turned aside from the sincerity of the faith; and
thus his latter state was worse than the former; so that, like the
Samaritans of old, he seemed at the same time to serve Christ and the gods
whom he served before; and in the same temple he had an altar for the
Christian Sacrifice, and another small one at which to offer victims to
devils. Aldwulf,(245) king of that same province, who lived in our time,
testifies that this temple had stood until his time, and that he had seen
it when he was a boy. The aforesaid King Redwald was noble by birth,
though ignoble in his actions, being the son of Tytilus, whose father was
Uuffa, from whom the kings of the East Angles are called Uuffings. (246)

Earpwald, not long after he had embraced the Christian faith, was slain by
one Ricbert, a pagan; and from that time the province was in error for
three years, till Sigbert succeeded to the kingdom,(247) brother to the
same Earpwald, a most Christian and learned man, who was banished, and
went to live in Gaul during his brother’s life, and was there initiated
into the mysteries of the faith, whereof he made it his business to cause
all his province to partake as soon as he came to the throne. His
exertions were nobly promoted by Bishop Felix,(248) who, coming to
Honorius, the archbishop,(249) from the parts of Burgundy, where he had
been born and ordained, and having told him what he desired, was sent by
him to preach the Word of life to the aforesaid nation of the Angles. Nor
were his good wishes in vain; for the pious labourer in the spiritual
field reaped therein a great harvest of believers, delivering all that
province (according to the inner signification of his name) from long
iniquity and unhappiness, and bringing it to the faith and works of
righteousness, and the gifts of everlasting happiness. He had the see of
his bishopric appointed him in the city Dommoc,(250) and having presided
over the same province with pontifical authority seventeen years, he ended
his days there in peace.




Chap. XVI. How Paulinus preached in the province of Lindsey; and of the
character of the reign of Edwin. [_Circ. _ 628 A. D. ]


Paulinus also preached the Word to the province of Lindsey,(251) which is
the first on the south side of the river Humber, stretching as far as the
sea; and he first converted to the Lord the reeve of the city of Lincoln,
whose name was Blaecca, with his whole house. He likewise built, in that
city, a stone church of beautiful workmanship; the roof of which has
either fallen through long neglect, or been thrown down by enemies, but
the walls are still to be seen standing, and every year miraculous cures
are wrought in that place, for the benefit of those who have faith to seek
them. In that church, when Justus had departed to Christ, Paulinus
consecrated Honorius bishop in his stead, as will be hereafter mentioned
in its proper place. (252) A certain priest and abbot of the monastery of
Peartaneu,(253) a man of singular veracity, whose name was Deda, told me
concerning the faith of this province that an old man had informed him
that he himself had been baptized at noon-day, by Bishop Paulinus, in the
presence of King Edwin, and with him a great multitude of the people, in
the river Trent, near the city, which in the English tongue is called
Tiouulfingacaestir;(254) and he was also wont to describe the person of
the same Paulinus, saying that he was tall of stature, stooping somewhat,
his hair black, his visage thin, his nose slender and aquiline, his aspect
both venerable and awe-inspiring. He had also with him in the ministry,
James, the deacon,(255) a man of zeal and great fame in Christ and in the
church, who lived even to our days.

It is told that there was then such perfect peace in Britain, wheresoever
the dominion of King Edwin extended, that, as is still proverbially said,
a woman with her new-born babe might walk throughout the island, from sea
to sea, without receiving any harm. That king took such care for the good
of his nation, that in several places where he had seen clear springs near
the highways, he caused stakes to be fixed, with copper drinking-vessels
hanging on them, for the refreshment of travellers; nor durst any man
touch them for any other purpose than that for which they were designed,
either through the great dread they had of the king, or for the affection
which they bore him. His dignity was so great throughout his dominions,
that not only were his banners borne before him in battle, but even in
time of peace, when he rode about his cities, townships, or provinces,
with his thegns, the standard-bearer was always wont to go before him.
Also, when he walked anywhere along the streets, that sort of banner which
the Romans call Tufa,(256) and the English, Thuuf, was in like manner
borne before him.




Chap. XVII. How Edwin received letters of exhortation from Pope Honorius,
who also sent the pall to Paulinus. [634 A. D. ]


At that time Honorius, successor to Boniface, was Bishop of the Apostolic
see. When he learned that the nation of the Northumbrians, with their
king, had been, by the preaching of Paulinus, converted to the faith and
confession of Christ, he sent the pall to the said Paulinus, and with it
letters of exhortation to King Edwin, with fatherly love inflaming his
zeal, to the end that he and his people should persist in belief of the
truth which they had received. The contents of which letter were as
follow:

