OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF V
•SlLrpou:^ '
^ f istorj) of the (English €k\xuk
Edited by the Very Rev. W. R. W. .Stephens, B.D.,
Dean of Winchester,' ^
and the Rev. William Hunt, M.A.
I
THE ENGLISH CHURCH
FROM ITS FOUNDATION
TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST
ERRATUM
Page 300. — I should have identified St. Petrock's,
or Petrocstowe, with Bodmin, not with Padstow. See
Haddan and Stubbs, Coimcils and Ecclesiastical Docu-
vients^ i. 683, 702-4.
JV gistory of th^ English €hixixk
Edited by the Very Rev. W. R. W. .Stephens, B.D.,
Dean of Winchester,'^
and the Rev. William Hunt, M.A.
I
THE ENGLISH CHURCH
FROM ITS FOUNDATION
TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST
GUARDIAN. — " Indispensable to all serious students of the history
of the English Church.'
A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH
EDITED BY
The Very Rev. W. R. W. STEPHENS
DEAN OF WINCHESTER
AND
The Rev. WILLIAM HUNT, M.A.
A Continuous History, based upon a careful Study of Original
Authorities, and of the best Ancient and Modern Writers.
In Seven Volumes uniform binding. Crown %vo.
Each vol. is Sold separately and will have its own Index.
Vol. I. The English Church from its Foundation to The
Norman Conquest (597-1066). By the Rev. William
Hunt, M.A. 7s. 6d. [Ready.
„ II, The English Church from the Norman Conquest to
THE Close of the Thirteenth Century. By The
Very Rev. the Dean of Winchester. 7s. 6d. \Ready,
„ III. The English Church in the Fourteenth and Fif-
teenth Centuries. By the Rev. Canon Capes, late
Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. 7s. 6d. [Ready.
„ IV. The English Church in the Sixteenth Century from
the Accession of Henry VIII. to the Death of
Mary. By James Gairdner, Esq., C.B., LL.D.
[/ft the Press.
„ V. The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and
James I. By the Rev. W. H. Frere.
„ VI. The English Church from the Accession of Charles I.
to the Death of Anne. By the Rev. W. H. Hutton,
B.D., Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.
„ VII. The English Church in the Eighteenth Century. By
the Rev. Canon Overton, D.D.
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH
FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE
NORMAN CONQUEST
(597-1066)
BY
WILLIAM HUNT, M.A.
OFTri£
UNIVERSITY
3L0nti0n
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
I9OI
A U rights reserz'ed
^tusbictic zactvtohs gnmini gominc:
lautiatB £t 5uptrsi-aUat£ (Bum in s£cula,
^tnztizih sBrbt gnmiiti Qnntinn:
lauttati zi zn^BvexaliaU (Bum in scrnla.
'^tmtiicii& spiritus zl antntx luslnrnnt gamino:
lantraU ^t superc^aliate (Bum in ssrula,
'g£n£iiirit£ sancii £t IjumiUs rorirc gominn:
lautiatB fit su^ptxsxaiiatz (Bum in secula.
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SPRECKFLS
First Ell Hi on 1899
Re/>rinfcd iqoi
TO THE RIGHT REVEREND
WILLIAM
LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD
WHOSE UNWEARYING INDUSTRY AND BRILLIANT GENIUS
HAVE ILLUMINED THE HISTORY
ALIKE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND CONSTITUTION
THIS BOOK IS
WITH HIS KIND PERMISSION
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
AS A TOKEN OF THE AFFECTIONATE AND DUTIFUL REGARD
OF ONE OF HIS MANY FRIENDS
AND DISCIPLES
102064
INTRODUCTION
The following pages are the first ifistahnent of a work which
I have long and anxiously desired to see undertaken. Interest
in the history of the Efiglish Church has been steadily increasing
of late yearSy since the great importance of the Church as a factor
in the development of the national life and character from the
earliest times has come to be more fully and clearly recognised.
But side by side with this increase of interest in the history of
our Churchy the want has been felt of a more complete present-
ment of it than has hitherto been attempted. Certain portions,
indeed, have been written ivith a fulness and accuracy that leave
nothing to be desired ; but many others have been dealt with, if
at all, only in manuals and text-books which are generally dull
by reason of excessive compression, or in sketches which, however
brilliant and suggestive, are not histories. What seemed to be
wanted was a continuous and adequate history in volumes of a
moderate size and price, based upon a careful study of original
authorities and the best ancient and modern writers. On the
other hand, the mass of material which research has now placed
at the disposal of the scholar seemed to render it improbable that
any one would venture to undertake such a history single-handed,
or that, if he did, he would live to complete it. The best way,
therefore, of ^neeting the difficulty seemed to be a division of
viii INTRODUCTION
labour amongst several competent scholars^ agreed in their
general principles^ each being responsible for a period to which
he has devoted special attention^ and all working in corre-
spondence through the medium of an editor or editors^ whose
business it should be to guard against errors^ contradictions^
overlapping^ and repetition ; but, consistency and continuity being
so far secured, each writer should have as free a hand as possible.
Such is the plan upon which the present history has been pro-
jected. ^ It is proposed to carry it on far enough to include at
least the Evangelical Movement in the eighteenth century. The
whole work will consist of seven crown octavo books uniform in
outward appearance, but necessarily varying somewhat in length
and price. Each book can be bought separately, and will have
its own index, together with any tables or maps that may be
required.
I am thankful to have secured as my co-editor a scholar who
is eminently qualified by the remarkable extent and accuracy of
his knowledge to render me assistance, without which, amidst
the pressure of many other duties, I could scarcely have ventured
upon a work of this magnitude,
W. R. W, STEPHENS.
The Deanery, Winchester,
zoihfuly 1899.
INTRODUCTION
According to present arrangements the work will be dis-
tributed amongst the following writers : —
I. The English Church from its Foundation to the Norman
Conquest, by the Rev. W. Hunt, M.A. Ready.
II. The English Church from the Norman Conquest to
the Close of the Thirteenth Century, by the Dean of
Winchester. Ready.
III. The English Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries, by the Rev. Canon Capes, late Fellow of
Queen's College, Oxford. Ready.
IV. The English Church in the Sixteenth Century from the
Accession of Henry VIII. to the Death of Mary, by
James Gairdner, Esq., C.B., LL.D.
V. The English Church in the Reigns of EUzabeth and
James I., by the Rev. W. H. Frere, M.A.
VI. The EngHsh Church from the Accession of Charles I.
to the Death of Anne, by the Rev. W. H. Hutton,
B.D., Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford.
VII. The English Church from the Death of Anne to the
Close of the Eighteenth Century, by the Rev. Canon
Overton, D.D.
PREFACE
Apart from the intrinsic value of all historical study, and
the interest and profit which may be derived from it, the
history of the English Church has special claims
upon our consideration. Members of the Church church
history.
will gather from it reasons for the loyalty and
affection which their Church claims from them, and all
Englishmen alike will find it a part of their national history
not less necessary or less inspiring than the rest. For the
English Church has exercised a profound influence on the
history of the English people. It was a principal agent in
the making of the nation, and has had a strong effect on its
character and institutions. Without it the England of to-
day would have been other than what it is. Every English-
man, probably every one of Anglo-Saxon race and speech,
be his religious opinions what they may, owes something to
its influence, either in the present or the past. Its early
history is important, for, though in many ways it is far
removed from us, the later developments of the Church,
its character, claims, and existing institutions, cannot be
rightly understood except by those who have studied its
early years. Its history during the first four centuries and
a half of its existence presents not a few difficulties, for our
sources of information are not always so full as to enable
the historian to picture the past with certainty. Yet there
are compensations. There is much in the period which is
xii PREFACE
interesting and delightful, and for the first part of it we have
in Bede a guide unequalled in narrative, as he is unsurpassed
in the beauty of his spirit.
Down to the death of Bishop Wilfrith, in 709, the history
has already been written by an eminent authority, the Rev.
Canon Bright, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical
This book.
History at Oxford. With that exception, this book,
while owing much to others, is, I believe, the first
attempt to write a continuous History of the English Church
before the Norman Conquest with any degree of fulness.
While it is written from the standpoint of a member of the
Church of England, it has not been my design either to
advocate the principles of a party, or even to exalt the Church.
Whether the fact that the Church held certain beliefs and
enjoined certain practices a thousand and more years ago is
any reason why it should do the like now, is not for me to
say. Everything recorded here has been inserted either
because it seemed to me necessary to my narrative or
interesting in itself. It has been my earnest wish to present
a thoroughly truthful picture of the Church during this period,
and not to misrepresent anything. No cause seems the
better for the art of the special pleader, still less for disin-
genuousness. Nor would the interests of the Church, even
if they could be served by such methods, be so sacred to me
as historic truth.
Miracles occupy a prominent place in the history of the
early years of the English Church. Where it seemed necessary
the belief in them has been noticed in this book.
The credi-
bility of To those who deny miracles altogether as contrary
to "the law of Nature," it is easy to reply by asking
when that law was declared. Was it settled before the
discovery of the Rontgen rays, or only the day before
yesterday ? Have men of science as yet brought psychological
phenomena under this lav/? Such an answer, however,
PREFACE xiii
entirely gives away the cause of those who accept the
supernatural. Even if we had arrived at a law of Nature
which was fixed and final, there would still be room for a
higher law. To us, who accept the resurrection of Christ as
an historical fact, miracles present no difficulty. We regard
them as manifestations of a higher law than that of a creation
which groans and travails in pain, a law of life triumphant
over death, of righteousness over sin, of happiness over
sorrow, and we call that law the Will of God. We believe
that He has chosen, now and again, to assert the supremacy
of that law over the law of this earthly universe, which will
one day be made subject to it for ever.
Many, however, accept the miracles of the New Testament,
but refuse to believe in any others. What is the authority
for this limitation of God's methods of working?
Does It
Are we to believe that His will was exercised in a depend on
certam way until, say, a.d. 70, and yet to condemn
as superstitious the belief that it was so exercised after that
date? It is sometimes asserted that there was sufficient
reason for the miracles of the New Testament, and not for
any of later days. He who works a miracle is the only
judge of His own action ; " Knowest thou the ordinances of
Heaven ? " And what reason have we to suppose that He
who showed forth mighty works at places of small importance
in the history of the world or the Church, such as Lystra,
must necessarily have held His hand when the Gospel was
preached to the English people, or indeed at other critical
times in the history of His Church ?
Some mediaeval miracles may at once be rejected as futile,
or otherwise contrary to the revealed will of God. Others
seem mere coincidences, interpreted by devout
minds as miraculous interpositions of Divine Provi- Sdes^'
dence. Many do not rest on good historical
evidence, and many were probably the results of the close
connection between the mind and the body, and of the
XIV
PREFACE
power which certain persons have over the minds of others.
For in reading the early history of our Church we shall miss
much that is picturesque and important, if we fail to remember
the influence which a learned churchman of ascetic Hfe, speci-
ally if he was a foreigner, or was well acquainted with Roman
civilisation, must have exercised over the minds of ignorant
men, unaccustomed to self-restraint. Yet, with all necessary
allowances, it is hard to see how those who accept the
credibility of the miraculous can consistently refuse to believe
that some mediaeval miracles were genuine. For them,
surely, the question must be decided, first by the character
of the alleged miracle, and then by the historical evidence
for it. Many miracles are recorded by Bede, and for several
of them he gives us excellent authority. An historian,
however, need not, as such, trouble himself with this matter.
What concerns him is not the truth of an alleged miracle:
it is the effect which it produced on the minds of men. For
an historical fact is of value only so far as it either affected,
or can be used to illustrate, the course of human progress.
After some hesitation, I have written English names in
English forms, and not in Latinised disguises. English
names were not well adapted for turning into Latin.
^E^giiifh'^ Historians writing in Latin thought it necessary
names. ^^ translate them because they wanted case -end-
ings, and in translating them they often disguised them
miserably. It saves confusion to write them in English,
for while some have a thoroughly Latinised form, others
have not. In Latin, names ending in a are generally
feminine; in English a is a masculine termination. So
that if Latinised forms were used, we should have, side by
side, Ethelburga, for ^thelburh, denoting a woman, and
Anna and Utta denoting men. Some Latinised forms are
so different from the original names that it seemed pre-
posterous to use them, specially along with names always
PREFACE XV
found in their English spelUng ; and some are more ap-
propriate to legends and the calendar of holy days than
to a book of history. For example, Etheldreda savours of
hagiology, while ^thelthryth, whose melodious and significant
name is thus disguised, was an English queen of whom we
know many things historically certain.
Here, however, no attempt has been made at etymological
accuracy, and letters which seemed of little importance in
sound have often been left out. Nor can I claim
the credit of consistency. Alfred and Bede are "h'^rer'*
names too honoured in their familiar forms to be
written in the comparatively unfamiliar forms of Alfred and
Baeda, and Hilda, which is still with us, and therefore cannot
be confused with a masculine name, has been retained for the
Abbess of Whitby, in place of Hild. The spelling of names,
indeed, seems to me to be a matter of little importance in
an historical work. Though it is well to write Charles the
Great, in order to mark that the Frankish emperor was a
German, it is well also to call him Charlemagne, because that
form helps the reader to identify him. My spelling of
English names has been adopted from a sense, possibly
mistaken, of its fitness, and for the sake of convenience,
and not with any idea that it is obligatory on an historian.
It may be well to note that ^ in names beginning with
^thel- and jElf- should be sounded simply as our open rt,
as in cat. The modern forms Alfred and Athel-
stan, then, so far answer to the sound, while pronunciation.
Ethelred and Elfrida are merely Latinisms. Ea-^ if
long, as in Eadburh, should, Professor Skeat kindly informs
me, be sounded with the stress on the former element, and
much as the word payer with the / left out. However, the
exact value of the Ea- seems uncertain, and so a reader may as
well sound it as he finds it easiest. When the ea is short, as
in the second syllable of Eadweard, the sound could not
have been very far from that of our a, and so here the name
xvi PREFACE
has been written Eadvvard. C should be sounded hard like
K^ except in names in which Ce is followed by a vowel, as
in Ceadda, when it is sounded Ch. Mr. W. S. M'Cormick,
Professor of English Literature at Dundee, has been good
enough to point out to me that vowels should be sounded as
in German. Names which in early days terminated in
/ are in this book spelt as in later A.S., with an e. The
final e should always be sounded ; Godwine is a name of
three, Wine and Bise names of two syllables.
In the lists of authorities no attempt has been made at
bibliographical fulness. When a book is mentioned for
the first time, I have added the place and date of
foJ'hei'p. publication, or the name of the series to which it
belongs, in order that the reader may easily
identify it, if he wishes to consult it for himself. I owe
much to the books of others, and hope that my obligations
are sufficiently acknowledged in my lists of authorities.
One helper I have had to whom my thanks must be
expressed here also. My friend, the Rev. Charles Plummer,
Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the editor of
Bede's Historical Works and the Saxon Chronicle, whose
knowledge of early English history is unequalled, has most
generously given me the benefit of his learning and criticism,
and has read my proofs to the advantage of my book in all
respects. The kindly interest and help of another friend
would also demand acknowledgment, did not his name
appear on the first page.
W. HUNT.
Kensington,
July 31, 1899.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
Introductory ....,., i
CHAPTER II
The Roman Mission ...... i6
CHAPTER III
The Church in Kent ...,,. 34
CHAPTER IV
Success and Reverse ...... 52
CHAPTER V
St. Aidan .....,,, 76
CHAPTER VI
The Whitby Conference ..... 95
)
CHAPTER VII
The Plague . . . . . . .117
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
Organisation ....... 132
CHAPTER IX
WiLFRITH , . . . . . . -153
CHAPTER X
Early Monasticism ...... 174
CHAPTER XI
Activities .,..-»»- i99
CHAPTER XII
Evil Influences ....... 223
CHAPTER XIII
Viking Invasions ....... 247
CHAPTER XIV
Alfred ......... 268
CHAPTER XV
Recovery . » . . . ^ . . 289
CHAPTER XVI
The Church and the Nation . . . . .311
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVII
PACK
The Monastic Revival ..,,-,. 326
CHAPTER XVni
The New Benedictinism . . „ .. 347
CHAPTER XIX
Energy ....... 369
CHAPTER XX
Exhaustion . ...
390
APPENDIX I
Some Principal Events .» . . . , .417
APPENDIX II
Table of English Bishoprics and Sees . , . 420
APPENDIX III
List of Archbishops of Canterbury and Bishops and
Archbishops of York ..... 423
INDEX ....„...'. 425
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Before the English Church was founded there were two
Churches in this island which were destined to be brought
into widely different relations with it, — the British Church, to
which it owed nothing, and the Church of an Irish people
called the Scots, to which it owed much. As we shall often
meet with references to these Churches in the early chapters
of this book, it will be well, before entering on our proper
subject, to clear the ground by an introductory notice of them.
Christianity was probably brought into Britain between the
years 176 and 208; for Irenseus, writing in 176 of the
number of Christian lands, does not mention Britain,
while Tertullian, writing about 208, the year of the '^cwh.'^
expedition of Severus against the tribes of the North,
says, somewhat rhetorically, that the Gospel had found its way
into parts of Britain which were closed to the Romans. It
doubtless came hither from Gaul, and its coming may well
have been a result of the persecution which, in 177, fell upon
the Christians of Lyons and Vienne and the country about
them, for there are many traces of a close connection between
the Churches of Gaul and Britain and some indications of
a special connection between Britain and the Churches of
Lyons and Vienne. The British Church was untouched by
the Diocletian persecution of 304. There was a distinct tra-
dition, existing, probably, as early as 429, that a martyr named
Alban suffered at Verulamium, and there is no reason for
rejecting the story ; but the assertion that the martyrdom took
place in Diocletian's time must be merely a later guess. The
5 B
2 INTRO D UCTOR Y chap.
names of some other martyrs are mentioned, but not on good
authority. The Church had an episcopal organisation. The
names of three bishops, holding the sees of London, York, and
" Colonia Londinensium," probably Lincoln, and of the priest
and deacon who attended them are recorded with those of the
Galilean bishops who took part in the Council of Aries in 314.
There, among other matters, they must have agreed that
Easter should be kept at one date which was to be com-
municated to the different Churches by the Bishop of Rome.
The Church was orthodox, and accepted the creed and canons
of the Council of Nicaea (325), where an arrangement was
made settling the date of Easter for the Catholic Church.
Some bishops from Britain were at the Council of Rimini in
359, which was forced by the Emperor Constantius to
surrender the full declaration of the truth made in the Nicene
creed, but the Church remained sound in the faith and in
sympathy with Athanasius. It seems to have been poor^ for
at Rimini three of its bishops accepted the Emperor's allow-
ance on account of poverty. Towards the end of the
century it fell into some disorder. Dissensions arose, appar-
ently on a matter of faith, and about 396 Victricius, Bishop
of Rouen, was invited over to make peace. His efforts were
successful ; he strengthened the weak, and persuaded, or
compelled, the rebellious to obedience. In the fourth
century, then, the British Church in no w^ay differed from the
Catholic Church either in faith or practice. It was not
isolated, and its connection with the Galilean Church was
close and beneficial. Nor was this all ; for, like the Christians
of other lands, Britons went on pilgrimages to Rome, and even
to Palestine, where they shared in the hospitality of the noble
Melania, who had built a house for consecrated virgins and
a hostel for pilgrims on Mount Olivet, and where they joined
the crowd of worshippers at the Cave of the Nativity at
Bethlehem, were entertained at the hostel founded by Paula
and her daughter Eustochium, and must have seen the great
Jerome. Others seem to have joined the company of monks
gathered round St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours, who was
regarded with special reverence both in Britain and Ireland.
His monks dwelt, some in huts and some in the caves which
may still be seen in the rocky hill above Marmoutier, the
I THE BRITISH CHURCH 3
descendant of St. Martin's monastery. A Briton named
Ninias, or St. Ninian, a native probably of Strathclyde, who
was perhaps one of Martin's disciples, desired to ^^ ^.^.^^
spread the Gospel in the land of his birth ; he was
ordained bishop by Pope Siricius and returned to Britain to
preach to the Picts. He built a church of stone on the shore
of Wigton Bay, like the churches he had seen in Rome, and
it is said that as he was building it he heard of Martin's death
in 397, and dedicated the church to his memory. The white-
ness of the stone church struck eyes used only to wooden
buildings, and so the place w^as called " Candida casa," the
White house, or Whitern. It became a resort of saints and
scholars from Britain and Ireland. The preaching of Ninian
led the Picts of Galloway and also those to the south of the
Grampians to accept Christianity.
Hitherto the British Church had stood in the same relations
to Rome and its bishop as the rest of Christendom. In 410
the Roman dominion in Britain came to an end, and before
very long wars within the island, invasions, and conquest by
the Saxons and Angles, cut it off from communication with
Rome and, with one exception, the continent generally.
The severance was not immediate, and once more the Church
owed its well-being to a mission from Gaul. Britain pro-
duced an heresiarch of its own in the person of Pelagius, who
seems to have studied in the JSast. He did not preach in
Britain himself; his heresy concerning man's free-will was
brought there by one of his disciples named Agricola, and
was widely accepted. Prosper, who was in Rome about the
time, tells us that Pope Celestine, acting on the advice of
his deacon Palladius — was Palladius a Briton? — sent Ger-
manus, Bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, Bishop of ^^^ mission
Troyes, to Britain to recall the Church to orthodoxy. of st.
They came over in 429, and refuted the heretics at
a conference at Verulamium. Then, according to the legend
of the " Alleluia Victory," Germanus led the Britons against an
invading host of Saxons and Picts. As the heathen advanced,
he and Lupus bade their little army meet them with a shout of
Alleluia. At the sound of the shout the invaders turned and
fled, and the Britons are said to have won a complete and
bloodless victory. A second visit from Germanus completed
4 INTRO D UCTOR V chap.
the repression of Pelagianism in Britain Some years later
there is evidence that the Church still followed the directions
of Rome, for in 455 it received and obeyed a command of
Leo the Great as to the right date of Easter. At that time
Teutonic invasions of Britain were in progress, and soon cut
the Church off from communication with Rome. With one
part of Gaul a close connection was maintained. Armorica,
the present Brittany, was colonised by Britons who fled from
the sword of the Saxons, and saints and scholars con-
stantly passed to and fro between the greater and the lesser
Britain. As the Armorican Church was subject to the see
of Tours, the church of St. Martin, it might have formed a
link connecting the British Church with the Churches of Gaul
and Rome. But in 502 the Franks claimed dominion over
Armorica, and the British churchmen there, indignant at
this second Teutonic invasion, withdrew their obedience from
Tours, and adopted a policy of isolation.
Gildas gives us a picture of the Church in Britain about
a century after it was cut off from Rome. He wrote a little
before 550, when the Teutonic conquest had made
"cwhln^ much progress, and what he says certainly applies to
t^^^skth Wales, and probably to all the as yet unconquered
land west of the Severn, to the kingdom of Dam-
nonia, or Devon, Cornwall, and part of Somerset, and though
he tells us nothing about the Britons between the Dee and the
Clyde, his notices of the Church may be taken as applicable
there also. We must not lay stress on all he says in his
" Querulous Book " about the wickedness of his contemporaries,
for we know that he was by no means the one righteous man
left, and that many famous British bishops and scholars lived
in his time. He shows us a Church with a diocesan epis-
copate, with bishops who were then rich and powerful, and
claimed succession from St. Peter and the other apostles, and
with a clergy of the two other sacred orders. The Church was
governed by synods, but discipline was lax and simony was
rife. There were monks living under a vow and observing
monastic decrees ; indeed, we know that there were many
British monasteries which were abodes of learning, some of
them with so vast a number of monks as to remind us of the
monasteries of the Thebaid, and there were virgins and
I THE DATE OF EASTER 5
widows vowed to chastity. Clerical marriage seems to have
been common, though, as in all lands where monasticism
flourished, there was a feeling against it, and in favour of
married bishops and priests abstaining from conjugal inter-
course. The only differences noted by Gildas between the
Roman and the British Churches are that in ordination the
Britons used a lectionary of their own, and that they anointed
the hands of those to be ordained. Their Church was
certainly not at that time in conscious schism from Rome.
When, however, in 602 the British Church was again
brought into communication with Rome in the person of
Augustine, other differences are discerned. Chief v^
among these was a difference as to the date on fromTomSi
which Easter was kept. In early days the Church "^^^^^^^^^^^
of St. John at Ephesus, and other Asian Churches
of Jewish Christians, kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the
first month, the day of the Passover, whatever day of the
week that might be, while the Gentile Churches kept the
feast always on a Lord's Day in memory of Christ's resurrec-
tion, and called those who did not do so " Quartodecimans "
(Fourteenth men). The Britons followed the practice of the
Western Church generally in keeping their Paschal feast only
on the Lord's Day ; and therefore when their opponents called
them " Quartodecimans " they used the term incorrectly and
merely as an expression of contempt. By the Council of
Nicsea it was ordained that all Catholics should keep the
Paschal feast on the Lord's Day, and never on the same day
as the passover, so that if the fourteenth day of the moon fell
on a Sunday, Easter in that year was to be celebrated on
the Sunday following; and it was arranged that the date
should be calculated at Alexandria and communicated by the
patriarch to the Bishop of Rome that he might inform
other Churches of it. The British Church followed the orders
of Rome on this matter down to 455, when it was cut off
from communication with Rome, and then its isolation led to
a threefold divergence as to the date of the feast, which was
determined by the full moon of the first month of the year,
that is to say the month in which the full moon occurred on,
or after, the vernal equinox. In order to avoid keeping
Easter on the Jews' passover, Rome, followed by the Western
6 INTRODUCTORY chap.
Church generally, rejected the fourteenth day of the moon,
even if a Sunday, and kept Easter on the Sunday occurring
between the fifteenth and twenty-first days inclusive ; while the
Britons, apparently misled by an error in an old Roman
computation, or " table to find Easter," kept their Easter on
the fourteenth day, if a Sunday, and made the twentieth day
the limit of the week on which it could fall. Accordingly,
when the fourteenth day was a Sunday there was just a week
between the Roman and Celtic Easters, for the Britons kept
their Easter on that day, but the Romans not till the Sunday
following. Again, the Britons placed the vernal equinox
on March 25, the Romans on March 21, so that when the
full moon occurred betvreen those dates the British Easter
was a whole lunar month later than the Roman. Lastly,
there was a difference in the computation, or cycles, according
to which Easter was calculated for coming years. In spite
of the Nicene arrangement, Rome adopted a system of
computation different from, that of Alexandria, and for some
time used a cycle of eighty-four years, corrected it in 457,
and finally, in 525, adopted a cycle of nineteen years,
which brought its calculations into harmony with those
of Alexandria. The British Church, however, being cut
off from Rome by political events, did not follow these
changes, and continued to use the old cycle of
Baptism, the eiehtv-four vears. A second difference concerned
tonsure, etc. ° ■; ^ . ^,^, , . . , ,
the rite of ba^ism. What this was is not known ;
it may be thaPtlie^'^ritbns immersed once only, and not
thrice as the Romans did. A third point was the shape of
the tonsure ; while the Roman clergy shaved a round spot on
the top of the head, round which the hair grew like a crown,
the Britons shaved the whole front of the head from a Une
drawn from ear to ear, letting the hair grow down behind, a
fashion which was doubtless a survival of the tonsure of the
Druids, the magicians of the Celts. There were also minor
differences; the Britons are believed to have used some
prayers in the order of the mass not used at Rome, their
churches were usually called after their living founders
instead of being dedicated to saints already dead, and they
appear to have neglected the rule laid down by the Council
of Nic£ea that three bishops should combine in conferring
I THE CHURCH OF THE SCOTS 7
episcopal consecration. The differences concerning the date
of Easter and the form of the tonsure were of great importance
during the early days of the English Church.
The other pre-Anglican Church of which it will be necessary
to say something here is the Scottish Church. Its native land
was Scotia or Ireland, where the Scots were the
dominant race. At the end of the fifth century a J/^^'hScoS
colony of Christian Scots from the north-west of
Ireland founded a kingdom called Dalriada between Loch
Linnhe and Loch Long, and from them Scotland ultimately
took its name. Avoiding the difficult questions, as well as the
beautiful legends, connected with St. Patrick, we need only
note that he was a native of Britain, that he studied in Gaul,
that he was perhaps, as some maintain, a disciple of St. Martin
of Tours, and that he evangelised Ireland. During the
missionary period the number of bishops in Ireland was very
great ; for in early days evangelisation was chiefly carried on
by bishops, and it is probable that wherever Patrick obtained
leave from the chief of a sept to build a church, he put a
bishop there. When this first age of the Church ended about
534, a period began during which religion v/as revived and
strengthened by monasticism ; churches served by secular
clergy gave place to monasteries, and the Church at large was
organised on a monastic basis. A close connection was
formed wath the British Church, and the Scots "received a
mass," or a liturgy, from the Britons David, Gildas, and Cadoc,
whom they accepted as teachers. Many monasteries were
established which became great schools of religious learning,
such as that founded by St. Finnian at Clonard, where there
were three thousand students at a time, and whence came
the " Twelve Apostles of Ireland." The most
famous of these twelve was St. Columba, a gTeat- St- Coiumba,
grandson of Niall of the Nine Plostages, the over-
king of Ireland. His baptismal name was Colum (a dove),
and he was called Colum-cille, because when he was a lad he
was so often in the " cell," or oratory, where he used to read
his psalter, that the children of the place who loved him
would say, " Has our little Colum come out of the cell to-
day?" Lovable and tender-hearted he always was, hating
8 INTRO D UCTOR V chap.
all oppression and wrong. His soul was full of poetic feelings,
which he strengthened before entering St. Finnian's monastery
by becoming a pupil of an aged bard. His influence was
great, and he founded monasteries at Derry, Durrow, Kells,
and elsewhere. It is true that he did not in all things follow
the teaching of Christ, which had not yet subdued the violence
of the society round him, and in spite of his holiness he was
a man of his time. Like his fellow-countrymen, he was prone
to anger and resentment, and more than once was concerned
in warfare. He had copied without the owner's leave a book
belonging to St. Finnian, the head of the famous monastic
school at Moville. Finnian claimed the copy, and Diarmit,
King of Ireland, decided on the principle of "whose is the
cow, his is the calf," that the " son-book " belonged to
Finnian. Moved by this and other causes of offence,
Columba arrayed his tribe in battle against the king. During
the fight he prayed for the success of his people, and they
gained a complete victory. Two years later he engaged in a
nobler warfare; for in 563 he left Ireland w^ith twelve of his
monks to preach to his fellow-Scots in British Dalriada,
where religion had fallen into decay, and to the heathen Picts
who dwelt near them. The King of Dalriada granted him
the little island of Hii, or lona, off the coast of Mull, and
there he founded a monastery which became a centre of
gospel light and religious learning. Thence the Scots of
Dalriada received fresh teaching, and thence Columba went
in person on a mission to the northern Picts ; he overcame
their Druids by what seemed to them a mightier magic, and,
during nine years more or less spent among them, converted
them and their King Brude to Christianity. Thence, too,
at a later time, came holy men to whose labours the English
Church w^as deeply indebted.
Ireland lay outside the limits of the Roman empire of
which the pope was the spiritual chief, it was remote from
Rome and, indeed, from all countries except Britain. When
the British Church was cut off from communication with
Rome in the fifth century, the Church in Ireland shared its
isolation, and, while catholic in doctrine, had a singularly
independent development. In the seventh century, as we
shall see, its holy men, while expressing some reverence for
I lONA 9
Rome, would not give up the customs of their own Church
at the pope's bidding. They agreed with the Britons on the
Easter question, in wearing the Celtic tonsure, and on other
points also differed from Roman usage. Their Church is
sometimes confused with the British Church ; it was radically
different from it in organisation. The British Church was
organised on the basis of a diocesan episcopate ; the organisa-
tion of the Scottish Church was monastic. A great Scottish
monastery had many monasteries and churches dependent on
it. There were many Columbite monasteries in Ireland, and
all of them were dependent on the monastery of lona, which
governed the Church of the Scots of Dalriada and the
northern Picts, and also the mission which it sent into
England. It was ruled by a priest -abbot to whom imphcit
obedience was paid, and who was assisted in matters of
government by a council of senior monks. The abbacy
generally remained in the family of the founder-abbot \ nine of
the first eleven successors of Columba at lona were members
of his house, and the Columbite abbot was reverenced as the
co-arb, or heir, of the founder. Bishops resided in the monas-
tery, and though respected in virtue of their office were, equally
with the other monks, subject to the jurisdiction of the abbot.
They were employed by the abbot and his council to perform
episcopal functions such as ordination and the dedication of
churches, and as missionaries in the foundation of a new
Christian province. Their acts were done on behalf of the
monastic community, and on the responsibility of the abbot.
Columba's monastery in lona contained a hundred and
fifty monks. It was enclosed by a rampart of earth, or earth
and stones, the church, refectory, and other build- „
c . • ^ , , , • Monastery-
mgs tor use ni common were, m Columba s time, ofiona,
constructed of wood, and each monk had his own ^°""^^^ 563.
cell, either a wattle hut, or a circular building of rough
stones so set as to give it a bee-hive or domical shape.
These cells stood in a little court. Columba himself had a
cell made of planks on the highest part of the ground, and
there he spent his time when at the monastery for the most
part in writing. Life in lona was ordered in accordance
with general monastic discipline, not by any distinct rule.
All things were common, a monk had absolutely nothing of
lo INTRO D UCTOR V chap.
his own. Chastity and humility were cultivated with a zeal
equal to that of the Fathers of the Egyptian deserts. Before
strangers the monks spoke little, though they talked freely
amongst themselves ; they held almsgiving of much account ;
their hospitality was ungrudging. Strangers were welcomed by
the abbot with a kiss, and fasts were relaxed in their honour.
Every day psalms were sung at the canonical hours, the
recitation of the psalter, which they learnt by heart, being a
leading feature in their devotions. When not at prayer the
monks were employed either in manual labour, fishing,
milking, churning, baking, or cultivating the land, or in
reading and writing. No time was wasted. They read the
Bible chiefly, and also some other religious books. They
transcribed much, the elder monks probably doing little else.
Magnificent examples of books written and illuminated by
Scottish monks are still extant, but such fine work as they
exhibit was hardly done until a later period than Columba's
time. The appointed fasts were not excessive, but in the
asceticism of the most devout of the monks there was a
strong tendency to exaggeration. Columba himself, for
example, would sometimes recite the whole psalter at night
standing immersed in the sea. Full of love to God and to
one another, and ever occupied in devotion or in useful work,
the monks of lona afforded their wild neighbours a noble
pattern of Christian life. Among them were two "Saxons,"
Genereus and Pilu, the first-fruits of the English race gathered
into the garner of the Lord. When in future chapters we
come across Columbite missionaries in England this imperfect
sketch of the settlement in lona may prevent us from meeting
them as strangers.
Columba's life in lona lasted for thirty-four years. The
account of his last hours on earth tells us something of his
character, and illustrates the sympathy that existed
St. Columba's between him and the animal creation. Of this
death, 597.
sympathy, one of the most beautiful proofs of a
loving heart, there are many examples in the history of monks
of all races, though it was perhaps specially conspicuous among
the monks of the Scottish Church. Columba had become
very weak, and knew that his end was near. Accompanied
by his constant attendant Diarmit, he walked as far as the
1 DEATH OF ST. COLUMBA ii
nearest barn of the monastery, where the winnowed corn
lay in two great heaps, that he might bless the grain and give
thanks that, though he might be gone from them, his family
would have enough for another year. On his way back
his strength failed ; he sat down by the way-side to rest, and
as he sat there an old white horse which carried the milk from
the cow-sheds to the monastery came up to him, put his head
against the abbot's breast, and wept and moaned hke a
human being. When Diarmit would have driven it away,
Columba forbade him saying, " Let him alone, let him weep
against my breast, for it is for love of me." He gathered
strength, ascended a Utde hill whence he could look down
upon his monastery and blessed it. On returning to his cell
he went on with his work of transcribing the psalter. He
wrote the verse, "They who love the Lord shall not want
anything that is good," and then said, " Here I must stop,
Baithene must write the rest." Baithene was his cousin ;
he had brought him up as his adopted son, and seems by
these words to have designated him as his successor. In the
evening he attended vespers. When the service was over
he went back to his cell and, sitting on the stone bench
which he used as a bed, spoke his last words to his monks.
Again, at midnight, he went to the church for matins, and
there, stretched before the altar, he died in the presence
of his monks on June 9, 597. Eight days before his death
the first Christian king of Enghsh race was baptized at
Canterbury.
In the middle of the fifth century Britain was invaded by
three kindred Teutonic peoples, — the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes,
whom it will be convenient to call by their collective
name of English. The progress of conquest was bJI^^^^^^J?
slow, and, while the invaders remained heathens,
was accompanied by much bloodshed, specially when the
Britons of a town made a vigorous resistance. It is, how-
ever, easy to exaggerate the exterminating character of the
conquest even during that period ; and there is reason to
beheve that in the districts that were conquered at an early
date many of the native British population lived on, some as
unfree cultivators of the soil, others in absolute slavery, and
12
IN TROD UCTOR V chap.
others in independence, and more or less in wretchedness,
sheltered by swamps and forests. The mass of the survivors
were gradually driven to take refuge in the more remote and
mountainous districts of the island. Priests fled with their
people, and the churches, save a few that were built of stone,
must have quickly perished. After the English were
converted, the character of the conquest was completely
changed, and conquered Britons lived peacefully side by side
with their conquerors.
The religion of the invaders was a branch of the common
paganism of the Teutons. Its principal elements appear to
have been nature-worship and the love of battles.
Paganism of ^g goou as a peoplc adopts agricultural life, it feels
'^ ' the need of the help of natural forces, and marks
the seasons by religious observances. Accordingly the chief
festivals of the pagan English were held at the summer and
winter solstices, at midsummer and yule-tide, at the vernal
equinox which seems to have been connected with the
worship of Eostra (Easter), the goddess of the radiant dawn,
and at the autumnal equinox when the harvest was ended.
Some of their deities have given names to the days of the
week. Besides the days of the sun and moon, we have the
day of Tiu, the giver of victory, represented by the clear sky ;
of Woden, originally the sun-god, the creative power, the
world-ruler and arranger of battles ; of Thunor, the sender of
thunder and storm ; of Frigg, the consort of Woden, the
lovable one ; and perhaps of a god named Saetere, of whom
nothing seems to be known certainly. They also worshipped
Erda (earth), the mother of men ; Frea, the god of fruitfulness
and love, the giver of rain and sunshine; and Hreda, the
revengeful goddess who gave her name to a month corre-
sponding to our March. Fire and water were objects of
reverence; the "need fire" kindled by the priest and not
derived from other fire, and water freshly drawn from a spring,
had a peculiar sanctity. The holy wells of later days are a
survival of this water-worship. All royal lines derived their
descent from Woden ; and the royal genealogies preserve the
names of some lesser divinities, such as Scild (shield), and
Sceaf (sheaf), a youth who came to land asleep in a boat
without a rower, and with his head crowned with a corn-sheaf,
I ENGLISH PAGANISM 13
a personification of the adoption of tillage, and the origin of
the " corn-baby " that not long ago was still made in parts
of England at harvest-time. In the second century some at
least of the German tribes had neither idols nor temples, and
used forests or groves as the places of their worship. There
is abundant proof that the pagan English had idols and
temples, which were always surrounded by a sacred grove.
Some trees were held specially sacred, such as the oak and
the ash from which one of the early Kentish kings took his
name.
As throughout Europe generally, the horse was regarded
with religious feelings, and may perhaps have been adopted as
a totem, for of old the neighings of the war-horse were noted
as omens, the two Jutish chiefs of the first invasion were
named Hengist and Horsa (stallion and horse), a priest might
not ride except on a mare, and the eating of horse-flesh was a
pagan rite. Other survivals of totemism appear in the
abstention from hare's flesh, and in sacrifices of white bulls,
boars, and other animals. Besides the greater gods and the
deified heroes, among whom we must not forget Weland, the
wise smith, elves, dwarfs, and water-sprites, mischievous beings
of other than human nature, were believed to have power to
do harm. The English were much addicted to the practice
of magical arts, to white magic, such as attempts to cure
diseases by spells and appeals to natural powers, women, for
example, placing their sick daughters under the influence of
fire or on the house-tops ; to sympathetic magic for the bringing
of rain and the like ; and to black magic by which they sought
to injure their enemies by incantations, and other means of the
same kind. The early Christian missionaries owed something
of their success to miracles which seemed to the beholders to be
proofs of a magic more powerful than their own. The mysteries
of life and death exercised the minds of the Enghsh, and their
ideas of a future life appear to have been confused and to some
extent gloomy. At least towards the end of the sixth century
their religion no longer satisfied their needs. This is evident
from the rapidity with which Christianity made its way among
them and from the zeal with which it was adopted ; it is shown
most clearly in the story of the conversion of Northumbria, and
is distinctly stated by Pope Gregory the Great. The English
14 INTRODUCTORY chap.
were in close neighbourhood with Christianity in the north and
west, and traders from Christian Gaul were often in their eastern
ports. They knew that there was light among other nations,
and must have been dimly conscious that they sat in darkness
and the shadow of death. But no one cared to bring them
light; no bishop from Gaul was minded to risk his life
among the fierce pagans across the sea, and no
^sixonr"^ British priest would preach the Gospel to the
conquerors of his own people ; the hatred that the
Britons felt for the invaders was too bitter for that. British
churchmen thought that they had done all their duty with
respect to them, when in a synod held at Llanddewi they or-
dained a heavy penance for the sin of acting as guide to " the
barbarians." The very speech of the Saxons was loathsome
to them, for it reminded them of their wrongs. When the
abbot Beuno was dwelling with his monks at Berriew, he one
day heard a Saxon calling to his dogs, and said to his
disciples, " Let us depart hence straightway, for this man speaks
a language that is hateful to me ; his nation has come to
invade our land, and will keep it for ever."
Nevertheless the Gospel was brought to the English.
Before it came to them, events had happened that prepared
. a way for it. By the latter part of the sixth century
Way prepared •' / ^_,..,,,"'
for the the conquest of a large part of Britam had been
°^^*^^" achieved ; there was no danger that the Britons
would regain what they had lost and sweep the intruders from
their land ; the conquerors had settled down in their new
possessions, and had begun to strive among themselves for
supremacy. The first English king who succeeded in gaining
a supremacy over the kings of his race south of the Humber,
was ^thelbert, King of Kent. During the first thirty-three
years of his reign he established a superiority over the East
Anglians, the Mercians of the Trent valley, the South Saxons,
the East Saxons, and even over the West Saxons who had
once overthrown him in battle, but had since become much
weakened. Beyond the Humber, the far-stretching kingdom of
Northumbria, formed by the union of the kingdoms of Deira
and Bernicia, was too remote and too fully engaged in extending
its borders in the north to be a menace to his power. From
the Humber to the Channel ^Ethelbert had no rival. His
I JSTHELBERT AND BERTHA 15
own kingdom was naturally in constant communication with
Gaul, which was under the dominion of the Franks, a kindred
Teutonic people, and as their kings were far more powerful
than a king of Kent, he must have felt his importance increased
when he married Bertha, a daughter of Charibert, the King of
Paris. The Franks held the Catholic faith, and Bertha was
the daughter of a pious mother, Ingoberg, one of the queens
of Charibert, who was a man of evil Hfe. Her family only
consented to her marriage with ^^thelbert on condition that
she should be allowed the free exercise of her religion, and
when she came to her husband, she brought with her as her
chaplain, a Frankish bishop named Liudhard, who is said,
though not on good authority, to have been Bishop of Senlis.
^thelbert kept his word, and allowed her to use a church
which had been built in the Roman times, and stood a little
to the east of his royal city of Canterbury. It was, and still is,
dedicated to St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours. There Bertha
worshipped undisturbed, and though she appears not to have
made any effort to convert her husband until a later time, both
he and his people were, doubtless, influenced in favour of
Christianity by her example
Authorities. — For the British and Scottish churches generally see Councils
and Ecclesiastical Documents, vols. i. and ii., edited by the late A. W.
Haddan and Bishop Stubbs, Oxford, 1869 ; Dr. Loofs Treatise, Antiquce
Britonum Scotorumque Ecclesice, Leipzig, London, 1882 ; and Mr. Warren's
Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, Oxford, 1881. The most easily
intelligible account of the Easter question will be found in Mr. Plummer's
edition of Bede's Opera Historica, ii. 348 sq. , Oxford, 1896. The monastery
of lona and the life of St. Columba are portrayed in Adamnan's Vita S.
Columbce, edited with stores of erudition by Bishop Reeves for the Irish
Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1859, and in a convenient form by Dr. J.
T. Fowler, Oxford, 1894. Adamnan [d. 704) was the ninth Abbot of lona ;
his book embodies the De Virtutibus S. Columbce of Cuimine Ailbhe, or
Cumin, the fifth Abbot. See also Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii., Edinburgh,
1887 ; Bishop Healy's Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum or Ireland's Ancient
Schools and Scholars, Dublin, 1893, 2nd edition ; and Dr. Stokes's Ireland
and the Celtic Church, London, 1888. Information as to the paganism of
the invaders of Britain may be found in Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie,
Gottingen, 1875, Engl, translation by Stallybrass, London, 1880 ; and in
Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. i., London, 1849, 1876. Notices of
Ingoberg are given by Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, iv. c. 18,
ix. c, 26 [Collection de Textes, i. 120, ii, 121, Paris, 1886 and 1893).
CHAPTER II
THE ROMAN MISSION
The English first received the Gospel directly from Rome,
and, though men of another race for a time carried on the
, work begun by the Roman missionaries, our fore-
Gregory the o y
Great, cir. fathers owcd their evangelisation to the apostolic
540-604. 2eal of the greatest of the popes. Among the
citizens of Rome the young praetor Gregory was conspicuous
for his noble birth and great wealth. He was the son of
pious parents, and, though he lived magnificently, his heart
was not set on earthly things. Like many others of his
time who saw the hand of God in the afflictions of Italy, he
renounced the world and became a monk. He founded six
monasteries in Sicily, where probably he had large estates,
and one in Rome, in his own house on the western corner of
the Coelian hill, which he dedicated to St. Andrew, and ruled
himself. From the summit of the flight of steps in front of
the church of St. Gregory the Great there He before you
a multitude of monuments that recall the splendours of
imperial Rome ; but you will find no spot which should more
deeply move the heart of the traveller of Anglo-Saxon race
than that on which you stand, for thence w^ent forth the feet
of those who brought to our fathers the glad tidings of
salvation. Near by, a little chapel represents the "dining-
room of the poor " where Gregory each day fed and waited
on twelve poor men, and where, legend says, he once found
thirteen at his table, and that day entertained an ang^el. He
employed all his revenues in God's service, and his fellow-
citizens, before whom he used to appear clad in silk and
CHAP. II GREGORY THE GREAT 17
decked with jewels, were amazed to see him walk through
the streets of Rome in the rough woollen cowl of a monk.
Benedict I. made him one of the seven regionary deacons of
Rome, and appointed him his apocrisiarius^ or standing
ambassador, to represent him at the imperial court at
Constantinople, where he was also employed in the same
capacity by Pelagius II., who succeeded Benedict in 578.
At Constantinople he doubtless heard much talk about
missionary enterprise, for in the sixth century the Gospel was
preached by Eastern monks of an unorthodox persuasion in
Persia, India, and China.
After his return to his monastery in or about 585, it
happened, according to an ancient tradition treasured alike
in Northumbria and at Canterbury, that while
passing through one of the market-places of Rome ^\^ ^"s''^^
f ,11 /- r • -, slave-boys.
he saw among the bales of foreign goods some
slave-boys brought thither for sale by a merchant, most Hkely
a Jew, for the trade in slaves was largely carried on by Jews.
The boys were English, and had a full share of the beauty for
which their people, then of unmixed Teutonic race, was
famous on the continent, they had handsome faces, fair skins,
and glorious yellow hair. Gregory's heart went out towards
the lads whose beauty was in such sharp contrast with their
sad lot. He stopped, and the . blue-eyed young barbarians
must have seen, perhaps for the first time since they were
carried off from their native land, a look of tender pity bent
upon them, as there stood before them a man of gentle
aspect and sallow face, with a broad high forehead, bald on
the temples, dark hair, a small beard, and with hands of
aristocratic fineness though with fingers rounded at the tips
as those of a ready writer. He asked the trader of their
rehgion, and when he was told that they were heathens
sighed deeply and said, " Alas ! that the prince of darkness
should claim such bright faces. What," he asked, "is" .their
race ? " " They are Angles," was the answer. " That is well, "
he said, " for they have angels' faces, and should be fellow-
heirs with the angels in heaven. And from what province
come they?" "Their people," the trader said, "are
Deirans." " Good," he replied, " Deirans, called from wrath
(de ira) to the mercy of Christ; and what is their king's
i8 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
name ? " He was told that it was ^lle, and playing on the
name said, " His people must learn to sing Alleluia to God
their Creator." He went to the pope and begged to be
allowed to go as a missionary to the English. Pelagius
consented, and he started on his journey. When, however,
the Romans heard that he had left the city, a crowd burst
in on the pope crying, "Thou hast offended Peter and
ruined Rome in letting Gregory depart " ; for it was a time
of trouble, and they could not spare one who was so wise
and good. So Gregory was fetched back before he had
gone far.
On the death of Pelagius in 590 Gregory was elected to
succeed him. Rome was suffering from pestilence and
famine. The new pope ordained penitential
Grelfpop^e! processious to besccch God to turn away His wrath
590-604. £-j.Qj^ ^j^g ^jl-y^ and lavished his own and his
Church's wealth in feeding the poor. A little later the
Lombards threatened Rome, which was left virtually defence-
less by the emperor. From the walls Gregory could see
the unhappy Romans who dwelt outside the city led away
into slavery, with ropes round their necks like dogs. He
saved the city first by his policy, and then by encouraging
the Catholic queen of Agilulf to bring her Arian husband
to accept the true faith. As patriarch of the West, a position
which his successors owed largely to his zeal and wisdom, he
had upon him the care of many Churches. His secular
cares, too, were many, for, deserted by the emperor, Rome
and its territory looked up to the pope as to a sovereign,
and Gregory's defence of them was the noble beginning of
the temporal power of the papacy. The mass of the Roman
people depended on him for daily bread; he declared that
his Church held its wealth for the good of the poor, and
he fully carried out his doctrine. Nor were his alms given
without his personal direction. In the midst of his manifold
cares, and of sickness that was often heavy upon him, he
writes about the allowance to be made to a blind shepherd,
insists on a sick clerk receiving his full stipend, directs the
redemption of captives, and the help to be given to orphans,
and sends a letter to one of his vicegerents ordering him to
defend the cause of a certain poor widow in the secular
II DEPARTURE OF THE MISSION 19
courts, and so in many another case of distress. His
compassionate heart was not likely to forget his meeting with
the English slave- boys, and he longed to enlighten the
darkness of their people. Often he would talk with his
monks of his hopes for the conversion of the English, and
wrote about them to one of his friends, Eulogius, Bishop of
Alexandria, a valiant champion of the faith, who urged him
to carry out a plan which he had formed of sending
missionaries to them, and promised to pray for the success of
the mission. Fully aware of the value of native teachers in
missionary work, Gregory wrote to his agent in Gaul directing
him to buy any English slave -lads of seventeen or eighteen
years who were being taken through the country, and to
forward them to him that he might have them taught in his /
monasteries, in order that they might in time preach to then/
fellow-countrymen. ^
About the same time that he wrote this letter he took
the more decisive step advocated by Eulogius, and sent
Augustine, the prior, as we may call him, of St.
Andrew's, with a large party of the monks to preach o?S!'°"
to the English. They set out in the fourteenth -'^"s^^^'"^-
year of the Emperor^ Maurice, which began on August 13,
595, and probably left Rome in the early spring of 596.
They rested a while at the monastery founded nearly two
centuries before by St. Honorat on the isle of Lerins, a
stronghold of Christian learning, which had supphed Southern
Gaul with many of its most illustrious bishops, and thence
went on to Aix, in Provence, where they were kindly received
by the Patrician Arigius. There, however, they pondered on
the difficulties that lay before them ; they were told that the
English were a fierce people, and they were afraid, for they
could not speak or understand their language, and they thought
of the length and the dangers of the journey and of the chances
of failure. Yielding to fear and a natural shrinking from
hardships, they sent Augustine back to Rome to beg that/
they might be relieved from their mission. When he returned!
to them he brought with him a letter from Gregory datedV
July 23, 596, in which the pope exhorted them to per-(
severe in their work, for it had been given them by God,\
and, if their labour was heavy, He would requite it with a)
20 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
far more exceeding weight of everlasting glory. He had
strengthened Augustine's resolution, and bade them obey
him as their abbot. Gregory had not, perhaps, at first
been fully aware of the difficulties of the journey, and
when sending Augustine back, gave him letters of commenda-
tion to the bishops of the chief cities of Gaul through which
he and his party might have to pass, and to some other
powerful persons. He wrote to Theodoric, King of Orleans
and Burgundy, who held his court at Chalon-sur-Saone,
to his elder brother Theodebert, King of Austrasia, and to their
grandmother Brunhild, who dwelt with Theodebert at Metz,
requesting them to allow Augustine to take with him some
Frankish priests to act as interpreters. His request seems to
show that at that time there could not have been any great
difference in speech between the English and Franks, for as
these interpreters were priests, the suggestion that their
knowledge of English was the result of commerce does not
appear satisfactory. Encouraged by Gregory's exhortation,
the missionaries again set forward on their journey through
Gaul, and received hospitality and help from the bishops to
whom they presented the pope's letters, from Theodoric and
Theodebert, and from Clothair II., who was then reigning in
Paris under the tutelage of his mother Fredegond. Their
journey took a long time, and they must have made some
stay at the cities which they visited. They wintered in Gaul,
and it was not until after the Easter of 597 that they arrived
in England.
