Book V

Book V

B O O K V *

1. How Oethelwald, Cuthbert's successor as hermit, calmed a storm by his prayers when his brethren were struggling at sea.

2. How Bishop John cured a dumb man with his blessing.

3. How he healed a sick girl by his prayers.

4. How he cured with consecrated water the sick wife of a gesith.

5. How he recalled the servant of a gesith from death by his prayers.

6. How by his prayers and his blessing he saved from death a cleric who had been injured by a fall.

7. How Cædwalla, king of the West Saxons, went to Rome to be baptized; and further how his devout successor Ine also visited the shrines of the blessed Apostles.

8. How, when Theodore died, Berhtwold was made archbishop; and how, amongst many others whom he consecrated, he ap pointed the learned Tobias to be bishop of the church at Rochester.

9. How a holy man named Egbert planned to go and preach in Germany but was prevented; how Wihtberht did go but, because he made so little progress, returned to Ireland whence he had come.

10. How Willibrord preached in Frisia and converted many to Christ; and how his companions the Hewalds suffered martyr dom.

1 1 . How the venerable Swithberht and Willibrord were consecrated bishops for Frisia; the one in Britain and the other in Rome.

12. How a certain man, a Northumbrian, rose from the dead and related many things he had seen, some to be dreaded and some desired.

13. How, on the other hand, another man when near death was shown a book by devils, in which his sins were recorded.

14. How someone else, just before his death, saw the place of punishment appointed him in hell.

15. How most of the Irish Churches, at the instance of Adamnan, accepted the catholic Easter; and how the latter wrote a book about the holy places.

v The Ecclesiastical History 16. How he described in that book the place of the Lord's birth, of His passion, and of His resurrection.

17. What he wrote about the place of the Lord's ascension and about the tombs of the patriarchs.

18. How the South Saxons received Eadberht and Ealla as bishops and the West Saxons received Daniel and Aldhelm; and about Aldhelm's writings.

19. How Cenred, king of the Mercians, and Offa, king of the East Saxons, ended their lives at Rome in monastic habit; and about the life and death of Bishop Wilfrid.

20. How Albinus succeeded Abbot Hadrian, and how Acca succeeded Wilfrid as bishop.

2 1 . How Abbot Ceolfrith sent church builders to the king of the Piets and also sent a letter about the catholic Easter and the tonsure.

22. How the monks of Iona and their subject monasteries began to celebrate the canonical Easter through the instruction of Egbert.

23. The present state of the English race and of all Britain.

24. Chronological summary of the whole work; and about the person of the author.

B E G I N N I N G O F B O O K V

G O O D L U C K T O T H E R E A D E R !

C H A P T E R 1

C u t h b e r t , the man of God, was succeeded in the solitary life which he lived on Fame Island before he became a bishop by the venerable Oethelwald. The latter, after he had been ordained priest, sanctified his office for many years in the monastery at Ripon by deeds worthy of that rank. In order to illustrate his merits* and the kind of life he lived, I will relate a miracle which was told me by one of the brothers for whose benefit and among whom it was performed, a venerable servant and priest of Christ named Guthffith, who after wards presided as abbot over the brothers of the church at Lindisfame where he had been brought up.

'I came', he said, 'with two other brothers to Fame Island, wishing to talk to the venerable father Oethelwald. After we had been refreshed by his words and had asked his blessing, we were returning home, when suddenly, while we were in the midst of the sea, the calm weather which had accompanied us was broken, and so fierce a wintry tempest arose that we could make no progress either by sailing or rowing and expected nothing but death. After wë had struggled for a long time in vain against wind and sea, we looked back to see if perhaps we could, by any effort, at least return to the island we had left. But we found that we were shut in by the storm on every hand, and there was no hope of safety by our own efforts. However, looking into the distance, we saw

Oethelwald, the beloved of God, had emerged from his re treat on Fame Island and was watching our progress; for he had heard the crashing of the storm and the boiling ocean and had come out to see what was happening to us. When he saw our desperate plight, he bowed his knees and prayed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for our life and safety. No sooner was his prayer ended than he had calmed the swelling main;* so that the fierce tempest ceased on all sides and favourable winds carried us over a smooth sea to land. As soon as we had landed and carried our little vessel up from the sea, the tempest, which had been calmed for our sakes for a

The Ecclesiastical History V. 1 - 2 short time, returned and continued to rage furiously all that day; so it was plain to see that the short interval of calm which had occurred was granted by heaven for our escape, in answer to the prayers of the man of God.

Oethelwald remained on Fame Island for twelve years and died there; but he was buried in the church of St Peter the apostle on the island of Lindisfame, near the bodies of the bishops mentioned above. These incidents took place in the time of King Aldfrith, who succeeded his brother Ecgffith and mied over the Northumbrians for nineteen years.

C H A P T E R 2

A t the beginning of Aldffith's reign, Bishop Eata died and was succeeded as bishop of the church at Hexham by a holy man named John.* Many miracles were told of him by those who knew him well and especially by the most reverend and truthful Berhthun, once his deacon but now abbot of the monastery called Inderauuda (Beverley), that is, 'in the wood of the men of Deira'. We have thought it fitting to preserve the memory of some of these miracles.

There is a remote dwelling, enclosed by a rampart and amid scattered trees, not far from the church at Hexham, about a mile and a half away, and separated from it by the river Tyne. It has an oratory* dedicated to St Michael the archangel in which the man of God with a few others very often used to devote himself to prayer and reading when a favourable opportunity occurred, and especially in Lent.

On one occasion, when he had come there to stay at the beginning of Lent, he told his followers to seek out some poor man who was afflicted by a serious illness or in dire need, to have with them during these days and to benefit from their charity; for this was his constant custom. There was in a village not far away a dumb youth known to the bishop, who often used to come to him to receive alms and had never been able to utter a single word. Besides this, he had so much scabbiness and scurf on his head that no hair could grow on the crown save for a few rough hairs which stuck out around

v. 2-3 The Ecclesiastical History it. The bishop had this young man brought and ordered a little hut to be built for him in the enclosure of their dwelling, in which he could stay and receive his daily allowance. On the second Sunday in Lent, he ordered the poor man to come in to him and then he told him to put out his tongue and show it him. Thereupon he took him by the chin and made the sign of the holy cross on his tongue; after this he told him to put his tongue in again and say something. 'Say some word,' he said,

'say gce\ which in English is the word of assent and agree ment, that is, yes. He said at once what the bishop told him to say, the bonds of his tongue being unloosed. The bishop then added the names of the letters: 'Say A ', and he said it. 'Say B ', and he said that too. When he had repeated the names of the letters after the bishop, the latter added syllables and words for the youth to repeat after him. When he had repeated them all, one after the other, the bishop taught him to say longer sentences, which he did. After that those who were present relate that he never ceased all that day and night, as long as he could keep awake, to talk and to reveal the secrets of his thoughts and wishes to others which he could never do be fore. He was like the man who had long been lame, who, when healed by the Apostles Peter and John, stood up, leapt and walked, entering the Temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God, rejoicing to have the use of his feet of which he had so long been deprived. The bishop rejoiced with him at his cure and ordered the physician to undertake to heal his scabby head. He did as he was bidden and, with the help of the bishop's blessing and prayers, his skin was healed and he grew a beautiful head of hair. So the youth gained a clear complexion, ready speech, and beautiful curly hair, whereas he had once been ugly, destitute, and dumb. So rejoicing in his new-found health he returned home, which he preferred to do though the bishop offered him a permanent place in his own household.

C H A P T E R 3

B e r h t h u n told another miracle which the bishop per formed. The reverend Wilfrid was restored to the bishopric of

The Ecclesiastical History v. 3 the church at Hexham after a long exile, and the same John, upon the death of Bosa,* a man of great holiness and humil ity, was made bishop of York in his place. He went on a certain occasion to a monastery of nuns in a place called

Wetadun* (Watton), over which Abbess Hereburh was at that time presiding. 'After we had arrived,' he said, 'and had been joyfully received by them all, the abbess told us that one of the nuns, who was her own daughter, was afflicted by a grievous illness. She had recently been bled in the arm and, while still under treatment, was seized with a sudden pain which rapidly increased. Her wounded arm grew worse and became so much swollen that it could hardly be encircled by both hands. She was lying in bed and seemed likely to die through the violence of the pain. The abbess asked the bishop to deign to visit her and give her his blessing, believing that she would greatly improve if he blessed or touched her. Then he asked when the girl had been bled and, on hearing that it was on the fourth day of the moon, he ex claimed, " You have acted foolishly and ignorantly to bleed her on the fourth day of the moon; I remember how Arch bishop Theodore of blessed memory used to say that it was very dangerous to bleed a patient when the moon is waxing and the Ocean tide flowing. And what can I do for the girl if she is at the point of death?" but the abbess entreat ed him still more urgently on behalf of her daughter, whom she loved greatly and had planned to make abbess in her place. At last she persuaded him to visit the sick girl.

So, taking me with him, he went in to where the maiden was lying, suffering great pain as I have said, and with her arm so swollen that she could not bend her elbow. He stood by her, said a prayer over her, blessed her, and went out. Afterwards, when we were sitting at the table at the usual hour, someone came and called me out saying,

" Cwenburh"—that was the girl's name—" asks you to come back to her at once." I did so and as I went in I found her looking much more cheerful and apparently healed. As I sat by her she said, " Shall we ask for something to drink?" I answered, "Yes, indeed, and if you can drink I shall be de lighted." A vessel was brought and when we had both drunk she said to me, "After the bishop had prayed for me, given me

The Ecclesiastical History v. 3-4 his blessing, and gone away, I felt better at once, and though

I have not yet recovered my full strength, all the pain has entirely gone from my arm where it was most violent and from my whole body, just as if the bishop himself had carried it away, although the swelling still seems to persist in my arm."

After we had gone the dreadful swelling departed as the pain had done and the maiden, saved from suffering and death, gave thanks to her Saviour and Lord, with all the other servants of His who were there.'

C H A P T E R 4

A b b o t B e r h t h u n also used to relate another miracle not unlike this one, which the bishop performed; he said, 'Not far from our monastery, less than two miles away, was the dwelling of a certain gesith named Puch, whose wife had been suffering for nearly forty days from a severe disease, so that for three weeks it had not been possible to carry her out of the room in which she lay. Now, at that time, it happened that the man of God was called by the gesith to dedicate a church and, after the dedication, the man invited the bishop to dine at his house. The bishop refused, saying that he must return to the monastery which was close by. But the gesith was most insistent in his request, vowing that he would give alms to the poor, if only the bishop would deign to come in and break his fast with him that day. I also added my entreaties, promising that I too would give alms for the relief of the poor if he would dine at the gesith*s house and give him his blessing. When at length and with difficulty we had persuaded him, we went in to dinner. Now the bishop had sent one of the brothers who had come with me to take some holy water, which he had consecrated for the dedication of the church, to the woman who lay ill. He told him to give her some to drink, also instructing him to wash the place where the pain was worst with the water. When this was done, the woman at once rose cured, realizing that she was not only free from her protracted illness but had also recovered her long-lost strength; she brought the cup to the bishop and to the rest of us and

The Ecclesiastical History v. 4 -5 continued to serve us all with drink until dinner was finished.

In this she imitated the mother-in-law of St Peter,* who had been sick of a fever, but rose and ministered to them, having regained her health and strength at the touch of the Lord's hand.

C H A P T E R 5

A t another time he was called by a gesith named Addi* to dedicate a church, and when he had completed the task, he was asked by the gesith to come and visit one of his servants who lay dangerously ill, so that he had lost all the use of his limbs and seemed to be at the point of death. In fact a coffin had already been made in which he was to be buried. The gesith urgently besought him with tears to go in and pray for his servant,* because his life was of great concern to him; and he believed that, if the bishop were willing to lay his hands on him and bless him, he would soon mend. So the bishop went in and found him at the point of death, sur rounded by mourners, while the coffin in which he was to be buried was lying beside him. He said a prayer, blessed him, and went out, adding the usual words of comfort, 'I wish you a quick recovery.' Later when they were sitting at the table the boy sent to his master, asking him to let him have a cup of wine because he was thirsty. His master was extremely glad that the servant could drink and sent him a cup of wine blessed by the bishop. He drank it and then, shaking off his lethargy and weakness, he got up and put on his clothes, left his room, and went in to greet the bishop and his fellow guests, saying that he would much like to eat and drink with them. They bade him sit down with them to dinner, greatly rejoicing at his recovery. He sat down, ate, drank, and made merry, behaving like one of the guests; and he lived for many years afterwards enjoying the good health which he had at that time recovered. The abbot recounted the miracle, though he was not himself present when it happened, but it was told him by some who were there.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 6

C H A P T E R 6

N o r must I pass over in silence a miracle which Herebald, a servant of Christ, tells as having been performed upon him by the bishop. At the time he was one of the bishop's clergy, but is now ruling as abbot over the monastery which is at the mouth of the Tyne (Tynemouth). 'Living with him,' he said,

'and knowing his way of life extremely well, I considered that it was worthy of a bishop in every particular so far as it is lawful for a man to judge; but I have also discovered, by the experience of others and particularly my own, what his merits were in the eyes of Him who sees the heart; for I was recalled from the threshold of death, so to speak, to the path of life by his prayers and benediction. In my early youth, I was living among his clergy and engaged in the study of reading and song, but I had not yet entirely withdrawn my heart from youthful pleasures. It happened one day, as we were on a journey with him, that we came upon a level and dry road suitable for galloping our horses. The young men who were with him, mostly laymen, began to ask the bishop for leave to gallop and try out their horses against one another. At first he refused, saying that it was an idle request; but at last he gave way to their unanimous pressure and said, " Do as you like, but let Herebald have absolutely no part in the game." There upon I earnestly begged him to give me leave to compete with them, for I had great faith in the splendid horse which he himself had given me; but I was unable to gain his consent.

'While the bishop and I were watching, and the horses were galloping back and forth along the course, I was so overcome by a spirit of wantonness that I could hold back no longer; so in spite of his command, I mingled among the contestants and began to race with them. As I did so, I heard him behind my back, saying with a sigh, " Oh, how you grieve me by riding in such a way!" I heard, yet I went on against his orders; immediately, as my fiery horse took a great leap over a hollow in the road, I fell and at once lost all feeling and power of movement just as if I were dead. For in that place there was a stone, level with the ground and covered by a thin layer of

The Ecclesiastical History v. 6 turf, and no other stone was to be found over the whole plain.