“_To his most noble son, and excellent lord, Edwin king of the Angles,
Bishop Honorius, servant of the servants of God, greeting. _ The
wholeheartedness of your Christian Majesty, in the worship of your
Creator, is so inflamed with the fire of faith, that it shines out far and
wide, and, being reported throughout the world, brings forth plentiful
fruits of your labours. For the terms of your kingship you know to be
this, that taught by orthodox preaching the knowledge of your King and
Creator, you believe and worship God, and as far as man is able, pay Him
the sincere devotion of your mind. For what else are we able to offer to
our God, but our readiness to worship Him and to pay Him our vows,
persisting in good actions, and confessing Him the Creator of mankind?
And, therefore, most excellent son, we exhort you with such fatherly love
as is meet, to labour to preserve this gift in every way, by earnest
striving and constant prayer, in that the Divine Mercy has vouchsafed to
call you to His grace; to the end that He, Who has been pleased to deliver
you from all errors, and bring you to the knowledge of His name in this
present world, may likewise prepare a place for you in the heavenly
country. Employing yourself, therefore, in reading frequently the works of
my lord Gregory, your Evangelist, of apostolic memory, keep before your
eyes that love of his doctrine, which he zealously bestowed for the sake
of your souls; that his prayers may exalt your kingdom and people, and
present you faultless before Almighty God. We are preparing with a willing
mind immediately to grant those things which you hoped would be by us
ordained for your bishops, and this we do on account of the sincerity of
your faith, which has been made known to us abundantly in terms of praise
by the bearers of these presents. We have sent two palls to the two
metropolitans, Honorius and Paulinus;(257) to the intent, that when either
of them shall be called out of this world to his Creator, the other may,
by this authority of ours, substitute another bishop in his place; which
privilege we are induced to grant by the warmth of our love for you, as
well as by reason of the great extent of the provinces which lie between
us and you; that we may in all things support your devotion and likewise
satisfy your desires. May God’s grace preserve your Highness in safety! ”




Chap. XVIII. How Honorius, who succeeded Justus in the bishopric of
Canterbury, received the pall and letters from Pope Honorius. [634 A. D. ]


In the meantime, Archbishop Justus was taken up to the heavenly kingdom,
on the 10th of November,(258) and Honorius, who was elected to the see in
his stead, came to Paulinus to be ordained, and meeting him at Lincoln was
there consecrated the fifth prelate of the Church of Canterbury from
Augustine. To him also the aforesaid Pope Honorius sent the pall, and a
letter, wherein he ordains the same that he had before ordained in his
epistle to King Edwin, to wit, that when either the Archbishop of
Canterbury or of York shall depart this life, the survivor, being of the
same degree, shall have power to ordain another bishop in the room of him
that is departed; that it might not be necessary always to undertake the
toilsome journey to Rome, at so great a distance by sea and land, to
ordain an archbishop. Which letter we have also thought fit to insert in
this our history:

“_Honorius to his most beloved brother Honorius:_ Among the many good
gifts which the mercy of our Redeemer is pleased to bestow on His servants
He grants to us in His bounty, graciously conferred on us by His goodness,
the special blessing of realizing by brotherly intercourse, as it were
face to face, our mutual love. For which gift we continually render thanks
to His Majesty; and we humbly beseech Him, that He will ever confirm your
labour, beloved, in preaching the Gospel, and bringing forth fruit, and
following the rule of your master and head, the holy Gregory; and that,
for the advancement of His Church, He may by your means raise up further
increase; to the end, that through faith and works, in the fear and love
of God, what you and your predecessors have already gained from the seed
sown by our lord Gregory, may grow strong and be further extended; that so
the promises spoken by our Lord may hereafter be brought to pass in you;
and that these words may summon you to everlasting happiness: ‘Come unto
Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. ’(259)
And again, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord. ’(260) And we, most beloved brothers, sending you
first these words of exhortation out of our enduring charity, do not fail
further to grant those things which we perceive may be suitable for the
privileges of your Churches.

“Wherefore, in accordance with your request, and that of the kings our
sons,(261) we do hereby in the name of the blessed Peter, chief of the
Apostles, grant you authority, that when the Divine Grace shall call
either of you to Himself, the survivor shall ordain a bishop in the room
of him that is deceased. To which end also we have sent a pall to each of
you, beloved, for celebrating the said ordination; that by the authority
which we hereby commit to you, you may make an ordination acceptable to
God; because the long distance of sea and land that lies between us and
you, has obliged us to grant you this, that no loss may happen to your
Church in any way, on any pretext whatever, but that the devotion of the
people committed to you may increase the more. God preserve you in safety,
most dear brother! Given the 11th day of June, in the reign of these our
lords and emperors, in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Heraclius,
and the twenty-third after his consulship; and in the twenty-third of his
son Constantine, and the third after his consulship; and in the third year
of the most prosperous Caesar, his son Heraclius,(262) the seventh
indiction; that is, in the year of our Lord, 634. ”




Chap. XIX. How the aforesaid Honorius first, and afterwards John, wrote
letters to the nation of the Scots, concerning the observance of Easter,
and the Pelagian heresy. [640 A. D. ]