They landed in the isle of Thanet, probably at Ebbsfleet,
where, according to tradition, "the three keels" that bore
Hengist and his followers touched land a century
oT AuSsS, and a half before. Thanet was part of the kingdom
597- of Kent, and Gregory probably sent Augustine and
his companions thither expecting that Queen Bertha's influence
would cause her husband ^thelbert to receive them favourably.
He had been informed that the English were desirous of hearing
the Gospel, and he blamed the bishops of Gaul for having made
no effort for their conversion. He had probably gained his in-
formation from Frankish ambassadors who would have told him
of Bertha's marriage to the King of Kent. Augustine's party
is said to have been forty in number, not reckoning probably
II ^THELBERT AND ST. AUGUSTINE 21
the Frankish interpreters. Among them were Laurentius,
who is markedly described as a priest, and had perhaps re-
ceived priest's orders as a monk, probably Honorius, Peter,
John, and other monks from the monastery of St. Andrew.
As soon as he had landed, Augustine sent one of his Frankish
interpreters to ^thelbert, saying that men had come from
Rome to bring him good tidings, and the promise of an ever-
lasting kingdom with the living God. In answer, the king
bade the strangers stay in Thanet, where their wants should
be supplied, until he should determine what should be done ;
for the English kings did not decide important questions
without the advice of their nobles and gesiths, or thegns, as
their personal followers were called. A few days later, he
and his thegns crossed the Wantsum, then a broad river, to
Thanet, in order to hear what the strangers had to say. As
they came as servants of a God other than the gods of his
people, he expected that they would try to overcome him by
magic, and beheving that such an attempt would be more
likely to fail in the open air than in a house, — for under the
blue sky he would be under the protection of beneficent gods,
— he took his seat, probably under an oak on the upland
ground near Minster, and sent for the missionaries to come
before him there. As he sat surrounded by his thegns, he
saw the monks approach in procession, bearing aloft like
banners a large silver cross, and a picture of the Redeemer
painted on wood. As they advanced, the tall figure of
Augustine towering a head and shoulders above his com-
panions, they sang in the stately tones of a chant taught them,
we may well believe, by their great master Gregory, a prayer
for themselves and for those for whose sake they had come.
At ^thelbert's bidding they sat down, and Augustine preached
to him and his thegns, telling them, according to an old
English homilist, how "the merciful Saviour had redeemed
the world by His own agony and opened the kingdom of
Heaven to all believers." ^^thelbert answered him wisely.
"Beautiful words and promises they are," he said, "that you
bring me, but they are strange and unproved, and I cannot
yet agree to them, or forsake the gods that I and the whole
English race have served so long. Still, as you have come
from far to tell us things which you believe to be true and good
22 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
for us," — the change in the pronoun probably shows that the
king was now declaring the result of his deliberation with his
thegns — "we will by no means harm you; nay, we will
receive you hospitably, and give you what you need, and we
do not forbid you to bring over such as you can to your
religion." He then appointed them a lodging in Canterbury,
his royal city. So they crossed the river, and advanced
toward Canterbury along the valley of the Stour. As they
drew near the little wood -built city, they again formed a
procession, again lifted on high the cross and the picture of
our Lord, and again sang a processional anthem, founded on
the prayer of the prophet Daniel, which they had doubtless
heard in Gaul where litanies were sung on Rogation days,
"We beseech Thee, O Lord, according to all Thy pity let
Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from this city and
Thy holy house, for we have sinned. Alleluia." Though the
people that came out to see them did not understand these
w^ords, the solemn beauty of the monks' entrance into the city
must have moved many hearts.
By the king's appointment the missionaries, it is said, dwelt
at Stable-gate near the present church of St. Alphege, living
, . like the Christians of apostoHc times, constant in
The baptism , . . ., , . , ,,
of iEtheibert, prayer and m vigils, preaching to such as would
June 1, 597- \^^2cc them, and accepting from them nothing save
their daily bread. They used Queen Bertha's church, St.
Martin's, and there sang the Psalms, celebrated masses,
preached and baptized ; for some, attracted by the innocency
of their lives as well as the beauty of their teaching, believed
and were baptized. It is said, and it appears likely, that
Bishop Liudhard lived to rejoice in the w^ork carried on by
the Roman monks in the little church in which he had for
many years ministered to the queen, but of this we cannot be
sure. Encouraged by the coming of the missionaries Bertha
at last used her influence with her husband to bring him to
accept the Gospel, and in a short time ^thelbert became a
convert, and received baptism on Whitsun-eve, June i, accord-
ing to Canterbury tradition, in St. Martin's church. Many
followed his example, for though in obedience to his teachers,
who pointed out that Christ would accept only voluntary ser-
vice, he compelled no man to adopt Christianity, he naturally
II FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH 23
favoured those who did so, reckoning them fellow-citizens with
himself of the heavenly kingdom.
The baptism of ^thelbert having given Christianity a foot-
hold in England, Augustine at once proceeded to found a
Church which was to be not Kentish but English,
the Church of the whole English race. Acting on A^p.^^g^jig^'^^.
instructions previously received from Gregory, he
went to Gaul and sought consecration from Vergilius, Arch-
bishop of Aries, the highest in dignity of all the churches
of Gaul. Vergilius, having obtained the assistance of other
Gallican bishops, consecrated him as "Archbishop of the
English" on November 16, a day ever memorable as the
birthday of the English Church. Though Gregory and
Vergilius spoke of the conquerors of Britain under the
common name of English, it was not until centuries after
their time that the English attained political unity. Chris-
tianity was the first bond between them, for neither their
common origin, their common language, nor their common
paganism had availed to bind them together. When Augustine
was consecrated as their Archbishop they were divided into
various kingdoms which were constantly at war with each
oth^r ; they learnt the lesson of unity from the Church. From
its foundation it was the Church of all alike, irrespective of
political distinctions, and it soon worked out a constitution
which afforded the English an example of national government.
So far then is the Church of England from being the creature
of the State, that thQ State may be said to owe its existence
in no small degree to the instrumentahty and example of the
Church. Augustine's return was quickly followed by a vast
increase in the number of converts, and on Christmas Day
he baptized, it is said, ten thousand persons in the river
Swale near the mouth of the Medway. Many of these must
have accepted baptism without a well-grounded conviction of
the truths of Christianity, yet the faith had taken a firm hold
in Kent, and though the Church that Augustine planted soon
had to endure storms, it remained, and after thirteen centuries
still remains, an abiding witness to its Lord, and a source of
safety and refreshment to His people.
^thelbert is said, though the tradition is scarcely worth
repeating, to have given up his palace at Canterbury to
24 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
Augustine and to have built himself another at Reculver.
He certainly gave him a suitable dwelling for himself and
future archbishops, together with other possessions.
Church, He also helped him to restore an old church that
Canterbury. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^-j^ j^ Canterbury by Roman Christians.
Augustine dedicated this church to Christ the Saviour, and
made it the place of his metropohtan see. It remained with
little material alteration until it w^as destroyed by the fire of
1067, and Eadmer the precentor, who saw it in his boyhood,
has left us a description of it. It was basiHcan in form, and
was built in imitation of St. Peter's at Rome, that is, of the
basilica said to have been founded by Constantine. The
ordinary characteristics of a basilican church are a wide nave
with one or sometimes two aisles on either side, in some cases
with a kind of transept, and with an altar at one end raised
above the level of the nave, and having above it a wide arch,
behind it an apse, in front of it an enclosed space for the
choir on '^ the level of the nave, and beneath it a crypt, or
Confessio as the Romans called it. Augustine's church was
oblong, with an aisle on either side, and instead of a single
apse, it had one at both the east and the west ends. The
eastern apse was occupied by the presbytery, w^hich was on a
higher level than the floor of the church and extended west-
wards beyond the apse. Beneath the presbytery was a crypt
or Co?ifessw, the floor of which w'as lower than the level of
the nave. The entrance to the crypt was in the middle
below the presbytery, and on either side of the entrance a
flight of steps led up to the presbytery. An altar seems to
have stood against the wall of this eastern apse, and another
altar some way in front of it on the chord of the apse below a
wide arch ; the altar against the wall probably took the place
of that in front of it as the high altar in the tenth century.
Below, in front of the presbytery, was the enclosed choir
stretching westwards. The western apse, w^hich was reached
by a few steps, contained the archbishop's cathedra, or throne,
which stood against the wall in the centre of the curve. In
front of it was an altar, and this altar was probably the
primitive high altar of the church. The celebrant at this
altar as he looked eastwards would face the congregation.
That the sanctuarv should have been in the west is not
II AUGUSTINE'S CHURCHES 15
surprising, for though Pauhnus, Bishop of Nola {d. 431), says
that it was more usual for churches to be built to the^ east
than to the west, he did not himself in one case follow the
custom, and in St. Peter's and at least forty other Roman
churches, either ancient or rebuilt with the same orientation
as their ancient predecessors, the high altar stands in the west
end, other ancient Roman churches having their high altars in
the east. In either case, according to primitive usage, the
celebrant faced eastwards. About half-way down the north
and south sides of Augustine's church, and projecting beyond
the aisles, were two towers, the southern forming a porch or
side chapel, the northern, at least in later times, forming the
completion of the cloister. It has been conjectured with
much probability that the church of the Roman period on
which Augustine worked consisted of a short basilica with a
western apse, and an eastern portico flanked by two towers,
and that while restoring it he extended it eastwards, so as to
provide an altar for the use of his monks and a convenient
choir. Some notice of the architecture of other churches will
be found in a later chapter, but it may be well to say here
that there seems good ground for believing that all the
churches built by the Roman missionaries and their early
followers showed, as might be expected, Roman influence ;
they were more or less basilican in character and were
apsidal. Rectangular instead of apsidal east-ends seem to
bespeak another influence — that exercised by the Scottish
mission.
^thelbert desired Augustine to take any old British
churches he liked and again render them fit for Christian
worship. He accordingly restored one of them that
stood outside the wall of the city on the way to '^J'^r^Sj'
St. Martin's. It is said to have been used as a
pagan temple, and to have contained an idol. Augustine,
we are told, broke the idol, purified the building, and dedicated
it to St. Pancras, a boy-martyr, because his old monastery
at Rome stood on land that had once belonged to the saint's
family, and also, it is said, in memory of the slave-boys whose
bright faces had suggested the idea of the mission to Gregory.
Whatever the Canterbury tradition as to the idol may be
worth, it is fairly certain that Augustine did restore the
26 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
church. Moreover, on land hard by, and also outside the
wall, he founded a monastery in which ^thelbert at his
suggestion built a church in honour of St. Peter and St.
Paul, to be the burial-place of the Archbishops of Canterbury
and the Kings of Kent. The church, afterwards called St.
Augustine's, was not finished at the archbishop's death.
Meanwhile, after his return from Gaul, Augustine, probably
in the spring of 598, sent Laurentius and Peter to Rome to
tell the pope of the success of his mission, and to
Messengers i^v before him certain questions for his decision.
to Rome. ■' *■
Gregory was delighted at the tidings they brought
him, and wrote an account of them to Eulogius of Alexandria,
in order that the good patriarch might know that his prayers
for the English had been answered, and also wrote to thank
some who had helped his missionaries on their journey.
Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, had done much for them, and in
return the pope granted him a pall, a vestment of which
something will be said hereafter, and ordained that the see
of Autun should rank next after the see of Lyons. Though
Gregory is said to have made no delay in sending back his
answers to Augustine's questions, the messengers did not leave
Rome before June 22, 601. He was suffering grievously from
gout, and was much occupied with other matters. Besides,
he was anxious to send a reinforcement to the mission, and
may not at once have been able to fix on the right men.
When at last Laurentius and Peter set out on their return,
they were accompanied by several more missionary-monks,
— Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, whom we shall meet with
again, Rufinianus, and others. With them the pope sent
commendatory letters to eleven bishops of Gaul, to the three
Frankish kings, and to Queen Brunhild. They brought back
several letters from Gregory. In one of them he tells
Augustine of his deep thankfulness that God had blessed his
labours, and earnestly warns him against being uplifted by the
great miracles that God had wrought through him. It is
evident that Augustine believed that he had worked miracles,
that he had written about them to Gregory, and that Gregory
believed his account of them. The pope bids him rejoice
that the souls of the English were drawn by outward miracles
to inward grace, but to remember that when the disciples told
II AUGUSTINE'S QUESTIONS 27
the Lord of the mu-acles that they had worked, He bade them
rather rejoice that their " names were written in heaven."
He also wrote to ^thelbert and Bertha. In his letter to
Bertha he warmly congratulates her on what she had done
towards the conversion of her husband, telling her that her
goodness was talked of at Rome, and had been brought
to the knowledge of the emperor at Constantinople, though
he hints that she might have exercised her influence earlier,
^thelbert he exhorts to be zealous for the faith, to seek the
conversion of his people, to extirpate idolatry, to destroy the
idols' temples, to be guided in all religious matters by
Augustine, and ever to remember that the end of this world
is at hand, that it may not come upon him unawares. He
sent him some presents which he knew he would value
because they had been blessed by the Apostle St. Peter, that
is, by himself as the Apostle's representative.
By the same messengers Gregory sent Augustine answers to
the questions which he had laid before him.
(i) Augustine's first question was as to the use that should
be made of the offerings of the faithful. Gregory reminds
him that the custom at Rome was that in a bishop's
church they should be divided equally between the ^"ft^Jon^^nd
bishop, his clergy, the poor, and the repair of Gregory's
churches, but that as Augustine was a monk, and
would live with his clergy, their portions need not be divided,
he and they should have all things common. If, however,
any of his clerks " below the sacred orders " were married,
they were to live with their wives apart from the bishop's
monastic establishment, and have separate stipends. Follow-
ing in the steps of Leo the Great, Gregory had laid down that
sub-deacons should be pledged to celibacy ; clerks below that
grade might marry.
(2) Augustine asked for direction concerning the different
liturgies then in use, for he found that "one custom of
masses was maintained in the holy Roman Church and
another in the Galilean." With characteristic largeness of
mind the pope bade him select from the liturgies of Rome,
Gaul, or any other Church, whatever seemed to him most
pleasing to God and most useful for "the Church of the
Enghsh," and so make up a liturgy for England ; for, he said,
28 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
" things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places
for good things," by which he meant that Augustine need
not feel himself bound to a Roman liturgical usage because
it was Roman, if he could find something better or more
suited to his converts in the liturgy of another Church.
Augustine, having received consecration at Aries, naturally
wished to know whether his Church should follow Roman
or Galilean usages ; and if Liudhard, who was of course
accustomed to use the Galilean liturgy in St. Martin's, was
still alive, the question would have a special importance, for
the differences in the two liturgies, though of no real signifi-
cance, were marked and of frequent occurrence. His question
had no reference to the British Church, he could not at that
time have had any communication with the Britons, for had
it been otherwise, he would certainly have laid before the
pope the points on which they diverged from Roman cus-
tom. There is no evidence that he availed himself of the
liberty granted him by the pope to compile a special liturgy
for the English, and though one or two usages, such as the
Rogation litanies, which, though not yet established at
Rome, were observed in the English Church from very early
times, were probably adopted from the Galilean Church by
Augustine, the liturgy that he introduced was that with which
he was familiar at Rome. Variations, probably due to the
influence of the Scots, had crept in by the middle of the
eighth century, and in a council of the English Church held
in 747, reference is made in a canon concerning the observ-
ance of fasts to " the written exemplar that we have from
the Roman Church." Gregory made some changes in the
__^^^Ejoman sacramentary, and, whether his revision was completed
by 597 or not until a later date, the English Church doubt-
less used the liturgy as he left it. Any Gallicanisms that are
found in the later missals are probably to be traced to the
intimate relations that existed between the Anglican and
Galilean Churches, specially in the tenth century. Gregory
also introduced a reform into the Roman method of chant-
ing, and personally taught his " cantus " in a song-school in
his palace. The Roman or Gregorian " cantus " was care-
fully used at Canterbury, and its use became a sign of
adherence to the Roman obedience in opposition to the
II GREGORY'S ANSWERS 29
Celtic customs. It is, of course, deeply to be regretted that
Augustine did not give the EngUsh Church a vernacular
liturgy ; for that, however, he must not be blamed, he could
not have ideas that were wholly foreign to his time.
(3) In answer to a question concerning the punishment of
theft from churches, Gregory said that in punishment a distinc-
tion should be made between those who had enough, and those
who sinned through poverty, that in all cases restitution should
be made, but that the church should not receive more than
had been stolen, or make a profit out of the theft.
(4, 5) Both the fourth and fifth of Augustine's questions
concern marriage. Gregory declared that the English must
be taught that marriage with a step-mother, which was com-
mon among therii as among other Teutonic pagans, was a
grave sin, and that he who was guilty of it was to be deprived
of the Holy Communion, but if a man had made such a
marriage in ignorance and before baptism, and afterwards
repudiated it, he was to be admitted to Communion. He
blamed the laxity of the Roman civil law with reference
to marriage, and forbade the marriage of first cousins, that is,
marriage within the third degree; beyond that degree he
allowed marriage. He is said at a later date to have written
to a certain Bishop of Messana that in making this Hmit he
had regard to the weakness of new converts, and that he
intended, when the Engli^ had grown strong in the faith, to
forbid them to marry up to the seventh degree. Some doubt
has been thrown on the authenticity of this letter, but it is
certain that even in early times the English Church did not
continue to use Gregory's permission.
(6) Augustine further asked whether, if bishops were
separated by long distances, a bishop might have only one
consecrator. While it had been laid down by the Council of
Aries that if possible seven, and by the Council of Nicsea that
not less than three, bishops should join in consecrating a
bishop, consecration by a single bishop had not been declared
invalid, and Gregory replied that as Augustine was the only
bishop of the Church of the English, he must consecrate
alone, but advised him to ordain bishops on such a plan as
would not separate them too far, and would enable him to
have their assistance at consecrations.
30 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
(7) Of what kind, Augustine asked, were to be his rela-
tions with the bishops of Gaul and Britain ? Gregory replied
that he gave him no authority over the bishops of Gaul,
though if he visited Gaul he was to assist the Archbishop of
Aries in correcting abuses ; all the bishops of Britain he com-
mitted to him that he might strengthen the weak, teach the
unlearned, and correct the perverse by authority. At the same
time he wrote a letter to Vergilius of Aries, directing that if
Augustine visited him, Vergilius was to use him as an assessor
in correcting the offences of priests and others. Augustine
has perhaps been blamed unfairly for his question as to the
bishops of Gaul, which does not necessarily imply any self-
importance, as though he wished to assert his authority over
others. His consecration by Vergilius made it important for
him and for the Church over which he was to preside, that
his relation to the bishops of Gaul should be defined.
Augustine's mention of the bishops of Britain must be taken
to refer to the Celtic bishops of whom he had of course
heard, and Gregory's answer clearly refers to them, though
both question and answer included also the bishops who
were to be ordained for the English ; all alike were to be
subject to Augustine's authority. This general authority was
granted to Augustine personally, and, as we shall see, was,
after his death, to be limited by the authority of a second
metropolitan.
(8, 9) The other questions concerned matters of cere-
monial purity, about which it is enough to say that Gregory's
answers show greater loftiness and spirituality of mind than
are implied by Augustine's difficulties.
In another letter to Augustine, written at the same time,
Gregory lays down his scheme for the English Church. He
sent Augustine a pall. This vestment was origin-
Thepall. ,, .=' / 77- \ 1 11 1
ally, as its name ypalliuin) shows, a cloak, and was
worn, richly ornamented, by the emperor. It gradually
assumed the form in which it appears in the arms of the see
of Canterbury, and became a kind of scarf resting on the
shoulders with the two ends hanging down in front of, and
at the back of the wearer. The emperor sometimes granted
it to patriarchs, and later the popes sent palls, at first with the
emperor's consent, and then ifidependently'of him, to certain
II THE PALLIUM 31
bishops, and specially to metropolitans, as a mark of honour,
and in some cases as a mark of vicarial authority. The pall
was only to be worn on certain occasions, and generally at
least only at mass, and it was then alone that Augustine was
to wear it. Gradually the popes assumed the sole right of
granting this vestment, and established the doctrine that its
grant was necessary to the performance of metropolitan
functions, that it alone invested an archbishop with his metro-
politan character. By this doctrine, which seems to have
been established in England by the eighth century, the papal
power was vastly increased, for all archbishops throughout
Western Christendom were forced to apply to the pope for
confirmation of their appointment ; until they had received
the pall they could not consecrate bishops or perform any
act as metropolitans. A further advance was made when the
popes gradually succeeded in enforcing a rule that arch-
bishops must go in person to Rome to fetch their palls, which
were, and still are, made of the wool of lambs fed at the
church of St. Agnes, outside the walls of Rome ; they are
embroidered with four crosses, and are laid for a night on the
tomb of St. Peter. Gregory certainly seems to connect the gift
of the pall to Augustine with the right to consecrate bishops.
Guided probably by the political division of Britain under
imperial rule he divided the island into two ecclesiastical
provinces each with its own metropolitan, having
their sees, the one at London and the other at ^cSe'^
York. Augustine was to consecrate twelve bishops
for the Southern province, and a metropolitan for York who,
if the North accepted the Gospel, was also to have twelve
suffragans ; he too, Gregory said, should receive a pall, and
after Augustine's death was to be independent of the see of
London. Both the English metropolitans were, after Augus-
tine's death, to be equal in dignity, the one who was the
senior in ordination ranking first, and both were to consult
together and act in mutual accord. So long, however, as
Augustine lived, he was to be the head of all the bishops of
the land, as well those ordained by the metropolitan of York
as others. As Gregory's scheme evidently contemplated the
extension of the English Church over the whole island, the
two provinces that he created were not so unequal in size as
32 THE ROMAN MISSION chap.
they afterwards proved to be. York, the chief mihtary centre
of Roman Britain, the residence of Severus, and of Con-
stantius the father of Constantine, was naturally chosen as the
head of the Northern province, and London, already the chief
commercial city of the island, seemed to the pope not less
suited to be the metropolitan city of the South. London,
however, did not become a metropolitan city. When the
pope's letter arrived it was still heathen, and though a church
was planted there before Augustine's death, it was not firmly
established, and he had good reason for acting in accordance
with his own wish not to leave the place and church which
must have been dear to him. Shortly after his death London
again became heathen, and by the time that its people were
finally converted to Christianity, the primatial see had become
so firmly established at Canterbury that no one thought of
removing it. Along with these letters, Gregory sent Augustine
everything that was needful for public worship, sacred vessels,
vestments, relics, and many books.
After Laurentius and his company had proceeded some
way on their journey Gregory sent a messenger after them.
. . He was anxious to hear how they were prospering,
and for he had received no tidings of them, and he had
heathenism, something further to say for the guidance of the
newly-planted Church. His messenger brought a letter from
him to Mellitus in which he alters his directions with refer-
ence to the heathen temples. They were, he says in this
letter, not to be destroyed ; but, if well built, were to be
purified and turned into churches. Nor would he have the
people deprived of the festivals that they had hitherto kept
with heathen rites ; they, too, were to be made aids to
Christian worship, for he would have them kept on the dedi-
cation days of churches, or in memory of the holy martyrs.
At the seasons at which the people were wont to sacrifice
their oxen to idols, they were to come to the same buildings
as of old, which would no longer be heathen temples but
Christian churches, and, camping round them, were to feast on
their cattle, and give thanks to God the giver of all things.
And so arose the Whitsun and church-ales, the May games,
and other festivities of past times, and so it came about that
the Paschal feast was called, Bede says, after the goddess
CH. II THE HERITAGE OF THE HEATHEN 33
Eostra, for it usually fell in her month, and some of the
heathen customs of the feasts held at the two solstices were
transferred to Christmas, which took the place of the Teutonic
Yule-tide, and to the eve and day of St. John the Baptist.
There is much to admire in the tenderness of heart which led
Gregory to seek to make Christianity attractive to the new
converts, and in his idea of causing the Church to enter on
the heritage of the heathen, beautifying and sanctifying to the
service of God things that originally belonged to the worship
of idols. On the other hand, it seems probable that the
heathenish and superstitious practices against which the
Church had to struggle so long in this as in other Teutonic
lands, would have died out more rapidly if the missionaries
had from the first insisted that their converts should forsake
everything connected with their former paganism.
Authorities. — The main authority for the history of the Church of
England to the year 731 is Bede's beautiful and trustworthy narrative in
his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglornm, of which there are many editions.
It may be studied to most advantage in Mr. Plummer's BceJcb Opera His-
torica, Oxford, 1896, 2 vols., an admirable edition. Canterbury traditions
will be found in Goscelin's (fl. 1098) De Vita et Translatione S. Augtistini,
ap. Acta SS., Bolland., May 26 ; in the Chronica of Thorne (fl. 1397), ap.
Twysden's Decern Scriptores, London, 1652 ; and in the Historia Monast.
S. Augustini Cantuar. of Elmham (fl. 1416), ed. Hardwick, Rolls ser.
Councils and Eccl. Docs., ed. Haddan and Bishop Stubbs, vol. iii. , is of
first - rate importance to 870, where it ends. Canon Bright's Chapters of
Early Church History, Oxford, 1878, revised edition 1897, which goes down
to 709, is full of learning, and should be read by all students. It would be
difficult to express the extent to which this book is indebted to the works of
Bishop Stubbs, Canon Bright, and Mr. Plummer. Bede's notices of Gregory
the Great seem partly founded on an old Life by an English monk, discovered
by Paul Ewald, and printed in Historische Aufsdtze dem Andejiken an G.
Waitz gewidmet, i386 ; see also E7ig. Hist. Rev. iii. (1888) 295, 305, and
Plummer, u.s. Lives of Gregory, by Paul the Deacon (eighth century), and John
the Deacon (ninth century), and his Letters are in the Benedictine edition of
Gregory's Opera. The Mission of St. Augustine, ed. Rev. A. J. Mason,
D.D., Canon of Canterbury, Cambridge, 1897, gives excellent translations
of Bede's chapters on the Mission, and contains some valuable Excursus ;
the attempt to fix the landing at Richborough is scarcely successful. See
also Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury, London, 1855, 1868. For Christ
Church, Canterbury, see Eadmer's account ap. Gervase of Canterbury's
Opera, i. 7-9S Rolls ser. ; WiUis's A rchitecttiral History of Canterbury Cathe-
dral, London, 1845 ; and Scott's Essay on English Church Architecture,
London, 1881 ; for St. Augustine's, see Thorne and Elmham, u.s.
CHAPTER III
THE CHURCH IN KENT
Soon after Mellitus and his companions arrived in England,
perhaps at the end of 60 1, Augustine determined to ascertain
whether the British Church would acknowledge the
^enceTv'iS'^" authority over it with which Gregory had invested
Hsho^^s ^^^ '' ^^^ ^^ ^^^ anxious to obtain its help in his
mission to the English. Through ^thelbert's
influence a meeting was arranged on the borders of the lands
of the West Saxons and the Hwiccas, who had settled in the
present Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. The meeting-
place was at an oak, long afterwards called Augustine's oak,
probably a landmark, and, it may be, an ancient tree which
had received superstitious reverence alike from the earher
inhabitants of Britain and from the conquering race. Where
it stood is not known, probably near the southern bank of the
Severn. Aust, near Chepstow, has been suggested as the place
of meeting, and though it was called after the Emperor Augus-
tus, it may nevertheless have been the scene of Augustine's con-
ference, and if so, its name would have a twofold significance.
To this oak came a party of British bishops and learned men
from South Wales. They entered the land from which their
countrymen had been driven to meet one who came to them
as archbishop of the people whom they hated, demanding the
submission of their Church, and their help in preaching the
Gospel to their fierce conquerors. Augustine asked them
whether they would have catholic concord with him, and
would join him in his work of evangelisation. His question
referred to the points on which their Church differed from
CHAP. Ill AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITONS 35
Rome— the date of , Easter and the rest. The British bishops
declared that they would keep their own traditions and refused
to listen to the prayers and reproaches which he and his com-
panions addressed to them. At last Augustine closed the
debate by proposing that they should join in asking God for
a sign as to which tradition was the way that led to heaven.
Bede, who tells the story as it was told to him a century
and a half later, says that the Britons assented unwillingly,
and that an Englishman who had become blind was brought
forward. In vain the Britons tried to heal him. Then
Augustine knelt down and prayed, and the blind man received
his sight. Convinced by this significant miracle, the Britons
owned that Augustine's way was the right one, but said that
they could not desert their own traditions without the consent
of their people. A second synod was, therefore, arranged at
which the British Church might be more largely represented.
Seven British bishops, it is said, and a great number of
learned men, many of them from the then famous monastery
of Bangor Iscoed, near Chester, agreed to attend the
second conference with Augustine. Before setting '^l^^^^^^
out they consulted a hermit named Dinoot, or
Dinawd, of high repute for wisdom and holiness, as to whether
they should accept Augustine's teaching. He answered that,
if Augustine was a man of God, they should follow him.
How can we know whether he is so ? they asked. He told
them that if he was meek and lowly of heart, they might know
that he had taken on him the yoke of Christ, and was offering
it to them, and that they should not refuse to accept it, but
that if he was overbearing and proud, he could not be a man
of God. They asked how they could judge of this, and he
bade them contrive that Augustine should be first at the place
of meeting, and then if he rose at their approach they might
know him to be a servant of Christ, and should therefore obey
him, but that if he did not rise to receive them, he would show
that he despised them, and they might treat him with contempt.
They did as he had said, and when they came to the place of
meeting found Augustine sitting on a seat. He did not rise
when they approached him, for he had come to assert his
authority over them ; and they, seeing that he remained seated,
were offended and set themselves to contradict all he said, it
36 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
Augustine cannot be acquitted of a lack of courtesy and Chris-
tian meekness in his reception of them, he certainly showed
some liberality of mind in his demands, for he only asked three
things of them, — that they should keep Easter at its right date,
that they should baptize in the Roman manner, and that they
should join in preaching the Gospel to the EngUsh ; all other
differences he declared himself willing to bear without re-
monstrance. They answered that they would do none of
these things and would not have him for archbishop. On this
Augustine is said to have prophesied that if they would not
have peace with their brethren, they should have war from
their enemies ; and that as they w^ould not teach the English
the way of life, they should meet with death at their hands.
A long time, nine if not twelve years, after his own death his
words were fulfilled, for ^thelfrith, the heathen king of
Northumbria, overthrew the Britons in a fierce battle near
Chester, and slew, it is said, nearly twelve hundred of the
monks of Bangor who had come to pray for the success of
their fellow-countrymen.
The rejection of Augustine's demands was the beginning
of an open schism that was accompanied by much angry and
uncharitable feeling. The Scots agreed with the
e sc isra. g^-|.Qj^g -j^ cleaving to the customs common to both
Celtic Churches which were condemned by Rome. On the
side of the English Church, Theodore, one of the greatest
Archbishops of Canterbury, pronounced that orders conferred
by the bishops of the British and Scottish Churches were
invahd, and that churches consecrated by them had need of
fresh rites. Even the large-minded Bede speaks harshly of
the Britons, and though he loved and revered the holy men of
the Scottish Church, blames them for their obstinacy in adher-
ing to their Celtic customs. For a long period the Britons,
and specially those of the West, scarcely acknowledged the
clergy of the English Church as Christians, and would not eat
with them. While feehngs of this sort must be condemned,
it is only fair to the advocates of the Roman usages in
England to remember that the Celtic customs were a breach
of Catholic unity, that by adhering to them the Celtic Churches
separated themselves from the rest of Christendom, and that
when the Church was standing face to face with paganism, or
Ill THE SCHISM 37
had to consider the weakness of new converts, outward unity
was of special importance. Moreover, the bitterness which
accompanied the schism may be traced, in part at least, to a
cause more exasperating than even differences in ritual and
order. What that cause was will be evident if we examine
the full significance of the Britons' refusal of Augustine's
demands. While Bede's story of the consultation with the
hermit represents a genuine tradition, Augustine's lack of
courtesy would scarcely have had much weight with the
Britons had they not already determined on the course which
they adopted. Their rejection of Augustine certainly involved
a renunciation of the authority of the Roman see, but that
result was merely incidental ; nothing, so far as we know, was
said about it, and the past history of the British Church,
specially in connection with the date of Easter, shows no
reason for believing that obedience to Rome would, in itself,
have been distasteful to them. They were strongly attached
to their traditions, and at first some among the Scots were not
less bitter in their defence of them, but the long-continued
bitterness exhibited by the Britons of Wales and the West is
not matched among the adherents to the Celtic Easter in
Gaul or Galicia, among the Picts, or the Scots of Ireland or the
North. It was race-hatred that kept the Britons from preach-
ing the Gospel to the English, and exaggerated their feelings
with regard to ecclesiastical usages which were in their eyes
hallowed by a sentiment of nationality, specially keen and
sensitive among a depressed and conquered people. It is not
perhaps going too far to say, that they rejected Augustine at
least as much because he came to them as Archbishop of
the English, and with the demand that they should help in
the conversion of the English, as because he demanded that
they should conform to the Roman usages in the computation
of Easter and the ritual in baptism. In like manner we can-
not doubt that, even in the best of the English churchmen,
race hostility was strong, and that their dislike to the Britons
was naturally increased by the fact that the British Church
had chosen to stand aloof from the work of evangelisation.
While Bede speaks harshly of the British Christians who fell
in their nation's cause by the sword of the heathen
^thelfrith, he in another place blames an English king for
38 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
invading Ireland, on the ground that the Scots, who were
then still in schism, but had sent many holy men to labour
in England, were most kind to the English nation. The
refusal of the Britons to preach to the English was a draw-
back to the success of Augustine's mission. Other labourers
were sorely needed, both then and later, to push forward the
work, and other labourers were, before long, supplied by the
Scots. But from the British Church no help came, and it
had no share either in the foundation or development of the
English Church.
Besides the general superiority of ^thelbert over all the
Enghsh peoples south of the Humber, the kingdom of the
East Saxons was more immediately under his con-
X lie convcr*
sion of the trol ; for the East Saxon king, Sasbert or Saebriht, who
East Saxons. ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^thelbert's sister Ricula, reigned in
complete dependence on him. yEthelbert used his power for
the furtherance of the Gospel, and in 604 Augustine, shortly
before his death, consecrated Mellitus as bishop, and sent him
to preach to the East Saxons. They and their king accepted
the faith, and yEthelbert built a church, dedicated to St. Paul,
in London, which was their chief city, and was much frequented
by traders from foreign lands, that Mellitus and his successors
might have their see there. It may perhaps conveniently be
noted here that when a bishop's see {sedes), or official seat or
throne {cathedra), is placed in a church, it thereby becomes
a cathedral church, or, as it is colloquially called, a cathedral.
In the same year Augustine also consecrated Justus as bishop
for the Kentish people settled in the western part of the
kingdom, who were probably a distinct subdivision of the
Jutes, and, though equally with their eastern neighbours under
the dominion of ^thelbert, may still have had a political exist-
ence of their own. The see of the West Kentish bishops was
placed at Rochester, a walled town of Roman times, and
there ^thelbert built a church for Justus and his successors
which was dedicated to St. Andrew, in memory of the old
home of the missionaries. The political dependence of the
West Kentishmen on the king reigning at Canterbury was long
marked by the relation of the two churches to each other ;
the bishopric of Rochester was dependent on the see of
Til WRITTEN LA IVS 39
Canterbury, and until tlie middle of the twelfth century its
bishops were appointed by the archbishop. To both the
churches of London and Rochester, as well as to the church
of Canterbury, ^thelbert gave lands and other gifts. Partly
in order to ensure the safety of the missionaries and of the
property he had bestowed upon them, and to no
small extent from a desire to copy the Roman "^^{^ws^''''^
civihsation of which he heard from them, he deter-
mined to reduce the unwritten laws of his people to writing.
In this matter he acted with the consent and counsel of his
constitutional advisers, the witan (wise men), or chief men of
his kingdom, who agreed to his wishes in their assembly or
witenagemot. The first " doom " or law in yEthelbert's code,
which was drawn up in Augustine's lifetime, relates to the
Church, and illustrates the sanctity attached to its possessions
by these new converts. For the property of God and the
Church compensation was to be made twelvefold, for a
bishop's property elevenfold, for a priest's ninefold, for a
deacon's sixfold, and for a clerk's threefold. The significance
of this law is illustrated by another which fixes the compensa-
tion to be made for a theft from the king at ninefold. For a
breach of church-frith, that is the peace and security due to
persons and things under the protection of a church, it was
decreed that a twofold compensation should be made. Thus,
long before the English nation attained political existence, the
temporal rights and possessions of the English Church were
recognised and defended by an English legislative assembly.
Though the church of St. Peter and St. Paul was not
finished in Augustine's lifetime, he formed the convent, and set
over it as abbot his old companion Peter, who was ^, . ,„
.... - ,_, '- . . . Christ Lliurch,
then m priest s orders. The church and monastery and St. Peter
were built solely /or monastic purposes. Christ ^'^ ^'" "^^"^ ^*
Church was also a monastic church, but it was something more,
it was the metropolitan church, the church of the archbishop.
As an ecclesiastical system grew up, the archbishop's house-
hold contained many non-monastic clergy who lived along
with the monks in the monastery. From the first, the
character of the monastery of Christ Church was priestly,
clerical rather than monastic ; it probably always during our
period, save for very brief space, .included clerks as well as
40 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
monks. The non-monastic element tended to increase, and
a time came when at Christ Church even the so-called monks
were monks only in name, for monastic discipline had become
extinct among them. Feeling that his life was drawing to a
close, and anxious that the infant Church should not suffer
from being deprived, even for brief space, of a chief pastor,
Augustine consecrated Laurentius, one of the original mission,
as his successor at Canterbury. This was an uncanonical act,
for though it was lawful for a bishop to have chorepiscopi (ttj?
Xw/jas €7rta-K07rot), or assistant bishops, to help him in the rural
parts of his diocese, it was generally the rule from the time
of St. Cyprian that there should only be one bishop in a city,
and this maxim was held to be endorsed by a canon of the
Nicene Council. Nevertheless there were many who con-
sidered that the rule was not binding in cases in which the
good of the Church called for a breach of it, and it was
believed that St. Peter himself had consecrated Clement to
succeed him at Rome, a matter which only concerns us here
because Bede accounts for Augustine's action by saying that
he followed the Apostle's example. He did what he
considered necessary for the welfare of the Church, and of
that he was the best judge. In the same light we must
regard his departure from the pope's plan for placing the
see of the southern metropolitan at London, where the Gospel
had not as yet taken any firm hold.
Augustine died on May 26, probably in the year 604, or
perhaps in 605, and was buried outside the unfinished church
^ ^ of St. Peter and St. Paul, until it should be ready
bt. AugUS- . , . , , mi 1 • -1 /-I
tine's death, to rcccive his body. That his mmd was not of that
°'^ lofty order to which outward things are merely of
value as vehicles of, or witnesses to, spiritual grace, is proved
by his questions about ceremonial purity ; yet this deficiency is
not remarkable in a man of his time, nor will his difiiculties
appear foolish, if it is remembered that his experience had,
so far as is known, been confined to monastic life. Gregory's
answer to his question concerning his relations towards the
bishops of Gaul, the warning addressed to him against
being puffed up, and his lack of courtesy and gentleness in
dealing with the British bishops, suggest that he was inclined
to think highly of himself. Yet even so, we need not
in Sr. AUGUSTINE S DEATH 41
judge him harshly; for he had been called from an obscure
monastic life to plant a new Church, to rule over it, and to
be the trusted adviser of a king. He accomplished great
things, and was believed by himself and others to be endued
with miraculous powers ; if he had been a man of meeker
spirit, he would have been one of the greatest of men.
Little as we know about him, it is easy to see that he was
courageous, wise, and devoted to his holy work, and that he
commanded the respect and affection of those among whom
he laboured. To compare him with Pope Gregory would
be hard upon him, for there have been few churchmen of any
age or race who would not suffer from such a comparison.
Gregory died on March 12, 604. Bede sets forth his claim
on the reverence of Englishmen in the words, "If he be not
an apostle unto others, yet he is unto us, for the seal of
his apostleship are we in the Lord." Nor is this true of
Englishmen only ; the seed planted at Canterbury by Gregory
and Augustine has borne fruit among many peoples and in
every quarter of the world. The Church of England, whose
Calendar, perhaps, contains too few of the names of her
noblest children, has happily kept there the names of her two
spiritual fathers. — St. Gregory and St. Augustine of Canter-
bury.
Laurentius, who succeeded to the archbishopric on
Augustine's death, laboured zealously to extend the founda-
tions of the Church both by example and ^
»• r • 1111 -1 Laurentius,
exhortation. Anxious for union and help, he tried Abp. of Cant.
to overcome the prejudices of the Scots of Ireland ^°4-*^'9-
and the Britons. He was stirred to action in this direction
by a visit to Canterbury of an Irish bishop, Dagan, Bishop of
Ennereilly, in Wicklow, who refused to eat with him or to
accept a lodging with him and his clergy. On this he wrote
a letter, in conjunction with his two suffragans Mellitus and
Justus, to the bishops and abbots throughout "Scotia," or
Ireland, saying that when they came to Britain to preach to
the heathen, they regarded both Britons and Scots with
reverence, believing that they walked in accordance with the
customs of the Catholic Church ; that they had been
undeceived as regards the Britons, but still had better hopes
of the Scots, until they learnt from Dagan, whose unchristian
42 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
conduct they related, and from Columban in Gaul, that the
Scots were at one with the Britons in their customs. The
remainder of the letter has not been preserved. The
Columban to whom it refers was a native of Leinster, who
about 585 went to Gaul to preach the Gospel.
St- Columban, Yj-jgj-g j-jg founded a monastery at Luxeuil, which
soon sent forth daughter communities. For twenty
years he laboured among the Franks and Burgundians in
the districts of the Vosges and the Jura, attracted many
disciples, and gained great influence in Gaul. He adhered
to the Celtic usages, and wrote in defence of them to the
Frankish bishops, to Gregory the Great, and with outspoken
boldness to Boniface IV. Leaving the professedly ^ Christian
people among whom he had laboured so long, he 'went to
preach to the heathen Suevi and Aiamanni about the Lake
of Constance, and after a while crossed the Alps, founded a
monastery at Bob]:)io, and devoted himself to combating the
Arianism of the Lombards. He drew up a rule for his
monasteries, which, as it had some influence on monasticism
in England, will be noticed later. Columban's attack on the
Galilean computation of Easter may well have become known
to Laurentius when he was in Gaul in 601, and it is not
unlikely that he may have met this most famous of the many
missionaries who went forth from Ireland to labour on the
continent. Laurentius and his suffragans also sent a letter
to the British bishops exhorting them to catholic unity, but
without effect.
Some questions having arisen of importance to the Eng-
lish Church, about which we know nothing, Mellitus the
Bishop of London went to Rome to consult the
S°th?cWh pope upon them. He was present at a council
of St. Peter y^^\^ ^y Bonlfacc IV., in February 610, on monastic
and St. Paul. •' , ., . . / , . , ,
matters, and subscribed its decrees, which he
brought back with him to England, together with letters
from Boniface to the archbishop and clergy, and to ^thelbert,
and the English people. After his return Laurentius, in 6 1 3,
consecrated the church of St. Peter and St. Paul at
Canterbury, which had been begun in the Hfetime of
Augustine. The body of Augustine was translated by the
archbishop from its grave outside the church and laid in the
Ill R.'EDWALD OF EAST ANGLIA 43
northern "porch " or chapel. In Hke manner, too, according
to Canterbury tradition, were translated the bodies of the
good queen Bertha, the date of whose death we do not
know, and of her chaplain Liudhard, which were laid in
the southern chapel dedicated to St. Martin. Abbot Peter
did not live to take part in these ceremonies. The pres-
ence of a learned clergy among an unlearned people natur-
ally leads to the employment of its members in secular
affairs, and specially in communications with foreign states
where there is more education. Accordingly ^thelbert sent
Peter on an embassy to Gaul in 607. On his passage
thither the abbot was drowned off Ambleteuse ; his body,
after having been buried carelessly by the people of the
country, was translated and laid in the church of the Blessed
Virgin at Boulogne. He was succeeded by John, another
of the companions of Augustine, who was abbot at the time
of the consecration of the church.
Before ^thelbert's death there was reason to hope that
the Gospel would be accepted more widely. Rsedwald, King
of the East Andians, paid a visit to the Kentish ^ ^ ,^
court, and was persuaded by ^thelbert to receive King of the
baptism, doubtless at the hands of Laurentius. It ^''^ "gians.
seems probable that Paulinus, one of the second band of
Roman missionaries, went back with him to East Anglia
to preach to his people. When, however, Raedwald returned
home, his wife and certain of his counsellors, who were
learned in heathen lore, persuaded him to abandon the
purity of the faith, and to abstain from any attempt to con-
vert his subjects. Rsedwald therefore contented himself with
treating the religion of Christ merely as an addition to his
old paganism, and set up in his temple a Christian altar side
by side with the altar on which he sacrificed to his idols.
If Paulinus had accompanied him to East Anglia, he must
have returned to Kent sorrowful at heart. Ealdwulf, the
great-nephew of Raedwald, who came to the throne of East
Angha in 664, and was alive in Bede's time, remembered
seeing the Christian and heathen altars standing together in
the temple when he was a boy. It is probable that Rsedwald's
baptism and apostasy had a political significance. He came,
we may suppose, to the court ot ^thelbert, whom he had
44 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
acknowledged as his superior, to settle some dispute, and
adopted Christianity rather as a sign of submission than
from a sincere conviction of its truth. His queen, who was,
as we shall see, a noble lady, probably stirred him up to reject
^thelbert's conditions, and his religion along with them. His
apostasy would be followed by war, and we know that during
^thelbert's last years Rsedwald made head against him, and
eventually attained a superiority over other southern
kingdoms similar to that which ^thelbert himself had held,
^thelbert died at a good old age in 6i6, after a
-J^tbeibert's j-eign of fifty -six years, and was buried in St.
Martin's chapel by his wife Bertha. That he was
a wise and thoughtful man seems proved by his conduct and
words at the coming of Augustine. When, after some time
spent in deliberation, he adopted Christianity he showed
himself full of zeal in the service of God, doing all that lay
in his power for the furtherance of the Gospel. His mind
was liberal, and quick to receive new ideas, as is shown by
his acceptance of the teaching of the missionaries and by his
desire to have a written code of law in the place of the
traditional and customary law of his people. Little, then, as
we know about him, we are told enough to warrant us in
believing that the first Christian king of English race was
not unworthy of the Church which admitted him by baptism
into the Communion of Saints.
On ^thelbert's death the Church suffered a violent reverse.
His son and successor Eadbald was a heathen, and, in accord-
ance with heathen custom, took to wife his father's
ReJ^pse^^and widow, for ^thelbcrt had married again after
Bertha's death. This act was the signal for a partial
though widespread return to heathenism in Kent ; all who in
^thelbert's time had been moved to profess Christianity either
by fear or favour, cast it off, and went back to their old way of
life. The king was subject to attacks of madness, w^hich the
Christians regarded as visitations of an evil spirit, a manifest
token of divine displeasure. As he was doubtless offended
with Laurentius and his clergy, both as opponents of his
marriage, and as heads of the Christian party in his kingdom,
their position was full of danger. Fresh trouble came upon
them, for when S^bert died, probably in the same year as
Ill APOSTASY OF THE EAST SAXONS 45
^thelbert, the East Saxons relapsed into idolatry. Scebert
was succeeded by three sons, who had never accepted
Christianity, though they had abstained from some heathen
practices so long as their father lived. Released by his death
from any necessity for further concealment, they openly
worshipped idols, and let their people know that they might
follow their example. With Bishop Mellitus they had a
personal quarrel. They entered St. Paul's one day when he
was celebrating the mass, and watched how, after the celebra-
tion, he gave the eucharist to the people. In their ignorance
of the meaning of what they saw, they said to him, " Why do
you not give us the white bread which you used to give to our
father Saba " — for so S?ebert was familiarly called — "and which
you still give to the people in the church ? " He told them
that if, like their father, they would be cleansed in the saving
fount, they too might eat the holy bread. "We have no
need," they said, " to enter that fount, but we desire to eat
that bread." It seems probable that this dispute began before
the brothers had taken up a decided line about religion ; they
evidently thought it derogatory to them that they should be
shut out from participation in a rite to which their father had
been admitted, and did not choose to humble their heathen
pride so far as to receive baptism. They renewed their
demand, and were told by Mellitus that what they wished was
impossible, unless they were baptized. At last they became
furious and said to him, " If you will not assent to this trifling
request of ours, you shall no longer abide in our country."
So they bade him begone, and he left the East Saxon land,
and went to Canterbury to take counsel with Laurentius and
Justus. Cast down by the storm which had broken so sud-
denly upon the Church, and threatened speedily to overwhelm
it, the three bishops decided that it would be better for them
to^ return to their native land, and there serve God with quiet
minds, than to remain labouring fruitlessly among strangers
who rebelled against the truth. Yet even so, they did not
wholly despair. Mellitus and Justus, it is true, left the country,
but they stayed in Gaul waiting to see how things would end,
and Laurentius was to join them there. The East Saxons
relapsed into idolatry, and though about ten years later
the three brother-kings, who had brought about their relapse,
46 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
were slain in a battle with the West Saxons, the people re-
mained heathen for nearly forty years.
Alike in accepting and apostatizing from Christianity, the
East Saxons followed their kings. Other instances of whole-
sale changes of religion brought about by royal
Religion and agency will occur in our narrative ; more than once
the marriage of a king with a Christian lady brought
about the evangelisation of a people. Nevertheless, the per-
sonal influence of English kings in deciding the religion of their
subjects does not imply that they were despotic rulers. It was
due to the concurrent action of two causes, — the one religious,
the other political. In an early state of society the individual
was religiously of small account, the tribe or clan was everything.
Religion was the bond of the community, and the worshipper
of strange gods, the man who deserted the god of his tribe,
and sought help from another source, was false to his tribe and
offended against its most sacred convictions. Nor in a later
stage of social progress did religion cease to be regarded as a
matter of tribal rather than individual concern, for Tacitus
notes how among the Germans the man who had shown him-
self false to his tribe by cowardice in battle v/as debarred from
taking part in its religious rites as well as in its councils. By
the English, the king was looked upon as the representative of
his people, the symbol of their independent political existence.
When they left their kindred beyond the sea and came over to
Britain, they had no kings, and it was not until a tribe made good
its settlement that it asserted its political existence by adopt-
ing kingship. Each royal house claimed descent from Woden,
the earth-ruler ; and in virtue of this descent the fittest of its
members had a right to be chosen king. In this god-descended
king the English tribe or nation saw the sign of its independ-
ence. As their religion was a tribal bond, and the king was
the expression of tribal or national life, the religion of the king
was naturally adopted by his people. For it is clear, as will
be seen later, that English kings did not change their religion
without consultation with their constitutional advisers. With
them, conversion was not merely a matter that concerned
themselves, it was an affair of state ; so Rasdwald, while in-
fluenced by his wife to return to idolatry, took counsel on
the subject of his religion with men who, by whatever name
Ill RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 47
they were collectively called, were evidently his witan. English
heathenism was in a sense an established religion, and the
conversion of a king in like manner established Christianity
in his kingdom. So that, from the conversion of ./Ethelbert on
to the present day, the English Church has always been an
Established Church ; it was established in each hcptarchic
kingdom when the king, with the consent of his witan, became
a Christian, and the union of the several kingdoms under one
king did not alter its position.
The old conception of the intimate connection between
religion and tribal life renders the toleration of the early
English kings remarkably creditable. While some
of the wars between different states had a re- rieiigipus
T • -1 >-n • • 1 toleration.
ligious Side, no Christian and no heathen king of
English race tried to force his religion on his subjects by
persecution. For the most part they followed the decision
of the king and his witan, and those who dissented from it
were left to do as they pleased. Laws against heathen
practices came later, when the question between heathenism
and Christianity was no longer in debate. Although wholesale
conversion was, as a rule, followed by a wholesale relapse of
new converts on the accession of a heathen king, the truth
once heard and accepted by a people did not fail of all effect.
That, in spite of general apostasy, it brought forth good fruit
here and there we may well believe, and, at worst, contact with
Christianity lightened the gloom of English paganism, and
imparted to it an element of hopefulness, an expectation of
the triumph of light and hfe over darkness and death. Better
than this, we may be sure that even a temporary acceptance
of the Gospel paved the way for future permanent evangelisa-
tion ; it shook the hold that immemorial paganism had over
men's minds, so that when the offer of Christianity was again
pressed upon them, they could no longer dwell, as ^thelbert
did, on the claim that their religion derived from long and
unbroken tradition.
The day on which Laurentius was to have left England to
join Mellitus and Justus in Gaul, he appeared be-
fore the king, and showed him that his back was sbroT"^"
scored with stripes. Eadbald was astonished, and ^^'^'^^''^'^•
asked who had ventured so to ill-treat a man of his rank.
48 THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
Then, according to the story which Bede had heard, Ivaurentius
told him that, the night before, he had ordered his bed to be laid
in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and there, after many
tears and prayers for the flock which he was leaving, he lay
down to rest. In his sleep St. Peter appeared to him, and
gave him many stripes, asking him how he dared to leave
Christ's sheep over whom he had appointed him to watch,
and what shepherd was to guard them from wolves when he
had gone. Eadbald feared greatly when he heard that he
had been the cause of the archbishop's sufferings ; he cursed
his own idolatry, put away his unlawful wife, believed, and
was baptized. This story does not stand alone ; St. Jerome
certainly believed that St. Peter had beaten him in order to
draw him away from the study of profane literature. Each
story of this kind, and there are several of them, should be
considered separately. In this case, Bede heard the legend
long after the events to which it refers, and the conversation
between the king and the archbishop may, therefore, perhaps
be considered as unhistorical. Yet the story no doubt has a
groundwork of truth. If Laurentius really had marks of
scourging upon him, it is probable that they were the result of
a self-inflicted penance, consequent on a dream that he had
had, when, excited and uneasy at the step he was about to
take, he had lain down to slumber restlessly in the church.