Thus it happened by chance, or rather by divine intervention in order to punish my disobedience, that I hit it with my head and with the hand which I had put under my head as I fell; so my thumb was broken and my skull fractured and, as I said,

I lay like a corpse. As I could not be moved, they put up a tent for me to lie in. Now it was about one o'clock in the afternoon and I lay as quiet as if I were dead until evening, when I revived a little and was carried home by my companions. I lay speechless all night, now vomiting blood because some internal organs had been ruptured in my fall. The bishop was deeply grieved by my accident and by the disaster, because he had a special affection for me. So he would not sleep that night with his clergy, as was his custom, but spent the whole night alone in vigil and prayer, imploring, as I suppose, God's mercy for my recovery. In the early morning he came in to me, said a prayer over me, and called me by name. I awoke as though from a heavy sleep and he asked me if I knew who it was who was talking to me. I opened my eyes and said, " Yes, you are my beloved bishop." He answered, " Can you live?" I said, "I can, with the help of your prayers, if it is the Lord's will." Then, placing his hand on my head with words of blessing, he returned to his prayers; when he came back very soon afterwards, he found me sitting up and able to speak; and, urged as it soon appeared by a divine instinct, he began to ask me whether I was perfectly certain that I had been baptized. I answered that I knew without any doubt that I had been washed in the fountain of salvation for the remission of sins, and I told him the name of the priest who had baptized me. The bishop answered, " If you were baptized by that priest you were not perfectly baptized, for I know that, when he was ordained priest, he was so slow-witted that he was unable to learn the office of catechism or baptism; and for this reason I ordered him not to presume to exercise this ministry because he could not perform it properly." Saying this, he made it his business to catechize me forthwith; as he did so and breathed upon my face,* I immediately felt better. Then he called a doctor and ordered him to set and bind up my fractured skull. As soon as I had received his blessing, I was so

v. 6 -7 The Ecclesiastical History much better that on the next day I mounted my horse and journeyed with him to another place; and very soon after I had fully recovered, I was washed in the water of life.'

He continued in the bishopric for thirty-three years and then he ascended to the heavenly kingdom and was buried in the chapel of St Peter in his monastery called Beverley,* in the year of our Lord 721. When, owing to advancing years, he was unable to administer his bishopric, he consecrated his priest

Wilfrid to the see of York and retired to his monastery, where he ended his days in a way of life honouring to God.

C H A P T E R 7

I n the third year of Aldffith's reign, Cædwalla,* king of the West Saxons, after ruling his people most ably for two years, gave up his throne for the sake of the Lord and to win an everlasting kingdom, and went to Rome. He was anxious to gain the special privilege of being washed in the fountain of baptism within the threshold of the apostles; for he had learned that by the way of baptism alone can the human race attain entrance to the heavenly life; at the same time he hoped that, soon after his baptism, he might be loosed from the bonds of the flesh and pass, cleansed as he was, to eternal joy; and both these things came to pass with God's help just as he had intended. He arrived in Rome while Sergius was pope and was baptized on the holy Saturday before Easter Day in the year of our Lord 689; while still in his white robes, he was attacked by an illness and, on 20 April, he was freed from the bonds of the flesh and joined the company of the blessed in heaven. At his baptism Pope Sergius* had given him the name of Peter, so that he might be united in name also with the blessed chief of the apostles, to whose most sacred body he had come from the very ends of the earth, inspired by loving devotion. He was also buried in St Peter's church and, by order of the pope, an epitaph was placed on his tomb, so that the memory of his devotion might be preserved for ever and those who read it or heard it read might be kindled to religious zeal by his example. This is how it runs:

The Ecclesiastical History v. 7

His high estate, wealth, kin, a mighty crown, His strongholds, chieftains, spoils, his own renown,

And that of all his sires, Caedwal forsook, Inspired by love of Heaven, that he might look,

A pilgrim king, on Peter and his shrine, There taste at his pure fount the streams divine

Whence flows a quickening glory through the earth.

So when with eager soul he sought new birth, He laid aside his barbarous rage and shame

And, with changed heart, to Peter changed his name As Sergius bade, who took a father's place

For this his son, reborn by heavenly grace; And that same grace soon bore him clothed in white,

Up through the skies into the realms of light.

Great the king's faith, Christ's mercy greater still, Whose counsels far surpass all mortal skill.

From earth's remotest end, from Britain's isle, To Romulus's town, o'er many a weary mile,

Bearing his gifts by devious ways he passed Until he gazed on Peter's shrine at last.

Now while within the tomb his body lies, His soul, washed white, joins Christ's flock in the skies.

'Twould seem he laid his earthly sceptre down Only to change it for Christ's lasting crown.

.Here was buried Cædwalla, otherwise Peter, king of the Saxons, on 20 April, in the second indiction, being thirty years of age more or less, in the reign of the most religious ruler the Emperor Justinian, in the fourth year of his consulship; and in the second year of the papacy of the apostolic ruler, Pope Sergius.

When Cædwalla left for Rome, Ine,* who was of the royal stock, succeeded to the throne. After he had ruled over the West Saxons for thirty-seven years, he also left his kingdom to younger men and went to the threshold of the apostles, while

Gregory* was pope, to spend some of his time upon earth as a pilgrim in the neighbourhood of the holy places, so that he might be thought worthy to receive a greater welcome from the saints in heaven. At this time many Englishmen, nobles and commons, layfolk and clergy, men and women, were eager to do the same thing.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 8

C H A P T E R 8

T he year after Cædwalla died in Rome, that is, in the year of our Lord 690, Archbishop Theodore of blessed memory died at the age of eighty-eight, being old and full of years. He had long been in the habit of prophesying to his friends that he would live so long, for it had been revealed to him in a dream.

He remained bishop for twenty-two years and was buried in the church of St Peter in which the bodies of all the archbishops of Canterbury are interred. Of him and of all his fellow archbishops it can rightly and truly be said that their

'bodies are buried in peace* but their name liveth throughout all generations'. To put it briefly, the English Churches made more spiritual progress while he was archbishop than ever before. The epitaph on his tomb, consisting of thirty-four heroic verses, openly and clearly describes to all comers his character, his life, his age, and his death. These are the first lines:

Here lies a holy bishop's mortal frame; In Grecian tongue is T heodore his name.

A great high priest was he, the church's head, Who in sound doctrine his disciples fed. and these are the last:

September was the month, the nineteenth day, When from the flesh his spirit took its way,

Climbing in bliss to share new life and love With angel-citizens of heaven above.

Berhtwald* succeeded him, having been abbot of the mon astery at Reculver,* which is to the north of the mouth of the river Yant.* He was a man with a deep knowledge of the Scriptures and well versed in ecclesiastical and monastic teaching, but not to be compared with his predecessor. He was elected to the bishopric in the year of our Lord 692, on 1

July, while Wihtred and Swæfheard* were ruling in Kent. He was consecrated in the following year on Sunday, 29 June, by Godwin,* metropolitan of the Gaulish church, and was en throned on Sunday, 31 August. Among the many bishops he

The Ecclesiastical History v. 8 - 9 consecrated was Tobias* to be bishop of Rochester after the death of Gefmund. Tobias was a man of great learning and was familiar with the Latin, Greek, and English languages.

C H A P T E R 9

A t that time the venerable servant of Christ and priest Egbert, a man to be named with all honour, was living a life of exile in Ireland, as has been said before, so that he might reach his heavenly fatherland. He planned to bring blessing to many peoples by undertaking the apostolic task of carrying the word of God, through the preaching of the gospel, to some of those nations who had not yet heard it. He knew that there were very many peoples in Germany from whom the Angles and Saxons, who now live in Britain, derive their origin; hence even to this day they are by a corruption called

Garmani* by their neighbours the Britons. Now these people are the Frisians,* Rugians, Danes, Huns, Old Saxons, and Boruhtware (Bructeri);* there are also many other nations in the same land who are still practising heathen rites to whom this soldier of Christ proposed to go, after sailing round

Britain,* to try if he could deliver any of them from Satan and bring them to Christ. But if he could not do this, he intended to go to Rome, there to visit and worship at the shrines of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ.

But divine revelations and interventions prevented him from carrying out any of these plans. He had already chosen the most vigorous of his companions and those who were outstanding both by their lives and learning and so most suitable for preaching the Word; and everything that was necessary for the voyage was prepared. Then early one morn ing one of the brothers came to him who had once lived in Britain and been a servant* of Boisil, the beloved priest of God, when this Boisil was prior in the monastery at Melrose under the abbot Eata, as has already been said. The man related to Egbert a vision which he had seen during the night; he said, 'When the mattin hymns* were finished and I had lain down on my bed, I fell into a light sleep and there

v. 9

The Ecclesiastical History appeared to me my late master and much loved tutor Boisil who asked me if I recognized him .J answered, "Yes, you are

Boisil." He then went on, "I have come to bring to Egbert the reply of his Lord and Saviour which you must deliver to him.

Tell him that he cannot perform this proposed journey. But it is God's will that he should go instead and give instruction in the monasteries of Columba.'" Now Columba was the first teacher of the faith to the Piets who lived beyond the hills to the north, and the first founder of the monastery in the island of Iona, which has long been greatly honoured by many of the tribes of Piets and Irish. Columba is now called Columcill by some, which is a compound of the word cella and the name

Columba. When Egbert heard the story of the vision, he told the brother who related it not to repeat it to anyone else, for fear the vision should be an illusion. He himself silently con sidered the matter and feared it might be true; but, neverthe less, he was unwilling to cease his preparations for the journey to those people whom he intended to instruct.

A few days afterwards the same brother came back to him and said that on that very night, immediately mattins were finished, Boisil had again appeared to him in a vision saying,

'Why have you delivered the message I gave you to Egbert in so careless and lukewarm a manner? Now go and say to him that, whether he likes it or not, he must go to Columba's monasteries, for they are cutting a crooked furrow and he must call them back to the true line.' On hearing this Egbert again charged the brother to tell no one. Though he was now sure of the vision, he nevertheless attempted to start on his intended voyage with the brothers. But after they had placed all the necessities for such a voyage on board and had waited several days for favourable winds, one night there arose a fierce tempest in which some of the goods in the ship were lost and it was left lying on its side in the water. Nevertheless, everything that belonged to Egbert and his companions was saved. Then, quoting the words of the prophet,* 'For my sake this great tempest is upon you', he withdrew from the undertaking and resigned himself to staying at home.

There was one of his companions named Wihtberht* who was remarkable both for his contempt of this world and for his

The Ecclesiastical History v. 9 -1 0 learning. He had spent many years in exile in Ireland, living as a hermit in great perfection of life. He took ship and, after reaching Frisia, spent two whole years preaching the word of life to that nation and to its king Radbod, but he reaped no fruit for all this labour among the barbarians who heard him.

So he returned to his beloved place of exile and began again to give himself up to the Lord, in his accustomed life of silence; and although he failed to help strangers to the faith, yet he took care to help his own people more, by the example of his virtues.

C H A P T E R 10

So Egbert, the man of the Lord, saw that he was not permit ted to go and preach to the nations himself, but was retained to be of some other use to the holy Church, as he had been forewarned by a prophecy; and even though Wihtberht had made no headway when he went into those parts, yet Egbert still attempted to send holy and industrious men to the task of preaching the Word; among these Willibrord was outstand ingly eminent as a priest both in rank and merit. When they arrived, twelve in number, they went to visit Pippin,* duke of the Franks, by whom they were graciously received; and as he had just driven King Radbod* out of nearer Frisia and had taken it over, he sent them to preach there; at the same time he gave them the support of his royal authority so that none should molest them as they preached; he also bestowed many favours on those who were willing to receive the faith. So itcame about that, aided by divine grace, they converted many in a short time from idolatry to faith in Christ.

Following their example, two English priests who had long lived in exile in Ireland for the sake of their eternal fatherland, came to the kingdom of the Old Saxons in the hope of winning some in that land to Christ by their preaching. They both shared the same devotion and also the same name, for they were both named Hewald, but with this distinction that because of the different colour of their hair one was called

Black Hewald and the other White Hewald; both were full of

v. io The Ecclesiastical History religious devotion, but Black Hewald was more learned in the holy Scriptures. When they reached the land, they went into the guest-house of a certain reeve, asking him to give them safe conduct to the viceroy who was over him because they had a message of importance which they had to deliver to him. The Old Saxons have no king but only a number of viceroys* who are set over the people and, when at any time war is about to break out, they cast lots impartially and all follow and obey the one on whom the lot falls, for the dur ation of the war. When the war is over, they all become viceroys of equal rank again. So the reeve* received them and though he promised to send them to the viceroy who was over him, as they requested, yet he kept them several days.

When the barbarians saw them continually engaged in psalms and prayers and daily offering up the sacrifice of the saving Victim to God—for they had sacred vessels with them and a consecrated board instead of an altar*— they realized that these men were of a different religion. They began to suspect that, if the Hewalds came to the viceroy and talked to him, they might turn him away from their gods and bring him to a new faith, the Christian religion, and so gradually the whole land would be compelled to change its old religion for a new one. So they seized them suddenly and put them to death. They slew White Hewald quickly with a sword but Black Hewald was put to lingering torture and was tom limb from limb in a horrible fashion; their bodies were thrown into the Rhine. When the viceroy whom they wished to see heard of it, he was extremely angry that the pilgrims had not been permitted to see him as they wished. So he sent and slew all those villagers and burned their village. These priests and servants of Christ suffered on 3 October.

Heavenly miracles were not lacking at their martyrdom.

When the heathen threw their dead bodies into the river, as I described, they were carried for nearly forty miles against the current to the place where their companions were. A great ray of light reaching to heaven shone every night upon the spot where they chanced to be and even the heathen who had slain them saw it. One of the brothers appeared by night in a vision to one of their companions whose name was Tilmon, a dis-

The Ecclesiastical History v. io - i i tinguished man and noble also in the worldly sense, who had been a soldier and become a monk. The vision pointed out to him that the bodies could be found in the place where he saw a light shining from heaven to earth. And so it befell; their bodies were found and buried with the honour due to martyrs, while the day of their passion and also of the finding of their bodies was fittingly observed in those places. In fact, that most glorious duke of the Franks, Pippin, on learning what had happened, sent and had their bodies brought to him and buried with much splendour in the church of the city of Cologne,* on the Rhine. It is said that a spring burst forth in the spot where they were killed which to this day provides the place with an abundant supply of water.

CHAPTER 11

On their first arrival in Frisia, Willibrord,* as soon as he heard that the king had given him permission to preach, hurried to Rome while Pope Sergius was ruling over the apostolic see, in order to begin the missionary task he wished to undertake with the pope's permission and approval. At the same time he hoped to receive some relics of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ in order that, when he had destroyed their idols and founded churches in the nation to which he was preaching, he might have relics of the saints ready to put into them, dedicating each church in honour of the saint whose relics they were. He also wished both to learn about and obtain many other things necessary for so great a task.