The same Pope Honorius also wrote to the Scots,(263) whom he had found to
err in the observance of the holy Festival of Easter, as has been shown
above, with subtlety of argument exhorting them not to think themselves,
few as they were, and placed in the utmost borders of the earth, wiser
than all the ancient and modern Churches of Christ, throughout the world;
and not to celebrate a different Easter, contrary to the Paschal
calculation and the decrees of all the bishops upon earth sitting in
synod. Likewise John,(264) who succeeded Severinus, successor to the same
Honorius, being yet but Pope elect, sent to them letters of great
authority and erudition for the purpose of correcting the same error;
evidently showing, that Easter Sunday is to be found between the fifteenth
of the moon and the twenty-first, as was approved in the Council of
Nicaea. (265) He also in the same epistle admonished them to guard against
the Pelagian heresy,(266) and reject it, for he had been informed that it
was again springing up among them. The beginning of the epistle was as
follows:

“_To our most beloved and most holy Tomianus, Columbanus, Cromanus,
Dinnaus, and Baithanus, bishops; to __ Cromanus, Ernianus, Laistranus,
Scellanus, and Segenus, priests; to Saranus and the rest of the Scottish
doctors and abbots, Hilarus, the arch-presbyter, and vice-gerent of the
holy Apostolic See; John, the deacon, and elect in the name of God;
likewise John, the chief of the notaries and vice-gerent of the holy
Apostolic See, and John, the servant of God, and counsellor of the same
Apostolic See. _(267) The writings which were brought by the bearers to
Pope Severinus, of holy memory, were left, when he departed from the light
of this world, without an answer to the questions contained in them. Lest
any obscurity should long remain undispelled in a matter of so great
moment, we opened the same, and found that some in your province,
endeavouring to revive a new heresy out of an old one, contrary to the
orthodox faith, do through the darkness of their minds reject our Easter,
when Christ was sacrificed; and contend that the same should be kept with
the Hebrews on the fourteenth of the moon. ”(268)

By this beginning of the epistle it evidently appears that this heresy
arose among them in very late times, and that not all their nation, but
only some of them, were involved in the same.

After having laid down the manner of keeping Easter, they add this
concerning the Pelagians in the same epistle:

“And we have also learnt that the poison of the Pelagian heresy again
springs up among you; we, therefore, exhort you, that you put away from
your thoughts all such venomous and superstitious wickedness. For you
cannot be ignorant how that execrable heresy has been condemned; for it
has not only been abolished these two hundred years, but it is also daily
condemned by us and buried under our perpetual ban; and we exhort you not
to rake up the ashes of those whose weapons have been burnt. For who would
not detest that insolent and impious assertion, ‘That man can live without
sin of his own free will, and not through the grace of God? ’ And in the
first place, it is blasphemous folly to say that man is without sin, which
none can be, but only the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ
Jesus, Who was conceived and born without sin; for all other men, being
born in original sin, are known to bear the mark of Adam’s transgression,
even whilst they are without actual sin, according to the saying of the
prophet, ‘For behold, I was conceived in iniquity; and in sin did my
mother give birth to me. ’ ”(269)




Chap. XX. How Edwin being slain, Paulinus returned into Kent, and had the
bishopric of Rochester conferred upon him. [633 A. D. ]


Edwin reigned most gloriously seventeen years over the nations of the
English and the Britons, six whereof, as has been said, he also was a
soldier in the kingdom of Christ. Caedwalla,(270) king of the Britons,
rebelled against him, being supported by the vigorous Penda, of the royal
race of the Mercians, who from that time governed that nation for
twenty-two years with varying success. A great battle being fought in the
plain that is called Haethfelth,(271) Edwin was killed on the 12th of
October, in the year of our Lord 633, being then forty-eight years of age,
and all his army was either slain or dispersed. In the same war also,
Osfrid,(272) one of his sons, a warlike youth, fell before him;
Eadfrid,(273) another of them, compelled by necessity, went over to King
Penda, and was by him afterwards slain in the reign of Oswald, contrary to
his oath. At this time a great slaughter was made in the Church and nation
of the Northumbrians; chiefly because one of the chiefs, by whom it was
carried on, was a pagan, and the other a barbarian, more cruel than a
pagan; for Penda, with all the nation of the Mercians, was an idolater,
and a stranger to the name of Christ; but Caedwalla, though he professed
and called himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and
manner of living, that he did not even spare women and innocent children,
but with bestial cruelty put all alike to death by torture, and overran
all their country in his fury for a long time, intending to cut off all
the race of the English within the borders of Britain. Nor did he pay any
respect to the Christian religion which had sprung up among them; it being
to this day the custom of the Britons to despise the faith and religion of
the English, and to have no part with them in anything any more than with
pagans. King Edwin’s head was brought to York, and afterwards taken into
the church of the blessed Peter the Apostle, which he had begun, but which
his successor Oswald finished, as has been said before. It was laid in the
chapel of the holy Pope Gregory, from whose disciples he had received the
word of life. (274)