At such a crisis he may well have dreamt that the Apostle
appeared to him, and addressed to him reproaches which had
already troubled his wakeful thoughts. The constant habit of
speaking of St. Peter and of other saints as personal agents in
things done in their name, may easily have given rise to the
belief that Laurentius told the king that he had been chastised
by the Apostle in person. In any case, there is no adequate
reason for accusing him of deliberate deception in the matter.
After his conversion Eadbald did all that lay in his power to
forward the work of the Church. He recalled Mellitus and
Justus, and bade them return to their bishoprics. Justus went
back to Rochester ; but the Londoners were pleased again to
be under their idolatrous high-priests, and refused to receive
Mellitus. Kent was no longer so powerful as it had been at
the time of St. Augustine's landing, and Eadbald could not force
them to receive back their bishop. Nor does he seem to
Ill ARCHBISHOP MELLITUS 49
have been able wholly to banish idolatry from his own kingdom,
for, though his people generally followed his example, the
idols were not utterly destroyed during his reign. He caused
a church to be built at Canterbury in honour of the Blessed
Virgin, to the east of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul,
which was afterwards joined to it, and another dedicated to
St. Peter at Folkestone, where his daughter Eanswith formed
the first community of nuns in England. A venerable church
which still stands in the castle of Dover has also, somewhat
arbitrarily, been attributed to him ; the best architectural
authorities, however, consider that the present building is of a
much later date.
During the short time that was left to Laurentius after the
conversion of Eadbald, he must have been fully employed in
strengthening the Church in Kent, and receiving ,, „.
° ° . ° Mellitus,
back into its fold those who had apostatized from Abp. of Cant.
it. Pie died on February 2, 619, and was buried by ^'9-624.
the side of Augustine. He was succeeded by Mellitus, the
dispossessed Bishop of London. No effort appears to have
been made by Mellitus for the conversion of the heathen
kingdoms. So far as is known, no door appeared open for
the spread of the Gospel, and the new archbishop was
much hindered by ill -health, for he suffered from gout in
his feet. As he was a man of great spirituality of mind,
his malady suggested Bede's remark that, though he could
not walk, he could soar to regions of heavenly enjoyment.
Noble by birth, he was, Bede says, more ennobled by the
loftiness of his soul. In his time a fire consumed a large
part of Canterbury, for fires were frequent and terribly
destructive when houses were made of timber or wattle,
and water was only thrown by hand upon a burning build-
ing. The episcopal house, or cathedral monastery, was in
danger. Mellitus caused himself to be carried to the place
where the fire was raging, and not being able to help in
combating the flames, he prayed while others worked. A
sudden change in the direction of the wind brought the fire to
an end, and was believed to have been sent in answer to his
prayers. His infirmity did not cause any neglect of the
Church in Kent, for he found a willing helper in Bishop Justus,
and both were zealous in pastoral work. Boniface V. sent
so THE CHURCH IN KENT chap.
them a letter of encouragement, but there is no evidence that
either AlelUtus or Laurentius received a pall. Mellitus died on
April 24, 624, and was buried with Augustine and Laurentius.
Mellitus was succeeded by Justus, the only surviving bishop
of the English Church. His translation from Rochester was a
breach of the rule laid down by the Councils of Nicsea
of"cant.^' and Sardica (343), forbidding bishops to move from
624-627. ^j^g bishopric to another. This rule, however, was
made to meet temporary exigencies, and was probably intended
to check personal ambition and party manoeuvring, and later
canons permitted episcopal translations when sanctioned by a
provincial synod. In any case, the translation of Justus was a
necessary measure, and was evidently approved by the pope, to
whom both he and Eadbald wrote announcing his accession.
The archbishop's letter appears to have expressed acute dis-
appointment at the small results of the mission. Christianity
was still confined to the little kingdom of Kent ; the East
Saxons, who had received it for a while, had relapsed, so far as
he could see, hopelessly ; and the East Anglians, whose con-
version once seemed certain, were still in darkness. Boniface
in reply sent him a letter full of encouraging words ; he told
him that he knew that he had laboured devotedly, and, re-
minding him of the Lord's promise, " Lo, I am with you alway,
even to the end of the world," exhorted him not to be cast
down. Eadbald, he said, had borne witness to the excellence
of his teaching ; let him be patient and of good courage, and
he would see the heathen turned from their superstition, and
would receive from the Lord the reward of his labours. The
pope sent him a pall to be worn when he was celebrating the
mass, with leave to consecrate bishops as occasion might arise,
though he was single-handed. Justus accordingly consecrated
Romanus as his successor at Rochester. Before three years
had passed, the pope's encouraging words were amply justified
by the conversion of the powerful King of Northumbria.
Authorities. — This chapter is mainly founded on Bede's Historia Ecclesi-
astica, ed. Plummer, u.s. , with the help of Councils and Eccles. Docs. u.s.
vol. iii. ; Canon Bright's Chapters of Early Church History, u.s. ; Mr.
Plummer's notes on Bade in vol. ii. of his Hist. Eccles., and Dr. Loof's
Afitiquic Britoiium Scotoruinque Ecclesice, u.s. The Life of St. Columban,
written soon after his death by Jonas, a monk of Bobbio, with his Rule and
Ill AUTHORITIES 51
other writings, is in Fleming's Collectanea Sacvii, Louvain, 1667, and is
beautifully represented by Montaleinbert in his Lcs Moines d' Occident, livre vii.
7 vols. Paris, 1860-77 I iinglish transl, 7 vols. Edinburgli, 1861-79, and with
Introduction by Rev. F. A. Gasquet, D.D. , O.S. B. , 6 vols. London, 1896.
For ancient canons and customs, see VAv\^\:}C[n?> Antiquities of the Christian
Church, ap. Works, 9 vols. London, 1844. The tribal chnructer of early
paganism is expounded by F. B. Jevons, Litt.D. , \vi An Introduction to the
History of Religion, c. ix. London, 1896. The antiquity of the church in
Dover Castle is maintained by Freeman, Norman Conquest, iii. 535, Oxford,
1871, and by Puckle, who somehow connects it with the British Church, in
The Chiaxh and Castle of Dover, Oxford, 1864, and is doubted by Sir Gilbert
Scott, Lectures on MedicEval Architecture, London, 1879, ^^'^ denied by
G, G. Scott, F.ssay on English Church Architecture, London, 1881 ; Mr. J. T.
Irvine decides that no part of it can be earlier than 990, see Arckceological
Assoc. Proc. 1885, and cf. Archceol. fournal, 1S96.
I
CHAPTER IV
SUCCESS AND REVERSE
North of the river Humber lay the settlements of a people
of Anglian race who from their geographical position were
. called Northumbrians. These settlements formed
Northurabria, two kingdoms, the one to the south, which early
b. 585, d. 633. .^ ^i^g seventh century answered to our present
Yorkshire, being called Deira, the other, extending along the
sea-board from the Tees to the Firth of Forth, Bernicia. Of
Deira and its king ^lle, or ^lla, we have already heard in
the story of Gregory and the English slave-boys. On file's
death in 588, the Bernician king ^thelric made himself
master of Deira and drove out file's infant son Eadwine or
Edwin. He was succeeded by his son ^thelfrith, a powerful
king who ruled over the whole of Northumbria from the
Humber to the Firth of Forth, and in one of his many
successful wars overthrew the Britons at Chester, where the
monks of Bangor were massacred. Eadwine was about three
years old when he left Deira, for he was born in 585.
According to Welsh tradition he was brought up at the court
of Cadvan, King of Gwynedd, the present North Wales, and
was baptized by a British bishop, Run the son of Urbgen,
but, so far as his baptism is concerned, this is certainly
untrue, for he remained a heathen until he was past thirty.
Still, it is quite possible that as a child he may have found
refuge for a short time among the Britons, who would be
willing to do anything that would embarrass their powerful
enemy ^thelfrith. His youth was spent in exile and in
wandering, for ^thelfrith sought his life, and no one could
CHAP. IV EADWINE OF NORTHUMBRIA 53
shelter him without incurring the enmity of the Northumbrian
king. In 6i6 he was at the court of RDsdwald of East
AngHa, who promised that he should be safe with him. A
famous story is told by Bede, himself a Northumbrian, of
what hap|)ened to him there.
Once and again /Ethelfrith sent to Ra^dwald offering him
money if he would slay his guest, but Ra^dwald would not
hearken. A third time he sent demanding that
Eadwine should be given up to his messengers ; ^,^d Wm.
and bade Rsedwald take his choice ; he should
have a large bribe if he would obey him, and if he refused he
should have war. It was evening when Rsedwald received
the Northumbrians in his hall in the presence of his thegns.
His conduct in the matter of religion proves that he was not
a man of strong purpose, and, lured by the bribe or frightened
by the threat, he gave way, and promised to betray his guest.
Eadwine was not present when his fate was decided, but he
had a faithful friend among the king's thegns, who went at
once to the room where he slept, bade him follow him out of
the house, so that they might talk unobserved, and told him,
in the darkness, of the king's treacherous determination. He
offered to get him out of the country, and take him to a place
of refuge where neither R^dwald nor Ethelfrith should be
able to find him. Eadwine's answer was worthy of his royal
descent ; he would not, he said, be the first to break the
bond between himself and the king, and w^ould still trust
R^dwald, for he had received kindness from him. " But if,"
he added, "I must die, let my death come from him, and
from no meaner man ; and whither could I flee after so many
years of exile?" His friend left him, and he remained
sitting on a stone in front of the king's dwelling, full of sorrow
and perplexity. As he sat there in the darkness, a tall figure,
clad in a strange dress, drew near him, and the sight filled
him with superstitious fear. "Why," the stranger asked,
" are you sitting here while others sleep ? " " What is it to
you," Eadwine replied, " whether I spend the night within
or out of doors ? " The stranger told him that he knew the
cause of his trouble, and asked him what he would do for the
man who relieved him of it. He would, Eadwine said, give
him ail that he had. " And if he promised that you should
54 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
become a king, and triumph over your enemies, and be
greater than all the kings of the English ? " " My gratitude,"
was the reply, "should match his kindness/' "And supposing,"
the stranger went on, " that he asked you to follow his counsel,
and live a better and a happier life than any of your fore-
fathers or kinsfolk ever dreamt of, would you obey him ? "
Eadwine at once promised that he would follow his teaching
in ail things. Then the stranger laid his right hand upon the
exile's head, saying, "When this sign shall be given you,
remember our discourse, and delay not to fulfil your promise."
With these words he vanished in the darkness. Eadwine
believed that it was no mortal man with whom he had been
talking, and his heart was gladdened by the stranger's words.
While he sat meditating on these things, his friend again
came to him, and joyfully bade him rise and enter the palace
without fear, for the king's purpose was changed. Rjedwald
had privately informed his queen of his promise to ^thelfrith's
messengers, and the noble heathen lady told him how ill it
would become so great a king to sell his friend for gold, and
lose, for love of gain, honour which was more precious than
jewels. The king knew that her words were true ; he bade
^thelfrith's messengers depart, and prepared for
?he"idif ^^^- ^^ ^P^^^ ^^' ^^^' before ^Ethelfrith had
fully collected his forces, Raedwald and Eadwine
fell upon him with a large army on the eastern bank of the
river Idle. There they defeated and slew him in a fierce
battle of which the minstrels used to sing, " Idle was foul with
the blood of Angles."
The stranger who appeared to Eadwine in the darkness
must, as we shall see, have been Pauhnus ; he had probably
come to East Anglia on a mission which was rendered ineffectual
by Rsedwald's relapse. He may have been the first to hear of
the king's change of mind concerning his guest, and have used
his knowledge as a means of gaining a hold upon Eadwine.
After the overthrow of ^thelfrith, Eadwine became king
of both the Northumbrian kingdoms, and drove out the seven
sons of .^thelfrith, who were his own nephews, for
Eadwme^s ^thclfrith had married his sister Acha. They
found shelter with the Picts and Scots ; and three
of them, Eanfrith, Oswald, and Oswiu or Oswy, will appear
IV BIRTH OF EANFL.ED 5S
later in our narrative. Eadwine, whose first wife was the
daughter of a Mercian king, sought in 625 to marry ^thel-
burh, daughter of ^thelbert of Kent, who was called by her
friends by the pet name of Tata. Eadbald told him that he
could not give his sister, who was a Christian, in marriage
to a heathen. Nevertheless, Northumbria was to receive
Christianity through a like means to that which had helped
forward the evangelisation of Kent; for, like /Ethelbert,
Eadwine promised that his bride, and those she brought with
her, should be free to worship their own God, adding that, if
he found their religion better than his own, he might accept
it. On this Eadbald consented to the marriage, and on July
21 Justus consecrated Paulinus a bishop, that he might
accompany ^thelburh to her new home as her chaplain,
hoping that he might be able to convert the Northumbrians.
For nearly a year Paulinus ministered to the queen and
her attendants without gaining any ground among the heathen.
In 626 Eadwine had a cause of quarrel with the gjj.^}^^j^j
West Saxons, and Cwichelm, one of their kings, baptism of
who reigned conjointly with his father Cynegils,
sent an envoy to him named Eumer, to whom he gave
audience on April 19, Easter eve, at one of his royal
residences on the Derwent. While he spake with the king,
Eumer, in obedience to the treacherous order of his master,
struck at Eadwine with a poisoned dagger. Lilla, the
king's faithful thegn, saw the coming blow, and stepping be-
fore his lord, shielded him with his own body ; he was slain,
and the blow was so fiercely given that the weapon passed
through him and wounded the king. The assassin was at
once slain by another of Eadwine's thegns. A new cause of
anxiety quickly followed this terrible scene, for that night the
queen bore a daughter whom they called Eanflaed. When
Eadwine thanked his gods for his daughter's birth, Pauhnus
who was standing by told him that his thanks were due to
Christ, for that the queen's safety was an answer to the
prayers that he had offered up for her to the Lord. Pleased
at his words, and softened by the events of the day, Eadwine
answered that, if he was successful in war against the West
Saxons, he would serve Christ, and, as a pledge that he would
keep his word, he gave the bishop his newly-born daughter,
56 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
that he might consecrate her to God. On June 7, Whitsun-
eve, for Pentecost and Easter were held by the early Church
as seasons specially suitable for baptisms, Paulinus baptized
the infant, together with eleven of her attendants, the first-
fruits of Northumbria.
Although Eadwine was completely successful in his war
against the West Saxons, he could not at once bring himself
to accept baptism. Ever since the birth of his
Satbns. daughter he had ceased to worship idols, and on
his return from the war he would listen to the teach-
inijj of Paulinus, and discuss it with his chief men or
"witan." More often he would sit in silence, thinking deeply
over the great step that he was almost persuaded to take,
though his kingly pride and habitual cautiousness still held
him back, ^thelburh, who must have watched the signs of
his mental struggle with deep anxiety, was encouraged in her
efforts for his conversion by letters which she and her husband
received at this time from the pope. If, as Bede says, they
were written by Boniface V., they must have been delayed on
their way, for Boniface died on October 25, 625, and as the
writer speaks of Eadwine as slow to hear the Gospel, we may
perhaps believe that the name Boniface is a mistake for that
of his successor Honorius. In the letter to Eadwine the
pope dwells on the wretchedness of heathenism compared
with the worship of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, the Indivisible Trinity, and urges him to follow the
example of ^Ethelbert, destroy his idols, and accept the
religion of Christ. As tokens of his regard he sent him
a shirt of proof, adorned with gold, and a warrior's cloak.
To ^thelburh he wrote urging her to be constant in her
endeavours to save her unbelieving husband, to pray for him
without ceasing, and to do all in her power to set before him
the beauty of Christianity. His gifts to her were a silver
mirror and a gilded ivory comb. Still Eadwine hesitated, until
one day, as he sat alone pondering these things, PauHnus
came to him, laid his right hand upon the king's head, and
asked him in solemn tones if he remembered that sign. The
king trembled, and would have cast himself at his feet, but
the bishop took his hand, and speaking in his usual voice
reminded him of the promise which he had made to the
H£
IV E AD WINE'S CONVERSION: / 57
stranger in the darkness before R^ed^Yald's palace, Eadwine
said that he would keep his word, and would hold a council
with his ealdormen and thegns, so that, if he and they felt
alike, all might be baptized together.
He assembled his witan near Goodmanham, in the present
East Riding, where the king's temple then stood. When he
began to ask each of the " wise men " in turn what j^.^
he thought of the new teaching, Coifi, the chief conversion,
priest, replied with undisguised materialism of feel- ^'''
ing that, for his part, he had not found his religion profitable,
for though none of the king's thegns had served the gods more
faithfully than he, many had received larger favours from the
king, and that if the gods had been good for anything, they
would have done more for him, so if on examination the new
religion seemed to be the more powerful, he was ready to
accept it. His words were approved by the hearers. Then
spake one of the great nobles, a man of loftier soul : " So
methinks, O king, is the life of man on earth, as if, while you
and your nobles and thegns are feasting on a winter's night,
with the fire blazing in the midst of your hall, and the rain
and storm raging outside, a sparrow should fly into the hall
by one door and fly out by another. For the moment that he
is inside he is in warmth and shelter, and then again he goes
out into the wintry weather and is seen no more. So, for a
short space man's life is before our eyes, but of what is before
or what follows it, we know nothing. If then this new teach-
ing can enlighten us as to these things, by all means let us
hearken to it." After others had spoken to a like purport,
Coifi proposed that Paulinus should tell them about God.
The bishop rose up, and at the king's bidding preached to
them. He was a tall thin man, slightly bent, with dark hair,
sallow face, and aquiline nose, and with the black piercing
eyes of his Italian race, a striking contrast to the stalwart,
blue-eyed, fair-haired English before him, who regarded him
with reverence and some degree of awe. When he had
ended his words, Coifi, whom they seem to have raised to a
higher frame of mind, declared that he had long been con-
vinced of the vanity of their religion, and that now he knew
the truth, and saw that it was the way of life and eternal
happiness, and he proposed to the king that they should over-
58 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
throw their heathen temples and altars. On this, Eadwine
declared his renunciation of idolatry, and confessed the faith
of Christ. Who, he asked, would be the first to overthrow the
altars of the idols and profane the sacred enclosures ? "I will
be he," said Coifi, " for who could more fittingly display the
wisdom that God has given us by destroying the things that I
worshipped in my folly ? " With that he called for a war-horse
and weapons, armed himself, bestrode the horse, and rode to-
wards the temple. There all the people looked on in wonder,
thinking him mad, for it was contrary to their religion that
the high priest should bear arms or ride except upon a mare,
a curious survival of the primitive sentiment that priests were
subject to certain taboos. As soon as he drew near, he
hurled his spear against the temple, and then he and those
with him set fire to the building, and destroyed the sacred
enclosures. Eadwine returned to York, the capital of Deira,
and at once caused a church to be built there of wood, for he
was in too great haste to wait for a stone building. It was
dedicated to St. Peter, and within its rude walls the king
received instruction as a catechumen. On Easter eve, April 1 1,
627, Eadwine was baptized, together with his two sons by his
Mercian wife, and others of his household and lords. Thus
did the words of encouragement which Boniface wrote to
Justus receive an unlooked-for fulfilment.
By the conversion of Eadwine Christianity gained the
support of the most powerful of the English kings. Bede
reckons him, along with ^lle, ^Ethelbert, and
pmilr. Rsedwald, among the seven kings who were recog-
nised as superior in kingdoms beyond their own
dominions, and says that he exercised authority over all the
kingdoms of the Britons, and of the English except Kent,
where, it is said, he did not require submission on account of
his marriage with ^thelburh. In the North he subdued the
Picts of the district to the east of the Avon, and took from
them their stronghold, which was thenceforth called after him
Eadwinesburg, or Edinburgh. Extension northwards, how-
ever, was not a special object with him ; he was the represent-
ative of the kingly line of Deira, his capital was York,
not Bamborough, the royal city of the exiled house of
Bernicia, and his policy was generally directed by Deiran
IV EADWINE'S POWER 59
rather than Bernician interests. He conquered two small
British kingdoms lying to the south of Deira, which thence-
forw^^rd seems to have covered the whole of our present York-
shire, marched through the north of the present Cheshire,
already w^asted by ^^^thelfrith, defeated the Welsh at the Long
Mountain in Shropshire, and then striking through North
Wales conquered Mona, or Anglesey, the stronghold of the
kings of Gwynedd, and is said to have driven Cadwallon,^ the
son and successor of Cadvan, to take refuge in Ireland. It is
supposed with much probability that he was the first English
king who assumed the title of Bretwalda, or ruler of the
Britons, and that he took it after his victories over Cadwallon.
In later years, however, the title was loosely applied to the four
earlier, and three later kings who are described as exercising
authority over kingdoms other than their own in the heptarchic
period. Eadwine's supremacy over other English kingdoms
was founded on the decay of the power of East Anglia, which
waned rapidly after the death of Rsedwald ; he brought East
Anglia into close dependence on himself, and extended his
immediate kingdom over the valley of the lower Trent, and
apparently over Lindsey, the district to the north and east of
the Wash. His superiority was acknowledged in Middle
England, and the king of the Mercians, then a small people
settled, as their name implies, on the marches or borders of
the Britons, seems, before Eadwine's conversion, to have been
his ally as well as one of his subordinates, for Eadwine's first
wife was, it will be remembered, a Mercian lady. This alliance
may have led to his war with the West Saxons, the neighbours
and constant enemies of the Mercians ; he defeated them, and
forced them to acknowledge his superiority.
In Northumbria his rule was strict and orderly to a degree
hitherto unknown among the English. Travelling became
safe ; the roads which the Romans had carried over the wild
moorlands and through the thick forests of the North were
again frequented, and Bede records that in his time it was a
common saying that in Eadwine's reign a woman with her
1 Generally called Casdwalla by English writers, but as this form of the
name was borne by a West Saxon king whom we shall meet with later, it
may save confusion to call the Briton by his Welsh name. On the name
Cadwallon see Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 286.
60 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
newly-born child might cross the island from sea to sea and
none would do her harm. Eadwine was careful for his people
even in small matters, and caused posts to be set up at the
springs along the high roads, each with a brass cup hung upon
it, for the use of travellers ; and such was the love or fear that
men had of him, that these cups were neither injured nor
stolen. If we think for a moment how many centuries of
civilisation passed between that time and the establishment
here and there of public drinking-fountains, and how prone
the English loafer of to-day is to damage or steal things
dedicated to the public convenience, the kindly thoughtful-
ness of the Northumbrian king, and the orderly character of
his government, will seem little short of amazing. He reigned
with much magnificence. His capital York, the
His state. . -, ^° ,.,, ^^ .. . ',
City of the Caesars, to which the English gave the
name of Eoferwic, must in his time have been full of the
monuments of the imperial race, of vast stone buildings
w^hich excited special admiration among a people accustomed
to build of timber. These relics of Roman times seem to
have exercised a strong influence on Eadwine's mind, for, as
became a king who held an imperium over other kings, he
adopted something of Caesarian state. When he rode wdth
his nobles, either in peace or war, banners were displayed
before him, and even when he walked through the streets of
York, one w^ent before him bearing aloft a Roman tufa^ a tuft
of feathers fastened on a spear. Paulinus doubtless en-
couraged his admiration for things connected with the city
alike of Augustus and St. Peter.
Eadwine's power and state concern the history of our
Church. At no other time between the fifth and the ninth
Apparent ccuturies did any English king hold a like supremacy
[j°spectsof in this island, nor was there perhaps any such appar-
ent approach to national unity as that w^hich was
brought about by his power until the time of Egbert. His
conversion held out a reasonable prospect that the Church, into
which he was received by baptism, would speedily triumph
over heathenism in every English people, w^ould be independent
of any Celtic help, and would be in a position to dictate terms
to the hostile Church of the Britons. Matters were ordered
otherwise. Eadwine's imperial power was due partly to political
IV THE PREACHING OF PAULTNUS 6i
causes of a transient nature, and partly to his personal ability.
Even in Northumbria he failed to found a stable government,
and his attempt to make Deira the predominant partner, thougli
destined to eventual success, proved premature. National
unity was not attained by the English until centuries after his
day, not indeed until the English Church had done much to
break down the primitive tendency towards tribal division.
Yet, though Eadwine's political power was short-lived, it had
some abiding effects on the Church. He used it for the spread
of the Gospel in Northumbria, and the districts which he had
annexed to his immediate kingdom, and in East Anglia. In
Deira, the home of his house and the seat of his power, he
was able to do far more for the evangelisation of his subjects
than time allowed him to accomplish in Bernicia, and there
the partiality that he seems to have shown for Roman institu-
tions must have strengthened the reverence for Rome incul-
cated by Paulinus, and have helped to make Deira the
stronghold, as it afterwards became, of the Roman party in the
North.
Eadwine, probably at the time of his baptism, gave
Paulinus authority to make York the seat of his bishopric,
and bade him set about building a church of stone,
to be dedicated to St. Peter. The walls were not ^?a';!lL"ui°^
raised to their full height at the king's death, and
it was finished by the next Christian King of Northumbria.
It was a basilican church with transepts, and was built about
the wooden oratory hastily raised for Eadwine's baptism, which
was preserved with reverent care inside the new building, as
the hut and oratory of St. Francis are still preserved within
the gorgeous church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi.
Half ruined and completely restored some forty years later,
destroyed and rebuilt in the eighth century, ruined and again
rebuilt in the eleventh, again burnt and again rebuilt, and
exhibiting alterations and additions of each great period of
English architecture, the minster of St. Peter at York, in its
present stately form, various in detail, and beautiful, if not
absolutely harmonious, as a whole, is the representative of the
little wooden building of Eadwine's baptism, and of the basiHca
which he and Paulinus planned and began to raise about it.
In the wooden church Paulinus baptized three of ^thelburh's
62 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
children, of whom two died while still clad in the white
garments worn by the newly baptized, and there too he
baptized others of the king's house, and of his nobles and
thegns not a few. He did not, however, stay quietly at York ;
for he was generally in the king's company, which implies
that he vras constantly moving from place to place; for in
those days, and indeed long afterwards, the king and his court
were mainly supported by the produce of the royal estates,
which they consumed on the spot, and they therefore rode
continually from one royal " vill," or estate, to another, never
staying long at any of them, lest they should consume all the
supplies. In addition, then, to any missionary. tours which he
made independently, Paulinus had abundant opportunities of
preaching in different parts of Northumbria as he went about
with the court, and the interest that the king and queen took
in his work was enough of itself to draw crowds to hear him.
Deira, where the king chiefly resided, was the principal scene of
his labours. He was often at the royal residence at Catterick,
on the Swale, the site of a Roman military station, and when
there, would baptize in the river, because no church or oratory
had yet been built. At another of the king's residences
called Campodonum, probably Doncaster, which was also a
Roman station, he built a church of wood, which was burnt
by the heathen after Eadwine's death; its stone altar was
however undestroyed, and was preserved in a neighbouring
monastery. In one visit which he paid to Bernicia, the people
showed great willingness to receive the Gospel, and during the
thirty-six days that he stayed in company with the king and
queen at Yeavering, in the Cheviot country, he was con-
stantly employed, from morning till night, instructing the
multitudes that came to him from the surrounding country,
and baptizing them in the Glen which flows close by. Other
visits to Bernicia rest merely on tradition, though he doubtless
went at other times to work among a people that so warmly
responded to his teaching. Nevertheless his visits to them
must have been short, for throughout the whole country not a
single church was built, nor an altar raised, nor even a cross to
mark a station for preaching. He carried the Gospel also to
Lindsey, and there the first-fruit of his work was Blcecca, the
reeve of Lincoln, the king's representative in the city, who
IV SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL 63
liimself believed and his whole house. Blcccca built a fine
church of stone upon the steep hill which had been the site, first
of a British town, and then of the Roman colony of Lindum ;
it stood on the Ermine street, within, and almost opposite
to, the massive northern gate which still recalls to the memory
the Roman rule in Britain ; its site, to the north-west of the
present minster, is doubtless marked by the church now known
as St. Paul's, a corruption of the name of the first preacher of
the Gospel to the English inhabitants of Lincoln.
Blcecca's church was the scene of the consecration of an
Archbishop of Canterbury. Justus, who lived long enough
to hear the joyful news of Eadwine's conversion, died on
November 10, 627. By his death Paulinas became the only
bishop of the English Church ; for Romanus of Rochester
had been sent by Justus as an envoy to Rome, and had been
drowned in the Mediterranean. Honorius, one of „
' Hononus,
the disciples of Gregory the Great and, according Abp. of Cant.
to tradition, a member of the first mission to the ^ ^^'
English, was chosen to succeed Justus, and was consecrated
by Paulinus in Blaecca's church at Lincoln probably early in
628. Paulinus also accompanied Eadwine on a visit which he
made to his other South-Humbrian dominion, the valley of the
Trent, and baptized a large number of people in that river at a
place called Tiovulfingaceaster. This place, the name of which
preserves the memory of a tribe of Anglian settlers as well as of
some Roman military station, was traditionally identified with
Southwell, where the minster was believed to have been built by
Paulinus, and was for centuries closely connected with the see
of York. The tradition is clearly wrong, for Southwell is not
on the Trent, and it has been conjectured, with at least some
probability, that the place may be identified with Littleborough,
where the Roman road from York to Lincoln crossed the
Trent by a ford. In this, as in all his journeys, Paulinus was
accompanied by his deacon James, of whom we shall hear
later as a faithful and devoted minister of the Church.
Soon after his own baptism Eadwine used his influence
with Earpwald, the East Anglian king, Raedwald's
son and successor, to persuade him to follow his ^°"^T'''?.°'
1 1 111- ^ -r^ East Angha.
example ; and probably m 628 Earpwald and his
people renounced idolatry and were baptized. A short time
64 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
afterwards the king appears to have met with a martyr's death,
for he was slain by a heathen named Ricbert; his people
relapsed into idolatry, and for three years seem to have been
in a state of anarchy. Then, in 631, Sigbert, a son of
Roedwald's queen, who had been banished by his stepfather,
and had taken refuge in Gaul, returned to England, and
made himself master of East Anglia. During his exile he
had received baptism, and had become a learned as well as
a deeply religious man. Learning was then flourishing in
Gaul, where the old municipal schools had given place either
to schools attached to cathedral churches, such as existed
at Clermont, in Auvergne, where Gregory of Tours was
educated by his uncle the bishop ; at Vienne, where Bishop
Desiderius taught grammar to the displeasure of Gregory
the Great, who told him that the praises of Jove and of
Christ should not be spoken by the same mouth ; at Aries,
Poitiers, and other places, or to schools attached to monas-
teries as at Luxeuil, St. Vaudrille, and Lerins. At one of
these schools, and possibly from followers of St. Columban,
Sigbert had received his education. He desired that his
people should be converted and instructed, and Archbishop
Honorius was able to send him a missionary from Canter-
bury,
There had come to Honorius from Gaul a Burgundian
named Felix, who had been ordained in his native land,
though he was not perhaps a bishop when he
came over to England. Burgundy, and specially
the districts about the Vosges and the Jura, was largely under
the influence of Columban's mission ; it was the land of the
monasteries planted by him at Annegray and Luxeuil, and
by his disciple Deicolus at Lure, and the two ducal families
which divided the country were strongly attached to the Scot-
tish missionaries, and took a prominent part in the monastic
movement. It was perhaps from Irish monks that Felix im-
bibed a desire for missionary work. He came over to England
to preach the Gospel, and put himself under the direction of
Honorius. Though he was probably connected with the
mission of Columban in Gaul, he kept Easter after the
Roman custom. Indeed, the Celtic computation of Easter,
about which Columban felt so strongly, seems to have taken
IV S7\ FELIX 65
no hold in Gaul apart from Armorica. At a council held
at Orleans in 541, the bishops of Gaul adopted a cycle made
by Victorius of Aquitaine, an abbot of Rome, which included
the twenty-first day of the moon, and was the basis of the
cycle finally adopted at Rome. No llreton bishop was
present at that council, and the Armorican Church for a time
adhered to the old cycle which the British Church had
originally received from Rome, but we hear nothing of any
difference about Easter in connection with Brittany after
590. When Columban came over to Gaul, he in vain poured
ridicule on the cycle of Victorius ; the Frankish bishops
refused to abandon it, and his own followers must soon
have given up the Celtic Easter for which he contended
so warmly; for when Abbot Eustace, his successor at
Luxeuil, was accused by a false brother of following cer-
tain usages established by Columban, which were not those
of the Church at large, the Celtic Easter was not among
them. Felix, therefore, could not have found any diffi-
culty in submitting himself to the direction of Honorius,
who conferred episcopal orders upon him, if he had not
already received them, appointed him bishop for the East
Anglians, and sent him to Sigbert. The story that Felix
had baptized the king in Gaul is a mere legend ; that he
had, as \yQ are told on better authority, become acquainted
with him there, is quite possible, though Bede's narrative
seems to imply that his coming to England was uncon-
nected with Sigbert's accession. Sigbert gave him Dunwich,
now swallowed up by the sea — for the present Dunwich on
the Suffolk coast belongs to a far later time — to be his epis-
copal city. With his help the king formed a school for
boys in imitation of those that he had seen in Gaul. It
was probably connected with the bishop's church at Dunwich,
and Felix obtained masters and teachers for it, such as those
who taught in Kent. That there were teachers systematically
working in Kent at this early time is known to us only by
this passage in Bede's Ecclesiastical History ; that there was
a school in the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul at
Canterbury, we may take as certain, and it is probable that
there would be another attached to the bishop's church at
Rochester. From its earliest days, then, the English Church
F
66 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
took' upon itself the work of education, and evangelisation
and the instruction of youth went hand in hand. The
labours of Felix bore good and abundant fruit, the troubles
and wickedness of the land passed away, and the people
continued stedfast in the faith and in godly living.
Some time after the coming of Felix, an Irish monk
named Fursey or Fursa arrived in East Anglia. He was
of noble birth, and is said to have been the son of a
^' prince of Munster, and great-nephew of the famous
St. Brendan, the voyager, who founded the monastery of
Clonfert. Brendan, who died in 577, is said to have baptized
and taught him ; he was learned in the Scriptures and in
monastic discipline, and had himself founded a monastery in
Ireland. Full of the fervid spirit and eager desire to preach
Christ in foreign lands, which were conspicuous in his great-
uncle and in many other saints of his Church, he left Ireland
and came to East Anglia, accompanied by his two brothers
Ultan and Foillan, a bishop, and two priests named Gobban
and Dicuil. Sigbert received him with honour, for he had
probably learnt in Gaul to venerate the Irish missionaries,
and though nothing is said as to any connection between
Fursey and Felix, we may be sure that the Irish monk
received a warm welcome from the bishop, whose native land
owed so much to the labours of Columban. Fursey's preach-
ing and the holiness of his life were the means of converting
many of the East Anglians to Christianity, and of strengthen-
ing and edifying others who already believed. After a while
he fell sick, and being deeply impressed with the uncertainty
of life, determined to give himself to prayer and watchfulness.
Accordingly, he lost no time in building a monastery on the
site of an ancient fortress, the present Burgh Castle in Suffolk,
which he had received from Sigbert, and took up his abode
there with his little company. Before long, however, he
determined to spend the rest of his Hfe as an anchoret, he
withdrew altogether from active work, ceased to preach, and
even gave up the care of his monastery to his companions.
His house was enriched in later years by the kings and nobles
of East Anglia. Before his retirement from work, Fursey
used to relate, for the edification of the penitents who came
to consult him at his monastery, certain visions which he had
IV PEN'DA OF MERCIA 67
had in Ireland during a time of bodily sickness and ecstatic
exaltation of mind. These visions, which were held of much
account both in the English Church and on the continent,
belong to a class of narratives which were the delight and
terror of mediaeval times, and suggested the plan of one
of the greatest poems of the world. From the wild narrative
of the Irish monk to the sublime conceptions of the Florentine
poet is certainly a long step, yet Fursey's visions of the
heavenly host, of devils, and of the purgatorial flames through
which he was led by angel-guides, seemed awful and con-
vincing to the men of his time. They can have lost nothing
by his manner of relating them, for they were so real to
him that one who heard him tell them on a bitterly cold day,
when he was clad only in a thin garment, saw the sweat pour
from him while he spoke, as though it had been the height of
summer.
Meanwhile a terrible disaster had befallen the Church in
Northumbria. Either in 6 2 6, or 6 2 7, the year of Eadwine's bap-
tism, the kingship of the Mercians passed to one of
the royal line named Penda, who was then in his o?Eadw!n^'s
fiftieth year. He was a man of remarkable energy and i^ingdom,
ability, and raised the Mercians from a mere tribe
to be a powerful people. He shook off the Northumbrian
supremacy and established a rival state in the Midlands.
The rise of Mercia was probably helped by the conversion of
Eadwine, who as a Christian may possibly, like ^thelbert of
Kent, have become less prone to war than he had been in his
heathen years, for he does not appear to have invaded East
Anglia after the murder of Earpwald, though the relapse of
the people and the anarchy among them must have implied
a certain revolt from his supremacy. Moreover, Penda was
a heathen and must therefore have had the goodwill of all
who, as heathen, regarded the supremacy of a Christian king
with displeasure and alarm. As the champion of heathenism
he used the strife of religions to forward his political designs,
and established his dominion over the whole of the Midlands
from the valley of the Trent to the Welsh border. He also
invaded the territory of the West Saxons and apparently
conquered from them the land of the Hwiccas. Causes of
quarrel between him and Eadwine could not have been wanting.
68 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
The dominion of Eadwine over the Trent valley and Lindsey
threatened to bar him from extending his power eastwards,
and he determined to attack the Northumbrian king. In the
rise of Mercia, Cadwallon of Gwynedd, who had returned
from exile and regained his kingdom, saw an opportunity for
avenging the defeats which Eadwine had inflicted upon him,
and. Christian as he was by profession, he made alliance
with the heathen Penda against him. On October 12, 633,
Eadwine met the allied armies on a wild moorland to the
south of the Don called Haethfelth, or Hatfield Chase. He
was slain in a fierce battle, and his army completely routed,
all who escaped death fleeing every man to his home. One
of Eadwine's sons by his Mercian wife fell with him, the
other, named Eadfrith, escaped and took refuge with Penda,
for he feared to fall into the hands of the Britons. Penda
soon turned southv/ards ; he had not invaded Northumbria
with any idea of conquering that vast kingdom, for his pohcy,
at least at that time, seems to have been directed wholly
towards the extension of his dominion south of the Humber,
and he left his ally to follow up their joint victory. Cad-
wallon, in spite of his nominal Christianity, was a barbarous
foe, and the Christians of Northumbria met with no mercy.
Though they worshipped the same Lord whom he owned, he
reckoned them no better than heathen, for, as we have seen,
the Britons would hold no communion with the EngHsh Chris-
tians, and would not even count them as fellow-worshippers
of Christ. Full of hatred against the Northumbrians, alike
as the enemies of his people, and as the disciples of men who
taught customs contrary to those cherished by the Britons as
signs of their national life, he spared none, but tortured and
slew by cruel deaths all who fell into his hands, respecting
neither the weakness of women nor the innocence of little
children. Boasting that he would destroy the whole English
race in Britain, he led his army from one district to another,
leaving every place to which he came desolate and without
inhabitant.
The tidings brought to ^Ethelburh and Paulinus of
Eadwine's defeat and death were terribly confirmed, for one
came to York bearing the king's head, which had probably
been cut off by his enemies after his death. They buried
IV FLIGHT OF PAULINUS 69
it in the unfinished minster in a porch or chapel dedicated
to St. Gregory. Eadwine's zeal for the faith, and his death
in battle against a heathen king, caused him to
be reverenced as a saint and martyr. Paulinus, p^'^^jj^^/
seeing no hope of safety except in flight, took with
him the widowed queen, whom eight years before he had
accompanied to her new home, left Northumbria by sea,
and sailed to Kent under the escort of one of Eadwine's
most valiant thegns. How far he was justified in leaving
his flock may be questioned; he doubtless held that he
was acting in accordance with the Lord's command to His
apostles as to flight from persecution. ^thelburh took
with her Eanflaed, her little son Wuscfrea, and one of her
husband's grandsons by his Mercian wife ; and Paulinus
carried away from York a large gold cross and the chalice
used in the service of the altar, which were long afterwards
preserved in the cathedral church of Canterbury.
The fugitives were kindly received by Eadbald. At the
request of the king and Archbishop Honorius, Paulinus took
charge of the bishopric of Rochester which had remained
without a bishop since the death of Romanus some six years
before. Eadwine had joined with his brother-in-law Eadbald
in sending a request to Pope Honorius that when one of
the metropolitans of Canterbury and York should die, his
successor might be consecrated by the survivor. Though
this had expressly been laid down by Gregory, they con-
sidered their request necessary, for neither Honorius nor
Paulinus had received a pall, and Felix was the only bishop
of the English Church left to assist at a consecration.
The pope's answer, dated June 11, came to Canterbury late
in the autumn of 634 ; he sent palls both to Honorius and
Paulinus directing that when either of them died, the other
should consecrate a successor to him. But as Paulinus did
not receive his pall until after he had lost the see of York,
he was never an archbishop in fact, and, as we shall see, the
line of archbishops of York did not begin until the eighth
century. He died at Rochester on October 10, 644, and his
pall remained in the church there. Along with the palls, the
pope sent a letter to Eadwine, of whose death he had not heard.
Very sorrowful must have been the feelings with which
70 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
^thelburh, and Paulinus, and the Church in Kent read the
pope's expressions of joy at the king's faith and zeal, his
exhortation to him to remain stedfast, his advice to him that
he should often cause the works of Gregory to be read to
him, and his concluding prayer that God would guard him.
^thelburh did not remain in her brother's court ; the blow
which had fallen upon her caused her to feel a distaste for the
things of this world; she founded a monastery at Lyminge
and there ended her days. The foundations of her little
church may still be seen, and St. ^^thelburga's well and Tatta's
Leas at Lyminge still preserve the memory of the saintly
queen to whose gentle influence the Church owed so much.
At Eadwine's death, his kingdom split into its two com-
ponent parts. The sons of ^thelfrith, who had been baptized
and instructed in Christianity during their sojourn
The hateful amonsf the Picts and Scots, returned from exile, and
year, 033-034. ^ ,
the Bernicians made the eldest of them, Eanfrith,
their king, while the Deirans chose Eadwine's cousin, Osric,
who had been baptized by Paulinus. Neither king had any
secure power, for Cadwallon occupied York and was ravaging
far and wide. Times of general calamity, of defeat, pestilence,
or famine sorely try the faith of new converts from heathenism ;
they are tempted to regard their troubles as consequences of
their desertion of the gods of their race, and to return to
their former worship in the hope of appeasing their anger.
Both Osric and Eanfrith apostatized, probably in order to
satisfy their warriors, and both were slain by Cadwallon.
The memory of the year that succeeded Eadwine's death,
the year of the apostasy of the Northumbrian kings and of
Cadwallon's ravages, was so abhorred by the Christians
that, in later days, it was commonly spoken of as " the hateful
year." The short reigns of the apostate kings were treated as
though they had not been, and the regnal years of the next
Christian king of the Northumbrians were reckoned from
Eadwine's death, in like manner as the regnal years of
Charles IL are reckoned from the execution of Charles L
Yet even during this hateful year the candle of
James the ^hc Church was not extinguished in Northumbria.
Though Paulinus left his bishopric, his deacon
James remained, faithful and undismayed. He saw the over-
IV BATTLE OF HE AVENFIELD 71
throw of the earthly power which upheld the Church ; he saw
violence, death, and apostasy on every side; he heard the
reasons which satisfied his ecclesiastical chief that it was his
duty to depart ; he knew that Paulinus and his company were
going to a land where they would find safety and honour,
yet he would not leave God's people in their day of trial, nor
cease from the work to which his Lord had called him. He
took up his abode in a village near Catterick, where in happier
times he had often stayed with Paulinus and Eadwine, and
there laboured with much success, and baptized many converts.
He was well skilled in music, and when peace was restored
to the land taught his converts, along with the other customs
of the Roman Church, the Roman chants composed by
Gregory the Great. The English were a musical people, and
church music held a prominent place in the instruction
which they received from their Christian teachers. The
clergy of the Roman obedience taught the cantics Homanns
or cajitus Gregoriamis used at Canterbury; while the Scots,
who for a time carried on their work, taught some mode of
chanting of which nothing seems to be known. James was
alive thirty years after the " hateful year," and, as we shall see,
was then one of the leaders of the Roman party in the North.
The village in which he lived and worked so long was called
by his name, but cannot be identified, for the guess that
Akeburgh near Catterick is a corruption of Jacobsburgh is
not satisfactory ; even the date of his death is unknown,
but it may truly be said of him that his name liveth for
evermore.
After the death of the apostate Eanfrith, his brother Oswald
gathered a force to oppose Cadwallon. He had been baptized
in lona together with twelve of his followers, ^^d ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^j.
it was as a Christian that he called on the Heavenfieid,
Northumbrians to support him ; he is said to have ^" ° ^''
been accompanied by the twelve nobles who had been baptized
with him, and his army is described as " strengthened by faith
in Christ." He encamped on some high land called Heaven-
field, and took up a position immediately behind the Roman
wall, and seven or eight miles north of Hexham. Thither
Cadwallon, at the head of a far larger host, advanced to attack
him. The night before the battle, as Oswald slept in his tent
72 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
fully armed, with his head upon a pillow, he had a vision of
St. Columba, who appeared to him standing in the midst of
the camp with his head reaching to heaven, and shielding with
his shining robe all save a small portion of the English army.
The saint announced himself, and bade Oswald give battle at
once, for the Lord would deliver his enemies into his hand.
This vision was told to Adamnan, the ninth abbot of lona
and the biographer of St. Columba, by his predecessor, Failbhe,
who heard it from Oswald himself. Oswald at once ordered
his army to be drawn up, caused his men hastily to make a
cross of timber and erect it on a little eminence as a standard
for his troops, and himself held it with both his hands while
they filled in the earth about it. When it was firmly fixed he
addressed his army in a loud voice, saying, "Let us all kneel
and join in prayer to the Almighty, the living and true Lord,
that of His mercy He will defend us from our proud and
cruel foe, for He knoweth that the cause for which v.-e fight
is just." All knelt with him, and when their prayer was over,
they charged the host of the Britons. The enemy gave way
at once, and the English pressed them hard, so that the battle
rolled eastwards, until, according to tradition, the Britons
made a stand about two miles from the spot where Oswal
had set up the cross, and were finally overthrown there
Cadwallon fled southwards until he reached a stream called
Denisesburn, probably Rowley Water, where the English came
up with him and slew him. Oswald's victory was complete,
and the British host, which its leader had declared invincibl
was totally destroyed. The place of the English camp is still
called St. Oswald's, and a Uttle chapel dedicated to the king
probably marks the spot where he set up the cross as a
standard for his army. It was then the only cross that had
been erected in Bernicia. It stood for many years, and
splinters of it were believed to work miracles. The monks of /
Hexham used to celebrate mass at the place each year on tW
day of Oswald's death, and before long built a church there:
The victory of Heavenfield gave Oswald the kingshipK
of the whole of Northumbria, for as ^thelfrith's son |
mission he was acknowledged by the Bernicians as their/
of the Scots, j^^i-^j-j^i \q^^^ ^\\\\q tlie Deirans received him both/
as the son of Eadwine's sister Acha, and as their deliverer
IV RESULTS OF THE ROMAN MISSION y^
ffcm the ravages of the Britons. Under Inm tlic Church in
Northumbria entered on a new and more vigorous Hfe, and^
a period began during which far and wide in England the
rehgion of Christ won a succession of permanent victories
over heathenism, and took a firm hold on the people. Th?
principal agents in this religious progress were Scots wlio
came from lona and Ireland, and carried on and extended
the work begun by the Roman missionaries. Their devotioi
and the beauty of their lives deserve our admiration, the
work which they accomplished, our gratitude. One by one
the Roman missionaries had passed away until very few
could have been left in England; fresh labourers were
urgently needed, for the harvest was plenteous and labourers
few. The followers of St. Columba willingly offered them-
selves to the Lord of the harvest, and gathered abundantly
into His garner.
Yet, while we do them honour, we must not be led either
by our admiration for them and their work, or by any narrow-
minded desire to minimise our obligations to Rome,
to underrate what Rome and the continental mis- ti^J^Roman
sionaries did for our Church. It is true that the "''^^'°"-
hopes of Gregory and Augustine to some extent failed of fulfil-
ment, and some have inconsiderately spoken of what they did
as though it was of small account compared with the work
accomplished by the Scots. Let us give to both their due.
During the thirty-seven years which had passed between the
landing of Augustine and the battle of Lleavenfield, three
organised bishoprics had been established, — at Canterbury and
at Rochester directly by the Romans, and in East Anglia by a^
Burgundian bishop sent from Canterbury. The Kentish and
East Anglian peoples had been converted, and become settled
in the faith. The people of Lindsey had heard the Gospel,
from Paulinus, and though the East Saxons had relapsed into
idolatry, they were not as those who had never heard the
Gospel; in the midst of heathen London there still stood
the minster of Mellitus as a witness against the apostasy of
the city. Before long, another Italian bishop became the
apostle of the West Saxons, and at a later time the South
Saxons were converted by an English bishop who was the
head of the Roman party in the North. At the accession of
74 SUCCESS AND REVERSE chap.
Oswald there must have been much heathen darkness in
Northumbria. Yet the work of Paulinus in Deira, during the
six years of Eadwine's rule as a Christian king, cannot have
been undone by a single year of trouble, and was carried on
successfully in one district by his deacon James. Compara-
tively little had, it is true, been done in Bernicia, but Oswald's
appeal to his army, which must have been largely if not
entirely gathered from that country, shows that even there
Paulinus had brought to many at least some knowledge of
God and of the way of salvation. A foundation had been
laid on which others could build. The Midlands lay
untouched by the Gospel, and there the Scots broke new
ground. Yet, the work of the Romans must have had an
indirect effect even in those districts, for the hold of heathen-
ism on the people must have been weakened by their contact
with the Christianity of their neighbours. And, besides the
measure of success which attended the work of the Roman
missionaries, it must be remembered tliat they opened the
way for the Gospel among a people hitherto in ignorance of
it, and that it was not until they had done this that the
Scots attempted to preach to their heathen neighbours.
Roman missionaries first brought the Gospel to the Engli^
and founded a Church which became the bond of theil
ecclesiastical unity, and in later times a pattern for theii
national unity. They set an example to the Scots and pi
pared the w^ay for their missionaries, they made a good an^
substantial beginning of a work which others continued for)
thirty years with zeal and success, they laboured, and othe^
men entered into their labours. It may perhaps be as-^W^l
to repeat the warning that we must not be led by any vague
expression, such as " the Celtic Church," to confuse the
Scots and the Britons. The British Church contributed
nothing to the evangelisation of the English people, the
Church of England is neither its successor nor in any degree
its heir, and it has not inaptly been said of the English
Church that "the Roman planted, the Scot watered, the
Briton did nothing."
IV AUTHORITIES 75
Authorities. — This chapter is almost wholly founded on Bede's Historia
Eccles., with help from the works of Canon IBright and Mr. Plurnmer as
before. Green's Making of England, London, 1881, may be consulted for
an account of Eadwine's dominions and rule, but should be compared with
Professor Rhys's Celtic Britain, pp. 129-131, 136-138, London, S. P.C.K.
For the cathedral and monastic schools of Gaul see Guizot's Histoire de
la Civilisation en France, Le9on XV. Paris, 1859, and for the work of St.
Columban and his followers, Jonas, Vita S. Columbani and Montalembert
as before. The ancient life of St. Fursey used by Bede is in Acta SS.,
BoUand. , Jan. 16, and elsewhere, and is re-edited in Acta SS. Ilibernice,
Edinburgh and London, 1888, see also Bp. Healy's Insula Sancto7-iim,
U.S. For the site of the battle of Heavenfield see Raine's Priory of Hexham,
Introd. , Surtees Soc. , Nos. 44, 46, 1864-1865.
CHAPTER V
ST. AIDAN
As soon as Oswald became king he sought to bring the whole
of his people to the Christian faith. To this end he sent to
lona, where he had himself been baptized, and
The mission askcd his former teachers to send him a bishop to
' ^"' ^^ teach his people ; for, as we have already seen.
Christians in early days always, if possible, began a mission
by entrusting it to a bishop, thus providing at once for the
institution of an apostolic ministry, confirmation, the conse-
cration of churches, and other like episcopal acts necessary to
the well-being of the future Church. The elder monks of
lona met in council under their abbot Seghine, the fifth in
succession from St. Columba, and a member of his house, and
in accordance with the king's request sent him a bishop.
Bede does not tell us his name, probably because his charitable
feelings kept him from recording the name of a man whom he
was forced unwillingly to represent in an unfavourable light.