And when he had all that he wanted, he returned to his preaching.

At this time, the brothers who were engaged in the ministry of the Word in Frisia chose one of their number, a meekhearted man of sober ways named Swithberht,* to be conse crated bishop over them. They sent him to Britain, where at their request he was consecrated by the most reverend

Bishop Wilfrid, who was at that time an exile in Mercia, having been driven out of his own land. For at the time Kent had no bishop, since Theodore was dead and Berhtwald, his

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The Ecclesiastical History V. I I successor who had crossed the sea to be consecrated, had not yet returned to his episcopal see.

When Swithberht had received the rank of bishop and had returned from Britain, he left soon afterwards to go to the nation of the Boruhtware (Bructeri) and led many of them into the way of truth by his teaching. But soon afterwards the Boruhtware were defeated by the Old Saxons and those who had accepted the Word were scattered here and there. So the bishop and certain others went to Pippin who, at the request of his wife Bliththryth (Plectrudis), gave him a dwelling-place on an island in the Rhine which in their language is called 'On the Shore' (Kaiserswerth). Here he built a monastery which his heirs still occupy, in which he dwelt for a time, living a life of great austerity; and there he died.

When those who had come from Britain had spent some time in Frisia teaching, Pippin, with the consent of them all, sent the venerable Willibrord to Rome while Sergius was still pope, asking for him to be consecrated archbishop of the Frisians. This was duly performed as Pippin requested, in the year of our Lord 696.* He was consecrated in the church of the holy martyr Cecilia, on the day of her festival, and the pope gave him the name of Clement. He was sent back to the bishopric fourteen days after his arrival in the city.

Pippin gave him* a place for his episcopal see in his famous fortress which, in the ancient language of the people, is called

Wiltaburg, that is the town of the Wilti, but in the Gallic tongue is called Traiectum (Utrecht). The reverend bishop built a church here and preached the word of faith far and wide, recalling many from their errors. He also built a number of churches throughout those districts and established several monasteries. Not long afterwards he appointed in those parts a number of bishops from among the brothers who had come with him or had followed him there for the purpose of preaching. Some of these have now fallen asleep in the Lord, but Willibrord himself, sumamed Clement,* is still alive and honoured for his great age, having been thirty-six years a bishop. After fighting many a battle in the heavenly warfare, he now longs with all his heart for the prize of a heavenly reward.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 12

C H A P T E R 12

A b o u t this time a memorable miracle occurred in Britain like those of ancient times. In order to arouse the living from spiritual death, a certain man already dead came back to life and related many memorable things that he had seen, and I think that some of them ought to be briefly mentioned here.

There was a man, the father of a family, who lived a religious life together with his household in a district of Northumbria which is called Incuneningum (Cunningham).* He was stricken down by an illness which grew worse from day to day until he reached his end and died in the early hours of the night. But at dawn he came to life again and suddenly sat up, so that all who were sitting mourning round his corpse were terrified beyond measure and fled, except his wife, who loved him dearly and remained with him, though trembling with fear. The man comforted her, saying, 'Do not be afraid, for I have indeed risen from death which held me in its bonds, and I have been permitted to live again amongst mankind; never theless after this I must not live as I used to, but in a very different way.' He rose and went to the oratory in the village and continued in prayer until daylight came. He thereupon divided everything he possessed into three parts; he gave one part to his wife, another to his sons, and the third part he reserved for himself but immediately distributed it to the poor. Soon afterwards he freed himself from the cares of this world and went to the monastery at Melrose, which is almost encircled by a bend in the river Tweed. He received the tonsure and retired to a secret retreat provided by the abbot.

There, until the day of his death, he lived a life of such penance of mind and body that even if he had kept silence, his life would have declared that he had seen many things to be dreaded or desired which had been hidden from other men.

He described what he had seen in this way: 'I was guided by a man of shining countenance and wearing bright robes. We went in silence in what appeared to me to be the direction of the rising of the sun at the summer solstice. As we walked we came to a very deep and broad valley of infinite length. It lay

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v. 12

The Ecclesiastical History on our left and one side of it was exceedingly terrible with raging fire, while the other was no less intolerable on account of the violent hail and icy snow which was drifting and blow ing everywhere. Both sides were full of the souls of men which were apparently tossed from one side to the other in turn, as if by the fury of the tempest. When the wretched souls could no longer endure the fierceness of the terrific heat, they leapt into the midst of the deadly cold; and when they could find no respite there, they jumped back only to bum once again in the midst of the unquenchable flames. Since a countless multi tude of misshapen spirits, far and wide, was being tortured in this alternation of misery as far as I could see, and without any interval of respite, I began to think that this might be hell, of whose intolerable torments I had often heard tell. But my guide who went before me answered my thoughts, " Do not believe it," he said, " this is not hell as you think."

'When he had gradually led me further on, utterly terrified by this awful spectacle, I suddenly saw that the places in front of us began to grow dimmer until darkness covered every thing. As we entered this darkness, it quickly grew so thick that I could see nothing else except the shape and the garment of my guide. As we went on "through the shades in the lone night" ,* there suddenly appeared before us masses of noisome flame, constantly rising up as if from a great pit and falling into it again. When my guide had brought me to this place, he suddenly disappeared and left me alone in the midst of the darkness and of the horrible scene. I saw, as the globes of fire now shot up and now fell back again ceaselessly into the bottom of the pit, that the tips of the flames as they ascended, were full of human souls which, like sparks flying upward with the smoke, were now tossed on high and now, as the vaporous flames fell back, were sucked down into the depths. Further more, an indescribable stench which rose up with these vapours filled all these abodes of darkness. When I had stood there a long time in great terror, uncertain what to do or where to turn or what end awaited me, I suddenly heard behind my back the sound of wild and desperate lamentation, accompanied by harsh laughter as though a rude mob were insulting their captured foes. As the noise grew clearer and

The Ecclesiastical History v. 12 finally reached me, I beheld a crowd of evil spirits, amid jeers and laughter, dragging five human souls, wailing and shriek ing, into the midst of the darkness. I could see* that one was tonsured like a clerk, one a layman, and one a woman. The evil spirits dragged them down into the midst of the burning pit; and it came about that, as they descended deeper, I was unable to discern clearly between human lamentations and devilish laughter, but there was a confused noise in my ears.

Meanwhile some of the gloomy spirits rose from the flaming abyss and rushed at me, surrounding me with burning eyes and tormenting me with the noisome flame which issued from their mouths and nostrils. They also threatened to seize me with the fiery tongs which they held in their hands, but although they ventured to terrify me, they did not dare to touch me. Being thus surrounded on all sides by foes and black darkness, I cast my eyes in every direction to see if there was any help or way of escape anywhere; and then there appeared behind me, on the road by which I had come, something like a bright star glimmering in the darkness which gradually grew and came rapidly towards me. On its approach all the hostile spirits who were seeking to seize me with their tongs scattered and fled.

'It was the one who had guided me before, whose coming put them to flight; turning to the right he began to lead me in the direction of the rising of the winter sun and quickly brought me out of the darkness into a serene and bright atmosphere. As he led me on in open light, I saw a very great wall in front of us which seemed to be endlessly long and endlessly high everywhere. I began to wonder why we were approaching this wall, since I could nowhere see any gate or window or steps to it. When we had reached the wall we suddenly found ourselves on top of it, by what means I know not. There was a very broad and pleasant plain, full of such a fragrance of growing flowers that the marvellous sweetness of the scent quickly dispelled the foul stench of the gloomy furnace which had hung around me. So great was the light that flooded all this place that it seemed to be clearer than the brightness of daylight or the rays of the noontide sun. In this meadow there were innumerable bands of men in white

v. 12

The Ecclesiastical History robes, and many companies of happy people sat around; as he led me through the midst of the troops of joyful inhabitants,

I began to think that this might perhaps be the kingdom of heaven of which I had often heard tell. But he answered my thoughts: "N o," he said, " this is not the kingdom of heaven as you imagine."

'When we had passed through these abodes of the blessed spirits, I saw in front of us a much more gracious light than before; and amidst it I heard the sweetest sound of people singing. So wonderful was the fragrance which spread from this place that the scent which I had thought superlative before, when I savoured it, now seemed to me a very ordinary fragrance; and the wondrous light which shone over the flowery field, in comparison with the light which now ap peared, seemed feeble and weak. When I began to hope that we should enter this delightful place, my guide suddenly stood still; and turning round immediately, he led me back by the way we had come.

'When we had reached the joyful mansions of the whiterobed spirits, he said to me, " Do you know what all these things are,* which you have seen?" I answered. "No!" Then he said, "The valley that you saw, with its awful flaming fire and freezing cold, is the place in which those souls have to be tried and chastened who delayed to confess and make restitution for the sins they had committed until they were on the point of death; and so they died. But because they did repent and confess, even though on their deathbed, they will all come to the kingdom of heaven on judgement day; and the prayers of those who are still alive, their alms and fastings and specially the celebration of masses, help many of them to get free even before the day of judgement. Furthermore, the fiery noisome pit which you saw is the very mouth of hell, into which whoever once falls will never be released from it through all eternity. This flowery place in which you see a fair and youthful company, so joyous and bright, is where the souls are received of those who depart from the body practis ing good works; but they are not in such a state of perfection that they deserve to be received immediately into the kingdom of heaven; nevertheless all of them at the day of judgement

The Ecclesiastical History v. 12 will enter into the presence of Christ and the joys of the heavenly kingdom. But any who are perfect in every word and deed and thought, as soon as they leave the body, come to the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom is near the place where you heard the sound of sweet singing, amid delightful fragrance and glorious light. You must now return to the body and live among men again; but if you seek to watch your actions with greater care and keep your ways and words righteous in singleness of heart, you yourself will receive a place after your death among the joyous band of the blessed spirits whom you see. When I left you for a time, I did so in order to find out what your future would be." When he had finished speaking

I returned to the body with much distaste, for I was greatly delighted with the sweetness and grace of the place I had seen and with the company of those whom I saw in it. I did not dare to ask any questions of my guide; but meanwhile I suddenly found myself, by what means I know not, alive and in the world of men.'

The man of God was unwilling to relate these and other things he had seen to any who were living a slothful or a careless life, but only to those who were terrified by fear of the torments or delighted with the hope of eternal joys and were ready to make his words a means of spiritual advancement.

For instance, in the neighbourhood of his cell there lived a monk named Hæmgisl,* who was an eminent priest and whose good works were worthy of his rank. He is still alive, living in solitude in Ireland and supporting his declining years on a scanty supply of bread and cold water. He would often visit this man and learn from him, by repeated questionings, what sort of things he saw when he was out of the body; it is from his account that these particulars which we have briefly described came to our knowledge. He also told his visions to King Aldfrith, a most learned man in all respects, who listened to them gladly and attentively; at the king's request he was admitted to the monastery already mentioned and was crowned with the monastic tonsure. Whenever the king visited that region, he often went to listen to his story. At that time the abbot and priest Æthelwold, a man of pious and sober life, ruled over the monastery. Now he rules over the

v. 12-13 The Ecclesiastical History episcopal see of Lindisfame and his deeds are worthy of his rank.

The man was given a more secret retreat in the monastery where he could freely devote himself to the service of his

Maker in constant prayer, and as his retreat was on the banks of the river, he often used to enter it in his great longing to chastise his body, frequently immersing himself beneath the water; he would remain thus motionless, reciting prayers and psalms for as long as he could endure it, while the water of the river came up to his loins and sometimes up to his neck.

When he came out of the water, he would never trouble to take off his cold, wet garments until the warmth of his body had dried them. When in wintertime the broken pieces of ice were floating round him, which he himself had had to break in order to find a place to stand in the river or immerse himself, those who saw him would say, 'Brother

Dryhthelm,'—for that was his name—'however can you bear such bitter cold?' He answered them simply, for he was a man of simple wit and few words, 'I have known it colder.' And when they said, 'It is marvellous that you are willing to endure such a hard and austere life', he replied, 'I have seen it harder.' And so until the day he was called away, in his unwearied longing for heavenly bliss, he subdued his aged body with daily fasts and led many to salvation by his words and life.

C H A P T E R 13

O n the other hand, there was a man in the Mercian kingdom whose visions and words, but not his way of life, profited many but not himself. He lived in the time of Cenred,*

Æthelred's successor, and was a layman, holding military rank; but however much he pleased the king by his outward industry, he displeased him by his inward negligence. The king warned him constantly to make confession, mend his ways, and give up his sins, before sudden death robbed him of all opportunity of repentance and amendment. But though he was frequently warned, he spumed this salutary advice,

The Ecclesiastical History V. 13 always promising that he would repent at some future time.

Meanwhile he fell sick and took to his bed, suffering cruel pains. The king who loved him greatly went in to him and urged him to repent of his wickedness even then, before he died. He answered that he did not wish to confess his sins then, but only when he had recovered from his illness, lest his companions should accuse him of doing, for fear of death, something which he would not do when he was in good health; he imagined that he was speaking brave words but, as was afterwards apparent, he had been miserably deceived by the wiles of the devil.

As his disease grew worse, the king came again to see him and reason with him. But he called out at once in wretched tones, 'What do you want now? Why have you come? You can do nothing to help or save me now.' The king answered, 'Do not talk like that; behave like a sane man.' 'I am not mad,' he said, 'but I know the worst and I have seen it clearly.' 'And what is that?' the king asked. 'A short time ago,' he said, 'two most handsome youths came into my home and sat down near me, one at my head and one at my feet. One of them drew out a very beautiful but exceedingly small book and gave it me to read. On looking into it, I found all the good deeds I had ever done written down, but they were very few and trifling. They took the volume back but said nothing to me.

Then suddenly there appeared an army of evil spirits with horrible faces; they surrounded the outside of the house, also filling almost the whole of the interior, and they too sat down.

Then the one who seemed to be chief among them, judging by his dark and gloomy face and by the fact that he occupied the chief seat, took a volume of enormous size and almost unbearable weight, horrible to behold, and ordered one of his followers to bring it to me to read. On reading it I found all my sins written down very clearly but in hideous handwrit ing: not only my sins of word and deed but even my slightest thoughts. He said to the glorious white-robed men who sat by me, "Why do you sit here since you know that this man is certainly ours?" They said, "You speak the truth; take him away to help make up the number of the damned." With these words they immediately disappeared. Then two very wicked

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The Ecclesiastical History V. 13-14 spirits who had daggers* in their hands struck me, one on the head and one on the foot. These daggers are now creeping into the interior of my body with great torment and, as soon as they meet, I shall die and, as the devils are all ready to seize me, I shall be dragged down into the dungeons of hell.'