The affairs of the Northumbrians being thrown into confusion at the moment
of this disaster, when there seemed to be no prospect of safety except in
flight, Paulinus, taking with him Queen Ethelberg, whom he had before
brought thither, returned into Kent by sea, and was very honourably
received by the Archbishop Honorius and King Eadbald. He came thither
under the conduct of Bassus, a most valiant thegn of King Edwin, having
with him Eanfled, the daughter, and Wuscfrea, the son of Edwin, as well as
Yffi, the son of Osfrid, Edwin’s son. (275) Afterwards Ethelberg, for fear
of the kings Eadbald and Oswald,(276) sent Wuscfrea and Yffi over into
Gaul to be bred up by King Dagobert,(277) who was her friend; and there
they both died in infancy, and were buried in the church with the honour
due to royal children and to Christ’s innocents. He also brought with him
many rich goods of King Edwin, among which were a large gold cross, and a
golden chalice, consecrated to the service of the altar, which are still
preserved, and shown in the church of Canterbury.

At that time the church of Rochester had no pastor, for Romanus,(278) the
bishop thereof, being sent on a mission to Pope Honorius by Archbishop
Justus, was drowned in the Italian Sea; and thus Paulinus, at the request
of Archbishop Honorius and King Eadbald, took upon him the charge of the
same, and held it until he too, in his own time, departed to heaven, with
the fruits of his glorious labours; and, dying in that Church, he left
there the pall which he had received from the Pope of Rome. He had left
behind him in his Church at York, James, the deacon,(279) a true churchman
and a holy man, who continuing long after in that Church, by teaching and
baptizing, rescued much prey from the ancient enemy; and from him the
village, where he chiefly dwelt, near Cataract,(280) has its name to this
day. He had great skill in singing in church, and when the province was
afterwards restored to peace, and the number of the faithful increased, he
began to teach church music to many, according to the custom of the
Romans, or of the Cantuarians. (281) And being old and full of days, as the
Scripture says, he went the way of his fathers.





BOOK III




Chap. I. How King Edwin’s next successors lost both the faith of their
nation and the kingdom; but the most Christian King Oswald retrieved both.
[633 A. D. ]


Edwin being slain in battle, the kingdom of the Deiri, to which province
his family belonged, and where he first began to reign, passed to Osric,
the son of his uncle Aelfric, who, through the preaching of Paulinus, had
also received the mysteries of the faith. But the kingdom of the
Bernicians—for into these two provinces the nation of the Northumbrians
was formerly divided(282)—passed to Eanfrid, the son of Ethelfrid,(283)
who derived his origin from the royal family of that province. For all the
time that Edwin reigned, the sons of the aforesaid Ethelfrid, who had
reigned before him, with many of the younger nobility, lived in banishment
among the Scots or Picts, and were there instructed according to the
doctrine of the Scots, and were renewed with the grace of Baptism. Upon
the death of the king, their enemy, they were allowed to return home, and
the aforesaid Eanfrid, as the eldest of them, became king of the
Bernicians. Both those kings,(284) as soon as they obtained the government
of their earthly kingdoms, abjured and betrayed the mysteries of the
heavenly kingdom to which they had been admitted, and again delivered
themselves up to defilement and perdition through the abominations of
their former idolatry.

But soon after, the king of the Britons, Caedwalla,(285) the unrighteous
instrument of rightful vengeance, slew them both. First, in the following
summer, he put Osric to death; for, being rashly besieged by him in the
municipal town,(286) he sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, took
him by surprise, and destroyed him and all his army. Then, when he had
occupied the provinces of the Northumbrians for a whole year,(287) not
ruling them like a victorious king, but ravaging them like a furious
tyrant, he at length put an end to Eanfrid, in like manner, when he
unadvisedly came to him with only twelve chosen soldiers, to sue for
peace. To this day, that year is looked upon as ill-omened, and hateful to
all good men; as well on account of the apostacy of the English kings, who
had renounced the mysteries of the faith, as of the outrageous tyranny of
the British king. Hence it has been generally agreed, in reckoning the
dates of the kings, to abolish the memory of those faithless monarchs, and
to assign that year to the reign of the following king, Oswald, a man
beloved of God. This king, after the death of his brother Eanfrid,(288)
advanced with an army, small, indeed, in number, but strengthened with the
faith of Christ; and the impious commander of the Britons, in spite of his
vast forces, which he boasted nothing could withstand, was slain at a
place called in the English tongue Denisesburna, that is, the brook of
Denis. (289)




Chap. II. How, among innumerable other miracles of healing wrought by the
wood of the cross, which King Oswald, being ready to engage against the
barbarians, erected, a certain man had his injured arm healed. [634 A. D. ]


The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald,
being about to engage in this battle, erected the symbol of the Holy
Cross, and knelt down and prayed to God that he would send help from
Heaven to his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told, that the
cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be set up,
the king himself, in the ardour of his faith, laid hold of it and held it
upright with both his hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers
and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried to his whole
army, “Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God
Almighty in His mercy to defend us from the proud and cruel enemy; for He
knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation. ”
All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy
with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith
deserved. In the place where they prayed very many miracles of healing are
known to have been wrought, as a token and memorial of the king’s faith;
for even to this day, many are wont to cut off small splinters from the
wood of the holy cross, and put them into water, which they give to sick
men or cattle to drink, or they sprinkle them therewith, and these are
presently restored to health.

