First Mission in Northumbria — Its Successes and Its Disaster — Bishop Paulinus and King Edwin

Extent and origin of the Anglo-Saxon settlements in Northumbria; thanks to their compatriot Bede, their history is better known than that of the others. — Ida and Ella, founders of the two kingdoms of Dei'ra and Bernicia; Bamborough and the Fair Traitress. — War of the Northumbrians and Britons: Ethelfrid the Ravager, conqueror of the Welsh and of the Scots under A'ldan, the friend of St. Columba. — Edwin, representing the rival dynasty, a refugee in East Anglia; on the point of being delivered over to his enemies, he is saved by the queen; vision and promise. — He becomes king of Northumbria and Bretwalda; list of Bretwaldas. — He marries the Christian Ethelburga, daughter of the king of Kent. — Mission of Bishop Paulinus, who accompanies the princess to York. — Influence of women in the conversion of the Saxons. — Fruitless preaching of Paulinus; letters of Boniface V. to the king and queen. — Edwin saved from the poniard of an assassin; birth of his daughter; war against the West Saxons. — Hesitation of Edwin; last effort of Paulinus. — Edwin promises to accept the fiiith after consulting his parliament. — Speeches of the high priest and of the chief captain. — Baptism of Edwin and of his nobility. — Bishopric and monastic cathedral of York. — The king and the bishop labor for the conversion of the Northumbrians. — General baptism by immersion. — Paulinus to the south of the Humber. — Foundations of Southwell and Lincoln. — Consecration of Honorius, fourth successor of Augustin at Canterbury. — Letter of Pope Honorius to the two metropolitans and to King Edwin. — Prosperous reign of Edwin. — Conversion of East Anglia; foundation of Edinburgh; conquest of Anglesea; public security; the woman and the foster-child; the copper cups; the tufa of the Bretwalda. — League of the Saxons and Britons of Mercia against the Saxons of Northumbria: Cadwallon and Penda. — Edwin is killed. —Flight of Paulinus and Ethelburga. — Overthrow of Christianity in Northumbria and East Anglia. — Check of the Roman missionaries; their virtues and their faults. — There remain to them only the metropolis and the abbey of St. Augustin at Canterbury, which continue to be the two citadals of Roman influence.

in nnd Of all the settlements made by the Teutonic con- ^^ querors of Britain, that of the Angles to the north extontof of the river Ilumber, which seems to divide into dom of" two parts the island of Great Britain, and from which bda!''"'"' is derived the name of Northumbria, was, beyond comparison, the most important. This kingdom occapied the whole eastern coast from the mouth of the Humber to the Firth of Forth, including the existing counties of York, Durham, and Northumberland, with all the south-eastern portion of modern Scotland. To the west it extended to the borders of the British territories of Cambria and Strathclyde, and even approached, on the frontiers of Caledonia, that new kingdom of the Scots of Ireland which the great missionary Columba had just inaugurated.

Its histor Northumbria was not merely the largest kingdom the best ^ of the Saxon Heptarchy — it is also that whose history is the most animated, dramatic, and varied —^^0 richest in interesting and original characters. It is that, in short, where the incidents of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon conquerors, and of the propagation of monastic institutions, appear to us in fullest light. This is naturally explained by the fact that it is the birthplace of the Venerable Bede. This great and honest historian— the English Gregory of Tours, and the father of British history — was born and always lived in Northumberland. Hence in his interesting narratives a natural prominence is given to the men and the affairs of his native region, along with an exact and detailed reproduction of the local traditions and personal recollections which he treasured up and repeated with such scrupulous care.

Bede informs us that about a century after the first landing of the Saxons, under Hengist, in the country of Kent, their neighbors, the Angles, crossing the North Sea, founded on the opposite coast of Britain two colonies, long distinct, sometimes united, but finally combined together under the name of Northumbria.i^T The wall anciently raised by the Emperor Severus from the mouth of the Solway to that of the Tyne to check the Caledonian incursions, was their boundary. The oldest of the two kingdoms was that of the Bernicians to the north. Their chief, Ida, Ida — who, like Hengist, claimed to be a descendant of Odin— established his residence in a fortress which he Called Bamborough, after his wife Bebba, with that conjugal reverence so often illustrated even among the most savage Germans. The British bards, in return, have named this queen the Fair Traitress, because she was of British origin, and fought in the foremost ranks on the

'" United from 588 to 633; separated at the death of Edwin in 634; and reunited anew under Oswald and Oswy. field of battle against her countrymen.iss The Imposing remains of this fortress, situated on a detached rock on the coast, still surprise and arrest the traveller. From this point the invasion of the Angles spread over the fertile valleys of the Tweed and Tyne.

The second colony, that of the De'irians, to the south, was concentrated principally in the valley of the Tees and in the extensive region which is now known as Yorkshire. The first chief of the Deirians of whom anything is founder of known, was that Alia or Ella, whose name — pro- dom^o°f nounced by the young slaves exposed for sale in the ^fg^g Forum— suggested to St. Gregory the hope of soon hearing the Hallelujah echo through his kingdora.^^^ This region, to the north of the Humber, was precisely that which had suffered most from the Caledonian incursions; and, according to some authors, the Saxons of Hengist, called in the character of allies by the Britons to their aid, were already established before the arrival of the Deirian colony. But Ida and his Angles would not in any character hold tenure under their Germanic compatriots from the south of the island, and instead of fighting against the Picts or the Scots they leagued themselves with them to crush the ill-starred Britons.

Ida, who had twelve sons, and who reigned 5^7.553 twelve years, used fire and sword against the natives with such animosity that the British bards surnaraed him the 3Ian of Fire, or the Great Burner. They withstood him to the last extremity, and he fell in battle against them. But his grandson, Ethelfrid, took a terrible revenge. He ^^^ was Ella's son-in-law; and at the death of the latter, and to the prejudice of the rights of the chief's son, Ethelfrid reunited the two kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, and mustering to his own standard all the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria, he subdued or massacred a greater multitude of the Britons than any other of the invading chiefs.^^*^ "Ethelfrid Pie was, says Bede, the ravaging wolf of Holy Writ: the Ravin the morning he devoured his prey, and in the "°'^'^' evening he divided his spoil. The vanquished, who had

"^ A. DE LA BoRDERiE, Luttes dcs Brctons Insulaires contre les Anglo- Saxons, p. 155.