Thus spoke the wretched man in his despair and, not long afterwards, he died. Now he suffers everlasting and fruitless punishment in torment because he failed to submit for a brief spell to the penance which would have brought him the fruit of pardon. From this it is clear, as the blessed Pope Gregory writes* about certain people, that he saw this vision not for his own benefit, because it did not profit him, but for the sake of others; so that they, hearing of his fate, may fear to put off their time of repentance while they still have the opportunity, and not be cut off by sudden death and die impenitent. As for the various books he saw offered him by good and evil spirits, this was done by divine providence, so that we may remember that our thoughts and deeds are not scattered to the breeze but are all kept to be examined by the great Judge, and will be shown us at our end either by friendly angels or by our foes.

First the angels offered a white book and then the devils offered a black book, the angels a very small one, the devils an enormous one: and it should be noted that in his early years he did some good deeds which he completely obscured by doing evil in his early maturity. If, on the other hand, he had troubled to correct the errors of childhood in his youth, hiding them from God's eyes by well-doing, he might have been able to associate himself with the company of those of whom the psalmist says, 'Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.'

I thought I ought to tell this story simply, just as I learned it from the venerable Bishop Pehthelm,* for the benefit of those who read or hear it.

C H A P T E R 14

I m y s e l f knew a brother, and I would that I had not known him, whose name I could mention if it were any use. He

The Ecclesiastical History v. 14 himself belonged to a noble monastery but lived an ignoble life. He was often rebuked by the brothers and the elders there and warned to turn to a more chastened way of life. But although he would not listen to them, yet they bore with him patiently for the sake of his outward service, for he was an exceptionally skilled craftsman. But he was much addicted to drunkenness and the other pleasures of a loose life; he used to remain in his workshop day and night, rather than go to the church with the brothers to sing psalms and pray and listen to the word of life. It happened to him as people say, that he who is not willing to enter the church gate humbly of his own accord, is bound to be carried against his will to the gates of hell, a damned soul. He was attacked by an illness and, when he was in extremity, he called his brothers; lamenting like one already damned, he began to describe how he had seen hell opened and Satan in its infernal depths, with Caiaphas and the others who slew the Lord, close by him in the avenging flames: 'and near them', he said, 'I see a place of everlasting damnation prepared, alas, for me, wretched man that I am.'

When the brothers heard this, they began to urge him earnestly to repent even then, seeing that he was still in the body; but he answered despairingly, 'There is no time now for me to change my way of life, since I have already myself seen judgement passed upon me.'

As he uttered these words, he died without receiving the saving viaticum and his body was buried in the furthest corner of the monastery; nor did anyone venture to say masses or sing psalms or even pray for him. Oh, how far asunder has

God divided light from darkness! The blessed protomartyr Stephen, when he was about to suffer death for the sake of the truth, saw the heavens opened and the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The eyes of his mind were fixed before his death upon the place where he was to be after death, so that he might die more happily.

But on the other hand this smith, a man of dark mind and dark deeds, when he was at the point of death, saw hell opened and the damnation of the devil and his followers. The unhappy man also saw his own place of imprisonment among them, so that he might perish the more miserably in despair

The Ecclesiastical History

V. 1 4 - 1 5

himself, and yet might leave behind him a reason why those who were still alive and knew of this, should seek their own salvation by his own perdition. This happened lately in the kingdom of Bemicia. The story spread far and wide and roused many people to do penance for their sins without delay. And may the reading of this account of ours have the same effect!

C H A P T E R 15

A t this time, by the grace of God, the greater part of the Irish in Ireland and some of the Britons in Britain* adopted the reasonable and canonical date for keeping Easter. The priest

Adamnan,* abbot of the monks on the island of Iona, was sent by his people on a mission to Aldfrith, king of the Angles, and stayed for some time in his kingdom to see the canonical rites of the church. He was earnestly advised by many who were better instructed than himself that he, in company with a very small band of followers, living in the remotest comer of the world, should not presume to go against the universal custom of the church in the matter of keeping Easter and in various other ordinances. He altered his opinion so greatly that he readily preferred the customs which he saw and heard in the English churches to those of himself and his followers.

He was a good and wise man with an excellent knowledge of the Scriptures.

On his return home he sought to bring his own people in Iona and those who were in houses subject to his monastery, into the way of truth which he had himself recognized and accepted with his whole heart; but he was unable to do so.

So he sailed to Ireland and preached to the people there, modestly explaining to them the true date of Easter. He corrected their traditional error and restored nearly all who were not under the dominion of Iona to catholic unity, teaching them to observe Easter at the proper time. After he had celebrated Easter in Ireland canonically, he returned to his own island and earnestly put before his own monastery the catholic observance of the date of Easter, but he was

The Ecclesiastical History v. 15-16 unable to achieve his end; and it happened that before the year was over he had departed from the world. Thus by the interposition of divine grace, it came about that a man who greatly loved unity and peace was called to life eternal so that he was not compelled, when Eastertime returned, to have a still graver controversy with those who would not follow him in the truth.

This man wrote a book on the holy places which has proved useful to many readers; his work was based upon information dictated to him by Arculf,* a bishop of Gaul who had visited

Jerusalem to see the holy places. He had wandered all over the promised land and had been to Damascus, Constantinople,

Alexandria, and many islands of the sea. But as he was return ing to his native land by sea, he was cast by the violence of the tempest on to the west coasts of Britain. After many adven tures he came to the servant of Christ Adamnan who found him to be learned in the Scriptures and well acquainted with the holy places. Adamnan received him very gladly and eagerly listened to his words; he quickly committed to writing everything which Arculf had seen in the holy places which seemed to be worthy of remembrance. From this he made a book, as I said, which is useful to many and especially to those who live very far from the places where the patriarchs and apostles dwelt, and only know about them what they have learned from books. He gave this book to King Aldfrith and, through his kindness, it was circulated for lesser folk to read.

The writer was sent back to his own country laden with many gifts. I think that it will be useful to readers to make some extracts and put them into this History.

C H A P T E R 16

H e wrote thus* about the Lord's birthplace:

Bethlehem, the city of David, is situated on a narrow ridge, surrounded on all sides by valleys; it is a mile long from west to east, and has a low wall without towers, built around the edge of the plateau. In its eastern comer is a kind of natural half-cave, of which the outer part is said to have been the place of the Lord's birth. The

The Ecclesiastical History v. i6 inner part is known as the Lord's manger. The whole of the interior of this cave is covered with precious marble and, over the exact spot where the Lord is said to have been bom, stands the great church of St Mary.

He wrote thus about the place of the Lord's passion and resurrection:

Entering the city of Jerusalem from the north end, the first place to be visited, as the layout of the streets demands, is the church of Constantine called the Martyrium. The Emperor Constantine built this in magnificent and royal style, because it was here that his mother Helena found the Lord's cross. Westward from here is the church of Golgotha in which the rock is still visible which once held the cross whereon the Lord's body was nailed. The rock now supports a large silver cross while above it hangs a great circle of bronze with lamps attached. Below the site of the Lord's cross, a crypt has been cut out in the rock and in this is an altar upon which the sacrifice is offered for the honoured dead, while their bodies meanwhile remain outside in the street. To the west of the church is the church of the Anastasis, that is, the Resurrection of the Lord, a round building surrounded by three walls and supported by twelve columns. Between each pair of walls is a broad passage containing three altars fixed in three places in the central wall, namely to the south and north and west. It has eight doors or entrances through the three walls, opposite one another, of which four face south-east and four east. In the centre is the round tomb of the Lord cut out of the rock, and a man standing inside can touch the roof with his hand. It has an entrance to the east and against it that great stone was set; to this day the cave on the inside bears the marks of iron tools. The exterior is completely covered with marble right to the top of the roof. This roof is adorned with gold and bears a great golden cross.

On the north side of this tomb is the Lord's sepulchre, cut out of the same rock, being seven feet long and raised about three handbreadths from the floor. The entrance is on the south side, where twelve lamps bum day and night, four within the sepulchre and eight above it on the right edge. The stone which was placed at the mouth of the sepulchre is now split in two, but the smaller portion stands as an altar of squared stone in front of the tomb itself, while the larger part forms another four-cornered altar, set up at the east end of the church and draped with linen cloths. The colour of the tomb and the sepulchre is white mingled with red.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 17

C H A P T E R 17

Our author writes thus about the place of the Lord's ascension:

The mount of Olives is equal in height to Mount Sion but exceeds it in breadth and length. Except for vines and olives, it has few trees, but it produces much wheat and barley, for the quality of the soil is not marshy but suitable rather for grass and flowers. At the summit, from which the Lord ascended to heaven, there is a great round church which has in its circumference three chapels with vaulted roofs. The interior of the church could not be vaulted or roofed because the Lord's body passed up out of it. T o the east it has an altar roofed in with a narrow canopy, and in the centre of the church are to be seen the last footprints of the Lord as He ascended, being open to the sky above. Although the earth is daily carried away by the faithful, yet it still remains and preserves the same appearance of having been marked by the impress of His feet. Around these footprints there is a circular enclosure of bronze, as high as a man's neck, with a great lamp hanging above on pulleys, which shines day and night; it has an entrance from the west. At the west end of the church are eight windows and, opposite them, are as many lamps hanging from cords, whose light can be seen through the glass as far as Jerusalem: and their rays are said to stir the hearts of all who see them to zeal and penitence. Each year on the day of the Lord's ascension, after mass was said, a fierce blast of wind used to come down and throw to the ground all who were in the church.

He writes thus about Hebron and the tombs of the patriarchs:

Hebron, once a city and the capital of David's kingdom, now only shows by its ruins what it once was. A furlong away to the east, in the valley, is a double cave where are the tombs of the patriarchs, their heads facing north, surrounded on four sides by a wall. Each one of these tombs is covered by a single stone, hewn after the shape of a church, those of the three patriarchs being white, while that of Adam is darker and of poorer workmanship; he lies not far from them at the farthest end of the northern wall. There are also some smaller and poorer monuments to their three wives. The hill of Mamre is a mile to the north of these tombs, covered with grass and flowers, with a level plateau on the top. On the north side is Abraham's oak consist

v. 17-18 The Ecclesiastical History ing of a trunk only, and twice the height of a man, being enclosed in a church.

I determined to add to this History excerpts from these writings for the benefit of readers. They contain the sense of his words but put more briefly and concisely. If anyone wishes to know more of this book, he may find it in the volume itself and in the abridgement of it which I have lately made.

C H A P T E R 18

I n the year of our Lord 705 Aldffith, king of Northumbria, died, having reigned nearly twenty years. His son Osred,* a boy about eight years old, succeeded him and reigned eleven years. At the beginning of his reign Hædde, bishop of the West Saxons, departed to the heavenly life. He was a good and just man, whose life and teaching as a bishop depended more on his innate love of virtue than on what he learned from books. In fact the reverend Bishop Pehthelm (of whom more will be said* in the proper place), who was for a long time deacon and monk with Hædde's successor Aldhelm,* used to relate that many miracles of healing happened on the spot where Hædde died, through the merits of his holiness.

He said that the men of that kingdom used to take soil from the place and put it in water for the benefit of the sick, and both sick men and cattle who drank it or were sprinkled with it, were healed. As a result of the constant removal of the sacred soil, a hole of considerable size was made there.

When Hædde died, the bishopric of the kingdom was di vided into two dioceses. One was given to Daniel,* who governs it to this day, the other to Aldhelm, who presided over it energetically for four years. Both were fully instructed in ecclesiastical matters and in the knowledge of the Scrip tures. For example, Aldhelm, when he was still priest and abbot of the monastery known as Malmesbury, by order of a synod of his own people wrote a remarkable book against the British error of celebrating Easter at the wrong time, and of doing many other things to the detriment of the pure practices and the peace of the Church; by means of this book* he led

The Ecclesiastical History v. 18-19 many of those Britons who were subject to the West Saxons to adopt the catholic celebration of the Easter of the Lord.

He also wrote a most excellent book on virginity both in hexameter verse and in prose, producing a twofold* work after the example of Sedulius. He also wrote several other books, for he was a man of wide learning. He had a polished style* and, as we have said, was remarkable for his erudition in both ecclesiastical and in general studies. On his death

Forthhere* became bishop in his place; he also was a man most learned in the Scriptures.

While these men administered the see, it was decided by a decree of the synod* that the kingdom of the South Saxons, which had hitherto belonged to the diocese of Winchester, over which Daniel presided, should have an episcopal see and a bishop of its own. Eadberht, who was consecrated first bishop, had been abbot of the monastery of Bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory, which is called Selsey. When he died Eolla succeeded to the bishopric. He departed this life some years ago and the bishopric has remained vacant to this day.

C H A P T E R 19

I n the fourth year of the reign of Osred, Cenred, who had ruled the kingdom of Mercia for some time and very nobly, with still greater nobility renounced the throne of his kingdom. He went to Rome while Constantine* was pope, received the tonsure, and became a monk at the shrine of the apostles and remained there until his last days, occupied in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. He was succeeded by Ceolred,* son of that Æthelred who had been Cenred's predecessor. There came with him also Offa,* son of Sighere, the king of the East Saxons, already referred to; Offa was a youth so lovable and handsome that the whole race longed for him to have and to hold the sceptre of the kingdom. He too, inspired by a like devotion, left his wife, his lands, his kins men, and his fatherland for Christ and for the gospel in order that he might receive 'a hundredfold in this life* and in the world to come, life everlasting.' He too, when they reached

The Ecclesiastical History v. 19 the holy places at Rome, received the tonsure, ended his life in a monk's habit, and so attained to the vision of the blessed apostles in heaven which he had so long desired.

The same year that they left Britain, the famous Bishop Wilfrid* ended his days in the district called Oundle, after he had been bishop for forty-five years. His body was placed in a coffin and carried to the monastery at Ripon, where it was buried in the church of St Peter the Aposde, with the honour befitting so great a bishop. Let us now turn back and briefly relate some of the events of his life. He was a boy of good disposition and virtuous beyond his years. He behaved him self with such modesty and discretion in all things that he was deservedly loved, honoured, and cherished by his elders as though he were one of themselves. After he had reached the age of fourteen, he chose the monastic rather than the secular life. When he told his father this, for his mother was dead, he readily consented to the boy's godly desires and aspirations and bade him persevere in his profitable undertaking. So he came to the island of Lindisfarne and there devoted himself to the service of the monks, diligently striving to learn how to live a life of monastic purity and devotion. Since he was quick-witted he speedily learned the psalms and a number of other books; although he had not yet been tonsured, he was in no small measure distinguished for the virtues of humility and obedience, which are more important than the tonsure; and for this reason he was rightly loved by the older monks as well as by his contemporaries. After he had served God in that monastery for some years, being a youth of shrewd under standing, he gradually came to realize that the traditional way of virtuous life followed by the Irish was by no means perfect; so he resolved to go to Rome to see what ecclesiastical and monastic practices were observed in the apostolic see. When he told the brothers they commended his plan and persuaded him to carry out his purpose. He at once went to Queen

Eanflæd because she knew him and because it was through her counsel and at her request that he had been admitted to the monastery. He told her of his desire to visit the shrines of the blessed apostles. She was delighted with the youth's excellent plan and sent him to King Eorcenberht of Kent,

The Ecclesiastical History v. 19 who was her cousin, asking him to send Wilfrid honourably to Rome. At that time Honorius, one of the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, was archbishop there, a man deeply versed in ecclesiastical matters. The youth, who was very active-minded, spent some time in Kent, diligently setting himself to learn all that he saw, until another young man came, named Biscop, known also as Benedict, an Anglian of noble family, who also wished to go to Rome, and who has already been mentioned.