The place is called in the English tongue Hefenfelth, or the Heavenly
Field,(290) which name it undoubtedly received of old as a presage of what
was afterwards to happen, denoting, that the heavenly trophy was to be
erected, the heavenly victory begun, and heavenly miracles shown forth to
this day. The place is near the wall in the north which the Romans
formerly drew across the whole of Britain from sea to sea, to restrain the
onslaught of the barbarous nations, as has been said before. Hither also
the brothers of the church of Hagustald,(291) which is not far distant,
long ago made it their custom to resort every year, on the day before that
on which King Oswald was afterwards slain, to keep vigils there for the
health of his soul, and having sung many psalms of praise, to offer for
him in the morning the sacrifice of the Holy Oblation. And since that good
custom has spread, they have lately built a church there, which has
attached additional sanctity and honour in the eyes of all men to that
place;(292) and this with good reason; for it appears that there was no
symbol of the Christian faith, no church, no altar erected throughout all
the nation of the Bernicians, before that new leader in war, prompted by
the zeal of his faith, set up this standard of the Cross as he was going
to give battle to his barbarous enemy.

Nor is it foreign to our purpose to relate one of the many miracles that
have been wrought at this cross. One of the brothers of the same church of
Hagulstald, whose name is Bothelm, and who is still living, a few years
ago, walking carelessly on the ice at night, suddenly fell and broke his
arm; he was soon tormented with a most grievous pain in the broken part,
so that he could not lift his arm to his mouth for the anguish. Hearing
one morning that one of the brothers designed to go up to the place of the
holy cross, he desired him, on his return, to bring him a piece of that
sacred wood, saying, he believed that with the mercy of God he might
thereby be healed. The brother did as he was desired; and returning in the
evening, when the brothers were sitting at table, gave him some of the old
moss which grew on the surface of the wood. As he sat at table, having no
place to bestow the gift which was brought him, he put it into his bosom;
and forgetting, when he went to bed, to put it away, left it in his bosom.
Awaking in the middle of the night, he felt something cold lying by his
side, and putting his hand upon it to feel what it was, he found his arm
and hand as sound as if he had never felt any such pain.




Chap. III. How the same king Oswald, asking a bishop of the Scottish
nation, had Aidan sent him, and granted him an episcopal see in the Isle
of Lindisfarne. [635 A. D. ]


The same Oswald, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous that
all the nation under his rule should be endued with the grace of the
Christian faith, whereof he had found happy experience in vanquishing the
barbarians, sent to the elders of the Scots,(293) among whom himself and
his followers, when in banishment, had received the sacrament of Baptism,
desiring that they would send him a bishop, by whose instruction and
ministry the English nation, which he governed, might learn the privileges
and receive the Sacraments of the faith of our Lord. Nor were they slow in
granting his request; for they sent him Bishop Aidan, a man of singular
gentleness, piety, and moderation; having a zeal of God, but not fully
according to knowledge; for he was wont to keep Easter Sunday according to
the custom of his country, which we have before so often mentioned,(294)
from the fourteenth to the twentieth of the moon; the northern province of
the Scots, and all the nation of the Picts, at that time still celebrating
Easter after that manner, and believing that in this observance they
followed the writings of the holy and praiseworthy Father Anatolius. (295)
Whether this be true, every instructed person can easily judge. But the
Scots which dwelt in the South of Ireland had long since, by the
admonition of the Bishop of the Apostolic see, learned to observe Easter
according to the canonical custom. (296)

On the arrival of the bishop, the king appointed him his episcopal see in
the island of Lindisfarne,(297) as he desired. Which place, as the tide
ebbs and flows, is twice a day enclosed by the waves of the sea like an
island; and again, twice, when the beach is left dry, becomes contiguous
with the land. The king also humbly and willingly in all things giving ear
to his admonitions, industriously applied himself to build up and extend
the Church of Christ in his kingdom; wherein, when the bishop, who was not
perfectly skilled in the English tongue, preached the Gospel, it was a
fair sight to see the king himself interpreting the Word of God to his
ealdormen and thegns, for he had thoroughly learned the language of the
Scots during his long banishment. From that time many came daily into
Britain from the country of the Scots, and with great devotion preached
the Word to those provinces of the English, over which King Oswald
reigned, and those among them that had received priest’s orders,(298)
administered the grace of Baptism to the believers. Churches were built in
divers places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the Word;
lands and other property were given of the king’s bounty to found
monasteries; English children, as well as their elders, were instructed by
their Scottish teachers in study and the observance of monastic
discipline. For most of those who came to preach were monks. Bishop Aidan
was himself a monk, having been sent out from the island called Hii,(299)
whereof the monastery was for a long time the chief of almost all those of
the northern Scots,(300) and all those of the Picts, and had the direction
of their people. That island belongs to Britain, being divided from it by
a small arm of the sea, but had been long since given by the Picts, who
inhabit those parts of Britain, to the Scottish monks, because they had
received the faith of Christ through their preaching.