'39 See ante, p. 145.

¹⁴⁰ u Nemo in tribunis, nemo in regibus plures eorum terras, extcrminatis vel subjugatis indigenis, aut tributarias genti Anglorum, aut habitabiles fecit." — Bede, i. 34. called his grandfather the Burner, had only too good cause to call Ethelfrid the Ravager.

Conqueror ^6 had not, however, like his predecessors, the Caledonians for auxiliaries. They had become Christians, thanks to the apostolic zeal of Coluraba and his Irish missionaries; and far from seconding ^^® pagan invaders, the Dalriadian Scots, recently established in Great Britain,!^! came to the succor of the Britons, who were their fellow-Christians. Their king, A'idan — the same who had been consecrated by Columba, the monastic apostle of Caledonia— marched against Ethelfrid at the head of a numerous army. But his friend, the holy monk of lona, was no longer there, as of old,i*2 to protect him with his prayers, and aid him with his ardent sympathies. The Scots and the Saxons met at Degstane, near the existing frontier of England and Scotland. After a desperate struggle the Scots army was cut to pieces; and this defeat put an end forever to any desire on the part of the northern Celts to undertake the defence of their brethren of the south against the Teutonic conquerors.

Having conquered the Scots, the formidable heathen threw himself on the Britons of Wales; and it was then that he fulfilled the prophecy of Augustin by exterminating the twelve hundred monks of Bangor. After this ho completed the conquest of Northumbria, and fell, ten years later, in an encounter with his countrymen, the East Angles, under the command of that King Redwald whom we have seen professing Christianity for a time to please King Ethelbert.i43_

East Anglia, as the name itself indicates, was occupied by a colony of the same race as the Angles of Northumbria. On the death of the first Christian king of Kent, Redwald inherited the title of Bretwalda, which gave him a certain military supremacy over the whole Anglo-Saxon federation. He had given shelter to the son of Ella, who, while still a child, had been dethroned by his brother-in-law, the terrible Ethelfrid. This young prince, named Ed Win, grow Up at Rcdwald's court, and had even been married to the daughter of his protector, sentlng^the Ethelfrid, seeing in him a rival and a successor, em- "1 "Eex Scotorum qui Britanniam inhabitant." — Bede, i. 3i. See ante, p. 42.

'« See ante, p. 55. '" See a?ite, p. 193.

OF CANTERBURY. 205

ployed by turns threats and bribes to induce Red- ^ij^gfyff^-kes wald to surrender the royal exile. The East Anglian refuse with prince was on the point of yielding, when one of the friends of Edwin came by night to apprise him of his danger, and offered to conduct him to a place of refuge, where neither Redwald nor Ethelfrid should be able to discover him. '* No," replied the young and generous exile, " I thank you for your good will, but I shall do nothing. Why should I begin again to wander a vagabond through every part of the island, as I have too much done? If I must die, let it be rather by the hand of this great king than by that of a meaner mao." Notwithstanding, moved and agitated by the news, he went out, and seated himself on a rock before the palace, where he remained for a long time alone and unnoticed, a prey to agonizing uncertainty.^^

All at once he beheld before him, in the midst of the darkness, a man whose countenance and dress were unknown to him, who asked him what he did there alone in the night, and added, " What wilt thou promise to him who shall rid thee of thy grief, by dissuading Redwald from delivering thee up to thy enemies, or doing thee any harm? " " All that may ever be in my power," answered Edwin. " And if," continued the unknown, " he promised to make thee king, and a king more powerful than all your ancestors, and all the other kings in England? " Edwin promised anew that his gratitude would be commensurate with such a service. " Then," said the stranger, " if he who shall have exactly foretold to you such great fortunes, offers you counsels more useful for your welfare and your life than any of your fathers or kinsmen have ever received, do you consent to follow them? " The exile swore that ho would implicity obey him by whom he should be rescued from such great peril and made king.

Thereupon the unknown placed his right hand upon his head, saying, " When a like sign shall be shown thee, then recall this hour— thy words and thy promise." AVith this he disappeared so suddenly, that Edwin believed he had spoken not with a man but with a spirit.^^^ A moment after '*' " Si ergo vis, hac ipse hora te educarn.... Gratias quidem ago benevolentia; tuae.... Quin potius, si moriturus sum, ille mc magis quam ignobilior quisquara morti tradat.... Solus ipse moestus in lapide pervigil.. • cum diu tacitus mentis angoribus et ca;co carperetur igni." — Bede, ii. 12.

'^^ " Quid mercis dare velis ei qui.... Quid si etiam regem te futurum... ita ut omnes qui ante te reges in gente Anglorura fuerant potestate transcendas.... Tum ille tertio: Si autem qui tibi tanta taliaque dona verahis friend came running to announce that he had no longer anything to fear, and that King Redwald, having confided his project to the queen, had been dissuaded by her from his breach of faith.

This princess, whose name has been unfortunately forgotten, had, like most of the Anglo-Saxon women, an all-powerful influence in the heart of her husband. More happily inspired than when she had induced him to renounce the baptism which he had received when with Ethelbert,!^*^ she showed him how unworthy it would be to sell for gold his soul, and what is more, his honor, which she esteemed the most precious of all jewels.^*''

Under the generous influence of the queen, Redcomes king wald not only refused to give up the exiled prince, but having sent back the ambassadors intrusted with brians. ^^^ costly presents of Ethelfrid, he declared war against him. The result was that, Ethelfrid having been defeated and slain, Edwin was established as king in Northumbria by his protector Redwald, who was now the chief of the Anglo-Saxon federation. The sons of Ethelfrid, although, on the mother's side, nephews of the new king, were obliged to fly, like Edwin himself in his youth. They went for refuge to the Dalriadian Scots, whose apostle

Columba had been. We shall presently see what resulted

from this exile, to Northumbria and the whole of England.

Like his brother-in-law Ethelfrid, Edwin reigned over the two united kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia; and, like him, he waged a vigorous war against the Britons of Wales.

Having thus become the dreaded chief of the Angles ^^*' of the North, he found himself esteemed and sought after by the East Angles, who on the death of their king, Redwald, offered him the sovereignty. But Edwin preferred to repay the protection which he had received from Red- Edwin wald and his wife by leaving the kingdom of East Anglia to their son. He reserved, however, the Bretwa a. jjjjjj^g^j.y supremacy which Redwald had exercised, as well as the title of Bretwalda, which had passed from the

citer prsedixerit.... Cum hoc ergo tibi signum advenerit, memento hujus temporis, ac loquelse nostrae, et ea quae nunc promittis adimplere ne differas. His dictis, ut ferunt, repente disparuit." — Bede.