The king gave Wilfrid to Biscop as a companion and or dered Biscop to take him to Rome with him. When they reached Lyons, Wilfrid was held back by Dalfinus, the bishop of the city, while Benedict eagerly continued his journey to Rome. The bishop was delighted with the youth's prudent talk, his grace and beauty, his eager activity, and his con sistent and mature way of thinking. So as long as he remained, he supplied him and his companions plentifully with all they needed; and furthermore he offered Wilfrid, if he would accept them, a considerable part of Gaul to rule over, his unmarried niece as his wife, and to adopt him as his son.

Wilfrid thanked him for the kindness he had deigned to show him, a stranger, but answered that he had resolved upon another course of life and for that reason had left his native land and set out for Rome.

When the bishop heard this, he sent him to Rome, provid ing him with a guide for his journey, supplying him with an abundance of all things necessary for the road and earnestly begging that, on his return to his own country, he would come that way. When Wilfrid arrived in Rome he perseveringly devoted himself day by day, as he had intended, to constant prayer and the study of ecclesiastical matters, making friends with Archdeacon Boniface, a most holy and learned man, who was also a counsellor to the pope. Under his tuition he studied each of the four gospels in turn and learned the correct method of calculating Easter as well as gaining, under his teacher's guidance, a knowledge of many other matters of ecclesiastical discipline which were unknown in his own country. After he had spent some months in these happy studies, he returned to Dalfinus in Gaul, where he spent three

v. 19

The Ecclesiastical History years, being tonsured by him and so greatly beloved that he proposed to make Wilfrid his successor. But the bishop was cut off by a cruel death and so this was prevented; indeed,

Wilfrid was reserved for the task of being a bishop over his own people, the Angles. Queen Baldhild* had sent soldiers and ordered the bishop to be executed; Wilfrid, being one of his clergy, followed him to the place where he was to be beheaded, desiring to perish with him, though the bishop himself firmly opposed it. But when the executioners dis covered that he was a foreigner of English race, they spared him and refused to put him to death with his bishop.

On returning to Britain, he made friends with King Alhffith, who had learned always to obey and love the catholic rules of the church. When he found that Wilfrid was also catholic, he at once gave him ten hides in a place called

Stamford, and soon afterwards a monastery with thirty hides in a place called Ripon. He had first offered this site to some who followed the Irish ways, so that they might build a monastery there. But when they were given the choice, they preferred to abandon the place rather than accept the catholic

Easter and the other canonical rites of the Roman and apos tolic church; so he gave it to one whom he found to be trained in better rules and customs.

At this time he was ordained priest at Ripon, on the com mand of the king, by Agilbert, bishop of the Gewisse, already mentioned, because the king wished that a man of such learning and devotion should be in special and constant at tendance upon him as his priest and teacher. Not long after, as already explained, when the Irish sect had been exposed and banished, Alhfrith sent him to Gaul with the counsel and consent of his father Oswiu, requesting that he should be consecrated as his bishop by that same Agilbert who was now acting as bishop of Paris. Wilfrid was then about thirty years of age. Eleven bishops joined with Agilbert for the conse cration, and the ceremony was carried out with great dignity.

But since Wilfrid delayed overseas, a holy man named Chad, as already described, was consecrated to the bishopric of York at the command of King Oswiu. He ruled the church out standingly well for three years and then retired to look after

The Ecclesiastical History v. 19 his monastery at Lastingham, while Wilfrid became bishop of the whole Northumbrian kingdom.

Later on, during the reign of Ecgfrith, Wilfrid was driven from the see and other bishops were consecrated in his place, as has already been related. Intending to go to Rome to plead his cause before the pope, he embarked on a ship and was driven by the west wind to Frisia, where he was honourably received by the barbarians and their king Aldgisl.* He preached Christ to them and, after instructing many thou sands of them in the word of truth, he washed them from the stains of their sins in the Saviour's font. In this way he first began that work of evangelization which the most reverend bishop of Christ, Willibrord, afterwards completed with great devotion. He spent the winter happily there with these new people of God and then continued his journey to Rome. After his case had been considered in the presence of Pope Agatho and many bishops, it was decided by their unanimous judge ment that he had been wrongly accused, and so he was declared worthy to hold his bishopric.

At that time Pope Agatho had called a synod of 125 bishops to Rome to testify against those who declared that there was only one will and operation in our Lord and Saviour. He ordered Wilfrid to be called to sit among the bishops, to declare his own faith and that of the kingdom and the island from which he had come. When it was found that he and his people were catholic in their faith, they decided to insert the following words among the rest of the acts of the synod:

'Wilfrid, beloved of God, bishop of the city of York, appealing to the apostolic see concerning his own case and having been freed by its authority from all charges, specified and unspeci fied, and being appointed to sit in judgement in the synod with 125 other bishops, has confessed the true and catholic faith on behalf of the whole northern part of Britain and Ireland, together with the islands inhabited by the English and British races, as well as the Irish and Piets, and has confirmed it with his signature.'

After this, Wilfrid returned to Britain and converted the kingdom of the South Saxons from their idolatrous worship to faith in Christ. He also sent ministers of the Word to the Isle

v. 19

The Ecclesiastical History of Wight; then during the second year of Aldfrith, Ecgfrith's successor, he was restored to his episcopal seat and his bishopric at the invitation of the king. But five years after wards he was again accused and driven from the bishopric by the king and several bishops. He went to Rome and was given an opportunity of defending himself in the presence of his accusers, before Pope John and many bishops. It was decided unanimously that his accusers had manufactured false charges against him, at least in part; and the pope wrote to the English kings, Æthelred and Aldfrith, bidding them restore him to his bishopric because he had been unjustly condemned.

His acquittal was gready assisted by the reading of the acts of the synod of Pope Agatho of blessed memory, which was held when Wilfrid was present in the City and sat in council among the bishops as has already been described. When, as the case required, the acts of this synod were read for some days in the presence of the nobility and a large crowd of people at the command of the pope, they reached the place where it was written: 'Wilfrid, beloved of God, bishop of the city of York, appealing to the apostolic see concerning his own case and having been freed by its authority from all charges, specified and unspecified,' etc., as is stated above.

When this was read, amazement fell on those who heard, and, after the reader had finished, they began to ask each other who this Bishop Wilfrid was. Then Boniface, a counsellor of the pope, and several others who had seen him there in the time of Pope Agatho, said that he was the bishop who had been accused by his fellows and had recently come to Rome to be judged by the apostolic see. 'And this man', they said,

'also came here, long ago, on a similar charge; the case and the controversy between the two parties was quickly heard and judgement given by Pope Agatho of blessed memory, who declared that he had been driven unlawfully from his see.

The pope held him in such esteem that he ordered him to sit in the assembled council of bishops as being a man of uncorrupt faith and honest mind.' When they heard this, all including the pope declared that a man of such authority, who had been bishop for nearly forty years, ought not to be con

The Ecclesiastical History v. 19 demned but should return to his own land with honour, entirely cleared of the charges laid against him.

When he reached Gaul on his way back to Britain, he suddenly fell sick and gradually grew so much worse that he could not ride his horse but had to be carried in a litter by his servants. In this way he reached the city of Meaux in Gaul and there lay as if dead for four days and nights, his faint breathing being the only sound of life apparent. He went for four days and nights without food or drink, without speaking or hear ing, and then at last as the fifth day was breaking, he arose and sat up as if he were awaking from a deep sleep. As he opened his eyes, he saw a band of brothers around him singing psalms and weeping; then, sighing gently, he asked where the priest

Acca* was. Acca was immediately summoned and, on seeing that he was better and able to speak, fell on his knees and gave thanks to God together with all the brothers who were present. After they had been sitting for a little time convers ing, with some trepidation, about the judgements of heaven, the bishop ordered the others to go out for the time being and said to the priest Acca: 'I have just seen an awful vision which I wish you to hear and keep secret until I know what is God's will for me. There stood by me a glorious being in white robes who said that he was the archangel Michael, and added, "I have been sent to recall you from death. For the Lord has granted you life in answer to the prayers and tears of your disciples and brothers and through the intercession of His blessed mother, the ever-virgin Mary. I tell you that you will now be healed of your sickness; but be prepared, for in four years I will visit you again. You will return to your native land and will receive the greater part of the possessions which have been taken from you and will end your days in peace and quiet." '

So the bishop was restored to health, whereupon they all rejoiced and gave thanks to God; he set forward on his journey and arrived in Britain. After they had read the letters sent by the pope, Archbishop Berhtwald and Æthelred, who had once been king and was then abbot, readily took his part.

Æthelred summoned Cenred to him, whom he had made king in his place, and urged him to make friends with the

v. 19-20 The Ecclesiastical History bishop, to which the king agreed. Aldfrith, king of Northum bria, scorned to receive him, but he did not long survive; so it came about that, when his son Osred was reigning, a synod was held at the river Nidd and, after some argument on both sides, they all agreed to receive him back into the bishopric of his own church. So he lived in peace for four years, that is, until the day of his death. He died in his own monastery in the district of Oundle, while Abbot Cuthbald was ruling over it; he was carried by the brothers to his first monastery at Ripon and buried in the church of the blessed Apostle Peter close to the altar on the south side, as was mentioned before; his epitaph was inscribed over him as follows:

Here lie great Wilfrid's bones.* In loving zeal He built this church, and gave it Peter's name,

Who bears the keys by gift of Christ the King; Clothed it in gold and purple, and set high

In gleaming ore the trophy of the Cross; Golden the Gospels four he made for it, Lodged in a shrine of gold, as is their due.

T o the high Paschal feast its order just He gave, by doctrine true and catholic, As our forefathers held; drove error far,

And showed his folk sound law and liturgy.

Within these walls a swarm of monks he hived, And in their statutes carefully laid down

All that the Fathers by their rule command.

At home, abroad, long time in tempests tossed, Thrice fifteen years he bare a bishop's charge,

Passed to his rest, and gained the joys of Heaven.

Grant, Lord, his flock may tread their shepherd's path!

C H A P T E R 20

I n the year after the death of father Wilfrid, that is in the fifth year of Osred's reign, the most reverend father Hadrian, abbot and fellow labourer in the word of God with Theodore of blessed memory, died and was buried in his monastery in the church of the blessed Mother of God, forty-one years after he was sent by Pope Vitalian with Theodore and thirty-nine

The Ecclesiastical History v. 20 years after his arrival in Britain. It is one testimony among many to his learning and to that of Theodore, that his disciple

Albinus, who succeeded him as head of the monastery, was so well trained in scriptural studies that he had no small knowledge of the Greek language and that he knew Latin as well as English, his native tongue.

Acca, Wilfrid's priest, became bishop of Hexham in Wilfrid's place. He was a man of great energy and noble in the sight of God and man. He enriched the fabric of his church, dedicated to the blessed apostle Andrew, with all kinds of decoration and works of art. He took great trouble, as he still does, to gather relics of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ from all parts and to put up altars for their veneration, establishing various chapels for this purpose within the walls of the church. He has also built up a very large and most noble library, assiduously collecting histories of the passions of the martyrs as well as other ecclesiastical books. He has also zealously provided sacred vessels, lamps, and other objects of the same kind for the adornment of the house of God. Further, he invited a famous singer named

Maban, who had been instructed in methods of singing by the successors of the disciples of St Gregory in Kent, to teach him and his people; he kept him for twelve years teach ing them such church music as they did not know, while the music which they once knew and which had begun to deterio rate by long use or by neglect was restored to its original form. Bishop Acca was himself a musician of great experience as well as a very learned theologian, untainted in his con fession of the catholic faith and thoroughly familiar with the rules of ecclesiastical custom; and he will not cease* to be so until he gains the reward of his piety and devotion. He was brought up from childhood with the clergy of the holy

Bosa,* beloved of God, bishop of York, and was instructed by them. Then he came to Bishop Wilfrid in the hope of finding a better way of life and remained in his service all his days until Wilfrid's death; he also went to Rome with him and learned many valuable things about the institutions of the holy Church which he could not have learned in his native land.

V. 21

The Ecclesiastical History

C H A P T E R 2 1

A t that time Nechtan,* king of the Piets, who live in the northern parts of Britain, having been convinced by his as siduous study of ecclesiastical writings, renounced the error which he and his race had until then held about the observ ance of Easter, and led all his people to celebrate with him the catholic time of keeping the Lord's resurrection. In order to make the change more easily and with greater authority, he sought help from the English who, he knew, had long since based their religious practices on the example of the holy

Roman and apostolic Church. So he sent messengers to the venerable Ceolfrith, abbot of the monastery of the apostles St Peter and St Paul, one part of which stands at the mouth of the river Wear and the other part near the river Tyne in a place called Jarrow. Ceolfrith ruled illustriously over this monastery* after Benedict already mentioned. The king asked the abbot to send him information by letter to enable him to confute more convincingly those who presumed to celebrate Easter at the wrong time; also about the shape and method of tonsure by which it was fitting that clerics should be distinguished: notwithstanding this request he himself had no small measure of knowledge on these matters. He also asked for builders to be sent to build a church of stone in their country after the Roman fashion, promising that it should be dedicated in honour of the blessed chief of the apostles. He also said that he and all his people would always follow the customs of the holy Roman and apostolic Church, so far as they could learn them, remote though they were from the Roman people and from their language. Abbot Ceolfrith complied with his pious wishes and requests, sending the builders he asked for and also a letter couched in the follow ing terms:

T o the most excellent* and glorious Lord, King Nechtan, Abbot Ceolfrith sends greetings in the Lord.