Chap. IV. When the nation of the Picts received the faith of Christ. [565
A. D. ]


In the year of our Lord 565, when Justin, the younger, the successor of
Justinian, obtained the government of the Roman empire, there came into
Britain from Ireland a famous priest and abbot, marked as a monk by habit
and manner of life, whose name was Columba,(301) to preach the word of God
to the provinces of the northern Picts, who are separated from the
southern parts belonging to that nation by steep and rugged mountains. For
the southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those mountains, had, it is
said, long before forsaken the errors of idolatry, and received the true
faith by the preaching of Bishop Ninias,(302) a most reverend and holy man
of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome in the
faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St.
Martin the bishop, and famous for a church dedicated to him (wherein
Ninias himself and many other saints rest in the body), is now in the
possession of the English nation. The place belongs to the province of the
Bernicians, and is commonly called the White House,(303) because he there
built a church of stone, which was not usual among the Britons.

Columba came into Britain in the ninth year of the reign of Bridius, who
was the son of Meilochon,(304) and the powerful king of the Pictish
nation, and he converted that nation to the faith of Christ, by his
preaching and example. Wherefore he also received of them the gift of the
aforesaid island whereon to found a monastery. It is not a large island,
but contains about five families, according to the English computation;
his successors hold it to this day; he was also buried therein, having
died at the age of seventy-seven, about thirty-two years after he came
into Britain to preach. (305) Before he crossed over into Britain, he had
built a famous monastery in Ireland, which, from the great number of oaks,
is in the Scottish tongue called Dearmach—The Field of Oaks. (306) From
both these monasteries, many others had their beginning through his
disciples, both in Britain and Ireland; but the island monastery where his
body lies, has the pre-eminence among them all.

That island has for its ruler an abbot, who is a priest, to whose
jurisdiction all the province, and even the bishops, contrary to the usual
method, are bound to be subject, according to the example of their first
teacher, who was not a bishop, but a priest and monk;(307) of whose life
and discourses some records are said to be preserved by his disciples. But
whatsoever he was himself, this we know for certain concerning him, that
he left successors renowned for their continence, their love of God, and
observance of monastic rules. It is true they employed doubtful cycles in
fixing the time of the great festival, as having none to bring them the
synodal decrees for the observance of Easter, by reason of their being so
far away from the rest of the world; but they earnestly practised such
works of piety and chastity as they could learn from the Prophets, the
Gospels and the Apostolic writings. This manner of keeping Easter
continued among them no little time, to wit, for the space of 150 years,
till the year of our Lord 715.

But then the most reverend and holy father and priest, Egbert,(308) of the
English nation, who had long lived in banishment in Ireland for the sake
of Christ, and was most learned in the Scriptures, and renowned for long
perfection of life, came among them, corrected their error, and led them
to observe the true and canonical day of Easter; which, nevertheless, they
did not always keep on the fourteenth of the moon with the Jews, as some
imagined, but on Sunday, although not in the proper week. (309) For, as
Christians, they knew that the Resurrection of our Lord, which happened on
the first day of the week, was always to be celebrated on the first day of
the week; but being rude and barbarous, they had not learned when that
same first day after the Sabbath, which is now called the Lord’s day,
should come. But because they had not failed in the grace of fervent
charity, they were accounted worthy to receive the full knowledge of this
matter also, according to the promise of the Apostle, “And if in any thing
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. ”(310) Of
which we shall speak more fully hereafter in its proper place.




Chap. V. Of the life of Bishop Aidan. [635 A. D. ]


From this island, then, and the fraternity of these monks, Aidan was sent
to instruct the English nation in Christ, having received the dignity of a
bishop. At that time Segeni,(311) abbot and priest, presided over that
monastery. Among other lessons in holy living, Aidan left the clergy a
most salutary example of abstinence and continence; it was the highest
commendation of his doctrine with all men, that he taught nothing that he
did not practise in his life among his brethren; for he neither sought nor
loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately
among the poor whom he met whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich
men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot,
never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; to the end
that, as he went, he might turn aside to any whomsoever he saw, whether
rich or poor, and call upon them, if infidels, to receive the mystery of
the faith, or, if they were believers, strengthen them in the faith, and
stir them up by words and actions to giving of alms and the performance of
good works.