1*6 See ante, p. 199.

¹⁴⁷ "Postquam cogitationem suam reginas in secreto revelavit, revocavit eum ille ab intentione... ammonens quia nulla ratione conveniat... imrao fidem suam, quae omnibus ornamentis pretiosior est amore pecuniae perdere." — Bede, loc. cit. king of Kent to the king of East Anglia, bat which, after being held by Edwin, was to remain always attached to the Northumbrian monarchy.

We have no precise information regarding the origin or

the nature of the authority with which the Bretwalda was invested. It is apparent only that this authority, at first of a temporary and exclusively military character, extended, after the conversion of the different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, to ecclesiastical affairs. It is evident also that it added to the royal dignity the prestige of a real supremacy, all the more sought after that it was probably conferred, not only by the vote of the other kings, but of all the chiefs of the Saxon nobility.^^^

Thus then was accomplished the mysterious prediction of Edwin's nocturnal visitor; he was now a king, and more powerful than any of the English kings before him. For the supremacy of the Bretwalda, added to the vast extent of country occupied by the Angles of the North and East, secured to the king of Northumbria a preponderance altogether different from that of the petty kings of the South who had borne the title before him. Having reached this unhopedfor elevation, and having lost his first wife, a daughter of the king of East Anglia, he sought a second bride, and asked in marriage the sister of the king of Kent, ^°o cuugh-' the daughter of Ethelbert and Bertha, a descend- fir^g^^^^g. ant of Hengist and Odin through her father, and of tmnkmgof St. Clotilda through her mother. She was called Ethelburga — that is, noble protectress; for this word Ethel, which appears so often in Anglo-Saxon names, is simply, as has been already remarked, the German edel, noble. Her ^*^ The ealdormen — those whom Bade calls primates trihuni. Bede gives the following as the succession of chiefs of the Anglo-Saxon federation, up to the time when the title of Bretwalda became extinct: —

About 5G0, Ella, king of Sussex.

" 577, Ceawlin, king of Wessex.
" 596, Ethelbert, king of Kent.
" 61G, Kedwald, king of East Anglia.

" 624, Edwin, ~i

" C35, Oswald, > kings of Northumbria.

" 645, Oswy, )

Lappenberg believes, with every appearance of reason, that after the death of Oswy, in 670, the authority of the Bretwalda passed to Wulf here, king of Mercia, whose supremacy over the king of Essex is proved by Bede himself, iii. 30. Maclcintosh interprets the term Bret-icalda by that X)i dompteur or arbiter (wielder) of the Britons; but he gives no satisfactory reason for that etymology. brother Eadbald, brought back by Archbishop Laurence to the Christian faith, at first refused the demand of the king of Northumbria. He answered that it was impossible for him to betroth a Christian virgin to a pagan, lest the faith and the sacraments of the true God should be profaned by making her live with a king who was a stranger to His worship. Far from being offended at this refusal, Edwin promised that, if the princess was granted to him, he would do nothing against the faith that she professed; but, on the contrary, she might freely observe all the rites of her religion, along with all who might accompany her to his kingdom — men or women, priests or laymen. He added that he would not himself refuse to embrace his wife's religion, if after having had it examined by the sages of his council he found it to be more holy and more worthy of God than his own.i'i^

It was on these conditions that her mother Bertha had left her country and her Merovingian family to cross the sea and wed the king of Kent. The conversion of that kingdom had been the reward of her sacrifice. Ethelburga, destined, like her mother, and still more than she, to be the means of introducing a whole people to the knowledge of Christianity, followed the maternal example. She furnishes us with a new proof of the lofty part assigned to women in the history of the Germanic races, and of the noble and touching influence attributed to them. In England as in France, and everywhere, it is ever through the fervor and devotion of Christian women that the victories of the Church are attempted or achieved.

But the royal virgin was intrusted to the Northumbrians, only under the guardianship of a bishop charged to preserve her from all pagan pollution, by his exhortations, and also by the daily celebration of the heavenly mysteries. The king, according to Bede, had thus to espouse the bishop at the same time as the princess.i^o Bishop This bishop, by name Paulinus, was one of those Paulinus. gj-'ii surviving Roman monks who had been sent by St. Gregory to the aid of Augustin. He had been twentyfive years a missionary in the south of Great Britain, before

¹⁴⁹ «<Nec abnegavit se etiam eamdem subiturum esse religionem si tamen exarainata a prudentibus sanctior et Deo dignior posset inveniri." — Bede, ii. 9.

150 (( Ordinatus episcopus ... sic cum prasfata virgine ad regem quasi comes copulifi carnalis advenit." — Bede, ii. 9. be was coDsecrated bishop of Northumbria by the july, third successor of Augustin at Canterbury. Having arrived with Ethelburga in Edwin's kingdom, and having married them, he longed to see the whole of the unknown nation amongst whom he had come to pitch his tent, espoused to Christ, tjulike Augustin, after his landing on the shores of Kent, it is expressly stated that Paulinus was disposed to act upon the Northumbrian people before attempting the conversion of the king.151 He labored with all his might to add some Northumbrian converts to the small company of the faithful that had accompanied the queen. But his efforts were for a long time fruitless; he was permitted to preach, but no one was converted.

In the mean time tbe successors of St. Gregory w^atched over his work with that wonderful and pope°Bomunwearying perseverance which is characteristic of the Holy See. Boniface V,, at the suggestion, no doubt, of Paulinus, addressed two letters to the king and queen of Northumbria, which recall those of Gregory to the king and queen of Kent. He exhorted the glorious king of the English, as he calls him, to follow the example of so many other emperors and kings, and especially of his brother-in-law Eadbald, in submitting himself to the true God, and not to let himself be separated, in the future, from that dear half of himself, who had already received in baptism the pledge of eternal bliss.^^^ He conjured the queen to neglect no effort to soften and inflame the hard and cold heart of her husband, to make him understand the beauty of the mysteries in which she behoved, and the rich reward w^hich she had found in her own regeneration, to the end that they twain whom human love had made one flesh here below, might dwell together in another life, united in an indissoluble union. ^-^^ To his letters he added some

loi <<Xoto animo intendens ut gentom quam adibat, ad cognitionem veritatis advocantf, uni viro sponso virginem castara cxhibcret Christo.... Laboravit multum ut... aliquos, si forte posset, de paganis ad fidei gratiam pracdicando converteret." — Bede, ii. 9.