That the bishop's name was Corman is perhaps a mere fabrica-
tion of the sixteenth century, for, so far as is known, the
assertion does not rest on earlier or better authority than that
of Boece. He went, but soon came back, and appeared
before the council of the elder monks declaring that he could
do no good to such a wild race as the Northumbrians. A
long debate was held, for the monks were unwilling to give
up their effort for the salvation of the Northumbrian people,
and were deeply grieved at the rejection of the teacher whom
they had sent. At last one of the brethren named Aidan
addressed the bishop saying, " It seems to me, my brother, that
CHAP. V MISSION OF ST. AIDAN 77
you have been somewhat too harsh with these ignorant men,
and have not dealt with them according to the apostle's maxim,
first making your teaching easy, and then going on little by
little until they could receive the deep things of God." Every
eye was at once turned towards the speaker, all approved of
what he said, and with one accord declared that he was the
right man to send to teach the ignorant and unbelieving, for
they saw that he had the wisdom necessary for the work.
Accordingly they caused him to be consecrated bishop. It will
be remembered that " the family of Columba," as the monks
of lona and its dependencies were called, included bishops who
were subject to the abbot, though he was only a priest, and
never took upon himself to perform any episcopal functions,
for while the bishop was personally subject to the abbot, the
dignity and special character of his office were fully recognised.
There would always be bishops residing either at lona, or at
some church dependent on the monastery, whence they could
be sent for when occasion arose, and it is quite certain that
Aidan received bishops' orders from one or more bishops, for
Bede acknowledges his episcopal rank. He was probably con-
secrated not later than July 635, and at once set out on his
mission.
Aidan did not establish himself at York, the city of the
Roman mission. As Oswald chiefly resided in Bernicia, which
under his rule became the more prominent of the
two Northumbrian kingdoms, he settled there, and
chose, as the place of his see and monastery, the little island
of Lindisfarne, called since the eleventh century Holy Isle.
His choice was directed partly by the love of retreat from the
affairs of the world which was specially strong in the holy men
of the Scots, and partly by the nearness of the island to
Bamborough, the royal residence of the Bernician line. At
Lindisfarne he and his monks were at once within easy distance
of Oswald's court, and yet removed from the distractions of
secular life. The island would have been wholly unsuited to
be the dwelling-place of a bishop charged with the adminis-
tration of an organised diocese, or the site of a cathedral
church which was intended to be a centre of diocesan life, and
to afford a pattern of worship to parochial churches. It was,
however, a good place for an establishment which was to be
78 57: A ID AN chap.
both a monastery and a source of missionary activity, not a
place to which strangers would commonly resort, but one
where teachers might be trained and whence they might be
sent forth to labour. It presented strong attractions to
Aidan, for it must have reminded him of his island home,
and have helped him to carry on its traditions, and it gave
him a place of quiet retreat in the intervals between his
missionary journeys. Lindisfarne is only partially an island,
for at low tide it is connected with the mainland by two
miles of wet sand. In extent, it is not more than three miles
from north to south, and a mile and three-quarters from
east to west. Aidan was soon joined there by many monks
from Ireland, most, if not all, of them probably coming by
way of lona. His church was included in the "province,"
as it was called, of the abbot of lona, and in the eyes of all
the Scots of the mission the monastery of St. Columba w^as
the head or stronghold of their Church. In its constitution
Lindisfarne followed the model of lona, though with a differ-
ence, for it was an episcopal see as well as a monastery. The
bishop and all his clergy of every order were monks, and
Aidan, in addition to his episcopal office, ruled the monastery
as its abbot. His successors, however, though they too were
monks, committed the charge of the monastery to an abbot
whom they appointed widi the advice of the brethren. The
prerogative voice which the bishop seems to have exercised
in the appointment had no parallel in lona. As in lona, the
monks ate together in a refectory, and had other buildings for
use in common ; they dwelt in separate cells placed near
together, and the abbot in a cell a little way apart. Aidan's
church must have been rude and temporary, for another was
built by his successor. While on their island the monks spent
their time in devotion, study, and the cultivation of the ground.
Accompanied by some of his monks, Aidan constantly
journeyed about on missionary tours. Wherever he went the
people crowded to hear him, and the number of
The preach- those who bcHeved throudi his words, increased
mg of Aldan. '^ , . ,
continually. At first he could not preach m English,
and the king, who had learnt Erse while in exile at lona, used
to stand by him and tell the people what he was saying.
Before his coming there was not, as we have seen, a single
V SCHOOL A T LINDISFARNE 79
church in all Bernicia, and we read of only two in Deira,
though there were probably more. Under his influence churches
were built in several places, one at Bamborough, where he
had a bed-chamber, and where he often stayed while making
tours in the neighbourhood, and others on various royal
estates. They were, no doubt, quite small buildings, made of
timber and wattle, and covered, roof and sides, with a thatch
of rushes. Nor must we think of them as parish churches,
for the time of parochial organisation had not yet come.
Some were not served by resident priests, and were merely
used from time to time as centres for mission work. Aidan
and his company would go to one of them, stay for a while
preaching, administering the Blessed Sacraments, and working
the surrounding district, and then either return to Lindisfarne,
or go on to some other church, and after Aidan had left, no
more services would be held in the little church until he, or
some other missionary, paid another visit to the district.
Other churches were attached to monasteries, which at this
time began to be built in Northumbria on lands given by the
king, and soon became permanent sources of religious instruc-
tion to the people dwelling near them. Although Aidan had
many fellow-workers of his own race, he was too wise to be
content that the Northumbrians should remain dependent upon
foreign teachers. He formed a school at Lindisfarne, such as
Felix established at Dunwich, and the Roman missionaries at
Canterbury, and kept twelve English youths in the monastery,
teaching them, in order that in after-years they might minister
to their own people. Two at least of these youths became
famous as bishops. Divine example caused the number
twelve to be commonly fixed on as that of the disciples of a
Christian teacher. Each of the monasteries founded by St.
Benedict about Subiaco contained an abbot and twelve monks,
Columba and Columban are each said to have left Ireland
with twelve followers, and the same number occurs frequently
at all periods in the records of monastic and collegiate founda-
tions. So too, as we have seen, eleven attendants received
baptism along with Eadwine's infant daughter Eanflaed, and
twelve thegns followed Oswald into the baptismal water. The
school at Lindisfarne did not stand alone ; English lads were
received into the other Northumbrian monasteries, founded
So ST. AID AN CHAP.
by the Scots, and were instructed in religious learning and
monastic discipline. In reading of the rapid progress of the
evangelisation of Northumbria under Aidan and his com-
panions, we must not forget that they built upon a foundation
laid by Paulinus. Like Paulinus, Aidan had the eager support
of a powerful king, and unlike him he had no lack of fellow-
workers. Far distant from Rome, the Roman mission
gradually dwindled, as one after another was removed by
death ; and though the work of training up a native ministry
was, as will be seen later, by no means neglected at Canterbury,
time had not yet been given for it to yield a large supply of
clergy, while the mission from lona was constantly recruited
by the coming of fresh teachers.
Yet the chief cause of Aidan's success as a missionary in
Northumbria is to be found in his personal character. Bede
is never weary of descanting on the beauty and
Aidan's holiness of his life, which, he says, answered to his
preaching, for he was full of gentleness and piety.
He despised earthly honours and riches, and would never
accept anything save the little island on which he and his
monks raised food enough to supply their daily needs. When
great men visited him he received them hospitably, according
to the custom at lona, but he would never seek to gain their
favour by gifts, and whatever they brought to him, he would
distribute to the poor or apply to the redemption of those
unjustly held in slavery. Many whom he redeemed from
bondage became his disciples, were admitted into the band of
his scholars, and were afterwards ordained by him to the
priesthood. In striking contrast to the habits of the people
round him were his abstinence and the purity of his life.
He established the custom observed in lona of fasting l5n ,
Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour, or three in the.
afternoon, except during the fifty days between Easter and
Pentecost, kept by the primitive Church as a festal .season.
This custom was not of course peculiar to the ' Columbite
monks ; it was as ancient as the time of Clement of Alexandria
{fl. 200) and his contemporary Tertullian, and was inculcated
on the monks of the Thebaid by St. Pachomius, whose rule was
made known in Europe by St. Jerome. On days other than
fast days, Aidan and his monks followed the maxim of St.
V RECITATION OF PSALMS 8i
Columba that the food of monks should be simple, and taken
after mid-day. Knowing how strict the bishop's abstinence
w^as, Oswald seldom invited him to feast with him and his
thegns. When he was so bidden, he would bring one or two
of his clergy with him, and as soon as he had eaten a little
would leave the hall, and hasten away to read and pray with
his brethren. His words were full of authority, and he was
severe in his reproofs of sin ; yet he was exceedingly tender
and sympathetic, he consoled the sick, provided for the poor,
and insisted on the duty of pitifulness. He had a full share
of the warm-heartedness of his race together with some of its
impulsiveness. Never, if he could help it, would he journey
otherwise than on foot, and if as he walked he saw any,
whether rich or poor, near his path, he would turn aside and
go to them, and if he found that they were heathens would
urge them to be baptized, and if they were already Christians
would exhort them to stedfastness in the faith, to almsgiving,
and other good works.
As became a follower of Columba he was never idle, and
would not allow his attendants to waste any time. When
they were not engaged in work he bade them
exercise their minds on the Scriptures and specially ^^^ p*^"" ?^
the psalter, for the place which the psalms held in
Christian worship suggested a ready means of keeping the
mind employed on sacred things. In the primitive Church the
singing of psalms and hymns, together with the use of the Lord's
Prayer, was apparently the earliest form of public worship, apart
from the sacramental words, and was customary at funerals at
a very early date, for we are told that when St. Antony buried
Paul the hermit, he sang psalms, according to the tradition of
the Church. The Fathers of the Egyptian deserts ordained
that twelve psalms were to be recited at vespers and twelve at
nocturns ; the services of the seven canonical hours consisted
almost wholly of psalms, and a postulant for admission into
one of the monasteries of the Thebaid was employed during
the period of his probation in learning the psalms by heart.
By the holy men of the Scots the recitation of psalms was
given a foremost place in religious exercises. Of St. Patrick
it is said that he would recite " the three fifties," that is the
whole psalter which was thus divided, and his disciple St,
G
82 ST. AIDAN CHAP.
Benignus was called his " psalm-singer." So, too, St. Columba's
powerful voice is said to have cowed the Druids, as night by
night he and his monks would chant the evening psalms
before the dwelling of the King of the Picts. Columba would
recite the whole psalter during his nocturnal penances ; and
Aidan used to make the monks who accompanied him on his
journeys employ themselves as they walked, either in reading
the Scriptures or reciting psalms. Strenuous in working out
his own salvation as in seeking the salvation of others, he
w^ould not, we are told, disregard a single one of the com-
mands left by Apostle, Evangehst, or Prophet, but fulfilled
them all to the utmost of his power. From time to time,
however, the craving for solitude, so strong in the saints of
his race, caused him to retire not only from his missionary
work, but even from the monastic life of Lindisfarne, and
dwell for a season as a hermit on the little island then called
Fame, and now House island. There he gave himself to
prayer and meditation, gathering, during these periods of retreat,
fresh strength for his life of service.
Bede observes with regret that Aidan adhered to the Celtic
Easter. Yet though his practice on this point was not that of
the Church generally, his heart was catholic ; there
Catholicity ^Y^g nothing of the schismatic in his spirit or teach-
° ^^'" ' ing ; nor, so long as he lived, did any trouble arise
among the English Christians on the matter. Archbishop
Honorius and Bishop Felix both held him in honour, for they
were men of like spirit ; and Bede, strong as he was upon the
Easter question, pours out the treasures of his loving heart in
praise of him to whom his people owed so deep a debt. He
points out that though Aidan held the fourteenth day of the
moon as one on which Easter might fall, he was no " Quarto-
deciman," for he always kept the feast on the Lord's Day,
both in memory of Christ's resurrection and in the hope of
the resurrection of the dead, which the Cathohc Church
believed would be accomplished on that day. Then rising
to higher things than dates, he records his approval of Aidan's
doctrine, saying that "he held, revered, and preached not
otherwise than we do ourselves, the redemption of mankind
by the passion, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven of
Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man."
V OSWALD OF NORTHUMBRIA 83
Oswald was not unworthy of his bishop. When he came
to the throne he was thirty years old ; and, if we may trust a
twelfth -century description of him purporting to
have been derived from an old English book, he was o/the Nortii-
a tall, strong man, with long hands and arms, and "J^*^^^^"""'
broad shoulders ; his face was long and cheery of
aspect, he had yellow hair, blue eyes, and a thin beard. So
far as religion was concerned, his life was such as would have
adorned the monastery which shelt^ered him in exile. In
spite of his kingly dignity, the poor man and the stranger
found him humble and affable as well as gene'rous. He was
much in prayer, and the gesture that he used in supplication,
raising his hands with the palms uppermost, was so habitual
with him that he generally sat with his hands so spread out
upon his knees. Bede's remark that he would often remain
in prayer from the time of matins, that is, either midnight, or
at least before three in the morning, until daybreak, suggests
that he was in the habit of rising for prayer and thanksgiving
at the hour of matins, as the monks did. Besides giving lands
for the erection of monasteries, he finished the stone minster
at York begun by Eadwine and Paulinus, built other churches
and enriched them, and the minster at York no doubt above
all, with gifts of sacred vessels of gold and silver, with altar-
cloths worked in gold and gems, with draperies and hanging
lamps. Sparing in what he spent on himself, he v;as lavish in
what he spent in the service of God and the relief of the poor.
He added to the officers of his court, such as the dish-thegn
or server, the bower -thegn or chamberlain, and the like, a
thegn whose special charge it was to dispense his alms.
One Easter Sunday, it is said, when Aidan sat with him at
dinner, there was placed upon the table before him a large
silver dish laden with royal meats \ both the king and the
bishop had stretched their hands over it, joining in asking a
blessing on the food, when the king's almoner came in
suddenly, and said that poor people from all the country
round were sitting in the streets and asking for alms from the
king. Oswald at once ordered that the food on the dish
before him should be taken to them, and that the dish itself
should be broken into small pieces and divided among them.
Delighted at the king's charity, Aidan seized his hand and
84 ST. A/DAN chap.
cried, " May this hand never decay ! " Bede says that in his
time Oswald's hands remained incorrupt in a silver reliquary
in St. Peter's Church at Bamboroug'n, and were objects of
general veneration. According to the twelfth century Life of
Oswald, the faith of the new converts in Northumbria was
tried by a pestilence which carried off large numbers of people.
Oswald is said to have prayed, like David, that the stroke
might fall on him and that his people might be delivered ; he
fell sick and received the Eucharist as one at the point of
death. On his recovery, he said that he had seen a vision of
angels, who told him of his future martyrdom and declared
that the pestilence was stayed in answer to his prayer. The
author of the Life says that he took the story from an old
English book, and, though this does not count for much,
it may have a basis of truth, and possibly refers to an earlier
wave of the plague which afterwards broke with full force
on every part of the land. The main features of the story
seem to derive some corroboration from an alleged cure of
the plague in Ireland by a relic of St. Oswald, and from the
belief that his intercession was successfully invoked during an
outbreak of the plague among the South Saxons.
Oswald was a powerful king and a valiant warrior as well
as a deeply religious man. He is said to have exercised
supremacy over the nations and provinces of the
His power. .'■.■' , , .'-......
four languages then spoken m this island, by
Britons, Picts, Scots, and English ; he probably assumed the
title of Bretwalda which is given to him at a later date, for
Adamnan, Abbot of lona, seems to refer to it when he says
that Oswald was " ordained by God emperor over the whole
of Britain." According to Bede, who was naturally in-
clined to magnify his power, he ruled as widely as Eadwine
had ruled before him. His victory over Cadwallon seems to
have rendered him formidable to Penda, for, probably not
long afterwards, the Mercian king treacherously slew Eadwine's
son Eadfrith, who had taken shelter with him, in order, it
may fairly be supposed, to gain Oswald's favour by removing
a possible claimant to the Northumbrian kingship. Yet,
though this evil deed was, no doubt, profitable to Oswald,
there is not sufficient ground for asserting that it was com-
mitted at his instigation, and we have a fair right to believe
V DEATH OF SIGBERT 85
that he was innocent of participation in a crime condemned
by heathen as well as Christian morality. His innocence,
however, is by no means certain. It is true that Bede does
not blame Oswald for the murder, but negotiations on such
a matter may well have been kept secret. Christianity does
not always avail to preserve men from falling into awful sin ;
and it is certain that there were Christian people living in
Oswald's time who would not have been surprised if they
had heard that he had incited Penda to slay his guest.
^Ethelburh indeed thought that her little son Wuscfrea and
her husband's grandson were not safe from Oswald even at
her brother's court, and sent them over to Gaul to her
cousin Dagobert, King of the Neustrian Franks, at whose
court they died.
Though Oswald's superiority seems for a time to have
been acknowledged by Penda, he soon found himself no
match for the Mercian king. He conquered ,
Lindsey, which seems to have regained its inde- invasions of
pendence on Eadwine's death, but was evidently ^^'^ ^"^^''''
unable to save the Christian kingdom of East Anglia
from heathen invasion. Sigbert had retired from his
kingly duties, had received the tonsure, and entered a
monastery which he had built at Betrichsworth, or as it is
called now Bury St. Edmunds, leaving his kingdom to be
ruled by his kinsman Egric. When Penda invaded the land,
probably in 636, the East Anglians, finding that he had a
stronger army than any which they could bring against him,
besought their former king to lead them, for Sigbert had
been a valiant warrior in his time, and his presence would
give them confidence. Sigbert refused to leave his monastery,
was drawn from it against his will, and taken with the army.
Mindful of his monastic profession, he would not bear arms,
and went to battle against Penda, holding only a wand in his
hand. His army was routed, and he and Egric were both
slain. He was succeeded by his kinsman Anna, a pious
man, who gave lands to Fursey's monastery and sup-
ported Bishop Felix in his work of evangelisation. Another
Mercian invasion, probably in or soon after 640, caused
Fursey to leave East Anglia; he crossed to Gaul and
founded a monastery at Lagny on the Marne. After his
86 ST. A WAN chap.
death his brothers Foillan and Ultan also migrated to
Gaul.
About the time that Aidan began his work in Northumbria,
tlie Gospel was brought to the West Saxons directly from
r. . Rome, without any action on the part of the Church
Conversion ' -^ -^ . . , .
of the West at Canterbury. An Italian named Bumus, who is
axons, 635. ^^.^ ^^ Winchester tradition to have been a monk
of St. Andrew's monastery at Rome, the home of St.
Augustine and his company, requested Pope Honorius to
send him as a missionary to the Enghsh. Honorius for-
warded his wish by causing him to be consecrated bishop
at Genoa by Asterius, Archbishop of Milan ; no diocese was
assigned to him, he was to choose his sphere of work for
himself He landed in the country of the Gewissas, as the
West Saxons originally called themselves, on the coast of our
Hampshire, and finding the people wholly ignorant of the
Gospel, stayed and worked amongst them, though he had
intended to go farther north into the central parts of the
island. His preaching was successful ; the West Saxon king
Cynegils and his witan accepted Christianity probably in 635,
and Cynegils was prepared for baptism as a catechumen.
Just at that time he received a visit from Oswald, whose
supremacy he had acknowledged in order probably to
secure an ally against Mercian aggression. The tie between
the two kings was to be strengthened, for Oswald came to
marry the daughter of Cynegils, who is said to have been
named Cyneburga, or Cyneburh, as her own people would
have called her. During his visit Cynegils was baptized by
Birinus at Dorchester, on the north bank of the Thames.
Oswald acted as sponsor for him, and, as the custom then was,
raised him from out of the font. The baptism of Cynegils is
an event of peculiar interest, for it was the admission into the
Christian Church of the head of the royal house which was
destined to obtain the kingship of the whole English nation, the
house of Ecgbert and Alfred, from which our present gracious
Queen traces her descent. The two kings gave Dorchester to
Birinus that he might make it the place of his see ; Oswald
either ratifying the donation of Cynegils as his superior, or
simply joining him in buying the place which, though import-
ant in British and Roman times, as the vast earthworks to the
V CONVERSION OF THE WEST SAXONS 87
south of it still b -ar witness, had probably been laid waste by
the Saxons. In judging of the fitness of Dorchester to be the
seat of the bishopric of the West Saxons, it must be remembered
that at that time their territory included the present Bucking-
hamshire, and was bounded on the west by the land of the
Hwiccas, lately conquered by the Mercians, and the forest of
Selwood. The ancient church of St. Peter and St. Paul at
Dorchester probably marks the spot where Cynegils received
baptism, and is a successor of the church of Birinus. Many
of the West Saxons followed the example of their king.
Cwichelm, his son and colleague, who a short time before had
sent an assassin to kill Eadwine of Northumbria, was baptized
soon after the baptism of Cynegils, and died the same year,
and three years later Birinus baptized, and stood godfather
to, Cwichelm's son Cuthred. Birinus travelled up and down
among the West Saxons, brought much people to the Lord,
and built and dedicated many churches which were used as
missionary stations.
Some hindrance to the bishop's work must have arisen on
the death of Cynegils in 643, for he was succeeded by his
son Cenwalh, or Coinwalch, who was a heathen
and had married a daughter of Penda. Soon Kln'^'ofthe
after his accession Cenwalh put away Penda's "^^ ''l^f^^^'^'^'
daughter and took another wife, probably the
Sexburh, or Sexburga, who outlived him. This offended
the Mercian king, who drove him from his kingdom. He
took refuge with Anna, king of the East Anglians, and
so came under strong Christian influence, for Anna had a
pious family, two of his daughters, ^thelburh and ^thel-
thryth, or Etheldreda, of whom we shall hear again, be-
came abbesses, a third was a recluse, and a step-daughter
Saethryth also an abbess. Cenwalh was converted during his
exile, and in 646 was baptized by Bishop FeHx. A year
later, on March 8, 647, Felix died at Dunwich after seventeen
years of episcopal and missionary work. He is deservedly
reckoned as a saint, and it is generally asserted that Felixstowe
on the Suffolk coast was called after him. An early form of
the name, Filthstowe, suggests that this belief is mistaken,
though the memory of St. Felix probably caused the old
name to assume its present and more pleasing form. After
88 ST. AIDAN chap.
three years of exile, Cenwalh was enabled by the help of his
nephew Cuthred to return to his kingdom, and reigned as
a Christian king at Winchester, where he built a minster
dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul, which was the
forerunner of the present cathedral church, though it was not
until a few years later that it became a bishop's church.
About two years after its dedication, St. Birinus passed to
his reward on December 3, 650. No notice occurs of any
communication between him and Archbishop Honorius. He
was succeeded at Dorchester by a Frank named Agilbert, a
form of the English name ^thelbert, who had been consecrated
before he came to England, probably in Gaul and, as it vv'ould
seem, without being appointed to any diocese. He had spent
a long time in Ireland, studying the Scriptures at some of the
famous monastic schools of the Scots, and came thence to
Cenwalh and offered to preach to his people. Cenwalh
finding him learned and active made him his bishop. As a
Frank, he adhered to the Roman Easter which had been
taught by his predecessor.
Meanwhile trouble had fallen upon Aidan and the Church
in Northumbria. According to a late, though not improbable
„ , ^ tradition, Oswald warred successfully against Penda,
Battle of ' ^ , . ^ .
Maserfeith, and IS cvcn said to have forced him to retreat nito
^'^^' Wales. Penda made alliance with Cadwalader, the
son of Cadwallon, and on August 5, 642, met Oswald in battle
at Maserfeith, which may be identified with Oswestry, in
Shropshire. Oswestry (Oswald's cross) must have derived
its name either from a cross set up to mark the site of
the battle, or perhaps from one reared by Oswald himself,
as in his victorious fight at Heavenfield, to be a standard
for his army. On the other side, Penda is said to have
invoked the help of his gods by magical arts. The battle
was fierce ; the Christian army was destroyed and Oswald
himself was slain. He died as he had lived with a prayer
upon his lips, for as his foes closed round him, and he
saw that his hour was come, he prayed for the salvation
of his warriors. His last words were preserved in the
narrative of the battle that the English loved to hear from
the lips of their minstrels — " The Lord have mercy on their
souls, said Oswald as he fell to earth." The battle was
V BATTLE OF AI AS ERFELTH 89
recognised as a strife between Christianity and paganism, and
the minstrels sang how " the plain of Maserfelth lay white with
the bones of saints." By the command of Penda Oswald's
body was mutilated, and his head and arms fixed on stakes.
A year later they w^ere carried off by the Northumbrians ;
Aidan buried the head in the cemetery at Lindisfarne, and
placed the arms and hands which he had blessed, in the church
of Bamborough. When, in the ninth century, the monks of
Lindisfarne were forced to leave their island home, they laid
the head of St. Oswald in the coffin of their patron St.
Cuthbert, and so at last it came to Durham, and there it was
seen in 11 04 resting in Cuthbert's arms, and was seen once
again when Cuthbert's tomb was opened in the present
century. The holiness of Oswald's life, his zeal for the
Gospel, and his death in battle with the champion of
heathenism, caused him to be reverenced as a saint and a
martyr. Some thirty years after his death his niece, Os-
thryth. Queen of the Mercians, removed his bones from
Maserfelth to Bardney, in Lindsey, where her husband
^thelred had built a monastery. The Lindsey monks were
unwilling to receive the bones of a king who had subjected
their people to the Northumbrian yoke, and the waggon which
bore the relics remained all night outside their gate. All
through the night, we are told, there shone above the waggon
a column of hght which was seen in every part of Lindsey.
In the morning, the monks, convinced of their error, rever-
ently received the bones, and placed them in a tomb in
their church, over which they hung Oswald's banner of
purple wrought with gold. The water used in washing the
relics was believed to have imparted miraculous virtue to the
pavement on which it fell, and the dust of the stones was
used to heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. A scholar in
an Irish monastery was cured, when at the point of death, by
water impregnated by a splinter of the stake on which
Oswald's head had been fixed, and an English missionary to
Frisia proved the efficacy of certain relics of the royal saint
which he had taken with him. The cult of St. Oswald was
widespread, and has been traced from Northern Italy to the
Scandinavian lands.
Oswald's son ^thelwald, or Oidilwald, was a youth at the
90 ST. A ID AN chap.
time of his father's death, and the Bernicians chose their late
king's brother Oswiu, or Oswy, as their king. Oswiu was
about thirty when he came to the throne. He had,
onhe\or3f- li^c Oswald, received baptism w^hile in exile among
T2T1''' ^^ Scots, was firm in the faith, and proved an
energetic and able king. At first it seemed doubt-
ful whether he would succeed in establishing himself on the
throne, for Penda wasted the land far and wide, and even laid
siege to Bamborough. Failing to take the fortress on the
rock, he tried to burn it. He collected a vast quantity of
beams, wall-planks, and thatch from the houses in the neigh-
bouring villages, piled them on the landward side of the
fortress, and set the mass on fire. Aidan, who was then in
retreat on Fame island, saw the flames and the dense cloud
of smoke rolling over the lofty fortress, and, raising his hands
to heaven, cried out with tears, "Behold, Lord, what evils
Penda doeth." As he prayed, the wind shifted and blew
from the sea, so that the flames were turned against those
who kindled them. Penda raised the siege, and led his
army homewards. Though Oswiu was delivered from the
Mercians he had a rival in Northumbria. The tradition
that he was not born of Eadwine's sister Acha may safely
be disregarded as a mere guess in order to account for
the fact that Deira chose another king. The jealousy
between the two Northumbrian provinces needs no such
explanation ; it was of old standing, and constantly showed
itself in a tendency to disruption. Deira, the richer and
more civilised of the two, chose Eadwine's kinsman Oswine as
its king. In the hope, as we may suppose, of gaining a party
in Deira by an alliance with the house of Eadwine, Oswiu
proposed to marry his own cousin Eanflaed, the daughter of
Eadwine and ^Ethelburh, who had been baptized by Paulinus
before her father's conversion. He sent a priest named Utta
to fetch her from Kent by sea, for it would not have been safe
for her to pass through Penda's dominions. Before he started,
Utta asked Aidan to pray for the success of his mission.
Aidan blessed him, and gave him some hallowed oil, tell-
ing him that he would meet w^ith a storm, and bidding him
pour the oil on the waters and they would become calm.
This, as Bede learnt from good authority, actually took place.
V OS WINE OF DEIRA 91
and the storm, which might perhaps have easily been foreseen,
and the effect of the oil, were held to be proofs of the bishop's
prophetic and miraculous powers. Eanfioed arrived safely at
Oswiu's court, was married to him, and as queen proved not
unworthy of her mother ^.thelburh and her grandmother
Bertha. She brought with her as her chaplain a priest named
Romanus, who of course adhered to the catholic date of
Easter and the other Roman usages.
Oswine was much beloved in Deira ; he was tall, handsome,
courteous, cheery of speech, and liberal to all men, gentle and
simple alike. His liberality enlisted in his train volun- oswine
teers from other kingdoms, and was perhaps rather a King in
proof of weakness and good nature than of the piety
which he undoubtedly showed in other ways, and specially by
his humility. He was completely under the influence of
Aidan, who does not seem to have had much personal inter-
course with Oswiu, and was perhaps during the last years of
his life more constantly with Oswine than in Bernicia. A
signal example of Oswine's humility is preserved by Bede.
Grieved that Aidan went on foot on his missionary excursions,
he gave him a valuable horse which he rode himself. Soon
afterwards, as the bishop rode along on the king's horse, he
met a beggar, and, moved with compassion, dismounted and
gave him the horse with all its royal trappings. When
Oswine heard of it he was displeased, and reproached Aidan
for giving away the horse that he had wished him to use him-
self. Aidan replied, " King, what are you saying ? Is that son
of a mare dearer to you than the Son of God ? " The answer,
arrogant as it seems, would be more offensive if, as may be
conjectured, it contained a reference to the superstitions of the
heathen English with reference to the horse, for it would then
imply that the king's remonstrance was dictated by heathenish
feeling. Oswine had returned from hunting, and without
more words he and Aidan went in to dinner. Aidan sat
down in his accustomed place, and the king stood warming
himself by the fire. Suddenly Oswine bethought him of the
bishop's words, he ungirt his sword, gave it to one of his thegns,
and falling at Aidan's feet besought his pardon, declaring
that he would never again object to any alms that the bishop
might give to the children of God from his royal treasure.
92 ST. AIDAN CHAP.
Aidan raised him up, and assured liim of his forgiveness ; so
the king was comforted and sat down joyfully to dinner.
Nevertheless Aidan was sad and his eyes were filled with
tears. His companion, an Irish priest, asked him in their
own tongue, which Oswine and his attendants did not under-
stand, why he was sad, and the bishop answered that it was
because he was sure that the king would not live long, for
he had never seen a humble king. The story illustrates the
extravagant and emotional temperament not uncommon
among the saints of the Celtic race, and the imperious manner
in which the bishops of the Scots' nation were in the habit of
dealing with their disciples even of the highest rank.
Aidan's words were soon fulfilled. Oswiu was determined
to unite the two Northumbrian kingdoms under his own rule,
and gave Oswine no peace. The Deiran king found himself
outnumbered, dismissed his army near Catterick, and with
one faithful thegn sought shelter with one of his nobles named
Hunwald, whom he believed to be his friend. Hunwald
betrayed him to Oswiu, who sent an officer and caused him
and his faithful attendant to be put to death at Gilling, near
Richmond, on August 20, 651. Oswine's body was carried
into Bernicia and buried at Tynemouth, where there was a
chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and where before long
a monastery was built. Oswiu repented of his crime, and at
the request of his wife Eanflaed, Oswine's kinswoman, gave land
at Gilling to an English priest named Trumhere, a relative of
the murdered king, who had been ordained by the Scots, and
bade him build a monastery on it, that prayers might be said
continually for himself and for the soul of him whom he had
slain. Oswine was reckoned as a saint, and his body was
translated, or moved to an honourable place in the church,
on the eve of the Norman Conquest. Eleven days after the
murder of the king whom he had loved, Aidan was called
^ , ^ away. He was suddenly seized with sickness while
Death of Z^ , ■' .
St. Aidan, at Bamborough, and, as it seems, could not be
^^'' moved into the bedchamber which he had there, so
they laid him on the ground outside the little wooden church,
and sheltered him with an awning fixed to the wooden buttress
at the west-end, and there he died on August 31. Catholic
in spirit though not in all matters of practice, St. Aidan is
V HIS DEATH 93
reverenced by the Roman Church as a canonised bishop.
Carrying on the work begun by Paulinus, he was the main
agent in the conversion of the Northumbrians. In Bernicia he
and his companions had almost everything to do, and cannot
be said to have found more than a ground to some extent pre-
pared for their labour ; in Deira they had a good foundation on
which to build, for there Christianity had taken a firmer hold
during the reign of Eadwine. The results of Aidan's work,
however, must not be measured by what he accomplished in his
lifetime. During the thirteen years which followed his death,
the mission that he founded spread over a large part of the
country south of the Humber, and was successful in the con-
version of the Midlands. On the night of his death an
English shepherd boy, keeping watch over his flock in the
Lammermuir country while his companions slept, saw a vision
of angels bearing a soul to heaven, and a few days later knew
that it was at that hour that St. Aidan died. The shepherd
boy was Cuthbert, who afterwards carried on Aidan's work in
Bernicia, and sat in his seat at Lindisfarne.
During these years the Church, both in Kent and East
Anglia, was prospering quietly under Archbishop Honorius.
Eadbald died in 640, and was succeeded by his son ^ .
-^ A native
Earconbert, who married Sexburh, one of the holy clergy in the
daughters of Anna of East Anglia. First of all
English kings, he compelled his people to destroy their idols
and to keep the Lenten fast, enforcing his commands by
penalties set forth in laws. That idolatry should have
lingered on in Kent so long after it had become a Christian
country, may be taken as a proof that the line of conduct
recommended by Gregory with reference to heathenism was not
without danger. Many nominal Christians must have looked
on the religion of Christ rather as an addition to the old
beliefs of their race than as wholly incompatible with them.
Some, perhaps, like Raedwald, worshipped their idols openly ;
others, and probably the larger number, in secret, and only in
connection with the magical arts which had so strong a hold on
the English people. Earconbert's reformation was, as may
be gathered from the mention of legal penalties, a national,
and not a mere personal act, and marks a decided advance
in religion. Evidences, too, are not wanting that the efforts
94 ST. AIDAN chap, v
made at Canterbury and at Dunwich, to train up a native
clergy were bringing forth good results. The first bishop of
English race, a Kentishman named Ithamar, a name probably
assumed at the time, was consecrated by Honorius to the see
of Rochester in 644, and was, we are told, not inferior to his
predecessors either in holiness of life or learning. Again, in
647, Honorius consecrated Thomas, one of a tribe settled
about the marshes of Ely, who had been the deacon of
Felix, to succeed his former master as Bishop of the East
Anglians, and on the death of Thomas in 652, consecrated
another Englishman, named Berctgils, a native of Kent, who
took the name of Boniface, to succeed him at Dunwich.
This speaks of good work. On the other hand, the national
character stamped on the Church at the consecration of
Augustine, v/as apparently farther away than ever from becom-
ing a reality ; for the authority of Honorius seems to have
been confined to Kent and East Angha. Honorius died on
September 30, 653, and for some reason that we do not know,
the see of Canterbury remained vacant for eighteen months,
until, on March 26, 655, the first English archbishop, a West
Saxon, named, according to Canterbury tradition, Frithonas,
was consecrated by Ithamar, and took the name of Deusdedit.
Ithamar was his only consecrator, though he might have
summoned Boniface of East Anglia and Agilbert of Wessex to
assist him, for there was nothing to be said against the orders
of either of them.
Authorities. — Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, u. s., still continues our main
source, with the help of the notes in Mr. Plummer's edition, and of Canon
Bright' s Early English Church Elistory. The so-called A?iglo - Saxon
Chronicle, to be consulted in Two Saxo?i Chronicles Parallel, ed. Plummer,
Oxford, 1892, or with translation in the Rolls series, and Florence of
Worcester's Chronicon, London, 1848, Engl. Hist. Soc. , afford some help,
and Henry of Huntingdon's Historia, of early 12th cent., Rolls series, pre-
serves some traditions and scraps of songs. A Life of St. Oswald, of the
i2th cent., printed with the Works of Symeon of Durham, in the Rolls series,
may contain some genuine traditions, but the Life of Oswine, also of the 12th
cent., in Miscellanea Biographica, Durham, 1838, Surtees Soc, is of little
value for the 7th cent.
CHAPTER VI
THE WHITBY CONFERENCE
On St. Aidan's death the abbot and monks of lona chose one
of their bishops named Finan to succeed him, and sent him to
Lindisfarne. There, Finan built a church which is ^^^^ ^^^^^^
described as worthy of the episcopal see ; it was controversy,
made of sawn timber, and was covered all over with ^''
a thatch of reeds. About forty years later one of Finan's
English successors in the bishopric covered the roof and
walls with sheets of lead. Finan's episcopate is marked by
the beginning of a dispute between the Roman and Irish
parties in Northumbria. About 634 the Southern Irish were
persuaded, chiefly by Cummian one Of the most learned of the
Scots, to adopt the Roman Easter, but the Irish of the North
still held to their own customs, mainly owing to the influence
of lona and its dependencies in Ireland. Cummian had been
brought up in one of Columba's monasteries, and the monks
of lona were displeased at his advocacy of the Roman usages ;
he defended himself in a letter addressed to Abbot Seghine,
in which he argued with great learning against the Celtic
computation. Finan, then, had lived in an atmosphere of con-
troversy before he left lona. He found himself in a Uke
atmosphere in Northumbria. There, one of his own people, a
Scot named Ronan, who had been educated in Gaul and Italy,
was a keen champion of the Roman Easter, and persuaded
many to adopt it. He had some sharp disputes with Finan,
and as he had a bitter temper, he exasperated the bishop and
caused him to cling to the Celtic usages with special tenacity.
In Deira, the deacon James was spreading the observance of
96 THE WHITE Y CONFERENCE chap.
the Roman Easter, and at the Bernician court Finan was
confronted with a more dangerous opponent than either James
or Ronan, for Oswiu's queen, Eanflsed, was on the Roman side,
and was upheld by her chaplain Romanus, who ministered to
her and her attendants, while the king adhered to the teaching
of the Scots. Aidan's sweetness of temper and catholicity of
spirit had disarmed opposition. Finan, however, was a man of
another mould ; he had much to try him, and became
embittered by opposition, so that things did not go smoothly
in the Church in Northumbria, though the dispute did not
come to a head until after Finan's death, which took place in
66i.
Nevertheless, the Church did good work under Finan, for
Oswiu, though he had sinned in putting Oswine to death, was
Evan-eiisa- zcalous for the Spread of the Gospel, and it was
tionSfthe owing to him that, soon after Aidan had died,
Angiians, Christianity was preached to the people of the
^^2' Midlands and to the East Saxons. Some of the
principal agents in this work were Englishmen who had been
ordained by bishops of the Scots, others were Scots by race.
The education of a native clergy which had been carried on
successfully in the South, had been undertaken in the North
by the Scots with at least equally good results. Aidan's
school at Lindisfarne was sending out men of like character
to their master, who were ready to preach Christ among
the heathen south of the Humber. They and many more —
Scots, Englishmen, and even Franks like Agilbert — derived
their learning and spiritual hfe either directly or indirectly
from Ireland, the "island of the saints," where the great
monastic schools, such as Clonard, Lismore, and Bangor,
hospitably received all who came to them for instruction.
As in Kent and Northumbria, so in the Midlands a door was
opened for the preaching of the Gospel by a royal marriage.
Penda's son Peada, the king under his father of the
Middle Angiians, a people settled in the present Leicester-
shire, came to Oswiu's court in 653 desiring to marry his
daughter Alchfloed, who had been born before Oswiu's marriage
with Eanflaed. The two houses were already allied, for
Alchfl^d's brother Alchfrith had married Penda's daughter
Cyneburh. Oswiu, however, said that he would not give him
VI MISSION TO THE MIDDLE ANGLIANS 97
his daughter unless he and his people became believers in
Christ and received baptism. Peada then listened to the
Gospel and became convinced of its truth, being persuaded
of it to no small degree by his brother in-law Alchfrith. His
mind was so firmly made up that he declared that he would
become a Christian, whether Oswiu gave him his daughter or
no. Accordingly, he and all his train were baptized by Bishop
Finan at one of Oswiu's residences called " At the Wall," near
the Roman wall, and twelve miles from " the eastern sea,"
which some have sought to identify with the village of Wall-
bottle on the Tyne. He then married Alchflaed, and returned
with joy to his own country. With him went four priests
whom Oswiu sent to preach to his people. Three of them,
Cedd, Adda, and Betti, were Northumbrians, the fourth, Diuma,
a Scot. Cedd, of whom we shall hear much, had been one of
Aidan's scholars at Lindisfarne. He had three brothers, all
priests, of whom the most famous, named Ceadda, or St. Chad,
had in his younger days studied in Ireland. Whether Cedd
also went thither is uncertain ; he certainly spoke Erse well,
but he may have learnt the language from his Irish teachers at
Lindisfarne. Adda was the brother of Utta, the priest sent by
Oswiu to fetch Eanflaed from Kent, who had become abbot of
a monastery at Gateshead. These missionaries, who were all
learned men, preached with great success to the Anglians, and
every day baptized fresh converts, both gentle and simple.
They also preached in Mercia, for Penda did not object to
their making converts there, saying that the men whom he
hated and despised were professors of Christianity who did
not act in accordance with their faith and disobeyed their
God ; his heathenism was probably at least as much a matter
of policy as of rehgious conviction.
The East Saxons, who had remained heathen since the
expulsion of Mellitus, also owed their conversion to Oswiu's
zeal. Their king, Sigbert, was his friend and often
visited him, and during his visits Oswiu used to oTtTJEaS"
talk to him about religion, pointing out how ^'''''°"^' ^S4-
foolish it was to worship idols made of wood or stone, the
residue of which could be burned or made into drinking -cups
or trodden under foot, instead of the invisible God, the
Creator of all things. Sigbert was deeply impressed by his
H
98 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
words, and on a visit that he paid to him in the same year
as Peada's baptism, accepted Christianity, and having
obtained the assent of the thegns who accompanied him,
was baptized along with them by Finan "At the Wall."
When he was setting out to return to his kingdom he asked
Oswiu to send him some learned men to teach and baptize
his people. Oswiu accordingly sent to Cedd and bade him
and another priest go and preach to the East Saxons. So
Cedd left the Middle Anglians, and he and his companion
went up and down among the East Saxons and gathered many
into the Lord's Church. After a while Cedd went to Lindis-
farne to tell Finan of his success, and Finan on hearing of it
considered that the vrork demanded a bishop. He therefore
sent for two other bishops, doubtless Scots like himself, and in
conjunction with them consecrated Cedd to be bishop of the
East Saxons. This, then, is a conclusive proof, if proof be
needed, that the Church of the Scots, in spite of their peculiar
arrangements with respect to bishops, was an episcopal
Church ; and it is noteworthy that though Finan's fellow-
bishops did not always procure the assistance of other bishops
at consecrations, he evidently thought it necessary.
Accordingly, Cedd went back to his work among the East
Saxons with the authority conferred by episcopal orders, and
was consequently enabled to dedicate the churches that he
built in several places, and to ordain many priests and
deacons. These ordinations, perhaps, mark a step towards
the establishment of a settled ministry, which may already
have been taken in Wessex. Though parochial organisation
does not appear as yet, it would seem that these churches
built by Cedd were not mere missionary stations, and were
served by their own clergy. Cedd did not make London
the seat of his bishopric ; he evidently did not receive any
grant from the East Saxon king which would have enabled
him to do so, and he should not therefore be reckoned as
a Bishop of London. He was bishop of the East Saxon
people, and, as was frequently the case with the bishops of
the Scots, had no official see. While in the East Saxon
kingdom, he lived with his monks in two monasteries which
he made missionary centres. Of these monasteries one was
at Ythanceaster, identified with the Roman military station
CEDD IN DEIRA
99
Othona, which has disappeared in the sea, the other at
Tilbury. Often, however, he left his East Saxon flock and
went to preach in Deira, where, after Oswine's death, yEthel-
wald the son of Oswald became king, either by the
appointment of, and in subordination to, his uncle Oswiu,
or, as seems far more probable, owing to the support
of Penda, who would thus hinder the consolidation of North-
umbria. /T^thelwald greatly admired Cedd's holiness, and
had one of his brothers named Caelin as his chaplain. He
sent Cselin to Cedd to request that he would accept a
grant of land in Deira and build a monastery on it, that the
king might go there and pray, and be laid there when he
died. Cedd chose the future Lastingham in the North Riding,
then a wild spot among the caves of robbers and the lairs
of wild beasts, and began according to the custom of the
Scots to purify the place by spending a Lent there in prayer
and fasting, eating nothing on any day save Sunday until
the evening, and then only a little bread, one egg, and some
milk. These foundation fasts of the Scots were connected
with an idea, which had a strong hold on the minds of the
early hermits in Egypt and elsewhere, that wild and desolate
places were the special haunts of evil spirits that were to be
overcome by prayer and fasting. When ten days of Cedd's
fast had yet to be passed ^thelwald sent for him, and his
brother Cynibill finished the purification for him. A
monastery was then built, over which Cedd presided as abbot,
and so he divided his time between his monastery at
Lastingham and his bishopric.
Sigbert, the East Saxon king, met with an untimely death.
In spite of Cedd's remonstrances one of his nobles made an
unlawful marriage, and refused to put away the ^ ^ ^
1 111 1 • • ,- rr^i 1 • 1 Death of
woman he had taken as his wife. The bishop, Sigbert, King
finding him obstinate, excommunicated him and East* slxons,
forbade all men to enter his house or eat with him. "^- ^^5?
This sentence is the first recorded instance of the exercise in
England of the disciplinary power of excommunication, or
anathema as the greater excommunication, pronounced by
Cedd, was called in distinction to the lesser excommunication,
or prohibition from participation in the Holy Communion.
It was not used against any save obstinate offenders, and was
I GO THE WHITBY CONFERENCE ctiap.
a purely spiritual punishment, though the Church sometimes
sought the help of the secular power to enforce its decrees.
It was held to be incumbent on Christian magistrates to inflict
such punishment on obstinate offenders against the decrees of
the Church, as might cause them to seek reconciliation and
restoration. At the same time the assistance of the secular
arm was not to go so far as the taking of life or shedding of
blood, for St. Augustine plainly declared that it was displeas-
ing to all good members of the Catholic Church that any,
even a heretic, should be put to death, and St. Martin of
Tours constantly refused to communicate with certain who had
prevailed on the Emperor Maximus to put to death Priscillian
and his associates.
Sigbert disregarded the bishop's sentence, and went to a
feast at the offender's house. As he was coming away Cedd
met him, and Sigbert was afraid when he saw the bishop ;
he leapt from his horse, knelt before him and craved his for-
giveness. Cedd was wroth at his disobedience ; and, having
dismounted from his horse, struck him lightly with the wand
that he was carrying, declaring that he should die in the very
house which he had disobediently entered. Soon afterwards the
excommunicated noble and his brother slew the king. When
the murderers were asked why they had done that evil deed,
they answered that their only reason was that they were dis-
gusted with the king because he forgave his enemies and bore
injuries patiently. Englishman as he was, Cedd seems to
have imbibed the spirit of his Celtic teachers. The church-
men of the Scots were apt to exercise the power that they
assumed over their converts in a somewhat arrogant spirit.
Even Aidan showed something of this spirit in his reproof
of Oswine; it was more conspicuous in the formal blow-
that Cedd gave to Sigbert, while his words of prophecy, or
malediction, breathe the haughty temper displayed by
Columban when he declared that none of the sons of the
concubines of Theodoric II. should bear the sceptre. The
murderers of Sigbert doubtless resented the humility with
which he received the episcopal correction in a matter
touching themselves, though their complaint against him
went farther than that. Nominally Christians, they had not
yet learnt the hardest lesson inculcated by their new
VI BATTLE OF THE WINWjED ioi
religion, and Sigbert's forbearance seemed to them so flagrant
a breach of duty as to excuse their faithlessness towards
their lord. Sigbert was called the Good, either on account of
his conversion, or the circumstances of his murder. His
death did not hinder the progress of Christianity among the
East Saxons, for he was succeeded by his kinsman Swithelm,
who had been baptized by Cedd at Rcndlesham, in Suffolk.
Penda made another invasion of East Anglia in 654,
defeated and slew the pious king Anna, and set up in his
stead his brother ^ii^thelhere, who reigned, more or
less, as Penda's vassal. This ^thelhere in some,?,^"^^°fl^^
1 T-^ -I Winwaid, 655.
way caused a war between Penda and Oswiu. Penda
again made an alliance with the Welsh, pressed Oswiu hard,
and forced him to retreat into the extreme north of his kingdom
to a town called by Nennius, ludeu, possibly on the Firth of
Forth, made him pay him a large tribute, and deliver his young
son Ecgfrith as a hostage. Nevertheless the faithless old
heathen continued the war. In despair Oswiu tried to
purchase peace by offering him a vast amount of treasure,
but Penda refused his offer, for he had determined utterly
to destroy the Northumbrians. Then said Oswiu, "If the
heathen will not accept our gifts, let us offer them to Him
who will accept them, even to the Lord our God " ; and he
vowed that if God would give him the victory he would
dedicate to Him his daughter ^Iflsed, who had been born
the year before, together with lands for the erection of
twelve monasteries. At the head of a small army, he met the
enemy on November 15, 655, by a river called the Winwaed,
probably in Bernicia, though it has not been identified.
Penda divided his forces into thirty legions, each under its
own chief, for there marched with him many princes of
the Welsh, of other Kymric peoples, and of the Picts. The
Christian ^Ethelhere, too, was there as a vassal of the heathen
king, and ^thelwald of Deira, who came hoping, no doubt,
to gain his uncle's kingdom, even though he would have had
to reign in dependence on Mercia, but, doubly base, he
withdrew his force when the fight began, and watched
the event from a secure position. The Mercian host was
defeated, the thirty chiefs were nearly all slain, and yEthel-
here among them, and the Winwa:d, swollen with rain, swept
I02 THE WHITE V CONFERENCE chap.
away the fugitives, so that it was said that more perished
in its waters than were slain by the victorious army. Penda
himself fell, and in after - days the minstrels sang how
"Winwsed avenged the death of Anna, the deaths of the
kings Sigbert and Egric, the deaths of the kings Oswald
and Eadwine." The battle decided the victory of Chris-
tianity in England ; the last and most powerful champion
of heathenism had fallen by the sword of the Lord and of
Oswiu.
The vow that Oswiu made before the battle was amply
performed ; he gave twelve estates, each large enough for the
support of ten families, that is, each of ten hides,^
Theabbess f^j- ^^g foundation of twelve monasteries, six in
Hilda. . . . . . '
Deira and six in Bernicia. His little daughter,
^Iflsed, he sent to be brought up as a nun at Hereteu, or the
Hart's island, the present Hartlepool, where a monastery had
been built by Heiu, the first Northumbrian nun, who had
received the veil from Aidan. There ^Iflsed was under the
care of Hild, or Hilda, the great-niece of Eadwine. Among the
many English ladies who entered the monastic, or "religious,"
life, and strengthened the Church by their holiness and
wisdom, Hilda deserves a foremost place. She was born
about 614, and was baptized along with her great-uncle on
Easter Eve, 627. About twenty years later she determined
to enter the religious life, and thought of joining her sister
Hereswith, who was a nun at Chelles, near Paris. Aidan,
however, sent her to a little monastery on the north bank of
the Wear, and a few years later called her to succeed Heiu
as abbess at Hartlepool, which was a double monastery
containing monks as well as nuns. There she ruled her
house according to all that she could learn from the teaching
of those best versed in monastic discipline, and Aidan and
all the " religious " who knew her used to visit her and help
her, for they much admired her wisdom and her zeal for the
monastic life. About 657 she founded a monastery on one
of the estates dedicated to God by Oswiu two years before,
called Streaneshalch, or Whitby, the forerunner of the house
of which the church, as a noble ruin, still looks seawards
^ For the hide as a measure of areal extent in Bede, see Professor Mait-
land's Domesday Book and Beyond, Essay iii., Cambridge, 1897.
VI REVOLT OF THE MERCIANS to3
from its lofty eminence. With her went the httle ^Iflccd,
who was to pass the rest of her hfe there, and to succeed to
Hilda's chair as abbess. At Whitby, as we may call the
house, though that name was not given it until the Danish
invasions, Hilda ruled over another community of both
sexes. Eminent for piety and grace, she was called Mother
by all who knew her ; she trained the inmates of her house
in all Christian virtues, and specially in love. Men of all
ranks, kings and nobles as well as humble folk came to her
for advice ; many of the monks under her rule were ordained
to the priesthood, and five of them became bishops. We
shall meet with this noble lady more than once hereafter.
Oswiu's victory gave him great power. Like Eadwine
and Oswald, he probably assumed the title of Bretwalda,
which is given to him in the Chronicle ; for he
ruled over a large part of the Pictish nation and ^"p^^^?^^ °f
over the Kymri, or Cumbrians, both on the north
and south of the Solway. He made his son Alchfrith,
v.ho had fought by his side at Winwsedfield, under-king of
Deira, in place of y^thelwald. All the Mercian lands were
his by conquest, and for a time he ruled the greater part
of them himself, though he allowed his son-in-law, Peada, to
remain under-king of the Middle Anglians or Southern
Mercians. Lindsey passed to him along with Mercia, and
he seems to have been supreme over the East Anglians and
East Saxons. During the Easter feast next after the battle
in which Penda had fallen, Peada was assassinated with the
connivance, as w^as generally believed, of his wife Alchfloed,
the daughter of Oswiu, though not the daughter of the pious
Eanfised, and for three years after his death the whole of the
Mercian lands were under Oswiu's immediate rule. In 658,
however, the Mercians rebelled against him, and chose as
their king, Wulfhere, a younger brother of Peada, whom the
nobles had kept in hiding. They made good their revolt,
and, as Bede, though himself a Northumbrian, says in words
which attest the generosity of his soul, " free and with a king
of their own, the Mercians joyfully served Christ, the true
King."