We are most ready and willing to attempt to explain to you the catholic observance of the holy Easter festival as we learned it from the apostolic see, in accordance with your earnest wishes and re

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21 quest, most devout king! For we know that whenever rulers them selves take trouble to learn and teach and watch over the truth, it is a heaven-sent gift to G od's holy Church. Indeed a certain secular writer has said very truly that the world would be in a happy state if kings were philosophers and philosophers were kings. But if a man of this world could speak the truth about the philosophy of this world and judge correctly about the governance of this world, how much more should the citizens of our heavenly home, who are now pilgrims in this world, hope and pray that, the more powerful men grow in this world, the more they may strive to obey the commands of our Judge who is over all things; and by their example and authority induce their subjects to observe these commands as well.

N ow there are three rules given in holy Scripture by which the time for keeping Easter has been laid down for us, and these no human authority can alter; of these, two are divinely laid down in the law of Moses, while the third is added in the Gospel as the result of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord. The law laid down that the Passover should be kept in the first month of the year and in the third week of the month, that is from the fifteenth to the twenty-first day of the month. The apostolic ordinance adds from the Gospel that we are to wait for the Lord's day occurring in that third week and keep the beginning of the Easter season on that day. Whoever then keeps this threefold rule rightly will never make a mistake in fixing the Paschal feast. But if you wish to hear in greater detail and more fully, it is written in Exodus, when the children of Israel were commanded to keep their first Passover, on their liberation from Egypt, 'the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, " This month shall be unto you the begin ning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their families and households." " And a little further on: 'And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening,'

From these words it is very clear that in the Paschal observance, though mention is made of the fourteenth day, yet it is not com manded that the Passover should be kept on that day; but it is commanded that the lamb should be sacrificed on the evening of the fourteenth day, that is on the fifteenth day of the moon, which is the beginning of the third week, when the moon appears in the sky; and because it was on the night of the fifteenth moon that the Egyptians were smitten and Israel redeemed from its long captivity. It says,

'Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread.' By these words it is directed that the whole of the third week of the first month shall be

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21 solemnly observed. But lest we should think that these seven days were to be reckoned from the fourteenth to the twentieth day, it adds forthwith, 'Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your house; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel', and so on up to 'for in this selfsame day I will bring your army out of the land of Egypt'.

So He calls the first day of unleavened bread the day on which He was to bring their army out of Egypt. Now it is evident that they were not brought out of Egypt on the fourteenth day, in the evening of which the lamb was killed and which is rightly called the Passover or Phase, but they were brought out of Egypt on the fifteenth day, as it is clearly stated in the book of Numbers, 'And they departed from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with a high hand.' Thus the seven days of unleavened bread, on the first of which the people of the Lord were brought out of Egypt, are to be reckoned, as we have said, from the beginning of the third week, that is, from the fifteenth day of the first month to the end of the twenty-first day of the same month. But the fourteenth day is distinguished from this number by the very title of Passover, as is plainly shown by what follows in Exodus; for when it says, 'In this selfsame day I will bring your army out of the land of Egypt', it immediately continues, 'And ye shall observe this day in your generations for a perpetual ordi nance. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses.' Now who can fail to see that there are not seven days but eight, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first, if the fourteenth is also reckoned in. But if, as a more diligent study of the scriptural truth shows, we reckon from the evening of the fourteenth day to the evening of the twenty-first, we see at once that while the fourteenth day contributes its evening to the beginning of the Paschal feast, yet the whole solemn festival comprises no more than seven nights and the same number of days. So our definition is shown to be true that the Easter season is to be celebrated in the first month of the year and the third week. It is truly the third week, because it begins on the evening of the fourteenth day and ends on the evening of the twenty-first.

But since it is Christ who is our Passover sacrificed for us, and since He has made the Lord's day (which among the ancients was called the first day of the week) a solemn day because of His Resur rection, it has been included by apostolic tradition in the Paschal

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21 festival, which has also decreed that the time of the Passover accord ing to the law must by no means be anticipated or diminished. It ordains instead that according to the precept of the law we must wait for the first month of the year, the fourteenth day of that month and the evening of that day. And when that day should happen to fall on a Saturday, every man must take a lamb according to their families and their houses and sacrifice it at evening, that is, that all churches throughout the world, composing the one catholic Church, should provide bread and wine for the mystery of the body and blood of the spotless 'Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world'; and after the appropriate solemn Easter rite of lessons and prayers and Paschal ceremonies, they should offer it to the Lord in the hope of redemp tion to come. For it is the night in which the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb; and also the night in which, by the Resurrection of Christ, all the people of God were freed from eternal death. Then in the morning, at dawn, on the Lord's day, they should celebrate the first day of the Paschal festival.

For it is the very day on which the Lord revealed the glory of His Resurrection, while His disciples rejoiced exceedingly at the divine revelation. It is also the first day of unleavened bread about which it is very distinctly written in Leviticus, 'In the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord.

Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. The first day shall be most solemn and holy.'

If the Lord's day had always fallen on the fifteenth day of the first month, that is, on the fifteenth moon, we could always have cel ebrated the Passover at the very same time as the ancient people of God: and although the nature of the sacrament is different, yet it would have been with one and the same faith. But because the day of the week does not exactly keep pace with the moon, apostolic tra dition (which was established at Rome by St Peter and confirmed at Alexandria by Mark the evangelist, who was his interpreter) has decreed that, when the first month has come and in it the evening of the fourteenth day, we must wait for the Sunday which falls between the fifteenth and the twenty-first day of the month. And Easter is rightly celebrated on whichever of these days it falls, since it is one of the seven days on which the feast of unleavened bread had to be celebrated. So it happens that our Easter never falls outside the third week of the month either before or after, but is observed either throughout the whole of the seven appointed days of unleavened bread or through at least part of them. But even though Easter should only include one of them, that is the seventh, yet that is the

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21 day that Scripture commends so highly: 'For the seventh day', it says,

'shall be most solemn and holy; ye shall do no servile work therein.'

And none can argue that we do not rightly keep Easter Sunday on the day laid down in the Gospel in the third week of the first month as the law prescribed.

Now that the catholic reason for this observance is clear, it also becomes clear on the other hand how unreasonable is the error of those who presume, without cogent necessity, either to anticipate or overstep the limits set by the law. For those who think that Easter

Sunday is to be observed on the fourteenth day of the first month until the twentieth day of the moon unnecessarily anticipate the time prescribed in the law; for when they begin to celebrate the vigils of the holy night from the evening of the thirteenth day, it is clear that they make that day the beginning of their Easter, and they can find no mention of this in the commandment of the law. When they refuse to celebrate the Lord's Easter on the twenty-first day of the month, it is at once clear that they exclude from their solemnity a day which the law often commends as being worthy of commemoration beyond all others. Thus, by a perverse arrangement, they will sometimes keep the whole festival in the second week but they will never put it on the seventh day of the third week. Again, those who think that Easter is to be kept from the sixteenth day of the same month to the twentysecond no less incorrectly turn from the straight path of truth in the opposite direction and, as it were, avoid shipwreck on Scylla, only to fall into the whirlpool of Charybdis and be drowned. For when they teach that Easter is to begin from the rising of the sixteenth moon of the first month, that is, from the evening of the fifteenth day, it is clear that they altogether exclude from their solemnity the fourteenth day of the moon which the law commends first and foremost. Con sequently they scarcely touch the evening of the fifteenth day on which the people of God were redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and in which the Lord freed the world with His own blood from the darkness of sin, and in which He was buried and bestowed on us the hope of a blessed rest after death. These people receive in themselves the recompense of their error, when they put Easter Day on the twenty-second day of the moon and openly transgress by violating the legitimate limits of Easter, seeing that they begin Easter on the evening of the day in which the law commanded that it should be finished and completed; and they assign the first day of Easter to a day of which no mention is ever made in the law, namely the first day of the fourth week. And not only are both parties sometimes mis taken in fixing and computing the age of the moon, but they some times make mistakes in finding the first month.

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21

This controversy, however, is a greater one than this letter can or ought to deal with. I will only say this that, by reference to the vernal equinox, it can always be decided infallibly which month is first, and which last, according to the lunar computation. Now the equinox, according to the opinion of all eastern nations, and especially of the Egyptians who took the palm from all other learned men in calcu lations, usually falls on the twenty-first of March, as we can also prove by inspecting a sundial. Now the moon which is at the full before the equinox, that is on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the moon, belongs to the last month of the preceding year and so is not available for the celebration of Easter. But the moon which is full after the equinox or at the equinox itself belongs to the first month and on that day, as we know without any doubt, they were accus tomed to keep the Passover in ancient times and we must celebrate it on the following Sunday. There is a very cogent reason for this for it is written in Genesis, 'And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night', or as another version has it, 'The greater light to begin the day and the lesser light to begin the night'. As the sun, therefore, rising due east, first indicated the vernal equinox by his point of appearance and then, at sunset that evening, the full moon followed in her turn due east, so year by year the same first lunar month must be observed in the same order, its full moon falling, not before the equinox but either on the day of the equinox as it did in the beginning or after it has passed. But if full moon precedes the time of the equinox even by a single day, the reasons we have given make it clear that this full

'moon is to be assigned not to the first month of the new year but to the last month of the old year; and, as has been shown, is not available for the Paschal festival.

If you also care to know the mystical reason for this, we are commanded to keep Easter in the first month of the year, which is also called the month of new things; because we ought to celebrate the mysteries of the Lord's Resurrection and of our deliverance when our spirits and minds are renewed to the love of heavenly things. We are commanded to keep it in the third week of that month because

Christ Himself who had been promised before the law and under the law came with grace in the third dispensation of the world, to be sacrificed for us as our Passover; and because after the sacrifice of His

Passion, He rose from the dead on the third day, He wished this to be called the Lord's day and desired the Paschal feast of His Resur rection to be celebrated each year on the same day; and also because we only celebrate the solemn festival truly if we are careful to keep the Passover with Him, that is, His passing from the world to His

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21

Father, with faith, hope, and love. We are commanded to keep the full moon of the Paschal month after the vernal equinox, the object being that the sun should first make the day longer than the night and then the moon can show to the world her full orb of light, because

'the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings', that is, the Lord Jesus, overcame all the darkness of death by the triumph of His

Resurrection. So, ascending into heaven, he made His Church, which is often typified as the moon, full of the light of inward grace, by sending His Spirit down upon her. This plan of our salvation is what the prophet had in mind when he said, 'The sun was exalted and the moon stood in her order.'

Whoever argues, therefore, that the full Paschal moon can fall before the equinox disagrees with the teaching of the holy Scriptures in the celebration of the greatest mysteries, and agrees with those who trust that they can be saved without the grace of Christ prevent ing them and who presume to teach that they could have attained to perfect righteousness even though the true Light had never con quered the darkness of the world by dying and rising again. And so after sunrise at the equinox and after the full moon of the first month has followed in due order, that is, after the close of the fourteenth day of the month (all of which we have received as duly to be observed in accordance with the law), we still wait for the Lord's day in the third week as the Gospel directs. So at last we duly celebrate our Easter feast to show that we are not, with the ancients, celebrating the throwing off of the yoke of Egyptian bondage but, with devout faith and love, venerating the redemption of the whole world, which, being prefigured by the liberation of the ancient people of God, is com pleted in the resurrection of Christ; we also signify that we rejoice in the sure and certain hope of our own resurrection, which we believe will also take place on a Sunday.

Now this computation of Easter which we teach you to follow is contained in a nineteen-year cycle, which was first observed by the Church long ago, that is, in the time of the apostles, especially in Rome and Egypt, as has previously been said. But through the industry of Eusebius, who took his surname from the blessed martyr

Pamphylius, it was reduced to a plainer system; so that while up to that time information was sent out annually each year to all the churches from the patriarch of Alexandria, thenceforward it could easily be understood by everyone, a list being made of the dates of the fourteenth moon. Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, made an Easter computation for a hundred years for the benefit of the Em peror Theodosius. His successor Cyril drew up a table for ninety-five years, being five cycles of nineteen years each. After this Dionysius

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21

Exiguus added as many more nineteen-year tables employing the same scheme and these extend down to our own day. This table is approaching its end but there are so many mathematicians today that even in our churches here in Britain there are several who have committed to memory these ancient rules of the Egyptians and can easily continue the Easter cycles for an indefinite number of years, even up to 532 years if they wish; after this period all that concerns the succession of the sun, the moon, the month, and the week returns in the same order as before. So we forbear to send you these cycles of times to come because you only asked to be instructed about the reason for the Paschal dating, making it clear that you were provided with catholic Easter tables.Having said this much about Easter briefly and to the point, as you requested, I would also urge you to be sure that the tonsure, about which also you wished me to write, is in accordance both with the use of the Church and of the Christian faith. W e know indeed that the apostles did not all use the same form of tonsure, and the catholic

Church nowadays, though it agrees in one faith, one hope, and one charity towards God, does not agree in one and the same form of tonsure throughout the world. For example, to look back to the earlier times, that is, the times of the patriarchs: Job, the pattern of patience, when tribulation came upon him, shaved his head, so proving that in times of prosperity he let his hair grow; but Joseph, who was famous for teaching and practising chastity, humility, piety, and the other virtues, is related to have shaved himself when he was to be freed from slavery, so that it is clear that, during the time he was in prison, he never cut his hair. So each of these men of God differed in outward appearance, though they were alike in having in their inward hearts the same grace and the same virtues.

But though we freely admit that a difference in tonsure is not hurtful to those whose faith in God is untainted and their love for their neighbour sincere (and especially since we never read that there was any conflict among the catholic fathers about differences of tonsure such as there has been about diversity in faith or in the keeping of Easter), nevertheless among all the forms of tonsure which we find either in the Church or among the human race, I would say that none is more worthy to be imitated and adopted by us than the one which that man wore to whose confession the Lord replied,

'Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' Nor do I consider any tonsure to be rightly judged more abominable and detestable than that worn by the man who wished to buy the grace of the Holy Spirit, to whom Peter

v. 2 1 The Ecclesiastical History said, 'Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in the matter.' Nor are we tonsured in the form of a crown simply because Peter was so tonsured, but because Peter wore the tonsure in memory of the Lord's Passion, so we, who desire to be saved by His Passion, wear with Peter the sign of the Passion on our crown, that is to say, on the highest part of the body. See how the whole Church, just because she was made a Church by the death of Him who gave her life, has learnt to bear on her forehead the sign of His holy cross, that, through the constant protection of this symbol, she may be defended from the assaults of evil spirits, and by its constant witness may be reminded that she must crucify her flesh with all its vices and all its lusts: even so it is right for those who, having taken monastic vows or holy orders, must needs bind them selves with stricter bonds of continence for the Lord's sake, to wear upon their heads, by way of tonsure, the likeness of a crown of thorns— that crown of thorns which He in his Passion, bore upon His head, that He might bear (or rather bear off and carry right away) the thorns and briars of our sins. Thus they can show upon their crowns that they are ready to endure all kinds of ridicule and disgrace, gladly and readily, for His sake; thus they can signify that they too are always waiting for the crown of eternal life 'which God hath prom ised to them that love Him' and, to gain it, they despise both worldly adversity and worldly prosperity. But as for the tonsure which Simon

Magus is said to have worn, what believer, I ask you, will not, at the very sight of it, detest and reject it together with his magic? And rightly so. In the front of the forehead it does seem to bear the resemblance to a crown, but when you come to look at the neck, you find that the crown which you expected to see is cut short; so that you recognize this as a fitting fashion for simoniacs but not Christians.