'^- " Gloriosam conjugem vcstram, quae vestri corporis pars esse dignoscitur, tcternitatis praeinio per sancti baptismatis regenerationem illuminatam." — Ibid.

loj t( insjste ergo, gloriosa filia, et summis conatibus duritiam cordis... insinuatione mollire dematura. ... In undens sensibus ejus... quantum sit adniirabile quod renata pra^mium conscqui meruisti. Frigiditatcm cordis... succende.... Ut quos copulatio carnalis affectus ununi quodani modo corpus exliibuisse monstratur, hos quoque unitas fidei etiam post liujus vitK transituDi in perpetua societate conservet." — Bede, Ioc. cit.

210 ST. AUGUSTIN

modest presents, which testified assuredly either his poverty or the simplicity of the times: for the king, a linen shirt embroidered with gold and a woollen cloak from the east; for the queen, a silver mirror and an ivory comb; for both, the blessing of their protector St. Peter.

But neither the letters of the pope, nor the sermons of the bishop, nor the importunities of the queen, prevailed to triumph over the doubts of Edwin. A providential event, Edwin however, occurred to shake, without absolutely convincing him. On the Easter-day after his marriage au assassin, sent by the king of the West Saxons, made his way to the king, and, under the pretext of communicating a message from his master, tried to stab him with a double-edged poisoned dagger, which he held hidden under his dress. Prompted by that heroic devotion for their princes, which among all the Germanic barbarians coexisted with continual revolts against them, a lord named Lilla, having no shield at hand, threw himself between his king and the assassin, who struck with such force that his weapon reached Edwin even through the body of his faithful friend.^^ The same night, the night of the greatest of Christian festivals, the queen was delivered of a daughter. While Edwin was rendering thanks to his gods for the birth of his firstborn, the Bishop Paulinus began, on his part, to thank the Lord Christ, assuring the king that it was He who by His prayers to the true God had obtained that the queen should bear her first child without mishap, and almost without pain. The king, less moved by the mortal danger that he had just escaped, than by the joy of being a father without peril or hurt to his beloved Ethelburga, was charmed by the words of Paulinus, and promised to renounce his idols for the service of Christ, if Christ granted him life and victory in the war which he was about to wage against the king who had tried to procure his assassination. As a pledge of his good faith, he gave the new-born child to the bishop, that he might consecrate her to Christ. rp|j-g g^.g^. ^YiM of the king, the first native Christian of the Northumbrian nation,i^^ was baptized on Whit-

¹⁵⁴ "Missus a rege... nomine Cuichelmo... qui habebat sicam bicipitem toxicatam.... Minister regi aniicissimus... non habens scutum... mox interposuit corpus suum ante ictum pungentis, sed tanta vi hostis ferrum infixit, ut per corpus militis occisi etiatn regem vulneraret." — Bede, loc. cit.

¹⁵⁵ " Ut regina sospes absque dolore gravi sobolera procrearet.... Prima Sunday (Pentecost), along with eleven persons of the royal household. She was named Eanfleda, and was destined, like most of the Anglo-Saxon princesses, to exercise an influence over the destiny of her country.

Edwin came back victorious from his struggle with the guilty king. On his return to Northumbria, though since giving his promise he had ceased to worship idols, he would not at once, and without further reflection, receive the sacraments of the Christian faith. But he made Paulinus give him more fully, what Bede calls, the reasons of his belief. He frequently conferred with the wisest and best instructed of his nobles upon the part which they would counsel him to take. Finally, being by nature a man sagacious and reflective, he passed long hours in solitude— his lips indeed closed, but discussing many things in the depths of his heart, and examining without intermission which religion he ought to prefer.^^*^

The history of the Church, if I mistake not, offers no other example of an equally long and conscientious hesitation on the part of a pagan king. They all appear equally prompt alike for persecution or for conversion. Edwin, as the testimony of an incontestable authority reveals him to us, experienced all the humble efforts, the delicate scruples, of the

modern conscience. A true priest has said with justice:

" This intellectual travail of a barbarian moves and touches

us. We follow with sympathy the searcher in his hesita-

tions; we suffer in his perplexities; we feel that this soul is a sincere one, and we love it." i^"

Meanwhile Paulinus saw time passing away without the word of God which he preached being listened to, and without Edwin being able to bow the pride of his intelligence before the divine humility of the cross. Being informed of the prophecy and the promise which had put an end to the de gonte Nordanhymbrorum." — Bede, loc. cit. She married King Oswy, one of lier fatlier's successors. We shall see her take a part in the struggle between the monastic an5 the Celtic influence in Northumbria.

io6 " Xon statim et inconsulto sacramcnta fidei precipere voluit.... Vcrum prinio diligentius... rationcni fidei ediscere et cum suis primatibus quos eapientiores noverat, curavit confcrre, quod de his agendum arbitrarentur. Scd et ipse cum esset vir natura sagacissinms, sajpe diu solus rcsidens, ore quidem tacito, sed in intimis cordis raulta secum colloqucns, quod sibi esset faciendum, qua; religio servanda tractabat." — Bede, loc. cit.

'" GoEiNi, Defense de VE'glise, vol. ii. p. 87. Nothing in this excellent work can surpass the author's refutation, step by step, of M. Augustin Thierry's narrative of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Compare Fabee, Life of St. Edwin, 1844, in the series of Lives of the English Saints. exile of the king, he believed that the moment for recalling them to him had come.i^^ One day when Edwin was seated by himself, meditating in the secret of his own heart upon the religion which he ought to follow, the bishop entered suddenly and placed his right hand upon his head, as the unknown had done in the vision, asking him if he recognized that sign.i^^ The king, trembling, would have thrown himself at the feet of Paulinus, but he ""^^^ raised him up, and said gently, " You are now delivered by God's goodness from the enemies that you feared. He has given you the kingdom which you desired. Remember to accomplish your third promise, which binds you to receive the faith and to keep its commandments. It is thus only that after being enriched with the divine favor here, you will be able to enter with God into the fellowship of the eternal kingdom."