The Church indeed prospered greatly among the Mercians
during the seventeen years of Wulfhere's reign. He had been
I04 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
ba})tized before his accession, and as Peada iiad only been
king of a part of the Mercians, Wulfhere is reckoned as the
first Christian king of that people. During his
tionofthe reign the Mercians were evangelised. Some work
Mercians, 656. j^^^^ ^^ ^^ j^^^^ scen, been done among them even
during the reign of Penda, by the missionaries who were sent
by Oswiu to preach to the Middle Anglians. One of them,
Diuma the Scot, was consecrated by Finan after the over-
throw of Penda, as bishop of the Middle Anglians and
Mercians, probably in 656. On his death, perhaps two years
later, he was succeeded by another Scot named Ceollach, who
soon left Mercia, probably in consequence of the revolt of the
Mercians, and returned to his monastery at lona. In his
place Wulfhere obtained a bishop from Oswiu's kingdom,
an Englishman named Trumhere, the abbot of the king's
monastery at Gilling, who received consecration from Finan
at Lindisfarne. He was succeeded about 662 by Jaruman,
who was also consecrated by Irish bishops. It was, then,
from bishops of the Scots' mission that Central England
received evangelisation.
Wulfhere used his political power for the spread of the
Gospel. His neighbour, Cenwalh of Wessex, had extended his
kingdom westwards at the expense of the Britons, and
Wulfhere, jealous of this increase in his strength, made war
upon him, and took from him the Isle of Wight and the
Meon district in Hampshire. He gave these conquests
to ^thelwalh, king of the South Saxons, who acknowledged
his supremacy, and was persuaded by him to receive baptism
in Mercia, Wulfhere himself standing godfather to him.
^thelwalh's queen, ^bbe, a princess of the Hwiccas, who
were then subject to the Mercians, had already been baptized
in her own land. He was not perhaps very warm about his
new religion, for the South Saxons did not follow his example,
and remained for a while the only heathen people in England,
About this time Sexulf, who is said to have been a rich thegn
of the fen -land, then under Wulf here's rule, founded the
monastery of Medeshamstead, or Peterborough as it came to
be called from its dedication, and became its first abbot.
The foundation is said to have been planned by Peada, and
was doubtless forwarded by Wulfliere, but the part in it
VI ST. CUTHPyERT 105
ascribed to them and to some other great persons is quite
unhistorical.
Meanwhile tlie Roman party in Nortliumbria was gathering
strength, and a series of events was beginning which led to its
victory and to the termination of the Scots' mission. Alchfrith,
the under-king of Deira, zealous as beforetime for God's
service,^ gave land for a monastery at Ripon and sent to Eata,
abbot of Melrose, to come and found the house. Eata was
one of the Northumbrian lads whom Aidan had educated at
I.indisfarne, and, before his old master's death, had become
abbot of Mailros, or Old Melrose, situated on a kind oi
promontory formed by the windings of the Tweed, and deeply
embosomed by trees. He was worthy of his master, for Bede
describes him as "the gentlest and simplest of men." At
Alchfrith's invitation he left his house in charge ^ ^^ .
r -r^ • •, 1 • /- 1 • 1 Cuthbert's
of Boisil, the prior, a man of learnmg and great early
spirituality of mind, and went to Ripon, taking with ^''^'^^'
him, among others of his monks, one who was destined to
become the most famous saint of the North. This was
Cuthbert, a native of the part of Bernicia north of the Tweed.
He was born probably of poor parents, and was even in boy-
hood full of holy thoughts. When a little lad he had a
swelling on his knee, which made him unable to walk, and was
cured by following the advice of a stranger whom he believed
to have been an angel. From that time he thought that he
was specially under angelic protection, and was frequent in
prayer. When still a boy, he saw some monks of Tiningham,
who were on a raft, in danger of being carried out to sea.
The country-people on the river-bank declared that they
would be rightly served, and jeered at the strange Hfe which the
monks led, but Cuthbert reproved them and offered up prayer
for the monks. The course of the raft was stayed, and the
people were brought to repent of their evil words. The
turning-point of his life was his vision of angels bearing St.
Aidan's soul to heaven, which he saw while keeping sheep
upon the Lammermuir hills. He at once rode to Melrose
to seek admission as a monk. On his arrival, he gave his
horse and spear to an attendant to hold, and went into the
church to pray. Eata w\as away, and he was received by
1 Pee p. 97.
io6 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
Boisil, who, on beholding hnn, spoke of the handsome youth
in the words which the Lord had spoken of Nathaniel. On
Eata's return Cuthbert received the tonsure, of course of
the Scottish shape, and became conspicuous by his diligence
in reading, manual labour, watching, and prayer; he drank
no strong drink, but could not for a while endure long fasts,
for he was stalwart in frame and full of vigour. At Ripon
Eata made him hostillar, the officer whose duty was to have
charge of the guests, and while there he believed that angels
fed him during the severe fasts to which he gradually
accustomed himself. Yet, in spite of these marks of divine
favour, he remained humble, and though he was eagerly
practising asceticism, was pleasant in manner and even merry.
In common with Eata and the rest of the community, he was
forced to leave Ripon m 66 1.
The removal of Eata and his monks from Ripon was
caused by their refusal to adopt the Roman Easter at the
bidding of Alchfrith, who was turned against
wiifnthat the usages of the Scots, first by his friend Cenwalh
ome, 54. ^^ Wessex, and then more effectually by Wilfrith
or Wilfrid. This famous churchman was then young, for he
was born in 634, "the hateful year" in Northumbrian history.
He was the son of a Northumbrian noble, and as a boy was
handsome, clever, and obedient, fond of arms, horses, and fine
clothes, with frank and courteous manners which won the
hearts of all his father's guests, nobles and their attendants
alike. Yet the poor boy's life was not happy, for he had an
unkind stepmother, and when he was nearly fourteen he
wished to enter a monastery. His father sent him to Oswiu's
court, where he greatly pleased Queen Eanfised ; and as one of
the king's thegns, who had become old and paralytic, wished
to end his days as a monk, she sent Wilfrith with him to
Lindisfarne as his attendant. There he was loved by all,
and, though he did not receive the tonsure, eagerly dis-
charged all the duties of a novice, learning the whole psalter
by heart in the Galilean version, made by St. Jerome at
Bethlehem about 388, and used by the Scots. He also
studied other books. He probably saw his royal mistress
often, for it must have been owing to her influence that,
though living in a Columbite monastery, he desired to make
VI WILFRITH 107
a pilgrimage to Rome. The road to Rome was soon to be
trodden by many English feet, but at that time Englishmen
had not begun the custom of pilgrimage thither, and Eanflced
sent him to her cousin, Earconbert, King of Kent, to wait
until a trustworthy companion could be found for him. At
Earconbert's court he continued his ascetic life, and learnt
the whole of the Roman psalter, that is the earlier version
revised by St. Jerome while he was still at Rome in 383,
which was used at Canterbury. After spending a year in
Kent, Wilfrith in 653 found a fellow-traveller, a young noble
of royal descent, named Biscop Baducing, known later as
Benedict Biscop, one of Oswiu's thegns, who at the age of
twenty-five was resolved to enter the monastic life, and was
setting out for Rome. Together they went down the Saone
to Lyons, where they were entertained by Annemund the
archbishop, and his brother Dalfinus,^ the count of the city.
At Lyons they parted, Biscop going on to Rome, while
Wilfrith stayed with Annemund, who delighted in his society,
and offered, if he would remain with him, to adopt him as his
son and give him his niece in marriage. Wilfrith, however,
would not give up the life that he had chosen for himself,
and after a while went on to Rome. There he fell in with
the pope's archdeacon, Boniface, who was pleased with the
handsome and devout young Englishman, instructed him in
the Easter question, and the monastic life according to the
rule of St. Benedict, and introduced him to Pope Eugenius L,
who gave him his blessing.
1 Both Eddi and Bede confuse the count with the archbishop. They
further say that the archbishop, whom they call Dalfinus, was slain in a
persecution of the clergy set on foot by Queen Bathild or Baldhild. This seems
impossible, for Bathild was an excellent lady. She was of English birth, and
had been sold as a slave in Gaul. Bright and beautiful as well as good, she
became the wife of her lord Erchinoald, the Frankish mayor of the palace,
and, at his death, of Clovis II., King of Neustria and Burgundy, who died in
656, She favoured monks and bishops, was a great benefactor to the
monasteries of Chelles and Faremoutier, and was constant in prayer and
almsgiving. Mindful of her former condition, she forbade traffic in slaves,
would not allow any to convey slaves through the kingdom, redeemed many
of her own nation of both sexes, and would call English slave girls her sisters.
St. Bathild died in the monastery of Chelles in 680. Ebroin became mayor
of the palace in 658, the year of Annemund's murder. See Acta SS. O.S.B.,
Mabillon, scec. ii. 776, 783 ; Annales Benedict, i. 425, 443 ; Recueil des Hist.
iii. 710.
io8 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
Wilfrith returned to Lyons to the archbishop, received
the tonsure from him, and stayed with him about three
years. At the end of that time the party of
IS return. £|^j.qJ^^ ^^ mayor of the palace of the young
Clothair III., King of Neustria and Burgundy, a bitter enemy
of the clergy, put Dalfinus to death after a trial, and be-
headed the archbishop at Chalon-sur-Saone on September
29, 658. Wilfrith was with Annemund at his death, and
nearly shared his fate, but when it was found that he was an
Englishman, a fellow-countryman of Queen Bathild, he was
set free. On his return to Northumbria, Alchfrith, who was
already converted to the Roman side by Cenwalh of Wessex,
sent for him and eagerly accepted his teaching concerning
the customs and discipline observed at Rome. The king
became warmly attached to him, and gave him the monastery
at "Stanford," possibly Stamford in Lincolnshire. He was
not long there, for Alchfrith, with the zeal of a new convert,
tried to persuade Eata and the monks whom he had placed
in his monastery at Ripon to imitate his example by joining
the Roman party, and when they refused to give up their
own customs, expelled them from their house, probably in or
about 661, and gave it to Wilfrith. Accordingly, Eata, Cuth-
bert, and the rest of their company returned to their old home
at Melrose, and Wilfrith became abbot of Ripon. About the
same time Bishop Agilbert, who was visiting Deira, ordained
Wilfrith to the priesthood at Alchfrith's request. As abbot
of Ripon, Wilfrith gained great influence over people of all
classes, both by his charity to the poor and the wisdom of
his teaching.
Following the lead of Alchfrith and the teaching of
Wilfrith and James the deacon, many of the churchmen of
Deira ioined the Roman party. This was natural
The Easter i r t^ • • • i ^l, 1 J
controversy, enough, for Dcira was m a special sense the land
661-664. ^^ Eadwine and Paulinus. Roman traditions were
probably strong there ; it was richer and more civilised than
Bernicia, and consequently monks from Lindisfarne and
Melrose would have some prejudices to contend against, and
it was for political reasons inclined to take a contrary line to
the northern division of the Northumbrian kingdom. Even
in Bernicia the Roman party was, as we have seen, gaining
VI THE EASTER CONTROVERSY 109
strength. On the death of Finan in 661, Cohnan was sent
from lona to succeed him as bishop at Lindisfarne. Oswiu
esteemed him highly and still upheld the Celtic usages, but Ean-
flEed was eager on the other side, so that the king's house was
divided against itself. Feelings grew bitter, and a settlement
of the questions between the two parties was urgently needed
for spiritual reasons, for so great had become the importance
attached to them, that some began to fear lest, as Bede says,
they "had run in vain." Nor was a settlement less desir-
able politically, for religious discord was likely to weaken
the union between the two Northumbrian kingdoms, and
this consideration must have inclined Oswiu, strongly as he
held personally to the side of the Scots, to desire peace even
at the .price of their defeat. And socially he must have felt
the position of affairs well-nigh intolerable. However earnest
a man may be about Church matters, he will get more than
enough of ecclesiastical controversy if he and his wife take
opposite lines. And the difference of practice in Oswiu's
household was, it seems, likely to become specially trouble-
some in 665, for in that year the king would be keeping his
Celtic Easter, while his queen, following the Roman computa-
tion, would be fasting in Holy Week. Accordingly, acting
on the advice of Agilbert, the two Northumbrian kings
agreed to hold a conference or " synod," as Bede somewhat
loosely terms it, at the place we now call Whitby, early in 664,
to decide whether the customs of Rome or lona had the
stronger claim upon them and their people.
Agilbert seems to have done a good deal to forward the
claims of Rome in Northumbria. He had, it will be re-
membered, succeeded Birinus as bishop of the West ^^^^^^^^
Saxons at the request of Cenwalh, and had his see Saxon
at Dorchester. Now as we are told that Cenwalh won ^'^^°p"<^-
Alchfrith, who was his personal friend, over to the Roman
party, it is highly probable that the West Saxon bishop had a
hand in the king's conversion, especially as he was with
Alchfrith in 661, and ordained Wilfrith to the priesthood.
Before 664 he had ceased to be bishop of the West Saxons.
Cenwalh grew tired of his foreign tongue, which seems to
show that the English and Frankish languages had drifted
farther apart since the days when St. Augustine procured
no THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
the services of Frankish interpreters. He determined to have
a bishop at his court whose way of talking would not be
disagreeable to him, and without consulting Agilbert, divided
his bishopric into two dioceses, gave one of them to an
Englishman named Wine, who had been consecrated in Gaul,
and appointed his royal city Winchester as the place of Wine's
see. Deeply offended at this high-handed invasion of his
bishopric, Agilbert left Wessex, went to Northumbria to his
friends Alch frith and Wilfrith, stayed there until after the
synod of Whitby, and then returned to Gaul, where he acted
as a bishop, and after 666 became Bishop of Paris. His
departure from Wessex left Winchester the sole West Saxon
see. Some years later Wulfhere of Mercia extended his king-
dom to the Thames, and Dorchester became the place of a
Mercian see. As Bishop of Paris, Agilbert, on one occasion
towards the end of his life, acted as a tool of Ebroin in a
peculiarly disgraceful transaction, but so far as character
went, Cenwalh, as we shall see, gained nothing in his new
bishop.
To the conference at Whitby, which was a mixed gathering
of laymen and of ecclesiastics of all orders, came the two kings
Oswiu and Alchfrith, and on the Roman side
conference^ Agilbert and his attendant priest Agatho, Wilfrith,
^^^' James the deacon, Romanus, and probably Tuda.
Tuda had been educated, and consecrated as a bishop, in
Southern Ireland, where the Roman customs had been
accepted, and had been doing useful work in Northumbria
both by word and deed during the episcopate of Colman.
On the side of the Scots were Colman and his clergy, the
Abbess Hilda and her monks, and Bishop Cedd, who, having
probably studied in Ireland, acted as interpreter. It was a
Northumbrian gathering, for Cedd was Abbot of Lastingham
as well as Bishop of the East Saxons. Oswiu opened the
proceedings with a few words on the value of uniformity, and
declared that they were met to decide what was the true
tradition. He then called on Bishop Colman to declare the
grounds of his practice. Colman said that he had received
his Easter from his elders who had sent him, and from the
fathers of his Church, and that it rested on the authority of
St. John. Then Oswiu bade Agilbert declare whence his
VI ARGUMENTS AT WHITBY in
practice was derived. Agilbert, however, requested that his
"disciple" Wilfrith might speak for him, forasmuch as they
both thought alike, and Wilfrith could state their case in
English, whereas if he spoke himself, his words would have to
be interpreted, for, as we have already seen, he never mastered
the English tongue. Wilfrith then, at Oswiu's bidding, began
somewhat in these words : We keep Easter as we have seen
it kept at Rome, where the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul,
taught and suffered and are buried, and as it is kept in Africa,
Asia, Egypt, Greece, and in every Christian Church through-
out the world, save only by these men and their associates, the
Picts and Britons, a portion only of the people of two remote
islands, who are foolishly fighting against the world.
To this rather rude speech Colman replied by expressing
his surprise that any one should speak contemptuously of the
teaching of the beloved disciple. Wilfrith said that he had
no such intention, and that St. John was justified in keeping
the paschal feast on the fourteenth day of the first month
at even, whether a Sabbath or not, because it was necessary
for him to avoid giving offence to his Jewish converts. Peter,
however, he said, when he preached at Rome, while agreeing
with John in not celebrating the feast before the rising of the
fourteenth moon at even, would, if the next day were a Lord's
Day, keep it on that day " as we do now," but otherwise would
keep it on the Lord's Day next following, up to the twenty-first
day. But you, he went on, follow neither John nor Peter,
neither the Law nor the Gospel. You keep the feast only on
the Lord's Day, though John, in accordance with the law of
Moses, cared not whether his feast fell on the day after the
Sabbath, but you keep it from the fourteenth to the twentieth
day, instead of, like Peter, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first.
Colman replied by appealing to a canon, said to have been
made by AnatoUus, Bishop of Laodicea, in 270, which was
really spurious, and had probably been manufactured in
Northern Britain. According to this canon, the feast was to be
kept on the Sunday from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of
the moon. Colman further urged that it was incredible that
Columba and his successors, men beloved of God, and some
of them endowed with miraculous powers, should have thought
and acted contrary to the Scriptures. He would, he said.
112 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
never cease to follow their example and teaching, for he was
sure that they were saints.
Wilfrith admitted the authority of Anatolius, but argued that
Anatolius followed the Egyptian reckoning and called the day
. which had a full moon before sunset, the fourteenth
" day, whereas the Scots called the fourteenth day that
which was followed by the full moon. So that Anatolius made
the day which was the fourteenth in the morning, the fifteenth
in the evening, and in the same way with the twentieth and
twenty-first days, treating the fourteenth day at evening as the
beginning of the fifteenth day. As, however, the Easter feast
naturally began in the early morning, Wilfrith's attempt to
bring the so-called canon of Anatolius into agreement with
the Roman usage does not seem specially happy. But what,
he said, have you to do with Anatolius ? For if you accept his
canon you ought to adopt his cycle of nineteen years, which
you either do not know, or else contemn. As for "your
Columba " and his successors, he did not deny that they were
holy, but they were, he said, uneducated men ; they were not
to be blamed, for they had no one to teach them better. And
granting, he cried, that Columba was holy, and a worker of
miracles, was his authority to be preferred to that of the
blessed Prince of the Apostles, to whom the Lord said : " Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven " ? With these words he
ended his argument. Then Oswiu said : " Is it true, Colman,
that the Lord said this to Peter ? " Colman answered, " It is
true, O king." " Was such authority ever given to Columba? "
He ^answered, "No." Again Oswiu asked, "Are you both
agreed that the keys of heaven were given by the Lord to
Peter?" Both Wilfrith and Colman answered, "Yes." "Then,"
said he, " I will not decide against the doorkeeper, lest when
I come before the gates of heaven, he who holds the keys
should not open unto me." The question of the tonsure was
also discussed at length, and that too was decided against the
Scots. The ground on which Oswiu based his decision,
suggests that his mind had been made up before the confer-
ence began.
Colman, seeing that his party was defeated, left Lindisfarne
VI END OF THE SCOl'S' MISSION 113
with such of his monks as were Scots by race, and, taking with
him part of the bones of St. Aidan, returned to lona^ and four
years later went back to Ireland. Before leaving
Northumbria, he obtained a promise from Oswiu „ ^"^°^^^®
T r r ^ -ii oCOtS llUSSlon.
that Eata, then abbot of Melrose, might be abbot of
Lindisfarne, for he knew that he would be gentle with the
English monks who remained there. He was succeeded in
his bishopric by Tuda. Cedd, Eata, Cuthbert, and sooner or
later, the English disciples of the Scots generally, adopted the
Roman usages, and the mission of the Scots ended with the
retirement of Colman, for the decision pronounced at Whitby
definitely rejected the guidance of lona. During the twenty-
nine years that the mission had lasted, it had done great things
for the English people, for the Scots offered themselves willingly
when there was urgent need of men to carry on the work
begun by the Romans. Aidan and his followers, Scots and
English, completed the evangelisation of Northumbria, building
on the foundation laid by Paulinus, and during the thirteen
years that passed between Aidan's death and the conference
at Whitby, missionaries of the Scots' communion converted
the Midlands and recalled the East Saxons from their apostasy.
The Scots and their disciples worked with a single aim, refus-
ing all wealth and honours for themselves, and when the
victorious party came into possession of Lindisfarne, they
found only the church and a few rude huts, for Aidan's monks
had neither silver nor gold nor flocks. Nor did they even
accept land for building monasteries, unless it was forced upon
them. They were loved and reverenced by the people.
When one of them was travelling about he was everywhere
received with gladness, those who met him on his road would
eagerly ask his blessing, and at every place which he visited,
people came in crowds from all the neighbourhood to hear
him, for they knew that he came for no other reason than out
of care for their souls, that he might preach, baptize, and visit
the sick.
While, however, the Scots were admirable missionaries,
their work was done, for the Church in England was
„• ^/-.i •• . -1 1.. Consequences
passmg out of the mission stage and was begmnmg of their
to need organisation and the means of orderly de- °'^''^^"°^-
velopment. These they could not have supplied. The Scots'
\
114 ^^^ WHITBY CONFERENCE chap.
system, such as it was, lacked diocesan arrangement, and its
episcopate was subject to the abbot of lona and his monks.
The Scots were given to moving about ; they were missionaries
rather than pastors ; their Hves and feeUngs were ascetic, and
they loved to retire, either for frequent periods or altogether,
from active work and live as hermits. Their religion
was apt to be ecstatic, and their asceticism excessive. Im-
pulsive in temperament, they were inclined to exaggeration in
conduct and were impatient of contradiction. The victory of
the Roman party was decisive as regards the future relation
between the English and Roman Churches. The English of
early times regarded the Roman see with dutiful afiection.
The Gospel had first come to them from Rome. Gregory the
Great had planted their Church as a national Church and had
dealt with it in a liberal spirit, and his successors, while
taking from time to time a lively interest in things that
concerned its welfare, did not seek to bring it into bondage.
For good and ill it was to remain for centuries affiliated to
Rome. Some evils attended this affiliation. It will be enough
to observe here that in later times the popes were not content
to treat the English Church in the spirit of Gregory the Great,
and that in seasons of national weakness it was exposed to
papal aggression. Nevertheless it retained its national char-
acter and independent life, and was from the first, as we shall
see, prompt in the assertion of its liberties.
On the other hand, the decision of 664 in favour of the
Roman party brought the Church much good. It enabled it
to receive from an archbishop sent from Rome the organisa-
tion and power of orderly development which were necessary
to its efficiency, and it was the means of saving it from
the degeneration which would have been the inevitable con-
sequence of an unreasonable asceticism. The triumph of the
Scots would have entailed isolation and decay. The connection
of the English with Rome gave them a share in the progres-
sive life of Western Christendom. Instead of rude wooden
churches they were to have noble buildings and a stately j
ritual ; their Church was to be a repository and teacher of I
learning, art, and science, and was to take a foremost part in
the evangelisation of other lands and the planting of other
Churches. Nor was this all. The very existence of the English
k
VI A NATIONAL CHURCH 115
Church as a national institution was at stake at Whitby. So
long as the schism lasted it was only in name the Church of
the nation ; it could not have become a really national Church
if its ministry had depended on the rule of a monastery of
Scots. The Church planted by Gregory and Augustine had
become confined within narrow limits. At the beginning of
664 Northumbria and the Midlands, the whole of the kingdom
of Wulfhere of Mercia, were under the ecclesiastical direction
of the mission from lona ; the South Saxons and the people of
the Isle of Wight were still unconverted ; the Church in
Wessex remained isolated and its Bishop, Wine, held com-
munion with British bishops. Only Kent and East Anglia
were in full communion with Canterbury and Rome ; only so
far did the authority extend of him who was the successor of
Augustine, the Archbishop of the Enghsh. The withdrawal of
the Scots' mission was followed, four years later, by the
obedience of the whole of Christian England to the see of
Canterbury. The Church thus became in reality as well as in
name the Church of the English people, destined to exercise
a far stronger influence on the lives of Englishmen than could
have been attained by any other ecclesiastical institution, to
become the bond of national unity, and to promote the
formation of the English State.
Authorities. — Bede's Hist. Eccles. remains our chief authority, while for
St. Cuthbert's life we have his Vita S. Cudbercti and its ground-work the
Vita auctore anon., both in Bccdce Opera Historica Minora, London, 1841,
English Historical Soc. For Wilfrith, in addition to Bede, we have the Vita
Wilfridi of " Eddius Stephanus," Eddi or Haedde, Wilfrith's disciple, which
was used by Bede, and may be read in Historians of York, \. , Rolls ser. ,
which also contains Lives of Wilfrith by Frithegode (loth cent.), Eadmer
(early 12th cent.), and an anonymous author. Eddi's work has been
criticised searchingly by Mr. B. W. Wells in the English Historical Review
vi. (1891) 535 sqq. On the paschal canon of Anatolius see English Historical
Review, x. (1895), 515, 699, and Mr. Plummer's Bede, u.s. ii. 348 sqq. The
battle of the Winwaed has been placed by most writers in Deira, by some in
Bernicia, see Mr. Plummer's Bede, ii. 183. In addition to the theories quoted
by Mr. Plummer, Sir James Ramsay is certain that the Winwsed is the Aire,
Foundations of England, i. i88, London, 1898, while Mr. C. Bates would
place the battle in Wedale, and would identify ludeu with Inveresk, Archccol.
Ai liana, xix. Bede says that the battle was "in regione Loidis." In an
earlier passage [Hist. Eccles. ii. 14) Loidis certainly means the Leeds dis-
trict, see Green, Making of England, p. 254, London, 1881. Is it so here.
ii6 THE WHITBY CONFERENCE chap, vi
or does Loidis here mean the Lothians ? Florence of Worcester and Nennius
both point to a Bernician site, see Rhys, Celtic Britain, u.s. As before the
battle Oswiu was in desperate straits in the extreme north of his kingdom, a
Bernician site seems probable. Other authorities — the Saxori Chronicle,
Florence of Worcester, and Henry of Huntingdon. The notes in Mr.
Plummer's Bede, and Dr. Bright's Early English Church History, are still to
be mentioned with gratitude.
CHAPTER VII
THE PLAGUE
This chapter will mainly be concerned with a brief and well-
defined period, the short interval between the end of the
Scots' mission and the arrival in England of Arch-
bishop Theodore, an event which marks the beginning '^^^ ^6^1^'
of a new epoch in the history of the English Church.
Soon after the conference at Whitby a terrible plague fell on
the land; it began in the south and spread northwards,
carrying off a vast number of people. It is believed to have
been a belated wave of the pestilence which broke out in the
Delta of the Nile in 542, was conveyed by corn-ships to
Byzantium, and swept away a large portion of the inhabitants
of the then known world. It was a bubonic plague, probably
an aggravated form of typhus complicated with buboes on the
glands, and was apparently of the same character as the great
pestilence of seven centuries later, sometimes called the Black
Death, which visited England from time to time until its last
appearance here in 1665. Bede says that it appeared
suddenly, though, as we have seen, it is possible that there
was a visitation either of the same, or of what seemed a
kindred, disease in Northumbria in Oswald's reign. The
Britons and Irish, who suffered from it as well as the English,
called it the " yellow pest " from its effect on the colour of the
skin. It infected England more or less for at least twenty-
four years, for it was prevalent in Northumbria during the two
visits of Adamnan, ninth Abbot of lona, to the Northumbrian
king in 686 and 688. We shall often hear of it, as it fell
heavily on the clergy and monastic persons; extreme asceticism
1 1 8 THE PLA G UE chap.
having, no doubt, in many cases weakened the natural power
of resistance to disease. On one day, July 14, 664, it carried
off Earconbert, King of Kent, and Archbishop Deusdedit.
Earconbert was succeeded by his son Ecgbert, but the see of
Canterbury lay vacant for four years. Damian of Rochester
also seems to have died of the plague, and five years elapsed
before his see was filled. Cedd, who returned to Lastingham
after the conference, was stricken with it, and died there, after
having appointed his brother Ceadda (St. Chad) to succeed
him as abbot. He was buried outside the wooden church
which he had built. When the monks of his East Saxon
monastery, either at Tilbury or at Ythanceaster, heard of his
death, some thirty of them journeyed to Lastingham, desiring
to live or, if it so pleased God, to die by the grave of their
father. All of them died there of the plague, save one little
lad who was spared, so Bede thought, in answer to Cedd's
intercession, for the child as he grew up found out that he
had never been baptized ; he received baptism at Lastingham,
and was thus, Bede "says, saved from everlasting death by the
prayer of his father Cedd, and grew up to be a good and
useful priest.
At Melrose Cuthbert fell sick of the plague, and a tumour
appeared on him.^ During the whole of one night the
Cuthbert as brethren prayed for his recovery, and when on the
provost of following morning he was told of the intercession
^ ^'^^^' which had been made for him, he cried, " Why do I
lie here ? God will surely answer their prayers. Give me my
staff and shoes." So he essayed to walk, and from that day
grew better, but all the rest of his life he suffered from some
internal pain, the consequence, it was thought, of his sickness.
No sooner had he recovered than his master Boisil, the
provost or prior, fell sick, and told him that he knew that he
1 Mr. Plummer {Bcsdce 0pp. Hist. ii. 195), with Smith, the elder editor
of Bede, and Raine, holds that this sickness of Cuthbert must be dated
earlier than 664, because Bede says that he was provost of Melrose ' ' aliquot
annos," Vita Cudb. c. 9, and Simeon of Durham, Hist. Dunelm. Eccl. i. 3,
that he was called to Lindisfarne in 664. This seems trusting too much to
Simeon's order of narrative, which may be balanced by Florence of Wore. an.
664. Cuthbert certainly had the great plague which carried off many in
Northumbria, see Vita u.s. c. 8, and therefore his sickness and Boisil's
death must be dated 664; comp. Diet. Chr. Biogr. art. "Boisil" by Bp.
Stubbs, and Canon Bright's Early Engl. Ch. Hist. p. 239 n.
VII QUTHBER T AT MELROSE 1 19
had only seven days more to live, and that he wished to
teach him something in that time. Cuthbert asked what they
could read together that would be finished in seven days, and
Boisil said that he had a copy of St, John's Gospel in seven
folded sheets, and that with God's help they would read a
sheet a day. So they two read the Gospel together day by
day for seven days, treating it simply as a means of strengthen-
ing their faith and love, for they had no time to enter on
difficult questions. After the reading of the seventh day
Boisil died. More than four hundred years later, the "codex" of
the Scriptures which Boisil and Cuthbert used to read together
was still in existence at Durham. Cuthbert succeeded his
old master as provost, and laboured much among the people
of the country round, staying away from his monastery on
preaching expeditions, sometimes a week and sometimes a
whole month. He travelled, sometimes afoot and sometimes
on horseback, to different villages, and visited many lonely
dwellings on the hills, for no country was so rough or hill
so steep as to hinder the monk whose youth had been spent
in tending his flock on the Lammermuirs, from carrying God's
message to men who were as sheep on the hills having no
shepherd. There was a special need for his labours, for the
plague caused many to fall away from the faith and seek safety
in incantations and other heathenish practices. All heard him
gladly, and those who had thus sinned, confessed their sin and
repented. He did not abate the austerities of his life, and
often spent whole nights in prayer. Once when he was
visiting Coldingham, in the present Berwickshire, where ^bbe,
the half-sister of Oswiu, presided over a double monastery of
men and women, one of the monks saw him go forth at night,
and watched him stand, like Columba, till daybreak up to his
neck in the sea, reciting the psalter. When he came to land,
two seals followed him and fondled his feet, as though to dry
them, until he dismissed them with his blessing, for, as it
was in later days with St. Francis of Assisi, a beautiful
sympathy seems to have existed between him and the animal
creation.
The plague fell heavily on the East Saxons, and a large
portion of the people relapsed into idolatry. They seem at
that time to have been divided into two tribes, and were
I20 THE PLAGUE chap.
ruled by two kings, Sebbe and his nephew Sighere, under the
superiority of Wulfhere of Mercia. Sebbe, a devout man,
stood firm in the faith, and all his people followed
tec°onversfo"n his example. Sighere and his people, however,
of the East apostatized, and many of them, nobles and others,
hoping to avert the pestilence by pacifying the old
gods of their race, chased away their Christian teachers, began
to restore the deserted temples, and worshipped idols. When
Wulfhere heard of their apostasy he sent Jaruman, his bishop,
to preach to them, for their own bishop Cedd was dead.
Jaruman was full of wisdom and holiness, and a priest who
accompanied him on his missionary expedition told Bede how
wisely and devotedly he laboured in Essex, going up and
down in the land, until he had brought Sighere and his people
back to Christianity. They abandoned or destroyed the
temples which they had begun to rebuild, joyfully received
their former teachers, and reopened their churches. Jaru-
man's work was carried on by a man of high birth named
Earconwald, or Erkenwald, afterwards Bishop of London.
Earconwald founded two monasteries as centres of Christian
life ; the one at Chertsey he ruled himself, the other at Bark-
ing, which was a double monastery, he committed to the
charge of his sister ^thelburh, a woman of signal holiness
and wisdom.
The plague appears to have lingered a long time in Essex,
for some years later it fell heavily on the newly-founded monas-
tery at Barking. It first attacked the men's monas-
The plague ^-g^y ^nd as the "mother of the congregation" saw
at Barking. •" . % ° , ,
each day some of the monks carried forth to be
buried, she thought anxiously of the hour when the plague
would begin among the sisters, who, though living in the same
settlement as the monks, were of course entirely separated from
them. She would often talk with the sisters when they met in
chapter about fixing on a place for a cemetery, where they might
be laid when their time came. Nothing was settled until one
night, after they had sung the psalms at lauds in their church
with the aged monk and his assistant who conducted their
services, they went out to sing them over again, as they were
wont to do, by the newly-made graves in the monks' cemetery.
As they sang in the darkness, a bright light from the sky
VII PLAGUE AT BARKING 121
shone upon them, and they were afraid so that tliey ceased
to sing. The hght moved until it rested over the southern
part of the monastery to the west of their church, and then
they knew the place where their bodies should await the day
of Resurrection. It was not long before the new cemetery
was used. There was in the monastery a little boy named
^sica, not more than three years old, who had been dedicated
to the monastic life, and as he was so young, the sisters kept
him in their part of the house and fed and tended him. He
was struck with the plague, and as they watched by him, he
called three times for one of the sisters w^ho lay sick in
another cell, crying " Eadgyth (Edith), Eadgyth, Eadgyth,"
and so with the name of her whom he loved upon his lips
the child died. The soul of Eadgyth answered to his call,
and before night came she joined the child in paradise.
Another sister, as she lay dying of the plague at midnight,
again and again asked the sisters who were nursing her to put
out the candle, and when they did not heed her, thinking that
she was delirious, she told them that she saw a light which
made the candle seem dark. Later she said, " Burn your
candle if you will, my hght will come to me at dawn," and as
the day broke she entered into the light that faileth not.
Tuda, the new bishop of the Northumbrians, died of
the plague shortly after his appointment. The dominant
influence of Alchfrith and the Roman party is
w
Bp. of the
illustrated by the appointment of his successorT'^^"'^' ''°"'
The two kings and the witan joined in electing i^Ji^ns^^^g"
Wilfrith as bishop of the Northumbrians, and
decided, in accordance with Alchfrith's wish, that his see
should be at York, the city of the Roman Paulinus. Alch-
frith sent him to Clothair III. that he might receive consecra-
tion in Gaul. This is said to have been at his own request,
as he would not accept consecration from bishops consecrated
by schismatics ; for besides Wine, who was an intruder into
Agilbert's see, there was probably only one bishop, Boniface
of East Anglia, then alive in England, whose consecration was
canonical in Wilfrith's eyes. Wilfrith's fame as the champion
of the Roman Church was great, and either just before
the end of 664, or more probably early in 665, he was con-
secrated Bishop of York by twelve bishops of Gaul, of whom
OF -r ■
122 THE PLAGUE chap.
Agilbert was one, at Compiegne on the Oise. The ceremony
was magnificent, and the officiating prelates, according to an
ancient GaUican custom, themselves bore him into the church
on a golden seat. The splendour and culture of the Church
in Gaul exactly suited Wilfrith's tastes, and he was in no haste
to return to England.
Meanwhile, affairs in Northumbria took an unexpected
turn. It seems probable that an undated notice by Bede
. of a strife between Oswiu and his son is to be
fa?ouTof " referred to this time, and that once again the rivalry
Ceadda. ^gi-^ggn Deira, Alchfrith's province, and Bernicia
affected ecclesiastical history. Alchfrith lost his kingdom,
and was perhaps banished by his father. He wished to make
a pilgrimage to Rome in company with Benedict Biscop,
who was going thither for the second time, but Oswiu would
not allow him. to go, and he does not appear again in
history. His cross at Bewcastle, in the present Cumberland,
set up in 670 or 671, asks prayers for his soul, for his widow,
his sister, and Wulfhere of Mercia. Deira came under the
immediate rule of Oswiu, and he appointed Ceadda (St. Chad),
the abbot of Lastingham, to be bishop of the Northumbrians
in the place of his son's friend, the absent Wilfrith. This
appointment implies a certain reaction against the predomi-
nance of the Roman party, though it was probably connected
more closely with political than with ecclesiastical causes, for
Oswiu kept the Northumbrian see at York, and sent Ceadda,
who had adopted the Roman usages, to Canterbury for
consecration, which proves that he had no thought of re-
opening the questions settled at Whitby. When Ceadda
came to Kent, he found the metropolitan see still vacant,
and therefore went for consecration to Wine, the West
Saxon bishop, who had his see at Winchester. Wine was
anxious to obey the rule that not less than three bishops
should act together as consecrators, and accordingly obtained
the help of two British bishops, probably from the yet un-
conquered w^estern land, who must have held to the Celtic
usages. Ceadda, then, was consecrated as bishop of the
Northumbrians by the canonical number of bishops, but one
of them was an intruder, and the two others were held to be
schismatical. This instance of co-operation on the part of
VII WILFRITH'S RETURN 123
British bisliops with a bishop of the English Church is note-
worthy ; it seems significant of the change which Christianity
had brought about in the character of the strife between the
two races in the west. War was no longer the normal state of
things, and it had become possible for Britons who lived
beyond the pale of conquest to be on friendly terms with
their English neighbours. Ecclesiastically, Wine's action
illustrates the continued isolation of the Church in Wessex ;
it would have been impossible in the case of a bishop in
close relations with Canterbury. Birinus, Agilbert, and Wine
had all, it will be remembered, received their orders abroad,
and their bishopric seems as yet to have been conducted
as a purely West Saxon institution. Ceadda returned to
Northumbria, occupied Wilfrith's see, and devoted himself to
teaching the people, constantly journeying from one place to
another, always going afoot in apostolic fashion, preaching the
Gospel everywhere, and proving himself both in his life and
labours a worthy disciple of his master Aidan.
Soon after Ceadda's consecration, probably in the spring
of 666,1 Wilfrith, not knowing that his bishopric had been
taken from him, left Gaul with his priests and a
hundred and twenty attendants. His ship was H|^^|f^urn to
driven by a south-easterly gale on to the South
Saxon coast and there stranded. The heathen people, who
seem to have practised wrecking, as many nominally Christian
people have done after them, collected in great numbers,
intending to make captives of the passengers and crew, slay
any that offered resistance, and divide the spoil. Wilfrith
offered them ransom, but they refused it, for they had no
mind to be put off with only a part of the treasures which they
believed to be within their reach, and replied that they
1 As the forty-fifth year of Wilfrith's episcopate was in 709, Hist. Eccles. v.
c. 19. his consecration may be placed in 665. Ceadda was at York three years
before he was ejected in 669, ib. iv. c. 2, v. c. 19, which places his consecration
in 666, probably early in the year. The only difficulty as regards the
sequence of events seems to arise from the idea that Bede, ib. iii. c. 28, says
that when Ceadda went to Kent he did not know of the death of Abp.
Deusdedit ; and that therefore Ceadda's consecration must have taken place
soon after July 14, 664. See Bishop Stubbs in Councils aiid Eccles. Docs. iii.
109. Bede's words do not necessarily imply this ignorance, "he found that
Deusdedit had died, and that no other archbishop had been made in his
124 THE PLAGUE chap.
claimed all that the sea cast up. High on a neighbourmg
mound, the burial-place of some warrior, stood their chief
priest chanting spells which were to bind the strangers' arms.
His incantations were cut short, for one of Wilfrith's party
slung a stone at him which laid him dead upon the sandy
ground. Wilfrith's men stood close together; the heathen
came on, and a sharp fight ensued, the bishop and his priests
meanwhile praying for the success of their men. Thrice the
heathen rushed to the attack, and thrice they were beaten
back. They gathered for a fourth onset, and their king,
^thelwalh, who had probably not yet been converted through
the instrumentality of Wulfhere, is said to have come to
their aid, when the rising tide reached the stranded ship and
floated her. Wilfrith and his party got aboard and pushed off,
escaping with the loss of only five men, and the wind having
changed, they sailed round the promontory we call Dungeness,
and landed at Sandwich.
Wilfrith, finding himself dispossessed, retired quietly to
his monastery at Ripoii. At Wulfhere's request he discharged
episcopal functions in Mercia after the death of Jaruman in
667. The king gave him several grants of land, on which he
founded monasteries, among them one at Lichfield, where
Wulfhere would have had him stay as bishop of the Mercians,
but his heart was, doubtless, with his ow^n church at York and
his own people, so he refused, and bided his time. Nor
were his energies confined to Mercia. At Ecgbert's request
he acted as a bishop in Kent and ordained many priests and
deacons there, for the see of Rochester was vacant by the
death of Bishop Damian. During his visits to Canterbury
he gathered round him several follow^ers, Eddi, or ^dde,
also called Stephen (Eddius Stephanus), his future biographer,
yEona, and Putta whom he ordained priest, all three of them
w^ell skilled in the Roman method of chanting used at
Canterbury. These and others, together with a number of
masons and w^orkers in all kinds of arts and crafts, travelled
in his train, and were employed by him. Eddi became the
first after James the deacon to teach the Roman or Gregorian
chant in the North, where it was quickly adopted ; while in
Mercia the remains of the usages of the Scots rapidly gave
way before the activity of Wilfrith and his followers.
VII AN ARCHBISHOP-ELECT 125
Meanwhile, in 667, Oswiu of Northiimbria and Ecgbert
of Kent took counsel together concerning "the state of the
English Church," for as Oswiu was the most
powerful of the English kings, and Canterbury lay ^b'^St
in Ecgbert's kingdom, they felt that it was incum-
bent on them to take some step to put an end to the
vacancy of the metropolitan see. Accordingly, they chose
as a successor to Archbishop Deusdedit a priest named
Wighard, one of the clergy of the church of Canterbury,
who was well versed in ecclesiastical learning, the " holy
Church of the English people " in some way joining in the elec-
tion. The kings sent Wighard to Rome with gifts of gold and
silver vessels, and a letter to the pope asking him to consecrate
him as "archbishop of the Church of the English." This
joint action of the two kings is a sign of their recognition of
the unity of the Church, and is a remarkable instance of the
effect which this ecclesiastical unity had in bringing about an
approach towards national unity.
Soon after Wighard had delivered the letter to Pope
Vitalian, he and nearly all his company were carried off by a
pestilence. On this Vitalian wrote to Oswiu, and after many
expressions of delight at his faith, and a few words on the
importance of observing the Catholic Easter, told him that
he was anxiously seeking a fit man to send to him as arch-
bishop, according, to quote his words, "to the tenour of your
letter," but found it a hard matter on account of the length
of the journey. It will be noted that, so far as we know, the
pope had not been asked to choose an archbishop, but simply
to consecrate Wighard to tlie metropolitan see. It has, there-
fore, been held that he read the kings' letter his own way, and
by treating it as a general request to provide an archbishop,
sought to increase his power over the English Church. On
the other hand, it has been supposed that the kings' letter
probably left him some discretion in the matter. While we
do not know what the kings wrote, it is scarcely credible that
in sending Wighard to Rome for consecration they would
suggest that the pope might see fit to reject him and select
some one in his place. Yet we are not consequently bound
to consider Vitalian's action as an insidious attempt to
increase the power of the Roman see ; the unforeseen had
126 THE PLAGUE chap.
happened, and his clear duty was to do the best he could for
the welfare of the Church. This he did, and in doing so was
justified in believing that he was acting in accordance with
the spirit of the letter he had received, for what the two kings
had at heart was the speedy consecration of some suitable
man to the metropolitan see, not the promotion of a particular
priest. Vitalian's letter shows that he was aware of the condi-
tion of the English Church, for he refers to the work which
the future archbishop would have to do in eradicating the
remains of customs held to be schismatical, or, as he says,
rooting out the tares of the evil one. Along with his letter
he sent relics to Oswiu, and a special relic to Eanflaed with
words of praise for her zeal in good works. His praise was
deserved since it was doubtless largely owing to her influence
that Oswiu had been brought over to the Roman side.
Fully recognising the importance of the choice which he
was unexpectedly called upon to m.ake, Vitalian anxiously
set about seeking for the best man to send to
cons!°Abp^, England as archbishop. He first fixed on Hadrian,
^^^' an African by race, the abbot of a monastery near
Monte Cassino, who was deeply learned both in the Greek and
Latin languages, and well skilled in ecclesiastical and monastic
discipline. Hadrian, however, refused the pope's offer on
the plea that he was unworthy of the episcopate. His Nolo
episcopari was not a mere form, he promised to find the pope
a more suitable and more learned man. He suggested a
monk named Andrew, the priest of a monastery of women
near Rome, who was held by all his acquaintance to be
worthy of the episcopate, but bodily infirmity rendered him
unfit for consecration. At last Hadrian proposed Theodore
to the pope. Theodore, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, was
already sixty-five years of age, he had studied at Athens, he
had a scholarly knowledge of Greek and Latin, of sacred and
secular literature, and specially of philosophy, and was highly
respected as a man of weight and integrity. He was a monk,
probably of the rule of St. Basil, and had not as yet taken even
subdeacon's orders. It may be that he came to Rome in the
train of the Emperor Constans H., who visited Athens in 662
and proceeded to Italy the next year. The pope promised
to consecrate him if Hadrian, who had twice been in Gaul,
VII THEODORE OF TARSUS 127
and would therefore be useful as a guide, and was further
able to provide him with attendants, would go with him to
England, and would stay with him to assist him in matters
of doctrine. It is evident from this that Vitalian feared lest
Theodore might be infected with the monothelite heresy,
which was then agitating no small part of Christendom.
The monothelites held that Christ had but one will, a divine
will, a tenet which was destructive of the Catholic doctrine that
our Lord offered Himself as a willing sacrifice for the sin of the
world. This view was the fruit of Eastern philosophy, and was
closely connected with the heresy of the monophysites who held
that Christ had but one nature. It had been promulgated by
the Emperor Heraclius for political reasons about 629, in the
hope of making it a basis of reconciliation between the
Catholic and heretical parties in the empire, and Honorius I.
had agreed that there was only one will in Christ. Martin I.,
however, boldly remonstrated with Constans II., who adopted
the heresy of his grandfather Heraclius, and sought to force it
upon his Catholic subjects. The pope's heroic defence of
orthodoxy was cruelly punished by the emperor ; he was
dethroned, carried off to Constantinople, imprisoned, and
finally banished to the Crimea, where he died, destitute but
unyielding, on September 16, 655. Vitalian, though his
reception of Constans at Rome shows that he was of a
less resolute spirit than Martin, was orthodox, and was
evidently anxious that the English Church should be pre-
served from the heresy of the Greeks. His anxiety, creditable
as it was to him, was groundless. Theodore, while attached
to the severe discipline of the Greeks, was free from any
heretical taint; his doctrine and his Hfe alike were pure.
He was ordained subdeacon in November 667, and then
as he wore the Eastern tonsure, having his whole head shaved,
he had to wait for four months before higher orders were
conferred upon him, in order that his hair might grow
sufficiently to admit of his receiving the Roman tonsure. At
last, on Sunday, March 26, 668, he was consecrated by
Vitalian at Rome.
He set out on his journey on May 27 in company with
Hadrian. Benedict Biscop, who had lately become a monk at
Lerins, had again visited Rome ; he was persuaded by Vitalian
128 THE PLAGUE chap.
to cut short his visit for Theodore's sake, and willingly under-
took to be his guide and interpreter in Gaul. After saihng
to Marseilles, Theodore and his company went by
to EnSd^ land to Aries, where he presented a commenda-
tory letter from the pope to John the archbishop.
John detained him at Aries until he could hear what Ebroin,
the powerful mayor of the palace of the King of Neustria and
Burgundy, wished concerning him. When at length Ebroin's
permission came for him to continue his journey, he went on
to Paris. There he was hospitably received by Agilbert, then
bishop of the city, and as winter v;as near at hand stayed with
him, no doubt learning much from him about the English
Church and people, while Hadrian visited his friends the
Bishops of Meaux and Sens. When the winter had passed,
Ecgbert, hearing from certain envoys that the archbishop was
in Gaul, for whom he and Oswiu had asked (for so Bede
speaks of Theodore, having no idea of any undue assumption
on the part of the pope), at once sent his high reeve Raedfrith
to bring him to Canterbury. Ebroin gave Theodore leave to
depart, but would not allow Hadrian to go with him, for he
suspected him of being a political envoy sent by Constans to
the English kings with designs hostile to the monarchy he
supported. Theodore went with Raedfrith to Quentavic, or
Etaples, then the usual place of embarkation from Gaul for
England, and was there delayed for some time by illness.
As soon as he began to recover he crossed to England, and
was received at Canterbury on May 27, 669. Hadrian joined
him soon afterwards.
Before Theodore's arrival the English Church can scarcely
be said to have existed except in name and idea. The pro-
The work ^P^^^ ^^^ ^^ would spccdily answer to the expecta-
that awaited tion formcd at the consecration of Augustine was
™' clouded over by the defeat and death of Eadwine.
(rhe schism which followed left Canterbury with the obedience
'of a comparatively small part of the English people ; nearly
all the rest looked to lona as the place of such authority as
, was acknowledged, while the West Saxon see was apparently
I isolated. Though the authority of lona had been broken
'at Whitby, the seat of Augustine had not been occupied
during the five years which had passed since the death of
VII THE WORK TO BE DONE 129
Deusdedit, so that there was no one to unite the Church by
the bond of a universal obedience. The first thing that the
new archbishop had to do for the Church was to give it unity.
Succeeding in that, he would be able to eradicate the re-
mains of Celtic customs, and so put an end to the diversity of -
practice and consequent discord which were impairing the /^
spiritual life and efficiency of the Church. Next to unity th^
Church needed organisation. Its lack of organisation was partly
due to the peculiar character of the Scots' Church.
There was no diocesan system, and the bishop was ^" °[fon"''^'
not tied to his bishopric; he might, like Cedd,
preside over a monastery in a distant part and in another
bishopric, and spend much of his time there. Again, the
English bishoprics were generally of enormous extent, for they .
followed the lines of kingdoms and varied with their fortunes.^
As each king became Christian, the bishop who converted him
and his people became the bishop of his whole kingdom, even
though it stretched from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. If
the Church was to have any organisation or orderly life, it was
incumbent on the new archbishop to found a diocesan systerii/^
to subdivide, tlie vast bishoprics into dioceses'of moTe Tnoderate
size, to place each under the exclusive care of its own bishop,
and to cause each bishop to devote himself to the care of his
own diocese. Excluding Boniface of East Anglia, who died
in the year of Theodore's arrival, the latter found only three
English bishops, the dispossessed Wilfrith, Ceadda who occupied
Wilfrith's see, and Wine. He had therefore a fairly open field
for his operations, though his plans for the subdivision of
dioceses met with serious opposition.
Along with an increase in the episcopate, the Church needed
a means of self-government and legislation. The lack of such
machinery tended to throw all ecclesiastical power into the
hands of the kings, and the results which would have ensued
may be gathered from actual events. Cenwalh, after getting
rid of Agilbert, dismissed Wine, who, about 666, bought the
see of London from Wulfhere. The institution of canonical
synods in which the Church might legislate and act for itself
was one of the reforms which demanded Theodore's carlv^
attention. And with this need for self-government there was
also a need for a disciplinary system which might control the
K
I30 THE PLAGUE chap.
passions and regulate the lives of both clergy and laity.
For though the Scots and their followers exercised a fairly
despotic authority over their disciples, their discipline was
too austere and their actions too impulsive to render
them fit directors of men of English race, who needed a
spiritual rule of a more moderate and practical kind,
administered by men of greater experience in the affairs of
life.
Lastly, the Church needed to be saved from the dangers
and puerilities of a morbid asceticism. A large number of
.^ its ministers were monks, and the monasticism of
■ the Scots and their followers had, as has already
been said, a strong tendency to exaggeration. The English,
clergy, monks, and laity, needed to be taught the relative
importance in the Christian hfe of active work and con-
templative devotion. English monasticism had to be saved
from the follies of over- strained asceticism. Its salvation
was to be effected by the diversion of monastic zeal into
new and more wholesome channels. This was another task
for Theodore, who was to fulfil it by making the English
monasteries places of secular as well as religious learning, and
leading his disciples and followers of both sexes to engage in
education. Other interests and occupations, and especially
foreign missions, speedily exercised a similar influence on the
lives of men and women under monastic vows, and for a while
monastic life in England under its best conditions was a
model of noble and unselfish energy. These other influences
were less directly due to Theodore, and will be considered
later. For the present, it will be enough to note that the
educational work carried on by Theodore, Hadrian, and those
who learnt from them, was of the highest moral and religious
benefit to the Church. Such, then, was the work which awaited
the new archbishop ; he was called upon to unite the/
Church of the English, to organise it by giving it an efiicientf
and orderly episcopate and the means of self-government, to^
institute a rational disciplinary system, and to turn the
religious of both sexes from an overweening enthusiasm foi
extravagant asceticism to a zeal for learning and teaching.