His course of life was so different from the slothfulness of our times,
that all those who bore him company, whether they were tonsured or laymen,
had to study either reading the Scriptures, or learning psalms. This was
the daily employment of himself and all that were with him, wheresoever
they went; and if it happened, which was but seldom, that he was invited
to the king’s table, he went with one or two clerks, and having taken a
little food, made haste to be gone, either to read with his brethren or to
pray. At that time, many religious men and women, led by his example,
adopted the custom of prolonging their fast on Wednesdays and Fridays,
till the ninth hour, throughout the year, except during the fifty days
after Easter. Never, through fear or respect of persons, did he keep
silence with regard to the sins of the rich; but was wont to correct them
with a severe rebuke. He never gave money to the powerful men of the
world, but only food, if he happened to entertain them; and, on the
contrary, whatsoever gifts of money he received from the rich, he either
distributed, as has been said, for the use of the poor, or bestowed in
ransoming such as had been wrongfully sold for slaves. Moreover, he
afterwards made many of those he had ransomed his disciples, and after
having taught and instructed them, advanced them to priest’s orders.

It is said, that when King Oswald had asked a bishop of the Scots to
administer the Word of faith to him and his nation, there was first sent
to him another man of more harsh disposition,(312) who, after preaching
for some time to the English and meeting with no success, not being gladly
heard by the people, returned home, and in an assembly of the elders
reported, that he had not been able to do any good by his teaching to the
nation to whom he had been sent, because they were intractable men, and of
a stubborn and barbarous disposition. They then, it is said, held a
council and seriously debated what was to be done, being desirous that the
nation should obtain the salvation it demanded, but grieving that they had
not received the preacher sent to them. Then said Aidan, who was also
present in the council, to the priest in question, “Methinks, brother,
that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have
been, and did not at first, conformably to the Apostolic rule, give them
the milk of more easy doctrine, till, being by degrees nourished with the
Word of God, they should be capable of receiving that which is more
perfect and of performing the higher precepts of God. ” Having heard these
words, all present turned their attention to him and began diligently to
weigh what he had said, and they decided that he was worthy to be made a
bishop, and that he was the man who ought to be sent to instruct the
unbelieving and unlearned; since he was found to be endued preeminently
with the grace of discretion, which is the mother of the virtues. So they
ordained him and sent him forth to preach; and, as time went on, his other
virtues became apparent, as well as that temperate discretion which had
marked him at first.




Chap. VI. Of King Oswald’s wonderful piety and religion. [635-642 A. D. ]


King Oswald, with the English nation which he governed, being instructed
by the teaching of this bishop, not only learned to hope for a heavenly
kingdom unknown to his fathers, but also obtained of the one God, Who made
heaven and earth, a greater earthly kingdom than any of his ancestors. In
brief, he brought under his dominion all the nations and provinces of
Britain, which are divided into four languages, to wit, those of the
Britons, the Picts, the Scots, and the English. (313) Though raised to that
height of regal power, wonderful to relate, he was always humble, kind,
and generous to the poor and to strangers.

To give one instance, it is told, that when he was once sitting at dinner,
on the holy day of Easter, with the aforesaid bishop, and a silver dish
full of royal dainties was set before him, and they were just about to put
forth their hands to bless the bread, the servant, whom he had appointed
to relieve the needy, came in on a sudden, and told the king, that a great
multitude of poor folk from all parts was sitting in the streets begging
alms of the king; he immediately ordered the meat set before him to be
carried to the poor, and the dish to be broken in pieces and divided among
them. At which sight, the bishop who sat by him, greatly rejoicing at such
an act of piety, clasped his right hand and said, “May this hand never
decay. ” This fell out according to his prayer, for his hands with the arms
being cut off from his body, when he was slain in battle, remain
uncorrupted to this day, and are kept in a silver shrine, as revered
relics, in St. Peter’s church in the royal city,(314) which has taken its
name from Bebba, one of its former queens. Through this king’s exertions
the provinces of the Deiri and the Bernicians, which till then had been at
variance, were peacefully united and moulded into one people. He was
nephew to King Edwin through his sister Acha; and it was fit that so great
a predecessor should have in his own family such an one to succeed him in
his religion and sovereignty.




Chap. VII. How the West Saxons received the Word of God by the preaching
of Birinus; and of his successors, Agilbert and Leutherius. [635-670 A. D. ]


At that time, the West Saxons, formerly called Gewissae,(315) in the reign
of Cynegils,(316) received the faith of Christ, through the preaching of
Bishop Birinus,(317) who came into Britain by the counsel of Pope
Honorius;(318) having promised in his presence that he would sow the seed
of the holy faith in the farthest inland regions of the English, where no
other teacher had been before him. Hereupon at the bidding of the Pope he
received episcopal consecration from Asterius, bishop of Genoa;(319) but
on his arrival in Britain, he first came to the nation of the Gewissae,
and finding all in that place confirmed pagans, he thought it better to
preach the Word there, than to proceed further to seek for other hearers
of his preaching.

Now, as he was spreading the Gospel in the aforesaid province, it happened
that when the king himself, having received instruction as a catechumen,
was being baptized together with his people, Oswald, the most holy and
victorious king of the Northumbrians, being present, received him as he
came forth from baptism, and by an honourable alliance most acceptable to
God, first adopted as his son, thus born again and dedicated to God, the
man whose daughter(320) he was about to receive in marriage. The two kings
gave to the bishop the city called Dorcic,(321) there to establish his
episcopal see; where having built and consecrated churches, and by his
pious labours called many to the Lord, he departed to the Lord, and was
buried in the same city; but many years after, when Haedde was
bishop,(322) he was translated thence to the city of Venta,(323) and laid
in the church of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.