"Yes," answered Edwin at length, '^ I feel it; I ought to bc, and I will be, a Christian." But, always truc to his characteristic moderation, he stipulated lufted'par- Only for himself He said that he would confer -^yj^]^ [jjg great nobles, his friends, and his councillors, in order that, if they decided to believe as he did, they should be all together consecrated to Christ in the fountain of life.

Discussioa Paulinus having expressed his approval of this proposal, the Northumbrian Parliament, or, as it was then Called, the council of sages (witena-gemot), was assembled near to a sanctuary of the national worship, already celebrated in the time of the Romans and Britons, at Godmundham, hard by the gates of York. Each member of this great national council was, in his turn, asked his opinion of the new doctrine and worship.^^*^ The first who answered '=^ According to M. Thierry, "this secret had probably escaped Edwin among the confidences of the nuptial couch." Bede says exactly the contrary, though without affirming anything. " Tandem ut verisimile videtur didicit (Paulinus) in spiritu, quod vel quale esset oraculum regi quondam coelitus ostensum." — Bede, ii. 12.

io9 " Cum videret difficulter posse sublimitatem animi regalis ad humilitatem... vivificse crucis inclinari.... Cum horis competentibus solitarius sederet, quid agendum sibi esset, qu33 religio sequenda sedulus secum ipse scrutari consuesset, ingrediens ad eum quadam die vir Dei." — Bede, ii. 12.

""* "Quibus auditus et rex suscipere se fidem et velle et debere respondebat. Verum adhuc cum amicis principibus, et consiliariis suis sese de hoc coUaturum esse dicebat.... Habito enim cum sapientibus consilio, sciscitabatur singillatim ab omnibus, qualis sibi doctrina eatenus inaudita... videretur.... His similia et caftteri majores natu ac regis consiliarii prosequebantur." — Bede, ii. 13. was tho high priest of the idols, by name Coifi, a singular and somewhat cynical personage. '* My opinion," said he, " is most certainly that the religion which we have hitherto followed is worth nothing; and this is my reason. Not one of your subjects has served our gods with more zeal than I have, and notwithstanding, there are many of your people who have received from you far greater gifts and dignities. But if our gods were not good for nothing, they would have done something for me who have served them so well. If then, after ripe examination, you have found this new religion which is preached to us more efficacious, let us hasten to adopt it." ^''^

One of the great chiefs held different language, in which are revealed to us that religious elevation and poetic melancholy wherewith the minds of these Germanic heathens were often imbued. *' You remember, perhaps," said he to the king, " what sometimes happens in the winter evenings Avhilst you are at supper with your ealdormen and thanes; ^^^ while the good fire burns within, and it rains and snows, and the wind howls without, a sparrow enters at the one door and flies out quickly at the other. During that rapid passage it is sheltered from the rain and cold; but after that brief and pleasant moment it disappears, and from winter returns to winter again. Such seems to me to be the life of man, and his career but a brief moment between that which goes before and that which follows after, and of which we know nothing. If, then, the new doctrine can teach us somethingcertain, it deserves to be followed." ^^^

After much discourse of the same tendency, for the assembly seems to have been unanimous, the high priest Coifi spoke again with a loftier inspiration than that of his first words. He expressed the desire to hear Paulinus speak of the God whose envoy he professed to be. The bishop, with permission of the king, addressed the assembly. When he had finished, the high priest cried, " For a long time I have understood the nothingness of all that we worshipped, for tho more I endeavored to search for truth in it the less I

ici " Profiteer quia nihil oninino virtulis, nihil utilitatis rcligio ilia quam huousquo tenuinius. ... Si autem Dii aliquid valerent." — Bede, ii. 13.

'"- " Cum (Jncibus ac niinistris tuis." " Mit thynem Ealdormannmn and Thegnum," is King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon translation of the words of Bede.

103 li Alius optiniatum regis subdidit: Talis niihi videtur, rex, vita hominum... quale cum te residente ad cccnam acccnso foco in media ct calido efTecto ccenaculo... advcniens unus passerum domum citissime pervolaverit.,. mox de hieme in hiemen regrediens." — Bede, ii. 13.

2U ST. AUGUSTIN

found it; but now I declare without reserve that in this preaching I see the shining of the truth, which gives life and salvation and eternal blessedness. I vote, then, that we give up at once to fire and to the curse the altars which we have so uselessly consecrated." ^^'^ The king immediately made a public declaration that he adhered to the gospel preached by Paulinus — that he renounced idolatry and adopted the faith of Christ. " But who," asked the king, " will be the first to overthrow the altars of the ancient gods, and to profane their sacred precincts?" " l," replied the high priest; whereupon he prayed the king to give him arms and a stallion, that he might the more thoroughly .violate the rule of his order, which forbade him to carry arms and to mount ought but a mare. Mounted on the king's steed, girt with a sword, and lance in hand, he galloped towards the idols, and in the sight of all the people, who believed him to be beside himself, he dashed his lance into the interior of their temple. The profaning steel buried itself in the wall; to the surprise of the spectators, the gods were silent, and the sacrilege remained unpunished. Then the people, at the command of the high priest, proceeded to overthrow and burn the temple.^®'^

These things occurred in the eleventh year of Edwin's reign. The whole Northumbrian nobility ''^nd a large part of the people followed the example of the king, who was baptized with much solemnity on Easter-day (627) by Paulinus at York, in a wooden church, built in haste while the catechumens were prepared for baptism.^'''^ Immediately afterwards he built around this improvised sanctuary a large church in stone, which he had not time to finish, but which has since become the splendid Minster of York, and the metropolitan church of the north of England. The town of York had been already celebrated in the times of the Romans. The Emperor Severus and the father of Constantine had died there. The Northumbrians had made it their capital, and Edwin there

¹⁶⁴ "Uncle suggero, o rex, ut templa et altaria quas sine fructu utilitatis sacravimus ocius anathemati et igni contradamus." — Bede, ii. 3.

jjjg respondit: Ego.... Rogavit sibi regem arma dare et equum eniissarium quera ascendens... pergebat ad idola." — Bede, ii. 3. Compare the Saxon version quoted by Lingard, i. 30.