It was a gigantic task to lie before a man of sixty-six, as
Theodore was when he was consecrated. God lens^thened bis
VII AUTHORITIES 131
days and gave him strength and wisdom for the work wliere-
unto He had called him.
Authorities. — The original authorities for this chapter are virtually
only Bede's Hist. Eccles., and Vitce Abbatum, ed. Plummer, Vita S. Cud-
bercii, u.s. , and Eddi's Vita Wilfridi, u.s. The work of Eddi, which was
used by Bede, is violently eulogistic of Wilfrith, and should be checked
by Bede's narrative, which, on the other hand, shows by the suppression of
certain facts some dislike of Wilfrith. For the plague of 664 see Dr. C.
Creighton's History of Epidemics in Britain, 2 vols. Cambridge, 1891, vol. i.
Reference should be made to Bp. Stubbs's art. "Theodore of Tarsus" in
Diet. Chr. Biogr. iv. For the ascetic spirit of primitive English monasticism
and the whole effect of Theodore's introduction of learning, see Bp. Stubbs in
Memorials of the Reign of Richard I. vol. ii. , Epp. Cantuar. Introd. xv.-
xvi. , Rolls ser. Other authorities as in Chap. VI.
CHAPTER VIII
ORGANISATION
Soon after his arrival in England, Theodore set out on a tour
of visitation through all parts where the English were settled,
with the exception, probably, of the land of the
Theodore's heathen South Saxons, taking Hadrian with him,
visitation. ^^^ leaving Benedict Biscop as abbot in charge of
the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, or St. Augustine's, at
Canterbury, apparently until Hadrian's return. He every-
where taught the right rule of living and the canonical Easter.
He everywhere required, and received, an acknowledgment of
his authority, his success in this respect no doubt being due
in part to the weight with which he was invested as coming
directly from Rome, though his own abihty and character must
have largely contributed to it. He was, Bede says, "the first
archbishop to whom the whole English Church made sub-
mission." Nor was its submission to him merely nominal, for
he corrected all that he found amiss, and filled up vacant
bishoprics. He consecrated Bise to succeed Boniface as Bishop
of the East Anglians at Dunwich, and Wilfrith's priest, the
choir-master Putta, as Bishop of Rochester. The West Saxon
bishopric had remained vacant since the expulsion of Wine ;
and Cenwalh, who, after getting rid of two bishops, was in
want of a third, had sent to invite Agilbert to return, but
Agilbert would not leave the see of Paris, and sent him in his
stead his nephew, a priest named Leutherius or Lothere, who
was joyfully received by the king and his witan, and was con-
secrated by Theodore at Winchester in 670. While visiting
the north in 669, Theodore told Ceadda (Chad) that his
CHAP. viTi THEODORE AND CEADDA 133
consecration was irregular. Ceadda humbly replied, " If you
know that I received the episcopate irregularly, I am willing
to resign it, for I never thought myself worthy of it, and
accepted it only for obedience sake." Moved by the
humility of his reply, Theodore said that it would be better
that his consecration should be carried out afresh. For the
moment Ceadda retired to his monastery at Lastingham, and
Wilfrith again took possession of the see of York as Bishop of
the Northumbrians.
In a short time Theodore, who loved Ceadda for his
holiness and humility, was able to provide him with a
bishopric, for Wulfhere of Mercia sent to him asking
/ , . , r 1 • 1 • 1 r T Ceadda, Bp.
hmi for a bishop for his people in place of Jaruman. of the
Accordingly, having obtained permission from Oswiu, ^g?^^"''
whose subject Ceadda was as abbot of Lastingham,
Theodore completed Ceadda's consecration, and made him
Bishop of the Mercians and of the people of Lindsey, then under
Mercian rule. What Theodore actually did on this occasion
is a disputed point. Eddi, Wilfrith's biographer and a con-
temporary, says that he conferred all the orders on Ceadda, as
though his ordination had been invalid from the beginning,
and finally consecrated him. On the other hand it is argued
that this is impossible, for, setting aside the co-operation of the
British bishops, Ceadda's consecration was valid, as Wine,
though an intruder into Agilbert's see, had been consecrated
by Catholic bishops, and consecration by a single bishop,
though uncanonical, was not invalid. It has been supposed,
therefore, that all that Theodore did was to supply some
defect in ritual consequent on the laxity of Wine in acting with
schismatical bishops. This seems a rather summary treatment
of Eddi's assertion, and is scarcely consonant with Bede's
words, who says that Theodore completed Ceadda's consecra-
tion afresh {denuo catholica ratione consiimmavit). Eddi's
assertion is probably correct, for Theodore's "Penitential"
lays down that all ordained by bishops of the Scots or
Britons who held to the Celtic usages had no orders in the
Catholic Church, until their orders had been confirmed by
the imposition of the hands of a Catholic bishop. Not only
then was there some ritual defect in Ceadda's consecration,
but his earlier orders were invalid in Theodore's eyes. He
134 ORGANISA TION chap.
would not therefore complete his consecration until he had
confirmed his orders by fresh rites. Had he done other-
wise, he would have seemed either to affirm his orders,
or to consecrate him as bishop without his having passed
through them, which would have been uncanonical, and was
only recognised as lawful when the will of God was believed
to be unmistakably shown, as when St. Ambrose was conse-
crated bishop, though still a layman and recently baptized.
Theodore then, having made good the ordination of Ceadda,
proceeded to remedy some ritual defect, real or supposed, in
his consecration. With kindly consideration he bade him
give up his practice of always going afoot, and told him to
ride on horseback when he went on long journeys. Ceadda
hesitated, for he was unwilling to spare himself any labour ;
the archbishop would not be denied, and with his own hands
set him on a horse. Ceadda's humility and unselfishness
enabled Theodore to carry out the first and most urgent
instalment of his work without opposition. In two years
after his landing, he restored the episcopate and united the
whole Church in obedience to himself. In so doing, he
paid no regard to Gregory's plan for two archbishoprics,
which must therefore be held to have been set aside at
Rome. At last the idea expressed in the title "Archbishop
of the English people " was carried out in fact ; the EngHsh
Church was one, the Church of all English Christians, united
by the bond of obedience to its archbishop.
Ceadda fixed his see at Lichfield, which had before been
designed by Wulfhere as the seat of his bishop, and lived
there for two years and a half. Wulfhere gave him
Slraaer. ^^^*^ ^^^ ^ monastery in Lindsey at a place which
may probably be identified with Barrow, near
Goxhill, that he and his successors might have a residence in
that division of his vast bishopric. He spent his time for the
most part in travelling about preaching the Gospel, as he had
done in Northumbria. Yet he had of course some seasons of
rest. Near his church at Lichfield, which was dedicated to
St. Mary, and stood to the east of the present cathedral
church, he built himself a hut, and there he dwelt when he
was not engaged in preaching in other parts, and passed his
days in reading and prayer with seven or eight of his monks.
VIII DEATH OF CEADDA 135
Ever recognising the presence of God and mindful of the
uncertainty of Hfe, he was full of godly awe, which was apparent
in all his words and actions. Everything that seemed to
him to be a reminder of God's nearness to him, brought him
thoughts of the day when the Lord should appear as the Judge
of quick and dead, and impelled him to self-examination and
contrite prayer. Trumbert, a monk of Lastingham and later one
of Bede's teachers, used to tell how when Ceadda was abbot
there, he would close the book from which he was reading, if
he heard the wind howl across the moors, and would fall on
his knees in prayer, and how if a storm arose and it thundered,
he would go into the church and pray and recite psalms until
the storm had passed away, for he would say, " The Lord hath
thundered from heaven ; the Most High hath given His
voice." This consciousness of standing always in the awful
presence of God was ,the secret of his deep humility.
Early in 672 the plague carried off a large number of
his monks, and so it happened on a time that he was
staying in his house with only one monk named
Owine. This Owine, whose tomb is still to be seen
in Ely cathedral, had been the steward of ^thelthryth, or St.
Etheldreda, a daughter of the good king Anna, and the wife
of Ecgfrith, the son and successor of Oswiu. He had left
all that he had, and appeared at Ceadda's monastery at
Lastingham carrying an axe and a hatchet, for as he had
not enough learning to study the Scriptures, he determined
to serve God by working with his hands. He had followed
Ceadda to Lichfield, and was with him when the call came
to the bishop which had come to so many of his monks.
One day, when he was working in the fields near the
bishop's dwelling, Owine deemed that he heard sweet voices
singing, and the sound was as though it was coming down
from heaven to earth, and at last it filled the oratory
where he knew that Ceadda was. As he looked towards
the building, Ceadda opened the window and clapped his
hands, as he was wont to do when he would call some one
to him. Owine obeyed the call, and Ceadda bade him go to
the church and fetch "the seven brethren," evidently the
elders of the monastery, and come back with them. When
they had come, he exhorted them to live in love and peace
136 ORG ANTS A TION chap.
together, and diligently to observe the monastic rule and all
that they had learnt from him. For, said he, " the gentle guest
who has of late visited our brethren, has deigned to come to
me to-day and call me from this world," and he bade them
tell the brethren to pray for him and to watch with prayer and
good works for the day of their own departure. Seven days
later, on March 2, he died, after having received the Holy
Eucharist. While other fathers of the English Church have
equalled St. Chad in diligence and devotion, his place is high
among those holy and humble men of heart, who, having
lived as in the constant presence of God, stand before their
Lord's face and praise Him and magnify Him for ever.
When Theodore had ended his visitation in 671, he gave
Hadrian the abbacy of St. Peter and St. Paul in obedience to
the command of Vitalian, that he sliould provide him
"^Caifterbu^.* ^ place where he might settle with his followers.
Benedict Biscop accordingly resigned the govern-
ment of the house, and for a third time visited Rome. With
Hadrian's help, Theodore set himself to make Canterbury a
place of education, so that from it learning might be spread
throughout his whole province. A crowd of scholars resorted
to Canterbury, and received instruction from the archbishop
and abbot in the Scriptures, in Latin and Greek, verse-making,
music, astronomy, and arithmetic as applied to the computa-
tion of the ecclesiastical seasons. Theodore also lectured on
medicine, for one of his scholars, John of Beverley, when
Bishop of York, quoted a maxim of his that it was dangerous
to bleed a patient when moon and tide were waxing ; and the
archbishop himself recorded his belief that hare's flesh was
good for dysentery, for he wished to combat a popular super-
stition against eating it. Many who, besides John of Beverley,
became famous in the Church, were educated under Theodore
and Hadrian ; and Bede says that in his own day some of
these scholars could speak Latin and Greek like their mother-
tongue, and that in Theodore's time learning was so widely
spread, that whoever w^ould could find some one able to
instruct him in the Scriptures. The School at Canterbury be-
came in after-days a model for a school at York, from which
religion and learning were carried to continental nations.
The Church having been united in obedience to its primate,
^iii SYNOD OF HERTFORD I37
Theodore made a momentous advance in its organisation by
holding a national synod at Hertford on September 24, 673.
His action appears to have been independent of
.any regal authority. Of his six suffragans, four— J'^^lyj^'d °^f
Bise, Putta, Lothere, and Winfrith, who succeeded
Ceadda at Lichfield — were present in person ; Wilfrith sent
representatives, and Wine was absent. Along with them sat
many men learned in canonical matters, but these were not a
constituent part of the assembly, which was a council of bishops,
a synod, according to the anciently restricted signification of the
word. Its acts are preserved by Bede. It was opened by the
archbishop, who, after speaking of his desire for united action,
founded on tlie decisions of the fathers, and saying much as
to the need of charity, asked each bishop in turn if he would
consent to the ancient and canonical decrees of the fathers of
the Church. All having agreed, he produced a collection of
canons compiled by Dionysius Exiguus early in the sixth century,
in which he said that he had marked sundry passages as speci-
ally applicable to their needs, and on these passages he founded
ten canons, briefly, to the following effect —
(i.) That all should keep Easter on the Sunday after the 1 4th
moon ; (ii.) That no bishop should trespass on the diocese of
another ; (iii.) That no bishop should trouble any monastery
or take away its possessions; (iv.) That no monk should wander
from his own monastery to another unless by permission of
his abbot ; (v.) That no clergyman should leave his diocese
without letters commendatory from his diocesan, and should
return if summoned by his bishop, on pain of excommunica-
tion ; (vi.) That stranger bishops and clergy should not officiate
in a diocese without leave of the diocesan ; (vii.) That a synod
should meet twice a year — after discussion it was decided to
meet once a year on August i, at a place called Clovesho, which
has not been identified satisfactorily, but was probably in the
Mercian dominions, and near London, (viii.) That precedence
among bishops should be regulated by the dates of consecration;
(ix.) That the number of the episcopate should be increased.
This was debated but deferred, (x.) That only lawful marriage
should be allowed ; that no one should commit incest ; that
no one should leave his wife except, as the Gospel teaches, for
the cause of fornication, and that no Christian who had put
138 ORGANISATION chap.
away his wife should marry another. When these canons had
been accepted, Theodore caused his notary to write them out,
and he and all the bishops signed them. By the second, fifth,
and sixth of these canons, Theodore established an orderly
diocesan system in place of the individual and irresponsible
efforts of the Scots. His attempt to advance farther in the
same direction by obtaining a vote for the subdivision of
dioceses, met with opposition and was checked. He caused
the Church to speak decisively against the prevailing laxity
as regards marriage, and to demand nothing short of the moral
rules laid down by its Divine Lord.
The unsettled relations of the different kingdoms must
have rendered it impossible that national synods should
^ ,. ^ meet regularly, as ordained by the seventh canon.
English ,^ , ° •" . -^ , . ,
Church. Yet there are more notices of such meetmgs than
ouncis. j^jgi^j. ^g expected, considering the frequent wars
in the island ; they were not, however, held at any fixed
date, or so frequently as Theodore intended. Clovesho
became a place of meeting, but councils were held at other
places also, according to convenience, and generally on the
borders of kingdoms. As the only other synod held, so far
as is known, by Theodore, did not meet at Clovesho, ii is
evident that he laid no great stress on the question of place.
After the creation of the northern archiepiscopalje, each
archbishop held councils of his own province. Other iouncils,
more or less ecclesiastical in character, of single ki^igdoms,
will be met with hereafter ; they were little if at all different
from witenagemots engaged in ecclesiastical business. The
clerical element was always strong in a witenagemot, and
would naturally be specially strong when business conn(^cted
with the Church and clergy was to be transacted. It is
therefore often impossible to distinguish between an eqclesi-
astical and a secular council. As a general rule, all Church
councils were held in the presence of kings, their chief officers
and nobles, and though there is no means of ascertaining how
far they took part in legislation and other ecclesiastical
action, their assent was certainly regarded as important.
Apart from its enactments, the synod of Hertfor(^ has a
peculiar significance ; it was the first occasion on which the
English Church deliberated and acted as a single body. The
VIII SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES 139
Church owed to Theodore its voice, and its constitutional
machinery for discussion and legislation concerning matters that
pertained to its jurisdiction. Nor must Theodore's work in
this respect be regarded only as of ecclesiastical moment.
His synod was the first EngUsh national assembly, and as
such was the forerunner of the witenagemots and parHaments
of a united and indivisible nation, which had yet to be formed
out of the discordant elements of the heptarchic kingdoms.
In spite of the adjournment of his proposal for the
subdivision of dioceses, Theodore soon took a step in that
direction. The basis on which he worked was,
as will be seen, tribal and territorial. Instead of of the East
bishoprics extending over whole kingdoms, he btshopS.
created dioceses, conterminous with the settlements
of tribes or peoples which preceded the establishment of the
kingdoms. These settlements had each some kind of separate
administrative machinery, and each remained a definite part of
a kingdom. His bishops were to be bishops of tribes or
peoples, each with a diocese embracing the territory occupied
by the people over whom he was set as spiritual ruler.
East Anglia afforded the first opening for carrying out
his plan. Bishop Bise was incapacitated by sickness, and
retired from his bishopric about 673, and Theodore, while
consecrating a successor to him at Dunwich, formed the
northern division of the kingdom, the territory of the North
folk, our Norfolk, into a separate diocese, with its see at
Elmham, and consecrated a bishop for that people, leaving
the bishop at Dunwich to preside over a diocese comprising
the territory of the South folk.
About two years later, Theodore was able to give the East
Saxons a bishop after his own heart. The simoniacal Wine
died perhaps in 675. He is said to have repented The sees of
bitterly of his sin, and to have retired from his London and
• 1 /- 1 • 1 1 u i. i.u Winchester.
bishopric three years before his death, but tne
story is too late to be of any authority, and he certainly
held his bishopric until his death. In his place Theodore
consecrated Earconwald, the founder of Chertsey and Barking,
to the see of London. Earconwald, who had already dene
much good among the East Saxons, may be regarded as
a sort of founder of the church of his see. Mellitus left it
I40 ORGANISATION chap.
soon after the death of ^thelbert, and the people refused
to receive him back ; Cedd, who was consecrated to the
bishopric of the East Saxons some thirty-seven years later,
was not macie Bishop of London, and did not reside
there, and Wine, who bought the see, is not likely to have
done any good to his church. Earconwald was a man of
remarkable holiness and force of character ; he enriched his
church, and brought his diocese into an organised condition.
His influence extended throughout the south of England, he
was honoured and beloved by his own flock, and after his
death was reverenced as a saint. Bede says that the wood
of the litter which the bishop used in his last illness had
power to heal the sick, and in mediaeval times the days of
"St. Erkenwald's" deposition and translation were kept at
St. Paul's as festivals of the highest rank. On the death of
Lothere, the bishop of the West Saxons, Theodore consecrated
as his successor, Hsedde, a good man and a just, not specially
learned, though the friend of learned men, and, above all, of
Theodore himself. Haedde translated the body of St. Birinus
from Dorchester to Winchester, and thus definitely settled
the West Saxon see in the cathedral church of St. Peter and
St. Paul, where miracles were for centuries believed to have
been wrought at the shrine of the apostle of the West
Saxons.
Theodore had to meet with some opposition in a quarter from
which he could have little expected it. Winfrith, the successor
The ew ^^ Ccadda at Lichfield, bishop of the Mercians,
Mercian Middle Auglians, and the people of Lindsey, was a
good and modest man, yet in 675 Theodore deposed
him from his bishopric for some disobedience. It is probable
that this disobedience consisted in opposition to the arch-
bishop's plan for subdividing the Mercian bishopric. Winfrith
had been one of Ceadda's clergy, and may well have felt it
his duty to oppose the new system which Theodore was intro-
ducing, especially as it would diminish the bishopric of his old
master. In deposing him from his see, Theodore appears to
have acted simply on his own authorit}', and without the
concurrence of Winfrith's co-bishops. If so, his action was
uncanonical, for the law of the Catholic Church ordains
that when accusation is made against a bishop, he shall
vni THE NEW MERCIAN DIOCESES 141
answer before a synod of bishops, and that if a bishop is
deposed by a metropoHtan, he shall have a right of appeal to
the synod of the province. Theodore, however, is by no
means the only great man who has found it advisable or
necessary to disregard rules or orders of one sort or another
in carrying out his work. Whether Winfrith made an attempt
to appeal to Rome against the archbishop's sentence is not
known. He will appear again as travelling in Gaul, where he
had an unlucky experience. He retired to the monastery
of Barrow, over which he seems to have retained the rule
held by him while bishop of the people of Lindsey, and
there ended his days in godly fashion. In his place Theodore
consecrated Sexulf, the founder and abbot of Medeshamstead,
the present Peterborough. Soon after this, ^thelred, who
had succeeded his brother Wulfhere as King of the Mercians,
invaded Kent, destroyed churches and monasteries, burnt
Rochester, and laid waste the bishop's property. Bishop Putta,
who happened to be absent from Rochester at the time, would
not return to his see, and Theodore consecrated another bishop
in his place. Putta went to Lichfield, to Bishop Sexulf, who
gave him a church and a little estate at Hereford, where he
stayed and taught church music, and did mission work,
probably discharging some episcopal duties.
Before long Theodore carried out the subdivision of the
vast Mercian bishopric. His success appears to have been
due to his action in a political crisis. When Ecgfrith of
Northumbria was at war with ^thelred, the Mercian king, in
679, and a fierce battle had been fought, Theodore inter-
posed between them in a manner worthy of his office, and
by his exhortations put an end to a war which seemed likely
to be long and bloody. His conduct won the respect of both
kings ; yEthelred became one of his dearest friends, and
with the concurrence of the under-king of the Hwiccas,
invited him to divide the Mercian bishopric. Accord-
ing to a late though valuable authority, he divided the
Mercian dominions into five dioceses. Worcester he made
the cathedral city of a bishopric for the Hwiccas, and appointed
to it Tatfrith, one of Hilda's disciples. Tatfrith died before
consecration, and Theodore supplied his place by consecrating
Bosel. Leicester he made the see of a bishop for the Middle
142 ORGANISATION chap.
Anglians. Lichfield was retained by Sexulf as the see of the
bishopric of the Mercians proper. A fourth see was fixed at
Sidenaceaster or Stow, for the bishops of the people of Lindsey,
then under ^Mercian rule ; and a fifth was, we are told, placed at
Dorchester, in our Oxfordshire, to which he consecrated y^tla,
another of Hilda's monks. This implies that Dorchester and
the country north of the Thames had been conquered by the
Mercians. ^Etla had no immediate successor at Dorchester,
which after his death was presumably included in the
diocese of Leicester, until the bishop moved his see from
Leicester to Dorchester in the ninth century. This fivefold
division of the Mercian bishopric is recorded as though effected
in 679, and probably the whole scheme was sanctioned by
the witan at one time, though it may have been carried out
by degrees at dates not far apart. A sixth Mercian bishopric,
with its see at Hereford, appears at a somewhat later date;
that too was instituted by Theodore, and was, no doubt, part of
his original plan, for it completed the tribal division of the
Mercian dominions by providing the Hecanas with a bishop
of their own. That it did not, as it seems, appear in the
scheme which was probably laid before the witan, would be
accounted for by the residence of Putta among the Hecanas ;
he is traditionally reckoned as the first Bisliop of the Hecanas,
but this is going too far, for if, as may be supposed, he acted
as bishop among that people, he must have done so only as
Sexulfs deputy.
The subdivision of the Mercian and other over-large
bishoprics by Theodore must not be regarded simply as
administrative measures \ they had a direct bearing
actiVk^^ on the spiritual welfare of the people. In every
new diocese, the bishop's church became a centre
of evangelistic and pastoral activity. The bishop lived
surrounded by his clergy and monks who were engaged in
divine service, in preaching, and in education ; his church
was the mother of the churches which were gradually built in
his diocese, and from it were supplied the clergy who served
them, and who before long became parish priests ; for a
localised, though as yet it can scarcely be called a parochial,
ministry was already growing up. About the time of the
increase in the Mercian episcopate, two pious brothers Osric
VIII DEATH OF OSIVIU 143
and Oswald, who ruled over the Hwiccas in subordination to
the Mercian king, were active in the work of the Church
among their people. Osric was probably one of the ealdormen,
or under-kings, of the Hwiccas at the time of the subdivision
of the Mercian bishopric.^ A charter, on which it is
impossible to rely certainly, makes him the founder of a
monastery of consecrated virgins at Bath, and he is also said
to have founded St. Peter's monastery at Gloucester, where
his sister Cyneburh, who was consecrated by Bishop Bosel,
was first abbess, and was succeeded by her sister Eadburh.
His brother Oswald, also an ealdorman of the Hwiccas,
founded a monastery for men at Pershore, in the present
Worcestershire.
In the North the remains of the Scottish influence were
rapidly disappearing under Bishop Wilfrith's energetic and
magnificent rule. As soon as he regained his see ^^^^^ ^^
in 669, his character and abilities gave him a Oswiu,
commanding position. Oswiu became whole-
hearted in his adherence to the Roman obedience, and
feeling that his end was near prayed him to act as his guide
on a pilgrimage to Rome, but the king's plan was prevented
by his death. Bede tells us that Oswiu died on February 15,
670, and twice places his death in that year. Nevertheless,
in dating some other events by the king's death, he implies
that it took place in 671, and as that date is supported by the
earlier evidence of the Northumbrian pedigrees given by
Nennius, it must be taken as correct. Oswiu was succeeded
by his son Ecgfrith, the husband of the saintly ^thelthryth
(St. Etheldreda), and Wilfrith stood high in her favour, and
for a time in the favour of the king.
Wilfrith employed the wealth showered upon him in
church-building. His cathedral church at York, the church
1 Florence of Worcester (i, 239) names Oshere as under-king of the Hwiccas
at the time of the subdivision, Oshere may have been the son of Oswald,
the brother of Osric, see Did. Chr. Biogr. It has been suggested that Osric
was the son of Alchfrith, the friend of Wilfrith, and was one with the North-
umbrian king who was slain in 729, see ibid. This would imply that Alchfrith,
the son of Oswiu, took refuge, when in disgrace with his father, at the Mercian
court, with his sister Queen Osthryth, that his sons became rulers of the
Hwiccas, and that in 718 Osric obtained the Northumbrian throne. Mr.
Plummer {Bede, ii. 247, 338) thinks this suggested identification unsound, and
his arguments against it seem convincing.
144 ORGANISA TION chap.
of Paulinus and Oswald, was almost a ruin, for its roof was
gone ; he made a new roof which he covered with lead, filled
the windows with glass, then an unusual luxury, plas-
wiifrithat tered the walls, furnished the altar with ornaments
York. '
and vessels, and endowed the church with lands.
At Ripon, his old monastic home, he built a basilican church
of dressed stone, with columns taken apparently from some
Roman building, and with side porches or chapels. It was
dedicated to St. Peter, and to its consecration came Ecgfrith
with his brother, the under-king ^Ifwine, and the abbots, princes,
and ealdormen of the whole North. The altar was laden with
sacred vessels and covered wiih cloths of purple and gold, and
all who came received the Blessed Sacrament. Then Wilfrith
stood before the altar and announced the names of all the lands
which had been given to his Church, and claimed as its right
all the holy places which the British clergy had deserted when
they fled before the sword of the English. After this, he
made a great feast for the king and all the people, such as
our forefathers loved, which lasted for three days and three
nights. For Ripon he caused to be written a copy of the
Four Gospels in letters of gold, on purple vellum, and
placed it in a case of gold studded with jewels. All these
things Eddi saw, for he had become one of the monks of
Ripon ; and of them all there still remains part of the crypt
of Wilfrith's church. At Hexham, too, he built a church,
the like of which, men said, was not to be seen on this side
of the Alps ; it had a vaulted crypt, rows of columns, and
many porches. He was diligent in his episcopal duties,
and, while he kept great state, lived himself almost as an
ascetic. He was widely popular, and many nobles sent their
sons to him to be educated, some of his pupils becoming
churchmen, and others entering the king's service.
Meanwhile Benedict Biscop built a monastery at Wearmouth
in 674, and in 680 another at Jarrow, Of both these houses,
f^ .uv . which were under the rule of St. Benedict, we
Cuthbert, '
Prior of shall hear later. At Lindisfarne Eata seems to
m isarne. j^^^^ found it difficult to bring the monks to
desert the traditions of the Scots, for he sent for Cuthbert
from Melrose, and appointed him prior that he might teach
them a better rule of life. Cuthbert had to meet with
VIII CUTHBERT ON FARNE ISLAND 145
strong opposition, which he overcame by gentleness of temper
and firmness in persisting in his requirements, so that at last,
even in that stronghold of Celtic customs, the monks adopted
a rule more or less like that of the Roman monasteries.
While stern towards evil-doers, Cuthbert was loving to all
true penitents, and brought them to holiness of life by
tender exhortations. He continued, and constantly increased,
the ascetic practices which he had carried on at Melrose,
and spent night after night in prayer and the recitation of
the psalter. After a time his passion for asceticism grew so
strong that he retired to a lonely place near the monastery, and
in 676 to Fame Island, where he lived as a hermit. He built
himself a rude circular hut sunk so deeply in the ground that
nothing, save the sky, could be seen from it ; it had two
chambers, one of which was an oratory, a single window, and
a cistern or well in which the spring-water was believed to
be miraculously kept at the same level ; it neither shrank nor
flooded the floor. Another larger hut was built near the
landing-place for those who came from the monastery, or
elsewhere, to see him.
At first Cuthbert would receive his visitors and talk with
them. One Christmas Day, for example, some of the
Lindisfarne monks persuaded him to spend the day with them
in the guests' hut. Again and again, he broke in on their
cheerful talk with solemn warnings that they should be
watchful against a day of trouble. When they returned to
the monastery, they found one of the brethren dead of the
plague, and during nearly the whole of a year the plague
remained in their house, and carried off the larger number
of the monks. In time, Cuthbert's desire for loneliness
increased ; he would no longer go forth to meet those who
came to visit him, and would only sometimes give them his
blessing from the window of his hut. Sad it surely is,
to think how the stalwart youth, the unwearying teacher of
the ignorant and comforter of the sorrowful, the capable
monastic ruler sank into a solitary ascetic, with shattered
nerves and wasted frame. On the other hand, it must be
remembered that the people of his own time saw in Cuthbert
a signal example of how love for Christ could make a man
count all things well lost for His sake. The evils of
146 ORGANISATION chap.
extravagance in asceticism were not then recognised, and his
retirement from the duties of life, his morbid devotion,
and his self-imposed miseries gave him an extraordinary
influence over his contemporaries.
The bishopric over which Wilfrith presided so magnificently
extended over all Deira and Bernicia, and in 678 also over
Lindsey. Theodore was anxious to carry out his
Subdivision ,. "^ ^ , ,. . . . , , , . ..
ofWiifrith's policy of subdivision in the north, and it may well
bishopric, ^g supposed that the opposition to his design for
the increase of the episcopate, at the Synod of Hertford, was
led by Wilfrith's representatives. He found his 0])portunity
when Wilfrith lost the favour of the Northumbrian king. The
change in Ecgfrith's feelings towards him arose from the king's
domestic affairs. His wife ^thelthryth, believing that virginity
was specially acceptable to God, refused to fulfil her wifely
duty ; Wilfrith encouraged her in her refusal, and when, about
672, she obtained her husband's consent to leave him, gave
her the veil at Coldinghami. In addition to this personal
cause of annoyance with the bishop, the king was jealous of
his power, and his second wife Eormenburh, who disliked the
friend and adviser of her predecessor, did all she could to
increase this feeling. Accordingly, in 678, Ecgfrith invited
Theodore to visit him, and the archbishop took advantage of
the king's hostility against Wilfrith to carry out his policy in
Northumbria. After consulting with some of his suffragans,
he decided, in conjunction with the king, and apparently
without any communication with Wilfrith, to subdivide his vast
bishopric, forming two new dioceses in Deira and Bernicia,
and making Lindsey a third diocese,^ so that Wilfrith would
be left with the see of York and a large part of Deira, and
would become one out of four bishops, who would each
have a share of his former diocese. This was an enormous
^ In order to treat the dispute with Wilfrith as far as possible without
interruption, an arrangement has been adopted which necessitates a note on the
changes with respect to the Lindsey bishopric. Lindsey was under Mercian
dominion in 675, and was consequently in the bishopric of Sexulf, the Mercian
bishop, at the time of his consecration. It was conquered by Ecgfrith of
Northumbria in 678, and therefore became part of Wilfrith's bishopric, and
was assigned by Theodore to Eadhasd. Shortly afterwards it was conquered
by .^thelred of Mercia, Eadhaed resigned, the bishopric was included in the
scheme for the subdivision of the Mercian bishopric attributed to the year
679, and .^thelwine was consecrated as Bishop of the Lindiswaras in 680.
VIII WTLFRITH'S APPEAL TO ROME 147
diminution of Wilfrith's power and dignity. He appeared
before Ecgfrith and Theodore in a Northumbrian gemot, and
demanded of them why they had done him this injury.
They repHed that they laid nothing to his charge, but could
not alter their decision. Wilfrith then appealed to the judg-
ment of the pope, and left the Assembly amid the jeers of the
king's attendants.
Wilfrith's appeal to the pope against the action of the
ecclesiastical and civil authorities of his own country was
the first instance of a practice which, in after-years,
wrought much harm to the English Church and '^^pp^'''-
nation, though some good also to the Church. The right of
the Bishop of Rome to interfere between a bishop and his
metropolitan in matters of jurisdiction was not universally
acknowledged. In 426 the synods of the African Church
had withstood a decision of Pope Zosimus restoring an ex-
communicated priest ; and, relying on a decree of the Council
of Nicsa, had declared that bishops and clergy should be
judged by their own metropolitans. Again, in 444, St. Hilary,
Archbishop of Aries, had boldly protested against the action
of Leo the Great in entertaining an appeal from his juris-
diction in the matter of a Bishop of Vesoul, v/hereupon Leo
obtained a rescript from the Emperor Valentinian HI.
supporting the pope's claim to universal jurisdiction. Since
those days, however, the authority of the Roman see had
greatly increased in the West, and Wilfrith, owing to the part
that he had taken in controversy with the Scots, was naturally
inclined to rely upon it. Englishmen generally, whether
clerical or lay, seem to have been otherwise minded, for while
they regarded the Roman see with affectionate reverence,
they disliked foreign interference. Nor was Theodore out of
sympathy with them. As an eastern monk he had been com-
paratively little under papal influence, and as an archbishop
he naturally held to the side of metropolitan authority.
Wilfrith, however, is not to be blamed for seeking help from
Rome. We must not think of him as an advocate of papal
interference in the affairs of the English Church generally,
such as was attempted with more or less success by the
mediaeval popes ; he had been treated unfairly by the king
and the archbishop, all his fellow-bishops were under Theo-
148 ORGANISATION chap.
dore's power, and he had no hope of redress except from
Rome, the seat of justice and law. When he left England to
prosecute his appeal, Theodore treated his departure as a
resignation of his see ; he consecrated, without the assistance
of any other bishop, three new bishops at York, and divided
Wilfrith's bishopric between them. Bosa, one of Hilda's
disciples, he consecrated for Deira with his see at York, in
Wilfrith's own church; Eata, the Abbot of Lindisfarne, he
consecrated as Bishop of the Bernicians, with leave to place
his see either at Lindisfarne or Hexham ; and Eadhsed was
consecrated to Lindsey, but his diocese was shortly afterwards
conquered by the Mercians. Eadhsed consequently retired to
the monastery of Ripon, and Lindsey became a Mercian diocese.
Before leaving Northumbria, Theodore dedicated the church
which Finan had built at Lindisfarne to St. Peter, and thus in
the headquarters of the Scots' mission marked the triumph of
Rome over lona.
Ecgfrith was anxious to prevent Wilfrith from carrying his
appeal to Rome, and, believing that he would land at Quentavic
(Etaples), arranged that Ebroin should send men to
IS journey. ^^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^^^ \{v!x\, This Ebroin was ready to do,
for he had a grudge against Wilfrith, who, in the days of his
power, had helped his enemy Dagobert H. of Austrasia to
return from exile in Ireland, and had furnished him with
means to gain the kingdom of his father Sigebert. By
mistake Ebroin's men caught Winfrith, the deposed Bishop of
the Mercians, who had, unluckily for him, left his monastery at
Barrow to visit Gaul ; they stript him of all that he had and
slew some of his company. Wilfrith did not fall into their
hands, for his ship was driven out of its course by a tempest,
so he escaped them and landed in Friesland, then a heathen
country, inhabited by a people near akin to the English.
Anxious as Wilfrith must have been to prosecute his appeal, he
was even more anxious for the salvation of these Frisians ; he
obtained leave from their king Adelgis to preach the Gospel
to them, and baptized many of all ranks, thus laying the
foundation of a mission which was afterwards nobly carried on
by his fellow-countrymen. Ebroin soon found out where he
was, and sent messengers to Adelgis promising with an oath to
give him a sack full of gold pieces if he would either deliver
VIII WILFRITH IN FRIESLAND 149
Wilfrith up to him alive, or send him his head. The king
was feasting in his hall with Wilfrith and his ])arty and all his
nobles, when the messengers came to him, and he bade the men
read Ebroin's letter in the presence of them all. Now a fire
was burning before him. So when he had heard the letter
read, he took it in his hands, and tore it up and cast it into
the fire, saying, " Go tell your lord that this is my answer.
May the Maker of all things rend, destroy, and utterly
consume the kingdom and life of him who perjures himself to
his God, and is false to the covenant which he has made."
The messengers departed with shame, and Wilfrith tarried with
the king all that winter. In the spring of 679 he went to the
court of Dagobert, who was reigning at Metz. Dagobert was
not unmindful of the help which he had received from him, and
offered him the bishopric of Strasburg, and when he refused it,
sent him on his way with many gifts and with a Frankish
bishop as his guide. Wilfrith was entertained at Pavia by the
Lombard king, Perctarit, who, one day, told him that messengers
had come to him from England offering him a large sum if he
would betray him, but that he remembered how when he
himself was an exile, the King of the Huns had refused to
betray him to his enemies, and that he had rejected the offer.
So Wilfrith at last reached Rome in safety.
A council is said to have been held by Pope Agatho in
October to heal dissensions between Theodore and the English
bishops. No mention of Wilfrith occurs in the
report of it, but it is possible that his wrongs may wiifnth's
have been known at Rome before his arrival, and
Winfrith's deposition may also have caused some discussion
there. This council is said to have decreed that the English
episcopate should consist of twelve bishops inclusive of the
archbishop, that Theodore should be called upon to hold a
national council, and that John, the Pope's precentor and
abbot of St. Martin's at Rome, should be sent to him with
the decrees of Pope Martin's Lateran Council of 649, which
condemned the monothelite heresy. But there are such
serious difficulties connected with the report of this council,
and the evidence for it is so unsatisfactory, that it is perhaps
safe to reject it altogether. A council, however, was certainly
held at Rome before the end of 679 to decide on Wilfrith's
I50 ORGANISATION chap.
appeal. Theodore was represented by a monk named
Coenwald, and Wilfrith appeared in person. After a com-
mittee which had been appointed to make a preUminary inquiry
into the case, had made its report, Wilfrith was admitted into
the council-chamber and his petition was read. The pope
and the council determined that he should be restored to his
bishopric, that the intruding bishops should be removed, and
that he should, with the advice of a council, appoint others to
be his coadjutors who should be consecrated by the archbishop.
This decision, while implicitly condemning the action of
Theodore, provided that his desire for an increase in the
Northumbrian episcopate should be carried out in a regular
manner. At another council held by Agatho on March 27,
680, against the monothelite heresy, Wilfrith was present as
Bishop of York, and signed as speaking for the faith of the
English, Britons, Scots, and Picts. Theodore was expected,
but did not appear. Wilfrith returned to England in triumph,
bringing with him sundry relics, and the pope's bulls to
exhibit to Ecgfrith and Theodore. When, however, he
showed them to Ecgfrith, he was told that he had bought
them, and the king and his councillors, with, it is said, the
consent of the three intruding bishops, shut him up in prison,
and there kept him for nine months. His special enemy, the
queen, appropriated his reliquary, which she evidently thought
contained charms ; for she hung it in her bedroom, and took
it out with her in her carriage when she went driving.
Theodore does not seem to have made any effort on his
behalf.
Meanwhile an envoy from the pope had come to England.
Benedict Biscop, during a fourth visit which he made to Rome,
in order to obtain various things for his monastery
Council of at Wearmouth, obtained the pope's leave to take
Hatfield, 680. .,,.-^, , i,i -i^
back with him John the precentor, that he might
instruct the Wearmouth monks in ritual and music. Agatho
seized the opportunity of eliciting from the English Church a
declaration of its orthodoxy, with special reference to the
monothelite question, and before John left Rome in 679, bade
him do this on his behalf, and take with him for that purpose
the canons of the Lateran Council of 649. On coming to
England, John taught the course of the services observed at
VIII 5 YNOD OF HA TFIELD 1 5 1
St. Peter's not only to the Wearmouth monks, but to all who
came to learn of him from other monasteries. Nor did he
neglect the other part of the business on which the pope had
sent him, for, in obedience to the pope's desire, Theodore
held a second synod of the bishops of the Church at Heath-
field, or Hatfield, in our Hertfordshire, on September 17, 680,
to which other learned men were also called, as at the synod
of Hertford. John was present at this synod, and produced
the canons of the Lateran Council. The synod made a solemn
profession of its orthodox faith in the Incarnation and the
doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, adopting the words of the
Lateran canons in its definitions. It declared its acceptance of
the five CEcumenical Councils, and of the Lateran Council, and
ended its acts with an ascription of glory to God, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost "proceeding ineffably from the
Father and the Son," thus early acknowledging the double
procession of the Holy Ghost as a fundamental truth of the
Catholic Faith. A copy of the acts of the synod was given to
John to take to the pope. While on his journey homewards
he died in Gaul, and was buried in St. Martin's at Tours, the
church of the patron of his Roman abbey. Nevertheless
Agatho received the acts of the council, and was gladdened
by their witness to the faith of the English Church. Nothing
appears to have been said about Wilfrith at the synod. John
had probably left Rome before his cause was decided, and in
any case had no instructions on the matter. Nor did Theo-
dore or any of his suff'ragans, so far as is known, enter on the
subject. It is possible that Wilfrith had not returned to
England by the date of the synod ; if he was in England, he
was in a Northumbrian prison.
Authorities. — The authorities for this chapter are mainly Bede's Hist.
Eccles. ed. Plummer, and Vita Cudberti, Engl. Hist, Soc. , and Eddi's Vita
Wilfridi ap. Historians of York, i. , Rolls ser. For the establishment of the
Mercian sees consult Florence of Worcester, Engl. Hist. Soc, and the ancient
Lists of Bishops appended to Florence's Chronicle both in Engl. Hist. Soc. 's
edition at the end of vol. i., and in Monumenta Hist. Brit. ; on this matter
see Bp. Stubbs's notes in Councils and Eccl. Docs. iii. , which also contains
much else that is valuable, specially on the councils at Rome 679-680. The old
opinion that Clovesho is to be identified with Cliffe-at-Hoo, in Kent, has in
modern days again been advanced by T. Kerslake in a paper in which he also
15'
ORGA NTS A TION chap, vrii
ai-gues against the now generally received identification of other places of note
in our ecclesiastical history, viz. of Chealcythe with Chelsea, Heru^ford with
Hertford, Heathfeld with Hatfield, and Acle with Ockley, in Surrey, and
places them all in the same district as Cliffe-al-Hoo. His argument is sup-
ported by the supremacy of Mercia over Kent in the eighth century, and
gathers weight from the ecclesiastical supremacy of Canterbury, but it is
scarcely convincing. See his VesH^es of the Supremacy of Mercia, ap. Bristol
and g'Iouc. ArchcBol. Sac. 's Transactions, iii. , Bristol, 1878. William o: Malmes-
bury's Gesta Pontificum, Rolls ser. , should also be consulted. Canon Bright's
Early English Church History still continues useful, and Bp. Stabbs's art.
"Theodore of Tarsus" in Diet. Chr. Biogr. On the rights of bishops and
metropolitans in primitive times, see Bingham, Works, vol. i. bk. ii. c. 16.
ed. 1743. A leaden bulla, or seal of a bull, with the name of " Boniface
archdeacon," of Rome, found near Whitby, is believed to have belonged to
a bull brought to England by Wilfrith ; see Bp. Browne, Theodore and
Wilfrith, S'.P.C.K.
CHAPTER IX
WILFRITH
Wilfrith's first place of imprisonment was at "Bromnis,"
which cannot now be identified. There the wife of Osfrith the
king's reeve, or officer, who kept him, fell dangerously
ill ; Osfrith called his prisoner to her, and Wilfrith ^jj^^e'^
prayed over her, and sprinkled her with holy water.
She recovered, and Osfrith, believing that a miracle had been
wrought, sent messengers to the king saying that he would no
longer share in the persecution of an innocent man by acting
as Wilfrith's gaoler. Ecgfrith was wroth, and caused Wilfrith
to be transferred to stricter custody in his fortress at Dunbar,
overlooking the Northern sea. His friends did not forget him
in his solitary prison. During a visit that Ecgfrith and his
queen paid to the king's aunt ^bbe, the Abbess of Coldingham,
near the promontory which, as St. Abb's Head, preserves the
memory of the saintly abbess, the queen was suddenly seized
with sickness, ^bbe told the king that this sickness was sent
as a punishment for his ill treatment of the bishop. On this
Ecgfrith ordered that Wilfrith should be released, and the
queen recovered. Wilfrith, who regained his liberty in 68 1,
after an imprisonment of nine months, sought shelter in Mercia,
but he was unable to stay there, for ^thelred, who had
married Ecgfrith's sister Osthryth, was anxious not to offend
the Northumbrian king. Nor could he find refuge in Wessex,
for the wife of Centwine, who was then king of the West
Saxons, was the sister of his enemy Eormenburh.
Finding no place of rest among the Christian English,
Wilfrith betook himself to the heathen South Saxons, some of
154 WIL FRITH chap.
whom had, eleven years before, sought to slay him and his
companions. Their king ^Ethelwalh and his queen had, as
we have seen, been baptized, and there was upon
Conversion , -r, i i • i i
of the South the coast near Bosham, a little monastery, where
Saxons. ^ g^^^ named Dicul dwelt with five or six other
monks. But the people would not Hsten to them, and the South
Saxons, cut off from external influence by the vast and almost
impenetrable forest of Anderida, which stretched from the
mouth of the Rother to Privett, still remained heathen and
barbarous. Wilfrith was hospitably received by ^thelwalh,
and full as ever of missionary zeal, set himself to preach to
the people. They were in great trouble, for a three years'
drought had been followed by a famine so terrible, that forty
or fifty at a time would join hands and cast themselves into
the sea to escape by death from the pangs of hunger. They
could not fish in the sea ; they were perhaps afraid to venture
out into deep water, and so only caught eels. Wilfrith had a
number of their eel-nets joined together and showed them how
they might gather food from the inexhaustible harvest of the
sea. In return they listened to his teaching, and as the
drought broke up on a day on which he had baptized a large
number of new converts, they held that his words must be
true, and accepted the Gospel. yEthelwalh gave him the lands
of eighty-seven families in the peninsula of Selsey — the island
of seals, or of the sea-calf as Bede calls it — his own estate and
residence, and Wilfrith baptized all his new tenants. Among
them were two hundred and fifty bondsmen and bondswomen,
whom he set free on their baptism. He built a monastery, a
house for himself and his companions at Selsey, and the
church afterwards became the cathedral church of the South
Saxon see.
While dwelling among the South Saxons, Wilfrith befriended
an outlawed member of the royal house of Wessex, named
Csedwalla. This Caedwalla became powerful, slew
^eJJngeiisT-'^^thelwalh, overran his country, and in 686 became
* of wi-ht ^' ^^"§ ^^ ^^^ y^est Saxons. He then completed the
subjugation of the South Saxons, and conquered
the Isle of Wight together with the Meons district which
^thelwalh had received from Wulfhere at the time of his
baptism. The two sons ot the under-king of the island were
IX WILFRITH A T SELSE V 155
taken at Stoneham on the Itchen, and Casdwalla ordered that
they should be slain. Then Cynebert, the abbot of Redbridge,
went to the savage king, and prayed that they might not be
put to death until they had been baptized. Csedwalla agreed,
and the abbot taught the two young men the Gospel and bap-
tized them. Soon after they were baptized, the executioner came
to slay them, and they died joyfully, knowing that death would
be to them the gateway of eternal life. Csedwalla was mind-
ful of Wilfrith's former kindness, and gave him the fourth part
of the island for God's service. Wilfrith set his nephew and
clerk Bernwine over his new estate, sending with him a priest
named Hiddila to help him in mission work, and so the last
Enghsh settlement to receive the Gospel was converted through
his instrumentality. When Wilfrith was enabled to return to
Northumbria, after the death of Ecgfrith, he left his monastery
and mission work at Selsey under the charge of one of his
companions, a priest named Eappa. Soon afterwards the
plague fell upon the South Saxons, and carried off many of the
brethren at Selsey. Among those who died of it was a little
boy who was being brought up in the monastery. As he lay
dying, he had a vision, or dream, on August 5, the anniversary
of the battle of Maserfelth, in which the martyred King Oswald
appeared to him, accompanied by the Apostles Peter and Paul,
and told him that the plague should cease in the house. Such
a dream might well have come to a dying child in a monastery
of Northumbrians, where the memory of Oswald and Roman
ideas would alike be impressed on the lad's mind. The plague
ceased in the monastery, and the cult of St. Oswald was estab-
lished there.
Meanwhile, in 681, Theodore further increased the
Northumbrian episcopate by subdividing Eata's Bernician
diocese. Eata retained Lindisfarne, but gave up ^ ^^^^
Hexham, to which Theodore consecrated Tunbert Bp. of
abbot of Gillmg. He also founded a new bishopric ^'^[^il^''^'
for the country of the Picts held by the English
north of the Forth, and consecrated to it Trumwine, who had
his see in the monastery of Abercorn. Three years later
Theodore deposed Tunbert, it is said, for disobedience ; and as
Ecgfrith desired that Cuthbert should be made bishop in
Tunbert's place, Theodore visited Northumbria and presided
156 WILFRITH chap.
over an assembly gathered by the king at Twyford on the
Alne, at which Cuthbert was elected bishop. Cuthbert, how-
ever, would not be prevailed upon to accept consecration,
until at last Eata offered to move to Hexham and leave him
his beloved Lindisfarne. He was consecrated by Theodore
and seven other bishops at York on March 26, 685.
A few weeks later he went toLuel,the present Carhsle, to meet
Eormenburh, who was staying there in a monastery ruled by her
sister, to await tidings of the king ; for Ecgfrith was making war
on the Picts. Ecgfrith had shortly before sent an invading army
to Ireland, muc. J to the sorrow, and in spite of the remonstrances,
of English churchmen, who w^ere not unmindful of what they
owed to the Scots. His forces wasted the country, and
destroyed churches and monasteries so that the curses of the
Irish rose to heaven against him. These curses were not to
be without fulfilment. On the day after Cuthbert's arrival at
Carlisle, on Saturday May 20, at three in the afternoon, Paga,
the reeve of the town, was proudly showing him and his clergy
the wall and fountain built by the Romans, but the bishop
was lost in thought, and was standing leaning on his staff and
looking downwards. Suddenly he raised his head saying,
" Perhaps even now the conflict is decided." He would say
no more, but went to the queen and bade her set out at dawn
on the next day but one, for it was not lawful, he said, to
drive on the Lord's Day, and return to the royal city lest the
king should have fallen. The next day, when preaching at a
neighbouring monastery, he urged the monks to watch and
pray that trouble might not find them unprepared. On the
morrow one came to Carlisle with the tidings that the
Northumbrian army had been destroyed two days before at
Nectansmere, by the Sidlaw hills, and that the king had fallen
at the self- same hour that Cuthbert was standing by the
fountain at Carlisle. After her lord's death, Eormenburh
received the veil, and lived at Carlisle as a nun.
With the disaster at Nectansmere ended the greatness of
Northumbria. Trumwine lost his diocese, for the Picts re-
gained the territory north of the Forth that Oswiu had taken
from them, and as Abercorn, though still within the English
border, was now too near the Picts to be a safe residence, he
retired to Whitby. A crowd of English from the reconquered
IX CUTHBERTS LAST DA YS 157
land also fled southwards to escape slavery ; many monks
found shelter in the monasteries of Cuthbert's diocese, and
the bishop provided a new home for a convent of fugitive
nuns. Ecgfrith was succeeded by Aldfrith, a natural son of
Oswiu by an Irish woman. He had been brought up in
some of the islands inhabited by Scottish monks. His half-
brother Ecgfrith desired to make him a bishop, in order to
exclude him from the succession ; he refused, and went into
exile, and it is probable that Ecgfrith's invasion of Ireland
and his war with the Picts were connected with some move-
ment on his behalf. During his residence with the Scots, he
had become well versed in the Scriptures and in learning of
all kinds ; he was the first scholar-king of the English, and
was a lover of books and of good and learned men. Nor
was he merely a scholar, for under his wise rule Northumbria,
though reduced in size and shorn of glory, recovered from the
shock of the disaster at Nectansmere.
For two years Cuthbert exchanged his hermit life for the
active duties of a bishop, which he fulfilled with apostolic zeal.
He preached often, dwelling chiefly on the duty of „. , ,
^, • . 1 /• 1 • 1 . • J • His death.
Christian love, for his heart was so occupied in
ecstatic contemplation of God's love, that love ruled all his
words and actions. Nor could he ever celebrate the divine
sacrifice without tears which choked his voice from the moment
that he uttered the " Sursum corda." As in his earlier days,
he worked miracles. One so-called miracle beautifully
illustrates his life as bishop. The plague, which had broken
out in the North more than twenty years before, was again
raging in his diocese, and he went from place to place speak-
ing words of comfort to all. After speaking thus to all the
survivors whom he could find in a village called Methilwong,
he said to Tidi, his attendant priest, " Is there any one here
that has the plague now, to whom I could give my blessing ? "
Tidi pointed out a woman standing not far off and weeping
bitterly ; she had already lost one son, and his little brother
was lying in her arms swollen with the plague and at the point
of death. Cuthbert went to her, and kissed the face of the
plague-stricken child and blessed him, bidding the mother be
of good cheer for her child should live. The boy recovered,
and the mother and her son were both alive when, in after-
158 WILFRITH chap.
years, Tidi told what he had seen to a monk of Lindisfarne
who was writing Cuthbert's hfe. Towards the end of 686
Cuthbert felt that his end was near, and after Christmas
again retired to his hermitage on Fame Island. About
February 27, 687, when Herefrith the Abbot of Lindisfarne
was visiting him he was ill. Rough weather came on, and no
one was able to go to him again for five days. He was then
found in extreme physical wretchedness, sitting in the little
guest-house waiting for help. From that time he was not
again left alone. In his last words to the monks he bade
them live in love and catholic unity, and charged them that
if ever they were forced to leave their island -home they
should carry his bones with them and lay them in whatever
place they settled, a command which was afterwards fulfilled.