When the king died, his son Coinwalch(324) succeeded him on the throne,
but refused to receive the faith and the mysteries of the heavenly
kingdom; and not long after he lost also the dominion of his earthly
kingdom; for he put away the sister of Penda, king of the Mercians, whom
he had married, and took another wife; whereupon a war ensuing, he was by
him deprived of his kingdom, and withdrew to Anna, king of the East
Angles, where he lived three years in banishment, and learned and received
the true faith; for the king, with whom he lived in his banishment, was a
good man, and happy in a good and saintly offspring, as we shall show
hereafter. (325)

But when Coinwalch was restored to his kingdom, there came into that
province out of Ireland, a certain bishop called Agilbert,(326) a native
of Gaul, but who had then lived a long time in Ireland, for the purpose of
reading the Scriptures. He attached himself to the king, and voluntarily
undertook the ministry of preaching. The king, observing his learning and
industry, desired him to accept an episcopal see there and remain as the
bishop of his people. Agilbert complied with the request, and presided
over that nation as their bishop for many years. At length the king, who
understood only the language of the Saxons, weary of his barbarous tongue,
privately brought into the province another bishop, speaking his own
language, by name Wini,(327) who had also been ordained in Gaul; and
dividing his province into two dioceses, appointed this last his episcopal
see in the city of Venta, by the Saxons called Wintancaestir. (328)
Agilbert, being highly offended, that the king should do this without
consulting him, returned into Gaul, and being made bishop of the city of
Paris, died there, being old and full of days. Not many years after his
departure out of Britain, Wini was also expelled from his bishopric by the
same king, and took refuge with Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, of whom he
purchased for money the see of the city of London,(329) and remained
bishop thereof till his death. Thus the province of the West Saxons
continued no small time without a bishop.

During which time, the aforesaid king of that nation, sustaining
repeatedly very great losses in his kingdom from his enemies, at length
bethought himself, that as he had been before expelled from the throne for
his unbelief, he had been restored when he acknowledged the faith of
Christ; and he perceived that his kingdom, being deprived of a bishop, was
justly deprived also of the Divine protection. He, therefore, sent
messengers into Gaul to Agilbert, with humble apologies entreating him to
return to the bishopric of his nation. But he excused himself, and
protested that he could not go, because he was bound to the bishopric of
his own city and diocese; notwithstanding, in order to give him some help
in answer to his earnest request, he sent thither in his stead the priest
Leutherius,(330) his nephew, to be ordained as his bishop, if he thought
fit, saying that he thought him worthy of a bishopric. The king and the
people received him honourably, and asked Theodore, then Archbishop of
Canterbury, to consecrate him as their bishop. He was accordingly
consecrated in the same city, and many years diligently governed the whole
bishopric of the West Saxons by synodical authority.




Chap. VIII. How Earconbert, King of Kent, ordered the idols to be
destroyed; and of his daughter Earcongota, and his kinswoman Ethelberg,
virgins consecrated to God. [640 A. D. ]


In the year of our Lord 640, Eadbald,(331) king of Kent, departed this
life, and left his kingdom to his son Earconbert, who governed it most
nobly twenty-four years and some months. He was the first of the English
kings that of his supreme authority commanded the idols throughout his
whole kingdom to be forsaken and destroyed, and the fast of forty days to
be observed; and that the same might not be lightly neglected, he
appointed fitting and condign punishments for the offenders. His daughter
Earcongota, as became the offspring of such a parent, was a most virtuous
virgin, serving God in a monastery in the country of the Franks, built by
a most noble abbess, named Fara, at a place called In Brige;(332) for at
that time but few monasteries had been built in the country of the Angles,
and many were wont, for the sake of monastic life, to repair to the
monasteries of the Franks or Gauls; and they also sent their daughters
there to be instructed, and united to their Heavenly Bridegroom,
especially in the monasteries of Brige, of Cale,(333) and Andilegum. (334)
Among whom was also Saethryth,(335) daughter of the wife of Anna, king of
the East Angles, above mentioned; and Ethelberg,(336) the king’s own
daughter; both of whom, though strangers, were for their virtue made
abbesses of the monastery of Brige. Sexburg,(337) that king’s elder
daughter, wife to Earconbert, king of Kent, had a daughter called
Earcongota,(338) of whom we are about to speak.

Many wonderful works and miracles of this virgin, dedicated to God, are to
this day related by the inhabitants of that place; but for us it shall
suffice to say something briefly of her departure out of this world to the
heavenly kingdom. The day of her summoning drawing near, she began to
visit in the monastery the cells of the infirm handmaidens of Christ, and
particularly those that were of a great age, or most noted for their
virtuous life, and humbly commending herself to their prayers, she let
them know that her death was at hand, as she had learnt by revelation,
which she said she had received in this manner.