¹⁶⁶ " Accepit rex cum cunctis gentis suae nobilibus ac plebe perplurima fidcm et lavacrum.... Ipse doctor! et antistiti suo Paulino sedem episcopatus donavit.... Baptizatus est ibi sed et alii nobiles et regii viri non pauci."— Bede, ii. 14. placed the seat of the episcopate filled by his teacher Pauli- Dus. Thus was realized the grand design of Gregory, who, thirty years before, at the commencement of the English mission, had instructed Augustin to send a bishop to York, and to invest him with the jurisdiction of metropolitan over the twelve suffragan bishoprics which in imagination he already saw founded in the north of the country conquered by the Anglo-Saxons.i^'^

The king and the bishop labored together for six years for the conversion of the Northumbrian people, and even of the English population of the neighboring regions. The chiefs of the nobility and the principal servants of the king Avere the first to receive baptism, together with the sons of Edwin's first marriage. The example of a king was, however, far from being enough, among the Anglo-Saxons, to determine the conversion of a whole people; and the first Christian king and the first bishop of Nort'numbria did not, any more than Ethelbert and Augustin, think of employing undue constraint. Doubtless it required more than one effort on their part to overcome the roughness, the ignorance, the indifference of the heathen Saxons. But they had, at jhekmthe same time, much encouragement, for the fervor ""'i bisUop of the people and their anxiety for baptism were often wonderful. Paulinus having gone with the king and queen, who several times accompanied him on his missions, to a royal villa far to the north, they remained there, all three, for thirty-six days together, and during the whole of that time the bishop did nothing else from morning till night than catechize the crowds that gathered from all the villages around, and afterwards baptize them in the river which flowed close by. At the opposite extremity of the country, to the south, the name of Jordan is still given to a portion of the course of the river Dervvent, near the old Roman ford of Malton, in memory of the numerous subjects of Edwin that were there baptized by the Roman missionary .1*^^ Everywhere ho baptized in the rivers or streams, for there was no time to build churches.16^ However, he built, near Edwin's principal '" " Qui tufe subjaceant ditioni,.. ita duntaxat ut si eadem civitas cum finitimis loois verbuni Dei receperit, ipse quoque XII episcopos ordinet, et nictropolitani honore perfruatur." — Bede, i. 2t).

**"* The Times of 17th March, 1865.

109 rjiie Qien in Northumberland, the Swale, and especially the Dcrwent, in Yorkshire, are still mentioned among the rivers in which the bishop baptized thousands of converts by immersion.

thumbrians. palace, a stone church, whose calcined ruins were still visible after the Reformation, as well as a large cross, with this inscription: Paulinus hie prcedicavii et celehravit}''^

Passing the frontiers of the Northumbrian kingdom, Paulinus continued his evangelistic course among the Angles settled to the south of the Humber, in the maritime province of Lindsa3^ There also he baptized many people in the Trent and long afterwards, old men, who had in their childhood received baptism at his hands, recalled with reverent tenderness the venerable and awe-inspiring stranger, whose lofty and stooping form, black hair, aquiline nose, and emaciated but imposing features, impressed themselves on every beholder, and proclaimed his southern origin.^'i The beautiful monastic church of Southwell consecrates the memory of the He com- sccuo of one of thoso multitudinous baptisms; and it is to the mission of Bishop Paulinus on this side thc Humber that we trace the foundation of that magnificent Cathedral of Lincoln, which rivals our noble Cathedral of Laon in its position, and even surpasses it in grandeur, and perhaps in beauty.^''^

^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^® stouo church (Bede always notes this detail most carefully) built by Paulinus at Lincoln, after the conversion of the chief Saxon of that ^q^^j^^ ^yj^];^ ^\\ [^jg house, that the metropolitan bishop of York had to proceed to the consecration of the fourth successor of Augustin in the metropolitan see of Canterbury. Honorius was, like Paulinus, a monk of Mount Coelius at Eome, and one of the first companions of St. Augustin in his mission to England. lie was a disciple of St. Gregory, and had learned from the great pontiff the art of music, and it was he who led the choir of monks on the occasion of the first entrance of the missionaries, thirty years before, at Canterbury.i"^ The Pope then reigning was also named Honorius, first of that name. He sent the pallium to each of the two metropolitans, and ordained that when God should take to himself one of the two, the "" At Dewsbury, on the banks of the Calder. Alford, Annales Anglo- Saxonies, ap. BoLLAND., vol. vi. Oct., p. 118.

*" " Quemdam seniorem... baptizatum a Paulino... praesente rege Adwino.... Quoniam effigiem ejusdem Paulini referre esset solitus.... Vir longse staturae, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo, facie macilenta, naso adunco perenni, venerabilis simul et terribilis aspectu." — Bede, ii. 16.

"- AIL the most beautiful religious edifices of England — York, Lincoln, and Southwell —trace their origin to the episcopate of Paulinus. — Faber, op. cit.

''^ Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, pp. 63, 111. other should appoint a successor, in ordur to avoid the delay of a reference to Rome, so difficult by reason of the great distance to be travelled by sea and land. In the eloquent letter which accompanied the pallium, he reminds the new archbishop that the great Pope Gregory had been his master, and should ever be his model, and that the whole work of the archbishops, his predecessors, had been but the fruit of the zeal of that incomparable pontiff.^''^

The Pope wrote also to King Edwin to congratulate him on his conversion and on the ardor and sincerity of his faith, and to exhort him to read much in the works of St. Gregory, whom he calls the Preacher of the English, and whom he recommends the king to take for his perpetual intercessor with God.i'-^ But when this letter reached England, Edwin was no more.

The six years which passed between his conver- prosperity sion and his death may certainly be reckoned among c"nce o°/"" the most glorious and happy that it was ever given

. Aid • i. 1 TT Ti

to an}'' Anglo-baxon prince to know. He speedily raised Northumbria to the head of the Heptarchy. On the south, his ardent zeal for the faith which he had embracedafter such ripe reflection extended its influence even to the populations which, without being subjected to his direct authorit}^, yet belonged to the same race as his subjects. The East Angles, as we have seen, had offered him their crown, and he had refused it. But he used of the East his influence over the young king, who owed to hira his elevation to the throne, to induce him to embrace the Christian religion, with all his subjects. Eorpwald thus expiated the apostasy of his father; and Edwin thus paid the ransom of the generous pity that the royalty of East Anglia had lavished on his youth and his exile.