Then having received the Blessed Eucharist from Herefrith, he
raised his hands and eyes to heaven and fell asleep on March
20. He was buried in a stone coffin in the church of
Lindisfarne. Eleven years later his body was translated for
the purpose of devotion, and those who saw it believed that it
was incorrupt. Of all the saints of the North no other has
been regarded with deeper or more general veneration. His
fame, though doubtless increased by the later wanderings of
his body and the belief in its incorruptibility, was pre-eminent
in his lifetime. While others were not inferior to him in true
holiness, and many probably did more for their fellowmen,
few, if any, carried the practice of asceticism, then so highly
esteemed, to greater lengths. And he had a special claim on
the admiration of his contemporaries, for each proof of his
saintliness added lustre to the settlement of 664 ; he was
himself a convert to the Rom.an ritual, and he brought the
house of Aidan and his successors into the Catholic unity.
The death of Ecgfrith paved the way for Wilfrith's return to
Northumbria. Theodore, who felt the infirmity of age in-
creasing upon him, desired to be reconciled to him,
partial aud iuvitcd him to meet him in London in the
restoration, pj-gggj^^g gf Bishop Earconwald. According to his
disciple Eddi, he acknowledged to Wilfrith that he had done
him wrong, and expressed an earnest hope that he would suc-
ceed him as archbishop. While this is doubtless an exaggera-
tion, he was certainly sorry for Wilfrith's sufferings, and highly
IX DEATH OF THEODORE 159
esteemed him for his work's sake among the heathen. He
wrote to Aldfrith urging him, for the sake of Ecgfrith's soul, to
be reconciled to Wilfrith, and to a like effect to ^Iflsed, the
daughter of Oswiu, who had succeeded Hilda as Abbess of
Whitby in 680, and also wrote to his much- loved friend
i^thelred begging him to protect the bishop. Accordingly, in
686, Aldfrith restored Wilfrith, not indeed to his former vast
diocese, but only to the bishopric of York, which Bosa sur-
rendered to him, and to the monastery of Ripon, surrendered
to him by Eadhaed. He also had charge of the bishopric
of Hexham, vacant by the death of Eata in October 686,
until the consecration of John of Beverley in the following
year, and of Lindisfarne from the death of Cuthbert until the
consecration of his successor Eadbert in the same year.
Theodore, in writing to ^thelred of Mercia, begged the
king to come to him, "that my eyes may behold thy pleasant
face and my soul bless thee before I die." He ^^ ^ ,
-I r 1 T-r T T 1 Death of
was spared a few years longer. He died at the Abp. Theo-
age of eighty-eight on September 19, 690, and was °^^' ^^c--
buried inside the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, for the
south porch was then full. That he was not regarded as a
saint, and that no miracles are attributed to him, may indicate
that his piety, though fully acknowledged, was not of an
ascetic kind. His w^ork proves him to have been bold in
conception and prudent in action, and as its success implies
the co-operation of kings and their gemots, he must have had
great personal influence. In its prosecution he did some
things which seem arbitrary. If he deprived Winfrith and
Tunbert without the sanction of a synod, he stretched his
metropolitical authority beyond the limits of canonical restric-
tions, while in his conduct towards Wilfrith he was certainly
harsh and hasty. Yet excuse for him may be found in his
desire to do what was necessary for the well-being of the
Church, and in the difficulties which he had to encounter.
Apart from his public action, his character, so far as it may
be gathered from his kindness to Ceadda and his letter to
^thelred, appears to have been gentle and affectionate. He
was great alike as a scholar, a teacher, a ruler, and a reformer.
It v/ould not be easy to overestimate the benefits which he
conferred on the Church. He secured its unity, and gave it
i6o WILFRITH chap.
organisation, the means of self-legislation, discipline, the idea
of obedience to lawfully constituted ecclesiastical authority,
and a culture which was not wholly lost until the period of
the Danish invasions. Though he was sent to us from
Rome and was loyal to the Roman see, he showed his sym-
pathy with the national spirit of the P^nglish Church in the
matter of the Northumbrian dioceses. Bede sums up the
immediate effect of his rule by saying that during his
episcopate the English Church obtained more spiritual profit
than it could ever gain before. Nor did his work perish ,
its fruits are to be discerned in the character and constitution
of the Church of England at all times to the present day.
Theodore's disciplinary work is illustrated by the Penitential
which bears his name, and was compiled with his sanction by
a disciple of the Northumbrian scholars, from answers
„ .^^^ , which he made to questions on points of discipline
Penitential. 'J- , , .^ , . c r>.
and order. The Church has from the time of St.
Paul claimed the right to punish the sins of its members by
penances, by exclusion from public worship, abstinence, and
the like, and Penitentials contain lists of sins with their
appropriate penances, derived from, and embodying, the
sentences of bishops and doctors of the Church. They
were private compilations, each owing its authority to the
personal weight of the compiler. As they were specially
needful when the Church was in conflict with the gross
vices of heathenism, they deal for the most part with revok-
ing subjects, though more than once in Theodore's Penitential,
amid the dry enumeration of sins and penances, appear
evidences of his lofty soul and spirituality of mind. Theodore
has erroneously been credited with the creation of the
parochial system, which, in truth, had no creator. We have
seen how gradually churches were built and priests ordained
for them. About Theodore's time it was not an uncommon
thing that a great man should build a church on his estate,
and have a priest ordained to serve it, and then his township,
or group of tow^nships, became the parish of the priest, or parson
{persojia ecclesice), of the church. Theodore's Penitential
implies the existence of local divisions each under the spiritual
charge of its own priest, though many years passed before the
parochial system was perfected throughout the whole country.
IX WILFRITH AGAIN IN EXILE i6i
The consecration of a tenth to God's service was a generally
acknowledged Christian duty, and Theodore speaks of the
payment of tithe as a matter of course, though it was not
then enforced by ecclesiastical penalties. Tithe, however, was
not yet the exclusive right of the clergy ; a discretion was left
to the payer as to its destination, and what was given to the
Church was, if not appropriated to some special purpose by the
payer, ordinarily dispensed by the bishop, who divided it
among the church, the clergy, and the poor. The parochial
clergy seem to have been maintained by offerings, and
probably to a far larger extent, by lands that were granted to
their churches.
Theodore was succeeded at Canterbury by Bertwald, a
monk of Reculver. Owing, perhaps, to the troubles of Kent,
which was then pardy under East Saxon kings ruling
in dependence on the Mercians, and was, moreover, Ab^'Lf'
threatened by the West Saxons, Bertwald was not e^s-^ysi.
elected until July i, 692. He went abroad for con-
secration, thinking, we may suppose, that by so doing he
would gain greater weight at home, and was consecrated on
June 29, 693, by Godwin, Archbishop of Lyons.
Wilfrith could not resign himself to his altered position.
Five years after his restoration, in 691, Aldfrith demanded
that he should acknowledge the validity of Theodore's ^jj^^j^j^
decree for the subdivision of the Northumbrian again in
diocese, and further designed to take Ripon from
him, and make it the see of a new bishopric. Wilfrith resisted
his demands, was again driven from York, and v/as received by
^thelred of Mercia, who committed to him the then
vacant bishopric of Leicester, where he dwelt for eleven
years. He sent an appeal to Pope Sergius, and probably in
consequence of some papal remonstrance, Aldfrith in 702
summoned a council of the whole Church at Edwinspath or
Estrefeld, probably Austerfield in the West Riding. Thither
came Bertwald and nearly all his suffragans, and Wilfrith was
summoned, and attended to plead his cause. He was required
to give his assent to the decrees of Theodore, and answered
that he would do so " according to the rule of the canons."
The reservation rendered his assent nugatory, for it meant that
he would not surrender his claim which had been approved by
i62 WILFRITH CHAP.
Rome. He reproached his opponents with having withstood
the Apostolic see for two-and-twenty years, and with prefer-
ring the decrees of Theodore to those of Popes Agatho,
Benedict, and Sergius. It is said that the king and the
archbishop were for taking everything from him, but after
much debate it was decided that he should keep his monastery
of Ripon, if he would promise to stay there quietly, and not
again act as a bishop. This was bidding him pronounce his
own deprivation, and he replied to this monstrous sentence
in loud and indignant tones. "Was it not I," he said, "who
rooted out the evil practices of the Scots? Was it not I
who taught this people the Roman responses and antiphons ?
Was it not I who was the first to introduce into this northern
land the rule of St. Benedict? And shall I, after a life of
well-nigh forty years as a bishop, though innocent, condemn
myself? " He appealed to the Apostolic see ; let his opponents
meet him there. Both king and archbishop declared that he
had made his offence worse by choosing to be judged by
Romans rather than by them. He returned to Mercia, and
probably the next year set out for Rome accompanied by Acca,
a learned and holy priest, afterwards Bishop of Hexham. His
appeal increased the bitter feelings of his opponents, and it is
said that they treated his party as excommunicate, and would
throw away as polluted, food which one of them had blessed
with the sign of the cross. All in Wilfrith's monasteries
fasted and prayed for their beloved father, and many in other
parts sorrowed for him. Among them was Ealdhelm, or Aid-
helm, the famous abbot of Malmesbury, who wrote to Wilfrith's
clergy before he left exhorting them to stand by their bishop.
In spite of his seventy years Wilfrith journeyed to Rome
on foot. On his way he visited Willibrord, Archbishop of
Theheann ^trccht, onc of his former disciples, who had
at Rome, followcd in his footsteps by carrying the Gospel to
''°^' the Frisians. He arrived at Rome in 704, and
when his opponent's envoys had also come, John VI. held
a council on his case. He was accused of disobedience to
Bertwald, was declared innocent, and after a committee had
held seventy sessions on the matter, the decree of Agatho in his
favour was confirmed. The pope wrote to the kings Aldfrith
and^thelred that Archbishop Bertwald was to hold a synod and
IX COUNCIL ON THE NIDD 163
endeavour to arrive at a settlement with Wilfrith, and that if
he failed, both parties were to appear at Rome and submit to
the judgment of a larger council. This letter seems to show
that the pope was anxious not to irritate English feeling, and
if possible to have the matter arranged in England. On his
way home, in 705, Wilfrith fell sick and was carried insensible
into Meaux. When he recovered consciousness he told Acca
that the archangel Michael had appeared to him, and had told
him that owing to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin he
would be spared four years longer, and that he was to build
a church in her honour, which hitherto he had neglected to
do. On landing in England he found Bertwald well disposed
towards him. He went into Mercia and met ^thelred, who
had resigned his crown, ^thelred's wife, Osthryth, the pious
niece of Oswald, had been slain by some Mercian nobles, and
the king had assumed the tonsure and become abbot of
Bardney, which he and his wife had enriched if not founded.
He caused his successor Cenred to promise to help Wilfrith.
Aldfrith, however, refused to alter his decision ; he died in
705, and, after another king had reigned for two months, was
succeeded by his son Osred, a child of eight years old.
A strong feeling was growing up in Northumbria in favour
of ceasing to oppose the papal decrees, which was increased
by the belief that Aldfrith on his deathbed re- ^^ ^
, /. t • -I ^ -^-ET-ir • 1 1 The Council
pented of his conduct towards Wilfrith, and on the Nidd,
solemnly charged his successor to be reconciled to ^°^'
him. Accordingly, as soon as Osred came to the throne
a council was held on the banks of the Nidd, under the
presidency of the boy-king, to settle Wilfrith's case. Unlike
the council at Estrefeld, this was a purely Northumbrian
gathering. Archbishop Bertwald took the leading part in
it, but he was of course as much the head of the Church
in Northumbria as he was in Kent. The three North-
umbrian bishops — Bosa of York, John called " of Beverley,"
Bishop of Hexham, and Eadfrith, who had succeeded Ead-
bert at Lindisfarne — were present at the council, together
with all the abbots of the district, and ^Iflasd, King Oswiu's
daughter, the Abbess of Whitby, "the comfort and peace-
maker of the kingdom." With the king were all his nobles,
who took part in the proceedings equally with the churchmen.
i64 V/ILFRITH chap.
Wilfrith attended in person. The archbishop, who showed
an earnest desire for peace, opened the proceedings with
prayer, and then read the letter of Pope John. Then the
head ealdorman of the kingdom said that he and others
would like to hear what the pope said, if the archbishop
would translate the letter for them. Bertwald replied that he
would give them the sense of it, for, he added, it was long
and obscure. When he had done so, the Northumbrian
bishops urged that it would be a mistake to act against the
decisions of the kings Ecgfrith and Aldfrith. On this
^Iflaed addressed the assembly, saying that Aldfrith had
on his deathbed declared in her presence that if he lived
he would obey the papal decrees, and that if he died,
those who heard him w^ere, for the good of his soul, to
bid his son do so. The head ealdorman declared that
the king and his nobles had decided to act in accordance
with her words. The arrangements necessary for carrying
out this decision implied episcopal changes and considera-
tions of a spiritual nature. On these the archbishop and
bishops and the abbess ^Iflaed conferred together apart,
and apparently presented their scheme to the king and his
nobles, by whom it was discussed and confirmed. It w^as to
some extent a compromise. There was to be a general
reconciliation ; Wilfrith was to have the monastery and the
bishopric of Hexham, the plan of making Ripon an episcopal
see was definitely abandoned, and the monastery was secured
to him. Soon after the council, the see of York was vacated
by the death of Bosa. In spite of the professed desire of the
Northumbrian nobles to obey the papal decrees, it was not
conferred on Wilfrith ; John of Hexham was translated to
York, and Wilfrith took his see in accordance with the
arrangements made at the council. His appeals to Rome
ended in the loss of the dignified position, w^hich had been
left to him by Theodore, of bishop of the rich and ancient
church of York.
Early in the spring of 708 he was again attacked by the
sickness from which he had suffered at Meaux on
ii7?/-^L^ °^ his return from his last journey to Rome. About
Wilfnth, 709. iTir-i 1 1
a year and a half later he entrusted certam of the
senior monks at Ripon with the disposal of his wealth after his
IX DEATH OF WILFRITH 165
death. He divided it into four parts, the largest of which he
assigned to the churches of St. Mary and St. Paul at Rome,
and left the other three to the poor, to the provosts or priors
of his two churches at Hexham and Ripon to be used for the
benefit of the monasteries, and to those companions of his
exile for whom he had not already provided. He then bade
them have the bell of the monastery rung to call together all
his "family" at Ripon into their chapter-house. He told
them that Ceolred of Mercia had sent for him to arrange
some matters connected with the monasteries in Mercia which
had been founded by him, and were dependent on him and
his " family," much in the same way as the monasteries of the
province of lona were dependent on the successors of Columba
and the monks of lona. He commanded them, in case he did
not return, to accept as their abbot him whom his five special
counsellors, two abbots, two priests, and a master, probably
a monastic lecturer or teacher, should present to them.
Exercising a power similar to that of the abbots of lona, he
had already told the five that his nephew Tatbert, a priest,
and one of their number, whom he appointed provost of the
house during his absence, was to succeed him at his death.
He then gave his family his blessing and bade them farewell.
He was again seized with illness at his monastery at Oundle,
in the present Northamptonshire, and died there as the monks
who were praying for him in their choir sang the words,
" Send forth thy breath and they shall be created " (Ps. civ. 30).
Wilfrith died on a Thursday, probably October 3, 709, in his
seventy-sixth year, after having been a bishop for forty-five
years. He was buried in his church at Ripon.
His intellect was brilliant and his genius constructive ; the
splendid churches which he built in the Roman or basilican
style are typical of his w^ork in ecclesiastical organisation, for
in place of the usages of the Scots, in the overthrow of which
he took so large a part, he built up the Roman system,
securing the acceptance of its order and ritual, and being the
chief apostle of the Benedictine rule. He clung perhaps too
tightly to power and wealth, but he used them in God's
service, and though he refused to sacrifice them when his
surrender of them would have been useful to the Church, his
refusal may be excused by the unfair treatment he received.
i66 WILFRITH
CHAP.
While English churchmen may regret his appeals to Rome,
he must not be blamed for seeking justice at the only tribunal
at which he could hope to obtain it. He was courageous
and firm of purpose, never daunted by danger or persecution.
His temper was overbearing, and his behaviour to his
opponents unconciliatory. Yet he was lovable, for his
monks and clergy were faithful to him in his troubles, and
regarded him with filial affection, and his heart was tender,
for we read that he wept when a mason's lad fell from the
roof of Hexham church. He was a holy as well as a
magnificent prelate, and his missionary w^ork, performed in the
midst of anxiety and privation, entitles him to a high place
among the Fathers of the English Church.
In Wessex, Wilfrith's ally Caed walla, though nominally a
Christian, remained unbaptized until 689. He resigned his
kingdom in 688, and, first of all English kings, made
^"thewlft^^a pilgrimage to Rome. At Eastertide, 689, he was
688'-72s! baptized by the name of Peter by Pope Sergius, who
stood godfather to him. He died a few days later
while still wearing the white garments wdiich the newly baptized
wore for a week after their baptism, and the linen fillet which
preserved the chrism or unction still on his forehead, and was
buried in St. Peter's church. He was succeeded by Ine, a con-
queror and a lawgiver, during whose reign the Church in Wessex
made great progress. As the introduction of civilisation and
learning by the Roman mission had been followed in Kent by
the pubhcation of written laws, so their advance was followed
by the publication of two fresh codes, drawn up under the
influence of churchmen, one in Kent by King Wihtred, and
the other in Wessex by Ine. Wihtred's code dealt exclusively
with ecclesiastical matters, and was put forth by the advice of
Archbishop Bertwald, Bishop Gebmund of Rochester, and the
rest of the witan of the kingdom, and with the assent of all
present at the witenagemot. It begins witli a declaration
that the Church should be free in jurisdiction and revenue,
and that a breach of its peace, the protection which it was
entitled to afford, should be punished as heavily as a like
offence against the king. It contains decrees against immorality,
providing that the offender, if a native, should be punished by
being cut off from communion with the Church ; against
IX GLASTONBURY 167
heathen practices, and a;.;ainst working on Sunday, and ordains
that evil and slothful priests should be suspended and
reserved for the judgment of their bishop. A high position
is assigned to churchmen in judicial proceedings ; the word of
a bishop was to be as the word of the king, no oath was to
avail against it, and a priest or deacon might clear himself of
a charge by his own oath, with'out bringing any compurgators,
or men to join in swearing to his innocence. The laws of
Ine, the first written laws of the West Saxons, were made with
the counsel of Haedde, " my bishop," and Earconwald, whom
the king is also made to call "my bishop," for Earconwald
had much influence in Surrey which was part of Ine's
dominions. The ealdorman and witan of the kingdom,
together with a great gathering of God's servants, joined
in enacting these laws. They are partly ecclesiastical and
partly civil. They provide penalties for the neglect to
have a child baptized within thirty days after its birth, for
working on Sundays, and for the non-payment of church
scot at Martinmas. In the civil laws may be found illustra-
tions of the change which Christianity had brought about
in the character of the conquest, for Ine's British, or " Welsh,"
subjects are treated as law-worthy, and were evidently living
at peace side by side with their conquerors.
A large British element no doubt existed in the popula-
tion of Ine's kingdom generally, and must have been specially
strong in the westerly, or latest conquered, districts.
™, ° ^ UJru-1- J • v Glastonbury.
ine western border of his kmgdom seems m its
southern part to have been pushed so far into the British
kingdom of Dyfnaint as to include Crediton, the traditionary
birthplace of the English Winfrith, or St. Boniface, of
whom w^e shall hear later, and Exeter, where he was
educated. Exeter was doubtless at that time, as it remained
until the tenth century, a city of two peoples — the Britons
dwelling in the northern part, as has been inferred from such
dedications as St. Petrock's and St. Keryan's, the Saxons in the
southern part. More to the north, in Somerset, the progress
of the conquest was slower, yet as early as Cenwalh's time the
Isle of Avalon had passed into English hands, and received
its English name of Glastonbury. Legends, sacred and
profane, connect the island and its monastery with Joseph of
i68 WILFRITH chap.
Arimathea, King Arthur, and other famous names, and though
the early liistory of the house has been involved in so
many myths that it is impossible to say what amount of
truth, if any, underlies the fables, it is fairly certain that
Glastonbury has a special interest for us as one of the few-
links between the British and the English Churches. The
monastery certainly existed in the time of Ine, and the
received, though by no means well-established, story is that it
had been a British sanctuary, that the conquerors found
there a little church originally made of wattle, that they
preserved it, and that it stood for centuries. As it, or its
successors, outlived successive generations, it became regarded
with special respect, and was fabled to have been made by no
earthly hands. Ine is said to have built a church of stone to
the east of it, and to have endowed the monastery, which was
destined to attain an historical renown as the home of the
greatest of our early archbishops of English race, and to
become one of the richest monasteries of England.
Ine favoured the foundation of monasteries. One which he
had at least a hand in founding, at Abingdon, on the Thames,
^ ..^ . became, after a long period of decay, a seat of learn-
Ealdhelm, . ,..,,.-., , ^-.
Abbot of ing and spiritual life in the tenth century. He
Maimesbury. ggg^^g ^q j^g^^^ encouragcd synodical action, and he
made friends with good and learned men, and helped them in
their work. Chief among these was Ealdhelm, or St. Aldhelm,
a member of the royal house, who had been taught by an
Irish scholar named Maelduib or Mailduf, the only Scot of
whom we hear as settled in the West Saxon kingdom, at a
place called after him, and known as Maimesbury in our Wilt-
shire. Thence Ealdhelm went to Canterbury, where he studied
under Hadrian, and became a notable scholar. He returned
to Maimesbury, became abbot of the monastery which had begun
to be formed under Maelduib, made it a school after the pattern
of St. Augustine's at Canterbury, and brought Wessex to the
forefront in learning. Of this side of his work more must be
said hereafter. He also built churches and monasteries at
]\Ialmesbury, Bruton, Frome, and elsewhere. One of them,
the "little church" {ecdesiold), as it is called in his Life,
dedicated to St. Laurence at Bradford-on-Avon, is believed to
be the little church still standing there and lately rescued
IX EALDHELM 169
from desecration. While he was the first Englishman who
became a distinguished classical scholar, he was also skilled in
vernacular poetry, and would sing English poems of his own
composition. Some of his poems were popular in the time of
King Alfred, who is reported to have told a story about them
illustrative of Ealdhelm's diligence in seeking the spiritual
welfare of others. Finding that the country people of Wessex
were unwilling to stay in church for the sermon, and were in the
habit of going off homewards as soon as the singing was over,
he used to waylay them as they crossed a bridge, and sing to
them like a professional minstrel, gradually bringing into his
song sacred subjects. And so he awoke their interest in the
Scriptures, and made them willing to Hsten to his teaching.
His biographers, both of the twelfth century, declare that he
visited Rome, but as none of his extant writings refer to such
a visit, their assertion, though not improbable, is of doubtful
authority, specially as they connect the visit with a ridiculous
fable.
Ealdhelm took a prominent part in urging the Britons
to adopt the Roman Easter. In 704, Adamnan, abbot of
lona, persuaded the Northern Irish to follow the
example of their fellow-countrymen in the South, t?Geraint.
and accept the Roman computation, and a few years
later the monks of lona, who had refused to follow their abbot,
yielded to the persuasion of Ecgbert, an Englishman. Ecgberl
had studied in Ireland in company with Ceadda ; he was a
man of great holiness and influence, had been consecrated as
a bishop in Ireland, and was deeply interested in mission
work. The Britons, however, clung to their own usages, which
were precious to them as signs of their national life, and their
priests beyond the Severn still, as of old, regarded English
churchmen as excommunicate. The schism was of serious
importance in Wessex, where the British element had grown
as the kingdom extended westwards. In 705 the matter was
considered in a synod of the West Saxon clergy, and Ealdhelm,
who was then a priest, was requested to urge the Britons of
the West to conform to Catholic practice. Accordingly he
wrote a letter to Geraint, the King of Dyfnaint, and his
bishops, on the tonsure and the Easter question. It was
widely read, and was successful in persuading the Britons who
ijo WILFRITH CHAP.
were subject to the West Saxons to adopt the Roman usages.
The Britons who preserved their independence seem to have
disregarded his remonstrances ; those beyond the Severn did
not yield until 809, and another century passed before their
example was followed by the Britons of the extreme West.
Soon after writing this letter to Geraint, Ealdhelm was
made a bishop. Of the vast bishoprics which Theodore found
on his arrival in England, that of the West Saxons
^f?hl^vl°s? was the only one which he did not subdivide. The
bi^h'^Tic i"^^son that he left it as it was, may probably be found
in the civil history of Wessex, which was in an unsettled
state for some years after the death of Cenwalh in, or about,
672. For a document purporting to be a decree of Theodore
that the bishopric should remain undivided so long as Hsedde
lived is probably spurious. As Haedde was the archbishop's
personal friend, Theodore would scarcely have found him
opposed to a measure which he thought necessary for the good
of the Church, and Theodore was certainly not the man to
allow any personal feelings to stay his hand in such a matter.
The delay must have arisen from some other cause, such as
civil discord. Under Ine the kingdom was in a settled
condition, and the importance of an increase in the West
Saxon episcopate was felt by the Church at large. Hsedde
resisted an order from Archbishop Bertwald, probably sent in
accordance with the decree of a National Synod, for the
division of his bishopric, and seems to have been upheld by
the West Saxon witan, who may have desired to maintain
something of the tradition of their ecclesiastical independence
and isolation. By 704 the dispute had become so hot that a
National Synod, held perhaps at Clovesho, decreed that
unless the West Saxons obeyed the archbishop's order, they
should be held as excommunicate. A schism was averted by
the death of Haedde, and the West Saxon bishopric was, with
Ine's consent, divided by a synodical decree. Selwood Forest
was made the boundary between the two dioceses.^ To the
1 William of Malmesbury, G. P. pp. 175, 375, gives Wiltshire and Berk-
shire to the see of Sherborne, and his statement has been adopted by high
authority. See Councils and Eccl. Docs. iii. 276, and Plummer, Bcedce 0pp.
Hist. ii. 307. But the A. S. Chron, a. 709 makes Selwood the boundary,
and is followed by Hen. of Huntingdon, p. no, while ^thelweard, Mon.
Hist. Brit. p. 507, describes Ealdhelm's diocese as " Selwoodshire." On thi-s
IX NE W BISHOPRICS 1 7 1
east of it the country now known as Hampshire, Berkshire,
Surrey, Sussex, and part of Wiltshire, was left to the see of
Winchester, to which a bishop named Daniel was consecrated.
The country to the west of the forest, part of Wiltshire, Dorset,
and all the conquered parts of Somerset and Devon to the border
of the kingdom, was formed into a new diocese with its see
at Sherborne, then and long afterwards a small village. The
choice of such a place for an episcopal see is another illustra-
tion of the character of English bishops as bishops of peoples
rather than of cities. Such places as Lindisfarne, Lichfield,
Selsey, and Sherborne would not have been chosen
for the sees of continental bishops. All agreed ^Bpl'of"'
that no one was so fit to be the bishop of the new sherbome,
705-709.
diocese as Ealdhelm, and he was accordingly con-
secrated to it. He devoted himself to the active duties of his
office, constantly moving about from place to place preaching
the Gospel. While on one of these journeys, he fell suddenly
sick at Doulting, in Somerset, was carried into the little
wooden church, and laid on a stone bench, and there died on
May 25, 709. The Church in Wessex profited much by his
preaching, his zeal for education, his activity in building
churches, and his influence with Ine. We may fairly believe
that it was due to him that the last effects of the isolation which
had marked its early years were finally obliterated. While he
laboured in Wessex, he had friends and scholars all over
England, among them Aldfrith, the scholar-king of North-
umbria. And so doubtless through Ealdhelm, though without
any special action on his part, the Church in Wessex was
brought into full union of sentiment with the rest of the English
Church. Soon after his death the Anglican episcopate was
further increased. A synod having decreed, evidently with
the consent of Bishop Daniel, that the South Saxons should
have a bishop of their own, Eadbert, Abbot of Selsey, was
consecrated as their bishop, and the see of the new diocese
was placed in his church which Wilfrith had built and dedicated
to St. Peter.
The belief of Oswiu and Csedwalla in the spiritual benefits
matter see Jones, Fasti Eccl. Sarisberiensis, London, 1879, and Hist, of the
Dio. of Salisbury, S.P.C. K., and PVeeman, King Ine, ap. Somerset Archceol.
Soc's. Proc. XX. (1874),
172 WILFRITH CHAP.
to be secured by a pilgrimage to Rome was shared by their
fellow-countrymen generally, and indeed prevailed throughout
Western Christendom. To worship at spots hal-
pi!grimages lowed bv apostoUc mcmories, to adore the relics of
to Rome. ^ ^ , ... - ,
the martyrs, to receive a blessmg from the pope m
person, to spend the last days of life in Rome in penitence
and good works, to die and be buried there, seemed to all
men of that time to be an assurance of salvation. Impelled
by this belief, Cenred in 709 resigned the crown of Mercia to
Ceolred, and journeyed to Rome. With him went Offa, the
young and much-loved King of the East Saxons who, Bede says,
"left wife and lands and kinsfolk and country," and surely also
his duty to his people, "for Christ's sake and the Gospel's."
The long yellow hair of the two English kings was offered to
St. Peter, and they received the monastic habit. Both died
soon afterwards, for the air of Rome was heavy with death,
and the change from a life of vigorous exercise and abundant
nourishment to one of asceticism, practised within the walls of
a city, rendered the northern pilgrim unfit to resist malaria.
After a glorious reign of thirty-seven years King Ine also
resigned his crown in 725, and went as a pilgrim to Rom.e.
A legend records that his wife yEthelburh, or Ethelburga,
herself of the royal line of Wessex, often begged him to retire
from the world. Seeing that he always put off his resignation,
she persuaded him one day, as they were journeying about
their kingdom, to return suddenly with her to a place where
they had feasted and slept the night before. They found the
dwelling in a state of confusion and filth ; the very place
where they had lain was occupied by a sow and her newly-
born litter. Even so, she declared, did all earthly splendour
end. Ine hstened to her words, and at once took the step
which she had long urged upon him. At Rome he hved
humbly as a man of plebeian rank, his wife dwelUng with him
and strengthening him with words of loving counsel. From
that time the pilgrimage to Rome became widely popular
among the English. Some, like Cenred, Offa, and Ine, went
thither on their retirement from the active duties of life, and
remained there until they died sooner or later, others went
and returned to their homes again, and some stayed in
difi'erent cities on their way back, living not always creditably.
IX PILGRIMAGES TO ROME 173
Frithogyth, the wife of ^^thelheard, who succeeded Ine as
King of the West Saxons, went to Rome in 737, in company
with Forthere, the second Bishop of Sherborne, and she and
the bishop both appear to have returned to England in 739.
Many other EngHshwomen, and specially abbesses and other
rehgious ladies, went on pilgrimage to Rome, and some years
later St. Boniface wrote from Germany to the then Arch-
bishop of Canterbury urging that the bishops in synod and
the English kings should forbid nuns going to Rome, because
many fell into sin on the journey, became castaways in cities
on the route, and so brought grave scandal on the English
Church.
Authorities. — For the life of Wilfrith the authorities are the same as
before, and so also for the last days of Cuthbert. Theodore's Penitential
and Wihtred's Ecclesiastical Laws are to be found in Councils and Eccl. Docs.
iii., Ine'sLawsin Thorpe s Ancient Laws and Insiituies, i. , London, 1840, 8vo
edit., Public Records Comm. Freeman's King Ine in Somerset Archccol.
Socs. Proc. (1872) xviii. and (1874) xx, is of great value. Lives of St.
Aldhelm written by Ecgwin, Bp. of Worcester [d. 717), Osmund, Bp. of
Salisbury [d. 1099), and Eadmer [d. 1124?) are not now known to exist ; the
earliest extant Life is by Faricius, Abbot of Abingdon [d. 11 17), printed by
Giles in his edition of Aldhelm's Works in Patres Eccles. Angl. Oxford, 1844,
and in Migne's Patrologia Lat. vol. Ixxxix, This was followed by a Life by
William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Pontificum, Rolls ser. , which represents
the knowledge and traditions of his house. Among the general authorities
besides Bede's Hist. Eccl. Angl. are the Saxon Chron. , William of Malmes-
bury, Cesta Regum, and Florence of Worcester, while Canon Bright's Early
English Church History and Green's Makitig of England have also been
CO! 1 suited.
CHAPTER X
EARLY MONASTICISM
As the English owed their Christianity almost wholly, if not
wholly, to the preaching of monks, as their Church was
founded and organised by monks, and was adorned
^^'^Jx by the piety and learning of men and women of the
monasticism. ■' r ,
monastic order, an attempt to illustrate the character
of early monasticism in England must find a place here.
The word "monk" has a wide signification, for it includes
anchorets and hermits, but for our purpose it may be used for
those only who lead a common life (Kotvo/?tos), and are thence
called coenobites, in contradistinction to anchorets (avaxw/OT^rat),
who withdraw from society and live apart. Each society of
men or women practising the coenobitic life is called a con-
vent, and their common dwelling a monastery. Monasticism
had its origin in Egypt, where it was instituted by St. Anthony,
who is said to have lived a hundred and five years, from
about 250 to 355. His monasticism, however, was rather of
the anchoretic than the coenobitic kind, and coenobitic mon-
asticism was first organised by his contemporary Pachomius,
abbot {abba or father) of eight monasteries at Tabenne, a
little above the first cataract of the Nile, who composed a
rule for his monks, laying down a constitution for their com-
munities and directions for their daily life of worship and
labour. The account which St. Athanasius gave of what he
had seen at Tabenne, caused the Romans to regard the
monastic life with respect ; those w^ho practised it were called
"religious" at Rome, and their life "religion." Monasticism
spread rapidly throughout Christendom, and various rules
CHAP. X MONASTIC RULES 175
ivere drawn up for monks. St. Basil {d. 379), composed one
of these rules which was accepted by the monks of the East,
and marks a distinct advance in the history of monasticism,
for it treats the monastic vow as irrevocable. As all monks
were bound to obey a rule {regula)^ they are called regulars, a
name which distinguishes them from the clergy who lived in
the world {secuhim), and are thence called secular clerks. In
the earliest times, monks were generally laymen, but before
long it became the custom that some brethren of each
monastery should be ordained in order to conduct its services,
and the number of ordained monks tended continually to
increase. Still, in the early days of the English Church, a
monk was not necessarily in orders, and it was not until the
time of Clement V. (131 1) that all monks were compelled to
be ordained. The variety of early monastic rules does not
imply a variety of religious orders, such as were founded in
later times. There was one monastic order, of which all the
members were bound to poverty, continence, and humility,
while the clergy were at liberty to possess private property,
and in England w^ere, at least in later times, generally married,
though there is not sufficient ground for asserting that this
was certainly the case in the early days of the English Church.
Monasticism may be regarded as an attempt to reach a full
conformity to the precepts of Christ, as they were understood
by the Christian world for many centuries. And, as a perfect
Christian life is necessarily social, those who devoted them-
selves to an attempt to achieve it, entered an order founded to
be a pattern of Christian society, and lived in communities,
under rules differing from one another according to circum-
stances and the wisdom of their authors, but all alike framed
to promote a life of fellowship in seeking the glory of God.
Each monk was, to adopt the metaphor used by St. Benedict,
to be a soldier in a mighty army, with no will of his own,
pledged to fight for his Lord Christ with the weapons of full
obedience.
Early in the sixth century St. Benedict, founder and abbot
of the monastery of Monte Cassino, drew up the
Rule which was generally accepted in the West. Jt^ b^i5'J5j°[
Its acceptance was due partly to its inherent excel-
lence, and partly to the support of the papacy. The first rule
176 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
written for western monks, it excels all others in wisdom of
conception, dignity of expression, breadth of spirit, and human
sympathy. Gregory the Great warmly acknowledged its
merits, wrote a life of the author, and recommended its
observance. It is obvious to any one who studies the Rule
that Benedict had no idea of establishing a distinct order;
his Rule was intended as a standard of monastic life generally,
as, to quote his words, a means of " forming a school of divine
service wherein nothing should be harsh or burdensome." His
ordinances are founded on principles, do not deal with mere
points of practice, are never trivial. Nor did he strive after
new things ; he wrote for the monastic order as he found it,
accepted what was accepted generally, used what was best in
earlier rules, and breathed into his work his own lofty spirit.
Benedict's Rule stands on three main principles, perpetuity,
renunciation, and obedience. The monk by his vow became
a member for life of the monastic family into which he entered ;
he renounced all worldly and carnal desires, and all that he
had, for he might call nothing, not even the pen with which
he wrote, his own, all was the common property of the con-
vent, and he bound himself to absolute obedience. His Hfe
was to be strenuous, for, as Benedict said, "idleness is the
enemy of the soul," and he would have monks constantly em-
ployed in the " service of God " {opus Dei), or in labour. The
monks rose about midnight and sang nocturns, and at six
other times in the day, when not at work at a distance, met
in their church for the services of the canonical hours.
Seven hours a day were to be spent in labour and two in
study, a book at a time being given out from the library of
the house to each monk. In practice, the monks most fitted
for study devoted all their time to reading and writing, save
what was spent in the " service of God," the chief duty of all.
They had a common dormitory, slept little, and always in
their clothes and shoes. A tunic with sleeves, and a cowl, or
cloak, of undyed wool, with a hood attached, formed their
principal dress. They ate together; their food was simple
but sufficient ; meat was forbidden by the Rule, and they
often fasted until vespers. While they ate, one of the
brethren read aloud a religious book, and then, and throughout
a large part of the day, they were to be silent. They served
X RULE OF ST. BENEDICT 177
in turn in the kitchen and at table. Punishments Benedict
would have meted out rather according to the spirit of the
offender than his actual offence. A light offence was to be
rebuked first in private, and, if repeated, in public. If the
offender was contumacious, or his offence was grave, he was
separated from his brethren ; efforts were to be made to bring
him to repentance, but if they failed, he was to be punished
with stripes, and as a last resort might be expelled from the
house. The daily superintendence of the monks was com-
mitted to officers called deans, chosen apparently by the
abbot with the advice of his counsellors, one, as their title
idecanus) implies, for every ten monks ; they were later
called priors. A provost {prcepositus), the head prior of later
days, might also be appointed to have authority next after the
abbot. All the members of a convent were to join in the
election of the abbot, who held office for life. His election,
however, was not invariably to be determined by a majority,
for if the wiser members were in a minority, their voice was
to prevail. After election, the abbot was consecrated by
episcopal benediction. Absolute obedience was due to his
authority, but his autocracy was tempered by an obligation to
act with the advice of others. In ordinary matters he was to
take counsel whh the deans and elders of the house;
important matters were to be discussed by all, even the
youngest might speak, the final decision resting with the
abbot. A convent met for business of all kinds in its
chapter-house. The temporal affairs of a convent were by
the Rule to be transacted by the Cellarer, and one of the
monks was to be Gate-keeper. Other executive officers were
also appointed, such as the Sacristan, Infirmarer, and so on,
each with his own department of work.
It may fairly be supposed that the missionaries sent to
England by Gregory regarded the Rule of St. Benedict as the
highest standard of monastic life, and that the mon-
asteries established in connection with the Roman ^}°JJ'scotl!
mission more or less followed its ordinances, though
it is probable that even at Canterbury, as we shall see later, it
was not very strictly observed. On the other hand, the Scots
and their disciples had their own monastic customs. The so-
called rule of St. Columba consists merely of precepts for a
178 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
solitary life, and it is from the rule which Columban drew up
for his monasteries on the continent that we must supplement
such knowledge of the spirit of Irish monasticism as can be
gained from narrative sources. While full of piety, it is dis-
tinctly inferior to the work of St. Benedict ; it is vague and
elementary, and ends with a monastic penitential which
illustrates the severity and somewhat childish character of the
discipline of the Scots. Of the customs of lona, which were
naturally followed at Lindisfarne and the other English
monasteries founded by the Scots and their disciples, much
has already been said. Three points may be noted in which
the monasticism of the Scots differed from that inculcated by
St. Benedict. First, as regards spirit, the extreme asceticism
of the Scots stands in strong contrast to the moderation of
the Benedictine Rule. Next, as regards daily life, in monas-
teries of the Scots' foundation the monks, though they all
ate together, dwelt and slept in separate huts or cells, as
was the custom of the monks of Egypt where the monastery
arose out of a collection of hermits' dwellings, whereas
Benedict provided that the monks of each house should sleep
in one or more common dormitories, as their number might
require. Thirdly, as regards constitution, the succession of
abbots in an Irish house was not determined simply by elec-
tion, as Benedict provided, but was subject to a kind of
inheritance in the founder's kin, the " coarb," or heir of the
abbot, holding much the same position as the " tanist " in the
tribe. Each of these customs will be found to have had some
effect on early English monasticism.
The number of a convent was recruited partly by the
application of adults for admission, and pardy by the custom
of presenting children to the abbot, to be brought
Chiid-mon s. ^^ ^^ religious. Oswiu having dedicated his infant
daughter ^ElflEed, the future Abbess of Whitby, as a holy
virgin, sent her to be brought up in a monastery. So too little
^sica, who died of the plague at Barking, the boy who
migrated with the East Saxon monks to dwell by Cedd's
grave at Lastingham, and the boy who saw the vision of
Oswald at Selsey, had each been dedicated to a monastic life,
and Bede, the most famous example of all, was presented to
Abbot Benedict at the age of seven. Such dedication was
X CONSECRATED WOMEN lyc,
held to be irrevocable. When Wilfrith, as it was believed,
brought a child to life, the mother promised that at seven
years of age the boy should be given to the bishop. When
the time came for surrendering him, his parents were unwilling
to give him up, and the poor mother fled with him and
sought shelter among the Britons. Wilfrith, however, had the
child taken from her, and kept him with him at Ripon, where
he was called " the Bishop's son," but he, like little ^sica, died
of the plague. While objections to these child-dedications
are so obvious that they need not be urged here, it may be
noted that, at least in these early days, the children seem to
have been treated kindly. St. Benedict ordered that considera-
tion should be shown to their tender years, and that they, as
well as the more aged monks, were to be allowed meat, and
not to be too long without food.
The newly-converted English regarded the life of their
monastic teachers as the highest expression of Christian
obedience, and many of the more devout were quick
to imitate it. Among these were honourable women ^^^JJJen'^^'^
not a few. The influence of women is conspicuous
in the early days of English Christianity. The esteem in which
women were held by the heathen Germans found new expres-
sion among the Christian English in the place assigned to
them in the infant Church, and is commemorated in the
names and stories of a crowd of female saints. Many ladies
of royal houses became founders, abbesses, or sisters of
monasteries, and, as may be gathered from the doings of Hilda
and ^Iflasd of Whitby, ^^bbe of Coldingham and others, were
regarded with veneration during their lives, as well as after
they were dead. The first of these royal abbesses seems to
have been Eadbald's daughter Eanswith, of whom, setting
mere legends aside, we know nothing save that she founded
a monastery at Folkestone. Another monastery connected
with the Kentish mission was, according to undoubted tradi-
tion, founded by ^ithelburh, the widow of Eadwine, at Lyminge
in Kent, and a third in Sheppey by Sexburh or Sexburga, a
daughter of Anna of East Anglia and the widow of Earcon-
bert of Kent. In Northumbria the first woman who took the
veil is said to have been Heiu, who received it from Aidan ;
she founded a monastery at Hartlepool, in our county of
i8o EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
Durham, and afterwards retired, apparently as a recluse, to
Tadcaster. Near Tadcaster a village called Healaugh pre-
serves her name, which is inscribed on an ancient gravestone
discovered there. While monasteries of women were still rare,
many Englishwomen resorted to the monasteries of Gaul, and
specially to Faremoutier in Brie, Chelles near Paris, and
Andelys on the Seine. To Faremoutier, which was founded
by a Burgundian princess named Fara, a disciple of Columban
and of Eustace, his successor at Luxeuil, went Saethryth, a step-
daughter of Anna, ^thelburh (Ethelburga) his daughter, and
Earcongota, daughter of his daughter Sexburh, and all three
in turn became abbesses of the house, which was largely en-
dowed by Bathild the English queen of the Neustrian Franks.
Highly indeed must these Enghsh ladies have been esteemed
in that famous monastery, and Englishmen rejoiced to tell
how Earcongota was forewarned of her death by a vision of
white-robed men, who entered the house and told her that
they were sent to carry off the golden coin which had come
from Kent. At Chelles, afterwards refounded by Bathild, who
died there, Hereswith, Anna's sister-in-law and the mother of
another East Anglian king, took the veil after her husband's
death, and there her more famous sister Hilda would have
joined her, had not Aidan bidden her take charge of a little
house of consecrated virgins to the north of the Wear. There
too, Mildrith (St. Mildred), the daughter of an under-king of
the Hecanas, was educated, and on her return to England, late
in the seventh century, founded the monastery called Minster
in Thanet, where the church bears her name, while her more
shadowy sister Mildburh is said to have become abbess of
Wenlock in Shropshire.
Besides virgins and widows under monastic vows, there
were from the earliest times in our church, women who,
without being bound by these vows, were ecclesi-
The mynchen asl-ical persons, Openly professing virginity. The
and the nun. . y ' ^ . ^ K mi j > -n v 4.- 1
distmction seems clear m Theodores Penitential
between " safictimo7iiales" or " mynchens " as they were called
in English, women under monastic vows, and " basilkcB.^' To
these ecclesiastical women not under monastic vows the name
"nun" is specially applied in Anglo-Saxon. They were
ascetics by profession, but might live as " cano?iicce " in their
X DOUBLE MONASTERIES t8i
parents' houses, and might be dispensed from the obhgation to
remain unmarried by their bishop, with, as it seems, the con-
currence of the king. Ecclesiastical virgins of this sort were
common in the primitive Church. As monasticism decayed
in England, the female monasteries fell into the hands of ladies
who lived in this way, as in like manner the monasteries of
men fell into the hands of secular clergy.
From the connection between English monastic ladies and
the monasteries of Gaul arose the institution of double
monasteries in England. The term must be inter-
preted strictly ; they were double, not mixed, for the n^o^a^tedes
two sexes lived apart. Amid many diversities of
practice, the essential feature in these monasteries was that a
community of regular women received the spiritual ministra-
tion of regular priests who dwelt near them. It is often
asserted that this institution had its rise in Ireland, because
Cogitosus, the eighth-century biographer of St. Bridget, says that
her house at Kildare, and her other monasteries, contained both
men and women. But here, as elsewhere, Cogitosus is prob-
ably attributing what was before his eyes to the earlier time of
which he wrote. In any case the institution did not begin in
Ireland, nor was it a specially characteristic feature of the Irish
Church. It arose in the earliest days of monasticism, and was
the result of the need felt by communities of religious women
for the ministration of priests. Periods of religious fervour
have constantly been marked by a desire in persons of both
sexes to serve God together, accompanied by a spirituality of
mind too strong for sexual temptations. Throughout the
history of monasticism there have been other, and far later,
movements in this direction. Religious women were glad
that the priests who ministered to them should be monks, and
monks seem to have rejoiced to feel that women lived near
them who were devoted to the same religious practices. At
the very beginning of monasticism, the sister of Pachomius
established a community of virgins on the other side of the
river to her brother's monasteries, and so St. Basil and his
sister Macrina each presided over a religious settlement, he of
men and she of women, separated by the Iris. The institu-
tion spread rapidly in the East, and was prohibited by the
Emperor Justinian. It reached Gaul at an early date, for a
1 82 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
canon of the Council of Agde, held in 506, orders that the
houses of women should be removed farther from those of
men. It has been argued well, and indeed successfully, that
the great house for women established by Csesarius at Aries,
soon after that date, was probably a double monastery, but the
first monastery of the kind in Gaul is usually supposed to
have been the house of St. Rhadegund at Poitiers dedicated
to the Holy Cross. Near it, though on the other side of the
city wall, was a monastery of men, dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin, which seems to have been closely connected with the
women's house. Probably in the men's monastery dwelt the
poet Fortunatus, afterwards Bishop of Poitiers, the author g<
the hymn "Vexilla regis prodeunt," and, according to some.,
of the more sublime "Pange lingua gloriosi," the record oJ
whose affectionate and blameless intimacy with Rhadegund
and her abbess Agnes throws an interesting light on the
relations between the religious of both sexes at that time.
Other clearer instances might be given of double monasteries
in Gaul in the sixth century. The spiritual revival effected
by the preaching of Columban and his disciples led to a vast
increase of these double monasteries, not because they were
an Irish institution, but because they appealed to a newly-
awakened monastic enthusiasm. At Faremoutier, Chelles,
and Andelys, the resorts of our English ladies, an abbess
ruled over the men as well as the women, so too at Jouarre
on the Marne, while at the famous double monastery founded
at Remiremont in the Vosges by Romaric, a monk of Luxeuil,
an abbot ruled over both sexes, though an abbess subordinate
to him was also appointed for the women.
From Gaul the institution was brought into England.
Whitby, Barking, Bardney, Wenlock, Wimborne, Coldingham,
Ely, and Repton were all double monasteries,
doSbL perhaps also St. Peter's at Gloucester, and Bath,
monasteries. ^^^ ^j^^^.^ ^^^ y^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ Indeed, as cvery
women's monastery in England founded before the eighth
century which we know much about appears to have had a
monastery of men attached to it, we may suppose that this
was the universal custom, except probably in those that owed
their foundation directly to the Roman mission. In the English
double monasteries the abbess ruled over both sexes; she
X ENGLISH DOUBLE MONASTERIES 183
was "the lady," the monks were her men, and their immediate
superior would be appointed by her. An exception to this
rule may possibly have existed for a while at Bardney, where
the ex -king ^Ethelred was abbot. As a royal benefactor, if
not founder, he may have held an exceptional position,
though there is nothing to show in what relation he stood to
the abbess or the women of the house. In these monasteries,
as in the double monasteries of Gaul, there was much variety
in arrangement and practice. At Barking both sexes seem to
have used the same church, at different times, though they
had separate graveyards ; at Coldingham, after the fire there,
a separate church was built for the women. At Wimborne
the two monasteries were separated by walls, and each had its
own church ; no woman ever entered the men's monastery, and
none of the men the monastery of women, except the priests
who came to say mass and who withdrew as soon as the service
was over. The abbess gave her orders to the men through
a window. At Whitby, that nursery of bishops, the abbess
Hilda evidently communicated freely with the men of the
house, and apparently instructed them in the Scriptures. And
so doubtless did vElfised, who, like Hilda, gave advice to
kings and nobles and took counsel with bishops on the
affairs of the Church. John (of Beverley), Bishop of York,
was one of her monks.
Only one double monastery has an evil report. The brethren
and sisters at Coldingham became idle and self-indulgent;
they gave way to gluttony and gossip, and the sisters employed
their time in making fine clothes, a frequent snare to the
consecrated ladies of our nation, in order to attract the
admiration of men outside the house. A temporary reform
was effected, but after ^Ebbe's death the old evils reappeared,
and even grew to a greater height. The Divine wrath
was believed to be manifested by a fire occasioned by
some carelessness ; the place was destroyed, and its more
worthy inmates entered other houses. Apart from the history
of the institution, it is obvious that these monasteries were not
a specially Irish characteristic, for Wilfrith was a friend of
^bbe, and the chief adviser of ^thelthryth, whom he constantly
visited at Ely. Theodore, however, disapproved of them —
they had been forbidden in the East — and he ordered that no
i84 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
more double monasteries should be founded, though he made
no attempt to alter the constitution of those already in
existence. The institution fell with the general decay of
monasticism which was completed by the Danish invasions.
At least one double monastery, the famous house of Heiden-
ham, now in Wiirtemberg, was founded in Germany by
English missionaries ; the institution had, however, existed
east of the Rhine in earlier days.
Under Hilda's rule the double monastery at Whitby became
the home of the father of English sacred poetry. A herds-
man named Ctedmon — the name suggests a British
ne mon. ^gj,^gj^|-^ ^^^ j^g j-^^^y j^^^.g }^r^^ ^ British mother
— who worked on the farm of the monastery, was troubled
because he lacked the gift of song then common among the
English. When he and his companions sat together at feasts
and the harp was handed from one to another, that each
might sing in turn, he would, as it came near him, rise
abashed and leave the house. One night, when he had done
so, he went to the stable where his cattle stood, and there fell
asleep. As he slept, he heard one call to him saying,
"Csedmon, sing me something." He answered, "I cannot
sing, and that is why I have left the feast." Again the voice
said, "Nevertheless you must sing to me." "What shall I
sing?" he asked. "Sing," the voice replied, "the beginning
of things created." Then he sang praise to God the Creator
in verses which he had never heard before. When he awoke he
remembered what he had sung in his dream, and added more
verses to it. In the morning he told his dream to his master, the
bailiff, who took him to the abbess. In order to prove him,
Hilda, and some of her more learned monks who were with
her, expounded a passage of Scripture to him, and bade him
turn it into verse. He returned the next morning and
repeated the verses which he had made. Then Hilda thanked
God for him, ordered that he should be admitted a monk of
her house, and caused him to be taught Bible history, and all
that he learnt he turned into verse. How much of the mass
of extant poetry attributed to him is really his composition
is a matter for the decision of Early English scholars. The
story of his death is one of the gems of Bede's work. He
had for a fortnight been suffering from what seemed to be a
X CALDMON 185
slight ailment. Near, apparently, to his cell was the infirmary
where the monks who were sick and like to die were laid, and
on the evening of his death he bade his attendant prepare him
a bed there. The man wondered at this, for Caedmon seemed
far from death, but nevertheless did as he had said. For some
time Ccxdmon talked cheerfully with the sick in the infirmary.
About midnight, however, he asked if the Eucharist was in
the infirmary, which shows that it was customarily reserved there
for the use of the dying. He was told that he had no need
of it, for he could not be dying as he had been talking so
cheerfully. But he again called for it, and when it was given
him, he took it in his hand, and after asking all in turn if they
were at peace with him, said, " I, my children, am in
perfect peace with all God's servants." Having so said, he
fortified his soul with the heavenly viaticum. Then he asked
if it was near the time for the brethren to praise the Lord
at nocturns. He was told that the hour was near. ''Let us
wait for it," he said. With this he signed himself with the sign
of the cross, laid his head upon his pillow and slumbered, and
so passed peacefully into rest.
No female saint or abbess was regarded by the English
with so deep and lasting veneration as ^thelthryth, or
St. Etheldreda, a daughter of Anna, Kinoj of the East ^ ^ , , , ,
AT UL11 1- ... St. Etheldreda,
Anglians, probably because devotion to virginity Abbess of
seemed personified in her. Though twice married, ^'^"
she was still a virgin when she left her second husband,
Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and received the veil from Wilfrith
at Coldingham. Thither it was believed Ecgfrith pursued her,
and her flight became the subject of legends; a spring of
water rose to assuage her thirst, and her staff grew into an
ash-tree which sheltered her while she slept. So did the old
heathen reverence for springing water and trees reappear in
Christian legend. At last she reached the isle of Ely, which
had been given to her by her first husband on her marriage,
and there, upon a little hill, overlooking a wide waste of
water and fen-land, she built a monastery for men and
women, and became its abbess. Her asceticism was extreme ;
she seldom ate more than once a day, or took a warm bath
except before the festivals of Easter, Whitsunday, and
Epiphany, and always when in health remained in prayer in
i86 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
the church after matins, which were sung soon after midnight,
until dawn. After seven 5'ears, in 679, she fell sick of the
plague which was then raging in her monastery. The bubo, or
tumour, which formed on her neck caused her much pain, and
she told the sisters that she welcomed the suffering because
she looked on it as an atonement for the delight that she felt
as a girl in necklaces of gold and pearls. Her confession of
this youthful vanity seems to be commemorated by our word
"tawdry," the phrase a "tawdry lace" being said to mean
a necklace bought at the fair of St. Audrey, the popular form
of her name. A physician named Cynefrith lanced the tumour,
and she died three days afterwards. Her body was translated
sixteen years later; it was then incorrupt, and was believed
to be incorruptible.
Almost from the first, signs of antagonism may be dis-
cerned between the self-governing monastic communities and
the bishops. A canon of the Synod of Hertford
'^fSS'"" forbade bishops to trouble monasteries. Though papal
"unsdicSon S^^^^s of exemption from episcopal control pur-
porting to belong to early times are as a rule to be
regarded with suspicion, Benedict Biscop certainly obtained a
grant from Agatho rendering his monastery free from all
external interference. On the other hand, a privilege granted
by Wihtred, King of Kent, to the monasteries of his kingdom
between 696 and 716, provides that an abbot or abbess elect
should be examined, approved, and consecrated by the arch-
bishop, as bishop of the kingdom. At no time before the
Norman Conquest did the system of monastic exemptions
attain any general importance.
The Rule of St. Benedict, already doubtless held in
reverence in Kent and East Anglia, was introduced by
Benedic ^^^^^^ith into Northumbria, and of course also into
iinismin the monasteries which he founded in Mercia. Yet
"^^" ■ there was probably at all times great diversity of
practice in English monasteries, and for the greater part of
our period the Rule was not strictly kept. In one respect it
made a noteworthy change in the arrangement of a house by
the institution of the common dormitory. In the story of
Casdmon's death there is a strong suggestion that the monks
of Whitby inhabited, and slept in, separate cells or huts. At
X LAX BENEDICTINISM 187
Coldingham both the men and women certainly did so. This
is not otherwise than might be expected, for both houses
followed the customs of lona, which in this respect agreed
with those of primitive monasticism. These cells seem to
have been divided into two parts, one for habitation and the
other for prayer, like the hermit-cell of St. Cuthbert. Benedict
Biscop, who was ardent in the cause of Benedictinism,
furnished his united monasteries with common dormitories.
Yet Bede lay sick and died in his own cell, part of which may
perhaps have been an oratory; he was, we may suppose,
exempted from the general rule on account of his studies and
the dignity of his position as a teacher. At Abingdon, founded
in Ine's reign, the brethren seem to have had separate cells of
this kind, for after the monastery had long lain desolate,
twelve cells, each with its own oratory, were still standing.
The common dormitory, however, prevailed after the begin-
ning of the eighth century. A cardinal point in the Rule, the
right of electing a superior, was certainly not commonly
observed, at least in spirit ; the claim of a founder's kin was
generally acknowledged. For example, on vEthelthryth's death,
she was succeeded at Ely by her sister Sexburh, who had
previously entered ^thelthryth's monastery, leaving her own
monastery in Sheppey under the charge of her daughter Eor-
menhild, the widow of Wulfhere of Mercia. When she came
to Ely she brought with her Eormenhild's daughter Werburh
(St. Werburgh), and on Sexburh's death, Eormenhild made
Werburh Abbess of Sheppey, and succeeded her mother at
Ely, where she was in turn succeeded by her daughter. Now
though it is quite possible that at Ely, which was a large
monastery, the convent did, as the late Ely writer asserts,
elect yEthelthryth's sister, niece, and grand-niece, the succession
illustrates a custom which had mischievous results. Even
Wilfrith, as we have seen, provided for the election of his
nephew at Ripon in a manner wholly contrary to the spirit of
the Rule of St. Benedict. At Wearmouth and Jarrow,
however, the Rule was strictly obeyed with respect to
elections.
Benedict Biscop, the founder of these two famous houses,
set out on his third journey to Rome in 671, after resigning
the abbacy of St. Augustine's to Hadrian, and returned
i88 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
with a large number of books which he had purcliased at
Rome and Vienne. Ecgfrith of Norlhumbria hstened with
deep interest to all that he had to tell him about
Wearmouth j^jg travels, and specially to his account of monastic
life at Rome, Lerms, and other places, for the kmg,
though by no means faultless, was a godly man. In order
that Benedict might set up in his kingdom a monastery such
as those he described, where he could place the books and
relics which he had collected, Ecgfrith gave him seventy hides of
land at the mouth of the Wear. Accordingly, in 674, Benedict
founded the monastery of Wearmouth in honour of St. Peter.
Like Wilfrith he was anxious to adorn his foundation with the
arts of Rome and Gaul, so he went to Gaul and brought back
with him masons, who built him a church of stone " after the
Roman manner." Then he sent to Gaul for glass-makers,
who made latticed windows of glass for his church and
refectory, and taught the English their art. He also imported
ornaments and vestments such as could not have been made in
England, and for the fourth time journeyed to Rome, and brought
back many books and relics. As we have already seen, he
procured the services of John, the precentor of St. Peter's, to
teach his monks the Roman ritual and mode of chanting,
and obtained a privilege for his house from Pope Agatho.
He also brought back a number of pictures for his church,
representations of the " Ever-virgin mother of God," of the
Apostles, and of scenes from the Gospel history and the
Apocalypse, so that whoever entered the building, even though
unlettered, might have divine lessons brought before his eyes.
Delighted with all that he saw at Wearmouth, Ecgfrith de-
sired him to build another monastery, and gave him another
grant of land for the purpose. Benedict founded his new
house on the south bank of the Tyne, at the present Jarrow,
some seven miles from Wearmouth, and dedicated it to St.
Paul, sending twenty-two of the Wearmouth monks there with
Ceolfrith, the prior, as their abbot. The two houses were so
closely connected that, though their buildings stood seven
miles apart, they formed one monastery of the Apostles Peter
and Paul. The united convent received from its founder the
Rule of St. Benedict, together with regulations which he had
compiled from the practices of seventeen other monasteries,
X WEARMOUTH AND JARROW 189
chiefly, we may be sure, from those he had seen in the famous
monastery of Lerins, where he had made his own monastic
profession. For the fifth time he went from England to Rome
to procure pictures, books, and other things for his new house,
leaving, as ruler of Wearmouth, his kinsman Eosterwine, whom
he had already made his coadjutor there, for he was often
sent for to court, and so needed some one to take his place
when he was away.
During Benedict's absence at Rome the plague visited his
monasteries. At Jarrow all the monks who could read, or
preach, or chant antiphons, were carried off, except
Ceolfrith and one boy whom he brought up. So the ^'^^i^^fts''^
abbot sorrowfully told the lad that they must recite
the psalmody without antiphons, except at vespers and matins.
This they did for a week, and then as the frequent omissions
in the services caused the monks to weep afresh for their
brethren whose voices were stilled in death, Ceolfrith said that
he and the boy would sing the antiphons alone. This they
did at every service, the boy's young voice joining bravely
with the abbot's, until others learnt enough to be able to help
them. The boy was almost certainly Bede, who was then
about thirteen. At Wearmouth Eosterwine died of the plague,
and the monks elected Sigfrith in his place. Soon after
Benedict's return from Rome both he and Sigfrith fell sick.
Benedict was paralysed and unable to leave his bed. He
charged his monks to keep the Rule of St. Benedict and the
regulations which he had drawn up for them, to be careful of the
noble collection of books which he had given them, and never
to be swayed in their election of an abbot by birth or family
connection, but always to choose the best man from their
own convent according to the Rule. He caused Sigfrith to be
carried into his cell and laid by his side, and the two abbots
kissed and took leave of each other, and then they and all the
brethren chose Ceolfrith to rule over the united convent. Six
months after Sigfrith's death Benedict's long illness ended ; he
died fortified by the Blessed Sacrament on January 12, 689.
He was a man of great holiness, wisdom, and energy, and
had much influence over others. Many nobles entered his
monastery, and though at first they caused Ceolfrith so much
trouble by their impatience of discipline that he resigned tlie
igo EA RL V MONA S TIC ISM chap.
office of prior, Benedict persuaded him to resume it, and
soon made his convent a pattern of order and brotherly love.
Benedict's advice was constantly sought by the Northumbrian
kings, and while he admired all things Roman and reverenced
the Roman see, he probably upheld the policy of the North-
umbrian court with reference to the division of Wilfrith's
bishopric. His position would be shared by his convent, and
would account for Bede's evident lack of sympathy with
Wilfrith. His monastery became famous throughout Western
Christendom as the home of Bede. His work in promoting
learning in the North entitles him to be ranked with Theodore,
Hadrian, and Ealdhelm, as one of the chief of those who
made the victory of Rome and the Benedictine Rule in
England the means of furthering literature, art, and civilisa-
tion ; its effects were far-reaching, for through Bede and Alcuin
it is closely connected with the revival of letters among the
Franks and the peoples of the Frankish empire.
As the conversion of the English was for the most part
effected by missionary bishops of the monastic order, the
bishops' churches founded in newly converted
Bishops* districts were served by monks and called monas-
churcnes. . ■' ....
teries. The success of the monastic missionaries
led to the ordination of secular clergy to work among the
converts. When a new bishopric was formed for a people
already more or less evangelised, the bishop's see would some-
times be placed in a secular church, and in any case he
would be surrounded by secular clergy, and the longer a people
had been Christian the larger would be the number of the
clergy round the bishop. While, then, the episcopal churches
founded at the outset of missionary work in a kingdom would
be monastic, those which were founded in dioceses formed by
later subdivision would be secular. For example, Lindisfarne
remained monastic, while York after its refoundation was
secular; Canterbury was monastic, Rochester, though only
founded a few years later, and London were secular. In
early times the distinction between the monastic and the
secular clergy had no constitutional importance in bishops'
churches. Monks and clerks lived together in the bishop's
monastery, as it was called. Gradually these churches took
each its distinctive character. If a secular bishop was
X MONKS AND CLERKS 191
appointed to a monastic church, his church was served by the
monks and he kept his clerks in his household. Conversely, if
a monastic bishop had a secular church, it would be served by
its own body of clerks, while he and his household would live
more or less as in a monastery. In course of time the monastic
cathedrals fell into the hands of secular clergy. Very likely
there were more secular bishops than our monastic historians
would lead us to suppose, and a secular bishop would strengthen
the secular element in his church. Be this as it may, the
change may sufficiently be accounted for by the general decay
of monasticism in the country. Then, in the tenth century, a
new movement set in, and bishop's churches which had once
been monastic were regained for monks of a stricter sort, who
ousted the secular clergy, and became in each case the
monastic chapter. This is to look a long way ahead, but in
our future reading it may be useful to know the direction in
which matters were tending. So far as we have yet gone, and
farther, a bishop's monastery would include both monks and
clerks living together. At Christ Church, Canterbury, the
clerical element was always strong, at least during the time
covered by this book, except apparently for a very few years
in the eleventh century. This was natural in a metropolitan
church, for the business of the primatial see demanded many
clerks. Yet it was always considered a monastery. Indeed
all through the period of monastic decay and the extinction of
all Benedictinism, there were many so-called monasteries though
they were in fact in the hands of secular clerks. Moreover, it
must be remembered that in England, as also in Germany,
the term " monasterium " or " mynstre " was constantly applied
to many churches which were not monastic, generally at least
to churches of importance v/ith a college of clergy. So we still
speak of the cathedral churches of York and Lincoln, and
the collegiate churches of Beverley and Southwell as minsters
{monaste?'ia), though they were served by secular clerks.
As monks were the chief builders of our early churches,
something may be said here on English church architecture
before the Norman Conquest. While many of the
less important churches were made of wood, frSeaJi?
churches were from the first built of stone, after the
Roman fashion, as it was said, for the use of stone in building,
192
EA RL Y MONA S TIC7SM chap.
though not unknown to the Scots, was largely due to Roman
influence. Though the political empire of Rome was over-
thrown by Teutonic barbarians, Rome's conquerors yielded to
its moral influence. No emperor dwelt within its mighty
palaces, yet Rome remained imperial, for it held an empire
over the minds of men ; it was the source and ruling centre
of Cathohc Christianity in the West. The Teutonic peoples,
while accepting its religious teaching, borrowed from it their
ideas of art and civilisation. The architecture which they
copied was not that of the - classical and heathen period.
Christian Rome adopted a new style of building which was
freed from the trammels of Greek art ; the entablature was
cast aside, and the distinctive elements of Roman architecture,
the round arch and the pier, assumed prominence. This style,
while still in a rude and undeveloped state, was copied by the
Northern nations. In their hands it grew in majesty and
splendour, and was finally brought to perfection by the builders
of Northern France, Normandy, and England.
From its Roman origin, this style has received the general
name of romanesque. It was, however, practised with differences
in different countries, so that romanesque buildings in Provence
and in Germany, for example, though one in principle, have
distinct characteristics. Our early architecture, which exhibits
a variety of this style, has been called "primitive romanesque,"
to distinguish it from the independent romanesque im-
ported from Normandy. For the sake of convenience the
term Saxon may be used for it. The existing specimens of
this style exhibit marked differences, as might be expected
from the length of the period between the dates of St.
Augustine and Eadward the Confessor, but it is not possible
to arrange them chronologically with any degree of certainty.
Following a method which has lately been pursued
' thwaif^e's'"' with success, we may consider them first according
classification. ^^ g^Quud plan, as belonging to two classes, the one
basilican, the other square - ended. Roman influence is
evident in the basilican plan, which was imitated from the
basilican churches of Rome. What that plan is
fht'rche" "^^^ already been explained in what has been said
of Augustine's cathedral church. Briefly, the usual
basilican arrangement is a wide nave with aisles, an apse
X CHURCH ARCHITECTURE 193
entered by a wide arch with the high altar on the chord of tlie
arc, and the choir in front of it, either in the nave, or where a
rectangular transeptal space is interposed between the nave
and the apse, in that part, with a confessio in the crypt, and
generally at the end opposite to the apse, a porch leading into
an atrium or forecourt. Here, one or more of these character-
istics were often absent, and it has been observed that the
apse, if broad, was entered by three small arches, as though the
builders felt unequal to the wide arch of the Roman basilica.
Of this type were, among others, besides Christ Church, the old
minster at York, Wilfrith's minsters at Ripon and Hexham, and
the church at Reculver built in 669, and the aisleless churches
of St. Pancras at Canterbury, Lyminge, and Rochester. The
type may be studied in two existing churches, Brixworth, in
Northamptonshire, where the aisles are gone, and where the
eastern arches, instead of leading directly into the apse, led
into the transeptal space in front of it, and Wing, in Bucking-
hamshire, where the arcades still open into aisles.
Of a wholly different type are churches with a square-end
instead of an apse. This type is connected with the Scots'
mission, and its genesis may be found in an early
fashion of domestic building, in the booth-shaped ^SchTs''^"^
houses built on " crucks " or forks, by uniting two
pairs of trees or timbers, bent each to each, by a ridge beam.
This formed the skeleton of a house of a single bay with flat
ends and walls of wattle. As applied to a church, this bay may
be regarded as the original sanctuary. To this a larger bay
of like construction would be added for the congregation, the
two being connected by a narrow doorway, as in a domestic
building. Such, we may suppose, was Finan's church at Lindis-
farne, where the thatch was afterwards removed, and the walls
and roof covered with lead, and such, too, though probably
consisting only of one bay, was the old church {vetusta ecclesid)
at Glastonbury. Thence came the square end of the English
church, which ousted the Roman apse, though not entirely,
for there are one or two specimens of apsidal non-basilican
churches. One of these, the Saxon church at Worth, in Sussex,
has transepts with narrow entrances, and an apse entered by
a wide arch. The square end resisted the influence of tlie
Norman apse, and became a national tradition.
o
194 EARL V MONASTICISM chap.
In the early square-ended churches the eastern division is
small, it was merely the sanctuary, the choir being placed in the
narrow and longer nave. Crypts were no longer built, and the
churches were generally narrow and without aisles. Specimens
of these churches are numerous. Benedict Biscop's church
at Wearmouth, in spite of his Roman predilections, was
evidently on this plan, but it shows Roman influence in its
western arrangement, where the porch, which still stands as
the lower part of the later Saxon tower, has four openings,
one doorway leading into the church, the western into a
baptistery, of which traces have been discovered, and the
other two into the covered walks of the atrium. At Jarrow
the present chancel is, it is maintained, far too long for a
Saxon presbytery, and was really the narrow nave of the old
church in which Bede preached, h. good example of such a
narrow nave, with a small square presbytery at the east end,
is afforded by the ancient church at Escomb near Durham.
The extreme smallness of the internal entrances into different
parts of a church, as from the nave into the sanctuary, point
to the domestic origin of this class of buildings. Of this
feature the Httle church of Ealdhelm at Bradford -on- Avon in
earlier, and the smaller of the two Saxon churches of Deerhurst,
Gloucestershire, in later times, are good examples.
Ealdhelm's church is an interesting variety, for it has a
square porch or annexe on the north side of the nave, and
connected with it by a narrow doorway ; it can
owers. g^^j.^g|y ^g called a transept, for it is really in-
dependent of the nave. From such side porches would
come the idea of the central tower, resting originally on
four walls, the fourth being built across the nave, as in the
church in Dover Castle, where the transeptal arches are
little more than doorways in walls. A further advance
would be made to the true cruciform church of later days,
where the steeple rests on lantern arches, as at Stow in
Lindsey, built by Earl Leofric towards the middle of the
eleventh century. Along with a central tower, some churches
had also a lower western tower, notably the church of
Ramsey Abbey, and the still existing church at Deerhurst in
Gloucestershire, which has lost its central tower. Two-
towered churches were probably not built until the latter part
X ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS 195
of the tenth century. Western towers do not belong to the
earliest periods of Saxon architecture. At Wearmouth, Brix-
worth, and probably in the case of Trinity Church, Colchester,
the tower is built upon an earlier western porch, which would
lead into the baptistery and the forecourt. Yet western towers
were built before the Danish invasions, and probably in the
eighth century, though most of the existing specimens seem to
be much later. In form they resemble the Italian campanile,
they are tall, unbuttressed, and severe in outline.
Saxon architecture, being a national variety of romanesque,
uses the round arch in important positions and in ornamenta-
tion. It exhibits certain characteristic details, (i)
Flat, narrow, and square-edged projections called
pilaster strips are common external ornaments, and are often
connected by arches so as to form a decorative arcade.
Analogous to these strips is the flat rib, or impost moulding,
used to ornament jambs and arches. (2) From a method of
bonding arose the fashion of laying stones alternately on their
sides and ends. This is called lo77g and short work^ and is
used in jambs and quoins. (3) Doorways are cut straight
through walls without splays. (4) Some small doorways and
windows are crowned with a tt-iangular arch formed by two
inchned stones. (5) Many windows have a double splay,
external as well as internal. (6) Double windows are often
divided by baluster shafts, which look as though turned by a
lathe. These balusters are used in other places besides
windows ; they have one, or more commonly two or three
swells, and are encircled by bands. Saxon piers are generally
rectangular, mere bits of walling with massive imposts. The
stone-carving in some churches was extremely rich, as at
Wearmouth. The surfaces of the towers often exhibit pilaster
strips, and sometimes much other ornamentation. This is
specially the case at Earls Barton in Northamptonshire, where
the tower is profusely decorated, and at Barton-on-Humber,
near Hull, where the decoration is less profuse and less
barbaric. The twin lights of belfry windows are often
separated by a baluster shaft surmounted by a heavy trans-
verse bracket, which runs the whole depth of the wall, and
supports it. Examples have been found of chambers for
habitation in the tow^ers and roofs of Saxon churches. These
196 EARLY MONASTICISM chap.
chambers were no doubt used by the priests, and would seem
to imply one or more others external to the church for cook-
ing and other purposes. Connected with the tower-chambers
were internal western galleries, which seem to have been not
uncommon. Stone altars, of which there were generally more
than one even in small churches, and screens, have left their
traces, and fonts which may fairly be assigned to Saxon times
are still used.
The general advance in civilisation which followed the
triumph of Christianity is illustrated by the progress made in
the lesser arts as well as in architecture. Skill in
and some workiug mctals was always held in high esteem
lesser arts, ^yy ^he Gcrmauic peoples ; Weland " the wise
smith " had a place among the superhuman beings of their
mythology, and the maker of arms and armour chanted
magical verses as he smote the glowing metal. While the
Church forbade the "spells of smiths," it encouraged their
art by making new demands upon it and directing it into new
channels. In the eighth century, two of the thirty altars
in York minster were overlaid with plates of gold and
silver. One of them was studded with gems. Over the
other stood a cross covered with gold, and before it hung a
chandelier of twenty-seven lights ; the chalice was a massive
vessel of gold. At Minster, the third abbess Eadburh, or
Bugge, a daughter of Centwine of Wessex, built a church,
in which cross and chalice and paten were splendid with gold
and gems, and a censer hanging from the roof sent up a cloud
of incense. Bells called the monks to meet for prayer and
other purposes, and were certainly made in England.
Benedict Biscop and others were, however, forced to import
many things that they wanted for their churches, and thus set
new patterns before the English goldsmiths, whose work
became famous throughout Europe.
Whether the pictures imported by Benedict were imitated
by native artists seems uncertain, though Bugge's church
certainly contained three pictures. By the be-
Painting ainnlng of the ninth century pictures for churches
and music, o ^ ,,-'^...^,-
must have commonly been pamted m England,
for a canon of 8i6 orders that every church should have a
picture of its patron saints. Bugge's church had glass in the
X MONASTIC AGRICULTURE 197
windows, which may or may not have been brought from
Gaul. The art of glass-making which Benedict introduced
into the North does not seem to have flourished there long,
for less than a century after his death an abbot of Wearmouth
asked that a glass-maker might be sent to him from Germany,
because no one knew the business in those parts. Of the
care bestowed by the monks on chanting enough has loeen
said. Apparently their psalmody was at first accompanied by
the lyre, which was struck with a phdnim, but organs were
used as early as Ealdhelm's time, and were then perhaps first
introduced into England. Some part of the furniture which
the monks needed for their churches was doubtless made in
their own monasteries ; in later times we shall see that this
was so, and St. Benedict's rule contemplated monks being
engaged in handicrafts. A casual notice by Bede that a
certain monk was a skilful smith is proof, if any be needed,
that handicrafts were practised by the monks of his time.
Chief, however, among their manual employments was the
cultivation of the land. Often planting their settlements on
barren heaths, or in the midst of desolate fens, or on some spot
covered with brushwood, they laboured patiently, .
clearing, ploughing, and sowing the land until it ^"'^^
became fruitful. Bede gives us a notice of the agricultural
work done in his monastery, telling us how Abbot Eosterwine,
once one of the king's thegns, after entering Benedict's convent
in the prime of life, delighted to share in the work of the
brethren, in winnowing, threshing, milking, cultivating the
garden, and helping in the bake-house and kitchen, and how
after he became abbot, if he came where any of the monks
were ploughing or winnowing or working at the forge, he
would stop a while and take part in their work.
Authorities. — The character of early English monasticism is to be
gathered from Bede's Hist. Eccles, and his Vitce Abbatum, founded on the
Historia Abbatum Gyrvensium, auct. anon, in Mr. Plummer's Bede, and Bedcs,
Opera Hist. Minora, Engl. Hist. Soc. The rule of St. Benedict has often been
printed, a good edition with commentary and life is by Brandes, Einsiedeln,
1857 ; a handy one without notes has been printed at Monte Cassino, 1872,
1888. St. Columban's rule is in Fleming's Collectanea Sacra, edited by
" Sirinus " (O'Sherrin), Louvain, 1667, and reprinted by Migne. Mabillon's
Annales Benedictini, vol. i., Paris, 1703-39, 6 vols., contains interesting
notices of the early monasteries of Gaul. Every student of monastic
198 EARLY MONASTICISM chap, x
history owes a heavy debt to Montalembert's Moines d' Occident, and
Dom Gasquet's Introduction to the 1896 edition of the Enghsh trans-
lation should be consulted on St. Benedict's rule. Lingard's History
and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 2nd edit., 1844, reprinted
1858, will be found useful. On early exemptions and bishops' churches
see Bp. Stubbs's Introduction to Memorials of Richard I. vol. ii., Epp.
Cantuar., Rolls ser. It is a pleasure to acknowledge a debt to a paper
on Double Mofiasteries read by Miss Bateson before the R. Hist, Soc, which
will be printed in the Society's Transactions for 1899 ; it contains a scholarly
and interesting account of the institution in various countries. The sketch of
Saxon church architecture is to no small extent grounded on a paper
entitled "Something about Saxon Church Building," in the Archczological
Journal, liii. , for 1896, by Mr. Micklethwaite, who has for the first time
attempted to use ground plans rather than details as a basis for classifica-
tion and date, but it is of course inadequately represented here. The reader
is also referred to Sir G. Scott's Lectures on Mediceval Architecture, vol. ii.,
London, 1879 ; G. G. 'S>co\.'C% Essay on English Chrirch Architecture, London,
1881, 4to ; and Freeman's History of Architecture, London, 1849. For the
church at Minster see a poem "Ad templum Buggce," printed among the
supposititious works of Alcuin, Ale. Opera, ii. 549, ed. Froben, Migne ci.
1309, and wrongly ascribed to him, for it was written during the reign of Ine,
see 11. 36, 37, and so before Alcuin was born. Mai, on the authority of a
Vatican MS., ascribes it to Bp. Ealdhelm, Classici Auctores, v. 387, Rome,
1833, and it is accordingly printed by Giles in his Aldhehni Opera, p. 115,
Patres Eccl. Anglic.
CHAPTER XI
ACTIVITIES
The manual employments of the monks did not afford an
antidote to the feverish desire for irrational asceticism ;
indeed physical labour and extreme asceticism often
went hand in hand. As the demand for evangelistic ^saSrom
work slackened and ceased with the general accept- extravagant
. ^, ..._,,. - ° ^ asceticism.
ance of Christianity, English monasticism seems to
have been in some danger of sinking into a state of uselessness
and abjection. And such a catastrophe would not have
affected those only who were under monastic vows ; it would
have crippled the activity of the Church and would have pro-
duced a wholly false idea of Christian life and duty. It has
been remarked with great justice that at this critical point in
its history, English monasticism was saved from such a
calamitous degradation by the spirit infused into it by
Theodore and Hadrian in the South, and Benedict Biscop in
the North. The minds of the religious of both sexes were
turned to the pursuit of learning. At the same time, too, a
new call was made on monastic energy by the awakening of a
zeal for missionary enterprise. With this missionary zeal the
name of Wilfrith must certainly be connected, as it must also
with a third element in monastic regeneration, the influence
of Benedictinism. While the monks of lona and the con-
vents connected with the Scots' mission lived together in
ordered communities, the Benedictine system, of which
Wilfrith was the apostle in the North and the Midlands, was
instinct with a far stronger conventual spirit than existed
among the Scots and their followers. The rule of St.
200 ACTIVITIES CHAP.
i3enedict by suj^plying monks with a moderate and regulated
ascetic system, sufficient to subjugate the flesh without en-
feebhng the intellect or endangering the constitution, and by
its insistence on the common life and conventual duties, dis-
couraged withdrawal from others bound by the same vows,
and indulgence in solitary and excessive asceticism. The
spirit of each kind of monasticism has already been illustrated,
and this chapter will therefore be devoted to a sketch of the
learning and the missionary efforts which for a season ennobled
monastic life in England after the coming of Theodore.
The learning derived from the school at Canterbury, which
was revived and personally taught by Theodore and Hadrian,
lasted in the West Saxon monasteries until the middle of the
eighth century, and owed much to the literary energy of
Ealdhelm. In the North, the learned period was of longer
duration, for the intellectual activity implanted by Benedict
Biscop in the convent of his sister-houses at Wearmouth and
Jarrow, and rendered illustrious by Bede, inspired the founda-
tion of the school of York, which reached the height of its
fame towards tlie close of the eighth century, shortly before
its extinction. The missionary work of the English Church,
at least so far as this period is concerned, was virtually
contemporaneous with the devotion to learning, and the two
movements cannot be kept entirely apart, for learning and
missionary zeal were happily not strangers to each other.
To the school at Canterbury, under Theodore and
Hadrian, ecclesiastics resorted from every part of England,
and carried back to their own monasteries and
■^"^ofb^olki"" homes an eager desire both to add to their own
store of knowledge, and to teach that which they
had learnt to others. Hence arose a demand for books,
which were scarce and costly. This demand was met by
importation from abroad and by transcription in monasteries.
Monks who were skilful in transcription devoted all their
time, save what was taken up by worship, to copying books,
which were lent to their houses for that purpose either by
other monasteries or by great men. A notice of the importa-
tion of books occurs in a story of Ealdhelm. On a visit that
he made to Dover, he eagerly scanned the foreign merchandise
exposed there for sale in the hope of finding some book of
^u..
TRANSCRIPTION OF Bt)OKS 201
sacred learning, for the trade was brisk in books brought
over from Gaul He Hghted on a volume containing both the
Old and New Testaments, and offered a price for it which was
rejected. He afterwards obtained the precious volume, for
he was believed to have delivered the owners from a storm by
liis prayers, and the book was placed at Malmesbury, where
it was still to be seen in the twelfth century.
Benedict Biscop spared neither labour nor expense in collect-
ing the library with which he endowed his monasteries, and his
successor, Ceolfrith, was not less eager in adding to it. Among
Ceolfriih's additions were three copies of the Vulgate, or later
translation of the Bible, and one of the older version. Two
of the copies of the Vulgate Ceolfrith placed in his sister-
monasteries, the third he took with him when he resigned
the abbacy and set out for Rome in 716, intending to
present it to the pope, but he died at Langres while on his
way thither. The Bible which was destined for the pope is
still in existence, and is the famous Codex Aniiatinus now in
the Laurentian Library at Florence. It is a large folio of
1029 leaves, and the distinctly foreign character of the writing
shows that it must have been written by Italian scribes brought
over by the abbot. The riches of Benedict's library can to
some extent be estimated by the books that Bede used. They
form a long list, and together with many works on theological
and other ecclesiastical subjects include books of literature
and science, and some Greek books, for the most part probably
grammars. Among the Greek books, however, was the text
of the Acts of the Apostles in Greek and Latin. This book,
which was used by Bede when writing on the Acts, is the
well-known Codex Laudiamis, now in Bodley's Library at
Oxford, an important authority for the text of the Acts. It
has been suggested that it was brought over to England by
Archbishop Theodore, though it may well have been purchased
in Italy by Benedict.
The skill and labour required for the production of books
rendered them extremely valuable. Aldfrith the Wise, King of
Northumbria, gave no less than eight hides of land
to the monks for a fine copy of the Cos7nographers ^^^;?°ng°^
which Benedict had brought from Rome. It was
esteemed no small favour wdien the king lent the convent the
202 ACTIVITIES CHAP.
book On the Holy Places, which Adamnan, Abbot of lona,
had written and presented to him. The monks, doubtless,
copied the precious volume, for Bede gives some extracts from
it. There were two schools of writing in England in these
early days, at Canterbury and Lindisfarne. The Canterbury
style of writing was introduced by the Roman mission, and the
scribes who practised it imitated the Roman uncials with some
local peculiarities. This style, of which the Canterbury Psalter,
written about 700, and now in the British Museum, is an
example, never made much way in England, and had no effect
in forming the national handwriting. It was far otherwise
with the school which adopted the writing of the Scots or
Irish, and had its headquarters at Lindisfarne. As in archi-
tecture the fashion, derived from the Scots, of building square-
ended churches triumphed over the apsidal mode introduced
by the Romans, so it was with handwriting. The half-uncial
round handwriting of Lindisfarne became the basis of EngHsh
handwriting. Modifications were soon made, and a native
English style was evolved, which continued until a new hand
was imported from Gaul towards the end of the tenth century.
Many books copied in monasteries were beautifully illuminated.
The Irish monks were skilful in illumination, and their skill
was inherited by the English. At Lindisfarne, Bishop Eadfrith
produced the splendid specimen of this art known as the
Lindisfarne Gospels^ which is now in the British Museum.
While the figures of the evangelists might have been executed
in other lands, the intricacies of the geometrical patterns, com-
bined with figures of birds and dragon-like creatures, and the
wonderful interlacings of knots are peculiar to the work of the
Irish and the English who adopted and carried on their art.
Perhaps the most eminent of the scholars who studied at
Canterbury w^as Ealdhelm, or St. Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmes-
Learningin ^^''Y ^'^^ ^^^^ Bishop of Sherbome, of whom we
the West have already heard. He was, Bede says, admirable
monasteries, for his erudition alike in liberal and ecclesiastical
Ealdhelm. ^yj-^i-jngg^ jje taught all who came to him for learn-
ing at Malmesbury, and was anxious to show that there was
no longer any need for his countrymen to go to Ireland for
learning, since they could have a better education in their
own land. Like other Canterbury scholars, he had a com-
XI WOMEN SCHOLARS 203
plete mastery of Latin and an acquaintance with many Latin
authors ; he is said to have known Greek, and Hebrew also,
but that is, doubtless, an exaggeration. He was the first
Englishman who attained any skill in Latin verse com-
position, and wrote a treatise on that art addressed to
Aldfrith of Northumbria under the pseudonym of Acircius.
His Latin is amazingly pompous and involved. This has,
somewhat unfairly, been put down as the result of the early
teaching that he received from Maidulf the Scot. It seems
rather to point to the influence of British learning, for in the
south-west country, where the British element was strong,
obscure and barbarous Latin was highly thought of. This
fashion, which was independent of Canterbury, was derived
from the writings of a certain Martianus Capella, an African
rhetorician of the fifth century. Ealdhelm doubtless
cultivated his extraordinary style to gratify a pedantic vanity.
His contemporary, Bishop Daniel, a learned as well as a wase
and holy man, must also have contributed to the spread of
education in Wessex, and under the influence of Ealdhelm
and Daniel, the West Saxon monasteries became the abodes
of learning and of activity in all good works.
Conspicuous among Ealdhelm's disciples were w^omen of
monastic life. In activity of all kinds, artistic, literary, and
religious, the convents of women came no whit behind
those of men. The handicrafts chiefly practised ^^^^J^^J
in them were spinning, weaving, and embroidery,
specially applied to the production of vestments, and articles
used in decoration of churches and altars, and for other pious
ends. Cuthbert was buried in a shroud given him in his
lifetime by an abbess of Tynemouth, and his tomb was hung
with silks sent to him by ^thelthryth from Ely. Vestments
and altar-cloths were wrought in women's monasteries for
churches at home, and for the use of English missionaries
abroad, and great excellence was attained in the art of
embroidery. Some consecrated ladies employed themselves
in copying and illuminating books. The art of writing in gold
was practised by women as well as men, and Wilfrith's famous
Evangeltu7?i at Ripon must have been matched, so far as
scribe's work was concerned, by the volume containing the
Epistles of St. Peter which, in 735, Eadburh, or Bugge, Abbess
204 ACTIVITIES chap.
of Minster, wrote in letters of gold for Boniface, the English
Apostle of Germany. Bugge was famous as a scribe, and
Lul, or Lullus, who succeeded his old master Boniface in the
see of Mainz, sent her a silver pen as an appropriate present.
A poem ascribed to Ealdhelm rapturously praises her church
at Minster, of which something has already been said.
Ealdhelm's favourite female scholars seem to have belonged
to the monastery of Barking, where in his time the abbess was
Hildelith, the successor of ^thelburh, the first abbess,
^^ '"^' the sister of Bishop Earconwald, who was carried off
by the plague. To Hildelith and nine of her sisterhood
Ealdhelm dedicated the prose version of his treatise the Praise of
Virgijiity, He speaks in high praise of their scholarly tastes
and attainments, and compares them to bees, because they
everywhere collected materials for study ; they were skilled
in the interpretation of Scripture and in the writings of the
Fathers, in chronology, grammar, and Latin verse.
Wimborne, founded by Cuthburh, a sister of Ine, and
the wife of Ealdhelm's friend, Aldfrith of Northumbria, was
doing good work in education in the time of the
a?^wimborne ^t)bess Tetta about 735. Like men's monasteries,
the houses of women received youthful inmates,
and it is not to be supposed that all the young girls
admitted into a convent, whether simply for education, or
that they might in time become novices, and finally professed
sisters, at once took kindly to a studious and monastic life.
At Wimborne the prioress tried to enforce discipline by
punishment, and treated the poor girls with severity. When,
as it happened, she died, they rejoiced, and with mingled spite
and gladness fell to dancing on her grave, and kicked away
the newly -made mound and half a foot of earth below it.
Tetta, though much shocked, does not appear to have been
hard on the young offenders, whom she brought to a better
mind by exhortation, prayer, and penance.
They soon had a more lovable teacher, the illustrious Lioba,
or in English, LeobgytK, a kinswoman of Boniface, who, it is
said, was rightly called Leobgyth, for it signified the
Beloved. Constant in prayer and in reading the
Scriptures, she would never in girlhood listen to irreverent
conversation or take part in the frivolous amusements of the
XI BEDE 205
other young maidens of the house, and, when not engaged in
reading, would work with her hands. While still young, she
sent Boniface a graceful letter telling him that she had learnt
to write Latin verses from her former mistress Eadburh, perhaps
the Abbess of Minster, and enclosing him a specimen of her
skill. She became a teacher, and probably the prioress, at
Wimborne, and before long was summoned to take part in her
kinsman's work in Germany.
At the date of Ealdhelm's death, in 709, the boy who had
helped Ceolfrith to sing the antiphons in the plague- time at
Jarrow had grown to be a man, and had begun to
write books. Bede, or Bseda, who was born in 673, ^l^^^^,
and was presented to the abbot Benedict Biscop
when seven years old, spent his whole life in Benedict's mon-
astery, dwelling, as it seems, at Jarrow. His youth was passed
in the study of the Scriptures, in taking part in the services
of the church, and the other duties of the convent, and in
reading, for which the splendid library of the house gave him
special opportunities. He was ordained deacon at nineteen, and
priest at thirty, at the request of Abbot Ceolfrith, by John of
Beverley, then Bishop of Hexham, in whose diocese the monas-
tery was. From that time onwards he was in the habit of
making notes on the Scriptures, either from the works of the
Fathers, or in accordance with their interpretations. " I have
ever," he says, "found my pleasure in learning, teaching,
or writing." That is the summary of his life, quiet and unevent-
ful, scholarly, unselfish, and shining more and more unto the
perfect day. No great Scriptorium, such as existed in many
later monasteries, would be found at Jarrow, and Bede studied
in his own little cell, and with small help from others ; for he
did all his own writing, made his shorthand notes himself, and
copied out his own work. The united convent numbered six
hundred brethren, besides strangers who visited it for the sake
of instruction, so that, though comparatively few of the monks
could have been fitted by previous education, or could have
been spared from the daily work of the house, to profit by Bede's
teaching, his scholars must have been many. They regarded
him with tender affection ; he was their " most beloved
master," they his " dearest sons."
His learning, which was derived througli Benedict from
2o6 ACTIVITIES chap.
Rome and Lerins, rather than from Canterbury, may be said
to have embraced all the knowledge of his day. He knew
Latin and Greek and something of Hebrew, and,
IS earning. |.j^Q^g|^ j^^ \\q\^ that pagan literature was profit-
less to the soul, and might even be injurious to a Christian
man, he had studied it, and quotes from many Latin authors,
both of the Augustan and later times, and specially from
Virgil. In his Commentaries on the Scriptures he shows an
extent of theological reading which is nothing less than amazing.
Being wholly devoid of pride, and only anxious to help others
by setting before them the best comments he could find, he
makes no attempt at originality, and some of his Commentaries
consist wholly of quotations. He wrote on Church order, and
composed homilies and hymns. A "penitential" has been
ascribed to him, though not on any certain grounds. Early
in life he wrote books for his pupils, on grammar, rhetoric,
and Latin metres. Natural science attracted him, he studied
Pliny, and the work on the Nature of Things written by Isidore
of Seville in 612, and his book De 7iatura rerum represents
the then state of learning on the subject. He w^as skilled in
arithmetic and chronology, which he studied for ecclesiastical
purposes.
Here Bede's historical work must receive special honour.
Great as his learning was in science and grammar, it has long
become obsolete ; his historical waitings are still of
^'writfn'^i'^^^ the highest value, for they contain the chief, almost
the only, records of the early history of our own
people, and of the lives of the saintly men and women who
adorned the infancy of our Church. So long as history
is studied, so long as any sense of literary excellence
remains among us, they will lose nothing of their honour.
Historically, the most important of them is his Ecclesi-
astical History of the English People; his exquisite Lives
of the Abbots of Wear?nouth a?td /arrow, and his Life of St.
Cuthbert are founded on still extant anonymous works.
Written in clear and unaffected language, the Ecclesiastical
History presents a vivid picture of the author's character ; it
exhibits his deep piety, his love of truth, his catholic spirit and
generous admiration of all that was good in those who differed
from him — his omission of some of Wilfrith's best actions
XI DEA TH OF BEDE 207
being a solitary exception to this general fairness of treatment
— his tenderness of heart, and his appreciation of moral
beauty. He took pains to collect information from the best
sources, constantly quotes his authorities, and when he records
anything derived from mere hearsay, is careful to let his readers
know it. As a story-teller he is unrivalled, and the later
historian blushes to mar the pathos or dim the brightness of
Bede's narratives by his own imperfect reproductions. The
book, which \vas finished in 731, at once received the honour
it deserved, and made Benedict's monastery famous through-
out Western Christendom. It became the basis of the entries
relating to the earlier events recorded in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle ; it was translated into English under Alfred's
direction, and in its original form was largely used by our
mediaeval historians. Although Bede was so industrious a
student, he would not allow his work to keep him from
attending all the convent services. " I know," he is reported
to have said, " that angels come to the canonical hours and the
meetings of the brethren. What if they did not find me among
the brethren? Would they not say, Where is Bede? Why
comes he not with the brethren to the appointed prayers ? "
The story of Bede's death is told in a letter of Cuthbert, a
monk, and afterwards abbot of the united convent. From a
fortnight before the Easter of 735, his strength
failed, though he still taught his scholars, chanted ^^^^^'^ ^/=^'^'
psalms by day, and spent much of his nights in
prayer. Often, too, for he was skilled in the poetry of his
native tongue, he would sing some English verses which bade
men ponder on what lay before them, ere they set out on the
journey that all needs must go. In spite of increasing weak-
ness he laboured on, desiring much to finish a translation of
St. John's Gospel into English, and some extracts from the
works of Bishop Isidore \ for, " I would not," he said, " that
after I am gone, my children should read a lie, and labour in
vain." At the dawn of the Wednesday before Ascension Day,
he bade the brethren who were with him write diligently, and
they wrote by his side until the third hour (9 a.m.), when they
\vere called to the rogation procession. His boy-scribe Wilbert,
who was left with him, said, "There is only one chapter
wanting in the book thou hast been dictating, and it is hard
2o8 ACTIVITIES chap.
for thee to be questioned further." " It is easy," he answered ;
" take thy pen, mend it, and write quickly." In the afternoon
he sent for the priests of the house, and distributed among
them his Httle treasures — some pepper, napkins, and incense
— begging them to be diligent in saying masses and prayers
for him, and as they wept because they would behold his face
no more in this life, he told them that his soul longed to see
"Christ, my King, in His beauty." So he passed the hours
in gladness, his boy Wilbert writing by him. Evening came,
and Wilbert said, " Dear master, there is only one sentence
more not written down." "It is well," he said, "write it."
In a little while the boy said, "Now it is finished." He
answered, " It is well, thou hast said the truth ; it is finished.
Take my head in thy hands, for I love to look on my holy
place, where I have been wont to pray, and w^ould call once
more on my Father." Then, as he lay on the floor of his cell,
he chanted the " Gloria Patri," and so chanting breathed his
last. He died on May 25, 735, on the festival of the
Ascension, for it was then reckoned as beginning at six in the
evening of Wednesday.
The epithet ■" Venerable " was specially applied to Bede
about a hundred years later. Of the legends as to its origin,
only one is worth preserving for its beauty. It tells
^ Bld"^ °^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Bede's eyes waxed dim that he
could not see, and that one day certain evil jesters told
him that there were people in the church waiting to hear the word
of God, whereas there was no one save these mockers. So,
ever anxious for the salvation of others, he went into the church
and preached, not knowing that it was empty, and when he
ended his sermon with a prayer, the blessed angels in the air
responded to his words " Amen, very venerable Bede." ^
In 733, Bede visited Ecgbert, then probably Bishop-elect
of York, who was a member of the royal house of Northumbria.
and one of his old pupils. The next year Ecgbert
Abp.*^?f York, was consccratcd, and Bede wrote him a letter, of which
735-766. j^^Qi-g yvill be said hereafter, advising him to apply to
^ Chron. Min. ap. Pertz, xxiv. i8o. I owe this reference, and my first
acquaintance with the legend, to the Rev, C. Plummer's edition of Bede's
Historical Works, i. Introd. xlviii. , but this is a small thing among the many-
benefits which I have received from the same source.
XI FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 209
the pope that his see might be made metropoHtan, and re-
minding him that his request would be supported by his
cousin Ceohvulf, the Northumbrian king. Ceolwulf was a
godly and learned man, well versed in the Scriptures and in
the history of his people, and Bede had submitted his
Ecclesiastical History to him for revision, dedicated it to him
when finished, and sent it to him that he might have it copied.
The gift of a pall from the pope was, by this time at least,
held by the English Church to be necessary for the
exercise of metropolitan authority. Tatwine, a learned and
holy ]\Iercian priest, who succeeded Bertwald at Canterbury
in 731, received a pall, and on receiving it, consecrated two
bishops. He was succeeded in 735 by Nothelm, a priest of
London, who also received a pall, and immediately afterwards,
and not before, consecrated bishops.
Meanwhile, in 735, Ecgbert received a pall at Rome from
Gregory III., and thus became the first Archbishop of York, for
PauHnus cannot be reckoned as having held that dignity. His
power was increased by the accession of his brother Eadbert to
the Northumbrian throne. Ceolwulf had a troubled reign.
A revolt was made against him in 731, and he was forcibly
tonsured ; he was restored, but six years later voluntarily
became a monk at Lindisfarne, and was succeeded by liis
cousin Eadbert. The two brothers worked in perfect concord,
Eadbert ordering the civil, and Ecgbert" the ecclesiastical,
affairs of the kingdom, a partition of authority illustrated by
extant coins which bear the legends.both of the king and the
archbishop. For thirty-two years Ecgbert ruled his church
and province with wisdom and diligence. He adorned his
church with goldsmiths' work, and with silken hangings woven
in foreign lands, improved its music, and introduced the
services of the canonical hours. Of the works ascribed to
him, he certainly composed a Pontijical, a Penite?itialj and a
Dialogue on ecclesiastical order.
Archbishop Ecgbert's chief claim on our remembrance
is that, as a worthy disciple of Bede, he founded a
school at York, on the Canterbury model. Like
Theodore, he taught himself, giving instruction in '^^l^^H^
the Scriptures, w^hile his kinsman ^Ethelbert, Ethel-
bert, or Albert, whom he made master of his school, and " de-
p
2IO ACTIVITIES CHAP.
fensor cleri," an office probably implying the administration of
the property of the church and other secular affairs of the see,
taught grammar, rhetoric, the art of calculation, and natural
science. They had many scholars, and among them a young
Northumbrian of noble birth named Alcuin, or Ealhwine as his
name would be in English, who was destined to be their most
famous pupil. Every day, from dawn to mid-day, except on
holy days, when he would be engaged in divine service, Ecgbert
would sit on his couch and instruct his scholars severally in
the Scriptures. Then he would privately celebrate mass,
would dine sparingly, and after dinner would listen while his
scholars discussed literary questions. He would say compline
with them, and after it was over would give his blessing to
each one singly. ^thelbert visited Rome and Gaul in
company with Alcuin, to collect books, and founded a library
at York, which included books in Latin and Greek, the writings
of the Fathers, and works of Aristotle, certainly in a Latin
guise, of Virgil and Cicero, of many later Latin authors, and
of Bede and Ealdhelm. The list of books given us by Alcuin,
the earliest catalogue of an English library, illustrates the
wide range of study pursued in the school of York. Eadbert
resigned his crown to his son Osulf in 739, and became a
monk at York. Archbishop Ecgbert died on November 19,
766, leaving the government of his school to ^thelbert, who
succeeded him as archbishop the following year.
Under ^thelbert, who likewise received a pall, the York
school apparently grew in prosperity, and scholars resorted to
it from Gaul and Germany, ^thelbert virtually
Alcuin, rebuilt the minster, which had been much injured
by a fire, committing the oversight of the work to
Alcuin, whom he ordained deacon, and another York scholar
named Eanbald. In 780 he resigned his see, consecrated
Eanbald as his successor, and entrusted his library to the care
of Alcuin. The next year, when Alcuin was in Italy, whither he
had been sent by Eanbald to fetch his pall, he met, not for the
first time, the Frankish King, Charles the Great, or Charlemagne,
who invited him to come and help him to educate his people.
On his return to England he obtained leave to accept the
king's invitation, and for the next eight years, with the excep-
tion of a visit to England in 787, he remained with Charles,
XI ALCUIN 211
presiding over the palace school and organising other schools
in monasteries and churches. Then he revisited England,
but after about two years' stay was persuaded by Charles to
return in 792, and again devoted himself to the promotion of
education and religion in the king's wide dominions. He was
joined by several friends and old pupils from England, who
took part in his work. The benefits which Alcuin conferred on
the peoples of the Frankish kingdom do not concern us here.
Like Ealdhelm, he seems to have disliked the influence of the
learned Scots, who were also teaching in the dominions of
Charles ; their speculative genius was opposed to his English
temperament, and led more than one of them into error. He
was himself a champion of orthodoxy and took a prominent
part in the religious questions of Charles's reign. Though he
spent so much of his life abroad, he loved his native land,
took a deep interest in the affairs of the English Church, and
ever remembered the school of York with special affection.
Charles rewarded his services by the two abbacies of Ferrieres
and Troyes, though Alcuin was not a monk, and probably never
became one, and was still only in deacon's orders. In 796 he
retired from active life, and lived in the monastery of St.
Martin, at Tours, of which he received the government, and
where he died on May 19, 804. During the years of his
absence from the court he carried on a correspondence with
Charlemagne, a considerable part of which has come down
to us. His intellectual and ecclesiastical achievements were
the fruits of the religion and learning implanted by Benedict
Biscop in his united monasteries, and handed on with increase
by Bede to Ecgbert and his school at York, of which Alcuin
was the supreme ornament. Before his death, evil days had
come upon the church in the North. For convenience sake
We have pursued the subject of the intellectual activity that
adorned the English Church to a later period than that to
which our narrative has brought us. We must now turn to the
other wholesome interest which occupied the minds of many,
and the lives of several, of the best members of the monastic
order in England during the eighth century.
Missionary effort is the surest token of a lively faith which
can be given by a Church, and it is therefore pleasant to find
212
ACTIVITIES
that as soon as the evangehsation of the English was com-
pleted, and their Church had received organisation, many
of both sexes were filled with a desire for the con-
St/Ecgbe'rt version of the heathen peoples of the continent
andFrisia. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^f Yxn to themsclves. Wilfrith's
mission work in Frisia was necessarily of short duration, and
its immediate effects appear to have been evanescent, though
it may be that, here and there, the seed which he sowed fell on
good ground. Yet his visit at least bore fruit in turning the
thoug 