For in this present life those whom they deceived thought that they were worthy of the glory of the everlasting crown; but in the life to come they are not only deprived of any hope of a crown but moreover are condemned to eternal punishment.

But do not suppose me to have pursued the argument thus far as one who holds the wearers of this tonsure culpable, those who have upheld catholic unity by faith and works; on the contrary I confi dently assert that many of them were holy men and worthy in the sight of God. Among these is Adamnan, a renowned abbot and priest of the company of St Columba, who was sent on a mission from his people to King Aldfrith and wished to see our monastery. He showed wonderful prudence, humility, and devotion, in word and deed.

Once when we were talking I said to him, amongst other things,

The Ecclesiastical History V. 21

'Holy brother, you believe that you are going to win the crown of life which knows no end, so why do you wear on your head a form of crown which is incomplete and therefore ill-suited to your belief; and if you are seeking the company of St Peter, why do you copy the form of tonsure which he cursed? And why do you not even now show that you love with all your heart the ways of him with whom you desire to live in bliss for ever?' He replied, 'You know well, my dear brother, that although I wear the tonsure of Simon after the custom of my country, yet I hate and reject with all my heart the wickedness of simony. I long to follow with what little strength I have in the footsteps of the blessed chief of the apostles.' I said, 'I truly believe that it is so; but it would be a sign that you agree in your inmost heart with all that Peter stands for if you also followed his known ways in your outward appearance. I am sure that, in your wisdom, you will readily see that it would be much better for you who are already dedicated to God to let your appearance resemble as little as possible that of the man whom you hate with all your heart and whose horrible face you would shun to look upon. On the other hand, desiring as you do to follow the actions and teachings of him whom you wish to have as an advocate with God, it would be better for you to imitate his outward appearance also.' I said this at the time to Adamnan, who proved how much he had profited by seeing the observances of our churches, because afterwards, when he had returned to Ireland, he led large numbers of that race to the catholic observance of Easter by his preaching; nevertheless he could not bring the monks of Iona, over whom he presided as lawful head, to better ways. If his influence had been sufficient, he would have made it his business to correct their tonsure also.

But I now urge you, O king, in your prudence, to strive in every way to follow these observances which accord with the unity of the catholic and apostolic church, both you and the people over whom the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has set you. Thus it will come to pass that, after you have held sway over this temporal kingdom, the blessed chief of the apostles will gladly open the gates of the heavenly kingdom to you and yours, in company with all the elect.

And now, my beloved son in Christ, may the grace of the eternal King keep you in safety to reign for many years and so bring peace to us all.

When this letter had been read in the presence of King Nechtan and many learned men and carefully translated into his own language by those who were able to understand it, it is said that he was greatly delighted by the exhortation; so he

v. 21-22 The Ecclesiastical History rose in the midst of the company of his assembled leaders, and knelt down, thanking God for having made him worthy to receive such a gift from England. 'Indeed,' he said, 'I knew before that this was the true observance of Easter, but I now understand the reasons for observing this date so much more clearly that I seem up to this to have known far too little about it in every respect. So I publicly declare and proclaim in the presence of you all, that I will for ever observe this time of Easter, together with all my people; and I decree that all clerics in my kingdom must accept this form of tonsure which we have heard to be so completely reasonable.' He at once enforced his word by royal authority also. The nineteen-year cycles for Easter were forthwith sent out by public order throughout all the Pictish kingdoms, to be copied, learned, and acted upon, while the erroneous eighty-four-year cycles were everywhere obliterated. All ministers of the altar and monks received the tonsure in the form of a crown; and the reformed nation rejoiced to submit to the newly-found guid ance of Peter, the most blessed chief of the apostles, and to be placed under his protection.

C H A P T E R 22

N ot long afterwards, those monks of Irish extraction who lived in Iona, together with the monasteries under their rule, were brought by the Lord's guidance to canonical usages in the matter of Easter and of the form of the tonsure. In the year of our Lord 716, when Osred* was killed and Cenred* be came ruler of the Northumbrian kingdom, Egbert, beloved of God (a father and priest to be named with all honour and one whom I have often spoken of), came to Iona from Ireland and was most honourably and joyfully received. Being a most gracious teacher and a most devout doer of all that he taught, he was gladly listened to by them all; so by his constant earnest exhortations he converted them from the deep-rooted tradition of their ancestors to whom the apostle's words apply: 'They had a zeal of God but not according to knowl edge.' He taught them how to celebrate the chief festival after

The Ecclesiastical History v. 22 the catholic and apostolic manner, as has been said, and to wear on their heads the image of the unending crown. It is clear that this happened by a wonderful dispensation of divine mercy, since that race had willingly and ungrudgingly taken pains to communicate its own knowledge and understanding of God to the English nation; and now, through the English nation, they are brought to a more perfect way of life in matters wherein they were lacking. On the other hand the Britons, who would not proclaim to the English the knowl edge of the Christian faith which they had, still persist in their errors and stumble in their ways, so that no tonsure is to be seen on their heads and they celebrate Christ's solemn festivals differently from the fellowship of the Church of Christ, while the English are not only believers but are fully instructed in the rules of the catholic faith.

The monks of Iona accepted the catholic ways of life under the teaching of Egbert, while Dünchad* was abbot, about eighty years after they had sent Bishop Aidan to preach to the English. The man of God, Egbert, remained for thirteen years on the island which he had consecrated to Christ, lighting it once more, as it were, with the gracious light of ecclesiastical fellowship and peace. In the year of our Lord 729, when

Easter fell on 24 April, after he had celebrated a solemn mass in memory of the Lord's resurrection, he departed to be with the Lord on the same day. So he began the joyful celebration of the greatest of all festivals with the brothers whom he had converted to the grace of unity, and completed it, or rather continues the endless celebration of it, with the Lord and His apostles and the other citizens of heaven. It was a wonderful dispensation of the divine providence that the venerable man not only passed from this world to the Father on Easter Day, but also when Easter was being celebrated on a date on which it had never before been kept* in those places. The brothers rejoiced in the sure knowledge of the time of Easter according to the catholic rule and were glad to have the protection of the father who had corrected them, as he went to be with the Lord. Egbert was also thankful to have lived to see those to whom he had preached accept and keep with him an Easter

Day which they had previously always avoided. So the most

The Ecclesiastical History V. 22-23 reverend father, being assured of their conversion, rejoiced to see the day of the Lord; he saw it and was glad.

C H A P T E R 23

I n the year of our Lord 725, being the seventh year of Osric,* king of Northumbria, who was successor to Cenred,

Wihtred,* king of Kent, died on 23 April. He was the son of Egbert and left his three sons, Æthelberht, Eadberht, and Alric, heirs of the kingdom which he had governed for thirtyfour and a half years. In the following year Tobias, bishop of the church at Rochester, died, a most learned man, as has already been said. He had been a disciple of two masters of blessed memory, Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian.

Besides having a knowledge of both ecclesiastical and general literature, he is also said to have learned Latin and Greek so thoroughly that they were as well known and as familiar to him as his native tongue. He was buried in the chapel of St Paul the Apostle which he had built within the church of St Andrew as his own burial place. Ealdwulf succeeded him as bishop having been consecrated by Archbishop Berhtwald.

In the year of our Lord 729 two comets* appeared around the sun, striking great terror into all beholders. One of them preceded the sun as it rose in the morning and the other followed it as it set at night, seeming to portend dire disaster to east and west alike. One comet was the forerunner of the day and the other of the night, to indicate that mankind was threatened by calamities both by day and by night. They had fiery torch-like trains which faced northwards as if poised to start a fire. They appeared in the month of January and remained for almost a fortnight. At this time* a terrible plague of Saracens ravaged Gaul with cruel bloodshed and not long afterwards* they received the due reward of their treachery* in the same kingdom. In the same year the holy man of God,

Egbert, went to be with the Lord on Easter Day as has already been described; and soon after Easter, on 9 May, Osric, king of the Northumbrians, departed this life when he had reigned eleven years, after appointing Ceolwulf,* brother of his pre-

The Ecclesiastical History v. 23 decessor Cenred, as his successor. Both the beginning and the course of his reign have been filled with so many and such serious commotions and setbacks that it is as yet impossible to know what to say about them or to guess what the outcome will be.

In the year of our Lord 731 Archbishop Berhtwald died of old age on 13 January,* having held the see for thirty-seven years, six months, and fourteen days. In the saine year

Tatwine* was made archbishop in his place. He was from the kingdom of Mercia and had been a priest in the monastery of Breedon. He was consecrated in Canterbury by the vener able bishops Daniel of Winchester, Ingwold* of London,

Ealdwine of Lichfield, and Ealdwulf of Rochester on Sunday, 10 June. He was a man renowned for his devotion and wisdom and excellendy instructed in the Scriptures.

At the present time Tatwine and Ealdwulf preside over the churches of Kent as bishops; Ingwold is bishop in the king dom of Essex; Ealdberht and Hathulac are bishops of the East

Angles; Daniel and Forthhere are bishops of the West Saxons; Ealdwine is bishop of the Mercian kingdom and Wealhstod is bishop of the people who dwell west of the river Severn;

Wilfrid is bishop of the kingdom of the Hwicce and Cyneberht is bishop of the kingdom of Lindsey. The bishopric of the Isle of Wight belongs to Daniel, bishop of Winchester. The kingdom of the South Saxons, having been for several years without a bishop, receives episcopal minis trations from the bishop of the West Saxons. All these king doms and the other southern kingdoms which reach right up to the Humber, together with their various kings, are subject to Æthelbald,* king of Mercia. At the present time there are four bishops in the kingdom of Northumbria, over which Ceolwulf rules: Wilfrid* in the church of York, Æthelwold* at Lindisfame, Acca* at Hexham, Pehthelm* in the place called

Whithorn, where the number of believers has so increased that it has lately become an episcopal see with Pehthelm as its first bishop.

The Piets now have a treaty of peace with the English and rejoice to share in the catholic peace and truth of .the Church universal. The Irish who live in Britain are content with their

v. 23-24 The Ecclesiastical History own territories and devise no plots or treachery against the English. Though, for the most part, the Britons oppose the English through their inbred hatred, and the whole state of the catholic Church by their incorrect Easter and their evil customs, yet being opposed by the power of God and man alike, they cannot obtain what they want in either respect. For although they are partly their own masters, yet they have also been brought partly under the rule of the English.

In these favourable times of peace and prosperity, many of the Northumbrian race, both noble and simple, have laid aside their weapons and taken the tonsure, preferring that they and their children should take monastic vows rather than train themselves in the art of war. What the result will be, a later generation will discover.

This is the state of the whole of Britain at the present time, about 285 years after the coming of the English to Britain, in the year of our Lord 731. Let the earth rejoice in His perpetual kingdom and let Britain rejoice in His faith and let the multi tude of isles be glad and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

C H A P T E R 24

I n order to assist the memory, I have thought it well briefly to recapitulate* events already dealt with, each under its particular date.

In the sixtieth year before the incarnation of the Lord, Gaius Julius Caesar was the first Roman to make war on Britain. He was victorious but was unable to obtain control of it.

In the year of our Lord 46 Claudius, the second Roman to come to Britain, brought most of it under his sway and also added the Orkney Islands to the Roman Empire.

167. Eleutherius became bishop of Rome and ruled the church gloriously for fifteen years. Lucius, a king of Britain, sent him a letter, asking to be made a Christian, and gained his request.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 24

189. Severus became emperor and reigned seventeen years.

He fortified Britain with a wall from sea to sea.

381. Maximus was made emperor in Britain. He crossed to Gaul and killed Gratianus.

409. Rome was stormed by the Goths, after which the Roman rule in Britain ceased.

430. Palladius was sent by Pope Celestinus to be the first bishop of the Irish Christians.

449. Marcianus and Valentinianus ruled as co-emperors for seven years. In their time the English came to Britain on the invitation of the Britons.

538.* There was an eclipse of the sun on 16 February from six to eight in the morning.

540.* There was an eclipse of the sun on 20 June and the stars appeared at nine in the morning for nearly half an hour.

547. Ida* began to reign, from whom the Northumbrian royal family trace their origin. He reigned for twelve years.

565. The priest Columba came from Ireland to Britain to teach the Piets and established a monastery on Iona.

596. Pope Gregory sent Augustine and some monks to Britain to preach the word of God to the English.

597. These teachers arrived in Britain, roughly 150 years after the coming of the English.

601. Pope Gregory sent the pallium to Britain for Augustine, who had already been consecrated bishop. He also sent several ministers of the Word, among whom was

Paulinus.

603. The battle at Degsastan.

604. The East Saxons, under King Sæberht, accepted the Christian faith through Bishop Mellitus.

605. Gregory died.

616. Æthelberht, king of Kent, died.

625. Paulinus was consecrated bishop of the Northum brians by Archbishop Justus.

626. Eanflæd, daughter of King Edwin, was baptized with twelve others on the eve of Whitsunday.

627. King Edwin and his people were baptized on Easter Day.

633. King Edwin was killed and Paulinus returned to Kent.

v. 24

The Ecclesiastical History 640. Eadbald, king of Kent, died.

642. King Oswald was killed.

644. Paulinus, once bishop of York and afterwards bishop of Rochester, departed to be with the Lord.

651. King Oswine was murdered and Bishop Aidan died.

653. The Middle Angles under their ruler Peada were initiated into the mysteries of the faith.

655. Penda perished and the Mercians became Christians.

664.. There was an eclipse. King Eorcenberht of Kent died and Colman and his Irish returned to their own people. There was a visitation of the pestilence. Chad and Wilfrid were consecrated bishops of the Northumbrians.

668. Theodore was consecrated bishop.

670. Oswiu, king of Northumbria, died.

673. Egbert, king of Kent, died. There was a synod at Hertford in the presence of King Ecgfrith with Theodore presiding. It was most useful and drew up ten canons.

675. Wulfhere, king of Mercia, died after a reign of seven teen years and left his kingdom to his brother Æthelred.

676. Æthelred devastated Kent.

678. A comet appeared. Bishop Wilfrid was driven from his see by King Ecgfrith. In his place Bosa, Eata, and Eadhæd were consecrated bishops.

679. Ælfwine was killed.

680. A synod was held about the catholic faith on the plain of Hatfield, Archbishop Theodore presiding. John, an abbot from Rome was present. In this year the Abbess Hild died at Whitby.

685. Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, was killed. In the same year Hlothhere, king of Kent, died.

688. Cædwalla, king of the West Saxons, journeyed from Britain to Rome.

690. Archbishop Theodore died.

697.

* Queen Osthryth was murdered by her own Mercian nobles.

698.

* Berhtred, an ealdorman of the king of Northumbria, was killed by the Piets.

704. Æthelred, after ruling the Mercians for thirty-one years, became a monk and left his kingdom to Cenred.

The Ecclesiastical History V. 2 4 705. Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, died.

709. Cenred, king of Mercia, after ruling for five years went to Rome.

7 1 1. Ealdorman Berhtfrith fought against the Piets.

716. Osred, king of Northumbria, was killed, and Ceolred, king of Mercia, died. Egbert, the man of God, converted the monks of Iona to the catholic Easter and corrected their ecclesiastical tonsure.

725. Wihtred, king of Kent, died.

729. Comets appeared. St Egbert passed away and Osric died.

731.

Archbishop Berhtwald died. In the same year Tatwine was consecrated ninth archbishop of the church at Canter bury, during the fifteenth year of the reign of Æthelbald, king of Mercia.

I, Bede,* servant of Christ and priest of the monastery of St Peter and St Paul which is at Wearmouth and Jarrow, have, with the help of God and to the best of my ability, put together this account of the history of the Church of Britain and of the English people in particular, gleaned either from ancient documents or from tradition or from my own knowl edge. I was bom in the territory of this monastery. When I was seven years of age I was, by the care of my kinsmen, put into the charge of the reverend Abbot Benedict and then of Ceolfrith, to be educated. From then on I have spent all my life in this monastery, applying myself entirely to the study of the Scriptures; and, amid the observance of the discipline of the Rule and the daily task of singing in the church, it has always been my delight to leam or to teach or to write. At the age of nineteen I was ordained deacon and at the age of thirty, priest, both times through the ministration of the reverend Bishop John on the direction of Abbot Ceolfrith.

From the time I became a priest until the fifty-ninth year of my life I have made it my business, for my own benefit and that of my brothers, to make brief extracts from the works of the venerable fathers on the holy Scriptures, or to add notes of my own to clarify their sense and interpretation. These are the books:

The Ecclesiastical History V. 2 4 The beginning of Genesis up to the birth of Isaac and the casting out of Ishmael: four books.

The tabernacle, its vessels, and the priestly vestments: three books.

The First Book of Samuel, to the death of Saul: four books.

On the building of the temple, an allegorical interpretation like the others: two books.

On the book of Kings: thirty questions.

On the Proverbs of Solomon: three books.

On the Song of Songs: seven* books.

On Isaiah, Daniel, the twelve prophets, and part of Jeremiah: chapter divisions taken from the treatise of St Jerome.

On Ezra and Nehemiah: three books.

On the Song of Habakkuk: one book.

On the book of the blessed father Tobias, an allegorical explanation concerning Christ and the Church: one book.

Also, summaries of lessons on the Pentateuch of Moses, on Joshua and Judges, on the books of the Kings and Chronicles, on the book of the blessed father Job, on Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, on the prophets Isaiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

On the Gospel of Mark: four books.

On the Gospel of Luke: six books.

Homilies on the Gospel: two books.

On the Apostle (Paul), I have transcribed in order whatever I found in the works of St Augustine.

On the Acts of the Apostles: two books.

On the seven catholic Epistles: one book each.

On the Apocalypse of St John: three books.

Also summaries of lessons on the whole of the New Testa ment except the Gospels.

Also a book of letters to various people: one of these is on the six ages of the world; one on the resting-places of the children of Israel; one on the words of Isaiah, 'And they shall be shut up in the prison and after many days shall they be visited'; one on the reason for leap year; and one on the equinox, after Anatolius.

The Ecclesiastical History v. 24

Also of the histories of the saints: a book on the life and passion of St Felix the confessor, which I put into prose from the metrical version of Paulinus; a book on the life and passion of St Anastasius* which was badly translated from the Greek by some ignorant person, which I have corrected as best I could, to clarify the meaning. I have also described the life of the holy father Cuthbert, monk and bishop, first in heroic verse and then in prose.

A history of the abbots of the monastery in which it is my joy to serve God, namely Benedict, Ceolfrith, and Hwætberht, in two books.

The history of the Church of our island and race, in five books.

A martyrology of the festivals of the holy martyrs, in which I have diligently tried to note down all that I could find about them, not only on what day, but also by what sort of combat and under what judge they overcame the world.

A book of hymns in various metres and rhythms.

A book of epigrams* in heroic and elegiac metre.

Two books, one on the nature of things and the other on chronology: also a longer book on chronology.

A book about orthography, arranged according to the order of the alphabet.

A book on the art of metre, and to this is added another small book on figures of speech or tropes, that is, concern ing the figures and modes of speech with which the holy

Scriptures are adorned.

And I pray thee, merciful Jesus, that as Thou hast graciously granted me sweet draughts from the Word which tells of Thee, so wilt Thou, of Thy goodness, grant that I may come at length to Thee, the fount of all wisdom, and stand before Thy face for ever.

Here, with God's help, ends the fifth book of the History of the English Church.

C O N T IN U A T IO N S

from the Moore M S (see pp. xxi-ii).

731. King Ceolwulf was captured and tonsured and then restored to his kingdom; Bishop Acca was driven from his see.

732. Egbert* was made bishop of York in place of Wilfrid.

733. An eclipse of the sun occurred on 14 August about nine o'clock in the morning so that its whole orb seemed to be covered with a black and terrifying shield.

734. The moon was suffused with a blood-red hue for about a whole hour around cockcrow on 31 January. Then blackness followed and finally its own light was restored.

Continuation found in MSS. referred to on p. xxiv.

732. Egbert was made bishop of York in place of Wilfrid; Bishop Cyneberht* of Lindsey died.

733Archbishop Tatwine who had received the pallium from the apostolic authority consecrated Alwih* and Sigeferth* as bishops.

734. Archbishop Tatwine died.

735. Nothhelm was consecrated archbishop and Bishop Egbert, having received the pallium from the apostolic see, became archbishop, the first after Paulinus. He conse crated Frithuberht* and Frithuwold* bishops. The priest

Bede died.

737. A great drought rendered the land infertile; and Ceolwulf was tonsured at his own request and resigned the kingdom to Eadberht.* 739. Æthelheard,* king of the West Saxons, and Arch bishop Nothhelm died.

740. Cuthbert* was consecrated in place of Nothhelm; Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, treacherously devastated part of Northumbria while Eadberht was occupied with his army fighting against the Piets; Bishop Æthelwold* also died and Cynewulf* was consecrated bishop in his place;

Eamwine and Eadberht* were killed.

The Ecclesiastical History 741.

There was a great drought in the land. Charles, king of the Franks,* died and his sons Carloman and Pippin came to the throne.

745. Bishop Wilfrid* and Ingwold, bishop of London, went to be with the Lord.

747. Herefrith,* a man of God, died.

750. Cuthred,* king of the West Saxons, rose against Æthelbald and Angus;* Tewdwr* and Earned* died;

Eadberht added the plain of Kyle* and other lands to his kingdom.

753. In the fifteenth year of King Eadberht's reign an eclipse of the sun took place on 9 January, and very shortly afterwards, in the same year and month, that is 24

January, there was an eclipse of the moon. It was covered with a dreadful black shield, just as the sun had been, shortly before.

754. Boniface,* also known as Winfrith, bishop of the Franks, with fifty-two others won the martyr's crown.

Hrethgar* was consecrated archbishop in his place by Pope Stephen.* 757. Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, was treacherously killed at night by his bodyguard in shocking fashion;

Beomred* came to the throne; Cynewulf,* king of the West Saxons, died; in the same year Offa* put Beomred to flight and attempted to conquer the Mercian kingdom with sword and bloodshed.

758. Eadberht, king of the Northumbrians, for the love of God and impetuously longing for his heavenly fatherland, received the tonsure of St Peter and resigned his throne to his son Oswulf.

759. Oswulf was treacherously killed by his thegns and in the same year Æthelwold* was elected by his people and began to reign. In his second year a great pestilence occurred and continued for nearly two years. The people were wasted by various kinds of malignant diseases but especially dysentery.

761. Angus, king of the Piets, died. From the beginning of his reign right to the end he perpetrated bloody crimes, like a tyrannical slaughterer; and Oswine* was killed.

The Ecclesiastical History 765. King Alhred* began to reign.

766. Archbishop Egbert, endowed with royal blood and imbued with divine wisdom, and Frithubert, both truly faith ful bishops, departed to be with the Lord.

C U T H B E R T 'S L E T T E R

O N T H E D E A T H O F B E D E

C U T H B E R T ' S L E T T E R ON TH E D EATH OF BED E

To his beloved in Christ and fellow teacher Cuthwin,* greeting in the name of everlasting God from Cuthbert* the deacon.

The present which you sent me I received with much gratitude, and it was with great pleasure that I read your letter, full of religion and sound learning, from which I learnt that which I chiefly desired to learn, that you are regularly offering masses and devout prayers for the benefit of God's chosen servant Bede, our father and our master. I take delight therefore, more from love of him than through confidence in my own skill, in sending you a brief account of his passing out of this world, since I understand that this is just what you have expressed the wish to receive.

He was taken ill, in particular with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain, before Easter, for about a fortnight; and after it he continued in the same way cheerful and rejoicing, giving thanks to almighty God day and night, and indeed almost hour by hour, until Ascension Day, which was the twenty-sixth of May.* Daily he gave us lessons, who were his pupils, and spent the rest of his day in chanting the Psalter, as best he could. The whole of every night he passed cheerfully in prayer and giving God thanks, except only when brief slumber intervened; and in the same way, when he woke up, he would at once take up again the familiar melodies of Scripture, not ceasing to spread out his hands in thanksgiving to God. In all truth I can say it: I never saw or heard of any man so diligent in returning thanks to the living

God. Surely a blessing was upon him! And he used to repeat that sentence from St Paul 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God',* and many other verses of Scripture, urging us thereby to awake from the slumber of the soul by thinking in good time of our last hour. And in our own language,—for he was familiar with English poetry,— speak ing of the soul's dread departure from the body, he would repeat:

Cuthbert's Letter Facing that enforced journey,* no man can be More prudent than he has good call to be,

If he consider, before his going hence, What for his spirit of good hap or of evil

After his day of death shall be determined.

He used to sing antiphons too, for his own comfort and ours, of which one is 'O King of glory,* Lord of might, who didst this day ascend in triumph above all the heavens, leave us not comfortless, but send to us the promise of the Father, even the Spirit of truth. Alleluia.' But when he came to the words

'Leave us not comfortless', he broke down and wept; it was an hour before he tried to repeat what he had left unfinished, and so it was every day. And when we heard it, we shared his sorrow; we read and wept by turns, or rather, we wept continually as we read.

In this exaltation we passed the days between Easter and Pentecost as far as the date I have named; and he was filled with joy, and gave God thanks that he had been found worthy to suffer this sickness. He used to say repeatedly: 'God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth',* and that sentence of St Ambrose: 'I have not so lived, that life among you now would make me ashamed; but I am not afraid to die either, for the God we serve is good.'* During those days there were two pieces of work worthy of record, besides the lessons which he gave us every day and his chanting of the Psalter, which he desired to finish: the gospel of St John,* which he was turning into our mother tongue to the great profit of the Church, from the beginning as far as the words 'But what are they among so many?'* and a selection from Bishop Isidore's* book On the Wonders of Nature;* for he said 'I cannot have my children learning what is not true, and losing their labour on this after I am gone.'

When it came to the Tuesday before Ascension Day, his breathing became very much worse, and a slight swelling had appeared in his feet; but all the same he taught us the whole of that day, and dictated cheerfully, and among other things said several times: 'Learn your lesson quickly now; for I know not how long I may be with you, nor whether after a short time my Maker may not take me from you.'* But it seemed to

Cuthbert's Letter us that he knew very well when his end should be. So he spent all that night in thanksgiving, without sleep; and when day broke, which was the Wednesday, he gave instructions for the writing, which we had begun, to be finished without delay.

We were at it until nine o'clock; at nine o'clock we went in procession with the relics, as the custom of that day re quired.* One of us stayed with him, and said to him: 'There is still one chapter short of that book you were dictating, but I think it will be hard on you to ask any more questions.' But he replied: 'It is not hard. Take your pen and mend it, and then write fast.' And so he did. At three o'clock he said to me:

'I have a few treasures in my box, some pepper,* and napkins, and some incense. Run quickly and fetch the priests of our monastery, and I will share among them such little presents as God has given me.' I did so, in great agitation; and when they came, he spoke to them and to each one singly, urging and begging them to offer masses and prayers regularly on his behalf, and they promised with a will. But they were very sad, and they all wept, especially because he had said that he thought they would not see his face much longer in this world.* Yet they rejoiced at one thing that he said: 'It is time, if it so please my Maker, that I should be released from the body, and return to Him who formed me out of nothing, when as yet I was not. I have lived a long time, and the righteous Judge has well provided for me all my life long. The time of my departure* is at hand, and my soul longs to see

Christ my King in all His beauty.'* This he said, and other things, to our great profit, and so spent his last day in gladness until the evening. Then the boy of whom I spoke, whose name was Wilberht, said once again:

'There is still one sentence, dear master, that we have not written down.' And he said: 'Write it.' After a little the boy said: 'There! Now it is written.' And he replied: 'Good! It is finished;* you have spoken the truth. Hold my head in your hands, for it is a great delight to me to sit over against my holy place in which I used to pray, that as I sit there I may call upon my Father.' And so upon the floor of his cell, singing

'Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit' and the rest, he breathed his last. And well may we believe

Cuthbert's Letter without hesitation that, inasmuch as he had laboured here always in the praise of God, so his soul was carried by angels to the joys of Heaven which he longed for. So all who heard or saw the death of our saintly father Bede declared that they had never seen a man end his days in such great holiness and peace; for, as I have said, as long as his soul remained in the body, he chanted the 'Gloria Patri' and other songs to the glory of God, and spreading out his hands ceased not to give

God thanks.

And of this I assure you, that many more stories could be told or written about him; but tongue untaught cuts my words short. In time, however, I purpose with God's help to write a fuller account* of all that I myself have seen and heard regarding him.

Here ends Cuthbert's letter on the death of the venerable priest, Bede.

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