174 {( Dilectissimo fratri Ilonorio Ilonorius.... Exoramus ut vestram dilectionem in praedicationc Evangelii laborantera et fructificantem sectantemque magistri et capitis sui sancti Grcgorii regulam perpeti stabilitate confirmet (redcmptor)... ut fide et opere, in timore Dei et caritate, vestra adquisitio decessoruraquc vestroruni qua; per Domini Grcgorii exordia pullulata convalescendo amplius extendatur... longa terrarum marisque jntervalla, quae inter nos ac vos obsistunt, ac et nos condescendere coegerunt, ut nulla possit ecclesiarum vestrarum jactura per cujuslibet occasionis obtentum quoque modo provenire: sed potius commissi vobis populi devotionem plcnius propagare."— Ap. Bedam, ii. 18.

i7j II Prajdicatores vestri... Gregorii frequenter lectione occupati, prsB oculis affectum doctrine ipsius, quam pro vcstris animabus libenter exercuit, habetote: quatenus ejus oratio, et regnum vestrum populumque augeat, et vos omnipotenti Deo irreprehensibiles repraesentet." — Ibid., ii. 17,

VOL. II. 19

On the north he extended and consolidated the Anglo- Saxon dominion as far as the isthmus which separated Caledonia from Britain. And he has left an ineffaceable record of his reign in the name of the fortress built upon the rock which commanded the entrance of the Forth, and which still lifts its sombre and alpine front— true Acropolis of the barbarous north — from the midst of the great and picturesque city of Edinburgh (Edwin^s burgh).

On the west he continued, with less ferocity than Ethelfrid, but with no less valor and success, the contest of the Britons of Wales. He pursued them even into the islands of the channel which separates Great Britain from Ireland; and took possession of the Isle of Man and another isle which hadHbeen the last refuge of the Druids from the Roman dominion, and which, after its conquest by Edwin, took the name of the victorious race, Angles-ey.

Within his own kingdom he secured a peace and security so unknown both before and after his reign that it passed into a proverb; it was said that in the time of Edwin a woman with her new-born child might traverse England from the Irish Channel to the North Sea without meeting any one who would do her the least wrong. It is pleasant to trace his kindly and minute care of the well-being of his subjects in such a particular as that of the copper cups which he had suspended beside the fountains on the highways, that the passers-by might drink at their ease, and which no one attempted to steal, whether from fear or from love of the king. Neither did any one ever reproach him for the unwonted pomp which distinguished his train, not only when he went out to war, but when he rode peacefully through his towns and provinces, on which occasions the lance surmounted with a large tuft of feathers '^'^ — which the Saxons had borrowed from the Roman legions, and which they had made the sacred standard of the Bretwalda and the ensign of the supreme sovereignty in their confederation — was always carried before him in the midst of his military banners.

But all this grandeur and prosperity were about to be ingulfed in a sudden and great calamity.

'"* " Sicut usque hodie in proverbio dicitur, etiaiusi mulier una cum recens nato parvulo vellet totam pcrambulare insulam a mari ad mare, nullo se Iffide'nte valeret.... Erectis stipitibus areos caucos suspend! juberet.... Illud genus vexilli quod Romani Tufam, Angli vero Tiaif appellant." — Bede, ii. 16.

There were other Angles than those who, in Nor- ^„. thumbria and East Anglia, were ah-eady subdued the'heathm and humanized by the influence of Christianity: and^the"'' there remained the Angles of Mercia — the great chHstians central region stretching from the Humber to the ^?f":^^ Thames. The kingdom of Mercia was the last state organized out of the Anglo-Saxon conquest. It had been founded by that portion of the invaders who, finding all the eastern and southern shores of the island already occupied, were compelled to advance into the interior. It became the centre of the pagan resistance to, and occasional assaults upon, the Christian Pr02Daganda, which was henceforth to have its headquarters in Northumbria. The pagans of Mercia found a formidable leader in the person of Penda, who was himself of royal extraction, or, as it was then believed, of the blood of Odin, and had reigned for twenty-two years, but who was inflamed by all the passions of a barbarian, and, above all, devoured ''^^"''^^' with jealousy of the fortunes of Edwin and the power of the Northumbrians. Since Edwin's conversion these wild were intensified by fanaticism. Penda and the Mercians remained faithful to the worship of Odin, whose descendants all the Saxon kings believed themselves to be. Edwin and the Northumbrians were, therefore, in their eyes no better than traitors and apostates. But more surprising original inhabitants of the island, the Christian Britons, who were more numerous in Mercia than in any other Anglo-Saxon kingdom, shared and excited the hatred of the pagan Saxons against the converts of the same race. These old Christians, it cannot be too often repeated, always exasperated against the invaders of their island, took no account of the faith of the converted Angles, and would not on any terms hold communion with them.^" The AVelsh Britons, who maintained their independence, but who, for more than a century, had been constantly menaced, defeated, and humiliated by Ida, Ethelfrid, and Edwin, professed and nourished their antipathy with even greater bitter- andcad- Their chief, Ceadwalla or Cadwallon, the waiion. last hero of the Celtic race in Britain, at first overcome by Edwin and forced to seek refuge in Ireland and in Armorica,i"9 had returned thence with rage redoubled, and with "7 Bede, ii. 20. See vol. i. p. G87, note.

"^ Lappenberg, vol. i. p. 15'J. La. Borderie, op. cit., p. 21G. *" See his amusing adventures in Ricuabd of Cirencester, vol. ii. p. 32. auxiliaries from the other Celtic races, to recommence the struggle against the Northumbrians. He succeeded in formino- an alliance with Penda against the common en- Northum- =5 ^ i • r> •

cmy. Under these two chiefs an immense army, in invaded.

^^j^j^j^ ^j^^ British Christians of Wales jostled the pagans of Mercia, invaded Northumbria. Edwin awaited them at Hatfield, on the southern frontier of his kingdom.

He was there disastrously defeated, and perished gloriously, sword in hand, scarce forty-eight years of age, dying a death which entitled him to be ranked amongst the martyrs.^^^ His eldest son fell with him; the younger, taken prisoner by Penda, who swore to Christian- Preserve his life, was infamously murdered. Northumbria was ravaged with fire and sword, and its NOTthum^ recent Christianity completely obliterated. The most barbarous of the persecutors was not the idolatrous Penda, but the Christian Cadwallon, who, during a whole year, went up and down all the Northumbrian provinces massacring every man he met, and subjecting even the women and children to atrocious tortures before putting them to death. He was, says Bede, resolved to extirpate from the soil of Britain the English race, whose recent reception of Christianity only inspired this old Christian, intoxicated with blood and with a ferocious patriotism, with scorn and disgust.^^^

It is not known why Northumbria, after the death of Edwin and his son, was not subjugated and shared among the conquerors; but it remained divided, enslaved, and plunged once more into paganism. Deira fell to Osric, cousin-german of Edwin; Bernicia to Eanfried, one of the sons of Ethelfrid, who had returned from his exile in Scotland. Both had received baptism: the one with his cousin at York; the other at the hands of the Celtic monks of lona. But a pagan reaction was the inevitable consequence of the overthrow of the first Christian king of Northumbria. The two princes yielded to that reaction, and renounced their baptism, but

'80 Ad. SS. Bolland., die 12 Octobris.

'81 " Maxima est facta strages in Ecclesia vel gente Nordanhynibrorum.... Unus ex ducibus paganus, alter... pagano ssevior.... Quamvis nomen et professionem haberet Christiani, adeo animo et moribus barbarus, ut ne sexui muliebri vel innocufe parvulorum parceret aetati, quum universos atrocitate ferina niorti per tormenta contraderet.... Totum genus Anglorum BritanniiB finibus erasurum se esse deliberans; sed nee religioni Christianas quae apud eos exorta erat, aliquid impendebat honoris." — Bede, ii.

20. Compare iii. 1.

OF CANTERBURY. 221

without gaining anything thereby. The king of Deira was killed in battle with the Britons; and the king of Bernicia was murdered at an interview which he had sought with the savage Cadwallon.

Bishop Paulinus did not consider himself called upon to remain a witness of such horrors. His one thought was to place in safety the widow of King Ethelburga. Edwin — that gentle Ethelburga who had been confided to him by her brother for a different destiny: he brought her back by sea to her brother's kingdom, with the daughter and the two youngest sons whom she had borne to Edwin. Even beside her brother, the king of Kent, she was afraid to keep them in England; and wishing to devote her own widowhood to God, she intrusted them to the king of the Franks, Dagobert, her cousin,i82 at whose court they died at an early age. As to Paulinus, who had left in charge of his church at York only a brave Italian deacon, of whom we shall speak hereafter, he found the episcopal see of Rochester vacant in consequence of the death of the Roman monk, who was the titular bishop, and who, sent by the primate to the Pope, had just been drowned in the Mediterranean. Paulinus was invested with this bishopric by the king and by the archbishop Honorius, whom he had himself consecrated at Lincoln; and there he died, far from his native land, after having labored during forty-three years for the conversion of the English.

Thus appeared to crumble away in one day and forever, along with the military and political pre-eminence of Northumbria, the edifice so laboriously raised in the north of England by the noble and true-hearted Edwin, the gentle and devoted Ethelburga, the patient and indefatigable Paulinus, and by so many efforts and sacrifices known to God alone. The last and most precious of Edwin's conquests was not

^^^ The following is the table of the relationship between the queen of Northumbria and the king of Austrasia: —

CLOTAIUE I,

I

I I
CARIUERT, CIIILPERIC I.
king of raris. I

I I
nF.milA, CLOTAIRE 11.
wife of Ethelbert. I

I I KTHKLnUUGA, DAGOBERT I.

wife of Edwin.

Dagobert mounted the throne of Austrasia in G28, three years after Ethelburga's marriage.

19*

222 ST. AUGUSTIN

destined to survive him long. His young kinsman, the king of the East Angles, was no sooner converted than he fell beneath the poignard of an assassin; and, like Northumbria, East Anglia relapsed altogether into the night of idolatry.^^^ After thirty-six years of continual efforts, the monastic missionaries sent by St. Gregory the Great had succeeded in establishing nothing, save in the petty kingdom of Kent, Everywhere else they had been kingdom of baffled. Of the six other kingdoms of the Heptarchy, three — those of the Saxons of the South and of the West, and the Angles of the Centre ^^^ — remained inaccessible to them. The three last — those of the Saxons of the East, of the Angles of the East and North ^^s— had successively escaped from them. And yet, except the supernatural courage which courts or braves martyrdom, no virtue seems to have been awanting to them. No accusation, no suspicion, impugns their all-prevailing charity, the fervent sincerity of their faith, the irreproachable purity of their morals, the unwearying activity, the constant selfdenial, and austere piety of their whole life.

How, then, are we to explain their defeat, and the successive failure of their laborious efforts? Perhaps they were wrong in not sufficiently following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles — in not preaching enough to the humble and poor— in not defying with proper boldness the wrath of the great and powerful. Perhaps they were wrong in addressing themselves too exclusively to the kings and warlike chiefs, and in undertaking nothing, risking nothing, without the concurrence, or against the will, of the secular power.is'5 Hence, without doubt, these changes of fortune, these reactions, and sudden and complete relapses into idolatry, which followed the death of their first protectors; hence, also, these fits of timidity, of discouragement, and despair, into which we see them falling under the pressure of the sudden changes and mistakes of their career. Perhaps, in short, they had not at first understood the national character of the Anglo-Saxons, and did not know how to gain and to master their minds, by reconciling their own Italian customs and ideas with the roughness, the independence, and the manly energy of the populations of the German race.

'3' Bede, ii. 15. "'^ Wessex, Sussex, Mercia. '^* Essex, East Anglia, Northumbria.

'** LinCARD, Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. i. pp. 40, 74.

At all events, it is evident that new blood was needed to infuse new life into the scattered and imperfect germs of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and to continue and carryout the work of the missionary monks of Mount Coelius.

These monks will always have the glory of having first approached, broken, and thrown seed upon this fertile but rebellious soil. Others must water with the sweat of their toil the fields that they have prepared, and gather the harvest they have sown. But the sons of St. Gregory will none the less remain before God and man the first laborers in the conversion of the English people. And, at the same time, they did not desert their post. Like mariners intrenched in a fort built in haste on the shore that they would fain have conquered, they concentrated their strength in their first and indestructible foundations at Canterbury, in the metropolitan monastery of Christ Church and the monastery extra muros of St. Augustin, and there maintained the storehouse of Roman traditions and of the Benedictine rule, along with that citadel of apostolic authority which was for centuries the heart and head of Catholic England.

BOOK XI.

THE CELTIC MONKS AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS.